The third 25 of our round-up of the best products from the finest brands of the last 20 years, covering products made from early 1999 to 2019. Please note, this feature was in celebration of Hi-Fi+ twenty years of high-quality audio reviews and accompanied our 170th printed issue. Audio is a fluid, dynamic market, and reviews published after Hi-Fi+ Issue 170 are also relevant!
Lyra Lydian Beta
Lyra’s original moving coil cartridges were musical milestones, but it’s the second-generation nude Lydian Beta – first tested in issue 1 – that showed Lyra the way for its 21st Century successes.
Reviewed by Roy Gregory
Magico M-Project
http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/magico-m-project-loudspeakers/
A limited-run ‘thank you’ to Magico’s strongest supporters, this high-end floorstanding speaker was the launch-pad for Magico’s most recent innovations. The Rosetta Stone of Magico is a stellar performer, too.
Reviewed by Alan Sircom
Magnepan 30.7
http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/magnepan-307-fourpanel-dipolar-planar-loudspeaker-system/
This four-panel planar magnetic floorstanding loudspeaker has had a long gestation period, but the results speak for themselves. The Magnepan 30.7 is the affordable flat-panel face of super high‑end audio.
Reviewed by Chris Martens
Mark Levinson No 39
Mark Levinson’s digital arm made its name from huge separates players with enormous price tags. The No 39 showed how close you could get with an attainably-priced one-box CD player.
Reviewed by Chris Thomas
Marten Coltrane
Packing a lot of loudspeaker into a comparatively small and beautifully-finished (if expensive) floorstanding cabinet, the refined Marten Coltrane is one of the most effortlessly musical sounding loudspeakers we’ve heard.
Reviewed by Roy Gregory
MartinLogan CLX
Although concentrating on hybrid designs, the all-electrostatic CLX showed MartinLogan at its best, and the curved electrostatic full-range panel threw down the gauntlet to its rivals in outright performance terms.
Reviewed by Roy Gregory
Merging NADAC
http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/merging-nadac-digital-converter/
Merging is a Swiss digital pro-audio brand, and the robust NADAC has a belt-and-braces approach to music making. It also delivers one of the most accurate and enticing sounds around.
Reviewed by Alan Sircom
Merrill Element 118
http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/merrill-audio-element-118-mono-power-amplifiers/
People associate Class D amplifier operation with small, relatively low-powered, and affordable amplifiers, none of which apply to the uncompromisingly excellent balanced only Merrill Audio Element 118 mono power amplifiers.
Reviewed by Alan Sircom
Moon 390
http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/moon-390-network-playerpreamplifier/
Moon’s latest version of its MiND network architecture will cope with practically everything you can throw at this multi-faceted source-meets-controller, and best of all it sounds insightful and extremely musical.
Reviewed by Rafael Todes