Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2022 i Hi-Fi Choice

PRICE: £3,500-£5,940 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: WHOLENOTEDISTRIBUTION.CO.UK THE WAND RANGE of tonearms and the 14-4 turntable from New Zealand firm Design, Build, Listen, have been re-launched into the UK market by distributor Whole Note Distribution, which has acquired the rights. The 14-4 turntable is so called due to the 14in platter made up of four acrylic layers, designed to damp vibration and noise transfer. The platter is complete with a screw-down record clamp machined from acrylic to match the platter – allowing the record label to be seen while playing. The main structure of the 14-4 is made from German plywood, asymmetric in shape, hand oiled and fitted with a Zentroidal three-point suspension system. The centroid of suspension, the stillest point, is close to the playing arc to maximise shock and vibration…

PRICE: £530 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: PROJECT-AUDIO.COM/EN HENLEYAUDIO.CO.UK PRO-JECT AUDIO SYSTEMS has launched its MaiA S3 – afully featured integrated amplifier intended as a match for the Austrian company’s CD Box S3 CD player. The MaiA S3 boasts eight inputs in all - five analogue (including an MM phono input) and three digital, utilising its built-in 24-bit/192kHz DAC. Digital inputs incorporate 2x optical and a coaxial, and there’s Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX HD support for playback of files up-to 24-bit/48kHz. Other features include an analogue volume control with motor-driven potentiometer, 6.3mm headphone jack, variable output for subwoofer or power-amplifier connection and, to suit the company’s range of turntables, there’s also a built-in moving-magnet phono stage. Output is quoted as 2x 23W into 8ohm loads (2x 40W into 4ohm) and a remote…

► DETAILS PRODUCT Lindemann MusicbookSourceII ORIGIN Germany TYPE Network DAC/ preamplifier WEIGHT 2.6kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 280 x 63 x 220mm FEATURES ● Compatible with up to 24-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD256 ● Inputs: 2x RCA; MM phono stage; optical; coaxial; USB A; Ethernet ● Outputs: 1x RCA; 1x XLR DISTRIBUTOR Signature Audio Systems WEBSITE lindemann-audio-de signaturesystems. co.uk Look on the surface at the latest iteration of Lindemann’s network music player, the £3,450 Musicbook Source II, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that nothing much has really changed since the previous version. Scratch a little deeper, however, and it very quickly becomes clear this isn’t the case. Sure, this is still an extremely compact unit – just 280mm wide and a mere 63mm tall – with nothing much on show save a…

► DETAILS PRODUCT Cambridge Audio AXA35 ORIGIN UK/China TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 5.6kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 430 x 83 x 335mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 35W (8ohm) ● Inputs: 4x RCA; MM phono; 3.5mm jack; USB-A ● 6.35mm headphone output DISTRIBUTOR Cambridge Audio Affordable integrated amplifiers have been Cambridge Audio’s forte for the best part of 30 years and, while they have also moved upmarket recently, the AXA35 is the latest in an unbroken line of more terrestrial models stretching all the way back to the original A1. The larger of two integrated amps in the AX Series (after the AXA35, they become receivers), the Cambridge Audio is one of the more classically specified devices in the group. ‘Classical’ is not a polite term for ‘minimalist’ in this case,…

► DETAILS PRODUCT Rega io ORIGIN UK TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 2.9kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 180 x 68 x 290mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 30W (8ohm) ● Inputs: 2x RCA; MM phono ● 3.5mm headphone output DISTRIBUTOR Rega Rega’s io has been on sale for a few years now, both on its own and as the power behind the fabulous System One (HFC 487) all-in-one. It reigned supreme in our last integrated amplifier roundup (HFC 475) and makes a welcome return here to see if it still cuts it. The design principle is simple enough, taking the same design attributes that go into other Rega amps at loftier price points and delivering them in miniature. This means, of course, that it is an analogue-only offering. As such, you get…

THE STANDARD OF performance in this roundup is exceptionally high and I find myself talking about degrees of excellence rather than outright weakness. The NAD D 3020 V2 and Tangent Ampster BT II are capable devices that offer an excellent spread of connections. The NAD doesn’t always turn this capability into a truly exciting performance, though. The Tangent, on the other hand, is exciting and usefully refined but can struggle to deliver bass weight and scale in the manner of some of the other options here. It has to be seen as a bit of a bargain, though, particularly at some of the prices it is available at. The Yamaha R-S202D and Cambridge Audio AXA35 tie for third place. Given its low price, the Yamaha is a lot of amp…

As arelatively young product category, network audio players have enjoyed a fair amount of flux in their design as manufacturers have experimented to see what proves popular. At first glance, the Zidoo Neo Alpha looks like a carefully catalogued collection of features we’ve come to expect from these devices in 2022. Dig a little deeper, however, and things are not quite as they first appear. Its audio spec is impressively comprehensive. Built around an ESS Sabre 9038Pro chipset with the streaming hardware run by a combination of ARM A55 processor and XMOS XU216 interface, the Neo Alpha supports PCM to 768kHz and DSD512. This can be sent to it over UPnP or it can assemble its own database; either of an external library or by adding a 2.5 or 3.5in…

I’m an idiot. You knew that, right? But just in case you needed concrete proof allow me to relate a bad situation I got myself into recently, entirely due to my own idiocy. My son, just turned 18 and a big Korn fan, expressed a desire to attend Download Festival and, considering he’d been robbed by COVID lockdowns of two full years of teenage gig-going, I thought it only fair to get him a ticket. Mistake number one: he said the gig was sold out and I believed him. Gaff number two: I decided to get him a ticket from a secondary ticketing site. I know… I know… Anyway, the first one I checked was asking £489 for a £260 ticket so no way Jose. The second was asking £340…

IT CAN BE extremely irritating to switch over from, say, the radio to a digital streamer and then suddenly find yourself deafened when you start to play a track. This often happens when you have equipment from different manufacturers in your setup. Some have a means of adjusting their output level and can easily be tweaked to match those that have a fixed output. However, many are fixed by the manufacturer. In such cases, the only solution is to fit an attenuator in line with the audio output of the loudest piece of kit so that it matches the quietest. The In-Line WBT-0110 contains the appropriate resistors mounted in high-quality locking WBT 0110Cu phono plugs to give a good low impedance connection. To use it, you simply unplug the interconnect…

Thesepages are a must-read if you’re thinking about buying used kit, or if you have hi-fi you want to sell. It’s free – simply submit your ad with no more than 50 words (we reserve the right to edit it if not), remembering to include your email, phone number and county. Simply email your ad to: letters@hifichoice.co.uk. This service is open to private advertisers only. Just one ad per household and please note that images are for illustration only and donot represent what is for sale. FOR SALE 300B single-ended valve line amplifier (12 WPC) in excellent condition, but one of the 300B valves will need replacing. Lovely sound quality. £499. Cash on collection only: 07708 431963 (Crewe, Cheshire). ACOUSTIC RESEARCH The AR Turntable twospeed (33 & 45rpm), belt-driven turntable…

THE LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS… PRICE: £2,000-£4,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: ROTEL.COM JAPANESE COMPANY ROTEL celebrates its 60th anniversary with the launch of two new models, which the company is calling its Diamond Series. The range comprises the DT-6000 DAC transport and RA-6000 integrated amplifier, each featuring a combination of: “Michi-inspired circuit design working with high-quality bespoke and custom components”. The DT-6000 DAC transport boasts an 8-channel ESS Sabre ES9028PRO DAC chipset configured to dedicate four mono DACs each to the left and right channels. The unit includes a PC-USB input supporting MQA and DSD audio playback and renders 32-bit/384kHz PCM music files through the coaxial and optical inputs supporting music streamers and media players plus a tray-loading CD mechanism. It’s powered by an in-house manufactured, bespoke shielded toroidal transformer with high-efficiency…

How we test Hi-Fi Choice employs the most methodical test and measurement regime in the business. Here’s how we do it... INTEGRATED AMPLIFIERS GROUP TEST FOR THE LISTENINGprocess, a pair of Acoustic Energy AE120 2floorstanders is used. Being sensitive enough to not put any of our amps at a disadvantage but revealing enough to show up differences, they are ideal for our six contenders. The source is an iFi ZEN One Signature (HFC 491), running Qobuz via Roon, being played via a Roon Nucleus (HFC 439). This allows for connection to the amps via analogue, RCA interconnect. All six amps are additionally connected to an IsoTek Evo 3 Sigmas Mains Conditioner (HFC 394) and left powered on for 30 minutes before any material is played on them. A test level…

► DETAILS PRODUCT NAD D 3020 V2 ORIGIN UK/China TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 1.38kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 186 x 58 x 219mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 30W (8ohm) ● Inputs: RCA; MM phono; coaxial; optical; aptX Bluetooth ● 3.5mm headphone output DISTRIBUTOR Sevenoaks Sound & Vision As the oldest design in the test, it’s a mark of how ambitious the original D 3020’s specification was when it launched that this is still one of the more sophisticated offerings here. Key to understanding this integrated’s approach is that NAD takes the view that a potential customer will likely have a spread of differing components to hook up to it rather than a host of things with an RCA output, and so the specification tries to reflect this. To this end,…

► DETAILS PRODUCT Tangent Ampster BT II ORIGIN Denmark/China TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 1.72kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 195 x 70 x 194mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 25W (8ohm) ● Inputs: RCA; optical; 3.5mm jack; aptX Bluetooth ● Outputs: USB-A; subwoofer DISTRIBUTOR Avoke Ltd. Back in the halcyon days of the Nineties, £150 amplifiers were ten a penny and built by most of the major brands. Though time and inflation has done in for most of them, Tangent continues to fly the flag for sub-£200 hi-fi and not only is the Ampster BT II the most affordable integrated in the group, but it also manages to have a specification that is largely competitive with its more expensive rivals. This connectivity takes the ‘broad and shallow’ approach that a few other…

Anyone who has followed Vertere’s founder Touraj Moghaddam, all the way back to the early days of Roksan, cannot fail to have been impressed with his iconoclasm. A lifetime later, he’s still making cutting-edge turntables from out of leftfield. We knew that he hadn’t mellowed as soon as he dissuaded us from using a clamp or a weight on the LP, before removing the spindle with a flourish. This is our introduction to the SG-1 Super Groove, one model below the flagship RG-1 Reference Groove. In its Clear finish, seen here, the SG-1 retails for £16,000, while £18,250 pays for Black, Pearlescent, or Champagne. All are elegant, the two levels of 30mm-thick cast acrylic for top and bottom strata of the plinth, with a 15mm intermediate level of acrylic, creating…

One Odio isn’t a well-known name in audiophile circles, as the company is still relatively young and is perhaps best recognised for a range of affordable headphones that – in its own words – have established it as: “the most popular budget audio brand on Amazon”. That’s not necessarily a recommendation for discerning listeners, but the company is aiming a little higher with this particular wired headphone. The claims may seem a little over the top, but the affordable headphone gets the basics right. Its 50mm neodymium drivers provide a frequency response of 20Hz-40kHz, and it is one of the most affordable headphones with full certification for High Res Audio. However, the low cost does mean build quality is a mixed bag, with the earpieces and adjustable headband mostly made…

I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t take much for a tune that I like to become imbedded in my brain, especially if it’s new. These so-called ‘earworms’ keep playing in your head over and over again, particularly when you find yourself in a quiet environment. They can often feature at the start of a piece of music and are simple in structure. An earworm is a psychological phenomenon where a musical figure keeps playing in the mind long after the listening experience is over. In popular music it comes most often from the vocal melody, but can actually appear in any musical shape or form. Many earworms come from song hooks, but not all hooks become earworms. Think of the opening four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony where…

Kendrick Lamar Mr Morale & The Big Steppers ★★★★★ CD Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope BETTER LATE THAN never, as they say. Yes, we should have covered Kendrick Lamar’s first album in five years before now, but there were other great LPs to write about and his record company weren’t sending out music in advance to reviewers. Only the very biggest acts who no longer need the oxygen of press support can afford to do that – and they don’t come much bigger right now than the 35-year-old American rapper, who headlined on the main stage at Glastonbury’s closing night. Lamar’s third album, 2015’s Grammy-winning To Pimp A Butterfly, was a landmark, one of the finest albums of the last decade that positioned him as a worthy heir to Marvin Gaye, Bob…

THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT of Black Rhodium’s Minuet interconnect cable (HFC 453), the new Minuet S is covered with a screen to shield against extraneous RFI and EMI. It is finished off with a black braid said to have excellent vibration damping properties claimed to reduce colouration of the signal resulting from microphonic effects. This is terminated with the company’s gold-plated ‘Hourglass Silhouette’ RCA plugs. The cable restraint is provided by heatshrink sleeving fitted as part of the RCA plugs. Black magic I install the S interconnect between my preamp and monoblock power amplifiers and, following a suitable period of running-in using a cable burn-in CD running on repeat, I switch over to my phono stage and start the auditioning process with a great recording of Prokofiev’s Romeo And Juliet performed…

PRICE: £500-£3,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: EN.ELIPSON.COM AVOKE.CO.UK ELIPSON HAS LAUNCHED its new Reference Series P1 preamplifier of which the company says: “The essential development start point for the P1 was ensuring the maintenance of signal quality by reducing background noise wherever possible, therefore it is a completely balanced design with physical separation of channels. The P1 features a bespoke power supply with extremely high switching frequency, this is focussed on powering the digital sections of the unit such as the microcontroller, the OLED display and the source switching relays.” The supply feeds a sinusoidal (selfoscillating) DC-DC converter which, followed by noise regulators, feeds all the analogue sections of the P1. The company goes on to claim: “the absence of spectral lines at 100Hz and all its harmonics when combined with…

PRICE: £240-£27,500 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: PIEGA.CH/EN/ SWISS COMPANY PIEGA has expanded its Coax series with four new models featuring an all-new coaxial ribbon tweeter/mid driver and upgraded aluminium cabinets. Technically refining the Coax floorstanding and bookshelf speakers, the new Gen2 models comprise the Coax 811, 611, 411 and Coax 211 Centre for home cinema use. Since it was founded in 1986, Piega has designed, developed and manufactured unique ribbon drivers with diaphragms consisting of a wafer-thin aluminium foil 30 times lighter than conventional HF domes: “thus enabling an extraordinarily spatial and detailed highfrequency reproduction”. It later expanded its driver technology to include a combined midrange and tweeter ribbon, with the ribbon tweeter placed centrally in the middle of the surrounding midrange ribbon driver – which is where the Piega Coax…

Tickets On Sale Now! www.hifishowlive.com 10th-11 ththSeptember Advance tickets are now on sale for the UK’s premier highend audio event – The UK Hi-Fi Show Live, hosted at the Ascot Racecourse Grandstand, High Street, Ascot on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 September 2022. Tickets will cost just £20 (£30 for a weekend pass) via www.eventbrite.co.uk or via the link on the www.hifishowlive.com website. Concessionary day passes will be offered for subscribers of Hi-Fi Choice and Hi-Fi News (details in this month’s subscriber insert) and all NHS workers will be treated to a ‘free pass’. See our website for further information, brand listings and seminars. LOADS MORE TOP names have been added to the list of attendees and exhibitors at the UK Hi-Fi Show Live. DALI will be showcasing the first…

TAKEN AT FACE value, amplifiers are the most consistently required components in a separates system and you might imagine that testing six of them, particularly at a more affordable price point where the scope for doing things radically differently is reduced, should result in a relatively homogenous group. The various models you see here put pay to that theory rather effectively. All of these devices are amplifiers, but in microcosm they represent many of the differing ways in which a company might go about producing such a thing. Firstly we have a neat 50/50 split between models that have their own digital decoding on board and those that don’t. This significantly changes the dynamic of how they might be employed in a system, with our three analogueonly models needing external…

► DETAILS PRODUCT Pro-Ject MaiA S3 ORIGIN Austria/Slovakia TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 1.07kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 206 x 55 x 153mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 23W (8ohm) ● Inputs: 3x RCA; MM phono; coaxial; 2x optical; aptX HD Bluetooth ● Outputs: 1x RCA; 6.35mm headphone DISTRIBUTOR Henley Audio Ltd. As the name suggests, the MaiA S3 is the third generation of Pro-Ject’s compact integrated amplifier (the original being tested back in HFC 390) and, while some of the details have changed, the premise is the same as before; an affordable integrated, optimised to work with the company’s turntable range but also able to handle other inputs that you might have without struggling. As the Pro-Ject has comfortably the most inputs in the group that should not be a problem.…

► DETAILS PRODUCT Yamaha R-S202D ORIGIN Japan/China TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 6.7kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 435 x 141 x 322mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 2x 100W (8ohm) ● Inputs: 4x RCA; AAC/SBC Bluetooth ● 6.35mm headphone output DISTRIBUTOR Yamaha UK One of the two ‘full-width’, designs in the group, the Yamaha is closely related to the AS-201 (HFC 386) stereo amplifier, but where that is a conventional line-only device, the R-S202D augments the specification. This is the only receiver in the test and therefore the only device that can work with no other equipment to hand at all. The tuner section is impressively comprehensive too, boasting DAB, DAB+ and FM, and can support 40 presets for both digital and analogue. This joins four RCA line inputs – one of them…

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, so the saying goes. But while the previous version of Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless provided decent sound quality, its chunky design wasn’t to everyone’s taste. Sennheiser was clearly listening, as its Momentum True Wireless 3 has a more compact design – and reduced price tag. Available in black, white or graphite, the new design is noticeably smaller, providing a more comfortable fit. There are four sizes of silicon eartips included plus three sizes of rubber ‘fins’, which fit into the outer ear to hold the buds in place. Each houses a 7mm dynamic driver, with 5Hz-21kHz frequency response. Like its predecessor, the TW3 supports Apple’s AAC codec for Bluetooth along with aptX for Android, but this update adds aptX Adaptive. You can turn…

Usefully comprehensive, Goldring’s cartridge range has been fairly long lived, and new arrivals are always worthy of note. The HX replaces the H as the only high-output moving coil in Goldring’s range and is part of the more affordable Eroica (Italian for hero) family below the Elite and Ethos lines. The HX looks similar to the outgoing H and has a body made from Pocan. Goldring says this is robust and has no sonic signature. As it is fairly light, the 6.6g weight (including fixings) should be easy enough to accommodate in most arms. The body is unthreaded though, meaning that a nut and bolt needs to be used to fit it – making it more fiddly than threaded rivals. The audio and ground pins are inverted in the traditional…

We’re proud to cater to all kinds of different record buyers,” beams eCom manager Marvin Case of East London’s Stranger Than Paradise Records. “For example, today there’s been everyone from a regular who’s been buying jazz and soul in the borough for decades to a five-year-old girl buying her very first record.” Welcome to tempting temple of vinyl Stranger Than Paradise, located in the beating heart of Hackney on vibrant main tributary Mare Street, well connected by two nearby London overground stations. “It’s always been important to us to be the opposite of your stereotypical intimidating and unfriendly record shop – and dogs are always welcome too,” Marvin adds. It meets its anti-stereotype brief in style. Step through a spacious and stylish dining area, past the plants and under an…

Many of you will by now have seen Baz Luhrmann’s movie Elvis, so I’m not going to review it here. Suffice it to say that if you haven’t, you really should for the little-known Austin Butler is magnificent in the title role and conveys with an almost preternatural insight how Presley’s early wildness was tamed and gave way to frustration, disappointment and finally suffocation. Rather, let us use Luhrmann’s film to reconsider Elvis’ legacy, my interest in doing so piqued by a line in Charles Taylor’s review in Esquire, in which he noted that Presley has: “never had the respect of high-culture arbiters”. If you think about it, this is decidedly odd. You don’t have to agree with Taylor’s contention that he was: “the most significant American cultural figure of…

ES SENTIAL HI-FI YOU’LL WANT TO OWN CD players p110 Amplifiers p111 Pre/power amps p111Cables p112-113 Network audio players p114Music servers p114 DACs p115 Loudspeakers p116-118One-box systems p118 Turntables p119Cartridges p119 Phono stages p120 Headphones p120-121 Portable DACs p121 CD PLAYERS Audiolab 6000CDT PRICE: £380 REVIEWED: HFC 447 The 6000CDT is exceptional at revealing what’s on your discs to deliver a great big soundstage with plenty of detail inside. It can dig down deep into the mix to eke out the different musical strands while dynamically and rhythmically it’s hard to beat at the price. In short, it’s a super, highly affordable audiophile CD transport. Cambridge Audio AXC35 PRICE: £300 REVIEWED: HFC 454 Something of a budget marvel, you’ll have to work extra hard to get the AXC35…