News

It’s been nearly four years since the original DragonFly DAC (HFC 367) was released, and now AudioQuest is unveiling two new models designed to be compatible with Android and Apple smartphones. The new USB DACs handle files up to 24-bit/96kHz, and put music quality first, says AQ. The DragonFly Red (£169) has a 32-bit ESS Sabre 9016 chip and is suited to lower sensitivity headphones, while the Black (£89) DragonFly employs a 9010 chipset and is suited to medium to high sensitivity headphones. Like earlier DragonFlys, the Black has an analogue volume control, whilethe Red opts for a digital one.

Music centres are the perfect solution for those that are short on space, and Ruark Audio has become something of a master of the form (see its R4 Mk3 on theGroup Test in HFC 411), so the news that the British manufacturer has upgraded its R7 is very welcome. We reviewed the original R7 in HFC 384, commenting on its styling cues taken from the classic radiogram, which updates the traditional ‘wireless’ by including digital, analogue and internet tuners, along with a slot-loading CD player. Ruark Audio tells us that the updated R7 benefits from further audio enhancements to its amplifiers and speaker crossovers that results in a smoother and more extended frequency response with improved soundstage, making the listening experience even more realistic and enjoyable. The revised model still offers DLNA wi-fi and aptX Bluetooth connectivity for streaming of music from smartphones, laptops and network storage devices, as well as more traditional analogue and digital connectivity hookups – and a charging port for smartphones and tablets.

If you weren’t fortunate enough to get your hands on one of the 900 limited edition SL-1200GAE turntables outside of Japan (or the 300 in Japan), fear not as the update of Technics legendary turntable will still be coming to stores in the form of the SL-1200G you see before you here. Boasting a three-layer construction, which consistsof a rigidly combined heavyweight brass and aluminium die-cast platter with deadening rubber covering the entire surface, the SL-1200G is claimed to eliminate resonance and achieve high rigidity and vibration damping during playback. The tonearm follows suit, employing lightweight magnesium, which has been cold drawn to further increase the damping effect. Technics additionally claims that cogging has been eliminated thanks to a new coreless direct-drive motor, which suppresses potential vibrations using high-precision rotary positioning sensors guided by a microprocessor-controlled system.

Many hi-fi fans will have started out with a pair of Wharfedale speakers, and if your passion began in the eighties then you're likely to be familiar with the Huntingdon brand's popular Diamond speaker. As its most famous design from that era, the Diamond started off as one product and grew into a whole family. It still continues today, of course, with the Diamond 200 Series – see our Diamond 230 and 220 loudspeaker reviews in issues 395 and 402 respectively – and has evolved through many incarnations with a number of significant improvements. Why all the talk of the Diamond Series we hear you cry, well Wharfedale engineers have been hard at work on the new five-strong Reva Series, which borrows many of the design principles that are used in the latest Diamond series, but raises the bar both sonically and aesthetically.

Welcome to the June 2016 issue of Hi-Fi Choice – the essential guide to getting the best possible sound from your hi-fi, whether you're buying, tuning or tweaking. . . 

 At the risk of sounding like a broken record in mentioning yet again just how back on track vinyl playback really is, confirmation of its popularity arrived in mid-April – if ever it were needed – when news broke that pre-orders for Technics’ highly anticipated limited edition Grand Class SL-1200GAE turntable had sold out in Japan in just 30 minutes.

Described by Musical Fidelity as a complete solution allowing you to keep all of your music in one place, the M6 Encore 225 is essentiallya streaming audio player withan impressive selection of connectivity options. At its heart is a dual-core 64-bit Intel CPU with 2GB of RAM to ensure that operation is fast and to allow for upgrades as time goes by in an effort to ensure that it remains futureproof. The internal 1TB storage is claimed to be able to hold as many as 2,500 CDs (using the built-in CD drive’s bit-perfect ripping), but is also upgradeable should you need to add more as time goes by. Power output, meanwhile is quoted at 225W per channel into 8ohm and the M6 Encore 225 has the same power amplifiers under the hood as the Recommended badge-winning M6si (HFC 400), while a 32-bit/384kHz chipset is onhand for digital-to-analogue conversion.

The Elements Pre-Amp is Leema Acoustics’ latest addition to its space-saving range of components. Retaining the same half-width chassis for which the range is famed, the Elements Pre-Amp also boasts an onboard digital-to-analogue converter. The result is a S/PDIF coaxial input, three S/PDIF optical inputs and an asynchronous USB port all capable of handling files up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution. Analogue inputs include three unbalanced RCA inputs, a pair of balanced XLRs and a 3.