Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2026 i Hi Fi News

Top technology journalist, and longtime HFN contributor, Barry Fox beat me to the punch this month. ‘People are starting to hate AI’, he says, ‘advertisers will soon be claiming “We do not use AI”. Like “no MSG” or “no added sugar”’. He has a point [see p114], and I was about to say the same thing. So here it is in black and white and colour – no words, pictures or lab reports published in Hi-Fi News are ever created, edited or otherwise augmented with AI. There might be the odd rendering, knocked-up by a CAD program and supplied by a manufacturer that we publish, but that’s the limit. Hi-Fi News still works the ‘old way’ so our readers can rest assured the opinions, facts and revelations expressed in the…

CD SEASONING Pro-Ject says its new CD Box RS2 Tube is optimised for CD playback by virtue of its ‘Red Book-only’ top-loading drive mechanism from SUOS-Hi-Fi. In the brand’s new flagship player, this is combined with a balanced output DAC stage promising ‘warmth and musical fluidity’ from a pair of E88CC triodes. The player can also serve as a CD transport, sporting coaxial and optical S/PDIF outputs, while track info is shown on a front-panel LCD screen. www.project-audio.com MOJO TAKES CHARGE Chord Electronics has widened the compatibility of its portable, battery powered Mojo 2 headphone DAC/amp [HFN Apr ’22] by replacing one of its two 3.5mm outputs with a 4.4mm connection, and adding charging functionality to the USB-C input previously reserved for data handling. The price of the pocket friendly…

British brand Connected-Fidelity has announced its new CF-1010 tonearm. Priced £3499 and manufactured in the UK in collaboration with Alphason, it features a curved, titanium arm wand (9in effective length) with an integrated ‘resonance absorbing’ headshell. Turntable mounting is via a trio of fixing points and centre pillar hole. Anti-skating is set by a hanging thread-and-weight while the main counterweight is ‘suitable for most cartridges’ – additional counterweights are available. Also included with the arm are a 2m RCA cable, vinyl cleaning brush, and digital stylus gauge. Connected-Fidelity says it also plans to supply the tonearm in a package with its belt-driven TT Hub turntable, which retails separately for £4995 (with optional Hana cartridge). Connected-Fidelity, Oxfordshire, 01491 629629; www.connected-fidelity.com…

The 28th edition of the Warsaw Audio Video Show added an extra floor, with nine large rooms, to the regular Narodowy football stadium venue. This was one of three locations used to host the event, the stadium offering a mainstream feel next to the more traditional hi-fi show experience in the Polish capital’s Sobieski and Golden Tulip hotels. Attendance across the three days (October 24th-26th, 2025) topped 14,000, a record according to organiser Adam Mokrzycki. As usual, systems and products on show ranged from entry-level to high-end, and saw mass market brands (including TV makers) rubbing shoulders with boutique audio marques. After an introduction at High End Munich in May 2025, the new Summit models from JBL are touring shows worldwide. The series, which is the US company’s flagship, retains…

A pocryphal it may be, but one of the lingering mysteries about Quad was why MD and chief designer Peter Walker never went ‘high-end’ with bigger amps or speakers. His answer was always that his amplifiers and speakers were ‘adequate for most needs’. While that’s true, one cannot deny the efforts of others to make Quad’s inaugural ESL [see boxout, p48] go louder and deeper. So while the ESL 2912X may not be the cost-no-object/size-no-object electrostatic that some devotees of the brand might dream of, I wonder what Peter Walker would have made of the not inconsiderable £12,999 asking price? That said, Quad’s ESL 2912X is surely ‘big enough’. Ten seconds of listening to Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Rocky Mountain Way’ from Under Cover [Epic 82876743142] assuaged any fears I might have…

It’s tempting to imagine a Frankenstein like cry of ‘At last our creature is complete!’ emanating from the Cambridge HQ of dCS. The arrival of the company’s Varèse CD/SACD transport, retailing for £32,500, should come as no surprise to followers of the company’s flagship digital solution [HFN Feb ’25]. Bringing the complete Varèse ‘stack’ to a total of six units – the User Interface, Core, Master Clock and dual Mono DACs – the eagerly anticipated Transport also lifts the all-up price just north of £260,000. Now it’s here, what exactly is the Varèse Transport? And does it have a place in the brave not-so-new world of streaming music? To answer the second part first, the answer must be a resounding yes. There’ll be many buyers – ‘many’ being relative in…

Over the past few years, DALI has established a firm presence in the premium loudspeaker market with impressive feats of engineering realised in its KORE flagship [HFN Dec ’23] and Epikore [HFN Feb ’25] ranges. However, the company that 40 years ago started as a budget brand for Scandinavia’s HiFi Klubben chain is making something of a return to its affordable roots with the Kupid. At £299 a pair, these pint-sized ‘bookshelf’ speakers are a universe away from the £85,000 KORE, but both are said to be built according to DALI’s ‘core’ design principles. BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS Even though the Kupid is a followup to the Spektor range, which consisted of three models, this two-way bookshelf is a one-off, with no apparent plans for a floorstanding scion or centre speaker.…

Exactly how Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704) became one of the leading violinistcomposers of his day is hard to say, and probably lost in time. The son of a huntsman in the service of a Bohemian noble, he took to the violin early on, and his talent must have been sufficiently developed as a teenager for him to become a pupil of Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, the leading Austrian violinistcomposer of his generation. MYSTERY MUSIC Biber soon followed in his teacher’s footsteps, entering the service of Maximilian Gandolph, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg in 1670. Gandolph revived a cult of devotion to the Virgin Mary, and around 1670 built the pilgrimage church of Maria Plain a few miles north of Salzburg. The Rosary is a sequence of prayers used in private devotion,…

ORIGINAL VINYL, LP REISSUES The 1973 London Tres Hombres LP [SHU 8459] fits the trio’s down-home groove to a Texas T. If you have worn out your original LP or any of its subsequent 1978-79 Warner Bros. reissues on wax [BSK 3270], 2024’s Rhino High Fidelity Series limited edition offering [Warner/Rhino RHFI 3270] is the way to go. Pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal, it has been cut from the original analogue master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio in Los Angeles. Our only nitpick is the label on the LP itself conforms to the High Fidelity Series’ red-and-black presentation style. Completists can seek out 2017’s Cinco: The First Five LPs box set [Warner Bros. 081227934514], within which Tres Hombres sports Warner’s 1970s-era ‘palm trees’ label instead. ORIGINAL CD…

How quaint it seems now, that in the earliest days of CD, only digital recordings, then in the minority, were deemed good enough for the new medium. Forty-odd years on, the situation is reversed. Nearly all recording is done digitally, but nearly everyone seems to want things to sound ‘more like analogue’ – whatever that might mean. ‘Analogue’ as a buzzword no longer refers to the means of capturing the music signal. It means a flavour that can be added, to make the sound ‘warm’ or ‘classic’. MASTERING MAGIC One way of doing that is to copy the digital mix on to analogue tape and use this recording as the source for a final digital master. I first heard of this ‘laying back to tape’ or ‘analogue layback’ being done…

For its X2 network player, Lumin says it has delivered a ‘significant boost in processing power’ over its X1 predecessor, in addition to implementing its first fully discrete custom DAC. PCM files up to 768kHz, and DSD up to DSD512, are handled by the X2’s FPGA-based D/A stage, for output over balanced XLR or single-ended connections. Once again, this new Lumin DAC includes the Leedh digital volume control. Inputs include USB for playback from local storage, alongside RJ45 and SFP optical network connections. Alternatively, the X2 can function as a digital transport via its USB and BNC (S/PDIF) outs. Compatible with the Lumin app, and featuring an external PSU, this streamer/DAC is available in natural or black alloy finish, for £12,995. Pixel Magic Systems Ltd, Hong Kong, 0800 0096213; www.luminmusic.com…

There’s boutique hi-fi and then there’s boutique hi-fi. Halcro, the famed Australian marque, at present has just three models in its catalogue – and one of those is the mono sibling of its Eclipse Stereo power amplifier [HFN May ’23]. Its only other offering is this new Equinox preamp with pricing to match the Eclipse, both selling for the same £44,000 in Halcro’s standard powder-coat finish, or a cool £50,000 for one of the ‘Signature’ premium paint versions. SPLIT DECISION To briefly recap, Halcro was founded by Cambridge-educated ‘physicist and inventor’ Bruce Candy around the turn of the millennium and was a feature of the premium audio scene with its dm series amplifiers [HFN Apr ’02]. Yet when Candy’s other work in metal-detection devices led to his main brand, Minelab…

If you thought bespoke cabinet details and custom colourways were the preserve of the very high-end loudspeaker market, maybe it’s time to think again. AudioSolutions, hailing from Vilnius in Lithuania, offers an extensive customisation programme for its mid-level Figaro series – so extensive, in fact, that there are apparently over 500,000 possible configurations for the M2 floorstander auditioned here. Despite that, pricing begins at £9750. Not pocket change, of course, but hardly outrageous either. In its standard guise, the Figaro M2 comes in Pearl White, Zinc Grey (pictured), and Dark Grey high gloss finishes, with the rear half of the cabinet black. But via the brand’s dedicated configuration website (www.my.audiosolutions.lt) you can specify various aspects of the speakers’ fit and finish. Options include not only numerous main and secondary cabinet…

Has there been a single defining hi-fi story in the last 20 years? Some might say the rise of streaming services deserves to be the subject of Chapter One when the history books are written. Others may argue for the unexpected resurgence of the vinyl format, or the birth of multiroom audio. And then there’s the arrival of ‘disruptor’ brands that have challenged the status quo with units – typically focused on digital playback – that combine leadingedge functionality with affordable pricing. The likes of Eversolo, FiiO and WiiM all fit this category, and so does Topping, manufacturer of the D900 DAC. Selling for £1799 and somewhat limited in features, this unit does not quite belong in the same do-it-all bargain bucket as WiiM’s Amp [HFN Nov ’24] or Eversolo’s…

Available for £5499, Musical Fidelity’s Nu-Vista Vinyl S is said to be a ‘price-appropriate source’ for the brand’s Nu-Vista 600.2 [HFN Aug ’25] and 800.2 [HFN Aug ’23] integrated amplifiers – ie, more affordable than its flagship £9999 Nu-Vista Vinyl 2 phono stage [HFN Feb ’24]. It also debuts a slimmer 480x131x404mm (whd) Nu-Vista chassis with updated front-panel display. Suited for use with MM and MC cartridges, the Vinyl S – in black or silver finish – leverages technology from the Vinyl 2, including a nuvistor valve buffer stage, a trio of discrete transistorised gain stages and two-part ‘split passive’ RIAA equalisation. Impedance, capacitance and gain can be set via the unit’s rotary controllers or new remote handset, in addition to subsonic filter and EQ selection (RIAA, Decca, Columbia). Dual…

Having previously released ‘Gen2’ iterations of its Premium 301 [HFN Jul ’25] and Premium 701 loudspeakers, Piega has now added a flagship model to the series. Selling for £9200 in a Silver anodised aluminium finish, or £9700 in Black anodised or White lacquer, the Premium 801 floorstander partners four 140mm ‘Full Symmetric Drive’ (FSD) bass drivers with a single 140mm FSD midrange and RM 01-24 ‘ribbon’ tweeter. A key improvement over the 701 floorstander is the addition of a horn waveguide for the high frequency driver, a first for the Premium line that’s said to improve its efficiency (sensitivity is rated at 90dB) while also enabling a lower 2.7kHz crossover to the midrange unit. Nominal impedance is given as 4ohm. Like its sibling models, the ’801 uses a rear-ported alloy…

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…

The birthday cake supplier to the audio industry has been having a busy time over the last couple of years, but it seems they are needed once more. This time, cards and presents should be sent in the direction of Cambridge, as AVID HiFi has reached the ripe old age of 30. And what better way could there be to celebrate than with a new turntable? Hence the Relveo, which retails for £5500, or £6900 with the partnering Altus V2 tonearm. The Relveo looks to preserve many key AVID hallmarks, but it is otherwise a new design from the ground up. According to company founder and owner, Conrad Mas, one of the deck’s ‘core design goals’ was to deliver ‘genuine high-end performance without the usual penalties of excessive size, mass,…

There’s a back story to the Virtus A3, Canor’s curious integrated dual-mono hybrid amplifier. I first encountered the design at the brand’s impressive factory in Prešov, eastern Slovakia, but this was in the summer of 2023, long before production versions rolled off the line. At the time the amplifier looked close to completion and was demonstrated playing into FinkTeam’s Borg loudspeakers. However, changes to the specifications along the way, including a decision to increase its power output to 2x100W/8ohm, ensured its development took rather longer than anticipated. While Canor has a respectable track record designing and building tube-based amps in-house [HFN Jun ’24], next to extensive OEM manufacturing, it tapped roving designer, John Westlake, to aid in fashioning the Virtus A3. Westlake, something of a hi-fi celebrity, has designed lauded…

If you’ll pardon the pun, there’s been a redrawing of the map at Atlas with the Scottish cable company now clearly dividing its wares into three distinct ranges dubbed ‘Upgrade’, ‘Aspire’ and ‘High End’. The Ailsa Duo OCC interconnect featured here is joined by the established Hyper cable in the brand’s mid-ranked Aspire range, both these cables now bearing the ‘Duo’ moniker. Fitted with the very smart ‘dark chrome’ XLR plugs – featuring silver-plated copper pins – prices for the Ailsa Duo OCC start from £1510 for a 0.5m stereo set, increasing to £1650 for a 1m pair and then by £280 for each additional metre thereafter. Atlas also offers an RCAterminated version of the cable, the Ailsa Duo Ultra L, at the same price(s). PRONOUNCED ‘ALE-SUH’ Beneath the silver-grey…

For their third album, the ZZ Top contingent – Gibbons, Hill and Beard, along with producer/manager (and fellow Texan) Bill Ham – began production in the friendly confines of Robin Hood Studios in Tyler, Texas, where they had cut ZZ Top’s First Album and Rio Grande Mud. Yet they later decamped to Ardent Studios in Memphis to work with a new engineer, Terry Manning, as Gibbons was an avowed fan of his mixing and mastering work on Led Zeppelin’s 1970 release, Led Zeppelin III. ‘We became honorary citizens of Memphis once we started recording there’, Gibbons has observed. ‘I wanted the band to sound powerful and tight and just sonically as pure as possible’, Manning confirmed with The Blues magazine. ‘I wanted to keep the blues element – which is…

Prediction time. Advertisements will soon be promising, ‘We do not use AI’. Like ‘no MSG’ or ‘no added sugar’. People are starting to hate AI, and the moneymen are fearing it’s another dotcom-style boom-to-bust. I have been trying to renew broadband subscriptions online and by phone, using infuriating consumer helplines powered by Artificial Stupidity. One automated system could not recognise the spoken word ‘Yes’, offered to connect me to a human ‘agent’, then regretted no agent was available and told me to ‘call back later’. Another wrote me an offer and then wrote that it wasn’t available. ARE YOU SURE? It’s now more widely recognised that AI ‘hallucinates’. It makes up answers. Tutors are seeing this in students’ essays. In autumn 2025, financial services giant Deloitte got caught when it…

They tell you not to judge a book by its cover, but I couldn’t help it. Fear Of Music is the title of a 2009 book by David Stubbs, and I clicked ‘Buy’ almost without a second’s pause when I recently stumbled across it online. The subtitle promised an answer to a question which has been troubling me for years: ‘Why people get Rothko but don’t get Stockhausen’. You may not care for (or ‘get’) either the artist or the composer. Stubbs is attempting to address a broader phenomenon. Modern art, from the early 20th century and beyond, has a solid place in our culture. Two years ago, a major show of Mark Rothko’s work in Paris was sold out through the course of its six-month run. I went towards…

In the UK, the turntable market has been dominated for a number of years by Linn’s LP12 – now well-priced by audiophile standards. Many attempts have been made to produce and sell better and more costly models, but it turned out that a far higher price had to be paid to achieve a genuine sound improvement. Enter the French products of Pierre Lurné – a turntable lineup which has enjoyed success for some years on the continent, but has only recently become available here. Originally there was a connection between Lurné and Goldmund, since Lurné engaged in design and production for other manufacturers before embarking on its own designs. Its first tonearms were designed as early as 1979, with production commencing in 1981, the range including sub-contract manufacture of the…

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