Denon DRA-100

Expanding its Design Series, Denon adds an all-in-one network receiver to the stylish lineup, and Andrew Everard is impressed

Tested Denon’s PMA-50 – the company’s compact amplifier – always had the promise to be the start of something big. Building on the technology of the DA-300USB DAC, it added in amplification and a sleek look combining a gloss black main body with aluminium top and bottom plates, plus a novel design with revolving main display to allow it to be used horizontally or vertically.

Lotoo PAW 5000

Fed up with touchscreen portable players? Lotoo’s PAW 5000 takes a different approach

Since the demise of the iPod Classic, the dedicated portable audio player has staged a small but meaningful fight back. Music is a storage-heavy medium and relying on your mobile phone to hold it all is problematic even before any argument about sound quality is entertained. Many players that have hit the market recently have been heavily influenced by smartphone and tablet touchscreen technology and are often rather large as a result.

How SSD work

Before we start to explain what an Solid State Drive (SSD) is and how it works we should first take a look at where we’ve come from.

Epson TW5300 Projector

Big-screen gaming, on a small-screen budget

I’ve been a vocal proponent for projectors for almost 15 years now, ever since I fired up my first 720p model hooked up to an Xbox, and was blown away by the true bigscreen experience. I’ve never gone back to gaming on a monitor since then, it’s that bloody good, with only VR tempting me away from its epic levels of immersion. Epson absolutely dominates the projector market here in Australia with over 50% of local sales, and its 9300 has been on our Beast page for quite some time. This month sees the arrival of its more affordable sibling, the TW5300. At a fraction of the cost, this is the perfect entry-level projector for gamers, and in some ways is even superior to its bigger bro.

A song of ice and fire

When talking Souls, be it Demon’s or Dark, it’s hard to avoid the subject of difficulty. To the casual observer, frequent deaths followed by a taunting ‘YOU DIED’ screen makes player persistence seem borderline masochistic. Add this to the tantrums thrown when a Souls game aims to be more “accessible”, and it’s easy to misconstrue intentions. But those more experienced with Dark Souls as a series know better. So, to get this out of the way: is Dark Souls III difficult? You bet it is. In the five or so hours spent with the title I was stabbed in the back, burnt to a crisp, frostbitten and even torn apart by tentacles. But it wasn’t the difficulty that kept me pushing through, nor the variety of ways in which I died (although it does keep things interesting). It was everything else around it.