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Review: Ken Kessler,  |  Jul 24, 2025  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2025
hfnoutstandingThe first ‘entry-level’ D’Agostino amp was never going to be a budget offering, but the Pendulum integrated still swings the dial in the direction of ‘affordable’. Start the clock...

Shall we first dispense with the debate about what constitutes ‘expensive’? Just as ‘luxury’ means anything more than you need, ‘expensive’ means anything more than you’re prepared or able to spend. I’m not about to gloss over the fact that £18,000 for a stereo amplifier isn’t chicken feed to most of us, even in a world of amplifiers costing 30 times that amount.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Jul 24, 2025  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2025
hfnoutstandingCompact, flexible and a significant refinement over the original, the ‘Black Edition’ of Unison Research’s Triode 25 integrated is a gateway to tube sound without the hassle

Hailing from Treviso in northeast Italy, Unison Research is a brand with an obvious love of tubes, to the point that you half expect to find a hot bottle or two incorporated in its Malibran and Max loudspeakers. Its CD players, the Unico CD Uno and Due [HFN May ’16], have tube-based output stages, while the solid-state amps in the same series have tube-based inputs. But the company is best known for its all-tube amplifiers, of which there are 15 spread across integrated, pre and power ranges.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Jul 23, 2025  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2025
hfncommendedPiega makes its Premium 301 loudspeaker better – and smaller – in this elegant Gen2 revision

While the usual rallying cry of a Hollywood producer is for any movie sequel to be ‘bigger and better’, Piega’s approach for the Gen2 iteration of its Premium 301 loudspeaker is to make it better while also making it smaller. And considering the original model, released in 2019, was itself described as a ‘compact loudspeaker with a baffle about the size of an A4 sheet’, this is perhaps something of an achievement.

Review: Andrew Everard,  |  Jul 22, 2025  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2025
hfnoutstandingAlthough selling for under £1000, this DAC/headphone amp is the flagship model of Chinese audio marque FiiO. Is the compact but versatile K17 a game-changer?

Underestimate the new generation of Chinese hi-fi manufacturers at your peril, because we’ve come a long way from cheap knockoffs of famous products, inexpensive music players and the like. Just as in the electric car industry, where Chinese companies are showing they have the skills and technology to match the very best, so it is in hi-fi, where brands including Eversolo [HFN May ’25] and FiiO – whose latest product, the £829 K17, we have here – are proving they can develop and innovate.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Jul 21, 2025  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2025
hfnoutstandingFirst rung on Pass Labs’ ‘XA’ series of Class A amplifiers is a stereo model weighing in at a full 40kg, but don’t let the seemingly parsimonious 30W rating fool you – this is a beast!

In this era of all-in-one amplifiers and ‘crossover’ products, where even a tube amp might come to market with a built-in USB DAC, there’s something refreshing about Californian brand Pass Labs. Now approaching 35 years in business and named after founder and chief designer Nelson Pass (also the man behind Threshold in the 1970s), the company has long been known for its focus on frill-free, performance-first designs.

Review: Andrew Everard,  |  Jul 21, 2025  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2025
hfnoutstandingKorea’s HiFi Rose launches its second-generation streamer/DAC flagship with onboard storage facility, more powerful DSP, improved connectivity and Full HD touchscreen

A rose by any other name is still a HiFi Rose? Well yes, it can appear that way: since it first arrived on the hi-fi scene, the Korean company has launched a head-spinning barrage of products, all of which can, at first glance, look rather similar. However, what’s been going on is a policy of expanding the appeal of the range upwards, downwards and outwards – the last, for example, by adding its own lineup of amplifiers – and introducing a programme of upgrades along the way..

Review: Tim Jarman,  |  Jul 20, 2025  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2025
hfnvintageThe genius combination of red Perspex and black alloy heatsinking ensured the late Neil Burnett’s Albarry Music brand brought a welcome splash of colour to the ’80s hi-fi scene

Whatever else can be said about Albarry Music’s amplifiers, they looked fantastic – products that proudly had their works on show, but done with consummate grace and restraint. The M408 was the first amplifier from Albarry, one of many boutique firms that sprang up in the early 1980s in reaction to the mass-produced ranges from Europe and Japan.

Trevor Attewell  |  Jul 19, 2025  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2025
hfnvintageFollowing revisions to the LS3/5 specification, the BBC monitor makes its ‘domestic’ debut. Trevor Attewell salutes a small speaker with big appeal

The BBC’s outside broadcast engineers often have to work in cramped conditions, for example in OB vans, where the steady proliferation of equipment puts cunning stowage, tidy habits, and a strict diet for the occupants at a distinct premium. Studio monitor loudspeakers are particularly difficult to locate sensibly in these circumstances, and the design aim behind the LS3/5a was the provision of a small but high quality monitor.

Review: Adam Smith,  |  Jul 19, 2025  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2025
hfnoutstandingSME’s turntable and tonearm evolution – revolution? – is complete with the launch of its new Model 8 and Model 60-inspired ’35, the latter equipped with Series Vi tonearm

For a company that took three decades before introducing its first turntable, followed by a seven-year wait between the second and third models, SME seems now to be moving at a lightning pace. The flagship Model 60 arrived in 2022 [HFN Jul ’22], followed swiftly by Mk2 versions of the Models 12 and 15 over the next two years [HFN Jan ’23 and Jul ’24, respectively]. Now it has added two more turntables to its portfolio – the Model 8, replacing the Model 6 as SME’s entry-level unit, and the Model 35 seen here, slotting in below the Model 60.

Ken Kessler  |  Jul 15, 2025  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2025

Jazz to soul, choral to prog to rock... Ken Kessler selects 20 recently released Super Audio CDs and Blu-rays that will show you there’s still life left in the 5in silver disc

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