News

“A detailed, smooth and open performance that gets to the heart of the music” says Hi Fi News of BAT’s VK90 tube preamp in the June 25 issue. Awarding an outstanding badge, the mag enthuses that the VK-90 sounded “effortlessly musical”, while retaining “an ability to fully immerse you in the music”, and draws comparisons with another venerated act – The Rolling Stones – in its concluding paragraph: “For a band in its sixth decade

For the-ear.net David Vivian plugs-in the Emotiva XDA-3 DAC/Pre and discovers a true hi-fi bargain: “No slow-burn, you’ll-like-me-when-you-know-me transactional posturing here. With all that familial firepower to do its bidding, the XDA-3 is an instant, get-a-load-of-this, high-achiever…With Primare’s excellent NP5 Prisma Mk2 streaming transport plugged in via the Toslink optical input, listening to a 24/96kHz Qobuz stream through the XDA-3/A-300 after a talented and far pricier super-integrated/outboard DAC of repute (I’ll save the blushes) is

Awarding a ‘Best Buy’ with an ultimate 10/10 score, Martin Dew at AVForums has been stunned by a close encounter with a compact 5.1 system of Perlisten’s R series speakers. He says: “The only other opportunities I’ve had to listen to Perlisten’s range have been on less-than-ideal tradeshow floors or busy showrooms. Bringing them home, I did not expect to be bowled over in quite this way. What makes these R-Series speakers so special is

The UK’s reference Hi Fi mag, Hi Fi News, has auditioned the Perlisten S7t LE Limited Edition flagships, and discovered all the characteristics that make Perlisten design exceptional, but with a refinement that renders the experience more intimate and personal. In the May 25 edition, Jamie Biesemans notes that the S7t LE forges “an immediate relationship with the music, (it) tries less to evoke a grand concert hall than to place you in the front

Raised eyebrows and expectations greeted System Audio’s Silverback 1 wireless speaker system during its audition with Jonathan Gorse for the-ear.net. He says: “It’s rare in this line of work that I find myself lusting after an item of review equipment, but I certainly did with the Silverback 1 system. Its blend of Scandinavian cool, exemplary build and refined but accurate sound is a simply irresistible combination – in fact I ended up buying the review