Dominic Marsh takes a look at the £180, silver plated power block from MCRU.

Mains Cables R Us (MCRU for short) have been specialising in mains cable products for a good number of years now and in addition to selling products from manufacturers such as Furutech, Black Rhodium and Tellurium Q, they also sell products under their own brand name and this mains block is one of these MCRU branded products.

CONSTRUCTION

At first glance this looks just like any other mains block, that is until you look much closer in detail.  The 3 pin mains plug appears to be a standard UK mains plug from MK, but the MCRU motif on the cap says otherwise and when you turn it over you are greeted by silver plating to all three pins, carried out by MCRU.  The entry lead is built using silver plated copper conductors, approximately 9mm wide, is extremely flexible and covered in black expandable braiding, measuring a standard 1.5 metres in length, with other lengths available to order.  Once again, the block itself looks nothing special being made of black plastic, but you will find no neon indicator or on/off switch present, as they are said to be detrimental to sound quality and have been removed for that purpose.  Internally though, all of the bus bars have been silver plated especially by MCRU at a local electroplaters and a soldered connection to the entry lead by using Audio Note 6% silver solder, again with conductivity in mind.

Price at time of testing is £180.00.

SOUND QUALITY

Or rather a lack of sound quality, as a mains block should never impose any of its own sonic imprint on to a hifi system, especially any form of compression and limiting of dynamics.   Remember too, you are not putting something “wonderful” in, you are taking out a component that has inadequacies and replacing it with a component that has less faults – none of them are in actual fact perfect anyway no matter how much money you pay.  It is those progressive steps up the hierarchy in sound quality terms that also has a commensurate rise in price as well, because removing those ‘imperfections’ in the products does not come cheap either.

My regular readership will also know that I do not do direct comparisons between competing components in the marketplace, because each has their own merits and so giving and taking away of points doesn’t always mean the ‘best’ product with the highest wins the battle or shootout.  However, with this particular review I felt I had to use some comparisons with other products to put into perspective and context what this product’s capabilities were, because there are so many of these blocks available to buy, so I hope you will bear with me just this once.  This is not to say either that the MCRU mains block occupies a particular place in the market and that should be borne in mind when reading this review.  All of the products mentioned below including the MCRU block were run in for approximately 50 hours as I am aware that cables not used for any length of time need running in once more to sound at their optimum.

The real issue facing me before I even started the evaluation was comparable products to pit the MCRU block against.  My resident MS Audio block costs at least twice as much and so that was no equally matched contender, so I had to venture into the dark and gloomy spares cupboard to upset all the spiders in there to find what I was looking for.  Amazing what can be found when you look hard enough and I found a generic 6 way mains block from a well known DIY store, a Brennenstuhl aluminium bodied 6 way block and a Russ Andrews Yellow 6 way block.  That should do nicely for comparisons and closed the cupboard door to let the spiders get back to doing what spiders do best – whatever that is.

First up then was the DIY store block for the princely sum of £5.99.  No on/off switch, but there is a neon indicator lamp, a thin captive mains lead and a generic UK 3 pin plug.  Slow timed boomy bass, clouded midrange, indistinct treble, goodness me I had forgotten what one of these was like to be truthful.  If this is what you currently run your system on, then do yourself a huge favour and use it in the shed for your power tools instead.

Next to try was the Brennenstuhl 6 way aluminium bodied block with a captive mains lead of decent thickness already fitted.  This one has a mains switch, a neon indicator lamp and the mains lead almost 2.5 metres in length, neatly storable (is that a valid word?) by winding the cable around the block’s length with a channel at each end to hold it, a rather neat solution if you ask me.  The aluminium casing gives the perception that it is robust and long lasting, although I wouldn’t use it as an axle stand when repairing the car.  Cannot remember what it cost when it was new, but the number “45” sticks in the mind somewhere.  For all the robust build and attractive looks, this didn’t fare much better in sonic terms than the generic DIY one, except the bass was just a bit  firmer and tauter, still lacking in weight and power, plus the top end had slightly better resolution.

Although long since obsolete, the Russ Andrews Yellow 6 way block did at one time power my entire system.  It wasn’t a superb performer by any stretch of the imagination, but I did get a huge improvement in sound quality switching to one after a generic cheap £5 block bought from a supermarket as I recall and for that I was grateful at the time of course.   I cannot recall how much I paid for it.  No neon lamp, no switch either and no details about construction were ever given.  For the purpose of this test, I now heard a leap forward in sound from the previous two candidates, as bass was now much fuller bodied and the midrange cloudiness was lifted.  Treble too acquired some air and space.

Finally we come to the MCRU 6 way block and there was some anticipation that given how much attention MCRU has paid to silver plating all the metal conducting components, that there would be some benefits to be heard from it.  Indeed there was, as the treble acquired more clarity and a much better focus, while dynamics was raised a notch or two, the leading edges of notes having a sweet taut crispness.  Bass extension didn’t increase further down into the lower registers, but there was a lush warmness to the sound with less overhang and more articulation.  I also noticed a big improvement in sound staging and the noise floor seemed lower too.

Naturally, at the end of the evaluation I re-installed my MS Audio mains block and I know I said clearly at the very beginning of this review that it wasn’t a good comparison because it was more than twice the price, but the MCRU block fared very well against the MS Audio block, much to my surprise.

CONCLUSION

As the old saying goes “Never judge a book by its cover” then that wise set of words applies equally so to the MCRU Limited Edition 6 way mains block.  It looks superficially plain and uninteresting (most no doubt will be installed out of sight anyway), but MCRU have placed more emphasis on what goes on inside the device than what has gone into its outward appearance.  On that basis then it could be a viable candidate if you are looking to buy a better mains block to improve the sound of your system, especially so if you currently use a generic block of indeterminate parentage like the one that was found in my spares cupboard.  It easily saw off the contenders I pitted it against in sound terms and came close on the heels of my resident mains block that’s more than double the price, so for that reason I will give it a recommendation.

Build quality:8.1/10

Sound quality:8.8/10

Value for money:8.6/10

Overall:8.5/10

Pros: Good sound quality owing to that custom silver plating of all the conductor surfaces.

Cons: Mains block body is not the best quality to look at.

Dominic Marsh

The Silver Luna integrated valve amplifier from Polish company Fezz Audio uses EL34 tubes and costs £725 including European shipping, which is something of a budget price for tube amp. Dominic Marsh takes a listen. 

Whoever said that turntables and valve amplifiers were strictly yesterday’s technology?  Far from being the dinosaurs of hifi from days gone past, there is a huge unprecedented resurgence of both and this trend shows no sign of letting up just yet either.

Enter then the Fezz Audio (A newly formed division of Toroidy.pl) Silver Luna valve amplifier sporting EL34 output valves and designed and manufactured in Poland.  The most critical component in valve amplifiers is of course the transformers and who better to specify and build them than Toroidy who have been manufacture high quality transformers for many years.  I have used Toroidy myself not too long ago when a CD player I owned originating from the far east decided one of its mains transformers needed a permanent holiday. This was not long after the manufacturer ceased trading but a quick email to Toroidy had a custom built replacement winging its way to me a week later and at a very sensible price too I might add.  My fellow reviewer Dan Worth has balanced mains units feeding his system, fitted with Toroidy transformers.

CONSTRUCTION

The entire chassis is formed of folded mild steel plate and is nothing remarkable to look at in form and shape.  Fezz Audio do make at least make an attempt regarding the aesthetic aspect by giving a choice of paint colours.  Black Ice gloss chassis with matte black finish transformer covers, White gloss chassis with Sky Blue gloss transformer covers, Burgundy gloss chassis with matte black transformer covers and Burning Red gloss chassis with matte black transformer covers.  The colourways do at least make the amplifiers more attractive than plain black all over with no relief.  To the centre of the front panel is a bright metal oval plaque proclaiming “Fezz Audio”  in laser cut relief.

Instead of using the traditional laminated plate type of construction for the output transformers, Fezz Audio use Toroidy’s own in-house designed and built toroidal transformers in the output stages as well as the mains transformer.  Fezz Audio say there are many quality components installed like Alps volume pots and Nichicon FG Fine Gold capacitors.

The review sample provided was finished in the Burning Red finish with silver lettering which I found difficult to read, especially round the back when making connections due to the contrast in tones between the red and the silver.  It was less important on the front panel for me as remembering what only two controls do wasn’t dependant at all on the lettering to recall.  On any of the other colours the lettering is clear and distinct with higher contrast ratios and in the case of the white chassis variant, black lettering is used.

The valves were packed separately in their original Electro Harmonix boxes, each thoughtfully numbered in the order they were to be installed into the amplifier.  Nice to see good quality valves being used.  It is wise to do a quick check of the valve biasing (Easy to perform, well explained in the handbook) and all was still within specification when installed.

The amplifier has three line level inputs, selectable by the right hand front panel rotary control.  The left side of the front panel sports the volume level rotary control.  The rear of the chassis we find three sets of single ended RCA inputs, then the loudspeaker connectors with a single pole for the negative or return connection and either an 8 Ohm or 4 Ohm tapped connection for the corresponding impedance value of the speakers being employed.  Finally, an IEC mains inlet plug with a mains on/off switch above it.  This is one of my personal bugbears as it means components fitted with rear mounted power switches give you a choice of either having them sited on the top shelf of the rack for easy access, or having to contort your body and arm to reach it between the shelves lower down in the rack.  With the heat from the valves to contend with during switch off or inadvertently knocking a valve and breaking it, it makes even less sense to rear mount the power switch.  Yes I know, it is all to do with cost, but I have seen many amps with power switches on the side panel or underneath the front panel, which takes all that stress and risk away and doesn’t add THAT much to the build cost in reality.

There is no remote control facility.

SOUND QUALITY

EL34 valves and their circuits do have a reputation that precedes them and are often accused of being syrupy, warm toned, coloured and combinations thereof.  It’s all in the implementation of course and usually it’s because designers try to wring more performance from EL34’s than they are comfortable in delivering.  Reputations, rumours and whispers do not interest me in the slightest and this was just another amplifier submitted for review and so I began listening with an open mind.

As is the case with most valve amplifiers, they seem to need around 20 – 30 minutes to come “on song” from switch on and I gave  a comfortable 30 minutes warm up time before each listening session.

What first struck me was how light and airy it sounded, that is not to say light in power or weight, more by the transparency and delicacy it was showing me.  Images were hanging in the air as if supported by near invisible gossamer threads and it was very close to being a true walk around the sound stage experience.  I would expect that kind of performance from a 6550 valve and above, but not from an EL34, which shows some care has been taken with the circuit topology in the design of this amplifier.  Having a rated 35 watts per channel into 8 ohms to play with, you could be forgiven for thinking this amplifier doesn’t have a lot of headroom to play with, but you would be wrong.  It could go very loud without showing any signs of break up or distress and that was a test rather than saying this amplifier could belt out heavy rock music day after day, because that’s not what this amplifier’s true forte is by any means.

It was in its element with female vocals, acoustic, jazz and middle of the road kind of music, where the natural organic sounds of these genres shone through.  It would play large scale orchestral and rock music in moderation at sensible levels, but push the volume control around past 12 o’clock and the edges started to fray a bit, albeit at a level that wasn’t comfortable to listen to.  A party or disco amplifier it is not, for sure.  Keep the volume control below that 12 o’clock mark and it held it together really well and when I put James Newton Howard and Friends direct cut album on to play the Silver Luna gave me a fast, lithe and vivid performance that was a real pleasure to listen to.

Whenever I listen to Fink’s “Wheels Beneath My Feet” live album I have certain benchmarks I pay particular attention to during my evaluations and here are just some of the key points.  Kick drum must have a clearly defined start, middle and end to each strike and you must be able to hear the shell of the drum, not just the actual strike by the beater alone – be it a hard or soft faced beater being used.  Some drummers remove the front skin for a tauter less reverberant sound and that too must be easily deciphered.  Snare drum is a very revealing instrument, full of timbres and resonances, particularly so during rim shots where the rim and the shell has to be clearly heard during each strike, but above all else it must be completely realistic, similarly so with the Tom Toms and the Floor Tom.  I cannot abide any “tish” sort of sound from any of the cymbals, particularly the Ride, Crash, or Riveted cymbals and if you cannot clearly hear that a wooden stick is making contact with a metal cymbal and the resulting shimmer following the strike then something is amiss.  That is a roundabout and long winded way of saying that the Fezz Audio Silver Luna amplifier passed all of those benchmark criteria.

CONCLUSION

Well, the Fezz Audio Silver Luna EL34 just about shrugged off all that I pitted against it and it didn’t offend me at any point either.  It is a sweet natured beast rather than a snorting bull of an amp, but it can kick like a mule when called to do so, provided you don’t pair it with inefficient speakers.  It wouldn’t win a beauty pageant, but to me most of the budget seems to have gone into the internals rather than wearing a fancy coat designed to impress.  A choice of colours deflects the mind away from that though and is a good compromise.

In the value for money stakes, costing some 950.00 Euros (GB £725.00) which includes shipping within the EU, it offers good value.  At US$1033.25 plus shipping it still looks to be good value.

As an introduction to the world of valve amplifiers, it gives an insight into that velvety “Valve sound” without busting the bank balance and you can be sure it will have both reliability and longevity too.

Build quality: 8.1/10

Sound quality: 8.7/10

Value for money: 8.5/10

Overall: 8.43/10

Pros:

Great sound, quality components used throughout and chassis colour choices should find many fans

Cons:   

Lack of valve protection cage and rear mounted power switch (see text above)

Dominic Marsh

SPECIFICATIONS (Not verified by Hifi Pig)

Dominic Marsh takes a look at the £180, silver plated power block from MCRU.

“The 3 pin mains plug appears to be a standard UK mains plug from MK, but the MCRU motif on the cap says otherwise and when you turn it over you are greeted by silver plating to all three pins, carried out by MCRU.”

Read the full review.

Janine Elliot takes a listen to the Krell Digital Vanguard, an integrated amplifier costing £5998 and boasting a whole host of features relevant to today’s modern home. 

Krell were one of the first manufacturers to bring out amplifiers “built like a tank”; heavy-weights full of masses of capacitors, toroidal power supplies and front panels as thick as, well, tank armoury. Indeed, makers from across the big pond, including those in Canada have always had a reputation of building big and thick and Krell’s latest integrated amplifier The Vanguard is no exception with the distinctive “I mean business” bonnet on the front and four large wheels to hold it down, though at only 10.5cm tall it is small by Krell standards.

For those who have studied Krell, this product is a typical no-expenses-spared offering with a fully discrete and balanced Class A circuit. Krell rightly believe that Class A designs are the most musically accurate circuit designs, and don’t suffer from the characteristic distortions that Class AB amplifiers create. The Vanguard is Class A through-and-through, both in the power and in the preamp section, as is employed in their top-of-the-line Illusion preamps. The amplifier also has Krell’s Current Mode technology to ensure significant signal bandwidth, vital for those PCM or DSD sources.

The word Vanguard means ‘a group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas’, and this product certainly isn’t short on facilities. There are 4 analogue inputs; three RCA and one balanced XLR. One RCA input can be set as “Theatre”, meaning the input goes straight through to the power amplifier stage and misses out the preamp for use as part of a surround sound theatre setup.  I used this setting for some of my review, using my MFA transformer passive preamp.  Connection to loudspeakers is provided by high-quality WBT terminals.  There is also a 3.5mm jack for IR input and 12-volt trigger input and output, as well as optional rack-mount ears, should you want to fit it onto a 19” rack. I’m not sure why you would want to do that; you really would want to show off this beautiful integrated rather than sticking it in a rack hidden away in a cupboard.

The latest version, the Digital Vanguard, has an all-encompassing digital module on board, which gives USB, 3 HDMI inputs and output, and more conventional coax and optical digital inputs. The coaxial and HDMI inputs support PCM up to 24-bit/192kHz, with optical input supporting up to 24-bit/96kHz. Moreover it also offers Ethernet music streaming controlled through dedicated iOS and Android apps; and Bluetooth wireless for convenient streaming from phones, tablets and computers. The USB and Network streaming works well with MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV (PCM), FLAC and ALAC up to 192kHz, and the Bluetooth streaming supports A2DP, AVRCP, HFP and HSP formats. The HDMI inputs support DSD and 4K video content. HDMI output supports Audio Return Channel (ARC). Quite some line-up then!  If you don’t choose the digital option that section on the back panel is blanked over.

For this review I used my Krell KPS20i CD player and vinyl for analogue sources, and for digital inputs I used the mConnect Player app from Google to stream audio from my Xperia phone using Bluetooth, and my laptop and Fiio X5. For those who buy the basic Vanguard you can add the digital board at a later date, installed by Krell or the retailer, and you can you can update software when required.  The UK retail price for the Vanguard with digital board is £5,998, and the standard analogue Vanguard is £4,498, both highly competitive prices when you consider all you get.

Turn it to standby and above the KRELL logo in the centre of the panel it lights up a row of red. I like this. Then turn it on and the colour spread changes to blue, both of which means that at some point it matches the blue and red LEDs of my other equipment. All amplifiers in their present range have this distinctive bonnet, just as previous Krells have had a distinctive design in the centre. Also typical of Krell is the substantial power supply, in this case a 750 VA toroidal transformer and 80,000 microfarads of storage capacitance, meaning the Vanguard will have a very intimate relationship with your mains supply, whatever quality it is. All this adds weight, though at 17.7 kg, it is actually very light for a Krell.

SOUND

Whenever I think of Krell I think first of music like Beethoven and words like ‘gutsy, big, menace’ and ‘force’.  Their amplifiers have always had that reputation and in some respects it has perhaps put people off. I have followed Krell since Dan and Rondi D’Agostino formed the company in 1980, having both a KAV250a power amp and KPS20i CD player, and KAV150 and KRC before that. I like my music to leave an impact, and Krell certainly turns that prospect into a reality. I wanted to see just how good this entry-level product compared with other Krells I know well, and of course everything else around this price point. Putting on Beethoven to start with was therefore the obvious choice, and all playing through my Wilson Benesch speakers.  The Dresden Philharmonic under Herbert Kegel is an excellent performance full of energy that some amplifiers just cannot deal with. This one left nothing untouched. My speakers came alive such that even my cat sat up and listened. Symphony number 7, complete with hitting mic stand at one minute in (never heard that on my KAV) had the dynamic range of Mahler or Bruckner. I was worried when I initially unpacked this unit that the two fans at the rear, which cool down the heatsink, would make this quite loud in operation, but ironically this 400W/4Ω beauty was as quiet as, well, silence, even with the two thermostatically controlled fans at the back. It still gets hot inside, though that was as expected, so good ventilation above is still a necessity.

The front panel is minimalist in comparison with the accompanying remote, but has all the functions you needed to operate should you lose the latter. The remote itself was typical of Krell products, putting many, many other companies to shame with the solidity of build and weight; being a slab of aluminium, machined to insert the electronics, mirroring the controls on the amplifier and with many extra buttons, and offering access to other Krell products such as my aged CD player. With its ribbed back-and-sides black finish with silver buttons, this remote was quite simply gorgeous. The Vanguard itself has a two line LCD display, below the USB socket which is only operable if you have the digital card attached. The LCD display stops illuminating after around 15 seconds of inaction, though the blue line above the KRELL wording stays lit, I’m pleased to say.

Using MP3 from my Xperia, Track 2 of Heathen, David Bowie, had powerful top and an amazing definition making compressed audio sound almost acceptable. Eagles ‘Long Road out of Eden’ Title track on disc 2 of this great double album had a depth and width that made for an exceptionally invigorating listen. If you wanted warmth and easy listening then you needed valve, however the bass from this behemoth was definitely valve inspired. This bass was so good, and the tops were pin-sharp and quick. This was like having just had my ears syringed, and my listening soon became all about power, detail and fun! Moving swiftly to CD the energetic Naim “The Ark” album playing “Mambo Jumbo” (John van der Veer), had detail and energy that really took me aback with jumbo stereo spread of the two guitars. This was good.

Turning to vinyl I went via my Manley and MFA pre, turning the Vanguard into “Theatre” mode so I missed out the on-board class-A pre. Mozart Piano Concerto No 21 in C major, something I played when I was a young piano student, sounded as musical and gentle as I would expect from the young female pianist Geza Anda (Camerata Academica of the Salzburg Mozarteum) showing this bulldog could also be tamed when needed. This music had pizazz, sweetness and space that let every nuance of the music through. The famous slow movement was not hurried, but performed in my living room like I was there at the recording. The Krell pre-amp stage, though, is still excellent and worked well when I removed the MFA from the chain.

Turning to the Queen Studio Collection, this was now getting seriously good. The brilliantly remixed set of albums had extensive depth and detail as Freddie and the team whizzed between, as well as in front and behind my speakers with energy. ‘A Night at the Opera’ is one of the best albums from Queen, not only in its content, but also in the sound engineering. With tracks like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘You’re my Best Friend’ and ‘Love of My Life’ it is no wonder this album hit the number one spot in 1975. The fading in and out of the musical stabs in ‘Death on Two Legs’ showed just how good the original sources – and this, the remixed version – were. But equally it showed how well the Krell performed. Queen albums are not the easiest to play well, and many amps cannot cope with such a wide degree of sounds and dynamics with such ease as the Krell.  Turning to Mike Valentine’s ‘Big Band Spectacular’ suddenly the soundstage grew by metres, with forceful sounding brass at one extreme and precise and gentle ride cymbal at the other, beautifully married together. The Krell showed off with both vivacity and gentleness in equal amounts. The 200W/8Ω integrated might be the baby of the Krell range, but this was no slouch. Everything was there, from the detail that is missing from so many amplifiers to the grunt when it needed to have it. Class-A rules A-O.K, and I really started enjoying this. The clarity was better than on my KAV250a, though the grunt wasn’t quite as big; the sound was much more in control and the stereo width and speed was one of the best I have heard, resolving imagery faster and more accurately. All it lacked was a headphone socket. It could do everything else, well, perhaps except vinyl, but I guess fitting a vinyl card in as well would be a tight squeeze in this already anorexic Krell.  And, to top it all, it was made in The USA, rather than China!

CONCLUSION

Those not convinced of just how good Krell can be, should give this one a go, and particularly the digital version. This one just does everything except make coffee, and allows user adjustment of settings from the comfort of your armchair, and does it all with both authority and tenderness. If you want a large-scale performance in your living room, especially in the speed of sound and stereo spread, you will like this one, but if you want easy listening, then go elsewhere; this Vanguard will keep your attention for as long as it’s switched on.

Sound Quality – 8.90/10

Value for Money – 8.6/10

Build Quality – 8.8/10

Overall – 8.77/10 

Price at time of review £5,998 

Pros:

Digital features pleases everyone
Muscle where you need it
Well behaved bass
fast and accurate imagery
Petite size of amplifier will please more folk
Quiet fans keep the heat down
Love the red and blue lights

Cons:

Pretty expensive but a lot of features for the money
You might not like the bonnet

Janine Elliot

SPECIFICATIONS

Dan Worth takes a listen to this well connected, £1200 DAC from Romanian company Audiobyte.

When purchasing a new DAC I want a host of connections to allow the opportunity to plug and play multiple digital sources at one time, or to interchange sources for review purposes.

Despite a recent flurry in HDMI over I2S devices being produced, the format is often overlooked by some of the mainstream manufacturers; however, Audiobyte have embraced the standard and this is a positive move from the Romanian company in my opinion. As well as my own Audiobyte X+ spdif converter sporting a HDMI digital output the Black Dragon also has the latest standard as an input.

CONNECTIONS AND FEATURES

Along with BNC, RCA and optical spdif inputs, the Black Dragon also has asynchronous USB and the 110ohm AES/EBU professional standard connection type too. Outputs are via a set of either balanced XLRs or unbalanced RCAs.

Sampling rates and bit depth are as follows:

32bit – 44.1-384 KHz on USB, I2S (PCM)

DSD64, 128 on USB

24bit – 44.1-192 KHz on spdif, aes-ebu

24bit – 44.1-96 KHz on toslink

The Dual Mono Conversion, using 2 X AK4396s, offers a fully balanced implementation mode which is designed to give better analogue conversion and lower jitter rates and the onboard Femtovox Clock 300fs is an extremely accurate and precise clock from Rockna, and here is used to increase timing accuracy and to reduce jitter.

The custom Minimal Phase Digital Filter aids in producing high performance up-sampling for conditioning the incoming digital signals. Of course this filter can be switched on or off.

The LNS Linear Power Supply – There are a total of 11 linear stabiliser I/Cs and 8 of them are said to be very low noise. There are a total of 50,000uF capacitors for smoothing and two separate toroidal transformers provide power to all individual pcb sections.

The Black Dragon has a preamplifier and headphone amplifier onboard, with the digital volume controller being useable for all inputs and outputs. The headphone amplifier, rated at 32ohms and outputting 800mW, should offer the flexibility of use that consumers want to see from a modern digital hub such as this.

Visually the Black Dragon is pretty nice looking, with sleek lines and a compact size. The dot matrix screen is clear, with connector layout on the rear being tidy and easily accessible. Overall build quality could be a little better in my opinion, with the lid of the unit being very thin and a little rattly… more screws and some damping would be very welcome here. However, the Black Dragon certainly does look great on either a desk or in rack.

THE SOUND

My first impressions of the sound were very positive, the unit has done the rounds already so was more than ready for action after a quick warm up when it arrived here from BD Audio.

Initial findings were that vocals are very distinguished and the top end, with the FIR filter set to off, is beautifully open and very well extended. Whilst playing a Fink live album I felt the metallic clang of cymbals to be expressed very well and the shimmering decay felt nice and true to the venue’s acoustic.

With poor recordings, such as Derrin Nuendorf’s live album, I felt the top end to be a little over explicit, but flicking the filter back to the ‘on’ position cured this exceptionally well. I used Spotify extensively and threw a good range of genres at the Black Dragon and felt the filter offered terrific flexibility, allowing me to enjoy tracks in a much more musical manner than if it was not present. There is also some benefit to the upper midrange here.

The midrange as a whole is wonderfully analogue-like and very expressive, and I loved how the Black Dragon rendered a strong female vocalist, particularly in the higher registers and how it added grunt to males tones. I particularly enjoyed Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Am I Not Your Girl’ where there’s a certain sweetness to her vocal when played through good equipment and The Dragon allowed her vocal to remain intimate and unrestrained.

Busier tracks had nice separation, again especially when it came to vocals, and I really like how The Dragon can take the lead singer and separate them from the haze of noise that can surround them, allowing for a clear and articulate emphasis on centre stage performance.

The soundstage produced from the DAC as a whole was very appealing. Depth is good, leaving vocalists in the foreground and width and height is what I would class as ‘expected in my room’ from a quality component. There is a cohesive thickness to the sound and the stage isn’t overblown, but nor is it warm or oversaturated. Definition and clarity is the overall nature of the sound and when fed with good recordings this DAC sounds surprisingly natural for its price point.

Bass notes seemed to represent the actual instruments in use very well and where some DACs in this price range can be more of a one note affair, The Dragon gave me each note. For example, when listening to ‘Hey Now’ by London Grammar, there are actually eight bass notes being played consecutively in the track and I have had DACs here costing a fair bit more than the Black Dragon that have failed to accurately portray this. Bass is really very rhythmical and carries the flow of the music exceptionally well and I think Audiobytes certainly know how to tune equipment – which I guess is why I still use their Hydra X+ to this day from my Mac.

SONY DSC

HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER

I attached my Audio Technica ATH AD2000X headphones to the Black Dragon and I felt it would make for a great all in one, desktop headphone rig. Now I’m sure dedicated “headphone-aphiles” out there would demand more from an all in one experience, but for those who like our sound to predominantly come from in front of us rather than ‘inside our heads’ I really enjoyed quite a few hours listening to a great range of music from The Dragons headphone output.

Soundwise I found The Dragon to be on the slightly warmer side of neutral and I loved the fact that the top end behaved just like the headphones do, taking the treble to the edge and then leaning back a notch or so to give lots of extension and openness, without any harshness.

Again, the FIR filter works a treat when listening to headphones.

Volume control on the DAC is wonderful when wanting to make small volume adjustments, and allows for a very smooth incline or decline in decibels when pressed, although I would have liked it to be faster when changing large volume swing.

CONCLUSION

Audiobytes have once again come up with a product that offers fantastic performance for the money. The Black Dragon is a feature rich digital to analogue converter which sounds detailed, open and natural. With great extended highs, a fantastically informative midrange and a realistic bass performance, music has a rhythmic flow and engaging enthusiasm. 

Build Quality: 8.2/10

Sound Quality: 9/10

Value For Money: 8.8/10

Overall: 8.66/10 

Price at time of review: £1200 

Pros:

Lots of inputs

Balanced and unbalanced outputs

Great vocals and cohesive sound

Nice headphone amp 

Cons:

Lid is a bit flimsy

Volume can take an age to move large increments 

Dan Worth

Dan Worth takes a listen to this well connected, £1200 DAC from Romanian company Audiobyte.

“The midrange as a whole is wonderfully analogue-like and very expressive, and I loved how the Black Dragon rendered a strong female vocalist, particularly in the higher registers and how it added grunt to males tones.”

Read the full review here.

The ATC SCM7 is a diminutive loudspeaker of just 7 litres and costing from £810. Dan Worth takes a listen.

On different occasions over this past year Dominic and I have had the pleasure of listening to the SCM11s and the SCM19s from British loudspeaker company ATC. Each time we’d greeted their arrival with a mixture of apprehension and excitement. This is because our experience of ATC had taught us to expect great dynamics, attack, insight and truthfulness, but also the occasional jagged edge from the older style tweeter, particularly on poorer quality recordings.

However we needn’t have worried. For their new ‘passive’ range ATC has replaced a modified third party tweeter with its own in-house design – and it’s stunning. The unit on these new SCM7s, and the 11s, 19s and 40s is at once more refined, better controlled and truthful. Its secret is a dual suspension design, which is hand-built at ATC’s Stroud HQ and has taken the Company years to perfect. Coupled to a more efficient and linear underhung driver motor, the dual suspension controls the driver’s movement more precisely for lower distortion, better power transfer and a smoother response. ATC has got this design just right, because both the 11s and 19s have received our highest accolades.

AT FIRST GLANCE

The dinky SCM7s have a tiny 7-litre cabinet (hence the name), measuring 300x174x215mm and housing the tweeter and a 5″ linear mid/bass driver. The review sample’s curved design immediately felt solid and sturdy, with a high standard finish in real cherry wood veneer. They cost £810 a pair in the standard cherry or black ash options. However a special order piano black model comes in at a hefty £1243.

I was pleasantly surprised when I lifted the SCM7 from its box. It’s much heavier than I had imagined weighing-in at around the 7.4kg mark. Nearly half of this weight is due to the bass/mid driver’s massive 3.5kg underhung magnet system, which includes a 45mm flat wire voice coil, milled by ATC at Stroud on a machine designed by ATC’s founder and Chief Engineer Billy Woodman. Most of remaining weight is down to the heavily-braced veneered enclosure, which also sports chunky bi-wire terminals.

THE SOUND

Dom and I have had many conversations about the character and virtues of the SCM11s and 19s. We’ve decided that the 11s are about pure excitement and have a punchier sound whereas the 19s come across as richer, fuller and more refined.

I’m writing this before Dom has had a chance to listen to the SCM7s, so I’ll give you my immediate impression: these 7s are really exciting and their imaging is fantastic. Due to their size, they struggle to reproduce image height if you are sitting too close to them, but when you’re sat back and even at lower volumes, they get going so easily for an 84db-sensitive speaker, instantly disappearing into the background and placing instruments way beyond the expected width boundary.

I would suggest that they have some of the SCM11’s zip and enthusiasm, which Dom and I loved so much. They punch rather than pound, but the bass is so representative of truthful playback (given their 60Hz limit at -6dB), that I only hankered for more on occasions.

Obviously the 7s are ideal for those who have limited listening space, but I would suggest they’re also great for music lovers who enjoy vocals and acoustic guitar, as well as pop and electronic music – I would prefer a bass reflex design in this sized cabinet for the latter. The SCM7s can’t muster the wash of deep bass you’ll get from larger cabinets and drivers, for example on bass guitars and oboes, but they will keep a beat. Sparkling percussion sounds terrifically accurate from these small boxes, complete with all their natural dynamics. When replacing my active desktop Focals, I was extremely impressed with the 7’s overall response, especially from the bass when enhanced by the alcove they were sitting in. 

What I really enjoy about the 7s and even the 11s is that they seem to allow upper frequencies to breathe so well, allowing for more perceived accuracy in the higher frequencies and mid level notes, making for a crystal clear vocal reproduction. I suspect this is due to their tonal balance from smaller cabinet sizes and sharper bass roll off, but it got me thinking that a set of 11s or 7s with ATC’s own C1 subwoofer could make for a stunning listen.

Fast forward a few days and, courtesy of ATC’s PR man, I now have a C1 subwoofer and I’ve put together a little system comprising SCM7s, C1 sub, and a Primare I32 with MM30 multimedia board/DAC fed by my Mac. 

Wow, this set-up proved to be a real treat. I suspect that ATC would frown upon the idea of passive speakers and active sub in a music application, because it wouldn’t be the last word in accuracy, but what the hell, this system rocked with everything I sent it. I love the increased definition of the midrange especially, under-pinned with tremendous weight, poise and control. Even the treble sounds beefier. Dialing the sub in to around 60Hz to integrate with the 7s was magic. Not purist, but magic – and fun!

Dance music had a more intense rhythm and a crystal clear top end. Rock had a grip and a leading-edge sharpness that may well have sounded overbearing from the 7s alone, but with the C1 it had more flesh on the bone and greater weight. Acoustic music and vocals seemed to be better defined in the soundstage with an in-filling of subtle undertones that demanded the attention of the listener. It just sounded richer.

In each scenario the 7s worked so well. Ultimately available space and music tastes will determine your speaker choice, but if you have room for a subwoofer I would wholeheartedly recommend one from ATC, as it adds another dimension to the sound.

CONCLUSION

I’ve not written a long review for a change. This one is short and sweet – just like the 7s. Combine the imaging of the old ProacTablettes, the surprising bass of a Totem One and the enthusiasm of an old AE1. Each of these speakers is renowned for having a special and memorable characteristic. The diminutive ATC SCM7 seems to possess a good measure of each. It’s one of those speakers that is so addictive and so unassuming that I think I’m going to have to buy a pair. They are like the cutest animal in the litter – the one you simply have to take home. Over time their musical consistency, honesty and downright practicality are simply undeniable. The thought of being without them has me reaching for a tissue.

Build Quality – 8.5/10

Sound Quality – 8.7/10

Value For Money – 8.75/10

Overall – 8.65/10 

Price at time of review:

Cherry/black ash – £810

Piano black lacquer – £1243

Pros:

Emphatic, transparent, detailed presentation

Solid imaging and strong dynamics

Great build

Cons:

At this price, nothing

Dan Worth

TECHNICAL SPEC’

Drivers: HF ATC 25mm Neodymium Soft Dome, Mid/LF ATC 125mm SC
Matched Response: ±0.5dB
Frequency Response (-6dB): 60Hz-22kHz
Dispersion: ±80° Coherent Horizontal, ±10° Coherent Vertical
Sensitivity: 84dB @ 1W @ 1metre
Max SPL: 103dB
Recommended Power Amplifier: 75 to 300 Watts
Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohm
Crossover Frequency: 2.5kHz
Connectors: Binding Posts/4mm Plugs, bi-wire
Cabinet Dimensions (HxWxD): 300x174x215mm (grill adds 28mm depth)
Weight: 7.5kg

DESIGNER’S COMMENTS

Tweeter

SH25-76

The SH25-76 is a 25mm soft dome tweeter designed and built by ATC Loudspeaker Technology and exclusively employed on ATC’s SCM7, 11, 19 and 40 ‘passive series’ speakers.  The drive unit has been designed with the same no compromise philosophy as all other ATC drive units.

Sharing technology with the SM75-150 mid-range, the SH25-76 employs a dual suspension design, ensuring pistonic motion and suppressing rocking modes even at high drive levels. This also enables the use of a narrow magnetic gap and negates the requirement for ferrofluid. The SH25-76 is therefore, free from the detrimental effects of ferrofluid drying out over time.

A short coil, long gap configuration ensures linearity and incredibly low distortion through its intended operating band. The soft dome diaphragm is based on a complex geometry which maximises power transfer from the former, extending the high frequency response and giving a smooth off-axis response.

The FEA optimised neodymium motor with heat treated top plate is designed to give 15,000 Gauss (1.5 Tesla) in the magnetic gap and the motor assembly also performs the secondary function of dissipating heat away from the voice coil, ensuring high power handling and low power compression. The underhung design, small coil-gap clearance and black plating ensures heat dissipation is as efficient as possible.

The geometry of the waveguide is designed for optimum dispersion and the flattest possible on-axis frequency response. It is made from a precision machined alloy so that the entire structure is extremely rigid and free from resonances.

Bass Driver

SB45-125SC

The bass driver used in the SCM7 is a proprietary design, manufactured in-house.  Like the vast majority of all our larger drive units, the so called ‘underhung’ design uses a short coil operating in long magnetic gap for the best possible linearity.  The advantages of this type of motor topology are:

1. Less variation in the force acting on the coil vs excursion.
2. Less variation in coil inductance vs excursion.

The result is that distortion is greatly reduced. The music benefits from greater clarity and tonal balance and the listener benefits from reduced listening fatigue.

The voice coil technology employed greatly benefits the performance of the loudspeaker.  Firstly, a large voice coil diameter is chosen for increased power handling and, as important, low power compression.  Loudspeakers are quite inefficient and much of the amplifier power ends up heating the voice coil.  This, in turn causes:

1. A rise in resistance.
2. A drop in efficiency.
3. Increase of the system low frequency ‘Q’ (causing a tendency for pronounced ‘boomy’ bass).
4. Modification of the crossover performance which, in turn, changes the perceived balance of the loudspeaker.

Using the largest possible voice coil diameter increases the coil surface area which reduces the rate of voice coil heating and minimises the problems associated with it.

Not only is great attention paid to the coil but also to the wire we wind the coil from.  Round wire does not ‘pack’ (tessellate) well, leaving gaps between the windings (think pool balls racked before a break).  These gaps are wasted space and fill with glue and air, slowing the escape of heat from the coil.  ATC chooses to use the more complex and costly process of winding flat ‘ribbon’ wire voice coils.  The ribbon wire, when wound on edge, results in a greater volume of copper in the magnetic gap (vs round wire) and the efficiency of the drive mechanism is improved.  The air and glue filled gaps are also greatly reduced, leading to a more rapid escape of heat from the voice coil.

The cone and dust cap of the bass driver used in the SCM7 are formed into curve-linear profiles from resin impregnated fabric.  The fabric chosen uses a very strong and dense weave, with high internal damping.  Two different polymer coatings are then applied to the fabric surface: a PVA based coating to the rear and a proprietary coating to the front.  Both of these coatings increase cone stiffness and also, very importantly, the mechanical damping of the cone structure.  Materials high in damping suppress resonances, minimising the audibility of cone break up modes and extending the useable bandwidth at the top of the bass driver’s range.  This in turn greatly simplifies crossover design (which I’ll get to shortly).  ATC believes that as a loudspeaker manufacturer, you are defined by your drive unit components and that is why every loudspeaker system we produce begins with in-house designed and built components, optimised for their application.

Crossover

By investing heavily in the drive unit engineering, ATC produces components with a well-controlled response that require only simple filters to integrate into multi-driver systems.  The SCM7 employs 2nd order filters for both the low-pass and high-pass sections.  The bass section also uses a R-C zobel network to correct for the rising bass driver impedance, ensuring correct operation of the bass low pass filter.  The high frequency section uses a resistive ‘T’ attenuation network to pad the tweeter output down to match the bass.  All of the inductors used are air-cored types for lowest distortion and the capacitors are 250Vdc rated metallised polypropylene parts.  An area of the crossover design we pay particular attention to is that of impedance vs frequency and ensuring the loudspeaker system (drivers + crossover + wiring) present an easy load for an amplifier to drive.  The loudspeaker load an amplifier ‘sees’ is just as important as the sensitivity of the loudspeaker, although loudspeaker load doesn’t seem to be debated quite so regularly.  Not only must the magnitude of the impedance be balanced with a reasonable system sensitivity, the phase angle must also be considered.  Low impedance values or large phase angles will lead to large current demands from an amplifier and could lead to increased distortion and, at worst, amplifier hard clipping.  The combination of both a low impedance magnitude and large phase angle is very difficult for an amplifier, especially when it occurs at a frequency where music has a great deal of energy.  Through careful drive unit design which, in turn, allows simple crossover design, free from ‘ringing’ filters that are used to reinforce a frequency band lacking in energy, we can deliver a loudspeaker that presents an easy load to an amplifier.

Ben Lilly, ATC Technical Sales Manager, February 2016

Janine Elliot takes a listen to Roksan’s latest version of the iconic Xerxes, this time in its 20Plus guise and with the Caspian RPM Speed Control and innovative Pug tonearm. Price for this package is £5825

Vinyl has been an important part of my life and I’m pleased to say still is. From my earliest Garrard SP25/iii to my collection of almost 20 record players today, it is still my “go to” choice for high quality audio reproduction. I was never taken in by the brilliant PR from Linn Sondek, a turntable that goes all the way back to 1972, rather sticking to Garrard 301 and Thorens TD160. Interestingly these two had opposing platform topologies; one solid and the other sprung isolation. And that leads me nicely into the Roksan Xerxes 20Plus, which well, combines two methods in one amazingly complex engineering masterpiece.

When the original London manufactured’ Xerxes came onto the scene in 1985, incidentally named after the Persian King, I really liked the look of it and was almost hooked, but university fees and getting married put a stop to that idea. Whilst my own marriage didn’t last, I am pleased to say the Xerxes has kept on going and is now in its 31st year. And whilst the LP12 has had more facelifts than Joan Rivers, I still have never been a fan, although it sounds more controlled and accurate now than it did when it was a baby. The original Xerxes seemed a much better behaved child then, and now 31 years later I still wasn’t disappointed.  Let me stress, though, that this 20Plus is not a modified Xerxes from ’85; this machine is largely based on their top of the range TMS3, only without the hefty price tag. My white Xerxes for review arrived complete with the new PUG arm and the Caspian RPM power-supply and speed selector unit, all totalling £5825.

I have wanted to review the £1375 PUG, which sits pricewise between the Nima and Artemiz tonearms, ever since first setting eyes on this overfed animal. PUG is a most apt name here. Its name sounds clumsy, and I have to say at first impressions the PUG looks like it needs to go on a diet pretty damn fast. But this look is part of what makes this tonearm something very special. In the dictionary PUG can mean an oversized ugly Chinese or boxer dog, or “to make soundproof by covering or packing with clay, mortar, sawdust, or felt”.  Whilst such materials most definitely haven’t been packed inside, the carbon-fibre makes for a very rigid and lightweight arm, ideal for my very diminutive Ortofon Kontrapunkt b cartridge. Put next to my anorexic SME3s from 1980, the 22mm diameter carbon fibre arm tube looks highly clumsy, though I quickly got to know and love this unipivot design. This was no dog, but rather a tiger, full of energy and bite, though it was very tame to set up, unlike the aged SME series 3. Roksan even provide a stylus balance with the Pug to assist set-up. Height adjustment from the supplied Allen key was easy and bias was set up with ease, though the fact the weight rubs against the arm when near the centre of the record (see photo) made me a little alarmed. Indeed for most of the review I removed it completely.

Of course, using Carbon fibre is not a new idea, or indeed having such large diameter tubing, though the tapered Wilson Benesch A.C.T tonearm is more petite in appearance.

Whilst the arm didn’t do itself any favours in the looks department, the Caspian RPM speed controller is the same beautiful shape as the complete Caspian range. I have to admit love at first sight when I first ever met the Caspian range down Tottenham Court Road, London, in the good old days. The RPM doesn’t have the iconic semi-spherical knobs, but its matt black frontage and “Roksan” etched top aluminium cover made it look more than its £1450 asking price. This unit has a mains switch craftily hidden underneath, with stop/start switch and a speed selector to change between 33.3 and 45 rpm in the centre  front, all aided by an LED that changes colour depending on what speed is set. For 33rpm the light will be blue and red for 45rpm, and when not revolving is a lovely purple mixture of the two. The unit is the replacement for the discontinued DX2 and an alternative to the XPS7 power unit, and presently part of a range with the RPP phono preamplifier or the VCS/ VCS 25 which are a mixture of the RPP and RPM. The RPM employs a high quality crystal speed control system, which helps to keep a very stable playback speed; the Xerxes plays exceptionally well, showing no signs of speed fluctuation that my perfect-pitch can make out. Indeed with its digital speed control PCB it ensures those in countries with unstable or poor voltage are able to maintain the exact and correct speed by allowing an increase or decrease in the speed by up to 6.25%. Not that the Xerxes hasn’t always had a good reputation for speed accuracy.

The Xerxes 20 Plus is the latest reincarnation of the Xerxes showing the complexity of manufacture from the moment you get it out the box. With so much based on the TM3, its triple layer construction assures isolation between cartridge, motor and plinth. Using my seismometer, showed just how good this was at removing inherent vibrations. As mentioned earlier, this turntable is a mixture of fixed and isolated chassis, enabling the record surface to remain stationary and solid, but being in complete isolation from the rest of the deck. The lower platform connects directly to the three metal adjustable feet, and above this is placed the main (and on this occasion a shiny white) plinth isolated with three suspension mounts. There is a choice of beautiful Maple or Rosewood, or black and white. This top plinth then has an inner plinth which is kept detached from the outer to provide further isolation and needs to be adjusted with an Allen key to ensure the two are level. The inner plinth is connected to the main bearing and detachable arm-board which is made from Acetal. Each layer is therefore adjustable in all planes to get absolutely level, and therefore takes longer setting up than the PUG. The instruction booklet is very informative, explaining the design and listing of all parts as well as the assembly, but you really need to read it all first before you start assembling, as it can be a bit like assembling furniture. I suggest a cup of coffee first. The motor is detached from this inner plinth, and indeed the motor itself is sprung so that just the right amount of torque on the flat belt is provided, particularly viable as record groove modulations vary with dynamics creating different stresses on the motor.

Coming straight from the TMS3 the self-centring and self-aligning single point main bearing is of a surprisingly small diameter, with the gap between the spindle and bearing sleeve a miniscule 1/5,000”! The only contact is between the spindle tip and the captive tungsten Carbide ball bearing. The spindle is attached to the inner platter with the outer platter resting on top of this. The theme of decoupling continues with the mat sitting on top of the platter and not being attached to the spindle; when you put the record on the platter you need the spindle in situ, but then you remove it before you start to play (and remember to clean the record before you do all this!). This is an old trick going back to the beginnings of Xerxes, but it means that you can never use a record clamp.  Unlike the LP12, you cannot take a first generation Xerxes and turn it into a 20+, especially the new platter, but a few of the modifications, such as bearing and mat, can be employed to bring it somewhere near the 20+ in performance. All in all, then, one of the most carefully thought out turntable design there is.

LISTENING

My immediate opinion of this three-piece setup was of scale of musicality and harmony. There was immense dynamics, and timing and resolution. Sibelius 4^th symphony (Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker, Deutsche Grammophon) was as open and with as big a dynamic range as I have ever heard, and therefore more akin to CD, with the arm and turntable combination giving a very exact but musical performance. The instruments were positioned with excellent accuracy both in width and depth. Moving to Goldfrapp  ‘Tales of Us’  this spaciousness continued further in the ethereal first track “Jo”, and the bass thumps in the third track “Drew” drew me closer in to the music than I expected, with a tighter and better controlled bass.  Moving to my ancient live album “Feel the Love”, the audience applause was as clear and natural as I have ever heard. I wish I had been at that concert in the US, but I was pretty close now.

Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ title track is a complicated number, with intricate drum rhythms fighting for survival against a maze of Indian ragas and simplistic 4/4 time. Whilst each idea was battling for predominance, the Xerxes combination made it all so easy to digest. My Kontrupunkt showed just how good it was in retrieving information from the grooves. Indeed, again there was an almost CD-like quality in terms of clarity and detail, though with musicality that 16/44.1 just cannot give. Turning to Jazz showed again the ease at which this turntable played whatever style I played; Patricia Barber “Live in Paris” had intricate detail of the drumming and clarity in the vocals that vinyl does so well. After a few Queen albums I was saddened to have to pack it all up into the box to send back to London.

CONCLUSION

This might have its origins in 1985, but this is no modified 31 year old design. This is a TMS3 on the cheap, and for £3000 plus power supply represents an extremely sound investment. As a combination under £6000 the micro-detail of sound retrieval was simply wonderful and if I felt the need to have another turntable would have no qualms about opening my purse.

All I played was effortless, with nothing standing out or missing. Dynamics and soundstage were as good as I have heard, and what’s more it looked so good!

Sound Quality: 8.9/10

Value for Money (Xerxes plus RPM and PUG): 8.8/10

Build Quality: 8.8/10 (cannot fault the engineering)

Overall: 8.83/10

Price at time of review: £5825 

Pros:

Excellent retrieval of detail
Dynamic range
Speed stability
Triple layer of isolation

Cons:

Instruction manual could be easier to read, perhaps with photos rather than diagrams. An on-line video to show set-up could be helpful.
The PUG isn’t the most beautiful arm.

Janine Elliot

Technical Spec’

Main Bearing Spindle: Hardened tool steel.
Roundness and Concentricity: <5 Microns

Length to Diameter Ration: 11:1

Main Bearing Ball: Super precision Tungsten Carbide

Roundness: <1 Micron

Diameter: 2mm

Main Bearing Housing: Solid Phosphor Bronze

Clearance: 2/1,0000”

Inner Platter: 2 piece Solid Aluminium alloy. Interference fitted and non-resonant

Outer Platter: 2 piece Solid Aluminium alloy. Interference fitted and non-resonant

Structure: 3Plinth Design

Isolation: 3 Level De-coupling

Motor: Custom made 24 pole synchronous

Pulley: Solid aluminium alloy

Roundness and Concentricity: <1 Micron

Drive Belt: Precision Ground Neoprene

Motor Mount: Unique synchronizing bearing

Motor Drive: External speed controller

Wow and Flutter: <0.02%

Rumble:<-80dB

Dimensions: 450 x 370 x 115

Weight: 12Kg

The Etalon strEamer is a mini server made in Hungary and costing €550. John Scott wires it into his system for Hifi Pig. 

The latest product from Hungarian manufacturer Etalon is the strEamer.  I should point out at the outset that the idiosyncratic capitalisation is a feature of Etalon’s branding rather than any wilful typing errors on my part.

On the face of things, a streamer doesn’t have to do very much – two things really. It needs to get a digital signal from wherever it is stored and output it into your DAC and it needs to let you choose the file or files that need to be moved so that you can play them.  That being the case, you might thing that a streamer will have a negligible effect on the sound of your system. Closer inspection, however, reveals that streamers actually have a lot of work to do to get these signals ready for your DAC and if they fail to do this well the signal going into your DAC is going to suffer.

I’ve been streaming music for around five years now using a Logitech Squeezebox Touch and that has become my benchmark in terms of minimum performance from a streamer.  It sounds good, is easy to set up and use and can be controlled from a smartphone or tablet by a choice of third party apps.  Any streamer coming into my system is expected to function at least as well as the Squeezebox Touch on all counts.

The Squeezebox Touch looks quite good too but as I can’t see it from my listening position and its touchscreen functionality is, other than set up functions, rendered obsolete by its app, this isn’t really important to me.  Just as well really as when it come to looks the Etalon streamer is a completely different kettle of fish.  If you are looking for a flashy piece of hifi kit to show off to your mates,the strEamer definitely doesn’t fit the bill, it’s about as unflashy and unassuming a piece of hifi equipment as it is possible to imagine.  Roughly the width of the front of a CD jewel case and half the height, the strEamer is a simple black box with a power socket, a RJ45 Ethernet connection and two USB ports on one side.

The strEamer arrived in a cardboard box alongside a small two-pin power supply.  I had to run out and buy a travel adaptor so that I could plug it into the wall.  Etalon assure me that units distributed for sale in the UK will come with an appropriate three-pin unit.  The supplied power supply does the job but it would be interesting to see if an upgraded PSU had a beneficial effect.  Etalon had emailed me an instruction manual in advance of the strEamer arriving and no instructions were supplied along with the unit but I would expect that these would be supplied with a retail model.

Before I say any more about the strEamer, it may be useful if I explain a little bit about my hifi set up.  My hifi is in my living room.  My audio files are on an external hard drive connected to a laptop in another sitting room.  The laptop runs Logitech’s LMS server and I use my Squeezebox Touch to stream my files wirelessly from one room to the other and into my DAC.  This has worked well for me but has the disadvantage of tying up my laptop to the hard drive and also means that the laptop has to be on whenever I want to play music.

An immediate attraction of the Etalon strEamer is that it allows an USB hard drive to be connected directly to it and contains its own LMS sever, along with a DNLA server.  This meant that my laptop could be freed up to be actually used as a laptop.

Setting up the strEamer was very straightforward: I connected the hard drive to the strEamer, connected the strEamer to my DAC and to my network via Ethernet (the strEamer does not have wireless capability) and powered up the strEamer and the hard drive.  The strEamer’s settings are then accessed via a weblink provided in the instruction manual.  This can be opened from a browser from any computer, tablet or smartphone connected to your network.   The webpage then allows you to choose whether you want to run the LMS or DNLA severs, enable AirPlay for Apple devices or update firmware.

Being familiar with Logitech’s LMS server, I was happy to use that; the process of setting up my library and accessing streaming services such as Tidal being identical to that of my laptop version of the server.  Even if you haven’t used LMS before, set up is fairly intuitive and the instructions in the manual are comprehensive. Once the server has scanned your files you need to be able to see your library so that you can choose songs/albums, build playlists and access streaming services or internet radio.  You can use Logitech’s free Squeezebox app for this or a paid app such as Ipeng.  My preferred app is Squeezepad but this is for iPad only.  Using Squeezepad, there was absolutely no difference between controlling the strEamer and controlling my Squeezebox Touch.  In fact, the strEamer responded more quickly and over the period of the review was much more stable than the Touch.

So, how does the strEamer sound?  I said at the beginning of this review that the Squeezebox was my benchmark of minimum quality.  Initially, comparisons were favourable; the strEamer sounded as good as the Touch.  Over time, I felt that the strEamer began to loosen up somewhat, the soundstage of my system opened up and instruments were more detailed.  Rockin’ In Rhythm from Richard Thompson’s Strict Tempo is a great recording of a variety of acoustic instruments and it really came to life, getting my foot tapping within the first couple of bars. High resolution files up to 24/192 played without any stuttering or drop out.   Complex pieces such as Steve Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians were easily resolved, individual instruments, rhythms and harmonies being easily identifiable.

While you can connect the source of your files directly to the strEamer as described above, you don’t have to do this.  I reconnected my hard drive to my laptop, disabled the LMS server on the strEamer, started up the server on the laptop and was able to stream the files remotely with no drop in sound quality.

I also tried the strEamer using the built in DNLA server.  I guess this is a case of horses for courses; if you have experience of using a DNLA server previously then you may prefer to continue using this with the strEamer.  Being used to LMS, I preferred to stick with that and found no need to change.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Elalon’s strEamer will sit unobtrusively in your system doing its job without fuss.  At 550 Euros, it is neither ridiculously cheap not horrendously expensive but if you want lights, knobs and intricate displays over sound quality for your money, you will definitely need to look elsewhere.

Build Quality: 8/10

Sound Quality: 8.2/10

Value for Money: 7.7/10

Overall: 7.96/10

Price: 550 Euros including power supply.

Pros

Simple and unobtrusive

Choice of built-in servers provides versatility

Will also serve other media such as photos and video (this was not tested during review)

Cons

Power supply could be more robust

John Scott

Technical Info:

Inputs: RJ45 for Ethernet connection and USB for external storage such as USB-stick or HDD

Output: USB

Compatible players: Logitech Media Server (squeezebox), DLNA (JRiver, Minimserver, Foobar, etc.), Airplay (iTunes)

Supported formats: PCM up to 24 bit 384 kHz standard audio formats and DSD64, 128 (DoP protocol

The Etalon strEamer is a mini server made in Hungary and costing €550. John Scott wires it into his system for Hifi Pig. 

” I said at the beginning of this review that the Squeezebox was my benchmark of minimum quality.  Initially, comparisons were favourable; the strEamer sounded as good as the Touch.  Over time, I felt that the strEamer began to loosen up somewhat, the soundstage of my system opened up and instruments were more detailed.”

At £1250 with the standard cable or £1350 with the Premium cable, the Mr Speakers Ether C headphones certainly fall into the high-end price bracket, but will they deliver on sound quality? Janine Elliot finds our for Hifi Pig.

I’ve been listening to new ground-breaking headphones since, well, Sennheiser 414s. Every time the intention was that they were better than the one before, otherwise there would be no point.  All I had heard before these were closed back, heavy and tight fitting ‘head vices’ that had bass, middle and no definition for my young 20kHz ears to benefit from. Whether Koss, Dynatron, Binatone or Winthrop, none of them actually sounded right for me. Indeed, until the 1980’s the BBC regularly issued Bakelite headphones to sound engineers, which really worried me. Whilst Koss did actually change the opinion of headphones as purveyors of good music, the good ones like Pro4AA were 250 ohms and heavy so you needed to sit tied down to the side of your hifi stack, and probably swaying about on a rocking chair wearing slippers. Then of course we all went portable with walkmans, CD players and mp3 players with horrible sounding IEMs. Now that at last we are starting to listen again with decent DAPs, such as Astell and Kern and Audio Research, we need to piggybank head-amps,  because the new range of exciting headphones from Oppo, Audeze, Abyss, etc, are so inefficient the players’ built-in amplifiers can’t cope. For that reason, my own choice for mulling about the house or lying in my bed is my Audio Technica W1000X which give me a reasonable listening level from my Fiio X5 without being tied down to a mains socket or weighed down with a separate portable amp.

The new Ether C from American company Mr Speakers, designed and manufactured by a small team led by Dan Clark are closed-back, like my AT’s, and ~4dB less efficient than their open-back variety, meaning a separate amplifier is mandatory. Both use the same technology of V-Planer diaphragm, which has very much to do with the low output from these and most planar headphones. Let me explain; instead of a single driver pushing in and out a light-weight diaphragm as in traditionally headphones in the past, a planar (or in this case a V-Planar) designs means that a whole flat panel has to move now. It needs more oomph to do it. So, expecting your 40mW amp to do this is like pulling a caravan with a moped. This inefficiency is a small price to pay when you consider the better sound that can be available.

Their distinctive but traditional looking opened back design called the Ether (also being reviewed on Hifi Pig soon) was Mr Speakers’ first 100% made and designed headphones. The closed-back and designated “C” version of the Ether has unusually shaped ear-cups made from carbon-fibre. I am told most people liked this, but for ear-speakers around £1250 I wanted to see something more exotic, but I guess encrusting it in thousands of diamonds might make it too expensive, and heavy. Mr Speakers want you to see the carbon-fibre, though don’t want you to know about a secret element in its design which Mark Dolbear from Electromod, who supplied the review sample, couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me.

The shape of the carbon-fibre body is so that there are no standing waves to colour the sound.  Going with Carbon fibre was not just for weight and shape but also for its sonic performance of not storing energy. It reminded me of the Flare R2 IEMs I reviewed a while ago; using the same driver and altering the metal it was housed in really did make a change in the sound, whether aluminium, stainless steel or titanium.

Played directly from my portable player was never going to be an option, so I reviewed this model with several similarly priced transistor and tube headphone amps; the Earmax/Brockseiper, Graham Slee Solo and Voyager, and the Schiit Lyr 2 with the Lisst solid-state valves. The Earmax just couldn’t cope, distorting like mad, so I switched that one off. The Slee offerings worked well, but the Schiit Lyr 2 with the metal encased Lisst was like a breath of fresh air, giving a very clear and exciting sound which aided my listening of these cans, over the valves which gave a more rounded off top end. I reviewed the Lyr 2 a while back and loved it then. This one was even better, especially with the Lisst. The sound improved the more I played, proving that running in is very important. Where the sound lacked bass and detail at the start, after 100 or more hours it all began to open up and sound quite natural to me, on whatever type of music I used, adding bass and top end detail the more I listened.

The Mr Speakers are unlike most headphones. Usually you just put them on and the sound you hear is very quickly what you expect to get for the rest of their life. With these cans, the run-in time is a minimum of around 40-60 hours, which actually isn’t long if you just leave it playing when you’re asleep. Much has to do with the V-Planers. Dan felt that a flat planar isn’t rigid enough, but with the corrugated (or pleated as Dan calls it) diaphragm measuring 2.75” by 1.75″ it makes it faster and reduces distortion and extend the frequency range. Whilst the Ether weighs in at 375g the “C” adds another 17g (or 0.6oz), neither giving me any sense of overweight. Indeed the Ethers are the first cans with a headband made of NiTinol “memory metal” (Nickel Titanium) which being very light and elastic means you can fit these headphones nicely on any shaped head. I did feel they were comfortable for long periods of time, though the Audio Technica 3D-wing support headbands are still my favourite. Measuring at around 23ohms, these headphones should be fairly loud, and I do worry that when we are using 2 Watt power-amps to drive our cans we need to be as careful about looking after our ears as we tell our kids with their IEMs.

My first venture was to wake these beauties up with the celebrated complete Queen Studio Collection vinyl re-release which showed these iconic recordings to their full, with punchy bass and oomph galore. No problems there. These could handle anything from Freddie, John, Roger or Brian. At the other extreme turning to Ray LaMontagne The Sun Turns Back “Be here Now” showed off the openness and spacious recording with the heavy reverb in the piano contrasting very well with the close mic’d acoustic guitar. Ray’s breathy voice filled the void between my ears in a way that made me really love what I heard, with a speed that allowed hidden voices behind the digital reverb to come out quite eerily. Where some of that detail wasn’t in the Schiit Lyr2 valves, the Lisst ICs woke up the sound giving more speed and authority. These were made for each other. This came as no surprise; the designer knows the company very well so it is no wonder they are tuned for each other. Indeed, the development name for the Ether was “Dreadnaught” as homage to Mike Moffat from Schiit, who used to work for Theta that made a curvy-fronted multichannel theatre amplifier with the same name, and which Dan, the designer of the Mr Speakers, still uses to this day. His website even sells Schiit products. And a 3D printer.

Whilst I liked all I heard, it still left me feeling that I was hearing between my ears rather than in front, despite the angled drivers, but what made these so good was the fact that I could play just about any music with them, whereas many headphones have their favourite music styles. Once you get accustomed to the lower efficiency (and Dan believes the more efficient the headphone the more you will hear the background noise, so the less efficient the less noise) and pump up the volume you really do start to make the most from the headphones. There is quite a big difference in sound between the Ether and Ether C, which Dan is pleased about; there would be very little point in creating to identical sounding cans, leaving aside the matter of sealing or not of outside sounds.  No, these are two quite different headphones. The Ether has a more open soundstage, but the “C” has a better bass end, especially once you pump up the volume.  Playing the big bass thuds at the start of Sting “A Perfect Day” track 1 sounded good at high volume but less apparent at lower. Those fundamental frequencies are very clear and give an authority that provide these headphones with an edge over the Ether, I found.  The mid-range was also highly inviting and made listening fun, but not sticking out at all, if that makes sense. The infamous 1960 Chicago Symphony Orchestra performance of Pines of Rome (Respighi), gave an infinite set of tones and three dimensions of sound in my head, the work aptly described as a tone poem.

Talking of tone, the Ether C comes complete with two black and a white pads to tailor the sound to your requirements, a manually adjusted EQ control that took me by surprise; being used to keeping the grilles off my loudspeakers for 40 years. I used 1 black insert; two gives a better bass, or should I say less top. The white insert is for the most ‘top loss’, all four combinations allowing up to around 4dB adjustment in total at around 5HZ plus, or more if decide to install all the pads, which I certainly wouldn’t recommend! The sound was already quiet, so adding padding to get rid of the top to make the bass louder just seems like a backward philosophy to me. It’s a bit like putting lorry wheels on a mini to make it go faster. No, tackle the problem with the engine. My C’s were provided with the basic cable, which I found very noisy in my listening test; every time I tapped or touched it, it could be heard. As soon as I listened to the more expensive Premier cable, adding another £100, that cable sheath noise wasn’t there and the sound was much improved in definition and speed, and provided a better bass and treble extension. Indeed, the fact that it was closed back seemed to almost disappear, giving a very open sound, rather than feeling I was stuffed in an under-stairs cupboard. Where the sound with the basic cable left me feeling that I was still hearing between my ears rather than in front, despite the angled drivers, the Premiers opened up that soundstage leaving me to wonder whether they were indeed closed back at times. I must add, however, that it is not the most ‘open’ closed headphones I have listened to, and I wonder if that is an area Dan should work at for his next offering.

Where these headphones make their mark, though, is in the fact that they worked well with anything I played, from Bowie to Beethoven, Eagles to Ellington. As someone who likes a wide range of music and instruments, this headphone never felt wanting whatever I played it; working very precisely with Sitar and powerfully with cathedral organ. I did find, however, that it was perhaps being a trifle politically correct, never giving me a sense that it was excited about anything.  Sound was all there, but I really felt I couldn’t get deep enough into the music as I hoped £1,250 would get me.  This is not a criticism, some headphones just can’t cope with certain types or music at all and these really did well, whatever I played. I just want to hear every nuance of sound and not want to take them off my head.  There was, of course, much difference in sound between all four head amps I tried, but with the Schiit plus Lisst solid-state tubes they were pretty damn good, and the best for me.

CONCLUSION

This is an excellent all-round performer, superbly built and able to play well anything I put before it. Mated with a decent head-amp it performs with excellent bass and warm mid band, and big step up from the Alpha Prime, their previous top closed back model. Where usually only open-backed headphones give you that big open soundstage, these closed-back ‘cans’ can do almost the same, and cut out much of the noises outside. The two Ethers do sound different, so listen to both, preferably with the Premier upgraded cable, before you buy!

Sound Quality – 8.45/10

Value for Money – 8.4/10

Build Quality – 8.6/10

Overall – 8.48/10 

Price: £1250 with standard cable and £1350 with Premium cable. 

Pros:

Work on all music

Can EQ to your choice of sound

Detail of sound

Single price for ¼”, mini-jack or 4 pin XLR cable connections.

Cut out a fair amount of external background noise

Lamb-leather ear-pads

Box it comes in

Headphone case, which also works as a headphone stand! 

Cons:

Pretty expensive
I personally don’t like the shape of the carbon fibre
I don’t like the idea of pads to EQ the sound.
You need to be patient for 40-60 hours and then really enjoy them! 

Janine Elliot

Janine Elliot plumbs in these £1750 interconnects from Polish company KBL into her system to see what she will find. 

Any cable manufacturer with the abbreviation ‘KBL’ deserves a listen.  This Polish outfit have been making a big name for themselves over the last year or so, just as the rise of Poland itself is becoming a major contender for cars (Fiat Poland) and more latterly for the Hifi collectors’ pennies too. More and more products are emerging that have a decidedly premium quality and yet are still competitively priced, making them a serious choice for audiophiles.

KBL Sound have certainly been receiving review accolades and getting the attention of serious Hifi addicts over the last few years. Like many manufacturers, the company is a result of working in recording studios and having a passion for creating something that does not hinder the source material it intends to carry. Through many years of research, experimentation and improvements they have managed to complete their mission with this, the Red Eye Ultimate Interconnect. For them, the important bits are creating openness and the “ability to play back down to the bottom whatever has been preserved on the tape”. Tape? They certainly have my attention now.

This is a no-expense spared product, with highest purity mono crystal OCC (Ohno Continuous Casting) silver conductor with Mundorf NextGen WBT 0110 Silver/Gold alloy connectors which contain 1% gold (the same highly purified silver-gold alloy used for the metallization of their Supreme SilverGold capacitors), and air and foamed Teflon dielectric. Quite some specification for £1750, but does that mean it is the best sounding cable at the price? I mean, you could mix caviar and champagne together, but does that mean it still tastes nice? I remember recording a certain world champion snooker player at the BBC who told me he had all this wonderful expensive Hifi, costing an arm, leg and snooker cue, but that the sound just wasn’t right. I told him he would have been better buying an Amstrad Hifi. The interview went downhill from that point.

This cable is, as expected, really well made, though the box it comes in is decidedly home made with sellotape holding down the brown velvet “De Natura Sonorum” inscribed cloth covering a foam platform to bed the cable in the cardboard box. However, the personal touch makes it that much more of interest to me and so serious listening with it firstly between source and transformer preamp, and later between preamp and power amp was on the agenda.

Mundorf connectors, like those from Nakamichi and a few others, enable you to screw the sheath once mated to get a tighter fit. I love them and they make the cable less of a component in an already busy circuit. The only problem is some RCA sockets need you to almost take off the sheath in order to fit them; both my Krell and MFA found it impossible to connect at first. The Mundorf connectors rely on the reduced-contact surface philosophy, whereby only one point of the return/negative is connected to the socket. This is done to eliminate eddy currents and mass storage effects.  Also its design prevents the sleeve of the plug itself acting as a conductor, which can influence sound. These plugs are exceptionally expensive, and I can see why.

SOUND

Silver usually gives a brighter and tighter sound than copper in my experience. That is not a bad thing; I have silver cables to my tweeters and copper to my woofers. This cable was certainly OK in the top, and the mid and upper mid frequencies had exceptionally good detail. David Bowie’s (RIP) new album “Blackstar” hadn’t been released at the point of this review, but ‘The Next Day’ album’s title track was ready to spin on my player. This came across as clear as you can hear. I have never been fond of the sound engineering on his albums, but the music itself more than makes up. With “How Does the Grass Grow” the horrible compression and limiting in the recording becomes clearer to me with these cables. The slight mid-band emphasis in these cables emphasized it just that little bit.

KBL Sound’s activities are not confined to just the research and production of fine cables, but also the tuning and re-creating vintage valve amplifiers, like Leak and Dynaco. So what better than plugging in my modified Leak Stereo 20.  These cables gave Harold’s best amp a more open and laid-back rendition, allowing the music to take over from any electronics that would otherwise be in the way. This really sounded musical, waking up my 1958 baby to sound as good as I have ever heard it.

Carlos Franzetti “The Jazz Kamerata” had a depth of sound I really got hooked on; the full colour from the piano, string warmth, flute and saxophone were all placed where I expected, with excellent decays on piano and a husky saxophone opened up as real as I would hear them live, like seeing the pixels on the screen, every ounce of colour was there for me to hear in all its glory. The sound had more atmosphere than I had got used to before on this regularly played recording. Not just was the soundstage detailed but it had a depth to it that was quite addictive. “Allison’s Dance” showed a move across and backwards in the soundstage at a particular point I hadn’t detected before.

Chasing the Dragon, Vivaldi Concerto for 11 Mandolins was full of emotion and breaths from musicians and also background atmosphere. Atmosphere was something really noticeable in these cables. Track 3, Bach Cello Suite No 1 was full of his bow ‘grinding away’ as Austin Pearson got engrossed in the notes.

Patricia Barber “What a Shame” (Café Blue) was equally engaging. These cables really brought out clarity of ride cymbals and Mark Walker’s percussion was as crisp as my own cables of choice. The guitar in track 4 “Romanesque” had a ‘bite’ and atmosphere that took me aback. Indeed the reverb and space in this recording using these cables was exceptional. Patricia’s voice was noticeably more atmospheric than other instruments as this cable took apart the music strands into their individual components. I felt much more involved in the music as it played, and all seemed that much more relaxed and intimate. This was a good marriage of wire and valve, though the music perhaps a little slower than I would like.

CONCLUSION

The detail in terms of pitch, focus and depth of sound, especially in the upper mid-range was excellent. These are excellent cables and should certainly be auditioned if you are spending this sort of cash (£1750). Indeed, I always say you should listen to cables in your own system as they play an important, ne, essential part in formulating the overall sound. If you need more mid frequency warmth these cables are an excellent choice. Only wish they’d change the box it came in. I’m good at sewing…

Sound Quality: 8.55/10

Value for Money: 8.3/10

Build Quality: 8.6/10 (The ‘box’ is not relevant)

Overall: 8.48/10

Price at time of review £1750

Pros:

Good upper-mid warmth

Excellent clarity in the top frequencies

Detail

Power

Excellent components

Cons:

Upper mid frequencies might not work with amplifiers with upper mid emphasis

That box 

Janine Elliott

Designer’s Comment

The Red Eye Ultimate interconnects had been designed with one goal in mind: to reveal system possibilities to the latest extent. With feedback from the previous reviewers and private customers of Red Eye IC’s, they emphasize such features as accurate presentation, resolution, saturated colours and realistic sense of space.

Red Eye Ultimate interconnects are manufactured with ultra-pure silver wire with each single crystal length reaching even a few hundred meters (the result of a unique Ohno Continuous Casting process). Then, the silver is technologically aged to obtain an even better molecular order within each wire. These advanced conductors achieve such a high level of homogeneity that signal flow is practically lossless. Foamed PTFE is used as the best dielectric for practical application. The cable is internally multi-screened against EMI/RFI. Red Eye interconnects form a perfect synergy with WBT Nextgen 0110Ag type connectors fabricated to Mundorf’s specification. This German company has comprehensively changed the metallurgical composition for all internal parts responsible for electrical contact inside the connector. They contain 1% of gold in their composition when compared to the pure silver WBT concept.

SPECIFICATIONS

Conductors: highest purity mono crystal OCC silver

Termination: Mundorf/WBT 0110 Ag sliver/gold alloy, other connectors upon request

Shielding: multi-shield

Standard length available: 1 m, 1.5m, 2m

Other lenght available upon request

After the assembly process all our cables are tested and professionally conditioned. Thus they are already burned-in for immediate use without waiting many weeks or even months for their ultimate level of performance.

Robert Szczerbowski (KBL)

Dominic Marsh takes this €840 package of amp, speakers and speaker cables from TAGA Harmony for a spin.

TAGA Audio hail from Poland and TAGA stands for “To Achieve Glorious Acoustics”, or so their tag line says.  The entire design brief is created in-house by TAGA themselves, while production is in TAGA’s own factory in China, which allows TAGA considerable latitude when it comes to pricing their products.  Their range is rather extensive, with no less than ten speaker ranges, spanning from 5.1 home theatre arrays to their flagship standard floor standing speakers, which doesn’t end there either, as we can also add active and desktop systems to that list too.  Electronic products also feature highly, with hybrid amplifiers, all-in-one music systems, DACs, power filters, the list goes on and on, then a range of interconnect and speaker cables complete their product line-up and one is simply spoilt for choice browsing through their website.  They even cater for the DIYers amongst us with cables off the reel to terminate themselves.

TAGA have sent to Hifi Pig for review a selected package consisting of a Harmony HTA -700B V2 hybrid amplifier, a pair of Platinum B-40 speakers and a pair of 2.5 metre Platinum 18 speaker cables to match.  Add the source of your choice and you can be up and running in a very short time.

CONSTRUCTION

The HTA – 700B V2 amplifier is very compact measuring 14cm H x 17.7cm W x 27cm D, with the review sample supplied finished in bright alloy that has simply superb fit and finish.  It is also available in a black finish. Comparatively heavy too, weighing in at 4.2kg.  To the front panel we find a quarter inch standard headphone socket, a large rotary volume control, an input selector knob that switches between USB input, CD input and Bluetooth.  A pair of recessed 12AX7B valves (tubes) peeps out the top plate of the chassis, half submerged as it were, surprisingly without any protection cages.  Judging by the way the valves light up almost instantly to full brightness when powered on, I suspect the tube heaters are fed by a regulated DC voltage.  Behind the two valves lies the mains transformer housing, again clad in bright alloy.

To the rear we find the Bluetooth antenna socket (antenna supplied), a USB socket, below these two is the RCA phono inputs for CD, then a pair of RCA pre amplifier output sockets, then a single set of four good quality speaker binding posts which will accept spades, 4mm banana plugs and bare wire.  Finally, an on/off rocker power switch and a male IEC AC power inlet socket, complete the rear panel connections.  TAGA supply the software via a download from their website for linking the USB connection to a personal computer running Windows.

Specifications:

The TAGA Platinum B-40 speakers are a compact stand mount design, again manufactured in China to TAGA’s exacting specifications.  TAGA class it as a “bookshelf” speaker, but to me its dimensions aren’t really suited to that position with a depth of over 27cm.  It is a reflex ported design, with the exit port mounted on the front baffle immediately below the 165mm bass driver.  The bass driver cone appears to be of a sandwich type construction, the dust cap being of the same material, with a flexible rubber roll surround.  There is a bright polished alloy outer surround ring engraved with the words “TAGA Harmony” and to me the speaker looked attractive, with or without the grilles present.  The tweeter is a one inch unit with a metal dome, protected by a perforated metal mesh grille and unusually, is mounted partially above the front baffle in a domed plastic extension.  To the rear we find a set of speaker binding posts in a biwire/biamp configuration with the ubiquitous gold plated brass link plates.  The binding posts will accept spades, 4mm banana plugs or bare wire.  I will be mentioning these again in the listening analysis below.  The review sample was supplied in a vinyl Wenge wood finish with faux Walnut and black (Ash?) as alternative finish choices.   The cabinet carcass has curved side panels which adds intrinsic strength but also tales away parallel walls to minimize internal cabinet reflections.

Specifications:

Lastly, as part of this package, TAGA supply a 2.5 metre pair of their Platinum 18 speaker cables terminated with 4mm banana plugs.  This cable is also available un-terminated off the reel, bought by the multiple metre lengths.

Specifications:

It looks to be a workman-like cable, with 16 strands braided into the two main conductors of 8 strands each, bifurcated at each end to around 15 cm from each of the plugs.  However, the plugs don’t really match the quality of the cable itself, the “splines” are not that springy and that complicated matters by having oversized 4mm holes in the speaker’s binding posts which resulted in a poor connection, although the Platinum B-40’s binding posts face upwards so gravity holds the speaker cables in place.   One of the plugs actually lost the 4mm splined part which detached itself while changing cables over from the binding posts on the HTA-700B amplifier, so I had to rapidly re-terminate it with a “Z” plug and of course I will have to fit the other seven plugs to match, or return it to TAGA as is.  I have mentioned my reservations about these particular banana plugs to TAGA and they say they will review the situation shortly and will be looking into fitting another type of plug.

The complete system package as detailed above is 840 Euros at the time of review.

SOUND QUALITY

I was pleasantly surprised when I first connected up this system just how good it sounded and none of the sound spectrum it produced annoyed or offended me, which was a great start to the proceedings.   The word to best describe the sound was “balanced” in that treble and bass were in equilibrium, midband was clean and clear, so it was no effort at all just to sit back and enjoy what I was hearing while the system was warming up.  Of course, it is my job then to analyse and disseminate what’s what so you the reader can assimilate and interpret how I perceived the sound produced.

For such a small unit, the HTA-700B V2 amplifier produced a bouncy gutsy sound via CD input and I don’t recall it  running out of steam, with the Platinum B-40 speakers and with others too that I tried, including my resident speakers.  At that time I also had a pair of Audiofilia SF-6 floor standing speakers in for evaluation and the little TAGA amp acquitted itself rather well with those too, although when pushed hard the sound became more “shouty”, which if you are the kind of person who listens with the volume control past 12 o’clock regularly you’ll need to seek a more powerful amplifier for your needs.  Pairing the Bluetooth connection was simple and straightforward, although I perceived a softer and less dynamic presentation than via the CD player input.  USB input sound quality was almost on a par with the CD input. 

Intrinsically, the speaker cable itself appears to be a good component, the braided weave layout should keep the capacitance at a low level, but the real let down was the quality of the plugs employed.  When the splines section detached itself from the body of one plug while gently removing it from the amplifier’s binding posts it merely confirmed my fears that while they looked good, they weren’t man enough for the job.  Swapping to my resident cables brought a not unexpected improvement in sound quality and I rue that I couldn’t give a fair assessment of the speaker cables’ performance in their own right with more suitable plugs fitted.  You could of course purchase the unterminated cable, or another terminated cable from their range, but that falls outside of the TAGA package deal offer and would probably add to the cost.

Then we move on to the Platinum B-40 speakers and it is by no accident I have left the best until last.  Given that they are priced at circa £320.00 here in the UK, they really can and do outshine other speakers at that price level and well above.  Installed into my resident system they sounded far better than their humble price suggests, with good solid bass free of boom and overhang, a treble that is crisp and clear, plus a midband that doesn’t disappoint either.  I found them a very musical speaker whatever amplifier they were paired with and of course the Harmony HTA – 700B V2 was no exception.

Mounted on 60cm stands and placed around 20cm from the rear wall they gave a full bodied sound, although while the deepest bass registers were not present, there wasn’t any boom or blooming either.  Dynamics were fast-ish, not as lithe as the best speakers but still a credible performance nonetheless.  I simply couldn’t resist removing the brass jumper links and fitting a set of my own pure copper wired links and the sound improvement was considerable.   Paired with the HTA – 700B V2 amplifier the sound stage was expansive, extending out just beyond the speaker boundaries, while my resident amplifier pushed that out even further still and depth acquired a deeper rendition to imaging.

In to the CD drawer goes my reference recording which is Fink’s “Wheels Beneath My Feet” live album.  Track one called “Biscuits For Breakfast” begins with the drummer gently striking the Ride cymbal as the intro, which has to portray the metal ringing in the cymbal to be accepted as real and any masking here shows up instantly and readily.  The Platinum B-40’s gave a good account of themselves with this test and surprisingly good too given that it is fitted with a metal dome tweeter.  Kick drum was portrayed with good weight and solidity, a good deal better than other “budget” speakers I have listened to and the drummer’s rim shots were almost life-like too.  Fink’s voice has a nasal quality to it with a slight rasp and the Platinum B-40’s did a pretty good job of that task too.

As a contrast to that, I followed on with some electronic music in the shape of Tripswitch’s excellent album “Geometry”.  There is some superb layering in this album and it takes a sure footed pair of speakers to unfold and pull back all the layers so each strand is separated out and clearly defined in every respect.  The bass lines really are deep on this album, rather subtle in places too and can easily be muddled by the music around it.  The Platinum B-40’s didn’t quite have full command and control of this album as my resident speakers are able, especially around the bass which wasn’t as deep and tended to collide with other instruments, so once or twice got recessed into the rest of the music.  For a £1,500+ speaker that would be a slight criticism, for a £320.00 speaker that should be taken as a compliment.

CONCLUSION

If I had reviewed this package system as submitted by TAGA, then it would have been the speaker cable plugs that let the entire system down, nothing more.  The oversized speaker binding post holes could have been resolved by fitting better plugs, so I can almost discount that aspect.  Taking each component in isolation however creates a different point of view entirely.

The TAGA Harmony HTA – 700B V2 amplifier is a great little amplifier in its own right.  It has enough features to make it flexible with regards to connections, it sounds extremely good too, more powerful than the specifications suggest and the small footprint means you can house it wherever you like so it remains unobtrusive.   This little amplifier has a lot going for it.

For a cable to part company with it’s connector during a review is unforgiveable.  Having said that, if TAGA take on board my comments about the plugs and upgrade them, then I am prepared to happily change my opinion because I still think it’s a great cable nonetheless.

The Platinum B-40 speakers belie their modest cost and are very able performers.  I could easily live with these, although given that I chop and change components and cables on an almost permanent basis as part of my job, those binding posts would drive me nuts. Still, as part of the package that TAGA offer, they give tremendous bang for the buck and for me they were the star of the ensemble.  Well worth seeking out for audition.

Build quality: 7.8/10
Sound quality: 8.2/10
Value for money: 8.6/10
Overall: 8.2/10

Package Price at time of review: 840 EUros

Pros:  Terrific little amplifier and speakers which give good performances – especially at the price.

Cons:   Those speaker plugs.  For the want of a nail, the horse was lost, for the want of a horse, the Knight was lost, for the want of a Knight the battle was lost.  All for the want of a nail.  Sums this system up well.

Dominic Marsh

Janine Elliot plumbs in these £1750 interconnects from Polish company KBL into her system to see what she will find. 

“Carlos Franzetti “The Jazz Kamerata” had a depth of sound I really got hooked on; the full colour from the piano, string warmth, flute and saxophone were all placed where I expected, with excellent decays on piano and a husky saxophone opened up as real as I would hear them live, like seeing the pixels on the screen, every ounce of colour was there for me to hear in all its glory.”

Read the full review of the KBL Sound Red Eye Ultimate Interconnects

Dominic Marsh takes this €840 package of amp, speakers and speaker cables from TAGA Harmony for a spin.

“The word to best describe the sound was “balanced” in that treble and bass were in equilibrium, midband was clean and clear, so it was no effort at all just to sit back and enjoy what I was hearing while the system was warming up.”

Read the full review of the TAGA Harmony HTA – 700B V2 amplifier, Platinum B-40 Speakers and Platinum 18 Speaker Cables Package.

Kralk Audio are based in West Yorkshire in the UK and owned by Alan Clark. With the DTLPS-1 loudspeaker, costing £1750, Alan has taken the specially built crossover out of the loudspeaker and into separate boxes. Ian Ringstead finds out if all this effort has been worthwhile.  

I recently wrote a review on Kralk Audio’s excellent baby speakers the BC30’s and when I first visited Alan Clark’s room at the Whittlebury Show last September I spotted the Elite’s straight away and was fascinated by their concept. The Elite’s are a dual transmission line ported system (hence their abbreviated title) with an overly engineered external crossover in order to extract the very best from them. 

Like everything else Alan does he lovingly hand builds these speakers and has developed them from his original design which he made for friends and musicians who wanted a high quality monitor stand mount speaker to use in their studios or at home. These speakers are larger than the Black Cat 30’s and being dual ported means they have substantially more bass and a sub woofer is not essential to obtain great bass and power handling. The bass driver is a 165mm unit and is housed in a rigid cabinet design for reduced colouration and to provide great bass extension for such a compact stand mount design. The cone is doped paper and has a vented coil pole in the magnet assembly to produce a lifelike sound. The treble is handled by a 25mm partially horn loaded soft dome silk tweeter for smooth well defined highs. The external 24dB octave Bessel crossovers use MKP Polypropylene capacitors and high quality air cored inductors that are housed in lead lined cases. The cabinets use 18mm high density fibreboard and are multi point braced and fully lined with Pro Acoustics Sonarflex foam to filter out any unwanted frequencies from the system. 

The external crossover is the part that intrigued me most when I first saw the Elites as it is a concept that, although far from new, is not used very often by manufacturers, probably for cost reasons and practicality. Being external, any chance of interaction with the drive units and cabinet (both physically and electrically) are totally eliminated. Alan has totally over engineered the crossover to see how far he could push this design on what was already a popular product and where he started his design inspirations a few years ago. The crossovers come in separate beautifully made boxes with nice metal feet. They house resin cast air-cored inductors in their lead lined cases and audiophile grade MKP capacitors. Wiring is Van Damme. The crossover has a quality silk screened printed acrylic cover so you can see and admire the components and build quality. Now for me this is the icing on the cake as I am an absolute sucker for this type of detail and whenever I go to shows or into shops I love to touch and inspect the quality of a product’s build and design, rather like I would a great watch or camera. Quality never comes cheaply, but for me it is worth it if the results are successful.

The Elites are bi-wired and use good quality gold plated 4mm multi way binding posts. Alan includes a complete set of Tenor Audio high quality 2.4 metre speaker leads (3 sets per speaker) which is a nice touch and although prospective buyers might prefer their own brand of choice, this makes set up costs minimal. I used the Tenor Audio cables throughout the review period and felt no need to change them. The Elites were placed on my resident wooden 70cm high stands and blutacked to the top plate for safety and coupling reasons. 

THE SOUND

Alan had said the Elites were markedly better than the standard version which has sold so well for him in the past and boy was he right. The first thing to impress me was the bass output for such a relatively compact design was amazing and so controlled. For a living room like mine which is averaged sized (3m x 5m x 2.2m) they filled it magnificently with tight and very detailed sound. The top end was lovely and open and well highlighted without being shrill. Never once did I feel they were too bright or fatiguing and they made some other speakers I have heard or used in the past sound dull or boring. Listening to records or CDs of all types of music showed how versatile these speakers are at portraying the real emotion of the sound and felt unrestrained like dog let off the leash in a park to run wild.

Compared to the standard version of the DTPLS-1, Alan states they are like chalk and cheese and I don’t doubt him. Like Mel Gibson in Brave heart, at the end he cries out “freedom” just before he dies and the Elites say this to me. Separating the crossover and using the best possible components is definitely one of the main reasons theses speaker really sing. Yes, other manufacturers have done this, but at what price? The crossovers are not cheap and Alan said they constitute a good 50% of the Elites cost , but it’s like hot-rodding a car with a new body kit , suspension, tyres and souped up engine to transform its performance. 

Alan started experimenting with crossovers when he was a youngster and his many years of experience have certainly paid off in this new design. He experimented with many different values like any good designer would and could tailor the sound according to what values he used. Circuit designers do this all the time when making new products or improving a standard unit (Ken Ishiwata springs to mind with his KI and SE components). A nice additional touch is that the Elites grilles can easily be removed as they are magnetic and placed on the side of the speaker for convenience. When you first see this you think they have an additional drive unit on its side and everyone who saw them thought this initially. 

Finishes as standard are sapelle, walnut, black ash, cherry and light oak, but other finishes can be accommodated to special order. Frequency response is 35Hz to 22 kHz and power handling 20-150Watts with a nominal impedance of 8 ohms. Sensitivity is 89dB at 1m. So all in all a good wide sound range suitable for most rooms, easy to drive and they will go loud.

I liked the BC30’s a lot and with the PAW stands they really worked well, but with the Elites Alan has really triumphed I feel. They for me offer a complete package that I could happily live with without the need for a subwoofer. They are very well made and can be tailored to your own tastes of finish. Coupled with a good amp and source components you won’t be disappointed and domestically they are easy to live with. The external crossover really is the stroke of genius and presented as it is in its own case I would want this on show, not hidden behind the speakers as they look so good in their own right and are the real stars of the show. The fact good speaker cables are included in the package as well is brilliant. £1750 is the asking price, so although not cheap, I can’t think of another speaker I have heard at this price level that has impressed me so much. It’s the complete sound and package that wins it for me.

Again as always audition these speakers at Alan’s home if you wish to hear them as he sells direct or I am sure you can trial them at home in your own system.

Alan told me he wishes to possibly try a similar idea with the BC30’s and make external crossovers for them to see how far the envelope can be pushed. This excites me, but how they will compare to the Elites remains to be seen. 

Build quality: 8.8

Sound quality: 8.9

Value for money: 8.8

Overall: 8.83

Price: £1750 

Pros 

Fabulous open sound with a good frequency range and bass extension

Great build and excellent quality of components used

Very good speaker cables included in the package 

Cons 

None really, I love them 

Ian Ringstead

Designer’s Notes

The Elite is a high-end addition to our very popular DTLPS-1 speaker system.

DTLPS is a dual port transmission line pressure system which I developed over 5 years ago with the system ensuring excellent control over the bass and midrange frequencies giving a much larger than life sound from a diminutively small cabinet.

I took this one stage further with the addition of the Elite; I decided to massively over build the crossovers with high grade components, the main feature of these are the Lead shielded resin cast air core inductors which are totally isolated from any outside interference.  These are then coupled to Audiophile quality MKP 400v dc capacitors. I kept the quality flowing by hard wiring everything onto a wooden board to avoid printed circuits.

The problem with a massively over built crossover is that its so big that it wouldn’t fit inside the cabinet of the DTLPS-1, so it has its own isolated enclosure fitted with high quality input and output connectors.  The advantage of this is that the crossover is away from vibration and stray magnetic fields from inside the main speaker cabinet which could affect the sound quality and imaging. The crossover weighs in at 4.2Kg.

The speaker cabinet of the Elite now just contains the drive units and connecting terminals and the pressure port system.

The 24dB per octave Bessel designed crossover copes effortlessly with anything thrown at it from pop to classical, in fact complex music and classical is where the crossover excels, I believe. Due to its low distortion design it manages to pick out the subtle details from music tracks and feed them to the 2 drive units seamlessly and in perfect phase. The external crossover design gives better definition and space around individual instruments as would be the case when listening to a live band.  I have demonstrated the Elites many times to customers and the room always goes quiet as though the speakers command you to listen to them whilst the music is playing so that you don’t miss any of the detail they are sharing with the listener.

I have taken the DTLPS-1 Elite to a new level with this design and made an attractive value for money product which customers are very pleased with.

The DTLPS-1 Elite package comes with the 2 speakers, 2 Crossovers and 6 high quality 2.4 meter cables, the matching stands come as an optional extra at £200 per pair.

The package is built to order and delivery can take up to 3 weeks depending on finish required.

Alan Clark, Kralk Audio

Kralk Audio are based in West Yorkshire in the UK and owned by Alan Clark. With the DTLPS-1 loudspeaker, costing £1750, Alan has taken the specially built crossover out of the loudspeaker and into separate boxes. Ian Ringstead finds out if all this effort has been worthwhile.

“The crossovers come in separate beautifully made boxes with nice metal feet. They house resin cast air-cored inductors in their lead lined cases and audiophile grade MKP capacitors. Wiring is Van Damme. The crossover has a quality silk screened printed acrylic cover so you can see and admire the components and build quality.”

Read the full review of the Kralk Audio DTLPS-1 Elite Loudspeakers

3 Square is a small new company based in the UK, their first product is a floorstanding loudspeaker constructed out of Baltic pine ply wood and costing £2500. Ian Ringstead takes a listen. 

When Stuart Smith asked me to review these new speakers he said I would enjoy meeting the designer as he had a lot in common with myself in that he used to be in hifi retailing for many years, so we would have a lot to talk about. He was right. Stuart Dunn like myself worked for a couple of retail outlets well known back in the eighties and nineties. Now he is working elsewhere out of the industry like myself, but has a strong passion for music and how it is reproduced. Stuart had always been fascinated by speakers and their design so he wanted to pursue a design that gave him everything he loved for a sensible price. Has he achieved this? Let’s see. 

Stuart (Dunn) has based his design on a very simple first order crossover that uses high quality components and he has experimented with the values of the capacitors and inductors, just using his ears to voice the design. Now some might criticise him for not using software analysis tools like Audiomatica Clio and laser interferometry like the big boys use. Well scientific measurements are all well and good but as we know nothing is as powerful or adept at analysing sound as the human brain and ear.

Designers of course have to use their ears, as ultimately that is what we use to listen with and make the final judgement, but I bet a lot rely on scientific testing first and foremost to justify the results. There is value in both approaches and I won’t commit to either approach as being the best. It all boils down to what the sonic results are like. I’ll get onto that later. 

The Translator is a classic looking floorstander. Using Prestige SEAS drive units filtered by HF and LF First Order Crossovers. The cabinets use the best quality Baltic birch plywood which is expensive and a no compromise product. Pro audio manufacturers use the same birch ply as it is so tough and rigid which is an absolute must in that tough environment, not only for longevity and reliability, but also because it sounds good. The cabinet is mass loaded using steel and cement to give it a good low centre of gravity and allow the speaker to sit confidently on the floor. Bespoke M10 spikes are supplied to allow levelling for precise rigid placement. The spikes are custom made and were chosen for their solidity and ease of set up beneath the heavy cabinet. They are cleverly mounted onto steel threaded studs on the base of the cabinet and are easily adjusted. Interestingly there are five studs in total, one per corner and a central one  so purists can just use three if they so wish, but I tried them on four and was more than happy that there was no rocking and the spikes did a fine job of holding the speakers firm. These speakers are heavy (28Kg) and take some lifting as I found out when helping to install them. As well as spikes, spike shoes are supplied to avoid damage to solid or wooden floors, but on my granite slabs the spikes went straight onto them and were fine and the speakers felt firmly grounded. 

Stuart went to great length to stress the choice and simplicity of the first order crossover design. Ultimately this design was the only one that he was happy with and along with business partner Brian who drives the company along with his skill in design, materials and managing the company (he has a background in architecture after all) gave them the sound they were after. Using upgraded drivers mounted in a heavy rigid cabinet and choosing high quality inductors and capacitors with close tolerances made for an interesting result. The cabinet’s rigidity is further aided by two cross braces internally. At the rear are the bi wired good quality binding posts which come with jumpers if you only have single speaker wiring and a port to allow the speaker to breathe. The port is tuned so as to not cause any air turbulence (chuffing) and allow the drivers to work with the optimal air resistance. Stuart assured me they are an easy load and power wise I didn’t hold back during listening sessions and had no concerns with level issues, distortion or power handling. 

My initial concerns were that a fairly large floorstander in my average size living room might be a poor match with overblown bass that I wouldn’t be able to tame. Well to my delight it wasn’t an issue. In fact the bass was remarkably well controlled and balanced nicely with the mid and treble. If anything it was the treble at first which I felt was lacking and was letting the side down. Having listened to a lot of different speakers over the preceding months, it’s amazing how varied speakers sound. Getting used to a new design in your living room can take some adjusting to and it was a few hours before I suddenly felt the treble started to make sense and sounded correct to my ears. I contacted Stuart about this anomaly of the initial dullness and he advised to just give it time for the sound to gel to my ears. His concern had been that the bass might overpower my room but it all worked out in the end.

THE SOUND

In my many years of listening to hifi I have learnt to be wary of initial impressions and make quick assumptions. Sometimes a product or system can instantly grab you and retain that magical quality, but on the flipside an initial impressive sound can soon become wearing on the ears and make me want to switch the system off. The Translator’s never made me want to switch them off; it just took a bit of time to acclimatise. From the off these speakers show a great ability to reveal detail in a recording extremely well and vocals in particular were always very clear and coherent. This is a quality you appreciate when listening to densely mixed performances and I feel can make or break your enjoyment if you can’t tell what is being sung or played. If you have to work hard at listening to a performance your brain will switch off as your concentration wanes. This phenomenon isn’t just with hifi systems but live musical events. I go to a fair amount of concerts both classical and contemporary and if the venue or sound system affects the sound badly I come away very disappointed.

The evening before I wrote this review I went to see The Hallé Orchestra in Sheffield and one of the pieces they performed was Grieg’s piano concerto. The orchestra and pianist were great, but due to the position where I was sitting in the concert hall this affected the sound and the piano sounded muted in level to my ears. My aunt was sat elsewhere in the auditorium and said it sounded fine to her. Like a poorly designed speaker or system the venue adversely affected my listening pleasure.

The Translator’s won’t spoil your listening pleasure. I found they liked to be pushed hard and came on song when given some current behind them. The sound opened up and the performers were easily identified and located in the soundstage. Vocals, whether male or female excelled. Jack Savoretti’s new album Written in scars impressed with his distinctive style of the gruffness in his voice and Eva Cassidy sounded sublime (she always does on a good system), especially her album Live at Blues Alley which sounded so natural, and the recording and engineering is superb. Ricki Lee Jones was also tried for her distinctive style and I listened to her album Balm in Gilead all the way through without wanting to try something else. On my last listening to that cd I hadn’t been very impressed, so the Translator’s must have been doing a good job. To test the bass and dynamic range capability of the speakers I put the soundtrack to Gladiator on. A great film in its own right you don’t appreciate how good the soundtrack is until you hear it on a good system. It is a great recording done at Air Studios in London with Lisa Gerrard on vocals (she helped arrange it with Hans Zimmer). The Lyndhurst Orchestra perform magnificently along with the soloists and the dynamic range is awesome. This recording will test any system and it certainly tested mine. The bass was incredible in places and fair shook my room, but it was never out of control. Testament to the very well controlled design and the solidity of the cabinets. I could have played louder but my wife and neighbours wouldn’t have appreciated that. There was no distortion or signs of the cones breaking up so heavy rockers would love this speaker if they wanted depth and clarity of bass. Obviously other types of music were equally catered for and I didn’t find a genre I listened to that I didn’t enjoy. 

The Translator’s are extremely well made and finished with all credit going to the craftsmanship of Doug the third member of the team whose joinery skills are exemplary. The fit and finish is excellent. At £2500 they should be well made but this hasn’t always been the case in my experience of products in the past. The cabinets are left in their raw state (i.e. not veneered ) with the end grain of the laminated birch ply which forms the top and side panels on show making for a very neat contrast to the surface finish of the ply on all the other faces of the ply’s lamination which are at right angles. It’s easier to see this in the pictures than try to describe. The decision was made to leave the finish like this as veneering wasn’t needed and makes for what I think is a pleasant change to the usual veneered or painted cabinets. A very durable waxed based finish is applied to the cabinet as it doesn’t finger mark and looks very smart in my opinion. My wife didn’t like the finish as she thought it looked unfinished, but she is hard to please and beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say. It’s all personal preference and I congratulate the team at 3 Square Audio for choosing this option. This is not to say they won’t supply other options in the future, but as a new company it’s best to start slowly and see what develops. Custom paint finishes or exotic veneers are all well and good, but you as the customer will have to pay quite a bit more if that’s what you want.

CONCLUSION

So there we have it. What was a slow start came good in the end. Persistence is the key here, as the speakers grew on me. Stuart and the 3 Square Audio team have worked hard for several years to bring this dream to fruition and have combined their expertise to produce what I feel is a worthy new addition to the speaker market. Given the quality of materials used, the build quality and excellent sound they deserve to do well and are competitively priced. The website http://3squareaudio.com/ is well worth checking out and has some lovely pictures showing the speaker details and crossover for those interested.

Sound Quality: 8.9/10 

Build Quality: 8.8/10 

Value for money: 8.8/10 

Overall: 8.83/10 

Price at time of review: £2500 

Pros:      

High quality low colouration design   

Good value 

Extended and well controlled bass 

Cons: 

I like the looks but it may polarise views 

Heavy design, so solid floors recommended to get the best out of them

Ian Ringstead

Technical Specifications 

2 way floorstanding loudspeaker using a ported enclosure tuned to 38 Hz

Height 950 mm    Width 198 mm   Depth 360 mm

Weight 28.5 Kg each

HF driver is a SEAS 27mm Sonolex precoated fabric dome from the Prestige series.

LF driver is a SEAS 6,5 inch coated paper cone from the Prestige series.

Crossover filter is 1st order on both HF and LF circuits. Bi – amping is supported.

Inductor is Jantzen air core, Capacitor is 1% Clarity Cap.

Crossover point 2.6 KHz

Speaker terminals support bi-wire and bi-amping using bare wire, spade or 4mm plugs

In-room response typically 35Hz to 20 KHz

Recommended amplifier power 30 W – 150 W   

Designers’ Notes

As hifi users it has been a long standing complaint of ours that most equipment comes with an inadequate spike adjustment system . It is either poorly designed or badly executed or in many cases both . We were determined to get this right . Before we had designed the Translator speaker we had designed the spike system it incorporates.

This consists of a large M10 threaded stainless steel bolt fixed to a 10mm steel plate with an aluminium coned foot of our own design mounted to it. The coned foot has a small hole through it which, with the use of the supplied allen key , makes micro adjustment easy. Due to the mass of the plate, the quality and size of the threaded parts , there is no need for a locking nut thus removing the wobble and difficulty of adjustment associated with M6 and M8 spikes.

We have also taken the opportunity to install a fifth stud on the speakers to allow the purist to stand them on only 3 spikes. We have found, however, that with our system on 4 spikes micro rocking, so common in some spike systems, is all but eliminated .

We have a passion for Baltic birch plywood .

For the uninitiated this is not the sort of plywood you buy from your local DIY store or builders merchants. This is a very high quality material supplied only by specialist suppliers. Baltic birch plywood is made from veneers of very slow grown birch, no other species unlike ordinary plywood, grown in the cold Baltic regions of Finland and the once Baltic states of Russia. As it is slow grown it is a very dense timber which when veneered together, grain at right angles in alternate layers approximately 1mm thick, forms an incredibly rigid and consistent material from which we can build our products. Baltic birch is an attractive light coloured wood which has varying grain patterns on it. We use the plywood in sheet form but also by laminating it together to form the striped pattern you see on top of The Translator. We have perfected this technique over some time to form an attractive but very strong timber. Finally we use oil and wax based finish which we have developed over a few years to provide a smooth gloss finish which is hardwearing and will not chip like a lacquer or paint.

3 Square Audio

3 Square is a small new company based in the UK, their first product is a floorstanding loudspeaker constructed out of Baltic pine ply wood and costing £2500. Ian Ringstead takes a listen.

“In my many years of listening to hifi I have learnt to be wary of initial impressions and make quick assumptions. Sometimes a product or system can instantly grab you and retain that magical quality, but on the flipside an initial impressive sound can soon become wearing on the ears and make me want to switch the system off. The Translator’s never made me want to switch them off; it just took a bit of time to acclimatise.”

Read the full review of the  3 Square Audio Translator Loudspeakers