Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2019 i Hi-Fi Choice

The arrival of Amazon Music HD couldn‘t have come at a better time. Just as we were preparing the list of contenders for this month‘s lossless streaming services shoot out, news of its introduction popped into our in box. For reasons best known to itself, Amazon refers to lossless CD-quality content as HD and calls anything better Ultra HD, but after a check over its credentials, a place was secured in our six-way lossless streaming services Group Test starting on p24. With Amazon Music HD already being incorporated into the BluOS platform, the lossless arrival looks set to give the sector a shake up, thanks in part to its remarkably competitive pricing. Could it really be the global superbrand that‘s the one to meaningfully deliver high-quality audio to greater audiences…

SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM POST THIS FORM TO: Hi-Fi CHOICE SUBSCRIPTIONS, MY TIME MEDIA LTD, 3 QUEENSBRIDGE, THE LAKES, NORTHAMPTON, NN4 7BF. HURRY OFFER CLOSES 6TH NOVEMBER 2019 PRINT + DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION 13 Issues delivered to your door Great savings on the shop price Download each new issue to your device A 75% discount on your Digital subscription Access your subscription on multiple devices PRINT SUBSCRIPTION 13 Issues delivered to your door Great savingson the shop price Never miss an issue SUBSCRIBE TODAY SAVE 75% ON YOUR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION* IN EVERY ISSUE: Reviews of all the latest turntables, amplifiers, loudspeakers, DACs, CD players, streamers and Hi-Fi accessories. Plus: group tests, music reviews, opinions, news and all your Hi-Fi woes answered TERMS & CONDITIONS: Offer ends 6th November 2019. *This digital discount…

ATC transducer/R&D engineer ES: How did you decide on the three-quarter width casework for the new units? RN: We wanted it to appeal to a wider customer base and affordability and a compact chassis were two features highlighted to achieve this goal. The three-quarter size is large enough for the 100W stereo power amp (that could not be compromised) and has a significantly smaller footprint than the traditional 430mm case. The SIA2-100 uses an evolution of a long-running ATC amplifier circuit. Are you still finding improvements and refinements to the basic design even after all this time? The ATC output stage is continually in development and small improvements are always being investigated. Aside from the DAC, major leaps were mainly made in the input and output gain stages. These are…

Amazon had given no inkling at all that it was planning on making the move into lossless and hi-res audio before it announced the Music HD service in mid-September. The company claims the service offers “over 50-million tracks” available in lossless (which it confusingly calls “HD”) or hi-res (which with a certain logic of its own is called “Ultra HD”). To its credit, though, Amazon does a few useful things with its Music HD library. Material that is in hi-res is clearly marked with an ‘Ultra HD’ logo and there is usually (although intriguingly not always) information on the sample rate it is in, too. Unfortunately, there’s no USB management in the desktop app and all sound is routed via your computer’s operating system, although in practise this seems to…

Deezer has apps for both iOS and Android, and these are very close to the desktop version in terms of their basic layout and functionality, which makes using them a logical and straightforward experience. The result is very pleasant in use, but has the significant downside of being limited to 320kbps MP3 instead. This doesn’t really impede convenience, although audiophiles that are interested in music on the move might want to look elsewhere. Rather better news is that Deezer is natively supported by a significant range of brands, while the lossless tier is readily accessible too. The only catch for many of these integrated apps is that some of the cleverer bits of the Flow functionality are not accessible via the cut-down interface they tend to use. Of course, with…

Starting out life as an online store selling downloads, Primephonic has since moved towards streaming and no longer offers downloads. The result is, according to Primephonic at least – the largest specialist classical music streaming site in the world with access to “over one-million tracks”. As you might expect, there is a high degree of repetition, although conductor, orchestra and venue can vary wildly. Impressive though this undoubtedly is, there is a lack of content from modern classical artists such as Nils Frahm while film scores feel a little under represented. The library is available in a mixture of 16/44.1 and what it claims are “high-resolution” sample rates, but the app doesn’t make it clear what the format or resolution is for the track that’s playing. Neither is this the…

Qobuz has long had decent apps for both iOS and Android devices, which closely mirror the desktop version. Mobile audiophiles will appreciate the clear marking of hi-res material and the sample rate, which can be switched off in favour of MP3 320kbps streams for when you need to preserve your data allowance. The biggest changes for Qobuz in the last year have been in terms of third-party integration. More brands have come on board with native support for the service and, thanks to the native nature of the files, there are fewer caveats to accessing hi-res content than via Tidal’s MQA format. Most importantly, Qobuz is now compatible with Roon music management so will seamlessly integrate with a Roon subscription to gather content together in one place. As this had…

Founder, Norma Audio CW: The design pays a lot of attention to power supplies, current delivery and extended bandwidth. Why is this important? ER: Music, like all life, is energy and information. With limited energy, only limited results are achieved. Current, power, bandwidth, capacity and power are different points of view of a single larger concept. Tell us more about your approach to circuit design, components and relay switching? Everything that is in the signal path is crucial. The beauty and emotion we want to reproduce is so subtle (but clearly perceptible) that nothing should be allowed to contaminate it. The quality we seek is very ‘shy’, and it must be looked after with love. Sometimes highly musical amps measure poorly and amps that measure well can sound weaker. What…

When it comes to cleaning up your purchases, you can ditch the elbow grease and let a state-of-the-art record cleaning machine do the hard work for you. They’re good for secondhand vinyl, but new records can also benefit not least because of the mould-release agent in the grooves. Here are four of the best to consider PRO-JECT VC-S £300 HFC 410 HENLEYAUDIO.CO.UK This record-cleaner (pictured above) is rather more affordable than many of its rivals. It spins the record in both directions to ensure that all the cleaning fluid is properly removed and has a motor that is claimed to spin faster than many of its competitors. There’s a high-power vacuum unit that can dry the disc in just two rotations. The dirty solution that is removed from the record’s…

CHORD ELECTRONICS HUGO M SCALER £3,500 The Hugo M Scaler uses a Watts Time Aligned (WTA) filter that is over a million ‘taps’ (tapped output filter) long in order to process and upsample incoming digital signals before passing them to a matching Chord Electronics DAC via twin BNC connectors. CHORD ELECTRONICS HUGO TT2 £4,000 The successor to the original ‘Table Top’ version of the Hugo, the TT2 is a combined DAC and preamp with adjustable filters and the ability to act as a headphone amp as well. It also makes use of a custom-programmed FPGA with its own WTA filter. CHORD ELECTRONICS TTOBY £2,900 The TToby is a power amplifier rated at 2x 100W that matches the style and size of the TT2 DAC while still embodying the design philosophy…

The Fellini Album La Scala Philharmonic Riccardo Chailly CD Decca HOT PICK A GENEROUS SELECTION of music from several Fellini films, including Amarcord, Otto e Mezzo, La Dolce Vita, Clowns and Casanova. Chailly and his orchestra play these colourful decadent scores to the manner born. The performances are extremely good – bright, lively and wholly idiomatic. There’s a relaxed ease about the playing that’s very winning – as though everyone loved the music, and knew exactly how it should be delivered. Rarely does a ‘classical’ band swing like this. Decca’s recording is forward and lively, with plenty of bite. Clarity is excellent while crisp balances create a convincing sense of ‘cinematic’ immediacy. More please!…

Sarathy Korwar More Arriving 180g vinyl Leaf Label HOT PICK DRUMMER SARATHY KORWAR’S third album sets out the challenges that are currently being faced by what he describes as the “brown working class” in Britain today and does so in such a way as to make even the most hardened anti-immigrant think again about the way of the world. Korwar has gathered the velvet-gloved fists of the finest young Asian poets and placed them in musical settings that perfectly compliment their sad yet powerful words. The music is played on baritone sax, keyboards, synths and a rich variety of percussion with impressively bombastic backing for the first two tracks, which are sonically powerful but rather lack the impact of quieter numbers such as Bol where Zia Ahmed and Aditya Prakash run…

IX Herbert Blomstedt Bamberg Symphony Orchestra 2x CDs Accentus Music INTENSE, EDGY, ANGUISHED, death-haunted; Mahler‘s 9 is not exactly easy listening. Yet this sane well-proportioned account reminds us this music still casts its spell. In the outer movements especially, Blomstedt’s clear-sighted rational objectivity radiates a Zen-like calm – worlds apart from the anguished pain others bring forth. The orchestra plays marvellously, and the recording sounds superbly open and natural, with excellent separation and lots of fine detail. The frantic bustling counterpoint of the Rondo-Burlesque is clarified as never before. But, with a total timing of 83m 28s, it could have gone on a single CD.…

Tim Chorlton, Divine Audio Ltd., reveals the music that he uses to demo and develop new products Mr. Bungle Mr. Bungle A disconcerting, schizophrenic tour through just about any rock style the group can think of, hopping from genre to genre without any apparent rhyme or reason. Firehose Flyin’ The Flannel One of the great lost rock gems of the nineties, opener Down With The Bass is a Mike Watt tribute to his four string, while the band rocks out throughout. Nirvana Bleach Cut for about $600 over a matter of days, this captures Nirvana at a formative stage with Kurt Cobain illustrating signs of his song craft, particularly on the dense churn of Blew. Butthole Surfers Locust Abortion Technician Veers from heavy Sabbath sludge to grungy noise rock, prog…

Quartets Nos. 15 Quatuor Voce CD Alpha TO CELEBRATE ITS 15th anniversary, Quatuor Voce presents the 15th numbered string quartets of Mozart and Schubert. Thus we hear the second of Mozart’s six ‘Haydn’ Quartets followed by Schubert’s final string quartet in G Major. The performances are sophisticated and technically polished. With a relaxed minuet and trio movement, the Mozart is serene and sensitive while the Schubert quartet shows greater passion and intensity. The detailed recorded sound has a delightfully intimate chamber music perspective and the only reservation is that the lower midrange is somewhat thick and coloured.…

Concerti Grossi Op. 6 Nos. 1-6 Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin Bernhard Forck SACD Pentatone HANDEL’S 12 CONCERTI Grossi Op. 6 represents high-Baroque orchestral music at its finest that no collection is complete without. This presents the first six concertos of the opus. The performances are very good; technically strong and interpretively well considered, they stand up well against recordings by Pinnock, Hogwood and Gester. The surround mix presents a soupy pool of orchestral colour; over reverberant, with very ill-defined bass. The stereo mix has slightly better focus. In contrast, Pinnock’s recording on Archiv, for example, has far better clarity and is much preferred.…

Sinematic CD Universal INSPIRED BY YEARS of composing music for Martin Scorsese’s movies, the first solo album by the former leader of The Band in eight years finds him exploring the dark side. I Hear You Paint Houses finds him duetting with Van Morrison on a chilling lyric about a hired killer and moody, mid-tempo songs such as Shanghai Blues, Street Serenade and The Shadow are similarly full of death and destruction. It’s not all villainy and vice, though. There’s a Lennon-inspired plea for peace on Let Love Reign and his stellar guitar playing takes centre stage on the epic, string-laden instrumental, Remembrance.…

Blue World HOT PICK Vinyl Impulse THE TERM ‘RE-RECORDING’ often signals an artist creating carbon copies of hits to make a quick buck, but these tracks came about as a movie soundtrack in 1964 with only a fraction ever actually used. The original tapes were given a meticulous clean up and the result sounds wonderful. The quartet’s exquisite chemistry is showcased beautifully on the title track, taking its time to arrive at its joyful conclusion while Like Sonny is agile in its unexpected twists and loops and leaves you in no doubt that the saxophone was always destined to go to new places in Coltrane’s hands.…

PRICE: £6,000 TELEPHONE: 0141 4284008 WEB: fyneaudio.com REVIEWED: HFC 450 Physically imposing, there’s more to the F702 than just a fine finish and huge cabinet. The three drive units are key to its sound, not just in what they are but how they are arranged. The lion’s share of the work is done by the 200mm IsoFlare point-source driver, which is a coaxial treble and mid/bass unit and works with a 200mm multi-fibre bass driver. The upper IsoFlare has at its heart a 25mm magnesium dome compression tweeter with neodymium magnet system and a multi-fibre mid/bass cone with a special FyneFlute surround. The 2.5-way system crosses over at 1.7kHz and 250Hz respectively, using a passive low-loss crossover with second order low-pass and first order high-pass filtering. Sound quality The most obvious and…

PRICE: £4,000 TELEPHONE: 01268 740580 WEB: monitoraudio.com REVIEWED: HFC 453 The Gold 300 deploys a brace of 203mm Rigid Diaphragm Technology (RDT II) mid/bass drivers wired in series and working in conjunction with the rear-facing twin HiVe II bass reflex ports to go seriously deep (claiming down to 30Hz at-6dB). Each driver sandwiches a thin C-CAM, nomex honeycomb core and a woven carbon fibre back skin to form a cone that’s rigid and stiff yet light. Dedicated to the midrange is a dinky 64mm C-CAM driver that’s fast and responsive enough to team seamlessly with the with the ribbon-style tweeter. Crossover components include bespoke polypropylene film capacitors, air-core and low-loss laminated steel-core inductors. Sound quality It quickly becomes clear that the Gold 300 possesses formidable Hi-Fi smarts. This could have something to…

CAIG DEOXIT GOLD £7 TELEPHONE: 01733 350878 WEBSITE: analogueseduction.net TESTED: HFC 449 Almost certainly one of the best-value upgrades going, applying a dab of DeoxIT Gold to speaker contacts results in a cleaner, smoother, more open sound. TOWNSHEND AUDIO SEISMIC ISOLATION PODIUM FROM £1,400 TELEPHONE: 0208 9792155 WEBSITE: townshendaudio.com TESTED: HFC 426 Stunning speaker isolation that not only removes the cabinet’s interaction with its surroundings, but also tightens bass, reduces boom and sharpens focus. VIABLUE QTC £96.80 FOR FOUR WEBSITE: viablue.de/com TESTED: HFC 453 Compatible with M8 threaded bolts (an adapter is supplied for M6), using these spikes results in a quieter noisefloor, improved dynamics and less colouration. CHORD COMPANY ODYSSEY X £30 PER METRE PLUS £120 FOR BANANA PLUGS TELEPHONE: 01980 625700 WEBSITE: chord.co.uk TESTED: HFC 451 Designed to bring more control to dynamics,…

UK importer Russ Andrews has announced a new line of Kimber Kable Carbon interconnects and speaker cables as the US specialist continues to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Designed to deliver natural sound, Kimber Carbon’s braided construction interconnects come in 0.5, 0.75 and 1m lengths fitted with WBT 0114 CU RCA or XLR plugs priced at £525, £580 and £635 respectively – silver-plated RCA plugs are an optional extra costing £110. Kimber Carbon 18 XL loudspeaker cable employs two geometries inside the familiar braided construction with prices starting at £2,870 for a 1m pair up to £6,734 for a 4.5m pair. Each cable is hand assembled and fitted with WBT-0610Cu 4mm plugs and is supplied in a bespoke wooden case. RUSSANDREWS.COM…

“A chain,” so claims Artisan Silver Cables, “is only as strong as its weakest link” and network cables are no exception. Enter the new Ultimate Silver Network Ethernet solution for hooking up streaming devices to deliver ultra-low jitter replay. Featuring eight 26AWG individually insulated pure silver conductors that are arranged in the company’s signature noise-rejecting braided configuration, the Ultimate Silver Network is designed to keep interference to the absolute minimum. The cables are fully shielded, utilise high-end RJ45 connectors produced by Telegartner and claim to deliver transparency and tonal accuracy. They’re available in lengths ranging from 0.5m for £299, all the way up to 4.5m at £799. ARTISANSILVERCABLES.CO.UK…

DETAILS PRODUCT ATC SIA2-100/CD2 ORIGIN UK TYPE Integrated amplifier/CD player WEIGHT 9.7kg (amp) 4.2kg (CD player) DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 315 x 113 x 315mm (amp) (WxHxD) 315 x 77 x 315mm (CD player) FEATURES • Claimed power output: 2x 100W (8ohm) • Inputs: 2x stereo RCAs; 1x coaxial; 1x optical; 1x USB-B port (amp) • Outputs: 1x stereo RCAs; 1x stereo XLRs; 1x coaxial; 1x optical (CD player) DISTRIBUTOR ATC Loudspeaker Technology Ltd. TELEPHONE 01285 760561 WEBSITE atcloudspeakers.co.uk Probably best known for its loudspeakers, ATC has also made a small range of electronics for many years (see Branching out, overleaf). As many of the speakers it sells are active models, the company knows its way around amplifiers and has taken this expertise and constructed a range of integrated, pre and power…

Unique group tests Our Group Tests are supported by rigorous and exhaustive listening tests carried out by experts LOSSLESS STREAMING SERVICES GROUP TEST THE NATURE OF this test introduces some refinements to the way we’ve looked at streaming services previously. Firstly, given the specialist nature of Primephonic’s library, the decision is taken not to pick four classical tracks for our listening tests as this unfairly inhibits the other services and limits the breadth of different material that they make available. Furthermore, on a subjective level, it is easier to determine differences with other genres of music. Secondly, although historically we have run the tests with all services open at the same time, this time each is started individually and then shut down before moving onto the next to ensure they…

Amazon hasn’t become the force it has without knowing its way around apps, and Music HD has launched with iOS and Android ready to go. These aren’t especially ground breaking in any way, but are stable in use and logically laid out. There are some useful details, like being able to choose the streaming and download quality so the app won’t consume vast amounts of data or if you simply want to use it as a compressed service on the move. Amazon also announced at launch that Music HD is supported by the BluOS operating system and the long list of brands named suggests more will follow. The service can also be subscribed to at a discount via the company’s Alexa voice control speakers, at a discount price for Prime…

Hamburg-based High Res Audio began as a download store – a service it continues to offer – and added on-demand streaming last year. The focus is different to the other companies here in that everything arrives at 24/44.1 or higher. By necessity, this means the amount of material available is less than elsewhere, but since we first tested it over a year ago in HFC 440, the library has grown by over 14,000 albums. There is a good spread of material across all major genres although, given the focus on quality, classical and jazz are more heavily represented. The top-tier annual subscription (£230) includes a discount on purchases from the store, which is useful although the lack of a pay monthly option will put some subscribers off. The desktop app…

There are dedicated apps available for both iOS and Android, and while they share some of the frustrations of the web browser app – principally, the inability to see what material is in hi-res and what isn’t – the layout, speed and stability are extremely good. The same carefully broken down search results are available here too and you can also choose the maximum bandwidth for mobile and wireless streaming separately, which is handy. More of an issue is that at the time of writing, Primephonic’s third-party integration is limited to the point of nonexistence. There are ways around this as Chromecast can handle anything on the site while an iPad with AirPlay or AirPlay2 will support up to 16/44.1 via the iOS app, and is quite possibly the most…

This was the first lossless streaming service in the UK, although it was originally known as WIMP. Back then it was strictly a 16/44.1 service with a compressed option, then Tidal introduced hi-res Masters content in early 2017. The total library is currently quoted at “over 50-million tracks” with a healthy percentage available as Master files. It has dabbled with selling downloads over the years, but currently this option is being ignored. Master files have a sample rate between 24/44.1 and 24/192 and use MQA encoding, which Tidal says improves the streaming efficiency (although this doesn’t translate to easily measurable savings in bandwidth usage on test). These can be sent natively to an MQA-capable decoding device or ‘unpacked’ in the app itself. Anything designated a Masters file is marked with…

PLAYBACK SOFTWARE: Roon $119/year HFC 448 roon Qobuz is one of the services that Roon supports full integration with, meaning that you can combine your favourites with your existing library for a truly superb browsing and control experience that makes even very large libraries a joy to use. NETWORK MUSIC SYSTEM: NAD M10 £2,200 HFC 451 The M10 supports almost all the streaming services here and generally sounds excellent with each. This one-box system offers a truly outstanding combination of performance, functionality and aesthetics, and represents superb value for money. STANDMOUNT LOUDSPEAKER: Dynaudio Special Forty £2,500 HFC 434 It might not look terribly clever (although it is undeniably exceptionally handsome), but the Dynaudio is one of the best standmounts available at or anywhere near the price, delivering a performance that…

Such is the similarity in appearance between components in Auralic’s G1 and G2 series, you could mistakenly look at the images accompanying this review and think we’re rehashing something that’s already been covered. Despite the visual similarity, the Altair G1 is new and has a different role to the Aries G1 streaming transport (HFC 441) and Vega G1 streaming DAC (HFC 449). While they are designed to work together or – in the case of the Aries G1 – bring Auralic’s front end to another decoding system, the Altair is more of a standalone front end. This means that it is specified a little differently to its G1 brethren. As well as a UPnP streaming module that can be used wired or wirelessly, it offers four digital inputs; an optical,…

As the successor to the popular GT40a DAC/ADC/phono stage/headphone amplifier (HFC 399), Furutech’s Alpha Design Labs Stratos supports even higher PCM resolutions for its DAC as well as playback of files up to DSD256. The GT40a was known as the Swiss army knife of audio components, and the same can be said of the Stratos, which also sports DAC, ADC, phono stage and headphone amplifier capabilities but with a more up-to-date spec, 15V DC wall-wart power supply and USB-Ato-USB-B interface cable. Built around an ESS ES9018K2M SABRE32 Reference Stereo DAC, it supports PCM data rates up to 32-bit/384kHz together with support for DSD64, DSD128 and DSD256 where the corresponding resolution is highlighted by the rows of LEDs indicating 2.8M, 5.6M or 11.2M respectively. The internal DAC makes use of the…

Now that the 3.5mm headphone jack is firmly on the endangered species list, manufacturers have been working flat out to ensure that not only do their products function without one, but they also offer all the bells and whistles that come with a state of the art Bluetooth connection. Sennheiser has had a wireless member of its Momentum family for some years, but the latest addition adds some useful extra functionality. The Momentum Wireless has Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX and AAC codec support and is built around a pair of 42mm drivers offering a claimed frequency response of 6Hz to 22kHz. It will additionally support wired connection via a USB-C port and 3.5mm jack socket. The Momentum also benefits from Sennheiser’s active noise-cancelling system with three modes including a voice…

Want to know the difference between Mint and Milty, and sweat and mould? Don’t be bamboozled by the former and horrified by the latter – we’re here to help. Simon Berkovitch draws on his past experience of years behind the record shop counter to demystify the technobabble that comes with the territory of vinyl grail questing. Let the lesson commence CHISEL Not a tool of the trade. Old-school record-shop slang for the action of a record shopper, usually found lurking in bargain basements, who is after the cheapest, marked-down vinyl or sniffing fing out mis-priced LPs, usually buying in bulk. See also: chiselling and chiseller. DEAD STOCK Records that were never sold at the time. Often warehoused, often still-factory sealed and often still with the original price stickers on. Usually…

CD Universal IN TIMES OF doubt and despair, we’ve often relied on Elbow for those heart-bursting, life-affirming moments of communal uplift on blissful songs such as One Day Like This and First Steps – the anthem the group wrote for the London Olympics. Over seven fine studio albums from their 2001 debut Asleep In The Back through to 2008’s Mercury Award-winning The Seldom Seen Kid to 2017’s Little Fictions, Elbow has crafted an epic style without descending into bombast, a kind of thinking person’s stadium-rock – the only band in the land capable of combining the avant-garde cerebralism of Radiohead with the melodic populism of Coldplay. So let us begin with a health warning. Elbow’s eighth studio album is cut from more sombre-hued cloth, a soundtrack for these “hope-free, faith-free, charity-free…

Somebody‘s Knocking CD Heavenly THE REVERED EX-SCREAMING Trees frontman is back with yet another album, once again proving that he‘s one of the most enduring and prolific singer-songwriters in all of rock. An expert in melancholic, gravel-voiced rock and Americana, Somebody‘s Knocking is something a little different for Lanegan. It‘s much more of a straight-forward, poppier and accessible sound, with Lanegan‘s own vocals heavily processed to give them an almost eighties sheen. Riffs shimmer and there‘s even some drum machines thrown in for good measure. Stitch Up, meanwhile, is pure Screaming Trees-era catchy garage rock. Good stuff…

American Dream FLAC 24/96 hdtracks.co.uk YOU CAN ALWAYS bet on James Murphy‘s LCD Sound-system to provide the perfect blend of electronic dance music and indie rock. Here, he displays his usual skill for pulling different influences from all over the musical tree. Other Voices might be a 21st-century Talking Heads, complete with a driving, funky bassline, I Used To could well be Talk Talk and Tonite is an electronic dancefloor mover. All in all it‘s a fabulously diverse and danceable album.…

Pan-American Reflections The Orchestra Of The Americas Carlos Miguel Prieto CD Linn WITH ITS FINALE based on the slightly earlier Fanfare For The Common Man, Copland’s Symphony No.3 is one of his most impressive works. Brief and packed with rhythmical vitality, Symphony No.2 ‘Sinfonía India’ is the best-known work by the Mexican Carlos Chávez. The performances are dramatic and committed, if at times somewhat technically insecure. The recorded sound is very good, but a bit tonally bright. Detail and clarity are excellent and the dynamic range is thrilling. The weighty, yet natural bass is especially impressive. The soundstage is very open, if just a little over wide.…

highresaudio.com unveils Michael Janisch’s Worlds Collide and Le Consort’s Opus 1: Dandrieu, Corelli, while Ry Cooder’s Chávez Ravine (2019 Remaster), Miles Davis’ Rubberband and Chrissie Hynde & The Valve Bone Woe Ensemble’s Valve Bone Woe are available as MQA. hdtracks.co.uk has Sheryl Crow’s Threads, Uppsala 1971 by Duke Ellington and Ray Charles’ glorious Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music, Vols 1 & 2.…

Memory Streams CD Gondwana Records DRAWING DEEP FROM the well of ambient, classical, jazz and electronica, Memory Streams retreads familiar ground for anyone that’s heard the East-London Mercury prize-nominated quartet before. Taking in everything from Max Richter and Steve Reich to Bon Iver, this – the band’s fifth studio LP – continues the theme of minimalism with a jazz twist courtesy of sax, drums, bass and hang-drums. There’s more of a dancefloor stance than previous releases, but there’s no doubting the instant appeal of those swirling hypnotic rhythms.…

Soirée Sir Simon Rattle HOT PICK SACD Pentatone THEMED RECITAL DISCS with perplexing titles and links between eclectically chosen works are all the rage. Yet, for once, here is a recital that truly fascinates and satisfies. One suspects that star mezzo Magdalena Kožená and husband Sir Simon Rattle really put their heads together to craft the voice and chamber ensemble recital that is Soirée. Chausson, Brahms, Stravinsky, Ravel and Strauss are represented, but most intriguing are the delightful Czech songs by Dvorák and Janácek. The instrumentalists perform excellently but Kožená, with her ravishing and expressive voice, is the star of the show. The soundstage is a little inconsistent and the voice alters perspective slightly from work to work, but is always beautifully recorded. The piano is well presented, but the other…

Shhe Vinyl One Little Indian Records HOT PICK HAILING FROM SCOTLAND via Portugal, Su Shaw’s intriguing blend of atmospheric vocals and glitchy electronica makes for an impressive debut on this beguiling outing. With hints of St Vincent, Alison Goldfrapp and Arca, while still retaining a sound that’s uniquely her own, Shhe is a compelling listen. Whether or not the theme of questioning identity rings true to you as a listener is neither here nor there as you can’t help but get swept away by the fascinating mix of catchy melodies and emotive soundscapes. Glorious.…

With her backcombed blonde hair and generous applications of panda-eyed mascara, it was easy in the froth and bubble of the swinging sixties to regard Dusty Springfield as just another of the crop of British female pop stars famous enough to be known by their first names. There was Cilla singing Anyone Who Had A Heart, barefoot Sandie with Puppet On A String and Lulu winning Eurovision with the execrable Boom-Bang-ABang. Like Dusty, they all had a string of sixties hits, which earned each of them their own light entertainment TV series. Yet if you had ears to listen, the timeless quality and simmering passion of Springfield’s voluptuous voice could not have made her more different from her peers. If she was under appreciated in her lifetime, her death from…

Once you have your floorstanders correctly positioned (see Tuning your room HFC 452), you should consider the floor that you are standing them on. A good way of reducing the vibrations from your speakers being transmitted to your floor, and vice versa, is to use spikes fitted to the base. These will penetrate the carpet and sit on the floor underneath, which is fine if you have a concrete floor, but not so good if you have a polished wood surface. In this instance, you can fit spike shoes, which are typically discs of metal with a dimple in the middle to accommodate the spike and protect the floor. An alternative approach is to put the speaker on some form of isolation platform, such as Townshend’s Seismic Isolation Bars (pictured below), which…

PRICE: From £3,700 TELEPHONE: 07884 493425 WEB: kerracoustic.com REVIEWED: HFC 446 An unapologetic fan of transmission line speakers, Jes Kerr has employed a 165mm Scanspeak mid/bass driver with a wood-fibre cone in combination with a 60mm trueribbon tweeter for the K320. These are laced together at 1.95kHz with a six-element, second order (12dB/octave) crossover with selected components, hand soldered using point-to-point wiring. Claimed frequency response is 24Hz to 45kHz, sensitivity 90dB and nominal impedance 6ohm. Around the back is a pair of 4mm pure-copper binding posts and a treble level cut switch. Sound quality This excellent compact floorstander far exceeds expectations for the price – displaying a touch of the exotic that its rivals lack. The K320 illustrates just how impressive a well-done transmission line design can sound. The bottom end is…

PRICE: £5,000 TELEPHONE: 0151 6325180 WEB: ophidian.co.uk REVIEWED: HFC 451 Gareth James’ Ophidian Audio has arrived to give the big boys a shake up by creatively combining fine, bought-in ingredients and applying fresh thinking to old, established ideas. The P3 Evolution utilises three 150mm aluminium-coned drivers to cover the bass frequencies, leaving the 50mm fabric dome to do a spectacular number on the midrange before handing over to the 27mm Sonolex tweeter, which uses a coated fabric dome. The five drivers’ workloads are divided up three ways by a high-quality Mundorf crossover. A port system vents at the top of the rear baffle and there are single binding posts. Sound quality Play something densely layered and you’re swept along by the dynamic flow and rhythmic snap rather than getting snagged on incidental…

INTENDED TO MEET the demands that have arisen from connecting streamers and streaming head units to DACs and the need to provide them with an unadulterated signal, the Epic USB uses technology that debuted in Chord Co.’s more expensive Signature USB sibling. Key to this is the efforts that have gone into shielding the internals. Chord is relatively tight lipped about the nature of this insulation, but the outside of the cable is two-layer braided screen with a PTFE inner. Some tests running it coiled around a mains cable suggest that the composition is highly effectively at eliminating any incoming noise. The connectors employ Chord’s Ohmic technology and internally are silver-plated copper arranged in the company’s Tuned Array configuration where two of the four sets of cables are individually shielded.…

WHEN IT COMES to placing a standmount speaker it’s important to ensure that the cabinet is at the correct height to suit your listening position. Usefully, Atacama’s Apollo Cyclone series is available in three heights: the Cyclone 5 standing at 515mm, Cyclone 6 at 615mm and the Cyclone 7 at 715mm. For my listening room the Cyclone 6 is the best fit and neatly accommodates Tangent’s Spectrum X4 loudspeaker. Stand to attention The stand has a natural solid oak base – to minimise mechanical resonances – supporting a 51mm centrally located tube. The tube is available in either silk black or glazier white and the top is fitted with a 150mm wide and 200mm deep plate. A smaller optional 130 x 170mm plate is also available for more compact speakers.…

PRICE: £795-£2,995 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 01767 686300 WEB: MARTIN-LOGAN.CO.UK FOLLOWING THE ANNOUNCEMENT earlier this year that PMC is to handle distribution of MartinLogan in the UK, the Bedfordshire-based distributor wasted no time in unveiling the new Motion series lineup from the US loudspeaker specialist. Replacing the previous series, the new incarnation incorporates seven models and caters for stereo and multi-channel fans alike. Each speaker utilises the company’s Folded Motion tweeter, which is a lightweight, thin-film transducer design that claims a level of accuracy and delicacy more often associated with electrostatic speaker panels. This is partnered to the aluminium cone mid/bass driver fitted to the two-way 15i and 35TXi (pictured) standmounts priced at £795 and £1,195 respectively and the three-way 20i (£1,595), 40i (£1,995) and 60TXi (£2,995) floorstanders plus 30i (£695)…

Tickets On Sale Now www.hifishowlive.com Discover the smallest audiophile DAC/headphone amplifier at the UK Hi-Fi Show Live as AudioQuest demos its astonishing DragonFly Cobalt with a selection of different high-end headphones. Its sound will amaze you! KEF has long partnered with Chord Electronics at the Hi-Fi Show Live and this year visitors will have the opportunity to relish the sound of the latest Blades with Chord’s newly launched ULTIMA 3 power amplifiers. The flagship Statement from Innuos will be serving up some beautiful music… At £50k HiFiMan’s Shangri-La electrostatic headphone and amplifier is the stuff of dreams, but you can experience it at the UK Hi-Fi Show Live. It features direct-coupled 300B triodes with no caps or transformers between the tubes and headphones. The phoenix that is Dan D’Agostino will be showing a selection…

BACK IN 2015 streaming services were only just beginning to make headway into the world of hi-fi with lossless services from Qobuz and Tidal grabbing our attention. It was unknown territory, but we ran our first Group Test of six of the most popular services at the time (HFC 396) to see whether the lossless options offered audio advantages over their compressed competitors. Four years on and the nature of the market is continuously changing, so much so that an update on the state of on-demand music services has become an annual ritual in these pages. As with any evolving sector, nothing stands still for long in the world of audio, but even judged by the industry’s rapid technology development pace, on-demand streaming is progressing fast. Better than CD Each…

Having first started out as a compressed-only service in 2007, Deezer finally moved into lossless audio last year, following a trial for Sonos users. Unlike the other services here, the HiFi tier is exclusively lossless with no hi-res content (and more restrictions still on its mobile apps – see boxout). Deezer claims the current library is around 55-million tracks, which is on a par with its rivals. Rather than solely chasing audiophiles, Deezer has concentrated large parts of the platform on a broad range of subscribers. Most important of these is its ‘Flow’ algorithm, which uses your listening habits to assemble curated playlists as well as giving you the option of having a never-ending curated radio stream play. The more you listen, the more accomplished it is at finding suitable…

As a relatively new service, High Res Audio has some limitations compared with others in the group. At the time of testing, there are no mobile versions of the app available, although HRA informs us that these are planned. This means that High Res Audio Streaming is currently only suited to home/desktop users. It’s unclear at this point whether a low-data option will be available for mobile app users when they arrive for anyone looking to reduce data consumption on the move – it’s a useful feature, but is contrary to the quality hi-res audio ethos the company prides itself on. Currently, there’s no third-party support and the only way to use the Streaming service is to connect a computer to your hi-fi system. The Streaming subscription comes with a…

Another French service, Qobuz has been available in the UK since 2007 and was the second major service to go lossless. The move to hi-res followed a few years later and the service now boasts a library of over 40-million tracks with a significant quantity available at sample rates of 24/44.1 and above. Qobuz has a relatively complex pricing structure, which ranges from £10 a month for a compressed service (MP3 320kbps) through to the £300 a year Sublime+ subscription with access to hi-res streams and discounted hi-res downloads. Crucially, there is now a £25 per month Studio tier that also allows access to the hi-res content without discounts for purchases. The desktop app has remained broadly similar for a few years now, but has been carefully refined over time.…

Tidal has long had decent Android and iOS apps that do everything a user could reasonably expect of them, including good search and browsing facilities, adjustable streaming rates for wireless and mobile use and off line storage. The apps have been updated to make accessing Masters possible too. In terms of third-party integration, Tidal remains one of the best. Over 60 brands have a level of integration – including Roon, which can use Tidal to seamlessly integrate with your physical library. The only catch is that the semi encrypted nature of Master files makes accessing hi-res content on third-party devices dependent on them having an MQA license. If they don’t the files will play, but only in 16/44.1. As Qobuz has got into its stride, Tidal’s Masters file MQA codec…

Cremona in Northern Italy has an illustrious musical pedigree. Home to Monteverdi and Ponchielli, it is perhaps most famous for the manufacture of the world’s greatest stringed instruments by the likes of Stradivari, Rugeri and Amati. So, Norma Audio is hoping to emulate engineers that have fostered some of the greatest sounds ever made. Founded in 1987 the current audio business is part of Opal Electronics, which designs and builds advanced electronics measurement instruments, so it should be well placed to expertly calibrate its products. The Revo IPA-70B is Norma’s entry-level integrated amplifier claiming 2x 70W into 8ohm power output. This modest headline figure is overshadowed by other rather more remarkable specifications. Norma says the Revo IPA-70B is able to deliver more than 1MHz of bandwidth, up to 100A of…

Powered loudspeaker systems have generally been found at the more affordable end of the hi-fi market. Instead of a crossover in front of an amplifier sending specific frequencies to individual drivers, a stereo amp inside the cabinet acts on a conventional crossover. This is much simpler to build and has the added advantage that it can be placed in a single cabinet while the other speaker is passive and connected via a run of speaker cable. Canadian-based Kanto has shown clear proficiency in this sector, and the YU6 powered loudspeaker system we looked at in HFC 450 performed particularly well. The TUK is functionally very similar, but takes this latest model to a higher price point. The primary reason for this is due to the drivers it uses. Each cabinet…

Right now, there’s a fin de siècle feeling in parts of the hi-fi industry. The era of compact disc is well and truly coming to a close, as music buyers move to streaming to satisfy their software needs. Of course, that’s not to say no one is listening to CD any more – that would be ridiculous – but we have reached a point where as far as new music sales go, at least, the writing appears to be on the wall. It rather reminds me of 1988, when compact cassette knocked vinyl off the top spot for the first time – for pre-recorded music sales – with CD to follow on swiftly after. So where does that leave CD player manufacturers? They have a choice of going one of…

Whether you’ve recently been bitten by the vinyl bug or are rediscovering your collection all over again, one thing’s for certain – music collecting is addictive, and secondhand vinyl can provide everything from a cheap fix to a very pricey hit. But expanding your collection isn’t as easy as wandering into your local charity shop and emerging with your arms full of records, blindly purchased. Like assembling any system, secondhand vinyl shopping requires insider knowledge, attention to detail, patience and determination to put the work in. The good news is that, with this masterclass, we’ll turn you into a used vinyl expert in next to no time. This is first-hand knowledge too: before his illustrious career at HFC, our writer chalked up more than 10 years’ worth of experience at…

THIS MONTH ED SELLEY EXPERTISE: REVIEWER Active in the industry since 1999, Ed’s first record was Boss Drum by The Shamen. He splits his time between reviewing and protecting Hi-Fi kit from his son Will. NEVILLE ROBERTS EXPERTISE: ENGINEER Neville has an eclectic taste for classical baroque and jazz. His wife was forced to marry his transmission line speakers in the eighties and he collects BBC test card music. JASON KENNEDY EXPERTISE: REVIEWER Editor of HFC from 1998 to 2001, Jason’s first turntable was Rega’s Planar 3 and Elvis’ 40 Greatest Hits was his first vinyl, so don’t go stepping on his blue suede shoes. DAVID PRICE EXPERTISE: REVIEWER DP two-finger typed his first Hi-Fi review 25 years ago. Since then he’s edited Hi-Fi World and HFC. He describes himself…

Abbey Road CD Apple IT'S 50 YEARS since The Beatles stepped out onto the crossing outside EMI’s studio and created one of the most iconic LP covers of all time. The last album they recorded together (Let It Be was released later, but recorded earlier) now gets the deluxe treatment with new mixes in stereo, 5.1-surround and Dolby Atmos, plus 23 previously unreleased demos and alternative takes. How much you think the listening experience is enhanced by the ‘new’ material will depend upon your level of fanaticism. McCartney’s home demo of Goodbye – a song he gave to Mary Hopkin – and his studio demo for Come And Get It – later a hit for Badfinger – are worth hearing, but the likes of take 27 of She Came In Through…

Piano Sonatas Opp. 109, 110 & 111 Steven Osborne CD Hyperion HOT PICK BEETHOVEN’S LAST THREE piano sonatas are among the most sophisticated in the piano repertory. Although we already have many classic readings from legendary pianists, Stephen Osborne’s consistently excellent new recording is a very welcome addition to the catalogue. With a masterly sense of structure and proportion, the performances are capped by passages of thrilling visceral intensity. Using a fine instrument, the recording has a strong, immediate and involving sound – ideal for late Beethoven. The stereo picture may be a little over wide, but the bass is rich, clean and powerful; the mid sonorous and singing; the treble exciting and brilliant. Do you agree with our reviewers? Decide for yourself and listen to some of this month’s tracks…

Free FLAC 24/44.1 hdtracks.co.uk THOUGH JAMES NEWELL Osterberg Jr.‘s punk days may be firmly behind him, you‘ve got to hand it to Iggy for continuously pushing the musical envelope with consistently interesting material. Having previously collaborated with Bowie, Underworld and Josh Homme, on Free it‘s the turn of jazz trumpeter Leron Thomas and avant-garde guitarist Sarah Lipstate. The result is a mixed bag with Sonali a highlight, while the less said about Dirty Sanchez, the better.…

Carrying On Vinyl New West Records IF DELIVERANCE WAS remade with a hipster Hillbilly soundtrack, first choice would be Kacy & Clayton. These 10 tracks of sparse, spiky folk songs slot neatly between Bonnie Prince Billy and Michael Nesmith. Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy twiddles the knobs and seems contractually bound to keep the album understated and often unsettling. All this might not at first make for a glowing recommendation, but there’s a time and a place for this Appalachian-infused set. Mom And Dad’s Waltz #2 will charm, spooky background wails and all, while Providence Place sounds for all the world like a Joni Mitchell off cut from Blue.…

The Pleasure Principle: The First Recordings (40th Anniversary edition) Vinyl Beggars Banquet Arkive NUMANOIDS REJOICE: CELEBRATING The Pleasure Principle’s 40th anniversary, the Beggars Banquet Arkive imprint has excavated The First Recordings. Essential listening for the Tubeway Army, there’s a robust intimacy to these charming-yet-assertive demos, outtakes and Peel sessions, with Numan’s powerfully fragile vocals front and centre. Electronic music fans will relish the opportunity to hear embryonic and fully formed arrangements of widescreen cold wave classics such as Films, Metal and, of course, Cars. Audio quality is impressive overall, elevating this collection above mere archive-curio.…

2020 CD Weird World HOT PICK GEORDIE TROUBADOUR DAWSON won huge critical acclaim with 2017‘s Peasant – taking over from Robert Wyatt as Britain’s best contemporary folk storyteller. 2020 is a much more robust and electric album, with meaty riffs and driving rock arrangements. As ever, songs are pretty long and you feel you go on a journey, with Dawson‘s characteristically wistful lyrics taking centre stage. He tells stories of disgruntled civil servants dreaming of better days and anxiety-addled joggers listlessly searching Zoopla for houses they can’t afford in their spare time. Excellent stuff.…

Gateways Maxim Vengerov Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Long Yu CD Deutsche Grammophon GATEWAYS BEGINS WITH two worthy works by Qigang Chen. The Five Elements is quite modern but attractively colourful. The Joy of Suffering, with Maxim Vengerov as violin soloist, is lyrical and more traditional. After Kreisler‘s Tambourin Chinois, we hear Rachmaninov‘s Symphonic Dances. The orchestra may have a few tuning problems, but the performances of Chen works are very effective and Vengerov‘s playing is heavenly. The Rachmaninov is enjoyable, but not the tidiest. The soundstage is something of a multi-microphone patchwork, but the beautiful orchestral colours of Chen‘s writing are excellently reproduced.…

Skarbø Skulekorps CD Hubro ØYVIND SKARBØ’S SKULEKORPS is a seven-piece that plays sax, electronics, clarinet, trumpet, guitar, organ, synth, bass, vibes and piano alongside the powerhouse skin bashing of its leader. They start out sounding like Talking Heads with electronics and pedal steel singing, but that’s the most straight ahead track. The rest go all over the place, some reminiscent of Zappa’s The Grand Wazoo while others get moody with late-night electric guitar. The sound is reasonably open given the diversity of instruments and there’s good bandwidth and dynamic range to enjoy.…

1964 A GIRL CALLED DUSTY A sparkling debut ranging from soulful Motown and Ray Charles songs to straight pop by Goffin/King and Bacharach/David. Dusty’s take on Anyone Who Had A Heart knocks spots off Cilla’s version, too. 1965 EV’RYTHING’S COMING UP DUSTY From soul to show tunes, Dusty shows her versatility. Highlights include That’s How Heartaches Are Made and the blues-drenched I Had A Talk With My Man Last Night. 1967 WHERE AM I GOING Astonishingly mature and sophisticated, the album’s title posed a pertinent question as she proves herself equally adept at singing jazz, soul, pop ballads and rockers. 1968 DUSTY… DEFINITELY Taking increasing command, Dusty chose all the material and co-produced her fourth album, including songs by Randy Newman, Charles Aznavour and, of course, Bacharach and Hal David.…

Falcon Acoustics RAM Studio 30 PRICE: From £3,500 TELEPHONE: 01423 358846 WEB: karma-av.co.uk REVIEWED: HFC 442 The Studio 30’s 25mm soft-dome tweeter is offset, meaning it can be either inside or outside the centre axis depending on which way round the speakers are sited. No prizes for guessing the Studio 30 is a three-way design, but award yourself a bonus point for spotting the proprietary 50mm dome midrange unit. This shares the baffle with two 170mm polypropylene cone bass drivers. Of all the Studio models, the 30, unsurprisingly, is claimed to have the widest bandwidth, the clearest midrange and the most even tonal balance top to bottom. And if that large downward-firing port suggests anything, it’s powerful deep bass. Sound quality What’s so striking from the off is the absence of effort…

Correct positioning of your speakers is extremely important. If you place them too close to a wall, it will tend to reinforce the bass at particular frequencies. Obviously, having them too far away from the wall is impractical, but try to aim for at least 30cm as a starting point. Also, ensure that the distances of the speakers from the back walls and the side walls are different. If they are the same, the inevitable reflections from the back walls will tend to either reinforce or cancel the reflections from the sides, creating another potential source of peaks and troughs in frequency response. Another issue is the apparent soundstage depth. Increasing the distance from the speaker to the wall behind will increase depth, but this can have a detrimental effect on…

PRICE: £3,000 TELEPHONE: 01323 843474 WEB: spendoraudio.com REVIEWED: HFC 440 Boasting a new mid/bass driver design, the 180mm offering here is a polymer cone with revised surround and suspension materials said to deliver exemplary thermal and mechanical stability. High power handling and good low-level linearity are also on the job sheet. It’s paired with Spendor’s 22mm ‘wide surround’ tweeter, which strives to combine the extended frequency response of a small diaphragm with the low-frequency characteristics of a larger one – the upshot being stable, low distortion response over a very wide frequency range. Wide dispersion is also claimed, broadening the listening sweet spot, while the crossover network has been fine tuned for a coherent, balanced sound. Sound quality The A7 sounds bigger and bouncier than its looks suggest, with well-projected presentation combining…

DESIGNED TO CONVEY an even greater degree of transparency, detail and three-dimensionality than regular cables, this DCT (deep cryogenically treated) interconnect is made from a pair of monocrystal copper conductors – one for the signal and one for the earth. These are insulated with a low-loss FPE dielectric and surrounded by a cotton filler material to minimise mechanical vibrations. The cable is terminated with MACH2XS RCA plugs featuring deep silver-plated monocrystal copper pin and bracket shells, though it is also available with silver-plated pins. The wires are connected with Ecosse’s new ultra-high purity silver and tin alloy solid wire solder with the company’s passive organic flux to ensure a joint with low chemical contaminants and high strength. Finally, the Master Reference SE is cryogenically treated down to-185°C over a number…

IF SPIKES DON’T appeal for providing acoustic isolation, the UFO XL absorber from Viablue may just fit the bill. Named (one presumes) because it looks like a flying saucer, each absorber consists of a metal body (available in either black or silver) with a ‘softpad’ top and bottom. It’s designed to discharge vibrations through the damping material membranes using a combination of elastic polymers in order to minimise any transmission to the underlying surface and on to other audio components. Ace of base Although each absorber can simply be placed underneath any component or loudspeaker, Viablue recommends attaching it using M6 or M8 bolts (not supplied). Threaded inserts, as well as other adapters, are also available at extra cost for fixing in place. Playing JS Bach’s Concerto For Three Harpsichords…

1968 Jacob Rabinow founds Rabco as John, Paul, George and Ringo start recording The Beatles' White Album 1972 Staying on a Beatles theme, Paul McCartney's new band Wings make its live debut as Sidney Harman buys Rabco 1975 The Harman Kardon Rabco ST-7 is launched while John Lennon and Yoko Ono launch their own 'product' in the form of Sean Ono Lennon 1978 The ST-7 is sadly discontinued, while the aforementioned Wings celebrate its ninth week at number one with Mull Of Kintyre…

From Northern soul floor-fillers to solo Beatle fantasia, here are eight platters for those with expensive tastes in the digital racks of Peckham Soul shop on Discogs – all £40+ collectables Hank Soul Man Mullen He Upset Your Dreams A hen’s teeth Northern soul 45 from 1967 to get your feet a-movin’ and your bank balance a groanin’. Yours for £100. “Recently re-released by Daptone – not the same as the original,” notes Craig. Finn MacCuill Sink Ye – Swim Ye The second album from the seventies group, this sought-after folk record on the Edinburgh-based Rel label usually commands a seriously high price. The Master’s Apprentices Masterpiece “A ‘masterpiece’ of Oz psych,” this strange brew of surf, garage and psychedelic rock, with orchestral links between tracks, was released in 1970.…

For sale / Wanted www.hifichoicemag.com These pages are a must-read if you’re thinking about buying used kit, or if you have Hi-Fi you want to sell. It’s free – simply submit your ad with no more than 50 words (we reserve the right to edit it if not), remembering to include your email, phone number and county. Simply email your ad to: letters@hifichoice.co.uk. This service is open to private advertisers only. Just one ad per household and please note that images are for illustration only and do not represent what is for sale. FOR SALE NAIM Nait 1 amplifier. Open to offers. Silver Arrow Daddy Ref. pure silver loudspeaker cable. This cable is 2M length and in very good condition. Very reluctant sale. Cost £1,000. I am asking for £320…