Lab: Paul Miller

Review: Andrew Everard, | Oct 02, 2024 | 0 comments

Blow away the fog of acronyms and iFi Audio's 'mk2' NEO iDSD DAC/headphone amp boasts the latest 'hi-res' BT 5.4, aptX Lossless, an analogue input and a lot more power

Did Ifi Audio actually need to upgrade its Neo Idsd Dac/Headphone Amp? Well, change is seemingly inevitable in the fast-moving range of this Merseyside-based company, given the pace with which products - new and revised - seem to flow from its own factory in China. Indeed, there's an element of 'blink and you'll miss it' about iFi Audio's releases, which now encompass a wide range of hi-fi devices from pocket headphone amplifiers to products aimed at the pro audio market.

Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Pro-Ject Pick it MC9

Review: Jamie Biesemans, | Oct 02, 2024 | 0 comments

Designed to take advantage of Pro-Ject's 'balanced' phono preamps, this flag-waving moving-coil marks a departure from the brand's Ortofon-derived moving-magnets

As a major turntable manufacturer, Pro-Ject has a longstanding relationship with cartridge builders. This makes sense, as the brand likes to deliver decks ready to play, which requires an MM or MC. Previously, the Austrian company has bundled cartridges from Ortofon with its turntables in Europe, while Sumiko models are favoured in the US, but has lately been launching its own designs, including tweaked Ortofon models such as the Pick it 2M Silver and Pick it S2 C. The Pick it MC9 on test here is something else, though.

Loudspeakers

Q Acoustics 5050

Review: Jamie Biesemans, | Oct 02, 2024 | 0 comments

The Largest Of Q Acoustics' 5000 Series Speakers Combines Inspiration From The Concept 50 With Ideas Of Its Own

Armour Home's Q Acoustics has been busy in recent years, refreshing nearly its entire portfolio of passive and active loudspeakers, and expanding existing lines. The Concept 50 and 30 models were launched in 2022 to fill out its top-flight range, which includes the Karl-Heinz Fink-designed Concept 500 flagship , and a more affordable 5000 series appeared just before High End Munich in 2023. This didn't arrive fully complete either - the largest 5050 floorstander we're looking at here only finally debuted in the Spring of 2024.

Pre/Power Amplifiers

Electrocompaniet AW 300 M

Review: Andrew Everard, | Oct 01, 2024 | 0 comments

As the Norwegian brand's heavyweight AW 800 M flagship is split in two to reveal the AW 300 M, we ask... are these 'manageable monoblocks' truly a chip off the block?

While sawing Electrocompaniet's AW 800 M power amplifier is probably not advisable, doing so would admittedly bring some advantages. Not only would you get even better channel separation from dividing the amp right back to the mains socket - not that the stereo amp is exactly lacking in this respect - the resulting monoblock amps would hopefully be more manageable than the stereo model. It may not be huge, but the 800's 55kg mass puts unpacking and placing it firmly in 'phone a friend' territory.

Network Audio Players/Servers Outboard DACs Pre/Power Amplifiers

NAD Masters M66

Review: Jamie Biesemans, | Oct 01, 2024 | 0 comments

Styled and with features to match the Masters M23 power amp, NAD's M66 streaming DAC/preamp takes on all-comers as both a digital and vinyl hub with Dirac onboard

First announced in the spring of 2023, unexpected delays to the arrival of NAD's M66 have only heightened anticipation of this flagship 'streaming DAC/preamplifier' - especially among owners of the company's Eigentakt-based M23 power amplifier who have been waiting for its companion product. And, yes, while the £4499 M66 could add its wide-ranging feature set (including app control and room correction) to any power amp, the M23 makes for an aesthetically pleasing fit.

Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

SME Model 15 MK2

Review: Adam Smith, | Sep 27, 2024 | 0 comments

SME’s rollout of MK2 models – all benefitting from lessons learnt in the development of its flagship Model 60 turntable – has reached the Model 15, tested here with 309 arm

SME’s development of its formidable flagship Model 60 turntable, released a couple of years ago [HFN Jul ’22], continues to influence designs lower down the UK manufacturer’s range. All are being upgraded to MK2 status, the latest being the Model 15. On test here, retailing for £12,067 with pre-fitted SME 309 tonearm, this deck is also the most affordable in SME’s lineup with a proper suspended subchassis.

Pre/Power Amplifiers

EMM Labs PRE/MTRS

Review: Mark Craven, | Sep 27, 2024 | 0 comments

Powerful, but trading subtlety and musical sensitivity over brute force, Ed Meitner’s flagship MTRS stereo power amplifier finds its perfect partner in the all-analogue PRE

The promotional literature for EMM Labs’ MTRS stereo power amplifier is so sure of its designer’s cachet within the audiophile community that it simply refers to him as Ed. For those not in the know, Ed is Ed Meitner, founder of Canada’s EMM Labs, and – back in the day – the engineer tasked by Sony and Philips to help with the development of SACD. The company that bears his initials operates in the high-end (there’s a more ‘accessible’ Meitner Audio brand) and maintains a boutique separates catalogue.

Loudspeakers

SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle

Review: Mark Craven, | Sep 27, 2024 | 0 comments

Ohio-based SVS throws all its speaker know-how into a high-value concave cabinet bristling with custom drivers

Between 2017 and 2022, SVS comprehensively overhauled its range of subwoofers, introducing models from the 80kg PB16-Ultra to the compact 3000 Micro. A quiet spell followed as SVS tackled a new project – an all-new flagship loudspeaker series, topped by the model on test here.

Disc Players Vintage

Toshiba XR-V22 CD player

Tim Jarman, | Sep 09, 2024 | 0 comments

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.

Disc Players Pre/Power Amplifiers

JBL CD350/SA550 Classic

Review: Andrew Everard, | Aug 30, 2024 | 0 comments

With visuals inspired by JBL’s hi-fi products from the 1960s, the brand’s ‘Classic’ range of separates are populated by technology familiar to audiophiles some 60 years later...

Think JBL and, not unreasonably, you’ll probably think ‘speakers’. The company has been in the loudspeaker business for getting on 80 years, having been founded in California in 1946 by James B Lansing, from whom it takes its name. Lansing himself took his own life just three years later but left an insurance policy to keep the company going, in which form JBL has become an internationally famous audio company and, since 1969, part of what is now Harman International. In 2017 Harman became an independent subsidiary of South Korea’s technology giant, Samsung.

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