LATEST ADDITIONS

Steve Sutherland | Apr 14, 2023

Once home to Aretha, The Eagles, Clapton and the brothers Gibb, this facility in Florida now turns out chart-topping hip-hop, Latin and R&B. Steve Sutherland takes up the tale

It may never feature in those lists of events so seismic that people remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. But what happened in Chicago's Comiskey Park on 12 July 1979 remains significant enough to engender heated debate even today.

Network Audio Players/Servers

Aurender W20SE Network Audio Library

Review: Andrew Everard, | Apr 13, 2023

Pitched as 'the music server against which others are judged' and featuring a battery supply, 4TB SSD storage, a 1TB cache and custom upsampling, this is no idle boast

You're on somewhat shaky ground when reviewing a big-ticket music server, especially one with no onboard digital-to-analogue conversion. The scythes and flaming torches of the 'digits is digits' brigade might appear at any moment on the path up the mountain on which such devices are perched, and there's always the nagging doubt that the choice of partnering DAC will have more impact on the final sound.

Vinyl Icons

Grace Jones: Nightclubbing

Mike Barnes | Apr 11, 2023

With a new producer and an all-star lineup of musicians behind her, the one-time disco queen's breakthrough album melded reggae, dance, funk and pop, and reimagined her as 'only possibly from this planet' thanks to its eye-catching cover photography

Befitting an album released by a fashion model, Grace Jones' Nightclubbing features one of the most memorable album covers of all time. Photographer Jean-Paul Goude, Jones' partner and a former art director of Esquire magazine, portrayed her as androgynous, with a look of insouciance that bordered on the intimidating with her flat top haircut, a man's Armani jacket with geometrically padded shoulders and a vertically poised cigarette. Jones would apply purple make-up before going onstage and for this sleeve her skin tone was given an exaggerated dark purplish gloss, which added to the strangeness.

Pre/Power Amplifiers

Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista PRE/PAS & PSUs Pre/Power Amplifiers

Review: Andrew Everard, | Apr 10, 2023

Look familiar? This new four-box pre/power stack from Musical Fidelity shares the styling of 2014's Nu-Vista 800 integrated, but is it a high-end contender? You bet it is!

Ever get the feeling we've been here before? Well, the arrival of the latest amplifier system from Musical Fidelity brings a new twist to the whole déjà vu thing as the Nu-Vista naming and macho aesthetics are familiar from the historically hefty Nu-Vista 800 integrated amplifier [HFN Nov '14]. In practice that classic nuvistor tube-equipped integrated amplifier, also rated at 300W/8ohm, has provided the inspiration for both the industrial and technical design of the PRE and PAS we see here, the hybrid nuvistor/transistor concept now evolved into a pre/power set-up, complete with separate PSUs for each. So one box is now four...

Vinyl Release

Steely Dan: Can't Buy A Thrill

Steve Sutherland | Apr 07, 2023

Musically accessible, lyrically inscrutable, and buoyed by stellar session work, this 1972 debut ensured Steely Dan weren't buried by Bowie et al, says Steve Sutherland

What's the greatest guitar solo ever? Well, off the top of my head I'd say Jimi Hendrix on his version of Bob Dylan's 'All Along The Watchtower', where he makes a number of miraculous stylistic changes and creates mysterious sounds never heard on this planet before or since. Then I'd go for Frank Zappa just letting rip on his dope-growing satire 'Montana' from Over-Nite Sensation. And thirdly I'd plump for Jimmy Page ascending into the stratosphere on Led Zeppelin IV's 'Stairway To Heaven'.

Loudspeakers

B&W 703 S3 Loudspeaker

Review: Mark Craven | Apr 06, 2023

The third iteration of B&W's 703 floorstander is the first to feature the brand's iconic 'tweeter-on-top' module

Although a major player in the domestic hi-fi market, B&W's loudspeaker catalogue appears relatively streamlined – beginning with the entry-level 600 series and crowned by the flagship 800 series, and with these latest 700s sandwiched in-between. This lineup, which we're told is aimed both at 'performance-orientated' audiophiles and 'non-specialist' buyers, surely marks B&W's sweet spot. And that's certainly an apt description for the 703 S3s auditioned here.

Classical Companion

L'homme armé: From Josquin to Jenkins

Peter Quantrill | Apr 04, 2023

Peter Quantrill listens back to five centuries of Mass settings and 50 years of recordings and asks how did one French folk song become the seed for an entire musical genre?

It was the 19th century and the Romantic age that elevated originality above all to an artistic goal and an aesthetic standard. Back in an age when composers were treated as musical craftsmen, and wrote accordingly, turning over the tables in the temple of art would have been a baffling ideal.

Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Pro-Ject Audio Systems X8 Turntable

Review: Jamie Biesemans, | Apr 03, 2023

Inspired by the longstanding Xtension 9 turntable, the new X8 features a 9cc EVO arm with balanced connections to better serve the 'bundled' Ortofon Quintet Blue MC

Launched in 2022, the X8 is the new LP spinner that Austria's Pro-Ject is betting on to entice vinyl lovers onto that next step beyond the entry-level and midrange products that are the brand's bread and butter. To justify its higher price point, this sleek-looking deck borrows features from the company's top-tier Xtension turntables, making it Pro-Ject's most affordable 'mass-loaded' model to date. It's also fitted with a rigid 9cc Evolution carbon tonearm, which is an upgrade on the carbon-aluminium arms found on its lower-range offerings, including the X2 B [HFN Sep '22].

Audiophile Vinyl

Audiophile: Vinyl, March 2023

Ken Kessler | Mar 31, 2023