Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2016 i Hi Fi News

‘Headphone design has improved almost beyond recognition’ There is something of a good, old-fashioned ‘Space Race’ going on in the headphone scene at the moment. Fuelled by the huge expansion in on-the-hoof headphone usage, the technology behind everything from the smallest ear-buds to the grandest of ‘ear speaker’ headgear has improved almost beyond recognition in the past few years. The sort of lightweight but very rigid diaphragm materials we’ve seen developed for high-end loudspeakers are now commonplace in full-range headphone drivers – including polymer/titanium mixes. This new generation of drive units allows manufacturers to extend the frequency response of their headphones while better controlling resonances and other unwanted aspects of their behaviour. These are the traditional dynamic headphones, but the breed of planar magnetic types has also evolved significantly with…

The Il Cremonese is Sonus faber’s second homage to Antonio Stradivari and named after one of his most famous violins, crafted a little over 300 years ago in 1715. Originally named ‘Joachim’ after its first owner, the violin was renamed ‘Il Cremonese’ in 1961 when it was selected as the first Stradivari to return to the city of Cremona as part of the permanent collection of the Museo del Violino. Antonio Lorenzi from I Solisti di Cremona had the honour to play it at the Museo del Violino’s gala on 5th September 2013. Another virtuoso violinist, Andrea Cardinali, recorded an enlightening comparison live in 2012 (da pari a pari or ‘as equals’) between ‘Il Cremonese’ and the Guarneri del Gesù 1734 ‘Stauffer’ playing Paganini Caprices. More recently ‘Il Cremonese’ was entrusted…

The use of carbon fibre in tonearms really took off in the 1970s when designs such as the Infinity Black Widow and ADC LMF-1 and 2 models came into prominence, offering rigidity with low effective mass. At the same time, many Japanese manufacturers, including Sony, Pioneer and Stax, were quick to implement carbon fibre in their high-end models. In the UK, one the most prolific exponents of carbon fibre has been Wilson Benesch. Its entire product portfolio is based around it and the ACT One arm, introduced in 1991, was its second-ever product. Other manufacturers such as Clearaudio, Opera Consonance and Nottingham Analogue have since followed suit. However, Pro-Ject can certainly claim to have the widest range of models on offer, and the most affordable with its Debut Carbon turntable…

Back at the beginning of the 1990s, the little Audio Alchemy DDE v1.0 Bitstream DAC raised eyebrows: not only was it half the price of the next most affordable rivals – at under £200, if memory serves – but also due to its tiny dimensions, and simple plugtop supply. Surely no-one could take this toy-like, black box too seriously? And then they heard it… Other successes followed, including the DAC-in-the-Box, and a range of CD transports, jitter reducers, power supplies and amplification. The company folded in the late ’90s following a takeover by Audiosphere, briefly re-emerged as Alchemy2, but was re-established early in 2015 after an appearance of designer Peter Madnick at the 2014 Windsor Hi-FiShow Live with early samples of some of the products. So while the new Audio Alchemy…

Traditionally, Copland products have tended to appear at long intervals and after a lot of thought, but even so the company’s website sometimes takes a while to catch up. Still firmly at the helm as Copland’s principal designer is Olé Møller, who founded the company in 1984 after having worked at Ortofon on phono stage circuits. Copland’s first product was the 12W CTA15 tube power amp. From 1990, Copland products were built under license by Xena in Sweden, until production was moved back to Denmark in 2001. By then Copland had established its distinctive aesthetic with classy signature control knobs, and had introduced an innovative CD player as well as a series of hybrid amps, starting with the CSA14. Multichannel amps were also added in the mid 2000s alongside the…

There’s little significant difference in measured performance with the PMA-2500NA’s ‘Source Direct’ engaged as distortion remains very low indeed at <0.001% from 20Hz-1kHz over its rated 80W range, increasing quite steeply beyond 5kHz to reach 0.035%/20kHz and 0.12%/40kHz. The response holds to ±0.2dB (20Hz-20kHz) although the overall gain is excessively high at +46.6dB, yielding a 13mV sensitivity for 1W/8ohm and depressing the overall A-wtd S/N ratio to a slightly below-average 81dB (re. 0dBW). This also means its massive volume knob will rarely be employed over the ideal stretch of its track. Power output is hugely impressive however and, at 2x125W/8ohm and 2x200W/4ohm, well in excess of its 80W/160W 8/4ohm rating. Under dynamic conditions it offers considerable headroom – 165W, 300W, 510W and 777W (27.9A) into 8, 4, 2 and 1ohm…

Spendor claims 89dB sensitivity for the SP100R2, which is about 1dB higher than our measured pink noise figure of 88.1dB. Significantly, this is obtained without recourse to low impedance. Although Spendor’s claim of a 5.5ohm minimum doesn’t quite square with its 8ohm nominal figure, it does accord closely with the 5.6ohm minimum that we recorded. Impedance phase angles are on the high side but that high minimum modulus is enough to ensure that the EPDR (equivalent peak dissipation resistance) doesn’t fall below 2.6ohm, at 78Hz. Although another dip to 2.8ohm at 385Hz compromises this somewhat, the SP100R2 remains a relatively easy load to drive compared to many modern loudspeakers. Three-way speakers in general have a better chance of minimising drive unit breakup and thereby achieving a smooth frequency response than…

Via its analogue input, with the right capsule gain control at maximum, AKG’s N90Q registered a sensitivity of 113.7dB SPL for 1V input – in the same ballpark as conventional modern headphones which don’t incorporate amplification. Input impedance is high at about 4kohm, so the current capability of the music source is effectively irrelevant: provided that it can deliver 1V output or preferably 2V, that will be sufficient to drive the N90Q to adequate SPLs to accommodate the shortterm peaks of high dynamic range recordings. The uncorrected frequency responses [Graph 1, below] are, as usual, averaged from ten consecutive measurements per capsule, between which the headphone is removed from and replaced on the artificial ear, so as to account for the response variability that results from slightly different relative positions…

This innovative little product is a very different proposition from AudioQuest’s passive JitterBug [HFN Oct ’15], the latter filtering both the VBUS and differential USB datalines to remove spurious RF, particularly from the latter, and offering a subtle influence over the response and waveshape of the data signal. By contrast there’s nothing subtle about the impact of iFiAudio’s USB iPurifier2 on the digital data waveform [see Graph 1 and 2]. Powered by the 5V USB VBUS, the iPurifier2 asynchronously reclocks and regenerates the incoming data, and employs an active anti-phase reduction/cancellation of common-mode RF noise. The output is also buffered, removing any DC offset, and restores the USB standard 90ohm (±15ohm) source impedance. Employing the same process described for our USB cable group tests [HFN Jul ’13 and Jul ’14],…

Pioneer rates the output of its XDP-100R at a modest 75mW/32ohm but this is only achieved (65mW/25ohm) when the unit is configured in variable line-out mode where the maximum output of 2.1dBV proves sufficient (volume at ‘154’ with a 0dBFs digital signal). In headphone mode, the maximum output is –6.6dBV at the full ‘160’ volume setting, equivalent to a power output of just 8.8mW/25ohm. Many full-sized headphone amps deliver in excess of 1000mW/25ohm so, if I were to hazard a guess, I’d say this reduced headphone mode output was a ‘safety’ feature. Otherwise the performance of this ‘hi-res’ player is superb – it offers a very wide 106dB A-wtd S/N ratio and vanishingly low levels of jitter, never exceeding 25psec even under a headphone load with any sample rate from…

BEHIND THE MUSIC WITH HI-FINEWS & RECORD REVIEW STEVE SUTHERLAND Steve edited NME from 1992-2000, the Britpop years, launching NME.com and reviving the NME Awards. Previously he was Assistant Editor on Melody Maker. Among his many adventures he has been physically threatened by Axl Rose, hung out awhile with Jerry Garcia and had a drink or two with Keith Richards... ‘He loathed the be-denimed conformity of the ’60s hippie’ There was once a famous artist whose work seemed to capture within its twisted beauty all the social, political and emotional turmoil of his time. His every sketch and canvas sold for millions, but that doesn’t concern us so much here as the fact that our man also possessed such an hypnotic hold over women that, despite treating his dalliances so…

Technology journalist Barry Fox trained in electronics with the RAF and worked as a patent agent, but he gave that up to enter journalism. He is one of the world’s top technology writers ‘Security guards looked menacingly at journalists’ laptop screens’ Look at the back of your hi-fikit and the chances are there will be a label which says ‘Made in China’. And the chances are it will be made in Shenzhen, a sprawling industrial zone and skyscraper city just across the border from Hong Kong, which has quickly grown from a rural community of only 30,000. So when the organisers of the IFA show in Berlin invited me – along with nearly 400 journalists from around the world – to see the spin-off show they were staging in Shenzhen…

Contributing Editor Steve Harris edited Hi-FiNews between 1986 and 2005. He loves jazz, blues music, vinyl and vintage hi-fiand anything that makes good music come to life ‘“For the public it was complicated, all the speaker cables and adjustments”’ In a changing world, there are some things you can rely on. Like red and black speaker terminals, always conventionally labelled ‘positive’ and ‘negative’. Well, not always. In May 1980, Meridian made this announcement: ‘Positive Ground on Power Amplifiers: On the latest versions of 105 amplifiers you will notice that we are fitting a red output plug to the terminal marked negative and a black output plug to the terminal marked positive on the labels. The only thing that has changed on the 105 in this connection is the markings on…

Credibility is important. So when a magazine that claims to offer definitive judgements on how great or otherwise hi-ficomponents perform states that the Norwegian band Highasakite are, in fact, Swedish [see HFN Jun ’16] and then describes the Swedish flag as being ‘red, black and white’, I get worried. The Norwegian flag, like the British one, is red, white and blue while Sweden’s is yellow. So both statements in your review of Highasakite’s album Camp Echo deserve to be punched black and blue. I do hope that your ears, eyes and the technical quality of your reviewing is far above this level of accuracy. My subscription for another year has just been paid, so I do worry about forthcoming reviews. Espen Lange, via email Norwegians are Anglophiles. We love England…

Let me be clear, I love vinyl, I love CD, I love hi-res and I even have a soft-spot for Minidisc and cassette. Music is about time, place and association, and this can extend to linking the format used with the music. I am busy at the moment transferring my vinyl to digital as a form of backup, but I accept the cracks and pops. Some albums would not be the same without the crackles and surface noise, as they have become part of the memory of the music. What I currently do not love about hi-fiis my format anxiety, which has gradually crept in over the years. Barry Willis suggested in his May ’16 column that as no playpack format is perfect we should just enjoy the music. I…

WHAT ARE MUSICAL SOUNDS? First part of an ongoing series looking into the science. MODIFYING AN EARLY SME ARM Jack Bickerstaffe considers the improvements promised. IN SEARCH OF EYE-FIAPPEAL By Gerry Oakley. HI-FI, 2000 AD Eric Robjohns looks into his crystal ball at what hi-fimight be like in the year 2000. TRANSISTORS WITHOUT TEARS Part 2 in the series. CONSUMER ELECTRONICS By George Tillett. EQUIPMENT REVIEWS R F Jones assesses the Philips Audio Plan and Ferguson Unit audio systems. ADC 10E MKII STEREO PICK-UP B J Webb takes stock of this refreshed cartridge from the Audio Dynamics Corporation. READERS’ PROBLEMS Examined by ‘Crossover’. READERS’ HI-FIINSTALLATIONS The spotlight falls on your systems at home. BBC STEREO By H Burrell Hadden.…

Sonus faber’s claim of 92dB sensitivity accords well with the 91.7dB we recorded by simply averaging our FFT response data but this gives undue weight to higher frequencies. The standard pink noise figure was almost 2dB lower at 89.9dB, suggesting that 90dB is more realistic. Importantly, this good figure is achieved without recourse to punishingly low impedance. Sonus faber specifies a nominal impedance of 4ohm, which accords well with our measured minimum modulus of 3.1ohm. Impedance phase angles are better controlled than in many competitors, so the minimum EPDR (equivalent peak dissipation resistance) is 1.9ohm at 53Hz – some 0.2ohm higher than we typically find with modern floorstanders, although a second dip to 2.1ohm at 105Hz will make the Il Cremonese slightly less amp-friendly than this might suggest. Measured at…

Such is the extent of Pro-Ject’s turntable ‘landscape’ that there are inevitable similarities in the technical performance of its various models. The AC motor used here is shared across other models while the main bearing, with its hardened steel shaft, bronze bushing and Teflon thrust pad, is a higher-tolerance version of that developed for its Debut range. In this instance, while the start-up time was a fairly rapid 4secs, our sample’s absolute pitch was fractionally (if inaudibly) slow by –0.19% and the peak-weighted W&F reasonably well distributed at 0.03% and 0.04%, respectively [see Graph 1, below]. Throughbearing rumble was impressively low for a deck in this class at –71.2dB (DIN-B wtd) while the through-groove noise did vary depending on choice of cork (–68.2dB) or felt (–69.2dB) mat. The unweighted spectra…

AUDIO FILE Three-way standmount loudspeaker Made by: Spendor Audio Systems Ltd, East Sussex Supplied by: Spendor Audio Systems Telephone: 01323 843474 Web: www.spendoraudio.com Price: £7495 ‘The soundstage was enormous, with a terrific sense of depth’ With a unique place in hi-fihistory, Spendor has more right than many to use the word ‘Classic’ [see boxout, facing page]. And alongside its other ranges, Spendor continues to maintain and refine its Classic Series models, based on the ‘heritage’ designs of earlier decades. The biggest and most impressive of these is the newly-revised SP100R2, at £7495/pair. By modern high-end standards, the SP100R2 isn’t really so big, but its ‘oldfashioned’ proportions will make it look bulky in all but the largest rooms. It should ideally be used with Spendor’s own £725 steel space-frame stands. BENEFITS…

AUDIO FILE Closed-back circumaural noise-cancelling headphone Made by: AKG Acoustics GmbH Supplied by: Harman Consumer UK Division, Herts Telephone: 01707 278113 Web: http://uk.akg.com Price: £1300 ‘The deep bass is impressive – fleet of foot and tuneful with it’ Game changers, must-haves, killer apps. Every week we are assailed with technological developments without which, supposedly, our lives will be poorer and friends will regard us as Neanderthal. But let’s not be cynical: technology can deliver genuine benefits, one of which ought to be the adaptation of headphone performance to individual listeners. Evidence is rife that we don’t all perceive headphones – particularly headphone tonal balance – in the same way. Surely this is an area where digital signal processing, DSP, can lend a hand? TONE AND LEVEL ROTARIES They clearly think…

BEHIND THE MUSIC WITH HI-FINEWS & RECORD REVIEW ‘His Third “was not lambkins frisking at all, as people thought”’ Applause at the end of the final concert of the 1956 Cheltenham Festival was especially heartfelt: an elderly gentleman in bulky grey tweeds had been invited on to the platform. He seemed reluctant, uncertain even… This was the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose ‘London’ Symphony had just been played by the Hallé Orchestra with its conductor Sir John Barbirolli. As was his custom back then, Barbirolli would turn to address the audience as the Festival concluded, reminding us of the delights of the Cotswolds (where Vaughan Williams had been born in 1872) and how the inheritance of fine Georgian architecture was becoming eroded by faceless modern replacement blocks. But on that…

Journalist for top American audio-video publications While his main interest is high-end audio, Barry Willis also writes about the culinary industry, visual art and theatre for a huge variety of us newspapers and magazines. ‘Prices in the art world, as in hi-fi, are driven by marketing campaigns’ My interest in art and my interest in audio go back to childhood. These parallel tracks – plus athletics – pretty much defined what I became as an adult. All are matters of daily involvement. Plied day-upon-day for years and decades, they also encompass a body of knowledge – what I call ‘Swiss cheese knowledge’ – because while it may appear substantial, it’s full of holes. One such is ‘the value proposition’ – one of my most hated business clichés – which basically…

CARTRIDGE FOR £400? A PICK-UP TO MAKE MY MODERN JAZZ SWING My vinyl front-end currently comprises an SME model 15 turntable with 309 tonearm fitted with a Benz Micro ACE cartridge. I now need to replace this pick-up and am considering the Ortofon 2M Black at around £375 and the Audio-Technica AT33PTG/11, which I’ve seen for sale at £400. Which would be the better cartridge of the two given that all my records are modern jazz? The phono stage that I use is a whestTWO while my amp is an EAR Yoshino V12 integrated. I look forward to your advice. Perhaps you are able to suggest other cartridges that would suit my system and taste in music? John Whitaker, via email Steve Harris replies: If you weren’t already using one,…

I was really interested to read the lab test for the Melco N1-ZH60 network audio library in the June issue. It’s been obvious for years that consumer DACs are far from immune to incoming electrical noise, and to see it laid out graphically makes this obvious. I can see that this is going to give you a problem, both as a journalist and as a test equipment manufacturer: what do you use as your USB source when measuring a DAC’s performance? Are you going to have to publish two graphs – one from your ‘typical’ laptop and one from a decent, quiet source? At least then, I suppose, we’d get a measure of a DAC’s likely immunity to noise in our own systems and, usefully, it might drive manufacturers to…

Although we’ve re-tested a number of iconic direct-drives from the ’70s-’80s, including the Technics SL-P10mkII [HFN Nov ’10] and Marantz Esotec TT1000 [HFN Sep ’12], none can compare with the engineering overkill and sheer rarity of Nakamichi’s TX-1000. Indeed, I’ll not be surprised if this is the first, and last, lab test of this long-extinct deck! So how does it perform? In practice, and although the total mass of the alloy platter and metallised glass ‘mat’ is approaching 5kg, the brushless, slotless and coreless DC motor evidently still musters sufficient torque to have the ensemble up to speed within just two seconds. With the speed pitch control locked at 0.0%, the deck’s absolute speed was adrift by just –0.05% – an excellent result for a mechanism of some 30+ years…

Latest from the UK’s only high-end hi-fishow B&W’s redesign and relaunch of its entire 800 Diamond series is arguably the biggest ‘loudspeaker event’ of 2016. Visitors will be able to compare and contrast across B&W’s entire range – including the supreme 800 D3 Audio Research’s comprehensive Foundation Series of source components and amplifiers [see p14] promises to thrill visitors with more than a flavour of its trademark ‘Reference Series sound’. You’ll be sorely tempted... Eagerly anticipated, and soon to feature in an exclusive Hi-FiNews review, the massive (400W/8ohm) Mark Levinson No536 monoblock power amps will also be strutting their prodigious stuff alongside JBL’s iconic Everest speakers at The Hi-FiShow Live Tube amplifiers do not come much more traditional or beautifully engineered than this TA-300B-based power amp from Luxman. Inspired by its 1984 MB-300,…

AUDIO FILE Three-and-a-half way floorstanding loudspeaker Made by: Sonus faber SpA (Fine Sounds Group), Italy Supplied by: Absolute Sounds Ltd Telephone: 0208 971 3909 Web: www.sonusfaber.com www.absolutesounds.com Price: £30,000 The latest addition to the Italian company’s Homage series, the Il Cremonese is a newly shaped rhomboidal diamond floorstander that will cost you less than a third of the price of its massive Aida model. Like its predecessors, the speaker is a beautiful piece of functional art with the sumptuous looks Sonus faber is now famous for. The cabinet is made of triple-layer walls of variable thickness and finished in lacquered walnut wood. I have had the pleasure to live with both the red-stained and natural walnut versions and I would be hard pressed to choose between them, although the latter…

In 1969, Spencer Hughes designed the first Spendor speaker, the BCI, based on the 8in bextrene-coned driver he’d developed while at the BBC. The bigger BCIII followed in 1973. After Hughes’ passing in 1983, the company was run by his widow Dorothy and their son Derek, who had also trained and worked as a BBC engineer. Derek designed the S100, which would be revised in the 1990s as the SP100, essentially a development of the BCIII. In 1993, Spendor was sold to the pro-audio firm Soundtracs, but in 2001, it found an enthusiastic new owner in Philip Swift, well-known as co-founder of Audiolab. Swift set about reviving the brand, both with new models and with the Classic Series of earlier models, sympathetically updated with new components, including the crossover [pictured].…

Icon Audio’s PS1 MkII is certainly outnumbered by conventional phono stages without level controls, requiring feeding into a preamplifier. But that adds to its appeal in a field that is crowded in a manner few could have predicted even five years ago. For those who cannot stretch to the Icon, there are Pro-Ject phono stages below £100, a NAD under £200 and others at every increment above that. Some offer digital output for those wishing to transfer vinyl to servers or CD-Rs, but the main reason we’re seeing so many new phono stages is to cope with three decades’ worth of preamps, integrateds and receivers with line level-only inputs. There are no limits: Audio Research, Clearaudio, Simaudio, Lehmann Audio, D’Agostino, Roksan, AudioValve and others offer ‘loaded’ units with the ability…

The conventional way to measure a headphone’s frequency response is to place it on an artificial ear equipped with an internal microphone. But a means of achieving this on real ears (without major surgery…) was proposed by Ulrich Horbach, an Engineering Fellow at Harman’s research department in Northridge, California, in an Audio Engineering Society paper presented last year. It uses instead an array of two or more small microphones placed within the headphone capsule itself, between the diaphragm and ear, and enables automated DSP correction of frequency response to suit each ear of any listener. In production form this technology has been dubbed TruNote and is debuted on the N90Q. To invoke it you press the button on the underside of the right capsule for a few seconds until a…

When we looked at the Nano iDSD DAC/headphone amp [HFN Dec ’14], it was part of a small range from iFiAudio, itself an offshoot of Abbingdon Music Research, which had started in 2012 with just four products. Since then, the brand has undergone rapid expansion, and now has more than 25 models in its catalogue. Having launched into the portable market, it now has devices for home use, a complete hi-fisystem (the Retro Stereo 50), and power and signal conditioning products. As well as the USB versions mentioned in the review, there’s also an S/PDIF iPurifier, and a DC iPurifier designed to remove noise from power supplies. The company’s iPower plugtop power supply is offered as a ‘quieter’ replacement for the ‘wall-warts’ used for many devices from DACs to NAS units:…

They’re not quite peas in a pod, but the Pioneer XDP-100R and Onkyo’s forthcoming DPX-1 are very clearly the result of the same development process. Much of the specification of the two machines DSD256/MQA/Tidal/Spotify/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth – is the same, as is the ability to take two extra microSD cards to boost storage. But the Onkyo, which lists for around £700, has some significant changes in the audio department. Specifically, it uses a separate ES9018K2M DAC and 9601K headphone amp for each channel, giving true dualmono operation and, as well as the standard 3.5mm headphone/line-out socket, also has a 2.5mm four-pole balanced output. Here standard balanced (BTL) output is offered alongside an ‘Active Control Ground’ (ACG) configuration where the negative arm of the balanced amp is held at 0V. It’s said to…

Symphony No 1 ‘A Sea Symphony’ Eloquence ELQ4501442 (download only) This classic LPO/Boult mono recording with Isobel Baillie and John Cameron. Symphonies Nos 2 and 8 Barbirolli Society SJB1021 Hallé recordings first on Pye: No 8, dedicated to ‘Glorious John’ was taped by a Mercury team one month after the 1956 premiere [see text and photo above]. Symphony No 2, ‘A London Symphony’ Chandos CHAN 9902 The Dec 2000 LSO recording with Richard Hickox of the original 1913 version. Coupled with Butterworth’s The Banks Of Green Willow, it’s available on vinyl too [ABRD9902] or download at 96kHz/24-bit resolution. Symphony No 4 Naxos 8.111048 The still unsurpassed 1937 version with the composer conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It’s usefully coupled with Holst’s own The Planets LSO recording from 1926. The two…

Technician and writer on all things audio for some 30 years, Paul Miller took over the editor’s chair in 2006. He invented the QC Suite, used across the audio industry ‘With CD, Sony and Philips understood the digital rulebook’ When Sony and Philips collaborated to give us CD over 30 years ago, their engineers were fully aware of the rulebook on sampling theory set out by Shannon and Nyquist. Fast forward to today, however, and an increasing minority of artisan brands are ignoring the rules, to intriguing effect. Back in the day, Sony and Philips understood that CD’s sampling rate (44.1kHz) must be more than twice that of the (audio) frequency range being sampled. They also knew that a ‘mirror’ of the audioband would still be reflected above the halfway…

Science Journalist Jim Lesurf has spent a lifetime in audio, both as an engineer at UK hi-ficompany Armstrong and reader in Physics and Electronics at St Andrew’s University ‘Those rare bits of paperwork and tatty kit may well be tossed into a skip’ Two trends have become noticeable during the last year or two. The first is the way the iPod and tablet generation, who’ve probably never bought a traditional hi-fisystem in their lives, have developed an interest in old audio technology and formats. For example, an ICM poll carried out early this year showed that nearly 50% of those buying vinyl are aged 18-35. The second development is the rise in the number of articles and conversations dealing with what people now call ‘classic’ hi-figear and the history of…

WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF MANUAL VS AUTO BIAS? Send in your views to: Sound Off, Hi-FiNews, AVTech Media Ltd, Suite 25, Eden House, Enterprise Way, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 6HF or email your views to: letters@hifinews.com – please use ‘Sound Off’ in your subject field I’d really like to try a valve amplifier in my system but am a long-time user of transistor amplifiers. As with many hi-firelated topics, the Internet is full of contradictory opinions, and this is no less the case when it comes to manual versus auto bias. Indeed, everyone seem to be ‘biased’. I would really like to know the pros and cons of each design and if there are any sonic benefits or differences between the two? Alex Staicu, via email Ken Kessler…

I recently started using Sony’s Sound Forge Audio Studio 10 software, which allows users to display hi-res audio files. The earlier version could only view files up to 44.1kHz/16-bit. Looking for a hi-res file to test the new software, I loaded up one of your recently featured hi-res downloads – Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Les Noces by Stravinsky, a 96kHz/24-bit file [see HFN Apr ’16]. The software did its job and the tracks were displayed along with an indication of the data rate and bit count. But I was surprised to see indications of over-modulation (clipping) in the right channel at about 17m 20s, towards the finale of the first movement. Given that 24-bits are available, I would have thought that it good practice to sacrifice one of these bits…

Hi-FiNews Oct 1967 Each month HFN will bring you an article from our vast archive of features and reviews from yesteryear ‘With the sails of theory hoisted, it was possible to design a shape’ Some young married couples buy houses on the assumption that they will remain at the same address while rearing a family, probably not selling-up until after retirement. My wife and I did this, and as an act of faith in the rightness of our choice I built the massive concrete horn loudspeaker system described in Hi-FiNews in 1961/62. But faith was soon displaced by a sense of irony, for the presence of this built-in system eventually helped sell the house when growth of both family and local traffic noise finally convinced us that you cannot really know what…