HIFICRITIC Volume 14 Number 4 October / November / December 2020

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	High-Performance Audio Reviews Music News, Show Reports, And More! Celebrating 29 Years Of Service To Music Lovers

HIFICRITIC October / November / December 2020

Reviews & Articles Within This Issue
2 HIFICRITIC's Reviews And Articles Within This Issue Many great reviews and think pieces for your reading pleasure.
Editorial By Martin Colloms, Editor-In-Chief

4 Peter Qvortrup
Marking his 70th birthday, and with more than 40 years in the hi-fi industry, the founder of Audio Note looks back – and forward. How does he thinks the industry has changed? 'Oh, definitely for the worse,' he says, but he sees a bright future, provided we're prepared to learn the lessons of the past, and stick to what we know best.

8 Stan's Safari
Stan's taking a break from the minutiae of hi-fi design – he's been working on electronic systems to detect virus but has had time to think about the emotional connection between music and the way it's played. And it's not good new for those investing heavily in streaming systems!

10 CH Precision P1, L1, X1, And A1.5
In this issue's feature review, Martin Colloms gets to grips with all-analogue audio electronics from Swiss manufacturer CH precision, taking in a modular, expandable phono stage, which would eventually run to four boxes for a full, dual-mono set-up, and a pre/power amplifier built with a similar view to long-term system growth.

22 Behind The Brand: Florian Cossy
The CH Precision founder explains his design philosophy, and the company's background and history, and offers a listening tip.

25 Howard On Feedback
Once seen as the magic bullet of amplifier design, feedback is now a hotly-contested subject among designers. Keith Howard investigates and explains.

31 Metamaterial Absorption Technology
It's the 'secret ingredient o the latest generation of KEF's LS50 speakers, but what is it, how does it work, and could it be about to revolutionize speaker design?

29 Brothers In Arms?
The latest high-end offerings from stablemates Denon and Marantz may initially appear to have similarities, but look closer at the Denon Anniversary 110 player and amplifier, and the new-look Marantz 30 Series, and it's clear differing design priorities are involved.

39 Totem Acoustic Skylight
As the name suggests, this is a lighter version of the Canadian company's Sky speaker, but Chris Frankland finds its far from being a lightweight.

42 Spendor Classic 4/5
The latest addition to Spendor's Classic line is 'like a 3/5, but better,' says Ed Selley. But the story's not that simple: with its decidedly retro looks, this is a cohesive, refined design that's also a whole lot of fun.

44 Sennheiser HD 800 S Open Back Headphones Review
This classic headphone design is its manufacturer's flagship open-back moving coil design, and has become established as a reference design thanks to its neutrality and accuracy. Keith Howard takes a long listen, and suggests a little tweak to improve it!

47 Stax SR-L700 Mk2 / SRM-50
'Never meet your heroes,' they say – but Jon Honeyball has always hankered after a pair of Stax 'earspeakers'. Now he has pair, and their partnering DAC / energizer, will it be a case of a dream finally coming true?

49 Colloms On Cables
Martin gets together a range of cables, both interconnect and loudspeaker, and puts them through their paces in a variety of systems. With brands including The Chord Company, Kimber Kable, QED, Townshend and Vertere, there's something here for every system, and at prices from just a few pounds per meter to 'How much???'

55 Kudos Titan 505
Chris Kelly finds all the heavy lifting of setting up these substantial standmount speakers is worthwhile – they take a while to come on song, but finally reveal themselves to be really rather special.

58 Grateful Dead 1970
50 years on, Mark Prendergast examines the explosion of creative energy behind Workingman's Dead and American Beauty.

60 The Music
Andrew Mellor reviews the latest classical releases, plus new jazz and more on DSD.

64 Soundstage
As we hit our 60th issue, a look back at how it all began – in 2007.

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