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HiFiMAN HE-400 planar magnetic headphones

It’s hard not to be a great admirer of the most recent crop of planar magnetic headphones. They offer many of the benefits of electrostatic headphones (sonic transparency, openness, excellent transient speed and definition, etc.), while providing some of the key strengths of traditional dynamic-driver headphones (robust dynamics, powerful and well-defined bass, and the ability to be driven by conventional amplifiers). The only drawback I can see is that planar magnetic headphones have, as a rule, tended to be power hungry and pricey – until now.

HiFiMAN’s new HE-400 open-backed planar magnetic headphone is the least costly planar magnetic headphone on today’s market, and with a rated sensitivity of 92.5 dB and 35 ohm impedance this is one of the (if not the) most sensitive planar magnetic headphones available. Indeed, HiFiMAN says the HE-400 is so amplifier friendly that it can even be powered directly from an iPod (something no sane person would attempt to do with any other planar magnetic ‘phone).

The lowered cost is as a result of Dr. Fang Bian of HiFiMAN making a concerted effort to design a planar magnetic driver that could be mass produced using automated assembly equipment. Unfortunately, the same design elements do not ‘scale’, so higher-performance planar magnetic headphones will likely always require hand-built drivers, and will always be priced at a premium.

Unlike the other HiFiMAN headphones, which are finished in various shades of black or dark gray, the HE-400 is finished in a deep cobalt blue gloss. It features the same basic headband design as other HiFiMAN ‘phones and comes with a leather (or leather-like?) headband pad, which could use a broader range of vertical adjustment. For some listeners (and I’m one of them) there is simply no way to avoid having the ear cups ride slightly too low on your ears. Mercifully, the headphone is relatively light, at just 440 grams. Most previous HiFiMAN headphones come fitted with plush velour pads, but the HE-400 is supplied with leather (or, again, leather-like?) ear pads. A detachable signal cable that connects to the headphone ear cups via HiFiMAN’s screw-on fittings is standard. The cable features high-quality wire sourced from the Japanese firm Canare, though it uses a different (and presumably less expensive) grade of wire than is used in cables for some of the higher-end HiFiMAN models. Termination is via a standard ¼-inch phone jack plug, but a 3.5mm adaptor (and a natty drawstring bag) are supplied in the packaging.

 

At first flush, I was slightly concerned because the HE-400 had a noticeably darker, warmer character than any of the other HiFiMAN models, and it also showed a judicious touch of upper midrange/treble roll-off relative to its siblings. One could most definitely hear the lack of upper midrange and treble power and clarity because tracks that had been warm and responsive throughout the entire range in other headphones, suddenly seemed much darker through the original HE-400, and felt like they lacked snap of listening to live music. This contrasted with the more neutral balance of the bigger models, although some have voiced the objection that these headphones – especially the HE-6 – are too bright for their own good. 

Obviously this filtered back to the good Dr. Fang, because a Revision 2 driver was quick to emerge. The most noticeable change when listening through the HE-400s with Rev 2 drivers is a welcome boost in upper midrange and treble energy—a boost that greatly improves the headphone’s overall accuracy and neutrality. Not only do the new drivers help to define the upper register voices of most instruments much more clearly (especially when the instruments play in overlapping pitch ranges), but they also help provide an additional shot of dynamic energy to musical tracks as a whole.

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Second Opinion: Comments from Garrett Whitten, Webmaster of The Absolute Sound

I am a very big fan of both country and bluegrass music and some of my favorite test tracks come from the album Alison Krauss & Union Station – Live [Rounder]. I’ve found that the instruments used to create bluegrass music often play in similar pitch ranges so that the real definition and soul comes from hearing and appreciating subtle differences in timbres and voicing characteristics between the instruments. I felt the original HE-400 revealed musical timbres well over some parts of the audio spectrum (namely, the lower midrange and bass regions), but less well in others (specifically, the upper midrange and treble regions). For example, the original HE-400 had no trouble reproducing the unique thump of the upright bass but often lost definition when both the banjo and Dobro played simultaneously (something which, if you know your bluegrass, happens often). With the Rev 2 drivers in the play, the HE-400 sound much more clearly defined on simultaneous banjo/Dobro passages, so that the smooth, blossoming notes from the Dobro were easily distinguishable from the staccato plucks and rolls of the banjo.
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Now the HE-400 was much more energetic and really brought the music to life. I’d liken the sonic difference to the difference you might experience when switching between a four-barrel carb and a two-barrel carb on a well-tuned V8 engine. 

HiFiMAN’s Revision 2 version of the HE-400 takes what was already an exceedingly easy-to-drive planar magnetic headphone to the next level sonically. Specifically, the new drivers transform the dark and moody tone of the original HE-400, giving the headphone a much more neutrally balanced, audiophile-friendly frequency response curve. On top of the revised drivers, HiFiMAN has also upgraded the metal supports for the Rev 2 headphone’s ear cups as well as its signal cable termination plug layout. Both changes add style and increased functionality to the HE-400.

If you want the least expensive planar magnetic headphone on the market—one whose bass and midrange will remind you of the sound of considerably more expensive headphones, or you want a planar magnetic headphone that is well and truly easy to drive. This may be the only planar magnetic model around that you could, in a pinch, power directly from an iPod, the HE-400 is really the only option. Highly recommended.

Technical Specifications

HiFiMAN HE-400 planar magnetic headphone with Revision 2 Drivers

Accessories: Fabric drawstring-type carrying bag, 3.5mm mini-plug to ¼” phone plug adapter.
Frequency Response: 20Hz – 35 kHz
Sensitivity: 92.5 dB
Impedance: 35 Ohms
Weight: 0.4kg
Price: £395

Manufactured by:
HiFIMAN
URL: www.hifiman.com

Distributed by:
Highend Workshop
URL: www.highendworkshop.co.uk
Tel: +44(0)1494 752171

Meet Your Maker: ELAC

Based in the costal town of Kiel in northern Germany, ELAC began life in 1926. With ELAC’s commanding reputation as a loudspeaker maker, it might seem odd to think that from the late 1940s right up until the 1980s, the brand was known as a turntable maker, and only made its first loudspeakers in 1984.

Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength. It is still run by Wolfgang John (who purchased the company in 1981) who, together with his son Oliver, have built upon ELAC’s deep-seated drive for technical innovation and outstanding engineering, but added an entrepreneurial zeal that makes the company stand out as an audio brand of note. Few others would make their company management ethos so public that the core of it is a 28 page A5 manual handed visitors. A big part of that ethos is customer focus (ELAC shows an image of a trophy, similar to the FIFA World Cup – which has been won once by England but only three times by Germany – with the customer in the position of the globe in the official Trophy), but this only comes by controlling as much of the production in house as possible. 

 

Some of the construction of the JET tweeter is kept closely under wraps, because it’s a proprietary build process that involves robots and people with black belts in Origami.

ELAC has its own magnetiser to energise blocks of neodymium. The large cabinet is basically a capacitor, dumping massive charge into the rare earth components.

This shows just how powerful these magnets can be. If two small plates of neodymium can attract through a man’s hand, think what they can do to a loudspeaker cone!

Each workstation constructs a drive unit according to a precision-drafted ‘recipe book’ for absolute consistency. Here are some of the ingredients.

Winding a voice coil is difficult, even if you have the right people and the right tools.

 

Although the production is automated where possible, nothing beats the work of a specialist engineer when it comes to constructing a bass cone…

…Especially when they can build those bass drivers so well, so constantly and so frequently!

It’s not just the parts you can see that are solidly built. Even the crossover (from the FS 509VX, tested recently) uses the highest quality components and is built to last a lifetime.

 

The result of all this hard-core construction is a drive unit that can withstand loads that would burn out most loudspeakers. This one is taking a real battering!

ELAC doesn’t skimp on the damping, either. These seven layers of damping go to form the inside of just one FS 247 loudspeaker.

The loudspeakers are all built by hand and test against Golden Reference products stored on site. Assembly time varies with the speaker design, but they all get treated with exquisite care and attention.

 

Finishing frequently involves getting the best piano gloss possible on the production line. White glove assembly work is mandatory with this kind of glossy end result.

Do you remember the giant warehouse at the end of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark?’ ELAC’s storerooms are like that. This is just one small section of one of them. Top men work here. Top. Men. You just can’t see any of them because they move so fast. Or they were at lunch. Something like that.

ELAC keeps its Research and Development department tightly locked away, so we didn’t get a chance to see the boffins at work, but everything developed in the lab comes here to the company listening room for thorough evaluation.

ELAC’s idea of bringing as much as possible in-house even extends to a well-stocked photographic studio. I’m not jealous of this. Really. Not jealous at all.

AURALiC Taurus MkII headphone amplifier/preamplifier

My first exposure to AURALiC came at the 2013 Munich High-End show where the Hong Kong-based high-end audio firm used its components to power both a pair of exotic YG Acoustics Sonja 1.2 loudspeakers and multiple sets of Audeze LCD3 planar magnetic headphones. In my view, both the YG speakers and the Audeze ‘phones sounded exceptionally good with AURALiC equipment behind them, which led me to place the firm near the top of my “must audition” list, starting with this review of the firm’s TAURUS MkII balanced-output headphone amplifier/preamplifier (£1,499). 

Let me begin by supplying some company history. AURALiC was co-founded in 2008 by President and CEO Xuanqian Wang and his business partner Yuan Wang. Xuanqian Wang’s background includes formal training as both an electrical and audio recording engineer, plus talents developed over the years as an accomplished pianist. Yuan Wang, in turn, has a background in sociology and management science. The common denominator is that both founders share a deep, abiding love of music and a passion for sound quality. Propitiously, the two met at a musical event, the 2008 Festival of Waldbühne Berlin, and decided to launch AURALiC not long thereafter. 

What attracted me to AURALiC equipment was its sound quality, first and foremost, though I was also drawn by the components’ elegant industrial design and self-evident, German camera-like build quality. Sonically and visually, a certain graciousness and refinement sets AURALiC components apart. In practice, I have found AURALiC equipment tends to sound highly resolving and detailed, yet consistently keeps its focus on the broader musical whole. There is, too, an element of naturalism at work in AURALiC gear—one which makes the equipment simultaneously easy to listen to, yet also invigorating to hear. As you might imagine, this finely judged mix of sonic virtues perfect suits the TAURUS MkII role as a powerplant meant for use with the finest top-tier headphones presently available.

The TAURUS MkII is a fully balanced solid-state headphone amplifier/preamplifier that provides switch selectable single-ended and balanced analogue inputs, preamp outputs, and headphone outputs. At the heart of the TAURUS MkII is found a critically important, signature AURALiC design element: namely a set of the firm’s proprietary ORFEO Class-A output modules. According to AURALiC, the ORFEO modules use “a mass of small signal components with (the) best (possible) linear characteristics,” which are packed in thermal compound and mounted within shielded containers. The ORFEO modules are said to achieve “impressive performance with open loop distortion less than 0.001%.” 

Interestingly, Xuanqian Wang says the ORFEO modules were “inspired by (the) Neve 8078 analog console’s circuit design,” and that they share “the same warm and natural sound (of the) Neve 8078.” It is refreshing to find a relatively young designer who appreciates and has been influenced by the brilliant work done by the British recording console designer Rupert Neve (Neve’s consoles are prized for their transparency and innate musicality).

 

Another highlight of the TAURUS MkII is its low noise input buffer, which offers very high input impedance (100k Ohms single-ended, or 200k Ohms balanced) and yields an exceptionally low 0.8µV of noise. The TAURUS MkII offers real-time switching between two output modes: STD mode, which is intended primarily for applications where single-ended outputs are desired, or BAL mode, which is intended specifically and exclusively for balanced output operation. Power output is generous, ranging from 250mW @ 600 Ohms (BAL MODE) on up to 4500mW @ 120 Ohms (STD MODE). The TAURUS MkII is suitable for use with headphones with rated impedance of 32 – 600 Ohms.

Like all AURALiC components, the TAURUS MkII uses several passive noise suppression technologies to achieve backgrounds as quiet as the proverbial tomb. These technologies include a chassis material called AFN402 (“an alloy of iron with (a) certain portion of nickel, silicon, and other rare metals”), which offers three to ten times greater resistance to EMI at audio frequencies and above than conventional chassis materials do. To further combat EMI and mechanical resonance AURALiC developed a multi-layer, electro-mechanical damping material called Alire, which is applied to the interior surfaces of all AURALiC components. The firm says its Alire Resonance Dampers, “could exempt the products from both electromagnetic interference and vibration interference,” thus providing the purest input signals possible. In short, AURALiC takes noise control very seriously, with benefits you can readily hear.

For my listening tests I used three superb but admittedly challenging-to-drive top-tier headphones: namely, the Abyss AB-1266, the Audeze LCD-3, and the HiFiMAN HE-6. These revealing, planar magnetic designs are relatively power hungry, with the HE-6 having the lowest (83dB) sensitivity of the group. Right out of the gate, the TAURUS MkII proved it had more than enough output capability to produce a robust, articulate, and authoritative sound with all three of these ‘phones. Granted, one must turn up the volume control a good bit in order to achieve satisfying levels with the HiFiMAN ‘phones, but that is to be expected.

AURALiC advises that the TAURUS MkII needs roughly 100 hours of run-in time before it will sound its best, which advice turns out to be spot on. Straight from box, the amp sounded lively, crisp, and well defined, but also perhaps a bit too “splashy” and tightly wound for its own good. As the hours built up, however, the edgier aspects of the TAURUS MkII’s sound soon melted away, even as focus, transparency, and bass power and articulation increased dramatically. The end result was an amp whose sound became more transparent and resolving, but also more natural, hearty, and robust-sounding than had at first been the case. One important point to bear in mind is that, in order to deliver this appealing sound, the TAURUS MkII needs a good hour of warm-up time before it will sound its best (I’m told the reason for this is that the ORFEO modules take a while to come up to temperature and then to reach thermal equilibrium).

With many components, a reviewer’s first impulse might be to characterize the product by discussing its overall tonal balance, but frankly the TAURUS MkII so neutral in its presentation (once fully warmed up) that about all one can say is, “It’s accurate and uncoloured—period.” The only comment I might offer with respect to tonal balance is that the AURALiC’s bass is exceptionally good, in terms of both precise pitch definition and extension, which means the TAURUS MkII offers some of the best bass reproduction you’ll hear from any headphone amplifier, regardless of price. The bass is so good, in fact, that it’s easy to become preoccupied with it, but if you listen more closely you’ll soon discover the TAURUS MkII offers pretty great sound across the entire audio spectrum.

 

A piece that nicely shows both the TAURUS’ evenness of overall tonal balance and remarkable bass prowess is the third (Landscape: Lento) movement of the Vaughn Williams Symphony No. 7, ‘Sinfonia Antartica’ (Bakels/Bournemouth, Naxos). The movement is meant to capture the eerie, forbidding, and frigid majesty of Antarctica by weaving orchestral passages around and through dark, brooding pipe organ passages. The various orchestral voices are each given their due, with none taking precedent over the others (except by the composer’s design), while the pipe organ presents descending and at times quite powerful phrases that suggest, among other things, the plunging temperatures at hand. As organ pedal notes go lower and lower, the TAURUS MkII tracks every step along the way, maintaining beautiful pitch control—even on notes so low that they seem to fall on the line betwixt pitches that are heard vs. those that are felt in a tactile way. What is more, the TAURUS does a beautiful job of capturing low-level textural variations and modulations in volume in those low notes, letting you hear and feel the low-frequency “shudder” of columns of air in those organ pipes. This consistent ability to differentiate and delineate musical lines—and to do so precisely and explicitly—is very much one of the core attributes in the AURALiC’s bag of tricks. 

What also caught my attention about the TAURUS MkII were its dynamic capabilities, which I found eye opening. Compared to many headphone amplifiers, even some very good ones, the TAURUS MkII conveys the impression of substantially expanding or “opening up” the dynamic range of your favourite records (almost as if the MkII has magically removed an imaginary audio compressor from the signal path). As a result, the energy level and expressiveness of many recordings seems to increase, while dynamic shadings become more explicit and intelligible. The benefit, of course, is that listeners enjoy a heightened sense of connection with the performers and with the music itself.  

Oddly enough, the AURALiC’s superior dynamic capabilities make themselves felt in places you wouldn’t necessarily expect—in quiet passages, for example, and not just in large-scale, dynamically bombastic pieces. For instance, it was revelatory to listen to violinist Hilary Hahn’s performance in the first movement of the lovely Meyer Violin Concerto [Sony] —a piece that thrives on delicacy and subtlety more than on explosive, Paganini-style violin pyrotechnics. As Hahn plays, the AURALiC deftly renders the sound of her bowing changes (letting you hear just how masterfully they are executed), while also showing how Hahn uses the gentlest of variations in bowing pressure to modulate the intensity of individual notes. In a sense, the dynamics of the TAURUS MkII give you a “zoomed in” perspective on the music, allowing you hear exactly where and how great artists are practicing the finer points of their craft.

Finally, I was favourably impressed with the richness and density of musical information the TAURUS MkII was able to convey. In areas where other headphone amplifiers offer a rough sketch of certain low-level harmonic or reverberant details, the AURALiC renders them with exquisite and confident precision and clarity. If you are a listener who enjoys savouring every last usable drop of musical information in your favourite records, then I suspect you will find the TAURUS MkII both rewarding and enlightening. 

 

To appreciate what I mean, it can be helpful to put on a record known to be rich in musical information, just to see what sonic treasures the TAURUS MkII might bring to light. For me, one such piece was the third (Adagio) movement of Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, as captured in the classic Reiner/Chicago Symphony recording [RCA Living Stereo, SACD]. Here, the AURALiC let me hear the complex and angular ways in which Bartók combined the various tone colours and shadings from his chosen orchestral palette. The TAURUS MkII vividly reproduced  the intersections of incisive plunging or ascending string themes, the round and almost otherworldly tonality of the celesta, and the intense, piquant sound of multiple percussion instruments adding commentary and spice. The TAURUS MkII was utterly unflustered by complex, overlapping musical lines, meaning that it captured the fundamentals and harmonics of the individual instruments with the greatest of ease, making each of them sound rich, whole, and complete unto itself. What is more the AURALiC showed how each of the instrumental voices interacted with the acoustics of the recording venue, thus conveying an even greater sense of realism.

If I sound impressed by AURALiC’s TAURUS MkII, that’s because I am. Even so, critical and astute audiophiles will inevitably ask, “Yes, but is it the best you’ve heard?” Let me answer that question by saying that it is certainly among the best I’ve heard, with others in that elite group including Cavalli Audio’s Liquid Glass and Liquid Gold headphone amplifiers. Significantly, though, the AURALiC is the only one of these three to carry a price tag comfortably below £2,000 (whereas the Liquid Glass and Liquid Gold are priced, respectively, between two and three times higher than the AURALiC amp).  

Considering the sound and build quality on offer, I think AURALiC’s TAURUS MkII not only represents an impressive sonic and technical achievement, but also qualifies (dare I say it?) as a bit of a bargain. Enthusiastically recommended.

Technical Specifications

Type: Fully balanced, solid state headphone amplifier/preamplifier
Inputs: one stereo single-ended (via RCA jacks), one stereo balanced (via dual 3-pin XLR jacks)
Outputs: two stereo headphone output jacks (one via 6.35mm TRS-type headphone jack, one via 4-pin XLR headphone jack with AKG K1000-compatible pin-outs), one stereo single-ended preamp output (via RCA jacks), one stereo balanced output (via dual 3-pin XLR jacks, PIN2:HOT)
Frequency response: 20Hz – 20kHz, ± 0.1dB; 3Hz – 300kHz, ± 3dB
THD+N: <0.002%, 20Hz – 20kHz at rated output
Dynamic Range: >130dB, 20Hz – 20kHz, A-weighted
Crosstalk: <-80dB at 1kHz
Power Output: 

• 32 Ohms: 4500mW (STD), 1200 mW (BAL)
• 120 Ohms: 1200mW (STD), 4500mW (BAL)
• 300 Ohms: 500mW (STD), 2000mW (BAL)
• 600 Ohms: 250mW (STD), 1000mW(BAL) 

Price: £1,499

Manufacturer:
AURALiC LIMITED
URL: www.auralic.com

UK Distributor:
Audio Emotion Limited,
Unit 2 Banbeath Court, Banbeath,
Leven, KY8 5HD, United Kingdom
Tel: +44(0)1333-425999
URL: www.audioemotion.co.uk

MSB Technology Signature Data CD IV

I hear that MSB is taking off in Asia and the far east. I can’t say I’m surprised. This is a brand that has stuck to its guns and pushed the envelope of digital audio to a greater extent than most. Usually there is at least one technical wizard in every successful company, but they are in the minority and have to do what marketing thinks will be most profitable. That MSB takes a different approach is evident in a total commitment to technological excellence… and a website that’s best described as ‘down to earth’.

The dedication to the cause can be seen in the Signature Data CD IV, the unwieldy name given to MSB’s top ranked transport. There is a standard Platinum Data CD IV at half the price and a Universal Media Transport Plus for 25% less but the Signature has more bells and whistles than the former and is a dedicated disc spinner unlike the latter (which also streams audio). The Signature requires a 12volt power supply, which MSB provides in the form of a Power Base, a unit that matches the style and size of the transport and sits underneath it. The Power Base will power both an MSB transport and DAC, and you can get a Signature version of the Power Base.

There are few similarities between the Data CD IV and other CD transports. For a start it’s not limited to mere CDs but will spin data discs encoded with WAV files at word/bit rates up to 32/384, including the HRx discs from Reference Recordings that possibly inspired the move. So you can burn hi-res files onto CD-R or DVD-R and play them back at rates beyond the capability of existing computer audio or network streaming systems. Interesting no? 

How does it do this? Well not by playing the disc in real time for one, rather its ROM drive reads the data at high speed and sends it to a buffer or solid state memory from whence it’s clocked to the outputs (but not always clocked, read on). The MSB has no connection between the disk drive and the output; everything goes through the buffer and is clocked asynchronously (independently) at the outputs that are designed for non-MSB DACs. When using one of the latter, the recommended route is via the MSB Pro I2S output. This allows the clock in the converter to take control and minimise jitter. The socket for this connection is an RJ45, the type used with Ethernet cables and as no cable is supplied and I used a standard CAT6 cable to try it out.

 

This element is one of two that separate the Platinum from Signature transports. The Platinum only has conventional digital outputs (which are present on the Signature too). The other difference is a metal loading drawer, which gives the impression of higher build quality although the rest of the mechanism is as per that in the Platinum. MSB doesn’t divulge which CD-ROM drive it selected for the Data CD IV, but says engineers listened to all the options before making a final selection. Conversely MSB also points out that because of the buffered nature of the output, drive quality is considerably less of an issue in sound quality terms.

The Data CD IV’s interface is pretty basic but if you delve into the menu you will find the upsampling on/off switch, an output sample rate limiter, display brightness on/off and dimming and something called inter-sample harshness correction for use with non MSB DACs. You can choose to apply upsampling to the signal prior to output and this is encouraged where the DAC is not from MSB; in that case the upsampling is apparently best left to the converter. 

Creating data discs containing WAV files proved slightly challenging. There is undoubtedly a logic to the way tracks are numbered, which will let the transport play them in the order you put them on the disc, but my first attempt at this was not a complete success. I made a compilation with various titles, all of which had track numbers but not in the same style, so the order of play was unpredictable. It did however play all the tracks, including some that were in a separate folder. When it comes to driving the transport, there is no actual stop button on the handset (just a play/pause), and this leaves the disc spinning quite noisily and apparently ad infinitum. Not so good if you want to switch to another source without removing the disc. The only way around it is to eject.

 

I started out using this transport with a matching Signature DAC IV and was quite astonished at the amount of resolution the pair delivered. Frankly it’s in another league to the majority of alternatives encountered. The nearest competition I could muster in terms of digital transport was Naim’s UnitiServe via its BNC S/PDIF output; this connection is theoretically not the DAC’s strongest input because of the MSB Pro I2S option, but it delivers a none to shabby result as well. The clocked link gave an advantage in detail terms, but when it came to musicality the division was less clear-cut. When it came to emotional communication, I got the best result by combining the Signature Data CD IV with a Resolution Audio Cantata DAC. This was a killer combination; the sheer data extraction capability of the transport is phenomenal and when combined with a converter of the Cantata’s calibre via Chord Co Sarum TA coax cable, it’s in the premier league. The music comes through with a pace, vivacity and finesse that very few digital systems can match. CD went from being a format to get a good rip from, to a source of musical enchantment. Steely Dan’s ‘Your Gold Teeth II’ (from Katy Lied) has never sounded this good… not even on vinyl to be frank.

The timing is absolutely spot on, locking the groove down and leaving oodles of space and time for the band to strut its stuff. What became apparent after I’d acclimatised to the thrills being produced is that the faster and denser the material the more it shone with this combination of components, a combination normally headed up by a very capable file server. It’s true to say that the UnitiServe sounds better via UPnP, but that’s because that transfer protocol seems to have inherent advantages. The Signature takes CDs and turns them into the source of ‘perfect sound forever’ that they were always meant to be, and it does so by using technology that’s in every PC on the planet. In a highly refined form of course and a serious bit of casework, it is nonetheless ironic that the answer was under our noses all the time!

This is only fully apparent because other elements have evolved to the extent that they have. The Cantata is a remarkable DAC (and now UPnP player) and Chord Co’s Tuned ARAY cables are in another league when it comes to delivering a musically addictive result as my findings prove.  

I had a brief opportunity to compare the Signature Data CD IV with its rather more affordable Platinum brother. If you are not using the Pro I2S link they appear very similar on paper, but the paper may not be telling the whole story. The Signature is clearly superior when both are connected with coax. With the Jazz Club of San Francisco HRx disc, there is more depth of image, solidity of treble and greater detail which when combined produces clearly enhanced musical coherence. This sounds like a jazz band of skill rather than an audiophile demo disc, which in my book is worth the asking price any day.

This is a CD transport, but not as we know them! It elevates the humble CD to the plane of the best network streaming and computer audio sources. I hope that other companies go down this route, but this seems unlikely given the prevailing trends in digital audio. Regardless, it would be great if the less well heeled could hear the full potential of a format that we will undoubtedly miss when it’s gone.

Technical Specifications

Outputs: S/PDIF Optical, S/PDIF Coaxial, S/PDIF Balanced AES/EBU, MSB PRO I2S Interface
Media type: CD, CDR, HRx and DVD ROM
Maximum Sample Rate: 44.1 to 384 kHz CD or DVD ROM
Maximum Bit Depth: 32 bit on MSB Network output
Vibration Control: IsoRack Feet allow stacking with complete mechanical isolation, Metal Drive and drawer.
Price: Signature Data CD IV – £6,800. Signature Power Base – £4,100

Manufacturer:
MSB Technology
URL: www.msbtech.com

Distributor:
Hi-Fi Traders
URL: www.hifitraders.co.uk
Tel: 07842 126218

Triangle Signature Delta loudspeakers

There are two ways of making a loudspeaker. The first, simplest and most common way is ‘get someone else to do it’. By relying on time-worn loudspeaker design criteria, and calling on an endless set of drive unit permutations and combinations, it’s possible to design a loudspeaker without a great deal of fuss. Then there’s the harder way. Each model is a clean sheet, constrained only by the physics involved, the skill of the designers and the amount of test equipment at their fingertips. Everything – from drive unit construction to cabinet shape – is ripe for investigation and questioning. That’s the way Triangle approached its new Signature range, including the Delta floorstander.

The Signature series is below the company’s top Magellan line but above the previous Genese range it replaces. In a good way; it brings the performance – and quality of finish – of Magellan into a range with the footprint, ease of use and driving of the Genese. It’s a great compromise, because it’s more ‘balance’ than ‘compromise’.

In microcosm, the change highlights the larger shifts in the audio business. The company’s excellent Color range and lower price Esprit models continue, as does the higher-end Magellan, but the Signature series is a step up over the previous Genese models and there’s no direct replacement in the pipeline. Such is the scooped out middle of the audio buying world at this time.

There are four models in the new range, the two floorstanders Alpha and Delta, the Theta standmount and the Gamma centre channel (Triangle suggests its commendable Meteor 0.5 subwoofer to complete the series for home cineastes). We reckon the Signature Delta hits something of a sweet spot. It’s the floorstander that will work well in most European domestic living rooms.

The floorstanders use the same drivers throughout. The Delta comprises a TZ2500 horn-loaded tweeter taken straight from the Magellan design, coupled with a 185mm mid-range doped paper cone and a glass-fibre 185mm bass cone, two in the Delta, three in the Alpha. These last two have been developed specifically for the Signature range, taking full advantage of the fact Triangle makes its own drive units. The midrange has a double-layer voice coil and a unique phase plug shaped dust cap, designed to give all the phase benefits of a phase plug but without the in-built air-escape route, to enhance linearity and therefore better sound. The bass driver, on the other hand, sports a double-layer voice coil and twin magnets, and the cone features a half-roll rubber suspension, all of which gives the speaker great speed.

 

Because it controls driver production, the company can ensure great consistency between drive units, and in the Soissons factory, the drive unit plant is opposite the R&D centre, anechoic chamber and listening facility, so any such claims are subject to a lot of testing and a lot of listening.

Nothing’s left to chance here. Even the distinctive front spike foot with its captive disc is a resonance drain. The front firing vent is divided in two, so that each bass driver sees the front port as its own. Then there’s the crossover network. Not only has the filter network been redesigned, but it now features internal wiring by high-end experts Kimber Kable. That cabinet shape is deceptively solid, too. It’s made from seven high-densitiy layers of 3mm fibreboard bent into shape over a period of three weeks. The front baffle is further reinforced, ending up 25mm thick. The chambers of the Signature help minimise any internal resonance or standing waves, and the whole caboodle is finished off in either a mahogany veneer or a black or white solid finish, coated in between seven and 10 layers of paint for that piano gloss look. The net result is something that looks as good as it sounds.

Generally, there’s a rule of thumb in audio that states the larger the company, the less exciting the products. We’re an industry dominated by slightly eccentric one-man-bands making remarkable products at a scale of one every now and then. Triangle is the rare exception; an established company that can design exciting products that usually come from small, hungry brands. Personally, I find it reassuring that loudspeaker greatness is not the sole preserve of swivel-eyed men in sheds, and if a company like Triangle can make products that are as exciting as they are well-engineered, why can’t the other big brands do the same?

The striking thing about listening to the Signature Delta is it makes a lot of hi-fi speakers sound a bit like timid grey mice in comparison. There are too many ‘safe’ sounding loudspeakers in audio (especially at this price and below). They make a sound that is never threatening, never nasty and just a little bit bland. These speakers always sound ‘nice’, in an unthreatening way, like they are scared of upsetting the music gods. The Signature Delta never does this; music is all about the passion here. It’s not background sound (although the speaker does work extremely well at low levels), it’s fire in the belly stuff. You are the kind of person who will have to play it loud. Music puts a smile on your face, a spring in your step and a tear in your eye. To you, music is not something to be analysed or categorised or refined and processed; it’s about listening to the Clash or playing the Rite of Spring and lobbing a few chairs around. If you’ve ever had a heated argument about Beethoven; if you’ve ever had a friendly discussion about guitars over a glass or two of wine that ended up with you gesticulating so wildly your shirt looks like you were the victim of a zombie attack, or if your reaction to the phrase “I like Celine Dion” brings forth visions of leaping across the room with a knife between your teeth, then you are a candidate for the Triangle Signature Delta. 

 

Triangle speakers are perfect for recreating that sense of musicians playing in a live venue, and the Signature Delta takes that to the max. This should be tempered slightly, because that’s not quite the strict ‘absolute sound’ definition of ‘musicians playing live with unamplified instruments in a natural acoustic space’, but instead the Signature Delta focuses on that exciting, almost atavistic sense of a performance happening when you hear it live. That’s what Triangle has long excelled at, and it is what is done so well here. 

How this manifests is simple. Play something live with a crowd. You feel like you are in with the crowd. Play something recorded in a studio and you feel like there should be a crowd, and you are in it. It doesn’t matter if you are in the crowd waiting to hear a genteel string quartet, noodly jazz or searing Chicago blues, it’s the sense of ‘being there’ that is all pervasive. I suspect this comes down to expressing the excitement of music, which might have something to do with the energy – especially high-frequency energy – that the Signature Delta is so adept at delivering. You really could put elevator music through these babies and think it were a fairly good concert from a fairly bland band.

In audio terms, this is a combination of near effortless dynamics, good imagery and image solidity, a clean, detailed midrange and high frequency response. It’s also exceptionally precise across the board; often the presence of a front firing port seems to act like an drag on the bass, keeping it fractionally behind the beat. But not here. This is fast paced, lively and forward. Strangely, you tend to hear this best not on simple 4/4 pieces but on more complex polyrhythms; I occasionally play some Bach’s Sonatas recorded by Paul Galbraith on acoustic guitar (in this case played like a cello) and the ability to parse counterpoint can be exceptionally difficult on anything other than a surface level. But with the Triangle, it worked like a music lesson, and you can easily predict the way the differing lines of melody and harmony pan out.

There are many indicators of good sound. Some are relatively objective. Some are subjective and some of the best are meta-indicators. Amazon and Shazam know when I’m in the presence of something good, because I end up firing up both apps and buying music of anyone attending the session at a fairly alarming (to my bank balance) rate. At the end of the first session I had with these speakers, I had added seven albums to my collection, which given the person playing only played eight tracks, is a fairly good hit rate, and a good indicator that not only did the guy have some good music on hand, but the speakers were playing it well. Next time round, I got close to buying my own music again, because I was enjoying it so much. That’s what the Signature Delta does for music. 

I fear I’m making this sound one-dimensional, like the speaker is all energy and nothing more. That’s very far from the case. It’s an extremely detailed, erudite loudspeaker design. This shines through from the midrange outward, extending upwards with a beautifully extended treble and a tidy, surprisingly powerful bass. It throws out a good soundstage too, more deep and wide than high, but what I think a perfect balance between ‘up-front’ and projecting into the room and recessed or lurking behind the loudspeakers. It’s also extremely dynamic, although perhaps the last word in filigree micro-dynamics so beloved by American high-end speaker designs is slightly diminished. Bass is good too, especially given the stature of the loudspeaker, but it doesn’t have the taut delivery of sealed box Magico or the depth of a full-range loudspeaker like the big Magellan flagship. However once again, it’s a sense of balance rather than compromise. 

 

Perhaps most alluring of all though is the ability to play seriously loud easily. It’s not a party animal loudspeaker, but the combination of efficiency and good power handling spell a speaker that keeps its head when things get raucous. Being a French design, it was hard to resist playing the latest Daft Punk album, and the temptation to wick it up to clubby levels was always present. And it didn’t disappoint when you gave in to temptation. It kept its composure and its tonal balance up to some really quite ‘frisky’ sound pressure levels. 

Triangle’s ‘signature’ sound (pun sort of intended) is distinctive, and like all things distinctive, it’s not for everyone. If you like that kind of gentle, rolled off top and bottom that typified BBC designs, this is absolutely not the loudspeaker for you. Alternately, if you go for the impressive ‘boom tizz’ sound of a speaker that delivers a screaming top end, a fat bass and not much between, this won’t rattle your cage either. You’ll rail against that Triangle sound even with the cheapest models, but the Signature Delta represents a far purer picture of that Triangle sound. That said, if you like that sense of being in a live venue, that vivacious and fundamentally entertaining sound of Triangle, the Signature Delta polishes that to perfect-cut, blue-white diamond clarity.

There’s only one downside – the Signature front panel has a slightly curved mirror at eye height. This means you can’t but help being stared back at by two slightly distorted versions of yourself! This has a left-field advantage in set-up – if you can see your reflection equally in both speakers, you are in the right position for the loudspeakers. However, unless you are a bit of an egotist, I’d recommend masking the mirrored panel off and treating yourself to some photographer’s matt dulling spray. If that isn’t the definition of ‘picky’ I don’t know what is.

Triangle hasn’t taken the easy route with the Signature Delta, either in the development or in making a ‘safe’ bland sound. Instead, Triangle has made a loudspeaker that excels in passion and grace and fire. You get the feeling with this speaker, perhaps more than any other at its price, that you don’t get to choose it, it gets to choose you. This is a loudspeaker that comes with a bonding process, and once that happens, there’s no turning back. 

Technical Specifications

Three way ported loudspeaker

Drive Units: 1x TZ2500 tweeter, 1x 185mm paper cone midrange, 2x 185mm fibreglass woofer
Sensitivity: 92dB/W/m
Bandwidth: 35Hz-20kHz±3dB
Power handling: 120W
Repetitive Peak Power handling: 240W
Nominal impedance: eight ohms
Minimum impedance: 3.3 ohms
Crossover Points: 280Hz, 2.7kHz
Dimensions (WxHxD): 37x123x38.6cm
Weight: 33kg
Available in piano white, piano black, piano mahogany
Price: £4,900 per pair

Manufactured by:
Triangle
URL: www.triangle-fr.com
Tel: +33(0)3 23 75 38 20

Spendor D1 news and commentary

Spendor’s new £1,795 per pair D1 bookshelf loudspeaker is designed as a replacement for the popular SA1 and calls upon the technologies used in the company’s current D7 flagship floorstander. Optional dedicated and non-resonant stands are also available for £595 per pair.

The D1 features two Spendor-designed drive units; a 22mm ‘LPZ’ polyamide dome tweeter and a 150mm polymer cone made of Spendor’s own EP77 formulation. With moderately low 85dB/W/m sensitivity, but a benign eight ohm nominal impedance, the infinite baffle loudspeaker is capable of a in-room frequency response of a claimed 55Hz-25kHz and sports a rigid, asymmetric braced, dynamically damped cabinet.

Spendor has long provided loudspeakers that dominate the quality mini-monitor market. While the company’s could come across as arrogant by claiming the D1 is “the ultimate small loudspeaker for music fans” in its latest (and surprisingly gushing for a company as conservative as Spendor) press release, with such a back-story, it may have a point.

 

Here’s what Spendor itself has to say on the D1, taken from the press release, with deconstructed translations provided by the Editor.

“The Spendor D1 is the smallest loudspeaker in the Spendor D-line and a worthy successor to the award winning SA1 mini-monitor loudspeaker. Listeners will be captivated by its charming sound, surprised by its clarity and definition, assured by performance and engineering of the highest order and delighted by luxurious modern finishes.”

Translation: We stopped making the SA1. Here’s its replacement, and it’s called the D1. If you liked the SA1, you’ll like this even more.

“Spendor D1 is equally at home in a living room, study, bedroom or office. Unlike conventional loudspeakers it has been designed to deliver a naturally balanced sound even when it is installed close to a wall or placed on a bookshelf. Whatever the location, music is delivered with a depth and clarity which is remarkable for a small loudspeaker”

Translation: It’s what we used to call a bookshelf speaker, and technically it’s a half-space (or 2pi) design instead of fully radiating (4pi) design, but people don’t understand ‘pi’ these days unless there’s a tiger and a boat involved.

“The D1 delivers the most enjoyable and engaging bass, hard to define because everything sounds so natural. The effect is magical. Technically, it’s the result of perfectly balanced phase response, optimum bass alignment, high electrical Q and a cabinet which emits no spurious ‘noise’. It allows the D1 to deliver punch and drive and it has an uncanny ability to sound much larger than it looks.”

Translation: We didn’t just throw a couple of drive units in a box, you know? And didn’t you know small is beautiful?

“At the heart of D1 is a pair of Spendor D-line drive units. Low frequencies are handled by a new 15cm bass unit. Treble is reproduced by Spendor’s innovative new LPZ tweeter.

SPENDOR LPZ (LINEAR PRESSURE ZONE) TWEETER

“Imagine focusing an ultra-high-quality camera lens until you see a clear bright image. That’s the effect of Spendor LPZ technology. Our sequential geometry micro-foil operates like an acoustic lens. The result is perfect focus, uninhibited sound transmission and a very wide listening window. Sound images are vivid, in-the-air,  as bright or sweet as any music demands.”

Translation: We know what we are doing because we even make our own drive units. In other news, car analogies are so last year. Cameras are the new black!

 

“The D1 looks as good as it sounds. As fashion moves away from fussy shapes and bling toward functional form and natural materials Spendor D1 is on-trend with its pure-form cabinet and contemporary finishes. Spendor Dark, a diamond polished gloss lacquer over a dark natural wood grain, for an alluring look which adapts to room décor and lighting. Spendor White, a silky-smooth pure white lacquer, for a distinctive ‘cool’ look. Dark ebony for a deep dark luxurious look.”

Translation: We don’t change the style too much between designs, but “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” might not play well, so think ‘timeless’. It’s available in three finishes.

“For ultimate audio perfection Spendor has designed a complementary stand. Within the elegant satin form of the stand is a rigid, light, non-resonant structure which ensures that spurious energy and vibration will never degrade the sound.”

Translation: We make a stand for it too!

Cynicism aside, this kind of press release is somewhat unnecessary for a speaker like the D1. Spendor has a strong reputation for making excellent two-way mini-monitors (such as the SA1) and that it builds its own drive units in-house (a rarity in today’s speaker building climate) sets the products apart from the masses. All of which means the D1 will likely prove a very worthy successor to the SA1 and we look forward to testing this.

www.spendoraudio.com

Raidho D-1 loudspeaker

Raidho’s C-1.1 standmount manages to couple outstanding detail, analysis and musical insight with a sense of fun, and in the process creating a loudspeaker that proves quality is more important than quantity. It’s so good in fact, it poses a problem for Raidho – where next?

The Raidho D-1 occupies the same physical cabinet, with the same broad specifications, same cleverly decoupled stand system, even the same FTT75-30-8 sealed quasi-ribbon tweeter as the C-1.1. In fact, it’s all about the bass unit, and were that bass unit not white in the C-1.1 and matt black in the D-1, you might struggle to physically tell them apart.

In place of white, aluminium oxide, the D-1 uses one and a half carats of pure diamond (that’s industrial, rather than mined diamond) applied to each cone. The industrial diamond bonds to the ceramic cone surface, in a 10µm thick layer. While diamond doesn’t sparkle unless it’s cut in a facet pattern, the diamond layer is bonded to carbon in graphite form on the outer layer, hence the none-more-black drive unit face.

This took years to get right; get the mix wrong and you lose stiffness, you get a cone surface that will shatter the first time you put a signal into it, or something that delaminates fast. But, get it right and you have a super-stiff, super-fast bass driver with a break-up point in the presence region beyond 20kHz. And instead of a 12dB spike where our hearing is most sensitive, there’s a 3dB resonance peak up where it really isn’t. 

There is an observation to make here, which applies to the C-1.1, but is all the more noticeable with the D-1. You tend to move the speakers further into the room and wider than you might expect. It also makes the care and attention required to get the best from a Raidho even more prevalent. Precise amounts of toe-in and distance from rear and side walls are critical; the speaker sounds good regardless, but the difference between a rough set-up and obsessive-compulsive levels of installation is the difference between ‘good’ and ‘Good God!’

They are forgiving enough to make a fairly good sound used with almost anything and simply ‘plonked’ down in the room. But the more care you apply to the overall installation and accompanying components, the more you get from the D-1, and it quickly begins to eclipse most speakers.

 

There are two sets of people who will buy the D-1; those who are new to the whole Raidho experience and C-1.1 users in need of something ‘more’. Addressing the first crowd is easy –  it’s one of the most uncoloured, most satisfying, most unfatiguing and most realistic loudspeakers you’ll hear. They aren’t bright, but have that forward-presenting soundstage that attracts people to bright-sounding loudspeakers. If you have words like ‘clean’ and ‘detailed’ on your shortlist, you’ll be smitten, because it sits smack in the middle between the honesty of the Magico Q1, the energy of the Focal Utopia Diablo and the warm embrace of the Crystal Arabesque Mini. I

But how much better is the D-1 compared to the C-1.1? The difficulty here is one of expression. This isn’t an upgrade that neatly fits into the typical hi-fi terminology and neither is it one that benefits from a string of superlatives. It’s just better. It’s better in all the ways the C-1.1 is better than most standmounts, just more so. It’s got that realism thing the C-1.1 does so well nailed to an extent that even the C-1.1 would be found wanting. There is no sense of hardness or lack of transparency to the C-1.1, but the D-1 just polishes the glass still further. 

This doesn’t mean the C-1.1 is suddenly demoted, and that whole “now the new model is out, here’s what was wrong with the old one” disclosure simply doesn’t figure. The C-1.1 remains one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard. The D-1 just shows how much more can be had; the C-1.1 puts you in the room with the Rolling Stones on the Stripped live from the rehearsal room album from the mid 1990s, but the D-1 makes you feel like you are playing with the band.

Whatever you do to categorise it in audio terms, the D-1 slips out of that verbal judo hold and puts you in a headlock. You think you got it pinned down when you get to that electrostatic-like midrange openness, but then the surprising dynamic energy of a bass line kicks in and you start to think it a quart in a pint pot sound. But, as you do that, along comes that seamless upper mid and treble, that makes anything orchestral (or, for that matter, a 1960s soul horn section) sound like the real deal, then a voice or a guitar comes along and you are back to square one, quickly followed by the level of detail that means you begin to hear why Joe Bonamassa plays with tree-trunk sized guitar strings. 

Audio people talk of synergy. Partner the Raidho D-1 with the Devialet 170 (tested last issue) a set of Crystal Standard Diamond speaker cables, and a single power cord, and you’ll hear what synergy really means. After I nailed the whole AIR wireless thing by not using out of date software on my Mac, this was perhaps the simplest system I’ve used in my room, and one of the best too. 

The Raidho D-1 creates the kind of system that leaves people with a profound sense of musical satisfaction, whether the music was a glorious slice of ‘absolute sound’ real, unamplified instruments playing live in an acoustic environment, or something thoroughly digital that never once saw an open space until it reached the drive units. It asks the question ‘what more do you need?’ and often the answer is ‘nothing’. Frankly, that troubles me, because that’s a call and response that a reviewer is never supposed to utter.

Expensive – yes, but the D-1 proves good things don’t come cheap. An astonishingly good loudspeaker and highly recommended.

Technical Specifications

Type: Standmount bookshelf rear-ported loudspeaker
Driver Complement: 1x sealed ribbon tweeter, 1x 115mm diamond mid-bass driver
Frequency Response: 50Hz-50kHz
Sensitivity: 88dB/W/m
Impedance: > six ohms
Crossover: 3kHz, 2nd order
Recommended amplification: >50W
Dimensions (WxHxD, without stand): 20x37x36cm
Weight: 12.5kg
Finishes: Walnut Burl veneer, Piano Black, high-gloss white, all possible paint colours
Price (including stands): £14,400 per pair (Black, White), £16,250 per pair (Burl Walnut)

Manufactured by:
Raidho Acoustics
URL: www.raidho.dk

UK Retailers:

High End Cable
URL: www.highendcable.co.uk
Tel: +44(0)1775 761880

Loud and Clear
URL: www.loud-clear.co.uk
Tel: +44(0)131 555 3963 (Edinburgh)
Tel: +44(0)141 221 0221 (Glasgow)

Vivid GIYA G2 loudspeaker

How many loudspeaker companies build all their own drive units and fit them into ground breaking cabinets? And how many of those companies are genuinely breaking new ground? By my calculation the answer is very few indeed, and of those Vivid Audio has the lowest profile. I mean you don’t need very many fingers to count the number of speaker companies that make their own tweeters and there are even fewer that go to the lengths that Vivid does when it comes to cabinet construction. The ‘box’ that the Giya G2 inhabits is made from two skins of reinforced glass fibre, which sandwich a core of end grain balsa. That is 12mm thick slices of balsa in 50mm square blocks and triangles individually laid up by hand. The result is a very curvy and distinctive cabinet on the outside that is both stiff and light and which has no sharp edges to cause diffraction. It’s genuinely leading edge stuff.

But what’s the deal with the Giya G2? It looks just like the G1 that came out in 2008 and appears to have the same drivers. Put the two side by side however and you will see that it’s a smaller version of the G1, with half the internal volume and 80% of its height. This is still a decent size loudspeaker that stands a metre and third tall but it’s easier to accommodate than a G1 because the bass drivers are 50mm smaller in diameter albeit using the same motor unit, and thus don’t go quite so low or so loud. This is not to say that they don’t have grip, grunt or girth.

Designer Laurence Dickie’s explanation for the G2’s unusually strong bass is that his work in pro audio for Turbosound has taught him that using oversized magnets on lightweight cones delivers this result. He compares it to the way that a large engine in a small car will give you more control, if it’s driven properly. The drive in this case being the crossover design. In Dickie’s B&W days (he was responsible for the original Nautilus) this approach was described as ‘over shoved’ – which doesn’t sound very positive – but in this instance it brings considerable benefits. The bass has many of the qualities you get with active loudspeakers, including impressive extension and power; some call it ‘grip’, others ‘slam’, but essentially it’s a combination of power and speed that is hard to achieve with passive designs.

 

It’s slightly at odds with the graceful design of the cabinet, but the G2 is a bit of a beast. Power handling is quoted as a whopping 800 watts and its delivery is so clean that I can easily believe it would be able to take this sort of energy without showing any sign of strain. I certainly encountered nothing of the sort at the levels I wicked them up to.

To get back to the G2’s make up, it’s a four-way, five driver system with all metal units and catenary domes on tweeter and midrange. I noted that the tweeter dome is reinforced with a carbon fibre ring which is something that Bowers used to do in its 800 series because if stiffens the driver sufficiently to add a very worthwhile increase in high frequency extension before break-up, in this case the figure quoted is 44kHz. Tweeter, mid and mid-bass units all have tapered tube loading and all the cones have maximum ventilation through the basket and even the coil former which relieves pressure behind the central dome. The two bass drivers are braced against one another in a reaction cancelling arrangement that doesn’t rely on stiffness in the enclosure, in fact the units are mounted on ‘O’ rings to minimise the transmission of energy (as are the rest of the drivers for that matter). The bass drivers also have a massive 50mm of mechanical travel, something that Dickie must have picked up on in his day-job.

Given that carbon fibre is all the rage these days I asked Dickie why Vivid hadn’t chosen this material instead of GRP for the cabinet skins. He agreed that CF is more of the moment and could look great but in practice its only real advantage would be a reduction in weight, which as this is not a car, would not enhance the potential sound quality of the speaker. The current vacuum infused GRP and balsa cabinet accounts for less than half of the finished speaker’s 55 kilo mass which is arguably light enough. There is some carbon fibre in the G2 however; it’s used to form the base, presumably because it can be moulded into more complex shapes with ease. The bi-wire cable terminals are right underneath the speaker which makes for a great looking rear end but a tricky cable swap if you’re on your own, I had to lay them on some cushions to do the job. There are six threaded inserts for custom made stainless steel spikes but their use is optional and I went with the ease of positioning that the smooth base confers. Vivid also supplies high quality terminal jumpers for those preferring to single wire.

 

The first thing that struck me about these speakers when I got them up and running was the character of the recording on the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah. Some speakers make the Audio Fidelity pressing of this album sound smooth and luxurious, perhaps a little bit more so than is likely to be the case with such a vintage record. The G2 reveals the warmth of the recording but also the unusual way in which the drums were laid down and the fact that this instrument is the key to the overall sound of this most jazzed out of Dead LPs. The record sounds much more of its age as well with lovely, chewy bass guitar notes and some top quality noodling from Garcia et al. A few more albums in, and it’s clear that the G2 is a very fast speaker. There is no sense of overhang or smearing of timing, yet unlike many examples of the breed, it is also devoid of forwardness. The speaker’s intrinsic character is totally clean which leaves acres of space for the qualities of the music to shine through.

When that music contains a emotional message you know all about it, in this case Laura Marling delivered the goods on her A Creature I Don’t Know album which is replete with fine detail yet strains at the compression on her voice when she raises it. Recording character both good and bad is obvious with the G2, yet this only reinforces the intensity of the performance so it’s been applied in an appropriate manner, enough so to provoke comments like “lummy and blimey jings, this is powerful stuff” from yours truly.

The speed applies across the band and does not require high power amplification to be enjoyed, I use Valvet A3.5 class A monoblocks and their 50 watts are enough to deliver bass lines that know how high when they are asked to jump. This was readily apparent with all sorts of music including the jazz blues of Conjure’s Music for the Texts of Ishmael Reed. This densely packed recording reveals the various layers involved in its creation as well as its analogue nature even though I was playing a 24/88.2 HDTracks file. Cleaner, fresher pieces like Samuel Yirga’s Habasha Sessions are even more real, in fact at low level this sounded truly magical, totally immersive, natural and effortless.

As you might expect from the aerodynamic shape of the enclosure imaging is a distinct strong point, Dickie suggested they be toed in so that the axis crossed in front of the listening seat which gave excellent stage width in my room but I preferred the tonal balance when sitting at the apex of the triangle with both speakers pointed straight at me. With a lot of speakers I find this set-up uncomfortable but the smooth, clean mid and treble on the G2 means that you can listen like this at any level you fancy and not encounter anything undesirable, unless its on the record of course. Something of this nature surprised me by turning up on ‘Keith Don’t Go’ the Nils Lofgren live track that is in danger of becoming a new Private Investigations on the demo front. This was presented as a totally coherent whole by the G2s; where many speakers deliver lots of scale but little image focus, this time it’s a man playing a guitar (with considerable skill) and both are in one spot in time and space. What you don’t usually hear is the limiting applied at the crescendo, at least not to the extent that the Vivids reveal, all commercial recordings are compressed to some extent but so are a lot of loudspeakers, that is not the case here.

This track also revealed the total lack of cabinet coloration from the G2, a quality that can be heard in the extra acoustic space available for notes to stop and start in – the fact that they end when they should being the key here. The other tell-tale sign is the noise floor being lower than it usually seems, cabinet contributions are a form of noise so when they are dramatically reduced you can hear quieter notes and more note decay and it’s rather addictive. So much so that the next pair of speakers I put on sounded positively crude despite their four and a half grand price tag, I appreciate that the price of that speaker is significantly less than that asked for the G2, but the difference was so great that it took several weeks to re-calibrate my expectations.

 

With music that has genuine dynamic range and depth of image such as Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances the power and scale of the orchestra is delivered in astonishing realism. This is where you really start to wonder how such low bass can be so well controlled. It gives the soundstage extraordinary depth and scale and the music real fear factor, I don’t think this piece was on an album called the Power of the Orchestra but it should have been.

Despite the phenomenal results I achieved with the G2s, I couldn’t help thinking that better amplification would have got more out of them. But try as I might I couldn’t get hold of anything truly suitable in the time available. I had my eye on the MSB S200 power amp that had made a brief visit a few months earlier, that has the power and finesse to do this speaker justice, I think. There were times when a bit more bite on leading edges would have helped particular tracks and a good class AB amp would likely provide that. I tried alternative cables and these enhanced certain qualities but this is such a revealing speaker that you can hear what’s missing rather easily.

Wyclef Jean’s ‘Thug Angels’ was one of the tracks that put me on the quest, its bass had far more subtlety than usual but not quite as much slam, something 200 clean watts would undoubtedly deliver. But with this track you are talking about a studio composite, a sound that has no real absolute. With a string quartet recorded with an eye to fidelity the result was as good as I have ever got. The instruments sounded totally real and provoked the realisation that the G2 has the finesse of an electrostatic combined with the power and dynamics of a boxed speaker. Very rarely can cones and domes deliver the softness of real strings complete with the acoustic of the studio so effectively, and even less common is one that can go from soft to loud and back again in such immediate and effortless fashion.

A lot is made of the wonders of 3D televisions, but even the best deliver a pretty poor facsimile of the real thing. With a speaker like this you are far closer to experiencing a solid presence in the room and you don’t even need special glasses!

I got a superb result with the Vivid Giya G2, a better one it seemed than that with the G1 a couple of years ago. Although I put this down to mostly better ancillaries in the system and the advent of computer audio, but it’s also likely that the slightly smaller size of the loudspeaker system suited the realistically sized room better. Suffice it to say that both are world class loudspeakers that should be considered by anyone looking for the very best that a sound system can deliver.

Technical Specifications

Type: 4-way, 5-driver floorstanding loudspeaker system
Cabinet: Glass reinforced balsa cored sandwich composite, carbon fibre base
Driver Complement:

  • HF driver: 26mm metal dome, tapered tube loading, catenary profile
  • Mid driver, 50mm metal dome, tapered tube loading, catenary profile
  • Mid/bass driver: 125mm with tapered tube loading, short-coil long-gap motor design, 50mm copper ribbon coil
  • Bass drivers: 2 x 175mm metal coned unit with short-coil long-gap motor design, 75mm copper ribbon coils

Bass loading: Exponentially tapered tube enhanced bass reflex
Sensitivity: 89dB
Impedance (Ohms): 6 nominal, 4 minimum, low reactance
Crossover frequencies: 220, 880, 3500 Hz
Power handling (music programme): 800 watts rms
Dimensions (H, W, D): 1383, 360, 638mm
Net weight: 55kg
Standard finishes: black, pearl white
Price: £34,500 per pair

Manufactured by:
Vivid Audio
Tel.: Tel: +44(0)1403 78 2221
URL: www.vividaudio.com

ELAC BS312 loudspeaker

It’s an old adage – “you can’t squeeze a quart into a pint pot”. Or, in Star Trek speak, it’s Mr Scott saying, “Ye cannae change the laws of physics, Cap’n.” ELAC’s Line 300 series begs to differ. Because ELAC appears to do the impossible; real, useful bass out of a tiny loudspeaker, like the BS 312 tested here.

On the face of it, the BS 312 shares a lot in common with many ELAC designs, especially as the company has long promulgated the use of deceptively big sounding small speakers; this time, ELAC uses its JET 5 version of the Air Motion Transformer coupled with a 115mm AS-XR cone (also made in house by ELAC) and the rear-ported, single-wired loudspeaker is diminutive, uses a extruded aluminium cabinet and is best used on the dedicated stands designed to fit a range of ELAC standmounts. It’s small, surprisingly heavy and very well made. And none of this gets over precisely what the BS 312 is capable of, if you view this from a surface perspective.

Look closer. That JET 5 tweeter is a folded ribbon design, which works by folding the ribbon through a series of neodymium bar magnets. This is a high-precision process that is only possible in the hands of a specialist (a fraction of a millimetre out in one of the folds and the tweeter is virtually useless; it’s a job that requires a steady hand, a keen eye and infinite patience)… although the process is aided by robots. This manages to combine efficiency, power handling and break-up far outside the audible spectrum (around 50kHz) – the kind of trifecta of tweeter goodness. Variants on Oskar Heil’s device are relatively uncommon – Adam, Audiovector, Burmester, Mark & Daniel and more recently MartinLogan and Yacht Audio join ELAC on the AMT trail, and a few of those do so by buying 

JET 3 tweeters from ELAC (he said quietly). 

Then there’s that 115mm AS-XR cone made specifically for the BS 312, a clever sandwich arrangement with an outer layer of aluminium bonded to a paper cone in that distinctive ‘crystal membrane’ succession of triangles arrangement that adds rigidity and reduces resonance and colouration. 

I’ve seen driver this on the test bench being played to unfeasibly high levels (the kind of levels that wouldn’t just break a bass driver, but immolate it!) without the slightest complaint. It’s ability to take power like it’s going out of fashion is what keeps this loudspeaker a contender when facing off against loudspeakers five times its size.

The crossover network sits on two small PCBs to the rear of the speaker, just in front of the single-wired terminal block. The crossover point sits high at 3.2kHz, which places it squarely at the top end of our most sensitive region of hearing, and the crossover itself bristles with air-cored inductors and high-grade ELAC-branded caps. Even the internal wiring looks above average.

 

The stand should almost be considered near integral to the design. While it is designed to be used with a number of different ELAC designs (as a consequence you end up with a lot of unopened baggies and at two top-plates) the stand terminates is a trio of sharp, stainless steel spikes that lock onto holes in a plate that attaches to the underside of the BS 312. This is not as precarious as it looks (although the thought of 7.5kg resting on long upturned spikes is troubling, the speakers do sit solidly) and it works surprisingly well. Twice over; the plate bolted to the BS 312 seems to both lower the speaker’s centre of gravity and reduces ringing and the everything is decoupled from everything else. 

The speakers demand both quality and quantity. They need an amplifier with a very clean delivery, especially in the mid and treble, and a lot of power in tow. ELAC itself is the distributor for Primare in Germany and this seems an ideal coupling, as does the Norma REVO IPA-140 tested last issue (and imported by the UK distributor). I also used the speakers to good effect with the Devialet 170, although the two were quite forward in combination and this emphasised the potential for leanness in the speaker. However, the BS 312 demands that grade of amplifier power and clarity, and such things are well rewarded.

They also demand careful installation. This is a precision listening instrument and as a consequence needs to be placed with precision. Level is a given (the tall, up-facing spikes will make you level the speakers as a matter of course) but placement in the room is vital too. A combination of ‘voweling in’ (having someone determine the ideal ‘first fit’ position by talking and hearing how their voice changes relative to the distance from the walls) and some toe-in when fine tuning worked well. While the speakers are not directional at all (they are almost a point source), the stereo improves significantly if the speakers are toed about 20° from firing straight down the room. They also need to be surprisingly far into the room, for a speaker small enough to suspect it needs some reinforcement off the walls.

There are two loudspeakers in one, here. First, use the BS 312 in a surprisingly large room, and there’s a very high wow factor here. Wow, as in, “wow, it’s surprising just how much sound it’s possible to extract out of so small a set of speakers”. This is a room filler, irrespective of the size of room. Which leads us to BS 312 part two – how it works in a smaller room, where its diminutive footprint is an obvious advantage.

Going back to the larger room, there’s always something unexpected about getting a large sound from a small loudspeaker, but this one is smaller than most and makes a larger sound than most. It’s also deeper than you’d imagine too. OK, so let’s be really honest about the bass depth – it’s never going to send full-range speaker owners into apoplexy, and it probably wouldn’t be the first choice for playing dub, but the depth of bass is far broader, deeper and more intense that any speaker this small should be capable of. And this in relatively large rooms!

This isn’t smoke and mirrors. The speaker is making a good deal of great bass too; I played the classic Du Pre version of Elgar’s Cello Concerto (EMI SACD) and the sense of scale of her cello and the power of the orchestra behind her. This also means they play very loud indeed; not just for a small speaker, but loud and with no noticeable break-up or tonal shifts until you get into very high volumes.

There’s another key aspect of the sound of the BS 312s. They are fast. Blisteringly fast. Let’s temper that. Blisteringly fast as in ‘they have excellent transient response’ not ‘they have a treble that could peel paint’. They are extremely balanced loudspeakers in fact, and that JET 5 tweeter is a very smooth operator. No, the BS 312 merely plays sounds accurately and honestly. This came across best with ‘Teardrop’ by Massive Attack and especially ‘Where is my Mind’ by the Pixies, both of which can sound dynamic, or shrill. With the BS 312, they sounded dynamic.

 

The speakers are more comfortable in a small room, it must be said. The size of the speakers matches the space and the bass delivery is a perfect match for those who are trying to get a true high-end sound out of a small box. In a small living room, they come alive; they were impressive in a big room, but they sound just perfectly balanced in smaller settings. In this setting, the power handling becomes less important (although they still benefit from Big Power) but the scaling and texture these speakers portray becomes key. And in that setting, the speakers do that disappearing act that is so often talked about but so rarely experienced. The speakers have an immediacy to them that is constantly alluring and makes the kind of sound that when the ‘I can’t believe they can do that’ feeling begins to wear off, you have your whole record collection to get through.

Big speakers are alluring for all the effortless energy, but the tiny BS 312 proves one good little ‘un can often beat the big ‘uns. That combination of transparency and insight into the music will not let the ELACs down, and you’ll have a lot of music to get through because you’ll be hearing your albums anew. Highly recommended.

Technical Specifications

Type: 2 way bass reflex bookshelf loudspeaker
Driver Complement: 1x JET 5 tweeter, 1x 115mm AS XR cone
Frequency Response: 42Hz-50kHz
Sensitivity: 87dB/W/m
Impedance: 4 ohm, nominal; minimum impedance, 3.4 ohms at 280Hz
Dimensions (HxWxD): 20.8 x 12.3 x 27cm
Weight: 7.2kg
Finish: Gloss black, Gloss white
Price: £1,479 per pair; stands: £399 per pair)

Manufactured by:
ELAC GmbH
URL: www.elac.com

Distributed by:
Hi-Fi Network
URL: www.hifi-network.com
Tel: +44 (0)1285 643088

REL Habitat 1 subwoofer

This review marks the end of my subwoofer journey. This is ‘it’ for me – there are perhaps subwoofers that go deeper than the REL Habitat 1 (some of which I’ve tested), but none that combine the Hab’s ease of connection, discreet installation and just general all-round ‘rightness’. For now, at least, the subwoofer game is over, and someone else will carry the subwoofin’ baton now.

As the name might suggest, the Habitat 1 is designed for integration into the domestic habitat. I’m not one for ‘Wife Acceptance Factor’ (I find the term somewhat sexist and derogatory, and my long-suffering wife has to put up with a room filled with bits of hi-fi and a hallway filled with cardboard boxes so frequently that the term has no functional meaning, chez Sircom), but a subwoofer can be a big, square box too far in the domestic-harmony stakes. The last one I tested ended up being in the ‘perfect storm’ position, making it almost impossible to access the last third of the room without knee damage, and being the cat equivalent of an aircraft carrier for launching animals into shelf units, with disastrous – yet entertainingly predictable – consequences. A blanket ban on anything that low and square ensued. And yet, the additional bass depth and imaging improvements to the mid and top that a sub brings to the party is sorely missed.

The Habitat 1 solves these problems. It’s a box, the length, breadth and depth of a small central-heating radiator, and is designed to be bolted to a wall, so it looks like a radiator with a speaker grille. The top panel has a set of basic subwoofer controls (high- and low-level settings, roll-off point of the speakers and a phase switch), to blend performance with a speaker system and all it needs is a nearby 13A plug. Where it gets clever is it also comes with a little white box that connects to the system, and wirelessly talks to the subwoofer. So, that other great no-no in audio – the long black cable draped across the floor – isn’t a problem. The ‘Longbow’ wi-fi controller also has a toggle switch to pair sub to hub, but it will auto detect line-level, LFE or speaker level outputs. If your DIY skills are up for the task, the mounting bracket template means you should have the sub on your wall inside of an hour (remember to attach the IEC cable before you ‘offer up’ the Hab 1, or you’ll be scrabbling round the skirting board, and swearing may occur), and you’ll integrate speaker to sub soon after. There is an optional floor mount if wall hanging is out of the question.

There is nothing to this layout that hasn’t been covered at length in any review of a subwoofer, in a hi-fi or even a home cinema magazine. There is a slight advantage to having the controls on the top of the subwoofer, for ease of access during set-up, as long as you don’t have a small child who thinks every knob is theirs to twiddle, that is. The ‘Longbow’ wireless connection plugs into the LFE output or the speaker terminals. 

It’s likely the best positions for the sub are either roughly in line with the speakers, or in line with the listener, but the speaker position is probably best. While we at Hi-Fi Plus  aren’t big on the whole home cinema thing, if your TV is free-standing on a dedicated table, the Habitat 1 can easily fit behind the TV, and helps bring out the sound here, too (it works wonders with soundbars).

 

The speaker layout of the Habitat 1 is very different to most subs. The 150W on-board Class D amplifier drives two, front firing 165mm long-throw bass drivers, with a 250mm passive unit in a steel chassis bouncing off the wall. In subwoofer terms, that all means the Habitat 1 is no gut-cruncher. REL cites a lower frequency response of -6dB at 30Hz, which seems fair in use. However, if you are using a set of decent floorstander speakers, you might question the use of the Habitat 1, because your speakers will probably already reach down to the same regions. However, the weird thing about bass is that might not be the case at all, but in fairness if you expect the Habitat 1 to act as bass reinforcement to a pair of full-range speakers, these aren’t the subs you’re looking for. It’s closer to room treatment and bass management.

Again that old REL adage of better bass means better mid and treble holds here. On a speaker where the sound reinforcement is needed (most bookshelf models, for example), you get a double-whammy; the sort of bass that could keep up with most dynamic models (although the ELAC and the Raidho in this issue are fast-paced exceptions to the rule) and you get the sorting out of the midrange and upper frequencies, that spells a better all-round sound from your system. In other systems though, you just get the improved stereo imaging and smoother midband that comes with the bass management. 

To recap, this needs relatively careful matching with the loudspeaker system, ensuring the subwoofer makes so little imprint on the sound of the system, you sometimes wonder if it’s on. To do this, set everything to its lowest possible position and gradually turn the level control up until you can hear the REL playing. Then, slowly turn the crossover control up until you hear the bass increase. At this point you should back down on the crossover point until it that increase in bass goes away. From here, fine-tune the subwoofer output, which in most hi-fi settings means tuning the level control down a notch. 

The difficulty with discussing the sound quality of a subwoofer set for hi-fi is it shouldn’t have any. Its influence should be simply to improve the performance of the system its connected to, bringing out the essential properties of the speakers you selected for the reasons you selected them. Fortunately, the Habitat 1 imparts no character changes on a system, just helps smooth over the iniquities of the room’s bottom end to help the system on its merry way. 

How this influences the system does depend on the room, but in most cases it will end up tightening up the bass, making the mid-range response smoother (which has a knock-on effect of making the imaging more focused) with more definition and separation of instruments within the soundstage, and often a wider soundstage. This can also extend to the treble too, depending on how even handed the high-frequency response of the accompany loudspeakers are. Put simply, when done properly, the REL Habitat 1 makes your system sound like it’s not having to work so hard to do its job, and as such does it that bit better. Musically, this can best be summed up by ‘Never Give All The Heart’ from the Chieftains Tears of Stone CD from 2009; the atmospheric Anúna choir is better placed in the room, the Bodhrán in the introduction has greater ‘space’ between the fast beat notes and Brenda Fricker’s reading of the Yeats poem is more impassioned. These elements will apply universally; they may vary depending on how sorted your room is and how well your system integrates to the room, but those elements will be improved. In fairness, they are improved by the careful integration of any good subwoofer, but most of those are a lot larger and more physically in the room than the Habitat 1.

 

The REL Habitat 1 is the pragmatic solution to bass ‘management’ without more drastic changes to system or room. It’s performance in this respect will not better a good DSP solution or a well-sorted room acoustic treatment package, nor will it out-shine a really meaty subwoofer that sits in between the speakers like a big square monolith. But that’s not the point – all of those things are too often routinely rejected for being too intrusive to system or living space. The Habitat 1 is neither. It’s simply a bloody good subwoofer that hangs on the wall, making your hi-fi a bit better and your home cinema a little more fun. Best of all, it’s small enough to sneak another one or two around the room…

Technical Specifications

Type: Sealed, two front-firing active woofers, one back-firing passive woofer
Drive Units: Two 165 mm long-throw, steel chassis, front firing
Passive Unit: 250mm, steel chassis, rear firing
Lower Frequency Response: 30Hz at -6dB in room
Input Connectors: High-Level Neutrik Speakon, Low-Level single phono,
LFE single phono
Input Impedance High-Level: 150kOhms; Low-Level/LFE: 10kOhms
Gain Control Range: 80dB
Power Output: 150 Watts (RMS), Class D
Dimensions (WxHxD): 63.5×40.6×11.4cm
Weight: 23kg
Finish: Gloss Piano Black or Gloss White Lacquer
Price: £1,299

Manufactured by:
REL Acoustics Ltd
Tel: +44(0)1656 768777
URL: www.rel.net

Roksan Oxygene integrated amplifier

Roksan Audio’s Oxygene integrated amplifier will anger reactionary audio enthusiasts as a result of it being nothing like an amplifier from a bygone age. It does not have a big, comforting volume knob on the front panel. It avoids the bank of switchgear to show off how many sources you own. It doesn’t even follow a series of decades-old design cues to make a product that you – and only you – can understand.

Currently, the range comprises this Oxygene integrated amplifier and a matching CD player, with the possibility of future products in the pipeline. Because of their distinctive no-button, top-mounted control surfaces, the products do not lend themselves to being stacked on top of one another or even on a shelving unit. They should be side-by-side with plenty of access to the top plate.

Instead, the Oxygene is the centrepiece of a design-aware high-concept range of electronics (and eventually loudspeakers). Today, that means ‘Jony Ive’ as well as ‘Dieter Rams’; control surfaces that are no longer hard buttons, but devices that respond to human interaction in clever ways. Which is why the Oxygene does without knobs, buttons and dials and replaces them with the words ‘less is more’ on the top plate. Press ‘less’ and the volume decreases, press ‘more’ and it increases, and press ‘is’ and those controls work through the list of inputs. You do need to press these words quite firmly though. The front panel is instead given over to a white display board, with basic information on show. Once you understand how to drive the amp – and that understating process will take most people seconds and ends with an ‘aha!’ moment – the interface is almost impossible to forget how to use. There is also a basic remote, but this is lacking the elegance of the amp itself (it does however allow the user to dim the front panel display). Even the packaging itself – faintly reminiscent of the boxes used by Apple for its MacBook products –  and the black, white or (for a premium) brushed silver chrome finish options all exude a distinct 21st Century design ethic. 

That design brief extends to the connectivity of the product. Alongside the three analogue inputs, the Oxygene integrated amplifier features a 16 channel AptX Bluetooth connection. It’s easy to access; your Bluetooth device can be paired easily (it appears as ‘Roksan’ and you enter the code ‘0000’), there are enough channels available for it to reconnect without ever having to pair the two devices again, and AptX is a high-quality digital audio pathway. Once paired, you connect or disconnect from the host Bluetooth device, and only one device can be paired at any one time.

 

Unfortunately, Apple does not support AptX on its iOS system at the time of writing, but it is supported on Motorola, HTC and Samsung Galaxy phones, as well as Galaxy tablets. Strangely, it is also supported on Apple OS X for its computers, so it’s possible AptX compatibility will become available on later iterations of Apple’s iDevices, or operating system. 

The only other connections on the rear panel are subwoofer outputs and multi-way loudspeaker terminals, and a strange connection that looks something like a Neutrik Speakon. This is intended for a forthcoming power supply upgrade.

The amplifier design itself is fascinating. It is a Class D design, using Hypex UCD 400 Class D modules to deliver 75 watts into an eight ohm load and 150 watts into a four ohm loudspeaker load. Class D amplifiers do not tend to react well to lower speaker impedances than this, so avoid using the Oxygene with ‘difficult’ speaker loads. Although every manufacturer of Class D modules makes a claim to delivering good sound, Hypex is commonly considered to be the best of breed in sound quality. 

Why fascinating? Roksan has also taken the rare step of coupling these fast Pulse Width Modulation amplifier modules with a linear power supply. Normally, designers use Class D modules with switch-mode power supplies in order to keep the size and weight of the amplifier down. There is no strict demand for switch-mode power from the Class D modules however, and instead Roksan uses a linear PSU with a pair of big toroidal transformers inside the amplifier’s case. Roksan is not the only company to approach Class D in this manner, but the trade-off (or maybe the hidden benefit) is the size of the chassis means the Hypex modules (capable of up to about 400W) are limited to 75W into eight ohms, because it places a ceiling on the size of the transformer. 

Design-led? Bluetooth? Class D? Subwoofer outputs? I can’t think of anything less appealing to the rank and file hi-fi enthusiast. And that says more about just how out of touch those rank and file hi-fi enthusiasts are with the way non-audiophiles live today.  I can see this amplifier sitting under the TV screen in many living rooms, the two loudspeakers making sound for both audio and video entertainment, with the listener porting music from his or her tablet wirelessly. I can see this happening because that’s exactly how the Oxygene ended up being used, with the display dimmed or off to keep from acting as TV distraction.

The first day of use, I must admit was disappointing. Out of the box, the Oxygene lives down to all those bad-news stories enthusiasts like to lay at the door of Class D; it was flabby in the bass and thin and brash sounding in the treble. If it carried on in the same vein, I’d have sent it back unreviewed and unloved. In truth, I lost the next two days, because I had friends staying for the weekend, but this sentence hides an interesting story. Quite without prompting, One Direction started blaring out of the Oxygene mid-Saturday, and it kept happening. This was the result of the teenage daughter of my friend discovering the word ‘Roksan’ on her phone, guessing (correctly) that ‘0000’ was the code and essentially ‘hacking’ the hi-fi. While deeply annoying – hearing ‘Little Things’ for the eleventy-third time in a row can drive you round the bend – it also showed just how easy the Oxygene is to use, and how it will be used. Unfortunately if you turn off the Oxygene, when said teenager powers it up again, it retains the input but resets the volume level to a moderately loud ‘20’. 

Maybe it was a few days of running in, or maybe it was exposure to Harry Styles, but by the end of the weekend, those initial misgivings about the Oxygene had vanished completely. I couldn’t put this down to familiarisation with the product sound, because it was filtered through the system being dominated by use as either TV sound or the audio plaything of a teenager. All I know is the sound of the music I played on the Sunday night bore little relation to the sound of the music I heard two days previously. Things got better on the subsequent midweek listening session, but I couldn’t perceive any notable improvements after a few days of running in. 

 

For serious listening, I used my 2009 iMac (running the latest OS X 10.8.4 operating system) playing lossless files through AptX Bluetooth to one of Roksan’s 16 BT channels. First came Vaughan Williams The Wasps, played by Michael Stern and the Kansas Symphony Orchestra (Reference Recordings). This is proving both a remarkable recording in its own right, but also a fine test recording, in terms of the dynamic range of a system and its ability to communicate musical themes accurately. Perhaps it’s the Kansas connection, but the overture here can easily drift into something more like Copland than Vaughan Williams, but here it was kept in check and very English summertime. There was no sense of the bass getting out of control or the treble messing up those beautifully recorded strings and brass sections. This was quickly followed by Madeleine Peyroux Careless Love album (Decca) and the interplay between singer, organ and guitar was slick and sleek. In absolute terms, the Oxygene is on the right side of mellow; far removed from the Class D screech-boom of old, but not the crowned king of transients. That serves to make the Oxygene sound sophisticated in most cases, but just be careful of matching the amp with mellow sounding loudspeakers.

Yes, if you go the traditional audiophile route and build up a system comprising a host of stylistically-random boxes, with visible screws and heatsinks everywhere, you will probably end up with something that sounds better than the Oxygene. Which is akin to saying a old Ford Fiesta with an engine from an even older Renault 5 Turbo is faster than a Porsche Boxster – even if its right, those who are about to buy a Boxster will cry ‘who cares’? And that’s the big feather in the cap of the Roksan Oxygene – it’s hi-fi for a new generation who would never buy into the old ways.  

Technical Specifications

Inputs: 3x Analogue RCA

Bluetooth: 16 channels (15x individual devices, 1x infinite)

Outputs: 2x Loudspeaker terminals, L/R phono for 

active subwoofer

Power bandwidth: 1Hz-43kHz

THD: Better than 0.1%

S/N ratio: 95dB

Input Sensitivity: >1Vrms

Input Impedance: 10kOhms

Power Output: 75W (eight ohms), 150W (four ohms)

Output Impedance” ).02ohms @ f > 1kHz

Current Limit: 16A peak

Dimensions (WxHxD): 31x31x6cm

Weight: 7kg

Finishes: White, Black, Silver 

Price: £3,000 (Silver £3,500)

Manufactured by: Roksan

www.oxygene.roksanaudio.com

Distributed by: Henley Designs

www.henley-designs.co.uk

Tel: +44(0)1235 511166 

What photography can tell us about music

There is a hobby that has been around in some guise or another since the 19th Century. Its enthusiasts are capable of arguing at length over minutiae about the equipment required to engage in the hobby. It has undergone significant change with the coming of digital and the Internet. And it is increasingly considered the preserve of the older gentleman.

It’s called audio. No, wait, it’s called photography.

There are many parallels between our world and the picture-taking one. Even some of the brands are the same (alongside Sony and Panasonic, don’t forget that the French loudspeaker company Cabasse is owned by Canon these days). But perhaps the biggest parallel is the way both audio and photography seem to have changed rapidly in the last few years.

Audio has seen a distinct split between the good, inexpensive end of the market and the high-end (and now ultra-high-end), with not a great deal of interest in the bits between these two poles. The good news here is the inexpensive end of the market is now delivering extremely fine results that don’t necessarily spark that need to upgrade, while the top-end equipment is now capable of making a level of realism and excitement that simply wasn’t possible a few years ago. Also,, while there are high-tech brands making innovative design exercises, there are other, often equally high-tech brands with an industrial design department seemingly locked in a time capsule from the 1950s or 1970s – perhaps a function of the age of the intended purchasers, but these retro products are frequently well-received by the cognoscenti.

And, if you knock off the word ‘audio’ and replace it with ‘photography’, precisely the same thing applies.

In cameras now, we have the excellent mirrorless designs that marry the ‘smaller, lighter, cheaper’ demands of photographers with a level of performance they would have been hard-pressed to achieve under any circumstance a decade ago. We also have an increasing number of ‘full-frame’ DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras with 35mm film-sized sensors, able to deliver absolute top-notch resolution, at a price. And then there’s the rebirth of Leica and Hasselblad at the extreme high-end, delivering niche products that prove popular with serious amateurs, serious professionals and serious spenders the world over.

Interestingly, even the pitched battle online arguments carry over from one field to another without too much translation. The mirrorless enthusiasts accuse the DSLR pack of being a bunch of dinosaurs, while the DSLR users retort with “you don’t understand, because you aren’t a real enthusiast” type quips. And all of the above look at the Leica users as being led by fashion and wealth (but if pressed will admit they like the performance they get from their hyper-expensive components). Each proclaims a ‘win’ in the war of the formats, and each dismisses the demands of the other with a haughty snort.

In other words, it’s like Audio Asylum, with a cable release.

 

Can we – as audiophiles – learn from our shutterbug brethren? I think so, not least because many audiophiles are shutterbugs (and vice versa). The downshifting taking place as many photographers begin to adopt mirrorless camera designs with interchangeable lenses was at first dismissed as simple cost, weight and space saving. But then those who made the switch began to deliver really good images and found themselves re-engaging with their hobby. The same seems to be happening with audio, and we should dismiss this as mere downshifting at our peril. The “it’s not about the gear” concept – that is driven by good photographers taking excellent pictures with prosaic equipment – is also worthy of exploration, even by the most resolute high-enders. Finally, the “Keep It Simple, Stupid” approach that goes with this (one camera, one lens, don’t be a pack-rat) is an ideology well worth applying to audio. Many audiophiles are collectors, not just of music but of older audio equipment; this divides between owning a private museum of audiophile ephemera and hanging on to parts of your previous system ‘just in case’. This hoarding instinct isn’t quite as well developed in audio as it is in photography (somewhere, buried deep in a drawer in most photographer’s homes is a lens farm; a place where lenses that just don’t see action anymore get to live out their years in dark seclusion) – but the liberation that comes with shaking off all that baggage is immense. Allegedly – I still have more cameras and lenses than is good for a person.

However, the thing that photographers know almost instinctually that is sometimes lost on the audiophile is just how to keep re-engaged with the hobby. It’s not about buying new things or filling a camera bag with every single piece of photographic equipment you can muster. It’s about going out there and taking pictures. Or, in our little world, going out there and listening to new music.

So, here’s the thing. This Christmas, give yourself a present, of a kind of music you would never dream of. Try it on for the holiday, try to see why people like it. If you are an opera lover, try death metal. If you like death metal, try a late Beethoven string quartet. Jazzers, rock out. Rock gods… pick a Latin groove. EFM fans go listen to some folk and so on. At the very least, you return to the music you love with renewed vigour. But you might just find the best music you never heard of before. Give it a try!

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