Hi-Fi+ February 2025

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hi-fi+ Magazine February 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!

Editorial: Dynamic Range And Price Range
Is it great audio gear just because it is expensive?
Editorial By Alan Sircom
One of the great joys of good audio is dynamic range. But not necessarily in the way you think. Sure, the ability for a system to reproduce the dynamic swings of a good recording is something sublime to behold. Also, that ability for a system to be able to portray tiny dynamic cues within a larger setting (such as being able to hear mechanics of pressing the pedals on a piano in a concerto) is one of those aspects of audio performance we all look for. They are the subtle details that separate the 'great' from the merely 'good'. There's another dynamic range that is perhaps even more satisfying; the dynamic range of audio products. While many fume over the 'oligarch-fi' prices of ultra-high-end audio, there has been a change taking place across the board. The affordable end of audio has upped its ante, upped its game, and – arguably – lowered its prices. This last is controversial, but holds. Our rose-tinted view of past price tags doesn't take our past salaries into account.
---> Dynamic Range And Price Range.

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18 Focal Hadenys
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27 Peak Consult Sonora
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37 Innuos ZEN Next-Gen
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44 Quad 33/303
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51 Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature
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57 Xavian Medea
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63 WiiM Ultra
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69 Sonus Faber Sonetto III G2
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75 Diapason Karis Wave
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81 Vertere Acoustics Calon
Phono Preamplifier

87 Computer Audio Design USB Filter
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89 GutWire Consummate
Loudspeaker Cable

91 Nordost Red Dawn 3
Cable System

99 OMEX Symphony S
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Music
102 Level 42
We spoke to frontman and bass legend Mark King on the 40th anniversary
of the band's chart-topping breakthrough album, World Machine

111 Music Reviews
Contemporary, Classical, Jazz And Audiophile Music

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119 Advertiser Index

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