Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Hi Fi News

Depending on when you devour this latest copy of your favourite hi-fi magazine you’ll either be diving headlong into the festive season (however you choose to celebrate) or ringing in the New Year with a glass of whatever takes your fancy… From us all at Hi-Fi News, we wish every reader a happy, healthy and music-filled 2026. As the nights get a little longer and darker, audiophiles across the land will be settling down for an evening’s music-making with their fave LPs and hi-res streams. And while you are surrounded by superlative stereo what better than a copy of Hi-Fi News by your side? The world’s oldest hi-fi magazine is home to high-end launches throughout the year and, in this issue, we are proud to offer exclusive reviews on the…

KEF REWRITES CODA The original Coda loudspeaker from KEF [HFN Dec ’81] has been resurrected as the Coda W, an active standmount/bookshelf model priced £799. Partnering the brand’s 12th-generation Uni-Q coaxial driver array (but sans MAT absorption) with 100W rated amplification, the Coda W features USB, HDMI ARC, optical, analogue line and MM phono inputs, plus Bluetooth (aptX Adaptive/Lossless). Five colourways, including Vintage Burgundy and Midnight Blue, are available. www.kef.com TUBES ALL-ROUND Newly launched by France’s Advance Paris, the APEX series comprises the A8, A10 and A12 integrated amplifiers (£1975/£2450/£3400) and the ACD, an £890 CD player. All three amps are hybrid models with tube-based preamp stages, and include inbuilt DACs, HDMI ARC connectivity and front-panel VU meters. The ACD, meanwhile, has tube-based analogue outputs on both RCA and XLR.…

Quad has added the Platina Stream, a networked transport/DAC/preamp, to its new flagship range of solid-state electronics. Sibling model to the Platina Integrated amplifier, and identically styled in silver or black, the ’Stream combines wired/wireless networking and USB inputs with coaxial and optical digital audio outputs, plus fixed/variable analogue outs on unbalanced RCAs and balanced XLRs. A full-colour display shows album art, file info, etc, and can be used to address the unit’s user settings. Alternatively, control – plus integration of Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify and TuneIn radio – is available through Quad’s Platina app. The ’Stream is also certified Roon Ready, and supports 768kHz/32-bit PCM and DSD512 across all inputs. Quad Hifi (International Audio Group), China, 01480 452561; www.quad-hifi.co.uk…

Held on the weekend of September 27th and 28th, the UK Hi-Fi Show Live brought the best of the world’s hi-fi to the iconic Ascot Grandstand. Brands from the UK, Europe, North America and beyond took over the venue’s rooms, suites and concourses, giving audiophiles the chance to listen to the latest and greatest loudspeakers, turntables, amplifiers, network players (and more!) in a relaxed setting. Also on offer were live music recordings, workshops and a Vinyl Fair. These pages host part two of our two-part celebration – photographer, Kevin Nixon, was given access to every room before visitors [pictured left] arrived. Spread along the Ascot Grandstand’s fourth floor concourse was the show’s ever popular Vinyl Fair [HFN Dec ’25] and Headphone Zone. Brands including Astell&Kern, Austrian Audio, Campfire Audio, dCS,…

Review: Mark Craven Lab: Paul Miller With its three new Summit series loudspeakers, JBL is continuing its journey through the Himalayas. The Makalu and Pumori floorstanders, plus the standmount Ama auditioned here, join its existing ‘Project’ Everest DD67000 [HFN Aug ’14] and K2 S9900 [HFN Aug ’10] flagships in taking their name from the world’s highest peaks. Like those two models, they also come with prices that demand a head for heights, even if the Summit Ama – at £14,998 – can be said to be relatively affordable when compared to the Everest at £79,998. What we have here then, perhaps, is JBL and parent group Harman Luxury Audio realising there was something of a gap between its two existing top-line models and its more wallet-friendly Studio Monitor [HFN Jan…

Review: Jamie Biesemans Lab: Paul Miller In the wake of well-established products such as the Sonos Amp and Bluesound’s Powernode, we’ve seen a slew of compact all-in-one amplifiers from brands including Denon, Marantz [HFN Aug ’24] and WiiM [HFN Nov ’24]. Now Chinese company Eversolo enters the fray with an offering that, while not the most affordable of its ilk, is keenly priced if you consider its extensive list of features. The Eversolo Play, at £599, even boasts a touchscreen displaying the Android-based interface also found on the brand’s DMP-A10 [HFN May ’25] and DMP-A8 [HFN May ’24] streaming DAC/preamps. Want more? For £699 there’s a CD Edition of the Play that is virtually identical but adds a side-loading CD drive for playback/ripping. TROOPING THE COLOUR There’s no faulting the…

Review: Mark Craven Lab: Paul Miller If you’re looking at the legend on the tweeter surround of Acoustic Energy’s new loudspeaker and wondering how a brand that was established in 1987 can launch a 40th Anniversary Edition model in 2025, the answer is simple. When Acoustic Energy founder Phil Jones began work on his original AE1 design [HFN Jan ’89], seeking an ‘accurate monitor’ for his recording studio, he certainly wasn’t intending to launch a consumer audio company. But the speaker, a compact twoway that was groundbreaking in its use of metal diaphragms for both bass/mid and treble drive units, caught the eye and ear of audiophiles. And now it’s back. Well, sort of. The AE1 40th Anniversary, selling for £1499 in High Gloss Walnut or High Gloss Black finishes,…

Born in London in July 1901, Gerald Finzi was too young to see active service in the First World War, but he came of age in a country and a society scarred by loss and grief. It is noticeable how some years would elapse before many composers and artists could process their feelings, and sufferings, in their work. Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Pastoral Symphony (1922), Sancta Civitas (1923-5), and Flos Campi (1925) all form a de facto triptych in which he adopts a subdued mode of expression, often quiet and elegiac, using antique modal harmony and shot through with dissonance. The gaze and the ear are turned away from the carnage on earth towards a hopeful vision of the beyond. COUNTRY MUSIC The ‘Pastoral’ as an elegiac genre (of poetry, first of…

ORIGINAL VINYL & REISSUES Avalon’s 1982 vinyl debut [E.G./Polydor EGHP 50 2302 116 in the UK and E.G./Warner Bros. 1-23686 in the US], is an awesome aural outlier of its times, but the better vinyl bet is the half-speed mastered Virgin/UMC 180g LP [ROXYLP 8, label pictured above] released in 2017 and reissued in 2022. Mastered by Bob Ludwig and cut by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, it fully reveals the sophistication of the album’s stereo arrangements. FIRST CD AND REISSUES The 1987 E.G. Records/Warner Bros. CD release of Avalon [EGCD 50] is serviceable at best, but the 1999 Virgin Remastered CD [ROXYCD9] and the 2012 Virgin CD – originally part of The Complete Studio Recordings box set [5099944021726] – fare much better sonically. CD-loving audiophiles happy to import…

Review: Adam Smith Lab: Paul Miller Everyone loves celebrating a big birthday, and the hi-fi industry is no exception. That said, very few manufacturers make it to the big 100 and so, when they do, the results are usually quite special. At the time of writing [late-2025] we are days away from Bang & Olufsen’s centenary, and Luxman released a complete system earlier this year to celebrate a century in business. However, Luxman is not the first audio brand to append a ‘Centennial’ medal to a special range of equipment. That honour goes to Yamaha which, in 1987, commemorated ‘100 years of musical experience’ with a complete system. These were not ‘special edition’ versions of existing products, but an entirely fresh, cost-no-object range – and with only a rumoured 500…

Review: Adam Smith Lab: Paul Miller It can be difficult for a manufacturer to successfully span a wide price range. History reveals a handful that have come unstuck by either trying to move upmarket from affordable roots, or attempting to develop trickle-down versions of expensive designs. However, those companies that get it right across the board tend to find themselves very popular, and Pro-Ject’s new £10,599 Signature 12.2 is the latest offering from a brand that is a master of the art. The Signature 12.2 is a development of the original Signature 12, originally introduced around ten years ago as Pro-Ject’s flagship. And it transpires the ‘.2’ upgrades have moved the game on significantly, despite the new version retaining the visual cues of its predecessor. TWIN MOTORS The most noticeable…

Review: Mark Craven Lab: Paul Miller There’s an easy way to understand the hierarchy of amps in the Hegel catalogue, be they pre, power or integrated. The higher the number, the ‘better’ the specification (you might think this would be the only way to go about it, but some rival companies – I’m looking at you, HiFi Rose – beg to differ). And so it is that the Norwegian manufacturer’s new H150 integrated, priced £2750, takes up a middle-of-the-range position, above the entry-level H95 [HFN Oct ’20], and below the H190v, H400 [HFN Oct ’24] and H600 [HFN Oct ’23]. These amplifiers share technologies and features, including a uniform styling that can make it hard to tell some of them apart. But there are enough differences in specification, be it…

Review: Jamie Biesemans Lab: Paul Miller Sentimental audiophiles might think Musical Fidelity’s M8 range is rather left out in the cold, stuck between the brand’s high-end Nu-Vista models [HFN Mar ’23 & Aug ’25] and thought-provoking remakes like the A1 [HFN Jan ’24] and B1xi amplifiers. Since Pro-Ject’s Heinz Lichtenegger took over the wheel of the brand, the series has received only piecemeal updates, starting with the M8xi ‘super’ integrated [HFN Jul ’20], then the M8xTT turntable [HFN Dec ’23] and M8x Vinyl phono stage [HFN Mar ’25], and now the ‘dual-mono’ M8x DAC. This is a logical addition, but with an unusual twist or two, because besides being a purist DAC intended for speaker based systems, it’s also a fully fledged headphone amplifier. Yes, some other DACs cater to…

AUDIOPHILE: VINYL SPINAL TAP The End Continues Interscope Records 00602478558207 LP You’ll want to skewer me for this, but gags aside – and there are plenty – this is a mighty fine rock LP. Although the film, coming 41 years after the sublime This Is Spinal Tap ‘mockumentary’, received mixed reviews, the soundtrack is something else. Reworkings of old tunes including ‘Big Bottom’ and ‘Stonehenge’ are matched by wry new songs, while depth is added by guests including Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. And, hey, Michael McKean was in The Left Banke. In-jokes abound, including the cover pose which will resonate with Boomers; it’s even photographed by Henry Diltz. If you are in on the joke, this won’t disappoint. KK Sound Quality: 90% ALANIS MORISSETTE Jagged…

One of the ‘tricks’ I’ve employed over the years whenever I’ve setup my main hi-fi system has been to sit and look at the loudspeakers… with an electric torchlight strapped to my head! This has been very useful in helping me position the cabinets. Sadly, it’s a trick that only works for some specific loudspeaker designs. In particular, for some of the versions of the Quad ESL-63, and the improved descendants of that model. HEAD-ON HI-FI Members of the ESL-63 ‘family’ all use a thin-plane sheet of material as the loudspeaker diaphragm. The drive to this is applied by a series of concentric pairs of audio-transparent conducting areas, which get tailored versions of the input. In general terms, the higher the incoming audio frequency, the smaller the size of the…

Sexy hardware – strange use of the term ‘sexy’. But Wadia’s new CD player is sleek in a catwalk model/Euro-chic way, the same reasons why a hot Italian V12 can be regarded as sexy. More accurately, the Wadia 6 is severe, a mere glance at its styling, finish and hewn-from-solid build quality telling you that it’s no toy. You don’t have to lift it to know that it’s chunky… like 35lb worth of chunk. All of which has to do with thoroughness. No less than a page - and-a-third of the owner’s manual is devoted to the cabinetry and its utter rigidity, the use of aluminium plate, the thicknesses chosen by their resonant frequencies, the positioning of the boards relative to the transport and their shape, and how they affect…

20-22 FEB Florida International Audio Expo 2026, Sheraton Tampa Brandon, Florida; https://floridaaudioexpo.com 20-22 FEB Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2026, Marriott City Centre Hotel, Bristol; www.bristolshow.co.uk 08 MAR Audiojumble 2026, K2 Crawley; www.audiojumble.co.uk 10-12 APR AXPONA Audio Expo North America 2026, Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Centre Hotel; www.axpona.com 04-07 JUN High End Vienna 2026, Austria Center Vienna (ACV), Vienna, Austria; www.highendsociety.de…

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 demonstration or distributor’s back room spun up into a four or five page article. 2. Products reviewed in Hi-Fi News already have…

Review: Andrew Everard Lab: Paul Miller The announcement in the summer of 2024 of new products from Audio Research Corp. (ARC) was not only the company’s large-stever simultaneous release, but also, it said, ‘a fresh start [signalling] a promising future’, and ‘a renewed commitment to inclusivity and accessibility in the world of high-fidelity sound’. With the pre/power pair here priced north of £21,000, one might take that latter claim with a pinch of salt, although with the brand’s Reference Series pitched comfortably higher [HFN Apr ’25], these things are relative. There’s certainly been a lot of change at the Minneapolis-based high-end brand founded in 1970 by the late Bill Johnson. Acquired in 2008 by Sonus faber parent Fine Sounds, it was on the move again in 2020 to TWS Enterprises,…

Review: Andrew Everard Lab: Paul Miller The miniature hi-fi trend continues – those short of space or simply seeking an inconspicuous yet high-performance set-up can rejoice. The new arrivals here come in the form of the £4200 DSS 2 network transport and £4300 DSC mini DAC from French company Métronome, as part of its ‘Digital Sharing’ range that also includes the £4400 DST CD transport. There’s also a server, the £5399 DSAS, that’s a joint venture between Métronome and music software player company Audirvāna. That unit features 2TB of internal storage, expandable to 4TB, and comes complete with licences for the Audirvāna software services. It can be connected directly to the DSC mini to create a complete library/player source. All these Métronome models fit the ‘compact’ brief perfectly, being just…

Review & Lab: Paul Miller If Kimber Kable could be said to have a core philosophy then the sage advice ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’ would come very near the top. Of course, Kimber does have its own longstanding USP in the form of its ‘VariStrand’ conductors, braided geometry and use of both PE and PTFE dielectrics, depending on a cable’s position in the range. Copper is still the material of choice in this Carbon interconnect, each conductor comprising seven strands of four different diameters. These strands are clamped within a ‘carbon-infused polymer’ that forms an electrostatic screen, while a Teflon sleeve provides a final insulating layer with superior dielectric properties. Four of these conductors, for left and right channels, are woven into Kimber’s familiar braid. PLAIT FOR…

Avalon is a true international recording, as its sessions took place in three separate locations – Phil Manzanera’s Gallery Studio in Chertsey, Surrey; Compass Point Studios in Nassau in the Bahamas; and the Power Station in New York City. Rhett Davies co-produced and handled engineering in Nassau, while Bob Clearmountain engineered at the Power Station. A Linn LM-1 drum machine was initially deployed to lay down the album’s bedrock beats and grooves that were later filled in by Andy Newmark and Rick Marotta. Brian Ferry commenced writing Avalon while staying on the west coast of Ireland at Crumlin Lodge, a B&B in Fanore, County Clare. The album cover designed by Peter Saville depicts a lough (lake) seen from that lodge, with Ferry’s soon-to-be-wife Lucy Helmore as the helmeted, armoured cover…

We go to live music events and theatre shows, and listen to live broadcasts, expecting the perfection we hear from edited recordings. We wince at just one cracked note. But where do perfect players, who can play in all styles, come from? There is a big difference between passing music college exams and reading difficult parts under pressure. THE WIND OF CHANGE World-renowned trumpet player/arranger/composer/leader Guy Barker chatted recently to singer/pianist/all-round-talker Ian Shaw at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in Soho. He recalled his time at the Royal College of Music. ‘When I went through the RCM door each day I wanted to learn to play their kind of music and leave jazz for the evenings at Ronnie’s.’ At Barker’s Final Exam, a patronising music professor sought to challenge him. ‘You’re…

I love hearing the bing from the SimpliSafe app on my smartphone that lets me know when the UPS/FedEx/DHL courier of the day shows up on my doorstep in full view of my front-door camera. I have a big outdoor storage bin waiting there to greet them, where everything they have for me can be placed inside to ensure nothing gets exposed to the elements. This is precious cargo, after all. As an inveterate and unapologetic audiophile accumulator of physical media, I believe actively monitoring receivership is nine-tenths of the collector’s law – or something like that. But what’s a poor boy to do with it all, after it arrives? TO HAVE AND TO HOLD Sure, the streaming era has made it much easier for us to access the broadest…

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