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Designed to appeal to vinyl enthusiasts owning multiple cartridges, turntables or tonearms, Cyrus’new Phono Signature preamplifier boasts four inputs engineered to accurately match the exact specification of the cartridge. Adjustment is, therefore, provided for MC cartridges in gain, resistance and capacitance, facilitating up to 160 possible combinations. The Phono Signature also includes a high-capacity and very low-noise DC power supply that enables the preamp to provide, what Cyrus refers to as “an extremely wide dynamic range”. It’s claimed that performance is much improved thanks to the inclusion of a RIAA passive de-emphasis filter – which uses metallised polyester capacitors – and an optional external PSX-R2 power supply that provides regulated DC power for the signal amplification.

Introducing PRYMA, the new luxury headphone engineered by Sonus faber. The PRYMA 01 is a circumaural, closed-back design with 40mm drivers featuring Mylar diaphragms, neodymium magnets and oversized voice coils. The removable cable is 1. 3m with gold-plated connectors.

Many readers will be familiar with Tannoy's Mercury series of loudspeakers, and it's very likely that early incarnations of the Scottish-based brand's entry-level series will have been part of a setup that kickstarted one or two hi-fi habits in the first place. The Tannoy brand is so synonymous with loudspeakers thatits name is even featured in the dictionary, and here it unveils the latest incarnation in a long line of Mercury series models. As the name suggests, the Mercury 7 is the seventh generation of the company’s entry-level range, and Tannoy claims the latest series brings a fresh new style that stands out from the crowd. There's a new wood-grain effect finish, in a choice of walnut, light oak or black oak, and behind the removable speaker grilles the drivers have visible mounting bolts and the Tannoy logo is neatly integrated within the tweeter surround.

There are global events that happen in our lifetime, unusual days where you receive news about something so earth shattering that it seems to make even time itself stand still as you slowly come to terms with the reality that the world you knew up until that moment has changed forever. For me, the announcement of David Bowie’s death on Monday 11 January is one of those moments where everything seemed to slow and an already grey winter morning felt just that little bit darker. Things around me appeared to take on a different look and feel as the news unfolded in a hushed and reverent tone from BBC Radio 6 Music and the story began to sink in. I was in the kitchen at the time making breakfast after an early start, and I imagine that I will always be able to recall the sinking feeling that washed over me and stopped me dead in my tracks as the news broke and I began to comprehend the magnitude of what was being revealed.

2015 will quite rightly be remembered as the year that vinyl made a comeback, but it was also a pretty impressive 12 months for music sales all round with UK consumers spending more on singles, albums and subscription music services than any year since 2011. In fact the only bad news was for music downloads, which suffered a considerable decline. In all, recorded music enjoyed £1. 06bn profit, which is a 3.

As two-channel audio might be seen to be a fairly mature category, moments of genuine innovation are pretty few and far between. That said, Chord Electronics’ Hugo (HFC 386) has a reasonable claim to being of some significance. The combined preamp/DAC in a portable form factor impressed us and has been a significant sales success too. At the same time, Chord hasn’t been blind to some of the limitations ofthe Hugo as a portable device.