Hi-Fi Choice

Designed and built in the UK, Mitchell & Johnson has announced the launch of its 800 Series of hi-fi components. The first two products to be unveiled in the new flagship series are the S800 preampwith multi-input DAC and phono stage, and matching S815 power amp – both priced £1,299 each. A matching CD player is expectedto follow in November.

Loudspeaker maker KEF has unveiled its redesigned R Series that employs trickle-down design and tech developments usually found on the Kent-based company’s flagship Reference Series. With 1,043 individual changes to the revamped series, highlights include the latest generation of the company’s Uni-Q driver array – now in its 12th iteration – featuring Shadow Flare trimring design for more transparent sound, smaller bass drivers with greater excursion and a sophisticated internal bracing system, all aimed at bringing higher levels of performance to the series. Focusing on the stereo models, all are three-way ported designs and the £1,300 R3 standmount has a 165mm bass driver partnered to a Uni-Q array with 125mm midrange and 25mm aluminium dome tweeter with sensitivity of 87dB at 8ohm. All three floorstanders use the same Uni-Q array, but the £2,000 R5 has 2x 130mm bass drivers to the same electrical specification, while the £2,600 R7 has2x 165mm and the £4,000 R11 employs 4x 165mm bass drivers and claim 88dB and 90dB into 8ohm respectively.

Perhaps better known for its full-size headphone models than its in-ear designs, Audio-Technica has been increasing its offerings of late. The ATH-LS70iS is the more expensive of two ‘Live Sound’ models and uses two serially mounted carbon-coated dynamic drivers to reduce its housing size and increase the radiating area.

Group Test:Music streaming services October 2018 marks just 10 years since Spotify launched its first streaming service in the UK. In this short time it has revolutionised the way in which we buy and listen to music. At first, the idea of music streaming was attractive for the convenience it offered. Mesmerised by the number of songs and albums readily available at the tap of a touchscreen or click of keyboard – and the musical discovery our searches take us on – trawling through multi-million-track libraries became a nostalgic and addictive journey that has changed how many of us consume music forever.