Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2024 i Hi-Fi Choice

PRICE: £1,300 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: MARANTZ.COM AMERICAN HI-FI SPECIALIST Marantz has released its MODEL 60n network streaming amplifier. Boasting a claimed 60W per channel of Class A/B power, the MODEL 60n features the latest iteration of Marantz’s HDAM (Hyper Dynamic Amplifier Module) technology, which seeks to ensure a combination of: “exceptionally low distortion, effortless power and all the accuracy, transparency and musicality that mark Marantz amplifiers out as the some of the most highly regarded designs in the category.” Alongside three analogue inputs, there’s additionally a moving-magnet phono stage and the built-in ESS Sabre DAC is available to multiple digital inputs. HEOS provision ensures high-quality network music streaming from a broad range of different music services via wi-fi or Ethernet and multi-room operation in tandem with other HEOS-enabled products. Music…

PRICE: €1,050-€3,800 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: ARENDALSOUND.COM ALL THE WAY from Norway comes Arendal Sound’s latest generation of its flagship speaker series, the 1723 THX equipped with high-performance waveguide tweeters and mid/bass drivers. Another key feature is the integration of custom-designed HDF cabinets, which – the company claims – enhance the rigidity of the enclosure, reducing resonance and allowing for a cleaner, more articulate sound. Available in multiple configurations, the flagship 1723 Tower, 1723 Monitor, 1723 Center and 1723 Surround speakers are designed to provide modular solutions for building a surround sound or stereo system tailored to any room size or configuration. For those users seeking a low-frequency extension, Arendal offers the re-designed 1723 Subwoofer range, equipped with larger drivers, advanced DSP (Digital Signal Processors) and improved amplification. “We understand that…

PRICE: £70-£530 AVAILABLE: JANUARY 2025 WEB: SHARPCONSUMER.COM THERE’S BEEN LOTS of activity over at Japanese company Sharp, which is launching two new soundbars under its Sharp Q subsidiary: the HT-SBW53121 (£380) and HT-SBW55121 (£530) plus the matching HT-SPR52021 wireless rear surround speakers (£220). The new Sharp Q soundbars come with options for low feet and wall brackets to offer flexible placement while boasting universal connectivity Designed with a minimalist, Scandi-style look, each model is available in two colour options – Carbon Black (with Aegean Blue) and Smoke Grey (with Satin Silver). The Sharp Q product range will make the latest 3D surround sound technologies (such as Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and DTS Virtual:X) accessible to more consumers. The HT-SBW53121 boasts 550W total power output while the HT-SBW55121 claims 650W. The rear…

THE ANNUAL UK Hi-Fi Show Live! was held in the iconic Grandstand at Ascot Racecourse on 20th-22nd September, packed to the rafters with new kit from all around the world. There was so much good stuff on display that we’d need a whole issue to celebrate the lot and do it all justice so here’s the best we can do – a selection of some of the goodies we came across as we prowled the five floors over the three days. There was plenty going on in distributor Karma AV’s various rooms. Perlisten was demonstrating its S7t speakers and D15s sub with a 380mm bass driver powered by a 1.5kW Class D amp matched with Primare’s 35 Series power amps. Perlisten was also showing off its stunning R range featuring…

JUST A FEW years ago, it looked as though over-ear headphones had been consigned to the history books once and for all. Compact Bluetooth earbuds were all the rage and it seemed that full-size, over-ear headphones were destined to join vinyl as a niche market for audiophiles. Jump forward to today and over-ear headphones are everywhere. On every high street the cool kids are wearing big, chunky cans – somehow perched atop a baseball cap – and fashion magazines are hailing the over-ear headphone as the most stylish way of chilling out to your favourite tunes or blocking out background interference when you’re at work or travelling. It’s been a gradual process, but the return of the over-ear headphone was finally proclaimed by the release of the Beats Solo 4…

Bose’s QuietComfort range has long been recognised for its ability to combine excellent sound quality with market-leading noise cancelling, and it recently upped the ante once more with this new flagship offering. Of course, that quality comes at a cost with the QC Ultra the second most expensive offering in the group. Available in a choice of four tasteful colour options, it has a slightly more streamlined design than predecessors, with fewer button controls and visible seams on the earpieces. The plastic armatures don’t seem as sturdy as we might expect at the price, but that’s probably out of a desire to keep the weight down. The thickly padded earpieces and headband feel surprisingly light and comfortable. To preserve the sleek profile, Bose opts for a touch-sensitive volume slider on…

STREAMING SERVICE: Qobuz from £10.83 per month HFC 507 One of the very first hi-res streaming services, Qobuz has a vast library of classical, jazz and popular music at a competitive price. Its primary Studio plan costs £10.83 per month for 24-bit/192kHz FLAC audio. BLUETOOTH TRANSMITTER: Sennheiser BTD 600 £35 The BTD 600 provides a convenient and easy-to-use transmitter with support for the most widely used aptX Adaptive codec. Its USB-C connector works with most devices and it has a USB-A adapter as well. PORTABLE DAC: iFi Audio GO bar Kensei £450 HFC 516 Supporting formats up to 32-bit/384kHz and with an upscaling feature that attempts to restore lost audio data above 22kHz, this is a superb DAC. It includes 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm connectors, along with a USB-C cable…

One of the long-running tenets of hi-fi is ideas that appear at the top of a particular range will eventually make their way down to more terrestrial price points over time. Companies do this with varying degrees of success, but DALI’s latest attempt is notable because not only has technology from higher up the range made the trip, so has the name. The outgoing Rubicon series of speakers has been replaced with the Rubikore – reflecting an influx of thinking from the £85,000 range topper to a more sensible price point. The new series comprises a pair of floorstanders – the standmount seen here – an LCR (a speaker engineered to be both a centre speaker and also operate as a stereo pair) and an on-wall speaker intended for surround…

Providing impressive sound quality worthy of their top-of-the-range price, B&W’s Pi7 and Pi7 S2 (HFC 478 and 504 respectively) earbuds also introduced a genuine innovation with their ‘smart’ charging case that doubled up as an aptX transmitter for use with wired audio sources. The Pi7 models did have some limitations, though, and their battery life and noise-cancelling features weren’t quite in the same league as some rivals. So, the company went back to the drawing board and came up with an entirely new design for the Pi8. The somewhat chunky design of the Pi7 earbuds also left something to be desired, with B&W admitting they: “didn’t fit as well as we would have liked”. Available in a variety of colours, the Pi8 is still relatively large, but now adopts a…

It is a sad fact that the number of people living with dementia is continuing to rise. Some new research published in The Lancet Public Health indicates that dementia incidence started to increase in England and Wales after 2008. The research suggests that this figure could now be as high as 1.7 million. Not only is the ageing population a major driver of this trend, but the number of people developing dementia within older age groups is also increasing. Given this fact, scientists are looking for more ways to prevent or delay the onset of dementia and it appears that playing a musical instrument is one approach worth exploring. Recent research published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry describes work by a team of researchers from the University of…

IT ALWAYS SEEMS to be the case that no matter how many plug sockets you have, it’s not quite enough for all your equipment. Enter Chord Company’s PowerHAUS P6 entry-level six-way mains power block. Designed to reduce noise and improve the performance of your system, it follows the flagship PowerHAUS M6 and S6 distribution devices and employs the company’s proprietary ARAY noise-reduction technology to minimise interaction between the internal live, neutral and earth cables. It uses heavy-gauge internal cables and high-quality UK mains sockets (a version with Schuko sockets is also available) and has a 16A IEC mains input connection. It is supplied with a 16A IEC power cable that is fitted with a straight connector, but can be upgraded to be supplied with, for example, a Chord Clearway Power…

PRICE: £700-£1,200 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: RUARKAUDIO.COM BRITISH COMPANY RUARK Audio has announced the return of one of its original loudspeakers plus its first ever music console. The company says the R610 Music Console and Sabre-R bookshelf speakers: “revive the stereo concept as a complete music system for the modern era… evoking the stereo music centres of the Seventies and echoing the rest of Ruark’s 100 Series lineup, the R610 Music Console and Sabre-R Bookshelf Speakers bring timeless style to any interior space.” With tactile soft-touch buttons, a precisely weighted control dial and Bluetooth remote control, operating the R610 is a completely intuitive experience, while a crisp colour screen displays custom and album/station artwork. Powering the music console is a switch-mode power supply with audiograde components used throughout, including Burr-Brown DACs,…

PRICE: £40-£120 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: MAJORITY.CO.UK MAJORITY HAS INTRODUCED a group of new Bluetooth ‘party’ speakers this month: the P100, P200 and P300, which will be available exclusively at Currys. The P100 Portable Bluetooth Party Speaker boasts 50W of power, seven hours of wireless audio, a rechargeable battery and an LED light show, which syncs to the sound. Using TWS technology, users are able to pair two speakers. Features include Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, a 3.5mm AUX in, USB playback, SD card reader, FM radio and a wired microphone. It weighs 1.2kg, measures 183 x 189 x 255mm (WxHxD) and is priced at £40. The P200 Portable Bluetooth Party Speaker boasts 100W of power, five hours of wireless audio and a dynamic LED light show. Featuring a remote control for adjusting…

PRICE: €2,000-€4,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: RADIANTACOUSTICS.COM DANISH NEWCOMER RADIANT Acoustics has unveiled its debut product, the Clarity 6.2 two-way loudspeaker featuring USHINDI-drivers from PURIFI Audio and a 165mm PURIFI USHINDI bass driver with NeutralSurround technology, plus an advanced voice coil. Radiant, which is an integration of three long-established companies – HiFi Klubben, PURIFI and Nordic Hi-Fi reveals: “For the first time, these advanced technologies are accessible in an affordable, mass-produced design”. To handle the high frequencies, the Clarity 6.2 uses an AMT tweeter paired with a custom-designed high-frequency beam expansion waveguide, developed by PURIFI’s co-founder and CTO: Lars Risbo. The waveguide narrows the tweeter’s directivity to match the bass driver around 2,400Hz, but, says Radiant, what sets this waveguide apart is its ability to also broaden the AMT’s dispersion at…

PRICE: £700-£2,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: SYSTEM-AUDIO.COM/EN KARMA-AV.CO.UK SCANDINAVIAN COMPANY SYSTEM Audio, distributed in the UK by Karma-AV, has launched its Signature range, a five-strong lineup of passive floor, standmount and wall loudspeakers. System Audio describes the range as: “built for high efficiency and power handling from slender room-friendly designs and intended for easy system configuration and room integration”. The new Signature speakers include the floorstanding three-way Signature 40 (£2,000 per pair), wall or shelf-mounting two-way Signature 10 (£700 each), super-slender two-way Signature 6 on-wall (£800 per pair), two-way Signature 5 standmount (£1,000 per pair) and the Signature 8 (£1,100) – a compact 600W dual 205mm driver subwoofer with an opposing ‘balanced-array’ design. For simple installation, the Signatures 10 and 6 include fixed wall-mount brackets (the 10 with vertical or horizontal…

Hi-Fi Choice employs the most methodical test and measurement regime in the business. Here’s how we do it… HEADPHONE GROUP TEST WHEN IT COMES to headphones, Bluetooth isn’t the only game in town and this test sees traditional wired models rubbing shoulders with features like spatial audio and noise cancelling. AptX Adaptive and AAC are currently the two primary options for wireless audio for Apple and Android users, so Bluetooth headphones have to be tested using audio sources that support their native codec. In addition, many Bluetooth headphones provide a wired option as well, so we also test them this way – whether that’s a 3.5mm jack, USB-C or both. Active noise-cancellation (ANC) features are also increasingly popular. We test these by using two audio files. The first simulates the…

If anyone doubts we are treated to as much, if not more, novelty than back in the glory days when LPs ruled, European Audio Team’s Fortissimo turntable and F-Note tonearm will put paid to that. Like TechDAS’ vacuum hold-down and air bearing or the Reed deck available in idler-and belt-drive versions, this EAT combination bursts with clever features. Before you look at the possibilities, the base Fortissimo/F-Note combo retails for £13,500, but the options are such that you can customise it any way you like. Rather like specifying a new car, you’ll need to sit down with your EAT dealer and tick myriad boxes, with prices on application. In addition to leather, wood or lacquered finishes – we’ve even seen it in lime green and white – there are also…

Affordable high-end is a familiar phrase from the hi-fi handbook. Trouble is, it sounds like an oxymoron with little chance of being realised in the truest sense. And why should it? While it would probably never occur to the amply minted customer to weigh the pros and cons of a value-based purchase, the cost-no-object lure of a mega-amp is, just as starkly, dream fodder for most. But it really is time to stop dreaming. As I’ve suggested before, there’s much closer performance parity up for grabs if pure musicality is the chief criterion. Forgo the seismic slam and stadium-real SPLs of beautiful, copiously over-engineered hardware and high-end assets more concerned with tonality, imaging, timing and coherence are ripe for the picking at sane prices. These days, high-end is as much…

Death, taxes… and record company avarice… I don’t know how many of you pay a subscription to streaming platforms and how many listen for free at the cost of putting up with some of the most irritating adverts ever invented. Personally, I am just about prepared to put up with the ads for I only ever dip into Spotify to get a taster of music with which I’m unfamiliar and if I like what I hear, I will then purchase it. As a reviewer, of course, I also get sent music, preferably in a physical format because for me being a music lover still involves being able to hold an album and admire the artwork and read the liner notes. A year or two ago I attempted a decluttering exercise…

SCOTTISH COMPANY ATLAS Cables now employs solid core OCC copper conductors in its Hyper sc USB cable to minimise attenuation, energy dissipation and conductivity issues associated with such cables and deliver consistent performance across all lengths. The Hyper sc USB uses matched twist ratios for the data pair to minimise intra-pair skew effects, which can be detrimental to the signal. Atlas also employs matched pairs of cables whose lengths have been controlled to maintain uniformity. The company has a triple shielding technique that isolates the differential data, power and ground conductors from each other to minimise capacitance and limit crosstalk. There is an integral shield around the entire cable to help reject jitter and external noise resulting from the effects of low-level RFI and EMI on digital audio signals, which…

1 FAIR PLAY In a welcome contrast to the Gallagher Brothers’ recent obscene money grab, Coldplay will be donating 10 percent of all profits from their 2025 UK stadium shows to benefit The Music Venue Trust. “With all of the artists that are playing stadiums next year, it’s no coincidence that all of them started in a van, driving around and playing pubs: Oasis, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, the truth is all there,” Coldplay’s main man Chris Martin told NME. “Taylor Swift has probably played more than anyone in tiny Nashville venues and county fairs.” Music Venue Trust’s CEO Mark Davyd says: “Coldplay are providing a lifeline for new talent. I can’t put an exact amount on it, but it is a significant amount of money. It depends how much the…

PRICE: £6,450-£9,750 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: TA-HIFI.DE KOGAUDIO.COM GERMAN COMPANY T+A has added two new multi-source players to its R Series: the MP 2000 R G3 and MP 2500 R G3. In addition, a futureproof upgrade to the streaming clients of the predecessor MP 2000 R MK II and MP 2500 R are now available with the Audiophile Streaming Architecture (ASA) G3, providing access to a wide range of new high-quality and highly convenient Connect services. These enable direct music streaming from mobile devices to the T+A unit through Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect or Apple AirPlay 2. The ASA G3 also integrates many hi-res streaming services and allows native DSD streaming directly and without conversion via the streaming client. Alongside the introduction of the ASA G3, T+A is also implementing a…

PRICE: TBC AVAILABLE: 2025 WEB: HENLEYAUDIO.CO.UK HERE’S AN EARLY heads-up about a couple of new products coming our way from American company WiiM. In the pipeline are the CI MOD A80 stereo streaming amplifier and CI MOD S streamer, both of which will be exclusively released in the UK via Henley Audio. The WiiM CI MOD A80 streaming amp combines an ESS ES9018K2M SABRE Reference DAC with a TI TPA3255 Class-D stereo amplifier, delivering 60W per channel at 8ohm. It supports the latest wi-fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, is controllable via the WiiM app and has been designed to sit side-by-side with another amp in a rack. It weighs 1.9kg and measures 190 x 64 x 190mm. The WiiM CI MOD S is an audiophile-grade streamer featuring an AKM AK4493SEQ…

PRICE: £8,500 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: OPHIDIAN.CO.UK THE OPHIDIAN FFION loudspeaker has just been launched. Named after company founder Gareth James’ newborn daughter, the FFION features a cabinet design that tapers from base to top both laterally and front to back – a design engineered to combine both the imaging of a compact speaker with the bass weight of a full-size floorstander The 125mm alloy midrange driver features a solid aluminium phase plug and dual shorting paths in its voice coil circuit design to reduce distortion. Situated in its own sealed sub-section of the cabinet, the company says it provides: “lifelike vocals while matching evenly with the outputs from the woofer and tweeter”. Ophidian goes on to note that: “the 22mm soft dome tweeter features a wide roll surround for excellent…

PRICE: £25-£859 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: AUDIO-TECHNICA.COM/EN-GB AUDIO-TECHNICA HAS LAUNCHED a raft of new products including its direct-drive AT-LP8X turntable and ATN3600LE stylus. The AT-LP8X showcases a new a J-shaped aluminium tonearm that automatically raises at the end of the record and stops the motor – a rare feature for a direct-drive turntable, which the company says not only reduces needle wear or damage but also gives users the freedom for convenient, hassle-free listening. In addition, the tonearm comes equipped with the new AT-LT10 headshell, also launching now, which connects it to the black AT-VM95E (HFC 444) cartridge. The turntable’s MDF box plinth, adjustable feet, thick rubber-damped, anti-resonance, die-cast aluminium platter and 2.5mm rubber mat have been designed to work together in an attempt to temper unwanted noise and vibration. The…

PRICE: £5,500 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: MICHI-HIFI.COM AMONG THE KIT making its public debut at the recent UK Hi-Fi Show Live! was Japanese brand Rotel’s new Michi Q5 Transport DAC. According to the company: “The Q5 redefines the CD player experience by merging state-of-the-art technology with unmatched craftsmanship to deliver unparalleled sound quality”. At the core of the Q5 is its premium ESS ES9028PRO chipset, an eight-channel digital-to-analogue converter. Rotel has implemented the DAC in a fully balanced, fully differential circuit design to offer precision audio reproduction with an extremely low noise floor in a bid to ensure pristine sound with minimal distortion to both its XLR and RCA analogue outputs. The Q5 dedicates four channels within the DAC to each of the left and right audio signal paths in pursuit…

Focal recently released two sets of wired, analogue-only headphones with similar designs: the closed-back Azurys for ‘music lovers on the go’ and the open-back Hadenys for use at home. Mind you, calling them ‘similar’ is a bit redundant, since most of Focal’s headphones employ the same distinctive design, with large oval earpieces and a perforated grille that sports its trademark honeycomb pattern and zig-zag logo. The main thing that sets each model apart is often just the colour, with the Azurys adopting a metallic blue tint based on the mineral azurite. It boasts the same impressive sound and build quality as many of Focal’s more expensive headphones, employing the same 40mm aluminium-magnesium drivers as the £700 Bathys (HFC 500), which provide 15Hz-22kHz frequency response. The padded headband also employs a…

After decades of being a technically respected but somewhat niche solution, active speakers are suddenly becoming very big business. By combining them with streaming and a decent smattering of inputs, speaker manufacturers have spotted a way to use existing engineering and make sales at the expense of electronics manufacturers. And when times are tight, all is fair in love and war. Triangle has been dabbling in this field with powered versions of its Borea range of speakers, and very good they are too. For the move upmarket, though, the company has changed to a true active platform where the crossover is line-level and in front of the amplification. The Capella takes parts from the Esprit range of passive speakers, but is not a straight conversion of any specific model from…

Pro-Ject’s Debut series of turntables has done a huge amount to shape the affordable turntable market and its positioning has shifted over time to best reflect this. The Debut EVO took the basic pattern that makes a Debut – a belt-driven unsuspended design with an 8.6in tonearm – and beefed up the constituent parts to compete at a higher price point, and very successful it was too. The EVO 2 is intended to continue the theme. The wrinkle to this is that, when the EVO was launched, it was the top of the Debut tree. Since then, the PRO has appeared (HFC 487, recently updated to the PRO B with hardware to allow it to run balanced), which takes on that role, making the EVO 2 the second tier of…

Rag ‘N’ Bone Man What Do You Believe In? CD Sony IN THE TITLE of his third long player, Rory Charles Graham – better known to you and me as Rag ‘N’ Bone Man – poses a question that many have been asking of his career to date and one that has generated considerable confusion. After cutting his teeth playing at hip-hop nights around Brighton, his 2017 debut album Human was a stunner on which his distinctively deep, gravelly voice was married to a suitably epic production on a collection of retro-soul songs with a bluesy vibe that sounded like instant classics. The album went four times platinum and won a brace of BRIT awards alongside an Ivor Novello, led by the gospel fervour of the title track which sounded like…

RECORD STORE DAY has come in for a bit of a hammering lately with nay-sayers worried about the sheer amount of resource it takes up at the pressing plants and the occasionally questionable collectability of its releases But talking to a few independent record shop owners over the last few months, it’s heartening to discover that RSD is still an incredibly popular event with store owners and record buyers alike. Queues are still forming from the early hours outside shops so hardy souls can snag their precious rarities and the business boost provided by the RSD surge is a real boon in keeping indies going when trading gets tough. So, we’re here to celebrate the latest RSD drop, the Black Friday event taking place around the country on 29 November.…

Hi-Fi Choice Recommends ESSENTIAL HI-FI YOU’LL WANT TO OWN CD PLAYERS Cambridge Audio AXC35 PRICE: £300 REVIEWED: HFC 454 Something of a budget marvel, you’ll have to work extra hard to get the AXC35 to put a foot wrong. Bass is firm, detailed and blessed with excellent timing; the tonal palette is pleasingly broad and clean; and though the soundstage doesn’t extend much beyond the speakers, there’s great depth perspective. Cyrus CDi-XR Phantom Black PRICE: £2,200 REVIEWED: HFC 499 Familiar Cyrus traits such as clean speed, punctuality and strong sense of transparency are present and correct, but previous signature leanness has been bolstered by a weightier, warmer balance that sounds more natural. Marantz CD 50n PRICE: £1,600 REVIEWED: HFC 518 Equipped to not only get the most from your CD…