LATEST ADDITIONS

Review: Adam Smith, | Jan 08, 2021

With VFETs costing top dollar and facing stiff competition from other semiconductors, the late '70s saw Yamaha unveil a new pre/power amp duo. How does it sound today?

It's always intriguing to see how a company reacts to the realisation that a technology it has championed is reaching its sell-by date. This was the situation faced by Yamaha in the late 1970s. Since the middle of that decade, its top-end products had made use of Jun-ichi Nishizawa's Static Induction Transistor – more commonly known as the VFET – to great effect. This led to the development of designs such as the B-1 and B-2 power amplifiers, and C-1 preamplifier, all of which are still held in high regard.

Cables

AudioQuest William Tell Zero Loudspeaker Cable

Review and Lab: Paul Miller | Jan 07, 2021

Hero of Swiss independence, and a dab hand with the crossbow, William Tell is now the inspiration for a speaker cable. Review & Lab: Paul Miller

One of the founding fathers of the audiophile cable scene, California-based AudioQuest has been developing its conductor technology for no less than four decades. The William Tell Zero featured here is part of the 'Folk Hero' series – prices range from £2340 (2m pair), £2910 (3m) to £3480 for a 4m pair, with £570 per extra metre. This ranks as affordable when compared to the flagship 'Mythical Creatures' series that tops out at £20k for a 2m set of the Dragon Zero...

Meet the Producers

The Bomb Squad

Steve Sutherland | Jan 05, 2021

In the last of our series celebrating the work of those masters behind the mixing desk, Steve Sutherland tells the story of not one producer but a hip-hop production team whose looping and layering of samples revolutionised the way records were made

On this particular point, Chuck D is unequivocal. 'Our sole intention was to destroy music'. The record he's talking about, released in June 1988, is hip-hop giants Public Enemy's second LP, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back.

Network Audio Players/Servers

Grimm Audio MU1 Music Library/Server

Review: Andrew Everard, | Jan 04, 2021

The dedicated music server is in the ascendant, and every company has a different twist on the idea. In the case of Dutch company Grimm Audio, the twist is especially unusual

The continued rise of network audio has created a new game in the hi-fi world, best summed up as 'Yes, but what is it?'. You see, all sorts of network-capable devices exist right now, and it seems each of them has a somewhat different approach. For example, perhaps the best-known name in 'audiophile servers' or 'music libraries', Melco, started out by making products designed to feed network players over a network connection, paying close attention to the isolation and optimisation of the Ethernet feed. It then reinvented itself as a maker of network transports, connecting directly to a suitable DAC using a USB output, again with isolation strategies implemented.

Loudspeakers

Wilson Audio SabrinaX Loudspeaker

Review: Ken Kessler, | Dec 31, 2020

Five years on and Wilson Audio's Sabrina earns its 'X' – an overhaul that raises the bar for compact floorstanders

Five years – that's how long ago the Sabrina was launched and five years seems about right before making a new version of any model as good as the original was – and remains [HFN Aug '15]. Rightly, the upgrade is comprehensive, not a mere facelift, which is reassuring if you're wondering why a £15k per pair model is now priced at £21,500-£23,000. As for the price span, it covers three standard or three deluxe 'WilsonGloss' paint finishes, which can be co-ordinated with five grille colours. Our review sample is pictured here in the 'upgraded' gloss Ivory.

Hi-Res Downloads

Hi-Res Downloads, December 2020

Hi-Fi News Staff | Dec 30, 2020

This month we review and test releases from: Clandestine Amigo, Berliner Philharmoniker/Kirill Petrenko, Lady A, Francesco Piemontesi, SCO/Andrew Manze and Olive Brown.

Audiophile Vinyl

Audiophile: Vinyl, December 2020

Ken Kessler | Dec 29, 2020