Review: Mark Craven

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Jan 31, 2025  |  Published: Feb 01, 2025  |  0 comments
hfncommended‘Big sounds’ are promised from this Nordic brand’s slender Signature speaker range that includes floorstanding, standmount and AV-ready on-wall models. Is the Sig 5 a star?

If you have a preconceived notion of System Audio, chances are it’s been formed by its Silverback range of active, wireless loudspeakers. Occupying the top tier in the Danish manufacturer’s catalogue, models including the Silverback 60.2 and Silverback 40.2 [HFN May ’21 and Aug ’21] combine DSP-based crossovers, DACs and integrated amplification, with cable-free transmission via the WiSA standard. Add in the app control and room EQ and there is, to put it bluntly, a lot going on in the Silverbacks – something which can’t be said of System Audio’s new Signature series.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Jan 31, 2025  |  Published: Feb 01, 2025  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingBoasting a new ‘design language’, upgraded DAC stage and preamp and onboard storage options, this flagship streamer finds Matrix Audio aiming higher than ever

When a manufacturer announces a new model, it’s tempting to compare it to what’s come before, looking for where upgrades have been made. And, yes, the MS-1 from China’s Matrix Audio does carry on technology and design features from the company’s earlier network players, including the Element X2 and X2 Pure [HFN Oct ’22 and Dec ’23] and entry-level X-Sabre 3[HFN Apr ’22]. That said, you only need lay eyes on the MS-1, with its full-width chassis, large, colourful front-panel display and £9600 price tag, to realise it’s also something different.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Jan 29, 2025  |  Published: Jan 01, 2025  |  0 comments
hfncommended

Headquartered in Kanagawa, Japan, Soulnote has created a trio of product ranges in just ten years. Its mid-range Series 2 comprises a phono stage, DAC and the A-2 integrated

Soulnote’s A-2, available for £6300 in silver or black, is an integrated amplifier with an air of the ‘old skool’ about it. No network or digital connectivity, just analogue all the way, and only line-level too, as the Japanese manufacturer prefers to keep its phono stages separate. There’s no form of system control (ie, 12V triggers), and the user experience is very much plug-in-and-play, aided by an elegant remote and even simpler front-panel display.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Jan 29, 2025  |  Published: Jan 01, 2025  |  0 comments
hfnoutstanding

Long anticipated, Constellation’s series two amplifiers witness the transition from huge linear supplies to custom switchmode PSUs. Weight is slashed, and performance boosted

Californian amplifier specialist Constellation Audio isn’t one to regularly refresh its product catalogue, so when – after years of maintaining the same models – it begins a complete overhaul of its entire range, audiophile ears prick up. First to hit the market are the new Inspiration 2 and Revelation 2 series, with the latter’s stereo pre/power system being debuted at the UK Hi-Fi Show Live 2024. These will be followed by the Performance 2 and Reference 2, with the lineup then topped off by the flagship Statement amps first ‘teased’ in 2023 at the Munich High End show.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Jan 16, 2025  |  Published: Dec 01, 2024  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingLeveraging key know-how from its flagship Apex amplifiers, and replacing the original Diablo integrated, the Diablo 333 is more powerful, more flexible and yet more devilish!

Integrated amplifiers are ten a penny, but not when you get into five figures. Often, at this point, consumers and manufacturers pivot toward pre/power systems, pursuing gains in performance and functionality in favour of the simplicity that comes from a one-box design. Yet high-end integrateds do exist, as illustrated by the Diablo 333, starting at £24,500, from Denmark-based Gryphon Audio.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Dec 02, 2024  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingThe final piece in PS Audio's quartet of innovative planar magnetic loudspeakers has arrived and it's quite the cutest of the range, but is it a wolf in sheep's clothing?

Even if the title isn't familiar, you'll know The March Of Progress by Rudolph Zallinger. Published in a 1965 volume of Life Nature Library and depicting 25 million years of human evolution as a series of side-on illustrations, from the ape-like Pliopithecus to modern man, it popped into my mind when I unboxed PS Audio's Aspen FR5.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Oct 25, 2024  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingLeveraging tech developed for Sonus faber’s flagship Suprema, its second-gen Sonetto V is all the more fragrant

Sonus faber has shown signs of branching out since its acquisition by North American company Fine Sounds - also the owner of McIntosh Group - in 2016. First, in 2019, came its Palladio architectural speakers destined to partner McIntosh custom install hardware, followed in 2022 by the Omnia all-in-one desktop speaker and the Duetto active stereo wireless models in 2023. It then kicked off 2024 with the £695,000 Suprema 2.2-channel system.

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Oct 23, 2024  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingFirst debuted in 2017, B&W's 705 standmount has been through three major iterations with both 2020's Series 2 and the current Series 3 being offered in 'Signature' guise

Loudspeaker brand B&W launched its first Signature model in 1991, in the shape of the (founder) John Bowers Silver Signature, and has intermittently released further Signature editions in the 30-plus years since. Well, I say intermittently - while only four more Signature speakers came in the next two decades, the 700 S3 Signature range, which also includes the 702 S3 Signature floorstander , comes hot on

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

Review: Mark Craven,  |  Sep 27, 2024  |  0 comments
hfnoutstandingOhio-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.

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