As a long term fact.8 user I was excited to hear that an upgraded version of the fact range was launching at the High End show in Munich last year but it wasn’t until a month or so back that I managed to get my hands on a pair of the new Signature facts. One […]
At first glance the Node Hylixa is a variation on loudspeakers we’ve seen from Bowers & Wilkins, Eclipse and a few others, an aerodynamic ‘head’ style cabinet with a pair of drivers at the front. The difference here is that not only is there a third driver in the Hylixa but it also has a […]
I have happy memories of Acoustic Energy from its inception back in 1987 and the AE1 mini monitors which founder Steve Tayler brought to me as a young, enthusiastic reviewer. It was a product that quickly became iconic. He was an Ealing neighbour of Virgin’s Richard Branson and I soon found myself helping the airline […]
As John Simm of Audio Pinnacle explains it he went to the Munich High End audio show in May 2019 with the intention of finding products to complement his existing portfolio. He saw Audel sharing a stand with another company and was struck by the pleasing aesthetics of their loudspeakers. Only when he approached did […]
I first heard the then recently-launched Fyne brand at a breakaway show in Munich, staged in the upmarket Marriott hotel a few miles away from the main event at the MoC complex. It is a firm I was interested in since, in reality, it has its routes in Guy Fountain’s legendary Tannoy company which dates back […]
Elipson has a significant legacy as France’s oldest surviving loudspeaker brand, it was founded in 1938 and remained in private ownership right up until 2008 but never pursued international markets. Whether this was because the distinctly Gallic styling of its products made them hard to sell or that the domestic market was sufficient for the […]
I first met Kevin Scott in my early days at Hi-Fi Choice, he was at least as keen on valves and vinyl as I was and selling Audio Innovations amplifiers with Snell speakers from a house in Nottingham. When Snell stopped making its classic valve friendly designs Kevin was left needing a speaker that was […]
It’s probably best not to wear socks whilst listening to the SCM40s – they’re only going to get blown off each time you fire-up these gorgeous floorstanders. Right from the outset, these hand-built speakers impress even before you get their drivers moving. They’re built using a curved cabinet design that adds a classic elegance, and […]
When Kudos launched the original Titan (now dubbed 808) it was a big step for the company. The biggest and most ambitious loudspeaker that Derek Gilligan had designed, it looked like that would remain the brand’s flagship, the only one of its kind. But then it spawned a smaller model, the 707, and then the […]
The esteemed editor has referred (in our Twitter feed) to the fact that I have been having something of an Italian year, and that theme continues with this review. Let me hasten to say that thus far my Italian adventures have been thoroughly enjoyable perhaps because they were an opportunity to hear great components which […]
Once a loudspeaker company gets to a certain size it can start to use the tech developed for its most advanced designs in the more affordable ranges at the opposite end of the scale. It’s not exactly an economy of scale more an economy of research, it takes time and money to come up with […]
Back in the spring when the editor asked me if I fancied reviewing the new JBL L100s I didn’t have to think about it long. People of my vintage (not a word I use lightly in this context!) may have fond memories of those days in the early 1970s, when the original JBL L100 first […]