Hi-Fi Choice

Started in 1996 by electronics engineers Massimiliano Marzi and Andrea Nardini, Audia Flight’s philosophy is to use solid state in an interesting way, and the company’s first product – the 100 power amplifier – sported current feedback design, something that’s shared by its distant descendent the FL Three S. Being Italian, style is also a big thing – what would you expect from the land of La Bella Figura?

Tibo has been making something of a name for itself in the world of smart speakers of late, but the SIA75 streaming amplifier is one of its first forays into the rather more demanding arena of integrated hi-fi solutions. It certainly looks the part, with a full-width chassis and a decent level of build quality. Its simple layout reflects the Scandinavian aesthetics of its Danish founder, with a front panel dominated by a series of presets, a dedicated button for grouping with other Tibo smart products and a multi-functional central dial that adjusts the volume, selects the inputs and turns the amp on and off.

Expectations ARE HIGH for the next generation of Denon’s CEOL network music systems, but any doubts are short lived asthe latest N10 iteration has already received an award for best compact music system by EISA members, including our sister titles Hi-Fi News and Home Cinema Choice magazines. Priced at £449, the new one-box music system adds Amazon Alexa voice compatibility and HEOS multi-room technology, allowing seamless playback to connected devices throughout the home.

Looking to spruce up the vinyl replay chain, UK distributor Henley Audio has introduced the SugarCube SC-1 from Californian-based firm SweetVinyl, designed to digitally remove pops and clicks from any record in real-time – “playing older records like they’re brand new”. Sitting between a phono stage and amplifier, it’s built around a Asahi Kasei analogue-to-digital converter (ADC), digital processor and an ESS DAC. It offers iOS and Android app-based control of the 24-bit/ 192kHz digital process and a Strength dial gives up to 10 ‘clean-up’ levels. The process claims to remove only the unwanted elements on the vinyl and that the audio signal retains all the space, depth and clarity of the original recording.