New HiFi developments that have caught your interest.

[Jasonovich]

I like the modular concept that Cayin has introduced on their DAP, this allows you to upgrade the DAP amplifier in an instance. Better still, if you had a proper standard that was interchangeable with other DAPs from different brands.

Extending the concept further outside the DAP stratosphere, I wish future mainstream HiFi amplifiers will have this feature, you can just slide out the motherboard and replace it with another. Pretty neat.

I don't think it is too far fetch, modularity exists in desktop PCs, many of us who build PCs understand the versatility and standards that are universal and it saves costs.
Kudos to Cayin for coming up with this innovating feature.

Have you seen new HiFi developments that have caught your interest, any similar examples of; as per Cayin, or a feature in HiFi that you wish could be improved or replaced with something better?

Cayin N6iii Master Quality Digital Audio Player

The N6iii features a 4.97-inch display, noticeably larger than the 4.2-inch screen on theN6ii but well within the one-handed operation limit. To avoid getting bulkier, Cayin eliminated any structural extension around the chassis, giving the front an all-screen appearance. To minimize the width...

shop.musicteck.com

 

[Cork]

NAD has been big on the modular concept for a while and it doesn't seem like it's been much of a boon. Conceptually it's elegant, but most enhancements these days seem to be in firmware; if the manufacturer has a good firmware upgrade policy, and they actually provide enhanced features over time, then I'm a buyer. The modular just seems like it adds a design cost that's passed on to the consumer that I'll never use: by the time I'm ready for an upgraded component I'll probably be ready for a whole new device.

That said, I have one exception - ports for mobile devices. I'd love to be able to snap on a new set of ports as they become unstable from use over time.

 

[daytona600]

Elipson P1 Line Preamp , with additional plugin Dac , Streamer ,Phono stage modules.

 

[nopiano]

I can’t think of a single Hifi product that bragged about modularity, who actually developed the modules beyond the launch versions. It seems to me to be more of an excuse to launch a product before you’ve really finished developing it!

Maybe Linn just about qualifies with their Selekt streamer, but their non-modular Akurate and Klimax models were still upgradeable. Bizarrely, after 50 years of “Trigger’s Broom” #, they even say the LP12 is modular, when it’s really just a few bits screwed together that can be tinkered with!

My ancient MLP Meridian was never developed, and was soon replaced by a newer range.

Primare had plug in streaming and DAC modules but again they were superseded but boxes that couldn’t fit. There is a newer DAC to be fair.

Another new turntable claims it’s modular too, is it from VPI? https://www.whathifi.com/news/vpis-new-turntable-has-a-modular-design-for-easy-upgradeability

#For international readers…

View: https://youtu.be/BUl6PooveJE?si=DgoPkEiiv1FmRQIF

 

[Al ears]

I can’t think of a single Hifi product that bragged about modularity, who actually developed the modules beyond the launch versions. It seems to me to be more of an excuse to launch a product before you’ve really finished developing it!

Maybe Linn just about qualifies with their Selekt streamer, but their non-modular Akurate and Klimax models were still upgradeable. Bizarrely, after 50 years of “Trigger’s Broom” #, they even say the LP12 is modular, when it’s really just a few bits screwed together that can be tinkered with!

My ancient MLP Meridian was never developed, and was soon replaced by a newer range.

Primare had plug in streaming and DAC modules but again they were superseded but boxes that couldn’t fit. There is a newer DAC to be fair.

Another new turntable claims it’s modular too, is it from VPI? https://www.whathifi.com/news/vpis-new-turntable-has-a-modular-design-for-easy-upgradeability

#For international readers…

View: https://youtu.be/BUl6PooveJE?si=DgoPkEiiv1FmRQIF

Modular on issue may have it's place, handy if you're never going to need a built in phono stage or DAC but unlikely to actually save you much money, also don't expect any future upgrades.
the LP 12 wasn't modular, it was an excuse to throw out a turntable that was functional but really required you to add more expensive bits to bring it up to spec and this is really what it's about, selling you expensive parts for years to come.

 

[Deliriumbassist]

I've said it in another thread, modularity does introduce limitations - a company is stuck with a form factor for circuit design, stuck with the internal connectivity, and has to be careful about the thermals.

 

[twinkletoes]

Modularity has been a thing since the 90s Cyrus spring to mind but I have never seen any of these boards made thing of. In practice a very good idea but ultimately they want to sell you a whole product not a board.

It’s the same with fpga’s, infinitely reprogrammable and I think it’s only ps audio that actually gives “firmware” updates for these types of dac chips.

I don’t think there’s really been any real product innovations in the last 20 years nothing like back in the in the day, like Walkmans for example.

 

[manicm]

Linn have offered a degree of modularity on their streamers for many years now.

 

[Noddy]

I don’t think there’s really been any real product innovations in the last 20 years nothing like back in the in the day, like Walkmans for example.

From where I am sitting the changes have been massive. I can stream almost any music I want in realtime to my hifi, or to my portable phone. I can wear headphones that play that music without a wire connecting the headphones to the phone or the streaming device. When I take the headphones off, the music automatically stops. When I wear the headphones, almost all external music is eliminated by some heathen magickery in the headphones.

If I want to find out about Melt Banana, I can search online and in seconds know their background. I can find the lyrics and have them translated into English. Over the last day or two I have listened to Melt Banana (Japanese), Rammstein (German), Jean Leloup (French Canadian), Siena Root (Swedish), Dans Dans (Belgian), Ultra Vomit (French), 35007 (Dutch), Hawkwind (English), 13th Floor Elevators (American), Testament (American), Swans (American) and other bands. I have never had such incredible access to music, both well known and obscure.

Forty years ago I was using a huge supercomuter in San Diego that cost millions of dollars. Today I have a phone that has much more computing power than the entire supercomputer.

What we have today is incredible. When I was young (adopts a Yorkshire accent), we had a phone screwed to a wall, with a line shared with our neighbours. I had to go into town, and enter a shop to browse theough a small selection of music recorded on flat plastic disks with grooves in the surface. Finding out about new music was almost impossible. The radio DJ John Peel was one of the few people to go outside the bland mainstream.

And yet we produce so much, and throw away so much, each year that I worry for the environment and our future.

 

[twinkletoes]

From where I am sitting the changes have been massive. I can stream almost any music I want in realtime to my hifi, or to my portable phone. I can wear headphones that play that music without a wire connecting the headphones to the phone or the streaming device. When I take the headphones off, the music automatically stops. When I wear the headphones, almost all external music is eliminated by some heathen magickery in the headphones.

If I want to find out about Melt Banana, I can search online and in seconds know their background. I can find the lyrics and have them translated into English. Over the last day or two I have listened to Melt Banana (Japanese), Rammstein (German), Jean Leloup (French Canadian), Siena Root (Swedish), Dans Dans (Belgian), Ultra Vomit (French), 35007 (Dutch), Hawkwind (English), 13th Floor Elevators (American), Testament (American), Swans (American) and other bands. I have never had such incredible access to music, both well known and obscure.

Forty years ago I was using a huge supercomuter in San Diego that cost millions of dollars. Today I have a phone that has much more computing power than the entire supercomputer.

What we have today is incredible. When I was young (adopts a Yorkshire accent), we had a phone screwed to a wall, with a line shared with our neighbours. I had to go into town, and enter a shop to browse theough a small selection of music recorded on flat plastic disks with grooves in the surface. Finding out about new music was almost impossible. The radio DJ John Peel was one of the few people to go outside the bland mainstream.

And yet we produce so much, and throw away so much, each year that I worry for the environment and our future.

Ok let’s put some of this in perspective!

The first wireless headphones where developed in the 70s then later combined in with Bluetooth in 2000 with small in ear hands free units first used with phones and later gaming headsets in the mid 2000s, make no mistake the idea of wireless headphones isn’t a recent development or new idea. Heck Bluetooth is based on tech developed during the second world war if you want to get really into it. Noise cancelling was released in 1989 by Bose. Sony combined most of this tech how we know it today in 04.

Streaming well yes we had to use computers to do it but 25 to 30 years ago we where streaming Napster then later iTunes through airports, heck Spotify is coming up to 20 years young! I think people think this is new. The biggest innovation in hi fi isn’t directly linked to hifi at all and thats the smartphone and before that iPod with iTunes platform that changed the landscape forever in the way consumed and stored media. That’s innovation.

Yes things have moved on but don’t confuse innovation with iteration/refinement/evolution.

There hasn’t been any true innovation in decades in the hifi space.

However!

The av crowd have seen true innovation the way the sound is delivered through codex, room correction, hdmi and the arc formats. Which we are now seeing the benefits of, but I was using hdmi and room correction systems in 08 with the advent of Blu-ray so again knocking on the door of 2 decades.

Sony are really the only guys pushing things along, just recently with there new speakers systems in a box and how the user uses them and sets them up and then tuned to the room, true consumer innovation! It really works and no one talks about it and mark my words you’ll see others follow this route, it really is that good.

I could go on. But quite simply tech is a lot older than you think it is