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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 Kyte loudspeakers 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 […]
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 […]