Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2025 i Hi-Fi Choice

PRICE: £700 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: GOLDRING.CO.UK BRITISH CARTRIDGE SPECIALIST Goldring has announced the launch of the GR3, its first new turntable in more than 20 years. Pre-fitted with a Goldring E3 (HFC 428) moving-magnet cart and a built-in preamplifier, the plug-and-play GR3 features a phenolic resin platter designed to maximise the flywheel effect – the platter ensuring consistent rotational speed for enhanced audio fidelity. There’s a choice of either a 1.5m phono-to-phono or 3m phono-to-3.5mm cable provided from QED and the turntable comes with a high-gloss black plinth and perspex dust cover. Regarding the choice of cartridge, Goldring explains: “The E3 arrives pre-fitted and pre-adjusted to the GR3 tonearm. It features a stiff and lightweight aluminium cantilever offering accurate tracking, more detail and reduced distortion, while a ‘dual magnet’ generator…

PRICE: £100 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: FIIO.COM “REDEFINING PORTABLE HI-FI,” is how FiiO boldly describes its new KA15 USB DAC and headphone amplifier. Featuring a dual ESS ES9038Q2M DAC chip architecture and high-performance THX AAA-78 amplifier, the KA15 supports PCM playback up to 32-bit/768kHz, DSD512 and MQA rendering, allowing users to experience their favourite tracks in full resolution. With a claimed output power of up to 450mW per channel at 32ohm, the KA15 is equipped with USB-C input and a variety of output options including a 3.5mm single-ended jack and 4.4mm balanced output. The KA15 features multiple gain settings (Low, Medium and High) and a low-power mode, allowing users to adjust the output depending on their headphone impedance or to conserve battery life during mobile use. It is also equipped with…

PRICE: £500-£2,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: KEF.COM KEF HAS RELEASED its eight-strong latest generation of the Q Series featuring Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT), which the company claims: “takes the performance of the latest 12th-generation Uni-Q driver array to another level in terms of accuracy and clarity”. For improved detail and clarity, specific models within the range have been upgraded from a 2.5 to a three-way design, including the Q11 Meta, Q7 Meta, Q Concerto Meta and Q6 Meta (a centre for home cinema setups). This updated configuration separates the frequency ranges, with the Uni-Q driver handling the high and midrange alongside a newly designed bass driver dedicated to the low frequencies management. Meet the family The flagship Q11 Meta is a three-way floorstander that pairs the 12th generation Uni-Q driver array…

Astandmount speaker with thick, rounded, age-dried Italian walnut cheeks elegantly book-ending a baffle dressed in a coating that resembles fine rain leather, the Chario Aviator Ghibli is impossibly gorgeous. There isn’t a pointy cabinet corner in sight. As premium speakers go, Italian supermodels like the Chario have snapped the bonds of mere stereotype (unavoidable pun) to become arguably hi-fi’s best-looking cliché. Sonus faber, Diapason, Franco Serblin and Rosso Fiorentino to name just a few, they all appear to be at it, trading shamelessly on Italianate as a touchstone for ineffable style, exotic materials and sumptuous luxury – elements just as integral to the country’s fashion, furniture and automotive industries. Whatever your take on this – eschewing variations on an MDF box for speakers that are more like exquisitely hand-crafted musical…

In a mythical university dedicated entirely to hi-fi studies, my guess is that every student would be required to deliver a thesis on how to design a world-beating £1,000 standmount speaker. Get that one right, I reckon, and the big brands will be queueing round the block come graduation day. Thing is, there are so many great, over-achieving sub-£500 budget boxes on the market, questioning the need to spend more isn’t just understandable but mandatory. In order to generate real temptation, it seems your £1k proposition must turbocharge the same tactic: look and feel like a £2k product at least and, if possible, boast tech from an even more rarified price point, leveraging to the max the notion that a thousand notes, rather than being an outlay of dubious benefit,…

For many hi-fi companies (probably far too many if we are being honest), software is a necessary evil required to make their engineering work. The varying degrees of enthusiasm companies are able to muster for their operating system has been reflected in a few devices that look superb but are an absolute pig to use. In this regard Volumio is something of an outlier. It started life as a software provider, creating a bespoke platform that could be used in a variety of different devices and only moved into hardware at a later date. The Rivo is different to any other Volumio product in its inventory because it has no internal decoding on board. It is designed to act as a transport, either with a standalone DAC or with the…

There are lots of DACs available that can also act as a Bluetooth receiver for a set of wired speakers or other hi-fi equipment, including iFi’s own GO Blu (HFC 483) and Zen Blue V2. However, the new ZEN Blue 3 casts its net much wider, with the company claiming it is the first DAC to act as both Bluetooth receiver (RX) and transmitter (TX) with support for lossless audio as well as a conventional wired DAC for hi-res. It’s more expensive than its predecessor – with the Blue V2 remaining on sale at £200 – but its additional features mean that it earns its keep as part of a wider home entertainment setup. The basic design remains unchanged, with a low-profile metallic case that feels very sturdy although the…

The young lady looks into the camera and says: “The average American feels abandoned by the glamour. Beyoncé performing at rallies and things like that. That’s not what I care about. I care about how can I afford a home one day or how can I afford to have children.” This was her response to a BBC reporter asking her why she thought Kamala Harris lost the US election. Over the past few years this page has weighed in on the subject of politicians using musicians’ work without their permission and the good news for Jack White, Neil Young et al appears to be they may not have to worry about it any longer! Recent events have raised doubts concerning the relationship between celebrity musicians and political campaigns. Harris courted…

Hi-FiChioce Recommends ESSENTIALHI-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. Musical Fidelity M6scd PRICE: £2,500 REVIEWED: HFC 499 An exemplary player with more than a hint of star quality to it, the M6scd paints a broad and deep soundstage populated with solid, well-focused and perfectly placed images. Regardless of genre of music or production standard, its handling of spatial elements is among the very best in the business. Cyrus CDi-XR Phantom Black…

PRICE: £350-£7,900 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: ARENDALSOUND.COM A CUSTOM CARBON-GRAPHENE midrange driver joins an exclusive lithium magnesium tweeter in the launch of Arendal Sound’s new six-strong 1528 speaker range. The driver configuration incorporates a proprietary 28mm tweeter and dual 203mm mid/bass drivers to provide what the company describes as an expansive soundstage with pinpoint imaging and remarkable detail. Designed and manufactured in-house, the driver utilises: “a unique waveguide technology that minimises distortion and provides a wider dispersion, ensuring immersive listening no matter where you are in the room.” The mid/bass drivers are crafted from a fibre material chosen for its ability to balance stiffness and lightness, enabling them to produce a: “deep, controlled bass response without sacrificing midrange clarity. This results in a speaker that can effortlessly handle complex musical passages…

PRICE: £1,100 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: GOLDNOTE.IT GOLD NOTE HAS launched a new addition to its 5 Series – the CD-5, which features a high-precision compact disc mechanism and high-resolution DAC. The company explains the CD-5: “delivers music effortlessly, leveraging an expertly engineered signal path to ensure exceptional sound quality. Its advanced audio-grade components and design eliminate noise and intermodulation, providing a pure and immersive auditory journey, all controlled with the sleek touchscreen display and included remote control.” Also offering programmable playlists and connection flexibility – thanks to analogue and digital outputs – the CD-5 features Stereo XLR balanced, RCA unbalanced, coaxial and optical outputs. It is powered by the AKM AK4493 DAC chip and the audio path is mapped on a multilayer PCB through audio-grade select components and single-sealed relays,…

PRICE: £2,500-£4,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: CYRUSAUDIO.COM CYRUS AUDIO HAS launched its 40 Series – a new range featuring the 40 AMP integrated amplifier, 40 CD, 40 ST network streamer with BluOS streaming platform built-in and 40 PSU external power supply. The 40 AMP (£4,000) boasts a claimed 100W per channel into 6ohm, comes in aluminium casing with a 5in hi-res, full colour TFT display and uses an electronic circuit designed entirely by the R&D team at Cyrus. The DAC is based upon the latest chipset from ESS – the ES9039Q2M – and the company says it has been reworked to provide an audio signal that replicates the artists’ original recording to a level not seen in a Cyrus product before. As well as multiple digital and analogue connections, the 40 AMP…

PRICE: £700 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: BOWERSWILKINS.COM BOWERS & WILKINS has upgraded its Zeppelin wireless loudspeaker system to the new Zeppelin Pro Edition. Building on the unique shape of the original, the updated Pro Edition comes in two new finishes – Solar Gold and Space Grey – together with a revised downlight offering user-selectable choice over 15 separate colours, each with brightness adjustment options. The Pro Edition now boasts Titanium Dome tweeters – as used in the latest generation of B&W’s 600 Series speakers – mounted at the far edges of the enclosure and fully isolated from vibrations running through the cabinet generated by other, larger drive units. These are paired with 90mm midrange drivers using B&W’s proprietary Fixed Suspension Transducer FST technology – as used in all of its premium…

PRICE: £2,600 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: PROJECT-AUDIO.COM HENLEYAUDIO.CO.UK A NEW VERSION of the 6PerspeX turntable from Pro-Ject Audio Systems is now available in the UK via Henley Audio in the form of the 6PerspeX Balanced UK SuperPack. Pro-Ject released the £2,100 6PerspeX Balanced early in 2024 – taking the previous 6PerspeX SB (HFC 505) design and adding a new balanced output option in line with the company’s True Balanced Connection concept. Now the 6PerspeX Balanced UK SuperPack expands the overall package to include nearly £1,000’s worth of upgrades. The UK SuperPack edition changes the standard 9CC EVO tonearm for a 9CC EVO High Gloss version with ABEC 7 ballrace tonearm bearings. The turntable comes with Pro-Ject’s premium Pick it MC3 moving-coil cartridge pre-installed and features an acoustically inert, vinyl-topped sandwich MDF…

PRICE: £3,250-£3,750 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: SVSOUND.COM KARMA-AV.CO.UK SVS HAS LAUNCHED its flagship 17-Ultra Revolution subwoofer series in the UK via Karma AV. Mirroring the size of its 16-Ultra predecessors, the new subwoofers feature a 432mm dual voice-coil SVS driver, dual mono-block Class D amplification, uprated power supply and advanced DSP and app control. Consequently, the company claims: “the sealed box SB17-Ultra and ported PB17-Ultra designs are the most powerful, sophisticated and user-friendly SVS subwoofers ever introduced to the consumer market”. With a high-excursion 432mm design, the sub features a 25kg toroidal ferrite magnet motor using SVS’ first dual 205mm, copper-clad aluminium voice coil to deliver output and control over the 432mm glass fibre composite cone. SVS says this combination generates high sound pressure levels to well below the threshold of…

PRICE: £3,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: CHORDELECTRONICS.CO.UK CHORD ELECTRONICS HAS made its Alto headphone/nearfield monitor amplifier – previously reserved exclusively for the professional audio industry – accessible to non-pro users. The Alto, which was designed specifically for recording and mastering studio engineers to meet the demands of critical monitoring, is a compact analogue amplifier that delivers high-transparency, low-distortion ULTIMA amplification to speakers and headphones. It can drive up to four pairs of headphones and smaller speakers, and marks the first CE product to include a 4.4mm Pentaconn TRRRS output (pseudo balanced), catering to the increasing popularity of balanced transmission in high-end headphones. The monitor amp features four fascia mounted headphone outputs, powered by ULTIMA technology and boasts one 3.5mm, a 4.4mm Pentaconn and two 6.35mm outs. The connections not only facilitate…

As anyone who tried to buy tickets for Oasis’ 2025 reunion tour will have discovered, nostalgia is big business. The hi-fi industry knows it too, and in recent years has been scouring the Seventies for speaker and amplifier designs to either leverage into new updates or directly resurrect. Monitor Audio, however, has now jumped a decade ahead, launching a new speaker “inspired by the Eighties”. Seeing as Hollywood has been tapping into that decade with revisits to the Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and Ghostbusters franchises, the British manufacturer might be onto something. The Studio 89, selling for £2,000, takes its cues from the company’s Studio series from the Eighties. Specifically, the promotional literature cites the Studio 15 standmount as inspiration, not for any acoustic reason, but because it apes…

In just a few short years, WiiM has become a key player in the affordable streaming market. The tiny Mini and barely larger Pro and Pro+ (HFC 511) are great streaming front ends that make rivals look expensive in comparison. As they do a great deal already, WiiM has looked to broaden the spec for the next rung up the ladder: the Ultra. At its core, it is closer to the Pro than the Pro+. It uses a pair of ESS ES9038Q2M DACs and additional processing is handled by 512MB of Flash memory and a small processor. It supports PCM to 192kHz, but not DSD. It will, however, automatically transcode DSD to PCM. All of the other niceties we’ve seen on the smaller WiiM streamers like EQ, microphone calibration and…

Danish speaker manufacturer System Audio has been busy over the last few years releasing its active Silverback models (including on-wall, bookshelf and floorstanders – see HFC 502) that support the WiSA wireless transmission system. Now it’s returned to its roots with the Signature series, its first new passive range of speakers since 2018. In the System Audio hierarchy, this family slots in above the entry-level Saxo, but keeps pricing on the right side of sensible. The Signature 5 steps right into a competitive market, while the flagship Signature 40 floorstander is £2,000. The range also offers setup flexibility through on-wall models; the compact Signature 6 (£800) and larger Signature 10 (£700 each) could, for example, be positioned around a TV or used in space-starved rooms. There’s also a dedicated active…

HIGH-END DESIRABLES IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Lame analogies – both banal and obvious – tend to spring to mind when you’re directed to review an amplifier which offers a little over half the power of its predecessor. One thinks of cars powered by engines of half the horsepower of a more expensive sibling, of second growth wines and other half-pint offerings. But the D’Agostino Relentless 800 Mono Amplifier – a heady £236,000 per pair – delivers the wattage that provides its model name: 800W per chassis. And that is conservative. The original Relentless monoblock – CEO Dan D’Agostino’s “dream of an amplifier without limits” – is now superseded by two siblings, the massive Relentless Epic 1600 and ‘baby sister’ Relentless 800 (with no Epic in its name), seen here. Let’s get…

POWERING YOUR HI-FI from a Balanced Mains Unit (BMU) can result in a number of benefits, which is why they are often used in recording studios and high-end installations. The BMU-2500 is one such unit and can improve your system’s sound quality by lowering the noise floor, reducing mains interference, removing any DC component in the incoming mains and reducing radiated fields from the audio equipment mains leads. BMUs are also able to eliminate earth loops as they are effective isolation transformers. They work by balancing the live and neutral feed to your equipment. The Live is nominally 230VAC, the earth is the earth local to your house (0V) and the neutral is the earth at the power station, which can often end up as about 30VAC by the time…

PRICE: £600 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: DALI-SPEAKERS.COM DALI HAS LAUNCHED its IO-8 wireless headphones, which use many of the technologies found in the Danish brand’s closed-back, circumaural IO-12, including the same electronics. Described by DALI as: “Hi-fi speakers for your head,” the headphones feature 50mm drivers, can be used wired or wirelessly and include the company’s Audiophile active noise cancelling (ANC) to ensure audio quality is not compromised by outside noise. The ANC on the IO-8 features three settings: ANC On, Transparency and Off. Controlled by multifunction buttons on the headphones, users are able to operate the IO-8 with one hand, without the need for a smartphone app. DALI says all the listener has to do is connect the headphones to an audio source to: “start listening in seconds”. The DALI…

PRICE: £3,000-£4,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: ROKSAN.COM ROKSAN HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of two new products in its Caspian Series 4G: the Caspian Streaming Amplifier and Caspian Integrated Amplifier. The streaming amp works via the BluOS platform for hi-res multi-room use, the smart implementation of Euphoria, Caspian’s power amplification architecture, Rapture DAC technology and an advanced preamp and phono stage combining to deliver the sound. The integrated amp uses the same Euphoria amplification architecture and advanced analogue connections, plus the Rapture DAC technology – for improved digital-to-analogue signal conversion. The company explains:“Caspian Series 4G uses Roksan’s new authoritative and intelligent class AB amplifier architecture, Euphoria, which excels in power and finesse. Roksan has evolved the AB topology, with individual power supplies for the current and voltage amplifiers, this reduced interaction delivers…

PRICE: £1,200 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: QUAD-HIFI.CO.UK BRITISH COMPANY QUAD has revitalised its celebrated 33 preamp and 303 power amp from the Sixties to: “delight a new generation of music lovers seeking a modern-retro twist”. Unusual at the time, Quad’s original transistor designs housed the pre and power amplifier in separate compact-width units. The power amp was designed so it could be tucked away from view, leaving only the 33 preamp – with its grey metal casework accented by orange and white buttons – in view. The new 33 preamplifier’s compact size and shape remain faithful to the original, but the detailing has been enhanced and the casework’s colour is a little less ‘taupe’ and more ‘matt silver’. The distinctive control layout is similar, with a volume knob to the left…

PRICE: £700 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: TRIANGLEHIFI.CO.UK FOLLOWING THE LAUNCH of its debut turntable, the Lunar 1, French company Triangle is imminently planning to unveil a follow-up in the shape of the Lunar 3. Inspired by Pro-Ject’s flagship Debut Carbon, it features a straight tonearm made from a single piece of carbon weighing 6g, giving it the advantage of being both exceptionally light and rigid to reduce unwanted vibrations. The Lunar 3 features an Ortofon 2M Red moving-magnet cartridge, with its diamond elliptical-shaped stylus along with 33, 45 or 78rpm speeds. Speed selection is done using a switch located under the left front panel. It additionally boasts an MM phono preamp and high-quality gold plating is used on the outputs as well as on the RCA phono cable that comes supplied.…

PRICE: £4,930 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: KEITH-MONKS.COM KEITH MONKS AUDIO has announced the ReduxTwo, an Archive Standard Record Cleaning Machine and Universal Disc Cleaner. The company explains: “After 10 years of successfully re-establishing precision record cleaning into the mainstream with the discOveryOne and Prodigy (HFC 470) record cleaning machines, Keith Monks Audio returns to its professional roots. It’s time for ReduxTwo, designed in collaboration with two university libraries and a specialist audio restoration engineer, to deliver archive-standard record cleaning.” The company explains that using the ReduxTwo means no recontamination of cleaning fluid, vacuuming system and disc surface: “cleaning the 1,000th record as well as the first”. It operates with a fast, deep clean wash followed by a Precision Point Suction Dry. It uses a SmoothFlowPro Brushless Pump, operates quietly, switches itself…

It’s been a busy few years for Cambridge Audio. Having moved into genuine high-end territory with its Edge range, it has dabbled in vinyl, become a strong contender in wireless headphones and done a strong job in lifestyle components to boot. The EX Series is intended to plug the gap between the affordable (and very good) CX models and the decidedly less affordable (but still very good) Edge series. At first glance, you might be forgiven for thinking Cambridge has simply taken the CX amp and streamer, and put a large black stripe on the front panel. The EXA100 amp is extremely similar externally to the CXA81 MkII and the slight boosting of power from 80W to 100W doesn’t really feel like a huge step forward (although, given that the…

With the soundbar market dominated by affordable models designed primarily for TV audio, this offering from new Danish brand Canvas HiFi sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. And not only because of its hefty price and weight. Canvas bills its soundbar as: “hi-fi reinvented” and intends it to serve as both a premium partner for a TV, for which HDMI eARC connectivity is provided, and as a music system. Connections include Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and DLNA for wireless streaming, plus an optical/analogue input. Roon certification is pending. All signals are passed through its DSP, which includes ‘BACCH 3D’ filtering, a crosstalk-cancellation process created by Princeton University professor Edgar Choueiri and claimed to deliver true 3D stereo imaging. Playback, whether music or TV/movie content,…

For many, listening to music in a group, such as an audience, heightens the enjoyment of the performance. They feel a connection to each other as a result of their collective experience. This can result in physiological changes in the body influenced by abstract things, such as how you respond to art or music. This theory is known as ‘embodied cognition’, or the idea that the mind is not only connected to the body but that the body influences the mind. This may seem obvious to those who have experienced these effects, but the theory has been controversial in scientific circles. Scientific Reports is an open access US journal publishing original research from all areas of the natural sciences, psychology, medicine and engineering. A recently published study found that the…

AS PART OF Titan Audio’s Eros range of mains products, the V2 embodies the same design principles as the company’s Ares Power Block and uses hard wiring for the internal connection of the sockets. Most domestic mains distribution blocks have the sockets connected with solid busbars, but Titan considers that this can result in a deterioration of the supply to the sockets further away from the power input. Therefore, each socket is wired with the same single-crystal copper cable that is additionally used in the company’s Eros mains cables. The Eros V2 sockets are of a higher quality than those found in the Ares and have an improved earthing arrangement. There is also a grounding point on the outer chassis to further reduce interference. The Eros V2 chassis and supporting…

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1 BOOKING BJŐRK Björk has announced Cornucopia: The Book, a 480-page, high-quality picture book that chronicles her Cornucopia Tour, the ambitious live experience featuring imagery and projections by director Tobias Gremmler, performed with The Hamrahlíð Choir alongside other musical and visual artists. Björk says: “Before this tour, I spent a decade working with 360° sound and visual software in virtual reality and animation, creating Biophilia, the first app album, and later Vulnicura as a VR album. I was deeply inspired by the idea of a fully immersive experience, spending a spring in an Icelandic lighthouse, spreading Utopia into fully surround speakers. My intentionwas to bring what we had created for 21st-century VR into a 19th-century theatre – taking it from the headset to the stage. “This vision was realised with 27…