Loudspeakers

Audiovector has returned to the design of founder Ole Klifoth’s first ever loudspeaker – the 1979 Trapez – for a new £15,500 model called Trapeze Reimagined.

Were all the column-inches expended over the years about wireless hi-fi justified, the world's audio cable companies would have long ago gone out of business. Think back a decade or more and we were already being told that our music was about to come from miraculously-powered speakers attached to nothing, yet able to pluck all the music available in the world out of thin air and play it in quality previously unimaginable.

When DALI launched its flagship KORE speaker [HFN Dec ’22], followed by the Epikore 11 [HFN Feb ’25], the Danish company clearly wanted to turn heads in a higher-end segment. Which worked out fine, but both speakers have a ‘downside’: they are colossal. Applying trickle-down technologies from the £85k KORE and £40k Epikore 11, the smaller £20k Epikore 7 floorstander might just be the more sensible choice for typical living rooms.

Over the past few years, DALI has established a firm presence in the premium loudspeaker market with impressive feats of engineering realised in its KORE flagship [HFN Dec ’23] and Epikore [HFN Feb ’25] ranges. However, the company that 40 years ago started as a budget brand for Scandinavia’s HiFi Klubben chain is making something of a return to its affordable roots with the Kupid. At £299 a pair, these pint-sized ‘bookshelf’ speakers are a universe away from the £85,000 KORE, but both are said to be built according to DALI’s ‘core’ design principles.

Although the Paris-based audio brand, Devialet, debuted with its groundbreaking D Premier integrated amplifier in 2010 [HFN Apr ’10], it’s arguable that its most well-known release has been the Phantom [HFN Feb ’15]. Launched in 2015, this almost spherical-shaped active, wireless speaker leveraged the brand’s electronics knowhow and eye for a smart aesthetic to shake up the compact hi-fi market. Upgraded models have appeared in the decade since, but only now does the manufacturer feel confident in launching a new ‘Ultimate’ edition.