Hi-Fi Choice

Hi-Fi Choice is the essential guide to audio excellence in the home. It is a no-nonsense guide to the finest products available, from vinyl and valves, to multi-channel digital audio and high-fidelity video. Hi-Fi Choice sorts the best from the rest with rigorous test processes and a highly experienced team of reviewers.

Welcome

Top five • New UK speaker range

You tubes • Valve-based integrated from Denmark

New generation • Media player and in-ears from South Korea

Fast and glorious • New turntable from Southampton

Ready, steady, GO pod! • New wearable headphone amps

Alp yourself • Upgraded wireless speaker system from Zurich

Headroom • Over and in-ears imported from Canada

Six pack • Half a dozen new speakers from France

Horns of plenty • High-end floorstanders from Dusseldorf

Revision express • A trio of upgrades from Japan

Unique group tests • Our Group Tests are supported by rigorous and exhaustive listening tests carried out by experts

No-wire act • Premium wireless speakers promise the world, but can they really deliver where it counts? David Vivian puts six of the best to the acid test

Cabasse Pearl Akoya £2,950 • Disagreeing with Huey Lewis, Cabasse believes it isn’t hip to be square and advances the Pearl Akoya as proof

JBL L75ms £1,500 • If you’re going to build a single enclosure all-in-one wireless speaker, JBL clearly reckons go big or go home

KEF LS50 Wireless II £2,500 • Not just a founding light but one of the sector’s best, the LS50 continues to be the one to beat

Linn Series 3 301 + 302 £6,900 • Putting ‘you get what you pay for’ to the test, Linn’s contender is streaming-only and aiming for the stars

Sonus faber Omnia £1,600 • It’s all too easy to fall for the Omnia before you’ve even plugged it in, but that’s only preempting the inevitable

System Audio Legend 5.2 Silverback + WiSA stereo hub £2,800 • This modestly priced twin standmount setup looks nothing much out of the ordinary. Prepare for a shock

Group test verdict • It’s been a wireless week of hard-fought dramas and delights but, with the final speaker unplugged, David Vivian is ready to name a winner

Puts the H into heroic • The return of a legend: the new Halcro power amp retains all the mystery of yore and brings all the oomph you’ll ever need

Gimme 5 • Q Acoustics has fleshed out its range with the all-new 5000 Series. Ed Selley gets to grips with the 5020 standmount

Open sesame • CliffJoseph discovers if it’s third time lucky for the latest version of Sennheiser’s popular HD 660 series headphone

Good point • Sumiko has updated one of its long-running cartridge favourites. Ed Selley sees if the latest model is a worthy successor

L-raiser • The original Phono-1 MkII has been around for a while, but here comes the ‘L’ version. Neville Robertsputs it through its paces

Coming up Roses • HiFi Rose takes its unique recipe and tunes it to source equipment. But are these unusual features enough to win over Ed Selley?

Celebrity squares • A portable Bluetooth stereo system that packs a big punch – Cliff Joseph can’t help but be impressed

Time machine • For its 50th Birthday, NAD has built a present to itself that combines where it’s come from and where it’s going explains Ed Selley

Last orders • Nick Tate remembers one of the final high-end multibit CD players ever to be launched, the Technics SL-P999

Hi-fi Choices

Streaming • Don’t know your NAS from your FLAC? Bewildered by bit-rates and compression? Worry not, help is at hand...

Outside influences • Neville Roberts investigates just...