LATEST ADDITIONS

This month we review: Madness, Cat Power, Raze Regal & White Denim Inc. and Micko And The Mellotronics.

This month we review: Scottish CO/Maxim Emelyanychev, Pina Napolitano, Wiener Concert-Verein/Zlabinger, etc, Dubois, Orfeo Orch/Vashegyi and Household Cavalry Band, St George's Chapel Winds Orch.

KEF's R series adopts all the 'acoustic principles' of its far costlier Reference range, but is the big R11 Meta a 'disruptor'

How to make sense of the KEF speaker range? A sideways glance helps no end: comparing ostensibly similar models from across the company's four mainstream lineups – five, if you count the highly polished Muon flagship [HFN May '08] – will give a clearer idea of the way these various loudspeaker series dovetail together, even when the similarities seem greater than the differences.

Developed from the phono stage debuted in the Makua preamp and Kula integrated, the Lupe is a deceptively simple-looking but hugely flexible, app-driven phono preamp

In recent years Dutch firm Mola Mola has spread its wings from the Bruno Putzeys-designed pre/power amplifiers it debuted at CES in 2013 to include partnering separates. The first of these was the innovative Tambaqui DAC [HFN Nov '19], which fleshed out the company's optional digital module into a standalone design, and into the Kula integrated [HFN Oct '21]. These are now joined by the £7299 Lupe phono preamplifier named, in typical Mola Mola fashion, after a fish – 'Lupe' being the Hawaiian name for the broad stingray.