LATEST ADDITIONS

Review: Andrew Everard, | Dec 14, 2023

Some ten years after its introduction, the minimalist Vega USB DAC has grown into a fully-fledged streaming solution incorporating a host of proprietary technologies

The Auralic Vega G2.2, selling for £6899 in best basic black, comes in at just £100 more than the previous G2.1 [HFN Oct '22], and appears to offer evolutionary changes rather than anything truly radical. One thing's for sure, however – the brand has come a long way since it launched its original Vega model, which was basically a USB-input DAC, getting on for a decade ago [HFN Jan '14].

Classical Companion

Borys Lyatoshynsky: Ukrainian Symphonist

Peter Quantrill | Dec 12, 2023

Walking the thin red line between public acclaim and official condemnation, Lyatoshynsky embodies the art and the politics of his time, says Peter Quantrill

Ukraine had been a neglected outpost of Imperial Russia long before it was incorporated within the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) in 1922. Accordingly, born in 1895 into a prosperous and cultivated middle-class family, Borys Lyatoshynsky received a typically thorough state education at one of the boys' schools in the city of Zhytomyr, in north-west Ukraine.

Integrated Amplifiers

Copland CTA407 Integrated Amplifier

Review: Mark Craven, | Dec 11, 2023

With solid-state and tube/transistor hybrid models in its range, Copland returns to its roots with an all-analogue, all-valve integrated that supports aftermarket tube upgrades

By Copland's own reckoning, its noughties-era CTA405 integrated amplifier [HFN Aug '07] was an 'object of desire for audiophiles worldwide'. Now, some 16 years later, it has taken the idea of that model and considerably overhauled it – the £6500 CTA407 is both recognisably a descendant of the '405 and also markedly different.

Vintage

Philips CD 207 CD Player

Review: Tim Jarman, | Dec 08, 2023

The aim was to cut costs, yet only by revisiting the tech that kickstarted the company's first entry into the CD market was no performance lost. We fire up this late '80s player

In recent Vintage Reviews we have looked at some of the more affordable CD players that arrived during 1986 and 1987. Taking advantage of new technology in order to popularise the format among the wider public, machines such as the Toshiba XR-J9 [HFN Jun '23] and Sony CDP-7F showed that the rigorous rationalisation of every aspect of a CD player's design could yield an attractively priced package that still gave consumers all the perceived benefits of digital audio.

Loudspeakers

Living Voice R80 Loudspeaker

Review: Andrew Everard, | Dec 07, 2023

Famed for its Vox Olympian model, Living Voice's new R80 is built to bring more than a taste of the flagship

Drop in on Derbyshire-based speaker company Living Voice at any hi-fi show, and it's hard not to be mesmerised by its Vox Olympian flagships. With styling somewhere between the brass section of an orchestra of several centuries ago, and a steam-powered Victorian imagination of a Dalek from Doctor Who, these £200,000+ models – £435,000 with the optional Vox Elysian subwoofers – are a riot of horns, tubes and 'trumpets'. Even in a high-end arena not known for its understated looks, they stand out. Moreover, once experienced, they are never forgotten.

Vinyl Release

Various Artists: Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels

Steve Sutherland | Dec 06, 2023

Britpop, Britart and gangsta grooves... Steve Sutherland hears the 180g reissue of a collection of slick 'n' snappy tunes used as the soundtrack to a hit '90s UK crime caper

We've just cleared customs at JFK and the six of us have piled into a stretched limo laid on by a mate who's in New York working with The Spice Girls. Karen, the limo driver, takes us straight to a club none of us will ever know the name of. It's one of those exclusive establishments with a frontage resembling a hole in the wall. No signage or anything as gauche as that.

Network Audio Players/Servers Outboard DACs Pre/Power Amplifiers

Naim Audio NSS 333/NAC 332/NAP 350 DAC/Pre/Power System

Review: Andrew Everard, | Dec 04, 2023

The second phase of Naim's 'New Classics' launch brings a new streamer, a preamp and monoblock power amps, all in redesigned slender casework. Are they true 'classics'?

At times of late, it seems Salisbury's Naim Audio is wilfully courting controversy. It's been causing ripples with the brand's faithful fans ever since it launched its all-in-one Mu-so systems and second-generation Uniti products. It wasn't that these arrivals were on a mission to make hi-fi simpler for all, eschewing the tweakery and 'black magic' once suggested as a prerequisite for realising its true potential – no, what broke the usually calm surface was the fact the Naim logo, for decades lit in green, had turned white. Cue Naim aficionados fanning themselves like Edwardian grandes dames with a fit of the vapours.

Loudspeakers

Canton Vento 100 Loudspeaker

Review: Jamie Biesemans, | Dec 01, 2023

This German institution offers a vast catalogue, including the Reference-inspired Vento range, topped by the 100

Canton is not only Germany's largest loudspeaker manufacturer, it might also be one of the most prolific speaker builders in the world. Yet within an extensive range that includes everything from on-wall and in-ceiling speakers to soundbars and subwoofers, its Vento series has long been a main 'pillar' of the brand, in production for nearly two decades. And now, as part of a recent refresh of the Canton catalogue overseen by technical director Frank Göbl, it's been comprehensively upgraded.

Audiophile Vinyl

Audiophile: Vinyl, November 2023

Ken Kessler | Nov 29, 2023