Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2018 i Hi-Fi Choice

PRICE: £2,000 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 0208 8363500 WEB: PIONEER-AUDIOVISUAL.EU PIONEER HAS ANNOUNCED a new reference disc spinner in the form of the PD-70AE. Able to play CD and SACD via its large aluminium drawer-loading mechanism, the player promises to be a usefully flexible CD source and also act as a DAC via optical and a coaxial digital inputs at the rear. Decoding is handled by a pair of ESS9026PRO DACs and the entire circuit has been assembled to be fully balanced. A three-mode adjustable filter fine tunes the presentation with a choice of Slow, Sharp and Short settings. There are separate power supplies for the digital and analogue stages, with the shortest possible signal paths and circuit components selected following extensive listening tests. The solid chassis weighs 18kg and uses…

DETAILS PRODUCT Final F4100 ORIGIN Japan TYPE In-ear headphone WEIGHT 13g FEATURES • Driver type: single balanced armature • Detachable cable • Ear hooks • Carry case DISTRIBUTOR KS Distribution TELEPHONE 01903 768910 WEBSITE hifiheadphones. co.uk Until recently, Final seemed to be on a mission to build headphones that didn’t follow conventional design rules. When we looked at the F7200 back in HFC 421, however, it looked as though this was something it was reining in. The F4100 continues the trend with a logical design and a regular model number rather than another incomprehensible name. It still has some interesting touches, though. This is the only model here to employ a single balanced armature, which is something of a tradition with the brand, and the enclosures have been shrunk down…

DETAILS PRODUCT Oriveti New Primacy ORIGIN China TYPE In-ear headphone WEIGHT 11g FEATURES • Driver type: hybrid Knowles balanced armature/dynamic • 1.2m detachable cable • Carry case DISTRIBUTOR KS Distribution TELEPHONE 01903 768912 WEBSITE hifiheadphones. co.uk s one of the newest arrivals on the market, Oriveti has some way to go before it can consider itself a household name, but if this range topper is anything to go by, it’s off to a fine start. As the ‘New Primacy’ monicker suggests, this is a replacement for an earlier Primacy model, and so incorporates a number of changes. The only triple driver design in the group, it combines a pair of Knowles balanced armatures with a single 8mm dynamic driver for bass response. The layout of these drivers and the venting…

ALL THE IN-EAR headphones in this roundup have at least some sonic benefits in their favour, but it is the Westone W20 that is the most limited. It’s a superbly equipped model that’s comfortable to wear, but the emphasis on the midrange comes at the expense of the performance at the frequency extremes. The oBravo erib-7 by contrast has aspects of its performance that are among the best in the group, but the limited sensitivity and rather merciless presentation mean that it needs to be partnered and used carefully to show these attributes to best effect. Splitting the NuForce HEM4 and Oriveti New Primacy is effectively impossible, meaning they share the spoils for third place. These are both supremely talented in-ear headphones that are identically priced, but with different strengths…

DETAILS PRODUCT VPI Player ORIGIN USA TYPE Belt-drive turntable package WEIGHT 5.9kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 470 x 109 x 343mm FEATURES • 33 and 45rpm manual speed change • 9in tonearm • Built-in MM phono stage and headphone amp • Ortofon 2M Red cartridge supplied DISTRIBUTOR Renaissance Audio TELEPHONE 0131 5553922 WEBSITE renaissanceaudio. co.uk New Jersey’s VPI Industries has been on a mission in recent years to appeal to vinyl’s new-found fans with an affordable deck that borrows design principles from its range of high-end models. This isn’t its first foray into the entry-level sector. First came the Traveler and Nomad (HFC 390), paving the way for this new deck, which ups the price by some margin. While being the brand’s entry-level deck (sitting below its Prime series), the Player is…

DETAILS PRODUCT T+A Cala SR ORIGIN Germany TYPE One-box network music receiver WEIGHT 5kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 300 x 95 x 210mm FEATURES • Quoted power output: 2x 55W (4ohm) • Ethernet; wi-fi; Bluetooth • Analogue inputs: 2x RCA (1x MM phono configurable) • Digital inputs: 1x coaxial; 2x optical; 1x USB port DISTRIBUTOR Kog Audio TELEPHONE 024 77220650 WEBSITE ta-hifi.de/en For makers of mainstream audio systems, convergence seems to have reached critical mass. If a lineup can’t offer a taste of sleek, slick one-box, streaming convenience, it’s no longer erring on the side of caution waiting for the market to sort itself out, but missing a trick. Apart from the on-going fascination with vinyl, few things in the world of hi-fi are quite as ‘on trend’ right now. It isn’t…

It’s a star-studded affair. Three of Manchester’s best-known musical exports – Morrissey, Ian Brown and Factory Records producer Martin Hannett – stare back at us, rubbing shoulders with no less than Paul McCartney and Neil Sedaka. Stockport’s most famous sons – Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley, Eric Stewart and Lol Creme – are front and centre. We’re in Stockport Museum, soaking up Mark Kennedy’s wonderful mosaic, Collections and Interpretation Officer Janny Baxter’s favourite among favourites in the exhibition she’s curated, I Am In Love; a celebration of Strawberry Studios; a fantastic feast for the music fan. “We commissioned Mark to commemorate the 50-year anniversary,” she says. “His work is Manchester; it is the North. I don’t feel anybody else could have done it justice.” All the artists included in his artwork…

The real buzz words in music in 2017 have been ‘brand partnership’ and ‘stealth advertising’. Corporate greed and rock music have been shacking up together for decades. The model was invented by American entrepreneur Jay Coleman, who in 1981 persuaded Jovan Musk to sponsor The Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You tour. The fragrance company paid a couple of million dollars to have its name printed on several million Stones’ tickets. Coleman followed up by proposing a brand partnership between Michael Jackson and a fizzy drink. Coca Cola offered a meagre $1 million so he went to Pepsi, which coughed up $5 million. It was a sum large enough for Jackson to alter the words of Billie Jean to “Guzzle down and taste the thrill of the day/And feel the Pepsi way”.…

THE LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS… PRICE: £450-£875 AVAILABLE: DECEMBER CONTACT: 01638 742427 WEB: DYNAUDIO.COM MULTI-ROOM MUSIC SYSTEMS are a popular choice for a growing number of music fans and Danish hi-fi loudspeaker brand Dynaudio is the latest to diversify and join the fray. Its new four-strong range of networked active speaker systems is called Music and can be used in any combination desired up to a total of six units. All four speakers share some common intelligent technology, designed to make them easier to integrate into your environment. Each is fitted with software called RoomAdapt, which claims to sense the proximity of the speaker in relation to rear or side walls and adjust its output for the optimum performance. This is partnered with another clever-sounding feature called NoiseAdapt that uses adaptive…

PRICE: £199 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 0800 0261526 WEB: SONOS.COM Voice control was among one of the biggest advances in 2017, and it hasn’t taken multi-room giant Sonos long to bring this functionality into its ecosystem. The new One is the first Sonos multi-room speaker to include Amazon Alexa voice control (and from 2018, Google Assistant) built in. The speaker uses six far-field microphones and voice capture technology with echo cancellation tech to ensure it receives voice commands clearly. A volume ‘duck’ feature drops the music level as soon as you start talking. You can use voice control to skip tracks, select playlists as well as other playback features and ask it all the same questions that you might want to put to any other voice-controlled device. As a multi-room music…

Hi-Fi Choice employs the most rigorous test and measurement regime in the business. Here’s how we do it... IN-EAR HEADPHONES GROUP TEST THE MOST COMPLEX aspect of testing in-ear headphones is setting an accurate listening level. The output is very hard to measure and as with the last in-ear headphones Group Test (HFC 421), listening levels are set using the slightly unorthodox approach of placing an SPL meter in the end of a plastic measuring funnel. Each headphone is then offered up to the funnel, and a baseline listening level is set. For the comparison programme, we use Chord Electronics’ Mojo portable headphone amp/DAC (HFC 423) along with its Poly wireless streaming module – see p57. This allows the same device to be used for the home listening test as…

DETAILS PRODUCT NuForce HEM4 ORIGIN USA/China TYPE In-ear headphone WEIGHT 21g FEATURES • Driver type: twin Knowles balanced armatures • 2x 1.38m detachable cables • Ear hooks • Carry case DISTRIBUTOR NuNu Distribution TELEPHONE 0203 5442338 WEBSITE nuforce.com Postitioned in the middle of NuForce’s range of in-ears, the HEM4 utilises the same external housing as its siblings, but with a pair of Knowles balanced armatures inside. These give a claimed upper frequency response of 40kHz and ensure it comes with Hi-Res Audio certification – the only model in the test to do so. The HEM4 is also well specified. As well as being fitted with a detachable cable connection, it comes with two cables in the box, one with a standard plastic jacket and inline remote and the other made…

DETAILS PRODUCT Sennheiser IE 80 S ORIGIN Germany/China TYPE In-ear headphone WEIGHT 19g FEATURES • Driver type: dynamic • 1.2m detachable cable • Ear hooks • Carry case DISTRIBUTOR Sennheiser UK TELEPHONE 0333 2408185 WEBSITE en-uk.sennheiser.com As the ‘S’ in the model derivation suggests, the Sennheiser is not a completely clean-sheet design. The original IE 80 was on sale for a number of years and had the same basic look as this newer version. The configuration is unusual in the context of the test as it uses a single driver dynamic unit that is built to Sennheiser’s ‘XWB’ (Extra Wide Bandwidth) design. In practise, the frequency range of 10Hz-20kHz (claimed) is roughly in keeping with the group average, but this isn’t the last word in its output. Although there’s only…

DETAILS PRODUCT Yamaha NS-5000 ORIGIN Japan TYPE 3-way standmount loudspeaker WEIGHT 35kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 395 x 690 x 381mm FEATURES • 1x 30mm Zylon dome tweeter • 1x 80mm Zylon midrange • 1x 300mm Zylon bass driver • Quoted sensitivity: 88dB/1W/1m DISTRIBUTOR Yamaha Music Europe GmbH (UK) TELEPHONE 0844 8111116 WEBSITE uk.yamaha.com Back in 1974, Yamaha released the NS-1000 loudspeaker. A purple period for the company, it seemed to be launching an endless stream of great products. These effectively put Yamaha on the map as a serious hi-fi manufacturer, capable of innovation, superb quality and outperforming its rivals. It’s fair to say that not everyone in the British hi-fi press saw things this way. The scribes of the time focused on British brands and regarded new Japanese companies with a…

Areader recently asked for guidance on soft supports versus hard cones to help improve the sound from their system. It’s easy to look at some tweaks as acts of faith, but I’ve invested much time in this pursuit, so thought I’d share some of my findings. Returning to first principles, it’s important to identify the problems you are trying to solve. I concluded that any hi-fi will be prone to extraneous vibrational energy reducing system integrity or signal quality and that inhibiting, transforming or dissipating this unwanted energy should improve sound quality. To this end I bought a stethoscope on ebay and started listening to my sideboard! The first culprit is vibrational energy generated within a component itself. Anything that spins a disk or powers a transformer is likely to…

Were I gifted the time and resources to write a hi-fi thesis, I feel there is a strong case to be made for exploring regional similarities in the design and creation of audio equipment that is broader than national borders. If I needed physical evidence to back this up, I could do a lot worse than point to this system. There are roughly 400 miles between Cliffwood New Jersey and Montreal in Canada – in North American terms a journey of very little consequence. There is also a national border and a partial language change. Despite this, the similarities between the components that make up this system far outweigh the differences. There are in fact two parts of this system from the Canadian side. Simaudio and Totem Acoustic are a…

DETAILS PRICE £695 TELEPHONE 0118 9814238 WEBSITE isoteksystems.com OUR VERDICT IF YOU ARE looking to introduce mains conditioning to your hi-fi system, something that can prove immediately off putting is that many devices simply can’t accommodate all the different components in a well-specified setup. If you have a turntable, external phono stage and then music streaming networking hardware plus amplification needs to manage, four or even six-way socket distribution systems just aren’t going to be sufficient. IsoTek has taken this on board and its Evo3 Corvus has nine sockets and the power handling capacity to accommodate some fairly substantial setups. As part of its entry-level range, the Evo3 Corvus is designed to counter Common Mode and Differential Mode mains noise as well as RFI. Each of the sockets is star…

THE hi-fi SHOW Live HOSTED BY OUR sister magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review and AVTech Media, The Hi-Fi Show Live returned for a fifth consecutive year to the gorgeous Beaumont Estate conference centre in Old Windsor. The unique high-end audio extravaganza ran from 21-22 October and attracted its highest number of visitors to date, all eager to experience the UK’s largest speciality high-end audio event. Whether you prefer your music played from CD, vinyl or streamed via a server, there was something for everyone at the two-day showcase. Enthusiasts had the unique opportunity to experience some of the world’s finest high-end audio under one roof with incredible demonstrations of some of the bestsounding hi-fi components installed and presented by designers and audio experts. Iconic brands including Bowers & Wilkins,…

DETAILS PRODUCT Auralic Aries G2 ORIGIN Netherlands/China TYPE Network streaming transport WEIGHT 7.2kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 340 x 80 x 320mm FEATURES • Digital outputs: 1x Lightning Link; 1x USB-A; 1x AES; 1x coaxial; 1x optical • AirPlay; aptX Bluetooth wireless • Tidal and Qobuz music streaming services; internet radio • Internal bay for add-on HDD DISTRIBUTOR Auralic WEBSITE auralic.com Network audio has become a big part of our hi-fi listening habit as more of us get more comfortable with the prospect of streaming music from pay services like Tidal and Qobuz or from a networked server containing a music library at home. It’s an area that’s seen considerable expansion in the last decade, but is still pretty much dominated by a few familiar names. For any company to make inroads…

IN-EAR HEADPHONES £240-£300 FEW CAN DENY that listening to music taps into our innermost senses in a way that few other things can. A single note or chord can unlock memories or emotions buried deep within. Music makes us happy or sad (when the mood is right), and we all have our own soundtrack to life. Music is personal, and it doesn’t get much more personal than listening with a pair of quality in-ear headphones. These tiny transducers provide an intimate listening experience while blocking out the world on a daily commute or seeking a motivational soundtrack while exercising perhaps. Listening to music can help with our sense of well-being, and it could be said that buying the right pair of in-ear headphones can help to improve your quality of…

DETAILS PRODUCT oBravo erib-7 ORIGIN Taiwan TYPE In-ear headphone WEIGHT 28g FEATURES • Driver type: hybrid planar/dynamic • 1.2m cable • Carry case DISTRIBUTOR Glaive Distribution TELEPHONE 0208 9429124 WEBSITE obravoaudio.com Perhaps best known as a company that builds in-ear headphones costing several thousands of pounds, oBravo is paddling in the shallow end of its range with the erib-7. Despite the gulf in price, many elements of its design are shared with its more upmarket siblings. Chief among these is the driver complement. Each enclosure contains two drivers. One is a dynamic type – an 8mm Neodymium unit – used to generate low frequencies. This is partnered with a 7mm planar magnetic tweeter employed to generate high frequencies that is unique to oBravo. The integration between the two different drivers…

DETAILS PRODUCT Westone W20 ORIGIN USA/China TYPE In-ear headphone WEIGHT 17g FEATURES • Driver type: twin balanced armature • 2x 1.28m detachable cable • Ear hooks • Carry case DISTRIBUTOR KS Distribution TELEPHONE 01903 768912 WEBSITE hifiheadphones. co.uk While it counts as one of the more expensive models here, the W20 is placed firmly towards the lower echelons of Westone’s portfolio. The second model in the range, it is built around two balanced armatures that are allocated bass and treble duties via a passive crossover. These twin drivers don’t imbue it with a greater frequency response than some of the single driver designs here. The Westone has a tear drop-shaped housing with the cable exiting from the top, which means you need to wrap the cable around the ear for…

DETAILS PRODUCT Questyle CMA400i ORIGIN China TYPE Headphone amplifier, preamp and DAC WEIGHT 2.4kg DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 279 x 55 x 189mm FEATURES • Balanced Class A design • 32-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD256- capable DAC • Headphone outputs: 1x 6.35mm jack; 1x 4-pin balanced XLR; 1x 2.5mm balanced jack • Digital inputs: 2x coaxial; 1x optical; 1x USB Type B • Outputs: RCAs; balanced XLRs DISTRIBUTOR SCV Distribution TELEPHONE 03301 222500 WEBSITE questyleaudio.com Combining the functions of a headphone amplifier with those of a DAC and a preamplifier in one neat package, the CMA400i is made from high-quality aluminium and manufactured for Questyle by Foxconn – the name behind other notable products that include BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Kindle, Nintendo and Xbox. Each panel has been CNC machined to a tolerance…

DETAILS PRODUCT Chord Electronics Poly ORIGIN UK TYPE Wireless network streamer WEIGHT 95g DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 62 x 22 x 50mm FEATURES • 32-bit/768kHz and DSD256-capable streaming DAC • MicroSD memory card slot • Quoted battery life: 9 hours • Connectivity: wi-fi; Bluetooth; AirPlay DISTRIBUTOR Chord Electronics TELEPHONE 01622 721444 WEBSITE chordelectronics. co.uk There has been something of an open secret that Chord’s Mojo headphone amp/DAC (HFC 423) was always going to be joined by wireless streaming hardware. Even at its launch in 2015, some mock-ups of a ‘bolt-on’ device were briefly shown, and the arrival of the ambitious Poly has been eagerly anticipated since. Poly attaches to the input end of the Mojo, using the USB ports for communication, and operates as a DLNA wireless network streamer. Additionally, a microSD…

A brief trawl through Google’s first few listings for the meaning of the word authenticity gives us definitions or synonyms such as: genuine, real, true, right. Perhaps more tellingly, authenticity’s antonyms include: corrupt, false, untrustworthy and, that word again, fake. So, move along Stroud, there’s nothing to see here – everyone is clear on which side we join with the angelic chorus, right? Well, not necessarily... I have been watching a fair bit of Vintage TV recently. Lots of videos and clips from Top Of The Pops circa the eighties reveal a time when artifice ruled. The ludicrous hair and costumes, the wind tunnel fans to show off the guitarists long flowing locks and the absence of a cable from his strutting Strat to the nonexistent amp are all risible.…

I’ve often wondered how well a piece of professional audio equipment would compare sonically with equipment intended for the domestic market. It stands to reason that equipment used during recording and mastering should be at least as good as the playback equipment. Commercial recordings are usually made on professional equipment in recording studios or on robust portable units taken on location, such as the Nagra VI (right). This digital recorder can record up to six channels of 24-bit/192kHz PCM onto its internal 120GB hard disk and will set you back well over £8,000. It has all the features you’d expect from a professional digital recorder for capturing professional-grade audio in various applications such as concerts, outdoor movie sets and live shows. Having heard first-hand what this recorder can sound like,…

Robert Finley Goin’ Platinum! CD Nonesuch IT’S BEEN A sad year for lovers of vintage R&B. The deaths of Chuck Berry and Fats Domino were hard enough to bear, although at their venerable age we were at least braced for them. And recently we've lost Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, two of the finest modern exponents of Southern soul, both only in their sixties and at the peak of their powers. Now at the very end of the year comes some much overdue good news with the emergence of Robert Finley, a 64 year-old blues and R&B singer from Louisiana who has spent his life in obscurity but turns out to have a deep-fried soul voice that ranks up there with Otis Redding and Bobby Bland. Discovered and produced by Dan…

DETAILS PRICE £199 TELEPHONE 01900 601954 WEBSITE selectaudio.co.uk OUR VERDICT THE CUTE NANO iOne DAC measures just 64 x 26 x 100mm (WxHxD) and is powered directly from the USB port of a PC or using the supplied UK power adapter. Internally, it uses Burr-Brown’s Bit-Perfect DSD & DXD MultiBit DAC, which handles PCM and DSD natively so the music signal stays in its original format throughout its journey through the DAC. It supports PCM inputs natively up to 192kHz PCM, DSD256 and DXD384kHz. Audio signals come from the USB connector, S/PDIF via a combined RCA coaxial and optical input socket – a neat little adapter enables the coaxial input socket to also act as an optical input – or via aptX Bluetooth. The output is via a pair of…

Electricity is a vital ingredient in any home hi-fi system of course. But while on the one hand it’s essential in powering our music systems, on the other it can affect hi-fi performance if not handled properly. Think of it as the fuel that’s required to get a car running – if you want to get the best performance, you need to ensure that its being fed the cleanest ‘fuel’ possible. Our mains supply can be affected by numerous factors, whether it be the journey it takes from the power station to your home, the other components that are in the vicinity of your system or air-borne signals from smartphones, wi-fi or Bluetooth devices. While the basic mains cables that come bundled with components do a good job of getting…