Audio Hungary are a relatively new name to Hifi Pig and we first met them at this year’s High End show in Munich where they had their wares on display. This, the Qualiton A20i, is their entry level integrated amplifier. It is very compact, runs 2 x 20 Watts of Class A power and is based on classic push-pull topology.

It arrived, with little help from DPD, in a sturdy double (and surprisingly heavy) boxing, with the amp inside being very well packed indeed. The first thing out the box was the remote…wow, that’s heavy and really rather beautiful! Off with the valve cover to expose the tubes and the gleaming chrome body-work and that’s it all unboxed.

Mitchell and Johnson’s trio of CD Player, Amplifier and Streamer cost a total of £947 which puts them very much in the budget category but can they satisfy sonically? Dominic Marsh finds out for Hifi Pig. 

Very little gets me more excited than budget components being sent to me for review.  Let’s be honest, when cost is no object it isn’t an impossible undertaking to design and build something good if not exemplary yet when the budget is pared to the bone, if a manufacturer can not only get it right but elevate that product above the herd we can only admire and applaud their achievement.  That’s not to say what arrives will be a potential “giant killer” product as I have long since given up on that notion because the products hailed as such rarely ever live up to the hype they are lavished in the cold light of day.

Not everyone has a bucketful of cash to spend on high end esoterica, so scouring the world seeking out those little gems that offer great sound at a great price has been one of my missions running in the background.  It has not been an easy task I will admit and much to my surprise many manufacturers have been rather hesitant in responding to my requests for review samples.  Wonder why that is?

One company that thankfully did respond was Mitchell and Johnson, who were to send something over the early part of last year in fact, but due to their pressures of work and my own pressures of work it was not actively followed up, that is until around a month ago when I did a re-scan of my diary entries during a catch up session.  I sent another email off as a reminder and not one but three items from their product range were submitted for review in super quick time.

But, with three components submitted for review, it means a lot of work evaluating their performances, both as a complete system and of course paired with other components, so I beg your patience if this review expands considerably from the norm.

I will also forewarn you that I will quite often be using phrases like:  “At this price point”, “Within this price band“, etc., I am sure you get the picture.

Construction

At first glance, these three components have the outward appearance of what used to be Sansui build about them and some might think that sticking on some new badges saying “Mitchell & Johnson” instead of “Sansui” is all that has gone into these products, but not so.  Extensive modifications have been carried out to them, not least of which is the bespoke software used to drive these components and major changes in circuit topology too as I understand it.  The front panels were made of plastic in their previous incarnations, now fabricated from brushed alloy under the Mitchell & Johnson banner which lends a quality feel, much better than plastic.

Unashamedly built in China, these units are best described as of functional build quality and given their price points it is not difficult to work out there was a fine line in the budget workings out how much would be spent on outward appearance, yet the end result is rather pleasing and not unattractive, in fact my wife remarked on their nice appearance.  The faceplates are 5mm thick brushed aluminium, more than ample for the task, inset function buttons below the displays also work as they should, although their small size and flush fitting is an annoyance and raised buttons would be much easier to operate.  Rotary turn and push knobs for volume and menu selection, and the streamer in particular has a good quality full colour display panel, although the displays for the CD player and amplifier is rather plain and basic, so what more would you need besides?

The units all measure  430mm wide, 320mm deep (including speaker terminals and the streamer’s  wireless aerial) while the amplifier and CD player are just under 80mm high, the streamer measures a little more at 85mm high.

CDD201V CD player

As stated previously, the front panel is made from 5mm brushed aluminium on the review sample, also available in a black finish option.  To the centre of the front panel is a large display panel measuring 142mm long x 42mm high, set into which is the CD drawer.  The drive appears to be a super slim drawered  CD-ROM drive rather than a dedicated audio CD drive, the giveaways being a lightning fast yet very smooth open and close operation and a very long seek time reading the Table Of Contents on the disc.  Once the Table Of Contents (The innermost ‘tracks’ on a CD) track has been found, the player takes an inordinate 19 seconds to actually produce sound.  Thereafter though track selection is as fast as any other CD player with no delays.  The display itself consists of two rows of LED numerics, the top row showing the function selected as in “PLAY”, “STOP”, “REPEAT” etc., the bottom row showing the track number selected and time elapsed.  I am baffled why Mitchell & Johnson have used 3 digits for track numbering when 2 are more than adequate as I know of no CD that has more than 99 tracks anyway and just as baffling is why playing time elapsed has been awarded 6 digits when again I don’t know of any CD that plays for longer than 99 minutes duration, the extra digits making for a cluttered display.   I would much rather see a track number saying a plain “6” for example than “006” and time elapsed as say “18:09” rather than “00:18:09”.

If I can just revert back to my comment about the small flush mounted front panel buttons which annoy, with the CDD201V player there is also a small delay between pressing (fumbling) with the button and the desired action being initiated and many is the time I have pressed the button more than once which cancels out what I wanted the player to do.  So I soon got used to the notion of only pressing the button once, then leave it alone and let the player do what it wanted in its own time.

The CD player is supplied with a basic remote control, although the remote supplied with the streamer has the amplifier and CD functions incorporated into the one same remote, so that is a good reason to buy the whole ensemble together.

Connections are made via a pair of fixed output RCA line out connectors, an SPDIF digital RCA output socket and a TOSLINK connection.  To the far left of the chassis rear is a standard 3 pin IEC mains inlet.

Specifications

Output Level
1.8V +/- 2dB @ 1KHz 0dB

Signal to Noise Ratio
>80dB (LINE, IHF-A)

Frequency Response
20Hz – 20KHz

Digital Outputs
OPTICAL (TOSLINK) 1, COAXIAL (RCA) 1

Channel Balance
>20dB

Separation
>60dB

Digital to Analog Converter
Mediatek MTK1389DE

Dimensions
(WxHxD) : 430 x 80 x 283 mm

Weight
6.3 kg

Price at time of review:  £249.00

SAP201V Amplifier

Moving on to the amplifier now, this unit shares the same width and depth as its stable mates although the height is the same as the CD player while the streamer is slightly taller.  There is the central front panel display for functions, plus a row of push button function controls.  To the left of the front panel is a mini 3.5mm stereo jack socket for a line level input and a quarter inch headphone socket.  To the right of the display is a large rotary control for volume, plus pushing the control repeatedly cycles through bass, treble and balance functions and a default reset option.  To the far right is a push button on/off power switch, above which is a blue LED to show power is applied which turns red in standby mode.

To the rear we find an IEC mains inlet socket, a single set of four speaker terminals which will accept 4mm banana plugs, spade connectors or bare wire.  To the right of those is a TOSLINK and an SPDIF digital RCA input socket, then a set of  line level RCA socket inputs for TV, AUX, NET-PLAYER, CD, and a  PHONO stage connection (moving magnet), so there is a good selection of input options.

Rare at this price level is a built-in digital to analogue convertor in the shape of a Wolfson Micro WM8761 DAC chip, so too is a phono stage that accepts moving magnet cartridge input.

Specifications

Rated Output Power

40 W at 8 ohms, 2 ch driven, 1 kHz, 0.8 % THD (IEC)

50 W at 4 ohms, 2 ch driven, 1 kHz, 0.8 % THD (IEC)

Dynamic Power  150W

THD (Total Harmonic Distortion)
0.08 % (1 kHz 1 W)

Damping Factor
60 (Front’1 kHz’8 )

Input Sensitivity and Impedance
250 mV/47 k(LINE)
6.5 mV/47 k(PHONO)

Output Level and Impedance
250 mV/47k(REC OUT)

Phono Overload
60 mV (MM 1 kHz 0.5 %)

Frequency Response
20 Hz-50 kHz/+1 dB-3 dB (LINE)
+14 dB, -14 dB, 100 Hz (BASS)

Tone Control
+14 dB, -14dB, 10 kHz (TREBLE)
+0 dB, -14 dB (BALANCE)

Signal to Noise Ratio
>85dB (LINE, IHF-A) 61 dB (PHONO, IHF-A)

Dimensions
(WxHxD) : 430 x 80 x 283 mm

Weight
6.3 kg

Price at time of review:  £299.00

WLD+211T Streamer

This unit again mirrors the CD player and amplifier front panel layout, with the exception being a full colour central display and a USB input port.

It is equipped to receive wireless signals from a mobile device or a PC or via an RJ45 Ethernet LAN connection.  So you can listen to any of the music tracks stored on your computer or network attached storage (NAS) drive, giving you access to your entire library without the need for any other device.  If you own an Android or iOS device you can download the free UNDOK remote control application allowing you to browse all of your music from your mobile device. In addition to all this, the WLD+211T can stream your favourite tunes from Spotify via the Spotify Connect app (Spotify subscription required).

Linking to my PC wirelessly to the WLD+211T streamer was a simple straightforward matter and that thrilled me, as other wireless devices I have had for review seemed to concentrate solely on mobile phones and tablets running Android or Apple iOS and given all my stored music is on my desktop computer it has been rather frustrating at times.  That of course meant I could stream music for as many hours as I wished without worrying about battery power endurance issues from a mobile device.

Again, astonishing at this price level, we find a DAB and FM tuner included and with many thousands of internet stations to choose from, there is bound to be some stations you will enjoy listening to online.  They are thankfully listed in numerical and alphabetical order so if there is a particular station you wish to find, using the large front panel rotary control to scroll through makes it not too difficult a task.  It took me a good 10 minutes of high energy knob twiddling to find my local radio station Pirate FM.   It was a targeted setting up challenge more than an innate desire to listen to what was being transmitted on that station, as I never generally listen to it.

Specifications

Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)
0.02 % (1 kHz 1 W)

Frequency Response
20Hz-20KHz, +/ -3dB

Signal to Noise Ratio
>83dB (A)

Digital Output
optical TOSLINK connection,  COAXIAL RCA

Analog Output
RCA/phono stereo left and right connections

Tuner
DAB (Band 3) DAB+ with additional AAC+ codec

FM
Internet radio (requires network connection)

Frequency Range
FM 87.5 – 108 MHZ
DAB 174.928 – 239.200 MHz

Network Connection
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g – WEP, TKIP, WPA, WPA2, WPS security
RJ-45 Ethernet jack

USB
Audio playback from USB (USB port is NOT Apple compatible)

Universal Plug n Play
Full uPnP support. Windows Media Player compatible.
Fully DLNA compatible. Apple compatibility with DLNA software application.
Windows Media Audio and iTunes playlist compatible.

Music Streaming
FLAC 1.5 mbit/s upto 24-bits/48k
WAV 1.5 mbit/s upto 24-bits/48k
AAC upto 576 kbit/s
MP3 upto 320 kbit/s
WMA upto 384 kbit/s
RealAudio upto 96 kbit/s
SPOTIFY CONNECT music service (subscription required) using Spotify Connect app.

App Control
UNDOK app for iPhone or iPod Touch and Android

Remote Control
Brushed aluminium remote handset which also operates SAP201V amplifier and CDD201V CD player.

Dimensions
(WxHxD) : 430 x 80 x 283 mm

Weight
6.3 kg

Price at time of review is £399.00

Sound Quality As A Complete System

Well, if you have just parted company with the grand total of £947.00 for this system and taken it home, what has your money bought?  The first bonus is you have is no worries about matching and “synergy” which will be a great relief to many I am sure.  Of course, no speakers are included in this package, but I have to hand a few pairs of stand mount speakers and I have averaged out the sound qualities across all of them because there was noted some common themes amongst the speakers being used.  It should also be noted that they cost as much as this system, so it’s not likely they would be paired with it. I have also added a couple of likely candidates that are worth an audition to use with this set of components.

Nothing to do with the sound of course but good to mention at this point in the review, all three units have blue LED power on indicators that draw attention to themselves by their brightness.  The LEDs turn to red when in standby mode, a lot less bright thankfully.

I believe I can sum up the sound of this system in just one word – ENTERTAINING.  “High Fidelity” in the strictest sense of the words it isn’t, but the system does keep you entertained with its bouncy and snappy performance and it’s not until you put it side by side with a system from a higher calibre that you get to realise where the holes in its performance are to be found, none of which cause any real concerns, especially so in this price bracket.  The sound is larger than life and I cannot describe it better than that for you I’m afraid.  The treble and midrange in particular reaches out to you quite readily and with good detail, yet listen closely and subtle ambience cues for example that you know are in the recording are not there, even though the treble region is rendered in spades.  Deep bass with heft and weight too is somewhat diluted and seemed rather anaemic, set into the background almost and it is probably due to that 40 watts per channel power rating of the amplifier, so of course I pressed into service some other amplifiers with increased power on tap for comparison and more about this later on in the review.  However, you could happily crank up the volume and it all held together pretty well with an increase in volume level without the amplifier shouting at you or showing any signs of distress or distortion and it still maintained that bouncy vibrancy throughout the volume range.

The loading time from a CD being inserted into the player’s drawer to it playing music irritated the life out of me to begin with, but someone once told me that if you sit on a rusty nail for long enough the pain eventually diminishes and goes away.  I have no intentions of putting that philosophy to the test thank you very much.  Having said that, as time went on I was less annoyed by the CD player’s long seek time, so there must be some truth in the rusty nail story.  The front panel buttons never did stop annoying me though as I don’t think I have large fingers to begin with and coping with the delay after pressing as well, but I did eventually find a technique that worked for me and thank goodness the remote control handset replicates most of the functions that needed a physical button press for, with the exception of the CD eject button.

I couldn’t detect any sound differences between using the line level RCA connections and via the digital output of the CD player into the amplifier’s built in DAC using a coaxial connection.

The real star of this set for me was the WLD+211T streamer which was an easy job in setting up and simple in use too.  A few moments wait on start up as it establishes the connection to the PC via wireless link and once connected it identified the PC’s disk drive location and directory, you then select which album you want to play and away it goes, the large rotary/push button doing a grand uncomplicated job, aided by that good sized clear colour screen too.   Sound quality was very good through the complete Mitchell and Johnson system, but paired with other components it shone.

I had in for review a while ago (Reviewed in Hifi Pig, March 2016)) some speakers from TAGA Harmony, the B40 stand mounters which were priced at £320.00 for the pair which may have suited this system rather well.   Not evaluated by me personally, some say the Q Acoustics 3020 speakers give a great performance and the price is attractive too at circa £189.00 a pair.  Another great pairing would be the Monitor Audio BR2’s priced at £230.00 a pair, with the stronger bass output from the larger driver complimenting the amplifier’s performance well.

CDD201V CD Player Sound Quality – Standalone

Swapping out the CDD201V player to my own resident CD player and connected to the SAP210V amplifier, the sound really did open out and fill in.  Ambience especially took on solidity and clarity that quite took me aback at first, depth of soundstage went from feet deep to yards deep in one leap and the bass output as well took a massive step up.  Given my CD player has a price tag that dwarfs the CDD201V’s, it comes as no surprise.  It also tells me that my initial judgement about the amplifier’s power output rating being solely responsible for a lack of bass power may have been a bit premature as it seems the CD player was evidently contributing to this trait.  All is not lost however, as I then used the CDD201V purely as a transport into 2 other external DACs, one in the shape of a Primare i32 amplifier with the optional DAC board fitted and the other in the shape of Roksan’s new K3 DAC.  The results were amazing, a true night and day experience, but let’s not get carried away by that, given the price differences involved.    It does say though that if you are searching for a transport, then this component  would be well worth a serious  audition and at this price point I am not aware of any serious competition to it.

SAP201V Amplifier Sound Quality – Standalone

Away from its stable mates, the amplifier let loose its true character.  The vitality and bounciness was still there, but the bass output from a signal fed in that had full bass included, really came to the fore.  There was more heft and power now, but it was wrapped in a firm tautness  so the leading edges had a crisp delineation with no following overhang either, although the very lowest bass registers still lacked drive and impact.  A good example of that difference was listening to “Anonymus II” track on the Focus III album.  This track has plenty of raucous energy for any system to contend with and the first element to suffer is the bass, both the bass guitar and the kick drum which all too readily get overshadowed and lost in the mix while at the same time blurring the cymbals.  Focus were famous for playing a Flute in their compositions and many a system manages to mangle that into a screeching wail that hurts your ears but the SAP201V managed to stay the right side of listenable, as I thought it’s lively personality would set off the screeching, but no, it fared very well in fact.  At 6 minutes 18 seconds into this track the pace slows right down to a great slow bass guitar solo, which slowly picks up the pace, joined soon after by the guitarist with single chord strums and then by the drummer on kick drum and high hat.  The kick drum has to have a thump to it you can feel and that thump has to have shape and contour to it as well, which is very hard to describe in words, but once heard it is never forgotten.  Sadly, the CDD302V CD player missed out on these subtleties, the bass just not meeting my criteria, yet ably handled by my resident player into the SAP201V amplifier, which, at its price point (there it is again) is truly remarkable.

The diminutive Pro-Ject MAIA amplifier has a lower power rating, has Bluetooth, costs more at £399.00 and sounds a lot smoother than the SAP201V but that has small size in its favour.  Faced with a choice, I would pick the SAP201V for its lively presentation and zippy delivery.

As more of an aside, I connected up a pair of Roksan K2 TR-5 speakers that Roksan have kindly loaned to me to the SAP201V amplifier and boy, did this amplifier make the Roksan TR-5’s dance.  Again, not in a true high fidelity sense of course, but a VERY entertaining listen indeed.  I also have here a pair of Axis voicebox stand mount loudspeakers which originate from Australia (Loaned by Dan Worth), that also came alive and danced when coupled to the SAP201V amplifier, despite trying several high end amplifiers with them for a good match.  Again, synergy it wasn’t, but it shows how the sprightly verve of this amplifier isn’t going to be suppressed or tamed and I was grateful  for that nonetheless.

WLD+311T Streamer -Standalone

I can happily report that I was very pleased with every aspect of the streamer.  At long, long, long last I could play high quality music direct from my PC to it with no fuss, angst or pain involved and no need whatsoever to use a mobile device. And I like the price band it occupies, which I cannot find a competitor to rival it.  Brilliant, I want one!

Conclusion

Right, I don’t really need a recap on my findings regarding the pricing of these components do I?  Thought not, so I will therefore sum up my take on this Mitchell and Johnson ensemble.

I wasn’t that enamoured by the front panel push buttons, but I also am aware that even a small change to raised buttons will affect pricing, so put your fingers on a diet Dominic or use a rubber tipped stylus if you really cannot control your fingers.  The CD player’s long seek time is part of the package, so get used to it or spend a lot more on a deck that is faster read loading.  That’s not a big list of gripes is it?

On the plus side, the streamer is a total peach in every aspect, the amplifier has enough bounce and vitality to entertain you for many hours and the humble 40 watt power rating is very deceptive as well, so that could also be money well spent and the CD player is a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing when there is a good sounding transport lurking in there waiting to be discovered.  There are a lot worse ways to invest £947.00 in the world of hifi these days and with the right speakers attached, you probably won’t be in too much of a rush upgrading from this system in the future either.

Pros:

The brushed aluminium front panel and the superb colour display on the streamer.

Incredible bang for the buck.

Cons:

It has small sonic flaws in strict hifi terms of course, which are easily liveable with, especially at the price

Those buttons

Prices

CDD201V CD player £249.00

SAP201V Amplifier £299.00

WLD+211T Streamer £399.00

Dominic Marsh

At £14500 for the pair, the Grandinote Proemio preamp and Silva power amplifier are far from bargain basement fodder, but do they warrant such a price-tag? Stuart Smith finds out. 

About Grandinote 

Grandinote are based in Italy and headed up by Massimiliano Magri. The company use a technology they call Magnetosolid where solid state components are used in circuits more typical of valve amplifiers. Grandinote say this offers the advantages of both solid state and tube amplifiers. All the low signal stages in the amps are direct coupled without capacitors and every device has its own dedicated power supply. All their amplifiers run in Class A. 

First of all let me say that the packaging of both items was very good indeed; sturdy single boxes with plenty of thick cardboard packing, a nice red felt cover over each item and a pair of white gloves for handling. 

Proemio Preamplifier

Grandinote’s £6500 Proemio is a line preamplifier offering three unbalanced inputs on RCA and three fully balanced inputs on XLR. The balanced XLR inputs can be converted to unbalanced inputs but I didn’t mess with them as I had no need to.

Outputs offered are a balanced output and an unbalanced output. It’s a full dual-mono constructed preamplifier operating in Class A with no feedback.

Like the Silva power amplifier it is a tad deeper than a standard bit of kit at 40.8cm, a bit higher at 19.6cm and less wide at 31.8cm- it has sort of a shoebox on steroids kind of look about it and on the rack it looks rather attractive with its clean, almost industrial aesthetic.

On the front of the unit there’s six buttons that control program and volume (have a look at the photo) and a red LED screen. It’s all very minimalist and sits on three solid aluminium hemispheres.
Round the back there’s a lot more going on with all the aforementioned inputs and outputs. The only other input on the back of Proemio is the power socket.
Where I come from we have a specific saying when something is well built and solid, but for the purposes here let’s temper that phrase a bit and say that this unit is built like a brick outhouse. There’s an immediate sense of solidity and that the unit is really well put together. A peek through the slotted aluminium top-plate shows us nicely soldered boards and a neat looking layout.

The review unit came with a basic looking remote that was functional rather than being anything special but I am assured that all Grandinote’s retail offerings now come with a rather splendid looking remote control. The supplied remote did end up controlling the Lampizator Big7 DAC too but never mind, I completely lost the supplied remote anyway (found only after the units were returned) and resorted to using the buttons on the front of the Proemio.
Switch on the Proemio and there’s a 99 second countdown shows on the front panel and you can do nothing but wait until the unit is up to speed. Choose inputs one to three for the unbalanced RCA inputs and four to six for the balanced inputs. This caught me out when I first used the Proemio (I’d not read the manual) with a balanced input into the top XLR input, though to be fair to Grandinote it is clearly labelled as input 4!

Press the PRG button on the front and you can personalise some of the functions of the amplifier and decide what volume you’d like each of the inputs to open up at…this is a useful function and allows you to set different volumes for each of the inputs automatically. For example you could have your DAC into input one to start at volume eight whilst the Reel to Reel on input three could start at volume 10. This function allows you to compensate if one source is quieter or louder than another without having to faff with the volume all the time. If you choose not to set the volume for each input it will automatically go to zero when you restart the machine or change input…so worth spending the time to set this up from the off as the resetting to zero soon gets old.
Another feature of the Program button is balance left and right and I’m pleased to see this!

The buttons on the right are labelled vol+, vol- and mute and are self explanatory. 

Silva Stereo Power Amplifier 

Apart from having only a large black button on the front of the unit the £7995 Silva amplifier looks just like the Proemio. It’s bloody heavy though, weighing in at 40Kg! Again this is a full dual mono construction offering up to 37Watts a side in full Class A operation.
Round the back of the unit there’s a bit of a break from the norm as the Silva has two power inputs, one for the left channel and one for the right…I like this concept! There’s a pair of pretty standard looking but well made speaker posts that will accept spades, bananas and bare wire.

Inputs on the Silva are limited to a pair of fully balanced XLRs only which may limit the amps appeal to some.

The amp runs pretty hot and you’ll need to make sure you place it somewhere where there’s plenty of ventilation.

Sound 

I had the Proemio and Silva in the system for pretty much the whole of their time with us (a couple of months) and used them almost exclusively during this period. All electronics were put through the Lab 12 gordian conditioner on automatic settings. Front end kit used was the Lampizator Big 7 being fed from a Melco unit or laptop, a Tascam 32 reel to reel and  AnalogueWorks turntable with Wand arm and OC9III cartridge. Speaker cables for the duration were Tellurium Q Ultra Blacks, whilst interconnects were from Portento, Chord and Tellurium Q. Loudspeakers used were Avantgarde Duo XD, hORNS Mummy and Leema Xens.

First of all I turned the units on and got nothing (see earlier comment and why you should always read the instruction manual) but then when I phoned Jack at UK Distributor BD Audio he soon put me right as to what I’d done! There was now sound but it wasn’t good…it was far from acceptable, being grainy and decidedly lo-fi! Another call to Jack and I was told to let both units run for a while to “burn in” which I did, doing no critical listening for a good week or so. These take a lot of running in before they are on song it has to be said and I’d like to see them fully sorted before being sent out to paying customers. That initial turn on and playing your first tune can have a marked impact on the way a person relates to a new piece of kit and I’d suggest it best to get it right out the box rather than having to go through all that fumbling and uncomfortable getting to know you period.

For the most part I used the Proemio/Silva pairing with the Avantgarde Duo XD loudspeakers which many readers will know have active bass and so are really only relevant in assessing the mids and tops of a new piece of equipment in the system…but in this respect I find them so revealing as to be a really useful review tool.

On Jazz program you are treated to a very believable sound with trumpet and guitar sounding as lifelike as I’ve heard it in the system. There’s speed and great bite to the music, with everything stopping and going back to silence when it should. When there are subtle decays these are really nicely portrayed and I put this down to the incredible quietness of the pairing; play no music and you can turn these up to very high volume settings and even through the 103dB sensitive Avantgardes you get nought but a gentle hum…not absolutely dead quiet, but on more real world sensitivity speakers as good as. There’s a real feeling here of there being real musicians in the room rather than listening to a recording. Vocals are well projected into the room and presented without adding anything “false” to proceedings; you get the feeling of nothing being forced or artificial. The Grandinotes are not as absolutely transparent as my Class D power amps and Music First pre in the mids, but what they add to the mix is a really pleasant warmth with regards to vocals.

On the 11:11 album by Rodrigo y Gabriela we are treated again to a very realistic portrayal of the music and small nuances in the couples playing style – slaps on the strings or against the guitars body – feel authentic and “in the room”. Again the fast attack and decay of the Grandinote pairing make for an exciting, edge of your seat presentation. High frequencies were never harsh, grainy or metallic sounding and again the word that comes to mind is natural. Looking into the stereo mix it’s clear that the Grandinote pairing put instruments where they should be and keep them locked there…there’s no drifting at all and this leads to a feeling of things being right mix-wise. It also makes the stereo image more believable/palpable.

Playing techno I felt the need to turn the volume up a little to get the effect I look for with this kind of music. Am I suggesting the Grandinotes are a bit polite and laidback with techno and the like? No I’m not, but to feel the slam and vigour inherent in this kind of music it deserves to be loud and the Grandinotes let you go loud without feeling they are running out of steam or being pushed to hard…but then they’re not going to given the Avantgardes’ makeup, so let’s talk about them with perhaps some speakers that present a bit more of a challenge in the form of the Leema Xens.

Regular readers will be aware I use the Xens when we have less expensive electronics in for review and they’re 85dB sensitive and 6 Ohms. They don’t go super low but are great speaker in that nearfield studio monitor kind of sense of things. The Grandinote pairing struggled a little to be fair, but then with just 36 Watts on tap they were always going to, that said I’ve used the Xens with other low powered amps without issue. However, it’s time to hook up another pair of speakers in the form of the hORN Mummy, a 95dB sensitive pair of loudspeakers with 12” bass driver and horn loaded tweeter. I’ve already got a good handle on the Proemio/Silva pairing in the mids and highs and I’m looking here at how the Silva controls and presents bass frequencies and it’s good. There’s grip and a feeling that the Silva is definitely in control of things. There’s also speed and that on-off thing, which if a component can’t do in the bass is a deal killer for me – flabby, woolly and overhanging bass is one thing I really cannot abide in a component. The bass guitar on Deep Purple’s live version of Smoke On The Water was dirty and powerful…just as it should be whilst double bass had “texture” and (again) a natural feel to it.

My reference preamplifier is the Music First Baby Reference V2 and for the sake of a bit of experimentation I thought it would be fun to pair the Silva with it, connected via the Baby Ref’s balanced output of course. First on the turntable was the new Rebolledo album, which is a killer by the way. Speakers in use were the Duos and what a treat this was. As mentioned these speakers are active bass, but somehow this pairing just allowed you to feel more of it – I don’t know why this should be (answers on a postcard please). However, the Baby Reference is a passive design and to get realistic (ok, foundation shaking) volumes out the Silva necessitated turning the volume knob all the way to Thirty One (eat your heart our Marshall). With less sensitive speakers the Music First struggled to feed the Silva enough power and as such this would be a deal breaker for me to buy the Silva on its own.

And here we are sort of getting to the crux of the matter; yes the Silva and the Proemio will work with other preamplifiers and other amplifiers, but to get the best out of each of them (with the limited experience I had in this regard – I also hooked up the Coffman Labs tube pre I have here) you really need to see them as a two box integrated… ok I know that’s nonsensical, but you get my drift.

Conclusion

So, what is there to add to what has already been said? The Proemio preamplifier and Silva amplifier form a spectacularly natural sounding partnership that gives the listener a great experience that has real class and finesse.

With the two Grandinotes you have a stunningly revealing pairing with slam, speed, energy and when needed elegance and grace. They are clearly made to be used together and play to each others’ strengths.

It’s clear that you are listening to components that can compete with some of the best out there in the price range and as such, should you be in the market for new amplification and have the required £14 500, they should certainly be on your audition shortlist.

This is definitely one of the best sounds I’ve heard in the reference system and, had the Silva had more gain and worked more efficiently with the Music First pre it would have been a keeper.

We don’t do a Highly Recommended award, but if we did these would certainly have got it.

Pros:

Natural and revealing

Fast and controlled

Very well built

Cons:

Need reasonably sensitive loudspeakers

Really need to be used together

Long run in period

Price:

Proemio: £6500

Silva: £7995

Stuart Smith

Dan Worth has a listen to the £3000 Chord Hugo TT for Hifi Pig.

Hugo TT is a desktop orientated DAC and headphone amplifier following on from the success of the Hugo DAC/headphone amplifier. The new larger desktop-orientated device offers greater connectivity including two USB-B inputs, XLR and RCA outputs and two quarter inch headphone outputs.

Compared to the more mobile Hugo, the Hugo TT has a larger chassis, remote control, and alphanumeric LED display with input/sample rate data. Hugo TT also boasts a mega 10,000,000 microfarads of supercapacitors.

Hugo TT supports up to 32-bit/384kHz audio via coax and USB, and 24-bit/192kHz over optical, plus DSD64 on all inputs and DSD128 via coax or USB (all via DoP).

In a key upgrade over the original Hugo, the Hugo TT benefits from a high-quality asynchronous B-type USB connection for both the SD and HD USB input. With two further digital inputs, a very nice gold BNC, RCA coaxial and optical allows for input switching of multiple connected devices.

Hugo TT also has A2DP Bluetooth capability and uses a custom-made module with the aptX codec to feed a digital signal directly into the DAC circuitry, so even without cables, music can still be enjoyed.

The Hugo TT retains the same Spartan 6 FPGA as Hugo. It has the same specification and measured performance as its mobile sibling.

Being a home-orientated device, the Hugo TT has been designed to run continuously from the supplied charger, however Chord’s engineers have also improved the battery and added Supercap energy storage, a technology seen in F1 where supercacitors back-up the cars batteries by sharing the load and charge demands, thereby protecting them. They serve a similar purpose in the Hugo TT, extending the battery life.

Inputs

– 1x Optical TOSLink 24-bit/192KHz-capable

– 1x BNC coaxial input 32-bit/384kHz -capable

– 1x HD/SD USB B-type input up to 32-bit/384kHz

Outputs

– 1×3.5mm headphone jack

– 2×6.35mm (1/4-inch) headphone jack

– 1x (pair) stereo RCA phono output

– Fully balanced via XLR connectors

Fit and Finish

Releasing the Hugo TT from its double boxed transit packaging enlightened me to consider the more substantial dimensions and weight over the original Hugo. The unit, although considerably larger and heavier didn’t warrant me to consider it completely non-portable. Of course it’s not something which I could place in my pocket connected to a phone or DAP, but it’s definitely something which can accompany a travelling businessman for use with headphones or active monitors.

The build quality is typical Chord and typically exceptional. The first incarnation of Hugo demonstrated a couple flaws, specifically with regards to socket space, which were soon rectified but due to Hugo TT’s design this is not an issue. A well laid out rear panel with very high quality socket array and the front input selection and power buttons available were neat and tidy, although I am not a fan of the top mounted volume control as the position of the unit on my on desk was under the left edge of my monitor making volume adjustments awkward.

There is a remote to Hugo TT, but it’s not something I wanted on my desk as it would just get knocked around and end up finding a small crevice to fall into during working hours. Any current desktop equipment in my own case has it remote placed in a drawer out of the way, but again if I was a travelling the remote would prove indispensable, especially with small active speakers connected.

I was never fond of the previous Hugo’s volume control knob and I am not of the TT, although it’s functional and I can completely understand why Chord use it to keep the sleek lines and portability of the unit to a high standard – I would have preferred a front fascia offering with simple up and down buttons.

The casework of the unit and the quality of materials and finishing is exemplarily, dressed in black or silver the eye catching modernistic design oozes presence and even prestige.

The Sound

For the integration of Hugo TT in my system I decided to use the device in a purely desktop format. Whilst obviously being a headphone amplifier its XLR outputs allowed me to connect my active Focals which sit on shelves above the main desk.

I use Spotify, Tidal and Amarra Symphony for my personal music collection stored on my NAS drive. Initial setup regarding gain levels took a little tweaking, if the Focals on-board gain was too low increasing Hugo TT’s volume too much caused terrible distortion and without any form of numeric display it’s difficult to know where you are with the product. Using too much gain from Hugo TT will decrease battery life, so finding a balance between the Hugo and the Focals was imperative. I suggest to Chord that they have a volume indicator on the onboard display and also an indicator when the unit is say at 0db gain for a pseudo fixed output – or even have a button to drive the outputs direct rather than variable. A fixed output switch would have been a good idea to utilise the unit as a standalone DAC too.

Once I honed in the gain balance between DAC and active speakers music came through with real stability, clarity and crystal clear highs, that sparkled throughout my listening space. Vocals were utterly poised and held strong presence and position in the soundstage. Lower frequencies were tight and explicit, but never to the detriment of balance and focus, giving punchy articulated bass with plenty of detail, extension and flow. I was never a big fan of the Qute range of DACs, but when I first had the opportunity to review and hear the baby Hugo I was astonished at what Chord had developed and the Hugo TT is an outstanding progression of Hugo technology… which also features in some of their latest digital amplifiers, featuring the intelligent FPGA circuit which very few manufacturers have really been able to implement so competently.

For me Hugo and Hugo TT have an accurate, controlled and poised presentation which is clean and clear, but their specialty is to take all of these attributes and present them with undeniable attention to music, filling each note and frequency with all of its undertones and fullness; something that the Qute range of DACs for me didn’t achieve.

Using Hugo TT as a Headamp

Adding my pair of AT-2000X’s to the Hugo TT I first needed to switch the Focals off as the line outputs do not shut down when headphones are added. I played ‘Kissing’ by Bliss first and was greeted by a soundstage which was very large and filled with harmonics. Notes floated ambiently with focused vocals in a space outside of my head. It’s very rare I’d ever describe a headphone setup in this way, I have heard many high-end rigs and still they never tick that box for me and often I hear people state ‘it sounds like having speakers in front of you’ but my own reality never suggests this. The Hugo TT still doesn’t sound like a pair of speakers at the front of the room, but it has an exquisite range of tones that confidently breach the boundaries of my head giving a soundstage which is vast and wide in a 360 degree manner, with clear definition of spatial awareness, dynamics and pure and concise details.

Another aspect which the Hugo TT really excels on is pace; Nils Lofgren’s complex string work on his acoustic guitar starts and stops with utter precision, inflecting reverbs and acoustical awareness convincingly, while decays have their own ambient effect as another layer to the speedy musicians playfulness. I love how much clarity and control upper mids and the top end has, without ever over stepping the mark and becoming hard. The balance the Hugo TT has from top to bottom is fantastic, it can produce pin point accuracy and also subtleties with sublime interest and also fill out notes for a more realist appeal, conveying more natural presence and appeal.

‘I Can Explain’ by Rachelle Farell is a track I often use during my review process and I urge any potential TT listener to try this piece of music to assess tonality, dynamic control and subtlety of notes. This particular piece of music made me sit up and really accept how exceptional Hugo TT really was. It’s not a busy piece of music, but with Rachelle’s record breaking vocal, the tonality of piano and the natural dynamics displayed by her vocal range and which the TT accurately portrays where many systems struggle to present so pleasingly; I knew immediately that this piece of equipment is something of a marvel.

Chord are renowned for electronics which can produce a beat; Electronica and dance music is always a strong point for their designs and the TT can nail these parameters too. I listened to some Tidal club playlists and various other electronic music and to the flip side of the subtle and rich tones, TT hits notes as low as the human ear can possibly perceive and punches a beat that will have you up and out of your chair with the only moment of reality being when the headphone jack pulls out of the Hugo’s chassis and you double check to make sure nobody saw you looking like a fool!

A real sense of realism is a term I would apply to Hugo TT. I don’t find colouration in the sound per se, but its texture is a bit more sprightly than neutral. It deserves a great set of headphones to be partnered with and I’m sure I’d be able to get further improvements by upgrading to a more expensive pair of headphones, but I do like the ATs and they are a terrific tool for use in reviews being so transparent and articulate.

Conclusion

All in all the intelligent FPGA circuitry used in the Hugo template has been a true revelation to intimate headphone listening and amplifier/speaker combinations fuelled by Chord’s electronics. I admit I was never favourable about the Qute range of DACs, but Chord have struck back hard, not with a product range that simply addresses previous errors and surpasses past DACs but have become true class leading products. Whether the budget can reach for a Hugo TT at £3000 or the original Hugo £1400, rest assured that Hugo will undoubtedly impress! I highly recommend it!

Pros:

Upmost attention to detail and micro details

Filled out balanced, dynamic and natural sound

Exciting yet subtle

Feature rich

Finished with excellence

Cons:

Volume indication and integration could be clearer

Price: £3000

Dan Worth

Submitted for review to Hifi Pig we have this MS HD Power MS-EO2 SS, Star Wired mains block with surge protection and external earth point unit costing £369. Dominic Marsh takes a listen.  

Ever since I have reviewed the Audioplan Power Star and Finefilter mains conditioner for Hifi Pig way back in April 2015, I have been rather disgruntled by the performance of my extant mains conditioner and have been searching for a better unit to replace it with, at a price I could afford, let me add.

CONSTRUCTION

This is a substantially built unit made from aluminum alloy and fitted with 6 UK mains outlets.  Each of the outlet sockets is fully silver plated with high purity, high spring rate Phosphor Bronze socket clips that pass the BS Standard 30,000 times plug in/out test. The internal bus bars are heavy grade (5mm²) copper with silver plating and connecting wires are high purity copper, again with silver plating. The IEC inlet connector is a standard C14 x 10 amp rated type and is also made from copper, and silver plated.  There is no filtration fitted, although there is a surge limiter with resettable circuit breaker, so no fuse wire.  Internal wiring is catered for by a star layout and also an external 4mm banana socket at the opposite end to the inlet IEC offers an earthing point.  The case is finished off with black lacquer and the MS logo is ground through the lacquer to the metal beneath to shine a bright silver and looks attractive.

It has brass conical pointed isolation feet (which tend to slide around on a shiny surface), so I had to virtually corral it into a corner on the bottom shelf of my rack to plug and unplug cables when I couldn’t get two hands to it to keep it firmly still.   The brass feet are threaded into the bottom of the case with what looks to me like M6 threads, so alternative feet could be fitted with a better grip.  On carpet or a less smooth texture it should be fine.

Price at time of testing is £369.00.

SOUND QUALITY

Or rather the lack of a sound quality, as is the case with any mains block, surge protector, or mains filtration unit, they should have no sonic signature or characteristics of their own and impinge on the sound.

The first item I will check for then is any signs of compression, that is sitting on the dynamics and limiting the sound headroom.  My first impression of the MS unit was how open and unfettered it sounded, with not a trace of curtailing or limiting of the sound.  Space around instruments was huge, bass was delivered with great weight and power, while my system’s natural ability to do yards deep imaging was enhanced even more, making it seem deeper still.  Everything sounded just so clear and insightful, with familiar recordings taking on a whole new dimension of appreciation, enjoying what was being heard and resulted in one of my listening sessions extending into the early hours, I was enjoying it so much.

Live albums especially had vibrancy and “aliveness” that really made you feel as though you were sat in the venue maybe four or five rows back from the stage, hearing all of the music clearly and being right in amongst your fellow audience members.   My recent purchase of Fink’s “Wheels Under My Feet” live album recorded in different venues around the world exemplifies that feeling of just being there each time when the tracks were actually recorded.

Despite there being no filtration circuitry built in, it certainly sounded like there was.  Treble definition was noticeably clearer, with ambience especially giving a more detailed and resolved sonic picture.   Separation between instruments was noteworthy, without showing any clashing or crashing into each other during hectic music passages and sound staging too was crisp and pinpoint precise.  I couldn’t hear any squashing or suppressing of dynamics during the review at any time.  If there was any compression effects, then the most obvious symptom is that the bass acquires a boom artefact and loss of control, but no, I give this particular mains block a clean bill of health in that respect.

CONCLUSION

Considering the MS HD Power MS-EO2 SS doesn’t have any filtration circuitry built into it, save for a surge suppressor device, it managed to convince me that it had!  That tells me a lot of thought has gone into the design and build of this component.  The sound was crystal clear without any compression and beyond that I couldn’t level any criticism against it, save its skating propensities in my rack!  I would expect this level of performance from mains conditioners costing considerably more, yet the price at £369.00 is worthy of consideration so I give it my recommendation.  I have one on order no less and that ends my current search for an affordable good sounding 6 way mains block.

Pros:  Superb sound quality at a reasonable price.  Fit and finish is very good.  Surge suppression built in.

Cons: Hard plastic feet makes the unit slide around on a shiny surface.

Price at time of testing: £369.00

Features and specifications

• 100% Compliant with BS-1363 and BS-5733 Safety Standards
• 6 Silver plated Premium Grade Sockets High Spring Rate Phosphor Bronze Sockets Clips Pass the BS Standard 30,000 times plug IN / OUT test
• 5 mm² Power Transmission Bus Bars with 1.0 µm Pure Silver Plating Star Earth Wiring.

Dominic Marsh

The Intimate Audio DS-108 back loaded horn loudspeaker is UK built and uses the four-inch Fostex FE108EZ driver. Ian Ringstead puts these £1595 standmounters through their paces for Hifi Pig. 

Horn speakers have been around a long time and as I said in my recent review of the Ferguson Hill FH-007 they are unique in their sound presentation, but require careful and skillful design.

Duncan Saul, whose idea these speakers are, was encouraged by friends to pursue this design as they felt he really had something special and unique with his idea. I talked at length to Duncan and discovered his musical tastes are very similar to mine with a passion for 70’s prog rock such as Genesis, Yes, Wishbone Ash etc. Now horn design speakers aren’t what some music enthusiasts would choose for rock music, but Duncan liked the concept and as he wanted to produce a speaker he could listen to his favourite music on, then the DS-108 is the end result. 

Horn designs are complex and very varied and can cost a fortune; some will also take your living room over, especially in modern homes, so Duncan set about designing a reasonably compact room friendly model that had good bass output.

CONSTRUCTION

The unusual sandwich construction gives an amazingly strong cabinet structure without the boxiness sound of traditional four walled designs. Each and every pair is CNC cut, built and finished by hand in the UK.

The four-inch Fostex FE108EZ is an amazing driver with great midrange, a sparkling top end and credible acoustic bass. Amazing, considering the small 2.5-inch cone surface. Features include a unique Hyperbolic Paraboloid shell diaphragm, UDR tangential edge damping and ES cone manufactured from banana plant fibre. This all helps to produce a smooth and detailed sound. When I researched it I also discovered they aren’t cheap! The retail on a single driver is about £150 so Duncan hasn’t penny pinched on the parts cost and quality. Also this model has the latest addition of Taket Piezo Super tweeters which add extension and airiness to the sound, Wonderful sound can be heard from a wide range of genres, particularly female vocals, jazz and classic rock. These speakers are extremely valve friendly, perfect when partnered with a good valve amp.

Mounted on a 40 cm stand, this combination will fill a room with perfect imaging and atmospheric sound. Highly recommended is the granite plinth option, enabling the use of almost any stand, whilst retaining the isolation and levelling properties of the Viablue spikes. Duncan supplied a pair of Atacama 40cm stands which were ideal to place the DS-108 on and with the granite plinths worked very well.

I was sent a pair in piano white with a pale grey suede effect finish, but other options are available and bespoke finishes are not a problem if arranged in advance and agreed upon. They are reasonably slim and the drivers are mounted at the top of the cabinet with the ported front slit below running down the centre. The front baffle is finished off with a smart acrylic covering plate and a foam protective grille for the Fostex driver. The Fostex drive unit is very unusual in design and looks but I would recommend caution when handling the speaker and keep prying fingers, whether children or adults, away due to their delicate nature. This is especially true when unboxing them as your fingers could easily destroy the cone if misplaced.

As the Taket Piezo Super tweeters were fitted, connections on the back of the speaker were bi wire with four high quality binding posts and good wired jumper leads for single speaker wiring (I applaud this as so many companies’ penny pinch and put cheap nasty jumper links on their models). I chose to run them single wired as it was more practical, especially when I used a valve amp later.

Duncan had told me he had done a lot of experimenting with the design and trying different drive units. The back-loaded or rear-loaded horn loudspeaker system is like bass-reflex and double bass-reflex speaker types in that the sound radiated from the back of speaker transducer is utilized to enhance the bass response. The difference however is that back-loaded horn (BLH) speaker enclosures make among the most efficient use of the back wave from the speaker driver. The back-loaded horn speaker enclosure operates by developing the bass response using the back wave from the speaker driver and an expanding horn section. The remainder of sound spectrum (mid and high-frequency ranges) is radiated directly from the front wave produced by the speaker driver. Back-loaded horn speaker enclosures are generally amongst the most efficient enclosure systems and respond well to the subtlest components of music signals. For “tighter” sound reproduction, you can reduce the interior volume of the horn speaker cabinet using fill material.

As you can see designing a speaker is not easy and just building a cabinet and sticking a driver or two into it takes a lot of expertise and trial and error. I’ve listened to a lot of speakers over the years and none are perfect, but some manage to be really enjoyable. Once I’d run the D-108’s in after a few days, I settled in to get used to the sound this speaker had to offer. The Fostex driver is surprisingly good for its size and has a reputation for being an excellent full range unit to use especially in horn designs. Fostex have a fine reputation anyway as a professional audio company, so they know a thing or two about sound reproduction. To my ears all horns have sounded coloured and I certainly don’t profess to be an expert on them, it’s just my opinion. The D-108 initially did sound coloured to me, but as I acclimatised to their particular traits I became far more tolerant and grew to like them.

The addition of the Taket piezo super tweeter certainly made for an open airy top end. The bass end was also good given the size of the Fostex driver and went reasonably low in my listening room. Duncan currently has an add on sub woofer under development which matches the D-108 in looks and compliments it well as a stand. Those wanting more bass in a larger room can when the final design has been decided on. Duncan assures me he is pleased with the results so far, so it’ll be interesting to see the difference later this year. As it was I was happy with the bass provided in my room. As I like a lot of prog rock I tried many different albums from that particular genre of music with great results. Bands like Marillion and Genesis from their early years sounded tight and controlled with good clear vocals. A combination of good recordings on my Project Extension 9 being very well reproduced by the Fostex drivers of the D-108 and that super tweeter.

The back loaded horn cabinet design undoubtedly aids the bass output and allows the Fostex driver to work to it’s true merits of mid range clarity and sparkling sound. 

CONCLUSION 

As I said earlier it took me awhile to get used to the sound of the D-108, but once I had acclimatised I enjoyed what I heard. My review pair were in white with matching white granite bases (black is available as well). I personally liked the look of them and in a different colour scheme so might have my wife and friends. They certainly drew criticism aesthetically and most people didn’t like the style, but as I have said so many times before everyone is different and hifi designs have always polarised people’s opinions on looks and design. As the listener make your own decision.

Duncan and his team have come up with a very interesting design that I applaud them for and trusting their instincts, being brave enough to go with something different. When you see them in the flesh you appreciate the work that has gone into them and the parts costs are not cheap. Quality I am sure was uppermost in Duncan’s thoughts when designing these speakers. Go on the website when it is up and running to explore them more. I have seen pictures of the matching sub’s/stands and they complement the styling very well.

Pros: 

Very clear sound with good bass extension and a lovely mid-range that works well will all types of music 

Well made with high parts quality 

Bespoke finishes available 

Cons: 

The looks will divide opinions, but make your own mind up (I personally liked them)

Price: £1595.00

Options:

1. ST Pizeo-Electric Taket Supertweeter – £150
2. Viablue or Soundcare Super Spikes – £50
3. Granite Plinth x 2- £50.00
4. Acrylic Front protection panel and removable grill – £150

Specifications

 Ian Ringstead

Soundcare Superapikes, coming in at around £35-£40 for a set of four have been a long time staple of the audiophile world. Dan Worth screws some into his speakers’ outriggers and tells us what he thought of this inexpensive tweak. 

The Norwegian company Soundcare has been around for many years now and well known in the Hifi community for their Superspikes. They are a spiked footer with or without threaded rods for isolating equiptment racks, speakers and equipment alike. Their design incorporates a spike with an encapsulated base which allows for surface protection and the added ability to protect hard surfaces, for instance when repositioning speakers or the main rack.

The exact product for review here is the M8 threaded version which I have attached to my Ayon Seagull Ceramic loudspeakers’ outriggers, which are seated on a very thick slab of granite which in turn sits on two layers of floating wooden floor and a concrete base floor.

The spikes do come as an option with M8 threaded inserts to fit into the base of loudspeakers if they do not already have the inserts available, but in my case my outriggers do so I had no need of the inserts. Also included are self adhesive felt pads to add to the bottom of the spiked enclosure for added manoeuvrability and protection.

The Sound 

After installing, leveling and tightening the nuts to hold height position with the included wrench I went straight for my favourite music which I know inside out.

Playing Fink’s ‘Trouble’ from the ‘Wheels Turn Beneath Me’ album greeted my listening experience with additional spatial awareness and clarity throughout the entire frequency range. The bassline on my speakers is already very controlled, but with the addition of the Superspikes it lifted from the floor to reveal more layers of detail and gave perceived overall height increase to the entire soundstage, unravelling what was a more condensed sound into a freer and more open musical picture.

I worked my way through this entire album with joy. The top end had more clarity and sparkle to it in a slightly sweeter way which was unexpected from the all ceramic drivers and accuracy gained a more definitive musicality and timing giving a soundstage that gained more depth as the layers were freed. The overall picture of the music retained my systems tonality and scope but it had a bit more pizzazz and razzle dazzle.

My excitement grew as I analysed the vocals which were already projecting effortlessly with great tone throughout the upper mid range and deep into the midrange. Joss Stones ‘I Put A Spell On You’ accompanied by Jeff Beck brought more timbre to her vocal and relieved me of a little shine which I had previously had with many other footers I had tried on my loudspeakers. Installing the Superapikes gave me the ability to really give the Ayons a truly solid stance. The rocking backwards and forwards test left the speakers absolutely level and without any ability to resonate negatively with poor ground interaction. I believe this solidity, which has never seemed firmer, has really enhanced the quality of sound and allowed the cabinets to behave as the designer envisioned.

Soundstage width as well as height had a perceivable increase in size although closer inspection revealed that the added air and space around instruments allowed for harmonics to become freer and the overall openness although on first look was greater. The general lack of distorted areas in the sound was truly key to the overall ability to retain a lot better timing and correction of the image.

I could delve deeply into many types of music from many artists, but all material had the increased attributes of the aforementioned qualities. I will touch on acoustic guitar slightly.

Newton Faulkner, Jeff Beck, Nils Lofgren and Derrin Nuendorf to name a few artists who give me huge enjoyment have a very dynamic way of playing strings. The purity of the strummed strings was more immaculate and pure in its presence, once again decaying harmonics in each acoustic setting was marvelous. Each new note overplayed the previous’ decay, layered and untangled, which in turn culminated in more speed and accuracy to the sound and releasing more natural timbre into the presentation. 

CONCLUSION

The Soundcare Superspikes are a real triumph in design for protecting hard surfaces and increase the overall sonic ability of any well constructed system. I often take time out between reviews to work on my system, whether it’s significant box changes or small tweaks and the Superspikes are a tweak I now will not be without on my speakers.

They enhance the space around instruments and vocals by removing distortions and allow for a freer, more natural and believable soundstage which gives more excitement to material, whether a slow emotional piece of jazz or acoustic music, or give the ability to separate busier tracks in order to release the congestion of details they get my sincere seal of approval.

Pros:

Price/performance

Protection for hard surfaces

Sonic characteristics allow for more space, clarity and better timing 

Cons:

Absolutely none 

Price at time of review: Varies between £35-£40 per set of four 

Dan Worth

There are classic loudspeakers and there are classic loudspeakers. Janine Elliot takes a listen to the Chartwell LS3/5 Loudspeakers by Graham Audio costing between £1650 and £1800. The creation of a classic? 

Mention BBC LS3/5a’s and my eyes light up. As a child I got excited every time I saw these or other speakers that used the infamous Kef B110 and T27 drivers, the numbers based on the size of the bass and treble drivers in millimetres.  Whilst I eventually worked at the BBC itself and even bought the iconic late 70’s Meridian M2 powered speakers based on two B110’s and aT27, I still always wanted to buy my own LS3/5a. When Jim Rogers set up company at the top of my road in St. Albans for his JR149 rounded versions of the LS3/5a’s I almost bought a pair though, even as a teenager, could hear it wasn’t as good as “the real thing”, so didn’t. A shame, as its clever bracing and near cylindrical shape gave it apparent enormous advantages over traditional rectangular boxes. To fill the gap I bought the well-respected, cheaper and smaller Videoton Minimax, and it was many years later that I finally got to buy a pair of original Rogers 11ohm and more importantly the 15 Ohm Chartwell’s, often argued as the very best of the various companies producing them under licence from the BBC. It was the extended bass that particularly set this speaker on a (loudspeaker) pedestal. Now, for the first time in 38 years, the name Chartwell has been reborn in this new Graham Audio LS3/5, at £1650 for Cherry and £1800 for Rosewood, modelled on the very the first version of the great speaker before the “a” was added. This is the holy trinity, Graham Audio having already brought out the bigger LS5/9 (reviewed last year) and then the very large LS5/8.

History

Now, to understand this speaker, we really need to go back in time. The story begins where studio managers at the BBC listened to music and speech. From the date I joined the Corporation in 1983 I was treated daily to BC1’s, LS3/5a’s, LS3/6, LS5/2, LS5/5’s, LS5/8’s and many numbers in between. The LS5* full frequency series of speakers were the largest and designed for far-field, large studio and particularly for music. The LS3’s were for OB (outside broadcast) situations such as in mobile van where headphones (in those days horrible Bakelite BT type phones) were impractical, but were also common for speech recording or office editing and recording areas where space was very tight and therefore “near-field” monitors needed. Just to confuse you, the LS5/12a, was the last near-field OB BBC speaker – the size of an LS3/5a. This was intended to be a monitor speaker just like all the other 5’s with surprisingly good bass and treble extension, and whilst it has been successfully reborn by Harbeth, it never quite made it as a competitor to the 3/5a musically, sounding a bit “disjointed” and painful at times. More importantly, and regrettably it was the last ever BBC-funded design before they axed the department and many of the brains. Sad days, and having already closed the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (the reason I really wanted to work at Aunty), that unforgiving mutilation of what had made the Corporation so great, was party to my decision to leave with 5000 other professionals in 2007. Sensibly or sadly, great BBC engineers have left to set up PMC, Trilogy, Leema Acoustics and numerous others, and of course long before that to set up Spendor  (SPENcer Hughes and wife DORothy), Harbeth (Dudley HARwood and wife ElizaBETH), etc. For this review, the important names for the LS3/5 were BBC Research Department headed by H D (Dudley) Harwood and Spencer Hughes, and a team of T Sommerville and D E Shorter, those for LS3/5a were Harwood and Hughes again with Maurice Whatton and R W Mills from the Design’s department, and finally the name very much associated with this new Graham Audio speaker up for review here is Derek Hughes, whose dad was of course Spencer Hughes.

The original LS3/5, of which there were only 20 or 21 pairs produced, began their design process at the BBC from 1968 and utilised the iconic Kef B110/T27 combination that had been available since 1966. At this time the BBC were looking at studio designs working at 1/8^th scale modelling and included designing speakers that could climb to 100kHz, managing to create a pair of 110mm Bextrene bass cones that could get as high as 15kHz, then adding a large number of 25mm diameter electrostatic transducers in an omnidirectional array looking like a disco mirror ball to fill the rest of the frequencies. To get those high frequencies for the test they used specially built condenser microphones and adapted tape recorders running at 750mm/sec (30ips – which is 8 times 3¾ ips) creating top-end frequency response of, wait for it, 105kHz! Mathematically dividing the target 400-105,000Hz by 8 comes out at the important broadcasting frequencies of 50-13,125Hz.  During tests the findings were assembled to not only help in the designing of studios, such as Maida Vale 1, but also to create the very first LS3/5 built to pick up the important frequencies from 400Hz to 15,000Hz, though their final design actually managed  better than 100Hz, something unthinkable at that time for such a small box. Early photos show the original LS3/5 design with the tweeter below the woofer; something particularly taken up by Mission many years later. Interestingly I actually prefer my own Chartwells that way round, largely to get the tweeters at the correct height! Whether they were actually intended to be that way round is speculative, with many “in the know” saying that this theory is a white elephant.  There are even photos showing a small hole that has been filled in, suggesting quite a different ported design concept turned down in favour of the more “controllable” infinite baffle. The original was 9 ohm, though a Rogers advertisement in the 1970’s suggested it was 8ohm and again showing the tweeter below the woofer. It also had a ‘routed edged’ wood cabinet making it look much thinner than 12mm as specified. This was probably a pre-production flier, so just how accurate it is, is for another discussion.

When even more LS3/5’s were needed by the Corporation the Engineering division at Kingswood Warren in Surrey discovered that the B110 and T27 drivers had since been modified by KEF. The BBC Engineering department was therefore left to redesign the speaker to get back to the original specification, a design noted with its slight hump at around 1.5-2kHz, despite the Bextrene cone coated with a damping compound to minimise colourations. This wasn’t easy; the Mk2 B110 bass unit needed to be decoupled from the baffle as it was now interacting with it, changing the frequency response characteristics. Similarly the T27 tweeter gave a more coloured sound. To control these the familiar rectangular felt pad around the tweeter was added to “focus” the sound and stop secondary waves reflected by the cabinet, since the T27 radiating surface is small and the radiator itself nearly Omni-directional. Also, it was suggested that the infamous front Tygan cover grille should remain on in playback, and in contact with the felt pads around the tweeter. The 12mm birch plywood cabinet walls were braced, Bostik sound deadening panels and foam and deadening pads all added to make the “box” acoustically inert, unlike most speakers before that.

As well as the later batches of B110/T27 drivers being different to the first lot, there were also a lot of discrepancies between each individual tweeter, meaning that the crossover had to be designed in such a way that if a tweeter needed to be replaced, the BBC engineers could do adjustments to ensure it matched another speaker. Therefore the original design used an autotransformer inductor at L3 with different tappings, so the engineer could set it to the appropriate connection to get the sound just right. The later 11 ohm version had no less than 26 elements in the crossover, doing away with the transformer-type inductors. It is estimated that the design of the LS3/5 and then the LS3/5a cost for the BBC around £100,000, which in 2016 would equate to almost £2M, enough to really annoy many licence fee payers. Unfortunately.

To allow conveyer-belt access to their little speaker when needed the BBC allowed the LS3/5a’s to be produced by a number of UK manufacturers. This initially included four major suppliers; firstly Rogers, then Watford’s KJ Leisuresound owned’ Audiomaster, Chartwell, and KEF. Then Goodmans, Spendor and others that included Harbeth. Apparently also JPW and RAM had licences, the latter producing perhaps a hundred before being taken over by Goodmans. Whilst most LS3/5a’s were produced by Rogers and Spendor it is generally considered that the 15ohm Chartwell are the very best, though the infamous June 2001 HiFi News listening test headed by ex HiFi News colleague Ken Kessler and also Paul Whatton (son of Maurice) put Harbeth 11ohm versions slightly ahead, though still not as good as the original 001/002 LS3/5a lent to them for the shootout. When Chartwell went into receivership in 1978 before the 11 ohm versions of the icon were manufactured, their cabinet maker sold approximately 100 pairs of the plywood cabinets to Linn which were used to make the first batch of Kans. 

Spencer Hughes, Derek’s father, had designed the Bextrene cone at the BBC, as was used in the LS3/6, otherwise known as the Spendor BC1 (Bextrene Cone 1). When Dudley Harwood left the BBC in 1977 to start Harbeth, he took with him the discovery and patent for the application of polypropylene driver. Modern day LS3/5a’s such as from Harbeth and from Sterling Audio use polypropylene. The original B110, designed (as was the T27) by Malcolm Jones, was made from Bextrene and he left KEF to start Falcon Acoustics (and Nightingale Acoustics) where the company continued manufacture of identically constructed B110’s and T27’s, designed all the crossovers for LS3/5a’s, and even make their own 15ohm LS3/5a’s – which I have to say look exactly like the original LS3/5a specification as published in 1976, though having the 25% thinner wall 9mm birch plywood cabinets.

Derek Hughes took over from his dad at Spendor, producing the S3/5, a great little monitor in its own right. When the company was taken over again he left to work with Alan Shaw who took over at Harbeth in 1987, and then helping Doug Stirling with their LS3/5A V2 (the “V2” to show that, whilst offering the same sound as the KEFs, it has drivers made by SEAS and Scan Speak). Now he is behind the Graham Audio LS3/5, the only version of the very first speaker.

My not so brief history circle is very important in this review, and left me with lots of questions about driver materials, inverting drivers and why the baffle of the new Chartwell hasn’t been made to look like the original apart from positions of the screws. Luckily, the weeks I had to listen gave me lots of excitement and it all started to make sense. Ultimately the sound would be the most important argument here. Like the Stirling model, Graham Audio don’t bother with the glued rear panel, rather using screwed-on front and rear panels with differing processes of keeping it all rigid and damped.  Unlike the LS3/5a, this new model is designed (as with the original 3/5) to be used with the grille off, looking as smart as any 21^st century mini monitors. This speaker would be wrong with the ‘a’ version’s rectangular felt in place, and matt black painted baffle as with most 70’s and 80’s speakers would look dated.

When I initially compared the new with the old, I found my aged Chartwells to have a much brighter top, and less impressive bass (even though it was actually pretty good anyway!). At that point I realised of course the LS3/5a should have its grille on, which immediately focused the sound and reduced that top-end shout. After correcting, the similarity between the two started to come into place. Whilst my aged speaker was more efficient (despite being the higher impedance) the sound from the new icon was definitely as I remember the BBC speaker during those late evenings of editing for Radio 3 and 4. That peak at around 1.5kHz was just as I remembered it. Only the bass on the Graham Audio model was further extended, which was as much a shock for me as the original speaker would have been for those back in the 1970’s.

Graham Audio didn’t need nor want to make another version of the LS3/5a, like other companies mentioned above. They wanted to go back to the model that started it all over, and create the master. Even the use of Bextrene was chosen for the bass/mid, as Derek told me, because “We felt that to use Bextrene was more authentic”. And, as well as this driver looking like the original, the sound was particularly representative of the bass-mid I knew so well. Wanting to go back to the very original speaker this meant there was also no need to try bi-wiring terminals – something which only appeared in the very last of the original LS3/5a’s.  What was needed was a perfectly original LS3/5 sound, and Derek is perhaps the very best person to help create this. Only the word “Chartwell” looked slightly different on my home speaker with a weird italic “w”, though this was not seen in any adverts in hifi magazines in 1977-78.  Whilst Derek and the team at Graham Audio are very pleased with the end result, after immense listening from me, the conclusion from me was also in the affirmative.

SOUND

Initial listening was through my Quad 303/33 duo, which itself dates back to 1967, fitting quite appropriately with the beginnings of the LS3/5. The pairing made for a surprisingly musical performance, especially warm bass and mid, if a little tame. Bass end was surprisingly strong for the diminutive size, though top wasn’t quite as clear. Only when changing for the 25W Class A Proprius monoblocks from Graham Slee, himself with a BBC background and also designing the Audionics mixing desks at Bush House, did the sound really open up and I could hear just how good these speakers were.  The authoritative rhythmical bass toms that open up proceedings in ‘The Big Band Spectacular’ with the Syd Lawrence Orchestra (produced by Mike Valentine, Chasing the Dragon) showed just how much these little speakers want to make a big sound, plus the higher brass shouts that follow, just in case the toms hadn’t already got your attention, show that these are all-round speakers. Overall bass, mids and tops were all clear, detailed and enjoyable. Only the sound pressure level limited these from being powerful enough to grab my attention as much as some larger speakers will be able to do, and certainly not as good as the real thing in Air Studios, London, where it was recorded. The focused attacks at the beginning of “Begin the Beguine” were exceptionally vivid, showing just how good this speaker was for the BBC vans, offices, and smaller studios and why I feel infinite baffle speakers should today make a come-back.

Depth of soundstage was particularly enjoyable front and back as well as left and right. Having stood in the live area at Air Studios for their new album (out soon) I could tell there was a lack at the very highest frequencies, but if you want bite, tension, and a speaker that will tire you out, this isn’t it. BBC speakers were designed to be accurate, but also so that you could listen to them for many hours without going off-sick the next day with a headache. I didn’t want to stop listening. As a child hearing my father playing Glenn Miller I was carted off back 40 years, and didn’t want to end my dream.  The fun in “In the Mood” just made me smile. Each soloist, especially the saxophones that made Glen Miller sound so unique and the piano, too, was detailed and very authentic, and I never once felt that the lack of bass below 60Hz a problem. Indeed the pounding bass at 2’35” of “The Hunt of Baba-Yaga”, Pictures at an Exhibition, Mussorsky, would put to shame many speakers at double the size. Turning to jazz, “Walking on the Moon”, The Yuri Honing Trio, had power and detail that allowed each instrument to breathe amid the furore. Only in Wynton Marsalis epic New Orleans Bump did I feel the need to partner up the bigger brother, LS5/9, though this was still a good performance.

Turning to Pink Floyd Endless River “Anisina” the clarity from cymbals and guitars, strings, vocals, digital sax and synths, et al, were refreshingly clear in the mix with the drum skins adding enough grunt and power to make this a diminutive monitor of epic proportions. Even the thunder at the end had enough grunt to be believable. I was back at the BBC, back in the van, the cupboard and the small studio. Even heavy rock and synth managed with a relatively stiff (British) upper lip. If I had to criticise it at all it would actually be in the top end rather than the bass, finding it not giving as much detail as some modern day here-today-gone-tomorrow monitors. I might possibly have heard an original LS3/5 in my early days at the BBC, though my experience is with the LS3/5a, and this speaker brought back those memories. What Graham Audio has done is recreate the original master but at a much smaller cost than the BBC spent in making the replacement. No one really knows where all those original 3/5’s ended up. I can only assume the BBC threw them out or they ‘disappeared’.

Back at Aunty, it was important that soundstage and sound level didn’t ‘jump’ in music edits or mixes, and the BBC speaker was ideal for this, showing every nook and cranny but in a warm and musical way. Top frequencies were not quite so “shouty” as my ancient thoroughbred, but much of that is due to age related changes in the drivers and crossover, and also perhaps just that the ‘a’ didn’t get as good as the original. The thing about the LS3/5a was its modesty and musicality, despite that infamous “hump” at around 1kHz- 1.5kHz, which made listening to speech so good. In terms of overall musicality and balance of sound the Graham Audio goes even better, and all the better when considering the price of £1,650.

CONCLUSION

Graham Audio didn’t need to make an LS3/5a. They wanted to create the sound that began it all, and succeed they certainly have. What Graham Audio have done is join two of Hifi’s iconic names in one great product, recreating the LS3/5 and bringing back that star name Chartwell. If you want warmth, musicality and detail of soundstage, and don’t mind missing out on lowest bass, then I really do suggest you take a listen. And what is so important to stress here is that you also get both detail of sound and long-listenability, which are rarely combined in a single speaker, especially one so small.

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality:  Good looks and wood quality, well built.

Sound Quality:  At least as good as the second generation LS3/5a. Compared with my Chartwells these have an extended bass which is hard to imagine for the size of the speaker, just as those in the 1970’s would have been amazed.

Value For Money:  With a price of £1,650 this is a very small price to pay for a big sound and a part of hifi history. 

Pros:

Immense musicality
Exceptional bass for the size
Detail that doesn’t tire you out
Detailed soundstage

Cons:

This is trying to match the original 3/5, so if you expect 30-38,000Hz you should be looking elsewhere
Input limited to 50Watts

Price:

£1650 for cherry and £1800 for Rosewood

Janine Elliot

Specifications

The ATC SCM19A active loudspeakers have onboard amps and active crossovers more often seen in pro audio, but these £4990/pair speakers are designed most specifically for the home environment. Dan Worth plugs them in and assesses their merits. 

The Acoustic Transducer Company, ATC for short, is one of a handful of pro-audio companies to have crossed over successfully into the Hifi arena, winning many fans in the process. Its latest product, the SCM19A, introduced to me by ATC’s Technical Sales Manager Ben Lilly at the Bristol Show in February, is here for review today.

Imagine a passive SCM19 monitor with the footprint of the SCM40 floor standing system, complete with onboard bi-amplification rated at 182W: 150W for the low frequency/midrange Super Linear (SL) driver, and 32W for ATC’s wonderful SH25-76 tweeter, which, if you’ve read any of our previous ATC reviews, is a revelation for the brand.

Be prepared for a double trolley ride from store to car or delivery truck to listening room. The boxes that protect the 19As are large for what essentially is a 19 litre speaker. There must be at least six inches of packaging around the cabinets and a huge chunk of shock-resistant foam top and bottom. Remove the outer and inner boxes and the protective packaging and a more modest floorstander is revealed, having cabinet dimensions of (HxWxD): 980x370x344mm (spikes add 25mm to height, grill adds 34mm). Weighing in at just over 30kgs they are easily manageable when unpacked.

Also worth noting is that, according to ATC, the 19A’s magnetically-fixed grills have virtually zero effect on overall sound performance. My own reference loudspeakers have fixed metal grills that similarly have no obvious effect on sound reproduction – a feature which is very important to me and I’m sure many others. Cloth grills collect dust, fade in sunlight, are a constant attraction to little paws, and their flexibility can lead to driver damage. A metal grill, especially one that can enhance design elegance such as the 19As, means there’s one less thing to worry about in our busy domestic environments.

The 19A review samples are finished in ATC’s trademark cherry veneer finish but there’s also a black ash alternative. At the bottom of the speaker is a black fixed plinth, which requires the installation of an underside outrigger board with a simple two allen-screw fitting. Also supplied are M8 spikes. I opted to use Soundcare Superspikes in order to protect my granite surface and I like what they do.

ACTIVE DESIGN

Here’s what ATC has to say about the electronics: ‘the 19A’s proprietary two-way on-board amp pack design has been revised to reduce noise and distortion (a further -10dB @ 10kHz), while achieving a lower operating temperature for improved reliability. The design includes protection circuits for both DC offset and thermal overload.  Mid frequency THD is vanishingly low at 93dB/0.002%, and a very wide bandwidth of 200 kHz ensures the accurate reproduction of musical transients. ATC’s Grounded Source output stage modules are fed by a newly developed two-way active crossover section featuring 2nd order modified Butterworth circuitry with phase compensation for each crossover point. The advantage of active crossovers is that their response remains unaffected by variable voice coil impedance, while the use of phase compensation enables phase coherency at the crossover points, improving the 19A’s tonal balance and enhancing imaging for a pin-point stereo field. As usual system input is via balanced XLR.’

Being an active speaker the crossover is placed before the amps rather than after, allowing the amplifiers to work accurately within the frequency response designated by the design team and making for a more efficient drive of the transducers with lower distortion levels. Even though the 19A is a floor-standing system, the acoustic design remains the same as the passive 19, retaining the 2.5kHz crossover point from mid/bass driver to tweeter and the frequency range of 54Hz to 22kHz.

USING A PRO/HIFI CROSSOVER SYSTEM 

Although gear with a pro heritage has not always had the greatest following in Hifi, it’s been proven again and again that a product which achieves this balancing act can bring extraordinary results. For this review I’ve put together a system which could live in either world and is also very minimalistic and family friendly.

As a source I’m using a Mac Mini, with the ability to play music from iTunes, stream from local devices such as network attached storage, tablets and smartphones. The Mac is connected to a Mytek Brooklyn DAC which has a similar footprint to the Mac Mini and all cabling has been graciously provided by Studio Connections. This system would be as much at home in a small studio as in any domestic living space.

THE SOUND

The system as a whole works incredibly well. It has great connectivity through the Mac’s wireless abilities and the Brooklyn’s vast array of inputs and outputs, and it produces music with fantastic insight and clarity. This set-up is a little out of the ordinary for typical Hifi at home but has inspired me to explore other similarly cost effective system ideas. The DAC and cables will be the subject of future reviews; now however it’s ATC’s time in the limelight.

After screwing in the spikes and getting the 19As upright I noticed four posts on the corners of the rear-mounted amp-pack standing about 15mm proud of the cooling fins to protect the metalwork and the XLR and IEC connections for signal and power.

I positioned the speakers in my room as I would any other speaker of similar size and scale. When playing the first track by CeCe Winans I was treated to a wide soundstage which instantly brought back fond memories of the imaging and timing of the stand-mount 19s. Through the 19As Cece’s vocal conveyed more of the emotional essence of her performance, drawing me closer to it. The combination of ATC’s amplifier and speaker technology is simply a match made in heaven, instantly producing better depth and acoustics than I remember being able to achieve through the passive crossovers of the standard 19s. Damien Rice’s vocals on the ‘O’ album also delivered terrific emotion together with strong venue reverb and spaciousness that lent the whole performance more realism overall, allowing the in-room sweet spot to generate an authentic space around each piece of music. I’m a huge fan of a systems ability of pull off transparency, accuracy and imaging combined to recreate the performance and not just the music. The 19As dishes out this reward in spades.

I first heard these speakers during a visit to the ATC PR man’s studio. We’d arranged to listen to his 100ATs, and although 19As were missing the bandwidth and scale of the larger siblings, I was instantly impressed by how big a space they could manage to fill while retaining focus and strong energy in the room. My listening space is a smaller domestic living room and I listen in a nearer-field scenario, but their audio character remained true to my earlier impressions and gave me a consistency of spread and dynamics which I am used to from my higher-ticket reference system, albeit with slightly less bass extension.

Tonally the ATCs express a sonic capability which is clean, lively and insightful without hardness or brightness. MP3 music will have the speakers showing grain in the top end, but play anything of reasonable recording quality and the top end is expressive and airy with good treble density and inner detail.

Provided it’s been recorded by a semi competent individual, live music from Tidal through the Mac for instance will present the listener with a recreation of the venue in their listening space. I am not a huge fan of Candy Dulfer, but her live version of ‘Nikki’s Dream’ in Amsterdam is an absolute favourite of mine. Crowd interaction and applause is delivered through the 19As with spatial accuracy and her saxophone just simply swings around centre stage rather than holding one fixed point. This is not a busy piece of music but it’s very much about the tone and timbre of the sax and electric guitar, which serenades Candy half way through. Being able to image securely and retain individual focus points is an ATC performance virtue, and the active version of the 19s adds even more insight and transparency over the sound of pricey amplification driving the stand-mount passive model. It goes to show that after a strong design, amp and driver synergy is king.

With a 54Hz roll off (-6dB) it’s surprising how much air these closed boxes move. In-room response feels deeper and although the bottom octave doesn’t have as much welly as a larger speaker might have, the 19As can still dig down deep when required. For instance, through the 19As ‘Blanket’ by Urban Species can deliver real room rolling bass coupled with a dynamic thump to the body, leaving an impression and appreciation of deep bass response.

Newton Fulkner’s cover of Maroon 5’s ‘Payphone’ from his ‘Live in London’ performance was simply stunning. Newton and his guitar did something for me I didn’t think I’d feel with these ATCs. Their ultra-transparent midrange imparts a subtle fluidity to the vocal and even the softest guitar notes sound slightly liquid on the leading edges whilst retaining speed and authenticity.

All home-orientated stand-mount passive ATCs have good punch with a spritely nature, but the addition of what is effectively a veneer-lined floor stand to passive 19 cabinet adds a good deal of solidity to the lower most frequencies with beat-driven Dance and Electronica music. Of course this may be the active crossover of amp and drivers working its magic again, but I also think that the rigidity of the extended cabinet contributes to a sense of greater confidence and composure.  If I owned a pair of standard 19s with the best matched stand I could test this idea objectively, but I have a pretty good memory for sound and it hasn’t failed me yet – I think…

Hooking the ATCs up to a computer and DAC of lesser quality immediately showed in their performance, so I’d suggest treating the 19As with some good source electronics in order to bring out their awesome abilities. There is more potential for even greater performance from the 19As, but whatever front end is used, the core system is already ready and waiting to spring into action. 

CONCLUSION

I believe that this system demonstrates that there are huge opportunities in mixing products from a range of manufacturers beyond the traditional Hifi brands. The sound I obtained from the Mytek/Studio Connections/ATC combination is transparent and accurate, non-fatiguing or over analytical, truthful and honest: a very engaging listen that would give some of our most highly regarded Hifi only systems some serious competition.

I am accustomed to ATC’s abilities, but listening to the transformation of a speaker from a passive stand-mount design to an active version has been truly informative. Although ATC has removed the choice of amplifier and stand away from the listener in the 19As, they have also solved the problem of finding the ideal combination of driver/amp/stand with an outcome that always delivers music which is exciting and engaging.

If you’re looking for a no brainer approach to high fidelity sound at a reasonable cost with great looks and build quality, and one that lowers the box count I’d strongly recommend a demo of the SCM19As. Any reasonably sized domestic space will be confidently filled by their ability to offer a bigger and finer performance than their size would suggest. ATC has a range of speakers that in my experience steps-up in audio scale but retains its revealing character. In short, and as demonstrated by the 19AT, it’s simply honest and insightful.

AT A GLANCE 

Sound Quality: very engaging, exciting and honest 

Build Quality: strong solid build, nice veneer and amp pack integration 

Value For Money: in the grand scheme of finding a great sonic match  amplifier and stands, ATC take away the burden of wasting money and time with the designs synergy 

Pros: 

Honest and insightful sound

Incredibly transparent midrange

Confident stable soundstage

Lovely design and finish 

Cons: 

Low quality recordings are exposed 

Price: 

£4990/pair 

Dan Worth

Specifications 

Drivers: HF ATC 25mm dual suspension Tweeter, Mid/LF ATC 150mm SL
Matched Response: +/- 0.5dB
Frequency Response (-6dB): 54Hz-22kHz
Dispersion: ±80° Coherent Horizontal, ±10° Coherent Vertical
Max SPL: 108dB
Crossover Frequency: 2.5kHz
Connectors: Male XLR
Input sensitivity: 1V
Filters: 2nd Order critically damped with phase compensation
Overload Protection: Active FET momentary gain reduction
Fault Protection: DC fault protection and thermal trip. Fault indication on rear panel mounted LED
Amplifier Output: 150W LF, 32W HF
Cabinet Dimensions (HxWxD): 980x370x344mm (spikes add 25mm to height, grill adds 34mm to depth)
Weight: 31kg

Previous ATC Reviews

ATC SCM7 Loudspeakers

ATC SCM19 Loudspeaker

ATC SCM 11 Loudspeakers

The £3785 Naim Superuniti is an all in one box streamer, DAC and amplifier, but is it a Jack of all trades and master of none? John Scott finds out for Hifi Pig. 

After thoroughly enjoying Naim’s all-in-one Mu-So player at the end of last year, I thought it would be a good idea to try out their Superuniti streamer/DAC/amplifier combo.  The Mu-So is a great piece of kit but it’s not quite a replacement for a “proper” hifi setup.  The Superuniti, however, does set out to provide a high quality system in one box – just add your own speakers. I had heard the Superuniti doing its stuff in a couple of shop demos in the past and had been pretty impressed and so I was keen to put it through its paces at home.

UNBOXING AND APPEARANCE

The Superuniti arrived well protected in a large Naim branded box.  As a previous owner of a Naim 250 power amp, I was unsurprised at the weight of the box but I was grateful that I did not have to carry it far before laying it gently on my living room floor.  Accompanying the Superuniti inside the box were a power cable, wifi and Bluetooth aerials, a comprehensive instruction booklet and a remote control.

If I was asked to sum up the appearance of the Superuniti in three words, those words would be: solid, understated and classy.  It is available in a Henry Ford choice of colours – any colour you like as long as it is black – and that is just as it should be.

The Superuniti weighs in at 12.8kg.  Its front panel is reasonably minimalistic; the left hand side features a large, smooth volume control, mini toslink and USB inputs and a headphone output.  The centre of the panel contains a Naim logo which glows green when the unit is powered up and functions as a mute button when pressed.  Immediately to the right of this is a small multi-function display, featuring green text and this is flanked by an arrangement of 9 backlit – guess which colour –  buttons that control input and a host of other functions. While the display panel and the buttons provide flexibility in allowing the user to control the Superuniti from the front panel, as well as from the remote control and an iOS app, I personally never found the need to use them and arguably the Superuniti could be made to look even more classy if they were omitted.

The back panel is where all the action is with more inputs and outputs than you can shake a stick at.  These are listed in the specifications below so I won’t go into great detail here but they include S/PDIF, RCA, and toslink.  HDMI is not catered for, however.  Other outputs include a preamp out so that the Superuniti can be used with a separate power amplifier and a subwoofer out.  Aerial connections for FM and DAB radio are also provided. Surprisingly, there is no phono input.

The supplied remote control is Naim branded and clearly designed to be specifically used with the Superuniti.  It is intuitive to use but, for me, was rendered redundant by the iOS app.  As this is the same app that controls the Mu-So, I was already familiar with it but first-timers will get to grips with it quickly, and it will soon become your default means of controlling the Superuniti.

If you have read my Mu-So review you will know that it was a piece of cake to set up.  Unbelievably, the Superuniti was even easier.  All I had to do was connect my speakers, plug in the Ethernet cable and the power cable, switch it on and use the app to select the UPnP input and we were off and running.

THE SOUND

Before I really get into how the Superuniti sounds, indulge me, if you will, while I get all philosophical for a second or two.  It is a well established truism that hifi equipment needs some time to run in before it sounds at its best – indeed the instruction manual that accompanies the Superuniti states that this is the case. When the Superuniti arrived I was informed by Naim that this particular unit had been run in and aside from a short period of settling in should be good to go.   So, I left it switched on for a day and when I did listen to it, it sounded horrible. There was an unpleasant stridency in vocals and the soundstage seemed non-existent.  I retired to bed with a headache and exactly the same thing happened the next night.  This was worrying and was completely at odds with the sound I had experienced on the other occasions that I had heard the Superuniti do its stuff.   What I need to point out now though is that at this particular point in time I had just recently recovered from a bad bout of man-flu and although I was feeling to all intents and purposes okay, I did have to wonder whether the fault lay with the Superuniti or with me.  I had certainly been feeling run down but did I now need to be run in as well? After all, if hifi products are extremely complex then hifi reviewers – and  other normal humans – are infinitely more so. I’m glad to say that within the week the Naim or I – perhaps a bit of both – had got back “on song” and the Superuniti was sounding much more like I had expected it to.  So the next time your hifi isn’t thrilling you the way it usually does, stop and think for a while: is it maybe you that needs a bit of a tweak?

PRAT is a term that is often used in relation to Naim equipment – it has occasionally also been used in relation to our esteemed Editor [Oi, I do read this stuff you know – Ed.] Where Naim is concerned, it refers to Pace, Rhythm and Timing.  Throughout the time I spent with the Superuniti, I found that my feet and fingers were constantly tapping along to the music and that I was moving in my seat.  If I were the kind of person who gets up and dances, I’d have got up and danced.  This sense of rhythmic engagement is where the Superuniti really shines.

Some systems are edgy and exciting but result in fatigue after an hour or so of listening. The Superuniti is not one of those.  Hour after hour of enjoyment is guaranteed.  And it’s not just about excitement: While Diana Ross’ Love Hangover is like an  edge of your seat white water raft ride as the tension builds relentlessly, Shelby Lynne’s Just A Little Lovin’ is like luxuriating in a warm bath as her vocal envelopes and caresses you.  There is bags of excitement when the music calls for it but plenty of elegance and refinement as well.

I paired the Superuniti with my own Linn Keilidhs as well as a pair of  Audio GE Sincerus 80 floorstanders  that I had for review.  Both speakers retained their individual characteristics while sharing an open, detailed soundstage.  Playing Stravinsky’s Rite Of Spring (Antal Dorati, Mercury Living Presence), with my eyes closed, it was easy to imagine the orchestra spread out in front of me and all of that pace, rhythm and timing was out there in full force.  Whatever kind of music you throw at it, the Superuniti opens it up for rediscovery.

CONCLUSION

Paired with a good pair of speakers, the Superuniti really does offer high-end hifi as a single box solution. The absence of a phono stage is a missed opportunity though and maybe something that Naim should reconsider given the vinyl resurgence since the unit was originally released.  You won’t get a lot of change out of £4000 so it’s by no means a cheap option but if space, aesthetics or just personal preference dictate that a collection of boxes and wires are not for you then the Superuniti needs to be on your short list.

AT A GLANCE

Sound Quality: The trademark Naim sound is present and correct with pace and excitement to the fore.

Build Quality:  Reassuringly solid and built to last – it’s a Naim, and that says it all.  

Value For Money: Not cheap by any means but could you put together a separate streamer, DAC and amplifier system of this quality for less? I don’t think so. 

Pros:

The precise, lively and dynamic sound you expect from Naim, without the hassle of individual components

Anything easier to set up would be hard to imagine

Understated good looks ooze quality

Cons:

Would be even better with a phono stage

Not a con as such but this is not one for the box swappers – if this is right for you, you might never need anything else

Price – £3,785

John Scott

Specifications:

Audio Inputs

– 1 x coaxial BNC – up to 24bits/192kHz

– 1 x coaxial RCA – up to 24bits/192kHz

– 3 x optical TOSlink – up to 24bits/96kHz

– 1 x front panel mini-TOSLINK – up to 24/96kHz

Analogue –  2 x RCA, 1 x front panel 3.5mm jack (combined optical), 1 x DIN

USB – 1 x front panel Type A socket

Input Sensitivity – 270mV at 47kΩ

Wi-Fi  – (802.11 g or n at 2.4GHz), F type (plus PAL adapter)

Antenna – 802.11 b/g at 2.4GHz

Spotify Connect, Tidal ,Bluetooth (SBC, AAC and aptX Classic, aptX Low Latency)

Audio Outputs:

Digital (S/PDIF) – 1 x BNC (75Ω)

Analogue – Speaker output, preamp output (RCA)

Power Output – 80W per channel into 8Ω, 120W per channel into 4Ω (0.1% THD both channel driven)

Frequency Response – 10Hz-20kHz, +0.1/-0.5dB

Signal-to-Noise Ratio – W85dB A-WTD ref 1W 8 Ω

Output Impedance – 22Ω

Load Impedance – 10kΩ min

Sub Output – 1 x RCA pair

Headphone Output – 1 x 3.5mm jack

Remote Control – Infra Red (RC5)

Audio Formats         

WAV (up to 24bit/192kHz)

AIFF (up to 24bit/192kHz)

FLAC (up to 24bit/192kHz)

DSD (single rate DSF64 & DFF64 only)

ALAC (up to 24bit/96kHz)

WMA (up to 16bit/48kHz) must be WMA 9.2

Ogg Vorbis (up to 16bit/48kHz)

M4a (CBR and VBR up to 320kbit/s)

MP3 (CBR and VBR up to 320kbit/s)

Playlists – (M3U, PLS)

Internet Radio Provider – vTuner 5* full service

Internet Radio Formats: Windows Media-formatted content, MP3, ACC, Ogg Vorbis streams and MMS

Multiroom    

Master: Will stream WAV, FLAC and AIFF (up to 24bit/48kHz), ALAC (up to 16bit/44.1kHz), AAC and MP3 (up to 16bit/48kHz) files only as MP3 320kbps quality.

DAB Tuning Range – Band III and L Band, F Type

FM Tuning Range – 87.5 – 108MHz, F Type

User Control

Handheld remote handset included and optional Naim app for iOS and Android.

Power Supply Voltage – 100V, 115V, 230V; 50 or 60Hz

Power Consumption – 400VA (max)

Dimensions (HxWxD) – 87 x 432 x 314 mm

Weight –12.8kg

At £885 the Minute EL-34 valve certainly looks to offer good value for money with its separate power supply. Add another £150 and you get a full compliment of cryo’d valves. Ian Ringstead takes a listen. 

I came to be reviewing this amp by chance as I saw it on Intimate Audio’s website when I was checking out the D-108 speakers I have just reviewed. I spoke to Duncan Saul of Intimate Audio as soon as I saw it because he recently decided to import it and distribute it here in the UK.

The Minute is made by SAC of Thailand, a company I hadn’t come across before so I decided to investigate. SAC make quite a range of interesting valve equipment and design and manufacture their own transformers. Other products in the range are an all valve phono stage, headphone amp, passive pre, powered pre amp and power amps. An interesting company that deserves to be heard more of over here I feel. 

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

The Minute as it name suggests is not a big heavy valve amp but a compact two box affair of power supply and main amp. This makes locating the amp easier on a rack and is not back breaking, unlike the recent Primaluna integrated I reviewed which was 34Kg. The power supply connects to the main amp by an umbilical cable and can be placed on a separate shelf if you so wish. The front panel control layout is neat and simple with just a selector switch for the five line level inputs and a volume control. On the back are five sets of RCA inputs sockets, the locking power socket for the umbilical lead from the power supply and a stereo set of good quality gold plated multi way binding posts. The power supply simply has an on off switch in red on the front and an IEC power inlet socket and the power out socket on the back. The units are in black and have a nice perspex front panel on the front making a neat styling touch.

The philosophy of SAC is that the Minute SMART Amplifier delivers a great tube amp sound with stunning dynamics, accurate rhythm and pace, incredible transparency and great ambiance, all of these being in a remarkable compact package and affordable price. 

The  Minute EL-34SE uses a “Super Cathode Feedback” circuit. This circuit greatly reduces harmonic distortion and is a different approach to the more conventional “Global Negative Feedback” improving sonic performance without disturbing other circuit parameters. By having the output transformer with a dedicated cathode feedback coil that’s connected directly to the cathode of the output tube, the feedback current path is totally isolated from the other components. The cathode feedback coil is virtually free from back EMF induced by loudspeakers or any other kind of spurious noise, phase shift from any network circuit; therefore, only a pure feedback signal is applied back to the cathode of the EL-34. This technique reduces THD by the factor of 10 times. Total Harmonic Distortion of the Minute is less than 0.3% at 1 watt RMS while most conventional SE amp like 300B will start producing more than 1~2% of THD at the same output level. SAC fine tune the circuit and output transformer so that the combination will produce a very pure signal which is absent of higher than 4th Harmonic distortion at regular listening levels.

SAC design and make the output transformer so it isn’t affected by any grounding issues and is a big improvement on their previous designs. The stereo image also improves with their new output transformer since both loudspeakers are totally isolated from one another because they are floated in respect to each other (in conventional SE design the grounding path of each loudspeaker shares the same path and signal can be mutually coupled causing weak stereo separation).

Besides the use of all high quality power supply parts like an Ultrafast recovery rectifier, Electro-static shield hand wound power transformer and high quality capacitors, SAC decided to use a separate power supply unit. The concept is very simple; by keeping all noise generators away from the main amplifier unit and shield all noise within the power supply casing. This new radical design for such a small amplifier has proved to be a great way of reducing hum and noise to a very low level, and also improves the tonal characteristics and clarity of the main amplifier to exceed that of a tube rectifier.

Additionally, by separating the power supply unit from main amplifier, SAC are able to reduce the heat exchanging between the two sections. When heat is reduced, both units run cooler and can be operated for extended period of time without the need for forced air-cooling or air-conditioning. This also greatly extends the life expectancy of all elements in the amplifier. 

Another improvement in the design was to make the circuit perform best at any given volume control setting. A conventional integrated amplifier will have insufficient bandwidth at low volume control setting. This problem can be easily observed as ” a less detailed sound when listening at low volume levels”. With the Minute EL-34, SAC use a special proprietary circuit and layout together with tube adjustment to totally eliminate this problem. At any given volume control setting, the amplifier will have the same frequency characteristic (no HF roll-off) displaying full detail and transparency.

SOUND

Duncan not only sent me the standard set of valves as supplied by SAC but also a set of cryogenically treated valves to play with and tube roll. I started with the standard valves and after 30 minutes or so warm up listened critically. I was presented with a vibrant sound stage that was certainly entertaining and with the Intimate Audio D-108 speakers there was plenty of power on tap. I also tried the amp with my Triangle Esprit EX speakers with excellent results, so unless you have inefficient speakers or a large room then system compatibility should be fine. As SAC say in their design philosophy the amp works well at lower volume levels and the sound field doesn’t collapse like a lot of amps where you have to turn the volume up again to provide some life and impetus to the sound. My recent experience with modern valve amps is that they are a different beast to those of yesteryear. Careful component choice, thoughtful circuit design and excellent output transformers all have a huge effect on the end result.

Also when I tried the cryogenically treated valve set it was instantly noticeable the improvements wrought by the superior valves. Detailing improved and the overall sound was even more satisfying, with excellent depth and top to bottom range with sparkling treble, lovely midrange and good bottom end. I would definitely consider buying the better valve option over the standard set as the cryogenically treated valves are all electronically tested and matched as sets to guarantee quality and consistent performance. Not cheap, but worth it if you like what the Minute does anyway.

This amp can rock no doubt about it, as any good modern amp should. Valve amplifiers have certainly come of age now; you only have to go to shows to see how popular they are again. The beauty of the SAC Minute is that it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg unlike some more famous makes out there and offers fantastic value for money if you want to dip your toes into the valve world. It is also very practical and won’t take up loads of shelf space or require a weightlifter to handle it. Biasing is automated so no fiddly set up is required either.

So there we have it, for just over a grand you can have a compact, very well made, great sounding valve amp that I am sure will give long reliable service. Don’t be put off by the lowish power output rating at 10 watts RMS per channel, as valve watts in my experience always sound a lot louder than transistor watts.

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality:  Well made, minimalist layout and a neat simple design

Sound Quality:  Excellent with all types of music.

Value for Money: Very good compared to the competition

Pros:  

Compact very nicely made two box amp ideal for beginners 

Great sound with the ability to tube roll with cryogenic tubes and upgrade easily 

Great value for money  

Cons: 

Low power may put loudness addicts off or those with large rooms or inefficient speakers

Price: 

£850.00 + £35.00 insurance & 48HR courier to mainland UK.

Upgrades: 2X EL34 Svetlana Winged ‘C’ CRcryogenic valves and 2X matching Harma 6N1P Cryogenice valves: – £150.00 inc. VAT

Ian Ringstead

Specification

5 selectable RCA inputs, EL34 output tube operating with Super Cathode Feedback circuit running in pure Class-A in all stages.

Output Power: 10watt/RMS per Channel

Total Harmonic Distortion: Less than 1.0% at 6 watts/RMS, less than 0.3% at 1 watt/RMS

Intermodulation Distortion: Less than 0.3% SMPTE

Frequency Response:           15-30,000Hz (-1.0dB) at 1W/RMS power, 30-30,000Hz (-1.0dB) at 10W/RMS

Cathode Feedback: Super Cathode Feedback

Circuit Gain: 42dB

Damping Factor: 3.2

Output Impedance: 2.3 ohm

Signal to Noise figure (SINAD):     below -87dB, Hum less than 2.5mV

Power consumption: 100 watts

Power requirement: 220-240V at 50/60Hz (stock version), 110-120V at 50/60Hz (special order)

Power Supply Unit Dimension: 19 x 26 x 10 cm. (W x D x H) Weight: 4.5 kg.

Amplifier Unit Dimension : 19 x 29 x 19 cm. (W x D x H) Weight: 5.5 kg

David Robson takes a look at Indonesian company Vermouth Audio’s Rhapsody loudspeaker and mains cables costing £200 for a six foot pair for the former and £150 for a four foot cable for the latter. 

Vermouth Audio Rhapsody Speaker Cable

£200 for 6ft pair (You can customise your cable for £16.56 per foot)

It’s refreshing to know (or is that surprising to know) that after a few years out of our hobby, things have changed in the world of Hifi. In my youth Hifi was mainly Japanese, with a bit of crusty old fashioned British stuff with no whizzy lights or twiddly knobs. This in the mind of a young naive teen, who’s mind had been swayed by movies and media. A few years back into the hobby and the universe of Hifi has opened up to world markets. Apart from our local European cousins we now see great products from afar as China, India and new to me, Indonesia. Vermouth Audio, hails from Bali, Indonesia. Specialising in high quality Hifi audio cables, mains cables and speakers, and I’m the lucky ducky who has been given the job or perusing and reviewing their Rhapsody range of cables.

This is a new style and type of cable to what I’m used to. First of all, let me tell you of the packaging and how it arrives. The cables are carried in a nice printed linen cloth bag, with “Vermouth, Hand Crafted in Bali”, proudly emblazoned on the front, it also comes with a certificate of authenticity. This a virtual birth certificate of your new product. Having its own manufacture date, serial No. model name and who actually constructed your cable. A nice touch!

This cable and its sheathing is very thick, around 1.8cm in diameter. The blue interwoven nylon style outer sheath terminates into an anodised collar, this leading to the two 12awg black and red speaker wires, again terminating in two beautiful quality anodised banana plugs which are high grade copper with gold plating. A first for me on these plugs is that the “sprung” bit of the plug actually spins around; I’m sure this gives good contact with the 4mm banana socket of your speakers. Although initially in my mind it had more of a chance of losing contact due to the possible movement of the connectors due to external vibrations, but I have been reassured this type of banana plug locks firmly into place. These cables are weighty so any chance of this being an issue is very slim anyway, but on reflection I think I would prefer a standard style “fixed” 4mm banana. The cable feels a little stiff, but this is the first time I have encountered one of these big gauge sleeved cables. It’s a bit like wielding a garden hose as it only wants to turn and move where it wants to. A bit of twisting and coiling and things are fine. The whole cable feels tough and durable.

The speaker cables have 257 strands in total and 12AWG Hybrid UPOCC conductor per channel. There are multi-sized & multilayer conductors in two different groups. The non-woven fabric is there for extra dampening and protection and there is something Vermouth call “air tube spacer & suspension” with an18 mm high-flexibility design allowing easy installation. Anodized sandblasted aluminium cable stoppers, cold forged Copper with Gold Plated terminations and anodised Aluminium shell connectors complete the package.

Vermouth recommends up to 150hrs for the cable to fully break in and settle. Time to hit the CD storage shelves!

After letting the cables run for several days I’m happy to throw a bit of Dire Straits into the slot and let their debut, self-titled album spin. The soundstage from the opening tracks are wide and deep enough to have Mr Knopfler’s voice in its own space, with other instruments defined yet again in their own single space. Six Blade Knife has a good regular drum beat accompanied with nice clear bass guitar, the Rhapsody cables bringing a deep smooth moodiness out from the track. There is a slight roundedness to bass lines and drum strikes, not exactly turning snare drums into bongos but there is a slight loss of the outer definition of bass and drum notes. Vocals don’t seem to be affected by this and come across clear and well presented.

Switching to Nils Lofgren, Acoustic Live, (my new favourite record of the moment). A very well recorded album and a “must have” for those liking Joe Bonamassa etc. I’m happy at the amount of detail the Vermouth cables are picking up. Nils guitar strings having a good weight attached to each strike or pluck. Even when playing gets frantic the instruments are conveyed correctly and uncluttered. On “Little on Up” the simply started tune builds into a full on crescendo of guitar and vocal, the Rhapsody plays out the big scale with ease, albeit just once again losing out on the very extreme of the scale. The deeper tones just getting a little rounded or possibly smeared and the treble just not hitting that very crispy zing of metal strings, it doesn’t spoil the music because it’s both bottom and top in equal measure. That doesn’t make these cables a dull listen, far from it, as other details and qualities within the soundscale keep you well entertained.

Heading to a bit of pop and Roxy Music’s Best Of. A little try out of Bryan Ferry’s vocals and classic tunes to see how these Vermouth Rhapsody speaker cables cope with some of the 70’s & 80’s dancefloor fillers of my youth! And very well they sound too. I find some of the lesser quality recording can sound very average and even painful at times, these give a good rendition of the music, neither falling into the dull muddiness or overly bright harshness that can befall some music of days gone by. The classic late night last slow dance of Avalon comes across with oodles of detail, instruments once again in their own zones, finger strikes on small bongo drums clear as a bell; the female accompanying vocals are sweet and hang up high, giving a big sense of scale. “Dance Away” sees Mr Ferry’s vocals seep beautifully from my Russell K Red 50’s, projecting feeling and emotion into the room, accompanied by the rhythmic beat and good foot tapping timing too boot!

Pros

Neutral sound

Hold up well to their price point

Their neat bags with certificates are a very nice touch too.

Cons.

The cables lose a tiny amount of bass detail at the lower end and just missing out on having a super crisp top end

Their size and construction may put some off, but if size matters, these are your boys as they look meaty and impressive

Vermouth Audio “Rhapsody” Power Cable

£150 (4 foot) with IEC/Shuko Plug.

The Vermouth Rhapsody Power Cable, looks identical in appearance to the Rhapsody Speaker cable, being of a thick tough sheathing at about 1.8cm thickness covered by a blue nylon woven outer. Like the Rhapsody speaker cable the power cable arrives packaged in a linen embossed bag, with a certificate of authentication. The thickness and construction again can be a bit difficult to route around corners as it will only bend and move in the direction it wants to. Either end of the Power cable is a Wattgate plug. Very nice, and well-made connections – these having an IEC and a Shuko plugs. Being picky I’d have likeed some sort of tape or liner where the thick cable enters the plugs themselves, as irregular gaps at this price point look a little less classy. This probably offering no sonic benefits at all, but there is a rubber sleeve midway along the cable which if positioned just into the plug, would look a tad nicer. Not that these cables look cheap by any margin, but that extra attention to detail goes a long way.

I attached the Power Cable to my Schiit Bifrost DAC. I usually use after market power cables instead of the manufacturers own, but I had replaced my own cable with the standard one a few days before to judge this power cable against a standard.

A new artist to me, Sandy Denny, was spun on the laser player first. The Rhapsody power cable immediately sounded open and clear, thus allowing Sandy’s vocals to emerge from the soundstage showing her heartfelt talents. Her rendition of “Who Knows where The Time Goes” (1973 Live BBC recording) is just so very sweet, the guitar strings timbre and weight are portrayed in a manner which allows the music to flow and not get congested or dull or interact negatively with the vocal by being too forward but accompany Sandy Denny’s singing within this fine recording. This is also very apparent on ”No End”, the Vermouth power cable giving a clean presentation, to the point where it becomes a difficult task to look for criticisms as the tunefulness takes me away from my task of reviewing!

Switching CD’s to something a little more soul/blues oriented. Keb’ Mo’s album “Just Like You”. A more modern recording than Sandy Denny’s, but still vocally driven.

“I’m On Your Side” has drum driving rhythms, with the occasional crash of cymbals, the timing and dynamics are well controlled, the snare drum has a full sprung sizzle and not an ill-defined slushy sound. Cymbals have a properly portrayed metallic crispness. Bass lines and drums do not stray into overblown boominess, neither do they sound weak or dull. The Rhapsody gives a very polished performance and doesn’t seem to interfere with the music in any negative way. If anything the lower bass registers seem quite enhanced.

“More Than One Way Home” has a more upbeat pop sound, the pace picks up, and again the instruments are set out and are clearly defined. There are plenty of detail and layers on offer. The depth of music in the listening room has bells and percussion pinging and tinging in and around my head showing that a good 3d performance is apparently available from the Vermouth power cable. I believe you only have to lose a little detail and dynamic ability and you can lose this soundstage. The Rhapsody keeps it all there, boogying rhythms and all.

And now for something completely different! From the folk, blues and soul sounds to a bit of one of my hometown hero’s, Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Probably not the last word in audiophile chic but top 80’s pop.

Using the Vermouth Rhapsody’s deeper punchier lower end to good effect, driving out the beat, leaving me wanting to find a good laser show and a warm beer. Classic tracks like “Relax”, “Two Tribes”, Welcome To The Pleasuredome” and “War” bang out the speakers with metronomic rhythms. Little bits of details that you don’t hear on lesser audio equipment are apparent and bringing a new level of appreciation to not only the bands efforts, but the Power cable too – never muddling the tunes or becoming too sibilant at the top treble reaches. “The Power Of Love” keeps its atmospheric air, but this track does let slip into a little acidity, but that I’m sure is more down to the recording itself and not the Vermouth Power Cable.

Pros

A good tuneful presentation with plenty of detail and drive

A definite contender within its price point

Cons

May stray into the “too bright” category in an already bright or harsh system

The short length of cable is a little stiff and may prove a little difficult to route in tight spaces

Vermouth Audio “Rhapsody” Speaker and Power Cables 

The inevitable conclusion of my reviews to combining both Vermouth Audio’s Speaker and Power cables as a one brand bundle brings about some surprises. Playing Steely Dan’s “Gaucho” CD I found percussion which before had either lost its top crisp edge or had had its upper treble reaches rounded off are now back in balance somewhat. Detail is yet again pulled from the CD and fed to the speakers with some sparkle and zest. Bass lines are easy to follow this time, with both the power and speaker cable being of the same camp and offering good synergy. On “Glamour Profession” some of the vocal content can appear, with some cables in place, to have an artificial “fizz” to some of the trailing S sounds in the vocal if the treble is too hardened or harsh but I’m glad to say this isn’t the case here with this pairing. There is a definite forward presentation but not being portrayed in an overly bright or offensive high frequencies manner. Time Out Of Mind trips out of the Russel K Red 50’s with the bass drum kicks and its accompanying piano in party mode, this style of forward sound could become irritating if not kept in check, happily though there is enough smooth controlled bass, being tuneful, and carrying the rest of the music along for the ride in correct perspective.

Moving onto Supertramp and It’s A Hard World from their Some Things Never Change album. This track to me is a superbly recorded and produced piece, as is the whole CD. Fine detail and some production tricks making the full height, width and depth of the soundstage work hard. Add in well placed sound effects and this track really highlights if anything is lacking. Here though everything is where it should be and nothing is missing from the scene. Listening through this album it’s clear that the pairing of the cables has a benefit over either in their own right. Not that either has any bad traits, just that together they shine, and feel a bit more accomplished and value for money.

AT A GLANCE

Sound Quality: Bringing the two cables together in the system brings the best out of them. There is an overall slightly forward presentation that may not suit those preferring a warmer presentation.

Build Quality: Well put together and with good quality connectors and plugs. 

Value For Money: Both cables offer up pretty good value for money given their contruction, materials used and their performance.

Pros

Together this pairing from Vermouth Audio have a real hand in hand friendship with the best attributes from both cables being allowed to express themselves

Cons

Size and stiffness of the cables

Slightly forward presentation

Price:

Speaker cables: £200 for 6ft pair

Power Cables: £150 for 4ft

David Robson

The £5995 Leema Acoustics Libra is both a DAC and a preamplifier with a plethora of inputs that should be ample for anyone. Dominic Marsh gets to grips with it for Hifi Pig. 

Back in June of 2015 I reviewed the Leema Elements integrated amplifier for Hifi Pig and I clearly recall giving that particular component a “Recommended” award.  I liked the ease of setup and the sound quality, plus the connectivity with plenty of useful inputs to choose from.

DACs used to be DACs and preamplifiers were pre-amplifiers at one time, but increasingly we are seeing DACs with albeit rather primitive volume controls and amplifiers with built-in DACs, so their identities are blurring into one and Leema have taken that concept one small step further by combining a top class DAC with a top class pre-amplifier only, rather than a full integrated amplifier.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

How very astute of Leema to house the Libra in a chassis already being used in their top of the range amplifiers.  You get an automatic visual match of course with other Leema components wearing its shade of silver/grey coat, but there is a visual clash when you introduce it into a non-Leema system.  I don’t get too fussed over colour matching whatever is in my rack, be it coloured silver, chrome, black, or green with purple stripes for that matter, but I harbour no discord with others that do require a perfect visual match.

The front panel layout is pretty simple and uncomplicated.   To the left is a headphone 3.5mm mini stereo jack socket, beneath which is an MP3 input 3.5mm mini stereo jack.  To the right of that pair is a large rotary volume control, beneath which is a home theatre bypass push button and a push button muting switch.  To the centre of the front panel is a blue LCD display which shows the input selected and the volume level, plus the various menu options available, selected by a combination of a rotary control to the right of the display and two other push buttons for engaging menu selections.  Sounds complicated but in reality is very easy to master because all the menu options are simple, concise and unambiguous.

Now if the Elements integrated amplifier impressed me with its plentiful amount of inputs, then little did that prepare me for the number present with the Libra DAC/Preamplifier.  A quick count gave no less than 14 digital and analogue input connections, not including the partnered XLR balanced inputs with matching single ended RCA input sets, which brings the total to 17 if we are going to be pernickety about it.  Add on top of that the Leema “LIPS” (Leema Intelligent Protocol System) communication system input/output connections which allows the Libra to communicate directly with other Leema components and there isn’t much empty space left on that rear panel to add anything else apart from a mains input.   To table them out, we have 3 TOSLINK digital input sockets, 3 RCA digital inputs, a USB “B” connector input, followed with 2 AES/EBU XLR sockets, then for good measure a pair of I2S inputs.  We then see 3 analogue input pairs labelled 1, 2, and 3 consisting of a pair of single ended RCA phono sockets and a pair of balanced XLR connectors, with a push switch to enable either single ended or balanced operation.  If that wasn’t enough, then the DAC is Bluetooth equipped to wirelessly connect with tablet computers and mobile smart phones. PHEW!

The digital decoding circuitry isn’t centred around an off the shelf standard DAC chipset, so instead Leema have decided on a circuit called “Quattro Infinity” which effectively makes the entire circuit fully balanced in the pursuit of low noise and signal integrity.   How the circuit achieves this is a mystery to me and concerns me not at all I might add.  It also houses a Cirrus Logic CS4392 DAC chip to allow for DSD streams to be decoded, plus Leema’s own M1 USB interface.

The Libra is supplied with a full function remote control handset.

SOUND 

Because the Libra is both a DAC and a pre-amplifier, my evaluation routine was split into three parts, namely as a standalone DAC, then the pre-amplifier in it’s own right and of course I evaluated them as the combined pair, so I first began with the DAC section.

After having been relieved of a figure close to £6,000 you would expect there to be a quantum leap in sound quality from the very start, but if that is your expectation of this component, it simply doesn’t behave that way.  It isn’t lacklustre by any means, but by the same token it doesn’t grab you instantly either with a beautifully rendered fireworks display sound palette that spreads all before you that you can quaff copiously.  No sir.  It deserves your close attention and beguiles you by stealth almost, because it provides an endless stream of surprises dug out of recordings you have probably heard many times, over many years in fact and intimately familiar with – or so you thought.  This DAC is all about the details, consistently so and from that statement you would think I had my ears cranked up to full speed, my mind closely attuned to the music and listening intently, making almost hard work out of listening, but not so.  I never once found it fatiguing or having it forcing me into making an effort to concentrate because the music just rolled forth without any strain or stress in an almost matter-of-fact manner.   The highs were high, the lows were low, the midband liquid and sweet, imaging was very good rather than exceptional and the noise floor was absolutely silent.  And that for me personally was its undoing, oddly enough.  While the presentation was controlled, precise and dare I say accurate, it didn’t hit me at any time emotionally.  It lacked the zing and pizzazz I crave from whatever component I own or indeed review for that matter that makes it memorable.  You could of course argue that my personal tastes stray away from strict accuracy and true fidelity, but having reviewed components that were relentlessly accurate and by their nature highly fatiguing, or being given the choice of mildly coloured to connect with the emotions, then give me the latter every time and if we are to be brutally honest I believe I am not alone in this train of thought.  That is irrelevant though in the context of this review and my own personal tastes should have no bearing at all in my findings for this review.

My favourite test CD of the moment is Fink’s “Wheels Beneath My Feet” album recorded live in various venues during one of Fink’s many European tours.   The track “Sort of Revolution” has some powerful Floor Tom whacks and pounding kick drum beats from the drummer and the Libra DAC certainly did put the weight and power behind them so they were felt as well as heard.  This same album has some well recorded venue ambience which changes at each location and of real note is the drum kit cymbals and Snare Drum which shine with startling realism, giving that crisp metallic ring from the cymbals and a solid ‘crack’ from the snare drum rim shots.  Fink’s lyrics writing and indeed diction is terrible when he sings and for reasons I still cannot comprehend, this album is rarely out of my CD player.  With the Libra DAC however, a wealth of additional details were being revealed and I had to play several excerpts again and again to make sure I wasn’t hearing things that weren’t actually there to be heard.  And I hadn’t.

The opening track in London Grammar’s excellent ‘If You Wait’ album there is a wealth of synthesized reverberation effects and a deep penetrating bass line to the music, underpinning the female vocals.  The Libra portrayed this track with both the delicacy and power necessary to make it an enjoyable and satisfying listen.  Track two from the same album contains some very obvious and deliberate fret fingering on steel strings from the guitarist and that comes across as crisp, defined and uncannily real sounding.  The whole album is infused with artificial ambience and the Libra rendered this perfectly.

Ginger Baker’s epic drum solo on ‘Wheels of Fire’ by Cream has the drum kit close mic’d during the performance which is ideal for testing transient ability.  Snare drum and tom toms sounded less taut and slightly less dynamic  than from other DACS I have heard lately, yet the cymbals had a polished refinement with no splashiness or tizz.  Kick drum too had a less than solid “whump” which ought to feel like it’s hitting you in the pit of the stomach as much as you hear it with your ears, but the Libra softened the effect slightly.

Moving on to Derrin Nauendorf’s ‘Live at the Boardwalk’ which is a live acoustic recording with Derrin  playing solo acoustic guitar and accompanied only by a basic set of drums, the tonality of the guitar’s sound was conveyed realistically and full of natural resonances and timbres.  Every pluck on the strings was heard in great clarity and detail, although I cannot say that Derrin is the best of vocalists, but an enjoyable listen nonetheless.

I then put the pre-amp section through its paces and once again I found it to be very good rather than exceptional and that is a high accolade on its own, as it equaled my resident pre-amp in terms of clarity, detail and substance.  The Leema Libra though still had an ace up its sleeve as my resident pre-amp has a clear sonic difference between the single ended and balanced connection, the latter sounding much better than the former.  The Libra sounded equally as good no matter which input type was selected, which is highly commendable.

Finally then, I used the Leema Libra as the intended DAC/Pre combination to drive my resident power amplifier, which is a 150 watts per channel unit of American origin, with some major upgrades made a few years back for a more incisive and dynamic sound than the stock unit which was a tad too ‘warm’ and laid back for my tastes.  The Libra unit had no problem at all driving my power amp to some seriously high volume level and the volume control in the Libra was about as linear perfect as I could wish for with no sudden rise in level as the control knob was rotated.  Even then, the Libra couldn’t peak that crest of getting me drawn ever closer on an emotional level.  It certainly wasn’t bland or indeed sterile by any means because there was a wealth of details and nuances to be heard and enjoyed, but it didn’t demonstrate the elusive “Factor X” that keeps you listening way past your normal bed time and feeling emotionally satiated as you power the system down for the night.  I suspect this is the result of Leema’s pursuit of neutrality in the overall sound which I feel they have mostly achieved, but perhaps they were a little too diligent in that pursuit. 

CONCLUSION

Let me say here that I don’t relish or enjoy picking holes in any product submitted to me for review.  If I glossed these over or buried these findings (Especially at this price level) then the value of my reviews drops to zero and has no merit whatsoever to a prospective purchaser.  On the other hand though, it might be EXACTLY what you are seeking from your next audition or purchase and you might not be paying too much notice to what criticisms I may have leveled at the Leema Libra and your own perceptions could be at total variance with mine, even more so with other partnering system components different to mine, so let’s sum up this review on the positive aspects of this product.

If you cannot connect up the Libra DAC/Pre into your system then I would be truly amazed at that.  It would certainly meet all of my current connection needs and then some for whatever the future holds in store.  Best of all is all the inputs have a high quality sound – even via the Bluetooth connection and the headphone amplifier is of very good quality too.  The use of balanced topology in the majority of the circuitry (including the digital stages) shows a lot of careful thought has gone into the design.

It is a complex product and to some it might be daunting, but be assured Leema has gone to great pains to ensure setting up the Libra is simple – even I managed it without any stress or hassle.

There is a lot of digital (and analogue)  hardware in that casework and geared for 44.1kHz native CD replay, USB asynchronous digital signal and DSD stream up to DSD 128 standard, DXD, 24 bit 384kHz through the I2S connection and it’s about as “future proof” as is possible at this moment in time.

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality:  The case is as substantial and robust as the proverbial outhouse and the controls are well laid out and labelled well.  The display is somewhat crude but does the job intended.

Sound Quality:  Plenty of power, detail and nuances to the sound, although lacking involvement and emotional connection.  It isn’t bland or sterile by any means.

Value For Money:  With a price tag of £5,995.00 this unit isn’t cheap, but it’s about as “future proof” as humanly possible, so it would probably be a long term ownership.

Pros: 

Fine build, plethora of digital and analogue inputs 

Detailed and powerful sound

Cons: 

Perhaps a bit too much neutral sounding

Price:

£5,995.00

Dominic Marsh

Specifications

Analogue Inputs: 3 (configurable as Balanced or Un-Balanced)
Bluetooth interface: Yes 
Headphone Amplifier: Yes (high quality)
S/PDIF Coaxial Inputs: 3 (24 bit 192kHz & DSD64)
S/PDIF Optical Inputs: 3 (24 bit 192kHz & DSD64)
I2S Inputs: 2 via RJ45 connectors (24 bit 384kHz, DXD, DSD64 & DSD128)
One I2S Input has fully programmable pin allocation
AES/EBU Inputs: 2 via XLR connectors (24 bit 192kHz & DSD64)
Asynchronous USB: Yes (24 bit 384kHz, DXD, DSD64 & DSD128)
USB: Yes (fully asynchronous – Windows & Macintosh)
USB Isolation: Full Galvanic
Dimensions: 440*320*110mm (WxDxH)
Weight: 15Kg

Hydra Z from Audiobyte is a USB audio playback bridge and clock generator whilst the Hydra ZPM is its matching Ultra linear audio power supply. Dan Worth is already a user of the company’s previous model Hydra X+ and most definitely a digital audiophile, so who better to put to put this £1050 combo through their paces. 

Once in a while I have the pleasure of reviewing a product which holds strong personal interest for me. The Hydra Z is an SPDIF converter, a bridge which converts the USB output of a computer orientated source to a multitude of digital outputs and at the same time offers clock regeneration with increased jitter control lowering distortion in the noise floor and increasing control over the frequency range.

The Hydra Z from Nicolae Jitariu of Audiobyte and Rockna is of particular interest to me as I have been a Hydra X+ owner for a couple years now and I’m familiar with the benefits of the product over any USB direct connection to a DAC. I have heard increasing performance and connectivity flexibility is improved.

The Hydra X+ is a battery powered unit with a switch mode trickle charger enabling playback for up to 10 hours. The Hydra Z however has 3 ways of being powered, firstly from the USB source, secondly from a 5v external supply of linear or switch mode technology and thirdly from Audiobyte’s own ZPM linear based matching form factor power supply, also here for review.

Now I wouldn’t recommend using a switch mode to power the Hydra Z, although there are switch mode supplies from a few companies which I have encountered over the past year or so which offer outstanding audio performance over the cheap wall wart style common supplies. I would always opt for good solid well regulated linear power. The X+’s switch mode supply has always been connected to a separate electrical source than that of my system to eliminate any noise being injected into the rig, even though internally the X+ isolates any of this grunge.

My current X+ has a great range of digital outputs including my favoured HDMI over I2s option (created by Nicolae), coaxial BNC and RCA as well as AES/EBU. All outputs can be used simultaneously which for me has always been a big plus point as I run two of the outputs to two DACs for my main passive and secondary active system. The Hydra Z accomplishes this handy feat also, with the addition of a Toslink Optical output and a Wordclock connection.

If I had one little niggle with the X+ it is that connections to and from the device are on opposite sides of the unit, meaning that the X+ really needs to be placed behind other items on the rack for aesthetic reasons and needs a fair bit of clearance each side for the non-flexible cable ends I have in my system. Hydra Z however is a totally redesigned form factor. The unit has a more traditional styling, a clean front plate with indicators for external or USB power and PCM and DSD designation. The rear of the device now houses all connectivity ports, allowing for the unit to be sat in the rack as most other main units would, allowing for easier isolation support and placement of cabling.

The ZPM linear power supply is identical in form factor and both units side by side on my isolation plinth complete the width of any standard full sized piece of equipment. ZPM has a short umbilical which connects the two units and is designated by a ‘digital’ output, also on the rear is a second power output named ‘analogue’. Audiobyte concentrate their efforts on core products and their website confirmed that currently they offer no other products which could make use of this second output, but talking with Jack Durant of BD audio – distributor here in the UK – he simply said ‘watch this space’. I of course had to press him a little harder and he confirmed that the new form factor products would indeed grow to include additional items which are currently under development.

FIT AND FINISH

Hydra Z and ZPM are well constructed and are available in silver or black, the aesthetics of the two units are a little understated and not exactly audio bling, but the casework is solid and of substantial thickness making them both very strong and sturdy – the look almost fits the bill really and represents the type of products Z and ZPM are. Internal PCB layout and implementation of the FPGA circuit is extremely efficient and well laid out. All sockets are of high quality and are positioned to compliment the short signal path.

Packaging again isn’t fancy but it is extremely protective and fit for purpose keeping overall costs to the end user as low as possible.

In comparison with the Hydra X+ the digital processing capabilities of the Hydra Z are much more advanced and powerful, along with being future proof to further advances in bit depth and sample rates, the additional connectivity and wordclock master hub, along with advanced PCB layout and isolation, on paper alone assumed improvements can be made.

I’ve run a few devices over the years on battery power supplies, including my current X+ but I can confirm that my experience with very well designed regulators within linear power supplies accompanied by tight tolerance transformers made with high grade metals and isolation have won the battle of power source A/B testing. Hydra Z takes a different approach to the battery supply of Hydra X+ (the previous USB bridge from Audiobyte). A separate matching ‘Ultra Linear Power Supply’ from the company has proved from internal testing to be the most effective option, although any 5v supply, switch mode, battery or linear of around 1A of potential output current can be added, along with the ability to power direct from the source computer over USB.

INSTALLATION AND BURNING IN 

I have the ability to utilise each and every option from the Hydra Z in my systems, from all the standard digital outputs to the less common but with increasing support I2s over HDMI, as well as the wordclock output.

I’ll note here that I strongly recommend treating the Hydra Z and ZPM when purchased together as one full sized unit, I initially stacked the two items and went through about a weeks burn in, playing music on repeat when I wasn’t listening with the amplifiers off and found that the sound although changed after the initial week was disjointed and lacked flow. Placing the two units side by side had a dramatic effect and music was more palpable and ‘made sense’ again. Complete burn in time I estimate at around two weeks of continuous play – 300 hours or so.

SOUND

Once positioned correctly in the system and played for a few hours after some more running in I wanted to place the Hydra X+ back into my system for a few days in order to bring myself back to the level of performance I had been accustomed too, with the newly run in Hydra Z being able to be swapped in and out I could now evaluate and convey any differences.

The first main difference between the two units is the amount of detail the Hydra Z offers on the outer boundaries of the soundstage. Both units convey a very information rich presentation with the Hydra Z delivering more detail throughout the range. When a piece of equipment can present a lot more information on the outer edges of the room the entire performance grows and the rooms boundaries become less apparent making the recording venue becomes more realistic. This is noticed very well on live performances of an intimate nature, bringing the venue’s acoustics into the listener’s space. Larger more intense collaborations have more drama and three dimensionality that excel the midrange transparency and centre stage depth.

With the advanced performance of Hydra Z, Damien Rice’s ‘O’ album, ‘Older Chests’ has a passage that leads into the perception of a set of patio doors being opened to the left hand side of the soundstage, immediately depth is perceived here as a group of children are heard playing in a park and can be heard laughing and chatting away. The intensity of this section of the music is far more substantial in naturalness with Hydra Z running from the Mac, increasing the complexity and cleanliness of the image, with the previous Hydra it is definite but just not as defined and complex.

Due to the low phase distortion of -114 dBc/Hz @ 10 Hz (which is a true measurement of jitter) what I am hearing and outlined with the previous track is obtained by the decrease in jitter. What always impresses me with Audiobyte is that they offer ‘real’ measurements and figures instead of throwing around the typical ‘lower than XYZ ppm’ numbers and even specify clock and chip model numbers along with supported graphs and links to manufacturers websites for those of a technical mindset to scrutinize. This complete openness is a breath of fresh air amongst the BS that often consumes some products on market.

The lower noise floor of Hydra Z over X+ when just powered via USB within my setup is excellent, making leading edges very accurate and offering less fuzz in the treble. This was undoubtedly aided by the fact my Mac has a strong external linear supply, which I would expect from any hardcore computer audiophile. Hydra Z has excellent isolation and if you wish to add one to a computer source which isn’t intensively modified for audio use its abilities are such that benefits are clearly discernible.

Adding the Z to my standard Mac of matching spec gave significant improvements over a USB direct connection to DAC, giving more insight into recordings, increased vocal separation from the main body of the music, more articulated bass and overall less distortion and grain.

Back to the main setup – leading edges from over X+ are better defined and decays are heard in a more natural and expressive sense. A test track I often mention is Nils Lofgren’s live acoustic version of ‘Keith Don’t Go’. What’s special about this piece of music is the sheer speed and complexity of the guitar work by Nils, being able to hear each decay of the previous note in its own acoustic space whilst following notes overlay without masking the under layers. With the X+ I always felt that the abilities of the unit were very mature and one of the very best converters of its day, but Hydra Z surpasses X+’s abilities to discern additional space, information and clarity around notes and the depth and scale of this performance increases substantially, leaving my beloved X+ sounding a little rounded and softer.

Bass notes with Hydra Z have more prominence and energy, a kick drum sounds more natural with more appreciation of the skin tone and also comes from a slightly more localised position in the soundstage, presented with more focus on its leading edge. Deeper notes had far better extension but very favourably remained tight and didn’t develop into that horrid looseness that can happen where there is more bloom and boom to the bottom end. Instead notes reflected a performance’s scale and flow incredibly well and gave more presence and realism to music.

With the more palpable flow to the sound I was enjoying over the Hydra X+ in my system I intently listened to some good strong vocals to get a handle on any benefits in tonal balance in the ever critical midrange.

A great range of my favourite music consists of beautiful vocals from both females and males alike.

There’s nothing more frustrating for me than to have a system or individual component that cannot produce a convincing vocal. A strong projected vocal that demands attention is an absolute must. One of today’s biggest irritants, especially in mid-priced equipment is a female’s vocal being presented with too much upper midrange which consequently leaves a male vocal thin without lower midrange body or chestiness, this is generally where British mid priced electronics excel and have become a staple for many years.

Hydra X+ always had a great balance here but Hydra Z really pushes the envelope. The projection or dynamic power of the vocal is greater. It’s easier to hear where the vocal begins and how it emanates out towards the listener, growing from the point of origin, rather than just being forward and out of position in the depths of the midrange. There’s also more of that ‘artist in the room’ effect and a more effortless and natural strength to really powerful singers. The upper mids are a step ahead of the previous model, giving more transparency and smoothness integrating the treble in a more liquid nature which picked up on some recordings pitfalls but at the same time never presented the extra detail in an etched manner, yes you can hear more but it’s presented with more sophistication.

Exploring the top end further with a range of material, I can confirm further improvements in air and space, exploring venue acoustics and ambience better. Notes are further fleshed out and the control on treble extremes is better handled with a more relaxed nature and greater feeling of effortlessness.

ADDING  ZPM ULTRA LINEAR POWER SUPPLY 

After going backwards and forwards a good few times to A/B Hydra X+ and Hydra Z the results speak for themselves, a cleaner, more controlled and defined sound from the Hydra Z came out on top as an undeniable upgrade to the previous model.

Adding the ZPM Ultra Linear Supply only enhanced all of these performance gains further. Where say the leading edge definition had more clarity to the strings of Nils Lofgren’s guitar, they now had a deeper density to them, increasing timbre and the addition of ZPM fleshed out the beginning the middle and the end of each note. Decays were more prominent again I would say. Their volume levels were not increased but their presence was more defined. The lower noise floor of the combination of the two units aided significantly in this area, cleaning up more background hash allowing for the micro details and micro dynamics to now show their prowess, which proves that wherever possible a good clean power is essential throughout the audio chain, even if like me you believe that your mains is already superior. Please don’t question the benefits of the additional support ZPM will give to the music even on a device that one could taken for granted, such as an SPDIF converter.

Piano notes benefited well from the additional clean power. Their tonality was more robust and the softness of strokes were completed with more delicacy in listening tests, along with more impactful hits of keys, conveying additional drama and dynamics. It’s very difficult to reproduce a piano correctly and people spend thousands of pounds/dollars changing and upgrading system components in the analogue domain concentrating purely on piano tone. In the digital domain it is even harder to accomplish strong piano tonality, but as technology pushes forward digital comes closer to the organics of a strong analogue rig and can surpass it when done correctly in my opinion. I feel Hydra Z along with the addition of Hydra ZPM has brought me one step closer to obtaining a more natural tonality with piano as well as all other instruments and vocals, I’d even go as far to say that I would expect my current digital rig to now exceed the performance of a similarly priced analogue set up.

Depth of image also increased with the ZPM power supply in place and image height has better perception along with an additional layer of detail which was surprising to say the least!

The very bottom end rolled and extended cleaner, again with more impact and freedom which firmed up and underpinned the mid and upper frequencies at the same time, reinforcing the lower undertones of the higher frequencies.

The Hydra Z really retained its character and sonic signature when partnered with its matching ZPM Ultra Linear Supply, the additional benefits come in clarity, cleanliness/lower noise floor and layering. When listening to a busy orchestra, individual instruments are more discernible and the same applied to the dance music that I still love. All in all a terrific upgrade, the Hydra Z is the true star here but ZPM just lets the sound breath more.

WORDCLOCK

I’ve only had experience with the addition of a wordclock once in my time as a digital audiophile and let’s face it, that is what I am, reviewer comes second. My experience was with DCS products a few years ago and the results were just so flattering to the DAC of that time.

I currently have a Mytek Brooklyn DAC sat on my desk feeding my actives and headphones, it has a wordclock input and output, so why not tether the Hydra Z direct I felt?

The Mytek in short is a unit which crosses the boundaries between pro and home audio and has a sonic signature that gives the listener complete understanding of its roots with a clean insightful and sometimes explicit playback. Adding the wordclock/masterclock from Hydra Z took away a little of the clinical feeling of the Mytek and added more flow to the music, less monitoring and more playback in its characterisation of tones. At the same time I found it to be more phase coherent and conveyed better timing giving a more solid image with better depth and enhanced definition. Bass notes faired particularly well due to this and frequency extremes gained a little more extension and presence without ever becoming too heavy or distracting…in fact the opposite was apparent. The additional control and timing accuracy added denseness and body to the top end, vocals had a stronger feeling of stability, sort of when the signer has spent some quality time warming up their voice. Lower midrange/upper bass gained some transparency and detail also.

CONCLUSION 

Computer based audio has a huge position in today’s market with network storage, playback and ripping software, along with music streaming services being the fuel for this designation. Unfortunately what a lot of people overlook is the quality of the signal being fed to the DAC. Even with an expensive DAC, USB chips are still not as far advanced as they will inevitably become and this requires a company such as Audiobyte to design devices such as the Hydra Z in order to isolate the incoming noise from source and lower the jitter on the output signal.

As DAC chips and computer sources progress, for sure too will USB Bridges/SPDIF converters and the crucial part they play with master clock control, enhanced lower jitter rates and digital conversion.

In the digital domain it’s all about ridding the signal of noise pollution and this is done by eliminating phase distortion and ripple from the power source. I demoed many converters before, settling on the Hydra X+ for its detailed and musical sound, although I never liked its form factor, the sound it gave was paramount to my decision.

Hydra Z is a clear statement from Audiobyte that they know how to do digital and have concentrated their efforts on an absolutely crucial part of the audio chain that is so often overlooked by consumers. Enhancing what I believed to be one of the best SPDIF converters I had heard with a product that surpasses it in every area, whilst retaining the musicality, richness of tone and involvement of the previous incarnation. Audiobyte have really got a product here that changes a great digital front end into a truly superb digital front end.

Adding the companies Hydra ZPM Ultra Linear Power Supply again raised the bar, to give an impression of music that makes even more sense and firms up the Hydra Z design with clean and unimpeded power. The Hydra Z is a true statement on its own, accompanied by the ZPM and the combination is just addictive.

I will be trading my beloved Hydra X+ in against the Z and ZPM, the increased performance and design layout is just a no brainer for me. 

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality : Substantial metal case, good size, abundant amount of connections 

Sound Quality: Surpasses Hydra X+ in every way, has superior transparency and detail all presented in a musically engrossing manner 

Value for Money: Upgrades this substantial costs thousands if upgrading, for example, a CD player

Pros:

Build quality

Express, detailed, transparent, powerful, coherant sound 

Cons:

Nothing other than the warning not to stack the Hydra Z and ZPM as this diminishes sound quality considerably 

Price:

Hydra Z – £600 – £640

Hydra ZPM – £450 

Dan Worth

SPECIFICATIONS 

Inputs

USB receptacle, type B

Outputs

S/PDIF, 75 ohm coaxial

AES/EBU, 110 ohm XLR

BNC 75 ohms

I2S over HDMI (LVDS)

Toslink

Wordclock BN

Supported Sample Rates

PCM

Upto 384 KHz

DSD

2.8 MHz (DSD64) – DoP, native

5.6 MHz (DSD128) – DoP, native

11.2 MHz (DSD256) – native (via ASIO)

22.5 MHz (DSD512) – native (via ASIO)

Bit Depth

32 bit over I2S output

24 bit over S/PDIF, AES/EBU, Toslink

Compatibility

Native MacOS 10.6 and later

Native Linux with UAC2 compliant kernel

ASIO, WASAPI, KS, DS drivers for Win XP to W8 32/64 bit

Recommended players: Foobar2000, Audirvana Plus, Jriver etc.

People now demand that they have their music with them at all times, even when at the gym or out exercising and In ear monitors are becoming increasingly popular for this. Add Bluetooth and you make them even more portable. Janine Elliot takes a listen to the Optoma BE6i Bluetooth in ear headphones. 

I have always been sceptical of Bluetooth® headphones and earphones, having tried and even bought a number. The technology either reduced sound quality to an unacceptable level, or else the Bluetooth® is sporadic in operation, turning off at the slightest excuse, or often that the technology takes precedence over the sound quality of the speaker diaphragm.

At a time where Bluetooth® earphones are becoming increasingly visible in the high-street, indeed I see them as the next ‘big-thing’, it is no wonder that I am excited at being given the opportunity to hear a Bluetooth® IEM from a company producing high-end ear speakers. As I write there are rumours that the next iPhone 7 might not even have a 3.5mm earphone socket in order to keep the unit thin, so a high quality non-wired ear-set is needed to fill the space presently occupied mostly by those lesser-known brands by ex-rappers or those available by online companies. Whilst 3D TV and even those lovely curved tellies are going to be a “here today, gone tomorrow” topology, I seriously believe that non-wired earphones will take a major role in mobile music of the future. I spent 25 years between shifts at the BBC sitting on trains listening to music on my cassette, then portable CD, then portable DAT, and then regrettably the MP3 player, with the constant problem of coiled up wires, broken cables, or the cables getting trapped by my clothing so that the IEMs fell out of my ear. I yearned then for wireless earphones, but they had not yet been invented.

The BE6i is a very new product, in some respects similar to the BE6 before. That product was well received by the audio-press. This “i” improved version has a better battery life of around 8 hours (I achieved slightly more in my reviewing) and have better protection against rain and sweat. Unlike the ‘plasticky’ models appearing in online shops, these are made from aluminium and certainly have that “made to last” quality. They also feature aptX® and AAC compatibility, so allow better audio streaming. Even answering calls from my mobile phone was quick and good quality (both ends of the line). More than that, they look gorgeous. The solid metal results in better sound; I first audibly could hear the effect that metal cases have on earphones about 10 years ago, but only recently when reviewing the various metal variants of the Flare R2Pro. The difference between the aluminium, stainless steel and titanium versions was more profound than the weight and chemical makeup. The BE6i therefore feels tougher than many similarly priced IEMs. They are also water-resistant (IPX5 certified), just in case you like to listen in the shower.  To put all this into context, IPX0 means it’s not waterproof, IPX1 means it will be protected by the occasional drop, all the way up to IPX8, which is totally waterproof up to 3 feet under water. Whilst the UK weather luckily only occasionally gets that bad, IPX5 is guaranteed to protect from water jets in all directions, so you can safely listen to Handel’s Water Music whilst washing the car. The box they come in might be nothing to shout about, but once you open it up it is pretty clear that they have thought of everything here. As well as the best looking and solid hard-case to put the earphones in so that they cannot be damaged whilst bumping around in your handbag, they also come complete with a plethora of earbuds. There are six sets of silicone ear tips. Three sets are slightly shorter than average ear tips offering greater comfort when used for prolonged periods. The other three sets are longer and therefore form a more secure fit in your ear canal, being designed for those with an active lifestyle. As well as this there are two sets of my favoured Comply™ soft foam ear tips, with their better noise isolation and ability to stay put when moving about. If that is not enough, they also come with what I term as “Spock” wingnuts that you attach between the aluminium barrel containing the very large 10mm driver and your chosen ear tips. I only wish the space was slightly bigger as it does mean that if you choose the longer length ear-tip it has to be slightly squashed in order to fit both items onto the frame. This only became a problem on a few occasions when removing the earphones the Comply ear tips remained in my ear. When in use, though, the Spock wingnuts tightly and comfortably fit in your ear auricle to keep the unit sat secure so that you can play music without the worry that they will fall out when you run to get out of the rain. The wingnuts are made from silicon and have a hollow “spring” design to keep that comfort greater and more secure.

As mentioned, the BE6i contains a very large 10mm driver. This doesn’t mean the bass will go down below 20Hz, as that is very much decided by the Bluetooth®. Rather, it gives a very flat frequency response and ultimately eliminates unwanted reverberations that would otherwise affect the frequency curve. This is a very musical player that played whatever fed to it without complaints. The driver is made from a high-grade titanium and magnesium and inert metal is used to form a thin nano-layer over its surface. This precise mixture of metals, along with the help of a circumferential copper ring, allows the driver to maintain what they term as ‘optimal structural integrity for distortion-free sound even at high volume levels’. Indeed, the sound was unstressed, whatever I played. The patented driver selected for the BE6i is designed to maintain a constantly accurate impedance curve, resulting in improved sound quality from any source whatever the frequency. This also has the added benefit of extending battery life, which at 8 hours is 25% longer than their previous Bluetooth® IEM, and is very good by todays’ averages.

In recent years there are simply hundreds of new headphones and IEMs appearing as we humans become more insular and lose our ability to communicate with those around us. And, unfortunately, there is more rubbish pertaining to be “top quality” that appears in the press, even I hasten to admit toasted by audio reviewers. I have been often dumfounded at audio shows in the last few years when I put on £1000 cans that either have a totally unreal frequency response or inefficiency that make them anything but portable. Luckily (or unluckily) this review coincided with a short time stuck in a hospital bed which gave me the perfect review conditions to try out the BE6i. Their comfort and truly portable design was of course prime importance during my encumbrance, but the sound quality made my stay all the more painless. Lying in bed forever listening to music was actually fun!

Firstly, they look striking when “assembled”, available in either a white/gold version or a classy matt grey/silver finish. The instruction manual is just a set of pictures without words, to save translating endless paragraphs, and was extremely easy to follow to set up within seconds. The flat cable is for me a must-have in terms of design; this idea was introduced to me by Jays IEMs I reviewed for another mag a few years back, and makes untangling and wearing a lot easier. The BE6i is recharged in around 2 hours via a micro USB socket built into the in-line remote control. The remote is very quick acting, remembering up to 8 different Bluetooth® devices, and manually accessing a ninth if you are that way inclined. Turning the unit on and playing from my Sony Z5 was simple and took a matter of four seconds. With Sony’s NFC that could have been a very slightly shorter time, though that would put up the price. Even forwarding a track or changing volume was quickly done. Some Bluetooth® devices I have tried are not quite so controlled in this particular behaviour. The volume up/down was quick and operated in larger steps (around 2dB from my Sony phone and slightly less from other sources) than some remotes I have used, meaning that whilst getting an exact volume level might be hard, you only need to press and let go to immediately hear that the level has gone up or down, without keeping your button held down still wondering if it actually doing anything, and then before you know it you have changed tracks. My favourite symphony of all, Vaughan Williams London Symphony (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult) has an amazingly quiet start before it lets’ loose with the Cockney “Have a banana” theme. With the earphones tightly in place the dynamic range from quietest to loudest was not a problem for these Bluetooth® inner-ear cans, nor was there any audible noise. The 10mm drivers handled the music from this and other albums I played with a bass and top end that lived well up to their £100 price tag.  I value my hearing so wouldn’t blast the music, but the background noise was never noticeable apart from that on the music itself, and most importantly the music sounded equally good at all levels that I played it. Whilst they have a 30m range from the sound source, this still does depend on there not being walls or large obstacles in the way, but with most having their phone or HiDef source in their pocket or handbag this was never going to be an issue. The BE6i played the music with a good sense of ownership that made it very enjoyable. The frequency response was very flat from bottom to top. Whilst some might find only their JVC XX Bass Boost IEMs give enough grunt, the BE6i was just plain honest.  David Rees-Williams Trio “Classically Minded” was gentle but detailed from the two pianos (yes, two) I can hear with the bass and drum. The main piano is closer miked on the left with the accompaniment less defined on the right; not the way I would have engineered it.

With Optoma presently releasing a HEM multi-driver IEM series (see review coming shortly) with frequencies from 10-40,000Hz I did wonder if the BE6i could have more appealing frequency credentials. However, when you consider that on top of the music the BT technology needs to convey other functions, such as the microphone, remote control functions and battery information, it is not quite that simple. Be warned about believing those online companies claiming enviable frequency responses. As Reuben Klein, Audio Product Manager, Optoma EMEA, informed me;

“Adding the same hi-res certified drivers that we have specified for the HEM series will require a redesign of the whole platform as the drivers will require far more power to maintain their performance”.

If Bluetooth IEMs do take off, as I see them doing, then the platform for them will no doubt need to improve to allow this extra bandwidth and greater speed needed to carry more information, just as the original USB has morphed towards USB4 (in around 2020). The future is exciting. Sony, for example, has tackled this with their proprietary LDAC system, which transmits approximately three times more data at around 990 kbps (allows 96KHz/24bit).

Back to the music, Mozart 41^st Symphony had all instruments sitting just where they should be in the soundstage, as Mozart sets the first and second violins off against each other in music conversation. This was fun. Turning to Ella Fitzgerald tribute Dee Dee Bridgewater singing Duke Ellington’s “Cotton Tail” it felt almost like dummy-head stereo, with the clarity of the ride cymbals against the bass. Neither took supremacy, rather they worked as a team, making the music a pleasure to listen to. Bass in “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most”, Rickie Lee Jones was superb, the aptX®  making it all sound so easy. This track isn’t extremely spaced between all three instruments; with the bass left, vocal centre and acoustic guitar centre right, but all was extremely clear, and I certainly felt no missing bass end. The sound might not be quite as clear and extended as my top spec IEMs of choice, but these are 4 times the price. But bear in mind the lowest note on a full-size piano is 27.5Hz (lowest A), the 20Hz cut-off is not an issue. Only the lowest organ pedal notes in the final movement of Saint Saens Organ Symphony (Jane Parker-Smith, LPO, Serge Baudo) couldn’t quite make it for me, though harmonics made it so you wouldn’t really notice. Most loudspeakers would find that a tough order. The Division Bell, Pink Floyd, offered me a relaxing and informative apparition into my late youth, yet the detail in the voice and guitar made for an invigorating and musical experience with a depth of sound is clearly audible giving a 3D soundstage, as far as that can be possible stuck inside your head. And when I eventually prised myself away from playing these IEMs, the magnets at the ends of each earpiece married the two together so the BE6i could be worn like a necklace. A very clever afterthought.

CONCLUSION

Now, I don’t know about you, but I find my loudest and most excitable friends tire me out and give me a headache quite quickly, and so it can be with many of the IEMs I have listened to. The BE6i was an honest but still a very entertaining friend to accompany me for 8 hours before needing recharging, and I never felt I wanted to turn him off whatever he was playing. There were no sudden cut-off artefacts at each end of the scale, so no concerns about bottom and top frequencies. Perhaps the top could be a little quicker and tighter, but this was already better than many post £200 wired headphones I have listened to. No, I strongly believe this is a cleverly thought-out and designed product, that I even bought one. For £100 this is an extremely good value product and sounds very natural, with nothing sounding out of place. Considering the technology limitations and having heard a number of Bluetooth® IEMs in recent years, this is a good buy from a company with a heritage of excellent earphones that go a lot more expensive.

AT A GLANCE 

Build Quality:  Excellent build for the price, with solid aluminium body and “flat” wiring so won’t get caught up. water-resistant (IPX5 certified), with magnetic backs to keep secure around neck whilst not in use. Excellent quality of carrying case and accessories

Sound Quality: For the price this is excellent, allowing full frequencies from 20-20,000 with with good and not over-emphasized bass end and a clear treble with no excessive brightness.  aptX® and AAC compatibility.

Comfort: These were exceptionally comfortable for long periods, the lightweight unit of remote/battery/microphone, not pulling at all when moving at high speed. With the Spock-wingnuts they were kept secure in the ear.

Value For Money:  At £100 these are good quality IEMs in terms of sound quality, and adding to this their Bluetooth® capability make them highly recommended in terms of value for money 

Pros:

Honest, flat sound covering all frequencies 20-20000Hz
Musical performance
Very quiet in operation
Quick response of controls
aptX® and AAC compatibility
Choice of two colours

Cons:

Not a lot at this price
Some may find the sound limiting in grunt in the extreme bass and top ends

Janine Elliot

SPECIFICATIONS

Connection type: Bluetooth 2.4Ghz

Bluetooth type: V4.0+EDR Compliant

Bluetooth profile: HSP 1.2, HFP 1.6, A2DP 1.2, AVRCP 1.4 , aptX, AAC

Codec: SBC, aptX, AAC

Cable length: 550mm

Driver Type: Dynamic

Driver size: 10mm

Impedance: 20 Ohm

Battery life: Up to 8 hours

Battery type: Lithium-ion battery, Cylindrical Type, Typical 3.7V/120mAh

Microphone sensitivity: -42dB

Frequency response: 20Hz – 20kHz

Sensitivity: 95dB +/-3dB at 1KHz

Power consumption: 15mA at A2DP mode, speaker output 75dB SPL

Range: Up to 10m

Weight: 19 Grams

KATCH from Dali is their first-ever compact Bluetooth loudspeaker.

Under the extruded aluminium hood sits a Class-D amplifier – capable of pumping out some 2x 18 Watts of power – 2 x 21mm soft-dome tweeters and 2 x 3.5-inch aluminium woofers, one pair facing front and one pair at the rear.

The KATCH features two placement profiles that run in conjunction with the front/back driver configuration, one for freestanding play and one that utilises placement on a shelf to reflect sound back from a wall.

Bluetooth 4.0 with Apt-X gives a wireless connection within seconds, while the NFC option is even quicker.

DALI has included a stereo mini-jack input, while the KATCH’s USB charge connector means you can drive a Chromecast Audio dongle too, integrating your KATCH into your home network.

Available in three striking colour schemes, Dark Shadow, Cloud Grey and Green Moss, the DALI KATCH Bluetooth 4.0 with Apt-X

• 2x 18W RMS Class-D amplifier
• Extruded aluminium body
• 2x 3.5-inch aluminium woofers
• 2x 21mm soft-dome tweeters
• Stereo mini-jack
• 2600 mAh internal battery
• USB charge output

Priced at £329, the new DALI KATCH portable Bluetooth speaker is available from October 1st.

The £5500 Audio Music AM RT-1 active TVC single ended valve preamplifier is made and designed by Mr A M Fang in Guangdong Province in China. It comes with a fine pedigree, but will it cut the mustard with Dan Worth. 

Audio Music evolved from the Stereo Knight brand of high-end, yet relatively affordable products. Designer and engineer AM Fang wanted to create a newer more vibrant company that pushed the boundaries of design and high precision engineering even further with a line up of products to rival some of the world’s greatest talents in audio reproduction.

Previous products from the Stereo Knight range were extremely well constructed and implemented with the preamplifiers being TVC based (Transformer Volume Control), many years of creative testing also demonstrated the brands knowledge to influence the design of valve based mono power amplifiers.

Today Audio Music have continued there pursuit of musical bliss with the edition of more complex and refined preamplifiers and passives, along with some serious looking 833 and 805 based mono power amplifiers.

FIT AND FINISH

There’s no doubt that when an AM product comes for a visit the courier needs to be a fairly large chap or have a trolley handy! In the case of this review product it’s the AM RT-1, a valve based preamplifier utilising transformer volume controls in a dual mono format, with a transformer coupled output stage. The courier was not expecting the answer I gave when he said ‘my god, what on earth is in here this time Dan?’ With me replying ‘just a preamp’.  The overall weight of the two units (one preamp and one power supply) is 38kgs! An absolute beast, that size wise only comes in at 38x31x11cm per unit.

Opening the boxes to get a glimpse of the two units was an unbearably exciting event. I’d studied many photographs of the preamp over the previous weekend admiring its build quality and beautifully thought out layout. To finally have the physical articles in front of me was a true joy.

The build quality is absolutely phenomenal, the attention to detail and accuracy of machining puts AM products up their with the very best that I have ever experienced in the high end world of Hifi, which is a world usually only ever inhabited by the purely unobtainable. Each panel is precisely engineered to the finest of finishes, internal boundary sections of machined billet are impressively accurate and each component and its wiring is of the neatest possible standard. Mr Fang should be truly proud of this accomplishment alone.

What are those big caps inside you say? Well, these are from a company called u-cap, not heard of them? No, nor have I. Talking to Iain Borthwick of lwaudio (UK Distributor) he relayed a short story which I would like to share – Mr Fang, the stickler for perfection that he is, decided that the capacitors on today’s market were not quite at the specification he would have truly liked, so what would any engineer/designer do in this case I ask you? They would contact one of the major brands of course and have capacitors made to their very particular specifications, surely?…. no, not Fang, he decided that along with meticulously winding his own custom transformers he would build a factory that would be able to produce capacitors to his exacting standards! Now in my mind that’s overkill to the last degree, but for Fang this is just another day at the office. The saying “if you want something done right, then do it yourself” springs to mind. I’m going to have to slightly change the initials to this mans name, AM Fang becomes AMS Fang (A Mad Scientist Fang), his efforts are pretty much unheard of today, every meticulous nut and bolt, cap, transformer, PCB layout, casing positioning is just phenomenally critiqued by Fang before us reviewers and consumers alike even get the chance to have a look. Really though, this level of attention to detail deserves applause.

Now, I hear everyone saying ‘yes, yes that’s all good and well Dan and we appreciate your candour but what does it sound like, does all the visual hype translate into equally exceptional sound quality?’

With a selection of three inputs, whether you opt for using the units assigned unbalanced XLR or unbalanced RCA inputs, a choice must be made for each of the three inputs available. My first instinct of course is to connect to the unit’s XLR inputs, but as the design is single ended and not truly balanced  it shouldn’t really matter. I only have the single ended DiDiT 212 DAC at the moment as the balanced version is in final stages before production and my pre-ordered unit will not arrive for a little while yet.

The RCA version of Studio Connection’s Platinum interconnects were plugged from DAC to pre, the same brand XLRs then trailed from the AM RT-1’s balanced output sockets rather than RCA as the Muse Reference 300 monos I’m using are much more comfortable running on balanced, even if pseudo for some unknown reason. My usual modded Ayon Seagull Ceramic speakers are in play and all of this fed from the modded Mac using various software for normal and hi-res audio playback, through the recently reviewed Hydra S and Chord’s Sarum Super Aray USB.

THE SOUND

The first most clearly defined aspect of this preamp’s sound signature is true transparency, after a few steps on both mono switches whilst listening to Nils Lofgren’s ‘Keith Don’t Go’ I felt I was really hearing my system for the first time in all its natural beauty. I specifically picked this track to begin as it’s live, well recorded and needs a critical ear on leading edge performance, pace, and decay during the guitar solo off of the ‘Acoustic Live’ album.

I’ve never previously heard the decay of strings fade into such a dark background, especially on a live album so intrinsically natural, whilst the next leading edge saturates the foreground with precision and clarity. This all becomes so valuable when the wooden casket of the instrument itself can be heard as an extra resonating layer which fulfils a realism in the music, which I haven’t before heard any other preamplifier achieve in my system.

Transformer based volume controls have a nature of being transparent and great ones will produce a level of detail and timbre which can be hard to achieve from an active preamp, however they can have some pitfalls. Drive can be a little weak, also grip and control can suffer, trading these aspects slightly for natural tones and detail retrieval generally outweighs any shortfalls for most enthusiasts.

The AM RT-1 takes all of the best aspects from each of the topologies and runs with it. Transformer volume switches to improve the noise floor, a single-ended valve stage to increase dynamic range and tone and critically wound c-core transformers with mosfet voltage stabilisers for drive and grip on some of the most demanding basslines makes me wonder what on earth some are missing from their designs.

I could play bass from a passage of Bach, a track from a Damien Rice album, playful Jazz and Trad, or even Pop with a little Dance music thrown in and each time the grip drive and gusto for each music type was enthralling!

I especially loved how the influence of popular music from across the decades sounded as each track from a playlist would be discernibly different… as the playlists are from various artists. Each track had a character of its own and my own system’s signature, or house sound, disappeared and was replaced by music that had a relative tone and position with more truth to the mix. Each recording could be explored further than when using my Jeff Rowland preamps which add a characteristic warmth and body to the sound.

Equally remarkable is the soundstaging of the AM RT-1. I really appreciate how different genres are protrayed, giving a more realistic perception of a performance, especially with live music, where I felt I could place each member of the group more accurately and each band members instrument had its own void to emerge tones from that was never disjointed from the music as a whole and remained utterly focused in its own free space.

Levels of excitement built drastically over the follow weeks, where I found myself listening to music more than I had done for a long while in my own personal time. I’d find myself getting up in the mornings and listening to the main system before I left the house and likewise when I came home again, I’d even just leave everything turned on whilst I was away from home so that when I arrived back I could have a fully warmed up system to just sink into.

A strong curiosity with the AM RT-1 was, if it sounds so utterly mesmerising now, how will it sound with a careful valve change? The valve compliment used in the RT-1 is two 6922/E88CC and two 6H30P. The hunt was now on for the best sounding equivalents in this circuit. The 6H30P tubes, which are the Electro Harmonix gold pin version were swapped out for the only real possibility, the early 80’s model, legendary Russian Reflektor 6H30P-DR ‘Super Tubes’, which were incredibly hard to source and cost a small fortune. After some competition the 6922 valves I settled on were the USA made Amperex White Label, which bring a more organic flow to the mids and give a more dynamic bassline, again difficult to source and quite pricey but the way things were going with my time courting the AM RT-1 I could see us having a long and loving future together.

How gorgeously the vocals developed in tonal balance and natural dynamism after the valve upgrade left me mesmerised by every piece of music I played. I have only ever heard such fluid and liquid vocals like this once before with Lampizat0r equipment, but the AM RT-1 had no fear of breaking down and is built like a piece of fine jewellery, so in comparison its material wealth was simply greater. Coupled with the units subtle, sultry, dynamic, fast, gritty, deep and delicious characteristics that exuded from my transducers I felt very flattered to have found this brand.

There’s the cliche ‘it’s like someone has lifted a veil’. I could agree with this in terms of transparency and insight but to try and convey some more meaningful context to the sound, my analogy can only be stated as a difference between watching a high school play compared to that of a Broadway show, the raw emotion and power in the performance gives the AM RT-1 true believability.

I laughed to myself, thinking back to when the AM RT-1 first arrived some two months ago. I had just placed the units on the rug in my living room, side by side waiting for my friend Richard to come over. Richard is a DIY enthusiast and has some very interesting equipment. I knew as soon as he walked in he would just stop and look at the units then turn to me and offer that grin of acceptance he does when something pretty catches his eye. How correct I was, however I didn’t expect him to sit cross legged on the rug for a good five minutes just turning the witches backwards and forwards, but there you go. Fortunately they are of superb quality and this over exuberant wear and tear didn’t phase the solid build one little bit. He then spent the next twenty minutes along side me just glaring into the custom made and engraved acrylic lids Iain Borthwick of lwaudio had got custom made to show off all the lingerie the electronics was adorned in.

Well, Richard was here again today and we both spent some time listening through a great range of West African and Asian music which he is very fond of. It’s the first time my ever critical friend has remarked at how natural and full instruments sounded, with areas of micro dynamics which belie the very room we were listening in. I pointed out to him that centre focus was no longer as prominent and although the central soundstage was so well defined and characterised he needs to have a seat in my sweet spot to really enjoy how the stabilisation of imagery has now grown to include all areas of the soundstage in height and width, giving more maturity and insight into what is a true full picture or image of the performance, which I felt my previous preamps did well, but in hindsight barely scratched the surface and he agreed without hesitation.

Mr Fang’s meticulous approach taken to the design of his products is truly reflected in the sound of this preamplifier. I am just so impressed with the level of performance obtained at this price point. The true impact and emotion coupled with intricate detail, timing and top end air simply put, proves itself time and time again with each and every piece of music I have thrown at my system.

Every venue is accurately portrayed, each note is produced with body and the story told within each piece of music, whether containing vocals or not, is emotionally connective. I can only speculate the improvements of the models further up the line, but right here, right now the AM RT-1 is the very best (by quite a margin) preamplifier I have had the pleasure of having in my system and there is no chance of it going back to the distributor, even if it’s the only one he has in stock.

CONCLUSION

The Audio Music RT1 is an absolute giant killer in my eyes. The brand offers another two incarnations of the design which take the performance even further. Firstly an RT-2, which, is an RT-1 that has all silver wiring throughout, then the RT-3, a silver wired dual mono power supply like the previous two models but this time you will receive three boxes rather than two, with more isolation and tweaks to power sections.

Performance of the AM RT-1 is absolutely natural and emotionally engaging, having me listen to more music than I have in a few years. I currently have lots of other activities which I am enjoying in my life and finding some real solid time to just sit down and have long listening sessions has not been as easy as years gone by, but I am finding myself making time to change this and my listening sessions have been becoming more frequent since the Audio Music AM RT-1 arrived and my listening has included many albums I haven’t listened to for a very long time… as well as the enthusiasm to find and listen to new music.

The standard unit was a dream to behold, but the addition of the specially selected NOS valves really enhanced the RT1’s natural abilities to reproduce timbre and vocal complexity.

Already the soundstage was a triumph, but the additional valves made instrument placement more accurate in sense of timbre and naturalness, whilst also pushing the layering of venue acoustics and reverbs to the next level. The base unit will amaze even the most hardcore audiophile, but with these careful choices in play sonic greatness is achieved.

For my musical tastes, which are vast and varied, good solid state amplification coupled to the cleverly implemented valve line stage of the AM RT-1 suits my needs absolutely perfectly.

AT A GLANCE

Sound Quality: Absolutely stunning, liquid midrange, very dynamic bass and a bandwidth that combines inner and upper end details with emotional insight and clarity.

Build Quality: Will compete with a lot high-end offerings and surpass many, absolute precision and quality inside and out, with a meticulous view on circuit and component implementation.

Value For Money: The AM RT-1 is a fairly costly preamplifier, but in the realms of high-end prices the RT1 is a bit of a bargain.

Pros:

Highly detailed natural sound

Naturally dynamic and transparent

Emotionally communicative

Timbre rich

Cons:

Only three inputs may not be enough for some

Lack of remote could be a problem for some

Price – £5500

Dan Worth

SPECIFICATIONS

Tube complement: Two 6H30 or 6H6N as the drivers, two 6922 as the amplifiers

Frequence response: 20 Hz ~ 100KHz

Input Impedance: 47k ohms variable depending on the source

Volume control: 33-speed volume control

Output Impedance: 600 ohms . RCA output & BAL output.

Input selections: 3 pairs RCA single-ended ; 3 pairs balanced / XLR

Gain: Input 0.5V  output 2.5V

S / N: > 98dB

Distortion rate: Under  0.5% / 5V

Power consumption: 45 watts

Dimensions (W * D * H): 380W*340D*110H*(mm)

Weight: 38 Kg shipping weight

At £900 for the amplifier and £995 for the CD player these two units from Audiolab are relatively inexpensive but well specified. Ian Ringstead plumbs them into his system and rather likes what he hears. 

Those of you who are old enough to remember the original Audiolab 8000A and 8000CD player from the 1980’s will have fond memories of what a highly regarded pairing this was. I sold many of them and remember excitedly awaiting delivery of the original 8000A amplifier when Philip Swift told us about it and brought a demo model to try out. The rest as they say is history. I even went on a factory tour in the eighties to see them being made in Huntingdonshire. 

TAG McLaren then came along in the nineties and decided to buy Audiolab out and develop the brand further. With mixed success TAG pulled out after a few years and so it was IAG who came along to rescue the brand name and resurrect a great product with a proud background. What I like about IAG is that they are a company who understand the hifi business very well and they were adamant that the Audiolab brand name would not be besmirched and the brand would be brought back to the fore.

The 8300A amp and 8300CD player/processor/pre amp are an evolution of the previous 8200 series that has proved popular over the last few years, but as Audiolab state in their promotional video they didn’t want this series to be just a tweaked and cosmetic change. A lot of research and development has gone into this new series and Audiolab have listened to customer feedback to provide new useful facilities and improvements.

FIT AND FINISH

I received the review pairing in the very smart and clean looking silver option, but you can buy them in black  if you prefer. The units were very well packaged in good strong boxes and come with a good instruction manual, mains lead and a quality remote control each which will work with both the amp and CD as it is identical. The build quality as you would expect from a company like IAG is excellent and both the amp and CD are beautifully put together looking very clean and simple on the eye. The front panels are kept straightforward and although the back panels are busy they are clearly and logically laid out with excellent connections.

The 8300A amp only has three controls on the front for input selection, mode of operation and volume. To the right of these is a standby power switch. The centre of the front panel is dominated by a smart looking oval OLED display panel which tells the user what is selected and the various settings.

On the 8300A Engineers have developed a new phono stage catering for the resurgence in vinyl records with MM and MC configurations accessible via the front panel controls. This was very useful as I major on vinyl use and having facilities for MM and MC was great.

As well as standard RCA unbalanced connections the amp also has a set of balanced XLR’s which I used with the 8300CD to great effect.

12V remote trigger loop feature on all units so as one device is switched on, paired units are switched into or out of standby mode – working as one system for quick operation.

The 8300CD is a deceptively complex unit under the clean and simple exterior with a new slot loading motorised disc mechanism as you used to get in car players. The new mechanism also reduces the occurrence of disc rejection and it was able to play CDs that other CD players may reject for being imperfect from dirt or damage. Its digital buffer circuit is a perfect mate to the asynchronous input of the DAC, improving even this area of performance. A final benefit is increased disc stability and reduced susceptibility to resonance, which additionally contributes to the overall improved sound quality. 

Connectivity options have been further expanded on the 8300CD with the addition of an AES/EBU digital input and XLR digital output. These join a full complement of inputs/outputs retained from the 8200CD: 2x coaxial digital inputs; 2x optical digital inputs; 1x asynchronous USB input; 1x coaxial digital output; 1x optical digital output; single-ended RCA and balanced XLR analogue outputs.

The 32-bit ESS Sabre DAC used inside the 8300CD continues to have a reputation as the best-sounding DAC chip available, and most CD players that use it are much more costly designs. In terms of the way it measures, its distortion figures are extraordinarily low. Around the DAC there are extensive measures to reduce jitter to very low levels. The new 8300CD can accept and process data up to 32-bit/384kHz; this is a far higher specification than that required even by current hi-res music formats, ensuring the 8300CD is fully equipped for future advances in ultra-high-definition digital sound.

The USB input now also accepts DSD data, as well as PCM.

The uprated digital processing associated with the increased resolution at the USB input delivers additional sonic benefits, for both CD replay and other connected digital sources, whatever the resolution of the file. As digital audio reproduction technology has progressed, the importance of the characteristics of reconstruction digital filters has become more appreciated. The Audiolab 8300CD features user-selectable digital filters for optimal listening. These filter settings allow the user to tune the 8300CD’s performance to suit their preference, depending on system configuration and musical taste. These filters are available for CD and PCM audio via digital inputs.

• Optimal Spectrum
• Optimal Transient
• Optimal Transient XD
• Optimal Transient DD
• Sharp Roll Off
• Slow Roll Off
• Minimum Phase

The 8300CD also adds four DSD filters that progressively attenuate the out of audio bandwidth noise floor.

As you can see an awful lot of design and technology has gone into these two products, but that would all be wasted and irrelevant if the results weren’t good.

SOUND 

Fortunately, the sonic outcome is excellent.

I used the amp and CD as a pair for my review purposes as I felt the synergy between the two was spot on. The designers would have spent many hours honing their skills to perfect this pairing and although you can of course use them separately, my instincts tell me they are a marriage that works best as a couple. I have read elsewhere criticism of this pairing with complaints that the previous models, the 8200 series, had more magic about their sound. I am in no position to be able to compare with the older series, but what I heard over the couple of months I had this pairing impressed me mightily. Let’s be honest, all opinions are subjective and I as a reviewer make my views on personal experience. Having spent the last 40 years in the business as a retailer, and now as a reviewer, I respect the hard work and passion that is put in by companies and designers to create a product they are proud of. Audiolab is no exception and have done a fine job here.

The 8300A is certainly muscular in its sound portrayal and although its rating is only 75 watts per channel it easily exceeds that on peaks. I tried the amp with several pairs of loudspeakers I had for review at the time ranging from £400 a pair right up to £4000, and it worked very well with all of them. I know many listeners and dealers find certain combinations of electronics and speakers can either work brilliantly or be a disaster as a pairing, and I for one agree with them. As it was with the 8300A when it had run in over a few weeks and I had got my thoughts settled on its performance, I was happy with its overall sound. 

As always I used a wide variety of musical genres to test the amp and was particularly keen to try the phono stage with my resident Project Extension 9 and Ortofon Quintet Black cartridge. I’m pleased to say it worked very well with no gain issues and low hum, giving a good solid sound with plenty of depth and detail over the entire frequency range. This was the case with all three speaker pairings I tried and the detailed layering in recordings was very well portrayed. Now the Project and Quintet Black are rather good in my humble opinion, but they still require a good phono stage and amp to show what they are capable of. A case in point was a Joe Sample MFSL record “Rainbow Seeker” which I have owned and cherished for over thirty years. This type of contemporary jazz (later known as smooth jazz) is a favourite of mine and I know this record inside out, but whenever I try it out on a new component it intrigues me when I hear something new or had missed on a previous listening session. The detailing was all there and the brush strokes on the cymbals and nuances of Stix Hooper’s sublime drumming were easy to pick out and a joy to experience. Although purists may well prefer a separate phono stage, the built in one does a great job for the money.

The same was true when I tried the 8300CD which I chose to run via the balanced XLR inputs as my preferred option. The single ended inputs are fine and what you would find on most amps, but I liked the solid sound that the balanced input gave. The 8300CD has the option as mentioned already of being used either as a plain CD player or a sophisticated DAC with several input options and finally as a pre amp where you can use it directly with a power amp. I ran the CD player as an integrated unit with the 8300A and the combination performed really well. Again I tried all types of music and they all sounded clear, detailed and the soundfield had a good depth to it. As mentioned earlier, the 8300CD has several filter options which I scrolled through on the menu via the handy remote, but like my resident Sony CD player that has switchable filters this all comes down to taste, musical type and one’s mood, so I stuck to the optimal spectrum rather than constantly experimenting as I was happy with the presentation. 

The CD mechanism worked flawlessly with all my discs and I must admit I liked it as most drawer trays can be flimsy unless expensively engineered (I owned a Yamaha CD-S1000 some years ago whose drawer and mechanism were sublime in build and operation, but that was an expensive machine). I confess I didn’t experiment with the DAC inputs due to lack of digital files and sources as I major on CD and still think there is life in the old dog yet. I wasn’t disappointed as the CD player was excellent with the 8300A and over the time I used the combination felt no need to change it. Yes, a more expensive machine may well outperform the 8300CD but at what cost?

As you will have gathered I rather liked this combination and for the asking price they are great value.

AT A GLANCE

8300A          

Build Quality:  Excellent for the money.

Sound Quality:  Detailed, muscular sound.

Value for Money:  With a price of £900 this is excellent value.

Pros:

Great musicality and detail

Minimalist good looks and ease of use

Good built in phono stage with mm/mc options

Remote works well and easy to use

Cons:

No headphone output, but with so many good external units on the market I don’t see this being a problem.

Price: £900

8300CD   

Build Quality:  Excellent for the money

Sound Quality:  Detailed, musical sound

Value for Money:  With a price of £995 this is great value

Pros:

Musicality and detail

Minimalist good looks and ease of use even though it is a sophisticated unit under the hood

XLR output as well as RCA

Nice slot loading mechanism

Pre out option to drive an external power amp directly

DSD and most of the latest digital formats covered to a good level

Remote works well and easy to use

Cons:

CD maybe less popular as a format now and nearly a grand isn’t cheap, but there is a lot on offer here and the build is excellent

Price: £995

SPECIFICATIONS

8300A Amplifier

Design philosophy and core technology: Dual Mono Power Amp Design

Display: OLED 128×64 pixels 2.7″

Controls: Logarithmic Ladder Volume Design

Finish: Fine Textured Aluminium (Black / Silver)

Standby Features: Yes

12V Trigger: Yes

Phono: MM/MC

Balanced XLR Input: Yes

Pre-amplifier Section 

Inputs : CD, Video, Tuner, Aux 1, Aux 2, XLR (Balanced) & Phono

Outputs: 2 x RCA

Input sensitivity (Phono RIAA): 50K // 100pF

Input impedance (line inputs): 50K // 100pF

Input impedance (phono inputs): 47K // 100pF (MM), 100R // 1.5nF (MC)

Output voltage: 2.3V max. (< 0.02% THD)

Output impedance: 120 ohm

Frequency response (Line): +/- 0.1dB (10Hz – 20kHz)
+/- 3.0dB (1Hz – 100kHz)

Frequency response (Phono RIAA): +/- 1.0dB (20Hz – 20kHz)

Channel Imbalance : < 0.2dB (10Hz – 20kHz)

Total harmonic distortion (THD) Line: <0.001%

Total harmonic distortion (THD) Phono: <0.002%Signal-to-noise ratio (Line)      dB
>109dB(A-weighted)

Signal-to-noise ratio Phono (MM): > 73dB
> 78dB(A-weighted)

Signal-to-noise ratio Phono (MC): > 68dB
> 73dB(A-weighted)

Crosstalk: < 80dB (L-> R & R->L @10KHz)

Power amplifier Section

Gain: 29dB (20Hz-20KHz)

Input Sensitivity: 840mV (Power Out = 70W into 8ohm)

Input impedance: 15K // 100pF

Rated max power output THD:  < 1%   2 x 75W RMS (8 ohm) , 2 x 115W (4 ohm)
(Vmains = 230V , THD < 1%)

Peak output current: +/- 15A

Frequency response: +/- 0.1dB (10Hz – 20KHz)
+/- 3.0dB (1Hz – 100KHz)

Channel Imbalance:  < 0.2dB (10Hz – 20kHz)

Total harmonic distortion (THD): <0.002% (Power Out= 50W @ 1KHz, BW = 20Hz – 20kHz)

Signal-to-noise ratio: > 107dB (BW = 20 – 20KHz )
>109dB(A-weighted BW = 20 – 20KHz)

Damping factor: >100 (8ohm Load @ 1kHz)

Inputs: 1 x RCA

Outputs: Speaker Binding Post Terminals

Dimensions 80 x 444 x 330.3mm

8300CD Player

General Description: CD Player, Digital-to-Analogue Converter

Finish: Fine Textured Aluminium (Black / Silver)

Display: POLED 128×64 pixels 2.7″

Standby Feature: Yes

12V Trigger: Yes

CD Mechanism: Slot-Loading

DSD Compatible: Yes (DSD64 / DSD128 / DSD256)

Disc Compatibility: CD/CDR

DAC: ESS Sabre32 9018 chip

Resolution: 32 bits

Sampling Frequency: Optical,Coaxial, AES: 32kHz – 192kHz
USB:32kHz – 384kHz(PCM) / DSD64, DSD128, DSD256

Maximum Sampling Frequency: Optical,Coaxial, AES: 192kHz
USB: 384kHz (PCM) / 11.2M (DSD256)

Digital Input: 2 x Coaxial, 2 x Toslink Optical, 1xAES/EBU, 1 x USB for PC USB,

Digital Output: 1 x Coaxial, 1 x Toslink Optical,1 x AES

Output Voltage: 4.2Vrms ±0.1 (Balanced)
2.1Vrms ±0.1 (Unbalanced)

Output Impedance: 10Ω

THD (1kHz 0dB 20Hz – 20kHz A wtd): <0.002%

Frequency Response: +/-0.2dB        20Hz – 20KHz (± 0.2dB)

Signal-to-Noise Ratio (S/N) A wtd: RCA:<-98dB ,XLR<-100dB

Dynamic Range (A wtd.): RCA:>98dB ,XLR>100dB

Crosstalk @1K: RCA:<-120dB , XLR <-130dB

Gain Error: <0.5W

Dimensions (H x W x D): 80 x 444 x 317mm

The Stream Xa is a combined streamer/DAC, retailing at £1,295.  The PSX R2 power supply is an optional upgrade and retails at £695.  John Scott takes them both out for a test.

UNBOXING AND APPEARANCE 

Both units arrived in cardboard shipping boxes.  Within each of these boxes, the individual units are further protected by another internal box, secured by substantial polystyrene mouldings that keep the units firmly in place during transport.  The supplied power cables and accessories are also well packed and secured.

Cyrus are a well-established audio manufacturer, their first products having appeared on the market in 1984 with the Cyrus 1 and Cyrus 2 amplifiers.  Over the years, the Cyrus brand has developed into a distinctive style, into which both the Xa and the PSX R2 seamlessly fit.  If you are putting the Stream Xa into a non-Cyrus system then you might find its looks to be a little dated compared to something like the Lumin A1 streamer but I didn’t find this to be a major concern.  The Stream Xa comes in either Brushed  Black or Silver Quartz.  The supplied model was Brushed  Black which would be my preferred option.  Both the Stream Xa and its external power supply are sturdily built – the casing is die-cast metal – and they exude a feeling of quality and craftsmanship in line with their price tag.

SETUP

The Stream Xa is supplied with a generic information leaflet that seems to be designed to apply across the whole Cyrus range so I gave it a quick look over and then ignored it.  A CD containing an instruction manual is also supplied and I ignored that as well.  I did, however, download the PDF of the manual which proved to be a lot quicker than messing about with a CD.  I guess it is good to have options though.  The Stream Xa comes with 5 digital inputs (2 optical SPDIFs and 3 coaxial SPDIFs) and 3 outputs (1 coaxial SPDIF and 2 RCA analogue outputs).  Using The Cyrus MC-BUS system, it can be completely integrated with other Cyrus products.  A remote control is not supplied but if existing Cyrus users have an iR14 remote then this will also work with the Stream Xa.

The Stream Xa can be connected wirelessly to your home network or via a wired Ethernet connection.  Setup is relatively straightforward once you get used to the navigation of the menu on the front panel display which is controlled by a rotary/push knob and a back button.

I have said this in other streamer reviews in the past and I will no doubt continue to do so in the future: a streamer is only as good as the app that controls it.  Streaming music files should be all about simplicity and versatility.  If using your streamer’s app makes you want to throw your tablet or smartphone through the window, then something is seriously wrong.   I’m happy to report that no tablets, smartphones or windows were damaged during the period of my review.  Cyrus’ Cadence app does everything you need it to, including access to Internet radio, although not quite with the elegance and sophistication of the best apps that I have used.  Currently, the Android version of the app has slightly better functionality than the iOS version but Cyrus have assured me that further development of the app is ongoing and new releases will be forthcoming very soon.

SOUND 

Over a period of several weeks I auditioned the Stream Xa with and without the PSX R2 power supply, switching this in and out regularly. I was immediately impressed by the sound of the Stream Xa on its own.  Well-known recordings revealed subtle textures and nuances.  I’ve often found solo piano recordings to be tricky to reproduce realistically but the Xa took Gina Bachauer’s version of Brahms’ Variations On A Theme By Paganini (Mercury Living Presence) in its stride.  The instrument retained a stable position in the soundstage with the ambience of the recording space being faithfully reproduced.

Adding the PSX R2 to the equation simply made an already good performance better, allowing the Stream Xa to give its all, like adding a drop of water to a cask strength whisky to allow its complex flavours to open up.  This was demonstrated time and again over the review period.

The Stream Xa is genre agnostic; equally at home with the taught rhythms of Fragments In Time from Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories album as with the delicate syncopation  of Nick Drake’s acoustic  guitar on River Man from Five Leaves Left.  The complex interactions between tabla and vocals on The Conference from Nitin Sawhney’s Beyond Skin were easily untangled and practically demanded repeated replaying. This is a piece of equipment that will have you revisiting your whole digital music collection.

CONCLUSION 

The Stream Xa can be readily recommended, whether as part of an existing Cyrus system or as a stand-alone component.  It can also be recommended with or without its accompanying power supply upgrade but if your budget can stretch to cover the additional £695 then it would be silly not to include it.  You can of course start with the Stream Xa and add the PSX R2 when funds permit. 

AT A GLANCE 

Sound Quality: Revealing, detailed and involving.  And with the PSX R2 even more so

Build Quality: Solidly built and exudes an air of reliability

Value For Money: A very good streamer/DAC combo for the money.  Deserves to be auditioned

Pros:

Terrific sound quality

Space-saving compact design may be an advantage for some

Cons:

The Cadence app could be more refined

Space-saving compact design will not be to everyone’s liking

No DSD compatibility

John Scott 

SPECIFICATIONS

Stream Xa 

Outputs:

SPDIF coaxial

Stereo RCA analogue         

PSX-R upgrade port

MC-BUS    

Inputs:

Optical SPDIF         

Coaxial SPDIF         

USB A           

Ethernet  

File/Signal Compatibility:

WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AAC ,MP3, WMA, AIFF 

Maximum signal resolution:

24 bit 192 kHz 

Dimensions (mm):

Height 73

Width 215

Depth 360

Weight 4.7kg 

PSX R2 

Dimensions (mm):

Height 73

Width 215

Depth 360

Weight 7kg

Meze is an interesting newcomer to the headphone and IEM market, a company set up in London in 2009 that wants to change the opinion that you have to spend a fortune to get a good sound. Janine Elliot takes a listen to their £256 Meze Classic 99 headphones. 

The last few years have seen plethora of new cans, some of which I have found extremely disappointing and extremely expensive. Trying to dress up the market with over complicated and highly inefficient headphones requiring step-up amplification strapped onto your portable HiDef player goes against everything I wanted after buying my Sennheiser HD650’s, the first decent headphones that couldn’t be played loud enough on your portable device. Yes I know planar driver designs are not as efficient as conventional loudspeaker drivers, and perhaps portable devices should have better amplification stages, and perhaps many people do actually like to sit listening on headphones next to mains powered headphone amplification.  What Meze have done, after a crowd funded campaign, is produce something I have been waiting ages for; sensitive, good looking and cheap headphones to beat everything else out there.

DESIGN AND COMFORT

The 99 Classic headphones are available as walnut gold, walnut silver, or in the case of the model for review Maple Silver, and if you don’t want a wood finish there is the matt black Neo version.  At around £256 a pair, these are pretty amazing prices. There is no need for a massive driver, as the 32 ohm 40mm Neodymium/Mylar transducer gets low enough, and loud! Sensitivity at 103dB/1kHz/1mW is enviable, and the whole weighs in at 260g minus the cable, meaning long listening is not a pain. Indeed the box and gorgeous hard EVA carrying pouch case weigh more than the 99’s themselves!  With other headphones, such as B&W P5 and Sony MDR-1A, and Audio Technica’s at this price point, there is tough competition out there, but these really are a recommended audition, and with the added good looks plus all the accessories, set them above much of the competition.

The name 99 might have nothing to do with the Kama Sutra or my favourite ice-cream, but these headphones were just as satisfying. Their previous models 55, 66, 73, 88, etc, referred to the diameter of the wooden cabinets. The 99 was the next obvious number and the “crowdfunded” project reached its target in less than 3 days. Not surprising with its looks and cheap price. Indeed, whilst reviewing them, several words came to mind like ‘aMeze’ment and ‘Meze’rly priced. I was, as you might realise, quite impressed, and looking for suitable words. Not only did it look better than the price would suggest, but the carrying pouch and choice of plug-in standard 3.5mm and remote controlled 3.5mm leads made it all the more surprising for the money. There are also airline jack and 1/4inch adapter included, all of which fit in a cute bag kept inside the EVA carrying pouch.  As well as their Meze 11 Classic and Deco earphones at $79 and $49 respectively are now working on the launch of two new earphones, the Meze 12 Classics and Meze 11 Neo. The 12 Classics are built with walnut wood and aluminum while the 11 Neo will have a full aluminum body available in Gun Metal and Iridium. Look out for these as well.

The headphones are designed by Antonio Meze in Romania, a prolific gentleman whose portfolio not only includes headphones – including the gorgeous looking 77 Deco and a few wood-finished IEMs – but also designs for egg beaters, a mouthwash, a skate cycle, ski-pole, water bottles, entry-level mobile phone and tablet designs, and even a digital poker table. Sometimes, though, I did feel his concentration on the design allowed for a few areas important to me to not be so well thought out. Where the manganese sprung steel outer headband makes for good but comfortable pressure, the metal could “ring” if tapped. Perhaps these vocal attributes could be reduced with damping with foam or heat-shrink plastic covering, though would I fear take away some of the good looks. The white cloth-covered cable might perhaps get dirty in the wrong (messy) hands, and if rubbing on my clothes also send the noise through to my ears. However, all these are things seen on many a good headphone, and these ones are particularly comfortable to wear, look expensive and the PU leather full ear-cups are very classy. Topped off with a velvety lush sound, I kept referring to them as Maple Syrup rather than Maple Silver.

Long listening sessions were no stress, unlike many headphones that other reviewers seem to gloat over. The wood itself takes a long process of sanding and finishing, looking like they could come out of a top end Scandinavian furniture store with pride. The self-adjusting headband is covered in that PU leather to match the ear pads. All parts, including the wood, cast zinc and manganese spring steel are connected using nuts and bolts rather than cheap gluing. Internal components are made from ABS and silicone.  Indeed all parts and assembly was meticulously thought out before production.

SOUND

Music was excellent, too, though the bass emphasis and mix of smooth treble and slight mid warmth could make my Pink Floyd ‘The Division Bell’ sound a little confused and less in control than a few quicker, brighter offerings at this price point, though this was more than made up with the bass control. “Lost for Words” with its deep 33Hz ‘C’ drone at the start was poignant. Whereas most of the bass usually disappears when the layered acoustic guitars come in at 45 seconds, these just kept going on until the sound engineer had faded it down. This was fun.

Classical music was just sublime. Indeed the waveform is artificially tweaked with a reduction at around 4kHz to create a more balanced and musical sound. I always wonder why crossovers in speakers tend to happen at the critical 3kHz point, which can make the difference between a good and bad speaker and personally wondered whether an attenuation at 3kHz rather than 4kHz might have worked better.  Or better still, have headphones with a perfectly flat response. Funnily, I actually liked that tailored sound.

Playing with the shorter 1.2m Kevlar OFC remote control cable was OK for use with my X5, iPod or Android phone. The remote was good for playing, pausing, forward and reverse track selection and answering the phone, but it missed out on a volume control, which for me is the most important control of all. For me to play on my Brocksieper and Slee headphone amplifiers I needed to swap this cable for a 3m 3.5mm lead. The headphones have individual 3.5mm sockets to connect the cables, and as the ear-cups are symmetrical it doesn’t matter which plug goes in which cup, as long as you can remember the slight ridge on one of the plugs is for the left ear, as the words L and R are not easily visible in low light.

Playing via a Brocksieper valve headphone amp gave for a more solid, musical rendition for all I played. Connecting to the Lehmann Audio headphone amp/DAC gave resulted in a more defined soundstage and a clarity that opened up my experience. The high density memory-foam ear-pads form an excellent sound isolation, though with my four eyes I could reduce some of that with the temples on my glasses preventing a full “seal”. Indeed, that bass augmentation could be considerably reduced though made the frequency response waveform change considerably for the worse. No, these headphones’ selling point is that bass ‘oomph’, but where other ‘designer’ headphones from some musicians have failed to do this effectively, the Meze excels in this area.   With frequency response of 15-25,000Hz, and nominal input of only 30mW (50mW maximum!), this will work well with any HiDef player or DAC covering all the important frequencies.

Whilst clarity and space of instruments isn’t as profound as many higher priced headphones out there, the musicality from these 99’s is tops. Hendrix’s ‘Purple Haze’ was colourful; lots of power, lots of music, just a little compact in detail, and a bit hazy. The high pitched bell sounds moving around the space between my ears at the end of the track wasn’t as clear as from my choice cans.

I normally imagine myself lying in the middle of a country field or at the seaside when listening to Kate Bush “Prelude” and “Prologue” from ‘Aerial: A Sky of Honey’, and with the 99’s I felt that empty space wasn’t quite so large, more like I was in the local park, but the more forward sound allowed me to home in to much more of the music than some headphones can give, and I really didn’t want to put them back in the box.

The ‘Queen Symphony’ (Tolga Kashif) first movement “Adagio Mysterioso” had impeccable musical warmth that I felt I wanted to curl up in a duvet and imagine I was in some mystical land away from life’s woes, only for the thrust from the brass section between the string and vocal phrases to interrupt that musical theatre.   It was only at 6’40” when the piano makes his entry stage-left that I did feel that the detail just wasn’t quite good enough for me.

CONCLUSION

I really enjoyed playing with these headphones. The sound was rich and fun, all made even better value by the superb carrying pouch and accessories, plus the fact that it has been created by an award winning innovator and designer. Meze might just be a team of 12 people, but this is a company with big ideas, covering the world of design and music, a pairing that too often gets overlooked. My only worries were that the detail of sound was lost to a certain extent by that bass boost, though it was by no means OTT like a number of designer cans favoured by some who should know better.

Musicality was secure and comfort was good. The sound isn’t as clear as my headphones of choice, but those are much more expensive. These cans were like my favourite Belgian chocolate covered ice-cream bars; velvety smooth and you always want one but you know you have to leave them for special occasions.

If you have a limited budget, these Meze 99’s will suggest that you haven’t.

AT A GLANCE
Build Quality:  Very good looking and solidly constructed using real wood and nuts and bolts, not plastic and glue.

Sound Quality:  Excellent musicality with an engaging bass.

Value For Money:  At around £250 these are taking on the competition with force. Since you won’t need a step-up amplifier, it might also save you lots more.

Pros:

Smooth treble
Bass emphasis is appealing
Good looks

Cons:

That Bass emphasis might be too much for some audiophiles
Mid warmth
Tailored frequency response might not appeal to some
Price: £256 (€309)

Janine Elliot

SPECIFICATIONS

Transducer size: 40mm

Frequency response: 15Hz – 25KHz

Sensitivity: 103dB at 1KHz, 1mW

Impedance: 32Ohm

Rated input power: 30mW

Maximum input power: 50mW

Detachable Kevlar OFC cable

Plug: 3.5mm gold plated

Weight: 260 gr (9.2 ounces) without cables

Ear-cups: maple wood