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AVTech Media Awards
Avtech Awards 2014/2015
Hi-Fi News  |  Jan 02, 2015
Welcome to the AVTech Awards for 2014/2015, the distillation of knowledge from the UK's trio of premium AV brands – Hi-Fi Choice, Home Cinema Choice and Hi-Fi News & Record Review. Collectively we test and review more hi-fi, TV and home theatre equipment than any other organisation in the UK, with hundreds of pages of editorial content published every month! Our Awards are informed by this pool of experience which stretches from earbuds and headphones to flagship high-end floorstanding loudspeakers; from 4K TVs to state-of-the-art projectors; to universal disc players, media streamers, USB DACs and headphone amps, turntables, integrated and pre/power amplifiers and every black box and cable in between. So whether you are a diegard stereo or AV home theatre enthusiast, or a prgressive consumer looking for the ideal 'connected' system, let the AVTech Awards be your guide to the best that's available in 2014/2015. Best Floorstanding Speaker Monitor Audio Silver 8 Monitor Audio’s Silver 8 is a wonderfully capable floorstander, delivering music with subtlety and sophistication and offering a cavernous, well-projected soundstage.
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EISA Awards
EISA Awards 2014 2015
Hi-Fi News  |  Jan 02, 2015
Welcome to the EISA Awards for 2014-2015. The European Imaging and Sound Association is the world’s largest independent awards panel and one that reflects the collective opinion of nearly 50 of the most respected specialist magazines centred on, but not exclusively based within, the European community. While faultlines within the Euro Zone continue to dominate headlines in the UK, the collaboration of EISA’s member magazines has continued apace and with renewed purpose as the aspirations of our fellow audio and video enthusiasts rise above the political turmoil of the day. From the EISA Convention held in May to the final General Meeting in June, member magazines pool their combined experience to arrive at a consensus of the very best in sound and vision products available across the wider European continent.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Toronto Symphony Orchestra/peter Oundjian : Rimsky Korsakov: Sheherazade
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jan 01, 2015
192kHz/24-bit FLAC, Chandos CHSA5145 (supplied by www. theclassicalshop. net) This appears to be the first Chandos orchestral recording from The Classical Shop at 192kHz/24-bit resolution – like the SACD, it has no extra work so is low-priced. It was produced live in mid-2013 by Soundmirror Inc at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall: the first of three Chandos projects with the orchestra.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Stefano Bollani : Joy In Spite Of Everything
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jan 01, 2015
Italian pianist Stefano Bollani has covered many musical styles since becoming a professional player at the tender age of 15, his jazz collaborations with trumpeter Enrico Rava gaining him international recognition. Recorded in NY’s Avatar Studios last year, but only recently released, Joy In Spite Of Everything sees Bollani alongside drummer Morten Lund and bass player Jesper Bodilsen (both from Bollani’s working trio) joined by Mark Turner and jazz guitar maestro Bill Frisell. From the laid-back calypso style of the opener ‘Easy Healing’, with a tremendous contribution from Turner’s tenor sax, this modern jazz quintet sparkles with musical inventiveness and tremendous playing throughout the album. A bit more ‘air’ to the sound would have been welcome, nevertheless the tonality and textures of the band’s instruments are colourfully depicted.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Ingrid Fliter : Frederic Chopin: Preludes
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jan 01, 2015
192kHz/24-bit ALAC/FLAC, Linn Records CKD475 (supplied by www. linnrecords. com) Chopin collectors will (should) have the Preludes with Friedrich Gulda [Audite/DG, 1950s] or his one-time pupil Martha Argerich [DG, 1975]. Add fellow-Argentinian Ingrid Fliter to the list! Unsurprisingly, her Chopin readings have become more interesting since her 2008/09 EMI debut CDs with the Waltzes, etc.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Jan Lundgren Trio : Flowers Of Sendai
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jan 01, 2015
Classically trained Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren has made some 40 albums under his own name since graduating from Malmö’s Academy of Music in 1991. Flowers Of Sendai was recorded late last year in Italy, for the French BeeJazz label, since when Lundgren has further released a collection of standards from the great American songbook entitled All By Myself for Barcelona-based Fresh Sound Records. Here Lundgren is accompanied once again by bassist Mattias Svensson and highly accomplished Hungarian drummer Zoltán Csörsz Jr (who famously filled the seat of Jaime Salazar in Swedish prog-rock outfit The Flower Kings and has taken over from drummer Morten Lund in Lundgren’s Trio). Audiophiles will be impressed by the recording quality that puts the trio in a natural acoustic with the instruments clearly delineated in ‘open’ space.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Eric Clapton & Friends : The Breeze
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jan 01, 2015
Eric Clapton is joined by an all-star cast – including Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler, bass supremo Nathan East and many others – in this tribute album honouring singer-songwriter JJ Cale. It was Cale, of course, who penned two of EC’s greatest solo hits: ‘After Midnight’ and ‘Cocaine’; and this collection of songs is named after ‘Call Me The Breeze’ which was the opening track on Cale’s 1972 debut album Naturally – it opens this set too. Sound quality varies from uninspiring (‘Rock And Roll Records’ and ‘Train To Nowhere’) to slightly better than average (‘Someday’ and ‘Songbird’). Highlights are John Mayer’s vocal performance in ‘Magnolia’ and Don White’s charming rendition of ‘Sensitive Kind’.
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Disc PlayersVintage
Fisher AD 800 (Vintage)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Dec 22, 2014
In the early 1970s Sanyo was a UK market leader in the field of music centres that were extremely popular here, but its separate hi-fi units were not as successful. It was intended that the acquisition of the Fisher brand (in 1975) would solve this problem and less than a year after the CD format had first been made commercially available by Philips and Sony, it launched its first machine, offered in the UK as the Fisher AD 800. A vertical front loader, the AD 800 was a confident entry into the digital field. One reason Sanyo was able to bring this model to market so rapidly was its use of integrated circuits made by Sony.
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Turntables, Arms & CartridgesVintage
Dual CS505 (Vintage)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Dec 22, 2014
If you were just taking your first steps into the world of hi-fi in the early 1980s you’d give serious consideration to the Dual CS505. Often partnered with a NAD 3020 amp by the canny hi-fi buyer on a budget, these two components started many listeners on a path that would bring countless hours of enjoyment. In the 1960s and ’70s Dual occupied a similar place in the German market to BSR and Garrard in the UK, producing turntable units for music centres and combination units. Yet it retained audiophile credibility for the quality of its separate belt-drives, which sold well across Europe.
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Integrated AmplifiersVintage
Rogers Cadet Iii (Vintage)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Dec 22, 2014
A 10W design from the final years of the valve era, the original Rogers Cadet appeared in 1958 as an amplifier and control unit combination for mounting inside a cabinet. Its stereo successor, the Cadet II, appeared in 1962 and proved equally popular. With the version III, gain was increased so that magnetic cartridges like the Shure M44 and M75 series could be used. This was achieved by the use of special ECC807 valves and an extra stage, meaning that the Cadet III control unit became slightly wider.
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