Pro-Ject Introduces Two New Hi-Fidelity CD Players

Pro-Ject became known for its turntables, but the company's founder and CEO Heinz Lichtenegger invested also in manufacturing small electronic components, including CD players. The new Pro-Ject CD Box DS3 and CD Box S3 are great-value hifi products, designed with the best possible components. The CD Box DS3 ($899) maintains the best features of its predecessors and adds a Texas Instruments PCM1796 DAC, while the CD Box S3 ($549) is the first product of a new S3 compact line.

AIAIAI surprised once again the audio industry. Following a period of intense beta-testing with key profile users and influencers, the Danish headphone innovator "dropped" the latest TMA-2 Wireless+ headphones, designed to free music creators from cables with ultra-low latency and uncompressed, 16-bit digital audio. And following the company's responsible design philosophy, with products designed to last, the new model is based on the existing TMA-2 modular headphone platform.

Reacting to the fact that streaming music services have started to offer lossless music streaming options, Qualcomm has now extended its aptX Adaptive set of technologies - supported by its latest Snapdragon Sound processors - to also include a CD-quality lossless option over Bluetooth. The new aptX Lossless technology expands options available for Bluetooth wireless audio, combining codec, wireless link and RF optimizations.

Belkin, the consumer electronics brand specialized in Apple peripherals and accessories, announced the Soundform Connect audio adapter that turns any traditional stereo speaker into an Apple AirPlay 2-enabled speaker. This is increasingly important in most homes who already have great sound systems in place, and just need a way to connect them to the latest source devices, such as the iPhone, an iPad or a Mac computer, all of which stream high-quality audio over Apple’s recently updated AirPlay 2 protocol.

Naim Audio, the British specialist with almost 50 years of hi-fi expertise, announced new and higher-quality streaming radio options for users of its streaming speakers, systems and separates – all freely available. Dedicated Naim Jazz HD and Naim Classical HD stations will join a revamped Naim Radio HD stream; all three available in up to CD quality. These will join a dedicated HD Radio category to browse and enjoy from the Naim App.

While many in the audio industry still question the merits of recordings that are actually produced with native 24-bit at 96kHz or more, and defend the merits of the CD Red Book original specifications, Chord Electronics has just unveiled the Hugo M Scaler, a device that very few would have think they would even need. The new device uses powerful custom-coded FPGA to upscale 44.1kHz digital audio to 705.6kHz; or 16x CD’s 44.1kHz native resolution!