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Showing posts from September, 2016

Merrill Audio Taranis Power Amplifier

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Introduction The Taranis is Merrill Audio's most affordable amplifier. I seldom mention price at the very beginning of a review, but I'll make an exception for this one. The Taranis retails for USD 2,500. It is based on a Hypex Ncore NC500 module, and puts out 400 watts of power into 8 ohms, and 600 watts into 4 ohms. Oh, and it is built in a chassis that does not look flimsy, cheap nor home made. Taranis is the Celtic god of thunder. It didn't bring loud fearsome noises into my system, so the thunder is probably Merrill Audio striking fear into hearts of competitors. At this level of performance for the silly budget money that Merrill Audio is asking for, they had better be running scared. Description The Taranis is rather striking in appearance. The black steel chassis used contrasts nicely with the mirror polished silver front panel. No, it's not some laser cut or massive aluminum panel with decorative finish fit for a master craftsmen from horology's finest in S

Sablon Audio Panatela Reserva Interconnects

Introduction Couldn't get enough of Sablon Audio's products after reading my earlier review of the Corona Reserva power cord and Panatela Reserva speaker cable (click here for review) ? Here comes the interconnects ! To be continued ...

Sony SRS-HG1 Portable Wireless Speaker

Introduction According to Sony, the SRS-HG1 is the world's smallest High-Resolution Audio portable wireless speaker. Available in 5 trendy colours, my review sample was finished in a very striking Lime Yellow colour. Description The SRS-HG1 measures 204x62x60 mm and weighs 790g. The driver complement consists of dual 35 mm full range drivers and a single passive radiator. Sony's S-Master HX Digital amp pumps out 12 watts of power. The DSEEHX Digital Sound Enhancement Engine processes lossy music files to address the quality lost during compression. The SRS-HG1 can be connected via Bluetooth (Version 4.2 is supported with compatibility with the following protocols, A2DP, AVRCP, HFP and SPP) or via USB. The onboard DAC supports bit depth of up to 24 bits and sampling rates up to 192 kHz. You can also stream music via wifi (this speaker is DLNA compliant), or hook up a legacy device via the stereo mini-jack on the rear panel. Delving deep into the manual shows that the SRS-HG1 has