News

Highresaudio has announced that customers that use Audirvana Plus (the software player created for the Mac platform) for streaming of their high-resolution music will now be able to take advantage of VirtualVault 2. 0. VirtualVault is designed for users that don’t want to have to download the music that they have already purchased or install any additional peripheral devices such as a NAS drive or home server, and means that they can access their hi-res music collection while away from homeat a friend’s or while on the move (although music from the user’s private collection cannot be accessed). VirtualVault is free for Highresaudio customers and those that own an Audirvana Plus license.

Latest converter doubles up as preamp and headphone amplifier

Having played a big part in the low-cost DAC revolution with the likes of its acclaimed xDSD portable DAC/headphone amplifier (HFC 439), iFi Audio has turned its attention to the home and studio market with its latest addition to its flagship audio component series. The Pro iDSD DAC/headphone amp/preamp brings together tried-and-tested techniques combined with cutting-edge, 21st-century technology. A hi-res DAC/preamp, wi-fi streamer and headphone amplifier, it claims an array of sonic tailoring facilities including DSD remastering, which upsamples PCM and DSD files to DSD512 or DSD1024, and a switchable valve/solid-state output stage. Input decoding is handled by an XMOS XU216 X-Core 200 Series processor and the chassis has a comprehensive range of galvanically isolated digital inputs, including USB (Types A and B), S/PDIF (optical/coaxial) and AES-EBU, plus Ethernet and microSDHC card support.

New DAC and headphone amp

Flagship analogue headphone amp from iFi

Meet the Zen master's latest headphone amplifier