hi-fi+ Magazine      October 2024

  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!

Editorial: High-Performance Audio's Impressive Modernization
Pushing the price envelope within a highly devaluating currency climate.
Editorial By Alan Sircom
The hi-fi world is occasionally rocked. Sometimes by performance, by a revolutionary change in technology, and sometimes by the demise of a designer, a founder or a manufacturer. This time, however, what seems to have sent out the shock-waves is a price. Cambridge-based digital expert dCS is no stranger to 'upper-echelon' pricing; the company's existing four-box Vivaldi APEX comes in at an already 'spendy' £124,250 without cables. However, the company's latest project, Varèse, confidently eclipses even the Vivaldi APEX. The five-box design (Core unit, Master Clock, Mono DACs, and User Interface) cost a cool £217,500, with a CD/SACD transport to follow next year. Granted its unique ACTUS connection system lowers the cost of inter-device cabling (wiring up a full four-box Vivaldi APEX with something like Nordost Odin Gold adds substantially to the price of admission). But the fact remains we are in uncharted price territory for digital audio. Perhaps this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Brands like CH Precision, MSB, and Wadax have been pushing the price envelope for some time.
---> High-Performance Audio's Impressive Modernization.

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Your views on all things audio.

Feature
105 Systems Or Separates?
Is the way magazines review products wrong?

111 Meet Your Dealer
Simon Burton of Home Media Limited, in Maidstone, Kent

Equipment Reviews
10 Linn Klimax Solo 800 
Mono power amplifier

19 Avantgarde Acoustic Colibri C2
Stand-mount loudspeaker 

27 Advance Paris A12 Classic 
Hybrid integrated amplifier

37 Döhmann Audio Helix Two Mk3 
Vinyl LP turntable

45 T+A PSD 3100 HV 
DAC / preamplifier

51 Pachanko Labs Constellation Mini SE / Stellar 
Server and linear power supply

57 Luphonic H2
Vinyl LP turntable

63 Violectric DHA V226 
Headphone amplifier / DAC / line stage

69 HiFi Rose RA289
Integrated amplifier

75 DALI Rubikore 2 
Stand-mount loudspeaker

81 Manley Oasis 
Phono stage 

87 Gryphon PowerZone 3 
Power conditioner

93 Crystal Cable Infinity 
Power cord

99 HIFISTAY Stella 80T 
Spike shoes

101 Origin Live Strata 
Vinyl LP turntable mat

Music
117 Fairground Attraction 
The 1980s skiffle-pop-country sensation are
back with a new album after an almost 35 year hiatus.

127 Music Reviews
Contemporary, classical, jazz and audiophile music.

Plus
124 Subscriptions 
Subscribe and save!

135 Advertiser Index

136 Next Month 
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