Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i Hi-Fi Choice

PRICE: £22,930 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: BANG-OLUFSEN.COM B&O’S NEWLY UNVEILED BeoLab 50 floorstanding loudspeaker utilises the same active room compensation technology that’s found in the BeoLab 90 – enabling it to use an external microphone to measure the physical acoustic properties of the room that it’s placed in and then adjust its compensation filters accordingly to provide what the company describes as optimum sound, no matter where you choose to listen in the room. B&O’s Acoustic Lens Technology is applied to the top of the BeoLab 50 to handle dispersion of the upper frequencies. Using beam width control, it is able to project the sound in 180° mode or a narrow sweet spot for a dedicated listening position. Each wireless active loudspeakers weighs 61kg and the system claims 2,100W of precision…

DETAILS PRODUCT Chord Electronics Hugo 2 ORIGIN UK TYPE DAC/headphone amplifier WEIGHT 450g DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 100 x 21 x 130mm FEATURES • 32-bit/768kHz and DSD512-capable DAC • Inputs: mini USB-B; optical; coaxial; aptX Bluetooth • Outputs: 3.5mm & 6.35mm headphone jacks; 2x RCA • Quoted battery life: 7 hours DISTRIBUTOR Chord Electronics Ltd. TELEPHONE 01622 721444 WEBSITE chordelectronics. co.uk When Chord’s first Hugo portable DAC/headphone amplifier was launched at CES in January 2014, I instantly knew it was special – it looked, sounded and worked like nothing else, and was so good that many bought it to use as their main domestic digital converter, rather than a mere travelling accessory. That’s not to say it was perfect. Enthusiastic early adopters soon got to know its foibles, but it sounded so…

NOT THAT LONG ago the Digital Audio Player looked like the next big thing for two-channel sound with barely a month passing without a new brand pitching a different offering into the fray. The number of new releases has slowed more recently though, as portable music fans are invariably opting to use their smartphone – possibly boosted by an external DAC (see HFC 423) – for listening to music on the move. As an increasingly audiophile product category, the six models that make up this roundup cover a wide variety of prices. In almost any other category, this would mean an extensive spread of abilities that would be too great to make a fair comparison, but here it’s different. Core capabilities While you will find different functionality across all six…

DETAILS PRODUCT Rotel RA-1572 ORIGIN Japan TYPE Integrated amplifier WEIGHT 13kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 431 x 144 x 358mm FEATURES • Quoted power output: 2x 120W (8ohm) • Inputs: 3x RCA; 1x XLR; 2x coaxial; 2x optical; 3x USB • MM phono stage • 3.5mm jack headphone output DISTRIBUTOR Rotel Europe TELEPHONE 01903 221710 WEBSITE rotel.com It’s 10 years since Rotel introduced the 15-series family of components and, in raw spec terms, the latest RA-1572 is a pitch perfect object lesson in how to build a powerhouse digital/analogue hub compatible with 2017’s audio market sensibilities for an entirely reasonable amount of money: £1,395 to be exact. For starters, it has a cutting-edge 32-bit/768kHz AKM DAC on board and huge input flexibility. Digital connectivity includes a DSD-capable PC-USB (32-bit/384kHz) and, conveniently, a…

DETAILS PRODUCT REL Acoustics T/5i ORIGIN UK TYPE Active sub-bass system WEIGHT 12kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 267 x 317 x 322mm FEATURES • Closed box, downfiring driver • 200mm longthrow active drive • Class AB amplifier • Claimed power output: 125W RMS DISTRIBUTOR REL Acoustics Ltd. TELEPHONE 01656 768777 WEBSITE rel.net There’s a general rule in hi-fi circles that when it comes to integrating an active sub-bass system into a traditional stereo hi-fi setup, less is more. One company that knows a thing or two about active sub-bass systems in the home is REL, but with conventional hi-fi wisdom being what it is, why is the company advocating running a pair of T/5is in tandem as reviewed here? The T/5i is the smallest of three models in REL’s conventional subwoofer lineup.…

The review of Townshend Audio’s Seismic Isolation Podium system (HFC 426) sparked what I will laughably refer to as thought. Thought number one: “Damn good report of an interesting product”. Thought number two: “Having seen its dampening effect with my own eyes (not ears), I was convinced that there is indeed much more seismic activity affecting our environment than one might suppose”. And thought three: “I don’t live in Iceland!” – there was a tiny earthquake in Kent about a year ago and late last century one struck Daventry with no damage except to the Etch-a-Sketch Museum’s displays. Not content with cleaning the mains supply, comparing which way round interconnects sound best, spikes or no spikes, weighting the speaker cabinets, or not – now one must consider a tweak, not…

I was having a discussion with a friend recently about what makes a good listening room. Our initial thoughts were that it would be one that doesn’t generate any sonic artefacts, so nothing is added to the sound generated by the speakers. Whether you’re listening to Beethoven’s majestic Ninth Symphony recorded in a great concert hall or to one of his more intimate quartets recorded in a small room, your speakers should be able to convey unpolluted all the musicality and ambience captured by the microphones during the recording process. It all sounds very good in theory, but in practice it’s not that simple. A room that adds nothing to any sound generated within it is known as an anechoic chamber. This has acoustic properties comparable to being high above…

Two-channel audio has seen a period of tremendous change over the last decade or so and the shape and function of many components has evolved dramatically. Despite this, there are some conventions that seem curiously durable. One of the most resilient is that for truly sparkling performance, you need to construct a system where each function is provided by a specific component. German brand AVM does not subscribe to this particular point of view. While the company produces a range of separate audio models, it has made something of a speciality of single-chassis systems to which you simply need to add a pair of speakers. Any pretence that these are mere lifestyle trinkets will probably last no longer than it takes to unbox an Evolution CS 5.2. Believe it or…

If Levan was the wild hedonist who kept New York dancing, contemporary Walter Gibbons was the opposite. Short, slight, quiet and white, he spent his teenage years playing Motown records in his bedroom before being introduced to the city’s nightlife and developing a fearsome DJ reputation for technical excellence and an intense, super-percussive style. His first studio foray, in 1976, came about as a result of a Salsoul competition to remix Ten Percent, an upcoming single from Double Exposure – the definitive reading of one of disco’s all-time classics. Gibbons went on to work a lot with the label. Their faith in his work was amply rewarded, not least on his incredible rebuild of Love Committee’s Just As Long As I Got You (I Got Enough). From a fairly conventional,…

BASED ON THE Isle of Wight, Artisan Silver Cables specialises in making high-end, solid silver cables. The Ultimate Silver Stream 2 is a complete redesign of its previous USB offering and operates at much faster speeds. It’s made from four 24AWG stranded pure silver UP-OCC conductors, each insulated with Teflon, and features improved connectors and shielding to reject all external sources of interference, which can affect the quality of the audio signal being transmitted via the cable. This interference can result in errors being generated and although correctable by a DAC, they invariably introduce jitter, which degrades the audio signal. The standard cable has a USB Type A plug at one end to connect to a computer and a Type B at the other for connecting to the audio equipment.…

PRICE: £799-£3,299 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 0800 2321513 WEB: BOWERS-WILKINS.CO.UK DURING THE SUMMER, we visited B&W's impressive facility in Worthing (see Insider Feature starting on p64) to preview a new mid-priced series of loudspeakers being kept under wraps until now. The range, called the 700 Series, replaces the long-running CM Series with six new stereo models – three standmounts and three floorstanders – plus two dedicated centre channel models for fans of multi-channel setups. Unsurprisingly, it draws on the considerable expertise and technology established in the company's well-regarded high-end 800 Diamond Series and so employs Continuum midrange drivers. A new version of the Aerofoil cone has also been developed, but the 700 Series design uses paper rather than carbon fibre skins with an EPS filling material adopted instead of syntactic foam..…

EVERY PLAYER IN this group offers something different, but there are some that piece together a more complete package than others. ATC HiFi’s HDA-DP20 feels stout and reliable and sounds consistently entertaining too. The scatter gun control interface and the lack of internal storage count against it here, but it’s still good value. The Acoustic Research AR-M20 is one of the more flexible players, managing to sound big and confident across a wide selection of music, although it could do with a touch more excitement at the fairly high asking price. There’s no separating Astell&Kern’s AK70 and Questyle’s QP2R in third place. The AK70 is a fine all-rounder with only a slightly fiddly interface and fractionally high price counting against what is otherwise a strong offering and great addition to…

DETAILS PRODUCT EAT B-Sharp Super Pack ORIGIN EU TYPE Belt-drive turntable WEIGHT 8.5kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 460 x 142 x 352mm FEATURES • 33/45rpm • EAT B-Note carbon fibre tonearm • Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge DISTRIBUTOR Absolute Sounds Ltd. TELEPHONE 0208 9713909 WEBSITE absolutesounds.com European Audio Team has been going for a number of years now, initially with the manufacture of high-quality vacuum tubes, before moving on to high-end turntables such as the mighty Forte a decade or so ago. Run by Jozefína Krahulcová, it shares Pro-Ject’s manufacturing facilities but has never set out to make budget turntables, unlike its sister company. Indeed, a spokesman describes the relationship as being like that of Volkswagen and Porsche – Pro-Ject being a high-quality mid-market brand delivering high sales volume, whereas EAT delivers premium-level,…

DETAILS PRODUCT Audiolab M-DAC Mini ORIGIN UK/China TYPE Headphone preamp/DAC WEIGHT 400g DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 136 x 34 x 178mm FEATURES • 32-bit/384kHz and 24-bit/192kHz capable DAC • Digital inputs: micro USB-B; USB-A; optical; coaxial; Bluetooth • Outputs: 6.35mm headphone jack; line-level RCAs; optical; coaxial • Quoted battery life: 7 hours DISTRIBUTOR IAG UK TELEPHONE 01480 452561 WEBSITE audiolab.co.uk Since the introduction of the M-DAC back in 2011, its descendants have had praise heaped upon them from 2016’s range-topping M-DAC+ (HFC 410) to the M-ONE integrated amp/DAC (HFC 416). As the fourth addition to the M-DAC family, the Mini is built around the ubiquitous ESS Sabre DAC – in this case the ES9018K2M, which grants it decoding abilities in keeping with what we’ve come to expect from a DAC in 2017.…

In an enormously complex worldwide speaker market, overflowing with huge brand marketing and great regional loyalties, British-based Bowers & Wilkins has grown from a small radio and electronics shop to the massive global entity it is today. Now under new ownership, we thought it was time to visit the company at its headquarters in Worthing, West Sussex to sound out its product marketing and communications director, Andy Kerr. DP: How did the B&W story start? AK: The first loudspeaker ever produced under the B&W banner was the P1, no less than 50 years ago in 1967. Previously, John Bowers had produced ‘specials’ for sale to private clients. Compared to the DM70 he would produce only a few years later, it was outwardly quite conventional although quite performance-orientated. Indeed, it had…

Back in the nineties, I used to liken being a vinyl junkie to voting Liberal Democrat. This was long before the days of the coalition government of course, during that long period in British history when being a Lib Dem meant that – whatever else happened – there was absolutely no chance of your side ever taking power. For most of the past 30 years or so, being an analogue addict has been the same. It conferred upon one a sense of moral superiority, safe in the knowledge that your cause could never become mainstream again. Life for a vinylista was about lecturing others on the joys of black plastic, and sniping at those that liked their silver discs – which you would argue were inauthentic and not as good…

After last month’s column in which I wished Radio 1 a somewhat cynical happy 50th birthday and made some random observations about the depressing state of music on the airwaves, I am indebted to a colleague for pointing me in the direction of a brave and exciting new development in internet-based radio. If you bemoan the conservative nature of most modern music broadcasting and you’re not already aware of radiooooo.com, let me pass on the recommendation and urge you to check it out immediately. The five ‘o’s represent the globe’s five continents and the station’s home page is a delightful, hand-drawn pen-andink map of the world (right). Inside you’ll find the biggest second-hand record emporium on the planet, with a twist. Instead of browsing songs listed alphabetically or by genre,…

The early seventies found entrepreneurial Florida-based brothers Stan, Joe and Ken Cayre with their fingers in a number of pies – a panty hose factory, a textile business in Puerto Rico and an 8-track cassette plant among them. Fortunately for our story, and the dancefloors of the world, fashion’s loss is our gain. With their foothold in manufacturing, the brothers began selling 8-tracks of Mexican music in the USA and when the business began to grow they took the next step and began recording artists. Among the first offerings on their fledgling Mericana label Joe Bataan’s Salsoul album – a heady mix of salsa and soul – that really took off in New York’s clubs and caught the ears of Epic Records, which licensed it for a cool $100,000. The…

Van Morrison Roll With The Punches ALBUM OF THE MONTH CD Caroline International NOW IN HIS seventies, it would be fair to say that Van Morrison is no Leonard Cohen or David Bowie, continuing to challenge and surprise us with the boldness of their vision to the very end. Van’s ambition these days does not extend beyond a reassuring affirmation of the enduring potency of the blues and R&B roots that first inspired him more than half a century ago when he came busting out of Belfast with the raw power of Gloria. But if the magical, creative questing of albums such as Astral Weeks and St Dominic’s Preview is long gone, that doesn’t mean he can’t still delight. To call his 37th studio album ‘workmanlike’ would be to under estimate…

Unlike a CD player or a streamer, the turntable is not a plug-andplay device. To get the very best from it, great care needs to be taken to ensure that it is correctly set up. Happily, this is not as difficult as you might imagine and there is a wide selection of inexpensive accessories available to help. Before considering any form of adjustment, it is important to make sure the record player 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 disc. On the level Many turntables are fitted with adjustable feet and levelling is easily done using a spirit level. Place the level on the platter, to allow any…

SINCE THE HEADY days of the classic seventies G800 – which found itself on practically every budget turntable of its time – Goldring has been a purveyor of high-quality affordable movingmagnet cartridges. The trick has been to make pick-ups that perform just that bit better than price rivals, with an enjoyable sound that reflects the tastes of the company’s buyers. The new E-series does precisely this. Look closely at the different specs and price points of its three cartridges (E1, E2 and E3), and it’s clear Goldring has put a good deal of thought into the design – with the likely customers who’ll use them very much in mind. The £60 entry-level red E1 is a classic spherical affair, which is more tolerant of poor setup and indeed mediocre LP…

AUDIO-TECHNICA’S AT95E MOVING-MAGNET cartridge (HFC 387) remains a very strong budget option. Costing just £30, the design has a few compromises and so audio specialist The Audio Files has taken the unusual step of upgrading the standard stylus to unlock its potential. Shanks for the memory To do this the original stylus and shank are removed and a replacement Paratrace profile stylus is directly attached to the cantilever without recourse to a shank. The new stylus will attach directly to the cartridge body in exactly the same way as the standard one. Aside from a little Paratrace sticker on the side, it looks identical to the original. It is vital to get alignment correct to take full advantage of the finer stylus profile, but installed in the standard headshell supplied…

PRICE: £3,899-£5,499 AVAILABLE: OCTOBER WEB: AURALIC.COM Auralic has unveiled its G Series of audio streaming components, comprising the Aries G2 streaming transport, Sirius G2 upsampling processor, Vega G2 streaming DAC and Leo G2 femto reference clock. The £3,899 Aries G2 streaming transporter (below) wirelessly connects to your system and offers outputs including USB 2.0, AES/ EBU, coaxial, Toslink and Auralic’s Lightning Link – a bi-directional HDMI enabling system control of everything from volume to processor engine setup. The processor at its heart is 50 percent faster than the original Aires with twice the memory and data storage and it can handle resolutions up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD512. Handling the same resolutions as the Aries G2, the £5,499 Vega G2 streaming DAC sports a quad-core A9 chip, 1GB DDR3 memory…

Hi-Fi Choice employs the most rigorous test and measurement regime in the business. Here’s how we do it... HI-RES PORTABLE PLAYERS GROUP TEST ALL PLAYERS ARE connected to a USB power source and run-in with material playing on repeat for 24 hours into various in-ear headphones before any listening commences. As they don’t all have internal memory built-in, a 64GB microSD card is prepared with the listening material to be played on each model. Those that do have internal memory also have the test programme installed to see if there are any performance differences. For the listening test itself, each of the players is connected to a pair of Audeze iSINE 10 in-ear headphones (HFC 423). Level matching is achieved by placing the earbud in the end of a measuring…

DETAILS PRODUCT Audiofilia AF-S2 ORIGIN Italy TYPE 2-way standmount loudspeaker WEIGHT 7kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 190 x 300 x 290mm FEATURES • 38mm ribbon tweeter • 152mm mid/bass driver • Quoted sensitivity: 89dB 1W/1m (8ohm) DISTRIBUTOR Gpoint audio TELEPHONE 01435 865540 WEBSITE af-speakers.com It isn’t easy keeping track of hi-fitrends. Yes, vinyl is back (it never went away) and, in its unsuspected plural form, has become part of youth’s often baffling lexicon. Not that this has much bearing on an audio market that seems to become more multi-faceted and technically convoluted by the week, which, depending on your viewpoint, is either a shoppers’ paradise or a rabbit hole best avoided. But I reckon the prevailing retail zeitgeist might be able to give a helpful nudge here. From truffle oil to tea…

DETAILS PRODUCT Auralic Altair ORIGIN Netherlands/China TYPE DAC/preamp with wireless music streamer WEIGHT 3.2kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 330 x 65 x 230mm FEATURES • Wi-fiand Ethernet streaming up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD256 • Digital inputs: USB-B; coaxial; optical; AES • Outputs: stereo RCA; balanced XLR • AirPlay; Bluetooth; Songcast; RoonReady DISTRIBUTOR Auralic WEBSITE auralic.com The boundary between what counts as a digital-toanalogue converter and what might be more accurately described as a digital source with some additional digital inputs has got rather blurry of late. There is an increasing number of DACs on the market that go beyond what might be expected of a conventional converter. Few companies have taken this as far as Auralic. Its Altair is described by the company as a wireless streaming DAC and believe it or…

DETAILS PRODUCT iFi Audio Pro iCAN ORIGIN UK TYPE Headphone amplifier WEIGHT 1.9kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 213 x 63 x 193mm FEATURES • Balanced Class A design • Single-ended headphone outputs: 2x 6.35mm jack; 1x 3.5mm jack • Balanced headphone outputs: 1x 4-pin XLR; 1x dual 3-pin XLR; 1x 3.5mm jack • Inputs: 3x RCA; 1x XLR DISTRIBUTOR Select Audio TELEPHONE 01900 601954 WEBSITE ifi-audio.com As the first product in iFi Audio’s professional series, the Pro iCAN offers an impressive set of features. The balanced preamplifier design makes use of both solid-state and valve technology and has outputs for driving balanced and conventional single-ended dynamic headphones, as well as an ‘ESL-Link’ special HDMI output for use with the company’s separate electrostatic headphone driver unit. Its volume control has six tracks to…

There is a certain rich irony to the subject matter of this month’s piece. Logically, I should be singing the praises of the superb Rega Planar 6 turntable that I had the pleasure of reviewing last issue. For me, it represents a benchmark at the price and is further evidence that the vinyl resurgence continues to have legs. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, limbs are something I’m somewhat deficient in. An accident has left me with four broken bones in one leg and as a result I’m moving around less easily than usual. Have you ever tried changing a record stood on one leg supported by nothing more than a pair of crutches? I can assure you, it isn’t easy. In fact, making any form of physical media change…

For every iconic design there are several great rivals that are simply forgotten about. The Videoton Minimax is just such a product, a great little loudspeaker that – at its height in the mid-to-late seventies – was much loved and surprisingly popular, yet has now all but disappeared. The story is made all the more intriguing by the fact that Videoton was not – unlike most speakers back then – British. Videotone was the name of the UK importer, run by former Mullard and Philips engineer Cliff Hardcastle, whereas Videoton was the name of the Hungarian company that designed and manufactured the Minimax series. The latter was founded in 1938, became state-owned in 1955 and focused on consumer electronics until 1991, when it was privatised. Cliffrecalls, “I was amazed how…

Born Lawrence Philpot, the flamboyant DJ cut his teeth spinning wax at New York’s Continental Baths, where Barry Manilow and Bette Midler got their breaks, before working his way through the city’s nightspots until he landed a residency at the newly opened Paradise Garage. For 10 years Levan was resident DJ, selecting a wild mix of disco, dub, new wave and anything else that caught his ear, shaping the sound of the city and helping break hundreds of records. The late seventies saw a number of DJs take the step from the booth to the studio and in 1978 Levan remixed his first Salsoul release. His joyous 12in take on Instant Funk’s Got My Mind Made Up was an immediate hit, putting the 7in version in the shade. Lightning struck…

Following in the footsteps of Motown’s Funk Brothers and Stax’s Booker T and the MGs, The Salsoul Orchestra was one of the great house bands, enjoying hits in its own right as well as playing on scores of other people’s releases. Based around arranger Vincent Montana Jr and the rhythm section of Earl Young and Ronnie Baker, the group formed when the wily Cayre brothers took advantage of a dispute between the musicians and the record label where they’d cut their teeth and established huge reputations. They were swiftly ensconced in the studio and hustled up the label’s first hit. Many more followed, from classics such as 212 North 12th – the location of their favoured studio, Sigma Sound, where David Bowie came to find the soul of America –…

It’s easy to measure The Rolling Stones’ achievements in the sheer heft of numbers. Over 55 years, the tally currently stands at 30 studio albums and 18 live albums, totalling estimated record sales of 240 million. Then there are a dozen number one singles plus they’re the highest-grossing concert act ever. As the stats are, they don’t even begin to tell the story, for what they cannot convey is how their songs have soundtracked our times and the way their renegade spirit has permeated almost every aspect of popular culture. Way back in 1964 at the start of the journey, the group’s flamboyant manager Andrew Loog Oldham wrote on the rear cover of their debut album: “The Rolling Stones are more than just a group – they are a way…

Elipson Omega 100 RIAA BT Carbon Black PRICE: £699 TELEPHONE: 01628 484968 WEB: elipson.com REVIEWED: HFC 427 Building on the success of the Omega 100 RIAA BT (HFC 415), the Carbon Black has a new carbon fibre top plate that has been added to increase the rigidity of the deck and reduce any chance of flex between the main bearing and the mounting point for the tonearm. The other changes relate to the tonearm, which now has an arm lift, while the cartridge has been upgraded from the Ortofon OM10 to an Ortofon 2M Red (HFC 345) moving-magnet. As denoted by the RIAA BT suffix in the name, the deck is also fitted with a phono stage as well as the ability to stream vinyl playback via Bluetooth to a suitable receiver. Sound quality…

LIKE ANY PIECE of audio equipment, the phono stage is comprised of components that benefit from some hours of running in to reach their optimum performance. The nature of vinyl replay makes this process rather more involved than it is with digital source equipment and, unless you have a record with a locked groove and a signal, the run-in process requires regular attention and can accrue wear on your cartridge. Feel the burn IsoTek produces a range of CD-based burn-in and demagnetisation products and has collaborated with sister brand Blue Horizon to produce an RIAA filter that sits between the CD player and phono stage. The filter drops the player’s output voltage to a level that’s compatible with the stage to achieve output levels akin to moving-magnet and moving-coil cartridges…