- AMR has unveiled its elite Luna Ingenii DAC, as part of an official relaunch
- Meanwhile, iFi unveils another DAC, this one cheap and portable
- …thus proving that High End Vienna actually has something for all budgets
At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that a huge show full of audiophile quality kit would be a little rich in the blood of most ordinary people – especially with a name like ‘High End’.
But this is where Vienna showrooms crammed with hi-fi stacks have, at least in part, sold themselves a little short. Because as I’m about to show you, it’s not all sound systems you need to sell the car and remortgage the house for. No, while such products will certainly be unveiled at the shindig, some hi-res audio upgrades will set you back as little as $85 / £85 (or around AU$120).
Before we get to the budget though, let’s go big, shall we? British elite audio outfit AMR (Abbingdon Music Research) has unveiled its Luna range to mark the brand’s official relaunch at the High End – and the company calls it its “most ambitious expression of British ultra-luxury sound design to date”.
AMR says the range has been developed over more than seven years in collaboration with renowned engineer John Curl and includes the Luna Ingenii DAC, Luna Medii preamplifier and Luna Procellarum monoblock power amplifier, all “created without conventional cost constraints”. Come now!
Think ultra-premium components, meticulous hand assembly and a multi-bit DAC Engine, called the AMR Luna Ingenii. Top of the bill for me is its proprietary 128-step discrete Direct DSD ‘Stonehenge’ Engine. What is it? Well, AMR tells me that standard DSD implementations use a single chip and fewer than 10 components. The Stonehenge engine uses 32 chips and over 300 components in a 128-stage discrete architecture that the company says has “no commercial equivalent”.
You also get AMR’s proprietary ‘ZeroBit-Gravity Harmonic Weighting’, an industry-exclusive perk that promises user control over the fine-tuning and tonal character of your digital playback.
Apparently each unit is carefully hand-assembled, matched and calibrated by senior technicians, with production limited by craftsmanship (rather than production capacity). And because of this, only 176 Luna Ingenii DACs will be made, with AMR committing to lifetime service and support for each owner.
The price is only “available upon request to potential customers, reviewers and industry partners”, which I think we can all agree means if we have to ask, we can’t afford one. Can it even top the asking fee for the most expensive DAC I’ve heard to date, the $4,499 (before tax) / £4,499 (approx AU$8,997) iFi iDSD Phantom? Whisper it, but it seems likely…
And now, the option of pockets for those devoid of super deep pockets
At the other end of the scale, British audio brand iFi has also unveiled its iFi Go Link 2 Max DAC at the show. It’s billed as “smaller, sharper and stronger” than the model it replaces, the five-star Go Link Max (not to be confused with the iFi Go Link 2, which also got five stars from us under intense review recently).
What has changed? The Go Link 2 Max boasts significantly lower distortion than the model it replaces, plus selectable digital filters and over-the-air updates via the iFi Nexis app, all in a smaller, lighter form factor than its previous generation. I own the original Max and I love the way it boosts my phone’s music so I would love to try this.
And with the best wired headphones enjoying a huge vinyl-style comeback (iFi tells me searches for wired headphones are up 88%), I reckon the Go Link 2 Max could be the relatively affordable upgrade Gen Zers could, ahem, go for.
Add to all this its modest price, at just $85 / £85 (or around AU$120) the Go Link 2 Max could be my choice of High End Vienna. That being said, if anyone wants to buy me the AMR Luna series so I can hear it, I am very also open to it.
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