Yamaha KX-580 Cassette Deck Review

What? A cassette deck review in 2017? A little anachronistic, surely? A few weeks ago, I mentioned to AA’s own Ashley that I’d been getting a bit nostalgic for the defunct format, especially after seeing Andy Hall’s extensive collection of Beatles cassettes on his great YouTube channel. Search him, and you’ll see what I mean. I mentioned to Ashley that my favourite cassette deck had been my Yamaha KX-580 SE which I’d owned from new since 1999, and which I’d sadly sold for the price of a plate of beans on toast a few years later. I’d also thrown away a lot of tapes that I’d kept in the loft, when I made a necessary downsize in accommodation. I couldn’t quite kick the cassette habit though, and shortly after I bought a NAD 613 deck.

Connect a Turntable to Active Speakers for a Compact Vinyl Replay System

Who said a proper vinyl-based system had to be large and cumbersome? It is possible to assemble a compact vinyl playback system which won’t break the bank, won’t damage your records and will sound a million times better than virtually every self-contained, all-in-one solution currently on the market.

Pro-Ject Primary USB Turntable Review

Pro-Ject’s primary is a great value budget vinyl spinner with an enjoyable sound, fuss-free setup quality build and clean looks. Opt for the USB model and you get a capable phono stage and a USB interface too. If you’re starting out or need a turntable to spin some old favourites, this could well be it. Highly recommended.

Arcam A29 Integrated Amplifier Review

Arcam’s A29 packs some clever tech, useful features and bags of power into a sleek, slimline chassis. There are no digital bells and whistles here – only pure analogue goodness with cracking headphone and phono stages onboard to boot. With the ability to seamlessly interface with Arcam’s rSeries components and more analogue inputs than many will ever need, the A29 can form the basis of a system that is as complex as you want it to be. It’s a lot of amp for what is – in hi-fi terms at least – little money. But is it any good?

Build a DIY Hi-Fi Rack using Ikea Lack Tables

I was recently in a position where I needed to replace my existing hi-fi rack. I began looking at my options but it soon became clear that if I wanted a rack to meet all of my requirements, I was going to have to shell out for it. A lot. Anywhere from £700-1700, the price of a new component or a huge pile of records. Having been down the DIY route with previous racks I decided to do so again.

Cassette Tape Nostalgia (Rick Astley Nearly 30 Years On)

In the past, I’ve described the inherent sound of cassette tape as “the analogue goodness of vinyl, just less of it”. It wasn’t always so however.  Back in 1963, when Philips developed the cassette format, it was never intended to be a music medium, let alone a hi-fi one.  The cassette (and the machine to play and record on them) was compact and simple enough to make a good dictation system for the office.  There were a number of restrictions that hindered the cassette’s use for music playback.

Sade – Diamond Life – Nearly 35 Years On

It’s quite dangerous to visit your local cocktail emporium late at night, find yourself chatting to a music enthusiast, and then start hankering for an album that you couldn’t have given a toss about back in the day. The danger is exacerbated by the fact that most of us carry a veritable shopping mall in our pockets in the form of a smart device loaded with eBay.

Tannoy Mercury 7.4 Review

a pair of Mercury V4s formed the basis of my first true hi-fi system, at the time fronted by Yamaha amplification and a vast array of source components. Components came and went, though the V4s remained the one common denominator for many years. The mercury 7.4 takes everything that made the Mercury range great and improves upon it in every area.

Will A Cheap Turntable Damage Your Records?

Shopping for a turntable? You’ll have undoubtedly seen the surplus of budget-priced models from the likes of Crosley, Ion, GPO and many others, sold by high street retailers and online retailers such as Amazon and eBay. Many claim that these sub-#100 turntables will cause irreparable damage to the vinyl they play. Wanting to offer some conclusive evidence either way, we purchased a GPO Stylo and conducted an experiment to see what it really takes to damage a vinyl record.