“Thirty twenty”. A most common utterance when NAD comes up in hifi conversation; it was the integrated that brought audiophillia to thousands upon thousands of households. The NAD 3020 was – and is – a quintessential piece of everyman hi-fi.  I own one.  It’s a tidy benchmark from which to judge other amplifiers that pass through these doors. Heck, its

As an appetizer to this stand off, I suggest you first devour two slices of dedicated Wyred4Sound mINT review commentary from 6Moons (where it summarily dismisses the Bel Canto C5i) and TONEAudio (where TWO writers dig and find gold). Also check out Sam Tellig’s words on the Peachtree Nova125 at Stereophile.  My coverage isn’t a straight up review of Wyred4Sound’s minT.  Instead,

I first saw the Burson Timekeeper on static display at RMAF 2012′s CanJam.  Six months later and it looks like Burson are getting ready for the official launch of their statement amplifier. I asked the guys at Burson if any internal changes had been made since the Denver sighting. “R&D has made some improvements since then. Let’s say it was

After the rather smashing miniature N3 tube amplifier, Hong Kong’s Miniwatt have launched a new product – the Miniwatt N4. It’s a UAC2.0, async 32bit/192Khz all-in-one DAC and headphone amplifier. Note the stitched leather extrusion – a nice way of acknowledging the rough and tumble of portability.  It’s good to have an edge in this increasingly-crowded portable DAC/headphone space; especially

A few years ago now I was shooting the shit with a friend of a friend over a few beers. That day, the jukebox was getting hit hard with Red Hot Chilli Peppers and I went off into a mini, semi-humorous (or so I thought) rant about how they were overrated. Rather than engage in debate/discussion, my drinking buddy simply

Not a review (yet) but a heads up.  One of the more interesting reader-suggested amplifiers for the Magnepan MMG is a 10 year old, no-frills integrated from little-known Portal Audio. The Panache is a dual mono Class A/B design that seemingly inherited its looks from a Russian army tank. A bespoke 425VA toroidal runs the centre of the Panache’s engine

Ikea’s Vika Amon desks aren’t the sturdiest or most solid desktops ever made but they’re cheap (AU$87). And I’m cheap so I bought one. Any loudspeaker placed on this desk will probably affect significant bass rumble. A loudspeaker that didn’t go overboard with heft and bass punch would be required. That ruled out the Usher S-520 – my usual go

Turn, turn, turn.  Never the trust the numbers on the spec sheet.  Out in the wild, there’s the never-ending talk of the need for big watts to get you out of the Magnepan woods.  Not always so, sir.  REDGUM’s nominally rated RGi60 integrated is the finest sounding amplifier of the three that I tested with the MMGs.  That’ll be down

Graham Slee has had his USB DAC & headphone amplifier in the oven for a while…and now it’s finally ready to eat. This palm-sized unit was first christened ‘Itsy’ but now it’s called Bitzie. Not much better if you ask me but it’s a minor niggle for what appears to be an impressive feature set. 24bit/192kHz-capable USB input feeds two

Ask any Magnepan loudspeaker owner about amplifier choices and they’ll tell you that you need three things: power, power and more power. This is the premise upon which I hooked my search for budget integrateds to partner withe MMG. Class D is a fast-track to more watts per channel but what about Class A/B? Surely there must be a manufacturer

Wadia’s 151PowerDAC Mini is a sealed compound: DAC, pre-amp and power-amp rolled into one box, all fused together in one clever digital circuit. There are four ways in (ALL digital: USB, optical and two coaxial) and one way out (loudspeakers). There’s no line- or pre-out. That’d cannibalise the market for Wadia’s 121 digital-pre. Amplification is all digital but this ain’t

The awkwardly named Woo Audio WA7 ‘Fireflies’ looks like it has dropped into Australia earlier than expected. There aren’t too many DAC/head-amp combos that really tickle my fancy but Jack Wu’s (picture above, right) latest is surely one of them. A matched pair of Sovtek 6C45, Class A, single-ended headphone stage married to a 32/192 asynchronous USB DAC. Not only that