Friday September 01, 2006 Class In Pocket
Shut down your iPod for the evening, cue the Hovis advert and relax with a steaming cuppa. Cast your mind back to the days before hard drives an inch square existed, to a time when you couldn't carry a pointlessly large number of songs around in a sliver of...
Tuesday August 22, 2006 Power korrupts...
Last night I discovered that sometimes with hi-fi, the most straightforward approach is the best. The mighty Linn Artikulat 350A loudspeaker (reviewed in The Collection this year – issue 282) had returned along with an LP12 turntable and all the trimmings...
Are you an audioholic?
One of the problems associated with hi-fi, a problem which affects many true audiophiles at one time or another, is audioholism. This debilitating condition can strike at any age, but seems to be particularly prevalent in middle-aged men with an excess of...
Wednesday August 02, 2006 Own a slice of hi-fi history
It's silly season, of course. But anyone really into Arcam should race over to eBay at a hefty one mile per hour and place their bid on Ernie - Arcam's delivery truck. Okay, Ernie only delivered components from the factory to the warehouse, but the former milk...
Monday July 31, 2006 ATC build speakers to last
I will be reviewing the ATC SCM19 for the October issue. In that review, I mention that the SCM19 weighs a lot more than any other speaker of a similar size that I have shifted of late. The specs state a 9kg main drive unit, which is a hard figure to relate to...
Wednesday July 26, 2006 Quadral speakers return to UK
German loudspeaker manufacturer Quadral has returned to the UK after a short absence. Axcelle, better known as the distributor of Wireworld cables, now distributes the brand. Quadral’s portfolio lists 53 different models across nine separate ranges, as well...
Tuesday July 25, 2006 Unpaid consultancy
One of the duties of an off-duty reviewer is to perform unpaid consultancy, that is listening to a new product and giving an opinion before it goes ‘live’. The important part of this is that it really is unpaid, for obvious reasons. Any commercial involvement...
Rock on, Tommy!
Steve Coogan's latest character, Tommy Saxondale, may not be in the same league as his mighty Alan Partridge, but is well worth watching. The brilliantly observed roadie-turned-rat-catcher with anger management issues and a Mach One Mustang would have to be a...
Monday July 24, 2006 What are you listening to?
A quick straw poll of the editorial team here at Hi-Fi Choice nets a very catholic list of musical influences. Everything from pre-modern madrigals to penned-last-week alt.country, from hardcore Chicago blues to even-harder-core German Techno. And almost...
Friday July 21, 2006 The safety dance
I blew a fuse yesterday. The event had nothing to do with the hi-fi system at all, but it reminded me how rare this sort of fuse-blowing is these days. Ahh, the old days… when men were men and hi-fi could kill. I remember those days, when plugging in a new...
Drug-fuelled madness
It’s astonishing just how little biochemical tweaking of the psyche can alter your perception of music. Of course, musos have extolled the dubious virtues of dodgy recreational pharmaceuticals for decades, but I keep my bloodstream polluted with entirely legal...
Thursday July 20, 2006 Hi-Fi that Rocked the World
In May 2006 , Hi-Fi Choice's reviewers sat round an email client program and between them came up with the 50 most important hi-fi components ever sold in the UK. The results were published in an award-winning supplement Hi-Fi that Rocked the World . If you...
AVI Active Neutron
OK, don't expect this review immediately, but we have just got our hands on the new Active Neutron loudspeakers from AVI. Take a pair of the mighty little Neutron IVs, add the new Amp-Pak modules on the back and suddenly you have a 300 watt active speaker...
Bewitch A30 integrated amplifier
This £1,000 valve line integrated amplifier is a Chinese built, British design featuring Russian-made versions of American valves and a Japanese ALPS volume control. How’s that for international? The Bewitch A30 kicks out 30 watts and can be triode-coupled...
