Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i Hi-Fi Choice

THE BEGINNING OF January saw the 50th CES – formally known as the Consumer Electronics Show – an annual event where big-name consumer brands come together to showcase the latest developments, and an effective indicator of what products will find their way into our lives in the year ahead. The huge electronics show first started in New York in 1967, and now dominates the Las Vegas strip with a sprawling arrangement that makes use of various convention centres and the Venetian Hotel. It remains exclusively for trade attendees rather than the general public, but attendance levels held up well again this year, building on the success of last year’s recordbreaking 177,393 visitors across the four-day event that gathered from across the globe to experience technology innovation spanning the show’s 2.47…

When is a replacement not a replacement? This slightly abstract question comes about as a result of the loudspeaker you now see before you. When PMC started work on the twenty5 range, the intention was to replace the well-regarded twenty series models. But it very quickly came to the realisation that the speaker it was developing had the potential to be considerably better if the range was repositioned to sit between the twenty series and the equally lower-case fact range. The result is that the twenty series continues as before with simplified finishes and a reduced price, while the twenty5 series arrives as a range in its own right. The two ranges may look similar at first glance, but they have almost no parts in common with one another. More…

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIERS £700-£1,030 THE INTEGRATED HI-FI amplifier, once considered the automatic choice for system builders with limited funds, has become a lot sexier in recent years. True, pre-power separates may be the way to go in larger systems if ultimate sonics are the goal and the budget permits. But today’s integrated designs have become less the poor relation, more the smart, high-functioning and flexible solution catering for modern hi-fi sensibilities. Contenders offer everything from purist minimalism to feature-rich connectivity and future-proofing, as well as a choice of both traditional and more recent circuit topologies. But the core appeal remains: a powerhouse system hub that doesn’t take up much space on the equipment rack. Upgrade path Where once an entry-level integrated amp might have been chopped-in for a modest pre-power…

DETAILS PRODUCT Cambridge CXA80 ORIGIN UK/China TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 8.7kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 430 x 115 x 341mm FEATURES • Quoted power output: 2x 80W (8ohm) • Inputs: 4x RCA; 3.5mm jack; 1x XLR; 2x optical; 1x coaxial; 1x USB Type-B • 24-bit/192kHzcapable DAC • 3.5mm jack headphone output DISTRIBUTOR Cambridge Audio TELEPHONE 0207 9402200 WEBSITE cambridgeaudio. com As the flagship amp in Cambridge’s CX range, the CXA80 boasts 80W per channel (20 more than its CXA60 sibling in HFC 401), a hi-res built-in DAC and an asynchronous USB Type B input. To that it adds three hi-res digital inputs: one coaxial and two optical. A second USB port supports the BT100 Bluetooth dongle (available from Cambridge for £70). The trade off is no onboard phono stage, but there are…

DETAILS PRODUCT Rega Elex-R ORIGIN UK TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 10.8kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 430 x 80 x 320mm FEATURES • Quoted power output: 2x 72W (8ohm) • Inputs: 4x RCA • MM phono stage DISTRIBUTOR Rega Research Ltd TELEPHONE 01702 333071 WEBSITE rega.co.uk A seriously weighty slab of an amplifier, the Elex-R is notably the heaviest of the group. Billed as a hybrid of the smaller Brio-R and the more powerful Elicit-R (HFC 374), what it lacks in aesthetic subtlety – let’s be honest here, brutalist is closer to the mark – it more than compensates for in the sheer sturdiness of its casework which, according to Rega, is one of the reasons it sounds the way it does. It’s rated at 90W per channel into 6ohm (72W into 8ohm)…

The number of turntable models on sale last year costing less than £500 was possibly among the highest number we’ve seen since vinyl officially became a mainstream format. With the influx of new models looking to grab the attention of both newbie and returning vinyl fans alike, specifications have grown and finishes and performance levels have improved significantly. This is all great news for potential purchasers as competing brands raise their game to ensure they remain competitive, and Pro-Ject’s latest Essential deck follows the trend and builds on it. If you’re thinking that this latest version of the Austrian-based company’s Essential line is simply a mild spruce up of the previous model, think again. Like its predecessor reviewed in HFC 376, the Essential III A is an unsuspended, belt-driven design,…

The usually tranquil Scandinavian nation of Norway made global headlines in mid-January following its government's decision to phase out FM radio broadcasting and move exclusively to digital-only DAB+ services. The controversial decision taken by the nation's politicians saw the first switch-off of the FM transmitters start in the Northern city of Bodø on 11 January, with the complete FM network ceasing to broadcast by the end of 2017. It is the first county to do so in the world and has antagonised Norwegian citizens who are unhappy at the decision. But is this mere nostalgia for those that miss the white noise or are there more serious issues afoot? The North European country, which is perhaps better known for its natural attractions including fjords, mountains, northern lights (aurora borealis) and…

It’s interesting to note that the 16/44 format of the humble CD was set in 1980 so that recording sessions could be made digitally using what was one of the most successful portable video recorder formats of all time – the Sony U-Matic video recorder, which has been around since the early seventies. If the CD had waited until 1986 when the Sony U-Matic SP was produced, which had much better performance, would we now have better quality CDs? However, it’s not just audio CDs that have their roots in a different technology that was around at the time. In the early days of radio and electrical sound recording, carbon microphones were used, but the quality of these was dreadful. A German by the name of Georg Neumann considered that…

For many years, headphones have existed as part of a wider selection of dealer stock. The idea being if you bought parts of your main system from them, you might go back and buy a suitable pair of cans too. More recently, the significant growth in high-end headphone sales has changed the dynamic. Listening to the main contenders at an elevated price point becomes a challenge as most dealers won’t stock them all. Into this breach has stepped a small number of dedicated headphone dealers that allow the customer to listen to a significant number of high-end models in one place. Audio Sanctuary is the sister company of Unilet Sound and Vision and operates out of the same premises. Formally known as Custom Cable, the company changed its name in…

CD polydor 2016 TURNED OUT to be a wonderful year for the Rolling Stones. In their 55th year they toured South America, culminating in a historic concert in Cuba for an audience of 700,000. Then they appeared at the Desert Trip festival in California with Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, The Who, Neil Young and Roger Waters – surely the most stellar lineup ever assembled this side of the great gig in the sky. Oh, and Mick became a father again at 73. If the latter event was unexpected, the arrival of a new studio album seemed even more unlikely. More than a decade had elapsed since, 2005’s A Bigger Bang, and it appeared that the Stones had become purely a jukebox act, playing their old hits on endless stadium tours…

When Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in October, Leonard Cohen, in one of his final interviews before his death at the age of 82, remarked that it was “Like pinning a medal on Mount Everest for being the highest mountain”. If so, then Cohen was surely K2, the world’s second loftiest peak in rock and roll’s Himalayas. Taken together Dylan and Cohen represent the twin pinnacles of modern troubadourism as the two artists that did more than anyone else to transform the bland, homogenous nature of popular song into a profound and substantial art form that became the defining form of latter 20th-century expression. In an era in which anyone that warbled about the unicorns prancing in their mind was liable to be hailed as a…

PRICE: £28,880 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 0207 89713909 WEB: ABSOLUTESOUNDS.COM PRODUCING A NEW loudspeaker every 12 months is no mean feat, but that's precisely what high-end manufacturer Wilson Audio has consistently managed to do over the last five years. And now we're treated to the latest innovation, playfully named Yvette – a three-way design that sits between the entry-level Sabrina and Sasha 2 floorstanders. Described by the company as drawing from traditional Wilson virtues including dynamic resolution and soundstaging, Yvette derives its core technology from its enviable R&D department and is modestly described as the most advanced and musically refined single-enclosure loudspeaker in the company's history. Hand-built in Utah, the three-way floorstander boasts a more compact form factor than what's come before and perhaps more significantly, it's more affordable. Like its…

DETAILS PRODUCT Arcam FMJ A29 ORIGIN UK/Far East TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 9.2kg DIMENSIONS WxHxD) 433 x 85 x 275mm FEATURES • Quoted power output: 2x 80W (8ohm) • Inputs: 6x RCA; 1x 3.5mm jack • MM phono stage • 3.5mm jack headphone output DISTRIBUTOR Arcam WEBSITE arcam.co.uk Nailing the sweet spot between quality, performance, practicality, usability and price must be harder than Arcam makes it look. Yet doing just that has been at the root of the Cambridge-based company’s success since it set up shop in 1976. Take its Class G operation. Above the entry-level A19 (conventional Class A/B), Class G is Arcam’s resident amp tech and certainly an advanced solution for a sub-£1k integrated such as the A29. Developed over six years, the circuit configuration switches between multiple…

DETAILS PRODUCT Cyrus One ORIGIN UK TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 5.6kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 220 x 85 x 390mm FEATURES • Quoted power output: 2x 100W (6ohm) • Inputs: 4x RCA • MM phono stage • AptX via Bluetooth • 6.35mm jack headphone output DISTRIBUTOR Cyrus Audio TELEPHONE 01480 410900 WEBSITE cyrusaudio.com According to Cyrus, the ONE is aimed at savvy young people with the potential to inject new life into the hi-fi movement. You can tell by the way it looks. Yes, the compact shoebox size and proportions mirror other Cyrus components, but the inscrutable gloss black facia with its brace of large, LED-garlanded matt-black rotary knobs is a radical departure that make its rivals look rather antiquated. Build quality seems to have taken something of a hit in the…

MUCH AS I suspected, the modern British ‘next level’ integrated is capable of hitting it out of the park sonically, irrespective of the degree of added functionality and connectivity some models offer, but I have to start the countdown somewhere. The Arcam FMJ A29 is a great amp to kick off proceedings, immediately filling the listening room with a huge, well-tempered sound and seemingly able to take everything in its stride without breaking sweat. The ideal benchmark. As the test progresses, however, it becomes clear that while few can compete with its real-world power, greater musical insight and dynamic expression are to be found elsewhere. A little better in these disciplines and the owner of a gorgeous natural tonality, the Audiolab 8300A also impresses with its speed and ability to…

It wasn’t so long ago that bespoke audio brands made a point of actively shying away from the convenience of all-in-one systems, preferring instead to promote the flexibility and focus of dedicated components for a given role. In recent years, the market for such devices has become significant enough that many companies have decided to come in from the cold and offer one-box systems of their own. The latest to join this group of converts is Simaudio with the Nēo ACE, with the latter part of the monicker standing for ‘A Complete Experience’. This might be a slightly bold claim, but the specification of the Nēo ACE certainly goes some way towards warranting the ‘complete’ bit – Simaudio has managed to cram pretty much every connection you might reasonably expect…

Great American Sound”, is how Polk Audio describes itself, but is there such a thing? Does music sound different in San Francisco to how it does in Slough? Unless the weather or the wine play an active part, then possibly not – but then again, didn’t people once used to talk of a “British sound” in the same breath as the words Quad, KEF and Celestion? Four decades or so ago, I remember hi-fi nuts talking about how different US brands like Acoustic Research, KLH and JBL sounded to UK fare – so maybe there’s something to this... Another American brand that appeared on the scene in the early seventies was Polk Audio. A bunch of physics and mechanical engineers from Johns Hopkins University set up the company in a…

First we had the Baby Boomers. Then we had Generation X. After that came the Millennials. And now – as I learned during the course of 2016 – we are entering the era of Gen-Z. One can see how labels are useful to sociologists trying to analyse trends in youth culture and to marketing agencies trying to sell stuff to them, but they are also of significance to music fans for each successive social cohort has brought with it profound changes in our listening habits. The Baby Boomers gave us rock and roll, The Beatles, the Stones, Dylan, Bowie, Woodstock, 45s and 33rpm LPs. Generation X was the kick-back, expressing its sense of alienation and disaffection in punk and, a little later, grunge, and was responsible for many great bands…

Although mainstream pop had lost the bite of its formative years by 1976, the sound from the pubs was music to jaded ears. Small clubs and bars were home to bands with a harder-edged sound, playing the kind of gritty R&B that had nourished the UK’s beat and mod scenes a decade earlier. The mood of the times was perfect for Stiff Records. Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson – one-time managers of pub-rock legends Dr. Feelgood and Brinsley Schwarz, respectively – sensed the moment was ripe for change. The pair launched the label that August. The first single out of the traps was Nick Lowe’s So It Goes 45, which boasted the catalogue number BUY 1, setting the irreverent tone for the label. Although serious about having hit records, the…

TURNTABLES £279-£2,999 Elipson Omega 100 RIAA BT PRICE: £500 TELEPHONE: 01628 484968 WEB: elipson.com REVIEWED: HFC 415 A completely bespoke design that’s been developed inhouse by the French brand, the Omega 100 RIAA BT boasts a number of unique features. Chief among the new technology is a computer-controlled motor with electronic speed switching. The new carbon fibre armtube is connected to an innovative bearing arrangement that combines vertical and horizontal yokes into a single knuckle and applies the antiskate down the bearing axis using a patented rubber torsion system. There’s also an onboard phono stage that can connect via aptX Bluetooth to a suitably equipped device (hence the BT part of its monicker) and an Ortofon OM10 cartridge is included as part of the bundle. Sound quality What makes this such a…

PRICE: £6,000 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 0131 5553922 WEB: RENAISSANCEAUDIO.CO.UK As the vinyl format continues to attract greater audiences, so does the rise in the number of players available to spin LPs on, with many turntable brands covering all sectors of the market with a range of prices to suit. US-firm VPI Industries is no exception, and covers starter turntable packages as well as mid-priced and more specialist decks to appeal to vinyl newbies and junkies alike. The Prime Signature fits into the growing super deck category, and is the latest model to join the New Jersey firm’s expanding lineup. Its plinth is composed of layers of gloss MDF and machined aluminium partnered with a stainless-steel motor housing – claiming improved resonance damping, owing to its heftier weight over the original…

Hi-Fi Choice employs the most rigorous test and measurement regime in the business. Here’s how we do it... INTEGRATED AMPLIFIERS GROUP TEST BEFORE THE TEST starts, a few days are spent ensuring all six amps are thoroughly run in and functioning correctly. Power conditioning is provided by a 20A Nordost QB8 8-way mains block connected to the electricity supply with a Nordost Valhalla 2 power cable and to each amp under audition with a Nordost Frey power cable. A Cyrus CD Xt Signature CD transport (HFC 386) is selected as the main source along with a Chord Hugo DAC (HFC 386) connected via a Nordost Valhalla 2 digital interconnect. A Pro-Ject Debut Carbon turntable (HFC 361) serves vinyl to amps sporting phono stages. Connection between the RCA output of the…

Headphones are popular again, and legions of discerning folk are enjoying the superb sound that’s possible from a serious pair of hi-fi cans. It’s this demographic that Arcam is chasing with the new rHead – people that want the best possible performance, with no regard for portability. A number of these potential purchasers may already have great ’phones which are being held back by the mediocre output stages fitted to their amplifiers and CD players. Lightning-fast, shimmering with detail and possessed of smooth tonality Arcam’s first full-size headphone amplifier is singularly focused on sound. Features take a back seat, because it doesn’t have anything superfluous to the mission such as a DAC, USB or network connectivity. The minimalist fascia offers a choice of 3.5mm or 6.35mm sockets, and a status…

It’s been a few years since I last had lunch with Chord Electronics’ John Franks. Last time, what was to become the most potent chunk of hi-fi tech you could fit in your pocket – the Chord Hugo DAC/headphone amp – had just been launched and was only beginning to garner the kind of critical acclaim dreams are made of. Now, in early December 2016, we’re a month away from CES and the launch of Hugo 2. Between the two events, Chord has experienced a period of unprecedented growth and a surge in brand awareness. It’s achieved this largely through entering previously untapped markets and, to a degree, re-defining them. As we settle down at a corner table in a pub, I put it to Franks that Hugo was the…

Marantz’s CD-15 was a very good bit of kit, one that was dramatically sonically superior to the first Philips Bitstream designs. Costing £3,000 in the UK and honed by Ken Ishiwata, it sold over 500 units a year and used an awful lot of Philips bits. A beautiful bit of kit, it set the look for future Marantz machines when it was launched in 1994. So four years later, when the time came to do an update, you’d expect only some modest changes. Instead, Marantz effectively decided to scrap Bitstream and start over. Instead, it went back to the pre- Bitstream era with the new model. 1998's CD-7 was acknowledgement that progress is not necessarily a good thing. Although an object of beauty that measured superbly by the standards of…

Unlike a CD player or a streamer, a record player is not a plug-andplay device. To get the very best from it, great care needs to be taken to ensure that it is correctly set up. Happily, this is not as difficult as you might expect and there is a wide selection of inexpensive accessories available to help. Before considering any form of adjustment, it is important to make sure the turntable itself is level. The stylus is held in the groove entirely by gravitational force, and any imbalance means the downward force on it is not exactly perpendicular to the record. On the level Most turntables are fitted with adjustable feet and levelling is easily done using a spirit level. Place the level on the platter, to allow any…

RUSS ANDREWS TORLYTE TURNTABLE STAND £650 TELEPHONE: 01539 797300 WEBSITE: russandrews.com TESTED: HFC 417 Superb sound-deadening and isolation properties make this the record player stand of choice. ANALOGUE WORKS TURNTABLE SPIRIT LEVEL £25 TELEPHONE: 01536 762211 WEBSITE: divineaudio.co.uk Fitting over the centre spindle, this is the perfect way to ensure that your turntable is level. OYAIDE BR-12 TURNTABLE MAT £90 TELEPHONE: 01733 350878 WEBSITE: analogueseduction.net Supplied with a large stroboscope disc, the BR-12 cleans up the sound and brings greater clarity to records. CYRUS PHONO SIGNATURE PHONO STAGE £1,200 TELEPHONE: 01480 410900 WEBSITE: cyrusaudio.com TESTED: HFC 408 This phono stage delivers on the promise of vinyl as a high-resolution format and the fact it does so while delivering class-leading functionality makes it very special indeed. FURUTECH SK-FILTER £350 TELEPHONE: 0118 9814238 WEBSITE:…

STATIC CHARGE IS a big problem for vinyl lovers as it attracts dust to the surface of the record like a magnet. As the vinyl spins on the turntable platter, friction with dry air causes it to build a static charge of anywhere from 3-20kV. Some readers may remember the Dust Bug record cleaner from the seventies, which was designed to remove dust while playing a record. This consisted of a cylindrical velvet pad and small brush suspended from an acrylic arm that tracked across the surface of the record to remove any dust. Sadly, this method is likely to generate static charge on the record and attract more airborne dust than it actually removes. Furutech’s SK-Filter is designed to solve the same static problem, but unlike the Dust Bug,…

READERS WITH REASONABLE memories might be curious to know why we are featuring the Audio- Technica AT-LP5 again. Having reviewed it in HFC 405 and in a Group Test in HFC 415, you might understandably wonder what is left to be said about it. The performance in the Group Test goes some way to answering this question. Used in isolation it is a fine performer, but when compared with some rivals, it lacks a little finesse. A few of these issues can be traced to the tonearm, which while respectable is nothing to get too excited about. What you see here is an LP5 that aims to correct this. British specialist The Audio Files has been carefully tweaking the basic design to unlock much higher performance. The AT-LP5 IPT replaces…