HOW TO GET THE BEST SOUND FROM YOUR TURNTABLE
VINYL SPECIAL
GET INTO THE GROOVE! 12 turntables for every budget that really move the needle
From
£2to35 £3100
ISSUE 460
REVIEWED
SPEAKERS HEAD TO HEAD
KEF LS50 Meta Fyne Audio F300
Sony’s new wireless earbuds Philips OLED with integrated B&W soundbar
Goldmund Telos 590 Nextgen II
Naim Mu-so 2 Sonus Faber Omnia ISSUE 460
UK £5.20 | US $12.99 | CAD $13.99
DISPLAY UNTIL 05/25/2022 PRINTED IN THE UK
10 TIPS FOR BUYING SECOND-HAND VINYL
FREE! Aw
ard-winning headphones! when you subscri be p26
!
W E LC O M E
HOW WE TEST
ONE GOOD TURN AFTER ANOTHER Here we are, comfortably into the third decade of the 21st century, and the good old turntable – there right near the start of recorded sound – is positively blooming. Vinyl went through a decidedly tricky patch in the ‘80s and ‘90s with the introduction of digital formats, in the form of the compact disc, but not even the clear benefits of streaming our tunes over a mobile phone (my 12-year-old, Star Trek-obsessed mind would have been frazzled at the very thought of such sorcery) can’t stop our increasing enthusiasm for the old analogue warhorse. In this issue then, we bring you a superb selection of some of our favourite turntables (p32) from just over £200 to a touch north of three grand, so we have got plenty of budgets covered. There are features on setting up your turntable (p46) and buying second-hand vinyl (p62) to help you on your way, too. We also have a couple of intriguing head to head tests, of stereo speakers (p50), and premium wireless speakers (p58) with Award winners taking on new rivals in each category.
Jonathan Evans, editor
A complete turntable system that gets the basics and the balance spot on
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DEDICATED TEST FACILITIES We test every product against its peers in our extensive, bespoke reviewing facilities in London, Reading and Bath. We conduct all our tests as a team – our opinions and conclusions are always the result of collaboration.
All review verdicts are agreed upon by the team as a whole – not an individual reviewer. Each product will be listened to and/or viewed by several members of the test team, who will then discuss the final verdict before it appears in the magazine or on the website. This avoids any individual bias creeping in.
Rega System One, p10
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We’ve been helping the world discover the best in hi-fi and home entertainment for more than 40 years, and have more than 100 years of reviewing experience under our collective belts – so you can count on our expert opinion.
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What Hi-Fi? (ISSN 0309-3336) (May, issue 460) is published monthly with an extra issue in March by Future Publishing, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA, UK. The US annual subscription price is $175.37. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agent named World Container Inc., c/o BBT 150-15 183rd St, Jamaica, NY 11413, USA. Application to Mail at Periodicals Postage Prices is Pending at Brooklyn NY 11256. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to What Hi-Fi?, World Container Inc., c/o BBT 150-15 183rd St, Jamaica, NY 11413, USA. Subscription records are maintained at Future Publishing, c/o Air Business Subscriptions, Rockwood House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 3DH, UK.
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CONTENTS 06 FIRST TESTS
28 INSIDER 30 HARD FACTS
INSIDER TOP FIVE
This month there’s an update to dCS’s revered Rossini Apex DAC, an AV amp from ON SOFTWARE Arcam, iFi’s portable Zen Air DAC, B&W’s first As the quality of hi-fi standalone Dolby Atmos soundbar and a products’ software Reavon BD player increasingly determines their value, we assess the pros and cons of the shift in emphasis
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HOW TO GET THE BEST SOUND FROM YOUR TURNTABLE
VINYL SPECIAL
Buying a quality record player doesn’t guarantee you the best results; you need to set it up correctly too. We tell you how
With records still riding high in the hi-fi charts, we help you find the right turntable. Our special feature has verdicts on our top 12 record players, from £230 to £3100 WORTH
£89
SUBSCRIBE TODAY!
And get a pair of Awardwinning headphones! See page 26
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Image credit: Arcam, Ifi, Bowers & Wilkins, Philips 6, Rega, Cleer Audio , Sony, Apple , LG, Roon, Audio Technica, Vertere, Technics, Fyne, KEF, NAim, Sonos, Getty, PMC, Goldmund, Netflix: Reacher
Philips’s bid to create the “ultimate TV”; Apple’s iPad update; new headphones from Sony and Cleer Audio; Rega’s turntable-based system and more
CONTENTS
THIS MONTH WE GIVE THE DEFINITIVE WORD ON THESE PRODUCTS
5O
HEAD TO HEAD: STEREO SPEAKERS
Fyne Audio’s F500SP and the KEF LS50 Meta are both great speakers, so which should you buy?
AMPLIFIERS Goldmund Telos 590 Nextgen II
68
HEADPHONES Cleer Audio Alpha
12
Sony WF-L900 LinkBuds
14
PROJECTORS LG HU810PW
58
HEAD TO HEAD: WIRELESS SPEAKERS
As neat all-in-one systems go, the Naim Mu-so 2 and Sonus Faber Omnia are a well matched pair…
62
STEREO SPEAKERS
VS
KEF LS50 Meta
54
PMC Fact Fenestria
64
10
TABLETS Apple iPad
TEMPTATIONS
122
52
Rega System One
10 TIPS FOR BUYING SECOND-HAND VINYL
PMC goes all out with its Fact Fenestria floorstanders. We say: “One of the finest pairs of speakers we have heard.”
Fyne Audio F500SP
SYSTEMS
How to shop smart for your records
64
22
18
TELEVISIONS Philips 65OLED986
6
TURNTABLES
68
TEMPTATIONS
Goldmund’s Telos 590 Nextgen II: integrated amplification par excellence
THE FOUR BEST NEW NETFLIX FILMS
A quartet of quirky delights available to stream
BUYER’S GUIDE
FIND THE BEST KIT AROUND, FAST!
Every product worth owning. Starting on page 71
Sony PS-LX310BT
34
Audio Technica AT-LP3
35
Sony PS-HX500
36
Rega Planar 1 Plus
37
Audio Technica AT-LP5x
38
Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo
39
Rega Planar 3
40
Technics SL-1500C
41
Rega Planar 6
42
Rega Planar 8
43
Clearaudio Concept Active MM
44
Vertere DG-1
45
WIRELESS SPEAKERS Sonus Faber Omnia
16/58
JBL Flip 6
20
Naim Mu-so 2
58
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GROUP TEST
Set the record straight With vinyl’s resurgent popularity marching on, we round up a dozen great turntables that will get the best from your record collection t’s testament to the enduring appeal of vinyl recordings, not to mention the tactility and fun of spinning records, that the past few years have seen something of a groove renaissance. Indeed, vinyl sales are still growing, while the popular annual Record Store Day celebration of the beloved black disc is now in its 18th year. While digital audio files have improved to proper hi-fi quality, and streaming services such as Spotify and Tidal make music listening super-easy and available to anyone with a smartphone – and there are some seriously good hi-fi streamers on the market for the more discerning music listener too – thankfully there is clearly and rightly still a place for good old analogue alongside digital convenience. Of course, if you really want to get the best out of your records, you’re going to need a good record player. Over the next 12 pages, we present our pick of the best
I
turntables you can buy on a relatively humble budget, from simple to set up entry level decks from around the £230 mark to some great value ‘grown up’ decks around the £3000 price point. You could go way higher than that, of course, but at our top level here you still get a serious bit of kit that will satisfy the audiophile and hi-fi hobbyist. Remember: if you are adding a turntable to an existing hi-fi system, make sure there is a phono stage somewhere in that set-up. Some decks come with a phono stage, others do not. And no phono stage, no music – the signal relayed by a cartridge is minuscule and requires more amplification than most modern amps, which tend to be geared towards CD and digital music, can manage. So no matter your budget, turn the page to peruse a dozen superb decks that will play your precious platters at the highest quality.
CONTENTS Sony PS-LX310BT (page 34) Audio Technica AT-LP3 (page 35) Sony PS-HX500 (page 36) Rega Planar 1 Plus (page 37) Audio Technica AT-LP5x (page 38) Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo (page 39)
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Rega Planar 3 (page 40) Technics SL-1500C (page 41) Rega Planar 6 (page 42) Rega Planar 8 (page 43) Clearaudio Concept Active MM (page 44) Vertere DG-1 (page 45)
T U R N TA B L E S
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Image credit: Fyne Audio
H E A D TO H E A D
Fyne Audio F500SP VS KEF LS50 Meta Head to head Both these standmounters are upgraded versions of successful originals, but which comes out on top? We’ve got the answer 50 www.whathifi.com
FYNE AUDIO F500SP
O
n the surface of it, this looks like a duel between closely matched contenders with a great deal in common: both are good-looking UK-bred mid-range standmounters; both carry an armoury of up-to-theminute technology; both take a similar approach to driver design; and both promise superior hi-fi sound without charging an arm and a leg for it. From another angle though, this is something of a David-and-Goliath clash. English brand KEF is a giant in the world of speaker manufacture; a big company with a recognised pedigree and many decades of experience. Glasgow-based Fyne Audio, on the other hand, is a relative new boy that has been on the scene for only a few years and, helped by a number of early successes, is still finding its way in the market. If that weren’t enough to tilt the outcome in KEF’s favour, the English brand has price on its side too, its LS50 Metas – a current What Hi-Fi? Product Of The Year – costing £500 less than the F500 SPs. KEF’s original LS50s were an instant hit in the mid-range speaker market, but that was nearly a decade ago. This new generation may look pretty
vs
K E F L S 5 0 M E TA
much the same but they benefit from some clever new internal engineering that lifts the speakers’ performance significantly. The F500SP are a highly tuned-up version of the standard model, justifying a significant price rise by incorporating advanced technology from higher up the Fyne Audio range. A word on those driver-design similarities. Both our contenders have their tweeters mounted in the middle of the mid/bass unit, getting close to the ideal of a point-source driver where all the sound, regardless of frequency, originates from the same place. The difference comes in the way in which each executes this design. KEF employs its traditional Uni-Q array (reworked in the Metas to minimise distortion) while Fyne Audio opts for a horn-loaded tweeter buried deep inside the mid/bass unit. Regardless of the method used, placing the tweeter and mid/bass unit together has notable advantages in terms of dispersion characteristics and integration. Whichever model you opt for, don’t short-change yourself when it comes to speaker stands. Both are quality standmounters that will be significantly compromised by indifferent partnering equipment.
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H E A D TO H E A D
Naim Mu-so 2 vs Sonus Faber Omnia: which is the best wireless speaker system? Both offer style and sonic substance in one compact, convenient package
58 www.whathifi.com
NOW WITH THE BEST BUYS IN EVERY CATEGORY
BUYER’S GUIDE
HI-FI Stereo amplifiers Pre- & power amplifiers CD players & transports DACs Music streamers Radios Stereo speakers Systems Multi-room systems Turntables Wireless speakers
The definitive guide to the best home-entertainment kit you can buy From 65in 4K TVs to turntables, and from portable Bluetooth speakers to Dolby Atmos surround sound packages, here’s where you’ll find the perfect hi-fi and AV product, fast. NEW ENTRIES THIS MONTH It’s the turn of the portable DAC to come under the spotlight this month, first in the curvy shape of the Chord Mojo 2 and then courtesy of the alluring iFi Hip-dac 2. In addition, Beyerdynamic makes the cut once again thanks to the company’s impressive DT700 Pro X closed-back headphones: robust build, fine musicality and great value for money Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X Despite the ‘Pro’ label, these fine headphones are reasonably priced
Chord Mojo 2 A great sequel to a classic: Chord has taken the Mojo DAC to the next level
Image: Netflix, Jak pokochałam gangstera
9000
BUYER’S GUIDE
79 81 81 82 84 85 86 90 91 91 94
HOME CINEMA Blu-ray players Home cinema amplifiers Projectors Set-top boxes Soundbars & soundbases Speaker packages Video streamers Televisions
96 96 97 98 98 99 100 101
PORTABLE Headphones Portable music players Smartphones Streaming apps & services Tablets
103 109 110 111 111
ACCESSORIES Analogue interconnects AV & hi-fi racks Cartridges Headphone amplifiers Mains products Phono stages Speaker cables Speaker stands
112 112 113 113 113 114 115 116
HOW TO POSITION YOUR SPEAKERS It’s not just a case of ‘plonk ’em down and plug ’em in’; getting your speakers set up properly can make all the difference to how they sound. We show you how to get it right on page 89. AMAZON PRIME VIDEO TIPS Our guide to getting the most out of the popular streaming service, whether you’re watching on a TV, tablet or smartphone. See page 110.
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