Issue March 2016 - Hi Fi News (2024)

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Since its launch in June 1956 - two years before the commercial realisation of stereo - Hi-Fi News & Record Review has been delivering insightful reviews of the key products and technologies that lie behind our shared hobby... the passion of listening to music on the very best equipment available to the enthusiast. Every issue, Hi-Fi News delivers uniquely in-depth reviews of high-end audio equipment, including the best in vinyl replay and iconic vintage gear from the early days of audio. It is essential reading for all music enthusiasts.

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in this issue

NEWS AND OPINIONWelcome‘I had never seen so many new turntables before at any CES’ Time flies when you are having fun – and managing the world’s oldest and arguably most respected hi-fi magazine certainly has its moments – but I could swear the annual sojourn at CES comes about that little bit quicker every year. CES, once known as the Consumer Electronics Show and then International CES (perhaps because ‘consumers’ are not admitted) and now just ‘CES’ because there’s also CES Asia, is still a very big deal. Whatever else it is, CES is not a hi-fi show. It’s described as ‘the world’s largest innovation event’ and has exhibitors stretching out from the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Centre to many of the outlying hotels. So if a product has a plug, a…3 min

NEWS AND OPINIONElac’s expansionWe reveal the latest products and upcoming events MORE NEW AFFORDABLE LOUDSPEAKERS FROM ELAC WITH PARTNERING SEPARATES The announcement of designer Andrew Jones’ move from TAD to Elac America last year was swiftly followed by the launch of his aptly-named Debut loudspeaker range, comprising eight models. The Hi-fi Show Live 2015 provided audiophiles a first chance to hear these designs, now joined by yet another series called ‘Uni-Fi’. Comprising the UB5 standmount, UF5 floorstander and UC5 centre channel, these speakers all feature a new dual-concentric driver (4in mid/1in treble) with a 5.25in aluminium woofer. Prices will be sub-£500. Joining these loudspeakers is a fresh range of electronics including the Discovery Music Server and Debut DA101EQ integrated amplifier [pictured]. Prices are anticipated to be around £700 and £500, respectively, the server…5 min

NEWS AND OPINIONCES 2016, Las VegasSights and sounds from around the globe Every year CES, the world’s largest consumer electronics show (ironically not open to ‘consumers’), evolves to reflect trends in all areas of technology. This year the exit polls just nudged ahead of the numbers for CES 2015 with more than 3800 exhibitors and 170,000 attendees, including over 50,000 from outside the United States. While most visitors were focused on innovations, from drones to immersive virtual reality headsets and other wearable technologies, the ‘High Performance Audio’ exhibit at the Venetian Hotel, and breakaway suites at the Mirage Hotel, remained an oasis of calm, thanks to some of the best sounds high-end hi-fi has to offer. In marked contrast to previous years, where digital media players of every description were in the ascendant, CES rang…10 min

NEWS AND OPINIONSiegfried Linkwitz‘Linkwitz’s little home-brew set-up ranks among the best’ Scientific pioneers are often immortalised by having their names attached to newly-discovered species and heavenly bodies. The equivalent engineering honor is a name that becomes synonymous with a device, process or formula. Siegfried Linkwitz is an engineer at this level. Co-developer of Linkwitz-Riley crossover networks used in almost all commercial loudspeakers, Linkwitz has devoted his life to pushing the boundaries of acoustical science and audio engineering. It’s no exaggeration to say that he has probably done more to advance these twin endeavours than any other living individual. INNUMERABLE FANS Along the way, Linkwitz has accumulated many professional honours, most recently the Peter Barnett Memorial Award for ‘Technical excellence, practical advancement, and education’ from the Londonbased Institute of Acoustics, which he was presented…7 min

NEWS AND OPINIONACOUSTICS AND CONTROVERSIES...The audio arena is rife with long-running and recent controversies, including baffle and box design, room acoustic correction, digital signal processing, microphone placement, and much more. keith Howard seeks answers... Your interest in achieving a natural, believable stereo image has led you from considerations of speaker design and room layout to suggesting a new mic arrangement – the S+R array – for recording in natural acoustics. Has there been much interest in this from professional recording engineers? Very little. But I have learned since about the restrictions that recording engineers are under. For instance, the conductor may require that a symphonic music recording follow the composer’s score and not how the music would ever be heard from a good seat in the house. Karajan had similar ideas for recording the…2 min

NEWS AND OPINIONLINKWITZ-RILEY CROSSOVER EXPLAINEDSiegfried Linkwitz came to the audio industry’s attention in 1976 when his paper ‘Active Crossover Networks for Noncoincident Drivers’ was published in the Jan/Feb edition of the Journal Of The Audio Engineering Society. What it described would become known as the Linkwitz-Riley crossover although, for reasons which will shortly become apparent, it’s also known as the double-Butterworth or Butterworth-squared alignment. When he wrote the paper, Linkwitz was working for Hewlett-Packard in Santa Rosa, California. Realising that microwaves have similar wavelengths to sound in air, he looked at speaker design with the eye of someone used to visualising microwave radiation patterns. And he realised that conventional crossover networks were less than ideal because no account was taken of the fact that the two drivers, between which the audio signal is shared,…2 min

Issue March 2016 - Hi Fi News (2024)

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