February 2022

Many Great Reviews Within February's Hi-Fi World
A great assortment of gear within our February 2022 issue.
Editorial By Noel Keywood

  Big loudspeakers able to shake a building don't come cheap. One of the most memorable reviewed by us recently (Dec 2021 issue) was JBL's HDI-3600, an imposing floorstander with thunderous bass yet a price tag of £3198. That's well below so many others with similar pretensions. But in this issue we have for your delectation the Acoustic Energy AE320 – a floorstander that similarly packs a powerful punch low down. If you dream of seismic lows that move the body it could be the one, the speaker of your dreams – price just £1599. Don't miss reading about it on p11.

Another classic British product that appears in this issue is Exposure's new 3510 amplifier. Very deliberately a honed update of the way it was done long ago, it uses well developed circuitry in Class A/B output configuration, equipped with modern transistors. The result is low distortion and excellent load tolerance, unlike that of Class D amplifiers. Add in a huge linear power supply and the end result is worth hearing thinks Martin Pipe, as he explains on p18.

Yet another great British brand – Naim – also appear in this issue. You can find them on p66 where we look at their Uniti Atom HE streamer/headphone amplifier. With numerous balanced headphone outputs this is for headphone aficionados that want a smooth Naim sound from the internet or from their own home-network sources, not forgetting Bluetooth from the 'phone. The HE is a different way of doing things.

Lenco's budget LS-55 turntable seems to offer it all from the vinyl LP, including digital recording to a flash-drive, replay from that drive and Bluetooth output. But with all this costing just £135 there were drawbacks we found. Read about them on p73 to find out why a turntable like this is not the bargain it appears.

I hope you enjoyed Christmas and wish you Happy New Year, but sadly the magazine and I won't be at February's Bristol Show in sunny 2022 because it has just been cancelled due to the accursed bug. Better luck in 2023 perhaps!

— Noel Keywood
Editor, HiFi World

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