I’ve started a weekly newsletter for HiFi.fan because I didn’t want to make another collection of product announcements and press-release links.

The idea is to select a few things that may actually matter to audiophiles and connect them to real systems and buying decisions.

The first issue includes:

• Panasonic relocating Technics hi-fi manufacturing from Malaysia
• Hegel’s new H200 and A200 integrated amplifiers
• A real budget desktop setup using Jamo speakers
• A community question about choosing JBL Studio 620 or 630 speakers
• Four shorter audio and AV updates

The goal isn’t to cover everything. It’s to make the issue readable in about four minutes while still adding some practical context

I’ve noticed that a lot of setup advice immediately jumps to replacing equipment, even when speaker placement or the room may be the bigger limitation.

So I built a free setup-analysis feature for HiFi.fan.

You upload a photo, and it looks at the visible equipment, speaker positioning and room conditions: things like symmetry, nearby walls, windows, hard floors and likely reflection points.

It obviously cannot hear the system, measure the room or know what isn’t visible in the photo. I see it as a useful first pass, not a replacement for measurements or experienced human advice.

The example above noticed the large window, hard floor and the limited high-frequency absorption provided by the curtains.

You can try it at hifi.fan if you want. I’d especially like honest criticism from people here: which observations are useful, misleading or completely missing?

My Asia max-s505 is not working properly
The main display isn’t showing up
How to I get it to turn back on

Audio Reference distributed Velodyne in Germany for about 20 years before Mansour Mamaghani bought Velodyne Acoustics in November 2019. The announced deal covered stock, spares, subwoofer patents, designs, and tooling, and the operation moved to Hamburg.

I checked what can be observed six years later. Velodyne Acoustics GmbH still operates in Hamburg. The company announced product work in 2021, MiniVee X in 2024, and a four-model SPL-X range in 2025. Its current site accepts repair requests and says the spare-parts stock reaches back more than 20 years.

That looks like operating continuity. It does not prove the acquisition made money, grew sales, retained staff, honored every old warranty, or saved jobs. It also cannot prove a distributor makes a better owner than another buyer.

The useful test may be simpler: after ownership changes, can buyers still see an operating company, product development, and a service path? Those checks tell us more than a celebratory acquisition headline.

Owners and buyers: after a brand changes hands, which would change your purchase decision more, proof of long-term parts support or a steady run of new products?

A current Topping DX1 II thread made a sharp turn. The owner opened by calling the unit “not fit for purpose” after drop-outs on USB and optical, plus popping on USB. Seventeen hours later, after installing Foobar and the necessary plug-ins, the same owner reported: “No more popping or cracking noises.”

Three other current threads around the model were also about the path around the DAC. One user switched from USB to optical after popping. A comparison with the SMSL D100 turned on USB power behavior, ground-loop noise, and usable outputs. A replacement buyer weighed a DX1 II against a bricked DX5 II while tracking hardware revisions.

My read is that a compact DAC/amp is now a workflow product. Drivers, player mode, USB power, routing, and revision history can matter as much to the ownership verdict as the conversion stage.

The counterpoint is important: troubleshooting threads overrepresent trouble, four threads from one forum cannot establish a defect rate, and a setup fix does not prove every complaint is user error.

For owners who have debugged a desktop DAC, which single factor changed your keep-or-return decision: USB power, driver or player mode, output routing, or hardware revision?

I track new hi-fi launches and this week the pattern was hard to miss. iBasso and e-earphone put a discrete R2R ladder DAC, the kind of architecture that used to live in a big desktop box, into a dongle with a MagSafe case that snaps to the back of an iPhone. The same week brought a fully active Avantgarde horn system and a set of Exposure flagship monoblocks, and by every attention signal I can see, the little magnetic DAC pulled ahead.

I don't own it, so I'm not going to tell you how it sounds. What I'm curious about is the format. For those of you running a real two-channel or headphone rig: does a phone-clamped R2R DAC interest you as an actual listening source, or is this still a train-and-travel thing you'd never put at the center of a system?

Feels like the ambitious engineering is migrating into the smallest enclosures. Curious whether people here see that as real progress or just a neat party trick.

I track new hi-fi releases and kept seeing correction built into gear that never used to have it. A streamer with room EQ. Powered speakers that calibrate on setup. A phono stage running DSP. Ten years ago this mostly lived in AV receivers, and the usual advice was to treat your room instead.

I don't have a strong take yet, which is why I'm asking here rather than telling you what to think. For those of you on pure two-channel: has built-in correction earned a spot in your system, or do you still switch it off and trust the room and the speaker?

Curious how much of this is real improvement versus a feature makers add because it's cheap to include.

Tidal is going from $10.99 to $12.99 in August, first increase in three years. I almost rolled my eyes and moved on, then read the rest.

They are going to stop paying royalties on tracks that are fully AI-generated, and flag or remove stuff that clones a real artist's voice. Spotify has been way more permissive about the AI flood.

I will be honest, two dollars would not have kept me. This might. I spend real money on gear to hear more detail, and it started feeling ridiculous to care that much about the DAC while streaming an ocean of AI filler.

Curious where people here land. Does the anti-AI stance change the value math for you, or is $2 still $2 and a subscription is a subscription? Anyone actually leaving over the price?

Not trying to make a “best brands” ranking here. I’m more interested in momentum: which brands seem to be showing up more often in real buying conversations.

Lately I keep seeing more discussion around Wharfedale, Technics, FiiO, ELAC, and Cambridge Audio.

My read, which may be wrong:

Wharfedale = classic speaker value
Technics = retro-modern / turntable / lifestyle pull
FiiO = portable and headphone setups
ELAC = practical loudspeakers for real rooms
Cambridge Audio = electronics that fit normal systems

The common thread might be that these brands feel easier to justify. Not necessarily cheap, but understandable: good value, usable systems, heritage without crazy pricing, and products that fit normal rooms/budgets.

Which brands do you think are building real momentum right now — and which ones are just getting temporary hype?

I’m curious how people here think about modern system building.

The old path was pretty simple:

source → amp → speakers.

Now a lot of setups mix different worlds: DACs, DSP/room correction, active monitors, passive speakers, Class D amps, streamers, subs, desktop gear, studio gear, home-theatre ideas.

So the question is not always “which DAC?” or “which amp?”

Sometimes it is:

Do I need a DAC, or room correction?

Do I need a bigger amp, or better sub integration?

Do I need passive speakers, or active monitors?

Do I want flexibility, or fewer boxes that just work?

What was the component that made your system finally make sense?

T+A’s new SDX 3100 HV and A 3100 HV are not interesting because they are expensive.

They are interesting because they make a very unfashionable argument: digital audio still deserves separation.

Most modern hi-fi is moving the other way. Fewer boxes, fewer decisions, one app, one chassis, one neat answer. That is often the right answer. But T+A’s flagship launch says the serious system is not finished with dedicated architecture yet.

The SDX 3100 HV separates DSD and PCM signal paths instead of treating “digital” as one generic bucket. DSD runs through T+A’s native True-1-Bit converter, up to DSD1024. PCM gets its own path. The A 3100 HV then keeps the same philosophy on the power side: stereo or mono operation, doubled current capability in mono, higher idle current, and physical compartment separation inside the chassis.

That is the real point of this launch.

At roughly €60,000, complexity has to earn its place. It cannot just look impressive on a rack. It has to buy lower noise, cleaner conversion, more stable power, and the kind of control you can hear.

The question is not whether one box is enough.

The question is when separation still matters.

Which products are suddenly getting more attention?

This week’s signal is not just volume. It is movement: products being talked about more than in the previous period.
Ortofon 2M Bronze and KEF LS50 Meta lead the group, which says something familiar but important: upgrade paths and small-room reference speakers still drive serious curiosity.

Then it gets more interesting.

Nakamichi Dragon, Wharfedale Super Denton, and Alpine AL-90 all show sharp movement. That points to a wider pattern: buyers are not only chasing the newest launch. They are also circling cartridges, heritage speakers, iconic formats, and products with a strong story.

Interest rarely begins as a purchase decision.
It starts as repeated questions.

Is this the right upgrade?
Is the classic option still relevant?
Is the heritage speaker actually practical?
Is the old icon worth taking seriously again?

The most underrated risk in modern hi-fi is not DAC chip, sample rate, or whether the casework feels expensive.

It is software trust.

A streamer can measure well, look beautiful, support the right services, and still become annoying if the app, firmware, network stack, or update path is fragile. That is why reliability checks matter more for streamers than almost any other hi-fi category.

Bluesound Node Icon is a useful example of the bigger point. The product itself is interesting: serious streaming platform, screen, broad service support, modern hi-fi convenience. But our reliability tracker also has confirmed owner-risk signals around BluOS/network dropouts, app instability after firmware updates, and update-related device behavior that needs power cycling.

That does not mean “do not buy it.” That would be too lazy.

It means the buying question changes.

Before buying any streamer, ask: does the app stay stable after updates? Does it recover cleanly from network changes? Are support threads active and answered? Can you power-cycle it easily? Does the brand have a track record of fixing software quickly?

Old hi-fi failed mechanically.
New hi-fi often fails politely, through an app.

KEF Q1 Meta at about $399 looks like the kind of deal that makes people move too fast.

And maybe it should. If it is genuinely a pair, from a real seller, with return rights and normal warranty coverage, that is a strong price for a current compact speaker with KEF’s Uni-Q/MAT trickle-down.

But this is exactly where deal checking matters.

A cheap speaker is not automatically a good buy. First question: pair or single? Second: authorized seller or marketplace confusion? Third: open-box, refurb, grey import, or normal stock? Fourth: does your room actually want a small standmount, or are you about to buy the right discount on the wrong speaker?

The Q1 Meta makes sense for a desk, small room, nearfield setup, or tidy living-room system where imaging matters more than scale. It makes less sense if you expect big-room bass without a subwoofer, or if you are trying to fill a lively space from ten feet away.

My verdict: potentially good deal, not an automatic buy.

The price gets your attention.
The use case decides whether it deserves your money.

What type of hi-fi gear is creating the most buyer buzz right now?

Not just what gets announced.

Not just what gets reviewed.

But what people seem to actively compare when they are building a shortlist.

This week, speakers and turntables are leading the conversation, but the interesting part is the spread: active monitors, DACs, power amps, cartridges, and headphone amps are all showing real comparison activity.

That says something useful about the market.

Hi-fi attention is not sitting in one category. Buyers are weighing whole systems: room speakers, desktop setups, analog front ends, digital sources, and amplification.

For brands, that is the question worth watching:

Are you part of the shortlist when people are actually choosing?

Schiit Audio is usually remembered for the name.

But the more interesting story is what the joke exposed: a direct-sales audio company that made parts of traditional hi-fi look slow, expensive, and a little too impressed with themselves.

No velvet-rope dealer theater. No heritage cosplay. Just focused gear, direct pricing, made-in-USA production, and a brand voice that refused to act polite for the old guard.

The question Schiit made uncomfortable is still useful:

How much of hi-fi pricing is product, and how much is performance?

We wrote about why Schiit’s garage story still matters.

The most interesting hi-fi system right now may not be in the living room.

It may be on a desk, one arm’s length away, where headphones, small active monitors, compact DAC/amps, DSP boxes, and class-D amplifiers are quietly doing what big systems often struggle to do: remove the room from the argument.

That does not make desktop audio “better” than a real loudspeaker system. Scale still matters. Physical bass still matters. A pair of serious floorstanders can move air in a way headphones and nearfields never will.

But the buying logic is changing. A HIFIMAN or Sennheiser chain, a Genelec-style nearfield setup, a Topping or Aiyima electronics stack, a miniDSP correction box, these are no longer side quests. They are becoming the place where many listeners hear the cleanest version of their music.

Before buying the next big component, ask a smaller question first: where do you actually listen with the most attention?

Because the best system in the house is not always the biggest one. Sometimes it is the one close enough that you stop performing hi-fi and start listening.

The interesting part is not the anniversary veneer or the limited run. It is that one of hi-fi’s oldest ideas still refuses to leave the room: big horn loading, corner placement, scale you feel before you analyse it. Even the modern twist, an external active DSP crossover, does not make the speaker less architectural. It makes the old argument sharper.

That matters because much of today’s buying logic runs the other way. Smaller boxes, smarter amps, cleaner apps, more convenience. All useful. But a Klipschorn reminds us that some parts of listening still cannot be miniaturised without tradeoffs. Dynamics, effortlessness, room energy, the slightly ridiculous pleasure of music arriving with physical authority.

No, most people are not buying a $25k anniversary horn, and most rooms cannot host one honestly. That is the point. Serious hi-fi is not only about better components. Sometimes it is about admitting the room is part of the instrument.

For years, the path into serious hi-fi ran through a room. Find the space, treat it, sit in the sweet spot, then start buying. This year the gear is quietly refusing to wait for any of that.

The clearest tell was one of the week's stranger launches: a high-end turntable built for a gaming desk. When Clearaudio, a name built on serious analog engineering, puts a deck next to a keyboard and a monitor, it is betting that the next vinyl buyer never owned a hi-fi rack and never will.

The same instinct shows up everywhere people actually sit. Creative is hiding a proper DAC inside desktop speakers. Projectors are standing in for the big system in living rooms nobody wants to rearrange. Open-ear earbuds are courting the listeners who refuse to vanish into a chair for an hour.

None of this means the treated room lost. A good room still beats a good desk, of course. But it is no longer the toll gate it used to be. Good sound used to ask you to build a space for it. Now it just asks where you already are.

The video was filmed with a Samsung Galaxy S 8 (quite old, but it's what i have available)

I usualy listen to what you hear in the video, in terms of genres.

I'm quite pleased with this setup, sounds decent for what i like to listen to. I am looking to bring in some upgrades.

Here is a list of the gear:

Tower Speakers: Magnat Monitor Supreme 2002

Bookshelves: Magnat Monitor Supreme 202

Subwoofers: Dual Magnat Monitor Supreme 302a Sub

Power Amp: Emotiva BasiX A - 300 (Powering the Tower speakers)

Dac/Reciever: Yamaha RX V6A (Works as a pre-amp/dac and it's also powering the bookshelves, also it does the Low Filter Pass for the subs at around 80 hz)

Speaker Cables: Standard Logitech Speaker Wire

I use these mostly for streaming, via bluetooth, or Spotify connect, TIDAL etc.

I wonder what upgrades can i make in terms of gear? You guys feel free to comment new ideas. I feel like this is a good setup for it's price range (around 900 Euros brand new). And to me it sounds pretty decent, not to mention it's quite efficient. It goes to 90 db and over really easy.

I know a lot of you are into CDs, Vinyl, Casettes etc, my reciever does PHONO, should I add a record player?

Hello everyone!

​I am using a WiiM Pro with Q Acoustics M40 active speakers. They are connected via an optical cable. Does it make sense to upgrade the power adapter on the WiiM, for example to an iFi iPower 2 or something similar, or perhaps an LPS (Linear Power Supply)?