Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2019 i Hi-Fi Choice

PRICE: £12,000 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 0207 2947332 WEB: ORBITSOUND.COM LOOKING TO ATTRACT new audiences with its innovative single-box speaker designs, Orbitsound has introduced its Air D1 luxury loudspeaker, costing £12,000. A completely active standalone single speaker, it claims to deliver a full and compelling stereo image and exactly the same tonal presentation wherever you are in the room without the need for a second speaker, thanks to its proprietary Airsound technology. The powered speaker design utilises three dedicated amplifiers to drive each speaker array and is rated at a total power output of 570W, while its Airamp tech claims to actively feed back in real-time for optimum performance and sound delivery. Wi-fi, Bluetooth, 2x RCAs, optical digital and Ethernet connections are all provided.…

PRICE: £2,295 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 01223 782474 WEB: LEEMA-ACOUSTICS.COM Previewed at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show back in February, Welsh company Leema Acoustics has announced the arrival of its Stream IV digital hub priced at £2,295, which joins its Stellar series. Built around its popular Stream CD player, the next-generation model claims to be fully equipped for network music streaming with integrated Tidal, Spotify and Qobuz music services, plus vTuner Internet Radio and Deezer, as well as CD playback via a front-panel loading tray mechanism. UPnP/DLNA compliant, it can access music files from networked devices and playback control is via the free mconnect control point app, available for both Android and iOS devices. There’s a USB port, and both wireless and wired networking connectivity. Music files are supported up to 24-bit/192kHz…

Hi-Fi Choice employs the most rigorous test and measurement regime in the business. Here’s how we do it… CD PLAYERS GROUP TEST IT IS NO small logistical feat to reliably audition six compact disc players at a time – far greater than just doing a standalone review. The key thing is to level the playing field as much as possible by ensuring that each one has had a long soak test before auditioning starts. This is because the machines all arrive from manufacturers in different states; some are box-fresh and not run in, others are well-campaigned demo models that will have seen a lot of use before they reach the Hi-Fi Choice listening room. Powering all the machines up at the same time and leaving them on repeat for an…

Looking like every other Denon CD player I have ever seen from the early nineties onwards, this is surely the ultimate universal Japanese silver disc spinner – for better or for worse. It is staggeringly well specified, made and finished for its modest price. There’s a sort of fin de siècle feel to it. Now that compact disc has entered the autumn of its years, this manufacturer has decided to throw everything but the kitchen sink at it. Leaving aside its bland styling, its build and finish reminds us of the debt of gratitude that fans of affordable quality owe to the Japanese – it really is very impressive for the asking price. The high-quality mechanism – an SACD-capable Denon design with SVH loader – is mounted in a heavy…

Although cheaper than the other machines, this player is included in the group because it punches above its weight. Basically a reskin of Rega’s popular Apollo-R, it is housed in a distinctive aluminium case to match its Brio amplifier sibling. The only top-loader here, the cantilevered disc door is a pleasure to use – seventies throwbacks like me who grew up using vinyl will love the tactility of placing the disc in the machine. The large red central display is both easily readable and – complete with its nineties-tastic ‘music calendar’ – retro looking. The mech itself is a little noisy as it reads the disc’s table of contents; very old-school. The control buttons make ergonomic sense, but being small are a tad fiddly. The Apollo’s Wolfson WM8742 DAC chip…

Imagine an alternative dimension, almost exactly the same as our own, but for the tiny detail that humanity has never cottoned on to the use of transistors in amplifiers. Every other facet of engineering has proceeded as normal, but if you want to make music you’ll need vacuum tubes. It sounds outlandish, but it is the closest approximation to the thinking that created the valve-based integrated amplifier you see here. Copland is a Danish-based audio company founded by Ole Møller in the mid-eighties. It builds products that use valves in its pre and power stages, but in combination with modern design practise in terms of circuits, layouts and materials. The argument goes that by doing so, previously unattainable levels of performance are now within reach. The CTA408 is the flagship…

Since its founding a decade ago, European Audio Team has been steadily expanding its range of turntables. The company has adopted a ‘top-down’ approach to turntables with the flagship (and enormous) £12,000 Forte leading the way, followed by more affordable models embodying the same philosophy but simplified and reduced in size. The Prelude is the latest arrival and drops the price of an EAT turntable to under £1,000 for the first time. To do this, many of the visual cues of the larger models have had to be eschewed but the design principles remain the same with an unsuspended, belt-driven design that makes use of applied mass in critical areas. The reason for this mass is simple enough. EAT argues that it is the only way of eliminating vibration, pitch…

As a key player in the valve revival of the past decade, Icon Audio has made a bewildering array of tubular belles for enthusiasts with the accent always on value for money. Products such as the original Stereo 40 integrated amplifier – which arrived back in 2000 – began the company’s journey towards more accessible, user-friendly designs. Yet it hasn’t been until now that designer David Shaw has really realised this ambition. The new £2,200 Stereo 40 MkIV is a flexible, well-made integrated that really advances the budget valve amp cause. It’s bristling with tweaky features, the most notable of which is that it can work with a range of output valves from EL34 to KT88 (including KT66/77/90, 6CA7 and 6550), so you can ‘roll’ valves for yourself to get…

George Martin was infuriated by the Phil Spector mix of the Let It Be LP Get Back, which morphed into the iconic but little-seen Let It Be movie was doomed from the start. The Beatles owed United Artists a film and there was no getting out of the contract: according to UA, the Fabs’ brief appearance at the end of Yellow Submarine did not constitute a third movie. A new film had to happen – or the writs would fly. The idea for the ambitious – and soon to be acrimonious – movie project began to coalesce in Paul McCartney’s brain in late 1968, most likely during the rehearsals for The Beatles, AKA the White Album. Incomprehensibly, the group – knackered by the mammoth sessions for the eclectic double album…

Vinyl mystery My system comprises front-end nineties-vintage Nottingham Analogue Space Deck, RB303 arm and Hanna EH moving-coil cartridge sat on a dedicated stand with plinth incorporating Russ Andrews oak isolation cones and Unison Research Unico amp driving Klipsch Reference speakers via QED Silver Anniversary XT bi-wire cable. I recently resurrected my eighties Rega Planar 2/RB250 deck to play some charity shop finds and found the sound of the Rega to be vastly superior to the Space. I feel a bit of a charlatan preferring the cheaper turntable and wondered if anyone else felt this way? Andy Greensmith, by email JK: Your ears do not deceive you Andy, the Rega Planar 2 is a very underrated turntable and one that is surprisingly hard to beat. Rega is one of those rare…

Group tests are great, but whenever I do them, I end up wanting to write a dissertation-length document on all the issues they throw up. This is because the nature of the beast, so to speak, is that they’re brief, concise, comparative pieces – rather than going into detail. So here’s my chance to give an overview on what I thought was a fascinating comparison of six of the best CD players on sale at around £1,000. First, market trends. Right now we’re witnessing the crossover from the old way of doing things – as embodied by the Cyrus CD i and Rega Apollo – and the new way (the Marantz ND8006). The former are simply CD players; the latter is a digital hub that plays practically any format, one…

As I write, I’m still basking in the sublime memory of last night’s performance of Verdi’s La Forza Del Destino at Covent Garden. With the world’s two most in-demand singers Jonas Kaufmann and Anna Netrebko in the leading roles, there were media reports that tickets for the production were fetching up to £4,000 on the black market – and I have to say that it was worth every penny. I’m joking, of course. We paid just £24 each for bird’s-eye seats up in the gods and the bargain price only served to make the performance seem even more luminous, as the music floated heavenwards towards us. As a child who hated enforced piano lessons, nothing irritated me more than being told that I would learn to appreciate classical music when…

How many Hi-Fi enthusiasts spend any real time contemplating the electrical match between their amp and the loudspeakers it’s partnered with? You’ll never get the best out of your amp if you’re forcing it to huff and puff driving unsuitable speakers, and neither will you hear your speakers sing with an amplifier that was chosen without regard to whether or not it can drive them properly. To get the chemistry right between the two you need to consider the physics. Speakers are transducers that convert electrical energy from your amp into a physical form. How much sound they produce (the amount of air they shift), depends on a number of things. Sensitivity is the amount of sound that a speaker produces from a given amount of power. This is a…

PRICE: £600-£3,500 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 0800 2321513 WEB: BOWERSWILKINS.COM THE FORMATION SERIES announced last month by Worthing-based Bowers & Wilkins heralds the company’s new high-end multi-room music solution. Utilising new wireless tech, the four-strong suite of speakers plus hi-fi adapter is designed to suit different applications around the home. The £3,500 Duo (pictured) is the most traditional-looking speaker in the series, and adopts the same 25mm carbon dome tweeter-on-top technology and 165mm mid/bass Continuum cone drive unit found in the company’s passive speaker lineup. Matching support stands are available, costing £700. The £900 Wedge is the most distinctive speaker design in the range, with a 120° elliptical shape that offers full-range stereo from a single chassis unit. The £1,000 Bar sports nine drive units for a wide stereo soundstage and…

PRICE: $1,499 AVAILABLE: JUNE CONTACT: 01279 822800 WEB: ASTELLNKERN.COM Astell&Kern has been offering a range of impressive music players for some time now, with models tailored for all kinds of budget. Planned to go on sale later this month, the Kann Kube is the second model in its Kann series that saw the original priced at £899. UK pricing is yet to be confirmed for the Kann Kube, but the company says it will offer a more powerful amplifier (12V RMS via balanced connection) with selectable low, mid and high gain modes to enable it to drive a wide selection of headphones. A new amplifier design sees the Kube employ two eight-channel ESS Sabre ES9038PRO DACs in a dual-mono configuration, said to provide a wider soundstage and better stereo separation.…

PRICE: £1,400 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 0203 9368088 WEB: TEAC-AUDIO.EU Announcing the latest model to join its 505 Reference Series, the AX-505 is an integrated amplifier rated at 2x 70W into 8ohm. The half-width, all-metal chassis measures 290 x 82 x 264mm (WxHxD), and the font panel sports a pair of eye-catching meters that track musical levels as they ebb and flow. For its power amplifier stage the Japanese company has employed a new cool-running and energy-efficient TEAC-tuned Ncore module by Hypex, and the AX-505 claims to offer clear sound with low distortion and excellent signal-to-noise ratio. Carefully chosen components, from MUSE op-amps in the analogue section to a ladder-resistor type volume control, help it to deliver audio signals with true dynamism and musical verve, says the maker. Its passive-cooling design…

WE LAST DID a roundup of CD players five years ago in issue 383 – and boy, how times have changed! Back then, we all knew that things weren’t standing still in digital audio, yet they hadn’t actually transitioned because sales were still holding up, and the world was nowhere near ready to switch to streaming. The models we tested were all pretty similar; none of them had DAC functionality, while the idea of a network-attached universal digital music player was beyond most imaginations. The only ‘whiz-bang’ feature to get audiophiles hot under the collar, so to speak, was the inclusion of upsampling on some of the test machines. Also, one had a slot-loading disc mechanism, which seemed terribly significant and sophisticated for the time… Some 36 years since the…

While the Cyrus makes no concessions to modernity and the Denon does so through the back door, Marantz’s ND8006 heartily embraces today’s world with both arms. It plays a multitude of music media including CD, CD-R/RW (MP3/WMA), AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth, as well as streaming internet radio or from your home NAS drive, Spotify Connect, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer and more. There’s also full DAC functionality with multiple inputs, so it integrates a host of other digital sources too. In other words, Marantz has shoehorned its former NA8005 streamer and SA8005 (HFC 390) silver disc player together into one box. The only notable omission is the lack of SACD playback, which won’t be an issue for most people. All this functionality means that Marantz has slightly skimped on the build;…

There’s something really quite Citroënesque about this player. Like those classic spaceship-like French cars of yore, it has an other-worldly feel. The finish isn’t especially good, but you get the sense that underneath the sheet metalwork there’s some great engineering going on. The fact that it’s made in China in the Shanling factory guarantees decent build quality, but it’s still nowhere near as swish to look at as the Japanese machines in this group. This is yet another player with a venerable Wolfson DAC, in this case the evergreen WM8740, capable of handling signals up to 24-bit/192kHz. Inside there’s an R-core power transformer, and round the back you’ll see balanced XLR analogue outputs as well as RCA phono sockets (see box). There’s also the option of using the machine as…

Darling, it’s a life of surprises”, or so sang Prefab Sprout singer/songwriter Paddy McaLoon. He’s right you know, and hi-fi never fails to cause one’s eyebrows to twitch. Just when you think things are going stale, along comes an interesting new brand and suddenly things change – just a little. Actually, there is nothing new about YBA, because Yves-Bernard André launched it way back in 1981 in his native France. Being an electronics professor, he was understandably less gifted in the logistics of selling than he was in circuit design. The result was that, in the UK at least, until recently the company was one of hi-fi’s best kept secrets. YBA has, of course, been through many twists and turns since its inception and is now owned by Shanling with…

If you are the sort of music lover who has the patience, and skill where building your own music server seems like a logical thing to do, you are already likely to be familiar with Volumio’s open-source software. Unlike the playback software options from our recent Group Test (HFC 448), Volumio is a complete operating system designed to be run on devices such as a Raspberry Pi. Primo represents the first dedicated hardware for the platform that’s installed on an ASUS Tinkerboard – a single-board computer built around an ARM processor running Linux – and offers hefty decoding horsepower. This has been combined with an ESS ES9028Q2M DAC to enable it to handle PCM audio files up to 32-bit/768kHz and DSD512. It’s supported by AirPlay and aptX Bluetooth, making it…

Figures hot off the IFPI Global Music Report 2019 confirm the recorded music market has grown 9.7 percent to a value of $19.1 billion. This is now the fourth consecutive year of growth, so there’s some reason to be cheerful, right? It’s good, but we’re still not back to the market valuation from 2006 – although the upward trajectory is encouraging. By far the biggest winner is streaming, with revenues growing 34 percent to now account for 47 percent of all global revenue, primarily driven by a large 32.9 percent increase in paid subscription streaming. There was a 10.1 percent decline in revenue from physical media and a 21.2 percent decline in download revenue, so the attraction of ‘owning’ music is still sliding. Although vinyl is still bucking this trend,…

Depending on your personal perspective, 22 years might not seem that long. In the context of the centre of Nottingham, where parts of the city’s castle are approaching their thousandth birthday, it’s a blink of an eye. In audio terms, though, it covers one of the greatest periods of upheaval; the rise and fall of multi-channel, the arrival of custom installation and the move away from physical formats. Through this, Castle Sound & Vision has occupied the same spot in the shadow of the castle it is named after. Founder and owner Jeff Allen has adopted a straightforward philosophy that has undoubtedly helped him navigate the last two decades. The portfolio takes a core of highly regarded brands and fleshes them out with smaller companies that add to the flexibility…

From pop pin-up to existential crooner and on to avant garde outlier, the career trajectory of Scott Walker is perhaps unparalleled in modern music. “I have long since stopped worrying about fitting in in any way,” he said in 2008. “I’m an outsider for sure, and that suits me fine.” In a way he always was, although the contrast between his early popstar self and the serious and experimental artist of later years could not have been greater. The wild variations of his output meant fans required perseverance and an open mind to stay with him through his changes of musical persona. Yet many did – and he was lionised as an art-rock genius by many of his fellow musicians. “He’s been my idol since I was a kid,” David…

FURUTECH ROXY £233 for 1.5M TELEPHONE: 0118 9814238 WEBSITE: soundfowndations.co.uk TESTED: HFC 447 Slotting this mains power cable into your amp of choice removes a layer of glare adding extra detail to music. SOUNDECK DAMPING FEET £52 FOR A PACK OF FOUR TELEPHONE: 0191 2590700 WEBSITE: soundeck.bigcartel.com TESTED: HFC 448 An affordable solution for isolation of your integrated amplifier, these feet deliver subtle sonic benefits. CAIG DEOXIT GOLD £6.95 TELEPHONE: 01733 350878 WEBSITE: analogueseduction.net TESTED: HFC 449 Cleaning up your amplifier’s contacts results in a smoother and more open performance even on new equipment. BLACK RHODIUM ALLEGRETTO £240 FOR 1M TELEPHONE: 01332 342233 WEBSITE: blackrhodium.co.uk TESTED: HFC 446 Employing this beautifully styled 75ohm digital coaxial interconnect results in a deeper and wider soundstage, adding greater presence to music. KIMBER KABLE 4PR £120 FOR 2.5M…

FINDING AN ELEGANT and non-intrusive way of automatically lifting a tonearm as it reaches the run-out groove at the end of a record has often been a challenge. Audio-Technica’s AT6006 safety raiser first appeared in the seventies and was probably the most successful of such devices, but production ceased many years ago. Increasing demand since has seen second-hand devices selling for silly money on auction sites, so my discovery that Audio-Technica has introduced an updated version in the form of the AT6006R is good news indeed. Welcome lift The new device works the same as the original and you’re guided through the set-up process by the simple instructions. Once the end of the record is reached, the tonearm pushes on the tiny wire with a yellow ball on it and…

PRICE: £210-£660 AVAILABLE: JUNE CONTACT: 0113 2771441 WEB: EU.AUDIO-TECHNICA.COM FIRST INTRODUCED IN 1987, Audio-Technica’s AT-OC9 moving-coil cartridge series is now on to its fourth generation, which was unveiled at the High-End show held in Munich at the beginning of May. The revised series incorporates five designs all with a rigid aluminium bodies and threaded holes that utilise an aluminium cantilever for the elliptical and nude elliptical models and a boron cantilever for the microlinear, shibata and special line contact models. All options employ neodymium magnets, while the AT-OC9XEB (£210) with bonded elliptical stylus and AT-OC9XEN (£300) with nude elliptical stylus both feature a pure iron yoke, and the AT-OC9XML (£480) with microline stylus, AT-OC9XSH (£570) with shibata stylus and AT-OC9XSL £660 with special line contact feature a permendur yolk. Matching…

This company has been making CD spinners for over 30 years – that’s as part of Mission in the early years of silver disc in the eighties and then latterly as its own brand. That’s impressive enough, but think on this: since the nineties Cyrus’ CD players have used the same case that the CD i now has. It still oozes quality and looks great; timeless and modern, it contributes enormously to the classy feel of the machine. The only change has been a move to a slot-loading mechanism – which is far nicer to use than the old drawer loaded option – and this is down to the fitment of the company’s bespoke Servo Evolution transport (see box). The CD i is so much more than just its mechanism,…

Following the modernity of the Marantz, comes the modesty of the Musical Fidelity. This isn’t a do-it-all player, instead being a more humble option with DAC functionality. This company has been making silver disc spinners since the late eighties, and has produced a long line of quirky designs that always seem to sound good. The M3scd continues this tradition, although I would also add that it’s one of Musical Fidelity’s most agreeable-looking products for quite a long time. It’s handsome, with a subtly understated look and fine build quality – plus a finish that’s far less gaudy than the Denon or Marantz, making it feel like a far more expensive bit of kit than it actually is (see box). The company claims “excellent technical performance” for this machine, and its…

IF THESE SIX silver disc spinners are anything to go by, it is now impossible to buy a poor machine at this price. All are surprisingly good, in their respective ways – unlike just a decade ago, for example, when it was far more hit and miss. As the lowest-scoring player here, the Cyrus CD i is a pleasant performer that’s held back, I suspect, by the lack of its matching PSX-R2 power supply, which adds around £795 to the total cost. As supplied, it’s smooth, musical and fun, but lacks focus and grip. The Denon DCD-1600NE is a very decent player too; it does a lot really well and in some systems, especially mid-forward ones, will work brilliantly. Its sound is highly accomplished in respect of soundstaging and bass,…

Building a starter system used to follow a traditional pattern that involved establishing a budget and dividing it roughly equally between source, amp and loudspeaker. Fast forward to the present day and things are rather different. You can build a system based on the ‘classic’ way of doing things, but as the concept of a piece of source equipment becomes increasingly intangible there are numerous speaker systems with built-in amplification and wireless music streaming capabilities. The YU6 looks like a traditional pair of speakers although one is an entirely conventional passive design with a pair of speaker terminals on the back, while the other is powered and incorporates an internal amplifier and selection of physical and wireless connection options. The built-in Class D amp claims 100W of peak power to…

Replacing both existing DS and DS+ models with a smaller, simpler design, the Phono Box S2 Ultra has adjustable loading and impedance options to offer a useful degree of setup flexibility. But the most notable aspect of the new design is that it is fully discrete, with no op-amps in the circuit. Both of these features are rare but not unheard of at the price point and the intention with both aspects is the reduction of unwanted noise. Another design feature is the use of polystyrene capacitors in key parts of the circuit and a split RIAA circuit so that it adheres closely to the recognised equalisation curve. The S2 Ultra uses an external wall-wart type PSU, which means there should be a reduction in noise levels in comparison with…

I’ve never been to the High-End show in Munich and, again, missed my chance earlier in May. An annual celebration of all that’s good, great and preposterously expensive in Hi-Fi, I’m sure a lot of visitors must leave with scuff marks on their chins. It’s a jaws-hitting-the-floor kind of event. On returning from the show a few years ago, a friend said he’d listened to a pair of floorstanders (designed for the larger living room) that cost a smidge over £1,000,000, but it’s what he said next that was interesting to me. Before he was aware of the price, he thought the lofty towers sounded very tasty. After the penny dropped, so to speak, they suddenly sounded a bit naff. Nothing had changed but his attitude. An extreme example, maybe,…

I was watching my Kiseki Blue NOS moving-coil cartridge a short while ago and managed to convince myself that it was playing closer to the record than when I originally set it up. As the days passed I became certain it was getting progressively closer, until the time came when I played an old slightly warped LP and, sure enough, the bottom of the cartridge touched the record. An email to the cartridge manufacturer in Holland (Herman van den Dungen, aka Mr Kiseki) followed and Mr van den Dungen pointed me in the direction of an expert based in the UK – Dominic Harper of Northwest Analogue (northwestanalogue.com) who he felt would be able to help me out. A phone conversation with Dominic ensued, and he felt it might be…

COMBINING ELEMENTS OF Chord’s Signature Reference/XL cable with its Epic speaker cable, Epic XL loudspeaker wire boasts internal conductors that are separately screened with a high-density braid and foil shield. They are insulated with a special soft PVC internal jacket to correctly space the shielding and minimise mechanical noise. The cable is finished in a translucent outer jacket to further reduce unwanted mechanical noise. The conductors are twisted at each end and clamped in place before being terminated with either banana or spade connectors. Keeping it reel Connecting the Epic XL cable between my valve monoblocks and transmission line speakers, I play a jazz recording on my Studer A810 reel-to-reel tape deck with a Yarlung Records 15IPS copy master tape of The Yuko Mabuchi Trio. The piano playing during the…