Hi-Fi Choice

Hi-Fi Choice is the essential guide to audio excellence in the home. It is a no-nonsense guide to the finest products available, from vinyl and valves, to multi-channel digital audio and high-fidelity video. Hi-Fi Choice sorts the best from the rest with rigorous test processes and a highly experienced team of reviewers.

Welcome

Having it large • New flagship floorstander

Heads up • New digital audio player and headphone amp/DAC

Block rockin’ beats • Mains extensions updated

Score draw • Debut headphone amp from Vienna

Ditch the cables • New streaming box with an eye on longevity

Marathon cans • New cans with super-long battery life

Action stations • New active speaker series

Swiss bank busters • A trio of expensive new active wireless speakers

Kronos AUDIO VISUAL

Kanto kan do! • New active speaker for the summer

Plug and play • New affordable starter turntable

Wood vibrations • Fancy new closed-back cans

Super trooper • New addition to British Heritage range

The naked bunch • Brand new CD player and turntable

Glass half full • New UK valve tester

Into the groove • New DAC/headphone amp from the US

Branching out • New Bluetooth turntable with an ecological twist

Grain drops • New work-of-art headphone

Unique group tests • Our Group Tests are supported by rigorous and exhaustive listening tests carried out by experts

Gain with no pain • In the market for a preamplifier? Ed Selley reckons that before you look for a good one, you first need to decide what you need it to do

Cyrus Classic PRE £2,600 • A well-thought-out balance of features and functions helps Cyrus turn this into a Classic performance

Eversolo DMP-A8 £1,890 • The astonishingly flexible Eversolo attempts to do everything… and by-and-large goes ahead and does so

Exposure 3510 Pre-Amplifier £1,700 • The Exposure might be the most traditional design here, but it makes simplicity a considerable virtue

Leema Acoustics Neutron £1,500 • The Leema sets about doing more for less and it manages to deliver on the promise in fine style

Parasound NewClassic 200 Pre £1,800 • The Parasound has a different take on the requirements of being a preamp that some will find very handy

Pro-Ject Pre Box RS2 Digital £1,900 • The Pro-Ject is a small box with some decidedly big – and surprisingly unusual – ideas

Group test verdict • Variable roles and functionality make ranking the contenders tricky, but Ed Selley nonetheless sets out to bring order to the chaos

Lush, big, bold and very clever • Complete with a new streaming module, T+A’s latest network-attached DAC/preamp is the perfect partner for its M 40 HV monoblocks and A 3000 HV power amp

Baby driver • As Creative debuts its fancy new silicon-based MEMS driver design. Cliff Joseph can’t help but be impressed

Burger king • The Sound Burger looks like an answer to a question nobody asked, but Ed Selley is nonetheless rather charmed by it

Out of this world • David Vivian wonders if Danish brand OePhi’s Transcendence 2 standmount can possibly live up to the promise of its name

In the clear • Audiolab’s flagship streamer combines everything it knows about digital decoding with new software. Ed Selley is impressed

Mystique, c’est chic • The last of Neat’s Classic trilogy has a more potted history than its siblings. Ed Selley finds out if the Mystique is back for good

Everyone’s a WiiMer • Too good to be true? The streaming WiiM Amp looks that way on paper. David Vivian wonders if WiiM has defied reason...