Davone Reference Three speakers The first Davone speaker I saw was the Ray, a very distinctive and beautiful design with a single stalk stand and a curvy shape wrapped in bent plywood. It immediately brought to mind the Eames Lounge Chair designed by Charles and Ray Eames in the fifties – the name that Davone […]
Mola Mola Ossetra monoblock power amps A young design engineer that I interviewed last year expressed frustration that the audio industry had thus far failed to agree whether an amplifier should be Class A, Class A/B or Class D, tubes or solid state. He acknowledged that each type was associated with particular sonic and operational […]
Wharfedale Diamond 12.1i speakers Wharfedale! For those of who came into contact with audio kit in the 1970s and even the 1980s that name will ring many bells and perhaps fond memories too. I was a very impecunious law student (don’t ask!) but my flat-mate had one of the classic set ups of the era […]
Mofi Sourcepoint V10 Master Edition speakers I should have read the small print or perhaps given the name a second glance. If I had then the size of these full-figuredspeakers might not have come as such a surprise. The name V10 is indicative of the 10-inch size of the drivers on Mofi’s biggest Sourcepoint speaker, […]
Pro-ject CD Box RS2 Tube CD player While unboxing the CD Box RS2 Tube, I discovered a watch battery and an Allen key for the super-sleek remote control. I immediately set about installing said battery, which required the dexterity of a Swiss horologist: five very small screws, two expletives, and one dropped screw later, I […]
Dali Sonik 3 speakers Sonik is the latest range from Danish loudspeaker brand Dali, and the Sonik 3 is the larger of two stand-mount designs to be launched alongside three floor-standing models, a dialogue speaker called Sonik Cinema and the On-Wall unit presumably intended for read/side channel installations. We concern ourselves here with the somewhat […]
Velodyne Minivee X subwoofer Bass, the final frontier – the final few octaves, anyway. How many cinematic explosions and planet atomising alien death rays have not been given proper visceral punch by the injection of prodigious low frequency heft? Not even an option. No self-respecting, big screen home cinema set-up can be taken seriously without […]
Fyne Audio F55E speakers “Standby to receive some small floorstanding loudspeakers to try”, said the Editor. “Floor-standing?”, I enquired, “But you know my new room can’t cope with floorstanders!” It was thus with some trepidation that I welcomed the delivery drivers carrying two cartons up my path and unpacked a pair of Fyne Audio’s latest […]
Audio Origami PU8 tonearm In recent years, turntables have become more homogenous. The majority of designs I test now combine at least the deck and arm from the same manufacturer and many companies are adding cartridges and phono stages to their repertoire as well. The arguments for compatibility and convenience are solid ones and someone […]
PMC prophecy1 speakers There has now been a compact, two-way standmount in the PMC range for the best part of 30 years and the recipe that successive generations have been based on has been extremely consistent in that time. In one specific regard, the prophecy1 actually deviates from the script in that it’s no longer […]
Scansonic HD M30.2 speakers If you lust after an impossibly elegant pillar of Scandi sonic nirvana, no expense spared, Danish speaker maker Raidho Acoustics can help in two ways. First, in exchange for a suitably large amount of filthy moolah, it can make your dreams come true with svelte, driver-stacked towers that cast ever longer […]
Ophidian Seren speakers Reviewing hi-fi is frequently about fascinating juxtapositions. Analogue and digital are the background forces in opposition but, bubbling up from that, competing versions of sonic reality are undoubtedly the most diverting, as night and day differences can sometimes seem equally convincing. The phenomenon was thrown into sharp relief just after I’d reluctantly […]