Hi-Fi News and Record Review

Hi-Fi News & Record Review has been a trusted source of expert reviews since its debut in June 1956, which was two years prior to the advent of commercial stereo sound. This publication is dedicated to deepening our appreciation for music by exploring the finest audio equipment available for avid listeners. Each edition of Hi-Fi News features comprehensive reviews of premium audio gear, covering everything from top-tier vinyl players to classic vintage equipment that shaped the audio landscape. It's a must-read for anyone passionate about music.

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Classical, May 2025

6 days ago | hifinews.com | Peter Quantrill

Jonathan Aasgaard, BBC Scottish SO, John WilsonRichard Rodney Bennett: Concerto For Orchestra, Sonnets To Orpheus, DiversionsChandos CHSA5266 (SACD; downloads to 96kHz/24-bit resolution)RR Bennett’s legacy needed addressing properly, after his death in 2012, and John Wilson is unquestionably the man for the job. Here by turns is Bennett the modernist, the post-Romantic and the entertainer, and Wilson has the measure of all three disparate idioms.
Audiostatic Monolith II loudspeaker

1 week ago | hifinews.com | John Atkinson

Audiostatic Monolith II loudspeakerJohn Atkinson | May 24, 2025 | First Published: Nov 1, 2024 John Atkinson clears space for a towering full-range electrostatic speaker from the Netherlands as Audiostatic’s Monolith II lands on UK shoresBlame Stanley Kubrick. Until 2001 burst onto our cinema screens, the lay conception of outer space had settled down as a mixture of flying saucers and little green men. Why green? Why little?
Classical, November 2024

1 week ago | hifinews.com | Peter Quantrill

Březina, Briscein, Prague National Theatre/Jaroslav KyzlinkJanáček: The Excursions Of Mr BroučekSupraphon SU4339-2 (two CDs; downloads to 48kHz/24-bit resolution)Janáček’s loopiest and most neglected opera – Al Murray’s Pub Landlord goes to the Moon, in a nutshell – has long needed a modern Czech recording. Opera recordings often don’t work out this way, but here you get the best of both worlds.
Audiophile: Digital, November 2024

1 week ago | hifinews.com | Ken Kessler

Steely DanPretzel LogicAnalogue Productions CAPP136SAPredictable for Album of the Month? Of course, but if Steely Dan is one of the default artists for audiophiles, like The Band and The Eagles, it’s because the music is exceptional and the sound superb. Their third album, from 1974, maintained the quality of its predecessors and steered the band on a jazzier course.
Top 20 surround sound albums

2 weeks ago | hifinews.com | Ken Kessler

Top 20 surround sound albumsKen Kessler | May 24, 2025 | First Published: Nov 1, 2024 From Mingus to Mancini, The O’Jays to The Doors, Ken Kessler brings you an audiophile’s A-list of 20 brand-new surround sound albums ready to wrap you in all their 360° gloryParaphrasing Mark Twain when he read his obituary, reports of the death of surround sound are greatly exaggerated.
Blurred outlines

2 weeks ago | hifinews.com | Peter Quantrill

Music and art can often make an attractive mix for cutting-edge cultural collectives, but the combination is also fraught with plenty of potential pitfalls, reckons Peter QuantrillComposers have often been inspired by artists, and vice versa. The Schoenberg anniversary celebrations serve to remind us that extraordinary individuals can even become accomplished in both fields.
New CD players

2 weeks ago | hifinews.com | Andrew Everard

A recent encounter with a couple of new CD players had Andrew Everard engaging in a trip down memory lane. But first-world problems aside, he wasn’t too sure he liked what he sawOnce, when all was in black and white – well almost! – it wasn’t unknown for me to have a dozen CD players piled up for review.
Vinyl and nonlinear velocity

2 weeks ago | hifinews.com | Barry Willis

Why does Barry Willis count himself as a ‘reformed record collector’? Because he can’t see past what he sees as the vinyl format’s inherent flaws, from groove distortion to velocity concernsAnalogue fans are in general agreement that the professional open-reel tape speed (linear velocity) of 30in per second (30ips, or 72cm/s) is unexcelled when it comes to capturing both musical detail and dynamics. It can sound really impressive with 1in or 2in tape.
Hi-Res Downloads, April 2025

1 month ago | hifinews.com | Andrew Everard

Tord Gustavsen TrioSeeing (88.2kHz/24-bit, WAV)www.ecmrecords.com; ECM 2020Read down the tracklist of this set by pianist Gustavsen, long-term partner in jazz Jarle Vespestad and bassist Steinar Raknes (who last worked with the duo on 2022’s Opening), and you’ll expect a reflective, hymn-like feel. After all, there’s ‘Jesus, Make Me Still’, ‘The Old Church’, ‘Beneath Your Wisdom’ or ‘Nearer My God, To Thee’.
Classical, April 2025

1 month ago | hifinews.com | Peter Quantrill

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Thomas Kaufmann, Camerata Bern‘Exile’ – Panufnik, Schnittke, Wyschnegradsky, Ysaÿe, etc. Alpha ALPHA1110 (downloads to 96kHz/24-bit resolution)Concept albums from PK and her Swiss partners never make for a comfortable listen. Schnittke’s First Cello Sonata, in neo-Baroque dress, trades in Mahlerian violence but keeps heavy irony at bay – unlike the Schubert dances used for one of the interludes.