Monthly Archives - October 2017

09 Oct

Focal and Ubisoft team up for bank-breaking gold headphones

As part of a tie in to Assassin’s Creed Origins, Focal’s Utopia headphones get an 18-carat gold make-over from French jeweller Tournaire. Focal is known, in part, for making some mind-bogglingly expensive headphones. Its Utopia, with the addition of some diamonds and a lot of gold from French jeweller Tournaire, are the most expensive headphones ever made. And now you can get a version that makes you feel like an assassin. Specifically, an assassin from Ubisoft’s new Assassin’s Creed Origins game. They cost €50,000 (approximately £44,000) per pair [...]

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09 Oct

KEF LS50 Wireless review

When someone says the words ‘hi-fi system’, what do you think of? If you’re anything like us, you’ve just pictured a combination of separates comprising source – maybe a streamer, CD player or record player – an amplifier and a pair of speakers. If we could go back 40 years and ask the same question, we suspect any enthusiast would have given a very similar answer – minus the digital sources, of course. While hi-fi has certainly improved and been developed over the decades, on a [...]

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09 Oct

Denon AVR-X6400H review

Good thing, this Denon AVR-X6400H – one of Denon’s top AVRs for 2017 – takes its job seriously, then. Not only is it decked out with all the features and technology you’d expect from a modern home cinema amplifier, it also delivers excellent performance that easily makes it worth spending serious money on. Sound Imagine the refined Denon AVR-X2400H, but with a bigger, bolder and more confident presentation. That’s the gist of this Denon AVR-X6400H – it offers plenty of poise, control and subtlety along [...]

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07 Oct

Focal introduces Kanta No.2 floorstanders and Clear headphones

The Kantas are the first speakers to combine Focal’s Flax cone and Beryllium tweeter, while the Clear over-ears sit between the Elear and Utopia models. Focal’s latest speaker mission: to design compact floorstanders that utilise (and develop) existing technology in its high-end ranges. The upshot: the Kanta No.2s. The 3-way floorstanders, which slot between the French brand’s mid-range Aria and high-end Sopra series, mark the first time the brand has combined its Flax cone driver system (which sandwiches flax fibre between two layers of glass [...]

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07 Oct

Focal launches Sib Evo Dolby Atmos speaker package

The French company’s Sib & Co speaker range is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a new, Atmos-enabled speaker package. Gone are those wretched days when Dolby Atmos was the next big thing in home cinema audio. The immersive surround sound technology now features on multiple Ultra HD Blu-rays, Sky and BT sports broadcasts and even some PC games. As of recently, it’s also on Netflix. Not only is the content getting there but there’s plenty of hardware to play it through too. Most modern AV amps support it, plus some top-priced [...]

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07 Oct

Naim adds Roon Ready to Uniti all-in-one systems

The Uniti Atom, Uniti Star and Uniti Nova get Roon integration via a firmware update rolling out this month. It seems Naim has found a way to make its Uniti line of all-in-one streaming products even more desirable – with Roon Ready! For the uninitiated, Roon is music player software (available on Windows, OS X, Android and iOS) that aims to provide a more interesting and (literally) colourful way to browse and organize music compared to others (like iTunes, for instance). It brings all your [...]

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