LATEST ADDITIONS

Three boxes, and not a DAC in sight… Aurender’s flagship music server, the N50, is a £38,900 combination of Server box with display – able to play from online services, local storage on USB or NAS devices, or optional onboard storage – and a separate ‘Audio’ unit that offers numerous digital outputs. The third box is a screened PSU, offering separately regulated supplies to power both the Server and Audio enclosures.

Some hi-fi manufacturers like to launch a new series as a fait accompli, all models primed and ready to roll out to retailers at the same time. The 8 series from Ayre Acoustics, on the other hand, has arrived in stages after being first teased in 2018. The EX-8 integrated amplifier and QX-8 ‘digital hub’ (streamer/DAC) sneaked through the gate before the Covid pandemic pulled up the drawbridge, while the KX-8 preamplifier and VX-8 power amp on test here, plus the PX-8 phono preamp, are more recent additions.

For a Decca worshipper of 47 years, its return via the London Decca Reference Type II (£7702) is miraculous. Reviving these oddball cartridges has involved a tortuous learning curve as the last generation of craftsmen transferred the ‘technology’ to the firm’s new owners. Even securing the name required negotiation, as the Decca record label has also recently returned.

Every now and then a speaker manufacturer appears to get ‘on a roll’, with new models launched, older ones discontinued, and product catalogues reconfigured in a flurry of activity. It’s often the arrival of a new flagship that leads to this upheaval, and that’s certainly the case for DALI, as the Danish marque has been very busy since it debuted its innovative KORE floorstander four years ago [HFN Dec ’22].