Fyne Audio F701SP speakers With the news that Scottish brand Fyne Audio outgrew its factory and had to expand to larger premises, I was keen to try the latest stand-mount model from this burgeoning manufacturer. Boasting a dual-concentric driver with new HF waveguide, the F701SP also incorporates an overhauled crossover network and downward firing reflex […]
Martin Logan Electromotion ESL X speakers The concept of the ‘marmite product’; a device that appeals hugely to a subset of people while repelling roughly the same number, is one with which the audio industry is both familiar and fairly comfortable with. While I am pretty confident that the good people of Martin Logan won’t […]
Avid Altus V2 and Nexus V2 tonearms Without pick-up arms, where would we be? Unable to play and enjoy our favourite records. And without well-engineered and high quality pick-up arms we’d never be able to enjoy the huge amount of analogue information stored in those minute grooves. Inevitably, any looseness in the mechanical retrieval system […]
Hegel H400 streaming amplifier The H400 was something of an ‘expected’ product from Norwegian hi-fi brand Hegel, using trickledown technology from its powerhouse H600, which I have been using more-or-less daily since it arrived last year, along with the lower-powered but nonetheless excellent H190 in a smaller system. The company’s latest streaming integrated adds to […]
Tellurium Q Ultra Black II & Ultra Silver II speaker cables First of all, let me be clear about my long history with Tellurium Q loudspeaker cables. Many years ago, when I worked in the retail side of the audio industry, I bought with my own hard-earned (well I thought so) money, a pair of […]
Ultrafide U4PRE/U500DC pre/power amplifiers The Ultrafide name will be new, but many readers will have unwittingly experienced their pro-audio sister company MC²’s amplification at live events, including Glastonbury Festival’s Pyramid Stage. It is equally possible that one of their processors was used during recording sessions of some of our favourite albums, as this company has […]
Cayin Soul-170HA headphone-speaker amplifier Among the longer-established Chinese audio product vendors is Cayin, a name that many readers will recognise for combining serious audio engineering expertise with the often typically low retail prices common to products from the region. The company’s new Soul-170HA headphone-speaker amplifier will make value-hounds go weak at the knees at the […]
Melco S1 network switch “That’s a lot of money for a switch” is the most common response when I mention the figure, and it is, but network switches are critical to the performance of any streaming system, more so than many realise. They are the gatekeepers for any streamer and have to get the signal […]
Perlisten R4b loudspeakers As a company, US-based Perlisten may only have been manufacturing its speakers since 2016, but it has enjoyed a growing reputation in home cinema for its THX Dominus certified speakers and subwoofers, designed to reproduce very low distortion in larger home cinema systems. It’s no coincidence that the same virtues have won […]
Plixir Elite BAC 3000 MkII power conditioner BAC stands for balanced alternating current and the Plixir Elite BAC 3000 MkII is the largest example of the breed that I have encountered. It’s about the size of a decent power amplifier at 14cm (5.5 inches) high but weighs 45kg (99lbs), making it the densest piece of […]
Q Acoustics 3030c speakers A new loudspeaker from Q Acoustics is something that’s become a talking point, especially now that the brand is approaching its twentieth anniversary and achieving worldwide recognition for its value-for-money loudspeakers. Among the newest products is the compact, two-way 3030c stand-mount which enters a crowded marketplace and was previewed at Munich […]
Dali Epikore 7 loudspeakers I first encountered the Dali’s Epikore range during a pre-release showing in September 2024, where head of product management Krestian Pedersen explained how they had taken techniques from their award-winning Kore flagship loudspeaker and applied them to create a brand new five-model range above Epicon. They decided where improvements could be […]