Hi-Fi Choice

hifichoice.com Issue No. 500 April 2023 Congratulations. You’re the proud owner of the 500th issue of HFC. Not to spend too long blowing our own trumpet, it strikes me that it’s some achievement for any periodical to reach the big five-double-O in an era when there are so many other sources of information competing with the printed page. So thanks to one and all for your continued loyalty. Our first copy was published back in 1975 and you can find our potted history of the journey to here, beginning on p46. Coincidentally, this happens to be my third anniversary issue as editor. I hopped into the hot seat for the April 2019 issue and we haven’t looked back since – well, except for the retrospective bit this issue, obviously! Looking…

Posh upgrade for Italian classic PRICE: £13,000-£30,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: SONUSFABER.COM FINESOUNDS.UK ITALIAN LOUDSPEAKER MAESTRO Sonus faber has unveiled four new additions to its Homage collection, three decades after the range debuted in 1993 with the Guarneri. The newbies follow their predecessors in paying tribute to the musical instruments that inspired the collection’s creation – honouring the lute-making tradition, which has its roots in Cremona, Italy. The four new introductions include the Guarneri G5 (5th generation) two-way standmount, Serafino G2 3.5-way (2nd gen) and Amati G5 3.5-way (5th gen) floorstanders, plus the Vox G3 (3rd gen) centre channel for home cinema setups. The four models are available in red, wenge and graphite finishes. The company explains that the new range has improved cabinets, which now feature: “class-leading technology”, helped by…

PRICE: £175-£195 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: FIIO.COM THE BTR7 IS FiiO’s new portable headphone amplifier, offering the option of either wired or wireless transfer of your audio via USB or Bluetooth. With support for a wide range of Bluetooth codecs, including aptX HD and LDAC, it wirelessly handles up to 24-bit/96kHz resolution PCM files. It is available in two flavours: the BTR7 (USB-C Version) and BTR7 (Lightning Version). Sharing design cues with other FiiO products, such as the M11S portable music player, the amp features a 1.3in colour screen that displays information including audio bit-rate, volume level, Bluetooth codec and more. FiiO says that the BTR7 is the first portable Bluetooth amplifier to utilise two THX AAA-28 amplifiers. As a result, it delivers a fully balanced audio design, with each channel…

PRICE: £5,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: WHARFEDALE.CO.UK WHARFEDALE HAS RE-ENGINEERED its Dovedale loudspeaker, part of its Heritage Series originally created in the Sixties and Seventies. Named after a valley in the Peak District, the first Dovedale launched in 1965 as an updated version of Wharfedale’s W2. It was originally a two-way design but was later adapted to a three-way with separate bass, midrange and treble drivers. Several versions followed, the most fondly remembered probably being the Dovedale 3, which arrived in 1971. This is the model that the re-engineered Dovedale takes inspiration from with its corresponding Unit 5 build-at-home kit. The new speaker’s cabinet is a touch taller, a little wider and considerably deeper than the standard production Dovedale 3, but similar in size to the largest home constructors’ version. The…

PRICE: £650-£5,500 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: KEF.COM KEF HAS LAUNCHED a new generation of R Series loudspeakers, complete with its Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT). The series covers seven-models, which the company says: can be enjoyed in stereo for music or in a home cinema setup, explaining it as: “a highly complex maze-like structure where each of the intricate channels efficiently absorbs a specific frequency. When combined, they act as an acoustic black hole, absorbing 99 percent of the unwanted sound from the rear of the tweeter, eliminating the resulting distortion and providing a purer, more natural acoustic performance.” A bespoke 12th-generation Uni-Q driver array with MAT is found in all seven models, and boasts a refined tweeter gap damper to tame resonances for improved detail, a flexible Decoupling Chassis developed with…

PRICE: £3,100-£19,500 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: REED.LT ABSOLUTESOUNDS.COM ABSOLUTE SOUNDS IS bringing vinyl replay specialist Reed’s products to the UK including a selection of five tonearms and two turntables. The tonearms are distinguished by their design which make use of slender arm tubes (or ‘armwands’, as it calls them), reminiscent of an artist’s brush or a calligrapher’s pen. Three of the arms – the 1H, 2G and 3P – are radial designs, available in 9.5in, 10.5in and 12.5in lengths. The flagship 5A and 5T are tangential-pivot, as opposed to the radial type, with the 5T including a laser to track its lateral motion and a battery-powered motor to apply real-time correction. Pick and mix The tonearms come with an array of options, both technical and aesthetic. Four models – the 2G,…