LATEST ADDITIONS

Opinion
Blurred outlines
Peter Quantrill  |  May 22, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
Music and art can often make an attractive mix for cutting-edge cultural collectives, but the combination is also fraught with plenty of potential pitfalls, reckons Peter Quantrill
Continue Reading »
Opinion
New CD players
Andrew Everard  |  May 22, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
A recent encounter with a couple of new CD players had Andrew Everard engaging in a trip down memory lane. But first-world problems aside, he wasn’t too sure he liked what he saw
Continue Reading »
Opinion
Vinyl and nonlinear velocity
Barry Willis  |  May 22, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
Why does Barry Willis count himself as a ‘reformed record collector’? Because he can’t see past what he sees as the vinyl format’s inherent flaws, from groove distortion to velocity concerns
Continue Reading »
Opinion
Internet radio
Barry Fox  |  May 22, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024

When it comes to Internet radio, Barry Fox knows from hard-earned experience that what works today might well not work tomorrow – particularly if your listening takes you around the world

Continue Reading »
Loudspeakers
Canton Reference 3 loudspeaker
Review: Jamie Biesemans,  |  May 05, 2025  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2025
hfnoutstanding

Situated squarely in the middle of Canton’s five-strong set of floorstanders, is the Reference 3 the sweet spot?

First seen at High End Munich in 2023, Canton’s Reference range brought a major renewal to the flagship offering of Germany’s largest loudspeaker brand. Introducing a new design aesthetic, with a rounded lute-shape cabinet profile made popular by Sonus faber many years ago, and integrating new drivers, it heralded a major course change from the previous Reference K generation [HFN May & Aug ’22]. Yet Canton’s penchant for sprawling ranges has not changed, so the Reference series contains no fewer than eight models – and that’s not counting the exclusive GS edition, nor the two Alpha models revealed at Munich in 2024.

Continue Reading »
Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
DS Audio TB-100 Energiser/Equaliser
Review: Ken Kessler,  |  May 03, 2025  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2025
hfnoutstandingPromising ‘a new era of analogue sound’, DS Audio launches its first all-tube energiser/equaliser to partner its growing range of optical pick-up cartridges. Has it succeeded?

This just may be the most self-fulfilling review I’ve ever written. DS Audio has unleashed a valve energiser and equaliser, the TB-100, for its optical cartridges. Up to this point, every one of its cartridges has been launched with a matching solid-state energiser of relative or comparable price, but the TB-100 has been released on its own. Because every DS Audio cartridge will work with any of the energisers regardless of price, this time it’s all about the tubes.

Continue Reading »
Audiophile Vinyl
Rising stars
Johnny Sharp  |  May 02, 2025  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2025

Looking for fresh finds for your music playlist? Johnny Sharp brings you 20 trailblazing sets from standout solo artists as he showcases the emerging talents taking centre stage

Continue Reading »
Loudspeakers
Epos Model ES-7N loudspeaker
Review: Jamie Biesemans,  |  May 02, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
hfnoutstandingInnovative as ever, the go-to-speaker designer Karl-Heinz Fink solves the solution of where to best site a small speaker. For the diminutive ES-7N the answer is... anywhere!

The rebirth of classic UK brand Epos got off to a flying start when eminent loudspeaker designer Karl-Heinz Fink bought the brand from Creek Audio in 2020. As his first move he created a new iteration of the ES-14, one of Epos’s most beloved products, but this wasn’t a nostalgia project despite some Back To The Future-themed marketing. Instead, Fink took the basic principles of the original model and designed a new speaker utilising modern technologies. That was a clever move, for while the resulting ES-14N [HFN Jul ’23] might not be as true to the original as some would like – it’s undoubtedly better.

Continue Reading »
Integrated AmplifiersNetwork Audio Players/Servers
Naim Uniti Nova Power Edition
Review: Andrew Everard,  |  May 02, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
hfnoutstandingNaim Audio’s latest single-box solution takes the Uniti Nova, with its NP800 streaming platform, and swaps out the Class A/B amplifier for a higher power Class D engine

The term ‘game-changing’ is widely overused, but it’s fully justified in the case of Naim’s original Naim Uniti. Launched in 2009, it was in the vanguard of CD/streaming/amplifier products, a concept now more widely adopted in the past decade and a half. And in the 15 years since the original Naim Uniti appeared, the company has continuously developed the technology inside the series, not to mention spinning it off into component network players and its Mu-so network speaker systems.

Continue Reading »
Vintage
Wharfedale Linton amplifier
Tim Jarman,  |  May 02, 2025  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2024
hfnvintage A child of the Rank Organisation, the Linton can trace its roots back to the Leak Delta 30 and Stereo 30 Plus before it. We travel back to Wharfedale’s (early ’70s) halcyon days

The Wharfedale Linton loudspeaker is one of those hi-fi products that seems to have been around forever. It has been produced in many forms and is still with us today in ‘Heritage’ guise. The original Linton, Super Linton and Linton 2 were all strong sellers in the 1960s and ’70s and many listeners will have heard, owned or borrowed a pair at some stage. Lesser known was Wharfedale’s complete Linton system, which was offered in hi-fi’s boom years of the early 1970s. It is the amplifier from the first version of this which we are looking at this month.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X