It is several decades since I used a Proac loudspeaker; in fact, it would have been around 1997 when I began freelance work at a radio station which used the highly-respected Proac Studio to make promotions and commercials. Having lived only with BBC designs until then, I recall being hugely impressed by the sound quality. […]
The Italians have always had a certain flair when it comes to things cultural and artistic; from da Vinci to Michelangelo, Monteverdi to Vivaldi, Versace to Enzo Ferrari. And that extends to contemporary loudspeaker design as well, as we shall see. At various hi-fi shows around the world, I have been wooed by the sounds […]
Celebrations are always exciting and we have a double one in the shape of Triangle’s 40th anniversary two-way standmount speaker, the £1,500 Comète. It has been created to mark the founding, by Renaud de Vergnette, of the brand and is a very special edition of a model which has survived 25 years of constant production. Rather […]
It hardly seems like two years since my review of the Audel Magika Mk2 loudspeakers was published and they were awarded a well-deserved 5 stars. So when John Simm, the UK distributor of Audel, asked me if I would like to hear the Magika’s smaller sibling, the Sonika Mk2, I was more than pleased to […]
If a new product is exciting news for a reviewer then one from a brand-new company is even more so. Coppice Audio was officially launched at the UK Hi-Fi Show in Daventry last year where they showed pre-production samples of the floorstanding X2 and the two-way standmount X1 on test here. The most striking thing […]
Having heard loudspeakers from Finnish manufacturer Amphion at various shows around the world, I was very excited to be loaned a pair to try at home for long-term evaluation. The two-way bookshelf Argon1 was a model I enjoyed over many weeks and was particularly struck by its ease of placement, impressive bass extension from a […]
Back in April of this year The Ear published my review of the Kudos Cardea C20 floorstanding loudspeakers. To save you the trouble of trawling that far back, I’ll summarise my findings – I loved them. Fast forward to September and I was offered the chance to hear the smallest of the current Cardea family, […]
Rega do not follow the herd, that much is clear if you look at the evolution of their turntables which are based on different principles to nearly all others, with low mass and high rigidity being key criteria. They often go to experts in particular technological fields to help them create the parts required for […]
Never having had any of the well-respected ELAC loudspeakers in my own system, but having heard many at various shows and not least in their home territory across Germany, I was more than a little excited when a heavyweight box arrived containing their latest standmounts, all 16kg of it. Inside was a pair of well-packed […]
It is so appropriate to be testing a Rogers-made BBC loudspeaker design since the company was so closely linked with the broadcaster’s transducer development and manufacture decades ago. Indeed, the original bass unit of the LS5/9 (under scrutiny here) was a collaboration between BBC engineers and Rogers at a time when the Corporation had lost […]
Released in January, the Q7 Mini Monitor is the latest addition to Falcon Acoustics’ Complete at Home range of loudspeakers that’s making high-end audio more affordable by selling kits directly to the customer. An updated version of the original Q7 that Malcolm Jones designed and sold for many years, the new model exploits improvements in […]
It’s nearly fifty years since the first embryo of what’s become one of the most talked-about audio products, and still new editions of the infamous BBC mini monitor are being born. Has there been another audio component to have provoked so much emotive comment, or given rise to so many myths and misunderstandings as the […]