I15 Prisma is Primare’s most affordable power amplifier. It has a small and practical footprint, but still oozes quality with a metal cabinet and a front in anodised aluminium. Where the big brothers are built around the Swedish manufacturer’s own Class D amplifier technology, called UFDP 2, the choice in I15 has is built over …
What are the characteristics of a good amplifier? First and foremost, it must sound good. As a rule, it means for the manufacturer to pick as expensive parts as the budget allows. Work diligently with circuit design, to thin out every little detail of the music signal. This also applies to Danish Lyngdorf. But here, …
Where hi-fi enthusiasts long ago swore to separate devices for each and every part of the signal chain – and of course could not live with an integrated amplifier, because that job had to be distributed on preamplifiers and power amplifiers – in recent years integrated amplifiers have obtained the respect they deserve. Hi-fi manufacturers …
Bluesound is a sister company to NAD, and their streaming receiver, Bluesound Node, has just come out in a new edition. It is the fourth incarnation, but since Bluesound has stopped numbering the generations, it has been given the prosaic surname N130. Like its predecessor – and like the Bluesound Powernode – the new Node …
An amplifier does not have to be huge to sound good. As we saw when we tested networked stereo amplifiers two years ago. Now Bluesound Powernode, which participated at the time, has come in a new and revised edition. Since Bluesound has meanwhile stopped naming each model generation, it has been given the anonymous surname …
Streaming is fantastic: You have access to – more or less – all music, anywhere and anytime. And even if you have a well-grown music collection and enjoy the feeling of being able to hold an album in your hand, it is faster to find a specific piece of music with your mobile, than it …
Hi-fi is usually an expensive hobby. A fact that we are painfully aware of at LB Tech, where the majority of the editorial staff themselves are hi-fi nerds. But occasionally, products emerge that break with the costly norm. Tangent Ampster BT II comes from Danish Tangent Audio, and as the name suggests, it is an …
Although they have only made one turntable, Electrocompaniet has a long tradition of phono steps, or RIAA steps. At the same time as they launched their first turntable, ECG-1 in 2015, they also launched ECP-2, a phono stage for Moving Magnet and Moving Coil pickups, which really impressed in our test that year. Electrocompaniet has …
Most amplifiers that we encounter are of the integrated type, ie where everything is gathered in one unit. But there are still some who swear by having a pure preamplifier. Either because they have special requirements for the power amplifier, or because it has to be combined with active speakers. The NAD C658 is a …
You almost have to be inside the hi-fi industry to know who Copland is. By that I do not mean the award-winning American composer Aaron Copland, but Danish hi-fi manufacturer Copland. Who is completely unknown to most people, except connoisseurs, who know that Copland makes some of the most well-sounding there is – with vacuum …
They said they should not do it, but then they did it anyway. Maybe it was because we were not the only ones insisting that Hegel make a phono step. That they just gave in for the pressure. Or that Bent Holter realized that all the fuss might have meant that there was a need …
No matter what kind of speakers you have, they deserve a proper amplifier, and that demand naturally increases as the speakers come up in price and quality. When you round 3000 bucks and maybe a little higher, the best amplifiers are so good that you will not miss anything. They can operate most of the speakers, …
Half a minute into Keith Jarrett’s Cologne concert, I realized why I have always been weak for Marantz integrated amplifiers. The brand new Marantz Model 30 has much of the same sound signature, an easy-flowing, well-resolved and effortless sound, which is so easy to like that it quickly becomes addictive. It also looks like a …
Electrocompaniet is first and foremost a high-end manufacturer specializing in large, heavy amplifiers. Although the company has recently shown that they master the art of making multi-room speakers . With the amplifier ECI 6DX MKII, the manufacturer has taken it all out, where the goal has been to pack as much quality from the more powerful preamplifiers and …
If you want the best possible hi-fi sound from as few components as possible, Teac has a very interesting solution, in the form of the compact network player NT-505. With Teac NT-505 you get all the audio sources you can dream of in one and the same box. Here you get digital conversion of almost …