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Noble Audio 4S Custom Fit In-Ear Monitors

When we were children I suspect many of us received, at one point or another, stern admonitions from our parents against putting foreign objects (pencils, bits of modelling clay, green beans, or the like) in our ears. But while those warnings were probably issued with our best interests in mind, the sad fact is that their effects seem to have lingered on in the minds of some full-grown audiophiles reluctant to try any sort of in-ear listening devices. As I see it, this is a terrible shame as one of the most potentially satisfying experiences available to today’s audio enthusiasts is to listen to music through a fine pair of custom-fit in-ear monitors (or CIEMs, for short). One such set of CIEMs would be the Noble Audio 4S’s (£630), the subjects of this review.

For those unfamiliar with CIEMs, let me mention that, unlike universal-fit earphones, CIEMs make no attempt to provide compact, ‘one-size-fits-all’ earpieces or small rubber ear tips of varying sizes. Instead, CIEMs provide earpieces custom-moulded to fit the exact contours of a particular listener’s outer ears (or pinnas) and ear canals. Indeed, there are few more personalised experiences possible in the world of high-end earphones than to own and enjoy a set of CIEMs crafted for you and you alone. The idea behind the make is that CIEMs’ custom-fitted earpieces offer exceptional noise isolation, while also providing earpiece enclosures of sufficient volume to house sophisticated, multi-driver arrays. Consequently, CIEMs not only give their owners fundamentally superior sound quality, but also provide quiet enough backgrounds so as to appreciate that sound quality in a fuller and deeper way than might otherwise be possible.

A few months back (in Hi-Fi+ issue 119) I reviewed Noble Audio’s flagship Kaiser 10 CIEMs and concluded that they offered a rich, sumptuous, and intensely immersive sound that, though perhaps not quite neutral enough to be suitable for monitoring applications, nevertheless invited listeners to become, “caught up in the complex, intoxicating beauty of music.” After that review was published, Noble Audio co-founder and co-owner Brannan Mason told me he hoped I might one day try a set of Noble 4-series CIEMs as he considered them to be the most accurately and neutrally-voiced of all his firm’s in-ear monitors. Mason’s comments sparked my interest, eventually leading to this review.

Early on, I discovered Noble actually builds three versions of its model 4: the standard Noble 4 (£300), which is a universal-fit earphone, the Noble 4C (£450), which is a CIEM supplied with acrylic earpieces, and the Noble 4S (£630), which is also a CIEM, but one supplied with earpieces made of flexible silicone material. In choosing the Noble 4S’s for this review I had two objectives in mind. First, I wanted to see how the 4S differed from Noble’s Kaiser 10 in terms of voicing and overall sonic characteristics. Second, I also hoped to learn how or if silicone earpieces differed in terms of fit, comfort, and sonic characteristics from the acrylic ones used in the vast majority of CIEMs now on the market.

 

The Noble 4S is a three-way, dual-bore, custom-fit in‑ear monitor that uses an array of four balanced armature drivers (two bass drivers, one midrange driver, and one high-frequency driver) per earpiece. The 4S’s ship with detachable, user-replaceable 1m signal cables equipped with industry-standard 2-pin earpiece connectors and a 3.5mm stereo mini-plug on the amplifier end of the cable. The monitors arrive in a sturdy, watertight, padded hard-shell carrying case that bears a Noble logo on the outside, with the owner’s name permanently etched into the top of the case. On the inside, the case includes the 4S packed within a velvet carry bag, a pair of Noble-branded rubber straps (used to attach portable audio devices or smartphones to a portable headphone amp or the like), a tool for cleaning the CIEM’s earpiece bores, and an owner’s identification card.

For my listening sessions, I fed the Noble 4S a mix of standard and high-res uncompressed PCM, DXD, and DSD-format digital audio files delivered either through an Astell&Kern AK380 high-res digital audio player (reviewed in Hi-Fi+ issue 126), or through my reference Lenovo-based music server running jRiver Media Center software. The 4S was driven by a variety of amp/DACs, including the Astell&Kern AK380, the Celsus Sound Companion One (reviewed in Hi-Fi+ issue 126), and the superb Chord Electronics Hugo (reviewed in Hi-Fi+ issue 111). For comparison purposes, I had on hand several top-tier CIEMs, including the Noble Audio Kaiser 10 and JH Audio Roxanne monitors.

As mentioned above, Noble Audio touts the 4S for its exemplary neutral voicing, so I was keen to learn precisely what Noble means by the term ‘neutrality’ in a practical sense. I raise this point because neutrality can sometimes have significantly different meanings for different companies (and listeners). For some, a neutral-sounding transducer would be one that potentially can serve as a fine analytical or diagnostic tool for assessing the quality of specific recordings. No doubt there is a place in the market for such CIEMs, but the trouble with listening to music through primarily analytical devices is that they too often sound like the sonic equivalent of cod liver oil: awful to experience, yet ostensibly good for you.

For others, however, a neutral-sounding CIEM would possess the uncanny quality of musical ‘naturalism’, where recordings are reproduced with almost complete freedom from obtrusive tonal imbalances, colorations, or other sonic aberrations, whether of an additive or subtractive nature. The emphasis, in this case, is on creating a transducer that has the rare and valuable ability to get out of the way and simply let the music speak for itself. I’m pleased to report that the Noble’s 4S is a prime example of a neutral CIEM in this latter sense of the term.

Right from the start, the 4S put me at my ease because it offered a compellingly natural, unforced, and unembellished delivery of the music in terms of tonal balance, detailing, and dynamics. With many transducers, one has the sense that the product is somehow imposing its own persona on the music—almost as if a literal filter or equaliser had been inserted into the signal path. With the 4S, however, no such unwelcome tone-shaping characteristics or ‘filters’ insert themselves as barriers between listeners and their music. On the contrary, the 4S is happy to serve as a fundamentally clearer, more unfettered, and more honest conduit for the music.

 

In terms of tonal balance, the 4S offers well-defined and yet unexaggerated bass; transparent and open-sounding mids; and pleasingly extended, tightly focused, yet also uncommonly smooth highs. The key point is that each of these frequency bands is well balanced and proportionate to the others. Indeed, I believe this is where the 4S’s quality of effortless naturalism originates. But another essential ingredient involves the fact that the 4S’s mids and highs are uncannily smooth, with no abrupt peaks, troughs, or rough edges in the Noble’s frequency response curve distracting or annoying listeners. Put these qualities together and you have the recipe for a CIEM that is at once highly accurate yet also engaging and easy to listen to for extended periods of time.

Far from sounding lean or astringent, the 4S has a certain robust and easygoing demeanour stemming from the fact that it consistently sounds unstrained and unforced no matter what types of music you play. If, for example, you put on an orchestral work with large brass fanfares and potent low-frequency percussion passages, such as Mark O’Connor’s ‘Fanfare for the Volunteer’ [Mercurio, London Symphony Orchestra, Sony], the 4S rises to the occasion with an admirable combination of grace, power, and finesse. The 4S presents the low percussion instruments with clearly defined pitches and textures, plenty of weight and depth, and tons of transient punch—all without exaggeration. Similarly, the 4S helps the LSO brass section sound appropriately burnished and blazingly brilliant as the music warrants; yet without a trace of blare, glare, or overemphasis. My point is that the 4S seems able to deliver precisely what the recordings at hand require—but without adding editorial embellishments of its own.

Similarly, the 4S is at ease with smaller scale pieces that place a premium on nuance and textural finesse. Listen, for example, to the brief but excellent 58-second-long track “Bell Painting” from Marilyn Mazur and Jan Garbarek’s Elixir [ECM], and note how delicately and deftly the 4S handles the high-pitched bells and chimes featured on that track, complete with their shimmering high-frequency harmonics and overtones. This track can prove difficult for some CIEMs to reproduce, but through the Nobles it sounds just right thanks to their inherent qualities of smoothness, detail, and balance. Similarly, try violinist Hillary Hahn’s performance of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending [Sir Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Gramophon] and note carefully the 4S’s ability to capture Hahn’s impressive technique, which strikes a knife-edge balance between sweetness of tone and incisive articulacy. Once again, the 4S simply supplies just what the recording demands—nothing more and nothing less.

One final sonic characteristic of the 4S bears further mention: its wonderfully immersive quality of overarching coherence—a quality I also observed in Noble’s Kaiser 10 CIEM. Though difficult to put in words, this quality of coherence makes all the difference between hearing ‘a nice collection of high-quality drivers attempting to play music’ and something much better: a CIEM that transports you deep into the interiors of recordings, allowing each to define a listening environment all its own.

How did the Noble 4S fare in comparison to its more costly sibling, the Kaiser 10, or even to the more costly JH Audio Roxanne? Surprisingly, it held its own and then some. In fact, one could make a case that the 4S is more accurately balanced than either of the more costly units. In comparison to the 4S, the Kaiser 10 offers a noticeable touch of bass lift, subtly rolled-off highs, and perhaps a slightly higher degree of midrange articulation and definition. The JH Audio Roxanne, in turn, makes for a more difficult comparison because it offers user-adjustable bass output levels. With bass levels turned all the way up, the Roxanne delivers an overly prominent low-end response, but with bass levels turned down, the Roxanne still shows at least some degree of mid-bass emphasis relative to the 4S. Like Noble’s Kaiser 10, the Roxanne perhaps offers heightened levels of midrange articulation compared to the 4S, although the Roxanne’s extra articulation is undercut by a subtle ‘burr’ in its upper-midrange response. In the end, the 4S’s sheer neutrality and engaging smoothness enable it to stand tall in comparison to far more expensive CIEMs.

 

And what about the effects of the silicone earpieces? Simply stated, the 4S made me a believer in silicone earpieces. Because silicon earpieces can flex in much the same way as our ears do, I found them to offer a better and more comfortable fit, a more complete in-ear seal, and even higher levels of noise isolation than that offered by acrylic earpieces (up to 9dB more isolation, according to Noble Audio). The only downsides are that silicone earpieces do cost a bit more than acrylic ones, and take some getting used to until listeners master the appropriate techniques for inserting and removing the flexible earpieces. Noble has also figured out how to make silicone earpiece in different colours and with custom artwork appliqués — creative manufacturing know-how few other companies possess.

Noble Audio’s 4S CIEM it is at once accurate and transparent, yet engaging and easy to enjoy. Over time, the 4S has become the go-to reference I turn to when I want to know how a recording really sounds; but it is also the CIEM I look for when I want to immerse myself fully in my favourite music. What could be a stronger recommendation than that?

Technical Specifications

  • Type: Three-way, dual-bore, quad-driver custom-fit in‑ear monitors with flexible, silicone earpieces
  • Driver complement: An array of four balanced armature-type drivers per earpiece, comprising two bass drivers, one midrange driver, and one high-frequency driver
  • Frequency response: Not specified
  • Impedance: < 30 Ohms
  • Noise isolation: Up to 37 dB (or 9dB better than typical acrylic earpieces)
  • Distortion: Not specified
  • Sensitivity: Not specified
  • Accessories: Detachable ~1m signal cable with industry-standard 2-pin connector, cleaning tool, rubber straps, owners card, and rugged watertight hard‑shell carrying case
  • Weight: Not specified
  • Warranty: Two (2) years, parts and labour

Price: Noble Model 4 universal-fit version: £300, or $450
Noble Model 4C CIEM, acrylic earpiece version: £450, or $699
Noble Model 4S CIEM, silicone earpiece version: £630, or $999

Other: Noble offers a special Ownership Transfer Service where, for a $250 fee, it will re-manufacture earpieces for an existing set of Noble CIEMs to fit a third party owner who has purchased a set of Noble CIEMs second hand. To our knowledge, no other CIEM maker offers such a program.

Manufacturer information: Noble, 19 W. Carrilllo St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Tel: +1 (805) 886-5255

URL: www.nobleaudio.com

UK URL: www.nobleaudio.co.uk

Back to reviews

Read more Noble Audio reviews here

Goldmund returns to the UK

London based dealer Sonata has been appointed as the exclusive UK distributor for Goldmund, the Swiss luxury audio manufacturer.

Goldmund has taken 35 years of technological expertise and adapted it to launch a completely new range of wireless speakers, offering everything from a compact desktop system, design conscious lifestyle models, all the way up to the iconic limited edition Apologue Anniversary.

Every speaker has been engineered to include all the technological developments made by the Goldmund research team.

This includes the implementation of their Proteus speaker modelling programme and Leonardo2 technology to create speakers that are perfectly aligned for amplitude, phase and time within very powerful DSP filters.

Internal amplification using the very latest version of the acclaimed Telos circuit, Alize D to A conversion, mechanical grounding and aluminium construction are also included in each product.

All Goldmund speakers can either play music directly from a computer using the Goldmund USB dongle or from other sources connected to a Goldmund ‘hub’ such as the Mimesis 11 or Talisman.

As a result of these shared technologies, the Goldmund range of speakers has an extremely consistent musical voice and quality. The only things that improve as you go up the range are the low frequency extension and maximum possible sound pressure levels.

Sonata is delighted to have been specifically chosen by Goldmund to represent their unique products in the UK and has recently exhibited the Prologos wireless speakers to great acclaim at this years’ London Design Festival. These speakers have also been photographed for an upcoming feature in GQ Magazine.

UK Prices range from £5,000 to £400,000

 

About Sonata Hi-Fi

Sonata is a specialist hi-fi ‘boutique’ situated in North West London.

Based in a beautiful converted church, Sonata’s bespoke consultation service tailors hi-fi systems that fit individual lifestyles, needs, and ‘ideal sound’ perceptions.

Working on an appointment only basis, they create an atmosphere which is relaxed, friendly, welcoming and always filled with music.

With backgrounds in the music industry and sound engineering, music lies at the heart of the Sonata team and it’s the daily driving force and inspiration behind everything they do.

This music industry experience has given them the tools they need to help select, install and commission the finest audio products in the world.

For more information visit Sonata online at www.sonatahifi.com or contact:

Robert Wilson

[email protected]

Tel: 07849 643 623

 

About Goldmund

Founded in 1978, Goldmund has set the standard for ultra-luxury audio products worldwide by allying the most advanced technologies to the utmost quality of materials and customized services. 

Based in Geneva, the company’s exceptional product design is matched by its industry-leading commitment to fundamental research in audio performance. Employing a team of electro-acoustic engineering experts, Goldmund has developed and introduced industry firsts such as home wireless music distribution, DVI output, mechanical grounding, thermal grounding, extreme multichannel processing and many more.

At the forefront of the luxury audio marketplace, Goldmund manufactured mythical products such as the Reference II turntable, the world’s most expensive turntable, the Telos 5000 limited series 5000 watts amplifier, the Eidos Reference Blue, the most luxurious universal player, and the Goldmund Media Room, a revolutionary customized Home-Theater solution.

Today Goldmund continues to offer ultimate audiophile products and has also developed luxury lifestyle lines that provide a unique performance while simplifying customers’ lives with wireless systems. The Apologue Anniversary is without a doubt a perfect illustration of this evolution with its extreme performance, customized finish, customized software program, and wireless features.

For more information visit Goldmund online at www.goldmund.com or contact:

Anne-Karine Agius

Goldmund International

Marketing Department

[email protected]

Tel: +377 93 50 66 05

www.goldmund.com

29 Discoveries from CanJam at RMAF 2015

Head-Fi and its merry band of CanJammers continue to play an ever-growing role in the activities at RMAF. Now more than ever, the CanJam segment of RMAF decisively demonstrates why high-performance headphones, earphones, and custom-fit in-ear monitors must now be considered a legitimate part of the broader high-end audio pantheon – not just on the basis of convenience, price, or popularity (although headphones/earphones enjoy all three of those advantages), but also on the basis of sheer sonic performance. This year, CanJam ably represented what was arguably the single most energetic and vibrant product segment in all of RMAF.

About this report: Discoveries

It perhaps goes without saying that at any show audio journalists will see and hear more than they can write about, and that they may well miss more than a few worthy manufacturers and demonstrations along the way. Or at least that’s the way it usually works out for me. When asked during an event how the show is going my standard response is to say, “Great, but there’s too much show and not enough me to cover it all…”

Still, in retrospect, we remember shows by the discoveries we make – the new (or new to us) products that stick in our minds long after the event is over.  This report is an attempt to give you a taste of some of my favourite discoveries from this years RMAF/CanJam event.

CanJam Discoveries

Alclair

From Osseo, Minnesota (from the greater Minneapolis area) come Alclair – a firm specialising in building comparatively affordable custom-fit in-ear monitors and a distinctive universal-fit earphone called the Curve ($249), as shown here. Based on a brief cursory inspection, we think the firm’s three-driver Reference Custom CIEM ($399) and four-driver RSM Quad CIEM ($649) are the models most likely to find favour among audiophiles and critical listeners.

Audeze

Audeze introduced a new flagship: the LCD-4 planar magnetic headphone, which follows the industrial design motif of the original LCD-3, but features an all-new driver and delivers a more neutrally-voiced and transparent sonic presentation than the LCD-3. At the same time, Audeze showed a prototype of an upcoming Bascom H. King-designed headphone amplifier, which fittingly was shown with the working title of “The King”. Both units are projected to sell for $3,995.

Atomic Floyd

The British firm Atomic Floyd was demonstrating a working prototype of its significantly updated Hi Def Drum universal-fit earphone (£150 or $199), which offered more neutral tonal balance and a more taut and revealing sound than some earlier Atomic Floyd earphones have done.

AudioQuest

AudioQuest showed its adorable, palm-sized Beetle DAC ($199) with optical, Bluetooth, and USB audio inputs, and that comes with a small linear power supply said yield better sound quality that typical switching-type wall-wart supplies might do.

 

Cavalli Audio

Dr. Alex Cavalli, long known for his premium-priced top-class desktop type headphone amps, recently has been on a campaign to make his famous ‘Cavalli sound’ available in more compact and affordably priced components. Next up will be Cavalli’s surprisingly powerful Liquid Silicon portable headphone amplifier (to be priced somewhere under $700, though how far under that figure remains to be seen). The Liquid Silicon is based entirely upon discrete components (meaning no ICs or OpAmps) and is slated to be renamed shortly before launch through a yet-to-be-announced ‘Name That Amp’ contest. Watch for it.

Darin Fong Audio

Darin Fong’s impressive ‘Out of Your Head’ digital audio processing software is said to create a near loudspeaker-like presentation from headphones, and also to provide convincing high-end home-theatre-grade surround-sound from headphones. Packages range from about $149 to $600, depending on the number of room/loudspeaker modelling modules you may require. Based on a brief listen, the system does work reasonably well in the here and now, but may get even better over time (Fong has made a lot of progress with the system over the past few years). In a brief listening session, I found the system worked reasonably well to model stereo systems, but worked even better in modelling surround-sound systems.

ENIGMAcoustics

Al long last, ENIGMAcoustic’s long-awaited Dharma hybrid dynamic/self-energised electrostatic-driver equipped headphone ($1,190) has been released to production and as near as we can tell the production version is the best-sounding iteration yet. This fascinating headphone generated no small amount of buzz at CanJam/RMAF and is very likely to become a Hi-Fi+ review subject in the future.

Final

Final’s flagship Sonorous X ($5,000) and Sonorous VIII ($2,999) headphones were previewed at Munich 2015, then introduced in Europe a few weeks ago at CanJam London, and now have come to the US. Together, the Sonorous X and VIII reflect everything company president Mitsuru Hosoo knows about building fine headphones, and they certainly sound the part. Two words that come up early and often in describing these headphones are ‘engaging’ and ‘evocative’.

HiFiMAN

Not content to rest on the critical acclaim heaped upon his flagship HE 1000 planar magnetic headphone, HiFiMAN founder Dr. Fang Bian took CanJam as his opportunity to introduce two more new headphones: the Edition X very high efficiency planar magnet model (price TBD, but perhaps in the $1,700 – $1,800 range) and the on-ear Edition M headphone (price TBD, but perhaps in the $249 – $299 range). The Edition X can be viewed as cost-reduced, efficiency-enhanced, and somewhat re-voiced version of the HE 1000 (the two headphones look very similar, but with the Edition X feature a ‘black on black’ design motif). Sonically, the Edition X offers a very slightly warmer voicing curve to the HE 1000, with a modest degree of bass lift added. How efficient is the Edition X?  I was able to drive it to usable levels with (no joke) my Galaxy S5 mobile phone, though for best results I would certainly recommend using something better than that.

 

iFi Audio

Following upon the heels of its critically acclaimed iFi Retro Stereo 50 integrated/headphone amp/DAC, the British firm iFi Audio launched an entire new upscale range of iFi Pro series components with its iFi iCAN Pro fully discrete, fully balanced headphone amp/line stage preamp ($1,699). The iCAN Pro is extremely powerful (>8,000 mW @ 16 Ohms), offers three gain levels, provides user-selectable tube or J-FET input sections, and a MOSFET-buffered Class A output stage. Interesting, the amp offers three user selectable voicing personae: Standard (solid-state), Tube (tube using low negative feedback), or Tube+ (tube with near zero negative feedback). We look forward to reviewing this new amp in the future.


 

Kimber Kable 

Kimber has entered the high-performance headphone cable sweepstakes in a major way with its new Axios family of  hand-braided headphone signal cables. Kimber can terminate these cables with plugs to fit most any headphone, and Kimber has even made an effort to match termination housings in woods or finishes that complement the intended headphones. For example, the cable shown here is intended to match the finish of a Zebrano wood Audeze headphone. Prices start at about $700 per cable set.

Lyrus Audio

There’s a new planar magnetic headphone make on the scene name Lyrus, whose first offerings will be the Model 6 ($1,290) and the Model 9 ($1,890). The Model 6 uses silver conductive traces on its diaphragm while the Model 9 uses gold traces. Based on a brief listen, I felt both models had merits, but my personal favourite was the Model 6, which struck me as offering the more neutral tonal balance overall (the Model 9 sounded exceedingly detail, but at the expense of being perhaps a bit bright).

MIT

In an unexpected turn of events, the cable make MIT has decided to enter the headphone electronics marketplace with a new high current, class A/B headphone amplifier called the Vero HC-AB-29. Co-developed by MIT founder Bruce Brisson and former Capitol Studios/Lucasfilm audio engineer Aaron Reiff, the Vero HC-AB-29 also incorporates the firms signature ‘Multipole Technology’ for “29 Poles of Articulation”.  The final price of Vero HC-AB-29, which was shown at RMAF in pre-production prototype form, is projected to be $1,999.

Moon Audio

Moon Audio honcho Drew Baird has teamed with the famous designer Dennis Had (recently retired from Cary Audio) to create Moon Audio Inspire Dragon IHA-1 valve powered headphone amplifier ($1,695). Every effort has been made to give the Inspire the simplest, most direct circuit path possible.

 

Moon by Simaudio

Moon introduced its new 230HAD half-width, solid-state headphone amplifier/DAC, which is basically a scaled down and cost-reduced version of the award winning 430HAD. Though the two units are very different in appearance, the signature sound of the big 430HAD is very much alive and well in the compact 230HAD, which is slated to sell for $1,500.

MrSpeakers

As was the case at the CanJam London show just a few weeks ago, MrSpeaker was showing both of its new planar magnetic headphones: the open-back Ether and the closed-back Ether C, both of which are priced at $1,499. Candidly, a number of companies have attempted to build ‘equivalent’ open and closed-back versions of their top headphone models, but in virtually every case the open-back models wind up sounding decidedly better than their closed-back counterparts. However, the Ethers are different. Because the Ether C uses a substantially different driver to the one used in the Ether, it would be fair to say that the two models are able to compete on a level footing and that, in practice, they offer subtly different yet complementary strengths so that—if you are at all like me—you may find you prefer whichever one you happen to be listening to at the moment. Finally, somebody has made a closed back headphone that sacrifices nothing in the way of performance vs. its open-back counterpart.

NAD

NAD showed two lovely and affordably priced headphones at RMAF: the HP30 on-ear headphone ($249) and HP50 over-the-ear headphone ($299). Both models sound similar, but not identical, to equivalent models offered in sister company PSB’s headphone range. The NADs, though, have a sleek, elegant look all their own.

Noble Audio

Noble has long been famous for its flagship Kaiser 10, which has been offered either in a CIEM version or as a moulded acrylic universal fit earphone. For RMAF, however, the universal-fit version of the Kaiser 10 got a big, big upgrade in the form of a new, absolutely gem-like version called the Kaiser 10U, which features CNC-machined, aluminium earpiece bodies that will be priced the same as their acrylic counterparts ($999).

oBravo

Not content to rest upon his laurels for the HAMT-1 hybrid dynamic/AMT-driver-equipped headphone as reviewed by Hi-Fi+ Editor Alan Sircom, David Teng of oBravo has now created his eRIB-2 hybrid dynamic/ribbon-driver universal-fit earphone ($900) and his eAMT-3 hybrid dynamic/AMT-driver universal-fit earphone ($2,400). The latter features the world’s smallest AMT-type driver, which is a square-shaped unit measuring just 8mm per side. In a brief listening session, I felt both models showed promise, but that the flagship eAMT-3 was perhaps one of the very finest in-ear listening devices I have yet heard. Further listening is indicated (and eagerly awaited).

 

Peachtree Audio

Peachtree has previewed its versatile and nicely finished Shift portable headphone amp/DAC at several recent shows, but now the unit is in full production release and is now shipping. The Shift ($349), like most Peachtree components, offers excellent value for money.

Pendulumic

Pendulumic chief of design Chunbeng Quek has been hard at work on a more compact and somewhat lower-priced sibling to the firm’s favourably reviewed Stance S1+ Bluetooth headphone. The new ‘junior’ model is called the Tach T1 and it channels much of the sonic goodness of its bigger sibling, along with notable improvements in ergonomics, and will sell for $249.

Questyle

Questyle VP Bruce Ball demonstrates his firm’s recently released QP1R high-res portable digital audio player ($899), which will be review in the next issue of Hi-Fi+.

RHA Audio

The Scottish firm RHA offered a sneak preview of its new, portable, balanced output DAC/Amp M1, which is still a number of months away from production release. Interestingly, the amp will provide both iOS and Android device charging features. Judging by the prototype on demonstration at RMAF, this will be a beautifully designed product, both in terms of appearance and sound quality. Pricing has not been set, but an educated guess is that the price may fall in the $500-$600 range.

Schiit Audio

Schiit Audio’s flagship Yggdrasil DAC was one of the first so-called ‘multibit DACs’ – a 4x NOS DAC that uses a closed-form digital filter that retains all original digital audio data. Lately, though, Schiit has been migrating its multibit technologies to ever more affordable products. First came the Gungnir Multibit DAC (introduced at the Schitt Show earlier this year) and then first shown to the public at CanJam London. Now, for RMAF, Schiit has rolled out the Bifrost Multibit DAC, priced at $599 (a price point that would have seemed unthinkable for such advanced technology just a few years ago).

 

Stax

Stax previewed its new SR-L700 Lambda-series electrostatic headphone whose driver is directly derived from that of the flagship SR-009. The final price of the SR-L700 has not yet been set, but should fall between $1,200-$1,500, which is less than a third of the price of the SR-009. Given that the sound of the SR-L700 strongly resembles that of its bigger brother, it may be position to become the electrostatic bargain of the year. 

Torque

Listeners who appreciate variety will enjoy Torque’s upcoming 402V user-adaptable on-ear/over-ear headphones ($400). The concept is this: when you buy the 402V, you receive ear pads that allow you to convert the 402Vs to serve as on-ear or over-the-ear headphones, as you prefer. But the flexibility doesn’t end there, because each set of ear pads include four colour-coded voicing filters (red, yellow, blue, and black) that interact with ductwork inside the headphone ear cups. Users can select their preferred voicing filters by rotating the ear pads 90 degrees at a time, with ear rotation bringing a different voicing filter into play. In a sense, then, when you buy a 402V you are effectively getting eight different headphones (two set of ear pads x four voicing filters/each = eight options in all). A very clever idea.

Ultimate Ears

Let me be forthright: the Ultimate Ears folds showed me and let me listen to a handful of (secret) upcoming new products that I’m not at liberty to discuss until UE give the word. However, what I can talk about is the firm’s use of the United Sciences ear scanning system, which is a non-invasive way of gathering precise data on the exact size and shape of a client’s ears, yet without requiring an ear mould impressions (something some listeners find a scary proposition at best). The idea is to scan the wearer’s ear with a special optical probe and probe positioning system, and then to use the data gathered to create a highly accurate 3D model of both the ear canal and pinna.

Also new from UE is a powerful new demo tool that allows users to listen through a calibrated set of earphones and then, using a touchscreen interface, to compare the voicing of respective US models in real-time, so as to help customers decide which CIEM models best suit their listening tastes and preferences.

 

Westone

Recognising that there can sometimes be a gulf between the traditional 2-channel audio world and the high-end earphone/CIEM world, Westone set out to help the parties meet on neutral ground to compare and contrast what both worlds have to offer, through a series of events collectively termed the “Westone Experience”. At these event listeners were invited to hear a series of tracks as played on a well dialled-in speaker based system configured by the Danish firm GamuT and then to hear the same tracks played through top-tier Westone earphones or (in some cases) custom-fit in-ear monitors as driven by top-tier Astell & Kern AK380 portable players. Groups of ‘blue ribbon’ panellists were invited to attend the sessions and to offer commentary. I’m pleased to say I was the chosen representative from Hi-Fi+ and that I was (I hope) able to offer useful comments given my own and the magazine’s long history of covering and reviewing both speaker and headphone/earphone/CIEM-based systems. It was an eye-opening event for all involved, I believe.

1964 Ears

1964 Ears build fine CIEMs and universal fit earphones, but what really sets the company’s products apart is their use of ADEL (Ambrose Diaphonic Ear Lens) technologies. I spent some time with Stephen Ambrose to learn about ADEL and it is fascinating, to say the least. Ambrose’s claim is that, in the name of achieving proper tonal balance and desirable loudness levels, most CIEMs and universal-fit earphones create pneumatic overpressure conditions that are potential harmful to our hear. To combat this problem, Ambrose has developed ADEL, which is effectively a highly compliant secondary eardrum-like membrane that absorbs overpressure waves, yet without inhibiting sound pressure levels or adversely affecting tonal balance. In fact, in a brief listening test it seemed to me that ADEL actually enhanced perceived clarity, transparency, and dynamics, yet a volume settings lower than would be used without the ADEL system in play (and yes, bass response is left intact, too). We are planning a review of an ADEL-equipped 1964 Ears CIEM in the not too distant future. 

Rocky Mountain Audio Fest: The Best of the Best

Like most audio events, there simply isn’t enough time for one person to spend quality time in every room in the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. So, we split the task of finding the best sounds among team member who were at the event. There are regular recipients of ‘good sound’ plaudits from pundits; almost irrespective of equipment, these exhibitors do well in the shows year in, year out. This suggests the products offered by these exhibitors are consistent and good, especially when they are liked universally.

So, although you can almost second-guess what is going to sound good from the manufacturers, distributors, and dealers in the room, there are still points where long-standing brands get it wrong, and newcomers get it very, very right. 

Here is our list of some of the best.

For many years the VTL room has vied with the ARC/Vandersteen room for top honours at RMAF. In many ways, this year was no different – but in at least one way it was very different indeed: both systems were downsized considerably over recent years. VTL ran a Brinkmann Spider/Lyra Etna turntable and dCS Rossini player and clock, feeding their own TP6.5 phono-stage, TL6.5 line-stage, MB-185 mono-blocs and Wilson’s new Sabrina loudspeakers. The sound was fluid and intimate, warm and natural, but what really impressed was the sheer presence and scale generated by Wilson’s diminutive new floorstander. This is a speaker that should find considerable favour in UK homes and UK systems.

Whether it is coincidence or a sign of the times, Vandersteen had opted to run their Quatro Wood CT, in a smaller room and driven by ARC G-Series electronics and an AMG turntable. The sound, doubtless helped by the tuneable, active bass was big, bold and solid, with impressive dynamics combined with subtlety, tone and texture that delivered the requisite warmth and musical intimacy. Wonderfully capable on jazz and pop, this system really hit its stride with classical and rock recordings, test pressings of the new Joe Jackson re-issues from Intervention Records displaying all of the attitude, punch and power that made the originals so compelling, but way more bandwidth, layering, detail and much more natural tonality. Is She Really Going Out With Him? Perhaps he’s got a system like this at home!

Meanwhile, reminding us that big systems are something of a company forté, Dan D’Agostino combined his Momentum mono-blocs, pre-amp and phono-stage with a Classic stereo amp, driving Alexias underpinned by a pair of Watchdog subs. Source was a Brinkmann Balance and the performance was tight, stable, driven and authoritative. This was one system that could rock – and it did.

 

Nola stepped up to the plate and came out swinging with their new $12,000 KO2 floorstander, which delivered a huge acoustic space and serious dynamic impact, driven by an ARC Ref 8 Cd player and VAC Sigma 160i integrated amp.

VANA also served up the expected musical treat, pairing Primare electronics with Audio Physic Avanti speakers. But where they really scored was in the choice of records played on the Dr Feickert ‘table: Thomas Dolby certainly scared himself and Van was definitely The Man.

Special mention too for Musical surroundings who used the latest Aesthetix Atlas Eclipse stereo amplifier to pound the Focal Sopra 2s within millimetres of their life – a situation the speakers accepted with typically Gallic aplomb. They may be smaller than last year’s Scala V2s, but it was still a case of, “Metallica? Mais oui!”

 

Talking of seriously orange speakers, you don’t get much more orange than the Magico S5s deployed by Nordost. We were expecting good sound in the Nordost room: I wasn’t expecting the best sound they’ve ever made at RMAF. Okay, so they deployed a seriously heavyweight system to achieve it, but the Rowland Chorus, Aeris and massive 925 twin-chassis mono-blocs didn’t disappoint. Best of all, they were using a twin-arm VPI Avenger up front (along with a prototype Rowland phono-stage) to demonstrate their new internal arm cable against the standard VPI option. Results on this (and the power cord demos they were also running) left us with new-found respect for the S5 and underlined the potent capabilities of the new Odin 2, a cable that was everywhere at RMAF and seems to have even the sceptics wavering.

AudioQuest dodged the whole room acoustics issue by operating the ultimate downsizing policy and going all table-top on us. That didn’t stop their array of demonstrations featuring the new $200 Beetle DAC, the brilliant $50 Jitterbug USB jitter reduction device and the Nighthawk headphones delivering spectacularly good (and remarkably comfortable) musical results. There’s more than one way to bang the audio drum and Audioquest are especially inventive – and successful – in this regard.

RATA are another iconoclastic company that can be counted on to deliver. Their five-minute, $500 second-hand system/$1,000 cable upgrade demo might be familiar to UK show-goers but it left plenty of US citizens in a state of shock. Bewildered audiophiles were seen, weaving unsteadily out of the RATA room, clutching on to literature and the last vestiges of their shattered reality. Good stuff that should (but never seems to) be a lesson to both the audiophile community and exhibitors in particular…

 

The combination of Border Patrol electronics and the Volti horn speakers have been a highlight at RMAF for a few years now, to the extent that stepping into their room has an almost déjà vu/time slip feeling to it – like they just kept the room on from last year, preferring to pay for the space rather than remove, ship, re-ship and re-install the seriously heavy and cumbersome equipment involved. Even on the first day the mighty Vittora horns and the BP amp delivered a settled, relaxed sound that had all the familiar dynamics and impact but a significant extra slice of textural resolution and intimacy. Closer examination revealed a volume control on the front of the S20 EXD EXS amplifier, backed up by an extra gain stage, creating a true single input integrated amp. Adding a CEC TL-3N transport won’t have done any harm either and one of our few regrets from the 2015 RMAF experience was that we didn’t get to spend more time enjoying this brilliantly engaging and communicative set up.

Which brings us, finally, to two serious surprises. Finding great sound in the Wavelength room is hardly a shock. Finding it delivered by a pair of Vaughn Plasma II loudspeakers, sporting newly manufactured versions of the Dukane Ionovac plasma tweeter – better known as the Ionofane in the UK – now that’s a surprise. The high-efficiency speakers, sporting a Fostex driver array and bamboo cabinets offered a perfect match to Gordon Rankin’s superb single-ended tube amps. But what really impressed was the sheer musical integrity of this system. Listening gave no hint as to the nature of the source: analogue, CD or file replay. The fact that it was being fed by computer is a stunning testament to Rankin’s acknowledged position at the forefront of computer audio thinking and execution. This is another system we re-visited on multiple occasions, but still wanted more.

Our final (very nice) surprise was delivered in the Alta Audio room. Alta’s own modest yet attractive two-way floor-standers (the Rhea, $4495) were paired with the Nuprime DAC-10 pre-amp ($1500) and REF20 mono-blocks ($7600). If the electronics and speakers were definitely approachable, the source wasn’t: the Grand Prix Monaco v1.5, Triplanar Ultimate 12” tonearm, Lyra Scala cartridge and the latest Tom Evans Groove+ phono-stage. Roll that lot together and it adds up to around three times the rest of the chain, but you couldn’t argue with the musical results. Relaxed but clearly structured, with the explicit tempi and explosive dynamics that characterize the GPA ‘table, this system was both extremely engaging and expressive. Rhythmically secure and musically articulate, capable of great delicacy and fluid phrasing, this set up made the Alta Audio room a welcome oasis of musical calm amidst the hustle and bustle of the show.

Modwright Instruments PH-150 phono stage

Modwright’s founder, Dan Wright, started out modifying third party components, which makes the company’s name entirely appropriate. But while Modwright still modifies products, today it is better known for its own range of electronics that incorporate both valves and transistors housed in thick aluminium casework with blue lighting, such as the PH 150 tested here. The PH 150 is the only phono stage in the Modwright line, and it’s quite an ambitious beast, with a whole host of controls on the front panel. When you think that most phono stages are totally devoid of accessible controls, this makes a distinct change; it adds to the phono stage’s cost and signal path length, but it has the advantage of making positive changes to cartridge load and gain.

Having used phono stages with fiddly DIP switches, which can only be set by someone who has better than 20:20 vision and a friend to cross-reference the phono cartridge’s loading with the manual, this sort of user friendliness is very welcome. The PH 150’s feature set starts with moving coil or moving magnet cartridge inputs, and a mute position between the two on the left most knob. In true valve engineering tradition, the MC input has step-up transformers to bring the output up to a level where it can be amplified by a thermionic device without noise becoming an issue.

Next in line after the power button is a gain adjuster with three settings; 0dB, -6dB, and -12dB. These apply to both the MM and MC inputs. I used the 0dB setting that produced higher gain than most phono stages, at least with the two MC cartridges I tried. The next knob lets you dial in capacitance to suit specific moving magnet cartridges. Initially it seems a bit odd to include a MM input at all; after all who would use what many consider to be relatively crude technology with such a high-ticket phono stage. However, some cartridges require unusual impedances to show off their best, and it would be impossible to accommodate them all with onboard transformers.

The last controller on this extremely well-finished box is for selecting MC load impedance. This is useful if you are using the internal step-ups. Cartridges usually specify an optimum load, but in practice the best impedance tends to vary with the phono stage in use. So it’s really great to be able to try different settings on the fly. The most obvious difference that the ability to select a MC load impedance on the PH 150 delivers was to change the output due to increased impedance. But when that had been taken into account, I found that not only did it produce surprising differences in timing, but also altered the way that different instruments worked together;  and it wasn’t too difficult to find an optimum setting either. It’s inconvenient that being able to select a MC load impedance involves more than just picking the loudest option. I should also mention that the Modwright has a mono switch which is a luxury even at this price, and an increasingly useful one, what with the slew of reissues being made available in this surprisingly effective format.

 

The PH 150 has Lundahl step-up and output transformers offering both single-ended and balanced outputs, and proper line driving capabilities –  which is useful should you require long interconnects.  As is pretty much the norm with phono stages, the power supply is in a separate case, again with a chunky aluminium faceplate. The two are connected with a bright blue umbilical that Modwright calls ‘Truth’. The power supply itself is a solid-state type with a reasonably chunky toroidal mains transformer and no controls so its significant bulk can be stashed away, albeit no more than four feet from the PH 150.

Quite a lot of valve phono stages sound like valve phono stages, and not necessarily in a good way. I would rather not hear any character from audio electronics, but the popularity of valves would suggest that this is not a universal opinion. The PH 150, however, is not that way inclined, and while there are certain aspects of its sound that one associates with thermionic amplification, they are well controlled and avoid making their presence heard most of the time. The sound is not as precisely focussed as it is with a good solid-state stage, but it has plenty of power and decent, if not a floor-shaking bass extension. Its intrinsic sound can be described as natural; that is, it’s relaxed and tonally rich, making voices and acoustic instruments seem believable and real. Valves can create a soft, overly large, and refined but indistinct sound with poorly defined leading edges, which thankfully is not the case here. In fact, the presentation is quite similar to a good, solid-state stage.

Playing Joni Mitchell’s ‘Sweet Sucker Dance’ [Mingus, Asylum] with a Van den Hul Condor Gold MC on the Vertere SG-1 arm atop an MG-1 turntable from the same brand, I was struck by a slight dustiness to the snare sound, and the fact that the noise floor had risen compared to my Trilogy 907 phono stage. But what was also apparent was that the PH 150 ‘times’ well and can make Joni’s voice seem so real. The tonal transparency of the amplifier may not be as precisely etched in stereo image terms, but the vitality and vibrancy of the sound makes up for any lost transparency. The next track, ‘The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines’, has fabulous brass stabs that reveal the alacrity with which the Modwright can stop and start. While it may not be the quickest in this regard, the fact that the brass has so much brassiness is rather nice.

This inspired me to play a valve-era recording by the Marty Paich Big Band [The New York Scene, Discovery].Trumpeter Stu Williamson was one of the lesser-known players in this star-studded ensemble,  but ‘I Love Paris’ with its muted trumpet reveals why he was included. At the other end of the scale, you have Scott LaFaro’s double bass that sounds round and full. And then there’s Jimmy Giuffre’s clarinet, for which sublime is the only word that seems appropriate to describe it. The clarinet’s  tone is pretty close to the voice, for which the PH 150 offers superb delivery, as is proved with the way in which it handled Taj Mahal singing in Conjure’s Music For The Texts Of Ishmael Reed [American Clavé]. With the PH 150’s handling of this piece, it’s not so much that you get a palpable image in the room, but rather that you feel you are able to understand what that voice is really saying, and what the underlying message is all about. This is partly because the stage separates everything in the mix so well, making it easier to appreciate what each is doing.

 

With a Rega Apheta 2 MC on the RP10 turntable, the PH 150 revealed the extreme neutrality of the front end, and delivered a tight, yet vibrant version of events that was engaging, though perhaps less tonally rich. With such an arrangement, the immediacy was greater, and instruments and voices had more ‘body’. With ‘Postmodern Blues’ from Patricia Barber’s Modern Cool [Premonition], the low frequency backdrop is well handled, though not fully extended. The PH 150 clearly emphasises the way the bassist’s left hand slides on the neck of his bull fiddle, at least until Ms Barber joins the fray, and then every syllable of her voice in this complex passage is easy to comprehend.

The Modwright PH 150 is not your typical valve phono stage. It’s a bit more precise than that, but it does deliver many of the traits that make the technology appealing in the 21st century. The PH 150 is not as dynamic as the best in its class, but it is more tonally even than many; combined with its high quality build and ease of adjustment, this make for a very interesting option for those who want to hear more from their vinyl.

Technical Specifications

  • Type: Two-piece, valve, MM/MC phono stage
  • Phono inputs: Two pairs single-ended (via RCA jacks)
  • Analogue outputs: One pair single‑ended (via RCA jacks), one pair balanced (via XLR)
  • Input impedance: 10 Ohm – 47kOhm
  • Input capacitance: 0 – 680pF
  • Dimensions (H×W×D): Phono stage preamp 127 × 432 × 305mm
    Power supply unit (PSU) 127 × 267 × 216mm
  • Weight: 40.7kg
  • Price: £6,250

Manufacturer: Modwright Instruments, Inc.

URL: www.modwright.com

UK Distributor: BD Audio

Tel: +44(0)1684 560853

URL: www.bd-audio.co.uk

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KEF Reference 1 standmount loudspeaker

KEF’s Reference series is a stalwart and a fixture in our audio business. There has been a Reference model in the range since the Model 104 of 1973. Despite decades of leading-edge development, the Reference Series stays true to the original goals of that first model 42 years ago: using sophisticated analysis to define and control the loudspeaker environment, and building speakers with state-of-the-art production and quality control techniques. The means whereby these elements come together have changed radically over the decades, but the forces that created that Model 104 are the same that drive today’s new Reference 1.

Let’s unpack that first paragraph a little, because it’s more than just a throwaway opening gambit. Using computer design today is not such a big thing when practically everyone in the developed world over about 2 and younger than about 92 has at least one computer to their name. But just 42 years ago, using computers in the development of loudspeakers was NASA-grade engineering – four years later when I was one of the first teenagers at my school to study ‘computer science’, we were submitting our programs on Teletype and even Hollerith cards to the only computer in the borough. This was the horse and buggy era of computing, and yet KEF was already modelling its loudspeakers on computers, and this dedication to the application of science to technology has run like a red thread through the company and its products, but most pointedly through the Reference models.

This dedication to science-based audio was what sparked the company’s ‘total system design’ philosophy at the start of the 1980s, which saw the Model 103.2 incorporating drivers, cabinet, and crossover network as a complete project to be developed together, years ahead of its rivals. It was the impetus behind the Eureka/Archimedes project, which attempted to liberate the loudspeaker from the tyranny of the room it sits in (and which resulted in the Uni-Q drive unit, used in the Reference range in 1989’s Model 105/3). It was this uncompromising objectivity that developed technologies such as conjugate load matching for designs like the Model 103/4 of 1992, and ultrasonic improvements to the Uni-Q in the Reference Model 201 et al of 2001. Two things come out of this potted history; the Reference models all hark back to the laboratory-maintained scientific and manufacturing reference points, and that in more than 40 years of continuous reference points, KEF doesn’t feel the need to change that often.

 

But Blade forced a root-and-branch change in KEF. The technologies developed in the making of Blade are filtering through the KEF line, and that has now touched Reference. The obvious part of this is the latest iteration of the Uni-Q mid-tweeter, which formed such a key element in Blade’s single apparent source loudspeaker design and made the sophisticated LS50 loudspeaker an unalloyed international success. In the Reference 1, this 11th-generation Uni-Q model sports the distinctive tangerine wave-guide around the 25mm vented aluminium dome tweeter, which sits in the acoustic centre of the veined 125mm aluminium midrange cone. This Uni-Q design is joined by a single 165mm aluminium bass driver, set in the conventional position below the mid-tweeter unit. Bigger Reference floorstanding models add more bass units above and below the Uni-Q in a D’Appolito array, but all are essentially three-way loudspeaker designs. In a way, however, by eschewing the additional drivers, the Reference 1 represents the pure essence – the Platonic Form – of the current three-way Reference.

Describing the Reference loudspeaker simply in terms of drive units is like describing an aircraft by the number of engines; there’s a lot more going on than just that basic rubric. The ported cabinet has been analysed in every way imaginable to create the right waveguide, the right surround, the right cabinet thickness, the right bracing, how the crossover interacts with the magnetic flux from the bass driver, how the tweeter itself vents from the Uni-Q system, how components influence crossover distortion, even how the ‘Z-Flex’ ribbed speaker surround behaves under virtually every condition you can think of. The resulting loudspeaker comes with two kinds of bungs for the rear port, with the less husky one pre-fitted, and the more chunky fella designed for taming really wayward bass in a room (and yes, KEF looked even deeper into room integration). Even the bi-wire terminals have been re-appraised, and now possess clever soft-feel platinum-plated wing-nuts to engage or disengage internal bi-wire links.

In the past, some of KEF’s output has been the kind of equipment you like and respect rather than love. For a brief period around the turn of the century, it was one of those technically brilliant companies that forgot it was making a product to which people would end up spending years listening. Then something changed for the better a few years ago, and KEF started talking about ‘voicing’ loudspeakers, and conducting ‘listening tests’ alongside the technical expertise. A lot of this comes down to two of the sharpest tools in the loudspeaker box – Mark Dodd (Head of Group Research for KEF’s parent company GP Acoustics) and Jack Oclee-Brown (Head of Acoustics at KEF).

In truth, I have to be on my toes when discussing the technology behind the Reference, because KEF is not a company that leaves anything hidden. In fact, wannabe loudspeaker designers are recommended to download KEF’s white paper on the Reference series from its website. This also means I can hand over some of the gnarly concepts of the Reference design to KEF itself, should you wish to go deeper. Truth is, I only put “should you wish to go deeper” in there for good measure – go deeper. Normally a white paper is a marketing exercise with a few techy words thrown in for good measure, but KEF has basically condensed the sum total of loudspeaker engineering (albeit with a distinct KEF‑fy flavour) into 50 pages of graphs, charts, FEA diagrams, and thermography-esque flow diagrams of how air cavitates in a port. I have a paper version of that white paper that I found a non-audiophile friend flicking through, who summed this white paper up perfectly: “Total. Freakin’. Nerdgasm!”

Normally, when it comes to loudspeakers, the process involves a relatively high degree of obsessive-compulsive behaviour. The speakers are roughed in, listened to, adjusted forward-back, left-right, listened again, fine-tuned, toed in, more listening, until either you give up in frustration of you have positioned the speakers to the nearest Ångström. Sometimes, you have to follow a pre-arranged pattern, sometimes a spoken word test, sometimes it’s a question of anchoring one speaker and tuning the other, and sometimes its all about the mirrors and lasers and tape measures. The KEF Reference 1 were more or less ‘plonked down’ roughly in place, and the job was done. They got a tiny wee bit better sounding through some real care and attention (as in, stopping one of them from wobbling a bit, and making sure they were level), but in audiophile installation terms this is criminal neglect. And they sang beautifully. I moved them around, and they sang beautifully. I swapped out cables, flipping between generic speaker wire from a hardware store that cost less than a couple of pints of beer to a full run of Nordost’s new Odin 2 that cost more than my mortgage, and they sang beautifully. Of course, they sang ever sweeter the better the upstream equipment, and the more care put into installation, but they didn’t put a foot wrong regardless. I tried practically everything in my power to not make them sing beautifully, but short of throwing the speakers in a lake or connecting them up to an aging clock radio, I’d struggle to find a way of making these loudspeakers sound in any way mediocre.

 

That’s what all the science bit is about with KEF. Uni-Q came out of a project to understand how a loudspeaker interacts with a normal room that isn’t acoustically perfect. Not an anechoic chamber, or a studio control room. The Reference 1 is the distillation of decades of trying to dial out the listening space, without having to call upon DSP or bass traps… and it works.

It works by creating a remarkable midrange, the kind of midrange you will struggle to find in a loudspeaker at any price. It manages to achieve the goals of sounding exceptionally honest, projecting well into the room, and just letting you listen deeper than usual into the recording. As an example of this, I played ‘Everyday’ from James Taylor’s 1985 disc That’s Why I’m Here [Columbia]. This was one of the staples of MP3 development cycle, and with its syrupy Yamaha DX7 synth-string sounds and OTT production values, it’s easy to turn hard or harsh in the midrange, despite Taylor’s soft, clear tones. Although the KEF speaker never once hides the overproduced 1980s recording techniques, it also clearly differentiates instruments within the mix, neither exaggerating nor underplaying any part of the mids. You really could replace the Reference 1 with practically any loudspeaker made and you’ll hear no better. The highest praise I could confer on these loudspeakers is that they could easily be used in the studio for mastering. They are that accurate.

The KEFs could also be used at a studio because they can take a real hammering, volume-wise. This is something often overlooked in audiophile magazines, but let’s be honest – when most of us get a new toy, we want to discover what it can do, and that means showing it off. Even to ourselves. In my case, that usually means a blast of ZZ Top’s ‘La Grange’ from Tres Hombres [London]. The Reference 1 played loud; a lot louder than I could take, in fact. If you want LOUDspeakers that are also capable of great subtlety, these join a select list, which typically comprises Focal, PMC, and Wilson models.

KEF has long been a master of good imaging, especially if you give the loudspeakers minimal toe-in. This is what happens when an engineering-led company makes a speaker with outstanding dispersion and off-axis properties. The soundstage is good-to-excellent even under less than perfect conditions, and exceptional when the system and room are working well with the Reference 1. Even the front-to-back complexity and dynamic range of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony [Solti, Decca] is portrayed superbly here.

And bass is well covered through the Reference 1. OK, a bigger room or demands for more bass are better met by bigger References, but in terms of delivering a good deep bottom end, these KEFs are the first standmounts that gave my resident Wilson Duette II a run for the money. Ultimately, the Wilsons have the edge when it comes to bass energy and effortless dynamic range, and it takes moments to hear why the bigger, more expensive loudspeaker justifies its place in the audio firmament. But let’s not make that undermine precisely what the KEF offers for a fraction of the price.

 

There will be people who choose another tonal palette, who demand a bigger, smaller, cheaper, more expensive, or simply more fiddly loudspeaker to justify their place in the audiophile diaspora. There will be people who don’t like the piano black or wood cabinet with contrasting brushed front baffle, or the solid boxy shape. These (and more) are reasons you’d buy or prefer another loudspeaker: understandable, justifiable reasons. But that shouldn’t preclude understanding what the KEF Reference 1 is trying (and mostly succeeding) to do. Although I get why people might like another speaker, I simply can’t see how someone could dislike this one. It’s astonishingly good. If these were any more highly recommended, they’d be locking me up in a rubber room!

Technical Specifications

  • Design: Three-way Bass Reflex standmount loudspeaker
  • Drive Units: Uni-Q driver array (HF: 25mm vented aluminium dome, MF: 125mm aluminium cone), 1× 165mm aluminium bass unit
  • Crossover frequency: 350Hz, 2.8kHz
  • Amplifier requirements: 50–200W
  • Impedance: 8 Ohm (min. 3.2 Ohm)
  • Finishes: Piano Black, Satin American Walnut, Gloss Rosewood
  • Dimensions (H×W× D): 44 × 20.5 × 43cm (with grille and terminal)
  • Weight: 18.2kg
  • Price: £4,500/pr (stands £1,000/pr)

Manufactured by: KEF

URL: www.kef.com

Tel: +44(0)1622 672261

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JSA Type 2 Passive Headphone Conditioner

Vertex AQ, well-known purveyors of RF and microphony-busting devices to the discerning audiophile, doesn’t have quite the same traction in personal audio circles, but with the creation of its sister JSA brand, that looks set to change.

Currently, JSA has just two models in its line-up; the Type 1 and Type 2 Passive headphone conditioners with suggestions of a headphone amp to follow. We got the Type 2, with high-grade cotton insulated solid-core silver wiring, a labyrinth construction suggested to reduce microphony and vibration transmission, and a combination of Vertex AQ’s best EM and RF interference absorption devices. The cheaper, cut down Type 1 is 60cm shorter and a kilo lighter. There are optional more up-market input jack cables featuring the same solid core silver wiring in 0.6m and 1m lengths, which we also received.

The JSA is about as straightforward as it gets in terms of installation. There are two ¼” TRS stereo jack sockets – you plug the male-to-male input jack cable into one, you plug the other end of that cable into your headphone amplifier, then plug your headphones into the remaining socket on the JSA. That’s it. You could spend weeks fussing over which jack socket sounds better to the headphone, and which sounds better to the amp, and conclude it makes no difference. It’s a purely passive conditioner block.

There are two ways of testing this. The wrong way is to act like a 1920s telephone operator, moving jack plugs in and out and performing quick-fire AB comparisons. You will hear a difference, but may not be able to ascertain what that difference is, why the difference counts, and ultimately whether your headphones are materially better with the JSA ‘in’ or ‘out’. Instead, treat it as if it is a permanent fixture to your headphone listening for a week or two, then remove it and see whether you can live without it. Chances are, you can’t.

 

Where a swift move up the headphone amplifier market generally gives increased levels of detail and dynamic range, there can be a point where you are getting a lot of information and not a lot of musical integrity. The sound is precise, but lacking coherence. The JSA restores that coherence and musical clarity, but not at the expense of the extra information a better amp provides. It sounds like the JSA is bringing out the best of the equipment it slots between. This is hard to put into words, and takes some time for you to parse, but it makes more sense of the music, whatever music is playing. As I listen to quite a lot of modern classical that accents the need to work at a piece of music in order to understand it, before you get all the surface elements of metre and rhythm, the JSA’s ability to bring some order to the chaos is welcomed. It also works to open up avenues of music normally closed to the listener, because they simply make more sense. I’m not a big blues fan, but I could understand the appeal of Howling Wolf here, because his voice was raspy and visceral, and not simply yet another music entity.

The best thing I can say about the JSA is it made me more of a headphone listener. I remain huffily old-school in my audiophile aspirations, and think of headphones as a modern necessity than a go-to place for my music. After spending some time with the JSA Type 2, I’m more into the whole headphone experience. The JSA is that good!

Details

Dimensions: 220mm x 105mm x 45mm

Weight: 5kgs

Price: £330 (£350 in gunmetal)

Manufactured by: Vertex AQ

URL: www.vertexaq.com

Tel: +44(0)1554 759267

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Celsus Sound Companion One DAC/headphone amp

While home audio systems have been steadily improving in performance for many decades, you only have to go back a few years to find a time when portable audio was a cruel joke that no audiophile would take seriously. This all changed with the introduction of personal music players like the Apple iPod, and has been progressing at a rapid pace with many new portable DACs, headphone amplifiers, and high resolution music players. Now the Celsus Sound Companion One looks to take that progression a few steps further.

Celsus Sound may be a new name, but the company was founded by a certain Jason Wei-Min Lim, the former CEO of NuForce, so there is a track record to back it up. What Lim has created for his new venture is a true Swiss Army knife of portable DAC amps, ticking off just about every box on the wish lists of on the go audiophiles.

For starters, the Companion One can connect to just about any type of device you might want to use for portable music listening, including Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows devices. It can also do this using either a wired, or a wireless connection. It can decode just about any type of file you want to throw at it including DSD64, DSD128, and PCM up to 384/32 using a wired connection, plus high res PCM up to 192/24-bit over a wireless connection.

Looking kind of like an Apple iPhone that went out on a fast food binge, the Companion One’s height and width fall right between the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, although it’s a bit more than twice the thickness of either one. A quick check on my postal scale revealed that it actually weighs in at a little over 255g… about twice that of a standard iPhone 6.

Why all of these comparisons with the Apple iPhone? Basically, it’s because the Companion One appears to borrow heavily from the iPhone 6’s styling, and the two look like they were meant to go together. The front and rear surfaces are Gorilla Glass, wrapped with a slightly curved satin metal frame. Even the buttons and ports look familiar. In any, er, case, the fit and finish of the Companion One is exceptional, and the whole unit positively oozes quality and luxury. In addition to the Companion One itself, you get an extra luxurious leather carrying case that even smells nice, a screen protector, and a set of cables to handle connections to an Android with OTG, iOS Lightning device, PC, or Mac computer, and even a 30‑pin Apple cable for your older iDevice.

On the hardware side of things, the Companion One uses the ESS ES9018K2M DAC to convert all of those files, then delivers its output to your headphones via OPA1612 and AD8397 opamps. Celsus specifies the output voltage at 3Vrms in high gain setting and half that in the low gain setting, delivering 160mW into a 32 Ohm load and 28mW into a 300 Ohm load. While that doesn’t exactly make it a powerhouse, it should drive most headphones without problems.

 

The controls and ports on the Companion One are deceptively simple, starting with the two mini USB ports on the bottom, one for data and one for charging. Moving to the top you’ll find a pair of 3.5mm sockets covering line and headphone outputs, along with a 3.5mm S/PDIF digital output. Finally, along the sides there are a total of six buttons, three on each side. Those on the right side control volume up and down plus power, while the three on the left side are a bit more tricky. The lower button switches between the two gain settings, so you can match the volume range to the sensitivity of your headphones. A tiny red LED between the volume buttons lets you know when you’re in the high gain setting. The upper button toggles between the USB and Wi-Fi inputs, while the button in the middle has two functions. When the Companion One is in Wi-Fi mode it selects between the AP connect mode for a one to one connection with your source, and client mode where the Companion becomes a device on your home Wi-Fi network. Change to a wired connection and the middle button then allows you to toggle between full speed (12 Mbps) and high speed (480 Mpbs) connections. All of this presents a bit of a learning curve, not helped by the almost total lack of indicators to tell you what settings are selected. There’s no fancy display or touch screen, just a row of four blue LEDs to indicate the battery level, and a single multi-coloured function LED that blinks and flashes between four different colours in a cryptic set of coded messages to tell you what’s happening. There’s even an occasional voice prompt over the headphone output, but wouldn’t it be easier to add a few additional indicators next to each switch to spell things out a little more clearly?

Making a wired connection between the Companion One and my iPhone 5 proved to be a snap, with the supplied five inch Lightning cable allowing for an easy plug and play hook up. Best of all, you don’t need to use Apple’s camera adapter cable to make it all work. The wireless connection was also relatively straightforward after I switched my phone over to the Companion One’s Wi-Fi signal. I also wanted to play high res files, so I needed to make a wired connection to my Windows laptop. This proved to be trickier than expected, with a few hurdles to overcome. First, you need to install a set of drivers downloaded from the Celsus One website, and even this process proved to be kind of buggy. Once that was sorted, I found that because The Companion One uses ASIO rather than WASAPI drivers, it didn’t want to play nice with my Foobar 2K audio player. Apparently there are some plug ins you can add to make it all work, but I chose to take the easy way out and simply used the JRiver player instead.

I auditioned the Companion One with a pretty wide range of headphones, including the Sennheiser HD-650 (later version), Ultimate Ears UE-10 IEMs, HiFiMAN RE-600S, and the fairly tough load of the HiFiMAN HE-5s. Even with the HE-5s, I never felt that the Companion One was about to run out of steam, and the sound remained clear and dynamic.

All of this sleek loveliness and technical versatility would be for naught if the Companion One couldn’t deliver the goods sonically, but what immediately struck me was how the basically neutral tonality of the Companion One allowed the true character of the recording and connected headphones to shine through. The lower octaves from 300Hz down were particularly impressive, and on the Keith Richards track ‘Words Of Wonder’ the Companion One could take a headphone that tends toward a fat bass sound such as the Audio Technica ATH-M50X, and whip it into line so the bass remained tuneful and clear. When I played the same track over the UE-10s, the dynamic snap of drummer Steve Jordan’s snare drum came across with startling realism, along with the harmonic richness of Keith’s guitar.

For the high res experience, I listened to David Chesky’s ‘Jazz In The New Harmonic’ playing 192/24 files downloaded from HDTracks. This is an exceptionally natural sounding acoustic jazz recording, and via the Companion One it drew out all of the tonal colours from drummer Billy Drummond’s various cymbals, along with the power and detail in Peter Washington’s acoustic bass playing. I didn’t name a track here, because once I started listening, I just played the entire album, front to back.

 

With record after record, and through all kinds of headphones, I soon came to the conclusion that the Companion One was really more like a tool that allowed me to audition recordings and headphones, than a device with a sound of its own. It always remained neutral and simply let me hear the best of whatever it was connected to.

While $595 (US) might seem like a lot of money for a portable DAC amp, I know of many audiophiles who would happily spend more than that amount on tweaks where the sonic benefits are subtle at best. The Companion One is an auspicious achievement for a new company, and I’ll be eagerly waiting to hear what else they might have tucked up their sleeves.

Technical Specifications

  • Type: Portable digital-to-analogue converter and headphone amplifier
  • Digital Inputs: One Micro-USB B 2.0 input (asynchronous, OTG, supports ASIO); Wi-Fi (Supports uPNP, Airplay, DNLA, Qplay)
  • Digital Outputs: One Mini-TOSLINK optical S/PDIF
  • Analogue Outputs: Two; One line level, one headphone level, single-ended (via 3.5mm jacks)
  • DAC Resolution/Supported Digital Formats: USB; PCM files from 16-bit, 44.1kHz to 32-bit, 384kHz. DSD files from DSD64 to DSD128, DXD; Wi-Fi; PCM files from 16-bit 44.1kHz to 24-bit 192kHz .
  • Frequency Response: 20Hz – 22kHz, +0dB, -0.5dB
  • Distortion (THD + Noise): 0.001% (0dB, 10k Ohm load)
  • S/N ratio: > 115dB (at 2Vrms)
  • Crosstalk: < –110dB
  • Dynamic range: > 115dB
  • Output power: 160mW @ 32 Ohm, 28mW @ 300 Ohm
  • Dimensions (H×W×D): 145 × 76 × 17mm
  • Weight: 260g
  • Price: $595 (USA), €595 (EU, currently no UK distributor)

Manufacturer: Celsus Sound

URL: www.celsus-sound.com

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Pendulumic Stance S1+ Bluetooth headphones

The worlds of Bluetooth and good audio have traditionally not been the best of bedfellows, although that’s all changing. In the traditional stereo world, companies like Chord Electronics have performed wonders with Bluetooth enabled DACs and the rest. In the headphone world, though, Bluetooth has been considerably more widely adopted, but mostly in a low to mid end manner, hooking smartphone to the headset for commuters and joggers who hate wires.

The Pendulumic Stance S1+ is different. It’s a legitimately high-end, studio-grade headphone that runs wirelessly through Bluetooth. It also has a wired mode, and can even be used to make calls. It runs along all the latest and greatest Bluetooth lines (Bluetooth 4.0, aptX, and A2DP), which means CD quality. It auto-pairs with devices, and has a 15m radius, even as a phone headset (with built-in microphone).

The battery part is really clever too, allowing a hybrid approach to long-term music replay. In the S1+’s left earcup is a small non-removable lithium-ion battery, charged periodically from a USB cable. This gives about 30 hours of listening and wireless audio, with about a three-hour charge to bring it back to life. However, the front of the ear-cup removes and has space for two AAA batteries. Put a pair of alkalines in there and you can extend battery life, or reboot your Stance S1+ for more play. It has to be alkalines, though – rechargeable AAA batteries seem to lose Bluetooth lock quickly. The left-hand earcup also has a slider for flipping between power sources or turning the headphones off completely.

The right-hand ear cup has a slider to switch between wireless, actively powered (with cord), and straight passive sound, with a rear dial (more like the crown of a wristwatch) to control volume and turn the headphones into a Bluetooth phone headset – you can use the dial to search through a list of tracks, play and pause, and answer calls (there’s a little grille to the front of the headset for the mic). Two small LEDs on the side of the earcup show battery and wireless status.

 

Pendulumic gives good case candy, too. The Stance S1+ slipcase comes away to reveal a stiff cardboard presentation case of good quality. Inside is a clamshell carry case for the headphones, a small cardboard box for the ‘legacy’ and USB connection cables, and an instruction manual/quick start connection guide. Although, if you need this quick start guide, you also really need a short course in what the 21st Century looks like to an outsider. Basically, you turn on Bluetooth on the device you want to connect to, ‘PDLM S1’ pops up in your list of devices, you press ‘connect’ and the Stance S1+ is visible to that device. That it isn’t ‘paired’ in a formal sense means if someone was feeling particularly nasty they could feed their Bluetooth signal into your ears, although they will not be able to even see the Stance S1+ on their list until you disconnect from the device to which your ears are bonded.

The overall feel of the headphones is good. The headphones have that unique plasticiser smell at first, but that quickly goes away, and the headband and earcups are of soft pleather, with hard plastic ear cups and metal bracing. They are light and comfortable and designed for long listening sessions. The 40mm driver in the ear cup is claimed to deliver 10Hz-22kHz frequency response, and I feel no need to question that.

I’ll admit to having mixed feelings about wireless headphone audio, but my negative first impressions were coloured (literally) by the performance of relatively primitive early RF and especially line-of-sight Infra-Red systems that were, at best, awful. The Pendulumic Stance S1+ is nothing like that. In fact, pointing to those bad old days of IR headphones next to the S1+ is like comparing a Model T Ford to a Tesla… that’s how far we’ve come.

The sound of the Stance S1+ is, frankly, incredible. The company posts blind tests on its site and you can do the same at home. Play a CD-grade file (possibly from Tidal) through a Bluetooth source (possibly a MacBook Pro) and have the headphone cable attached. Compare the sound of Bluetooth with wired over and over again and just when your victim is convinced they are listening to wired, hand them the other end of the cable. You can weasel word your way around this – near-indistinguishable, functionally-indistinguishable, practically-indistinguishable – but the operative word in all this is ‘indistinguishable’! You just can’t hear the difference. It sounds a lot better on an Android or MacBook than an iPhone, but that’s down to Apple, not Pendulumic.

The sound you get from the headphones is good, too. It’s slightly on the warm and rich side, but not so warm and rich that it undermines their openness and good upper bass. It’s the kind of sound that makes you like the sound music makes; full, thick, and fun. I don’t think it matters whether you are listening to Schnittke or S Club 7, the texture of the sound remains the same; inviting, rich, detailed, and open. I played ‘Get Lucky’ by Daft Punk [Random Access Memories, Columbia], and the combination of Nile Rodgers fine funk Stratocaster sound, and Pharrell Williams’s Northern Soul singer charm cut through perfectly.

The limitations are fairly easy to spot too, but they are mostly benign and entirely unrelated to the Bluetooth process. Perhaps the biggest is the relatively minimal sound isolation: although these are sealed, over-ear headphones, they don’t offer as much isolation (both to the listener and to those around the listener) as, say, a pair of Sennheiser HD-25s. As a result, out in the street you might find yourself wishing for some noise cancellation. The relative lack of isolation, however, does make up for a lack of feedback from calls – you can hear the person on the other end of the line, but not your own voice through the headphones. An ‘open’ microphone would be more useful. And American listeners please note, these are quiet sounding headphones because of us Europeans – EU legislation places a limit on just how loud phone headphones can get: Sorry. These would normally not be make or break elements in a headphone, even in combination, and here if you weigh all of these against what the S1+ does with wireless audio, the balance tips heavily in Pendulumic’s favour.

It might read like heresy in an audio magazine, but the Pendulumic’s sound is barely half the story. It’s what it lets you do with that sound that’s so ultimately brilliant about the Stance S1+. Unless you were militantly opposed to such things, cast your mind back to the first time you played with an iPod, or maybe even a Walkman. At one point in that early listening, you probably discovered the liberation of taking your music with you everywhere, and some of you at least were willing to put up with a few compromises in that music in order to have that music with you everywhere. The Stance S1+ has the same sense of liberation, but with some of the last compromises ironed out. Where before you were bonded to a player, now even that is at one remove. This is curiously a liberating feeling in today’s world, like the sense of relief if you switch your work phone off after a long week. I quickly got used to just doing things around the house with the headphones on, connected to the system in another room (and thanks to Pendulumic’s excellent and understated 15m range, that room can be some distance and a few thick walls from my headset). It’s only when you realise the action of chopping onions in the kitchen is now performed with high-fidelity sound that you begin to notice how far ahead the Stance S1+ is from the rivals.

 

The point of the Pendulumic Stance S1+ is it’s a genuine paradigm shift in headphone use. This is a device that works in the home every bit as successfully as it works on the go. You could commute with it, exercise with it, listen around the home with it, and sit back at the end of the day and listen intently to it, and in all cases it rises to the different challenges these tasks present. Even battery life is no longer an issue, thanks to that block that can be swapped out for some AAA batteries on the fly. The fact it sounds damn good should be central to this review, but you can’t help get the feeling it’s more the icing on the cake here. Pendulumic really does hold all the aces.

Technical Specifications

  • Bluetooth Version: 4.0 with aptX
  • Driver diameter: 40mm
  • Frequency response: 10Hz-22kHz (with aptX enhancement)
  • Sound Pressure Level: 121dB (1kHz/1Vrms)
  • Impedance: 32Ω
  • External battery: 2× AAA battery (alkaline recommended)
  • Wireless playback duration: up to 30 hours (with external AAA batteries)
  • Wireless operating range: up to 15m
  • Ear cup diameter: 70mm
  • Weight: 310g (without cables or accessories)
  • Price: $199/£169.95

Manufactued by: Pendulumic

URL: www.Pendulumic.com

UK contact: Audiologica Ltd

URL: www.audiologica.co.uk

Tel: +44(0)1403 336339

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In praise of challenging music

As a gaijin living in England, my experience of sushi has traditionally been very ‘western’: recognisable bits of fish (tuna, salmon) or seafood (crab, prawn, maybe octopus) with rice, seaweed, and wasabi. OK, so there is always ikura (salmon roe) with its little bright orange bubbles and unagi (eel), although this last is proving unsustainable (catfish sushi may be a handy replacement). But the really challenging sushi remained elusive. No way was I ever going to eat uni, those dark orange pillows made of the reproductive organs of sea urchins. Ugh!

Then I tried it. It has a creamy texture, with a surprisingly light, sweet, briny flavour with a long aftertaste of the sea. It’s like ocean-fresh custard. It also contains small amounts of a euphoria-inducing neurotransmitter called anandamide, although I doubt the phrase “stoned on sea urchin gonads” will ever make it into common parlance. But, the point of uni is that it’s challenging and it’s flavour is complicated – like a fine wine or a good cheese. It’s not ‘adult sweets’; not something that is an immediate taste sensation, but a thing you need to be more grown up about. Ultimately uni sushi is something a westerner approaches with a sense of excitement, interest, and open-mindedness… or the deal is off.

So it is with some music.

Whether through proliferation or commercialisation, for many people music has stopped being something to inspire, offend, impassion, and challenge people. We can do ‘moving’ and ‘stirring’ relatively easily: Beethoven’s Ode to Joy from his Ninth Symphony is stirring stuff and movie score composer Hans Zimmer manages to instil these emotions in almost every soundtrack he works on, even if sometimes he recycles the same melody (for example, compare ‘Roll Tide’ from Crimson Tide with ‘Battle’ from Gladiator, and then listen to the soundtracks of The Rock and Pirates of the Caribbean). But, we as music lovers should strive to dig deeper into our musical consciousness. We should seek out the challenging music.

The last century and a half of orchestral music has provided us with a number of powerful works that were not composed as a confection for a Hapsburg prince, or as background to an action hero movie. Music in the Classical era and before required patronage, and it’s only been the last 150 or so years that a composer had the freedom of writing music for a wider concert-going audience that we’ve been able to explore beyond the musical foundations laid down by Bach. But the free market has its downside – pandering to a lowest common denominator.

The classical recorded market is a perfect example of the best and worst of that free market environment. It’s possible now to collect great recordings of some of the most challenging works every produced, should you so wish. And yet, the shelves of surviving generalist record stores selling classical music are filled with non-threatening musical trivialities played by Bright Young Things. The hope was that a beautiful cellist on the cover will act as an introduction to classical music, but there seems to be little follow-up from these purchases.

I don’t think the answer is for music stores and classical music radio stations to put up a barrier of Stockhausen to protect against the hoi polloi from polluting classical music, but I think it behoves all music lovers to explore the outer regions of the music we love. It also behoves us to impart that love of music to anyone willing to share.

Despite my little dig at Hans Zimmer’s soundtracks earlier, I think film scores do introduce people to classical music more effectively than almost anything else today. More people have been inspired to delve deeper into modern classical music through hearing Ligeti’s ‘Lux Aeterna’ in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Philip Glass’ soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi (and more recently The Hours), or Carl Orff’s Gassenhauer as the haunting theme to Badlands, than through listening to classical radio stations. Sadly, the use of complex music in movie scores is in decline, replaced instead by powerful rock soundtracks to summer blockbusters.

For those of us already developing an interest in classical music, go deeper. Admittedly, some of the more structurally dense atonal and music concrete works of the 20th Century are extremely demanding (someone moving from Mozart to Pierre Schaeffer in one jump will very probably jump back to Mozart fast), there are transition points that introduce the listener to the complexity of more challenging music. Search out Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony, or Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht as good and accessible starting places, as they still call upon traditional concepts of melody, harmony, and rhythm, while introducing more intellectually challenging concepts of chromatics, modernism, serialism, key modulation, and dissonance. These pieces retain much of the beauty of Romanticism, but express darker themes without 19th Century polishing.

From here, music can take turns through jazz, folk music, experiments with different tonal structures or even atonality, introduction of more complex time signatures, non-standard orchestral instruments, tapes and treated instruments, and more. The middle-late 20th Century became a very strange musical place with experiments in tape loops, early synthesisers, and other experiments that make no sense to the uninitiated (and not much sense to the cognoscenti). And, to be fair, these almost unlistenable compositions from the 1950s and 1960s have largely faded as composers adopt a more synoptic view of composition in recent years. There is still much to be had in listening to the hypnotic exploration of resonance from Alvin Lucier’s 1969 composition “I am sitting in a room”, but it also is a work of minimalism very much in its own time, and the musical world has moved on. Arguably the ‘Earthrise’ image taken by astronaut William Anders on the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 was the most significant event to happen to modern classical music, because it turned composers away from decades of introspection and outward to contemplating nature and the universe. Whether directly or not, the difference between the introverted minimalism of Terry Riley’s ‘In C’ (from 1964) and Arvo Pärt’s ‘Fur Alina’ composed a dozen years later is marked.

Audiophiles have long been skirting around more complex music, as many enthusiasts’ collections include the ECM version of Arvo Pärt’s beautiful, minimalist Tabula Rasa or even Spiegel im Spiegel. These are powerful, contemplative works and well worth seeking out.

I guess we all have our limits, whether musical or culinary. Staying with Japanese food, that’s very likely konowata, or sea cucumber intestines. And with music, it’s probably listening to Penderecki’s Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima. It’s a brilliant piece of microtonality, rightfully and genuinely disturbing, and sounds like someone torturing 52 stringed instruments to death over eight and a half minutes. Which is possibly entirely relevant and fitting given the subject matter, but something I find just too challenging. For now.

Audio Consultants Musical Event No.3 – October 17th & 18th

The Audio Consultants will be holding their next Musical Event No.3 on the 17 and 18 October at the Holiday Inn, Reading. This will feature a system based around the German Physiks omnidirectional speakers with Edge Electronics used to power them. The new SME Model 15 turntable with the radically different optical cartridge from DS Audio will also be featured.

This Holiday Inn is of a very high standard and conveniently located near Junction 10 of the M4 and for trains from London. It will be an opportunity to listen to a sound of high excellence in a more relaxed and quiet environment than at other hifi shows.

For more information please visit: www.audioconsultants.co.uk

Astell & Kern AK380 high-res digital audio player

When Astell&Kern brought out its AK240 Portable High Fidelity Sound system (£2,199) about two years ago, many of us assumed the firm has pushed the sonic and price limits of the high-end portable player genre as far as they could go, but as it turns out we were wrong. Enter the firm’s spectacular new all singing, all dancing, and all-conquering flagship model, the AK380 (£2,999), which in some respects takes up where the AK240 leaves off.

One point we should stress from the outset is that the AK380 is not purely a single purpose audio player. Instead, think of the AK380 as the platform for an expandable, multi-faceted digital audio playback system comprised of the AK380 plus any of several optional, dedicated accessories Astell&Kern has in the works.

Among these upcoming accessories will be the AK380 Cradle, which not only provides the expected USB data transfer and charging capabilities, but also incorporates a stereo balanced analogue output via a pair of three-pin XLR-type connectors, thus inviting owners to use their AK380s as the primary DACs in their full-sized audio systems, without compromising portability. The next planned accessory will be the detachable AK380 Amp said to increase the power output and of the AK380 for purposes of driving power hungry headphones—especially “high-impedance professional headphones.” Last but not least, the firm also plans to offer a compact, desktop AK380 CD-Ripper, which is a handsome little CD‑ROM drive that can rip CDs directly to the AK380’s built-in memory.

As you might expect, all three of these accessories are beautifully made and precisely matched to complement the distinctive design motif of the AK380. As of press time, however, Astell&Kern had not yet announced production release dates or final prices for the accessories (though having seen and tried them at recent trade shows, we can vouch for the fact that they look great and appear to work well). Stay tuned, and watch for further announcements from Astell&Kern.

 

Like most of Astell&Kern’s products to date, the AK380 features an angular and strikingly beautiful industrial design—one that perhaps answers the question, “What sort of digital audio player might M.C. Escher have designed?” I say this because the casework of the AK380, which is fashioned from aircraft-grade Duralumin finished in a tasteful matt bronze colour, presents a challenging optical puzzle of sorts. When you first hold the player in your hand, the illusion is that the unit’s 100mm touchscreen deliberately has been rotated a couple of degrees out of true in a clockwise direction, which seems a peculiar (though not unattractive) visual detail. However, after some study, it becomes apparent that the screen is in fact perfectly true to the top and bottom edges of the player, but that the left and right-hand edges of the case are skewed a handful of degrees past the perpendicular in a counter-clockwise direction. This is precisely the sort of clever, whimsical, and thought-provoking design that has made A&K players so appealing to audiophiles and other style-conscious consumers over time.

Controls for the player are elegantly simple. On the left side of the case are three pushbuttons supporting ‘Previous/Rewind’, ‘Play/Pause’, and ‘Next/Fast-Forward’ functions. On the right, one finds a neatly recessed, knurled thumbwheel-type volume control knob, plus a small slot where users can install an optional microSD card (with up to 128GB capacity), if desired, to supplement the AK380’s standard 256GB of internal storage.

On the player’s top edge, there is a rectangular power switch that also doubles as a ‘Screen On/Off’ control. There are also two audio output ports up top: a combination Earphone/Optical output port (via a 3.5mm mini-jack), plus a Balanced Audio output port (via a 2.5mm, 4-connector jack). The rest of the AK380’s control functions are for the most part handled by the unit’s WVGA touch screen and its associated control menus, which I found reasonably intuitive to use. Completing the picture is a pressure-sensitive, metal capacitive ‘Home’ menu touch switch embedded in the lower centre surfaces of the metal casework.

On the bottom of the AK380 one finds a Micro USB port that allows digital audio files to be transferred to the AK380’s built-in memory and that also enables the unit to serve as a ‘slave’ DAC/amp that can play files from USB-attached PCs, Macs, or music servers. There are also four recessed connector contacts that provide ‘Expansion Unit Balanced Outputs’, which are presumably reserved for use with the aforementioned AK380’s upcoming, clip-on accessories.

The rear plate of the AK380 features an inset carbon fibre back panel, plus a shallow, knurled-edge thumbscrew that serve to protect an inset threaded socket in the back panel where various AK380 accessories will lock on to the case of the main player.

 

The AK380 arrives with a useful and tasteful set of accessories including a Micro-USB cable, a microSD card slot cover, a form-fitted brown leather case, a set of protective film covers for the unit’s front and back panels, and the obligatory Quick Start Guide and associated Warranty Cards. Astell&Kern has also prepared an in-depth, 55-page Instruction Book/User Guide for the AK380, available online, which is pretty much required reading for those looking to take full advantage of the player’s extensive and multi-faceted capabilities.

While there are many similarities between the AK380 and the AK240 that preceded it, there are also several noteworthy differences. In particular, Astell&Kern emphasizes that in contrast to the AK240, “Every bit of the AK380 was designed for Pro-Audio in mind.” With this objective in mind, the AK380 uses dual AKM AK4490 DACs, whereas the AK240 uses dual Cirrus Logic CS4398 DACs. Both players support native decoding for DSD64/DSD128 files, which many audiophiles consider a ‘must-have’ feature, and both provide bit-for-bit decoding for high-resolution PCM files. However, the AK380 ups the ante with bit-for-bit decoding, supporting PCM files all the way up to 32-bit/384kHz resolutions, where the upper limit for bit-for-bit decoding in AK240 tops out at files of 24-bit/192kHz resolutions. Astell&Kern stresses that many competing DACs that notionally can handle high-res files turn out in practice to downsample those files to lower resolution levels for playback. With the AK240 and AK380, there is, of course, no need to resort to such digital shenanigans.

Another notable difference between the players is that the AK380 incorporates “a voltage-controlled crystal oscillator (VXCO) high-precision clock with a reference jitter value of 200 femtoseconds”—a feature the AK240 does not include. Accordingly, the AK380 offers noticeably lower jitter than does the already excellent AK240.

An even bigger difference, and one potentially very important for certain audiophiles and pro-audio customers, is that the AK380 dispenses with the AK240’s 10‑band graphic equalizer, instead providing an extremely high-precision 20-band parametric equalizer (PEQ). By ‘high-precision’ I mean that the AK380’s impressive equalizer allows both gain and ‘Q’ settings for each EQ band to be adjusted in 0.1dB increments. What is more, the player allows users to create, name, and store multiple EQ curves, setting them aside for future use. For example, a user could conceivably create custom EQ curve settings to improve the frequency response of each of his or her favourite headphones or earphones, holding them in the player’s memory ready for use when needed. Astell&Kern says that the AK380’s extensive equalization functions are so processor-intensive that the player must, as a matter of necessity, provide a dedicated audio DSD device to run them all.

One final differentiator between the AK380 and the AK240 is that the former supports a new Astell&Kern DLNA-compatible application called AK Connect, whereas the latter supported a similar but perhaps less elaborate DLNA application called MQS Streaming. The firm says that AK Connect allows the AK380 to “access or download music files stored on a computer on the same network (to which the AK380 is connected via Wi-Fi).” In turn, the application also allows music to “be played through Astell&Kern (network-attached) speakers.” It is almost impossible to overstate the sheer range of system configuration options that AK Connect makes possible. In fact, depending upon the intended use context it is possible for the AK380 to serve as a Digital Media Player, a Digital Media Controller, a Digital Media Server (or network server), or as a Digital Media Player (or network player).

 

Honestly, we could probably discuss the AK380’s many features and functions for hours on end, but now it’s time to focus on the aspect of the player many Hi-Fi+ readers will care about most: namely, its sound quality.

During my listening tests, I used the AK380 both as a standalone device and as a portable DAC/headphone amplifier connected to my reference Lenovo/jRiver Media Center-based music server. I also used a mix of reference earphones and headphones, including Noble Audio Model 4S CIEMs, JH Audio Roxanne CIEMs, Westone W60 universal-fit earphones, HiFiMAN HE1000 and HE400i headphones, and Oppo PM-1 headphones (with revised ear pads).

First and foremost, the AK380 consistently serves up a precise and firmly controlled sound characterised by transparency, openness, nuance, and an overarching sense of almost boundless attention to detail. Stated another way, the AK380 serves up clarity with a capital ‘C’ and an enchanting quality of musical lucidity that just won’t quit. In my experience, these qualities often caused even casual, first-time guest listeners to stop in their tracks and take notice of the pocket-sized player. I suspect this is because the AK380 tends to shatter preconceived notions of how a portable product will sound, instead delivering the sort of self-confident and self-assured sound that many would associate with premium-priced full-size components.

For instance, on ‘Again’ from Monty Alexander’s Calypso Blues: The Songs of Nat King Cole [Chesky, 24/192], the AK380 caught the fluidity and ease of Alexander’s piano, the woody richness of the accompanying acoustic bass, the restrained delicacy of the percussionist’s cymbals and snare rimshots, plus the almost evanescent low-level sound of Alexander humming along at times with the music (a detail so subtle that many DAC/amps miss it altogether!).

Similarly, on ‘Poison and Wine’ from The Civil Wars’ Barton Hollow [Sony, 16/44.1], the AK380 did a remarkable job with the passage where Joy Williams sings the lyric, “Your hands can heal/Your hands can wound”. As Williams sustains and extends the final word of the phrase, she is joined on that word—very faintly at first, and then more audibly—by Paul White, who deftly modulates his pitch so that his vocal line gently wraps around hers, eventually settling into a graceful harmony. Many DAC/amps can reveal such delicate moments to a point, but the AK380 handles them with far greater sensitivity and refinement than most.

Finally, the AK380 shows a good measure of dynamic swagger, provided you respect its overall output limits. I became a believer in its capabilities when listening to ‘Moten Swing’ from Clark Terry’s The Chicago Sessions: 1995-96 [Reference Recordings, 24/44.1 – HDCD]. In that track, the DePaul University Big Band establishes a powerfully swinging but also fairly subdued groove, only to have Terry and the band’s horn section fairly explode into action. It’s a dramatic moment, one that the AK380 captures with authority and verve.

 

How does the AK380 fare as a music server? To find out, I played a test group of tracks from my reference server through the AK380, using it as a DAC/amp, then played the same tracks from the AK380’s onboard memory to see what, if any, differences I could observe. What I found was that both sounded very similar, but that the reference server gave just a smidgeon more edge definition on transient sounds and—on good recordings—a hint of additional emphasis on the high frequency ‘air’ surrounding notes. In contrast, files played directly from the AK380 tended to sound a bit smoother and perhaps more rounded, but no less detailed. In short, I could live quite happily with either server (though I doubt I’ll ever get my Lenovo server and dedicated music drive to fit in my shirt pocket).

In sum, the AK380 is one of the most versatile, refined, and compelling personal audio products I’ve ever heard. It is undeniably expensive and may be priced beyond the budgets of many enthusiasts, this one included, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is a great performer and very desirable. Perhaps the strongest recommendation I can give is to admit that, down deep, I want one of these. And if you hear the AK380, you might want one, too.

Technical Specifications

  • Inputs: Built-in 256GB music library; USB Micro-B (32/384-capable); DLNA-connect servers, PCs, Macs, and NAS drives
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n
  • Bluetooth: V4.0 (A2DP, AVRCP)
  • Outputs: Optical S/PDIF, 3.5mm mini-jack, 4-conductor 2.5mm balanced mini‑jack, expansion for use with future, planned accessories
  • Software/Firmware: Windows: AK380 DAC driver Mac: MTP software
  • Storage: 256GB music library, standard; optional add-on microSD card at capacity up to 128GB
  • DACs: Dual AKM AK4490 DACs
  • Supported Formats: WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE (Normal, High, Fast), AAC, ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF
  • Sample Rates: PCM: 8 – 384kHz, 8/16/24/32-bits; supports bit-for-bit decoding up to 32/384, DSD Native: DSD64, DSD128
  • Frequency Response: 20 Hz – 20KHz, ± 0.053dB, single-ended and balanced 10 Hz – 70kHz, ± 0.56dB, single-ended; ± 0.055dB, balanced
  • Output Levels: 2.2Vrms, single-ended; 2.3Vrms, balanced
  • THD + N: 0.0008% @ 1kHz, single-ended; 0.0007% @ 1kHz, balanced
  • Signal to Noise Ratio: 116dB @ 1kHz, single-ended; 117 dB @ 1kHz, balanced
  • Battery: 3,400mAh, 3.7V Li-Polymer battery
  • Dimensions (H×W×D): 112 × 80 × 18mm
  • Weight: 230g
  • Price: £2,999, or $3,499

Manufacturer Information: Astell&Kern

URL: www.astellnkern.com

UK Distributor: Computers Unlimited

URL: www.unlimited.com

Tel: +44 (0)20 8200 8282

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