Lab: Paul Miller

This just may be the most self-fulfilling review I’ve ever written. DS Audio has unleashed a valve energiser and equaliser, the TB-100, for its optical cartridges. Up to this point, every one of its cartridges has been launched with a matching solid-state energiser of relative or comparable price, but the TB-100 has been released on its own. Because every DS Audio cartridge will work with any of the energisers regardless of price, this time it’s all about the tubes.

Debuted at the UK Hi-Fi Show Live 24, Audio Research’s new flagship monoblocks are not quite its most powerful ever, but are the first to feature the mighty KT170 output tubes

The latest arrival from US high-end brand Audio Research Corp., the Reference 330M monoblock amplifier (£92,000 per pair) may not quite be the most powerful amp the company has ever built, but by any standards a rated output of 330W – into 4ohm or 8ohm speaker loads – is going some for an amplifier using tube technology. Indeed, it will come as something of an eye-opener for those still subscribing to the belief that for the purity of the valve sound – or whatever else you consider to be the sonic traits of the genre – you must settle for low output power, and start looking for speakers of appropriately high sensitivity.

Illustrative of a ‘new wave’ in both the mechanical design and ergonomics of early-1970s turntables, Braun’s fully automatic PS 450 was an idler-drive of some distinction

Braun’s hi-fi activities are little known in the UK, although the company’s Regie 510 and Regie 350 receivers have been featured in previous Vintage Reviews [HFN Jun ’16 & Apr ’17]. At its peak, the Braun hi-fi range was as broad and as sophisticated as that of any rival manufacturer, in addition to the kitchen, personal care and photographic equipment that the company also produced. Unlike some, Braun designed and manufactured its own turntables and these were engineered to the very highest of standards.

If anyone doubts we are treated to as much, if not more novelty than back in the day when LPs ruled, EAT’s Fortissimo turntable and F-Note tonearm will put paid to that. Like TechDAS’s vacuum hold-down and air bearing [HFN Jun ’19], or the Reed deck [HFN Apr ’24] available in idler- and belt-drive versions, this EAT combination bursts with clever features.