Up to 37% in savings when you subscribe to hi-fi+
Subscribe
hi-fi-white-logo hi-fi-white-logo
hifi-logo-footer

Begin typing your search above and press return to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Archives: Articles

Articles

Peak Consult Sonora

It’s almost twenty years since I first encountered Peak Consult. I recall the then-current Princess model as a modestly sized, yet inordinately heavy, floorstander. It was beautifully and elegantly built, as many Danish products are – real hardwood cabinets gorgeously finished, with leather front facings. The speaker sounded as it looked: beautiful, elegant, and understated, if a little traditional. It was easy to admire, though I never loved it. The Princess’s problem was that it didn’t quite boogie as well; tonally rich and expansive, with exemplary timing and coherence, but dynamically, it could be a little self-contained.

That was then. 

Things are different there now. It all changed with a change of ownership. Wilfried Ehrenholz was seeking a new project to keep him engaged after selling Dynaudio, the loudspeaker company he co-founded. Together with Lennart Asbjørn in the role of CEO, they acquired Peak Consult in 2021, retaining Per Kristoffersen, Peak’s founder, who was put in charge of designing the exquisite cabinets for the model range. 

Per’s talents are strongest in cabinet design and construction, and these are now complemented by Wilfried’s tremendous expertise in loudspeaker and driver development. They engaged the services and measurement facilities of Karl-Heinz Fink’s team for crossover and final tuning development work. The results of all this collaboration have led to a truly remarkable four-model lineup.

The Sonora sits at the bottom of the Peak range (plus a centre-channel speaker if you’re so inclined), but this is about as far from an entry-level product as I have encountered. For starters, the £23k selling price doesn’t exactly scream ‘entry-level’, but also, the construction and overall quality are every bit as good as the larger Sinfonia, El Diablo and Dragon Legacy models that sit above it. 

Any given configuration

Peak’s approach is to create the best loudspeaker possible for any given configuration; there’s no cost-cutting or compromise evident here; it’s not a question of hitting a price point. Wilfried determines the best component, or driver specification, for the task, and that’s what is used, regardless of the ‘bill of materials’ cost. 

Peak Consult - Sonora

The aim for the Sonora was to produce a loudspeaker that rivals Sinfonia, but is easier to accommodate in smaller spaces. To that end, the Sonora is a two-way design, whereas the others are all three-way, with increasing driver complements as you move up the range. It further differs in having a rear-firing auxiliary bass radiator, rather than a ported cabinet. It may be a floorstander, but conceptually, it’s closer to a standmount design. The actual loudspeaker enclosure occupies a little under half the cabinet volume, and an internal divide runs from just below the mid/bass driver to under the ABR at the back. 

fine sand filling

Below this is the crossover, in a space filled with fine sand to isolate the network from structural and airborne vibrational energy. The crossover uses Peak’s Linear Impedance Control technology, which helps keep the loudspeaker impedance as amplifier-friendly as possible.  Alongside the choice of solid hardwood and deep-section HDF for the cabinet itself, the sand-filled base helps explain why each domestic-friendly size cabinet weighs in at a substantial 68 kg.

The front baffle, where the drivers are mounted, is canted backwards for time-alignment, subtly faceted to minimise diffraction effects, and the rear panel slopes forward, avoiding parallel faces. Hence, the cabinet tapers from bottom to top. This taper also helps reduce the impression of size and visual mass, while retaining a footprint broad enough to ensure stability. A gloss black strip of acrylic runs down each side of the cabinet, the better to break up the ‘wooden slab’ appearance of the sides

Domestic-friendly

The ‘domestic-friendly’ aspect is important here; my listening room is not large, roughly 4x4m, and the bass output of the larger, three-way designs can be prodigious, not to mention the somewhat larger and deeper cabinets they occupy. Although the Sonora, Sinfonia, and El Diablo are not hugely different in size, if space is tight, the Sonora is usefully slimmer and shallower, with a footprint much the same as a moderately sized standmount. It also partners my Accuphase DP570/E5000 combination more appropriately from a cost perspective, albeit still around twice the price of the FinkTeam Kims that usually sit there. And comparison with those Kims is worth a quick mention, too.

The Kims’ cabinet volume is larger than the loudspeaker section of the Sonoras, and their 8” bass/mid driver is larger than the Sonora’s 6” design (though the Sonora’s 8” ABR does mean their total bass radiating area is somewhat greater). Two different approaches to getting decent bass output from a modestly-sized driver set, and both are equally successful in their own terms. I’ve previously described the Kim as a standmounter that thinks it’s a floorstander; the Sonora might almost be thought of as a floorstander that thinks it’s a standmount.

Bass performance

And in case you think that driver complement and enclosure volume are definitive in terms of bass performance, be very clear here that the Sonora’s bass is not lacking in depth, weight, or impact, and goes deeper and more complex than the Kim, at the end of the same system.

All Peak loudspeakers arrive with a set of outriggers which mount securely across the underside of the baseplate. A set of snub-nosed, adjustable feet screws through these outriggers, secured on the top side by a cylindrical stainless steel cap that screws down onto a threaded section of the foot and bears against a washer made of a damping polymer material. The combination of outrigger, baseplate and feet forms the interface with the floor, damped to some extent by the washer between the clamping cap and the outrigger’s upper surface.

The feet’s rounded shape obviates the need for floor protectors on hard surfaces, though I experimented with my usual 50mm AcouPlex disc floor protectors under them. And it’s definitely worth experimenting with how the caps, washers, and indeed floor protectors affect the sound during setup. The Sonoras sound different if the caps are screwed down firmly, finger-tight, and in my room, this wasn’t a great success. Nipped up gently was better; just screwed down until the barest resistance was felt against the washer was better still, but in my room, on hard wooden flooring, I got the best results leaving the locking caps off entirely. The threaded part of the foot has a relatively large diameter and screws snugly through the outrigger, so even given the weight, this was entirely secure. The review was mainly conducted with them configured in this manner. 

Sound

Michael Gandolfi’s orchestral suite, ‘The Garden of Cosmic Speculation’ (Telarc, SACD) musically depicts various areas of a real garden inspired by cosmology and physics. It opens with ‘The Zeroroom’ in which pulsating woodwinds lead us into the garden. I found myself thinking, ‘How are they making that pulsing sound?’-something that had never previously occurred to me to wonder, but which is now quite clearly not the usual way these instruments are played. The next track, ‘Soliton Waves’, passes thematic material around the orchestra, and there’s real movement here, a vivid invocation of the propagation of energy. The pizzicato in ‘Passepied’ was, frankly, uncanny, and so it went on.

Almost from the first moment you play music, there is a ‘rightness’ to the sound of the Sonoras. Textures, timbres, pitch and spatial information are resolved so finely and accurately, it’s as though what you’ve experienced before has been an approximation. Instruments sound natural and real; it’s not just timbre, they have texture and form. Pianos have an appropriate sense of mass and size, and vocals are scarily real. The soprano saxophone is an instrument I have real problems with, as it is often strident, brutal, and oppressive. Which is a shame because experienced live, it can be almost ethereal.

Case in point

Jack de Johnette’s ‘Ahmad the Terrible’ from Album Album (ECM) is a case in point. Often, I play this as a test because if the timing doesn’t work, it’s just a bit of a racket. This time, not only was the timing absolutely on the money, but the timbre of John Purcell’s soprano sax breathed like a real instrument; the sax and bass pairing now feels playful, a lighthearted dance like a cakewalk, and it soars over the rest of the ensemble when the groove really gets going.

And insights like these keep coming. Alongside the tonal colours and textures, there’s also a pretty extraordinary level of spatial resolution. Listening to the LSO/Previn account of the Brahms Deutsches Requiem (LSO Live), it’s clear that this was recorded in an auditorium, not a studio. The orchestra and chorus are laid out before you; the scale and space between the various sections are very redolent of a live concert. The impression of effortless realism persists. In the opening ‘selig sind’, the orchestra and choir are clearly being held back; the sense of substantial, powerful forces being restrained is palpable. This is a very humane requiem, and Previn’s evocation of the human spirit comes through very clearly.

Digging deeper

I found myself digging ever deeper into my collection of classical recordings to revel in the structure and organisation the Sonoras bring to large-scale works. Usually, if I find myself gravitating to one genre of music, that’s a warning sign. In the case of the Sonoras, I listened to more classical than usual because I’ve never heard my classical recordings rendered with such a natural sense of scale, form and structure.

Sometimes, it felt like I could resolve sections of the orchestra down to the level of individual instruments; indeed, it became much easier to understand what the composer was trying to do, how they employed the parts of the orchestra, and how the conductor had marshalled the forces at his disposal to bring us their interpretation. Sonora’s ability to organise and keep separate a multitude of interwoven parts is unmatched in my experience, certainly at this price. One aspect of this is the accuracy of pitch information.

Energy and drive

Tearing myself away from large-scale classical: Bokante and the Metropole Orkest, What Heat (Real World) and ‘Fanm’ has massive energy and drive, but still finds space to show us the variety of voices, allowing the music to develop its own shape and form over the powerful ostinato that propels the piece. The various lines are easier to follow partly because you can hear deeper into the music, but also because the pitch information is so finely resolved; you find yourself noticing a line of music because you can follow the melody, or hear how the notes played contribute to the harmony.

Jazz in particular stands or falls on the interrelationship between the performers, so when one performer pulls back and supports another solo, you can still hear their contribution. Renaud Garcia-Fons, from ‘Berimbass’ on Arcoluz (Enja), features the double bass and Spanish guitar as the two leads. When the bass passes the baton to the guitar, it doesn’t stop playing; instead, it contributes to the harmonic structure below and behind the guitar lines. Mostly, I’m just vaguely aware of it, but here and now, I can hear the notes he plays and how they underpin the music.

So…

There is absolutely no doubt that the Peak Consult Sonora is an extraordinarily accomplished and musical loudspeaker. Their ability to resolve timbral, spatial, pitch and timing data is beyond anything else I’ve experienced, and the results are uncannily real. They put the listener in front of a musical event, requiring no willing suspension of disbelief, and they do it without apparent effort or artifice. That also requires them to deliver on the dynamic range, too, and here they are not found wanting either, though this is the area that is most obviously rewarded by careful setup.

Like many products at this capability and price level, the performance the Peak Consult Sonora is capable of requires and expects your attention to setting up, and the rewards when you do amply repay the effort involved. These may not be ‘entry level’ in any meaningful sense of the term, but they could easily be an end-game loudspeaker.

Technical specifications

  • Type: Two-way, passive, floorstanding loudspeaker with sealed enclosure and auxiliary bass radiator
  • Driver complement: One 25mm soft, silk dome Scan-Speak Illuminator tweeter, built to Peak Consult specifications, pair matched to 0.1dB. 
  • One 15cm (6”) audio Technology mid/bass unit, one piece sandwich moulded cone, die cast magnesium chassis with internal magnet system comprising 6 neodymium magnets in star configuration, Kapton voice coil with aluminium wire and hexacoil winding.
  • One 20cm (8”) passive, polypropylene, rear-mounted auxiliary bass radiator.
  • Crossover frequency: 2500 Hz
  • Frequency response: 28Hz – 30kHz (± 3dB) (in room, typical)
  • Impedance: Typical 7Ω, minimum 4Ω
  • Sensitivity: 85dB/W/m
  • Dimensions (HxWxD): 1130 x 280 x 385mm 
  • Weight: 68kg/each
  • Finishes: American Black Walnut/acrylic with leather front trim; pure white or midnight black acrylic with smooth leather front trim
  • Price: £23,000, $25,000, €25,000

Manufacturer

Peak Consult Denmark ApS

www.peak-consult.dk 

UK distributor

MusicWorks (UK) Ltd

www.musicworks-hifi.com

+44(0)161 491 2932

Back to Reviews

 

Quad 33/303

Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.” This aphorism has been circulated for as long as I can remember. However, it is only thanks to the power of the internet that I can assert, with some degree of certainty, that it is formally attributed to the American writer Peter de Vries in his 1959 novel The Tents of Wickedness. Just eight years after that publication, another Peter, Peter Walker, founder of Quad Electroacoustics, released the company’s first solid-state technology amplification system in the form of the 33/303 combination. He referred to them as a control amplifier with a matching power amplifier. 

Pictures used in advertising at the time show a couple sitting in front of a single Quad ESL electrostatic loudspeaker, which was launched in the same year as the amplification system. When I first saw pictures of the new Quad 33/303 combination in the late months of 2024, my first and overwhelming sensation was a wave of nostalgia, reminiscent of what it used to be. Although I was only a teenager when Quads appeared, I was already well aware that the Dansette player I was using might not be the last word in audio reproduction.

Burning a hole

In 1981, with money from a significant commission cheque burning a hole in my pocket, I ventured into a hi-fi shop close to where I worked in Tottenham Court Road, London. After several visits and long chats with the salesman, Lee, I purchased my first ‘proper’ audio system. A Quad 44. control amp, a Quad 405 MkII stereo power amplifier, a pair of Rogers Studio One loudspeakers, a Luxman direct drive turntable and a Luxman cassette player/recorder. That system served me for over a decade until I replaced the 405 with a later Quad design, the 606, while the Rogers gave way to another British design, the Castle Howards.

So why am I dwelling so much on the past? In the intervening decades, I spent tens of thousands of pounds on audio equipment without finding anything that served me better than that original system. Only when I stepped from in front of the counter to behind it in audio retail could I start building what I now consider my ultimate system, which combines terrific sound with domestic acceptability. As a reviewer, I am privileged to hear many different components, which I enjoy hugely. Still, I usually have them here for some time, learn their strengths and occasional weaknesses, write about them, and send them back. I rarely get excited about a forthcoming “guest” component, but when I read about the new Quad33/303 combination, I was bursting with enthusiasm.

Nostalgia was a factor, but so was curiosity and an enduring fondness for the Quad brand.

Enthusiasm justified?

Before we determine whether I was right or wrong to be so enthusiastic, let me describe these brand-new, twenty-first-century versions of the pre- and power amplifiers. They may strongly resemble their ancestors, but they are very much contemporary underneath. Starting with the 33, my first impression when I lifted it from the box was its solidity. It feels sturdy, and the toroidal transformer within it gives it a reassuring weight. Once on the rack and wired up, the LED illumination gives off a wonderful orange glow.

Looking at the front panel, on the left is a rotary control for volume, and below that are four rectangular buttons marked Aux 1, Aux 2, Aux 3, and XLR. To their right are two small black circles: one serves as the receiver for the remote control, and the other is a full-size headphone input. To the right are four rectangular buttons: Phono, Tone, Backlight, and Standby. Above that is the backlit LED screen, which displays the amount of bass adjustment applied, the amount of tilt dialled in, and whether the balance has been adjusted. These three functions are controlled via rotary controls above the LED screen.

Tilt?

So, what is Tilt? Peter Walker developed this idea because he felt that separate tone controls were inadequate and clumsy. Quad says, “The Tilt control differs in that it adjusts both ends of the frequency spectrum together, either attenuating the bass and lifting the treble or lifting the bass and attenuating the treble in 1dB steps.

“It rotates – or tilts – the audible frequency range on a 700Hz axis, thereby adjusting the overall sound balance with ‘warm’ or ‘cool’ hints without altering volume or adding colour to the sound. This feature is unique to QUAD and offers a subtle, precise, and consistent way to adjust your system’s performance and compensate for recordings or environments.” My old Quad 44 was equipped with a Tilt control, so this was not a new concept for me, but it may take some acclimatisation for someone new to Quad.

Switchgear

The rear panel features an IEC input socket for mains power, located at the bottom left. Above that is an on/off rocker switch. The next cluster of sockets relates to output. There are two pairs of XLRs and two pairs of RCAs, allowing the user to choose either. Additionally, a second pair of output RCAs is marked ‘Aux’ for connection, for example, to a subwoofer. The right-hand side is given over to inputs, comprising a pair of XLRs and two pairs of RCAs, with two additional pairs of RCAs positioned above them. The right-hand ones are specifically for access to the built-in phono stage.

There is a grounding pin to the right of those. A small pair of sockets for the 12V trigger system is also available to power up the 33 and the matching 303 power amplifier simultaneously. The supplied remote control is excellent, allowing access to the tone controls and the inputs while giving precise level settings for the volume.

Faithful

Turning to the 303 power amplifier, the designers at Quad have remained faithful to the original version in terms of size and shape but have again built a contemporary piece of engineering within the familiar exterior. At the flip of a switch on the rear panel, the 303 can be used as a standalone stereo amplifier, delivering 50W per channel into an eight-ohm load or 70W into a four-ohm load. It offers the user the choice of XLR or RCA connections to a pre-amplifier, two pairs of multi-way binding posts, and an IEC input socket with an on/off rocker switch above it. The front features a single orange rectangular switch in the lower centre, which activates the unit and is illuminated when the power is on. 

I started the review using a single 303 in stereo mode. I connected the visiting Gold Note CD5 using Tellurium Q Ultra Silver II XLR cables, and the guest turntable, a Michell Orbe SE, fitted with Michell’s own Cusis M moving coil cartridge in the Michell TechnoArm A-II, was plugged into my own Gold Note PH10/PSU phono stage. This was connected with Vertere RedLine RCA cables to the 33. My pair of Harbeth Compact 7ES XD loudspeakers completed the system, connected to the 303 using Tellurium Q Ultra Silver II cables.

Listening To the 33/303 

As I do not own a standalone DAC, and the 33 is strictly an analogue-only device, I used only CD and vinyl throughout the sojourn of the Quads at Kelly Towers. I let the units warm up for a day with a selection of compact discs before starting to do any serious listening, but even cold from the box, I was struck by the engaging nature of the sound being delivered.

The first CD to be loaded into the Gold Note’s drawer was an Audio Fidelity gold CD, issued in 2011, of Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s eponymous first album from 1969. As the opening notes of the first track, ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’, poured into the room, I was drawn into the music. Stephen Stills and his bandmates had wandered into my room and were positioned just ahead of the loudspeakers. Their voices were clear, well-defined and, for me at least, as lovely as ever. I had intended to play just a few tracks, but could not tear myself from my chair until the last track ended. 

Terrific

I played a couple more compact discs, then switched to vinyl, and was not surprised that from the outset, this sounded terrific. As I was on a Stephen Stills kick, the first album onto the Orbe SE’s platter was an original 1972 copy of Manassas on the Atlantic label. Although Stills’ name is prominent on the cover, this is truly a band effort, and all the better for it. The four sides each have a theme, and side one is titled ‘The Raven’, and starts with the rocking ‘Song Of Love’ and ends with the gorgeous ‘Both Of Us (Bound To Lose)’, on which Stills shares the writing credit with Chris Hillman, formerly of the Byrds, but a key member of this band. The music had real rhythmic drive, and with the volume advanced halfway through, it was an awe-inspiring performance. 

Unable to resist, I reconfigured the system, adding the second 303 I had been sent and now running a pair of them, bridged to mono. The power output was increased to 140W into an eight-ohm load and 170W into a four-ohm load. I cued up Manassas again and lowered the stylus onto the black disc. Oh my goodness! The same music positively leapt from the Harbeths, transporting me to the studio with the band and encouraging me to listen to their contribution while immersed in the overall sound.

Keep playing

Record after record followed because this system made me want to keep playing music. From modern pop, à la George Ezra, through 1950s jazz, to rock, folk, classical, and electronica, the 33/303 trio delivered. Two final system changes were made to complete the review process. First, the Gold Note PH10 was disconnected from the 33, and Michell’s cables were attached to the phono input on the pre-amplifier. Setting up the Moving Coil was a straightforward process. I cued up the second side of my early 1970s pressing of Pink Floyd’s Meddle. I sat through the 20+ minutes of ‘Echoes’, absolutely absorbed in the complex music. This fine phono stage is quiet when not in use and will make a fine match with many mainstream cartridges.

Lastly, I removed the Harbeths from the system and replaced them with a pair of Wharfedale Super Lintons mounted on their dedicated stands. Again, I allowed the newcomers some time to warm up before sitting to listen more closely. What a team they make, the Quads and the Lintons. Yes, this turned the nostalgia to 11, as I had lived with a pair of original Lintons in the early 1970s. However, this modern version is a better-built and sounding device than its illustrious forebear. Modern drive units, a carefully designed crossover, and significantly higher-quality cabinetry and internal bracing make this new version impossible to ignore at its price point. That said, I found this whole system’s visually retro appeal irresistible. 

Warmer

At the end of the review period, I reluctantly dismantled this system. I liked the way it looked at the other end of our lounge, and I also enjoyed the sound it created. If you have grown up with modern audio equipment, the Quads are slightly less analytical, perhaps a tad warmer tone than you are accustomed to. However, you will not want to hear details or musical communication.

If I were buying and had the budget, I would go for the 33 with a pair of 303s. You will own a first-class amplification system for under £4,000 here in the UK. If they were coming here, I would site each 303 close to the speaker, which would drive the use of XLR to carry the signal the width of the listening room for the 33, requiring much shorter runs of loudspeaker cable.

I would also set up the 12V trigger system so the 303s woke up when I took the 33 off standby. More than once during the first days of their stay, I took the 33 out of standby, cued up some music, and then was momentarily puzzled by the absence of music, having forgotten to wake up the power amplifiers. They turn themselves to standby mode if they detect no signal for a period. My feeble excuse is that my amplifier is integrated, so I never have to take that extra step.

Streaming?

If you prefer to stream your music, remember that the 33 will require you to connect an external DAC, as it is resolutely analogue only. I enjoyed the forced abandonment of my iPad and a full-time return to using physical media. One unexpected but welcome consequence was that I listened to whole albums, undistracted by fiddling with an app to find the next piece to play. 

It came as no surprise that the Quad/Harbeth combination worked so well. I know that Alan Shaw, who designs Harbeth loudspeakers, uses a Quad 405 Mk II as one of the tools in his development laboratory. However, I am sure the amplifiers will work well with many modern loudspeakers. They have enough power to stir even the most challenging loads into musical action.

When the Quads arrived, I fell for their looks. By the time they left, I had fallen for their performance. These are a first-class, carefully conceived, and brilliantly executed homage to Quad’s illustrious history, but should appeal equally to those unfettered by the remembrance of times past and are highly recommended. 

Technical specifications

Quad 33

  • Type: Line and Phono Preamplifier with headphone amplifier
  • Inputs: 3 x RCA, 1 x Balanced XLR (pair), 1 x Phono (MM/MC switchable)
  • Outputs: 1 x RCA (AUX), 1 x XLR, 1 x RCA (Pre Out), 1 x Headphone, 2 x 12V Trigger Out
  • Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz (±0.2dB)
  • THD: <0.0005% (1kHz, Line/XLR), <0.002% (1kHz, Phono MM / MC)
  • Signal-to-Noise Ratio: > 108dB (A-weighted, Line/XLR), > 82dB (A-weighted, Phono MM), > 74dB (A-weighted, Phono MC)
  • Output Impedance: 120Ω
  • Headphone amplifier output impedance: 2.35Ω
  • Headphone amplifier load impedance: 20-600Ω
  • Dimensions (WxHxD): 25.8×8.3×16.5cm
  • Weight: 4kg
  • Price: £1,199, $1,599, €1,499

Quad 303

  • Type: Class AB bridgeable stereo power amplifier
  • Inputs: RCA stereo pair, XLR stereo pair, 12V trigger
  • Outputs: Loudspeaker terminals, 12V trigger
  • Rated power output: Stereo: 2 x 50W (8Ω, THD<1%), Bridged: 140W (8Ω, THD<1%)
  • Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz (±0.3dB)
  • THD: <0.002% (1kHz)
  • Signal-to-Noise Ratio: > 108dB (A-weighted)
  • Input impedance: 15kΩ (Line), 22kΩ (XLR)
  • Dimensions (WxHxD): 12×17.6×32.5cm
  • Weight: 8.4kg
  • Price: £1,199, $1,599, €1,499

Manufacturer

Quad Hi-Fi

www.quad-hifi.co.uk

+44(0)1480 452561

More from Quad

Back to Reviews

 

Scions: To Cry Out In The Wilderness

Scions is a Canadian musical ensemble featuring members from notable groups such as the minimalist chamber-jazz quartet New Hermitage, the Polaris-nominated drone-hymn duo Joyful Joyful, and producer/composer Michael Cloud Duguay. This is probably as near as it gets to a Canadian jazz ‘supergroup’, only hopefully without the histrionics and the crazy backstage riders that came with rock supergroups.

The group’s origins trace back to an improvised performance at the Sappyfest music festival in New Brunswick in 2022, where New Hermitage and Joyful Joyful collaborated live with Duguay. Following an enthusiastic response, the group solidified their collaboration, with Duguay transitioning to the role of producer and musical director.

In early 2023, Scions spent a week at a residency on Wolfe Island, Ontario, crafting original music through collective improvisations. Their sound draws from free jazz, experimental choral traditions, and orchestral composition, exploring themes like climate disaster, dystopia, and healing through sound. Recorded in Halifax’s historic St. George’s Round Church, their debut album To Cry Out In The Wilderness merges influences from jazz, drone, folk, and beyond.

While Joyful Joyful’s Cormac Culkeen’s vocals play a prominent role, this is truly a group effort. To Cry Out In The Wilderness incorporates each member’s unique contributions to create a bold and experimental soundscape that spans an eclectic array of musical traditions, spanning everything from the spiritual influences of Pharoah Sanders to the post-rock of fellow Canadians Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and even pushing into avant-garde territory – but don’t worry, it’s fantastic!

The opening track, ‘Moss Lung’, firmly places the album in the avant-garde arena. It starts with laboured breathing that builds into the sound of an enveloping storm. Snatches of instrumentation emerge, resembling an orchestra tuning up in an open concert hall across a tumultuous moorland landscape. It’s unsettling, yet beautiful.

‘Even When All Was Silent I Was Not Alone’ introduces vocals, with Culkeen’s delivery using their voice as an instrument, rather than your standard singing. The drawn-out effect is drone-like in intensity, as sax, harp, violin, and other elements create an emotionally charged six minutes.

‘The Mountain’ continues with mournful strings and multitracked vocals. The crashing percussion builds, evoking the feeling of a mountain collapsing, before bowed double bass brings a sense of calm. It’s like the score to a Film Noir movie that never got made.

‘To Cry Out In The Wilderness’, both the title track and the album’s spiritual heart, is close to 10 minutes long. It reflects the band’s environmental concerns, especially through a spoken-word story centred on the timber industry. Shimmering harps and electronics depict a majestic natural landscape, grounded by words that remind us of Earth’s peril.

‘Fight Song’, the album’s lead single, initially gave an incomplete impression of the album. It leans more toward almost Jefferson Airplane like folk, though it ends with an electric guitar solo and a section of distorted radio reception that builds into a powerful finale.

‘Equals In Hope’ is a superbly paced, longer piece with strings, swelling percussion, and an electronic backdrop, leading directly into the closing track, ‘Over’, a two-minute fading drone that flows seamlessly from the previous track.

This leaves this exceptionally creative album ending on a low-key note, leaving you wanting to hear more from both Scions and the individual artists who form the group.

Back to Music

Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature

Rockna’s outstanding Wavedream DAC is now a decade old. It pushed the limits of what could be extracted from a digital signal at its price and beyond. However, technology has progressed. The new Wavedream Reference Signature DAC is the result. It’s a DAC that stands toe-to-toe with the best. Do not assume this ‘Reference’ DAC is just a ‘tarted up’ version of the original. This is the outcome of years of research and development on Rockna’s part. The result is a new product and a complete brand transformation. So, no big deal, then!

However, Rockna, old and new, remains dedicated to doing everything correctly. Rockna shuns the ordinary and opts for proprietary hardware and custom software throughout. No off-the-shelf solutions, such as DAC chips, OEM streaming modules, or signal op-amps, are used here. Instead, it continues to uphold its core ethos of creating original products that look appealing on the outside and feature elegant technical solutions beneath the surface.

Not a crank

Audiophiles spend considerable time discussing the brand and model of DAC chips within our converters. We liken them to the ‘engine’ of digital audio, though ‘crankshaft’ or even ‘flywheel’ might be more fitting. The other elements of the digital audio circuit, such as sample rate conversion, clock accuracy, filtration, and the nature of the conversion algorithm, are all more significant than who ‘fabbed’ the silicon. 

Rockna’s ‘chip’ is an evolution of the DAC modules in the original Wavedream DAC. The modules remain a discrete sign-magnitude hybrid ladder array driven by an algorithm embedded into their FPGA (field-programmable gate array). They can sustain rates up to 6 MHz, and the output of the DAC modules is unbuffered.

Although the digital ‘architecture’ resembles the Wavedream, the ‘town planning’ (circuit layout) differs significantly. The Reference Signature features a 10-layer central core board for the digital front-end processing and the network renderer. It also features a new dedicated low-noise power supply board and new conversion boards in a symmetrical configuration, two for each channel. To preserve and maintain signal integrity, the clock and data signal paths were shortened and featured higher-quality board-to-board connectors. 

Linear supply

Unlike many DAC designs, the Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature features linear power supplies primarily. There are always pre-regulator stages, and each stage has additional local regulation. Twenty power integrated circuits drive roughly 90,000µF of capacitance.. The audio-grade toroid transformers are concealed beneath a thick copper sheet that serves as a shield. A similar copper cage also shields the display.

An AMD ZynQ MPSoC (Multi-Processor System on Chip) handles general processing, running under a custom Linux kernel. This is a planet-sized sledgehammer to crack a nut; the ZynQ has more than enough processing power to cope with even the toughest audio operations. Nothing we can put in its path will trouble this circuit. 

The last stage of the signal path is the analogue output stage. Designed from scratch to work with the new conversion modules, it is discrete and acts as a high-speed buffer. Combining JFET and bipolar devices into a class A design, the Wavedream Reference Signature’s output stage features a low closed-loop output impedance and equivalent input noise as low as 1nV/√Hz.

Sample conversion

Arguably, the most significant difference Rockna has over most of its rivals is its removal of any ASRC, or asynchronous sample-rate converter. When moving the audio information from the digital to the analogue domain, the clock system plays a critical role in giving the sound a sense of realism and dimensionality. Most DACs take the easy route by relying on the ASRC built into their chipset. While the ASRC may have a distinctive signature, the quality of the ASRC implemented in DAC chips is influenced more by cost and silicon real estate than by outright performance. Instead, the Wavedream Reference Signature uses an advanced, ASRC-free digital PLL clock solution.

The Wavedream upsamples any material at a fixed rate of 16x. The DAC modules decode the digital stream at either 768 kHz or 705.6 kHz, depending on the input sample rate. Rockna claims this rate is optimal for the analogue performance of the DAC modules.

Processing power

Upsampling is closely linked with the filter options and relies heavily on processing power to perform effectively. Rockna opted against standard Nyquist-Shannon filters, believing they do not deliver the desired performance for the DAC. Instead, after conducting extensive mathematical simulations and meticulous listening tests, Rockna developed a custom Parks-McClellan upsampling filter with variations for linear, minimum-phase, and hybrid-phase responses. In the linear phase, the ringing energy (Gibbs’ overshoot) is evenly distributed before and after the impulse. The minimum phase type displays all this energy following the impulse. In contrast, the hybrid phase filter presents a combined response between linear and minimum, showing very low overshoot before the impulse. There are also selectable dither and DSD bandwidth settings.

We’ve concentrated on the internal layout, but the styling has been gently revised, moving forward while echoing the previous models so they won’t look out of place on the same rack. At the centre of the front panel is an 800×480 pixel, 3.5” touch panel, and there is a control app (for set-up rather than day-to-day operation). The rear includes low-impedance XLR and RCA outputs. 

This is more than just a DAC. The Wavedream Reference Signature features a network renderer that seamlessly integrates into the DAC’s digital front end. There is no separate ‘streamer section’ on board, as it’s part of the software built into the FPGA. This removes the need for a dedicated external connection and unnecessary obstacles in the digital signal path. There is even a 32-bit volume control that operates in 0.5dB steps; while most will choose a preamp to take on that task, it’s not a bad option, even at low listening levels.

Job well done

There’s a lot of technology here, and I’m not sure which part contributes to the Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature’s outstanding sound quality, but whatever it is, it does the job correctly. It also didn’t matter how the track reached the Rockna, whether on a spinning disc, in a local store, or online; it delivered a good performance regardless.

I started the listening with ‘Paradis Perdu’ by Christine and the Queens [Chaleur humaine, Because]. His voice is played extremely naturally, with excellent vocal articulation. It’s always helpful to not use your native language here, as your brain doesn’t fill in the lost diction or increased spitchiness, and as I’ve been known to order a fried orange in suitcase sauce in France, this is a great track. It’s also extremely well produced with excellent separation between instruments, which is brought out perfectly with the Wavedream Reference Signature.

More significantly, there’s a sense of ordered refinement to the sound, regardless of what you play. And by that, I mean ‘jazz covers of AC/DC songs’ [Jens Thomas, Speed of Grace, ACT] and ‘Hollow (16 Bit Remix)’ by Björk [Bastards, One Little Independent] and ‘Glory Box’ [John Martyn, The Church With One Bell, Independiente]. Each delivered a sound far less like ‘digital’ (with no glare or top-end detail), but not like a faked vinyl version. If anything, they sounded like really well-produced open-reel tape, but not one that had been played to pieces.

Part of the reason it sounds less digital than usual is the lithe and legato nature of the performance. In the wrong hands, this could sound saccharine and overly polished, but the Rockna treads a careful line between sounding refined and elegant and overly refined and ornate. 

Musical Rodeo

Of this flurry of tracks, the Björk is particularly telling. This is more like a musical rodeo than the kind of track you’ll want to sit down and listen to. Interesting, gut-rumbling noises aside in the introduction, when the broken beats and her singing kick in, the sound is pretty forward and can pitch into brightness. It’s never a ‘pretty’ sound, but the Rockna’s ability to process music with refinement and grace makes it more listenable. You can listen to the whole track without wincing, and that’s impressive. Replace ‘Björk’ with ‘harpsichord’ (it’s an easy mistake to make), and the same holds; the plucked sound can be grating on the wrong system, while others overcompensate and make the sound too legato. Here, it was just right.

Digital audio has a punctuated equilibrium. Nothing really changes, with only minor differences in performance over the years. Then, there are significant leaps in performance over the course of a couple of years. This is one of those times. The Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature DAC is a perfect example of just how good digital is today. It joins that select handful of products where you can find ‘different’ in digital, but not ‘better’, no matter the price. 

Technical specifications

  • Type: R2R based DAC/Network Audio Processor
  • Inputs: LAN, USB, I2S on HDMI, AES/EBU on XLR, S/PDIF coaxial and Toslink
  • Outputs: RCA and XLR
  • Audio Renderer support: Roon bridge, UPnP, OpenHome, AirPlay, HQPNAA, Spotify Connect
  • Standards supported: PCM to 705.6/768kHz, DSD to DSD512
  • THD: -102dB (-3dB)
  • DNR: 139dB
  • Finish: Matt black, matt silver
  • Dimensions (WxHxD): 45 x 39 x 10.5 cm
  • Weight: 10kg
  • Price: £23,999, $26,600, €26,600

Manufacturer

Rockna Audio

www.rockna-audio.com

UK distributor

Audiofreaks

www.audiofreaks.co.uk

+44(0)208 948 4153

More from Rockna

Back to Reviews

Quiescent T500VA

I’m getting emotional as I listen to David Sylvian’s ‘Praise (Pratah Smarami)’ from the album Dead Bess On A Cake [Virgin]. I don’t know why. All I know is that I’m listening to the Quiescent T500VA Balanced Mains Supply with Peak power cables. I’m grateful that talented people in companies like Quiescent understand the electrical noise present in our modern world. It corrupts the delicate signals required to reproduce music, making me feel the way I do. 

This was my first experience with a balanced power supply. I was fascinated by the Quiescent T500VA, with its inherent anti-noise properties and other innovations discussed later. I recently replaced the electrical mains power supply to my HiFi (see issue 237). The results have been fantastic, and the Quiescent T500VA was connected to that supply. Another reason I was fascinated is that I use a complete loom of Nordost Odin mains cables via a QB8 MkII mains block. It’s a high-end reference, which the T500VA would replace. 

Easy set-up

The beautifully designed, engineered, and manufactured Quiescent T500VA can be positioned horizontally or, in my case, vertically, like an old tower PC. Power input was provided by the wall socket using a Nordost Valhalla 1 cable. From the TV500VA, there are two types of power output: four balanced, primarily for low-power, sensitive electronics, and two direct, for high-power components. I used the balanced outputs to my dCS Rossini Apex DAC Player, dCS Rossini world clock, and my David Berning preamplifier. I tried the direct connections to each of my David Berning QZ Mono power amplifiers. 

The output connections from the TV500VA use the Neutrik powerCON insert-twist-lock-click connectors. Therefore, Quiescent supplied their Peak mains cables (tested in Issue 205) from the T500VA to connect to my components. I found the Peak mains cables interesting because they include 10% silver-filled oxygen-free copper, Teflon, and air dielectric. These are similar to the ingredients in the wires I usually use, albeit in a completely different configuration. A higher level of mains cable is also available in the form of the Apex, which is 100% silver. 

Quiescent also sent me Apex Couplers (reviewed in issue 197), which work brilliantly under the Quiescent T500VA to address electrical vibrations further.

Addressing the Vibes

There’s a helpful analogy; for once, it involves no cars, watches, or cameras. Instead, think of a flat pond. Throw in a pebble and watch the waves radiate out. When the waves hit the pond’s edge, new waves reflect and interfere with the original. Damping/absorbing those reflected waves is the goal. However, they need to be “critically” damped – not too much or too little – so the original waves suffer no interference at any time.

In a call with Nigel Payne, he explained how the Quiescent T500VA is the culmination of lessons learnt from his involvement with Vertex and the formation of his company, Quiescent.  Specifically, the focus remains on addressing vibrations caused by electricity when it is excited and energised. This causes high-frequency electrical fields, which result in radiofrequency and electromagnetic interference. Notably, Nigel couples this with the recognition that capacitors do not behave linearly as simple reservoirs at high frequencies, where they cease to conduct. The result is electrical standing waves/resonances, which, as he has observed, interfere with the original audio signal —the waves that reflect.

So, where does all this high-frequency noise come from? These days, one significant source is something that in modern civilisation we cannot live without – switch-mode power supplies (SMPS) that convert high-voltage AC into low-voltage DC. SMPSs can switch at frequencies ranging from a few kHz to a few MHz, so our hi-fi systems certainly pick them up. There are large industrial versions (multi-car battery chargers) to tiny SMPS in things like LED lights. However, not all SMPSs are evil! Some brilliant implementations exist in hi-fi, but others don’t care about our needs. Quiescent cares!

First Listen

My first listening session could have been better. The musical magic had gone. It was lifeless and dull, and piano notes lost their sparkle and bell-like quality. The music felt slow. I wasn’t that interested in listening. The Engineer in me said I must’ve done something wrong, and it will be something fundamental. A call with Nigel revealed that sometimes, there can be a mismatch between a balanced power supply and valve-based amplifiers. 

I connected the power directly to my David Berning Pre One valve preamplifier. The pre-amp has the option of a 230V AC direct input (that the Quiescent T500VA was feeding) or 12V DC (bypassing the internal power converter). I have a Linear Tube Audio (LTA) linear power supply that converts externally to provide 12V DC. Nigel suggested using the LTA powered by the T500VA. Bingo! The musical magic came back and more. The lesson here is that if you try the T500VA at home and don’t hear an improvement, take advice from your dealer.

Listening, joy

We all know the feeling: You make a good change to the hi-fi. You know that because you rediscover old favourite music with a wonderful new perspective, and you’re blown away. The new musical experience takes your breath away. This is the Quiescent T500VA effect. 

“Oh, wow!” That was my reaction listening to ‘I Dream of Spring’ and ‘Coming Home’ by k.d. lang from the album Watershed [Nonesuch]. Her pristine, expressive vocals combined with musical arrangements that include drum machine samples and banjos in a way that should not work. However, it does because the T500VA’s ability to integrate music at interfaces cleanly and naturally adds to the musical flow. 

I also noticed an improvement in low-level, low-frequency articulation, such as sounds like gentle, soft pitter-patters from percussive instruments. I could feel the texture of those instruments, combined with the slow push of air. This added to the physical presence of the music.

‘Drowned World/Substitute For Love’ by Madonna from the album Ray of Light [Maverick/Warner Bros] has been a family favourite since its release in 1998. The T500VA gave me a new and welcome, wonderfully intimate, close, and involving experience, further underlining my belief that this is Madonna’s best album ever. 

Low-frequency information

The Quiescent T500VA’s ability to articulate low-frequency information is mesmeric. When listening to ‘Kid A’ by Radiohead from the album Kid A [Capitol Records], the decay on lower notes felt longer, with a richer texture and more tonal colour. Like the title track ‘Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ by Lana Del Rey [Polydor], there is a greater sense of acoustic space on an already wonderfully spatial track. 

The soundstage is different. It doesn’t seem to impress by not impressing. There’s a sense of proportion which feels even more creative. I wonder if that was the high-frequency intermodulation distortion?

Something occurred to me during my listening sessions – they were all brilliant! Whether real or perceived, there are some days and hours when the system sounds much better. For me, it is Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings. Who knows why? Is it geography, the architecture of the local power supplies, how they are connected, plus a hundred other things? I’d say yes to all. The point of the T500VA is to eliminate electrical noise in and around the hi-fi. The fact that every day is now an excellent listening day suggests the Quiescent is doing a fantastic job dealing with external electrical noise that is usually out of our control.

Value for money? 

On the face of it, the T500VA is a significant investment. Add five Peak power cables, and you’re looking at around £22,000. However, if you consider upgrading to the most high-end power cables, that would only get you one, not the five I need. Factoring that your system could, as in my case, sound its best much more of the time, the T500VA and Peak power cables now look like an excellent value for money. Suppose you are considering upgrading to high-end power cables because you appreciate the significant difference they can make. You must also factor in a home demo of the T500VA balanced mains power supply. The ultimate recommendation is to ask myself if I could live happily ever after with a T500VA in my system? You bet. 

Technical specifications

  • Type: Balanced mains supply
  • Input: C16 socket, 230-240V AC, 50-60Hz
  • Max Power Load: 2,200W
  • Power output: Balanced -115-0-115V AC up to -120-0-120V AC, 50-60Hz Neutrik PowerCON (total max load 750W) utilising common mode noise rejection (sockets 1-4), Direct 230-240V AC, 50-60Hz Neutrik PowerCON with total max. load 1,500W (sockets 5,6).
  • Output sockets: Quiescent proprietary mechanical and EMI/RFI absorption and grounding. Inline mechanical and EMI/RFI isolation module. Independent Balanced and Direct isolated rear panel sub-plates for maximum mechanical separation of sensitive source components from high-power electronics.
  • Isolation technology: Custom-wound fully balanced toroid transformer directly coupled to patented QPower™ module. In and out high-speed shunt filter and inline EMI/RFI absorption.
  • Finish:  Bead blasted natural or black anodised high-grade aluminium and non-metallic top.
  • Dimensions (HxWxD): 14x44x43cm
  • Weight: 28kg
  • Price: £16,300

Manufacturer

Quiescent

www.quiescent.co.uk

More from Quiescent

Back to Reviews

Master Fidelity NADAC, D NADAC C

It’s not every day that a DAC is launched built around an actual one-bit application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Design lead at Master Fidelity’s Vancouver facility, Weishen Xu, believes his team’s proprietary DAC chip is actually the first since the TDA 1547 by Philips in 1988. To own one of Master Fidelity’s chips, we need to buy Master Fidelity’s newly-launched DAC, the NADAC D. Together with its accompanying master clock, the NADAC C, they come in at a cool £50,000.

A long-time Canadian citizen, Xu was a recording engineer before diving deep into the world of DAC and clock design. He says that the Philips chip was ‘an incredible accomplishment’. Still, he suggests that one of the reasons it has remained a one-off for so long is that the theoretical benefits of single-bit conversion – its linearity, low noise floor, wide dynamic range, and comparative absence of artefacts – proved impossible to realise due to the then limitations of surrounding technology. Designers were put off the scent, and they went in different directions to provide us with resistor ladders, the now ubiquitous multi-bit DAC chip, and, more recently, DACs implemented on field-programmable gate arrays and complex programmable logic devices.

Extreme timing

Xu’s verdict on using generic programmable devices to run one-bit D-to-A code? Close, but no cigar. He says true one-bit DACs require extreme timing precision to deliver on their sonic promise. His application-specific integrated circuit DAC allows ultra-precise circuit matching, enabling those strict timing demands to be met more easily. Optimised for audio use, a one-bit ASIC also allows a more idealised conversion to analogue than do generic programmable devices.

It might be easier to dismiss these points as mere marketing spin if it were not the case that being the first in more than three decades to develop a fully custom one-bit ASIC has cost Master Fidelity a simply eye-watering sum. Xu reveals that designing a chip from initial development to receiving test samples takes at least 10 months, and Master Fidelity went through several iterations over four years before settling on a final design.

Then there’s the production barrier. Wafer fabrication facilities don’t accept small orders, so Master Fidelity had to partner with established chip companies to reduce the unit cost to something semi-reasonable. Even so, the price per chip – he declines to put a number on it – is ‘very substantial’, so much that due to the low sales volumes that typify the high-end, Master Fidelity may offer the chip as an OEM component to other audio manufacturers to speed up its return on investment. Xu says Master Fidelity won’t quite be selling off the crown jewels since the performance of the one-bit chip is heavily reliant on the quality of thought and execution that goes into the circuitry surrounding it.

How low can you go?

As Xu notes, true one-bit DSD technology needs precise clocking. In particular, digital wander below 10Hz can affect high-frequency jitter. The NADAC D’s internal clock for USB has a claimed jitter of less than 800 femtoseconds over the 10 Hz to 100 kHz bandwidth. In contrast, the intrinsic clock recovery jitter (for S/PDIF over coax input) is claimed to be less than one picosecond over the same bandwidth. Students of jitter mitigation will recognise those as strong figures, but connecting the DAC to the 10 MHz clock signal from partnering NADAC C clock reduces jitter even further to 66 femtoseconds, with phase noise of -140 dBc at 10 Hz and -160 dBc at 100 kHz. While that’s not quite industry-leading, it’s not far off.

The name NADAC was first applied to a high-end consumer DAC and clock combination sold by the professional studio brand Merging Technologies of Puidoux, Switzerland, starting in 2015. It had been co-developed for Merging Technologies by the Merging Fidelity team at its Vancouver facility. Acquired by the Sennheiser Group in 2022, Merging Technologies was refocused by its new owner solely on the professional market. However, by then, Merging Fidelity’s development team had already made significant progress on a next-generation NADAC. Rather than writing off the investment, Merging Fidelity rebranded its Canadian operation as Master Fidelity, assigning it the task of completing the project and bringing the result to the consumer market.

Similar visuals

The new NADAC D and C have a similar visual aesthetic to the old Merging Technologies’ NADAC product line. They remain full-width, matt, natural aluminium components, but now feature 11x6cm full-colour touch screens. Aside from the different displays, it’s on the inside that things get really interesting. Lift the lid of the NADAC D and it’s evident the lengths to which Master Fidelity’s design team have gone to provide the one-bit chips with that optimum supportive environment.

Apart from the customised Amanero USB interface software and USB hardware specially optimised by Master Fidelity, the DAC is entirely proprietary. It features five independent power supplies: one linear and three switching supplies, plus an oven-controlled power supply dedicated to the one-bit ASICs. The clock recovery stage processes incoming S/PDIF signals
before being passed to an up-sampling module running Master Fidelity’s proprietary code. This module converts PCM signals up to 96kHz into DSD 128, and PCM from 176.4kHz to 384kHz into DSD 256. DoP signals remain unprocessed.

After the DSD is converted to analogue by the one-bit chips (one per channel), a Master Fidelity fully balanced, digitally controlled, lossless analogue attenuator provides 3dB step adjustments or can be bypassed for use with an external controller. The 4V balanced (2V single-ended) analogue output stage is implemented with discrete components.

We will rock you

The review sample NADAC D was connected via USB to an i3 NUC running Roon, then fed PCM and DSD files of mixed resolution from Qobuz and local storage. A Jay’s Audio CDT3MK3 CD transport was used as a second source, connected to the DAC via S/PDIF. The NADAC D and CD transport were both fed 10 MHz clock signals from the NADAC C via 50 Ohm coax. A Life-Changer Audio icOn 5 Balanced line controller fed the analogue signal to Quiescent T100MPA monoblocks driving PMC MB2se speakers.

If we consider the DAC and clock as one product – they are, after all, intended to be bought together – then the NADAC turned out to be the third new product in the last 12 months that has truly rocked my world. What made the experience all the more special was that all were in residence at the same time. 

The icOn 5 Balanced line controller and Quiescent’s T100MPA monoblocks are the most transparent and tonally and dynamically faithful attenuation and gain combination that I have heard to date, and that’s why the bought-and-paid-for review samples are now the core of the household audio system.

New reference

Through them, the NADAC combination set a new reference for transparency and musical engagement, certainly at its price, and quite possibly beyond.

I cannot remember which writer for Stereophile coined the observation in the early 2000s that …’ there’s more ‘there’ there.’ It might be a slight torturing of the English language (three ‘there’ in one sentence!) and it wasn’t in this context, of course, but it just as well fits the NADAC and the way it allows us to discern more thereness than I’ve heard from any DAC to date. 

The NADAC’s performance is so detailed, so dense, yet at the same time so vital and so natural, that on many occasions it caused household listeners to fall into stunned silence, not just at the degree of technical competence in evidence, but at the ease with which the performance pressed emotional buttons as well.

Essential quality

The NADAC demonstrated that there’s more to benchmark digital reproduction than just impressively strong detail recovery. We only need to listen to it for a minute or so to hear and latch on to the quality that Xu’s team evidently clearly understands very well: the essence of thereness. Thereness certainly requires that we are being told about even the tiniest of musical details, but, as the NADAC shows, it is not only about how detail is recovered from the recording but at what time it is forwarded; in other words, to what degree jitter is allowed to corrupt the spacing between the pieces of detail.

We might expect exceptionally low jitter to result in, among other qualities, strong imaging, and so it does; the NADAC revealed spatial information in recordings that I had previously thought were seriously impoverished.

Separation

Marked front-to-back separation between instrumentalists became apparent. Also, the precision, in terms of the position and apparent size of each musical event, was to a standard I’ve frankly not heard before from any DAC. Combined with the NADAC’s ability to transcribe rich tonal density and texture, that notable spatial acuity stood up sonic images with simply arresting presence.

The cherry on top was hearing from NADAC that the most natural, most life-like transcription of recorded dynamic energy that any DAC of my acquaintance has delivered. Master Fidelity’s DAC is simply a beast when it comes to producing dynamic expression, able to reveal previously hidden contrasts even in the most horribly compressed audio files. On material mastered at a more sympathetic -16 or so LUFS (loudness units relative to the full scale), the NADAC allows musical energy to bloom in the greater headroom fully. The highly textured gut-punches and keyed bass rumbles that the NADAC transcribed made the ‘Pirates’ sequence from Hans Zimmer’s Live In Prague album highly addictive. So too the track ‘A Little Rice and Beans’ on Trypnotyx by Wooten, Chambers and Franceschini, where nuanced finger-on-bass string texture and power were bookended by subterranean sonic explosions from Chambers’ floor toms.

Fluidity

Out of curiosity, I played the same track in three ways: remotely streamed, locally stored on an SSD, and on a silver disc from Jay’s CD transport. Removing and then replacing the clock connection to the DAC and the CD transport (hot swapping is allowed) brought about a change in delivery that, at the point of disconnection, seemed inconsequential, but after a minute or so, revealed just what the NADAC clock makes a profound contribution to sonic quality. The previously noted, deeply dimensional spatial perspective had flattened; dynamic expression and low-end definition were dialled back, tonal density diminished, and playback no longer sounded as fluid and natural.

The NADAC combination does an impressive job of portraying the layers in complex material, whether in the case of a symphony orchestra at full throttle or a big band hitting its stride, with thoroughly convincing weight. In complete musical contrast, Roon earlier this year turned me on to the Canadian finger-style guitarist Antoine Dufour’s 2020 album Reflect. One player, one guitar, no overdubs; on the face of it, things could hardly be simpler, yet the NADAC revealed that actually there’s an awful lot more going on sonically than we might assume.

Household reference

Through the household’s reference DAC, a Mola Mola Tambaqui, the album is a fine demonstration of Dufour’s extreme technical chops wrapped around some quite beautiful compositions. Through the NADAC, it felt like the first listen all over again. Dufour taps and slaps on the guitar body, blends strumming, picking, tapping and harmonics, sometimes all at once. Master Fidelity’s DAC took the 16/44.1 album file and gave a reading so sonically dense, expressively powerful and tonally vivid that it felt only a nat’s wing away from a live recital.

I have but two gripes to make about the pre-production review samples I was loaned. The twenty 3dB steps provided by the lossless volume control are barely adequate; however, I imagine most potential buyers will use multiple sources, so they need a device to handle switching duties anyway. In the review system, setting the NADAC D to its full 4V output and running it through the iCon 5 allowed for properly granular attenuation, plus impedance matching, for even greater energy transfer at low volumes—second gripe: the NADAC display screens are dimmable but cannot be turned off. Master Fidelity must surely rectify both issues on the full production runs.

Thousand-dollar question

There’s a question that nags at the open-minded audiophile brain almost as insistently as a dripping tap: when will digital finally deliver on its theoretical promise of superiority over vinyl? Most studios operate in the digital domain, so if we listen to vinyl, we are opting to insert an unnecessary stage between ourselves and the original recorded event. Simpler – as in recording digitally and listening digitally – should be superior.

After more than six weeks of digital via the NADAC D and C, I realised that not once had I touched the household record collection. Digital was delivering on its long-promised technical superiority. Quietly, and just like that, it had become the preferred medium. 

Technical specifications

NADAC D

  • Type: Digital to Analogue converter
  • Inputs: USB Type C, AES3 (XLR), S/PDIF RCAx1, TosLink optical x1 (RAVENNA RJ45 to follow), Clock BNCx1
  • Outputs: Analogue balanced line 2x XLR, single-ended, 2x RCA, 4.4mm balanced mini headphone jack, 6.35mm single-ended headphone jack
  • Formats supported 44.1-384kHz, 16bit-true 32-bit. Native DSD64-DSD512 true 1bit (USB) 44.1-192kHz, 16-96bit, DoP64 (AES and S/PDIF), 44.1-384kHz, 16-32-bit. Native DSD64-DSD256, true 1bit (RAVENNA to follow). 
  • Analogue volume control: 3dB/step attenuation,
    total 20 steps
  • Dimensions (WxHxD): 43.5×9.5x39cm
  • Weight: 9.2kg
  • Price: £25,000, $27,500, €25,000

NADAC C

  • Type: Master Clock
  • Crystal type: Selected high-stability pre-aged, SC-cut crystal
  • Clock output options: 10MHz, 625Hz, Word Clock
  • Word Clock output frequencies (in kHz): 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 352.8, 384, 705.6, 768,1141.2, 1536.
  • Frequency accuracy: <10ppb
  • Nominal Impedance: 50Ω (10MHz clock, 75Ω supported), 75Ω (Word Clock, 625Hz)
  • Dimensions (WxHxD): 43.5×9.5x39cm
  • Weight: 9.2kg
  • Price: £25,000, $27,500, €25,000

Manufacturer

Master Fidelity

www.master-fidelity.com

+1 604 266-5067

UK distributor

Swiss Sound

[email protected]

Back to Reviews

 

AIM NA9

Sometimes, we get cables from brands with a ‘limited’ heritage in manufacturing and design. That’s not the case with Japanese comms expert AIM. AIM has been manufacturing enterprise-grade digital cable systems since 1983 and has developed domestic digital cables for audio and video in Japan since 2006. It knows its way around an Ethernet cable because AIM has built network infrastructures for Universal Studios Japan, Osaka’s Kansai Airport and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. The NA9 is AIM’s flagship domestic Ethernet cable.

Aside from the colour of the cable, AIM distinguishes its NA9 from its NA6 and entry-level NA2 cables by using what it calls ‘Hoplon’ construction. Its conductors are eight solid cores of AWG 22 oxygen-free copper, arranged in four twisted pairs. Hoplon features an inner layer of shielding that uses Aahi Kasei’s Pulshut®MU electromagnetic insulation sheets around a twisted pair. The Pulshut®MU layer is then screened by an aluminium shield, a copper shield, and an even higher-density copper braided shield. There is insulation between each layer using AIM’s proprietary sheathing material. These shielding layers contribute to a different part of the overall performance. The cable is terminated using the latest Telegartner connectors.

Extremely well made

This sounds impressive, but only when you get the cable in your hands do you realise what this means. It’s a highly well-made cable. NA9 is the kind of cable that will still work decades from now. This is also a cable unfazed by anything we audio enthusiasts can throw at it. It’s the Ethernet equivalent of bringing a gun to a knife fight. 

In less violent terms, it’s the sense of infinite reserve you might feel from the back seat of a Rolls-Royce or a Maybach cruising at about 40mph. You could play anything from a stripped-down Audible AAX or MP3 file to the final bars of Mahler’s Eighth on the fattest files possible, and the AIM NA9 takes it all in its stride. If ‘it does precisely what it should’ sounds like faint praise, when you hear how many of its rivals fail to achieve this all-round goal, you begin to appreciate AIM’s ‘belt and braces’ approach. 

Different demands

We’ve found that Ethernet’s packetised data places different demands on musical content than more traditional S/PDIF and AES digital cables. If anything, the cable’s imprint on music has more in common with USB. It seems to be about keeping noise in check. That noise is cross-conductor electromagnetic noise caused by upstream routers and switches, as well as RF interference that undermines specific parts of the frequency band. The former compresses image space and soundstage, while the latter affects both low and high frequencies. You become more aware of the sound quality limitations of Ethernet cables when you use a cable like AIM’s NA9. This is because it keeps those limitations to an absolute minimum. Staging is as good as the original file, while bass and treble extension are kept as wide as possible, pushing the sound’s limits onto the amp and speakers.

If there is a ‘blameless’ audio product, AIM’s NA9 Ethernet cable is closer than most. This is one of the cleanest-sounding Ethernet cables I’ve tried, not just in terms of improving the sound, but also in absolute fidelity to the original music. It’s not going back! 

Price and contact details

  • NA9 available in 0.5m, 1m, 1.5m, 2m, 3m lengths (3m tested)
  • Price: £1,650, $1,650, €1,650

Manufacturer

AIM

www.aim-ele.com

UK distributor

Decent Audio

www.decentaudio.co.uk

+44(0)1642 263765

Back to Reviews

Davone launches the Reference three loudspeaker

11 September 2025: Capturing the essence of the acclaimed Reference series into a simpler, elegant form, the Reference Three combines clarity and openness with a room-filling sense of atmosphere. Music is revealed with refinement and ease, making every performance both engaging and inviting.

Main features:

• 1” Beryllium tweeter, flush mount, narrow surround, magnetic flux near theoretical limit, very natural sound

• 7” coated cellulose glass fiber cone unites warm, natural tone, while glass fibers add stiffness and control. T

• Internal Helmholtz absorber, minimal internal damping materials

• Oversized linear bass reflex port with port entry near woofer for maximum efficiency

• Curved baffle for minimal diffraction from 25mm thick form pressed wood

• A very high tonal quality of sound.

• Minimalistic Scandinavian design, available with selected quarter cut walnut and oak

• 38-30.000Hz -3dB

• 86 dB/2,83V/m

• 20 kg

• Height, width, depth: 90 / 31 / 24 cm

• Retail price € 7200,- / $ 8400,- / GBP 6400,-

Tord Gustavsen Trio: Seeing

Tord Gustavsen is often regarded as the king of Scandinavian minimalism, a reaction to the calm and quiet nature of his piano playing both in and out of the trio that has been his most prolific vehicle since the release of Changing Places in 2003. That album was ECM’s most successful debut in a decade and a good omen for the subsequent albums Gustavsen released with the trio and larger groups. His music charms with a serenity that says ‘the deeper you listen, the more there is to hear.’

This is the case with Seeing, the first trio release since 2022’s Opening. While it is ostensibly very similar to that album and many of those that came before, there’s an added degree of beauty that reminds me of Gustavsen’s debut. The selection of 10 tracks contains original compositions, cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach and Norwegian and English religious pieces, signalled by their titles. Mind you, one of the originals is called ‘The Old Church’, which suggests Gustavsen is leaning further into the spiritual side of things than usual.

The rhythm section on Seeing is as per Opening, with long-time ally Jarle Vespestad on drums and relative newcomer Steinar Raknes on double bass and electronics. This music might sound infinitely subtle and restrained, but it takes more than acoustic instruments to achieve that effect. The electronics are, for the most part, very much in the background.

Seeing opens with ‘Jesus, gjør meg stille’ or ‘Jesus, make me quiet’. Perhaps Gustavsen is not as calm inside as his music would suggest. This piece features bowed bass, tentative keys, and dancing cymbals, although the combined level starts low, so it builds with stealth up to a muted peak. The trio manage to use tone and touch so beautifully that the listener is soon entranced; many have imitated this sound, but few, if any, can get close to it. ‘The Old Church’ is genuinely serene, as is much of this album; the gentle piano has a shine that radiates 360 degrees on a good system while the bass adds body to the sound. 

As with other Gustavsen recordings, the sound is superb, but I have rarely heard imaging of this quality anywhere else. The piano is three-dimensional in the room; all you need is a decent system to reveal it. Gérard de Haro recorded the album at Studios La Buissonne near Avignon in France, a long way from the fjords, yet it retains the super silent backgrounds and richness of timbre found in earlier works.

The title track is a solo piece that’s quiet and reflective; Gustavsen is not a groovemaker. He’s a spiritual explorer, a Hildegard von Bingen for our time. Bach provides the basis for the very fine ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’; the composer has long been an inspiration for jazz pianists, but few have achieved the tension and release, the ebb and flow of this piece. The band use dynamics and timing to create a restrained drama of considerable potency. The second piece by Bach, ‘Auf meinen lieben Gott’ is a standout whose scale and bass line rhythm mark a distinct contrast with the preceding tunes. It’s a bigger boned piece that vibrates with energy from the trio, releasing the quieter numbers’ unspoken tension.

‘Extended Circle’ sees the electronics make a more prominent entry that adds depth to the soundstage which is elaborated with brushed snare, cymbals and a precise tempo around the piano’s clear, unhurried voice. ‘Piano Interlude – Meditation’ is exactly as described, albeit much of Gustavsen’s playing is meditative; removing the drums and bass enhances the purity. ‘Nearer My God, to Thee’ is as spiritual as the title would suggest; gentle cymbals widen the soundstage, and the level slowly builds to a head with a giant gong, but it never loses composure.

The album ends with ‘Seattle Song’. It seems to be the result of jamming during a soundcheck. The drummer and bassist picked up a simple idea and developed it into as close to a blues tune as you will find on a Gustavsen release.

All this pianist’s albums radiate beauty and truth, but Seeing is up there with the very best of them. It is a balm for the most restless souls and a path to transcendence for all.

More from Tord Gustavsen Trio

Back to Music

Solid Tech Feet of Balance

Solid Tech’s Feet of Balance are the loyal opposition in the kingdom of spikes! Back in the day, if you didn’t put spikes under your speakers, you were considered a lightweight or worse. But spikes do not isolate. They provide a rigid conduit for vibrations to travel through. Spikes also transmit specific frequencies more effectively than others. Hence, they have a tuning effect, which is what people hear. Still, the existence of a two-way connection between floor and speaker has ultimately been revealed to harm fidelity if not musical enjoyment. 

The first real challenge to the hegemony of spikes saw the use of damped springs to stop energy from travelling between the floor and the speaker. Almost everyone who hears what they do realises this benefits overall sound quality. However, sprung platforms and outriggers are bulky. They are also hard to execute with the degree of precision demanded by high-end audio enthusiasts. 

The Solid Tech Feet of Balance are among the most impressive examples because they allow different springs to suit different weights of speakers, or equipment racks, for that matter. This flexibility means that the chosen springs have enough range of movement. This delivers maximum isolation. A rubber foot, for instance, compresses a millimetre or two at the very most, and this doesn’t stop low frequencies from travelling through it. However, if you can use a spring that compresses by 10mm, you have a barrier to frequencies below 10 Hz. You also have a means of stopping the speaker from vibrating the floor and everything else sitting on it.

Energy travels

A Townshend demonstration struck me at the Munich High End show a few years back. One PMC speaker was spiked to the concrete floor, and the other was on a Seismic podium. Each had a tablet on top with a seismic measurement app displaying energy levels at various frequencies. When a subwoofer across the hall kicked off, the app on the spiked speaker danced around frantically. In contrast, the Seismically isolated speaker/tablet remained calm. Energy travels through floors regardless of their construction.

The Solid Tech Feet of Balance are constructed with a pivoting thread that you screw into the speaker, and this has a hidden spike at the bottom. This sits in a brass disc that is damped by seven magnets. Beneath this is a chamber where seven springs can be inserted to accommodate a broad range of loads. These range from 15kg to 180kg across four feet. Solid Tech supplies three sets of springs to suit different loads. The appropriate arrangements are shown in the accompanying literature.

Build quality is very high throughout, with the main cover being in anodized aluminum. The base has a rubber cap over its Delrin shell. Opening and changing the springs is a straightforward affair but is easier if you can screw the thread into an inverted stand or speaker. The nature of the design means that they add in the region of 30 – 40mm to the height of the supported speaker compared with regular spikes. The foot and the threaded stud is 53mm high, and the anodized and knurled lock disc adds 5mm on top of that.

Taking the load

I didn’t have a suitable floorstanding speaker to try them on. So I used the Feet of Balance in a pair of Custom Design speaker stands supporting PMC twenty.22 loudspeakers with a Blu-tack interface. The combined weight of the speaker and stand came in at just over 17kg. Therefore, I opened up the Feet of Balance to check which springs had been installed. Seeing that the correct number of springs was in the right place, I made a comparison. Only later did I notice in the literature that the springs installed were intended for a heavier load! That might teach me to ‘RTFM’, but I suspect not.

After I had gone through all eight feet and replaced the four high-density springs with four medium-density examples, I could sit down and repeat the exercise. This time, I also noticed the instruction that the logos should face in the same direction as the drive units for best results. Using four springs oriented this way means that two springs are at the back and two at the front.

Not subtle… in a good way

The effect of replacing spikes with the Feet of Balance is not subtle. It is almost akin to upgrading the loudspeakers and certainly better than a cable upgrade at this price. The Feet of Balance put the sound quality in a different class, one where clarity is more significant and, thus, image definition more decisive. It introduces an ease to the sound that is very hard to achieve by other means. This brings about a perceived reduction in distortion. 

The latter is noticeable because the volume level seems lower. You might not think that a drop in perceived volume is a good sign, but it often is. It means that the sharp edges, the distortions resulting from a loudspeaker being vibrated by its partner and from both speakers vibrating the electronics, have been reduced. Lower mechanical vibration means that more of the actual signal can be heard. This happens as it is not being masked by colorations.

Stick wielding

What this meant for my music was a greater sense of projection into the room, more openness, and a better definition of low-level sounds. With Kraftwerk’s live rendition of ‘Radioactivity’ [Minimum, Maximum, Kling Klang], there was a marked reduction in hardness. Still, there was no apparent loss of bass extension, and image depth was significantly improved. As a result, it sounded massive. By the time ‘Babylon Sisters’ [Gaucho, MCA] came along, it was evident that the transparency and resolving power of the system had increased by a large margin. This Steely Dan classic had more class, polish, and accurate timing. This improvement was so great that the air drums had to come out.

I have always enjoyed the benefits of effective isolation, but finding a product that does this job so well in such a neat package is rare. The Solid Tech Feet of Balance are expensive in some respects. However, the rewards in a system in the £10k plus region will make the cost seem like a genuine bargain. 

Technical specifications

  • Type: Loudspeaker isolation feet.
  • Material: Steel, brass and aluminium.
  • Isolates from: 10Hz
  • Speaker weight range: 15kg to 180kg.
  • Thread options: M6, M8, M10, M12, ¼”, ½”, 3/8”, 5/16”.
  • Dimensions (HxW): 53 x 65mm
  • Weight: 147g per foot
  • Price (per set of four): £550, €521 (excl. VAT)

Manufacturer

Solid Tech

www.solid-tech.net

+46 (0)40 491352

UK distributor

Harmony HiFi Distribution Ltd

harmonyhifi.co.uk

44(0)1707 629345

Back to Reviews

Opera Consonance Wax Engine and Charisma Audio ECO

 

The Opera Consonance Wax Engine and Charisma Audio ECO turntable system is a package, just not a one-make one. The Wax Engine is a turntable and arm bundle from one manufacturer. It’s mated here to the ECO moving coil cartridge from another. It’s been put together by the UK distributor, who handles both product ranges. So it differs from the type of single-brand turntable/ arm/ cartridge combinations that can readily be found in dealers the length of the country. However, it still makes that tricky matching decision for the purchaser.

In taking some of the mystique and mythology out of the equation, it probably opens up the market to those who want to upgrade from My First Turntable, or even My Second Turntable, but who don’t want to immerse themselves in turntable lore in doing so.

Potential purchasers

For around £2,000, any potential purchasers will clearly be taking vinyl replay seriously and want more than the budget offerings will give. So the big question is: play safe and go with an established brand, or see what else is out there? 

The Wax Engine represents the entry point to the Consonance turntable range. The company that manufactures Consonance is the company which Well Tempered uses to build its own range of products. Therefore, Well Tempered has allowed Consonance to use some of its patented technologies under license. But if tonearm bearings comprised of a golf ball floating in goop are a bit too radical for you just now, the Wax Engine might offer insights into The Well Tempered Way Of Doing Things™ without having to embrace all the, um, lateral thinking. It’s a skeletal design, a simple cruciform chassis fabricated from rectangular section, solid aluminium bar. One crosspiece houses the bearing, a second, slightly offset crosspiece for the 12V DC motor. The whole thing sits on three, height adjustable, elastomer feet for levelling and a measure of environmental isolation.

Zero Clearance

The turntable bearing sits on the longer crosspiece and uses the Well Tempered ‘zero clearance’ bearing design of an equilateral triangular section hole, into which the stainless steel platter spindle drops, with the pointy end of the spindle sitting on a Teflon thrust bearing. The triangular section therefore only makes contact with the spindle at three points, reducing friction and potential noise, while still providing sufficient lateral support to locate the platter stably. One apex of the triangle points directly towards the motor, so belt tension will also help stabilise the spindle. 

And that belt will also be familiar to Well Tempered aficionados. It’s a loop of monofilament fishing line, with a clever knot that traverses the motor pulley and platter cleanly. However, the tiny cross-section transfers barely any motor noise to the playing surface. The platter, which is integral with the spindle, is in nicely finished, frosted acrylic, and supplied with a cork playing mat. 

The 9” Allegro tonearm is a relatively conventional but carefully executed gimbal design with a precision bearing arrangement into tapered shafts, no golf balls in goop here. An aluminium armtube damped with cotton fibre finishes in a vestigial head piece, a simple, stubby, angled crossbar, drilled for the usual cartridge mounting bolts. Connections are via two phono sockets on the rear of the chassis close to the armtube, with a hard-wired flying lead for the earth. There’s no separate earth attachment point so I left the earth strap on my Nordost Heimdall 2 tonearm cable floating free. There was a small amount of residual hum which, in the absence of alternative earthing options, I never managed to clear, but this was inaudible in use and only apparent when no music was playing.

A bit Special

The supplied cartridge is also a little bit special for a package at this price. The Charisma Audio ECO, a low output moving coil with an aluminium body, and a nude, super elliptical stylus mounted onto a light but stiff ceramic cantilever that is also used in Charisma Audio’s top end Signature Two cartridge. It retails on its own for £795, and on the basis of how it performs in this setup, it’s well worth investigating in its own right if you’re in the market for a high-performing, sub-£1000 low output MC.

So, quite a lot of thought and clever engineering has gone into this package. But does it reward the purchaser brave enough to eschew the usual suspects? I don’t want to spoil the surprise but yes, I’d say so. It’s quickly apparent that the Wax Engine/ECO combo delivers a sound which is energetic and fun; performances have layers, form and structure, parts are distinct and easy to follow, tonality, textures and inflection all present and correct.

Andy Sheppard ‘Romantic Conversations’ from Introductions in the Dark (Antilles) starts with a traditional song from Sierra Leone on flute and percussion and it’s full of colour and vitality, then the piece develops, with Sheppard’s sax, piano and the rest of the ensemble taking their own places in the soundstage. Colours are vibrant and generous, a well fleshed-out piano and marimba set against the sax and percussion, there is a dialogue between the parts happening here. It’s very evident that deck and cartridge work well together. The building blocks for an engaging performer are in place. 

A Qualifier

There is one small qualifier to all this: The 12V DC motor runs off a ‘wall wart’ switch mode power supply. This works well enough in driving the turntable, but in my system it sounded a little safe and bland. It had a definite detrimental effect on overall system performance: other sources such as CD were also affected, sounding less vibrant and dynamic. Replacing this 12V supply with a low noise switch mode supply gave significant benefits to all sources, including the turntable. I tried two iFi units, firstly the iPower 2, which brought about notable improvements. However, this review has been done using an iFi iPower X to do the turntable proper justice; tonal colours are richer, there’s a better sense of flow, and of how instruments are being played. For the relatively small additional outlay, I’d firmly recommend investigating upgrading the power supply in this manner. 

Lower noise

So, using the lower noise power supply, instruments on the Opera Consonance Wax Engine and Charisma Audio ECO have more colour and form and the underlying structural elements to the music are better-resolved. Tambourines on ‘Pule’ from Abdulla Ibrahim’s album Mindif (Enja) have texture and inflection, not just rhythm. That’s not just a ‘nice to have’, that textural and dynamic information lets you hear how the instrument is being played and because this low level detail is available for the asking, music makes more sense and is more engaging. ‘Pule’ is perky, the bass line is tuneful and propulsive, instruments presented with a strong sense of what they are.

‘Anitra’s Dance’ from the Peer Gynt Suite (Marriner, St Martin in the Fields, EMI) trips lightly along, the call and response between the string parts is effective – violins, violas and cellos are tonally and spatially well realised; the dance-like nature of this piece entirely obvious. Fairground Attraction ‘Perfect’ (RCA) has all the toe-tapping jauntiness I want, the vocal is characterful and tuneful, joyful even. Proper feelgood music. 

The options

Looking at the many turntable, arm and cartridge options available at around £2,000, purchasers can be forgiven for leaning towards the ‘one make’ packages that often predominate. But this is a level somewhat above the ‘plug and play’ entry point to vinyl replay. It’s not always the case that manufacturers which excel at budget packages can replicate that value at a higher price point. The Opera Consonance Wax Engine and Charisma Audio ECO combination takes this market sector on squarely and offers the same ‘unbox and play’ simplicity. This package delivers a truly engaging musical performance that brings out the appeal of well-executed vinyl replay. This might be a revelation to somebody weaning themselves off an inexpensive turntable. There’s a lot to like here, and if you’re open to something a little bit different, you’ll be amply rewarded. 

Technical specifications

Opera Consonance Wax Engine

  • Type: belt drive, skeletal chassis turntable with DC motor and 9” Allegro tonearm
  • Rotational Speeds: 33 1/3 RPM; 45 RPM, accuracy within 0.01% adjustable via potentiometer, supplied strobe disc
  • Platter type: acrylic, with integral sub-platter and stainless steel bearing spindle with hardened point
  • Bearing type: Well Tempered ‘Zero Clearance’ triangular well, Teflon thrust pad
  • Suspension: solid, with adjustable elastomer feet for isolation and levelling
  • Tonearm: 9” straight, gimballed tonearm with 2-axis tapered bearing shafts
  • Tonearm Length: 214mm
  • Overhang: 16mm
  • Offset angle: 23 degrees
  • Cartridge weight: 4-22g
  • Turntable Dimensions: (HxWxD) 145 x 385 x 345mm
  • Weight: 6Kg
  • Price: £1,295, $1,260, €1,295

 

Charisma Audio ECO 

  • Type: Aluminium bodied, low output moving coil cartridge
  • Stylus/cantilever: super elliptical nude diamond, white ceramic cantilever
  • Tracking force: 1.9g +/- 0.1g
  • Output (@ 3.45 cm/s): 0.38mV
  • Compliance: 12 um/mN
  • Recommended loading: 100Ω-1kΩ
  • Frequency response: 20-20kHz +/- 1dB
  • Weight: 11g
  • Price: £795, $795, €709
  • Package price (UK only): £1,995

Manufacturer

Opera Consonance

www.opera-consonance.com

+86-10-64378963

Manufacturer

Charisma Audio

www.charismaaudio.com

+1 (905) 470-0825

UK distributor

Sound Design Distribution Ltd

www.sounddesigndistribution.co.uk

0800 009 6213  (UK callers only)

More from Opera Consonance

Back to Reviews

PSB Imagine T54

Before I begin this review of the PSB Imagine T54 floorstanding loudspeakers, let me say that I am a happy PSB customer. I have owned a pair of their noise-cancelling headphones for more than a decade. However, that will in no way influence what I say. PSB is a Canadian loudspeaker and headphone manufacturer that has been in business for over 50 years. It is widely sold across North America.

However, it has vied for space in retail establishments with a raft of competent home-grown and European brands in the UK. With this latest Imagine Series, there will be a strong push to change everything.

The review pair of PSB Imagine T54s were finished in a satin white with matching grilles. There is also a satin black option with black grilles. Of course, the T54s can also be played with the acoustically transparent grilles removed if preferred. Physically, the T54s were by no means overbearing in our 15’ x 13’ lounge. They stand 171 x 830 x 302mm and weigh in at 14kg when unboxed. The shipping weight is 18kg.

The technology deployed is, from the top, a 102mm (4”) woven carbon fibre cone mid-range unit, a 25mm (1”) titanium dome tweeter featuring ferrofluid and a neodymium magnet, and two 133mm (5.25”) woven carbon fibre cone woofers. There are two letterbox-shaped bass ports on the rear, one at the bottom and the other halfway down. Crossover points are set at 2.5kHz and 500Hz. Providing two decent-quality binding posts means the T54s can be bi-wired if required. 

Position, Position, Position

As always with loudspeakers, positioning proved critical with the T54s. After much faffing, I settled on having them very slightly toed in towards my chair. The rear corners nearest the wall were 65cm away from that surface.

There were two phases to the review period. The first was with the PSB Imagine T54s driven by a NAD Master M23 power amplifier, with a NAD Master M66 BluOS Streaming DAC-Preamplifier. The second was using my own PrimaLuna EVO300 Hybrid integrated amplifier. Sources were my Linn Sondek LP12 with either my Gold Note PH10/PSU phono stage or the one built into the M66. In my system, the Yamaha CD-S3000 acted as both DAC and SACD/CD player. My AURALiC ARIES Mini streamer was used via coaxial cable, and the television was used via optical cable. Interconnects were Tellurium Q Ultra Silver IIs, and the loudspeaker cables were also there.

After giving the T54s a couple of days to settle in and warm up, it was time to listen properly. I cued up one of my favourite albums of recent times, Dave Alvin’s Eleven Eleven, on Qobuz and pressed play. With the volume of 60 on the M66, Alvin’s voice and guitar came through the T54s with power and authority. The soundstage these loudspeakers were creating was immediately striking. It extended well beyond the speakers in height, width and depth. This was a big sound, yet not an overblown or unrealistic one. It simply transcended the physical boundaries of the loudspeakers which created it. I was hooked from the first few songs.

Spine-tingling YaYas

The Rolling Stones’ 1969 live album Get Yer YaYas Out has long been a favourite here. Streamed from Qobuz into the NAD amplification, it was spine-tinglingly realistic. When I pushed the volume up to 65, it was like being at Madison Square Garden all those years ago. It felt as if the teenage me was actually there. Midnight Rambler was epic.

While paired with the NAD Master components (more on that in a later issue), the PSB Imagine T54s never felt outclassed or overpowered. Towards the end of their time here, I returned my components to the system. I continued my review listening. Having established the rock credentials of the modestly sized floorstanders, I decided to test their mettle with some well-recorded choral music.

Although it is only November at the time of writing this, I loaded up Disc 2 of the SACD version of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, performed by the Dunedin Consort and Players directed by John Butt. This Linn Records release is one of my favourite versions (I own a few!). I cued up track 16 and went back to my listening chair. The ‘Halleluja Chorus’ filled the room, and the combined voices were spine-tinglingly magnificent. It is a long-standing tradition that the audience stands for this piece, and I did so without thinking. I felt so much that I was attending a live performance. A commanding performance by the T54s.

Astonishing fingers

After a break, I returned to the CD player and loaded in my SACD-SHM Japanese copy of Dire Straits’ 1984 release of their 1983 concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. This album catches a band at the very peak of its powers. It is illustrated perfectly on the fifth track, ‘Sultans Of Swing’. Mark Knopfler’s finger-style guitar playing here is quite astonishing. The powerful drumming of Terry Williams also comes across well. So does the growling yet very musical bass playing of John Illsley and the other musicians. Hal Lindes on rhythm guitar and Alan Clark and Tommy Mandel on keyboards also stand out. The music ebbed, flowed, and soared to its mighty climax through the PSB Imagine T54s. Breathtaking stuff.

When asked to handle more mundane tasks, such as the audio from the television news, the T54s again did an excellent job. Reproducing the spoken word properly is no easy task. Just ask any of the surviving former BBC engineers who sweated over the design of studio monitors like the LS3/5A. These Canadian visitors did a fine job. Individual voices came through with great clarity and realism. 

In the same vein, soundtracks were produced with subtlety and explosive force as required. The bass power of the T54s  came into its own during action sequences. Even when I cranked up the volume on the Prima Luna to levels high enough to rattle the windows, the PSB Imagine T54s didn’t break into a sweat. Their composure never wavered. Furthermore, it was for my protection, not theirs, that I lowered the level to what others might term as sensible. Nor did they ever sacrifice detail. Subtle pieces of percussion in a mix were given space and air within that magnificent soundstage.

Final Thoughts 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect when the T54s arrived. Although rather elegant, they are slim and unassuming. I would not have been surprised if their sound had been smaller and more polite than it turned out to be.

It was a real surprise when right from the first listening session, I found them creating a soundstage on such a scale as they did. They seemed even-handed across their whole frequency range. The T54s did an excellent job with all the music I threw at them and from whatever source. These are not a ‘Rock’ speaker or a ’Jazz’ speaker or any other sort of genre loudspeaker. In fact, these are fully formed yet diminutive, genre-agnostic music makers of the highest order. When, after the review, I checked the recommended retail price I was taken aback. I have heard loudspeakers that command three times the price or more.

These Canadian upstarts would give them a good run for their money. No doubt some component choices had to be governed by budgetary constraints. However, they were not discernible, at least to these ears. When I checked, the company’s website said that the PSB Imagine T54 is sold out. I am not in the least surprised. They are a genuine audio bargain and worthy of pairing with amplifiers and sources that cost far more. Run, don’t walk, to your nearest PSB dealer and demand an audition. 

Technical specifications

  • Type: Three-way, bass reflex floorstanding loudspeaker
  • Drivers: 1x 25mm titanium dome tweeter, 102mm woven carbon fibre cone midrange, 2x 133mm woven carbon fibre cone woofers
  • Frequency Response: 35Hz-23kHz (on axis @ 0°, ±3dB)
  • Sensitivity: 87db (anechoic), 89dB (listening room)
  • Impedance: 8Ω (nominal), 4Ω (minimum)
  • Finish: Satin Black, Satin White
  • Dimensions (WxHxD): 171x830x302mm
  • Weight: 14kg per loudspeaker
  • Price: £1,199, $1,499, €1,499

Manufacturer

PSB Speakers

www.psbspeakers.com

UK distributor

Sevenoaks Sound & Vision

www.sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk

+44(0)1732 740944

More from PSB

Back to Reviews

The sound of excellence delivered your way

Whether you prefer the feel of print or the convenience of digital, hi-fi+ keeps you connected to the world of high-performance audio.

Print Subscription Digital Subscription