Monthly Archives: February 2015

SPES: magical, mystical sounds from an ancient tradition

I’m greatly enjoying the latest recording from one of my favourite labels, 2L, which combines Western choral singing with traditional Sami musical styles. The Sami are the indigenous people who live in part of the far North of Norway, Sweden and Finland, and are sometimes known as Lapps or Laplanders. The new release, SPES, is […]

REVIEW: Arcam A49 – a transatlantic triumph

  Designed in the UK, made in the USA, Arcam’s A49 amplifier is a thrilling-sounding exercise in effortless power OK, I admit it: I haven’t been the greatest fan of some recent Arcam amplifiers. Rather as I find some Cyrus designs overbright and forward-sounding, so the amps from the near neighbour in Cambridgeshire have been […]

Naim does DSD with new NAC-N 272 preamp/DAC/network player

New from Naim is the £3300 NAC-N 272, a combined network music player, DAC and preamplifier – and for the first time in a Naim product it can play DSD files, either from local storage such as USB devices or streamed over a home network. The reason I was down in Salisbury last week – […]

Making a Statement: building Naim’s super-amp

Naim boss Paul Stephenson may say ‘We’re glad 2014 is behind us, and we can move on’ – he admits times were tough last summer, mainly due to global economic and political unrest –, but the company is still upbeat after recording its best-ever sales last year, with record months in the last quarter. Giving […]