Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2021 i Hi-Fi Choice

PRICE: $239 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: RXREELS.COM If you’re into your reel-to-reel and fancy a spruce-up, American company RX Reels has just the treat for you. Produced using upcycled aviation-grade carbon fibre for superior strength, durability and weight, RX Reels has launched a new range of 10.5in tape reels with quarter-inch spools, which it says: “will not warp or bend and will allow your tape deck to look just as good as it sounds”. The brainchild of RX’s Kevin Root, the range was created when: “It occurred to me that the tape deck was the focal point of my system and the reels were the focal point of my tape deck. But since a typical reel is either plastic or aluminium, they weren’t quite giving me the same visual wow factor…

PRICE: £600 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: WHOLENOTEDISTRIBUTION.CO.UK ALL THE WAY from Switzerland comes the pow1, a regulated linear PSU especially designed by Merason exclusively for its £1,000 frérot DAC. The pow1 is a linear, regulated power supply that generates-12V and +12V, both regulated in two ways: the second regulation having been designed to be low noise and discrete. The employed rectifier diodes built into the pow1 are special types, which the company claims: “in contrast to usual rectifier diodes, do not produce any spikes and therefore no interference in the supply.” The reference voltage for the regulation of the +/- 12V supply is generated by a precise IC instead of using the usual Zener diodes, which Merason says: “gives the advantage of a supply that is exactly matched to the needs…

STANDMOUNT LOUDSPEAKERS GROUP TEST ALL SIX OF this month’s contenders are given a few hours of general running-in time before testing begins in earnest to discern toe-in and proximity to the rear wall, and those speakers that have bungs are tested both with and without them in place. The speakers are placed on a pair of Partington Dreadnought stands (the exception to this being the Q Acoustics, which is tested on its own stand in the manner of how it is sold) before levels are set with a pink noise test tone and by checking the voltage at the speaker terminals with a meter. The real-world sensitivity differences between the six cabinets here is sufficiently small that only relatively fine adjustment is required With this done, the test programme is…

As the smaller of the two 700 Series models to gain the Signature treatment, the 705 Signature keeps the combination of a 165mm mid/bass driver made from the company’s own Continuum woven fibre and a 25mm carbon and aluminium dome tweeter. This is mounted in its own enclosure on top of the main cabinet in the manner of the more expensive B&W designs. Bass is augmented by a single large rear port supplied with a two-piece foam bung to help regulate the flow when used close to a rear wall. It also supports bi-wiring. To create the Signature variant, the key sonic modification is the crossover. This doesn’t change any of the posted specifications of the normal 705 S2, but features specially selected components from Mundorf and a larger heatsink.…

As the smallest speaker in the twenty5i range that replaced the earlier twenty5 models last year, the 21i features an all-new tweeter using a combination of a small inner dome to deliver high frequencies with an outer ring surround that improves dispersion and improves midrange performance. This means that the crossover to the 140mm mid/bass driver happens at 1.7kHz, which is extremely low. This is carried out via a revised crossover featuring an upgraded PCB. Key to the 21i (and every other PMC speaker) is the inclusion of a transmission line behind the mid/bass driver. 168cm long, it terminates in a forward-firing ‘Laminair’ port designed so that air leaves the transmission line in a linear way, avoiding eddies and vortices that can conspire to leave rivals sounding fractionally sluggish. This…

THE LEVEL OF ability on display in this group is unusually high and results in some unique scoring as a result. Pointing out that the JBL has the most apparent limitations in its performance has to be done at the same time as noting it costs at least £700 less than any other speaker in the group and that its treble is near the top of the pack. After much deliberation, I find myself unable to split the Fyne Audio, PMC and Q Acoustics. These are three very different speakers, but their capabilities are all worthy of note. The Fyne’s superb spaciousness, three-dimensionality and excellent tonality is tempered by the slight lack of scale, but it’s a very engaging speaker. The Q Acoustics on the other hand wants for nothing…

Anyone who’s ever lived with a BBC LS3/5a, Linn Kan, Wharfedale Diamond or Acoustic Energy AE1 will totally ‘get’ little loudspeakers. With a good one, what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts – so to speak. This is because they can deftly dodge many of the compromises of floorstanders, arising from their costly and often not very rigid cabinet. The new Wing Acoustics Zerø standmount illustrates this point perfectly. This New Zealand-designed and manufactured baby box sports an exotic midrange and treble driver, plus a beautiful anodised aluminium cabinet weighing 7.7kg. That’s pretty heavy, considering that it’s no taller than a wine glass. This speaker uses a new type of transducer that its creators – Mike and David Palmer – call acousticWing. It was originally designed…

Quite apart from the pleasure enthusiasts derive from collecting music, purchasing it is proving to be an excellent investment both for the individual and businesses alike. Record collections that were relegated to the loft 20 or 30 years ago are now being brought down and dusted off as the record deck is once again regaining centre stage in an audio system. Added to this is the fact that people are rediscovering the music that they enjoyed decades previously. It’s true that many classic recordings are being reissued on modern media or remastered to make new reissued LPs. Sadly, many of the reissues lack the wow factor of the originals, but that’s another story. More importantly, there seems to be a growing market for the music of popular artists from the…

IF YOU’RE LOOKING to use headphones to listen to music on your PC or laptop, bear in mind that the socket only uses the internal sound card and so is unlikely to offer decent quality. The solution is to bypass this by using an external DAC and headphone amplifier. If you intend to listen to music on a laptop while out and about, you’ll want a solution that is compact as well. Enter the AK USB-C Dual DAC cable, which is USB-powered and ticks all these boxes. Employing bespoke designed capacitors, the audio circuit has been optimised to suppress power fluctuations for stable operation under a variety of conditions. There are two Cirrus Logic CS43198 DACs, which support up to native DSD256 and 32-bit/384kHz. The output from the DACs feeds…

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. Métronome Technologie Le Player 2S PRICE: £5,100 REVIEWED: HFC 449 As good as the sweet treble and rich bass are, what really impresses here is how when fed weaker CDs and impoverished MP3s the delivery remains unflappable and composed as layers of detail are locked into sharp focus. Cambridge Audio AXC35 PRICE: £300 REVIEWED: HFC 454 Something of a budget marvel, you’ll have to work extra hard to get the…

PRICE: £650-£2,250 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: CAMBRIDGEAUDIO.COM CAMBRIDGE AUDIO HAS launched Evo, its all-in-one music player which the company says: “gives you instant access to all the music in the world,” and “represents an evolution in hi-fi: an all-in-one music player that combines timeless design, cutting-edge technology, streaming smarts and incredible audio performance into one streamlined and compact box. You simply need to add speakers to start enjoying music.” Designed in London, the Evo sports walnut wood side panels to complement the black anodised aluminium cabinet and comes with a choice of formed black side panels made from Richlite, a new material that’s produced primarily from recycled paper. The side panels can be switched out according to each customer’s preference. Completing Evo’s design is a dual-concentric rotary dial and large 6.8in…

PRICE: £1,600 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: NAIMAUDIO.COM NAIM AUDIO HAS introduced a new premium Wood Edition of its Mu-so 2nd Generation wireless speaker system. Available alongside existing models, the new Mu-so Wood Edition is designed in sustainable Ayous hardwood, treated and lacquered to give the appearance of a Light Oak finish. The Mu-so heatsink also has a new anodised aluminium tint, with the speaker finished by a neutral-toned, woven front grille. Mu-so Wood Edition offers wireless streaming controlled from the Naim App or direct from your devices to Spotify Connect, Tidal and Qobuz, while Chromecast Built-in gives access to Deezer, Google Play Music and more, including Google Assistant compatibility. AirPlay 2 adds Apple Music streaming and Apple Home integration, including Siri voice control potential. It also works as a Bluetooth speaker.…

PRICE: €9,600/€13,500 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: GOLDNOTE.IT Italian specialist Gold Note has launched its new premium phono stage – the PH-1000 – which the company claims can play back any LP ever pressed with the correct equalisation. Further to that, the PH-1000 allows the user to adjust or modify the equalisation curve on the go. Gold Note refers to the PH-1000 as: “an ultra-low noise phono stage with high gain and no audio filters designed to be easy to use and easy to love in a way that will change how you think about your analogue setup… (It) combines a digital interface with a Class-A discrete component design, offering the widest range of equalisations, gain, load and capacitance adjustments to correctly match any cartridge. It doesn’t just come with 18 EQ…

With the distinction of being both the smallest and most expensive (taking into account the fact a stand will be needed), the F1.5 is also the smallest member of the F Series that – as the company flagship – extends up to the F1.12 at £28,000. In miniature, the F1.5 has much of the same design thinking. Chief among this is the driver arrangement. This is the only speaker in the group with a concentric tweeter; a 19mm magnesium dome compression unit surrounded by a 125mm ‘Iso Flare’ driver that makes use of a distinctive ‘FyneFlute’ rubber surround. This is augmented by a port but instead of being at the front or back, it is downward firing and works against the integrated plinth. This offers the potential for fuss-free placement…

As a standmount evolution of the Concept 500 floorstander (HFC 426), the 300 embodies precisely the same design priorities. These concentrate on the cabinet, which uses a process called Gelcore to create constrained layer damping. Sections of MDF sandwich a layer of gel that acts to dissipate resonances. This is doubled up (three layers of MDF and two of gel) on all sides of the cabinet. To make this very solid structure more inert, computer calculated point-to-point bracing is used to stiffen it. The drivers that are placed inside the cabinet are relatively conventional and comprise a 165mm doped paper mid/bass and 28mm soft dome tweeter. These result in a claimed frequency response of 55Hz-30kHz and relatively low 84dB sensitivity. The Concept 300 gives owners the option of being able…

When William Zane (Bill) Johnson opened Electronic Industries as a speciality audio store in Minneapolis back in 1951, little did he know the journey that his custom-built amplifiers would go on. By 1968 he had sold all the patents, the business and himself to another Minneapolis company, before buying everything back two years later to start the Audio Research Corporation that is still in existence today. And so started a cycle of ownership that has seen ARC swapping hands numerous times since the Seventies – being sold to Fine Sounds in 2008, moving under the umbrella of The McIntosh Group in 2016 – before a buyout was finally agreed last September, returning the company to its original independent status and leaving it free to concentrate its efforts on what it…

It’s not all that often that a manufacturer tells you to start testing a new speaker by dunking it into a bowl of water, but that gives you some indication of the thought that Sonos has put into its new Roam portable. A smaller and more convenient alternative to Sonos’ chunky Move (HFC 456), it is very much focused on outdoor use, starting with its impressively compact design. The speaker can stand upright or flat and is small and light enough to easily carry around in a backpack or even in a jacket pocket like a bottle of water. It’s sturdily built, though, boasting IP67 rating for water resistance, which will allow it to survive in that bowl of water for up to 30 minutes, and Sonos even says you…

Supporting both moving-magnet and coil cartridges and able to generate up to 72dB of gain for low output MC designs, the Zen Phono sits towards the more affordable end of iFi Audio’s extensive range. No less usefully, there is a 50dB setting that caters for high-output moving-coil designs, but the really noteworthy figure in the Zen Phono’s spec is the claimed equivalent input noise of-151dBv. This is good going for anything under £1,000, let alone something costing £150 – suggesting the Zen Phono should be exceptionally quiet, regardless of the cartridge you use it with. An unusual fitment that may help this even further is the presence of a 4.4mm Pentaconn balanced connector on the rear. iFi now sells a cable to connect this to an XLR input and, if…

ONE OF THE problems associated with some audio amplifiers, and indeed many home-cinema amplifiers, is that the speaker connections are spring clip terminals designed to fit speaker leads that have bare wires. This is especially true of complete system packages that come bundled with speakers. These are often fitted with an integral lead that has bare wires, meaning that you can’t fit higher quality speaker cable terminated with banana plugs to either your equipment or speakers. Enter Russ Andrews’ Spring Clip Adapters. Spring clip fittings limit the size of speaker cable you can use as they are invariably designed for thin twin-wire cable with bare wire terminations. The Spring Clip Adapters provide a simple solution to the problem by converting the terminals to accept a standard 4mm banana plug. Available…

1 ABOUT BLOODY TIME After what seems like an eternity, My Bloody Valentine have finally allowed their entire back catalogue to be released to streaming services. The band signed to Domino Records back in March when all the tracks became available, and on 21 May new physical editions of each album will be released, Isn’t Anything (1988) and Loveless (1991) being mastered fully from analogue for deluxe LPs and also mastered from new hi-res uncompressed digital sources for standard LPs. Also for the first time, 2013’s mbv will be available on deluxe and standard LPs as will the b-sides and rarity compilation ep’s 1988-1991. 2 HAVE MERCY! On sale from 9 June via Rare Bird Books, Permanent Damage: Memoirs Of An Outrageous Girl is the autobiography of Mercy Fontenot, aka…

PRICE: £550 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: PANASONIC.COM Panasonic has unveiled its new SC-PMX802 system and network player incorporating Technics JENO Engine amplifier. The system’s three-way speakers feature silk dome tweeters, which the company claims are capable of reaching frequencies as high as 50kHz, while their wooden cabinets come with a black finish on the front. Another feature of the new system is CD High-Res Re-Master processing, while similar technology is employed to re-master music streamed via Bluetooth or MP3 files from a USB source. “We recognise that many consumers have CD collections that they don’t want to replace. CD High-Res Re-Master lets them hear those songs with a fresh feel,” explains Masaaki Suna, General Manager Home AV Group, Panasonic Marketing Europe. “The changing ways listeners want to hear music are addressed…

PRICE: £400 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: TALKELECTRONICS.COM TALK ELECTRONICS HAS introduced its new Edwards Audio TT4 turntable. Hand-built in Surrey, the TT4 features the company’s new constrained layer damping technology, which it explains is typically associated with the aerospace industry to dissipate fractional vibrations and noise. The TT4 also features the TALK A4 captive uni-pivot tonearm, which boasts a 12.7mm high-grade aluminium arm tube and is terminated with a fully machined black anodised headshell mount. The TT4 comes in black, white, red or grey and is supplied with a fitted Edwards Audio C100 cartridge and a colour-matching Z-Type dust cover.…

Looking back to the Seventies, you’d be forgiven for not being disappointed about the number of innovations that the turn of the Millennium actually delivered. From a Jetsons-like fantasy where everything is automated, flying cars are the norm and every house has a robot butler, the reality comes across as something of an anti-climax. And it’s easy to understand why. Back then you could be woken by a teasmaid that had prepared your brew for you or could sit back and listen to music as your turntable of choice did all the heavy lifting so you could listen from the comfort of your sofa. Arguably the pick of the automated turntables was Thorens TD-224, which first appeared on the scene in 1962. Like something from a Doctor Who episode, it…

THE RISE AND rise of the standmount speaker has been one of the more notable phenomena of the last 30 years. These smaller models – often labelled as ‘bookshelf’ speakers, in part to emphasise how simple they are to accommodate – were for many years a configuration used only by more affordable designs and regarded as a stepping stone to owning larger, floorstanding models when budget allowed. Now, it is perfectly possible to select two-way standmount designs all the way up to prices some way north of ten grand. What’s changed? Firstly and perhaps most significantly, the space available to people has diminished even when their budget has held up well. Where it was once an automatic assumption that a three grand speaker would be fairly hefty, there is now…

The HDI Series represents JBL’s latest attempt to take engineering characteristics from its more expensive (and larger) models and introduce them to both a more affordable price point and practical form factor. The HDI-1600 is the entry-level member of the family and it’s a testament to just how successful the efforts to reduce its size have been that it slots into this group nicely. The key feature is, of course, the tweeter. This is a compression driver made from polymer and placed inside a horn-type mounting. JBL says it’s derived from its professional D2 series and the idea is that the horn helps with dispersion while keeping sensitivity relatively high. It’s partnered with a 165mm ‘Aluminium Matrix’ mid/bass driver that is augmented by a fairly large rear bass port. The…

Introducing the second smallest member of the Classic range, which runs alongside the more contemporary D Series. As the name suggests, Classic models are designed to employ some of the thinking and materials that Spendor has employed since day one. The most significant area for this is the cabinet. Where most other speakers have gone to rigorous lengths to make the cabinet as rigid as possible, the 3/1 allows for a degree of movement you can physically feel when it’s running hard. The tweeter is the same 22mm-wide surround unit used in the Classic 4/5 (HFC 470) and the rest of the range. It’s partnered with a 180mm mid/bass driver made from the ‘EP77’ polymer that Spendor is particularly fond of, crossing over between the two at a relatively high…

Hi-fi is nothing if not fluid. A decade ago, few would have imagined we’d have abandoned physical media so quickly. CD sales are plummeting in most major western markets, especially the USA and UK – and the world is moving to streamed media. That’s perfectly understandable as it’s so convenient – in theory at least – and brings a huge choice of content. The result is we now have a brave new world of streaming DACs, which form the heart of modern day systems. To this esteemed company we should now add Auralic’s latest DAC. The Vega G2.1 is particularly interesting for two reasons. First, the company was very early to streaming – and has watched the hi-fi world move towards it, rather than others that have belatedly decided to…

Never let it be said that all hi-fi is boring and generic. We’re increasingly seeing innovative and quirky designs appearing on the scene. To this growing list, you can now add Orchard Audio’s Starkrimson monoblock power amplifiers. The Starkrimson comes either as a 150W monoblock (reviewed here) or 150W stereo power amp; there’s also a choice of amplifier modules using the company’s bespoke Gallium nitride Class D technology should you wish to do it yourself. GaN transistors are claimed to be faster than silicon, with increased slew rate, lower ringing and better overload recovery. The switching is done completely in the analogue domain at over 800kHz, which is said to be two to three times faster than traditional Class D designs. This allows the use of a simple LC filter,…

It’s not so long ago that my post bag would include so many debut albums by young unknown guitar groups that I used to joke there were more kids forming bands than there were fans buying their records. So I was struck by a recent comment by Maroon 5’s Adam Levine who claimed in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Low that there: “aren’t any bands any more” and that groups of young men and women with guitars and a mission to make a racket and save the world are: “a dying breed”. His comments created something of a Twitter storm with some telling him he needed to get out more and others seeking to prove him wrong by shouting out the names of their favourites such as Fontaines DC…

St Vincent Daddy’s Home CD Loma Vista ST VINCENT’S FATHER was recently released from prison after serving nine years for his part in a $43 million corporate tax fraud. While he was away the daughter he knew as Annie Clark grew from an indie cult figure who had begun her musical career in The Polyphonic Spree into a bona fide solo star. Her 2014 album St Vincent won her a Grammy award as Best Alternative Music Album and the title track of 2019’s Masseduction won her another Grammy for Best Rock Song. Along the way she also outgrew her indie-rock origins to become a fully fledged celebrity, working with Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa, dating model Cara Delevingne and appearing in ads for the luxury jewellers Tiffany. Meanwhile back in the…

HAVING REVIEWED THE original Foxtrot in 2016 (HFC 412), I’m keen to try the latest version. The ‘S’ stands for supercharged and incorporates some of the new design techniques and materials that have trickled down from the company’s Charleston cable, which costs considerably more. The cable is available in 3m and 5m lengths. Black magic Terminated with gold-plated Z plugs, the Foxtrot S includes a large ferrite core that’s attached near the loudspeaker end to attenuate any RFI picked up by the conductors. The cable is finished with a black braid designed to dampen mechanical vibrations. The result, according to Black Rhodium, is a much cleaner and clearer quality of sound. Having connected the Foxtrot S cable between my transmission line loudspeakers and my valve monoblocks, I commence my listening…

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO EVO 150 “As convincing and covetable an all-in-one system as we’ve encountered” We review Cambridge Audio’s brand new one-box streaming system ALSO: REVIEWS A six-way Group Test of high-end turntables, Sonus faber Lumina One standmount, Cyrus Audio soundBuds2, Edwards Audio TT4 turntable, T+A Solitaire P-SE headphones, the pick of the second Record Store Day drop and much more FEATURES Music Reviews, Audiophile News, our comprehensive Buyer’s Guide and sharp-as-nails Opinions section, and all your hi-fi questions answered by our team of experts JULY ISSUE ON SALE 17 JUNE…