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Bespoke Audio – which is every inch a bespoke brand, as it makes its preamplifiers to the customer’s express wishes – will be showing what it is capable of in Harbeth Audio’s room:  https://hifiplus.com/articles/everything-gets-better-1/

Cabasse will present the  Murano compact high-end loudspeaker design first seen in Munich last year, which features the honeycomb membrane bass from the La Sphère reference speaker and a coaxial tweeter. This £3,499 speaker is intended to bring the performance of Cabasse’s biggest models into a domestically friendly appearance.

 The Chord Company will show several new cables, at the affordable and the sharp-intake-of-breath levels. At the attainable end, the company’s new Shawline and Epic cables (in both digital and analogue form) will be on display and demonstration, and at the high-end, the company will be launching its ChordMusic range, that sits above its current top Sarum cable.

With the Entotem Plato still fresh and new, the brand celebrates its first year in business by adding an exclusive preview of its Class A amplifier module for the first model, and an announcement of the upcoming Plato Lite, and a slew of upgrades for the existing Plato. 

Kudos Audio will be showing its active Titan 808 loudspeaker once more, but this time driven by the innovative ‘Aktif Avec’ Devialet Expert system: https://hifiplus.com/articles/bristol-show-2016-exclusive-kudos-audio-flagship-titan-808-loudspeakers-to-run-actif-avec-devialet-expert-system/

Leema Acoustics will be highlighting its new £2,995 Quasar streaming amplifier/DAC, which will be expected to hit the stores in mid 2016.

Meridian-developed MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) high performance audio format will receive the acid test, as it is played to the public for the first time in the UK, with devices like the Pioneer XDP-100R DAP on demonstration, as well as demonstrations made by Onkyo in the show, and Bluesound at a nearby rival store! Meridian will also be demonstrating its high-resolution system.

Quad will be showing its Artera One combined disc player, amp and speaker due in the middle of the year, a new model in its upmarket Z series loudspeaker range, and the VA-One Bluetooth integrated DAC and amp, both of which are expected in the Spring.  

Rega’s ever popular Planar 3 turntable makes a welcome return. Although it’s a very different animal to the turntable I was selling in the late 1980s! The new high-gloss Planar 3 now comes with a new RB330 arm, an acrylic plinth, a new sub-platter, and a polished ‘optiwhite’ glass platter.

Roksan will be launching the Radius 7 turntable, a turn-key £1,900 turntable complete with Nima unipivot arm and significantly upgraded motor. We hope to have one of these turntables for review soon, so watch this space!

Italian audio experts Unison Research will be showing the new £3,200 Unico CD Due, which combines CD player, Bluetooth receiver, and full function DAC all playing through Unison’s signature valve hybrid output stage.

Finally, Wharfedale will be showing the forthcoming ‘true wireless’ Diamond A1 active stereo Bluetooth speakers and the Reva 2 standmount speakers from forthcoming Reva Series, the next step up from the Diamond 200 range.

Doubtless, this is only scratching the surface. Watch this space for more details…

There were also a number of people who suggested that the Las Vegas ‘no-show’ issue is pinned to the ups and downs of the US economy, and that any suggestions about moving away from CES are alarmist at best. While sheer numbers were down, they suggested, it was all about ‘quality’ rather than ‘quantity’, and those who did visit rooms were committed buyers, dealers, and distributors. In fairness, pundits in the wider tech community did view this year’s event as having something akin to ‘growing pains’ and a lot of the more established technologies were in a holding pattern this year, so maybe next year’s show will be more productive. While I think the situation in audio is potentially more damaged than these people suggest, I’m more than willing to accept that I’ve mis-read this year’s Las Vegas entirely.

A few commented that the show remains a necessary part of a company’s presence in the audio world, but that presence could be reduced. That could mean exhibitors only showing up every other year to the show, or even the Specialty Audio section of the show itself only appearing on alternate years. This might be the answer for some; we are not so fickle a market as to assume a company failing to appear in a hotel room in Las Vegas means that company has disappeared, and rocking up one January in every two or three with a host of new products still excites the audiophile world. A perhaps telling statement in all this was people were prepared to only attend CES once every two years, but wouldn’t dream of missing Munich!

Perhaps the most controversial – but arguably correct – response was to argue the audio world should make better products; ones more suitable to the wider marketplace. Certainly, in viewing the difference between CES audio rooms that were consistently full and consistently empty, the full rooms had products that passed the ‘elevator pitch’ test – they were marketable to a wide audience, and priced to reach that wider audience. The logic goes as follows: make enough of the right kind of product in the corridors of the Specialty Audio section of CES, and there will be more people attending. Frankly, however, I’m not convinced by this argument – the whole event has become so large that no-one can take time out of their schedule to visit, and if your specific ‘beat’ as a buyer or a member of the press does not include audio, you simply won’t be able to visit the audio section, regardless.

Finally, one suggestion was to state that the whole CES issue is far too ‘industry’ and no real people care enough about shows – especially trade shows – to give a damn about the whole thing. This particular comment signed off that there are too many audio shows and we should skip almost all of them altogether. This last, frankly, blindsided me, as I thought show reports are one of our regular ‘most popular’ features. Give one of the shows he thought particularly irrelevant was our coverage of the Bristol Sound & Vision show – a show we will be attending next weekend – this seems an appropriate time to reopen the discussion.

As ever, we welcome your views…

I love its performance with CD, and I usually convert at the transport to DSD. I have heard nothing so far, in the digital domain, that convincingly improves on it. But the caveat is that I haven’t heard everything! Play a disc, even one from the early days of the format, which were never known for their sound quality, and the Vivaldi does the business in a way that is far more sympathetic than the thin, squeezed, and disappointingly ‘small’ sounding efforts I have heard so many times. Its composure under fire is exemplary too, leaving the music intact, tonally balanced and flowing, yet superbly focused and as dynamic as I have heard from CD.  If you can possibly afford it, then adding the separate clock gives musical proceedings an even more locked-in feel, and the upsampler takes this even further into a rather creamy textural finish that is the cherry on top of a completely delicious recipe.

While I am on the hardware front, I really must mention the Naim Mu-So, which was one of those products that was a whole lot better than I was expecting.  It makes those other Bluetooth boom boxes I have heard sound over ripe and imprecise.  I am not looking for accuracy or indeed true hi-fi sound from such a device, but the audiophile in me took a bit of care where I sited it (it’s too big to regularly move around) and I also raised it an inch or so, kept it away from the rear wall and thought it was great. The Naim PR chap who delivered it told me that, if I used it in the same room as my system, I wouldn’t listen to the big boy as much. He was right. For Bluetooth playback or searching the world of Internet radio for new music, it’s the best I have heard.

Another product that has shown serious benefits recently has been the recently reviewed Stillpoints Apertures.  Having stripped my whole system down for a long overdue re-install, I took the room apart too, and over the course of a day, gave all the cabling a good clean, including the connectors and those on the equipment.  This whole, rather time consuming procedure involved a somewhat OCD dedication, but it gave me a chance to reinstate my Berning amplification and address the lunacy of the cables too.  I removed all the Apertures I had been using, and after the whole system had been reconnected and powered up it didn’t take too long to realise that the ridiculous amount of increased energy that the Bernings were pushing through the speakers had left the whole listening space in considerable trouble.  Without wishing for this to descend into a “Give Your Hi-Fi A Spring Clean” article, let me just say that things had quietened down 20 hours later, but only somewhat.  The speakers were moved about a bit, and then I started with a couple of Apertures behind them.  There are few miracles in audio, but this relatively painless addition made a huge difference.  Another single panel between the speakers, making 3 across the back wall, and things had taken a welcome upturn for the better, with no excessive energy sapping damping either. The message is, try a few Apertures if you can.  They are very interesting and the best acoustic panel I have tried. 

On the other side of the same coin is my latest musical instrument acquisition.  I love instruments of all types.  If I can strum, bow it, blow it, or whack it I will have a go and I have owned Martin acoustic guitars for many years, buying and selling them with unhealthy regularity. I do this purely as a selfish pleasure, of course.

Martin makes great acoustic guitars and in my opinion, the old ones are usually the best.  Something about the woods, the glue, and the years of use gives them a quality that, once you have heard or felt it, is just not there on newer instruments, fine though they are.  When you try a Martin from what has become known as their Golden Era (late 20’s to late 30’s) there is no stress in the instrument and no feeling that the thing is a taut composite of many individual pieces of wood glued together.  I travelled to the wilds of Kent to see a truly great collection of vintage Martins and ended up wanting them all.  But it came down to two, neither of which I could easily afford.  There was an 1888 model strung with silk and steel.  This was a crazily great instrument and something to be preserved and cherished. Men who fought in the American Civil War would have played this guitar, which was made exactly when Jack The Ripper was terrorising London’s east end.  Mind numbing stuff.  A beautiful but soft and gentle sound, full of under- and overtones, and a personally contemplative instrument for sure.  But then I was handed a true Golden Era model – a 1927 000-18 in very decent condition and with all the right credentials.  One of a mere handful built that year, it has the 12th fret neck join, the long scale, marvellous tonewoods of the type that are not available any more, a shellac finish, and an ebony fingerboard. All this glued together with boiled down bits of animals by someone most likely born in the late 1800s.  I think I played 3 or 4 chords on it before wanting it, badly.  Now it sits, perched on its stand opposite the sofa that I call home.  Apart from being a fantastic instrument, I do love it as an object.  Those round, sloping shoulders owe more to the early classical and Spanish guitars than to the later squared off look of the American flattop.  I like to say that I bought it because I couldn’t afford a high-end audio mains cable, a thought that lends some perspective perhaps.

Anyway, the cost is unimportant.  I have it now and I am not exaggerating when I say that all that I had read about guitars from this era has turned out to be true.  It has literally changed my life and most likely the way I listen to music. It is so light that the response from any input is amazing.  Change between a few chords and the interplay and tonal shading at harmonic level give it a voice that is incredibly complex but warm.  In fact, I say it has an expressive subtlety of character and a mojo of its own like so many of these true vintage instruments that I have never heard on any recording.  I know I am truly blessed to own it and I cherish our moments together.

The pocket Bluetooth speaker system has become something of a minor revolution in very low cost home audio. The Frankenspiel goes some way to explain why, even to a curmudgeonly old audiophile.

I normally run a conventional and largely analogue hi-fi system, but I am increasingly finding it necessary to accommodate various digital sources, such as the computer, the hard drive, and the TV display. Many alternative strategies can be adopted to deal with this situation. One can of course use a different DAC for each source, but that tends to mean using up too many analogue inputs. Nearly all CD players incorporate a DAC, but only the more recent examples provide the socketry and switching to provide external access to it.

What one really needs is a digital pre-amplifier, which is where Arcam’s £400 irDAC comes into its own. It has plenty of digital inputs, including USB, and S/PDIF on electrical or optical, a remote handset to select between them, plus a stereo analogue output pair. If the feature roster sounds just right, the good news is that the sound quality is pretty good too. It is of course possible to spend much more on a DAC, but this little Arcam device does a very decent job in sound quality terms, as well as only needing to use one input on the main analogue pre-amp. The only bad news seems to be that it uses a switch-mode plug-top power supply, though this didn’t seem to cause any interference with my main system.

It might cost £3,000, but Rega’s RP10 is actually a real bargain, and the extra £600 for an Apheta 2 moving-coil cartridge is money well spent too. The RP10 might be costly by Rega standards, but it’s considerably less than most other ‘high end’ turntables, and can more than rival their performance too.

Construction is quite unusual, though entirely logical, consisting of a ‘sandwich’ construction subchassis that sits independently on the normal support shelf, deliberately separate from the conventional plinth and cover. The subchassis is actually a rather complex shape, but its main function is to link the main turntable bearing with the base of an RB2000 tonearm, a link which is further reinforced by a strip of aluminium oxide – the same exceptionally stiff material as that used for the platter. A complex external power supply is tuned to the specific example of synchronous motor sample used.

The bottom line, of course, is that the RP10/Apheta 2 sounds quite wonderful, with the fine dynamic expression and timing that makes vinyl replay so marvellous, alongside a notably low noise floor. Its ability to deliver clean audio from a vinyl source is very impressive indeed.

The £3,000 Existence Euphoric comes from Finland and is a curious loudspeaker by most standards. I couldn’t say that it’s particularly fine value for money, but because it is made from a selection of different and contrasting colour woods, it does look absolutely delightful, as does its partnering (£750) stand.

This speaker has a single full range drive unit, based on a Taiwanese Tang Band design. It is a fine example of the type, delivering the superior coherence that comes automatically with such a design, along with a tonal balance that’s significantly more neutral than the norm. Most single-driver speakers tend to over-emphasise the upper mid and roll off the treble, but the Euphoric minimises this effect: my far-field in-room averaged trace registered ±3dB . The only problem with this relatively large stand-mount seems to lie in its bass alignment, specifically the tuning of the reflex port, so some care will be needed to position the speakers carefully in the right room and site therein.

PMC’s £15,000 IB2 SE came as quite a surprise, as I’d been using its IB2i predecessor as a reference speaker for some years, and immediately found that this SE version was quite a lot better in several respects. It’s partly a result of work done at the National Physical Laboratory to improve the behaviour of the 75mm dome midrange that is this speaker’s piece de resistance (largely I suspect because that dome is driven from a huge 220mm magnet).

A lot of the improvement also comes from additional work done to improve the performance of the enclosure. This might benefit from the various partitions used to create a transmission line, but the panels here are also large. (Skinflints will no doubt notice that a similar looking but much less costly IB2S is available from the company’s professional range, but should also note that it’s actually a very different speaker in many respects, including that midrange driver.)

The bass and treble here are fine, and I have to add I’ve always found bass more convincing when it comes from a drive unit with space underneath (ie a stand-mount, like this PMC). Furthermore, because the IB2SE has plenty of bass, I find it works best when decoupled from my suspended wooden floor, either using Townshend Seismic Corners or a couple of Sonaris platforms. But it’s the midband that really sets this speaker apart. Despite its relatively modest diaphragm dimensions, it has real grip and drama, thanks, I suspect, to that huge magnet which drives the dome of the PMC75 midrange driver.

No question, the Kaiser Kawero! Classic loudspeaker is a very costly proposition, especially if the prices of numerous optional extras is added to the base of £41,000 (my review samples actually just topped 50 grand!), but it also unquestionably delivers the sonic goods.

The Kaiser Kawero! is a reasonably compact floorstander, is usually attractively veneered, and features slightly curved panels throughout in order to avoid parallel faces. It feels exceptionally strong and weighs a hefty 99kg, largely because it’s constructed from panzerholtz (tankwood) – a form of plywood that has been heavily impregnated with resin under high temperature and pressure, to the extent that it now sinks in water. As tough as metal, it retains its fibrous nature and so provides useful damping.

A 250mm bass driver has a Rohacell sandwich cone. A front-mounted bass/mid driver with a 120mm polymer cone operates and loads a rear-mounted 180mm ABR. The tweeter is a legendary RAAL ribbon (widely regarded as the world’s finest), and this is mounted in its own little enclosure, introducing some decoupling and allowing fore’n’aft movement for accurate time-alignment.

The fact that the speaker is also well filled with Vertex AQ components and techniques is probably another reason (over and beyond the tankwood) why it has such an obviously low noise floor and a wide dynamic range. The result is certainly able to deliver excellent detail and fine timing, irrespective of whether it’s playing quietly or delivering music at a high level. Indeed, its ability to hang together when playing at a high level is particularly impressive, and more than compensates for its mild lack of strict neutrality. In fact, the ever-expanding array of Vertex AQ equipment could also be considered for inclusion in a list like this, as well.

Finally, my ‘wild card’ choice from outside the hi-fi industry has got to be my local farm shop. Macknade is actually 13 miles away, situated just off the A2 near Faversham in north Kent, and it invariably refreshes the tastebuds our various supermarket chains ignore in their quest for cosmetic perfection. I make the pilgrimage every other week, in order to stock up on its wonderful selection of cheeses, breads, cold meats, chicken liver pate, Italian butter, pesto, scotch eggs, kohl rabi, and so on –  I am just grateful that such an emporium exists.