LATEST ADDITIONS

Peter Quantrill  |  Jun 01, 2025  |  First Published: May 01, 2025

This month we review: Jonathan Aasgaard, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Hamburg CHS & State PO/Nagano, Quartetto di Cremona

Steve Harris  |  Jun 01, 2025  |  First Published: May 01, 2025

This month we review: Artemis, Glebe, Julia Hülsmann Quartet, and Oz Noy

Mike Barnes  |  Jun 01, 2025  |  First Published: May 01, 2025

This month we review: Steven Wilson, Cymande, Immersion With SUSS, and The Horrors

Ken Kessler  |  Jun 01, 2025  |  First Published: May 01, 2025

This month we review: Rick Wakeman, George Harrison, Davy Graham and covers of Prince songs

Ken Kessler  |  Jun 01, 2025  |  First Published: May 01, 2025

This month we review: Johnnie Taylor, Katharine Whalen’s Jazz Squad, Jeff Beck, and Celia & Johnny

Review: Jamie Biesemans,  |  Jun 01, 2025  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2025
hfnoutstanding Denon’s first big integrated since its Anniversary PMA-A110 model, launched five years ago, is designed to tug the heartstrings of traditionalist audiophiles. Are you one?

Denon updates its AV receivers at the drop of a hat, but its stereo amplifiers typically enjoy a far longer shelf-life. Side-stepping its 110th anniversary PMA-A110 model [HFN Dec ’20] for a moment, the brand’s previous flagship, the PMA-2500NE [HFN Aug ’16], illustrates this longevity. Nonetheless, there’s a direct line between the PMA-A110 and the £2999 PMA-3000NE tested here, as numerous hardware tweaks devised for that limited edition model underpin Denon’s new stereo integrated.

Tim Jarman,  |  Jun 01, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
hfnvintageThe iconic Sony Discman evolved into a full family of niche versions, including specific in-car and ‘Sports’ models, the latter designed for the beach. We slap on the factor 50!

Has hi-fi become a little crazy these days? Huge equipment, bizarre accessories, cables that look ready to moor an oil tanker? How about this though – a CD player that works under water. Not for audiophile reasons of course, but for practical ones and as a step along the road to making the Compact Disc system the perfect consumer bauble.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  May 30, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
hfnoutstandingIndustry ‘disrupter’ WiiM continues its campaign to shake up the audio scene with another comprehensively-equipped streamer, this time with a Class D amp on board

If I had a pound for every time I’d heard someone talking about WiiM in the last year I would easily be able to afford the £329 streaming amplifier auditioned here. Since its arrival in the UK in 2023, WiiM – the consumer-facing brand of California-based smart technology company Linkplay – has earned a reputation for compact, networked hi-fi products that combine wide feature sets and a forward-thinking control app, but at prices that would have seemed like science-fiction just a few years ago.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  May 30, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
hfnoutstandingInspired by its long-running Studio series, born in the 1980s, this modern-day D’Appolito standmount also illustrates Monitor Audio’s long-term use of metal-coned drivers

As anyone who tried to buy tickets for Oasis’s 2025 reunion tour will have discovered, nostalgia is big business. The hi-fi industry knows it too, and in recent years has been scouring the 1970s for speaker and amplifier designs to either leverage into new models or directly resurrect. Monitor Audio, however, has now jumped a decade ahead, launching a new speaker ‘inspired by the 1980s’. Seeing as Hollywood has been tapping into that decade with revisits to the Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and Ghostbusters franchises, the British manufacturer might be onto something.

Review: Andrew Everard,  |  May 28, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
hfnoutstandingThe latest iteration of Auralic’s streamer/DAC boasts a new generation of the Tesla platform at its core, and an updated version of its ‘Lightning’ operating system

Almost as tricky as keeping up to speed with Taylor Swift releases is staying abreast of the range offered by network audio specialists, Auralic. Wrestling with the products’ naming and respective functionality can also be less than straightforward... The Altair G2.2 is the latest version of the company’s streamer/DAC, designed to be used into a conventional preamp, or direct into power amplification or active speakers via its analogue volume control.

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