Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2016 i Hi-Fi Choice

PRICE: £699 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 01480 410900 WEB: CYRUSAUDIO.COM Getting its first official showing at the High End Show in Munich last month (see Show Report starting on page 10), Cyrus unveils its new ONE integrated amplifier. It’s not the first time that the Huntingdon firm has given the ‘1’ model name to an integrated amplifier, and the original Cyrus 1 some 30 years ago provided the footprint for its compact range of components that continue today. The reimagined ONE has a distinctly contemporary aesthetic with two large front panel controls for source selection and volume level control. Internally it offers a claimed 2x 100W maximum power output and utilises the third generation of the company’s hybrid Class D technology with automatic Speaker Impedance Detection (SID) circuit to instantly measure…

DETAILS PRODUCT Bluesound Pulse Mini ORIGIN Canada/China TYPE Wireless multi-room speaker system WEIGHT 3.6kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 335 x 172 x 155mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 60W Class D ● Supports up to 24-bit/192kHz ● AptX Bluetooth ● Streaming service support: Spotify; Tidal; Qobuz; Deezer ● Internet radio: TuneIn; iHeartRadio DISTRIBUTOR Sevenoaks Sound & Vision TELEPHONE 01732 740944 WEBSITE bluesound.com The Pulse Mini is one of four all-in-one speakers that Bluesound makes as well as standalone server, streamer and amplifier options. The unit itself comprises a pair of 50mm speakers placed in separate chambers that flank a single 89mm bass driver that has its own bass port at the rear of the cabinet. Power output is quoted at 60W of Class D amplification. As well as network and streaming options,…

DETAILS PRODUCT Sonos Play:5 ORIGIN USA/China TYPE Wireless multi-room speaker system WEIGHT 6.4g DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 364 x 203 x 154mm FEATURES ● Power output not quoted, Class D amp ● Supports up to 16-bit/48kHz ● Extensive streaming service support DISTRIBUTOR Sonos TELEPHONE 0808 2346596 WEBSITE sonos.com When Sonos entered the market it didn’t so much have the multi-room category to itself, but an entire market segment to create. The system has grown into an impressive range of extremely flexible and well supported components of which the Play:5 is the largest standalone speaker that it currently produces. Internally, it features six drivers – three mid/bass drivers in a row with a trio of tweeters mounted above. The power output is undisclosed. The Play:5 is a more conventional looking design than previous…

DETAILS PRODUCT Tangent Audio Ampster X4 ORIGIN Denmark TYPE Micro music system WEIGHT 7.8kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) Speakers: 146 x 275 x 198mm Ampster: 190 x 52 x 139mm FEATURES ● 25mm soft fabric dome tweeter ● 110mm papercone mid-bass driver ● Quoted sensitivity: 88dB/1W/1m ● Quoted power output: 2x 50W (4ohm) DISTRIBUTOR Avoke TELEPHONE 07971 634239 WEBSITE tangent-audio.com Hot on the heels of its Ampster BT mini stereo amplifier comes Tangent’s Ampster X4 Micro System. I was impressed by the Ampster BT in my Choice Extra review (HFC 409) and its versatile connectivity options including Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity (the BT bit of the model name), and am keen to see how it performs when partnered with Tangent’s new Spectrum X4 loudspeaker to form a system for those with limited space.…

DETAILS PRODUCT Zemi Aria ORIGIN China TYPE Wireless stereo loudspeaker WEIGHT 5.1kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 270 x 270 x 240mm FEATURES ● 28mm fibreglass dome neodymium tweeter ● 157mm fibreglass cone woofer ● Quoted power output: 125W RMS ● AirPlay & Bluetooth streaming; 24-bit/96kHz DAC via optical input DISTRIBUTOR Apple Store WEBSITE zemiaria.com After meeting Francesco Pellisari I think I have to concede that I probably don’t have pitch perfect hearing, as he does. I suspect he is in a tiny minority because it took years to diagnose – as a child he cried in museums in his native Rimini, as hard reflective surfaces caused him to suffer from headaches. Francesco has since used it to become an audio designer (he studied speaker design and psychoacoustics under Roy Alison, founder of…

For serious audiophiles, the start of the eighties felt like living on the edge of a precipice. Everything that had come before suddenly seemed to be irrelevant, and rather old hat. Vinyl began to look like its days were numbered. After being reported on for a couple of years, compact disc was finally with us and the world would never be the same again. The new digital disc – the first consumer digital audio format – was launched in Japan in autumn 1982, but didn't reach Europe until spring 1983. At first, all we had to go on were the early listening tests done by a number of golden-eared hi-fi scribblers. The general consensus of opinion was that compact disc was a genuinely impressive and capable technology, albeit with the…

Coming out of the city’s post-punk movement, Frankie were a fixture on the Liverpool scene for years before their breakthrough. Fronted by two openly gay men, their sleazy glam sound was a long way from the safe, family-friendly sexuality of Boy George or Bronski Beat and proved the perfect match for Horn’s over-the-top production. Taking their most promising track and completely remaking it, Horn and co released Relax in the Autumn of 1983, and by the following January it was number one. Helped by hapless Radio One DJ Mike Read’s airplay ban, a blizzard of outrageous quotes from Holly Johnson and a multi-format release strategy, it sold two million copies in the UK alone. This wasn’t just a triumph of hype, though: Relax was an amazing record, and fun too.…

Epic single Slave To The Rhythm was the last of the great ZTT projects and the absolute high water mark. The album of the same name was Grace’s first in three years following on from her ground-breaking Island trilogy of Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Living My Life. It’s a bizarre listen; not one for the faint hearted. Just eight tracks long, based around repeating motifs, cuts are linked by highly sampleable narration from actor Ian McShane. One track is essentially her yelling “Slave!” for two minutes and another is someone reading out her résumé. There’s a gorgeous David Sylvian-esque five-minute ambient interlude and then the drums come back in on Don’t Cry, It’s Only The Rhythm, a track so sonically perfect that François Kevorkian, the only man ever allowed to…

NAMED TO HONOUR a late associate of The Chord Company – David Shaw – these interconnects make use of the Tuned ARAY cable conductor geometry that was originally developed for the company’s premium Sarum range. The Shawline is £200 in the standard 1m length and fitted with silver-plated Chord VEE 3 RCA terminations, but it can be made to other lengths at £80 per additional metre. It is also available with The Chord Co.’s new lightweight DIN connections for an extra £25 or with Neutrik XLR plugs for an extra £50. The conductors are silver-plated and the construction of the Tuned ARAY means that they are hand assembled. The cables are directional and this is clearly indicated by an arrow that’s been printed on the heatshrink at one end of…

STARTING FROM THE centre and working out, the Element Integra uses Ohno Continuous Casting copper (OCC) for its central conductor, which is insulated with a low-loss porous polyethylene dielectric (PEF). The outer conductor employs a braided copper and aluminium foil to screen out radio frequency interference (RFI). The cable is terminated with Atlas’ Integra non-magnetic RCA plugs, which use solder-free, cold-weld interfaces between the OFC stranded conductors and the plug connectors to provide a highintegrity connection. The plug cover is a non-magnetic polycarbonate sleeve that Atlas considers to be preferable to metal as it eliminates the negative issues that can arise when an RCA plug’s metal sheath is in the signal path. The plug also incorporates brackets that grip the cable without compressing it, which could alter its electrical properties.…

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 WILSON BENESCH Square Two floorstanders. New series 2 with flush mount drivers – brand new, never used and still in unopened boxes. Beautiful burr walnut, and lovely…

PRICE: £1,870-£6,995 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 01767 686300 WEB: PMC-SPEAKERS.CO.UK FORMULA ONE MOTOR racing and loudspeaker design might seem worlds apart, but a clear understanding of aerodynamics and the effects of air turbulence and drag is one of the key considerations in the design of PMC's Advanced Transmission Line bass loading, found in its new twenty5 series of loudspeakers. PMC's head of design, Oliver Thomas, has some experience in the motor sport, and has used his knowledge to develop an aerodynamic Advanced Transmission Line (ATL) bass loading Laminair vent that's employed in the five-strong loudspeaker series to reduce resistance and increase efficiency. Additional innovations incorporated throughout the new series include a new long-throw mid/bass driver with woven glass fibre cones, as well as refinements to its established Sonolex fabric dome tweeter…

The High End Show is a true celebration of state-of-the-art hi-fi, held this year from 5 to 8 May in the heart of Munich. Mighty global brands and small hi-fi specialists come together from far and wide to showcase exactly what they can do. Running over four busy days, the show is a Mecca for those wanting to be the first to see and hear the cutting edge of hi-fi as well as enjoying weird and wonderful ways to recreate music. With true German efficiency, the doors open exactly on time and excited visitors pour through the four enormous, airy and light exhibition halls and atrium rooms to check out over 500 exhibitors. Vinyl is in abundance with many ‘uber’ high-end turntables needing a crane to move them and a…

Hi-Fi Choice employs the most rigorous test and measurement regime in the business. Here’s how we do it... MULTI-ROOM SPEAKERS GROUP TEST TESTING OF THE six speakers takes place in two distinct phases. Before any listening is undertaken, all models are checked for the latest software versions – three models require updates. Then for an absolute test of sound quality, each model is connected via an Ethernet connection to a closed network that has a Melco N1A NAS drive (HFC 397) attached as the music source. This allows all speakers to bypass much of their setup procedure and to avoid being subject to any limitations of the wireless network. Each speaker is placed on a Quadraspire QAVX equipment rack (HFC 395) and listening levels are set using a 44.1kHz FLAC…

DETAILS PRODUCT Cabasse Stream 1 ORIGIN France/China TYPE Wireless multi-room speaker system WEIGHT 5kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 325 x 460 x 137mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 10/20W Class A/B ● Supports up to 24-bit /96kHz ● AptX Bluetooth with NFC ● Streaming services: Spotify; Tidal; Qobuz; Deezer ● Internet radio DISTRIBUTOR The Multi-room Company TELEPHONE 01242 511133 WEBSITE cabasse.com Better known for its range of more conventional loudspeakers, Cabasse has been dabbling in wireless multi-room for some years now and has an extensive range of different components. The Stream 1 is the only all-in-one speaker system in the range, which is intended to make use of the company’s existing speaker line-up (see box out). It is built around a four-channel Class A/B amplifier, which supplies a claimed 10W to a…

DETAILS PRODUCT Sony SRS-X88 ORIGIN Japan/China TYPE Wireless multi-room speaker system WEIGHT 2.7kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 359 x 111 x 103mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 90W Class D ● Supports up to 24-bit/192kHz ● AirPlay, LDAC Bluetooth with NFC ● Streaming service support: Google Play Music; Spotify DISTRIBUTOR Sony UK TELEPHONE 0207 3652810 WEBSITE sony.co.uk Multi-room audio has not been a huge priority for Sony until comparatively recently, but now the company has a small range of self-contained wireless speakers of which the SRS-X88 is the middle model. In the context of this test, this is the smallest and most affordable speaker here, narrowly edging the Musaic out on both counts. Small it may be, but the Sony still manages to cram a pair of 20mm tweeters, two 40mm midrange…

DETAILS PRODUCT Belles Aria ORIGIN USA TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 12kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 420 x 79 x 356mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 75W per channel into 8ohm (125W into 4ohm) ● Inputs: 3x linelevel; 1 MM phono ● Outputs: preamp; headphone DISTRIBUTOR NuNu Distribution TELEPHONE 0203 5442338 WEBSITE nunudistribution.co.uk American brand, Belles (Power Modules Inc.) is not one we come across often in these pages despite it being around for some 36 years – in fact the last time we saw anything from it was back in issue 325. David Belles has been behind a host of sensibly priced, high-quality amplifiers since 1978, both under the Belles brand and as a talented hired gun for other leading hi-fi companies. His prowess with electronics even played a part in the…

DETAILS PRODUCT Arcam irDAC-II ORIGIN UK/China TYPE DAC/preamplifier/headphone amp WEIGHT 1.1kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 194 x 44 x 124mm FEATURES ● 1x asynchronous USB; 2x coaxial; 2x optical; 1x Bluetooth aptX inputs ● 24-bit/192kHz PCM and DSD128 support ● ESS ES9016 Sabre DAC ● Fixed and variable analogue outputs DISTRIBUTOR Arcam WEBSITE arcam.co.uk Lest we forget, Arcam has past form on DACs. It wasn’t playing catch up when legions of other digital-to-analogue converters were saturating the market a few years back. It didn’t need to because it produced Britain’s first standalone model. Back in the late eighties, it launched the Delta Black Box. It cost £299, had one input and ran up to a 16-bit/48kHz resolution – all possible from the best DAC chip of the day, the 16-bit, four-times oversampling…

DETAILS PRODUCT Audio-Opus Opus 1 ORIGIN South Korea TYPE 24-bit/192kHz & DSD-capable Digital Audio Player WEIGHT 185g DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 72 x 112 x 18mm FEATURES ● Quoted battery life: 8-10 hours ● 32GB internal storage plus micro SD x2 (SDXC) up to 200GB each ● Supports WAV; FLAC; ALAC; AIFF; WMA; DSD; MP3; OGG; APE ● Outputs: 3.5mm headphone/optical jack; 2.5mm balanced DISTRIBUTOR K&S Technology Ltd TELEPHONE 01903 768910 WEBSITE hifiheadphones.co.uk There’s a whiff of the wild west about the fastexpanding market for personal hi-res players. It’s a largely lawless territory with competing platforms and formats snagging the interest of tech-savvy trigger fingers far and wide but confusing and frustrating those that merely want a post-Walkman pocket buddy capable of better-than-CD sound quality. That’s what most Digital Audio Players (DAPs)…

On the face of it, it seems probable that this system has been assembled to grant me the opportunity to talk about unlikely partnerships and opposites attracting. The reality, however, is entirely different. This system has a symbiotic relationship that is so effective that many one-make systems will struggle to rival it. The visually attention-grabbing aspect of this partnership is inevitably the Spendor SP100R2. Until it was usurped by the newly launched SP200 earlier this year, it had sat at the top of Spendor’s Classic range for some time. It has proportions that are almost extinct in mainstream speaker design and combines them with dimensions that are, if anything, rarer still. It would be easy to view the SP100R2 as the audio industry’s version of a living fossil – a…

Always fascinated by technology, Horn was one of the earliest musicians to become interested in sampling as an art form. His Yes bandmate Bob Downes was an early adopter of the Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument) and Horn worked with one on ABC’s Lexicon Of Love album with musicians Dudley, Langan and Jeczalik. The Fairlight, invented in Australia in 1979, was crude and brutally expensive by today’s standards, but was right at the cutting edge at the beginning of the eighties. Its main use was meant to be in replicating strings and other ‘real’ instruments, but Horn and his crew took it defiantly in the opposite direction. The Art of Noise’s debut release, Into Battle With... used the Fairlight to sample coughs, dog barks and starter motors and reshape the…

When the new shiny compact disc technology first came along back in the eighties, the death of vinyl was regarded as only a matter of time. Sure enough, musicians switched preference from shiny black discs to smaller silver ones and manufacturers slowly but surely wound down production of turntables. Jump forward to the current day and history has been tipped on its head as it’s now the indestructible shiny disc of yesteryear that is on the wane, while vinyl is enjoying the sort of popularity it hasn’t experienced for many years. Suddenly, record sales are at a 20-year high, the album charts now reflect vinyl sales and you can even pick up the black stuff while doing your grocery shopping in your local supermarket. In a spin Regardless of the…

DETAILS PRICE £89 TELEPHONE 01900 601954 WEBSITE selectaudio.co.uk OUR VERDICT AS MORE PEOPLE use their computer as a source for playing digital audio files, the quality of the USB connection to the DAC is becoming increasingly important. Although DACs have error-correction circuitry built-in, it is wise to minimise any jitter before it gets to it and the iPurifier2 is an active asynchronous digital audio purifier that does precisely that. It is fitted with a USB Type B for connection to the DAC, and a B-to-A adapter is also included. At the other end of the iPurifier, there is a multifunction USB Type B and Mini socket for connecting to the USB cable from the computer. It cleans up the USB signal and attempts to eliminate jitter by re-clocking the digital…

THIS MAINS FILTRATION plug is built into a ‘wall-wart’ plug unit and effectively provides two functions. Firstly, it is a mains interference filter to keep harmful radio-frequency interference (RFI) away from your equipment, while secondly it offers 4,000 amps of surge protection to shield your equipment from mainsborne power spikes. It can be used either plugged into a spare socket near your hi-fi or it can be placed close to a potential source of interference, such as a refrigerator or microwave oven. Plug and play When plugged into a socket by your audio system, it filters out the mains-borne noise by effectively creating a ‘quiet area’ around your setup. The device can be particularly useful in buildings with wireless computer networks, as these operate in the gigahertz range, as well…

PRICE: £1,099 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: IXIONAUDIO.COM JOINING THE WORLD of multi-room music systems, Ixion is a new company from Norway. The Maestro is the first model to come from the luxury audio brand, and is touted as an all-encompassing music centre with Tidal, Spotify and Apple Music streaming services supported. It’s hand built in Oslo and is 220 x 220 x 220mm (WxHxD), with two 2.75in front speakers and a 5.5in subwoofer. Users can connect via wi-fi , LAN, Bluetooth, USB, digital Toslink, analogue stereo RCAs or 3.5mm jack inputs, while internet, DAB/DAB+ and FM radio options are also on board. It claims support for up to 24-bit/192kHz music file playback, and MQA format support is apparently on the horizon. The Maestro is sold exclusively through Harrods and is available…

AS A HI-FI magazine it’s difficult to fully endorse the sonic virtues of a single-box speaker over full-range stereo speakers driven by powerful amplification and dedicated source components. But let’s face it, most of us enjoy hearing music in other areas around the home. OK, there are plenty of mini systems to choose from, but if you’re looking for a smart setup that can link wirelessly to other speakers in other rooms and play the same track or even different music from the same source, then a multi-room speaker system is the ideal solution. Stream of consciousness Gone are the days when installing a multi-room system meant trailing wires all over the house. Multi-room speakers are now essentially plug ‘n’ play, allowing you to stream music seamlessly from one room…

DETAILS PRODUCT Musaic MP10 Music Player ORIGIN UK/China TYPE Wireless multi-room speaker system WEIGHT 2.6kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 412 x 146 x 115mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 60W Class D ● Supports up to 24-bit/192kHz ● AptX Bluetooth ● Streaming service support: Spotify; Napster; Rhapsody ● Internet radio: SomaFM; AllPlay Radio; DAR.fm DISTRIBUTOR Musaic TELEPHONE 0207 5588984 WEBSITE musaic.com The MP10 is the larger of two speakers from the Musaic range, although in the context of the group it is one of the smaller speakers here. As a relatively new arrival to the market, Musaic has chosen to include functionality not replicated anywhere else in the test to differentiate itself (see box out), but it hasn’t ignored the basics while doing so. This is a 24-bit/192kHz-capable UPnP streaming device with…

DETAILS PRODUCT Yamaha Restio ISX-80 ORIGIN Japan/Malaysia TYPE Wireless multi-room speaker system WEIGHT 3.3kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 302 x 302 x 65mm FEATURES ● Quoted power output: 15W Class D ● Supports up to 24-bit/192kHz ● AirPlay; Bluetooth ● Streaming service support: Spotify; Juke ● Internet and FM radio DISTRIBUTOR Yamaha Music UK TELEPHONE 01908 366700 WEBSITE uk.yamaha.com Having been an early adopter of wireless multi-room (perhaps a little too early), Yamaha has been content to let other companies forge ahead and has recently returned with its extremely ambitious MusicCast system. The ISX-80 is one of the smaller standalone members of the range and is also part of the ‘Restio’ lifestyle series. It can talk to other identical speakers as well as other components in the MusicCast family (see box out).…

DETAILS PRODUCT Elipson Omega 100 ORIGIN France TYPE Belt-drive turntable WEIGHT 5.8kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 450 x 120 x 380mm FEATURES ● Electronically controlled motor with switchable 33 & 45rpm speeds ● ‘OTT’ Orbital Torsion Tonearm fitted with Ortofon OM10 MM cartridge ● Isolated motor assembly DISTRIBUTOR AV Industry TELEPHONE 01628 484968 WEBSITE elipson.com Vinyl’s popularity shows no sign of abating. You can now even buy records in supermarkets, and the number of turntable models available is even greater than it was in the format’s original heyday, with decks to cater for enthusiasts, newbies and everyone else in between, but this first model from Elipson is unusual. Turntables are built from components that have no use outside of vinyl replay, and it is fairly unusual for any new arrival to make…

Popular culture, just in case you hadn’t noticed, is something of a cyclical thing. As advertising professionals and market researchers will tell you, things normally come into fashion, then go out, then come back in again, roughly every generation – or 25 years. This means that popular culture ends up being a never-ending series of fads, almost all of which vanish into the ether as fast as they first appeared. Brown is the new black, double-breasted suits are the new single-breasted suits, and now – it seems – audio cassette tape is the new vinyl. Some people have been saying that cassette is due for a comeback, and a few are even now claiming that moment has finally arrived. Others have began to refute it, telling anyone who will listen…

How many HFC readers are familiar with Taurus, the haunting, string-laden instrumental from Spirit’s self-titled 1968 debut album? Written by the band’s guitarist Randy California, it contains a brief descending chromatic chord progression played on an acoustic guitar that sounds uncannily like the intro to Stairway To Heaven, which was recorded two years later. Rock cognoscenti have known about this for years. Randy California was aware of it, too, and shortly before his death in 1997, he complained: “It was a rip-off. And the guys made millions of bucks on it and never said ‘Thank you,’ never said, ‘Can we pay you some money for it?’” You can see why he was miffed. The song’s historical earnings including both sales and royalties were estimated not long ago at $562 million…

ZTT… or Zang Tuum Tumb… or Zang Tümb Tumm (in a nightmare scenario for sub editors, you’re supposed to change the spelling each time you write it) briefly and brightly lit up the eighties’ pop firmament with a series of incredible records before dissipating into the usual mess of disputed contracts and difficult second albums. Super-producer Trevor Horn began his career in touring dance bands before graduating to session work. With fellow side-man Bob Downes he formed The Buggles and had a hit single with Video Killed The Radio Star (1980) before the pair were poached by prog rock giants Yes. Horn spent only a few months with the band, but his sonic fingerprints are all over their biggest pop hit, US number one Owner Of A Lonely Heart. His…

Düsseldorf-based Propaganda were initially formed by a DJ, a jeweller and a member of industrial pipe-bangers Die Krupps, and this intriguing mix of the danceable, sublime and experimental is reflected in the music of the group’s short but memorable ZTT career. Debut single Dr Mabuse, another Horn masterpiece, set them out of the traps, but Frankie’s unprecedented success led to other acts receiving a little less attention than they’d have liked. Second single Duel was even better – a glowing Time Out review memorably dubbed them ‘ABBA from Hell’ on the strength of this release – but both its delay and that of its parent album A Secret Wish resulted in a loss of momentum that may well have cost their career dear. Third single, p:Machinery/Frozen Faces, was the best…

PRICE: £1,500 TELEPHONE: 01536 762211 WEB: analogueworks.co.uk REVIEWED: HFC 407 The smaller of three new models from AnalogueWorks, the Zero+ is an unsuspended belt-drive design that claims to combine “best engineering practices, common sense, careful listening and a marriage of materials” and who are we to argue? The gorgeous plinth is constructed from layers of Finnish birch selected for its relative density and resonance control, while the low-torque platter needs to be given a helping hand (literally) to get spinning. The tonearm is a Jelco SA-750DB and an Audio-Technica AT440MLB MM cartridge is also included in the bundle. Sound quality This is a genuinely quiet turntable, with next to nothing in the way of mechanical noise contributing to an incredibly low noise floor on the deck itself. There is a clear perception…

PRICE: £1,500 TELEPHONE: 01235 511166 WEB: henleydesigns.co.uk REVIEWED: HFC 409 The RPM 9 Carbon sits towards the upper end of Pro-Ject’s impressive range of turntables and uses modern materials combined with an extra-heavy, mass-loaded sub-chassis that is decoupled from its support surface using magnetic feet. The teardrop-shaped plinth is an advanced sandwich construction of MDF, carbon fibre and steel pellets that has been subjected to a thermo treatment. The polished 7.2kg aluminium platter has a vinyl top and is fitted with an inverted ceramic main bearing designed to deliver stable speeds and very low rumble. It’s topped with a hard vinyl mat and a heavy (0.8kg) record clamp is also supplied. The deck is partnered with Pro-Ject’s 9CC Evolution tonearm, which employs a conical carbon-fibre arm tube fitted with very flexible, high-quality…

One of the pleasures of owning a turntable is that care needs to be taken to ensure that it runs correctly – this is not a plug-andplay device like a CD player. Fortunately, this is not as difficult as you might imagine and there are a number of inexpensive tools to assist you in every aspect of the process. Before considering any form of adjustment, it is important to make sure the turntable itself is level. The stylus is held in the groove entirely by gravitational force, and any imbalance means the downward force on it is not exactly perpendicular to the record. Most turntables are fitted with adjustable feet and levelling is easily done using a spirit level. Place the level on the platter, to allow any variation in…

HAND MADE AT Black Rhodium’s factory in Derby, the Foxtrot has RFInoise reduction technology to limit the effects of interference generated from computer networks, radios, mobile phones and even central heating systems. Each conductor comprises 16 x 0.2mm diameter plated copper wires, resulting in a conductor of 6mm diameter. The conductors are insulated in silicone rubber of 1.2mm thickness. Gold-plated Z plugs have been fitted to the cables and cable direction is printed on the sleeving at each end. The cable is very flexible making it easy to fit around the perimeter of carpets for a tidy installation. After giving the Foxtrots a good running in, I start off by listening to Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite, performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. There is an extremely deep and extended drum…