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

I’ve reviewed Audio-gd’s PCM1704-infused Reference 7.1 DAC and I’ve covered their C39-MK3 pre-amplifier. What happens when Kingwa gene-splices the two* together and adds a dedicated headphone stage to form the Reference 10.2? The short answer is you get the tonal richness and PRaT of a multi-but DAC implementation chrome-plated by the cleanliness of an ‘accurate’ pre-amplification stage.  Bi-winning! The new Tenor

After several months of testing, Audio-gd has this week announced that it is the first company in mainland China to license use of the Tenor TE8802 chip in its production facility. The TE8802 is a USB audio class 2 chip than can handle up to 24/192 without the need for drivers on Mac OS X.  (Third party drivers are required

The budget DAC sector has seen numerous new products and product revisions since I first looked at the NFB-2 in late 2010. Everything has context.  One cannot discuss a DAC’s pros and cons in isolation.  The broader picture must be considered.  The swirl of ancillaries – to which some audiofolk refer as the God of Synergy – and directly competing units

Hifi is a game of two halves, both extremes of which are different takes on the illusory nature of in-home reproduction.  Musical vs accurate.  That endless, book-bashing debate that runs endlessly and round&round – like a record, baby – on the hifi forum circuit.   ‘Musicality’ might be the ready admission that ‘accuracy’ just isn’t possible so why the heck not

With Redbook audio – 16 bit, 44.1KHz –  44 100 audio slices are processed every second.  Each slice has its own unique (16 bit) value: anything from 0 to 65536, expressed in binary (ones and zeroes).  This binary value is converted to a voltage by the DAC and then sent on its merry way down the audio chain to the

Audio-gd are set to launch a new model of headphone amplifier and DAC called the NFB-5. It features the same dual Wolfson DAC chip combo that made the NFB-2 such a winner…and it adds an ALPS volume pot (RK27) and bypassable op-amp. Digital inputs: USB handles up to 24/96 bags, coaxial up to 24/192. The (96khz restricted) DIR9001 receiver chip is

“Carlsberg: probably the best beer in the world“.  Saatchi and Saatchi’s tagline dominated British media in the 1980s.  Carlsberg advertising was everywhere.  And who was anyone to say that it wasn’t the best beer in the world.  Taste in beer – like taste in music – is so utterly subjective.  But you had to admire their advertising chutzpah.  People are obsessed with the

Oftentimes, DACs are about right and wrong.  It’s not so much about resolution or detail or musicality – it can be boiled down to something far more fundamental. Does it sound “right” or does it sound “wrong”?  You either enjoy the sound or you don’t.  It either makes you smile or it doesn’t. If company image is a true barometer