LATEST ADDITIONS

Vinyl Release
Grateful Dead: Terrapin Station
Steve Sutherland  |  May 22, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
The Dead’s first album for Arista saw them teamed with a producer and backed – without their knowledge – by an orchestra. Steve Sutherland preludes the 180g reissue

The Eno documentary recently shown in cinemas caused a bit of a fanfare because, characteristically of our eggheaded pal Brian, it wasn’t just any common-or-garden doc covering his illustrious career. Instead, it employed groundbreaking technology to accomplish something that had never been done before. Using generative software designed to sequence scenes and create transitions out of interviews with Eno and an archive of never-before-seen footage, each showing featured different scenes and music in a different order. Every time it played, it was a new experience.

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Opinion
Ted Jordan
Steve Harris  |  May 22, 2025
Across six articles for HFN beginning in 1959, speaker designer Ted Jordan taught DIY enthusiasts the tricks of the trade – and his full-range Eikona driver is still going strong, says Steve Harris
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Opinion
Blurred outlines
Peter Quantrill  |  May 22, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
Music and art can often make an attractive mix for cutting-edge cultural collectives, but the combination is also fraught with plenty of potential pitfalls, reckons Peter Quantrill
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Opinion
New CD players
Andrew Everard  |  May 22, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
A recent encounter with a couple of new CD players had Andrew Everard engaging in a trip down memory lane. But first-world problems aside, he wasn’t too sure he liked what he saw
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Opinion
Vinyl and nonlinear velocity
Barry Willis  |  May 22, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024
Why does Barry Willis count himself as a ‘reformed record collector’? Because he can’t see past what he sees as the vinyl format’s inherent flaws, from groove distortion to velocity concerns
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Opinion
Internet radio
Barry Fox  |  May 22, 2025  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2024

When it comes to Internet radio, Barry Fox knows from hard-earned experience that what works today might well not work tomorrow – particularly if your listening takes you around the world

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Loudspeakers
Canton Reference 3 loudspeaker
Review: Jamie Biesemans,  |  May 05, 2025  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2025
hfnoutstanding

Situated squarely in the middle of Canton’s five-strong set of floorstanders, is the Reference 3 the sweet spot?

First seen at High End Munich in 2023, Canton’s Reference range brought a major renewal to the flagship offering of Germany’s largest loudspeaker brand. Introducing a new design aesthetic, with a rounded lute-shape cabinet profile made popular by Sonus faber many years ago, and integrating new drivers, it heralded a major course change from the previous Reference K generation [HFN May & Aug ’22]. Yet Canton’s penchant for sprawling ranges has not changed, so the Reference series contains no fewer than eight models – and that’s not counting the exclusive GS edition, nor the two Alpha models revealed at Munich in 2024.

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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
DS Audio TB-100 Energiser/Equaliser
Review: Ken Kessler,  |  May 03, 2025  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2025
hfnoutstandingPromising ‘a new era of analogue sound’, DS Audio launches its first all-tube energiser/equaliser to partner its growing range of optical pick-up cartridges. Has it succeeded?

This just may be the most self-fulfilling review I’ve ever written. DS Audio has unleashed a valve energiser and equaliser, the TB-100, for its optical cartridges. Up to this point, every one of its cartridges has been launched with a matching solid-state energiser of relative or comparable price, but the TB-100 has been released on its own. Because every DS Audio cartridge will work with any of the energisers regardless of price, this time it’s all about the tubes.

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Audiophile Vinyl
Rising stars
Johnny Sharp  |  May 02, 2025  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2025

Looking for fresh finds for your music playlist? Johnny Sharp brings you 20 trailblazing sets from standout solo artists as he showcases the emerging talents taking centre stage

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Vintage
Wharfedale Linton amplifier
Tim Jarman,  |  May 02, 2025  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2024
hfnvintage A child of the Rank Organisation, the Linton can trace its roots back to the Leak Delta 30 and Stereo 30 Plus before it. We travel back to Wharfedale’s (early ’70s) halcyon days

The Wharfedale Linton loudspeaker is one of those hi-fi products that seems to have been around forever. It has been produced in many forms and is still with us today in ‘Heritage’ guise. The original Linton, Super Linton and Linton 2 were all strong sellers in the 1960s and ’70s and many listeners will have heard, owned or borrowed a pair at some stage. Lesser known was Wharfedale’s complete Linton system, which was offered in hi-fi’s boom years of the early 1970s. It is the amplifier from the first version of this which we are looking at this month.

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