Review: Andrew Everard

Three boxes, and not a DAC in sight… Aurender’s flagship music server, the N50, is a £38,900 combination of Server box with display – able to play from online services, local storage on USB or NAS devices, or optional onboard storage – and a separate ‘Audio’ unit that offers numerous digital outputs. The third box is a screened PSU, offering separately regulated supplies to power both the Server and Audio enclosures.

All things are relative, I guess, but in the realm of high-end audio, the Børresen X3 looks like a lot of loudspeaker for the money. Moreover, a recent price cut – just about unheard of in the modern hi-fi market – has brought the speaker down from £10,000 to £8000 a pair. Described as an ‘entry-level into the Børresen universe’, the X3 draws on technology created for the Danish company’s higher-end models [HFN Sep ’25], from the drivers to the enclosures.

This month we review and test releases from: Johannes Hustedt/S. Speidel, Gregory Hutchinson, Sankt Otten, Hanna Paulsberg Concept/Elin Rosseland, and Ingi Bjarni

Flying in the face of received hi-fi wisdom that presumes absolute sonic purity is best achieved with separate pre/power amplifiers, integrated amplifiers are having something of a renaissance. Aside from the entry-level and mid-market, where one-box amplification has always been the go-to choice, there’s now a good selection of high-end models from the likes of Rotel’s Michi X3 S2 [HFN Jan ’24], starting from just under £6000, to the massive Dan D’Agostino Momentum MxV [also HFN Jan ’24], yours for just short of £100k when fully loaded with DAC and phono modules.