Hi-Fi Choice

hifichoice.com Issue No. 502 June 2023 Who do you think sold the most LPs worldwide in 2022? Go on, have a guess. No Googling! Get off Wiki! My punt was Taylor Swift. Safe bet. I was wrong. It was actually Puerto Rican rapper, singer and Coachella headliner Bad Bunny. How do I know? Because it’s one of the many facts revealed in Nigel Williamson’s Opinion column on p81. That’s the kind of info I like. The answer that wins you the pub quiz or just the sort of offhand titbit you can drop into conversation to impress your pals. Now people far cleverer than me could probably tell you that there are very many types of knowledge. But the way I rattle through life, there are really only two. The…

PRICE: £500-£1,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: QACOUSTICS.CO.UK Q ACOUSTICS HAS begun the roll-out of its new 5000 series featuring the introduction of its C3 Continuous Curved Cone profile in the mid/bass driver. The series also inherits cabinet and driver tech from the flagship Concept range and the company says it’s positioned between the 3000i and Concept series. The new range includes the 5010 bookshelf, 5020 standmount, 5040 and 5050 floorstanders and 5090 centre for home cinema setups. The C3 (pronounced ‘C-cubed’) Continuous Curved Cone design in the mid/bass driver is claimed to provide smoother high-frequency integration with the tweeter and superior bass dynamics while the dark acrylic baffle motif mirrors the minimalist C3 Continuous Curved Cone profile. Taken from the Concept series, it has a new housing with the high-frequency driver…

PRICE: £6,500 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: COPLAND.DK ABSOLUTESOUNDS.COM DANISH AMPLIFIER SPECIALIST Copland has launched its new flagship valve-based integrated, the CTA407. Supplied with two matched pairs of 6550 output valves, the amp is rated at 50W per channel in high-biased Class A/AB mode, delivering most of its power in Class A state. Copland says this: “enables the CTA407 to combine captivating musical realism and tonal purity with sufficient power to drive a wide range of different speakers with ease”. The amp is also compatible with KT88, KT90, KT100, KT120 and KT150 valves, with automatic adjustment between types. The 40 LED diodes on the front panel (10 for each tube) are the visual part of the CTA407 tube bias and diagnostic system and can be turned off if the user doesn’t wish…

PRICE: £800-£1,100 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: ASTELLNKERN.CO.UK THERE’S PLENTY GOING on over at Astell&Kern with the launch of its A&norma SR35 media player and AK ZERO2 in-ears. The media player is the successor to the company’s SR25 MKII (HFC 489), boasts a claimed 20 hours of continuous playtime and deploys the first Dual/Quad DAC switching mode in the A&norma series – enabling users to adjust the sound and power output while improving power efficiency. The brand’s patented Teraton Alpha technology promises balanced dynamics and the SR35 is also the first in the A&norma series to be equipped with New Generation AMP technology. Featured in the latest high-end A&ultima and A&futura range, the in-house amp has been designed to eliminate noise at a high-power output: “to ensure listeners experience the clearest possible,…

PRICE: £2,290 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: ORIGINLIVE.COM ORIGIN LIVE HAS added to its range of turntables with the Swift Mk5, a deck with a motor/power supply redesign and a Multi Layer Platter, tech which the company reveals has trickled down from its flagship Voyager vinyl spinner. The Swift features the basic design of Origin Live’s Aurora turntable, thanks to its single-point cantilevered suspension. In this system the platter and tonearm are balanced roughly in equilibrium on the ends of a rigid sub-chassis bar. Due to the microscopic flexing of the single suspension support point, the company claims this arrangement feels the same as a rigid, mechanical suspension, while avoiding the hardness of many nonsuspended designs and softening of leading edges of suspended designs. The Swift features Origin Live’s low-friction bearing, which…

PRICE: £400 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: IFI-AUDIO.COM JOINING IFI AUDIO’S GO series of portable headphone enhancements, comes the GO pod – apair of wearable Bluetooth DAC/headphone amps designed to make any pair of wired in-ears wireless. Here’s how it works... First, detach the cable from the in-ears and connect the earpieces to the left and right GO pods. Then, pair the pods with your source device and hook the ear loops behind the ears. iFi is partnering with other companies to make curated ‘GO Pod + IEM’ packages. Spanning both new and established models from 64 Audio, Craft Ears, Meze Audio, Symphonium and Westone, these collaborations have resulted in six pairs of TWS in-ears. The GO Pod boasts certification for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound platform and Bluetooth 5.2, with 32-bit, quad-core architecture…