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Branching out from its portable hi-res players, Astell&Kern has unveiled its new ACRO desktop audio series with the introduction of the ACRO L1000 headphone amplifier/DAC. Featuring two AK4490chips, the ACRO L1000 can playback PCM files up to 32-bit/384kHz with no downsampling and supportsnative DSD up DSD256 without conversion. Crafted in aluminium and designed to sit at a 30° angle for ease of use, it incorporates a balanced XLR jack and speaker binding posts offering a claimed maximum output of up to 15W per channel at 4ohm. Meanwhile 2.

New ‘buds from South Korea

Meet the latest A&norma addition

New DAP and in-ear imports

New DAP from South Korea

What better way to mark the 70th birthday of your company’s founder than to launch a luxury edition of a timeless favourite loudspeaker? That’s precisely what ATC has done in honour of founder and managing director Billy Woodman. Taking the classic design ofthe SCM10 mini monitor from the nineties, the new SCM10SE comes with a lustrous blue piano finish, with silver detailing and a fine-grain blue leather baffle. The original SCM10’s soft dome tweeter has been updated with the recently developed SH25-76S ‘S-spec’ 25mm dual-suspension design alongside the SB45-1255C 125mm mid/bass unit with integral soft dome. In turn the crossover has been reworked for the new unitsusing ATC’s hand-wound air-cored inductors and polypropylene capacitors throughout.

ATC describes its new SCM19 Active Tower speaker system as delivering "the company’s reference-quality audio from an elegantly curved floor-standing design". Measuring 370mm wide and 980mm in height, it will no doubt be familiar to seasoned fans of the company's speakers as it is acoustically identical to the two-way SCM19 (tested in HFC 390). The 25mm tweeter employs a unique dual-suspension system, which has been designed to suppress rocking modes even at high power output levels. The configuration of a short edge-wound voice coil in a long, narrow magnetic gap is claimed to deleiver exceptionally low distortion throughout the operating band and removes the need for ferrofluids.