Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Hi-Fi Choice

PRICE: £2,500 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 01423 358846 WEB: KARMA-AV.CO.UK WHAT BETTER WAY to celebrate 70 years of being in the business of sound than by introducing a new model that harks back to a legendary three-way speaker from the seventies? That’s precisely what JBL had in mind when it decided to rework its classic three-way compact studio monitor, and the result is the 4312SE. Reprising the driver configuration and aesthetics of the renowned 4310/4311 studio and L100 ‘Century’ hi-fi monitors, the new speaker includes JBL’s latest transducers in the shape of the 300mm Aqua-Plas-coated pure pulp cone bass driver, 125mmm polymer-coated pure pulp cone midrange and a 25mm aluminium/magnesium alloy tweeter with waveguide and configured in mirror-image pairs. Additional features include a bass reflex enclosure with front-firing port, front panel…

DETAILS PRODUCT B&W 805 D3 ORIGIN UK/China TYPE 2-way standmount loudspeaker WEIGHT 12.6kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 238 x 424 x 345mm FEATURES • 25mm Diamond dome tweeter • 165mm Continuum mid/bass driver • Quoted sensitivity: 88dB/W/m (8ohm) DISTRIBUTOR B&W Group Ltd. TELEPHONE 0800 2321513 WEBSITE bowers-wilkins.co.uk Born in 1979, B&W’s 800 series started with the iconic 801 Series 80 – which went on to find a home at Abbey Road, as well as several other great recording studios. Since then, Bowers & Wilkins has both developed and expanded the range. And as it has got progressively larger, it’s taken in everything from the range-topping 800 Diamond behemoth to the compact 805 you see here. This is the latest and greatest incarnation of B&W’s 800-series standmounter, and shares many of the clever…

CLASS WAR Arcam originally became interested in Class G for its AV receivers. Developed over six years, it proved a good fit for a product that required multiple high-powered amplifiers in a small space. During that period, the company also realised the tech could endow stereo amplifiers with good efficiency and excellent current reserves. It isn’t an easy option, though. Class G requires additional transformer windings and a more complex power supply – factors that inevitably add cost. It also had to overcome numerous technical hurdles, not least current spikes from the lifter components, the upshot being the undesirable possibility of trading crossover distortion for sound degrading issue from the Class G circuitry itself. As with many topologies, it’s the implementation that determines ultimate success. DETAILS PRODUCT Arcam FMJ A39…

FUTURE PROOF NAD’s so-called ‘Modular Design Construction’ (MDC) means the C 368 can be upgraded with additional capabilities and features now or in the future. The two available MDC slots can accommodate a variety of upgrade modules including 4K video-capable HDMI switching, additional digital inputs, additional analogue and phono inputs and an advanced Hi-Res Audio multi-room wireless systems developed by NAD’s sister brand, Bluesound. Once connected to the network, the BluOS music management system can be controlled via smartphone, tablet or desktop to manage your music collection and connect to the growing number of streaming music services. Bluetooth can also be used to listen to other sources connected to the C 368 via wireless headphones and controlled via your smart device. DETAILS PRODUCT NAD C 368/ BluOS module ORIGIN Canada/China…

DETAILS PRODUCT Rega Planar 6 ORIGIN UK TYPE Belt-drive turntable WEIGHT 5.2kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 448 x 120 x 365mm FEATURES • 33 & 45rpm • Lightweight foam core plinth • RB330 tonearm fitted with Ania MC cartridge • Neo PSU DISTRIBUTOR Rega Research Ltd TELEPHONE 01702 333071 WEBSITE rega.co.uk From the moment Rega revived its Planar name with the introduction of the Planar 1, Planar 2 (HFC 415) and Planar 3 (HFC 411) turntables in 2016, it was logical that the RP6 would be in line to join the new order. Rumours of an RP6 successor have been circulating for some time since the Planar 3 arrived over a year ago and anticipation was finally broken with the official announcement of the imminent release of the new Planar 6 in…

DETAILS PRODUCT Elipson Omega 100 RIAA BT Carbon Black ORIGIN France TYPE Belt-drive turntable WEIGHT 5.85kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 450 x 120 x 380mm FEATURES • 33 & 45rpm • Built-in MM & MC phono stage • Ortofon 2M Red Cartridge • ‘OTT’ Tonearm with torsion based antiskate and arm lift DISTRIBUTOR Avoke Ltd TELEPHONE 01628 484968 WEBSITE elipson.com Among the flood of turntable models that have arrived in the last few years, Elipson’s Omega series stands out as a bit unusual. Firstly, the French brand was new to the vinyl market when it arrived in 2016, but the models were all its own designs – in fact other than the cartridge there was nothing in common with any other turntable on sale. While it might sound a bit risky for…

DETAILS PRODUCT Sony UBP-X800 ORIGIN Japan/China TYPE Universal disc player WEIGHT 3.8kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 430 x 50 x 265mm FEATURES • UHD Blu-ray playback • DVD-A/SACD compatible • Hi-res audio file playback • Digital outputs: 1x coaxial; 1x HDMI audio only • Ethernet, wi-fiand Bluetooth with LDAC connectivity DISTRIBUTOR Sony Europe TELEPHONE 0207 3652810 WEBSITE sony.co.uk Tuned by the same team that’s been guiding Sony’s ES components for years, the UBP-X800 not only spins 4K UHD Blu-ray discs, but it also embraces SACD and DVD-A, plus all the hi-res formats you could ask for. Build quality is excellent. The chassis design is minimalist, with stippled lid and anti-resonance feet. There’s no display, just an LED light above its 4K HDR and Hi-Res Audio badges. One benefit of its superior build…

They say you can’t turn back the tide, but Qobuz at least hopes to resist the onslaught of Tidal, as the Paris-based streaming service that pioneered high-resolution streaming and downloads enters the next phase of its ambitious plan. After going into receivership at the end of 2015, Qobuz was taken over by new CEO, Denis Thébaud, who has spent much of his time since then overhauling the service, its website, and mobile applications. Thébaud is now looking forward to the company’s 10th birthday at the end of 2017, and has big plans for the future – starting with further expansion within Europe this summer and, in September, the company will begin selling albums in the DSD format. Going into 2018, Qobuz will step into the big league, with plans to…

Had Technics not stopped production of the SL-1200 a decade or so ago, it would now have the honour of being the longest running production turntable in the world. Instead – to the best of my knowledge – that title goes to the Linn Sondek LP12, an evergreen the likes of which hi-fi has not seen before. There are some parallels in other markets; Harley Davidson has been making different variations of the same motorcycle for many decades. Porsche has made the same 911 for half a century, while radically revamping things under the skin. Morgan has made its three-wheeler and the Plus 4, or variations thereof, practically forever; amazingly the former dates back to 1909! Today’s Linn Sondek LP12 is a very different beastie to the Valhalla/Nirvana-spec one I…

As a pop music-mad schoolboy, I can vividly recall the launch of Radio 1 50 years ago this September. I can even tell you the first record ever played on the station: Flowers In The Rain by The Move, since you ask, and the DJ was Tony Blackburn. Half a century on, the BBC has just published its first Annual Plan as required under its new relationship with Ofcom and has prioritised Radio 1 at the heart of its “music strategy” with a promise to “refresh” the station as “the pre-eminent supporter of new or unsigned UK artists”. “Music has been at the heart of the BBC’s mission since its foundation. It is our largest genre by output, with more than 40,000 hours of BBC content every year across TV…

Taking its name from a classic early seventies 45 from renowned reggae producer Niney the Observer, this public-service imprint’s mission statement is every bit as succinct as it is admirable: “To bring the standard of reggae reissues up to the level of the best in jazz, blues and R&B, and to ensure that both artists and producers are paid for their work”. And on the strength of its superb catalogue, which includes heavyweight names such as King Tubby, The Congos, Keith Hudson and Tapper Zukie, it is very much mission accomplished. It’s no surprise, then, that Blood and Fire took the sound of its releases very seriously indeed. Restoration was undertaken at award-winning CEDAR Audio Limited, Cambridge. Mastering was done by The Soundmasters, London, whose founder Kevin Metcalfe’s reggae pedigree…

PRICE: £945-£1,395 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 01903 221710 WEB: ROTEL.COM FOLLOWING THE ADDITION of its 14 Series of components in October last year, Rotel has been hard at work on models further up its hi-fi hierarchy with three new stereo-only 15 Series components – plus a multi-channel surround amplifier, the RAP-1590 (£3,395) – aimed at aficionados looking to make the next step up. First up, the RC-1572 two-channel preamplifier (£945) is ideally suited to match with one of the company's existing 15 Series stereo power amplifiers. The new preamp is fitted with relay switching for analogue sources (rather than IC based), which claims to ensure the integrity of the signal path for analogue inputs that include XLRs, 4x RCA and a movingmagnet phono stage. Its 32-bit AKM4495 DAC handles optical and…

Hi-Fi Choice employs the most rigorous test and measurement regime in the business. Here’s how we do it... INTEGRATED AMPLIFIERS GROUP TEST BEFORE THE TEST starts, a few days are spent ensuring all six amps are thoroughly run in and functioning correctly. Equipment support for the review period is provided by Atacama, Townshend Audio, Nordost and Slate Audio and power conditioning by a 15 amp Nordost QB6 six-way mains block connected to the electricity supply and to each amp under audition with Nordost Red Dawn power cables. Front-end kit for the main part of the test is a Cyrus CD Xt Signature CD transport communicating with a Chord Hugo DAC (both reviewed HFC 386) via a Nordost Blue Heaven digital interconnect and powered from the Nordost mains block by a…

INSIDE STORY Denon’s DAC Master Clock aims to deliver an accurate conversion of digital signals, whether from the two optical inputs, the coaxial digital in or the asynchronous USB Type B connection, which can accept ultra-high-resolution audio data from a computer or other storage device. In addition to this, the DAC section has a Digital Isolator, which seeks to exclude unwanted noise, while the Analogue Mode turns off the digital circuitry for the purest sound. The power amplifier section employs a simple, direct design using an Advanced Ultra High Current MOS single push-pull circuit, designed to use a minimal number of high-current elements to drive the speakers for improved sound quality, its push-pull design claiming to combine delicacy and refinement with wide-ranging dynamic ability. DETAILS PRODUCT Denon PMA-1600NE ORIGIN Japan…

FULLY LOADED Speaker impedance changes with frequency, requiring the amplifier to drive speakers without being affected by these changes. But conventional digital amplifiers are connected to the speakers through a low-pass filter at the output stage, making them even more susceptible to the changes in speaker impedance. While the amplitude characteristics of conventional amplifiers can be improved due to the use of negative feedback, phase characteristics can not be improved. To solve this problem, Technics developed a speaker impedance adaptive optimisation algorithm that restores the ideal impulse response using DSP to measure the frequency amplitudephase response of the amp with the speakers connected. This enables improvements to both the amplitude and phase characteristics. DETAILS PRODUCT Technics SU-G700 ORIGIN Malaysia TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 12.3kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 430 x 148 x…

DETAILS PRODUCT Mola-Mola Makua ORIGIN Netherlands TYPE Preamplifier WEIGHT 11kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 420 x 110 x 345mm FEATURES • 5x line inputs (RCA/XLR switchable) • App control • Six configurable smart buttons DISTRIBUTOR Sound Design Distribution Ltd TELEPHONE 0800 0096213 WEBSITE mola-mola.nl DETAILS PRODUCT Mola-Mola Kaluga ORIGIN Netherlands TYPE Monoblock power amplifier WEIGHT 7kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 200 x 110 x 335mm FEATURES • Ncore NC1200 Class D power modules • Quoted power: 2x 400W RMS (8ohm) • Custom switched mode power supply • RCA or XLR line inputs DISTRIBUTOR Sound Design Distribution Ltd TELEPHONE 0800 0096213 WEBSITE mola-mola.nl As a hi-fi reviewer, it’s important to leave any prejudices about one technology or another at the door, but I’ll freely admit to not being a particular fan of Class D amplification…

DETAILS PRODUCT ATC HTS7 ORIGIN UK TYPE 2-way wallmount loudspeaker WEIGHT 8kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 245 x 390 x 137mm FEATURES • 25mm Neo soft dome tweeter • 125mm mid/bass driver • Quoted sensitivity: 84dB/W/m (8ohm) DISTRIBUTOR ATC Loudspeakers TELEPHONE 01285 760 561 WEBSITE atcloudspeakers.co.uk Given the sometimes rather compact dimensions of listening spaces in UK homes, it’s surprising that wall-mounted speakers aren’t more popular with music lovers than they are. Being able to solve placement issues without eating up valuable floor space would appear to be a neat solution. In practice, the choices are limited and it is more common to find small speakers with optional wall mount brackets rather than a dedicated wall-mounted version designed specifically for the purpose. ATC Loudspeakers is one of several manufacturers with models that…

Growing up, I always felt there was music that sounded like ‘the future’. Music that somehow seemed controversial and progressive, representing sweeping change and a somewhat subversive threat. But it has struck me recently that I can’t really hear this ‘future music’ any more. It’s possible a combination of my middle-class lifestyle and advancing decrepitude has meant I’m just not hearing it, but talking with my 18 year-old son we concluded something’s changed. Being born in the ‘summer of love’ (after the ‘winter of conception’) my earliest music memories start in the seventies. At this time, I was tapping my feet to Herb Alpert but felt quite threatened by Ziggy Stardust who wore silver boots, make up and “made love with his eagle”. I was a keen bird watcher and…

People are currently very excited about the vinyl revival. The truth is that the last time turntables sold in any great quantity was when the LP was the main music source at home. That was back in the seventies; in 1975 Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells set the all-time record for UK vinyl sales and the format then enjoyed a golden five years before rumours of a digital disc began to take hold. In the few years immediately prior to the introduction of CD in 1983, we experienced the ‘harvest years’ of vinyl; the format sounded great and manufacturers fought it out in the marketplace to offer fine sound to a new breed of audiophile. Another name that surfaced around then was CJ Walker, a small British company based in Frodsham,…

Randy Newman Dark Matter CD Nonesuch IN THE PANTHEON of great American songwriters of the rock era, Randy Newman hasn't been afforded the prestige showered on Dylan, Springsteen, Cohen, Neil Young or even Tom Waits. His often misunderstood wit has confused some to dismiss him as a writer of novelty songs, Short People and Rednecks being perhaps the most notorious examples. His Academy Award-winning movie soundtracks for the Toy Story, Monsters Inc and Cars franchises have led others to associate him more with the Broadway/Hollywood traditions of an earlier version of ‘the Great American songbook’ than with the rock and roll iteration. Some simply find him too smart by half, getting his point across by wise-cracking about such weighty matters as nuclear weapons and racism instead of doing what most singer-songwriters…

Back in the beginnings of home audio, horn loudspeakers were made for use with radios and were usually separate from the radio itself. This was a derivative of the horns fitted to early phonographs, which were purely mechanical reproduction devices. It was the invention of the Audion triode amplifying valve by Dr Lee de Forest in 1906 that changed everything and paved the way for the development of the paper cone loudspeaker drivers that were introduced in the mid-twenties. As radio cabinets began to be made larger to enclose both the electronics and the loudspeaker, designers discovered that the enclosure had a major effect on the bass response of the speaker. And so a brave new world of experimentation with various different designs of enclosure began. Up until the late…

PRICE: £1,795-£1,995 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 01983 857079 WEB: KEITHMONKS-RCM.CO.UK KEITH MONKS HAS unveiled two new record cleaning machines, one of which is its smallest ever – the discOvery microLight. Designed to remove mould release oils, grime and dust from vinyl, they can clean both sides of the record in around three minutes using the company’s specialist fluid before fully drying with a medical-grade suction pump that’s imported from Germany. Best of all, the entire process is carried out in near silence. The £1,995 discOvery One Redux brings together the best of previous Keith Monks cleaners in a compact, low-profile cabinet (bottom pic), while the £1,795 discOvery microLight offers the same functionality in a smaller chassis with a specially designed panel into which personalised images can be attached. The discOvery Natural…

BEFORE REASONABLY PRICED pre-power amp combos had their years in the sun, integrated designs built like the side of a house from America and Japan (but mostly Japan) ruled the hi-fi jungle. They were statements where size really did matter and back-breaking bulk was something you simply had to deal with, or try to mitigate with the help of a friend. A panoply of knobs and switches and back-lit power meters large enough to illuminate a small room at dusk were considered the height of audio couture. And yet they had one simple task: to amplify. Over here in Britain and other parts of Europe, we thought this was a bit silly and set about producing svelte, stripped-back designs so minimalist and ‘pure’ that many had just an on-off switch,…

DESIGNING BAMBI Hegel boss Anders Ertzeid: “The H90 integrated amplifier brings so much more to the table, both in terms of functionality and especially sound quality. Also with features – not least the new display and headphone output. When we started to make the H90 we pictured the old Walt Disney cartoon, this small deer on the ice, so we code named it Bambi through the development stages. The new model is basically a Röst with a slightly smaller power supply, but still with a new Hegel sound engine so it has less distortion than the H80. That said, the H90 can still deliver more current to the loudspeakers than the original model. So it is better in terms of power, better in terms of clarity and natural sound. It’s…

VOLUME CONTROLLED The A-S1100 has a new type of digital volume control developed by New Japan Radio Co. Ltd. that claims to remove the impact of slew-rate decline or colouration of the sound for fast response to large volume changes and steep transients. The tone controls employ a triple-parallel method, which is said to minimise the detrimental impact on sound associated with conventional straight-line tone controls. Additionally, the bass, treble, and common circuits each utilise simple construction in which the negative feedback of the amp is not used to give cleaner sound reproduction, even when tone controls are used, as well as superior response to audio signal transients. When tone defeat is applied, straight signal flow from only one volume circuit to a discrete configuration buffer amp is realised. DETAILS…

DETAILS PRODUCT Simaudio Moon Nēo MiND ORIGIN Canada TYPE Network music streamer WEIGHT 3.1kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 178 x 76 x 280mm FEATURES • Wi-fiand Ethernet streaming up to 24/192 • Digital outputs: AES; coaxial; optical • Streaming services supported: Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer and TuneIn ? AptX Bluetooth DISTRIBUTOR Renaissance Audio TELEPHONE 0131 5553922 WEBSITE simaudio.com; renaissanceaudio.co.uk With a mind-boggling number of ways to add streaming to your hi-fi setup, perhaps the most commonly encountered approach is a one-box component containing both a network streamer and the digital-toanalogue decoding in the same box. But with many hi-fi aficionados already owning a DAC, some interesting front-end streaming solutions are hitting the market. What you see here is another way to add streaming to an existing system. Simaudio has been producing network streamers…

It’s interesting to see how both sheep and goats have a part to play in audio reproduction. This is separate from their use in the musical instruments themselves. Cat gut is used for the strings of guitars, violins and other stringed instruments (it’s more usually sheep or goat intestines), and their bows are strung with horse hair. As far as the broader link between animals and audio reproduction is concerned, probably the most famous is the image of the little dog listening to a horned gramophone. At the turn of the last century, a terrier called Nipper was seen listening to his late master’s voice playing on a horned phonograph by the brother of Nipper’s original owner, Francis Barraud. Francis was a painter and decided to paint the image to…

Over the last few years, Beautiful Systems has covered systems large and small, simple and complex, expensive and… not quite so expensive. One of the rarer subsets to grace these pages is true one-make systems, where source, amplification and speakers all come via one brand – from speakers to electronics, through to cables. This system, however, is the first such to include both a digital and analogue source produced in-house. Think about that for a second. The skills and technologies required to create a network streamer and moving-coil cartridge don’t exactly overlap. They would be impressively disparate in a company with several hundred employers, but in an organisation the size of Gold Note, this is incredible. This small concern from Firenze in Italy has the sort of product portfolio that…