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The Hi-Fi Show 2015

We may be rivals on the newsstand, but credit where it’s due: Hi-Fi News does ‘put on a good spread’ when it comes to an audio show. Now in its third year at the Beaumont Estate in Old Windsor across the third weekend of October, the show can be a little bewildering in terms of layout (there are five distinct areas across the hotel complex) but is settling into the spaces nicely.

The Hi-Fi Show is a comparative rarity in modern shows in that it concentrates almost solely on traditional two-channel audio. There was not a home theatre system in sight, and only a handful of brands (such as Oppo and Chord) demonstrating in the headphone space. But it didn’t seem to matter, because companies that don’t currently exhibit elsewhere in the UK (Absolute Sounds, Kog Audio, Symmetry) pitch up in Old Windsor.

We decided this year to concentrate on a dozen or so key sounds and new products from some of the best rooms, but there were many others showing good audio.

Audio Alchemy was part of an excellent sounding display using Ayre amplification and Magneplanar loudspeakers in the Symmetry room. The new DDP-1 DAC and PS-5 power supply are keenly priced too.

Computer Audio Design showed its new Mk II version of its popular 1543 DAC, teamed up with Bakoon’s AMP-51 amplifiers and the Swiss Sound Kaos loudspeaker brand, with its Wave 40 loudspeakers and active Subwave D12 bass speaker.

Now that’s not something you see everyday: the Clearaudio Statement turntable, complete with parallel tracking Statement TT1 arm, and Goldfinger Statement cartridge, in an GamuT and IsoTek system in Sound Fowndations large room.

Icon Audio makes find valve amplifiers, but it has turned its hand to something more specialised – making its own tubes. This one is genuinely new; the EL34D, a pure triode power tube designed to drop into any circuit where the popular pentode EL34 normally resides. Expect to pay 300B prices for this innovative design.

KEF Audio has not forgotten its mighty Muon. The tall flagship loudspeaker now sports driver technology pulled in from the Blades, and installed Muons can be upgrades on site… for a price!

Kog Audio teamed up with dCS in one room, with the new Rossini set amid a rack full of Entreq grounding. Anyone who pulls out impossible Albert Ayler when asked to ‘play some jazz’ is confident their system sounds good. It did. Elsewhere Kog teamed up with T+A Elektroakustic in an analogue vs. digital seminar.

Absolute Sounds takes the lion’s share of rooms at the show, with almost a whole corridor dedicated to its ranges. This was the first UK public outing of the new Magico S7 standmount loudspeaker, played through Constellation Audio electronics. This had power aplenty.

On show, but not playing, Metronome Technologie presented its first post-CD player; the Music Centre 1. Of course, this streamer/music server also includes a CD drawer for ripping existing discs, too.

Audio Detail and Pre Audio are new names on display in the Ming Da room, both British companies, the first demonstrating a clever new nuvistor-based phono preamp and the second a range of low cost turntables, featuring parallel tracking tonearms and solid granite plinths.

Quad’s new Artera component system meets the new Artera Play all-in-one system. These were playing both through Quad’s legendary Electrostatic loudspeakers but also through the upcoming Z4 floorstanders from the brand’s new top Z-Series dynamic loudspeaker range.

Revel’s F35 from its new Concerta2 range was one of the true stars of the show, delivering a sound with all the attributes of loudspeakers in a much higher price category than it should. This 2.5-way elegant white or black tower loudspeaker is set to clean up thanks to its very reasonable price.

With a combination of PS Audio front end and power conditioner, Jeff Rowland amplification (including the latest 625 MK II power amplifier), and DALI Epicon 8 floorstanders, good sound was almost guaranteed. Signature Audio Systems also played an all-PS Audio system with Vandersteen Treo CT loudspeakers.

In one of the few well-lit rooms in the show, Nu Nu Distribution showcased what the best of analogue and digital can do, when an Oracle turntable met TAD electronics and the outstanding Compact Evolution 1 standmounts.

Wilson Audio’s new Sabrina compact floorstanding loudspeaker (hitched to Audio Research electronics and Transparent cables) made one of the best sounds in the show. We’re starting to wonder if it’s possible to do anything less with this loudspeaker.

There were many more rooms and many components making great sounds, at prices from the absolute bargain (ELAC’s new Debut loudspeaker) to systems costing as much as a small house. Sadly, time constraints prevented seeing all of these rooms, but we’ve heard good sounds came out of the Puresound and GT Audio/Tron rooms, and more besides.

Exposing the ‘Good for Classical’ myth

We all do it. We tend to pigeonhole systems (especially transducers like headphones and loudspeakers) as having specific characteristics that ally themselves to a particular genre. We often hear of loudspeakers being ‘good for rock’ or ‘great for classical’, but does this really have any meaning?

Having listened to many loudspeakers that fall into these categories, there is a pejorative element to these statements; it’s as if people who don’t like a genre of music and don’t like a type of loudspeakers tie these two disparate musical elements together into one big ball of dislike. Granted, like any stereotyping exercise, there is a distorted grain of almost truth underlying these statements. In essence, a loudspeaker that accents loudness over accuracy falls into the ‘rock’ category, while a loudspeaker that goes for accuracy at the expense of loudness is considered ‘good for classical’. But these sweeping statements mask a lot.

First, these two elements of a loudspeaker’s performance are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and you can have a loudspeaker that is capable of playing music at high volumes, yet retain its dynamic range and tonal accuracy. This tends to be what marks out high-end loudspeaker designs from cheaper models that need to trade these elements against one another. Second, these sweeping generalisations are fairly insulting to the musical genres they claim to define. ‘Good for classical’ often implies a notion of classical music that is seen as lifeless, anodyne, and undynamic, presumably by those who have never experienced Mahler’s Eighth Symphony live. On the other hand, the ‘good for rock’ slight seems to view rock music as just noise, with no requirement for subtlety and analysis. Both are flawed premises.

However, transducers do have particular characters, but those characteristics do not necessarily or broadly relate to cookie-cutter notions of ‘classical’ or ‘jazz’ or ‘rock’. Interestingly, the easiest way of spotting this is in the headphone world, and this created something of an epiphany for me.

In listening to the Chord Electronics Mojo DAC and headphone amp, I naturally tried the device through a range of headphones in a broadly price-matched manner. And it was looking back at the quartet of go-to sub-£500 headphones I used here that I made a striking discovery about my own listening. All four were useful – and used regularly – but their radically different tonal balances and performance made each one useful in entirely different ways. I found I reach for each one of them for different occasions; not when I am in a classical mood or want to play some rock, but throughout different times of the day, or different settings.

For traveling, I use a pair of AKG N60NR noise cancelling headphones because they are small, light, run for ten hours on a single USB charge, and are remarkably good at getting rid of the noises of airports and aircraft. For commuting, I use a pair of Audio Technica ATH-MSR7 closed-back headphones, which are accurate and lightweight, look good, and have interchangeable cables for when I need to use an in-line microphone. For recording I use a pair of Sennheiser HD-25-1 II closed-back headphones because they are exceptionally detailed (especially on voice, which is useful when recording interviews). And for late night use I use the appropriately named NightHawk by AudioQuest because it’s one of the most comfortable headphones I have ever used and its unforced, satisfying sound makes it a natural for relaxing in the evening.

All four headphones all do different things, all equally valid, and all equally right for the task in hand. I could easily change these headphones for dozens of similar models at any price range (Bose in place of AKG, Sennheiser Momentums instead of the Audio Technicas, Sony MDR-7506 instead of the HD-25s, and so on). In fairness, I’d find the NightHawk hardest to swap out because of its long-listening comfort, but nothing’s impossible. But these are the ones I like at the moment.

I don’t find any of these headphones overly ‘good’ at playing a specific genre; they are great all-rounders in their own ways. But their own ways are very different ways. And that’s where the epiphany part comes in. You see, looking at this from an audiophile perspective what I’ve described here (changing transducer with your mood and requirements during the day) is all but impossible because it would require multiple systems. That’s the difference between ‘man cave’ and ‘bat cave’. But the fact is, we do change what we need from our music replay systems over the course of a day: sometimes we need studio-monitor analysis, sometimes we want something far less demanding for background sounds, and sometimes we want something smooth and satisfying, and laid back enough to listen through the evening.

Because we have been unable to do that, we have created the mostly-false notion of systems that are good at one kind of music and not others. As if the system itself had its own tastes. OK so the sign of a good designer is catholic tastes and that should be reflected in the products they design. More importantly, if you design any audio component using an extremely limited selection of music, don’t be surprised if it only plays that musical selection well. But, a good design should transcend the tastes of the designer and work on anything.

We need to stop thinking of ‘good for…’ designs and start thinking of what kind of demands we make on our audio systems. In the headphone space, the choice becomes easy… you buy a few very different sets of headphones to meet all those needs as best as possible. But for a loudspeaker-based audiophile, we’re probably talking compromise, working out how much of your listening is spent in close analysis of the music, how much is spent in a more reflective mood, and how often you will play at whisper or at party levels. Few systems are good at all these things (and the ones that cover most of the bases are usually exotically priced) and once you find your priorities, you might find yourself listening to a lot more music.

Gigawatt PC-4 EVO power conditioner

Not satisfied with taking over the UK building trade, Poland now has its sights set on your audio system, and Gigawatt, with its range of power products, is in the vanguard. In 1998, Adam Schubert co-founded Power Audio Laboratories in Zgierz, a small town just to the North of Łódź in central Poland. In 2007, Schubert divided the company’s R&D and production facility, creating the Gigawatt brand in the process.

Gigawatt makes power cords, strips, filters, and five conditioners of which the PC-4 EVO is the biggest with 12 Schuko outlets, which is the norm in Europe. The PC-4 EVO is supplied with one of Gigawatt’s high quality mains cables to connect it to the wall, as well as a Schuko plug.

The PC-4 EVO doesn’t use big transformers to isolate its outlets or regenerate the mains. Rather, it has a multi-stage, parallel filtration with each quartet of outlets having its own filtering. The sets of outlets are marked for digital, analogue, and high current products, and the filtering is designed for those load types. The device is capable of supporting a continuous 25A load (70A peak) “if the power line allows”, which is greater than any audio component needs, but nevertheless does mean it can hold a current reserve for impulse loads, effectively working like a big capacitor. The review sample had a DC Offset blocker onboard, which is an optional extra. The front panel display shows incoming voltage level, and where I live, this is quite high; often over 240V and sometimes up to 246V.

I used one of Gigawatt’s chunky stainless braided power cables with a 13A plug on and hooked it up the power supply on a Rega RP10 turntable in an otherwise unconditioned system. The effect was to decrease noise and open up the soundstage, making Joni Mitchell’s voice [Mingus, Asylum] and the layers in the mix clear-cut. The soundstage also became much more solid and three-dimensional, even as it was pretty strong in the first place. Additionally, such an arrangement fleshed out the sound of the musicians, so that the bassist, Jaco Pastorius, seemed ‘behind’ Joni and her guitar.

These positive results suggested that I connected more products to the Gigawatt, starting with my Trilogy 907 phono stage, the next element in the audio chain. This dropped the noise floor further and increased stereo solidity, emphasizing the character of the studio acoustic. The extra clarity produced louder elements, too. It draws attention to the string texture of the acoustic guitar by producing an ability for percussive string sounds to stop and start more quickly, and less ‘smearing’ means faster transients. And that means better timing, and greater involvement, significantly greater.

I also tried the Gigawatt on a pair of PMC twotwo.6 active speakers paired with the Velodyne DD+10 subwoofer, both of which have Class D power amps onboard. Here the effect was more dramatic, the conditioner managing to make both sound considerably more refined and much more like class A/B in character. Consequently, it was possible to play music at higher levels and hear a lot more of the musical detail thanks to the reduction in grain. Anyone using Class D amplification should investigate conditioning – you will be surprised at the effect.

I was a little reluctant to try the Gigawatt on my ATC P1 power amp because conditioners that work on high power amplifiers are like gold dust; in fact, the only one I’ve found (Isotek EVO3 Super Titan) costs a bundle and makes most power amps seem compact. But I was glad I did as the result was fascinating and not dissimilar to that achieved with the Class D amps. This time, however, the transition was from A/B to a Class A sound, so much so that I lost many hours to the charms of the resultant effects. Ultimately, connecting the Gigawatt to the ATC P1 power amp gave the sound an ease and finesse; an effect you would have to pay significantly more for than the price of the power amp and conditioner combined. Immensely revealing, beautifully timed, tonally rendered, and totally fluid, the effect was like listening to a powerful valve amplifier with very little in the way of valve character. The music became engrossing, and tracks like the bass heavy ‘Limit To Your Love’ [James Blake, R&S], which often overpowers the room, became pure and radiant.

I also tried the Gigawatt with digital sources, the Melco N1A NAS/transport via an Ayre QB-9DSD, granting the music a vinyl like quality – and I’m not talking about pops and clicks; rather, the music sounded cleaner and more fluid, and could be played at higher levels without discomfort, with brass still blasting out when it should. Connecting the already extremely natural sounding Ayre produced bigger imaging, full-scale soundstages with fine detail, and gave texture to bass lines that had sounded amorphous while making lyrics easier to understand.

Most of my listening with the Gigawatt had been with an easy-to-install Supra Lo-Rad cable. But out of interest, I switched to the Gigawatt cables, and they put me behind the desk in the studio; now the musicians were there to be reached out and touched.

I have reviewed a few conditioners and regenerators over the years and always had positive results, but pound for pound I don’t think any have come close to this. The Schuko factor is a pain, but it might well be something to do with the final result, so it’s a pain with gains in terms of resolution, finesse, and musical coherence. With the Gigawatt, hearing is believing if you want to take your system into another league.

Technical Specifications

Type: Multi stage parallel mains power filtering conditioner
Power outlets: 12× G-040 silver plated Schuko
Maximum output power: 3680 Watts
Maximum current load: 16A
Absorbed impulse current: 22000A
Line voltage: 220–240V/50–60Hz
Accessories: 1.5m LC-2HC power cable
Dimensions (H×W×D): 181 × 483 × 476mm
Weight: 20.5kg
Price: €9,100
Optional DC blocker: €900

Manufacturer: PA Labs Company

URL: www.gigawatt.eu

UK Distributor: G-Point Audio

Tel: +44(0)1435 86 55 40

URL: gpoint-audio.com

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Metrum Acoustics Pavane DAC

Metrum has always done things a bit differently. For a start, all its products are NOS (non oversampling) types, which removes a stage of filtering, and they all have ladder DACs built with discrete components designed rather than an off-the-shelf chip. From these facts alone, you know that Metrum’s founder and designer Cees Ruijtenberg is not the type to follow the crowd: his is a path rather less well trodden, and with the Pavane he has gone further.

The Pavane uses an FPGA-based forward-correction module to overcome the switching noise that undermines the linearity of ladder DACs at low levels. Essentially, it processes both MSB (Most Significant Bits) and the LSB (Least Significant Bits) in the same top half of the converter. This means the Pavane increases the level of the LSBs prior to conversion and sends 12-bits to each DAC module, which means that the lower level or Least Significant Bits have the same signal-to-noise profile as the MSBs. Levels are then corrected in the analogue stage so that you get the full 24-bit depth with maximum linearity. It’s not simple, but it seems to work – and rather well at that.

The Pavane, which incidentally is Metrum’s top model, is a very nicely built piece of audio engineering, and has a machined aluminium front and sides, topped by black glass. I don’t recommend using it to keep your coffee warm, but it has a distinct coffee-table look. Input buttons are arrayed on the front next to an orange light that comes on if no signal is present on a given input. The sockets on the back consist of AES/EBU, USB, optical Toslink, and coaxial on both RCA and BNC connections. I was surprised to find a rather nice but small remote control featuring just the one button in the box that changes the input. The DAC’s analogue outputs are on RCA phono and balanced XLR, the Pavane being a true balanced converter.

Inside the box there are a lot more parts than usually encountered in a DAC, most obviously you have two ladder DAC boards each supplied by its own dedicated mains transformer and power supply. Elsewhere there is a USB receiver, the FPGA chip where the mathematical magic goes on, and a Lundahl transformer for summing the differential output of the DACs prior to the single ended output stage. There is also a third transformer for these elements. All in all it’s a comprehensively engineered piece of kit that eschews the bells and whistles of Bluetooth, network streaming, and volume controls in an attempt to be the best digital to analogue converter that Cees could produce. And given that his more affordable DACs such as the Octave and Hex are pretty stunning, this is a promising start.

The only missing bell/whistle that some might begrudge is the ability to convert DSD. How much of an issue this is will depend on your enthusiasm for that format. The Pavane is a fully PCM 24/384 compatible device, and it doesn’t need fashionable formats or upsampling to deliver the goods; it probably achieves its goals by avoiding them.

The Pavane like other Metrum DACs is incredibly revealing of the elements in the music that convince you that there was a living, breathing, and exceptionally talented musician(s) in a studio or on a stage at some point in the past. What makes a product good in this respect is dynamic and temporal linearity; a bit of low level resolution doesn’t hurt either, but this isn’t as important as those linearities in creating the illusion of musical vitality.

The majority of my listening was done via the USB input, which I connected to a Melco N1A digital transport with a short run of Vertere D-Fi USB cable. Previous experience with the Melco has suggested it sounded more real and dynamic via its Ethernet output, but the Pavane proved that the USB output is pretty damn entertaining too. And usefully, the Melco worked happily with it from the off as there’s no need for special drivers as can be the case with some USB DACs. Spinning the very entertaining version of ‘Billie Jean’ by the Civil Wars [Unplugged on VH1, Sensibility Music] I was struck by the atmosphere from the crowd and the easy yet precise timing of the playing. There’s very little in the way of hash or grain to the presentation and a lot in the way of immediacy. I also played Patricia Barber’s ‘Company’ [Modern Cool, Premonition] shortly after spinning the vinyl which is a tough act for any digital product to follow, and while it wasn’t quite as relaxed or architectural in imaging terms it was fast, taut, and the dynamics were probably better. The drumming on ‘Mourning Grace’ from the same album was nothing short of phenomenal.

Playing a variety of pieces I was struck by the variation between them, as the Pavane picked out the nuances as well as the big changes that happened in recording techniques over the years. Arvo Pärt’s Fratres [Naxos] has a huge acoustic and encourages serious replay levels, such is the power and beauty of the piece. Another large-scale piece, ‘Hot Lips’ by the Hot Club of San Francisco [Yerba Buena Bounce, Reference Recordings 24/176.4], can often beguile with its presentation but fail to make a musical connection. The Pavane gives you the scale, but focuses on the playing, and makes it clear that the rhythms are what the original Hot Club were about. The captivation factor of this and other pieces is exponentially higher than usual – with the Pavane, it’s quite a distraction.

I had an Ayre QB-9DSD DAC at the same time and it too was very impressive, but not in the same way. The Ayre sounded incredibly natural, and made instruments and voices seem really real. But the Pavane made you want to play more music largely thanks to a stronger sense of pace. I also tried it with a coaxial source. The Naim UnitiServe has just such an output, which I harnessed to the Metrum with a length of Chord Co Sarum Super ARAY (which helped matters quite significantly). This combo had a more powerful and similarly timely sound that was slightly stronger in the bass, equally enjoyable, and I could have carried on with it had I not wanted to hear a piece that was on the Melco. This proved that the USB connection and/or source was the more engaging of the options available. The UnitiServe, it has to be said, is not really designed to be used this way, and best results will be had via its network output – but it’s certainly no slouch.

Hopefully I have given some idea of the Metrum’s abilities to beguile the listener. But it’s worth mentioning that this DAC is also extremely resolute. Few converters can deliver fine detail better at the price, reverb, therefore, is very well served, and this DAC provides excellent depth and scale of image. This is something that became obvious with James Blake’s ‘The Wilhelm Scream’ [James Blake, R&S], which really came into its own with the Pavane. It normally sounds good, room filling, and impressive, but it often doesn’t reach out and grab you so effectively.

There I am being distracted by emotional communication again! But ultimately that’s what music is, a way of saying things that words cannot hope to convey, and that’s what the goal of all audio equipment should be: to make that message as clear and intelligible as possible. The Metrum Pavane does this significantly better than anything at the price and quite a lot of rather pricier alternatives to boot.

Technical Specifications

Type: Non oversampling DAC. Forward (FPGA) corrected, four DACs per channel in differential mode
Digital Inputs: One AES/EBU, two Coaxial (BNC, RCA), one Toslink, and one USB.
Analogue Outputs: One stereo single-ended (via RCA jacks), one balanced (via XLR connectors)
DAC Resolution/Supported Digital Formats: All PCM from 44.1kHz to 384kHz with word lengths up to 24-bit
Frequency Response: 1Hz – 20 kHz -2.5 dB, 44.1 kHz sampling. 1Hz – 65 kHz – 3dB, 192 and 384kHz (USB)
Distortion (THD): 0.01%
Output Voltage: RCA : 2 Volts RMS, XLR: 4 Volts RMS
User Interface: Metrum remote control for input selection
Dimensions (H×W×D): 85 × 440 × 320mm
Weight: 10kg
Price: £3,849

Manufactured by: All Engineering

URL: www.metrum-acoustics.nl

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Questyle and The Source A/V Bridge the Audible Gap

Bruce Ball, VP of Questyle Audio and Jason Lord, Founder and Co-Owner of The Source A/V (in Torrance, Los Angeles, California) put on a terrific personal audio event last Saturday. The day exemplified the sort of outreach I’ve been writing about since the first installments of my What is The Future of the High End series for Positive Feedback. There we were, two-channel audiophiles and personal audio geeks and hobbyists alike, imbibing great sounds from various high-fidelity components while thoroughly enjoying each others company. There were no digital-vs.-analog debates, and no politicking (that was a comment from an attendee, in the event this is mistaken for me stoking some hot coals). We were all focused on our collective passion: Great sounding music through hi-fi. There were headphones, DAPs (digital audio players), headphone amplifiers and DACs – and even some terrific two-channel systems! This was a treat, and something I’ve been fighting for for some time. It was a grand ol’ time, and I have to hip my hat to Bruce and Jason for a successful collaboration. I look forward to future similar events in the Los Angeles area!

Participating brands included Questyle Audio of course, MrSpeakers, ENGIMAcoustics, Audeze, Noble, Stax, Kimber Kable, McIntosh, Moon Audio (Simaudio by Moon), Focal, and possibly a few others I’m forgetting about at the moment – but they all appear on the flyer below.

My friend Warren Chi and I went down for dinner the night before to get a sneak peak listen to the Questyle CMA-600i, only to find out the component chassis was a tease! Damn you Bruce and Gary! All kidding aside, we are very much looking forward to hearing that slick-looking headphone amplifier/DAC (with fully-balanced output and current-mode operation amp section). I got to spend time with the CMA-800i headphone amp/DAC that night however. I set up my QP1P DAP (Questyle’s reference portable player) with my trusty Nordost iKable via the QP1R’s dedicated line-out, and my Double Helix Cables (my personal top-reference headphone cable – though the new Kimber Kable AXIOS is blowing me away too, since getting pairs for review at Head-Fi’s Canjam at RMAF) feeding my beloved MrSpeakers ETHER-C closed-back planar magnetic cans. Playing The Chemical Brothers “Wide Open” (which I reviewed over at OccupyHifi): The sound was authoritative and, just as the title suggests. Seriously, I was going to type wide-open, and then realized that might look a bit ridiculous, but I guess it was the perfect choice to check out the system! The stage was spectacularly large in width and depth, and the music oozed with soul. Just the way I like it. MrSpeakers ETHER-C have eclipsed Audeze’s LCD-XC as my current reference closed-back planar headphones. They image much like a good two-channel in-room system does. Bruce Ball and I were discussing this last night at dinner actually. Their soundstage capabilities, with regard to width and depth, and wholly unmatched to my ears. They also manage to sound far more open than the XCs, and I never thought I’d say that about any other headphones, but it’s just the way I hear it. Given that, the Questyle 800i headphone amp/DAC made for a superb pairing. From Tori Amos to Mumford & Sons, I was captivated. Everything was vivid and textural. I look forward to giving the CMA-800i more time in the Sonic Satori Personal Audio Lab!

It was great having our good friend Michael Liang (a.k.a HiFiGuy528 on YouTube – and also works for Woo Audio) down from the Bay Area as well. He was psyched to check out Audeze’s new LCD-4 on an amplifier he knew. I’m surprised the LCD-4 is shipping already. Though I don’t want to offer anything in-terms of my final word on the 4s, as I have yet to receive a pair for review, I do have some early impressions to offer. I got a chance to hear them on the Audeze DECKARD and Burson Audio Virtuoso (both are references for me) headphone amp/DACs at Canjam at RMAF weeks ago, as well as this event of course. I think they can be great, but thus far, I’ve yet to hear anything that would justify my recommendation at four-thousand dollars a pair. With their newly published magnetic power, and faster/thinner diaphragm, they should be mind-blowingly musical. But, to me, the tonal balance was off on both occasions. Being dubbed the “Audeze Jihadist”, believe me, I wanted to be blown away. Their bass slam is sickeningly fast, with little-to-no overhang that I heard, but the sweet, coherent midrange of the LCD-series, that romantic-roundedness many of us have come to love, I found it seriously lacking in the LCD-4. Now, I also heard some truly amazing potential, but I was wholly surprised when they started selling right after CanJam. I need to spend some serious time with a pair on my Cavalli Audio Liquid Gold or Woo Audio WA7 Fireflies with tube power-supply to formulate any educated opinions on their performance. But I need a helluva lot more than potential at four-thousand dollars! Paging Audeze: I’m itching for a review pair like an audible junkie.

One of the sonic highlights of the day was checkin’ out Noble’s SAVANT IEMs (in-ear-monitors). I was completely lost “init’” as I like to say. I came armed with my Questyle Audio QP1R and Astell-n-Kern AK380 DAPs to the Noble table, and I didn’t get up for quite some time. Since I rock my JH Audio Roxannes and JH-13 Freqphase custom in-ears all the time (with my current favorite universal IEM being RHA’s T10i) I asked my buddy Warren Chi (also a moderator at Head-Fi and on the CanJam Global production team) which pair I should try out. He suggested the SAVANTS, and he nailed it for me. About thirty-or-so bars into Tori Amos’s “Wild Way” off Unrepentant Geraldines in 96kHz/24-bit (on the QP1R) I knew these IEMs were somethin’ special. Her wispy vocals were emotively elegant and charged, the power was enrapturing. I listened to the track over and over again, at least five-times. That’s the mark of a solid transducer system to me! I was as connected to her as I could be in that moment. I told Brannan from Noble that I wanted to be “writing about these yesterday.” That grand connection to the music continued with Donny Hathaway, Dr. Dre, Damon Rice and Mumford & Sons. I’m pumped to get a pair of those in for review.

Another highlight was, surprisingly, a high-end two-channel tweak! Well, they’re far more than a tweak I suppose, but given the fact that ENIGMAcoustics Sopranino Super Tweeter is not a speaker, I rushed to call it so. But this electrostatic masterpiece does far more than any other super tweeter I’ve heard to-date, and I’ve been in the high-fidelity biz for over twenty-years now (yeah, that’s scary). The Sopranino was so entrancing with its handling of the higher frequencies, I told Wei Chang (of ENIGMAcoustics) I would sell my other super tweeters to get a pair of these things in a heart-beat. There was absolutely no feeling of strain or break-up. I wasn’t sure about the track Wei played for us first, which took my breath away. It had everything from high-snaps and triangle-like sounds to drums and strings – and with the control of high-pitch decay being a vital part of the upper-frequency spectrum for me, the Sopranino has no equal, as far as I’m concerned right now. Lets remember: I didn’t get enough time with it to say that for sure. But its knocked my socks off. Then I looked at it closely! I assumed its cabinet was acrylic, knowing the insane tolerances needed for glass with that sort of enclosure and horn-like transducer combination. But I was wrong. The damn thing is glass, and Wei says the manufacturing process has to be so exacting, if it’s even slightly off they have to scratch the whole batch (pardon the rhyme please). I’m also eager to hear these on my Zu Audio Omen Defs with modded cross-overs! Nate and Jonathan from Kimber Kable also brought something that got me excited (I know I know, geez, can you tell): A newly-finished pair of Kimber’s new AXIOS headphone cables wired for MrSpeakers! I’ve been loving these leads on my Audeze EL-8s and LCD-series headphones since I got pairs at CanJam. They bring a level of neutrality to the cans that seems, at-times, un-matched, except by Double Helix Cables to these reviewers ears. I gotta spend more time with em, and I’ve been working on that. So, obviously the event was a smashing success. I heard stuff there that I can’t get outta my mind since last weekend!

I alluded to this above, and I’ll say it again: This event exemplified the type of outreach into the personal audio/Head-Fi community that I’ve been bangin’ the drum about since 2009. I’m not trying to make any of this about me – it’s about the fact that I came from the high-end two-channel and music industry worlds! The cool thing is: So do Jason Lord, owner and founder of The Source A/V and Bruce Ball, VP of Questyle Audio! We came into high-fidelity from a variety of backgrounds, but music is the core (with Jason also deep in home theater and car audio engineering – Bruce working with bands and merchandising). In the end, it shouldn’t matter what the delivery mechanism is: We’re all chasing great-sounding music. Whether by headphone or floorstanding loudspeakers, the journey’s the same. This last Saturday proved that, without any speeches or arguments. When it came down to the music, we all got to it. I think it’s a microcosm for what we as an industry should be doing. Hope to see you at the next one!

Baker’s Dozen: High-End Products You Shouldn’t Miss

At every audio show there are products that stick out: for their sheer brilliance or their impact on the market as a whole, their novelty or simple audacity and willingness to raise their heads above the parapet of public opinion. Some will become staples, classic units that carve themselves a name in the audio firmament: others will disappear, just as quickly as they shot into view. While it’s not always predictable which of these products will suffer what fate, one thing’s for sure, you want to miss them, whether it’s to witness the birth of a legend or the fleeting passage of a “never wozzer”…

Wilson Audio Sabrina

Wilson’s youngest and slightest floorstander is already making waves. Instantly identifiable from it’s sculpted cabinet and automotive finish, the svelte Sabrina promises to be easier to accommodate and easier to driver than her more substantial siblings, making her a shoo-in in the financially and spatially challenged European market. But what was really interesting was the impact the $15,900 Sabrina appeared to have on the show as a whole. I’m sure there weren’t all those systems using $15K to $17K loudspeakers last year…

Vandersteen Quatro Wood CT

Which brings us to another leading (but in this case well-established) middleweight contender. Like the Sabrina, the Quatro Wood CT is steeped in the family DNA, taking its overall topology, carbon tweeter and clever high-pass filter/active bass configuration from the bigger – and significantly more expensive – Vandersteen models, while giving away precious little in terms of performance and bandwidth. At $14,895 this is an awful lot of speaker built into a slim and highly tunable cabinet. Vandersteen’s price structure might make the European cost look steep compared to the Quatro’s price in the US, but examine the material content and you soon realize just what a bargain this speaker represents.

dCS Rossini Master Clock

While RMAF represented the official US launch of the dCS Rossini CD Player/DAC it was the presence of the matching clock that really set the antennae twitching. With the withdrawal of both the Paganini and Puccini players, the uClock has gone too, removing the most affordable clock option from the range: bad news if you’ve just convinced yourself to splash out on a two-box Vivaldi set-up – only to discover just how big a difference an external clock makes to the overall performance. Priced at $7,499 in the US, the Rossini Master Clock steps into the breach, offering superior performance to either the Paganini or Puccini units and in casework that’s a better match for the flagship’s styling.

HRS RS Shelf

Harmonic Resolution Systems have long been the benchmark against which other rack/support systems have been measured. Their clever, modular system allows owners to select a rack style and then furnish it with isolation or grounding platforms to suit the equipment and budget available. The only problem has been that all that versatility and performance doesn’t come cheap. Well now it does. The advent of the RS shelf (as well as the more affordable RXR, wood framed rack or amp stand) means that $495 will get you a neat, deceptively simple but remarkably effective equipment support – around a third of the price of HRS’s next nearest platform – bringing the overall cost of an HRS solution significantly nearer to the pocket of mere mortals.

Vaughn Loudspeakers “DuKane” Tweeter

What you see here looks suspiciously like an Ionofane tweeter from the mid-60’s, based in turn on the DuKane Ionovac design from the US. The giveaway lies in that big horn flare and the nomenclature: the DuKane was a plasma tweeter, using a modulated plasma discharge in place of a conventional diaphragm – the original zero-mass design. The problem was the by-product of this process – poisonous ozone. That’s where the horn comes in, keeping the plasma corona small enough to maintain ozone levels within acceptable limits. But what makes this picture remarkable is that this is no historical curio, disinterred for the show: this is an all-new, ground-up build based on the original Dukane design but employing modern materials and techniques to improve consistency and reliability. Coming in at $8,990 a pair, the Vaughn tweeter isn’t cheap, but it is startlingly impressive to listen too.

Avantgarde Zero One XD Loudspeaker

Avantgarde’s innovative source-plus system, the horn hybrid Zero One has been around for over a year now, but as is the way with such groundbreaking products, it has been evolving throughout that time. In its latest XD guise, the master speaker not only communicates wirelessly with its slave, it accepts both digital and analogue inputs, making this a genuine, ready to play, two-box set up, combining spherical horn loaded, Class A driven mid and treble units, with a DSP tunable, Class D driven bass driver to create a system that offers quality AND quantity, in a discrete and thoroughly modern cabinet. The Zero One is certainly ready for prime time: the real question is whether prime time has realized it’s ready for the Zero One?

Dan D’Agostino Classic Stereo Amplifier

If you are one of those who remembers the stir created by those first D’Agostino designed Krell amplifiers when they first appeared, then you’ll doubtless experience a warm, nostalgic glow at the sight of the Master Power Stereo Classic amplifier from Dan D”Agostino Master Audio Systems. Thankfully, the product is a lot less fussy than the names, the substantial, block-like chassis offering 300 watts into 8 Ohms (a power output that doubles all the way down to 1,200 watts into 2 Ohms) and a pair of traditional carrying handles that, with the amp weighing in at almost 50kg, are more than mere decoration. For such a heavy amp, coming with such a heavy reputation, the UK price-tag is a surprisingly modest £11,500.

Linear Tube Audio ZOTL Amplifiers

David Berning’s innovative output-transformer-less tube amps enjoy a cult following in both the US and the UK, owners appreciating them for their light-weight, robust power output (at least as far as OTLs go) and legendary resolution and transparency. What they don’t appreciate is just how hard it can be to get hold of them and, to a lesser extent, the quirky styling of the pre-amp. Both things may be about to change with Washington DC-based dealer Urban Hi-Fi licensing three Berning penned designs and offering them under the Linear Tube audio moniker. The MicroZOTL 2.0 is a compact, two-input headphone amplifier/pre-amp that lists at $1,100. That can be paired with one of two power amps, the ZOTL 40 delivering 45 watts from two pairs of EL34 output tubes and costing $5,800, or the ZOTL 10, that uses the same attractive external casework as the 40, but teams EL84 tubes with a simplified power supply to produce 10 watts per channel at a price of $2,400.

Grand Prix Audio Monaco v1.5 Turntable

RMAF provided a timely reminder of just what an exceptional performer Grand Prix’s direct drive Monaco turntable can be. Paired with a 12” Triplanar Ultimate tonearm, Lyra Scala cartridge and the latest version of the Tom Evans Groove+ phono-stage, it drove a surprisingly modest system to quite remarkable musical effect, combining absolute musical and dynamic authority with a muscular, fluid and expressive sense of rhythmic flow. Why timely? With rumours of a more affordable model soon to appear, this is a space that all analogue fans should be keeping under close observation.

Intervention Records

You might think the re-issue market is already over-populated with 180g record vendors offering yet another pressing of Kind Of Blue, but Intervention Records is a welcome addition to the scene. With the dream-team of Kevin Gray and RTI responsible for mastering and pressing, quality is pretty much guaranteed, matched by the quasi-religious zeal devoted to the artwork on the covers. But what makes IR special is their choice of titles – recordings that have been unduly neglected, poorly served by their original pressings or simply unavailable on vinyl: their first releases underline that point, with two albums each from the Rafferty/Egan driven Stealers Wheel and Portland grunge-meisters Everclear. But what should get British ears a prickin’ and toes a tapping is news that the first two Joe Jackson albums, Look Sharp and I’m The Man are on their way: the test- pressings are spectacular!

SPEC Electronics

There’s something about the way the Japanese manage to combine diverse materials and metal, form and proportion to create under-stated products of remarkable grace and simplicity: think Connoisseur; think Zanden – praise doesn’t come much higher than that. Well, now you can add the unlikely name of SPEC Corporation to that list. Their two-box phono-stage ($11,500) and line-level integrated amp ($9,500) are built into matching cases, as bijou as they are beautiful. But the kicker is that these sound as great as they look – despite the integrated amplifier being a 60 watt Class D design. That low rated output and the extraordinary attention to detail and component choice clearly play their part, but these are genuinely gorgeous products that deserve wider recognition.

Volti Vittora Loudspeaker

Volti’s retro horns have been both a fixture and a highlight at recent RMAF shows, their exceptional sound and 104dB sensitivity matched by a surprising affordable $25,000 price tag. That’s around £16,600 for a five cabinet system (two mid/treble cabinets, two folded horn bass cabs and an active ELF cab) built into substantial birch-ply enclosures with curved walls and a range of beautiful veneer finishes. Believe me, see these things in the flesh and you’ll wonder how Greg Roberts does it for the price – a sentence that neatly sums up the appeal and frustration of the Volti offer. The low price is easy: the company supplies direct to the end user, cutting out distributors, dealers and their associated margins. But that’s also the rub: actually getting to see and hear the Vittora means taking a trip to Maine – although that will shortly become Tennesee. Mind you, factor in the flight, the shipping, the duty and the VAT and the Vittoras still look like a bargain of monumental proportions – and it’s not just the construction I’m talking about…

AudioQuest Jitterbug

And now, for our traditional (almost) freebie: the AudioQuest Jitterbug. Looking remarkably like a USB thumb-drive, the Jitterbug is actually an in-line jitter reduction device (it has a USB socket in the other end) applicable to any USB data stream. Simply plug it in, plug your USB cable into it and away you go – substantially better sound in seconds. The beauty is that it only costs $49 and that if that isn’t enough to satisfy your audiophile expenditure cravings you can either stack them or insert them anywhere into a common USB bus to added advantage. The benefits in clarity, dynamic range, timing and bandwidth are far from subtle, proving once again that high-end audio should be all about delivering high performance rather than simply high-prices.

GIK ACOUSTICS-EUROPE LAUNCHES ALL NEW ALPHA WOOD SERIES

BRADFORD, UK (19 October 2015) – Leading acoustic treatment manufacturer GIK Acoustics has announced the launch of a new product series that is changing the face of acoustic panels and bass traps.

First introduced in the USA in late September, GIK Acoustics-Europe is proud to offer the GIK Acoustics Alpha Wood Series, a line of acoustic panels and bass traps with a wood face which has a mathematical sequence of slots for one-dimensional scattering / diffusion. The Alpha Wood Series beautifully combines absorption with diffusion and enhances any room both aesthetically and acoustically with superior quality, high-performing, and stylish room treatments.

First in the series is the 4A Alpha Panel. The 4A Alpha Panel is constructed as a 595mm x 595mm x 100mm wood-framed panel filled with rigid rockwool absorption material (core made from 100% recycled materials, environmentally friendly without any formaldehyde or urea formaldehyde). The panel is then wrapped in fabric and finished with a beech veneer wood face which is designed for even, one-dimensional scattering. The wood face also allows low frequency waves to pass through to the rockwool panel for better low end absorption.

GIK Acoustics-Europe General Manager David Shevyn says, “We are thrilled to bring the Alpha Wood Series to our European customers. Not only is the Alpha Wood Series one of the most attractive product lines we’ve introduced, but they are twice as effective as similar products on the market that use foam. The Alpha Wood Series offers so many more, better colour choices and better results. The Alpha Series is truly a game changer for GIK Acoustics.”

The 4A Alpha Panel is available for sale direct from all GIK Acoustics-Europe’s websites.

4A Alpha Pro Series Panel Diffusor / Absorber (100mm)

4A Alpha Series Pro Panel Diffusor / Akustikmodul (100mm)

Le panneau 4A Alpha Pro Diffuseur / Absorbeur (100mm)

About GIK Acoustics:

Founded in Atlanta, GA, in 2004, GIK Acoustics understands the importance of great sound. GIK Acoustics-U.S.A. and GIK Acoustics-Europe (based in Bradford, UK) manufacture and sell bass traps, acoustic panels and diffusors direct to customers around the world. Dollar for dollar, GIK Acoustics’ products absorb more sabins (sound) than any other product on the market. It is clear that GIK Acoustics is the #1 choice in acoustic treatments for recording studios, listening rooms, home theaters, churches, restaurants, and live auditoriums. We proudly offer a large selection of highest quality products at affordable prices as well as provide clients with a professional design and support staff to achieve a quality acoustic space.

www.gikacoustics.com, www.gikacoustics.co.uk, www.gikacoustic.fr, www.gikacoustics.de

For media inquiries, contact:

David Shevyn

General Manager +44 (0) 20 3815 8608 (UK)

[email protected]

Shelly Williams

Marketing Director

[email protected] 00 + 1 + (770) 986-2789 (U.S.)

33 Two-Channel Audio Discoveries from RMAF 2015

At this year’s Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, I divided my time between the vibrant CanJam (that is, headphone and earphone orientated) section of the show and visiting a select handful of 2-channel audio manufacturers. Consequently, what follows is by no means a comprehensive show report, but rather a series of audio ‘core samples’ captured in order to show what I regard as pleasant discoveries from the show.

As always, my apologies to worthy manufacturers I was not able to visit or cover. The omissions are not intentional but rather reflect significant time constraints, as in: “Too much show, and not enough ‘me’ to cover it all.”

Enjoy.

2-Channel Discoveries from RMAF

Aesthetix

Aesthetix showed its elegant and accomplished new Atlas Saturn Eclipse Stereo hybrid valve/solid-state power amplifier priced at $15,500. The Atlas Stereo Eclipse is essentially a significantly upgraded and improved version of the Atlas Stereo power amplifier reviewed by Roy Gregory in Hi-Fi+ 107. At the show, the Aesthetix amp was (ahem) vigourously driving a pair of Focal Sopra2 floorstanding loudspeakers (not shown).

Audio Physic, Dr. Feickert Analogue, IsoTek, Primare, Transparent System

Vana Ltd. demonstrated the lovely new Audio Physic Avanti tower-type speakers ($8,000/pr.) in their US debut. The Avantis were part of a well-balanced system featuring Primare electronics backed by an extensive group of IsoTek power conditioning and delivery components. The slender Avantis delivered a much bigger and more refined sound than I expected given their size and comparatively modest price. In fact, I felt they captured much of the overall ‘feel’ and character of the larger and more costly Audio Physic models, but in a more compact and accessibly priced package, which is saying a lot.

Audioengine

The value-minded company Audioengine debuted its newest self-powered standmount monitors: the HD6 monitors priced at $749/pair. The HD6 are targeted toward discerning music lovers on a budget, and feature optical, Bluetooth, and analogue inputs. Interestingly, pairs of HD6s are configured so that one speaker acts as the master (because it contains both the left and right-channel amplifiers), while the other serves as a ‘slave’ that receives power from the master unit. Both in terms of physical styling and overall sound, the HD6s reminded me of some of the classic small monitors I have heard and enjoyed from the UK (for example, some of the classic small monitors from Epos and others).

AURALiC

If you visit enough audio shows, it becomes apparent that a number of high-end manufacturers have embraced AURALiC’s full-size ARIES wireless streaming bridge ($1,599) as their preferred vehicle for adding streamer-like/server-like capabilities to most any DAC-equipped system.

But RMAF marked the US debut of AURALiC’s impressive new ARIES MINI ($599), which can be viewed as a dramatically cost-reduced version of the bigger ARIES, but with several important twists: in contrast to the original ARIES, the ARIES MINI incorporates a built-in DAC, add Bluetooth connectivity and an improved tri-band Wi-Fi interface, supports an expanded range of streaming services (including Tidal, WiMP, Qobuz, Deezer, Pandora, Rdio, SiriusXM, SoundCloud, Spotify, and more), options for adding internal HDD/SSD music storage, and even comes with a free 1-year subscription to Tidal (a $240 value). In short, the ARIES MINI offers a huge amount of functionality for not a lot of money.

Important Note: UK, European, and other international Hi-Fi+ readers will want to be aware that the free Tidal subscription offer mentioned above applies only for AURALiC ARIES MINI units sold in North America.

In practice, users can create simple and highly cost-effective audio systems by combining a music library storage system (for example, a NAS drive or USB drive) with an ARIES MINI and a nice pair of self-powered speakers—dramatically reducing the entry-price for access to legitimate high-end sound quality

Aurender

Aurender was showing two of its newest music servers at RMAF, the upscale N10 ($8,000) and more affordable and surprisingly compact N100h ($2700). Both models, and in fact all Aurender models, exude a certain fineness of fit and finish that only serves to reflect the careful attention to detail that Aurender lavishes upon the insides of the units.

Ayre Acoustics

Ayre chose to highlight its versatile new Codex preamp/headphone amp/DAC ($1,795) at RMAF, creatively configuring its demo room to look something like a recording studio control room. Then, Ayre use the Codex as the centrepiece of two systems: one set up to drive a pair of compact KEF LS50 monitors (as if at a studio control console) and the other set up as a headphone station. My sense was that the Codex offers sonic sophistication that belies its comparatively modest price—a brief observation I would like to put to a longer test, perhaps in a future Hi-Fi+ review.

Boulder

Boulder bowled over RMAF attendees with its gorgeous, ultra top-tier model 2120 DAC ($65,000), which both looks and sounds terrific. In simple terms, the 2120 is Boulder’s challenger for top honours in the unspoken competition for the title of ‘best DAC on the planet, ever.’ Can it deliver the sonic goods? Only time will tell, but it certainly sounded promising at this show.

Cambridge Audio

Many audiophiles are familiar with Cambridge Audio’s top-of-the-range Azur 851-series components, but for RMAF the firm was giving greater emphasis to its somewhat more affordable CX-series components. In particular, the focus was upon Cambridge’s CXN Network Player ($999) and on its new-for-RMAF CXU Universal Disc Player ($1,299). What I discovered at the show, though, is that the CXU Disc Player actually incorporates a large portion of the functionality of the CXN Network Player—something that isn’t immediately apparent at first glance. When you stop to think about it, then, the multifunction CXU seems like quite the bargain in that it can happily play just about any type of disc known to man, while also serving up DAC/network player functionality on demand. Cool, no?

Core Power Technologies

CPT is a new player on the stage in the world of high-performance power conditioning and the firm’s first three products, called the Equi=Core 50 ($499 and up), Equi=Core 150 ($599 and up), an Equi=Core 300 ($799 and up), are simply fascinating. CPT describes the Equi=Core models as ‘AC Balanced Power Sources’ that can be used wherever high quality power cords would normally be used. The only differences between the three Equi=Core models is the maximum power output they can sustain, and I was told that even larger Equi=Core models are already in the works.

What’s an AC Balanced Power Source? A company spokesman described the Equi=Core as a specialised type of AC power cord in the centre of which is fitted a rather large, ‘black box’ device that converts normal AC into balanced-mode AC, which in turn can be fed directly to audio components or to a high quality AC power strip. The advantage of this balanced-mode = AC approach, said the spokesman, is that it inherently cancels our any/all induced noise on the AC lines, yet without requiring complicated or expensive AC regeneration or filtration circuitry. As a result user can enjoy noise-free AC power and hi-fi systems that will benefit from very quiet backgrounds.

dCS

dCS joined forces with VTL (Vacuum Tube Logic) and Wilson Audio to assemble a demonstration system that, among other things, served as the US market rollout for the new dCS Rossini-series Player ($28,499), DAC (not included in the demo system, but priced at $23,999), and Master Clock ($7,499). In a pre-show session held just for press members, dCS spokesman Martin Reynolds explained the many ways in which the Rossini components leverage design insights and technologies borrowed from the firm’s premier (and far more costly) Vivaldi components.

In the actual listening, the Rossini components performed beautifully, as we have come to expect from dCS, with a sound that was dead neutral in its overall balance with sumptuous amounts of inner detail and textural and dynamic nuances aplenty. What was particularly striking, I felt, was the Rossini components’ collective ability to delineate and differentiate between good, very good, excellent, excellent+, and downright superb recordings, which left me (and other listeners) with the sense that Rossini components can and do show precisely what’s going on in the recordings at hand.

Digibit/S-Booster

The Digibit Aria Mini music server (reviewed in Hi-Fi+ 122) was on demonstration at RMAF, but with a twist, as it was being fed by an S-Booster power supply from the Netherlands. The basic concept calls for taking already good-sounding components (e.g., the Aria Mini) and then making them even better by adding a quieter and more muscular power supply from S-Booster.

S-Booster offers high-quality outboard power supplies to complement a very wide range of components, with prices that often range from about $400 – $440 (though as you would expect, pricing varies from application to application).

Emerald Physics

Emerald Physics makes open-baffle, controlled directivity, dynamic-driver equipped loudspeakers that enjoy a reputation for delivering terrific openness, transparency, and powerful dynamics, yet at very affordable prices. For RMAF, the featured model was the firm’s KCII loudspeaker (starting at $2,499/pair in a black powder-coated finish, with more exotic finishes available at extra cost).

Emerald Physics speakers are essentially sold factory direct under the auspices of the famous international audio dealer Underwood HiFi (headed by audio retailing veteran Walter Liederman). Underwood is passionately committed to selling high-performance/high-value systems and to this end the firm offers a number of specially priced ‘bundled’ systems based around the KCII (and other Emerald Physics) loudspeakers, combined with products drawn form other brands that Underwood represents.

The RMAF show system, for example, featured a deluxe-finished set of KCII speakers, Emerald’s own 100Wpc EP-100.2SE stereo power amp, a DSPeakerDSP2.4 digital crossover, a pair of Gallo Classico CLS-10 powered sub, a Wyred4Sound MS-1 Server, a Cambridge Audio CDP disc transport, Wireworld cables, Core Power power conditioning, and—significantly—an Exogal Comet DAC. The core system (speakers, subs, amp, and DAC) was offered for a special bundled price of $6,995, which—given the sound quality on offer—certainly qualifies as a screamin’ good deal.

UK readers might wish to note the Emerald Physics/Underwood HiFi now offers special ‘delivered-directly-to-your-door’ pricing for British audiophiles who would like to sample the Emerald Physics sound.

German Physiks

German Physiks showed its Carbon IV omnidirectional loudspeaker ($31,350/pair) at RMAF, presenting the speaker in a demo system comprised of the Merging Technologies NADAC, an Ayre Acoustics preamp and power amp, with all components connected via Purist Audio Cables. The speaker derives its name, in part, from the fact that it is based a carbon fibre version of the firm’s signature Walsh-type DDD omnidirectional driver and from the fact that its distinctive octagonal-footprint cabinet features carbon fibre sidewalls. Quite frankly, I felt the German Physics/Merging Technology/Ayre system was one of the two or three best I heard at RMAF; the sound quality was simply breathtaking.

I have heard German Physiks speakers before, some larger and other smaller than the Carbon IV, but my take on things was that the Carbon IV was not only best all-around speaker I’ve yet heard from German Physiks, but that it was also one of the finest omnidirectional speakers I’ve heard at any price. Omnis can sometimes sound a bit too diffuse for their own good and thus can seem to lose track of small but critical low-level details—especially details that provide spatial and other imaging cues. Happily, though, the Carbon IV did not seem to have these problems; it offered rich, full, and complete delivery of low-level musical information while also doing a remarkable job of conveying a believable sense of place and placement on good recordings.

Harbeth

RMAF 2015 marked the US debut of Harbeth’s new flagship loudspeaker: namely, the 40.2 Monitor ($14,990), which was being driven by a Vinnie Rossi LIO preamp/ phono stage and Stereo VR120 power amplifier.

My thoughts upon encountering the 40.2 were, succinctly, these:

They’re beautiful; the art of fine British woodworking is alive and well at Harbeth.
They’re big—really big; when you see them in photographs, the 40.2s don’t seem nearly as large as they do when you actually see them in person. This is the sort of monitor that you can use in a mid-size room, but that I think could and would very easily fill much larger spaces with sound.
They sound like classic BBC monitors that A) have gone off to finishing school for added sophistication and refinement, B) have gone off to graduate school to attain higher levels of mastery than other speakers of their ilk, and C) have been working out with a world-class rugby team so as to add muscle, agility, and all-round sonic athleticism.

My one-word take on the 40.2 would be this: Wow.

IsoTek

For RMAF, IsoTek took, as is their habit, a ‘systems’ approach to power conditioning in a demonstration that featured an Dr. Feickert Analogue Woodpecker turntable feed Primare electronics, which in turn drove a lovely set of Audio Physic Avanti loudspeakers. Serving as a foundation for the entire system were a coordinated set of four complementary IsoTek components:

The EVO3 Sigmas full-system mains conditioner ($4,500),
The EVO3 Titan power amplifier mains conditioner ($5,000),
The EVO3 Syncro SE DC block cable ($2,450), and
A number of EVO3 Optimum power cables ($995/each).

As mentioned above, the IsoTek elements most definitely helped the Audio Physic Avanti speakers put their best sonic foot forward.

Jeff Rowland Design Group

In a ‘pull-out-all-the-stops’ move, the Jeff Rowland Design Group took the opportunity at RMAF 2015 to introduce its spectacular new Daemon super-integrated amplifier to the US market (the amplifier had debuted earlier this year at Munich 2015). The Daemon offers over 20 user-definable inputs, including an accomplished optional MM/MC phono section, an optional HDMI module, an optional Wi-Fi Streaming module, an extensive set of balanced and single-ended analogue inputs, and an elaborate range of digital inputs. The Daemon can deliver a staggering 1,500 Wpc at 8 Ohms or 2,500 Wpc at 4 Ohms. The price is approximately $39,000, but can vary depending on options selected.

The Daemon sounded promising indeed in a demo system where the super amp was paired with a set of YG Acoustics Sonja 1.2 floorstanding loudspeakers.

Lampizator

The Polish high-end electronics firm Lampizator was well represented at RMAF, with a pair of its valve-powered monoblock amplifiers and one of the firm’s The Big 7 DSD DACs ($7,000 – $11,000, depending on configuration) on static display, but with a sample of the firm’s flagship Golden Gate DAC ($14,500 – $21,000 depending on the configuration).

Rather trying to describe the sound of the Lampizator Golden Gate, which is chockfull of sonic potential, let me encourage readers to wait for an upcoming Hi-Fi+ review of the Golden Gate, which should prove an entertaining and eye opening read.

Lumin/S-Booster

The famous music server builder Lumin used its RMAF 2015 demo to focus attention on the firm’s most accessibly priced model: namely, the Lumin D1 streamer/renderer/DAC ($2,000). The D1 supports playback for PCM files to 32/384kHz resolutions as well as for DSD 64 file.

The D-1 was supported and enhanced through use of an outboard S-Booster power supply from the Netherlands (typical prices for add-on S-Booster power supplies ranges between about $400 – $440).

M2Tech

M2Tech showed its three-piece family of mini-components including the HiFace Evo Two 384/32 and DSD D-to-D converter ($650), the Evo Clock Two precision clock generator ($650), and the Evo Supply Two low noise power supply ($550). Our readers from Germany might wish to note that, in the German market, these same components are marketed under the Manunta brand name.

Also on demonstration from M2Tech was exciting Joplin MkII analogue-to-digital converter ($1,700), which is capable of converting incoming analogue signal to digital files at resolutions up to 32/384kHz.

Merging Technologies

Merging Technologies’ groundbreaking NADAC (Network Attached DAC) ST2 ($10,500) was matched with an Ayre Acoustics KXR Twenty preamplifier and MX-R Twenty power amplifiers, plus German Physiks Carbon MkIV loudspeaker for what was, hands down, one of the best sounding demo systems I heard at RMAF 2015, regardless of price.

Instead of providing increasingly common USB inputs, the Merging NADAC provides AES/EBU and SP/DIF optical and coax inputs, but is really geared to receive high-res digital audio files (PCM at up to 32/384kHz rates and DSD 64/128/256) via Ethernet using the open standard Ravenna/AES67 protocol. The NADAC communicates with computers using ASIO in Windows environments and CoreAudio/DoP on MacOS systems. Finally, precise communication clocking is driven by the NADAC through the IEEE 1558 Precision Time Protocol, which is said to yield “a clock resolution of one nanosecond.”

Merging’s approach may seem unorthodox at first, but no one can argue with the sonic results. Based on a brief but extremely compelling listen, I was struck by the NADAC’s extraordinarily vibrant, lucid, transparent, and highly three-dimensional presentation. Watch for an upcoming review of the NADAC in Hi-Fi+.

Nola

Carl Marchisotto of Nola Loudspeakers always puts together a fine RMAF demo and this year’s presentation was no exception. Highlighted in the demo was Nola’s new KO2 floorstander ($12,000), which is a significantly revised version of the firm’s original KO loudspeaker.

The KO, and now the KO2, stands as a sort of transitional model in the Nola range—a model placed at the very top of the firm’s ‘Boxer’ range of speakers, but that is, both conceptually and sonically, quite close to the firm’s more costly and exotic ‘Reference Gold’-series speakers. Setting the KO2 apart from the original KO are a series of modest changes that together have a big impact on the speaker’s sound. Among these changes are new carbon fibre midrange drivers, revised crossover networks, re-tuned low frequency chambers, and more extensive use of Nordost monofilament silver internal wiring. The result is a more open, nuanced, and expansive sound—areas where the original KO was already very good.

Nola’s system, fed by an Audio Research CD Player and a VAC valve-type integrated amplifier was one of the two or three best I heard at the show.

Nordost

RMAF 2015 marked the arrival of Nordost’s new flagship Odin 2 cable fable, which was on demonstration in the Nordost room and in a few other top-tier rooms at the show. Although I didn’t get to hear Odin 2 for long enough to form an in-depth impressions, my initial thought was that it was impressive not so much for any one group of things it does, but rather for its uncanny ability to step completely aside to allow the personalities of associated components and recordings to shine through.

Peachtree Audio

Peachtree introduced its upcoming new class of high-end ‘super lifestyle’ products in the form of the sleek and compact new Sona DAC ($1,299), which offers both single-ended and balanced outputs, and the companion 150 Wpc Sona Amp ($999).

PS Audio

At RMAF PS Audio introduced the audiophile community to its impressive new Bascom H. King designed BHK Signature 300 Monoblock amplifiers ($14,998/pair), while previewing a prototype version of the BHK Signature hybrid valve/solid-state preamplifier (price TBD). Feeding these amplification components was a PS Audio PerfectWave Memory Player disc transport ($3,999) running through the firm’s critically acclaimed DirectStream DSD DAC ($5,999). Power for the system was supplied through a set of three PS Audio P10 Power Plant Regenerators ($4,999/each). The entire PS ensemble was in turn used to drive a set of YG Acoustics’ flagship Sonja 1.3 loudspeakers ($106,800/pair), with cabling supplied by MG Audio.

The system was more than capable of indicating the terrific performance potential of the BHK Signature 300 amps and of YG’s Sonja 1.3, while the Perfect Wave transport and DirectStream DAC served as terrific sources. On the basis of what I heard, I believe the BHK Signature 300s will definitely invite comparison to far more costly top-tier amplifiers.

My only reservation about the demonstration system involved speaker placement, which I suspect limited the YG Sonja 1.3s (and thus the associated BHK Signature 300 amps) to ‘very good’, when I suspect that both the Sonja 1.3s and PS Audio’s new monoblock amps are capable of even more performance. Further listening is indicated.

Quad

New for RMAF were Quad’s beautiful new Artera Play preamp/DAC ($2,199) and associated Artera Play Stereo power amplifier ($2,299), which look exceptionally handsome when grouped together. According to the US distributor, MoFi, the Artera combination punches far above its price class in terms sheer sonic performance, and manages to look good while doing so.

Raidho

At recent shows, the Danish loudspeaker-maker Raidho has gradually been introducing new members of its slender X-series loudspeaker family. First came the compact X1 monitor and then the much taller but no less slim X-3 tower ($29,500/pair), but for RMAF 2015 introduced a new wrinkle in the form of its new XT-3 floorstander ($36,500/pair). Visually, the XT-3 looks nearly identical to the X-3, but with a thin coating of titanium overlaid upon the X-3’s ceramic mid-bass drivers. Sonically, difference between the X-3 and Xt-3 is very much analogous to the difference between Raidho’s C 1.1 monitor (which uses a ceramic mid-bass driver) as compared to the firm’s almost identical-looking D-1 monitor (which uses a ceramic mid-bass driver with a diamond/carbonite coating). In both cases already excellent loudspeakers becomes even better.

Given how slim the XT-3 and X-3 towers are, one perhaps could be forgiven for wondering about maximum output levels, but Raidho put such concerns to rest by playing—purely for the fun of it—a raucous Rammstein heavy-metal track at absolutely ludicrous volume levels. The XT-3s seemed to like this a lot, as did the enthusiastic listeners in the room.

Russ Andrews

For RMAF 2015 Russ Andrews introduced a good/better/best range of power conditioner/power distribution products collectively know as X8 Power Blocks (so named, I think, because each model offers eight AC mains sockets). The X8 Power Blocks are offered in three forms: the Enthusiast model ($1,878), the Professional model ($4,785), and the aptly named Perfectionist model ($10,153).

Synergistic Research

As has been his practice at the last several audio shows I have attended, Synergistic President Ted Denney was showing his undeniably exotic and unorthodox suite of room/component tuning accessories, many of which appear to hover right on that grey and oh-so-fuzzy line between advanced technology and the audio equivalent of outright wizardry or magic. Among the products on display were Synergistic’s Atmosphere power cord, the Black Box LF Resonator Array, the Atmosphere multi-channel signal generator/acoustic wave generator, and multiple sets of the firm’s tiny HFT high-frequency transducer devices.

Frankly, Synergistic’s tuning products stray so far from the beaten path that it would be tempting to dismiss them out of hand but for one thing: they work. They really work, and in fairly obvious, repeatable, and readily demonstrable ways. The fact is that visiting the Synergistic Research room at an audio show is a bit like witnessing a truly first-rate magic act; you walk away wowed by what you have just seen and heard, but without having any concrete idea as to how the results were accomplished. For obvious reasons, further serious investigation is indicated.

Vinnie Rossi

Vinnie Rossi thinks outside the box and as a result his audio components offer desirable combinations of features and functions not found anywhere else. For RMAF, Vinnie Rossi was demonstrating a system based an Acoustic Signature turntable, on his own LIO ultracapacitor-powered, ‘modular hi-fi’ system ($4,875 and up) and on his new, also ultracapacitor-powered VR120 power amplifier ($4,995), plus a set of Harbeth’s new model 40.2 monitor-type loudspeakers.

This LIO is not so much a singular component, but rather a flexible audio component platform that can be configured as an integrated amplifier, a valve-type preamplifier, a phono preamplifier, a high-res DSD/PCM DAC, a headphone amplifier, or virtually any combination of the above. But the LIO defining, signature feature is its patent-pending ultracapacitor power supply design, where the LIO incorporates two banks of ultracapacitors with one bank powering the unit while the other bank recharges. An extremely fast and low noise switching mechanism allows the LIO to alternate between banks of capacitors in real time, ensuring that the LIO has a continuous, consistent, and very low-noise supply of power that is capable, where necessary, of delivering large quantities of current on demand.

New for RMAF is Vinnie Rossi’s 120 Wpc VR120 power amplifier, which uses an even more beefy version of the LIO’s ultracapacitor power supply (Rossi has named this the PURE DC-4EVR power supply). According to Rossi, the supply means the VR120 enjoys silent, “black” backgrounds without any need for “expensive power filters, power cords, or conditioners.

VTL

VTL teamed with dCS and Wilson Audio to offer a suave and sophisticated demonstration that highlighted the firm’s TP-6.5 signature phono stage with MC step-up ($12,000), TL-6.5 Series II signature linestage preamplifier ($15,000), and MB-185 Series III signature valve-type monoblock power amplifiers ($17,500).

Interestingly, both the VTL and dCS components in the demo system represented offerings ‘one click down’ from their respective manufacturer’s top-of-the-range products, but you really wouldn’t have guessed this from the system’s sound (well, unless you had the top-of-the-range models on hand for direct comparison). Even so, my thought was that these ‘one step down’ models might represent true sweet spots in their manufacturer’s product lines, offering near-mountaintop performance at an expensive but significantly lower-than-mountaintop price.

Historically, Luke Manley of VTL has a gift for configuring demo systems using Wilson loudspeakers (in this instance, Wilson’s comparatively affordable Sabrina floorstanders, priced at $15,900/pair), that deliver a well-balanced, revealing and sophisticate sound and this year’s dCS/VTL/Wilson system proved no exception. Nordost Odin 2 cabling no doubt helped in this venture.

Wilson Audio

Wilson Audio teamed with VTL (Vacuum Tube Logic) and dCS in a demo system highlighting one of Wilson’s least expensive loudspeakers: the three-way, $15,900/pair Sabrinas. The Sabrinas have been out long enough at this stage that they perhaps no longer qualify as being truly ‘new’ products, but I must say that every time I hear them I walk away thinking that they might well be one of Wilson’s most musically communicative and seductive offerings, as the dCS/VTL/Wilson system once again demonstrated.

Wyred4Sound

Wyred4Sound was showing a very exciting prototype of its new 250Wpc Statement amp ($4,000) and its new Intimo headphone amplifier/DAC, which will be offered in both single-ended ($999) and balanced-output ($1,500) formats.

YG Acoustics

Having spent the past year and a half in promoting their Carmel 2 and Hailey 1.2 loudspeakers, the firm felt it was time to direct attention to YG’s flagship speaker: the Sonja. Sonja’s are offered in two forms: the two-module/channel Sonja 1.2 and the considerably larger three-module/channel Sonja 1.3 ($106,800). Both models were featured in three different rooms: GTT Audio’s YG/Audionet room (featuring Sonja 1.3s), Jeff Rowland Design Group’s Rowland/YG room (featuring Sonja 1.2s), and PS Audio’s PS Audio/YG room (based on Sonja 1.3s).

I was only able to visit two of the three rooms (the Rowland room and the PS Audio room). In both those setting the speakers ably served the purpose of showing (most of) the potential of the new flagship electronics components used to drive them. However, based on prior listening experiences with the Sonjas, I felt that even though these demonstrations of YG’s top-of-the-range loudspeaker showed substantial performance potential, they still had even more to give.

First Look: Chord Mojo portable DAC/headphone amp

In late 2012, Chord Electronics Managing Director John Franks and the company’s digital designer Rob Watts were having an argument. In front of them lay the advanced prototype of what would be the Hugo. “We need to make that,” said Franks, pointing to the high-resolution DAC and headphone amplifier that would go on to redraw the high-end portable audio world “a lot smaller and a lot cheaper!” The HBO edition of Watts’ response is not repeatable, but the made-for-daytime-TV edit was “It can’t be done!” And Rob Watts was right… in 2012.

Unlike companies that rely on off-the-shelf chips, Chord Electronics products are subject to Moore’s Law, and the Field-Programmable Gate Array chips the company uses to store its D/A decoding algorithms, get ever smaller, cheaper, more powerful, and less power hungry. Couple this to a similar drive for smaller, more powerful, and more robust rechargeable battery technology, and what was true in 2012 is old news today. Mojo is the result.

Chord designed Mojo to be a portable DAC with a significant amount of the audio performance and headphone driving ability of Hugo, but for a fraction of the price. Franks also called upon that most unfashionable (but incredibly useful) dimensional comparison – Mojo is designed to be about the size of a packet of cigarettes. It’s also reassuringly solid feeling; not heavy, but… solid. Making Mojo that small means stripping the DAC’s functions to a bare minimum, and on one side are two micro USB ports, one for charging and one to connect it to a portable audio or PC source. Next to these is a Toslink optical connector and a 3.5mm Coaxial digital input (you can connect all three simultaneously, and Mojo auto-switches). Along the other side of the Mojo is a pair of 3.5mm headphone jacks, and on its top is three little opaque spheres that control the power and volume of the DAC. These have a little rainbow array of colours, the power on button denoting input frequency, the two up/down volume buttons showing volume level.

There is a colour chart showing the various sample rates on the packaging to the Mojo (Chord has cleverly made the box double as the Quick Start guide for the DAC). Both volume and sample frequencies are arranged in rainbow order (44.1kHz being red and lowest volume setting, 768kHz being violet and high volume, and DSD replay denoted by white, and full volume on the up/down controls). Aside from logos, some bolts to hold the thing together and four little hard blobs for feet, that’s all the connectivity you get with Mojo. And it’s probably all you need for a DAC that makes the portable Hugo look ‘luggable’ in comparison.

Chord strongly recommends you spend 10 hours charging the battery first time out (there is a little indictor LED under the charging USB). This invites obvious “Got My Mojo Workin’” quips when powered up that are, sadly, irresistible. Mojo will run for eight to 10 hours between charges and takes four hours to charge. In addition to the standard mini USB connectors, Franks showed a prototype cover that would make connection to iDevices simple using one of Apple’s connection kits. This should be ready in a couple of weeks; connection to Android phones and USB-equipped computers is easy (there is a Windows driver: it auto-mounts on Apple devices), but until that box ships, connection to iDevices is a bit of a cable kludge. Blame Apple!

I’m not intending to spend too long talking about the sound quality of the Mojo, in part because it cries out for being compared to the Hugo in absolute terms, and for that my colleague Chris Martens is the obvious candidate for the task. But while I’ve not logged as many Hugo hours as Chris, I have spent some time in the company of Hugo (as well as many other DACs) and it’s clear that Mojo is something really special. It’s dynamic, powerful, unbelievably detailed, capable of laying down a good beat, and gives the music a sense of structure and texture that Hugo was so good at doing. While you’ll probably be won over by those elements in about 10 seconds flat, it also has Hugo’s effortlessness, that allows you to listen to music comfortably for the longest time without that sense of digital fatigue you can get with some very detailed replay chains.

Downsides are few. If you don’t like the matt black finish and might prefer something that shows off the aluminium case in a more shiny way, you are out of luck. The physical size of the Mojo does make full sized connectors and sockets out of the question (it’s a portable DAC, though… would you ever use it with a ¼” headphone jack on the move?) and it gets toasty warm when you use it, and warmer still when you charge it. Not uncomfortably or worryingly so, but it’s no ice-cool device.

I’m saving the best until last, though. The price. Remember that this is a DAC capable of DSD 256 files and PCM files up to 24/768kHz, is capable of driving any headphone or CIEM with an impedance between 4Ω and 800Ω, and is built in the UK. It’s priced at £399 or $599! No wonder that name Mojo is short for ‘mobile joy’!

It’s very early days with Mojo. I’ve not yet even worn down its battery from its first charge, so it may change over time. It’s currently ever so slightly warm sounding, in a manner not dissimilar to Hugo. Time will tell whether that warmth remains, recedes, or increases. But even if it stays exactly how it currently plays, Mojo is a world-class performer, with a sound quality that until the middle of October this year, would have cost you thousands to achieve.

GamuT RS3 standmount loudspeaker

GamuT is a Danish firm that is famous both for its high performance audio electronics and loudspeakers, with the four-model RS-series range standing as the firm’s flagship offerings. The RS range evolved from an earlier-generation of GamuT flagship models known as the S-series speakers, which first appeared in 2007. According to firm’s R&D Manager Benno Baun Meldgaard, the intent in developing the RS range has been to preserve and even expand upon the technical strengths of the S-speakers while significantly improving their overall musicality. Meldgaard emphasises that all RS models share nearly identical voicing, so that the main differences between the RS3 standmount model tested here and its bigger siblings is slightly deeper low-frequency extension and the ability to develop higher sound pressure levels in larger rooms. Even so, GamuT stresses that the RS3 offers unusually deep bass extension for its size and “performs like a full range speaker for smaller to medium-sized rooms”—a bold claim that we will put to the test in this review.

GamuT’s RS3 is a two-way standmount loudspeaker with a ported enclosure said to be “tuned for optimal impulse response.” The enclosure features a swept-back, boat hull-like design with heavy internal bracing and a rear-firing aluminium port. The enclosure walls are fashioned from a laminate composed of “21 individual layers of wood of various thickness and type”, while the cabinet, says GamuT, is “shaped for optimal damping using small amount(s) of damping material.”

The speaker’s driver array consists of a 38mm silk diaphragm, ring-radiator-type tweeter with a stainless steel phase plug and a Neodymium magnet assembly, plus a 178mm mid-bass driver fitted with a sliced, natural oil-impregnated paper diaphragm cone. Both units are sourced from Scan-Speak, but are custom configured to GamuT’s specifications. The crossover network, in turn, is said to be a “phase and impulse linear” design, while the speaker presents a four-ohm load that is said to be amplifier friendly and to have low phase shift. Sensitivity is a relatively low 86.5dB/2.83V, meaning the speaker likes to be pushed by amplifiers that can deliver a fair amount of power into four-ohm loads.

Unlike many standmount loudspeakers, the RS3s arrive already mounted on their own integrated, and “acoustically optimised” stands, whose internal construction and external appearance mirrors that of the RS3 speakers. The stands are fitted with metal ‘outriggers’ and robust, oversized, adjustable stainless steel resonance control spikes, complete with a set of machined floor protection cups. The stands position the RS3s at exactly the right height and tilt-back angle for seated listeners to enjoy. Useful details abound, such as recessed speaker cable guides built into the back sides of the stands, or massively overbuilt speaker connection terminals—set up for bi-wiring—mounted on beefy terminal blocks fitted into the rear panels of the speakers. In lieu of fabric grilles, the speakers use sets of horizontal, elastic straps that are spaced 35mm apart and are suspended from vertical metal rods located near the edges of the front baffle. Overall, the RS3s achieve a modern, high-tech look coupled with an emphasis on old school woodworking and craftsmanship.

The core reference system for this review consisted of a PS Audio DirectStream DAC (reviewed in Hi-Fi+ issue 125) used as both a DAC and preamplifier, plus a pair of Gamut M250i monoblock amplifiers. I fed both standard and high-res digital audio files (in PCM, DXD, and DSD formats) to the system via either a PS Audio PerfectWave Transport (reviewed in issue 125) or the excellent AURALiC ARIES wireless streaming bridge. Furutech Flux-series interconnect cables, speaker cables, and power cords were used throughout the system, while AudioQuest USB and I²S cables were used to connect the ARIES and PerfectWave Transport to the DirectStream DAC.

The RS3s sounded impressive from the outset. I was bowled over by the sheer width and depth of the sound stages the RS3s produced. My mid-sized listening room (approximately 5.4m × 4.3) is configured so that speakers are typically positioned along the longer wall, meaning that speakers under review typically wind up being fairly widely spaced. Given this, I can achieve sound stages that stretch from the left to the right speaker, or perhaps a bit further. However, the RS3s confidently went much further than that to create stages that extended well beyond the boundaries of the left and right speakers—sometimes reaching outward to the sidewalls of the room, or beyond. Soundstage height and depth were equally impressive, with stages reaching upwards almost to the ceiling and reaching so far back that sounds often seemed to emanate from far behind the back walls of the room. While it has become commonplace for journalists to praise high-quality standmount speakers for producing ‘big sounds from small boxes’ the fact is that the RS3s stretched the performance well beyond what I previously had thought possible.

For an example of the RS3’s expansive sound staging in action, try putting on Jen Chapin’s rendition of the Stevie Wonder song ‘Big Brother’ from Chapin’s ReVisions [Chesky, 96/24]. The recording was made in the resonant interior of a church sanctuary and shows Chapin singing from centre stage, with saxophonist Chris Cheek performing to Chapin’s left and acoustic bassist Stephan Crump (who is also Chapin’s husband) performing to her right. As the song progresses, the RS3s explicitly show not only show both the performers’ positions on stage, and how Chapin’s vocals, and Crump and Creek’s instrumental contributions interact with the acoustics of the space. As a result, the RS3 not only play the music at hand, but also provide a realistic sense of place (or context) within which the music can unfold.

Later, toward the end of ‘Big Brother’, saxophonist Chris Cheeks creates a moment of sonic magic by playing a haunting, closing vamp as he gradually strolls to the left edge of the stage, then turns and walks to the back of the stage, and finally moves over toward the rear centre of the stage. As Cheeks moves, his horn acts as a subtle sonic ‘spotlight’ that illuminates the recording space and quite literally ‘lights up the room’. As this is happening, the RS3s track Cheek’s every movement with uncanny specificity, creating a three-dimensional illusion so powerful that one instinctively turns to watch Cheek walking around the stage. In short, the RS3s frequently create such moments where, if only for an instant, their compelling three-dimensionality trumps the mind’s awareness that the presentation is ‘only hi-fi’.

Next, I was impressed with the RS3’s excellent imaging precision and focus, both of which enhance and expand upon the speakers’ three-dimensionality. At the highest levels, the objective of loudspeaker imaging is to foster the believable illusion that sounds are emanating from real instruments and voices and not from loudspeakers. In this respect, vivid imaging is one of the RS3s’ greatest strengths. This fact was pressed home to me as I played guitarist Marc Ribot’s Y Los Cubanos Postizos (The Prosthetic Cubans) [Atlantic, HDCD] through the GamuTs. In general, this album conveys a warm, intimate, ‘live from the studio’ sound, which the RS3s exploited to the fullest extent possible. As a result, on the track ‘Aurora En Pekín’, the sound of Ribot’s amplified hollow-body guitar exhibited a rare kind of vividness and solidity. These qualities were further enhanced by the RS3s’ ability to capture small details such as plectrum noises or brief, split-second moments where Ribot’s guitar amp temporarily became oversaturated by particularly vigourous notes. Consequently, the sound of Ribot’s guitar seemed to exist independent of the GamuT speakers, taking up its place at centre stage in a manner so believable and compelling at times that I almost felt as if I could get up from my listening chair to reach out and touch the instrument (or its amplifier). By offering up precisely formed combinations of tonal colours, timbres, textures, and transient details the RS3 can produce palpable sonic images of startling realism.

I was also captivated by the RS3’s sheer dynamic speed and agility. In fact, after spending some time with the GamuT speakers, other transducers began to seem a little sluggish and slow on the uptake by comparison. Honestly, I have heard loudspeakers (e.g., certain full-range electrostats) that I thought offered excellent transient speed many times in the past, but I don’t think I’ve heard many (if any) that do as good a job as the RS3s of delivering powerful, fast-rising, and yet very well-controlled bursts of dynamic energy on demand. What is more, the RS3 demonstrates this capability across the entire audio spectrum—from the lowest notes to the highest. In fact, so essential is dynamic agility to the RS3s’ overall sound that I was forced to re-think the placement of acoustic treatments in my room to achieve better bass speed and dynamic articulation. Normally, I use sets of absorptive diffuser panels on the walls behind loudspeakers under review, but in the case of the RS3 those panels tended to slow the speaker down and soften its bass dynamics. To restore proper speed and impact, then, I had to move the panels from the back walls to the sidewalls of the room, which instantly unleashed even higher levels of performance from the GamuTs.

My point is that the RS3s consistently sound quick on their feet and full of dynamic energy and life, whether reproducing quicksilver treble percussion instruments such as the ethereal bells and gongs heard on Marilyn Mazur’s Elixir [ECM], the high-powered midrange horn section outbursts heard on Clark Terry’s The Chicago Sessions [Reference Recordings], or the fierce low-frequency transients of Marcus Miller’s bass guitar solos on SMV’s Thunder [Heads Up]. The agility and speed of the GamuT speakers help give them qualities of both clarity (because the beginnings and endings of notes are so sharply defined) and a sense of ‘you-are-there’ immediacy, proving there is real substance behind GamuT’s claim to have designed the speaker for correct phase and impulse response.

Finally, we come to GamuT’s assertion that the RS3 “performs like a full range speaker for smaller to medium-sized rooms.” Does it really? In a word, yes. To put the matter to the test, I put on some favourite classical, pop, and jazz bass tracks and came away impressed with the low-frequency depth, power, and control the RS3 had on offer. For example, the RS3s authoritatively captured all but the very lowest fundamentals while maintaining taut control and composure on the low organ pedal notes heard in both the ‘Pie Jesu’ section of Rutter’s Requiem [Reference Recordings, HDCD] or in the ‘Finale: Lento – Allegro moderato’ movement of Copland’s Organ Symphony [Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco System, SFS Media, 96/24]. Similarly, the speakers perfectly nailed the boisterous and slightly over-the-top vibe of the synth bass heard on Imogen Heap’s ‘Bad Body Double’ from Ellipse [RCA]. While the RS3 might not be the best speaker through which to explore the bottom half of music’s bottom octave, the fact is that it does handle true low bass with better extension, power, and finesse than it has any right to do, given its size.

Are there any drawbacks to the RS3, apart from its price? Well, one I would point out is the fact that, despite its improved musicality vis-à-vis the original GamuT S-series speakers, the RS3 is still more of an accurate speaker than it is a forgiving one. With good, very good, or excellent recordings the RS3s usually do just fine, but if you put on mediocre-sounding, heavily compressed, or somewhat bright-sounding material the GamuTs will inform you in no uncertain terms that your selection is sonically inadequate. In short, the price of the RS3’s excellence is that it does not and cannot do anything but tell you how your records actually sound, whether for good or ill.

GamuT’s RS3 standmount monitors are one of the two finest loudspeakers I’ve ever had in my home. I’ve prized the time I’ve spent with them because, in very many ways, they’ve shown me a way forward toward higher levels of performance than I thought possible in my mid-sized listening room. For me, and especially for listeners with moderately sized rooms, the RS3s offer the fascinating prospect of standmount monitors that can do nearly everything that large, costly, and exotic floorstanders can do, but that are much better scaled for use in small-to-mid-size spaces, and that sell at more accessible prices than big, top-tier floorstanders typically command. This is a superb speaker and one I recommend without reservation.

Technical Specifications

Type: Two-way, ported, standmount monitor with stands included as standard.
Driver complement: One 1.5-inch, silk diaphragm equipped ring‑radiator-type tweeter with a stainless steel phase plug and Neodymium motor magnet; one 7-inch sliced-paper cone mid-bass driver with a diaphragm impregnated with natural oils. Both drivers are custom-specified units sourced from Scan-Speak with various proprietary GamuT modifications.
Frequency response: 34Hz – 60kHz
Impedance: 4 Ohms
Sensitivity: 86.5dB/2.83V
Dimensions (H × W × D): 1059 × 226 × 456mm
Weight: 46 kg (including stands)
Finishes: Ivory (white oiled ash), Onyx (black ash), Ruby (a deep red wood finish), and Maroon (a dark brown wood finish similar in appearance to wenge)
Price: £13,190/pair

Manufacturer Information: GamuT Audio, 6818 Årre, Denmark

Tel: (+45) 70 20 22 68

URL: www.gamutaudio.com

Distributor Information: Sound Fowndations, 3A Vulcan House, Calleva Park, Aldermaston, RG7 8PA Berkshire, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 118 9814238

URL: www.soundfowndations.co.uk

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Cyrus Audio Stereo 200 power amplifier

The audio amplifier is in transition, because it’s becoming hard to justify a physically large, heavy, and energy hungry design today. Although Class D operation offers a resolution to all these issues, audiophiles often dismiss this technology for its sound quality. Which is why the Cyrus Audio 200 power amplifier is potentially so important.

With the Cyrus 200, Cyrus Audio claims to have built a Class D circuit that delivers high power (200W into six ohms, 175W into eight ohms) that not only fits into the standard Cyrus half-width HA7 die-cast aluminium chassis, but also sounds exceptionally good. Cyrus has eschewed buying off-the-shelf amp modules (from companies like Hypex or ICEpower), and instead designed its own Class D amp modules from first principles.

Significantly, the company recognised that Class D’s ‘voice’ is effectively governed by the impedance of the loudspeaker to which the amp is connected. Starting with the all-in-one Lyric system, Cyrus included its SID (Speaker Impedance Detection) circuit in all its Class D designs. On power up, SID sends a reference signal to the left loudspeaker, compares what it receives from the loudspeaker with that reference, and adjusts the output of the amplifier accordingly. In most other Class D systems, the best you can do is to cycle the power a few times and hope for the best.

Cyrus Audio calls the Stereo 200 a ‘hybrid’ design, but it’s not a hybrid in the conventional audiophile sense – don’t go looking for valves. Instead, the company chose to couple this sophisticated Class D design with a linear power supply more commonly found in Class A and Class AB amplifiers. Class D designs are so commonly accompanied by switch-mode power supplies that people mistakenly think switch-mode is an intrinsic part of the design itself. And when you gaze long into the ‘singing shoebox’ case, the small 475VA toroidal transformer will gaze back at you (no abysses were harmed in the making of this sentence).

By using this ‘hybrid’ Class D, the Stereo 200 sports a smaller and lighter transformer than expected for a 200W power amplifier, and the whole device weighs just under 7kg, or a shade below fifteen and a quarter pounds. Staying with imperial measurements, Cyrus has long been good at squeezing a quart into a pint pot, as is reflected in the densely packed back panel of the Stereo 200. It has XLR and single-ended phono inputs, a pair of ‘chain’ phono outputs for additional power amplifiers in a bi-amp setting, a mini-jack standard trigger socket, and two Cyrus’ own MC-BUS phono connectors, which are used to send comms signals between Cyrus devices. Add in two pairs of WBT-like loudspeaker terminals and a three-pin ICE socket, and there is barely any rear panel real-estate left – just enough for ‘made in England’, in fact.

While this is not Cyrus’ first stab at Class D (that honour goes to Lyric), this is the first time the company has incorporated the technology in its main audio separates line. The intervening years between the launch of Lyric and the Stereo 200 has allowed Cyrus to refine the technology, with higher quality components in the reconstruction filter, and greater isolation between ‘support’ electronics and the amplifier itself.

We used the Cyrus 200 with the Stream XP2 Qx streaming preamplifier/DAC, fed from a Naim UnitiServe. The Stream XP2 Qx is an upgradable 24/192 DAC with UPnP and DNLA compatibility through Ethernet. However, this meant single-ended output only. This is an excellent streamer, great DAC, and a pretty good preamp in its own right, especially at around £1,600. The Stream XP2 Qx’s first round of reviews were good, but they criticised its reliance on the remote handset; since then, Cyrus announced its own Cadence app, and this moves the functionality of the design forward a few notches.

Back to the Class D design. The Lyric this amp is designed from always had ‘space’ and, in terms of soundstaging, some ‘pace’ too; but the Cyrus 200 adds more ‘grace’ and even more ‘pace’ to the mix. What this means is that we can put away the ‘Class D’ discussions, while talking about how the amplifier actually sounds. If anything, the way the Cyrus 200 sounds in the flesh is closer to a really well-executed valve amp (with better Damping Factor).

The sound of the Cyrus 200 is remarkably clean, but not in a cold or sterile way; it’s more like looking at a high-resolution photograph, amid a wall of grainy, noisy prints. It’s not a lifting of veils, more an increase in precision and accuracy. Play something pure of tone – like Kat Edmonson’s voice on ‘Lucky’ from her Way Down Low album [Okeh/Sony Masterworks] – and you are rewarded with an extremely pure vocal free from any grain, hardness, edginess, or soundstage manipulation. The voice sounds as if it were physically ‘there’ between the loudspeakers, with the only real limitations coming from the loudspeaker boxes. You quickly begin to realise this ‘thereness’ holds throughout, but it also comes from the midrange out.

The Cyrus 200 is not mid-forward, and there is no emphasis toward the midrange. But it is an amplifier that delivers a noticeably great midrange, while the frequency extremes are in the very good class. Bass is surprisingly deep and potent for so lightweight an amplifier (normally that much clean bass needs a lot of reservoir capacitance and a far bigger power transformer) – a bass that is good enough to bust out ‘Handsworth Revolution’ from the Steel Pulse album of the same name [Virgin]. Here, the combination of roots reggae beat and dub bass depth has great presence and intensity. This album practically defines ‘phat’ bass decades before the term was coined, but can only do that to its fullest extent with a system that has excellent depth and control. It’s here where the tube amp sound analogy breaks down, but in a good way, because few valve amps have the ‘grip’ of the Cyrus 200.

Where this valve amp comparison hits home is in soundstaging. The Cyrus has a rare and valuable sense of three-dimensionality in its imaging that normally comes from the thermionic end of the amplifier spectrum. And yet, unlike thermionic valves, the Cyrus 200 is state of the art and relatively cool running in use. The live Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky piano trios played by Argerich, Kremer, and Maisky [DG] are a fine example of this soundstaging at work, in that you get a sense of the physical stage itself, and of three artists playing to a live audience through ambient information. As this is a late 1980s DG recording, this trio work isn’t like an audiophile pressing that could make a 3D soundstage when played through a transistor radio, so the fact the Cyrus 200 pulls as much staging information out of the recording is a sign of something good.

The acid test of a Class D design, and especially a design that includes impedance matching, is how well it works on a range of loudspeakers. More importantly, can it move from loudspeaker to loudspeaker with the ease of Class AB designs? The answer is ‘yes’, but a qualified ‘yes’, and fortunately for Cyrus, that qualification rarely applies in the real world to the kind of loudspeakers used on the end of a power amplifier at the Cyrus 200’s price point. There is no sense of ‘random characteristic generation’ when moving between two different loudspeaker designs here; that ‘space, grace, and pace’ refined character holds true across loudspeaker designs. The Cyrus 200’s bête noir is really punishing impedance loads, but fortunately this becomes largely the stuff of reviewers torturing products for fun and profit: no-one sane is going to run a pair of old Apogee Scintillas, for example. Stay above four ohms, don’t get it wet, and never feed it after midnight, and your Cyrus 200 will be your friend for life.

I think Cyrus has nailed Class D with the 200 power amplifier. I’ve heard my fair share of Cyrus amplifiers in my time, and this one is at least up there with the best of them. But more than that, the Cyrus 200 is an important amplifier, because it shows what Class D can do without costing a small fortune. While I’ve ‘banged on’ about Class D here (partly because the technology still has to justify its place in the audiophile hierarchy), I suspect most people who hear this amp will simply buy it because it sounds damn good. Highly recommended.

Technical Specifications

Inputs: 2× RCA phono single-ended, 2× XLR balanced line, 12V trigger, MC-BUS input phono
Outputs: 4mm/spade/bare wire loudspeaker terminals, 2× RCA phono single-ended chain out, MC-BUS output phono
Power output (continuous @ 0.1% THD+N): 175W per channel (into 8Ω), 325W per channel (into 4Ω)
Connectivity: Full RS232 control provided to allow a suite of Stereo 200 to be connected together, MC-BUS to other Cyrus products
Inputs: RCA phono or XLR balanced, 12V trigger
Power supply: 475VA Toroidal transformer
Dimensions (H×W×D): 73 × 215 × 360mm
Weight: 6.9kg
Finish: Black or silver
Price: £1,750

Manufactured by: Cyrus Audio

URL: www.cyrusaudio.com

Email: [email protected]

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Choosing and using standmount loudspeakers

The English have an affinity with standmount loudspeakers (especially two-way standmounts), as evidenced by the evergreen BBC-designed LS3/5a. This is understandable given the size of the typical English listening room, but with that affinity comes arrogance. We did not invent the standmount, and while we make a lot of very good standmounts, it doesn’t give us unique right to call ourselves ‘the best’. Other countries can lay equal claim to making some extremely good standmount designs, and over the years have made some truly world-class designs and innovations.

But since the heyday of the BBC Research Department, there have been significant developments in the materials used in the loudspeaker drive units, the components in the crossover network, and the choice of cabinet material. Sophisticated computer modelling designs optimum cabinet sizes, bracing, and port technology, while equally complex computer measurement techniques give the engineers an understanding of air flow inside and outside a loudspeaker, how a different cone surround effects the dynamics of a loudspeaker, and more. And these elements have created increasingly better loudspeaker designs.

We have recently looked at the basic technology and requirements of a loudspeaker back in issue 123. Rather than go over the same ground again, let’s look specifically at the practical concerns of installing a loudspeaker (in this case, but not exclusively, a standmount loudspeaker) in a room.

Naturally, the first consideration specific to a standmount loudspeaker is, er, a stand. While many companies provide a specific, dedicated stand for the loudspeaker, aftermarket stands often provide better performance. The three important aspects here are height, mass, and rigidity: in most cases (unless the loudspeaker manual says otherwise) the optimum height for a loudspeaker stand would make the acoustic centre of the tweeter of the loudspeaker fall roughly in line with your ears when seated. Some loudspeakers (for example, ProAc) perform best on a high-mass stand, while others (such as Epos) are best used with lightweight stands. Even rigidity has its supporters and detractors; companies such as Linn and Focal would have the loudspeakers completely immobile in the room, while brands like Raidho and Townshend are more concerned by energy transfer from stand to floor to speaker and that places rigidity as a relatively low priority.

Finding an appropriate amplifier match for a pair of loudspeakers is an important consideration, especially if you go beyond the comparatively safe option of a pair of reasonably easy to drive loudspeakers partnered with a relatively powerful solid-state amplifier. Some loudspeaker specifications do give an indication of how easy the loudspeaker is to drive; a loudspeaker with a rated minimum impedance of below two ohms, for example, is likely always going to need a hefty power amplifier to drive it, and will, in extreme cases, shorten the working life of the amplifier. Similarly, the low-frequency cut-off point in a loudspeaker’s frequency response, coupled to its sensitivity and maximum sound pressure level, will give broad indications of the sort of room this system will work well in: a low frequency limit of 50Hz (for example) will perfectly suit a small room, but sound too light in most cases in far larger rooms. However, in both these cases, the best solution is to work with experts who can advise and demonstrate upstream electronics and optimum systems for a given room

Once a loudspeaker is at the appropriate height with the right equipment, it’s worth considering the room it goes in. Room treatment is an important consideration in a dedicated listening room, but becomes hard to justify when the room is a shared family space. Nevertheless, a lot of loudspeaker woes can be resolved by subtle use of bass trapping in the corners of a room, absorption or diffusion behind the listener and (often) behind the loudspeakers and even first reflection treatment on the side walls and ceiling. If possible, it’s best to use dedicated room treatment solutions than home-brew variations like books, cushions, and sofas, but pragmatic considerations often weigh heavy.

Last but not least, it’s worth considering the installation itself. Most loudspeaker manuals include some kind of rudimentary installation diagram, usually some variant on an inverted isosceles triangle, with the listener at the apex and the loudspeakers at either base. Typically, in a rectangular room, try to sit on the centreline along the length of the room, with your chair around 1/3rd of the way from the rear wall. Then, position the loudspeakers at least 40cm from the nearest rear and side walls, and that they are ideally 2m or more apart. Once again, the manual is your friend, especially with regard to toe-in (the angle of the front of the speakers relative to your listening position). There are other schemes of install that many swear by, from firing across the room with the loudspeakers wide, and heavily ‘toed in’, through ‘vowelling in’ the room to find an optimum position, to ‘golden mean’ geomancy, and more.

Whichever installation system you try, experiment with careful positioning; consider the basic placement ‘roughed in’ and fine-tune the speaker set-up, even if it’s a centimetre or two movement. These can make big differences, on any loudspeaker.

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GamuT RS3 standmount loudspeaker

Technical Specifications

Price: £13,190/pair

Manufacturer Information: GamuT Audio, 6818 Årre, Denmark

Distributor Information: Sound Fowndations, 3A Vulcan House, Calleva Park, Aldermaston, RG7 8PA Berkshire, United Kingdom

Cyrus Audio Stereo 200 power amplifier

Technical Specifications

Manufactured by: Cyrus Audio

Choosing and using standmount loudspeakers

Technical Specifications

Manufacturer: PA Labs Company

UK Distributor: G-Point Audio

Technical Specifications

Manufactured by: All Engineering

Technical Specifications

Price: £13,190/pair

Manufacturer Information: GamuT Audio, 6818 Årre, Denmark

Distributor Information: Sound Fowndations, 3A Vulcan House, Calleva Park, Aldermaston, RG7 8PA Berkshire, United Kingdom

Technical Specifications

Manufactured by: Cyrus Audio

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