Hi-Fi Choice

Loudspeakers
Monitor Audio Studio
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Oct 05, 2018  |  0 comments
When Monitor Audio first unveiled its Studio standmount loudspeaker at the Bristol Show in February, I was genuinely intrigued. Unlike pretty much everything else in the company’s extensive loudspeaker lineup, it doesn’t belong to a wider range of products but is instead a design that, for now at least, exists entirely on its own. It has no claims to multi-channel use or smart home integration and it surprised visitors to the show by debuting early, having been planned to launch at the Munich High End Show in May,but instead beingready in time to be on display at Bristol.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Pro-Ject Debut III S Audiophile
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Oct 05, 2018  |  0 comments
I recently found myself chatting with a fellow audio scribe about the number of turntables currently available. We discussed a few favourites and his final comment was: “Yes, a great selection; although about half of them are made by Pro-Ject!” While we chuckled, I couldn’t help thinking he had a point. Not since the late seventies, and the bewildering array of decks to be found in the Technics catalogue, has one manufacturer covered such a wide span with its model lineup.
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Headphones
Master & Dynamic MW50+
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Oct 05, 2018  |  0 comments
Many audio enthusiasts have several sets of headphones for different situations. A lightweight pair is ideal when you’re working out, while a larger on-ear model can provide better sound quality while still being portable enough to carry around when you’re on the move. And, when you get home, you can wallow in the more immersive sound of a big set of over-ear cans.
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Cables & Accessories
Atlas Cables Equator
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Oct 05, 2018  |  0 comments
As the latest addition to a range of stereo interconnects from Atlas, the Equator Integra makes use of the same OCC copper conductors that are used with its higher-end cables. The central conductor is insulated with a PEF (foamed polyethylene) dielectric and is double screened to minimise RFI. The white pearlescent sheath makes the cable quite chunky, but reasonably flexible.
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All-In-One Systems
Cary Audio AiOS
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Oct 04, 2018  |  0 comments
A new kind of music system for a new generation”, it says here. Well, in truth the AiOS isn’t that different to other all-in-ones I have reviewed over the years, but it’s still an interesting proposition at its price. Billy Wright, the President of Cary Audio, says that he hopes both audiophiles and young people will look at the AiOS with interest.
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Integrated Amplifiers
YBA Heritage CD100/A100
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Oct 04, 2018  |  0 comments
Launched in France in 1981 by electronics professor Yves-Bernard André, YBA today is a very different thing to the company that it once was. Some might lament the way the EU is dissolving national borders, but the real story of the past few decades has been the wholesale move of manufacturing from the West to the East. This was already happening in the seventies, with British brands beginning to manufacture first in Hong Kong, then Taiwan and eventually China.
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Loudspeakers
Elipson Prestige Facet 14F
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Oct 04, 2018  |  0 comments
Our story starts with Joseph Léon, a man decorated for bravery for his work in the French Resistance during World War II. Later, as managing director of Multimoteur, he began manufacturing loudspeakers called Conques (French for shells, due to their elliptical shape), and then changed the name to Elipson (‘ellipse’ and ‘son’, the latter being the French word for sound).
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Cables & Accessories
Viablue SC-4
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Oct 04, 2018  |  0 comments
Another day, another newcomer to the UK audio cable market. German company Viablue’s SC-4 mid-range speaker cable is formed from a combination of silver-plated strands for the high frequencies and tin-plated ones for the lower frequencies. Within each cable are four leads (two for the signal and two for the return) consisting of seven wrapped bundles of oxygen-free copper wire. The cable is sheathed in a ‘cobra’ satin matt sleeve to protect it and at each end are vibration-absorbing splitters to separate the two connections.
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Loudspeakers
Jamo S 805
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Oct 03, 2018  |  0 comments
There is a school of thought among some loudspeaker buyers that standmount designs are a bit of a waste of time. To be clear, this is not referring to those small speakers mounted on wall brackets or tucked away on a shelf, but rather those that are positioned in their own space on the floor atop a pair of stands.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Rega Planar 1 Plus
Hi-Fi Choice  |  Oct 03, 2018  |  0 comments
Increasingly, the entry-level turntable market is in pursuit of convenient plug ‘n’ play solutions, with everything that’s needed in one complete package to make spinning LPs as simple a process as possible. This is not typically the audiophile way of going about things, but with a growing desire for quality turntable solutions to appeal to new or returning vinyl fans, the move towards one-stop solutions that combine cartridge and phono stage preamps, reducing the box count, is enormously appealing.
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