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2 weeks ago | 
inkl.com | Lewis Empson |Becky Roberts |Chris Burke |Kashfia Kabir
Sam Fender – Me and the Dog EP While I’m sure there are plenty of excellent albums yet to be released this year, they’ll have to go a long way to beat Sam Fender’s exceptional, soulful and politically charged People Watching. Fender’s Springsteen-via-Newcastle-upon-Tyne style is absolutely electric, encompassing everything from toe-tapping folk-style tracks to razor-sharp scathing rants directed at social injustice and heartbreaking autobiographical compositions that document journeys of grief.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
whathifi.com | Chris Burke
It’s always fun, after our dizzyingly busy Awards-testing months, to take stock of the new equipment we rate most highly and to match them with like-minded products to produce stunning systems. Which is what we have done for this issue of What Hi-Fi?. In February's magazine you will find five brilliant stereo systems based on Award-winning kit. It is always tempting to put “Award-winning systems” as the coverline on these issues; but that would be misleading.
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Nov 15, 2024 | 
whathifi.com | Chris Burke
After much deliberation, a lot of hard work and some tough decisions, we are pleased to be able to announce the winners of this year's What Hi-Fi? Awards. A total of 112 winners of Best Buy Awards and our most prestigious Product Of The Year gongs were celebrated on November 14th at a black-tie event in London, and we present them here in full in this issue. But, as usual, you can count on us to bring you reviews of the very latest hi-fi and AV products in our First Tests section too.
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Oct 24, 2024 | 
1001tracklists.com | Chris Burke
Gala - Freed From Desire (Diplo Remix) MINISTRY OF SOUND chrisburke (3.2k) Tita Lau - Take Off STEREOHYPE chrisburke (3.2k) ZAYTEK & Jun Wilder - Dopamine TRACE AMOUNTS chrisburke (3.2k) Alannys Weber - In My Mind HΞXHIBITION chrisburke (3.2k) Chris Lake & Chris Lorenzo pres. Anti Up & hollow.io - Shambles chrisburke (3.2k) Azzecca - Who's That Girl?
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Oct 19, 2024 | 
inkl.com | Alastair Stevenson |Andy Madden |Harry Mckerrell |Chris Burke
The Cure – Disintegration (1989)The Cure are a hot topic at the moment, with the band’s new album Songs Of A Lost World set to come out alongside a fresh supporting tour in 2025. No one is more excited about this prospect than I am, as from the day I first heard them, I’ve been utterly obsessed with The Cure.
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Jun 19, 2024 | 
whathifi.com | Chris Burke
Entering a new market is never easy. Entering a market where a number of your rivals are already doing an absolutely stellar job must be a truly daunting proposition – especially when some of those rivals are called Sony, Bose, Apple, Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkins. Fair play, then, to multi-room speaker and soundbar specialist Sonos for taking the headphone bull by the horns. It has named its premium noise-cancellers Ace; so has it played its trump card? Our Sonos Ace First Test will reveal all.
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May 23, 2024 | 
whathifi.com | Chris Burke
The arrival on the market of one new turntable is something of a turn-up for the books, even in these days when the vinyl revival is relatively old news; so when three turn up in quick succession it feels as though it ought to herald something of a celebration for a magazine that is, when all is said and done, all about the enjoyment of listening to music. This issue of What Hi-Fi?, then, is a vinyl special, with those three new deckstaking pride of place.
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Apr 18, 2024 | 
whathifi.com | Chris Burke
Even more so than it was decades ago (when it was a common enough commodity), vinyl is a precious and much-loved format that requires care and love. Records, even second-hand ones, are pretty pricey these days (even non-rare LPs), and you'll want to keep them in tip-top condition. Vinyl is quite a fragile and easily damaged material, and dirt, fingerprints and dust can cause your records to skip, scratch and impact the quality of the playback.
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Apr 16, 2024 | 
whathifi.com | Chris Burke
The vinyl record has been around in its current format since Columbia Records launched the first 12-inch LP in 1948 (although the basic idea is much older, as we shall see). This writer has been buying music on the once ubiquitous and already well-established vinyl format since the tender age of six, when I bought The Smurfs' Christmas In Smurfland (don't tell my colleagues, I told them my second record, We Are The Champions, was my first).
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Feb 1, 2024 | 
whathifi.com | Chris Burke
The annual Consumer Electronics Show marks the beginning of each year with an audio-visual bang that is second to none. CES takes place in Las Vegas at the start of January, and it is where many of the major television manufacturers announce their new sets and technological developments for the year. And, of course, we at What Hi-Fi? are there to report on it all every year. In this month’s issue, we bring you the news on what you can expect from TVs in 2024.
