Volume 7 No. 4

Reviewed In This Issue

2 Your Musical Memories
Editorial By Paul Messenger

Contents
4 STAN'S SAFARI
Stan queries whether we really need massive pre-amp power supplies.

6 THE RIGHT TRACK
Track Audio makes some of the most beautiful and costly speaker stands around.

7 MAGICAL MAGICO
Martin Colloms' close encounter with the Magico S5 floorstander.

13 AXJET BY AXHORN
Paul Messenger discovers a unique horn speaker system in the heart of Wales.

16 AURENDER W20
Martin Colloms tries out a hard drive music player and streamer from South Korea.

18 THE SPECIAL ONE
PMC has upgraded one of PM's favourite speakers, so how good is the IB2 SE?

20 DIAMOND GEEZER
The Raidho D-1 features a diamond stiffened cone. Martin Colloms assesses its impact.

24 DEALING WITH DEALERS
Consultant David Topliss relates some of his experiences of working with hi-fi dealers 

26 THE SUPERNAIT IS DEAD; LONG LIVE SUPERNAIT 2
The new Naim SUPERNAIT 2 has fewer features than its predecessor – with good reason, as Martin Colloms discovers.

29 ANALOG DIGITAL?
Chris Bryant checks out MSB's claims for its new Analog DAC.

32 ISOLATED POWER
Stan Curtis gets to try the 'never connected' Fenson ISO power amplifier.

34 LOUDSPEAKER RHYTHM & TIMING
Martin Colloms discusses the design of loudspeakers for optimum bass timing.

40 HEADPHONE EXPLOSION
Comparing newcomers from AKG, Yamaha, Jays, B&W, Sennheiser and Focal, against established references.

45 HIFICRITIC AWARDS
A retrospective selection of review findings culled from this and previous editions of HIFICRITIC.

47 BITS & PIECES
A pot pourri of short reviews, including Van den Hul interconnects, the iFi iTube, the Divine Acoustics Gravity platform and Epos' S15 speaker stands.

49 THE AMBIENT ODYSSEY PART 2
New possibilities: Ambient music in the 21st century.

52 FAVOURITE THINGS
Rega's Rob Noble picks his top ten favourite discs.

54 JAZZ PICKS
Greg Drygala picks six interesting recent jazz releases.

56 THE BEST OF CLASSICAL
Colin Anderson chooses a new batch of classical releases.

58 ROCK, POP & OTHER NICE MUSIC
Nigel Finn of The Chord Company goes all nostalgic about Lou Reed.

60 SUBJECTIVE SOUNDS
Combining UK design expertise with Eastern European manufacture seems to make good sense.

 

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