Lab: Paul Miller

Review: Ken Kessler, | Oct 22, 2025 | Published: Oct 01, 2025 | 0 comments

Co-founder of the Grimm Audio marque makes his own mark with the ‘Phono Wizard’ – a solid-state phono preamp inspired by a tube design. Does it have the bottle?

Although long ago settled by the declaration ‘We agree to disagree’, the tubes-vs-transistors (or if you prefer ‘valves-vs-solid-state’) debate continues to keep us busy. Grown-ups use both, the deliberately argumentative choose sides, and there are ample products to support or counter either stance. Grimm Audio, though a maker of not just solid-state gear but with a reputation for digital hardware, has given us in the PW1 ‘Phono Wizard’ (£4695) a chameleon of a product that will both delight and confound music lovers who are still fascinated by hi-fi’s greatest dichotomy.

Loudspeakers

Radiant Acoustics Clarity 4.2 loudspeaker

Review: Jamie Biesemans, | Oct 18, 2025 | Published: Oct 01, 2025 | 0 comments

The latest launch from former DALI owner, Peter Lyngdorf, marries expertise from his Nordic Hi-Fi and Purifi brands to ensure a very big sound from very small speakers...

To call the Clarity 4.2 ‘petite’ is no understatement, as this second loudspeaker to be introduced by Radiant Acoustics boldly puts the ‘book’ back into ‘bookshelf’. Moreover, the cabinet, just 260mm high and 164mm wide, still manages to host a full four drive units. This Danish company only surfaced a year ago and won’t yet be a hi-fi household name, but it’s clearly not your run-of-the-mill debutante.

Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

SME Model 8/309 turntable/tonearm

Review: Adam Smith, | Oct 18, 2025 | Published: Oct 01, 2025 | 0 comments

Replacing SME’s longstanding Model 6 turntable, the new ‘entry level’ Model 8 is not only more substantial but also features the latest Model 60-derived AC motor drive

For a company not exactly known for ‘product churn’, SME has been uncommonly busy with the release of several new turntables, including the flagship Model 60 [HFN Jul ’22], the Model 35 [HFN Jul ’25] and now the £9999 Model 8. The latter replaces the Model 6 that, fitted with an SME M2-9 tonearm, marked a departure for SME on its release in 2020. Not only was it the company’s first ‘entry level’ design, it was also the first to utilise a solid, non-suspended plinth arrangement and the first SME deck to employ an AC motor.

Headphones Integrated Amplifiers Outboard DACs

iFi Audio iDSD Valkyrie headphone amp/DAC

Review: Jamie Biesemans, | Oct 16, 2025 | Published: Oct 01, 2025 | 0 comments

Matching the power of the iDSD Diablo 2 but with 4x the battery capacity and a host of new processing features, the iDSD Valkyrie is set to storm your portable listening  

Swooping down into iFi Audio’s ever-expanding line-up, the £1699 iDSD Valkyrie stakes its claim as the new flagship portable. The brand typically excels at offering oodles of functionality at very reasonable prices, although the £3749 iCAN Phantom desktop headphone amp [HFN Sep ’23] shows it also has form when it comes to high-end head-fi. Nevertheless, and despite boasting a lot of familiar iFi Audio features and technologies, the iDSD Valkyrie is a very different beast – not least because it boasts a gargantuan 20,000mAh battery for extended mobile use.

Integrated Amplifiers Network Audio Players/Servers

Arcam SA45 streaming amplifier

Review: Mark Craven, | Oct 16, 2025 | Published: Oct 01, 2025 | 0 comments

Hugely anticipated, the flagship SA45 marks the next evolution of Arcam’s bespoke streaming amplifier solutions. Highly-featured, neither is the SA45 short of beef...

When Arcam launched its HDA line in 2019 claiming ‘a complete redesign of the look and internals’ of its hi-fi hardware, it was necessary to take the first part of that statement with a pinch of salt. Amplifiers like the SA30 [HFN Jul ’20] might have benefited from some extra chrome details, but the smart-if-conservative styling wasn’t that far removed from the company’s earlier FMJ and Solo series. It’s only now, thanks to a ‘brand redesign’, that Arcam’s range of amplifiers and sources appears properly overhauled.

Loudspeakers

Wilson Audio Sabrina V loudspeaker

Review: Andrew Everard, | Oct 16, 2025 | Published: Oct 01, 2025 | 0 comments

The compact SabrinaX floorstander has been reimagined from top to bottom, resulting in the aspirational Sabrina V

Everywhere, from the alphabet to Roman numerals, V comes before X, so you might expect Wilson Audio’s Sabrina V to be a lesser version of the SabrinaX model [HFN Dec ’20], which was an upgrade of the original Sabrina [HFN Aug ’15]. Not so: the Sabrina V is a redesigned and rethought version of the X, with changed and improved components, sharpened up styling, and a significant price increase.

Disc Players

Unison Research CD Uno CD player

Review: Mark Craven, | Oct 15, 2025 | Published: Oct 01, 2025 | 0 comments

As if to prove there’s little that is truly new in CD player design, the Unico CD Uno from Italy’s Unison Research has been singing for a decade. And it also includes a tube...

You might be forgiven for thinking – bearing in mind the product name – that the Unico CD Uno from Italy’s Unison Research is ‘just’ a CD player. Yet on its website the Italian manufacturer gives it the title of ‘hybrid DAC with CD transport’, while legends on the player itself read ‘Valve CD Player’ and ‘Digital Sound Processor’. So, yes, this is a CD player with a little more to it than some rivals, including a switchable tube/hybrid output stage, USB DAC, and even built-in Bluetooth streaming. With all this, and the heavyweight build, its £2700 asking price seems far from unrealistic.

Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Ortofon MC X40 MC cartridge

Review: Ken Kessler, | Oct 13, 2025 | Published: Oct 01, 2025 | 0 comments

An entirely new, four-strong range of moving-coils from Ortofon should be enough to whet the appetite of every vinylista on the upgrade trail. We test the sub-£900 flagship

With a selection of cartridges that runs to 90 models, you might wonder what a new range could bring to the Ortofon fold. That impressive figure includes the legendary SPU moving-coils, the once-futuristic but now-familiar Concorde and OM moving-magnet lines, the affordable 2M models, and high-end MCs costing well into the thousands [HFN Mar ’22 & Jun ’25]. This crowded house has now been expanded by the four-strong moving-coil MC X Series, and it will prove a relief to some that the truly exceptional top cartridge, the MC X40 reviewed here, costs £875. Yes: under a grand.

Loudspeakers

KEF KC92 active subwoofer

Review: Mark Craven, | Oct 13, 2025 | Published: Oct 01, 2025 | 0 comments

Styled to match the brand’s loudspeakers, the latest dual-driver subwoofer from KEF combines acoustical know-how with performance-optimising DSP and flexible setup

Visitors to KEF’s demo suite at the UK Hi-Fi Show Live in 2024 might have been surprised to see its Reference Meta 5 speakers accompanied by four subwoofers, stacked in pairs. However, while acoustic thinking has long favoured two subwoofers over one, the idea of four being better than two will be financially prohibitive for many. But for a duet, the KEF model in question – the KC92 – is a very tempting £2499.

Integrated Amplifiers Vintage

Sansui 7070 stereo receiver

Review: Tim Jarman, | Oct 12, 2025 | Published: Oct 01, 2025 | 0 comments

The 1970s was a bumper decade for massive integrated amps and receivers although these big beasts of the audio jungle often remained something of a rarity in the UK

Big stereo receivers never made much of an impact in the UK, but this did not stop the importers servicing the large Japanese manufacturers from offering them from time to time. Pioneer, Marantz and Kenwood all boasted full-fat machines with colossal power output ratings stretching into hundreds of watts per channel – these numbers far in excess of British audiophiles’ experience. Add to this list Sansui, a brand that always had heavyweight models at the top of its ranges. The 7070 model seen here is typical of the breed – it was introduced in 1976 and remained in the catalogue until 1978.

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Lab: Paul Miller

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