Hi-Fi Choice

Designed as a means of keeping your stylus clean, be it on a DS Audio cartridge or something a little more prosaic, the ST-50 comprises a thin sheet of Urethane protected by a smart metal tin. It may look like an unusual way of removing dirt from a stylus, but the principle is simple enough: place the ST-50 on your platter and lower your cartridge on and off the sheet of polymer a few times so that its sticky nature will pull away any unwanted debris from the tip of the stylus. If the polymer starts to look dirty, you can simply rinse it off under a tap, leave it to dry on a clean surface and it will be good to go again. As well as looking smart, the housing tin does a good job of keeping the polymer free from collecting debris when it’s not in use.

Ultimate Stream based in Farnham in Surrey is running a series of listening events called ‘An Evening With’ to allow visitors to experience the latest products from their brand portfolio including: Auralic, Kii Audio, Innuos, Dutch&Dutch, CAAS Audio, Amphion, Hegel and T+A. There’s also the opportunity to join a weekend workshop focussing on ‘Streaming For Beginners’. For more information and tickets call 01252 759285 or visit the website:www. ultimate-stream.

Network music streaming continues to be a convenient way for many of us to listen to music at home, and its appeal is clear to see. With access to millions of digital files at the tap of a touchscreen and CD-quality sound or better on offer from hi-res subscription services like Qobuz Sublime or Tidal Master, streaming is a remarkably slick way of playing music and this month’s Group Testlooks at six low-cost network audio navigators to get you started. Despite streaming being a thoroughly modern way to listen to music, physical formats continue to play on in many systems, with vinyl being by far the most popular for readers to get their music listening kicks, judging by the number of votes that it received in our recent twitter poll asking: “What is your favourite music format?”. It seems that we’re a diverse bunch when it comes to ways to listen, but for those looking for something that combines both worlds, check out Yamaha’s MusicCast Vinyl 500.

To mark the fact it has been trading for 10 years, Audeze has revised one of its longest-running products. The original LCD2 has been around for some time and continues as before but is now joined by the Classic, which adds some refinements to the design alongside a more affordable price tag.