hi-fi+ Magazine      June 2025

  hi-fi+ is a magazine that is serious about hi-fi. Our articles are intended to help you get the best from your system, rather than simply telling you to buy another one. Our reviews only cover product that we think is worthwhile. You can read more about that by looking at our reviews policy, but lets just say that our attitude to equipment is rather different, and we hope, much more informative. We haven't forgotten that hi-fi is supposed to be fun!

What Is Essential To Audiophiles
We're relying on digital music more than ever.
Editorial By Alan Sircom
The concept of 'Audio Essentials' is at once controversial and ever-changing. It's controversial because there remains a contingent of audio enthusiasts who dismiss everything in the pages of this issue as nonsense on stilts. And it's ever changing because we keep finding more aspects of the audio chain that can benefit from a spot of care and attention. Care and attention goes beyond simply spending your way out of bad sound; it's about getting the basics right and then seeing what lies beyond. The basics too often seem like a lost art, as indicated by the Gordian Knot of cables that often features at the rear of so many systems. Simply addressing that mess of cables – and getting each component sitting level on a light, yet rigid surface – can make a big difference to even the most humble system. Similarly, ensuring where your loudspeakers – and, for that matter, you – are positioned in the listening room can bring out the best in a good system, and help smooth out the nasties in a bad one. Reading the instruction manual that came with the loudspeakers and using those recommendations as a starting place is a good start. However, often small and incremental adjustments to the relative position to side and rear walls, and the amount of toe-in beyond the basics helps.
---> What Is Essential To Audiophiles.

7 Incoming! 
Your Views On All Things Audio 

Equipment Reviews
17 AudioQuest Rocket 44, Mackenzie RCA, And Carbon USB
High-End Audio Cables

23 Audiomica Rhod Reference, Dolomit Reference, Europa Ultra Reference, Genimedes Ultra Reference, And AcouPlex
High-End Audio Cables And Supports 

33 Innuos PhoenixNET And PhoenixUSB 
Network Switch And USB Reclocker

37 finite elemente CARBOFIBRE° Statement
Audiophile Equipment Platform

41 Michell LEVIS
Magnetic Levitation Feet

45 Melco S1
Network Switch

49 Synergistic Research PowerCell SX
Mains Conditioner

53 Chord Company PhonoARAY
Turntable Grounding

57 Furutech Project V1
Cable System

61 Entreq Macro Box Kit
Magnetic Field Control

65 Telos Macro G
Active Network Noise Reducer

69 JPlay
Music Software

73 Titanic Audio Newton
Vinyl LP Record Clamp

75 OMEX Symphony A
Equipment Support System

77 Origin Live Strata
Vinyl LP Record Mat

Features
11 Setup Matters
Bringing Out The Best In A System

80 Meet Your Dealer 
Soundcraft Hifi In Ashford, Kent

85 Out Of The Box
Seven Innovative Thinkers An Audio Essentials!

Music
96 Lee Ritenour 
Jazz-Fusion Guitarist And Songwriter

104 Music Reviews 
Contemporary, Classical, And Jazz Music

Plus
94 Subscriptions 
Subscribe And Save! 

111 Advertiser Index

112 Next Month
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2025
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2024
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2023
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2022
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2021
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2020
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2019
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2018
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2017
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2016
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2015
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2014
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2012
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2011
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2010
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2009
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2008
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