LATEST ADDITIONS

Review: Adam Smith, | Feb 20, 2023

The flagship of Nagaoka's 'Moving Permalloy' range can trace its lineage back to ADC's 10E pick-up from 1964. Has this top-of-the-range cartridge stood the test of time?

For many audiophiles the transition from using a moving-magnet (MM) cartridge in a 'starter' system to a moving-coil (MC) by way of upgrade is something of a rite of passage. However, as Japanese cartridge specialist, Nagaoka, is keen to remind us, other options are available. The debate goes something like this: given that some superb MCs can be had from around £300 and up, one might ask who is going to buy an MM that costs nearly double this, such as the Nagaoka MP-500. This flagship pick-up retails for £799 or £899 in MP-500H guise, the latter pre-mounted into a rather swish Nagaoka-branded headshell.

Inside the Studio

Dean St Studios

Steve Sutherland | Feb 17, 2023

In London's Soho lies a studio that has rocked to Thin Lizzy, rolled with Robert Plant and now has big plans to bring immersive audio to music fans. Steve Sutherland explains

Not wishing to teach anyone's grandma to suck eggs, but it might be worth beginning by having a quick look at Dolby Atmos. A surround sound technology reasonably recently developed by US company Dolby – or 'Dobly' if you're a Spinal Tap fan – it's a system that allows sounds to be moved as objects in a three-dimensional space, coming atcha from above, behind, inside, outside... everywhere.

Integrated Amplifiers

Icon Audio ST40 MkIV 6L6 Integrated Amplifier

Review: Ken Kessler, | Feb 16, 2023

Designer David Shaw has stripped the best-selling Stereo 40 tube amp back to its basics and replaced its KT88s with 6L6/KT66s for a less 'power hungry' musical experience

Who'd have believed that the world would be awash with affordable valve amps in the 2020s? Certainly not those who recall the desperation of trying to source fresh tubes during the era when solid-state ruled and valves were yet to make a comeback. But now the choice is so vast that you can look beyond nursing vintage Leaks or Quads, with the risks that entails. Arguably the doyen of affordable valve amps is Icon Audio, its latest the absurdly cost-effective integrated Stereo (ST) 40 MkIV 6L6, starting at £2200.

From the Vault Pre/Power Amplifiers

Jadis JPS8 and JA50

Ken Kessler | Feb 14, 2023 | First Published: Jul 01, 2003

These purist valve amps from France are still something special, reckons Ken Kessler, but first it's time to put your expectations to one side...

Here beginneth a lesson in audio prejudices – mine and yours. Jadis has created a truly 'high-end' pre/power combination of so narrow a focus that we as audiophiles have to search deep into our hearts before even considering reading about them, let alone owning them. In other words, go no further if you refuse to accept that a manufacturer can (and maybe even should) impose restrictive behavioural practices upon the end user. Forget universality, market savvy commercial appeal, user-friendliness or post-remote control era ergonomics – the JPS8 is aimed at out-of-the-closet masochists.

Headphones

Apogee BOOM Headphone Preamp

Review: Jamie Biesemans, | Feb 13, 2023

This 2+2 hardware/software audio interface was crafted with budding musicians, video producers and live streamers in mind. So, is there anything here for the audiophile?

It's not unusual for pro-facing audio brands to entice hi-fi consumers with dedicated products – SPL [HFN Jul '21] and RME, for example, are companies that have created head-fi-orientated DACs – and even attend hi-fi shows. Yet Apogee hasn't taken that route with its £329 BOOM. This compact, table-top device is resolutely aimed at what you might loosely call 'creators'. Gameplay streaming, podcast development, music production, light studio duties, that kind of thing.

Vinyl Icons

The B-52's: The B-52's

Johnny Sharp | Feb 10, 2023

When five young friends from Athens, Georgia began jamming on borrowed instruments and writing songs about lobsters and mystical planets, they didn't imagine it would lead to an album deal with Warner Brothers and global fame... or the attention of John Lennon

Some bands are born great. Some achieve greatness. And some have greatness thrust upon them. So (nearly) wrote William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night, but he probably hadn't spent the evening sharing a giant flaming volcano cocktail at Hunan Chinese restaurant in Athens, Georgia. So maybe that's why the formation of The B-52's (or B-52s, as it has been since 2008) seemed to fit none of those three headings very tidily.

Integrated Amplifiers Network Audio Players/Servers

HiFi Rose RS520 Streaming Amplifier

Review: Andrew Everard, | Feb 09, 2023

Combining the network streaming capability of the RS150 flagship with the GAN-FET Class D amplification of the RS180, the RS520 aims to be the 'all-in-one' for everyone

Another smart move from the Korean tech specialist? That certainly seems to be the case with the latest arrival from Seoul-based HiFi Rose, which has rapidly established itself as a major player in the network audio/video market with a string of excellent streaming players. Having taken what looked like an abrupt turn with the launch of its bonkers-styled – but great-sounding – RA180 integrated amplifier [HFN Jul '22], it's now delivering on the promises made by the company's Sean Kim, interviewed for that review. We're yet to see the simpler, more affordable RA280 integrated amp, but here's the company's all-in-one streaming amp, the RS520.

Vinyl Release

The Beatles: Revolver (180g)

Steve Sutherland | Feb 07, 2023

Featuring sitar, violins, backwards recordings and some sage words from Peter Fonda, this 1966 album found the Fab Four firing on all cylinders, says Steve Sutherland

I coulda been a contender, but Revolver did me in. There I was, nine-and-a-half years old, living the high life – well, as high as life could get for a small boy in Salisbury, Wiltshire – and in a band called The Little Beatles. I was Ringo, my friend Keith McArdle was John, Kirsteen, his sister, was George, and Robert 'Bo' Parr was Paul. We wore home-made Beatles suits and Beatles wigs and mimed behind toy instruments to Beatles hits.

Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

SME Model 12 MK2 Turntable

Review: Adam Smith, | Feb 06, 2023

SME's flagship Model 60 turntable was more than an aspirational torch-bearer for the UK brand – it set the tone for revisions that will trickle down through the entire range

Every hi-fi era has its buzzwords, and while variations on the theme of 'digital' and 'high-res' have permeated our collective consciousness over the past few decades, the 2020s have so far proved thick with references to 'trickle-down technology'. Brands have always launched flagship products to showcase technologies that eventually 'trickle-down' to middle and entry-level ranges, but nowadays there's almost an expectation that this osmosis of tech will happen swiftly, and wholesale.

Classical Companion

Pablo Casals: Cellist, Conductor, Catalan

Peter Quantrill | Feb 03, 2023

To focus on a few celebrated solo recordings is to miss the bigger picture of a complete musician, says Peter Quantrill, paying tribute to a cellist who played for Queen Victoria

Fifty years after his death, it is worth remembering that Pablo Casals was the first celebrity cellist of the modern age. What Paganini had done for the violin, and then Clara Schumann and Liszt for the piano – making a viable career out of touring as a solo virtuoso, as singers had done – it took Casals until the turn of the 19th-20th century. Yet he commissioned very little for his instrument, and then abruptly ceased that solo career at its zenith.

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