News

This month sees our 400th issue, a special anniversary edition celebrating 40 years of expert hi-fi reviews and buying advice. In putting together this issue, I have come to realise just how significantly the world of audio has changed in an amazingly short amount of time. I was perhaps a bit too young to remember the very first issue of Hi-Fi Choice when it launched in its original A5 format back in 1975, but I do remember the music and sounds of the time that got me hooked, even if I was listening on a mono cassette radio recorder or my dad’s 8-track tape player in the family car. For anyone wanting to recall the era our Year In Music feature is just for you, and revisits 1975 with a comprehensive rundown of the bands and albums that defined the magazine’s birth year.

Titchy new Austrian import

High-quality streamer, DAC and preamp now available

Network Audio Transport from Japan

Celebrating over 90 years as an audio manufacturer, Luxman has announced details of its latest integrated amp, the L-590AX Mark II. Described by the Japanese company as the best integrated it has ever produced, the Class Aamp is claimed to deliver “spellbinding clarity, exquisite sonic detail and fluid, free-breathing musicality” and is said to be a culmination ofall that Luxman has learned since launching Japan’s first high-quality integrated back in 1961 – in the shape of the valve-based SQ5A. Boasting a single-chassis integrated design,the L-590AX Mark II has Luxman’s fourth-generation Only Distortion Negative Feedback (ODNF) circuit at its heart in order to restrict feedback only to distortion components, for a fast primary slew rate, ultra-wide bandwidth and enhanced signal-to-noise performance. Power is rated at 30W per channel into 8ohm, doubling to 60W per channel into 4ohm, which Luxman describes as sufficient power to drive any loudspeaker of suitable quality.

A trio of components from Japan

Whenever the subject has come up for discussion at HFC, it seems that professional singers and musicians generally aren’t into audiophile-grade hi-fi. Why would they be? Immersed in their own music for a living, even the world’s greatest system is going to come off second best. Their ‘hi-fi jollies’ don’t involve 24/192 downloads but living and breathing the music itself. We can understand that.