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Album Review: Orbital – Optical Delusion

It’s hard to believe, but Optical Delusion is the Hartnoll brothers 10th album in a career that spans more than 30 years… albeit with a few breaks to recharge their iconic torch glasses. This isn’t the 30th anniversary album planned by the techno duo (COVID-19 got in the way of that) but instead is a more collaborative affair, working with artists new and old.

The album also reflects Phil and Paul Hartnoll’s sociopolitical and geopolitical stance, especially in the choice of collaborators. It’s clear, for example, which side of the political divide they align to when the first single from the album was their work with Sleaford Mods; ‘Dirty Rat’. Meanwhile, ‘Ringa Ringa’ (with The Mediaeval Baebes) takes the old plague-inspired nursery rhyme and fast forwards it to COVID-19. The Mediaeval Baebes and Sleaford Mods aside, Anna B. Savage, Dina Ipavic, Penelope Isles, The Little Pest, and Coppé also feature… that’s more featured artists than the rest of Orbital’s previous albums combined.

Strangely, although it was ‘Dirty Rat’ that both drew me in and was the sneak preview of the album, it’s probably the weakest track, both for Orbital and Sleaford Mods. It’s a heavy-handed rant with a relatively simple backbeat from a band known for their lyrics meeting one known for their complex polyrhythms. It’s also a political polemic that sticks out a little far in an otherwise more nuanced album. It works… but there are stronger tracks and both Orbital and Sleaford Mods are better than this. That being said, it’s one heck of an angry rant, with lines like ‘the resin-coated dead egg of nowhere’ shining a light of intense frustration on those parts of the UK in deep decline.

Staying with the ‘featuring…’ tracks, one of the best is ‘Home’ featuring Anna B Savage, an English singer-songwriter who is herself worth following (think Nick Drake meets PJ Harvey). ‘Day One’ with Dina Ipavic is also good and arguably the least Orbital-like track on the album, with ‘Are You Alive? (feat. Penelope Isles)’ appealing half and half to both hyperpop and die-hard Orbital fans.

However, it’s when Orbital step back to what they know best is when this album shifts into higher gear. Crunked up instrumental tracks like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem for the Pre-Apocalypse’ are classic Orbital; intelligent electronica chord progressions with fast, yet ageless drum ‘n’ bass, played with enough dynamic range to sound relatively easy on the ears, yet powerful enough to be expected to be played at clubby levels, and one hell of a break too. It’s almost nostalgic for the clubbing experience of the 1990s, but still fresh in that distinctly Orbital style.

The album closes with ‘Moon Princess’ featuring legendary Japanese electronica artist Coppé, an ethereal number that could have easily been something out of Blade Runner or Akira, yet entirely classic Orbital.

The worry here is I’ve used the term ‘classic Orbital’ a lot; it could easily be an album of the Hartnoll brothers ‘phoning it in’ and making something samey bordering on the stagnant, like they forgot to reset the synth and sequencers. It’s a potential problem with electronica; there’s only so much a band can sequence before it sounds like it’s sampling its back catalogue. On the other hand, radically changing style often means disenfranchising your core. The narrow path between these two is hard to follow, but I think Orbital have achieved it. The more you listen to the album as a whole, the more you are drawn into their world, and it has changed. The collaborations might not all work, but they add an atmosphere of experimentation and exploration that perhaps began with 2018’s Monsters Exist. I didn’t find that album as explorative as Orbital Delusion, so there is more going on here.

OK, Optical Delusion is no In Sides, but my experience of that album is hugely shaped by hearing ‘P.E.T.R.O.L.’ a gazillion times while playing WipEout on the PlayStation for months on end in the mid-1990s. And, given the subject matter of this issue, Optical Delusion sounds damn fine on double xLP, too. It’s got some bangin’ tunes and will be on the platter for some time!

Back to Music

Monitor Audio Hyphn

You may not yet be 50 years old, but I bet you’ve passed a significant birthday or two nevertheless. What did you do to mark the occasion? Buy yourself something nice? Throw a party? Or maybe let other people do all the buying and the throwing? 

When Monitor Audio celebrated its 50th birthday in 2022, it did so by inviting its design and engineering teams to go to town on the entire idea of the passive loudspeaker. To forget the last century of orthodoxy and to reimagine the whole concept of what a passive loudspeaker might be – but to do so without ruining either the balance-sheet or the hard-won reputation the company has spent five decades establishing.

The result was ‘Concept 50’ – a design altogether more innovative and interesting than the name it was given would suggest. 

Concept 50 did the rounds of the planet’s hi-fi shows, and was met with acclaim pretty much everywhere it appeared. So much so, in fact, that Monitor Audio decided to put this radical and radical-looking loudspeaker into production. And with its balance-sheet and reputation no doubt uppermost in its mind, it probably did so with that feeling of queasiness and excitement that always accompanies big, risky decisions.

Name change

‘Concept 50’ is now ‘Hyphn’ – but in almost every other respect, this looks like the same loudspeaker that was originally intended to be a design study and a conversation-piece. Beneath the skin, though, a fairly fundamental reassessment has resulted in a speaker of far greater acoustic potency than the prototype on which it’s based. And yes, it’s big and expensive – but it’s by no means as big or as expensive as any number of alternative loudspeakers from any number of alternative brands. It’s safe to say, though – and with no hyperbole – that it’s unlike any other passive loudspeaker you’ve ever encountered. 

Yes, it’s a singular design – that much is apparent just by looking at it. And I don’t doubt the creative types at Monitor Audio were delighted to find the engineering approach the company wished to take allowed for such an unusual aesthetic. But Hyphn is no triumph of style over substance – this loudspeaker comes from first principles. Its appearance almost entirely follows its function.

In architecture, a ‘hyphen’ is a link connecting two separate structures. Fittingly, each Hyphn loudspeaker consists of two separate enclosures joined by the ‘M-Array’ multi-driver assembly – each enclosure has a bass reflex port at the bottom and two 103mm bass drivers facing inwards in a ‘force-cancelling’ arrangement. 

Monitor Audio Hyphn

These bass drivers are the third generation of Monitor Audio’s ‘Rigid Diaphragm Technology’ cone, and feature ceramic-coated aluminium magnesium for the front skin while the rear consists of two uniform layers of carbon fibre skin to reduce breakup. Optimised cone-edge treatment and rubber surrounds contribute to the light, strong structure. The RDT II boasts the lowest distortion of any cone Monitor Audio, and here they’re fixed in place by inch-thick metal rods and bolt-through fixings that run through the width of the cabinet to the rear of the driver. 

Stone me!

The cabinet (or, rather, cabinets) of each Hyphn loudspeaker is/are made of an acrylic stone material – it’s seamless, thermoformable and – once it’s been milled and hand-finished – almost eerily smooth. Monitor Audio chose it for its rigidity and inertness – it’s 12mm thick, and in the area around the force-calling drivers that doubles to 24mm. This allows the multiple drivers to perform at their optimum – so the fact that the cabinet material happens to look and feel so singular is almost certainly just a happy coincidence. Each Hyphn weighs just shy of 107kg, it’s true – but once they’re in position that ceases to be an issue. As long as your flooring is equal to the task of supporting them, anyway. 

(The extraordinarily static characteristics of the cabinets, coupled with the bass driver arrangement that delivers an equal and opposite reaction force, means the Hyphn is, to all intents and purposes, vibration-free no matter the pistonic activity that may be occurring.) 

Monitor Audio Hyphn

The ‘M-Array’ that forms the link between these two towers is an extremely compact and profoundly complex multi-driver midrange and tweeter assembly. Its painstakingly detailed design allows six RDT III 51mm midrange drivers to surround a third-generation ‘Micro Pleated Diaphragm’ transducer. The idea is to offer exemplary off-axis performance at the same time as class-leasing acoustic transparency and soundstage clarity. 

The MPD II transducer has a passband in excess of 60kHz, and its square radiating area is designed to produce equal directivity in the vertical and horizontal planes. The rear volume is carefully designed to minimise ripple in the audible frequency range, and there’s a bespoke waveguide for controlled directivity and, consequently, improved soundstaging. 

Six speaker special

Combined, the six midrange drivers have a surface area slightly larger than that of the RDT III midrange driver fitted to the Monitor Audio Platinum 300 3G reviewed in Issue 213. This midrange driver line-up has been created to achieve the largest amount of surface area with the smallest footprint, with the intention being the lowest possible distortion with the widest radiating area. It also benefits from considerable upper-frequency extension, and is able to cover a fair amount of the frequency range that would ordinarily be the responsibility of the tweeter – so the crossover point can be moved to 3.7kHz, where it’s less apparent. And because the MPD III transducer’s waveguide is fixed and the six midrange drivers form a flat baffle around it, there’s vanishingly little intermodulation distortion. 

 The crossovers themselves have come in for the same sort of obsessive overthinking as the rest of the Hyphn components. The inductors, for example, are baked in varnish – this binds the wires together and reduces vibration and mechanical resonance. Ceramic wire-wound resistors are doubled and, in some areas, quadrupled to ensure power handling up to 800 watts and to reduce power compression. The bass, midrange and high-frequency sections use individual PCBs, minimising crosstalk and magnetic fields, and are mounted on rubber isolation feet to minimise vibration. 

Monitor Audio Hyphn

Yes, it’s a tale of excessive this, thoroughly engineered that and overspecified the other – but the result is a loudspeaker that’s nothing like as esoteric or demanding as you might be expecting. Sensitivity is an unremarkable 86dB (2.83Vrms @1m) and nominal impedance is 4 ohms with a minimum of 3.5 ohms at 2.2kHz. Hyphn may be capable of handling 800 watts of continuous power, but Monitor Audio is adamant that 200 watts of clean power is sufficient to bring the best from this loudspeaker.

For our purposes, of course, that’s altogether too tentative. So this test is conducted using a pair of Audiolab 8300MB monoblocks with a Meridian G86 serving as a preamplifier – a Bluesound Node 2i provides the necessary streaming smarts. Monitor Audio is at pains to point out that equipment to partner a pair of Hyphn could easily be a little less, or considerably more, expensive than this without any problem – but the company is confident, and more than happy to use what is relatively modest amplification to drive these über-flagship speakers. 

Content is all streamed, in file sizes that range from 320kbps to 24bit/192kHz and (the late and partially lamented) MQA. Music ranges from The Daily Growl by Lambchop and When I Was Older by Billie Eilish to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue by The New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein and Theme from Ernest Borgnine by Squarepusher – and quite a few points in between. 

And while it’s safe to say the Monitor Audio Hyphn are at their best when streaming a fat and information-rich high-resolution file of an expensive and painstaking recording, they’re in no way snobby. If they’re given a compressed file of a cheap and/or radio-friendly recording, they’ll find the virtue in it. Their attitude is one of enthusiasm and they’re not overtly judgemental.

Low-frequency extension and presence is considerable, and the weightily powerful bass the Hyphn produces is loaded with detail both broad and fine. The rapidity of which they’re capable is profoundly impressive – the sort of nosebleed-inducing low end of the Squarepusher tune, for example, might seem designed to befuddle a loudspeaker, but the Monitor Audio simply show it who’s boss. The precision of the low-frequency attack is remarkable – bass is straight-edged in its attack, while decay is weighted precisely. As a consequence, there’s absolute confidence and positivity to the way these speakers express rhythms – no matter how hectic or how languid they might be. 

Assertive and informative

The top of the frequency range is equally assertive, equally informative and subject to a similar sort of control – which is all the more impressive when you remember just how outnumbered and outgunned that MPD III transducer is. Treble attacks crisply, is tonally convincing and has the sort of attention to detail that makes the specific thickness of, say, a ride cymbal completely apparent. 

The crossover between low-end and midrange, and from midrange to top end, is so smooth as to be indiscernible. And in the midrange, the Hyphn communicate to an almost indecent degree – they are as eloquent and revealing as it gets when given a vocalist to deal with, and what they don’t identify and reveal about timbre, technique and straight-up attitude in a voice isn’t worth knowing. They manage to make a close-mic’d vocal line sound intimate and wide-open at the same time, and have the sort of articulacy that makes every listen an authentic event. The harmonic variations in a singer’s voice that occur either side of the fundamental are given due prominence – but none of this insight or analysis is at the expense of engagement or entertainment. 

Dynamic headroom is considerable – which won’t come as much of a shock. The Hyphn retain every scrap of information when listening to small-scale recordings at modest volume levels, and maintain their composure when a tune gets raucous or multi-faceted – even at significant volume (and let there be no doubt, the Hyphn are capable of significant, almost oppressive, volume).

Monitor Audio Hyphn 

Perhaps most gratifying of all, though, their powers of resolution or their ability to motor through the most testing rhythms or tempos without alarms, is the way the Hyphn organise and present a soundstage. But despite the generous size of stage the Monitor Audio can describe, it’s sharply focused and entirely convincing. The Hyphn pay due attention to the spaces and the silences on the stage, keep every element of a recording secure in its own little pocket or area, generating a remarkable impression of distance in both the left/right and front/back planes. 

The Singularity

That separation is such that any individual strand of a recording is easy to isolate, the Monitor Audio integrate every aspect of recording in the most natural and confident way. Music, even cut’n’paste collages or those recordings that only ever existed in their creator’s laptop, is presented as a unified and lucid whole. A singularity, a performance. 

It follows that the Monitor Audio Hyphn are among the most impressive loudspeakers around, at any price. Obviously they’re impressive in concept and in the uncompromised manner in which they’ve been executed, and obviously they’re impressive in their appearance. But there’s an almost instinctive correctness, a sort of casual-yet-unerring sensation of faithfulness, to the way they sound that makes the greatest impression. 

There’s nothing new under the sun, of course, and in the final analysis the Monitor Audio Hyphn is simply a pair of passive loudspeakers with a great many drivers and a giddy price-tag. But as an indication of both where a company has been these last five decades and where it might go in the next five, Hyphn stands alone. 

Technical specifications

  • Type: 3-way, eleven-driver, floorstanding speaker with bass reflex bass alignment
  • Driver complement: 1× MPD III micro-pleated diaphragm tweeter; 6 × 51mm RDT III rigid diaphragm technology midrange driver; 4 × 103mm RDT III rigid diaphragm technology bass driver 
  • Crossover frequencies: 350Hz; 3.7kHz
  • Frequency response: 18Hz–60kHz
  • Impedance: 4Ohms
  • Sensitivity: 86dB/W/m
  • Dimensions (H×W×D): 1392 × 502 × 520 (including spikes)
  • Weight: 107kg/each
  • Finishes: Matte black; matte Heritage green; pure satin white
  • Price: £70,000/pair

Manufacturer

Monitor Audio Ltd

www.monitoraudio.com

+44 (0)1268 740580

Back to Reviews

Russell K. RED 150Se

We reviewed the original Russell K. RED 150 here. The RED 150Se is a ‘breathed on’ version, introduced in 2019 and offering some significant improvements over the standard version.

The Russell K. range starts with the RED 50 bookshelf at £1,995, but the RED 150Se is the flagship model at £8,495, with the standard RED 150 below it at £6,795. I am very familiar with the RED 120Se in the range, and the RED 120Se and RED 150Se share the same tweeter, but the more substantial 150Se uses larger 165mm bass drivers.

Nice sounds all round

I heard these making some very nice sounds at a hi-fi show and they did not disappoint in my home system, producing an excellent performance at their price, all of which whetted my appetite to try the larger 150Se as soon as I could persuade the editor to play along. Which luckily he did, and so here I am with a pair of them in my listening room in a rather handsome piano white finish.

Russell K. itself arrived on the hi-fi scene relatively recently, in 2014, but founder and designer, Russell Kauffman traces his routes back further with considerable experience working for such top British loudspeaker names as B&W, Wharfedale, Monitor Audio and Morel.

Russell K. RED 150Se

During my initial chat with Kauffman about the speakers, he recalls how when he first started out, he wanted to design something that has a distinctive sound. He may not have had access to the kind of R&D budget of some of the big boys, but he used his ears as well as measurements to determine the final designs and during his time working for the big names, learnt many lessons, including which approaches and ideas he felt did not work, and these principles and learnings run through the entire range of Russell K. speakers from top to bottom.

The BBC legacy lives on

One key area is cabinet construction. He recalls BBC research which found that stored energy in rigid, heavy cabinets can cause coloration. Kauffman has found the same and so prefers to use thin-walled cabinet without lots of damping panels stuck to them and he controls cabinet flexure instead by using internal bracing shelves with multiple holes drilled in them – three of them in the RED 150Se, there’s one between tweeter and bass/mid driver, one between that and sub-bass driver and one situated below the sub-bass driver.

Russell K. RED 150Se

As well as the two reflex ports on the front panel, there is also a third, internal reflex port mounted on a fourth shelf, which vents into a small internal cavity and then through the twin ports, which are tuned to 21Hz.

The bracing shelves are also designed to drastically reduce midrange standing waves and make sure that no midrange energy makes its way out of the port tube and only bass escapes into the full volume of the enclosure. The shelves also mean he does not need to stuff the cabinets full of acoustic wool or BAF wadding in a bid to absorb reflections and standing waves. This too, he tells me, has helped to improve the sound of the speakers.

Kauffman tuned the bass/mid and sub-bass units to work together by adjusting the number of holes in the internal shelves. The system, he says, provides a strong braking effect around 100Hz, which helps provide the kind of tight, controlled bass normally associated with a good sealed box design.

The keen-eyed among you will spot that the two 50mm diameter ports on the front panel are not the same length, one is 50mm long and the other is 170mm. Kauffman confides to me that during development, when he would use a rolled-up brochure in the port to determine the ideal length and tuning, and discovered quite by chance the 150Se sounded better with one port longer than the other. He says he could measure no difference, but he believes it helps to control phase and in any case, it just sounded better. So he left it that way.

Simple, not simplistic

Another central tenet of his design philosophy is a simple crossover. He believes there is “a lot of rubbish talked about crossovers in the hi-fi industry”. He says that many assume that you connect a coil to a woofer and you get a 6dB/octave roll-off but, he says, in reality you don’t because of the natural roll-off of the driver itself. Many speakers have a separate circuit to control what the driver is doing, but that is not Kauffman’s way. He uses a nominal 12dB/octave circuit but the values of the components used are not text-book and are tuned to get the roll-off he wants, which, he adds, means that when the tweeter comes in, it is wired and playing in phase. This, he says, to his ears, gives the best sound and the values of components used were arrived at after listening to a combination of speech and music.

Russell K. RED 150Se

Kauffman also has another secret in his crossovers. He does not like air-cored or ferrite-cored inductors used in series with the bass and bass/mid drivers. Kauffman dislikes air-cores as you need more turns of wire to get the same inductance, so they have a higher DC resistance, which he believes has an adverse effect on an amplifier’s damping factor. He also dislikes ferrite cores as he says they radiate energy like an antenna, affecting the performance of other components on the circuit board. Kauffman’s solution is Enclosed Field Iron Cores inductors, which he says have very low DC resistance and don’t pollute the crossover with radiated energy.

He also makes a point of listening to all of his drivers outside the cabinet, in free air, fed with a full-range signal. This, he says, allows him to judge the qualities of each driver more accurately.

So how does the RED 150Se differ from the standard 150? First, it has a new, upgraded 25mm soft dome tweeter, with a ferrite magnet system with copper clad aluminium voice coil wire on a fibreglass former with Faraday distortion cancelling copper ring. It has a metal face plate instead of the plastic one used on the standard 150. It has a higher output level and so the crossover had to be tweaked slightly to achieve the best match with the bass/mid driver. It has a new, bigger 30mH coil in the crossover for the sub-bass unit. The other difference is that the RED 150Se gets a new plinth and spikes.

Apart from that, the other attributes of the 150 are unchanged. The cabinet is made from 16mm MDF with 19mm for the front baffle, and it is totally undamped with three internal bracing shelves to control internal standing waves. It also uses the same internal reflex port. The reflex system is tuned to 21Hz. The two 6.5in woofers have impregnated paper cones and a 25mm voice coil with aluminium former and Faraday distortion cancelling copper ring. The crossover for the tweeter includes a (deliberately) misaligned Zobel network for tweeter attenuation and frequency shaping, and each driver has only one component in the signal path.

An easy load

Sensitivity for the RED 150Se is 87dB and it is designed to present the amplifier with an easy load. I used an Audio Note Meishu Tonmeister for my listening. Eight watts of single-ended 300B valve power is enough for the 150Se, as I have used it to drive the RED 120Se very successfully, and they are 1dB less efficient.

My source components were an Audio Note TT3 turntable with PSU3 power supply and Arm2/Io1, feeding an S9 transformer, aided and abetted by the same company’s CDT Five CD transport and DAC5 Special.

I know my room well and generally I know the sweet spot that works best with most speakers, and having got great results using the 120Se 280mm from the back wall and 350mm from the side walls, that is where I put the 150Se to start with. I spent some time inching them around one way and the other, but on balance what worked for the 120Se also worked for the 150Se. As with the 120Se, the system of four spikes (each halfway along each side) allowed the cabinets to sit level and firm on my wooden floor.

Still crazy after all these years!

When you have been reviewing for as many years as I have, I have got to be honest and say that almost from the first few bars of music, you can tell if something is good, bad or indifferent, and so it was that the first few bars of ‘A Place for Skipper’ from guitarist Larry Carlton’s Discovery album put a broad grin on my face and had my foot tapping along to the beautiful, growly bass line from John Peña. Discovery was the second of two albums – the first was Alone But Never Alone – that caused quite a stir at the time among fans of the guitar wizard as they saw him playing all acoustic rather than the electric guitars for which he was famous. After all, the man is known as ‘Mr 335’ (Gibson ES335, that is). And we can hardly be surprised that this talent shines through just as well on acoustic as on electric, and the RED 150Se conveyed the easy lilt of this track beautifully and allowed me to hear every nuance of his play and how each note was shaped. Drums and percussion were similarly detailed and articulate and the whole track just grooved.

Russell K. RED 150Se

I then played ‘Hurts So Good’ from John Mellencamp and was impressed at the sheer impact of the drums. which were tight and dynamic, while Mellencamp’s vocals were full of emotion and grit, but without any harsh edges. The track flowed well and the bass line moved well and the track was musically engaging.

I then tried a beautiful 1968 recording from The Mose Allison Trio called Black Country Suite for Piano, Bass and Drum. This album, despite its age, is a lovely recording and has possibly one of the best drum and cymbal sounds I have heard. On the 150Se, cymbals were open, dynamic, detailed and really rang out, while Mose Allison’s beautifully fluid piano play was conveyed with all of its intricacies. The bass line too moved and kept the track moving along. I could not have asked for more from the 150Se, which took it all in its stride with an easy musicality.

Spinnng up Dave Koz’s Saxophonic on the CD player, the track ‘All I See Is You’ was masterfully handled with great body, bite and dynamics to Koz’s tenor sax, while drums had great snap and control and the bass line had great weight and tunefulness. The 150Se separated out the various threads of the track coherently and allowed each musician’s contribution to the whole to be plainly heard.

The 150Se’s ability to capture the musical integrity of a track also came over on ‘Didn’t It All Come True’ from Ben Sidran’s Bop City, where the sound was wonderfully dynamic and really motored along apace. Bass lines were deep and tuneful, drum beats were powerful and tight, while Sidran’s piano play was fluid and full of artistry and his vocals conveyed with their signature poise and swing.

Greatly impressed

By now you will have gathered that the Russell K. RED 150Se impressed me a great deal with their capabilities and I enjoyed listening to everything I played on them. They are musical, convey the rhythmic impetus and structures of the music well and combine those with an insight into the intricacies of what each musician is playing, so that the whole gels together into a musically captivating experience.

Russell K. RED 150Se

If you have around £8,500 burning a hole in your pocket and musical satisfaction is your desire, then you would do well not to overlook the RED 150Se. They are a class act. 

 

Technical specifications

  • Type: 2.5-way three-driver reflex-loaded floorstander
  • Driver complement: 25mm soft some tweeter, 2 × 6.5in impregnated paper cone bass drivers
  • Frequency response: 20Hz–22kHz
  • Crossover frequency: 2.2kHz
  • Impedance: 8 ohms
  • Sensitivity: 87dB/1W/1m
  • Dimensions (H×W×D): 950mm (1000mm including plinth/spikes) × 240mm × 250mm
  • Weight” 28kg
  • Finishes: Oak, Walnut and Black Oak, real wood veneers
  • Price: £8,495 per pair

Manufacturer

Russell K.

www.russell-k.com

+44(0)7831 481527

Back to Reviews

Russ Andrews BMU 3000 Mk II

The Russ Andrews BMU 3000 Mk II – like the Connected Fidelity AC-2K – is a balanced mains transformer. Instead of a Live wire at around 240 V AC and Neutral at or close to ground potential, in the BMU Live and Neutral are reset by a transformer to +120 and –120 V, relative to earth. Similar to balanced audio feeds using three-wire XLR connections, using two power lines mirrored about a central earth provides common-mode noise rejection. 

The first BMU (Balanced Mains Unit) was launched in 2008, designed and built for Russ Andrews by transformer expert Paul Houlden and built around a massive 3000 VA toroidal transformer. This was housed in a metal box with two UK mains outlets. In 2018 the BMU was replaced by the Mk II, still using Houlden hand-finished toroids but with the Russ Andrews Accessories company assembling the finished unit, now in a lower-profile case. 

Russ Andrews BMU 3000 Mk II

In total three versions are currently available: the entry-level uses a single 1500 VA toroid, while the unit reviewed here has two such transformers wired in parallel, for an overall rating of 3000 VA. The black all-ABS cabinet is the same between these two models. For the larger 3000 model, the toroidal transformers fit side-by-side. 

Filters

Besides the new box, the Mk II adds mains filtering, placed before the transformers. Wired across the IEC inlet, this is also sold separately as the DIY RA Silencer, and is designed to remove mains noise. It’s listed as a passive differential and common-mode inductorless non-resonant harmonic filter. Although not essential, the company recommends it is serviced every five years.

Across the back panel are five UK mains outlets in the form of RA’s custom-made UltraSockets. These are deep cryogenically treated and finished with DeoxIT contact enhancer, and are mounted inverted, to help wiring when the unit is sited close to the ground. Kimber Kable is listed for internal wiring, although this is only used to wire together the mains outlets, daisy-chained, including the earth connections.

A third version of the BMU is the Install version, also rated at 3000 VA with two transformers, only in a metal dust-proof cabinet without three-pin outlets or filters. As the name suggests, this is designed for permanent hard-wired installation, typically as part of a dedicated spur from the consumer unit to the system.

All units include two forms of safety feature. Thermal fuses are built into the toroids should they suffer a catastrophic short, and will trip when internal temperature rises above 90°C. And a magnetic circuit breaker (MCB) is fitted into the power switch attached to the back panel. This switch is wired from the secondary side of the transformer, meaning the transformers are always ‘on’ regardless of switch setting. The MCB cuts power in the event of a fault on the mains wiring.

Tap talk

After ordering and before delivery, RA Accessories sends a digital voltmeter to the customer in order for them to check local line voltage. According to the company, ‘each Balanced Mains Unit can be set so that it matches your incoming voltage. This is very important to minimise excessive transformer noise. The custom transformers are incredibly efficient so if a higher or lower than average voltage is fed to them, this can be converted to mechanical noise within the transformers’.

OEM maker Paul Houlden told me that taps are used enable output to be adjusted, such that a customer receiving 220 V could raise this to 235 V, for example. Or, conversely, a ‘hot’ incoming level of 250 V could be dialled down. Adjustments are possible using a combination of taps on the transformer primary windings. 

Russ Andrews BMU 3000 Mk II

The taps used to be user-adjustable, with owners able to try up to four settings by connecting together different colour-coded wire taps from the torus until they found a match producing the lowest hum.

Hands on

After taking readings over a few days, it was confirmed that my house receives a nominal 240 V, and the review sample was duly shipped. Measuring the unit’s output showed a typical 4 V drop, to 236 V, suggesting it may be configured as exactly 1:1, allowing for a 2% loss through the transformers, which would agree with the circa-98% efficiency figure quoted by the maker.

There is no surge protection or soft-start mechanism, and on several occasions it tripped the RCD in the consumer unit. The new Mk II features re-designed internal transformers with the result said to be quieter operation and more efficiency than before. In practice, the transformers – hard-mounted to the chassis on a thin sandwich of foam – were often audible. This was not a constant noise, but was relate to mains quality.

Russ Andrews BMU 3000 Mk II

The rattly buzz, comprising mainly 100 Hz plus a long tail of harmonics, would slowly rise and fall in volume, at peak loud enough to be heard not just in the gaps between music but over the music too, from across the room. To test for stray DC on the mains, I wired in-line an Audiolab DC Block 6, which cured the buzzing immediately. And to test if this phenomenon was localised in my home, I tried a neighbour’s supply in the same building, running from a different leg of the national grid three-phase supply. The noise was identical. However, while an obvious solution might be to a add DC-blocking capacitor, Russ says it affects musicality. As the AC-2K (which was always silent), ripened the bass in a way the neutral BMU 3000 Mk II did not, he may have a point.

Sound

Without doubt, the sound quality from the system while using the BMU 3000 Mk II improved palpably. One is tempted to say that it is ‘transformative’. As I discovered with the Connected Fidelity AC-2K, there was a relaxation effect, with instrumentation sounding smoother, more natural and flowing. Stereo space became holographic. It’s that feeling of calm, like stepping into a soundproofed room deprived of daily ambient noise. 

Various permutations of connection were tried using the BMU powering either the whole system, just the source components, or just the power amplifier. Perhaps the most satisfying was with an Evolution-300 PowerKord from wall socket to the BMU, feeding the power amp, and phono stage wired straight to wall. In all settings however, the BMU 3000 Mk 2 was less colored, and better able to preserve the slam and pace found with a direct wall connection.

Conclusion

In conversation with Paul Houlden, his worst hum-related complaints have been from customers living in London, which may have particular issues with grid DC. Unfortunately it’s not always trivial to fix, so a BMU may not be viable for someone in affected areas. While the BMU can show a staggering subjective improvement in perceived playback ‘hush’, paradoxically it can introduce an intolerable level of mechanical noise. Another solution could be the Install version, sited in a distant cupboard.

Russ Andrews Accessories offers a 60-day money back guarantee on its products, and on that basis it’s easy to recommend a trial to gauge first whether you’re unfortunate enough to encounter hum issues in your neighbourhood. If all is clear, the product should then sell itself. 

Price and contact details

Product prices

  • BMU 3000 Mk II, £4,559
  • BMU 1500 Mk II £3,059
  • BMU 3000 Install £4,150

Manufacturer

Russ Andrews Accessories Ltd

www.russandrews.com

+44(0)1539 797300

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MOON 891 NETWORK PLAYER/PREAMPLIFIER NOW AVAILABLE

March 14th, 2024 – High-end audio distributor, Renaissance, is pleased to announce that the highly anticipated MOON 891 network player/preamplifier is now available. As the flagship source and preamp in the new North Collection of premium MOON products, the 891 establishes a benchmark with its exceptional components, construction, features, and performance.

The MOON 891 represents the culmination of decades of research and development, harnessing industry-leading technologies and manufacturing techniques. It integrates a state-of-the-art streaming DAC, a phono stage, and a graphic interface within the timeless North Collection chassis.

This exceptional network player/preamplifier introduces new technological innovations such as the MOON Damping Base (MDB), a mechanical system that effectively suppresses parasitic vibrations responsible for microphonic noise. The MDB’s suspension is a unique element, not offered by other leading manufacturers. Additionally, the 891 features the M-RAY2 volume control, which boasts discrete resistors and enhanced components for optimal performance.

Using MOON’s onboard MiND2 streaming platform, the 891 retrieves the finest details from digital music files. Local libraries and internet streaming services integrate seamlessly in the MiND Controller app for iOS and Android, with additional support for AirPlay, Spotify Connect, and TIDAL Connect in a Roon Ready solution. Its MDE3 digital engine exploits a dual-mono pair of top-of-the-line 32-bit converters with sophisticated FPGA re-clocking and a femto-second master clock to realise the full potential of all two-channel digital audio formats (including PCM, MQA, and DSD) through a comprehensive set of digital input options.

The brilliant 5” graphic colour screen on the front of the 891 displays volume and input selection, enables the extensive setup menu, and showcases cover art and meta data. A high-performance and fully configurable phono preamplifier can also be setup via the screen and menu interface.

Further enhancing the user experience, the 891 is accompanied by the industry-leading MOON BRM-1 remote control, which sets a new standard in remote control design with its groundbreaking touch controls, super-sharp OLED screen, and exquisitely crafted aluminium MOON volume knob.

The perfect partner for the MOON 891 network player/preamplifier is the MOON 861 Dual-Mono power amplifier, combining to create the ultimate system in the North Collection. Together, they deliver an unparalleled audio performance characterised by expressive and nuanced sound reproduction, and underpinned by exemplary engineering principles, innovative design, impeccable build quality, and an industry-leading 10-year warranty.

Renaissance Managing Director, John Carroll, said, ‘The 891 network player/preamplifier was created without design restriction to express the finest nuances in every recording and to offer unrivalled listening pleasure. It is the most complete MOON product with an exceptional set of features that will satisfy the most demanding music lover and deliver years of owner satisfaction.’

MSRP: £25,000

Renaissance also distributes Audiovector, Nordost & VPI Industries products in the UK and Ireland.

For more information: www.renaissanceaudio.co.uk

GIK Acoustics announces the latest addition to the SlatFusor line of premium wood slat absorbers/diffusers. The SlatFusor CT: A powerful wood slat corner bass trap

March 11, 2024 – GIK Acoustics introduces the SlatFusor CT, a corner bass trap that complements its line of premium oak acoustic panels and bass traps. Designed to improve bass response in any listening environment, the SlatFusor CT provides exceptional control of bass buildup in corners while maintaining the vibrancy of the room with mid and high frequency scattering.

Key Features:

  • Scatters mid & high frequency reflections.
  • Reduces bass buildup while retaining
  • Combining wood slats on black felt with high-performance bass .
  • 20% more effective than common corner bass
  • Premium finish: furniture-grade, stainable Oak
  • Freestanding and stackable in

Availability:

The SlatFusor CT is now available at www.gikacoustics.co.uk

 

Meze to Launch Second Generation of Liric

Baia Mare, Romania; March 7th – Meze Audio is delighted to introduce LIRIC 2nd Generation, a major evolution of its acclaimed LIRIC closed-back headphones with performance enhancements, a stunning new striped ebony wood finish and more modularity for easier upgrades and a long life of listening pleasure.

LIRIC 2nd Generation’s sound profile has been tuned up to offer a compelling blend of clear, accurate audio performance with a touch of warmth for added depth. A new QWRM (Quarter Wavelength Resonator Mask – a precision-crafted metal plate that strategically covers select openings in the driver frame) effectively attenuates high-frequency peaks above 7kHz for a smoother listening experience.

The LIRIC 2nd Generation design has also been warmed up with the replacement of LIRIC’s leather-clad earcups with ones beautifully dressed in striped ebony. These combine gorgeous wood grain and a luxury feel with the durability hardwood delivers.

Developing great headphones means listening to a lot of music, but also listening to our community carefully, too! LIRIC was already an impressive headphone but based on feedback from our customers and reviewers we’ve taken its capabilities to new heights with the new LIRIC 2nd Generation,” explains Meze Audio’s founder and lead designer, Antonio Meze.

LIRIC 2nd Generation features state-of-the-art planar magnetic technology developed by Rinaro, re-engineered for day-to-day use. The Isodynamic Hybrid Array driver was scaled down and tuned to deliver an audio experience in-line with its larger counterparts found in Empyrean and Elite.

Combined with the closed-back design, it helps preserve the original clarity and emotion of your favourite music through enhanced sound and minimised external noise. Each driver is entirely hand assembled and tested in Rinaro’s specialist workshops in Ukraine.

The LIRIC 2nd Generation headphones also follow Meze Audio’s mission for both enhanced sustainability and choice, featuring detachable magnetic earpads that can be easily repaired and replaced.

Further performance and flexibility benefits are offered by the cable choices. LIRIC 2nd Generation now comes with Meze Audio’s premium hand-braided copper cable as standard; a 4.4mm design ideal for portable players and headphone amps, plus a 3m TPE cable for home listening. The LIRIC 2nd Generation’s modular design allows for easy cable upgrades and replacements as desired.

Pricing, availability, and further information

 LIRIC 2nd Generation will be available starting March 7th, on mezeaudio.com, mezeaudio.eu and in selected retailers worldwide, with a suggested retail price of $2000/€2000/£1850.

 

Audio-Technica brings ancient craftsmanship to Hi-Fi headphones

March 6, 2024 – Today, Audio-Technica proudly announces the ATH-AWKG wooden high-fidelity headphones. Hand assembled in Tokyo, the ATH-AWKG incorporate KUROGAKI wooden housing which possesses unique physical properties to deliver both exceptional sound quality and a unique and striking design.

KUROGAKI wood is a cherished material in Japanese craftmanship that embodies the wonder of nature and refers to persimmon wood that exhibits black ink-like patterns. This unique material is only found in ancient trees that are over a century old and, as the drying process requires extensive knowledge and expertise, is something that is revered across Japan. Throughout history it has been admired by nobles and literati thanks to its mysterious and Zen-like patterns, the cause of which is still unknown to this day. The ATH-AWKG’s lacquer finish, applied by hand by a skilled craftsman, brings out the natural beauty of the wood’s grain —a beauty that will only deepen with age.

The ATH-AWKG’s stitched ergonomic earpads and headband are made from smooth, highly durable sheepskin for long-lasting comfort and the magnesium alloy headphone arm has been angled to provide the best possible fit.

Staying true to Audio-Technica’s superior audio performance, the headphones are equipped with exclusive 53mm drivers, featuring highly efficient German Permendur magnetic circuitry, that enables the delivery of exceptionally accurate audio with an expansive sound field.

Additionally, each driver is equipped with a lightweight, durable titanium flange and a 6N-OFC voice coil for optimal signal transfer and the Double Air Damping System provides a smooth, accurate bass response.

As a finishing touch, the new headphones are accompanied by an exquisitely designed storage box adorned with KUROGAKI wood.

Features

  • The housing is crafted from precious KUROGAKI wood with a hand-applied lacquer finish, harnessing the wood’s unique physical properties to deliver remarkably clear sound quality
  • 53mm driver units with highly efficient German Permendur magnetic circuitry deliver powerful audio with an expansive sound field
  • The driver’s lightweight, durable titanium flange allows the diaphragm to react to the signal more accurately
  • A 6N-OFC (high-purity, oxygen-free copper) voice coil provides optimal signal transfer
  • The D.A.D.S. (Double Air Damping System) structure provides deep bass reproduction
  • The magnesium alloy headphone arm is angled to provide the best possible fit with an excellent earcup seal
  • Stitched ergonomic earpads and headband are made from smooth, high-durability sheepskin for long-lasting comfort
  • Premium fabric-braided headphone cables prevent tangling
  • Included: Two detachable 3.0 m (9.8′) cables with A2DC (Audio Designed Detachable Coaxial) connectors at the headphones: one with a 6.3 mm (1/4″) gold-plated stereo plug, the other with a 4-pin XLR-M balanced connector.

The Audio-Technica ATH-AWKG will be available from 6th March, RRP £3,000 /€3,500/$4,200. Find out more at www.audio-technica.com.

Introducing the V7 Burson Opamp: A Revolution in Sound Quality!

February 29, 2024 – After two decades of relentless research and development, we’re thrilled to unveil the 7th generation Burson opamps. They are a testament to our commitment to excellence, safety, and user-friendliness.

The Burson V7 discrete opamps set a new benchmark in sound quality, earning the trust of leading industry partners like Union Audio and SAL, as well as recording engineers and DIY audio enthusiasts worldwide.

The V7 combines cutting-edge circuitry and craftsmanship, offering not just superior sound but also an impressive aesthetic. Its compact size (15mm x 13mm x 19mm) ensures versatility across various applications, from computer soundcards to car amplifiers. Unique features like reverse voltage protection make the V7 not only more durable but also safer than ever before.

Our meticulous eight-layer PCB design optimizes signal paths and shields against interference, ensuring pristine sound quality. The high-density aluminum shell of the V7 effectively dissipates heat, allowing it to operate at higher currents for improved audio quality and stability.

Whether you choose the V7 Vivid for its clarity and precision or the V7 Classic for its warm vocals and sparkling highs, you’re guaranteed an unparalleled audio experience. We’re also proud to offer the V7 with a lifetime warranty, a commitment unmatched in the opamp industry.

Pre-Order Opens Now with 10% off any orders.  Shipping starts on the 15th of March.

Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2024

The names may have changed a few times, but the 35th Bristol Hi-Fi Show took place last weekend. It’s no longer the Bristol Sound & Vision Show. The hotel is now the Delta by Marriott, but it’s the same brutalist concrete box perpetually covered in scaffolding. But a line snakes around the hotel yearly, with people braving February weather to be the first through the doors.

This year, several big names representing a significant part of the Bristol audio ‘experience’ did not attend the show. Bowers & Wilkins, KEF, Henley (Cabasse, Hi-Fi Rose, Musical Fidelity, Pro-Ject) and Monitor Audio were among the no-shows. However, neither this nor the almost perpetual rain dampened people’s enthusiasm for high-quality audio. The show filled the basement and ground floor conference spaces, the mezzanine (where we exhibited) and four floors of rooms.

SCV stand

Absent the usual suspects, many companies were more than happy to step up. For example, SCV Distribution took a very large stand in the main hall, with sound booths to show off IsoTek and IsoAcoustics products, as well as an open plan headphone and new brand showcase. Impressive.

Acoustic Energy

Acoustic Energy

The Corinium is the latest flagship from Acoustic Energy. The three-way, four-driver design is a hefty yet mid-sized floorstander, resulting from three years of engineering by the brand. Given the original Latin name for its Cirencester base, Acoustic Energy’s Corinium is available in four finishes, including a custom British Racing Green gloss. Prices start at £6,000 per pair.

Anthos Acoustics

Anthos Acoustics

Perhaps the most ambitious active loudspeaker at the show came from start-up Anthos Audio. The £100,000 system comprises a single-ended 2A3 triode amplifier with digital filtering to power the large two-way horn/bass horn system. The main horn loudspeaker uses a thirteen-leaf ‘flower horn’ using wooden laminations finished in the style of Cremonese instrument makers. The looks of this loudspeaker may be uniquely ‘anatomical’, but it sounded terrific.

Chord Company/English Electric

Chord Company launched a BurndyX cable designed to replace and improve the cables made for Naim Audio power supplies. They feature better insulation and shielding and are cheaper than the brand’s first Burndy T designs. Prices start at £1,772.50. The brand’s new entry-level power block is the £600 Powerhaus P6. This eschews the bus-bar conductors of the larger Powerhaus models but features heavy-grade cable using the brand’s Aray technology and high-end sockets.

Meanwhile sister brand English Electric has added to its range of network products. The new £250 EE1 network isolator joins the latest trend in keeping Ethernet noise nasties from the door.

Chord Electronics

Chord Electronics Ultima

The £8,500 Chord Electronics Ultima integrated amplifier was shown in early form at Munich High-End 2023, but production was delayed. This is the first time it has been shown now in full production. At the show, it was played with the Qutest DAC beefed up by the M Scaler upscaler and played into ATC loudspeakers. Simple, yet effective.

Cyrus Audio

Audio Physic

Now distributing Audio Physic, Cyrus Audio showed the latest £8,495 Avanti loudspeaker from the brand. This tall tower loudspeaker features an ‘invisible’ subwoofer built into the base. 2023 saw the Avanti given a complete redesign and it looks and sounds promising.

Cyrus Audio

It was driven by a full Cyrus XR system, complete with the £4,295 TTP turntable launched late last year. This belt-drive, DC-motor, deck and arm can be upgraded with the PSX-R2 power supply, and is designed to keep resonance vanishingly low. An impressive start to Cyrus’ 40th Anniversary.

DALI

DALI

We tend not to discuss existing products in a show report, as there’s always lots of new product launches. The DALI Minuet SE is a deluxe finish and refined version of a loudspeaker that has been in production in various guises for decades. Nevertheless, coupled with Lyngdorf’s Room Perfect amplification, the diminutive £1,50o two-way stand-mount sang like a little angel!

Decent Audio

Advance Paris

UK distributor Decent Audio is forever adding to its range. The latest sees the return of Advance Paris, a French audio electronics company with a wide range of affordable, performance-driven products. One of the show’s highlights was the diminutive £500 WTX-StreamTubes, an Ethernet-based streamer with built-in tubes to help shape the sound.

Epos

Epos

Sadly, I didn’t get to speak to designer Karl-Heinz Fink on the creation of his new Epos ES-7n, but the £1,890 compact loudspeaker uses the same drive units as seen on his Epos ES-14n but in a smaller front-ported cabinet. They sounded excellent played through a T+A all-in-one system.

English Acoustics

Alongside its Stereo 21c and Stereo 41c, English Acoustics has been promising a matching preamplifer. At Bristol, it delivered on that promise in the shape of the £5,670 Downton. This three line-input amplifier also features a MM phono stage, has a motorised volume potentiometer and separate power supplies for the high and low current rails.

Exposure

Exposure

Alongside the new £1,300 360 turntable announced just before the show, Exposure also released its new 3510 CD player, priced at £2,500. The top-loading player is designed to match the company’s 3510 range, but also its 5010 line. Not a lot is known about the player as yet, save that it has a magnetic clamp and a sliding lid, and sounded really good in Exposure’s effortless-sounding, yet dynamic room.

FiiO

One of the first ‘off-piste’ events held at Bristol, FiiO showed its CP13 Portable Stereo Cassette player. This USB-charged machine is perhaps the ultimate retro audio device, finished in a neat 1980s pastel blue. FiiO remains unclear about where it gets its cassette tape drives. Regardless, couple this with a set of Koss Porta Pro headphones and this £100 cassette portable will roll back the years.

Fyne Audio

Fyne Audio

If this was the year of active loudspeakers, then dual concentric loudspeakers weren’t far behind. Fyne Audio added the £3,499 Supertrax supertweeter to its Vintage range. The 360° radiation pattern SuperTrax sits directly above the acoustic centre of the drive units (easier with dual concentrics). Fyne Audio also showed its new £12,000 F702SP (or Special Production) and £15,000 F703SP loudspeaker, a cryo-treated version with upgraded components, a different plinth and elements taken from its flagship F1 range. We’ve secured an exclusive test of the F702SP in the next issue of hi-fi+, too!

Harbeth

No matter how often I tried, the Harbeth rooms were always full. Surely a good sign. Harbeth launched the new NLE system at the show; an active DSP-based loudspeaker system shown in ‘skunkworks’ form last year. The company highlighted the flexibility of the DSP active system by using Quad valve amps for the midrange and treble, and Class D amps for the bass. The total cost – including loudspeakers, DSP module, and a set of Class D amps – comes in at over £40,000.

Hegel Music Systems

A long time ago, Hegel said it would never make a phono stage. Then it made one. Then it said it would never put a phono stage in an integrated amplifier. At Bristol, the company showed its £3,250 H190v integrated amplifier… with MM phono stage. This is built on the powerful 150W Class AB H190 integrated amplifier chassis.

Kanto Audio

Kanto Audio

Ren is the first loudspeaker from Kanto Audio to feature HDMI eARC. This means it can be controlled by a TV based system effortlessly, even doing without its own remote control. Using the best of Kanto’s components to create something special, the new Ren will be available later in the year.

Kudos Audio

Kudos Audio

Kudos Audio unveiled its unpowered active Sigao Drive crossover in prototype form. The company’s Titan range of loudspeakers have long benefitted from active operation. However, active crossover options proved limited after Naim Audio took its SNAXO out of production in 2022. Two famous Naim names have designed this unique, Kudos-dedicated device; Roy George and Trevor Wilson. The Sigao Drive will be formally launched at this year’s Munich High-End and expect it to cost around £6,000.

Leema Acoustics

Leema Acoustics

The new Particle range of electronics from Leema Acoustics forms the brand’s new entry-level. Comprising the Electron CD player, Neutron DAC/Preamp and Graviton power amplifier, each component costs £1,400 and looks set to dominate the UK first audio system world this year!

Linn

Linn

Linn is traditionally the company most likely to promote active loudspeaker systems in home audio. This time, though, while others were showcasing active loudspeaker systems, Linn was playing its new Klimax 800 mono power amps. This cool-running, drive-anything cubes (Kubes?) of power deliver 800W and cost an equally cool £37,500 per channel. The Klimax 800 were played in the context of a full Linn system weighing in at a shade under £200,000. This made it the most expensive system in the show.

Naim/Focal

Naim

First seen at CES 2024, the Bristol Show was the first public showing for the new Naim Uniti Nova PE (or Power Edition). Looking almost identical to the original Uniti Nova, the £8,599 PE delivers 150W per channel, running in Class D, a boost from the 80W of the previous model.

Orange

Orange

Guitar amp specialist Orange has made a range of Bluetooth active loudspeakers and headphones, arguably following in the footsteps of fellow UK guitar amp brand Marshall. However, the more exciting device for the tube-based enthusiast is the £850 Valve Tester Mk II from the brand. The standard tester covers many preamp and power amp tubes as standard and has plug-in modules to test an extensive range of power and rectifier tubes.

Origin Live

Origin Live

The £295 Strata mat from Origin Live brings a stripped-down version of the company’s platter to other turntables. The three-layer mat is 5mm thick, and represents an ideal point of contact between LP and platter, according to Mark Baker.

Pearl Acoustics

Pearl Acoustics

Known for the clever Sibelius loudspeaker, Pearl Acoustics’ second product is its £8,500 170 power amplifier. Delivering a mighty 18W per channel from its KT170 power tubes (running in single-ended operation), the amplifier is designed for maximum linearity and speed… and is designed for far more than just a matching amp to the Sibelius. We’ve secured an exclusive review of this amplifier in an upcoming issue of hi-fi+.

PMC

PMC

This was the year of active loudspeakers. The big talking point of the show was PMC’s active versions of the four two-way loudspeakers in the twenty5i range. Both treble and midrange drivers are matched with their own 100W amplifier and include balanced and single-ended inputs.

PMC

Existing owners of passive versions of twenty5 and twenty5i two-way stand-mounts and floorstanders can also upgrade their loudspeakers. The upgrade kit is a simple rear panel swap. Prices start at £3,975 for the Twenty5.21i Active and top out at £7,975 for the Twenty5.24i Active. The price of a pair of active modules is £1,795.

Rega

Rega

Rega was showing its new Nd7 moving magnet cartridge. With a fineline stylus and smaller coils than most MM designs, the Nd7 delivers the sort of higher frequency and channel balance performance normally associated with moving coil cartridges. The cartridge is expected to cost around £450.

 

Further down the line, Rega showed off its forthcoming high-end pre/power system, the line only Mercury and 165W Solis. Both are expected to cost about £6,000, but currently are still in the development stage.

Russell K.

Russell K.

The pocket rocket in the Russell K. range is the RED 50. The rear-ported two-way stand-mount now comes in a more up-scale RED 50Se, with improved tweeter, crossover and an additional sub-plinth. The result is a cleaner, and more controlled, design over the standard RED 50. The new RED 50Se costs £3,950, £1,700 more than the RED 50.

Silence

A new Croatian turntable company, featuring the skills of AMG and Clearaudio designer Marko Borovac, the Silence Alpha TT-1 is a unique turntable and arm combination, featuring a Baltic Birch ply and aluminium composite plinth, an inverted bearing and a 19mm aluminium platter. The AC motor drives the platter via a non-pulsing sinewave and a large silicone belt made in-house. It’s joined by a 10” magnetically stabilised unipivot arm. The company has made this turntable as a proof of concept, and at £999, it’s a concept worth snapping up before they know how much it should cost!

Tannoy

Tannoy re-surfaced in style at Bristol. The brand took both a room to demonstrate its product and had a large display in the show’s main hall. In the room, it was making a particularly good sound with the £11,995 Stirling III LZ Special Edition, playing through AURALiC digital source and Western Electric amplification. This classic 10inch dual concentric design originally dates back to 1967 and features an Alnico magnet system.

Telegrapher

Telegrapher

Telegrapher is a new active loudspeaker brand, with a strong studio vibe. It combines high-quality build and finishes with two and three-way active drive. There is also a matching powered subwoofer. Prices start at £4,500 for the two-way Fox loudspeaker.

Ultrafide

One of several pro-meets-domestic brands, UK based Ultrafide is the domestic offshoot of pro-audio amp maker MC2 (MC squared, like Einstein’s equation). Its first products are the £4,500 U4PRE audiophile quad output preamp, designed for biamping, and the matching £4,500 500W U500DC, which uses Class D power modules with a large linear power supply.

Wharfedale

Wharfedale

It might just be the smallest three-way loudspeaker on the market. The Wharfedale Super Denton is an addition to the company’s Heritage series. The £1,000 three-way design features a dome tweeter, offset midrange dome, and a cone mid-bass, all crammed into a box not much larger than most two-way designs. Further information on this loudspeaker is still to be confirmed, even though they ship in early March!

Wilson Benesch

Wilson Benesch

Representing the high-end at Bristol, Wilson Benesch teamed up with Computer Audio Design and Trilogy Audio Systems to create a really engaging sound. The company was playing its £18,995 Discovery 3zero stand-mount loudspeakers, with the equipment resting on its £6,000 R1 Hi-Fi Rack. The company was also showcasing its new £23,995 IGx Infrasonic Generator, an 18in upward-firing carbon fibre cone with a 500W Class D amplifier.

Meanwhile Computer Audio Designs was showcasing its latest £1,950 GC1.1 and £4,950 GC3.1 Ground Control devices as well as its new £1,250 Ethernet Control, and £1,500 USB IIR cable and £350 GC Cable. All played through a £12,500 CAD 1543 MkII DAC.

This room also marked the return of Trilogy Audio Systems. The company showed its £12,500 914 Balanced Valve Preamplifier and the new £10,000 994 Mono Hybrid power amps that deliver 20W in Class A and 140W in class AB.

 

There was a lot more. Some of these appear on our YouTube channel. Others, such as Lyngdorf and Innuos (also using Lyngdorf amplifiers… I’m sensing a pattern here), were great-sounding rooms that didn’t have new products this time.

 

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Innuos PULSAR streamer

Being at the cutting edge of ripping music could be a double-edged sword for Innuos. The ZEN range and the outstanding Statement (with or without its Next-Gen power supply) make the company one of the biggest names in music servers. This is particularly true for those who rip music from CD to hard disc. Which is great… until people stop using CDs as their go-to music carrier. All the servers in the Innuos range act as extremely good streamers and high-resolution file servers. However, that little voice still says, “I’m paying for something I don’t need.” The Innuos PULSAR from the PULSE range silences that voice.

Non-Ripping Yarns

Like the ZEN series, the PULSE line of streamers and servers comprises three models; PULSEmini, PULSE and PULSAR, tested here. The ‘good, better, best’ epithets fit well. The products meet the budgetary constraints of the user, with each successive model piling on improvements over the last.

The spec sheet gets pretty packed when you get to the Innuos PULSAR. PULSAR uses Innuos’ active rectification capacitor (ARC) board, a scaled-down version of the ARC6 present on Statement NG. This is a custom module containing more than 130,000µF Mundorf capacitors. This is well met by a 300VA toroidal transformer, which goes some way to explain why a streamer weighs almost as much as a small stereo power amplifier. It’s all designed in collaboration with power supply expert Dr Sean Jacobs. The centre of this magnetically screened toroidal transformer is filled with epoxy resin. 

This analogue power supply is uncommon in streamers and servers; even stepping away from essentially re-tasked computers, most server-side products use switch-mode power supplies. These might be light, cheap, plentiful and easy to implement, but if you take your server project seriously, including something that produces RFI and EMI inside the case of your source component is ‘not a good look’. 

Lite, but heavy

Isolation from interference is a big thing for Innuos, and PULSAR includes a ‘Lite’ version of its PhoenixUSB reclocker (tested in Issue 184), powered by a custom regulator module. This is a replaceable Digital Output Module with Innuos working on further modules like AES/EBU and i2s. By treating noise like The Enemy (whether an invading force trying to breach the Innuos PULSAR through its connectors or the fifth column of internal power supplies), it approaches many of the performance parameters of Innuos’ Statement product. Granted, the two-box masterwork takes these concepts as far as Innuos can, but the PULSAR is a chip off the ol’ Statement block.

 Even the feet are arranged asymmetrically to support the player and help dampen vibration. The strategic placement of feet sounds like the start of an exceptionally boring dance movie. Still, it is understandable when you think about the unequal load caused by a big transformer and the fact that many parts are potentially resonating at very high frequencies. 

Not just a pretty face

Innuos PULSAR has the asymmetric front panel common to all the brand’s products but subtly redesigned for the PULSE range. This includes the logo and product name inset into the top plate. It’s not a product designed for front panel displays (most servers are ‘plant room’ fodder), but I think it looks elegant and understated on the shelf. 

Innuos PULSAR

 More importantly, the PULSAR is designed to be extremely easy to install and use. Its operating system is held on Single-level Cell SSD (PULSE and PULSEmini house this on a Triple-Level Cell module, with concomitant higher noise). It is designed to allow the PULSAR to run either in Standalone mode (where it acts as a music server) or Endpoint (where an existing server is already established, often in a multi-room system). Aside from downloading the Innuos App and plugging the PULSAR into a network switch, switching between Standalone and Endpoint is the most challenging part of the installation. 

PULSAR can reach out to your preferred online music streaming services (through the App itself) or hook up to local NAS (network-attached storage) boxes full of your own music. It does this effortlessly. Whichever way you configure the Innuos PULSAR and irrespective of whether you have local or online streamed files, the PULSAR works best when outputting to a USB DAC, as it supports 32bit/768kHz PCM and up to DSD512 through that pathway. It also supports MQA Core Decoding (this requires the latest version of the innuOS operating system).

Roon Tune

The PULSE series are streamers and they are currently undergoing Roon-Ready certification. They can be used now as a generic Roon Endpoint, but being a streamer, they are not designed to be used as Roon Core, not least because they don’t have onboard storage. Roon-Ready is a programme for streamers only, not servers. 

However, having used Innuos’ Statement for some time without Roon, I’m not missing it too much. The Sense App keeps improving, and the latest version, coupled with innuOS 2.3, makes for a very rich musical experience. It’s intuitive, and I find myself flipping from a local disc to stream to internet radio quickly and effortlessly. This means the added value Roon brings to the party isn’t quite as vital as it once was. However, Roon’s curation and that feeling of swimming through the entire musical canon is still a heady wine.

There are so many USB and Ethernet ports on the rear of the Innuos PULSAR (five USB ports and two LAN sockets) that you might think you could go a little wild, installing multiple USB drives, USB DACs in multiple ways and even a NAS drive. However, it doesn’t work that way. The PULSAR has a dedicated LAN input for connection to the network; it uses Network Attached Storage for streaming local files and a dedicated USB for output to a DAC (with the promise of equally high-performance digital outputs later). The quartet of USB ports connect a backup drive for future expansion. It’s all in the simple yet deceptively thorough quick-start guide. As such, I used the PULSAR (and the Statement) in Standalone mode, using my Synology NAS, into the outstanding Allnic Audio D-10000 (tested in Issue 221) through USB.

Tough tasks

Innuos PULSAR has a challenging set of tasks to achieve. It has to be extremely good in its own right, justifying its place against both pared-down PCs or even Raspberry Pi computers acting as servers. Then, it needs to be distinctly better than the PULSE and PULSEmini. But not so good that it potentially cannibalises sales of the Statement. It gets that balance near perfect.

If anything, the first is the hardest to crack because those who think any server is just a glorified PC will likely discount any claim to improved sonic performance as so much ‘fluff’. However, the Sense App pays attention to that argument. It’s so easy to use and intuitive that arguing a more ‘homespun’ approach is hard. Not having a PULSE or PULSEmini to hand makes testing its sonic improvements harder. However, having compared them in settings beyond my listening room, I know that the ‘good, better, best’ hierarchy remains in good order.

There is a definite performance jump across all three models, with the Innuos PULSAR sounding considerably more open and with more potent, full bass than the other two. And then there’s the Statement, which I know well. In this setting, the PULSAR gives a surprisingly adept performance and acquits itself very well. The Statement has more space and depth to the sound and is considerably more rhythmically adept. However, the PULSAR gets closer to the Statement’s stellar performance than it has any right to expect.

A lot to deal with

Comparisons over, how does it sound? It gives the DAC a lot to deal with in a good way. Sure, the DAC itself will shape the sound of a USB streaming server. However, the DAC can only process what it’s fed, and the feed from the PULSAR is excellent.

As mentioned before, the strength and depth of the bass is the first thing you notice. It’s a powerful bass sound, yet not one that comes at the expense of the rest of the frequency range. My usual bass-test track [Trentmøller’s ‘Chameleon’, from The Last Resort, Poker Flat Records] can sound strident and with an exaggerated top-end when streamed poorly. Still, here, the depth and intensity of the bass give you those atavistic thrills. Meanwhile, the mids and top-end remain unforced and precise.

Innuos PULSAR

The more you listen to the PULSAR, the more other aspects of performance unpack themselves. The vocal projection and articulation are first-rate (of course, having a DAC that also excels in those parameters helps). I wrote ‘undigital’ on the pad several times because the fluid and articulate vocals were more ‘there’ than one usually hears on streamed sources. 

Detail levels are also extremely good but without the edginess that often plagues streamed digital performances. That degree of information on tap is not always good. There is often too much going on in the high frequencies and not enough taking place in the bass. Innuos has a good sense of balance, making streamed digital richer than usual.

The beat goes on

Then there’s the beat. I’m always taken aback at how a packetised data source played through a USB output can have such profound differences in the rhythmic quality of a recording. I know the differences are more due to the isolation of signal between two devices than changes to the datastream per se. Still, whatever the reasons behind it, the PULSAR is incredibly taut and bouncy sounding.

This isn’t just a rock music thing. The Yo-Yo Ma/Chris Thile/Edgar Meyer Bach Trios [Nonesuch] has such a delicate sense of meter that it can so easily sound bland and drab. Here, it comes alive. The interplay between cello and mandolin, underpinned by bass, makes you understand why most musicians view Bach as the father of modern music. You can hear how he’s the precursor to everything from jazz to metal. All of that’s here in this recording, and the PULSAR renders it beautifully.

There is a caveat here. Or rather, an observation. The Innuos PULSAR sounds good, but you must thoroughly understand your network connection to hear its potential. Like its bigger Statement-shaped brother, the PULSAR takes a big step forward with a well-designed network switch and a set of Ethernet cables designed with audio in mind. The PULSAR is good at keeping RFI and EMI at bay. However, a helping hand from the switch onwards makes for an even more potent sound quality and authoritative bass. Hundreds of options are open to the listener, including a switch from Innuos called PhoenixNET (tested in Issue 194).  

Saying nothing with style!

The best reviews often say the least. The Innuos PULSAR is a fantastic streamer for those who have left CD ripping behind. It integrates so well with the Sense App that it’s almost impossible to separate their performance. The two make accessing both your own music and that of the outside world effortless and easy. Everything works out of the box. While it sounds good in almost any setting, it works best when care is paid to the cabling and switch. At this point, it can sound like excellent music-making, regardless of where that music comes from.

I do ‘get’ why many think spinning discs remain the best way of extracting digital audio. But, it’s an old-fashioned idea. However, this ‘CD sounds better’ view is convincing when listening to online streamed recordings against ripped CDs. It’s one of the reasons devices like the Innuos Statement sound so good. But even the most strident streaming holdout will find something positive to say about the Innuos PULSAR. This Innuos streaming server can show you just how far streaming has come. 

Technical specifications

  • Streaming Inputs: LAN
  • Native streaming services: Qobuz, Tidal, TuneIn internet radio
  • Digital outputs: USB, Ethernet
  • Supported Digital Formats: Up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and up to DSD256 Native DSD via USB output
  • Control Software: Innuos Sense, RoonReady
  • Dimensions (W×H×D): 42 × 7.6 × 29cm
  • Weight: 10.17kg
  • Price: £4,949, €5,499, US$6,899, CAN$8,949

Manufacturer

Innuos

www.innuos.com

+351 (308) 800 826

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Album Review: Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy

Where do you go next when your debut album wins the prestigious Mercury Prize? Not that winning the Mercury first time of asking is a rarity, looking back through past winners it seems to almost be the norm with the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Artic Monkeys and Dave all winning with the first full-length releases, while last year’s win for Little Simz’s fourth album bucked this trend and was rather tardy by comparison. But still, the question remains: where do you go next when your debut album wins the prestigious Mercury Prize?

In the case of Young Fathers, the answer was to decamp from their native Edinburgh and move to Berlin, switch record labels and record the excellent, but less successful, White Men Are Black Men Too. The equally good Cocoa Sugar followed in 2018, and saw Young Fathers return to the top of some of the more cutting-edge ‘album of the year’ lists. It was also their biggest chart success in the UK. 

That was five years ago; before the Pandemic. And now it is 2023. The trio may have switched labels a few times, but Heavy Heavy is their second outing on the legendary Ninja Tune, which is also the current home of the likes of Sampa The Great and Kae Tempest. It’s a label that seems to suit Young Fathers and their eclectic style, which fuses elements of American Hip-Hop, electronic chicanery, and the noisier, more experimental end of the Pop spectrum. 

Start listening to Heavy Heavy and before you know quite what’s going on you are four tracks in. Not that the album starts slow, quite the opposite in fact, because the opener ‘Rice’ is an absolute banger and the following ‘I Saw’ has all the multi-layered swagger we’ve come to expect from Young Fathers over the last decade. 

It speeds by because this is a Formula 1 race car of an album, and things are moving at a frenetic pace throughout. With 10 tacks spanning just 33 minutes, the three-piece have stuck to the tried-and-tested cliché of the three-minute pop song. Thankfully this is one of those clichés that exist because they are true – three minutes is the ideal length for a slice of pop music.

‘Geronimo’ and ‘Shoot Me Down’ slow proceedings down a little in the middle, both featuring rich bass lines and breathy vocals, before the fantastic ‘Ululation’ gets the party started again. But ‘Holy Moly’ is the stand-put track for me, the final moment of jubilation before the lower key ending of ‘Be Your Lady’. It’s dark, rapid-fire beat is the perfect partner for both the rather menacing vocal delivery on the verses and the more upbeat chorus. 

As you can tell, Heavy Heavy is an album full of light and shade, and one that we can imagine translating well to the band’s raucous live shows, with plenty of singalong hooks and the kind of call-and-response moments that their audience will go mad for.

We’d go as far as saying that this is Young Father’s best album yet. Perhaps the elongated gestation period did them a favour, allowing them to hone the tracks more precisely than previous offerings. Whatever the reason, we are thankful for it, and it bodes well for the future. 

Finally, this is another album with multiple vinyl versions available out there – looking at Rough Trade revealed five different versions on LP! However, all of them are 140g vinyl, with only a change of colour between black and white marking any differences to the physical product – the other variations are to do with covers and fold-out posters. Personally, I would add a full-on 180g pressing in black vinyl. But perhaps I’m showing my age here, because as is often the way nowadays, there’s also a cassette offering to sit alongside the LP and CD versions. It’s ironic that the format that was pillaried by the music business for its negative impact on sales (“Home Taping Is Killing Music”) is now the format of choice to avoid the endless and easy duplication of digital music files. Regardless of format though, Heavy Heavy is perfect for the truly hip. 

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