LATEST ADDITIONS

Review: Adam Smith,  |  Jan 21, 2020
hfncommendedIcon Audio's new Stereo ST30SE amplifier makes use of beefy KT150 output valves in an effort to overcome the traditionally low power of SE tube amps. Does it succeed?

The single-ended valve amplifier is still something of a niche product. Low power outputs and often equally low damping factors mean that very careful system matching, plus sensitive loudspeakers, are a prerequisite if you are to hear such designs give of their very best. However, the UK's very own guru of all things thermionic, David Shaw of Icon Audio, has decided to address these issues with his £2299 single-ended Stereo ST30SE, an integrated amp having, shall we say, a tad more welly, thanks to it being equipped with KT150 output valves.

Steve Sutherland  |  Jan 20, 2020
From The Allman Brothers to Aretha Franklin, this US-born producer helped create much of the greatest music being made as the '50s segued into the '60s. And he happens to be a dab hand with a soldering iron too. Steve Sutherland celebrates Tom Dowd

'I had no finished songs, no real concept or idea of where I was going, nothing but an abstract burning passion for live, spontaneous music. On top of everything else, I refused to make the record under my own name, and was developing a powerful drink and drug problem – not a great position for any record producer to be placed in, but [he] pulled it off.

Review: David Price,  |  Jan 17, 2020
hfncommendedDespite its diminutive dimensions, this half-size CD player/integrated amp combination offers a grown-up sound along with facilities normally seen on full-width separates

Size matters – or does it? Most hi-fi manufacturers stick rigidly to the traditional 'full width' separates model, but not all. The former often maintain that the market simply isn't ready for the latter, arguing that many key countries demand 'proper size' boxes. Yet over the years we've seen brands like Cyrus make high-quality, half-width hi-fi their stock in trade. So which is it to be? The answer, reckons Exposure, is to offer both.

Ken Kessler  |  Jan 16, 2020
This month we review: James Taylor, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Runaways and Sarah Vaughan.
Ken Kessler  |  Jan 16, 2020
This month, we review: Woodstock, Bob Dylan, Charles Mingus and Johnnie Taylor.
Johnny Black  |  Jan 16, 2020
This month we review: Slaughter Beach, Dog, Press Club, Minor Pieces and Manu Delago.
Steve Harris  |  Jan 15, 2020
This month we review: Miles Davis, Mark Kavuma, Paul Bley Gary Peacock Paul Motian and Veronica Swift.
Christopher Breunig  |  Jan 15, 2020
This month we review: Mahler, Berlioz, Mozart and Schubert/Schumann.
Review: David Price,  |  Jan 14, 2020
hfnvintageOne of many distinctive mid-priced turntables to surface in the 1980s, this dinky deck enjoyed its 15 minutes of fame, but then refused to go away. How will it sound today?

If we could warp back to 1984 we would find a hi-fi scene dramatically different to how it is now. Vinyl may have been in the autumn of its life as a mass music format, but it still dominated. With CD very much in its infancy, the LP was the only practical way serious music lovers could hear their prized albums.

Review and Lab: Keith Howard  |  Jan 13, 2020
hfnoutstandingIt's a brave company that launches a £20,000 headphone as only its second product – and an electrostatic too. Yet more remarkable: that company isn't Chinese but British!

Electrostatic headphones are like royalty: rarefied enough to assume an aura that rivets mass attention. In the case of Warwick Acoustics' Aperio, it's not just its operating principle that catches the eye and sparks interest but its price too: at £20,000 this isn't the most expensive headphone/amplifier combination ever seen but it's up there with the very few daring to dangle a price tag greater than that of a family car.

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