Equipment+
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Critical Mass Systems QXK Rack
|There used to be one inviolate rule in audio; racks – like fine wine – don’t travel. There was good reason for this; they are heavy and tended not to be in the same high-end ...read more -
Fyne Audio F702 floorstanding loudspeakers
|Fyne Audio is a relatively new kid on the hi-fi block, formed in 2017 by several former Tannoy staff, following the takeover of Tannoy by a conglomerate a couple of years earlier. They’ve not wasted ...read more -
Mark Levinson No. 5805 integrated amplifier
|Here is one of the true survivor brands. Mark Levinson Audio Systems began life in the early 1970s, from the outset as the highest of high-end companies. The company separated from Levinson himself, went out ...read more -
FinkTeam Borg floorstanding loudspeaker
|There are two types of loudspeaker designer: those that come up with a loudspeaker design and create a whole company around it, and those who take a more ‘hired gun’ approach. Often, the skill set ...read more -
darTZeel NHB-18NS preamplifier and NHB‑108 Model Two power amplifier
|Regardless of how much high-end audio you have heard, when you experience something exceptional, the music lets you know all about it. It might all start with a small spark of revelation. But it will ...read more -
Cleer FLOW noise cancelling Bluetooth wireless headphone
|Friends and colleagues often approach me with inquiries like this: “I’m looking for noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones and have tried the Bose QuietComfort models (hasn’t everyone?), but are there other good models I ought to ...read more -
HiFiMAN Jade II electrostatic headphone system
|I first became aware of HiFiMAN roughly eleven years ago, when I sought to review one of the firm’s earliest planar magnetic headphones. However, in the course of reaching out to the firm I learned ...read more -
Shunyata Research Alpha USB cable
|If there’s one fixed point in the audio firmament, it’s that nothing stays the same for too long. Models refresh, new products come along, and benchmarks move with the times; so it is with cables. ...read more -
Kuzma Stabi S turntable, 4Point 9 tonearm, and CAR‑40 MC cartridge
|There’s an established hierarchy in vinyl replay that is almost inviolate. The expenditure goes from top down; spend most money on the turntable, then the arm, then cartridge, and so on. This comes from the ...read more -
Kudos Titan 505 stand‑mount loudspeaker
|I’ve always wanted to say something like this, but the Kudos 505 comes from a race of Titans! It’s the smallest and lone stand-mount in a four-strong Titan range, all of which use the same ...read more -
CH Precision L1 Dual-Mono Line Preamplifier and X1 Power Supply
|This began as a kind of round two of the CH Precision/Wilson Benesch system we tested back in issue 159. The joy of both main parts of that system is the upgradability they bestow; every ...read more -
Naim Supernait 3 integrated amplifier
|You can chart the rise and fall of source popularity by looking at the variations in the three iterations of the Naim Supernait. The original version of Naim’s largest integrated amplifier launched in 2007 with ...read more -
The Funk Firm Rage 1 modifications to Rega turntables
|The Funk Firm makes turntables, tonearms, and Achromat pure vinyl replacements for the often-ghastly fuzzy slip-mats on turntables. But what it is also produces is a range of upgrades for popular turntables. The Rage upgrades ...read more -
Tellurium Q Ultra Black II RCA cable and loudspeaker cable
|There is nothing like telling the uninitiated that cable makes a big difference to sound quality if you want to elicit a “Shut up! Are you mad?” response. Even for those within the fold, the ...read more -
Stax SR-009S electrostatic earspeakers
|For many years Stax’s iconic SR-009 electrostatic headphone stood as an industry performance benchmark. The reasons for this included, among other factors, the SR-009’s accurate and absolutely neutral voicing, exceptional resolution, and extremely fast transient ...read more