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Opera Consonance Reference DSD1.1 digital converter

Opera Consonance is one of those brands that fly perpetually beneath the audiophile radar for no good reason. It’s a company that makes a range of highly respected, multi award winning products, including analogue and digital source components, valve and solid-state amplifiers, even cables and loudspeakers. The models are consistently good to excellent performers, and those who happen across them, love ‘em.

I would like to think Opera Consonance’s Reference DSD1.1 digital converter is the breakout product, the one that gives the brand the recognition it so deserves. The converter is a fully functioning digital hub, capable of processing every PCM signal it’s possible to receive and DSD to DSD256 (all through USB 2.0), as well as good ol’ 16/44 PCM files from a CD transport with any kind of S/PDIF or AES/EBU connection. It even has provision to communicate to iOS and Android devices, and the website describes a Frankenstein-grade three-way clunky way of extracting USB audio from a phone with an add-on power supply (Bluetooth is available too). The Reference DSD1.1 also has the option of being a very capable headphone DAC/amp, alongside the solid-state XLR balanced line outputs and single-ended RCA outputs that also pass through an E88CC-based triode output stage. There are also five PCM filter settings, absolute phase adjustment, two DSD high-frequency brick wall filters, and three undefined ‘sound mode’ settings, all selectable from the front panel.

Opera Consonance is somewhat hazy on the subject of what internal architecture is used in the Reference DSD1.1, but it appears to be based around an AK4490 DAC/filter chip from Asahi Kasei Microdevices. This is a 32bit chip that can decode DSD without any internal conversion to PCM, sports those five aforementioned filters, and supports PCM files up to a notional precision of 32bit, 768kHz. It’s becoming popular as the chip of choice in some decidedly top-end devices, such as the Astel & Kern AK380 and Esoteric’s K-05X/07X disc players.

The five filters for PCM are ‘short delay sharp’, ‘short delay slow’, ‘sharp roll-off’, ‘slow roll-off’ and ‘super slow roll-off’. The term ‘sharp roll-off’ in the first and third filter equates to the standard brickwall filter found in ‘traditional’ CD replay. The three slow roll-off filters reflect the more recent trend in digital audio to reduce high-frequency digital ‘hash’ and post-ringing from an impulse response, and are often called ‘soft-knee’ filters. The two ‘short delay’ filters replace the standard linear phase filter design with a minimum phase design. This is useful in reducing pre-ringing to an impulse response. The choice of filter is largely system dependent, offering a mild tailoring of the upper registers of your player. My take on this – experiment! Start with the standard sharp roll-off, then try with the slow roll-off and switch between the two a few times over the course of a week or so. If you conclude the system sounds slightly too ‘energetic’ or ‘bright’ with the sharp roll-off, stay with the soft-knee filters; if it sounds too ‘dry’ or ‘dull’ with the soft-knee, stay with the sharp filter. Then try the appropriate ‘short delay’ filter setting over a similar time period, again listening out for the right balance between ‘energetic’ and ‘dry’. Eventually, you’ll find the right setting for your system. Note that this doesn’t change the underlying tonal qualities of the Reference DSD1.1; it’s more about fine-tuning.

The concept of a DSD cut-off filter might at first glance seem to run counter to the very concept of DSD, but in fact it’s a handy ‘get out of jail free’ card in some systems. Some DSD recordings are not as good as hoped and high-frequency component can – in extreme cases – trigger noise that filters down into the audio band. A filter at 150kHz and 50kHz can usually prevent this. Also, there are some systems where a super wide bandwidth source ‘upsets’ the input and gain structure of an amplifier designed for 20Hz-20kHz sound, and you might not discover this until you power up the DSD1.1: rather than give back your shiny new converter, this allows you to remove the high-frequency component until the next amp comes around.

The missing element in the Reference DSD1.1’s line up is any form of DLNA/UPnP or Internet streaming. However, a close inspection of the Opera Consonance line shows that task is taken up by another product in the line – the Reference 8-20 anniversary music player. The DSD1.1’s role in life is to decode, not to act as a half-way media player. Given many companies seem to think streaming means adding an off-the-shelf display, Wi-Fi board, and media player circuit to an existing DAC, and letting the end user pick up the pieces, I applaud Opera Consonance for sticking to its guns. A slightly more cynical reading of the situation is home streaming has still to make its mark in China where the company is based, and Opera Consonance’s line-up reflects that scene. However, I think the company has a more international outlook at its core, and the Opera Consonance Reference DSD1.1 is part of a wider plan. Also, if you plan on streaming, it’s a perfect match for Foobar 2000 or J River.

Opera Consonance has several different designs running at the same time. This is one of its classic or Reference line models, sporting an arched slatted wooden or metal top plate, with a black or silver front panel and a symmetrical layout of a pair of chromed knobs either side of a central display. There’s also the squared off, none-more-black ‘Forbidden City’ line, the rounded off ‘Figaro’ models, and the distinctive, curved ‘Droplet’ models. But the Reference models are perhaps the most immediately recognisable products from Opera.

The Reference DSD1.1 is almost two DACs in one. The principle notes on the balanced stage and headphone amp speak of a DAC that is focused, transparent, and dynamic. The single-ended DAC notes are more about the DACs expressiveness, and its tonal and timbral qualities. Ultimately these are qualities common to the Reference DSD1.1 across both its outputs, it’s just that the accent changes slightly when moving from balanced to single-ended. Note, however, this doesn’t apply to different file formats, and the DAC is extremely consistent in moving up the audio ladder. In fact, this creates one of the most credible DSD performances I’ve heard at this price point, regardless of choice of output.

What is common to both balanced and single-ended outputs is a strong sense of both scale and refinement – especially refinement. This refinement is not bought at the expense of leading or trailing edges of music, and it doesn’t mean the DAC is rolled off at the top or overblown in the bass; these are the usual trade-offs to gain a touch of high-end sophistication without a five-figure price tag. Instead, it comes from a very fluid and organic sounding midrange, extending the harmonic structure of music up into the top registers and – albeit to a lesser extent – down through the organ pedals. There is an ever-so-slight bloom to the sound in the upper bass that gives the Reference DSD1.1 a characteristic fullness to the presentation, like the LS3/5a’s mild thickening of piano.

This refinement is more about presenting the sonic beauty of music than its sheer attack, and it would be easy to dismiss the Reference DSD1.1 as a DAC that doesn’t ‘time’. In fact, I think a more accurate reading of the Reference DSD1.1’s performance is that it’s a DAC that emphasises phrasing over timing. There is an excellent sense of flow from musical theme to theme, and the DAC is very keen at displaying the changes in tempo within those musical themes.

Where it lags a step behind the Rhythm Kings is working those subtle ‘microtiming’ changes that separate, say, a really profoundly good jazz drummer from some ‘going through the motions’ session guy or Sunday afternoon pub player. This is a subtle distinction, however, and I would be happy to trade this temporal precision for the refinement and ease of listening the Reference DSD1.1 brings to music. The headphone amplifier stage is good, too. It’s not an afterthought, but neither is it designed for serious users with amp-crushing headphones.

Ultimately, the Opera Consonance Reference DSD1.1 is an extremely good device, straddling as it does the old-school ‘add me to a CD player’ DAC and the new world of USB. It’s a refined performer, which is all the more attractive when you compare it to many of the assaults on the ears delivered by more forward-sounding DACs and streamers.

Technical Specifications

Type: DSD-capable USB DAC/headphone amplifier
Supported audio: 32bit / 768kHz DSD64(1bit 2.8M) DSD128(1bit 5.6M) DSD256(1bit 11.2M)
Digital inputs: Coaxial RCA (75 ohm) ×1, Optical ×1, AES EBU ×1, USB-typeB port ×1, Bluetooth ×1 (name: Operaudio)
Analog outputs: RCA (2.2V RMS) ×1, XLR (4.6V RMS) ×1, 6.5mm headphone jack ×1
SNR: >118dB ( RCA,XLR)
Distortion: < 0.002% (XLR output), < 0.08 (RCA output)
Dimensions (H×W×D): 10.4×33×44cm
Weight: 9kg (wood top panel) 12kg (Metal top panel)
Price: £1,595

Manufactured by: Opera Consonance

URL: www.opera-consonance.com

Distributed by: AA Acoustics

URL: www.aa-acoustics.com

Tel: +44(0)1273 325901

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Leema Acoustics Libra DAC

These are strange times for the digital to analogue converter. Having come back from the edge of extinction, it is no longer sufficient for a DAC to be simply a means of turning your ones and zeroes into an analogue signal. First came USB; initially as a convenience feature, but now as an all-singing, all-dancing high resolution connection. Then came volume controls; first doing unpleasant things like bit reduction to get the levels up and down, but later morphing into sophisticated noise shaping devices that can challenge analogue designs.

Now, Leema Acoustics has decided that even acting as a digital preamp is not enough. The Libra is either an extremely ambitious DAC or the start of a new evolution in product categories. Quite whether this is in response to a clearly stated demand for such a thing or a gamble to try and find some clear air in a congested category is unclear, but it is fair to say that the Libra doesn’t sit entirely in either the DAC or preamp category. This is a DAC that also happens to have most of the trimmings of an analogue preamp at the same time.

First, however, the decoding side. Leema is in the small group of companies that has an entirely bespoke decoding solution for its products rather than relying on an off-the-shelf DAC. Leema instead uses a system called Quattro Infinity which is designed to avoid the issues of crosstalk (see boxout). With a pair of these modules lurking under a pair of heatsinks on the main board, the Libra is effectively a fully balanced design across both the digital and analogue sections of the circuit.

A bespoke converter is not the whole story of the Libra’s decoding. Clever though they may be, the Quattro Infinity modules only support S/PDIF and PCM. As the Libra supports DSD64 and 128 as well as DXD – a tickbox requirement of any digital product at this price point despite the continued absence of any killer material in these formats. Libra uses an additional Cirrus Logic CS4392 DAC is attached to each channel to allow for DSD to be decoded. Interestingly, the Libra can receive DSD via the optical and coaxial inputs as well as the USB connection through the DoP (DSD over PCM) open standard.

As USB remains key to how these DACs will be used, the Libra makes use of Leema’s own M1 USB interface. This is fully galvanically isolated and is intended to isolate the Libra from any nastiness that might be passed from the USB source and this should mean that the Libra is entirely agnostic about what you connect to it. This is further aided by Leema supplying drivers for Mac, OSX, and Linux meaning that no operating system should be off limits. Finishing off the digital side of things is a Bluetooth input that supports aptX and allows for a quick and simple convenience connection to suitably equipped devices.

Joining the USB connection are no less than nine other digital inputs. Leema has fitted the Libra with three coax, three optical, two AES inputs, and – like PS Audio before it – the under-utilised I²S connection in addition to the USB input. This means that the Libra should be able to handle even the most sprawling systems without breaking sweat. However, it is what else that lurks on the back panel that really puts the Libra into a different bracket from its rivals.

The Libra has three analogue inputs that feature both XLR and RCA inputs. These are fitted with their own analogue circuitry and their access to the volume control does not involve any flirtations with the digital side. The Libra outputs via either XLR or RCA connections and these can be either given a fixed value or linked to the volume control. This is a 248 step system that can also be used to mute when switching inputs if your levels are somewhat imbalanced. As you might expect from such a device in 2016, the volume ramp is absolutely linear and the performance of the Libra doesn’t change at any increment. As such, the Libra – while undoubtedly a DAC – is also unquestionably a preamp, too. It is perfectly possible to use it as a line-level device but this does rather knock out a big chunk of what the Leema has been designed to do.

All this cleverness is then encased in the Constellation casework used on other flagship Leema devices. This is a very hefty piece of metalwork indeed, although the heatsinks on the side are somewhat superfluous on a device that has barely exceeded room temperature in the time it has been in situ. Everything feels solid and well finished though and the matt finish silver front panel is understated and handsome. The controls are pretty logical too. The larger of the two circular controls handles volume while the smaller one handles inputs and menu navigation with a push-to-select function.

The Leema has the facility to adjust filter and phase settings via this menu and you can also alter the pin wiring of the I²S connection should your source happen to have a different one to that supplied by Leema. More specific is the adjustment for LIPS (Leema Intelligent Protocol System), which allows for Leema equipment to be chained together to operate from a single remote and to interact with RS232 and home control systems. The only slight fly in this ointment is that the display that handles this information is a little basic and inelegant. It is fairly easy to read and use, but on a product that costs £6,000 it feels a bit on the crude side. Happily, what Leema takes with one hand it gives with the other, and the remote is a hefty and well crafted device that has all the functions and controls you need, and excellent range and off axis performance.

With a Melco N1A supplying a USB signal, a Naim ND5XS a coaxial one, and a Cyrus Phono Signature doing the honours for an analogue feed, the Leema is simplicity itself to get up and running. Like a number of preamp devices being used at fixed level, it pays not to simply wind the volume output to maximum as you’ll find the output levels a little on the high side. In addition, I found the differences between the filter settings are fairly subtle but I have marginally preferred the ‘wide’ setting.

Firstly and perhaps most importantly, there is no immediate sign of any of that considerable processing horsepower making itself obviously apparent in the audio performance of the Libra. Nothing leaps out of the sonic performance as being overly processed or manipulated. It is abundantly clear after a performance of the 24/96kHz download of Bowie’s Blackstar [Columbia] that the Leema has not been imbued with the Quattro Infinity hardware with attention-seeking, demonstration-winning properties that ultimately fade faster than a boy band’s career.

Instead, you get Blackstar in all its melancholic weirdness, unvarnished and unembellished. Listen a little longer and what the Libra is up to begins to make itself more apparent. With ‘Girl Loves Me’, the definition to the curious chord sequence in the lower midrange is defined and presented with a clarity and impact that it never seems to have shown up until this point. As a device for retrieving detail the Libra is truly exceptional but it is what it does with this information that really sets it apart. Instead of drawing your attention to this by throwing it at you in a flurry of information, you get a refined and beautifully integrated picture of what is going on. Everything is there but you get to discover it in your own time rather than being left feeling like the guy in the Maxell tape advert.

Of course, if you do ask the Libra to pick up the pace and deliver a bit of impact with proceedings, it draws on what feels like limitless reserves of grip and attacks Leftfield’s ‘Bad Radio’ with real impact. The Libra has truly wonderful bass. It is free from embellishment or the curious affliction that some digital products suffer from where even the lightest piece of percussion is endowed with the impact of a comet striking the earth. Instead, where depth is needed, you unquestionably receive it – an impact felt as much as heard with the precision and accuracy of a metronome. Where a lightness of touch is needed instead, the Libra is not found wanting.

The only area where you might find the Libra wanting is that for all this discrete ability there are times when you do want it to become slightly more involved. With James McMurtry’s splendidly loping ‘How’m Gonna Find You Now’ [Complicated Game, Blue Rose Records], the Libra is undoubtedly completely in control of the piece but it all seems a little straight laced. Just at the point where you want to lose yourself to the music, the Libra is diligently delivering up the material, but perhaps going a little light on the emotive content. It would be wrong to describe it as ‘sterile’ as it was never anything like as pronounced to warrant such a word, but it can be seen to be somewhat detached.

It is however, exceptionally consistent. From the Bluetooth connection to the USB input, the Libra delivers the same refined, discrete, and capable performance. The Bluetooth performance is genuinely listenable and an ideal way of getting Tidal to the unit if not supported in another digital source. What is also genuinely clever is that when replaying DSD material – and hence making use of decoding other than the Quattro Infinity system – the Leema still sounds very much as it does with PCM.

Leaving the digital side of the product and switching to analogue, the Libra does a reasonable job of bordering on viceless. This is still not a device that will impart much character of its own – it seems very clear that Leema has gone to considerable lengths to ensure that this is something it won’t do – but it is transparent enough to allow for the traits of the devices connected to shine through. Connecting a Cyrus Phono Signature via XLR maintains the polished presentation with the infectious sense of pace that marks it out. Likewise, switching my source Naim ND5 XS to an RCA connection rather than a coaxial one sees some of the bite and attack – that the Leema itself tends to refrain from in the digital domain – making its way back into the presentation.

The volume control in both digital and analogue modes is also a well thought out piece of engineering. With 248 steps, it has the necessary fine adjustment to choose the exact level that you want rather than something approximating to it. Like many implementations of such a volume control the ramp when controlled by remote isn’t fast enough to be perfectly responsive but a quick manual swipe of the front panel control (or reaching for mute) is effective in this case.

The Leema Libra pitches into a keenly contested part of the market. Judged as a line-level DAC, it offers plentiful inputs, truck-like build, and a performance that delivers a wide variety of music without any signs of strain or issue. These are attributes that can be pinned to a number of rivals, though: there’s no overriding reason to choose the Libra over a number of equally well thought out competitors. Spend some time with the Libra acting as preamp for a system as well as a DAC however, and it begins to make more and more sense. The phrase ‘multimedia hub’ is something that has rather fallen out of favour of late – it’s overused and usually attached to a product that fails to deliver on the promise of the term – but the Libra can lay realistic claim to being such a device. If you play to the Libra’s strengths, this is a device that can make a radical difference to a number of different systems.

To Infinity… and Beyond!

The Quattro Infinity DAC used in the Libra and other Leema products, takes its name from the cornerstone of Leema’s philosophy in matters of decoding which is the absolute separation of left and right channels; the ‘Infinity’ part of the name refers to the reduction in crosstalk from the system being effectively infinite. The digital stream is then further processed to produce a plus phase and a minus phase, which is passed through the two sides of each DAC chip so that any common noise is cancelled on reintegration. The process requires a fair amount of decoding horsepower, but Leema is convinced that the process results in worthwhile results.

Technical Description

Product-type: Digital to analogue converter
Analogue Inputs: 3 (configurable as Balanced or Un‑Balanced)
Bluetooth interface: Yes
Headphone Amplifier: Yes
S/PDIF Coaxial Inputs: 3 (24 bit 192kHz & DSD64)
S/PDIF Optical Inputs: 3 (24 bit 192kHz & DSD64)
I2S Inputs: 2 via RJ45 connectors (24 bit 384kHz, DXD, DSD64 & DSD128)
One I2S Input has fully programmable pin allocation
AES/EBU Inputs: 2 via XLR connectors (24 bit 192kHz & DSD64)
Asynchronous USB: Yes (24 bit 384kHz, DXD, DSD64 & DSD128)
USB: Yes (fully asynchronous – Windows & Macintosh)
USB Isolation: Full Galvanic
Dimensions: 440*320*110mm
Weight: 15Kg
Price: £5,995.

Manufactured by: Leema Acoustics

URL: www.leema-acoustics.com

Tel: +44(0)1938 559021

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First Listen – Wilson Audio Alexx floorstanding loudspeaker

In truth, there aren’t many places to hear a top-end loudspeaker in the UK. Very few of the dealers in the country have the space, the budget, or the clientele to handle loudspeakers costing £100,000 or more, and the opportunities to hear such speaker systems in the wild are usually limited to public shows.

The prestigious KJ West One in the heart of the affluent central London area known as Marylebone is a rare exception, and an ideal venue for the first UK outing of the new £103,000 Wilson Audio Alexx. This new top-end loudspeaker from the range – replacing the long-standing MAXX line – is effectively an amalgamation of what Wilson Audio has learned to date, with a few hints of what’s to come with the upcoming WAMM flagship. And, in a way, this is that rare type of loudspeaker that features both ‘trickle up’ and ‘trickle down’ design criteria in almost equal measure: the Alexx learns from the Sabrina and Alexia below it as it does from the Alexandria XLF and WAMM above, but it also brings new improvements of its own.

In basic terms, the Alexx uses a vertical ‘MTM’ (midrange-tweeter-midrange) layout in the loudspeaker’s upper section, although this is not a conventional MTM or D’Appolito geometry. The 25mm soft-dome ‘Convergent Synergy’ tweeter with the latest version of Wilson’s own rear-wave chamber design is flanked by two midrange units; the top model being a 146mm upper-midrange cone used in the Sabrina, the lower a 179mm cone from the Alexandria Series 2 specifically for the lower midrange. The bass cabinet continues this concept, with a both a 267mm and 312mm woofers. The tweeter enclosure is fully sealed, but both midrange units are ported, and the bass cabinet has the option of front or rear porting, using a deceptively simple port cover that doubles up as a logo. This enables the Alexx to fit in far smaller spaces than its predecessors, and makes for a slightly less demanding installation.

The improvements also extend to the adjustments of the upper sections, with micrometer-precision adjustment of the two midrange and tweeter modules. Wilson first used this alignment of the upper modules – which Wilson calls ‘aspherical propagation delay correction’ – in the Alexandria XLF, but the system has been further refined in the Alexx. Wilson suggests this allows for precise alignment of the time-domain with respect to the listener position and room dimensions; the fine-tuning of loudspeaker position is still paramount, but a further level of alignment tuning is possible with the Alexx that is not available with other models. And, because this twin stair-step adjustment is built to lock in place, the loudspeaker – once set in place – retains the rigidity of a fixed speaker design.

Wilson suggests this is a loudspeaker that can work with amplifiers delivering 50W or more, and in the context of the KJ West One demonstration, that figure was ably exceeded thanks to a set of D’Agostino Momentum amps, with Vertere and dCS front ends, a top Audio Research phono stage, Artesania equipment supports, and best-of-breed Transparent Audio cables, this was a slice of true high-end royalty.

KJ’s lower floor demonstration room is possibly best described as ‘challenging’; the ceiling’s too low, the room dimensions are not ideal, and often sounds best with its large sliding wooden doors opened and the listeners sitting in from the next room. As a consequence, many good loudspeakers showcased in that room have not quite lived up to potential. They have often sounded good, but they can sound a lot better in a more appropriate environment (like the owner’s listening room).

The Wilson Alexx, however, lived up to a lot more potential than most, making a sound that gave a true sense of what a seriously good loudspeaker can sound like. This is possibly because the loudspeaker manages to combine the finesse needed to tease out those subtle micro-dynamic cues taking place in a recording, while simultaneously being able to unleash the dogs of aural war. You quickly learn on an almost atavistic level just how important that is in reality – an orchestra playing fff is an extremely loud sound up close, but within that powerful maelstrom of sound, you are capable of taking in some remarkably quiet nuances taking place at the same time: like hearing the keys of a woodwind instrument clicking and clacking even in the midst of some very dynamic – and very loud – playing. This comes entirely naturally in the real world, yet is almost always compromised to some extent in the audio domain. The Alexx is one of those rare loudspeakers that can do both, and both extraordinarily well.

Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio is a consummate demonstrator, especially as he often uses his own outstanding recordings. He flew over to help install and introduce the Alexx, and played a combination of some of his latest recordings and both file-based and CD-based commercial tracks to an invited audience of the media and prospective customers. Peter played a recording of Haydn’s Nelson Mass that would have sounded wonderful on a clock radio, but through the Alexx made me want to join the Navy… of 200 years ago. And passages of powerful electronica bass – such as ‘Electrified’ by Boris Blank (Yello, anyone?) – had such energy and motive force, people jumped when the bass kicked in.

The Alexx is kind of ‘Sabrina Big’, if you like – all the things the Sabrina does with music sometimes get lost in the drive to deliver more linearity, more transparency, and more detail. Alexx demonstrates that there needn’t be a trade-off, and manages to bring greater bandwidth, power handling, dynamics, detail, and transparency to the table, yet does so without pushing the inherent enjoyment of the Sabrina out of the equation. This is the kind of loudspeaker you can use to play beautifully recorded subtle acoustic tracks to your audiophile buddies one week, and enjoy a full-on AC/DC thrash with your beer-and-BBQ friends the next, and get a lot out of both listening sessions. The impressive thing is it did all that in a room that was not giving the Alexx free rein to show what it can really do.

I’ve heard tales of when the Alexx was playing at its very best, with an almost identical system in another store in America. Music was played, tears flowed, more music was played.

I can believe that about the Wilson Alexx. It’s that good!

ELAC Debut B5 standmount loudspeaker

It may not have escaped your attention that high-end audio has gone slightly mental. The desire to listen to recorded music in the home has been with us for a long, long time now but some of the equipment being made is pitched at insane prices: one hundred thousand pound plus amplifiers, huge speakers with similar price tags, jewellery-adorned, exotic cabling.

Who would have thought that a company like Naim Audio, for example, would release an pre/power amplifier costing way above £100k during the same period where they announced the Muso, a fantastic and affordable music machine, at under £1k, for the home that is of excellent quality and multi-faceted in its ability and appeal. Why, it’s market forces, dear boy.

The very idea that one could buy a really interesting pair of speakers for £250 seems like wishful thinking, especially given the economies of scale required and the paucity of suitable quality drivers that have found their way into such low-cost designs for years. But Andrew Jones has different ideas. Andrew, who did such great work for KEF before moving on to Pioneer/TAD and now ELAC, has taken full advantage of modern driver technology and mass produced manufacturing costs to produce a range of speakers for that most venerable of German audio companies. These ELAC speakers are making a lot of people sit up and take note of what can be achieved by understanding where to make the inevitable and often savage compromises with such low-cost designs.

He started off with the drivers and these are the B5’s strongest weapon in the armoury. It uses a woven cone of Aramid (heat resistant, strong synthetic fibres often found in body armour) and a 38mm voice coil with plenty of venting around the cone. This would certainly help dissipate heat build up in the magnet assembly. The 135mm driver is capable of very decent power handling while the all-important tweeter is a 25mm cloth dome with what is called a “deep steroid wave guide”, which is fortunately completely free from ‘roid rage. From the outside it looks like it is mounted within the throat of a moulded horn. As far as traditional low‑cost speakers go, the tweeter was invariably the limiting factor and have disappointed for years.

The medite cabinets are interesting in that there is no internal bracing or internal wadding, designed to damp the cabinets internally at all. Rap them with your knuckles and you will hear a rather hollow ring but, if you judge their potential with that blow alone, then you are going to be in for a surprise. Andrew knows, better than anyone, that the cabinet especially at this level, is another whole load of compromises but the fact that he hasn’t damped the lively little cabinets to death inside goes a long way toward their remarkable sound quality I think. Seems like the only cabinet treatment is the entirely predictable wood-grain vinyl wrap which is certainly boring, but inevitable. At the rear is a plastic insert flared port of substantial diameter to ease the airflow and a pair of decent 4mm/screw down connectors mounted straight onto the plate that houses the crossover internally. Personally I wish these connectors had been vertical instead of at an angle as it would have made connections with some thicker cables a little easier. There is a detachable two-piece grille with a full frontal lightweight grid and the drivers themselves are covered in grilles, too. I would suggest some experimentation with the grilles both on and off. I appreciate that they are designed with a specific acoustic purpose.

So, a small speaker then, the B5 translates as a bookshelf speaker with 135mm bass/mid driver while the F prefix on larger models in the range indicates a floor-stander with the following number describing the main driver size. Over in the US they call small speakers ‘bookshelf’ though we tend to think of them as standmounts, which of course means that you are going to need a pair to support them. I would love to say that any stand will do but, in all honesty, I can’t. Conventional wisdom seems to be that small speakers need a massively heavy stand, filled with sand, lead shot, or some equally weighty but inert substance. Over the years I have found few speakers, at any price, that have responded to this theory as well as they have to lightweight, low mass designs. I did try the B5 on a pair of ancient behemoth supports, but got a far better result by using an old pair of the superb Quadraspire acrylic designs that had done excellent work over the years with plenty of the smaller Focal speakers. On these the B5 was far livelier, faster, sharper, and more precise I thought, whereas they were considerably more ponderous on the heavy-duty designs. Just a thought but the ‘right’ stand does bring considerable musical benefits.

I pressed an older Moon amplifier and CD player into action and hooked the whole system up with some basic Chord Company cables, although I confess that I had a lot of fun with them sitting at the end of the Berning QZ amplifiers and the dCS Vivaldi: unrealistic, but informative.

I was impressed from the first few tracks. After a couple of hours of the system warming through I was a few steps from being amazed. Firstly, they have an excellent tonal balance and this is helped no end by that tweeter and its mounting arrangement. There was no harshness, no edgy over-compressive bite at all. In fact, the whole top end was rather breathy and superbly textured. This was balanced off with extension down in the bass coupled with very decent control with quite a bit of ‘punch’ and stop/start drama. Pulling them into the room broadened the musical picture out of the boxes somewhat but I preferred them closer to the back wall for that extra sense of body and weight. The music flowed through these little speakers with an eloquence that was more than surprising and although they are not the most efficient at 85dB, the Moon amp has enough presence and can swing decent dynamics, to which the ELACs respond willingly. But it was the subtlety of the tweeter that was most impressive during those early days. What it lacks in ultimate HF extension it more than compensates for with the sheer colour and texture it breathes into the room. It really does make listening to the B5 for lengthy periods a lot easier.

Push them further and further power-wise and there is a little confusion that builds up as the bass begins to trip over itself a little. Is this the lack of internal damping kicking in? I am not sure but it was at levels that I would be unlikely to listen at so it’s a moot point for me. The lively nature and speed though is something else and so is the musical subtlety. This is not a speaker that does any one thing to the detriment of others. It is happy playing softly too.

Over the course of my time with them I continually forgot that they were so incredibly cheap. In fact nobody who heard them could believe it either. There’s a lot to be said for an audio system that just gets on with it and this was certainly it. Drum ‘n bass, massed violins, female vocal, acoustic, electronic? The B5s walked through any task I set them. The longer I used them, the looser the whole set-up got. Those drivers really have been the breakthroughs that have set this new ELAC range on the way. They are superb and the way they have been integrated into that plain little cabinet is quite remarkable.

When writing a review like this or indeed listening to them sat at the end of a system, it is tempting to continually refer to their very low price. In a word, they are great little speakers. I recommend that you grab a listen to them and perhaps they will find their way into first systems for any number of younger people for whom MP3 and headphones is the usual listening method. They are a genuinely exciting little speaker regardless of their price and I wish them all the best because I found my time with them was musically interesting, but mostly refreshing. Very highly recommended!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Two-way stand-mount speaker with bass reflex port.
Driver complement: One 135mm woven aramid fibre cone with oversized magnet and vented pole piece. One 25mm cloth dome unit with custom deep spheroid waveguide.
Freq. response: 46Hz-20kHz
Crossover Freq: 3kHz
Impedance: 6 ohms nominal
Sensitivity: 85dB
Dimensions (H×W×D): 324×200×222mm
Weight: 5.2kg each (unpackaged)
Price: £250 per pair

Manufactured by: ELAC GmbH

URL: www.elac.com

Distributed by: Hi-Fi Network

URL: www.hifi-network.com

Tel: +44 (0)1285 643088

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The Bespoke Audio Company passive magnetic preamplifier

The process of reviewing audio equipment is well documented. In some respects, it’s all about the bit before the review, which could be likened to a dating agency. As the reviewer is going to live with the component for several weeks or even months, it’s important to make sure the two are compatible with one another. That said, some of us are more flexible and learn how to get into the ears of the typical listener who would like the device under test.

All of this goes out of the window when dealing with a product like the Bespoke Audio preamplifier, because there is no typical listener. The clue is in the name: each Bespoke Audio preamplifier is made for the customer to their individual requirements.

Bespoke Audio builds preamplifiers using custom in-house wound multi-tapped and shielded attenuation transformers, built to your specifications to match the gain structure of your system, should you so wish. The same applies to the number and type of inputs and outputs, the choice of wiring (Jupiter Condenser Company case wire as standard) whether you want a remote control, and, of course, colour scheme. A notional specification sheet exists, but is subject to a major amount of negotiation. As is, understandably, the price: if you want your preamplifier made from platinum, unicorn eyelashes, and the ground-up skulls of your vanquished enemies, it’s going to cost more than the standard product price.

There really is something of the Savile Row suit about the process. The first consultation is a discussion of your needs and wants, a design is agreed upon and then the Bespoke Audio people begin the process of construction. From first concept to final product typically takes about five weeks, but Bespoke keeps the customer in the loop with weekly email bulletins, complete with photographs of your preamplifier in its various stages of build. These build-up images give you an idea of just how seriously Bespoke Audio takes its job – there is a lot of wiring in a preamp like the Bespoke, because you are taking individual taps from each set of resistors on each step of the attenuator. Opening up such a design can look like you happened upon an abandoned bird’s nest. Not in the Bespoke Audio, though; cables are carefully dressed, wrapped and laid out with the precision of a military parade. This is not necessarily something that in any way changes the sound of the product and in most cases is not something the end user will ever actually see, but that doesn’t matter. It’s done because it’s the right way to do it. It’s the Rolls-Royce ethos.

A couple of weeks before your product arrives, you receive the Bespoke key, a fine-chromed round tool matching the brightwork you chose arrives in the post, in a little velvet bag. Your name and your product’s serial number are etched into the key. This really is your preamplifier.

Finally, a flight case arrives, complete with your product in a velvet drawstring bag and the inevitable white gloves. If you opted for a remote, your remote sits under the preamplifier. At the time of receiving our sample, the remote was a humble Apple device, which is surprisingly effective, but not really ‘bespoke’ in the sense of the rest of the product. That is set to change soon, and get the handbuilt treatment. This will possibly have to be slightly less bespoke in nature, because people can come up with fairly wild ideas when it comes to remote handsets, and there will be a lot of Star Trek Phasers and oddly contoured products if left to people’s imagination. I suspect instead the Bespoke Audio remote will have a similarly solid, squared off design.

Accompanying the preamplifier is the most comprehensive set of materials I’ve seen supplied with a product. Yes, there’s the instructions of course, but there’s also basically a welcome pack of details about the preamplifier, including its specific measurements, who in the company built your preamplifier (although as that currently means Lucy Gastall and Harry O’Sullivan, because they represent the complete Bespoke Audio team, there aren’t many alternatives), and so on.

We always try to handle our products with care, because you don’t want to be the first in the country with a product only to break it in the first hour and have to fess up that you just put the review back an issue or two. But here, the need to handle the product with kid gloves was off the charts. This wasn’t loan stock, it wasn’t a review sample… it was someone’s pride and joy, graciously loaned to us for the duration of the listening test. This person’s pride and joy was matt black all over, with chrome plated rings around the source selection and volume level knobs, and the two trim rings on the top plate. And the lucky sod had specified model number ‘007’. The inputs and outputs (a mix of Neutrik balanced and WBT single-ended for both) had legends etched into the black anodised aluminium rear panel – not the easiest thing to read, but 11/10 for understated elegance. There was a little ground lift switch, should you get hum (it happens with passive products).

You know you are in the presence of something made for you at the first turn of a knob. The level of resistance to your touch, the feeling of absolute solidity, the way things just move in a purposeful way all adds up to the kind of experience most people never get. There are no blemishes in the finish (you don’t expect them in good products), but I’ve seen made-for-photography mock-ups built at phenomenal expense that aren’t as well finished as this. Once again, it’s back to the stitch-perfect suits from Savile Row, or – perhaps more appropriate given the engineering angle – the absolute perfection of a brace of Purdey shotguns. The only problem with this is it makes almost every other product in the rack look a little shabby. This is probably not as big an issue because the price of admission to the Bespoke Audio club means the products it is likely to partner are of similarly high standard, but this kind of build is significantly better than a lot of good audio components that cost considerably more.

Sound quality here is actually well-documented; just read any review of a really good passive preamplifier. It’s extremely transparent to source because there is nothing active between source and power amplifier. There are no additions, commissions, omissions, or transgressions – it simply gets out of the way. This is not a subtle thing, however; if you’ve heard what a preamp that doesn’t colour the sound on the way through, it’s hard to go back to active line stages because it makes the vast majority of them sound a little ‘shut in’ and uneven in the higher frequencies.

Passive preamplifiers have seen something of a minor renaissance because the best ones don’t suffer signal attenuation over cable length, and the Bespoke Audio is one of the best ones. You can run this with sensible lengths of interconnect cable and not experience any high frequency roll off. Instead, you just get the sonic goods.

There’s a sub-set of audio owners who seem to object to their luxury goods being luxurious. They seem to resent the idea that a product that might cost £1,000 in a tin box can cost 10x as much because it’s built to an unparalleled level. We should all make do with the tin box goes the logic, because everything else is frivolous. And if that’s the case then the Bespoke Audio should make them boil over with angst. Or maybe jealousy. But, here’s the thing: alongside that vocal group, there are people who think in a diametrically opposite way: “What’s wrong with a little luxury? I’ve earned it. I deserve it. And a preamplifier made exclusively for me is still a hell of a lot cheaper than a Porsche 911, and has the advantage of not making me look like a complete bell-end when trying to use it.”

Personally, I love the idea of having a preamplifier made for me, even if it’s something I cannot afford at this time. It’s the ultimate in audio self-expression, a statement of audiophile intent up there with getting your turntable tattooed on your chest (but not as painful, or as insane). If you are looking for a bargain, keep looking. But if you are looking for the last preamplifier you’ll ever buy, the Bespoke Audio has got your name on it… literally!

Technical Specifications

Type: Custom made transformer passive line preamplifier
All specifications subject to client’s demands and wishes. As tested:
Inputs: 3× XLR stereo pair, 3× RCA stereo pair
Outputs: 1× XLR stereo pair, 3× RCA stereo pair
Auxiliary Input/Output: One
Signal attenuation: 46 discrete steps over a 67.5dB range in 1.5dB increments
Optional remote control
Extensive range of finish options and colours
Dimensions (H×W×D): 11×30.5×34.5cm
Weight: 14kg
Price: from £9,000

Manufactured by: The Bespoke Audio Company

URL: www.thebespokeaudiocompany.com

Tel: +44(0)1424 756471

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Scansonic M-6 BTL Bluetooth-enabled loudspeaker

It’s important to get the name absolutely correct; it’s a Scansonic M-6 BTL, not a Scansonic M6. The problem is the company makes so many audio products sometimes names blur into one another, and while the M6 is an iDock, the M-6 BTL is a two-and-a-half way active tower loudspeaker with wired digital and aptX Bluetooth wireless audio connections.

The M-6 TTL is a slimline tower loudspeaker, for all the world like any other slimline tower at first glance, save for a little LED and an inset into the top panel of the left loudspeaker. At the rear, one speaker has a small amplifier stage built into it, while the right slaves to the left through a single speaker cable. The normal scheme with a loudspeaker of this kind of price and expectation might be to use them with a Class D amplifier design, but that’s not how Scansonic works. Instead, the master speaker sports a 2x 60W Class AB amplifier. The system also comes with a learning remote control.

Theoretically, you could use the M-6 BTL as a digital and analogue preamplifier too, as it comes with both an analogue pair of RCA phonos, plus electrical and optical S/PDIF connections. Although these might look a little odd connecting into a loudspeaker, the main goal here is probably to use the speakers with TV equipment, rather than audio electronics per se, and in that respect the rear panel is a useful addition. To some audiophiles though the next few words are a virtual declaration of war, but I suspect most music lovers will be playing through Bluetooth.

The slim, front-ported M-6 BTL has some obvious design similarities with other products in the Scansonic family, and a broad family resemblance to Raidho designs. In particular, that sealed kapton/aluminium sandwich ribbon tweeter has a lot in common with the larger versions found in some really expensive Danish loudspeakers from the same company. The pair of paper-polypropylene composite mid-bass units differ from the extremely expensive units in Raidho models, because the cost of a couple of those Raidho drivers is more than the cost of a pair of M-6 BTL.

This is the kind of product that simply wouldn’t have existed at the turn of the century, because the technology simply didn’t exist to make it work. As little as five years ago, although the technology existed, the impetus wasn’t there because audio’s old guard thought such things an abomination. Gradually, inexorably, things have changed and products like the M-6 BTL are now beginning to take their place as true ‘next gen’ audio products. We welcome the disruption such products cause, because disruptive products like this create a wider, more receptive place where audio can grow. However, that doesn’t give the Scansonic a free pass – it still has to perform as a good audio product in its own right.

There are a series of tests a ‘next gen’ product like the M-6 BTL needs to pass. The first is fairly simple – does it work? The next is more subjective – could you live with it, or could you live with yourself if you recommended this product to a close friend or family member? The next is the real acid test, though. It’s the ‘desert island’ question – if you were stranded on a desert island with only the Scansonics for your music replay, would that music become a constant companion, or a constant reminder of what you once had? I think the Scansonic system passes all these tests with great ease.

The ‘does it work’ test is fascinating, as it exposes just how much we actually lose – as opposed to how much we think we lose – when moving to Bluetooth. Running aptX from a MacBook meant we could stream lossless AAC files without a problem, and with minimal slight of hand, such tests are easy to fake, so no-one knows whether the music is playing wired or wirelessly. The change from wired to Bluetooth is noticeable, if you are listening and comparing critically – the Bluetooth system is more hard-edged and ‘shiny’ sounding – but a drink or two later, or otherwise similarly free from your intense critical scrutiny, the Bluetooth connection is ‘effectively’ transparent to source.

In fact, once you get past the ‘must investigate’ stage, these are thoroughly great speakers to live with. I went through everything from Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ [Fiedler, Boston Pops Orchestra, Living Stereo] to the post rock thrashy ‘Attack Formation’ from the album Fine Lines by The Rock of Travolta [Big Red Sky] and little phased the loudspeakers. OK, there’s an upper and a lower limit to the sound level (too little and the bass gets indistinct and the treble soft; too much and the upper midrange dominates), and throwing the full dynamic might of the orchestra at high levels shows the limits of the system fairly quickly.

For what is basically a relatively small-scale tower system, the M-6 BTL throws out a really big soundstage, with plenty of depth and width, but not much height. These is an excellent sense of scale, too; this system doesn’t increase or decrease that scale depending on the music played, and it tends to make everything just seem big, but on the other hand, that does make music sound impressive, something few similar systems manage! In fairness, the Naim Mu-so has a similarly impressive sound, but the M-6 BTL is more conventionally impressive, and produces a far more realistic sense of soundstage. In fact, the level of precision within that soundstage shows the quality of this system in absolute terms. You could replicate the same performance with individual boxes, but I doubt you would be able to do the same for anything like the M-6 BTL’s asking price.

You quickly realise that the limitations of the system are more to do with the basic physical constraints of a loudspeaker of the size and price of the M-6 BTL rather than some intrinsic property of the Bluetooth system. Wretch 32’s grime hit ‘Traktor’ from Black And White [Ministry of Sound] shows where the Scansonics sing, and where they hit their limits. The normally sat on lyrics are clear and distinct, but the drone bass gets a little too unrelenting. On the other hand, aggressively compressed tracks like ‘Invincible’ by Muse [Black Holes & Revelations, Warner] are softened slightly and become more listenable in the process.

‘Giorgio by Moroder’ from Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories [Columbia] shows how good the speakers are at voices. Too many systems just make his voice sound like Arnold Schwartzenegger, but this retains the high frequency component, making him seem more like Giorgio Moroder. And perhaps more importantly, the M-6 BTL makes that rhythm deeply infectious – your foot will tap, no matter how often you might have heard the recording beforehand.

Yes, there is some slight lead-footedness to the bass at times. A fine example of this was the double-tracked bass on ‘New Birds’ by Arab Strap [Philophobia, Matador], which has slight over emphasis, pushing the vocals into dry, distinct, and forward territory. A better system – one that perhaps separates the components into their individual form – would undoubtedly play this track with less obvious emphasis.

But this is missing the point almost entirely. This is what tomorrow’s everyman system should be like; room filling, dynamic, entertaining, affordable, and unassuming. These loudspeakers don’t entrance the listener in quite the same way the Raidho models can (in part because the M-6 BTL doesn’t have the same natural rhythm), but they are great sounding and especially great for the money. Would I sell this to my grandmother? That might be difficult because I’m fresh out of grandmothers, but I’d happily give this system to a loved one. And, unless they were already an audio enthusiast with their own preconceived notions of what is and what isn’t good, they’d love it too! In fact, my biggest criticism of this system is my typing: I keep writing ‘BLT’ instead of ‘BTL’ and it’s making me hungry!

I guess the point here is my first draft of this review discussed ‘the loudspeakers’ and it quickly turned into ‘the system’, because that’s what the Scansonic M-6 BTL is; it’s a complete system, just add phone or laptop! And it’s a very real, very credible system, too; not simply something that is good in spite of using Bluetooth. The audio world is undergoing great change and products like this spearhead that change.

Technical Specifications

Type: 2.5 way active loudspeaker with audio connections

Inputs: 2.4GHz aptX, one Toslink optical inputs, two RCA PCM inputs

Amplification: 60 W Class A-B

Drive units: 1 sealed ribbon tweeter with kapton/aluminium sandwich membrane, two paper-polypropylene coned 114mm bass/mid driver with underhung magnet system

Enclosure: Heavily braced, ventilated box design with front loaded port

Freq. response: 50 Hz–30 kHz

Impedance: > 4 ohm

Crossover: 3.5 KHz – 2. order acoustic slope 300 Hz – 1. order

Finish: Black-piano or White-piano

Size (W×H×D): 15 × 90 × 20cm

Weight: 17.8 kg

Price: £1,199 per pair

Manufactured by: Scansonic

URL: www.scansonic.dk

Distributed in the UK by: Decent Audio

URL: www.decentaudio.co.uk

Tel: +44(0)5602 054669

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Cardas Audio A8 earphones

This is Cardas’s second run at making an earphone (or as Cardas puts it with some justification, an ‘ear speaker’): the first being the ‘mostly excellent’ EM5813. The A8 is a very different prospect, however.

What it shares with its older brother is the ‘ear speaker’ concept. The single, full range driver is designed essentially like a tweeter in a conventional loudspeaker, replacing the pole piece in the driver with a second magnet to reduce eddy currents. There have been some developments in the intervening years too, and not just in the move from an 11mm to a 10.85mm diaphragm. Cardas refers to this new driver as an Ultra Linear, Contour Field, Dual Magnet driver system.

Although both enclosures are made from brass and share a similar basic layout, the big external difference between the two models is the older design was copper plated, while the A8 has a blue rubberised ABS coating. The other big – make that huge – difference is in the choice of cable. The new tightly braided blue fabric-wrapped copper 85cm long cable is extremely strong, extremely flexible, and almost immune from conduction noise. This cable is not part of the Clear range (as its sourced in China alongside the rest of the A8, rather than extruded from Cardas own forge in Oregon) is nonetheless working to the Golden Ratio so important to Cardas and is wound in a helix pattern. The big advantage is the cable connects to the headphone pair in a 3.5mm jack, like full sized headphones. This makes it very easy to swap cables, between a regular audio system and the two-jack balanced inputs for the Ayre Codex, A&K, or Pono. Theoretically at least, other connections could be possible. The A8 comes in a nice presentation box, which includes a small hard carry case and not enough ear tips; just a set of small, medium, and large triple-flange tips. Replacement triple-flange tips and Comply foam tips are available, though.

Earphones are inherently designed for music on the move. They need to be snug fitting to drown out the world around the listener, and have no tendency to fall out on the go. They need to be efficient and forgiving, because they will probably end up connected directly to a smartphone and all that implies. And they need to be fun, or you will simply forget them and leave them somewhere. Fortunately, the A8 does all these things, and does them well – better than its predecessor.

The A8 is one of the most direct, most grain-free performances you’ll find this side of a custom IEM. You can listen to the purest voices you can think of – Maddy Prior and June Tabor’s delicate Silly Sisters harmonies, for example – and any reduction in the purity of the voice comes down to the microphone, not the other transducer.

Bass is perhaps the A8’s strongest suit. Not in the Beats more bass than you can stand style, but honest, deep, meaty bass that is at once precise, tuneful, and harmonically rich. It’s more Ernest Ranglin than Deadmaus, in that it plays Ranglin’s Surfin’ [Below The Bassline, Island] with a perfect – and correct – blend of jazzy reggae basslines, never once tipping over too far in either direction. It’s fast bass, too; in fact the whole earphone starts and stops extremely quickly, and in Pace Rhythm & Timing terms the A8 ‘plays a tune’.

Alongside the deep bass, there’s a subtle, sophisticated midrange, more about detail and honesty than fireworks and energy, and a top end that occupies the Goldilocks position of being not too bright, not too rolled-off… just right! Under a lot of comparison listening – especially against known custom in-ear benchmarks – there is a subtle accenting of upper bass and lower treble, but this seems to just add to the enjoyment factor of the A8s overall performance.

But breaking the sound up into individual components – although great for audio reviewing, runs counter to what the A8 actually sounds like. It’s an extremely coherent, integrated sound, which always makes you think of instruments being played rather than a collection of frequency bands. This applies universally, but also works at volume. If it works with ‘Statesboro Blues’ from At Filmore East by The Allman Brothers Band [Mercury] played at a fair lick, and it works just as well with string quartets, and orchestras alike, it’s clear the A8’s top-to-toe coherence is something special, irrespective of price tag.

Perhaps as a result, the Cardas A8s are deeply satisfying for long listening sessions, and that’s something very few earphones can do. This is perhaps the ultimate arbiter of the quality of the Cardas A8; the the A8’s ability to just plug into the music and stay there perhaps best describes of a set of earphones that are simply enjoyable to listen to. I long-hauled it with the A8s, using my own music and the in-flight entertainment and I never felt the need to remove them, except for feeding time (I tried once without removing the A8’s thinking I could get away with “I’ll have the chicken, please!”, but the flight attendant was handing out ice creams at the time).

The A8s have become my first choice for commuting. That cable is so incredibly rugged it feels like it should be wrapped around the shoulder of a mountaineer. The earphones themselves are efficient enough to work with a smartphone, but are more than deserving of higher grades of DAC and headphone amp, and they sound great with the Chord Mojo, too.

More importantly, the Cardas A8 is a great value earphone for those who’ve grown out of boom and tizz. You’ll need to shop around for better tips if you want to know just how good these earphones are (especially in the bass), but draft in the right tips for you and you are rewarded with a sound that will make you wish your morning commute was longer. Highly recommended!

Product Details

Price: £279

Optional cable price: £49

Manufactured by: Cardas Audio

URL: www.cardasaudio.com

Distributed by: Audiofreaks

Tel: +44(0) 208 948 4153

URL: www.audiofreaks.co.uk

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WIN a stunning Synergistic Research Atmosphere Level 2 power cord worth $1,995!

Hi-Fi+ has teamed up with US audio enhancement pioneers Synergistic Research to bring you the latest in its power cord technology, Atmosphere. Synergistic Research has developed ground-breaking actively shielded cables for years, creating an electronic barrier through which no radio frequency interference can penetrate, but the technology required multiple shielding cables and an external power supply, which put the concept out of reach to many, until now.

Synergistic Research’s new power cords, developed under the Atmosphere banner, feature three grades of increasingly sophisticated shielding technology, from the passive Level 1 right up to the Level 3 designs, which are custom shielded for their specific task.

We’ve picked out an Atmosphere Level 2 power cord to highlight what Synergistic Research is achieving, because the end user need not specify the particular use of the cable.

However, the Atmosphere Level 2 power cord features the company’s active shield biasing, plus a UEF (Uniform Energy Field) conditioner, all built into the California made power cord. One lucky winner will discover just how important

active shielding is to their power thanks to our outstanding competition prize.

Competition Question

What does UEF stand for?

A. Unified Epicyclic Factor

B. Universal Energy Focus

C. Uniform Energy Field

To answer, please visit Synergistic Research’s dedicated competition page http://www.synergisticresearch.com/hifi-giveaway-enter-now/ Alternatively, send your answer on a postcard (including your name, address, and contact details) to Synergistic Research Competition,

Synergistic Research Inc.

17401 Armstrong Ave.,

Suite 102,

Irvine,

CA 92614,

USA.

The competition closes on August 4th 2016.

Competition Rules

The competition will run from June 2nd 2016 until August 4th 2016. The competition is open to entries from around the world, but multiple, automated, or bulk entries will be disqualified. The winner will be chosen at random from all valid entries, will be contacted via email (where possible), and their name will be published in the magazine. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Absolute Multimedia (UK) Ltd. is compliant with the Data Protection Act and UK laws apply. Our policy is such that we will not pass on your details to any third party without your prior consent.

WIN! A multi award-winning Plato media system from Entotem, worth up to £3,300!

UK manufacturer Entotem, has offered a Plato media system worth up to £3,300 for a lucky Hi-Fi+ reader to win in our exclusive competition. The Plato media system is a music and video server/streamer, with an integrated amplifier and built in MM/MC phono stage. This enables users to effortlessly record and archive their LPs, CDs and cassette tapes into high-resolution 24bit/192kHz to its internal 2TB hard drive. Gracenote lookup integration provides fully automated tagging of album artwork and track data.

Hi-Fi+ expert Jason Kennedy reviewed the Plato media system in issue 131 and concluded, “The sheer flexibility of Plato is remarkable, and its use of the Android platform is genuinely ground breaking in the audio field.”…as one lucky winner will soon find out!

Entotem Ltd is a high technology hi-fi and home entertainment manufacturer based in Derby with R&D facilities in Newbury, Berkshire. Entotem’s award winning product Plato, is manufactured exclusively in the UK and offers an full ‘All in One’ audio/video solution. Powered by a bespoke Android OS, your digital music and imported video collections can be streamed to other connected devices on a home network, and to multiple rooms simultaneously.

Competition Question

What is the capacity of the on-board hard drive of the full Plato unit?

A. 2GB

B. 2TB

C. 2MB

To answer, please visit Entotem’s dedicated competition page http://www.platoentertainment.com/hifi-competition Alternatively, send your answer on a postcard (including your name, address, and contact details) to Plato Competition, Entotem, Suite 3, Acorn Place, Alfreton Road, Derby, DE21 4AS. The competition closes on July, 7th 2016.

Competition Rules

The competition will run from June, 2nd 2016 until July, 7th 2016. The competition is open to UK residents only. Multiple, automated or bulk entries will be disqualified. The winner will be chosen at random from all valid entries, and will be contacted via email (where possible), and their name will be published in the magazine. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Absolute Multimedia (UK) Ltd. is compliant with the Data Protection Act and UK laws apply. Our policy is such that we will not pass on your details to any third party without your prior consent.

*The lucky winner can choose from a Plato (with the amplifier), Plato Pre or Plato Lite – whatever suits their requirements and can decide the paint finish – either Satin or High Gloss.

Vertex AQ Aneto DC Offset blocker

A company like Vertex AQ has so many entry-points on its ‘Systematic Approach’ pathway that sometimes it’s difficult to know precisely where to start. However, in systems with a specific hum or buzzing issue, that problem is resolved – start here, with the Aneto DC Offset blockers.

Here’s why: alternating current is sinusoidal in nature, and should be symmetrical around 0V. That’s the theory: in reality many alternating current supplies are not symmetrical and you might find AC cycling between +242V and -238V. This is called DC offset, and it is directly audible in many audio systems; usually as a buzzing transformer, but in very extreme cases you can hear clicks and pops through the loudspeakers. There are two ways of fixing a buzzing transformer vibrating the top of your electronics; hitting it with a hammer blow from your fist (or a rubber mallet), or using some kind of DC offset blocker. The fist-based version is cheaper, but usually fairly pointless (the humming returns quickly). A DC offset blocker is usually the best option.

Vertex AQ brings more than just DC offset blocking to the Aneto models, of course. The three models – Standard, Silver, and Hi-Rez – all include a built‑in Jaya filter circuit in shunt configuration and an acoustic labyrinth of the same grade, so in addition to the blocking benefits, you begin down the Vertex AQ rabbit hole, bringing a double bonus to the party (triple in the case of the Hi-Rez, thanks to its passive EMI absorption). We tested the Silver and Hi-Rez models.

Vertex AQ recommends using one Aneto per product, although I’d argue that – if your distribution block has an IEC input, one between the outlet in the wall and the distribution block will suffice. You could also argue that one per humming product is sufficient too, however this does not factor for the Jaya filter effect and for that you will find an individuated application will pay dividends and using one per device performs best. If you are doing this in stages, start with the noise-maker device.

A good DC blocker should do nothing in places where it isn’t needed, and perform minor miracles in the places it is demanded. It should get out of the way sonically, and simply lower the noise floor when called for. The Aneto does just that; dropping the ambient noise floor by ridding the system of specific mains buzzes and hums. However, the Aneto also helps lower the noise floor of the product to which it’s connected. The DC blocking effect doesn’t seem dependent on the grade of performance of the Aneto – the Silver and Hi-Rez both cut ambient and lowered system self-noise in about equal levels. Where the two differ is the mains filtration effects, which take a little longer to realise for yourself.

And it’s this slow realisation after the immediate effect of the DC blocking that might just make the Aneto the gateway to Vertex AQ’s deeper concepts on RF, EMI, and resonance control. The product gets quieter, but then a day or two later, it begins to sound more coherent and focused as the filter begins to take effect. This effect also improves between Silver and Hi-Rez.

Vertex AQ’s Aneto gets a reserved recommendation because there will be many for whom its DC offset blocking benefits are unnecessary. But for those who need to get rid of some noise, the Aneto not only works well, but it has an added ‘Systematic’ bonus, too. At which point, recommendation is near mandatory!

Product details

Vertex AQ Aneto DC blocker

Standard: £630
Silver: £998
Hi-Rez: £1,493

Manufactured by: Vertex AQ

URL: www.vertexaq.com

Tel: +44 (0)1597 825993

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Graham Audio LS3/5 standmount loudspeaker

Once upon a time, the BBC conducted a study aimed at predicting the acoustic properties of studios, and to help with this it constructed an 1/8 scale model of its large Maida Vale studio. A shortage of 1/8 scale musicians to fill this model necessitated a loudspeaker be used to simulate the appropriately-scaled acoustic output. Existing studio monitor designs were too big, so a miniature design using a 110mm bextrene-coned main driver in a five-litre cabinet was developed. The end result was the LS3/5, a design expected to have useful output from around 400Hz upwards; in the event, output extended from around 100Hz, and the design was quickly also pressed into service as a speech-monitoring loudspeaker for use in confined spaces, typically the control rooms in outside broadcast vans. Around 20 pairs were built before the driver manufacturer, KEF, changed the specification of the 110mm unit, necessitating a redesign of the LS3/5, dubbed the LS3/5a. The LS3/5a was also taken up by the audio community, largely due to its notable lack of coloration in the crucial midrange, something many other contemporary designs couldn’t live up to.

We need speak no more of this later design; pretty much all that needs saying, and plenty that doesn’t, has already been said.

The LS3/5 is therefore something of a rarity, an ur-LS3/5a known only to a few, until now. Graham Audio however, has recreated the LS3/5, sourcing a new, 110mm bextrene-coned, main driver made by Volt to Graham’s specification and designed to be as close as possible to the original spec of the initial KEF driver. Modern production methods have meant that this driver is far more consistent from sample to sample than the originals, which had a high reject rate at the time. A new tweeter was also sourced, and the crossover tweaked to recreate the LS3/5’s frequency response (which was somewhat flatter than the LS3/5a) as closely as possible. The BBC design principle of using a thin-walled, plywood cabinet, damped to control resonances, has also been carefully followed and the review samples are impeccably finished in a light cherry veneer.

The context above is important, because I don’t think I can review this loudspeaker as an audio product as it’s also so much an historical artefact. This is, at least in part, because Graham Audio’s designer, Derek Hughes (son of Spencer, who participated in the BBC study, and the design of the original) confirmed that they saw little point in joining the ranks of those producing LS3/5a clones, and instead have sought out the particular niche which the LS3/5 will doubtless carve out for itself. Almost as if to emphasise this, Graham Audio recently purchased the long-lost Chartwell brand name. Chartwell was an early manufacturer of BBC designs and its loudspeakers are highly sought after by collectors. Graham Audio plans to use the Chartwell name on LS3/5 designs, to further cement that link with the BBC’s past.

All of which makes it hard to assess the performance of the LS3/5 in context, because there is at once no context and too much context to deal with. Practically no-one has logged time with the LS3/5, so there’s the academic interest of comparing it with the LS3/5a that replaced it. And then there’s cross-referencing it with a surviving LS3/5, a task that is all but impossible. There’s even setting it in among modern designs. As a result, the LS3/5 invites more questions as you investigate it. Is it simply a museum piece? Is it a collector’s item? The more you think about the loudspeaker, the more your head spins about its provenance. In a way, the closest analogy to the LS3/5 is the recreation of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine in London’s Science Museum. Babbage drew plans to build his mechanical computer in mid 19th Century, but it remained as just plans until 1991. Is this the real thing?

Ultimately though, what does the LS3/5 sound like? The LS3/5 shares many of the great points of the loudspeaker that replaced it, and it also shares many of that loudspeaker’s limitations. The LS3/5 has the trademark midrange beauty and lack of coloration of the later LS3/5a, and, it also has the lack of deep bass and the modest output levels borne of a low-efficiency design with modest power-handling capacity. It’s more a loudspeaker of exceptional vocal clarity and accuracy than dynamic expressiveness and portrayal of changes in energy levels in music.

Voices are, it must be said, beautifully rendered by this design, and I’ve ploughed through my recordings of The Sixteen, The King’s Singers, The Rodolphus Choir, and others, with considerable pleasure. If this is your musical diet, play on. The lack of coloration, the accurate rendition of tonal colour does, there should be little doubt, set something of a benchmark and once you’ve heard how the LS3/5s portray tone, it does show up where otherwise fine loudspeakers fall short of the ideal.

Richard Burton’s narration on The War of the Worlds [Columbia] is entirely natural and correctly-proportioned. This is the voice of a man in the room, no chestiness or over-emphasised upper bass, no larger-than-life presentation, it is easy to see why the BBC prized the speakers that followed for voice monitoring. This also highlights the principle reported difference between the LS3/5 and the LS3/5a – the flatness of the frequency response means you don’t occasionally feel the need to listen to voices like Burton’s off axis!

Moving to orchestral, the waltz from Shostakovich’s Jazz Suite number 2 [HMV classics] was presented as if heard from the back of the hall, but the orchestral colours drawn by Shostakovich were captured very well, as was the contribution of the various parts to the whole. Fauré’s ‘Agnus Dei’ from the Requiem [EMI] was lush, lavish, and luxuriant in the richness of its orchestral and vocal palette, but with this came a loss of subtle dynamic expression, especially at high volumes where the piece sounds overwrought.

Switching now to jazz, it was easy to appreciate Andy Sheppard’s exquisite saxophone tone on ‘Peshwari’ from Learning to Wave [Provocateur Records], which was nicely offset by the rhythm guitar and tabla. However, the impression of interplay between the musicians was less prominent than usual. Perhaps the best expression of the LS3/5 performance comes with the Balanescu Quartet playing Kraftwerk’s ‘Robot’ from Possessed [Mute]. This had a wonderfully rich, woody, string tones and textures, but seemed to lack a sense of communication between the players.

This is to be expected, and shows the LS3/5 is very likely an accurate rendition of perhaps the most influential loudspeaker that almost no-one has ever heard. The LS3/5 comes from a time when a good loudspeaker was all about tonal accuracy and beauty, and dynamic freedom was distinctly out of favour. This was the era of the original Quad Electrostatic and the KEF Celeste. The headline was a flat frequency response, and all else was secondary. The LS3/5 – born out of a miniature loudspeaker put to use in a Liliputian test studio – became a short-lived but pivotal vocal loudspeaker for Outside Broadcast use, and what followed became a legend in audio circles. This is the LS3/5’s context: the link between the evergreen LS3/5a and its drawing board. It’s a recreation of a historic moment in British loudspeaker design.

As a consequence, the LS3/5 is almost beyond criticism, because I think those who use it will never separate it from its ‘recreation of a historic artefact’ context. So, criticising the LS3/5 for not dealing well with a complex, rhythmic and dynamic music signal is a bit like having a dog which can bark the Finnish national anthem, but criticising its diction and intonation. But more than that, it’s like attacking 1970 for being 46 years ago!

I can’t say with any authority how close the LS3/5 reproductions are to the BBC originals, other than to say that Graham Audio is content, and it is clear that considerable trouble has been taken to recreate the design. The inherently flatter frequency response might imply that, had things been different at the time, the BBC would have continued to use LS3/5s and the LS3/5a might not have happened at all. I think the collectors would have still been very happy, and they will lap this up!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: 2-way standmounting/bookshelf design, 5 litre sealed enclosure made from 9mm birch plywood
Driver complement: One 110mm bextrene main driver; one 19mm dome tweeter
Crossover frequencies: 3.2kHz, 2nd order 12dB/octave low pass, 3rd order 18dB/octave high pass
Frequency response: 70Hz–20kHz (±3dB)
Impedance: 9 Ohms nominal
Sensitivity: 83dB (2.83V, 1Metre)
Dimensions (H×W×D): 190 × 300 × 170 mm
Weight: 5.5Kg/each
Finishes: Cherry, Rosewood
Price: £1,650/pair (cherry); £1,800/pair (rosewood)

Manufacturer: Graham Audio Ltd

Tel: +44 (0)1626 361168

URL: www.grahamaudio.co.uk

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Lampizator Lite 7 digital converter

Lampizator is not your average audio electronics company. It’s chief designer Lukasz Fikus is very forthright about what is and isn’t important when it comes to building the best gear. When it comes to the product category where Lampizator made its name – digital to analogue converters – Fikus makes clear how much influence the various elements have on the final result. In contrast to most DAC manufacturers he believes that the DAC chip itself is not that important and credits the analogue stage and its associated power supply as being the most important elements in the mix. Being a valve man this means using NOS valves of the high power variety, silver wiring, Duelund capacitors, and iron core transformers.

Those of a cynical bent might think that he takes this approach because the output stage and power supply are the areas where it is easiest to make a difference to the sound. Not many audio companies have the knowledge required to build their own converters, but amplifier technology is a widely understood science, even when you are talking about single-ended valve based engineering. That said, Lampizator does offer a discrete ladder DAC in its top model, the Golden Gate, so it must know of what it speaks. The fact that the brand has also built the biggest profile of any east European electronics company also suggests that they are doing something right.

The Lite 7 is a more affordable version of Lampizator’s Big 7 DAC. It is just as huge, but has transistor rather than tube rectification in front of the Psvane 101D valves supplied as standard for the output stage. The converter is ready for DSD up to DSD128 and PCM to 24/192, whereas the Big 7 takes both these numbers two notches higher. Volume control with remote and a front panel display is a €1,000 option, but this upgrade also affords an analogue input: two more can be added at extra cost. Other optional extras include a DSD512 DAC, balanced outputs, headphone out, and Lamipizator’s discrete R2R ladder DAC. You are also at leisure to change the output valves to 2a3, 300B, 45, 6A3, 245 or 345 triodes, but remember to select the right setting on the rear panel. The line out version has only a single switch on the front panel and this selects between PCM and DSD operation; this is the first example of such a switch I’ve come across and one provided because Lukasz uses a different chip for each format. Input switching between USB, RCA coax and AES/EBU balanced is via a toggle switch at the back of the box, which seems inconvenient until you realise that casework over half a metre deep requires a top shelf location in most situations.

Given that most equipment supports are not that deep, Lampizator has the sense to include six rather than four feet, so that the rear portion of the DAC can protrude from the rack. Why so big? The main reason is that it uses the same chassis as the Big 7, but it is also a single-ended triode amplifier with a DAC onboard, so it has two power supplies with separate transformers for each and those have secondary windings for the various elements. On the other hand, it has only one amplification stage, one capacitor in series with the signal, and no output transformers. The box still seems excessive until you realise that it can be upgraded to Lampizator’s top spec, which can include balanced operation with four output valves.

The USB input is unusual in that it does not require power from the source device like many DACs, which eliminates one source of noise in a stroke. It presumably runs an Amero receiver because this is the driver that Windows PCs need to hook up with it. I was concerned that this would make the Melco N1A digital transport redundant, but the Lite 7 is a full class 2 device and the combination worked fine. I started by using the standard output valves and the USB input with the CAD CAT JRiver powered digital transport and CAD’s powerline free USB cable.

First impressions count for quite a lot and in this case what you hear is the valves. I don’t use glass audio as a rule, so whenever it turns up the colourful nature of the frequency response is pretty obvious. That said, the effect on the music is enlivening. This often has a very positive effect, making calmer pieces more interesting and varied because of the way that timbre and dynamics are enhanced. I don’t usually use Anouar Brahem’s Souvenance [ECM] for reviewing because the tracks are long and slow burning, but the beauty of tone in Brahem’s oud is picked out superbly by the Lite 7 and makes the opening track all the more inviting. It inspired me to try Tord Gustavsen’s latest release What was said [also ECM, see last month’s music reviews]. Here the track ‘Tom Violence’ showed that this DAC is not bass shy, the synth element providing some lovely grumbly stuff, whilst proving extremely good at revealing lyrics. The voice on this album tends to pass almost as another man made instrument on most DACs but here you can’t help but notice what is being sung by Simin Tander, in a good way too. It remains coherent and engaging to the end.

The single-ended nature of the Lite 7 means that it works beautifully at low levels, in both senses of the word. You can hear quiet sounds and you can listen quietly without sacrificing the inner dynamics of the music. This happened with many tracks because of the wide variety of recorded levels between them and the non-remote nature of my preamp. The other thing you notice is that leading edges are relatively soft, compared to most solid state DACs. This is partly a reflection of the 101D valves (using 300Bs sharpened the sound), but in both cases imaging is a bit short on focus. There is no shortage of presence but stereo lacks solidity, which from a musical appreciation perspective is no big deal, but it’s a quality that many enjoy and does help to define the acoustic space where the music was recorded.

Using power amp valves even in single-ended mode means that the Lite 7’s output is unusually high, so high that I suspect many valve preamplifiers would struggle to cope. There are two ways around this, you can have the output customised to suit the input sensitivity of your preamplifier or go for the volume control option and its associated analogue input(s) and trade in your preamp. This is something offered by the UK distributor G-Point rather than Lampizator themselves.

Pressing the ‘O’ button on the front panel and engaging DSD mode with the Lite 7 connected to the Melco N1A brings forth very appealing and open sound with Beethoven’s Sonate 32 Maestoso [2L DSD sampler]. This revealed the DAC’s remarkably low noise floor by virtue of the way that the damping pedal’s actions were so precise; the whole thing had tremendous poise and radiance and inspired me to try some more. What also struck me was that the Lampizator’s slightly smooth leading edges make for a more relaxed listening experience, so you can enjoy the full dynamics of well recorded pieces without the subtle glare that transistors struggle to eliminate. This is more obvious with great recordings of acoustic music because such instruments can sound far softer than most audio systems allow.

The Lite 7 is not most audio systems; it is considerably more musical and engaging – especially with 2A3 valves. I remember liking SET amps with this output device and the Lampizator reminded me of the vibrancy, spaciousness, and superb tonal richness that it can extract from a signal. Even in a situation where the valve is doing little more than ticking over its character is evident. Using the coax input with a Cyrus Stream X between Melco and Lampizator proved once again that this connection has the advantage when it comes to timing. All it took was a few bars of AC/DC’s mellifluous ‘Gone Shootin’’ [Powerage, Atlantic] to reveal as much. It inspired some very lively listening and the complete abandonment of the more cerebral sound of the USB connection.

If you value the emotional and tonal qualities of music above absolute neutrality, the Lite 7 is a fabulous converter. It will make all of your music more interesting and ultimately more enjoyable, and that should be what this hi-fi malarkey is all about!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Single ended triode PCM and DSD-capable digital-to-analogue converter/preamplifier.
Digital Inputs: One AES/EBU, one Coaxial and one USB 2.0
Analogue Outputs: One stereo single‑ended (via RCA jacks)
DAC Resolution/Supported Digital Formats: PCM from 44.1KS/s to 192KS/s with word lengths up to 24-bit, DSD64 (2.8224MHz) and DSD128 (5.6448MHz)
Frequency Response: Not specified
Distortion (THD + Noise): Not specified
Output Voltage: Not specified
Dimensions (H×W×D): 130 × 450 × 530mm
Weight: 16kg
Price: €5,880 (£4,531)

Manufacturer: Lampizator

URL: lampizator.eu

UK Distributor: G-Point Audio

Tel: 01435 86 55 40

URL: gpoint-audio.com

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Technical Specifications

Manufactured by: Opera Consonance

Technical Description

Manufactured by: Leema Acoustics

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Manufactured by: ELAC GmbH

Technical Specifications

Manufactured by: The Bespoke Audio Company

Manufactured by: Cardas Audio

Distributed by: Audiofreaks

Product details

Manufactured by: Vertex AQ

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Manufacturer: Graham Audio Ltd

Manufacturer: Lampizator

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