Innholdsfortegnelse for Yearbook 2016 i Hi Fi News

Welcome, audiophiles, enthusiasts and music lovers all to our annual Yearbook. Christmas has come a little early this year as Hi-Fi News & Record Review celebrates the hardware that turned our heads and the music that stirred our souls throughout 2016. Hungry for the best that hi-fi has to offer? Well, prepare to be sated because this bumper 172-page issue is a feast of audio dreams, a menu of the most delectable source components, amplifiers and loudspeakers from across the globe. We’ve more than a few vintage audio heroes on show to remind us of hi-fi ’s deep roots together with selections from our Budget Esoterica series, proving there’s some very affordable hardware ready and eager to tempt our musical tastebuds. While the range of equipment grows and diversifies by…

AUDIO FILE Belt-driven turntable with electronic speed control Made by: AS-Distribution GmbH, Germany Supplied by: Elite Audio (Distribution) Ltd, London Telephone: 0203 397 1119 Web: www.acoustic-signature.com; www.eliteaudiouk.com Price: £995 (inc. arm and MM cartridge) Acoustic Solid has been quietly growing its catalogue and taking on other German competitors. Its designs are rather less showy and seem more focused on compact, down-to-earth engineering. The Primus sits at the entry level of its range, so unlike the £85,000+ flagship Invictus model there is one motor rather than six, one belt not two, and you can only fit one tonearm, not four. But the Primus costs an eminently affordable £995 by way of an introductory offer. For this, the deck comes fitted with a pre-aligned arm and cartridge. ‘An Ibiza nightclub had taken…

AUDIO FILE Belt-driven turntable with electronic speed control Made by: Pro-Ject Audio Systems, Austria Supplied by: Henley Designs Ltd, UK Telephone: 01235 511166 Web: www.project-audio.com; www.henleydesigns.co.uk Price: £2300 (inc. arm); £3300 (inc. cartridge) Pro-Ject’s £2300 RPM 10 Carbon is perhaps the ideal ‘ultimate turntable’ for audiophiles coming back to the format. It’s a simple, elegant way to play the black stuff. And its lack of any fiddly sprung suspension system avoids a whole new area of pain to the already quite involved process of setting up a turntable. Pro-Ject has filled the chassis and 14.5kg Ground-IT Carbon base with resin-coated steel pellets, packed inside the CNC-machined MDF structure. This is then heat-treated and gets a carbon fibre surface coating, which makes for a ‘dead’ sounding base and chassis. ‘We were…

AUDIO FILE Belt-driven turntable with electronic speed control Made by: T+A elektroakustik GmbH & Co. KG, Germany Supplied by: Kog Audio, UK Telephone: 01353 721089 Web: www.taelektroakustik.de Price (including arm & MC pick-up): £4719 T+A introduces a new turntable feature here, for on the deck’s rear panel are two RJ45 sockets, although these are only intended for connection to a T+A amplifier’s R2-LINK remote control system. That is not to say that the G 2000 R is just another plain turntable – far from it. And it offers a surprising number of possible configurations. In its most basic form, the deck comes complete with a Rega RB251-based arm, although the ‘high-end’ review variant here was supplied with a Clearaudio-sourced ‘Carbon 2’ tonearm. As before, a cartridge can be added and…

AUDIO FILE MM/MC all-tube phono preamp Made by: Icon Audio, Leicestershire Supplied by: Icon Audio Telephone: 0116 2440593 Web: www.iconaudio.com Price: £1200 With its rather cool, decidedly goth-feel, the two-chassis Icon Audio PS1 MkII phono stage/preamp (a steal at £1000 in MM-only form, or £1200 with MC, as tested) is a product that marches to the beat of a different drummer. Overall finish is a nicely applied matt black coating, with the copper top-plate producing a stunning colour combination. And there are no transistors or ICs, no computer control circuitry to sully the purity of an all-valve design – including the tube-regulated power supply. ‘The 1962 White House Sessions sounded deliciously spacious’ A further nod to the golden age of tubes is its point-to-point hardwiring with silver-plated OFC cable, while…

AUDIO FILE CD player Made by: Hegel Music System AS, Oslo, Norway Supplied by: Hegel Music System AS Telephone: +47 22 605660 Web: www.hegel.com Price: £4000 After Fenimore Cooper, Hegel is punting its £4000 Mohican as ‘The Last…’ CD player. There’s no digital audio input, no doubling as a DAC, and no SACD – which is all very unusual in 2016. But there’s always an argument for a product that does just one thing supremely well. Like Hegel’s HD30 DAC [HFN Jan ’16], the Mohican uses a 32-bit AKM AK4490 converter run in native 44.1kHz/16-bit resolution, so there’s no upsampling, and in turn this allows a simple digital filter option. Hegel’s proprietary SoundEngine ‘real-time distortion detector/eliminator circuit’ for amplifiers has also found an application in the Mohican, where it’s used…

AUDIO FILE Network-attached DAC Made by: Merging Technologies S.A., Switzerland Supplied by: Emerging Ltd, Hants, UK Telephone: 0118 402 5090 Web: http://nadac.merging.com; www.emerginguk.com Price: £8457 (£9402, eight-channel) The first consumer-facing product from pro-brand Merging Technologies is the £8547 Merging+NADAC – a network audio DAC available in either the two-channel ‘ST2’ version or, at an £855 premium, the ‘MC8’ eight-channel version seen here. Emerging suggests that while some of the building blocks of the unit – MediaTek-based file-handling and ESS Sabre 9008S multichannel DACs – aren’t unknown in products of this kind, the design of the NADAC is what sets it apart. This is evident from the rear panel, which has those multichannel outputs on both RCAs and balanced XLRs, but the digital input provision isn’t exactly ‘standard’. There are AES/EBU…

AUDIO FILE Media player/DAC and integrated amp. Rated at 100W Made by: T+A elektroakustik GmbH & Co. KG, Germany Supplied by: Kog Audio, UK Telephone: 01353 721089 Web: www.taelektroakustik.de Prices (MP/PA): £4200/£4200 From T+A Elektroakustik’s new line of ‘real world’ components featuring technologies trickled down from its high-end HV-Series products, comes the £4200 MP 2000 R media player. It’s a highspec DAC with built-in CD drive, FM and DAB+ tuner, network streaming client with internet radio functionality (vTuner), and a plethora of hi-res-capable digital inputs. Bluetooth connectivity is also included for streaming. At its heart lies T+A’s sophisticated re-clocking regime with four pairs of Burr-Brown 384kHz/32-bit capable DACs in a ‘double symmetrical’ configuration, with oversampling carried out by a 56-bit DSP and with four digital filter options for PCM playback.…

AUDIO FILE Integrated amplifier and USB DAC. Rated at 80W/8ohm Made by: Denon (D+M Group), PRC Supplied by: D&M Audiovisual Ltd, UK Telephone: 02890 279830 Web: www.denon.co.uk Price: £1899 Like the matching SACD player [HFN Jul ’16], Denon’s PMA-2500NE – or ‘New Era’ – integrated falls into the category of ‘entry level to the high-end’, because £1899 is still a lot of dosh for an integrated, when there are plenty to be had for under £300. But this is no ordinary integrated amplifier. It seems to address everything bar one lone legacy source, as this has a tape loop and an MM/MCselectable phono stage (with screw terminal for the earthing), but there is no mention of FM radio. Of course, you can add any tuner you like, but one suspects…

AUDIO FILE Tube/Class D hybrid amplifier. Rated at 100W/8ohm Made by: Rogue Audio Inc, Pennsylvania, USA Supplied by: Divine Audio Ltd, Leicester Telephone: 01536 762211 Web: www.rogueaudio.com; www.analogueworks.co.uk Price: £1495 Compared to some other contemporary products, this latest £1495 Sphinx v2 seems positively anachronistic – all the more so when there’s no built-in DAC, no aptX Bluetooth, and no, it can’t stream anything to save its life. It is what it is: an unapologetically oldschool integrated amp, albeit with an intriguing mix of ideas inside. Indeed, following the ’80s vibe, an MM phono stage comes fitted as standard. The machined aluminium front panel is wide at 394mm and sports four nice metal control knobs including balance. The main power switch is at the back, but a fascia on/off toggles between…

AUDIO FILE Two-chassis control/tube preamplifier Made by: McIntosh Laboratory inc., Binghamton, NY, USA Supplied by: Jordan Acoustics Ltd, Dorset, UK Telephone: 01202 911886 Web: www.mcintoshlabs.com; www.jordanacoustics.co.uk Price: £12,995 McIntosh’s flagship £13k preamplifier is a massively complex, two-box behemoth with almost every feature under the sun, a sophisticated microprocessorcontrolled user interface and a large complement of vacuum tubes comprising six 12AX7As and six 12AT7s. Think of the C1100 as a doit-all design which aims to form the glamorous heart of a high-end hi-fi. The package consists of the C1100C ‘Controller’ box and the C1100T ‘Vacuum Tube Preamplifier’, the idea being to isolate the control and power sections from the audio circuits. Both boxes are dualmono in configuration and special shielded umbilical cables join them. ‘The music pulls the listener in, with…

AUDIO FILE Monoblock power amplifier. Rated at 400W/8ohm Made by: Harman International Ind., Northridge, CA, USA Supplied by: Karma-AV Telephone: 01423 358846 Web: www.marklevinson.com; www.karma-av.co.uk Price: £14,000 (each) Designer Todd Eichenbaum says he wanted the Mark Levinson No536 monoblock power amplifier – conservatively rated at 400W and priced £14k each – to ‘recreate some of the magic’ that he remembered the very first time he’d listened to Mark Levinson electronics. And at the same time to ‘bring new Mark Levinson products to the “next level” of performance and convenience while maintaining much of the DNA of the ML sound.’ ‘It took mere seconds to realise that the No536 can kick like a mule’ Lastly, he wanted to design the No536 in such a way that it would be ‘inherently robust…

AUDIO FILE Hub-powered USB DAC and headphone amplifier Made by: AudioQuest, California Supplied by: AudioQuest UK Telephone: 01249 848 873 Web: www.audioquest.com Prices: £89/£169 (Black/Red) The original DragonFly was pretty revolutionary: a DAC/headphone amplifier no larger than a USB thumbdrive, able to be carried anywhere to provide a boost to computer audio, whether used with headphones or to feed a conventional hi-fi system. The later 1.2 version [HFN Mar ’14] is superseded now by the DragonFly Black (£89) and Red (£169) models. Both of these use ‘Streamlength Asynchronous’ USB, meaning they need no additional drivers on the connected computer. ‘The Black punched out bass-lines and percussion with speed and dexterity’ What’s more, both can handle files up to 96kHz/24-bit, with a colourchanging logo to show the sampling rate in use,…

AUDIO FILE Headphone preamp/USB DAC Made by: Questyle Audio Technology Co. Ltd, China Supplied by: SCV Distribution, Hertfordshire Telephone: 03301 222500 Web: www.questyleaudio.com; www.scvdistribution.co.uk Price: £989 This go-ahead young company has trickled down the technology of its earlier products into this £989 CMA600i DAC/headphone amp. What makes Questyle stand out is its degree of technical innovation, most prominently its patented ‘Current Mode Amplification’ (CMA), a circuit technique claimed to offer a very wide, low distortion bandwidth driven from a very low source impedance, enhancing its compatibility with low or variableimpedance headphones. At less than half the price of Questyle’s top-end CMA800i, the CMA600i still offers CMA and ‘True DSD’ decoding. It also retains the pricier model’s use of a separate circuit for the line preamp, and has the same high-precision…

Sony’s D-88 was introduced in 1988 as the smallest (portable) CD player in the world – a feat of engineering from the early days of the format that remained largely unequalled. The introduction of 8cm CD singles in the late ’80s had brought with it the possibility of a range of smaller players. But with typical flair, Sony engineered the D-88 so that it could play full-sized ones too. For this, the entire spindle motor assembly slid out towards the front right-hand corner of the player, moving the clamping puck as well. ‘The design focused on size rather than ultimate sound quality’ The dimensions of the main unit were minimised by making the battery an external component in a detachable housing also containing the battery charging circuit. But playing 12cm…

By the end of the 1960s most amplifier manufacturers began replacing their valve models with transistor ones. Rogers Developments was not slow to do this, starting in 1967 with the 25W Ravensbourne. In 1969 the slightly smaller and more affordable Ravensbrook arrived. Rated at 15W and selling as a chassis model or a free-standing wooden cabinet, it effectively replaced the company’s valve-based Cadet series. Reviewers marvelled at how Rogers had managed to do it for £45-£50. A look inside revealed some of the clever techniques used. Firstly, almost all of the components were mounted on a single glass fibre PCB, allowing a great part of the assembly work to be automated. ‘The various instruments and sound effects found ample breathing space’ In both the Ravensbrook and the Ravensbourne, transformer coupling…

It seems as if I wrote my column for the last Yearbook just months ago, but 2016 has flown by. And writing about the last 12 months was the furthest thing from my mind as I spent much of this summer organising and/or clearing out my lifetime’s accumulated detritus. It’s like this: I’m that much closer to retirement and loath to burden my son, the heir to the Kessler debt, with tens of thousands of books, magazines and records. Worse: there isn’t anything even approaching a national, let alone international hi-fi museum or resource centre to which I could bequeath 40 feet of hi-fi magazines, and 15 feet of related books. Looks like I need to speak with Jim Lesurf... GUT WRENCHING While readying myself for the gauntlet that is…

STOP PRESS… Special Events Chasing The Dragon Mike Valentine, the world’s leading producer of Direct Cut Vinyl albums has joined forces with Symmetry (Windsor 6) to reveal the recording techniques he uses at Air Studios in London. Mike will also be playing tracks from his tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, performed by Clare Teal and the Syd Lawrence Orchestra Pure Cello Join Vincent Bélanger as he accompanies his own recordings played through a £60k Audio Note system throughout the weekend (Lancaster 5)! Vintage system demo You love our vintage gear reviews so look out for Tim Jarman’s seminars to enjoy some choice examples assembled into a complete system TICKETS ON SALE NOW 29th-30th October Advance tickets will remain on sale until Fri 28th Oct for the UK’s premier highend audio event…

AUDIO FILE Belt-driven turntable with manual speed control Made by: Pro-Ject Audio Systems, Austria Supplied by: Henley Designs Ltd, UK Telephone: 01235 511166 Web: www.project-audio.com; www.henleydesigns.co.uk Price: £799 (inc. arm and cartridge) Marking its 25th anniversary, Pro-Ject’s The Classic offers a nod to the past with its sleek, clean lines – a noticeable change from the curves of its RPM models and the generally shiny look of its 2Xperience line. At £799, including an Ortofon 2M Silver cartridge, anyone can have a slice of this particular birthday cake. Pro-Ject wanted the design to be as plug-and-play as possible, and so turned to a very modern alternative to the traditional spring-type suspension. A Thermo Plastic Elastomer (TPE) was chosen for its ability to suppress particular frequencies and this is used to…

AUDIO FILE Direct-drive turntable with electronic speed control Made by: Panasonic Corporation, Osaka, Japan Supplied by: Panasonic UK, Berks Telephone: 0844 844 3899 Web: www.technics.com; http://panasonic.net Price: £2799 Few comebacks surpass the return of the Technics SL-1200 turntable. The Japanese electronics giant has reimagined what is surely its most iconic and best-selling consumer electronics product ever, re-engineering every facet of its design before releasing it to a very expectant audiophile world. Two versions have been announced: the £2799 ‘Grand Class’ SL-1200GAE reviewed here, of which just 1200 pieces are being made, and the more affordable SL-1200G, due at the end of 2016. ‘Bass guitar notes start and stop like a flashing LED – and with such power, too!’ This new and somewhat more substantial GAE version builds on the bedrock…

AUDIO FILE MM phono preamp with balanced outputs Made by: Music First Audio, Hastings Supplied by: Music First Audio Telephone: 01424 858260 Web: www.mfaudio.co.uk Price: £2400 (£660 for 632 MC step-up) Music First Audio is best known for its passive transformer-based preamps, but throws its hat into the ring here with the £2400 Classic MM Phono Amplifier 632 which, as its name suggests, offers loading and sufficient gain for most moving-magnet – not MC – pick-ups. The £660 MC Step-Up 632, a fixed 1:10 ratio step-up transformer, was also supplied. The Classic MM Phono 632 uses solid-state amplification throughout although, perhaps not unexpectedly, features transformers on its outputs. Internally it is laid out on two circuit boards as a fully dual-mono design, each PCB carrying dedicated power supplies fed by…

AUDIO FILE CD player/DAC with hybrid output stage Made by: Musical Fidelity Ltd, London Supplied by: Musical Fidelity Ltd Telephone: 0208 900 2866 Web: www.musicalfidelity.com Price: £6500 Despite accommodating four digital sources via two optical and two coaxial inputs, as well as providing one of each for digital outputs, the £6500 Nu-Vista CD is bereft of USB, Bluetooth or any other post-20th century means of digital ingress. Says MD Antony Michaelson: ‘In our experience, the USB input is hardly used. Also we have found that computers and USB can carry a lot of unforeseen noise which tends to negate the Nu-Vista CD’s performance.’ We won’t argue. ‘Above all, the scale and presence screamed “high-end performance”’ Michaelson has found a current source for nuvistors. However, they buffer only the RCA outs,…

AUDIO FILE CD player/DAC and integrated amp. Rated at 70W Made by: International Audio Group, China Supplied by: IAG Ltd, Cambs Telephone: 01480 447700 Web: www.audiolab.co.uk Prices (8300CD/8300A): £1000/£900 From 1983, the original 8000A integrated amp had a reputation for superb reliability and fine sound. It made the Audiolab brand synonymous with affordable quality. Unsurprisingly, the new sleek 8300 series continues the theme. The 70W/8ohm 8300A at £900 and the 8300CD at £1000 offer impressive build for the money and ample facilities, while their finely finished aluminium cases have a more ‘Apple’ look than before. The Audiolab integrated also has a display – a rather snazzy OLED affair – that shows volume/selected input, and it can be switched to work either as an integrated amp, preamplifier or power amplifier. The…

AUDIO FILE Integrated amplifier. Rated at 80W/8ohm Made by: Audio Analogue, Tuscany, Italy Supplied by: Decent Audio, Stockton-on-Tees Telephone: 05602 054669 Web: www.audioanalogue.com; www.decentaudio.co.uk Price: £2999 Marking Audio Analogue’s 20th birthday, the £2999 Puccini Anniversary is described as a ‘zero feedback integrated amplifier’ (although it must still use some limited local feedback to help keep things on an even keel in its various stages). This is a dual-mono design, its symmetry not only obvious when you pop open the lid, but also evident in the layout of the rear panel, with inputs/outputs for left and right channels physically separated and mirror-imaged. The speaker terminals are out at the extremes, beyond the five lineins – the ‘outer’ one of which is on balanced XLRs. Unlike the original Puccini models, there’s no…

AUDIO FILE Class D amplifier/USB DAC. Rated at 400W/8ohm Made by: Gato Audio, Denmark Supplied by: Elite Audio (Distribution) Ltd, London Telephone: 0203 397 1119 Web: www.gato-audio.com; www.eliteaudiouk.com Price: £3890 Adding an ‘S’ suffix to its DIA-400, Gato claims ‘The reference in Class D amplification just got even better’. The £3890 DAC-equipped integrated dispenses a claimed 400W per channel into 8ohm. Gato’s Frederik Johansen says that the design has been changed and improved in more than 20 ways, with an optimised mains filter, uprated power supplies, a new input stage and improved output stage, new analogue stages for the DAC, revised digital signal routing and updated firmware. The built-in DAC is based on the well-known 192kHz/24-bit PCM1794 from TI, used here in dual-differential mode. There are coaxial and optical S/PDIF…

AUDIO FILE Integrated amplifier and USB DAC. Rated at 200W/8ohm Made by: The Rotel Co. Ltd, Japan Supplied by: Rotel Europe/B&W Group, West Sussex Telephone: 01903 221500 Web: www.rotel.com Price: £1899 This is one big bruiser of an integrated amplifier, and a long way from the slimline RA-10/11/12 models which are its spiritual successors. Selling for £1899, the RA-1592 comes ‘fully-loaded’ with just about every input – both analogue and digital – that you could imagine. Indeed, Rotel itself says it essentially combines the RC-1590 preamp and RB-1582 mkII stereo power amp. There are three lineins on RCA phono sockets and a single set of balanced XLR inputs, along with a MM phono stage. ‘The amp delivers all the music’s richness without smothering finer details’ Outputs run to two sets…

AUDIO FILE Stereo power amplifier. Rated at 300W/8ohm Made by: Bryston Ltd, Canada Supplied by: PMC Ltd, Luton Telephone: 0870 4441044 Web: www.bryston.com; www.pmc-speakers.com Price: £5299 Bryston’s new £5299 300W 4B3 amplifier – ‘cubed’ signifying a new amplifier range – sits towards the middle of a six-strong series that’s being rolled out in stages. The main design focus has been to reduce noise and distortion in the signal path, for which Bryston has patented a new amplification and filter circuit that forms the heart of the input section to its revised amplifiers. Bryston has also freshened up the 4B3’s aesthetics with a precision-milled 12mm-thick front panel with on/standby switch and two multi-colour LEDs to show the status of each channel. ‘Cymbals when struck with fierce intent were startingly immediate’ The…

AUDIO FILE Stereo power amplifier. Rated at 140W/8ohm Made by: Naim Audio Ltd, Salisbury Supplied by: Naim Audio Ltd Telephone: 01722 426600 Web: www.naimaudio.com Price: £20,000 This latest version of the NAP 500 is complete with Naim’s Discrete Regulator technology and the same custom-made ‘009’ output devices used in its Statement amp [HFN May ’15]. It ships with its own 500 PS power supply, containing a 1100VA mains transformer and primary regulation circuitry. Its architecture, and the solidity of the build, suggest the 500 DR is still very much a statement – small ‘s’ – power amp! The hand-built £20k NAP 500 DR retains the Naim ‘triptych’ fascia design and has a central heatsink running front to back. Gullwing half-lids open like the bonnet of a vintage car for servicing.…

AUDIO FILE DSD USB DAC/headphone amplifier Made by: Chord Electronics Ltd, Kent Supplied by: Chord Electronics Ltd Telephone: 02890 279839 Web: www.chordelectronics.co.uk Price: £7950 Described by Chord as its ‘most advanced DAC to date’, behind the name ‘DAVE’ is a spot of yer actual Latin: standing for ‘Digital to Analogue Veritas in Extremis’! And it’s a DAC at which Chord’s digital whizz Rob Watts has thrown everything he knows, fitted into the familiar all-alloy Choral casework, and with a high-resolution display set at an angle between the top and the front of the unit. Crucially, rather than use ‘off the shelf’ chipsets found in most DACs these days, Watts engineers his own technology from scratch, and the DAVE focuses on what he feels is the vital part of the way…

AUDIO FILE Headphone preamp/USB DAC Made by: Teac Corporation, Japan Supplied by: Onkyo Europe Electronics GmbH Telephone: +49 08142 4208 141 Web: www.teac-audio.eu Price: £700 It’s two years now since we enthused about Teac’s HA-501 [HFN Apr ’14], and at a quick glance you might mistake the UD-503 for it – both are housed in the same chunky casework with mock rack handles at either side. As in the HA-501, the UD-503’s mains switch is a toggle type (‘up is on’ alignment). Next, a blue LED indicates the status of the master clock input on the back panel while, beneath this, an optical/coaxial digital input is offered via a mono mini-jack socket. For convenience, Teac provides a short adapter lead (phono socket to mini-jack plug) for coaxial connection. The rotary…

AUDIO FILE RCA and XLR-terminated interconnect cables Made by: Atlas (Scotland) Ltd, Kilmarnock Supplied by: Atlas Cables Telephone: 01563 572666 Web: www.atlascables.com Series Inductance (1m loop) 0.25μH Parallel Capacitance (1m) 82pF Resistance (1m loop) 70mohm Leakage 300Mohm Price: £875 (1m RCA stereo set) Can’t stretch to silver? Interconnects made from this noble metal, including Crystal’s Absolute Dream [HFN Jun ’12] and the Atlas Asimi Ultra [HFN Dec ’14], remain favourites here at HFN, albeit at a premium price. So we were intrigued to discover that Atlas’s partnering Mavros range includes both RCA and balanced XLR-equipped interconnects that share the Asimi Ultra’s construction, dielectrics and geometry but trade silver for OCC (Ohno Continuous Casting) copper. ‘Gov’t Mule’s “Shine On…” was delivered with a rare intelligibility’ So what is the gap in…

Alate ’70s subsidiary of Toshiba, the Aurex marque had two main products in its catalogue: a noise reduction system for tape recorders and the ground-breaking range of miniature hi-fi products seen here. The Aurex System 15 first appeared in 1979 and comprised four main units. There was a pre and power amp, FM tuner and a cassette deck. Bought as a package with a remote, the price was £1000. ‘The amp unravelled a tangled mess of boom and made a tune out of it’ Despite its high price, the carefully engineered and beautifully finished Aurex System 15 still offered good value for money. It was a serious hi-fi product which saw few technical concessions made to achieve its tiny size. The SC-M15 power amplifier, designed with muting and protection systems,…

SHOWBLOG Sights and sounds from around the globe USA, Las Vegas – CES HI-FI NEWS SHOWBLOG This year saw Hi-Fi News celebrate its 60th anniversary and one of the advantages of being the oldest hi-fi magazine in the world is that we’ve had time to station our journalists across the globe, all of whom are able to bring you coverage of the biggest shows. Every issue we offer our Showblog from a major international event somewhere in the world, including CES in Las Vegas and the High End Show in Munich through to the annual shows in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Portugal and Stockholm – in addition to our own Hi-Fi News show in Windsor [see p16]. Here’s our pick of the world-class kit that impressed us in 2016. UK, Windsor…

AUDIO FILE Belt-driven turntable with electronic speed control Made by: Inspire Hi-Fi, Chesterfield Supplied by: Inspire Hi-Fi Telephone: 01246 268887 Web: www.inspirehifi.co.uk Price: £1390 (£2315 inc. arm) Inspire says the £1390 Elevation turntable is intended to deliver a ‘high-mass design in an affordable package’. This mass involves two distinct materials. Birch ply is used to form the plinth, with sections layered to create a 90mm-thick teardrop shape that accommodates the motor, bearing and the arm mount. Inspire offers various veneer options, or the deck may be supplied with the layers of ply exposed, as seen here. The unit is topped off with an equally hefty 50mm platter machined from an acetyl polymer – a substance similar to Delrin and a little less dense than acrylic. It locates directly onto a…

AUDIO FILE Belt-driven turntable with electronic speed control Made by: Roksan Audio Ltd, London Supplied by: Henley Designs Ltd, Oxford Telephone: 0208 900 6801; 01235 511 166 Web: www.roksan.co.uk; www.henleydesigns.co.uk Price (inc. Pro-Ject 9CC Evolution arm): £2500 Launched to coincide with Roksan’s 30th birthday, this new £2500 Oxygene 30 deck is currently offered as a complete package with the Pro-Ject 9CC Evolution tonearm and Roksan XPS-7 power supply. Visually an obvious match for the companion amplifier and CD player, although only in white gloss finish, the turntable necessarily differs in its material design. The 30’s plinth is made from four layers of high density cast polycarbonate selectively decoupled from each other – as with the Xerxes 20 Plus. Above this base sits a sub-plinth that carries the main bearing and…

AUDIO FILE Belt-driven turntable with electronic speed control Made by: Stella Inc., Tokyo, Japan Supplied by: Absolute Sounds Ltd Telephone: 0208 971 3909 Web: www.techdas.jp; www.absolutesounds.com Price: £18,998 True to its word, the company has halved prices with each new model since the Air Force One turntable so this third in the series sells for £19,000 – staggering value for a deck delivering 90% of the performance of a sibling that leaves little change from £100,000. And, unlike the AF One and AF Two [HFN Jun ’13 and May ’15], the Air Force III can be fitted with up to four tonearms, whereas the larger decks make do with two. Despite the reduction in price, you still get the air bearing and vacuum LP hold-down while the sound is so…

AUDIO FILE CD ripper/transport and USB DAC Made by: Computer Audio Design Ltd, Surrey Supplied by: Computer Audio Design Ltd Telephone: 0203 397 0334 Web: www.computeraudiodesign.com Price (CD transport/DAC): £6300/£7250 Computer Audio Design’s £6300 CAT transport will rip and store music then play it out via USB or Ethernet, while the partnering £7250 1543 DAC, now in mkII guise, offers a single digital (USB) input and Philips-based filterless/non-oversampling conversion. CAD also supplied its £480 USB cable for this review, which separates its ‘signal’ and power lines into two connections between the plugs. The transport is highly optimised with a hefty external linear power supply, with four separate voltage rails, in place of a standard switchmode computer supply, while the Windows OS, which runs on a separate SSD, has also been…

AUDIO FILE CD player & integrated amp with DAC. Rated at 45W/8ohm Made by: Marantz (D+M Group), PRC Supplied by: D&M Audiovisual Ltd, UK Telephone: 02890 279839 Web: www.marantz.eu Prices (CD/Amp): £400/£400 Marantz’s 6000 series has been a lynch-pin of its offering through several generations, and these latest ’6006 versions set out to continue that success. Selling for £399 apiece, the CD6006 CD player and PM6006 amplifier are almost indistinguishable from the ’6005 models they’ve just replaced. The amplifier circuit layout here is new, though, as are improved ‘vibration-cancelling’ feet, while Marantz has fitted an all-new headphone circuit with selectable gain. It has optical and coaxial inputs plus a more than reasonable MM phono stage and four line-ins. ‘It took a good look into the depths of the murky mixes…

AUDIO FILE Valve integrated amp with USB DAC. Rated at 75W/8ohm Made by: Audio Research Corp, Minnesota, USA Supplied by: Absolute Sounds Ltd Telephone: 0208 971 3909 Web: www.audioresearch.com; www.absolutesounds.com Price: £14,500 With the £14,500 retro-styled GSi75, the third model to arrive in the new G Series lineup, Audio Research has embraced the 21st century audiophile’s needs even more so than with its separates. It ticks all the boxes that represent the demands of traditionalists, in that it is all-valve, has balance and mono facilities, user-adjustable valve bias and even features a phono stage with two levels of gain. But there’s also an integrated DSD-compatible USB DAC, a valve headphone output and an all-metal remote control to command an extensive menu of user-defined settings. While the front panel’s source and…

AUDIO FILE Integrated amplifier. Rated at 30W/8ohm Made by: Luxman Corp., Japan Supplied by: IAG (International Audio Group), UK Telephone: 01480 447700 Web: www.iaguk.com; www.luxman.com Price: £6995 This beast of an integrated amplifier, the £6995 L-590AXII, certainly merits your attention and it can be used as a preamp or power amp by activating the button labelled ‘separates’, next to ‘direct’ – which bypasses the balance and tone control circuitry. Luxman’s 30W/ch rating may apply only to its billing as a Class A amp as this is no 30-watter in its real-world behaviour. But sheer power will not be why you’ll fall in love with the L-590AXII. No, you’ll want this for the same reason that people buy retro-inspired cars. It’s bursting with the features and virtues that we enjoyed in…

AUDIO FILE Stereo line preamp/USB DAC Made by: Audio Alchemy, California, USA Supplied by: Symmetry Systems, Herts Telephone: 01727 865488 Web: www.audioalchemy.com; www.symmetry-systems.co.uk Prices (DAC/PSU): £1595/£495 First seen at 2015’s Hi-Fi Show Live, this £1595 DDP-1 preamp/DAC forms the heart of Audio Alchemy’s component line-up. For it the company has wisely chosen to include three unity-gain analogue inputs (one balanced XLR and two single-ended RCAs) alongside the DAC’s suite of digital inputs, to make the DDP-1 a complete control centre for any system set-up. Our review sample came with its partnering PS-5 ‘Power Station’ add-on power supply (£495), its two rear DC outputs designed to beefup the performance of the DDP-1. While the aluminium casework of the DDP-1 has been nicely styled, it’s not especially luxurious and the supplied infra-red…

AUDIO FILE Stereo power amplifier. Rated at 300W/8ohm Made by: Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems, Arizona, USA Supplied by: Absolute Sounds Ltd Telephone: 0208 971 3909 Web: www.dandagostino.com; www.absolutesounds.com Price: £13,498 Unlike the aesthetically innovative D’Agostino Momentum amplifiers, the £13.5k Classic Stereo comes in a traditional rackmount case, with massive front handles that prove essential when unpacking its 50kg weight. The innards include an enormous toroidal transformer and a pair of amplifier sections – this is a dualmono design – consisting of the circuitry and a finned heatsink to which each board is attached. ‘The Classic grabs your speakers by the waist and dances with them’ The bold copper plaque on the front bears Dan’s signature while below, to the right, is the on/off button that turns green when lit.…

AUDIO FILE Monoblock hybrid power amplifier. Rated at 300W/8ohm Made by: PS Audio, Boulder, Colorado Supplied by: Signature Audio Systems Telephone: 07738 007776 Web: www.psaudio.com; www.signaturesystems.co.uk Price: £14,000 (pair) Unbox the BHK Signature 300 amps, and what you have is a pair of units as purposeful as they are understated. The design shuns the excesses so often used to give highend products ‘character’. Yes, they’re hefty and feel entirely solid in their cast aluminium casework, but with nothing more than an illuminated blue logo on display, they’ll blend into the listening room quite easily. Even the side-mounted heatsinks are hidden behind neatly radiused end-caps while the rear panel offers RCA and balanced XLR inputs with parallel sets of 4mm compression-fit speaker connections. ‘They do a fine job of delivering every…

AUDIO FILE USB DAC/headphone preamp Made by: Copland, Copenhagen, Denmark Supplied by: Absolute Sounds Ltd Telephone: 0208 971 3909 Web: www.copland.dk; www.absolutesounds.com Price: £1998 Adigital product that’s designed to look comfortingly ‘analogue’, the £2k DAC215 is an inspired visual match for the company’s CTA506 power amplifer [HFN Jun ’12] and, being a Copland product, it has a couple of tubes on board for good measure. There’s a stereo pair of analogue line inputs, so to play vinyl records as well as digital sources, you need only add a phono stage to allow the DAC215 function as your main preamp. Meanwhile it can handle all the high-resolution digital signals you might care to offer it, including LPCM up to 384kHz/32-bit, as well as DSD64 and DSD128. ‘With Tim Hugh playing Kodály…

Every vinyl enthusiast has experienced the woes caused by a poorly pressed record. Indeed, it’s an issue that still exists to some degree even to this day. However, in 1982 a technological solution to the problem arrived, and it came from an unlikely quarter. At that time, Nakamichi was riding high on the success of its cassette decks – CD too was just around the corner. It therefore came as a surprise when the company introduced a new turntable, the TX-1000, priced in the UK at a heady £5000. This was a technological and engineering tour de force, the likes of which had never been seen before. The design aim was ‘to work in perfect harmony with today’s less than perfect audio discs’, ie, it would offer the best possible…

The large high performance receiver was never that popular in the UK and the Sansui 5000A was just such a beast. Successor to the 5000, it appeared in 1969 and featured an FM front end employing three MOSFET transistors and a slightly revised stereo decoder. It could be supplied with a simple painted metal ‘bonnet’ for console mounting, or with a full wooden sleeve for free-standing use, as here. The amp was specified at 75W into 4ohm and offered switching for three pairs of loudspeakers, two tape loops, direct connection of the tape head of an open-reel transport, an MM phono stage and a fully featured tuner with totally segregated AM and FM sections. ‘Fruity clarinets and the chesty nature of violins were a joy to listen to’ Its stereo…

AUDIOPHILE: VINYL MILES DAVIS Kind Of Blue Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-45011 (three 45rpm LPs) I will leave it to others to discuss the minutiae of the various editions of this LP, reissued so many times that a book has been written about the sessions. It is said to be the best-selling jazz album of all time, and I cannot name a format in which it hasn’t been released – maybe Hip-Pocket Records? I have a half-dozen respected versions but this is far and away the most vivid incarnation I’ve experienced. One impressive element is not even the playing: it’s the ‘air’ in the recording. You hear breathing, you hear valves opening. If ever the 45rpm LP needed a ‘killer app’, this is it: just the original five cuts, sounding like…