Monthly Archives: September 2013
So Samsung’s curved smartphone is coming: is it me, or is this getting silly?
Watch this space: as if a new Note tablet and Gear smart wristwear weren’t enough, Samsung has confirmed that its next smartphone, to be launched next month, will be curved. You know, just like phones used to be. Well, if the curve thing works for TVs, why shouldn’t it do the job for phones, too? […]
REVIEW: Marantz NA-11S1 – a very good thing worth the very long wait
When it comes to high-end network music players, the smaller specialist audio companies have led the market. Linn and Naim are perhaps the best-known examples, with Cyrus joining the party somewhat later – the larger mass-market brands have been cautious in this area, and only now are we seeing signs that the whole music-streaming idea […]
REVIEW: Tivoli Audio Music System +
Upgraded all-in-one could be the ideal second-room/small-room system So you’ve got yourself a decent hi-fi system, but you fancy something better than an iPod dock or a portable radio in the kitchen? Or maybe you’re lucky enough to have what they used to call a study, and is now a home office? Then again, perhaps […]
Ray Dolby, audio pioneer 1933-2013
Dr Ray Dolby, OBE, founder of the company bearing his name, has died aged 80. Truly the inventor of the way we listen, Dolby was involved in the development of video recording, designed technology to change the humble cassette from a dictation medium into a true audio format, and went on to turn stereo movies […]
The Emperor’s New Clothes may be invisible, but they have two sides
Seem to have had Danny Kaye’s ‘The King is in the all together/But all together the all together/He’s all together as naked as the day that he was born’ bouncing through my head for the past couple of days, ever since Apple managed to launch – well, not very much apart from some magic suiting […]
REVIEW: Esoteric K-07 SACD/CD player/DAC
Maybe it’s time for one of Japan’s best-kept audio secrets to become a bit less – well, esoteric I’ve always liked Esoteric equipment, ever since I first clapped eyes on some of the range many years ago in a shop in Tokyo’s Akihabara district – you know, the ‘Electric Town’ area everyone used to rave […]
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