February 2018
In This Issue...
What's Going On Within Our High-End Audio World Today
Article By Noel Keywood

  They've all been looking in the wrong place perhaps. Whilst loudspeaker manufacturers vie with one another to deliver a knockout blow to passing bats, to increase sales in Transylvania perhaps, PMC voice their loudspeakers the other way around – to deliver obvious bass. Perhaps that's where their rivals should also be looking; at least it would seem so after listening to PMC's twenty5.24 loudspeakers Jon Myles reviews on p17. These are bass machines worth hearing.

By happy happenstance – I think I can say! – the PMCs worked wonderfully with Luxman's LX-380 hybrid integrated valve amplifier I review on p10. This gorgeously built and finished amplifier doesn't boast massive bass in its specification, but PMC's twenty5.24s were just the solution. From not so many wonderful valve Watts I was regaled by a powerful delivery, full of life and dynamism from this pairing. You really have to listen to a uniquely different product like the Luxman to fully appreciate how lush and lovely music can sound.

I could almost use that description for the sound that issued forth from FiiO's headphone amplifier when playing DSD from an iPhone, see p33. Yes, I never quite imagined doing this: somehow an iPhone and DSD digital don't go together, at least the way I see it. But by using a slew of clever techie ideas they can be persuaded to get along very well, to deliver quite extraordinary sound quality from the pocket. 

Why are people talking about cassette again? Surely it isn't going to make a comeback like the LP? Well, it could be. As vinyl sales continue to climb around the world and are now overtaking those of CD, people are eyeing the next big thing it seems. And I'm eyeing my Nakamichi; time for a service methinks. Our Readers Letters, on p28, continue to divine the future I could say.

Whatever is happening we cover it in Hi-Fi World. Including going backwards as we go forwards!

--- Noel Keywood, editor.

Subscribe!
Click here to subscribe to Hi-Fi World.