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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
For French loudspeaker brand Triangle, it all began in 1980 with the high-end 1180 floor-standing model followed a year later by the CX2, famed for having its tweeter outside the main cabinet and appearing like something of an afterthought. That was then and, still based in its purpose-built facility in Soissons, the company has grown […]
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 […]
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 […]
Rega System One record player, amp & speakers At the last Bristol show, in the carefree days of February 2020, Rega launched its first all in one system and called it the Rega System One. Thanks to the pandemic the first examples of this system didn’t reach the shops until December last year, with a […]
A new product from Neat Acoustics always gets me excited, especially since owner Bob Surgeoner took over complete control of designs; before that I found them rather avant-garde for my traditional taste. The maestro’s latest creation is the fourth model in the company’s Strata range with the new Majistra sitting alongside the Ministra, Ekstra and Orkestra. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]