Hi-Fi Choice

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Quad unveils ERA-1 headphones
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Jul 25, 2018  |  0 comments
Expectations are high for Quad’s debut headphone – this is the company behind the legendary ESL loudspeaker and whose philosophy is “the closest approach to the original sound”, after all. According to Quad, the ERA-1 combines high sensitivity with low impedance to enable excellent performance with a range of partnering devices – from portable players to top-of-the-range amps. To create this flagship design, it developed a planar magnetic driver, which aims to deliver a more natural and accurate sound – allowing the listener to immerse themselves in every musical nuance. The headphone incorporates a strong, ultra-thin, electrically active diaphragm fused with a magnet system designed to maximise sensitivity and consistency over the driver area.
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AudioQuest launches new Rockets
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Jul 24, 2018  |  0 comments
By its own admission, AudioQuest is a tweaker – and the latest modifications to its Rocket cable range are on the launch pad. The affordable Rocket 11 (£12. 50/m pictured above) and 22 (£20/m) speaker cables are suitable for bi-wiring applications, and AudioQuest is confident ofthe improvement they’ll bring to any home audio setup. Both cables feature what itcalls “semi-solid true-concentric conductors” for the first time.
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Spendor introduces A-Line upgrade
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Jul 23, 2018  |  0 comments
Spendor introduced its new two-way A7 floorstanding loudspeaker at The Bristol Show back in February. It’s described by the British speaker brand as a major revision of the acclaimed A6R, which impressed us when we reviewed it back in HFC 381. The A7 has a slim and contemporary-looking cabinet, available in black ash, dark walnut, natural oak and satin white finishes. The base of the plinth has four machined steel stabiliser inserts, secured directly into the main cabinet structure.
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August issue 439 on sale
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Jul 23, 2018  |  0 comments
Just like the summer weather, the British floorstanding loudspeaker market is hotting up. We’ve seen several impressive high value for money floorstanding designs of late that offer serious hi-fi clout for a relatively low outlay. Regular readers will have marvelled at the 3050i from Q Acoustics that we reviewed last month, which received a coveted Editor’s Choice award and is the hottest, value floorstander we’ve seen so far. But contenders are already lining up to take its crown – including this month’s £600 cover star, Fyne Audio’s F303 (p46), and Monitor Audio’s Monitor 300 (p60), priced at just £550.
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Primare’s Prisma debut
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Jul 20, 2018  |  0 comments
The latest network components from Primare – the I35 Prisma integrated amplifier and CD35 Prisma CD player – are the first outing for the Swedish manufacturer’s whole-home, high-fidelity control and connectivity platform. According to marketing director Terry Medalen, Prisma “provides a complete spectrum of system management from a single point of control”. The platform not only allows network playback from both stored and streamed media, wi-fi and Bluetooth connection, but also multi-zone control – all managed from any mobile device through a dedicated system control app. Rated at 2x 150W (8ohm), the I35 Prisma is the first integrated to use a reworking of Primare’s Class D amplification tech, and includes a DAC stage with support for up to PCM 768kHz and DSD256 formats.
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Wilson Audio unveils TuneTot loudspeaker
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Jul 19, 2018  |  0 comments
Wilson Audio is perhaps best known for its high-end floorstanding loudspeaker designs with their uncompromising levels of performance and money-no-object designs. We've been lucky enough to experience some of the brand's extraordinary models at The Hi-Fi Show Live showcases runby our sister title Hi-Fi News, and the brand is sure to draw eager crowds once again to its UK distributor Absolute Sounds' listening rooms at this year's event running from 10-11 November – advanced tickets on sale now through eventbrite. co. uk.
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Webwatch August
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Jul 19, 2018  |  0 comments
Flat’s all folks! Warped vinyl can be the bane of the record collector, but help is at hand in this excellent guide to restoring your beloved music to pristine condition again, along with some top tips to ensure that it doesn’t happen in the first place. Click here to learn more. This is the end “The end of owning music” screams Rolling Stone magazine in this alarmist, but admittedly rather thought-provoking piece on what the future holds for physical music, featuring insight from industry insiders, record label owners and Jack White. read it for yourself here and see if you agree.
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Isotek updates power range
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Jun 26, 2018  |  0 comments
IsoTek has unveiled a trio of new mains conditioner products that include a mains power cleaner, mains synchroniser and 12-way power conditioner. Kicking off with the mains power cleaner, the new EVO3 Gemini is a compact two-way solution rated at 10A and offering filtration of common and differential mode mains noise. It costs £249 and is available from July. The Syncro Uni incorporates DC-cancelling electronics to reduce transformer hum when used with hi-fi separates.
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Gold Note competition
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Jun 26, 2018  |  0 comments
It’s all very well filling your hi-fi rack with numerous separates, but there comes a time when space becomes a premium, when one box is so much more desirable than four or five. And that’s where Gold Note’s superb IS-1000 comes in. Described as the “complete all-in-one super integrated”, this quite phenomenal box of tricks neatly bridges the gap between a traditional integrated amplifier and a networked music streamer. At its heart, the IS-1000 is an integrated amplifier with a Class A/B output section capable of a 2x 125W into 8ohm (doubling to 250W into 4ohm loads).
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Chord Electronics unveils Choral Étude
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Jun 25, 2018  |  0 comments
Chord Electronics opted to use the High End Show in Munich (see full show report in the July issue, now on sale)to debut its next-generation analogue amplifier design – claimed to be its first fundamentally new topology since the company’s inception back in 1989. Developed and implemented by Chord’s owner and managing director, John Franks, the Choral Étude stereo power amplifier is describedby the Kent-based company as heralding a new era for powerful, wide bandwidth, low noise and low distortion amplifiers. Based upon multi-feedback and dual feed-forward error-correction amplifier technology, the new design intelligently adjusts and compensates the high-powered MOSFETs, which have been arranged into two banks of four. Power output is rated (conservatively according to Chord) at 150W into 4ohm or 300W in bridged mono mode and comes from proprietary ultra-compact switch-mode high-frequency power supplies – one of which controls the auxiliary rails, while the othertwo feed the high-current active power rails.
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