Articles and Reviews

The HI-FI & HIGH END SHOW 2026 continues - our team attended the third day of the event, covering the remaining exhibits to bring you the final installment of our photo report. The number of stunning installations was truly off the charts, making it all the more exciting to dive deep into the world of high-quality sound.

The HI-FI & HIGH END SHOW 2026 featured plenty of surprises and impressive equipment setups across all price ranges - from Hi-Fi to High-End. Our team spent the entire day at the event, resulting in a highly detailed and comprehensive photo report.

The latest HI-FI & HIGH END SHOW 2026 has kicked off. Take a look at our photo report from this audiophile paradise, featuring the very latest in both Hi-Fi and High-End audio equipment.

From the 1946 Klipschorn to the Devialet Phantom - twelve loudspeakers that changed Hi-Fi. Engineering ideas, verified dates and specifications.

Focal Diva Utopia review - IAL2 beryllium tweeter, four push-push bass drivers, 400 W of Naim amplification per speaker and a 96/24 UWB link. What an active design gives you and what you pay for it.

How the Holo Audio May’s compensation matrix works, its four conversion modes, measurements (22+ bit resolution) and what the KTE version really adds.

Five-way array, PentaMag driver featuring five AlNiCo magnets, mixed-size bass section, and adjustable port. A technical breakdown - minus the hype. We examine Wilson Audio Autobiography from an engineering perspective.

How the ladder network and delta-sigma modulation work, where the physical limit of resistor accuracy lies, which of the differences are measurable, and how to choose a converter.

An analysis through resistance, capacitance and inductance. Conductor size tables, damping-factor and cut-off-frequency calculations, a sensible budget and a sound method for testing it yourself.

How to read rated sensitivity, why dB/W/m and dB/2.83 V/m are different figures, how to calculate the power you need, and proven model benchmarks.

Seven single-ended 300B amplifiers: rated specifications, circuit solutions, speaker compatibility calculations and impedance requirements.

A ranking of legendary reel-to-reel tape machines: Studer A820, Ampex ATR-102, Technics RS-1500, Revox B77 MkII, etc. Verified specifications and secondary-market prices.

Choosing a speaker format through Hoffman's Iron Law, room modes and dynamic compression. Tables by room area, the economics of the decision, five scenarios.

Generator physics, load matching, tonearm resonance calculation, stylus profiles and cost of ownership. Verified published specifications for three benchmark models.

A step-by-step guide to loudspeaker placement: room modes, SBIR, the equilateral triangle, toe-in, the 38 percent rule and treatment priorities.

The eternal audiophile question: which amplification topology is better, tube or solid-state? The short answer is simple. If your loudspeakers hold a stable impedance no lower than 6 ohms and a sensitivity above 90 dB, a tube amplifier is worth considering. If your speakers show impedance dips below 3 ohms, that approach will only harm the system. Like it or not, tube and solid-state designs differ first of all in their nonlinear distortion spectrum and their output impedance, and every other parameter turns out to be a derivative of those two figures.