Lab: Paul Miller

Review: Tim Jarman, | Aug 24, 2021 | 0 comments

This second-generation 16-bit machine hit the sweet spot for many when it came to sheer value for money, but does it make a bargain vintage buy? It's time to find out...

Has the 'perfect' CD player ever existed? While one model may boast the best transport, another the best DAC and yet another the most perfectly resolved ergonomics, so far I've yet to find all of these elements present in one machine. Sharp's DX-411H

Network Audio Players/Servers Pre/Power Amplifiers

Bryston BR-20 Network/DAC Preamp

Review: Mark Craven, | Aug 23, 2021 | 0 comments

This flagship, fully balanced preamplifier comes with Bryston's BDA-3-inspired DAC plus updated BDP streaming platform and full network control. It's busier than it looks!

There's so much functionality under the bonnet of Bryston's BR-20 that you might wonder where to start. I would suggest the manual – this £7500 networked USB DAC/preamplifier isn't, it must be said, the most instantly intuitive of system hubs I've ever auditioned. But the effort is worth it though, because what the BR-20 can do, and how it does it, is quite special.

Integrated Amplifiers

Rotel Michi X5 Integrated Amplifier

Review: Andrew Everard, | Aug 19, 2021 | 0 comments

Top integrated in Rotel's flagship Michi series leverages much of the P5 preamp and S5 power amp technology to realise a taller, heavier amp that aims to upstage the X3

Expect the unexpected: it will be the first lesson in the book if I ever get round to writing Hi-Fi Reviewing For Dummies. You see, just because something seems like something else, it doesn't follow that it is... Too many times I've stumbled across a speaker sitting in the middle of a range, and apparently using the same recipe of drive-units, that turns out to be a complete outlier – for good or bad – in the way it plays music. The same happens with amplifiers, too. So, just because one model seems little more than a bigger version of another, don't expect it to have the same kind of balance of qualities, only 'more so'.

Loudspeakers

Paradigm Founder 100F Loudspeaker

Review: Mark Craven, | Aug 16, 2021 | 0 comments

Top passive floorstander in Paradigm's new Founder series is keenly, but not ambitiously priced. A high-end bargain?

My first, AV-focused, experiences of Paradigm were misleading. In times gone by the UK distribution of this 40-year-old Canadian company favoured a curious mix of its entry-level, compact loudspeakers and its far-from-entry-level subwoofers (including the 106kg Signature SUB 2, whose hexagonal cabinet featured six 10in woofers and a claimed 4.5kW of amplification). More recently, however, first with the Persona B standmount [HFN Oct '20] and now with its £5400 Founder 100F floorstander, I've discovered its grown-up side. And I like it a lot.

Integrated Amplifiers Network Audio Players/Servers

T+A Caruso R All-In-One Player/DAC/Amp

Review: James Parker, | Aug 12, 2021 | 0 comments

Having nailed the whole 'one box system with built-in speakers' category, T+A now shifts tack to a 'just add speakers' unit. It's on-trend, and with substance to match the style

Are we downsizing, simplifying, or just looking for more from less? Whatever the reasons, it seems the one-box system, to which one only needs add some speakers, is in the ascendant. There's no denying a movement is growing, with everything from 'more integrated' amps complete with onboard streaming through to complete systems such as the NAD M10/M33 [HFN Jun '19 & Aug '20], Naim's Uniti range [HFN Mar '11 & Nov '17] – which was in the vanguard of this trend back in 2009 – and the recently-announced Cambridge Audio Evo models [News, HFN Jun '21].

Integrated Amplifiers

Pegaso Audio P50A Integrated Amplifier

Review: Mark Craven, | Aug 09, 2021 | 0 comments

Described as the 'sister brand' of solid-state stalwarts Audio Analogue, Pegaso has just one product and it's an all-tube integrated amplifier that claims Class A, all the way...

As a new arrival from Tuscany, Italy, and with just the P50A integrated amplifier in its inventory, it's possible you've not yet heard of Pegaso. On the other hand, many readers will be familiar with fellow Italian brand Audio Analogue [HFN Nov '20 & Feb '20], which has been in operation since the mid '90s. Both are stablemates sheltering under the umbrella of AF Group SRL (also the home of AirTech), and they share more than just a postcode.

Loudspeakers Vintage

Bang & Olufsen Beovox CX50 Loudspeaker

Review: Tim Jarman, | Jul 26, 2021 | 0 comments

A covetable compact or a mere nearfield monitor for the acutely design-conscious? We hear how this miniature bookshelf loudspeaker from 1983 shapes up today

In the frantically fast-paced hi-fi market of the '70s and '80s, it is pleasing to find a product that remained in its manufacturer's catalogue virtually unaltered for years. If something looks good, sounds good and sells profitably why change it? Some products remain available simply because the company making them lacks the resources to do anything different. But that could not be said of Danish brand B&O, which was then at the height of its powers.

Integrated Amplifiers

Copland CSA150 Integrated Amplifier

Review: Mark Craven, | Jul 22, 2021 | 0 comments

Danish brand Copland beefs-up the power supply to its all-singing, all-dancing CSA100, crowning its range of tube hybrid integrated amplifiers with this heavyweight model

Not long into my audition of Copland's CSA150, I began to feel a little annoyed that, at some point, I'd have to unplug it and send it back. Reviewer remorse isn't quite as galling as buyer remorse, but it is still 'a thing', and this £4988 hybrid tube integrated had given me a bad case of it. Hybrid? Yes, for the CSA150 looks to be an upscaled CSA100 [HFN Aug '20] combining a 6922 double-triode and solid-state FETs in its preamp stage, driving a bipolar transistor amplifier output. Perhaps keen to avoid overselling the benefits of this architecture, Copland warns buyers not to expect 'the warm and nice, coloured charm of some older tube designs'.

Outboard DACs

Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M USB/Wireless DAC

Review: Andrew Everard, | Jul 20, 2021 | 0 comments

The latest in a lineage of DACs stretching back some 27 years has a name – 'DacMagic' – that's as memorable as the parent brand itself. Hey presto, here's the 200M...

The modern hi-fi market is not exactly short of affordable DAC/headphone amplifiers, but the £449 Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M has not only previous form, but an impressive pedigree on its side. Indeed, a full 27 years have passed since the arrival of the original DACMagic-1 as a slightly late, but very affordable and accomplished 'CD upgrade' DAC. Since then, the company's range of digital-to-analogue converters has been developed and refined, as well as adapted to the requirements of the changing hi-fi arena.

Loudspeakers

Monitor Audio Bronze 200 Loudspeaker

Review: Mark Craven, | Jul 16, 2021 | 0 comments

This slim floorstander has million-dollar looks but a wallet-friendly price, and aims to sound bigger than it seems

Monitor Audio's close-to-entry-level Bronze series wants to offer something for everyone – the full range runs to eight models, including various multichannel options – but it's perhaps the Bronze 200 floorstander that many potential buyers will investigate first. A slim two-and-half-way tower speaker priced £569, with attractive finish options (white, walnut, urban grey and black), plus driver technologies borrowed from pricier models, it appears at face value to offer performance potential and that hi-fi holy grail: value for money.

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Lab: Paul Miller

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