Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i Hi Fi News

We are a broad church here at the world’s oldest hi-fi magazine as we attempt to match the desires of all audiophiles with our in-depth reviews, exploring product genres from turntables [p48] to network-attached DACs [p54 and 66]. We include tests of cables too and, recently, took a look at some esoteric filtering solutions [HFN Feb and Mar ’24]. But where does the science stop and the snake-oil – the belief-based listening experience – begin? For some, incredulity begins with any deviation from the mantra that ‘bits are bits’ while, for others, cable props and ‘RF sinks’ plugged into redundant sockets are all part of everyday hi-fi life. Experienced listeners are typically less inclined to judge prematurely – what may at first seem illogical, improbable or just plain bonkers may,…

RELENTLESS UPGRADE The optional Digital Streaming Module for D’Agostino’s flagship Relentless Preamplifier [HFN Mar ’22] has now gained Roon Ready certification, meaning those who added the network/USB board can manage hi-res music playback (up to 384kHz PCM and DSD256) from the Roon platform. The streaming module already brought support for Tidal, Spotify and Qobuz through D’Agostino’s bespoke iOS app. www.dagostinoinc.com QUIET PLEASE! Claiming to reduce any unwanted noise carried between Ethernet components, Computer Audio Design’s new Ethernet Control (£1250) is a compact device with RJ45 in/out. CAD suggests it should be used as the final termination into networked hi-fi DACs. Noise reduction is achieved via custom transformers (galvanic isolation), while the unit’s acrylic casework is also said to offer vibration damping. www.computeraudiodesign.com…

Floorstanding three-way ABR-loaded loudspeaker Made by: PS Audio, Boulder, Colorado Supplied by: Signature Audio Systems, UK Telephone: 07738 007776 Web: www.psaudio.com; www.signaturesystems.co.uk Price: £10,000 For a 50-year-old company that released its first loudspeaker barely two years ago, PS Audio has not been resting on its laurels. Coming swiftly on the heels of the flagship £30,000 aspen FR30 [HFN Jun ’22] are a raft of junior siblings. First up was the £20,000 FR20 [HFN Apr ’23] and now we have the baby floorstander of the range, the £10,000 FR10. As an aside, I don’t think we’d be letting the cat out of the bag by revealing a fourth model is in the pipeline – the two-way, ABR-loaded FR5 standmount. If it isn’t priced at £5000, I’ll eat my hat. One glance…

Integrated Class D amplifier. Rated at 250W/8ohm Made by: Citech Co., Ltd, South Korea Supplied by: Henley Audio Ltd, UK Telephone: 01235 511166 Web: https://hifirose.com; www.henleyaudio.co.uk Price: £2999 HiFi Rose delighted, and in some cases flabbergasted, hi-fi enthusiasts with its RA180 [HFN Jul ’22], an amplifier that looked like it had just escaped from the pages of Gibson-Sterling’s steampunk classic The Difference Engine. Boasting lots of knobs and dials on the outside, and novel GaN FETs in its Class D power amp on the inside, it was undeniably ‘something else’. It was quite an unexpected product from the Seoul-based brand too, as up to that point HiFi Rose was principally known for streamers and DACs with very large touchscreens [HFN Jun ’21 and Mar ’22]. A cheaper version of the…

Pre/DAC and power amplifier. Rated at 2x150W/8ohm Made by: Leema Acoustics Ltd, Wales Supplied by: Leema Acoustics Ltd Telephone: 01938 559021 Web: www.leema-acoustics.com Prices: £1500 each (£2800 as a pair) The tone of the announcement of the new Leema Acoustics Quantum range has the air of a Hollywood blockbuster: ‘25 years in the making…’ it begins. But perhaps this hyperbole can be forgiven as this is the Welsh company’s first new range in more than ten years and sees the technology of its flagship lineup simplified to reach more affordable prices. Here we have the first two Quantum arrivals, both available in silver or black – the Neutron preamp, with 13 inputs including a built-in DAC, is £1500, as is the Graviton stereo power amp, rated at 150W/8ohm. Buy the…

Decades ago, when J Gordon Holt founded HFN’s sister publication Stereophile (the dominant audio journal in the US), his persistent admonition was that high-performance audio gear should recreate recorded acoustic events as realistically as possible. Put more simply: good hi-fi should deliver lifelike sound. And yet while improvements to recording and playback technologies move us ever closer to Holt’s ideal, every once in a while I experience a jolting reminder of just how far away it lies. CALIFORNIA DREAMING I recently attended a performance of My Name Is Asher Lev, Aaron Posner’s stageplay adapted from the 1972 novel by Chaim Potok. It’s a cultural-identity and coming-of-age story about a gifted young artist who must overcome the traditions of his ultra-conservative Hasidic Jewish community, and his parents’ deep misgivings, in order…

Record Store Day has helped transform the fortunes of many record shops in the vinyl-revival years since Graham Jones’s 2009 book Last Shop Standing, and the subsequent film, sponsored by Hi-Fi News, that depicted The Rise, Fall And Rebirth Of The Independent Record Shop. But we have also seen rise, fall and rebirth among the multiple record outlets. Black Friday last year brought HMV’s welcome revival of the historic 363 Oxford Street store, opened by Sir Edward Elgar in 1921 but closed from 2000 to 2013, and closed again since 2019. Other names that once dominated are now forgotten. Our Price grew to over 300 stores before it was bought by WH Smith in 1994. It was then sold to Virgin, which rebranded or closed the stores. MUSICAL MERRY-GO-ROUND Virgin…

Compact Disc-Recordable is a prosaic title for a thoroughly exciting medium. It provides the opportunity to ‘master’ your own personalised CDs, whether they be transfers from other CDs, DAT, live recordings (direct-to-CD!) or even as an archive for precious 12in vinyl discs. And there is the prospect that such CD-R copies will actually sound better than the original. Outrageous? Not necessarily… The concept of recordable CD is no longer new of course. Kenwood’s multi-box Write-Once suite was covered in HFN as long ago as November 1990. Fortunately, the intervening period has witnessed the development of altogether more flexible and compatible machines from Kenwood and Marantz, and, derived from the latter, Meridian’s £4950 CDR reviewed here. DRAWING A BLANK Blank CD-R discs are identified by the recorder upon loading, leaving you…

Rim-driven turntable with electronic speed control Made by: Reed, Lithuania Supplied by: Absolute Sounds Ltd Telephone: 0208 971 3909 Web: www.reed.lt; www.absolutesounds.com Prices (turntable/arm): £9998/£4298 (wand and colour options are extra) Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks. After decades of being dismissive of idler- or rim-drive turntables, if not downright hostile towards them, I have had my ears opened by Reed’s Muse 1C. A previous owner of a Thorens TD 124 [HFN Jun ’59] and a Garrard 401 [HFN Dec ’65], I never considered them to be as rumble free nor as quiet as direct-drive or belt drive turntables. The Lithuanian-designed and built Muse 1C, at £9998 without arm, the least expensive model in a range of three, has changed all that. Reed calls its reimagining of…

Two-way reflex-loaded standmount loudspeaker Made by: Premium Audio Company GmbH, Pulheim, Germany Supplied by: Henley Audio Ltd, UK Telephone: 01235 511166 Web: www.magnat.de/en; www.henleyaudio.co.uk Price: £949 ‘Bigger is better’ seems to be one of those unwritten rules of hi-fi that ensures every audio show is packed with speakers towering high above the audience. Unfortunately, out there in the real world most people don’t have the space to wheel in a pair of Wilson Audio Alexx Vs [HFN Jan ’22] or Focal Grande Utopias [HFN Dec ’18]. So, in an age when tiny houses are proclaimed as the way to go, Magnat’s Signature Edelstein might be the speakers that better fit the zeitgeist. But these are not especially low-cost petite models. As ‘Edelstein’, or gemstone in German, indicates, these particular Magnat…

The audio landscape is changing, and it’s all down to streaming. No, I’m not talking about the availability of seemingly limitless music libraries available with a swipe and a tap, courtesy of the likes of Amazon, Qobuz, Spotify and Tidal (though that has changed the way many of us listen), but rather the arrival of previously unknown hardware brands, now busy making serious inroads into a market once dominated by familiar names. FLOWER POWER For example, think how recently it was that Korean manufacturer HiFi Rose was considered by some as a novelty brand with a quirky logo and the gimmick of a widescreen display also able to play movies in 4K resolution. It hasn’t taken long for the brand to establish itself in the mainstream, with a range of…

Correspondents express their own opinions, not those of Hi-Fi News. We reserve the right to edit letters for publication. Correspondents using e-mail are asked to give their full postal address (which won’t be published). Letters seeking advice will be answered in print on our Sound Off pages, but due to time constraints we regret we’re unable to answer questions on buying items of hi-fi or any other hi-fi queries by telephone, post or via e-mail. IN SEARCH OF BASS BLISS MATCHING A SUB WITH VINTAGE SPEAKERS I sympathised with Bill McCardle in the March ’24 Sound Off pages when he described his frustrations over setting up a subwoofer. Since the mid 1970s I’ve used a pair of Tannoy HPD 315 dual-concentric drive units mounted in Tannoy’s Chatsworth cabinets. The Chatsworth’s…

Danish loudspeaker maker Audiovector has overhauled its QR series, re-launching it with three floorstanders and a standmount model (plus home cinema options) claiming improvements to crossover components, internal wiring, driver components and more. Top of the pile is the £5300 QR 7 SE [pictured], a three-way floorstander that partners its two ‘Pure Piston Technology’ 200mm bass drivers with a 150mm midrange and AMT tweeter – the latter benefiting from a machined aluminium waveguide and gold plated dispersion ‘mesh’. Sensitivity is a suggested 90.5dB, and impedance given as 6ohm. Finishes are White Silk, Dark Walnut and Black Piano. Audiovector ApS, Denmark, 0131 555 3922; https://audiovector.com…

Revival Audio, the French loudspeaker marque launched in 2021, has added a new model to its Atalante series. Manufactured in handed pairs and priced £3890, the Atalante 4 is the range’s first floorstander, joining the existing ’5 and ’3 standmounts, and once again sporting a ‘French-Japanese fusion’ aesthetic with walnut veneer finish. For the upper frequencies, the speaker uses a 28mm soft dome tweeter, its rear output controlled by Revival’s ‘Anti-Reflection Inner Dome’ (ARID) technology. Meanwhile, the company’s BSC (Basalt Sandwich Construction) driver design features here for the first time on a 135mm midrange cone, above a pair of 180mm BSC woofers that operate below 550z – all three units backed by asymmetric vented baskets and what are called ‘large mass’ ferrite magnets. To provide a stable footing for these…

22-24 MAR Montréal Audiofest 2024, Hôtel Bonaventure, Montréal; Canada; https://montrealaudiofest.org 12-14 APR Axpona 2024, Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, Illinois, USA; www.axpona.com 09-12 MAY High End, Munich, Germany; www.highendsociety.de 22-23 JUN North West Audio Show, Cranage Hall (De Vere Cranage Estate), Cheshire; http://audioshow.co.uk 21-22 SEP The UK Hi-Fi Show Live, Ascot Racecourse Grandstand, Ascot Berkshire SL5 7JX; www.hifishowlive.com…

You hold in your hands the world’s oldest and most respected hi-fi magazine – Hi-Fi News – where heavyweight audio engineering is our stock in trade. All our review products are typically subject to a one-month test process from shipping, unpacking, installation, photography, lab work, extended listening, disassembly/packing and collection. This practice was maintained right through the pandemic period, with full Covid biosecurity adding to the logistical complexity of our four-week issue schedule. But we did it… never missing one issue of the magazine or compromising the ‘Hi-Fi News Pledge’: 1. Our hardware reviews are never brief ‘hands on’ experiences of a product from a press conference, brand-led demo or distributor’s back room spun up into a four or five page article. 2. Products reviewed in Hi-Fi News already have…

Network-attached DAC/preamplifier Made by: T+A elektroakustik GmbH & Co. KG, Germany Supplied by: Kog Audio, Coventry, UK Telephone: 024 7722 0650 Web: www.taelektroakustik.de; www.kogaudio.com Price: £14,900 Tipping the scales at a hefty 26kg, measuring a portly 46cm deep and 17cm tall, and selling for £14,900, T+A’s PSD 3100 HV appears every inch the flagship DAC/streamer/preamp. Except that it isn’t – that accolade is reserved for the German brand’s SDV 3100 HV [HFN Oct ’19], which has been deemed its ‘reference’ model since its arrival in 2019 and remains available for £26,040. The latter model features a more sophisticated power supply – though all ‘HV’ separates employ a high rail voltage – preamp and DAC section and will handle up to DSD1024 in place of the PSD 3100 HV’s DSD512 limit.…

Network-attached player/DAC Made by: Pixel Magic Systems Ltd, Hong Kong Supplied by: Sound Design Distribution Ltd, Cardiff Telephone: 0800 0096213 Web: www.luminmusic.com; www.sounddesigndistribution.co.uk Price: £2195 It’s not only loudspeaker brands playing the trickle-down technology game. Lumin’s D3, its new entry-level streaming DAC, borrows liberally from the Hong Kong manufacturer’s costlier network hardware, utilising elements both inside and out to effect a comprehensive upgrade on the previous D2 [HFN Jul ’20]. Its maker says the D3 ‘brings the audiophile potential of music streaming within everyone’s reach’, and while the £2195 price tag makes that somewhat debatable, it certainly has plenty of appeal. Firstly, there’s the form factor. The D3 – like the D2 – measures a neat and tidy 30cm wide and 24cm deep and can be lifted from its box…

Over the years I have cluttered an attic and garage with hoarded hi-fi hardware; some loaned by manufacturers and still awaiting collection, some bought by me because I wanted or needed it. Much has long gone to recycling but I’ve kept the best for a ‘rainy day’. Recently it ‘rained’ when my multichannel listening system conked out. For at least five years I had only ever used it for music in stereo with a sub beefing up the bass. ‘You always were a 2.1 sort of person’, a friend said when I decided to drain the surround sound swamp that I’d been sucked into; the four-channel ‘quadraphonic’ wars and ‘Hafler’ ambience enhancement, the false dawn of Ambisonics, and the bog of 5.1 and 7.1. Fortunately, I never did drill holes…

In the absence of a correspondent from Montevideo, I bring news that in December 2023 Spotify informed users in Uruguay that it planned to withdraw its service from the country, as of the 1st of February 2024. Last November, the country’s parliament passed a proposed amendment to its copyright law which takes greater control of the revenue due to artists from streaming services. The amendment is the work of the Society of Artists (SUDEI) in Uruguay – the equivalent of the Musicians’ Union in the UK – which has campaigned for ‘fair’ payment of its members for several years, alongside many similar unions across the world. DOUBLE TROUBLE It did not take Spotify long to hit back with a statement: ‘Spotify already pays nearly 70% of every dollar it generates…

Arriving in 1967, the Ravensbourne Stereo was the first transistorised amplifier to be introduced by Rogers Developments, and slotted into the manufacturer’s range between the existing HG88 integrated and Master pre/power models. At a time when the HG88 sold for around £46 and produced 15W in total from ECL86 tubes, the Ravensbourne was £64 and offered 25W per channel from modern silicon transistors. This wasn’t a great deal more money to spend to access the latest technology and a lot more power – even Rogers’ Master pre/power combo, which was pricier at £90 for the pair, could only summon up a total of 35W. Outwardly little had changed, however. The HG88 had been recently updated to Mk III status and the same styling was used for the new and similarly…