Displaying items by tag: hiend - StereoLife Magazine

Melodika is a Polish brand that has advocated a no-nonsense approach to audio equipment since its inception. The core of its offerings are cables and accessories, and the priority has always been the same - to give music lovers good sound for as little money as possible. When it comes to cabling, I've always associated Melodica with the budget-priced but extremely elaborate Purple Rain series. Signal, speaker, digital, and power cables, as well as splitters, adapters, or plugs - everything is here. I also like the concise descriptions focused on technical issues and parameters. Construction, conductors, cross sections, shielding, resistance, and other facts, rather than reports of sound written in verse and tales of geometry inspired by the concept of yin and yang. Wanting to go a bit further, the company introduced the Brown Sugar series. It currently contains seventeen items, all of which are speaker cables and jumpers. This is quite remarkable, as the idea wasn't born yesterday, and still, we haven't seen a single signal, digital, or power cable in this series. Instead, Melodika decided to show us - yes, you guessed it - another speaker cable. But what a cable it is!

Thuono Audio arose and grew out of a passion for high-fidelity sound with the intention of creating products that guarantee the highest quality analog reproduction. After more than five years of study and prototype development, three different turntable models are now finally available - the fruit of detailed research both from the point of view of mechanical characteristics as well as the tonal qualities of the materials. All are carried out in order to ensure exceptional performance.

Internationally acclaimed, high-end audio brand Cyrus Audio announces the most intelligent power supply it has ever designed; the long-awaited PSU-XR. The PSU-XR is the first power supply from Cyrus to have its own built-in microprocessor, enabling it to talk to the product it is connected to, providing the best configuration of power sources demanded by the host product. "The PSU-XR is our best performing power supply, capable of providing up to 60% more power than the award-winning PSX-R2 and, due to its revolutionary design, is up to 50% more efficient." - says Ceri Williamson, Head of R&D at Cyrus Audio.

Piega is probably Switzerland's most famous loudspeaker manufacturer. Founded in 1986 by Leo Greiner and Kurt Scheuch, the company was initially a typical hobbyist, garage-based manufactory. Kurt concentrated on developing transducers, while Leo took on design matters and the company's finances. At some point, ribbon drivers became Piega's trademark and have remained so to this day. The cheapest models use drivers built with this technology to reproduce high frequencies, while the top-of-the-range speakers also use larger ribbon midrange panels. Because the designers allow them to play backward, the result is unique loudspeakers resembling electrostatic panels, supported by dynamic drivers only in the low frequency range. Piega's flagship designs demonstrate technical capabilities and audiophile splendor hidden under the guise of a minimalist design. During my test of the Coax 711 LTD speakers, their coaxial midrange/tweeter ribbons and aluminum enclosures fascinated me so much that I decided to find out more about them, which led to an interesting conversation with the brand's head of research and development, Roger Kessler.

Designers of hi-fi equipment will never cease to amaze me with ideas for the names of their products and brands. We have already seen gear lineups inspired by celestial bodies, mythological characters, precious stones, weather phenomena, and popular drinks. I remember when a friend working in one of the showrooms told me with some disbelief that he would now sell cables called, for example, "Root Beer" or "Vodka." At first, I thought he was screwing me, but it turned out that he was earnest, and now these cables can be found in Audioquest's catalog. Hendry Ramli, the founder of Vermouth Audio, went one step further.

Grado introduced the new Statement Series, which brings fourth-generation X Drivers to the wooden GS3000x and GS1000x. The GS1000x combines mahogany and ipê wood, while the GS3000x houses the company's most powerful driver yet inside a metal chamber surrounded by a single body of cocobolo wood. Along with the superior sound these new drivers produce, the GS3000x and GS1000x also utilise Grado's improved 12-conductor braided cable and new headbands. Both are hand assembled in Brooklyn, New York.

The Danish manufacturer of premium audio is returning to the ultra-high-end loudspeaker segment with its new flagship loudspeaker. The Kore is a masterpiece of stunning visual design and ground-breaking technology, representing the pinnacle of DALI's loudspeaker traditions and decades of research. Although the DALI Kore is a 'clean slate' design, it stays true to the sound principles and draws on a rich bloodline of high-end loudspeakers that have been pushing the boundaries of loudspeaker design and technology since 1983, including the MegaLine, DaCapo, Skyline, 40 SE and Euphonia.

Electrocompaniet is launching its new flagship power amplifier. Coinciding with their 50-year anniversary and the 25-year jubilee since the legendary AW600 Nemo was first launched, the new AW800M is set to have a big impact in the market. The AW800M is Electrocompaniet's brand new, from the ground up re-engineered flagship power amplifier - an 800 watt into 8 ohms monoblock, that can also be run in stereo mode, as well as a bi-amping mode with the flick of a switch at the back.

First launched in 2016, Focal's Utopia headphones rank amongst the best headphones in the world. Under constant renewal, the French brand with a unique savoir-faire in acoustics, has given its iconic product a new design while adding acoustic enhancements (new voice coil, 'M'-shaped grilles inside the earcups). All the exclusive, high-end technologies that make the Utopia headphones so successful are still to be found in this new edition, continuing to bring sensational listening experiences with even more sophistication and elegance.

Designed from the ground up, featuring several new audio innovations, the new range of speakers from the renowned French manufacturer is limited to 500 pairs per model. The Magellan 40th Anniversary range comprises two floor-standing speakers, the Quatuor 40th and Cello 40th, the Duetto 40th bookshelf speakers; and the Voce 40th center speaker. The new S08 and S08-C speaker stands compliment this new line-up.