Outboard DACs

Lehmannaudio started out with a single product, the celebrated Black Cube phono preamp, which was launched in 1995. How influential was it? Well, a quarter century later, this model is still a mainstay of the company's range. In fact there are four versions in the lineup now, starting from £350, while the phono flagship is the £4000 Silver cube. Like all Lehmannaudio products, they're handbuilt by the company in Bergish Gladbach, some 20km outside Cologne, where audio engineering student Norbert Lehmann started the company back in 1988. More than 30 years later, he's still running the company.

Lehmannaudio's range of headphone amplifiers began in 2004 with a product called the Black Cube Linear that, like the phono amp, was based on the application of professional audio principles to the domestic market. Now the headphone amp range runs to four models, beginning with the modular 'Drachenfels', which takes its name from a castle along the Rhine. It starts at £525 in all-analogue form and can be expanded with the addition of S/PDIF digital and USB boards. The current Linear range runs to three models, with a choice of analogue and digital inputs.