Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2019 i Hi-Fi Choice

After several years of steady growth, the number of newbie and returning vinyl fans looks as though it is finally beginning to plateau and the rate of new entry-level decks being introduced by manufacturers begins to show signs of slowing too. But for those already smitten by the format and looking to take the next step up the vinyl playback ladder, this month's Group Test – starting on p24 – is for you, with six sophisticated players designed to show how a mid-priced deck can bring even greater levels of detail and pace over the entry-level spinner that got many of us started. The turntable market has changed massively in the last few years and, with so many models vying for attention, these are boon times for buyers. I'm confident…

Known for its award-winning series of USB DACs that launched in 2012 with the original DragonFly, AudioQuest has announced a new addition to the series with its £269 DragonFly Cobalt flagship. Unveiled in early July, the Cobalt is said to be as much as 10 percent smaller than its predecessors and measures just 19 x 58 x 12mm (WxHxD), uses a more advanced ESS ES9038Q2M DAC and has improved power supply filtering for increased immunity to external interference. Compatible with Apple or Windows-based operating systems or iOS or Android mobile devices, the Cobalt includes AudioQuest’s new DragonTail USB-A (female) to USB-C (male) adapter to accommodate devices fitted with USB-C ports. Look out for our review next month. AUDIOQUEST.COM…

Continuing with its 40th anniversary celebrations, US cable specialist Kimber Kable has launched its Select USB cables with three designs aimed at computer audio fans. The Select USB-Copper is said to feature advanced silver-plated pure-copper conductors for both data and 5V DC power lines, while the Select USB-Hybrid uses a mixture of copper for the power line and the all-important data lines are manufactured from pure silver. Lastly, the top-of-the-range Select USB-Silver employs pure-silver conductors throughout its construction for the ultimate in performance. All three use low-density PTFE insulation, come in 0.5 to 6m lengths and can be specified with different connectors including USB-A-to-B, A-to-C and C-to-C. Prices start from £562.50. RUSSANDREWS.COM…

BOWERS & WILKINS FORMATION DUO/AUDIO £3,500/£600 There’s no doubt about it, what we expect from today’s music setups and how they integrate with other components around the home has shifted dramatically from what we know as traditional hi-fi setups with racks of components. In recent years, the market for upmarket lifestyle solutions has grown enormously as brands adapt and evolve to the demands and expectations of the modern music consumer. For a loudspeaker brand with a respected reputation such as Bowers & Wilkins, this means combining its traditional expertise with passive box-shaped speaker designs into a more elegant aesthetic with streamlined functionality. It’s undoubtedly a tricky balance to get right but the company’s Formation platform, announced in May and introducing four speaker systems and an audio adapter, is designed to…

AMPLIFIER AND PHONO STAGE: ATC CA2 Mk2/P1 pre/power £1,775/£2,350 HFC 397 One of the great tell-it-like-it-is pre/power combos, the CA2 Mk2 preamp also totes a gifted on-board phono stage, configurable internally for MM and MC cartridges. Like the amps themselves, the phono stage has a keen nose for the unvarnished truth and is therefore the ideal tool for this round up if you want to know what’s really going on. LOUDSPEAKER: Spendor A7 £2,995 HFC 440 This svelte, two-way’s unfrilly appearance drops a strong hint about its approach to business, which is to step aside and let the music make the running. It’s informative in the best possible way: fast, clear and open with fine dynamic expression, great bass and an unerring instinct for the musical pulse. If any on…

PHONO STAGE: Lindemann Limetree Phono £595 HFC 441 The Lindemann is one of the most outstanding phono stages under £1,000 we’ve tested of late and it took the 2018 AVTech Media award in its category, thanks to its wonderfully effortless yet engaging presentation that works with a wide selection of different cartridges. MOVING-MAGNET CARTRIDGE: Ortofon 2M Blue £184 HFC 375 Slightly up-market sibling of the 2M Red used by a number of the decks in this test, the 2M Blue enjoys features borrowed from Ortofon’s more expensive models. It’s wellbuilt, easy to install – thanks to its pre-threaded mounts – and, with a healthy output, offers a clear and open presentation with plenty of bite. STYLUS CLEANER: DS Audio ST-50 £78 HFC 437 A clean stylus performs better and will…

LINDEMANN LIMETREE BRIDGE £745 Continuing with its 25th anniversary series of more affordable components, Lindemann’s Limetree Bridge is a little more unusual than the similarly sized Phono and Headphone models we saw back in HFC 441 and 444 respectively. This is a network audio player, but it’s been designed to offer specific functionality that is different to almost anything else we’ve seen before. Strictly speaking, the Bridge is a streaming transport with no decoding built in. It connects via the digital optical or coaxial output at the rear to an outboard DAC or amplifier of your choosing that’s equipped with a compatible digital input. There is a USB-A port also, but this is solely for connecting external storage drives. Lindemann says that the Bridge is intended to give older DACs…

In February 1976, Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) became the first album to receive an RIAA platinum award, recognising the fact it sold one million copies in the US. In August 2018 the album was certified 38 times platinum. To my mind, this clearly demonstrates that it’s the songs and the quality of the recordings that have enabled continuous sales over the decades. Many see this as a triumph for good recording and mastering techniques over the commercial pressures that often see much of today’s music stand out by simply making it sound loud. When I speak of music being loud, I am referring to the average level or loudness within the recording. The dynamic range is the difference between the softest and loudest sounds of a recording. If you…

AS A REVIEWER I often get asked to nominate the most memorable gig I’ve ever seen. The Stones in Hyde Park? Led Zep at Knebworth? Bob Marley And The Wailers at the Lyceum? Unforgettable, all of them, but they’re topped by seeing Tinariwen play at the Festival in the Desert in Mali in 2001. At the time the Tuareg guitar band were unknown and without a recording contract. When they took the stage I had no idea what to expect, but was instantly transported by the other-worldly sound of their exotic desert-blues. As the snaking guitar lines and hypnotic rhythms wove their spell, nomadic Tuareg warriors rode their camels through the crowd. Above our heads was a full lunar eclipse. Since then Tinariwen has conquered the world and although I’ve…

Cassius Dreems FLAC 24/96 IF EVER THERE was a record for the summer, this is it. Philippe Cerboneschi and Hubert Blanc-Francard’s dance duo has produced something that’s light, danceable yet full of retro flourishes. Synth stabs and washes – as well as a bit of high-gloss slap funk bass and processed guitar – feel like they come straight from the eighties. Add in soulful lyrics and special guests and this has pop crossover appeal, as well as being equally fit for a club. PH The Raconteurs Help Us Stranger FLAC 24/96 onkyomusic.com THIS EARNS A five-star review not as it’s the best record you’ll hear this month or it reinvents the wheel. No, The Raconteurs’ first album in 11 years simply sounds fantastic on a decent setup turned up loud. Jack…

2x CD Decca JOSEF SUK MAY now be less renowned than compatriots Janáček and Martinů, but his best works, such as the Asrael Symphony and Pohádka (Fairy Tale) are genuine masterpieces of the late romantic style. Asrael is a powerful and dramatic work inspired by the death of Suk′s wife Otilie and father-in-law – the composer Dvořák; while Fairy Tale is a suite formed from incidental music written for the mythological drama Radúz And Mahulena. The performances are excellent. The orchestra is on superb form with full-bodied strings, expressive wind solos and dramatic brass and percussion. Violinist Vodička plays beautifully and Bělohlavek’s interpretations are deeply satisfying. The recorded sound is very effective, with excellent clarity, dynamics, detail and space. The only minor criticisms are that the first violins, lack space; being…

PRICE: £799 TELEPHONE: 03301 222500 WEB: focal.com REVIEWED: HFC 447 A closed-back design, Elegia’s enclosures are claimed to completely isolate the drivers from the outside world. The driver fitted into the earpieces is similar to the one used in the Clear (left) and is a 40mm dynamic type made from an aluminium and magnesium alloy. A little lighter than the company’s open-backed Elear, it uses the same memory foam padding covered in microfibre cloth that’s perforated to help it breathe and assists with avoiding the ‘hot head’ feeling that some rivals cause. Combined with a headband that exerts a firm but not uncomfortable grip, the result is that Elegia is pleasant to wear for longer periods of time. Sound quality Despite being a closed-back design, there is a genuine sense of space…

PRICE: £1,999 TELEPHONE: 0333 2408185 WEB: en-uk.sennheiser.com REVIEWED: HFC 442 Designed to solve the issue of unwanted resonances and limited bass that come with closed-back designs, Sennheiser has come up with Ring Radiator transducers fitted with special Gorilla Glass covers. The concave glass reflects sound waves from the rear of the transducer to an absorber said to minimise resonances. Combined with the relatively large 56mm driver, this results in a good enclosed volume. Three 3m silver-plated OFC cables fitted with gold-plated plugs are also bundled. The unbalanced one is terminated with a 6.35mm standard unbalanced stereo jack plug. The other two are balanced – one with a 4.4mm Pentaconn stereo jack and the other with an XLR-4. Sound quality The HD 820 delivers refined performances across a wide range of musical genres,…

IF YOU CARE about getting the best from your vinyl, it cannot be overstated just how important it is to keep your records clean. New LPs often have residual mould-release agent embedded in the grooves and the only way to properly remove this is with a thorough wet clean. Similarly, second-hand LPs can have all sorts of dirt and grime that has built up over time. Although good practice every time you go to play an LP, simply brushing the surface is not going to remove anything other than residual fluff and all records require a good wet clean to remove accumulated dirt in the grooves. Silence is golden Clearaudio’s Smart Matrix Silent features a powerful, but quiet, 500W vacuum motor. It’s available in a choice of silver or black…

These pages are a must-read if you’re thinking about buying used kit, or if you have hi-fi you want to sell. It’s free – simply submit your ad with no more than 50 words (we reserve the right to edit it if not), remembering to include your email, phone number and county. Simply email your ad to: letters@hifichoice.co.uk. This service is open to private advertisers only. Just one ad per household and please note that images are for illustration only and do not represent what is for sale. FOR SALE AUDIO RESEARCH SP6A valve preamp (vintage very rare, not hybrid) £595 ono. Also rare black Meridian 101b preamp, 104 tuner, 105 (2x mono amps each with power supply), so stacked three-high in pairs £675 ono: 01704 628968 or 07968 769595…

ES: Did the 700 Series act as a starting point for the Duo or just a source of some components? AK: Up until now consumers have had to choose between great sound or convenience. With Formation, we wanted to bring the Bowers & Wilkins’ philosophy of True Sound to wireless audio. None of the products in the Formation Suite are based entirely on other products we already make, but at the same time we have cascaded existing proprietary technologies into them where relevant to maximise performance. Was the decision to use a MESH network to ensure reliability and what are the performance advantages of it? Bowers & Wilkins already has experience of wireless platforms through products like Zeppelin Wireless. We considered all the existing platforms but none were capable of…

MONITOR AUDIO GOLD 300 £4,000 It’s said that politics is the art of making people want what it suits you to let them have. I get the impression hi-fi consumers are at the receiving end of a similar agenda where innovations are pushed in the expectation of eager acceptance by a market hungry for new experiences, even if they’re an acquired taste that take a bit of getting used to. If this is the case, Monitor Audio is a poor exemplar. Not in the sense that it eschews new tech. On the contrary, its constantly evolved speaker ranges bristle with the stuff. If there is a secret to the company’s continuing success, it’d simply be a smarter understanding of what actually sells. In other words, the art of giving people…

KLH ALBANY £499 Founded back in 1957 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, KLH is possibly one of the biggest loudspeaker brands you’ve never heard of. I recall its products being on sale in the UK in the late seventies, but have heard little from the brand since. This is amazing considering it claims to have once been the largest speaker maker in the world. It’s certainly true that Henry Kloss, Malcolm S Low, and Josef Anton Hofmann’s company has at times been a major global player with some special products such as the Model Nine, which KLH says is the first full-range electrostatic speaker. Changes have been afoot recently, with David Kelley, longtime Klipsch executive, taking over the helm in 2017 – and since then there has been a concerted push to…

Explaining that his route into the audio industry began with a mail order business selling records, Keith Martin says that it was not long before this expanded into accessories as well. He recalls: “We began to supply some brands of accessories, but in terms of power protection and performance enhancement, we felt there was nothing on the market that really hit the spot, certainly nothing designed from the ground up, specifically to do the job. My background before this was in industrial and graphic design, working with companies like Virgin and BMQ Music. The problem, as we saw it, was that nobody was designing a product for the hi-fi industry that was created specifically for the purpose of protecting equipment and making it sound better.” Martin adds: “When we started,…

The Super Nova design includes a sophisticated new choke, which allows a series connection that quadruples the inductance in order to give a vast increase in filtering at a constant 10A if needed. In turn, this provides a typical load of 25-40W, a massive power reserve. In addition, two specialised radio frequency chokes combined with capacitances produce a high level of classical (Pi filter) design filtration. Furthermore, there is the unique Nova adaptive gate system, designed to produce the optimum resistance capacitance barrier for eliminating differential mode cross-contamination. IsoTek says that, unlike some power cleaning concepts, Super Nova not only adjusts to the connected load and creates the ultimate barrier to differential mode noise cross-contamination, but enables each connected component to benefit from an ideally regulated and clean power supply.…

Thrashing Thru The Passion CD Frenchkiss Records FOR A WHILE, Brooklyn’s The Hold Steady seemed to be the future of good old-fashioned redemptive rock and roll and the everyman sensibilities expressed so joyously on albums such as Boys And Girls In America and Stay Positive cast lead singer/songwriter Craig Finn as the new Springsteen. Personnel changes and solo projects stalled their trajectory so it’s great to find the original lineup restored and firing again on the band’s first album in five years. Making up for lost time, it’s a record that surges with a relentless, life-affirming power, Finn’s monologues and tales from the boondocks buoyed not only by the effervescent guitar of Tad Kubler and keyboards of Franz Nicolay, but by a four-strong horn section. Standouts include the anthemic Entitlement Crew…

Richard Schram, founder and CEO of Parasound, reveals the music that he uses to demo and develop products Nils Lofgren Band Live Very well recorded, dynamic and explosive, this plumbs the depths of the lower registers of the bass while the drums sound realistic for a live track. Yello Toy Frautonium starts off slowly and gently moves into a stunning fortissimo. Limbo is perfect for showing off system resolution, dynamics and deep bass capability. Handel Quanto Spieghi I Tuoi Tormento This is a magnificent, haunting, beautiful and sparsely recorded track that highlights Renee Fleming’s wonderful tonality and voice front and centre. Forbes Family Farewell The family-style a cappella of Feel Like My Time Ain’t Long mixes wonderful male and female harmonies with vocals to ensure the system gets the midrange…

Denon AH-D7200 PRICE: £499 TELEPHONE: 02890 279830 WEB: denon.co.uk REVIEWED: HFC 441 From the soft sheepskin leather-covered memory foam earpads to the click stops for adjusting the earcup positioning along the sumptuous leather headband, this is opulent stuff. The headband frame is made out of aluminium, making it feel reasonably light at 385g. Fitted with 50mm dynamic drivers mounted inside the walnut enclosures, it looks the part too – and the real wooden earcups really add to the straight-forward design and give it a truly luxury high-quality feel. A 3m-long braided cable fitted with a 6.35mm jack plug is supplied that can be detached from the ear cups, thanks to the two 3.5mm jack plugs designated for left and right earpieces, should you need to replace or upgrade at a later date.…

PRICE: £2,600 TELEPHONE: 01494 956558 WEB: electromod.co.uk REVIEWED: HFC 440 As MrSpeakers’ top-of-the-range offering, this electrostatic headphone has been designed to deliver very high resolution and clarity with a large soundstage, neutral voicing and a bass output extending into the subsonic region. The ear pads are made of Italian Napa leather and are very comfortable. They are an over-ear, or circumaural, design, which is dictated by the large 88mm driver housed inside each cup. As with most electrostatics, Voce is a completely open design, but despite this the drivers are fully dust sealed and insulated against the elements. A 2m cable comes supplied. Sound quality Piano provides a stern test as an instrument that’s difficult to reproduce well, and the results here are completely believable, with the full energy of the playing…

LINDEMANN LIMETREE HEADPHONE £595 TELEPHONE: 01334 570666 WEBSITE: eliteaudiouk.com TESTED: HFC 444 This talented all-analogue headphone amp delivers a satisfying performance with a wide variety of different cans. NORDOST HEIMDALL 2 £650 FOR 2M TELEPHONE: 01455 283251 WEBSITE: nordost-cables.co.uk TESTED: HFC 440 Upgrading your headphone cable to the Heimdall 2 sees a noticeable increase in clarity and realism for even greater involvement with the musical performance. ASTELL&KERN A&NORMA SR15 £600 TELEPHONE: 0208 2008282 WEBSITE: astellnkern.com TESTED: HFC 443 The design might look wonky, but this is one of the most talented portable music players available at the price. TIDAL HIFI £20/MONTH WEBSITE: tidalhifi.com TESTED: HFC 440 Still the music streaming service to beat, Tidal delivers a consistently superb performance and is great value compared with its hi-res rivals. CHORD ELECTRONICS HUGO 2 £1,800 TELEPHONE:…

TURNTABLES £700-£1,500 AS MENTIONED AT the start, I nominally split these six turntables into two groups with the NAD, Pro-Ject and Technics in the ‘hot buy’ (sub £1k) set while inviting the Rega, Cambridge Audio and AnalogueWorks to make their best case for spending £1,500, with the overall victor chosen from the two sub-group winners. Starting with the lower-priced group, it’s a tough call between the Pro-Ject X1 and NAD C 588 for runner up, the bold and boisterous NAD in the end just losing out to the calmer, more mature and finely structured charms of the Pro-Ject by the slimmest of margins. They’re both talented performers but in completely different ways; the C 588 frequently on the front foot and itching for something to sink its teeth into, the…

DV: How does the Gold 300’s RDT II driver differ from those that are used in the Platinum II? MH: The RDT II cones used in the long-throw 203mm drivers on the Gold 300 are identical to those in the Platinum PL300 II and PL500 II. The main differences in the drivers are in the design of the magnet geometries. The design of the 203mm transducer marks a significant step forward for the Gold series introducing for the first time a 75mm voice coil with a fully vented, low-power compression design as well as the RDT II cone. What advantages does the MPD tweeter have over a regular ribbon? True ribbon tweeters can have an amazing sound, but power handling tends to be limited. We spent a long time developing…

ELIPSON PRESTIGE FACET 34F £2,495 It is often said that the seventies were the decade that taste forgot and apart from being the era that introduced many of us to the idea of high-fidelity stereo sound, few seem to have fond memories of it. Some seventies design trends, however, are coming back into fashion and much like Wharfedale’s Linton reviewed last month, there is a sign that properly proportioned loudspeakers are once again returning to popularity. Consider for a moment, the archetypal seventies loudspeaker that many audiophiles may recall with something of a shudder. It was teak, had a wide baffle and a good choice of drive units covering the necessary frequencies. Bass units grew in size as you went up the range, but even many entry-level designs boasted a…

2001 IsoTek kicks things off with the SubStation mains conditioner 2002 First generation of iconic Mini Sub power conditioner is unveiled 2004 IsoTek restructures with new production facilities and an improved design team 2004 The GII Mini Sub mains conditioner launches to great critical acclaim 2004 IsoTek collaborates with Nordost to create the Thor power conditioner 2005 Titan arrives, introducing IsoTek’s innovative high current Direct Coupled Design circuit 2006 Sigmas launches, incorporating technology trickled down from Titan 2007 Arrival of Mira TV filter heralds new EVO3 generation of products 2009 EVO3 Aquarius replaces GII Mini Sub – a critical component in IsoTek’s range 2011 IsoTek unleashes Super Titan – the world’s most powerful mains conditioner 2012 The Genesis full mains sine wave generator comes to market 2013 The Discovery Range,…

THIS MONTH ED SELLEY EXPERTISE: REVIEWER Active in the industry since 1999, Ed’s first record was Boss Drum by The Shamen. He splits his time between reviewing and protecting hi-fi kit from his son Will. NEVILLE ROBERTS EXPERTISE: ENGINEER Neville has an eclectic taste for classical baroque and jazz. His wife was forced to marry his transmission line speakers in the eighties and he collects BBC test card music. JASON KENNEDY EXPERTISE: REVIEWER Editor of HFC from 1998 to 2001, Jason’s first turntable was Rega’s Planar 3 and Elvis’ 40 Greatest Hits was his first vinyl, so don’t go stepping on his blue suede shoes. DAVID PRICE EXPERTISE: REVIEWER DP two-finger typed his first hi-fi review 25 years ago. Since then he’s edited Hi-Fi World and HFC. He describes himself…

Dadisi Komolafe Hassan’s Walk 180g vinyl Pure Pleasure DADISI KOMOLAFE’S ONE and only solo album was released by Nimbus West back in 1983, but it could so easily have been made 10 or 15 years earlier. The vibe is heavily influenced by the work of Pharaoh Sanders and Alice Coltrane, with lots of rich and vibrant percussion and Komolafe playing both flute and saxophone – though thankfully not at the same time. In fact, the first side of this album contains only flute alongside the drums, double bass, piano and vibes of the Pan African People’s Arkestra, a highly effective groove unit created by pianist Horace Tapscott in Los Angeles. There are only four tracks, two of which are cover versions of Wayne Shorter’s Speak No Evil and Thelonious Monk’s Round…

highresaudio.com introduces Black Oak Ensemble′s Silenced Voices, Tokyo Blues Breakers self-titled album and Ben Walker′s Echo. Over on hdtracks.co.uk you′ll find Buena Vista Social Club′s Lost And Found, 'Bout Love by Bill Withers and King Crimson′s Islands. Finally, onkyomusic.com has Chick Corea′s The Spanish Heart Band, Evie Irie′s 5 Weeks In LA and Renee Fleming′s Lieder with the music of Brahms, Schumann and Mahler.…

1967 THE GRATEFUL DEAD An uncomfortable debut as the band struggles to cope with the restraints of the studio on a set of mostly cover songs taken from their live set of the time. 1968 ANTHEM OF THE SUN Mixing studio and live recordings, That’s It For The Other One and Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks) are fine examples of the band’s early acid-rock style. 1969 AOXOMOXOA Bold and experimental, Aoxomoxoa introduced two of the Dead’s most enduring compositions in St Stephen and the glorious China Cat Sunflower. 1969 LIVE/DEAD This is quite simply one of the greatest concert albums of all time, led by a celestial Dark Star and ending with the majestic acid-blues of Death Don’t Have No Mercy. 1970 WORKINGMAN’S DEAD Country-tinged folk-rock, like The Band…

PRICE: £1,399 TELEPHONE: 03301 222500 WEB: focal.com REVIEWED: HFC 439 Sat between the £900 Elear (HFC 416) and flagship Utopia (costing around £3,500), the Clear’s open-back design is a development of that used in the more affordable Elear. Internally, it uses a pair of 40mm dynamic drivers, with patented ‘M Profile’ to increase the stiffness of the driver, which Focal says maintains the dynamics and fidelity of the recording. The most peculiar aspect of the design – given that it is open backed and so prone to leaking too much noise to consider using in public – is the effort that has gone into making it work with portable devices. The impedance has been kept to 55ohm and it comes with both short (1.2m) and long (3m) cables. Sound quality Where Focal…

PRICE: £1,400 TELEPHONE: 0333 2408185 WEB: en-uk.sennheiser.com REVIEWED: HFC 439 The flagship of Sennheiser’s open-back range, the HD 800 S takes the fundamental design of the HD 800 and updates the details. It’s built around a large pair of 56mm dynamic drivers and benefits from Sound Absorber technology to control resonances to more accurately reproduce high frequencies. Sennheiser supplies two OFC cables; one that terminates in a 6.35mm jack connection and one that uses a single XLR cable for full balanced operation. The packaging also becomes a useful storage box for the headphone when not in use. Sound quality The HD 800 S is completely free from any sense of constraint whatsoever and although noise leakage is almost total, the result is a wonderfully open and unforced quality. This is combined with…

1959 Dawon Kahng and Martin M Atalla invent MOSFET as The Cure's Robert Smith, Morrissey and Kirsty MacColl are born 1978 Hitachi announces its new power MOSFET range, while the Grateful Dead perform three shows in Giza, Egypt 1979 Hitachi launches the HMA-6500, meanwhile in the US Donna Summer becomes the first female artist to have five top-10 hits in a year 1982 Hitachi opts to discontinue the HMA-6500 as singer Teddy Pendergrass is seriously injured in a car accident in Philadelphia…