Category Reviews
REVIEW: Bowers & Wilkins 684 S2 loudspeakers
The price is right, and the sound is bang on the money, too: the smaller floorstanders in B&W’s latest 600 line-up are a serious bargain OK, so before we start, a small declaration of interest: the product manager at Bowers & Wilkins, Andy Kerr, is a fellow What Hi-Fi? exile who’s fallen on his feet […]
REVIEW: Focal CMS 50 active speakers
The latest arrivals on my desktop are the most convincing nearfield monitors I’ve heard … And so the saga of the desktop audio system continues: it’s amazing how, freed from the need to keep it quiet or compete with other systems in an office, I’m finding myself listening to more music while I work than […]
REVIEW: Denon DA-300USB DAC
…And here’s what happens when mainstream hi-fi players start taking desktop audio seriously Until recently, the whole world of desktop audio wasn’t something troubling the big names of mainstream audio unduly. True, everyone from high-end companies to accessory specialists and even all-but-unknown start-ups had already gone down the route of providing digital-to-analogue converter bridges between […]
REVIEW: Simple Audio Listen Bluetooth speakers
Simple by name and smart by nature, these innovative speakers deliver great desktop sound As I think I’ve said before, regular readers will know I’m not the greatest fan of Bluetooth speakers: too many of them are inexpensive, plasticky and a triumph of some kind of style over function. However, of late I’ve been spending […]
REVIEW: Naim for Bentley Premium Audio System
The best-sounding in-car sound system around has a new home in the latest Flying Spur As an audio reviewer, one gets used to all sizes and shapes of packages turning up on the doorstep, from tiny boxes containing headphones or USB DACs to the memorable ‘where’s your forklift, mate?’ delivery of a TV a few […]
REVIEW: Sony TA-A1ES amplifier
For various reasons, it’s taken a while to get my hands on Sony’s flagship high-resolution audio player, the HAP-Z1ES – which isn’t the subject of this review. The buzz has been building about this novel approach to the whole computer music thing, with its onboard storage, DSD upconversion and lack of any sign of network […]
REVIEW: Ruark Audio MR1
Striking design meets solid audio engineering in these classy Bluetooth speakers Bluetooth is a good thing because… Unlike Apple AirPlay, it enables almost any portable device or computer to work with a wider range of speakers and other products. Bluetooth is a bad thing because… Exactly that universality means there’s been a massive onslaught of […]
REVIEW: Quad Platinum DMP and Stereo power amplifier
While the links to history are obvious, there’s a distinct whiff of ‘I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore’ about the Quad Platinum range. In my position as Audio Editor of Gramophone, I do occasionally have to disabuse people of a few well-rehearsed myths about the readership. No, the magazine’s readers didn’t all start […]
REVIEW: Roth Audio OLi RA1 – tiny speakers with more than a little magic
Remember when Britain was known as the home of the £100 super-speaker? Manufacturers in other countries scratched their heads when they saw what brands such as Mission, JPW, KEF and Wharfedale could do for so little money, then scratched even harder when they realised the giveaway price was per pair, and not each (as is […]
REVIEW: Meridian Prime Headphone Amplifier – so much more than the name suggests
The new headphone amp from Meridian is its most ambitious personal audio product so far, with analogue and digital inputs, processing to get the sound out of your head and the ability to be used as a preamp And then there were three: on the heels of Meridian’s Explorer DAC/headphone amp and recently-launched Director DAC […]
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