Indholdsfortegnelse for Yearbook 2023 i Hi-Fi Choice

► DETAILS PRODUCT JBL L52 Classic PRICE £1,000 ORIGIN USA/China TYPE 2-way standmount loudspeaker WEIGHT 5kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 197 x 330 x 216mm FEATURES ● 1x 20mm titanium dome tweeter ● 1x 133mm pulped paper mid/bass driver ● Quoted sensitivity: 85dB/1W/1m (4ohm) DISTRIBUTOR Harman UK WEBSITE jblsynthesis.com REVIEWED HFC 485 JBL’s re-released Classic series channels the design language of its Seventies models and the L52 brings all the principles of the series down to a size where they’ll fit into most spaces. Like the larger L82 (HFC 473), the L52 is not a reproduction of a speaker it produced in the Seventies but an ‘inspired by true-life events’ take on the style of the time. A two-way design it uses a 25mm titanium dome tweeter (as seen in the other…

We could argue whether the Seventies was the greatest decade for music (it was), but to anyone serious about hi-fi it’s also remembered for the launch of two components that would become British icons: the Linn Sondek LP12 turntable in 1972 and the BBC-designed LS3/5A compact near-field monitor in 1975. Both are still in production, both still revered across the planet, both visually all but indistinguishable from their 40-plus year-old progenitors. Yet the business sensibilities that have ensured their longevity could hardly be more different, and they are highly germane to this review. Linn’s approach has been a shining example of assiduous evolution over the years to the point where the sonic objectives of the latest Sondeks rolling out of its Glasgow factory are light years removed from the slightly…

KEY TO THE A80’s neat melding of approaches rests with the power and sophistication of its 16-core XMOS XU216 digital signal processor, which uses XMOS xCore200 architecture. This joins Class D amplification from Texas Instruments with 40W devoted to the 114mm aluminium cone mid/ bass driver and 10W to the aluminium diaphragm ribbon tweeter. AirPulse claims that the 768kHz PWM carrier frequency (twice the 384kHz of traditional Class D amps) is ideally suited to the ribbon and results in a smoother top end. The rear panel has connections for Aux, PC, USB, optical and Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX alongside controls for volume, bass and treble tone. Thoughtfully, AirPulse bundles a pair of special acoustic isolation pads for desktop use that tilt the speakers back by 8° to angle the drivers…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Cabasse Pearl Akoya PRICE £2,950 ORIGIN France/China TYPE 2-way bass reflex design WEIGHT 6kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 220 x 220 x 220mm FEATURES ● 130mm tweeter/ mid driver, 170mm bass driver ● RCA analogue; optical digital; Ethernet; USB; Bluetooth ● Claimed power handling: 1,050W (total) DISTRIBUTOR Henley Audio Ltd. WEBSITE cabasse.com REVIEWED HFC 488 Easily one of the most striking wireless speaker designs going, this has a retro-futuristic sense of glamour to it. Cabasse would argue that form follows function; its rivals’ boxy fibreboard cabinets being far from ideal sonically. However, the compact size of the Pearl Akoya means there’s not a lot of internal cabinet volume to play with, and that creates other limitations. Unusually, this speaker is sold as a single item, so you need to buy…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Cambridge Audio Alva TT V2 PRICE £1,700 ORIGIN UK/China TYPE Unsuspended, direct-drive turntable WEIGHT 10.9kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 435 x 139 x 368mm FEATURES ● 33 & 45rpm ● 9in tonearm with detachable headshell ● Alva MC cartridge ● On board switchable phono stage with Bluetooth DISTRIBUTOR Cambridge Audio TELEPHONE 0207 9402200 WEBSITE cambridgeaudio. com REVIEWED HFC 495 Cambridge Audio’s TT V2 is best seen as a considered revision of the original Alva TT (HFC 453) rather than a wholesale change. It is a direct-drive design with electronic speed control allowing 33 and 45rpm to be selected via buttons on the plinth. This acts on an acrylic platter with no additional matt and the turntable is unsuspended. The biggest visible change is the tonearm. Gone is the Rega-sourced one…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Rega Planar 3 PRICE £880 ORIGIN UK TYPE Belt-drive turntable WEIGHT 6kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 447 x 117 x 360mm FEATURES ● 33 & 45rpm ● RB330 tonearm ● Exact MM cart DISTRIBUTOR Rega Research Ltd. WEBSITE rega.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 493 There will be some reading this for whom the Rega Planar 3 was the first ‘proper’ turntable they owned. Launched in 1978, it hit the sweet spot between high-end decks and budget ones perfectly. Indeed it was so successful that there was once a waiting list to buy one. The formula remains much the same, although the deck is way better in terms of design. Although basically an inexpensive, minimalist vinyl spinner with no independently sprung sub-chassis or other such fanciful features, it combines a suite of clever…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Vertere SG-1/SG-1 PTA HB PRICE From £16,000 ORIGIN UK TYPE Belt-driven turntable/arm with electronic speed control WEIGHT 20kg (turntable) DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 490 x 240 x 400mm FEATURES ● 33 and 45rpm ● SG-1 PTA HB carbon fibre to nearm ● Motor Drive Imperium PSU DISTRIBUTOR Vertere Ltd WEBSITE vertereacoustics. com REVIEWED HFC 492 I nits Clear finish, seen here, the SG-1 retails for £16,000, while £18,250 pays for Black, Pearlescent, or Champagne. All are elegant, the two levels of 30mm-thick cast acrylic for top and bottom strata of the plinth, with a 15mm intermediate level of acrylic, creating a futuristic see-through look. To the deck are added the SG-1 PTA HB tonearm (£3,500), the middle of three models, with Verum tonearm cable (£2,700), and Motor…

A LARGELY FEATURELESS, low-profile black box that’s rather understated, attractive and very nicely put together with a chassis made from metal. That’s a rather perfunctory description. This phono preamp features a bank of DIP switches (on the underside) to trim impedance (75ohm to 47kohm) and set gain (40dB to 66dB). Fiddly, of course, but largely set and forget unless you’re constantly swapping cartridges. A subsonic filter is provided as is a Mono button, which connects the two-channel input of its second stage amplifier to emulate the performance of a dedicated mono cartridge (ideally, the best way to hear mono records). Sound quality Should it come as a great surprise that the StudioPhono’s sonic ambition aligns closely with that of the StudioDeck turntable many will pair it with? Despite being teamed…

HANA’S FLAGSHIP OFFERING, the Umami Red is a half-covered cartridge; a sort of Lyra with a loose fit coat on. The generator is under a ‘shroud’ but open to the outside air rather than contained within a body. It is designed to avoid picking up dirt without transferring airborne resonance to the generator itself. It’s made of duralumin and ebony wood with a multi-layered urushi lacquer finish, and looks very attractive. The generator sports a samarium/ cobalt magnet with a square plate permalloy armature, hand-wound with 30-micron copper wire. It sports a boron cantilever, with a nude microline Namiki diamond stylus on the end. The company quotes 0.4mv/1kHz for the output level, while its quoted compliance of 10x10(-6)cm/dyne (100Hz) is on the low side. The shroud is quite heavy, giving…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Cambridge Audio AXA35 PRICE £350 ORIGIN UK/China TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 5.6kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 430 x 83 x 335mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 35W (8ohm) ● Inputs: 4x RCA; MM phono; 3.5mm jack; USB-A ● 6.35mm headphone output DISTRIBUTOR Cambridge Audio WEBSITE cambridgeaudio. com REVIEWED HFC 492 Affordable integrated amplifiers have been Cambridge Audio’s forte for the best part of 30 years and, while they have also moved upmarket recently, the AXA35 is the latest in an unbroken line of more terrestrial models stretching all the way back to the original A1. The larger of two integrated amps in the AX Series (after the AXA35, they become receivers), the Cambridge Audio is one of the more classically specified devices available. ‘Classical’ is not a polite term…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Cyrus i9-XR PRICE £3,300 ORIGIN UK TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 6.5kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 215 x 73 x 360mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 91W (6ohm) ● Four line inputs via RCA ● Moving-magnet phono stage ● Digital board with: USB; 2x coaxial; 2x optical inputs DISTRIBUTOR Cyrus Audio Ltd. TELEPHONE 01480 410900 WEBSITE cyrusaudio.com REVIEWED HFC 489 Back in HFC 473, Cyrus’ i7-XR put in a fine showing and now it’s the turn of the larger i9-XR. Four RCA line inputs and a moving-magnet phono stage are fitted, along with a pre and line out. It’s joined by a digital board that offers two optical, two coaxial and one USB input. The sample rate handling is excellent, with 768kHz PCM and DSD512 supported via USB while the…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Melody Action Ultra PRICE £1,700 ORIGIN Australia/China TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 15.5kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 300 x 200 x 410mm FEATURES ● Quoted output power: 2x 28W ● 4 and 8ohm speaker taps ● 4x Melody 5881 valves ● 4x Melody 6JT8 (6KT8) valves DISTRIBUTOR VAL HiFi TELEPHONE 0333 5772005 WEBSITE melodyhifi.eu valhifi.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 483 Well-established in Australia and Asia, Melody sells an extensive range to suit all pockets and now has its sights on Europe. The Action Ultra presents a high-value proposition for audiophiles who want to sample thermionic valves without breaking the bank. Sleek design aside, there’s nothing particularly unusual about it except the amount of power it offers for its size and price. No…

LIKE A GREAT many integrateds, this is most of the way to being an all-in-one system. It has a single XLR input supported by three RCAs and a moving-magnet phono stage. These are complemented by preouts both for connecting a power amplifier and subwoofers. The digital board, gives you three optical, three coaxial and a USB-B input supported by Bluetooth with aptX and AAC. Sample rate handling is up to 384kHz for PCM via USB, but no native DSD handling. Using a Class A/B design, Rotel claims 200W into 8ohm, which rises to 350W into 4. Sound quality The RA-1592MKII has an effortless heft that is hard not to be very impressed by. It leverages this considerable power output to bring order and control to even the most large-scale recordings.…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Rega Saturn MK3 PRICE £2,000 ORIGIN UK TYPE CD player WEIGHT 9.7kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 432 x 82 x 320mm FEATURES ● Top-loading CD mechanism ● Inputs: 2x optical; 2x coaxial; USB ● Outputs: RCA; 2x optical; 2x coaxial TELEPHONE 01702 333071 DISTRIBUTOR Rega Research Ltd. WEBSITE rega.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 490 As Rega’s first amplifier to augment analogue inputs with digital ones, the Elicit MK5 comes equipped with one optical and one coaxial input offering support for PCM up to 24-bit/192kHz. Decoding comes via an unspecified Wolfson DAC. This small digital section joins four RCA line inputs and a moving-magnet phono stage, the latter being retained from the previous Elicit-R, making this the largest Rega amp to feature an internal phono stage. The amplifier section benefits from Rega’s work…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Aurender N200 PRICE £6,700 ORIGIN South Korea TYPE Network-enabled media storage device/streamer WEIGHT 9kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 330 x 96 x 355mm FEATURES ● 240GB SSD for caching playback ● Two slots for 2.5in HDD or SSDs ● Outputs: coaxial; USB-A 2.0 ● Inputs: Ethernet; 2x USB-A 3.0 DISTRIBUTOR Padood Ltd, UK WEBSITE aurender.com padood.com REVIEWED HFC 490 As supplied, the Aurender N200 has no storage capacity aside from the 240GB NVMe SSD used for caching music for playback. Instead, two slots on the rear take 2.5in HDDs or SSDs, installed by the user to suit their needs. And that’s a good thing for two reasons: one is that you can buy your own drives at sensible prices, and the other is that Aurender has made it simple to…

If you own a recent Primare amp incorporating its modular Prisma streaming system, you’re good to go and can stop reading now. If you own a Primare amp without on board streaming – or an old standalone Primare network player – you can buy the Prisma platform in the form of the NP5 MK2 you see here for half price. If you don’t own any Primare kit but fancy a well-featured streaming transport that won’t break the bank even at full price (£550), read on. Our story begins with an untimely fire at the AKM chip factory in China. Primare’s original NP5 used AKM’s critical sample rate converter chip at the heart of its design. Still, every cloud... Primare re-sourced the component from Texas Instruments and took the opportunity to…

►DETAILS PROVIDER Tidal PRICE £19.99/month ORIGIN Norway TYPE Desktop/mobile app streaming service FEATURES ● Library claims: 80 million+ tracks ● Web browser and mobile apps available ● Format: 16/44.1 to 24/192 FLAC and MQA WEBSITE tidal.com REVIEWED HFC 487 Tidal has made some significant adjustments since we tested it in 2021. The fundamentals of its premium HiFi Plus tier are unchanged. It’s still £19.99 a month, making Tidal the most expensive service (there’s no annual sub either), but a lossless HiFi tier has been added for £9.99 a month. Hi-res is exclusively encoded with MQA – the only service to do so. The library seems to have some content other services don’t. Tidal has really been on a charm offensive with third-party integration. This has always been good, but is…

IFi’s ZEN range has been a hit and its response has been to push the platform in new directions. The ZEN One Signature is a departure from what’s come before in that rather than concentrating on one role, it broadens its focus. This is still a DAC, but – while more affordable rivals are single input – the One Signature has multiple connections. The USB port has 24-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD256 support plus full MQA decoding. This is joined by Bluetooth that covers every version of extended codec going. Finally, there are optical and coaxial inputs, though only one can be used at a time – the latter is also an output. These access a Texas Instruments/ Burr-Brown chipset that is partnered with a high-precision clock and output stage that…

When I reviewed the original A&norma SR25 (HFC 465), I couldn’t name a single thing that needed improving, let alone fixing. I ended the review with the thought that, at a reasonable £650, A&K’s entry-level model was probably as much quality portable digital audio player anyone would ever need. My mind hasn’t changed, but the SR25 has. Now available in MKII guise, Astell&Kern talks of: “improvements all round, making the best even better”. The most obvious change is the inclusion of a 4.4mm, 5-pole balanced output to sit alongside the existing 2.5mm, 4-pole balanced output, making the MKII compatible with just about everything in the high-end head-fi arena. Naturally, a regular 3.5mm jack is here, too. Aesthetically, the distinctive and comfortable-tohold form factor hasn’t changed, but the aluminium chassis is…

Combining elements of Ferrum’s all-analogue OOR headphone amp, the ERCO can be upgraded with the Hypsos power supply, making it a complete ‘just-addcomputer-and-headphones’ solution for desktop audio, including a USB input and onboard DAC. It will also function as an analogue headphone amp, having RCA line-ins, as well as offering variable-level analogue outs – via RCAs and balanced XLRs – for use as a preamp straight into a power amp or pair of active speakers. The ‘computer audio’ input is via a USB-C port, which can accept PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz and up to DSD256, while there’s also MQA decoding. Use the coaxial or optical inputs and you’ll be limited to 24-bit/96kHz and DSD via DoP. Sound quality Using the ERCO as a DAC into a selection of preamps and…

Mark Levinson is an unashamedly luxury brand and its N o5909 makes no compromises whatsoever, offering “luxury listening on the go”, with hi-res audio support, impressive battery, active noise cancellation (ANC) and a number of versatile connectivity features. First that impressive battery life (30 hours even with noise cancelling turned on or 34 when it’s off). If you’re travelling with a laptop, a quick 15-minute charge via the USB-C port gives an extra six hours of use. Inside the hard-shell travelling case you’ll find two USB-C-to-3.5mm audio cables – 4m and 1.25m long – as well as a pure USB-C cable for charging and using USB-Audio from laptops and mobile devices. There’s a second, smaller case inside the main one, providing storage for 6.3mm, USB-A and two-prong airline adapters. Inside…

Astell&Kern has a number of wired in-ears and headphones, but it has resolutely avoided the compromises of Bluetooth... until now. The AK UW100 marks the company’s debut in the true wireless stereo category and, with a price of just £250, it’s also one of its most affordable to date. The earbuds are housed in a chunky charging case, which has a sharply angular top panel reminiscent of its range of digital audio players. They house a Knowles Balanced Armature driver, which supports Apple’s AAC and aptX Adaptive for Android, and there are two microphones in each for phone calls and voice commands. They are quite chunky and A&K provides five different sizes of silicon tips to help get a good fit. That’s important for any earbuds, but it’s essential for…

It has to be said that the Technics’ EAH-AZ60 doesn’t make a great first impression. The £200 price tag is tempting, but the charging case that holds the earbuds feels rather light and flimsy compared with most of its rivals. And, upon downloading the Technics Audio Connect app, you’re presented with pages of irritating terms and conditions and some rather confusing instructions. You’re told to ‘optimise’ the noise-cancelling features by finding a noisy location and then fiddling with a slider to try and block out as much sound as possible. That’s all very well if you happen to be sitting on a train or in a busy coffee shop – but not especially practical if you’re quietly working at home on your own. Thankfully, things pick up after that, and…

Aparticular feature of this cable is the use of a sandwich of two dielectrics employed to insulate the central conductor. These are a high-grade, low-loss polyethylene and an ultra-low-loss, increased-air, gas-foamed polyethylene (FPE). As for the central conductor, it’s a multi-stranded UHP-OFC (ultra-high purity, oxygen-free copper). Over the top of the dielectrics is a conductive PVC covering, designed to provide screening from RFI, EMI and ESI (electrostatic interference). This screening is further enhanced by a layer of close-lapped braiding of UHP-OFC to ensure maximum protection from external interference. This approach, according to the manufacturer, increases the random closing of gaps in the screening, designed to reduce signal leakage and improve the connection to earth. The latter issue is considered by Ecosse to be of particular importance as current flow in…

One key design aim for the AE100 2was to make it reasonably sensitive, and the quoted 87dB shows that this has just about been achieved. The 130mm paper coned mid/bass unit is as large as can be crammed into a cabinet just 165mm wide. Paper isn’t particularly fashionable as a cone material, but it’s light, stiff and natural sounding. High frequencies are dispensed by a 25mm fabric dome tweeter. Although Acoustic Energy is famous for its metal dome high-frequency units, fabric is a fine compromise. Potentially such a tweeter can sound very smooth and mates nicely, tonally, with paper mid/bass drivers. The crossover does its stuff at 2.9kHz. Sound quality No speaker at this price is anywhere near perfect. The trick is too minimise what it gets wrong – because…

► DETAILS PRODUCT Neat Acoustics Majistra PRICE £3,500 ORIGIN UK/China TYPE 2-way standmount loudspeaker WEIGHT 11kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 220 x 380 x 290mm FEATURES ● 1x 60mm true ribbon tweeter ● 2x 170mm mid/bass drivers ● Quoted sensitivity: 88dB/1W/1m (4ohm) DISTRIBUTOR Neat Acoustics WEBSITE neatacoustics.com REVIEWED HFC 486 Neat Acoustics’ Majistra is one of very few isobaric speakers you can buy – using a novel approach to getting more bass out of a cabinet than its internal volume would suggest. Then there’s the true ribbon tweeter, which is virtually unique when used together with the aforementioned isobaric driver complement. The Majistra is basically a Ministra (HFC 465) on steroids. There’s been an 80 percent increase in internal volume, but in every other respect it’s identical – aside from the mid/bass…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Q Acoustics Q Active 200 PRICE £1,500 ORIGIN UK/China TYPE 2.5-way reflex loaded design WEIGHT 7.5kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 170 x 284 x 290mm FEATURES ● 58mm BMR tweeter; 58mm mid/bass BMR; 114mm bass driver ● 1x pair RCA phono; Ethernet; optical digital; HDMI; sub; Bluetooth ● Claimed power handling: 2x 100W RMS DISTRIBUTOR Armour Home WEBSITE qacoustics.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 488 Balanced Mode Radiators are not a gimmick; they’re the result of decades of research and a spin-off from military research stretching back many decades. The technology was popularised by NXT, which has licensed BMRs for many applications. The benefits include a wide bandwidth and propagation of sound across the 180° plain; the drivers are way less directional than normal speakers. Each Q Active 200 loudspeaker has two BMRs,…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Edwards Audio TT4 Carbon PRICE £700 ORIGIN UK TYPE Belt-drive turntable WEIGHT 5.2kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 465 x 113 x 370mm FEATURES ● 33 & 45rpm ● Unipivot tonearm ● Edwards Audio C50 MM cartridge DISTRIBUTOR Talk Electronics Ltd. WEBSITE edwardsaudio.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 493 Edwards Audio is the brainchild of Kevin Edwards of Talk Electronics. His range of vinyl spinners is proudly designed and made in the UK. It’s obviously hitting the sweet spot because he’s growing fast and has opened a manufacturing facility in Wiltshire. He’s followed the blueprint – set by Rega in the Seventies and expanded by Pro-Ject in the Nineties – of making clever, minimalist designs that are tweaked to give the best possible sound per pound. The TT4 Carbon is no exception. The turntable…

► DETAILS PRODUCT Roksan Attessa PRICE £995 ORIGIN UK TYPE Belt-drive turntable WEIGHT 6.3kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 432 x 115 x 353mm FEATURES ● 33 & 45rpm ● Roksan Attessa unipivot tonearm ● Roksan Dana MM cartridge DISTRIBUTOR Monitor Audio Group WEBSITE roksan.com REVIEWED HFC 493 This British brand came to the fore in the mid-Eighties, gaining critical acclaim for its high-end Xerxes turntable. Things have changed since then for Roksan, and it now makes affordable designs too. The Attessa is an all-in-one package, including deck, tonearm, cartridge and phono preamp; the latter can be switched off so you can use your own phono input should you prefer. And, of course, you can change out the bundled entry-level Dana cartridge too. The aluminium tonearm is a unipivot design and the deck…

IT DOESN’T GET much more straight-ahead than Cambridge Audio’s Duo. As well as impressive build quality and an uptown aesthetic, its metal facia is a model of functional simplicity: two small flush buttons to flip between MM and MC, a volume knob and 6.3mm socket for the headphone amp. There are two sets of RCA stereo sockets – MM and MC – and one pair of single-ended RCA outs. There’s a small rotary control to adjust channel balance on the rear, plus grounding post, subsonic filter and an IEC mains socket rather than a wall-wart power supply. Switch mode power supplies are regarded with suspicion by some, but CA claims improved performance with: “drastically reduced hum” because the switching happens outside of audible frequencies while a surface-mounted circuit board is…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Goldring Eroica HX PRICE £550 ORIGIN UK TYPE High-output moving-coil cartridge WEIGHT 6.6g (including fixings) FEATURES ● Gyger II stylus ● Pure iron cross shaped armature ● 2.5mV output DISTRIBUTOR Armour Home Electronics WEBSITE goldring.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 492 Usefully comprehensive, Goldring’s cartridge range has been fairly long lived, and new arrivals are always worthy of note. The HX replaces the H as the only high-output moving coil in Goldring’s range and is part of the more affordable Eroica (Italian for hero) family below the Elite and Ethos lines. The HX looks similar to the outgoing H and has a body made from Pocan. Goldring says this is robust and has no sonic signature. As it is fairly light, the 6.6g weight (including fixings) should be easy enough to…

►DETAILS PRODUCT MoFi UltraGold PRICE £1,500 ORIGIN USA TYPE Medium-output moving-coil cartridge WEIGHT 7.3g FEATURES ● Nude Shibata stylus ● Boron cantilever ● Aluminum body DISTRIBUTOR Karma-AV WEBSITE mofielectronics.com karma-av.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 485 MoFi’s first moving-coil offering, the UltraGold’s recipe of nude Shibata stylus, boron cantilever, neodymium magnet and PC-OCC wiring could just as easily be used to describe a cartridge costing somewhere in the £5,000 range. And no seasoned audiophile would blink. MoFi has fitted this to an ultra-low resonance aluminium/brass extrusion. The body is threaded so there’s no fiddling with nuts and bolts and we manage to mount it in seconds. Blessed, too, are the widely spaced, colour-coded pins. Sound quality First off the shelf is a 45rpm, 12in single of the Traveling Wilburys’ Handle With Care. The…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Copland CSA70 PRICE £3,000 ORIGIN Denmark TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 13kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 435 x 135 x 370mm FEATURES ● Quoted output power: 2x 70W (8ohm) ● Inputs: 3x stereo RCA; MM phono stage ● Digital board: 1x optical; 1x coaxial; 1x USB-B DISTRIBUTOR Absolute Sounds TELEPHONE 0208 9713909 WEBSITE copland.dk absolutesounds.com REVIEWED HFC 485 Copland’s range comprises both hybrid and all-valve designs, but for its latest amplifier it has gone exclusively solid state. The CSA70 is its entry-level offering and follows a similar design to the CSA100 (HFC 465) and 150 (HFC 479), but dispenses with the valve preamp stage. As the name suggests, the amp section is good for 70W into 8ohm. Three line inputs…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Exposure 3510 PRICE From £2,250 ORIGIN UK TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 12kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 440 x 115 x 300mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 110W (8ohm) ● Inputs: 6x RCA line-level ● Outputs 2x pre; 6.35mm headphone ● Optional MM, MC or DAC board DISTRIBUTOR Exposure Electronics Ltd. WEBSITE exposurehifi.com REVIEWED HFC 485 Specs-wise the 3510 could have been plucked from the pages of the 1980 Hi-Fi Choice Yearbook although obviously key areas have evolved and improved over the decades. The conservative factory power rating is quoted as 110W into 8ohm loads and it provides line inputs labelled Aux/ Phono, CD, Aux 2, AV with fixed gain for switchable home theatre bypass, a tape in/out loop and two preamp outs – the latter useful for subwoofers or…

►DETAILS PRODUCT NAD C 700 PRICE £1,300 ORIGIN Canada/China TYPE Streaming amplifier WEIGHT 4.8kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 218 x 96 x 266mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 80W (8ohm) ● Inputs: 2x RCA line-level ● Digital board with: optical; coaxial; HDMI ARC; BluOS streaming; AirPlay 2 DISTRIBUTOR Sevenoaks Sound & Vision WEBSITE nadelectronics.com REVIEWED HFC 486 As the most affordable of NAD’s streaming amp family, at its core the C 700 is a combination of the company’s UcD Class D amp technology – which creates a switching amplifier from discrete analogue sections rather than a single chip amp – and the BluOS streaming front end that underpins many NAD and Bluesound components. The amplifier section produces a claimed 80W into…

ROKSAN’S STREAMING AMP takes the same platform as the basic one, but adds on-board streaming and is equipped with the same BluOS interface found on NAD and Bluesound devices. Like other BluOS devices, sample rate handling is limited to 24-bit/192kHz with no DSD support – but there is MQA compatibility for both the streaming module and digital inputs. The amp is a Class AB design that delivers 80W into 8ohm, rising to 130W into 4ohm. There are two RCA line inputs, a moving-magnet phono stage plus two optical and two coaxial inputs. AirPlay and Bluetooth complete the feature set. Sound quality This is not an especially bombastic amp, but it reveals an unflappable but musical presentation that works very well across a wide selection of content and feels extremely hard…

►DETAILS PRODUCT NAD M23 PRICE £3,400 ORIGIN Canada TYPE Stereo power amplifier WEIGHT 9.7kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 435 x 133 x 396mm FEATURES ● Power rating: 2x 200W (8ohm) ● Eigentakt Class D amplifier modules ● Inputs: balanced XLR; RCA DISTRIBUTOR Sevenoaks Sound And Vision WEBSITE nadelectronics.com sevenoakssound andvision.com REVIEWED HFC 494 NAD’s latest power amp to feature Purifi Eigentakt Class D technology, when used in stereo the M23’s rated power is quoted at 200W/8ohm – making it good for all but the most demanding of loudspeakers. A full-size chassis, living with it is about as hassle-free as you could hope. The set-up process is simple and takes just a matter of minutes – choose between an unbalanced RCA or balanced XLR connection to your preamp, connect your speakers to the…

As part of its ongoing mission to create a digital device for every eventuality, iFi Audio has developed some interesting solutions built around its decoding platform. The ZEN Stream represents something of a step change because it’s not equipped with any decoding of its own and is designed to turn both its – and anyone else’s – DAC into a network audio player. To do this, the ZEN Stream is a network streamer fitted to work over conventional UPnP, Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, HQ Player and Roon, with AirPlay supported too. iFi has also expressed its intention to add AirPlay 2 and Chromecast support in the future. PCM to 384kHz and DSD256 are supported, as is MQA when used with a compatible device. Connection to a network can be made…

►DETAILS PROVIDER Deezer PRICE £11.99/month ORIGIN France TYPE Desktop/mobile app streaming service FEATURES ● Library claims: 90 million+ tracks ● Web browser and mobile apps available ● Format: 16/44.1 FLAC WEBSITE deezer.com REVIEWED HFC 487 One of the longest-running services and one of only two to have competed in all of our Group Tests, Deezer is unchanged from last year – apart from switching the name of its HiFi option to Premium. Though other lossy tiers remain, this is the second most expensive service on a per-month basis we have looked at, which is awkward as it’s also the most limited. Unlike its rivals, Deezer is exclusively lossless. There is no hi-res content and neither has there been any indication that there will be. But before we completely write Deezer…

Portable audio players have settled into a niche role after having been squeezed by smartphones and portable DACs for more serious use. The Prelude DTR1+ is built by Dethonray; a China-based company that produces a small range of electronics and earphones. The DTR1+ uses a Linux-based operating system called Ocelot (not Android), intended to read stored content from a micro SD card – up to 1TB is supported. There is no internal memory beyond that required to run the playback software. In turn, there are no apps for streaming services or wireless connectivity. The good news is that it is fairly unconcerned about what format you store the files in. The DTR1+ supports every routinely encountered lossless and hi-res format and sample rates up to 32-bit/192kHz. This includes DSD64, but…

Sporting an elegant pearlescent white outer sheath, the Element Achromat certainly looks quite fetching. The term ‘achromatic’ literally means without colour, which fittingly enough is also Atlas Cables’ sonic design goal. The Element Achromat makes use of conductors with an increased OCC copper content when compared with the company’s previous Element interconnect. The OCC (Ohno Continuous Casting) process was developed by Professor Ohno from the Chiba Institute of Technology to manufacture a very high-purity single grain copper or silver wire. The Element Achromat also has a new physical design that is intended to stabilise the concentricity along the complete length of cable and reduce inter-strand distortion. For the insulation, PEF (Polyethylene Foam) is used. This is a durable, lightweight, resilient, closed-cell material known for its excellent vibration dampening and insulation…

THIS INTERCONNECT USES The Missing Link’s Ultrapure silver-plated oxygen-free copper conductors in a pseudo-balanced construction to offer superior RFI rejection and is insulated with a PTFE dielectric. As with all of its other cables, the Alaqeia is hand made by the man behind The Missing Link, Mark Sears, and benefits from his research into cable plating methods and materials. The company’s silver-plating employs silver ingots made from a silver that has a special chemical fingerprint and can only be found in a certain part of the world. The company considers this extremely important as undesirable trace elements in most silver can affect the quality of the signals passed through it. The Alaqeia is terminated with Missing Link adjustable Reference RCA connectors, which incorporate silicone dampers in the back of each…

MARKETED AS A no-compromise reference-grade speaker cable, the Python II is available as a standard pre-terminated stereo cable and also as a 4-conductor pre-terminated bi-wire. It uses aerospace-grade silver-plated, oxygen-free special copper alloy conductors for both the signal and return wires. Each wire has a PE primary insulation plus a PVC external insulation. It has an 11mm diameter round profile and the external sheath is a polyester braid jacket featuring a distinctive helical white-spotted stripe. My review sample is 3m and terminated with gold-plated Z/banana plugs. Sound quality I connect the Python II between my valve monoblocks and transmission line speakers. Starting off with a direct-cut LP from Chasing The Dragon of Rimsky Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, the finale is delivered with power and energy.…

People often ask Mike Valentine, the man behind the Chasing The Dragon audiophile label, the best way to record music and the differences between techniques. He’s asked so often, in fact, that he decided to produce a recording that explores different approaches to allow people to decide for themselves. He decided to use a relatively popular piece for the main work – Mendelssohn’s Octet. A short ‘encore’ piece entitled Two Guitars is also selected. The venue chosen was the Henry Wood Hall in the Southwark district of London and the date is 5 February 2022. Mendelssohn wrote his Octet in 1825 at the age of 16, and many commentators have asserted that no other composer has written such a major piece at such a young age. The Octet consists of…

One of the first issues that many people consider when choosing a speaker is its size and how it fits in their room. Size may be the factor that determines whether you choose bookshelf, standmount or floorstander. However, the design of the enclosure can have a significant impact on the sound. The main use of the enclosure is to house the bass driver to control its resonances and acoustically couple it with the room. Midrange drivers need their own chamber separate from the bass to minimise interactions between the two. Tweeters are usually self-contained so don’t need enclosures. An important point to note is that to reproduce bass, you need to move lots of air. That means you need a larger area cone and enclosure than for higher frequency notes.…

► DETAILS PRODUCT AVID HiFi Reference Four PRICE £20,000 ORIGIN UK TYPE 2-way standmount loudspeaker WEIGHT 25kg (40kg with stands) DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 210 x 367 x 440mm FEATURES ● 28mm Acuflexcoated silk dome ● 160mm damped polymer composite mid/bass driver ● Quoted sensitivity: 88dB/1W/1m (6.5ohm) DISTRIBUTOR AVID HiFi Ltd. WEBSITE avidhifi.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 486 While most speakers do very nicely with variations on the wooden box theme, the Reference Four opts for all-alloy cabinets, with panels up to 15mm-thick, sitting on six ‘risers’ attached to a thick alloy baseplate. Hence why each of these relatively compact speakers weighs a hefty 25kg. The cabinet may only be 210mm wide, which is almost as narrow as it can be while still accommodating the 160mm-wide mid/bass drivers, but it is also 440mm deep,…

A relative of the standard F500 (HFC 457), the F500SP is absolutely not the same speaker made in a different place. The characteristics are the same, though. This is a two-way standmount that uses Fyne’s preferred driver configuration of a coaxially mounted tweeter placed in the throat of a mid/bass driver. The tweeter is a 25mm magnesium compression type. The midrange unit is a 150mm ‘multi-fibre’ cone that features the distinctive FyneFlute surround. This is augmented by a downward-firing port arrangement. Fyne has kept this reasonably flexible and user friendly by designing the F500SP with an integral plinth that features a cone-shaped section to better manage the airflow from the port. The result is that the cabinet always has the relevant boundary for the port regardless of where you place…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Q Acoustics Concept 30 PRICE £900 ORIGIN UK/China TYPE 2-way standmount loudspeaker WEIGHT 7.9kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD): 180 x 284 x 319mm FEATURES ● 25mm silk dome tweeter ● 125mm paper mid/bass driver ● Quoted sensitivity: 87dB/1W/1m (6ohm) DISTRIBUTOR Armour Home Electronics WEBSITE qacoustics.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 486 Sometimes, the ‘obvious’ product that a company should make can be a long time coming. The circa-£1,000 speaker market is booming and you’d have thought it a natural area for Q Acoustics. Some 15 years since the introduction of its original Concept range, the company is a recognised force at entry-level price points and at more premium ones too. Until recently, the space between these two points was less well covered, but the Concept 30 is intended to bridge this gap. As…

►DETAILS PRODUCT System Audio Legend 7.2 Silverback PRICE £1,700 each ORIGIN Denmark TYPE 3-way active wireless wall-mounted loudspeaker WEIGHT 7.5kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 286 x 470 x 154mm FEATURES ● 25mm soft dome tweeter with DXT acoustic lens ● 2 x140mm carbonconed, long-throw main driver ● 225W Class D amplification DISTRIBUTOR Karma AV WEBSITE system-audio.com karma-av.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 494 There is a limbo-land, somewhere between traditional audiophilia and custom install’s convenient disappearing act where on-wall speakers live in quiet solitude. They might be a pragmatic solution to a paucity of floorspace, but uncharted depths of desire or a runaway pulse rate aren’t common side effects. That might be about to change with this active wireless speaker – essentially a wall-friendly and more muscular three-way version of the Legend 5.2 Silverback standmount…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Bowers & Wilkins Formation Duo PRICE £4,000 ORIGIN UK/China TYPE 2-way infinite baffle design WEIGHT 10.6kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 197 x 395 x 305mm FEATURES ● 25mm dome tweeter; 165mm mid/bass driver ● Ethernet; Bluetooth ● Claimed power handling: 2x 125W RMS WEBSITE bowerswilkins.com DISTRIBUTOR Bowers & Wilkins REVIEWED HFC 488 Although passive speakers make up about 80 percent of B&W’s business, there’s no doubt that it places much importance on its newer concepts such as the Formation Duo. Effectively the company’s best wireless offering, it’s a platform upon which future products may be based. Two aspects are key to this design: first, the drivers and cabinets use trickle-down technology from B&W’s high-end passive speakers. Second, it runs the company’s own wireless transmission protocol, based on a mesh network…

►DETAILS PRODUCT DALI Katch G2 PRICE £550 ORIGIN Denmark/China TYPE Bluetooth loudspeaker WEIGHT 1.1kg DIMENSIONS 269 x 138 x 47mm (WxHxD) FEATURES ● 2x 21mm soft dome tweeters ● 2x 90mm mid/bass drivers ● 2x bass radiators ● Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX; aptX HD; AAC ● Quoted battery life: 30 hours DISTRIBUTOR DALI WEBSITE dali-speakers.com REVIEWED HFC 493 DALI’s original Katch was a hit from the moment it went on sale. The company combined its driver know-how with a piece of industrial design that was a cut above the rest. When we did a Bluetooth speaker Group Test back in HFC 443, the Katch was comfortably the best. Time waits for nobody though, and DALI has been continually tweaking it to keep it competitive. The good news is the basic…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Pro-Ject Debut PRO PRICE £700 ORIGIN Austria TYPE Belt-driven turntable system with electric speed control WEIGHT 6kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 415 x 113 x 320mm FEATURES ● 33, 45 & 78rpm ● Pick it PRO MM cartridge ● 8.6in one-piece carbon-aluminium sandwich tonearm DISTRIBUTOR Henley Audio Ltd. WEBSITE project-audio.com henleyaudio.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 487 Accounting for the £250 uplift over the Debut Carbon EVO (HFC 468), Pro-Ject CEO Heinz Lichtenegger recites a list of features which starts with improved motor isolation, on to height adjustment achieved through TPE-damped metal feet, while VTA alignment has been added to make cartridge upgrades possible further down the line. The aluminium platter is more heavily damped, and anti-magnetic, which he says is a boon for upgrades to MC cartridges. “The tonearm is a sandwich…

►DETAILS PRODUCT SME Model 60/Series VA PRICE From £50,000 ORIGIN UK TYPE Belt-driven turntable/tonearm WEIGHT 48kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 557 x 212 x 417mm FEATURES ● 33 and 45rpm ● Series VA tonearm ● Electronic speed control DISTRIBUTOR SME Limited WEBSITE sme.co.uk REVIEWED HFC 491 As the successor to SME’s Model 30 flagship, the latest Model 60 contains a heady mix of old and new technologies. The two-tier chassis, now with elegant curves, is made from aluminium alloy and sits on four height-adjustable feet that are decoupled from the main, lower chassis by an internal multi-point isolation system. Also fitted to this are the motor mounting pod and a connection box at the rear that serves to terminate the tonearm wiring to the output phono sockets. One tower at each corner…

THIS IS A component dedicated purely to the MC cause. If you have a moving-magnet cartridge, Rega will happily sell you a Fono MM MK5. But it’s all about focus and singular thinking here, in this case trickled down from the pricier Aria phono preamp (the MK3 version of which was on review back in HFC 469). Via a bank of DIP switches there’s selectable input loading for both resistance and capacitance along with two different gain settings – all of which are located out of the way on the back panel. Sound quality A Rega does precisely what a Rega does and it’s quite a considerable contrast to anything else around. Think dynamically bolder and more emphatically punctual with greater saturation of tonal colours and textures, all fed by…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Chord Electronics Anni PRICE £1,200 ORIGIN UK TYPE Desktop integrated amplifier WEIGHT 625g DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 160 x 43 x 97mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 10W (8ohm) ● 2x RCA line inputs ● 3.5mm/6.35mm headphone outputs DISTRIBUTOR Chord Electronics Ltd. WEBSITE chordelectronics. co.uk REVIEWED HFC 483 Desktop hi-fi? Can’t say I’ve dabbled. But, of course, ‘desktop’ is just another marketing category and not a stipulation. Basically, it means small, which is a much more liberating concept and a description that aptly fits Chord Electronics’ new integrated amplifier, Anni. With the same dinky form factor and CNC-machined aluminium build as its Qutest DAC (HFC 436) and Huei phono stage (HFC 459), Anni completes a tiny trilogy that, with the addition of Chord’s dedicated QSS (Qutest System Stand), can…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Pro-Ject MaiA S3 PRICE £550 ORIGIN Austria/Slovakia TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 1.07kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 206 x 55 x 153mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 23W (8ohm) ● Inputs: 3x RCA; MM phono; coaxial; 2x optical; aptX HD Bluetooth ● Outputs: 1x RCA; 6.35mm headphone DISTRIBUTOR Henley Audio Ltd. WEBSITE project-audio.com REVIEWED HFC 492 A sthe name suggests, the MaiA S3 is the third generation of Pro-Ject’s compact integrated amplifier (the original being tested back in HFC 390) and, while some of the details have changed, the premise is the same as before; an affordable integrated, optimised to work with the company’s turntable range but also able to handle other inputs that you might have without struggling. As the Pro-Ject has a better spread of inputs than most…

►DETAILS PRODUCT Yamaha R-S202D PRICE £230 ORIGIN Japan/China TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 6.7kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 435 x 141 x 322mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 100W (8ohm) ● Inputs: 4x RCA; AAC/SBC Bluetooth ● 6.35mm headphone output DISTRIBUTOR Yamaha UK WEBSITE uk.yamaha.com REVIEWED HFC 492 A ‘full-width’ design, this Yamaha integrated is closely related to the AS-201 (HFC 386) stereo amplifier, but where that is a conventional line-only device, the R-S202D augments the specification. This is a receiver and therefore will work with no other equipment (bar speakers) to hand. The tuner section is comprehensive, boasting DAB, DAB+ and FM, and can support 40 digital and analogue presets. This joins four RCA line inputs – one of them labelled as ‘CD’ but otherwise materially identical to the numbered ones…

►DETAILS PRODUCT XTZ Edge A2-400 PRICE €952 ORIGIN Sweden/China TYPE Power amplifier WEIGHT 3.1kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 200 x 69 x 352mm FEATURES ● 400W per channel into 4ohm ● 200W per channel into 8ohm ● 800W into one channel (4ohm bridged) ● Inputs: RCA; XLR DISTRIBUTOR XTZ WEBSITE xtzsound.eu REVIEWED HFC 483 Sometimes, a logical area of development in one product category is slightly undermined by other areas not necessarily producing the kit to make use of them. Our DAC Group Test (HFC 482) is a case in point. Five of the six models can be used as preamps to streamline your system if you have no need for analogue inputs. The catch is that affordable power amps are rare. Into this gap steps XTZ. The Swedish company is best…

Hi-fi can be a maze of competing ecosystems with the capacity to confuse and coerce as much as connect on a bespoke level. But one that seems to be hitting the sweet spot with increasing real-world relevance is the low-cost, no-frills, function-first, high-performance, multi-tasking, software-flexible, plug-and-play little black (or silver) box. And Orchard Audio’s PecanPi Streamer appears to be exactly that. The cute word play references the RaspberryPi 3B+ platform inside, replete with tell-tale input socket group poking through the back plate. A fully balanced, dual-DAC chip design, think of it as a kind of audio hardware hot-rod, with skinned-back bodywork and pepped-up engine to extract maximum performance bang for buck. For the true audio tinkerer prepared to forgo the streaming function, the PecanPi can be bought in raw soundcard…

►DETAILS PROVIDER Qobuz PRICE From £10.83/month ORIGIN France TYPE Desktop/mobile app streaming service FEATURES ● Library claims: 80 million+ tracks ● Web browser and mobile apps available ● Format: 16/44.1 to 24/192 FLAC WEBSITE qobuz.com REVIEWED HFC 487 One of the earliest services to offer lossless content, Qobuz was equally prompt out the blocks with hi-res content too. As a result, it’s possibly the streaming service that’s changed the least over the last few years. The library is quoted at over 80-million tracks available in sample rates between 16-bit/44.1kHz and 24-bit/192kHz, all encoded to FLAC. Trackwise Qobuz sometimes draws blanks against Tidal, but there are certainly fewer than there were. There are some useful details on offer here that are worthy of note. The first is that it has two…

IFI AUDIO’S GO bar is built around a Cirrus Logic chip, combined with a 16-core XMOS micro controller. Sample rate handling is PCM to 384kHz, DSD to 256 together with DXD and MQA. This is available to both 3.5mm and 4.4mm outputs, for balanced operation. It offers four adjustable output filters, ‘X-Space’ processing to increase the perception of three dimensionality and ‘XBass+’ for analogue bass augmentation. It also has a gain boost function, which together with a notional max output 7.5v should drive most devices. A special impedance-matching low-gain mode caters for sensitive earphones. Sound quality With the impedance-matching setting for earphones engaged, the GO bar has no issue hitting the test level and shows commendable energy efficiency. Boards Of Canada’s Telephasic Workshop has a decent combination of invigorating energy…

FAIRLY NEW IN the UK, NuPrime’s Hi-mDAC is the smallest and simplest converter it makes. Its decoding architecture is centred around a Cirrus Logic CS43131 DAC. Given that it lists similar (identical) adjustable filter options and the same 384kHz PCM and DSD256 handling as iFi’s GO bar (p109), we can postulate that it’s the same chip. Here it is partnered with a customised USB interface of unspecified origin. Unlike the iFi, it is exclusively single ended with a 3.5mm stereo output. As well as providing an analogue out, this can be switched to function as a USB-to-SP/Dif converter where the 3.5mm output transmits optical at sample rates up to 24-bit/192kHz. Sound quality While it shares some of the hardware, the Hi-mDAC doesn’t have the same reserves of output power as…

Awelcome price cut isn’t the only change from the Momentum 3 Wireless (HFC 486) with the Momentum 4 sporting a sleek, new design – available in black or white – with noticeably slimmer earpieces making it feel lighter and less bulky than its predecessor. I won’t miss the sharp-edged folding hinges of previous models, which have now been replaced by a rotating hinge that allows you to fold the earpieces flat when you want to put the headphone in the hard-shell carrying case. ►DETAILS PRODUCT Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless PRICE £300 ORIGIN Germany/China TYPE Over-ear, closedback headphones WEIGHT 293g FEATURES ● 42mm drivers ● Bluetooth 5.2, SBC; AAC; aptX Adaptive ● Claimed 60 hour battery life DISTRIBUTOR Sennheiser WEBSITE en-uk.sennheiser. com REVIEWED HFC 495 The right-hand earpiece has a new…

Available in either black or white, the T1 sits at the top of the Fidelio range, but it provides attractive sound quality, along with noise cancellation and other useful features. The design may not suit everyone as the earbuds are rather large, with an extended oval shape that projects forward quite noticeably from the ear. To be fair, Philips is clearly aware of this and goes out of its way to help you get a good fit, including six different sizes of silicon and three sizes of Comply memory foam eartips. It also has an IPX4 rating for water resistance for outdoor use. The earbuds house 10mm drivers with a hybrid design that combines a balanced armature for higher frequencies and vocals and dynamic drivers for the low end. This…

I’ve tried out a number of Chord cables over the years and they never fail to impress. The Clearway is no exception and features the company’s proprietary ARAY conductor geometry, which has been developed from its Sarum Tuned ARAY geometry. This has been designed so that the cable carries high levels of detail and dynamic information plus signals with real musical coherence. Every Clearway interconnect is constructed and tested at Chord’s UK facility. The conductors are manufactured from high-quality, oxygen-free copper and insulated with an FEP dielectric. The cable is shielded by dual-layer heavy gauge foil. Mechanical damping is provided by the use of a specially selected PVC sheath. The Clearway is fitted with Chord VEE 3 (Vibration Eliminating Enclosure) RCA phono plugs, which include PTFE insulation between signal and…

DESIGNED TO REPLACEthe low-cost twin flex supplied with a starter music system, the Twist Classic is a two-core twisted pair employing 0.75mm 2tinned copper conductors insulated with a 1.2mm silicone rubber dielectric. At one end there’s a large ferrite tube to filter out high-frequency interference. The cable is terminated in gold-plated Z plugs at each end and is available in 3m and 5m pairs. Other lengths and terminations are available on request. Sound quality The Twist Classic is very flexible and is easily routed around the tightest of corners in my listening room. Hooking up the speaker cable to my valve monoblocks and transmission line speakers, I turn to a classic LP of JS Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D major played by Peter Hurford on the organ. This powerful…

Jack White Fear Of The Dawn ★★★★★ CD Third Man IT’S HARD TO think of any artist who has seized DIY control of the entire production, distribution, promotion and marketing of his music as totally as Jack White. Via his Third Man enterprise he not only has his own studio and record label, but his own mastering facility and pressing plant and a growing chain of record store outlets, including one opened in London earlier this year. Lockdown hit most people hard, but it was a double blow for the restless, endlessly creative former White Stripes man who also does his own artwork and directs his videos. Not only was he unable to tour, but Third Man was also put on hold. With business suspended, what to do while waiting…

It’s been a wild ride, but if our journey so far is anything to go by, the best is yet to come,” says DJ Becca Ferrier Baker, founder of Orange Moon Records, North Berwick. A beautiful coastal town in East Lothian, 30 minutes by train from Edinburgh, North Berwick may boast dramatic scenery, but until recently it couldn’t stake a claim to a great vinyl hang-out. All that changed in December 2021, when a small community-based record store with big ideas opened above speciality coffee roasters Steampunk Coffee, a stone’s throw from the sea. Cool, stripped-back and industrial but supremely welcoming, Orange Moon is a fantastic mix of retro and modern – which reflects the music in the racks; the accessories on the wall; the decks crying out to be…