Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2011 i Hi-Fi Choice

PAUL MESSENGER EXPERTISE: SPEAKERS PAUL is the UK’s foremost expert on loudspeakers. Having worked as a speaker designer and reviewer for over 30 years Paul is internationally recognised for his ability to assess loudspeaker performance, and report on developments in the field. JIMMY HUGHES EXPERTISE: SYSTEM OPTIMISATION JIMMY has been involved in hi-fi for over 40 years. His knowledge of tweaking and optimising systems is unrivalled in the hi-fi industry and he brings enormous expertise to the pages of Hi-Fi Choice. If anyone can help you improve your set-up, it’s him. RICHARD BLACK EXPERTISE: TECHNOLOGY RICHARD writes exclusively for HFC and brings his experience as a successful musician and recording engineer to the title. As Technical Consultant, he’s our authority on tech testing, ensuring that our verdicts are beyond compare.…

This year’s High End show in Munich was notably filled with top-notch kit from all around the world. While European brands are naturally well represented, there were as many from the far east and North America and we had to be highly selective in order to bring you the cream of a bumper crop. The theme this year was undoubtedly network streaming, and most of the mainstream brands and quite a few of the smaller ones had a streamer of sorts to show. It was encouraging to see temptingly low price points for this new technology, facilitating the purchase of a good-quality DAC. High End is very different to UK shows you may have visited: the show is divided between open, airy exhibition halls where no music is played, to…

The 1950s and 1960s saw a veritable explosion of interest in the tape recorder. It was the audio equivalent of the cine boom that occurred around the same time. For the first time in history, it was possible to make sound recording in the home and people were fascinated – nay, mesmerised – by the possibilities this opened up. Indeed, interest in tape recorders was so great, there were several monthly magazines devoted to the topic and, in the UK, at least one chain of retail shops that exclusively specialised in sound recording on tape. Soon, the more advanced enthusiasts were adept at editing with a razor blade and producing their own documentaries and plays. Unable to surf the net, because it hadn’t been invented yet, some people wasted their…

TO WIN this fantastic prize, correctly answer the following question: What method does the PD 1 use to send information wirelessly? A: IR B: RF C: ESP Please text your answer: Electro A, B, or C to 87474 or visit futurecomps.co.uk/electro and follow the instructions, leaving your selected answer and details where prompted PRIZE WORTH £1,500 Electrocompaniet is nothing, if not inventive. As an answer to the problem that many of us are unwilling to use computer audio because our PC resides in a different room to our hi-fi, it has created the PD 1. As well as a full complement of conventional digital inputs, the PD 1 is also able to receive audio sent over RF from the company’s EMS 1 streaming unit, which can be connected to your…

HFC’s test equipment is the most advanced kit available AT HI-FI CHOICE, we have access to some of the most advanced test equipment currently available on the market, including the Audio Precision APx585, which you’ll find in the labs of many top hi-fi manufacturers. The 585 can be configured to test a variety of key hi-fi products, such as amplifiers, CD players/DACs and – with the help of a specially-calibrated microphone – loudspeakers. In conjunction with some conventional lab equipment at our disposal, the 585 will also be used to test analogue playback equipment including phono stages and turntables. These objective measurements – which conform to recognised industry standards – are designed to complement subjective evaluations such as the listening panels organised by our internationally respected reviewers. The standard of…

This month’s panel of experienced listeners from within the industry are: DUNCAN SHRIMPTON JOB: CHAPTER AUDIO DUNCAN IS AN electronic engineer, who started out at Chord Electronics with an encyclopaedic knowledge of network media systems. PETER WOOLLISCROFT JOB: 15 AUDIO PETER WORKED as an engineer in recording studios before getting into video editing. The love of his life is ‘great sound’. PAUL BENGE JOB: ABC AUDIO A WHEELER and dealer of secondhand equipment, Paul Benge has heard more high-end hi-fi than most mortals could dream of. Paul is head of sales for distributor ABC Audio.…

WITH THE COMING OF THE DOWNLOAD age the CD player has found itself out of fashion on the high street, but in audiophile circles, the dedicated CD player is still very much a serious tool. The fact that CD players have now been in production for nearly 30 years means that engineers have had plenty of time to figure out how to get the best out of the format. As a result, modern players are significantly more capable and musical than they were ten years ago. The file-streaming age has also meant that many players are now equipped to take a digital input, so that their highly refined digital-to-analogue circuits can be put to good use converting the outputs of streaming devices. CD players at this elevated price point are…

Hanss Acoustics made its debut in these pages with the T-30 turntable (HFC 331), one of three high-mass, multi-motor designs that it produces. Despite the presence of phono stages and even a record-cleaner in the range, it’s not just an analogue company, as the CD player proves. Like the turntables, the CD-20 is a substantial beast with high build and finish quality for the asking price. In fact, the all-metal remote, which is styled to match the player, is the most attractive in the test. By the standards of the group it’s low on features, but has all the essentials in the RCA phono and XLR analogue outputs and a lonely coaxial digital output. Optical outputs have their uses, but not many audio enthusiasts make them a first choice. The…

DETAILS ORIGIN: Italy WEIGHT: 12kg DIMENSIONS: (WxHxD) 435x130x430mm FEATURES: • Analogue outputs: unbalanced and balanced (XLR) • Digital outputs: electrical S/PDIF • Digital inputs: electrical S/PDIF DISTRIBUTOR: UKD TELEPHONE: 01753 652669 WEBSITE: unisonresearch.com Otalians seem to love valve equipment. As a nation they produce a broad array of stylish glass-powered electronics; it must be something to do with the romance that valves bring out in music! Unison Research makes a number of amplifiers and three CD players of which this is the top dog. In fact, it’s slightly higher than that because it’s the upgraded DAC-OP2 version of the Unico CDE. This is an optional upgrade to the standard CDE which costs £150 if you fit it yourself, but adds £175 to the price of the normal player. It replaces…

THE AUDIO ANALOGUE Maestro is the most revealing and entertaining player in this strong group. It’s more resolute than the Unison Research and produces more fine detail than the Primare. It’s combination of impressive stage depth, precise, yet fluid timing and low level resolution makes it very hard to resist with a range of different music types. This is demonstrated by its ability to do justice to the natural openness and tonality of our classical piece as well as the power and scale of the live Kraftwerk track. It manages to combine masses of detail with high musicality, which is the hardest trick for any source component to pull off. Build quality is also first class and there is a slight sense of style over ergonomics in the compact metal…

DETAILS PRODUCT: Pathos Ethos ORIGIN: Italy TYPE: Integrated amp WEIGHT: 20kg DIMENSIONS: (WxHxD) 430x150x485mm FEATURES: • Class A tube preamp • MOSFET solid-state output stage • Two unbalanced inputs • Preamp and subwoofer outputs • Optional 24-bit/192kHz DAC with USB and S/PDIF inputs • With built-in DAC an extra £600 DISTRIBUTOR: UKD TELEPHONE: 01753 652669 WEBSITE: pathosacoustics.com The increased use of music sources other than CD has led to the need for hi-fi components with a broader range of options. In particular, the ability to accept digital source material stored on computer hard drives has become an added factor. With the Ethos, Pathos has created a powerful hybrid tube/transistor integrated amplifier capable of accepting a wide range of sources – from balanced analogue via XLR, to digital via USB (via…

DETAILS PRODUCT: Onkyo TX-NR609 ORIGIN: Japan/Malysia TYPE: Network receiver WEIGHT: 11.3kg DIMENSIONS: 435x173.5x328mm FEATURES: • 7-channel THX-certified AV receiver • Spotify, Napster and LastFM support • Internet radio and DNLA streaming • FM/AM tuner • Six HDMI 1.4 inputs DISTRIBUTION: Onkyo UK TELEPHONE: 01628 473350 WEBSITE: eu.onkyo.com Ot’s been a good few years since we featured an AV receiver in Hi-Fi Choice. But following Onkyo’s recent return to hi-fi (HFC345) we were made aware of a truly groundbreaking new product with an astonishing spec-list, one that we felt should be put through its paces. The TX-NR609 is a seven-channel AV receiver with 160 watts (albeit into six ohms) per channel and six-HDMI inputs able to receive 3D video and every audio format you can think of. Additionally more conventional digital…

DETAILS PRODUCT: XTZ 99.26 ORIGIN: Sweden/China TYPE: Standmount loudspeaker WEIGHT: 10kg DIMENSIONS: (WXHXD) 244x379x352mm FEATURES: • 2-way standmount speaker • Ribbon tweeter • 1x 6.5-inch SEAS Excel, magnesium driver • Adjustable crossover output • Tuneable bass port DISTRIBUTOR: Audio Sanctum TELEPHONE: 01623 857707 WEBSITE: xtz.se/uk Hailing from Sweden, XTZ has expanded rapidly to produce a bewildering array of electronics and loudspeakers. The company focuses on trying to provide strong value for money and its products seem to be very competitively priced. The 99.26 is the second most costly standmount in the range, but still only sells for £670. Marketed under the ambitious strap of, ‘The world’s most affordable high end,’ the 99.26 has a lot to live up to. First impressions are good. The pairing of a 6.5-inch SEAS mid/bass…

Kate Bush Director’s Cut katebush.com 5.0/5.0 Fish People CD THIS IS NOT a new Kate Bush album (surely too much to hope for – it’s only been six years since Aerial), but a re-imagining of four tracks from The Sensual World (1989) and seven from The Red Shoes (1993). Though the two albums sounded very different on release, there’s a homogeneity about these versions that makes it sound as though they were all conceived as a piece. Some use elements of the originals, remixed with new vocals and drums (real ones this time) and some new instrumentation, but three, including This Woman’s Work, were completely re-recorded from scratch. There are new contributions too from the likes of Steve Gadd and Danny Thompson, with backing vocals from Mica Paris. All are…

The Rolling Stones Through The Past Darkly hdtracks.com ABKCO 5.0/5.0 24-bit/176kHz and 24-bit/88kHz HERE ARE the Stones arguably at their best, from the era when record shops asked if you wanted mono or stereo. As well as a couple of mono tracks you also get loads of classics, many benefiting from Keef’s open-D-tuned rhythm guitar ringing out like some sort of supercharged bell along with Bill Wyman’s solid, stygian bass and Charlie Watts relentlessly driving drum kit. You’d struggle to present a convincing argument for anyone to bother with anything above the 24-bit/88kHz version. There’s no discernible difference between that and the 24-bit/176kHz recording on most systems. MS Standout tracks: Jumpin’ JackFlash; Honky TonkWoman Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus hdtracks.com 4.0/5.0 Concord Jazz 24-bit/96kHz and 24-bit/192kHz ROLLINS EARNED the soubriquet Saxophone…

PAUL MESSENGER EXPERTISE: LOUDSPEAKERS HAVING WORKED on both sides of the audio industry for over 30 years, as loudspeaker designer and reviewer, Paul is ideally placed to offer thorough, in-depth analysis of every speaker reviewed, as well as cutting-edge developments in the field. JIMMY HUGHES EXPERTISE: SYSTEM OPTIMISATION AS EVERY audiophile knows, there’s so much more to getting a system to sing than merely throwing components together. Jimmy Hughes has spent 40 years tweaking and optimising systems, as well as voraciously collecting records. RICHARD BLACK EXPERTISE: TECHNOLOGY WRITING EXCLUSIVELY for HFC, Richard brings his experience as a successful musician and recording engineer to bear in our rigorous Blind-Listening Group Test. As our technical consultant, Richard is the authority on HFC’s test and measurement. ED SELLEY EXPERTISE: DIGITAL AUDIO RESIDENT IN…

PRICE: £80 CONTACT: 01923 205605 WEBSITE: JAMO.COM JAMO MAY BE BEST KNOWN for speakers, but the company also offers a small range of in-ear phones of which this is the middle model. The drive unit is identical to that used in, at least, one Klipsch model (Klipsch being Jamo’s parent company these days), but other details are different and there’s no reason to suppose that this would be a Klipsch retread. Jamo’s description mentions ‘passive noise-cancelling’, by which is simply meant noise-blocking, as this model (like the others here) has no active anti-noise features. As it happens, we felt this was by a small margin the most effective at blocking external noise, but there’s not really much in it. We also felt that it had the most noisy cable, very…

Welcome to the Hi-Fi Choice Buyer’s Guide – the ultimate directory to the very best high-performance hi-fi gear that you can buy. Here, you’ll find our favourite current products listed under easy-to-use categories, with up-to-date pricing and trustworthy verdicts. Reviews you can trust Hi-Fi Choice test results are the most reliable in the business. We employ the UK’s most respected hi-fi journalists and use the most stringent techniques to ensure our ratings are the ones you can trust. All the equipment we rate most highly is contained within these pages, from CD and vinyl to the latest disc players, amplifiers, tuners and loudspeakers. Reviews online We’ve also included techradar listings where our reviews appear online. To access selected Hi-Fi Choice reviews, simply type: techradar.com/ into your browser, followed by the…

Dynavector Karat 17D3 £699 The 17D3 gets very close to the results achieved with MCs at twice the price and few can touch it in terms of sheer musicality and resolution of detail Pro-Ject 6 Perspex £1,280 Our Product of the Year 2010. A winning combination of open and even-handed sound, handsome design and excellent build quality Dr Feickert An. Woodpecker £2,995 A very flexible and well-thought-out deck that offers brilliant build quality and excellent bass. Able to work with a wide variety of arms, too…

SPECS KEY STRANDED Cable has a number of (usually) twisted strands to conduct the signal. SOLID CORE Cable has one or more individually insulated strands to conduct the signal. COPPER Material used to form the conducting element of the cable. SILVER Alternative material used to form the conducting element of the cable. DIGITAL CABLE TYPE E – electrical, O – optical. Cables are one metre length unless otherwise stated.…

SPECS KEY HEIGHT (CM) Height of equipment support and speaker stand (not including spikes) in centimetres. TOP PLATE SIZE (CM) Width by depth of the supporting platform(s). Single figures indicate a square platform (Speakers generally overhang top plates). FILLABLE The stand can be mass-loaded with sand and/or lead to stop ringing. WELDED As opposed to bolt-together construction. NUMBER OF SHELVES To put your kit on (different configurations are often available). NUMBER OF LEGS That support the stand. SHELF TYPE Material that shelves are made of.…

Last month (HFC 347), Martin Pipe put forward a strong case that the technical ability of sub-£1,000 DACs is now such, that regardless of the price of the rest of the components, they are all the front end that you would ever need. Hot on the heels of this bold statement comes the M2 Tech DAC (reviewed on page 80) that not only has a top-drawer performance, but also offers a USB input that has capabilities not currently available on any other device irrespective of price. Is it now the case that the ‘Front end first’ philosophy is no longer logical in the face of the performance that some entry-level products are offering? Front end first dates back to the analogue age and dictates that a system can never be…

www.hifichoice.co.uk Issue No. 348 August 2011 We’re just back from High End, Munich (the Munich show) and yet again our European cousins have put on a cracking event. Read Jason Kennedy’s full report on p16 in this issue. Despite the show’s moniker, there was plenty of affordable high-end product on display, something we’ve attempted to echo is this very edition. One of Britain’s best known high-end brands, Audio Note, is featured on our cover this month, as we reveal in a world exclusive review (p56) the Peter Qvortrup system you can afford! We’ve also got Pro-Ject’s second-from-top turntable, the RPM 10.1, which at just £2,000 truly represents affordable high end. Other noteworthy reviews this month include the stunning Pathos Ethos (p60) integrated and one of the world’s most talked-about DACs,…

There is a tendency in this industry (of which I am as guilty as anyone else) to divide products into ‘new’ and ‘mature’ categories. We watch streaming and network products develop rapidly and add new technologies and think nothing of it while subconsciously assuming that older categories are a static background. This is something that I believe blinds us to developments in the wider industry. Over the last decade, we have seen significant steps forward in areas that we often consider ‘mature’ or even ‘retro’. Turntables are an interesting case in point. The idea that technical development would still be demonstrating meaningful improvements after 63 years and its supposed ‘replacement’ by digital is a hard one to countenance, but it is the case. The Pro-Ject RPM 10.1 (reviewed on p66)…

Get in touch! email us at hifichoice@futurenet.com or write to: Hi-Fi Choice Letters, Future Publishing Ltd, 2 Balcombe Street, London NW1 6NW Computer love I turned to your excellent magazine when I finally realised that my ageing hi-fi needed updating. I am using a NAD 312 amplifier, a Cambridge CD6 player, an AKAI tuner and TDL-RTL2 speakers. They are all mid-nineties technology. When I connected a Panasonic Blu-ray player to the amp and played a music CD, I knew it was time to update the system, probably starting with the Cambridge CD6. It was in your May issue (HFC 345), particularly the Opinion columns by Kevin Gallucci, Martin Pipe and Jimmy Hughes, that persuaded me that the future belongs to streaming music stored on a computer, along with broadcasts from…

The introduction of the computer into hi-fi systems has provided a revolutionary way to obtain, organise and enjoy your music collection. The only problem is that computers metaphorically come from Venus, while hi-fi comes from Mars, so we have some instant communication problems. Fear not, however, because in part two of our audiophile streaming guide, we give you straightforward tips to getting the most from your CD-rips and digital music downloads. And all without tainting your hard drive with a single lossily compressed file, the sound-quality of which is sure to make you wonder why you bothered becoming interested with recorded music in the first place. This is serious audiophile-quality playback here: computers can deliver 100 per cent of the original recording, not just the five per cent you get…

BLIND-LISTENING TESTS THIS CRUCIAL test involves relatively rapid-fire comparisons of the test units for a panel of three listeners who are not aware of which product they are listening to. Levels are accurately matched and the test is conducted with the minimum of distractions, playing the same programme through each system while the listeners take notes of whatever pleases or bothers them. In this way, an evaluation free of prejudices based on brand, price or appearance can be made, while the different tastes and sensitivities of each listener help round out the analysis and make it more widely applicable. Occasional repeats of kit give a ‘sanity check’, while years of experience help make the process efficient and reliable. SIGHTED LISTENING IN ADDITION to the ‘blind’ test, the author also spends…

No other magazine offers an equivalent listening programme Few, if any, magazines in the world can equal our dedication and thoroughness in combining blind and sighted listening with extensive lab tests and detailed internal examination of equipment passing through our hands. Each of these is equally important and it’s not just that we do them – we also bring to the table decades of audio experience. Our listeners in the Blind-Listening Group Tests for example, are experts from within the hi-fi industry. Each and everyone of them is used to listening critically during product development and initial product testing. In fact, many of them also get involved in making recordings and their own music. One of these is HFC’s Technical Consultant Richard Black, who has been involved with designing, testing…

Audio Analogue’s Maestro range represents the pinnacle of its achievements: the Special Edition power amplifiers that carry the same badge cost in the region of £20,000. The Maestro CD player is the penultimate Audio Analogue disc-spinner, second only to the SE version which comes in at twice the price. Our test model is the second revision of the design, or CD192/24 REV2.0 as they call it in the technical dept. It differs from its predecessor in having a TEAC CD-ROM transport mechanism, chosen for its sturdiness and low-jitter output. The display has also been changed to a high-contrast VFD-type (vacuum fluorescent display) that uses white dots to produce a fairly small description of what the player is doing. This, combined with the lack of any direct track access from the…

DETAILS ORIGIN: Sweden/China WEIGHT: 9kg DIMENSIONS: (WxHxD) 430x110x385mm FEATURES: • Analogue outputs: unbalanced and balanced (XLR) • Digital outputs: optical & electrical S/PDIF, AES/EBU (XLR) • Digital inputs: USB A DISTRIBUTOR: Karma AV TELEPHONE: 01423 358946 WEBSITE: primare.net We looked at Primare’s latest CD player and its partnering amplifier the i32 in HFC344, so it makes sense to see how it compares with the competition. On paper and in the flesh it’s very strong indeed, thanks to a superb OLED display with a crisp Sans Serif style and a stainless front panel with the bare minimum of buttons. The CD32’s natural tendency is to upsample its output to 96kHz via both analogue and digital sockets, but this can be reined in to 48 or 44.1kHz with the remote handset. Primare…

TECH LABS Audio jitter varied substantially in our batch of CD players: the Audio Analogue Maestro; Hanss Acoustics CD-20 and the Primare CD32, achieving what we consider to be audiophile standard results of 180-200 pico seconds of jitter, while the remaining three players lagged behind somewhat. Crosstalk also varied between the products, although the dynamic range measured by all the units set a very high standard and is surely testament to modern electronic engineering. All the products produced a remarkable frequency response plot. This, arguably, may be considered a more crucial parameter for our measurements as the CD player is a signal source in a listening system. Whilst distortion and noise should be kept to a minimum, frequencies cannot be reproduced if they are lost. One curious observation is how…

AMPLIFIER: Leema Tucana II £3,425 If you want to hear everything that’s coming out of the highly evolved outputs of these CD players, it pays to have an amplifier that’s both explicitly revealing and capable of driving the loudspeakers so that the dynamics they produce are not wasted. The Tucana II has bags of power and can handle pretty well any loudspeaker you throw at it, thanks to 148 watts and a serious power supply. It also has balanced inputs should you wish to try this connection option, as well as great flexibility and genuine transparency. EQUIPMENT SUPPORT: Townshend Seismic Sink Stand From £1,450 It might seem odd to include a stand in the ‘Try with these...’ list, but you won’t hear what any component is capable of if it’s…

DETAILS PRODUCT: Acoustic Energy NeoV2 Four ORIGIN: China TYPE: Floorstanding loudspeaker WEIGHT: 28kg DIMENSIONS: (WxHxD) 203x 1,200x300mm FEATURES: • 25mm neodymium ring-radiator tweeter • Midrange: 130mm pressed-alloy cone • Bass: 2x 160mm pressed-alloy cone • Sensitivity/impedance: 91dB/8 ohms DISTRIBUTOR: Acoustic Energy TELEPHONE: 01285 646580 WEBSITE: acoustic-energy.co.uk The latest addition to Acoustic Energy’s extensive range is a substantial three-way at a very competitive price. But while it’s easy to build a big speaker for a good price with Far Eastern manufacturing, it’s another thing to make the speaker communicative and dynamic. Acoustic Energy has a strong track record for getting its designs right so what can we tell you about the new £700 NeoV2 Four? Quality firepower Standing 1,200mm tall this is an imposing speaker in a very smart finish (there’s…

DETAILS PRODUCT: DALI IKON 7 Mk2 ORIGIN: Denmark TYPE: Floorstanding two-and-two-halves-way loudspeaker WEIGHT: 21.5kg DIMENSIONS: (WxHxD) 200x1, 117x364mm FEATURES: • Black or light walnut wood-effect finish • Twin port-reflex bass loading • 28mm transparent doped fabric-dome tweeter • 17x45mm ribbon supertweeter • Dome and ribbon for hybrid tweeter module • 2x165mm wood fibre cone bass-only drivers • 1x165mm wood fibre cone bass/mid driver DISTRIBUTOR: DALI UK TELEPHONE: 08456 443537 WEBSITE: dali.dk DALI (the name is actually an acronym for Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries) debuted its new IKON range at the May 2010 Munich High End Society show and while the overall sizes and configurations of the various MK2 models do correspond closely to those of the original IKON range (first launched in 2005), they also incorporate plenty of engineering and…

There are a lot of good DACs around, but few of them really stand out on technical grounds. Just recently, a few have appeared which support high-sampling-rate USB operation (previously limited to 48kHz) and that’s obviously a good thing. M2TECH, however, has upped the ante by introducing a feature that was previously the sole preserve of some rare and expensive ultra-high-end kit, in the shape of 384kHz sampling. Yes, that’s eight times 48kHz (and yes, eight times 44.1kHz, or 352.8kHz, is supported too). This means that a full three octaves of frequency response is now, in principle, available above CD’s regular 20kHz limit. No one is suggesting we can hear as high as 160kHz, but ever since the dawn of digital audio there have been voices arguing that that much…

Jeff Beck Wired musiconvinyl.com 5.0/5.0 Epic/Music on vinyl 180g BECK’S NAME does not always figure in lists of the great rock guitarists, he is often eclipsed by more stellar figures like Page, Hendrix, Clapton and even Townshend. Yet, for the true connoisseur, he has few equals when it comes to range and intensity, and on Wired you can hear precisely what makes him so highly revered. Most of the songwriting here is by Narada Michael Walden, who also contributes drums. His influence is important, but ultimately it’s the guitar that makes Wired one of the top five fusion albums ever. It’s fabulous to see this back on vinyl from a new company that seems to know what it’s doing. It feels lighter in balance than the original, but there’s plenty…

Jordan Acoustics is a relative newcomer by the standard of UK audio dealers. Although its founding store has been providing audiophile expertise in Glenrothes, Scotland for some years now, we chose to drop by its second home in the grounds of Parley Manor, near Bournemouth. Founder and owner, Tim Jordan explains that the location is absolutely ideal for successful expansion and his philosophy for all things ‘hi-fi’. First and foremost, this part of the south coast with its disposable income areas, such as Sandbanks (where real estate prices of £10,000 per square foot are the norm), has not previously been targeted by the audiophile dealer. This is good news for Tim, allowing him to focus on being both a high-end dealer in the classic sense of the word, while offering…

EVERY SPEAKER THAT we review is supplied with some information on power handling-the maximum amount of power that the speaker is designed to take. This can lead to a degree of confusion. The first is because there are often two sets of figures a ’continuous’ and a ’peak’. Continuous power is the figure that the speaker is designed to handle indefinitely (within reason). The peak figure represents the amount of transient power the speaker can handle. People are often concerned about the prospect of pairing a speaker with a lower power handling than the output of an amplifier. This need not be a concern. The main reason for this is simply that, unless you happen to listen to the amplifier at full tilt for sustained periods, you are unlikely to…

PRICE: £80 CONTACT: +00468 1220 1900 WEBSITE: JAYS.SE DEDICATED TO HEADPHONES and earphones, Jays designs in Sweden, but manufactures in China, maintaining several ranges of products each of which is closely targeted, for instance at the phone/music-player user. The t-JAYS range is where the hi-fi lives and boasts a 10mm driver and an angled sound tube, in an assembly which is shown on the company website as nestling securely in the ear. We didn’t quite manage to duplicate such secure mounting but with a little experimenting with earbuds (several sizes are supplied) we contrived a comfortable and secure fit. The cable is quite short, though an extension is provided and there’s a neat little toggle which can be used to adjust the amount of cable that’s split. We enjoyed the…

SPECS KEY SACD COMPATIBLE Plays high-resolution SACD discs in two-channel mode. ELEC DIGITAL OUTPUT Electrical coaxial output for digital connection to a DAC or digital recorder. OPT DIGITAL OUTPUT Optical Toslink output for digital connection to a DAC or digital recorder. CD-RW COMPATIBLE Will play CD-RW (rewritable) discs, most CD players can cope with CD-Rs. CD TEXT Will display album and track titles from inserted disc. BAL ANALOGUE OUT Balanced XLR output connections for similarly equipped amplifiers. HEADPHONE SOCKET Quarter inch (6.3mm) headphone jack fitted to the CD player. VARIABLE OUTPUT Player features both fixed level and variable, volume adjustable outputs.…

SPECS KEY WAVEBANDS Which bands are supported: FM, M – medium wave, L – long wave, DAB – digital audio broadcasting. PRESETS How many stations can be stored in memory. RDS Radio Data System – station names and program titles can be displayed among other facilities (FM only, DAB has more comprehensive display potential). REMOTE CONTROL For the couch potato. SIGNAL STRENGTH METER Useful for setting up an aerial. ROTARY TUNING KNOB An ergonomic alternative to buttons.…

SPECS KEY SIZE W,H,D (CM) Width, height and depth of one cabinet in centimetres. FLOORSTANDER Speakers that don’t require stands. EASE OF DRIVE How much power the amplifier needs (approximately) to drive the loudspeaker effectively. A+ 25 watts plus A 50 watts plus A- 100 watts plus ACT Active – the speaker has its own in-built amplifier. BASS FROM How low the speaker goes – the smaller the number the deeper the bass. FREE SPACE The speakers work best away from wall(s). CLOSE TO WALL The speakers will work best when up against a wall (but avoid corners).…

Atacama Duo 6 £65 This value-priced loudspeaker stand adds a hint of vibrancy to the sound and there’s plenty of life and energy in the midrange and treble Quadraspire Sunoko Vent T £800 A clever solution to the twin problems of equipment cooling and resonance, thanks to a unique shelf design, makes this a worthy 2010 award winner Townshend VSSS £1,380 Although not cheap, Max Townshend’s skillfully engineered rack nears the ideal in terms of isolation and spending more doesn’t really bring big gains…

PRICE: £20,000 AVAILABLE: AUGUST CONTACT: 01622 672 261 WEB: KEF.COM We were very taken with KEF’s ‘Concept Blade’ loudspeaker that did the rounds at the various hi-fi shows in 2010. KEF insisted that the Blade was a ‘technology demonstrator’, showing directions and design features that the company were considering, rather than an actual example of a future speaker. But, one year on, the Blade is going on sale with a price of £20,000 per pair. KEF says that the production version is a significant upgrade to the concept, but the key aspects of the original design have made it through intact. The thinking behind the Blade is the Single Apparent Source technology. This is the combination of two separate areas of development. The first is the latest generation Uni-Q MF/HF…

As we all patiently await Apple to make its next major move in digital music with its new ‘iCloud’ service (or whatever it ends up being called when Steve Jobs lifts the lid later this year) Google has recently made its own move into the booming audio streaming business, going up against the likes of Spotify, we7 and Amazon. But what the hell is this rather unimaginatively titled new Google Music service? And, most importantly, is it something that might offer audiophiles better quality music streaming, both around the home and to mobile devices, than they might find elsewhere? Google unveiled its cloud-music plans at the I/O conference in San Francisco, the company’s annual shindig for web developers, with Music Beta by Google (music.google.com) currently only being tested out in…

THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMATIVE and interesting piece on the future of UK radio in the June edition (HFC 346). I have been moving toward the convenience of digital sources and now listen mostly via a Spotify Premium account through a Sonos Zone player. This is digitally streamed to my hi-fi, consisting of a Musical Fidelity KW250s all-in-one unit and Castle Harlech S2 speakers. Spotify streams album content at 320kbs and the sound quality is only slightly inferior to CD quality. The convenience and excitement of being able to listen to just about anything you want more than makes up for that marginal difference in sound quality, for most listening purposes – although it is of course, nice to be able to really get the best from my system from…

Hi-Fi Choice employs the most rigorous test and measurement regime in the business and here we explain why our definitive verdicts count Hi-fi reviews EXPERT TESTING FOR OVER THREE decades, Hi-Fi Choice has been trusted for its combination of subjective and technical review expertise. The crucial consideration for any audio component is how it sounds, but it is important to back this up with laboratory measurements for many reasons – everything from the wish to check basic performance to the possibility of uncovering peculiar behaviour under conditions, perhaps slightly different from those of the subjective tests. Listening Subjective testing doesn’t necessarily require the world’s sharpest ears. What’s more important is the experience to analyse the sound arriving from the hi-fi and this is where our subjective reviewers come in: they…

FOR THIS MONTH’S CD player Blind-listening Group Test, we pressed into service the APx585 audio analyser (see boxout opposite). This highly sophisticated PC-controlled instrument can simulate many items of lab equipment, including an oscilloscope, audio voltmeter, chart recorder, phase monitor and test signal/sweep generator. For CD players, the APx585 is used in conjunction with a specially created Hi-Fi Choice lab test disc to measure a number of key performance criteria. There are five of these – which are summarised for each of the reviewed products using our unique bargraph system. Anything out of the ordinary is commented on in the lab report which compares like with like across the whole six-way group. THD+N Part of our testing procedure involves measuring THD+N with much lower-level signals (-20dBFS and-60dBFS). THD+N will increase…

Audio Analogue Maestro £2,250 P43 The penultimate disc-spinner from a well-regarded range is the biggest player in this group. In its ‘REV2.0’ guise it sports a TEAC transport mechanism and an Analog Devices 24-bit/192kHz DAC, alongside a classic array of output socketry. The Maestro was designed and built by Italians who clearly know a thing or two about audio electronics. Densen B-420 XS £1,850 P45 This latest version of Densen’s midrange player is very elegant indeed, thanks to slimline build and a precision-engineered aluminium chassis. It keeps things to a minimum up front, but the back panel is where the XS suffix changes can be found. Given its performance, company founder Thomas Sillesen has got to be a Zeppelin fan. Hanss Acoustics CD-20 £1,800 P47 The youngest company in the…

On many respects Densen is Denmark’s answer to Naim; it eschews feature counting, but provides upgradeable power supplies on its amplifiers and emphasises that audio components should be all about enjoying the music. We couldn’t agree more with that sentiment, so the question is; does this latest version of the company’s midrange player provide enough entertainment to warrant its asking price? One factor that you have to consider when it comes to price is he remote handset. The Gizmo, as its dubbed, adds £150 to the cost of the player so is not a minor consideration. It is beautiful, but a plastic ‘freebie’ could be just as practical in this day and age. The player is attractively hewn out of aluminium slabs, quite sharp-edged ones at that and the styling…

DETAILS ORIGIN: Korea WEIGHT: 5/3.5kg DIMENSIONS: (WxHxD) 212x55x290mm FEATURES: • Analogue outputs: unbalanced and balanced (XLR) • Digital outputs: optical and electrical S/PDIF, AES/EBU (XLR), I 2S • Digital inputs: optical and electrical S/PDIF, AES/EBU (XLR), I 2S, USB B DISTRIBUTOR: Vivid Audio TELEPHONE: 01403 782221 WEBSITE: aprilmusic.com Stello is part of Korean company April Music’s roster and we’ve seen a variant of the DA100 DAC before when Russ Andrews modified it and sold it as the DA-1 alongside a matching pre/headphone amp and power amp. The solid, half-size brick construction remains with this pairing, which by virtue of its two-box nature has the most varied array of socketry in this group. The CDT100 must be the most affordable top-loading transport in the game; it’s well built with a shiny…

ALL SIX OF THE PLAYERS assembled for this group are superb pieces of machinery. They are built by small, dedicated companies whose founders and designers take considerable pride in their creations, both mechanically and musically. Each, therefore, has a lot to offer, but some offer rather more of what our listeners like than others. Nearly all of the players use 24-bit/192kHz convertors, but this has very little, if any obvious bearing on the eventual sound produced. Rather it’s the way these DACs and their surrounding architecture are implemented, not to mention the all-important output stage, that makes the difference. The output stage of two players is valve-based: the Unison Research and the Hanss, yet the former was clearly preferred over the latter for its open sound that makes the most…

DETAILS PRODUCT: Audio Note CD/II, IZero, AZ-Two ORIGIN: Lithuania/(speakers) Denmark TYPE: CD player, integrated line level tube amplifier, two-way bi-wireable quarter-wave design loudspeaker (with simple crossover) WEIGHT: 3.5kg, 7kg, 14kg DIMENSIONS: CD/II and IZero (WxHxD) 300x96x310mm, AZ Two (WxHxD) 250x900x300mm FEATURES: • (CD/II) Philips L1210 CD transport modified by Audio Note • TDA 1543 DAC – used without upsampling and AA filterless • Long-life 6111WA tube used for the analogue output • Coaxial digital output • (IZero) Paired ECL82 tubes delivering 8-watt output per channel • Special Audio Note-designed mains and output transformers • Short signal paths • Class A output over most of the operational range • Long-life tubes • (AZ-Two) Folded parabolic rear-loaded quarter-wave quasi-horn • SEAS Drivers – 8-inch bass/mid 3/4inch tweeter • Wood pulp or hemp…

DETAILS PRODUCT: Pro-Ject RPM10.1 Evolution Origin: Czech Republic Type: Turntable and tonearm Weight: Turntable/arm 8kg, Ground It 13.4kg Dimensions: (WxHxD) 480x210x330mm, Ground It 500x80x400mm Features: • Mass-damped magnetically sprung base • 60mm acrylic platter • High-torque freestanding motor • Single-piece carbon-fibre tonearm Distributor: Henley Designs Telephone: 01235 511166 WEBSITE: project-audio.com Pro-Ject’s founder Heinz Lichtenegger is no longer satisfied with just cornering the budget market, he’s now set his sites on the turntable high end and his latest weapon, the RPM10.1, is a substantial and shiny beast. Heinz is a classical music lover and this turntable directly addresses one of the key issues with such music on vinyl: trackability. The RPM10.1 comes with not one, but four alternative counterweights, which are supplied so that the arm/cartridge resonance can be kept totally…

DETAILS PRODUCT: Vita Audio R4i ORIGIN: UK/China TYPE: One-box system WEIGHT: 8kg DIMENSIONS: (WxHxD) 450x145x255mm FEATURES: • Slot-loading CD transport • iPod dock • USB (type A) socket • DAB/DAB+/FM • Line input (phono) • Line input (mini-jack) • Headphone output (mini-jack) • Alarm functions DISTRIBUTOR: Vita Audio TELEPHONE: 01702 601410 WEBSITE: vitaaudio.com Back in HFC310, we had our first experience of the excellent R4 from Vita Audio – now here’s the latest version of the same model, the R4i. The ‘i’ evidently doesn’t stand for ‘iPod’, as that family of devices was supported from the outset. Indeed, you’ll look in vain for features that weren’t present on the original model. Vita Audio has put all the revisions under the bonnet, improving sound quality, the company claims, by a significant…

This summer you won’t need a time machine to navigate ley lines, pitch a tent and mingle with recumbent hippies. The festival season is upon us and the greatest outdoor live extravaganza of them all – Glastonbury Festival – will see thousands either battle the mud or bask in a beautiful English summer, soaking up some serious sounds at the end of June. This year’s headliners – U2, Coldplay and Beyoncé – could suggest that this national institution has moved far from its countercultural roots, but dig deeper into the bill and you’ll find plenty of bands – old and new – that evoke the freewheeling spirit of our chosen year on the festival’s Spirit of 71 stage. Memory of a free festival The 1971 Glastonbury Festival may not have…

Rory Gallagher Irish Tour ’74 eagle-rock.com 4.0/5.0 Eagle Rock Blu-ray LPCM stereo, Dolby Digita l5.1, DTS HD Master Audio THE CORE OF THIS release is Tony Palmer’s film of Gallagher’s 1974 Irish tour, which was released in cinemas at the time and which has been available on DVD. For the Blu-ray, Eagle Rock has restored and remastered the footage and added a 1972 RTE TV documentary, plus footage of a Japanese concert. It’s an excellent piece of work that fully reveals the charisma, talent and, indeed, humility of the much-lamented Irish guitarist. The way he plays his battered strat puts him in contention for the title greatest white bluesman in the world, ever. Seriously, Gallagher’s playing is electric even when he’s strumming an acoustic or a mandolin. The sound is…

We’ve got the answers to everything you’ve ever wanted to know about hi-fi and weren’t afraid to ask. Email us now at hifichoice@futurenet.com or write to: Hi-Fi Choice Q&A, Future Publishing Ltd, 2 Balcombe Street, London NW1 6NW QUESTION OF THE MONTH Q I have decided to change my old Sonus faber Gran Piano Domus, because I am not satisfied regarding the lack of sound stage. My room is 5x5 metres and full of objects. Nikos Tzotis (Athens), via email A You don’t specify an exact budget, but if you were looking to make a reasonable step forward over the Gran Piano, we would stay with Sonus faber and look at the fabulous Cremona Auditor. The same tonal balance is accompanied by a real jump in scale and presence and some…

PRICE: £70 CONTACT: 01707 278100 WEBSITE: AKG.COM AKG DOES A BUSY LINE in in-ear phones and this model is brand spanking new (this is its first UK test, indeed) and replaces the K330, a well-liked model that’s been around for a while. AKG’s marketing includes a prominent claim that these weigh only three grams (we’re happy to accept that they are among the lightest around, if only by a gram or so), but we could hardly spot a difference in practice. More importantly, perhaps, they are well sculpted to fit a typical ear and come with a choice of easily removable soft earbuds. The cable is quite long at a little over one-metre and includes a volume control for iPod duty – that is, it controls the volume of the…

PRICE: £83 CONTACT: 01494 551551 WEBSITE: SENNHEISER.CO.UK THIS IS ANOTHER MODEL that includes an i-thing remote control in the lead and a microphone too, so you can make and receive phone calls via your mobile hi-fi. The earpieces quote an unusually wide frequency range, right down to 17Hz – we’ve no reason to question that, though every time we look at a headphone frequency response specification we are reminded how far ahead of most loudspeakers even quite modest headphones are in that particular respect. We do find it a little bizarre that Sennheiser seems to have omitted to mark the earpieces for left and right ear, but otherwise we’ve no complaints. Three sizes of earbud are provided and the fairly generous cable is one of the least noisy in terms…

SPECS KEY SPEEDS Speeds offered in rpm. SUSP SUBCHASSIS Turntables with a sprung or suspended support for the platter and arm. SWITCHABLE SPEED CHANGE Some decks require manual lifting of the belt from one pulley to another to change speed, but not these ones. SUPPLIED WITH ARM Deck is supplied complete with tonearm – some require a separate purchase in this department, but the dealer will fit it for you. SUPPLIED WITH CARTRIDGE Some decks are supplied with a starter cartridge and this is included in the price shown. MM Moving magnet cartridge – see amp and phono stage features to match this type. MC Moving coil cartridge – see amp and phono stage features to match this type. REPLACEABLE STYLUS Some cartridges have separate styli for ease of replacement,…

SPECS KEY LINE INPUTS Input sockets for source components with a line level output: CD players, DVD players, tape decks, tuners, phono stages etc. PHONO INPUT Input sockets and on-board phono stage for a cartridge. Either MM (moving magnet) or MC (moving coil), occasionally both. REMOTE CONTROL A remote control is supplied with the amplifier. HEADPHONE SOCKET To drive your cans with. POWER OUTPUT Manufacturer’s rated output in watts per channel.…

Castle Knight 2 £400 The Knight 2 continues in the great Castle tradition of excellent finish and solid build and climbs to the top of the pile with excellent sonic performance Focal Chorus 826W LE £1,879 Focal has taken the 826 and turbo charged it, keeping the virtues of the stock model but with increased energy, excitement and detail PMC fact.8 £4,600 A fantastic combination of elegant design, well-thought out room-tuning features and superb sonic performance. A 2010 Product of the Year nominee…

PLUS: THE 8000A RETURNS! We test Audiolab’s new 8200A, the successor to the legendary 8000A integrated. Read the first in-depth test only in HFC PLUS: the UK’s finest hi-fi journalism, round-ups of accessories and music, the most trustworthy hi-fi reviews on the planet, not to mention the latest news, views and features from the UK’s most reliable guide to high-performance audio – Britain’s only growing hi-fi magazine! ISSUE 349 ON SALE THURSDAY 21 JULY 2011…