Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2024 i Hi Fi News

When does ‘run in’ become ‘worn out’? I am referring, of course, to the hoary subject of hi-fi gear ‘bedding in’ after hours of use before it achieves peak potential. This is not entirely fantastical – when dealing with mechanical systems in speakers and pick-ups, there are very real performance variations linked to changes in component temperature. For example, the compliance of the rubber damper in an MM/MC’s suspension is influenced by temperature as is the polymer surround of a mid/woofer driver. The electrical and mechanical attributes of a driver voice-coil and former may also change as they heat from the surges of current. Nevertheless the practice of cartridge brands insisting on ‘running in’ an MM or MC for a couple of hundred hours before it’s let loose into the…

09-12 MAY High End, Munich, Germany; www.highendsociety.de 22-23 JUN North West Audio Show, Cranage Hall (De Vere Cranage Estate), Cheshire; http://audioshow.co.uk 09-11 AUG Audiotechnique AV Show, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre; www.audiotechnique.com/avshow 21-22 SEP The UK Hi-Fi Show Live, Ascot Racecourse Grandstand, Ascot Berkshire SL5 7JX; www.hifishowlive.com 25-27 OCT Audio Video Show Warsaw 2024, Radisson Blu/Sobieski Hotel, Warsaw, Poland; www.audioshow.pl…

Okay, so let’s get the ‘death ray’ jokes out of the way right at the start: what we have here is a high-aiming DAC-equipped headphone amp from a Chinese-based company that’s new – to me at least – but has a growing range of digital products, all with slightly odd names. High-aiming? Well, the rather literally-branded Listening M1 might be tiny, but it sells for a punchy £2599 alongside the £399 Pegasus SG1 Bluetooth headphone amp and Prelude DTR1+ portable music player. Furthermore, this only scratches the surface of the lineup from the Shenzhen-based manufacturer. There’s also a striking-looking valve headphone amplifier, the Listening T1, which describes itself rather amusingly as ‘breaking through the bottle-neck’; the Honey H1 Bluetooth headphone amp; and even a pair of wired in-ear headphones, the…

Canor Audio has been around for nearly three decades, but it’s only in the past few years the Slovakian company has stepped fully into the limelight. If you asked how the brand would describe itself, Canor’s founders would likely say ‘tube specialists’. This is fair, considering how much effort it puts into validating and testing valves before pressing them into its many tube products – and those it builds for other major brands, too. But if that might make this Slovak enterprise sound like an adherent of old-school, analogue-only hi-fi, you would be mistaken. In practice, its repertoire also embraces digital audio separates [including the 2.10 DAC – HFN Dec ’22] and solid-state products, albeit mainly for third parties as Canor has its own hybrid designs. CLEAR THINKING The company’s…

It’s only about two years ago that Bowers & Wilkins introduced the S3 generation of its 700 series. A major overhaul of the venerable British brand’s popular midrange offering, its attention-grabbing improvements included a notably curvier front baffle with protruding drivers (housed in ‘pods’) and an elongated tube for the ‘Tweeter-on-Top’. This was all quite familiar for anyone who saw the earlier revamped 800 D4 series [HFN Nov ’21, Feb ’22 and May ’23], so B&W isn’t being untruthful when it claims to deploy trickle-down technology. Now come Signature editions for three of the 700 S3 models: the floorstanding 702 S3 Signature tested here for £7000, plus the 705 S3 Signature bookshelf and – for the first time – a Signature centre speaker in the shape of the HTM71 S3.…

Thanks to the continued resurgence of the vinyl format, enthusiasts can now choose from a good number of plug-and-play turntable packages. Even better, the quality of these complete solutions – once considered a first step on the vinyl ladder for those wanting ease of use, or for whom the dark arts of turntable setup were a terrifying mystery – has been creeping ever higher. The latest company to refresh its package lineup is Germany’s Clearaudio, its Concept Signature being a new iteration of a turntable set-up that has been on sale since 2009. Indeed, Clearaudio claims that its original Concept deck, complete with tonearm and either Concept MM or MC cartridge, has sold over 20,000 units since its introduction. As tested here, with Profiler tonearm and Concept V2 MM cartridge,…

Think JBL and, not unreasonably, you’ll probably think ‘speakers’. The company has been in the loudspeaker business for getting on 80 years, having been founded in California in 1946 by James B Lansing, from whom it takes its name. Lansing himself took his own life just three years later but left an insurance policy to keep the company going, in which form JBL has become an internationally famous audio company and, since 1969, part of what is now Harman International. In 2017 Harman became an independent subsidiary of South Korea’s technology giant, Samsung. No apologies for starting this review with a history lesson, for in recent times JBL has been making much of its past, with reinventions of speakers from the mighty horn-loaded Project Everest DD67000 [HFN Aug ’14] and…

Crazy? You want crazy? OK, let’s pop into Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge for a snifter. See that guy over there in the corner, nursing the same warm beer he’s been sipping for the past hour or so? Well, that’s Willie Nelson, a wannabe songwriter who’s been kicking around Nashville of late getting pretty much nowhere beyond a police record for drunk driving without a licence. He’s got a wife and three kids to feed back home and the money ain’t so good. Now, see that other guy who’s just joining him now? That’s Charlie Dick, a linotype setter for a local newspaper. The two men get to talking and Nelson plays him a song on the jukebox. Dick likes it. The track is a demo Nelson has made of one of…

FAMILY It’s Only A Movie Esoteric ECLKEC22856 (two discs) Following on from the fully-loaded reissue of Fearless [HFN Jan ’24], Family’s seventh and final studio album has enjoyed a similar host of goodies. The tri-fold pack contains two CDs and a detailed booklet, CD1 providing the original album from 1973, newly remastered, along with two B-sides and early versions of three songs. CD2 is filled with 14 tracks from the BBC, all radio sessions dating from 1973, including four from In Concert. Technically, this wasn’t the last of Family, which re-formed for a spell in 2012-2016, but it’s a helluva swan song from one of the most accessible prog-rock bands – especially if you love Roger Chapman’s inimitable vocals. KK Sound Quality: 85% UFO Lights Out Chrysalis CRCX1531 (two discs)…

CHARLIE PYNE QUARTET Nature Is A Mother 33Jazz 33JAZZ302 In-demand songwriter, arranger, bassist and vocalist Charlie Pyne graduated from the Guildhall School in 2009 and in recent times has been heard in Zoe Rahman’s trio and Issie Barrett’s campaigning all-female band, Interchange. On this second album from her own quartet, Pyne’s songs ‘tell stories from a modern female viewpoint’, offered with what her PR calls ‘infectious cheerfulness’ and excellent instrumental content. For example, ‘Blackberries’ is a jolly evocation of fruit-picking that becomes a swinging jazz waltz. Great playing from drummer Katie Patterson, pianist Liam Dunachie and, above all, the fine smoky-toned tenor saxophonist Luke Pinkstone. SH Sound Quality: 80% JOHN SURMAN Words Unspoken ECM Records 5862035 Master of all reed instruments and a major figure in British jazz for decades,…

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 An enduring bit of wisdom cautions against extravagant purchases – the must-have new car, for example, that loses 20% of its value the moment it’s driven off the dealer’s lot. Something similar happens with high-end audio, but worse, because were you to try selling your latest cost-be-damned amplifier or ultra-performance DAC two weeks post-purchase, you’d be dismayed to learn that you might recover only 50% or so of what you paid. Yes, the rule of thumb is that, on the used market, most audio gear is worth about half its original retail price. And that’s if it’s relatively recent and in demand.…

Steve Harris edited Hi-Fi News between 1986 and 2005. He loves jazz, blues music, vinyl and vintage hi-fi and anything that makes good music come to life When you’ve got a million records, some of them might have to go. In January the BBC began a series of online auctions to dispose of unwanted vinyl from its fabled record library. In a tweet, Omega Auctions said it had spent a productive few days clearing out thousands of LPs from the BBC’s archive. You wonder whether this was just another job to them, or whether they thought they’d died and gone to heaven. Headliners included The Man Who Sold The World in its original cover with Bowie wearing a dress and with the misspelling ‘Tonny’ Visconti on the label. Less valuable…

BARRY FOX Investigative journalist supreme, Barry is the first with news of the latest developments in hi-fi and music technologies PETER QUANTRILL Peter Quantrill has been writing about music for magazines and record labels for 30 years. He is HFN’s master of the classics KEN KESSLER is a long-serving contributor, luxury goods writer and champion for the renaissance in valves and reel-to-reel tape MARK CRAVEN Editor of our sister title Home Cinema Choice, Mark’s passion for music extends from stereo to multichannel and Dolby Atmos TIM JARMAN Co-author of a major hardback on historic B&O equipment, Tim continues to research, repair and write about vintage hi-fi for HFN ANDREW EVERARD has reviewed hi-fi for over 30 years and is still effortlessly enthusiastic about new technology, kit and discovering new music…

AUDIOLAB UPGRADE The top-of-the-range 9000N network player/DAC from Audiolab [HFN Mar ’24] has gained Roon Ready certification and – after a recent software update – is now compatible with the content management platform Plex, including the free-to-download Plexamp app. A previous over-the-air update added FLAC playback to 192kHz/24-bit (so-called ‘Max’ files) via the music streaming service Tidal. www.audiolab.co.uk RAISING THE BAR Described as the ‘first ultra-portable DAC with K2HD technology’, iFi Audio’s GO Bar Kensei (£449) combines the upsampling/processing platform from JVCKENWOOD with a USB DAC stage supporting DSD256, MQA and 384kHz PCM. Headphone outputs cater to 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm S-balanced connections, while the GO Bar Kensei’s pocket-sized chassis offers controls for digital filter, XBass and XSpace analogue processing, and IEM Match and Turbo Power modes. www.ifi-audio.com…

ATC has returned to its long-running SCM20 standmount speaker design for a new limited edition model marking the company’s 50th anniversary. Just 150 pairs of the SCM20ASL Limited Edition will go on sale, priced £10,500 and sporting an exclusive blue lacquer finish with Napa leather baffle and silver anodised driver housings. The two-way configuration of in-house-made 150mm ‘Super Linear’ Mid/Bass and 25mm ‘S-Spec’ tweeter mirrors that of ATC’s conventional SCM20, yet is powered here by built-in Class AB amplification rated at 200W (bass/mid) and 50W (HF) – making it the manufacturer’s first active standmount model. Connection is via a balanced XLR input, next to input sensitivity and low-frequency cut/boost controls on the SCM20ASL Limited Edition’s rear panel. ATC has also launched a partnering limited version of its C4 Sub Mk2…

Opening its doors on April the 12th at The Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Centre on the outskirts of Chicago, the Audio Expo of North America (Axpona) is the largest event of its kind in the US. With over 200 listening rooms, some 9000 visitors and north of 600 audio brands in attendance, the event vies with Munich High End as the show to premier products. Headphone aficionados could enjoy the Ear Gear Experience in the Expo Hall, which also housed the Record Fair where new and vintage vinyl was for sale. And there were some notable trends. Subwoofers were sneaking into the mix, with numerous 2.2 systems on display, while thanks to lossless streaming it was easy to ask exhibitors to play pretty much any track. Tannoy’s Stirling III LZ Special…

Lame analogies – both banal and obvious – spring to mind when one is directed to review an amplifier which is a little over half the power of its predecessor. One thinks of cars offered with engines of half the horsepower of a dearer sibling, of second growth wines, and other half-pint offerings. But the D’Agostino Relentless 800 Mono Amplifier – a heady £236,000 per pair – delivers the wattage that provides its model name: 800W per chassis. And that is conservative [see PM’s Lab Report, p47]. The original Relentless monoblock [HFN Mar ’20] – CEO Dan D’Agostino’s ‘dream of an amplifier without limits’ – is now superseded by two siblings, the massive Relentless Epic 1600 and ‘baby sister’ Relentless 800 (with no Epic in its name), seen here. Let’s…

Felix Koslowski, Acoustic Engineer at Burmester’s Berlin headquarters, explains that a significant part of the weight of the B38 floorstander stems from its custom plinth. ‘The floor panel and housing are so rigidly constructed and well-damped that only marginal vibrations are transmitted. We achieve this by designing the floor panel as a sandwich construction made of 10mm aluminium, 3mm POM (polyoxymethylene) and 30mm steel – a 43mm thick composite that weighs over 13kg per speaker.’ Reinforcing the cabinet is also key to securing the B38’s large side-firing bass driver, of which Koslowski reveals the company has no ‘hard and fast rules’ around positioning. ‘In most cases’, he says, ‘it is more advantageous to direct the side-firing woofers inwards, which can often improve imaging. Alternatively, if there is furniture between the…

Every HFN reader knows Bowers & Wilkins. But who is Masimo? Unless you happen to be a medical professional (or a patent lawyer, following Masimo’s multi-year legal battle with Apple over smartwatch technology), chances are you’ve never heard of it. Just how an esteemed UK hi-fi brand ended up being part of a California-based specialist in patient monitoring is a convoluted tale, starting with B&W’s acquisition by Sound United, an umbrella company which grew out of an American car alarm manufacturer. This was already the owner of Definitive Technology, Polk, Denon, Marantz and Boston Acoustics when it acquired B&W in 2020. Two years later Masimo came calling. It’s never been made clear why a major medical enterprise wanted to own a portfolio of hi-fi brands. It certainly flummoxed shareholders, some…

Theresia/Claudio Astronio CPO 555 5792 Punchy, sleek and hi-def accounts of the overtures for opera and ballet. The best place for newcomers to catch the Kraus bug. Concerto Köln/Werner Ehrhardt, etc Capriccio C7325 (5CDs) Good-value round-up of cantatas, symphonies and theatre music. Not quite all the Kraus you’ll ever need, but a fine start. L’Arte del Mondo/Werner Ehrhardt DHM 294025631626 The funeral music for Gustav III, cantata and symphony. Kraus at his most intense, in vivid period-instrument performances. Tapiola Sinfonietta/David Aaron Carpenter Ondine ODE1193-2 A pair of edgy viola concertos, plus a more expansive Double Concerto for viola and cello: Kraus the Romantic before his time. Jaap Schröder, Kari Ottesen, Lucia Negro Musica Sveciae MSCD415 The best single-disc survey of Kraus’s chamber music, where he suppresses his dark side and…

1961 Patsy Kline’s ‘Crazy’ reaches No 2 on the Hot Country Singles chart then No 9 on the Hot 100 pop charts 1965 With its name changed to Columbia Studio B, Roger Miller records his country classic, ‘King Of The Road’ 1965 Brian Wilson oversees the making of The Beach Boys Today!, which sees a significant shift in the group’s sound 1968 Jeannie C. Riley wins a Grammy Award for her vocal performance on her No 1 single ‘Harper Valley PTA’ 1968 The Byrds embrace bluegrass, folk and honky-tonk while recording their album Sweetheart Of The Rodeo 1974 J J Cale lays down songs for Oakie, including ‘Starbound’ and ‘I’ll Be There (If You Ever Want Me)’…

EBERHARD WEBER The Colours Of Chloë (96kHz/24-bit, WAV) www.ecmrecords.com; ECM 1042 Not just the debut album by double bassist and composer Weber, but also an early ECM release destined to set the standard for the label, The Colours Of Chloë, produced by label boss Manfred Eicher, first saw the light of day in 1974. You’d never guess its vintage from the sound here [see PM’s Lab Report, below] which is crisp, clean, spacious and superbly rich. Weber’s ensemble is augmented by the cello section of Stuttgart’s Südfunk Orchestra to dramatic effect, and his bass is captured in wonderful detail, being both sonorous and with real snap to the impact of finger on strings. That’s especially so with the driving riff propelling the near-20-minute final track ‘No Motion Picture’, which originally occupied…

CHRISTINA LANDSHAMER, AKADEMIE FÜR DAS ALTE MUSIK BERLIN/BERNHARD FORCK Telemann: Ino, Sinfonia Melodica, Overture in D, etc Pentatone PTC5187072 Followers of Janowitz will recall the German soprano’s outlier recording of Ino for Archiv, which has rarely since attracted comparable vocal glamour. At rather sprightlier tempi, Landshamer shares with her forebear a shining upper register and formidably assured fioriture in the long, showpiece outer arias of this solo cantata based on the metamorphosis of Semele’s sister. No less attractive is the focus of the album as a whole on ‘late’ Telemann. At least in these spaciously engineered accounts, Telemann seems to move more fluently than ever between French, German and Italian idioms, coming up time and again with one-off strokes of melodic and orchestral genius. PQ Sound Quality: 90% YOMIURI NIPPON…

Jim Lesurf has spent a lifetime in audio, both as an engineer at UK hi-fi company Armstrong and reader in Physics and Electronics at St Andrew’s University I was recently delighted and excited to hear that a new edition of Stephen Spicer’s book on the history of Leak – Firsts In High Fidelity – has been released. The original edition appeared as a large-format paperback in the year 2000, and it’s a fascinating account of the story of the people involved, the company, and its products It’s therefore a wonderful collection of information for anyone interested in the history of ‘classic’ top-grade British hi-fi equipment. Though it was a shame that photographs and circuit diagrams included in the 2000 edition were printed in monochrome so could not show the true…

It was back in the March 1996 issue of Hi-Fi News that I took my first look at the £6250 Stratosphere ST1 – a turntable that proved out of this world in sound quality as well as name. Now John Jeffries of Reference International (the name behind both the Strat and Lumley) has delivered a complete system including the £4500 LM2 loudspeakers. With the front-end as before, namely the Stratosphere ST1 fitted with a Graham 1.5 tonearm and Transfiguration Temper cartridge, the preamp is now, surprisingly, a solid-state device though completely encased in shining chrome to match the look of the power amplifiers. The latter are magnificent, both in size and power output, for the Lumley M250 monoblocks (£7500 per pair) are said to be capable, as the model number…

ZZ TOP Outstanding styling, high-end build – Ken Kessler on the Bow Technologies ZZ-Eight CD player. STAGE CRAFT Technical review of French company Micromega’s modular and upgradeable Stage 4, 5 and 6 CD players by Martin Colloms. THREE STEPS TO HEAVEN? Peter J Comeau hears Myryad’s MI120/MA120, the NAD 314 and Sonneteer’s Campion amplifiers. FIVE LIVE Andrew Cartmel and Matthew Thome assess five MC cartridges under £500: the Goldring Elite, Virtual Reality Etile, Dynavector Karat 17D2 Mkll, Linn Klyde and Sumiko Blue Point Special. AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT Comprehensive technical review by David Berriman of DPA’s Enlightenment DX32 DAC and Enlightenment Drive. FILLING THE GAP With its novel transport mechanism and price tag of £300, can Sony’s new CDP-XE900E CD player fill a gap in the market, asks Paul Miller? VISION…

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First conceived by Vivid Audio’s founder and designer Laurence Dickie while he was quarantined in a hotel during the Covid pandemic, the five-way Moya 1 loudspeaker has now broken cover, complete with a £400,000 price tag. Measuring 1.66m high and 1.21m deep – and weighing 346kg a piece – the Moya 1’s distinctively styled cabinet comprises four ported enclosures hewn from a carbon-reinforced sandwich composite, finished as standard in Piano Black, Lexus Pearl White or Oyster Grey Matte, and with PPG automotive finishes available on demand. Each tapered tube enclosure features two opposed 225mm alloy woofers, with 100mm edge-wound voice-coils and 11kg motor assemblies, connected internally via steel ‘tie-bars’ to counter vibration – bass response is rated to 19Hz (–6dB). Completing the speaker’s five-way driver configuration are bass/mid, midrange, upper-mid…

Smaller than the company’s debut Elypsis 1512, but still standing 1.2m tall courtesy of its integrated stand, Stratton Acoustics’ two-way Element 12 (£32,000) marries a 300mm paper cone bass/mid driver to a 29mm waveguided soft dome tweeter. Both drivers employ neodymium-iron-boron magnet systems, with the HF unit mounted in a ‘mechanically isolated’ assembly. The bass/mid unit is reflex-loaded via twin ports on the underside of the speaker’s cabinet for a rated low frequency extension of 38Hz and high 94dB sensitivity. Hand-built in the UK, the Element 12’s internally braced enclosure is made from bamboo ply up to 46mm thick. Four high-gloss finishes are available: piano white, piano black, maple and ziricote. Stratton Acoustics, London, UK, 0208 881 8113; www.strattonacoustics.com…

When asked what was lost from the Relentless Epic 1600 to develop the half-power model reviewed here, CEO Dan D’Agostino told us, ‘Rather than sacrificing elements from the original Relentless, the development of the Relentless 800 served as a catalyst for innovation, ultimately leading to the creation of the Relentless Epic 1600. Every major section of the Relentless design – PSU, input, driver, and output stages – is enhanced in the new 800 mono amplifier’. So what are the sonic differences between the 800 and 1600? Dan feels that, ‘While both amplifiers offer similar tonal characteristics, it’s during lower volume listening where we find the Relentless Epic 1600 truly shines’ – an observation echoed by the amplifier’s importer, Ricardo Franassovici of Absolute Sounds. As for the Relentless Epic 1600’s claim…

Although the largest and most expensive member of Burmester’s B series loudspeakers (which are ranged below its BA and BC models), the £22,700 B38 doesn’t – when viewed front on at least – look quite like the all-singing, all-dancing range-topper you might expect. Yes, it’s marginally taller than the step-down B28 (£17,600), at 1165mm versus 1144mm, but it’s also slimmer, its 210mm width shaving off 13mm. And then there are the drivers, with the B28 having four cascading down its front baffle, while the B38 features just two… So what’s going on here? As the German manufacturer explains, ‘scaling up the concept’ of its slim, classic-looking loudspeaker line, including by expanding cabinet depth here to a substantial 460mm, has enabled the use of side-firing 320mm bass drivers, rather than the…

JANE WEAVER Love In Constant Spectacle Fire FIRECD682; LP: FIRELP682 Here Jane Weaver has teamed up with guitarist and producer John Parish, best known for his work with PJ Harvey, and together they have created a luminous soundworld of fat, funky synth lines, fluid drumming and chiming guitar chords, and with some smooth fuzztone lead lines. It’s full of colour and textures (but more spacious than 2021’s Flock), which her voice glides through with occasional subtle effects, like the echo that catches the edge of her phrasing on ‘The Axis’. ‘Motif’ is an exquisite acoustic number that nods back to her folky roots, and the spartan organ and drum machine of ‘Family Of The Sun’ sounds akin to early Stereolab, with Weaver’s existential musings on love and mortality adding to…

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 Experts will tell you it’s easy to make a digital copy of a music stream, or LP, to play in a car or carry around. You ‘just’ suck analogue music out of your hi-fi, feed it into a computer and then ‘just’ send it to a memory device or burn to a blank CD. Yes, but it’s only easy when you already know exactly how. I’ve recently got my hands dirty finding out the easiest ‘how’ for people who want to listen to music, not burrow down computer rabbit holes. Most computers no longer come with a disc burner.…

Peter Quantrill has been writing about music for magazines and record labels for 30 years. When not hunched over a CD player, he’ll be at a concert, or the cricket As a follower of cricket and football, I got used years ago to seeing professionals at the top of their game (sorry), who had been born within the current millennium. But conductors? DG has lately been making a song and dance about their latest signing, Tarmo Peltokoski. Born in April 2000, he is now principal guest conductor of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and DG has recorded and filmed them together in a trio of Mozart’s mature symphonies. Finnish line On the Stage+ streaming platform, Peltokoski cuts a confident figure, as well he should in front of fellow musicians who presumably…

A number of our recent Vintage Reviews have featured CD players designed to broaden the appeal of the format by making the hardware available at progressively lower price points. This was one way to maintain sales, but another approach was to add additional features at little or no extra cost. The big Japanese manufacturers had already applied this strategy to VCRs, piling on the technology in a bid to keep the public interested in new models which, in real terms, were no more expensive than the earlier, far less sophisticated ones. When it came to CD, one obvious avenue to explore was better sound quality. However, to most buyers, the discs sounded more than good enough already, so for mass market consumers this would have been a hard sell. What…