Lab: Paul Miller

Review: Ken Kessler,  |  Jun 04, 2025  |  Published: May 01, 2025  |  0 comments
This month we review and test releases from: Paul Motian, Minnesota Orchestra/Eiji Oue, Oded Tzur, Mike Casey, and Doug Wamble
Review: Adam Smith,  |  Jun 04, 2025  |  Published: May 01, 2025  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingFor decades a gentleman’s agreement between UK’s Michell Engineering and Germany’s Transrotor ensured they never exported to each other’s country, until now...

Transrotor might be a new name to many, but the company has a long and illustrious history. However, this is the first time that its range of turntables has been officially available on UK shores – and what a range it is! The £4400 Massimo Nero TMD is eight steps up the ladder of an 18-strong selection that starts with the £3000 Max and culminates in the magnificent Metropolis FMD, which will set you back a not inconsiderable £180,000.

Review: Jamie Biesemans,  |  Jun 03, 2025  |  Published: May 01, 2025  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingForty years young, Dynaudio’s Contour series is raised to a new level in this ‘Black Edition’ standmount, featuring improvements to every component. Welcome to the dark side!

True to form, Dynaudio showed a slew of products at last year’s High End Show in Munich [HFN Jul ’24] – including a new loudspeaker styled by Tokyo’s Keiji Ashizawa Design studio, plus a turntable built by Thorens. Also shown was this Contour 20 Black Edition standmount, now finally in production. This is a range of one – an elegant two-way with no floorstanding partner – but it serves a useful purpose, offering Dynaudio fans an option to bridge the £4500 Contour 20i and the premium £9600 Confidence 20. Okay, at nearly £6000 a pair, it’s not exactly midway in price, but does represent a tempting step up.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Jun 02, 2025  |  Published: May 01, 2025  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingLeveraging its 30 years of innovative speaker design, the Orion features Rockport’s ‘next generation’ cabinet

Named after the Maine town where it started in 1984, although now based down the coast in South Thomaston, Rockport Technologies has been known by audiophiles since the 1990s as a manufacturer of high-end – and heavyweight – loudspeakers. The Orion floorstander tested here is no exception, weighing 163kg per piece and selling for £165,000. Suffice to say, it’s a far cry from the early sub/sat systems of chief designer Andy Payor...

Review: Jamie Biesemans,  |  Jun 01, 2025  |  Published: Apr 01, 2025  |  0 comments
hfnoutstanding Denon’s first big integrated since its Anniversary PMA-A110 model, launched five years ago, is designed to tug the heartstrings of traditionalist audiophiles. Are you one?

Denon updates its AV receivers at the drop of a hat, but its stereo amplifiers typically enjoy a far longer shelf-life. Side-stepping its 110th anniversary PMA-A110 model [HFN Dec ’20] for a moment, the brand’s previous flagship, the PMA-2500NE [HFN Aug ’16], illustrates this longevity. Nonetheless, there’s a direct line between the PMA-A110 and the £2999 PMA-3000NE tested here, as numerous hardware tweaks devised for that limited edition model underpin Denon’s new stereo integrated.

Tim Jarman,  |  Jun 01, 2025  |  Published: Nov 01, 2024  |  0 comments
hfnvintageThe iconic Sony Discman evolved into a full family of niche versions, including specific in-car and ‘Sports’ models, the latter designed for the beach. We slap on the factor 50!

Has hi-fi become a little crazy these days? Huge equipment, bizarre accessories, cables that look ready to moor an oil tanker? How about this though – a CD player that works under water. Not for audiophile reasons of course, but for practical ones and as a step along the road to making the Compact Disc system the perfect consumer bauble.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  May 30, 2025  |  Published: Nov 01, 2024  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingIndustry ‘disrupter’ WiiM continues its campaign to shake up the audio scene with another comprehensively-equipped streamer, this time with a Class D amp on board

If I had a pound for every time I’d heard someone talking about WiiM in the last year I would easily be able to afford the £329 streaming amplifier auditioned here. Since its arrival in the UK in 2023, WiiM – the consumer-facing brand of California-based smart technology company Linkplay – has earned a reputation for compact, networked hi-fi products that combine wide feature sets and a forward-thinking control app, but at prices that would have seemed like science-fiction just a few years ago.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  May 30, 2025  |  Published: Nov 01, 2024  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingInspired by its long-running Studio series, born in the 1980s, this modern-day D’Appolito standmount also illustrates Monitor Audio’s long-term use of metal-coned drivers

As anyone who tried to buy tickets for Oasis’s 2025 reunion tour will have discovered, nostalgia is big business. The hi-fi industry knows it too, and in recent years has been scouring the 1970s for speaker and amplifier designs to either leverage into new models or directly resurrect. Monitor Audio, however, has now jumped a decade ahead, launching a new speaker ‘inspired by the 1980s’. Seeing as Hollywood has been tapping into that decade with revisits to the Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and Ghostbusters franchises, the British manufacturer might be onto something.

Review: Andrew Everard,  |  May 28, 2025  |  Published: Nov 01, 2024  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingThe latest iteration of Auralic’s streamer/DAC boasts a new generation of the Tesla platform at its core, and an updated version of its ‘Lightning’ operating system

Almost as tricky as keeping up to speed with Taylor Swift releases is staying abreast of the range offered by network audio specialists, Auralic. Wrestling with the products’ naming and respective functionality can also be less than straightforward... The Altair G2.2 is the latest version of the company’s streamer/DAC, designed to be used into a conventional preamp, or direct into power amplification or active speakers via its analogue volume control.

Review: Andrew Everard,  |  May 27, 2025  |  Published: Nov 01, 2024  |  0 comments
This month we review and test releases from: Eline Hensels & Daniël Kramer; Guy Yehuda; Arve Henriksen/Harmen Fraanje; Arve Henriksen/Harmen Fraanje; and Vince Guaraldi

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