“This smallish, heavy, elegant box offers you an on-ramp to musical enjoyment without the hassle of multiple purchases and match-making.” The new Audiant 80i from New Zealand’s Perreaux, offering an upsampling DAC, a MM phono stage, and connections for USB and TOSLINK, is put through its paces by Patrick Dillon.
Best known for his classic Mod Squad and McCormack lines of amplification, Steve McCormack now runs SMc Audio, his own design and upgrade company. Here he talks to Patrick Dillon about his work, the nature of great sound, and the future of high-end audio from a manufacturer’s perspective.
The lure of the tweak – the inexplicable add-on that promises to unleash the full potential of your rig – is strong. In our first collective review, Hifi Zine writers try out the EVS ground enhancer.
“Do you really need a new DAC?” asks Patrick Dillon. At $2k, the Bryston BDA-1 faces competition from innumerable cheaper alternatives, so what can it do to justify that price? Patrick tries it out on several players, from a cheap Denon to a state-of-the-art PS Audio transport, to learn just what is possible.
Given the response to the Albert von Schweikert interview in the very first issue of Hifi Zine, we decided to pose a few more questions to Albert. Fresh back from RMAF where his VR-33 and VR-35 designs were drawing many positive reactions, we invited other owners and interested parties to ask questions.
Music and its accurate reproduction can provide some of life’s great pleasures. Beautiful art meets wonderous technology, and fanatics find communities of fellowship and glossy magazines with which their desires are regularly stoked. Patrick Dillon ponders the ins and outs of this hobby.
Albert Von Schweikert, award-winning designer of speakers from budget to cost-no-object, has spent nearly four decades in the industry. Here he talks with Patrick Dillon about his experiences and thoughts on speaker design and the hi-fi industry.