Welcome
Welcome to this March Newsletter, this time, hot off the press after the Whittlebury Show 2025. It has been a busy month with many reviews from the new writing team that is coming together nicely (see below).
Audio Show Deluxe
The Whittlebury Show 2025 is officially the Audio Show Deluxe, held at Whittlebury Hall, near Silverstone. It was a busy show with more footfall than previous years. I picked out a few outstanding rooms, though there were many, and I’ve not even included the Martin Logan, KEF or Absolute Sounds rooms! A video of these rooms may follow, though it will be late to the show.
Brian and Trevor
Brian and Trevor’s Room was a spacious, dare I say, understated room that featured the Kudos Audio Sigao Drive Crossover. This crossover had Titan 808 loudspeakers driven by three Linn Klimax power amplifiers. The setup also featured Melco’s flagship N1 media library and the S1 switch, which we hope to review here at HF&MS in the coming period.
Cyrus Audio
Other notable rooms included Cyrus Audio’s room, which debuted their new phono preamplifier 40 with their 40th Anniversary turntable in a stunning room with Audio Physic AVANTI loudspeakers.
Henley Audio
Henley had an excellent room as always, featuring the E.A.T. Fortissimo turntable with an E.A.T. E-GLO II phono preamplifier with Musical Fidelity NU-VISTA amplification driving the Piega 811 Floorstanding loudspeakers.
KOG Audio
KOG’s room featured T+A amplification with the new T+A Solitaire S loudspeakers and separately had another system with the Transrotor Bellini TMD turntable and Fink Team Borg 2 loudspeakers with Tellurium Q Statement loudspeaker cable
Oneiros Audio
The Oneiros Audio loudspeakers are around £680,000 a pair with various high-end upgrades available. The room featured a VPI Avenger turntable with Audioquest Dragon cables The loudspeakers were driven by Balanced Audio monoblocks.
New Reviews
Avondale Audio
This month has seen a bunch of reviews that have all emerged having been queued up in the review process. These reviews include the terrific Avondale preamplifier and power amplifier, where we said here at HF&MS;
The (Naim NAP 250) upgrade was, basically, night and day; it is a completely heightened soundstage
Meze Audio
We also published a review of the Meze Audio POET planar magnetic headphones, where we commented;
… the POETs perform with pace and power with the Nuprime DAC-9X
Townshend
Chris Bailie wrote about the Townshend Audio Seismic Isolation Podiums and Fractal F1 loudspeaker cables, where he said;
With these Seismic Podiums, …the effect was akin to pulling back the curtains on a sunny day
Meze Audio
As well as the planar magnetic POETs, Meze Audio has recently unleashed the very affordable 105 AER open-backed dynamic headphones; the review is here. We said of these 105AERS;
An excellent pair of headphones that checks all the boxes for comfort, resolution, tonality, and price.
Tellurium Q
Finally, another cable review, after a prolonged loan period by Teluurium Q. The Ultra Silver II is a premium offering that promised, and delivered, open channel transparency, we said;
I’m just getting more…. How do I ‘feel’ this? It is just evident.
Edifier
If you are on the move and looking for a non-Apple iPod solution, the blade-style noise-cancelling planar magnetic Edifier Stax S10s are worth a high-resolution listen; they are LDAC compatible.
Coming Up
Some excellent reviews are coming in, and we have two new writers contributing to HF&MS going forward.
AVID
John Pickford is reviewing the AVID Accent, an integrated amplifier that belies its entry-level description. Look out for this review in the next few days. John has a studio background and has written for StereoNET and other pro-audio publications.
Fell Audio
We also have a review from Ian Ringstead of the Fell Audio releases, their Fell Amp and Fell Disc. Ian has audio retail experience with Linn, Naim, and Rega and has previously written for other HiFi publications.
This month’s amplifier trilogy will conclude with a review of the HiFi Rose RA280. The 280 is a scaled-back version of the intense RA180, but it still shares the energy of its big brother.
Look out for a review of the soundbar killing Q Acoustics M40 powered speaker set.
The high-end headphone train continues with the newly launched Focal Bathys MG running-in as this newsletter goes live.
New Music
There have been some excellent new albums this month. Notably, from Pale Blue Eyes, their album is called New Place. Regarding Pale Blue Eyes, Ryan Adams released his live cover of the Velvet Underground song this month and The Smiths’ There Is a Light That Never Goes Out. This Editor saw Ryan Adams cover this Smiths song at Oxford last year. That Oxford Concert Playlist is here. Ryan Adams is currently on his 25th Anniversary tour of Heartbreaker, released in 2001. There is a setlist playlist here as well.
There are a few new Playlists for the Meze Audio review, on Qobuz, and a new one for the Focal Bathys MG, on Tidal.
Further Reading
