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iFi iPhono 3 – First Look After your turntable system you need to focus on the cartridges phono amplifier. Why? It’s the front end to the information amplification system. If the arm, cartridge and phono amplifier don’t provide a pristine electronic replica of what was on that vinyl then nothing […]

iFi iPhono 3 – First Look

September 16, 2020 in Audio / Equipment / News tagged Black Label / iFi / iPhono 3 / iPower X / Phono Pre-Amplifier by fromvinyltoplastic

EMM Labs DS-EQ1 Phono Pre-amp — EMM Labs DS-EQ1 Phono Pre-amp EMM Labs of Canada has released their new optical cartridge equalizer, the DS-EQ1 which is fully compatible with DS Audio optical cartridge range. Having auditioned the DS ES-1 optical cartridge, I am definitely an admirer of this cartridge technology. So it was with great interest […]

EMM Labs DS-EQ1 Phono Pre-amp

September 8, 2020 in Audio / Equipment / News tagged DS Audio / DS-EQ1 / Ed Meitner / EMM Labs by fromvinyltoplastic

Monoprice Tube Amplifiers - First Look — Monoprice Tube Amplifiers – First Look Introduction The tube amplifier has seen a resurgence in recent years due to the warm, pleasing sound that only a tube amplifier can offer. The Monoprice Pure Tube Amplifier, shown above, utilizes four EL84 tubes for the power output stage and three 6N3 tubes […]

Monoprice Tube Amplifiers – First Look

August 29, 2020 in Audio / Equipment / News tagged Class AB / Hybrid Tube Amplifier / Low Cost / Monoprice / Pure Tube Stereo Amplifier / Tube power Amplifier / Valve by fromvinyltoplastic

Darbee 4K - PXLVision Coming Soon — Darbee 4K – PXLVision Coming Soon Introduction I was so skeptical when several years ago one of my readers sent me a message saying that; “his new Darbee Darblet provided a significant visual improvement to his HD image with little or no artifacts”. This I had to see to believe, […]

Darbee 4K – PXLVision Coming Soon

August 16, 2020 in Equipment / News tagged 4K / Darbee / Darblet / DVP5000S / DVPTM / Pixelgen Design / PXLVision by fromvinyltoplastic

Physical Media Takes Another Hit! — Physical Media Takes Another Hit! The Rumor Mill It is strongly rumored by Bill Hunt, the Editor in Chief of The Digital Bits that Disney is going to be restricting the release of their existing live action catalog and that of the recently purchased 20th Century Fox Film company, to 4K only […]

Physical Media Takes Another Hit!

August 12, 2020 in News / Plastic tagged 4K / Death of Physical Media / Disney+ / Physical Media / Streaming / Ultra HD / Walt Disney / Warner Media by fromvinyltoplastic

HANA Umami Red - MC Phono Cartridge — HANA Umami Red – MC Phono Cartridge All images credit: Excel Sound Corporation. HANA phono cartridges are manufactured by Japan’s Excel Sound Corporation. Since their introduction they have continued to attract a growing customer base, and deservedly so. (華) Hana, in Japanese means “Brilliant and Gorgeous”, a cartridge born from superb […]

HANA Umami Red – MC Phono Cartridge

August 4, 2020 in Audio / News tagged Hana / MC / Moving Coil Cartridge / Umami Red by fromvinyltoplastic

US Blu-ray Sales Decline In 2020 — US Blu-ray Sales Decline In 2020 Over the past years physical media sales have continued to decline as reported by me here and confirmed by The Digital Entertainment Group’s quarterly Home Entertainment Reports and Media Play news in-house home entertainment market research. For the last decade physical media sales, read […]

US Blu-ray Sales Decline In 2020

August 1, 2020 in News / Plastic tagged Blu-Ray / Disc Rentals / Netflix / News / Plastic / Sales Decline by fromvinyltoplastic

DS Audio Release Grand Master Optical Cartridge — DS Audio Grand Master Optical Cartridge (All Images Credit: DS Audio) Introduction When I decided to replace my Lentek Entre 1 I seriously considered DS Audio’s DS-E1 model, and auditioned it and the Hana SL and ML. The Hana SL, for me, was the better option but I still thought that the […]

DS Audio Grand Master Optical Cartridge

August 1, 2020 in Audio / Equipment / News tagged DS Audio / Grand Master / Optical Cartridge by fromvinyltoplastic

US Vinyl Album Sales Grow In 2020 — US Vinyl Album Sales Grow In 2020 Despite the Corona virus, and maybe because of it, the mid-year figures show an almost 10% increase in vinyl sales during the first half of 2020 as people hunker down and shelter in place. According to the new Nielsen Music/MRC Data midyear report, […]

US Vinyl Album Sales Grow In 2020

July 25, 2020 in News / Vinyl tagged 2020 / Vinyl Sales by fromvinyltoplastic

Marantz 8K SR-Series AV receivers - First Look — Marantz 8K SR-Series AV Receivers – First Look (Images Credit: Marantz) Hot on the heels of the Denon 8K receiver release we knew that Marantz would not be too far behind, especially as both compnaies share the same technical stable and are owned by […]

Marantz 8K SR-Series AV Receivers – First Look

July 25, 2020 in Audio / Equipment / News tagged First Look / Marantz / SR Series / SR5015 / SR6015 / SR7015 / SR8015 by fromvinyltoplastic

H.266 Versatile Video Codec — H.266 Versatile Video Codec The electrical engineering and computer science division of the esteemed German research organization, The Fraunhofer – Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), has just announced VVC, a new video CODEC standard that promises to provide an additional 50 percent compression efficiency in streaming video compression. The codec’s, full name is […]

H.266 Versatile Video Codec

July 17, 2020 in News / Video tagged AV1 / AVC / H.265 / H.266 / HEVC / VVC by fromvinyltoplastic

Sound United Closes Deal On Acquisition Of Bowers & Wilkins — Sound United Acquires Bowers & Wilkins Sound United, the parent company of Denon, Marantz, Polk Audio and many more audio-video brands has announced its intention to acquire audiophile speaker manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins. Kevin Duffy, CEO at Sound United, said in a statement: “Over the course of five decades Bowers […]

Sound United Acquires Bowers & Wilkins

June 23, 2020 in Audio / News tagged Bowers & Wilkins / Sound United LLC by fromvinyltoplastic

Denon X6700H & X4700H 8K Receivers If you are a regular visitor to my site you will already know my views regarding 8K video. But here we go again, ‘if they build it, many will buy it’. Denon’s world first 8K-ready AVRs are feature-packed and future-proofed. They build on the […]

Denon X6700H & X4700H 8K Receivers

June 11, 2020 in Equipment / News tagged 8K / AVR X2700H / AVR X3700H / AVR X4700H / AVR X6700H / Denon / HDCP2.3 by fromvinyltoplastic

Leak Is Back. What's Next Radford? — Leak Is Back. What’s Next Radford? Introduction The UK was the birth place of many of the original audiophile companies like Leak, Quad, Wharfdale, Radford, Celestion, Decca, EMI, English Electric etc. to name but a few. Many of these very […]

Leak Is Back. What’s Next Radford?

June 6, 2020 in Audio / Equipment / News tagged AIG / CDT / Leak / Stereo 130 by fromvinyltoplastic

Stockfisch DMM-Dubplate Vol. 1 — Stockfisch DMM-Dubplate Vol. 1 So in the never ending attempt for the vinyl audiophile to get even closer to the analog source, Stockfisch Records have got just about as close as you can. Stockfisch Records & Pauler Acoustics are a niche high end mastering and cutting company, based in Germany, […]

Stockfisch DMM-Dubplate Vol. 1

June 3, 2020 in Audio / News / Vinyl tagged DMM-Dubplate / Pauler Acoustics / Stockfisch by fromvinyltoplastic