Paul Miller

As one more issue of Hi-Fi News goes to press under lockdown we give thanks not only to the frontline workers but also to the gift of music recreated by the equipment at the heart of our shared passion. This is a time to count our blessings and appreciate that ours is a 'home hobby' – to tweak, to play and to listen... and to keep us all sane.

Now in its sixth and final year at the Beaumont Estate in Windsor, the Hi-Fi Show Live burst at the seams with the cream of 2018’s high-end audio. Exclusive UK product launches were unveiled by iconic brands including Metronome, dCS, Mark Levinson, Wilson, Melco, Chord, ELAC and many others...

EAT revives an old idea from NAD in the 1980s, but with a modern execution. Welcome the E-Flat belt-drive turntable with its, er, flat carbon fibre tonearm The wife of Pro-Ject’s CEO Heinz Lichtenegger, Jozefina, is one of the gutsiest individuals in hi-fi today. Not only does she insist that the turntables under her EAT Forté banner are high-end, while hubby’s Pro-Ject concentrates on the affordable, she’s had the sheer guts to revive a much reviled form. Flat tonearms are as old as hi-fi itself, the E-Flat’s arm following Connoisseur’s CS1, the wooden Grace G-714, an early Grado, the back half of the ‘hinged’ Dynavector DV-507 and many others.

Classy German design matches fine build to engaging sonics Elac’s F247 Sapphire is finished with the sumptuous attention to detail. A slim, elegant floorstander boasts an eye-catching front baffle and mirror-like piano black finish. Elac’s signature JET tweeter and a pair of its multifaceted aluminium mid/bass drivers are fitted. These unusual cones are an aluminium sandwich design with cellulose filling, shaped to reduce unwanted vibrations.