Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2015 i Hi-Fi Choice

www.hifichoice.co.uk Issue No. 395 March 2015 Try to imagine for a moment a world without wires connecting your speakers and hi-fi components. It’s a pretty impossible thought for a serious hi-fi fan, right? Most of us see wires like the veins of our hi-fi systems that carry the signal between vital components enabling the music to flow to our speakers, delivering soundwaves to ears, bringing the music to life and feeding our souls. OK, I may be overstating it, but I’m sure you agree that a world free from cables seems like the impossible dream for hi-fi fans. Despite regular readers knowing that there are hi-fi companies already making moves towards this goal, a stable universal high-resolution wireless solution for home hi-fi appears to still be a little way off…

PRICE: £599 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 01480 477738 WEB: BLUEAURA.CO.UK CLAIMING TO BE the first UK brand to develop and sell wireless loudspeakers utilising the 2.4GHz platform on these shores, Blue Aura probably knows more than most about cable-free audio. And now the Cambridge-based company is laying claim to another UK milestone, the first ever pair of stereo Bluetooth tower speakers. Designed and engineered in the UK and manufactured in China, the x40 boasts 35W of integrated amplification and a claimed 10m Bluetooth range for streaming music using aptX. Alternatively NFC (Near Field Communication) is on hand for compatible devices. The loudspeakers lay claim to a pair of 4.5in drive units alongside a “high-quality” tweeter according to the manufacturer. Connectivity includes a sub out and a USB port for hooking up…

Watching Polly perform In support of PJ Harvey’s live Recording in Progress at London’s Somerset House which kicked off in mid January, each week Bowers & Wilkins has been giving away tickets through Twitter (@BowersWilkins) to its lucky followers: bit.ly/15svo0I What’s your Naim? Owners of Naim hi-fi kit don’t need much prompting to proudly show off their rather beautiful systems. @NaimAudio has been encouraging its followers to do just that via the #YourNaim hashtag, revealing a range of classic kit from back in the glory days to the very latest ranges. Guess the KEF Think you know your KEF speakers? Then make sure you follow @KEFAudio on Twitter to put your knowledge to the test via its #guessthespeaker teaser pics. We’ve spotted Reference classics and models sporting early generation Uni-Q…

Greg Stidsen Director, NAD Electronics ES: HDMI is still a fairly unusual fitment on stereo products, is its presence here covering the bases or a belief it has more to offer as a stereo connection? GS: HDMI has very wide bandwidth and transmits PCM’s native I2S format. The fact that it is an encrypted link – we believe – gives it universality for any copyrighted material that might come along. All the digital formats the C 510 supports are properly engineered and should give good results with audio signals. With HDMI there is the added benefit of stripping the audio and passing through the video of Blu-ray discs for a compelling two-channel experience, particularly with live music discs. At the moment, the C 510 can interact with most source equipment…

Bose SoundLink On-Ear £220 p27 The bold colour scheme may not be the easiest on the eye or the most stylish, but this compact Bluetooth model is among the lightest in the group, has decent comfort levels and uses voice prompts to give useful pairing and battery charge status. JBL Synchros S400BT £200 p29 Hailing from the Harman group of brands, JBL is able to draw on the expertise of dedicated headphone specialist AKG. It’s the weightiest model in the test, but comfort isn’t compromised and it has all the hallmarks of a capable performer. Panasonic RP-BTD10 £130 p31 This bargain-priced model offers outstanding battery life and is simplicity itself in terms of the rather straightforward design and ease of wireless connectivity. But have crucial corners been cut elsewhere in…

DETAILS PRODUCT JBL Synchros S400BT ORIGIN US/China TYPE Bluetooth supraaural, closed-back headphone WEIGHT 275g FEATURES ● 40mm dynamic driver ● AptX and NFC Bluetooth ● Touchpad control DISTRIBUTOR Harman UK TELEPHONE 01707 278113 WEBSITE uk.jbl.com As a member of the Harmann International Group, JBL is able to call on the considerable resources of the company – including dedicated headphone brand AKG – for technical knowhow. The Synchros S400BT is the most up market of three Bluetooth-equipped models and also the largest. This means that it vies with the Panasonic offering to be the biggest of the designs in the test. The large dimensions mean that the S400BT is still a folding on-ear design, but the earpad covers the entire ear and offers a useful degree of isolation from the outside…

The Panasonic is simplicity itself to connect to other devices over Bluetooth and pairs to both test phones quickly and effectively with NFC working well on both. The ‘ready to pair’ and ‘paired’ indicators are simple to understand making the whole process completely painless. Once connected, it proves stable and free of dropouts up to a maximum range of over 7m. The controls on the side of the earpad are well arranged, extremely simple to use and work reliably with both devices. AptX or not, the Panasonic doesn’t alter the sonic performance over Bluetooth and the same raggedness at the frequency extremes is present over the wireless connection – in the interests of fairness, it must be said that performance is certainly not any worse when used in this manner.…

DETAILS PRODUCT Sennhesier MM 400-X ORIGIN Germany/China TYPE Bluetooth supraaural, closed-back headphone WEIGHT 105g FEATURES ● AptX Bluetooth ● Compact folding design ● 20 hours talk time claimed DISTRIBUTOR Sennheiser UK WEBSITE en-uk.sennheiser.com As the only dedicated headphone manufacturer in the test, Sennheiser has a range that is vastly larger than any other company here, but still doesn’t have that much in the way of Bluetooth models. The MM 400-X is one of three models and is designed with portable use in mind. Though comfortably the smallest of the models on test, the MM 400-X is the most ‘on-ear’ of all the designs, leaving a considerable amount of ear uncovered. Sennheiser is almost as secretive as Bose in terms of what makes the MM 400-X tick, but given the enclosure…

The MDR-10RBT is reasonably easy to pair. After a bit of resistance, it makes an NFC connection with both test phones that is entirely stable once established. A range of just over 7m is achieved before any dropout is suffered. The controls on the earpad are based around buttons and are certainly up with the Panasonic as the best of the bunch being well laid out, easy to understand and completely effective. The MDR-10RBT is the only headphone here with different quoted performance figures for Bluetooth and wired connection, but the positive traits established when listening to wired are still present and correct over Bluetooth, and the Sony manages the same appealing balance of believable tonality and an entertaining presentation. There are no claimed battery life figures on the Sony…

At first glance the evocatively named Phantom Source speakers may sound like something from Scooby Doo and look like a whole host of quality floorstanders, but beyond their regular proportions, solid enclosures and choice of real wood veneers or piano black finish, their design is far more radical. Removing the black mesh driver grille reveals an uncontroversial polymer/silk dome tweeter, but more unusually two full-range, metal cone Jordan drivers. For those unfamiliar with the drivers, they are an innovative Danish design that sets out to reproduce the majority of audible frequencies from just a single driver. So, while most floorstanders will generally divide treble, mid and bass reproduction between two, three or more drivers dedicated to specific frequency ranges, a full-range driver can in theory deliver all the musical information,…

Mike Creek MD Creek Audio Ltd DP: What type of customer will this new amplifier appeal to? MC: It is increasingly hard to imagine what customers want these days. However, in keeping with Creek philosophy, if technology allows it and consumers ask for it, we will try to provide it, within reason. That doesn’t mean we follow every trend. How does it differ, in design terms, to the Evolution 50A? There is no reason to reinvent the wheel if it already exists, so the Evolution 100A is, as the name suggests, an evolutionary product. The case and external appearance is the same, the option for speaker selection is an obvious change from the outside and from the first revision of the 50A, we fitted a removable plate to the rear…

Many people started their hi-fi journeys in the sixties, seventies or eighties with a pair of Wharfedale loudspeakers, and this counts for something that no amount of advertising can buy. Back when The Beatles were the biggest band in the world, the company’s speakers were largish, wood veneered affairs often with multiple drive units and wide front baffles. But by the time Duran Duran was blaring from teenage bedrooms the world over, the company was making very different designs. The most famous Wharfedale speaker from that era was the Diamond. Rather like the Mini car with which it shared many values, it started off as one product and grew into a whole family. Not long after its launch in the early eighties, you could buy an active version and a…

VALVE HI-FI MAINTENANCE The sound produced by valve hi-fi equipment has a wonderful character and many would say that it offers a quality that surpasses its semiconductor counterparts. However, such valve equipment does require a little extra special care and attention to ensure that it is always performing at its best. Valves are usually easily accessible and are plugged into sockets in the equipment. It is amazing the improvement you can get by simply cleaning the pins and socket using a good contact cleaner like Servisol or Caig DeoxIT. Valves, of course, don’t last forever. A small-signal valve (preamp or driver valve) usually lasts for around 10,000 hours before its performance drops to a point where it adversely impacts on the sound quality. However, when you think that this equates…

Many moons ago on the back page of this very magazine, I devoted a column to weird hi-fi tweaks from around the globe. There were plenty to choose from and there still are, though since my brief back then was to gently poke fun at the more palpably barmy, I’m feeling a little guilty about the thing I’m about to reveal. It’s this: I’m an inveterate, solid-gone, penny-pinching, can’t-leave-well-alone tweaker. Always have been. My first ever CD player was a Sony D50 Walkman. I didn’t use it as a portable, but spent weeks experimenting with varying thicknesses of foam-backed table tennis bat rubber that I believed would act as a vibration-damping mat between the chunky Walkman and the thin wooden shelf on which it was placed, just above a more…

Kuniko Reich: Counterpoint ALAC/FLAC 24-bit/192kHz Linn Records PERCUSSION VIRTUOSO KUNIKO Kato tackles three of Steve Reich’s eighties classics with ingenuity and panache. She dances between the convergent rhythms and repetitive figures with a sometimes breathtaking lightness of touch while clarity of the sound ensures that every element is clearly heard and every undertone audible, though the pieces’ complexity ensure that they benefit enormously from an excellent hi-fi system. DO Cara Dillon A Thousand Hearts FLAC 24-bit/96kHz B&W Society of Sound IT’S BEEN FIVE years since the Northern Irish singer’s last album and this, her fifth, could be her best yet. Joined as ever by husband Sam Lakeman and a cast of musicians, her beautiful voice wraps itself around a mix tunes. Each instrument rings clear in the mix and there’s…

A part from preventing slippage while playing, record clamps can help to resolve other issues such as flattening warped vinyl. Clamps also increase the mass of the rotating system, which helps to reduce fl utter and other speed variations that can occur when an instantaneous increase in drag on the stylus occurs during the playing of loud passages. Furthermore, by coupling the record more tightly to the rotating platter, record clamps help to dampen internal resonances of the vinyl, thereby reducing sonic colouration and improving clarity as a result. For consistency throughout the tests, I use three great recordings to compare the performances. Firstly, there is the Telarc recording of Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. For some detail testing, I turn to the English Chamber…

PART TWO The reel-to-reel tape recorder, first available in the US in the late forties, was too expensive and the design too bulky to be practical for amateur home use until well into the fifties and it was certainly more difficult to use than playing a vinyl record. To address this issue, the stereo 8-track cartridge designed by Richard Kraus was introduced in 1963, based on an endless loop tape cartridge that was first designed in 1952 by Bernard Cousino. The 8-track player could switch between tracks automatically, with the use of a small length of conductive foil at the splice joint on the tape. The player could be considered as one of the first portable personal music players and was often fitted in cars to enable people to choose,…

There are two ways of compressing digital information: lossless and lossy. Uncompressed or lossless compression does not lose any information and is, therefore, of inherently higher quality. Lossy, by definition, loses some of the original information, but can result in very small files, thus making it a suitable technology for portable media players. MPEG1 or MPEG2 Audio Layer III (more commonly referred to as MP3) is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression. These different audio formats are created by the use of a device called a Codec (COder-DECoder or COmpressor-DECompressor). One is used to create the file and another is used in the player to convert the file back into a digital audio data stream. In order to convert the digital data stream…

With a choice of black and white satin finishes, Tangent Audio’s new Spectrum BT5 has all the design chic you’d expect from a loudspeaker coming from Denmark, but it has a surprise trick up its sleeve – wireless connectivity. With aptX Bluetooth compatibility, the sleek active speaker can stream music direct from your smartphone, tablet or computer without needing any cables. The £299 compact stand mount boasts 50W of power via its 25mm soft fabric tweeter and 130mm paper coned bass driver and has analogue and digital optical ins, a sub output and USB for charging. TANGENT-AUDIO.COM…

The latest addition to Audiolab’s compact, stackable LAB Series, the M-CDT is a space-saving CD transport measuring just 247mm in width. Boasting a frequency response of 20Hz-20kHz, the transport features a slot-loading CD mechanism and has a sophisticated digital decoder, feeding digital coaxial and optical outputs to deliver maximum versatility, claims Audiolab. Thanks to additional trigger in and outputs, it can be operated by remote control when attached to other components aside from its siblings in the LAB series family (including the M-DAC and M-PWR, tested in HFC 359 & 374 respectively). Available now for £399, the M-CDT comes in a choice of silver (natural aluminium) or classic Audiolab black finishes. AUDIOLAB.CO.UK…

Danish lifestyle audio brand Clint Digital has landed on these shores with its new Asgard series of wi-fi and Bluetooth speakers. The range consists of the portable Freya, which is designed for use out and about and the more robust flagship Odin for long-term use at home. Driven by a Class D amplifier, Freya is available in Bluetooth (£144) and wi-fi (£190) variants with DLNA streaming up to 24/192. Odin is a full-size speaker (above) with 2x 25W. It is also Class D, offers the same 24/192 streaming and costs £320. CLINTDIGITAL.COM…

CHOICE TWEETS GSPAUDIO (@GSPAUDIO) Join the party! 7 today! http://audio-forum.gspaudio.co. uk/7-today_topic2425.html #AllAboutTheMusic GSP Audio Online Owner’s Club - free to join! TRANSCRIPTORS (@TRANSCRIPTORS) ARC Turntable. Coming 2015. ONE LITTLE INDIAN (@OLIRECORDS) NEWS: We are reissuing the @bjork back catalogue on coloured vinyl for an exclusive period! http://bit.ly/1EuDWDi MCINTOSH LABORATORY (@MCINTOSHLABS) With its multi-chassis design, C1000 #preamp achieves absolute isolation of control & sound. http://bit.ly/15J7tdA WILSON BENESCH (@WILSON_BENESCH) Wilson Benesch announce Endeavour – CH Precision demonstration at the @SvBristolShow. Live demonstrations will take place daily between 2-3pm. #HIFI HIFIX (@FRANKHARVEYHIFI) “Why can’t we let go of our old tech? – BBC News” #technology #news #trends http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30879638 THE VINYL FACTORY (@THEVINYLFACTORY) Here are 15 new vinyl releases to look out for in early 2015: http://www.thevinylfactory.com/vinyl-factory-releases/15-vinyl-releases-to-lookout-for-in-early-2015/ JAMES PALMER (@HIFIWIGWAM) Hifi Wigwam Show 2015…

DETAILS PRODUCT Bose SoundLink On-Ear ORIGIN US/China TYPE Bluetooth supraaural, closed-back headphone WEIGHT 152g FEATURES ● Voice prompt Bluetooth ● Proprietary Tri-Port technology ● Carrying case DISTRIBUTOR Bose UK Ltd TELEPHONE 0808 1688572 WEBSITE bose.co.uk Noise cancelling technology is the area that Bose is perhaps best associated with in headphone design, but the king of convenience has now moved into Bluetooth and the SoundLink On-Ear is the smaller (although curiously also pricier) of two models the company offers. In size terms, this puts the Bose in roughly the middle of the pack with the Philips being the closest match in size terms. Bose has never been the most revealing of companies when it comes to design and specification of its products, and the exact spec of the SoundLink On-Ear is…

The light up logo of the S400BT is undoubtedly very smart, but not actually that much use as an indicator when it comes to pairing it with devices. The NFC ‘touch to pair’ function does function with the Nexus 5, but not the Moto X and the latter puts up quite a fight to pair at all. Once connected, the JBL performs well with low noise levels and the same big, powerful but fun sound that it shows when wired. Once you are used to the touchpad, stop and skip commands can be done fairly smoothly, but volume is not as good as a standard button arrangement. JBL makes no claims for maximum range, but it comfortably manages 7m before interference on test and at distances closer than this there…

DETAILS PRODUCT Philips Fidelio M2BT ORIGIN Netherlands/China TYPE Bluetooth supraaural, closed-back headphone WEIGHT 190g FEATURES ● 40mm dynamic driver ● AptX and NFC Bluetooth ● Memory foam earpads DISTRIBUTOR Philips UK TELEPHONE 0207 9490241 WEBSITE philips.co.uk The Fidelio range has been growing steadily and there is now a significant choice of on-ear, over-ear and in-ear models on offer. Like the Panasonic, the M2BT is the only model in the range to feature Bluetooth. This is an on-ear design and is fractionally smaller than the ‘big three’ models in the test and is roughly comparable sizewise with the Bose offering. Although it is slightly smaller than some of the other models here, the M2BT manages to fit a 40mm driver into each housing. This sits on the ear rather than partially…

The lack of NFC pairing on the MM 400-X isn’t too onerous and it pairs with both devices with a minimum of fuss. The controls on the side of the earpad are logical once you get used to them and Sennheiser’s decision to use separate buttons rather than the multiple taps of the same one is beneficial. Once paired, the MM 400-X puts in a generally solid performance, but is the only headphone that suffers a random dropout and also has the shortest range – although at over 6m you can still be a fair distance away from the connected device if you need to be. The strong sonic performance of the MM 400-X is maintained over Bluetooth and it has enough power on board to reach good listening levels…

ALL OF THESE headphones have something to offer and for the most part were pretty decent performancewise, but the Panasonic is the model with the most limited appeal. The excellent control interface, low asking price and solid Bluetooth implementation can’t mask the slightly limited sonic performance compared with the competition here. The Philips by comparison is a strong performer in many areas and promises much, but the unruly bass tends to dominate the performance and unless you plan to use it exclusively on the move, it is likely to frustrate at times. The Bose and Sennheiser are also well designed for portable use, but offer a more flexible and appealing performance in many areas. The SoundLink is a very well thought-out headphone with excellent accessories, solid build and exceptional sensitivity,…

Kevin Warne Lead designer, Acoustic Insight CW: What are the virtues in avoiding crossover components? KW: A crossover, by definition, completely splits the frequency input to feed disparate drivers. This can be relatively seamless with a pure sine wave, but real music is of an incredibly complex harmonic structure. Indeed, it is this complexity that gives music its organic life, beauty and character. Splitting music up into harmonic components, sending them to disparate drivers, then trying to reintegrate them can destroy the true essence of music. Crossovers feeding different drivers inevitably introduce phase, timing and coherence issues, let alone a degree of distortion from the introduction of electronic components. Can you elaborate on how you have applied transmission line thinking? A transmission line has the capacity to produce greater bass…

Peter Comeau Director of design, Wharfedale DP: Where does the Diamond 230 fit into Wharfedale’s range? PC: It’s the natural replacement for the previous Diamond 10 and 100 ranges in delivering the sonic performance that Wharfedale is renowned for at affordable prices. The aim was to meet the requirements for a slim floorstander that delivered the spacious sound of a classic bookshelf, but with extended bass. The new slot-loaded bass porting delivers low-frequency energy into the room with excellent efficiency. Why is it a 2.5-way design? Done this way, the midrange and bass units are effectively in parallel for the bass and combine to work with maximum effect and impact at low frequencies. The lower bass unit then rolls off leaving the upper bass/midrange unit to do its work up…

Most consumer audiophiles don’t know our brand,” says Hiroshi Kowaki, Eclipse TD’s design supremo. And those who do, I would submit, struggle to understand it. Launched in 2001, it has become associated – by those in the know – with curious looking compact egg-shaped loudspeakers. Hardly mainstream stuff, then. Back at the beginning of the 21st century, the Eclipse TD 500-series was way ahead of its time. This was before Apple indelibly stamped Jonathan Ive’s beautiful designs on the world’s collective consciousness, and styling wasn’t considered such a priority. Yet those first Eclipse TD eggs were gorgeous, despite the audiophile market of the time being unreceptive to things of beauty. Aside from radical aesthetics, Eclipse TD speakers also went against the grain in terms of sound, too. They sounded strikingly…

Have you noticed how nobody talks about record sales figures anymore? There was a time when artists eagerly boasted the announcement of platinum sales for this album or another 100,000 units shifted for another. These days the industry finds the subject too embarrassing to be discussed in public and the sales figures that leaked out for the 12 shortlisted albums for the Mercury Music Prize last year show why. The winners, Edinburgh-based hip-hop trio Young Fathers, had sold just 1,825 copies of their album Dead when on October 29 it was deemed by the judges to be the best record of 2014. Albums by two other shortlisted acts, Polar Bear and Go-Go Penguin had sold even fewer, just 1,732 and 1,522 copies respectively. Getting shortlisted for the prize has long…

The Pioneer 100-series was popular around the world, and there are still plenty of decks popping up on internet auction sites. Because they’re built so well, many have lasted. PL-600s aren’t exactly plentiful, but surface now and again for anything from £50 to £300. Confusingly in Japan, the PL-600 was sold as the PL-120, and in the USA the PL-600X was an altogether different turntable; so make sure you’re certain what you’re buying. Cheaper decks in the series go for peanuts; a PL-300X can be had for under £100 any day of the week, and will still turn in a very nice sound. The 237mm static balanced S-shaped tonearm fitted to the PL-600 has superb bearings, but is made from stainless steel, so will always have a tonal flavour of…

Black Messiah CD Sony ALBUMS THAT TAKE 15 years to make (D’Angelo’s last release, the Grammywinning Voodoo, appeared in 2000) ought to be destined to disappoint, but Black Messiah sounds like a genuine masterpiece, a record that reinvents what we used to call soul music and makes R&B sound as thrillingly experimental in 2015 as Sly Stone did in the late sixties, Funkadelic in the seventies, Prince in the eighties and the Fugees in the nineties A nonchalantly timeless vision that’s dense, complex, audacious and epic in scope Recorded and mixed in analogue with no digital loops, programmes or plug-ins, there’s nothing retro about this nonchalantly timeless back-to-the future vision, which manages to sound familiar yet new and unprecedented at the same. Dense, complex, audacious and epic in scope, itchy…

An industry insider reveals the music they use to develop their products, this month: Roland Hoffmann, from Dynaudio London Grammar Hey Now We played it at the Bristol Show, on our Confidence C4 with Naim and Chord Sarum cables. People couldn’t believe the deep bass. Mike Sheridan Udsigt A Danish electronic producer who is great at placing small details behind deep soundscapes. I believe he uses Dynaudio monitor speakers in his studio. Kraftwerk Die Roboter Even today many systems are too slow to reproduce the precision of the synthesisers. On a good system you’ll only hear the pure sound effects. Danny Elfman Mission: Impossible The best bit is the deep bass at the end, played by Adam Clayton. Many listeners never fully hear it – that’s what a good system…

There are various techniques that can be used to record an analogue signal digitally. With Delta Modulation, the digital signal (ie a ‘0’ or a ‘1’) is used to determine whether the analogue waveform is going up or down at a particular point in time. Although it is of little value for hi-fi applications, it was used as one of the first applications of digital technology for voice communications for military applications in the seventies. Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is similar to delta modulation, except that it uses the width and polarity of a pulse to determine whether an analogue signal is going up or down. PWM is commonly used for controlling power to motors or lamps (such as speed controllers and dimmers). It has no use for audio applications.…

There comes a point in every hi-fi enthusiast’s life when the decision is made to start taking this hobby thing seriously and investing in some proper grown-up speakers. It’s all very well having a fancy little standmount hidden away in the corner for blasting out your favourite tunes, but nothing says you’re in for the long haul more than a pair of floorstanders. Not only is it a visual statement that you’re serious about your music, but a three-way floorstander such as the Silver 8 offers an ease of drive that’s easy to hear, meaning the crossover work in the midband suddenly becomes seamless. There have been many floorstanders that have won the hearts of our reviewers of late, but few have come close to the majesty of Monitor Audio’s…

These pages are a must-read if you’re thinking about buying used kit, or if you have hi-fi you want to sell. It’s free – simply submit your ad of up to 50 words (we will edit them if not), remembering to include your email, phone number and county. The simplest way to send your ad is via email to: letters@hifichoice.co.uk or mail: Reader Classified, Hi-Fi Choice, AVTech Media Ltd, Enterprise House, Enterprise Way, Edenbridge, Kent, TN8 6HF. This service is open to private advertisers only. Just one ad per household. Images are for illustration only and do not represent what is for sale FOR SALE MICHELL technoarm, black, boxed £350. Pro-Ject Tubebox S phono stage, black £125, both pristine with nine months use: 01353 665059 (East Anglia). RUSS ANDREWS special…

Think back to 2014 and there was one tune that really stood out above all the others when it came to popularity. We speak, of course, of Happy by Pharrell Williams. Originally written for the movie Despicable Me 2, the catchy earworm was unavoidable and was nominated for just about every award going, from the Oscars to the Grammys. So you’d think that the man that gave us the unforgettable line “Clap along if you feel like a wall without a roof” would be financially set up for life. Apparently not... According to a leaked email from Sony’s music publisher/ATV CEO Mart Bandier, the song made just $2,700 (£1,788) in royalties from what is widely regarded as the biggest streaming service in the US, Pandora. Consider that this paltry sum…

PRICE: £99-£649 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 01923 691800 WEB: OPTOMA.CO.UK Traditionally a manufacturer of projectors, Optoma’s recent acquisition of American audio specialist NuForce has seen the company make the move into hi-fi. Consequently Optoma is unveiling a raft of new home cinema and hi-fi products including an integrated amplifier, headphone amp, preamp with built-in DAC and portable DAC. The DDA120 digital integrated boasts a claimed 75W (into a 4ohm load) per channel and can stream music wirelessly via Bluetooth. For those that like to listen to music via their headphones, the HA200 is a Class A design headphone amplifier with a claimed frequency response of 10Hz-20kHz. It’s designed to be used with headphones with a impedance between 32 and 600ohm and boasts XLR and a 6.5mm headphone outputs along with RCA…

The Bose is unique in that it uses voice prompts to give information on pairing and battery status. While this sounds a little gimmicky, it is simplicity itself to pair with both test phones. Once paired, the sound quality is very similar to the performance when wired. The SoundLink stays smooth and refined and there is no audible change to the noise floor. There is no evidence of dropouts or interference when running on Bluetooth and while the claimed 9m range is not met with either phone, the Bose does manage to produce a stable signal at 8m, which is far from unimpressive. Track skip and stop commands are easy to perform from the switch type control and work every time. The claimed battery life of up to 15 hours…

DETAILS PRODUCT Panasonic RP-BTD10 ORIGIN Japan/China TYPE Bluetooth supraaural, closed-back headphone WEIGHT 270g FEATURES ● 40mm dynamic driver ● AptX and NFC Bluetooth ● 30 hours claimed battery life DISTRIBUTOR Panasonic UK TELEPHONE 0844 8443899 WEBSITE panasonic.co.uk Having recently reinstated the Technics brand, Panasonic has been rediscovering its hi-fi mojo of late but considering that it makes almost everything else with a plug, it hasn’t been building headphones with the same enthusiasm as some rivals and the RP-BTD10 is the only Bluetooth model in its rather meagre range. As well as being the cheapest model in the test, it is also available substantially discounted. Nothing in the spec suggests that any significant corners have been cut in building the Panasonic to this price, though. The RP-BTD10 is built around a…

With only three small status lights to indicate its paired status, the Philips Fidelio M2BT is not quite as self-explanatory as some of the rival models on test here and unusually in the group has more issues pairing with the Nexus than the Motorola. Once paired, the M2BT doesn’t reach the claimed range of up to 15m but still manages over 8m, which is more than acceptable. The Bluetooth stability is very good too with no crackles, drop outs or other interference and the performance is no different to how it is with the wired connection. This means, of course, that there is still that rather dominating low end, but when used in noisy environments this bass heft is able to keep some external noise at bay and this does…

DETAILS PRODUCT Sony MDR-10RBT ORIGIN Japan/China TYPE Bluetooth circumaural, closedback headphones WEIGHT 210g FEATURES ● 40mm dome dynamic driver ● AptX and NFC Bluetooth ● Bass enhancing vent system DISTRIBUTOR Sony UK TELEPHONE 0207 3652413 WEBSITE sony.co.uk After treating two-channel products as a rather poor relation of more dynamic categories for some years, Sony has recently returned to stereo in a big way, which means that it now has a headphone range that is getting close to the size of Sennheiser’s. Bluetooth is featured on a few models and the MDR-10RBT sits in the middle of this lineup at its relatively competitive £170 price point. This is one of the trio of full-size headphones with the JBL and Panasonic, which means it covers and partially encloses the ear. It makes…

DIGITAL-TO-ANALOGUE CONVERTER Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS £100 HFC 382 The dinkiest of the Cambridge Audio DACs is just the ticket for a laptop with a weak or noisy headphone output. As well as lower noise levels and more poke, there’s 24-bit/192kHz playback. STREAMING SERVICE: Tidal £20 per month AptX Bluetooth is able to handle the transmission of lossless files and this means that Tidal can be streamed without cutting into that all-important quality advantage meaning you can discover new artists in CD quality. ANDROID PHONE: From free As a consequence of its preference for AirPlay, Apple doesn’t fit aptX to its mobile devices whereas most premium Android phones now make use of it. This means best results are likely to be achieved with an Android device.…

George Klissarov President exaSound Audio Design DP: What prompted you to start exaSound? GK: I started the company in 2010 with a team of audio enthusiasts who also happen to be electronics engineers, software developers and musicians. We were inspired by the 2L downloads recorded in DXD 352.8kHz. At that time we couldn’t find a device that could play them, so we decided to build one! The idea to build DACs to play any studio master file without down-sampling or downconversion became our mission. What’s so special about the e22? In the initial development stages we assumed that since modern recording studios use computers, the best way to reproduce a recording is to use the original master file, a computer and DAC. This configuration implements the shortest signal path. We…

THIS MONTH ED SELLEY EXPERTISE: REVIEWER For the best part of 10 years, Ed was developing and supporting products from some of the biggest names in audio. He enjoys blogging about his favourite tunes, too. NEVILLE ROBERTS EXPERTISE: ENGINEER Retired NHS director, electronics engineer and physicist Neville is very much into valve technology. He’s a classical music lover and a serious vinyl junkie . JASON KENNEDY EXPERTISE: REVIEWER Former HFC editor Jason loves music so much that he has dedicated his life to finding the ultimate system. A long-time vinyl nut, he also enjoys a well-streamed file. DAVID PRICE EXPERTISE: REVIEWER DP has spent much longer than he’d care to admit buying and upgrading his own hi-fi system, not to mention reviewing thousands of separates over the years. CHRIS WARD…

The Mordant Music label is a haven for artists transmitting beyond the parameters of the mainstream. Here are eight more of the Baron’s knights…

Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble Officium 2x 180g vinyl ECM EXACTLY 20 YEARS after its original release ECM has seen fit to press this seminal album onto heavyweight 180g vinyl. The idea of combining a choral ensemble with the tenor and soprano saxophones of Jan Garbarek came from ECM founder and producer Manfred Eicher, a man who regularly brings together unlikely combinations of musicians. But this particular musical meeting has proved to be one of his most successful, the brass instruments working very much like a voice alongside the four singers in the highly reverberant monastery of St. Gerold, Walsertal, in Austria where it was made. The deeper instrument works quite beautifully as an accompaniment; it doesn’t have the same radiance of the treble sax, but adds to the depth…

Bjork’s new album Vulnicura is exclusively on B&W’s Society of Sound in all it’s 24-bit glory. HD Tracks has added releases from Bobby McFerrin, Santana and John Coltrane, while HiResAudio has Jack DeJohnette, Muhal Richard Abrams, Larry Gray, Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill playing live in Chicago on Made in Chicago (Live). Finally, Linn records debuts Thomas Søndergård (above) and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales playing Sibelius, Boston Baroque’s take on Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse In Patria and Jonathan Freeman-Attwood’s interpretation of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella during March.…

PRICE: £50 TELEPHONE: 0208 2418890 WEBSITE: isokinetik.co.uk DETAILS PRODUCT ISOkinetik ISOpuck SS1 ORIGIN UK WEIGHT 522g FEATURES Stainless steel construction; resonance damping O-rings DISTRIBUTOR ISOkinetik AN ELEGANT-LOOKING CLAMP, the ISOpuck SS1 was originally designed for use with SME turntables as well as for the larger VPI and Clearaudio decks. However, it is equally suitable for many other non-sprung turntables. It is precision engineered from high-quality stainless steel and fitted with resonance damping O-rings. The metal section is 37mm high and 50mm in diameter. Given the rather considerable weight of the SS1, it might not be suitable for use on turntables that employ a lightly sprung sub-plinth, as it could add significantly to the sprung weight, thereby shifting the position of the sub-plinth into a less optimal position. This is something…

The Red Book standard for Compact Discs defines a sampling frequency of 44.1kHz and a bit length of 16. Incidentally, it is named after one in the series of Rainbow Books (so called because they are bound in different colours) that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CD-ROM formats. The Red Book standard of 44.1kHz sampling frequency will, in theory, record up to 22.05kHz and a bit length of 16 will allow a range of numbers from −32,768 to +32,767. The figure of 44.1kHz was arrived at by Sony as it fitted very nicely on the US video standard used on the Sony U-Matic (three samples fitted perfectly in one U-Matic video frame at the US frame rate of 60Hz with three samples per field of 490/2 lines…