Articles Archive - Page 39 of 268

Phasemation PP-2000

Phasemation has been hi-fi+’s most recent analogue ‘find.’ The Japanese company’s entry-level PP-200 cartridge impressed us and the EA-350 phono stage did the same. Now its three for three with the Phasemation PP-2000 moving coil cartridge.

Following the recent introduction of the PP-5000 flagship, the PP-2000 is now second from the top. It has a ‘five + one’ cartridge range; the ‘+ one’ being a dedicated mono model.

The PP-2000 features a DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) coated Duralumin body with vibration damping built-in to keep noise low.

Its line contact diamond stylus has a boron cantilever that attaches to 6N oxygen-free copper magnetic coils. The magnet is made from samarium cobalt with a Permendur (cobalt/iron) yoke, an expensive option but one that combines high energy density and saturation, permeability, and temperature stability. Phasemation also reshaped the yoke to increase the uniformity of the magnetic field.

Internal impedance

The PP-2000 produces a 0.3mV output with a four-ohm internal impedance, which is on the low side but nothing to trouble a decent phono stages. Phasemation’s own EA-350, for example, had no problems, even though that meant we never got to play with the company’s step-up transformers. Weighing in at 14.3g and with very low compliance of 8.0 × 106cm/dyne, the PP-2000 is ideal with moderate to high mass tonearms, such as an SME V or similar. My Kuzma 4Point 9 arm worked perfectly.

Setting up the cartridge is aided by the squared-off shape and the sightline at the front of its body, which is useful because the cantilever is short. The PP-2000 follows the Japanese trend of eschewing threaded inserts in the mounting holes. Downforce of between 1.7 and 2g is recommended.

This is a real beauty of a cartridge, in more ways than one. It looks beautiful on the tonearm; all rich blacks and gold in a ‘restrained bling’ that makes sense in the flesh. It tracks beautifully; only an old Decca ‘1812’ foxed it, and it has grooves so wide you aren’t sure if it’s music or tramlines. And, most of all, its sound is always beautiful and elegant.

Gliding is cool

Some cartridges are ‘edge of the seat’ stuff; all leading edges and aggression. This is the opposite and it’s all the more wonderful for being just that. Music just glides out of this cartridge with a rare refinement and grace, and a lot of tonal balance. You will play jazz through this cartridge; it’s not that it is tailoring the sound to make it a jazz-only design, but you will just find yourself playing cool jazz for the sheer beauty of the sound.

The soundstage is full and focused, the individual instrument voices are perfectly portrayed, and the whole musical event is simply played with such panache that it makes the pull of those late 1950s jazz standards irresistible. And playing ‘Summertime’ from Porgy & Bess [Verve] puts Ella Fitzgerald in the room. It can do rock and dance music and classical – especially classical piano – extremely well, but that ‘hairs on the back of the neck’ moment when listening to ‘Summertime’ just sets the Phasemation apart.

The more you listen to the PP‑2000, the more you want to listen. The Phasemation PP-2000 doesn’t exaggerate or understate the music and makes many cartridges sound peaky and uneven by comparison. This is the real deal. If you like music played with elegance and beauty, this is one of the best-sounding cartridges you can buy!

Price and contact details

Price: £4,595

Manufacturer:

Phasemation

www.phasemation.com

UK distributor

Select Audio

www.selectaudio.co.uk

+44(0)1900 601954

dCS Varése: First Listen, the email response!

Editor’s Note: Our contributor, Paul Soor, was fortunate enough to have an exclusive first listen to the dCS Varèse system at the dCS factory in early June. He was under a Non-Disclosure Agreement which meant he couldn’t even discuss that he’d seen the product until the press release dropped earlier this week. He asked me if he could write his findings, but instead, we decided the unedited ‘Thank You’ email he sent describes those early listening experiences.

First of all, thank you. I feel privileged and honoured to be the first to see and experience the mind-blowing Varèse. It was a wonderful presentation. I had no idea of the magnitude and significance of what I was going to see, understand, and experience.

The Music

The Vivaldi was always the reference. No one could have any complaints about its musical reproduction. But it was immediately clear that Varèse has redefined “reference” and taken musical reproduction close to real musical performances that I had never dared to imagine, because that would be crazy, yes? Well, the answer is clearly no! What I heard was a step change.

What struck me was timing information that completely changed a good, but not outstanding musical performance, into one that was engaging, involving, and demanded my full attention. In some magical way, the Varèse presented micro-timing information that was, previously unknown to me, multilayered with colour and texture dramatically elevating my emotional response to the music. Until today I did not know that level of timing information towards a new level of communication existed. I’ve certainly never written that before!

That performance is no mean feat. It just goes to show there are so many technical barriers that inhibit musical communication, yet somehow you and your team have identified those and, with great success, eliminated them. You have achieved your goal of letting the music speak for itself. Not only have you achieved your goal you have knocked it out of the park.

The Engineering

This is another step change. I must also congratulate you on the technical achievement and the engineering. It is the definition of innovation. I can see that you’ve truly taken an open minded and creative approach to every aspect of the design towards the goal of the technology not getting in the way of the music. I mentioned that making something simple is complicated and I can see you’ve done that. For example, the new connector protocol I think is fabulous engineering that you would only really see in high-end defense, aerospace, and communications. And in common with those environments, those solutions require the best talent, a lot of time, and millions of pounds of investment. Again, it is super clear that’s what has resulted in the success of the Varèse.

The mono DAC’s using a balanced architecture in the phase domain to cancel errors is wonderfully elegant and applied with great ingenuity. I wonder (do let me know) if the amazing musical timing and intelligibility have something to do with that.

I’m still digesting and giddy about what I saw and experienced, so, perhaps a little selfishly, I’d love to spend more time with the Varèse.

The Varèse is a true step change in high-end audio. The sort of thing that only happens once in a generation. I think your challenge is how to get across the significance of the Varèse to the world.

I’ve been involved in technology development and delivery. I know it takes an enormous amount of blood sweat and tears. From my perspective, it’s now time for you and your team to breathe and celebrate a bright future at the forefront of high-end audio for many years. Huge congratulations.

We look forward to testing the dCS Varèse – Ed.

Manufacturer:

dCS

https://dcsaudio.com

UK Distributor:

Absolute Sounds

www.absolutesounds.com

+44 (0)208 971 3909

Link to the original news item

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Arctic Monkeys: The Car

Arctic Monkeys exploded upon the music scene in 2006 with Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Quickly achieving record numbers in sales and hailed by the press as one of the greatest rock bands ever. I remember that first album filled with fast-paced, energetic short tracks – the same intense eruptive energy as when The Ramones burst upon the scene. Whatever… was a progressive (but not Prog) rock album with punk elements that perfectly fit when it was released.

The Car is a huge departure from the early days. You will be sorely disappointed if you are looking for more of the same good ol’ fast-paced alternative rock from The Car.

Imagine a once glorious, faded beach hotel. Inside is a peeling fake-gold past-its-prime small venue, filled with retiree couples eating. A small band with old has-beens performs on the stage, wearing gold suits and trying – and mostly failing – to wake up the disinterested retirees. The gold-clad band performs sentimental romantic tracks in classic Frank Sinatra/Nelson Riddle style.

Faded hotel

Arctic Monkeys are a gifted band and by no means past their prime. But the image of a lounge band in a faded hotel is one of the images the album calls forth for me. Or some of Elvis’ last concerts in Vegas when he performs sentimental ballads instead of Rock n’ Roll.

The Car is filled with sugar-sweet sentimental string sections, soft keyboards, and lead singer/songwriter Alex Turner crooning on every track. A few rare glam-style guitars burst onto the tracks, like on Big Ideas. Their fast-paced, guitar-packed tracks of the past are nowhere in sight. But more importantly, any Rock n’ Roll element seems to have been deliberately removed from The Car. The lyrics recall images of a faded travelling cabaret act. Images of backstage pre-concert recollections mixed with childhood memories. Lead singer Alex seems to have chosen – on purpose – to parody old-fashioned crooning lounge music with the frequent string sections and his over-the-top crooning and soft background keyboards.

‘There’d Better be a Mirrorball’ starts us off. The title sets the mood for the album. A spinning disco ball. I’d like this track were it not for the annoying soft rolling keyboards in the background. ‘Big Ideas’ is another track with lyrics and soft romantic music that feels like a disillusioned past-his-prime superstar.

Plucky guitar

‘Mr. Schultz’ is my favourite track, with its plucky acoustic guitar, cool drums, and less crooning from Alex. Lyrically the track seems to recall past backstage memories. ‘Perfect Sense ‘is also enjoyable, although I strongly dislike the super-sweet string sections on this and most of the tracks.

Some tracks could have been great with fewer string sections and soft organs and with some evolving forward momentum instead. The Arctic Monkeys seem to deliberately reign in their thunderbolt musical energy on all the tracks. Where normally less is more for the Arctic Monkeys, on The Car they seem to opt for way too much fluff.

I applaud the Arctic Monkeys for their courageous departure from their early sound and albums into new unknown territory. And in their defence, they have never feared a change in direction. However, The Car sees them move ever further from their post-punk roots and even from the psychedelic lounge pop of their previous Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino album into a baroque, art-rock presentation that is a radically different direction to their earlier work.

I wanted to like this album. And while I like a few sporadic elements and sections, overall, I remain confused about why they made this album in this fashion. The songs are too similar in mood and style and lack direction, punch and grounding.

I remain a fan of the Arctic Monkeys, and for hardcore fans, The Car will be interesting to see this new direction. But if you expect good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll – or good ol’ Monkeys – you will be disappointed.

Back to Music

Raidho Acoustics X1.6

We all know Raidho Acoustics. The company makes stand-mount and floorstanding loudspeakers that cram a lot of technology into their cabinets. And that technology… costs. A pair of TD1.2 two-way stand‑mounts will set you back £23,000 with their stands. But what if you could get most of that performance for less than a third of that price? Then, you have the Raidho Acoustics X1.6 stand-mount loudspeakers.

The specification sheet of the Raidho Acoustics X1.6 is admirable. The rear-ported design has a 20mm thick aluminium front baffle. Mounted on that baffle are Raidho’s ribbon tweeter and a 165mm Ceramix mid-bass unit. It’s the same tweeter throughout Raidho’s loudspeaker ranges. Meanwhile, the mid-bass driver featured in the brand’s former top line of loudspeakers before it got into diamonds! The new X1t entry-level stand-mount and the X2t floorstander also use tantalum-coated Ceramix cones.

Clever Ceramix

That mid-bass unit is very clever. Raidho makes all its drivers easy to swap out for repair purposes. Raidho’s Ceramix technology uses a thin aluminium cone to which an aluminium-oxide ceramic is bonded to the outer surface. That bonding process features a liquid plasma and requires high voltages to achieve. Meanwhile, its motor system sports two rows of neodymium magnets in a push-pull configuration. These are focused around a very open system, allowing ventilation to the driver while also cooling the titanium voice coil.

Mid-bass driver aside, what’s the big difference between the X1.6 and the TD1.2? From the outside of the Raidho Acoustics X1.6 stand-mount loudspeaker, that’s easy to spot. The rear panel of the X1.6 is squared off, compared to the elegant boat-backed TD1.2. It has a standard port behind the tweeter without the fin arrangement of its bigger brother. The terminals sit in a panel in the rear of the enclosure. However, this is not a custom back plate.

The other big difference is how the stand mates to the loudspeaker cabinet. The two connect through a single bolt and a piece of dowel. It’s simple and effective, although accessing the bolt when the uprights of the stand are so close together is ‘challenging’. From a ‘don’t drink and drive loudspeakers’ perspective, you won’t knock these speakers off their stand. This is a welcome boon as the TD1.2 sits on its stand like a coconut in a shy in comparison.

Why compare?

There’s a reason why I keep comparing the X1.6 to more up-scale Raidho models. Before the TD1.2, there was the D-1.1. We could even reverse-begat the range back to the Eben C1.1 reviewed in Issue 91. All this history of Raidho two-ways is because I’d place the X1.6 above all of them except the current TD1.2. Given a second-hand pair of D-1.1 costs about the same as a new pair of X1.6, the comparison is valid. A mint D-1.1 in one of its luxury finishes slightly level the playing field.

Raidho suggests giving the loudspeaker 250 hours of run-in before they come on song. As a UK demonstration pair, they had already been put through their paces before I received them. As ever with Raidho, they benefit from careful care and feeding. The more time spent on precision installation, ensuring the optimum cable choice and layout, and the right electronics… the better. But, unlike the demanding TD series, the X1.6 is more forgiving. You can start with some relatively modest audio equipment and the Raidho’s will make the most of them. Or you can max out the system and the X1.6 will rise to the challenge.

Room integration

Similarly, the Raidho Acoustics X1.6 responds well to careful room integration but – unlike its bigger brothers – isn’t so highly strung that molecular-level installation is required. This is more an ‘adjust over time’ tuning-in process; you’ll find the ideal degree of toe-in and distance from the room gradually, as the loudspeaker sounds fairly good in the standard ‘at bases of a six-feet wide triangle’ with the loudspeakers a couple of feet from the rear and side walls. And after you have acclimatised yourself to that, it’s easy to experiment because the speakers rest on cones and not armour-piercing, floor-shredding spikes. One point to note here, however. The placement of the loudspeakers is sensitive to its upstream equipment choices. Even a cable change might result in moving those loudspeakers slightly to react to that change in the system profile.

That might sound like the Raidho Acoustics X1.6 is a bit of a diva, but it speaks to their ability to resolve details. And it’s here where that comparison with other Raidho models kicks in. The company’s best loudspeakers need the same adjustment after system changes because they are detailed and nuanced enough to highlight system differences so well. That the X1.6 continues that trend shows just how well-engineered and resolving this loudspeaker design gets.

Jaw-drop

I have always admired the Raidho design concept, even when it missed the mark. A loudspeaker that resolves musical information with such intense precision and clarity can be a jaw-dropping experience; jaw-dropping enough to overcome a distinct dip between treble and midrange in older models. That was ironed out long ago, and instead, you get incredible detail, clarity, and absolute focus across the frequency range, with a naturally extended-sounding treble. Even the bass is good; the Raidho Acoustics X1.6 resists the temptation to ‘sex up’ the bottom end (no giggling, please), instead opting for a clean, honest roll-off. In most small to medium-sized rooms, unless heavily bass is trapped into deadness. most people today prefer that frequency response honesty.

There is a trend in audio – even in very high-end audio – to opt for a bright, almost etched, and zingy high-frequency response. The cynical might claim this is being passed off as ‘detail.’ The highs of the Raidho Acoustics X1.6 never fall into this trap; another trait common to Raidho designs in general.

Never peaky

That treble is highly detailed and extended but never peaky. Joyce DiDonato’s mezzo-soprano voice [Stella Di Napoli, Erato] highlights this well; it’s powerful and articulate but never strident or bold on the X1.6… as it should be.

If the Raidho Acoustics X1.6 were just about the detail and the frequency response accuracy, that would be good enough to make it an outstanding performer. But it’s the tonality and staging of the X1.6 that sets them apart from the pack. The soundstage is a truly holographic thing; when playing a track with a simple vocal and piano in a natural environment, such as ‘Clara’ by Jarvis Cocker and Chilly Gonzales [Room 29, DG], you get the sense of listening to the two of them in a well-appointed hotel suite, with the reverberant field extending in front, behind and to the sides of the cabinets. This also highlights that tonality, Jarvis Cocker’s distinctive baritone voice with its occasional vocal fry, is easy to get wrong, the piano is notoriously tricky to get right, and the two together are a challenge, that the X1.6 rises to well.

Sweet taste

The X1.6 gives you a sweet taste of what Raidho does so well. The jump – and it is a jump – to the TD1.2 brings more precision, even more clarity, and more depth without notable downsides, but with great power comes great responsibility, and that loudspeaker is more demanding of upstream products and installation. The impressive part of the Raidho Acoustics X1.6, however, is it covers its tracks extremely well; unless you compare it to one of the big-boy flagship models (like the TD1.2), the only differences you’ll notice are cosmetic; the boat-backed design, beautiful burr wood finishes, and a better stand. And for those not wanting to devote the time to fettling a thoroughbred, the X1.6 comes very close.

I like the idea of the Raidho Acoustics X1.6. It doesn’t shout ‘giant-killer’ but offers the sort of performance that puts it close to some of the best two-way stand-mounts (a lot of) money can buy. I also like that it gives much of that Raidho sound and resolution without being as demanding of room, system… and wallet. And I like the fact that for all their cerebral imaging, detail, tonal precision, and clarity, they never sound like they are taking music too seriously and can also bring the fun back to music.

Technical specifications

Type: Two-way, rear-ported stand-mount loudspeaker
Drivers: 1× Raidho Ribbon tweeter, 1× 165mm Raidho Ceramix mid-bass
Crossover point: 3.5kHz
Frequency Response: 45Hz–50kHz ±3dB
Sensitivity: 87dB (2.83V/m)
Nominal Impedance: > 6Ω
Finish: Piano black, piano white
Dimensions (W×H×D): 20 × 36 × 26.5cm
Weight: 11.5kg
Price: £7,300, $7,300 per pair

Manufacturer

Raidho

www.raidho.dk

UK distributor

Decent Audio

www.decentaudio.co.uk

+44(0)1642 267012

conrad-johnson ART Phono

The ART88 redrew the possible boundaries from a conrad-johnson tube (valve) line-level preamplifier. So, perhaps it wasn’t too great a leap in expectations to see a phono stage in the same range-topping line. Conceived as a natural partner to ART88, the conrad-johnson ART Phono follows the same principles of circuit choice, chassis aesthetics, and overall build quality.

This might not sound like that big a deal. The company has been building top-end phono stages to match its flagship line preamps for almost 50 years of manufacturing tube-based designs. But the ART88 was a bold and distinct departure from the conrad-johnson ‘norm’, and the ART Phono following in its footsteps bodes well for the company’s approach to its cost-no-object line.

This is more than just a cosmetic refresh. In all honesty, modern high-end tube amps are ‘modern’ in name only; the circuits upon which many high-end designs are based date to the early days of stereo. These models are the result of decades of refinement and honing. They now have higher tolerance components, significantly reworked circuit boards, computer-aided circuit board layouts, and better grades of materials in the signal path. Everything, in fact, except new circuits. The ART88 and ART Phono use novel circuits designed by conrad-johnson itself.

Double the approach

As with the ART88, we have a dual-mono approach with two triode gain stages for each channel. It couples paralleled sections of the 12AX7A (ECC83) double-triode to paralleled sections of the 12AU7 (ECC82) double triode. Depending on your outlook on life, these are a buffer stage or cathode follower. I’m not a follower, so… ‘buffer stage.’

This ensures low distortion and, more importantly, a very low output impedance (less than 200 Ohms) at the main output. While this is a great virtue when driving long interconnect cables without any loss of HF bandwidth (which may not be as crucial here compared to hooking up a line stage with power amplifiers), it also preserves the natural dynamic ability of the ART Phono and the overall transparency through the audio signal path.

The ART Phono’s power supply sections get special attention. Generous capacitance reserves, combined with ultra-low distortion regulation and voltage/current control, have been a mainstay of the brand’s designs for years and have only improved over time (more like ever-better engine management systems than a bottle of Petrus gathering dust in a cellar).

Isolated

The analogue circuits are always carefully and efficiently isolated from anything ‘digital’ (such as control functions and switching circuits), with separate power transformers for each purpose. Each channel has two completely independent and fully (discrete) regulated DC power supplies: one for the input gain stage and one for the second gain and buffer stages.

As with all conrad-johnson products today, all crucial circuit positions within the ART Phono’s audio signal path – as well as those in the power supplies – feature in-house proprietary PTFE (Teflon) and PP (Polypropylene) capacitors. Custom-made Vishay metal foil resistors are used in almost every relevant place, with only a few Caddock ones present, as well. All input and output connectors (RCA-only, single-ended circuits) are from Cardas Audio. These silver and rhodium-plated parts use pure Oxygen-Free Copper (OFC).

Separate and compliant

Again, as in the ART88, audio circuit boards are separate from the motherboard and decoupled through a series of compliant, medium-hard suspension rings to reduce microphony to an absolute minimum. A heavy and solid chassis is more rigid and resonance-free. It’s also resilient to interference thanks to the sub-top plate on which the main top cover rests.

This is no small change. A few iterations of conrad-johnson preamplifiers ago, we were concerned that the build quality did not reflect the performance or the price tag. The ART88 sports a chassis that addresses resonance head-on. The ART Phono has followed in ART88’s footsteps, and the product is now exquisitely well-made. Despite significant changes to the chassis, the ART Phono retains the classic gold minimalism of conrad-johnson. And that logo dates back to 1977… some things never change.

Let’s look at the specifications and ergonomics. The ART Phono is equipped with two phono inputs, offering different degrees of flexibility. Input one has a fixed input impedance of 47kOhms; this can be altered, but only by soldering Vishay resistors of the desired value onto the board itself. However, this input also enables the standard gain of 53dB to be increased to 63dB when the optional moving-coil step-up transformers are specified at additional cost.

Permanent gain

With step-up transformers fitted, the input impedance is locked at 46Ohm. Meanwhile, input two has a ‘permanent’ 53dB gain combined with adjustable input impedance with eight possible values that cover most MC cartridges available today. An array of tiny DIP switches on the unit’s back panel adjust these values.

The front panel functions are simple. Relay-controlled circular push buttons switch to power the unit on and off and allow the user to choose between the inputs. Those looking for a rich array of VU meters, rumble filters, different EQ settings or even a fancy light show… this is a conrad-johnson phono stage we are discussing here. It’s about elegance, design restraint, and an understated, fit-and-forget ethos, only slightly broken by its gold livery in a black-meets-silver audio world. A word of warning, though: the ART Phono does not have a muting function on its main output. This means due care and attention are called for – remember to reduce or mute the output of your line preamplifier before making any adjustments to the ART Phono.

Return to new form

I noticed a change to the conrad-johnson sound in ART88, echoed in ART Phono. The traditional conrad-johnson presentation was always beautiful, rich, harmonic and almost lush. The treble was sweet and refined, the midrange liquid and open, the bass full and plentiful. It made an enormous and enticing soundstage. A more detailed, brisk, upbeat, and forward sound pushed all that richness aside. The ART88 redressed the balance; it retained the harmonic richness of classic conrad-johnson Premier models but added that detailed and rhythmically upbeat presentation that brings it into the 21st Century. ART88 will never sound ‘forward’, but it introduces a sense of urgency to the company’s signature majestic sound. And so does the ART Phono.

‘Canadee-I-O’ by Nic Jones [Penguin Eggs, Three Black Feathers] highlights this return to form. Jones’ impossible folk guitar playing is a big ask for any system. It requires incredible leading-edge control, a lot of rhythmic precision, and resolution of detail to process his fingerwork. The melody is lost to the rhythm if there is too much leading edge. On the other hand, the rhythm is lost in following the melody if there is too much detail. And you can’t understand why the guitarist in the room is looking at their hands and sobbing if it’s too warm or soft. The ART Phono combines all those elements in an entirely natural and organic fashion. You are listening to some of the best guitar playing ever—no big deal.

Whisper quiet

The ART Phono is one of the quietest phono stages I’ve heard. It’s surprising how much background noise we attribute to the LP as a function of the phono stage. On the 45rpm cut of Mendelssohn’s Octet [Chasing the Dragon], the self-noise of the microphone preamps was audible. This is something that almost always hides below the noise floor.

Naturally, all the usual audiophile demands are exceptionally well satisfied. The soundstage scales well, moving between orchestral pieces and the close-knit dinner jazz of The Three [East Wind]. The dynamic range and vocal articulation required to play ‘The Ghost’ by Anna B. Savage [In Flux, City Slang] were perfectly rendered. It all sounds sublime.

The conrad-johnson ART Phono is more than just the matching phono stage for the ART88. Like the preamplifier, it’s stunningly good and one of the best things the brand has made in years!

Technical specifications

Type: Valve Phono stage
Valves: 2× 12AX7, 1× 12AU7 double triodes per channel
PHONO 1: Gain 53dB, load fixed 47kΩ. Gain 63dB, load fixed 46Ω (with step-up transformers)
PHONO 2: Gain 53dB, load variable 147Ω to 47kΩ, 20pf to 956pf
Hum and Noise: < 500µv
Ouput Impedance: below 200 ohms
Dimensions (H×W×D): 13.8 × 47.6 × 40.4cm
Net Weight:14.1kg
UK price: £31,995 incl. VAT – optional MC step-up transformers £1,500 incl. VAT
US price: $28,000 (excl. sales tax) – optional MC step-up transformers $2,000 (excl. sales tax)

Manufacturer:

conrad-johnson Design

www.conradjohnson.com

UK distributor:

Audiofreaks

www.audiofreaks.co.uk

+44(0)208 948 4153

dCS Varèse

dCS Varèse is a five-box Streaming DAC system and the brand’s new flagship. It follows dCS’ long-standing tradition of naming its products after composers; this time Edgard Varése (1883-1965). It doesn’t replace the four-box Vivaldi APEX system. Instead, it’s a new platform that adds a new, even higher-end layer to dCS’ already heady mix. There is a lot to unpack here. For the record, this isn’t based on any hands-on information or press event. We’re as in the dark as everyone else on this, except we got our hands on a press release. We haven’t heard it, and as far as I know, no one outside of dCS has heard it.

Update: I was wrong. One of our reviewers – Paul Soor – had a pre-release listen to the Varése in the dCS factory. You can read his first thoughts, here.

Varèse comprises a £95,000 Core (including Core itself, the User Interface, Remote Control, and an ACTUS cable), a £32,000 Master Clock with its own ACTUS cable, and two Mono DACs (£90,000 per pair, each with their own ACTUS cables). This is a very different architecture from conventional digital front ends and relies on its unique ACTUS (a backronym for “Audio-Control-Timing-Unified-System”) protocol to realise this. The Core unit is as described, a digital hub unit that takes a USB and Ethernet digital input. It’s not a power supply; each part of the dCS Varèse stack has its own IEC connection. Instead, Core handles input and upsampling conversion, noise shaping and filtering. It then feeds the signal through two ACTUS links to Mono DACs.

dCS Varèse: Lord of the Ring DACs

2022’s Ring DAC APEX laid the groundwork for a Differential Ring DAC. This is “Creating a new design with twice as many current sources and introducing a new differential mode of operation.” dCS claims the Differential Ring DAC is “the biggest change to our DAC architecture in a generation.”

The worry with running two mono DACs is their potential to go out of synchronisation with one another. To combat this, the dCS Varèse includes a Master Clock with a new and patented dCS Tomix clocking technology. This company claims it offers “unrivalled jitter performance”, improving on decades of dCS Master Clocks. In researching Varèse, dCS found that “no current technology enabled us to achieve perfect synchronicity when sending signals via IP link.” How dCS Tomix works is unclear from the press release (likely a result of that patent), but it uses a single two-way ACTUS connection from Master Clock to Core.

ACTUS also connects the User Interface to the dCS Varèse Core. This works with the new dCS Mosaic ACTUS app and the Varèse Remote control to act as the name suggests: both the visual representation of the system’s status and detailed indicator of album, track and playlist. The User Interface features a customisable full-colour touchscreen front panel.

Give them a hand!

The dCS Remote Control moves away from traditional ‘slab of buttons’ handsets. The round CNC-milled aluminium handset features capacitive glass hotkeys. These sit around a central dial that can control both track functions and volume control. This charges through USB-C and connects to the dCS Varèse through Bluetooth (the aerial is at the rear of the User Interface). Finally, dCS’ well-established Mosaic App gets a glow-up with the ACTUS version.

dCS Varèse – as a static display – launches at the Hong Kong AV show beginning August 9. Active demonstrations will follow in the UK and US starting in September 2024. Varèse will ship by the end of the year.

And that’s all we know so far. The rest is speculation. For example, why does Core have eight ACTUS connectors? Currently, the Master Clock has its dedicated connection, and the User Interface and Mono DACs take up three more. That leaves four empty ACTUS connectors… why? The dCS forum hinting at a dedicated CD/SACD transport coming in 2025 goes some way to explain this.

Also, the rear panel of the dCS Varèse Core looks very ‘modular’ with three blanking panels next to the ACTUS block and the input and power supply block. Is this simply the construction of the Core, or are these left open for future options?

Edit: It turns out I was right on both counts. The modular nature of the dCS Varèse core allows for an input/output module, priced at £11,500. And there will be a Varése CD/SACD transport (with its own ACTUS cable) for £35,000. This means the system currently costs £217,500 as a streamer system, £252,500 for the disc playing and streaming system, and £264,000 for the full digital package.

dCS Varèse: target acquired

Speculation aside, there will be those in ‘judge, jury, and executioner’ mode. This is because a high-end digital company that makes an even higher-end digital product automatically paints a target on itself. However, dCS is not the first digital audio company to have pushed close to (or even beyond) the quarter-million-dollar mark. I suspect it won’t be the last. All aspects of high-end audio have yet to find their ultimate price ceiling.

That the pinnacle product from a high-technology British company is beyond the bank balance of most of us shouldn’t come as a surprise. When not engaged in drunken brawls, casual rioting or ‘sitting down’ sports like rowing and horsey dancing, the British are good at precision products. It’s why many F1 teams are British-based. This degree of precision doesn’t come cheap. The dCS Varése carries on that tradition.

Manufacturer:

dCS

https://dcsaudio.com

UK Distributor:

Absolute Sounds

www.absolutesounds.com

+44 (0)208 971 3909

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Pro-Ject Announces Debut PRO B

1 August 2024 – Almost exactly three years after releasing the commemorative Debut PRO turntable, which was originally made to mark the company’s 30^th anniversary, Pro-Ject Audio Systems are advancing on the design with a new, upgraded model. The Debut PRO B (SRP £799.00) takes the multi-award-winning design of its predecessor but adds new balanced technology to elevate the performance and compatibility to another level.

With the Debut PRO B, users can more easily access Pro-Ject’s True Balanced Connection concept technology, for reduced noise and interference, when the turntable is partnered with one of the company’s balanced phono stages and cables.

Debut PRO B features include:

NEW pre-adjusted Pick-IT PRO Balanced moving magnet cartridge (normally £199.00 SRP)
6” one-piece carbon-aluminium tonearm with fully adjustable VTA and azimuth
Nickel-plated aluminium tonearm bearing block
Non-magnetic aluminium platter with TPE damping
Motor suspension with better damping
Precision belt drive system
Height-adjustable metal feet
Stylish electronic speed change rocker switch (support for 33, 45 and 78 RPM playback)
Eight-layer hand-painted MDF chassis in Satin Black finish (Satin White also available)
Premium semi-symmetrical Connect-IT E phono cable included
Gold plated RCA output connectors and NEW MiniXLR balanced output
Dust cover included
Made in Europe

Debut PRO B: £799.00 (SRP)

Available in the UK during August 2024

DeVore Fidelity O/baby

“To be honest, it looks like you built them!” This was the rather disparaging comment from my partner when confronted with the DeVore Fidelity O/baby for the first time. This grossly overstates my ability to construct anything more lasting than a sandwich. It also demeans the structural integrity of the smallest freestanding member of the Orangutan series of speakers. Nevertheless, the O/baby looks sufficiently different from pretty much anything else at the price. That could confuse the less committed observer into wondering what the thinking is behind it.

The O/baby draws from the same philosophy as the larger O/96 and O/93 models. Despite what the name suggests, ‘compact’ is not the word that springs immediately to mind. Nevertheless, they are much smaller than the larger DeVore Orangutan models. The premise is a two-way design that leverages a wide but relatively shallow cabinet to help dispersion. It’s a simple enough concept. The closer you look, the more the specific details leap out of the notionally straightforward speaker.

New Money

The 19mm soft dome tweeter sits in a carved-out recess in the ply front fascia, acting as a shallow horn. Ideally, the DeVore Fidelity O/baby’s tweeter fires slightly below your seated ear height. The small horn helps the overall dispersion. Beanbag users need not apply. This handover to a 178m driver made of untreated paper. Both drivers are German in origin and from the same supplier as the larger models.

The crossover that ties the driver together is a fairly minimalist design. It hands over between the two drivers at around 2kHz. As befits something reasonably straightforward, the O/baby supports single wiring. It does this via a set of sturdy, if unremarkable, terminals at the base of the rear panel. A nearby small offset bass port vents the cabinet.

Different position

Its presence puts the O/baby in a position different from that of some similar-looking devices. The O/baby doesn’t take kindly to being placed close to walls or wedged into corners. To its credit, DeVore Fidelity provides genuinely excellent advice on positioning. If you can overcome the traditional male reticence to read instruction manuals.

The cabinet shape, driver choices, crossover, and port ensure that DeVore Fidelity O/baby presents benign impedance and high sensitivity. The smaller cabinet means it cannot match the O/96 and O/93 in absolute terms. DeVore Fidelity quotes 90dB/W/m, which is some way down on the bigger models. However, this combines with an impedance close to eight ohms across the frequency range. The result is a speaker that will not require much power to work in the room. This naturally means that the DeVore Fidelity will interest valve amp users. However – as we shall cover – it’s nowhere near as simple as saying it works best with them.

You raise me up!

The O/baby is closer in overall configuration to the O/96. The 59cm cabinet is not designed to be parked directly on the ground. However, this would simplify getting the tweeter below ear height. The documentation recommends using a stand to add roughly another 12 inches (300mm) to the overall height. DeVore Fidelity’s dedicated stand is available. This is a wood and marine ply structure that looks more like a stool frame than it does anything else. It is attractive and sturdy, but securing the required elevation at £1,398 for two is relatively pricey. Although relatively more cost-effective options are available if you can live without the comforting aesthetic match of the dedicated stand.

Returning to the appearance of the O/baby, I find myself more positively inclined towards them than my partner. Still, there are some limitations to how DeVore Fidelity is finished that need to be considered. The attractive veneer on the front panel is restricted to that side alone. The rest of the cabinet is finished in a black sheen. This has a slightly odd speckled finish that looks like I hadn’t dusted them properly.

Lavish?

I don’t have any issue with saying that you can buy more lavishly finished and spectacular-looking devices than the O/baby.

This doesn’t tell the whole story, though. Spend a little time with the O/baby, and the care and attention that has gone into its construction becomes more apparent. This is a fastidiously made speaker, and behind the deceptively simple premise of its design, a considerable amount of thought and experience has gone into its fabrication. When they’ve been here, I warmed to the O/baby more than I thought I might when I lifted them from the packaging.

Additional Detail

Of course, some of this softening in attitude can be attributed to the additional detail that I’ve been listening to the O/baby in the same period and – bluntly – falling for them in a big way. I have heard the O/96 twice, and the performance on offer has stuck with me, but living with the DeVore Fidelity O/baby has been deeply satisfying. This holds even though this speaker’s attributes do not naturally fit my listening. Both main test amps that reside here possess healthy hundred-watt-plus power outputs, and my musical taste, when left to my own devices in particular, has long leaned towards speakers that go like the clappers.

What the O/baby does with sublime ease is use its effortless sensitivity to demonstrate a speed and sheer immediacy that can leave many narrow baffle rivals sounding languid. The title track of John Grant’s Pale Green Ghosts [Bella Union] articulates the deep electronic underpinnings that would genuinely qualify as urgent if there wasn’t such an effortlessness to the way it happens. This is the antithesis of the idea of ‘grip’. It’s a driver being bludgeoned into starting and stopping with absolute precision, but such is the natural fluency, and the effect is no less engaging.

Agility footnote

This agility is, if anything, a footnote to a selection of other talents that make for a sublime listening experience. I place speakers relatively wide apart. The DeVore Fidelity O/baby needed some toe-in to dial in. Once this is done, the image they create is utterly spellbinding. How they give the required space to the orchestra in Public Service Broadcasting’s This New Noise [Test Card Recordings] feels so intrinsically ‘right’ that going back to even very accomplished resident speakers feels a little like donning headphones. This is not the same type of ‘immersive audio’ as the one that requires umpteen speakers splattered across your walls and ceiling, but the effect it has on your perception of the music is uncannily similar.

Interestingly, the requirement for you to be above the tweeter is genuinely and consistently repeatable. Slouch below the required height and the airiness of the presentation begins to fall away. The impression becomes more directional. I listened to the unplugged version of Fink’s ‘Maker’, an audiophile catnip that effectively demonstrates this. Sink beneath the tweeter level, the absolute perception of the space Finn Greenall is performing starts to fray. Things quickly become a little congested. Agree to the O/baby’s terms of use, though, and he’s right there occupying the space between the two cabinets, as tangible as I can remember experiencing.

Tonal Balance

The tonal balance of the DeVore Fidelity is also hugely appealing. The O/baby is soft at the frequency extremes by metal dome standards. However, it is hugely refined across the upper registers. The caveat is that the DeVore Fidelity might be the most adept speaker at handling less-than-stellar recordings I’ve tested this year. There’s also no lack of clarity and detail in the material either. The Punch Brothers’ haunting cover of ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ on Hell on Church Street [Nonesuch] is packed with the nuances that bring the performance to life. The O/baby handles the build in scale with effortless ease.

The upper registers feed seamlessly into a midrange that balances being full-bodied and tangible. It has you reaching for all recordings you know will luxuriate in the performance on offer while avoiding the feeling that the rest of the response is an afterthought.

Hand it over!

The handover between the two drivers is seamless. Having picked up the baton from the tweeter, the midbass can take the material down to around 40Hz. It does this with a usefully flat response and, in this room at least, gracefully tails off from there.

Beyond this slightly dry description of what the DeVore Fidelity O/baby does is the intangible desire to keep listening to it. This speaker seems purpose-built for those listening sessions that cover a good half a day. The ones that take you through random corners of your collection without sounding a bum note with any of them. One vinyl-based session uncovered a copy of the Fine Young Cannibals The Raw and the Cooked [London Records] that I don’t recall buying. I have a tentative theory that collections begin to manifest records of their own accord beyond a certain point. Beyond any salient technical detail, the way that the O/baby conjures up ‘I’m Not The Man I Used To Be’ is a heady mix. It’s a combination of time travel and holographic manifestation that significantly more expensive speakers have failed to match.

Impressively transparent

There’s one final party piece, too, and it’s a potentially very useful one. The DeVore Fidelity O/baby is impressively transparent about kit changes in a system. There’s also enough stretch in its capability to front significantly more expensive systems if you wish. It also demonstrates a sort of ‘minimum level of capability’ that is absurdly high. On a whim, I connected them to a re-released Musical Fidelity A1 and Chord Electronics Qutest. However lopsided a pricing balance that might look on paper, the result was a joy to listen to.

Equipment that need not cost the Earth can unlock the core virtues of the O/baby. You can hear what it brings to the party when you use the DeVore Fidelity with more expensive gear. However, when you listen in isolation, what remains is so compelling that you don’t miss it.

In fact, ‘compelling’ is a neat one-word summary of what DeVore Fidelity has built here. The DeVore Fidelity O/baby is a concentrated dose of what makes larger Orangutan speakers such an addictive listening experience. That combination of remarkable docility and user-friendliness is hard to beat. Even if you aren’t looking for a wide baffle, high-sensitivity speaker, it might be just the ticket for any system. The O/baby is everything that genuinely great hi-fi should be. It represents one of the very best speakers available under ten grand.

Technical specifications

Type Two-way stand-mount loudspeaker.
Drivers Horn-loaded 19mm textile dome tweeter, 178mm uncoated paper mid-bass unit
Frequency Response 38Hz-25kHz
Sensitivity 90 dB/W/M
Impedance 8 ohms
Dimensions (W×H×D) 37.5 × 89 × 24.8cm including optional stands
Weight 12.7kg ea
Price £6,298, stands £1,398

Manufacturer

DeVore Fidelity

www.devorefidelity.com

UK distributor

Absolute Sounds

www.absolutesounds.com

+44(0)208 971 3909

Rea d more Devore reviews here

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Tellurium Q Statement II

I wish I could tell you what has changed between Tellurium Q’s Mk I and Mk II versions of its Statement cable. They have audibly changed for the better, and the reasons for that change are a complete mystery. It’s all secret. I’ve been told it’s because the company made a pact with the Dwarf Lords of Somerton. You don’t want to mess with them.

What I can tell you is Geoff Merrigan of Tellurium Q won’t say anything about the materials or construction of any Tellurium Q cable. He feels those design aspects get in the way of the discussion about the cable’s sonic performance. He has a point… we’re using cables based on their sonic properties, not because they use the correct grade of prefabulated amulite. Those who don’t know about ‘prefabulated amulite’ should search for ‘turbo encabulator.’ It’s a spoof engineering concept that has been running since the mid-1940s. It’s proof that audio reviewers aren’t the only experts in technobabble.

Not a filter

Merrigan also says the Tellurium Q line is designed to not act as a filter. While this sounds obvious, the reverse is more often the case. We almost unconsciously try to compensate for peaks and troughs in a system’s performance with cables. Choosing a cable that is a bit warm and bass-heavy can help balance out a stark and bass-light system.

In fact, it’s not so simple; you choose a loudspeaker cable that filters one set of frequencies, and the others become more noticeable. It’s like balancing a recipe. Perhaps you used too much salt, so you compensate by adding sugar. Then, you add something bitter to mask the sweetness and cut it with acidic food to tame the bitterness. This is amplified by the salt, like the lime in a margarita.

No really, not a filter

If Tellurium Q makes cables designed not to act as filters, the problem becomes letting in too much information relative to the cost of the other products in the chain. You want to bring out the musical information without exposing the weaknesses of the equipment. Tellurium Q cables are not filters; some are more ‘filter-y’ than others. Of course, when you get to Statement II, the implication is the cable is going into a system of such poise and resolving power that you need the least filter-y, non-filter, unfiltering cable it’s possible to make. This happens only because Geoff Merrigan spends thousands of hours listening to different conductor materials, dielectrics, and solders. And he has produced what many have found to be extremely good cables.

With all this listening under his belt, perhaps it’s no surprise that he has little time for those who haven’t done that listening but still think silver cable sounds shiny just because it’s silver… and red cars go faster!

Old v New

To test Statement II, we asked for the original Statement and Statement II in as many different cable formats as possible. In essence, we got two looms of top Tellurium Q.

The first thing to note about both of them is that they are phenomenally well made, in a ‘belt and braces’ approach. They are nicely packaged, too, but in a functional manner rather than something that looks like it should be in a pale blue Tiffany box. As to the cables, the black braid, the well-made connectors… everything screams ‘understated elegance’. There’s also a reassuring chunkiness about the cables, but not anacondas of sound.

It was time for listening, and in the case of the OG Statement, it was also time for cross-referencing against the original review. In that review, we praised the Tellurium Q Statement for having no sound of its own, but the problem now is that the Statement has even less of a sound of its own.

Merrigan might be doing his brand no favours by saying this, but he seems to consider each cable up the Tellurium Q line ‘less worse’ than the last. And Statement II is the least worst of all of them.

Plasticity

In truth, a big part of the problem with describing just how good TQ is (aside from the whole ‘no tech talk’ bit) comes down to the plasticity of English. The exact terms can be read in a positive or negative light (for example, ‘tasteless’ has different connotations depending on whether you are discussing a medicine, a curry, or a television programme). So, when describing Statement II as saying that it has a complete absence of tonality, timbre or coloration, that should be read as intensely positive things and not as describing something ultimately bland and insipid.

I encountered the problem of trying to frame Statement in the context of other cables. I now have the problem of trying to frame Statement II in the context of Statement. But this highlights the great difference in Tellurium Q Statement II; when you put it up against other cables—including its predecessor—the other cables sound like they impose their characteristics on the sound.

This means that if I were to sum up Statement II in a word, it would be ‘colourless’. And that hits the problem of dual meanings in English. People ascribe ‘colourless’ to mean ‘pale’ or ‘insipid’, but in the case of cables, we should think of ‘colourless’ in the same positive way we would if we were ascribing the term to potable water. Let’s face it: you want the water you drink to be colourless.

I could torture that analogy and start comparing Statement II to mountain springs, crisp, clear air, and, in some ways, that analogy holds. The absence of character that Statement II has is like a breath of fresh air. But it ends there; there’s none of the coolness and coldness to Tellurium Q’s sound—just honesty.

To thine own amp be true

If the great benefit to Statement II is its absence of character imposed on the audio system, then that does come with a reasonably obvious caveat: your system needs to be able to cope with that level of clarity in its cables. Tellurium Q Statement II can expose weaknesses in your system. It’s like putting your kit under a microscope. A slight soundstage foreshortening that comes from not the best mix of preamp and power amplifier is easy to hear. But when you have all your audio ducks in a row, Statement II shows you why a cable this transparent is so valuable.

Everything good about your system is left alone to shine. A system that resolves excellent inner detail gives even greater insight. It’s not simply about vocal articulation. Statement II lets you drill down to the microphone choices made by the engineer. With Statement II – and a system designed to be suitably neutral – in a matter of seconds, you’ll hear which of the current crop of singers is talented and which ones have been subtly tweaked by a bit of judicious compression in the high frequencies. And that’s a real shock!

No FUD

The worry with a cable this revealing is that it sows FUD (‘fear, uncertainty, doubt’) in the listener. Curiously, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The cable’s revealing quality doesn’t come with a harsh edge. It shows what your system does, but it doesn’t push you to change that system. To invite Statement II into your system isn’t the start of a complete system re-design.

Having old and new Statements in your system invites a final question: should you change them? If you have Statement, should you buy Statement II? Usually, this is time for fence-sitting, but here it’s an emphatic ‘yes’! Tellurium Q Statement was a revelation. It opens the sound of your music in a way you might not have thought possible before. If you liked what Statement does, Statement II does it better. There’s even less of the cable on show. That means more profound insight into the goings on inside your system and the studio! That insight alone is worth its weight in whatever metal is inside Tellurium Q Statement II.

Prices and contact details

Type RCA Interconnect
Price £4,320, $5,200/1m pair
Type XLR Interconnect
Price £4,740, $5,750/1m pair
Type Power cord
Price £4,740, $5,750/1.5m cable
Type Loudspeaker with silver plated 4mm locking terminations
Length 5m pair
Price £1,740, $2,110 /mono metre

Manufacturer

Tellurium Q

statement.telluriumq.com

UK distributor

Kog Audio

www.kogaudio.com

+44 (0)24 7722 0650

Back to Reviews

VPI Goldy

It makes sense; if you’re an established turntable maker whose products are usually sold with third-party cartridges, why wouldn’t you want a piece of the needle action? I hadn’t realised that the brand had started selling cartridges until the VPI Goldy turned up, yet it appears to be one of four VPI Partner models in the range. It seems that the American company realised that building a cartridge from the ground up would be a significant investment in time and money, so it decided to work with established cartridge makers who could make custom versions of existing models to VPI’s spec. Three VPI moving coil models are made for them by Audio Technica, while the Bloodwood is based on a Miyajima Takumi.

The VPI Goldy uses an AT-OC9 starting point with the same aluminium body, special line contact, nude stylus and boron cantilever. It differs in using internals from the VPI Shyla with damping mods and “other material changes”. The Goldy is a low mass MC at 7.6g which makes it well suited to my Rega Planar 10, it’s the first third party cartridge I’ve tried that hasn’t required a heavier counterweight. I guess VPI likes this quality, too, as both their other MCs are similarly light. The Goldy has typical MC specs with downforce in the region of two grams and recommended load impedance at 100 Ohms, albeit this is a minimum. The 12 Ohm coil impedance would suggest something in the region of 120 Ohms is closer to perfect.

Easy install

The VPI Goldy has threaded inserts to aid installation, and it’s easy to see the cantilever and stylus when setting up with an alignment gauge. Both factors are by no means guaranteed with modern moving coil designs. As a result, it didn’t take long to install and set up, and within a few tracks, the suspension had warmed up sufficiently to give a good idea of its capabilities. Chief among these is speed. Goldy does not hang around; to put it another way, it has no trouble keeping up with the vibrations in the groove and translating those undulations into thrilling and highly resolved musical entertainment that is broad in tonal and dynamic terms.

VPI_Goldy

This was very much in evidence with Chasing the Dragon’s direct-to-vinyl cut of the Four Seasons, where the tone of the original instruments was rich and gutty, and the image perspective particularly strong, ‘Autumn’ is delivered with all its vivacity and spirit. It also worked a treat with a couple of dub tracks, bringing out the bounce and the body of the vintage sounds. There is a physicality to the VPI Goldy’s sound that is particularly appealing, it has drive and excellent timing but feels solid with it which is a nice combination.

The VPI Goldy is a highly engaging and entertaining cartridge. That it suits a turntable so different from VPI’s own is a testament to its all-around capabilities. If you are after an infectious vinyl sound that will put a broad grin on any music lover’s face, the Goldy certainly fits the bill.

Technical specifications

Type Low output moving coil phono cartridge
Stylus/Cantilever Special line contact nude diamond stylus, boron cantilever
Tracking Force 1.8g–2.2g (2g standard)
Load 100 Ohms plus
Compliance 22 × 10-6 cm/dyne
Output (at 1 kHz @ 5cm/s) 0.4 mV
Weight 7.6g (without stylus cover)
Price £1,250, $1,300

Manufacturer

VPI Industries

www.vpiindustries.com

+1 732-583-6895

UK distributor

Renaissance (Scotland) Ltd

www.renaissanceaudio.co.uk

+44(0)131 555 3922

Back to Reviews

Final ZE8000

The ZE8000 is Final’s flagship in-ear monitor. It has a distinctive long-stemmed earbud shape. The Final ZE8000 comes supplied in a pebble-shaped charging case that slides open. This is very different from the flip-top charging case that Apple popularised. Because flip-top charging cases are so commonplace, there’s a tendency to go caveman with anything different. Before someone breaks a case or two, the Final case opens with a thumb flip.

Its bar-like stem is a perfect place to site touch controls for the True Wireless Stereo IEMs. A richer control set lives on a dedicated Final CONNECT App (iOS and Android). This allows the user to shape the tone of the Final. It includes EQ adjustments and what the company calls ‘8K SOUND.’ Final describes 8K operation as “This brand new 8K SOUND technology exceeds the achievement of ‘Transparency’, accomplished by D8000 and A8000, and delivers an unprecedented level of clarity, with the true identity of every bit of sound revealed in its full form, promising a whole new level of music enjoyment.”

How is this achieved? “Instead of focusing only on fine-tuning of particular frequencies, the time element of every single bit of sound is also carefully calibrated with digital signal processing. In doing so, all information residing inside a musical piece is distinctly revealed in its best quality and aesthetics.” The company’s own f-CORE driver helps, too. You can switch 8K Audio off from the App.

Haptics tactics

What can’t be changed on the App is the haptics. The touch controls are sometimes too sensitive; I scratched the side of my face, and Siri was activated, and it’s easy to change a track while on the move accidentally. However, they also control volume, track and phone handling, and display battery life, all from an elegant crackle black or white finish. Depending on your ears, the stem of the Final ZE8000 often stands proud; on me, it was clear I was wearing them from the front or back.

They come supplied with five sets of eartips and stabiliser sleeves. This is useful because the quality of the performance rests strongly on the fit and seal. Also, the stabilisers mean the IEMs are less likely to fall out, despite the stalk occasionally looking a touch gravity-defying. It includes filter screens and a removal tool; these dust filters are handy to keep those single 13mm drivers clean and spiffy.

Interestingly, the Final ZE8000 has an ‘always on’ form of noise cancellation. Fortunately for audio-obsessed listeners, the ANC is mild and doesn’t impact on sonics. Even the heaviest setting isn’t too intrusive. Final clearly decided four perma-mild noise cancellation options is better than defeatable – but more sonically damaging – options. The Final ZE8000 claim five hours of battery life, and 15 in the charging case, and recharge is fast.

Installation and call quality

Installation was easy, and the Final CONNECT App helps. Like many True Wireless Stereo IEMs, I think the performance on Android is slightly better than iOS, and not simply because the pairing process was a little tougher with iPhones. In truth, the Final ZE8000 were slightly above average in Apple installation terms; if I were a conspiracy theorist, I might be saying that Apple stacks the deck so that the experience with its own IEMs and headphones is so much better!

Call quality is extremely good, both in sending and receiving. Spacing the microphone from your ear somewhat helps the user’s speech articulation and rids the sound of plosives. Meanwhile vocals (sung or spoken) are a Final strong point right anyway, and call clarity is first rate.

Music quality

The Final ZE8000 is definitely ‘flagship class’ in sound quality terms. It’s got remarkable, deep bass for an IEM, excellent midrange articulation that makes voices come to life, and good treble. It also has highs that are detailed but not extreme. This, I felt, was an outstanding balance. It’s free from the ‘screaming details’ presentation so common with top-end IEMs and their high-frequency performance.

Then there’s the soundstaging. This is something I usually gloss over, because imaging effects on IEMs are usually very lateralised. This means musicians appear inside your head, but here the presentation was more like conventional loudspeakers, with a stage spread out in front of you. How this happened is immaterial; that it happened is vital, and shows just how good a soundstage you can get even on a pair of Bluetooth-Enabled in-ear monitors.

I was less smitten by 8K SOUND. It seemed to correct some of the high-frequency roll-off, but brought little else to the party. I’d debate about turning it off, but it didn’t add much for me. Also, ANC deliberately goes for a milder approach, which is good. But I guess they haven’t spent long enough on the London Underground. But, as I said earlier, if it’s a choice between this and drowning the sound, I’d take the ZE8000 every time!

Finally, that four-band equaliser. By default, it adjusts 35Hz, 350Hz, 1600Hz, and 10kHz but you can choose two other frequencies. However, with just 3dB of boost or cut, it doesn’t make a huge difference.

Tip-top?

The Type Q ear tips are the biggest downside to the Final ZE8000. The bonus is it keeps ear and drive unit apart (for cleanliness purpose), but the downside is you’ll have to buy them direct from Final supplies. No biggie, and the fit is great, but if you have an ongoing love affair with custom tips, this isn’t for you.

Final’s flagship In-Ear Monitor lives up to the True Wireless Stereo moniker well. It gives exceptionally good stereo sound and its laid-back treble makes it one of – if not the – most refined sounding in-ear monitors in its category.

Price and contact details

Final ZE8000 £199, $299

Manufacturer

Final

https://snext-final.com/en/

UK distributor

KS Distribution

www.ksdistribution.co.uk

+44(0)1903 768919

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Larsen Model 9

We’ve said this a lot, but hi-fi+ was, until recently, focused on ‘metropolitan’ systems. A fine example of this is the Larsen Model 9. These high-performance speakers are perfect for smaller listening rooms. Even when money is not a problem, space can be a premium for city dwellers. Larsen Model 9s work against the rear wall, thereby maximising floor space.

Boundary designs were once trendy, especially amongst UK companies who got used to trying to squeeze loudspeakers into small spaces. I vividly recall visiting the tiny London living room of the late Malcolm Steward decades ago, where he had shoe-horned a pair of active Naim SBLs into a room about 10’x12′ at best. But boundary loudspeakers fell out of fashion in the 1990s. Today, boundary loudspeakers are rare, and the Larsen Model 9 is one of the exceptions. It’s also the current top of the Larsen range.

Larsen’s resident big brain Stig Carlsson has been championing the boundary loudspeaker for decades. But, unlike those 1980s Brit-fi favourites, he has approached the concept from mathematics. So, this isn’t simply a sealed box loudspeaker with a suck-out in the bass to compensate for rear-wall reinforcement. Instead, these are loudspeakers designed from the outset to use the rear wall to avoid baffle-step concerns in the bass.

The science bit!

Loudspeakers are inherently omnidirectional in the bass until the baffle’s width changes the sound’s directivity in free-space designs. The loudspeaker then shifts the radiation pattern at the baffle-step frequency to what’s known as ‘half-space radiation’, which is the more direct-radiating sound we are used to from our midrange and treble drive units.

The problem is that the baffle-step point is directly linked to the front baffle’s size (specifically, the width). Until the 1950s, this wasn’t an issue, as horn-loaded loudspeakers and the large, sand-filled baffle beloved by Gilbert Briggs of Wharfedale fame meant the baffle-step frequency was sufficiently low to have a limited impact on the sound quality.

That all changed with the invention of the acoustic suspension system. Suddenly, a loudspeaker could deliver reasonably deep bass without the large cabinet volumes required from the 1920s to the 1950s. Loudspeaker cabinets shrunk in size, and by the 1990s, the slimline fronts of floorstanding loudspeakers began to replace the broader baffles of loudspeakers like the Spendor BC1 and Snell E designs. The result is a baffle-step frequency that gets alarmingly close to our ears’ most sensitive frequencies: the all-important midband. A loudspeaker that shifts radiation patterns at 1kHz isn’t ideal, but we have become so used to this radiation pattern change that we almost dial it out when listening. The question then becomes, “Is ‘almost’ enough?”

The Larsen Model 9 says an emphatic ‘no’. By placing the loudspeaker at the room’s boundary, that baffle-step frequency is defined by the size of the rear wall, not the width of the speaker cabinet. This moves the radiation pattern shift out of our peak hearing-sensitivity range. But that’s just the start.

Fancy floorwork

Larsen mathematically modelled the design to suit boundary room interaction. Where other designs try—and fail—to ignore the room in the development of the loudspeaker, Larsen makes it an intrinsic part of the design. This is why the Model 9 has a woofer close to the floor to engage the floor in the most appropriate manner possible in the room. Placing the mid-woofer diagonally changes the first reflection parameters.

Then, the tweeter fires further into the room, thanks to its placement at the interface between the two loudspeaker’s top panel surfaces. Finally, two tweeters are firing upwards to create a reverberant field for the upper registers. The whole design simultaneously ‘works the room’ and presents a uniform sound. The absence of rear-wall reflection, the baffle-step frequency moved to a safe place beyond our most discerning hearing region, those sidewall reflections pushed as far as possible… all these things add up to make a loudspeaker that sounds less like a loudspeaker and more like a musical event taking place in your room.

Some observations

There are some observations here. First, placement along that rear wall is essential. The loudspeakers work best when firing across the room rather than down, contrasting with most loudspeaker designs. In fairness, the Larsen Model 9 is not ‘most loudspeaker designs’. However, if you have built a system in a room where conventional placement is the only option, the Model 9 will fail to shine. The speaker works well but diminishes the ‘living, breathing musicians in the room’ effect.

In that vein, if you define your musical experience by how the loudspeakers shape it, designs that do things differently (like the Larsen Model 9) will probably never get a fair hearing. But if you can move your listening room around, put the speakers against the wall, and roll back to a time when you didn’t go to an acoustic concert and lament the lack of decent imagery, then the Larsen Model 9 sings a siren’s song.

In the concert hall

The Larsen Model 9 is among the most ‘live-sounding’ loudspeakers I’ve heard. Not ‘live’ as in the cabinet resonates, but ‘live’ in terms of that feeling you get when sitting with a group of good musicians playing live in a room. The loudspeaker acts like it isn’t there. Instead, your wall miraculously transforms into an acoustically transparent curtain between you and the musicians. It’s an uncanny feeling and one that’s captivating and invigorating.

This is the antithesis of loudspeakers that define audiophile performance purely by imaging. The Larsen Model 9 has good imaging, but not in traditional loudspeakers’ pinpoint, precise holographic style. This is good because that imaging style never happens in the real world. Instead, you are aware of a physical musician playing because of the sound’s dynamic range and leading-edge immediacy.

While the loudspeaker is outstanding at playing the usual ‘audiophile-approved’ music, I found it best playing the kind of music we never see in a hi-fi review. It got behind ‘Intergalactic’ by Beastie Boys [Hello Nasty, Captiol]. Here, the loud and raucous sound gets all the dynamism and intensity it deserves. It brings out the fun of the recording as much as the clarity of the sound. No one uses Beastie Boys tracks to check for vocal clarity or articulation. For that, I used Joyce Di Donato, whose diction was exceptionally well represented. Still, for the sense of a few guys having fun in a studio… the Larsen 9 nailed it!

Everything, everywhere, all at once!

The word I wrote most often in the notebook was ‘convincing’. They made a convincing sense of bass depth and force in a small room. Larsen Model 9s were convincingly real-sounding when playing orchestral passages, whether genteel Mozart confections or Mahlerian bloodletting. The tonal balance and the sense of rightness to the sound are also, you guessed it, convincing. It made music sound like convincing and properly balanced real music, whether live or studio recorded.

The Larsen Model 9s do everything well. They laugh at the constraints usually applied to get a big sound in a small room. Instead, they fill the room with good sound: rich, deep bass, a natural and fluid midrange and keenly extended highs. It does everything for every kind of music and does it exceptionally well. This was one of those times when I was sorely tempted to put my hand in my pocket and buy a pair. Were it not that they worked better in the studio than in my listening room with alcoves and chimney breasts where the loudspeakers should go, I’d be living with Larsen Model 9s for years to come.

Technical specifications

Type: 2½-way floorstanding loudspeaker
Sensitivity: 88dB
Impedance: 4 ohms
Frequency response: 23Hz–20kHz
Finishes: Ebony, walnut, golden maple, maple, white
Dimensions (W×H×D): 93 × 30 × 38cm
Weight: 25kg each
Price: £13,490 per pair, $14,995 per pair

Manufacturer

Larsen hi-fi

www.larsenhifi.com/en

US Distributor

Audio Skies

www.audioskies.com

+1(310) 975-7099

UK Distributor

Audio Emotion

www.audioemotion.co.uk

+44(0)1333 425999

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