News

Reading the Sony press release about its support for MQA with the NW-ZX500 and NW-A100 series high-resolution audio players was like taking a strange trip down memory lane. I was nine years-old (apparently) when the first Walkman was introduced; more than 385 million were sold from 1979-2009 making it one of the most successful consumer products ever made. Those...

Polk Audio has been manufacturing loudspeakers for over 45 years, and the California-based company continues to plow ahead with innovative technology that is both forward-thinking but also respectful of the company's past. Those of us old enough to remember the aggressive marketing campaigns of the 1980s featuring Matthew Polk, have reason to smile with the announcement of the new...

Fall is the best time of year for audiophiles. The kids go back to school, and hundreds of new audio/video products are introduced at IFA, CEDIA, and Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Denon has raised the curtains on what might be an interesting product to consider this year as an early Christmas/Chanukah present. Digital network-enabled amplifiers are being introduced by a...

Affordable streamers that support high-resolution audio (24-bit/96kHz at a minimum) are becoming increasingly popular with both audiophiles who have abandoned their CD collections, and the mass market who are starting (albeit at a slower pace) to take a closer look at streaming services like the recently launched Amazon Music HD, Tidal, and Qobuz. High-resolution audio needed a solid kick...

Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2019 is less than a week away and Schiit Audio wasted little time taking a major dump on the proceedings with the announcement of two new products which are available for order this week. Both the Asgard headphone amplifier and Bifrost USB DAC have been part of the Schiit Audio line-up from the very beginning...

Watch the video on Joe N Tell's YouTube Channel The HiFiGuides.com room at RMAF 2019 was the coolest experience by far. Second place wasn't even close. Nearly every other room, with a few exceptions, felt stuffy and boring in comparison. My favorite part was that trying out and touching the products was encouraged. I didn't need to ask anyone for...

Listen to the New Record Day Podcast on Anchor. RMAF 2019 Day 2 Polk Audio L800 Speakers with SDA ELAC Debut Reference Series Bookshelf Speakers The HiFiGuides room hosted by ZReviews and DMS

People still listen to records? You don't say. Some of us never stopped and have watched the format's resurgence over the past seven years with both joy and a certain degree of angst -- used record prices have gone through the roof. What was once a dying audiophile category supported by only a few dozen brands who carried the...

Amazon's much-anticipated Amazon Music HD, has finally launched and with it comes millions of CD-quality and high-resolution audio tracks that consumers can stream. The new streaming service offers 50 million tracks with a CD-quality bitrate of 16 bit/44.1kHz (which Amazon interestingly has labelled as "HD tracks") but also millions more in 24-bit/192 kHz which will raise more than a few...

NAD has been pushing streaming technology for many years with their Master series digital amplifiers, D 3020 V2, D 3045 Hybrid Amplifiers, and the Bluesound Node and PowerNode products (Bluesound and NAD are both siblings under the Lenbrook umbrella). When their rivals over at Naim Audio launched the Uniti range a number of years ago, you knew that a...