The hi-fi hobby is full of dogmas and unshakeable truths. One of them is that you need a lot of equipment to get good sound. System Audio challenges this mindset with its Silverback 40.2 DS, where the idea is so simple that it almost seems rude: two speakers, a hub and power. That’s all you …
The day started with a visit out of the ordinary. A supplier of power products had come to demonstrate what cleaner power can do for sound. Although I know it helps, I was sceptical about how much of a difference it could make. This time, however, it turned out to be much easier to distinguish …
As soon as I unpack the Scansonic MB5 B, I find myself getting excited. The slim speakers are smooth and sleek in their white satin finish with delicate woven carbon fiber details on both the top and bottom of the faceplate. The design is unmistakably Scansonic with the rounded shapes and distinctive ribbon tweeter. This …
I’m old enough to remember the first version of the Contour 1.8. And the second one, for that matter. A speaker model that in many ways marked a turning point for Dynaudio. Before that, many perceived the earlier Dynaudio speakers as a bit on the cool and reclusive side, but with good resolution and transparency. …
What do you get when one of the world’s leading speaker manufacturers embarks on a project to create the ultimate speaker series? The answer is the Bowers & Wilkins 800 D4 Series. The top-of-the-range 801 D4 is the latest addition to the lineage of the iconic speaker that entered the legendary Abbey Road Studios almost …
Revival Audio has taken not only us, but most reviewers by storm since their debut a year ago. This applies to both the compact stand model Atalante 3 and the powerful and rather voluminous Atalante 5. So, of course, we had to test the new ” middle model” Atalante 4 as soon as possible when …
It’s almost impossible to talk about speakers without thinking of Bowers & Wilkins. The British manufacturer is a benchmark against which others measure themselves, almost in every price range, and “every” hi-fi enthusiast has a mate with a pair of B&Ws in their living room. The manufacturer is also not known for coming up with …
Compromise is not a word Raidho is familiar with. The Danish speaker manufacturer makes all of their components in-house, right down to the drivers, crossovers and feet. This also applies to their new speakers, the extremely sleek and slim Raidho X2t. The cabinet itself is almost as narrow as a CD cover, and the cabinet …
Forget that Prodigy are PMC’s budget speakers. Forget that they’re small and only two-way. Forget that they look like they were made in a woodwork shop. Forget everything you’ve thought about small budget speakers. These speakers play music in an astonishingly honest, engaging and dynamic way. Which is a rarity in this price range. One …
Dali Kore is an extraordinary speaker that sounds amazing. It’s as simple as that. You might argue that it should go without saying that it sounds good when the price of a pair of speakers is on a par with the price of a German luxury car. But to understand how a pair of Dali …
Floorstanding speakers have an undeserved reputation for being large, impractical – and associated with permanent bachelor status. Which is a shame, as floorstanding speakers often actually take up less space than compact speakers on stands. The Audio Pro A38 is a floorstander so humble in scale and design that it should be able to fit …
It shouldn’t really be possible for something this small to play so loud and clear, and with a bass reproduction that you can feel in your body. You look around to see what beast of an amplifier is driving the modest speakers, and where is the subwoofer? The new Dynaudio Focus 30 look like most …
I remember wondering about the claim of how much better the sound would be when KEF first introduced Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT). For me, the press release sounded like so many other press releases from loudspeaker manufacturers. Full of praise about how much better the new version is. So, guided by experience, I waited to …
The QR series is Danish Audiovector’s most affordable speaker family, and we saw the first models back in 2016. At the time, the 2.5-way QR3 was the only floorstanding model, and I was blown away by its light and free-flowing playing style, combined with a firmness that surpassed most. Both in the bass and in …
Nostalgia is vogue. Here at the editorial office, Geir Nordby leads the vintage-style competition by having a set of JBL 4411 monitor speakers from 1984 lying on his desk, while yours truly has to make do with a smaller set of JBL L86s from 1982. We’re also seeing an increasingly dense flow of speakers attempting …