In Barn for Review

In Norse legend, Ragnarok was the “end of the world.” Spring is in the air. What better time to review an end of the world integrated amplifier from Schiit Audio? 

The Edge series of components represents UK-based Cambridge Audio’s top of the line(s) honoring the company’s 50th anniversary.

Blame Darko.

The Denafrips ARES II DAC uses R-2R DAC technology to convert digital to analog, an approach I’ve found can please the ears with a naturalness that evades many a chip-based DAC.

I have a thing for industrial design. Here, let me show you…

Ingredients: Raspberry Pi 4 2GB ($35), Flirc case ($15.95), power supply ($9.95), microSD card ($6), RoPieee (free). Bake 30 minutes.

A dongle DAC extravaganza!

It’s as if the fine folks from Italy-based Riviera Audio Laboratories were speaking to me when they wrote: An audio amplifier must reproduce a signal with the highest fidelity… for the human ear, not for instruments.

The $99.99 Bolt DAC/Headphone Amp from Helm Audio is certainly the slimmest dongle DAC to arrive in-Barn of late, giving it the appearance of a dongle without a DAC!

I included a ruler in the picture of the Clones Audio 25iRX Integrated Amplifier ($1975) so you can appreciate its atypical size and lovely proportions.

Something familiar (looking*) this way comes.

The power amp section of the Parasound HINT 6 Halo Integrated Amplifier was designed by John Curl, one of the most respected and revered circuit designers in all of HiFi. Outside of hifi, Curl designed and built the sound systems for The Grateful Dead’s road […]

The Jadis DA50S Tube Integrated Amplifier ($9795.00) is a push-pull design using a quad of KT120 Octal Beam Tetrodes and a touch of feedback for 30 Watts of pure Class-A output power.

The Weiss DAC501 comes from the genus Streaming DAC, one of my favorite classes.