Volume 7 No. 1

Reviewed In This Issue

2 The Compact Disc Format
Editorial By Paul Messenger

4 STAN'S STAN'S SAFARI No. 21
Stan discovers a powerful statistical analysis tool that helps explain the differences we can clearly hear, but which defy accepted 'scientific wisdom'

7 BLISS
Christian Schuller describes his road to musical bliss

10 ALEXIA SCRUTINISED
Martin Colloms discovers that the Alexia, the latest floorstander from Wilson Audio, is something rather special

18 MADE IN JAPAN
Japanese hi-fi specialists rarely operate outside Japan. C.E.C. is one exception, and here we review the TL3N disc drive and DA3N DAC

40 VSA UNIFIELD-2
A high class stand-mount from Von Schweikert in the USA comes under close HIFICRITIC scrutiny

43 CLASSIC VALVE AMPLIFICATION
Neil Goodwin discusses his enthusiasm for some of the best post-war valve amps, and suggests some likely examples

20 THE NEW BOSS?
Does Naim's new NDS network-connected digital player/streamer/DAC deliver the performance worthy of a 'flagship' model?

26 FOCAL WITH NAIM
Focal's managing director Gerard Chretien tells Steve Harris about his own company and its merger with Naim Audio

29 RIPPING YARNS
Jason Kennedy reports on the computer hi-fi developments he encountered at America's CES

30 TUBE ROLLING
This minimalist Japanese pre-amplifier from Concert Fidelity has easy access for trying out different valves

33 HEADSOUNDS
Headphones and earbuds are the hot hi-fi products right now, but experience suggests they're often not as good as they pretend, so Martin Colloms has put many through their paces.

44 ULTIMATE CONTROLLER
Linn's Akurate DSM streamer/pre-amp can handle virtually anything – analogue or digital – that's thrown at it

46 WHITHER HI-FI?
Loudspeaker engineer Geoff Hill queries whether hi-fi is really progressing, or if we should be looking back at audio's history

48 THREE BUDGET PRICE DACS
Martin Colloms assesses the Audioquest DragonFly, the Cambridge Audio DACMagic

100, and the Micromega MyDAC

50 INDEX FOR THE 2012 EDITIONS

52 FAVOURITE THINGS
Paul Messenger chooses ten rock/pop releases that have stood the test of time

54 JAZZ PICKS
Greg Drygala unearths four new and interesting jazz releases

56 THE BEST OF CLASSICAL
Colin Anderson picks up on some recent classical releases

58 ROCK, POP & OTHER NICE MUSIC
Nigel Finn (The Chord Company) chooses six recent releases

60 SUBJECTIVE SOUNDS: Looking back at three months of varied listening

 

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