CATEGORIES

Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless

A welcome price cut isn’t the only change from the Momentum 3 Wireless (HFC 486) with the Momentum 4 sporting a sleek, new design – available in black or white – with noticeably slimmer earpieces making it feel lighter and less bulky than its predecessor. I won’t miss the sharp-edged folding hinges of previous models, which have now been replaced by a rotating hinge that allows you to fold the earpieces flat when you want to put the headphone in the hard-shell carrying case.

Astell&Kern AK UW100

Astell&Kern has a number of wired in-ears and headphones, but it has resolutely avoided the compromises of Bluetooth... until now. The AK UW100 marks the company’s debut in the true wireless stereo category and, with a price of just £250, it’s also one of its most affordable to date.

Philips Fidelio T1

Available in either black or white, the T1 sits at the top of the Fidelio range, but it provides attractive sound quality, along with noise cancellation and other useful features. The design may not suit everyone as the earbuds are rather large, with an extended oval shape that projects forward quite noticeably from the ear.

Atlas Cables Element Achromat

Sporting an elegant pearlescent white outer sheath, the Element Achromat certainly looks quite fetching. The term ‘achromatic’ literally means without colour, which fittingly enough is also Atlas Cables’ sonic design goal.

Chord Company Clearway

I ’ve tried out a number of Chord cables over the years and they never fail to impress. The Clearway is no exception and features the company’s proprietary ARAY conductor geometry, which has been developed from its Sarum Tuned ARAY geometry. This has been designed so that the cable carries high levels of detail and dynamic information plus signals with real musical coherence. Every Clearway interconnect is constructed and tested at Chord’s UK facility.

Ecosse The Conductor CA1

A particular feature of this cable is the use of a sandwich of two dielectrics employed to insulate the central conductor. These are a high-grade, low-loss polyethylene and an ultra-low-loss, increased-air, gas-foamed polyethylene (FPE).

Ferrum ERCO

Combining elements of Ferrum’s all-analogue OOR headphone amp, the ERCO can be upgraded with the Hypsos power supply, making it a complete ‘just-add computer-and-headphones’ solution for desktop audio, including a USB input and onboard DAC.

Chord Electronics Mojo 2

Undergoing a thorough overhaul, the new Mojo – virtually the same dinky form factor, more coloured orbs (dinkier than before) – kicks off with some unique tech.

Astell&Kern A&norma SR25 MkII

When I reviewed the original A&norma SR25 (HFC 465), I couldn’t name a single thing that needed improving, let alone fixing. I ended the review with the thought that, at a reasonable £650, A&K’s entry-level model was probably as much quality portable digital audio player anyone would ever need.

NuPrime Hi-mDAC

FAIRLY NEW IN the UK, NuPrime's Hi-mDAC is the smallest and simplest converter it makes. Its decoding architecture is centred around a Cirrus Logic CS43131 DAC. Given that it lists similar (identical) adjustable filter options and the same 384kHz PCM and DSD256 handling as iFi's GO bar (p109), we can postulate that it's the same chip

Pro-Ject DAC Box E mobile

WITH AN ALMOST total absence of frills and fripparies, the focus of the DAC Box E mobile is on use with iOS and Android devices on the move and the design is optimised for this. The Pro-Ject is PCM only with sample rates supported up to 32-bit/192kHz.

Dethonray Prelude DTR1+

Portable audio players have settled into a niche role after having been squeezed by smartphones and portable DACs for more serious use. The Prelude DTR1+ is built by Dethonray; a China-based company that produces a small range of electronics and earphones.

iFi Audio ZEN One Signature

IFi’s ZEN range has been a hit and its response has been to push the platform in new directions. The ZEN One Signature is a departure from what’s come before in that rather than concentrating on one role, it broadens its focus.

iFi Audio GO bar

IFI AUDIO’S GO bar is built around a Cirrus Logic chip, combined with a 16-core XMOS micro controller. Sample rate handling is PCM to 384kHz, DSD to 256 together with DXD and MQA. This is available to both 3.5mm and 4.4mm outputs, for balanced operation.

Cayin RU6

UNLIKE MANY RIVALS, the output of the RU6 is generated by two precision resistors to convert a digital binary number into an analogue output signal proportional to the value of the digital number. It’s fairly uncommon, especially in a form factor as compact as this, given there are 96 resistors in it.

Tidal HiFi Plus

Tidal has made some significant adjustments since we tested it in 2021. The fundamentals of its premium HiFi Plus tier are unchanged. It’s still £19.99 a month, making Tidal the most expensive service (there’s no annual sub either), but a lossless HiFi tier has been added for £9.99 a month. Hi-res is exclusively encoded with MQA – the only service to do so. The library seems to have some content other services don’t.

Qobuz Studio Premier

One of the earliest services to offer lossless content, Qobuz was equally prompt out the blocks with hi-rescontent too. As a result, it’s possibly the streaming service that’s changed the least over the last few years.

Deezer Premium

One of the longest-running services and one of only two to have competed in all of our Group Tests, Deezer is unchanged from last year – apart from switching the name of its HiFi option to Premium. Though other lossy tiers remain, this is the second most expensive service on a per-month basis we have looked at, which is awkward as it’s also the most limited.

Primare NP5 Prisma MK2

If you own a recent Primare amp incorporating its modular Prisma streaming system, you’re good to go and can stop reading now. If you own a Primare amp without on board streaming – or an old standalone Primare network player – you can buy the Prisma platform in the form of the NP5 MK2 you see here for half price.

Primare NP5 Prisma MK2

If you own a recent Primare amp incorporating its modular Prisma streaming system, you're good to go and can stop reading now. If you own a Primare amp without on board streaming or an old standalone Primare network player - you can buy the Prisma platform in the form of the NP5 MK2 you see here for half price. If you don't own any Primare kit but fancy a well-featured streaming transport that won't break the bank even at full price (£550), read on.

Orchard Audio PecanPi Streamer

Hi-fi can be a maze of competing ecosystems with the capacity to confuse and coerce as much as connect on a bespoke level. But one that seems to be hitting the sweet spot with increasing real-world relevance is the low-cost, no-frills, function-first, high-performance, multi-tasking, software-flexible, plug-and-play little black (or silver) box. And Orchard Audio's PecanPi Streamer appears to be exactly that.

iFi Audio ZEN Stream

As part of its ongoing mission to create a digital device for every eventuality, iFi Audio has developed some interesting solutions built around its decoding platform.

Aurender N200

As supplied, the Aurender N200 has no storage capacity aside from the 240GB NVMe SSD used for caching music for playback. Instead, two slots on the rear take 2.5in HDDs or SSDs, installed by the user to suit their needs.

XTZ Edge A2-400

Sometimes, a logical area of development in one product category is slightly undermined by other areas not necessarily producing the kit to make use of them.

NAD M23

NAD's latest power amp to feature Purifi Eigentakt Class D technology, when used in stereo the M23's rated power is quoted at 200W/8ohm - making it good for all but the most demanding of loudspeakers.

Rega Saturn MK3/Elicit MK5

As Rega’s first amplifier to augment analogue inputs with digital ones, the Elicit MKS comes equipped with one optical and one coaxial input offering support for PCM up to 24-bit/192kHz. Decoding comes via an unspecified Wolfson DAC.

Yamaha R-S202D

A ‘full-width’ design, this Yamaha integrated is closely related to the AS-201 HFC 386) stereo amplifier, but where that is a conventional line-only device, the R-S202D augments the specification.

Rotel RA-1592MKII

LIKE A GREAT many integrateds, this is most of the way to being an all-in-one system. It has a single XLR input supported by three RCAs and a moving-magnet phono stage.

Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier

Bluesound devices. Like other BluOS devices, sample rate handling

Pro-Ject MaiA S3

As the name suggests, the MaiA S3 is the third generation of Pro-Ject's compact integrated amplifier (the original being tested back in HFC 390) and, while some of the details have changed, the premise is the same as before; an affordable integrated, optimised to work with the company's turntable range but also able to handle other inputs that you might have without struggling