German

Fidelity (Germany)
A fairly recent entry into the audiophile magazine market, but Fidelity started shipping in early summer of 2012 and is at the moment published on a bi-monthly basis. Published by Cai Brockmann who is best known for writing in Image Hifi and the magazine is in many ways reminiscent of that publication in form factor and subject matter, with the bulk of the text being hardware reviews plus a small music section, the main difference between Fidelity and the other specialist German language hi-fi rags being that it has slightly higher emphasis on "modern" audio devices such as networked audio and all-in-ones and features slightly fewer reviews of analogue equipment than is the norm over there. The music content is old-school.

This is one of the more modern coffee-table type magazines that place an emphasis on visually appealing layout and quality of photography, in other words a high end hi-fi lifestyle magazine.
Homepage: http://www.fidelity-magazin.de
Fidelity Verlag GmbH, Gutenbergstraße 1, 85737 Ismaning, Germany.
Tel: +49 89 416 15 8298. Fax: +49 89 416 15 8299. E-Mail: cai.brockmann _at_ fidelity-magazin.de.

Hifi & Records (Germany)
This magazine does pretty much what it says on the tin, e.g. reviews hi-fi equipment and record releases. Originally started around 2004/5 and only published on a quarterly basis, but has a definite vinyl orientation with a bunch of turntable oriented hardware reviews in every issue and much of the music reviews being of audiophile re-issues on LP's. But digital sources are reviewed as well in addition to the usual amplification and loudspeaker reviews and it should be noted that the selection of gear is strictly high end. Each year the magazine publishes an "Editors Choice" list of the best gear they have reviewed in the preceding year, you can download an archive of these EC lists and sample articles from the magazine from here. The high number of cable reviews in the magazine is noteworthy and slightly unusual.
Homepage: http://www.hifirecords.de
Monomedia Verlag, Schwabstraße 4, D-71106 Magstadt, Germany.
Tel: +49 (0)7159 949853. Fax: +49 (0)7159 949530. E-Mail: info (at) monomedia.de.

Image Hifi (Germany)
A long running high end audiophile magazine, published bimonthly and usually quite big or up to 200 pages, as to be expected from a German audio rag there is emphasis on turntable related technologies in the hardware review section and a much broader range of reviews of Japanese high end equipment than we ever get to see reviewed in the English language press. The mag also has reviews of music releases, as with all audiophile magazines regardless of their country of origin the music is invariably dinosaur rock and stone age jazz, chances of you finding new techno or trance releases covered being less than zero.
Homepage: http://www.image-hifi.com
Image Verlags GmbH, Alois-Harbeck-Platz 3, D-82178 Puchheim, Germany.
Tel: +49 (0) 89 8941845 10. Fax: +49 (0)89 8941845 12..

Stereoplay (Germany)
Monthly publication that is strictly focused on 2 channel audio and is in many was such a typical hi-fi magazine in structure and content that I am unsure what to write about it really, vis-à-vis the American and English magazines the hardware reviews are technically better executed and tend to be slightly longer, but not by much, the software reviews are slightly shorter and the opinion pieces are missing altogether much to the delight of those that on a regular basis have to wade through the inane egoistical waffle that the English language publications seem to think is an essential feature of the hi-fi reading experience.

All in all perhaps not an essential monthly reading but if they review something you are interested in you can be sure the review is of a high standard, what is an essential reading however are the special issues that the magazine puts out from time to time, they have for instance an issue that has reviews of what the magazine considers the 100 best loudspeakers out there, reminiscent of the old Hi-Fi Choice magazine from the 70's and useful both as a purchase guide and as wet summers day's read, even if a dictionary will be required for those of us that had forged permission slips to get out of German class in school.
Homepage: http://www.stereoplay.de

Other German language magazines that feature some hi-fi coverage or reviews: Audio Video Foto Bild

Danish/Swedish/Norwegian

Fidelity (Norway)
Published in Norway but sold all over Scandinavia, this is bimonthly publication that focuses on high end audio products, there is an occasional article in regards to mid and budget hi-fi but rare and unusually enough no home theatre content whatsoever not even of equipment which is useful to those with multichannel and 2 channel setups.

Originally founded in 2003 and for the first couple of years was an unusual unstructured format with no content except features, hardware reviews and interviews. More recently it has started to resemble a traditional hi-fi magazine more and more though, with a news and letters section at the beginning and a hardware reviews following and a small music review section sandwiched in between hardware reviews towards the end of the mag.

Sadly this has become at the cost of features and especially interviews almost completely disappearing from the magazine except as portions of reviews or news items. The publication has an unusually high number of cable reviews and much of the music content is in regards with vinyl which is sort of interesting given that the magazine does not review that many turntable related hardware products. Another noteworthy thing is that the publishers make back issues freely available in PDF format 12 months after they have been published.
Homepage: http://audiofidelity.no

HiFi & Musik (Sweden)

Hi-Fi (Denmark)
Danish magazine, bought the good old Hi-Fi & Elektronik mag and incorperated it but sadly is nowhere near as good overall.

Dutch

Asian hi-fi magazines

Japanese

AutoSound
Car audio rag

The Tube Kingdom
A valve enthusiast magazine from the publishers of Stereo Sound

Chinese

Audiotechnique
A long running Chinese language hi-fi magazine published in Hong Kong and thus in traditional Han script rather than simplified as on the mainland. Has been with us since 1981 which makes it probably the longest running Chinese hi-fi rag on the planet. Very Much focused on high end audio products and music reviews tend to focus on traditional music.
Homepage: http://www.audiotechnique.com

Other Asian magazines that feature some hi-fi coverage or reviews: Audiophile Magazine (Th)

Spanish & Portugese

Italian

Audiophile Sound
Italian language print magazine that is issued 11 times a year and shipped with an accompanying CD, but is actually published from the UK. Primarily deal with high end audio, but also has some music reviews and related editorial features such as interviews with people running audiophile record labels etc.
Homepage: http://www.audiofilemusic.com
International Audiophile Recording Ltd., Caxton Way, Stevenage SG1 2DF, United Kingdom.
E-Mail: info )at( audiofilemusic.com.

Audio Review
Italian audio magazine, primarily reports on high end audio products and music reviews although there is some personal audio, home theatre and high tech content. Also puts out a yearbook on hi-fi products called Audio Guida.
Homepage: http://www.audioreview.it
New Media Pro S.r.l., Via Olindo Guerrini 20, 00137 Roma, Italy..

Fedeltà del Suono
Italian high end audio review magazine that also has some music reviews and editorial content.
Homepage: http://www.fedeltadelsuono.net
Blu Press, Via Cavour 65/67, 05100 Terni, Italy.
+39 (0)744 435352..

Slavic and Baltic language Hi-Fi magazines

Audio Magazine (Russia)
Bimonthly Russian magazine focused squarely on high end audio products.
Homepage: http://www.audiomagazine.ru

Other East European magazines that feature some hi-fi coverage or reviews: Sztereó Sound & Vision (Hu)

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