Best Hi-Fi of 2022
The best of the best that we have reviewed on the Ear over the last 12 months
Floorstanding
PMC twenty5.24i
Transmission line loudspeakers have a lot to answer for, at the tender age of 20 my audio expectations were reset when I heard a pair of IMF TLS 80. I genuinely thought I’d reached audio nirvana with this chunky floorstander. A subsequent downsizing of rooms forced me to explore other options, but I often wondered […]
Lowther Almira
Loudspeakers can sometimes be the make or break of a system. After all, having got the system nicely set up, the right front end, amplification and cables a house move brings a new room and the delights which came before evaporate, then the realisation dawns that, no matter what, despite the rest of the system […]
JBL HDI-3800
With JBL launching so many retro style models in recent years there is a tendency to forget that this is an up to the moment, technologically driven company that also makes modern loudspeakers. The brand has enviable heritage for sure but that doesn’t mean it can afford to keep on making speakers the way it […]
Acoustic Energy AE320
To my knowledge there are not too many hi-fi companies based in the Cotswolds, but it was the market town of Cirencester that Acoustic Energy moved to in 1995 after being founded in London back in 1987. The brand launched with the standmount AE1 which garnered much praise at the time and sold exceptionally well. […]
RMB Model 22/3
Although I’d heard good things about RMB loudspeakers – and after all they’ve been around for a fair few years now – I’d never actually had the opportunity to hear a pair, let alone in the context of my own system. RMB take loudspeaker design very seriously, yet their approach and the visual aesthetic is […]
Acoustic Energy AE109.2
Having enjoyed other models from Acoustic Energy, I was excited when a brand-new loudspeaker arrived in the shape of the slimline AE109.2 floorstander; yes – that’s a ‘2’ suggesting an upgrade to the previous 109 model although, as we shall see, the new variant is more than just a cosmetic tweak, it’s pretty much a […]
Q Acoustics Concept 50
In case you missed it, that was the sound of my jaw dropping to the floor. I have just unboxed and set-up the Concept 50s from Q Acoustics, stepped back to admire the view, and am frankly blown away by the sleek and elegant look of these floorstanders. Available in a choice of three high […]
Blumenhofer Acoustics Tempesta 20
Blumenhofer Acoustics have been designing loudspeakers for more than four decades. Specialising in two-way horns, they defy the archetypal view of German engineering by building speakers that are all about stirring human emotion. Thomas Blumenhofer’s mission is to “bring the concert into the home” by convincingly reproducing the sensory energy that is experienced during live […]
Best Hi-Fi Components of 2021
2021 may not have been the year that many of us had hoped for, there was only one hi-fi show in the UK and not many more elsewhere, but that hasn’t stopped manufacturers both large and small who have produced some absolutely outstanding audio components in that time. Our best of the year round up […]
Klipsch Forte IV
It’s funny how, after all my years in evaluating both hardware and software in the home music replay industry, there are still some venerable (not old but respected and well-established) names that have not passed through my listening room. In the speaker line I’ve had most types here, including stats, planars, horns, infinite baffles, plasma […]
PMC fact fenestria
Historically at least priorities in audio have varied between the UK and the US. Americans hold that the loudspeaker is the most important part of any sound system, they tend to spend more on speakers than any other part of the audio chain. In Britain, ever since a certain Scotsman started preaching that the source […]