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Headphones & Personal Audio at the L.A. Audio Show 2017

The inaugural L.A. Audio Show 2017 featured an extensive HeadGear showroom, plus something new and valuable: namely, an XTREME HeadGear room reserved exclusively for top-tier models of proven performance capabilities.

Since the L.A. Show followed hot on the heels of the Munich High-End Show 2017, which in turn followed closely after the AXPONA 2017 show, there was relatively little in the way of utterly new (as in never seen before, anywhere) equipment, but more in the way of models being shown for the first time in the U.S. or of models shown in a new demonstration context.

What follows, then, is not an exhaustive report, but more of a filtered report that attempts to capture the highlights of the headphone portion of the show.

The XTREME HeadGear showroom

Audeze

Audeze’s presence in the XTREME room focussed exclusively on the firm’s new flagship LCD-4i planar magnetic in-ear headphones ($2,499), which represent an all-out attempt to capture the performance of Audeze’s flagship full-size planar magnetic LCD-4 headphones, but in a far more compact, portable, and ad least somewhat more affordable package. This earphone had been introduced to the world only a few short weeks earlier in Munich and it is quite rightly garnering a great deal of “buzz”.

With the LCD-4i, did Audeze succeed in creating a miniaturised, portable equivalent to the well-regarded LCD-4? Yes, brilliant so in my opinion, although if pressed I think I would say the little LCD-4i might even be better than its bigger brother. Transparency, linearity, and full-throated dynamics are the order of the day. If you have the opportunity to hear these, by all means take it.

HiFIMAN

HiFiMAN demonstrated not one but two top class headphone systems. The first was the famous Shangri-La electrostatic system ($50,000) which consists of the Shangri-La electrostatic headphone and its matching Shangri-La electrostatic amplifier, which is powered by a quartet of 6SN7 valves driving a quartet of custom made, elevated specification 300B output tubes, which in turn directly drive the headphones. The Shangri-La system is a leading contender for state-of-the-art honours and its only realistic competitor for the title is the even more expensive Sennheiser HE 1 electrostatic system (~$55,000), which at the L.A. Audio Show was positioned at a listening station located just a few feet from the HiFiMAN demo area. Which system is better? I’m not going to try to give that one an answer as there are some quite complicated variables involved, but suffice it to say that these two world-class headphone systems offer very stiff competition for one another and for anything else that may come along.

For those not quite ready to acquire headphone systems up in the $50k stratosphere, HiFiMAN offers an alternative in the form of its new flagship Susvara planar magnetic headphone ($6,000) as powered by the mighty EF1000 amplifier ($15,000). A little known fact is that the EF1000—which most people assume is primarily a headphone amplifier—was in fact originally designed as a highly accomplished and very high-resolution integrated amplifier that was meant to power the reference loudspeakers used by Dr Fang Bian, the founder of HiFiMAN. According to Dr Bian the EF1000 works beautifully in the speaker-centric role, but we think it is just the ticket for driving the relatively insensitive (but excellent) Susvara headphones. The EF1000 is a hybrid design that uses a sextet of 6922 valve feeding the EF1000’s solid-state output stage. For its part, the Susvara can be seen as a serious attempt to expand upon every single one of the strengths of HiFiMAN’s excellent HE1000 v2 headphone. The result is not only the best sounding planar magnetic headphone HiFiMAN has ever made, but also one that—in at least some respects—offers sound quality reminiscent of the king-of-the-hill Shangri-La.

Kimber

In the headphone universe, Kimber Kable is known for its excellent Axios family of replacement/upgrade headphone signal cable. However, not so many people realize that there is an even higher-level headphone cable available from the firm in the form of the Axios Ag cable (Ag to indicated the silver conductors used in the cable). The Axios Ag sells for $4,000, so obviously it’s intended for use on top-tier headphones only, but once you hear what Axios Ag can do on, say, a set of MrSpeakers ETHER FLOW planar magnetic headphones, it’s awfully difficult to ignore the sonic benefits they provide.

MrSpeakers

MrSpeakers is best known for its excellent ETHER and ÆON-series planar magnetic headphones, but for the Extreme room the firm demonstrated a work-in-progress, pre-production prototype of its upcoming ETHER ES electrostatic headphones, which promise to take performance to an all-time high for the firm. Pricing has not yet been established for the ETHER ES, but company president Dan Clark promises the price should fall “under $3,000”.

Based on several quick listens to the ETHER ES, I am very excited to see and hear how the finished product will turn out. My educated guess is that it will be a marketplace winner and one that will shake-up the established (that is, typically Stax-driven) order of things in the electrostatic headphone world.

Questyle

As has been Questyle practice for the past several audio shows, the firm made a point of demonstrating its top-of-the-range ‘Golden Stack’ system, which consists of performance enhanced and satin gold-finished faceplate-equipped versions of its headphone DAC/preamp/dual monoblock amp system. Many regard the Golden Stack as the finest solid-state headphone DAC/preamp/amp system in the world.

But also on demonstration in the Extreme room were the firm’s new QP2R digital audio player ($1,299) and its very affordable new CMA400i fully balanced desktop headphone DAC/amp ($799). The QP2R, in particular, represents a really big sonic leap forward from the already excellent QP1R (almost as if the new DAP is channelling the sound of the mighty Golden Stack, but in a pocket-sized edition). The CMA400i, in turn, aims to be the sub-$1,000 DAC/amp that offer the most meaningful performance and advanced features for the least amount of money.

Sennheiser

Sennheiser has often taken it flagship HE 1 electrostatic headphone/amp/DAC system (~$55,000) to trade shows before, but typically has done tightly time-limited, by-appointment-only listening sessions. At theLA L.A. Audio show, though, the firm instead showed the system at a more welcoming first come/first served demonstration table where interested parties could come have a listen as the opportunities presented themselves. As usual, the HE 1 served up absolutely stunning performances.

The HE 1 system is configured in non-standard ways as the headphones are permanently hard-wired to a large, marble-encased ‘mothership’ that incorporates a valve-equipped amp/DAC with motorized valve lifters (no, not like the ones in your car) that raise the system valves up into playing position when the system is powered up, but then retract them for safe storage when the system is shut down. Why use permanently hardwired headphones? The answer is that part of the HE 1 amplifier resides in the HE 1 main chassis, while part is actually built-in to the ear cups of the HE 1 headphones. Thus, the headphones must be enjoyed with, and powered by, their companion desktop amp/DAC system only.

The main HeadGear showroom

Airist Audio

Airist Audio is a relatively new electronics company whose first product, the Heron 5 headphone amplifier, offers serious high-end technology and sound quality at a comparatively modest price; the Heron 5 sells for $999. The Heron 5 sports high and low sensitivity headphone outputs, an ultra wide bandwidth circuit design, a high quality volume control, and an over-built power supply—all housed within an elegant, high-quality, satin-finished silver enclosure. In short, nothing about the Heron 5 suggests any sort of compromise; it looks and sounds more expensive than it is.

But, desirable thought the Heron 5 may be, the even bigger mind-blower promises to be the firm’s yet-to-be-named, 24-bit ladder DAC, which can accommodate PCM files at up to 32/384 resolutions or DSD files up to DSD128. The really impressive thing is that the Airist DAC promises to bring ladder DAC circuit topologies to a sub-$500 price point. We can’t wait to hear it.

Astell & Kern

Astell & Kern’s demonstrations centred on the firm’s latest, greatest, and most ambitious portable digital audio player to date: the oddly named A&ultima SP1000, which sells for $3500. The A&ultima SP1000 includes features too numerous to list, but suffice it to say that if the A&ultima SP1000 doesn’t include a feature, then you (probably) don’t need it.

Astute readers will recognise that the new A&Ultima SP1000 is offered at the same price as the previous flagship AK380 model, while remains in the product line. Accordingly, the price of the AK380 will be reduced to $2999.

At a much lower price point, the firm’s excellent but also quite affordable Kann digital audio player ($999) was attracting a lot of attention, partly because it is very nearly as full-featured as its more expensive siblings, but also because it offers very robust power output that qualifies the unit as offering very “big bang for the bucks”.

AudioQuest

AudioQuest was not so much showing a new product at the LA show, but rather existing products—namely the DragonFly-series DAC/headphone amps—improved by a recent firmware update. The update to firmware revision 1.06, which is said to be “fast and easy” to install, includes support for MQA rendering plus various optimisations to improve compatibility between the DragonFlys and Android devices.

Cardas

Many enthusiasts are familiar with Cardas’ original polished-copper-finished EM5813 earphone and by the later A8 earphone offered in a bright blue soft-fell finish, but for the LA show the firm was showing its new black-chrome finished A8 30^th Anniversary Model ($349). Apart from the new finish, the new model offers a revised 10.85mm dynamic driver and improved signal cables.

Cayin

We have seen Cayin’s high-performance iDAC-6 digital-to-analogue converter and iHA-6 headphone amplifier before, but at the LA show we finally got a chance to see the third element in the series: namely, the upcoming iDAP-6 network player (price TBC, but ~ $1000). The uncommonly versatile iDAP-6 is DLAN and NAD-drive compatible; offers an SD card slot and USB port on its front panel; provides LAN (Ethernet), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Airplay connectivity; and provides USB, AUE/EBU, both BNC and RCA jack-equipped coaxial S/PDIF, Toslink, and even HDMI digital audio outputs.

But wait; there’s more. Cayin also showed its “entry-level” model N3 digital audio player ($149.99), which is so full-featured that it scarcely seems an entry-level product at all. For example, the lovely and compact player supports PCM files at up to 32/384 levels, provides native decoding for DSD files up to DSD 256, is compatible with (and can be controlled by) earphone with CITA-specification mic/remote modules, and provides Bluetoth 4.0 connectivity with aptX decoding. Better still, the N3 offers 12 hours of playback time per batter charge and can recharge in just two hours. Honestly, I can’t think of a better way for newcomers to see what a high quality DAP can do for their favourite music, at a more than fair price.

Cleer

The San Diego-based firm Cleer edges ever closer to the full production release of its long-awaited flagship headphone, called the NEXT (price TBC, but ~$699). If all goes according to plan, the NEXT will feature an aluminium frame, an “ironless magnesium driver”, and will come with high quality, low-oxygen balanced signal cables terminated in high-reliability LEMO connectors. We’re eager to hear the finished versions.

Cozoy

Cozoy is a Chinese firm whose products are just now beginning to be distributed in the US through HeadSonix. Two models that particularly caught my eye were the Takt Pro ($300), which is an Apple Lightning-compatible DAC/amp with an Apple-compatible control button, and the very versatile REI DAC/amp ($550), which is a high-res (PCM 32/348, DSD256) DAC/Amp that comes with adapter cables enabling the REI to connect to iDevices (with no CCK required), Android devices, and Mac OS and Windows-based PC.

Danacables

Headed by Dana Robbins, Vinh Vu (of Gingko Audio fame), and Norm Ginsburg, Danacables have been creating an expanding line of high performance cables targeted both for headphone and speaker-based systems.

The firm’s top of the range headphone cable is the Lazuli Reference ($1,199/3 metre), which uses 1200-strand Litz-type conductors. A simpler and thus less costly alternative is the also very goo Lazuli cable ($549/2 meters), which uses 600-strand Litz-type conductors.

Ear Sonics

The French earphone maker Ear Sonics is now being represented in the US by the powerful distribution firm Audio Plus Services. The Ear Sonics range comprises the SM2-iFi ($299), ES2 ($499), ES3 ($599), the Velvet v2 ($799), and the six-driver S-EM6 v2 ($1199).

In some markets Ear Sonics offers custom-fit in-ear monitors as well as universal-fit earphones, though all of the models on display at the LA show were universal-fit models.

JH Audio

Famed CIEM and universal-fit earphone maker JH Audio was showing its newest Siren-series model, called the Lola. The Lola is a hybrid design that uses a distinctive eight-driver array consisting of dual balanced armature-type bass drivers, dual horizontally opposed dynamic drivers in a DOME (Dual Opposed Midrange Enclosure) housing, and quad balanced armature-type high-frequency drivers. The Lola, which is reviewed in Hi-Fi+ issue 150, is notable for—among other things—its uncanny coherency and dynamic expressiveness.

Kimber

Kimber showed off several variations of its Axios headphone cables including the standard Axios cables with copper conductors ($698 and up), the Axios Ag cables with pure silver conductors ($4000 and up), and the new Axios HB cables with a hybrid combination of silver and copper conductors ($2700). For owners of very high-end headphones, we suspect that Axios HB might prove to be the “just right” Goldilocks model in the middle, offering a great combination of resolution and innate musicality.

Metaxas & Sins

Possibly the strangest-looking headphone amplifier/preamplifier we have seen in a long time is the Australian-made Metaxas & Sins Marquis, whose exterior resembles a human skull. Far from being a gimmicky device, the Marquis is a very serious, purist-minded headphone amp that sells for about €5,500. At the LA Show, the Marquis was being shown in the Kimber Kable stand as a vehicle for demonstrating that firm’s Axios headphone cables.

Meze

Meze’s mid-priced full-size 99 Classics headphone has long been one of Hi-Fi+’s favourites, but for the LA show the firm demonstrated its similar (though not identically voiced) and cost reduced 99 Neo model ($249). The basic ingredients and drivers in the 99 Classics and 99 Neo models are the same, but the internal volume of the 99 Neo ear cups is slightly greater than that of the 99 Classics, thus giving the Neo a subtle touch of additional warmth—a quality many music lovers may enjoy.

Modwright

Modwright impressed LA show visitors in two ways, first with its superb valve-powered Tryst valve-powered headphone amplifier ($2,999) and second, with its dramatically hot-rodded version of the Oppo Sonica streaming DAC.

The Tryst is a two-chassis headphone amp that features a pure Class A circuit with zero feedback and that is based on four 12B4 valves and two 6922 valves. The Tryst, which looks and sounds sumptuous, produces 3 Watts of output into a 16-Ohm load and sells for $2995.

The Modwright Sonica DAC, in turn, provides an outboard power supply box, a fully balanced valve-powered (2 x 6922 driver valves) and transformer coupled analogue output stage with zero feedback, and which incorporates Lundahl transformers. The Modwright Sonica sounds terrific and sells for $2500.

Santa Cruz Audio

Santa Cruz Audio is a new start-up whose SC1000 self powered earphone ($585) aims to solve a number of problems. First, the earphone is designed for optimal comfort and to stay put, thanks to a flexible stabilizer arm that gently pushes off of the back of the outer ear to help hold the earphone in place. Second, the earphones provide alternate over or under the ear cable outlet positioning slots, so that user can choose which cable outlet routing scheme fells best to them. Third, the earphone incorporates its own amp module (positioned inline with the signal cable), which means you’ll never have to go hunting in the couch cushions for your misplaced portable amp. Fourth, the SC1000 earpieces provide external microphones with built-in in wind screens to allow users to dial-in ambient sounds at will or turn them off as desired—all via an ambient sound balance control provided on the SC1000 amplifier module.

Shozy

Another new Chinese brand in the HeadSonix lineup is Shozy, whose carbon fibre-faced Hibiki earphones look and sound as if they should cost several hundred dollars, but that in fact sell for $60. Another potential winner in the Shozy range is the minimalist Alien+ digital audio player, priced at $499, which takes a distinctive ‘less is more’ approach.

Stereo Pravda

The Russian-made range of earphones from Stereo Pravda) are very distinctive in that they look almost like polished twigs with ear tips on one end and signal cables on the other. For the LA Show, Stereo Pravda’s demonstration centred on the firm’s least expensive SB-3 model ($1250), which features triple balanced armature-type drivers positioned so that outputs of the drivers are coaxial to one another. Other welcome detail touches include signal cables designed by Chris Sommovigo, Furutech mini-jacks, and matching resistors from Vishay.

Company founder Misha Kucherenko has commented that the meaning of his company’s name in its original Russian context is, roughly translated, “solid imaging truth”, which is what the SB-3s aim to provide.

WyWires

Many headphonistas are familiar with WyWires Red-series (and red-jacketed) upgrade signal cables for headphones, but at the LA Show the firm was emphasising its even higher-performance Platinum-series headphone cables, with prices starting at $599/set. The Platinum headphone cables represent, in our view, a big step up in performance vis-à-vis the original Red cables, which remain in the product lineup.

RHA Audio DACAMP L1 portable high-res DAC and headphone amplifier

Those of you who have followed Hi-Fi+ over time know that we hold the Scottish firm RHA Audio in high regard as a manufacturer of sensibly priced high performance earphones, many of which have been reviewed in our pages. But interestingly, the RHA product we will review here isn’t an earphone; instead, it’s an ambitious, portable high resolution DAC and balanced output headphone amplifier called the DACAMP L1, priced at £399.95. Truth to tell, the DACAMP L1 has been a very long time coming, so that we can remember seeing early working prototypes of the amp/DAC over a year ago at various trade shows. Slowly but surely, though, the DACAMP L1 has made its way to full production and is on the market now.

Virtually everything RHA makes is known for exhibiting exceptionally high standards of fit, finish, and overall build quality, so that it is tempting to forget just how keenly priced RHA products are—especially in light of the performance on offer. The DACAMP L1 upholds and builds upon that same tradition. Accordingly, the design of the DAC/amp is geared, in RHA’s own words, “for those who want to take the full-size hi-fi experience with them wherever they go.”

The outer case of the pocket-sized DACAMP L1 is made of aluminium formed through a combination of extrusion and machining processes and is finished in a soft satin grey colour. The edges of the case feature gentle curves that convey a distinctly upscale look and feel, while the exposed sides of the case are done in a soft-feel matt black. Along the longer side of the case is a cutaway recess that houses three control-knobs whose faces are protected by a satin grey aluminium escutcheon plate. The controls are for setting master gain (with low, mid, and high gain settings, plus a ‘charge’ setting), and bass and treble tone settings (each with 12 settings, giving a ranges +9dB to -3dB of boost or cut).

On its rear panel, the DACAMP L1 sports a line in/optical in input jack, an analogue line out jack, a USB A-type jack used for connections to iOS devices or as a charging output, a USB micro-B-type jack used as the digital input for most other types of sources and as charging input, and a small slide switch with settings for iOS in/charging out, USB in/charging in, and to select the line in/optical in input jack. The front panel of the DACAMP L1 in turn features a 3.5mm mini-jack headphone output, a four-pin mini-XLR balanced headphone output, and a laterally positioned and partially recessed knurled thumbwheel that doubles as an on/off switch and as the unit’s volume control. Also on the front panel is a small, multi-colour LED that indicates connectivity, on/off status, and the state of the DACAMP L1’s battery. Topping things off, the top of the unit sports a tastefully engraved rendition of the RHA logo and slogan, which simply reads, “RHA. Sound. Engineered.”

The DACAMP L1 comes with a plethora of helpful accessories including s USB micro-B to USB micro-B (OTG) adapter cable, a USB A to USB micro-B adapter cable, a cleaning cloth that doubles as an abrasion-resistant pad that can be placed between the DACAMP L1 and an associated smartphone, and a pair of RHA-branded silicone straps that can be used to clamp the DAC/amp and smartphone in one nice, neat sonic sandwich.

On the inside, the DACAMP L1 offers, says RHA, “a fully balanced configuration.” To this end, RHA adds, “the DACAMP L1 is the first device of its kind to feature dual DACs and amplifiers, with each pair responsible for one channel of high resolution audio.” Specifically, each channel of the RHA unit features its own dedicated ESS ES9018K2M DAC device and its own class A/B circuit implemented, “using ceramic transistors and innovative logic paths.” RHA emphasizes that, “each channel is fully grounded and balanced, eliminating the risk of cross-channel interference and distortion.” The ESS DACs give the DACAMP L1 the ability to decode PCM files at rates up to 32/384 and to handle DSD64, 128, and 256 files.

Obviously, the RHA team set its sights quite high in developing the DACAMP L1, so that the unit plainly was built up to a quality and sonic standard—not down to a price point. But this, of course, leads to the key question: how does the DACAMP L1 sound when used under real-world conditions? To find out, I fed the DACAMP L1 digital audio files sourced from an iDevice (an iPad Air), from an Android-powered Samsung smartphone, and from a Windows/Lenovo/jRiver-based media server. In turn, I listed through a range of earphones, CIEMs, and full-size headphones, including Noble Katana CIEMs, RHA CL1 Ceramic earphones (which we will cover in a separate review later on), ENIGMAcoustics Dharma D1000 headphones, HiFiMAN Edition X v2 and HE 1000 v2 headphones, and MrSpeakers ÆON and ETHER Flow headphones. Here is what I learned.

In almost all cases, the DACAMP L1 serves up a notably clean, clear, and muscular sound that—for the most part—gives the impression that one is listening through a device with much higher output specification than the RHA unit in fact claims. I suspect this may have much to do with the specific gain options RHA has chosen, but also with the DACAMP L1’s very quiet circuitry, which enables listeners to make the most of the power at hand. This point was driven home to me one evening when I listened to a selection of tracks from bassist extraordinaire Tony Levin as played through the RHA as fed through the Pandora app running on my iPad. The RHA DAC/amp synced up effortlessly with the iPad and handled decoding tasks so masterfully that it struck me I had never before heard such superb sound quality from Pandora-source materials before. More importantly, though, the RHA drove the moderately sensitive (97dB) MrSpeakers planar magnetic ÆON headphones I was using with a rare combination of delicacy and authority.

Levin’s punchy and articulate bass didn’t just sound good though the RHA; it sounded terrific (leading, I must admit, to moments when I couldn’t resist playing ‘air bass’ in emulation of one of my musical heroes). Having recently heard the MrSpeakers ÆONs powered by larger and much more expensive amp/DAC combos, I was floored to find that the RHA not only held its own in comparison to more costly competition, but also in some respects outperformed it. These sonic results are greatly to RHA’s credit.

My only critique of the amplifier section of the DACAMP L1 is that, for very high sensitivity CIEMs such as my Noble Katanas, the RHA has a bit too much gain for its own good—even when the very lowest gain setting is used. The RHA’s gain characteristics and volume control taper mean that, on some CIEMs, the line between ‘just barely playing at all’ and ‘playing way too loudly’ is a fine one indeed. For this reason, I would like to see RHA recalibrate its lowest gain setting to make the DACAMP L1 more compatible with CIEMS and the like. Otherwise, though, the amp is terrific.

The DAC section of the DACAMP L1 performed flawlessly though my tests, happily syncing with my iPad, Android/Galaxy smartphone, and with my Windows-based music server, and gracefully shifting back and forth between standard and high-res PCM and DSD files with no hitches or glitches. At all times, the DACAMP L1 delivers pristine clarity and the sort of low-level sonic detail that is only possible with devices that have very low noise floors. The sonic benefits are obvious ones: down low, listeners enjoy superb pitch definition while up high they are treated to soaring high harmonics that just sound ineffably right. And in the middle, human and instrumental voices are handled with unforced transparency and expressiveness.

A good example of this would be the ethereal track ‘Hey Now’ from London Grammar’s If You Wait [Sony Legacy, 16/44.1] as played through RHA’s remarkable CL1 Ceramic earphones powered by the DACAMP L1. The CL1 Ceramics are not easy earphones to drive, but the DACAMP L1 really made them sing on this track, neatly revealing the pinpoint precision of Dan Rothman’s guitar work, the profoundly atmospheric vibe of Dominic ‘Dot’ Major’s almost meditative keyboards, and the lofty, upward-reaching beauty of Hannah Reid’s vocals. With help from the DACAMP L1 and the CL1 Ceramics, the listening experience became deeply moving and inspired a quiet sense of reverence—almost like listening to an electronica or pop-inflected take on evensong as performed in a quiet cathedral.

RHA has another winner on its hands with the DACAMP L1—one that upholds the RHA tradition of offering products that provide great build quality, useful features, and great sound quality, all at a more than fair price.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: High-resolution portable headphone
amplifier/DAC

Inputs: Stereo analogue line in (via 3.5mm mini-jack), USB A input, USB micro-B input, Mini-Toslink optical input

Outputs: One single-ended analogue line out (via 3.5mm mini-jack), one single-ended headphone output (via 3.5mm mini-jack), and one balanced headphone output (via 4-pin mini XLR jack)

DAC complement: Two ESS ES9018K2M DACs

Supported formats: PCM files at 44.1kHz – 384 kHz with bit depths of 16, 24, or 32 bits
DSD files at 2.8224MHx (DSD64), 5.6448MHz (DSD128), or 11.2896MHz (DSD 256)

Device drivers: DACAMP L1 can run PC environments with installation of a RHA-supplied device driver.
Mac OS, iOS iPhone/iPad and Android environments: no drivers are required.

Battery: 4000mAh lithium ion

Frequency Response: 10Hz–100kHz

Output impedance: 2.2 Ohms

Power Output: 300 Ohms, 28mW
16 Ohms, 300mW

Accessories: Two sets of RHA-branded silicone bands (for attaching the DACAMP L1 to a smartphone, etc.), one cleaning cloth that doubles as an anti‑abrasion pad to keep the DACAMP L1 from chafing against an adjacent smartphone, one USB A-to-USB micro-B-to-USB micro-B (OTG) cable.

Dimensions (H×W×D): 20×118×72mm

Weight: 233g

Price: £399.95 (UK), $549.95 (US)

Manufacturer Information: RHA Audio

Tel: +44 (0) 141 221 8506

URL: www.rha.co.uk

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Trilogy Audio Systems 906 phono stage

We loved the Trilogy Audio Systems 907 phono stage when we tested it in issue 85. But it is a bit ‘spendy’. So when we saw the 931 headphone amp (a stripped down version of Trilogy’s top 933 model), we hoped there might be something smaller, lighter and cheaper than the 907 in the pipeline.

There was, and it’s called the 906. Trilogy doesn’t really go in for funky names.

As with the 931 headphone amplifier, the 906 phono stage incorporates a lot of what goes into its bigger brother, but in a single chassis. There is a likely a performance boost in going for the original 907 model (enough to justify the £1,000 price differential), but the 906 never once sounds ‘cheaper’.

Trilogy came up with a smaller, simpler chassis in the 931 headphone amp, and the same casework is used here. This not only keeps cost down, but includes a folded top and side plate that allows the 906 phono stage to come in one of at least three colour accents; silver as standard, dark grey (Nero Carbonio), and a fetching shade of mid blue (Mediterraneo Blue) as standard options, and a wealth of colour options to special order under Trilogy’s ‘Chameleon’ paint finish system. The standard three finishes match – and two contrast – the silver of the front panel and side cheek.

The 906 is extremely configurable, although it eschews the ‘on-the-fly’ adjustment of models like the Cyrus Phono Signature. Instead, a six pole block of tiny DIP switches on the baseplate of the unit can be used to adjust the phono stage. The first switch in line moves between moving magnet and moving coil. The second and third adjust capacitance, while the last three alter the resistance setting. Notionally at least, you could adjust these while the 906 is still connected to the power, as long as you mute the input of the amp to which the phono stage is connected. In reality, you will probably power it down, adjust, and power it up again. The switches do allow a surprisingly wide range of load settings, but unless you are in the habit of playing ‘guess the capacitance’, you are best served consulting the manual.

There’s arguably not much more you can put on a phono stage at this level, but the 906 is minimal in the extreme. There’s a power light on the front. End of paragraph! If you want a phono stage that can switch between cartridges, support a wide range of pre-RIAA curves, includes legacy rumble filters, and the rest, this isn’t your phono stage. As I said, there’s a power light on the front.

It’s under the covers where the 906 shines. Its signal path is free from cheap, off-the-shelf op-amp integrated circuits. The gain stages are single-ended Class A and fully discrete. Despite being the baby of the Trilogy phono line, each component has been chosen purely for its audio performance. The integral low noise, linear power supply sports a custom-designed transformer and quality branded reservoir capacitors. As you might expect from a designer who spends half his time making high-grade power products under the ISOL-8 banner, there are no generic, electrically noisy, switching wall-warts power supplies here.

The development of Trilogy’s hybrid power amplifiers also leaves its mark on the 906, as the power supply rails are shunt regulated. Although this means the component count is higher than the more common (and relatively inexpensive) series regulator IC solution, their performance is far superior because they can sink as well as source current to the active circuits. This crucial difference gives the 906 superior transient response. A DC servo eliminates the need for large value output capacitors, bringing further performance gains.

The 906 uses active current sources and cascode gain blocks with zero global feedback. Its RIAA equalisation is passive, which means it needs to be carefully implemented with precision components. This increases the overall cost of the 906, but in placing all the electronics in one box, and slimming down relatively out-of-harm’s-way circuitry, the 906 manages to retain much of the performance of its bigger brother, while saving a lot of money for the listener.

There is little in the way of warm-up required for the 906. Yes, it does improve over time, and if you leave the phono stage powered up constantly, the sound is noticeably better. But, once it settles in from the original journey to your equipment table, it comes on song fast, and doesn’t waver. If you are energy-conscious, just give it half an hour of power-up first and you’re golden!

What is really impressive about the 906 is just how ‘expensive’ it sounds. Looking back at Jason Kennedy’s review from issue 85, it was clear the additional £1,000 is money well spent, but the 906 is no slouch.

The overall sound is one of great authority and solidity, but not to the point of being authoritarian. It manages to retain both the drive and energy of a recording without sacrificing its innate musical qualities. Playing Frank Sinatra’s ‘Come Fly With Me’ from the album of the same name [Capitol], a good phono stage needs to be able to cope with both the taut, powerful big band sound, and the passing tones of The Chairman of the Board, without making the former sound insubstantial, or the latter sound too much like someone doing a Sinatra impression. Few phono stages at this level get this right, but the 906 nails it!

Although it sounds like a contradiction in terms, ‘nimble’ doesn’t usually meet ‘dynamic’ at this price level, either. At higher price points, we start to discuss ‘micro-dynamics’, but at lower prices we don’t. There’s a reason for that – most of the lower-cost phono stages simply don’t resolve down to that level. The 906 is one of the very rare exceptions this side of four figures. Here, you get the delicate inner detail of a recording like Beck’s Sea Change [Mobile Fidelity] that mean you get to hear more information behind that 1970s-esque drum sound that is so distinctive. And yet, it also works extremely well when dealing with more full-thickness dynamic range.

The only downside I can see is if you are an inveterate traveller, flitting from country to country with your record collection, the 906 does not have an auto-sensing power system. You need to either buy one for 220V, one for 110V, and a third for 100V regions, or have it constantly sent back and fourth to Trilogy to adjust the taps from the transformer. In reality, that probably means another phono stage, and equally in reality, that’s not exactly a ‘deal-breaker’ for most people.

It’s hard not to be impressed by the Trilogy 906. It has much of the authority and inherent ‘rightness’ of more upmarket designs, and retains its extremely cogent and coherent sense of musical ‘groove’. Unless you are using the 906 in a really high-resolution system (where the power cord connecting the Trilogy to the wall would likely cost many times more than the 906), or unless you compare the two side by side, you might find the 906 is all you need. We felt its bigger brother warranted a strong recommendation, and given the 906 gets you about 90% of the bigger brother’s performance for less than half the price, the highest recommendation is mandatory. The 906 is very, very good indeed!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Input impedance: 47 kΩ (user adjustable)

Input capacitance: 100pF (user adjustable)

Gain: 40dB or 60dB (user adjustable)

Output impedance: 150 Ohms

Size H×W×D: 4.8×14×22cm

Weight: 1.7kg

Price: £995

Manufacturer: Trilogy Audio Systems

URL: www.trilogyaudio.com

UK Distributor: Symmetry

Tel: +44(0)1727 865488

URL: www.symmetry-systems.co.uk

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Benchmark Media Systems DAC3 HGC digital converter

Benchmark Media Systems is one of the bastions of the new face of audio electronics. Benchmark was and is a pro audio brand at the forefront of the democratisation of the recording industry and audiophiles became interested in the product line toward the end of the last decade, because the Benchmark DAC1 was one of the first products that took USB audio seriously. No company can afford to rest on its laurels for too long today, and the Benchmark DAC1 was replaced by a number of equally highly respected models. Which brings us to the latest Benchmark DAC3-HGC.

Despite looking very similar to the DAC1 and DAC1 HDR, and virtually identical to the DAC2 HGC, the DAC3 HGC brings a lot of ‘new’ to the table. To recap, the original DAC1 was a fine 24-bit, 192kHz PCM converter with an excellent headphone amp, the DAC1 USB added 24/96 USB 1.1 input, the DAC1 PRE added a line-level input (at the expense of AES/EBU digital input), and the DAC1 HDR improved the circuit design, with special focus on the volume control. The DAC2 added native DSD processing and 192kHz compatible USB 2.0, with a range of variants that re-introduced the AES/EBU connection, removed the headphone amplifier, and finally added the company’s own Hybrid Gain Control. The DAC3 is the latest iteration of that Benchmark concept, once again revising the circuit to reflect the latest developments in digital design. It’s available in three variants today: the digital-only DX model (which includes an AES/EBU input), the L model (which removes the headphone amp but retains the analogue preamp) and the HDR model tested here, which features both the headphone amp and a line input in place of the pro-digital AES/EBU connector. All three are available in black or silver.

The headline change to the DAC3 over the DAC2 is the use of the latest ESS Technologies digital converter chip, the ES9028Pro SABRE. Currently, the number of DACs that sport this state-of-the-art chipset could be counted on the fingers of one hand that had been involved in a fairly nasty industrial accident. This is a 32bit, eight-channel DAC chip with an impressive THD+N rating of -122dB and a world-class dynamic range of 140dB. It also allows native DSD over PCM (DoP) coding, so DSD256 signals can be played without any form of transcoding. Benchmark also makes sure this ESS chip is run with all its lights turned on, benefitting in the process from active compensation for second and third harmonic distortion, and improved passband ripple. The new chipset demands an equally new circuit design, and this has resulted in the DAC3 having faster PLL lock times, faster switching between signals, and a more accurate frequency response than its predecessor.

In use, the Benchmark models have a reputation for being fuss-free, no-nonsense designs that just get on with playing music, and the DAC3 is no exception. A lot of this comes from the top down: John Siau is the Director of Engineering at Benchmark Media and writes some extremely sensible, pragmatic, and forthright ‘applications notes’ and the occasional blog on the Benchmark website. Siau is pragmatic enough to include DSD, despite not being a supporter of the format. The commercial reality today is that regardless of whether or not you think DSD a viable format, and irrespective of how many DSD recordings you might own, if you don’t include DSD replay on a DAC like the Benchmark DAC3, it will simply fail to sell in some parts of the world. His pragmatism only extends so far, however, and both balanced headphone output are beyond the pale. Siau is not unwilling to back up any claims, and he presents good reasons why balanced headphone output is unnecessary, namely that the headphone is inherently balanced and cannot recognise any difference between singled-ended and voltage-balanced operation, and that making two separate output amplifiers for balanced operation doubles the noise and halves the load impedance – accept these reasons or not, they are generally well grounded.

I didn’t log too much time with the DAC2 and my descriptions of the original DAC1 must be tempered by the amount of time elapsed between when I had one to evaluate and today, but I am confident in saying the DAC3 has hit the Goldilocks spot in tonal balance. The original DAC1 was clean and slightly forward sounding (no real criticism in the late 2000s, as that was the prevailing sound of digital audio of the time), the DAC2 line had that kind of silken sheen, warmth, and almost rounded off treble of early ESS Sabre implementations, but the DAC3 is more like the best of both (again, no real criticism as this was also the sound of the time, and – in hindsight – was probably almost like an overcompensation for those first generation ‘computer audio’ designs). It has the treble extension and clarity of the original coupled with the effortless and refinement of the next generation.

Coming at this DAC hot on the heels of one of the best DAC’s I’ve ever experienced (the Chord DAVE, which costs almost 4x as much as the DAC3) I was expecting a significant down-shift in performance. In fact, what I heard shows just why digital audio is so exciting at the moment. The two were closer than I expected in performance and tonal terms. Yes, the DAVE is the better of the two, and the better the system, the wider the gap tends to become, but the DAC3 sounds excellent in a standalone capacity, or in systems that don’t culminate in more than £20,000 worth of loudspeakers.

What surprised me about the DAC3 was just how capable it was with a surprisingly catholic selection of music. It’s easy to point to a few audiophile recordings that sound great, in part because they sound great on anything, but this is more accommodating beyond the audiophile comfort zone. I’ve been playing Gang Signs & Prayers by Stormzy [#Merky Records, on TIDAL] and grime isn’t high on the playlists of audiophiles, but it seriously works through the Benchmark DAC3. It’s fresh, clean, and dynamic, never once making too much of a thing about the compression, exaggerating the top-end, or making it seem too diffuse or amusical.

There’s an intrinsic sense of honesty to the sound. Stormzy’s fun but there isn’t much imaging involved, where ‘It’s Goodbye And So Long To You’ from Alison Krauss new Windy City album [Capitol, also on TIDAL] is atmospheric and expansive, with Krauss’ soprano soring high and pure, with an almost nostalgic acoustic bluegrass backing sitting a step or two behind and around her. Even moving to large scale orchestral, or transient-led electronica didn’t phase the DAC3 HGC, as it always sounded, just right… in the Goldilocks sense.

Looking to the headphone amplifier, and in passing addressing that claim about balanced operation. I think Siau has a point, that the importance of balanced operation in headphone amplifier is not necessarily a requirement of better sonic performance, simply a means whereby an expensive headphone amplifier can justify additional cost. That being said, the full Questyle Golden Stack (which is a true balanced, dual mono design) does sound exceptionally good. But the Benchmark more than makes its own argument through its own sound quality on headphones. As with its predecessor, the headphone amplifier is detailed and capable, can drive practically everything with ear-cups (save for electrostatics), and yet is noise-free enough to work with very sensitive IEMs. And again, pragmatism reigns here: there are sonic benefits to be had moving from the DAC3 up to either one of the ultra-DACs or a dedicated and expensive standalone headphone amplifier, but they become harder to justify as they will not come cheap.

Downsides are few and far between. OK, so if you want to do some custom configuration (such as modifying the headphone or the XLR gain) adjustment is through internal jumpers, but for most situations, you’ll never need to pop the case on the DAC3. Other custom modifications are ‘power chord’ multiple key presses on the front panel. In fairness, similar functionality issues were logged in the DAC1 and DAC2 and didn’t cause great distress. It’s more that engineers design engineer-led products that are easily understood by engineers, and the rest of us don’t think like engineers. The rest of us have a few glowing light learning curves to overcome. No biggie!

If ever there were a reason to shout how we are living in a golden age for music lovers, it would be Benchmark DAC-shaped. The DAC3 HGC is the kind of DAC that not only pushes the technological envelope, but also does so without sacrificing the sonic performance, and doesn’t cost as much as a car in the process. Highly Recommended!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Stereo DAC/headphone amplifier/preamplifier

Digital inputs: 1× USB (1.1 or 2.0, internal switching), 2× Optical, 2× Coaxial

Line inputs: 2× stereo RCA pair

Outputs: 2× single-ended stereo RCA pair, 1× balanced XLR pair, 2× ¼” headphone jacks

Frequency Response/Sampling:
to 24-bit/192kHz (PCM) DSD256

Frequency response (for 192kHz sampling):
+0dB (20Hz) –0.15dB (80kHz)

Signal to Noise Ratio +27dBu (@0dBFS, A-weighted): 128dB

Signal to Noise Ratio +27dBu (@0dBFS, unweighted): 126dB

THD+N (1kHz @ -3dBFS): 0.0016%

Crosstalk (@20kHz): –116dB

Max. Jitter amplitude induced sidebands: < –144dB

Headphone output power: 1.25V into 30Ω

Maximum output current: 250mA

Bandwidth: >500kHz, – 0.35dB @ 200kHz

THD+N @ 20mW: 0.0004% into 300Ω

Finish: Black and Silver

Dimensions (W×D×H): 22×25×4.5cm

Weight: 1.36kg

Price: £2,349

Manufactured by: Benchmark Media Systems Inc.

URL: www.benchmarkmedia.com

Distributed in the UK by: SCV Distribution

URL: www.scvdistribution.co.uk

Tel: +44(0)3301 222500

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Weiss Medus DAC

Weiss has long been at the forefront of digital audio technology. It was the first company I recall making a DAC equipped with a Firewire input for the Mac computers that were used as a source when the whole digital streaming thing got off the ground. There is a reason for this, which is that Weiss has been in studios for a long time. I went to Air studios recently and visited the vinyl cutting room. There in the console I saw two Weiss units; don’t ask me what they do, but assume they had something to do with digital audio in that situation. Studios were the first places that got to grips with digital, so companies that supplied them had a head start over the rest of the audio universe when it came to file streaming. The Medus is Weiss’ flagship digital to analogue converter and its input array can include a Firewire connection even now, but given that this connection has largely died out in domestic PCs the review sample was supplied with an alternative connection in the form of an RJ45 for Ethernet.

This isn’t the first DAC I’ve encountered with an Ethernet input, but they are few and far between. Sometimes called a network DAC, the idea is that you send data from a server or NAS drive directly to the converter without a streaming bridge in between. Given the increase in popularity of audio servers from Melco, Innuos, and the like that have direct Ethernet outputs, this seems like an eminently sensible idea, yet it is still pretty rare. In this converter, its only limitation is that it can’t cope with anything higher than DSD64 as far as one-bit signals are concerned, though it’s good for full 192kHz PCM.

The remaining inputs on the Medus are similarly unusual. They include double-wire connections on inputs 1 and 2: that is, the capability to receive each channel on a separate coaxial or AES/EBU XLR. This approach originates in the early days of high resolution files when the AES/EBU chips were not able to support higher data rates, and again harks back to studio practice. There are a few audio companies that include this option such as Esoteric and dCS, as well as Weiss itself – the Jason CD transport (great name!) includes double-wire outputs. But Weiss doesn’t claim that double-wire offers any advantages over single-wire connections now that the latter are capable of handling high resolution signals. One such being USB, which this DAC has on the same input (3) as Ethernet. This was a cause of some confusion at first, but then I realised that USB comes through on input 3 but Ethernet is selected when choosing input 4 with the front panel buttons or remote. The latter is a heavyweight example of the breed that adds a few useful functions to those accessible from the Medus’ front panel, these include absolute phase inversion, mute, brightness, filter choice, and volume. The latter can also be used to adjust maximum output. Weiss realises that in many systems a preamplifier will provide volume control and the DAC can be set to 0.0dB or full output for such set ups. Having some adjustment of what full output is means that the preamp can be used either in the same range as other sources or at its best sounding level setting. Weiss suggests going for an output level that corresponds with a preamp’s volume control at its midpoint.

The volume control on Medus is a digital type. These are usually quite distinctly compromised, but Weiss points out that theirs is not the usual bit reduction type but one that handles the requantization of a truncated digital signal with dithering. This adds a very small amount of noise but de-correlates the quantization error from the signal resulting in, “a level control with a 24 bit word-length [that] easily rivals the best analogue level controls”. It even has a white paper with sound files to demonstrate their point.

I have yet to find an on-board level control that clearly betters the Townshend Allegri passive preamp, so I made a point of comparing the Medus with its own volume adjustment versus full output via the Allegri. Playing ‘Hot Lips’ by the Hot Club of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Bounce [Reference Recordings 24/176.4], an early hi-res recording of Hot Club de Paris style ukuleles, guitars, and violin in a very big room. The Medus doesn’t manage to convey that scale as fully as the Allegri. There is a compression of depth and the sound sticks to the speakers. But the sound is very good indeed and it soon became clear that the Medus is a very fine converter – in fact, one of the best I have had the pleasure of using.

The presence of the Ethernet connection encouraged me to try this first. In all the comparisons I’ve made between USB and Ethernet, I have preferred the latter but in all previous instances it has not been a like for like comparison. To use Ethernet usually requires a ‘pull system’ where the DAC/streamer controls what comes out of the server. USB on the other hand is a ‘push system’ where the server or PC sends the stream to the converter. Here the Ethernet input works like that as well, I used the Audionet app to control a Melco N1Z server and connected its Ethernet direct output to the Medus. The result was stunning: high frequency detail in particular is on a par with a very good turntable, and the sense of openness you get with a good recording is just something else. This degree of transparency puts the onus on the recording to an even greater extent than usual, the first track I played was ‘Zawâj El Yamâm’ by Le Trio Joubran [As Fâr, Randana], which consists of three ouds playing Arabic jazz. Here the band is presented in 3D within an expansive and deep soundstage with scale that made for a very convincing replica of the live experience. The treble on the Medus is open and very clean, it allows all the harmonics to unfold and this gives instruments and voices a sense of realism that is rare with digital systems.

Another live piece, Kraftwerk’s ‘Radioactivity’ [Minimum Maximum, EMI], was inevitably not quite so clean in the high frequencies, very good for an electronic performance but with a small amount of grain. This didn’t stop the piece from being powerful and atmospheric, and I’ve not heard the reverb go on for so long before. At this point, I began to wonder about the price, it was clear that the Weiss is no ordinary high end DAC. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s Haydn piano sonatas [Piano Sonatas Vol 1, Chandos] reinforced this opinion, the instrument sounding so open, smooth, and natural yet precise with none of the glassiness that pianos can expose in digital systems. The Medus invites you into the music by showing its charm and the brilliance of the playing, keeping itself very much in the background and letting the work shine. Another classical piece, Vivaldi’s Belleza Crudel [Tone Wik, Alexandra Opsahl, 2L], has become something of a staple because of the fabulous tone of the period instruments, but this was the first time I have encountered so much dynamic subtlety in the recording; the micro-dynamics are superbly resolved as is the scale of the recording venue. Once again, the Weiss brought out the size of the room perfectly and let the speakers disappear. It was around this point that I tried the on-board volume control and lost some of this scale, so the majority of listening was done without the luxury of remote level control.

Moving over to the USB input results in smoother high frequencies. I don’t have matching USB and Ethernet cables so this might be an explanation, but both are very good examples of their breeds. Ethernet is Chord Co Sarum Super ARAY and USB is Vertere Pulse HB, the latter being far more revealing at HF than any other cable of its ilk that I’ve tried. But this connection proved more forgiving of less than pristine recordings, I fell in love with Esperanza Spalding’s Emily’s D+Evolution [Concord] whilst the Medus was in the system, but even the 24/96 version sounded a bit too forward via Ethernet. On USB the worst of the treble glare was ameliorated and it became very easy to enjoy this less-than-audiophile recording.

DSD is converted to PCM when using Ethernet but goes straight through on USB, and provides a smoother and more relaxed presentation than PCM. With a number of Norwegian label 2L’s excellent classical demo tracks (free from their site) the Medus produced effortlessly real and fully three-dimensional music. The Mozart Violin concerto in D major has depth and scale to run around in and none of the halo effect that you can get with DSD, a sort of exaggerated sense of ‘air’ that sounds like a colouration. String tone is also extremely good; high notes don’t sound thin, you can hear the body of the instruments, and all the string section’s woody timbre is revealed in full effect.

I was lured back to Ethernet and really enjoyed the vivid, spacious, and dynamic quality that input brings to the mix. The sense of musicality is pretty close to USB, but in energy terms, I felt strongly that it is the more effective conduit. I found that with a few cable changes I could ameliorate the problems that the extra openness reveals. USB does bring a focus to the proceedings that is aesthetically pleasing, so it will be up to the end user to find a link that works in their system and room. It’s nice to have the option to use this link. I asked Daniel Weiss which connection he preferred and got the politically neutral answer “Actually I do not have any favourite connection when it comes to sonic quality – as the Medus has the same performance with all input types.”

I also asked about the filter settings, of which there are two, but their characteristics are not explained in the otherwise fairly comprehensive manual. It turns out that filter A has the steeper slope while filter B is more relaxed. I found that filter B suited my music and tastes slightly better than A, but the difference between the two is quite subtle.

I also contrasted the Medus with my reference DAC, the CAD 1543 Mk2 – a converter that always sounds more relaxed and effortless than the competition. However when the competition comes in at three times the price it doesn’t seem quite as refined in comparison. The Weiss has greater ease and more subtlety thanks to clearer low level detail and lower noise. On Tom Waits’ ‘In Shades’ [Heart Attack & Vine, Ayslum], as featured on the recent BBC documentary, there is a lot of restaurant noise behind the instrumental performance, and with the Weiss the precise nature of this noise is far easier to identify. The clinking of cutlery and speech are better separated from the playing, and the leading edges of the notes being played are in what I can only call the premier league.

All this resolution would not be worth a jot if the Medus did not time properly. There are many high end digital components that seem to reveal everything but fail to make it hang together in a cohesive and musical fashion. You only have to play one familiar track to realise that this DAC has timing down, the more complex the rhythms and melodies the more obvious this becomes, and the harder it gets to turn it off. This is true whether it’s the percussive vibes of the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble or the fluency of Bavouzier’s piano, in every instance you are captivated by the music. To do this at the same time as delivering so much detail is no mean feat. Clearly Weiss’ experience in the studio world has taught it what matters and how best to approach the thorny issues of digital to analogue conversion. Whichever way you look at it, the Weiss Medus is a DAC to die for.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Fully balanced, solid-state high-resolution PCM and DSD-capable digital-to-analogue converter/preamplifier

Digital Inputs: Two AES/EBU, three Coaxial, one Toslink, and one USB, one optional Ethernet/Firewire

Analogue Outputs: One stereo single‑ended (via RCA jacks), one balanced (via XLR connectors). Both outputs have variable level operation

DAC Resolution/Supported Digital Formats: All PCM from 44.1KS/s to 192KS/s with word lengths up to 24‑bit, DSD64 (2.8224MHz) and DSD128 (5.6448MHz). The following format restrictions apply:
DSD128 is supported through USB only

Frequency Response: 0Hz–40kHz, ± 0.75dB @192KS/s

Distortion (THD + Noise): –115dB at 0dBFS (0dBFS = +27.0 dBU)

Output Voltage: variable XLR 0.49V–17.35V, RCA 0.245V–8.67V

User Interface: remote handset.

Dimensions (H×W×D): 740×620×300mm

Weight: not specified

Price: £21,000

Manufacturer: Weiss Engineering, Weiss Engineering Ltd, Weiss Engineering Lt

Tel: +41 44 290 20 06

URL: www.weiss.ch

UK Distributor: Padood

Tel: +44 (0) 1223 653199

URL: www.padood.com

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VPI Industries Prime Signature turntable

When it was launched back at the end of 2016, the VPI Prime changed the game, proving to be one of the best turntables we’d heard at anything close to the price. So impressive, in fact, that I bought the review sample within seconds of first hearing it. The Prime Signature – first seen in 2016 – is what happens when you take that Prime design and extend it to its present logical limits.

In fact, the success of the Prime allowed VPI to radically shake up its entire line, looking closely at some of its past glories with a more measured eye, and making some tough decisions in the process. As a result, the Prime Signature is top of VPI’s fourstrong ‘Production Turntables’ range (with the aforementioned Prime, the re-introduced Scout, and the all-in-one Player filling in the rest of the line). There is also a ‘Reference Turntables’ line, based around the three-footed Avenger design, and sometime soon there look set to be a ‘Bespoke Collection’ line featuring made-to-order versions of models like the VPI Classic. Regardless, the Prime design is core to the Production Turntables line.

So core, in fact, it’s hard to describe the Prime Signature without reflecting it in the Prime itself. To recap, the original Prime features a vinyl wrapped MDF chassis, bonded with an 11 gauge steel plate, and featuring four Delrin corner posts for isolation and mechanical grounding. The deck features a 500 RPM (300 RPM in the US), 24 pole, AC synchronous motor, housed in a separate aluminium and steel machined assembly. It sports an inverted bearing with a hardened stainless steel shaft and a 60 Rockwell chrome hardened ball, spinning in a phosphor bronze bushing, all of which sits on a PEEK thrust disc, and the belt side load is placed at the centre of the spinning bearing for zero ‘seesaw’ or ‘teeter-totter’ effects. The Prime also features a 9kg aluminium platter, and the arm is a 10” variant on the company’s ever-popular JMW unipivot tonearm complete with the useful VTA base that allows vertical tracking angle to be adjusted on the fly. Renaissance offers both a phono and XLR breakout box for the arm at purchase (the XLR box is a £175 option otherwise). The Prime was the first turntable to offer a completely 3D printed arm-wand (wired with Discovery wire), pivot housing, and counterweight outrigger. Finally, the original Prime sits on four custom-made isolation spiked feet and includes a clamp.

The Prime Signature improves on the original in several obvious ways. Perhaps most immediately obvious is an aluminium plate, in place of the steel plate in the Prime. This makes the chassis thicker and heavier than the Prime, and the aluminium plate is visible as the silvery ‘meat’ in the black, vinyl-wrapped chassis sandwich (the steel plate on the Prime is hidden from view). This performs the same resonance and feedback control as the steel chassis plate on the Prime, but also improves chassis damping.

The Signature sits on its own four feet, which are a step up on the standard issue feet on the Prime. In fact, eagle eyed VPI followers might spot that these are the same feet found on the Classic Signature; solid, conical, adjustable feet with metal rings at their base. Their tower covers atop the chassis are also chrome plated to match (these are flat black in the Prime). These feet are required because of the additional weight of the Prime Signature chassis.

The additional thickness of the Prime Signature platter and the taller Signature feet mean the motor housing needs to be taller and its aluminium and steel housing is therefore heavier and also better at controlling vibration, resonance, and feedback relative to what is basically the same AC motor in the Prime. Finally, while the platter remains the same as the Prime, the Signature features the heavier stainless steel record weight (which is an option for the Prime… more on this later). The result of all this additional size and mass means the Prime now ships in two boxes instead of one (the second for the platter).

Perhaps slightly less immediately obvious are the changes to the tonearm between the Prime and Prime Signature. This new model uses the 3DR version, in place of the 3D model on the Prime. Aside from the new ‘metallic black’ gloss finish (which looks great in the flesh), the 3DS is internally wired with Nordost Reference wire, through to the terminal block. Finally, alongside the motor housing, the Delrin posts and armboard have all received a higher grade of stainless steel. Having done my time in a precision small turned parts factory, I’m guessing by looking at the two armbases side-by-side this has meant a move from Type 304 to Type 316 or even Type 440. What that means to non-steelheads is a move from standard stainless steel (which is slightly dull, but has good tensile strength but less good hardness) to the kind of steel used in watch cases, surgical implements, or cutlery, which combines a brighter look with very good tensile strength and very good to excellent hardness. OK, so I just hugged my inner nerd, here, but it was important in padding out the story!

There are almost two reviews here; the Prime Signature in its own right, and the Prime Signature viewed through the medium of the original Prime. Both are equally valid ways of thinking about the Prime Signature.

Starting with those approaching the Prime Signature from new, what you are met with is an extraordinarily confident presentation. The Prime Signature always has its feet on the ground, and presents a sound that is solid and stentorian in its depth and range, but also possessed of a sense of musical structure and remarkable midrange openness and, although it sounds almost paradoxical following the use of words like ‘solid’, filigree beauty at the top. It’s hard to think of this in musical terms, and wind up thinking of its performance more like Gaudi’s still unfinished La Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcalona. If you’ve seen (or seen pictures of) this stunning architectural work, you’ll know it rises up from a solid base to produces endlessly fascinating and diminishing towers diminishing to points. Structures dance around other structures; it’s bewildering, complex, and one of the most organic looking structures man has ever made. And the VPI Prime Signature has something of the same properties to the way it makes music. Sounds rise organically out of a solid, near noiseless foundation. It’s closer to listening to just the record than most turntable replay systems at anywhere near the price. In fact, the one that gets closest to the Prime Signature here, is the Prime itself.

Audio reviewers use LPs a bit like test discs. We play the same recordings over and over again, because they contain useful passages that show us what a product is doing. For example, I use an old Decca SXL of the D’Oyly Carte and the LSO playing The Pirates of Penzance because few recordings I’ve heard since give a better sense of stereo image placement and stage width, depth, and height. The problem with all that is we end up listening to those pieces so comprehensively that they become almost musically bankrupt. The Prime Signature is like the musical reset button, which makes these recordings come back to life, for the reasons you used them in the first place.

Yes, the Prime Signature does all the hi-fi things, and does them exceptionally well, in fact. There is a sublime sense of midrange honesty that comes through on small-scale, predominantly acoustic recordings like Beck’s Sea Change [MoFi], but there’s also a wealth of dynamic range that comes across when listening to ‘It’s All Right With Me’ from the Marty Paich Big Band album The New York Scene [Discovery], and there’s endless detail on offer from any of the excellent Chasing The Dragon direct-to-disc cuts. The soundstage too is excellent, with great depth and even height on offer in the aforementioned Decca disc.

More than all this, however, is that the Prime Signature retains that elusive property that VPI got so right on the Prime, and the Classic before that: It makes music enjoyable. I know that sounds a bit odd – no one buys audio equipment that makes music sound bad – but there are a lot of systems that make a big, elegant, and sophisticated sound that no‑one in the world could actually sit down and enjoy, where as the Prime Signature makes a big, elegant, and sophisticated sound that makes you want to pull out those old Led Zeppelin albums and play them at a decent lick. Yes, if your record collection comprises two copies of Cantate Domino and one of Jazz at The Pawnshop, the Prime Signature’s sonic credentials will please you every bit as much as other great decks, but if you view such audiophile confectionary as meaningless fluff, this will make those Fall records sound fun when you need a bit of sonic abuse. This comes because the Prime Signature is both fundamentally pitch stable, and because it has a truly outstanding sense of rhythm and timing.

Like the standard 3D arm, the 3DR works well with almost any cartridge, but is particularly good with Benz, Dynavector, Lyra, Ortofon, and Soundsmith designs. That covers most of the bases today, but a surprising number of VPI decks end up sporting cartridges, and do so for a reason… they sound great together. The best part of this, however, is the 3DR retails the 3D’s ability to wring the best out of lower-end cartridges but not hold back more up-market designs. And also as with the 3D arm, it has an almost seamless frequency response, with the unipivot’s natural tendency for mild roll-off at the extremes ably countered by the turntable design, the Prime Signature and its attendant 3DR arm strike such a perfect balance it makes you wonder why you need to move beyond this level.

Moving to the second part of the test, the best way of viewing the Prime Signature as a Prime owner is thinking of this like the dating game. Imagine you are dating a witty, intelligent, and beautiful girl who could easily be a model. You are invited home to meet the family, only to discover that her sister is brighter, wittier, and models clothes for Victoria’s Secret. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Prime – it remains one of the best turntables you can buy at anything close to the price – but once you try out the Signature, you are in sexier sister territory. You aren’t settling for second best with the Prime, but the Prime Signature just gives you that little bit more, all round.

Finally, there is chance for a little spot of parts raiding between Prime and Prime Signature. Interestingly, the only available option – the better record clamp – is the only one that works. I’m not entirely convinced that it’s a move for the better, as it can sound slightly dynamically slugged, and I suspect this is a stepping-stone for the full spindle/periphery clamp duo. However, trying the standard clamp on the Prime Signature is a lot worse, as it seems to give the sound a bit of a unnecessary ‘bounce’ in the upper midrange. I expect if you go full clamp, the Prime gets closer to the Signature, but the Signature still has the edge.

The VPI Prime Signature has big shoes to fill because the Prime itself is so damn good. It fills those shoes easily, however, because it is so damn better. Not a transformation, but it does all the things the Prime does, and does them better. It’s more dynamic, more expressive, more rhythmically integrated and driven, and a lot more detailed. It’s sufficiently better enough for this Prime owner to think about signing up, even though the Prime does all the right things already. Looks like VPI has another winner on its hands, and the Prime Signature comes very highly recommended indeed!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Belt-driven, non-suspended turntable, with 3D printed unipivot tonearm

Turntable

Chassis: Black textured vinyl over MDF, with a sandwiched aluminium plate

Isolation: Four adjustable stainless steel corner assemblies

Motor: 500rpm, 24-pole AC motor in a separate aluminium and steel housing

Bearing: Inverted design, hardened stainless steel shaft, 60 Rockwell chrome hardened ball, phosphor bronze bushing, PEEK thrust disc

Platter: machined 6061 grade aluminium, 9kg

Wow & Flutter: > 0.03%

Speed accuracy: > 0.04%

Rumble: > –82dB

Tonearm

Pivot to spindle distance: 258mm

Effective length: 273.4mm

Overhang: 15.4mm

Offset angle: 19.98°

Average RMS distortion: 0.311%

Internal wiring: Discovery wire, optional Nordost Valhalla

Dimensions (W×D×H): 53.5×40×12cm

Weight: 36.75kg

Price: £6,000

Manufactured by: VPI Industries Inc

URL: vpiindustries.com

Distributed by: Renaissance Audio

URL: www.renaissanceaudio.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)131 555 3922

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SME Model 15A turntable

Not a lot seems to change at SME’s HQ in the picturesque town of Steyning, West Sussex. Men in white coats have been building high quality turntables and arms there for so long that several generations of local engineers have toiled at the machinery. So the sale of the company to the Cadence Group last autumn must have sent shockwaves through a company that has been in private ownership since the 1950s. But things are looking a lot more positive now; the new owners have brought in aerospace engineer Stuart McNeilis as CEO and he has already refurbished the paint shop and plans to increase the workforce in anticipation of burgeoning future demand. In the past, SME gave the impression of patiently waiting for the business to come to it – it had, after all, established a reputation for making the finest quality arms and turntables in the business. But there’s no doubt that appointing a UK distributor and encouraging international partners will likely increase sales for the company. It is encouraging to note that McNeilis intends to bring in design as well as engineering skills, so that SME can continue to expand and refine its range. With the death of founder Alistair Robertson-Aikman (ARA) in 2006 the company was left without a real turntable enthusiast at the helm, so some input on the R&D front will presumably be welcomed.

The last product to be developed prior to this change of ownership was the Model 15 turntable, which was the first totally new turntable from the brand since the Model 10 in 1999. The earlier Model 20 and 30 have been refined to their third and second generations respectively as well as growing in girth with what ARA called the “long wheelbase” treatment (that is provision for a 12inch arm) in that time, but new models are pretty rare.

The Model 15 was initially intended to be a more grown up version of the Model 10, but ended up rather closer to the rather more substantial Model 20. It takes its high-mass platter from the 20/2 (which is smaller than that on the current 20/3) and has suspension towers that are very close to those on the 20/3 but 8mm shorter. Each tower supports the plinth and platter on 10 rubber ‘O’ rings, a weight of 11 kilos being suspended on 30 rings altogether. The towers are adjustable in height and set-up involves using the supplied spacer to set the correct gap between the subchassis and plinth. The spacer alone says a lot about SME: all it needs to be is the right thickness, it could be made of plastic, but not only is it precision made in aluminium and engraved with a part number, but this small block is finished to the same standard as the turntable and arm. Which makes it less surprising when you learn that SME makes its own nuts and bolts.

The Model 15 actually feels bulkier than its 11kg weight suggests. It’s a lot easier to move with the platter removed, for example. Despite being made of aluminium, the two slabs that form the bulk of the turntable are very thick, the lower one being the heaviest. Each suspension tower has a damped piston within it and the main bearing under the platter is likewise controlled in order to keep resonance at bay. It’s a suspended design but not a springy one like a Linn LP12, rather it’s a high mass system of a kind that is unusual even in the widely varying world of turntable design. Set up is a case of removing two bolts from the sub platter and winding another four up into the sub platter, SME clearly doesn’t want this part moving in transit. Fit the belt and carefully place the platter over the spindle, its top surface is softer than it looks and easy to mark.

Next you need to adjust the suspension posts so that the aforementioned spacer fits easily beneath each. This can be done with the supplied hex driver that is also made by SME. Now the platter is ready to spin, but first connect the power supply’s DIN plug to the lower plinth, a job that’s considerably easier on the 15 than the 20. The option exists to connect an earthing wire to a gold plated ground post under the top plinth, but this is only necessary if there are hum problems. Once the platter has been spinning for a while you can check the speed with the supplied strobe disc and an appropriate 50 or 60Hz light source, if it needs adjusting this is done with the buttons on the power supply. The latter is a reasonably slim box with a power inlet and fixed supply cable of adequate length to place it several feet away from the turntable.

Once the turntable is levelled and spinning at the correct RPM, you can fit a tonearm. The suffix on the name Model 15A indicates that it’s supplied with a Model 309 SPD arm. This is the least expensive of the tonearms that are based on the mighty Model V that re-established the brand in the early 1980s. The 309 has a removable headshell and dynamic rather than spring downforce, but is otherwise very similar to the V. It doesn’t have the nicety of threaded VTA adjustment but retains the sliding base with rack and pinion control, which is easily the most straightforward stylus alignment system in the business. Downforce adjustment requires the supplied hex driver again, it screws the counterweight back and forth and locks it in place.

All that’s then required is to fix the cartridge in the headshell, set downforce, and use the supplied protractor to move the whole arm until it sits within the provided guidelines when the stylus is on the appropriate point. With the 309 there is an extra stage; the removable headshell means that azimuth also needs to be set; the angle of the cartridge seen from the front. As the 24 page instruction manual points out this is best done with a mirror. Finally VTA can be set with the same gauge that does alignment and the markings on the side of the arm. It really is a doddle by turntable standards, and if you are buying the thing the dealer does it for you of course. Still it’s nice to tweak should you feel the urge.

One tweak that is easy to experiment with is the supplied record clamp, another beautifully machined and finished piece of aluminium that has a coarse thread so that it can be put on and taken of with ease. It comes with a large washer that goes under the vinyl, raising the centre so that the clamp can bend the record very slightly into a convex shape and thus flatten out warps. It also provides greater damping of the disc, which has the effect of reinforcing the bass and dropping noise slightly, resulting in greater perceived dynamic range. I have to admit a preference for unclamped listening, however; without it the sound has more harmonic structure and better timing, a combination that increases musical engagement. It’s hard to say which is more accurate, but I know which one was the more enjoyable.

The sound that the Model 15A produces when equipped with a Transfiguration Proteus moving coil is extraordinarily calm and clean – the notes literally come out of an inky black background like magic. I put on Bugge Wesseltoft’s Trialogue [Jazzland] and was struck by the way that the percussion notes in particular had a solidity and presence in the context of such a quiet background. SMEs have always been good at reproducing notes with a sense of body, regardless of whether they are highs, lows or mids, and the 15 has the same ability. It’s not something that many digital systems can do in the treble and a lot of turntables get a bit thin or rolled off at that end of the band as well. The bass is really powerful too, even without the clamp, it’s not perhaps the fastest when it comes to stopping and starting, but if you want to feel an organ or synth note you won’t be disappointed.

The low noise floor also provides plenty of dynamic contrast between notes, instruments and voices, which makes it easy to hear what individual musicians are contributing to the performance. This is undoubtedly related to the powerful sense of three-dimensional solidity in the imaging. There is always space around acoustic sources because the turntable opens up such a deep soundstage for them to unfold in. Surface noise can be more intrusive than average but it’s nothing that a more fastidious attitude to vinyl cleaning wouldn’t sort out. Meanwhile there’s the distraction of tone, specifically the trumpet on Patricia Barber’s ‘Constantinople’ [Modern Cool, Premonition], which really shines over her clattering use of the piano strings as percussion and the low bowing of the double bass.

This combination of turntable and arm only stumbled once with my repertoire of test discs. Ongoing favourite, Astral Weeks by Van Morrison [Warner Bros], has the track ‘The Way Young Lovers Do’ at the start of the second side and it’s not an easy one to get right. There’s such a jumble of voice and instruments, and the recording is not the greatest, so it takes a very good sense of timing to play the track in a coherent fashion. The SME fares relatively well in decoding this difficult track, but I have heard it more temporally ordered elsewhere. More well-recorded pieces flow beautifully however, and this is a turntable that has no additive distortion to speak of; its sins are only of omission and those are not only hard to spot but don’t get in the way of the musical experience.

I have long been a fan of the SME 20/3 and, as it was to hand, I put the two up against one another to see how they differed. The four footed and pricier turntable with the mighty Model V arm delivers a more solid, assured, and three dimensional sound than its sibling. It produces more depth of image and greater resolution of reverb and harmonics, too. Essentially the character is the same, but you get more of the detail off the disc.

I also tried a different cartridge in the Model 309, this time Rega’s Aphelion MC that I usually use in a Rega RP10. This brought some real daylight and rhythmic bounce into the picture, making the Trialogue album more atmospheric and mesmerizing at the same time; the soundstage remained deep and the bass very powerful, perhaps a little bit too much so. I reduced downforce to the bottom of the cartridge’s recommended range, which helped the lows and didn’t undermine the endless vista produced by the second track on the album, Dan Berglund’s ‘Valiant’, a slower deeper piece that proved remarkably compelling. This assembly of turntable, arm and cartridge seemed to shine with the slower tempo tracks, digging out all the tonal richness of the Marty Paich Big Band’s rendition of ‘I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face’ [The New York Scene, Discovery]. In truth this tune was absolutely delightful, showing that Art Pepper, Victor Feldman, and Jimmy Guiffre at the height of their powers could play show tunes in sublime fashion.

There is no doubt that the Model 15 is very much an SME turntable. The Model 15 has very little character of its own, which means that it can reveal an awful lot about the records it spins. Build quality is in another league to the vast majority of turntables because so few manufacturers have the engineering facilities that a company which provides precision engineering to the aerospace and medical industries can offer. It may not have as many feet as the bigger models, but that does little to undermine its capabilities when it comes to resolving all the fine details locked away in a vinyl groove. If SME can continue to expand its range with turntables and arms of this calibre, its future looks as stable as the sound those record players produce.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Full-size, suspended subchassis, 3-phase motor‑drive turntable

Rotational Speeds: 33 1/3 RPM, 45 RPM, 78 RPM

Supported Tonearm Length(s):
9-inch to 10-inch arms supported

Drive Mechanism: Belt driven via 3-phase, brushless outrunner inductance motor

Speed Control: Closed loop speed control with proportional plus (PI) algorithm.

Platter Type: Machined from aluminium alloy with diamond-turned Isodamp surface

Platter Weight: 4.6kg

Bearing Type: 19mm (3/4”) machined from high chrome tool steel, ground super finished and supported in a sealed housing

Plinth Configuration: Suspended subchassis with fluid damper and resistive ground path for acoustic signals

Dimensions (H×W×D): 176×428×378mm

Weight: 18.5kg

SME 309 tonearm

Type: One piece magnesium tone arm with detachable headshell

Tonearm Length: 232.32mm

Effective Tonearm Mass: 9.5g

Offset Angle: 23.204 degrees

Signal Cable Length: 1.2m Van den Hul cable with SME RCA connectors

Weight: 717g

Price: £8,052 inc Model 309 SPD

Manufacturer: SME Ltd

Tel: +44(0) 1903 814321

URL: www.sme-audio.com

UK Distributor: Padood

Tel: +44 (0) 1223 653028

URL: www.padood.com

JBL S3900 loudspeakers

Are you feeling musically emasculated, the result of a bass driver that’s barely bigger than a self-respecting midrange unit? Are you suffering musical malnutrition due to a lack of meat in your diet? Is your bottom – how can I put this – less than FAT? Well, I have a solution to your problem – and the word is “gerbil”: I mean JBL!

For audiophiles of a certain age, JBL is an evocative brand, inseparable from images of guitar amps and PA stacks, large domestic speaker systems, and even larger studio monitors: big boxes with even bigger drivers – but what drivers. Massive cast baskets, big magnets, and edge-wound voice coils: everything about JBL bass units smacked of power. But there’s more to JBL than just big, pulp cones; the company produced a series of legendary horn-loaded compression drivers. Decades later, they form the core of “special project” loudspeakers that have garnered serious respect, with reviewers and audiophiles alike, drooling over the Everest and K2 hybrid horn systems, massive and massively expensive product that feature huge boxes, big bass drivers, and characteristic bi-radial horn-loaded mid and treble units. What far fewer people realize is that those mighty, flagship products have spawned a pair of more affordable but conceptually similar siblings with suitably evocative names. Matterhorn and Machu Pichu perhaps? Sadly not. Instead meet the S4700 and S3900…

The S4700 really is a cut down K2, replacing the flagship’s magnesium drivers and complex cabinetry with titanium diaphragms in a one-piece moulded composite mid and high-frequency horn array, mounted atop a far simpler and slightly smaller cabinet that delivers almost identical numbers. But what we have here is the ‘baby’ S3900, that takes another step down in size, uses the mid/treble array from the S4700 but substitutes a pair of 250mm bass units in place of the single 380mm drivers employed by the bigger speakers. Somewhere along the audiophile evolutionary path, our DNA got a kink in it such that the almost knee-jerk response to horn drivers is to reach for the nearest flea powered amplifier. In this case, that would be a mistake – electrically and artistically. The S3900, at almost exactly one metre tall with a third of a metre square footprint, is surprisingly compact. It also goes pretty low, with a rear facing port the size of a cannon, a -6dB point at 33Hz and a system sensitivity of 92dB gives indication that the design has bought bandwidth with efficiency. This speaker isn’t about getting away with a 10 Watt amplifier. That bottom-end is going to need control and that means current – which translates into a load-tolerant output stage backed up by a man-sized power supply. It also translates into a speaker that won’t just go, but positively enjoys going loud AND proud. I used the S3900 with both the Levinson 585, 200 W/Ch integrated amp and the 55 W/Ch TEAD Linear B Class A tube amps, pretty much book-ending the power options. After playing the S3900s I certainly wouldn’t recommend less power than the Linear B monos provide, or you’ll risk missing the whole point of these speakers.

Handling the S3900s proved surprisingly easy, with manageable dimensions and mass, despite the extraordinary proportion of driver area to box. Suggested placement is firing pretty-much straight ahead, which worked well. What didn’t work so well were the spikes. With this much bottom end, bass drivers that work up to 850Hz, a hybrid topology and the vertical dispersion demands of the horn drivers, getting really well integrated sound is going to require considerable attention to siting. Both height off the floor and rake angle proved critical – which is where the spikes come in. The S3900 is supplied with shallow cones with short threaded posts of massive diameter and course pitch. Not only are they physically difficult to adjust but you can’t lock them, while using a non-standard thread means you can’t easily replace them with anything better. Likewise, use spades and the bi-wire binding posts are inaccessible and hard to tighten. The good news is that for end users these are the only “could do betters” on the S3900 report card – and they’re a one-time thing, so persevere – it’s worth it. You even get a pair of neat grilles to cover the bass drivers. Using them does reduce the Pro look of the speakers, but then I guess that’s the point.

Once you get these JBLs singing, you can begin to appreciate just why the flagship speakers are held in such high regard. What also quickly becomes apparent is that these are genuine JBLs, their DNA undiluted by the cost-saving diet they’ve endured. These are not as beautifully finished or quite as musically effortless as the K2s, but they are every bit as communicative, engaging, and – above all – musically satisfying as their bigger brothers. With a remarkably easy sense of scale and dynamic headroom, the S3900s go big and loud without strain or glare, and in true JBL tradition, they do it with a relaxed grace that doesn’t just encourage you to listen loud, but to listen long as well. I’m not sure if it was subliminal auto-suggestion or a natural, cultural affinity, but no sooner did I have the S3900s dialled in than I started reaching for the West Coast rock. Early Eagles and a bit of Poco gave way to Janice and Joni, every iteration of Neil Young, a brief side foray into the Tubes before coming back to (of all things) Tusk. That’s the thing about JBLs, they’ll have you reaching for the most unlikely material – and then thoroughly enjoying it. I don’t even LIKE Joni Mitchell – but I certainly enjoyed The Hissing Of Summer Lawns that night!

It would be easy to dismiss these speakers as meaty, beaty, big, and bouncy – and they certainly are all of those things. But they are a lot more besides. While they respond as expected to the incisive gusto of Giuliano Carmignola and Amandine Beyer’s leadership and the playing of Gli Incogniti in a recent recording of Vivaldi Concerti for two violins, the spell-binding musical conversation and exposition in the adagio of RV529 has a “stop you in your tracks” fragility and beauty. Anybody who found the recent Isserlis reading of the Elgar Cello concerto long on subtlety but short on instrumental body should hear it through the S3900s: There’s no mistaking Isserlis for Du Pré, but the sinuous length of his lines takes on a new purpose and presence, the Philharmonia solid and tangible right behind him (musically and physically), underpinned by the JBLs’ comfortable bottom end.

That bass is what makes this a JBL: not just how much there is, but its voicing. Those used to the anaemic low-frequency response that passes for “accuracy” in so many modern speakers – often those with a lot of small drivers – will find the S3900s’ lower register fulsome, even heavy. But what it isn’t is flabby. That’s where care in set-up and placement is so crucial. Get either wrong and you could be listening to a detached, overblown mess – which just means that you haven’t tried hard enough. Listen to the vigour and attack in Isserlis’s bowing and it’s pretty apparent that the bottom-end isn’t holding back – or holding back the rest of the range. That ability to be big and spatially coherent, yet still keep pace and time is the key that underpins everything that these speakers do so well. For sheer musical enthusiasm, presence, and explosive power they have few equals at the price. In terms of resolution and absolute intimacy, you might not hear the spit hitting the microphone, but you can’t miss the sweat on the singer’s face. They’ll handle anything you throw at them – big or small – with a comfortable swagger that will put a smile on your face. This is one speaker you’ll never have to apologise for. It looks just like every visitor’s idea of a loudspeaker and sounds like it too!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: 3-way hybrid horn/bass reflex loudspeaker

Driver Complement: 1× 19mm horn-loaded titanium diaphragm compression driver, 1× 45mm horn-loaded titanium diaphragm compression driver, 2× 250mm pulp-cone LF drivers

Bandwidth: 32Hz–40kHz ±6dB

Sensitivity: 92dB

Nominal Impedance: 6 Ohms

Crossover Frequencies: 850Hz and 12kHz

Dimensions (W×H×D): 370×1001×367mm

Finishes: Black or natural cherry

Price: £10,000 per pair

Manufactured by: JBL Inc

URL: www.jbl.com

Distributed in the UK by: Karma AV

URL: www.karma-av.co.uk

Tel: +(0)1423 358846

McIntosh Labs MB50 streaming audio player

McIntosh is something of a law unto itself in audio. Few companies share McIntosh’s fan base, which have been fanatically loyal to the brand for decades, to the point where faced with the choice of no McIntosh product in that sector, they would rather wait than buy beyond the brand. And, to reward their followers for their loyalty, McIntosh’s design is unchanging. The MB50 is perhaps the perfect expression of this; if there were such a thing as a streamer from the 1960s, this would be it. Not because the MB50 is technologically stuck in the past (far from it in fact), but because the design would blend seamlessly with McIntosh products from the era of the Beatles and the Beach Boys.

This timeless design works massively in McIntosh’s favour, I believe. The distinctive glowing green lettering on a mirrored black fascia, with highly polished sides and end plates, and side uprights of aluminium mean the MB50 could only be a McIntosh product. It will fit effortlessly in with all other McIntosh products made since the Eisenhower era (and that’s a huge number of prospective owners), it is distinctive and well made enough to act as gateway to McIntosh for those not with the programme, and it’s built with longevity stitched into its very weft and woof. Ten years from now and practically every product in your system might have been discontinued, but the MB50 will not only look as fresh as ever, but also still be serviceable thanks to McIntosh’s legendary reliability.

The MB50 is a half-sized device, designed to sit beneath McIntosh’s MHA150 headphone amp or MXA70 integrated audio system launched a few years ago. That brings its own DAC and line inputs, along with a 50 watts per channel amplifier, and even a pair of small standmount loudspeakers. Having a DAC on the MB50 and another on the MXA70, and a headphone output on both devices means there is some redundancy involved, but a few redundant systems are par for the course with McIntosh, and that is part of the reason why McIntosh fares so well on the ‘buy again’ stakes. It also suggests that even those who began their McIntosh ownership with the MXA70 have already learned the company’s core maxim: the only thing better than a McIntosh is another McIntosh.

The curious thing about McIntosh owners is that they aren’t quite as obsessed by famous name brands within the product, just so long as it has the right logo on the outside. They embody those who nodded approvingly when hearing of the old Rolls-Royce response to questions about horsepower or torque… “it’s sufficient, sir!” Where every other DAC maker proudly discusses who made the chips and how good they are, McIntosh is content with just describing this as a 24-bit, 192kHz compatible device, albeit one with a lot of additional functionality. This is not ‘mystery meat’ digital, however, and the MB50 actually sports a Cirrus Logic 8416 chip, which puts DSD beyond its capabilities, but is a perfectly serviceable chipset with a no-nonsense reputation. It’s virtually the same design as fits inside the MXA70. The MB50 is powered by a 5V wall-wart power supply.

Where the MB50 shifts into higher gear is its connectivity, especially its wireless connectivity. It has the usual coaxial and optical S/PDIF inputs and outputs, as well as an unbalanced line input and unbalanced and balanced line outputs. It also has a pair of trigger connections and a USB A connector at the rear, although this last is for firmware upgrades rather than actual digital connection. Where it comes into its own is the two Wireless LAN inputs either side of the rear panel. These connect the MB50 to high-res Wi-Fi streaming services around the home. It works using DTS Play-Fi as a complete access point for DLNA local streaming services, and to connect to the likes of Spotify, Deezer, and TIDAL (in the UK, and also services like Pandora, Rhapsody, and SiriusXM in the US). Play-Fi’s app acts like your music pal for all things McIntosh, here. This is no bad thing, either, as it’s generally far more complete than some homebrewed app software, or glomming onto the work of a third-party like PlugPlayer.

The lack of both a USB B input and a wired Ethernet connection might give some pause, and I’d certainly like to see them in a device at this price. It’s no deal-breaker, however, although in fairness my room is like a sea of Wi-Fi soup in which products like the MB50 can easily swim: yours may not be so wireless-friendly. But that might also make the Play-Fi pathway not quite as accessible. And while Play-Fi talks to iOS and Android, I’d like for wider wireless accessibility, such as Bluetooth and AirPlay. But Play-Fi does make a strong case for being the only game in town.

The reason why Play-Fi makes such a strong case is that it treats sources hooked to the MB50 as streamable signals to be distributed around the house to other Play-Fi compatible devices. Plug your turntable and phono stage into the MB50’s line input, for example, and suddenly you can play your LPs around the house without having to cart a turntable and phono stage into other rooms in the house. This certainly seems like less hassle than the alternative of digitising your records in advance (we’ve all tried that and after record number three, tend to want to commit war crimes in a pressing plant as a result). Unfortunately, with just the one Play-Fi ready product at home during the time of the MB50 review, this is more a ‘notionally clever’ but principally untested idea than a definitive ‘it works, and it sounds great!’ aspect of the review.

The MB50 took a little while to come on song, about a long weekend from cold. At first it sounded accurate, but somewhat shut in and oppressive sounding. So I left it to its own devices for a few days and returned to a more vivid, expansive presentation. I had a couple of very early signal drop-outs when first testing the MB50, but it seemed to ‘learn’ my network quickly, and any such hiccups were soon forgotten. In fact, that ability to forget it’s there is the MB50’s great strength. It simply doesn’t draw attention to itself, and using Play-Fi means you quickly treat the MB50 like it’s a simple device in the chain.

The overall sound is inviting, the perfect antidote to the shrill top-end that people normally associate with wireless digital audio. It’s smooth and refined and incredibly easy to listen to, with a rich lower midrange and bottom end. The bass is deep, but not overtly, cavernously so; bass lines like that of Jerry Jemmott’s on ‘Memphis Soul Stew’ [King Curtis Live at Fillmore West, ATCO] were fast and taut, but Bernard Purdie’s kick drum placed the accent on the speed of his drumming rather than the depth of the bass.

Play-Fi makes this exceptionally easy to access, too. It works like a tablet-sized digital hub, pulling together music from your server and the internet without a care, and the MB50 plays them without prejudice, but with a lot of image space and depth. Dynamics and detail are excellent too, more than good enough for even the very top systems. But it’s the effortlessness of access that Play-Fi brings coupled with the effortless of presentation from the MB50 itself that makes this the perfect digital streaming partner.

It’s perhaps no great mystery that the headphone socket is not up to the standard of devices like the MHA150, because McIntosh doesn’t necessarily want the MB50 to cut into sales of the dedicated headphone amplifier; it wants people to buy both. The headphone amp on the MB50 falls into the ‘perfectly serviceable’ mode as fitted to many good amps, DACs, and receivers. It is even-natured, with good overall performance and a particularly good tonal balance, but it isn’t the most dynamic or the most willing to drive difficult headphone loads.

The McIntosh MB50 is a remarkably versatile device. It’s a first toe in the streaming waters for many McIntosh users, it’s the obvious next step for MHA150 and MXA70 users, and for some it might be their first McIntosh product. It’s capable of standalone use, although I’d recommend using it in conjunction with an amp or headphone amp, and it communicates to the outside world effortlessly using the Play-Fi app. It’s not without idiosyncrasies – the lack of wired DLNA streaming seems a notable exclusion – but the potential for using this as the start of an ad hoc Play-Fi network does offer future promise. Recommended.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Wireless streaming DAC with headphone socket

Inputs: 2× wireless aerial inputs,
optical and coaxial S/PDIF,
1× RCA stereo pair line input,
USB Type A (firmware upgrades only), 12 volt trigger, 5 volt DC input

Outputs: 2× wireless aerial outputs, optical and coaxial S/PDIF,
1× RCA stereo pair line output, 1× XLR stereo pair line output, USB Type A, 12 volt trigger, 1/4” headphone jack

Front panel controls: input selection; Wi-Fi reboot, volume up, volume down, power

Supported file types: PCM, MP3, FLAC

Supported digital music services: DLNA (local), Spotify, Deezer, TIDAL (UK), other providers available in other regions

PCM resolution: to 24 bit, 192kHz

DTS Play-Fi compatibility: Windows PC, iOS devices, Android

Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz ±0.5dB

THD+N: 0.005%

Signal to Noise ratio: 100dB

Dimensions (W×H×D): 29.2×8.9×39.4cm

Weight: 4.3kg

Price: £2,750

Manufactured by: McIntosh Labs

URL: www.mcintoshlabs.com

Distributed in the UK by: Jordan Acoustics

URL: www.jordanacoustics.co.uk

Tel: +44(0)1202 911886

Vertere Acoustics MG-1 turntable, SG-1 arm, and PHONO-1 phono stage

Even by the standards of the average workaholic, Touraj Moghaddam of Vertere Acoustics has had a busy few years. First came the cables, then that tonearm (the one that costs as much as a new BMW), followed by a matching turntable, more cables, another, more attainable, turntable and tonearm, a complete revision of the cable line, then a turntable platform and equipment stands, taking on the UK distribution of FM Acoustics, and now a third, still cheaper, turntable, and a new phono stage. All this in less than half the time it takes to mature a barrel of whisky. What a slacker!

If Vertere’s top deck’s RG-1 handle stands for ‘Reference Groove’ and the SG-1 is short for ‘Standard Groove’, then the new MG-1 tested here means ‘Magic Groove’. Doubtless, the joy-sponges who seems determined to suck the fun out of life will start foaming at the mouth about this name (as they did when they took Apple to task about where they kept the magic in ‘the magical iPad’), but when you actually listen to the thing, ‘Magic Groove’ fits well.

Followers of the Vertere range will notice that it’s not hard to see the family resemblance. The ‘good’, ‘better’, and ‘best’ nature of the turntable line-up can clearly be seen in the thickness of the two-layer plinth and sub-chassis. There’s a lot more to that than meets the eye, but the fact the largest is almost twice the thickness of the smallest is the immediate take-away detail. Vertere has also recently discovered a metallic black print material that works with acrylic, which looks good without sounding bad.

The MG-1 turntable itself really is like a scaled-down version of the SG-1, which is itself like a scaled-down version of the RG-1, so if you like the sound of the big one, but can’t quite reach that kind of outlay, the SG-1 and now the MG-1 will perform in the same vein. The MG-1 retains scaled-down versions of the main bearing and platter assembly, the plinth, and isolation system. The big change between the bigger decks and the MG-1 is perhaps the removal of the middle layer of isolation. The three-layer decoupled sandwich layout of the SG-1 and RG-1 is replaced by a smaller, two-layer decoupled platform with rigid insert, and both the one-piece platter and the bearing housing are smaller and lighter.

What is unchanged, however, is the excellent record player motor assembly from its bigger brothers. This assembly is basically floating in a rigid mount, so it delivers constant belt tension, which means it drives the platter at constant speed as the motor compensating frequency is below 1Hz. As the three elements of this whole unit (motor, sub-chassis, and platter) are designed to move as one, even belt wear over the years is less of an issue, and – aside from the odd drop of oil to the bearing every year or so – the Vertere turntable designs are made to be maintenance-free.

Unlike the SG-1, there is no immediate upgrade pathway in the turntable itself (you can upgrade the SG-1 to RG-1 by replacing the main bearing and platter assembly), but I suspect that might not be a big concern for people who go for the MG-1. The deck shares the same external power supply as used in the bigger designs, and there is an optional dust cover, although not a hinged lid. Touraj has found a way of making a hinged lid that doesn’t interfere with the sound quality, and it even has a support system for the turntable. However, it is still in prototype form and you could buy something in the region of eight MG-1 designs for the same price as this when it comes to market. A larger dust cover designed for the SG-1 and RG-1 also fits.

We won’t spend too long on the SG-1 tonearm, primarily because it would be going over old ground. We reviewed it when we looked at the RG-1 turntable back in Issue 114, and it remains unchanged. To recap, the SG-1 arm uses what Vertere calls a Tri-Point Articulated (TPA) bearing, made up of three silicon nitride balls forming an equilateral triangle below the stainless steel pivot point, all bonded into the aluminium yoke. This supports an underslung counterweight (which is also good for correcting azimuth) on an aluminium outrigger, and a carbon-fibre wrap armtube ending in a bonded machined aluminium alloy headshell. Along the length of the armtube is a fine-tuning weight adjustment that doubles as a resonance control. Anti-skate is through the typical hanging weight system, although there are actually no OEM parts in the SG-1. The arm comes in two basic guises, with standard or handmade wiring, and there is a large range of arm cables.

The new kid in town, however, is the phono stage, called the PHONO-1. This one-input, single output, solid-state MM/MC stage is designed to have maximum flexibility in cartridge loading. It has two sets of DIP switches flanking the shielded central RIAA and preamplifier stages. The input loading sections (made up of two banks of eight switches each) allow for 15 resistance and nine capacitance settings, while the eight-switch bank for gain allows for ten different positions. Having these DIP switches on the main PCB prevents them from being accidentally moved, but it does mean you need to open the top of the case each time you want to adjust the settings. There is also a three-way ground switch at the rear of the PHONO-1. This allows for ‘hard ground’, ‘ground lift’ and ‘soft ground’ and depending on your system, one of these will produce very slightly less hum than the others.

The assemblies for power supply and phono stage, both use gold-plated PCBs chosen for best performance, and the two sections are physically separated and partially shielded from one another in the case itself. The screening can surrounding the RIAA and amplifier stages isolates the cartridge input from the noisier active stages.

“You can use the PHONO-1 with any cartridge!” Said Touraj. I took him at his word, and out came an old Ortofon MC7500 cartridge. This was – how can I put it nicely? – evil. The MC7500 is a fabulous cartridge from the 1990s, but it was virtually a cartridge in search of a phono stage good enough to cope. When it was launched, most were supplied with Ortofon’s own step-up transformer, because it delivered 0.15mV. Say that figure to most phono stage makers and you can see the blood drain from their faces. “That’s not a moving coil,” they say, “that’s a single piece of wire wrapped around a magnet.” They then mumble something that makes them sound like a muted McEnroe. Touraj just smiled and said, “Cool, let’s try it!”

This was a doubly difficult test for Vertere, because the MC7500 is not the kind of cartridge you would normally put on a deck and arm at this level. In 2017 prices, it would be north of about five grand in terms of index-linking and performance. The bigger RG-1 and SG-1 package could more than handle such a task, but could the MG-1, SG-1 and PHONO-1?

Of course it could! The MG-1’s two-compliant, one-rigid isolation system, offset with nine decoupling points may be scaled down from the SG-1, but it has the same basic concept, and returns the same basic performance, just in microcosm. It has the same sense of extremely dynamic, exciting sound, coupled with the same sense of that sound rising out of the darkest of backgrounds. It’s perhaps not quite the ‘sound of no turntable’ (the bigger decks achieve that goal), but the influence on the music is minimal.

The dynamic range on this turntable is phenomenal, bettered only by a few, and two of those in the Vertere range. Play ‘Where Is My Mind’ by The Pixies on their awesome Surfer Rosa LP [4AD] and that quiet-loud-quiet structure that defined many of their songs takes on an edge-of-the-seat quality. You really jump out of your seat when the drums kick in. It’s absolute maximum excitement. Couple this with being in lock-step to the timing, and huge amounts of detail, and it’s hard not to be swept up by the presentation.

The soundstage is impressive, too, with a great sense of presence and lots of room filling detail. My go-to record for testing this is the Decca SXL of the Overture to The Pirates of Penzance, by the D’Oyly Carte and the LSO, and the Vertere doesn’t disappoint. It’s full of foot-stamping energy and entertainment, with an infectious sense of rhythm (again), but the width, depth, and even height of the image is impressive. It presents the music forward of the loudspeakers slightly, which is part of the whole ‘excitement’ thing, and fun too.

Where the cost-cutting exercise shows itself probably doesn’t matter in context. Use it with really full-range loudspeakers in a big room, and compare the MG-1 package with one of vinyl’s big guns and the bottom end is a little reticent. The VPI Prime Signature tested in this issue, for example, has a more stentorian, deeper bass than the Vertere design. But, in the context of fast-moving, brisk and clean sounding loudspeakers that might not excavate that last octave (as might be partnered with a turntable of this price), the MG-1 frequently wins out in the speed stakes, and the dynamic range it produces in this kind of setting makes it hard to beat.

This is one of the most confident vinyl front-ends you can buy, and not just ‘at the price’. The MG-1 turntable delivers much of what the better and best Vertere turntables can produce, the SG-1 arm is already a known good ‘un, and the PHONO-1 is one of the most naturally sounding phono stages I’ve heard in a long time. I subjected all three to some hardcore, old-school Ortofon torture cartridge of doom, and the only limitation it presented was the phono stage didn’t go quite as loud as possible. This whole package – preferably armed with a more real-world, but still very good, cartridge – will give you such a strong taste of the top-end of the high-end and more. Highly recommended!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Vertere Acoustics MG-1 turntable

Type: Belt Drive Turntable

Platter: Single piece precision aluminium alloy, 3mm bonded acrylic record surface

Bearing: Precision hardened stainless steel, in high copper content Phosphor Bronze housing

Plinth Structure: 2x 20mm clear cast acrylic

Isolation System: Two-stage compliant and single-stage rigid system, with nine decoupler sets and combination alloy/foam/SS ball feet

Motor Drive P/S: Precision Crystal Referenced

Speeds: 33.3 and 45 rpm (< 0.2%)

Wow and Flutter: < 0.02%

Rumble: < –85dB

Price: £4,500

Vertere Acoustics SG-1 tonearm

Type: Tri-point articulated tonearm

Effective length: 240mm

Overhang: 17.5mm

Offset angle: 22°

Construction: Aluminium headshell, wrapped carbon fibre armtube, stainles steel counterweight, carbon silicon Nitride ball bearing (×3)

Weight: 387g

Price: £1,800

Vertere Acoustics PHONO-1 phono stage

Type: MC/MM preamplifier

Inputs: 1× RCA stereo pair, earth tag

Outputs: 1× RCA stereo pair

Frequency Response: 20Hz–20kHz ±0.2dB

Noise: < –78dB (AWD)

THD+N: 0.03%

Gain: 45.4dB-61.4dB

Impedance settings: 47kΩ (MM), 78Ω–1.45kΩ (MC)

Capacitance (MM): 100pF, 470pF

Capacitance (MC): 100pF-1.02µF

Dimensions (W×H×D): 21×23.5×5.5cm

Price: £999

Manufactured by: Vertere Acoustics

URL: www.vertereacoustics.com

Tel: +44(0)203 176 4888

Audioplan PowerCord S and PowerCord U power cords

I’d like to say this was planned as the second of two parts of the Audioplan power product concept, but the reality is less planned. I mislaid a box full of power cords! Fortunately, this didn’t majorly undermine the performance of the PowerPlant, FineFilter, or PowerStar tested in last issue, but the combination of all of them really bring the Audioplan power concept into sharp focus.

The PowerCord uses four conductors instead of the usual three in every regular power cord; the fourth being a second ground conductor placed opposite the first, making the whole cable act quasi-symmetrically, the conductors are all silver-plated copper Litz designs, alongside Audioplan’s own Conductor Resonance Control and Conductor Damping Control systems, with a Sicomin-derived carbon fibre composite damping outer sleeve.

PowerCord S (for ‘Special’) was the first example of this new generation of power cord from Audioplan, and it features four 1.25mm² conductors, with a 2.5mm diameter shield. The PowerCord U (for ‘Ultimate’) effectively doubles that, with eight 1.25mm² conductors and a 5mm diameter shield. The cables are provided as 1.5m as standard, but longer lengths are also available. There’s potentially good reason to use 1.5m as a minimum length, because shorter lengths of shielded cables can act as microwave antenna, picking up signals from your cordless phone, mobile phone, microwave over, and so on. Better grounding of components makes this less likely, but with no guarantee that the audio component has sufficiently expert grounding, keeping the cables beyond 1.5m is staying on the safe side of RF pollution.

Like the other power components in the range, the Audioplan cables are ‘first do no harm’ designs. This means, they help lower the background noise, but more importantly they do two very strong and paradoxical things to the sound; they make you turn the sound down (because you don’t need to play it loud to overcome low-level hash), which allows you to play loud (when you want to play it loud). The other big indicator of goodness in power products is a desire to sit in front of pieces of music for longer, and here both Audioplan cables shine. Tonal shifts are not expected (and seriously not to be encouraged) from power products, and instead the best products (like these) simply tie the system’s sound together.

The difference between S and U is simply more of the same, but the Ulitmate is also better disposed toward handling more power-hungry products like power amplifiers. Used with a DAC or a solid-state phono stage, the differences are negligible, but with a honking great valve power amp, go for the U version.

I was tempted to just continue to keep the cables ‘lost’, but that wouldn’t be fair to the distributor. More importantly, each one has its own serial number, so any attempt at trying to pull a fast one would likely end badly for me. But that’s how good these cables are: they are real keepers, and come strongly recommended.

Price and contact details

Audioplan PowerCord S: £195/1.5m

Audioplan PowerCord U: £625/1.5m

Manufactured by: Audioplan

URL: www.audioplan.de

Distributed in the UK by: Ikon Audio Consultants

URL: www.ikonaudioconsultants.com

Tel: +44(0)7956 476299

Audioplan Powerstar SIII, Powerplant 10, and Finefilter S power products

Audioplan is a long-standing German company, known for its loudspeakers, cables, and power products. In the early 1990s, when the British audio world was going through one of its insular phases, Audioplan was one of the few loudspeaker brands from Continental Europe to succeed in the UK market, and the company doesn’t ‘churn’ its products regularly. All of which makes the absence of the company’s power products in our list of reviewed products something of a mystery; we’ve tried and loved the company’s loudspeakers and cables, and these products command similar respect within the wider community and among our reviewers.

We’ve three products in Audioplan’s power product line-up here, and it’s worth taking them in turn to describe who benefits most from each one, because although they work together, I feel they also have different potential customers. Central to the Audioplan power concept is the PowerStar SIII, a drum-shaped power distribution block fed by a 20A ‘C19’ power socket, with an additional 4mm grounding terminal above the inlet. There are seven sockets on the black top plate of the PowerStar SIII, which sits on three Delrin feet. These are removable, and there’s also a keyhole-shaped recess on the back panel, allowing the PowerStar SIII to be wall-mounted. The PowerStar SIII is made from 5mm thick Delrin-coated aluminium, and the block is both relatively light and not cold to the touch.

No failing of Audioplan at all, but the L-angled commonly plugs used in UK 13A systems don’t look quite as aesthetically pleasing when arranged in a circle: seven power cords rising straight and tall from the top of a giant hockey puck look organised, but the same turned through 90° and laid out not to clash with one another looks a little messy. Fortunately for those of us with more delicate design sensitivities, a lot of audiophile power cords intended for the UK come supplied with top-end plugs, and aesthetic order is restored as a result. There are matching PowerCord S and U designs, which we used throughout, and these will be the subject of a later review.

The layout is more than just for aesthetic purposes. The PowerStar SIII is styled this way for optimum star-earthing properties. Inside the box, the cabling is equidistant to the socket, in the way no conventional bar-shaped power distribution block can be. The only stipulation is the central socket is designed for use with either integrated amplifiers or preamplifiers. Star-earthing makes the PowerStar SIII almost perfect for Naim systems, because the company goes to great lengths (pun intended) to ensure ground lines are the same distances internally, and this has demonstrable effects on the system’s noise floor. Extending that precise grounding from the fusebox to the power inlet helps, too, and given a distribution block can add a metre or so of extra cable between one device and another, this kind of defeats the object. Traditionally, the options open to the user have tended to be captive designs, or custom made ‘hydra’ power cords made up of multiple cords and a lot of electrical tape. With Naim now supplying all its new products with Power-Line Lite with floating pins in the plug, stripping out these plugs to go captive loses out on the benefits of the floating pins, but using a conventional power strip loses out on the benefits of star earthing. The Audioplan PowerStar SIII addresses both without compromising either.

Audioplan’s FineFilter S and PowerPlant 100S are easy to describe, because they share a lot of common design elements: both feature a short captive lead entering a rectangular box with a single power output socket on the top. The 16A capable FineFilter S has two toggle switches flanking the captive lead input, the right one switches the earth filter in or out, while the mains filter has a low and high pass filter, as well as a neutral position. The PowerPlant 100S, meanwhile, is a 100VA power transformer and a filter.

The PowerPlant 100S is great for decoupling smaller digital audio devices from RF interference, as that transformer acts as a buffer. The larger the device, however, the more the transformer seemed to filter a little too much high frequency energy, so it’s not recommended to be used with the more power hungry streamers and SACD transports. In a relatively RF-filled environment, however (such as a modern house filled with Wi-Fi routers and switch-mode power supplies), the PowerPlant 100S is surprisingly good at reducing background hash in a good DAC. People often wonder why a digital device can have background noise at all, neatly forgetting the ‘to analogue’ part, and it’s that section that most benefits from the PowerPlant 100S.

The FineFilter S is perhaps the most difficult of the three to pigeonhole in this way, but is equally effective. Used in some components it can add a sense of authority, weight, and body to the sound, and in others it can add some much-needed lightness and air. And, it must be said, in other systems it can seem to make the soundstage seem deeper and wider while only trading tiny amounts of dynamic range and rhythmic fluidity in the process. On its own, I found it worked particularly well in with headphone amplifiers, adding a sense of even-handedness and air to lateralised sounds, and when I removed it, I missed it, which is always a sign of great performance.

Using all three components together is interesting. Placing the FineFilter S before the PowerStar SIII, and then putting a PowerPlant 100S in the line before the digital device worked well, reducing the noise seemingly inherent in the system without the attendant dynamic range reductions normally found when filters are given a relatively heavy load.

Audioplan adopts a ‘first do no harm’ approach to its power products, and that is hugely refreshing. Each product here addresses a specific need, and addresses it well. Although the PowerStar SIII has an additional bonus for Naim Audio users, all three come highly recommended.

Product details:

Audioplan PowerStar SIII: £495

Audioplan PowerCord S: £195

Audioplan PowerCord U: £625

Audioplan FineFilter S: £575

Audioplan PowerPlant 100S: £525

Manufactured by: Audioplan

URL: www.audioplan.de

Distributed in the UK by: Ikon Audio Consultants

URL: www.ikonaudioconsultants.com

Tel: +44(0)7956 476299

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