Hi-Fi Choice

Welcome to the March 2016 issue of Hi-Fi Choice – the essential guide to getting the best possible sound from your hi-fi, whether you're buying, tuning or tweaking. . . 

 What excites me about editing Hi-Fi Choice is not just getting my hands on all the latest audio components and new technology and sharing the experience with you, but also connecting with artists and bands in our Music Reviews and Labelled With Love features.

Alpha Design Labs has something of a reputation for producing ‘Swiss army knife’ components capable of performing multiple tasks (see the GT40a in the February issue’s Group Test), and it looks like its latest release – the Stratos – is set to continue this trend. Compact in design it boasts a USB DAC with A/D convertor, a preamp, MM/MC phono stage and headphone amp. Built, says ADL, with the audiophile in mind, the Stratos supports PCM up to 32/384 and DSD to 11. 2MHz.

30 years after it launched its first turntable – the Xerxes – Roksan has announced its latest vinyl spinner, the Oxygene 30. Supplied with a 9in Pro-Ject 9CC Evolution tonearm and Roksan’s XPS-7 power supply/speed controller, the Oxygene 30 comes in a gloss white finish and you’ll need to select your own choice of cartridge to partner it. The Oxygene 30 has a complex, multi-layered four-piece plinth design boasting a new high-mass mounting block for housing the motor. This has been designed to ensure unwanted resonances from the motor are transferred into the block and attenuated significantly before reaching the top plinth.

Celebrating over 90 years as an audio manufacturer, Luxman has announced details of its latest integrated amp, the L-590AX Mark II. Described by the Japanese company as the best integrated it has ever produced, the Class Aamp is claimed to deliver “spellbinding clarity, exquisite sonic detail and fluid, free-breathing musicality” and is said to be a culmination ofall that Luxman has learned since launching Japan’s first high-quality integrated back in 1961 – in the shape of the valve-based SQ5A. Boasting a single-chassis integrated design,the L-590AX Mark II has Luxman’s fourth-generation Only Distortion Negative Feedback (ODNF) circuit at its heart in order to restrict feedback only to distortion components, for a fast primary slew rate, ultra-wide bandwidth and enhanced signal-to-noise performance. Power is rated at 30W per channel into 8ohm, doubling to 60W per channel into 4ohm, which Luxman describes as sufficient power to drive any loudspeaker of suitable quality.