Newsletter #27 – April 2023
Hello, and welcome to the April Newsletter #27. The year is flying by but the music keeps coming, and so do the HiFi products, there is much to look forward to from the likes of T+A, NAD and REL.
YouTube
Hopefully, you have seen and subscribed to the new YouTube channel we have set up to complement the site. We plan to include Show reviews and walkthroughs, as well as reviews, news and some interesting Shorts. In this age of social media, it feels that YouTube, ‘the world’s second biggest search engine’, will be essential to the future of this and other publications.
Sadly, due to unforeseen circumstances we’ll be missing the Signals Show this week, we had planned to attend and do our second walkthrough after the success of our Whittlebury and Bristol visits, but these things happen. Best wishes to the Signals Show, in Ipswich this week/weekend.
New Reviews
This month has been YouTube busy but we have still found time to review the fabulous Rega ELEX Mk4, which won an Oustanding award. The ELEX, we concluded:
… is musical, has a balanced tone, is detailed and it is an all-around winner
We’ve also put the ELEX on YouTube.
Also reviewed this month were the Kudos Titan 505s. These loudspeakers are very special indeed, delivering incredible detail and that tight, isobaric, bass control. They have won an Editor’s Pick and this reviewer concluded:
This is as good a HiFi system as I have heard in the ten years of HF&MS…
The full Titan 505 loudspeaker review is here.
Other reviews this month included a look at the PSB Alpha iQ powered speakers, controlled by the excellent and class-leading BluOS streaming platform. The Alpha iQ even has a MM Phono stage in it and it was pretty decent too. There’s a YouTube video too on the Alpha’s, here.
We also reviewed the Letshueor S12 Pro in-ear monitors this month. They have a planar magnetic design and had excellent resolution and a really open soundstage.
New Music
It’s music first, here at HF&MS, and the standout release in these last few weeks has been the incredible Ziggy Stardub Reggae album, a take on Ziggy Stardust of course by the New York collective Easy Star All Stars. They’ve also Reggae-i-fied OK Computer and Sgt. Pepper’s to great effect.
Other nice releases on rotation this month included the new album from GoGo Penguin (Everything is Going to be OK) and Arooj Aftab’s new release Love In Exile.
The reviews this month have yielded several Musical Interlude Playlists that are collated during the listening and reviewing period. There are several goto tracks that are used when listening to particular characteristics or performance. Here are a few of them, they are all public and so can be added to:
Tidal
Kudos Titan main playlist
Kudos Titan 80s inspired playlist
Kudos Titan classical music playlist
Kudos Titan jazz playlist
Qobuz
Rega ELEX playlist
Letshuoer S12 Pro playlist
PSB Alpha iQ playlist
Coming Up on HF&MS
Reviews coming up these next few months will include a look at the REL Carbon Special, which is currently supporting the Titans. There will also be a few words on the epic Paradigm 120Hs. I had to go to them rather than they come to HF&MS which is usually the case on account of they are huge, weigh a ton (well 42kg each) and they were in AV mode. A video on Youtube will follow, as well.
There will also be a review of some high-end cables from Black Rhodium. Their Charleston cables are currently connected to the Titans with the Moor Amps Angel 6 and the combination is rather special!
Look out too for a review of the new NAD CS1 network streamer, which as you can see is rather dusty out of the box, and the impressive T+A 200 series [comprising a networked music player (MP 200) with a CD, a DAC (DAC 200) and a power amplifier (A 200)]. There will also be a review of the TOZO X1 Golden in-ears.
Enjoy May everybody and please look at our YouTube page and subscribe for the latest videos.
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