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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Pro-Ject Audio Systems X8 Turntable
Review: Jamie Biesemans,  |  Apr 03, 2023
hfnoutstandingInspired 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].

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Audiophile Vinyl
Audiophile: Vinyl, March 2023
Ken Kessler  |  Mar 31, 2023
This month we review: The Beatles, Gypsy, Marillion and Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood.
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Audiophile Digital
Audiophile: Digital, March 2023
Ken Kessler  |  Mar 31, 2023
This month, we review: Jan Gunnar Hoff, Azteca, Thom Lafond and Madness And Charlie Higson.
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Rock
Rock, March 2023
Mike Barnes  |  Mar 31, 2023
This month we review: Robert Forster, Meg Baird, Billy Nomates and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs.
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Jazz
Jazz, March 2023
Steve Harris  |  Mar 31, 2023
This month we review: Ron Carter, Donald Byrd, O'Higgina & Luft and Rebecca Nash
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Classical
Classical, March 2023
Peter Quantrill  |  Mar 31, 2023
This month we review: Dudok Quartet, Soloists/Orfeo Orch/Vashegyi, Cupertinos/Luis Toscano and Leonard Elschenbroich, Alexei Grynyuk.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Hi-Res Downloads, March 2023
Andrew Everard  |  Mar 30, 2023
This month we review and test releases from: Angela Hewitt, Ernst Simon Glaser, Ketil Bjørnstad, Gard Nilssen/Acoustic Unity and Thomas Truax With Budgie And Mother Superior.
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Network Audio Players/ServersOutboard DACs
HiFi Rose RS250A Network Attached DAC
Review: Andrew Everard,  |  Mar 28, 2023
hfncommendedKorea's Citech group continues apace with yet another 'full colour widescreen' offering from its HiFi Rose brand – this time with an updated network-attached media hub

ARose by any other name? As has happened in the past, Korean manufacturer HiFi Rose has launched a new version of an existing model – in this case its RS250 network player – with worthy specification changes and a suffix to set the two apart. But there's a mild inconsistency here, for when the company upgraded the RS150 [HFN Jun '21] to the current version, due to a DAC chip change forced upon the company by the 2020 fire at AKM's semiconductor plant in Japan, it became the RS150(B), selling for £3899, but the revised RS250 is now the £2349 RS250A, available in either silver or black finishes.

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Disc Players
T+A MP 200 Networked CD Transport
Review: Jamie Biesemans,  |  Mar 24, 2023
hfnoutstandingThe final, or should that be first, component in T+A's 200 series quartet is a CD-playing, network-attached media transport that boasts a proprietary 'SYS-Link' connection

After delighting headphone lovers with the HA 200 DAC/amp [HFN Aug '20], which nicely matched the Solitaire P headphones introduced at the same time, T&A has been on a roll. The HA 200 transpired to be just the first in a range of units forming the new 200 series – all compact separates, but all designed to dovetail seamlessly together.

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Loudspeakers
Kroma Atelier Stella Xtreme Loudspeaker
Review: Mark Craven,  |  Mar 23, 2023
hfnoutstandingThese 'artisanal' speakers hail from Spain and combine Purifi and Mundorf driver tech with Krion cabinets

These days we could probably name no more than 11 or 12 manufacturers of TVs, but ask us about loudspeakers and you'd fall asleep before we'd got as far as companies beginning with the letter 'D'. The industry appears to be in rude health, with models to suit all tastes and budgets, and there are plenty of options that you might not have come across before. Kroma Atelier's Stella Xtreme perhaps being one of them.

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