Hana Umami Red moving coil cartridge Hana was founded in 2021 by the Excel Sound Corporation which launched the brand in order to market the firm’s own moving coil cartridges to the public. Excel has a long history of cartridge manufacturing on behalf of third parties since 1964, so knows more than a thing or […]
Dynavector DV 10XA-L moving coil cartridge It’s amazing to reflect that the very first DV 10X cartridge from Dynavector was introduced almost 50 years ago, in 1978. It was their first cartridge and it caused a sensation at the time as it was the world’s first ever high-output moving coil cartridge. Dynavector’s use of ultra-thin […]
Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC cartridge One of the key aspects of vinyl replay is mating the cartridge to the most complementary arm (and turntable) in order to get the best out of the grooves which that poor stylus is asked to follow faithfully. It’s also interesting to note that in the various on-line forums there are […]
Skyanalog Ref moving coil cartridge You wouldn’t expect a hi-fi artisan to emerge from the farmlands of rural China, but that’s exactly where Skyanalog founder Jack Leung’s story begins. Growing up in the 1980s, in a place where electronic components were hard to come by, Jack’s fascination with sound and circuitry took root. Jack’s academic […]
Connected-Fidelity TT Hub turntable There was a painstaking wait before I could get my hands on a TT Hub turntable to play with, having had my appetite well and truly whetted by the various prototypes shown to me by Connected-Fidelity’s Michael Osborn. I was very impressed by the excellent build quality and finish of those early […]
Michell Orbe SE turntable Here’s a question, in which year did England win the World Cup? That’s right, it was 1966. I suspect that the majority of you reading this will have known the answer even though you were as yet not even a gleam in your parents’ eyes when it happened. Similarly, in what […]
The Wand 14-4 Master turntable If rivalry and ambition are key forces driving the hi-fi industry, I’d argue nothing motors harder than the quest to build a better turntable. It’s cat nip for visionary engineers. Rega’s founder Roy Gandy saw the record player ultimately as a machine for measuring vibration and produced a book to […]
Jico Clipper headshell and cartridge Who has most fun with hi-fi? Not, I suspect, those for whom building the perfect system through the application of ever escalating funds is the destination. While potentially hugely satisfying, the process probably has more in common with an episode of television’s Grand Designs than the joy of casually messing […]
AVID Altus V2 and Nexus V2 tonearms Without pick-up arms, where would we be? Unable to play and enjoy our favourite records. And without well-engineered and high quality pick-up arms we’d never be able to enjoy the huge amount of analogue information stored in those minute grooves. Inevitably, any looseness in the mechanical retrieval system […]
Luphonic R2 turntable & arm The vinyl revival is in full swing and turntables sales are on the up. If you needed evidence, just look at how vinyl and indeed turntables have suddenly been given front-of-house status in HMV stores with CDs relegated to the back of the showroom, if you can find them at […]
Project Audio Stereo Set E1 system I have been listening to music via digital mediums exclusively since the mid-nineties. Prior to this, I was an avid record collector, albeit on a schoolboy budget. My migration to CD was forced by circumstances, namely that until recently I had neither the space nor suitable room in which […]
Dynavector DV-20X2A moving coil cartridge It never ceases to amaze me how technology and processes used to good effect in other industries can be adapted to hi-fi applications to achieve improvements in the sound quality of a product. A great example is the annealing process applied by Japanese manufacturer Dynavector to the key iron parts […]