Hi-Fi Choice October 2021

These are exciting times. So exciting, in fact, that just as we were passing for press we were invited to visit Bowers & Wilkins in Worthing to witness the launch of its new 800 Series Diamond speaker range. What could be more brilliant? Not a lot as it happens, but the trouble is our Audiofile News section was already full to overflowing and neatly laid-out with other ace launches so that’s why – the eagle-eyed among you may already have clocked – there’s an unusual Audiofile Extra on p66 especially created to accommodate the breaking story. Every month lately it’s seemed incumbent upon us to run an explanatory feature on some new technology or other. Over the last few issues we’ve had the lowdown on NFTs and Spatial Sound and now…

These are exciting times. So exciting, in fact, that just as we were passing for press we were invited to visit Bowers & Wilkins in Worthing to witness the launch of its new 800 Series Diamond speaker range. What could be more brilliant? Not a lot as it happens, but the trouble is our Audiofile News section was already full to overflowing and neatly laid-out with other ace launches so that’s why – the eagle-eyed among you may already have clocked – there’s an unusual Audiofile Extra on p66 especially created to accommodate the breaking story. Every month lately it’s seemed incumbent upon us to run an explanatory feature on some new technology or other. Over the last few issues we’ve had the lowdown on NFTs and Spatial Sound and…

PRICE: £1,000-£1,500 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: JBL.COM US COMPANY JBL is launching two new products this month – the L52 Classic bookshelf loudspeaker and the JBL L75ms Music System. The L52 is in the same range as the larger L100 Classic and L82 Classic (HFC 473) models, the company claiming its compact size: “allows it to work in a variety of applications from standmount, to bookshelf, to tabletop, to wall-mount”. A two-way design utilising a 19mm titanium dome tweeter mated to an acoustic lens waveguide and a 133mm white cone, cast-frame mid/bass driver, the L52 boasts a premium crossover network design, while the company says its front panel HF level attenuator: “allows the sound to be tailored to its environment”. Enclosure tuning is bass-reflex via a front-firing tuned port, while a…

PRICE: £1,000-£1,500 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: JBL.COM US COMPANY JBL is launching two new products this month – the L52 Classic bookshelf loudspeaker and the JBL L75ms Music System. The L52 is in the same range as the larger L100 Classic and L82 Classic (HFC 473) models, the company claiming its compact size: “allows it to work in a variety of applications from standmount, to bookshelf, to tabletop, to wall-mount”. A two-way design utilising a 19mm titanium dome tweeter mated to an acoustic lens waveguide and a 133mm white cone, cast-frame mid/bass driver, the L52 boasts a premium crossover network design, while the company says its front panel HF level attenuator: “allows the sound to be tailored to its environment”. Enclosure tuning is bass-reflex via a front-firing tuned port, while a set of binding…

PRICE: £2,300-£5,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: DS-AUDIO-W.BIZ JAPAN’S DS AUDIO is releasing a new addition to its third generation of optical cartridges in the form of the DS003, an update of the DS002 incorporating innovations from the company’s more expensive flagship Grand Master. DS explains: “like the Grand Master, the new DS003 features a comprehensively re-designed optical system. Its independent LEDs and photo-detectors for the left and right channels deliver a significant increase in the cartridge’s output voltage, from 40mV to 70mV… achieved without compromising the signal-to-noise ratio; in fact the ratio has been further upgraded, giving the DS003 an even lower noise floor and greater musical clarity than its predecessors.” The company also claims the new design has eliminated crosstalk: “greatly improving left and right channel separation, particularly at higher frequencies”. Featuring a smaller…

PRICE: £2,300-£5,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: DS-AUDIO-W.BIZ JAPAN’S DS AUDIO is releasing a new addition to its third generation of optical cartridges in the form of the DS003, an update of the DS002 incorporating innovations from the company’s more expensive flagship Grand Master. DS explains: “like the Grand Master, the new DS003 features a comprehensively re-designed optical system. Its independent LEDs and photo-detectors for the left and right channels deliver a significant increase in the cartridge’s output voltage, from 40mV to 70mV… achieved without compromising the signal-to-noise ratio; in fact the ratio has been further upgraded, giving the DS003 an even lower noise floor and greater musical clarity than its predecessors.” The company also claims the new design has eliminated crosstalk: “greatly improving left and right channel separation, particularly at higher…