Review: Andrew Everard

This DAC, to reveal its full name, is the La Scala MkIII Optologic, the third generation of a design from the Milan-based company whose name has nothing to do with water, but instead stands for ‘Acoustic Quality’. Said to be ‘more than a simple upgrade of our La Scala DAC’, this latest version sells for £7850 in grey Nextel powder-coated aluminium casework with either a black or silver finished aluminium fascia.

This month we review and test releases from: Joseph Fort/King’s College Choir; Pilc Moutin Hoenig; Trygve Seim & Frode Haltli; Alice Zawadzki, Fred Thomas, Misha Mullov-Abbado; Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer.

Standmount? Or floorstander? It’s a question faced by many hi-fi enthusiasts. On one hand there’s the potential for a tight, clean sound from a smaller enclosure, albeit with the need for a stand to bring the speaker up to listening height and stabilise it. Meanwhile, the argument for floorstanding speaker designs involves the possibility of a bigger, more forceful presentation, often taking up no more floorspace than that smaller speaker on its stand. Then again, which design is more aesthetically pleasing is very much a matter of taste...

Underestimate the new generation of Chinese hi-fi manufacturers at your peril, because we’ve come a long way from cheap knockoffs of famous products, inexpensive music players and the like. Just as in the electric car industry, where Chinese companies are showing they have the skills and technology to match the very best, so it is in hi-fi, where brands including Eversolo [HFN May ’25] and FiiO – whose latest product, the £829 K17, we have here – are proving they can develop and innovate.