Channel Islands Audio (CI AUDIO) is a small US based audio manufacturer “dedicated to bringing the sound of live music into your home”. CI Audio products were developed for Audiophile enthusiasts demanding musicality, simplicity, quality craftsmanship and reliability.



The company uses Innovative design and constant advancements in semiconductor technology to achieve performance levels previously unobtainable at what can only be considered a ‘reasonable cost’.

Vistra Australia will be relasing a small range of their products here in Australia, including their superb amplifiers, passive preamp controller, USB DAC and most interestingly, the dedicated power supply for the Squeezebox. Of course, these amps are the perfect partner for a Squeezebox base dosund system too!

Tags: Audio, Amplifiers

Sonic Euphoria is a small high-end audio manufacturer out of California in the U.S. who makes one product, a very highly regarded passive line pre-amplifier known as the PLC (Passive Line Controller) and is available in a single ended or fully balanced design.

This is not just another passive preamp, but a unique design using an autoformer attenuator. There are no resistors, potentiometers, or capacitors in the circuit at all. Sonic Euphoria’s design approach is to use the simplest circuit with the highest quality parts. They believe this to be the true path to Audio Nirvana. The sound is transparency redefined; all the clarity, detail, high and low extension, with a wonderful harmonic balance. The autoformer design maintains bass and dynamics where most resistors based passives will disappoint. The performance of this preamp is in the class of the very best made, yes even those cost no object $10,000 + units.

The good news is that a new model of the PLC is one the way to Australia, and will be distributed here by Wicked Digital. Keep an eye on the Wicked web site for up coming reviews and pricing.

In what can only be described as yet another nail in the coffins of the record companies, Nine Inch Nails have made their new CD 'The Slip' available to download for free from the band's website. They have also made it available in four different formats: MP3, Apple Lossless, FLAC and WAVE 24/96. All that is required is that you provide them with your email address which they claim will not be used for spam, and for those old school guys that do not want to download, the band intends to make a vinyl and CD release sometime in July.

As their website says, the band see's this is a way of giving something back to their legion of fans: "As a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new Nine Inch Nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com."

The band are clearly delighted with their decision and are even urging downloaders to share the free music with as many people as possible: "We encourage you to share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc."

Tags: Music

British loudspeaker manufacturer ATC unveiled its Limited Edition EL150 SLP Tower speakers in Hong Kong in November 2007. Billy Woodman – MD and founder of ATC (An Australian Expatriate) – gave a short introductory talk prior to the demonstration of the loudspeakers. The loudspeakers have taken almost a year to complete and are set to become ATC’s flagship for the next few years.

Billy Woodman used computer-aided design techniques and one of Britain’s top furniture manufacturers to build the loudspeaker cabinets. The pure elliptical shape when viewed from above is a structured combination of wood plys and MDF with a veneer layered over the top. Shown here is a Burr Magnolia veneer, although any finish will be available to order.

The drive units comprise a 25mm HF neodymium tweeter, ATC’s famous SM-150 75mm soft dome for midrange, plus a 375mm Super Linear bass driver. Frequency response is quoted as 25Hz-22kHz (±6dB), or 60Hz-17kHz (±2dB), and a pair matched response of ±0.5dB, with sensitivity at 91dB. Cabinet dimensions are 1315 x 650 x 290mm and each speaker weighs a massive 82kg.

The speaker can be tri-wired or tri-amped, thanks to a three-way connection panel at the speaker’s base. The EL150 three-way passive speaker represents the first of a series of seven, with an active version planned in the near future. Price for the EL150 passive speakers will be around £24,000 in the UK and they come with a lifetime guarantee. This is surely a first in the audio industry, bettering Brystons 20 year guarantee.

Here is a surprise: The number two digital music retailer Amazon was given DRM free tracks from all of the four major record labels, so it is logical to expect it would be the first real rival to the total domination of music sales by Apple's iTunes music service.

Not only do Amazon's numbers pale when compared to iTunes, it is a mere 10 percent of Amazon's users who are iTunes defectors, even though all of its DRM free tracks will play on the iPod.

All of which means Amazon isn't poaching from Apple's dedicated fan base. Clearly they are attracting people who mostly avoided iTunes in the first place.

Audiophile music label Chesky Records has joined forces with other recording labels to offer high resolution music for download online! The companies press release says, "As you probably know, with record stores closing it has become increasingly difficult to find quality music. For several years, we have been developing a better way to deliver great sounding records to serious music lovers, and would like to personally extend an invitation to test drive the latest evolution in high-definition music."

All of the music on offer is available through HDtracks and allows for music downloads in CD-quality AIFF (the native CD format) and FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), as well as 320 kbps MP3. In the near future, select titles will be offered as DVD-Audio quality 24-bit/96kHz. Thankfully, all files available for download are DRM (Digital Rights Management) free, so you can play them in virtually any audio file player.

We tip our hat to Chesky for this initiative as it brings us one step closer to the being able to buy our music in the format we would like, without DRM. The more companies that do this, the more accepted it will be that people WILL buy online DRM free music un-compressed when it it offered!

With rumours suggesting that Music Giants will soon be offering their content DRM free, all they need to do now is realise that not everyone uses a PC and Internet Explorer (which their site is limited to) and we will be yet another step closer.

Tags: Music