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Naim Audio ND5 XS, Nait XS 2, Neat Acoustics Motive SX2 system

When we assemble complete systems for review, occasionally we end up making a system that is almost impossible to audition outside of the reviewer’s listening room. This is not that sort of system. Naim Audio and Neat Acoustics are often seen in the same stores in the UK, and in the same distributor’s portfolios elsewhere. Even when distributed by different companies, they go so well together, they often end up in the same stores. It’s a match made in audio heaven.

This is a simple enough system, made up of two very new and one reasonably new product. We don’t have space for detailed specifications, and in some respects these three products fall into that ‘sufficient’ category where the most important specification to note is that they all work together well. The Naim Audio ND5 XS is the company’s base-model standalone UPnP network player. At its most basic level, wire this into your home computer network and it will seek out music held on computers on the same network, and play them alongside internet radio (via vTuner) and optionally DAB/FM radio. But if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly, and giving the music its own sub-network, with the ND5 XS, a NAS drive full of music, a network switch and a wireless point for an iPad to control everything is even better. And using something like a dedicated UnitiServe to rip and control your music is better yet. But this is not the place to discuss network infrastructure; we’ve gone over that ground in previous networked product reviews.

The Naim Nait XS 2 is a wholly new product, the middle of a ‘good, better, best’ trio of Nait integrated amps. This one delivers 70 watts per channel, has six inputs, a Class A headphone circuit, a constant current stage that takes a lot from the company’s flagship 552 preamp and some very clever ceramic heatsinking that takes cooling right down to the individual component requirement level without recourse to fins or fans. Being a resolutely engineering-led company (with a few joyful concessions to audiophile madness along the way), Naim has taken the opportunity to redraw and optimise the signal path layout.

 

Appearances can be deceptive. This is not your 1980s Nait. The Nait XS 2 is programmable, and even has a mini USB port for potential firmware upgrades. The level of programming is fairly limited (such as assigning default source, disabling unused sources, volume levels at power on, etc), but too many options would detract from the overall minimalism intrinsic to the Nait ethos.

As you might expect from Naim, both products can be upgraded with off-board power supplies. This is often read wrongly by the chattering classes, who view it as a good product hobbled until you add an expensive power supply. The other way of looking at this is a pair of great products, which can be made even better at a later date by adding beefier power supplies. Given the performance of the two, I’d go with the second answer.

Finally, the Neat Acoustics Motive SX2. This is a diminutive (765mm tall), reasonably lightweight (11kg), back-swept, floorstanding two-way bass-reflex loudspeaker, with a fair bit in common with our 2006 Product of the Year Motive 2. It still sits on a plinth (the port is built into the base of the speaker) and is single-wired. It still features a 25mm inverted dome tweeter, although this time it’s black anodised aluminium, with a large screened magnet assembly behind. Under the hood, the tweeter now has its own cavity, the port has been revised and the crossover reworked (although this last comes with the change in tweeters). These are not small changes though, and build on the predecessor’s strengths.

We could go all wig-out crazy here, with cables that double the cost of the system and a room full of power conditioners, tables, platforms, cones, decouplers, uncouplers, recouplers and marriage guidance counsellors. But that’s not what this system is all about. It’s a simple system, and should be treated as such. The electronics ended up stacked one atop another on an Ikea Lack table, and the speakers were plonked down against a wall, with no care or attention given. The power cords are the ones that came with the boxes; bog-standard affairs, albeit ones with good MK plugs in place of moulded plugs. The interconnect is the giveaway grey DIN lead that also comes in the box and the loudspeaker cables were Naim’s own NAC A5. This last is a relatively inflexible stranded copper pair of conductors separated by a central spacer. It’s not giveaway cable, and has its detractors (unsurprisingly especially among rival cable makers) but is one of those ubiquitous speaker cables that does its job unobtrusively, especially in this context.

 

I broke the cardinal rule with Naim here. I forgot the power of the run in. As a consequence, my first experience with the system wired up was quick, and nasty. There was some kind of balance, in that the monochrome Neats were evening out the random sounding Naims, but not in a way that was anything even muscling up to ‘nice’ sounding. It got to the point of reopening the boxes and uttering a polite ‘no thanks’ to the companies involved, when suddenly it did what all Naim systems do after a few days, and spring to life.

At that point, I began to give the installation a little more thought. Strangely, that didn’t matter too much – I’m sure tweaking the system would make a difference, but this isn’t the kind of equipment so delicate that it demands laser-guided precision of install. What did matter was sheer hours spent plugged in. The ND5 XS did seem to need a periodic hard boot every five or six days, but after two of those 20-second gaps in power delivery, the system had reached its happy place… and stayed there.

This system gets to music’s nub, and clamps on like an angry bull terrier. This doesn’t necessarily mean protracted listening sessions (although that is a by-product), but more excuses for a listening session seem to appear in your life. It’s the end of a long day – time to play an album or two. Time to prepare dinner – what’s the best music to accompany chopping onions? It’s next-door’s cat’s birthday – that calls for a musical celebration.

Truth to tell, I can’t put my finger on ‘why’ this happens, just that it does happen. I’ve heard other systems that perform similarly, which don’t create the same drive in the listener. This has been labelled ‘musicality’ or ‘Pace Rhythm and Timing’, but I suspect these are clunky abstractions shoe-horned into attempting to label something that doesn’t readily respond to labels. This is because it applies equally to tracks where these things don’t apply – Richard Burton narrating Under Milk Wood for example. This also exposes the criticism of such systems being all fireworks and no substance as a myth; his voice is at turns soft and lilting, and hard and flinty, as the poem demands at that point. It’s organised sound at its stripped back, purist form.

 

I guess the keyword here would be ‘composure’. The three are perfectly matched for one another, the surprising power delivery in the bass of the Nait XS 2 is an ideal counterpoint for the demands of the Motive SX2, and the ND5 XS feeds both a signal with scope to let them sing. Oh, and one last – and frequently overlooked – point; the headphone sound quality is absolutely superb.

The system worked so well together, it seemed a crying shame to split the band up. However, of the trio, the ND5 XS was the most universal product (because it slotted into many settings without imposing change to the sound) and the Nait was the most ‘obvious’ (it brought its personality to anything it touched).

So long as you don’t judge audio only by the depth of soundstage or the ability to hear what grade of sandpaper the guitarist used on his fingernails, this system is in it for the long term. In a small to medium room, there’s no need for more, and tweaking is like tampering. This Naim/Neat combination just makes music sound right. Highly recommended.

Technical Specifications

  • Naim ND5 XS: £1,995
  • Naim NAIT XS 2:  £1,595
  • Naim NAC A5 loudspeaker cable: £25/m

  • Manufactured by: Naim Audio

  • URL: www.naimaudio.com
  • Tel: +44(0)1722 426600
  • Neat Motive SX2: £1,395/pair
  • Finishes: Natural oak, American walnut, black oak, satin white. Other finishes to order

  • Manufactured by: Neat Acoustics

  • URL: www.neat.co.uk
  • Tel: +44(0)1833 631021

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The Great Leap Forward

I’ve recently been through several loudspeakers in the review process recently. And two in particular highlight a marked step-change in the way audio systems have sounded, and now sound.

The two loudspeakers are the excellent Graham Audio LS5/9 loudspeaker and the equally excellent – but very different – Triangle Signature Delta. The Graham Audio LS5/9 is very much of the old-school BBC transducer design (thin-walled wide-front baffle standmount box, relatively low-impact load, low sensitivity, gently rolled off top and bottom). The Triangle, on the other hand, is very much the new order of audio, with high sensitivity, a frequency response extended to the limits of the hearing of the best of us, a slim-baffle and thick cabinet).

The LS5/9 is one of the lesser-known and last BBC loudspeaker designs, developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Triangle was around at that time, but although its modern models have a heritage, it’s hard to see them as even distant relatives. Perhaps more importantly though, they sound very different to one another; that might sound obvious (they are from different companies, use different drivers, one is a three, the other a two-way… things like that) but the differences run deeper than most.

In some ways, the Graham Audio is a time machine. It takes the listener back to a time when high frequencies were something to be gently encouraged, rather than emphasized. A time when bass was not considered a foundation stone to good sound and a time when the midrange was the place where all loudspeakers were judged.

 

We’ve moved on. As a loudspeaker like the Triangle demonstrates, an extended treble, clean almost to the point of brightness, and an authoritative bass are the orders of the day. It’s still important to get the midrange right – and in fairness, this has long been a strong-point for the French brand – but it’s just one of the priorities now.

In fact, you could argue that we moved on and are beginning to swing away from overly bright speaker systems. The days of zingy, stingy metal dome tweeters are behind us, even behind those who use metal dome tweeters. But the sound is still far brighter and far more forward today.

I don’t want this to descend into an argument that rose-tints either ‘bright, forward’ or ‘soft, laid-back’. A better line of reasoning might be to investigate ‘why’? I suspect it’s a combination of things.

A lot of what passed for good speaker design a few decades ago was constrained by the limits of materials science at the time. While it became possible thanks to companies like KEF making the first plastic cones and domes, it still took a while for a HF component beyond about 15-16kHz to catch on.

However, I think it comes down to changes in priority of the listeners themselves. A typical hi-fi enthusiast of the 1950s and 1960s wasn’t normally playing Elvis or The Beatles through his system. They were fans of classical, jazz and other kinds of acoustic music, the sound of which they tried to anchor in their heads and reproduce in the home. Whether a move from acoustic to amplified instruments did seem to spark interest in loudspeakers with a brighter top end is unclear, because correlation does not imply causation. But it warrants historical investigation.

This might even have a demographic component. What is impossible to separate is whether that demographic component (should it be demonstrable) comes down to learned response; certainly anyone in the Baby Boomer cohort (currently those aged between 50 and 68) will likely have spent their formative years listening to loudspeakers with a gentle roll-off, which anyone born in the 1970s or 1980s is less likely to have experienced. It’s anecdotal at best, but those who still have their own hair tended to like the Triangle sound, while those of superior maturity tended to like the Graham. Again, whether that’s due to history or even presbycusis is not easy to separate now.

It’s clear the drive toward more forward sounding loudspeakers is not without its exceptions. Alongside Graham Audio, fellow keepers of the BBC flame, Harbeth, Stirling Broadcast and Spendor have all had marked success in their product lines, and Tannoy’s Prestige range steadfastly refuse to push their sound forward. One could also look at designs from Audio Note, Avalon, Rockport and more that provide a sense of balance between the two polar opposites. However, the immediacy forward sounds provide does make for a compelling demonstration, which could also be a reason why more up-front sounding speakers dominate the market today.

Why is this an important consideration, though? There seem to be a lot of people expressing dissatisfaction with audio today. Some of that is directed at the spiralling price of top-end equipment, but others just find themselves out of sorts with what their audio system has to offer. To them, I’d say look to the speakers. If your system is forward sounding, try something a little less upfront; if it’s too laid-back, go with a more upfront sound. Or go for some genuine balance.

I think that just as tastes change over time, so we begin to change our perceptions about our own equipment. Over time, we start to crave something different. Not necessarily more, and not necessarily less; but ‘different’. And this could be the best way to find your way out of audio ennui.

A fine Bromance?

To audiophile manufacturers touring the high-end show circuit, CES marks the end of the year, rather than the beginning. It also is the start of a brief lull in event activity that kicks off again in May, beginning with the Munich High End show. And it’s in this interbellum period that you begin to ask why you often see the same brands demonstrated together all over the world.

These partnerships and allegiances can be surprisingly long-standing, There are companies that have been demonstrated together for more than 20 years. That’s not a working relationship… that’s a full-on bromance.

These bromances between companies exist for any number of reasons. Logically, if a company provides a soup-to-nuts solution across a few brands, it would be crazy not to exploit this (for example, why would the Fine Sounds group demonstrate Audio Research or Wadia electronics with anything other than loudspeakers from fellow Fine Sounds stable-mates Sonus faber?). There are also partnerships based on lines of distribution (if, say, Wilson Audio and Transparent Audio share almost all the same distributors the world over, then it makes sense to buddy up in demonstrations), mutual – and non-conflicting – respect for another’s work (VTL frequently demonstrates with a Spiral Groove turntable and a dCS digital front end for that reason). And sometimes it’s down to just plain liking the product (it’s perhaps why John DeVore keeps coming back to playing a Well-Tempered turntable in DeVore Fidelity demonstrations).

I’ve deliberately highlighted these companies as examples of doing it right. Take VTL for example. Over the years, VTL has worked with a number of diferent loudspeaker brands (including TAD, Rockport, Avalon and recently WIlson) to great effect, consistently making an outstanding presentation. The kind of thing that is a win for all; VTL shows just how flexible the products are sonically (because they work with such a wide variety of loudspeakers), the loudspeaker companies get to display their products in the ideal environment for a show and the customer gets to hear something more than just the locked groove of a similar system time and time again. These aren’t just thrown together; but a sophisticated mix of good products selected to produce a good sound. That takes time and effort on the part of the manufacturers involved, of course, and that’s worth applauding, and perhaps why VTLs demonstrations are often in  ‘best in show’ lists from reviewers and general public alike.

These are the right ways to form an association, because the net result is a presentation that is directed toward creating a sound quality the manufacturers concerned feel reflects the products they produce. The fact it doesn’t always turn out that way in reality comes down to the randomness of shows. This isn’t an apology for poor sound at shows – a poor sound at a show is both unforgivable and life-threatening for the brands involved – but often the cards fall badly in some rooms. They just do… hundreds of people playing off the same power, not having enough pre-show time to let the system bed in and the fact most listeners have their hearing mechanism worn flat after the first five or six rooms at best does not bode well for the listening sessions.

 

There also are occasional and unexpectedly brilliant combinations (often from the more creative dealers and distributors who aren’t afraid to mix things up) and there are distinct trends and directions you might not wish to follow, but are internally consistent (Austin HiFi’s Resolution/Crimson/Toccaro-based systems don’t follow the audiophile herd, and sound radically different to most hi-fi as a result, but they do so with such intent and consistency, they ultimately invite difficult questions about what’s important in audio). Park those systems for now. I’m talking about the companies that should be making a good sound and yet never do. The components – taken individually – work well, but mixed together in a show situation, the combination of components simply never work together. And they show up together year, upon year, upon year.

Sometimes, this all seems a little too Game of Thrones, with companies seemingly forming allegiances for their mutual benefit, rather than to make a better-matched system. Often, in the manner of political partnerships taken out of the Shakespearean playbook, such things are formed by an eminence gris; not the designers or manufacturers harnessing the mutual aims of a fellow traveler, but often someone further down the food chain thinking the two brands work well together, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

Here’s a plan. Audio companies can be myopic at times. We forget that there are other folk out there, and begin to work to our own frame of reference. We set up systems that we think sound good and don’t spend time listening to rival systems at shows to see if any of them sound better (or worse). Interestingly, those who are generally considered to make a consistently good sound often have staff members walk the halls listening to their rivals. So, unless you really are dancing to the beat of a different drummer, go walkabout… and be honest with yourself.

I don’t take too much stock in lone-gunman dislikes voiced on forums. Part of the reason I’m not naming and shaming the weakest links here is for that very reason. But once again it comes down to consistency; if one person takes a dislike to a sound at one show, it can be put down to the luck of the draw, but if the sound is repeatedly disliked across a number of shows by a lot of people, it’s time for a rethink. There’s a tendency to dismiss such negativity with a pithy “Haters Gonna Hate” – and there’s a kernel of truth in that – but also maybe it’s time to re-think those political connections you’ve made, and whether they ultimately sound good. Sometimes, even the best bromances need a cooling off period.

Finally, it’s also worth remembering that the tightest bromances are often the ones that end badly. The ‘BFF’ partnership between Linn Products and Naim Audio in the 1980s was almost the stuff of legend in the UK. They were the Butch and Sundance, the Kirk and Spock and sometimes the Morcambe and WIse of audio… until the relationship went sour. 

First Listen: Chord Electronics Hugo portable high res DAC/headphone amp

A Hi-Fi+ review project I’m working on at the moment involves the Chord Electronics Hugo portable high res DAC/headphone amp, which is priced at $2,395 in the US or £1,200 in the UK. In practice this makes the Hugo, along with Astell & Kern’s upcoming $2,400 AK240 high-resolution digital music player, one of the world’s two most expensive portable high-end audio components. As you can probably imagine, this fact alone means the Hugo raises a lot of eyebrows before it is ever turned on. Indeed, upon learning the proposed price of the Hugo, some have questioned whether a  $2,395 portable product really makes sense, but quite frankly, once the Hugo is set up and running those questions fall away, typically to be replaced with enthusiastic approbation from listeners.

To give you some idea of what the Hugo is all about, let me transport you to the Hugo release party at CES 2014, where Chord’s engaging technology honcho John Franks greeted the assembled audio journos by holding up a Hugo and telling the assembled throng, “At present the Hugo represents the most technically sophisticated and quite possibly the best-sounding high resolution DAC that our firm makes.” Gulp. That, as they say, is saying a mouthful.

At first, I wondered how Frank’s, well, frank announcement would play amongst members of the Chord sales team, but as it turns out Mr. Franks meant precisely what he had said. Following in the same general footsteps pioneered by earlier generation Chord DACs such as the DAC 64, the Hugo does not use an off-the-shelf DAC chip of any kind, but rather takes the unorthodox approach of repurposing a massive Xilinx FPGA (field programmable gate array) device for use as a high resolution DAC.

 

According to Franks, this approach offers dramatic sonic benefits vis-à-vis even the finest standard-issue DAC chips on the market, not the least of which is that Chord’s gate array-based DAC allow much higher tap-length digital filters than standardized DAC chips do. For example, the Hugo’s gate array-based DAC allows 26,000 tap-length filters (the most sophisticated Chord has offered to date in any DAC product), as compared to roughly 150 tap-length filters for standardized DACs. Franks’ position, then, is that Chord’s gate array-based DACs have always sounded better than off-the-shelf DACs and that this is in part due to the fact that they support much more sophisticated digital filtering schemes than conventional DACs do.

But there is more to the Hugo’s big Xilinx-powered DAC than having zillions of programmable gates on tap, because the Xilinx device in question is a new-generation 0.7V device that consumes very little power. This very low power draw is, as much as anything, the breakthrough that has made the Hugo possible. As Franks put it, “If we had tried to build as powerful a DAC as the one in the Hugo only a few years back, it would have needed a power supply that weighed 150 lbs. or more, which of course would not be practical.” But what is more, the Xilinx device and associated analogue circuitry are very, very quiet, with a THD + Noise levels said to fall at around -140dB, which is very low indeed. 

 

Moreover, thanks to the very low power draw of the Xilinx device, the lion’s share of the Hugo’s onboard battery can be held in reserve for powering its amplifier section. The Hugo amp is, in fact, said to be capable of driving quite low impedance loads with a goodly amount of power (720mW at 8 Ohms, 600mW at 32 Ohms). Whilst the Hugo is not the most powerful headphone amplifier we have run across, it is nevertheless capable of driving most any headphone load you’d care to name, up to and including the author’s Abyss AB-1266 planar magnetic ‘phones, which are plenty difficult to drive.

In our full-length Hi-Fi+ review we’ll go into more detail than we will here, but let me give you a quick summary of the Hugo’s capabilities. The Hugo offers TOSLink, coaxial S/PDIF, standard res and high-res USB inputs, and an aptX Bluetooth input. For outputs, the Hugo provides one ¼-inch (6.35mm) headphone jack, two 3.5mm headphone jacks, and a stereo pair of RCA analogue output jacks—where the latter can be configured either for variable or fixed (that is, line level) outputs.

In terms of digital flexibility, the Chord can handle any PCM format from 44.1/16 on up to 384/24 and is DXD capable and can also decode DSD64 and DSD128 files via DoP protocols. Importantly the Hugo is Apple and Android-device compatible and suitable for use the Macs, which need no additional device drivers, or Windows machines, which require a Chord-supplied device driver (included with the Hugo).

 

Like all Chords worthy of the name, the Hugo is beautifully made and sport all sorts of intriguing visual details (a beautifully machined external case complete with Chord’s signature viewing “porthole” on top, plus colour-coded indicators for input selected, sample rate, and volume levels). So, apart from sound quality, which we’ll get to in a moment, the Hugo is one of those well-designed objects that make you want to use them—to simply play with them early and often. This, I would have to say, is a surprisingly big part of the Hugo’s appeal; the more you interact with the it, the more rewarding it becomes to use. In my experience, listening to the Hugo can become kind of addictive.

As card-carrying Hi-Fi Plussers we are of course focused on sound quality and in this arena the Hugo does not disappoint. If I had to sum up the Hugo’s sound in one word, the word I’d choose would be “masterful”, and I’m not alone in that assessment. Just for fun, I took the review sample Hugo to a recent Head-Fi meet for show-and-tell purposes (and to gather feedback from those hearing the Hugo for the first time). The almost universal reactions held that A) the Hugo initially seemed dauntingly expensive, but that B) the price seemed fully justified once listeners heard the Hugo in action and came to appreciate the sound quality on offer. At least one Head-Fi member (who happens to be a manufacturer of very well-respected high-end headphones) said with genuine surprise and admiration, “That little Hugo really is a viable alternative to many high-end desktop or rack-mount DACs and headphone amps.”

 

As I have gotten to know the Hugo, I’ve come to admire it greatly as a complete package, but I also have come to perceive that it may, in fact, be a world-class DAC that is bolted to a very good portable headphone amplifier. In other words, when push comes to shove, the Hugo’s DAC section is what truly makes the product special. I say this, in part, because I have twice now configured the Hugo as a line-level DAC and then plugged it into ultra-high performance full-sized headphone amps (once with a Cavalli Audio Liquid Glass and later with an AURALiC Taurus MkII). In both instances, those expensive “big boy” amps revealed even more of the Hugo DAC’s performance than could be accessed when listening through the Hugo’s own amp section. Odd though it may seem, I think serious high-enders will want to consider plugging the roughly paperback book-sized Hugo into their full-sized hi-fi systems. The Hugo DAC section is, I kid you not, truly that good.

Note, please, that the foregoing comments are not to suggest that the Hugo amp section is a slouch, because that is not the case. It is, in fact, one of the two best portable amplifier sections I’ve yet heard (the other is the CEntrance HIFi-M8).  But the essential point is that the Hugo is a portable headphone amp and is subject to the inherent absolute power limitations of the genre (whereas desktop amps can, for example, have massive power supplies that might be many times larger than the entire Hugo).

The DAC section of the Hugo, however, is just mind-blowingly good. How good is it? I’m still conducting listening tests, but let’s just say that prior to writing this blog, I was listening to the Hugo in DAC-configuration and discovered that it could give the terrific AURALiC VEGA digital audio processor a pretty convincing run for its money. That is simply astounding performance in light of the Hugo’s size and price.

How did the Hugo come by its name? We’re not entirely sure, but Chord’s John Franks responded to the question with a quip that went something like this: “We hoped you’d like the product so much that you would take it with you wherever Hugo…”

 We solemnly promise the sound of the Hugo is every bit as good as that pun is bad…

Watch for Hi-Fi+’s upcoming full-length review of the Chord Hugo, where we will have more to say about this impressive new product. Until then, happy listening.

WIN! Ayon Audio’s Orion III valve integrated amplifier worth more than £2,700!!

Hi-Fi Plus has teamed up with Fi-Audio and Ayon Audio to bring one lucky winner the perfect high-end valve integrated amplifier – the excellent £2,750 Ayon Orion III.

Using four KT88 ‘Kinkless Triode’ power valves in pure class A, the Orion III delivers a healthy 30W in triode mode or a powerful 50W in pentode operation, the all valve integrated line amplifier features four standard phono line inputs, a direct input for the best possible line-level sound and even a built-in 24/96 USB input for computer audio enthusiasts. 

Ayon manages to retain 21st Century convenience with the best of 20th Century technology, as the amplifier features a sophisticated soft-start, back-lit logo and sports a full remote control, but the Austrian company insists on quality valve performance, so solid-state devices and buffers are removed from the ultra-short signal path, and the amplifier is a full no feedback design (even local feedback is eliminated – a rare, but highly desirable goal in amplifier design). Every aspect of the design has been thought of, from the choke regulated power supply and the EMI shielded transformers, to the options of automatic and manual bias adjustment to get the tubes sounding just right, the Orion III is destined for a glittering high-end career.

Competition Question

What is the missing word: The Absolute Sound called Ayon Audio “the ————– of audio” 

A. Armani

B. Bugatti

C. Parmigiani

Please send your answer – either ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ – via email to [email protected], placing the words ‘Ayon Audio Competition’ in the title. Remember to include your name and address in the email. Alternatively, send your answer on a postcard (including your name and address and contact details) to: “Ayon Audio’s Orion III Competition, Unit 3, Sandleheath Industrial Estate, Sandleheath, Hampshire SP6 1PA”. 

The competition closes on February 6, 2014

Competition Rules

The competition will run from December 5, 2013 until February 6, 2014. The competition is open to everyone, but multiple, automated or bulk entries will be disqualified. The winner will be chosen at random from all valid entries, will be contacted via email (where possible) and their name will be published in the magazine. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Absolute Multimedia (UK) Ltd. is compliant with the Data Protection Act and UK laws apply. Our policy is such that we will not pass on your details to any third party without your prior consent. 

Of course, Ayon’s legendary build quality and elegant design help too. Ayon Audio’s products have been called “the Bugatti of audio” by our sister publication The Absolute Sound with good reason; they are powerful, elegant and full of pizazz. As one lucky winner is going to find out, when they win the outstanding Ayon Audio Orion III amplifier!

Trinnov Amethyst preamp

Calling the Trinnov Amethyst a ‘preamp’ is a bit like calling Rafael Nadal ‘a tennis player’; it’s true, but dramatically fails to get across the bigger picture. You see, the Amethyst does all the conventional things you might want from a preamplifier, such as a multitude of line and digital inputs (including UPnP networked audio) and a very fine (not to mention extremely clever) phono stage, but that’s just the jumping off point. The smarter part of it is it’s also a room/loudspeaker optimiser, and it’s even an active crossover, although in fairness, I didn’t have the speakers to test this out. It’s kind of the Swiss Army Knife of audio hubs.

When it comes to cracking the Amethyst, the biggest problem for a reviewer is finding the right place to start. The room optimisation section is probably the reason why most people who are thinking of a preamplifier might look to Trinnov, and with good reason. This uses a supplied measuring microphone and a set-up wizard to compensate for the iniquities of the room/speaker interaction. The multi-point time/frequency acoustic measurement is quick and reasonably painless (you need to place the ‘3D’ multiple microphone pod in the listening position at ear height, directed at the speakers, and the app does the rest of the work). Give it a few minutes to process what it measures and you can then apply the room correction curve to your sound. Better still, you can tweak this correction curve, should you find the results not quite to your tastes (more on this later). This naturally requires some on-board computing power and it’s perhaps little wonder then that almost half the back panel is given over to the connections of a micro-ATX computer. But the rest of that panel is all business. Audio business.

It handles 11 audio sources in all; four analogue (two balanced, with one of the single-ended capable of switching to a phono stage), two AES/EBU digital, four S/PDIF digital and one Ethernet connection for its UPnP Media Renderer option. This last currently falls into the ‘under development’ part of the package (you currently need to use an app like PlugPlayer to feed the Renderer section), and networked specialists like Cyrus, Electrocompaniet, Krell, Linn or Naim offer a more elegant networked solution as it stands.

 

The MM-only phono option is truly fascinating. It’s called ‘HybriD’, and features an analogue RIAA correction curve for the bass, but the top end is dealt with digitally. I was not made aware of where the crossover point between digital and analogue takes place, but if you can spot the handover point, you have something far beyond golden ears. Possibly platinum.

The Amethyst uses an A/D processor, which processes to 24/96kHz, and will support and process rendered media files up to 24/192kHz through its DACs. It also makes great claims for jitter attenuation, and sports BNC word-clock inputs and outputs if you fancy hooking it to a dCS or Esoteric master clock.

This can all be conveniently be summed up thus: it’s a clever bit of kit.

Of course, no amount of ‘clever’ can be a substitute for good performance; a smart dog is still a dog. But the Amethyst is an outstanding performer in the sound quality stakes. If you turn off the room correction, it remains an excellent performer, but that’s like hobbling the Trinnov and then seeing how good a sprinter it is. But nevertheless, the purist in me would like to hear just how good things sound without processing in place, and the Amethyst is a fine preamp in its own right. Nine grand buys you one hell of a good line and phono preamp in audio though, and if you were to compare the performance of the Amethyst next to one of those ‘one hell of a good line and phono preamps’, the Amethyst will tend to come off a good second, falling short in terms of soundstaging and dynamic range.

However, that’s missing the point. Once you optimise for the room, a fairly significant reversal of fortunes takes place. The Trinnov ends up making that ‘one hell of a good line and phono preamp’ sound almost broken by comparison. OK, so I gave the Amethyst a hard task; I ripped out any form of room treatment, put in hard and soft furnishing at random and made a room that is more of an audio assault course, but in fact that’s what real people do when they don’t set up a room as an audiophile man cave. But the result was a unilaterally bad sounding room. And the Trinnov made a silk purse out of that sow’s ear of a room. It took out some fairly evil low-frequency peaks (more like the kind of spikes you impale music upon) and mellowed some top-end brightness from the speakers in that room. The resultant curve was almost too dead, and this has been one of the big problems with DSP correction in the past – the cure can be as bad as the disease. Fortunately, the GUI allows the user to modify and store custom curves, and putting back a little of what the room over-emphasises helped make the overall balance almost perfect.

 

However, I’d exercise some caution with writing your own curve. If you are used to the sound of a bad room, your brain does a fair amount of compensation to overcome the problems – it’s termed ‘listening through’ the room. Once that bad room is corrected by something like the Trinnov, your first reaction is to wonder where all the bass has gone (because it’s usually massive peaks in the bass that most need the Trinnov’s help). If you start tangling with your own modified curves soon after hearing the corrected sound of the room, you may end up putting too much bass back into the mix. My suggestion; run the program, live with the flattest possible curve for a while, and revisit in a week or so and see how much of a course correction is required.

When corrected though, suddenly, the speakers weren’t fighting the room, and it was as if the loudspeaker, room and system had all been upgraded. The soundstage opened out, the bass was tidy and ordered, sounds had more snap, more air, more everything. There was also none of that vaguely odd ‘inter-note processing’ almost watery bass sound that can appear with some DSP systems. This just sounded like someone had measured the room, applied a lot of (invisible) passive treatment and then laid on the thinnest application of signal processing to gift-wrap the whole sound. The Trinnov made the sound you always thought your system should be capable of. It’s that impressive!

How this works on a musical level is simple. Sounds are more like their original counterparts, irrespective of the system used. One of the more stunning parts of the replay process was Paul Galbraith’s interpretations of Bach’s Partitas for solo violin, transcribed for eight-string guitar. Without DSP, it’s a fairly rich sounding guitar sound, but diffuse and almost distant in this car-wreck of a room. With the Trinnov doing its work, the sound snaps into focus, and if you close your eyes, there’s a guitar in the room. No simple substitution of audio components could create so substantial a change as this.

 

That applies universally. OK, it doesn’t place a nylon-strung guitar front and centre in the living room if you are playing a piano sonata, a jazz trio or a death metal band, but in each case it serves to make the music sound more ‘there’ and in the room. It’s not especially fussy about the quality of the file being played – the better the sound quality of the music, the better the sound quality of the end result, but the DSP treatment works well whether it’s a well-worked 256kbps AAC file or a massaged 24/192 slice of audiophile heaven. Some will dismiss anything ‘digital’ that doesn’t process DSD now and the Amethyst will be off their short list on specification alone. They are missing a trick!

The best way of working with a room is probably a combination of passive treatment (bass traps in the corners, first reflection absorption, possibly some diffusion toward the rear of the room, etc), followed up with DSP correction of the treated room. That way, you get the best of both worlds, and the processing isn’t as heavy-handed. But, this is the real-world. Room treatment is looking ever more domestically-chummy, but it’s still not the easiest of ‘sells’ to your significant other. The Amethyst might be expensive, but it’s one hell of a sight cheaper than a divorce settlement! If you can have both passive and DSP work done on the room – bonus! If you can’t, the Trinnov performs minor miracles with even the most inauspicious of audio environments.

The Trinnov Amethyst is a complex, expensive piece of equipment, that more than justifies its complexity and expense the moment you engage its room correction system. Without it, it would be a fairly good preamp at a price where you expect wonderful preamps. But once that DSP is experienced, living without it is almost impossible. My only regret is I don’t have that kind of money burning a hole in my pocket right now, but the Amethyst is on my must-own list. Very highly recommended.

Technical Specifications

Analogue Inputs: 1x single-ended stereo (RCA), 1x single-ended/MM phono stereo (RCA), 2x balanced XLR stereo

Analogue Outputs: 2x single-ended stereo (RCA), 2x balanced XLR stereo

Digital inputs: 2x AES/EBU (XLR), 2x S/PDIF coaxial, 2x S/PDIF optical (Toslink), Ethernet RJ45

Digital outputs: 2x AES/EBU (XLR), 2x S/PDIF coaxial

Clock: 1x BNC input, 1x BNC output

ADC Resolution/Sampling rate: up to 24 bit, 98kHz

DAC Resolution/Sampling rate: up to 24 bit, 192kHz

ADC Signal/Noise ratio: 119dB (A-weighted)

DAC Signal/Noise ratio: 118dB (A-weighted)

Clock/Jitter: Below 25ps, jitter attenuation in excess of 50dB above 100Hz

Processor: Intel Dual Core 1.8GHz, 64bit, floating point precision

RAM: 1GB DDR3

Storage: 1GB SSD

Built in room optimization software: Time/Frequency Acoustic Analysis based on Impulse Response Measurement

3D measurement microphone included

Intelligent active crossover

Two way loudspeakers only

Available Filters: Linkwitz–Riley, Bessel, Butterworth de 2nd, 3rd and 4th order

Dimensions (WxHxD): 43×10.5×40.5cm

Weight: 11kg

Price: £9,024

Manufactured by: Trinnov

URL: www.trinnov.com

Distributed by: eMerging UK

URL: www.emerging.co.uk

Tel: +44(0)20 8941 6547

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McIntosh MA5200 integrated amplifier

You know where you are with a McIntosh Labs product. And it’s probably middle America. The brand is hugely popular in the United States, but also has a strong following across most of the world. The solid build, the bold changing yet changeless styling, the glass front and the blue meters… these all define the McIntosh brand as much as the big, powerful sound. The one word you can use across the board to describe McIntosh Labs products is ‘big’; big sound, big case, big blue VU meters. It’s the polar opposite of the small, minimalist monochrome understatement of UK products, which might explain why in McIntosh’s worldwide domination, Blighty has always been a tough nut to crack.

The MA5200 might just be the right nutcracker for the job.

This is a 100W per channel, extremely full function amplifier by most company’s standards (although almost stripped to the bone by McIntosh levels), with hardly any controls on the front panel, a stack of source inputs and a remote control that can make the MA5200 do anything apart from bark when called. To discuss its full range of options would take up dozens of pages; suffice it to say that with the bare minimum of button pressing and that two-deck blue LED read-out in the MA5200’s centre, you can make the glass fronted, chrome bumpered McIntosh perform almost anything audio aside from UPnP streaming and grow a front-mount USB. You want a cinema pass-through setting – it can be done. You want to rename, pre-set the level, balance, start volume, information display and the rest for each source – not a problem. Multi-way comms for a multi-room system – you got it. Balanced inputs, a three input DAC and using the MA5200 as a preamp – it’s yours. You can even connect up a turntable (MM only). All from something that could match a McIntosh tuner installed 50 years ago.

 

It is, however, slightly smaller than most McIntosh amps. In this way, it perfectly matches the brand’s SACD/CD players and AM/FM tuners. By European standards, although our amplifiers are growing larger with each season, this one’s still an above average amp, but it’s manageable and doesn’t have the grabhandle, hernia-creation build of the really big McIntoshes.

In use, once configured to the way you like it (or for that matter left in its factory default), the MA5200 is the perfect house guest. It has heatsinks along the back of the top of the amp, but doesn’t get that hot. It behaves flawlessly, in part thanks to the company’s Power Guard technology, which compares the input signal with the output to prevent clipping. This works dynamically and responds automatically if you get too outlandish with the volume control, although in fairness I didn’t feel the need to go animal enough to trigger the Power Guard. Maybe less efficient speakers in larger rooms played at clubby PA levels might elicit a response, but in normal domestic use, this may be a useful under-utilised system. Hopefully.

The MA5200 is a giant-slayer. Forget the 100W rating… it’s more conservative than the styling and I’d be surprised if it isn’t pumping out far more power than its on-paper specs suggest. It is also one of the most singularly lovely sounding amplifiers around. Not in a kind of warm and fuzzy way and certainly not trying to emulate a valve sound, but one of those rare amps – these days especially – that doesn’t go for brightness or brashness, just balance.

There’s a drive toward making audio sound brighter. It’s been going on for years, but is gradually taking over. It started because brighter and louder sell more products, and hasn’t been helped by cheap iPod earphones exposing people to an intrinsically bright sound from the start of their musical journey at one end, and cynical companies compensating for presbyacusis (age-related hearing loss) in an increasingly aging audiophile buying market at the other. As a consequence, a lot of what passes for ‘good audio’ is often ‘bright sounding audio’ today.

This is not that kind of amplifier. It’s nicely poised, neither bright nor dull sounding, making the kind of sound that is at once capable of taming some of the excess brightness found in thin and loud modern casualties of the loudness war, and also capable of playing classic 1950s and 1960s recordings without making them sound excessively rolled off in the treble. That doesn’t sound important, but is a valuable commodity in today’s increasingly bright sounding world.

 

Perhaps the big thing about the MA5200 is it just refuses to draw attention to itself, sonically at least. Everything about it seems like it is competent; in fact is a whole lot more than that, but it bestows an air of quiet confidence on every source, so you kind of forget it’s in the chain and get on with listening to music. It’s only at moments of reflection do you realise just how damn good the MA5200 sounds. And how consistent too; the line stages, the DAC inputs and the phono stage all behave equally well with a similar tonality and integrity.

Like all McIntosh products, it produces a ‘big’ sound, but not ‘big and brash’, just big. Images are not overlarge, but the soundstage the MA5200 presents is far larger than most. It has an grand sense of scale to the presentation, which manages to just get the right side of not enlarging everything fed to it. So you don’t get a 50ft wide piano played by an 18ft tall Alfred Brendel and neither do you get a 100ft tall Billy Gibbons (perish the thought… imagine the potential for beard entanglement). But what you get instead is Mozart’s Piano Sonatas played on a grand piano in a grand space and ZZ Top playing in a studio setting with great drama and a lot of energy. That’s the big thing of the ‘big’ sound – it gives the music space to breathe.

Whether it’s a function of that Power Guard module or just the way this amp sounds in general, but it gives a sense of effortless grace and energy, not as if it’s listlessly waiting to get out of first gear, but as if its happily cruising through music and nothing will get in the way of that enjoyment. It doesn’t matter if it’s the sturm und drang of the closing bars of Solti’s version of Mahler’s Eighth or the soft, silken tones of Sarah Vaughan singing ‘Willow Weep for Me’ at Mister Kelly’s, the MA5200 takes all in its stride.

It’s very ‘infra-dig’ in some audiophile circles to like McIntosh or to consider McIntosh a worthwhile partner for some of the better quality loudspeakers out there. This is brand bigotry, pure and simple. I’d be perfectly happy to see the MA5200 on the end of a good pair of Avalon or Magico or Wilson loudspeakers, and I think it would work perfectly, but we’d rather ignore the ‘Big Mc’ in favour of less established, sometimes more kitchen table brands because they are more ‘real’. This shouldn’t be considered ‘only’ a McIntosh, it’s an outstanding amplifier with a beguiling sound quality and a build quality that is off the scale next to many of its rivals.

 

In part, I mention this because I’m as guilty as the next enthusiast in unjustly pigeonholing McIntosh before this review. It was one of those ‘nice product, but you’d never catch me using one!’ brands. And how wrong I was. I could sit in front of this and listen, and listen and listen without fatigue or struggle. I’d feel no compulsion to change cables, fiddle with sources, worry about supports or any of the things those infected with audiophile nervosa seem to focus on. Perhaps that’s why McIntosh does so well with music lovers and is almost side-lined by enthusiasts. It’s so good at its job, it exhausts the opportunities for audio enthusiasm through tweaking and you’re left with the music loving.

For me though, the McIntosh MA5200 was something of a revelation. It’s not just a good amp – I expected ‘good’ – it’s an excellent amplifier, with a fine DAC and a refreshing ‘get things done’ approach that is the polar opposite of audiophile tweakery. That’s hard not to love, and probably why McIntosh owners remain McIntosh owners for life. Oh, and finally… you can turn off the blue backlights for the meters on the MA5200. It’s just that nobody ever wants to. There’s something so very satisfyingly right about the big blue glow…

Technical Specifications

Analogue inputs: 1x MM phono, 4x RCA single-ended line inputs, 1x XLR balanced inputs

Analogue outputs: pre-power loop IR, RS232 power control and four multiroom data ports

Digital inputs: S/PDIF coaxial and optical, USB

Digital Input Sample Rates:

Optical: 16Bit, 24Bit – 32kHz to 96kHz

Coaxial: 16Bit, 24Bit – 32kHz to 96kHz

USB: 16Bit, 24Bit, 32Bit – 32kHz to 192kHz

Power Output: 100 watts per channel, both channels operating

Output Load Impedance: 8 ohms

THD: 0.005% maximum with both channels operating from 250 milliwatts to rated power, 20Hz to 20,000Hz

IMD: 0.005% maximum

Damping factor: greater than 200

Signal To Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): High Level, 95dB below rated output Phono MM, 82dB below 5mV input Power Amplifier, 110dB below rated output

Input Impedance: High Level, 20K ohms

Phono MM, 47K ohms; 50pF

Power Amp In, 10K ohms

Preamplifier Output Impedance: 220 ohms

Headphone Impedance: 20 to 600 ohms

Dimensions (WxHxD): 44.5×15.2×55.9cm

Weight: 17.2kg

Price: £4,995

Manufactued by: McIntosh Labs

URL: www.mcintoshlabs.com

Distributed by: Jordan Acoustics

URL: www.jordanacoustics.co.uk

Tel: +(0)1202 911886

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AURALiC VEGA Digital Audio Processor

AURALiC’s VEGA Digital Audio Processor (£2,890) is a powerful and versatile digital-to-analogue converter that can also serve as a digital input-only, balanced output-capable preamplifier. Specifically, the VEGA supports all PCM files from 44.1 kHz/16-bit resolution on up to 384 kHz/32-bit resolution, whilst covering all sampling rate/word-depth combinations in between. Moreover, the VEGA is DXD and DSD compatible and can decode both DSD64 and DSD128 bitstreams via the DoP V1.1 data transmission protocol. In short, the VEGA is an ambitious, premium-quality DAC/preamp that aspires to top-tier performance. Does it reach this goal? I think it does as I will explain in this review, but first let’s first take a look at AURALiC’s company background and at the VEGA’s underlying technologies.

As mentioned in my recent Hi-Fi Plus review of the firm’s TAURUS MkII balanced headphone amplifier, AURALiC is a Hong Kong-based high-end audio electronics company co-founded in 2008 by President and CEO Xuanqian Wang and his business partner Yuan Wang. Xuanqian Wang has had formal training as an electrical and audio recording engineer and is an accomplished classical pianist, while Yuan Wang has a background in sociology and management science. The common denominator is that both men share a passion for music and sound quality, having met (where else?) at a musical event—the 2008 Festival of Waldbühne, Berlin. Not long thereafter, the men decided to launch AURALiC Ltd.

More so than many DACs in its price class, the VEGA is chockfull of advanced technical features, yet it is also informed by Xuanqian Wang’s thoroughgoing familiarity with classic analogue audio circuit designs.  In practice, this means the VEGA is a modern-as-tomorrow DAC with stellar performance specifications, yet one that goes the extra mile not only to measure well, but to deliver sound that, first and foremost, holds true to the sound of live music. As we survey the VEGA’s rich set of technical features it is important to bear in mind that this is more a ‘music first’ design than it is a ‘technology über alles’ product.

As noted above, the VEGA is a 384 kHz/32-bit-capable DAC/digital preamp that is also DXD and DSD compatible. The VEGA provides five digital audio inputs: one AES/EBU, one Toslink, one USB input, and two coaxial S/PDIF inputs. In turn, the VEGA provides single-ended and balanced analogue outputs, with volume levels controlled by 100-step digital controller said not to compress dynamic range at all.

 

Digital audio processing is handled by AURALiC’s proprietary Sanctuary Audio Processor, which the company says is based on a ‘multi-core ARM9 architecture’ and that provides a prodigious 1000MIPS (Millions of Instructions per Second) of data-crunching power. Unlike many competing DACs, the VEGA upsamples all incoming PCM audio data to 1.5MHz/32-bit resolution levels prior to decoding. Further, the VEGA provides six user-selectable digital audio filter modes (four for PCM formats, two for DSD formats). The PCM Filter Modes each consist of four individual filters optimised for a specific group of sampling rates. One can choose Filter Mode 1, a high accuracy/high transparency mode that offers the best laboratory performance measurements, Mode 2, which reduces group delay while imposing minimal amounts of treble attenuation, Mode 3, which minimises pre-echo and ringing effects but with a somewhat higher degree of treble attenuation, or Mode 4, which applies minimum phase type filters and is said to allow “no pre-echo effect at all” with “very small group delay so as to eliminate ringing.”

Filter Modes 5 and 6 are designed specifically for use with DSD files and they address the problem of very high frequency noise that DSD bitstreams can entail, providing strategically chosen levels of ultrasonic treble roll-off. The concept is to preserve the music intact while getting rid of ultrasonic noise that could potentially damage wide-bandwidth amplifiers or speakers.

Significantly, the VEGA permits users to switch between its various filter modes on the fly to compare their subtly different voicing characteristics and overall impact on the music.  Xuanqian Wang wisely observed that one’s choice of filter mode might depend to a large extent on the recording quality of the material being played. Great recordings, he says, often sound best through Filter Mode 1, while user comments suggest that Filter Mode 4 is the best ‘general purpose’ setting for day-to-day use with a mix of audiophile-grade and more commonplace recordings. The important point is that the VEGA allows users to fine-tune the DAC’s sonic persona to fit the musical material at hand.

Another signature feature of the VEGA is its Femto Master Clock, which yields a spectacularly low 0.082 picoseconds (or 82 femtoseconds) of jitter—a figure few DACs at any price can match. The VEGA provides three master clock control settings: the default ‘AUTO’ setting, which maintains “a balance between lock-in ability and jitter performance,” plus ‘FINE’ and ‘EXACT’ settings (available only after the VEGA has warmed up for an hour), which “force the (clock controller’s) PLL bandwidth into a very narrow range to maximize jitter performance.” Not all digital sources are precise enough to use the FINE or EXACT settings, but Xuanqian Wang notes that with the EXACT settings in play he sometimes hears “a significant improvement, compared to the AUTO setting, for certain sound tracks, such as a well-recorded classical piano solo.”

As expected, the VEGA is compatible with both Macs and PCs and with most popular music playback software. The VEGA auto-installs in Mac environments, but requires installation of an included Windows driver when used in PC-based systems. AURALiC does feel that music software packages have a big impact on the DAC’s sound and for this reason supplies a free copy of recommended JPLAY software with the VEGA. Accordingly, I used JPLAY software in conjunction with jRiver Media Center 19 music management software in a PC-based system for my review listening.

 

The VEGA’s analogue outputs are driven by a pair of AURALiC’s signature ORFEO Class-A output modules, whose design was inspired by the circuitry of the classic Neve 8078 analogue recording console and whose sound is said to “share the same warm and natural sound with (the) Neve 8078.” Perhaps as a result, the VEGA claims vanishingly low THD and Noise (just 0.00015%).  Part of the performance equation, naturally, involves not only having high performance analogue output modules, but also addressing noise issues wherever possible. To this end, AURALiC constructs the VEGA’s chassis of a highly EMI-resistant metal alloy called AFN402 and coats the chassis’ interior surfaces with a multi-layer electro-mechanical damping material called Alire, which is used in most other AURALiC components.

The VEGA sports an easy-to-read OLED front panel display that shows the input selected, the format and data rates of whatever digital audio input has been selected, and the volume level (on a scale of 0 – 100) to which the processor is set. By design, the VEGA can be operated from its faceplate or from an included remote control. The control menu offers options for adjusting absolute phase, left/right channel balance, or selecting preferred filter models. Users can also control the OLED display itself, turning illumination up, down, or off (for zero visual distractions at all). Overall, the VEGA is an ergonomic delight, though it is sufficiently complex that it pays to read the manual to understand the scope of the control options at hand.

If the foregoing technical description seems promising, then please know that the sound of the VEGA is fully as good as, if not better than, the description might lead you to expect. Frankly, I’ve been around the world of computer audio for years, but I never felt a keen desire to make a dedicated high-performance DAC a permanent part of my reference system until I heard the VEGA in action. Up to this point, most of the computer audio/DAC-based systems I have auditioned seemed to me to fall short of the sound quality I was used to hearing from top-tier disc players. I also found that those DAC-based systems that were sonically satisfying tended more often than not to be astronomically priced.

In contrast, what makes the VEGA so captivating to my way of thinking is that it is reasonably priced yet consistently supplies a rich panoply of serious audiophile virtues (with superb specifications to boot) whilst also demonstrating an uncanny ability to keep the focus on the musical whole. In short, the VEGA represents the intersection of good value, great (and forward-looking) technology, plus terrific musicality—a compelling combination indeed.

If you asked me to cite several specific qualities that characterise the sound of the VEGA two that come instantly to mind would be transparency and resolution—effortless, elegant, and unforced openness and detail that sound more like the real thing than like hi-fi artifacts. On the track ‘Embraceable You’ from The Larry Coryell Organ Trio’s Impressions [Chesky, high-res 24/192 file] the VEGA lets you listen deeply into the voices of each of the instruments at play and so to savour the round, ripe tone of Coryell’s guitar, the reedy and breathy voice of the organ, and the delicacy of the drum kit’s contributions in general and of the cymbal work in particular. Moreover, the VEGA shows you the worth of high-res files, helping you to appreciate how much more full and complete they make the music sound. The beauty of the VEGA’s sound is that the additional layers of detail it provides are delivered in a relaxed and lifelike manner; additional music information is simply there—whole and complete without unwarranted spotlighting or pyrotechnics, so that the music is free to breathe and flow.

 

Another quality that typifies the sound of the VEGA are its dramatic and at times explosive dynamics, which likewise unfold in a naturally expansive way. As with musical details, the dynamic qualities you hear seem to flow more from the music than from the equipment. Consequently, the music seems energised and illuminated from within, much as it does when heard live. To hear what I mean, try listening to Silvestre Revueltas’ ‘Sensamayà’ as captured on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass Live recording [CSO Resound, SACD]. This exotic-sounding piece is full of lithe twists and turns and it progresses from one dynamic highlight to the next, with tension building as the composition unfolds. I’ve heard this piece through many digital source components, but none I have had in my system made Sensemayà sound as powerful or expressive as the VEGA did, nor could they convey the tsunami-like force of the composition’s final crescendo as effectively as the VEGA.

Finally, I was struck on multiple occasions by the VEGA’s unfailing musicality, which I sometimes—tongue-in-cheek—called the “Neve factor.” Neve recording consoles are known for pulling off a difficult but highly rewarding tightrope act of sorts; on the one hand, they deliver exceedingly high levels of transparency, clarity, and timbral purity, whilst on the other hand preserving a naturally warm, organic, and lifelike sound. I think it is significant that Xuanqian Wang has chosen the classic Neve sound as his sonic model for the VEGA and that the VEGA strives (successfully) to strike a similar sonic balance. As a result, the VEGA’s sound is every bit as revealing, crisply defined, and informative as any ‘analytical’ DAC would be, but without the drawbacks (coldness, sterility, or a vaguely “mechanical” quality) that analytical products usually entail. Rather than dissecting or de-constructing the music, then, the VEGA simply reveals the musical textures, timbres, tonal colours and dynamics at hand, and then gets out of the way to let the music speak for itself.

I compared the VEGA to my primary digital reference, Rega’s superb Isis CD player/DAC, and found the VEGA’s sound competitive, though somewhat different. I had a slight preference for the Rega’s sound on 44.1/16 material owing to its somewhat more coherent upper midrange and treble presentation, though in truth the contest was very, very close. But a key point is that the VEGA is less than half the price of the Rega and is capable of exploring high-res PCM and DSD files, which the Rega is not. In particular, listening to DSD files through the VEGA proved revelatory, because DSD files as rendered by the VEGA seemed to do a much better job than standard resolution PCM files in terms of filling in the ‘spaces between the spaces’ in the music, making the presentation sound markedly more three-dimensional and realistic.

Although I’m not ready to part with my top-shelf Rega Isis CD player just yet, the VEGA is the first sensibly-price DAC I’ve heard that I could readily embrace as one of my primary digital source components. For less than £3,000, the VEGA takes discerning audiophiles and music lovers quite far up the high-end audio performance ladder, providing them with a versatile and technically advanced digital playback solution they will not soon outgrow.

Technical Specifications

Type: Digital-to-Analogue-Converter/Digital Preamplifier

Digital Inputs: One AES/EBU, two Coaxial, one Toslink, and one USB 2.0 buffered by ActiveUSB.

Analogue Outputs: One stereo single-ended (via RCA jacks), one balanced (via XLR connectors)

Frequency response: 20Hz – 20kHz, ± 0.1dB

THD+N: <0.00015%, 20Hz – 20kHz at 0dBFS

Dynamic Range: 130dB, 20Hz – 20kHz, A-weighted

Supported Digital Formats: All PCM from 44.1KS/s to 384KS/s with word lengths up to 32-bit, DSD64 (2.8224MHz) and DSD128 (5.6448MHz)

Important Format Information:

352.8KS/s and 384KS/s are supported through USB only

32-bit word lengths supported through USB only

DoP V1.1 transmission protocol supported through USB only

User Interface: AURALiC RC-1 remote control, 512 x 64 pixel OLED display

Output Voltage: 4Vrms at maximum, with dynamic-loss-free digital volume

Dimensions (H x W x D): 6.5cm x 33cm x 23cm

Weight: 3.4kg

Price: £2,890

Manufacturer: AURALiC LIMITED

Tel: +86-10-57325784

URL: www.auralic.com

UK Distributor: Audio Emotion Limited

Tel: +44(0)1333-425999

URL: www.audioemotion.co.uk

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Electrocompaniet Nordic Tone Model 1

It was only when the pallet came off the truck that I realised what I had let myself in for. The Nordic Tone Model I speaker itself weighs a respectable 75kg, but add in the weight of the flight case and you have a lump that few could attempt to drag into the listening room without some serious cursing taking place.

What makes them so dense? They’re just over a metre tall and they look like they could be made of GRP, but in fact their shells are sand cast aluminium. This material is rarely seen in loudspeakers; weight obviously, but also a tendency to ring bell like at certain frequencies. Electrocompaniet has combatted this with damping materials and tensioning rods.

The Nordic Tone is a statement of Electrocompaniet’s ambitions and abilities. It could have made a sensible speaker, instead it did it the fun way, the expenisve way and have delivered a (virtually) cost no object loudspeaker. Such extreme engineering from a company best known for its electronics might seem radical, but the Nordic Tone’s origins lie outside the company. It started with a government funded research project that spent four years developing the speaker, but had not managed to get it to final production. Electrocompaniet bought Nordic Tone the company and took on some of its expertise so that the speaker could be finished and brought to market.

The use of cast aluminium came about as a result of a search for a light, stiff material; the holy grail of loudspeaker cabinet design, since Celestion used in Aerolam back in the eighties. The theory is that lighter materials resonate at higher frequencies, and these are easier to damp. Electrocompaniet cites the construction of jet aircraft where a thin, light fuselage keeps the noise of jet engines at a tolerable level. This speaker is built in much the same way. The reason why the Nordic Tone isn’t a light speaker is that its outer skin is 7mm thick and the cabinet is pre-stressed with tension rods, which presumably increase the resonant frequency. Internal absorbent panels are wedge shaped in order to minimize the amount of energy that reflects back to the rear of the cones.

 

Usually foregoing a port has a negative effect on sensitivity but the specs of this Infinite Baffle design quote 90dB with a six Ohm nominal impedance, which is not too taxing for most amplifiers. It doesn’t, of course, indicate the full challenge that might be lurking within but that doesn’t appear to be worse than a 2.4 Ohm impedance minimum in the bass.

The drivers are from respected Scandinavian brands ScanSpeak and SEAS who provided the magnesium alloy bass cones, paper midrange and soft dome ring radiatior tweeter. The mid and treble inhabit a separate enclosure to the bass drivers, but this is bonded to the bass cabinet so doesn’t help with installation.

It does however look good in the context of the sculpted design with a ‘waist’ between the two housings.

In my system, these mighty speakers worked well with the relatively modest 50 watt output of Valvet solid state, class A power amps; they look like they could handle more but that sensitivity figure is clearly accurate. I was initially somewhat underwhelmed by the Nordic Tone, as it is not a demonstrative loudspeaker that reaches out a grabs the listener. In some respects, the harder a product is to install the higher ones expectations, but like most components this speaker took a while to settle in. And sure enough, in so doing, it turned out to be a calm and assured speaker that slowly revealed its capabilities with extended listening.

One reason that it doesn’t make an instant impact I suspect is that it’s unusually neutral. There is no apparent emphasis on certain parts of the audio band, so it doesn’t elevate certain details – which is often how speakers give the impression of being revealing. This approach keeps everything under control and lets the source and amplifier dictate the result. If they are worth their salt they will let this speaker deliver a high resolution, powerful and spacious result that reveals an enormous amount of detail in a confident manner. Everything is in fact laid bare and delivered in a coherent manner, what’s more it’s clear that the cabinets are remarkably inert. This brings the noise floor down so that all the quieter sounds are easy to appreciate. This in turn makes for a more complete musical picture; with Rickie Lee Jones’ Flying Cowboys album there is often a film of polish between listener and music but here you only hear the immaculate musicianship, charming voice and slick but involving production values.

The cabinet design clearly plays a part in the Nordic Tone’s imaging abilities because these are of a very high standard. Samuel Yirga’s ‘Abet Abet’ filled out the soundstage well beyond the cabinets, the brass section coming through in full effect at the same time, indicating strong dynamics and no shortage of energy. With this and many of the pieces played, it was very easy to hear what each musician was contributing; the lack of colouration from the speaker means that it can resolve far more detail and bring out the character of each note without having to try. It is not in the slightest bit romantic, but if you play music with that inclination that is the result you will get, and in the context of solid, palpable imaging.

 

The bass was always going to be a strong point on the Nordic Tone; a rock solid cabinet, decent metal cones and a sealed box will always deliver on that front, and I was not disappointed. James Blake’s ‘Limit to Your Love’ can be an uncomfortable listen with many speakers. It has very low and powerful notes which can shake the average wooden box well out of shape, here it remained clear and controlled so that just my diaphragm and the sofa were shaking – who needs a massage chair? Being very revealing it makes the quality of recording blindingly obvious, a double edged sword of course but one that rewards great recordings to a massive degree. And not just audiophile ones either, Forever’s La Cancion de Sophia is a trio performance where the Stanley Clarke gets to show off his chops on the double bass in a live show. The Nordic Tone gives you the full depth of timbre in the instrument, the body of the cymbals at start and finish and the vibrant atmosphere of the event. It’s proper sonic transportation no doubt about it.

I tried these speakers with Electrocompaniet AW180 monoblocks to see how they would respond to home grown power, the result was increased resolution and improved timing. They also added weight and speed to the bottom end, which was fun especially when I put on ‘Angel’ by Massive Attack that displayed an intensity and grip that is rare. Once again, I was forced to remark on the fact that serious bass energy did nothing to undermine the speaker’s unflappable demeanour.

The Nordic Tone Model 1 is a tour de force of engineering technology. It’s not hard to see why it took so long to get right nor difficult to hear that the effort was worthwhile. Totally at the mercy of source and amp, it’s the sort of speaker that takes a while to get sounding the way you like… but once you do so it’s hard to put down. All in all, it’s a pretty stunning result for any brand, let alone one that specialises in electronics.

Technical Specifications

Three-way infinite baffle loading

Frequency response: 28 – 35000 Hz ±2dB

Sensitivity: 90 dB, re 2.83V @ 1m

Nominal impedance: 6 Ohm

Bass drivers: 2x 8inch magnesium

Midrange: 5.25inch slashed paper

Tweeter: 1inch soft dome ring radiator

Dimensions WxDxH: 36x52x108cm

Weight: 75 kg

Price: £22,500 per pair

 

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Read more Electrocompaniet reviews here

Hi-Fi Network is pleased to introduce the German cable brand in-akustik to the UK.

The in-akustik range offers both breadth and depth, with a comprehensive selection of cable types, from loudspeaker to ethernet, interconnects to HDMI, across four ranges:

REFERENZ – The measure of all things in picture and sound. It doesn‘t get better than this.


The in-akustik class for perfectionists. The benchmark for uncompromising sound and picture experience. The world leader in quality. Gets right under your skin.

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The in-akustik class for superior taste. Selected materials, the best workmanship. A passion for high-end sound and picture pleasure.

PREMIUM – Picture and sound for advanced users


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The in-akustik class for aspiring beginners. Always suitable. More performance at low prices. A necessity for sound and picture luxury.

Many of the cables, and all of the Referenz range are Made in Germany.

About in-akustik

in-akustik is part of the Braun group. Whilst we have been committed to the utmost in pure sound and sharp pictures for over 30 years, other companies in the group have not been any less passionate: Brawa is known as the “Rolls Royce” of model railways and produces them with a love of detail. Braunkabel, manufacturer of data and sensor leads, creates connections out of passion. All of us stand for high-quality products and uncompromising dedication to detail.

CES 2014: Miscellaneous

There’s always so much more at CES. Much of it doesn’t fit the standard categories of turntable, digital player, amplifier or speaker. And some cover more than one base at once. Hidden in this rag-tag list of random devices and components might just be the next big disruptive technology.

Rather than list a variety of similar products, we thought we’d include a few personal bests of the best. Some of these might disappear without a trace. Some might be the next must buy device. Only time will tell.

Best desktop system

Eclipse TD-M1. This $1,200 amp and speaker system might seem like a lot of money for a desktop system, but it’s based on Eclipse’s single-driver Time Domain speaker design, and features everything from a non-oversampling DAC to AirPlay and more.

Best wireless system

ELAC AIR-X. German loudspeaker brand ELAC has announced a wireless active loudspeaker system, currently in a standmount and floorstanding speaker from its 400 series range. Comprising X-BASE transmitter and wireless receivers inside the active speaker designs, the system can transmit 24-bit/48kHz datastreams losslessly.

Best power product launch

UK based IsoTek has been busy recently. Its evergreen $4,495 Sigmas power conditioner has received the EVO3 treatment, with greater power handling, far greater RFI reduction and metering for power and THD. This is joined by the more powerful EVO3 Titan ($4,995), and the EVO3 Mosaic Genesis three socket regenerator, for $11,995

Best New Tube:

EAt 300B – No, really. Anyone who thinks the whole tube market is just raking over old coals should look to EAT. The company’s 300B power triode is an entirely new design, said to be far better than its predecessor:

Top ‘next gen’ system:

Crystal Cable – A prototype cube amplifier (drawing heavily from the Siltech SAGA amplifier design, but said to be considerably cheaper) and standmount speakers. All running off a relatively prosaic aftermarket DAC and distinctly ‘nothing special’ audio files, with oodles of Crystal cable. Price, details, delivery date, even the name… all remain to be seen. But this was still one of the stars of the show.

Other notable products:

MarinLogan Crescendo – this $900 wireless and Bluetooth speaker system looks like nothing we’ve ever seen before… in a good way. Is it a sound bar? Is it a speaker system? Who cares!

Nordost Sort Füt and QRT Qkoil – Nordost’s system tuning methodologies now extend to the feet of tables and speakers with the new Sort Füt. It also announced the new $280 Qk1 ‘load resonating coil’, the cheapest product in the QRT line-up.

HRT Stage – We saw this last year in prototype form, but is now beginning to be understood for what it is – a potential replacement for budget audio systems. The new addition of a remote control helps a lot too.

Resolution Audio Blackjack – not a company known for its cables, electronics company Resolution Audio launched the Blackjack power cord, an $895 solid-core, unsheathed design. A refreshing change from power cords as thick as a firehose.

CES 2014: Loudspeakers, $15,000+

If this year was the time of ‘Statement’ amplifiers, when it came to top-end loudspeakers, CES 2014 was more the year of filling in gaps in the portfolio. While there were new top-end loudspeakers to be seen – perhaps the most high-end of the high-end were the Nola Concert Grand Reference Gold ($197,000) and the Marten Coltrane Supreme 2. This last was a huge statement of loudspeaker intent; 16 drive units per side, standing almost 6’ tall in its stocking’d feet and weighing in at more than 500lb, this long-time-coming statement of Swedish intent, claimed by the company to be the best speaker in the world. Sadly, we didn’t get a chance to hear the best speaker in the world, but those who did all reported it sounded very good indeed. But, very good or $480,000 good… for that, you’ll just have to wait for the review!

Elsewhere in the show, the new launches were more about what has become the middle of the high-end line-up. It’s perhaps a fairly positive sign of much needed re-growth in the more affordable end of the sector that my colleague Chris Martens can muster four individual reports on the sub-$15,000 market and I can cover the higher ground in a single piece, but this is possibly because there has been so much concentration at the top end recently.

 

The big three launches in this more lofty part of the market this year were arguably from Magico, Wilson Audio and YG Acoustics. Just to be contrary, starting alphabetically from the back, YG’s new $42,800 Hailey 1.2 shares a lot in common with the company’s flagship Sonja 1.3 loudspeaker, albeit in a smaller form factor. The two both use a thick CNC milled aluminium cabinet with its ForgeCore tweeter and BilletCore bass units said to be capable of delivering a realistic 20Hz-40kHz in room. The suffix does not denote model changes, it’s that Hailey 1.1 is the compact two-way loudspeaker that sits atop the bass module that forms the full 1.2 model. This makes the loudspeaker design upgradable, in the manner of the three-box Sonja. The Hailey was played through D’Agostino mono amps.

Wilson Audio was showing (although not playing) its new Sasha W/P Series 2. This stood alongside the original Sasha W/P and although you could see the heritage (and the same heritage reaching back to the WATT/Puppy models), the new model has been extensively redesigned, with new laser measuring techniques to help reduce cabinet resonance by 30% (already hardly a problem with the original Sasha), as well as borrowing top-box mounting adjustment and the soft dome tweeter from models like the Alexandria XLF and the Alexia. The price of the new Series 2 will be $29,900. Elsewhere, many companies were demonstrating using Wilson speakers, notably Nagra (Alexias) and VTL (Alexias and the new Duette Series 2).

Magico was showing the new S3 in what has become its entry-level S- range. The new speaker retains the 1” beryllium dome tweeter and 6” Nano-Tec mid-bass unit found in the S1 and S5 models, but brings a pair of 8” Nano-Tec drivers to the rounded aluminium tower speaker. The $22.600/pair S3 is claimed to deliver 26Hz-50kHz.

 

On a larger scale, Magico’s Alon Wolf also brought the whopping Ultimate III loudspeaker along. Of course, it’s so big, he only brought one, but at $600,000 per pair and standing as tall as a room, one is enough!

At the other end of the size scale, the Vivid Giya G4 loudspeaker is a $33,000/pair floorstander was shown for the first time to the American market. This diminutive four-way, five driver loudspeaker looks like massive G1, only a lot smaller looking. This was being played at a private event at the Mirage, powered by the clever Mola Mola amplifiers.  

There were others well worth noting, that had either been seen before or I simply didn’t have time to cover at length. Among those, the Kharma Elegance Double Eleven Signature loudspeaker (at $54,000 per pair) were proving universally popular and the new three-way version of the two-way Stenheim Alumine from Switzerland (the secret’s in the stand, all for $46,000). Avalon Acoustics was apparently showing its cost no object Tesseract, but – in an nod to old-school Vegas, was showing this at the Golden Nugget and the no-one can afford to spend the two or three hours out of the schedule in travelling across town anymore and – while covered by Chris Martens in his own round-ups, on a personal note, the DeVore Fidelity Gibbon X ($12,000) and the $7k X-1 from Raidho were some of my loudspeaker highlights this year.

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