For fifty hours at the end of July, several million people watched two acts make a record from scratch. Fred again.. and Mexican trio LATIN MAFIA set up at Lago Algo in Bosque de…
Contributors
Erik Zelenkovecs
Company Director
57 Posts
· 57 
A good pair of bookshelf speakers, more accurately called standmounts, remains one of the smartest ways to build a serious hi-fi system. Freed from the need to move large volumes of air low down,…
The sub-£2,000 bracket is where a turntable stops being a starter deck and becomes a component you build a system around. At this level you are paying for genuine engineering rather than styling: properly…
A digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) does one deceptively difficult job: it turns the stream of numbers coming from a computer, streamer, or CD transport into the continuous analogue waveform your amplifier and speakers can actually…
The compact disc has quietly outlasted most predictions of its demise. For a lot of listeners it remains the most satisfying way to own and play music: a fixed, uncompressed 16-bit/44.1kHz master that does…
Streaming has become the primary way many people listen to music, but choosing the right streamer has become more complicated than ever. There are now excellent options at almost every price point, from compact…
Premium Sound is now an authorised UK dealer for Ø Audio, the Norwegian loudspeaker maker of high-end horn-loaded speakers. The Icon 12 is available for demonstration in London, with the rest of the Ø…
There is a reason dealers talk so much about system matching. A brilliant amplifier into the wrong speakers can sound flat, and a resolving pair of speakers will happily expose every weakness further up…
If you are building a serious vinyl system, the phono stage deserves just as much attention as the turntable, cartridge and amplifier. It performs one of the most critical tasks in analogue playback, amplifying…
Spend enough time with a properly resolving pair of headphones and the appeal becomes obvious. There is no room to fight, no speaker positioning to agonise over, and no compromise forced on you by…
Every so often a manufacturer builds a small loudspeaker that quietly refuses to behave like a small loudspeaker, and when it happens the rest of the room tends to go a bit quiet too….
Every turntable needs a phono stage. The signal coming from a cartridge is tiny, measured in millivolts, and it also needs RIAA equalisation applied before an amplifier can do anything useful with it. Traditionally…
The cartridge is the point where your entire vinyl system begins. Every subsequent component, from phono stage to loudspeakers, can only work with the signal the stylus retrieves from the groove. Detail lost at…
There are very few hi-fi components you can identify from across a darkened room, through a doorway, with one eye shut. The work of McIntosh Labs of Binghamton, NY, is firmly on that short…
A streaming amplifier does the job that used to take three separate boxes. It combines an integrated amplifier, a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) and a network streamer in a single chassis, so you connect a…
If you’re new to vinyl and want to buy your first turntable, or if you’re interested in upgrading your current record player, you may be wondering which turntable is the most suitable for your…
A valve (tube) phono stage is mainly about how it shapes and amplifies the tiny signal coming from a turntable cartridge before it reaches your amplifier. Most of our customers choose them for a…
Active speakers have moved far beyond the “convenience first” category they once occupied. In 2026, active speakers are serious hi-fi systems in their own right, with properly matched amplification, DSP, streaming platforms, room tuning…
For many listeners, the most sensible hi-fi system is no longer a rack full of separates. A good all-in-one amplifier can now handle CD playback, streaming, digital inputs, analogue sources and speaker amplification from…
There is a good reason vintage inspired loudspeakers have become so popular again. Many listeners want the scale, warmth and physical presence of classic hi-fi, but without the loose bass, coloured cabinets and inconsistent…
