Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2019 i Hi-Fi Choice

PRICE: £2,999 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 01279 822800 WEB: ASTELLNKERN.COM FOLLOWING THE ANNOUNCEMENT of its Kann Kube back in the June issue, portable music player specialist Astell&Kern has unveiled its new flagship. Expected to cost £2,999 when it goes on sale this month, the A&ultima SP2000 was shown at Munich’s High-End show back in May and is its most sophisticated model yet, offering support for PCM music files up to 32-bit/768kHz and native DSD512 bit-to-bit playback. The new design is available finished in copper casework (pictured) or stainless steel, and claims greater power output than ever before to both balanced and unbalanced headphone jacks. It employs two AK4499EQ DACs, arranged in a dual-mono configuration and also features an octa-core processor for slick menu navigation and library browsing, a 5in touchscreen, 512GB…

PRICE: £2,199-£3,499 AVAILABLE: JULY CONTACT: 01722 426600 WEB: NAIMAUDIO.COM AS WE GO to press on this issue, Salisburybased hi-fi specialist Naim Audio has just unveiled plans for its third-generation Nait and Supernait integrated amplifiers. Available from Naim’s global network of retailers at the end of July, the Nait XS3 – priced at £2,199 – and Supernait 3 (pictured) – priced at £3,499 – both include a built-in moving-magnet phono stage based on classic Naim designs that utilise superior components in three carefully designed circuit stages to achieve low noise and extend RIAA equalisation. The updated models claim to have upgraded power amplifier sections to offer improved power handling and sound quality, but the power output of the latestgeneration models is yet to be specified. Naim Audio MD, Charlie Henderson says:…

When Naim launched its original Mu-so back in 2014 (HFC 391), the sleek one-box design exuded mass-market appeal and took the Salisbury-based concern from purveyor of specialist hi-fi that worked best with its own components to a company with a product that could easily be sold by a nonspecialist retailer with a high level of confidence to engage those customers looking for a one-box music solution. It turns out Naim was just getting started and since its introduction, Mu-so’s slick features and impressive user friendliness have been developed to fit into components further up the range to the point where its flagship ND 555 network music player (around £20k with dedicated PSU) has some convenience features that the original Mu-so design lacks. As a result, the Mu-so 2nd Generation takes…

CHOOSING A CARTRIDGE is a slightly different process to almost any other piece of hi-fi equipment. Plenty of other categories need at least a cursory nod to compatibility with the rest of your system, but few are as make or break to the system’s replay performance as they are when it comes to selecting the right cartridge. Everything from the weight and height of the cartridge to the impedance that it presents to a system will have an effect on how it performs. To make matters even more complex, the type of cartridge design also needs to be taken into account. At the most affordable end of the market, this isn’t too challenging with a healthy range of versatile moving magnets, but as vinyl setups move further up the pricing…

Extending firmly into high-end territory, Gold Note’s expansive cartridge range boasts a variety of high and low-output moving-coil designs. The Gold is the more expensive of only two moving-magnet designs in the Vasari range and is built to be supplied packaged with some of Gold Note’s more affordable turntables, but is also sold separately. It includes a mix of conventional features with some unusual touches and is designed to work into a conventional moving-magnet input, presenting impedance and capacitance figures in keeping with this. The 4mV output is healthy enough to result in decent gain in most systems. The nude elliptical stylus is mounted on a relatively short aluminium cantilever, mounted well forward in the body. One of the more unusual features is that the magnets in the generator assembly…

Designed with many of the principles of the Apheta 2 moving-coil cartridge (HFC 425) in mind – but at a substantially lower price– the Ania differs from the other two low-output moving-coil designs in the group and indeed most other models on the market. This is because it has no suspension on the cantilever as Rega claims that such an arrangement stretches and sags over time, which affects performance. To make this possible, the Ania uses a tiny cross-shaped winding, which also helps to keep the mass down. This cantilever is aluminium and supports a nude elliptical stylus. Rega quotes the output as being 0.4mV, which while certainly low is not beyond most moving-coil phono stages. The body that this is placed in is made from polyphenylene sulphide, which is…

Bluesound’s recently updated ecosystem of products has enabled the brand to go from capable contender to a major force in the world of networked audio systems. Helped by the inclusion of the natty BluOS operating system – also found on NAD’s M10 streaming amplifier (HFC 451) – there’s a compatible component for pretty much any role in today’s connected home. The Vault 2i is a 2TB network hard drive, CD ripper and streamer, making it one of the more specialised products in the company’s range. Effectively, it is a music server that really only works as part of the BluOS ecosystem of products. It can rip CDs direct to its internal storage via the slot-loading disc mechanism, but its library of content cannot be seen by any other UPnP or…

Reviewing the new Wharfedale Heritage series Linton standmount speaker (see p46) was a fascinating moment for me, for several reasons. I grew up with Wharfedale speakers of the seventies; my dad’s first ever real ‘hi-fi’ speaker was a Wharfedale Chevin XP, which was duly upgraded to Denton 2XPs, and then Linton XP2s. Back in the middle to late part of that decade, this was the ‘affordable audiophile’ choice, products with a whiff of real hi-fi sound in an attractive and affordable package. The new Linton looks superficially similar to its predecessor, but is actually larger even than the top of that old model range, the Glendale. Indeed, it’s bigger than Wharfedale’s then high-end Dovedale SP2. In other words, designer Peter Comeau hasn’t kept as close to the original as you…

We’re all trying to be greener now, thanks to the valiant campaigning efforts of Sir David Attenborough and others in persuading us to reduce our carbon footprint. I compost our household food waste, turn off the lights when leaving a room, eat organic and take my own reusable bags to the supermarket. I’m sure most environmentally responsible HFC readers do much the same. But have you ever stopped to consider the negative impact of how we listen to music? I confess it had never even occurred to me, although if pressed I would have guessed that streaming has less of a carbon footprint than physical forms such as vinyl and CD. At least, I hadn’t thought about it until I was sent a recent report by Sharon George and Deirdre…

A NEW SCREENED mains power cable, the Eos dd utilises technology similar to that found in the EOS 4dd (HFC 415). The ‘dd’ refers to the dual drain technology, designed to act as a filter against incoming RF AC power contamination. This is achieved by dumping any airborne and electromagnetic disturbance effects rapidly to earth, removing them from the AC power feed to your equipment. Rhapsody in blue The Eos dd employs Atlas Cables’ proprietary high-purity, low-resistance oxygen free copper (OFC) conductors. These are insulated with a stabilised PVC dielectric and, like the dual drain conductors, are surrounded with a hybrid carbon-loaded screen incorporating Atlas’ anti-vibration filler. The whole construction is then sheathed in a royal blue PVC sleeve. The cable is terminated as standard with IEC and 13A connectors.…

As the name suggests, this vinyl emporium is home to a treasure trove of outernational treats with international appeal. Cosmos is the London outpost of two Toronto record stores founded by Aki Abe a little over 20 years ago. “The name comes from a Sun Ra record,” explains enthusiastic owner Derek, simultaneously recommending funk obscurities to two seriously focused crate diggers. “If memory serves, when Aki was opening his first shop he was zoning out to Moonship Journey from that LP and decided to go with Cosmos in tribute.” The compact store has been a staple of East London for almost four years, making the area a draw for vinyl junkies, as experimental haven World Of Echo (HFC 446) and heavy metal hangout Crypt Of The Wizard are within striking…

Six hi-fi components that aim to strike the perfect balance between value and quality to deliver "great British sound" PRICE: £229-£449 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 0207 5515422 WEB: CAMBRIDGEAUDIO.COM THE ALL-NEW AX series from Cambridge Audio, demonstrates the company’s commitment to all things two-channel with the introduction of six new components that aim to strike the perfect balance between value and quality to deliver a pure audio experience that simply reflects the artist’s intentions in what the London-based audio specialists has dubbed its “great British sound”. Consisting of a pair of CD players, two integrated amplifiers and a brace of stereo receivers, the AX range takes design and innovation cues from the company’s existing CX and Edge series components. The AXC25 (pictured) and AXC35 CD players are priced at £229 and…

PRICE: £1,899 & £5,499 AVAILABLE: AUGUST CONTACT: +1 (302) 3145555 WEB: AURALIC.COM Founded in 2009, Auralic quickly earned a reputation for its range of high-quality streaming models and has now unveiled plans to launch two extra components – which go on sale this summer – and expand its networked digital source range even further. Starting with the more aff ordable of the new additions, the £1,899 Altair G1 is an updated version of the original Altair preamp/DAC/streamer all-in-one built around the series matching Aries G1 chassis with 4in colour display. It claims to benefit from several updates taken straight from the company’s G1 and G2 series designs and is fitted with an ESS 9038Q2M DAC chipset and sports a Tesla G2 processor with 2GB of memory. It supports Tidal, Qobuz…

PRICE: £599 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 0203 9368088 WEB: TEAC-AUDIO.EU TEAC unveils the TN-4D plug ’n’ play direct-drive turntable package with an unusually low profile, thanks to the use of a newly developed brushless DC servo motor. Using a feedback control system, it claims to achieve crystal-locked speed stability and smoother rotation in both 33 and 45rpm while also eliminating the cogging phenomenon often associated with direct-drive rotary motors. Priced at £599, it’s packaged with a pre-installed Oyster MM cartridge supplied by US manufacturer Sumiko. A built-in MM phono stage enables users to connect the TN-4D deck directly to the line-level input of any amplifier, while a USB port on the back panel makes it possible to digitally archive vinyl via a PC/Mac. The S-shaped tonearm employs knife-edge, pivot-point bearings and…

PRICE: £TBC AVAILABLE: AUTUMN CONTACT: 01223 203200 WEB: ARCAM.CO.UK Today’s integrated amplifiers are far more versatile than they were even just a few years ago, with many designs including a digital source to access home networked music and external streaming music services too. Arcam’s newly announced SA30 integrated flagship is among this new breed of designs, and along with its Class G amplification technology that claims 2x 180W into 8ohm and 2x 220W into 4, it’s a UPnP streamer compatible with GoogleCast, AirPlay 2 and can be used as a Roon endpoint. MQA support is also on board, meaning it’s compatible with content from Tidal Masters. Equipped with an ESS Sabre ESS9038 DAC chip, it can handle all digital signals – either via its internal digital connectivity or the four…

As the second most affordable cartridge in Audio-Technica’s five-strong fourthgeneration OC9 range, the ‘EN’ refers to the use of an elliptical nude stylus that is mounted to an aluminium pipe type cantilever. This is mated to an assembly utilising two coils rather than the usual one, which is something of an A-T trademark. The coils are made from copper wire that is created using the Ohno Continuous Casting process (PCOCC), which reduces the formation of unwanted oxides in the copper itself. The body is made from aluminium and is designed to keep unwanted resonance to a minimum. It resembles older versions of the OC9 in terms of the basic shape and size, but is all new and features a threaded body that dramatically simplifies fitting (see boxout). Output is 0.35mV,…

THERE ISN’T A poor performer in the group and ranking any one of them in sixth place feels unduly harsh, but this is the nature of Group Tests. The Grado Reference Platinum2 is quirky in both looks and design, but if your tastes err towards classical and jazz music in particular – and your setup can accommodate it – this is a sensational cartridge – but not a true all-rounder. In the case of the Gold Note Vasari Gold, this is a refined and consistently enjoyable performer that will bring civility to any system you use it in, but it does lack for a little excitement at times. The Pro-Ject Pick-IT DS2 and Cambridge Audio Alva MC tie for third place. The Pro-Ject is a big cartridge, but one that…

As far as analogue addicts are concerned, 1991 was not a happy time. Had you resisted the urge to buy a compact disc player throughout the eighties – thinking that the reality didn’t match the hype – it now felt like you were about to be forced to go digital anyway. This was due to two things; the number of new LPs in record shops was dropping like a stone and fewer turntables, tonearms and cartridges were being sold. It seemed the worst time to launch a new turntable, but Pro-Ject’s Heinz Lichtenegger didn’t see things in quite these terms. Speaking to me recently in Antwerp, he explained that when mass market manufacturers move out of a market, “little guys” can move in and do well. Big corporates need large…

You can’t sit idly by and wait for people to buy hi-fi ”, says Edinburgh-based Hi-Fi Corner’s supremo Struan Mackenzie. “Fashions change and what people want in their houses is changing. What we’ve had to do is alter the retail experience – the customer experience – because the internet has changed so much. We as a nation are now very comfortable buying high-value things online, which we didn’t used to be. And so the question begs itself: why would you then go to a retailer? The answer is simple – you’d only go if the experience and service is way, better than the internet. That’s the offering we have to give people – our service, our staff and actually having a facility that allows customers to listen to the products…

As a reviewer, I try to be as open-minded as possible to technology developments. If my initial response to a product leaves me struggling to understand its purpose, I always try to consider how it came into being in the first place. There are exceptions – I’m looking at you Google Glass – but generally this approach has helped me be broad minded when it comes to technological innovation. It’s fairly obvious how voice control has come about. My car has a voice-activated phone system, which makes it so much safer to drive that I see it as an essential addition for future purchases. Growing up in the eighties and as a big fan of the TV series Knight Rider, I like the idea of artificial intelligence developing to the…

A modern-day hi-fi dealer is pulled in a number of different directions. For every customer who wants a hi-fi system, there will be others seeking home cinema or custom install advice. Essex-based Rayleigh Hi-Fi has hit upon a unique solution to meeting these disparate needs. With three stores in close proximity – the other two are in Chelmsford and Southend – rather than having them all fight for the same customer, each has its own discipline. In Rayleigh’s case this is two-channel hi-fi and the store team of Glen Furness, Andy Page and Joe Phillips are all keen advocates of stereo. They have quite the reputation to live up to as well. The business has been trading for 48 years, 46 of which have been from their current high street…

PRICE: £299 TELEPHONE: 01285 643088 WEB: elac.com REVIEWED: HFC 442 Two years after the game-changing Debut range comes the Debut 2.0, designed by Andrew Jones. The driver lineup is ostensibly as before, with an aramid fibre bass/midrange driver crossing over to a 25mm cloth dome tweeter. It’s under the skin where things have changed a bit more than first appearances suggest. The new mid/bass driver is the same size and basic material, but the Aramid weave is different and the rear of the cone is coated with damping material. A new convex dust cap is also fitted, which should offer a smoother roll-off at the top end and, thus, lower distortion. In addition, the bass port has moved from the rear to the front, allowing greater placement flexibility. Sound quality…

PRICE: £200 WEB: wharfedale.co.uk REVIEWED: HFC 446 As the larger of two standmounts in Wharfedale’s four-strong range, the D320 borrows a number of parts from the popular Diamond 11 Series – but is intriguingly different in other aspects. The mid/bass driver is a 130mm woven Kevlar design partnered with a long-throw driver system that’s also found on the current Diamond lineup. The 25mm soft-dome tweeter is closely related to the version found in the Diamond 11 and a computer-designed crossover mates the two drivers together. The most interesting departure from usual Wharfedale designs is the position of the bass port on the underside of the cabinet so it remains unaffected by proximity to walls. Sound quality Nils Frahm’s Wintermusik reveals a soundstage that extends well beyond the cabinets and a…

THE NOVA ONE is a little different to the majority of mains treatment products we have looked at from IsoTek as it is a single-outlet device that is designed to be used in a more specific way. IsoTek makes a trio of products in the range – the Genesis One, Titan One and Nova One you see here. The Titan One is designed for high-voltage applications such as amplification, while the Genesis One is a mains regenerator for powering a single piece of source equipment. Power play The Nova One is something of a halfway house. It isn’t designed for out-and-out voltage applications and neither is it a regenerator. Instead, it is designed to combat both Differential Mode mains noise (the noise inherent in power supplies and created by other…

Although memorable for sharing the name with one of Stanley Kubrick’s greatest cinematic masterpieces, 2001 is perhaps more significant for an innovation that passed by largely unnoticed at the time. The year that saw the passing of George Harrison and BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s Delia Derbyshire and the not so sad demise of The Spice Girls, also saw the birth of a new piece of software by a charismatic California-based entrepreneur. The man in black was Steve Jobs and, although we didn’t know it at the time, his new iTunes software was about to change the way that the world consumed music forever. Turn the clock back a few years earlier to 1999 and the music industry was in a state of mild panic as a 19-year-old by the name of…

• Austrian turntable brand Pro-Ject has announced its new budgetorientated T-Line range. Boasting premium materials, stylish aesthetics, ease of setup and a rich, lively sound, each belt-drive deck comes pre-fitted with an Ortofon OM 5E cartridge and is set up in the factory, meaning the T1 is ready to play straight out of the box. There are three models in the range starting with the standard output T1 (£239) with manual speed change; T1 Phono SB (£289) with built-in speed control and moving-magnet phono stage; and the T1 BT (£289) with switchable moving-magnet phono stage and Bluetooth wireless connectivity. Finished in gloss black, matte white or walnut, all T-Line models come with a platter mat and detachable lid. HENLEYAUDIO.CO.UK…

Hi-Fi Choice employs the most methodical test and measurement regime in the business. Here’s how we do it… CARTRIDGES GROUP TEST THE MAIN CHALLENGE to efficient cartridge testing is the time it takes to remove and replace each model, which can affect the audio memory that makes standard A-B comparisons effective. To minimise the changeover time, the reference deck is a Technics SL-1200G direct-drive turntable (HFC 418), which proves to be a stable and consistent spinner and has the advantage of an arm with a detachable headshell. For test purposes, six identical headshells each mount a test cartridge to help bring changeover time and resetting the tracking force to around one minute. A Rega Atlas stylus gauge (HFC 426) is used to set tracking force and a Technics compatible protractor…

A newcomer to phono cartridges, the Alva MC is Cambridge Audio’s first in its 50-year history. Though originally developed to partner the company’s £1,500 Alva TT turntable – where it comes pre-fitted – it’s also available to purchase separately. This is the only high-output moving coil in the test. Cambridge Audio says that it can be used in a conventional moving-magnet input on a phono stage and in terms of the resistance and capacitance figures, this is true. The quoted 2mV output is less than half of either of the moving-magnet designs here, which means it might struggle in setups with limited gain. The design is also something of a departure from the other models here. It is the only exposed cantilever design and Cambridge says that this is to…

Sticking to a small number of budget phono cartridges in its range for several years, Pro-Ject has recently expanded its lineup to include a low-output moving-coil design. The Pick-IT DS2 has been designed by Pro-Ject, but is built by specialist Ortofon – which is not too surprising given the close relationship between the two over the years. The specification is very much in keeping with the rest of the group. It features a nude elliptical stylus that is mounted in a cantilever of unspecified material. The coils that generate the output are made from 4N copper and the generator provides an output of 0.5mV, which is the highest of the three low-output designs here and should make the Pick-IT DS2 a little less demanding on phono stages. The only slight…

Over the last few years Silicon Valley’s tech giants have been busy developing reliable voice control, bringing a new level of convenience and futuristic element to even the most traditional home appliances. As the next big thing, an increasing number of active loudspeaker manufactures have begun to incorporate voice assistant technology into their new designs and Harman Kardon’s Citation speaker series is one of the latest to do so and comes integrated with Google Assistant. The Citation range comprises four single-chassis designs that include the One, 100, 300 and 500 models plus floorstanding stereo Tower speakers as well as a soundbar, subwoofer and a surround speaker pair aimed at multi-channel setups. The Citation 300 is the smaller of two lozengeshaped single-chassis designs and is built around two 20mm tweeters supported…

How much do I want to own an audiophil-equality reel-to-reel tape recorder? On one level, badly. Right now, retro doesn’t get any cooler than rotating tape reels. It’s Pulp Fiction’s Mia Wallace dancing to Urge Overkill’s Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon played on a black TEAC X-2000R sitting on a white shelf against a white wall in the achingly tasteful pad. A great Tarantino moment, Uma Thurman pressing play with an evocative mechanical ‘click’ collapses the edifice that invisible digital streaming music has become for many. This is how hi-fi should be, a fabulous chunk of sexy, knob-festooned, kinetic furniture inviting physical involvement with a medium that, after all, informs the highest praise a reviewer can bestow when assessing sound quality: ‘master tape-like’. Job done. The thought alone is…

Various Artists Woodstock – Back To The Garden: 50th Anniversary Collection 10x CD boxset Rhino EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT if you remember the sixties, you weren’t there – and the cliche may be particularly applicable to the 500,000 fortunate enough to attend the legendary “three days of peace, love and music” at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. Indeed, those who ignored the famous warning captured in Michael Wadleigh’s Oscar-winning film to avoid the mind-warping “brown acid” may still be lost in space. Fifty years on, those that weren’t there can now vicariously enjoy the thrills and spills of the daddy of all rock festivals with a 38-CD boxed set offering a complete chronological reconstruction of the event from Richie Havens opening the cavalcade with Get Together to The Jimi Hendrix Experience…

Having taken the time and care to pull together the best components for your beloved hi-fi, it’s all too easy to forget the last important factor – fine tuning the room that you listen to your music in. There are nearly as many myths about how to go about this as there are different speakers to chose from and the real trick is separating the fact from the fiction. Some say that you should aim to create as close to an anechoic chamber (a room where all sound reflections are completely absorbed by the surfaces) as possible, while others believe that it’s a good idea to stick egg boxes up on the walls. The truth is that you shouldn’t need to go to such extreme measures and that subtle tweaks…

AUDIOQUEST ROCKET 22 £20/M TELEPHONE: 01249 848873 WEBSITE: audioquest.com TESTED: HFC 441 The ideal budget loudspeaker cable, the Rocket 22 is musical, involving and is impressive with quiet moments as it with dynamics. QUADRASPIRE QPLUS ADVANCED £300 FOR FOUR TELEPHONE: 01761 452178 WEBSITE: quadraspire.co.uk TESTED: HFC 448 Delivers isolation without breaking the bank, resulting in improved three-dimensionality and a supremely low noise floor. ATACAMA AUDIO MOSECO XL600 £300 TELEPHONE: 01455 283251 WEBSITE: atacama-audio.co.uk TESTED: HFC 425 Speaker stands that look every bit as good as they sound. Fill them with Atabite filler to enjoy a tighter and punchier bass. RUSS ANDREWS RF ZAPPERATOR £148/PAIR TELEPHONE: 01539 797300 WEBSITE: russandrews.com TESTED: HFC 420 Connect to your speaker’s binding posts to absorb RFI and reduce noise, resulting in a wider soundstage and superior bass. CAIG DEOXIT…

THERE WILL BE howls of derision from audiophiles, as they regard Sony’s new turntable. Everything shouts “toy”, from the fully automatic design to the relatively lightweight and plasticky build. Oh, and then there’s the tonearm, which has an integral counterweight. But the final feature that will send purists into paroxysms of anger is the fact that this deck has Bluetooth built in. When you’ve got over the shock, I’d like to explain the reason for featuring this cheap turntable in a real hi-fi magazine. Firstly, it works far better than it looks like it’s going to and secondly, some people do really want a product like this. Whether it’s for the second or even third system, what this dinky deck lets you do is stream your LPs to a Bluetooth…

AS AN UPGRADE to its Minuet interconnect, Black Rhodium has launched the Calypso RCA interconnect. Like the Minuet, the cable is screened and employs silver-plated copper wire for the signal conductors. However, it utilises higher purity conductors and has additional layers of RFI screening. The Calypso comes in 0.5m and 1m stereo pairs. Single subwoofer lengths are also available. Hourglass figure The Calypso sports a triple screening arrangement – a silver-plated copper braided screen that claims to provide 94 percent coverage, an aluminium foil wrapping and a further braided screen. Terminating the cable are Black Rhodium’s gold-plated ‘Hourglass Silhouette’ RCA plugs. The directionality of the cables is shown by printed arrows on the heatshrink sleeving of the RFI-reducing central ferrite tube. With the cables installed between my preamp and monoblocks…