Articles
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Totem Skylight stand-mount loudspeaker
|Every time I hear Totem speakers, which is usually at international audio shows, they sound bigger and more extended than they should. It’s not unusual to be impressed by bass extension from small speakers, but ...read more -
English Electric 8Switch streaming audio network switch
|English Electric was once a titan of 20th century British engineering, building trains, steam turbines, guided missiles and even mainframe computers. It was formed out of several companies after the first world war and went ...read more -
The Who: Who’s Next (Deluxe Edition) HR
|Anyone who saw the trailer for the movie American Beauty will have been struck by the brilliance of ‘Baba O’Riley’, the track chosen to accompany it and which effectively doubled the impact of the clip. ...read more -
Townshend Audio Allegri Reference Line-stage passive preamplifier
|Max Townshend is not the sort of guy to make a product and then focus on marketing and selling it; he is an engineer to the core and cannot stop thinking of ways to improve ...read more -
Stephen J Malkmus: Traditional Techniques [Domino, LP]
|Stephen Malkmus, the J is optional, has been making music with a variety of line ups since his teens but got his commercial break in the early 90s when he formed the band Pavement with ...read more -
Lana del Ray: Norman F***ing Rockwell!
|I am late to the Lana Del Rey party I know but when Hi-Fi Choice alumni Del Gentleman played the first track of last year’s fellow NFR! the combination of fabulous production and potty mouthed ...read more -
ATC CD2 CD player
|Seeing a CD player launched at this stage in the game makes me wonder what’s going on. Does it symbolise an upwelling of desire for simplicity or perhaps a yearning to engage with a physical ...read more -
Rupert Neve Designs Fidelice Precision Digital to Analog Converter
|If you saw Dave Grohl’s documentary about the Sound City studio in LA, the hallowed ground where Rumours, Nevermind, Damn the Torpedoes and many, many great albums were made, you will have realised that the ...read more -
Mark Levinson No. 515 turntable
|It says something about the state of the vinyl revival that established high-end brands which existed in the day of vinyl supremacy are building its first-ever turntables. That is the case with the Mark Levinson ...read more -
Norma IPA-70B integrated amplifier
|I did wonder why this company has the name it does but a quick scan of founder Enrico Rossi’s background indicates that he’s a big fan of opera, and an Italian, so it didn’t take ...read more -
MoFi UltraDeck +M turntable package
|MoFi or Mobile Fidelity as they started out have a long history of making audiophile quality pressings of popular albums. They were surfing the crest of the vinyl wave back in the late seventies and ...read more -
Technics SL-G700 SACD player/network streamer
|The ‘G’ in the name of the Technics SL-G700 SACD player/network streamer stands for ‘Grand Class’. From many other manufacturers in the audio world, this categorisation might seem like hyperbole, but given the build quality ...read more -
Acoustic Solid Wood Round MPX turntable
|A visit to the High-End show in Munich, Germany feels like being assaulted by the sheer range and variety of turntables. What’s more, between German brands in particular, there’s lots of competition to produce the ...read more -
Bowers & Wilkins Formation Duo active stand-mount loudspeakers
|It’s been almost three years now since the Munich High End Show when the audio world discovered that Bowers & Wilkins had changed hands. Long-time owner Joe Atkins had sold to a Californian entrepreneur with ...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