Terrific tech Retro replay OverOv 70 sonic treats to make BlastsBlasts ffromrom the past that areare youryo music sound superb stillill worth h tracking ki down d

PASSION FOR SOUND Issue No. 392 Yearbook 2014

2014 AUDIO OF THE YEAR!

164 PAGES of essential stereo separates and music reviews

MUSIC REVIEWS PRINTED IN THE UK US$10.99 YEARBOOK 2014 £4.99 Headphones USB DACs Turntables Speakers The must-own albums of the year Streamers Cables on vinyl, CD and hi-res download much more... “Get up and drive your funky soul!” James Brown The heart and soul of music

Precision, a luxury and highly regarded loudspeaker range from Tannoy, built to deliver music as it was meant to be heard. With audiophile features such as double-magnet drivers, hand-built crossovers and mass-load cabinet tuning, Precision has music at its heart and soul. (cross two stunning Åoorstanding models, a compact stand-mount and matching centre channel speaker, Precision delivers breath-taking detail and musical dynamics. Built around a brand new 6 inch (150 mm) version of Tannoy’s world renowned Dual Concentric™ driver, the contemporary cabinets boast premium Ät and Änish in a choice of colours. Powerful, passionate and incredibly precise, Precision gets to the heart and soul of music like no other speaker in its class.

tannoy.com

October 2013 - Precision 6.2 Precision 6.2 Precision 6.4 Precision 6.2 / 6.1 / 6C / Precision 6.2 / 6.1 / 6C / TS2.12 system TS2.12 system INTRODUCTION

PASSION FOR SOUND Welcome www.hifichoice.co.uk Issue No. 392 Yearbook 2014

Welcome to the Hi-Fi Choice Yearbook 2014 – a very special edition celebrating a fantastic year of audio for music fans and hi-fi enthusiasts alike. Inside this 164- page bumper issue you’ll find the 118 ultimate collection of the greatest- Oppo HA-1 sounding hi-fi products to pass through our respected reviewing process over the past 12 months. Every product is a coveted Hi-Fi Choice badge winner applauded by our team of hi-fi experts and music fans below for a winning combination of outstanding audio performance and value for money that stands above its peers. For this essential guide we have gathered over 70 top-performing audio components and accessories from 19 different categories so that you can compile your ultimate auditioning list of must-own hi-fi to build a great-sounding system tailored to your individual needs. What’s more, our eight-page Music Reviews section compiles the year’s finest album releases to show off 72 your system while our Retro pages revisit yesteryear kit Q Acoustics Concept 40 that’s still worth tracking down. Enjoy!

BADGES EXPLAINED Lee Dunkley Editor OUR AWARDS Follow us:

EDITOR’S RECOMMENDED: GROUP TEST twitter.com@HiFiChoiceMag facebook.com/hifichoice.co.uk CHOICE: Products that WINNER: Awarded to those we feel meet a Comparative tests products that are high standard of can only have one judged to deliver performance winner, and this outstanding badge says it all! ENTERPRISE HOUSE, ENTERPRISE WAY, performance EDENBRIDGE, KENT TN8 6HF REVIEWERS

DAVID DAVID ED ANDREW JASON CHRIS NIGEL NEVILLE PRICE VIVIAN SELLEY SIMPSON KENNEDY WARD WILLIAMSON ROBERTS

YEARBOOKYEARBOOK 20120144 3 Contentshifichoice.co.uk Issue No. 392 Yearbook 2014

BESTBEST OONN TTESTEST 22014014

STANDMOUNT LOUDSPEAKERS 38 ATC SCM7 40 ATC SCM19 43 KEF LS50 30 45 Monitor Audio Silver 1 46 Monitor Audio Silver 2 Chord Electronics Hugo 48 Polk Audio RTiA1 50 PSB Imagine Mini CD PLAYERS 52 Spendor D1 6 Creek Evolution 50CD 55 Tannoy Precision 6.1 9 Cyrus CD Xt Signature 10 Quad Elite CDS SUSPENDED 12 Rega Saturn-R LOUDSPEAKER 78 56 Origin Live Astute Dynaudio Xeo 6 CD PLAYER/ INTEGRATED FLOORSTANDING AMPLIFIER LOUDSPEAKERS 13 Exposure 1010 Series 58 Acoustic Energy AE 103 14 Marantz CD6005/PM6005 60 ATC SCM40 62 Cambridge Audio Aeromax 6 SACD PLAYER 64 Epos K2 13 15 Marantz SA8005 66 Focal Aria 926 Exposure 1010 Series 68 Monitor Audio Silver 8 STREAMERS 70 Neat Acoustics Motive SX1 17 Krell Connect 72 Q Acoustics Concept 40 20 Naim mu-so 74 Spendor A6R 22 Primare NP30 76 Sonus faber Olympica II 23 Ruark R7 WIRELESS 24 HDD SYSTEM LOUDSPEAKERS Sony HAP-S1 24 Sony HAP-S1 78 Dynaudio Xeo 6 81 Eclipse TD-M1 DACS 82 Elac Air-X 403 29 Arcam miniBlink 30 Chord Electronics Hugo SUBWOOFER 32 NAD D 1050 85 REL Acoustics Serie S2 36 QNKTC AB-1.2 USB DAC 9 36 Valve Audio Devices DAC-10 Cyrus CD Xt Signature 37 Korg DS-DAC-100 1-Bit USB DAC

4 YEARBOOK 2014 CONTENTS YEARBOOK 2014

“The ultimate collection of the best hi-fi products 107 117 from the last 12 months” Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Esprit SB JBL Synchros S700 AMPLIFIER AND HEADPHONE SPEAKER PACKAGE AMPLIFERS 86 Devialet Ensemble 118 Fostex HP-A4 118 Oppo HA-1 100 INTEGRATED Analogue Works Turntable One AMPLIFIERS PORTABLE MEDIA 88 Cambridge Audio Azur 651A PLAYERS 90 Icon Audio Stereo 845 PP 119 Astell & Kern AK240 92 Micromega MyAmp 119 Sony NWZ-F886 94 Monitor Audio A100 95 Quad Vena CABLE LOOMS 96 Roksan K2 BT 120 Black Rhodium 98 Teac AI-301DA Symphony Chrome/Twirl 55 121 QED Reference Audio 40/ Tannoy Precision 6.1 TURNTABLES Signature Revelation 100 Analogue Works Turntable One MUSIC REVIEWS 103 Avid Ingenium 125 Our pick of the best tunes to 105 Inspire Hi-Fi Black Magic Si play to put your hi-fi through its paces 107 Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Esprit SB 109 The Funk Firm Flamenca OPINIONS 86 110 VPI Nomad 139 The HFC team say it as they see Devialet Ensemble it on the hottest hi-fi topics CARTRIDGES 112 Audio-Technica AT-95E RETRO TESTS 112 Ortofon Quintet Blue 140 Mission Cyrus One 144 BBC LS3/5A PHONO STAGES 148 ADC 1700 114 Graham Slee 152 Arcam Delta Black Box Gram Amp 2 SE 114 Musical Fidelity M1 LPS 125 115 Rega Fono MM Music 115 Rothwell Rialto Reviews HEADPHONES 116 Beyerdynamic T90 116 Grado SR125e 117 JBL Synchros S700 66 Focal Aria 926 117 Shure SRH1840 Never miss an issuesue – turnturn to t p26 for our latest subs offer

YEARBOOK 2014 5 CD PLAYER/DAC/PREAMP

DETAILS also like its choice of RCA phono and balanced XLR outputs. You can toggle PRICE Creek £950 through the digital inputs on the front ORIGIN panel SRC (source) button. UK/China Under the hood, there’s more than WEIGHT the usual attention to detail that 5.5kg you’d expect to fi nd in a good Evolution 50CD DIMENSIONS mid-priced machine such as this. (WxHxD) 430 x 60 x 280mm There’s a 25W toroidal mains This neat CD player incorporates DAC and FEATURES transformer, with three separate ● 2x Toslink; secondary voltage windings for preamp capabilities, breathing new life and 2x coaxial analogue and digital circuitry. digital inputs ● 1x USB input; Low-impedance, specially chosen versatility into the format 1x aptX Bluetooth power supply capacitors and voltage input (optional) regulators are fi tted for the best ● 2x digital outputs nce a vestigial box with mechanism, backlit control buttons ● 1x RCA phono out; possible sound, and organic polymer no inputs and a single pair and rather nice OLED display. It 1x balanced XLR out capacitors pop up at key points in the of analogue outputs, the comes with a system remote control ● Wolfson WM8742 analogue and digital circuitry, along O DACs humble CD player is that integrates with other Creek with high-grade WIMA polypropylene DISTRIBUTOR increasingly becoming a preamp with components too. Creek Audio Ltd capacitors in the output fi lters. Two a DAC and optical disc transport built Although a real ergonomic success, Wolfson WM8742 24-bit DACs run TELEPHONE in. Gone are the days when it was some may wonder why there is no 01442 260146 in dual differential mode, and Creek seen as an end in itself, now it is to all front panel volume control facility on WEBSITE says that special low-jitter clocks are intents and purposes a digital music that handsome front panel. Designed creekaudio.com fi tted. The analogue reconstruction centre. Creek’s Evolution 50CD silver to form the centre of a digitally REVIEWED fi lters in the output of the DAC use disc spinner is precisely this, and is connected system, if you mistakenly HFC 385 high-grade OPA2134 op-amps in perfectly placed to take on the market lose the remote control suddenly each channel, confi gured in balanced leader, Audiolab’s 8200CD. you’ve lost one of this machine’s most mode. This offers symmetrical To basic CD playing, it adds several important functions. fi ltering and both single-ended and digital inputs, a Bluetooth option and As you’d imagine, the back panel is balanced output capability with low source switching allied to a volume bristling with features like its fi ve impedance high-current output control, so you can plug it straight digital inputs (two optically isolated capability. The slot-loading mechanism into a power amplifi er. It also offers a Toslinks, one galvanically isolated is an amalgam of ruggedised degree of operational refi nement that USB, two transformer isolated specialist parts that were chosen Creek hasn’t previously been able to coaxial), and two digital outputs plus specifi cally for their durability and give. To wit, you get a slot-loading a Creek RC remote control bus. You’ll good sound quality. It gets custom

6 YEARBOOK 2014 CD PLAYER/DAC/PREAMP

highly impassioned as if he’s really slightly loose bass allied to a spacious pushing himself, and the 50CD midband that extends up to a well-lit captures the urgency brilliantly treble that gives cymbals a satisfyingly without ever sounding raucous. It metallic feel – and it works well here. picks through the wall of multi- The Eroica Quartet’s reading of tracked guitars with ease, placing Mendelssohn’s Octet Op.20 at 24/96 them in a wide soundstage and giving is a delight, the fi ne DAC section is them space. The drum and cymbal well able to convey the delicacy of work is also excellent, with a light, string tone. It’s with this sort of music airy top end that’s decently smooth. that hi-res digital really comes into This essential musicality isn’t lost its own; suddenly CD doesn’t seem when you move to electronic music fi t for purpose any more. Here, the either, showing the player is basically Evolution 50CD serves up a spacious very well balanced. Yello’s Of Course recorded acoustic with satisfying I’m Lying is a deep, brooding song depth, convincing scale and a fi ne done on soft, smooth analogue sense of the feel of the concert hall. synthesisers and the Creek captures The music fl ows in an enjoyable and their timbre nicely, showing its skill tuneful way, giving an immersive at conveying subtle, low-level details. listening experience. Again, it doesn’t Tonally it’s smooth with that big fat quite have the searching, forensic bass showing itself off again, as does low-level detailing of the Audiolab, its nice airy upper midband; Billy but it sounds no worse for it – indeed Mackenzie’s backing vocals are tonally it is sweeter and more wonderfully carried, sounding eerily palatable with the 8200CD sounding pure and natural. It’s also good at a little sandpapery. In absolute terms, there’s a slight diffuseness to the You’ll need to spend sound and a lack of true three- dimensional image projection, but upwards of 10 times you’ll need to spend many times the the Creek’s cost to Creek’s cost on an exotic high-end DAC to get a dramatic improvement. get an improvement Yes, this talented new machine really is rather good. The Evo 50CD servo control software, to which rhythms, but here you begin to notice is to all intents much effort was devoted to write, it doesn’t have the rottweiler instincts Conclusion and purposes a superb digital says Michael Creek. of the Audiolab 8200CD, which Creek’s avowed intention is to music centre seems to drill down into the interplay produce an excellent package that Sound quality between the snare and hi-hat with manages to combine real operational The sound is very well rounded and more energy and commitment, fl exibility with convenience and enjoyable across the board. Tonally, making the Creek sound just a little top-notch sound. And overall it has it’s unmistakably a Creek, which laid back by comparison. Dynamically succeeded – sonically this new means the bass is a little warmer and it is very good and it captures the machine is excellent, proving a great more sumptuous than some leaner, accenting on peaks slightly better. long-term listen. It’s also highly meaner rivals – while the midband is Moving to the digital inputs, and fl exible and is rather nice to use too a tad smoother and more spacious. via USB it proves a fi ne partner to – thanks to the sleek slot-loading CD But this also means the player is less a MacBook Pro running Audirvana drive, backlit buttons and fi ne OLED intense in the upper midband, giving Plus. It’s worth noting that – in its display. As such, if you’re looking for a more laid back sound than some. current version – the Evo 50CD only an excellent do-it-all digital device, Where CD is concerned, many will offers decoding at up to 24/96 using this is an absolutely essential think this to be no bad thing. Overall, this input, rather than the 192kHz audition. It makes a great case for the it gives it a marginally more sampling frequency that’s possible continued existence of compact disc ‘analogue’ feel than immediate rivals (any higher sampling frequencies will players, no less! ● such as the Audiolab 8200CD, which be downsampled to 96 or 88.2). This comes over as obviously less beguiling doesn’t seem to adversely affect the to listen to – albeit it no less fun. sound, though, and The Scorpions’ Push REM’s Welcome To The China White at 24/96 is as powerful OUR VERDICT Occupation into the slot-loading drive and punchy as we would hope, with SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Slot-loading and you’ll be greeted by a very nice wonderful texture to the cranked-up mech and backlit noise. Overall, the sound is well electric guitars. The soundstage is buttons; sweet, balanced with the slightest warmth in suitably vast, the speakers seemingly VALUE FOR MONEY musical sound DISLIKE: No fascia the upper bass, which gives things a disappear into the room as we are mounted volume pleasing body. More valuable, though, assaulted by those power chords, BUILD QUALITY controls is the fl uidity of the bass guitar work, making for a visceral sound. At the WE SAY: Excellent sounding, highly which modulates up and down with same time, the stinging cymbal FEATURES versatile silver an ease that you don’t expect from crashes and wailing vocals never disc spinner digital. It integrates beautifully into quite step over the breach into OVERALL the music and underpins Peter Buck’s harshness, while still making a real ringing Rickenbacker guitars further impression. We can hear the typical up. Michael Stipe’s vocals sound Wolfson DAC sound – a big but

YEARBOOK 2014 7 Black velvet.

Vinyl is black. Notes are black. Anodised aluminum is blacker than black. The much-acclaimed Confidence C1 Platinum is the epitome of a point-source loudspeaker in a new black design. Mesmerizing with superb qualities of precision, from an incredibly capable, dramatic, spectacular bass to silky-clear, subtle, velvety highs. It features Dynaudio’s innovative DDC technology, the legendary Esotar2 tweeter and expertly built and elegantly finished cabinets, making it the finest sounding and most distinguished two-way Confidence yet. The new Confidence C1. It‘s intoxicating.

All there is. CD PLAYER

DETAILS dimensional set in front of David Sylvian’s moody vocals. This open PRICE Cyrus £1,750 top end helps enormously in the ORIGIN transport’s excellent rendition of UK spatial clues; rarely do you hear a WEIGHT three-dimensional soundstage so 3.6kg convincingly recreated from a 16-bit CD Xt Signature DIMENSIONS digital disc. Percussive instruments, (WxHxD) 215 x 73 x 360mm which play a big part on this track, ive years ago, Cyrus’ Peter high-end designs is its bass, which FEATURES seem like they’re being reproduced in Bartlett told HFC his isn’t quite as prodigious as you’d ● Servo Evolution Cinemascope, such is the immersive company was investing get from a fi ve-fi gure Esoteric, for mechanism sound that stretches wide left and F ● Backlit LCD hundreds of thousands of example. It’s solid and confi dent, fi rm ● 1x optical; 1x right of the loudspeakers. Only the pounds in its very own optical disc and articulate – and certainly a good coaxial digital out very best CD players (transport and mechanism. Many in the audio deal stronger than the transports in ● Cyrus MC-BUS DAC combinations) can pull this trick business would have thought this similarly priced CD players. connections off in our experience. DISTRIBUTOR to be about as sound business sense The taut bottom end feeds up to a Cyrus Audio Ltd as taking a huge bag of money and most excellent midband which seems Conclusion TELEPHONE throwing it into the sea. Let’s just say, very good at digging down into the 01480 410900 It’s an awful lot to spend on ‘just’ when you can buy any DVD-ROM spaces between the notes on music WEBSITE a transport, but we have never heard drive, tweak it lightly and chuck it with repetitive beats, be it the jazzy cyrusaudio.com anything that comes close at this in your CD player for pennies, Cyrus’ strains of Herbie Hancock’s I Have A REVIEWED price. The Cyrus CD Xt Signature new Servo Evolution mechanism Dream or the thumping drum and HFC 386 doesn’t quite have the measure of the doesn’t appear to make commercial bass of Goldie’s Inner City Life. Rather ultra high-end designs still on sale, sense – especially with the curtain than a perfunctory reading of the but it’s a lot cheaper. It brings a sense seemingly coming down for compact rhythms, it pushes right into the of openness and dimensionality to disc as hi-res begins its ascent. music to retrieve the entirety of the compact disc that you rarely hear, The decision to bet the farm on a note. Compared with the excellent along with a wonderfully smooth, superlative CD mechanism not only but cheaper Audiolab 8200CD (the even and stable sound that’s rare in gave its own silver disc players a new sort of CD player prospective CD Xt its solidity and sophistication. Good lease of life, but has made them purchasers will be upgrading from), news then, CD is still alive and sustainable into the future – as well there’s a more relaxed and supple feel kicking – don’t throw away your as permitting the release of products to the music as a whole. It sounds less little silver beer mats just yet! ● such as this. Despite the continuing stressed, less brittle and more like an demand for CD players, there are organic event before your very ears. very few people selling bespoke, Indeed, this really defi nes the Cyrus; high-quality CD transports any more. it has a sense of ease that simply OUR VERDICT doesn’t sound like digital. The music SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Stable, spacious, Sound quality fl ows organically, rather than coming musical sound; The essential sound of the Cyrus is over as forced or artifi cially enhanced slot-loading design smooth, stable and rhythmically in some way. VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Disc mechanism struggles coherent. It has a mastertape-like Treble is excellent too, being crisp with poor discs BUILD QUALITY ease and fl ow to the music, and and smooth and well extended. WE SAY: Superb instruments are rendered realistically Again, it’s amazing how a transport ‘affordable high-end’ silver disc spinner in the recorded acoustic like few can change the ‘feel’ – if not the FEATURES other transports we’ve heard. Despite actual tonal balance – of the high its diminutive physical dimensions, frequencies. The shimmering cymbal OVERALL the scale and general confi dence of work on Rain Tree Crow’s Pocketful the sound is immense. The only thing Of Change is something to behold, that marks it down from seriously sounding so spacious and three

YEARBOOK 2014 9 CD PLAYER

DETAILS decks either gloss over or completely miss. And yet it all seems so effortless PRICE Quad £800 and undramatic, the CDS shows no ORIGIN sense of strain. Behind the frenetic UK/China drum track glides some beautiful WEIGHT keyboard work, chiming like only 4.5kg early digital synths should. Vocals Elite CDS DIMENSIONS are gorgeously smooth yet fl oat like (WxHxD) 321 x 70 x 310mm clouds over the main mix, rather than his is the latest version of fi rst. A new master clock is fi tted, as is FEATURES being submerged. Most impressive of Quad’s CD player, and a the aforementioned Crystal CS4398 ● Crystal CS4398 all is Peter Hook’s bass guitar work; clear step up from most 24-bit DAC. Quad says high-quality 24-bit DAC T ● 1x RCA phono budget offerings. Quad electronic components are specifi ed, line output As soon as the laser players started in the mid eighties with multi-layer circuit boards. Round ● Quad Link with the 66, which was targeted at the back there are analogue outputs connector lights up, it becomes ● Tray-loading buyers willing to spend a little more and proprietary Quad Link CD drive clear this is a special to get a better performance, but was connectors, plus an IEC mains input. DISTRIBUTOR never intended to be a high-end deck. International Audio sounding device The company’s silver disc spinners Sound quality Group Ltd have always been overshadowed by As soon as the Quad’s laser lights TELEPHONE suddenly it appears effortlessly in its superb range of electrostatic the silver disc inside up, it becomes 01480 452561 front for all to hear, and wonderfully WEBSITE loudspeakers, so its players are still abundantly clear that this is a rather quad-hifi.co.uk tuneful. Everything is set perfectly in less well known than perhaps they special-sounding device – one whose its place in the mix, too. REVIEWED should be. The headline feature of sonics are commensurate with its HFC 383 the Elite CDS is the 24-bit/192kHz higher price. The Elite CDS boasts a Conclusion upsampling DAC, replacing its beautifully detailed, delicate yet Randy Crawford’s You Might Need predecessor’s 24/96 converter. powerful sound. Somebody is wonderfully spacious, The unit is a little unusual looking, Kicking off with New Order’s with elements of the mix glistening in having a three-quarter width sculpted Vanishing Point, the opening few perfect focus. Rhythmically the song aluminium case with crenellations at phrases display a wonderfully natural hangs together superbly, and the the back, and an understated fascia drum machine sound (if there is such player’s transparency allied to its with the minimum of controls – just a thing!), with an excellent sense of smoothness makes for an effortless, four to cover the transport functions timing. The music isn’t thumped out but nonetheless engaging listen ● and disc open/close. The display is at the listener in a brutish way, but basic but clear to read, although the still manages to be tremendously rather wobbly disc tray lets the side impactful and invigorating. Vanishing down a bit at this price. Inside the Point can tend to sound really rather OUR VERDICT CDS gets a new transport mechanism compressed and muddled on lesser SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Wonderfully and servo system, custom designed by players, but here it is neither; the open, clean, natural Quad engineers; track access is swift, Quad signposts the snare drum accent sound; build quality but the button layout is confusing at playing once every four bars that rival VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Fiddly ergonomics; basic display and wobbly BUILD QUALITY disc tray WE SAY: Highly accomplished mid- FEATURES price CD spinner

OVERALL

10 YEARBOOK 2014 Whatever the size of your room, seductive New Silver delivers glorious wideband audio to every corner without ever filling the floor.

Clean,Clean open, detailedtai ed and musical soundound AUGUST 2014 CD PLAYER/DAC

DETAILS the most effective is a PS Audio P5 mains regenerator. This gives the PRICE Rega £1,580 player considerably more refi nement ORIGIN by cleaning up the sound and letting UK it deliver a lot more hi-fi virtues. It WEIGHT doesn’t enhance its ability to engage 5kg and enthral, but does give the sound Saturn-R DIMENSIONS more depth and tonal richness, and (WxHxD) 432 x 82 x 325mm these are nice things to have. minimalist-looking player but these are secondary to interplay, FEATURES from most angles, the musicianship and composition. The ● Digital inputs: 2x Conclusion Saturn-R doesn’t even various layers in a mix become optical; 2x coaxial; If you are into hi-fi in order to get A asynchronous USB have any buttons for its apparent and the energy and feeling ● Digital outputs: greater enjoyment out of your music DAC section visible on the front even more so, it literally refreshes the 2x coaxial collection, there are few CD spinners panel, yet it has all the key fl avours parts that other CD players don’t even ● Outputs: single that will do a better job than this one. ended RCA phono of digital input including USB. But know exist and in an extremely ● Supported sample If on the other hand you are a that’s not all because there are digital coherent fashion. rates: 44.1kHz, dedicated audiophile, the lack of outputs too, two sets of them, one Rega’s Apollo-R does a similar 48kHz, 88.2kHz, fi nesse and holographic imaging may direct from the transport mechanism thing but is a little cruder, while 96kHz, 192kHz not be to your taste. But ultimately DISTRIBUTOR and the other from the DAC. Which is the Saturn-R is more revealing and Rega Ltd hi-fi should be a conduit to the glory a fi rst in our book. And lest you think subtle. Live recordings are made TELEPHONE of music and in this respect the that Rega has taken the guts of an obviously live and menacing pieces 01702 333071 Saturn-R is in another league to the Apollo-R and the salient parts from such as Massive Attack’s Inertia Creeps WEBSITE majority of the competition. its DAC and stuffed them in one box, become even darker. What we love rega.co.uk It’s not such a shiny piece of male there is at least one key indicator that most of all is the way it revives your REVIEWED jewellery and the remote is initially this is not the case. The USB input is music collection. This machine HFC 384 baffl ing, the red display can also be a proper asynchronous type that can reveals what’s good about them, hard to read in bright light. This aside accept up to 24-bit/192kHz signals what’s interesting and – critically – we can think of no reason why every – full HD digital audio in other words. why it is that you purchased them in music lover in the land does not need the fi rst place. to own this CD player. With the Sound quality And, of course, it’s a fully fl edged comprehensively equipped DAC it can While warming the Saturn-R up in DAC. In selecting USB, we discover also do wonders for your downloads the other room and even at low level that fi le playing delivers a more and hi-res fi les ● it becomes pretty apparent that it has refi ned result than the disc and nearly a rhythmic integrity that is so far as an engaging one. The timing ahead of the norm it’s uncanny. There remains strong and is superior to a are very few CD players that can do number of pretty decent standalone OUR VERDICT pace, rhythm and timing well, but DACs. If you want a rich and relaxed SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Enjoyable and this is a member of that select club. sound just hook up a laptop running musically engaging Equally clear is the slightly forward JRiver and you will get as much out CD player nature of its presentation. If you are of the converter, you will also fi nd VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Finish is looking for tonal sweetness it may not yourself having a lot of fun. not as slick as some BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: If you like be for you. If, however, you want Jeff Beck and Joss Stone’s rendering music you will love the to feel like the performance is taking of I Put A Spell On You has plenty Saturn-R. It reaches the parts that few digital place right in front of you, then it is. of rhythmic solidity and you really FEATURES components can Sound is a shallow thing, quite often appreciate Beck’s fabulous playing, a very nice thing, but not the reason more perhaps than Stone’s voice, but OVERALL why we love music. It’s the heart of that could be a matter of taste. We try the music that this CD player gets to a number of tweaks with the Saturn-R so well, it reveals tone and imaging, to see how much more it can do,

12 YEARBOOK 2014 CD PLAYER/INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

DETAILS The 1010 player excavates plenty of rich detail from CDs and treble energy PRICE Exposure CD player: £415, feels extended. It gets to some extra integrated truth that other players smooth off for amplifier: £445 an easier listen. In isolation this could ORIGIN be too revealing in the wrong system. Malaysia/UK At the other end of the spectrum, bass 1010 Series WEIGHT 5kg/7kg power can be punchy and full, so DIMENSIONS again, a mismatched amp or ineffi cient vailable with black or help you lock into the compelling (WxHxD) CD/amp: speakers could lose the quality silver anodised aluminium drive of the track. The Exposure 440 x 90 x 310mm message this player dredges up. fascias, the 1010 CD player combo comes across as having FEATURES If the 1010 CD player is a class act A ● Analogue RCA and 1010 integrated amp brilliant timing and infectious rhythm, for the money, then the 1010 amp is output and optical extol a rather British restraint. The especially around the lower registers. out (CD player) a bargain. Where the CD fi nds extra steel casework isn’t as robust as some, Yet this pair also possesses a true ● 50W per channel treble and bass detail along with great but construction is solid. The sharp lightness of touch, a smooth, RMS 8 ohms (amp) timing, the amp has a fl air for relaying ● 3 analogue RCA lines of the CD front plate house a informative midband coupled with inputs (amp) the emotion of music. Great timing is simple array of push-button relay an airy treble that suggests the ● Fixed gain AV preserved and its wonderful midband controls that operate all functions combination is very even-handed in input; line level ‘tape’ helps get all the pivotal information output (amp) with a gentle press. The CD tray feels delivering all the music on the disc. and intonation around voices and DISTRIBUTOR a little fl imsy, but operates smoothly The CD player successfully picks up Exposure instruments. Bass has weight and enough. The matching amp is on Harper’s subtle rubbing of guitar Electronics Ltd attack, yet also warmth and agility. reassuringly weighty and sports the slide on steel strings way back in the TELEPHONE same silky aluminium fascia as the mix. Equally, hand chimes in the track 01273 423877 Conclusion CD player. Around the back of both are tightly focused and continue long WEBSITE The real magic happens when these exposurehifi.com units connections are retained in after some other budget CD players components work together. Where REVIEWED sturdy backplates securely fi xed to have lost some of the decay detail. HFC 379 the CD could be too revealing, the chassis. Exposure claims some Switching to Mutya Buena’s track particularly on harsher tracks, the internal components in the 1010 Just A Little Bit confi rms the system’s amp helps with some forgiveness and series are shared from its higher natural ability with timing and extra insight into the music. Like any priced models. rhythm. It locks straight into the great double act, they play to one The amp has three pairs of RCA funky groove, with cleanly separate another’s strengths and support each inputs, a fi xed gain AV input and a bass, drums, vocals and brass all other when things get tough ● tape record connection. Single-wire gelling into this modern soul classic. speaker connection is enabled by Turning back the clock with a spin fl ush-mounted 4mm shrouded of Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony can speaker sockets. show up budget systems as they OUR VERDICT struggle to wrestle the bass weight SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Rhythm and Sound quality with critical midband detail, but in timing; treble detail Right from the very outset this this instance the combo doesn’t panic. and tuneful bass; combination commands your Organ weight is convincing, although VALUE FOR MONEY understated looks DISLIKE: Display hard attention. Together the components things get a little congested when the to read; otherwise seem to deliver a passion for music full orchestra joins in. BUILD QUALITY nothing at this price that just gets your toes tapping, and Strong rhythmic bass control is WE SAY: Revealing player with great they achieve a rare balance between usually the preserve of ‘muscular’ amps FEATURES timing, extended treble accuracy and soul. and smooth, lifelike vocals generally and strong bass Ben Harper’s Gold to Me leaps from come from plenty of midband detail OVERALL a stable soundstage with absolute or valves. Given there’s only a claimed authority. Bass lines have powerful 50W on tap and no tubes in sight, weight, yet clear leading edges that where is this magic coming from?

YEARBOOK 2014 13 CD PLAYER/INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

DETAILS Put a warmish, softish CD player together with a warmish, softish PRICE Marantz CD6005: £350 integrated, and there are no prizes PM6005: £380 for guessing what sort of sound they ORIGIN make. But the great thing is they’ll EU/China suit percussive, but tonally light and WEIGHT bright speakers – such as the Acoustic CD6005/PM6005 6.6kg/7.6kg Energy AE301(HFC 369) standmounts DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) – down to a tee. Hook them up with esiding on the very fi rst good that you can put them through 440 x 338 x 105mm the powerful Q Acoustics 2050i (HFC rung of the Marantz silver some pretty accomplished, high-end FEATURES 365) fl oorstanders and you have a disc-spinning range ladder, speakers and they still won’t give the ● CD, CD-R/RW and very synergistic combo. It’s as if R USB (iPod) playback the CD6005 has the very game away. ● Support for WAV, Marantz has designed a system to be same reliable CJDKT690 disc playing First, each component in isolation. MP3, AAC and WMA used very successfully in ‘real-world’ mechanism fi tted to its predecessor, Driving a Creek Destiny 2, the music files (CD) budget conditions, and compensated ● 24-bit/192kHz feeding a Crystal Semiconductors CD6005 sounds very nice indeed. Crystal for the stark nature of many CS4398 DAC, digital fi lter and noise Treble is crisp and spacious – maybe Semiconductor inexpensive speakers. shaper IC. The major concessions to not the world’s sweetest or best CS4398 DAC (CD) ● Quoted power modernity are the new remote control fi nessed – while midband is smooth output: 45W RMS Conclusion and a front panel USB input for iPod. and open with a good sense of image into 8ohms (amp) Designing budget separates such as The PM6005 integrated amplifi er placement. Bass does its own thing ● 5 RCA line inputs, these is the art of the possible and it 2 digital inputs gets rather more drastic surgery, happily, sounding surprisingly strong (amp) all comes down to how cleverly you following the fashion for offering a and tuneful for a cheap deck and the DISTRIBUTOR make the compromises. Neither of bundled DAC built in, meaning you result is very enjoyable. Marantz UK these components will threaten the can hook up anything that outputs a Running the PM6005 from an TELEPHONE best £1,000 product, but nor will you coaxial digital or Toslink signal and Audiolab 8200A CD player, it’s spooky 02890 279830 be lamenting the fact that you haven’t play it direct through the amp via the how that rich, slightly soft and hazy WEBSITE spent such a sum. Essentially, any built-in 24-bit/192kHz high Crystal sound of the CD6005 is repeated with marantz.co.uk transgressions are those of omission, Semiconductors CS4398 (as per the its matching amplifi er. The rather REVIEWED they won’t offend, but they don’t give HFC 381 CD6005). High-quality Japanese sudden action of the volume control you as much as other, pricier designs Sanken 2SA1694 and 2SC4467 gives too much loudness from around will. Anyone that’s interested should output transistors are used to deliver nine o’clock to 12 on the dial, making go and audition them. We’re sure you a claimed 2x 45W RMS per channel it hard to trim lower listening levels will be beguiled ● into 8ohms. easily. But when you’ve got used to Generally, the quality of fi nish seen this, you’ll struggle not to like the in both these components belies their big-hearted nature of this integrated. low prices. You’re never really aware It seems to bounce along with a smile, OUR VERDICT you’re in the cheap seats, so to speak, determined to enjoy whatever you SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Open, smooth because the controls work smoothly play through it, without a care in warm sound; fine build and there are no disconcerting bangs the world. at the price; styling VALUE FOR MONEY and pops. UB40’s One in Ten is very tuneful, DISLIKE: Flimsy binding posts on the Marantz pushing out plenty of the amplifier BUILD QUALITY Sound quality bass that sounds surprisingly supple, WE SAY: Excellent As you might expect, this Marantz while the midband is wide and airy, budget CD player and amplifier with a FEATURES combo sounds big, fat and warm. with lots of detail to the percussion. surprisingly fine sound Both components have been voiced to Vocals aren’t as smooth as they might hide their budget origins as well as is have been, but never grate; indeed OVERALL possible, and they don’t sound like the amplifi er’s only real sin is that of your average, cheap, screechy budget omission, as it fails to drill down into hi-fi separates. Indeed, they’re so the low-level detail.

14 YEARBOOK 2014 SACD PLAYER/DAC

DETAILS acoustic, although it doesn’t hang back as far as we’d like, and proceeds PRICE Marantz £1,000 to make music in an enjoyably ORIGIN effervescent way. The player really Japan catches the timing of the music, and WEIGHT gives a great sense of fl ow from verse 8kg to chorus to verse. It unravels the SA8005 DIMENSIONS various layers of the mix in an easy, (WxHxD) unaggressive way – making for an 440 x 106 x 341mm his Marantz has the feel confi dent sounding machine, far informative sound that seduces more FEATURES of a good camera; all the more so than any budget CD player ● CD, SACD, CD-R/ than it thrills. controls are crisp, positive or DAC, which will sound rather RW and DAC The SA8005 is never boring, but T playback and delicate. The brushed thin and veiled by comparison. It it lacks the intensity and vitality of ● Support for WAV, metal fascia is superb, and is has a relatively full-bodied tonality, MP3, AAC, WMA, some of the better, more expensive agreeably sculpted to avoid the although you’d never call it ‘fat’ or DSD2.8 and DSD5.6 machines. Certainly though, it proves generic blandness that affl icts many ‘euphonic’. Via a really high-end ● 24-bit/192kHz most able considering its price; there’s Cirrus Logic Japanese products. But perhaps the amplifi er and speakers, it still sounds CS4398 DAC a sense that Marantz has carefully major point of differentiation from its musically rewarding, yet feed it into ● Discrete measured it up against its rivals and mainstream £1,000 rivals is that the the sort of system it’s more likely to headphone amp made it just a little better. SA8005 offers two-channel Super be used with, and it fi ts perfectly. DISTRIBUTOR Marantz UK Audio Compact Disc playback. This is There’s lots of detail, a strong bass, a Conclusion TELEPHONE very much a legacy format now. What decently open and realistic midband 02890 279830 The SA8005 is one of those will prove more useful for most UK and a smooth, warmish treble. Stereo WEBSITE unerringly capable designs that gets audiophiles is its USB, optical and imaging is expansive and location marantz.co.uk on with the job in a most agreeable coaxial input-equipped DAC, so it within it pretty good; it also takes a REVIEWED way. It’s an excellent, highly effective can play a far wider range of formats. fair crack at dynamics. HFC 390 disc spinner with handy DAC As well as PCM computer music fi les Given the SA8005’s highly agreeable functionality built in, but a few years at up to 24-bit, 192kHz, it includes personality, our fi rst port of call is My into its life it may well spend most of Direct Stream Digital (DSD), which is Bloody Valentine’s When You Sleep. its time playing hi-res DSD music the native coding system for SACD. It’s a searing wall of feedback and – when DSD5.6 could be as common Better still, it does ‘double speed’ DSD assorted studio effects overlaying as 192kbps AAC is now. Factor in the (ie DSD5.6). This runs at twice the cracked up, compressed guitars. This player’s fi ne build quality, and what’s data rate, giving theoretically superior track is very good at forcing mistakes not to like? ● sound, and the SA8005 is currently from front ends, but the Marantz one of the few machines on sale that copes manfully. It is uncomplaining is built for this. and workmanlike – it just gets on with the job of playing the song OUR VERDICT Sound quality without any fuss. Oh, and it is also SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Warm, smooth, The job of a £1,000 CD player is to without a searing, harsh treble or a sophisticated sound; provide an obvious improvement to forward upper midband, too. So we facilities; build VALUE FOR MONEY the rather two-dimensional sounding can say that this is a seriously couth DISLIKE: Not quite as detailed as some rivals machines populating the sub-£500 CD spinner; it falls into no traps that BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: Super price bracket. However, the SA8005 is give away its status as a relatively sounding, well made unlikely to be used with the very best inexpensive product in the great mid-price disc spinner ancillaries money can buy, so it does scheme of hi-fi things. FEATURES need to be reasonably easy going – a Via SACD Simple Minds’ New Gold high intensity, full-on sound may well Dream is superb; it proves to be a big, OVERALL grate in a mid-price system, after all. confi dent sounding player that gives a With this in mind, the Marantz hits slightly warm and rose-tinted view of the spot perfectly; it is a powerful and the world. It sets up a wide recorded

YEARBOOK 2014 15

NETWORK MUSIC PLAYER/DAC

DETAILS spacious recorded acoustic given half PRICE the chance. Krell £3,500 Wings’ Band On The Run is an ORIGIN unalloyed pleasure; it’s a great album USA that to our mind has never sounded WEIGHT right on vinyl or CD, but at 24/96 via 8.1kg the Connect it comes over as tonally Connect DIMENSIONS fulsome, spatially three dimensional (WxHxD) 433 x 88 x 427mm and musically gratifying. Once again ith the Krell Connect you to bring all of the music together in a FEATURES the Krell’s basic character shines get to choose from two believable, coherent and organic way. ● 6 to 24-bit, through; things are fast and thrilling fl avours: for £2,500 you At fi rst listen, it presents itself as a 44.1kHz to 192kHz with fantastically dynamic pan rolls W PCM playback can buy the streamer itself, light, bright and tonally spry device, ● FLAC; Ogg; crashing across the soundstage, left while an additional £1,000 gets you a but it’s so much more than this, as it WAV; WMA; to right then back again. high-quality internal DAC fi tted. Both plays a clever trick of rendering the Apple Lossless; The Connect is consummately m4a; MP3 files variants play a plethora of fi les – the music in a very clean and detailed ● ESS Sabre neutral and transparent, letting all important ones being FLAC and WAV fashion, yet is never harsh or ES-9018 DAC chip the richness of recordings come out at up to 24-bit/192kHz, but ALAC, objectionable. Indeed, when it’s been ● RCA and balanced while capturing their full visceral XLR outputs AAC, Ogg, WMA and MP3 are also on for a few hours, it acquires a impact – it’s quite a thing to DISTRIBUTOR supported. Our review sample comes seductive creaminess to its tonality. Absolute Sounds experience. This means that unlike with the DAC built-in, but the cheaper For example, Steely Dan’s Deacon TELEPHONE some rivals, which seem to have been version simply has a digital output, Blue comes over in a beautifully lucid 0208 9713909 voiced in one way or another, it works making it ideal for those that already way; Donald Fagen’s deadpan vocals WEBSITE uniformly well across a wide range of have a digital converter or DAC- sound unusually animated and absolutesounds. source material. equipped CD player. tuneful, while backing saxophones com REVIEWED Being a Krell it is compulsory for it and trumpet have a believable timbre HFC 385 Conclusion to look big and bold, and so it does. to them that’s rarely heard in a digital We have tried many different The central section sports a long LED source component. Walter Becker’s machines at this price point and the light that glows red or blue depending delicate guitar work is better etched Connect can hold its own. Of course, on the mode – standby or operating. than we are used to, while at the it’s always a matter of taste, but it’s so To the right is a small 320 x 240-pixel, same time it never descends into neutral, open and transparent that it 90mm diameter backlit LCD screen. brittleness. Indeed, the way the doesn’t tie itself up in knots trying to Connect allows all the elements to fl atter one type of music or another ● Sound quality play along with one another is a joy Unsurprisingly, there’s a distinctive to behold – it manages the deftest of Krell family sound to the Connect – party tricks of enthralling yet never one that impresses and charms in tiring the listener. It doesn’t just give a OUR VERDICT equal measure. The powerful, sense of the recording, it nails it. SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Naturally musical percussive, fl uid bass is great, as Move from CD-quality to high- sound with power and Propaganda’s The Chase proves. The resolution recordings, and there’s punch; build quality VALUE FOR MONEY synth bass line modulates up and a proportional increase in sound DISLIKE: Some may want fascia controls down with heady aplomb, sounding quality, just as it should be; the music and a larger screen BUILD QUALITY wonderfully untroubled by what is acquires extra energy, detail, drive, WE SAY: Superb going on further up the frequency power and precision right across the sounding high-end streamer with real FEATURES scale. At the same time, the Connect frequency range. Treble becomes musical appeal cuts through the track’s dense wash slightly smoother and a lot more of synthesisers, throwing out loads sparkly, bass is fi rmer and fuller OVERALL of detail and a capacious soundstage. and the midband widens out even Treble is svelte and smooth too, and more and drops back, showing the timed beautifully – the Krell manages Connect’s ability to create a superbly

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they’re playing marks it out – its combination of clarity and power is genuinely special. The midrange isn’t as expansive or as translucent as a separates system, but again it’s so much better than a normal one-box offering. It lets you follow the fl ow of the music, listen into the mix and enjoy things just as you should. Indeed it’s remarkably uncompressed and unconstrained; you can even feed it pounding house music like Who’s In The House by The Beatmasters, and it doesn’t get fl ustered. It goes loud and retains a sense of rhythmic integrity and dynamic ease that seems to defy the laws of physics. Because of this, music seems easier to listen to than you’d expect from something this size. At fi rst there’s a sense of subconscious confusion while your ears attune to what they’re hearing, rather than DETAILS what you expect to hear. PRICE Feed it a Deutsche Grammophon Naim £895 recording of Beethoven’s Pastoral ORIGIN Symphony and even this type of UK/China programme material comes over in an WEIGHT impressively natural, unalloyed way. mu-so 13kg Of course, it can’t reproduce the space DIMENSIONS and the scale of the recording in its (WxHxD) 628 x 120 x 256mm entirety, but it does capture the ffectively, this is a box with system. Not only that, it isn’t just FEATURES textural feel of the orchestra as well loudspeakers, amplifi ers, ‘sound’ that it makes, but a ● UPnP; aptX; as the fl ow of the music. It’s also DSP and a network- convincingly musical performance AirPlay; wi-fi good at signposting differences in E ● Ethernet; USB enabled preamp all built that has an integrity and a rightness type-A; optical dynamics, so you can sense how the in. It streams music from network- that you just don’t expect from a digital and 3.5mm music broods then builds up to a attached storage, smartphones, single box such as this. analogue inputs crescendo. The treble surprises here ● 24-bit/192kHz tablets, USB sticks and ye olde MP3 We discover the mu-so works best a DAC too, giving a spacious feel and players, and can work as a standalone good way from rear or side walls, ● Quoted output marking out the recorded acoustic system or part of a multi-room setup. where it can breathe properly. The power: 6x 75W well in spatial terms. ● Support for WAV, Music comes via AirPlay (from bass never booms, but is nicest about FLAC and AIFF Apple iDevices), or from the UPnP 50cm out into free air, with the unit (24/192); ALAC Conclusion streamer. There’s also aptX Bluetooth, fi ring in the direction of the listener (24/96); MP3; AAC; There’s no doubt that the mu-so is a OGG and WMA which is what many will use. It plays roughly at ear level. This done it gives superb product; it’s no substitute for a DISTRIBUTOR internet radio and works with Spotify you a commanding performance, Naim Audio Ltd full-size hi-fi and doesn’t set out to be, Connect. There’s also a USB socket seeming to do the reverse of the TELEPHONE yet it provides music from a one-box (which can play out the digital signal ‘music squeezed through a toothpaste 01722 426600 system of a clarity and power that is from an iPhone, iPad, iPod – or off a tube’ effect. Its front speaker baffl e is WEBSITE absolutely exceptional. USB stick). There’s an optical digital small, yet the scale of the music naimaudio.com Factor in its excellent wireless and input too for DVD players, gaming completely belies this. It has a REVIEWED streaming capabilities and it’s an HFC 391 consoles etc. and a 3.5mm analogue TARDIS-like quality, except the other extremely persuasive package ● input, although disappointingly no way around where what comes out is RCA phono sockets. far larger than from where it came. The mu-so sports six drive units Tonally it’s surprisingly neutral behind its front grille, including two when correctly sited. Bass is really OUR VERDICT tweeters, twin midband drivers and taut and a good deal more extended SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Sound quality; two elliptical ‘fi gure of eight’ bass than you might expect, although you stylish packaging; units. In a nod to the famous Linn/ never get the subterranean growl connectivity; build VALUE FOR MONEY and finish Naim ‘Six Packs’ of the eighties, of the bass line from Supertramp’s DISLIKE: Styling they are actively driven by six Child Of Vision that you’d fi nd in a won’t win everyone (STMicroelectronics TA516B/ full-sized hi-fi . Its ability to reproduce BUILD QUALITY over; wireless setup not intuitive STA311B 75W Class D) amplifi ers. the middle and upper notes of the WE SAY: Brilliant one- FEATURES bassline is excellent, though, as well box music system with Sound quality as conveying the keyboard work in quality to spare We haven’t heard anything quite like a crisp, undiluted way. The talent OVERALL the mu-so before. It fi lls a medium- that the Naim has at distinguishing sized room with sound in an effortless between different strands of the way despite not being a full-sized mix regardless of how loud or quiet

20 YEARBOOK 2014

STREAMER/DAC

DETAILS separated. But what’s more telling is how we can hear each instrument’s PRICE Primare £2,000 unique characteristics when ORIGIN pinpointing them within the Sweden soundstage. The track’s bass guitar WEIGHT sounds tight with slightly rolled-off 8.5kg EQ, while the rhythm guitar rings NP30 DIMENSIONS with more echo and the cymbals (WxHxD) 430 x 95 x 370mm sound crisply defi ned. his box of tricks is based becomes tiresome. Instead it is quite FEATURES As with the Sproule album, the on the MM30 ‘media the opposite, being more relaxed in ● Burr-Brown Dennis Wilson material highlights board’, a £1,300 add on character with a refi ned tone that’s 24-bit/192kHz that it’s blessed with an analogue T upsampling DAC that slots into ports in a joy to listen to for hours on end. ● Wi-fi and Ethernet richness that’s as reminiscent of a Primare’s I32 integrated and PRE32 In this respect it reminds us of a streaming top-notch phono stage as it is a DAC. preamp, turning them into fully top-fl ight vinyl rig when a given arm, ● USB and S/PDIF Wilson’s vocals fl ow with a languid inputs fl edged network players. As well as cartridge and turntable are working ● XLR, RCA and ease that tells us what we’re hearing placing this module into its own in perfect harmony to provide a S/PDIF outputs is about as close to the album’s studio isolated case, what the extra cash sound that’s effortlessly balanced. ● WAV/AIFF/FLAC/ sessions as we’re going to get within ALAC/MP3/AAC/ buys you in the standalone NP30 This sonic trait seems to stem from WMA/OGG our listening room. The music is full streamer is a dedicated power supply the NP30’s midrange, which remains file support of atmosphere that seems to bring to and output stage with an extra buffer, smooth and lucid without being in DISTRIBUTOR life the energy of the recording. alongside a wealth of connectivity. any way forward or overly attention Karma-AV Digital inputs include USB type A grabbing, helping to bring out the TELEPHONE Conclusion and B (asynchronous) for hardwiring best in Sproule’s unforced singing. 01423 358846 Behind the NP30’s top-quality laptops or iPods directly, alongside The way it stays true to Devon’s WEBSITE understated casework lies a primare.net S/PDIF inputs shared over three relaxed vocal style tells us it’s happy deceptively smart product. Its REVIEWED optical (Toslink) and only one coaxial to sit back and let the music fl ow with HFC 387 dedicated app is one of the easiest (RCA) socket. Wi-fi is catered for via natural rhythm and pace. With the and most intuitive, making the a rear-panel stubby antennae, but as slow-rolling melody of Sproule’s The Primare a breeze to get to grips with. this is limited to 16-bit/48kHz, the Easier Way, the streamer gives the Its DAC is seriously good, giving the Ethernet port is our preferred melody just the right amount of music a sophisticated mellow tone solution. Output-wise alongside a pair bluesy ambience, presented in a that both digital and analogue fans of line-level RCAs and an S/PDIF convincingly proportioned soundstage will enjoy in equal measure ● (RCA), there’s a pair of XLRs, which so the percussion and slide guitar are fully balanced right from the DAC. have space to express themselves. Moving on to a 16/44 ALAC rip of Sound quality Dennis Wilson’s Pacifi c Ocean Blue OUR VERDICT From the opening bars of Devon highlights the NP30’s ability to SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Articulate and Sproule’s Don’t Hurry For Heaven stay on its toes, anticipating grand effortlessly musical; streamed via a 16-bit/44kHz FLAC dynamic swings, which it delivers great app; XLR outputs VALUE FOR MONEY rip over Ethernet and with the NP30 with ease while ensuring the music DISLIKE: Just one coaxial S/PDIF input driving our preamp from its balanced maintains consistent levels of energy (but three optical) BUILD QUALITY outputs, we know we’re in the and momentum without any WE SAY: Combines a company of an experienced beast. overhang. The funky and more well executed streamer with a superb sounding FEATURES The Primare isn’t like many a complex grooves of this track really DAC and with preamp streamer or digital front end, which lets the Primare show how effortlessly functionality to boot all too often sonically leap straight natural sounding it is. The soundstage OVERALL out of the speakers like an eager is again expansive and accessible and puppy, with dazzling zing that may as you’d expect of a streamer in this be initially impressive, but quickly price bracket, instruments are well

22 YEARBOOK 2014 ONE-BOX SYSTEM

DETAILS Bluetooth streaming from an iPhone is pleasingly reliable and boasts an PRICE £1,999 aural quality that almost matches the ORIGIN unit’s CD playback, just falling short China in terms of sonic headroom and WEIGHT clarity. With John William’s main title 30kg theme from Jaws the threatening DIMENSIONS double bass two-note sting is strong (WxHxD) 1,000 x 175 x and punchy and you can push the 400mm volume to its maximum and still Ruark R7 FEATURES listen comfortably, although the sub ● CD (CD-Audio, starts reverberating and the higher MP3), DAB, DAB+, FM, MP3, WMA, frequencies of the percussion and n the coat tails of a slew sonorous Eve of War introduction is so AAC, FLAC, WAV, woodwind sound a tad shrill. The of stylish and successful rich and detailed you can hear the air A2DP, aptX radio tuners are well implemented, Bluetooth radios and speaker docks, drawing into his lungs between and the R7 does a commendable job O ● DLNA streaming the R7 is Ruark’s most sentences and it almost sounds as if over wi-fi with UPnP with DAB transmissions, especially ambitious – and expensive – radio he’s in the room with us. When the ● 2x 5.5in dual fully orchestrated classical music, concentric drivers product yet. It combines DAB and FM strings kick in, the R7 reveals its ● 1x 8in long-throw Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony, for tuners, CD-quality aptX Bluetooth, subwoofer is no shrinking violet and subwoofer example, is detailed and articulate DLNA network streaming, internet its out-of-the-box setting requires a DISTRIBUTOR but smooth and balanced throughout radio, CD playback, auxiliary smidgen of attenuation in order to Ruark Audio as the piece escalates in intensity and analogue and digital inputs and eliminate reverb and optimise the TELEPHONE diminishes in equal turn. a 2.1-speaker confi guration in one bedrock for the building blocks of the 01702 601410 WEBSITE beautifully crafted unit the size of higher frequencies. ruarkaudio.com Conclusion a saxophone case. The R7 is the The overall musical spectrum is No audiophiles are going to chuck out REVIEWED reinvention of the radiogram, impressive and the cabinet seems HFC 384 their hi-fi separates system in order to especially when mounted on its immaculately tuned so that there’s no accommodate it, but the R7 spindle legs (it also comes with puck coloration. The higher frequencies of radiogram reboot is a great deal more feet), combining cutting-edge audio the wailing synth and fl ute are pin than simply an attempt to cash in on technology with yesteryear looks that sharp and blend wonderfully with the current vogue for retro-looking wouldn’t look out of place in Mad the midrange of the acoustic guitar. systems. On build quality and design Men Don Draper’s Manhattan pad. Overall, the Class AB amplifi cation alone it goes some way towards The rear side’s metre-long panel has delivers an energetic and lively sound justifying its price tag (especially more than enough acreage to provide that’s as cosy as a Martian’s heat ray. compared with some of the designer clutter-free sockets including dual Sonic steering is good too, with console tables that are available), but RCA phono line inputs, a Toslink impressive stereo imaging, the what seals the deal is that it’s a real optical, S/PDIF coaxial and a handy various frequencies of the chimes pleasure to operate and, more USB socket for charging mobile and bells at the start of Time on Pink importantly, it delivers a remarkably phones and tablets. Two 75ohm Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, for powerful and pleasing sound ● F-type inputs are provided for DAB example, sounding dynamic and and FM aerials. As you’d expect for a shooting off in all directions around £1,999 product, Ruark has turned its the room. back on Class D amplifi cation and Network streaming includes FLAC OUR VERDICT under the hood is 160W power supply and WAV, but is hit and miss with SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Design; ease coupled to linear Class AB discrete ALAC fi les, with the R7 able to of use; clean, component amplifi ers. decode some 24-bit/48kHz tracks, powerful sound but not 16-bit/44.1kHz. At least it VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: No hi-res ALAC playback or DSD; Sound quality automatically skips unplayable tracks no app control BUILD QUALITY Although it can’t handle DSD, we kick in a playlist. One successful stream WE SAY: Not just a things off with the CD layer of The in terms of decoding and quality pretty face, the R7 is a worthy reinvention War of the Worlds SACD. Not only is includes the wonderful Hey Laura FEATURES of the radiogram the output surprisingly powerful, but by Gregory Porter, an iTunes AAC the sonic quality seems so good that download. His vocals are deep OVERALL we have to check that it’s the PCM and beautifully rounded, gliding downmix we’re listening to and not effortlessly in harmony with the DSD after all. Richard Burton’s tinkling piano and percussion.

YEARBOOK 2014 23 HDD SYSTEM

DETAILS will well know. We have already seen a slew of such devices appear on PRICE Sony HAP-S1 £800 the market. In fact, the closest thing ORIGIN in existence to the HAP-S1 is the Japan/China Brennan JB7, which is an altogether WEIGHT less audiophile proposition, as we Sony has eschewed streaming for a hard 5.8kg shall see. DIMENSIONS Sony is serious about its new (WxHxD) drive in its new one-box HAP-S1 hi-res 265 x 88 x 304mm one-box system, having resisted the FEATURES temptation to use cheap, low current music maker, and the gamble has paid off ● 500GB hard-disk consumption, high power Class D drive (expandable power output modules. Instead, it via USB) new range of hi-res music Now though, Sony is back with a ● DSDIFF(DSD), DSF, has stuck with Class AB operation on machines sees Sony make subtle but clever evolution of the MP3, WAV, WMA, sound quality grounds. Its power amp a welcome return to the digital music player. First announced AAC, FLAC, ALAC, is of dual mono construction, and is A ATRAC, AIFF hi-fi arena. Things got at IFA in 2013, the HAP-S1 high- support said to have extended bandwidth to diffi cult back in the late nineties, resolution music player sets out to ● Quoted power: exploit hi-res audio sources, up to when MP3 fi les began to replace CD. give easy access to high-quality digital 2x 40W/4ohm 100kHz. It’s mounted to a sturdy ● Headphone The company’s instinct had always music in a sleek, one-box package. It output chassis of 3mm thickness aluminium, been to maintain control of the entire has a 500GB hard drive built in, and DISTRIBUTOR and a low-noise cooling fan is fi tted. music recording and replay chain, so forms the heart of a large music Sony Europe Ltd This sits on eccentric insulators, made from record company to format to library – and importantly it has clever TELEPHONE from specially chosen rubber. player. But for once, Sony was caught new software that lets you transfer 0207 3652413 The HAP-S1 sports a low-loss EI on the hop. The next generation of your music library from your Mac or WEBSITE ferrite core power transformer, and music listeners wanted their content PC with ease. sony.co.uk careful attention has been paid to free and easy – and certainly not tied There’s more, it doesn’t just play REVIEWED earthing, with a single ground point HFC 382 to anyone’s hardware. Belatedly, it FLAC and Apple Lossless (ALAC) fi les and high-strength epoxy glass responded with its range of ‘Network at the normal resolutions, plus all the circuitboards said to be twice the Walkmans’ running the ATRAC other lower-quality compressed fi le thickness of rivals. Trick power supply format, but it was like trying to push formats, it also supports PCM up to capacitors are fi tted, selected for water uphill – the world wouldn’t 24/192 and the latest incarnation of sound quality, the company says, as listen. History tells us that just a DSD. In short, it’s the fi rst affordable are carbon resistors. Special signal couple of years later, Apple seized the ‘music jukebox’ that can genuinely switching relays are fi tted in lieu of opportunity and wrestled the whole claim audiophile credentials. semiconductor switches. Overall shebang from Sony’s grip with the This isn’t the fi rst hard-disk quality of construction is excellent iPod and iTunes. drive-based music player, as many considering the price.

24 YEARBOOK 2014 HDD SYSTEM

Before you use the Sony in earnest, amplifi er section. This proves to have The best we hear the HAP-S1 you’ll have to hook it up to your home a smooth, detailed sound that is sounding is via DSD. Miles Davis’ So broadband network; there’s a choice nicely animated – although tonally What, from Kind of Blue, is a joy. of wired or wireless, with a built-in slightly thin on Freeez’s Southern There is a great sense of space, a nice antenna for the latter – no nasty Freeez via LP. There is also some natural swing to the rhythms and a stubby plastic masts hang out from splashiness to the treble and some lovely lustre to the trumpets. The behind. Migrating music from your lack of air and space, although it is Sony also manages to summon up computer is done via Sony’s HAP pleasant enough. The digital input is a decent sense of the depth of the Music Transfer software better, with a cleaner and more open recorded acoustic – which we know (downloadable from the Support sound, one that is very enjoyable to be a very capacious thing. section of the Sony Europe website), in its way. It proves to be fun with Instruments are fairly well placed in which runs on Windows or Mac and a big-hearted, animated sort of the soundstage, although there’s automatically copies all your tunes character, and gets on with the job never really a sense of them being to the hard drive via your home in a satisfying manner. The HAP-S1 nailed to the furniture in your network. Usefully, it does this in the also features a built-in internet radio listening room. This is fair enough background, so we are able to play tuner, using vTuner, and this works though, considering the relatively low music from the hard drive, or any well, despite the depressingly low price of the unit, and all in all it is a other source while it dutifully bit-rates used by the broadcasters. solid performer. downloads our many fi les. Still, it’s fi ne for background music Being a hard disk-based system, it and handy extra functionality. Conclusion gives instant access – there’s no lag Moving to the delights of the unit’s Five years or so ago, the brave new between the track you choose and internal hard drive, it serves up the world of computer audio grew up into when it starts playing. Also, you best sound we’ve heard so far from hi-fi separates with hard-disk drives don’t get dropouts as it isn’t subject to some of our hi-res PCM fi les; Wings’ inside. Products from companies like network glitches, and your computer Band On Run is very detailed and Brennan, Cambridge Audio and can remain switched off while you’re clean, with lots of atmosphere and a Yamaha offered instant playback of playing music. It works so well we’re natural rhythmic fl ow. Dynamics are computer fi les from standalone boxes. surprised more manufacturers haven’t good, and when fed with beautifully Then streamers appeared, and the done it. Our only observation would rich source material such as Kate whole industry began to rally around be that it would be great to be able Bush’s Snowfl ake in 24/96, it gives this model. Sony’s HAP-S1 (and its to record directly from an analogue a fi ne account of Kate’s piano work. bigger HAP-Z1ES brother) are the source, so that you can archive your fi rst to elegantly combine the two LPs or tapes too. But you can, of Sony is back with a technologies, giving the best of both Like a 21st course, record LPs on your computer, worlds. It works rather like a 21st century CD which the Sony will automatically subtle but clever century CD jukebox, offering instant jukebox, the HAP-S1 is an copy then play. evolution of the music, and plenty of it – but it elegant beast Sony products are always models seamlessly integrates with your of ergonomic excellence, and the digital music player computer and its music library via HAP-S1 is no exception. The large your home network. right hand volume knob is easier to REM’s Texarkana at 24/192 is great The Sony HAP-S1 is a special use than an up/down button, and the fun, with oodles of power and product then, offering an impressively selector knob to the left works well impressive dynamics. With hi-res fi les easy and pleasant user experience, with the colourful display. In use, it is it makes a very nice noise then, but allied to excellent build and fi nish, easier to operate than any network you are always aware of a slightly fl exibility and decent sonics. At £800 music player – it functions more like opaque midband, and a sense of the it’s not going to be the greatest an ‘instant CD player’ than a music being processed. sounding system around, but it’s good computer audio product, it’s old Dropping the bit-rate down provides at the price, and its rivals can’t offer school and none the worse for it! a chance to try the unit’s DSEE anywhere near the same functionality. facility; a 256kbps MP3 of Jon and Indeed, it’s quite an audacious little Sound quality Vangelis’ I Hear You Now is nice product, showing a Sony Corporation The S-1 features Sony’s Digital Sound enough. With the Sony system back on the front foot. Life has just Enhancement Engine, which is switched off, the HAP-S1 catches the got a little bit more interesting ● designed to make low bit-rate fi les track’s warm and fl uffy sound, and sound more palatable, and to “restore makes a decent enough job of the missing data from compressed audio”. rhythms too. Switched on, it really In truth, though, it does not do does improve things, adding some air OUR VERDICT precisely this – rather, it guesstimates and space to the hi-hat cymbal work; SOUND QUALITY LIKE: HDD storage; what should be in the upper part of the bass sequencing is more distinct software integration; the audio band, and also what was and tuneful, and the lead synthesiser versatility; build and finish in the tail end of the waveform that line carrying the melody has better VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: No HDD was chopped off by the MP3 or AAC resolved leading edges. Jon recording; no USB compression algorithm, and adds it to Anderson’s voice is a little less BUILD QUALITY digital input the music fi le. A nice feature to have, muffl ed, but fractionally brighter and WE SAY: Lovely little hi-res playing package; FEATURES but ideally audiophiles should stick more sibilant, however. Overall, this easy to use and rather with the original hi-res music fi les seems to be a worthwhile facility, fine sounding rather than trying to magic them especially on lower bit-rate MP3s, OVERALL better via a clever DSP! although contrary to what Sony might Auditioning starts via its analogue claim, it’s not able to make a sonic silk and digital line inputs, to gauge the purse out of a sow’s ear.

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“NO PUSSYFOOTING: REF10 IS THE BEST SOUNDING VALVE PREAMP I HAVE EVER HEARD”

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AUDIO/ JORGE CONCALVES / REF CD9

For over four decades, motivated by the uncompromising pursuit of the ultimate musical experience, Audio Research has continued to create products that have gained iconic status blending innovation and craftsmanship with longevity. The components featured above – Ref10, CD9 and Ref75 - the latest additions to the world-famous Reference line, have already received the rapturous reception one expects of this prestigious marque.

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For details of the full range including streamers, cd players, pre-amplifi ers and power amplifi ers and to fi nd your nearest dealer, contact Absolute Sounds.

absolute sounds ltd. International Distributors & Consultants of Specialised Hi-End Audio & Video Systems 58 Durham Road, London, SW20 0TW T: +44 (0)20 89 71 39 09 ® W: www.absolutesounds.com E: [email protected] BLUETOOTH DAC

Arcam miniBlink

owhere on the top three sees many miniBlink customers using DETAILS signifi cantly better with either or sides of the packing box it, fl itting between friends and family both of these upgraded. PRICE N can you see the word music systems for the few years we £90 Audiophiles shouldn’t worry about Arcam. Instead, this have before everything on sale gets TELEPHONE aptX. Standard Bluetooth sounds portable DAC is described as a Bluetooth connectivity built in. 01223 203200 gruesome, but this special wireless ‘miniBlink’, with ‘123’ added on one It’s claimed to be “as easy as 1-2-3” WEBSITE protocol that piggy-backs onto it surface. Now this isn’t because Arcam to set up, and so it proves. All you do arcam.co.uk offers decent sonics. It’s claimed to be is a modest company with much to is unpack the unit, plug it into the REVIEWED as good as CD, but we’ve never heard be modest about, it’s because the USB power supply that comes HFC 387 it that good; rather it’s best described Cambridge-based operation is selling in the box, switch your device’s OUR VERDICT as matching top-quality AAC, which is this little device into a market that Bluetooth on (if it isn’t already) and certainly no bad thing. neither knows nor cares who or press the miniBlink’s one button to what Arcam is. In other words, the pair it. This done, it will light up a Sound quality miniBlink is unashamedly a mass lovely shade of violet. Oh, and don’t When it’s had a few minutes to warm market, consumer audio product. forget to plug the supplied RCA-to- up, the miniBlink shows that aptX And why not? 3.5mm cable into your hi-fi ; there’s can be great with a lively, musical, Arcam has been quick to market also a 3.5mm-to-3.5mm lead included detailed and just plain fun sound. For with an extensive range of wireless too. The whole process is done and example, Grace Jones’ Private Life and/or network-equipped DACs. This dusted in just under a minute. comes over with plenty of power shows that the company has been fast and passion driven from an aptX to recognise the potential of a brave Shows that aptX can compatible smartphone. The new audio world where mobile miniBlink shows itself to be phones and tablets are now our music be great with a lively, excellent at capturing the song’s sources. Indeed, we’re getting to the detailed and just dynamics, and there is a similarly stage now where computer audio is impressive punch to Sly and Robbie’s designed for dads with their ripped plain fun sound percussion work, with a lithe, supple CD collections, while the cool kids bass guitar and wonderful thwack to are content with their mobile devices Arcam says “much” of the miniBlink the bass drum. Tonally it’s not the and downloads! is taken from the company’s £160 deepest, darkest sounding thing we So the miniBlink is squarely aimed rBlink. This is the audiophile version, have ever heard; instead it has a at a younger demographic, and with an S/PDIF output and a swanky bright and spry sort of nature that maybe their more hip, groovy and alloy case. The miniBlink feels like picks out loads of detail with zest and swinging parents too – but certainly a very light plastic pebble; it’s vigour. But you’d never call it hard; it not at folk who have concerns that beautifully surfaced with a gloss comes over as being a well executed, aptX may not be a suffi ciently fi nish, but you wonder how long it low distortion design. high-fi delity medium to transmit will last without being scratched. digital audio over. It sports a Burr-Brown PCM5102 Conclusion All the miniBlink has to be is small, 24-bit DAC, which is a fi ne design; The miniBlink is ideal for its intended cute and ultra easy to use – and it is. we think the biggest limiting factor market, giving portable music fans It weighs just 40g and measures 60 x won’t be this, but the very cheap USB a taste of quality sound that they 30 x 75mm (WxHxD), meaning it’s power supply and the rather modest may not be used to, yet it remains small enough to be portable. Indeed, connecting leads. Although adequate, highly enjoyable to more tweaky Arcam intimates that this is how it the miniBlink would surely sound hi-fi types too ●

YEARBOOK 2014 29 DAC/HEADPHONE AMP

distortion. Rob says that – in simple terms – the brain samples sound Chord Electronics in real time every 4 microseconds, whereas CD refreshes its ‘frames’ every 22 microseconds. It’s CD’s inability to work as fast as the brain that causes its problems in the time Hugo DETAILS domain, why it doesn’t sound natural. PRICE And the unique design of the Hugo Sounding like no other digital converter £1,400 DAC addresses precisely this failing. ORIGIN He contends that conventional that we’ve ever heard, Chord’s DAC/ UK digital fi lters don’t have the ability to WEIGHT 0.4kg properly resolve musical transients. headphone amp is a landmark product Their poor ‘frame rate’ effectively DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) chops off the leading edges of some ne of the disappointing per second, it can’t completely 100 x 20 x 132mm notes, meaning the brain can’t things about digital audio accurately resolve the ‘inter-aural’ FEATURES recognise them as music in the way it is its timing. It just doesn’t timing of the music. Watts thinks ● 32-bit/384kHz, does when hearing it live. His Watts O DXD, DSD64, quite seem to accurately this is a serious fl aw, and the lower DSD128 Transient Aligned digital fi lter is reproduce all the nuances you hear in resolution the digital signal is (ie CD ● aptX Bluetooth, designed to address this, by sampling music when listening in real time. If compared to hi-res), the more acute optical, coaxial, the ‘frames’ faster than usual and 2x USB inputs you go to a jazz club to hear Randy the problem becomes. ● 6.3mm and 3.5mm interpolating the values for the lost Crawford sing, then go home and Rob isn’t a digital audio engineer headphone; RCA ‘frames’ in-between the captured play the CD it just doesn’t have the by training, this discipline was in its phono outputs ones. This is done using a huge Xilinx ● Rechargeable natural ebb and fl ow of the live show. infancy when he studied electronics battery operation Field Programmable Gate Array, In this respect, vinyl LPs do better. engineering at Cardiff, back in the ● Volume/output rather than off-the-shelf chips from Sure, they have a multitude of other eighties before co-founding DPA. He level control existing manufacturers. Using an problems, but always seem to time also researched pyschoacoustics, and DISTRIBUTOR FPGA lets Rob write his own code for Chord Electronics more convincingly when played on this has stood him in great stead for Ltd the WTA digital fi lter, and those in the a decent turntable. The reason for what he is doing now. All his designs TELEPHONE Hugo are more sophisticated than any this, according to Chord Electronics – from the early DPA Enlightenment 01622 721444 that have come before because of the designer Rob Watts, is that digital DACs of the nineties to the ground- WEBSITE vast number of gates the new FPGA audio is fundamentally constrained breaking Chord DAC64 – have shown chordelectronics. has. He’s worked in a digital fi lter co.uk by (what, if it were a television you’d an understanding for the problems of with a far higher tap-length than that REVIEWED call) its frame rate. Because it has a digital audio that go beyond simple HFC 386 seen in stock DAC chips – 26,000 limited number of samples (‘frames’) considerations of frequency domain in the Hugo compared with the

30 YEARBOOK 2014 DAC/HEADPHONE AMP

Those ‘windows’ approximately 150 in standard DACs. Watts) designs that seems to go high-end vinyl tracking super- indicate the For this reason, the Hugo should beyond what’s normally expected of expensive moving coil cartridges, or Hugo’s status using a variety sound different to every other DAC digital. The Hugo goes further still, the best dCS digital converters costing of colours around. The Xilinx FPGA also has and the difference is centred around 10 times the price of the Hugo. another trick up its sleeve. It the way the music fl ows. It simply Cue up Beethoven’s Pastoral consumes just 0.7V of power, which doesn’t time like others, it presents Symphony on CD and you can hear so is dramatically lower than older such the music in an organic way that much air and space to the music that devices. This has made the idea of an you don’t equate with digital. The you think you’re listening to a 24/192 ultra high-quality portable, battery improvement is most obvious on hi-res fi le. It’s all so smooth, open and powered DAC possible – and Chord 16/44 (ie CD), where the fi ltering airy, yet this high-resolution sound ran with it. Indeed it’s a double win, papers over the cracks that aren’t as is so brilliantly integrated. Unlike a because you get the sound quality obvious with higher-resolution music, number of multi-thousand pound benefi ts conferred by not having an but you’ll hear it everywhere. DACs we’ve heard, it doesn’t just do AC mains transformer throwing noise Put on simple female vocals such detail, rather it strings everything into the DAC, and also the portability as Kate Bush on Oh England, together in a most convincing way. benefi ts too. The Hugo can be used My Lionheart through a good It’s so expressive and emotive you everywhere. We’ve even plugged it conventional DAC and you’ll get a wonder why you ever doubted CD. into the auxiliary inputs of a decently warm, fulsome performance And running the gamut of hi-res Nakamichi car system and used a that sounds impressive in hi-fi terms. options the Hugo offers, things get Sony Xperia Z phone as a Bluetooth But through the Hugo you’re pulled better. DSD via the USB input is source! The brilliant thing about the into the music as it mesmerises you. breathtaking, giving an icily clean Hugo is that the same FPGA that gives You become far less interested in the and pristine sound yet it simply isn’t it its special sound, also makes it the hi-fi aspects of the performance, and recognisable as digital. 24/96 PCM most handy DAC you could ever own. drawn like a moth to a fl ame, right via FLAC is most people’s idea of Chord hasn’t stopped there. The into the song. It’s only when it’s hi-res, and this too is a joy. We’ve DAC supports PCM formats up to fi nished that you realise the never heard Wings’ Band On The Run soundstaging was superb, the detail sound quite so lifelike before. The The Hugo has an resolution amazing and the tonal really fascinating thing, though, is balance silky smooth. It pulls this what it does to decidedly lo-fi music ease, a fluidity and trick off again and again. fi les, like a 192kbps MP3 of Daft a naturalness that’s Play REM’s Welcome To The Punk’s Get Lucky. We’ve played this Occupation, for example, and fi le across a multitude of DACs over truly unique suddenly you’re pulled into the the past year or so and never heard it music’s natural groove. The band’s sound so musically satisfying before; 384kHz including DXD and will playing is so beautifully syncopated indeed it seems better than most natively play DSD64 and DSD128 with one another and the Hugo shows other DACs playing the CD! in DoP format. It also has a very this to you like no other DAC we’ve high-quality digital volume control yet heard. It’s like it has a sixth sense. Conclusion and the choice to run the Hugo as a It is impressive in hi-fi terms too; In the Hugo, Chord Electronics line-level device like a normal DAC. bass is powerful yet wonderfully has made one of the fi nest digital It has headphone and RCA phono supple, bouncing up and down like a converters in the world – and it just outputs, plus USB, optical and coaxial giant rubber ball. The midband is happens to be portable. It works digital inputs, and aptX Bluetooth. All startlingly open and detailed, and brilliantly as a fi xed-level output DAC, of these functions are controlled by soundstaging is sublime. Able to lock but has an excellent digital volume small unlabelled buttons on the body, individual elements in the mix in control that can drive a power while inside the unit’s large lens, space like they’d been etched into amplifi er with ease, and is also great LEDs light up in different colours granite by a laser, it reminds us of powering a good set of headphones. to indicate source selected, battery studio-quality analogue open-reel This is a landmark product because charge status and Crossfeed setting. tape in this respect. Even on older it makes all fl avours of digital sound There’s also another separate lens low-fi recordings – like ELO’s Turn To so nice to listen to. And as many that shows – by different colours – Stone – you can hear Geoff Lynne’s fellow vinyl afi cionados will agree, the sampling frequency. It’s all quite vocals bouncing off the four walls that takes some doing ● confusing at fi rst, but perseverance of the studio vocal booth, and this pays off and you’ll begin to fi nd it a is completely independent of the very intuitive little gizmo. umpteen channels of guitars, drums, strings, etc also going on in the mix. OUR VERDICT Sound quality At the same time his voice drips with SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Supremely We review a lot of fi ne hi-fi , but it’s harmonics that you normally don’t natural, open sound; very rare to come across something hear with CD, these coming to the portability; flexibility VALUE FOR MONEY quite as special as this. The Hugo has fore because it feels like a layer of DISLIKE: Halts the vinyl revival in its tracks an ease, a fl uidity and a naturalness distortion has been washed away – BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: Nothing less that’s unique; as far as its ability to it’s like someone’s wiped the CD lens than a landmark digital make music fl ow in an organically clean. Treble is on another level too. product enjoyable way, we’ve heard nothing The Hugo doesn’t sound bright, FEATURES quite like it. but when there’s a hi-hat crash it Anyone that has owned a Chord resounds around, sparkling pristinely OVERALL DAC64, QBD76 or Qute will know and then seemingly taking twice as what we’re talking about, as there’s long to decay as you’d expect. This is something about these (other Rob the sort of trick we’ve only heard from

YEARBOOK 2014 31 DAC

DETAILS and synthetic sounding. But still one PRICE panellist declares: “This is one of the NAD £399 best, I can hear her singing with the ORIGIN musicians, it is good with leading US/China edges and extremely expressive”. WEIGHT Another agrees that it is great for 1kg attack transients, sounding very fast D 1050 DIMENSIONS and expressive, adding that it makes a (WxHxD) 58 x 186 x 208mm compelling case for itself musically. ew Acoustic Dimension, as plus a single asynchronous USB. FEATURES The third panellist isn’t so the company used to call Inside, there’s a Cirrus Logic CS4398 ● 16 to 24-bit/32/ impressed, saying that it just doesn’t itself, has made quite a Delta Sigma DAC with active 44.1/48/88.2/96/ have the defi nition of rival offerings, N 176.4/192kHz splash with a range of oversampling fi lters. Signal paths are ● Asynchronous and is somewhat lacking in tonal affordable electronics set into a new said to be ‘ultra short’ on multi-layer USB, 2x coaxial, balance. He admits it times well on form factor by industrial designer circuit boards and surface mount 2x optical amplifier guitar tracks, but suggests that this ● Balanced XLR David Farrage, who has also done components. Power is supplied by a outputs could be down to it being a touch NAD’s VISO I speaker dock, among very modest-looking wall-wart type DISTRIBUTOR mid-forward. He comments that it other things. Like its partnering D switched mode unit. Sevenoaks Sound does really rather badly on 3020 amplifi er (reviewed HFC & Vision Kraftwerk’s Man Machine, which is January 2014), the D 1050 DAC Sound quality TELEPHONE not what you’d expect from a DAC 01793 461650 sports a radical casework that can be This proves something of an enigma you’d previously thought “times well”. WEBSITE used either horizontally or vertically. as in many ways, on some music, the nadelectronics.com Even the biggest fan of the DAC on It has a very swish front display that listening panel rates it as an REVIEWED the panel agrees that: “It makes a backlights the input selected and the exceptional performer, yet on other HFC 379 complete horlicks of Kraftwerk”! sampling frequency – the large knob music it seems to fall off the scale and selects the digital source and there’s a sound nowhere near as convincing. Conclusion 3.5mm headphone socket. It also divides opinion, as one of the This is a very ‘Marmite’ product and This new NAD box feels nice to use three consistently marks it down a bit, while two members of our listening – although the action of the source while the other two rave about it. panel love it, the other is left out in selector switch isn’t the slickest – and The D 1050 has a characteristically the cold. So – more than any other you can’t help liking the rubberised NAD sound, which is to say it has an DAC that we’ve reviewed in the last case with its bright metal grille set apparently quite dark and velvety sort 12 months – this is something that behind it. This gives a welcome of tonality with a little bit of upper you will really need to give a proper element of visual fl air to an otherwise mid edge for good measure. One audition to before you buy ● quite utilitarian device. The back listener notes a lack of top-end panel is very busy indeed – it offers sparkle to the high treble, making balanced XLR outputs, as well as Beth Rowley’s vocals on Little standard RCAs. One pair of optical Dreamer sound a bit unatmospheric, OUR VERDICT and one pair of coaxial digital inputs, while the piano is slightly processed SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Sound quality; stylish packaging; connectivity; build VALUE FOR MONEY and finish DISLIKE: Styling won’t win everyone BUILD QUALITY over; wireless setup not intuitive WE SAY: Brilliant one- FEATURES box music system with quality to spare OVERALL

32 YEARBOOK 2014 HiFi for a wireless generation

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ADVERT VALID UNTIL 17/12/2014. E&OE DACS

QNKTC AB-1.2 USB DAC

THIS CATCHILY ENTITLED ‘Quantisation Noise Killed The Cat’ DAC has the third version of the analogue board, and plays hi-res audio (up to 24/192) from Windows, Linux and OS X computers. Inside are good basic building blocks for a budget DAC – the very respectable Asahi Kasei AKM4430 DAC (the makes a surprisingly nice noise. We tonal smoothness and sweetness; in excellent £3,650 LongDog DAC – HFC fi nd ourselves rather mesmerised by an attempt to render every last bit of 377 – uses similar), Golledge crystal Art of Noise’s beautiful Moments In data off the fi le, it sometimes sounds oscillators running at 22.5792 and Love. There’s no point getting a hi-res more gravelly than the rather suave 24.576MHz (giving multiples of 44.1 version of this, as it was recorded on QNKTC. Herbie Hancock’s Rock It at DETAILS and 48kHz), and an Atmel AVR32 a mid-eighties Sony digital recorder 24/96 shows that the Norwegian PRICE general-purpose MCU programmed in running at 44.056kHz, but you DAC is tonally quite ‘well lit’; it’s £110 open source C. Like the Raspberry Pi wouldn’t know it. The sound is clean, never harsh, but you get the sense TYPE USB DAC PC, this DAC has been designed with but not in a sterile way. Rather, it is of a crisp autumn morning with TELEPHONE experimentation in mind, so you’re smooth, spacious and well textured, brilliant sunshine throwing +47 90639918 effectively buying a whole world of and this is completely unexpected everything into sharp relief. WEBSITE fun if you’re that way inclined! given its very modest price. Overall then, if USB is your only qnktc.com Compared to the Audiolab M-DAC option if you’re looking for a DAC REVIEWED Sound quality (at almost six times the price, HFC and you’re on a tight budget, the HFC 381 Hooked up to a MacBook Pro running 368), there’s a slight lack of low-level QNKTC AB-1.2 is an excellent OUR VERDICT the latest version of Audirvana and detail and it doesn’t give you the last product to consider – a perfect feeding a Creek Destiny 2 and MAD few percent of the song’s dynamics. example of how tweakiness and MyClapton speakers, the QNKTC But the Audiolab doesn’t have the geekiness can raise hi-fi ’s game ●

Valve Audio Devices DAC-10

STRIKING THOUGH IT is, most but not here. Herbie customers won’t be buying the Hancock’s Future Shock at DAC-10 for its styling – it’s what is 24/96 is extremely clean under the hood that counts. And and ordered, with oodles there are six glowing thermionic of space in the mix, yet valves – two Souz 6SN8S drivers, a massively powerful, too. pair of mil-spec CV574 rectifi ers and The DAC communicates twin 6N6P double triode valves. VAD the song’s chord says these have been selected for progressions beautifully, reliability and robustness. The giving a great sense of triode valve analogue output the song having a strong stage operates in pure Class A, direction to follow. Rhythmically hiss to be heard at very high volumes and modern tube best practice is superb, it doesn’t force the beats out – it’s rather nice and comforting, DETAILS followed with good new old stock at you, preferring instead to charm but it’s still there whereas a good PRICE valves specifi ed, short signal paths and beguile the listener. Bass is solid-state design will give you an £6,995 and point-to-point silver wiring. amazing enough via 16-bit, but at ‘inky black’ silence. The bass lacks TYPE USB & S/PDiF DAC higher resolutions it is breathtaking. that last few percent of tightness, it’s TELEPHONE Sound quality The picture is the same for DSD too, ever so slightly soft on leading edges, 01604 922704 There is a certain ‘rightness’ to the with Alex de Grassi’s The Water lovely as it is all the same. Having WEBSITE sound of the DAC-10. It comes over Garden coming over in a natural and said that, the DAC-10 is an auspicious valveaudiodevices. as a simple conduit for the music, spacious way. Indeed, so open, even debut. It’s a wonderfully natural and co.uk letting it blossom and fl ow. and effortlessly musical is the enjoyable sound – not something you REVIEWED HFC 381 Sometimes high-resolution fi les DAC-10, that we have to scrabble always associate with digital audio. can disappoint, sounding more around for things to say about it. The If you’re lucky enough to be able to OUR VERDICT impressive from a hi-fi perspective, only obvious fl ag it fl ies is that it is a afford to consider a top-class DAC, but not necessarily more musical – tube design. There is still a little bit of this is an essential audition ●

36 YEARBOOK 2014 USB DAC

DETAILS the processing can be performed in an ideal and precise manner, which Korg PRICE Korg £480 says results in superior audio fi delity. TELEPHONE The DAC-100 supports single-bit DSD 01908 304699 at 2.8MHz or 5.6MHz and PCM 16 WEBSITE or 24-bit from 44.1 to 192kHz. By korg.com/uk developing both the hardware and DS-DAC-100 REVIEWED the application, Korg considers that HFC 388 it is able to ensure comprehensive OUR VERDICT audio quality, even on up-converted 1-Bit USB DAC fi le formats. Sound quality The AudioGate user interface is etter known for its DJ Korg’s DS-DAC series uses similar easy to use and has a wealth of equipment and musical technologies gained from its information displayed about the B instruments, Korg has experience with DSD recording, audio fi le being played. Starting off recently started launching and its fi rst DSD DAC was released with CD-quality 16-bit/44.1kHz fi les, a number of hi-fi products. The in Japan in 2012. When used with the Korg’s performance is very DS-DAC-100 is a USB-only DAC and Korg’s AudioGate playback and enjoyable but not particularly is the big brother of the portable format conversion software, music is exceptional. However, with the DS-DAC-100m USB headphone DAC routed directly to the DAC-100 and AudioGate software playing higher- (HFC 387). Although principally completely bypasses the computer resolution FLAC fi les, the dynamic designed to drive a decent pair of hardware. The AudioGate software range is excellent. In particular, with a headphones, it has a pair of RCA allows for DSD playback, which is recording of a Vivaldi Cantata on the phono and balanced XLR outputs. It a particularly good feature. The album Vivaldi L’Amore Per Elvira by is a beautifully made unit measuring software can even convert PCM fi les La Serenissima at 24-bit/88.2kHz, 207 x 60 x 160mm (WxHxD). It has up to 24-bit/192kHz to DSD on the soprano is musical and effortless a striking appearance that is both the fl y, using the processing power during the crescendos. elegant and stylish perched on top of of your PC to do the work. The We next play a 24-bit/192kHz three spiked feet for support, and AudioGate software is different from recording – Beethoven Piano comes with matching spike shoes to other proprietary playback software Concertos 3, 4 & 5 by the Scottish protect surfaces from damage. in that it undertakes much of the Chamber Orchestra – and here the In addition to standard PCM, it digital-to-analogue processing itself, higher resolution fi les clearly make supports 1-Bit DSD native playback rather than using the hardware. themselves known. The piano, which from a PC or Mac. An audio driver for Although the audio quality in is a diffi cult instrument to record and both Windows and Mac operating conventional USB DACs is better sound consistently convincing systems (downloadable from the Korg than using the built-in DAC of the throughout the dynamics of a website) is required in order to computer as it is more sophisticated, full-blown concerto, is reproduced support this mode and the higher the processing is nevertheless done with a sparkling clarity and presence sampling rates of audio. within the DAC hardware and so the that is as good as we’ve heard. A neat row of LEDs on the front audio quality cannot be controlled. panel indicates the incoming audio Since Korg’s AudioGate software Conclusion sampling rate – the last two LEDs performs the processing that is All in all, the sound quality delivered show DSD inputs of 2.8 or 5.6MHz inherent in digital-to-analogue by the Korg impresses, especially respectively. In the centre of the panel conversion, all of the audio quality when playing higher-resolution fi les. is a good-quality rotary control for can be controlled. By using the If you’re looking for a DAC that can adjusting the volume of the computer’s power instead of play DSD fi les, then the Korg DS-DAC- headphone output. depending on external hardware, 100 should be high on your list ●

YEARBOOK 2014 37 STANDMOUNT LOUDSPEAKER

ATC SCM7

t’s only since the eighties even a medium-sized room – so do DETAILS bass transients are lightning fast with that ATC has made take care to match carefully. no overhang. At the same time, the PRICE I domestic loudspeakers, £810 ATC really showcases dynamic and even now it doesn’t Sound quality ORIGIN accents, and together this makes change its range very often. This This little speaker sounds nothing like UK for a seat-of-the-pants listen. is the company’s most affordable your average standmounter. What it WEIGHT The Smiths’ Girl Afraid is enthralling, speaker yet, as it’s far smaller than doesn’t do is throw a massive sound 7.5kg fast and fl uid. Tonally it’s a bit dry, but most of its products, but still fairly into the room, hanging holographic DIMENSIONS it still gives a decent sense of what’s (WxHxD) big by the standards of most images all around. Nor does it thump 174 x 300 x 215mm going on in the recording. standmounted loudspeakers. out large amounts of bass, or indeed FEATURES The two-way design sports a new go loud in an easy and lazy way. ● 25mm tweeter Conclusion ATC designed and manufactured Rather, the ATC brings its own unique ● 125mm mid/bass Not having a big cabinet thrumming ● Quoted sensitivity: 25mm soft dome tweeter with skill set to the party, and few others 84dB/1W/1m away unlocks a whole world of detail, neodymium magnet and precision can match it. It’s tight, taut, rhythmic, making Herbie Hancock’s Speak Like DISTRIBUTOR alloy wave guide, working with a ATC Loudspeaker A Child a pleasure. Piano has a 125mm ATC designed and built mid/ Not having a big Technology Ltd solidity of tone that you can’t not bass unit with an inhouse, hand- TELEPHONE love, while fl utes and fl ugelhorns wound precision fl at wire coil and cabinet thrumming 01285 760561 have a simple purity that’s only 3kg optimised motor assembly. WEBSITE available when there’s no cabinet away unlocks a atcloudspeakers. Compared with many loudspeakers, co.uk joining in. Even with a light bass, the ATC seems rather old fashioned whole world of detail REVIEWED jazz sounds gloriously propulsive, – but that is because it doesn’t have HFC 384 the listener getting their rhythm any of the features that some regard propulsive, expressive and unerringly cues elsewhere. Bliss ● as gimmicks, such as elaborately musical. More than most it gives you shaped cabinets or fancy-sounding the sense that music is foremost an cone materials. You might say it is emotional experience. conservative with a small ‘c’, and Bass fans will love its tunefulness, OUR VERDICT none the worse for it; certainly the but miss hearing the bottom octave SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Wonderfully construction quality is excellent. of their favourite songs. Its midband propulsive; taut bass; One trait it shares with all ATCs is is very good in its way, but doesn’t clean midband; build that it needs a lot of power to drive; sound sumptuous or especially VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Poor bass extension; needs lots the company claims 84dB/1W/1m sophisticated, and the treble is solid of power BUILD QUALITY sensitivity and this is below par but doesn’t have any special, ethereal WE SAY: Fantastic, for a modern loudspeaker, but quality. But cue up Isaac Hayes’ Life’s characterful speaker that won’t appeal to all understandable considering its size Mood and suddenly you’re engrossed, EASE OF DRIVE and infi nite baffl e design. ATC says absolutely captivated and pulled right it is an easy load, but it still needs a in. It’s the high quality, small and serious amount of watts; we’d advise sealed cabinet that does it; it doesn’t OVERALL that at least 40W RMS per channel is store any energy and has no bass port needed to make the SCM7 go loud in to huff and puff, and the result is that

38 YEARBOOK 2014 crowned craftsmanship in stereo

PM8005 / SA8005 Marantz has been instrumental in conveying the true emotions of musicians by reproducing their music as faithfully as possible, just as the artist intended. To continue that tradition, Marantz continuously updates its stereo collection. The result is a totally sublime combination that not only creates spectacular, earth-moving audio balanced with delicate minute detail but also includes on-board USB-DAC functionality for extreme versatility. The PM8005 Integrated Stereo Amplifier and SA8005 Super Audio CD-Player / USB-DAC incorporate the best of Marantz expertise and engineering to produce the purest sound quality. www.marantz.co.uk STANDMOUNT LOUDSPEAKER

little contribution and the absence of any bass port removes the resonances that such devices can introduce. Overhang is not in evidence yet serious low end is, you can get quick bass by avoiding deep notes, but that is not the case here. Melanie de Biasio’s album No Deal has the Belgian chanteuse singing over often quite deep synth bass alongside piano and a rhythm section. It’s an inky black recording from which the SCM19 extracts an enormous amount of character. The way the voice has been treated is particularly obvious, but this doesn’t undermine its appeal. You can hear way down into the mix and appreciate the subtlety of playing from every member of the band, this in the context of very open vocals but quite dark instruments. All is laid bare but thanks to the speaker’s ability to stop and start precisely on cue the timing remains spot on. DETAILS Put on something less controlled like Frank Zappa’s Roxy By Proxy and PRICE £1,996 you can immerse yourself in the raw ATC SCM19 vitality of a well honed live band, ORIGIN UK appreciate the distortion in the PA his is the smallest speaker inasmuch as it is very low on WEIGHT system and revel in the compositional in ATC’s domestic range character and revealing in a calm, 17.8kg genius of the man without effort. that has an equivalent in restrained manner. It takes a while DIMENSIONS Piano really shows what this speaker T (WxHxD) its professional monitor to appreciate just how much it lets 265 x 438 x 300mm can do. We get totally carried away series (the SCM20ASL Pro). That through because colouration is so low. FEATURES with Haydn and Beethoven pieces is an active model with a different This is a very good thing for the music ● 25mm soft dome that usually fail to keep us interested. tweeter – they share the same mid/ because you hear more of what the tweeter bass unit and physical volume, artist intended and what they heard ● 150mm mid/bass Conclusion ● Quoted sensitivity: despite the numerical difference. in the control room at the studio. 85dB The SCM19 makes a good case for the Like other ATC two-ways it’s a sealed, This is the true advantage of a DISTRIBUTOR assertion that what’s right for the infi nite baffl e design because ports monitor, in a world where there is no ATC Loudspeaker studio is also best for the home. introduce a loss of driver control absolute sound – we rarely listen to Technology Ltd Transparency is what you want in below resonance. The acoustic price purist audiophile recordings that TELEPHONE both locales, the engineer might be 01285 760561 you pay for this is reduced sensitivity attempt to capture a totally natural listening for something different to WEBSITE and extension, but this is a trade sound – the best we can aim for is the atcloudspeakers. the music lover, but they both want off that ATC prefers, and power is sound that was conjured up in the co.uk to hear as much as possible. In that relatively inexpensive these days. studio, a sound that was arrived at REVIEWED respect this is a killer product. It tells The main driver is a 150mm SL with studio monitors. And given the HFC 390 you exactly what’s going on in the (super linear) spec unit with an amount of studios that use ATCs you mix be it good or bad. It lets you hear integral 75mm soft dome and 9kg have a good chance of emulating that how Jimi or Jimmy or Jeff played the short coil/long gap motor assembly with its domestic loudspeakers. mind blowing stuff they did and that’s or magnet. This is why the SCM19 With Donny Hathaway’s live what life should be all about ● weighs so much for a speaker of its recording of The Ghetto that means size – if audio equipment was judged massive image scale in height and by its mass/price ratio it would win depth alongside smokin’ keyboards, every time. ATC doesn’t recommend conga et al that build an irresistible OUR VERDICT a particular stand height for the groove. You can hear the recording is SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Very revealing; SCM19, but suggests that the not the cleanest possible, but more superb bass and fine top-most part of the surround on obvious is the atmosphere that takes timing; well built the mid/bass unit be at ear height. over the listening room, it’s a party on VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Needs more power than average to a disc no doubt about it. This ATC has give of its best Sound quality BUILD QUALITY superb bass, it goes low but is tight WE SAY: When it ATC’s smaller speakers have a and fully textured. When partnered comes to bandwidth and transparency per delivery that hits the ground running with a decent amplifi er it stops and EASE OF DRIVE pound, the SCM19 is so to speak. Immediate, upbeat and starts with total precision. So when particularly good highly entertaining in a youthful, a pianist uses a damping pedal you spirited way. The SCM19 is a rather know exactly how he or she is doing OVERALL more mature loudspeaker, it has it. This is partly because this is a very a much more pro audio sound quiet loudspeaker, the box makes very

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DETAILS tonality out of instruments. Instead, it allows them to be heard in their PRICE KEF £800 full glory, and this extends to vocals, ORIGIN where there’s a tangible and UK/China believable timbre. Isaac Hayes’ Life’s WEIGHT Mood sounds natural, with no sense 7.2kg that the KEF is editorialising. LS50 DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 200 x 302 x 278mm Conclusion ustifi ably popular, the of 85dB, which is about middling for FEATURES Indeed, the LS50 doesn’t add much; LS50 gets off to a great a box of this size. ● 1x 25mm Al it’s actually a pretty neutral performer start thanks to its rather tweeter, 130mm Al/ and throws out lots of fi ne detail from J Mg mid/bass driver lovely looks. There aren’t Sound quality ● Quoted sensitivity: recordings. It’s great at conveying the that many standmount loudspeakers The LS50 is a larger than life 85dB/1W/1m gaps between the beats on The around that are likely to appease loudspeaker, throwing voices and DISTRIBUTOR Smiths’ Girl Afraid, so you can hear partners that are averse to having hi-fi instruments wide into the listening GP Acoustics Ltd right in and enjoy the attack around the home, but this might just room, giving that uncanny feeling TELEPHONE transients of the strummed guitar be the exception to the rule. of the sound hovering out into the 01622 672261 chords. This gives the speaker real Its lovely 130mm ‘rose gold’- space, completely detached from WEBSITE clarity, and also makes for a kef.com/gb coloured, magnesium/aluminium the speakers. Soundstaging is superb. rhythmically satisfying feel. There’s REVIEWED coned mid/bass driver makes a bold UB40’s Tyler is amazing, a vast HFC 384 some slight overhang in the upper visual statement. Set into this is a expanse of music with each bass, which pads the sound out 25mm aluminium tweeter, forming instrument in the mix located slightly, but this aside the KEF is KEF’s patented Uni-Q array, which with laser-like precision. a snappy thing to listen to. Music appears to come from a single-point The treble is really good for a bounces along with heady abandon, source – it’s far more than just a speaker of this type. It’s smooth and and so do you! ● gimmick. Crossover point is 2.2kHz. well integrated with the midband, The cabinet is really beautifully and nicely spacious too – making for done too, with a stunning piano black a lovely, even, full-range speaker that lacquer and superb detailing – this conveys the air of a good recording. OUR VERDICT loudspeaker looks far more expensive Indeed, it’s so insightful you can also SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Soundstaging; than it actually is. hear the tape hiss on Tyler. The only detail; transparency; The front baffl e is curved and caveat is that it’s more directional build; finish made from a special polyester resin than you might hope; there’s VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Treble more combined with glass fi bre and defi nitely a sweet spot; owners will directional than some BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: Beautiful calcium carbonate. The rear panel, need some experimentation here. looking little box with meanwhile, sports luxurious It has an even, uniform tonal great sound single-wire terminals and a decidedly balance. It doesn’t sound particularly EASE OF DRIVE unconventional-looking bass refl ex powerful down in the bass, but what port. It feels solid when you rap it bass there is, is enjoyably tuneful OVERALL with your knuckles, and is quite and well extended. Ever so slightly heavy given its relatively diminutive warm, the LS50 doesn’t dry out the dimensions. KEF claims a sensitivity recording, sucking the natural

YEARBOOK 2014 43

STANDMOUNT LOUDSPEAKER

DETAILS getting louder without compressing PRICE or distorting the music, and are very £500 adroit at communicating the small Monitor Audio micro dynamics of the cymbals, for ORIGIN UK/China example. Ultimately at high levels WEIGHT there is a slight softening of dynamic 6.95kg peaks, but it is far less intrusive than Silver 1 DIMENSIONS some other similarly priced rivals. (WxHxD) 185 x 312 x 263mm The Silver 1 doesn’t obviously excel little fuller than many detailed, the Silver 1s throwing out lots FEATURES at any one particular aspect of the rivals, it’s almost as if the of information from the innards of the ● 1x 25mm C-CAM musical performance, instead Silver 1 has been working mix. You wouldn’t call it forward, but it dome tweeter preferring to relax into the music and A ● 1x 150mm C-CAM out at the gym and power is certainly explicit and well defi ned, bass driver let the listener enjoy it without drawing eating at the same time – and that’s and this extends to the treble. ● Quoted sensitivity: attention to itself. It’s surprisingly because it has a larger mid/bass unit As well as giving a tighter, tauter bass 87dB/1W/1m convincing with large-scale classical than you might expect, given its than you might expect from a budget DISTRIBUTOR orchestral music, such as a Deutsche Monitor Audio Ltd height. Instead of the usual ‘small speaker, the other benefi t of being Grammophon pressing of Beethoven’s TELEPHONE footprint, narrow baffl e’ design, small is the stereo imaging. The sound 01268 740580 Symphony No.6 (Berlin Philharmonic, Monitor Audio has gone for a 150mm comes from something close to a WEBSITE Karajan) just as long as you ‘tune out’ driver, which makes the speaker wider. single-point source, letting it fi re out monitoraudio.co.uk the lack of low bass. It has a wide Fitting a 150mm driver where you’d into the room coherently to paint big, REVIEWED soundstage, and it drops back way normally expect something smaller bold, three-dimensional stereo images. HFC 390 behind rear wall. Its surprising clarity confers a sense of ease and power This is partly because the tweeter and and transparency gives a clear window to the Silver 1 that many rivals lack. mid/bass unit are located so close on the musical world without sounding The driver’s cone is Monitor Audio’s together on the front baffl e. bright or forward. standard C-CAM design, with dimpled This makes for a wonderfully RST cone technology it’s stiff and light. expansive rendition of Isaac Hayes Conclusion Matching this is a new C-CAM gold Shaft Original Soundtrack. The Overall this is a super little box and anodised aluminium/magnesium alloy recorded acoustic sounds positively the beautiful fi nishes merely add dome tweeter with a damped rear cavernous, in all three dimensions. extra icing to the cake. If you’re chamber and dome venting. This Inside this, instruments are located looking for something that’s small but crosses over from the mid/bass driver with great precision considering the perfectly formed, you’ve found it ● at 3kHz. Both units are rigidly bolted price of the speaker; it doesn’t give you to the cabinet, and split two ways via electrostatic levels of image location a crossover with polypropylene fi lm admittedly, but it’s not that far off. capacitors and silver-plated OFC One of the big problems with small OUR VERDICT wiring. There’s a single bass port on the speakers is dynamic compression – SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Big, punchy, back, along with bi-wiring posts. they’re physically not able to shift detailed sound; enough air to track instrumental superb finish; value Sound quality dynamic changes accurately. Happily, VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Limited low bass; needs a Here’s a small speaker that sounds this small box proves better than reasonably powerful rather bigger than you might expect. most. This is likely down to the larger BUILD QUALITY amplifier New Atlantic’s I Know sounds drive unit, plus the very rigid cabinet. WE SAY: Highly sophisticated wonderfully crisp and punchy; bass is It certainly makes for a decent EASE OF DRIVE yet affordable tight and has very little sense of any performance in this respect; for standmount speaker overhang. The notes from the bass example, the frantic fi recracker drum OVERALL synthesiser start and stop extremely work on Rush’s Red Barchetta is kept clearly, giving a powerful and pulsating together brilliantly. As the song builds feel. The midband sounds clean and to a crescendo, the speakers keep

YEARBOOK 2014 45 STANDMOUNT LOUDSPEAKER

DETAILS such that the piano sound is PRICE beautifully carried. Behind this, £650 violins soar in a wonderfully accurate Monitor Audio and expressive way, and the speakers ORIGIN UK/China catch the drama of this great song. WEIGHT 9.7kg Conclusion Silver 2 DIMENSIONS The Silver 2 pushes out a wider (WxHxD) 230 x 375 x 323mm soundstage than its rivals. It can’t fter a conservative start to Audio says silver-plated copper wire FEATURES match the KEF LS50 (page 43), but it speaker production, by the is used internally, along with ● 25mm C-CAM isn’t far off and gives a great sense of eighties Monitor Audio premium polypropylene fi lm tweeter space to recordings. You can really A ● 200mm RST mid/ was pushing the envelope capacitors. The bass port sits bass driver hear inside and drill down into the with metal dome tweeters – and then discreetly around the back, and ● Quoted sensitivity: low-level detail, in a way that many gold domes – and the Silver 2 neat magnetically fi xed grilles 88dB/1W/1m rivals simply don’t allow. The Smiths’ features just this in a standard 25mm are also supplied. DISTRIBUTOR Girl Afraid is wonderfully open and Monitor Audio Ltd size. It also has a metal-coned mid/ detailed, but still carries the emotion TELEPHONE bass unit, which is unusually large at Sound quality 01268 740580 within the song. Snare drums sound 200mm and requires a fractionally With a large mid/bass driver, this WEBSITE tight, while treble is delicate and wider front baffl e than is fashionable was always going to be an interesting monitoraudio.co.uk smooth; the tweeter reveals real these days. This big driver has been contender, and so it proves. It’s an REVIEWED delicacy that makes rivals seem rather squeezed in, so that the loudspeaker excellent-sounding loudspeaker, HFC 384 ragged in comparison. The only real doesn’t look too bulbous. It confers blessed with plenty of clarity and downside is just a touch of upper and real benefi ts; larger drivers tend to immediacy plus weight and depth, lower bass box boom, but it’s certainly have more in reserve, sounding more and its very own distinctive, highly no worse than any of its rivals at this effortless and promising higher detailed sound. Rather like a lazy, price point ● effi ciency if implemented correctly. In large-engined luxury car, the Monitor the case of the Silver 2, it’s quoted at Audio can deliver all the power it 88dB, which is decent, and it duly needs, but does so in a more relaxed goes a lot louder with the same and less forced manner than many OUR VERDICT amount of power as the ATC SCM7 similarly priced rivals. Those big mid/ SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Refined treble; (reviewed on page 38). bass units don’t augment its bass dynamics; detail; The speaker itself is beautifully output particularly, but they offer a musical ease; finish fi nished and comes in selected more gutsy yet relaxed presentation VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Upper bass isn’t rock-solid, but it’s premium quality wood veneers or that’s very good at carrying dynamic still fine BUILD QUALITY high gloss fi nishes. The sense of accents that most others miss. WE SAY: Excellent opulence is heightened by the C-CAM Isaac Hayes’ Life’s Mood is a joy. all rounder with a performance way gold dome tweeter and the dished Percussion is better accented than EASE OF DRIVE beyond its price metal mid/bass unit. The 20mm- most, giving a superior sense of thick, well-braced cabinet is very rhythmic fl ow, and the crashing sturdy when given the knuckle rap keyboard cadences push out in a OVERALL test, thanks in no small part to single more arresting and explicit way. But bolt-through drive units. Monitor at the same time, the tonal purity is

46 YEARBOOK 2014

STANDMOUNT LOUDSPEAKER

DETAILS and side walls, preferably more) soundscapes are convincingly PRICE Polk Audio £299 proportioned, as deep as they are ORIGIN wide. Musicians, singers and USA/China instruments have easily discerned WEIGHT spatial relationships and, once again, a 5.4kg sense of palpable physicality that’s hard RTiA1 DIMENSIONS to credit given their modest size and (WxHxD) 187 x 305 x 292mm price. Grand piano, the undoing of FEATURES many a small speaker, holds no fear lthough relatively new to these speakers have been voiced with ● 25mm silk polymer for the plucky Polks. They even make the UK, Polk’s £299 RTiA1 extreme skill for a specifi c result. The composite dome a decent fi st of giving some weight tweeter has been wowing American mid-range is beautifully presented and harmonic structure to the lower A ● 133mm polymer customers since 2008, and subtly spotlit to achieve a composite bass octaves. In short, they’re a bit addictive. which is a sterling endorsement of its tremendous sense of hear-through driver Remarkably uncoloured, but far ● Quoted sensitivity: design. The bi-wireable two-way driver clarity and detail. Tonal colours seem 89dB/1W/1m from neutral in the dull sense, the A1s complement comprises a 25mm silk/ slightly saturated, giving a richness DISTRIBUTOR are even handed with all types of polymer-composite dome tweeter and and tactility to instruments and vocals D&M Audiovisual music and, despite obvious physical a 130mm polymer/mineral-composite you simply don’t expect from a Ltd limitations, sound expansive with bass mid unit. speaker of this size or price. Likewise, TELEPHONE great bass and dazzling midband Both units were designed using the speed and expressive reach of the 02890 279830 insight. Crucially, they’re alive to the WEBSITE Polk’s Dynamic Balance technology, dynamics are almost scarily good. polkaudio.com pulse of the music and endowed with which uses a full-fi eld heterodyning Better still, it’s all securely grounded a keen instinct for nailing its beauty. If REVIEWED laser interferometer system to analyse with an agile, supple bass HFC 391 their presentation is ever so slightly and minimise driver resonance. performance that, while far from hyped, it’s in a good way. Also chasing down unwanted visceral, is taut and tuneful. contributions, Polk’s Power Port The A1’s ability to present fi ne detail Conclusion technology aims to reduce port noise, in a musically coherent yet uninhibited Elegant design, real wood fi nish, ease or ‘chuffi ng’. A dispersing cone is manner while bypassing the kind of of drive and general unfussiness about placed at the mouth of the port on the forensic analysis that can sometimes placement only add to our feeling that rear and is designed to improve the let structural elements of the music the best kind of hi-fi product is a air fl ow in the same way that a long, dominate at the expense of tonal bargain. You’re looking at one right fl ared port would do on a larger texture and timbral shading is a rare here. We recommend a listen ● fl oorstanding speaker. The claimed joy. Here you get it all in a way that result is lower turbulence at the appears to be completely unforced and mouth of the port and a reduction in natural. For instance, jazz pianist Joe distortion. There’s also a second port Sample’s muscular two-fi sted keyboard OUR VERDICT on the front to resonate at the same runs on the classic track Carmel always SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Midband insight; frequency as the enclosure’s internal sound impressively clean, crisp and tuneful bass; fine depth resonance. As the radiation of focused on our ever-engaging Monitor timing and musical the front and rear ports are out of Audio Bronze BX2s. But through the VALUE FOR MONEY communication DISLIKE: Slightly phase with the drive-unit output, A1s, the tumbling notes seem punchier hyped sound BUILD QUALITY resonance peaks should be suppressed. and pacier, more pristine yet more WE SAY: Highly harmonically replete. Similarly, Amy enjoyable and characterful Sound quality Whitehouse’s voice on F**k Me Pumps EASE OF DRIVE standmount that hardly The A1s sound quite different to gains aerobically as well as emotionally. puts a foot wrong British price rivals from the likes It’s simply a more powerful presence. OVERALL of KEF, Monitor Audio and B&W. The speaker’s imaging skills are of an Whatever benefi ts accumulated by equally high order. Given a bit of space the various anti-resonance measures, to breathe (at least a foot from back

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into thin air – indeed, it’s remarkable just how big sounding a well- executed small speaker can be. Tonally, there is no sense of the bass falling off a cliff, as the Mini sounds surprisingly fulsome in the upper bass. In absolute terms, of course, the bottom octave is missing, but the richness of the balance above that fl atters to deceive. At the other end, treble is crisp and surprisingly refi ned for a speaker of this price. For example, the trumpet sound has a realistic rasp, and hi-hats have satisfying shimmer. Cue up something denser and more frenetic like Felt’s Textile Ranch, and the PSBs keep themselves together. This track is packed with closely layered jangling guitars, and can descend into a muddle on lesser loudspeakers, but the Mini dives into it with aplomb. The upper midband is admirably smooth, with no nasty shrillness, and the snare drums bite DETAILS through the mix cleanly. Things fl ow beautifully, the PSBs proving well able PRICE £599 to capture the rhythm of the music as PSB well as the subtle dynamic accenting ORIGIN Canada that breathes life into the song. WEIGHT It’s only when you play powerful, 3kg wideband music that the PSB hints at Imagine Mini DIMENSIONS its own mortality; 808 State’s Azura (WxHxD) 143 x 234 x 212mm has massive swathes of pounding FEATURES synth bass, crunching dynamics and t’s not easy being a Mini. mates up to the 120mm mid/bass ● 25mm titanium a thumping electronic percussion You’re always aware that drive unit with a rather unusual clay/ dome tweeter – and here the Minis sound a little everyone else is bigger ceramic compounded polypropylene ● 120mm less comfortable, especially at higher I polypropylene than you, stronger than cone, and has a special Turbo Magnet mid/bass driver volumes, and you can tell their tiny you and in some respects more system, which is said to increase the ● Quoted sensitivity: cabinets are labouring under the attractive too. You have to fi ght for force factor of the compound magnet 87dB/1W/1m strain of all the air they are being your already modest position in life, and improve the bass performance. DISTRIBUTOR asked to shift. Sevenoaks Sound because it’s so easy for other larger PSB hasn’t scrimped on the cabinet, & Vision Ltd objects to overshadow you. either. Coming in a choice of fi ve TELEPHONE Conclusion Sometimes less is more, and when fi nishes – Black Ash, Dark Cherry, 01732 740944 In absolute terms this is not the most you’re talking about hi-fi loudspeakers Walnut, High Gloss Black or High WEBSITE transparent or dynamic speaker, but diminutive dimensions can be an Gloss White – it is very solidly psbspeakers.com for the price it’s ideal for what most advantage. While little loudspeakers constructed for a speaker of this size, REVIEWED people want from a small speaker. HFC 385 cannot move vast amounts of air, the and fi nished to a high standard. The The Imagine Mini is an excellent little air that they do move is less affected usual knuckle rap test delivers a box with a real charm of its own; if by cabinet resonances, because it’s satisfyingly dead thunk. The moulded your listening room is space-limited easier to make a more rigid small box. rear panel houses a single pair of you’ll do well to give it an audition ● Then there’s the proximity between speaker binding posts and a rear bass the tweeter and mid/bass driver; the refl ex port. Positioning is easy – two closer the two are, the better the to three metres between one another, ‘point source’. This makes for superior just a few centimetres from the rear OUR VERDICT stereo imaging and focus, as any dual wall, and slightly toed-in according to SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Large, spacious concentric speaker fan will tell you. taste. The main trick is fi nding stands sound; rhythmically So PSB’s Imagine Mini has several high enough to get their tweeters at and dynamically VALUE FOR MONEY convincing things going for it. Expect it to throw ear-height; we use Atacama SE24s. DISLIKE: Limited bass; music into the room the likes of which needs a 50W amp (or you’d normally only hear at a concert, Sound quality BUILD QUALITY more) for best results and to sound fast, tight and fun. Starting off with some smooth WE SAY: Charming little loudspeaker that’s EASE OF DRIVE The Mini asks its 25mm titanium ambient electronica courtesy of lots of fun to listen to dome tweeter to do a little more Groove Armada’s Dusk, You and Me, work than usual, as it crosses over it quickly becomes clear that this is a OVERALL at 2.2kHz. This is fairly routine for a classy little loudspeaker. The music larger two-way speaker design, but projects confi dently out into the less so for something of this size. It room, the boxes appearing to dissolve

50 YEARBOOK 2014

STANDMOUNT LOUDSPEAKER

DETAILS singer’s voice. Bass drums thunk with great speed and snares cut through PRICE £1,795 the mix like the proverbial cutting Spendor ORIGIN implement through animal fat. The UK lack of overhang in the cabinet, added WEIGHT to the innate speed of the drivers, 5.7kg means that the music almost seems DIMENSIONS to be speeded up. D1 (WxHxD) 165 x 305 x 190mm Feed the D1 with a well-recorded FEATURES classical piece such as Karajan amed for producing good by modern standards. It’s ● 22mm linear conducting the Berlin Philharmonic loudspeakers since the brilliant by LS3/5a standards, of phase hybrid soft playing Beethoven’s Pastoral dome tweeter days of the BBC LS3/5A course, but next to your average Symphony on Deutsche F ● 150mm EP77 back in the mid seventies, modern KEF or Tannoy baby box, the polymer coned Grammophon, and you’re struck by Spendor has produced the D1 as Spendor is quieter. So any prospective mid/bass driver the air and space. The new tweeter is ● Quoted sensitivity: its successor – the result is a tiny purchasers will need an amplifi er of 85dB/1W/1m streets ahead of the previous dome loudspeaker that’s purposed to deliver at least 60W RMS per channel to get DISTRIBUTOR fi tted to the SA1, offering more extremely high-quality sound. decent levels even in a smallish room. Spendor Audio insight and atmosphere. The SA1’s The D1s are designed to work Suitably set up, run close to the Systems certainly isn’t bad, but the D1’s is rammed against a rear wall or on back wall and toed-in just a touch, it TELEPHONE superb at the price, indeed we’re not a bookshelf, where they’ll get a gives an unforgettable sound. Talk 01323 843474 sure you’ll fi nd a better HF unit on a WEBSITE welcome extra thump down below. about squeezing a quart into a pint spendoraudio.com sub £3,000 speaker. It isn’t a fancy The speaker also gets two brand new pot – it throws images wide left and ribbon design, but has much of the REVIEWED D-series drivers. First is the 22mm right, in an amazingly unselfconscious HFC 389 openness, sparkle and lustre – this is Spendor Linear Pressure Zone way. Aside from an obvious lack of most welcome with classical because tweeter, which has a sequential ‘thump’ from the lowest octaves of it carries the subtle textures of the geometry micro-foil. Meanwhile, the music, it shows absolutely no strings with delicacy and refi nement. EP77 – a material fi rst developed for concessions to its diminutive the D7 – is used for the 150mm mid/ dimensions. It is smooth, well Conclusion bass driver. This is claimed to be rigid integrated between the mid/bass The Spendor D1 is an essential but non-resonant, and is mated to a unit and the tweeter, and yet has a audition if you’re spatially challenged cast magnesium alloy chassis, high naturally spry and airy disposition or unwilling to let large speakers effi ciency motor system, optimised that’s bubbling with detail. Fed change your life ● electro-dynamic damping. Kraftwerk’s Tour De France Étape 3, The two units swap over at 4.8kHz you hear the leading edges, but not via a crossover sporting high linearity the actual thunderous bass itself. This plastic fi lm capacitors and high works surprisingly well, as it allows OUR VERDICT saturation inductor cores. No series the listener’s brain to fi ll in the gaps. SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Highly musical attenuating resistors are used, and Given a bit of hip-hoppy acid jazz in and detailed sound; silver-plated copper wiring is fi tted. the shape of Galliano’s Stoned Again, excellent image The rear terminals are of super it sounds like it is on springs. VALUE FOR MONEY projection DISLIKE: No low bass quality, but are non-bi-wireable. Wonderfully bouncy, the little box means sound won’t be imparts the song’s every rhythmic BUILD QUALITY to all tastes Sound quality infl ection and microdynamic accent. WE SAY: Brilliant mini-monitor, one Assuming you have a decently Elements of the mix dash around the EASE OF DRIVE of the very best ever powerful amplifi er, you can’t help but room, the speakers throwing out a be impressed by just how big this bewilderingly wide soundstage given OVERALL speaker sounds. Direct comparison their size. Inside this, things are with the old SA1 shows that the D1 is balanced; vocals appear very a little more effi cient, but it’s still not intimate, with a fi ne texture to the

52 YEARBOOK 2014

Mavros Interconnects & Speaker Cables

MAVROS SPEAKER CABLE : One of the truly great cables currently on the market. This is the best set of speaker cables that I’ve ever heard. Truly genre defining.

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Its size means it’s only going to give a fi nite amount of bass, which means that the very bottom notes of a bass guitar simply aren’t there. That’s fair enough, as you don’t buy a relatively small standmouting speaker for guilty subterranean pleasures. What bass there is, is decently controlled and tuneful – it doesn’t impede that lovely open midband, and sits back and adds a bit of heft to percussion, to push the song along in a crisp and tidy manner. The result is a clean and open speaker that images beautifully and seemingly disappears from your listening room. We kick off with Animal Nightlife’s Native Boy and the Precisions romp along. Rhythmically, the cabinet stays out of the action to a large extent, with no untoward honking or booming, letting the Dual Concentric driver get its claws into the music. This it does very well, serving up a musically satisfying DETAILS sound that bounces from the start of the track all the way to its very end. It PRICE £900 gives a really enjoyable sense of there Tannoy being a musical event, as opposed to ORIGIN UK/China just going through the motions. WEIGHT Feed the Tannoy some heavier and 7.3kg more challenging material, such as Precision 6.1 DIMENSIONS Genesis’ Dance on a Volcano, and (WxHxD) 224 x 330 x 257mm things are no less fun. The speaker FEATURES has a good go at capturing Phil eing a Tannoy, the has gold-plated binding posts. The ● 25mm titanium Collins’ thunderous pan rolls and the Precision 6.1 has a Dual company also offers its signature fi fth dome tweeter bass drum is tight and taut. Again, the Concentric drive unit. And terminal to earth the driver chassis to ● 150mm treated midband is fi nely etched and highly B paper mid/bass as anyone who’s heard one the amplifi er ground, which is said to driver detailed, throwing out large amounts knows, this is no bad thing. This one reduce RF interference. ● Quoted sensitivity: of information into the room with is said to have an extremely uniform 88dB/1W/1m heady abandon; the guitar work feels sound radiation pattern that shows Sound quality DISTRIBUTOR very intricate, and Collins’ vocals are Tannoy off the benefi ts of Tannoy’s This is a quintessential high-quality breathy and captivating. On this TELEPHONE technology to best effect. High Tannoy that gives a wide, expansive 01236 420199 denser material at higher volumes frequencies radiate from the centre and room-fi lling sound. It’s not what WEBSITE there’s a bit of compression, but that’s of the low-frequency unit through a you’d call tonally warm, but neither is tannoy.com the price you pay for a small speaker. carefully designed exponential horn. it hard and steely; the balance is well REVIEWED The result is a far wider on-axis area judged and the general impression is HFC 383 Conclusion that you can listen from, and superior one that is ever so slightly ‘well lit’ Overall, the Precision 6.1 is one of the stereo projection. The crossover across the upper midband, but not few boxes at this price that is truly further time-aligns the two drivers, excessively so. It picks out vocals, lead able to leave its cabinet behind and meaning that the sound appears to piano and guitar lines and throws offer an ‘out of body experience’ ● come from the same point-source just them into the room with confi dence, behind the drive unit. while at the same time not forcing the To the untrained eye, the Precision listener to take cover behind the sofa. 6.1’s drive unit looks like a single full At higher frequencies, the mid/bass OUR VERDICT range design, and not a big one at unit crosses over to the tweeter in a SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Clean, spacious, that at 150mm in diameter. The outer pretty orderly way, where you become detailed and engaging mid/bass part sports a cone made aware that you are listening to a sound from a selected blend of paper pulp metal dome – it’s not quite as smooth VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Limited bass extension; stiff fi bres, and is chosen for its natural and well damped as a fabric dome, or competition BUILD QUALITY sound, says Tannoy. The inset as seamless and delicate as a ribbon. WE SAY: Beautifully WideBand tweeter uses a titanium All the same, it integrates well and presented, musically satisfying stand dome for high rigidity and low mass, shares the same slightly ‘vivid’ EASE OF DRIVE mounters and is said to be superior to character of the mid/bass unit. The aluminium in terms of where and result is an atmospheric and extended OVERALL how the response breaks up. treble. It’s not coarse or hard and The rear of the cabinet features a lends a lovely metallic twang to distinctive binding post panel, which delicately struck hi-hat cymbals.

YEARBOOK 2014 55 SUSPENDED LOUDSPEAKER

live acoustic soundstage fl oods the room. Suspending these quality drivers projects a compelling holographic image that is tall, wide and utterly stable. Hanging the dynamic drivers appears to unlock an extra presence and realism to voices, releasing them from other midband detail and deepening the stereo image front to back. Playing Donna Summer’s I Feel Love on CD, we start to wind the volume up. This is a classic side effect of high quality and an intuitive response to a lack of distortion. These speakers are happy to reproduce convincing dynamics at very low volume levels or party hard, and the disco anthem is soon projected into every corner of the room. The powerful dynamics within Giorgio Moroder’s mesmerising synth lines loop around Donna’s sultry vocals, tempting others in the house to come and enjoy the music with us. It is at this moment that we realise that the Astutes are probably tapping into some tried and trusted ‘public address’ philosophies where highly dynamic hanging speakers regularly bring live stage DETAILS concerts to life. PRICE £4,995 Conclusion Origin Live ORIGIN The Astutes are a beguiling UK combination of engineering decisions WEIGHT and unique technical features that 12.9kg add up to a highly coherent and very Astute DIMENSIONS musical whole. The separation of (WxHxD) single-minded bass duties from highly 340 x 340 x 350mm dynamic mid/treble energy allows FEATURES erhaps better known for its more dynamic. It’s as though we’re ● Dual concentric each driver to excel and fl oating the tonearms and turntables, hearing our favourite music, source drivers speakers at any height you wish gives Origin Live is keen to and amplifi cation with a secret veil ● 1in compression sonic rewards and protection from P tweeter prove that there may be lifted. Frequency response feels ● 8in paper prying hands in equal measure. They alternative ways to reproduce high extremely even and without over midrange driver look stunning to us, and if we had fi delity music. In the new Astute emphasis, but it’s the cleanliness of ● Quoted sensitivity: interior design fl air we’re not sure 91dB/1W/1m loudspeaker it has created a relatively the sound and the sheer dynamism we’d need to look elsewhere. They DISTRIBUTOR dead barrel from a multi-laminated of the frequencies arriving at our ears Origin Live are remarkably unphased being tube capped with solid bamboo ply that is so very refreshing. It’s hard to TELEPHONE positioned near rear walls, but front and back. Nothing wants to put sound dynamics into words, but 02380 578877 appreciate a little air around them. resonate, and asymmetrically offset the quality and timbre created by the WEBSITE They look unique and don’t sound dual concentric drivers set within the Astutes delivers an energy that is originlive.com half bad either, what’s not to like? ● front baffl e ensure that standing potent, yet unfatiguing and incredibly REVIEWED waves have little chance of forming. accurate. And rather than merely HFC 387 Designed to be used with an active reproducing laboratory standards of subwoofer, the Astutes cover the frequency and amplitude, the Astutes OUR VERDICT 85Hz-20kHz frequency range with dive straight into communicating SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Impressive a pronounced roll off from 100Hz. your music. Given Origin Live has dynamics; innovative Deeper bass duties are then picked clearly paid so much attention to design; elegant styling; VALUE FOR MONEY high build quality up by your subwoofer of choice. engineering and physics we are ready DISLIKE: Styling may The speakers hang from elegant for a clinical presentation of music, not appeal to all BUILD QUALITY Heron stands (£770), but Origin Live but the opposite is true. Drums really WE SAY: Eye-catching offers a number of engineered wall kick, fretted basslines start and stop speakers with design flair that manage to EASE OF DRIVE and ceiling fi xings if you prefer. with different fi nger pressures and convey musicality at we’re able to appreciate a rapport any volume Sound quality between backing singers and OVERALL Spinning More Money from Barry musicians that we haven’t felt before. Reynolds’ I Scare Myself LP on vinyl, Turning to James Taylor’s Machine treble, mid and bass energy just seem Gun Kelly on vinyl and the informal,

56 YEARBOOK 2014 “The Truth, nothing more, nothing less...”

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the way through the track when the AE 103 seems to momentarily lose its composure in the low frequencies. Generally it proves a great dance music speaker, and works really well with other types of music. The String Quartet’s Ordinary World displays a good tonality with plenty of space to the recorded acoustic. It certainly doesn’t seem as compressed as some rivals. There’s no substitute for cabinet size, and when it comes to delivering a large, easy sound the AE 103 is a prisoner of its petite dimensions. John Martyn’s gorgeous Solid Air shows a good tonality, but again the tweeter lends the music an edge that gives the balance a boost in some respects. Conclusion This is a fi ne speaker that responds well to good amps and sources. Properly set up you can enjoy its good rhythms and dynamics, and sense of musical fl ow. Overall it’s a seriously impressive performer at the price ●

DETAILS PRICE Acoustic Energy £550 ORIGIN UK/China WEIGHT 14kg AE 103 DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 185 x 850 x 280mm espite being physically back you get a single pair of FEATURES unimposing for a non-bi-wireable binding terminals. ● 28mm fabric dome tweeter fl oorstanding loudspeaker, D ● 2x 110mm you’d never think the Sound quality aluminium AE 103 is any way less well built The AE 103 has a bright, snappy and bass units ● Quoted sensitivity: than similarly priced rivals as it’s a enjoyable sound that has a naturally 89dB/1W/1m decidedly heavy and sturdy speaker musical nature and a good bit of DISTRIBUTOR The distinctive for its size. The gently sloping front power for when required. It’s decently Henley Designs bass port is baffl e gives it a distinctive appearance tight, taut and composed. One listen TELEPHONE classic AE and the bright metal trim rings to 808 State’s Ancodia, and you’re in 01235 511166 around the drivers lend a classy look. no doubt it’s different to its rivals. WEBSITE acoustic-energy. This is a very well executed small You can hear the tweeter adding just co.uk fl oorstander, offering a lot for the a little liveliness to the proceedings; REVIEWED price. Our AE 103 comes in vinyl- hi-hats and the top harmonics from HFC 391 OUR VERDICT wrap walnut, but it is done well and snare drums seem a lot better lit. SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Punchy, black and gloss white fi nishes are By the standards of its rivals tonal propulsive, musical options too. The drive units are bolted balance falls around the middle; not sound; build and finish VALUE FOR MONEY into the well damped, rigid cabinet too sharp or too soft. Bass has a good DISLIKE: Lacks finesse compared with the and loaded by the manufacturer’s deal of bounce and extension; it best of the rest BUILD QUALITY trademark, distinctive slot-shaped doesn’t go quite as low and nor does WE SAY: Great value refl ex port. This is at the bottom of it quite have the effortless feel that compact affordable floorstander the front baffl e, which is a wholly larger loudspeakers have, but it’s not EASE OF DRIVE good idea because it makes the too far off. The only real letdown speakers far less sensitive to is a slight muddling of the attack OVERALL placement near boundary walls; we transients on some of the complex, fi nd that they work well as close as looped, sequenced electronic bass; 20cm from a rear wall. Round the there’s a bridge about two thirds of

58 YEARBOOK 2014

FLOORSTANDING LOUDSPEAKER

Kraftwerk’s Tour de France Soundtracks is breathtaking – rarely have we heard its low frequencies in such sharp relief. Positioned just 30cm from our rear wall and toed-in slightly, the speed, power and grip is superlative. The attack transients on the synth bass are superb, starting and stopping with the speed of an LED. On songs with vast tracts of low frequencies such as the Moog bass on 4hero’s Cosmic Tree, the bottom end is rock solid, prodigious and ultra tight, but give it an indie guitar track like REM’s Maps and Legends and the speaker is relatively circumspect. Basically, it tells you what’s going on if it is going on, and if it isn’t then it doesn’t! This is the mark of a serious wideband monitor loudspeaker, and a reminder that so many refl ex ported designs simply aren’t doing bass right. Conventional-holed boxes have practicality and ease-of-drive in their favour, but can bring problems related to phase integrity across the whole frequency. This often means the bass can sound like it’s a fraction of a second behind. Not so the SCM40, and the way it integrates its superb low frequencies with the midband is a joy; in this region it’s more searching than many, DETAILS but is never harsh unless the source is. It sounds like a veil has been lifted PRICE ATC £3,275 from in front of the music and it gives ORIGIN an explicit insight into proceedings. UK WEIGHT Conclusion 31kg Given a serious source and recording, SCM40 DIMENSIONS the SCM40 is superb – we know no (WxHxD) 265 x 980 x 300mm price rivals with this level of accuracy, here is absolutely nothing alloy wave guide. The bass driver is speed and insight. It strings the FEATURES about this loudspeaker 164mm in diameter and features a ● Infinite baffle rhythmic elements of the mix to suggest it is built to its hand coated paper pulp diaphragm, cabinet design together brilliantly, punching out T ● 25mm soft price, and you’re reminded chosen for its balance of low mass, subtle dynamic infl ections in a dome tweeter of this when you try to move it. The damping and rigidity, and there’s a ● 75mm soft dome satisfying and visceral way. But it will drive units look highly anachronistic, huge motor assembly behind. midband driver have you fretting about how best and that’s because they are – ● 164mm bass driver to drive it, because you know it’s especially the midband driver. ATC Sound quality DISTRIBUTOR capable of a level of transparency ATC Loudspeaker began its life building drive units for The big ATC is unerringly revealing Technology Ltd that you’d expect from speakers three professional monitor speakers, and of what you put into it, and certainly TELEPHONE or four times its price ● then started making its own. Very few doesn’t sugar the pill. But if you 01285 760561 companies make midrange domes imagine that it is cerebral, analytical WEBSITE these days, because they’re hard to and dispassionately forensic then atcloudspeakers. co.uk get right. The benefi t of a dome, as think again. Feed it a high-quality OUR VERDICT well as excellent dispersion, is that source via a smooth, punchy REVIEWED HFC 389 SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Superlative it is phase-coherent with the dome solid-state amplifi er and you get clarity; excellent tweeter – which is to say it radiates a startlingly fi ne sound back. phase coherence; sound waves in a similar manner. This You get a large, wideband sound VALUE FOR MONEY sublime bass DISLIKE: Hard work brings excellent integration to that that’s starker and more open than for an amplifier; too critical tweeter/midrange driver anything else we’ve heard at this BUILD QUALITY revealing for most relationship. This 75mm soft dome price. This is made more apparent by WE SAY: A great modern monitor mid driver uses a hand-doped acrylic its superb bass; arguments rage about EASE OF DRIVE loudspeaker, but diaphragm and suspension system, the merits of infi nite baffl e boxes, not for all using a “secret ATC formula”. It mates but ATC has got this one working OVERALL to an ATC-designed and built 25mm brilliantly. The only downside is that dome tweeter with a doped polyester it makes lesser amps feel like a jogger diaphragm and suspension, with running in concrete trainers!

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AK100 II AK120 II 4 OTA (Over tKe Air Àrmware updates) OTA (Over the Air Àrmware updates) Closer to the original sound (CS4398 DAC) CS4398 Dual DAC & Balanced Output 5.6 MHz DSD Support 5.6 MHz DSD Support Balanced Output 128GB of Massive Storage (Max 256GB) 64GB of Massive Storage (Max 192GB) Wi-À support for M4S Streaming

Available from all good specialist audio retailers and FLOORSTANDING LOUDSPEAKER

and unexpectedly fi ne at the price. This is plenty of fun, but better still the Cambridge Audio proves highly adept at playing rhythms. This trait it shares with its predecessor, only more so; the ‘max’ is faster, tighter, tauter and has less overhang in the bass. It’s also more expressive, and carries dynamic infl ections – better than its predecessor ever did. The String Quartet’s cover of Ordinary World comes across with real emotional poignancy, while the acoustic guitar fi nery of John Martyn’s Solid Air shows that the Aeromax isn’t beyond criticism; it has a slightly ‘papery’ tone that can’t carry the widest range of sounds from ice cold to sumptuously warm; everything is a little sweet and soft regardless of the original recording. Conclusion It may not quite have the glassy clarity of some rival higher-end loudspeakers, but still the Aeromax 6 proves a joy to listen to and own ●

The Aeromax 6 employs the latest BMR tech Cambridge Audio Aeromax 6

arely 18 months since it enjoy. It works well close to a rear DETAILS fi rst launched its Aero wall, but it excels around 50cm into PRICE B range, CA has gone for a the room with the bung removed. £900 revamp and a new name. ORIGIN Our abiding impression of the Aero 6 Sound quality UK/China fl oorstander is of a great budget box The basic sound of the Aeromax 6 is WEIGHT with a unique sound that’s just a little very smooth, satisfyingly musical and 17kg too soft and fl uffy. The new Aeromax eerily unlike pretty much every other DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) has tightened up, though; it was loudspeaker in its price bracket and 240 x 980 x 344mm understandable that designer indeed many others, too! The fi rst FEATURES Dominic Baker paid so much choice to make is whether to use the ● 46mm BMR treble/ attention to the original’s novel drive supplied foam bung in the bass port; mid driver ● 2x 165mm doped unit complement, but he’s had time in our room we fi t it because it paper bass drive to refi ne the rest of the speaker and tightens up the bass. As mentioned ● Quoted sensitivity: OUR VERDICT 90dB/1W/1m the result is that the cabinets are now earlier, this is less necessary if you’re SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Wonderfully better braced. No less profound is the able to run them away from the rear DISTRIBUTOR smooth, open, even fi tment of the latest fourth-generation wall, otherwise we’d advise that you Richer Sounds sound; scale; musicality Balanced Mode Radiator (BMR), keep it in. This done, the Aeromax 6 TELEPHONE VALUE FOR MONEY 0333 9000093 DISLIKE: Nothing at which partners with twin bass drivers. delivers a superb rendition of 808 WEBSITE the price BUILD QUALITY Married to this is better OFC internal State’s Ancodia; showing off an cambridgeaudio. WE SAY: Superb wiring and upgraded speaker almost holographic soundstage, com affordable floorstander, that’s refined beyond REVIEWED EASE OF DRIVE terminals. What you get is an almost cathedral-like in its breadth. its price uniquely even sound, totally devoid The speaker never comes out HFC 391 of the sort of peaks and lumpiness in and bites you across the midband, OVERALL the midband that all but the very best meaning it’s remarkably relaxing boxes suffer from. It really is uncanny, to listen to, yet can never be called and the mods make it even easier to boring. It oozes detail that’s subtle

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DETAILS one. This gives an ever so slightly PRICE warm and soft sound compared with Epos £999 these rivals, and it’s also rather ORIGIN forgiving too. Put on a bright, bracing UK/China song like Madonna’s Holiday and while WEIGHT many price rivals will ram it down 11kg your throat, the Epos steps back a little DIMENSIONS K2 bit. Instead, the accent is more on the (WxHxD) 185 x 875 x 250mm lower midband and bass, rather than FEATURES further up. It gives the song a little bit With a rather unusual approach, the K2 is ● 25mm soft dome more body, and a silkiness that other tweeter speakers at the price lack. This blends an important speaker for Epos and could ● 156mm polypropylene in with a couth sounding tweeter, that bass/mid driver matches the smoothness of the mid/ well be the shape of things to come ● 156mm polypropylene bass and bass drivers. Even the tinselly bass driver hi-hats sound sophisticated. his speaker isn’t a dramatic It offers the enchanting combination ● Quoted sensitivity A slick slice of Blue Note jazz courtesy change of trajectory for of being relaxed in nature, but 90dB/1W/1m of Lee Morgan’s The Sidewinder shows Epos, but it’s certainly a engaging in action. Even at fairly low DISTRIBUTOR what a lovely smoothie the Epos K2 is, T Epos Ltd clear move in a certain levels, it locks into the lilting groove of TELEPHONE and how it likes to get into any groove. direction. It ushers in a brave new Tom Tom Club’s Genius Of Love and 01442 260146 Its skill at contrasting the respective world of active operation for the bounces along. There’s a sense that the WEBSITE levels of instruments proves excellent; company; you see, the K2 isn’t actually music is unexpectedly propulsive; the eposltd.com instead of ramming everything at you, active, but it has the capability to be so K2 really has an innate musicality to it REVIEWED it steps back a pace or two, so you can built in. In a few months’ time, there that pop, rock, reggae and jazz fans HFC 388 get a better sense of scale. There’s a will be an Active-K module that will will love. Still, this bounce doesn’t decent feeling of space; it has a wide transform the K2 into something come at the expense of brightness, soundstage left-to-right and hangs completely different… because it appears a very even-handed instruments a little behind the plane of Look at the back and you’ll see that performer – something that really the speakers. The effect is immersive, the lower part of the rear baffl e is comes into its own with classical letting you get lost in its wall of sound. designed to unbolt, and in its place Still, this little fl oorstander doesn’t you can fi t the Active-K module. Built Everything’s so quite have the depth perspective of its into this is a Creek Audio-designed Monitor Audio rival in our listening power amplifi er, complete with good subtle and fluid, and room, tending to be less good at letting quality, multi-input DAC with not every speaker things fall back into the distance. asynchronous USB and Bluetooth receiver. Suddenly, the K2s have the at this price gets it Conclusion ability to work as wireless speakers, If you’re going to criticise the Epos and be driven from a range of digital programme material. B&W’s latest 683 anywhere, it’s got to be the bass. By sources – or even an analogue input. has a far more explicit upper midband the standards of its price class it’s very Buying into the K2 now means you’ll that makes the track’s rhythm guitar good – but in absolute terms it doesn’t have a clear and powerful upgrade work sound a little scratchy, for quite have the ability to switch on and path for the future. But where does example. The Epos by contrast tones it off like a square wave. When played at this leave us before the Active-K down slightly, but the instrument in no high levels, it loses a bit of weight and pack arrives? way loses impact; instead we are able articulation, and doesn’t quite capture The speaker is a two-and-a-half-way to follow it better throughout the song. the physicality and punch low down. design and is quite diminutive for its It’s this counterpoint between We’ll be intrigued to see if the active price. The drive units comprise one rhythm guitar, bass drum, bass guitar, version changes this, and we strongly 25mm silk dome tweeter with a snare and hi-hat that makes Genius Of suspect it will. All the same, the “carefully designed” short-horn Love so sublime; everything’s so subtle speaker’s low end never sounds less faceplate that’s said to reduce and fl uid, and not every speaker at this than well balanced and fl uid, and is refraction distortion, and provide an price point gets it. There’s also the excellent at the price ● even, on-axis response, with high dynamics to consider, and the K2 sensitivity. This hands over to a tracks these brilliantly; it’s not an 156mm mid/bass driver using a overly compressed song, so you do polypropylene cone and a bullet- really get to hear some light and shade OUR VERDICT shaped dust cap. Finally, this drops in the way the drums are played, for SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Smooth and down to another 156mm driver that example, and the Epos carries this very easy, but highly handles bass frequencies only. well. Its prowess with attack transients enjoyable sound; VALUE FOR MONEY active option – the ability to catch leading edges of DISLIKE: Nothing Sound quality notes as they happen – allied to a at the price BUILD QUALITY In essence, the new Epos has a very dislike of sitting on dynamic accenting WE SAY: Excellent musical sound. It’s not frantic, – is what makes this such a lively floorstander with an active life ahead of it brightly etched and in your face; speaker, despite not sounding in the EASE OF DRIVE rather it’s quite laid back, assured and least bright. confi dent sounding. But whereas some In the same way you can hear the OVERALL speakers that exhibit these sort of traits B&W’s Kevlar midrange cone and the end up sounding rather boring, the Monitor Audio’s metal hybrid affair, so Epos certainly does not. you can hear the Epos’ polypropylene

YEARBOOK 2014 65 FLOORSTANDING LOUDSPEAKER

Modern Music – there’s no sense of the speaker sounding breathless and lapsing into stridency. At the same time, those fl ax cones invest the midband with a transparent feel, meaning it is better able to show the differences between recording studios than many other similarly priced boxes. The Be Bop Deluxe disc sounds a little bright and bracing, whereas Isaac Hayes’ Shaft is a whole lot warmer and more sumptuous – it’s good to know the speakers aren’t adding too large a sonic footprint. Staying with Hayes, Cafe Regio’s, is every bit as warm as it should be, without the sense that the speaker is losing the rhythmic plot. Although a little softer sounding, those fl ax cones are just as fast at capturing the attack transients of a snare drum rim shot or the dull pounding of the bass drum, and the result is an enjoyable unfatiguing listen. In absolute terms, there’s just a little bit of warmth in the upper bass, which is often an issue with larger fl oorstanders that aren’t hewn from granite. It’s far from an unpleasant effect and careful room placement minimises it further. You might think that with a slightly sweeter midband sound, the metal tweeter will stick out a little more DETAILS than with previous Focal boxes, but it proves enjoyably smooth. At high PRICE Focal £1,798 volumes, the 926 is quite superb; ORIGIN distortion is so low that you can push France it right up to the point that your fl ares WEIGHT start fl apping, the Aria slamming 25kg out tuneful bass without the merest Aria 926 DIMENSIONS hint of complaint. Across the mid, it (WxHxD) 294 x 1,035 x 371mm is excellent – fast and poised and ocal’s announcement that them lively listens. The new 926 does wonderfully engaging – and treble FEATURES it is using a different cone all of these things, but it seems to do ● 25mm Au/Mg TNF glistens away with a lovely crisp yet material in its new Aria everything with a little more elan inverted dome smooth hi-hat sound. F tweeter 926 speaker is more than the earlier 800 series. There’s ● 165mm and signifi cant than you might fi rst think. a sense that the new cone material 2x 165mm flax mid Conclusion The material that a cone is made from gives a smoother and more subtle and bass drivers Overall then, these new fl oorstanders is critical, as it’s the contact point sound, yet it is no less detailed – ● Quoted sensitivity: are an unqualifi ed success; we really 91.5dB/1W/1m between the speaker and the air it is indeed it’s quite the reverse. We fi nd enjoy our time with them and would DISTRIBUTOR there to move. It affects the transient the 926 to be a fi ne advertisement Focal UK Ltd recommend them to anyone in the response of the driver, its rigidity and for its maker’s new driver technology, TELEPHONE market seeking a lively listen ● the resonance or lack thereof. sounding as it does ‘all of a piece’ and 0845 6602680 The 900 Aria showcases a new really rather natural. Certainly it’s WEBSITE recipe – the French speaker specialist never screechy or dull. Instead, it focal.com has cooked up a sandwich of glass strikes a considered balance that REVIEWED HFC 383 OUR VERDICT fi bre, a special type of textile fi bre preserves all those key characteristics SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Easy sound, but called fl ax and glass fi bre again. Flax we know and love from Focal, yet with great speed and is a way to damp the glass fi bre; the seems to do things in a more mature detail; build quality latter material is very rigid and light, and even-handed way than the VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Nothing at but it isn’t the most acoustically inert. company’s past offerings at this price. the price BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: Highly Flax is, however, so the two should The result is a big, expansive and capable, fine looking make a happy combination. open-sounding box that’s smooth and mid-price floorstanders detailed from bottom to top. Being EASE OF DRIVE Sound quality a three-way, it feels like it has a lot The Focal family sound is generally in reserve, so when crunching OVERALL very fast, sharp and engaging; these crescendos arrive – such as that speakers go loud without compression powerful electric guitar noodling and punch hard on transients, making by Bill Nelson in Be Bop Deluxe’s

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DETAILS as, say, a Tannoy Dual Concentric (see PRICE page 55) but it’s not far off, and better Monitor Audio £1,250 than most price rivals in its ability to ORIGIN conjure up a cavernous soundstage. UK/China Indeed, one great talent of the 8 is WEIGHT its ability with vocals; there’s a sense 23.3kg of natural ease that makes even the DIMENSIONS Silver 8 most challenging female voices a (WxHxD) 185 x 1,000 x pleasure. The harsh, nasal tones of 323mm The Cookie Crew from Beatmasters’ Monitor Audio’s new Silver 8 floorstander FEATURES Who’s In The House are surprisingly ● 25mm C-CAM is packed with go-faster goodies, and the dome tweeter palatable with a wonderful ● 100mm C-CAM sledgehammer bass set behind some midrange unit frantic keyboard work and staccato result is a super sound that many will enjoy ● 2x 165mm C-CAM RST bass units drum machine beats. That dome ● Quoted sensitivity tweeter really is very good, and enefi ting from a range of It sounds wonderfully integrated 90dB/1W/1m marries so well with the midrange nice goodies handed down and all-of-a-piece. Thomas Dolby’s DISTRIBUTOR driver that you’d be forgiven for to it from MA’s impressive One Of Our Submarines Is Missing Monitor Audio Ltd thinking you were hearing a far B TELEPHONE Platinum and Gold series, comes over with a combination of 01268 740580 more expensive speaker. the Silver range is notable for being detail and decorum that we hadn’t Interestingly, the Silver 8 has no real WEBSITE Monitor Audio’s cheapest real expected at this price. This is an early monitoraudio.co.uk weaknesses. It doesn’t hurt, offend, three-way design, as well as running eighties analogue recording, and we REVIEWED frighten or intimidate – it just gets on two smallish bass drivers in parallel. are able to discern the very subtle HFC 387 with the job, does it well, and doesn’t The S8 is a three-way with the tape hiss in the background, which make a fuss. The only criticisms you addition of a 100mm midrange unit isn’t something all similarly priced can make is that it’s not quite as open, and two 165mm bass units. Running designs do, yet above this the various three dimensional or powerful as them in parallel lets the speaker shift instruments separate out beautifully. other, more expensive and larger a decent amount of air and retain its Bass is strong and well articulated, designs. At its price though, to narrow dimensions. midband crisp yet smooth and the criticise would be churlish, because Importantly, though, the midband treble beautifully detailed. it’s just so darned competent at driver is the same – albeit slightly The Silvers image superbly; they everything you can throw at it. smaller – unit as the bass drivers. This provide a broad spread of sound and Perhaps some would say it lacks a will provide not only a good tonal little character, that it doesn’t match, but it should keep good phase It just gets on with editorialise as much as some price too, and have similar dispersion rivals. It certainly gives a less stylised characteristics. All are C-CAM RST the job of playing or contrived sound, but we defi nitely types, a catchy acronym for Ceramic music in a subtle yet don’t fi nd it dull. Coated Aluminium Magnesium with Rigid Surface Technology. Roughly sophisticated way Conclusion translated, this means a thin hybrid As any good football manager knows, metal cone that has been dimpled to you don’t need to sit exactly on-axis the easiest way to win is not to lose – resist bending. Metal cones are stiff to get everything in all its glory. and the Silver 8 is an arch exponent and light, but can come a cropper in Rather than fi ring the sound out like of this. It simply doesn’t give goals the distortion department because a sniper rifl e, they’re closer to a bank away; there’s little weakness on show metal isn’t the least resonant material job-spec sawn-off shotgun, dispersing in any respect. Those seeking a more yet invented – hence the need for all over. This gives a seamless, almost characterful sound might have less the RST. The tweeter uses a 25mm electrostatic-like sound; it spreads out time for it, but anyone wanting a C-CAM dome, so again you get a easily into the room and the bass, mid really capable fl oorstander that just tonal consistency that you’d lose if and treble driver integrate well. gets on with the job of playing music Monitor Audio had opted for, say, a Not only is the sound clean, it is fast in a subtle yet sophisticated way will silk dome. It vents internally around too – yet it gets its speed from its love it ● the outside of the magnet system into excellent tracking of transients rather a large rear-loading chamber above than any artifi cial tonal edge or ‘zing’. the separate midband chamber. It gives the very pleasant combination of openness and musicality, which OUR VERDICT Sound quality proves infectious on Black Uhuru’s SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Clean, open, The Silver 8 is surprisingly unfussy. Party Next Door. The 8s serve up large detailed and musical We stand it about 30cm from the rear tracts of bass, which is tight and well sound; finish VALUE FOR MONEY wall, gently toed-in and it sings. It has articulated, with no sense of the DISLIKE: Nothing at the price a surprisingly clean and neutral sound speakers falling over their own feet, BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: Superbly – unlike some rivals that also use so to speak. Further up, that midband competent all-round metal coned drivers. Indeed, if driver kicks in at 500Hz to give an performer anything it is ever so slightly on the even and spacious sound until the EASE OF DRIVE warm side, and certainly able to live tweeter joins the party at 2.7kHz. with a lively sounding source or You don’t hear the transition and the OVERALL amplifi er. We’d judge it to have a impression the speaker gives is that perfect tonal balance considering the you’re listening to a large point- kit it’s likely to be used with. source. It’s not quite as holographic

YEARBOOK 2014 69 FLOORSTANDING LOUDSPEAKER

seamless and this means that anything that happens within the Neat’s frequency response does so in happy balance with everything else. For what is a relatively compact and slender fl oorstander, the bass response is genuinely impressive. Although the Motive is happiest on a solid surface, the potent low end is apparent on all surfaces. As well as a genuine amount of impact, that is felt as much as heard, there is detail and agility that aids believability. Push the Neat to antisocial levels and the port can become audible, but at more sane volume points it works seamlessly with the drivers. At the other end of the frequency extremes, the SX1 has a sweetness to the upper registers that is largely responsible for the forgiving way that it performs, even fed with less than perfect material. The handling of voices in particular is unambiguously real. Their placement as part of the wider recording is entirely convincing and it emphasises its ability to focus on the wider performance rather than picking it apart. The soundstage has a good sense of scale and there is plenty of detail between the speakers. Reducing the toe-in seems to widen things, although it’s at the expense of DETAILS the three dimensionality. A characteristic that also remains PRICE Neat Acoustics £1,885 constant is that although the Motive ORIGIN SX1 is not especially diffi cult to drive, UK it benefi ts from amplifi ers that have WEIGHT good current delivery and that exert a 14kg sense of control. The amount of Motive SX1 DIMENSIONS power needed to reach a decent (WxHxD) 160 x 925 x 200mm volume level is not that high, but the pdates to its ranges are bungs to limit the output, but best Neats thrive on that power delivery FEATURES something Neat does once results are gained on solid fl oors or ● 25mm inverted being of a high standard, and the every blue moon and so isolating platforms. anodised aluminium excellent bass response seems to U dome tweeter when they do happen they really come alive when driven from ● 2x 135mm: are worth taking note of. The most Sound quality polypropelene cone solid-state power. visible change to the Motive SX1 is The overall balance of the Motive is mid/bass units the tweeter. The titanium unit of old one that perhaps trades that last tiny ● Quoted sensitivity: Conclusion 87dB/1W/1m has been replaced with an aluminium percentile of detail in a performance The Motive SX1 is one of the top DISTRIBUTOR design. Although it’s heavier than for an even-handed accessibility with Neat Acoustics performers at the price and should be titanium, the resonances are easier to a wide variety of music that makes TELEPHONE added to any shortlist of speakers ● control and the process of anodising this an appealing partner across a 01833 631021 the tweeter means that any notional wide variety of genres. WEBSITE loss of stiffness is kept to a minimum. There is a clearly discernible sense neat.co.uk The tweeter is partnered with the of fun to the way that the Neat goes REVIEWED HFC 379 OUR VERDICT same 135mm mid bass drivers as about making music that adds to the SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Lively and before and the cabinet has the same involvement it can create. Seasick engaging sound; distinctive rearward lean to aid the Steve’s Hubcap Music has a sense excellent tonality; VALUE FOR MONEY solid build time alignment. The cabinet porting of life and drive to it that makes for DISLIKE: Works best exits through the bass of the speaker. an engrossing performance. Picking on a solid floor and For this reason, the plinth and spikes this overall perception apart is tricky, BUILD QUALITY needs capable amplification are fi xed. The advantage of this is that but it seems to stem from an WE SAY: A superb EASE OF DRIVE the SX1 is not too fussed about exceptionally well balanced revision to an already placement close to a wall (although presentation from top to bottom that capable speaker best results are gained being at least avoids over emphasising any part of OVERALL 30cms out), but we discover that on a the frequency response. The handover suspended fl oor, the Motive can be a between midrange and the new little lively. Neat supplies a set of foam tweeter in particular is impressively

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is more realistic. When the lead vocal kicks in, it has a wonderfully silken sound. The gentle percussion pushes out more forcefully, the ‘quieter’ cabinets of this new speaker better able to carry dynamic accenting, bringing a greatly increased sense of rhythmic fl ow. The song seems to have a real trajectory, instead of ambling around lazily. All this comes from the wealth of subtle musical clues that are lost by lesser speakers; it’s not the loud bits that impress, it’s the quiet ones. Feed the Concept 40 some punchier rock, and it shows itself in an even better light. Saxon’s Strangers In The Night is a powerful piece of early eighties soft metal, all power chords, crashing drums and close-miked vocals. Through lesser loudspeakers it can sound congested, but the new Qs are wonderfully clean and open, throwing the sound out as if they have dissolved out of the room, retaining only a ghostly vestigial presence. Bass is surprisingly strong and pleasingly even too – devoid of any false bass peaks. Notes stop and start quickly and are played tunefully. The midband is a joy; those gravelly vocals are carried respectfully; they aren’t airbrushed to the point of DETAILS blandness, but neither are they edgy or forward – again this suggests a PRICE Q Acoustics £1,000 nice, fl at response. Treble is good too, ORIGIN the crashing cymbal work sounding UK/Germany/China decently metallic, but not grating. WEIGHT 18.5kg Conclusion Concept 40 DIMENSIONS The Q Acoustics Concept 40 is an (WxHxD) 170 x 972 x 288mm extremely able loudspeaker, and ather than doing a slightly toed-in on their integrated excellent value even at £1,000. It is FEATURES tweaked version of the tripod stands, with the bungs in place. ● 25mm soft dome amazingly well rounded, having existing (and excellent) tweeter practically no obvious weaknesses, R ● 2x 125mm mid/ fl oorstanding 2050i, the Sound quality and a whole lot of strengths. Right bass drivers Concept 40s are basically stretched If you’ve heard the 2050i, you’ll know ● Quoted sensitivity: across the range – from detail and 20s with spikes on the end. This it’s a very clean and musical device, 90dB/1W/1m dynamics to tonal balance and means they’re physically a little without too much character of its DISTRIBUTOR musicality, it scores very highly smaller (about 2in) than the 2050is, own; whatever music you play Armour Home indeed. Most of all what we like Electronics but cost twice as much. And it just gets down to work and lets rip about it is its naturalness. And for TELEPHONE fascinatingly, when you bang the with a warm, open and enjoyable 01279 501111 that reason it comes recommended ● cabinets of the Concept 40s, it feels sound. None of this is lost in the WEBSITE like you’ve just hit lead-lined Concept 40, but you get a wealth of qacoustics.co.uk concrete. You haven’t, of course, extra musical insight, which takes it REVIEWED because they are made from Gelcore. way beyond the 2050i. Indeed, in HFC 385 OUR VERDICT Unlike the Concept 20, which uses terms of transparency, it’s like night SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Superlative rehoused 2020i drivers, the 40 uses and day. The sound seems far faster, imaging; easy two new bespoke 125mm bass/ more open and yet more subtle too, musicality; intricate, midrange drivers set into an and the spaces in-between the VALUE FOR MONEY detailed sound DISLIKE: Treble is less aluminium fascia plate. They look musical notes seem to drop back to silky or spacious than visually identical to the single one in vanishingly low levels. BUILD QUALITY some rivals the Concept 20, but the motor has Cue up Air’s All I Need, and you can WE SAY: Lovely sounding, brilliantly been improved and the magnet hear the difference from the opening EASE OF DRIVE balanced package strengthened. The 25mm soft dome bars. The Concept 40 carries the tweeter cuts in at 2.3kHz, and is the guitar part on the lead in a OVERALL same fi tted to all Q Acoustics speakers. delightfully subtle way, showing the We fi nd that they work best at delicacy of the fi nger work on the around 30cm out from the rear wall, strings, while the instrumental timbre

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lets the bass driver do its job accurately, with little interference. The result is a lovely, lilting musicality with just a tiny bit of softness and looseness, which any ported speaker gives. The low frequencies prove very even too; there’s no big ‘hump’ around 100Hz to give the (false) sensation of a strong bass. But when called upon to deliver vast tracts of low frequencies, the A6R doesn’t baulk – it proves able to dispense enough bottom end to fl ap your fl ares, if not quite blow your wig off. The midrange performance is lovely. It’s incisive and detailed without sounding like a speaker that’s trying to be incisive and detailed. Rather it has a smooth, gentle, delicate sort of character that seems to dissolve away and let you focus on the mix; there’s no honking or squawking from the cone, no sense that you’re listening to something artifi cial. In absolute terms, that mid/bass unit lacks the amazing translucency of a ribbon or an electrostatic panel, but it’s never muddy or grey or metallic sounding. Once again, it’s sheer even-handedness wins the day. Cue up some lilting jazz from Hank Mobley’s Soul Station and there’s a fantastic sound to the saxophone that DETAILS drips with rich, resonant harmonics. Behind this, a wonderfully fl uid PRICE Spendor £2,495 groove gets going courtesy of great ORIGIN drum kit work; despite not throwing UK everything at you on a plate, it proves WEIGHT to be highly rhythmically adept. 18kg A6R DIMENSIONS Conclusion (WxHxD) 192 x 875 x 280mm It is very good at soundstaging too; or the new A6R, Spendor salesman who’s happy to leave you it just seems to be able to throw out FEATURES claims “a dramatic uplift in alone in the showroom to play with ● 29mm wide- excellent stereo with precious little dynamics, resolution and the object of your desire, the Spendor surround dome setting up or fi ne tuning. But time F tweeter low-frequency extension”. has a light, but deft and skilful touch. spent getting a few degrees toe-in, ● Spendor 180mm This small-to-medium-size box sports It knows how and when not to EP77 mid/bass unit and the listening height right via the a new mid/bass driver that uses the interfere, where less sophisticated, ● Quoted sensitivity: spikes pays dividends, and they’ll end company’s latest EP77 ‘engineering more impetuous rivals fall over 88dB/1W/1m up projecting music like a hologram polymer’ cone, new surround and themselves to demonstrate their DISTRIBUTOR in your lounge. If you want your Spendor Audio suspension materials. These are said punchy bass or laser-etched treble. Systems music to do the talking and not your to improve low-level linearity and This means you can play pretty TELEPHONE loudspeakers, this is a must hear ● mechanical stability. To go with this is much any type of music and they’ll 01323 843474 a re-engineered crossover, devoid of still let it sing. Take Manix’s Living In WEBSITE series-attenuating resistors to The Past; it’s pretty much the last spendoraudio.com minimise thermal modulation piece of music we would ever imagine REVIEWED HFC 381 OUR VERDICT distortion. It also gets precision- Spendor using to voice this new SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Clean, open, wound high-linearity tapped speaker, but still the A6Rs sing their even sound; musicality; inductors. Sitting just a few inches hearts out – or rather let the music fine build away from the rear wall, toed-in a sing its heart out. VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Looks are perhaps a little few degrees they sound like they’ve Bass is excellent and we can confi rm underwhelming, been made for our listening room. that Spendor’s special port design BUILD QUALITY but nothing else at works very well. Even at high levels, the price WE SAY: One of the Sound quality there is no huffi ng, puffi ng or EASE OF DRIVE very best mid-price The difference between the A6R and chuffi ng, and the low frequencies floorstanders around many fl ashier rivals is it doesn’t bowl remain tight and supple. True, it isn’t OVERALL you over, but instead just seems to ultra-taut like a good infi nite baffl e step aside and let you and the music speaker, but it is still a very good get along together. Rather like a car implementation of a refl ex port that

74 YEARBOOK 2014 THE CONCEPT 20 LOUDSPEAKER: NOTHING SHORT OF SENSATIONAL

“ you find yourself immersed in a vast stereo soundstage” Hi-Fi Choice, June 2013

“ It proves cabinet resonances need be a problem no longer” Hi-Fi News, March 2014

“ Looking for a top-quality sub-£500 standmount Stereo speakers Best stereo speaker £200-£400 Q Acoustics Concept 20 speaker? Ignore this one at your peril.” What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, Awards 2014

“ Superb...a scale and volume of sound that seems PRODUCT OF THE YEAR STEREO SPEAKERS scarcely credible from such Q ACOUSTICS CONCEPT 20 a small cabinet” What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, March 2013

The ‘Concept 20’ is a special loudspeaker which goes beyond anything that Q Acoustics has achieved before. It’s a beautifully styled product which we confidently believe provides a level of sonic performance previously thought impossible at its price point.

To achieve this extraordinary result, Q Acoustics’ design team applied advanced technology to address the fundamental problem of cabinet resonance; widely recognised as the single biggest hurdle preventing Concept 20 Speaker Stand Hi-Fi Choice ‘high end’ sonic performance at an ‘affordable’ price. Grouptest Winner, Nov. 2014 The ‘Concept 20’ proves cabinet resonance need be a problem no longer.

Its GelcoreTM Construction; ‘cabinet within a cabinet’ design, incorporates a bespoke, resonance absorbing, non-setting adhesive which converts kinetic energy and disperses it as heat. This substantially reduces distortion and allows the individual drive units to deliver their optimal performance.

BEAUTIFULLY ENGINEERED SOUND www.Qacoustics.co.uk FLOORSTANDING LOUDSPEAKER

Liar, making it just that little bit more palatable. What we like about the midband is that it manages to be detailed and high in resolution without veering into hardness and shrillness; some high-end speakers don’t and can have you running for the door when you play less than perfect recordings. The high frequency performance is good, and pretty much up to par with the rest of the speaker. At this price you might crave the smoothness and delicacy of an Apogee ribbon or a good electrostatic panel like a MartinLogan. But those speakers can have their own issues and fall behind the Olympica II in the bass, for example. The important thing is that the Sonus faber’s treble doesn’t pull the otherwise very high standards of performance down. It’s a fi ne example of a well-designed dome tweeter, and gives a lovely sparkle to the hi-hat work on the earthy rock of REM’s Near Wild Heaven. Feed it the opening cymbal of Isaac Hayes’ Theme From Shaft and it serves up a sweet and tactile sound, the tweeter proving sensitive enough to get up close with the sticks on the cymbals. It integrates beautifully, giving the impression you’re listening to one loudspeaker DETAILS per channel and not two or three. PRICE Conclusion Sonus faber £6,998 ORIGIN This is a very well voiced speaker Italy that’s tonally coherent with no WEIGHT diffi cult spots drawing attention 68kg to mismatched drivers or poorly Olympica II DIMENSIONS executed crossovers. Big three-ways (WxHxD) 370 x 1,055 x 472mm often struggle when it comes to here’s an interesting drive music; instead you feel as if it’s an timing, but happily, it works well, FEATURES unit complement in the important constituent part of the ● 29mm ‘Arrow with a decently taut and grippy sound Olympica II, starting with whole, rather than something that Point’ dome tweeter that never smudges or blurs leading T ● 150mm pulp fibre a 29mm silk dome tweeter stands out on its own. As Black edges. It lacks the razor-sharp composite based on that of the high-end Aida. Uhuru’s Great Train Robbery shows, it midrange driver transients of a good electrostatic, It has an ‘Arrow Point’ damped apex can start and stop with alacrity, being ● 230mm sandwich but there’s not much in it and the dome, which is said to be a synthesis fl eet of foot enough to really get into membrane bass Olympica II comes over as fast and driver of the classic dome and ring the musical groove. Yet you never get ● Quoted sensitivity: controlled. So much so that it lets you transducer, and a new Neodymium the feeling that the speaker is trying 88dB/1W/1m focus in on differing strands of the magnet-powered motor system. to embellish the music; down in the DISTRIBUTOR music, and follow them with ease ● The 150mm midrange driver uses a bass especially, it’s clean and taut and Absolute Sounds composite former eddy current-free matter of fact in the best of ways. TELEPHONE 0208 9713909 voice coil, and the cone sports a blend One satisfying thing is how well the WEBSITE of traditional cellulose pulp, kapok, bass melds into the midband; it’s very absolutesounds. OUR VERDICT kenaf and other natural fi bres, and is seamless and all of a piece. There’s no com SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Balanced said to give the most natural sound. sense of two drive units competing, REVIEWED tonality; satisfying The woofer is a 230mm affair with instead you’re lead to a wonderfully HFC 386 musicality; build a sandwich cone membrane that fragrant midband with space and VALUE FOR MONEY and finish DISLIKE: Slight lack combines a heart of hi-tech rigid colour. The Sonus faber isn’t one of of dimensionality, but syntactic foam with external layers those ultra clean speakers that sounds BUILD QUALITY otherwise nothing treated with cellulose pulp. like it’s trying to be a monitor; instead WE SAY: Gorgeous, beautiful sounding it goes for a slightly warmish EASE OF DRIVE premium floorstander Sound quality midband that casts a gentle amber The II is a nice size. In a largish (but light across everything. This isn’t a OVERALL not huge) listening room, it sits criticism, because it takes a fraction perfectly. Bass is fi rm and insistent, of the edge off some really steely but never overpowers the room or the recordings like The Castaways’ Liar

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sentiment. Each instrument sounds highly animated as the speakers strut their funky stuff and you have a real sense of the three musicians being completely in tune with one another. What this highlights is how well the Xeos time across the frequency band, especially with notes’ leading edges which are rapidly rendered. You get the impression that each speaker’s drive units are working together in a seamless and cohesive manner, and this really helps to make instruments sound whole and fully formed. With a 16/44 ALAC rip of Ron Sexsmith’s Late Bloomer, the Xeos ensure bass notes have enough presence to underpin the music with plenty of punch and detail. With this track you also get the sense that Dynaudio has paid close attention to how the bass is projected at the listener, to prevent the lower frequencies from ambling around at the back of the soundstage. Instead the speakers ensure the bass can envelop the soundstage, reaching the listener in a focussed manner without sounding too forward. When presented with the more meaty bass of Goldfrapp’s Clay, the Xeos dig deep into the lower frequencies, where they lend plenty DETAILS of low down power without letting the bass become too fl abby sounding. PRICE Dynaudio £2,925 ORIGIN Conclusion Denmark Comparing the Xeos with some of WEIGHT the best passive fl oorstanders at this 14.7kg price, including those from Dyn’s own Xeo 6 DIMENSIONS stable, shows that while they can’t (WxHxD) 170 x 854 x 246mm ultimately achieve the same levels of eplacing the Xeo 5 (HFC EQ setting, with their back panels sheer grunt, the bass they muster is FEATURES 376), the 6 boasts a bunch 55cm from the boundary wall and ● 3x 50W digital delivered with a sense of authority. If of new features packed fi ring down the listening room with amps per speaker there has to be a criticism – and it’s a R ● 1in tweeter into a more compact just a few degrees of toe-in, we’re minor one – despite the improved ● 2x 5in mid/ cabinet. Along with an updated surprised by just how much welly bass drivers interface and subtle LED volume level remote control, there’s a control panel they have. A 16-bit/44kHz FLAC ● Portable wi-fi display on each speaker, we’d still on each speaker’s top for adjusting of The Stone Roses’ Breaking Into receiver with welcome slighter steps within the analogue and volume and switching input. Heaven sees them lay forth an digital inputs graduated volume levels for greater As per the previous range, every Xeo encompassing soundstage, that’s ● Room position degrees of fi ne tuning, to help get it EQ settings speaker can be individually assigned solidly woven together. John Squire’s just right for every scenario ● to left/right/mono duties via rear multi-layered lead guitar is densely DISTRIBUTOR Dynaudio UK panel switches, to identify them rendered with his Gibson’s riffs TELEPHONE within two-channel and larger sounding expansive and full of body. 01353 721089 surround sound setups. You can also The Dyns handle the mix admirably, WEBSITE OUR VERDICT allocate them within a ‘zone’ to cater and take it all in their stride. Cymbals dynaudio.com SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Ease of use; for multi-room Xeo systems. To are articulated with a clear openness REVIEWED controls; balanced further aid placement, there are room that allows their shimmering tones HFC 388 and powerful sound VALUE FOR MONEY position EQ settings and switches for to remain gentle, without being DISLIKE: Volume needs better stepping; adjusting bass response for near wall, overwhelmed by Squire’s six-string Hi-res 24/96 streamed corner or neutral placement. onslaughts coming at you from all BUILD QUALITY at 16/48 angles, or pushed to the sidelines by WE SAY: Well thought out updates and better FEATURES Sound quality Mani’s energetic bass lines, which also sound improves on the Dynaudio seems to have engineered gets plenty of airspace. original Xeo package these speakers to not let their demure Feeding the Hub with a 24/96 FLAC OVERALL proportions stop them from getting rip of Neil Cowley Trio’s Couch Slouch the most out of the music. Kicking off reveals that the cut of the Xeo’s jib is with the Xeos switched to the neutral the polar opposite of the track title’s

78 YEARBOOK 2014 Discover the IsoTek Effect

Mains electricity is distorted by numerous factors as it travels from power stations to our homes, eroding your systems performance. The New Discovery Range from IsoTek delivers highly effective yet eminently affordable solutions to enhance sound and picture quality, whilst also protecting your valuable equipment from power surges and voltage spikes.*

“A distinct cleaning up of the sound... “A marked benefit for dynamic range, a consequence of lowering the noise floor, as well as a refinement and a general opening up of the soundstage”

IsoTek EVO3 Premier, Hi-Fi Choice, March 2013

EVO3 Premier IsoTek’s most affordable power able range. range. able cable has at its core three 2sqmm conductors made from 99.9999% OFC (oxygen-free copper) and coated in silver to aid conductivity, with a Teflon FEP dielectric extruded over each conductor. A cotton filler is used to give the cable internal strength and reduce microphony whilst maintaining dielectric performance. The cable is terminated with high-quality 24ct gold connectors, designed and manufactured by IsoTek rather than bought off the shelf. No similarly priced power cable is constructed to such a high specification, with correspondingly impressive benefits to sound and picture quality.

• 24ct gold connectors • Silver plated OFC conductors • Teflon FEP dielectric • 16A current capability • C15, C19 and C7 IEC options • 1.5m standard length “More space, lower noise and greater EVO3 Polaris resolution... An increase in timing Cost effective high-performance power precision, depth of bass and a much distribution strip that cleans Common and Differential Mode noise from the greater sense of musical flow” mains as well as offering surge and spike protection. IsoTek EVO3 Polaris, Hi-Fi Choice, March 2013 Protection against power surges and voltage spikes relates specifically to IsoTek power conditioners and not the IsoTek power c and not the IsoTek power conditioners IsoTek to specifically relates spikes and voltage power surges against Protection *

For your free brochure: IsoTek products are distributed by Sound Fowndations. +44 (0)1276 501 392 [email protected] www. soundfowndations.co.uk www.isoteksystems.com | www.shop.isoteksystems.com Discover IsoTek www.facebook.com/isoteksystems “Sound as Revolutionary as

they look..... Every visitor to your home is likely to marvel at the Astute when they are silent, and even more so when they make dynamic music “. HI FI CHOICE

So Much More Than Great Looks

If you want a system that ranks in the top FEATURES 0.5% you’ll need exceptional speakers. As • Greatly increased dynamics. A leading reviewer a leading design company that wins many wrote in a revealing comment “Why must awards and helps countless clients achieve domestic speakers sound like damp sponges if outstanding results, we have observed that you’ve just come back from a live concert or gig?”. loudspeakers are often the most diffi cult aspect of a system to get right. • More consistent sound coverage in any room: • Greater clarity, and less colouration Our new and innovative approach yields stunning results. A genuine advance over • Truly astounding bass reproduction: the limitations of current designs, you’ll • Relative insensitivity to positioning: fi nd our analysis both enlightening and revolutionary. Th is is embodied in the • Tuning adjustment for any room: Astute speaker which has proved to be great • Easily driven sounding, attractive and superbly versatile. Read more on website address below. • Out of the box sound with pin point imaging

Tel: +44 02380 578877 www.originlive.com WIRELESS LOUDSPEAKER

truly exceptional. The WAV download of Fink’s Hard Believer has a presence and a realism that is incongruous coming from such small speakers, but serves as a reminder that truly convincing music reproduction lives or dies on the midrange performance. This is not to say that the Eclipse can’t handle frequency extremes – the upper registers in particular are deeply impressive and there is plenty of low-end detail if not physical impact – but the aspects that make music come alive are handled in such a way as to make them the absolute focus of attention. The non-oversampling mode is more than a gimmick too. With acoustic material and compressed fi les it fi lls the performance slightly and makes it fractionally warmer and smoother. The ‘standard’ DAC mode can extract a little more detail and sometimes generate a little more front-to-back depth, but there is an DETAILS engagement to it that is wonderfully PRICE £999 compelling. The ease of adjusting between the two modes makes Eclipse ORIGIN Taiwan experimenting simple and will allow WEIGHT you to choose to suit your taste. 5.3kg DIMENSIONS Conclusion TD-M1 155 x 242 x 219mm The more you listen to the TD-M1, (WxHxD) the more the presentation can often FEATURES erhaps the best-known renowned for is completely intact in ● Wireless-equipped be likened to listening to a decent manufacturer of single the TD-M1. This means that if your AirPlay speaker pair of open-backed headphones. The driver speakers, Eclipse’s music tastes stem to genres making ● 24/192kHz- music arrives at the ear with little P capable USB input unique ‘Time Domain’ use of the word ‘dub’ or you have a ● Single full sense of the enclosure and with a principle has created a range of hangar to fi ll with sound levels that bandwidth defi nite soundstage provided that distinctive and seriously impressive can boil the fl uid in your inner ear, 8cm driver you are within the very sweet spot ● Black and white products. The TD-M1 represents an stop reading this and go and explore finishes available that the Eclipse produces. If you are attempt to marry this technology with some of the other speakers that are DISTRIBUTOR outside this sweet spot, the stereo a degree of convenience that should reviewed in the proceeding pages to Eclipse presentation declines, which further broaden the appeal to new customers. this one instead. Two 8cm drivers TELEPHONE emphasises how the TD-M1 is used To this end, it’s a self-contained (and this measurement includes the 0207 3284499 to best effect. The wonderful speed, system with amplifi cation and inputs surround too) simply aren’t going WEBSITE tonality and integration is retained, all built into the speaker housings. to vibrate your eyeballs. eclipse-td.net but each speaker becomes an REVIEWED The choice of inputs is useful too. If your musical tastes are broader HFC 390 individual unit rather than a stereo The TD-M1 is AirPlay enabled, but than this, though, and you can grant pair. This means that the Eclipse is also features a USB B socket that is the Eclipse the nearfi eld listening not a plonk and play device and will 24/192-capable for direct connection position that they benefi t from, the require a little careful fettling to to a computer. These connections are TD-M1 is not simply good for an achieve its very best ● decoded via a Wolfson WM8741 DAC, all-in-one, but sensationally good which has been adapted to work judged by the standards of any both in conventional upsampling £1,000 system. The whole purpose mode, but also in a custom non- behind the Time Domain principle OUR VERDICT oversampling mode. Connectivity is to create a speaker better able to SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Incredibly is completed by a USB A socket for follow the variation and nuance of a involving performance; direct connection of an Apple device piece of music and this means that excellent build VALUE FOR MONEY and a 3.5mm analogue connection. the TD-M1 delivers a performance DISLIKE: Limited bass and outright volume; Other than an absence of Bluetooth, that is at times almost supernaturally no Bluetooth; it’s the Eclipse is well set up as a desktop fast. Almost everything else at the BUILD QUALITY not cheap audio device. price sounds processed and WE SAY: A supremely talented system that FEATURES compromised in comparison. might be the ultimate Sound quality The other trump card is the computer speaker From the outset, the single most cohesion across the bulk of the OVERALL important point about the audible frequency range. From performance of the Eclipse is that the 100Hz to the upper threshold of single driver experience the brand is adult hearing, the TD-M1 sounds

YEARBOOK 2014 81 WIRELESS LOUDSPEAKER

on the upper midband than with the James Taylor Quartet track, and the greater dynamics really make themselves apparent, but the Elac speaker system keeps everything well controlled. Bass is punchy – if not terribly extended, the midband clean and spacious and the treble smooth and wonderfully sophisticated. Indeed, the excellent recording quality of this Supertramp song illustrates just how sweet sounding the tweeter is. We’ve heard several evolutions of this high-frequency unit and this seems the best yet; it sparkles with detail and has a wonderful sense of space, but still never sounds bland or over smooth. Running from a MacBook Pro into the USB input is no less impressive, with Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony sounding expansive with excellently resolved low-level detail and fi ne imaging. It places instruments accurately and boldly, giving a DETAILS commanding feel and even makes a PRICE £2,848 good stab at recreating the concert hall’s sense of perspective. Elac ORIGIN Germany/China The active speakers are better still WEIGHT when fed direct, bypassing wireless. 7.8kg There isn’t a massive jump forward in DIMENSIONS sound, suggesting that the wireless Air-X 403 (WxHxD) has been done very well. There is 166 x 308 x 280mm a subtle improvement in grip and FEATURES tarting at £2,499 for these Air-X version comes very close to ● Jet 5 tweeter low-level detail, with a slight entry-level 403s plus £349 offering the best of both worlds. ● 150mm AS-XR deepening of the soundstage. Going for the base station, these The 403 is a smallish standmounter, mid/bass driver back to wireless, this time feeding the S ● Quoted power: speakers are aimed at but doesn’t sound anywhere near as 2x 150W into 4ohms base station with an analogue input serious audiophiles. The cabinets compact as it looks. It is able to fi ll ● 24/48 wireless from an Audiolab 8200CD player, contain the Air-X Amp, which the a largish listening room with big, ● 2x optical, 1x USB, again gives very good results – it 1x RCA phono, Air-X Base station sends the music to. confi dent sound with an ease that we 1x 3.5mm analogue remains smooth and surprisingly The latter is the central control unit to wouldn’t expect. Furthermore – and inputs detailed, showing that it doesn’t treat which a wide variety of sources and this is possibly at least in part due to DISTRIBUTOR analogue signals as a poor relation. output signals can be connected. its active operation – there is no sense Hi-Fi Network The Texas Instruments PCM1803 A/D Music is losslessly transmitted at of the music being squeezed through TELEPHONE converter is obviously a quality item. 24-bit/48kHz. The amplifi ers used a toothpaste tube, as is sometimes the 01285 643088 WEBSITE inside are Class AB. The combined case with small speakers. The stock hifi-network.com Conclusion output is claimed to be 150W (into BS 403 is rather ineffi cient, and needs The new Air-X is one of the best REVIEWED 4ohms), and an internal 56-bit DSP a powerful transistor amplifi er to HFC 391 sounding wireless solutions on sale chip allows tweaking of the sound to give of its best, but here in active right now and is well worth suit the listener’s environment. mode it is relaxed, expansive and auditioning if you’re looking to surprisingly easy. live in a world without wires ● Sound quality James Taylor Quartet’s Stepping Into The problem with some wireless My Life is a lovely late nineties slice loudspeakers can be that they’re often of gentle soulful funk and the Air-X wireless fi rst, and speakers second – 403 shows the recording in all its OUR VERDICT or indeed last. This is something that fi nery; it’s laid back and warm, and so SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Crisp, clean, most certainly does not affl ict the the Elac system is too. There’s very smooth sound; robust Air-X 403. As soon as you start little sense of the cabinets inducing wireless listening it’s clear that this is a fi ne boom or of the speaker having a VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: No coaxial digital in or aptX hi-fi design – which also happens to sweet spot in the bass; the downward Bluetooth as standard BUILD QUALITY have the option of active, wireless fi ring port seems to work well. WE SAY: Serious operation. You can hear the essence Next we feed it something a little sounding active standmount of Elac’s BS 403 very easily; because more intense, Supertramp’s Child FEATURES loudspeakers with this is what the Air-X version is, but Of Vision. This is a slightly forward 24-bit/48kHz wireless with added functionality. All of which sounding album, even the LP version OVERALL means that you get a very smooth, is a little bright, but the Air-X 403 delicate, detailed sound that you keeps a good balance. Yes, there is would never call boring. In short, the defi nitely a more brilliant light cast

82 YEARBOOK 2014 Xpression Carbon

Xpress your sound, Xpress your look...

March 2014 February 2014

A Classic Made New...

The Xpression Carbon is the latest version of Pro-Ject Audio Systems’ original turntable, the Pro-Ject 1. This new model employs a brand new carbon fi bre tonearm with an Evolution-inspired support structure. The superior motor, with isolation blobs designed by Ortofon, drives a high-quality platter that can be fi tted with either a Cork or Felt mat. The plinth is available in three stunning fi nishes*, and the arm is rounded off with an Ortofon 2M Silver cartridge to create a comprehensive package that would suit any system.

Available in the UK through Henley Designs Ltd. T: 01235 511 166 /HenleyDesignsLtd E: [email protected] /HenleyDesigns1 W: www.henleydesigns.co.uk

* Bordeaux fi nish shown The Ultimate Listening Experience

LCD-3

“It would take tens of thousands of pounds to buy a pair of speakers that can even approach the LCD-3s’ level of sound quality.” What Hi-fi

LCD-2 LCD-X LCD-XC

Available from all good specialist audio retailers and SUBWOOFER

REL recommends a few additional hours in situ and some reduction of the gain setting once it has had time to fully warm up. The addition of the S2 into our system is a revelation, and instantly results in more drive and energy to the lowest register. It brings a satisfying smile to our faces when listening to Jennifer Warnes’ Ballad Of The Runaway Horse, giving the impression of a signifi cantly fuller and larger soundstage, while the double bass that underpins the track sounds even more achingly sad than ever, showing the extent of low bass information we’ve been missing. The inclusion of the REL with the Dynaudio fl oorstanders doesn’t impact on their performance in any negative way whatsoever – it only appears to enhance their capabilities further and draw attention to the perception of the amount of midband detail. Lorde’s Royals is very well DETAILS extended and will show off the bass capabilities of any loudspeakers, PRICE REL Acoustics £1,000 but by adding in the S2 it’s easy to ORIGIN appreciate just how extended the UK bass line is, showing off the track’s WEIGHT impressive range and highlighting 18.1kg the quality of the recording. Serie S2 DIMENSIONS Nowhere is the inclusion of the (WxHxD) 349 x 368 x 426mm REL more effective than with hi-res his newly designed sub own Longbow uncompressed audio FEATURES material. A 24-bit/48kHz version is part of a new range system to receive signals up to 15m ● 250mm long- of Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxygene of models that REL calls away from the sending unit – throw active drive demonstrates just how rich and T ● 250mm passive Sub-Bass Systems, and available separately for £200. The radiator three-dimensional this track can has been three years in the making. sender utilises both high-level and ● Class D amplifier sound, as the REL opens up its Looking over the neat styling and LFE (where applicable), and is a ● Quoted power: impressive scale and soundstage, 250W fl exible design it is easy to appreciate simple pairing device with no need breathing new life into the recording. DISTRIBUTOR where your money is being spent. The for the use of your home network REL Acoustics Ltd cabinet is constructed from marine hub, so though we don’t use the S2 in TELEPHONE Conclusion ply for better rigidity and superior this way, it should be straightforward 01656 768777 The REL S2 merges beautifully into bracing, and the solid billeted piece to connect to an amplifi er and set up. WEBSITE our system, adding a greater sense of of aluminium on the top face is said rel.net scale and depth to tracks. With some to aid the dispersion of unwanted Sound quality REVIEWED fi ne tuning, it is unobtrusive and energy from the cabinet. Positioning the S2 correctly in the HFC 387 impresses anyone that listens with its Available in gloss piano black and room is without doubt the most pace and insightfulness on recordings white lacquer fi nishes, removing important thing to get right. For old and new. It shows off hi-res audio the front panel grilles reveals the optimum performance in the to tremendous effect and will front-fi ring 250mm long-throw paper listening room we fi nd it works at its compliment any hi-fi system ● mâché driver that is reinforced with best positioned in the corner, placed a super alloy plate for greater rigidity. in fairly close proximity to a pair It’s driven by a claimed 250W of Dynaudio X38 fl oorstanding amplifi er built by REL, which it says loudspeakers, and angled so that it OUR VERDICT is designed to perfectly match and fi res diagonally down the length of SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Impressive give the correct power for the relative the room. After some fi ne tuning musicality; smooth size of the S2’s cabinet and drivers. using the controls on the back with integration; flexibility Underneath is a 250mm carbon fi bre a broad range of different musical VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Slightly high price; the wireless passive driver, and even the shape styles containing natural low bass, transmitter is a £200 and height of the feet are designed we’re ready to rumble. BUILD QUALITY add on to optimise performance. REL explains that because of the WE SAY: Adds speed and dynamic energy The controls and connections on the nature of the driver material it uses, FEATURES to any system, and is rear panel have been simplifi ed for it is necessary to spend some time musically engaging ease of set up, and if you’re not keen running the unit in before it reaches OVERALL on trailing a cable from your amplifi er optimum performance levels. Each to the sub there’s a wireless receiver model has already spent several hours already built in. It uses the company’s being run in before it is sent out, but

YEARBOOK 2014 85 AMPLIFIER AND SPEAKER PACKAGE

DETAILS of the speakers’ bass drivers. The PRICE Atohm’s cabinets are formed via £6,290 layers of 3mm MDF bonded together Devialet ORIGIN to achieve their curved sides. Each France speaker houses a metal grille-covered WEIGHT soft-dome tweeter with copper-clad Amp: 5.65kg Speaker: 8kg aluminium wire voice coils and Ensemble neodymium magnets, alongside an DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) alloy coned mid/bass driver using Amp: Atohm’s LDS peripheral suspension From one of the most advanced hi-fi 383 x 40 x 383mm Speaker: and a Kapton/Nomex coil former. The designers of our age comes an amp 200 x 330 x 250mm bass driver also sports a snug-fi tting FEATURES removable circular fabric cover. ● Amp: Class A/D In the fl esh this is one cool combo and speaker package to set the standard hybrid analogue/ digital to behold (providing you can keep ● Speakers: Atohm hallenging hi-fi ’s voltage amplifi cation working in GT1 SE with Even at low levels conventions has been at parallel with digital Class D dumpers. matching Zef cable ● AIR streaming this system opens C Devialet’s core since the All Devialet amplifi ers also employ module French high-end maker 24-bit/192kHz upsampling Texas ● Fully configurable inputs for Ethernet, the music up with launched its groundbreaking Instruments PCM1792 DAC chips, USB, RCA (line-level D-Premier amp back in 2010. developed into its proprietary Magic and S/PDIF) Toslink stirring dynamism Concepts including customising Wire circuit. ● Firmware updates settings via an onboard SD card Sitting at the centre of our package is via SD card/website fi ngerprints at bay). The amp shares ● 24-bit/192kHz and online confi gurator, along with Devialet’s new entry-level 120 amp upsampling DAC the same dark chrome chassis as its fi rmware releases ensuring your amp (£4,490 on its own), which morphed ● Phono stage 200 stablemate, that’s milled from stayed up to date brought fresh from the 110 model via new fi rmware, DISTRIBUTOR a single block of aluminium with a thinking to long-term ownership. increasing its 110W output to 120W. Absolute Sounds sliding cable-hiding cover at its rear. Devialet’s range has since expanded Joining the 120 in our Ensemble is a TELEPHONE You can even wall mount it vertically! 0208 9713909 into four models, and with each comes pair of Devialet-branded Atohm GT1 Its physical controls extend to just WEBSITE increased connectivity, power and ‘Special Edition’ loudspeakers with absolutesounds.com a logo-shaped power button, which confi guration options. At the heart matching white Atohm cables. en.devialet.com joins a porthole-like digital screen of all Devialet amps beats the same What sets this pairing apart from REVIEWED providing a window into the amp’s ADH (Analogue Digital Hybrid) other bundles is the clever use of HFC 386 working world, displaying volume and amplifi cation, which is a modern Devialet’s SAM tech, which tailors selected input. The minimalist theme take on Quad’s Current Dumpers of the amplifi er’s supplied signal to match continues with the classy matching yesteryear that use analogue Class A the spec and real-world behaviour remote control that hosts just four

86 YEARBOOK 2014 AMPLIFIER AND SPEAKER PACKAGE

buttons for power, source, mute and combinations we’ve heard. From able to get out of them without tone (bass/treble/balance), while a the opening drums of Tori Amos’ heading into boom territory. large rotary dial governs volume level. A Sorta Fairytale via a 16-bit/ Piping a 16/44 rip of Four Tet’s A longer press on the control’s source 44.1kHz rip streamed over Ethernet, Plastic People into the Devialet’s USB button reveals the incoming sample the sheer uncoloured clarity and port gets the party into full swing rate on the amplifi er’s screen, useful holographic window that this in the bass regions, but what’s even for checking that what you’re getting package opens into the music is more impressive is how this pairing from the speakers is what you ordered utterly captivating. ensures the lower frequencies remain at the source. Devialet’s SAM technology may controlled, detailed and natural Making the most of Devialet’s suite of only be weaving its spell on the bass sounding. Despite remaining deep user controls requires paying a visit to drivers, but the knock-on effect in the within the soundstage, the double devialet.com’s confi gurator area and treble is tangible. Amos’ voice sweeps bass for example within Emily Barker’s customising the amp’s settings, before through the midrange and treble Tuesday (streamed at 24/96) is downloading them onto the amp’s seemlessly, with no sense of the clearly articulated and brought to pre-installed SD card. The site’s tweeter and mid-bass driver life without being forced to the fore. intuitive interface allows for tailoring competing at the critical crossover Instead, because the soundstage is inputs and settings via simple point. With Amos’ vocals placed so open, we are able to hear deep diagrams of each amp’s rear panel, slightly forward in the soundstage, into its recesses and uncover layers making tweaking easy. Options include we sense that the amp and partnering of detail at will. switching a set of the 120’s RCAs speakers are working together in between line-level, S/PDIF, or phono perfect synergy, to deliver her singing Conclusion inputs for connecting a turntable. At with a breathtaking realism that’s full Getting a system to sing isn’t just about the click of a mouse you can also limit of both genuine depth and drama. buying the most expensive kit that the amp’s power output and change Likewise, the Devialet combo times you can afford, it’s about choosing the remote’s commands. the percussion with effortless accuracy, components that work together, and To keep costs down the 120 eschews and each note’s opening transients are only then does the magic happen. the sub-out option and AES/EBU The Ensemble takes the trial and error (XLR) socket that are fi tted to the Lower frequencies out of this process, and by accurately more expensive Devialets higher up driving its speakers as they’re designed the range. Nor do you get the internal remain controlled, to be driven you get to hear both phono daughter board that caters for detailed and very products at their best. This package custom matching cartridge loading provides an exceptionally smooth and and sensitivity settings. natural sounding balanced insight into the music, and while it certainly isn’t cheap, that you Sound quality rendered with just the right amount of get the same Devialet tech fi tted to its To stream networked music pop attack to pack enough punch without amps costing four times as much with your network details into the online becoming hard edged in any way. quality speakers thrown in, makes this Confi gurator and download Devialet’s Befi tting of an amp at this price, the a high-end bargain ● AIR software to your computer’s Devialet’s volume control allows for taskbar. Because AIR runs in the fi nite levels of incremental adjustment, background of other programmes, and even at low levels this system you simply commence playback via opens the music up with stirring OUR VERDICT your usual method (Spotify, JRiver dynamism. Likewise there’s plenty of SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Superb sound; and iTunes in our case), right click the power at the other end of the scale, setup options aplenty; AIR icon and choose your streaming and with the Atohms sat atop a pair of top-notch build quality method via AIR or Ethernet (if you’re (fi lled) 600mm Atacama Nexus stands, VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Only one hardwiring the amp to your router) the music that fl ows forth has a sense analogue input BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: Cutting-edge to pipe a bit-perfect signal into the of scale and grip that a speaker of this tech partnered with amp’s master clock. There’s also a size has no right to possess. Bass in great-sounding speakers in a stunning downloadable USB driver and control particular is blessed with enough FEATURES user-friendly package app for Android and iOS devices, the power and slam to challenge our latter of which lets you select input preconceptions of just how much air and volume level. a pair or 150mm drivers in such a OVERALL Across the board, this package is modest cabinet can move, which is one of the most musically cohesive testament to what the Devialet amp is

Amps don’t come much prettier than this

YEARBOOK 2014 87 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

what the band’s two drummers (or Cambridge Audio ‘electronic percussionists’ as they prefer to call themselves) were doing together. Compared with similarly priced pretenders, there is a whole extra layer of detail to the song’s Azur 651A rhythms revealed. At the same time, texturally the his fi ne-looking integrated and Cambridge Audio’s CAP5 DETAILS Cambridge Audio is excellent. Again, amplifi er presses all the protection system saves your speakers it sounds far more tonally natural PRICE T right audiophile buttons. should overloads, faults and/or £350 than its price would suggest. It makes The company has form as clipping occur. The built-in DAC ORIGIN rivals sound rather misty, foggy, a purveyor of no-frills hi-fi equipment runs USB 1.0 up to 16-bit/48kHz, UK/China opaque or processed. This is obvious for a small amount of money. The meaning that it won’t be able to play WEIGHT whatever music is used via the 651A is a relatively substantial out hi-res music from a computer. 8.4kg analogue inputs – the Fun Lovin’ product considering what it costs – DIMENSIONS Criminals’ Up On The Hill and (WxHxD) although it does have a slightly fl imsy Sound quality 430 x 120 x 350mm Squeeze’s Pulling Mussels From A Shell pressed steel top plate. The front Off to a good start, fundamentally, FEATURES are radically different recordings and fascia is a lovely chunk of brushed this amplifi er just sounds right. It ● Quoted power: 2x it tells you so. The 651A also goes aluminium, way nicer than the simply has no weak areas, and has 75W RMS (8ohms) surprisingly loud very confi dently ● 5x line input company was offering just a few various strong ones that frankly you ● 16-bit/48kHz USB too, keeping its spacious soundstage, years ago. It’s crowded with bass, wouldn’t expect at this end of the 1.0 digital input decent depth perspective and positive treble, balance and volume controls, market. Bass is a little lighter than ● 6.3mm and 3.5mm stereo imaging right up to high levels. plus input selection and a front you’d get from an integrated at twice headphone socket DISTRIBUTOR 3.5mm ‘MP3’ socket. It offers six the price, but is par for the course for Richer Sounds Conclusion inputs including USB (digital). the money, and what there is, is nicely The USB input is surprisingly decent, TELEPHONE Inside there’s a largish toroidal fl uid and bouncy. 0333 9000093 but is still aimed at upgrading the mains transformer, which makes for It powers the song along in an WEBSITE terrible DACs found inside computers a strong power supply to underpin enjoyable and unselfconscious way, cambridgeaudio. rather than standing in for serious its claimed 75W RMS output power. and blends well into an open and com dedicated hi-fi designs. Overall then, Separate transformer taps for left and textured midband. This then pushes REVIEWED the Azur 651A can count itself as HFC 386 right channels are provided, as are up to a decently airy and smooth something of a star ● twin rectifi ers and separate rails for treble, the result being a budget the left and right power amplifi er amplifi er that sounds anything but. sections – these feature proven For example, Kraftwerk’s Computer Sanken output transistors running World from the album with the same OUR VERDICT in Class AB mode. A ‘high-grade fi lm name has an impressive rhythmic SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Clean, powerful, type’ volume potentiometer is fi tted, sound, with wonderful insight into detailed, natural sound; finish VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Slightly flimsy casework

BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: Excellent budget amp with the accent on sonics FEATURES

OVERALL

88 YEARBOOK 2014 Promotions, Upgrades, Offers

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DETAILS far more resolute and detailed sounding, and doesn’t make the PRICE Icon Audio £5,995 music descend into some sort of audio ORIGIN comfort blanket. UK/China The treble is lovely. Suddenly, WEIGHT cymbals played through even a top 35kg quality Class A solid-stater like the Stereo 845 PP DIMENSIONS Musical Fidelity AMS35i seem a bit (WxHxD) 440 x 240 x 400mm steely and scratchy. Also, they don’t FEATURES time as well; the fi ligree hi-hat work o maximise its power a vast thump down south, seeming ● Quoted power on Rush’s Subdivisions sounds more potential, the Stereo 845 like the audio equivalent of a JCB. 2x 38W RMS like it’s being played on a drum runs in push-pull mode, It’s pleasingly sumptuous but never (8ohms) machine on lesser amps, whereas the T ● Class A triode telling us that it is not one sounds overblown in a well balanced front end, push Stereo 845 seems to fl atter the sound of the more specialist, far-out valve system. For example, the walking pull output of both Neil Peart’s vast drum kit and ● 4x 845, 2x 6SL7, amplifi ers. The Stereo 845, however, bassline on Black Uhuru’s Party Next 2x 6SN7, 1x GZ34 his playing. The Icon Audio has an is a valve amplifi er designed to fi ght Door is a delight with our reference valves easy sound – rather like a large it out in a modern solid-state world; Sonus faber loudspeakers doing a ● Power amplifier Harley Davidson motorcycle, it just you won’t need to change your passable impersonation of a PA stack direct option never seems to break into a sweat. No DISTRIBUTOR speakers or suddenly start listening to at Glastonbury. Icon Audio Ltd matter how complex the music gets, it simple acoustic music with no bass to Moving up to the midband, and the just shrugs it off and keeps playing. TELEPHONE keep it happy. Stereo 845 doesn’t lose much warmth, 0116 2440593 The Stereo 845 follows Icon Audio’s although it does dry up slightly. WEBSITE Conclusion general best practice – which means Everything gets a nice, rosy glow, iconaudio.com Even at high volumes, the Stereo 845 a rigid steel chassis into which good meaning that recordings that were REVIEWED displays grace under pressure in quality low distortion, tertiary wound previously viewed as a little acerbic HFC 388 practically any living room. It sounds output transformers are bolted, and suddenly seem to calm down and powerful and assured – you just can’t these are potted to reduce noise. High chill out. There’s never any sense of push it as far as a solid-stater. It oozes quality passive components are used the sound being laser etched out right character and its own unique charm throughout, including Solen/SCR in front of you; instead you’re drawn – making a sound that virtually no capacitors, with the option of Jensen into this wide and deep soundstage, other amplifi er can ● copper foils. Silver-plated copper with a lot of the action going on internal wiring (all hand wired, behind the plane of the speakers. point to point) is used, along with Things hang back a little, yet it is so a Japanese-sourced ALPS volume expansive that you still feel quite OUR VERDICT control. As well as the four Psvane immersed in the proceedings. SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Fat, sumptuous, 845 valves, two 6SL7 fi rst stage valves It’s a lovely sound, no matter what silky sound; power and two 6SN7 output driver valves sort of music you like. It gives a DISLIKE: Nothing, are used, along with a GZ34 driver beautiful clarity and ease to even VALUE FOR MONEY if this is your thing stage rectifi er. some of the most uneasy human WE SAY: Magnificent, BUILD QUALITY mellifluous sounding voices – like Bob Dylan’s for example. and mad! Sound quality Highway 61 Revisited is a lot less It might not come as a total surprise strident than normal. There’s no FEATURES to learn that the Stereo 845 is warm doubt that this is a wonderful power sounding, although in fairness it’s valve to have driving your speaker OVERALL never gloopy and syrupy, with a bass cones; it’s so clean yet warm in a way like it is walking through treacle. that almost no other valves are. Yes, Instead it is fast and lithe, but still has like lesser tubes it is coloured, but it’s

90 YEARBOOK 2014 SEE, HEAR & FEEL THE DIFFERENCE...

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DETAILS cued up – a powerful, pounding house track from the early nineties PRICE Micromega £480 with massive tracts of thumping synth ORIGIN bass. If this doesn’t get an amplifi er France out of its comfort zone then nothing WEIGHT will, but the MyAmp responds rather 1kg demurely. It kicks out great big slabs MyAmp DIMENSIONS of low frequencies, and even at high (WxHxD) 140 x 75 x 140mm volumes remains relatively composed, FEATURES showing few signs of being perturbed f you were 99 out of 100 Via any of its three analogue inputs, it ● Quoted power: by what it is being asked to do. It gets small amp manufacturers, remains enjoyably smooth and even, 2x 30W RMS a bit warmer admittedly, but doesn’t you’d probably do things never descending into coarseness, (8ohms) seem to be sweating musically, I ● 1x USB, 1x optical, differently to this. Looking even with thin sounding and forward 1x coaxial digital remaining balanced across the inside the MyAmp, the cynic in us had source material such as Gangsters by inputs frequency range with no obvious ● 3x analogue expected to see a few nondescript The Specials. This track proves great inputs signs of discomfort higher up. This Class D modules. But, surprisingly, fun, with a bouncy and supple bass, ● ESS Sabre track can sound a little bit forward, the company has gone the Class AB a clear and detailed midband and Hyperstream partly because it was recorded on 24-bit/192kHz DAC power amplifi er way. This doesn’t in a crisp, lustrous treble. There is ● Headphone early nineties DAT machines, but the itself guarantee superlative sound, certainly no sense of this being a output Micromega doesn’t make a fuss and but it tells us the designers haven’t cheap ‘lifestyle’ audio component; DISTRIBUTOR remains eminently listenable. It been content to take the obvious instead it sounds precisely like the Wireworld UK should be able to drive any average option. Micromega uses a Class AB fi ne compact amplifi er it is. TELEPHONE or above average sensitivity pair of circuit that claims a solid 30W RMS Moving to some slicker and more 0208 9919200 speakers; anything above 88dB per channel and twice that into half sophisticated soul music, it continues WEBSITE should really move air in your room. wireworldcable. the load – this suggests its 260W LLC to impress with Isaac Hayes’ Cafe co.uk Resonant Mode power supply is up Reggios, which sounds surprisingly REVIEWED Conclusion to the job. sumptuous and inviting. This track is HFC 389 If you are looking for a compact It has an ESS Sabre Hyperstream beautifully recorded and has some amplifi er to make music in your study, DAC built-in, giving 24/96 via its delicious silky string sounds running bedroom or kitchen we can think of electrically isolated USB input and right through, which the MyAmp few that are much better than this ● 24/192 via optical and coaxial digital handles very respectfully. Unlike inputs. This means you can plug your lesser small budget amplifi ers, it CD player, DAB radio, Blu-ray player remains both smooth and composed, or PlayStation in, as well as your doing just enough to give a realistic OUR VERDICT computer to play your hi-res fi les. timbre to those gorgeous sweeping SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Size; style; Another inclusion that’s really rather strings. At the same time, it bounces packaging; sound; useful is aptX Bluetooth. along in the bass and serves up flexibility a satisfyingly spacious recorded VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Nothing at Sound quality acoustic. In absolute terms, you can the price BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: Lovely, With a detailed midrange and tell that there is a very slight softness characterful, compact unexpectedly powerful bass for its to the cymbals, and lower down it integrated amplifier; best in class size and price, the MyAmp doesn’t doesn’t quite have the transparency FEATURES sound like most small amplifi ers. of more expensive amps, but it makes Even driving our reference £7,000 a good stab at getting things right. OVERALL Sonus faber Olympica II loudspeakers It’s time to try some seriously and fed from a £9,000 dCS Debussy powerful percussive music and so DAC, it isn’t exactly overwhelmed. K-Klass’ Rhythm Is A Mystery is duly

92 YEARBOOK 2014 An amazing system upgrade for only £400! These are a few of our PICO GROUNDING

favourite things – favourite BLOCKS from because they give so much Vertex AQ musical enjoyment

When equipment sounds wonderful, is well- Spiral GrooveGroove ttblturntables SGSG11.1 and SG2 anddth the built and gives great musical pleasure – then it Centroid arm have earned universal praise for their becomes a favourite. We reckon we are lucky to spectacular near-silent operation, have a high number of ‘favourites’ in our stable. retrieving musical information from an inky-black background, The Aurender W20 streamer is a masterpiece of user- thanks to a fundamental re-think friendliness, the streamer for people unsure about streaming! of ‘Balanced Force Design’ and -XMWIEWMP]PSEHIH[MXLQSWX½PIX]TIWJVSQEPQSWXER]HMKMXEP fanatical care in controlling energy. source – high resolution downloads (eg 24/96 and 24/192ks/s), CDs, USB stick and external hard drive – controlled from Solid construction ensures that Aurender’s own user interface running on an iPad. stylus, arm pivot, platter bearing and motor remain in an absolutely ½\IHVIPEXMSRWLMTYRPMOIWYWTIRHIHXYVRXEFPIWXLEXEVHX XFP XLX I perpetually in motion as they attempt to correct for the H]REQMGJSVGIWEGXMRKFSXLMRXIVREPP]ERHI\XIVREPP] Spiral Groove have won several “Product of the Year’ awards and comments such as ‘..this may be the best tonearm I’ve heard’ and of the SG2 ‘..it transcends expectations – it’s something special’ both from the US magazine Stereophile. Kaiser Acoustic’s Chiaraa standmount speaker projects music with astonishing clarity, openness, scale and bass power while ‘disappearing’ itself, leaving an TheThe didisplaysplay shshowsows current tractrackk ininformation.formation FFullull dedetailstail of music involving performance hanging in space. stored on the hard drives appear on the iPad with album cover art. Three separate labyrinths in the integral stand Music is stored on two 3TB hard drives but queued and drain vibration from the cabinet, the crossover TPE]IHJVSQE+&¾EWLHVMZIXSQMRMQMWIIPIGXVMGEPRSMWI and the drive units which can then operate For further mains isolation, free of glare and haze, power for JVIIP]JVSQE½VQJSYRHEXMSRPMFIVEXIHJVSQ the audio circuits is drawn from re-chargeable batteries. vibration’s distorting, intermodulating effects. Operation is smooth and faultless and sound is gloriously Praise has been heaped on the Chiara, in the REXYVEP ERH JYPPFSHMIH ¾SEXMRK FILMRH ³MRZMWMFPI´ WTIEOIVW on-line review site The Audio Beat and in the JVSQTIVJSVQIVWGPIEVP]³TVIWIRX´MR]SYVVSSQ 7ITXIQFIVMWWYISJLM½[LIVI4EYP Messenger wrote, ‘The bottom line is that this Vertex AQ’s RFI- and vibration-absorption technology MWSRISJXLI½RIWXPSYHWTIEOIVW-´ZIIZIVLEH now appears in the new and extraordinary PICO C OMPONENT XLITPIEWYVISJVIZMI[MRK´ GROUNDING BLOCKS. “This is one of the best single upgrades I’ve ever made and certainly the most cost-effective one.” said DC The Chiaras are probably the most musical of Bristol, speaking of the £400 device. speaker you’ll ever hear. You can see why they’re one of our favourites. Supplied with two 1m cables, the Pico is simply connected to unused RCA or XLR sockets on components. Customers say we make some of the bbest soundsdi in VibrationV on circuit boards and our studio and at shows that they have ever heard, so you IPIGXVMGEP³RSMWI´SRKVSYRHWSVIIP know we can do the same in your home. Our advice takes earthseea – all intermodulating and account of your best components and guides you where damagingdda the music signal – are change is needed, in stages you can afford. drawnd into the Block to open thetth sound stage and reveal new You avoid expensive mistakes, enjoy music and save money in the long run. drive,d emotion and dynamics. Just listen and you’ll know

Digital:Di it l AAccusticti AArts,t AAurender, Bel Canto, dCS, Gamut, Resolution Audio,Vertex AQ dac. Vinyl: Aesthetix, Clearaudio, Graham, Spiral +VSSZI8VERW½KYVEXMSRTuners: Magnum Dynalab. %QTPM½IVW: Accustic Arts,Aesthetix, Bel Canto, CAT, Gamut, Sonneteer, Storm Audio,VTL. Loudspeakers: Avalon, Gamut, Kaiser Acoustics, NEAT,Totem. Cables: Chord Co., DNM, Nordost, Siltech,Tellurium,VertexAQ. Mains: Aletheia, Vertex AQ. Supports: Arcici, Black Ravioli, Hi-Fi Racks, LeadingEdge, Stands Unique,Vertex AQ Room acoustics: LeadingEdge www.rightnote.co.uk 01225 874728 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

DETAILS proves that bass extension is particularly impressive, underpinning PRICE Monitor Audio £399 the mid-range and high notes of ORIGIN the synth to perfection. For sheer China defi nition you can’t beat a bit of WEIGHT Animals by Martin Garrix, and the 1.9kg A100 is bang on the money, especially A100 DIMENSIONS with the crescendo and popping (WxHxD) 359 x 55 x 204mm sounds that really ping out with FEATURES awesome precision. porting AirPlay rather than Audio doesn’t actually mention the ● Quoted power: 2x DLNA streaming of hi-res fi les is the Bluetooth, the A100 is existence of the app in its own 50W RMS (8ohms) cream on the cake, offering incredible ● 1x optical digital, S very much aimed at the instruction manual. 1x RCA inputs scale and depth to recordings such as Apple crowd with their ● Network music a 24/192 download of Mozart’s Violin MacBooks, iPhones and iPads Sound quality playback: Airplay Concerto No.4 in D Major. crammed with AAC, AIFF and ALAC With 2x 50W output, there’s enough and wi-fi DISTRIBUTOR fi les in iTunes. That’s not to say clout on offer to drive any small-to- Monitor Audio Conclusion non-Apple devices are excluded from medium sized monitors rated between All in all, the A100 is a fairly simple TELEPHONE the party, PCs and DLNA sources 4ohms and 8ohms impedance. With 01268 740580 proposition – wireless streaming, a connected to wireless routers can the analogue input connected to a CD WEBSITE couple of wired inputs and a high- join in the fun if they can run iTunes drive we’re instantly enamoured by monitoraudio.co.uk quality DAC and amplifi er. There are (version 10 or later) and/or can be the smoothness, detail and staging. REVIEWED no built-in third-party services such as controlled by Monitor Audio’s remote The fi nger clicking and bass plucking HFC 388 Spotify, Deezer or internet radio, and control app (iOS and Android). at the start of Diana Krall’s My Love Is USB playback is severely limited. But When using AirPlay to stream from is quite sumptuous and the vocals have streaming from other devices is a cinch a desktop or laptop running OSX you a mesmerising quality that fi lls the when using AirPlay. While not quite as can indulge in full-fat 24/192 ALAC listening room with ease. slick or reliable, DLNA compatibility at lossless fi les. DLNA also provides a It’s not just the amazing clarity that least provides access to hi-res audio means of enjoying lossless hi-res fi les a class A/B amp offers, but the sense downloads and rips. The sonic rewards including 24/192 FLACs. Airstream of airiness and balance throughout are so stupendous that it is no great Direct additionally allows you to the dynamic range that impress. The diffi culty to forgive the minor foibles ● stream audio from an iOS device in amp does need at least 20 minutes to the absence of a wi-fi router. get the sonic juices fl owing properly, Old-school tethering is possible but once fully warmed up it purrs like thanks to a front-mounted USB jack a Range Rover, effortlessly bounding OUR VERDICT that offers music playback of iOS along and taking the roughest of SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Superb devices, but not Android ones. You tracks comfortably in its stride. performance; cool can, however, hook up the A100 to a The King’s Singers’ version of Paul design; AirPlay VALUE FOR MONEY integration TV or CD deck using its digital optical Simon’s The Boxer is equally engaging DISLIKE: No display; input or stereo phono analogue input with spine-tingling harmonies that poor app; slow to start and can output to a powered sub. really have to be heard to be believed. BUILD QUALITY up; hi-res is a faff Operation comes via an app, which Nor is it a case of clarity over WE SAY: Operation isn’t perfect, but it FEATURES is rather uninspiring to look at. It warmth and energy. The vocals at the delivers the sonic takes an age to re-connect with the start of Chris Jones’ Darlin’ Cory are goods beautifully unit every time you access it, doesn’t hauntingly engaging, while the guitar OVERALL always show all of the networked strums with refi nement and gusto. sources and crashes occasionally. Results with AirPlay are no less Perhaps it’s no surprise that Monitor impressive, Silent Shout by The Knife

94 YEARBOOK 2014 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

DETAILS continue; once again you hear a PICE civilised but animated performance £600 that really gets the speakers bouncing Quad ORIGIN with Malcolm McLaren’s Waltz UK/China Darling. Tonally the Quad is pretty WEIGHT 6.1kg even and neutral; never warm yet not hard, it sits in a well-judged position DIMENSIONS Vena in the middle. There’s a touch of (WxHxD) 313 x 94 x 302mm dryness and a slightly well lit feel to n its new Lancaster Grey power amp section is claimed to put FEATURES the upper midband, but this never fi nish, the Quad Vena out 45W RMS per channel, and there ● Quoted power: descends into something that has you 2x 45W RMS I looks different to the norm is no reason for us to doubt it. (8ohms) wanting to switch off. Indeed the – but not in a bad way. The ● 2x RCA line inputs, Vena proves to be a very capable styling of the whole range is tastefully Sound quality asynchronous USB, performer across all inputs, because USB for docking, 2x retro, but the grey paint job gives it Via its analogue line inputs the Quad optical, 1x coaxial it doesn’t obviously sound like a a harder, more purposeful edge. sounds clean, crisp and musical. digital inputs compact audio product. Indeed, there’s a touch of the Quad Despite not using the same circuitry ● AptX Bluetooth Bass isn’t particularly grippy, but is ● 6.3mm 33/303, which is a great thing, as more traditional, larger and more headphone input still lithe enough to make Caravan’s although it’s possibly not the most expensive Quad amplifi ers there is DISTRIBUTOR In The Land Of Grey And Pink universally appealing hue to your still a lot of the house sound to be IAG Group Ltd enjoyable to follow. The rhythms average buyer of this sort of product. TELEPHONE shuffl e along with real conviction, Still, if this colour scheme isn’t to your A civilised but 01480 452561 and we enjoy its musical gait. liking you can specify your Vena in WEBSITE Dynamics are decent too, and the quad-hifi.co.uk more exotic gloss fi nishes for a £100 animated performer Vena puts its power out in a positive REVIEWED price premium. that really gets the HFC 390 way with no obvious sense of strain. It feels a real quality item; the slightly vague and cheap feeling speakers bouncing Conclusion volume knob lets it down a bit, but The two-dimensional feel it gives to this aside it comes across as quite heard. It’s musically informative and the stereo mix is perhaps its biggest solid with some nice, crisp-acting engaging, with a pleasingly detailed weakness, but few amplifi ers at this switchgear. There are few features presentation. You would certainly price point do better. The Vena is to speak off – certainly not fripperies, never call it boring, but then again it relaxed in a hi-fi environment and anyway – aside from the built-in DAC is never harsh or searing; Quad has doesn’t require any concessions for its (the same Cirrus Logic CS4398 used struck exactly the right balance price or wireless functionality ● in the Quad Platinum CD players) meaning it’s a civilised performer that and, of course, aptX Bluetooth. you can listen to for long periods. Otherwise, you’re looking at a choice Switch to the built-in DAC section, of two RCA line inputs. The Class AB and the same high standards OUR VERDICT SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Styling and packaging; powerful, detailed, animated VALUE FOR MONEY sound DISLIKE: Plasticky volume knob BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: Excellent, versatile, modern integrated amplifier FEATURES

OVERALL

YEARBOOK 2014 95 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

DETAILS latter is particularly well suited to portable devices, because it’s cheap to PRICE £895 implement and doesn’t require lots of Roksan juice from a battery. Also, syncing it ORIGIN UK up is a doddle, with no annoying WEP WEIGHT passwords to play with. What stopped 14kg it being used for music until recently K2 BT DIMENSIONS was its low data transmission rates, (WxHxD) 432 x 102 x 380mm which permitted only seriously FEATURES compressed digital audio. Now Roksan’s new amp sports aptX Bluetooth ● Quoted power: though we have aptX. Whereas 2x 150W RMS Bluetooth’s early forays into music for those wanting to ditch the wires and (8ohms) ● 5x line inputs sounded pretty dire, aptX gives up to stream music from their portable device ● 1x MM phono input 24-bit/96kHz resolution digital audio, ● aptX Bluetooth and is scalable, adaptive and lossless. compatible ● 2x preamplifier Roksan has integrated this into its ome 30 years ago, the years ago at the Bristol Show. The output latest K2 amplifi er. Confusingly it is genesis of a turntable amplifi er, originally selling for DISTRIBUTOR still called the K2, but now it gets the S started, one that was to the princely sum of £750, wasn’t the Henley Designs BT suffi x to recognise its Bluetooth put Roksan’s name on the world’s best looking, but anyone who TELEPHONE functionality, but that’s not all. This map. The product was superb, the heard it in a well set-up system would 01235 511166 is more than just chucking in a WEBSITE company new and the future full of be sold on it. Since then, in the space henleydesigns. Bluetooth chip, as the amplifi er has promise. What followed was a range of just a few years, seismic changes co.uk had some more work done inside. of loudspeakers and then electronics. have transformed the hi-fi world. REVIEWED The power supply section has been Some manufacturers suffer from The rise of computer audio was being HFC 381 stiffened up, with a new and very vanity and over reach themselves talked about in 2009, but in 2014 it’s large 500VA toroidal transformer with producing a wide product range actually here. We all now have at fi ve regulated supply rails coming off when they had previously specialised least one device that has music on it. This is said to increase the damping in one particular area – but Roksan it and the ability to beam it to the factor, which will result in tighter did not make that mistake. Unusually, outside world in at least one way. bass, and Roksan adds that it has also all its designs were done to a very Cables were enjoying their harvest removed some unwanted noise from high standard. years fi ve years ago, but now the the mains. Some other small detail In the intervening years, we’ve seen world is going wireless, with wi-fi changes have been made to the Roksan building on its products, with and Bluetooth leading the charge. circuit boards and relays. The chassis the current entry-level one being the While the former is ideal for and case have been redesigned for Kandy K2 series, launched some fi ve computing and home networking, the better ventilation – the result is 150W

96 YEARBOOK 2014 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

per channel into 8ohms claimed, and outperforms many budget CD players the Roksan is even and open and nearly twice that for 4ohms. we’ve heard. It’s a great feature to confi dent about the job in hand. The K2 BT is slightly odd looking, have, and one that we suspect even Visioneers’ Shine showcases this but in a nice way. Its fascia has a many hardened audiophiles will fi nd beautifully – its richness of tone allied certain visual charm – there’s a themselves using when they’re sure to its speed, bass grip and midband touch of retro sixties modernism in no one’s looking! insight gel beautifully. The shuffl ing the radiused end to the inset mirror What of the other inputs? Through rhythms of this track can throw some trim section, indeed you might even the line-level ins, the K2 BT is at its amplifi ers off their feet, especially at call it slightly art deco. It has LEDs to absolute best, and it is superb. We’ve higher volumes, but the K2 BT is solid indicate which of the fi ve line (plus heard practically every mid-price as a rock and smooth as silk. The Bluetooth) inputs are in use, and integrated around, and the Roksan amplifi er bubbles with energy, there’s also a moving magnet phono gives absolutely nothing away to any showing a lovely rhythmic gait stage. Round the back, in addition to of them. It has a wonderfully even and wonderful dynamic alacrity. the socketry for the aforementioned, tonality; it’s not bright, screechy, World of Twist’s The Lights is a great there are two sets of preamp outputs, (what some would call) transistory, integrated amplifi er torture track. the usual loudspeaker binding posts or any other unpleasant ‘-y’. Rather, it It starts off innocently enough, but and a socket for the small supplied has a very sophisticated tone, bristling builds up layer upon layer to end up Bluetooth antenna. The amp comes with detail, but never forward or as a dense patchwork of acoustic with Roksan’s RMX111 learning intrusive. There are only four British instruments and synthesisers. This remote control, a decent and brands doing this specifi c sort of amplifi er proves totally up for the functional device. Bluetooth syncs sound right now, one of which is, challenge, tracking the pulsating bass, up easily, proving to have a range of course, Roksan, the others being crashing keyboard pads and guitar of around 15m in our tests, which Creek, Rega and Arcam. Of the four noodling with absolutely no is half that of the claimed maximum. smoothies, Roksan is the most complaint. The new K2 BT is really animated sounding – it is this rare rather impressive at soundstaging too, Sound quality with a very expansive recreated The last version of the K2 sounded It’s the seamless way acoustic, and instruments located great – it might not be the world’s within this with rifl e-bolt precision. most detailed amplifi er, but it has a that the bass melds There are very few amplifi ers that wonderfully big-hearted nature that with the midband we can think of at this price that are is bristling with enthusiasm, making so musically expressive yet any sort of music it plays a pleasure. that really delights architecturally correct. This new BT version is even better, Art deco or having all the musicality of its combination of couthness and Conclusion retro sixties predecessor, but just a fraction more uncompromising musicality that There are two key points to be made modernism? You decide... power, grip and overall refi nement. makes it so special. about the new Roksan K2 BT. First, First and foremost, how does it Manix’s One More Time is a vast slab while Bluetooth is a very handy little sound via its new Bluetooth input? of nineties-style drum ’n’ bass, with bit of extra functionality, it is not the Well, the answer is not bad at all. In ultra-fast looped hi-hats and snare standout feature of this amplifi er – truth, you’d never choose this input drums set behind sparse keyboards its superb sound quality is. Second, over a high-quality CD player or DAC, and female vocals, above some it’s not the most attractive or but then again that’s not quite the massive thumping sub-bass. Many ergonomically accomplished amplifi er point of its inclusion on the new amp. amplifi ers would fall apart trying to ever made, but as soon as you hear it With this feature, you get the ability keep the bright-sounding midband you’ll excuse it almost anything. With to sync up your phone or tablet to honest while wheezing under the this in mind, we’d suggest anyone your hi-fi in a very easy, fuss-free way weight of the bassline, but the K2 BT with around £1,000 and in the – one that’s a good deal easier than is absolutely unfazed. It serves up market for a modern music-making plugging in a cable to a fascia- vast tracts of very low frequencies as machine auditions it. But whatever mounted minijack socket. You can effortlessly as if it is playing whisper- you do, don’t sit there all day playing then use your iPad, or whatever, quiet classical guitar music. Better tunes from your iPhone – because to mete out the tunes as you do still, it isn’t analytical or matter of fact when you feed it with a decent source whatever you’ve got to do – from – the Roksan seems to be having as it really begins to sing ● playing computer games to browsing much fun as the listener, (ie us) the internet. whose thoughts begin to move to Rather than a high-end hi-fi sound, turning the music up still further. the K2 BT’s Bluetooth connection It’s the essential smoothness and OUR VERDICT gives an enjoyable and bouncy civility of the K2 BT that means that SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Smooth, rendition of your music, devoid of you can do precisely this; our ears powerful, punchy, any particular hardness or glare. are telling us that this amplifi er is musical sound; In absolute terms it seems a little neither harsh nor fuzzy sounding. VALUE FOR MONEY Bluetooth DISLIKE: Styling is not bass-light and the stereo imaging is Rather, it lets you hear right into the to all tastes BUILD QUALITY pushed a little more between the two stereo soundstage, where it often WE SAY: Fantastic loudspeakers and out towards the hangs elements of the mix back quite affordable audiophile integrated, now with listener. Flick to the same music fi le a long way; at other times when FEATURES added convenience coming from the original disc source called upon so to do, it throws them via a CD player, and you’re soon right out at you. OVERALL aware of there being more air and The bass is great then, but it’s the space and bass. Still, a wirelessly seamless way that it melds with the sent fi le is perfectly listenable, and midband that delights; once again

YEARBOOK 2014 97 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

DETAILS The latter is decent and has plenty of verve and gusto, but there’s a small PRICE Teac £400 but signifi cant increase in detail with ORIGIN the CD version. Krall’s seductive Japan vocals are a touch more resonant and WEIGHT the double bass twangs that much 2.1kg more so that the long low notes hang AI-301DA DIMENSIONS tantalisingly as you sense the air 215 x 61 x 254mm (WxHxD) vibrating around the strings. FEATURES Teac’s choice of a digital amplifi er oasting a Burr-Brown collection. The violins and cellos in ● 2x 40W RMS rather than a Class AB one means the PCM1795 DAC and an Vivaldi’s Concerto in D minor opus 4 (8ohms) AI-301DA has an inherently clinical ● 2x RCA line inputs, B asynchronous USB input, no.8 Allegro have an energy and 1x asynchronous edge to its sound. This seems to the AI-301DA is a Class D vitality that almost penetrates our USB, 1x optial, 1x matter less with higher quality amplifi er with a subwoofer pre-out joints. The mid-range shines and the coaxial digital input sources than it does with more ● 2.8MHz/5.6MHz and a slew of inputs that could well low frequencies are mesmerisingly DSD native playback, compressed ones, but it can be quite see it gainfully employed in a living smooth. Compared with a standard- 32bit/192kHz hi-res unforgiving with low bit-rate music room alongside a TV, DVD or CD deck. resolution version, the piece is much ● Burr-Brown streamed from Spotify or vTuner PCM1795 DAC It has a few other tricks up its sleeve, more beguiling. ● aptX Bluetooth internet radio, where holes in the including a built-in headphone Dropping down to a 24/96 FLAC DISTRIBUTOR dynamic range are dissatisfying. amplifi er and aptX Bluetooth. download of Steely Dan’s Time Out Of Onkyo Europe Another nice touch is that Teac Mind is still totally engaging with a TELEPHONE Conclusion provides free software, called Teac punchiness that’s normally absent +49 8142 4208141 There’s an awful lot to like about High Res Audio Player, which extracts when listening through a built-in WEBSITE the AI-301DA, especially the way those DSD fi les out of your computer computer DAC or speakers. Donald teac-audio.eu it handles DSD fi les over USB by and passes them on to the DAC. Fagen’s vocals are airy and resonant REVIEWED combining fl awlessly with the Teac HFC 389 The digital optical and coaxial and the percussion has an unexpected HR Audio Player software. It’s highly inputs offer 24/192 and 24/96 dimensionality about it that seems to versatile in terms of its fi le handling compatibility respectively. The come from above. and makes a more than compelling Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC eats Fantasia on Greensleeves, another case for itself as a desktop amp for 5.6MHz DSD and 32-bit/192kHz hi-res FLAC download, shows the the computer-using audiophile ● PCM signals for breakfast, should you Teac has a deftness with sumptuous choose to cook some up via the USB strings that are immaculately timed, input. This allows native DSD bit grabbing us by the collar and carrying streaming and converts 5.6MHz fi les us away to a meadow. We can almost OUR VERDICT directly to analogue signals without taste the cucumber sandwiches before SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Good design; the need to fi rst convert them to PCM, we’re rudely awakened by a bit of DSD handling; inputs although it also supports DoP (DSD head-thumping bass from Lorde and DISLIKE: iTunes over PCM) conversion. her Royals. This time we listen via VALUE FOR MONEY incompatibility; clinical digital sound; no Bluetooth and as pleasingly coherent AirPlay/wi-fi BUILD QUALITY Sound quality as it is, with no loose or woolly bass WE SAY: Superb with The AI-301DA can muster two notes we don’t feel the same hi-res; versatile enough to use in the living channels at 40W (claimed) and has spine-tingling quality to her vocals FEATURES room and compact enough in its tank to comfortably as with better-quality formats. enough for the study drive a pair of speakers with an The gap between wireless and OVERALL impedance between four and eight hard-wired connections is proven ohms. We’re blown away by the by a comparison of CD and Bluetooth clarity and openness of our DSD versions of Diana Krall’s My Love Is.

98 YEARBOOK 2014

Call 0845 6019390 Email choice#2ndhandhi¿.co.uk PillioneYentZitKneZitePV Analogue APSlL¿eUV Digital /ouGVSeaNeUV Audio Technica OC9, boxed little use used 199 AAesthetix Calypso, excellent boxed used 799 Accustic Arts TubeDac II Se, excellent boxed used 2249 Acoustic Energy AE1 Classic new 799 Audiolici phono stage and line preamp dem 999 AMR 777 Integrated dem 1999 Arcam Alpha 8, excellent used 149 Acoustic Energy AE1 Mk3 Reference standmount new 1249 Avid Acutus Ref power supply dem 2499 Anatek MB50 Class A Monos dem 899 Arcam Alpha 7, remote, excellent used 119 Acoustic Energy AE 1 Mk11 in Gloss black dem 799 Avid Volvere SP turntable new 2749 Anthem Integrated 2 Valve Integrated used 499 Arcam Alpha 8se, excellent boxed used 199 Alacrity Audio Caterthun Classic, Àightcased, £2k new used 499 BAT VKP10 Phono stage, vgc+ and superb sound used 1999 Arcam A70 Integrated, vgc+ used 129 Arcam CD23, excellent used 399 Arcaydis LS3/5A look & soundalikes, £800 new dem 499 Benz Micro LP, boxed plenty of life left used 1199 Art Audio Jota 520b, excellent used 3999 Arcam CD73, excellent boxed used 199 Art Audio Stiletto in Maple dem 599 Benz Micro Ruby Wood H, boxed plenty of life left used 599 Audia Flight Pre and Flight 50 Class A power dem 3999 Arcam CD37, excellent used 799 Aspara Acoustics HL6 in Oak new 1999 Benz Micro L 04, boxed plenty of life left used 499 Audio Analogue Maestro Ref Pre/Monos £15k new dem 5999 Arcam Alpha 9 DCS ring dac chipset, lovely! used 279 Audio Physic Tempo in Cherry, fair dem 699 Benz Micro Gullwing, superb boxed used 899 Audio Analogue Maestro Ref SE integrated dem Call Arcam CD72, excellent remote boxed used 99 Aurum Cantus Music Goddess in Gloss black dem 699 Cartridge Man Conductor Air Bearing Tonearm new 749 Audio Analogue Puccini SE amp. Black dem 379 AstinTrew AT3000 CD dem 349 B&W CDM1, vgc+ used 249 Cartridge Man Music Maker dem 499 Audio Analogue Maestro Integrated dem Call Atoll ST200 streamer new 899 B&W DM601s3, vgc+ used 249 Clearaudio Concept MM package, nr mint boxed used 699 Audio Project ap60 integrated dem Call Atoll 100SE DAC new 299 B&W DM602s3, vgc+ used 349 Clearaudio Performance DC package dem 1999 Audio Research Ref 610 Monoblocks, vgc boxed used 14299 Audio Alchemy digital transmission interface/psu used 99 B&W 804s, excellent boxed in cherry used 1999 Clearaudio Innovation Compact, good condition dem 1999 Audiolab 8000Q/Ms, silver, excellent boxed used 899 Audio Analogue Maestro SE CD dem Call B&W 800D, near mint, boxed used 8999 B&W N805 with matching stands, excellent! used 1299 Clearaudio Unify Tonearm excellent boxed used 699 Audiolab 8000C excellent boxed used 199 Audio Analogue Paganini (later model) dem 399 Conrad Johnson TEA 1b Phono stage used 1999 B&W DM602s3, vgc+ used 349 Audiolab 8200A vgc boxed dem 499 Audio Synthesis Transcend CDT (Modded SONY) dem 399 Conrad Johnson Premier Six phono preampli¿er used Call B&W DM683, excellent boxed used 549 Audion Silver Knight PSE valve monoblocks dem 1999 Ayre Evolution DVD dem 1999 Consonance Cyber 40 phono stage dem 599 Diapason Ares dem 999 Audion Sterling Plus KT88 Integrated boxed dem 499 Bewitch ( Puresound ) A8000 CD dem 349 Garrard 401, Slate Audio plinth used 799 EB Acoustics ER1 new 199 AVI Lab Series, excellent boxed with remote used 849 Cambridge Audio Dacmagic (newer model) used 99 Graham Phantom Supreme 12”, SME cut dem Call Eminent Technology LFT8, some marks used 499 AVI Lab Series Pre/Power, excellent remote used 1749 Chapter Audio Sonnet CD & Nevo remote dem 1999 Hadcock 242 Export, dem 599 Epos M22 in Cherry dem 549 BAT VK50se preampli¿er, vgc+ used 2499 Chord Qute EX DAC, excellent boxed used 699 Leema Elements phono stage dem 299 Consonance Turandot CD dem 399 Final 400 Electrostatics with ES400 Sub dem 999 Lehmann Black Cube phono stage dem Call Chameleon Ruby Power Ampli¿er used 199 Focal Pro¿le 908 and stands used 399 Chapter Audio Couplet Power Ampli¿er dem 1999 Consonance CD2.2 Linear MK11 new 799 Lehmann Black Cube SE phono stage dem Call Consonance 120 Linear dem 299 Focal XS Book Active Mini Monitors, mint dem 199 Linn Sondek, Ittok LV11, excellent used 899 Chord Electronics SPM1200b, excellent used 1299 Focal Electra 1038, as new dem 3999 Conrad Johnson Premier 18, boxed with remote dem 1799 Consonance CD2.2 dem 699 Linn Sondek, Ittok, Valhalla, vgc+ used 849 Consonance Droplet, vgc+ dem 899 Gallo MPS150 and A’Diva 2.1 System used 399 Consonance Cyber 10 Integrated dem 799 Gradient Intro, excellent condition, bargain used 249 Linn Sondek, Cirkus, Valhalla, front mount motor used 599 Cyrus DACXP, excellent boxed used 949 Consonance Ref 8.8 integrated valve amp dem 999 Heco Celan 500 in Silver dem 499 Linn Sondek, Lingo, Naim Aro, superb used 2499 Cyrus CDXTse, excellent, boxed used 449 Consonance Cyber 50 Preampli¿er dem 499 Heco Celan 300 in Mahogany dem 399 Linn Sondek, Basik plus , Valhalla, VGC+ used 699 Cyrus Streamline excellent, boxed used 549 Consonance Cyber 211 monos c/w Pavane valves dem 2999 Heco Statement in gloss black, £3k new dem 1499 Linn Sondek, Grace 707, basik psu, VGC+ used 599 Denon DNP720AE, near mint boxed used 199 Consonance A120, ex demo mint dem 399 Innersound Eros 111 hybrid e/static & amp, BARGAIN dem 799 Linn Sondek, Lingo, Project 9CC, Dynavector 10X5 used 1499 EAR Acute 3, mint boxed dem 3749 Creek Destiny Integrated dem 699 Kef Reference 102 with Kube, excellent used 149 Linn Sondek, Rosewood, boxed, superb! used Call Exposure 2010CD, remote used 199 EAR 890 Power, excellent boxed used 2199 Kef iQ5, excellent boxed used 249 Linn Sondek, Ittok, Lingo, boxed excellent used 1199 Goldenote Koala , near mint boxed used 759 Linn Basik Plus, vgc+ used 149 EAR 834T Integrated ampli¿er used 1499 Kef Q100, brand new, sealed box new 249 Inca Design Katana cd player (no remote) used 149 Luxman PD264, excellent used 499 ES Labs DS X4 digital, excellent boxed dem 299 Kudos C10, boxed vgc and cheap used 999 Linn CD12, excellent used 3999 Luxman PD300, fantastic condition used 799 Esoteric C03/A03 Pre/Power, boxed remote dem 7749 Kudos C2, boxed dem 949 Linn Karik 3, excellent boxed remote used 499 Lyra Erodion Step up used 1499 Exposure XV111 Monoblocks, excellent boxed used 899 Kudos X2, vgc boxed dem 799 Marantz CD63KI, vgc used 199 Mana Reference wall shelf used 299 Graaf GM50B Mk11 Integrated dem 2999 Leema Xandia Mk1 in black new 2499 Marantz CD10, excellent boxed new belt kit used 449 Mana Reference table used 299 Graff GM100 valve power amp dem 1999 Leema Acoustics Xero, vgc+ boxed, REDUCED used 299 Marantz SA7001, nr mint boxed used 199 Michell Tecnoarm A in black as new mint boxed used 449 Icon Audio, EL34 boxed used 299 Leema Xero in Mahogany dem 349 Marantz CD6004, nr mint boxed used 199 Michell Focus One, SME 3009, excellent, used 399 Krell FPB600, excellent used 2999 Linn Kan, boxed used 249 Meridian 506/20 with MSR used 399 Michell Focus One, Focus arm, excellent & boxed used 499 Leema Tucana 2, excellent used 1899 Linn Index with KuStone stands, vgc+ used 99 Meridian 508/20, excellent used 449 Moth phono stage dem 249 Linn Keosa, fair in black, REDUCED used 199 Leema Pyxis/Altair Reference Pre & Monos dem 10499 Moon Equinox CD used 799 Musical Fidelity XLPSV3 phono stage dem 99 Magneplanar MG1.6, superb, boxed used 999 LFD Integrated amp LE MK111 dem 1499 Moon CD 3.3x £3k new used 999 Musical Fidelity XLPSV8 phono stage dem 199 Magneplanar MG1.7, good condition boxed used 1399 LFD LS1 linestage, reasonable shape used 299 Musical Fidelity VDAC V8 new Call NAIM Aro, excellent boxed used 1499 Linn Majik Pre & 4100 Power, excellent used 1499 Mark & Daniel Maximus with treble extenders £2500ish dem 999 Musical Fidelity 3.5 CD dem 399 Mark and Daniel Topaz in White inc, Marble cabinets dem 749 NAIM Stageline N excellent boxed used 199 Linn Kolector Preampli¿er used 299 Musical Fidelity A1Pro CD new 799 Mark and Daniel Mini in Grey inc. Marble cabinets. dem 699 Pioneer PL530 Direct Drive, good condition used 299 Meridian 501V preamp, excellent used 299 Musical Fidelity KW SACD with upgraded psu used 1249 Martin Logan Mosaic, excellent boxed used 699 Project RPM 9 turntable with arm and platform dem 649 Meridian 501 Pre used 349 Musical Fidelity A5CD, excellent used 549 Martin Logan Quests, superb sound, reduced used 1299 Project Phonobox 2, ex boxed used 59 Micromega IA100, great integrated, boxed dem 599 Musical Fidelity M1 DAC, excellent boxed used 329 Martin Logan Source SE real wood veneer, ex boxed dem 999 Project RPM 5 Turntable/Arm boxed with Speedbox used 399 Musical Fidelity A1 FB1 Preamp & PSU new 499 Musical Fidelity M1 CDTB dem 499 Martin Logan Prodigy, due in used Call Project RPM 4 Turntable/Arm with cover, great! used 249 Musical Fidelity M3i, excellent boxed dem 749 Project Perspective, Speedbox SE, Shure V15Mx used 599 Musical Fidelity M3 in black dem 499 Martin Logan Summit X, ex demo dem Call Musical Fidelity M3i, excellent boxed, REDUCED used 649 Musical Fidelity M1Clic new 699 Meridian M1 Active speakers, boxed used 1199 Rega Planar 2, RB250, excellent boxed used 179 Musical Fidelity M1PWR, excellent boxed used 349 Rega Planar 3 c/w R200 used 179 Musical Fidelity CD1008 Pro, near mint boxed used 1199 Monitor Audio PL300, mint crated dem 3999 Musical Fidelity X-T100 Integrated dem 249 Rega RP8, Apheta Cartridge, excellent boxed dem 1249 NAIM CDX, excellent, boxed remote used 649 Monitor Audio GX50, near mint boxed used 599 NAIM NAC82, excellent boxed used 899 Rega RP3 Elys2 cartridge, excellent boxed used 399 NAIM CD5, remote, SNAIC, new laser used 599 Monopulse Model S new 699 NAIM NAP250, olive excellent boxed used 899 Rega RP6, excellent boxed used 599 NAIM CDS3, excellent boxed, remote used 1899 Monopulse Model A speakers new 1499 NAIM NAP250, very late olive excellent used 1099 Revolver Rosewood, G1022, excellent used 199 NAIM CDS3, excellent boxed, remote used 1999 Monopulse Model C new 399 NAIM NAC72, excellent boxed used 349 Roksan Xerxes RB300, PSU, boxed used 599 NAIM CDX, excellent, boxed remote, late model used 699 NAIM SBL, vgc+ used 699 NAIM NAC42/NAP110, excellent boxed used 499 Roksan Xerxes, XPS2, Linn Fit used 349 NAIM CD5Si, 2 months old used 799 NEAT Elite SX, near mint boxed used 949 Roksan Xerxes, XPS, SME Fit used 349 NAIM NAP300, excellent boxed used 3749 NAIM CD3.5, vgc used 299 NEAT Motive 1, near mint boxed used 549 Graham Slee Fanfare Amp3 dem 179 NAIM NAC252 excellent boxed used 3499 NAIM DVD5, excellent boxed used 499 Nola KO speakers in black dem 4000 Graham Slee Gram Amp2 dem 119 NAIM NAP250, excellent late boxed olive used 1199 Pathos Endorphin, crated dem 3499 Nola Boxer speakers in black new 749 Graham Slee Elevator EXP Step up used 299 NAIM NAP150, excellent boxed used 349 Prima Luna Prologue 8, ex demo boxed dem 1299 Nola Contender in Cherry dem 1499 SME 3009/3, excellent boxed used 249 NAIM NAC202 with NAPSC, boxed used 1199 Quad 99CDP, excellent REDUCED used 399 Nola Micro Grand Reference inc stands, £15k new dem 5995 SME 3012, excellent used 799 NAIM NAC202, vgc+ boxed just NAIM serviced used 1199 Rega Planet 2000, excellent used 199 Opera Callas SP dem 999 SME V12, nr mint boxed dem Call NAIM NAP155XS, excellent boxed used 649 Rega Apollo R, excellent used 449 Opera Mini dem 199 Systemdek, Syrinx PU2, excellent used 349 NAIM NAP180, excellent boxed used 599 Rega Io DAC, excellent used 149 PMC Twenty Three, mint boxed in oak used 1799 Technics SL120, SME3009 excellent used 399 NAIM NAC42/NAP110 combo, boxed great used 599 Rega DAC, excellent boxed used 349 PMC Twenty Three, mint boxed in oak used 1799 Thorens TD160 HD turntable new 1199 NAIM NAIT 5, excellent remote boxed used 449 Rega Saturn, excellent boxed used 599 Proac Studio 110, excellent boxed used 499 Thorens TD166 Mk2 c/w arm, Nagaoka MP50, boxed used 249 NAIM NAC62S/NAP140 chrome bumper, vgc+ used 599 Rotel RCD02, vgc used 79 Quad 21L Floorstander used 199 Thorens TD160, Audio Technica arm, boxed used 249 NAIM NAC90/NAP92, vgc used 349 Rotel RCD1072, excellent, remote used 249 Quad Electrostatics ESL2905 Classic Vintage new 4499 Thorens TD209 turntable package dem 699 Neutonia Salis Integrated, classy Restek built used 399 Sony BD500 used 99 Red Rose Rosebud £2.5k new with (used) stands dem 799 Thorens TD2030 Blue turntable new 999 Onix OA32 Integrated, excellent used 299 Sony Minidisc MDS JB920 used 79 Reference 3A DaCapo in gloss black dem 699 Thorens TD125 c/w SME3009, excellent used 399 Onix OA25 Integrated, excellent used 399 Sugden CD21SE in Titanium dem 799 Revel M22, excellent boxed new 599 Tom Evans Groove, 0.85mv/100 ohm, excellent used 849 Pathos Logos Integrated dem 1999 Sugden Masterclass CD original version used 999 Revolver RW45 Àoorstander in Cherry dem 699 Revolver Cygnis Gold in Black, £14k new dem 4995 Townshend Elite Rock, Merlin, Excalibur used 999 Placette Audio Passive Linestage dem 599 TEAC VRDS7, excellent remote used 249 Revolver Cygnis in Maple/Black, £6k new dem 2495 Trichord Dino 2 c/w NC PSU & HP Cable dem Call Prima Luna Prologue 3 Preampli¿er vgc+ used 649 Theta DS Pro Progeny DAC used 249 Revolver Music 1 dem 350 VDH Colibri M/C cartridge dem 2999 Prima Luna Prologue 2 Integrated, good shape dem 799 Tube Technology Fulcrum CD transport dem 699 Rogers LS7, excellent boxed with free stands used 299 VDH Condor M/C cartridge new 1999 Prima Luna Prologue 3 Preampli¿er, REDUCED dem 749 Tube Technology Fulcrum DAC (inc DAC64 chip) dem 899 Sonus Faber Elipsa, superb boxed used 5999 VTL TP2.5 phono stage ( new ) new 1749 Prima Luna Prologue Premium Preampli¿er used 1199 Tube Technology Fusion 64 cd player dem 999 Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor, boxed with stands used 1399 Wilson Benesch Act 1 Tonearm, nr mint superb used 799 Unison Research CDE new 1599 Puresound L300 valve preamp dem 3599 Sun¿re True Sub Subwoofer dem 399 Unison Research CD used 499 Puresound L10 preamp dem 1399 Tannoy Supertweeters, fair condition used 449 YBA GC-10, ex boxed, £1600 new, BARGAIN used 399 5aGio5eFoUGeUV Puresound A30 valve integrated amp dem 749 Thiel CS7.2, vgc, just refurbished… used 2499 Arcam Alpha, vgc+ used 29 Quad 66 Preamp, excellent remote used 349 Totem Mani Signature, boxed near mint used 2999 Quad 99 Pre/Power, excellent, remote, Quadlink used 649 AFFeVVoUieV&aEleV Arcam T61, vgc+ used 79 Totem Mite in black dem 449 Quad 405, from used 199 Audeze LCDX excellent dem 849 Arcam DT91, excellent boxed used 149 Totem Aro Designer series in gloss black dem 999 Quad Elite Monoblocks, boxed used 749 Audeze LCDXC excellent dem 899 Totem Rokk in mahogany, excellent used 249 Creek T43 FM tuner new 99 Quad 34/306 late grey versions used 399 Custom Design Milan, ex display dem Call Totem Sttaf new 999 Denon TU-S10 used 199 Quad 707 Power used 399 Elemental Audio Equipment Rack dem 499 Usher BE718 dem 799 Musical Fidelity XT100 tuner (no psu) new 149 Rega Luna, rare item used 199 Elemental Audio speaker stands dem 499 Velodyne MicroVee in black dem 499 Rega Brio 3, excellent boxed used 229 Ergo AMT phones with Amp 2 (£2.5k new) dem 1499 Velodyne DD18 sub in black dem 1999 NAIM NAT101 & SNAPS, excellent £500 NAIM service used 899 Experience Filtration 6 way block with 3m cable dem Call Rega Mira 3, excellent boxed used 299 Velodyne DD15 sub in black dem 1499 NAIM NAT01 & NAPST, excellent boxed used 899 HiFi Racks 3 tier rack in Oak dem 199 Resolution Audio Opus 21 S80 Integrated dem Call Velodyne SPL 800 Ultra sub in black dem 499 Nakamichi BX300e used 149 Isotek Nova power conditioner dem 1199 Roksan Kandy K2 Power, nr mint boxed dem 499 Veritas H3 (Lowther drivers) in gloss black, 100db dem 2999 Nakamichi BX2, excellent used 149 Isol-8, various cables etc dem Call Roksan Kandy K2 Integrated, nr mint boxed dem 499 Isol-8, Substation Integra used 499 Nakamichi CR1, excellent used 99 Sugden Masterclass Monoblocks, in titanium used 3999 Lehmann Rhinelander used 199 Pure 701ES DAB Tuner used 89 Sugden A21a line Integrated dem 999 Musical Fidelity M1 HPAB dem 399 6SeFialV\VtePGealV Quad FM3, vgc used 99 Sugden Masterclass Pre/Monos in Graphite used 6499 Musical Fidelity TripleX power supply new 199 Audio Analogue Primo CD/Amp combo dem 499 Quad FM4, late grey version, excellent used 179 Sugden Masterclass Pre/Monos in Titanium used 6499 NAIM XPS DR, ex demo dem 2599 Consonance Ping CD/AMP dem 599 Sugden Masterclass Integrated in Titanium dem 2749 Leema Elements Amp & CD new 1499 Revox B250 Tuner in black/gold ¿nish used 349 NAIM Flatcap XS, excellent boxed used 449 Sugden A21SE in Titanium, boxed, excellent used 1399 NAIM Supercap, various excellent boxed from used 1199 Linn Classik Movie 05, excellent boxed used 699 Rotel RT1080, excellent used 149 Talk Electronics Hurricane 3/Tornado 3.1 monos dem 1399 ProAudio Bono Reference Platform dem 399 Orelle EVO Cd and amp was £2700 used 799 Rotel RT850 Tuner used 29 TEAC Distinction A1000 Integrated, ex demo dem 599 Quadraspire Q4, 4 shelf in Oak dem Call Paradigm Millennia One 5.0 AV Speaker system used 399 Sony Minidisc MDS JB920 used 79 Unison Research Simply Italy Integrated dem 999 Tellurium Q Interconnects, various dem Call QUAD 77 CD and Integrated Amp used 399 7HORU(PDLOFKRLFH#QGKDQGKLÀFRXN TURNTABLE

DETAILS watch, while the bass line’s vibrancy keeps our ears pricked up. PRICE Analogue Works From £799 The One’s talent for bass reproduction is further highlighted ORIGIN UK with the deck digging deep into John WEIGHT Martyn’s Solid Air. It quickly reveals 12kg the intricacy of the double bass that Turntable One DIMENSIONS underpins the song by gracing its (WxHxD) 460 x 120 x 360mm melancholic notes with lots of texture, FEATURES which can be felt as well as heard. ositioned slap bang in the signature refl ects its physical design, ● 6.7kg damped But can it go low while keeping its middle of Analogue Work’s which seems to be somewhere alloy platter composure? Massive Attack’s ● Belt driven by P record player range, the between the high-mass vibration- separate AC motor Unfi nished Sympathy is the perfect One is sandwiched between killing decks usually of Germanic ● Separate PSU box track to help answer this question, the Zero (£650) and Two (£1,600) origin and the lower-mass non- ● Adjustable feet and the arm and cartridge pull out all models. All three have the same resonant designs stemming from the DISTRIBUTOR the low-end wallop the grooves have bronze/steel bearing and the Zero likes of Rega and Pro-Ject. Divine Audio to offer while keeping a cool head. also packs a Rega RB202 arm and Bass is well formed, deep and TELEPHONE 01536 762211 Conclusion gets a bamboo or MDF plinth and reassuringly controlled, while it WEBSITE wall-wart PSU in place of the One’s projects plenty of life in the midrange analogueworks. You don’t need to spend much time birch-ply plinth and standalone PSU. without sounding too bright, and co.uk with this turntable to realise that The cheaper Zero also comes there’s no sense of ringing from its REVIEWED Analogue Works has carefully equipped with an acetal platter well-damped platter. HFC 388 considered every aspect of its design, instead of the more substantial With Bon Ivor’s Lump Sum turning engineering it for maximum damped alloy platter sported by the circles atop the deck’s foam Gimp performance while ensuring that it One and Two decks. The Two builds mat, we’re presented with a dense remains eminently user friendly. It’s a on the One package by including AW’s soundstage consisting of many layers. perfect sonic match for the Jelco arm, reference power supply, selection of The opening vocals resonate with the which combines for an expansive and upgraded isolation feet, a bunch of echo of a cavernous cathedral, as they full-bodied sound that’s begging for platter mats and a dust cover. extend from what sounds like the the best cartridge you can afford for Thanks to the range’s deceptively other side of the wall behind the long-term enjoyment. If you’re in the simple design, all of the Two’s extras speakers. This gives the music plenty market for a turntable upgrade, put can be applied to the One model of depth, and sets the scene for lead this right near the top of your list ● as and when funds permit and they singer Justin Vernon’s vocals to come take seconds to fi t, so upgrading need to the fore with full-bodied presence, not require trading your deck in, or revealing just how expansive the having to return it to the factory for deck’s soundstage is front to back. OUR VERDICT extensive tinkering. Despite the motor’s low-torque SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Superb build; Our model comes sporting a £300 design, the One’s timing sounds spot ease of adjustment; Jelco SA-250ST tonearm, which on and treads a fi ne line between not expansive and despite being lesser known on these hurrying the rhythm along, or having VALUE FOR MONEY engaging sound DISLIKE: Push start shores than the usual Rega-derived to play catch up by chasing the music platter may take some variants, is a reviewer’s delight in down the record’s grooves. Instead, BUILD QUALITY getting used to terms of build quality and ease of use. the turntable’s grip on the music’s WE SAY: Lovely looking and well engineered pace allows the Bon Ivor track to FEATURES turntable that gets Sound quality progress at its own natural tempo, the basics right Using the £85 Ortofon 2M Red that without any sense of delayed OVERALL comes pre-installed on our test model overhang or notes being rushed and reveals the One to be a very capable curtailed. Guitar strums start and music maker. In many ways its sonic stop with the precision of a Swiss

100 YEARBOOK 2014 HFC_A4_Ad_blank.inddHFC_A4_Ad_blank.indd 1 22/5/14111/9/141/9/14 114:11:4414:10:561:40:24

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DETAILS with, rather than a part of the performance in itself. It is, in the best PRICE Avid From £825 possible way a tool to aid your enjoyment of music rather than ORIGIN UK something that sets out to be the WEIGHT source of enjoyment itself. 5.8kg This means its character is subtle to Ingenium DIMENSIONS the point of being reclusive. Having (WxHxD) 390 x 305 x 130mm listened to a twin arm version with an FEATURES SME on one side and Audio Note’s othing on the Ingenium is revealing that it will show up the ● Choice of arm Arm III on the other, it reveals a there for decoration, but limitations on poor pressings. The mounts for 9in and detailed and agile bass response with 12in tonearms the layout is different to rather better news is that with discs commendable depth to low notes. N ● 33/45 RPM speeds any other Avid we’ve seen of any quality at all, it is capable of available The same ‘take no prisoners’ approach before. The chassis takes the form of a a truly exceptional performance. ● Supplied clamp to poorer recordings seems to be in ● Inverted stainless two-piece cruciform with the longer The most immediately arresting steel bearing part down to the SME, but this is not section housing the bearing and aspect of the presentation is the DISTRIBUTOR a deck that will fl atter something that tonearm mount and the shorter seamless integration from top to Avid HiFi is compressed or hissy. That being crossbeam adding stability. The motor bottom that means you tend to sit TELEPHONE said, the noise fl oor is impressively is derived from the Diva and sits back and enjoy the performance 01480 869 900 low and the excellent clamp makes behind the main chassis member. rather than spend time analysing WEBSITE short work of warped records. The most visually distinctive aspect particular facets of it. avidhifi.co.uk is the bearing. This is set forward With the sumptuous soundscape of REVIEWED Conclusion HFC 379 from the centre of the chassis, which the Hidden Orchestra’s Archipelago, The Avid is a subtly different means that you can see the entire the Avid produces a wonderfully full proposition to other turntables at this assembly rotate if you are seated in and inviting performance that spreads price point, as the ease with which it front of the turntable when it plays. and layers the performers in a accommodates an arm that costs There are some other rather neat tangibly real soundstage. more than the deck demonstrates. touches too. The cork-topped platter There is a considerable sense of When you consider the Ingenium used on other Avid turntables is control to the performance, too. With allows for a wide variety of arms to retained and the feet add some useful the faster and more aggressively be attached, you have a turntable isolation. The excellent Avid clamp is presented The Bones Of What You that has the potential to make many also an option. Believe by Chvches, the Avid gets on vinyl lovers very happy indeed ● The Ingenium differs from other top of the rhythms and simply pounds Avid models in that you need to along. After a considerable period decide what arm mounting you want experimenting with some of the more when you order it – the usual suspects curious ends of our record collection, OUR VERDICT are catered for and the review sample it proves itself to be pretty much SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Assured is fi tted for and supplied with an SME unfl appable across the entire confident and neutral cutout and arm (£1,015). spectrum of music. The calm performance; superb VALUE FOR MONEY build quality neutrality of the Ingenium is as happy DISLIKE: Won’t flatter Sound quality with the pared-back simplicity of Fink poor recordings; no With the Nagaoka MP150 attached as it is hammering through the BUILD QUALITY cover; limited facilities and connected to an Avid Ingenium pounding basslines of The Prodigy. WE SAY: A hugely capable turntable that FEATURES phono stage, the turntable makes a It takes a little while to realise that should shine with a very strong case for itself. In keeping it does something very unusual at the variety of equipment with its bigger brothers, it is not an price. The Ingenium is almost entirely OVERALL intrinsically romantic sounding self-effacing. More than anything else, turntable. It is completely free of any it is a platform for the arm and the softness or bloom and it is suffi ciently cartridge that you choose to partner it

YEARBOOK 2014 103 T. 01292 319 416 email: [email protected] Ѥ website: www.loudspeaker-art.com MODELS Alnico 6 y Alnico 8 y Alnico 8.3 y Alnico 10 y Alnico 12

Custom 35mm Soft CNC machined Art Loudspeakers Dome HF unit with Aircraft Grade unique Decolam Alnico Magnet Aluminium baffle cabinet construction

Treated paper Special in-house Down firing port mid and veneering for ease of bass drivers process placement

DESIGNED & HANDMADE IN THE UK

“ These speakers just have a way of making you fall in love with music all over again... ” Audio Note Lounge

AUDIO NOTE LOUNGE 01273 590 716 BRIGHTON’S SPECIALIST AUDIO NOTE (UK) DEALER www.audionotelounge.com TURNTABLE

DETAILS Hours immediately get our attention, as the Inspire takes control of their PRICE £560 rhythmic slaps to get our feet tapping. Inspire Hi-Fi And when Drake’s guitar’s tempo ORIGIN UK picks up the pace, so does the Inspire, WEIGHT which gives the music plenty of life to 3.8kg keep it engaging. This strength also Black Magic Si DIMENSIONS makes the Inspire an extremely (WxHxD) 450 x 100 x 350mm enjoyable listen with Goldfrapp’s FEATURES Clay, as there’s a real sense of the rom upgrades for Linn, a 20mm precision-machined acrylic ● 33 and 45rpm drama building as the tempo quickens. Rega and Technics decks platter, which matches the three ● Rega RB202 The Inspire’s expansive soundstage to selling its own range of acrylic coned feet that are bonded to tonearm is particularly impressive and the F ● Acrylic platter belt, direct and idler drive the underside via Sorbothane pads. ● Acrylic/ Spanish guitar on Tracy Chapman’s designs, Inspire Hi-Fi has carved out Cartridge swapping is made easy Sorbothane She’s Got Her Ticket, is voiced wide an impressively broad church of coned feet of our left speaker’s plane. thanks to the way it overhangs in free ● Optional record turntable products in recent years. space, although this can also leave weight and external At £560 sans cartridge, the Black your precious pick-up vulnerable PSU available Conclusion Magic Si is the company’s entry-level without protection from below. DISTRIBUTOR Although the Black Magic Si doesn’t offering and comes equipped with Inspire Hi-Fi quite reach the wall-shaking depths an Inspire-branded Rega RB202 Sound quality TELEPHONE that the very best decks at this price 01246 472222 tonearm. The Inspire is a belt-driven With an Ortofon 2M Blue fi tted to can, the low end that it does extend WEBSITE design, with the Si running a low the Inspire’s arm and Nick Drake’s inspirehifi.co.uk to has plenty of clarity and sounds vibration Premotec AC motor, situated beautiful Made To Love Magic LP REVIEWED less boomy than its cheaper rivals. at the 12 o’clock position. The deck’s placed directly onto the platter’s HFC 385 Across all the music on test, the sub-platter is Inspire’s own design acrylic surface, we’re ready to rock in Inspire images impressively well. Nick that’s been precision machined from a no time. Overall the Inspire is a pacey Drake’s vocals in particular are placed block of acetyl, which is then bonded little performer that favours a neutral centre stage, surrounded by plenty of to an aluminium shaft that runs inside presentation that’s neither lacking in air and space and the detail in his a bronze bearing sleeve. Speed detail or too forensically revealing. voice shows this to be one of the most change between 33 and 45rpm is Kwaakhu Baah’s congas in Three revealing turntables around ● manually controlled, by moving the deck’s belt on the motor’s two-step pulley. This being Inspire, there are also lots of inhouse upgrades to chose OUR VERDICT from at additional cost, including a SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Stunning looks, £55 polished record weight and £320 and finish; transparent external PSU, that’s built around a sound; decent arm quartz speed generator and offers VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Not the cheapest; cartridge electronic speed switching. Inspire costs extra BUILD QUALITY can also supply the Si with a range of WE SAY: One of the cartridges ready fi tted at extra cost. most revealing decks we’ve heard with Fresh out of the box the Black FEATURES plenty of detail Magic’s simple curvy lines and and good bass ‘nightfi re’ red fi nish are pure eye OVERALL candy. The deck sports a hidden on/off switch at the MDF plinth’s rear and its looks are also aided by

YEARBOOK 2014 105 LIMITED TURNTABLE

DETAILS The Blue improves on the Red by offering a more refi ned bass, better PRICE £425 fi ne detail retrieval and a smoother Pro-Ject Debut midband, which can clearly be heard ORIGIN Austria on Goldfrapp’s Clay. WEIGHT With The Doors’ L.A. Woman, Jim 4.9kg Morrison’s performance has plenty Carbon Esprit SB DIMENSIONS of attitude thanks to how the SB (WxHxD) 415 x 118 x 320mm manages to retain a degree of bite FEATURES without sounding too hard edged. his model sits atop the good and bad news, as this deck does ● Auto speed 33 The SB’s soundstage is pretty wide, three-strong Debut range facilitate this speed, but you’ll have to and 45rpm and while the instruments may not and improves on the £325 manually move the belt to a bigger ● Carbon fibre have all the energy of the very best at T tonearm Debut Carbon by adding cog on the pulley (when the Carbon ● Ortofon 2M Red this price, it has decent separation. an acrylic platter and electronic speed Esprit SB is in 45rpm mode) to make cartridge supplied The midrange is also very well change between 33 and 45rpm ● Acrylic platter this happen. ● Includes balanced. Again, it’s not quite as (78rpm is manually selected). dust cover analogue-like and rich as some or as Even in standard guise, the Debut Sound quality DISTRIBUTOR forward, but it’s a very smooth and Carbon sports Pro-Ject’s 8.6CC The Pro-Ject’s acrylic platter is Henley Designs Ltd detailed affair with just the right one-piece carbon fi bre tonearm (with designed to be used without a mat TELEPHONE amount of presence to ensure that line and weight anti-skate) and an and that’s how it’s tested. Though 01235 511166 the music remains even. While £85 Ortofon 2M Red MM cartridge, there’s almost £100 between them, WEBSITE sounding strong, Nick Drake’s voice henleydesigns.co.uk which are both carried over to the SB the supplied 2M Red cartridge isn’t is carefully presented in Three Hours REVIEWED model under review. leagues behind the 2M Blue we’re HFC 385 and we can hear the delicacy with It also features an external 15V DC using as our reference, and the which he holds the ends of each note. wall-wart PSU to drive its AC motor, Red offers a clean treble with well which is mounted to a horizontally extended bass, so you should get Conclusion suspended tensioned rubber band. plenty of enjoyment out of it before At the price this Pro-Ject deck screams The Pro-Ject motor is also screwed to the necessity to upgrade becomes a outstanding value, but what really the plinth through two small rubber genuine concern. sells it is the way it’s brimming with pads that give the motor a more musical detail ● rigid mounting. Additionally, there’s a phono cable junction box at the rear, so that you can upgrade the supplied OUR VERDICT interconnects at a later date SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Smooth sound should you wish. Isolation is with bags of detail; further aided by four Ortofon quality cartridge; isolation feet that support the VALUE FOR MONEY top-class arm DISLIKE: Nothing deck’s 28mm MDF plinth. at the price BUILD QUALITY The electronic speed control WE SAY: A super lets you jump between 33 and bargain that’s easy to use and has a well 45rpm speeds, which are FEATURES balanced class-leading indicated by corresponding blue sound to it LEDs that fl ash while the platter OVERALL gets up to speed. A longer push on this button turns the deck on/off. For 78rpm fans there’s

YEARBOOK 2014 107

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DETAILS right amount of body and tonal appetite, and it’s the content of their PRICE The Funk Firm £850 long drawn-out notes that the Funk subtly brings out, which breathes life ORIGIN UK into the music. Meanwhile the rapid WEIGHT drum strikes are rendered with a 5.4kg clean, short echo, before falling away Flamenca DIMENSIONS into the darkness of the soundstage, (WxHxD) 414 x 110 x 320mm behind our Dynaudio Focus 260 FEATURES fl oorstanders’ physical footprint. espite its conventional polymer thread inside the arm, which ● 33 and 45rpm While the Funk’s imaging isn’t looks, the entry-level exits through the bottom of the tube electronic speed as ultimately precise as some of change Flamenca continues to live where it attaches to the lower bearing its similarly priced stable mates, the D ● 12V DC motor the Funk ethos, thanks to housing to hold it steady. ● Funk F6 thread way it really opens up the soundstage some unique features. It sports a glass The deck comes with a thick felt bearing tonearm is beyond many of its peers. ● External wall platter, but eschews Funk’s proprietary mat as standard and Funk includes an wart PSU The Flamenca’s sound is far from vector belt drive system of a motor inhouse 3mm Achromat with our test ● Removable forward and it seems to want to push with two slave pulleys for a more rig, costing £57 extra. dust cover the music upwards and outwards, conventional periphery belt drive DISTRIBUTOR rather than straight at the listener, from a single motor pulley. The motor Sound quality The Funk Firm which also adds to its sense of TELEPHONE is intentionally cited at the deck’s Supplementing the thick felt mat for 01273 585042 openness and lack of congestion. front left corner because Funk the Achromat gives a more dynamic WEBSITE There is a defi nite sense of letting the believes putting a motor at the rear sound with crisper edges and better thefunkfirm.co.uk music speak for itself about this deck, allows motor and/or structural instrument separation. It costs more, REVIEWED that’s reminiscent of how a unipivot vibration to travel along the belt but on clarity grounds is a wise HFC 391 arm presents the music. causing the cartridge to vibrate side upgrade. It’s diffi cult to describe the to side. However, putting the motor Funk’s sonic palate because its Conclusion pulley in line with the tonearm allows strengths lie in transparency, without Look-wise the Flamenca doesn’t these same vibrations to instead adding too much of its own stand out from the crowd. But its travel down the arm tube that’s held personality. The Funk strives for transparent and airy sound is very fi rm by the bearing. a balanced sound without overly inviting and when partnered with the Speed is controlled electronically favouring any element of the right pick-up, you’ll be rewarded with via a knurled silver knob for 33.3 soundstage or its presentation. an open window into the music ● and 45rpm, with discreet trim pots for Armed with an Ortofon 2M Blue speed fi ne tuning. For spinning duties pick-up (HFC 375) and plumbed into the deck’s 10mm-thick glass platter a Primare R32 phono stage, the rests on a fi nely engineered steel plate Flamenca nails its lack of colouration OUR VERDICT with a case-hardened spindle that to the mast via Joy Division’s New SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Open and turns against a steel ball sitting at the Dawn Fades. This track can often transparent sound; base of a close-tolerance brass bearing wrong foot an unsuspecting deck as simple yet clever sleeve. The deck’s 25mm-thick plinth with turntables favouring a rockier VALUE FOR MONEY tonearm design DISLIKE: Belt can be is made from three layers of MDF and more polished presentation it can fiddly to fit; not for bonded together to aid damping, sound raw, but devoid of character. BUILD QUALITY hardcore bass junkies while four chunky rubberised circular While more laid-back machines let WE SAY: Deceptively conventional looks feet give stable support. the track’s murky tones saturate the FEATURES hide a turntable of Completing the package is Funk’s mix, removing the edgy nature of true sonic merit F6 tonearm, which employs a thread Curtis’ no-holds-barred vocals, the OVERALL bearing, whereby the arm tube is Flamenca leans to neither side and effectively suspended from a polymer instead presents the song evenly. loop. This loop connects to a single Guitars are conveyed with just the

YEARBOOK 2014 109 TURNTABLE PACKAGE

DETAILS elliptical diamond at £130 (HFC 375) brings extra accuracy and clarity to PRICE VPI £795 the Bill Fay track, while retaining ORIGIN its rootsy natural sounding tone, USA revealing that the Nomad’s sound WEIGHT welcomes extra fi ne tuning from a 5.9kg better sounding stylus, or cartridge Nomad DIMENSIONS when funds permit. (WxHxD) 470 x 109 x 343mm Bass control and extension are also FEATURES notable weapons in its sonic arsenal. aking over the role of VPI’s and Christine McVie’s vocals kick in ● Belt-driven The overemphasised rumbling low entry-level deck, the to fi ll the midrange and treble with turntable with end of Interpol’s Untitled can sound manual speed T Nomad boasts an onboard lots of energy. With this album, the change laborious on some lightweight rivals phono stage and Nomad lets you know how big a ● 24V AC motor as it quickly blurs into a murky groan headphone amp and Ortofon 2M Red soundstage it’s able to conjure, ● 10in tonearm that swamps the soundstage, but with ● Ortofon 2M Red pick-up. So when the upgrade bug which is frankly on a scale we weren’t cartridge supplied the Nomad bass notes are kept in bites an obvious choice is a better expecting given the deck’s modest DISTRIBUTOR check and given the space to extend stylus from further up the 2M range price. The Nomad highlights the Renaissance Audio without becoming overwhelming. The – given its styli are interchangeable, marching percussion of Caroline as TELEPHONE Nomad’s bass notes aren’t lightning with similar outputs and loading superbly mixed across the left and 0131 5553922 fast, but nor are they sluggish, and fi gures to match. right channels, placing each beat well WEBSITE the resulting start and stop of bass renaissanceaudio. The Nomad sports an in-house 10in wide of our fl oorstanders’ physical co.uk guitar strings and kick drums tonearm with a stainless steel rod parameters, with the looping lead resonate with natural sustain. REVIEWED through the gimballed/yoke bearing. guitar hook voiced wider still. HFC 390 Textured black MDF is the order While it may read like we’re stating Conclusion of the day for the deck’s plinth and the obvious by describing the The Nomad is a well built turntable 26mm-thick platter. And while the Nomad’s sonic signature as a very with a top-notch tonearm for the felt mat that’s supplied does the ‘vinyl’ sounding deck, what we mean money. It has clearly been engineered job, it feels a bit thin and fl imsy in is it’s not an overly clean or clinical for a warm and traditionally analogue contrast to the rest of the deck, which machine. Instead it prefers to play to sound to show those looking to take is superbly fi nished with smoothly what many analogue fans love about a fi rst step on their vinyl journey rounded corners and a brushed metal vinyl, by presenting the music with a why the format is still relevant and control panel that could shame decks warmer quality that’s easy on the ear rewarding in today’s digital age ● at twice the price. for long term, fatigue-free listening. Once unboxed, VPI proudly boasts Methane River from Bill Fay’s self a set-up time of four minutes, which titled album sounds organic and true lays down the gauntlet. to the era it was originally recorded, OUR VERDICT with the music adopting a lush, rich SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Rich analogue Sound quality tone, which can be heard in the soft sound; quality build; With the Nomad feeding our Musical acoustic guitar strokes and fulsome features galore VALUE FOR MONEY Fidelity preamp via line-level inputs, bass. We’ve known this LP to sound DISLIKE: Basic platter mat; not as analytical we get a sense of just how dynamic more polished on decks that go for a as some sub-£1k decks BUILD QUALITY sounding this package is. Fleetwood more analytical presentation. The WE SAY: Superb VFM Mac’s Isn’t It Midnight from Tango In Nomad lets the horn and string from an established high-end brand with a FEATURES The Night bristles with life. The track’s sections sound effortless and sound and spec that opening drum beats burst from our unforced, but on some sub-£1k decks belie its price Dynaudio loudspeakers and make the instruments extend from the OVERALL their presence known across the soundstage with fi ner detail. soundstage with clarity and weight, Swapping the 2M Red’s stylus for before the accompanying instruments the 2M Blue with its improved nude

110 YEARBOOK 2014

CARTRIDGES

Audio-Technica AT-95E

THE AT-95E TRACKS between mid-eighties to make the Linn Basik 1.5g and 2.5g (we get best results cartridge – although it did it to the around 2.2g), weighs 5.7g in total so 95’s cheaper AT-93 sibling, which had will balance in most tonearms with an inferior spherical diamond fi tted. ease, and has a standard 47,000ohm recommended loading. The Sound quality company claims a 3.5mV (mV at The AT-95E provides an extremely 1kHz, 5cm/sec) output, which is good basic level of performance in a midband. In absolute terms, it pushes decent but nothing special and a totally fuss-free way, for a very small images just a little forward and into frequency response of 20Hz to amount of money. Housed in a good your face, but it’s all relative and by 20kHz, which is fi ne. basic turntable – such as a Rega P3, CD standards sounds quite laid back. With its detachable stylus, the joy for example – it sounds fast, fun and Treble is decently smooth and couth DETAILS of the AT-95E is that if you break it frenetic, making music a pleasure to with no obvious nasties, although it’s PRICE you can slot a brand new one in listen to and throwing loads of detail not the last word in extension. £30 without breaking the bank. Better out at you. It tracks surprisingly well Tonally it could do with a slightly TELEPHONE still, if you’re feeling tweaky there and delivers a spacious and deep more generous bass, but careful setup 0113 2771441 are various fancy aftermarket soundstage that captures the can help here. Properly aligned in a WEBSITE alternatives, such as the LP Gear fundamentals of the music brilliantly. semi-decent tonearm, tracking at the eu.audio-technica. com/en (www.lpgear.com) ViVid Line for Tonally, it’s ever so slightly bright right weight and given an LP side or REVIEWED around £60. Or, if you’re feeling and forward, but then again the vinyl two to warm up, the AT-95E is HFC 387 keen, superglueing a brand new medium isn’t, so the AT-95E has some capable of a surprisingly good sound. stylus to your AT-95E body will help here. The result is an explicit, Overall, it’s a cracking little MM OUR VERDICT further improve the sound. This is well defi ned sound that has a taut, phono cartridge for any starter or precisely what Linn did back in the lithe bass and an open and engaging classic deck – pick up a bargain now ●

Ortofon Quintet Blue

THE QUINTET BLUE cartridge unfussy the Blue is, as it presents comes housed in a body that’s made all the detail in the track with real of a special acrylonitrile butadiene dynamism. It treads a fi ne line styrene (ABS) thermoplastic material, between being highly revealing and chosen for its lightweight and durable warm, making for a thoroughly properties. Internally it packs fi xed engaging cartridge. Listening to Syd neodymium magnets and it uses Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs, lead an elliptical stylus of the nude guitar notes in the instrumental Picking up the pace with REM’s type, whereby the whole stylus section sound sharp but never harsh, Green album shows it is equally is a solid diamond that’s bonded with chords struck fi rmly before capable when letting its hair down. to the cantilever. reverberating with natural echo. Turn You Inside-Out makes a grand At 18mm, it has a tall body so it’s Its soundstage is expansive left to entrance that’s full of impact and worth checking that your arm can be right and it also possesses a great deal depth, while the guitars are cranked DETAILS adjusted to accommodate its height of talent for bringing instruments up with raucous energy, without and VTA. Once at the right height, within it to life. On Eric Robinson’s becoming too hard edged when PRICE £325 its rectangular body and threaded World of Music version of La Traviata the volume heads north. WEBSITE mounting holes make it easy to align, it really plays to how the piece moves Bass, meanwhile, is incredibly henleydesigns. although its output pins could do with from quiet passages to louder sections well articulated and evenly co.uk being more widely spaced to make with great effect, pulling us into the presented without ever sounding REVIEWED wiring up a bit easier. music. Each instrument gets the space overly emphasised or rolling off too HFC 389 to let its notes grow, which it knits early, making the Ortofon’s presence OUR VERDICT Sound quality together into a cohesive whole, and detail felt without becoming A few bars into Little Dragon’s revealing a highly measured and overwhelming on more demanding Nabuma Rubberband reveals just how neutral presentation. bass-heavy music ●

112 YEARBOOK 2014

Dz –‘™•ˆ‡™‡“—ƒŽ• ƒ†‹–Š‡•‡˜ƒŽ—‡ ‘• ‹‘—•†ƒ›•ƒ‡• ‹–ƒ’‡ƒ”ŽƒŽ‘•– Stereo 60 MkIII M KT150 Integrated Amplifier „‡›‘†’”‹ ‡dz ‘› ”‡‰‘”›

In 1958 GEC introduced the KT88 probably the best ever Hi Fi valve. For 52 years it reigned supreme. Then came the Tung Sol KT120. Bigger and better, with more power to suit the demanding loudspeakers of today. Now we are announcing the arrival of the KT150 bigger still, but more refined. In recent months we have been working to get the best out of this fabulous new tube and we think it is simply astonishing! Single Ended, Ultralinear and Triode. As a company run by Hi Fi enthusiasts we regularly evaluate our amplifiers to ensure they are the best of their kind. Whilst we do not make changes for change sake, if we can make a significant improvement to the sound quality and reliability we will do so. The new MK III version of the Stereo 60 now comes with several improvements in sound and performance, and build quality. This is our biggest integrated amplifier. It is ideal for someone wanting a very dynamic fast sound. It has a big power supply, big output transformers, and uses the excellent new KT120/KT150, and comes with many features. An excellent alternative to a transistor amplifier, the ST60IIIm will deliver the finest detail of modern recordings in a more vivid way and present jazz and rock music without harshness. Two Amplifiers in One. The importance of Triode The triode sound is preferred by many hi fi fans, although the power is lower in the ST60 is still ample for all but the most demanding levels. Ignored or neglected in the past we gave equal priority to the triode function so the full quality is maintained. With our UL/Triode switch you can change from 80 watts to 40 watts of pure triode sound at the flick of a switch. Now with “Easy Bias” Meter We think of our amplifiers as musical instruments. Like a piano needs occasional tuning, big amplifiers need the bias checking. This way you can be sure of 100% performance all of the time. Simple with our “easy bias” meter. If the pointer is in the “black” it’s correct! Also useful to check if your valves are worn or faulty. Long term performance is important to us and this useful aid will take the guesswork out of maintaining your amplifier. Attractive Valve cover Most valve amplifier covers look as though they were done as a cost saving after thought, and don’t exactly enhance the look of the amplifier. They are rarely seen in advertisements. We think that something you will use every day should look attractive. That’s why we use 18 pieces of laser cut Perspex assembled with a further 20 precision components. See picture on our website.

Our new series of “Low Distortion Tertiary” output transformers are the best we have ever made, enabling us to reduce global feedback by about 40%. All our amplifiers are designed and finished in Leicester. Warranty and service is done by the engineers that designed them so you can be sure of long term performance. We incorporate a “standby” switch in order to protect those precious cathodes from damage until they have warmed up. All of our amplifiers are hand made using “point to point” soldering without using printed circuit boards. We are convinced this sounds better. It allows for very easy servicing, upgrades and modifications. Remote controlled volume included for fine tuning your listening. High quality components are used throughout including an “ALPS” volume control, silver plated PTFE audio cable SCR capacitors audiophile resistors. A choke regulated power supply adds a richness to the sound quality that silicon devices alone cannot do. Recording loop included. In short we have created an amplifier of excellent flexibility and quality which retains the qualities traditional of traditional design and performance. Bespoke upgrades available including silver/copper capacitors, valves and design. (*Excluding EL34) Buy through your dealer or direct from us, free delivery, 30 home trial, part exchange welcome. Choosing any Hi Fi component never easy. As long established company you can trust our advice and service. Icon Audio have one of the biggest and most respected ranges of amplifiers from our 1w HP8 to our 150w MB150. See our website for more. Ring or email for sales and service. We sell and fit a wide range of valves and upgrades. Dealers throughout the UK and the World.

www.iconaudio.com [email protected] (+44) 0116 2440593 Leicester UK PHONO STAGES

Graham Slee Gram Amp 2 SE

A JFET OP-AMP design, the Slee With Daft Punk’s Random Access uses Graham’s own ‘FastActive’ EQ Memories it immediately gets to circuit, which is said to bring more work with the layered percussion, accuracy to the music than passive surrounding it with plenty of air and or more traditional active circuits. binding its beat together, so that notes The Special Edition is the second follow on from each other cohesively, model in Slee’s four-strong moving facilitating the fl ow of the music. It magnet range, adding more gain doesn’t force proceedings and instead with such consistency, especially than its entry-level £180 lets the musical detail do the talking during her more powerfully sung Communicator sibling. It can be to get your attention. The way the sections. The Slee’s bass is very upgraded with the £185 PSU1 piano notes are given time and space impressive, but refl ecting its relaxed power supply, to use in place of the to ring effortlessly within the nature it’s not as controlled as the supplied switched mode ‘green’ 24V soundstage is really quite captivating. Rothwell Rialto. This aspect of its DETAILS DC wall wart. As well as a range of Between the tracks, surface noise is performance doesn’t overshadow the PRICE dedicated MC phono stages, Slee more obvious through the Slee than Slee’s virtues by any means, but it’s £260 also offers a £640 Elevator EXP MC the Rega (opposite), especially within worth partnering it with a cartridge TELEPHONE step-up transformer, to be used in the gaps of our Unhalfbricking LP, that has plenty of grip to balance 01909 568739 conjunction with its MM stages when although once the music begins this things out. WEBSITE running low output MC pick-ups. becomes unnoticeable. And once the Overall, the Gram Amp offers a level gspaudio.co.uk Slee sets Sandy Denny’s vocals free of musical enjoyment beyond what its REVIEWED HFC 381 Sound quality from our speakers, this is even more price tag suggests. Instead of being Out of the box, this has a very of a distant memory. The Slee gifts overly analytical, it’s warmer and OUR VERDICT ‘analogue’ sound that’s almost Denny’s voice with a softness that more relaxed in nature, which will valve-like in its nature. other phono stages struggle to match fl oat many analogue lovers’ boats ●

Musical Fidelity M1 LPS

WHAT YOU SEE here is basically Musical Fidelity’s ViNL sans all the fancy bits. This means the cartridge loading and gain switching facilities are gone, along with the backlit dot-matrix display; in its place is a simple MM/MC selector. The new Daft Punk’s Get Lucky is a joy, with a things together nicely, while letting LPS offers fairly standard cartridge decently wide and open sound. Bass the music fl ow. It separates out all loading and gain settings; our is taut and lithe, although you’d never the performers well, rendering all measurements show the former to be call it generous, midband is nicely strands of the mix skillfully and 47kohm and 100ohm for MM and MC detailed and intricately etched and showering the listener with detail. respectively. Our measured input treble is crisp and open – albeit just a Soundstaging is impressive, with DETAILS sensitivity is a catholic 8.41mV for little less sparkly than some rivals. better depth perspective than some MM and 1.0mV for MC. So the Musical The tonal balance is pretty even, price rivals. PRICE £300 Fidelity box will work with most with everything well proportioned, In absolute terms, it has a slightly TELEPHONE modern moving magnets or coils. but it veers ever so slightly to the processed and mechanical quality 0208 9002866 smooth side – which is absolutely as it compared with the best £1,000 WEBSITE Sound quality should be with a phono stage of this phono stages. But at the price, its musicalfidelity.com The LPS sounds oh-so-clean. There’s price. That means you can spin up competency is unsurpassed and it REVIEWED vanishingly low noise, no audible some pretty forward discs, such as falls into none of the traps its rivals HFC 379 hum and a lovely open soundstage, Deodato’s Night Cruiser, and not be do – it has low noise and no funny OUR VERDICT which is allowed to come out and assaulted by the large amounts of technical issues. If you’re after a well show itself the second you drop the treble energy from those perfectly made, user-friendly, fi ne-sounding needle on the record. played brass stabs. The LPS keeps budget phono stage, this is it ●

114 YEARBOOK 2014 PHONO STAGES

Rega Fono MM

RESPLENDENT IN ITS case with glowing logo, Rega’s Fono MM is a dedicated moving magnet-only design, so those who favour low output moving coil cartridges will have to look elsewhere. Its EQ circuits are part active, part passive with the active element the centre of the soundstage to well across all of the little nuances that reserved for low-frequency duties and wide of the speaker plane. Another are buried in the mix. Compared passive for high frequencies. Rega has string in its bow is its penchant for with the Slee and Rialto here, the kept the PSU output impedance low bringing out the rhythm of the music. Rega isn’t quite as full bodied and and the Fono enjoys trickle down Daft Punk’s melodies bounce along ultimately lacks the same levels of tech from its more costly MM/MC at a pace and the Fono seems to revel impact, but its bass control is much input-sporting Aria phono amp. Its in picking up the tempo when the tighter than the Gram Amp 2. rear plugs are close together, which chorus kicks in. Get Lucky also For less than 200 sheets of your makes fi tting over-sized RCA exposes its particular brand of bass, hard-earned cash, the Fono gives DETAILS connectors a bit awkward. which isn’t there in abundance, but you a grown-up sound that’s PRICE the bottom end that the Rega does transparent and with a dash of £198 Sound quality possess is controlled and without any verve. It is blessed with a bubbly WEBSITE The Rega’s audio personality is tendency to boom. energy that should be a welcome rega.co.uk focussed around opening a window Compared with similarly priced rival tonic for budget or dull-sounding REVIEWED HFC 381 into musical detail, meaning that offerings, the Fono MM’s upper bass vinyl front ends craving a bit more it offers refi ned sound with a wide and midrange are more evenly life. In absolute terms it doesn’t have OUR VERDICT soundstage. During Vivaldi’s Four balanced in the great scheme of the sonic authority of its more costly Seasons more intense sections it things, which helps Fairport rivals, but it’s still an accurate and allows the instruments to spread from Convention’s Unhalfbricking get highly entertaining performer ●

Rothwell Rialto

BOASTING SEVEN POWER melody, anticipating the band’s next supply fi ltering stages, three Class A move. Hearing music through the gain stages and discrete transistors, Rialto shifts our reviewer’s focus and the Rialto is claimed to be better we fi nd myself concentrating less on designed to work with the ultra-low the boundaries of the soundstage signal levels of moving coils, when it creates and more on what’s compared with op-amps circuits. happening within it. The way it Moving magnet and moving coil allows Daft Punk’s keyboards to run circuits are fi xed at 47kohm and up and down the frequency spectrum 100ohm respectively. The Rialto’s with real freedom draws us in as power source is via a supplied 24V our ears chase the notes around its DC wall wart, which Rothwell says sonic landscape. Sandy Denny’s voice with delicacy isn’t worth upgrading thanks to the Nevertheless with REM’s Automatic combined with similar tonality and extensive power supply fi ltering For The People, the soundstage is body to the Slee’s rendition of that’s already installed. as deep as it is panoramic and it Fairport Convention’s Unhalfbricking. DETAILS has a fl air for knowing when to let The Rialto really gets across Denny’s PRICE £380 Sound quality instruments come to the fore and beguiling talent to swing from TELEPHONE Opening up with the pumping shine within the mix to bring the intimate to powerful within the same 01204 366133 rhythms of Daft Punk’s Instant Crush music to life. breath. As it’s more expensive than WEBSITE tells us that this phono stage will It fairs particularly well through its most rivals and rather plain looking, rothwellaudio take some beating. The dynamic MC circuits, which give nothing away it needs to work harder than most to products.co.uk swings of the percussion sound to its MM input and better them in justify its cost. But across both MM REVIEWED effortless and possess more oomph some respects, especially with more and MC inputs it proves to be an HFC 381 than most rivals. Despite hearing orchestral material. With vocals the enthralling all-round performer that’s OUR VERDICT this track repeatedly, we fi nd Rothwell is an equally capable sonically able to compete with phono ourselves foot-tapping along to the performer, for example it replays stages at twice the price ●

YEARBOOK 2014 115 HEADPHONES

Beyerdynamic T90

THIS HEADPHONE IS among the outset. The word that keeps the second tier of Beyerdynamic’s cropping up in the listening notes is extensive range. It is an open-back “smooth”, but this is rather deceptive design built around a pair of and does the T90 something of a dynamic drivers utilising a feature disservice. The presentation is the company describes as using extremely well controlled, which ‘Tesla’ technology. This uses a strong means that there is absolutely no magnetic current to motivate the trace of noise or harshness to it. The with the more up-tempo driver, which in turn is lighter – and result is a headphone that manages to performances that makes this more responsive. handle pretty much everything that headphone a compelling listen. There are some minor black marks, you can throw at it. None of this comes at the expense though. The 3m cable is captive and As well as this control, it also has an of a believable and accurate tonal makes do with a standard plastic exceptionally spacious presentation presentation, though. Max Richter’s DETAILS moulding where it joins the earpad that allows for a completely Recomposed is presented with PRICE and there is further visible (and, convincing performance of even very absolute conviction and every £500 therefore, vulnerable) cable between sizeable recordings, while sounding instrument has the space it needs and TELEPHONE the housing and the headband. suitably intimate with smaller ones. a tangible weight and decay to the 01444 258258 The way that it handles Kraftwerk’s strings. This is equally apparent with WEBSITE polaraudio.co.uk Sound quality Minimum Maximum is particularly Nirvana’s Come As You Are and it does REVIEWED The T90 is a pretty sensitive impressive with a vast, detailed and a better job than many at opening out HFC 388 headphone and requires more power immersive soundstage. The bass dense and aggressive recordings. It than most to reach our test level. response is equally accomplished with might not be cheap, but the consistent OUR VERDICT Having achieved this, though, it plenty of power and authority to it. ability it shows across all genres and makes a strong case for itself from There is also a sense of excitement recording qualities is a class apart ●

Grado SR125e

PART OF GRADO’S latest series, with bass, but this isn’t to suggest that the SR125e has the classic styling and its limited in the lower frequency hallmarks of the brand that make it range in any way. It has a pleasantly instantly recognisable. The usual extended response that digs out chunky foam pads cover large oodles of low detail on Elbow’s cabinets housing the 40mm dynamic version of Peter Gabriel’s Mercy Street, drivers, bold branding on each and you’re not left wanting in the earpiece and a slim headband that bass department. all adds up to the yesteryear look The SR125e isn’t tweaked for big and feel that divides opinion. dynamics and can sound a little restrained at times. This characteristic Sound quality could also be described by some as DETAILS These cans are much better utilised having warmth, and aids the Grado’s PRICE for home listening, via the supplied suitability for longer listening, suitability for use on the move or £150 6.35mm adaptor, although their open meaning that before you know it a home listening. Its musicality is TELEPHONE nature means that they let in external couple of hours have slipped by. It’s undeniable, but despite the 3.5mm 0279 501111 noise and you’ll need some peace and easily done, and Laura Mvula’s vocals jack plug fi tment, the bulky cord, WEBSITE quiet to enjoy them at their best. on Live With Metropole Orkest wash sound leakage and styling are grado.co.uk The SR125es produce a nicely over us in an effortless way as the unlikely to make them desirable for REVIEWED balanced frequency response that open and airy sound places us slap on the move use. Even at home HFC 389 allows you to sit back and enjoy the bang in the concert hall in a prized you’ll need a quiet spot to enjoy OUR VERDICT music without it becoming fatiguing. front row seat. them at their best, but compromises Unlike some fashion-lead models, this The SR125e is something of a are worthwhile for such good headphone isn’t going to swamp you dichotomy when it comes to its performance at the price ●

116 YEARBOOK 2014 HEADPHONES

JBL Synchros S700

WITH A STATE of the art look musical joie de vivre that neither of and feel, the S700 has iDevice the aforementioned rivals quite functionality and built-in LiveStage attain. It’s bouncy, fast and musically DSP which the company says engaging, making it fun to listen to. “delivers a more realistic sound Much of this comes from the excellent experience”. This feature is made bass, which is very strong but never possible by its own internal Li-ion overblown, and tight and punchy. battery, rechargeable by USB in Although the balance is a little bassy around two hours, although you can compared with some, you don’t get run it in passive mode. It comes the sense that it detracts from the rest supplied with a USB charging cable of the music. and two audio cables with an inline The midband is fairly transparent, remote control and mic (one for iOS it succeeds mostly through its lithe punchy, but it does sound a tad and one for Android). We fi nd it handling of leading edges, which artifi cial and can bring about some DETAILS manages about 15 hours in powered gives the S700 a peppy feel. It’s pretty odd phasey effects with some music, PRICE mode before it needs recharging. dynamic too, compressing things less as well as adding a bit of upper £300 than similarly priced rivals. Treble is midband glare. It works nicely with TELEPHONE Sound quality good – crisp, extended and spacious. low bit-rate MP3s, livening them up, 01707 278113 In passive mode, this is a clean and Generally speaking you wouldn’t call but audiophiles will be happier with WEBSITE crisp sounding headphone, with a it particularly refi ned up top, but it it switched off. uk.jbl.com strong bass and a lively, engaging works well enough. For example, hi Overall, this is an enjoyable REVIEWED HFC 383 midband. It doesn’t have the hat cymbals have their distinctive headphone that’s versatile and refi nement and sophistication of the metallic ‘zing’ but don’t grate like beautifully built and presented. OUR VERDICT Philips Fidelio X1, or the intimacy of some Grados. The LiveStage DSP Anyone thinking that just because the Sennheiser HD650s, for example, is less successful. It can make some it’s active it can’t succeed in purist but what it does have is an infectious music sound bigger, wider and more hi-fi terms may well be surprised ●

Shure SRH1840

TRADITIONALLY KNOWN AS balance of realism and excitement. a manufacturer of high-end Detail retrieval is very good indeed earphones, the SRH1840 represents and even extremely subtle nuances something of a departure for Shure. can be picked out of the performance. The open-back design is built around Everything sounds convincing and a pair of 40mm neodymium drivers well proportioned, but there is a sense that are pair matched by hand. It is of life and excitement that makes supplied with replacement pads and Emily Barker’s Reckless enjoyable a 2.1m detachable cable. The build rather than just a reference exercise. quality is excellent too and The sense of space that the Shure everything has been assembled with generates is also truly exceptional. a view to it lasting a long time and The large scale Recomposed by Max The Achilles’ heel appears with being easy to sort out and repair if it Richter is given all the space it needs Nirvana’s Come As You Are, which isn’t goes wrong. As an open-back design, and when you combine this with the fl attered by the accuracy and detail it leaks a lot of noise but given that very high levels of comfort, you have that the SRH1840 can extract. It’s DETAILS Shure has the closed-back SRH1540 a headphone that can really perform presented as a dense and confused PRICE at the same price, there is a more in a way that allows you to forget that mass of voices and instruments £467 suitable portable option. you are wearing it. This effortless largely because it is. Shure hasn’t TELEPHONE presentation is underpinned by bass completely set aside its pro audio 01992 703058 Sound quality that while not as seismic as the heritage, which means the more WEBSITE The Shure is not especially sensitive, Beyerdynamic opposite, is detailed, forgiving Beyerdynamic is the better shure.co.uk but doesn’t place any undue clear and seamlessly integrated with all rounder. It is hard to ignore the REVIEWED demands on the Chord Hugo we use the upper registers. The SRH1840 is SRH1840’s ability to disappear with HFC 388 to reach the test level. Once there, also able to be driven to high levels some material and depending on your OUR VERDICT it demonstrates generally excellent without displaying any signs of listening preferences, this is a must performance. There is an impressive hardening up or aggression. audition and a mighty fi ne effort ●

YEARBOOK 2014 117 HEADPHONE AMPLIFIERS

Fostex HP-A4

THIS COMPACT BUT well-made headphone amplifi er supports DSD 5.6MHz and PCM 16-bit or 24-bit from CD-quality 44.1kHz up to 192kHz sampling frequencies. Apart from the 6.35mm headphone socket, the front panel has a smooth volume control potentiometer and an array of four push buttons to select the source, a switchable fi lter, low or high gain and audio output selection. There is also a line of LEDs DETAILS to show power and input audio own a PC. When connected, the unit When we connect the HP-A4 to our PRICE stream data rates. appears as another audio device PC, we discover that there is bags of £269 The rear houses the USB, a pair of in Windows. However, to take volume for our headphones and there TELEPHONE RCA phono sockets, a pair of Toslink advantage of the higher resolution is a very noticeable improvement in 03301 222500 optical connectors for digital input replay of the unit over standard quality when playing test fi les at the WEBSITE and output and, uniquely, a microSD 16/44 CD-quality, Fostex has higher resolutions. Beethoven’s Piano scvdistribution. card slot for upgrading the fi rmware. developed an audio player that Concerto No. 3 at 24/192 resolution, co.uk integrates nicely with the HP-A4. for example, simply sparkles with REVIEWED HFC 387 Sound quality This player is a standalone application effortless clarity and fullness. All in Although the unit is ‘plug and play’ that doesn’t need to be installed on all, this is a quite superb performer OUR VERDICT when used with a Mac, a driver is the PC – you just run it and load your that renders very compelling required for use for those of you that hi-res fi les into it to play them. performances from a PC ●

Oppo HA-1

LESS THAN A year after the excellent PM-1 headphones were released, Oppo has its own matching DAC/preamp/headphone amp. The HA-1 borrows a good deal of circuitry from Oppo’s Blu-ray decks including the ESS 9018 Sabre32 DAC and digital fi lter chip. Although touted comparison – but it packs vastly more shows how well suited the unit is to as a “high performance headphone functionality in for the money, so it’s the task of driving them. They make amp”, it doubles as a USB DAC, stereo not strictly a fair comparison. a very nice noise with Malcolm preamp with Bluetooth streaming. In When you switch in the DAC section, McLaren’s Waltz Darling, which is short, it’s packed with facilities. things begin to hot up. 808 State’s a captivating listen when on some DETAILS Pacifi c State comes over with a systems it can sound a little murky. Sound quality surprising degree of bass weight, and The Oppo combo scythes through PRICE £1,199 We fi rst audition the HA-1 as an oodles of detail. It’s easy to hear that the mix brilliantly, with a blisteringly TELEPHONE analogue preamplifi er via its RCA line trademark ESS Sabre sound; you get a fast yet relatively refi ned rendition 0845 0609395 inputs, where we fi nd it offers plenty high precision render of the recording, of the song. It carries the attack of WEBSITE of detail and insight, with a smooth, with its many dense layers. It’s an the electronic percussion in all of oppodigital.co.uk sophisticated and fairly neutral sound explicit rather than a romantic sound, its glory, and sounds wonderfully REVIEWED quality considering its price point. and gives a seat-of-the-pants listening propulsive and fun. An excellent HFC 390 Sonically via line in you can do rather experience. Added to this is that solid match to one of the best pairs of OUR VERDICT better with several all-analogue bass, which punches things along. headphones on the market, if you preamps at this price – it can sound Using the HA-1 as a headphone own the Oppo PM-1 you would be a little mechanical and opaque by amplifi er with Oppo’s PM-1 cans foolish to overlook the HA-1 ●

118 YEARBOOK 2014 PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYERS

Astell & Kern AK240

THE DEFINING FEATURE of this download of Vaughn fl agship portable player is the extra Williams’ Fantasia On A XMOS processor, which provides Theme By Thomas Tallis, the native DSD support at both 2.8MHz marginal drop off in overall and 5.6MHz. There’s enough space to clarity is more than accommodate 350 hours of music at compensated for by 24/96 resolution, plus a microSD a profoundly elegant card slot for a further 128GB of and beautifully timed storage. It’s made from premium- performance. The player quality materials and a rather lovely takes the variation in leather case is supplied. loudness within the piece in its stride, with no danger of Sound quality distortion during the crescendo. and polish that transports you to Using unbalanced Audio-Technica Changing pace with an AAC the recording studio. It’s not as DETAILS headphones DSD playback is music download from iTunes of Martin fi nely detailed as top-fl ight DSD, PRICE to our ears. Vivaldi’s La Stravaganza Garrix’s Animals, the AK240 again but makes the CD version seem £2,200 Concerto in D Minor Opus 4 no 8 is serves up the audiophile goods. The muddy and strained. The punch TELEPHONE 0208 2008282 an incredibly decisive and utterly bass is meaty and powerful and the in Sledgehammer makes Vitali WEBSITE unblemished sound. The cellos are so mids and highers of the synth are Klitschko’s upper cut seem more like unlimited.com clean and dynamic it feels as if they belted out with such gusto and a slap from Charles Hawtrey. astellnkern.com are playing inside your head and their tightness that you can happily crank Operationally it’s not perfect, but REVIEWED terrifi c verve and energy almost lifts up the volume without fear of aural the AK240’s ability to take medium- HFC 387 you off the fl oor, while the violins fatigue setting in. resolution fi les and squeeze every OUR VERDICT sound sweeter than a summer Linn’s 24-bit/48kHz studio master last drop of sonic goodness out of pudding served with clotted cream. download of Peter Gabriel’s Don’t Give them (plus its native DSD playback), Dropping to a 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC Up with Kate Bush has a cleanliness makes it a truly wonderful player ●

Sony NWZ-F886

LOOKING AND FEELING more Claire Martin’s 24/192 I’m Gonna like a smartphone than a Walkman, Laugh You Right Out Of My Life is the NWZ-F886 runs on version detailed and smoother than an otter 4.1 of Google’s Android operating in Speedos. The tonality is neither system and offers compatibility with bright nor warm, but totally neutral WAV, AIFF, FLAC and ALAC fi les up with Martin’s spine-chillingly husky to 24-bit/192kHz as well as sporting vocals combining sumptuously with an S-Master HX digital amplifi er, Richard Rodney Bennett’s deftly which Sony claims will reduce noise tinkled ivories. The electric guitar in and distortion and is optimised for Meshell Ndegeocello’s 24/96 Please HD tracks. Lower bit-rate fi les are Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood boosted by so-called Digital Sound shimmers sublimely, perfectly Enhancement Engine (DSEE) HX complimenting the haunting technology. There’s built-in noise keyboards and seductive vocals. reduction that (only) works with The utterly familiar sound of Bob DETAILS the supplied in-ear headphones Marley singing Could You Be Loved PRICE and 32GB of built-in fl ash memory, is proof of how benefi cial hi-res by the Manic Street Preachers simply £250 which is enough capacity for around audio is to portable music, the 24/96 not yielding as much detail. Still, TELEPHONE 180 tracks of approx four minutes download from Linn is a simple blend standard-resolution stuff is on a par 0845 6000124 duration at 24/192. Drop that to of percussion, guitar and haunting with an Apple iPhone 5. WEBSITE 96kHz and the capacity rises to 350. vocals that reveals a rhythm and We're not huge fans of the fi ddly sony.co.uk energy that makes the MP3 version operating system and the capacity is REVIEWED Sound quality sound utterly fl at and unengaging. limited in terms of storage and HFC 381 The NWZ-F886 does a superb job Switching to standard resolution battery life when used with hi-res OUR VERDICT sonically with the supplied there’s no hiding the drop off in material, but both are forgivable in earphones. With the EQ set fl at, clarity, with I Miss The Tokyo Skyline the face of such good performance ●

YEARBOOK 2014 119 CABLE LOOM

Black Rhodium Symphony Chrome/Twirl

his British brand has been Rhodium loom is very well balanced DETAILS is certainly a very good all rounder. around for many years – whereas some other cables we’ve One thing the panel does agree on PRICE T now, and has proved tested manage to deliver either a light £341 is that it seems to work better with popular for its fi ne, honest bass, or an overblown one that is ORIGIN jazz and classical tracks. The treble sound quality and strong value for plodding and/or semi-detached from UK smoothness and the lack of stridency money. The Symphony is a well the rest of the frequency range. FEATURES across the midband, allied to a known mid-price cable that uses “Unlike many others, the bass is three ● Interconnect: generally lyrical feel and an open silver-plated copper a double core, screened design. As dimensional,” one panellist puts it, conductors, nature appear to really fl atter more with many cables at its price point, by which they mean it has a good PTFE dielectric mellow music. On more densely silver-plated copper conductors are timbre and integrates well with the ● Speaker cable: recorded rock tracks such as REM’s copper conductor used, and they’re set inside low-loss music. Across the midband, the song’s with silicon rubber Welcome To The Occupation, the Black PTFE insulation and a silver-plated female vocals are clean, although dielectric Rhodium sounds nicely rhythmic copper braided screen. The a little less warm and inviting than ● Prices: and detailed, but the slightly ‘grey’ interconnect Symphony is then terminated with some other cables we’ve seen. £160/1m, speaker midband seems to make the track good quality chrome RCA plugs. This is picked up on in Julian Lloyd cable £13.50/1m sound slightly opaque. And, “while it Twirl loudspeaker cable completes Weber’s Sunset by one panellist, who unterminated digs deeper into the recording,” notes the Black Rhodium loom. It’s a fairly notes that there isn’t quite enough DISTRIBUTOR one panellist, “it can’t hold on to it”. recent design, a twin core affair, but tonal colour in the midband – it’s Black Rhodium TELEPHONE with a total outer diameter of 6.4mm described as “a bit samey”. Still, the 01332 342233 Conclusion (3.2mm per core). Silicone rubber Black Rhodium has a good deal of This is a very fi ne performer and WEBSITE insulation is used, and the wire is detail, as you can really hear the bow blackrhodium.co.uk decent value for money. It gives a very carefully checked for directionality, work, which is described as “really REVIEWED fi ne, enjoyable sound considering its then twisted along the length of the convincing”. Indeed, this panellist HFC 387 rather modest price ● cable – the manufacturer claims this considers its bass warmth, midband prevents any loop aerial effect. detail and clean treble to be “the best Double thickness insulation is fi tted, combination of everything”; this loom and our Twirl has rhodium-plated Z OUR VERDICT plugs (£100) – gold-plated SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Clear, powerful Z plugs are an option at £50. and musical sound yet smooth too Sound quality VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Midband is not quite as sweet as This loom is well received by our some rivals BUILD QUALITY blind listening panel. It presents a WE SAY: Highly generally powerful sound that is large convincing performer at the price in scale. It proves quite distinctive FEATURES tonally, with the bass being a major facet of what makes its sound so good OVERALL – its power, roundness and timbre is remarked upon by the panellists. Listening to Lorde’s Royals the Black

120 YEARBOOK 2014 CABLE LOOM

QED Reference Audio 40/Signature Revelation

ike so many interconnects, accomplished at almost every facet DETAILS lots of detail too, with the keyboard the Reference Audio 40 is a of the music, and makes things look backing track coming through from PRICE L silver-plated copper affair, rather easy. £242 the second verse, where previously arranged in a special “Everything is joined up,” says one ORIGIN it had been submerged. Tonally the complementary way – the two panellist, and so it proves. Lorde’s UK QED isn’t the warmest or most conductors have different diameters, Royals plays better than it has through FEATURES sumptuous loom ever, but it is very and this is said to give an alternative most others we’ve tested. Although ● Interconnect: even and transparent and doesn’t silver-plated copper path for high-frequency audio signals not necessarily the warmest or most with foamed seem to be trying to add or subtract to avoid time smear. The foamed expansive performance, it just seems polyethylene anything much. This means that it’s polyethylene dielectric is claimed to to gel the bass with the rest of the dielectric likely to work well with a wide range ● Speaker cable: reduce the amount of signal lost to music – which is something several silver-plated copper of systems. Moving on to Duke cable capacitance. QED’s Analoc plugs others have failed to do. conductor with Ellington’s Wabash Blues the pattern are fi tted and are said to be a low eddy It doesn’t sound too steely in the Teflon dielectric continues. One adoring panellist ● Prices: current design with copper used midband, giving a nice smooth sound interconnect describes it as, “good bass rhythm and instead of brass. They feature an to female vocals, and treble is crisp £100/1m, speaker control, nice, cohesive, great sound, outer locking cylinder that needs to and fi nessed. Musically the loom cable £17/1m head and shoulders better”. be screwed forward before the plug’s works very well, the beat bouncing unterminated ‘blades’ can be locked onto the RCA along in an enjoyable way. The result DISTRIBUTOR Conclusion Armour Home phono socket, then the locking is a surprisingly easy listen, when Electronics Another of the panellists isn’t quite cylinder needs to tightened back previously it hasn’t made sense. TELEPHONE so enamoured; they fi nd the QED a up for a (very) secure fi t. REM’s Welcome To The Occupation 01279 501111 little too anodyne and bland when The Signature Revelation speaker is described as sounding, “head and WEBSITE playing Julian Lloyd Webber’s cello cable uses 10 silver-plated oxygen-free shoulders better” by one panellist. qed.co.uk work on Sunset. All of which just goes copper central conductors, which are There is a fi ne sense of depth to REVIEWED to show how much taste plays a part, HFC 387 claimed to provide very low resistance what can sound a pretty close and but still this remains a superb result alongside high levels of detail. These claustrophobic mix. One can hear considering its low price ● cores are separately insulated and arranged around a hollow core of polyethylene; QED calls this its Aircore technology and it’s claimed OUR VERDICT to reduce inductance. SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Wonderfully easy yet open and Sound quality engaging sound Before the QED loom, the panellists VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Nothing at have taken a mixed view of the various the price BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: A superb wires played to them. They’ve found cable loom; nothing to positives and negatives, liked some criticise at the price and been lukewarm about others. FEATURES But two out of the three listeners express a strong preference for this set OVERALL of cables, applauding it for its clean, open, even sound that doesn’t try to do anything too clever. Instead it is very

YEARBOOK 2014 121

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CONTRARY TO POPULAR opinion, Pete work regularly on stage with The Who and two to you” sequence remains one of the most Townshend’s famous story of the pinball playing years ago lead singer Roger Daltrey took his own dramatic in rock music. Some of the character “deaf, dumb and blind kid” was not the first ‘rock solo version of Tommy on the road. pieces such as Fiddle About and Cousin Kevin opera’. By the time Tommy appeared in 1969, the These expansive spin-off s have tended to take have proved less enduring and seem clumsily Pretty Things had beaten The Who by a year with the focus away somewhat from The Who’s original constructed to advance the plot. Today words their album, SF Sorrow concept. Nor is it even the 1969 album and this latest deluxe reissue allows a such as groundbreaking and ambitious still apply, Who’s best ‘rock opera’ and most critical opinion welcome opportunity to return to the source in a but overall it’s hard not to conclude that Tommy now recognises Quadrophenia four years later as a freshly remastered edition, augmented with further struggles to live up to the genius tag bestowed more mature and fully realised work. But that said, discs including Townshend’s original demos, upon it at the time. If it is a masterpiece, then it is a there is no denying that Tommy is a landmark full-band studio outtakes and a dynamic live distinctly flawed one. album and represented a new pinnacle of ambition recording of the work from a 1969 concert The bonus material adds an interesting insight that opened up possibilities previously unimagined performance in Ottawa, Canada. into how Townshend grappled with the enormity in rock music at the time. In the years that followed Townshend’s skills as a songwriter ensured that of his ambition and built up the tracks by multiple its release, Tommy became not so much an album the majority of the tracks are capable of standing overdubs featuring not only the power trio of bass, as an industry. A grandiose 1972 version featuring on their own and can be enjoyed outside the drums and electric guitar, but acoustic guitars, the London Symphony Orchestra and Chamber ‘operatic’ concept’. Pinball Wizard, for example, piano, organ trumpet and French horn. The Choir was followed by Ken Russell’s 1975 film. By ranks alongside any of the Who’s early chart singles remastering works hard at creating a warm and the nineties they had been joined by a Broadway as a classic three minute pop song, while the natural tone to the original tracks and the 5.1 stage production. Townshend has also reprised the “We’re not gonna take it/See me, feel me/Listening surround mix on Blu-ray has a sharp clarity. NW

YEARBOOK 2014 125 MUSICREVIEWS

Jan Lisiecki Mussorgsky Chopin Études (Orch Breiner) Op 10 and Op 25 Pictures at an Exhibition; Songs and Dances of Death, The Nursery New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Peter Breiner 0289 479 1039 8 CD Deutsche Grammophon 8.573016 CD or Blu-ray Naxos

THIS NEW RECORDING of the Chopin Etudes by CONDUCTOR PETER BREINER has pulled out 18 year-old Jan Lisiecki – the first on the Yellow all the stops with this hugely imaginative and Label since Pollini’s stunning 1972 eff ort – deserves enjoyable re-orchestration of Mussorgsky’s to be mentioned in the same breath. It has the Pictures. It off ers a rich kaleidoscope of orchestral same eff ortless technical fluency and mastery of colours that reveals the music as never before. detail, while showing slightly greater poetry and Moreover, the arrangement has a distinct Russian tenderness. It’s a commanding interpretation for accent, compared to the Frenchified tones of the one so young. The recorded sound is smooth, more familiar Ravel orchestration. A huge orchestra natural, and very clean. It’s perhaps a wee bit bass is called for (terrific percussion!) culminating in light and lacking in front-to-back depth and 104 musicians for the Great Gate Of Kiev. Climaxes dimensionality, but perfectly good in its own way. expand with ease, making this the perfect disc for Pollini’s old recording was also lacking in amplitude, those with big hi-fi systems that are capable of and this new one is not dissimilar. JH moving a lot of air. JH

Grateful Dead Rebecca Ferguson Sunshine Daydream Freedom

3 CDs plus DVD Rhino CD RCA/Syco ON AUGUST 27, 1972 the Grateful Dead played a show in Venata, Oregon that X FACTOR CONTESTANTS shouldn’t be as good has since attained legendary status as as Rebecca Ferguson. Her’s is a deeply heartfelt voice, able to convey rare depths, passion, empathy the Holy Grail among fans who trade and longing. No small feat for a runner up. She tapes of the band’s concerts. It has tends to stick to R&B themes of men lost and taken more than 40 years to be off icially found, but with a healthy dose of self-worth and released, but the three-hour set justifies inner strength shining through the vulnerability. Her the show’s exalted reputation as every second album features a series of pop soul songs style and genre of American music is all co-written by the lady herself and it’s every bit as strong as her first. The arrangements are polished cosmically transmuted into some of Do you agree with our reviewers? and give her voice plenty of room to breathe. Decide for yourself and listen to the most audacious, freewheeling Standouts include the pumping rhythms of the rock’n’roll ever made. some of this month’s tunes at www.hifichoice.co.uk single I Hope, the quiet defiance of My Freedom The Dead recorded all their concerts and the surging soul power of Fake Smile. DO direct from the soundboard and stored AUDIOFILE VINYL This is perhaps the ultimate must-have Otis Rush Right Place, Wrong Time Dead album – the finest 180g vinyl Bullfrog/PurePleasure show they ever played RECORDED FOR The sound is big thanks to the size of the band CAPITOL in 1971, but and some restraint when it comes to limiting/ everything methodically on 16-track not released until five compression, which is rare for the genre. It was years later, this is recorded at Wally Heider’s San Francisco studio analogue tape in a vast vault. considered a highlight where CSNY, the Steve Miller Band and Painstaking restoration and remastering of Rush’s four decade Creedence Clearwater Revival made some of of the 40 year-old tapes has resulted career and it’s not hard their classic albums. Rush was a consummate in pristine sound. For a band that was to hear why. His style is blues guitarist and singer that much is clear, his always more comfortable on stage than reminiscent of fellow Chicago bluesmen Buddy style was perhaps not quite distinctive enough in the studio, this is perhaps the ultimate Guy and Albert King, with a thin-toned guitar to achieve the prominence of Guy and perhaps must-have Dead album, a celebration sound and plenty of string bending. Much of this there is some truth in the album title, because he album is pacey, rocking blues with backing by deserved to do better. The playing on many of of what many believe to have been the brass, organ, piano and rhythm, all the players of these numbers is first class and on Lonely Man finest show the band ever played. NW which are as solid as you like, I particularly like the and the instrumental Easy Go it’s clearly on a par subtle piano of Mark Naftalin. with the best in class. JK

126 YEARBOOK 2014 HIGH RESOLUTION DOWNLOADS

Laura Mvula The Gloaming with Metropole The Gloaming Orkest Sing To The Moon

ALAC/FLAC 16/44 B&W Society of Sound ALAC/FLAC 24/48 B&W Society of Sound

A MEETING BETWEEN the Mercury Prize THE GLOAMING ARE an odd hybrid of nominee and the hippest orchestra on the traditional Irish folk and New York planet seems like a match made in heaven and experimentalism. To the fore is Martin Hayes’ indeed, so it is. Electronics, chamber strings plaintive violin, ably accompanied by piano, and multi-tracked vocals have been replaced voice, guitar and hardanger fiddle on a series by beautiful arrangements that enhance rather of sean-nós (old style) traditional songs. This than reimagine the originals, which always is no exercise in nostalgia, though, and the five sounded like they were conceived with an master musicians use the old songs as jumping orchestra in mind. A superb interpretation off points to explore new directions and derive of an already wonderful album. DO new depths of emotion. DO

Bach The Six Brandenburg Concertos The Dunedin Consort; John Butt

CDK 430 2 SACDs (CD Compatible) Linn Records

JOHN BUTT AND the Dunedin Consort deliver a lively and very musical account of Bach’s Brandenburgs. Unlike some performances, which set out to emphasise the bizarre and unusual aspects of the scoring, Butt tries to keep the more extreme details in check. He’s aided by a well-balanced recording that sounds rich, warm, and detailed, yet transparent and clear. Each Brandenburg is scored for completely diff erent Each Brandenburg combinations of instruments, so good modern is scored for performances, highlight and celebrate the huge different combos variety of Bach’s music. Common to all six works is of instruments the enthusiasm and vivacity of the playing, and it’s that which makes it special. JH

Bartok BLU-RAY DVD Violin Concertos 1 and 2; Isabelle Faust, The Rolling Stones Swedish Radio Stones in Exile Symphony orchestra, DVD Daniel Harding In 1971 The Rolling Stones HMC 902146 CD Harmonia Mundi left the UK as tax exiles and spent a summer in France THE TWO CONCERTOS for violin by Bartok are writing and recording Exile very contrasting pieces. The early first concerto, On Main Street. This by turns lyrical and ardent then animated and documentary tells the story grotesque, and the mercurial folk-inspired second of the decadence of the concerto each inhabit very diff erent worlds. time interspersed with the songs that ended up Isabelle Faust makes the most of these extremes, on one of their most influential albums. The and one is constantly astonished by the swings of extensive footage and stills give a real flavour mood and variety of pace, especially in the second of the place and time, while extended concerto. She is admirably seconded by Daniel interviews with the band and others fill in the Harding and the SRSO, and Harmonia Mundi’s details that didn’t make the final cut. What’s recording sounds eff ortlessly smooth and refined, most remarkable is how such a shambolic despite a wide dynamic range and some situation resulted in such great music. JK impressive deep bass. JH

YEARBOOK 2014 127 CALL FOR ACTION! 01784 470881

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Uncle Tupelo Alfredo Catalani No Depression: Ero e Leandro The Legacy Edition (Symphonic Poem): Contemplazione; Il Mattino, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, Francesco la Vecchia

Two CD expanded edition Sony 8.573074 CD Naxos

COUNTRY MUSIC BACK in the early nineties was ALFREDO CATALANI IS remembered for just one dominated by Garth Brooks, while on the other side work – the opera La Wally – but he wrote other of the musical coin indie rock was about to be things, including some attractive orchestral pieces. eclipsed by a new movement called grunge. Enter The main work here is a dramatic, richly scored Uncle Tupelo, a bunch of kids from the rust bowls symphonic poem based on the Hero and Leander of Illinois with a debut album that managed to legend. Contemplazione is a rich, slow movement combine the two; wistful melodies accented by that’s very lyrical and ardent, without being heavy mandolins and pedal steel that harked back to or overly serious. The disc ends with Il Mattino a Hank Williams hitched to stinging rock guitars. ‘Sinfonia Romantica’ here receiving its world The album birthed a movement that came to premiere recording. The playing of the Rome be known as alt-country. Now augmented by orchestra is very good and the recording sounds a second disc of demos and out takes, it still excellent, with fine range and detail allowing you sounds invigoratingly fresh and bold. NW to savour the subtleties of Catalani’s scoring. JH

Ry Cooder Ann Peebles 1970-87 I Can’t Stand The Rain

11 CD box set Rhino CD Fat Possum BEFORE HE BECAME a world music convert and began working with African ANN PEEBLES’ URGENT, impassioned voice is a and Cuban musicians, Cooder was hallmark of classic seventies soul. Backed by the veteran Hi Records rhythm and string sections who the godfather of what we now call saw service with Al Green and OV Wright on their ‘Americana’. This 11-disc set compiles all biggest hits, and produced by legendary R&B of the albums he made during his first mastermind Willie Mitchell, her poised, insistent golden age, an extraordinary journey vocals soared, entreated, scolded and cajoled with that spans blues, folk, R&B, gospel, jazz, equal fervour on a string of hits. Her five classic Hi country, rock, Tex-Mex and Hawaiian Records albums have been re-released and while Peebles’ glorious they all contain gems, 1974’s I Can’t Stand The Rain styles. In eff ect, it’s an encyclopaedic voice is the very embodiment of off ers the best value for money, with at least two primer in indigenous American roots seventies soul solid-gold classics (penned by Peebles and her music, arcane but never academic, and husband Don Bryant) in the title track and I’m always played with intuitive good taste. Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down. DO

An extraordinary Grieg Holberg BLU-RAY DVD journey that spans Suite; Two Elegiac Melodies; Erotik; Springsteen & I blues, folk, R&B, gospel, String Quartet, Bruce Springsteen Australian Chamber EAGLE VISION jazz, country, rock... Orchestra, Richard Cooder was only an average singer, Tognetti Exec produced by Ridley Scott, this is a homage but any vocal shortcomings are more 1877 SACD BIS than compensated by his virtuosic to the high priest of HERE’S AN IMPRESSIVE collection of Grieg’s showmen rock ‘n’ rollers. It’s guitar playing. His 1979 album Bop ‘Til music for string orchestra, very well recorded. The made by and of the people You Drop (included here) was the first disc begins with an arrangement of Grieg’s G Minor who have been influenced digital recording in pop. Interestingly, String Quartet. The full body of strings lends the and inspired by Springsteen. today it sounds decidedly clunky, while music greater colour and a wider range of dynamic It’s more watchable than most rockumentaries the warmth of earlier analogue albums extremes. It also demonstrates the vitality and because of the variety of user content has stood the test of time so that the virtuosity of the players. The popular Holberg suite interspersed with live footage, albeit of variable likes of Into The Purple Valley (1972) is played with impressive vivacity, while the Two quality. There are many three word sum ups Elegiac melodies are suitably emotional. Massed including one old lady’s “happy, handsome and and Chicken Skin Music (1976) sound strings are always a challenge to record and hot”. It’s great viewing even for non fans and as fresh today as when they were reproduce, but BIS has come up with a recording reveals that while Bruce is indeed almighty he’s originally recorded. NW that combines warmth with clarity and brilliance also a fellow human being at heart. JK with sweetness. JH

YEARBOOK 2014 129 The Complete Path to Audio Purity.

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Grace Jones Kirsty MacColl Nightclubbing All I Ever Wanted: The Anthology

Two CD deluxe edition Universal Two CD box set Salvo

FIRST RELEASED IN 1981, Jones’ fifth album was THE TRAGIC DEATH of Kirsty MacColl back in an influential four-to-the-floor dance classic that 2000 robbed British pop of a uniquely perceptive captured the post-disco zeitgeist. Now remastered singer/ songwriter with a rare and delicious wit. In a from the original analogue tapes for the first time in 20 year career she only ever made five albums, but 35 years, it sounds as sophisticated as ever, mixing these generous 43 tracks remind us just how much angular post-punk pop, funk, Georgio Moroder-syle we really miss her as an artist who was never electronica and a reggae tinge supplied by the prepared to repeat herself. rhythm section of Sly & Robbie with the From the eighties new wave of They Don’t Know revolutionary influence of house music, emerging through the poignancy of A New England and, of from Chicago at the time in the productions of course, her fabulous Pogues collaboration on Frankie Knuckles. A second bonus disc adds 12in Fairytale Of New York (surely the best Christmas Frankie remixes and previously unreleased tracks from the record of all time) to her later adventures in Latin Goes To original sessions. NW music, there really was nobody quite like her. NW Hollywood Frankie Said Various artists C86

2 CD box set Union Square

A RARE HANDFUL of bands define the CD Cherry Red time and place that spawns them in the ONCE UPON A time there was a thing called ‘indie’ way that Holly Johnson and co came to which roughly translated as skinny white boys symbolise mid-eighties Britain. Their (mostly) who shunned the lure of mammon in music was stylish, opulent and full of favour of artistic integrity, tinny guitars and a indulgent excess, a perfect soundtrack distinctly lo-fi approach to production. for the ‘loadsamoney’ yuppified culture The original C86 was a compilation tape available that Thatcherism had created. But they by mail order from the NME, which sought to provide a snapshot of 1986’s indie scene. reflected wider social concerns too, This re-release triples the original single CD such as sexual liberation (Relax) and Discover for yourself running time with a host of other bands of the era. how skinny white the CND movement (Two Tribes), before boys sounded back At the time, it seemed too disparate to constitute a the group disappeared faster than a in the eighties scene, but now youngsters barely born at the time government majority in a by-election. are rediscovering an era when it was cool to put music ahead of ‘likes’ or units sold. DO The music was stylish, Mozart BLU-RAY DVD opulent and a perfect Piano concertos 20 (K466) and 25 (K503), Lou Reed soundtrack to the Transformer & Live at Montreux 2000 yuppified culture Martha Argerich, Orchestra Mozart, Blu-ray EAGLE VISION Claudio Abbado Producer Trevor Horn was a notorious perfectionist and his arrangements The Montreux footage shows 0289 479 1033 6 CDs DG Reed with his words and a ooze with sophistication, as throbbing muscular band, they play 16 disco tracks are infused with orchestral ALTHOUGH SHE HAS a huge repertoire, Mozart tracks – only one of which stabs and rock guitars, all fed through has never figured much in Martha Argerich’s was on the classic album also the ubiquitous eighties Fairlight recordings. She gives a magisterial performance, documented here. There is sampler. The rise of Frankie coincided with many interesting and unusual insights, teasing no footage from the era, but with the emergence of MTV so the out the hidden detail in Mozart’s music. K503 is one we get Reed, Ronson, Bowie and Scott among of his biggest most extrovert concertos, and she is others going over the songs. As Lenny Kaye group’s visual impact became equal to every demand. The demonic K466 is puts it: “Lou brought back portraits form the inseparable from the music. For the first likewise impassioned and powerful, and Argerich wild side”, songs that Dave Stewart considers time this set collects their best singles conveys its strength and pathos with unflinching to be pure poetry and when Reed reads them and remixes with groundbreaking command. The late Claudio Abbado and the you realise that he’s right. Reed says that videos and TV appearances, too. NW Orchestra Mozart are with their distinguished Transformer was “just an album” but it was soloist every step of the way, and DG’s live among the best of its time. JK recordings sound spacious but incisive. JH

YEARBOOK 2014 131 AD TO COME MUSICREVIEWS

Oasis Definitely Maybe: Chasing The Sun Edition

3-CD expanded edition Big Brother Recordings

CAN IT REALLY be 20 years since the Britpop acknowledged as the most inventive and original and ‘new’ masters on off er here. But then the point wars were considered of suff icient cultural British pop auteur since David Bowie, Oasis have of a 20th anniversary reissue is surely not to sound significance for the spat between Oasis and Blur to been dismissed as a one-trick pony who recorded radically diff erent, but to evoke nostalgic familiarity. make front-page news in tabloids and broadsheets seven more-or-less identical albums recycling Listening to Definitely Maybe in 2014 is to alike? Indeed it is, and two decades on the ability ideas borrowed from the Beatles with ever- understand why Oasis connected a new of Oasis and the quarrelsome Gallagher brothers diminishing returns until they broke up after generation to the notion that rock ’n’ roll mattered to court controversy is undimmed; on the another inevitable fight between Noel and Liam in and could define their lives in a way that few bands announcement that the group’s 1994 debut album 2009. There’s something in the criticism. But if they have managed since. From the snarl of the perfect is to be reissued, former lead singer Liam resorted only had one trick, their debut reminds us that for a opener Rock’n’Roll Star and the hedonistic rush of to Twitter to urge Oasis fans to boycott the while at least, the trick was damn near irresistible. Live Forever via the classic riff of Cigarettes and expanded new edition. “How can you remaster something that’s already Alcohol to the heart-rending Slide Away and the He probably said it just to irk Noel, who has raided mastered? Don’t buy into it. Let it be,” Liam sardonic closer Married With Children, there’s not the vaults to augment the original album’s 11 songs Gallagher tweeted. In the narrowest sense, he has a much subtlety. It’s triumphalist and bragging as the with another 33 tracks spread across two further point. The original 52 minute album was brilliantly best, purest rock ’n’ roll so often is. The extras are discs, including demos, live recordings and the produced by Owen Morris to create a sonic palette packed with memorable moments, too, including rather good stand-alone single Whatever. characterised by a swagger, volume and previously unheard acoustic versions of Live History moves at a pace these days and its aggression that surely requires no further tweaking Forever and Shakermaker, an early demo of Half judgement has not been particularly kind to Oasis. – and it will take more acute ears than mine to The World Away recorded in Noel’s hotel room and While Blur’s Damon Albarn has gone on to be detect any significant diff erences between the ‘old’ ace b-sides such as Fade Away and Listen Up. NW

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Dr. John Chromeo Gris Gris White Women

CD Real Gone Parlophone

MALCOLM JOHN ‘MAC’ Rebennack (that’s Dr FOR THEIR FOURTH album, the Canadian electro John to you and I) is best known for his funky New duo have created a tribute to eighties pop funk Orleans R&B piano playing. But his 1968 debut was that could show Daft Punk a thing or two. White a more singular aff air – a weird, psychedelic take on Women is packed full of R&B rhythms, fizzing pop voodoo ritual with Cajun overtones and ghostly, hooks, choppy guitar riff s, rock bombast, bleeping disembodied voices. electronica and a whole lot of fun. The soaring The album’s most famous song, I Walk On falsetto harmonies of opener Come Alive are pure Guilded Splinters was later covered by Paul Weller. Prince. I’m Jealous’ infectious beat counterpoints a Its spooked sound is typical of the album, although tale of a player’s inner feelings, while Beyonce’s li’l much of the rest is even more outlandish and sis Solange pops up for an unshowy cameo on mysterious. The original stereo mix – retained here Lost On The Way Home. This isn’t how the eighties in all its spectacular exaggeration – adds to the were, but in some, slightly better alternative album’s unique and wonderful strangeness. NW universe, it’s how they should have been. DO

Elton John Toumani and Sidiki Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Diabate Toumani and Sidiki Expanded deluxe box set four CDs plus DVD Universal CD World Circuit BY ELTON’S EIGHTH album in 1973 the costumes and the campery were THIS IS THE first joint venture by undisputed getting increasingly outrageous, but the master of the west African harp Toumani with his eldest son and the results are impressive with larger-than-life showmanship was not young Sidiki (23 actually) clearly a chip off the old permitted to get in the way of the block. It’s acoustic kora duels all the way. The burnished songcraft. Goodbye Yellow playing is simply stunning, with lightning-fast Brick Road included some of the most glissandos counterpointed by busy, shifting, poignant songs John ever penned with chameleon rhythms that drive the pyrotechnics lyricist Bernie Taupin. Several had a of each soloist to greater heights. Father and son come Sidiki’s playing tends to be fierce and fiery where cinematic theme, evincing the together for a bit of west African harping his dad’s is more considered, not so showy, but bittersweet taste of Hollywood fame perhaps more evocative and nuanced. The blend led, of course, by Candle In The Wind. is often sensational, with the pair playing to each other’s strengths to create a masterpiece. DO The larger-than-life showmanship was not AUDIOFILE VINYL permitted to get in the Aretha Franklin way of the songcraft Live at Fillmore West 180g vinyl Speakers Corner/Atlantic But the sheer diversity of the original album’s 17 songs is breathtaking. IF YOU’VE EVER keyboards from the inordinately funky Billy The remastering sounds crisp and experienced Joe Preston and drums courtesy of latter-day break lends a souped-up roar to potent Cocker’s Mad Dogs and beat king Bernard Purdie. Add in backing Englishmen you will vocalists from the first church of hot soul, conga rockers such as Saturday Night’s Alright have some idea of what and Cornell Dupree on guitar and you start to get For Fighting. to expect from this 1971 the idea. What that doesn’t tell you is how much Also included are a live Christmas performance by the energy is coming from the audience, they push 1973, show at Hammersmith Odeon, queen of soul. Staged Aretha to new heights of intensity. There’s only a period documentary on DVD, and at the quintessential counter culture venue, it one Franklin original, Spirit In The Dark, but two demos, out-takes and cover versions features an all-star cast playing a variety of great versions, the second with Ray Charles on guest by the likes of Ed Sheeran and Emeli songs some of which would have been vocals. Highlights include Love The One You’re performed by their originators in the same place. With with a far tighter band than CSN and a Sandé, which might appear a little It kicks off with a rendition of Respect that would highly individual version of Bridge Over Troubled overblown, but the material is strong have made Otis proud and which introduces the Water. The sound is thin by the highest standards, enough to bear the load. NW scale of the ensemble: brass with King Curtis, but the soul power is in the top flight. JK

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Sarah Jane Prokofiev Morris Violin Sonatas; Bloody Rain Five Melodies Alina Ibragimova (violin) Steven Osborne (piano)

CD Fallen Angel CD Hyperion

SINCE TOPPING THE charts back in 1986 with the PROKOFIEV’S TWO VIOLIN sonatas have Communards on the hit Don’t Leave Me This Way, received a number of fine recordings over the Morris has sidestepped the mainstream and forged years, but this new coupling goes straight to her own independent path. Her voice is as the top of the list. Ibragimova’s technique is expressive as ever, sounding like a British Nina remarkable; all the more so, because she plays with SimoneS on a set of protest songs about such little or no vibrato, yet hits every note absolutely variedva subjects as child soldiers, homophobia, perfectly in terms of intonation. Like all great artists, honourh killings and political tyranny. Backed by she makes everything sound easy and natural. The a brilliant cast that includes jazz saxophonist Hyperion recording is superlative, being natural CourtneyC Pine and James Brown’s horn man and unexaggerated, yet crisply focused and very Pee-WeeP Ellis, it packs a dramatic punch, often detailed. You feel you can count the hairs on the uplifting,u occasionally harrowing, but always bow, yet somehow the sonic perspective is not passionatep and challenging. NW claustrophobic; despite a fairly close balance. JH

Led Zeppelin The Baroque Era Led Zeppelin IV Deluxe Edition Music by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell, Arne, etc L’Oiseau Lyre Florilegium Series

50 CDs Decca Two CDs Rhino THE EARLY SEVENTIES witnessed a revolution in AFTER THE FIRST three Led Zep the performance of early music. The aim being to albums got the expanded two disc authentically recreate the original sound of the treatment earlier this year, here comes period. And, to add that extra slice of authenticity, the behemoth – the second-biggest the record label itself had to specialise. So in 1974, Decca resurrected its L’Oiseau Lyre label, and selling British album ever, remastered launched Florilegium. It would grow into one by Jimmy Page and augmented by a of the biggest and best labels for authentic second disc that includes previously performances. This is the first of three Florilegium unheard alternative mixes of each of the With 50 discs to boxsets, and it’s devoted to music of the Baroque original album’s eight tracks. The band’s choose from, there’s era. The recordings are good and off er a nice enough Baroque weighty richness and bloom compared to the fifth album, Houses Of The Holy, is music for everyone lighter thinner sound typical of DG/Archiv. There’s simultaneously released in a similarly also the original LP sleeves used for each CD. JH expanded version. But IV was Zep’s So do the ‘new’ versions Prokofiev BLU-RAY DVD Symphonies 3 and 7 of the original tracks Bournemouth Joni Mitchell Symphony orchestra Woman of Heart & Mind/ add anything? Sadly Kirill Karabits Painting With Words and Music the answer is no Blu-ray EAGLE VISION Painting With… is a live Himalayan peak and by comparison its 4137 CD Onyx performance in front of a follow up barely got above the tree line. small audience from 1998 So do the ‘new’ versions of the original THIS IS THE first instalment of a cycle of the 7 in which Joni is joined by tracks add anything to what made the Prokofiev symphonies by Karabits and the BSO, top-notch musicians and original so memorable? Sadly the and it augurs well. The neglected third symphony delivers excellent renditions gets the disc off to an impassioned start, and of post Blues era tracks. answer is no. Battle Of Evermore and highlights the conductor’s care over balancing, and Woman… looks at her life and best-loved Going To California sound disarmingly maintaining clarity, even in quite densely scored albums, revealing a highly intelligent and like the Incredible String Band, while passages. The enigmatic seventh is sensitively dedicated artist who used emotional turmoil as the main diff erence in the fabled played and Karabits brings out its mix of buoyant the source for her song writing. From Graham ‘alternative’ Sunset Sound mix of toughness and resigned melancholy. The Nash through Charlie Mingus and beyond, hers Stairway To Heaven is that it simply recordings sound very open and detailed, with has been a diverse and fruitful career, which excellent clarity and plenty of impact. Tonally, the makes this highly watchable for both fans and sounds muddier. NW sound is a little bright/forward, albeit very clean, newcomers alike. JK though the deep bass could be a bit weightier. JH

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Everybody’s changing

In January HMV closed its doors for the very last time on the world’s largest music store, marking the end of era. Lee Dunkley remembers the greatest flagship store

here are moments that happen along the people coming pot-holed journey through adolescence, as you through the T travel between childhood and adulthood, that permanently open somehow manage to stay fi rmly committed to doors. I’m sure that memory, marked forever as a signifi cant event or day to shoppers must have remember. Recalling the images from such events is often generated their own so clear that you can almost taste or feel the air, as your heat as they excitedly senses must have moved into hyperdrive to ensure you made their way captured every detail around you of the momentous around the store. occasion and locked it away in the memory banks forever. Despite the One such occurrence for me was a visit to London’s overheating and the

Oxford Street during a particularly long summer holiday bustling crowds of of Tupungato/Shutterstock courtesy Picture – the shopping mecca as it was at the time, and still is one of the busiest today. I’m pretty sure the purpose of the trip was for stores on Oxford something other than shopping for records, but it’s pretty Street, the world and much all I can remember about that particular day, and I his wife seemingly am confi dent it was all I had on my mind as our train wanted to visit the pulled into a grubby St Pancras station – this was the biggest music store on eighties and a long time before the clean up and the planet. I remember being fascinated by the number of Sadly Lee will magnifi cent face lift of what is St Pancras station today. different languages or accents I heard while wondering have to make do with smaller At the time Oxford Street was a joy to experience with around, it was truly a melting pot for music-buying fans HMV stores fl agship stores for brands of clothes I’d barely even heard from all over the world. As well as the heat generated by from now on of, as well as the world’s largest record store at Oxford the overwhelming number of punters it was also one of Circus. The grandiose shop was opened in 1986 by Bob the places where the hottest young thing of the day would Geldolf – not yet Sir back then – and occupied more than put in an appearance and perform a couple of songs – 60,000 sq ft over mimed, of course – or spend an hour on a book signing The closure of three fl oors. It was promo. Fans would gather and the store seemed as though HMV’s largest huge and very easy it would burst at the seams at any moment. to lose a day fl icking store marks a sad through the racks Days of our lives day for music fans and racks of vinyl In just 30 short years our purchasing habits have changed albums and 12in unrecognisably – you only need to take a look at any UK singles from bands and artists whose names I hadn’t yet high street to see the evidence of that – but the closure of heard of – musical variety clearly didn’t stretch quite as HMV’s largest record store, on what could be argued is the far as I reckoned in the record stores that I was used to greatest shopping street in the world, marks the end of an visiting in Kettering, and tastes are obviously very different era and a sad day for the thousands of music fans that in Northamptonshire to the more eclectic ones found in have journeyed with the purpose of losing themselves in London. Who knew there was so much unheard of music the store, travelling between fl oors on the escalators. out there? So much to see, to hear, to discover! I read that the former HMV building is being turned into The store covered everything related to music. Literally a Sports Direct. I doubt whether that will attract the same everything. Specialist music departments for classical and kind of enthusiastic shopper as the store previously located jazz had their own soundproofed and air conditioned in that building, or indeed that it will still be a Sports environments, creating an oasis of calm conducive to the Direct store 30 years from now. genre and an air of sophistication away from the buzz and I know it’s not all bad news for the high street, that frenetic energy of the rest of the mostly open-plan store. independent record stores are returning and people are These were also the coolest parts – in terms of temperature still buying vinyl. HMV has 140 stores remaining, which is at least – of the store to hang out in, which was hotter 50 percent of the original number in 2013. There will still than hell at times thanks to an ineffective air conditioning be an HMV on Oxford Street, but smaller and back at its system for a building of its size that seemed unable to cope original historic location. This site has a special story all LEE DUNKLEY Hi-Fi Choice editor with a moderately sunny day and the large volume of of its own ●

YEARBOOK 2014 139 RETRO

Mission control It’s time to turn back the clocks and remember the huge mark that Mission’s superb Cyrus One and Two integrateds made on Britain’s amplifier market

aunched in 1977, Mission socket on the side, a good MM/MC expensive kit,” remembers Cyrus’ fast became a successful phono stage inside and a power technical director Peter Bartlett. “I L loudspeaker manufacturer button to the right of the fascia, that can recall demonstrating the Cyrus with bold, innovative was your lot in terms of frills. Its One against amps costing 10 times designs like the 770, but the company all-discrete transistor design gave a as much, and wiping the fl oor with didn’t take long to get into electronics clean-sounding 50W RMS per channel. them. This was one of a small number and the 776/777 preamplifi er/power From the 778 came the Cyrus One. of hi-fi products that truly changed amplifi er combination was equally Launched in 1984, it shared the same the game at the time. Commercially, radical. It had a DC battery-powered dimensions and much of the chassis, Cyrus amps where intended to make preamp stage and a striking-looking but with a few detail changes. The a fabulous sound with Mission power amplifi er with an iron fascia inhouse styling was virtually identical, speakers for students on a budget.” into which the Mission logo was cast. It was an amazing fl agship product, Its bright and bubbly The chosen One but the company needed something The 30W RMS per channel Cyrus One more mass market, and the 778 sound really suited proved an overnight sensation. It integrated was born. the warm vinyl front offered much of what the far more This sported an equally imaginative, expensive 778 had done, including but rather less fl amboyant half-width ends of the day its superb styling (sadly it lacked its look, said to have been inspired by moving coil phono preamplifi er), the fi rst Sony PCM-F1 video recorder. but this new cheaper integrated had but cost just £130 on launch. In Its fascia was the epitome of a top case made from a NASA- 1984, this was a direct rival to modernist minimalism, using just developed plastic called Nyrol. It NAD’s contender at the time, the three identically sized control knobs was the fi rst Mission product not to 3130, which felt cheaper and more for volume, input source and record have a number, instead being named plasticky, and also had far more source respectively. The latter feature after the Persian king Cyrus the Great. prosaic styling. Champagne corks was novel at the time, and handy in “Initially we wanted to build were popping at Mission then, until an age when home tape recording affordable amps, tuned to bring the orders got ever higher and the was popular. Apart from a headphone the extended hi-fi benefi ts of more company began to struggle to fulfi l

140 YEARBOOK 2014 RETRO

them. “After the fi rst year we realised addition of the PSX really smoothed it MISSION IMPOSSIBLE that we had to reconsider our out and gave it a far more high-end manufacturing processes,” says sound, like a larger pre-power The Cyrus brand of today is an offshoot of Mission, but both companies have Bartlett, “as demand totally amplifi er combination. The Cyrus undergone countless changes since the outstripped our manufacturing Two/PSX sounded more grippy, latter launched in the mid-seventies. Farad capabilities of the time. We duly bolder and had stronger bass – and Henry Azima’s company was a great British success story, but there was no attempted to make them in the Far making it particularly suited to shortage of superstition on their part East but sonic consistency was an the new era of ineffi cient eighties according to ex-MD Peter Bartlett; they issue, so instead we made the loudspeakers like Celestion’s believed odd numbers were lucky, which is why ‘Mission Cyrus’ had seven and five decision to build a state-of-the-art notorious SL6. These would make letters respectively! Loudspeakers proved factory in Huntingdon.” mincemeat of a Cyrus One and made an early success in the seventies, then the It wasn’t surprising that the Cyrus a Two struggle, but the PSX really did Mission Cyrus amplifiers set showrooms alight in the eighties. So much so that in the One sold so well. Compared with its upgrade its capabilities enough to nineties, Mission began acquiring its rivals. rivals it seemed like budget esoterica, countenance far harder loads than The company’s research and development rather than the Creek CAS4040s of Mission’s own loudspeakers. department grew as Quad, Wharfedale, Roksan and other brands were purchased. this world which – although very The team included many specialists worthy sonically – were hardly the The glory days working first on the then-new FEI stuff of high-end hi-fi dreams. Even if For a short period in the mid eighties, technologies and later in NXT Distributed Mode loudspeakers. In 1996 NXT was set it didn’t sound impossibly exotic, the Mission could do no wrong. Peter up as a standalone company that was later One certainly looked it. It was also Bartlett recalls: “People were amazed floated at £1.2 billion; understandably this great fun to listen to; although limited by the ability of this diminutive little dominated the group and it duly sold its ‘non-core’ audio businesses. This saw in outright power and a little light in amp. The Hi-Fi Choice year book had Roksan, Quad and Mission being unloaded the bass, it had a bright and bubbly NAD, Pioneer and other amps listed, between 2001 and 2003, and Peter Bartlett sound that really suited the warm but the Cyrus amps dominated. I buying Cyrus in 2005. He sold most of his vinyl front ends of the day, and the knew of retailers at the time who took stake last year and is now technical director. slightly soft and fuzzy sounding deposits against deliveries in three speakers. Its phono stage was months! Mission became the most each new generation Porsche 911, it excellent, providing a fast, detailed attractive agency to stock and, looked very similar to the old one, but and engaging sound. With CD players although we had every retailer was better in many ways. Both One of the day, it was a little stark and in scheduling six months in advance, and Two models went to superior your face, but modern silver-disc we still could not keep up with diecast aluminium cases, with revised spinners and DACs suit it better now. demand. The glory days of hi-fi !” fascias sporting a new, non-backlit By 1985, the company was making By the end of the decade, Mission Cyrus logo with no mention of hundreds of amplifi ers a month, as began to tweak its baby amplifi ers. Mission to be seen. They also had a well as selling a deservedly popular Both kept their special 70MHz output fl ip-up power switch and tiny round range of loudspeakers. When the devices, but internal components LED pilot lamp, plus a dual-ganged production side stabilised, Mission’s “evolved”, as Peter Bartlett puts it. volume/balance control and next act was to launch the Cyrus Two. The company went through every switchable muting. Selling for £250, it shared its sibling’s element of the circuit design to In 1991, the world said goodbye to dinky size, but was a considerably squeeze the best out of it, without the classic Cyrus One and Cyrus Two, reworked design inside. Power went radically redesigning what was and with it the Mission name on up to 50W RMS per side with double basically an excellent product. electronics altogether. The Cyrus 3 the current-driving capability, a “The Cyrus One and Two models arrived and evolved the design moving coil phono input was incrementally got better and better,” language of its predecessors; arguably reinstated and the disc stage was says Bartlett. In 1986 the amplifi ers it was the purest-looking product tweaked with 11dB improvement to appeared with a backlit Cyrus logo since the 778 and a thing of beauty its signal-to-noise ratio. Like the Cyrus instead of an LED indicator, along with its slightly softened, less angular One, internal construction comprised with the use of a metal case. The big case with beautiful detailing. The a single printed circuit board and moment was in 1990, when the case amp benefi ted from several high-end large toroidal mains transformer. Fast was heavily redesigned; rather like audio engineering concepts such as complementary power transistors the non-ferrous magnesium metal were run in Class AB mode giving chassis, and it also had a remote direct coupled output. Rear control, which was becoming connections continued as upward- essential on any mid-price amplifi er. facing RCA phono sockets – great Selling for £499, it was considerably for access, but a real dust trap! more expensive than the (then) £399 Most interesting about the Mission Cyrus Two, and sounded quite Cyrus Two, though, was its socket for different with a more sophisticated, the £200 external add-on PSX power grown-up nature. The simple, supply. This considerably improved affordable magic of the original the amplifi er’s sound, bringing a Mission Cyrus amplifi ers was gone, much greater sense of ease, depth but lives on in many satisfi ed and smoothness to an already clean customers’ listening rooms; even to and musical performer. The stock this day it’s a fi ne sounding bit of kit. Cyrus Two was something of a fast An original Given that Cyrus continues to service and furious listen, like its older service manual them, bargain hunters looking for a brother, but on steroids, whereas the for the Cyrus One classic amp could do a lot worse ●

YEARBOOK 2014 141

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or opinions of HI-Fi Choice or AVTech Media Ltd. Picture: ©Andreas Meyer The future’s bright The any to mission Mars than more future will transform the Computing power it won’t all beabout manned spaceflights to Mars orthe latest Apple iDevices! Futurologist endeavours of multinationals, like they used to. In the old endeavours ofmultinationals,like theyusedto.Intheold Mars. Nowadays,new‘things’don’t comeaboutfromthe transform thenext10yearsmore thananymissionto of sophisticationunimaginablejustadecadeago. purposed forplayingorcontrollingmusicwithalevel with software.For example,theDatawindcanbe powerful hardwaremeanswecandopracticallyanything as moonbases,yetsomehowhardertofathom.Cheap, seventies wereapaltry1MHz.Inway, thisisasprofound 1GHz processorwhenthefastercomputersonsalein developed forthird-worldcountries,butstillsportsa For example,thenew£30Datawindtabletwasoriginally putting menonthemoon? impressive thanthosegrandioseengineeringprojectslike amazing integrationofelectroniccircuitryissurelynoless NASA computerintheKennedy SpaceCenterin1969.The still guttedwe’renot I amwritingthesewordson.Whiletheschoolboyinmeis we shouldlookatthingsclosertohome,likethecomputer was it–perhapstookplaceininnerspace,notouter? Space Raceandfeelcheatedthatitwasneverfullyrun.Or the eight-yearoldschoolboyinme;Igrewupduring dreams ofthefuture,andpresent-dayreality. Thissaddens probe onthemoonshowsgapbetweenmyyouthful that IgotexcitedrecentlybyChinalandinganunmanned the key, alongwithorangeboilersuitsandfacialhair! mechanism wouldbetechnology–computershold working forthegoodofhumankind.Anddelivery century we’dhavebasesonthemoonwithallnations 1999 all ourlivesintosomethingwe’dneverimaginedbefore. hope thattheonwardmarchoftechnologywouldturn month, andweallsharedasenseofwonderment felt liketherewasanApollospacemissionlaunchingevery W This dramatic ramping up of our computing power will This dramaticrampingupofour computingpowerwill This sortofcomputingpowerisnowonsaleforpennies. If wewanttolookatwhereourdevelopmenthasgone, It’s now40yearson,andwherearewenow?Thefact The arrivalonTVin1974ofGerryAnderson’s onlycon we’d allbelivingin‘thefuture’.At thetime,it as anemblematicturningpoint,afterwhich obsessed on‘theyeartwothousand’,seeingit hen Iwasachildbackintheseventies, fi rmed this – by the end of the twentieth rmed this–bytheendoftwentieth David Price fl ying Eagle Transporters andzapping in excess of every in excessofevery computing power is abletoprovide Apple MacBookPro marvelling thatmy he shouldbe aliens, maybe looks into his crystal ball and predicts that 10 years from now Space Space most important most important is surelyoneofthe any moreandthis require suchactions software doesn’t in thefuture.But listening tomusic way we’dallbe years laterwiththe into thesunlightafew to appearblinking research facility, only white coatsofftoa would senditsmenin days, SonyorPhilips bath andfridgecontrolledbytheiriPad. That traction aspeoplewanteverythingfromtheirTVto with fashionableglasses,butinafewyearsitwillgain too oftenbypropertydevelopers,futurologistsandpeople gadgets yettobeinvented.Theterm‘smarthome’isused cyberspace, yetbeinstantlyaccessiblefromanynumberof movies tomagazines–havedisappearedinto expect virtuallyallyourphysicalmedia–frommusicto stairs, either onavirtualcloudoryourharddriveunderthe new century. developments ofthe the endofwhatwecall‘hi- listen tomusictoo–indeedformanypeopleitwillmean Of course,thisisgoingtohaveaneffectonthewaywe Back tothefuture American dreamoffullautomationisbecomingareality. Maybe thefutureisbright,after all! on displayinyourlivingroomwill beabigstackofvinyl? Who’d havethoughtthatin2024, maybetheonlythings indeed itmaywellbecomemore specialandcoveted. Some peoplewillnevergiveuponphysicalmedia,and there willbemoreroomforold-fashionedbooksandLPs. migrated toasmallsinglecontrolcentreunderthestairs, living-in-the-past types.With so manyofourboxeshaving control protocolswehaven’tinventedyet! to befullycompliantandcontrollablebyoneofthehouse same route.Ifpeoplewantseparatehi- computer gamesandmusic–willbegintoarriveviathe every formofmedia–fromtelevisionandvideophonesto should yourhouse’scentralcomputerhaveone?Rather, of aMacBookProtoexclusivelydealwithmusic,sowhy Now, musicissuddenlydisappearingintotheether–it’s There’s a crumb of comfort for us old-fashioned, There’s acrumbofcomfortforusold-fashioned, fl ying around your home network. And in 10 years ying aroundyourhomenetwork.Andin10 years fi ’. There’s no separate section ’. There’snoseparatesection ● fi , then it will have , thenitwillhave fi fties fties YEARBOOK 2014 been bettered many ways it’s happened, butin dreamt ofhasn’t The futureDP Hi-Fi Choice Choice Hi-Fi DAVID PRICE OPINION writer writer 143 RETRO

Scale model With its LS3/5A monitor, the BBC attempted to off er a grown-up sound from a small loudspeaker, it’s time to listen with Auntie...

here is plenty of fi ne commencement of work in the mid/bass driver, and the speaker was classic hi-fi , and many corporation’s Research Department, carefully reworked. When this was T excellent products that under the stewardship of HD fi nally done, it was renamed LS3/5A have stood the test of time. (Dudley) Harwood at Kingswood and commercial production licences But the BBC ‘monitoring loudspeaker Warren. A team led by TE were fi nally granted to a number of type LS3/5A’ goes beyond this and Sommerville and DE Shorter had British loudspeaker companies. has become the stuff of legend. What been undertaking research into This two-way infi nite baffl e design was revolutionary about it was its acoustic scaling, and came up with a uses a specially selected KEF B110 performance relative to its physical quarter-scale monitor. The legend Bextrene mid/bass driver and T27 dimensions. Before its arrival, all goes that it was thought to have good SP1032 19mm mylar dome tweeter. small speakers were regarded as performance down to 100Hz, despite The latter is fi tted with a perforated sonically inferior to larger ones. There only having been designed to reach metal grille, which BBC engineers was no sense that a diminutive design 400Hz, for speech-related purposes. said, “has a small effect on the could in some ways better a big one. The team found it worked well with frequency response, which is wholly “It’s a loudspeaker that gives the music material, especially when wall benefi cial as it raises the output impression of having a lot more bass mounted. It was dubbed the LS3/5, somewhat at high frequencies”. Thick than it actually has,” says Spendor’s and found its way into mobile TV strips of felt surrounded the tweeter Philip Swift. “Nobody put so much control rooms for producers to to reduce secondary waves refl ected effort into compact, low coloration monitor mixing desk output. by the cabinet edges. loudspeaker than the BBC.” Shortly before the BBC was about The story starts back in the early to issue licences to a number of Box of delights seventies, when our national companies – as well as the BBC’s The box itself is extremely carefully broadcaster decided it required own Equipment Department – to A legend in constructed and damped. The cabinet a compact speaker for its outside manufacture it, the drive unit supplier the making: walls are 12mm birch plywood, broadcast vans. This prompted the changed some characteristics of the the LS3/5A braced on every joint with beech wood battens. Lots of work went into its design, to the point that different types of hardwoods were auditioned for the bracing. For example, one seventies report states that BBC engineers found Pirana Pine to have clearly audible colouration due to it resonating with the bass driver chassis, and so was rejected. The cabinet walls received a layer of Bostik sound deadening panelling, and a layer of 16mm anechoic-grade foam went on the sides, along with two layers of deadening pads and a 25mm layer of foam. The result was a heavy, highly acoustically inert box. The crossover was unusually complex for a small speaker, using 26 elements. One of the reasons for this was that it was designed to work optimally with a wide variety of drive unit samples. In the event of a tweeter blowing, the service engineer would measure the replacement unit and select the appropriate tap position on the autotransformer to give optimal frequency response. The crossover itself is mounted behind the tweeter and damped by a thick felt

144 YEARBOOK 2014 RETRO

pad to prevent resonance. “It was this LS3/5A VARIANTS and there’s a sense you’re peering elaborate crossover network, done through a compact looking glass. Bass In the late seventies, Jim Rogers produced very carefully and very skillfully, that the JR149, using the same drivers as the is surprisingly enjoyable for a speaker gave a much better sounding speaker” LS3/5A in a cylindrical aluminium housing. that almost has none, being tight and says Philip Swift. Aside from looking radical, the round clearly delineated. The midband is enclosure is more rigid and holds fewer Construction techniques varied from standing waves, making for a better sound. most pleasing in its clarity and manufacturer to manufacturer, with As a key manufacturer of the speaker, neutrality, and the treble is smooth Audiomaster pulling each crossover Spendor has also done several revisions, and delicate, but not very extended. such as the S3/5se. The original seventies component tight onto the board to Spendor SA1 was a direct rival and the The LS3/5A seems happiest with prevent resonance, while Rogers used company’s brand new D1 is its spiritual light acoustic and small scale the long legs of the components to successor, says Philip Swift. In the nineties, classical, where its fi ne tone and Harbeth re-engineered the speaker to keep them away from the board. Even produce the HL-P3ES, which sounds subtlety can shine through. Put some the grille cloth was carefully specifi ed similar, but is again a better all rounder. crunching heavy metal on and you’ll to be in contact with the felt stripes The LS3/5A itself got just two major feel let down by the lack of bass around the tweeter or there would be changes over the course of its long life, the extension, slightly compressed first being when it became 11ohms instead a frequency response anomaly. of 15, and the second when it was made dynamics (especially at higher The BBC’s Equipment Department bi-wirable. Aficionados have strong views volumes) and a rather unatmospheric manufactured small numbers for about the relative merits of both. Rogers’ high treble. Its problem is that it just matching stand/subwoofer – the AB1 – came reference purposes, to maintain along in 1995 and transformed the baby box can’t shift air like big speakers, and quality control with outside suppliers. into a far more usable loudspeaker. More goes to pieces if asked to. Legend has it that each licensee recently, however, the little speaker has been resurrected by Stirling Broadcast would keep a BBC-built pair of which has been granted a licence to make End of an era speakers to use as a production the LS3/5A V2. This uses Stirling’s own Ultimately, the LS3/5A’s problem was reference; an offi cial production drivers, as KEF’s are no longer available, but that it had had its day fairly early into test schedule required these to be is said to retain the authentic BBC sound. its life. Spendor still has original compared to the licensee’s production documents from the company’s run speaker using high-quality tape founder Spencer Hughes – who was specifi ed and highly toleranced, so involved with the original design – After a period of there will be a very high degree of saying that, “the advent of pop music uniformity across the manufacturers, will lead to a requirement for inactivity, it is back with some brands lying slightly above speakers that can take more power”. in production via the average, and others below. So, best think of this as a specialised In 1988 the little box got the fi rst of product that does a few things well Stirling Broadcast two updates, with the mid/bass unit and others not quite so adeptly. getting a more lossy vinyl material in Up to 1988, over 60,000 pairs were recordings of a variety of programme its surround. The crossover was also made, and after a period of inactivity, material. Quality control was tweaked to bring the frequency it is back in production again via rigorous, with lots of companies that response a little closer to the original Stirling Broadcast. Expect to pay applied for licences being rejected. target, and also to make the speaker between £500 and £1,200 depending As it transpired, the fi rst two fractionally easier to drive. The on age, type and condition; £800 manufacturers were Rogers and speaker was no longer specifi ed at An early advert should get you a very nice, usable Chartwell, then Harbeth (the 15ohms – quoted impedance became for the LS3/5A pair which if looked after is unlikely company formed by Dudley Harwood nominally 11. Subsequently bi-wiring from Chartwell to ever depreciate ● on leaving the Beeb) and Spendor was introduced, bringing the LS3/5A (formed by Spencer Hughes, chief into the modern era. engineer of the BBC’s acoustic scaling Some think the LS3/5A to have a speaker project) followed. Then other sublime and unique sound that has licensees including Audiomaster never been bettered, others believe (whose designer Robin Marshall later it to be an outdated anachronism, founded Epos) and RAM, Goodmans limited by its ancient drive units with and KEF. More recently, others such as their low-tech cone materials. What’s Stirling Broadcast have embarked on certainly agreed is that the 83dB LS3/5A production. The fi rst LS3/5A sensitivity of the speaker makes it bore the Rogers brand, was released essential to use a powerful solid-state in 1975 and is now a collector’s item. amplifi er – around 50W RMS per Some believe Rogers made the best channel at the very least. The versions, because the company was LS3/5As also work best on frame fi rst to market. It’s certainly true stands – such as those made for the that there were minor component Linn Kan – very close to a rear wall. variations – Rogers bought in its Properly set up and with good chokes and Chartwell wound its partnering equipment, LS3/5As own. For a good part of the seventies, sound very smooth and well Rogers and Chartwell Electro Acoustic balanced, almost euphonic. There’s a Ltd were both owned by Swisstone dramatic lack of boxiness to them that Electronics, and the speakers were lets you listen right into the sound. reportedly made on the same line. In However, they have a very small scale truth, the LS3/5A was very closely by the standards of most speakers,

YEARBOOK 2014 145 PURE, AUTHENTIC SOUND REPRODUCTION - delivered by the brand new DALI RUBICON series

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Jumping the shark

As the Sex Pistols asked, ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? A rethink is required for Record Store Day to restore its reputation, says Simon Berkovitch

oons queuing outside shops overnight. This year’s Record Store Day Glow-in-the-dark Ghostbusters and pathetic was the busiest ever. Soho’s L picture discs. Skiploads of hardly super- Berwick Street was a mass limited, mega-expensive, “classic” heavy vinyl of music fans. So where are reissue yawnathons. Ebay ghouls. Pressing plants these people the rest of the prioritising the demands of majors at the expense of year, as shops outside of independents. These are a few of my least favourite things London are increasingly in about this year’s Record Store Day, so can we just say it? the crosshairs of giants like Record Store Day has well and truly jumped the shark. Amazon? They can’t all just be There’s an episode of Happy Days in which the Fonz trying to scoop up the most jumps over a shark on water-skis. How tragic. How desirable limited editions on gimmicky. How desperate. According to the bible of RSD, rubbing their hands in Wikipedia, “the usage of ‘jump the shark’ has subsequently anticipation of a pretty penny broadened beyond TV, indicating the moment when a on ebay, can they? brand’s evolution declines.” Can you hear John Williams’ There’s more than one shark

or AVTech Media Ltd or AVTech theme from Jaws playing as a v-shaped wave looms in the infesting these waters, that’s direction of Record Store Day and its undignifi ed scramble now clear. Just ask Paul Weller and Mark E Smith. Is this really what for unessential, unappealing vinyl detritus? Weller’s super-limited RSD release was the most supporting independent

HI-Fi Choice HI-Fi I wish that Bill Hicks were still with us. The legendary controversial. Record Store Day UK investigated the record stores US comedian had a few things to say about a meeting activities of North West-based independent retailer is about? between Vanilla Ice and Satan, so I’m sure that he’d have a Townsend Records following complaints about online sales few restrained, tasteful comments to make on the subject of Brand New Toy – a record that eluded most of Weller’s of One Direction and Katy Perry hawking their wares for a fans. The investigation “discovered irregularities in the so-called celebration of independents. management of an ebay account linked to the store”. So We’ve drifted much for sticking to RSD’s Code of Conduct – and not Your local record apart, Record Store exploiting your customers. shop needs your Day and I. It was At least Townsend Records won’t be doing it again: it has good when it been informed that it will not be permitted to participate support the other started. A vinyl-mad in 2015’s RSD. Disillusioned, Weller himself will not be 364 days of the year friend was living in taking part in subsequent Record Store Day events. the US at the time Similarly, The Fall’s release, White Lightning on Secret and fi red my enthusiasm via reports of great indie stores Records, was “a release that we were not involved with in and even greater limited edition releases. Just a couple of any way, without asking us or telling us about it”, The years later, the money-sniffers are mobilised. As soon as Fall’s statement on the group’s unoffi cial website reads. The Man’s vampires sink their fangs in, it’s commoditised Yes, Record Store Day’s clearly all about the music, man – quicker than you can say Simon Cowell. On seeing 2014’s and not at all about fl eecing groups’ loyal fanbases. releases, my friend was very vocal about how he wouldn’t Despite ebay touts, grim multinationals, duff releases be touching RSD with a bargepole this year. and fraud, I’m still behind the bricks and mortar record Where was the quality control? When the fetishised, shop. Forget RSD: your local record shop needs your conglomerate-endorsed limited edition is more important support the other 364 days of the year. than the music itself, something’s defi nitely up. Do One Direction fans own turntables? The fact that their RSD Reasons to be cheerful offering was a picture disc – not exactly known for its Record Store Day has lost its way. That said, Truck Store’s audiophile chops – speaks volumes. It also irked me that it event got it absolutely spot on and kept the fl ag of grabbed most of the headlines. There’s so much better stuff independence fl ying in Oxford. It was fun, frantic and – out there, kids! It’s like McDonald’s headlining food week most importantly – it plugged back into the community while Ferran Adrià sits at home chopping the onions. Well, from which it had sprung. Whether Record Store Day’s it’s something that Richer Sounds was a partner for Record organisers can pull off a similar trick for 2015 and get SIMON Store Day – a decent port of call for someone buying a fi rst back in touch with what made the event worth backing BERKOVITCH Hi-Fi Choice writer

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or opinions of They do not necessarily reflect those of the author. in this article are The opinions expressed turntable, at least. in the fi rst place remains to be seen ●

YEARBOOK 2014 147 RETRO

Sci-fi choice Step back in time with us as we remember ADC’s 1700, a turntable from the time of quartz crystals, space exploration and Star Wars…

aunched in November This meant there was no need to of British turntable company BSR Ltd, 1979, the ADC 1700 change a belt, and that overall based in Warley in the West Midlands. L turntable arrived blinking performance wasn’t affected as The ADC brand itself was originally in the bright sunlight of a the belt deteriorated. But more American, formed by Peter Prichard brave new technological world where signifi cantly, any rubber belt in New Milford, Connecticut in the computers, space exploration and decouples the motor’s torque from early sixties. The company was science-fi ction all seemed to meld into the platter, and is less well able to responsible for some innovative one glorious vision of the future. It respond to minute speed variations cartridges using induced magnets. It was bold, brilliant and fresh – at a from dynamic wow, whereas direct also did some rather interesting low stroke, the beige-ness of the seventies drive didn’t suffer this. Adding a mass tonearms – the LMF-2 and 1 was banished. In a world of Star quartz crystal reference to the servo using carbon-fi bre armtubes, and the Wars, Kraftwerk’s Computer World system gave the direct drive motor an ALT-1 being a cost-cut aluminium and Blake’s Seven, this new turntable tubed variant. They ranged in price looked as bang up-to-date then as the With classical music from £44 to £70, which wasn’t cheap latest Apple gadget does now. at the time. This expensive (£140) and large the ADC 1700 is ADC was a good brand, then – and (470 x 382 x 153mm) machine was a impressively quiet an excellent badge for BSR to attach quartz-locked, direct drive design. At to its new range of mid-priced the time the ‘belt drive versus direct and civilised turntables. The ADC 1700 topped this drive’ war was raging hardest. Direct new premium range of decks, with drive technology was getting cheaper, absolute speed reference on which to quartz-locked direct drive motor and better and beginning to displace ever lock, and this made for even better semi-automatic operation. The ADC more belt drive decks. Direct drive speed stability, better than any belt 1600 was the same, but lost the meant that the motor was mounted drive system could hope for. To wit, switchable quartz-lock, and the ADC right at the centre of, and around the the ultimate deck that mainstream 1500 went to belt drive, manual underside of the platter, the spindle turntable buyers around the world operation with a cheaper stainless and bearing housing and the motor aspired to was a quartz-locked direct steel tubed, S-shaped tonearm. All effectively acting as one. Whereas one – and so the words ‘Quartz Speed came with ADC cartridges bundled traditionally you had a rubber belt Control’ were duly inscribed on the as standard, adding substantially to transferring the drive from a separate ADC’s plinth in clear white type like the value of the package. motor on belt drive decks, on a direct a badge of honour! All the new ADC decks sported drive model the platter was directly At the time of launch, Audio a satin-black painted, injection attached to the motor itself. Dynamics Corporation was a division moulded ABS plinth that had

148 YEARBOOK 2014 RETRO

damping foam squirted inside. The The ADC 1700 came with a £60 THE PLASTIC AGE result, however, was a plinth that was XLM Mk III cartridge, with tapered neither as rigid or as inert as ADC aluminium cantilever and nude The ADC 1700 was the flagship turntable from British company BSR, an organisation claimed, even if it was better than elliptical stylus tip that tracked struggling to keep its market share having many competitors. The deck got some between 0.75 and 1.5g. Very low suffered a serious sales assault from very decent isolating feet, closely tracking weights were desirable back Japanese manufacturers like Pioneer and Kenwood earlier on in the seventies. At the resembling Micro Seiki Microsorbers, then, because it was thought it would beginning of that decade, BSR and Garrard although they were neither as good cause less record wear. Ironically, reigned supreme making relatively crude or as expensive. This made for a people began to realise that low mass idler drive turntable chassis that were fitted into everything from music centres to relatively cheap-to-produce but cartridges mistracking slightly at portable record players. Several years later sophisticated looking plinth, which 0.75g caused much more wear than though, both companies were on the back did a reasonable job of isolating the standard medium to high mass ones foot, reeling from the Japanese invasion. record from the outside world. In ploughing the record groove securely Using the ADC brand – which had considerably higher kudos than BSR – was a truth, you still needed to place it well at 2g! If you’re serious about using an great idea, and the company tried hard to away from your loudspeakers, and ADC arm, either separately or in the make a modern looking, technology-packed take the horribly resonant green 1600 or 1700, and can’t fi nd a decent turntable that ticked all the marketing boxes. The 1700 had semi-automatic operation, tinted dustcover off for best results. specimen of an ADC cartridge, then marking it out as a non-specialist design, and an Ortofon OM10 (£30) is your best direct drive with quartz lock too. The low Platter of fact bet. These date back to this era of mass arm was a feature that was regarded as de rigeur in the vinyl world. Sadly, the ADC The platter is a 302mm, 1kg disc of ultra low mass and are still on sale 1500, 1600 and 1700 arrived a year or two aluminium that is dynamically new now. too late. People were beginning to take a real balanced, and features strobe indents Even with a fresh OM10, don’t interest in compact cassette as a sound source and compact disc was already at the bottom. ADC made a big deal expect the ADC to slay modern starting to be talked about. Quite a few ADC of using an LED linked to the quartz turntables, it certainly doesn’t do that. decks were sold, but were soon forgotten lock circuit, as opposed to neon. Its But it does have a clean, easy and and now sit unwanted on online auction sites sharp, square wave pulses of light smooth sound that makes listening to – making them a great used bargain. were obviously something worth music an enjoyable experience. The getting excited about! The quartz lock bass has a speed and solidity that soundstage and pulling things in from system itself, running at 5.8MHz, was many belt drive designs of then far stage left and right – just what switchable so the speed could be and now lack, and the midband is an ADC ALT-1 does when mounted varied by as much as 6 percent by any decently open and detailed. Treble separately. The upside is that the arm budding punk rockers or disco divas is smooth and crisp, and the overall has a bit more subtlety and detail of the day. The platter is topped off by effect is of a musically engaging than you might expect from a great looking, ‘podule-effect’ rubber turntable that breezes through your something bundled onto a semi- mat, but it is of poor quality, and can LPs. Considering you can pick up an automatic deck. easily be upgraded with the likes of ADC 1700 for under £100, that’s a lot an Origin Live Platter Mat (£40). of sound per pound! Perfect partner “Only an atomic clock is more The trick is to site it right. This goes With an original ADC QLM36 accurate”, said ADC in its advertising for other non-suspended subchassis cartridge fi tted, complete with a new, copy – and to its credit the system still decks that lack the sheer physical old stock stylus, the 1700 proves a works perfectly on our sample 35 mass to soak up airborne or ground- pleasant listening partner. The ADC years on. The company claimed borne vibrations – you need to keep cartridge has a little more fl uidity 0.03% WRMS wow and fl utter, them away from these as much as than the Ortofon, really livening up an excellent fi gure, with a very possible, ideally on a good wall shelf. period rock music from the likes of respectable -70dB (DIN B) of rumble. This done, you begin to reap the Nick Lowe and The Eagles. With One of the major selling points of benefi ts. Direct drives always sound classical music it is impressively quiet One of the main the 1700 was its tonearm. ADC was a punchy and engaging, and the ADC is selling points of and civilised, not zero-ing in on bit coy about what it exactly was, but no different. Its tonearm is a little soft the ADC 1700 surface noise as cheap modern suffi ce to say it has the same open sounding, seemingly thinning out the was its tonearm turntables do. It sounds solid and cradle suspension, micron-polished, stable even on crescendos, and the ball race lateral instrument bearings ADC cartridge tracks well – even if and lead out wires as the respected the deck and cartridge do seem to LMF series, but with a black anodised suck a bit of tonal colour and spatial aluminium arm tube and a slightly scale out of the recording. different decoupled counterweight ADC’s 1700 is no stellar performer, design. This, allied to its carbon-fi bre but it’s an interesting little curio headshell, would lead one to suspect from a day when vinyl was done that it is ADC’s LMF-1 arm by any differently. Moreover, 35 years after other name. Whatever, the arm is it was launched, it is still serviceable unexpectedly decent, notwithstanding and ridiculously cheap secondhand as the fact that it was purpose-designed well as being in surprisingly plentiful for ADC cartridges, which by this era supply. If you consider that you can were relatively high compliance pick up a terrible, plasticky USB affairs that needed low mass arms. turntable for the same sort of money In 1979, ‘low mass’ was all the rage, new, it’s a no brainer if you’re looking but now it’s harder to fi nd high for a starter deck or you’re coming compliance cartridges. back to vinyl after all these years ●

YEARBOOK 2014 149

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or opinions of HI-Fi Choice or AVTech Media Ltd. Picture: Shutterstock/vipman New year’s resolution buying asingle CD year Iwon’t be decision that this I have madethe on from CDs? The shiny silver disc has had its day, but will 2014 really bethe year that we finally move download market that I can buy large amounts of music download marketthatIcanbuy large amountsofmusic announcement onlyreinforcesmy decision. citizen ofRaleigh,NorthCarolina toanend),butthe (putting myyearsofpretendingtobeanupstanding will beof few daysbeforeHDTracks madeitsannouncementthatit this apracticalproposition.Iactuallytookdecision that mybuyingoptionsin2014arewideenoughtomake partly stemsfrommydislikeofthem,butIalsobelieve that thisyearIwon’tbebuyingasingleCD.Mydecision on fresher’sweek. around mylisteningroomlikestudentsintheunionbar discover discsthathaveescapedfromtheirboxes,lying especially tidyorwellorganisedpersonandfrequently wound somediscs.I’mnotandneverhavebeenan that asinglejourneyinmycarisenoughtomortally and Ihavenotroubleinacknowledgingtheperformance systemsovertheyears heard somewonderfulCD-based silver disc.Notthesoundqualityyouunderstand.I’ve player, IhadnochoicebuttokeepbuyingCDs. although theywouldneveractuallybeplayedinaCD buy, especiallystuffIwanttolistento,meantthat The limitstotheamountoflosslessmaterialavailable hasn’t stoppedmebuyingthediscsthemselves,however. 2011, IhavenothadaCDplayerinday-to-dayuse.This turntable. SinceIretiredmyCambridgeAudio840Cin resolution FLACoveranetworkandIalsohave now. Ihavethewherewithaltostreamlosslessandhigh about theyearahead. have beenonCD,however, andthishasgotmethinking high-resolution andlosslessdownloads.Noneofthem though andotherpurchasesoflatehaveincludedsome have beenanalogue.Iamnotacompleteanachronism on vinyl–indeedagreatmanyofmyrecentpurchases sucker foranicepieceofpackaging,I’veboughtmycopy There isnowsuf This hascometoaheadandIhavemadethedecision This wasaproblembecauseI’vealwaysloathedthelittle forsomeyears The electronicsIusehavebeenCD-free A fi cially making its wares available in the UK, cially makingitswares availableintheUK, s Iwritethesewordsamlisteningtomy Concertgebouw Orchestra the verywonderful album purchaseof2014,inthisinstance fi cient breadth of choice in the cient breadthofchoiceinthe Ed Selley Ed Fink MeetsTheRoyal . Being a bit of a . Beingabitof notes and the fact notes andthefact microscopic cover boxes, the the problem lieswith capable of. No,my the mediumis thinks it might beand is putting his money where his mouth is fl imsy plastic fi rst rst out. I can only hope out. Icanonlyhope putting newmaterial I ownratherthan re-releasing albums is stillfocusedon too muchattention increasing too,but quotient isslowly discs. Thehi-res quality withoutthe still meansIhaveCD high resolution,butit lossless ratherthan CD. Muchofitis without resortingto con to showalittlemore that somelabelsstart My con The vinyl solution than posting a physical CD, but things are improving. than postingaphysicalCD,butthingsareimproving. storing andstreaminganelectroniccopytomecostsmore down, too.Istill same timethepricesbeingchargedformaterialiscoming you’ll missit’releaseschedule,butI’mcon decidedly ambitiousandsomesufferfroma‘blink complaints apply–thepricesofsomealbumsare gain acompressedcopyforuseonthemove.Thestandard format alittleeasiertolivewithlikesupplyingcode vinyl comeswithbellsandwhistlesthatmaketheaged very highstandardindeed.Furthermore,21stcentury almost allthepressingsIpurchasedoveryearwasofa huge varietyofalbumsreleasedonvinylandthequality bolstered bythecontinuingvinylresurgence.2013sawa should beableto going, butfornowwishmeluck! think. I’llbeupdatingyoulaterin theyearastohowitis honestly believethatitwillbesmaller thanyoumight material Isurreptitiouslyorderon January1st2015,butI medium, andIdon’tdoubttherewillbeablockof have toforgopurchasing,astheyaren’tavailableoneither electronics. I’llbekeepingnotesovertheyearonalbumsI mouth isandtriedtomakemypurchasingmatchthe CD’ systemsanditistimeIputmymoneywhere though, Ihavespentthelastfewyearsadvocating‘post savings overtheyear. Inthegreatschemeofthings myself andIdon’tforaminutethinkthatI’llmakeany bottom, I’mmakinglifemoreexpensiveanddif You couldlegitimately arguethatwithCDpricingatrock fi dence intheirartiststhemonthstocome.At the fi dence in not having to resort to CD is further dence innothavingtoresortCDisfurther fi nd it hard to stomach the fact that nd ithardtostomachthefactthat fi ll in the gaps left from downloads. ll inthegapsleftfrom downloads. ● fi dent that I dent thatI fi cult for YEARBOOK 2014 discs comein discs that compact the plasticcases Ed can’t abide Hi-Fi Choice Choice Hi-Fi ED SELLEY OPINION writer writer 151 RETRO

Black magic They might be everywhere now but standalone digital-to-analogue converters used to be unheard of, until Arcam’s Delta Black Box…

always did have a little S/PDIF (S/Philips Digital InterFace) explains that these were used, “when bit of an instinct for the receiver chips on sale. you’ve got a bunch of silicon on a chip I unusual”, confesses John Dawson, then the company’s made in mass production, and the Arcam’s John Dawson. managing director, asked his end user specifi es the metallisation And that’s precisely what the Arcam engineering team to make it happen. layers – that is the printed circuit Black Box was. Indeed it was so The project started, but when they layout of the IC actually decides the different that no other company realised there were no chips on the functionality of it. It’s a very quick offered a similar product for anything commercial market to do the job, it and cost-effective way of getting a like the price back in 1988. looked like they would have to put it custom IC.” The Delta Black Box – to give it on the back burner. The boffi ns simply Eight weeks and £10,000 later, its full name – was the world’s fi rst couldn’t see a cost-effective way of Arcam had a custom 1000-gate array affordable offboard digital-to-analogue splitting up the CD drive and the chip that did the job. “At that point, converter. Nowadays, in a world that we had all the ingredients to put the seemingly has more DACs than pieces It’s a very special Black Box together economically, and of music to play on them, such a that’s what we did”, he explains. claim doesn’t sound terribly product in the This unique bespoke Arcam ASIC impressive, but back in the mid great Arcam (Application Specifi c Integrated eighties it really did feel like the stuff Circuit) is what made the Black Box of audiophile science fi ction. scheme of things possible, and by extension what Looked at though today’s eyes it started the craze for offboard DACs, was a relatively simple engineering subsequent digital processing into the very same one that’s now enjoying achievement. Take the signal coming different boxes. But by sheer chance, a second wind nearly 30 years later out of the Philips digital platform of John met up with an old university with the advent of computer-based the day – the CDM4 transport for colleague who’d come into the factory audio. The result was a £250 example – then do some number to get his Arcam Alpha amp repaired. digital-to-analogue converter that crunching with the SAA7220 digital Enquiring into what his old friend shook up the hi-fi industry. fi lter and feed it into the TDA1541 was up to, he replied that he was now So how did the Black Box fi t into the digital converter chip. the business manager for a small Arcam range, and into the wider hi-fi But the technology to interface electronics company up the road world? Back in the mid eighties the CD drive mechanism with the called Newmarket Semiconductors. Arcam was growing into a larger, converter and fi lter chips in a He was launching some custom more professional company with a far separate box simply didn’t exist ICs based on Ferranti’s work on wider product portfolio. It had just back then; there were no commercial uncommitted logic arrays. John launched the Alpha series of budget

152 YEARBOOK 2014 RETRO

amplifi ers and was now about to The prototype Black Box was an BIT PLAYING bring out its more upmarket Delta instant success. It was a clear upgrade series. The brave decision was taken to the already very capable Delta 70 Amazingly, the first generation of Philips CD players were only actually 14-bit machines. to include a compact disc player – CD player, as well as a wide range This shows just how close to the edge the still the stuff of high-end dreams of other players, more and more of compact disc specification was back at the back then. The Delta 70 was the which were coming out with digital time of its launch in 1982 – akin to offering a new digital format at 64-bit/768kHz now. product, and it was a bespoke outputs – even the cheap ones. John Philips and Sony pushed hard to do the very design with lots of Arcam input. Dawson took one home one evening best they could. Sony’s first domestic CD “We decided we wouldn’t just and played Fairport Convention’s player worked at 16-bit, but Philips only managed 14-bit, attaining 16-bit noise badge-engineer something, as our Liege And Lief through it and performance by oversampling the signal colleagues at Mission up the road had remembers that: “I heard more. There four times. It was a clever trick, which made recently done quite successfully with was more stuff on there, you could for a fine-sounding machine, but there was no way the replacement DAC chip was going Philips”, remembers John. “We’d do hear the reverberation tail away and to have just 14 bits. something a bit better if we could, things like that. We thought oh, we’ve When Arcam bought its CD licence from as we wanted to have our stamp of probably got a winner here!” Philips, it opted to wait for a few months for engineering on it. So we bought a The productionised Black Box sold the new chip. Given that being early to market was vitally important, it must have CD manufacturing licence and went for £250 and was the talk of the town seemed a long delay – not least because its to Philips in Belgium. They sold us for a while. With Philips TDA1541 Mission rival down the road was already basically a drive and a bag of chips, DAC chips, it was quite a lively developing a CD player too. But it was a good decision, because the second-generation and the rest of it was up to us. That sounding device – and a bit noisy by Philips CD platform had an S/PDIF out, which means we were able to do our own today’s standards. However, you’d made the Black Box possible. It also had the power supplies and analogue back never say it wasn’t nice to listen to. TDA1541 16-bit, four times oversampling DAC chip. It became immensely popular, end, and do the job better than the Indeed, that particular Philips DAC and was one of the finest-sounding early commercial boys were doing.” has become something of a cult for DACs. By modern standards it’s rather crude some classic digital fans of late. with an upper midband that many find hard, but it’s certainly one of the most musically Risky business Especially compared with the involving digital converters around. At the time, Arcam had a choice to Bitstream machines that followed a buy the existing fi rst-generation couple of years later, it was a very 14-bit, 4 times oversampling CD engaging and entertaining performer. the best,” he says. “But in my opinion, player platform, or wait for the 16-bit Arcam was very proud. “We could in our history we often did and do a version. It may seem a no-brainer do it at a reasonable price and we better job, or a comparable job for now, but back then it was still sold lots of them. Because we’d had much less money, or a better job for regarded as a bit risky; after all, what the good fortune/skill/luck (although comparable money. But it’s very hard if the next generation wasn’t as good? you make your own luck, right?) to to get that recognition and so we’ve In the end, Arcam decided to wait for be the fi rst affordable product in the had to rely on bits of technology and the 16-bit chip, and one of its new consumer space at the time, we made bright work to gain an edge.” and special features was an S/PDIF a real impact”, he recalls. But the output. The Delta 70 was fi nally Black Box was more than just a Shape of things to come launched in 1987, and became “very simple commercial success, it was Arcam’s Delta Black Box was precisely popular very quickly”. John proudly a landmark for Arcam. this – a clever bit of work from a remembers: “It was the sort of player There was always a sense that the company that was hungry to do better Linn dealers were happy to sell”. Cambridge company didn’t quite have and be seen to be so doing. It was Over the next year Arcam sold the prestige of fellow British brands more than this, though, as it around 5,000 Delta 70s at £500 a go. Linn and Naim. This was partly down kickstarted the fashion for standalone “But we thought, was there anything to the more audacious marketing of DACs, one that burned brightly for else we could do with what we’ve Glasgow and Salisbury; John admits several years, but then began to learnt? So we thought, why don’t Arcam wasn’t as effective in this fl icker out. John says: “DACs were we do a plain old outboard digital department. So there was a real need used to make CD players sound converter on its own, but at very low for the company to compete for better, but eventually CD players cost. Because we were seeing all these engineering kudos. “It was diffi cult did sound better, so the advantage 16-bit players coming out all with for a company like Arcam to unseat The unique chip became more marginal.” Fascinatingly digital outputs”, Dawson recalls. – in the UK at least – the Linn-Naim that made the now, though, the breed is coming The Delta 70 was already an axis, which was always regarded as DAC possible back and the work of the original impressive piece of work. “It had Delta Black Box has stood Arcam in the best we knew of how to do the very good stead for this – its current D-to-As, and how to isolate the power range of DACs are excellent. supplies and keep the drive well Although the original project was isolated from the analogue supplies the result of imaginative thinking and and so forth”, he remembers. But, intensive engineering development “the idea was that if we did it in a work, it may never have happened separate box, we’d avoid all the noisy had one man wanting an amplifi er stuff from the CD drive and the fi xed not walked through John’s door decoding of the CD in the box – we back in the mid eighties. In a sense, could keep it simpler in terms of what it’s a very special product in the great digits were around and make it much Arcam scheme of things. As John more predictable and do better Dawson puts it: “It was serendipity, power supplies and make it cleaner.” dear boy!” ●

YEARBOOK 2014 153 The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or opinions of HI-Fi Choice or AVTech Media Ltd. Picture credit: Irina Fischer/Shutterstock Make timefor music our lives again music central to phone andmake off Turn listen without getting distracted by all the other nonsense that’s going onin the world? We all like to sit down and listen to music, but asks the silence,acommodityitseemsyoucanonly which webarelynoticeuntilitstopsandarestartledby noise toourdailylives,areassuringhum,thepresenceof comes apointwhenmusicbecomesmerebackground our dailygrindconsiderablymorepleasurable.Butthere undeniable thatmusiccanmakemostchoresandtasksin daily routine. and textinggenerallygoingabouttheirhumdrum distraction whilecookingdinner, drivingtowork,tweeting with anythingliketheirfullattention;theyuseitasa habits. Mostpeopleseldomlistentorecordedmusic readers areprobablyfreakishintheirattentivelistening and letmesaythisaspolitelypossible–that people consumemusicandI’vecometotheconclusion– and appreciateeverynotenuance. world musicorclassical,youaregoingtolistencarefully money canbuy, thenwhetheryourtasteisforrock,jazz, spend largesumsofmoneyonthebestaudioequipment modern world by climbing a mountain or trekking into a modern worldbyclimbingamountainortrekkinginto the banalities of the ‘drive time’ playlist. the banalitiesof‘drivetime’playlist. created nottorequireourattention,from‘dinnerjazz’ and totacklethosejobsaroundthe houseorof somehow seemsidleandself-indulgent nottomulti-task without doingsomethingelseat the sametime;it too congestedtojustifyringfencingtimelistenmusic allowed. Butformostofus,ourmodernliveshavebecome before andthattimeissacrosanctwithnodistractions hour everydaytolistenapieceofmusichehasn’theard the KronosQuartet,oncetoldmethathesetsasideone intervene beforetoolong.DavidHarrington,theleaderof of digitalmediaoressentialhouseholdtasksinvariably the listeningexperience;friends,family, thedemands have timetositdownandfullyimmersethemselvesin music loversandareregularpurchasersofCDsseldom suggests thatevenmanyofthosewhocallthemselves we’ve beenputtingoffwhilelistening toMahler’s O No harm in that if it gets you through the day and it is No harminthatifitgetsyouthroughthedayandis But I’verecentlybeenmakingananecdotalstudyofhow My admittedlyunscienti take theirmusicseriously. After all,ifyou readers areahighlydiscerningaudienceand august publicationisthatIknow ne ofthereasonsIenjoywritingforthis the TV and and the TV fi c survey of listening habits c surveyoflistening habits music deliberately music deliberately entire genresof now evenhave fl sure it’snotona then, bestmake forest (andeven ight path).We Hi-Fi Choice fi fi ce that HFC nd in the nd inthe fi fth or

make musiccentraltoourlivesonce again to immerseourselvesfullyinthe listeningexperienceand phone, ignoretheemails,tweets andtextsallowtime ‘Only MusicDay’–adaywhenwe turnofftheTVand the audioexperience. create auniquesenseofplace,timeandoccasionaround properly incircumstancesthatallownodistractionsand let usinsteadmaketimeinthedaytolistengreatmusic understandable andjusti to listencheapmusicininappropriatesituations– quality control?Insteadofrailingagainstbeingforced problem fromtheotherendandconcentrateon always leftmefeelinguneasy. Whynotcomeatthe as amusiclover, theconceptofadaywithoutmusichas rooms it’saninitiativethathasmuchtocommendit.But piped atusintheworld’sshoppingmallsandwaiting contemporary society”. of musicasanartformduetoitsmindlessusein Music Day’inorder“todrawattentiontothecheapening who foundfameintheeightieswithKLF, launched ‘No A fewyearsagoBillDrummond,theScottishmusician The bigswitch off we lose ourselves in another world. So why do we not we loseourselvesinanotherworld.Sowhydonot the tube,butitisstillanactoftotalimmersioninwhich read itonthebusor attention. We can requires ourfull eReaders, anovel in thisageofdigital creator’s vision.Even the subtletiesof cavalier disregardfor a bookwithsuch for example. latest offering, the ArcticMonkeys’ music dilutedourappreciationofquality? listening experienceandthesheerquantityofunwanted restaurants. Hasitsconstantpresencedevaluedthe supermarkets andinelevators,airportlounges ubiquitous. Itcomesunrequestedandwithnooff-switch in invading everyaspectofourlives.Musichasbecome same attentionaswewouldinaconcert? the newspaper, stoptextingourfriendsandlistenwiththe treat recordedmusicwiththesamerespectandfoldaway What we need, perhaps, is not a ‘No Music Day’ but an What weneed,perhaps,isnota‘NoMusicDay’butan As aprincipledstandagainsttheblandmuzakbeing Yet wedon’ttreat Perhaps theansweristhattheretoomuchmusic Nigel Williamson Nigel Williamson

fi able though the complaint is – able thoughthecomplaint is– ● how many of just us YEARBOOK 2014 should alldo something we distractions is music without for listeningto Making time Music reviewer Music WILLIAMSON NIGEL OPINION

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