Q Acoustics 5040 loudspeakers The new Q Acoustics 5040 has me wondering whether somewhere in their sound labs, Q Acoustics’ engineers have secret ingredients in bottles labelled ‘Thrills’, ‘Spills’ and ‘Miscellaneous audio wizardry’. I’ve now had the pleasure of listening to several different speakers from this Hertfordshire-headquartered company, and every time my opening and closing […]
Chord Company Epic X Aray interconnect cable The Chord Company is arguably become the best-known manufacturer of cables for high-quality audio systems in the UK and Epic X Aray, their latest interconnect cable, sits slap bang in the middle of their range. I have been impressed by their range of Aray noise-reducing products in recent […]
Falcon Acoustics M10 loudspeakers Having heard the phenomenal sound created by the Falcon Acoustics M10 mini monitor at both the Warsaw and Bristol hi-fi shows I was eager to try them in my own system. On both occasions they were being received with some rapture, and rightly so in my view. Harking back, in many […]
Origin Live Agile tonearm The Origin Live Agile tone arm is distinctive enough for anyone familiar with this British brand to spot it as one of Mark Baker’s creations, what may not be immediately obvious is that it’s the £10,500 penultimate model in Origin Live’s High-End range. Rather than employing more conventional gimballed bearings for […]
Sennheiser HD660S2 headphones Designing the HD660S2, a mid-priced, dynamic open-back headphone, to supplant the legendary HD600 and HD650 was never going to be easy. When Sennheiser finally made their 600 series into a trio in 2017 with the release of the HD660S it’s fair to say it caused some confusion among HD aficionados. Despite using […]
Stratton Acoustics Elypsis 1512 loudspeakers The Elypsis 1512 is the result of an industrial designer’s dreams and a loudspeaker designer’s expertise. David Fowler is a designer who’s worked on a wide range of products, from scuba gear to solar charging systems but he has long been a hi-fi enthusiast. A few years ago Dave heard […]
Revival Audio Atalante 3 loudspeaker Life as an audio reviewer is always more satisfying when a product like the Atalante 3 sounds at least as good if not better in one’s own system as it did at a hi-fi show. Such it was with this two-way standmount from a relative newcomer to market. Revival Audio […]
Tellurium Q Statement II interconnect cables Before I discuss the Tellurium Q Statement II, let me start with a hypothetical situation for you to ponder. You have been manufacturing a range of audio components, which have over the years picked up numerous awards from publications around the globe. Your ultimate range, which you have with […]
Perlisten S7t loudspeaker To paraphrase the Rolling Stones, we can’t always get what we want, and I wanted to hear the Perlisten S7t a long time before these substantial loudspeakers arrived at the listening room. But it was worth the wait. There was a lot of noise around Perlisten on launch because the range arrived […]
Computer Audio Design USB II-R cable & USB Filter The USB II-R is the latest USB cable from CAD or Computer Audio Design. CAD was one of the first companies that saw USB as the best solution for streaming high resolution audio, their 1543 DAC only had a USB input at a time when few […]
Network Acoustics muon Digital XLR digital cable The idea of a muon Digital XLR digital cable seems like an anathema, Network Acoustics are streaming specialists who have concentrated their efforts on ethernet and USB connections until now. What were they thinking when creating what is effectively an AES/EBU digital cable? It seems that when the […]
Moonriver Audio Model 404 Reference amplifier Before I discovered the Model 404 Reference I spent some time with the Moonriver Model 404 amplifier and I heaped a great deal of well-merited praise upon it. Our Editor added the cherry on the cake by awarding it the coveted Editor’s Choice award. The final sentence of my […]