Amplifier

Though the UK's Cambridge Audio always has its ears tuned on top quality audio, as with the recently-announced Alva TT, the company is also mindful that budget music lovers appreciate good sound too. And so it is with the new AX series of a wallet-friendly hi-fi gear.

IK Multimedia has announced a new practice amp with an integrated digital interface. The iRig Micro Amp allows bedroom guitarists or street performers to tap into a modeling universe of digital tone, either plugged into the mains or running on battery power.

McIntosh Labs has revealed a new turntable that has a phono pre-amp and hi-fi amplifier built in, with glowing tubes up top and Bluetooth streaming cooked in. All you need to get the party started is to cable up some quality speakers.

​We've seen some incredible instruments from Fender Custom Shop's Yuriy Shishkov in the last couple of years. And now the Master Builder has teamed up with Jim Dolmage to create a guitar and amp which pay a not-so-subtle homage to The Who's iconic 1975 rock opera, Tommy.​

Manchester-based GPO says it made one out of every 10 turntables sold during the UK's holiday period in 2016. Until now it's product catalog was made up of budget audio equipment, but it's now aiming at cost-savvy audiophiles with the new premium, yet wallet-friendly, PR range.

David Bowie's career spanned more than 50 years and the electric guitar was central to much of his innovative musical creations. Canadian-born Rob Robson has aimed to capture the essence of the Bowie sound in a semi-assembled guitar amplifier called the Little Wonder.

Yale scientists have created a method to significantly increase the power of laser light on a silicon chip by boosting it with sound waves. This new device promises more efficient fiber-optic communications and better data signal processing

In the last year or two we've seen several hearing wearables pop up, using the same smartphone-connected principles as smartwatches to augment, enhance or block out your ears' experience of the world. Let's look at today's best hearing wearables.

The Nexum Aqua, currently funding on Kickstarter, enhances smartphone audio experiences with powerful DAC/AMP technology and battery-free design.

University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers claim to have constructed a nanoscale device that can emit light as powerfully as an object 10,000 times its size. It could find use in applications such as high-efficiency solar cells.

Soundhawk is an ear-worn "smart listening system," which the company insists isn't a hearing aid. We took those claims at face value, to see how it stacks up as an audio enhancer for people with "normal" (or close to it) hearing. Read on for Gizmag's review.