Shoppers at HMV can pick up an affordable turntable to go with their new LPs, but the retailer appears less interested in CD hardware. Barry Fox wonders if DVD players can fill the gap
Vinyl sales keep on climbing. They topped £177 million in the UK in 2023 – seven times higher than ten years ago. The figures come from ERA (which by linguistic contortion is short for the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association). ERA chief executive officer Kim Bayley couples the vinyl climb with ‘the remarkable return of HMV, now back in its Oxford Street home’.
AVID Hi-Fi has announced its first new turntable since 2018. Priced £10,000, the Acutus Dark Iron replaces the previous Acutus Dark Limited Edition to become the new entry model in the manufacturer’s top-line series, and debuts a new AC motor system – with DSP-generated adjustable speed control – that’s coupled to the deck’s cast aluminium sprung-suspension chassis.
Billed as the result of ‘more than five decades of technological evolution’, QED’s Supremus Zr is the brand’s new flagship Signature series loudspeaker cable, and priced from £1399 (2m) to £2599 (5m), including termination.
Luxman continues to launch new models in advance of its 100th anniversary in 2025, with the L-509Z integrated amplifier [HFN May ’24] now followed by the Japanese marque’s first network transport/bridge.
Audiovector has returned to the design of founder Ole Klifoth’s first ever loudspeaker – the 1979 Trapez – for a new £15,500 model called Trapeze Reimagined.
2024 edition of Magico’s s5 floorstander goes bigger... and better?
Magico says its new S5 loudspeaker ‘continues what began’ with the S3 2023 model [HFN May ’24], leveraging new design and test technologies at its Californian R&D facility. These include a Klippel Near-Field Scanner to fully quantify its on and off-axis responses, and a laser vibrometer to identify and minimise vibrations in its 1.21m-tall, 118.8kg cabinet.
Often seen as an attempt to ape The Beatles’ mystical magic, this 1967 oddity, now reissued on 180g, is The Stones at their most ragged, says Steve Sutherland
Following on from last month’s Vinyl Release about brilliant records that nobody else likes but you, I bet I’m not the only one who has an album that, although you’ve played it on and off down the years, even the decades, you can’t decide whether it’s any good or not. On one occasion it may sound great. Significant even, a landmark piece. Other times it just sounds... well, rubbish.
What could match a Lumley Stratosphere turntable better than Lumley’s LM2 speakers and PS2/M250 pre/power amps, says Peter J Comeau
It was back in the March 1996 issue of Hi-Fi News that I took my first look at the £6250 Stratosphere ST1 – a turntable that proved out of this world in sound quality as well as name. Now John Jeffries of Reference International (the name behind both the Strat and Lumley) has delivered a complete system including the £4500 LM2 loudspeakers.
Gimmick or grand plan as Toshiba looks to spice up the mid-’80s CD scene with a
dual-disc player offering over two hours of continuous music. How does it fare today?
Anumber of our recent Vintage Reviews have featured CD players designed to broaden the appeal of the format by making the hardware available at progressively lower price points. This was one way to maintain sales, but another approach was to add additional features at little or no extra cost.
This month we review: Christina Landshamer, Akademie für das alte Musik Berlin/BERNHARD Forck, Yomiuri Nippon SO/Skrowaczewski, Asmik Grigorian, and
Christophe Rousset
What could match a Lumley Stratosphere turntable better than Lumley’s LM2 speakers and PS2/M250 pre/power amps, says Peter J Comeau
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