Accessories

The dedicated portable audio player market is not a massive one, and Korean brand Astell&Kern is the biggest fish in a relatively small pond. Its KANN series of players overlaps the more conventional A&Norma and A&Futura ranges, and is designed to be able to drive even very demanding headphones from a smallscale device.

Claiming the top spot in B&W's headphone stable is the PX7, which replace the previous PX. An active noise-cancelling design with high-spec Bluetooth hookup and some neat features, they're arguably worth every penny of their £350 ticket.

NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives are becoming the solution of choice for storing a wide range of digital media, including downloaded movies and TV, music, images and CD/DVD/Blu-ray rips. Speed, capacity and reliability are essential, and Buffalo’s Linkstation Pro LS-VL has all three.

Buffalo’s WLAE-AG300N works in three ways. The first is to add an additional wi-fi access point if there are ‘black spots’ in your home. Here, an Ethernet cable is run from your router to where the additional coverage is required. In the second mode, two WLAE-AG300Ns act as a wireless ‘bridge’ between two existing wired networks. Finally, there’s the ability to connect non wi-fi devices to a wireless network, by running an Ethernet cable from the WLAE-AG300N to the device.

Better known for its range of quality home cinema speakers, Crystal Audio is now tackling the burgeoning multimedia-playback market with a diddy little player that occupies much the same volume as the plug that powers it. Of course, the diminutive size of this solidly-built aluminum enclosure restricts connectivity, although the essentials are there. First and foremost is the HDMI output, which is necessary for hi-def.