Stereophile writers and website commentors often speak to the topic of the ongoing rise in retail pricing at the upper levels of the hi-fi market. Companies producing cost-no-object designs make regular appearances in the hardware reviews published here. However, a countervailing vector is also at play in the consumer hi-fi sector: a trend toward bringing to market products that are smaller and more economical than the competition while offering an ever-increasing variety of features and continually improved performance, notably in terms of measurable specifications.
This dialectic can sometimes play out within the same company. Abbingdon Music Research (AMR), which is based in Southport, UK, was founded in 2000. At first, under the AMR brand, the company focused on high-end audio component separates with price points toward the upper end of the spectrum. The world has a way audiophiles. of intervening, though, even with the best-laid business plans. AMR Director Vince Luke describes in a video how his company made a deliberate choice to “pivot from high end to low end” following the financial crash of 2008. AMR’s iFi Audio division debuted at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in 2012, offering a handful of portable products. They were a hit. The iFi line has since expanded to include more than 50 designs, and new products are introduced with impressive frequency.
This new thing from AMR/iFi Audio, the NEO Stream, offers very strong inducements for discerning
Luke addressed the topic of cost recently when I spent some quality Zoom time with him. “Everyone in the industry has a role to play to bring in the younger generation, and making things more and more expensive is not really the best way to go about that. All of what we do is to bring a good dose of ultra-fi to the normal market. In England in the car business, they call it ‘Smiles per Mile.’”
The iFi Audio NEO Stream ($1299) is a small one-box unit that combines streamer and DAC functions that
