Indholdsfortegnelse for Yearbook 2024 i Hi-Fi Choice

Our story starts in 1984, with the Mission Cyrus One and Two. These little ‘shoebox’ amps punched harder than their size suggested and sounded great too. They became one of the hi-fi success stories of the decade. Then came a management buy out and the Cyrus sub-brand became a fully fledged company. Reasonably well equipped, the Classic AMP includes a moving-magnet phono input, a built-in (24-bit/192kHz-capable) DAC and a 3.5mm headphone socket. The remote control is a particularly pleasant thing; weighty and backlit, it can even learn commands. Cyrus amps have always had to grapple with the limited physical space inside their small but perfectly formed casing. The Classic AMP puts out a claimed 70W RMS per channel into 8ohm and 112W into 4, which is decent for such a…

Those of you with long memories will know that Mission has not always solely made speakers. The original Mission Cyrus One appeared in the Eighties and proved to be a capable and highly regarded amp that spawned a small range of components before the enterprise continued under the Cyrus name. More recently, the LX Connect (HFC 486) system has suggested a desire for the company to dip a toe into electronics again. The 778X is a logical enough addition to both the Mission range and the wider IAG portfolio; it matches a considerable number of its speakers and also undercuts any integrated amp from sister brand Audiolab – which is moving gently upmarket. The 778X might cost less than any Audiolab, but on first inspection it’s not immediately obvious why.…

Designed to celebrate a half century in business for NAD, the C 3050 LE has nothing to do with its ancestors from the Seventies. A Class D design, it delivers 100W into both 4 and 8ohm with additional ‘burst’ power available for dynamic peaks. There’s a BluOS module of the type we’ve now tested in multiple applications, optical and coaxial digital inputs, aptX Bluetooth (that can transmit and receive, so it will work with wireless headphones) and an HDMI ARC connection. As something approaching a nod to the past, there is a moving-magnet phono stage and an analogue line input. The other contribution from the past is the aesthetics, which are an homage – rather than an exact replica – of the original 3030 from the Seventies. The casework is…

My design philosophy for a preamplifier is to keep all selectable audio signals perfectly preserved and buffered, to ensure they are not contaminated in any way from each other, or from external or internal radio-interference. And to make it enjoyable to use, of course.” There you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak, that’s what Chord Electronics’ John Franks set out to achieve with the Ultima Pre 3. Newcomers to the brand will think of this Kent-based company as a DAC specialist. That’s hardly surprising considering the huge success Chord has had, since the launch of its ground-breaking DAC 64 nearly two decades ago. Yet the company started up in 1989, to make high-end pre and power amplifiers. Company founder Franks says the new preamplifier is largely…

Gold Note is relatively unusual in audio circles as it will happily sell you a complete system including electronics and speakers as well as turntables. The Valore 425 Plus is the most affordable model in its range, but embodies design philosophies featured in all Gold Note designs all the way up to the £62,000 flagship Firenze Bellagio Conquest. It’s unsuspended and belt-driven by a 12V high-torque motor. As standard, it comes fitted with the company’s B-5.1 tonearm which is entirely proprietary and a lovely design. As well as being well finished and confidence inspiring to use, the spacious headshell works with pretty much any cartridge and the decent-sized counterweight will balance them too. This has to be set off against the Valore 425 Plus being rather fiddly to get up…

Mark Baker is by profession a naval architect – which isn’t the most obvious qualification for a turntable designer, until you begin to think about the respective challenges. Ships are moving, rigid, load-bearing structures that are motorised and have to suppress vibrations and other external factors to do their job properly. So, there are clear parallels. The basic job, he says, is to create an inert platform that’s isolated from the external environment. Alongside this, the platter has to rotate at a constant speed, free of wow, flutter and rumble. This done, the stylus can accurately trace the groove’s tiny undulations. One of Origin Live’s early forays into vinyl was making after-market motors for belt-drive turntables. “Because we installed these in our clients’ decks,” Mark explains, “it gave us the…

Every hi-fi era has its own buzzwords, and while variations on the theme of ‘digital’ and ‘hi-res’ have largely permeated our collective consciousness over the past few decades, the 2020s have so far proved thick with references to ‘trickle-down technology’. Brands have always launched flagship products to showcase innovations that eventually make their way down to middle and entry-level ranges, but there’s almost an expectation that this will happen both swiftly and wholesale. Following the launch of SME’s fabulous Model 60 turntable (HFC 491) the ‘trickle down’ has begun within a mere six months, across the range, and makes its debut in the replacement for its Model 12A. The unveiling of the unannounced, £10,475 Model 12 MK2 turntable has been an exercise in stealth marketing, but the first production sample…

Goldring started life in Berlin in 1906 when two Czech brothers, Heinrich and Julius Scharf, began to build parts for the nascent gramophone industry. Goldring moved to England in 1933, and 20 years later when the company was officially renamed Goldring Manufacturing (GB) Ltd, it had developed revolutionary and highly successful magnetic pick-ups such as the Goldring 500. This cartridge was widely used by the BBC and had a turnover 33/45rpm double sapphire stylus and was considered to be the first hi-fi cartridge with a low dynamic mass. During the Fifties, the company teamed up with Swiss turntable manufacturer Lenco to form a partnership that would last 20 years. By the Seventies, advances in magnetic materials allowed the now Goldring Products Limited to fit tiny, powerful magnets directly onto the…

Sumiko produced its first cartridge in 1982 and all of its offerings are hand-built in Japan. The company’s focus has always been to create needles that combine state-of-the-art technical performance with the practical requirements of superb tracking and a musical and non-fatiguing, sonic presentation. The company is particularly known for its budget-friendly Oyster cartridge, but its range of moving magnets, which are rather confusingly all part of the series, extends right up to the premium Amethyst before us. Being the flagship of the Oyster series, the Amethyst is considered by Sumiko to be its most ambitious moving-magnet offering to date. This cartridge features a nude line-contact stylus coupled to a 0.5mm diameter aluminium cantilever, which is intended to extract every minute detail from the groove. Due to the level of…

Currently, this is the most ambitious all-in-one CD player that Cyrus Audio makes and given the company’s enviable hit rate in this arena over the years, summoning the sonic talent to hold its own at this price shouldn’t be a problem. The relatively recent introduction of the XR range sees the CDi-XR sitting above the existing Classic CDi. It sports the same half-width casing the brand has been using for decades and for good reason – it’s light but remarkably solid, low in resonance and, of course, very distinctive in a sea of me-too rectangular boxes. Not everyone’s cup of Lapsang is the slot-loading transport, which is also carried over and its retention is no surprise. Born out of significant investment, the mechanism first made its debut in late 2007.…

Like other recent Rega model refreshes, the MK3 Saturn CD player arrives with a fresh set of clothes. Well, a new front panel, anyway – this to pull it in line with the latest Rega electronics house aesthetic. Under the skin very little has changed and, given the previous Saturn R’s redoubtable sonic chops, the route to better for the asking price wasn’t obvious. So, as before, the DAC is built around twin Wolfson WM8742 chips that are used in conjunction with a high stability master clock and high-capacity power supplies throughout. As with its Saturn-R predecessor, the MK3 is a top loader, the intriguingly angular architecture of the manually operated lid covering a spring-loaded hub. In stark contrast to the robust and weighty slab of a chassis, the lid…

The affordable streamer category has never quite scaled the heights of popularity that many (myself included) thought it might. The development of amplifiers and systems that have streaming on board and the ability of a number of generic devices to be perfectly capable streamers in their own right have eaten into the demand for such things. Nevertheless, the demand is there and Cambridge Audio has been providing options for longer than most. The MXN10 (and its full-width equivalent AXN10) is its latest offering. For an affordable component, the MXN10 manages to do a lot. The decoding hardware is an ESS Sabre ES9033Q DAC made available to a pair of RCA analogue outputs. This is joined by coaxial and optical outs that can run at the same time. Some quick tests…

Considering it is owned and operated by one of the world’s more pre-eminent tech companies, Apple Music has always felt a little low key. Since its launch in 2015, it has ticked along, generally responding to other companies rather than doing anything noteworthy of its own. The move to offer hi-res content occurred a few years ago and the 100-million-plus track library is available in sample rates up to 24/192kHz with some content in spatial audio. While Apple has made efforts to improve the curated material, it’s still a little lacking – although there is more video content. While not terribly innovative, Apple has been continuously honing its interface and since our last Group Test has corrected one of the more significant failings – limited Windows support. The old iTunes…

As one of the two services to contest every streaming Group Test (along with Qobuz), Tidal has done its fair share of evolution in that time. Like Qobuz, it was originally a CD-quality offering that added hi-res later, electing to use MQA to do so. Recently, though, the issues that MQA has experienced has prompted Tidal to migrate content over to more conventional hi-res FLAC. At the time of testing (August 2023), ‘Master’ files were rebranded to ‘Max’, but MQA content is still present. Spatial audio and music videos are also available. This hints at one of the most frustrating aspects of Tidal, which is that unlike other lossless services it will not explicitly state the sample rate you are receiving in the apps – which makes confirming things are…

Why bother with meticulously conceived homages and lovingly crafted tribute acts when you can cut to the chase with what KEF reckons is the LS3/5a’s one true successor? Maybe because coming to the LS50 Meta cold, it looks nothing like its famous forbear, or any other small standmount come to that. But then KEF isn’t trying to rekindle the classic form and cult-forming sound but bury them respectfully in the past, overshadowed and overpowered by a bold new paradigm. Actually, ‘new’ is a bit misleading, too. KEF introduced the original LS50 as an anniversary back slap in 2012. So popular did it become, the chunky, contoured, Uni-Q equipped standmount stayed in production unchanged until 2021. But nine years is a long time to fend off evolving rivals, so KEF’s strategists…

System Audio’s pitch is it’s all about high fidelity and something approaching an end-game standard can be achieved with two active speakers, two mains cables, a small, plainly styled stereo wireless control hub that can be hidden away in a cupboard (SA’s preference) and a smartphone or tablet. Surely that’s the future. The mission is prosecuted on several fronts – with hub-based WiSA wireless connectivity, an evolving suite of downloadable DSP-implemented speaker voicings and a room acoustic correction app to use with your iPhone. The Danish company’s active Legend 5.2 Silverback is a two-way rear-ported standmount toting a 114mm long-throw mid/bass driver, crossed over in DSP to a 25mm soft dome tweeter and acoustic lens. Each driver has its own DAC and dedicated Class D amplifier using the same digital…

Alot has happened since Sennheiser released the Momentum True Wireless 2, back in early 2020. This means that the third-generation Momentum TW3 has some catching up to do, so Sennheiser starts by acknowledging the increased competition in this market with a very welcome price cut. Available in white, black or grey, the small pellet-shaped earpieces are a little more streamlined and easier to fit into the ear. Along with its standard four sizes of eartips, Sennheiser also includes three sets of rubber ‘fins’ – which wrap around the outer body of the earpieces and help hold them in place as they sit in your outer ear. The TW3 uses the same 7mm drivers as its predecessor, boasting an impressive 5Hz–21kHz frequency response. Bluetooth has been updated to include aptX Adaptive…

THERE ARE MANY people who will argue that using a digital cable doesn’t make that much of a difference. After all, it is essentially a 75ohm coax wire. However, the Clearway RCA uses the same tuned conductor geometry as found in the company’s original Sarum Digital interconnect, designed to improve musical coherence. It is all about timing and providing as accurate a digital signal as possible. A poor-quality digital cable, or one with an incorrect impedance, will generate reflections of the signal, which can result in jitter and ultimately degrade the audio signal. In addition to its silver-plated VEE 3 RCA plugs, the Clearway can be fitted with silver-plated BNC and/or mono mini-jacks to suit portable DACs. The standard length is 1m, but custom lengths are additionally available to order…

INTENDED AS AN upgrade over the ‘kettle lead’ usually bundled with a system, the Clearway power cable features a double foil shield – located under the outer jacket – designed to reduce the pick-up of high-frequency noise that is common within the home. The screening also reduces the possibility of any interaction with other nearby cables. The Clearway power cable contains three high-purity multi-strand copper conductors insulated with PVC, which has a high mechanical damping factor. The conductors are screened with a dual-foil screen and the cable is finished off with a high-density vibration damping outer jacket. Apart from UK 13A mains plug and 10A IEC high-specification connectors, it can also be supplied with a Schuko mains plug, 16A IEC or figure-of-eight connector. American and Australian mains plugs are also…

Vinyl’s resurgence has changed the way that we interface with music in ways that are clearly proving meaningful to fans of all ages. For younger buyers it’s the excitement of watching for the first time a needle flow through a record. For the older generation, the appeal seems to be rediscovering the joy of reading through liner notes, as well as the authenticity and ‘warmth’ that vinyl records deliver. A report compiled in 2022 by MusicWatch surveyed nearly 1,400 consumers across the USA from all walks of life. The report, entitled Revelations About the Vinyl Revolution, noted that in 2021, vinyl record sales topped $1-billion in the USA alone. The last time this happened was in 1988. An estimated 18-million consumers aged 13 and over purchased vinyl during 2021, representing…

Since opening the shop, my collection has… grown somewhat,” laughs Good Vibes’ co-owner Mike. “I wouldn’t characterise myself as a crazed collector. However, I am the type of person that must visit a record shop if we visit a city, and I’ll always pick up a few records.” Go on, admit it: you’re that type too and this vinyl emporium should be a must-visit when exploring Edinburgh and vibrant Leith. To quote the website: “welcome to your neighbourhood records, books and objects store…” Good Vibes officially opened in December 2020 – “Yes, right slap bang in the middle of Covid and extremely disruptive tramworks on our street,” says Mike, “but we have been trading properly for two years now.” The store’s name not only radiates positivity but also does what…

When you are extremely proficient in one particular area, the decision to branch out into different categories can come with some risk. AVID is synonymous with turntables and has been bolstering these with a range of phono stages, arms and cartridges. This would be quite enough activity for many, but it has also been hard at work building a range of amplifiers and speakers. It’s important when you look at the Accent integrated amp – which represents its most affordable model in the range – to realise that it marks the final point in a trickle-down development policy that began a decade ago with the Reference Pre and Reference Mono, which will set you back £170,000. These are designed and built without compromise and represent the best of their kind.…

A half-width, pint-sized amp with a minimum of facilities, the Apprentice IA squeezes in a moving-magnet phono stage and 3.5mm headphone socket on the front, driven by a dedicated high current output driver circuit. Power output is quoted at a modest 30W RMS per channel into 8ohm. It is a discrete Class AB design and lively white, red, blue and green finishes are also available. Sound quality This is such a petite looking thing that your brain almost fools you it will sound meek and mild. Actually, it’s quite the reverse. It isn’t lacking in output power in normal use, and my Cambridge Audio Aero 6 floorstander (HFC 382), with its 90dB sensitivity, serves up a fast and feisty sound. Tonally the Apprentice IA is perhaps a little light; you…

Simaudio’s MOON-branded products are competitively priced and have built a reputation for fine sound, and the 250i V2 perfectly embodies this. It’s a recently revamped version of a long-running classic. The original 250 integrated is around a decade old. Surprisingly perhaps, MOON’s 200 series is the brand’s second-from-bottom line, the range stretches right up to the super high-end 800 series. This new version gives away its ageing origins by having a 3.5mm mini-jack input on the front – who uses these, any more? This is a small distraction to an otherwise comprehensive revamp. The V2 adds a moving-magnet phono stage, but digital devotees will be disappointed, as there’s no network music player or DAC. Six line-level inputs are offered, plus a 6.35mm headphone out. The 250i V2 sports Simaudio’s custom-made…

When the maiden Nait (NAim InTegrated) was unveiled back in the early Eighties it wasn’t the first ever audiophile integrated, but it did make the breed more respectable in the UK. Lest we forget, at that time anyone with serious money to spend would naturally buy a two-box pre/power amp combination The XS 3 is the latest in a long line of Naits and the first to feature a moving-magnet phono stage as standard for a while. It’s basically the company’s more expensive Supernait 3 (HFC 456) that has shrunk in the wash, offering 70W RMS per channel into 8ohm. There’s no DAC and no streamer, so this is very much on the minimalist side of things. While it has certainly been around for a while now, when it was…

Launched to expand the 3510 range, the 3510 Power is pretty much the same as the power amp section of the 3510 integrated, but has its own dedicated power supply and case. The 3510 Preamp also gets its own special feed of electricity, while the headphone stage of the 3510 integrated has been removed. The 3510 Power puts out a claimed 110W RMS per side into 8ohm – and 200W into 4ohm. As per the 3510 integrated, the Preamp has six RCA line inputs, with the option to swap one or two of these to fit an MM or MC module (both £340 each), and/or a plug-in DAC (£480). High quality relays are said to be used for input source selection, and the audio stages use a discrete transistor Class…

In all the excitement around the burgeoning number of turntables available at every price, it’s easy to miss that practically all of them require the arm to be lifted on and off the record yourself. For those that don’t want to have to leave their chair, Dual has created the automatic CS 429. The basic spec is in keeping with rivals at this sort of price. It is unsuspended and the motor acts on the platter via a belt. Speed selection is electronic and offers a choice of 33, 45 and 78rpm. The arm is a straight aluminium tube with a detachable offset headshell to which an Ortofon 2M Red cart is pre-fitted (ensuring that the change to a superior 2M Blue is a simple stylus change away). The Dual…

If you’d told me when I bought my first ever LP – ABBA’s Arrival back in 1976 – that nearly 50 years later I would still be playing records on newly released turntables, I’d have laughed at you. Yet here we are, with a new vinyl spinner from a new British company. Extra sobering for some of us more senior audiophiles, is the fact that the brand is the brainchild of Will Turrell – who is, to put it politely, young enough to view ABBA in the same way that I regard George Gershwin, namely ancient history. A keen percussionist from an early age, he gave up a budding career as a musician to work in engineering. Then, to cut a long story short, he partnered up with Kevin Edwards…

Pro-Ject’s long-standing philosophy of seeking to do more than rivals at any given price point is reflected in the 6 PerspeX SB, which is a gloriously ornate turntable. The main plinth of the Austrian/Czech Republic offering – made of Perspex unsurprisingly enough – supports a corian sub-chassis that contains the main bearing, platter and tonearm. The travel is rather limited, which means that setup is pretty simple but – in partnership with its excellent sorbothane damped feet – the 6 PerspeX SB is more resistant to outside interference than many. The motor sits on the main plinth and has speed control on the top of it. It acts on a ‘sandwich’ platter, which comes fitted with a clamp as standard. A variant of the company’s long-running carbon fibre tonearm is…

A few years ago, a Senior Fellow of Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) in the US, Wyn Palmer, designed a phono stage in his spare time with the goal of producing a unit with exceptionally low noise and distortion, coupled with extremely accurate RIAA equalisation. He initially made the stage available as a DIY project on various bulletin boards and the Wyn Palmer DIY Phono Stage rapidly acquired a cult following. Sota decided to team up with Palmer to develop an affordable ultra-low distortion, low-noise and accurate phono stage and the result was the Pyxi Phonostage. Pyxi can support both MC and MM cartridges, selected by a switch on the front. Around the back are gold-plated in and output phono sockets, an earth binding post, the power input socket for the…

Nagaoka started out as a manufacturer of watch parts and cartridge styli over 80 years ago. With the growing demand for replacement needles for phono cartridges, the company began research into sapphire needles and quickly developed its own polishing technology, resulting in Japan’s first diamond replacement needle. Its MP (Moving Permalloy) range of moving-magnet cartridges has been around for many years, with the MP-300 topping the bill. This has now been redesigned from scratch, resulting in the Nagaoka Jeweltone series. The JT-80BK is the flagship model of the range. The Jeweltone series consists of moving-magnet cartridges, which represents a departure from the moving-iron or moving-permalloy principle previously dominating the MP range. Traditionally, the company has focused on the advantages stemming from a low moving mass. Having said that, Nagaoka has…

UK’s Vertere manufactures three phono cartridges – its top-of-the-range Mystic moving coil (HFC 499), the entry-level Magneto moving magnet and the premium moving-magnet Sabre before you here. According to the company’s CEO and Founder, Touraj Moghaddam, the aim is to bring the performance of audio systems at home as close as possible to the original master in order to reproduce what the musicians, mastering and cutting engineers intend for us to hear. The Sabre has been designed with this firmly in mind. Moghaddam has been designing turntables since 1984, but it wasn’t until the birth of Vertere that he started creating his reference tonearms to assist him. He says that this approach helped him to identify the weakest links in a system and therefore determine how the company should develop…

Taking over from the fine-sounding M6cd and a blood relative of the M6S DAC, the M6scd lands as a potentially formidable force on the market. Not quite the largest chassis available and falling just a whisker short of being the most fastidiously built, it’s nevertheless a strapping presence that’s bristling with features and more than its fair share of technical braggadocio, so let’s go there first. The M6scd quotes stereo separation better than 105dB 20Hz to 20kHz while jitter, noise and distortion artefacts are all claimed by Musical Fidelity to be vanishingly low – the goal as ever, you might assume, being to optimise imaging, detail and transparency. Serious upsampling and reclocking also figure, utilising a 32-bit ESS Sabre Delta-Sigma (bit stream) dual differential 8x over-sampling DAC. As you might…

Astell&Kern is well known for its range of high-end digital audio players (DAPs) and it also has a range of ‘dual-DAC’ products aimed at smartphone users. The Acro CA1000T combines both into a single device, providing what the company calls an ‘all-in-one head-fi system’ that includes a desktop DAP with a powerful built-in DAC and amplifier, plus an impressive range of connectivity and streaming features. The chunky design of the Acro is pure A&K, with desktop use very much in mind. It’s semi-portable, though, as it has a rechargeable battery that lasts for around 11 hours, and you can easily pick it up and move it from room to room when you’re at home. The top panel has a 4.1in touchscreen display, which swivels upwards for easy visibility. This isn’t…

This digital hub doubles up as an ESS9038Q2M-based DAC, streamer and media server/music library. Auralic also counts a superior femto clock as part of the G1.1 upgrade, though jitter was always inherently low. The built-in headphone amplifier has been treated to a little extra beefing up too. Although the emphasis here is on wired and wireless network streaming and, optionally, playback from internal storage (a 2TB SSD can be installed for an additional £400), the Altair G1.1 possesses a range of digital inputs. External storage remains an option too; just hook up an outboard drive to the USB-A port. Connecting a laptop is possible through the USB-B port, while optical, coaxial and AES/XLR options are included. Both single-ended and balanced XLR analogue outputs are provided. Sound quality The G1.1 is…

Making the move from impressively capable media boxes into more conventional ‘hi-fi’ territory is something Zidoo has accomplished rather well. When we looked at its Neo Alpha streamer back in HFC 492, the performance it offered was extremely impressive and perhaps the only weakness was that aspects of the video hardware rather glossed over some of the audio limitations. Enter Eversolo. This is a brand-with-in-a-brand that takes some of the Zidoo hardware and optimises it for audio use, removing some of the video bells and whistles in order to do more in sound terms while costing less. That’s a fairly enticing combination and the DMP-A6 starts to show its worth from the outset. It uses a pair of ES9038Q2M DACs, which means its fully balanced section is able to run…

Across the time we have run a streaming service Group Test, Qobuz has picked up more wins than any other. What began as a CD-quality service that was hampered by a tendency to switch to messaging in French, has evolved into a slick, hi-res-capable proposition combined with download store. If you want this, the Sublime top tier is the most sensible option. Though Studio omits downloads, it is more competitive and undercuts rivals if you buy an annual sub. The family plan is more expensive, however. After some initial shakiness, the quality of Qobuz’s apps has become extremely good. Key to its effectiveness is it gets the basics right; search functionality, playback options and general navigation are all logical, stable and very consistent regardless of the device you use them…

B&W’s 700 Series has long had the job of taking ideas from the 800 range and bringing them to a vaguely terrestrial price point. For this third iteration, the principle is the same. With the 705 S3, this includes changes to the tweeter in the shape of tweeter-on-top. The new housing is longer, more solidly damped and better isolated than before. It comes in the shape of the 25mm carbon dome unit used previously. This hands over to a 165mm ‘Continuum’ mid/bass driver, which is also materially similar to before. What has changed is the way it is mounted in the cabinet, employing a new module to contain it and prevent unwanted interference. The cabinet sees more substantial revisions. Bracing has been upgraded so it is substantially stiffer and more…

Mining your past to produce new products that induce a spot of nostalgia for the ‘good’ old days (your mileage may vary to quite how good they were) is a big deal at the moment and, at first glance, the Vintage Classic VIII looks like more of the same. Where things get a little complicated is that, on paper at least, Fyne doesn’t have a heritage to mine. This speaker harks back to a time long before the company existed. As such, it looks to another part of Fyne’s ancestry, reflecting that many (but not all) of its key staff came from Tannoy. This means the Vintage Classic VIII is built around a 200mm treated paper driver that mounts a 25mm magnesium tweeter with prominent waveguide around it in the…

As a product category, powered speakers have been around for years but the decline in physical media usage has really kick started it into becoming a significant part of the affordable end of the market as – assuming they have the right inputs – they’re impressively self-contained. For all the romance of affordable separates and their upgradeability, powered speakers give enormous value for money that is hard to beat. ELAC is no stranger to affordable speakers and the DCB41 is at least partly related to its Debut range of passive models. The configuration is largely in keeping with others in this category. A main speaker contains the inputs and amplification for both cabinets and outputs to a wholly passive partner via a run of speaker cable. Each speaker is built…

ALTHOUGH THE OPERETTA S has many similarities to the Operetta 2 DCT (HFC 473) it replaces, the materials it is made from are rather different. The former employs a cryogenically processed stranded conductor in place of the solid core conductor of the Operetta 2 DCT. The cable is sheathed in a black braid, offering excellent damping properties to physical vibrations that can find their way into the audio chain. The Operetta S DCT is terminated with Graham Nalty GN4 rhodium-plated RCA plugs with a ‘straight line contact’ return conductor for better sound quality than the standard ‘full circumference’ return conductors. The cable has undergone deep cryogenic treatment (DCT), where it is cooled to a very low temperature and held there before being raised back up to ambient. Sound quality With…

AS AN ENTRY-LEVEL digital interconnect, Ecosse’s The Producer doesn’t shirk its responsibilities to maintain the all-important 75ohm characteristic cable impedance required. This enables it to transmit the pulsed square wave high-frequency signal without internal reflections. It employs ultra-pure, grain-free (single) high-end Monocrystal conductor material in its construction and is double screened to reject unwanted noise. It’s finished off in a yellow 6mm diameter sheath and can be terminated in RCA or BNC plugs, or a combination of the two if needed. Sound quality After connecting the extremely flexible interconnect between the coax output of a PrimaLuna ProLogue Eight Mk2 CD player and the coax S/PDIF input of a Furutech ADL Stratos, which acts as an external DAC, I play a CD of Roger Eno’s ethereal Obsidian from his album Mixing…

TO MARK ITS 50th anniversary, QED has introduced its Golden Anniversary XT speaker cable. This employs X-Tube technology, which places a cable’s conductive material around a central hollow insulating rod. The cable is manufactured from a blend of 99.99 percent oxygen-free copper and Ultra-Pure Ohno Continuous Cast Copper to provide an improved signal path and better signal retention. The conductors are insulated with a low-density polyethylene dielectric, which in unison with X-Tube Plus, results in high-efficiency and an extremely low dissipation factor. The cable is terminated with QED’s Forté banana plugs, which are attached with a specially developed cold-weld system called ‘Airloc’ for maximum resistance to oxidation by effectively turning both cable and plug into a single, unified conductor. Although very well made, the Golden Anniversary XT cable is a…

The most played ‘new’ record in my house in recent months has been the remixed version of an album I’ve loved since first hearing it as a 12 year-old more than half a century ago. I’m talking about The Beatles’ Revolver. Listening to it again, I was struck that despite the instruments squeezed into four tracks and all the other technological limitations of the era, records made in the Sixties sound warmer to me than almost any of the auto-tuned music we hear today. I’m not talking about the quality of the songs or whether I prefer John Lennon’s voice to Ed Sheeran or Janis Joplin to Adele. I’m talking purely about the sonic texture of the recordings. I mentioned this to a friend who works in the A&R department…

We’re up before the lark. Somehow. A bleary-eyed HFC bobs and weaves against the tide of commuters, emerging out of a suburban station in tranquil Richmond upon Thames. Quarry located. The sound of music hovers into earshot. The time is just gone 7:30am and, stepping past the rope reserved for early-bird vinyl-hunters, we are already a blur of fingers in the 7in singles box on the counter in pursuit of new kicks. Record shopping at this hour? Extraordinary – especially when you consider some record shops’ elastic approach to opening hours. The game is on, but an involuntary yawn kicks in. “Coffee?” beams irrepressible Mark Buckle from behind the counter. Well, it’s far from the worst idea in the world and as beans grind and milk froths, we settle in…

It all started back in the mists of the Seventies when a young Michael Creek was working for his father’s audio business – Wyndsor Recording Co. Ltd. – learning the ropes in anticipation of one day going it alone. Finally, after a stretch as a design consultant, he decided to branch out on his own, and Creek Audio Systems was formed in 1981. The first Creek CAS4040 was sold on 31 March 1982, to Audio Projects in Leeds, and retailed for just £99. It was a comparatively small 30W RMS per channel solid-state integrated: “based upon an upgraded version of a 10W power amp circuit employed at Wyndsor in 1976”, remembers Mike. It was an audacious move, because back at that time the hi-fi world was dominated by the NAD…

If you’re a petrolhead, you’ll likely know all about the so-called ‘restomod’ scene. Bored by modern motors, classic car fans have started buying ‘distressed’ older models and restoring them. But rather than a simple resto back to factory spec, they make sympathetic modifications so they’re more suitable for modern driving. The same is now happening in hi-fi. Specialists are restoring classic audio products that are past their best, back to new condition – but often with tweaking to improve the sound and/or style. You might say that Peter Farrow’s Wiltshire-based English Acoustics brand fits into this category, but actually there’s more to it than that… The Stereo 21c never started life as an amplifier made in the Leak factory from 1958. Think of it as a tribute to the Stereo…

It all started for Musical Fidelity in the mid-Eighties with the A1 – an iconic amp that’s just recently been relaunched to some acclaim. Superb as this full Class A classic is, it’s too niche for consideration as a do-it-all mid-priced amp, thanks to its low power and specialist orientation. Instead the M5si is a far superior all-rounder offering a flare-flapping 150W RMS per channel into 8ohm. Despite its very pleasing modern styling, this is quite an old-school device in terms of functionality. Its only concession to modernity is a built-in 24-bit/96kHz-capable DAC with a single USB-B input. Oddly, though, there’s no optical or coaxial digital inputs – and you can forget about streaming as standard. Still, like most options available around this price point, it at least boasts a…

Now that we have seen two examples of Rega’s recent integrated amplifiers in the form of the newly developed Aethos and revised Elicit MK5 (HFC 457 and 490), it isn’t too surprising to find models further down the range undergoing an update. While the nature of the changes and improvements that the company has sought to make is starting to become more predictable, in the case of the Elex MK4 there’s an intriguing plot twist… At first glance the new model has received the logical and welcome updates we saw on its bigger sibling. The most significant of these is the inclusion of a pair of digital inputs; one optical and one coaxial, and both capable of supporting PCM to 24-bit/192kHz, thanks to a Wolfson DAC. This board is lifted…

Hegel wouldn’t be Hegel without giving this duo suitable nicknames, plumping for Conductor for the preamp and Orchestra for the power amp. Smartly, in the case of the latter, it has opted to do what it does best: build as much power as it can into a rather austere-looking box, and let the product speak for itself. As you would expect from a power amp, however, there’s little more to say about the H30A’s looks: it’s a big box with a power button, and choice of unbalanced RCA or balanced XLR inputs on the rear. The P30A is a touch more outgoing, sporting five inputs: three single-ended RCA pairs and two sets of balanced XLR pairs, plus a Home Theatre ‘max volume’ input for integration into a surround-sound system should…

Though the Miracord 80 Turntable may be new, the ‘Miracord’ moniker dates back to the late-Forties when it adorned ELAC’s first deck. The 80 is a belt-driven, unsuspended turntable and ELAC has focused on both the mass and its application. While it has a fairly hefty plinth, a significant 5.6kg of the overall weight is in the platter. Combined with a bearing that ELAC describes as its own work, the platter flywheels impressively well. A felt mat also comes bundled and is kept in place throughout testing. Something that isn’t present, but does have a positive effect on the overall performance, is a record weight. Experiments with a MoFi one during listening yield some small but definite improvements. The 10in tonearm combines a carbon armtube with conventional bearings and detachable…

This is one of those turntables where the quoted price is just one of the many options available from Michell. The TecnoDec can be purchased minus an arm for £1,200 but is also available with a T2 tonearm (a debadged Rega 303/330) and a Goldring E3 car for £1,500. For the purposes of the test, however, the Goldring has been unlimbered. The TecnoDec itself is essentially unchanged from when it began production some 20 years ago. It combines design thinking from the GyroDec and the older Syncro to create an unsuspended turntable where the large DC motor is separate to the rest of the chassis; being placed against a cut out on the left-hand side. The bearing is inverted and self-lubricating and spins a platter made of acrylic and impedance…

Meet the most affordable Rega model that more closely follows the design principles of the seldom seen Naiad turntable that tops its range. The plinth is reduced to a compact, irregular shape made from Tan Cast 8 foam encased between phenolic resin. This plinth contains the motor, bearing and the arm mount, the latter being externally braced between it and the bearing assembly. The plinth supports a platter made of layers of glass that concentrate the mass at the outer edge. The Planar 8 has a sub-platter, which the belts operate on rather than directly on the platter and this makes for a neater appearance and simpler assembly as the belts ship in place. The RB880 tonearm is a variation on the standard Rega theme, which means it is both…

As the latest upgrade to Vertere’s Phono-1 MkII phono preamp, the ‘L’ refers to the shape of the gold-plated PCBs used for the main phono circuit and mains power transformer. This is designed to improve the earthing and power distribution. A stainless steel shield has also been fitted to minimise interference with the audio signal. All power supply components and circuits are positioned outside the main cover shield and away from any signal path. High-quality components and solder have been used throughout the circuits. The Phono-1 MkIIL is fitted with DIP switches on the underside to adjust the gain and resistive and capacitive loads on the cartridge to match the manufacturer’s spec. There are 14 resistance settings for MC and one for MM carts, plus seven capacitance settings for MC…

Record cleaning machines have been a niche but steady part of the market for many years and can be very useful for salvaging vinyl that might otherwise be unplayable. Nessie is a German company and three models are now being brought into the UK of which the ProPlus+ is the flagship offering. Where the ProPlus+ differs from its siblings is that as well as having a vacuum arm that removes cleaning fluid from the record surface – along with any debris – there is also a fluid application arm. This allows you to electrically pump cleaning liquid through the brush heads and onto the vinyl. Once you have done so, the Nessie will rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise on a pre-set program to clean out dirt and debris. When this has…

As well as clean, minimalist design and meticulous build quality, Sweden’s Primare is all over the idea of modularity, a philosophy that invites system flexibility and, very Scandi this, internal harmony. For example, buy its flagship CD35 CD player and you can add its SM35 Prisma network player module at any point. There’s also the DD25 transport – essentially the CD35 sans DAC – to consider in a wider system context. Whichever way you cut it, all bases are covered. A strong inkling of the CD35’s intentions starts with the classy, isolated TEAC CD502A-AT transport mechanism (vastly superior to any off-the-shelf drive) and a linear power supply with separate regulation for the mechanics, digital and analogue circuits. A memory buffer is used for improved performance. Decoding is handled by a…

As the name suggests, the Powernode Edge is a Bluesound component with amplification on board to which you add the speakers of your choice. A larger Powernode (HFC 402) has been part of the range from the outset and is effectively a double-height Node that combines its streaming functionality with an amplifier. Over time, the price of the Powernode has crept up to £850, so the Powernode Edge has been released to sit beneath it in the range. It contains a BluOS streaming module that allows it to stream PCM to 24-bit/192kHz and also handles MQA content. This is joined by internet radio, AirPlay and two-way Bluetooth with apt-X and AAC – so you can stream to the Powernode Edge from a phone or tablet or use it to send…

After an exciting few early years where all manner of different configurations and specs have been tried, network streamers have settled into a more recognisable pattern in terms of what they do and how they do it. This homogenisation makes HiFi Rose all the more interesting. The South Korean company has developed a bespoke streaming platform that does the things we expect a streamer to do, but with some intriguing add-ons. The basics of the RS250A are conventional enough. A replacement for the original RS250, it is able to operate as a line-level device and as a preamp, thanks to an on-board volume control. Decoding can realistically be seen as state of the art, with PCM handled to 768kHz and DSD to 512 all decoded via an ESS ES9028 PRO…

It’s been some years since we featured Spotify because the move to having an all lossless field meant it was no longer a suitable candidate. Since it launched in 2010, the service has never exceeded the opening offering of 320kbps Ogg Vorbis for its Premium tier (with an ad-supported free tier dropping this to 160kbps). Some years ago it announced a lossless tier was to be launched, but this has yet to materialise so it continues to major on convenience over quality. This convenience isn’t to be sniffed at, however. Spotify has achieved a ubiquity that no other service can come close to. The £10.99 Premium tier can frequently be had for less thanks to offers and bundles, and there are competitive family and student plans too. Interestingly, some aspects…

As far as I know, there isn’t a safer pair of LS3/5a hands than the Gold Badge. That confidence goes for the pooled objectives of its creators as well. Current Falcon Acoustics boss Jerry Bloomfield bought the company, then a drive unit specialist, from his friend, and company founder, Malcolm Jones. This was fortuitous. When Jones worked for KEF as a young man, he designed and engineered the 110mm B110 mid/bass driver and 19mm soft dome T27 tweeter offered to the BBC to launch the LS3/5a. Now taking the role of technical consultant, Jones used his original blueprints and fastidiously logged notes to remanufacture the long-discontinued KEF units, giving the Falcon a provenance no other ‘new’ LS3/5a could hope to match. To put the matter beyond doubt, Bloomfield insisted on…

Pulling the S7-15B out of the box, the first impression is that it’s pretty basic. It has a youthful, modern and characterful look; traditional and conservative it is not. From an aesthetic point of view, the 7° tilt jumps out at you immediately – you hardly ever see such a thing at this price. There are sound engineering reasons to angle the front baffle, not least to help with time alignment. Jamo says time alignment is also the reason why the cabinet edges have been rounded, as they reduce diffraction. The drive unit complement starts with a new 25mm fabric dome tweeter featuring a copper Faraday ring, said to increase sensitivity and reduce non-linear distortion. The 140mm mid/bass driver kicks in at a fairly standard 1.7kHz. The result is a…

Out of the handful of British speaker makers licenced to build the BBC design back in the Seventies has grown more than 40 LS3/5a-badged choices. Whatever the weight of importance given to historically correct driver/cabinet/crossover provenance, it seems there’s always room for one more, and this time it’s Musical Fidelity that’s giving it a bash, which should have the experience and wherewithal to get it right. There’s little hope of drilling down to crossover component minutiae with Musical Fidelity’s LS3/5A. We’re not in full disclosure territory, here. But this is what MF is prepared to say… It’s assembled in a factory in Litovel, Czech Republic, next to one of Pro-Ject’s SEV turntable plants. There’s no BBC licence either. MF says it simply adheres to the original LS3/5A spec (BBC R&D…

The success Klipsch has enjoyed with The Fives (HFC 467) has been scaled up into The Sevens and supersized for The Nines you see here. The main speaker is switchable (so it can be either left or right) and has inputs for USB-B, HDMI ARC, optical and an RCA that can either be a line-in or a moving-magnet phono stage. You’ll also find a 3.5mm line in, Bluetooth and a sub out. What you won’t find is any form of wireless functionality beyond Bluetooth. The mid/bass driver is 203mm and, while the tweeter is the same 25mm option as The Fives, the ‘Tractrix’ horn in which it is placed is larger. Power is split with 100W available to the mid/bass driver and 30W to the tweeter, and while Klipsch quotes…

Considering its reputation when it comes to full-size wireless headphones, Bowers & Wilkins didn’t rush into the true wireless in-ear market. And the result was certainly worth the wait. The Pi7 was clever and capable and did well when we reviewed it in HFC 478. Nevertheless, a few years later, B&W feels the recipe needs a tweak. Enter the S2 update… The basics remain the same as before; pairing a 9.2mm dynamic driver with a balanced armature for high frequencies. Where the company has rung the changes is on operational and usage areas. There’s now a longer battery life and the Bluetooth range and stability have been improved. This new model has also been designed to use the main B&W app, which allows you to select content and adjust settings.…

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ON from the original handmade SignatureX, the new SignatureX Tuned ARAY has been upgraded with XLPE (Crosslinked Polythene) insulation, which was previously used in the SignatureXL speaker and power cables. This upgraded insulation is intended to complement Chord’s high-performance shielding architecture and Tuned ARAY conductor geometry technology. The SignatureX Tuned ARAY is terminated with ultra-low-mass RCA connectors that have PTFE surrounds. Versions of the interconnect fitted with high-performance XLR and DIN connectors are available as well as a variety of different tonearm cables. The pins and contact areas of the plugs are covered with the company’s patented ChorAlloy plating technology. The cable itself is made from multi-stranded, silver-plated oxygen-free copper and insulated with an XLPE dielectric. It has a high-density silver-plated braid and foil combination to provide high-frequency…

AS PART OF Black Rhodium’s Intro series, this entry-level power cable is designed to offer an affordable upgrade to the standard ‘kettle leads’ that usually come supplied with audio equipment. It is available in a choice of seven different-coloured braids to help identify it and has been designed to reduce unwanted vibrations, which the company explains has audible benefits. A large ferrite core is at the IEC connector end to attenuate radio frequency interference within the cable, resulting in a clearer and more detailed sound across all frequencies. The hand-built cable is supplied with a flat pin 13A plug fitted with a 5A fuse for UK users in a standard length of 2m. Sound quality To check out what difference the Intro power cable makes, I use it to connect…

RUSS ANDREWS’ ENTRY-LEVEL speaker cable, the Kimber 4PR with Varistrand, features Varistrand conductor geometry, which combines a sophisticated arrangement of different diameter copper strands within each conductor. The use of variable thickness wires is designed to ensure that the cable has an even frequency response across the audio spectrum. High-frequency signals travel along the surface of a conductor, so Kimber uses several strands of copper in each insulated wire to increase the surface area. The conductors themselves are made from Kimber’s own high-purity OFE (oxygen free electrolytic) copper. The 4PR cable consists of eight polyethylene-covered wires (four red and four black) that is woven in Kimber’s counter opposed helix design to cancel RFI. It can be supplied with the ends cut and stripped for you to use with your own…

In our August issue there was a great letter from Rod Theobald who had a bit of a beef with streaming and professed his preference for playing music in physical form, albeit vinyl, CD or cassette. This is not an uncommon sentiment but what fascinated me about Rod’s letter was that it put less emphasis on the usual argument that the sound quality of physical playback is superior to when it’s streamed and had more to do with his desire to actually ‘own’ rather than ‘rent’ the music. Believe me, I sympathise. Collecting vinyl is a dangerous addiction I fight every waking hour. What I am, I guess, is a reformed hoarder, and my personal epiphany occurred one early Saturday morning at a local car boot sale. There were five…