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Review: Jamie Biesemans,  |  Apr 23, 2025  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2024
hfnoutstanding

Described as ‘contemporary classics’, the six-strong, sixth generation Gold series spans, you guessed it, six models!

After the renewal of the Silver in 2021 and the Platinum range at the tail end of 2022, it was only logical the intermediate Gold line would reappear, now in 6th generation (6G) guise. The Gold 300 6G is the smaller floorstanding model in the new range, and in many households will be the sensible choice. The three-way design and two 150mm woofers promise performance, while its living room friendly footprint makes choosing between the £4000 Gold 300 6G and the Gold 100 6G standmount (£3000 plus £550 for the ST-2 stands) just that bit more difficult. Its design chops, both when it comes to looks and acoustics, made it an obvious candidate for the EISA members to pin an EISA Award on its lapel this summer.

Review: Andrew Everard,  |  Apr 23, 2025  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2024
hfnoutstanding

Compact yet highly capable, the DAC204 may look like a simple USB device, but within is a host of its Swiss manufacturer’s focused engineering and precision construction

Today’s digital audio world, having largely switched from the playback of physical media to files stored on computer drives or streamed from the Internet, seems populated by products of ever-greater complexity. They may still be DACs, but they have built-in network streaming interfaces and often volume and preamp functions so they can drive power amps, or active speakers, directly. Sometimes they do all that and more, thanks to Bluetooth, Chromecast and even integrated voice control.

Review: Jamie Biesemans,  |  Apr 23, 2025  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2024
hfnoutstanding

With the H600’s streaming/DAC platform at its heart the new H400 – dubbed the ‘Streamliner’ by Hegel – looks set to take over as the sweet spot of the range

When Hegel’s reference H600 integrated amplifier [HFN Oct ’23] arrived to replace the H590 [HFN Oct ’18] last summer, it didn’t require much insight into the hi-fi industry to guess that the H390 [HFN Aug ’19] would also be marching in the general direction of the exit soon enough. It’s taken a year, though, before the replacement H400 – aka the ‘Streamliner’ – eventually pulled into port.

Steve Harris  |  Apr 23, 2025  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2025

This month we review: Mark Kavuma & The Banger Factory, Josephine Davies, Keith Jarrett and Immanuel Wilkins,

Peter Quantrill  |  Apr 23, 2025  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2025

This month we review: Gilchrist Neary, Coleman; William Christie; Pioro, Dennis; and Frans Brüggen and Louis Andriessen

Mike Barnes  |  Apr 17, 2025  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2025

This month we review: Mogwai, Manic Street Preachers, Sam Amidon and Richard Dawson

Ken Kessler  |  Apr 17, 2025  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2025
This month we review: Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, Neil Christian, Erik Deutsch, and Hawkwind
Ken Kessler  |  Apr 17, 2025  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2025

This month we review: Lori Lieberman, Ars Nova, Johnny Pacheco, and Simon & Garfunkel

Review: Ken Kessler,  |  Apr 17, 2025  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2025

This month we review and test releases from: Pat Metheny, Avishai Cohen, MaskXSoul, Daniel Pardo and Vince Guaraldi

Steve Sutherland  |  Apr 17, 2025  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2025
The Velvet Underground founder’s fourth solo LP is the perfect distillation of his genre-crossing genius, says Steve Sutherland, as he faces up to the 180g reissue

Pop quiz! Which artist musically links Happy Mondays, Nick Drake, Sham 69, The Stooges, Patti Smith, Brian Eno, Jonathan Richman, Nico and Squeeze? Answer: Lou Reed. Only joking! It’s his old Velvet Underground buddy John Cale, of course, otherwise why would we be mentioning it here?

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