21
Oct
2011
The Audiophiliac: I admit it, most of my favorite amplifiers produce enough heat to warm up a room and consume a lot of AC power. “Green,” they are not. Class D amplifier designs (the “D” does not stand for digital) are vastly more efficient, and run cool to the touch. (more…)
25
Jun
2010
Akihabara News: The PM5004 and CD5004 are the latest integrated Amplifier and CD player available on Marantz Japan catalog.
Scheduled to be released in the middle of July on the Japanese market, the PM5004 anyone looking for superb performance without the complexity or cost of a comparable receiver or preamplifier/power amplifier combination. As usual, we have a minimalist but nice design, that give you the impress to have an incredible amplifier.It develops an output power of 40 Watt per Channel at 8 Ohms. It also provides a THD of 0.05% (20Hz – 20kHz, 8 ohms), a frequency response of 10Hz – 50kHz, and a S/N rato of 103dB. It also comes with Analog L&R In (x5), Analog L&R out (x2), Phono input, Headphone out.
Dimensions: 440×370×105mm
Weight: 6.7kg
Regarding the CD5004, the CD player, it has been made to fit the PM5004. It features the same design, and promises CD reproduction without any noise interference. Regarding the Digital / Analog conversion, it’s handled by High performance Cirrus Logic CS4392 D/A converter.
Our little boy is compatible with CD-R/RW / MP3 / WMA, and seems to be well equipped with Independent Gold Plated RCA Analog L&R out, TOSLINK Digital Optical Out, and Gold plated RCA digital Coaxial Out. Lastly, it provides a Dynamic Range of 100dB, Frequency Response of 2Hz – 20000 Hz, a THD 0.002%, and a S/N ratio of 110dB.
30
Apr
2010
Stereophile: To celebrate his 30 years with the company, Marantz threw designer Ken Ishiwata a birthday party in the form of an assignment: Design a new, limited-edition integrated amplifier and SACD/CD player bearing his initials. (Only 500 of each will be made worldwide.)
15
Sep
2009
Electronista: Harman Kardon is currently showing off its latest flaghship home theater receiver, the 7.2-channel AVR 7550HD, at the CEDIA Expo.
Like some of the other receivers in its range, it supports Dolby Volume technology that keeps its volume consistent no matter what source is playing, and is the very first to use Texas Instruments’ Aureus DA710 dual audio digital signal processor for improved sound quality.
Faroudja DCDi Cinema digital video processing uses a Torino chipset to upscale videos to near 1080p quality. There are four onboard HDMI 1.3a with Deep Color inputs, and the AVR 7550HD is fully compatible with other HDMI V1.3a with Deep Color devices.
Otherwise, there is a USB port for playing music from a memory stick, the playback of which can be navigated by the remote control, and an Internet radio tuner is also present. Multizone support is present, with a dedicated remote included for a second room.
Harman Kardon has not revealed a price or a release date for the AVR 7550HD, though pricing is expected to fall in the $2,800 (€1,915) range.
30
Apr
2009
EngadgetHD: Typically devoid of fancy lights, knobs, and switches, amplifiers typically don’t get a lot of marketing hype; heck, most people who own a receiver aren’t even aware of the amplifier section.
Bang & Olfusen’s Class D ICEpower switching amplifiers wrinkle that a bit — the compact footprint, light weight, energy efficiency and impressive specs are enough to make the newer technology marketable as, well, new.
Sadly, from Audioholics’ examination of many samples, it also looks like the newness stopped there and several manufacturers have slapped crazy price tags on an essentially “reference design” implementation.
There’s plenty of good technical info about the test bench performance of these amps in the link, but with several happy ICEpower users it’s hard to say that the subjective performance is unsatisfactory; the wide price range for essentially the same amp is what’s troubling. If nothing else, let it serve as a cautionary tale of not falling for the latest thing just because it’s the latest thing — when you’re shopping for an amp, take your ears along with your wallet.
24
Mar
2009
Red Ferret: This Primare SPA22 Amplifier is the first one we’ve seen that offers PC type upgrade functionality.
The object is to let you upgrade the components as more, different, better, sweeter technologies come on to the market.
The Swedish designers have come up with a clever plugin board option, which means you should be able to keep the amp much longer before consigning it to that great big scrap heap in the sky.
Such flexibility costs, of course (but you knew that right?) so prepare to shell out £3000.00 (€3,200) for the privilege of saving the planet.
The SPA22’s innovative open architecture looks beyond the latest fad or next format war by providing an easy way to upgrade entire audio, video and control sections as new technologies arrive. As with PC upgrades proprietary video, DSP and communications boards, incorporating optimised versions of the latest digital processing, are simply plugged-in to replace the previous ones.
In a single step, Primare has ‘built-out’ waste and obsolescence and secured long- lasting satisfaction for lovers of film and music…
24
Feb
2009
EngadgetHD: It’s late February which means it’s time for Yamaha to roll out new receiver models across its bread-and-butter RX-V receiver lineup.
Right on cue, Yammy has introduced five refreshed models, ranging from the RX-V765 to the RX-V365. The top four models now feature 4 HDMI inputs, and 1080p upscaling of analog inputs has now been sprinkled across the top three models.
On the audio side, all models save the RX-V365 now play nice with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA.
One thing is for sure — with prices ranging from $650 to $250 (around €510 to €195) , these features combined with Yamaha’s typically solid performance will put a lot of pressure on other offerings, both in the Yamaha family and out.
20
Feb
2009
Tech Digest: Top-end audio manufacturer Harman Kardon has just announced the “most powerful” amplifier that the company has ever produced, as well as a matching CD player, for those of you still trading in plastic discs.
I could happily regurgitate the press release about how the amplifier’s power is achieved with its “EzSet/EQ room optimisation”, but all you really need to know is that it sounds lovely.
The CD player sounds similarly lovely, thanks to a built-in digital sound processor, and linear smoothing to stop jitters.
10
Oct
2008
Engadget: About this time last year, Yamaha treated us to its CD-S2000 SACD player and A-S2000 amplifier, both of which sported that timeless look that was just too dazzling to hide away in some AV cabinet.
This year, the outfit is keeping with the trend by introducing the equally stunning (and even more silver) A-S700 amplifier and CD-S700 CD player.
The former features 90-watts x 2 of RMS power and gold-plated RCA inputs, while the latter includes a Burr Brown 192kHz/24bit DAC and a USB port for playing back MP3 / WMA files.
18
Jul
2007
EngadgetHD: Denon isn’t typically known for throwing out any futuristic pieces of AV luxury, rather, it tends to side with the more traditional, classy look.
Of course, there’s always a first time for everything, and while we’re highly doubtful that this supposed Denon rendering will actually come to fruition, it certainly is a sight to behold.
The two-piece kit consists of a rumored DVD-HD8910 Blu-ray player up top, with a 2TB AVR-HD8910 media center / receiver below.
The 7.1-channel box also claims to handle iTunes music files and offer a direct connection to the iTMS, and while it’s understandably simple to brush this all off as a fanboy’s fantasy, Denon’s no stranger to stuffing unusual extras in uncommon places.