Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2015 i What Hi-Fi?

Canute couldn’t hold back the tide, and you’ve as much chance of holding back Tidal, or Spotify, or Apple Music, Qobuz, Deezer or any streaming service you care to mention. Music, the music industry and everything around it has changed – there’s no reason to dismiss that as a Bad Thing, because getting your fix of digital convenience needn’t mean the end of proper sound quality. That’s what a lot of this issue is about. Take a look at the supertest of eight smartphones (p30), for instance – there’s some great high-res audio performance to be found. Then flick forward to the what, why and where of DACS (p67) to find out how best to maximise your sound. Then peruse our brilliant guide to computer-based audio (p55) to fully explore…

1 Sony’s design is clean and familiar. It has not strayed from the tried-and-tested look for a few years now – and for good reason. 2 All AV receivers could take cues from Sony’s set-up procedure and user interface. Quick, simple and easy to use – full marks here. 3 Wow, this amp really knows its way around an explosion. Our listening room is filled with powerful, clear, dynamic sound. 4 Oh, no Atmos. That’s a shame, but not a huge letdown. The 7.1 performance certainly makes up for it, but won’t futureproof it. 5 The DN860 is a masterclass in how an AV receiver at this price should handle music. Great timing and precision.…

Laptop Apple MacBook Air 13in £1000 We love the sleek and intuitive interface, but the ability to play a variety of file types makes it an ideal source for the Chord DAC Stereo amplifier Naim Supernait 2 £2750 A premium DAC deserves a premium amplifier, and this superb Naim amp only gets better with the Chord alongside it Stereo speakers ATC SCM19 £2000 An incredibly revealing, composed and precise pair of speakers that wow you with a dynamic, detailed and rhythmic sound…

* Optical phono comes to UK DS Audio is to bring its optical phono cartridge to the UK, after an initial launch in Japan. The DSW1 uses a beam of light to detect the vibrations from the stylus. * Linn calls time on preamps Scottish hi-fi specialist Linn is ending production of its pre-amplifier range, claiming its DSM players are “set to supersede the standalone preamp”. * Dynnudio upgrades Contour range The Contour S LE bookshelf and S 3.4 LE floorstanders now sport an upgraded soft-dome tweeter. Internal wiring has been upgraded, while Dynaudio also claims the crossover has been refined…

Alcatel may not often make as much noise as its American or Korean rivals, but when it does it’s worth taking notice. If the OneTouch Idol 3 is anything to go by, this company is going places. The Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 comes in two sizes, with 5.5in and 4.7 screens. The former has bumped-up specs, but the 4.7, our test model, is aimed squarely at the midrange market. It might not have Apple or Samsung quaking in their boots but, for a third of the price of flagship models, the Idol 3 does many things very well indeed. Screen rotation The Idol 3 doesn’t look spectacular – in fact it’s rather nondescript. The front is black, symmetrical and unbranded; the back, plastic with a light brushed-metal effect. It won’t…

When the first HTC One came along it stood out from the crowd. Not only was it an Android phone that dared to wear a full metal jacket, it also performed well enough to butt heads with the standard-setting iPhone and come away with only superficial injuries. Now we have the HTC One M9, the third generation of this successful series. But the landscape has changed. While the latest HTC sticks to its comfort zone, the likes of Samsung and LG have undergone radical changes. Did HTC get complacent, or was it wise not to mess with a winning formula? It’s a bit of both: the HTC One M9 is a lovely device, but its relevance is put in question by the latest rivals. Best loudspeakers When it comes to…

We’ve been fairly critical of Samsung’s smartphones in the past. Regardless of impressive specification, their plastic construction left us cold, especially when the likes of Apple, Sony and HTC offered gleaming slabs of glass and metal. With the Samsung Galaxy S6 series, this is no longer an issue. Samsung has two flagship models for 2015, the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge – essentially the same phone, but the S6 Edge sports a more sculpted body and a screen with curved edges. We love the S6 Edge, so we have high hopes for the ‘regular’ S6. But there is nothing regular about the S6. This is an extraordinary device. It’s a looker Samsung has at last created something of a looker. The plastic is gone, now it’s all metal…

AV amplifier Yamaha RXV 377 £260 Impressive levels of power and punchy surround sound combine with great subtlety and clarity. Bargain for the price. Speaker package Q Acoustics Q2000i £600 A big, detailed and cohesive sound – this is our current favourite under £700. Television Panasonic TX40CX680B £700 Fresh off the production line, this 4K telly has smooth motion, bright, punchy colours and a very user-friendly interface (see p12). Total build from £1635 For a full list of specifications and other useful info visit whathifi.com…

Join us on Spotify and Tidal whf.cm/playlist15 Howlin’ Wolf: How Many More Years 60-odd years old now, and with hindsight both the start of rock’n’roll and the place Elvis Presley came from. Talking Heads: Burning Down The House Mid-period Talking Heads, the band on the cusp between wilful art-rock aesthetics and enormoselling pop music crowdpleasing. Mos Def: Hip Hop “We went from picking cotton to chain-gang line chopping, to be-bopping, to hip-hopping – blues people got the blue-chip stock option...” The Apartments: Swap Places An on-again, off-again Anglo/Franco/ Australian outfit of legendary provenence, The Apartments are back with a first album since 1997.…

Bluetooth Universal wireless system that’s incorporated into most sources AirPlay Apple’s accepted wireless system; works over your home network The shortlist Ultimate Ears Megaboom £250 “The Megaboom is a great addition to UE’s family of wireless speakers.” DaliKubikFree Awards 2014: Best Wireless speaker £500-£750 “The engineers at Dali have struck gold with the Kubik Free, and have used their speaker expertise to great effect.” Naim Mu-so Awards 2014: Best Wireless speaker 750+ “The Naim Mu-so is a seriously attractive product. Everything promised is delivered.” Also consider…

Experience & heritage We’ve been hard at work helping the world discover the best in hi-fi and home cinema for more than 37 years, and have getting on for 100 years of reviewing experience under our collective belts – so you can count on our expert opinions. Dedicated test facilities We test every product in the magazine or at whathifi.com against its peers in our bespoke £1m reviewing facilities. And we test every product as a team, so our opinions and conclusions are always the result of collaboration. We spot big trends first MP3 player tests before the iPod even existed? High-def video before it even had a name? That was us. We keep you in touch with big stories and future trends. Worldwide readership With seven international editions in…

£free – iOS, Android Sony’s Songpal app is a great companion to the DN860, as it allows you to use your phone or tablet to select your source, make setting adjustments and easily stream music from all manner of streaming services. A new feature this year is Songpal Link, which basically makes all of Sony’s audio products – from wireless speakers to AV receivers – part of a multi-room system that can be easily controlled within the app. You can connect to the DN860 over Bluetooth or wi-fi, but be aware you’ll have to use wi-fi if you want to be able to access networked content on NAS drives for example. A well designed, easy-to-use app that’s well worth a download.…

Streamer Cambridge CXN £700 This enthusiastic, feature-packed model is a stonkingly good hi-res network streamer – and the perfect source for its matching amplifier Stereo speakers B&W 685 S2 £500 Big, bold and brawny, these Award-winning speakers’ dynamic and rhythmically agile performance will suit the CXA60’s sound Stands Atacama Moseco 6 £120 You’ll need a decent pair of stands to get the most out of your bookshelf speakers, and these Atacamas provide the best support at this price…

If there’s one thing to be said about Apple, it’s that the company dances to its own tune. It certainly doesn’t bother with the petty business of seeing what everybody else is doing. For its latest smartphone, the Apple iPhone 6, that means there is no Full HD screen, even when key rivals have adopted Quad HD. There is no 16-megapixel camera with laser focusing and image stabilisation, and no high-res audio support. You might have written your own wishlist containing all the possible tech out there, but Apple couldn’t care less what you think. New curves Why? Because Apple focuses on performance over specs, a strategy that has served it extremely well. What its products lack in grunt, they make up for in finesse. The Apple iPhone 6’s performance…

You may not have heard of Huawei (that’s ‘hwah-way’, not Hawaii), but the Chinese company is actually the world’s largest telecommunications company, having overtaken Sweden’s Ericsson in 2012. Its most common products are wireless routers and mobile internet dongles, but now it is heading west with a mission to break into the highly competitive smartphone market. Huawei has made attempts before, with little success. Now it’s having another go with its latest flagship model, the Huawei P8. But how do you take on a market that’s never heard of you and can’t pronounce your name? Simple: do what Apple does, but sell for less. Inspired by Apple Nearly everything about the Huawei P8 has been, let’s just say, ‘inspired’ by Apple. Which is a little odd, seeing as it’s an…

Have you recently found yourself becoming the proud owner of a sprawling, burgeoning music collection that’s all in digital files? Or perhaps you want to convert all your physical music from vinyl or CD into megabytes and store them in one place that’s quick and easy to play from? The way we listen to music is evolving, and so it’s essential that you evolve with it too. But don’t be afraid to take the plunge – if you’ve been testing the digital music waters with a handful of MP3s and ripped CD albums on your home computer, then you’re already on your way towards creating a harmonious, all-digital source for your hi-fi system. The next step is to get yourself a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. Here, we take you…

You may not have realised it, but most of us will make use of at least one digital to analogue converter, more commonly known as a DAC, every single day. Built into the likes of computers, tablets and smartphones, the DAC is the fundamental key to unlocking the convenience of digital music, transforming it back into an analogue signal to make it audible to the human ear. Any device that acts as a source of digital sound – be it CD or Blu-ray player, DAB radio, set-top box, games console or portable music player – will need a DAC to convert its audio back to an analogue signal before it is output. Traditional amplifiers don’t amplify in digital, speakers don’t play in digital and our ears certainly don’t hear in…

Burmester Musiccenter 151 CD streamer £12,500 Burmester’s Musiccenter 151 is difficult to pigeonhole. It’s a streamer, server, CD player and ripper wrapped in one superbly made chrome-laden box. That’s a complex array of talents, but it’s easy to see why the German high-end brand has taken such a comprehensive approach. Most of the company’s customers have built-up their systems over a number of years, and quite likely have large collections of CDs. For these people it’s easy to simply replace their existing CD player with the 151, rather than add yet another box for streaming music. The Musiccenter has two 2TB modules; one mirrors the data on the other, so there’s always a back-up of your music if one of them goes wrong. The built-in slot-loading disc drive means that…

Download, CD, vinyl EVERYTHING EVERYTHING GET TO HEAVEN Out now Is there much difference, in practical terms, between a USP and a gimmick? Everything Everything had better hope there is – they’re three albums in now, and singer Jonathan Higgs’ continuing willingness to get his falsetto voice out at every opportunity is this close to the tipping-point. It’s quirky, and it makes EE sound distinct (even beyond their ongoing mash-up of angular indie guitar shapes, Talking Heads-y afrobeats and grinding, clattering electronic glitter). But could you do a whole 45 minutes in one sitting? As long as your teeth aren’t set too badly on edge, mind you, there’s plenty about Get To Heaven to recommend it. It’s melodically strong (Fortune 500 in particular is an ear- worm) and while it’s…

Massive Chalice PC, Mac Out now If you’re a fan of turn-based strategy games, you’ll likely love Massive Chalice. The twist is that the campaign lasts 300 years and if you want to have warriors available for that duration you need them to sire heirs. So when you’re not battling you’re playing Cilla for your subjects – more fun than it might sound. Kerbal Space Program PC, Mac Out now Don’t be fooled by the cute men or the simple graphics: this is a pretty detailed Nasa simulator. Your task is to get your Kerbals into space by designing the machines to get there. Cue much trial and error as you work out how to prevent them belly-flopping back into the dirt, but success feels very sweet. The Elder Scrolls…

Welcome to the UK’s best guide to TVs, hi-fi, home cinema and mobile, with star ratings for more than 1500 products. Where other magazines rely on isolated writers reviewing in a range of locations, our star ratings are decided by an expert team of reviewers working together, in a state-of-the-art testing facility. Within this guide you’ll find all our favourite four- and five-star products – including Award-winners – to help you pick the best kit for your budget.…

Tom Holkenborg Mad Max: Fury Road Tom Holkenborg (also known as Junkie XL) edges towards a rock opera with this score for the latest MadMax. It’s propulsive and percussive. A system that’s good at sifting through detail is a must with this OST. Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly Kendrick Lamar’s latest is a vibrant mesh of rap and hip-hop styles. It takes a while for all the dots to connect but when they do this is a compulsive, engaging album with something to say about Black culture. King Creosote From Scotland With Love With one of his most ambitious albums yet, Kenny ‘King Creosote’ Anderson reflects on Scotland’s past. Sometimes peppy, oftentimes reflective, it’s a languid, enjoyable listen. Leonard Cohen Popular Problems Leonard Cohen is 80 years young and…

Noise-cancelling Bose QuietComfort 25, £270 Noisy commute? Noisy workplace? That’s where the QuietComfort 25s come into play. Flick the switch and the world goes eerily silent. Whereas other noise-cancelling cans can struggle with eliminating consistent noises (or just sharp, loud ones), the QuietComforts manage to nip most of the outside world in the bud. Rest assured they excel with playback too, having little to no problems with any genre you throw at them. Wireless Philips Fidelio M2BT, £185 Wireless is improving, though it’s not quite the match of a wired connection, Philips’ M2BTs show that the gap is reducing bit by bit. The obvious benefit is not tangled cables but the M2BTs ease of use (the controls are built into the right ear pad) makes it more intuitive than…

For those of us that consider themselves a music lover, albeit to different degrees, we are part of a very fortunate generation. We now have access to an ever-growing wealth of recorded music of extraordinary range and depth, effectively accumulated over the last 60 years. With the introduction of the microgroove LP record in the early 1950's, playback quality took a quantum leap forward and this also coincided with a far higher standard of recording techniques. Although further improvements have been made over the years, this was a watershed time that first introduced hi-fi as a reality. We now have literally millions of recorded music tracks available to us in all genres and many different formats. One trend over recent years, however, has been to deliberately downgrade the quality in…

These carry audio signal from source to amplifier, or between pre-amplifier and power amplifier. Some use a shielding construction to reduce external electrical interference The shortlist Wireworld Luna 7 06.14 Group Test “There’s no brightness or sharpness to speak of and although weighty, there’s no suggestion that bass notes sound overblown.” QED Reference Audio 40 06.14 Group Test “The Reference Audio 40 looks like a serious stereo interconnect. Build quality and feel are very reassuring.” Atlas Element Integra Awards 2014: Best Analogue Interconnect “There’s nothing to dislike here: the Element Integra is highly recommended as a first upgrade.” Also consider To subscribe call 0844 848 8813 or email: whathifi@servicehelpline.co.uk…

Many stands are hollow and can be filled with sand or other similar heavy materials. This is to increase mass and dampening and the sonic benefit is tighter bass – although too much of it can be counter-productive and end up deadening the sound The shortlist Custom Design FS104 Signature £200 Q Acoustics Concept 20 speaker stands £200 Atacama Moseco 6 Awards 2014: Best speaker stands Also consider “While £300 may seem a lot of money to spend on stands – especially such industrial looking ones – in the case of the Dreadnought Broadsides it’s worth it ”August 2008…

Panasonic TX4 0CX680B First test p24 “Living proof that 4K looks superb on a small screen. You heard it here first” Becky Roberts Staff writer Tannoy Kensington GR Temptation p70 “Huge speakers with retro styling and plenty of sonic charm” Ketan Bharadia Technical editor Samsung Galaxy S6 Supertest p41 “A host of great multimedia features makes this phone from Samsung easily one of the year’s best” Ced Yuen News editor Chord 2Qute First test p23 “Chord’s latest DAC once again sets the standard – it’s a fantastic piece of kit” Kashfia Kabir First Tests editor Sony STR DN860 First test p6 “Sony’s budget AV receivers keep going from strength to strength, and this £400 amp is certainly proof of that” Verity Burns Multimedia editor Burmester MC151 Temptation p74 “Where high-end…

It’s easy to get lost in the hubbub surrounding the future of television. OLED, UHD and HDR: impressive and exciting acronyms, but we shouldn’t forget that existing TV tech is still very good. After all, Full HD has been the standard for years. Both quality and price have been thoroughly honed. Quality in the mid-range Take the Sony KDL65W855C. It’s a midrange model in Sony’s 2015 range. It ‘only’ has an 1080p LED display, but it’s rather good. The video performance is impressive enough to hold your attention. We begin in Full HD with a Blu-ray of Birdman, where Michael Keaton is levitating in his dressing room. It’s a clean, sharp picture. The clutter and brickwork in the room are solidly defined, and there’s little noise to speak of. We’d…

The TX40CX680B will offer Freeview Play – a rebranded and renovated Freeview – when it launches later this year. For now, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and YouTube provide hours of 4K material and, of course, endless amounts of regular-resolution programming. You’ll also find that stacks of apps – Deezer, TuneIn Radio and Eurosport Player among them – can be installed via the app market. Another new feature is Info Frame, which sparks up navigation bars to access local weather, recommended content, notifications, and channels so you can scroll through them without disrupting what you’re watching.…

In the immediate aftermath of the Apple Music announcement, the internet was awash with negativity – equal parts indifference, disappointment and ridicule. The commentators have a point – very little about Apple Music is genuinely fresh. And yet, it might just revolutionise the industry. Apple’s greatest strength is not its inventions, rather its capacity to rework existing ideas before using its considerable resources to maximise reach. It’s a strategy that worked with MP3 players, tablets and smartphones, which all went stratospheric after the Apple treatment. Now history looks set to repeat itself with music. User engagement will be the easy part. As of April 2014, Apple boasted 800 million iTunes accounts, all with immediate access to Apple Music. iTunes could be the most effective Trojan Horse ever. As for the…

Sometimes you just don’t need the latest flagship smartphone with lasers and fingerprint scanners crammed into gleaming bodies of aluminium and ion-strengthened glass. Sometimes you’d be prepared to settle for something simpler. That’s especially the case if somebody promises you much of the good stuff for very little money. We’re talking about the Acer Liquid Jade Z, which offers some fancy electronics for just £150. Is it too good to be true? Slippery texture Unfortunately, yes it is. Despite being able to boast a 5in 720p screen and a 13-megapixel camera, this budget model is a bit disappointing. First impressions are not good. It’s a mess of a design, with a brushed effect on the plastic back that will convince nobody it is made of metal. It doesn’t feel great…

If you want a lot of tech for not a huge amount of money, this smartphone could be the one. Honor – basically Huawei operating under a more Eurocentric label – seems to have designed a smartphone based entirely on a checklist. With a big screen, capacious battery, fancy camera and powerful processor, the Honor 6+ should be right at the top of the pile. But chasing specification is a dangerous game, and this is an example of how plenty of ticked boxes don’t always amount to a great product. A nod to the iPhone They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. In that case, Apple should be blushing severely right now, because the Honor 6+ is clearly a big fan. The design looks essentially like a…

What does it take for a flagship smartphone to stand out these days? A fast processor, a high-resolution screen and a powerful camera are all on the shopping list, but if you want to be really noticed you have to do something special. The LG G4 is special because its blend of features and design is unique. It has a leather back – genuine, vegetable-tanned, full-grain leather, not the imitation stuff we saw from Samsung. Fancy wallet The result is not unlike fondling a fancy wallet, and the vibe is premium enough to make us forget the plastic edges. Don’t want cowhide on your phone? That’s fine – you can pay a little less and get the device in ceramic (white) or metallic plastic (silver or gold). Another unusual design…

LG BP350 £80 Plays Blu-ray, DVD, CD • Outputs HDMI, USB • Inputs Optical • Decoding DTS HD Master Audio, Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital Plus • Dimensions (hwd) 4 x 27 x 19cm • Weight 0.9kg Panasonic DMP-BDT170£90 Plays Blu-ray, DVD, CD, MP3, DVDR/-RW • Outputs HDMI • Inputs USB • Decoding DTS HD Master Audio, Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital Plus • Dimensions (hwd) 4 x 29 x 22cm • Weight 1kg Samsung BDJ- 5500 £90 Plays Blu-ray, DVD, CD, MP3, DVDR/-RW • Outputs HDMI • Inputs USB • Decoding DTS HD Master Audio, Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital Plus • Dimensions (hwd) 4 x 21 x 18cm • Weight 1kg Sony BDPS-4500 £75 Plays Blu-ray, DVD, CD, MP3, DVDR/-RW • Outputs HDMI, coaxial • Inputs USB • Decoding DTS HD Master Audio, Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital Plus • Dimensions (hwd) 4 x 23 x 19cm…

Popular, compressed format ensures small file size, but not the best sound quality. Convenient for storing music on smartphones An alternative to MP3, it’s still lossy and compressed but sounds better. Used for iTunes downloads (at 256kbps) and YouTube streaming The standard 16-bit/44.1kHz format all CDs are encoded in. Good quality, but huge, huge file sizes. Poor metadata support Lossless compression format supports high-resolution sample rates, takes up much less space than WAV and stores metadata Apple’s own lossless compression format does hi-res, stores metadata and takes up half the space of WAV. iTunes-friendly alternative to FLAC The format used for Super Audio CDs. It comes in 2.8mHz and 5.6mHz varieties, but isn’t widely supported elsewhere…

Blackhat Handsome hacker Chris Hemsworth goes on a worldwide hunt for a cyber-terrorist. Michael Mann’s latest is more Windows Vista than Mac OS. Focus Will Smith and Margot Robbie are glamorous con artists. There are far too many plot twists, none of them particularly clever or, er, focused. Last Knights Morgan Freeman and Clive Owen try their best, but even they can’t hack and slash they way through this number of clichés, frowns and yawns. Project Almanac Teenagers and time travel. It’s a fairly fresh take but there’s not enough plot, and the whole found-footage schtick is really getting old now.…

Movies (Blu-ray) X-Men: Days of Future Past, Rogue Cut (13th July) We loved it the first time, it had very little Anna Paquin. Now there’s 10 minutes of her, plus new X-tras. Movies (Cinema) Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (30th July) Tom Cruise continues to run a lot. This time, fancy antics include hanging off the side of a plane. Music (Download, CD, vinyl) Little Boots – Working Girl (10th July) Well this could go one of two ways – fingers crossed it goes the ‘superior electro-pop’ route, eh? (Download, CD, vinyl) Tame Impala – Currents (17th July) Our favourite Australian psych/prog/ stoner band are back, as fuzzy and phase-y as ever.…

What’s in a name? You’ve heard of bookshelf speakers, right? The name is a misnomer. They’re not meant to be placed on an actual bookshelf and that goes for most speakers. Place them on a rickety support and performance will degrade because of a lack of rigidity and resonances. Speakers need a steady and robust support, so invest in a pair of speaker stands. Bear in mind that no one stand will work well with all speakers. Find what works for you. Toe the line What is speaker toe-in? Simply the degree at which a speaker is angled in towards the listener. Some manufacturers have specific angles but it’s your ears that’ll notice the difference. Play a snippet of a track you know and tweak the toe-in by shifting your…

Ear tips Most in-ears come with these. Experiment with size to get the best fit In-line remote Mostly for Apple devices, but Android-friendly units are increasing. Handy… The shortlist SoundMagic E10S Awards 2014: Best in-ears up to £50 “The SoundMagic E10Ses punch well above their weight in terms of sound quality.” Sennheiser M2 IEi £90 “Sennheiser’s Momentum range has made a real impact and it’s fair to say the latest addition delivers on all fronts.” Shure SE425 Awards 2014: Best in-ears £150-£300 “The SE425s sound fun, absorbing, classy, polished and captivating.” Also consider…

SOUTH Ashford, Kent SOUNDCRAFT HI-FI 40 High Street.t: 01233 624441www.soundcrafthifi.com Chelmsford RAYLEIGH HI-FI SOUND& VISION 216 Moulsham Street.t: 01245 265245www.rayleighhifi.com Kingston-upon-Thames INFIDELITY 9 High Street,Hampton Wick.t: 020 8943 3530www.infidelity.co.uk Maidenhead AUDIO VENUE 36 Queen Street.t: 01628 633995www.audiovenue.com Norwich MARTINS HI-FI 85-91 Ber Street.t: 01603 627134www.martinshifi.co.uk Rayleigh RAYLEIGH HI-FI 44a High Street.t: 01268 779762www.rayleighhifi.com Southend-on-Sea RAYLEIGH HI-FI SOUND& VISION 132/4 London Road.t: 01702 435255www.rayleighhifi.com LONDON Ealing AUDIO VENUE 27 Bond Street.t: 020 8567 8703www.audiovenue.com N1 GRAHAMS HI-FI 190a New North Road.t: 020 7226 5500www.grahams.co.uk SW11 ORANGES & LEMONS 61/63 Webbs Road.t: 020 7924 2040www.oandlhifi.co.uk SOUTH WEST Bath AUDIENCE 14 Broad Street.t: 01225 333310www.audience.org.uk Cinderford CERITECH AUDIO 1 Pavilion Business Park,Speculation Road.t: 01600 716362www.ceritech-audio.co.uk Exeter GULLIFORD HI-FI 97 Sidwell Street.t: 01392 491194www.gullifordhifi.co.uk MIDLANDS Banbury OVERTURE 3 Church Lane.t: 01295 272158www.overture.co.uk Coventry…

Stereo amplifier Rega Brio-R £480 It has a basic feature set but performance-wise this amp can unearth the hidden subtleties within a track as well as deftly communicate its rhythm and agility. Hi-fi speaker Triangle Espirt Titus EZ £600 The distinguishing characteristic of the Tituses is their articulate, enthusiastic presentation. Give them time to run in and they’ll serve you well. Speaker stands Q Acoustics Concept 20 £200 The Concept 20’s are a good fit here with their layer of compliant compound that dampens unwanted resonances and converts them into heat energy.…