Gold star B&O

BeoSound 35 network
Audiovector’s dazzling Pink
QR 1 compact speaker music system raises the bar Floy
50 ye d:
ar
rock hists of
or
p102 y

PASSION FOR SOUND Issue No. 418 January 2017

Living legend
I
Iconic
i TTechnics
h i SLSL-1200
1200
reborn for vinyl lovers
BEAUTIFUL SYSTEM
Valves and vinyl make
a heavenly match

Fantastic

30
PRODUCTS ON TEST:
Copland, Leema Acoustics,
Pro-Ject & Sennheiser
floorstanders
Big sound for every
budget from £299
PRINTED IN THE UK

JANUARY 2017

EXCLUSIVE GROUP TEST

Hegel Röst Do not disturb!

Do-it-all
i ll di
digital
i lh hub
b Six classy cans that master
US$15.00

£4.75

for hi-res music fans the art of noise cancelling

 “The Shawlines are really
top-class interconnects...
Give them an audition and
hear for yourself”

OUR VERDICT

Chord Shawline Analogue

Close
Hi-Fi Choice July 2016

“If you have a good system and

want to give it a boost these may
just be the most cost-effective
way to do that”

To You
Chord Shawline Range
Hi-Fi World October 2016

Connect with us
Designed and hand built in England by
music lovers since 1985. Enjoyed by music
lovers all over the world.

The Chord Company Ltd, Millsway Centre,

Amesbury SP4 7RX, UK

To get more information and find your

nearest retailer, please call us on:
+44 (0)1980 625700 or visit:

www.chord.co.uk
 INTRODUCTION

PASSION FOR SOUND Welcome

www.hifichoice.co.uk Issue No. 418 January 2017

As one of the biggest names

in the business, Harman
International has its fingers in
58 almost every sector of the audio
Pro-Ject Primary Phono USB market through a roll call of big-
name brands that includes
Harman Kardon, AKG and JBL,
along with specialist premium
audio brands Infinity and Mark
Levinson et al. With considerable links to both the home
and in-car audio market, you can understand why it
might be an attractive proposition for a smart-tech
giant looking to move into these sectors.
On 14 November 2016, news broke that Samsung was
to acquire Harman International for a cash sum of
$18bn. There had already been rumors circulating that
it was looking to buy a specialist audio brand, and
French loudspeaker firm Focal, which also owns Naim
Audio and supplies high-end audio systems to the car
42
German Physiks HRS-130 industry, was widely tipped to be near the top of the list
of considerations for the South Korean tech giant. But
it’s the link between its smartphone know-how and
Harman’s greater automotive connections that
99 Various artists ultimately secured the landmark deal with the US firm.
The Calais Sessions As technology finds its way into areas of our lives that
seemed like a futuristic fantasy just a few short years
ago, the consolidation of two tech giants means it’s
likely we’ll see smarter and safer cars in the future. How
this combined expertise will impact the audio market
remains to be seen, but with a major player like
Samsung on board, it looks like a positive step indeed.

BADGES EXPLAINED Lee Dunkley Editor

OUR AWARDS
Follow us:
Picture credit: Sarah Hickson

EDITOR’S RECOMMENDED: GROUP TEST twitter.com@HiFiChoiceMag

CHOICE: Products that WINNER: facebook.com/hifichoice.co.uk
Awarded to those we feel meet a Comparative tests
products that are high standard of can only have one
judged to deliver performance winner, and this
outstanding
performance
badge says it all! SUITE 25, EDEN HOUSE, ENTERPRISE WAY,
EDENBRIDGE, KENT TN8 6HF
JANUARY 2017 3
 Contents
hifichoice.co.uk Issue No. 418 January 2017

NEWS & OPINION GROUP TEST

6 Audiofile
The latest news on the hottest products
from the world of hi-fi coming your way 24 Fed up of all that background
hubbub interfering with your
14 Webwatch music? Check out these noise-
Essential websites to direct your browser cancelling headphone saviours
towards for all your hi-fi requirements
69 Letters
Put your points of view and queries on
audio matters to our team of experts
79 Opinion
The Hi-Fi Choice team say it as they see
it as they discuss the issues of the day
99 Music Reviews
The month’s essential new CD, vinyl
and hi-res releases given a work out

READER SERVICES
122 Reader Classifieds
Sell your unwanted hi-fi for FREE here
130 Next Issue
The sonic treats to look out for next month

FEATURES
10 Hi-Fi Show Live 2016
Didn’t make it to the hi-fi event of the year?
Here’s what you missed out on

62

62 Hooked on a feeling
How PSB used Canada’s National Research
Centre to develop RoomFeel processing
90 Beautiful System
Valves and vinyl come together in this
Pro-Ject, Ortofon and Unison Research setup
94 Labelled With Love
An early exponent of surround sound,
Deram’s music deserves another listen
102 Music Legends
Discover how Pink Floyd went from
psychedelic noodlers to rock behemoths
120 Jake Isaac 6 100
The singer with the unique sound explains
his influences and hi-fi hopes and dreams Audiofile: Acoustic Energy AE1 Active Music Reviews: The Alan Parsons Project
4 JANUARY 2017
 CONTENTS
JANUARY 2017
“Assuming the record does
okay I’ll probably build my
old man the big hi-fi system
113 that he’s always wanted”
Pure Evoke H6 portable DAB radio
Jake Isaac interview p120
TESTED THIS MONTH

16
Technics SL-1200G direct-drive turntable
50
Audiovector QR 1 loudspeaker
REVIEWS THE KNOWLEDGE
Kit testing Floorstanding speakers
16 Technics 106 Floorstanders
SL-1200G direct-drive turntable
42 German Physiks 108 ATC SCM19A
HRS-130 two-way floorstanding loudspeaker
(Exotica) 108 ELAC F5
46 Copland 108 Quad Z-3
DAC215 USB DAC/headphone preamp
50 Audiovector 109 Spendor A5R
QR 1 two-way standmount loudspeaker
109 Tannoy Eclipse Three
54 Hegel
Röst integrated amplifier/DAC/network 109 Totem Sttaf
54 music player
58 Pro-Ject 110 Accessories
Hegel Röst integrated amp
Primary Phono USB belt-drive turntable
60 Bang & Olufsen
BeoSound 35 wireless music system CHOICE EXTRAS
88 SME 113 Pure
3009 tonearm (Retro) Evoke H6 portable DAB radio

115 Noble
GROUP TEST Savanna in-ear monitors
Noise-cancelling headphones 117 TP-Link
Alan Parsons Project pic credit: Shutterstock/Artashes

£200-£330 Archer C3200 router

27 AKG N60NC 117 Leema Acoustics
29 Audio-Technica Reference 1 digital optical cable
ATH-MSR7NC
118 Russ Andrews
31 Bose QC35 RF Router Mk2
33 PSB M4U 2 118 SLiC Innovations
35 Sennheiser PXC 550 Wireless Eclipse C MKII interconnects
46 37 Sony MDR-1000X
Copland DAC215 USB DAC

Never miss an issue – turn to p66 for our latest subs offer
JANUARY 2017 5
 T H E L AT E ST I N D U ST RY N E W S…

Active
Energy
British loudspeaker company
Acoustic Energy celebrates 30 years
with the launch of the AE1 Active
PRICE: £1,000-£1,200 AVAILABLE: MARCH 2017
CONTACT: 01285 654432 WEB: ACOUSTIC-ENERGY.CO.UK

THE ORIGINAL AE1 appeared

when Acoustic Energy was a startup
business in 1987. It was widely
acclaimed as a benchmark for
compact loudspeaker designs, and
earned the Gloucestershire-based
company recognition around the
world. Fast forward 30 years and
home speaker systems have changed
dramatically, and partly because of
this and to celebrate the company's
anniversary in 2017, Acoustic
Energy's engineers have been hard at
work on an active version of its
popular original AE1.
Designed in response to the
changing desires of audio systems at
home, the AE1 Active combines the
company's traditional craftsmanship
along with its Aego active sub/sat
system experience with built-in
amplification. A two-way standmount
design with Class A/B amplification
rated at 2x 50W per speaker, it utilises
the company’s pure piston ceramic
aluminium cone technology
partnered with an aluminium dome
tweeter fitted with a WDT waveguide.
Bass and treble adjustments of
+/-2dB are provided as well as level
control for each speaker, and RCA and
balanced XLR inputs. It's available in
high-gloss white and black piano
lacquer or a more costly cherry
veneer piano lacquer (£1,200).
In addition to the AE1 Active, we
can also reveal that early 2017 will
see the introduction of a new
Bluetooth model and the return of the
popular AE109 speaker, which will
head up a new 100 Series of
standmount, floorstander, sub and
centre channel loudspeakers.

6 JANUARY 2017
 COMMENT
- 30 Y
DIO EA
AU AMAZON TAKES ON
Combining AE's
IN BRITISH

RS APPLE AND SPOTIFY

IN BRITISH traditional speaker
Amazon unveiled its new music service on
skills with its active 14 November in the UK, Germany and
RS

AU speaker experience Austria. Though the company has

A

DIO E successfully run a streaming proposition

- 30 Y for a number of years (Amazon Prime
Music, which got 3.5 stars in our Group Test
back in HFC 414), take up was limited as it
cost £80 a year, didn't offer hi-res and was
tied to Amazon Prime (the on-demand TV
and next-day product delivery service).
The new version, which was launched in
the US in October, is called Amazon Music
Unlimited and – as with the US equivalent
– offers three pricing options. Existing
Amazon Prime members pay £7.99 a month
for unrestricted access on any device (or
£79 a year, which equates to £6.58 a month)
while non-Prime members can subscribe
for the same fee that Spotify Premium and
Apple Music charge for their rival services
(£9.99 per month). Alternatively, users can
pay just £3.99 a month for the service if it's
locked to just one Amazon Echo device. It is
understood that Amazon is subsidising the
lower-cost £7.99-per-month tier for music
rights holders in an effort to gain a price
advantage against its rivals in the market.
Most impressive of all is the fact that the
music library, which consisted of "over a
million tracks" when we looked at it back in
the September issue, has now been
increased to "over 40 million songs and
thousands of hand-curated playlists and
personalised stations".
“We’ve been thrilled with customer
reaction to the launch of Amazon Music
Unlimited in the US last month and we’re
excited to quickly bring the service to
customers in the UK,” said Steve Boom, Vice
President Amazon Music. “Starting today,
Amazon Music Unlimited offers our UK
customers playlists and stations curated
by our music experts in the UK, featuring
leading British and international artists –
we think customers are going to love it.”
We asked Amazon's UK PR agency about
the format and resolution of streamed
tracks and they were unfortunately unable
to give us an answer. So, it's probably safe
to say that the new service isn't going to be
offering hi-res downloads any time soon...

JANUARY 2017 7
 AUDIOFILE

KEF LS50 goes wireless

The manufacturer marks its 55th anniversary with wi-fi and Bluetooth speaker

PRICE: £2,000 AVAILABLE: NOW

CONTACT: 01622 672261 WEB: UK.KEF.COM

KEF HAS OPTED to mark the occasion of its 55th

anniversary with the release of a new, completely active
digital and wireless lifestyle audio system in the shape of
the LS50 Wireless. Utilising a 24-bit/192kHz digital signal
path, allied to a dedicated DAC for each channel, the
loudspeaker boasts wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity. The
LS50 previously won a recommended badge when it was
reviewed back in HFC 384 and the Wireless version boasts
the same Uni-Q driver technology, which sees the 25mm
tweeter placed in the centre of that distinctive 130mm
rose-gold coloured bass/midrange cone.
The built-in amplifier claims power output of 230W
per channel in a bi-amp, dual mono configuration, while
an advanced time-correcting DSP crossover has been
designed to maximise time alignment between the
frequencies. Wired connection options include an
asynchronous USB Type-B, optical and line-level RCA
phono sockets, and there’s a choice of different finishes.

IN BRIEF
PRO-JECT Leema server gets Sirius
ESSENTIAL III PRICE: £3,955 AVAILABLE: NOW
CONTACT: 01938 559021 WEB: LEEMA-ACOUSTICS.COM

Fittingly, Leema Acoustics operation, it’s claimed that along with unbalanced RCA
chose the occasion of London’s Sirius makes backing up CD outputs and a USB with Class 1,
Indulgence Show held in audio a breeze, with lossless Class 2 and DoP external
Hammersmith in mid-October FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, OGG connections. There’s
to unveil its new hi-fi grade Vorbis, AAC and MP3 formats additionally a dual-Ethernet
music server, Sirius. The result available. An asynchronous USB connection for routers and
of a collaboration with music DAC that’s based on a high-end for hook up to dedicated
software specialist Innuos, the ESS Sabre chip combines with streamers. Sirius is compatible
latest addition to Leema’s an Xmos USB interface to with a range of playback
flagship Constellation provide support of 16, 24 and 32 systems including Sonos
component range is described bit-depths from 44.1kHz up to multi-room, Naim Mu-so/Uniti,
● Hot on the heels of its Essential II as being the high-quality 384kHz, with DSD 64, 128 and Denon HEOS, Squeezebox and
(HFC 376), Pro-Ject has unveiled its streaming music server system 256 also supported. Cambridge Audio CXN, and it
follow-up Essential III. Manufactured built for “discerning music The app-controlled server comes equipped with 8GB of
from high-quality MDF and wrapped lovers”. Offering straightforward boasts balanced XLR outputs built-in system memory.
in a high-gloss paint finish (in a
choice of red, white or black), the
design will be familiar to those that
know the II – even down to the three
anti-vibration feet.
The Essential III comes pre-fitted
with an 8.6in aluminium tonearm and
Ortofon OM 10 cartridge (the II had
the OM 5E). A dustcover, felt mat and
power supply also come bundled,
while a more inert platform is
available in the shape of the Acryl-IT
E platter. The Essential III costs £239
and the upgrade platter is available
for £85. HENLEYDESIGNS.CO.UK

8 JANUARY 2017
 M6 ENCORE 225

Intuitive Operation, Huge Connectivity,

Internal 1TB Upgradeable Hard Disc Drive
The Encore 225 is a complete audio solution allowing you to keep all your music
in one place. It accepts almost any conceivable analog or digital audio source.
Experience it for yourself at your local Musical Fidelity dealer.

ZZZPXVLFDOÀGHOLW\FRP   

 SHOWR
R EPOR T
Windsor
The Hi-Fi Show Live came to the Beaumont House Estate once again. If
you didn’t manage to make it along, here’s a taste of what you missed
THE LAST WEEKEND in October saw the Hi-Fi Show
Live return for a fourth consecutive year to the gorgeous
grounds of the Beaumont Estate in Old Windsor. The
two-day high-end extravaganza hosted by our sister title
Hi-Fi News & Record Review and AVTech Media was its
biggest ever, and the only place to be for serious hi-fi fans.
This year the Hi-Fi Show Live was expanded by a further
set of demonstration suites at the Beaumont Conference
Centre into the luxurious surroundings of the prestigious
White House suites. Hi-fi enthusiasts were offered the
unique opportunity to experience some of the world’s
finest high-end audio under one roof with unforgettable
demonstrations of some of the greatest-sounding hi-fi
components installed and presented by designers and
audio experts. Iconic brands including Bowers & Wilkins,
Chord Electronics, Devialet, ELAC, KEF, Magico, Quad,
10 JANUARY 2017
Wilson Audio and many others all demonstrated the
ultimate audio products in their high-end ranges, and
numerous brands chose the show to launch new products
that had never been seen or heard in the UK before. The
big White House, Windsor, Lancaster and Buckingham
suites provided the ideal environment for jaw-dropping
demos, while the various special presentations were often
left with standing room only as Ken Kessler, Tim Jarman
Pictures by Andrew Sydenham
and Mike Valentine had audiences spellbound with their
engaging talks and passion for sound.
But most of all, the show was all about enjoying music
and the beautiful array of equipment that creates it.
Whether you had money to spend or just wanted to
window shop, there was plenty to see and hear. With plans
for the next show on 21 and 22 October 2017 already
under way, here’s the 2016 highlights...
 SHOWREPORT
THE

SHOW 1 KEF’s latest version of its Muon

flagship looks simply stunning in the
luxury setting of the White House, driven
by Chord Electronics and connected by
The Chord Company cables. kef.com;
chordelectronics.co.uk; chord.co.uk
2 This ELAC Concentro loudspeaker
– with export sales manager Monika
Lowe – has front and rear panels fitted
with JET-5 tweeter/midrange drivers,
and four 250mm bass units opposed
on the side panels. elac.com
3 Inspire Hi-Fi’s Robert Isherwood
prepares the £4,500 Inspire Monarch
Direct Drive Mk2.1 turntable with Convert
1 2 Technologies’ (Entotem) Plato Class A
system (HFC 414). inspirehifi.co.uk;
platoentertainment.com
4 Over in the Headphone Haven
Cambridgeshire-based Criterion Audio
demonstrates its high-end set of amps
and headphones from brands including
Audeze, Bel Canto, Chord, Grado, Moon
and Sennheiser. criterionaudio.com
5 With the Esoteric range Mandy Clarke
of Pioneer and Onkyo Europe demos the
N-05 network player, C-02X preamp and
290W S-02 power amps, all placed on an
Atacama’s Evoque Bamboo Custom rack.
esoteric.jp; atacama-audio.co.uk
6 Visitors compare half-speed mastered
and direct-cut albums with standard LP
3 4 pressings, and Mike Valentine of Chasing
The Dragon talks about the recording
techniques he uses at Air Studios in
London. chasingthedragon.co.uk
7 Peter McGrath demonstrates Wilson
Audio’s impressive Alexx and Yvette
loudspeakers to open-mouthed visitors
as they get their first showing to a UK
audience in the Absolute Sounds rooms.
absolutesounds.com
8 Donal Cook of Atlas Cables demos
the Zeno headphone cables as well as
practical and insightful demos of the
Kilmarnock-based company’s ‘cold
soldering’ termination technique.
atlascables.com
5

6 7 8

JANUARY 2017 11
 SHOWR
R EPOR T
THE
9 David Shaw of Icon Audio shows the
new SE version of the 100W MB81
SHOW
monoblocks featuring big GU81 tubes
alongside a prototype of his new Stereo
3-SE single-ended amp that is expected
to cost £1,600. iconaudio.com
10 In Headphone Haven Mark Hockey
of Harman Consumer UK shows AKG’s
flagship N90Q noise-cancelling
headphones to music fans looking to
experience a music world free from
outside disturbances. uk.akg.com
11 The award for the most eye-catching
speaker design of the show goes to Vivid
Audio’s Giya G4 speakers, and driven by
9 10
the Kaluga monoblocks seen here with
Mola-Mola’s Bruno Putzeys.
mola-mola.nl; vividaudio.co.uk
12 The £23k hORNS Universum MkIII
loudspeaker by Auto-Tech turns visitors’
heads in the G-Point Audio room. The
three-way design is available in a choice
of colours – glamorous assistant not
included. gpoint-audio.com; horns.pl
13 Show visitors get the chance to
experience the sporty-looking £2,500
Heco Direkt loudspeakers (HFC 407),
driven by a pair of Pure Sound’s valve
monoblocks shown by Guy Sergeant.
puresound.info
14 Convert Technologies (formerly
Entotem) shows off the Avantgarde Uno
11 12
XD speaker, driven by the company’s
Plato Class A one-box music system
(HFC 414). avantgarde-acoustic.de;
platoentertainment.com
15 Joining forces with DALI, Luxman
demonstrates its £5,000 PD-171A
belt-drive turntable alongside its flagship
solid-state pre/power amp combo,
driving a pair of DALI Opticon 8s.
luxman.com; dali-speakers.com
16 Visitors are treated to a unique ‘live’
entertainment event in the Audio Note
room as cellist Vincent Bélanger,
accompanied by his own recordings,
plays through a £60k Audio Note hi-fi
system. Simply superb. audionote.co.uk 13

14 15 16

12 JANUARY 2017
dynaudio.com

Close
your eyes
and see
We’ve included the ultra-pure, ultra-clear,
ultra-sweet-sounding Esotar2 silk soft-dome
tweeter. Mated to innovative new Dynaudio
MSP woofers with varying diaphragm thickness
that offer a higher level of sonic refinement and
extraordinary dynamic range. Integrated into a
new multi-layer curved cabinet and sleek-but-
solid aluminum baffle to provide your music
with a robust, defined acoustic foundation.
=PZP[^^^K`UH\KPVJVT[VÄUK`V\YULHYLZ[ Powerful, controlled, remarkable.
H\[OVYPZLK+`UH\KPVYL[HPSLY This is Contour 30.
 AUDIOFILE
Webwatch
Show and tell
RCA’s Bob Banks describes how stereo
sound works and gives an insight into the
direct precursor of the audio cassette in this
glorious showreel taken from 1959, when
the world seemed a more innocent place:
vimeo.com/7450268
REL refresh
REL acoustics has recently given its website
an overhaul and aside from the beautiful
images and details on products, it now
has some excellent resources for speaker
matching, room setup and an invaluable
tool for comparing different loudspeakers
to help you find the ideal match: rel.net
Magnetic attraction
The creators of MAG-LEV tell us we’re
on the verge of a new era where zero gravity
will be used to spin vinyl. The decidedly
sci-fi ‘levitating turntable’ uses a series of
magnets to “bring the feeling of zero gravity
into your home”. To see the futuristic deck in
action head over to: kck.st/2f5EWrG
14 JANUARY 2017
HFC reveals the best hi-fi websites, social media
and online content to fuel your passion for sound
Mastering the craft
Before you turn over to see how the
return of the legendary Technics SL-1200G
fares in this month’s In-depth test, why not
take the time to see the craftsmanship that
goes into producing arguably the most iconic
turntable ever: bit.ly/2dYh9Kg
Note perfect
The new durable five pound note has
been widely praised due to its ability to be
put through the wash and it’s also tear proof.
But how does it sound when hooked up to
a contact mic and used to play records? Hear
one playing ABBA’s 1976 hit Money, Money,
Money at: bit.ly/2dYkTM2
Going for gold
The Voyager golden records are possibly
the rarest discs in the universe. Launched
in 1977, they are billions of miles above
the planet on Voyager I and II awaiting a
vinyl-friendly alien to play them back. Now
you too can own a copy of this astonishing
out-of-this-world record: bit.ly/2fqDEca
FOLLOW US: @HIFICHOICEMAG
CHOICE TWEETS
TS
DEVIALET UK @DEVIALETUK
Were you lucky enough to see
Gold #Phantom in the window
@Harrods? Come and experience the
implosive sound with #Devialet on floor 3
NAIM AUDIO @NAIMAUDIO
We introduce Uniti by Naim – our most
advanced all-in-one music streaming
platform. #MusicReimagined #naimgodeeper
OPPO DIGITAL EU @OPPODIGITAL_EU
We’ve got a name change... No more
@oppoheadphones, hello
@OPPODIGITAL_EU!
http://www.oppodigital.co.uk
THE AUDIO ROOM @THEAUDIOROOM
Have to say the new improved
@linnproducts Klimax DS with
#katalyst is really very special ! Please call
in for a listen.#cooltunesonly
THE CHORD COMPANY @CHORDCABLES
Great to be working with @BowersWilkins
at @HiFiNewsmag Show this weekend.
The stunning 800s wired with Sarum speaker cable
& interconnects
NAD ELECTRONICS @NADELECTRONICS
Have a lot of Beatles records in your
collection? You may just own one of
the most expensive vinyl LPs ever sold:
http://ow.ly/5GwF3059COM
KEF AUDIO UK @KEFAUDIO
The #hifishowlive 2016 was a great success!
The general consensus being that the #KEF
systems were remarkable in both sound and aesthetics!
B&O PLAY @BEOPLAY
Need space to breathe? Let music help you
escape into the vast landscapes of clean air
and beautiful colours http://Beoplay.com/collection
DO GOOD AUDIO @DOGOODAUDIO
Read our latest blog post. This one will have
any music fan drooling. So good you will
demand an Encore! @MF_HiFi https://dogoodaudio.
co.uk/blogs/featured/so-good-you-will-demand-
an-encore …
THE VINYL FACTORY
@THEVINYLFACTORY
10 must-visit online record shops for second
hand vinyl http://www.thevinylfactory.com/vinyl-
factory-releases/10-must-visit-online-record-
shops-for-second-hand-vinyl/ …
DYNAUDIO @DYNAUDIO
When we build a new Contour cabinet,
16 pieces of sandpaper will lose their life
http://dynaud.io/EE
CAMBRIDGE AUDIO
@CAMBRIDGEAUDIO
In case you missed it, our ‘Making of Yoyo’
video is now live on YouTube! Check out the full video
here: http://bit.ly/2eHB0uF
ABSOLUTE SOUNDS @ABSOLUTE_SOUNDS
Wow, what a great start for us! We are so
pleased to welcome you all to the Hi Fi News
Show at The Old Windsor..... http://fb.me/8zVAVuiaJ
 IN-DEPTH TECHNICS
SL-1200G £2,999

Re-evolution
It’s back! The new, re-engineered SL-1200G
is the Technics the world has been waiting
for, says David Price

16 JANUARY 2017
 TECHNICS
SL-1200G £2,999 IN-DEPTH

DETAILS f you want to know why

PRODUCT
Technics SL-1200G
ORIGIN
I Technics stopped making
the SL-1200 nearly a
decade ago, blame the
Japan bankers. They’re responsible for a
TYPE variety of sins, but I never thought I
Direct-drive could lay this particular moment of
turntable
sadness at their door. According to
WEIGHT
18kg Tetsuya Itani, the company’s chief
DIMENSIONS technical officer, it was the global
(WxHxD) recession that was the final nail in the
453 x 173 x 372mm coffin – demand really slowed. At the
FEATURES same time, the company was well
● Quartz-locked,
direct-drive motor aware that the diecast moulds and
● Statically balanced tooling were on their last legs and
S-shaped tonearm there just wasn’t an economic case
● Quoted wow and
flutter: 0.025 for remaking its most iconic product.
percent WRMS That wasn’t the last of it, though,
● 33, 45 & 78rpm
as a vast number of people felt the
DISTRIBUTOR decision to cease production of the
Technics UK
deck just as the vinyl revival was
TELEPHONE finally getting into full swing seemed
03332 228777
bizarre. There was a considerable
WEBSITE
technics.com outcry that didn’t go unnoticed in
Japan, and as soon as the West’s
economy was out of the woods, the
decision was taken to re-enter the
market with a better, reworked
version of the deck. This however,
took more than a quick forage behind
the filing cabinet for the blueprints;
Itani admits that they “had to redesign
almost all parts from scratch”.

A brilliant turntable
that is a serious
improvement on its
excellent forebear
Audiophiles may be wondering
what all the fuss is about – “Company
stops making DJ deck, world keeps
turning” might be their retort. Well,
the answer is that the SL-1200 was
always more than just a disco fashion
accessory. To those who’d only ever
encountered Regas and Linns, the
Technics might look like a chintzy
bauble, but see one in the flesh and
you begin to understand why it was
(and is) special. Its diecast aluminium
upper section feels classy, as does the
rubberised BMC composite base. The
strobed brass and aluminium platter
might look like it escaped from a late
seventies music centre, but it’s heavier
than you’d think at 3.6kg including its
thick rubber mat.
The motor was always the SL-1200’s
star attraction. Even on the previous
version, spin a record then rub your
finger against the side of the platter
and you’d feel the servo resolutely
respond by pumping more power
into it. Do the same trick with any
belt-drive turntable and you’ll hear a
groaning noise as the belt stretches

JANUARY 2017 17
 IN-DEPTH TECHNICS
SL-1200G £2,999
The heavyweight
platter is a sandwich
of brass and cast
alloy that’s
dampened by a
rubber underside
and slips, whereas the serious
torque of the Technics fights you
back. “Direct drive has many
advantages over belt drive or rim
drive technology,” explains Itani,
“but after extensive research we
learned there exists a minor issue
with sound quality due to ‘cogging’.
This causes tiny vibrations during
rotation that can potentially affect
the sound. Although the old SL-1200
delivered a good performance, we
wanted to develop a completely
new system that achieved the best
ever direct-drive performance.”
The new SL-1200G gets a fancy
new motor then (see In Sight), but
what of the tonearm? It retains
traditional gimbal suspension
construction, with the horizontal
rotation axis and the vertical
rotation axis intersecting at a single
central point. Precision bearings
are fitted using a cut-processed
housing, and the result is that it
feels lovely to hand cue. Whereas
the SL-1200GAE Limited Edition
got a magnesium armtube, the
cooking SL-1200G reverts back
to standard, heavier aluminium,
although this is nicely surfaced to
a matt finish. Internal wiring is
copper, while the non-captive arm
cable uses the MK5’s OFC copper
wire. The headshell is aluminium,
and takes cartridges from 5.6g to
18 JANUARY 2017
19.8g; it’s a standard classic SME
type, so can be usefully upgraded to a
fancier, more rigid carbon fibre type
at a later date and this will yield a
real improvement in sound. The new
feet are said to have a high level of
vibration damping, and this claim is
quickly confirmed by listening tests
– although as with every turntable
ever made, it benefits from a rigid,
level, vibration-free support. In use,
the overall feel of this new Technics
is wonderfully slick – rather like a
precision Japanese camera – and the
new brushed aluminium surfacing on
top makes it look a lot less utilitarian
than its predecessor.
Sound quality
Although many think of the Technics
merely as a DJ deck, it has always
been a capable hi-fi vinyl spinner.
Fit a decent cartridge to its stock
tonearm, set it up well and remove
the sound-muddling dust cover, and
you have a strong, feisty-sounding
performer with a wondrously solid
and propulsive base. That’s always
been the case – indeed even the old
SL-1200’s bottom end is special
compared with pretty much any other
turntable. Elsewhere, higher up the
frequency range, the old deck sounded
very clean and crisp, but slightly
bright and lacking in fine detail.
The new SL-1200G effectively takes
up the baton from where the previous
HOW IT one left off, building on the strengths
COMPARES of its predecessor. It goes to work
Michell’s GyroDec/ on fixing the failings of the last
Tecno Arm A generation model, with a sweeter,
(£1,945/£665) is smoother tonality – especially in the
another hugely iconic midband – and better soundstaging
vinyl spinner for under
and depth perspective. In short, it’s
three gees. Since its
1981 debut it’s been less of a showy ‘DJ deck’ and more
heavily reworked, but of a mature, hi-fi turntable. Tracking
there the similarities an Ortofon Quintet Black (£650)
end. The Michell is a moving-coil cartridge, hooked up to
more fiddly ‘self-build’ an ANT Audio Kora 3T phono stage
deck that doesn’t work
straight out of the box;
and Randy Crawford’s You Might Need
its sprung subchassis Somebody soon shows that this is
and belt drive system
have more adjustments. The ‘naked’ view
It’s also beautifully shows the platter-
finished, and a work of mounting lugs and
art to look at. Sonically S-shaped tonearm
it lacks the SL-1200’s
immaculate sense
of control, not quite
managing its Japanese
rival’s superlative speed
stability, although it’s
way ahead in the stereo
imaging stakes and has
a slightly warmer and
more natural tonality
that better conveys the
sound of the recording
studio. Both are superb
– you pays your money
and takes your choice!
even tighter and tauter in the bass
than its predecessor. Yet where the
old MK5 could sound ragged with
female vocals, the SL-1200G is
smoother and purer. It also manages
to image slightly better too; image
location was never a problem, but the
soundstage is now a little wider and
falls back just a touch more than
before. Compared with a price rival
such as a Michell GyroDec/Tecno
arm, the Technics is still way behind,
lacking real ‘out of the box’ three
dimensionality – but it’s fair to say
that it makes up for it in other ways.
Spin up some classic electro-pop
such as Heaven 17’s epic Temptation,
and the SL-1200G absolutely shines.
That ‘laid back’ vinyl
sound isn’t there; it’s
more akin to hi-res
digital, with soul
On fast, dense, uptempo music such
as this, it’s totally arresting – it makes
you sit up and listen. Like flicking
your telly from Freeview to HD,
things snap into focus dramatically,
making most rival belt-drive designs
sound as wallowy as a tired old tube
amp being asked to drive difficult
loudspeakers. Musically it is one of
the most exciting disc spinners to
listen to – there’s so much energy
coming out of the groove that it
captures, bringing a visceral feel
to the music. Again, that bassline
dominates, but the electronic
percussion is so accurately carried
and everything bounces off it in
perfect time. The only criticism is
that the deck can’t quite convey the
loudest crescendos properly, it’s as
if the fitted tonearm just isn’t quite
good enough. There’s no mistracking,
just a subtle sense of compression – so
one wonders if there’s going to be an
armless version at some stage?
 TECHNICS
SL-1200G £2,999 IN-DEPTH

IN SIGHT Q&A
1 2
1 Heavyweight
Jonathan Danbury
platter with mat Product specialist, Technics UK
2 Tonearm
3 counterweight
3 VTA adjustment

4 Bias adjustment

4 5 Pitch slider ± 8%
and ± 16%
6 Stylus light
DP: Why did Technics relaunch the
SL-1200?
JD: After the relaunch of Technics in
2014, we received many requests
from vinyl enthusiasts all around the
5
world to bring back the SL-1200
direct-drive turntable. After much
research and study, along with the
increase in vinyl sales and LP
releases, we thought that the global
6 market was big enough to warrant its
return. Finally, following this, the
SL-1200GAE Limited Edition was
PRECISION DRIVE
announced in January 2016.
From the launch of the original SL-120 in the early position with the precision of 0.7° (540 points in 360°), Worldwide only 1,200 were made to
seventies, the mainstay of Technics’ turntable range has and generates appropriate drive current for stator coils.
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the
always been its direct-drive motor. The company always “That gives us smoother rotation control, resulting in
believed, with some justification it has to be said, that superior sound quality”, explains Tetsuya Itani. The
Technics brand, and these sold out
direct drive was the intellectually correct way to spin a new motor puts out 3.3kg/cm of torque (up from the very quickly. So we have now
turntable platter. The SL-1200 kept the same motor right SL-1210MK5’s 1.5kg/cm), and because the speed control introduced the SL-1200G, a non-
the way up to the last MK5 model, but now the G version is now done in software there’s a USB port for future limited edition, which will continue
gets a brand new coreless direct-drive design, with twin firmware upgrades. Another key tweak to complement in production indefinitely.
rotor construction and a hybrid encoder at the bottom of the latest direct-drive motor design is the new, less
the motor housing. A micro-controller detects the rotor resonant platter. What are the benefits of the direct-
drive motor system?
As the developer of the direct-drive
Spin up some classic rock music issues to consider. First, it feels like system for turntables, Technics has
from REM, and again you’re struck by the capability of the motor unit always recognised the numerous
the wonderfully propulsive feel of the far exceeds that of the tonearm – benefits it offers. Very high rotational
music. Talk About The Passion is a even though the new arm seems speed accuracy and stability along
Rickenbacker-laced ballad that can better than its predecessor. Second, with high torque for fast start-up are
sound ponderous on lesser decks, but although way better than some price two key points to make. Also, direct-
it feels like the SL-1200G has had a rivals in most respects, it features far drive motors offer a very long
run around the park, a quick shower stiffer competition at its new price life without any performance
then a stiff espresso. It sounds fresh as than its substantially cheaper degradation, making them ideal
a daisy and rhythmically captivating predecessor did. That’s got to make for this application.
– that ‘laid back’ vinyl sound that some people think twice and wonder
many people love isn’t there; instead if they shouldn’t go for a more What cartridge would you
it’s much more akin to hi-res digital, balanced all-rounder, of which there recommend using?
but with soul. Rhythm is everything, are several. I love this new Technics, We would always recommend
from the wonderful attack on the bass but it no longer offers the epic value customers to talk through the options
with their dealer, because it’s a matter
guitar that never (unlike belt-drive for money of its forebear ●
of personal taste. Your choice will
rivals) sounds slurred, to the glassy
ultimately depend on the amplifier
clarity in the midband, which locates and loudspeakers being used, as well
elements in the mix with laser-like as the budget. Recently at a number
precision. Moving further up the
frequency range, cymbals have a
OUR VERDICT of shows we have been using an
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Engrossing, Ortofon 2M Black, which has proved
delicious, crystalline purity that’s rare propulsive sound; a very effective match to the
even on the finest superdecks. Much superlative build SL-1200G, but there’s a wide
and finish
of this could be said about its VALUE FOR MONEY
selection of good pickup cartridges
DISLIKE: Price now
predecessor, but there’s none of its puts it up against some on sale now.
midband hardness now, and that BUILD QUALITY gifted competition
slightly processed feel is gone. WE SAY: An icon is
FEATURES
reborn, and it’s better
than ever before
Conclusion
The new Technics SL-1200G is a
brilliant turntable, and a serious OVERALL
improvement on its already excellent
forebear. However, there are two big

JANUARY 2017 19
 Hi-Fi Choice employs the most rigorous test and measurement
regime in the business. Here’s how we do it...

Unique group tests

REFERENCE SYSTEM
SOURCES
Melco N1A NAS drive
Pioneer XDP-100R
HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER/DAC
Chord Electronics Mojo
Our Group Tests are supported by rigorous and
exhaustive listening tests carried out by experts TEST MUSIC
MANIC STREET PREACHERS
This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours
NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES GROUP TEST Black Dog On My Shoulder 16/44.1 FLAC

THE PROCESS OF testing six noise-cancelling
headphones has two distinct phases. To
benchmark their passive audio performance, a
Melco N1A NAS drive (HFC 397) is connected
via USB to a Chord Electronics Mojo headphone
amplifier/DAC (HFC 405). Levels are set using
an SPL meter and a pink noise test tone before
the test music routine is played.
Having performed the conventional listening
on each of the models, we test their noise
cancelling abilities under controlled conditions.
The same level matched Melco/Chord pairing is
used to provide a signal to the headphones and
the same four listening tracks are played while
external noise is introduced into the background
using a Yamaha RX-A3040 AV Receiver and five
Elipson Planet M speakers. Two noise files are
played via a Lenovo T530 ThinkPad and Chord
Hugo DAC (HFC 386) – one is a replica of cabin
noise from a Boeing 737 aircraft: https://
mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/
cabinNoiseGenerator.php. The second is a
recording of an airport departure lounge from
the ‘airport’ category of sounds from http://
www.soundsnap.com. This ensures that the
noise the headphones are subjected to are as DAVID BOWIE
Blackstar
consistent as the music in the test. Girl Loves Me 24/96 FLAC
For the Bluetooth equipped models, a Pioneer
XDP-100R hi-res portable player (HFC 405) is
used and the same test music is evaluated.

IMOGEN HEAP
Ellipse
Little Bird 16/44.1 FLAC

YOUSSOU N’DOUR & PETER GABRIEL

BLIND LISTENING TESTS
This crucial process is very
carefully controlled so that we
get reliable and consistent
results in a relaxed and friendly
atmosphere. Our listeners must
not feel that they’re being tested,
despite being unaware of the
brand or price of the products
they are auditioning.
The session begins by setting
the volume level to an agreed
point, one that all three panellists
feel comfortable with, yet that is
high enough to make differences
easily discernible. Then the
choice of music is agreed – it
needs to be familiar, but also well
recorded and of sufficient variety
to give meaningful listening
comparisons. The chosen
selection of music is played, and
the panellists are encouraged to
discuss their impressions of the
sound of the product. This is then
repeated, and periodically the
panel listens to earlier products
for reference purposes. The
Fatteliku (Live In Athens 1987)
In Your Eyes 24/48 FLAC
consensus, or otherwise then
forms the basis of our sound
quality section.
At the end of the session,
there’s a final debrief when
panellists discuss their findings.
It’s an exhaustive process, but
carried out in this way is free
from prejudices based on brand,
price or appearance, while the
different sensitivities of the
listeners help to round out the
analysis in order to make it more
widely applicable.

22 JANUARY 2017
 The new
wine
“We wanted to create something beautiful... beautiful in sound, looks and connectivity.
The Röst is all that. It is the sum of everything we have learned. A true one-stop
amplifier. Something you would want to have on the top shelf.”
- Hegel Music System AS -

ready

HEGEL RÖST - Integrated amplifier with AirPlay and IP-control

Imagine a small, good looking, and incredibly versatile piece of audio kit that can
power some of the most difficult loudspeakers you would ever want.
Imagine a true high fidelity solution you can use with your iPhone, integrate in your
“smart home” and that plays all your favourite music the way it was intended.
No distortion of the original music signal. No distortion to the looks of your living
room... you have just imagined the Röst.

Derby: Musicraft
Edinburgh: Loud & Clear
Kent: Igloo Audio
West Sussex: Audiologica

Hegel: www.hegel.com

ALL HEADPHONES OFFER a
degree of passive noise reduction and
some cut high-frequency sounds
considerably thanks to the padded
ear-cushions. With active noise
cancelling, ambient sounds on planes,
trains and buses need no longer be
a sonic spoiler. Active models cut
background noise much further by
using a built-in microphone and
amplifier to generate their own
soundfield that is near identical to
the incoming sound, but its phase is
24 JANUARY 2017
diametrically opposite. Your ears
listen to both, with the phase of the
actively generated one cancelling out
the incoming sound.
Sound of silence
There is a trade off to be made in that
the noise cancellation can affect the
quality of the sound produced by the
headphones. At 35,000 feet up in the
air or in a noisy train you might prefer
the feeling of isolation, even if the
sound quality is slightly tainted.
NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES £200-£330
It’s oh
so quiet…
Ed Selley isolates his ears from
the metropolis and discovers
the art of noise cancelling
Some models here benefit from
Bluetooth wireless, which means you
can connect to pretty much every
smart device around – simply pair up
your device and away you go. It’s
stable over short distances and audio
quality has improved significantly
in recent years to deliver near-CD
quality especially with aptX
compatible devices. To find out
which of these six noise-cancelling
headphones give the best sonic
rewards for your needs, read on.
 ON TEST

AKG Audio-Technica Bose PSB Sennheiser Sony

N60NC £200 p27 ATH-MSR7NC £249 p29 QC35 £290 p31 M4U 2 £229 p33 PXC 550 £330 p35 MDR-1000X £330 p37
The AKG is a wired A variation of its ATH- This is the latest model This Canadian model is The Sennheiser also A Bluetooth and active
on-ear design that MSR7, this wired over- in the well-regarded line, a wired over-ear design offers Bluetooth noise-cancelling model,
offers active noise ear headphone with the QC35 adds wireless that offers both noise connectivity as well as the Sony is designed to
cancelling and the active noise cancelling Bluetooth operation as cancelling and an active active noise cancelling adapt its performance
already compact claims it has been well as a control app mode that boosts output a selection of DSP output to fit your listening
form folds down designed with an and a claims 20 hours and claims a remarkable modes and claims up to style and claims up to 25
into a small bag. emphasis on comfort. battery life. 55 hours battery life. 30 hours of playback. hours of playback time.

JANUARY 2017 25
 NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES
£200-£330 GROUPTEST

AKG FRIENDS AND FAMILY

The N60NC is one of two noise-
cancelling models in the Harman

N60NC £200 Group’s AKG consumer audio range,

As the most compact design in the group, these cans
are easily transportable, but no lightweight sonically
DETAILS his is the only headphone technically able to be used while being
PRODUCT
AKG N60NC
ORIGIN
T in the test that can
reasonably be described as
an on-ear design rather
charged, you’ll have to do without
music while the AKG does so. But with
a claimed 30 hours of battery life, you
Austria/China than an over-ear one, and is easily the shouldn’t need to do this too often.
TYPE most compact model here. The N60NC The folding design is simple and
Closed-back, on-ear (the NC suffix standing for noise attractive with good-quality materials
noise-cancelling
headphone cancelling) has the smallest earpiece helping give it a robust feel despite
WEIGHT enclosures of the group, which on first its small and slightly fragile-looking
150g inspection appear to be almost entirely frame. Memory foam is used on the
FEATURES covered by soft padding. This is one of driver housings that warm up and
● Quoted battery
only two noise-cancelling models in shape themselves to your ear – and
life: 30 hours
● Folding design AKG’s lineup, although there are more prove to be comfortable to wear for
● 1.2m cable in the Harman portfolio (see box out). extended periods – with good weight
● Storage case
The N60NC is a wired-only design that distribution and traction when placed
DISTRIBUTOR connects to your playback device via a
Harman
Consumer UK 2.5mm-to-3.5mm jack-to-jack cable The vocals and
TELEPHONE
that has a single-button inline remote
0207 0845392 with mic. Unusually, the 2.5mm socket supporting guitar
is also the charging point for the
WEBSITE
uk.akg.com internal battery pack for the noise-
both sound well
cancelling mode. This means that defined and natural
while the other noise-cancelling
headphones in the group are on the head. A soft bag is supplied for
storage of the headphone and both
the audio and charging cables, and in
terms of portability this is the most
lightweight model of the group.
Sound quality
The AKG might be the smallest model
here, but this doesn’t seem to put it
at any great disadvantage in sonic
terms. At the test level, it gets stuck
into the Manic Street Preachers’ Black
Dog On My Shoulder with a pleasing
sense of drive and enthusiasm. The
midrange and upper registers are very
well handled, which allows both the
vocals and supporting guitar to sound
well defined and natural. There is an
impressive sense of space and three
dimensionality as vocals hang in
mid air, and I get a soundstage
presentation that feels nicely close
and intimate, and enhances the
listening experience.
Things are slightly less assured in
the bass, however. David Bowie’s
Girl Loves Me sounds punchy and
aggressive as a result, but there is a
thickness to the lower registers that
leaves the track sounding sluggish and
lacking in the kind of definition and
composure that’s demonstrated by
the better performers here.
the other being the acclaimed £1,300
N90Q reference-class over-ear
headphone with TruNote auto-
calibrating noise cancelling – see full
review in HFC 405. As part of the
wider group of Harman brands,
though, the company produces
other noise-cancelling designs,
predominantly under its JBL badge.
While the brand has the more
extensive lineup of models including
some with useful Bluetooth wireless
capabilities, its consumer designs are
less likely to appeal to serious audio
fans, and the AKG line has a more
elegant design aesthetic. The
Bluetooth functionality of the JBL
would be a welcome addition to
the design of the AKG, but it’s
construction and compact size
make it a more suitable candidate
for music fans on the move.
Disappointingly, the bass thickness
never really dissipates with any of
the test material, but with Peter
Gabriel and Youssou N’Dour’s In
Your Eyes in particular, it manages
to handle the big live performance
with assurance and a genuinely
likeable tonality.
The noise cancelling is more effective
at blocking out the aircraft cabin noise
test track playing in the background
than the more disparate departure
lounge sounds, but in both instances
the N60NC manages to remove the
bulk of the external noise without
sounding constrictive as it does so. The
musical performance is unaffected by
the noise-cancelling circuitry and that
natural tonality and its impressive
ability with vocals remains perfectly
intact. Sadly, it doesn’t alleviate the
congested low end that taints its
performance in passive mode either ●
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Good tonality
and airy presentation;
solid build
VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Congested
bass performance
WE SAY: A compact
BUILD QUALITY
and effective noise-
cancelling design
FEATURES
that’s let down by
bass performance and
the strength of rivals
OVERALL

JANUARY 2017 27
 A U D I O S Y S T E M S

The Classic

August 2016 Best Turntable 2016-2017

An Instant Classic
The Classic was released to celebrate Pro-Ject Audio
Systems’ 25th Anniversary. This retro-inspired turntable
has been designed from the ground-up to combine
timeless aesthetics with modern technology and
audiophile sound performance.
The striking frame design is available in three wood
finishes, and provides clever decoupling between the
acoustically treated aluminium platter and the motor.
The new motor is powered by a built-in generator, for
a consistent performance, and drives a sub-platter that
sits atop a precision-engineered main bearing.
The all-new 9” Classic Tonearm is made of aluminium
and carbon fibre, for unrivalled rigidity while retaining
a low mass. The arm benefits from a new bearing
system for completely free movement and is supplied as
standard with an Ortofon 2M Silver cartridge.
Available Now for £799.00 (UK SRP)

Distributed by Henley Designs Ltd.

T: +44 (0)1235 511 166 | E: sales@henleydesigns.co.uk | W: www.henleydesigns.co.uk
 NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES
£200-£330 GROUPTEST

Audio-Technica ACTIVE VS PASSIVE

Some comparisons of this noise-
cancelling model against the

ATH-MSR7NC £249 standard passive version reviewed in

The design is familiar, but will adding noise cancelling
to the well-regarded model pay sonic dividends?
DETAILS agle-eyed readers will supplied along with a pair of 1.2m
PRODUCT
Audio-Technica
ATH-MSR7NC
E recognise the ATH-
MSR7NC. It’s true, this is
not a ‘clean sheet’ design,
detachable cables – one with inline
remote and mic and one without – and
both are fitted with 3.5mm gold-plated
ORIGIN and we reviewed its ATH-MSR7 sibling stereo mini-plugs. Disappointingly,
Japan/China back in HFC 398 (see box out). The there’s no wireless Bluetooth.
TYPE noise-cancelling version shares the This is an extremely comfortable
Closed-back, over-
ear noise-cancelling same basic chassis design as its passive headphone to wear for extended
headphone brother, as it too is built around a pair periods of time, the design is
WEIGHT of 45mm dynamic drivers that are handsome without being gaudy and
305g mounted in closed-back, over-ear build quality is top notch. It’s the only
FEATURES enclosures. The drivers make use model in the test that does not fold
● Quoted battery
life: 30 hours of Audio-Technica’s True Motion inwards for storage – the enclosures
● 2x 1.2m cables technology that is designed to aid fold flat, but the headband has no
● Storage case
sensitivity and help them move in form of hinging to collapse the
DISTRIBUTOR a more controlled fashion. enclosures in on themselves, making it
Audio-Technica UK
The noise-cancelling system is the least travel-friendly model here. It
TELEPHONE
0113 2771441
described as omnidirectional and has comes supplied with a carry bag.
WEBSITE
a single setting selected via a small
eu.audio-technica. switch on the left-hand earpiece. Sound quality
com Battery life with the noise cancelling Given the close relationship to its
activated claims to give up to 30 hours sibling, it comes as no surprise to
playback. Charging is by micro USB discover that the noise-cancelling-
connection and a cable for this is equipped model produces a similar
performance. It manages to do
a fine job of balancing the twin
requirements of drive and refinement
Noise cancelling
does not affect the
well-judged tonality
of the performance
with the Manic Street Preachers’ Black
Dog On My Shoulder, and while vocals
can sound fractionally soft at times,
the balance of the performance is
very appealing. It’s this same even
handedness that helps David Bowie’s
Girl Loves Me to sound powerful,
although not at the expense of the
control that’s needed for his vocals
to take centre stage.
Bass is impressive and produces a
deep and powerful low end that has
a definition and clarity that eludes
some of the other designs in the test.
The low electronic notes of Imogen
Heap’s Little Bird sound very
impressive and the confidence and
scale it gives to the live version of
In Your Eyes by Youssou N’dour and
Peter Gabriel is also convincing and
conveys a real sense of the venue the
HFC 398 are interesting. Both units
are completely identical in terms of
dimensions and overall appearance,
which suggests that space was left in
the original design for the battery
and noise-cancelling hardware to
easily be fitted.
With both headphones connected
to the twin 3.5mm outputs of the
Chord Mojo (HFC 405), the
performance of the two models is
sufficiently close that I would find
it difficult to tell them apart under
blind listening test conditions.
The ATH-MSR7NC seems to be
fractionally less sensitive than the
passive version and there is the sense
that the bass response, while still
impressive is slightly softer, but the
fundamental sound qualities that I
enjoyed so much remain intact in the
noise-cancelling version.
performance is held in. Judged by
the standards of some of the other
designs here, it can lack a little
excitement at times, but this
appears to be the price to pay
for its unflappable presentation.
The noise-cancelling function is a
slightly more mixed bag. The good
news is that switching it on does not
affect the accurate and well-judged
tonality of the passive mode
performance, and nor does it raise
background noise levels. The problem
is that the levels of noise cancelling it
achieves are lower than its rivals here
and not quite enough to drown out
the din. The Boeing 737 cabin noise is
dealt with fairly effectively – although
again, some of the interference
remains audible. Voices in particular
appear to be a big challenge as the
ATH-MSR7NC fails to completely block
them out ●
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Powerful and
refined presentation;
comfort and build
VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Noise
cancelling not quite as
effective as rivals; size
BUILD QUALITY
WE SAY: A capable
headphone, but noise
FEATURES
cancelling is bettered
by rivals and it’s bulky
for use on the move
OVERALL

JANUARY 2017 29
 NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES
£200-£330 GROUPTEST

Bose CUT THE CHORD

The QC35 is equipped with Bluetooth
but does without the aptX codec

QC35 £290 to bring wireless audio quality up

to the highest standards and near
to CD-quality levels. The
implementation of features
Arguably the leading noise-cancelling brand, does this elsewhere is really rather good, with
Near Field Communication (NFC)
Bluetooth-equipped model have what it takes? touch to pair, a useful voice prompt
system and a pleasing combination
of good wireless range between it
DETAILS s the brand that brought 2.5mm audio input for which a 1m and a paired device and decent
PRODUCT
Bose
Quiet Comfort 35
A portable noise-cancelling
headphones to our
attention, Bose is quite
cable is supplied, and the right has
the noise cancelling and Bluetooth
controls along with a micro USB
signal stability. There is also a flexible
control app to help pairing.
Sonically, the QC35 doesn’t seem
ORIGIN possibly the first name many people charging input. to be disadvantaged by its aptX
US/China will think of when it comes to It’s a foldable design that enables it rivals. Performance with lossless files
TYPE headphones that shut out the hubbub to collapse into a fantastically small largely reflects the quality of the
Closed-back, over-
ear active noise- of the world. The QC35 is the latest space. A good-quality carry case is material via wired connection and
cancelling model in a long-running series supplied, and there’s room for the Tidal shows up its audio prowess over
headphone of designs from the US brand. headphone and all of its supporting Spotify, for example. Background
WEIGHT Cosmetically it looks similar to accessories without needing to cram noise doesn’t increase significantly
380g
the preceding QC25, but the key any of it in. In its black finish, it’s with Bluetooth in use, and there is
FEATURES
● Quoted battery difference is that the new model unlikely that anyone would ever no discernible effect on the tonal
life: 20 hours can also function wirelessly using describe the QC35 as a design classic, balance when engaged.
● Bluetooth wireless
Bluetooth connected to your portable but the model is constructed to a high
● 1.2m cable
● Storage case device, although it’s not aptX capable standard and comfort levels are good
DISTRIBUTOR (see box out). for listening over long periods. The aids the live recording performance
Bose UK Bose is vague about the specifications synthetic leather pads feel a little odd, of In Your Eyes doing a fine job of
TELEPHONE of it products, and the company won’t but the Alcantara headband padding is sounding three dimensional, if not
0808 1688572 be drawn on the size of the drivers really rather lovely. terribly exciting.
WEBSITE inside the QC35, nor the material they As a noise-cancelling design,
bose.co.uk
are made from. The earpieces are a Sound quality however, it is on much stronger
closed-back design, which completely The Bose is noticeably less sensitive ground. There may only be a single
enclose the ear. The left earcup has a than some of the other designs in the setting, but when activated it is the
test, but it would be a stretch to call most capable of all the models here.
it hard to drive. Its performance is It’s completely effective at removing
interesting in many ways because it the cabin noise and also able to
seems to echo the overall design handle the more variable sounds
– capable, easy to live with but of the departure lounge, including
perhaps a little subdued at times. It sudden raised voices. Noise cancelling
presents Manic Street Preachers’ has little effect on the tonal balance,
Black Dog On My Shoulder, with a ensuring its sound remains just as
refined and well balanced sound easy (or slightly dull depending on
and it doesn’t ever become harsh your point of view) to listen to in this
or forward under provocation. sort of environment. It might not be
the most exciting looking or sounding
This is the most headphone here, but there is a reason
why it is so ubiquitous among
capable with noise long-distance travellers ●
cancelling of all
the models here
This is admirable, but it lacks the
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Superb noise
savagery with Girl Loves Me and cancelling; solid build;
comes across as too safe and useful features
constrained. Bowie’s vocals are rich VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Slightly dull
sound and looks
and have plenty of fine detail, but
WE SAY: A superb
some of the urgency and definition BUILD QUALITY
headphone for
in the bass has gone and this takes travelling, but lacks
some of the impact with it. The FEATURES
some drive and
excitement
less dynamic Imogen Heap track
demonstrates its talent with vocals
further and is easy on the ear. There is OVERALL
a commendable sense of positioning
to the way it presents music, which

JANUARY 2017 31
 NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES
£200-£330 GROUPTEST

PSB CAN YOU FEEL IT?

PSB is better known as a
manufacturer of conventional box

M4U 2 £229 loudspeakers, and company owner

As a passive headphone this takes some beating,
but active noise cancelling has some niggles
DETAILS his is the oldest design independently. Power is supplied by
PRODUCT
PSB M4U 2
ORIGIN
T here and represents the
Canadian brand’s first
noise-cancelling
two AAA batteries behind a removable
panel, which – while a little less
elegant than some – gives a claimed
Canada/China headphone. The M4U 2 (‘music for 55 hour life and instant recharge if you
TYPE you too’) is an over-ear design and is have replacement batteries to hand.
Closed-back, over- built around a pair of 40mm dynamic The PSB is the most overtly styled
ear noise-cancelling
headphone drivers mounted in a pair of closed- model here and in the black finish at
WEIGHT back enclosures. The M4U 2 offers least, it’s not so alarming as to be
362g wired playback only with no unwearable by anyone over 30.
FEATURES Bluetooth, but there’s RoomFeel tech Comfort is good with excellent weight
● Quoted battery
that promises to bring the experience distribution and padding. One feature
life: 55 hours
● 1.5m cable closer to that of listening to a set of that deserves huge praise is the
● Carrying case loudspeakers in your own living room. inclusion of a 3.5mm input on both
DISTRIBUTOR There are some other curiosities to earpads – allowing you to route the
Sevenoaks Sound the design too. Like others in the test, cable via the easiest side, which is
& Vision
the active noise cancelling can either something any company making travel
TELEPHONE
01732 740944
be on or off. Unlike its rivals, though, headphones should consider. A sturdy
WEBSITE
there’s an active mode which boosts carry case completes the deal.
psbspeakers.com the output if you happen to be using it
with a particularly feeble partnering Sound quality
device. The noise cancelling only If this was a group test that featured
functions once this active mode conventional passive headphones at
is engaged – it can’t be selected this price point, the M4U 2 would be
The performance is
spacious, packed
with detail and
easy to listen to
able to hold its own. It’s a very
convincing performer and RoomFeel
gives the Manic Street Preachers’
track the right balance of energy and
refinement. Vocals are rendered with
real texture and realism and the
supporting acoustic guitar sounds
detailed and has a lovely sense of
decay to it. Bowie’s Girl Loves Me is no
less assured, with the PSB once again
balancing the punch and fury of the
piece while letting the vocals take
centre stage. Only a slight resonance
with low notes counts against it.
When it needs to be delicate, as
with Imogen Heap’s Little Bird, it’s
no less capable and the performance
with live recordings is also extremely
impressive. In Your Eyes by Youssou
N’dour and Peter Gabriel, is spacious,
packed with detail and extremely
easy to listen to for long periods. So
far so good, but the noise-cancelling
mode performance is the clincher.
and founder Paul Barton has made
strenuous efforts to try and bring the
acoustic experience from its speaker
designs to its headphones with
something that PSB calls RoomFeel.
This is a voicing process applied to
the M4U 2’s 40mm drivers, to give
them a frequency response that’s
more akin to a pair of conventional
loudspeakers when placed in a
listening room (see feature on p62).
This includes a degree of low-
frequency enhancement rather
than a more theoretical anechoic
response that aims for a more level
output. The intention is to make it feel
less like listening to headphones,
allowing it to produce a more
spacious and airy presentation with
a degree of low-end enhancement
as would be the case if you were
listening to a pair of loudspeakers.
Starting with the positives, the
active mode of the M4U 2 does
precisely what it sets out to do in
that it massively boosts the output
of the headphone. However, it has a
significant effect on the tonality and
the performance becomes thicker,
less defined and lacks the effortless
soundstage that is present in passive
mode. As the noise cancelling can
only be applied with the active mode
engaged, this is really something of a
stumbling block.
The noise cancelling itself is not
without limitations. It has the hardest
time of any of the headphones
blocking out the two different
background noises. The reduction in
Boeing cabin noise is fairly consistent,
but it can still be heard in the
background. The departure lounge
sounds are less effectively dealt with
and voices remain clearly audible ●
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Sound in passive
mode; comfort; build
DISLIKE: Active mode
VALUE FOR MONEY sound; ineffective
noise cancelling
WE SAY: A headphone
BUILD QUALITY
that has many likeable
features, although
FEATURES
noise cancelling isn’t
one of them
OVERALL

JANUARY 2017 33
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 NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES
£200-£330 GROUPTEST

Sennheiser APPY DAYS

As you might expect, the PXC 550’s
performance as a passive or active

PXC 550 Wireless £330 noise-cancelling headphone follows

through to wireless mode connected
over Bluetooth. Using the freely
downloadable app it’s possible to
If you’re looking for a versatile headphone that tweak the EQ settings of playback
material to further optimise the
excels in all areas, this ticks all the right boxes performance. Even if you don’t
bother with the app and simply send
material direct, the Sennheiser
DETAILS eadphones have come a as well as offering some useful retains all of its sonic credentials and
PRODUCT
Sennheiser
PXC 550 Wireless
H long way in recent years
and the PXC 550 Wireless
appears to have been
additional features (see box out).
Battery life is quoted at up to 30 hours,
although it doesn’t specify if this is
proves to be among one of the best
models I’ve heard using wireless
connection. It’s easy to pair and has
ORIGIN designed to offer almost every kind of with noise cancelling and Bluetooth excellent stability and range. Things
Germany/China feature you might realistically want in operation simultaneously. aren’t completely perfect, however,
TYPE from a portable model. The compact Sennheiser’s NoiseGard hybrid and the absolute volume level it can
Closed-back, over-
ear noise-cancelling folding chassis is a closed-back, noise cancellation is one of the more achieve is the lowest of the three
headphone over-ear design that works as a sophisticated systems on test, offering Bluetooth models on test and like
WEIGHT conventional passive headphone via an adaptive mode as well as a the other rival designs, the volume
227g a 2.5mm analogue input for which increments are a little on the large
FEATURES Sennheiser supplies a choice of cables If you want to listen side. Having said that, this remains a
● Quoted battery
life: 30 hours with and without an inline remote. seriously accomplished Bluetooth
● AptX Bluetooth Should you want to run without a to music with noise headphone offering.
wireless connecting cable, it has aptX-capable
● 1.0m cable
Bluetooth to handle lossless audio to
cancelling this is the
● Storage case

DISTRIBUTOR be transmitted from a suitable device.
Sennheiser UK There’s even a touchpad on the
TELEPHONE right-hand enclosure to allow volume
0333 2408185 adjustment and track selection. The
WEBSITE panel is a little on the sensitive side,
sennheiser.com
but works well enough once you get
used to it. There are also iOS and
Android apps for device management
headphone for you
conventional setting. The former is
designed to respond to noise levels
around you and alter the output
accordingly. The design is perhaps
more functional than stylish, but
everything about the Sennheiser
feels extremely well thought out. It’s
comfortable to wear for long periods
and a carry case is supplied.
Sound quality
The PXC 550 Wireless is a headphone
that doesn’t immediately grab you
with a single standout sonic attribute,
instead demonstrating a level of
proficiency that rivals find hard to
compete with. It delivers the Manic
Street Preachers’ Black Dog On My
Shoulder with an impressive balance of
tonal sweetness and drive that allows
the track to shine. Vocals are well
handled and the backing guitar sounds
vibrant and real. It gets stuck into Girl
Loves Me with an invigorating low-end
shove that doesn’t affect the delivery of
Bowie’s vocals.
With the more delicate Imogen Heap
piece, the weight of the electronic
notes is superb starting and stopping
with complete control and an
impressive sense of soundstage. In
Your Eyes has a lovely combination
of scale, three dimensionality and an
encouraging handling of voices and
instruments. There is a slight sense that
the PXC 550 doesn’t seek to generate a
lot of excitement beyond what is on the
recording and it can lack the last ounce
of dynamics, but the important trade
off is that it never sounds harsh or
overly bright.
The NoiseGard noise-reduction
system is excellent. The majority of
the headphones here show very little
alteration in their sonic performance
when noise cancelling is engaged, but
the effect here is so small that it is
essentially unaffected. If you want to
keep listening to music when also
running noise cancelling, this is the
headphone for you. The levels of noise
reduction are also excellent with only
the Bose QC35 managing to better the
quality of isolation from external
interferences. The dynamic mode
does an extremely good job with the
departure lounge sound effects and
handles sudden louder sounds
extremely well. The standard setting,
meanwhile, is no less effective at
blocking out the cabin noise ●
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Confident and
refined sound;
excellent noise
cancelling; good build;
VALUE FOR MONEY
extensive features
DISLIKE: Sensitive
BUILD QUALITY TouchPad; limited
volume with Bluetooth
FEATURES
WE SAY: Excellent
sound and noise-
cancelling abilities
OVERALL

JANUARY 2017 35
Everything you need.
Nothing you don’t.
Music brings us so much joy. An audio system shouldn’t reduce music’s unique
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R O T E L . C O M
 NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES
£200-£330 GROUPTEST

Sony BEYOND BLUE

Sony has become effective with
its LDAC wireless Bluetooth

MDR-1000X £330 implementation on a range of

With some serious technical noise-cancelling
firepower under its belt, can this model hit the spot?
DETAILS obody could accuse Sony left-hand earpad, it will switch off
PRODUCT
Sony MDR-1000X
ORIGIN
N of lacking ambition when
designing a headphone to
compete in this sector. The
noise cancelling so that you can hear
someone trying to talk to you or a
public address announcement, for
Japan/China MDR-1000X is an over-ear, closed-back example. Battery life is a little lower
TYPE design built around a pair of 40mm than most of the group – quoted at
Closed-back, over- dynamic drivers. It is able to run as a between 22 and 25 hours depending
ear noise-cancelling
headphone conventional passive headphone via on what mode you have the
WEIGHT a 3.5mm input for which a cable is headphone running in.
275g supplied, but can also be switched over The basic design is restrained and
FEATURES to Bluetooth operation and is equipped possibly even a little dull depending
● Quoted battery
with Sony’s LDAC system designed to on taste, but it’s well constructed and
life: 25 hours
● AptX Bluetooth boost the performance when required comfortable to wear for extended
wireless (see box out). listening sessions. The MDR-1000X
● 1.5m cable
Where Sony has really gone to town also benefits from a feature called
● Storage case
is with the noise cancelling. As well as Personal Optimiser, which takes into
DISTRIBUTOR
Sony Europe a conventional ‘on’ setting, there’s a account the shape of your head and
TELEPHONE
feature called Sense Engine that offers how you choose to listen to material
0207 3652810 the ability to adapt to the ambient and alters its output to suit. The
WEBSITE noise levels and adjust the amount of package is finished off with a
sony.co.uk noise cancelling being employed to good-quality carry case.
best suit the surrounding environment.
One clever feature is that by pressing Sound quality
a hand to the touch sensor on the Having first run Personal Optimiser,
the Sony delivers a performance of
the Manic Street Preachers’ Black Dog
On My Shoulder that manages to get
most parts of the performance right.
The presentation has a refined top
end and a tonal sweetness that makes
it very easy to listen to. Vocals are
Noise-cancelling
interference is
reduced to nearly
inaudible levels
well defined and have a lovely texture
to them and the supporting guitar
also sounds pleasantly natural.
Where the performance is less
assured is in the lower registers. The
Manic Street Preachers and Imogen
Heap don’t really cause it too many
issues, but the more forceful bassline
of David Bowie’s Girl Loves Me lacks
the definition and speed to let the
piece truly shine. There is no shortage
of bass extension, but it feels slightly
overwhelming in comparison with
the rest of the output and leaves it
sounding somewhat unbalanced as a
result. This lack of tonal evenness is
also present with Youssou N’dour and
products in recent years, and the
MDR-1000X continues the successful
trend by incorporating the data-
boosting technology. Pairing to a
device is straightforward and helped
by clear voice prompts. Once paired,
the headphone has usefully low
background noise levels and proves
very stable even at ranges of a few
metres. Like the Sennheiser, the
touch pad is a little on the sensitive
side but works well once you get
used to it. The MDR-1000X also has
comfortably the highest headroom in
the test from its onboard amplifier
when used in wireless mode. The
audio performance is unaffected by
the switch to Bluetooth – but therein
lies the problem as the somewhat
uneven and overbearing bass
response is still present when used
this way.
Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes, although
it handles the rest of the live
performance with impressive agility.
The MDR-1000X is on firmer ground
when you engage noise cancelling.
As you might expect, given the
technology that has been thrown at it,
the results are effective. It handles
aircraft cabin noise very well, reducing
the incoming interference to nearly
inaudible levels comparable with
the best performers in the test. The
adaptive setting is also effective,
but lacks the same efficiency as
Sennheiser’s PXC 550 at removing
sudden spikes in external noise
with ambient airport sounds being
generated in the background. The
audio performance is not significantly
affected by running the noise
cancelling, but this does mean that the
same uneven bass characteristic is also
present when used in this mode ●
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Capable noise
cancelling; refined
sound; excellent build
VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Disjointed
sound with
overpowering bass;
BUILD QUALITY slightly dull looks
WE SAY: Sophisticated
FEATURES
and effective noise
cancelling, but an
uneven sonic balance
OVERALL

JANUARY 2017 37
 GROUPTEST NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES
£200-£330

Group test verdict

Ed Selley emerges from his musical bubble, free from interference from the
outside world, to reveal which headphone is the noise-cancelling champion
AS THIS IS first and foremost a test
of noise-cancelling headphones, the
PSB M4U 2 has some issues that
simply can’t be ignored, which means
it’s the first to fall. Its excellent
passive performance is overshadowed
by the overbearing active mode,
which has to be on before the noise
cancelling is engaged. By contrast, the
small AKG N60NC is impressively
capable at keeping the noise of
outside world at bay. It’s compact size
means that it’s usefully portable, but
the overall sound quality isn’t quite
up to the standards set by the very
best models in the pack.
Sony’s MDR-1000X does many
things exceptionally well. The noise
cancelling is extremely sophisticated,
it’s comfortable to wear and the
Bluetooth implementation is arguably
the best of any headphone in the test.
The problem is that the bass response
is just too overwhelming to listen to
for long periods and as the joint most
expensive headphone in the test, it’s
vulnerable to better-sounding rivals.
Choosing between the Bose QC35
and the Audio-Technica ATH-
MSR7NC will come down to your
requirements. The Bose is the best
headphone here for shutting out the
noise of the outside world, and it
is comfortable and well built.
Sonically however, while it doesn’t
do anything wrong, it lacks a
little drive and excitement. The
WINNER
ATH-MSR7NC by contrast is a Sennheiser’s PXC 550
great-sounding headphone that is offers the best balance
comfortable and beautifully built, of performance across
wired, noise cancelling
but chunky, and the noise
and Bluetooth. It has an
cancelling is merely good rather entertaining sound and
than great. Choosing between the when you throw in the
two will come down to how much excellent build, neat
you plan to use them on the move, design and control
but if sound is the key factor then features and good
comfort levels, it stands
Audio-Technica gets second place
out as a worthy winner.
thanks to its superior sonics.

Make/model AKG Audio-Technica Bose PSB Sennheiser Sony

N60NC ATH-MSR7NC QC35 M4U 2 PXC 550 MDR-1000X

Price £200 £249 £290 £229 £330 £330

Sound
Value
Build
Features
Overall
, Effective noise- Capable noise A superb headphone Has many likeable Confident and Effective noise-
cancelling design cancelling, but rivals for travelling that features, but is let refined sound with cancelling model,
that’s let down by are better and it’s too lacks some drive down by rather poor excellent noise- but sound has an
bass performance bulky for on the move and excitement noise cancelling cancelling abilities uneven balance

Key features
Bluetooth No No Yes No Yes Yes

Foldable Yes No Yes No Yes Yes

Carry case Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Battery life 30 hours 30 hours 20 hours 55 hours 30 hours 25 hours

Design On-ear Over-ear Over-ear Over-ear Over-ear Over-ear

TRY WITH THESE

HEADPHONE AMP/DAC: PORTABLE SOURCE: STREAMING SERVICE:

Chord Mojo £400 Pioneer XDP-100R Tidal £20/m HFC 414
HFC 405 HFC 407 The competition is getting better, but Tidal still
If you want to get the For use on the move, the rules the roost in terms of sound quality and this
best from your tablet, XDP-100R remains an is helped by good desktop and mobile apps.
smartphone or laptop, excellent choice of DAP,
the Mojo is very thanks to its capable aptX
capable, usefully Bluetooth implementation
compact and claims 10 and the ability to run
hours battery life. streaming services.

38 JANUARY 2017
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 EXOTICA GERMAN PHYSIKS
HRS-130 £14,500

42 JANUARY 2017

Power tower
Chris Ward listens to German Physiks’
latest omnidirectional floorstander to see
if it’s a great all-rounder
ooking more like a
L
lighthouse than anything
else, one glance at this
extraordinary loudspeaker
tells you that you’re going to hear
something different. The HRS-130 is
no higher or wider than many large
floorstanders, but this octagonal
cross-section speaker is heavy, strongly
braced and seriously dense. The
cabinet is lined with a high-mass
damping material called Hawaphon
that consists of a polymer sheet
containing a matrix of small cells filled
with fine steel shot. Apart from the
twin binding posts, there is nothing to
denote a front, back or sides and being
omnidirectional, it should deliver the
same performance in every direction.
Build quality feels superlative with
highly refined engineering meeting
exquisite, hand-finished polished
The soundstage is so
huge it’s as though I
can wander through
the performers
surfaces. Here we see the gloss piano
black, but you can choose from an
extensive list of gloss, satin and veneer
finishes. The HRS-130’s origins can be
traced back to the work of Lincoln
Walsh in the sixties and more directly
to the designs of visionary polymath
Peter Dicks in the late seventies. Dicks
wanted to create a transducer design
that would avoid traditional driver
weaknesses. His early designs have
been advanced considerably, but this
revolutionary driver fittingly retains his
name, the Dicks Dipole Driver (DDD).
Put simply, traditional cone and dome
drivers are like pistons, pushing sound
energy broadly in the same direction
the voice coil actuates, leading to the
norm of rigid drivers that point
towards a listener. The elongated cone
shape of the DDD still has a voice coil
and magnet assembly (pointing down)
to drive it, but this cone is engineered
to move, resonate and flex in four
highly complex ways. It still acts partly
like a pistonic driver, but the majority
of its operating range is derived by the
GERMAN PHYSIKS
HRS-130 £14,500 EXOTICA
DETAILS around this incisive beat that tells me
the speaker is bringing something
PRODUCT
German Physiks extra to the party. The bass line enters
HRS-130 and the HRS-130 handles the lowest
ORIGIN register with consummate ease.
Germany Deep bass has fantastic agility and
TYPE
2-way floorstanding
is portrayed in an entirely musical
way. Some speakers stretch their bass
loudspeaker
WEIGHT credentials, performing at the edge of
their limits, but this just delivers the
34.5kg
DIMENSIONS deepest frequencies without blinking.
(WxHxD) Warm but richly detailed vocals
325 x 1,259 x 325mm
voice coil pushing against a stiff, near shine out from a totally immersive
FEATURES
rigid suspension that causes the driver ● 1x Dicks Dipole
soundscape as a shaker or afuche-
walls to bend, flex and ripple, Driver (DDD) cabasa joins the mix, positively
propagating sound waves up to near ● 1x 10in woofer glistening with sweet, high-frequency
● Quoted sensitivity:
right angles to the direction of the 87dB (4ohm)
sparkle. There is a ‘projected’ quality to
actuating voice coil that creates a DISTRIBUTOR
the sound image, akin to a stage actor
radiating sound pattern in 360°. The German Physiks delivering a subtle soliloquy to the back
innovative driver design is precision TELEPHONE of an auditorium. Communication is
manufactured using a very thin carbon 0118 9819891 completely unforced, with music just
fibre foil (only 0.15mm thick) that is WEBSITE flowing through the whole room, not
relatively rigid at rest, but can be german-physiks. overtly emanating from the drivers.
com
excited into complex but controllable The omnidirectional design propagates
waves. This is able to reproduce a vast sound in a way that means I can walk
range of frequencies from 220Hz up to around the room with little or no
24kHz. Thereafter, the lowest octaves degradation to the image. Even people
are handled by a 10in woofer firing in the next room can be drawn in to
downwards within the base, claimed the performance, in a way that other
to reach an impressive 29Hz. This low speakers simply can’t match.
crossover point promises a coherent The HRS-130 presents a 4ohm load;
sound as it’s way below the traditional not tough by high-end standards, but
midband area, where human hearing is Looking like no demanding a certain amount of power,
most sensitive to phase errors. other speaker, or more likely current dynamics, to
the HRS-130 also
I use a Veracity Mystra DAC (HFC sounds like
perform at its best. I connect a pair of
416) and Shanling CD-T100 transport nothing else Acousticimagery ATSAH 500
via Missing Link Dark Art 75ohm on the market monoblocks (HFC 404) to the Veracity
digital connector and start by powering
the HRS-130 with the Cyrus ONE (HFC
417) connected via Black Rhodium
Sonata VS-1 RCA interconnects (HFC
398) and Black Rhodium Foxtrot
speaker cable (HFC 412). I know the
Cyrus ONE has very strong current
delivery that may suit this design.
Usefully, there is a system for adjusting
the high-frequency output of the
speaker if you have a very large or
softly furnished listening space.
Room positioning takes a little
experimentation. Too close to rear or
side walls and reflected sound can
upset the musical communication.
Conversely, the downward-firing bass
woofer can be reinforced by proximity
to a wall, so it is relatively simple to
move the speakers until the qualities of
the DDD and woofer reach a happy
balance. This equates to a little over a
metre from the rear wall and slightly
more from side walls.
Sound quality
Playing You’re The One by Kaytranada
gives me a direct comparison between
my reference Cadence speakers and
the HRS-130. The opening clicktrack/
clap is rendered with real snap and
speed. There’s already extra ambience
JANUARY 2017 43
 EXOTICA GERMAN PHYSIKS
HRS-130 £14,500
Q&A
Robert Kelly
Marketing manager,
German Physiks
CW: What are the musical benefits
of the German Physiks’ design?
RK: Having one compact driver
produce almost the full audio range
gives much greater coherence than
splitting the sound over two or more
drivers in different positions with
different radiation characteristics.
This gives better timing as there
is no time delay distortion. Most
conventional speakers find it very
difficult to make the join between
two drivers seamless. We avoid a
crossover point in the midrange
where hearing is most sensitive to
achieve improved transparency.
You’re no longer tied to a small
sweet spot. You can enjoy a stereo
image with even frequency
distribution from a broad range of
positions in the room, just as you
would in the real concert, so several
people can enjoy high-quality sound
together and long-term listening is
more relaxed. In a live environment,
much of the sound you hear is
reflected, so you sit in an enveloping
soundfield. This reflected sound
helps to give the stereo image its
sense of solidity. Omnidirectional
speakers, with a similar enveloping
soundfield closely mimic the live
event and are able to produce a
more natural rendition of the original
stereo image. This has excellent
depth and focus, but without the
overly sharp or artificial image
definition that some speakers
produce, which you will rarely – if
ever – hear at a live performance.
What’s special about the approach
to engineering and construction?
Work is done by a small number of
highly dedicated people working on
small volumes to maximise personal
pride and attention to detail in
creating a very high-quality product.
If something is not perfect, it does
not get shipped. Cabinets have been
built using a local quality furniture
maker in Germany for many years.
They understand the high level
of quality demanded and will even
match a veneer or a shade of paint
to a sample approved by the
customer, so speakers can
match furniture or décor.
44 JANUARY 2017
IN SIGHT
SLO on my vintage Townshend Rock
1 Dicks Dipole Elite turntable via Timestep T-01MC
1
Driver phono stage (HFC 371). The opening
2 System for rasp from the brass section is utterly
adjusting high- compelling and the kick drum is as fast
frequency as a gunshot. The responsiveness and
output
ability to handle fast transients is near
3 Bi-wireable the speed of an electrostatic speaker,
loudspeaker
binding posts but without a panel’s bass limitations
or a ‘beamy’ sweet spot. Clare’s voice
has a honey richness and electrified air
and every acoustic performer seems to
have extra room to breathe, with huge
dynamic swings and dense detail
effortlessly conveyed. This ‘one take’,
live performance is delivered with
stunning top-to-bottom ‘live’ coherence
that completely communicates the
musical prowess, emotional power and
immediacy of this highly dynamic
recording. It really doesn’t get any
2
better than this.
Conclusion
The HRS-130 combines the speed and
imaging qualities of an electrostatic
3
panel with the coherence and
communication of a full-range driver,
along with the air shifting qualities of
a dedicated subwoofer. Huge, wide,
tall soundstages are continuous
sweet spots that permeate even large
listening rooms in an entirely natural
and unforced way with fast transient
Mystra DAC, using its gain control to dynamics, pure bass notes and dense
adjust volume. I now have a mighty complexity simply flowing as music
700W to see what more the German should. Acoustic music feels live and
HOW IT Physiks can give. mesmerising, while electronica is able
COMPARES
I press play on the same track and the to transport you to another world.
The Magneplanar MG speaker shifts up two gears. I’m drawn The HRS-130 deserves high-quality
20.7 is a large but very into the music and forget to take notes. and generous amplification to shine
talented speaker that
demands space and
The soundstage is huge and it’s as fully. £14.5k is a considerable sum,
power, but rewards with though I can wander through the but this is a lot of high-quality
lightning dynamics and performers. Dynamics top and bottom engineering and hand-finished luxury
very strong top-to- extend and sound quality of the for the price, and I’ve just heard
bottom coherence. midband becomes translucent, £1,600 of well-chosen amplification
Being a panel, the transcending the black towers in the create a performance that could
sweet spot is more
pronounced than the
room. Bass quality becomes a set of challenge some well-regarded
pure notes with extra texture and a six-figure systems. Add another pair
HRS-130 and while bass
depth is deceptively punch that is visceral, but doesn’t seem of monoblocks to bi-amp each speaker
strong, many will prefer to aggravate room modes. Every and it could well be a giant slayer ●
the slam of the HRS-130. individual hi-fi quality has improved,
At a similar price,
but the effect is complete musicality
Wilson Audio’s Sabrina
speaker is a beautifully and unbridled communication.
It’s important to underline that this is
even-handed performer
with superb imaging. not a function of brute amplification
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Effortless
The soundstage power. More that this revolutionary musicality; bass
produced by German speaker design deserves never to be left control; natural
Physiks feels more soundstage
natural and live, but
hungry for the current and control for VALUE FOR MONEY
DISLIKE: Demands
the Sabrina’s more it to fully perform. It’s similar to an F1 quality amplification;
orthodox presentation car engine; it can be driven at lower BUILD QUALITY styling may not suit all
is very accomplished revs, but it really comes on song when WE SAY: More ‘musical
and highly compelling. being worked in a kind of power band EASE OF DRIVE
instrument’ than
If you have the budget, loudspeaker. Highly
that enables all of that engineering to natural performance
ask quality dealers to
provide extended
fully optimise.
I switch sources and spin Mike OVERALL
demonstrations in your
own listening room. Valentine’s direct cut vinyl of Too Darn
Hot performed by Clare Teale and the
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a u d i o - v i s u a l
 REVIEWS COPLAND
DAC215 £1,998
Get up
and glow
HFC takes a look at Copland’s compact
tube-driven headphone amp and DAC with
DSD-ready USB input
enmark is rightly widely
D recognised as the home of
cool, sleek, sophisticated
design. Whether it be
iconic furniture, smart but functional
clothing or consumer electronics, the
Danes appear to have a knack for
elevating the mundane into a work of
art. So when Copenhagen’s Copland
unveiled its latest USB DAC/
headphone preamp, there was more
than a touch or excitement in the air.
Combining the styling of a fifties
radio, with the red glow of Michael
46 JANUARY 2017
Hasselhoff’s 1982 Pontiac Trans Am
in TV show Knightrider, the ‘laterally
perforated’ DAC215 looks to have got
the balance pretty much spot on.
Unlike many current DAC/
headphone amplifiers, the DAC215
has one stereo pair of analogue line
inputs, in addition to its array of
digital inputs. So if you’re building a
system to play vinyl records as well as
digital sources, you need only add a
phono stage to make it function as
your main preamplifier, although it
won’t give you remote control.
It can handle high-resolution LPCM
DETAILS
PRODUCT
files up to 32-bit/384kHz alongside
Copland DAC215 DSD64 and DSD128. It’s based on
ORIGIN the ESS Sabre ES9018 Reference
Denmark eight-channel DAC, which is used
here in double-differential mode.
TYPE
USB DAC/ With the outputs of four of the
headphone preamp
DAC’s converters combined for each
WEIGHT
3.8kg of the two stereo channels, this
DIMENSIONS promises an improved signal-to-noise
(WxHxD) ratio and reduction in even-order
200 x 115 x 280mm distortions, the impact of the tube
FEATURES stage notwithstanding.
● PCM up to
32-bit/384kHz and Positioned behind those impressive
slats are the small-signal ECC88
DSD64 and 128
● Inputs: coaxial; 2x
double-triodes, which are backlit by a
optical; AES; EBU;
USB Type-B digital; series of distinctive red LEDs.
RCA analogue Below the grille are an analogue
● Class A analogue
section
DISTRIBUTOR
Absolute Sounds Ltd
volume control, not an ‘endless’
rotary encoder, and a source selector
to switch between the one analogue
TELEPHONE
line input and four digital options:
0208 9713909 USB and S/PDIF (coaxial and two
WEBSITE Toslink optical) inputs. These are
copland.dk accompanied by a main on/off switch
– not a standby control – and a
6.35mm headphone socket. A small
toggle switches the unit’s amplifier
section in or out of circuit.
With this set to ‘Amp’, the DAC215
functions as a preamp, providing a
 COPLAND
DAC215 £1,998 REVIEWS

volume-controlled variable output

from its rear-panel amplifier output
sockets. This automatically mutes to a
low level when headphones are
plugged in. Setting the toggle to ‘Off’
puts the unit in DAC-only mode,
which is shown by a red light. The
internal amplifier section is now
bypassed, and the DAC215 sends a
fixed-level analogue output to the
‘DAC Output’ sockets.
An array of six discreet LEDs light
up to indicate the incoming sample
rate of digital sources. Copland has
kept this as simple as possible, with
the three LEDs in the left column
being labelled DSD, 48 and
44.1(kHz). The other three LEDs are Available with Chesky hi-res sampler, the 24/96 file Kalerka from Rebecca Pidgeon’s The
labelled x2, x4 and x8, and will light silver or black of Marta Gomez and Lucia from Entre Raven SACD brings out the rhythmic
front panels
appropriately along with one of the Cada Palabra is entirely captivating, qualities of the track well with the
left-hand ones to indicate ‘double with the DAC presenting the delicate, barcarolle-like accompaniment really
speed’ DSD and the higher PCM almost tremulous quality in the conjuring up the feeling of a boat
sample rates, from 88.2kHz (44.1 x2) singer’s voice and also conveying the gently riding the waves.
and 96kHz (48 x2), and so on up to air around it. And the DAC215 really Used purely as a DAC with a
384kHz (48 x8). CD-transport source, the DAC215
It’s possible to switch these backlight We can’t help but gives impeccable results. With Keith
LEDs off using the small switch on the Jarrett and Charlie Haden’s great
circuit board placed vertically behind marvel at the sheer piano/bass duo album Jasmine, it
the tubes. To access this, or to replace feels alive to the special atmosphere
the tubes, simply remove the four
depth and solidity of the recording, made in Jarrett’s
screws holding the small ventilation of the sound home studio. The big, warm sound
cover on to the unit’s top surface. of Haden’s double-bass is very well
brings out the relaxed and effortless conveyed and, more intangibly, so is
Sound quality quality that’s achieved by the the feeling of peaceful homecoming
We start off using the Copland purely accompanying musicians. that pervades this musical reunion.
as a DAC, via its USB inputs and With ripped 16/44.1 material it also Switching to headphones – Oppo’s
fixed-level, solid-state DAC output. impresses, allowing the music to flow PM-1 – we discover a tube-amp sound
Listening to Jimmy Webb’s PF Sloan easily and freely. Rickie Lee Jones’ that is rich and warm in character.
we can feel the force of passion in the Easy Money comes over with an Tim Hugh playing Kodály’s solo cello
song while appreciating the superbly infectious rhythmic quality, a light sonata from Hands On Heart is
crafted arrangement. From the same and almost jaunty bounce that’s so completely absorbing and we can’t
often lost in the hi-fi chain. help but marvel at the sheer depth
CONNECTIONS

1 RCA analogue
input
2 Amplifier output
3 DAC output
4 Digital coaxial in

5 2x digital optical in

6 USB Type-B input

6 5 4 3 2 1

JANUARY 2017 47
 REVIEWS COPLAND
DAC215 £1,998
Q&A
Ole Møller
Founder and designer, Copland
HFC: What’s the design philosophy
behind the Copland DAC215?
OM: Given the way many people
listen to music these days, there is
clearly demand for high-quality DACs
and headphone amps. We wanted to
make the very best DAC/headphone
amp we could, utilising valves,
in a convenient form. The fact that
the operational parameters of
headphones are very different from
speakers makes the voicing of a
headphone amp different from that
of an ordinary amp. It’s not a question
of altering the frequency response,
more a way of distributing the
perceived energy of the recorded
music to the specific parts of the
frequency spectrum in a way that
complements the very close loading
from the transducer membrane to
the eardrum and the lack of deep
bass body impact.
Are there any trickle-down benefits
from other Copland products?
Pretty much everything was tailor-
made for this project, although
everything we make – and the things
we learn in the process – influences
the design of what comes next to
some degree. We did borrow the
principle behind the DAC215’s
analogue buffer and post-filtering
circuitry from the CDA 825 CD player.
However, as can be felt from the heat
of the drivers, the high-current output
from the DAC215’s paralleled DACs
requires even more power from the
Class A transistor stage driving the
low-impedance feedback and
filtering circuitry.
Which headphones would you
use with the DAC215?
I had top-end headphones from
Sennheiser, Grado, Beyerdynamic
and Hifiman, among others, at my
disposal during the development of
the DAC215; they all have very
different qualities and I like to change
from time to time. It’s really a matter
of personal preference… all I can say
is that the DAC215 has been designed
to work with a wide range of
headphones and will make the most
of any high-quality pair musically.
48 JANUARY 2017
IN SIGHT
1 transformer
4 3
and solidity of the sound he makes,
and its consistency from top to
bottom of the instrument.
Moving on to a 24/96 download
of the Elina Duni Quartet playing Kur
të kujtosh, the singer’s emotive
delivery really strikes home with the
little tremble in her voice clearly
outlined by the perceptible studio ‘air’
around it. Again there is warmth,
especially in the insistent and heavily
recorded piano, but this never
becomes overwhelming.
For a contrast in vocal and recording
style, we return to Marta Gomez’s
HOW IT Lucia and discover that the
COMPARES background produced by her
musicians is miraculously light and
The DAC215 faces some
tough competition from
spacious. With the Copland serving
the similarly specified purely as a DAC, we find this track
Simaudio Moon Nēo particularly enticing, and here it’s just
230HAD (HFC 411). The as attractive with the sound a little
230HAD is cheaper but fattened-up with a kind of creamy
goes toe to toe with the quality, and with Gomez’s voice
Copland in terms of
functionality, including
cooingly intimate.
Focused on orchestral sounds, David
the fitting of an
analogue input. The Chesky’s amazing Venetian Concertos
technically interesting sound intense and densely textured
transconductance- and the Copland/Oppo combination
based headphone
is more than capable of meeting its
amplifier in the Moon
demands, never losing the inner
gives it a slight edge
detail in the string writing and
when used in this way
and while there is very conveying the sheer energy of the
little in it when used as composer’s vision.
a line-level DAC, it is Returning to CD-quality material,
fractionally better here
too. Where the Copland
we run through some old favourites
does enjoy the edge is and are agreeably impressed every
as a preamp where it time. With Florence & The Machine’s
sounds slightly fuller Dog Days Are Over, the DAC215 offers
and more open – an intelligible, exciting performance,
although annoyingly, free of any harshness or confusion.
unlike the Moon it
With Loan Me A Dime from Boz
doesn’t have a remote
control for the volume. Scaggs’ Greatest Hits Live it is a treat
to wallow in the doomy descending
1 Shielded
2 Analogue volume
control
3 6922 valves for
headphone amp
4 ES9018 DAC
2
chords, supported here by what
seems like a bottomless bass that
frames Scaggs’ richly textured guitar
intro and vocal.
Staying with the blues, we switch to
an old track from Sang Mêle, by the
late French keyboard wizard Eddy
Louiss. With its wild and impassioned
synth against a churchy organ
background, Blues For Klook is Louiss’
heartfelt tribute to jazz drummer
Kenny Clarke. And with the Copland,
he sounds more soulful than ever.
Conclusion
The Copland is an excellent USB
DAC/headphone amp that can very
happily serve as a main system
preamplifier too, as long as you don’t
need more than one (unbalanced)
analogue input and can do without
remote control. It provides truly
enjoyable, satisfying headphone
listening from digital sources,
especially via USB but also via its
S/PDIF input. It’s nice to use and the
attractive retro look is a real bonus ●
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Rich, evocative
sound; good looks
and build
VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Only one pair
of analogue line inputs;
no remote control
BUILD QUALITY
WE SAY: An excellent
USB DAC/headphone
FEATURES
amp that’s equally
impressive working
as a preamp
OVERALL
with music in mind
since 1974

Exposure Electronics Limited

Unit 18, Winston Business Centre, 43 Chartwell Road
Lancing, West Sussex BN15 8TU, United Kindom.

www.exposurehifi.com
 REVIEWS AUDIOVECTOR
QR 1 £750

50 JANUARY 2017

Q the music
The Danes know a thing or two about
making speakers, but even by their high
standards David Vivian thinks this is special
onveniently, you can count
C Denmark’s major speaker
makers on the fingers of
one hand. But while DALI,
Dynaudio, Jamo and B&O could
all rightly claim to be hi-fi savvy
household names in the UK, you’re
probably a little less familiar with
Audiovector. I’m pretty sure the
company’s home town of Copenhagen
wouldn’t be quite such a wonderful
place without it, though – not least
for its highly unusual policy of
making upgradeable speakers. Yes,
you can send your base level
standmount or tower back to the
factory for a shot of material fettling
so that when you unpack it for the
second time, the déjà vu stops when
the music starts and it sounds a whole
lot better than before.
The QR 1’s handling
of complex material
clearly marks it out
as something special
It’s a service that says much about
Audiovector’s desire to keep its
customers happy and a thought that
must have crossed the minds of rival
speaker manufacturers on the way to
being filed under ‘too hard’. And if the
company granted the same luxury to
all its speaker lines, it probably would
be. At the more affordable end of its
catalogue, however, what you see
is what you get (forever), so the
focus shifts to more familiar goals:
extracting the best possible
performance for real-world money.
Thanks to the company’s long-
established high-end credentials and
insistence on designing and making
everything in Denmark, it’s well
placed to do just that.
The ambition is realised in the
latest QR range, which replaces
Audiovector’s well-liked entry-level
Ki lineup. So far there are just two
models, a three-driver, two-and-a-half
way QR 3 floorstander and the £750
two-way QR 1 standmount reviewed
here. Audiovector CEO Mads Klifoth
(son of company founder Ole) was
responsible for the design of the
QR series and had a very specific
product in mind from the outset. “I
wanted to make a speaker respecting
Audiovector’s heritage and renowned
and developed concepts,” he says.
“Also a speaker with build quality and
value for money rarely seen at the
price point; one built in Denmark
with aesthetic and sonic aspects
that appeal to everybody, not just
audiophiles”. In the hyper-competitive
quality standmount sector, far more
contentious boasts than that barely
raise an eyebrow, but unpack the
QR 1’s tech spec and there’s plenty to
suggest Audiovector is deadly serious.
If you’re going to play the ‘attainable
high-end’ card, a ribbon tweeter is
now almost de rigueur – especially so
ever since Quad reasoned its £499
baby S-1 standmount (HFC 404)
should have one. No half measures
here, then. Audiovector hasn’t gone
all ribbon-lite for the QR 1 but
effectively lifted the full house Gold
Leaf Air Motion Tweeter (AMT) from
its flagship R11 Arreté tower, complete
with compression-reducing double
rear chamber, and installed it into this
compact, front ‘slot’-ported design.
AUDIOVECTOR
QR 1 £750 REVIEWS
I’ve seen a good many ribbon
DETAILS
tweeters of late, but none has looked
PRODUCT
Audiovector QR 1 quite as good as the QR 1’s AMT.
ORIGIN There’s a reason for this. The exposed
Denmark gold mesh ‘S-Stop Filter’ (to smooth
TYPE sibilance) sits in a housing made from
2-way standmount
loudspeaker
a single piece of aerospace-grade
aluminium that’s been precision
WEIGHT
6.2kg machined, glass blasted and brushed
and then anodised with a tungsten/
DIMENSIONS
(WxHxD) titanium finish to have a reassuringly
190 x 325 x 232mm expensive sheen. The 150mm mid/
FEATURES bass driver is hardly less impressive.
● Gold Leaf AMT
ribbon with
An all-new design Audiovector has
double chamber
● 150mm Pure
Piston mid/bass
driver
christened ‘Pure Piston’, it features a
sandwich-type cone, two layers of
aluminium constraining a fibre and
● Quoted sensitivity foamed glue filling. The filling is
87dB/1W/1m intended to mitigate the high-
(4-8ohm)
frequency break up behaviour of the
DISTRIBUTOR otherwise desirably stiff and pistonic
Audiovector
aluminium cone. The upshot is that
TELEPHONE
+45 3539 6060 the mid-bass driver is good for much
WEBSITE higher frequencies than would be the
audiovector.com case with a conventional unit and,
therefore, makes the handover to
the ribbon a much simpler affair
requiring no special equalisation in
the crossover.
Another neat feature is the slot-style
reflex port near the base of the baffle,
so designed to minimise port
resonance. The port is internally
damped, too – just enough to
eliminate ‘chuffing’ without
compromising bass response. It
certainly permits easy placement,
which was a key factor in the
speaker’s development. When
Audiovector refers to the QR 1 as a
The Gold Leaf Air ‘bookshelf’ design, it really means it.
Motion Tweeter In fact, a particular bookshelf from
also features on a well-known Swedish store is
Audiovector’s
flagship R11 purchased for the review to ensure
Arreté tower the description isn’t misleading. That
JANUARY 2017 51
 REVIEWS AUDIOVECTOR
QR 1 £750
Q&A
Mads Klifoth
CEO, Audiovector
DV: What would you say
distinguishes your gold leaf AMT
from rival ribbon tweeter designs?
MK: The S-Stop filter has been
designed to take the edge off the
sibilant ‘s’ – and ‘t’ sounds without
losing resolution and detail. We have
designed the gold plated mesh to be
active between 2.5 and 5kHz. The
mesh does not really affect the
frequency response, but it means a
lot sound wise. During our listening
tests we found that the transition
from midrange to tweeter became
more coherent, more smooth, and
the general treble performance
became smoother and more
‘electrostatic’ without impairing
the dynamic capabilities. We found
this was a ‘win-win’ situation.
Using a ribbon tweeter in a
compact two-way design usually
presents a number of challenges in
the crossover band. How have you
addressed this with the QR 1?
A ribbon usually does not cover the
whole treble area. The beauty (or one
of them) of the AMT principle is that
you cover the whole range from
2.5kHz to above 40kHz (linear) and
even further up with useful response
in one driver. In this case a double
chamber AMT (in order to reduce
compression-related distortion).
We use a 12dB/octave Bessel–type
crossover in order to keep a linear
phase. This AMT has an area eight
times that of a typical dome tweeter,
yet its membrane weighs
approximately 70 percent.
52 JANUARY 2017
IN SIGHT
1 mid/bass driver
3
said, it would be a shame to tuck the
QR 1 away. It might be bijou, but the
combination of black piano lacquer, a
soft-sheen silver mid-bass driver and
gold ribbon tweeter framed in cool
tungsten grey is rather lovely. With its
rounded corners and inert, chunky
build, the enclosure hits the right
notes, too, and both looks and feels
as if it belongs to a more costly model.
Sound quality
Three things become immediately
apparent. The QR 1 is uncoloured,
fast and transparent. It can’t be
unrelated to the tweeter’s
contribution. Powerful insight and
resolution are expected, but it manages
HOW IT to avoid the trap of sounding overly
COMPARES lean and emphatically explicit. No,
this isn’t the warmest or ‘fleshiest’
The QR 1 pretty much
demolishes all direct
standmount you’ll ever hear, but it
price rivals and finds does sound tonally accurate and
itself giving pricier wonderfully precise.
models a hard time too. The speaker’s handling of complex
Revel’s excellent £950 material – Pat Metheny’s densely
Concerta2 M16 (HFC layered Imaginary Day – clearly marks
416) is a tremendously
engaging standmount
it out as something special. You can
really hear through the mix front to
with bass that would do
justice to a floorstander back, and right down to the noise
and a foot-tapping floor. Effortlessly crisp timing is
vitality that keeps you complemented by remarkable clarity
hooked. It has a bigger
and vivid dynamics. But there’s also
and more authoritative
an overarching sense of control
sound than the QR 1,
and composure. The trumpet of
but its presentation is
somewhat looser and Miles Davis on In A Silent Way has
painted in broader an almost luminous sonority and
strokes. Intricate just the right amount of bite, but no
recordings sound more
fascinating on the QR 1.
undue brightness or exaggeration.
It even gives my £1,250 Stereo is superb, too, with almost
reference, ribbon- uncanny reproduction of acoustic
equipped ELAC BS 263 cues, whether natural or contrived
(HFC 401) a run for in the studio, and finely focused,
its money, only really pin-point imaging.
missing out in bass
Carl Palmer’s drum solo on the
extension and midband
warmth – it’s that good. remastered CD of ELP’s Welcome Back
My Friends… live set has a taut and
1 Gold Leaf
AMT ribbon
2 Loudspeaker
binding posts
3 150mm Pure Piston
2
palpable presence in the listening
room while Greg Lake’s bass guitar
acquires a fresh subtlety and
harmonic richness. Indeed, whatever
I play benefits from the QR 1’s
resolute presentation, an ability
that conveys the character of the
performance space as well as the
performers – the almost subliminally
sensed reverberations and reflections
that are so vital to nailing that often
elusive sense of realism.
But perhaps best of all is the
intoxicating sense of energy and
musical conviction the baby
Audiovector whips up. If the purpose
of hi-fi is to pull away the curtain
of artifice between recording and
listener, this small, smart loudspeaker
tugs a little harder than most.
Conclusion
The ‘mini monitors’ of yore always
carried an appeal out of all proportion
to their size. The sophistication and
high-end sensibilities of today’s
contenders arguably generate an even
stronger allure. If you want to know
why, an audition date with the QR 1
should provide all the answers ●
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Ribbon tweeter;
transparency and
speed; build and finish
VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Lack of
weight to its sound
around
BUILD QUALITY
WE SAY: An all but
perfectly executed
EASE OF DRIVE
quality standmount
at a realistic price
OVERALL
 Since the early years of this century
there is only one Real Hifi shop in the
UK that has always stocked probably
the world’s finest range of loudspeakers
from Denmark…

We have listened to more

We have demonstrated more

We have sold more

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www.pjhifi.co.uk
 REVIEWS HEGEL
RÖST £2,200
Voice box
With a look that’s sure to show up any kit
it’s partnered with, the Röst is set to impress.
Chris Ward finds out if beauty is skin deep
orweigan audio specialist
N Hegel has recently been
naming its products, rather
than giving them the more
traditional alpha-numeric model
numbers. The Röst (voice) is a
network-capable integrated amplifier
and if you’ve felt hi-fi’s obsession with
black or silver boxes is a bit plain, you
could well find its creamy, off-white
casework very refreshing. These clean
lines are complimented by a crisp,
white text OLED display, making for
a very modern, minimalist amplifier.
The only downside of this fresh
styling is your existing components
are unlikely to match aesthetically
and may well look dated. But this
possibly underlines the Hegel
philosophy around removing
anything extraneous to musical
enjoyment. The Röst is crying out
to be the only hi-fi component on
show in the modern home.
54 JANUARY 2017
The gently curved, solid aluminium
fascia is home to a 6.35mm headphone
output and twin rotary controls that
smoothly adjust input and volume.
Around the back it accepts analogue
signals via balanced XLRs or two pairs
of unbalanced RCA inputs, one of
which is configurable for fixed gain
AV use. Digital inputs are generous
with three optical, a USB and one
coaxial input as well as an Ethernet
network connection that enables
the player to stream music files via
UPnP/DLNA or AirPlay.
Hegel imagines a highly connected
future and envisages the Röst
seamlessly fitting into a smart home
environment, fully controlled by a
phone or tablet. However, a quality
remote is provided that operates all
functions and can even turn off the
display. Connections are completed
via a pre-out for the addition of
power amplification or subwoofer
and very sturdy speaker binding posts
DETAILS
PRODUCT
accept all connection types.
Hegel Röst Construction is of a very high quality.
ORIGIN The Röst could be considered the
Norway love child of other well-regarded
TYPE Hegel products. Broadly speaking, it
Integrated
amplifier/DAC/
has the chassis and power output of
network music the H80 (HFC 391), the DAC and
player headphone stage from the H160 (HFC
WEIGHT 394) and the connectivity and output
12kg stages of the H360 (HFC 401). This
DIMENSIONS already compelling cocktail is then
(WxHxD)
430 x 100 x 310mm enhanced through the addition of
FEATURES silky new paintwork, a cutting-edge
● Quoted power
output: 2x 75W
(8ohm)
● Inputs: balanced
OLED display and the implementation
of Hegel’s latest iteration of its
patented SoundEngine technology
XLR analogue; 2x that eschews the traditional use of
unbalanced RCA global negative feedback to stabilise
inputs; coaxial;
3x optical; USB-B; the amplifier, instead claiming to
Ethernet; AirPlay use a form of local ‘feed forward’
● 6.35mm
technology to achieve superior
headphone socket
results. Put simply, this proprietary
DISTRIBUTOR
Hegel Music
signal handling technology claims
Systems, Oslo to achieve very low distortion and a
TELEPHONE very high damping factor, creating
00 47 22605660 stronger grip and control of your
WEBSITE speakers than the claimed 75W
hegel.com alone would suggest.
The UK price of £2,200 places the
Röst integrated amp at a slightly
lower point than Hegel’s more
powerful H160 (£2,450). Given the
Röst has less power, but employs
the latest SoundEngine technologies
from the flagship H360 integrated,
this feels like good value.

Digital signal processing maxes out
at 24-bit/192kHz via coaxial, optical
and network connections with the
USB input able to handle 24-bit/96kHz
files. DSD fans may be disappointed,
but this specification covers the vast
majority of listening habits.
I connect up reference Cadence Arca
speakers to the amp’s beefy speaker
connections with Black Rhodium
Foxtrot speaker cable (HFC 412) and
use my reference Shanling CD-T100
player to provide an analogue signal
via Artisan Ultimate Silver Dream
interconnects (HFC 390) and a digital
coaxial feed via Missing Link Dark Art
75ohm cable to compare and contrast
the Röst’s amplification and DAC
CONNECTIONS
1 output
6 5
qualities. I also connect my MacBook
Pro via The Chord Company USB
SilverPlus cable (HFC 407) as well
as an Ethernet connection to access
stored music files.
Sound quality
Playing Broken Promise by Scroobius
Pip on CD via an analogue input
reveals many virtues. The plaintive
opening notes ring clear and true and
are accurately surrounded by a light
haze of recorded static as the deep
reverb of fingers sliding over guitar
strings describes an inky black and
notably deep soundscape. By contrast,
Pip’s voice enters centre stage front
with a presence and grittiness that
creates superb three-dimensionality
and a dynamic realism that is highly
compelling. A deep, throbbing
bassline drops into the mix and 75W
of amplification have rarely sounded
so authoritative. Hegel’s house sound
has always had a cleanliness that can
sound like a strong control over bass
– all the depth but tauter, and a shade
drier than competitors. Here, it is a
little more luscious and fulsome than
I expect. To put this in context, the
Röst shares the same power output
of the entry-level H80 integrated but
With its off-white balances this against a relatively high
chassis, the Röst damping factor of over 2,000 that
exudes Scandi
design chic
places its speaker-driving muscle
between the H160 and H360
integrated amplifiers. Numbers can’t
tell the whole story, but the outcome
is an excellent sonic balance of a firm
grip with some succulent juiciness
around the lowest registers. This epic
track builds and builds. Poetic vocals
become fiercer, deep bass becomes
more menacing and guitar riffs more
insistent. This talented amplifier
resolves all this intensity and takes
the increasing drama in its stride
to deliver accuracy and emotional
dynamics in equal measure.
Replaying the same track via a digital
coaxial connection shows the onboard
2 1
4 3
HEGEL
RÖST £2,200 REVIEWS
DAC is implemented very well, able
to deliver excellent subtlety and very
natural timing and communication.
Via the internal DAC, the track’s
opening static is even better resolved
and has a touch more electricity, the
voice feels more present, pressing
forward out of the plane of the
speakers and deep bass gains a touch
more rasp and heft. Spellbinding.
Playing a lossless CD file of Agnes
Obel’s The Curse via the USB input
confirms the onboard DAC is a
very refined performer. The Röst
differentiates short, bounced spiccato
notes on violin and cello from the
slightly different timbre of both
instruments being played pizzicato.
Bowed cello and violin notes have
The Röst can be
considered a
veritable hub of
digital connectivity
superb depth, texture and purity.
Hegel claims that SoundEngine
avoids the traditional use of negative
feedback, yet achieves a far more
stable amplifier that also cancels
crossover distortion, especially
around higher frequencies. In
practice, the sound has a notable
cleanliness that allows tiny micro-
dynamic details to shine through.
This serves to create a very wide and
deep, spacious soundscape where
the perceived air around acoustic
performers in particular feels highly
realistic. Obel’s vocals have real
richness and presence, with masses
of reverberant information placing
her in a large acoustic recording
space. Timing and rhythmic qualities
feel very natural and music just
flows as it should. The amp is very
transparent, but never forensic. You
get masses of insight and musical
detail, but it’s all delivered without
Variable line
2 Ethernet network
connection
3 USB Type-B
digital input
4 Coaxial and optical
digital inputs
5 Balanced XLR
inputs
6 Unbalanced
line inputs
JANUARY 2017 55
 REVIEWS HEGEL
RÖST £2,200
Q&A
Anders Ertzeid
VP sales & marketing,
Hegel Music Systems
CW: Who do you see as the
customer for the Röst?
AE: We see two main types of
customers. Firstly, people with an
above average interest in music and
sound quality, who want a high
degree of connectivity and a
contemporary look that will fit in
a modern living room, but aren’t
convinced that even high-quality
Bluetooth speakers can meet this
brief. Secondly, people using custom
integrators to automate their homes.
The Röst presents opportunities
for control and integration that no
other high-quality, two-channel amp
on the planet has. It should be the
obvious choice.
How does the Röst take this kind of
seamless, smart control forward?
The Röst is an IP-controllable unit with
a fairly large memory. It is the first of
it’s kind to have Control4 (a leading
home automation manufacturer)
software built in. And one can write
two-way drivers to use it with any
kind of device, or even, via a server,
devices like Amazon Echo.
Is high damping factor an important
part of Hegel’s philosophy?
In our view, a high damping factor
simply means you have a stable
amplifier. Without a stable amplifier
you lose bass control. Hegel knows
how to achieve bass control without
also getting distortion issues into the
bargain. Our SoundEngine technology
delivers a high damping factor, without
high distortion and ensures the very
dynamic and rhythmic Hegel sound.
What led to the naming of this
amp and the new white finish?
Röst means voice, and this Röst is the
voice of modern Hegel. It is also an
island at the Westernmost part of the
Lofoten archipelago. In actual fact,
all Hegel products start with baby
names during R&D. Most of them
have been characters from Winnie
the Pooh! Re the colour: we wanted it
to stand out, and white goes very well
with wood furniture and the décor of
many modern homes. The colour
also signifies the purity of
Scandinavian style.
56 JANUARY 2017
IN SIGHT
1 2
4
unnecessarily drawing attention to
itself. The piano joins the ensemble
and feels like a full-scale instrument.
Hi-fi often struggles to give credible
piano performances, but here the
timbre and scale of the keyboard is
reproduced very well. Melodies from
the piano, vocals and strings blend
and counterpoint each other in a very
balanced and even-handed way. A
beguiling and subtle performance,
stunningly portrayed.
The network connection is simplicity
itself, with the Röst easily discoverable
as an output device once connected to
my network via the Ethernet input.
HOW IT I experiment with AirPlay, signified
COMPARES by the word appearing ticked on
the display. Care is needed after
Exposure’s 3010S2D
(HFC 397) is a strong
connection as volume control can
all-round integrated at now be shared between the amplifier
£2,060, including the and your playback software of choice,
optional DAC module. so just check levels before you press
It achieves a great play. Selecting a 16/44.1 file of Dice
balance between by Finley Quaye from a connected
connectivity, power
and musicality. The
NAS drive reveals the Röst is adept at
making modest files sound very good.
Exposure has slightly
The opening, high frequencies feel
more power but the
Hegel has a cleaner, sweet and well extended as they
more dynamic delivery. dance across the wide soundstage.
The Röst also takes
Solid bass notes reach seismic depths
smart control to brand
but have loads of fine detail, control
new heights. The Cyrus
and agility. Quaye’s voice has a
Lyric 09 (HFC 384) in its
optional ‘stone’ colour rounded warmth, yet plenty of fine
is possibly the closest filigree detail and the plectrum
competitor in terms of
strokes on guitar have a crisp, incisive
balancing an elegant
design with high-fidelity
snap without ever sounding brittle or
sound credentials. Both sharp. This track builds with many
amps have a very fresh lush and complex layers and rhythms,
appearance that may but the Röst is never wrong footed.
win over customers
that want style and Conclusion
substance. As always,
Hegel has brought together many fine
use your eyes and ears
qualities from across its product range
at a quality dealer.
in one slim, modern, eye-catching
1 Network circuitry
2 Power supply
capacitor bank
3 SoundEngine feed
forward circuits
4 Custom built, ultra-
silent toroidal
transformer
3
box. The amp punches well above
its modest power output and is
comfortable driving tricky speaker
loads. The Röst has a generous array
of inputs and can be considered a
veritable hub of digital connectivity,
with the possible exception that the
absence of DSD processing could
be considered an omission by those
seeking greater future-proofing. That
said, Hegel is masterly at integrating
DACs within integrated amplifiers,
seeming to have a real talent for
making even the most modest music
files sound very refined. Music lovers
with a flair for understated interior
design and a desire to control
everything from a single smart device
now have a product that ticks all their
boxes. It’s easy to see how many
prospective customers will delight in
plumbing the Röst with a network
connection and a couple of other
discrete sources to create a modern
hi-fi setup that looks very elegant and
understated but sounds extremely
accomplished. The Röst looks and
sounds great and is a joy to use ●
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: Clean delivery;
bass control;
connectivity;
aesthetics
VALUE FOR MONEY
DISLIKE: Can make
partnering electronics
BUILD QUALITY look a bit dated
WE SAY: Advanced
FEATURES
amplifier and digital
hub that deserves
to be shown off
OVERALL
 REVIEWS PRO-JECT
PRIMARY PHONO USB £239
Primary
source
A plug ’n’ play starter record spinner that’s
designed for those looking to digitise their
vinyl. Neville Roberts takes it for a spin
ot every music fan wants
N to spend their precious
time setting up a turntable,
and enthusiasts will know
all about the effort that’s involved in
getting a deck sounding its best. The
market is bursting with turntables,
but Pro-Ject has also been looking at
the entry-level and its new Primary
decks are aimed at the user that just
wants to plug in and play, offering
great quality at an affordable price.
The basic Primary (£189) and the
Primary Phono USB – on test here –
combine elements from two of the
Austrian brand’s existing entry-level
designs in the form of its Elemental
and Essential II turntables. It borrows
the same 8.6in aluminium tonearm
from the Elemental, uses sapphire
bearings and comes pre-fitted with
Ortofon’s OM5E cartridge. This
means there is no need to set the
tracking force or anti-skate
58 JANUARY 2017
adjustment. The platter is spun
with the same perimeter belt-drive
type found on the Elemental, and
it is driven by a low-vibration
synchronous motor that is controlled
by a built-in regulator designed to
provide good speed stability.
The acoustically neutral MDF plinth
is borrowed from the Essential II and
is finished in matte black, red or
white. The finish is a bit utilitarian,
being a laminate with an edging strip,
but is perfectly acceptable at the price
– savings have to be made somewhere
and rather here than on the tonearm,
cartridge or electronics. The deck also
shares the Essential II’s MDF platter
and comes supplied with a felt mat.
A detachable dust cover is included,
along with a 45rpm spindle adapter,
cartridge protractor and Allen key for
replacing the cartridge at a later date.
A phono stage is built in and outputs
either digitally via the USB port or the
analogue line-level’s gold-plated RCA
DETAILS
phono sockets. There’s no phono
PRODUCT
Pro-Ject Primary stage bypass, so you can’t add an
Phono USB external phono stage of your choice,
ORIGIN but the lower-cost Primary version
Austria comes without the phono and USB
TYPE stages and can be connected to an
Belt-drive turntable add-on moving-magnet phono stage
with MM phono
stage & ADC or dedicated phono input stage built
WEIGHT into an integrated amplifier.
4kg To set up the turntable, I place the
DIMENSIONS
(WxHxD)
deck on a level surface and fit the
drive belt over the smaller diameter
420 x 112 x 330mm
FEATURES
motor pulley and around the
perimeter of the platter. Changing the
● 33 and 45rpm
● 8.6in aluminium turntable speed to 45rpm involves
tonearm
● Ortofon OM5E MM
simply slipping the belt down onto
cartridge the larger diameter pulley. Next, I fit
● MM Built-in phono the felt mat over the spindle of the
stage with RCA
analogue and USB
digital output
DISTRIBUTOR
platter and then remove the transport
lock clip from the tonearm tube. The
counterweight supplied is suitable for
Henley Designs Ltd cartridges weighing between 3.5g and
TELEPHONE 5.5g. It is already pre-fitted to the arm
01235 511166 stub so the tracking force is pre-set at
WEBSITE the factory. I check it anyway and
henleydesigns.
co.uk
discover that it is 1.85g, which is
nicely within the 1.5g to 2g
recommended range for the supplied
Ortofon cartridge. Finally, I connect
the RCA phono sockets to a spare
line input on my amplifier using the
supplied interconnect cables – job
done. Setting up a record deck
doesn’t get any easier than this.
Connecting it to a PC for vinyl-
ripping is done using the supplied
cable from the USB-B output at the
back of the deck to a spare USB-A
socket on my Windows computer,
which automatically detects the
Primary and is seen by the computer

as ‘Microphone USB audio codec’.
With free-to-use recording software
downloaded and installed on my
machine, I am easily able to save
16-bit/48kHz digital copies of my
LPs without any problems.
Sound quality
First to spin is a superb Decca
recording of Khachaturian’s
Spartacus with the composer
conducting the Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra. The performance is big
and full with the drums providing
plenty of clout. The frenzied activity
of the orchestra in the second
movement gives a real sense of
chariots racing around in my
listening room. The strings are very
clear without being harsh and the
brass section is commanding, but
certainly not at all shrill. This is a
really great start and I am really
amazed what the low-cost Ortofon
cartridge manages to root out of the
groove. After this, I just have to flip
over to side two and play The Sabre
Dance from Gayaneh. The excitement
kicks in right from the outset.
The pounding of the bass drums
throughout this racy piece is clear
and full. The pace and timing are
also excellent – impressive stuff.
Calming things down, I turn to
some baroque music in the form of a
classic recording of Vivaldi’s Concerto
For Oboe in A minor played by
Concerto Amsterdam. This provides
a great test for solo instruments and
the performance is bright, clear
and exciting, with great detail. The
oboe in the first movement is well
positioned in front of the orchestra
as it should be with this recording.
However, that’s not to say that the
string continuo loses any clarity or
presence in the background.
CONNECTIONS
1 1
5 4
PRIMARY PHONO USB £239
For a change of style, I opt to stick
with Vivaldi, but this time, it’s a
recording of The Four Seasons – In
HOW IT Jazz as performed by the Raymond
COMPARES Fol Big Band. This jazzed-up version
At £189, the basic
of the classic positively sparkles in
Primary comes in at my listening room and the allegros
around half the cost of are reproduced with impressive
Rega’s Planar 2 (HFC excitement and energy. When things
413), yet it sounds very cool off during the largos and
similar. Even with the
adagios, the music remains
addition of the phono
and digital stages, the captivating, intimate and smooth.
Primary Phono USB still For some vocals, I turn to a rather
costs around £135 less. quirky recording from The King’s
When it comes to ease Singers entitled It’s A Great Little
of setting up, it pips the World. What strikes me most about
Rega to the post,
although the Primary
this recording is the clear vocal
doesn’t have the classy individuality from each singer, and
finish of the Planar 2. this shines through beautifully with
The Primary’s the Primary Phono USB.
tonearm is a little basic Some techno music is provided by
compared with the Laurent Garnier’s frenetic Tales Of A
Planar 2’s RB220, and it
too has no means of
Kleptomaniac. The driving bass line
VTA adjustment. When
it comes to changing The Primary’s
speed, you simply move
the perimeter drive belt performance is
up or down the pulley of
the Pro-Ject and there’s bright and clear
no need to remove the
platter as you do with with great detail
the Rega.
on side-B’s Back To My Roots is
punchy and tight. However, it is not
quite as extended and powerful as
I am used to, but the turntable and
cartridge manage a very respectable
rendition nonetheless.
Needing to cool down a bit after
the Laurent Garnier, I replace the
techno LP with a rather nice sixties
recording of Tony Mottola and his
accompanists playing some classic
Latin music on the guitar.
Interestingly, this LP was cut from
the master that was recorded on
35mm magnetic film. Costing some
15 times more than studio-quality
analogue tape, according to the
3
PRO-JECT
REVIEWS
record sleeve, the benefit of the wider
tracks is claimed to result in a
superior signal-to-noise ratio with the
absence of print-through. Whatever
the reality is, it is certainly a fine
recording and Tony’s version of So
Nice (Summer Samba) is tuneful, light
and airy. The interplay between the
guitar and the wind instruments is
perfectly balanced. The flute solo is
bright and happy and the tonal detail
of each instrument, especially with
the percussion, is absolutely spot on.
Conclusion
This low-cost turntable has certainly
not cut corners when it comes to
sound quality. It lives up to its claim
of requiring virtually no setting up
and is about as plug-and-play as
you’ll find with any piece of audio
equipment. The basic tonearm
performs very well indeed partnered
with the excellent Ortofon cartridge.
This – coupled with the built-in phono
stage and digital output – makes the
Primary Phono USB compatible with
almost all modern audio setups and,
given the low cost, there’s no reason
for anyone not to be able to enjoy the
world of vinyl for themselves ●
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: No setup
required; easy speed
change; excellent
sound; features; price
VALUE FOR MONEY
DISLIKE: Plinth finish
WE SAY: A superb-
BUILD QUALITY
value deck that delivers
impressive sound
FEATURES
quality at the price
OVERALL
8.6in aluminium
tonearm
2 Speed selection
2 motor pulley
3 RCA phono output
4 Earthing post
5 USB Type-B output
JANUARY 2017 59
 REVIEWS BANG & OLUFSEN
BEOSOUND 35 £1,745
Raising
the bar
It might look like a classy soundbar, but
B&O’s latest network music system is aiming
a lot higher, as David Vivian discovers
here isn’t much you’d bet
T the house on in the
fast-evolving world of
audio, but one thing is
immutable and eternal. Bang &
Olufsen knows what its customers
value above all else: a very particular
interpretation of style and good taste.
It’s unmistakably Danish. Uncluttered,
minimal, often achingly cool,
sometimes daringly radical. And it’s
a commodity for which the price
premium is gladly paid. The pill is
sweetened by immaculate build
quality, typically slick operation
and a reputation for longevity.
Given all of which, it would be
churlish to get hung up over the price
tag attached to the BeoSound 35 or,
worse, to confuse it with a common
or garden AV soundbar, despite
proportions that clearly conform to
the design norm and a broad remit
that doesn’t exclude enhancing the
TV experience. Perhaps it’s better to
think more along the lines of the Naim
Mu-so (HFC 391), B&W Zeppelin and
Geneva AeroSphére Large (HFC 407).
60 JANUARY 2017
In other words, this is B&O’s take on a
full-fat, all-in-one, internet connected,
wireless music system. As for the
soundbar-aping design, read ‘a slimline
shape based on a pentagonal structure
that is 1m wide, can be table or wall
mounted and disperses 180° sound
around the room’.
Well connected? Apple AirPlay joins
Bluetooth 4.0 and DLNA is also
included for streaming from a network
device. Format compatibility embraces
MP3, WMA, AAC, ALAC, FLAC and
WAV up to a hi-res ceiling of
24-bit/192kHz. Web integrated
services good to go comprise Spotify
Connect, Deezer and TuneIn radio. In
addition to the dual-band spec wi-fi,
there’s an Ethernet socket, an RCA
input for hooking up an additional
source and an optical digital input that
feeds its on-board DAC. Soundbar
duties are feasible if that’s what you
want. Beyond that, multi-room
streaming is enabled via the BeoMusic
app, which talks to the BeoLink hub
allowing a number of similarly enabled
B&O products to be strung together.
The all-aluminium casework hasn’t
DETAILS
PRODUCT just been chosen for the way it looks
Bang & Olufsen and feels, but also for its acoustic
BeoSound 35 stability and heat dissipation
ORIGIN properties. And the distinctive
Denmark
pentagonal cross section of the ‘bar’
TYPE
Wireless music
has been designed to accommodate
system high or low listening positions,
WEIGHT depending on whether you decide
6.2kg to mount it on the wall with the
DIMENSIONS adjustable bracket that isn’t supplied
(WxHxD)
1,000 x 131 x 125mm
with my review sample or attach the
table stand (that is) and place it on
FEATURES
● 2x 19mm tweeter a sturdy flat surface.
● 2x 100mm The compact and centrally sited
mid/bass driver
● Wi-fi; AirPlay;
OLED display sits flush with the
Bluetooth 4.0 removable cloth grille that stretches
● Inputs: Ethernet; over the 1m span of the unit and
optical; RCA
DISTRIBUTOR
Bang & Olufsen
TELEPHONE
normally hides the four drivers from
It presents music in a
01225 445211
WEBSITE
positive and involving
bang-olufsen.com
way with surprising
dynamic freedom
view with the 19mm tweeters located
at the elegantly tapered ends of the
‘bar’ and angled outwards by 30° to
broaden the listening sweet spot.
They’re joined by two 100mm
mid-bass drivers, each mounted a few
centimetres inboard of the tweeters.
Each pair of drivers is driven by 2x
80W Class D amplifiers, and 190W a
side should be plenty for most rooms.
The unit’s hands-on touch-sensitive
controls are found just beneath the
display and can be used to adjust
volume and select inputs, functions
otherwise handled by the BeoRemote
One (not included) or the BeoMusic
app, available on iOS and Android.
The app also configures the BeoSound

35 for placement. There are three
options: free-standing, on-wall or
in-corner. If it’s to be ‘free-standing’,
B&O reckons that means no closer
than 15cm to a wall or corner.
Sound quality
After a little experimentation
streaming music via AirPlay and
Bluetooth, free space turns out to be
the best advice as the BeoSound 35
sounds bigger and more powerful
than it looks. But to tee up its best
game, my FiiO X3 hi-res player (HFC
382) feeds the line-in and a Cyrus
CD Xt Signature CD transport (HFC
386) the on-board DAC via a short
run of optical interconnect.
The step up in quality is easy to hear
in terms of clarity and resolution, but
it’s the room-filling scale, spaciousness
and consistency of the sound across a
broad listening area that makes the
CONNECTIONS
1 2
3 3
strongest impression to begin with.
As the BeoSound 35 is effectively a
‘soundbar’ rather than two speakers,
a degree of soundstage specificity is
sacrificed in order to contrive an
expansive stereo image, but on the
whole presentation is well structured
and rhythmically surefooted.
Bass frequencies, while hardly
thunderous, pack a surprising wallop
and with enough tunefulness, texture
and articulation to make something of
jazz bass hero Marcus Miller’s greatest
solo album, 1993’s The Sun Don’t Lie
– be it the fearsomely fast plucked runs
that furnish the intro to Panther or the
stunning slap playing on Rampage.
More than that, the system sounds
engaging and likeable across the
genres, which is always a good sign
and an incentive to play more music. It
does a nice job with classical, handling
the Prelude from Grieg’s Holberg Suite
with generosity and finesse and a
natural tonality. There’s a pleasing
1 Ethernet network
connection
2 Optical input
RCA line-level
inputs
BANG & OLUFSEN
BEOSOUND £1,745 REVIEWS
dimensionality to the sound as well.
This really cuts the mustard with Catch
The Blues from Eric Clapton’s latest
studio album, I Still Do. The voices
in the female backing group are
believably set back in the mix yet
have an almost luminous, close-miked
presence, which helps give the track
its affecting warmth and intimacy.
As a single-piece wireless speaker,
it’s hard to lay a finger on the B&O’s
sound quality. Whatever hi-fi minutiae
it glosses over, and it isn’t much, it
nearly always presents music in a
positive and involving way and, given
its svelte proportions, with surprising
volume and dynamic freedom.
Conclusion
There are other multi-function
soundbars that will do a similar job,
with varying degrees of success, for
less money. And for the price of
the BeoSound 35 you could buy a
separates system that will comfortably
deliver superior sonics. When it comes
to delivering an artful compromise
that looks simply gorgeous, though,
B&O has form (and function) ●
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY LIKE: High style and
quality; big spacious
sound; it goes loud
VALUE FOR MONEY DISLIKE: Controls can
be a bit fiddly
BUILD QUALITY WE SAY: Think
carefully about the
alternatives, but this is
FEATURES
one elegant solution
OVERALL
JANUARY 2017 61
 INSIDER FEATURE PSB AUDIO
Hooked on a feeling
Jake Day-Williams heads to Canada to discover how PSB is
revolutionising the way that we listen to headphones with RoomFeel
short 20-minute drive outside of
A Ottawa is the National Research
Council (or NRC), which is home
to the government’s premier
research and technology facilities, which
includes everything from laboratories to
wind tunnels. In a small, modest nondescript
building that houses a two-storey electron
microscope that’s being used to research the
properties of silica for producing increasingly
powerful and ever smaller semiconductors,
sits the anechoic chamber that Paul Barton
uses for fine tuning PSB’s loudspeakers.
The son of a celebrated tenor, Paul was
always destined to be involved in music one
way or another. At the age of six he took up
the violin and quickly displayed a knack for
the instrument, winning competitions with
youth orchestras and travelling the country
to play in concert halls. Paul’s father hand
built him a Stradivarius Messiah, which he
still plays to this day – “You could always
62 JANUARY 2017
pick me out of the orchestra because of its
distinctive orange colour” he tells me, and
he appeared to be set to have a long and
successful career as a concert violinist.
However, a passion for producing sound in
a different way meant that his destiny would
take another path. At the age of 11, he went
“Every room is different,
meaning that every
speaker has a different
series of characteristics”
into the same workshop where his father
had built him his violin and constructed a
small radio. Suddenly, he was hooked. From
there he became fascinated in trying to find
ways to improve its sound, constantly taking
it apart and tweaking its design in order to
get a better performance from it.
As he grew older, Paul would split his time
between building his own speakers and
playing in orchestras across the country and
thought nothing of throwing his violin into
the back of his 1963 Chevy Impala and
driving three or four hours across the
country with friends to play with different
orchestras at the weekend.
Meanwhile, his fascination with
reproducing sound electronically grew
and he quickly found a way to start making
money from his natural flair for loudspeaker
construction by selling his own hand-made
models to students at the local university
that were tempted by the offer of affordable
speakers for their hi-fi.
When he himself became a student at
university studying acoustics, instead of
getting a placement at a manufacturer like
his piers, Paul decided to employ himself
and fine tune and refine his own hand-made
models. “As a symphony musician, I came to

The test equipment
that Paul uses to tune
speakers in the chamber
the realisation in 1971 that live music and
recorded music, for the most part did not
accurately resemble each other,” he explains,
and so the following year PSB was born.
Three years later, PSB became the first
company to use the NRC for loudspeaker
development, and while others followed in
his footsteps, Paul’s company remains the
only one still to utilise the facilities for
psychoacoustic research.
Silence is golden
“Looking around, you can see some of the
history of this place. They did a lot of active
noise cancellation design here over the
years. Not for consumer headphones,
though, this was for the military, helicopters
and that sort of thing where noise cancelling
is absolutely necessary in order to function.
Sadly, the research became one of the
casualties of government cut backs. But I
wrote a letter to the president of NRC and
urged him – actually I begged him – to
consider maintaining this facility for PSB and
it’s kind of my place now,” Paul explains.
Now sat in the small office that’s located
outside of the custom-built anechoic
chamber that he uses to tune loudspeakers,
I’m here to find out a bit more about this
The larger sound tube opening
changes the frequency at
around 2kHz up and down
PSB AUDIO INSIDER FEATURE
Canadian company that is pretty big across
the pond and is starting to shake things up
over here, too.
But it’s not loudspeakers that I’m here to
see today, it’s headphones – or more
specifically the work that Paul has been
doing to bring the headphone listening
experience more inline with that which you
get when hearing your music at home on
your hi-fi through your loudspeakers.
As Paul explains: “Headphones should
sound like a pair of flat-measuring, full-
range speakers properly setup in a good
room,” and it’s for this very reason that he
has developed RoomFeel technology.
To put the new development into context,
if you take a radiating speaker that measures
flat in an anechoic chamber and place it into
a regular room, the sound it produces will,
of course, be significantly warmer. This is
“The multi-driver nature
of the M4U 4 earphone
allows me to tune it
much more accurately”
because as the frequency gets lower, the
speaker can radiate more omnidirectionally
and so the low-frequency content in the
room becomes stronger. In the case of
headphones, there is no room response to
take on this role and so designers typically
aim to produce a completely flat response
or add a big bass bump.
But what if the headphone’s response is
tuned so that it matches that of a typical
low-frequency boost heard in a room?
By using the anechoic chamber, Paul has
successfully managed to develop a response
curve for his headphones that takes into
consideration the low-frequency room
gain (among other characteristics) of a
loudspeaker’s sound in a room, and it’s
this piece of wizardry that’s been given the
RoomFeel moniker.
THE FUTURE OF SPEAKER DESIGN
Paul Barton on how he sees the shape of sound
reproduction progressing...
“One of the failing signs of any sound reproduction
system is its ability to produce the dynamic range
that exists in nature and that we as human beings
can appreciate. We can hear much better dynamic
range than any audio device on the market, so those
are the challenges – wider dynamic range and
better dispersion over a wider bandwidth. We can
currently get down to 20Hz and lower, but it’s
getting up to the higher frequencies that’s difficult.
My benchmark right now is 40kHz, going any
higher might be overkill – the cost to do that
compared with the benefit you would receive would
be very far down the point of diminishing returns.
But with the move towards hi-res and MQA, this is
something I see becoming increasingly important.”
RoomFeel technology currently appears on
headphones produced by both PSB and NAD
and is claimed to result in a richer, more
natural listening experience. By combining
measurements of full-range loudspeakers
in the anechoic chamber with extensive
research carried out on the effects of
listening rooms and interaction of the
human ear, the process has been fine tuned
over a number of years to the latest iteration,
which is included in PSB’s M4U 4 (Music for
You) in-ear headphones.
As Paul explains: “The multi-driver nature
of the M4U 4 allows me to tune it much
more accurately. There are two filters in
there and two bass chambers. That’s what
gets that curve to be just the way it is and
then the high frequency. I have filters in both
the sound tube – which is the main tube
where the dynamic driver comes out – and
the smaller tube, which comes out of the
balanced armature of those tubes. The large
sound tube opening changes the frequency
at around 2kHz up and down and then the
small filter – which is passive – changes it
at 4-5kHz up and down. So now I can create
the shape of that bump almost perfectly and
I can change it any way I want”.
JANUARY 2017 63
 INSIDER FEATURE PSB AUDIO
The latest version of
RoomFeel appears in PSB’s
M4U 4 in-ear headphones
When it comes to noise cancelling,
RoomFeel is employed in a different way,
which was largely shaped by a briefing in
Paris about sound reproduction that Paul
attended. The experiment recorded the
affects of an organ on benches in a church
using an accelerometer so that the amount
of vibration caused by the music could be
measured. From this the researchers were
able to calculate the threshold of the
perceived movement of the bench – where
people could start to feel it and where they
couldn’t. They then asked the subjects to put
headphones on and used an exciter to make
the bench move within this threshold.
Although the listeners weren’t aware that
the seat was moving, the scores that they
gave for the sound performance noticeably
improved when it was subtly vibrated.
This model allows Paul to simulate
the human ear and take precise
measurements inside the ear canal
64 JANUARY 2017
THE ANECHOIC CHAMBER
“The chamber I use was rebuilt in 1995 by the guys
at NRC. They wrapped all the triangular fibre glass
shapes with cheesecloth, every one. I’m sure they
were itchy by the end of the day. The structure
itself is on springs so that the chamber is actually
floating, which isolates it from the outside. We’re
quite a way off the beaten track here, quite a way
from the road, and the Ottawa river is just down
here. This building is built on bedrock. There is no
earth in between, so if a truck is driving on the
highway out there, it’s very difficult for that energy
to travel into the building. It’s for this very reason
that there’s an electron microscope next door. It’s
like two storeys high and it’s got all these
compressors coming on all the time and it takes a
very long time to set it up to use it, so they have to
maintain that condition all the time. So it works
pretty well for both of us.”
Further tests revealed that the vibrations
didn’t necessarily have to correlate with
the music for the subjects to enjoy the effect,
it just needed to be present.
Feel the difference
As Paul explains it: “You don’t correlate the
two, you just know that there’s energy. So I
figured; when you’re on a plane and there’s
all kinds of noise around you, you don’t need
the bass to be boosted quite so much to still
like it. So when noise cancelling is turned on,
I don’t have as much RoomFeel. I decided to
put a 4dB boost – like a little bump – at 30Hz
when you put it into amplified mode and I
think it actually improves the sensation when PSB IMAGINE SERIES
you feel and hear the volume – it kind of
The Imagine series was designed and developed
compensates a bit”. by Paul Barton at the NRC. The acoustic design
includes woofers with a clay/ceramic compounded
“Headphones should polypropylene cone and rubber surround, along
with dual magnet motor systems. The range utilises
a 1in titanium dome tweeter with Ferrofluid cooling
sound like a pair of flat- and neodymium motors in reflex port-loaded
enclosures. Unlike other small two-way systems,
measuring, full-range the woofer crosses to the tweeter at between
1.8kHz and 2.2kHz, allowing the drivers to be placed
speakers in a good room” closer together than usual, minimising interference
between them. The very low cross frequency in
relation to the woofer size is claimed to ensure that
As our time in the anechoic chamber comes listeners are able to hear the same sound no matter
to an end, talk turns to what the future holds where they are positioned in the listening area. The
for RoomFeel and how it can be utilised range is distributed in the UK by Sevenoaks Sound
& Vision: sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk
further down the line, and it’s clear that
Paul has plenty more ideas for how this
innovative technology will evolve. “Every
room is different, meaning that every
loudspeaker has a different series of
characteristics. And every recording is
variable as well. In a commercial sense, I
would love to be able to apply RoomFeel to
everything, but the perfect RoomFeel would
only be achievable if I can do processing
with equalisation or DSP. This is something
I’m keen to explore further”. So does this
mean that one day you’ll be able to put on
your headphones and switch to a DSP
setting that allows you to hear your music
as you would in, say, Abbey Road, Muscle
Shoals or Sun Studios? Right now, it’s too
early to say, but only time will tell… ●
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YO U R L E T T E R S & Q U E ST I O N S A N S W E R E D

THIS MONTH

ED SELLEY NEVILLE ROBERTS JASON KENNEDY DAVID PRICE CHRIS WARD

EXPERTISE: REVIEWER
Active in the industry since
1999, Ed’s first record was
Boss Drum by The Shamen.
He splits his time between
reviewing and protecting hi-fi
kit from toddler son Will.
EXPERTISE: ENGINEER
Neville has an eclectic taste
for classical baroque and jazz.
His wife was forced to marry
his transmission line speakers
in the eighties and he collects
BBC test card music .
EXPERTISE: REVIEWER
Editor of HFC from 1998 to
2001, Jason’s first turntable
was Rega’s Planar 3 and Elvis’
40 Greatest Hits was his first
vinyl, so don’t go stepping on
his blue suede shoes.
EXPERTISE: REVIEWER
DP two-finger typed his first
hi-fi review 25 years ago.
Since then he’s edited Hi-Fi
World and HFC. He describes
himself as an “unreconstructed
analogue addict”.
EXPERTISE: REVIEWER
Like his first kiss, Chris will
never forget the sound of his
first amp – an Aura Evolution
VA-100. War Of The Worlds
and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours
were his first records.

Email us at: letters@hifichoice.co.uk or write to: Hi-Fi Choice More ways to get in touch:
Letters, AVTech Media Ltd, Suite 25, Eden House, Enterprise Way, You can also send your questions to us via social media:
Edenbridge, Kent, TN8 6HF Your letters may be edited before twitter.com@HiFiChoiceMag
publication and we cannot enter into personal correspondence facebook.com/hifichoice.co.uk

Time for change
Robert Wilson’s letter in issue
409 reminded me of many happy
days when I started listening to
music. Firstly, it was through my
parents’ valve radiogram via the
radio and K-tel records usually
bought at Christmas. I deeply
regret dumping the radiogram
in a skip in the eighties!
Now my sources are still radio
and also CD, and for the past
25 years I have been using a
Marantz SR1010 receiver. I
would like to upgrade to either
the Onkyo T-4030 or Tibo TI440
powered by Arcam’s A19, Rega
Brio-R or Cambridge CXA60, but
only if it will be a substantial
WE ASKED...
Which audio format
would you like to see
make a comeback?
sonic improvement. Would this
be a worthwhile investment?
Could you also recommend a
CD player and loudspeakers?
Philip Greenway, by email
DP: Good though your Marantz
receiver is, it’s not a patch on today’s
affordable products, so you’ll get a real
improvement if you upgrade. All three
amps you mention are very capable,
with my preference being the Rega
Brio-R (HFC 352) as it’s the most
musical sounding. The matching Rega
Apollo-R CD player (HFC 383) is an
ideal partner, but there are many
capable silver disc spinners with
Audiolab’s 8300CD (HFC 404) being a
great do-it-all CD player and DAC if
you’ve got the money. My choice of
budget floorstander speaker would be
Q Acoustics’ 3050 (£495, HFC 398),
which has a big, immersive sound that
flatters the modestly powered Brio-R.
CW: For CD players, the Cambridge
Topaz CD10 or Marantz CD6005 (HFC
381) are great value. For speakers I’d
suggest ELAC’s Debut B6 (HFC 407).
I need a new amp
and can you suggest
loudspeakers and a
CD player as well?
Where next?
My system consists of an AH!
Njoe Tjoeb CD player (with all
the upgrades), connected to a
Conrad-Johnson PV14 preamp
feeding into a pair of Naim
155 XS, which in turn bi-amplify
Monitor Audio GR60 speakers.
All the electronics are properly
David suggests
Rega’s Brio-R as
isolated, connected via van den
a perfect fit for Hul cables and energised from a
Philip’s system PS Audio Power Plant Premier. I

• Compact Cassette • MiniDisc

• Reel-to-reel tape

41%
31%

28%

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If it’s bass that
Jon is after,
Chris reckons
Eminent
Technology’s
LFT-8b will
fit the bill
feel I have reached the limit of
what I can accomplish with my
existing electronics and I’m
looking to upgrade.
The obvious choice would be
the power amplifiers to a model
further up the Naim range and
while that might improve the
existing setup, it may just paint
me into a corner when it comes
to upgrading my speakers.
If I change the speakers I need
something approximately the
I’ve reached the
limit of my hi-fi, what
upgrades do I need
to get more from it?
same size as the Monitor Audio
for a reasonable bass response.
I have no idea where to start,
put simply, I want more of
everything; better soundstaging,
better dynamics, better timing.
Jon (Sheffield)
DP: This is one of those ‘how long is a
piece of string’ questions. In truth you
have so many possibilities open to you,
and it may take some time and a good
bit of auditioning to get to a settled
view. The Naim amps are great – if you
like that sound – but what I’m about to
suggest would require you to sell them
and invest the money in a pair of active
speakers. My advice is to go for ATC’s
SCM40A (£6,300) – expensive yes,
but a good deal of that could be
recouped by the sale of your current
power amps and speakers. These
would give you more of everything –
they’re powerful and punchy, very
musical and absolutely command the
listening room. Give them an audition
and see what you think.
JK: Speakers would probably be the
area to look at, but as you don’t
mention a budget forgive me if any
suggestions are too pricey. I would
recommend the best model you can
afford in the PMC range, the new
twenty5 series is exceptionally good
with a clean, revealing sound that
times superbly and draws you into
the music like nothing else.
ES : The logical thing to do would be
to try an equally distinctive CD player
to the AH!. Something like the Audio
Note range of CD players and DACs
JITTE RBUG USB Filter
Can a £39 insect make all
your CD files sound better than
Hi-Res?
Yes and no: Using the same
equipment and a quality DAC, a 24/96
file (for example) will always sound
better than a CD 16/44.1 file … but,
even a single JitterBug will often
allow a CD file to be more musical and
more emotionally stimulating than
a Hi-Res file without the benefit of a
JitterBug.
Noise is the problem. Real noise—
the kind you can’t hear directly. Most
often, the word “noise” is used to
describe tape hiss or a scratch on a
record, but these sounds aren’t noise;
they are properly reproduced sounds
that we wish weren’t there.
Problem noise is essentially random,
resonant or parasitic energy, which
has no meaning. It can’t be turned
into discrete sounds, but it does
compromise signal integrity and the
performance of everything it touches.
JitterBug’s dual-function line-
conditioning circuitry greatly reduces
the noise and ringing that plague both
the data and power lines of USB ports,
whether on a computer, streamer,
home stereo or car audio front-panel
USB input.
A single JitterBug is used in between
devices (i.e., in series) as shown
below. For an additional “wow”
experience, try a second JitterBug
into another USB port on the same
device (such as a computer). Whether
the second port is vacant, or is
feeding a printer or charging a phone,
JitterBug’s noise-reduction ability is
likely to surprise you. No, the printer
won’t be affected—only the audio!
While a JitterBug helps MP3s sound a
lot more like music, high-sample-rate
files have the most noise vulnerability.
Try a JitterBug or two on all your
equipment, but never more than two
per USB bus. There is such a thing as
too much of a good thing.
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would give the same big, lush
presentation and offer a step up
in resolution and detail.
NR: I suggest that you’re right to focus
on upgrading your power amps. I shall
leave it to my learned colleagues to
recommend an appropriate upgrade of
the 155 XS. However, if you’re looking
for better sound staging, better
dynamics and better timing – dare I
suggest experimenting with vinyl?
CW: If you’re conscious that a larger
room needs some bass drive, try
Eminent Technology’s LFT-8b planar
magnetic panels (HFC 400). They have
depth, drive, detail and timing in
spades. Your Naims could sound
transformed, but I’d suspect you’ll
benefit from some alternative amps
I enjoy reading the
music reviews and
about the music
you use to test kit
with more muscle and greater current
delivery. I recently heard the Eminent
powered by Acousticimagery Atsah
500 monoblocks (HFC 404) and it’s a
brilliant combo.
LETTER Music maestro!
OF THE Having read Alan
MONTH Bridgens and Dave
Houghton’s letters about
the relevance of vinyl, as I
neither stream nor rip music
should I abandon reading hi-fi
magazines – something I have
done for 40+ years?
I have a collection of vinyl, CDs,
and cassettes, and there is music
available on each of these media
that is not available on the other,
LETTERS
YellOPower
is back!
ANNIVERSARY
E D I T I O N
Fitted with Russ
Andrews 13A fuse
so I keep all of them. I have vinyl
by choice, but happily listen to
CD as well. For all the years that
I’ve read the magazine, the part
that I always enjoy reading is the
music reviews and about the
music you use to test kit. So, keep
on reviewing, but most of all
keep telling us about the music!
Alan Matthews via email
CW: Thanks Alan, test tracks are very
important and I do occasionally return made with
to some old, tried and tested test tones
and tracking tests on LP if I’m curious
about cartridges or tonearms in
particular. But these will generally yield Unique woven cable design
a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ result, whereas music effectively removes mains
reproduction is so much more based interference
on subjective qualities. It’s also possible High purity copper
to say that there are fewer and fewer insulated with PVC
poor products, meaning that reviews
need to get better at differentiating
subtler and more musical qualities. In
this respect, reviews generally dedicate
half the copy to describing ‘sound
quality’ so you’re in safe hands with us.
NR: Rest assured Alan, we will
certainly not be neglecting vinyl as a
format in future issues and will also
be including a good balance of music
on vinyl as it becomes available in
our music reviews. High performance IEC
Choices choices...
Formats, formats, formats. If
only there were just four of
them. Not only is there now so
much choice, but there is even
choice within the individual
choices. Downloading: What
level of quality am I looking for?
We are so confident that you will love the new YellO Power
Streaming: What quality levels
that we give you 60 Days to try it at home -
am I prepared to rise or sink to?
if you’re not 100% satisfied we’ll give you your money back.
Vinyl: From an analogue master
or a digital master? 180g or
lighter? CD: Never really Only £60 for 1m
O R D E R D I R E C T AT
WWW.RUSSANDREWS.COM/YELLO

exciting. Too small to appreciate
any artwork and to read. Tapes:
now I need a new quality
machine, which appears to not
exist. DVD... Blu-ray... Lossy,
Lossless, Lost.
In 1979 I played a record and
enjoyed it 100 percent. Nothing
more was needed and it still
isn’t. I’m not unhappy about how
the future turned out and I’m not
a Luddite. But I am an individual,
and that is more important in
the pursuit of musical bliss these
days. But don’t listen to me, you
are an individual too.
Neil Porter, by email
DP: Fair point well made, Neil. I now
look at the hi-fi equipment in my house
and it comprises LP, Compact Cassette,
open reel, MiniDisc, CD, SACD, PCM/
Formats, formats,
formats! If only
there were just four
to choose from...
DSD DAC with USB input, uPnP server
and aptX Bluetooth. Oh and of course
a Blu-ray spinner for good measure.
I have music files in analogue, and
digital in MP3, AAC, ALAC, FLAC,
PCM, DSD and MQA – how did it all
get so complicated? If I had to pick one
format, it would have to be the vinyl LP.
CW: I hear where you are coming
from Neil, but is it possible that many
of the problems you list are just a
brilliant array of choices for customers
of different means? Turn the clock back
a few decades and I can remember
enviously listening to a quality vinyl
and valve hi-fi set up that I may never
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LETTERS
have been able to afford. Now, it’s
possible to sample something pretty
special on very limited means. The key
insight is to realise that none of the
technical choices you list is a bad
quality ‘cul-de-sac’. Increasingly one
can argue there is a convergence
towards high quality across all choices.
NR: Yes Neil, we are indeed all
individuals, but some of us are more
individual than others! That’s why it’s “It is immediately apparent
good there are formats to suit all tastes. that it offers serious
Kitchen or upgrade? audible improvements...
I am a subscriber and have put
together several systems over
The quieter sections are
the years using your suggestions. just as detailed as the
My current vinyl system is:
Michell Orbe SE, SME V arm, louder passages, with
Transfiguration Axia, Avid excellent imaging,
Primare phono stage, Chord
CPM3350 amp, and MartinLogan transparency
Ethos speakers connected with and spacial
various Chord interconnects,
cables and Russ Andrews bits positioning”.
and pieces. I’m delighted with
the sound and my Acoustic
Hi-Fi Choice,
Research CD6 is gathering dust August ’16.
as vinyl sounds better.
The upgrade bug has reared its
wonderful head again and I have
a budget of £5,000 burning a
hole in my pocket. Or rather I
have £5,000 towards a new
kitchen, but where’s the fun in
that? I really want to enhance
the quality of the sound and the
guys at Analogue Seduction have
suggested purchasing a better
deck as a foundation but keeping
the SME/Aria combination. At
times I feel the amp can’t drive
the speakers to produce their
best at higher levels, but I really
like the sound that the Chord/
Ethos combo produces. So my
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A Lyra Skala and
Quadraspire
X-Reference might
help Paul’s setup
question is: where do you think
the money would be best spent?
I would use the word ‘wisely’,
but it seems inappropriate as
my conscience reminds me new
cupboards should be the priority.
As always, I look forward to your
advice and recommendations.
Paul Moxey, by email
DP: One of the joys of answering
readers’ questions is that we can
imagine ourselves as the ones with the
cash to splash! If I were you, I would
do the following: buy a Lyra Skala MC
cartridge (£2,900), invest in a good
system support (the Quadraspire
X-Reference, at £1,000 per level,
would be my choice), and get the
Orbe turntable set up properly. When
correctly fettled and resting on a
top-notch isolation system, there’s little
that can touch it under £10,000 –
especially if you remove the deck’s
huge dustcover while listening! The
Lyra is a superb moving coil, one of the
best in the world in my view, and will
unlock detail, focus and grip that you
hadn’t thought possible. If you’re
happy with the rest of the system,
why mess with it? The only tweak
I’d suggest would be to try some
MCRU SLiC Innovations Eclipse C MkII
interconnects (p118, £540/m)
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OWER
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LETTERS
RACKS & SUPPORTS
between the phono stage and Chord
amp; in my view it’s one of the most
open and insightful cables I’ve heard.
JK: If you enjoy the MartinLogan/
Chord combo I’d stick with it, getting
amps and speakers to work well is not
always easy and it sounds like you
have that sorted. I agree with your
dealer that the source is probably the LIGHTWEIGHT
weakest link, but my solution is a bit
more radical than merely upgrading RIGID
the turntable, I would suggest you
compare your existing record player
(turntable, arm and cartridge) with CUSTOMISABLE
a Rega RP10 with the Aphelion MC
cartridge. This £5,498 package is one
of, if not the best record players
available today. Its only problem is
that it doesn’t cost as much as the
competition at the level it competes at.
I have £5,000 to
spend on a new
kitchen, but want to
spend it on my hi-fi...
ES: The problem is that if the system is
delivering a sound you are happy with,
throwing money at it in the hope of
making it better might not work. The
only area that looks like it might
benefit from an upgrade is the
cartridge – possibly to another
Transfiguration model or it might be
worth trying the phenomenal
Dynavector Te Kaitora Rua.
CW: Looks like a great set up. Of
course the MartinLogan Ethos has a
200W active woofer, so your Chord
amp will have little bearing on the bass “seems to bring a touch
drive. If you’re dissatisfied at higher
volumes, it’s possible this could be a
of magic to anything
room acoustic issue that might be placed on top of it,
addressed by some room treatments
from the likes of GIK Acoustics. I’d also to the benefit of detail,
experiment a little around cartridge
alignment, VTA and tweaking tracking
imaging and general
force in case this unlocks something musical verve.”
extra. An Origin Live platter mat could
work wonders. In short, it could be Richard Black,
kitchen time. Many modern kitchens Hi-Fi Choice, Oct 2012
now have areas to keep beer and wine
that can enhance almost every music
system (please upgrade your system
and kitchen responsibly).
60 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
O R D E R D I R E C T AT
W W W .T O R L Y T E . C O M
 OPINION

Fine wine in old bottles

Jimmy Hughes has to admit that the collector in him can’t resist a CD reissue, especially
if it appears with the original vinyl-release artwork, and there’s plenty to keep him happy

nyone out there still buying CDs? I am – Yes Sir! reissued – giving a

A Although my collection numbers around

20,000, I still keep buying. Crazy... But then,
Collecting isn’t about logic or practicalities –
fresh slant on more
familiar material.
All the early Bob
it’s what you want (not what you need) that counts. Dylan and Miles Davis
In the past five or 10 years, the big record companies have recordings on CBS,
produced some very tempting collected editions. Even not to mention The
better, the recordings are often remastered and Beatles and The
re-packaged with original LP artwork. Examples are the Rolling Stones, can
complete Beatles, or maybe Pink Floyd’s Discovery box now be bought in
and classical sets like the Fritz Reiner and Charles Munch mono editions. Once,
collections. Even if you have the recordings already, the you couldn’t give
chance to buy them again in a single complete edition is still mono recordings
hugely tempting – especially if the price is keen. away, but now,
There’s something comforting about having the complete miraculously, it’s
recordings of... in a single package. Somehow, it gives you a suddenly not a
greater sense of ownership. And if it’s music you only know problem. In fact,
in part, you’re encouraged to explore by starting with the many enthusiasts find
first album, and going right through to the last one. mono tapes actually
In the pop and jazz world it’s not unusual for the CD to sound better – firmer,
keep the original LP cover. But with classical music it was cleaner, more detailed and focused, with less background
The Rolling
uncommon for original artwork to feature. Instead, you’d hiss. And why not? With many albums in the sixties, the Stones are just
have modern artwork designed to make old recordings look mono mix was the main one – not the stereo version. one of many acts
more recent and up to date. Both Decca and DG recently released big boxes devoted to to have released
mono box sets
It’s only taken the record companies 30 years to realise classical recordings from the mono era. 20 years ago, that
that most classical would have been unthinkable. Many of those chosen had
With many albums CD collectors prefer never been on CD before, and some had never been
the original vintage reissued since the original LPs were released in the fifties.
in the sixties, the artwork over You can’t blame record companies for maximising sales
mono – not stereo– something new and in this way. When markets reach saturation, and younger
was the main mix snazzy. Sony got buyers show little or no interest in software formats like CD,
there first – with its all you can do is try and get your old existing customers to
Original Jackets series – and others eventually followed suit. buy what they already have once again.
Having the original artwork establishes an album’s
historical context. It cements time and place, and imparts a Time to go shopping
sense of provenance that downloads and streaming can’t A further incentive to buy again is if a favourite recording
replicate. Some old recordings are extremely rare, and very is reissued in a hi-res format like SACD or Blu-ray Audio.
hard to find on vinyl with their original LP covers. Recently, Decca issued some of its classic seventies opera
Many of the discs in Sony’s magnificent 57-CD complete recordings on a single Blu-ray Audio disc for those wanting
Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky set fall into the super-rare the best sound quality. Not only is the sound better; with
category. So, being able to get something that, on vinyl, was Blu-ray Audio reissues on a single disc, you’re able to listen
highly collectible is great. Okay, it’s just a mini CD replica, to long two or three hour operas without a break.
but it still has some of the original LP magic. Of course, I still buy quite a few ‘new’ CDs. But nowadays
Albums you bought when young become a part of you; I’m more attracted to reissues of older material – even stuff I
they’re the soundtrack of your life. For older collectors that already own. If the recordings are expertly remastered and
owned the vinyl version when first issued, these miniature the packaging features original LP cover art, I find it
albums recreate the thrill felt when buying the original. impossible to resist. So, if you want to see more reissues
That’s why many of us buy each new incarnation, hoping of this quality, do what I do; vote with your wallet. Buy
to get even closer to the music. Any excuse! And now, we’re everything you can to try to make sure that things continue. JIMMY HUGHES
seeing the original mono versions of stereo albums being And avoid downloads at all costs ● CD collector

JANUARY 2017 79

Drive time
David Price remembers the turbulent times of the seventies, when belt-drive
and direct-drive turntables fought it out for public acceptance
nyone that lived through the seventies will
A remember it as a turbulent time, as the
government tried to come to terms with civil
unrest resulting from our economic decline
after World War II. The happier side of the seventies was the
amazing music coming out, and the meteoric rise of hi-fi. In
the sixties it had been a niche pastime for either the affluent
or cash-strapped hobbyists wanting to build it themselves.
By the mid-seventies every family aspired to a decent stereo
system. All well and good, but hi-fi too saw a dramatic
conflict play out before our very ears…
1975 was the high watermark of the vinyl LP record –
massive sales of albums like Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells
meant the turntable was king. But what type of turntable?
By then, direct-drive technology – that arrived with the new
Technics SP-10 broadcast turntable in 1970 – had trickled
down into the more affordable SL-1200 in 1972, then the
more upmarket SL-1500 in 1975. By this time, Technics
had indelibly stamped the direct-drive motor system on the
collective imagination of the hi-fi world.
As a sales proposition it was a sort of prototypical compact
disc. CD was sold in a, “Hey, are you tired of all the woes of
conventional turntables? Then buy this!” kind of way.
Technics marketed its direct-drive system in a similar
fashion – effectively arguing: “If you’re fed up with slack
belts or noisy idlers,
The better either then get with the
plan!” The company
system gets, the trumpeted those
closer they sound amazing wow and
to one another flutter and rumble
measurements in
jargon-filled double page hi-fi magazine adverts. And with
stats like 0.03 percent WRMS wow and flutter, when the
very best high-end British belt drives at twice the price
struggled to attain 0.04 percent, who could blame it?
The makers of expensive belt-driven decks hit back, saying
there was more to life than just tech specs, but those
numbers didn’t lie. Technics direct-drive decks were
incredibly speed-stable and very quiet, and the public was
highly receptive to this. Lest we forget, in the mid-seventies
the idea that a turntable had a particular sound was still a
controversial one – everyone thought loudspeakers were the
main variable in a stereo system. Technics’ ultra low speed
brushless DC motor, complete with servo control, was
wonderfully stable and quiet – and owning such a deck
conferred a sense of security and confidence in its owner.
By the late seventies, the hi-fi world was in the middle
of an epic struggle between two visions of how the most
important source component should be made. On one side
OPINION
were direct-drive
fans, who
couldn’t see the
attraction of
anything with a
primitive rubber
belt inside it, and
on the other
there was the
(largely British)
‘superdeck’
brigade from the
likes of Linn,
Ariston and
Dunlop arguing
that a turntable
was more than
just its motor.
They’d explain all the sophisticated aspects to their design Technics
and contend that measurements don’t tell the whole story. SL-1500 was key
to the success
It was really quite divisive – with British belt-drive fans of direct-drive
looking down at Japanese direct-drives in a snobbish way technology
– and the latter wondering why the former couldn’t see
that their decks were so much more sophisticated. And
just to make life even more interesting, the subsequent
introduction of quartz-crystals to provide an ultra-stable
speed reference for the direct-drive servos, further reduced
those wow and flutter figures in the late seventies.
Spot the difference
Sonically, belt drives and direct drives sounded distinctly
different. Both had their strengths and weaknesses, and
the secret was in the way they were done rather than what
system was used. Basically, the better either system got,
the closer they sounded to one another. It’s certainly true,
though, that – unlike much of what was written in the UK
hi-fi press at the time – direct drives had huge strengths in
some areas. If you want proof of this, just listen to the new
Technics SL-1200G today (p16) – it times in a way that
makes belt-drive decks sound soft, fluffy and slow, thanks
to the super-fast attack transients that direct drives
inevitable possess. This is particularly obvious in the bass.
Sadly though, by the early eighties it was game over for
direct drive – the same companies that had developed the
technology 10 years earlier were now fully committed to
compact disc, which was just around the corner. Belt-drive
turntables effectively won by default – because their
Japanese rivals simply upped sticks and left the pitch. Now
though, they’re back – and as you’ll soon discover, Technics DAVID PRICE
isn’t the only brand that will make a splash in 2017 ● Driving force
JANUARY 2017 81
 OPINION

Image conscious
After reviewing omni-directional speakers, Chris Ward explores the importance of
‘soundscapes’ in reproducing music and comes up with an interesting new concept

istening feeds the most primeval of human mono and it was only when

L drives of finding a mate or food, while helping

us avoid becoming food or befalling an
untimely accident. This is refined through the
Blumlein thought that the left
and right walls of a groove
could be encoded differently
use of two ears, which help us interpret direction by in the thirties that stereo was
detecting tiny delays between sounds reaching each ear at born. But has innovation in
slightly different times. This directional quality of hearing sound imaging stopped?
is most pronounced with higher frequencies where the Not all sound is created
sound source is likely to be closest, protecting us from equal. If I listen to purely
imminent attack. Bass notes can still be interpreted as a electronic music, generated
warning, but are more likely to be a distant threat. by midi signals that have
Breaking a twig in a forest causes sound waves to emanate never ever actually made
from an exact point in space, but this direct sound soon a live sound, this may as
reflects off multiple tree trunks and branches, leaves and well be placed in a stereo
the forest floor. So the sound that reaches the ears is a soundscape as any other, as
mixture of direct and reflected sound. The ratio between it has never existed in three
the two, and the ways in which reflected sound is adjusted dimensions before. We are
and different for each ear feeds our brain vital information still faced with the same left speaker, right speaker, left ear, Listening is a
about the nature of the space we are in, and the likely right ear brain-teaser, but at least we aren’t tricking the primeval sense,
helping us to
direction and proximity of the sound source. brain around the apparent recreation of a reality. hunt for food
Stereo loudspeakers create a soundstage in which we If I were lucky enough to see a very early gig of The while avoiding
locate performers, but unlike a live noise, this directional Beatles, their live performance could be described as being something
else’s dinner
placement of a sound source in space doesn’t use time delay. emanating from four, near point sources, with vocals, a pair
Perceived location is of guitar amps and a drum kit. So, maybe we should have
Could it be argued achieved through quad systems, with four speakers designed to better
amplitude alone, compliment the dynamics of each part? Music software
that innovation in with equal volume would naturally need to be re-encoded into these four new
sound imaging from two speakers channels. This music playback system could represent the
has stopped? simulating a single live sound far more accurately as it would allow our ears to
sound source half collect the correct sound from the correct place, without
way between the two actual sound sources. This physics stereo trickery. For the sake of argument, I’ll call this system
is very different from naturally occurring sounds, but a Multi-Mono (patent pending).
wonderful advert for the plasticity of the human brain to
create sense from non-sense. Time for change
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com/Nicolas Primola

Breaking down what’s really happening can quickly fry
your noodle, because our left ear is hearing sound from the
left speaker and comparing it to the sound the right ear is
receiving from the left speaker, as well as the opposite
equation for the right speaker. It’s a wonder we find music
relaxing at all, and a possible justification that stereo is an
unlikely end game for the highest quality sound playback
system. Fans of surround sound might agree, but even
innovative Dolby Atmos can be glibly described as stereo
left to right, stereo front to back and stereo top to bottom,
all blended together – 3D stereo, if you will.
A recording of the snapping twig can be captured by all
kinds of omni-directional or directional microphones and
decoded onto two playback channels, but have you ever
stopped to consider that two channels is only a function of
the stereo system? The earliest wax cylinders were of course
My new system will comprise three speaker models of
slightly different heights called the John, Paul and George
respectively with each having a slightly different frequency
response and finish (the Paul speaker also being left-
handed). This combo will be accompanied by a larger, squat
Ringo speaker with larger woofers and some cymbal shaped
tweeters. The exact same system will also enable you to
play music from The Rolling Stones and most of The Smith’s
back catalogue. Fans of The White Stripes can save on
speakers, but those who enjoy Wagner’s Ring Cycle will
probably need to pay in instalments and get a bigger house.
Purists will know exactly where to place their individual
speakers to recreate each and every live performance, but
much fun will also be had from putting speakers on wheels,
activated by pulleys and ropes, enabling you to recreate CHRIS WARD
Chuck Berry’s duck walk and Springsteen crowd surfing ● Good listener

JANUARY 2017 83
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Glass half full
Neville Roberts takes a nostalgic look at the rise and fall of valve manufacture in Britain
and wonders if its demise was inevitable or if something could’ve been done to save it
hat ever happened to the once-famous British
W valve industry? The story started in 1919 with
the collapse of the Z Electric Lamp Company
run by Captain Stanley R Mullard. The
following year, he moved on to set up the Mullard Radio
Valve Company Limited. In 1924, he sold half his shares
on to NV Philips Gloeilampenfabriken of Eindhoven,
Netherlands. This injection of capital allowed for the
construction in Blackburn of what was to become the
largest valve assembly works in the world. When the doors
opened in 1938, the new site employed 28 staff. This grew
to about 3,000 people by 1945 and by 1954 was capable of
manufacturing 500,000 valves a day.
At its peak in 1961, over 6,200 people were employed.
Alas – due to the demise of the valve in favour of the
transistor – by 1984 the factories had closed or moved to
other activities. The Mullard organisation changed its name
to Philips Electronics Components (the main shareholder)
and continued to make and develop cathodes for use in
cathode ray tubes (CRTs).
In 2008, an effort was made to resurrect the British valve
industry in Blackburn to cater for the growing demand for
valves to be used with high-end audio equipment. The
company was no longer able to use the Mullard name as it
was owned by Philips Electronics in the Netherlands, so the
name Blackburn
Sadly, the company MicroTech Solutions
folded due to the was adopted.
With all the local
end of CRT, not the expertise and
failure of the valve background
knowledge of valve
manufacturing and cathode development, the Blackburn
factory turned its attention to audio valves for the hi-fi and
guitar amplifier market with the ambition of once again
being at the leading edge of valve technology. 2008 saw the
launch of the first valve development since its initial launch
back in the twenties, with the production of the TechTube
E813CC double triode.
The new valve was functionally identical to the ECC83,
but the new designation gave a clue that this was not simply
a copy of an old favourite. What those clever chaps at
Blackburn MicroTech Solutions did was to channel all their
expertise in electron-gun technology from CRTs to come up
with a radical re-design of a triode valve. Instead of the
standard construction of an indirectly heated triode audio
valve, such as the ECC83 which is constructed as a set of
concentric cylinders, the E813CC had a linear construction
with the filament and cathode assembly, together with the
grid located inside a metal can. Instead of being emitted
OPINION
radially as in a conventional valve,
the electrons were directed through
an aperture at the top of the can
that has the grid laser welded to
it. The anode that collects the
electrons is situated on the other
side of the grid just above the
can and is in the form of a little
metal ‘top hat’. So the design was
strikingly similar to that of electron
guns used in CRT TVs. This was,
perhaps, not surprising considering
that the factory has been
specialising in electron gun
components for over 40 years! This
construction resulted in a valve with
very low capacitance and excellent
high-frequency characteristics.
Furthermore, the filament of each
triode consumed a mere 112mA
(about 75 percent of that of a
standard valve) and, as a result,
generated far less heat. I am
fortunate enough to have some of these valves and I can The TechTube
certainly vouch for the fact that they sound really superb. E813CC double
triode valve
So, where are they now?
And now, the end is near...
The sad truth is that Blackburn Microtech Solutions had
been vulnerable since 2007 when its parent company
stopped covering its losses. Its main income was as a
specialist supplier of CRTs, and a fatal blow was struck
when its only customer, a Chinese firm, refused to
negotiate over prices. This left Blackburn MicroTech
Solutions unable to pay suppliers and a month later in
December 2009, it went into administration after a hunt
for a buyer failed. The report that was made to Companies
House showed that the business failed with unsecured
debts totalling £12.4m, of which £9.8m was owed to the
parent company, Holland-based LP Displays, which also
happened to be in administration itself.
The company folded due to the end of CRT manufacture,
rather than the failure of the audio valve. Given the
continuing increase in demand for high-quality audio valves
over the past seven years, would Blackburn MicroTech
Solutions have survived today had it not been carrying
debts from its CRT days and reliant on a single customer?
My guess is probably yes, given that the valves were really
good. So the demise of the British valve industry was NEVILLE ROBERTS
probably down to bad timing – how very sad ● Lotta bottle
JANUARY 2017 85

Like a rolling stone...
For some, Bob Dylan being selected for the Noble Prize for Literature was a
controversial choice, but not Nigel Williamson who thinks he’s a lyrical laureate
ome years ago I signed an online petition
S calling for Bob Dylan to be awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature. So when the news came
through that he had been recognised by the
world’s most prestigious literary prize, I congratulated
myself for having done my bit for his cause.
As a baby boomer growing up in the sixties, The Beatles
taught me what Noel Coward called “the potency of cheap
music”. But it was from Dylan that I learned that the power
of popular song could be immeasurably intensified when
married to words that had more to say than the bland
clichés of “she loves you” and “I wanna hold your hand”.
I was 13 years old and in the throws of a very traditional
education in which my curriculum reading consisted of the
poetry of Catullus (in the original Latin), Shakespeare’s
Macbeth and the Oxford Book of English Verse, augmented
by a trip to the theatre to see a staging of T.S. Eliot’s Murder
In The Cathedral. I enjoyed it enormously and, if I’m honest
rather looked down on pop music with a superciliousness
that now makes me blush with embarrassment.
Then a school friend played me Highway 61 Revisited.
Like A Rolling Stone was clearly a great song, but the track
that hooked me was Desolation Row – 11 minutes long and
10 stanzas of dense imagery complete with references to
Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot “fighting in the captain’s tower”.
That popular music could have something to say as deep
and interesting as
He has shifted the anything in the
canon of what I had
paradigm of what been taught to
we understand regard as ‘serious
as literature literature’ was a
revelation – and
the start of a love affair with Dylan’s lyric verse that has
endured for half a century.
Not everyone was as delighted as I was at Dylan’s
laureateship. Irvine Welsh denounced “an ill-conceived
Picture courtesy of Shutterstock/Rena Schild
nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of
senile, gibbering hippies”. The Trainspotting author
continued: “If you’re a ‘music’ fan, look it up in the
dictionary. Then ‘literature’. Then compare and contrast”.
But do song lyrics have a literary life when divorced from
the melody they were written to accompany? I’d argue that
they can and point out that the 1901 statutes governing
the Nobel prize state that eligibility extends to “not only
belles-lettres, but also other writings which, by virtue
of their form and style, possess literary value”. On that
reckoning Dylan should have won long ago.
Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Nobel Academy,
compared Dylan’s songs to the works of Homer and
OPINION
Dylan receives
the Presidential
Medal of Freedom
back in 2012
Sappho, whose verses were “meant to be performed, often
together with instruments”. Salman Rushdie described him
as a “brilliant inheritor of the bardic tradition”. And
contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, he is not
the first songwriter to win the Nobel Prize: the Bengali
writer Rabindranath Tagore, whose creative output
included thousands of songs, was chosen way back in
1913 for his “sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse”.
The American writers who preceded Dylan as Nobel
laureates included William Faulkner, John Steinbeck,
Ernest Hemingway and Toni Morrison. All captured the
essence of their times and universalised the experience. In
his songs – particularly those he wrote during the sixties, a
decade which he came to shape and define as ‘the voice of
a generation’ – Dylan has done exactly the same.
Making a difference
But Dylan has done rather more than that, too. Rather
than obeying the traditional rules of poetry, his writing has
shifted the paradigm of what we understand as literature.
For most of the 20th century, it was assumed that
literature could only be written for the page and not the
voice. That Dylan’s literary achievement came in song and
in an era in which the pop record became the defining
artistic form of its age means we have been able to hear
both the internal and external voices of the poet.
Like Shakespeare and the Bible, from ‘the times they are
a-changin’’ to ‘blowin’ in the wind’, his words have entered NIGEL
common parlance without the world even realising. Don’t WILLIAMSON
Mr Tambourine Man
think twice. Dylan’s Nobel prize is more than alright ●
JANUARY 2017 87
 RETRO

Pick-up artist
David Price looks back at one of the world’s most
long-lived pick-up arms – SME’s illustrious 3009
or much of the sixties, The Scale Model Equipment The decision was made to produce

F seventies and eighties,

if you visited a friend
with an expensive stereo
system, the chances are that they’d
have an SME 3009 tonearm of some
description affixed to their turntable.
There’s no understating the ubiquity
of this classic, which for a long period
in hi-fi history was the automatic,
go-to pick-up arm for audiophiles.
The SME 3009 was the tonearm that
the world had been waiting for,
delivering the quality and features
that people wanted, and – better still
– at the right price.
Company Ltd. formed in 1946 to
produce scale models and detail parts
for the model engineering trade, but
got caught up in the nascent hi-fi
boom in the fifties after moving into
precision engineering. The move
to tonearm manufacturing only
happened because the company’s
founder Alastair Robertson-Aikman
needed a tonearm for his home hi-fi.
He designed the precursor to what
would become the SME 3009 for his
home hi-fi system, and legend has it
that it impressed his friends and
fellow audiophiles no end.
it commercially, and the original SME
precision pick-up arm was launched
in September 1959. An initial run
of 25 pieces per week began at the
factory in Mill Road, Steyning –
where it still resides today. The design
featured a polished stainless steel
armtube with a lightweight headshell,
steel knife-edge horizontal bearings,
and bias adjustment provided by a
weight suspended on a nylon string.
The product was offered in both fixed
and detachable headshell variants,
the latter facilitated by a secure
locking collar arrangement that gave

The rise and fall and rise again of SME

1946 1959
The Scale Model Equipment
Company Ltd. forms, while
Barry Gibb, Syd Barrett and
Freddie Mercury are born
1978
The original SME precision
pick-up arm is launched and
Robert Smith (The Cure), Kirsty
MacColl and Morrissey are born
The SME Series III tonearm
debuts as The Who play their
last ever show with drummer
Keith Moon
1987
The superb Series V is unveiled
while Michael Jackson's Bad
becomes the biggest-selling
album of the year

88 JANUARY 2017

a rigid connection to the armtube, but
which still allowed for easy swapping
of headshells (and cartridges). So
successful was this system that it
became the industry standard.
Not content to stop there, the 3009
S2 was launched. It featured a
pointed yoke which sits above the
saddle bearing, and a reverse-facing
calibrated rod from which the bias
compensation weight is hung. The
new aluminium headshell was heavily
perforated to reduce mass, and the
distinctive sliding base was fitted – a
feature that has made the company
famous in tonearm circles, because
it’s so much easier to correctly align
the cartridge. The result was an
extremely durable, high-quality
tonearm that worked with a wide
range of cartridges, and which better
resists the ageing process than many.
The chances are that most used
turntables on sale these days – if
they’re motor units without arms –
will have arm boards in SME, Linn or
Rega fittings. Most seventies decks
will be SME, and if not then many
manufacturers – from Linn to Michell
The SME Series III
seemed highly
futuristic when it
appeared in 1978
– supply SME arm boards should you
need one. If you have to mount the
arm yourself to a new armboard,
you’ll need to drill an elongated hole
1in wide by 2¾in long, ranged by
four small holes for the mounting
screws to hold the metal arm
baseplate, which in turn takes the
actual armbase. SME’s excellent
manual shows the exact
measurements and geometry, and the
arm should come with its original
mounting protractor. Once the
armboard is correctly cut, you can
mount the arm and slide it along in its
base to get the cartridge alignment.
Basic adjustments are simple enough;
the rubber decoupled counterweight
has no stylus force adjustment;
instead this is done by a small weight
that moves along a calibrated rod
with half-gram increments. It’s not
the most user-friendly system by
modern standards, but is extremely
accurate – and designed at a time
when most rivals certainly were not.
When it surfaced at the turn of the
sixties, there’s no doubting that the
SME 3009 was, as the SME strap line
has it: “The best pick-up arm in the
world”. Here was an extremely couth
performer that worked with a wide
range of cartridges of the day, and
gave reliable fuss-free operation over
a long period of time. The SME 3009
S2 that followed was a really
worthwhile improvement, especially
the fixed headshell version, pretty
much pulling the arm back to the top
of the pack. It happened to coincide
with the golden age of magnetic
cartridges, and the SME suited them
very well. By the mid seventies, there
was a move towards tracking at very
low stylus forces – 0.75g wasn’t
atypical – which was thought to
reduce record wear, and the 3009
S2 Improved was one of the few
tonearms that could (just) do this.
Sonically, it was always lively and
lyrical, but without harshness across
the midband that seemed to afflict
some rivals. Its bass was a little
lacking compared with the ‘super
arms’ that followed in the late
seventies and its treble was a little
ragged, but the overall midband
performance was strong with a nice,
natural rhythmic flow.
Image is everything
By modern standards, the 3009 is
poor in imaging terms, tending to
mass everything around the centre of
the stereo mix, failing to accurately
recreate the full depth of a recording.
Dynamically, it’s compressed, but
this isn’t an altogether unpleasant
experience, making for a big wall of
sound that easily fills the room. The
SME hides its tracks and doesn’t
offend; it’s well behaved and
musically enjoyable.
Best suited to lowish mass, highish
compliance cartridges, fitting the
optional FD200 fluid damper gives
the SME 3009 S2 Improved a fighting
chance of tracking heavier, lower-
compliance moving magnets or even
moving coils. These days, a modern
RETRO
PICK UP A PICK-UP
There was a time when you could barely
give an SME 3009 away; 15 or so years
ago they were terminally unfashionable.
However, collectors have begun to move
in, doubtless encouraged by SME’s
superlative spares and servicing support.
Most parts for the arm are still available,
and owners can send ageing arms back to
the factory for a full service to return it back
to ‘as new’ condition – something that
cannot be done for the SME Series III that
followed it. One of the most common
problems the tonearm can develop with
age is a sagging counterweight, caused by
hardening of the coupling rubber, which
secures the tonearm stub to the main
tonearm tube. Another drawback is the
ageing internal wiring, which lets down the
arm and certainly isn’t up to the standards
of modern tonearms. The arm’s huge
following, however, means any such issue
can be remedied, and the SME 3009 S2
can be made to sound good and work well.
Always use SME’s latest LC-OFC arm leads
and headshell wires, and SME’s double pin
type headshells, again available from the
factory. Prices vary with condition and
model, but expect to pay from £100 for
a rough example needing attention to
upwards of £500 for a top specimen.
medium-compliance moving magnet
such as a Goldring G1042 works very
well, and is a realistic partner if you
don’t want to go for a classic Shure.
Back to the drawing board
By the mid seventies, the world was
going crazy for low-tracking weights
and very light, high-compliance
cartridges, and the 3009 S2 looked
a bit of a behemoth. SME’s answer
was the SME Series III. Using a more
sophisticated system of balance
weights and ultra-modern titanium
nitride armtube, it seemed highly
futuristic when it appeared in 1978,
and duly won a Design Council
Award. Unfortunately, it arrived just
when the hi-fi world was falling in
love with moving-coil cartridges. The
The instructions SME III was simply not designed for
were noted for
being easy to
low-compliance cartridges and is
understand and wasted in this role, so SME had to
clearly laid out give it a re-think.
The Steyning company went back
to the drawing board, and came
up with its superb Series V (and
Series IV and 309 derivatives)
in 1987, and the 3009 became
terminally unfashionable for the best
part of two decades. However, the
arm proved popular secondhand,
as vinyl began to experience a
renaissance, and there were calls for
the tonearm to reappear. At the turn
of the new millennium, the SME M2
surfaced – surprising many of us.
Essentially a re-engineered 3009 S2
better suited to modern cartridges, it’s
proved enduringly popular ever since.
JANUARY 2017 89
 BEAUTIFUL SYSTEM
PRO-JECT/ORTOFON/UNISON/OPERA

Arts and crafts

Valves and vinyl often make for happy bedfellows, but
Ed Selley thinks this pairing is a match made in heaven

90 JANUARY 2017

n comparison to other
I categories of home
technology, the rate of
development in audio is
better viewed as consistent rather than
breakneck. Even so, the system you
see here would struggle to be
described as cutting edge. In
technological terms, almost every
design concept it contains and
material it uses wouldn’t alarm an
enthusiast from 40 or 50 years ago
– back when valves and vinyl were
PRO-JECT/ORTOFON/UNISON/OPERA
more commonly referred to as source
and amplifier.
What might be seen as odd is that
neither Pro-Ject nor Unison Research
– which also provides the speakers in
the form of sister company Opera –
are anything like that old. Despite the
supposed advancements in audio
reproduction, both brands have
carved out a reputation for going
their own way. Both claim that when
older techniques are done properly,
they still have a huge amount to offer.
BEAUTIFUL SYSTEM
Pro-Ject can lay claim to being an
integral part of the vinyl resurgence
with many a rediscovery of the black
stuff starting with one of its affordable
models. The Signature 12 you see
here, however, is the sort of turntable
you might end that journey with. This
is the culmination of its technical
development and design experience
in a single compromise-free form.
This means the Signature 12 has
(as the name suggests) a 12in arm
designed and built inhouse. The
COMPONENTS
PRO-JECT SIGNATURE 12
£7,000
The Signature 12 is the flagship of the
extensive Pro-Ject range and uses a
pulley based, belt drive system to spin the
massive magnetically suspended platter.
The 12in arm is designed and built inhouse.
UNISON RESEARCH S6
£3,100
The S6 is an integrated valve amp that is
built around the unusual compliment of
six EL34 valves. These are run in a single-
ended configuration that produces 30W
per channel.
OPERA CALLAS
£4,000
The Callas is the standmount version of
Opera’s flagship loudspeaker, which uses
a 7in mid bass and a soft dome tweeter
in a beautifully finished and impressively
inert cabinet.
JANUARY 2017 91
 BEAUTIFUL SYSTEM
PRO-JECT/ORTOFON/UNISON/OPERA
enormous platter sits on a magnetic
bearing and is rotated by an elaborate
pulley system. The vast and exquisitely
finished plinth rests on specially
designed feet that completely isolate
the deck from the outside world. If
you were playing turntable top trumps,
this would be the killer card.
Compare and contrast
By contrast, Unison Research’s S6 is
almost self effacing. This is one of
the smaller integrated amps in the
company’s range and is relatively
unusual in that it is a single ended
type – a design decision that usually
results in fairly low power output –
but thanks to a trio of EL34 valves per
channel, it has a healthy 30W to its
name. With five line inputs and full
remote control, it is usefully equipped
too. As none of the inputs happen to
be a phono stage, a Phono One fills
in, helping the system demonstrate
another slice of retro cool.
The Phono One is designed for
moving-magnet cartridges, while the
Signature 12 sports an Ortofon
Cadenza Black moving coil with a
much lower output. To provide the
required boost in signal, an Ortofon
ST-80 step-up transformer sits
between the two and turns current
into voltage to ramp up the signal
92 JANUARY 2017
from the cartridge passively. This is
how all moving-coil cartridge systems
used to function and the process still
has its adherents to this day.
Judged by the technical thinking
doing the rounds in the rest of the
system, the Opera Callas is almost
conventional – dare I say it, modern.
As Opera is part of the same company
as Unison, the relationship between
the two is symbiotic and the Callas
The good news is that
this system seems
completely unfazed
by what you throw at it
should get the most from the S6. This
two-way standmount partners a
polypropylene mid bass driver with a
soft dome tweeter in one of the most
exquisitely finished cabinets I’ve
encountered in quite a while. It is free
of adornments or gaudiness, but the
more you study it, the more attention
you realise has been lavished upon it.
Now I come to mention it, the whole
system is a visual treat. The Pro-Ject
has the sort of room presence you
would usually associate with a
sculpture and placing records on it
has an almost ceremonial quality. The
Above left: The twin banks of valves on the Unison
S6 is packed with brings to mind a V6 engine that will
some gorgeous
design details power the Opera not with watts but
with horsepower. For all the sense of
Above centre: An
elaborate pulley whimsy, though, everything works
system gives the with a precise and well-oiled feel
Signature 12 and when you power it all up and
perfect pitch leave it idle, it is completely silent
Above right: – something a valve and step-up
The Callas is as
visually and system often finds very hard to do.
sonically striking
as its namesake Silence is golden
Of course, buying a system like this to
enjoy its silence would be perverse,
but there is a method in the madness.
Kicking off with Fink and the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra performing
Berlin Sunrise, the piece builds gently
from near silence. This system has the
basics in place to deliver it as it needs
to be done. As the string section
comes in, you realise that there is a
lot more going on here than just a
vague feeling of nostalgia. There is a
sense of immediacy, of realism, of
general ‘bloody hell!’ that makes a lot
of other equipment sound very two
dimensional in comparison.
Where the appeal deepens is that
the presentation itself is exceptionally
natural and even handed regardless
of what you choose to throw at it.
Keeping a Netherlands theme to
proceedings and selecting Loves

Voodoo by My Baby shows that this
system is just as happy with small
scale as it is on a grand one. Cato van
Dijck’s snarling vocals on Mad
Mountain Thyme are delivered
seemingly without anything so
mundane as a process of amplification
happening. There is a paradoxical
situation where this setup suspends
the illusion that you are listening to
a recording so effectively, that this in
itself becomes a source of disbelief.
Information technology
The Pro-Ject hoovers information
out of the groove and turns it into
something you feel you can reach out
and touch. This is helped in no small
way by the Unison S6 and Opera
Callas having the ability to sound far
larger and more assured than a pair
of sensibly sized standmounts driven
by 30W should. The punching beats
of Wild Beasts’ Alpha Female are
proper thwacks to the chest rather
than just the sound of drums, and the
speed and drive that this system
musters is a source of constant joy.
All the positive attributes of a
well-designed valve system are here,
while any negatives appear to have
been completely ameliorated.
This means that on occasions this
combo can perform the hoary old
BEAUTIFUL SYSTEM
PRO-JECT/ORTOFON/UNISON/OPERA
cliché of letting you hear things on a
recording you’ve never heard before.
A recently purchased copy of Bedlam
CONTACT Ago Go’s Estate Style Entertainment
DETAILS
grudgingly reveals that beneath the
DISTRIBUTOR late nineties bleakness, Leigh Stephen
Henley Designs Ltd Kenny has a voice that is quite unlike
TELEPHONE anything that contemporary bands
01235 511166 can muster. The spoken sections of
WEBSITES
henleydesigns.co.uk The speed and drive
project-audio.com
ortofon.com
operaloudspeakers.
that this system
com musters is a source
of constant joy
Season No5 are delivered as clear as a
bell before his soaring chorus fills the
room with a skin prickling intensity.
The presentation is so effortlessly
open that the finest of details is
readily accessible but also
convincingly part of a wider whole.
For those with genre-hopping
collections of variable mastering
quality, the really good news is that
this system seems completely unfazed
by what you throw at it. With truly
great pressings, the Signature gives
you everything that is contained in
those grooves with a near forensic
level of accuracy, while it has the
uncanny knack of managing to forgive
material that isn’t so blessed in quality
terms. Listening to Biffy Clyro’s Only
Revolutions, the turntable and its
supporting cast manage to convey
that while many times better than
the CD in terms of dynamic range
and spaciousness, this is still not a
recording for the ages. The clever bit
is that they do so in such a nigh-on
apologetic way, you can still enjoy the
album for what it is. I’m sure there’s a
record somewhere that doesn’t sound
good on this system, but I’m confident
that I don’t own it.
Vintage vision
This then is not merely an
anachronism or piece of whimsy.
This system uses vinyl, step-up
transformers and valves because
if they are done with sufficient
integrity, they sound staggeringly
good. If this setup had the appearance
of something that’s been made in
a shed it would still be beautiful
because of its ability to reproduce
any genre of music with ear-popping
realism. That it combines exceptional
materials, wonderful industrial design
and a sense of quality that makes you
feel special simply by interacting with
it, makes it a masterpiece. I’m no
Luddite, but this time it seems like
the old ways get the job done
JANUARY 2017 93
 LABELLED WITH LOVE
DERAM
For a brief moment, the label with audio that “wraps itself around you” was right
on the cutting edge. Simon Berkovitch plugs in the Deramic Sound System
ursting into life in
B 1966, this eclectic
subsidiary of the UK
wing of Decca Records
arrived full of zeal, proudly
heralding the future of recorded
sound. In the mid-sixties,
experimenting with improving
stereo recordings for vinyl,
Decca’s engineers developed
an innovative multi-tracked
technique. Christened Decca
Panoramic Sound, it was
abbreviated to Deramic and
condensed still further to give
the new label its name: Deram.
Initial 45s concentrated on
psychedelia and pop, but the
first six LPs acted as showcases
for the Deramic Sound System
(DSS), the label’s unique selling
point, via orchestral easy
94 JANUARY 2017
listening releases. The sleeve
notes of these nocturnally themed
LPs are a fascinating glimpse
into the development of DSS.
“Deram has produced a sound
which wraps itself around you,”
the uncredited expert boasts. To
achieve aural nirvana, one of
Decca’s studios was revamped,
with two adjoining studios used
for differing recording ambience.
“A variety of new microphones
– each with different
characteristics – has been
acquired from various countries
and each section of the orchestra
requires at least four distinctive
microphones to embrace the full
breadth of sound,” he continues.
It sounds more like the anarchic
experimentation of the Maida
Vale Radiophonic Workshop
than the developments of a
major record company, but this
snippet reminds us how quickly
technology was changing during
that decade, with the results
being rolled out to hungry
consumers eager to buy into a
new audio experience at home.
The most enduring DSS release
is The Moody Blues’ 1967 album
Days Of Future Passed – also
home to the deathless Justin
Hayward composition Nights In
White Satin – which sees the
group in collaboration with
an orchestra on one of the first
concept albums. This strange
hybrid of easy listening and
Mellotron-hued popsike marks
the change in direction for the
label, repositioning itself as
a rival to other UK imprints
championing underground
music. Subsequent significant
signings included Caravan, Thin
Lizzy, Ten Years After, Mike
Westbrook and a pre-King
Crimson Robert Fripp.
Developments in eight-track
technology in the late sixties
rendered DSS an anachronism,
and in losing its USP, the label
gradually lost its identity. Decca
launched the progressive imprint
Nova in 1969, and during the
early seventies, albums credited
to Deram Nova only muddied
the waters. The name was
revived in the eighties, but the
likes of Bananarama and The
Mo-dettes are distant relations
of a label that, at its best, pushed
the envelope of recorded sound
both in the studio and on vinyl.

The Moody Blues
Go Now hit makers brought string-heavy progressive rock to the mainstream
y 1966, beat boom 45 Go
B Now was a distant memory,
golden goose songwriter Denny
Laine was long gone and the
group, with a fair few flops
under its belt, was in debt to
Decca – its contract about to
expire. The label proposed one
last roll of the dice: a rock and
roll version of Dvorak’s New
World Symphony recorded using
– and to plug – DSS.
The group had other ideas. Fast
forward to 1967, and The Moody
Blues not only delivered one of
the first concept LPs, Days Of
Future Passed to slack-jawed
Decca top brass, but also scored
one of the biggest hits of the
decade in Nights In White Satin.
The follow up was In Search
Of The Lost Chord (1968). The
band’s most ambitious album,
it contains a tribute to Timothy
Leary (Legend Of A Mind),
cosmic spoken-word passages,
Indian instrumentation, a
mandala on the inside of the
gatefold sleeve and Mike Pinder’s
David Bowie
The Laughing Gnome’s debut album is a kaleidoscope of styles
mounting to one album, a
A handful of singles and a
clutch of rejects, Bowie’s stint at
Deram not only gave us the The
Laughing Gnome, re-released in
1973 at the height of Ziggymania,
but also some of his first great
songs – The London Boys, When I
Live My Dream and Karma Man.
The 19-year-old signed to the
label in the autumn of 1966 and
by the end of the year, he’d
released his first Deram single,
Rubber Band, and started
recording sessions for his debut
album. Eponymously titled and in
the racks on the same day as Sgt.
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,
the LP became just another in
his long line of flops, derided by
critics and biographers, ignored
by fans and even dismissed by its
creator: “I didn’t know if I was
Max Miller or Elvis Presley,” Bowie
said to Q magazine in 1990.
Nearly a half-century after its
creation, it’s now a key piece of
the artist’s jigsaw puzzle.
LABELLED WITH LOVE
mastery of the Mellotron. It’s well
worth a revisit.
On The Threshold Of A Dream
The follow up to Days Of Future
Passed sees the former beat
builds on this mind-expanding group fully psychedelicised
formula and sees the group
incorporate classical textures,
most memorably on the exquisite
suite of The Voyage and Have You
Heard – and embrace a lusher,
studio-based sound. And just like
The Beatles and The Rolling
Decca proposed
one last roll of the
dice to plug DSS
Stones, the now successful band
created its own record company
– its name, Threshold, inspired by
the album – and licenced
subsequent recordings to Decca,
beginning with To Our Children’s
Children’s Children (1969).
Still touring, The Moody Blues
remain Deram’s most famous
sons, but the cult appeal of
its more obscure peers on the
label has somehow eluded it.
There’s little to link it to the
changeling we came to know, but
peel away the quirky veneer and
Music hall, show tunes and
folk fill the grooves of the
Starman’s first outing
we find an embryonic Bowie,
sowing the seeds for his future
selves with stories of grotesque
misfits and outsiders, and like
contemporary Syd Barrett, mining
his childhood for kookiness. The
soundtrack is a dizzying mix of
The 19-year-old
Bowie signed to
the label in 1966
music hall, psych, folk and show
tunes delivered with a wink.
Reissued and repackaged
endlessly, the best place to track
down Bowie’s Deram output is
on the 2010 deluxe reissue of his
debut album. Presented in stereo
and mono, it brings together the
three singles he cut for the label,
along with the songs rejected by
the Decca selection panel, alternate
mixes and BBC session tracks.
JANUARY 2017 95
 LABELLED WITH LOVE

Mellow Candle SHOPPING LIST

Stack the Hacker high and crank the
volume up to 10 for this infectious
The very expensive jewel in the crown of seventies progressive folk selection of sixties-era 45s from
Decca’s groovy subsidiary

iving Tintern Abbey’s sole material, the progressive obscurity all the more
G 45 (see Shopping List) a
real run for its money in the
arrangements of the songs
and multi-layered harmonies
inexplicable. Happily, time has
been on Mellow Candle’s side
Beverley
Happy New Year
Deram’s debut 45
courtesy of Mrs
collectability stakes, according lend the group’s sole album and the group now enjoys John Martyn. The
to popsike.com, an original unique appeal – and makes its 21st-century cult status. B-side is a gem
with a spiky solo
pressing of Mellow Candle’s from session man
sole 1972 LP recently sold for Jimmy Page.
an eye-watering £3,000+.
Genuinely rare, it’s a brilliantly Cat Stevens
realised progressive folk-rock Matthew and Son
On the surface, a
gem that can be filed alongside catchy baroque-
fellow travellers Trees and the pop song, but the
Sandy Denny-led incarnation lyrics concern the
plight of wage
of Fairport Convention. slaves, making this
The group’s first single, Feelin’ a subversive gem.
High, was released on Simon
Napier-Bell’s proto-indie SNB The Move
records in 1968 – a sun-kissed I Can Hear The
Grass Grow
slice of pop featuring the Stinging guitars,
soaring vocals of teenagers jet-propelled
Clodagh Simonds and Alison bass and fabulous
harmonies all
O’Donnell. By the time of combine to create
Swaddling Songs, guitarist an acid-pop classic.
Dave Williams and the
muscular rhythm section of Procol Harum
bassist Frank Boylan and A Whiter
Shade of Pale
drummer William Murray One of the
had swelled Mellow Candle’s anthems of the
ranks. An album of all-original Summer of Love,
which went on to
sell over 10 million
copies worldwide.

Bill Fay The Flower

Pot Men
The songwriter’s songwriter has enjoyed a remarkable come back Let’s Go To
San Francisco
The group’s only
ill Fay’s albums have been recordings surfaced in the prized on vinyl. An acclaimed UK hit. Spin it next
B revealed to be among
Deram’s greatest treasures,
early noughties, following
the reissue of both of these
album of new material followed
in 2012, Life Is People, with his
to Scott McKenzie
and wear some
flowers in your hair.
finally getting the attention essential Deram recordings, most recent set, Who Is The
they deserve. He recorded which had become highly Sender, emerging last year. Tintern Abbey
an eerie, Mellotron-heavy Beeside
Expect to pay
45, Some Good Advice, for the north of a grand
label in 1967 that sounds every for this stone-cold
bit as out of time now as it classic. Equally
impressive cut
must have on release. Vacuum Cleaner
The orchestral, eponymous resides on the flip.
debut contains one of Fay’s
most well-known songs, The Amen Corner
Be Not So Fearful – brought Bend Me, Shape Me
Smash cover of
to public attention by a cover a song originally
by Wilco, whose leader Jeff recorded by The
Tweedy has made no secret Outsiders. The
Welsh group then
7in sleeves courtesy of 45cat.com

of his love of the composer’s jumped ship for

work – and the expressive rival Immediate.
guitar of improv titan Ray
Russell, who also features Timebox
heavily on Fay’s second Baked Jam Roll
In Your Eye
long-playing release. This peculiar tale of
On 1971’s Time Of The Last a Martian invasion
Persecution, the mood is darker marked the end
of the road for
and the arrangements starker. the oddball band
Fay dropped from sight after from Southport.
his second outing, but archive

96 JANUARY 2017
 100 Shirley Collins
Lodestar
ONE WEEKEND IN September 2015, a group of
international musicians based in the UK visited the
refugee and migrant camp in Calais known as The
Jungle, their mission to find musicians in the camp
with whom they could collaborate, write, perform
and record. News of their arrival travelled fast
around the camp. Within an hour, four Syrian
musicians – two from London and two from the
camp – had formed a group. A makeshift studio was
set up to record by day and serve as a performance
venue by night.
Pic credit: Sarah Hickson
Within 24 hours, the newly formed group had
recorded The Lost Singer. Written and sung in a rich
and evocative voice by a refugee tailor from Syria
named Moheddin and featuring his friend Ismail on
percussion plus the London-based duo of Louai
Alhenawi on flute and Roskar Nasan on oud, the
song is dedicated to “all the Syrian martyrs” as
101 Liszt
Transcendental Etudes
Various artists
The Calais Sessions
Moheddin sings of the refugees’ dream of a life
“filled with hard work, pride and worship” and paved
with “love, pride and peace”.
It makes a dramatic opener to this extraordinarily
moving album recorded over eight months as a
team of volunteers made regular visits to the camp
to work with refugees from Syria, Sudan, Romania,
Kuwait, Eritrea and Ethiopia. The volunteers included
sound engineers, music industry professionals and
musicians from Jamiroquai, Submotion Orchestra,
The Boxer Rebellion and the Allegri Quartet.
The result is a record on which every track is
radically different and yet the pain of exile and
the dream of a better future lends an emotional
cohesion that is almost overwhelming. University
Story is a slice of slow burning trip-hop featuring the
voice of Iraqi rapper Kasper. Deskovo Oro showcases
the wild gypsy fiddle playing of Bogdan Vacarescu
101 Gabriella Cohen
Full Closure
And No Details
CD Calais Sessions/Citizens UK
with Jamiroquai’s Sola Akingbola on percussion. On
Khandahar an entire orchestra of Jungle musicians
create a swirling dance rhythm to lyrics written by
two sisters from Afghanistan aged nine and 12.
Yesus gorgeously combines the voices of a UK
gospel group and a female choir of singers from
Ethiopia and Eritrea. The day after the track was
recorded, the makeshift church they had built on
the camp was bulldozed. Elsewhere, the 21-year-old
Kuwait singer Abdullah Kathim and Afghanistan’s
Ismail Nazari have two of the most haunting voices
you’ve ever heard, made even more chilling when
you read their stories of persecution.
The tragedy behind this music will reduce you to
tears, but it will also lift your heart. The liner notes
conclude with the simple words: “These are the
people behind the headlines. Thank you for listening.”
The privilege and the pleasure is all ours. NW
JANUARY 2017 99

The Alan
Parsons
Project
Tales Of Mystery
And Imagination
CD/vinyl Universal
AFTER HELPING PINK Floyd attain
aural perfection on Dark Side Of The
Moon in his role as chief engineer
at EMI’s Abbey Road studios, the
band asked Alan Parsons to reprise
his technical magic on the follow-up
album Wish You Were Here. He declined
and opted instead to deploy his skills on
his own project, 1976’s Tales of Mystery
And Imagination – a musical rendering
of the stories of the great American
horror writer Edgar Allan Poe.
Ambitious and brilliantly executed,
on the occasion of its 40th anniversary
the landmark recording now gets the
deluxe treatment in a new box set
release comprising the original mix,
Remastered on a pair of
45rpm 12in discs, the
results are audiophile
gothic-horror heaven
a later remix, a new 5.1 surround sound
mix and a CD that contains more than
70 minutes of previously unreleased
bonus material. Meanwhile, the original
vinyl album has been remastered at
half speed on a pair of 45rpm, 12in 180g
discs by Miles Showell at Abbey Road,
where it all began. The results are not
to be missed and are quite simply
audiophile gothic-horror heaven. NW
100 JANUARY 2017
MUSICREVIEWS
Pink Martini
Je Dis Oui!
CD Wrasse
FOR TAKING COCKTAIL lounge music and
giving it an expansive global twist, there’s no band
quite as lushly exotic as New York’s Pink Martini.
Their last album featured the von Trapp family of
The Sound Of Music fame and the followup is a
left-field melange of twisted easy-listening sung in
half a dozen different languages by female leads
China Forbes and Storm Large. The ivories tinkle
like Liberace, the brass blares like James Last, the
strings swoon and the harmonies shimmer as they
metaphorically glide their way across a Busby
Berkeley film set. Rufus Wainwright guests on a
bewitching version of Blue Moon. NW
Do you agree with our reviewers?
Decide for yourself and listen to
some of this month’s tunes at
www.hifichoice.co.uk
AUDIOFILE VINYL
Yusef Lateef
The Doctor Is In… And Out
180g vinyl
YUSEF LATEEF WAS
a multi-instrumentalist
who studied Eastern
and classical forms,
which were woven
into his work on flutes,
brass and woodwind.
In 1976 he was down
with the funk groove that percolated through jazz
at the time. With the aid of a band incorporating
guitar, synth, keyboard percussion and brass, not
to mention bass from Ron Carter among others.
Lateef lays down some damn funky vibes. The
Improvisers finds him leading on flute alongside
Dana McCurdy’s synth against a backdrop of
Kathryn
Williams &
Anthony Kerr
Resonator
CD One Little Indian
MERCURY PRIZE-NOMINATED CHANTEUSE
Kathryn Williams is back with a new collection of
songs, and this time the British singer goes a bit
jazz. That she's trying new things and developing
her sound is a good thing, but those expecting
something like Hypoxia or Crown Electric will
be surprised. On this record she teams up with
renowned jazz vibraphonist Anthony Kerr and
tackles famous standards. And it's great – her
arrangements are mellow, sultry and stripped
down, all suffused with her breathy, delicate vocals,
although it's unlikely to be anything more than a
curio for hardcore fans. PH
Shirley Collins
Lodestar
CD Domino
SHIRLEY COLLINS IS one of the foremost figures
in British folk and helped the legendary Alan Lomax
to collect traditional and American folk songs that
now make up this invaluable archive. As a
performer, 81-year-old Collins has not released an
album for 38 years, and this triumphant return sees
her traverse all of her influences – English and
American folk, as well as Cajun. It's a stunning,
transcendental record with expert but simple
production. Guitars, lutes and mandolins chime;
pipes wail mournfully; banjos scamper, all giving
well-known classics new depth. Collins' voice
sounds – and this is meant as a compliment –
well lived in. A fantastic, satisfying listen. PH
Pure Pleasure/Atlantic
Alan Parsons Project picture credit: Shutterstock/Artashes
properly out-there percussion, the ensemble
produces a really chunky sound that flows into
the oboe-lead Hellbound. This has a keyboard
line worthy of Stevie Wonder and leads the band
into a deep jam that gets so funky that you have
to check that this is not a CTI release, it certainly
has that flavour.
On the second side things get even further out,
Mushmouth brings Wade In The Water to mind
and has great guitar/keyboard interplay, but it’s
Technological Homosapien that really pushes
things. Here Lateef uses a sonnet style to tell
of the computer-powered world and techno
evolution over a burbling synth. The doctor was
clearly out, but sounds good while he’s there. JK
 MUSICREVIEWS

HIGH RESOLUTION DOWNLOADS DEMO DISCS

Paul Barton, PSB Speakers
Kings Of Leon Red Fang founder and chief designer
WALLS Only Ghosts reveals the music that
he uses to develop and
demo products

FLAC 24-bit/48kHz hdtracks.co.uk FLAC 24-bit/88kHz hdtracks.co.uk

YOU KNOW WHAT you're going to get with IF YOU'RE A fan of metal-tinged grunge rock,
KOL, and these 10 new songs certainly don't Red Fang is for you. Only Ghosts chugs along
re-invent this particular wheel. Things start off satisfactorily, and with Ross Robinson (Slipknot,
in anthemic style with Waste A Moment – all Korn) and Joe Barresi (Kyuss) in the producers'
chiming guitars – and then settle into gear. chairs you know what you're going to get – well Kyung Brian
Around The Wall sounds like The Strokes on an mixed, powerful stuff. A Shadow Of Sound, The Wha Chung Bromberg
average day, Find Me ups the ante a bit, while Deep and Living In Lye are all fantastic riff-heavy Tchaikovsky Piano Jaco
Muchacho and Conversation Piece introduce blasts. It's not going to change the world, but Concerto Nos. 1-3 The deep dynamic
some subtle electronic washes. It's well this is certainly a record that you can get your The Violin Concerto In electric bass guitar
produced, but points to a band coasting. PH air guitar out to. PH D has a full soundstage shows off the ability
and wide orchestral for the bass response
dynamics, plus the to be full range with
Liszt amazing musicality quick attack and
Transcendental Etudes of this violinist. release times.
Daniel Trinonov (piano)

2 CDs Deutsche Grammophon

GIVEN ITS ROSTER of virtuoso pianists, it’s

strange that DG seems never to have had a
complete set of Liszt’s Transcendental Studies in
its catalogue until the version by Alice Sara Ott in Shelby Lynne Benson &
2008. This new recording also adds the Paganini Just a Little Lovin’ Jarreau
Etudes, and five Concert Etudes on a second CD, I like the difference Givin' It Up
thus making it complete. Trinonov has an amazing between the quiet This represents a
technique and is equal to every one of Liszt’s passages and the very fine close-mic
fiendish demands. He offers delicacy and vocal. On a good multi-track studio
Daniel Trinonov's piano playing
proves equal to every one of refinement and makes a beautiful sound that is system you can hear recording with
Liszt's fiendish demands captured in a recording of the highest quality. The the recording tape excellent vocals and
piano is smooth and natural, but very dynamic and pre echo on the silent guitar. Good frequency
articulate when it needs to be. JH break passages. range and dynamics.

Mahler BLU-RAY DVD Gabriella Cohen

Symphony No 10 Full Closure And
International Nina Simone No Details
Mahler orchestra What Happened, Miss Simone
Yoel Gamzou DVD Eagle Vision

CD Wergo
IT WAS RATHER remiss of Mahler to die before
completing his 10th symphony, and there have
been many completions of his unfinished score.
Most conductors choose the excellent version by
Deryck Cooke, but Yoel Gamzou offers his own
version. It goes a lot further than any previous
completion, and represents a radical reworking of
Mahler’s sketches. The scoring is much amplified
compared with Cooke, but Mahler’s accent gets
lost in the noise. The orchestra plays well, and the
live recording has massive impact. But the end
result sounds less like authentic Mahler than
Cooke’s sparer more circumspect version. JH
T
Trained to be the first black
ffemale classical pianist in
America, Nina Simone soon
A
discovered her colour was an
d SUMMING UP PRECISELY what it is about
iinsurmountable barrier to that
dream. So she turned to soul,
d beguiling is quite a challenge. Encapsulating
jjazz and blues – and made
music that touched hearts in a way that few
can. This doc features extensive footage and
voice over from Simone and reveals how difficult
her life was. Her genius was to combine classical
styles with modern themes on the piano and
sing other people’s songs as if they were her
own. The sound is good enough to make you
want to hear the original songs once more. JK
Vinyl/CD Dot Dash/Remote Control Records
Gabriella Cohen's debut LP that is quite so
elements of Mazzy Star, Jack White, Nick Cave,
fifties surfer rock and compatriot Courtney Barnett,
Full Closure And No Details is dripping with
sacharine-rich sweetness and deathly black
darkness in equal measure. With distorted guitars
belting out this bizarre coming together of garage
soul and pysch fuzz, this isn't necessarily a winner
for clean, clear harmonics. But for proper tunes
and a vibrant kaleidoscope of swirling girl-group
melodies it takes some beating. Superb stuff. JDW

JANUARY 2017 101

 WISH YOU WERE HERE
From blissed-out
bl d psychedelia
h d l to mainstream rockk bbehemoths,
been on one hell of a trip. Nigel Williamson looks over some of the highlights
n May 2017 Pink Floyd will
I officially become a relic with the
opening of Their Mortal Remains
at the Victoria & Albert Museum,
an exhibition billed as an “immersive,
multi-sensory and theatrical journey through
Pink Floyd’s extraordinary world”. The
timing is felicitous: 2017 marks the 50th
anniversary of 1967’s psychedelic ‘summer
of love’ and no British band personifies the
spirit of those heady times more evocatively
than Pink Floyd.
The exhibition will also chronicle how the
Floyd outgrew their early origins in the
underground counterculture of hippiedom
to become a mainstream rock behemoth as
albums such as Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish
You Were Here and The Wall made them one
of the biggest-selling and most-influential
acts in musical history.
To boast a legacy venerable and burnished
enough to become a museum exhibit and at
the same time remain a vibrant influence
on every generation that has followed is
some achievement – and with due respect to
Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, Ed Sheeran et al,
it is hard to imagine any of today’s titans still
exercising such an enduring grip on our
cultural consciousness in 50 years time.
And yet despite their ubiquity in popular
culture, Pink Floyd have managed to retain
an enigmatic mystique. Their back catalogue
102 JANUARY 2017
h h Pinkk Floyd
l dh have
includes some of the most instantly
recognisable music and some of the most
iconic album covers in rock history. Yet the
band themselves have remained almost
invisible outside their body of work.
“Which one is Pink?” a hapless record
company executive is said to have asked
early in the band’s career – a line which then
mockingly turned up in Have A Cigar on the
group’s 1975 album Wish You Were Here. The
Pink Floyd became the
ultimate ‘album band’,
mixing space-rock epics
with woozy pastoralism
point was, of course, that there never was
any ‘Pink’. Despite their vast wealth and
status, the band’s members have stubbornly
maintained the profile of anti-celebrities:
no picture of the band has ever appeared on
the front cover of any of their records since
1969 and it was often said that they could
walk through the audience at their own
concerts completely unrecognised.
That is not to say that there weren’t some
larger-than-lifer and ego-fuelled characters
within the group, from doomed early leader
Syd Barrett to Roger Waters and David
Gilmour, who in later years fought a bitter
power struggle over the right to carry the
torch and represent the Floyd’s legacy.
Waters on his solo tours billed himself
as “the genius and soul of Pink Floyd” but
it was a hollow boast. Pink Floyd were
always “greater than the sum of our parts,”
as Gilmour put it, and none of the solo
projects by any of the group’s members
have matched the musical majesty – or
the commercial success – of their collective
work as a band.
Brand on the run
As Pink Floyd became a multi-million dollar
business, a legion of lawyers, accountants
and marketing consultants set about turning
them into a brand. Yet the Floyd brand was
ultimately not built on merchandising and
balance sheets, but on the uniqueness of
their music. As progenitors of psychedelia,
they asked us to open our minds and explore
the boundaries of both outer and inner
space. As prog rockers they journeyed still
deeper into the unknown. Even when
they addressed more tangible concerns –
madness, fame, alienation and the pressures
of modern living on albums such as Dark
Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and
The Wall, the mood remained fascinating
and elusive, an invitation to our imagination
to interpret what we were hearing through
an infinite prism of meaning.
 MUSIC LEGENDS
PINK FLOYD

Although they took their name from two

obscure American bluesmen, Pink Anderson
and Floyd Council, there was always
something quintessentially English about
Pink Floyd. If they hadn’t formed a band in
late 1965, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, Nick
Mason and even the mercurial Syd Barrett
might have become architects, solicitors or
university lecturers. Instead, as the nascent
British ‘underground’ began to coalesce in
the course of 1966, Pink Floyd became
what Roger Waters’ described as “the
movement’s house orchestra”, playing
‘happenings’ at the Marquee Club, the
Roundhouse and the UFO club in London’s
Tottenham Court Road, which by early 1967
had become an epicentre of the emerging
hippie counterculture.
Inspired by the freewheeling idealism of
the times and fuelled by copious amounts
of hallucinogenic drugs, the Floyd’s sound
left behind its R&B roots and took on an
increasingly improvisational and experimental
The classic lineup
sensibility, their music accompanied at live of the band
gigs by a primitive light show.
Picture credits: Both images courtesy of Pink Floyd Music Ltd

Pop tarts
Yet the early Pink Floyd was still essentially
a pop group, albeit one with a distinctly
psychedelic flavour and after signing to
EMI, it fell to Barrett as the band’s main
songwriter to come up with three-minute
chart-oriented singles.
Initially he rose to the challenge brilliantly
with Arnold Layne and then the lysergic
surge of See Emily Play, which NME
described as “crammed with weird
oscillations, reverberations, electronic
vibrations and fuzzy rumblings”. The
summer of love had arrived trailing clouds
of psychedelic glory and See Emily Play led
to Pink Floyd appearing on Top Of The Pops
ALBUM BY ALBUM
1967 1968
and took them high into the poptastic realms
of the top 10.
It was all too much for Barrett who fell
apart and had a mental breakdown, rock
music’s first notable ‘acid case’. By early
1968 he had been replaced by Dave Gilmour,
who like Barrett and Waters, came from
Cambridge and who slotted in seamlessly
on guitar. Barrett went on to record a brace
of unhinged solo albums but by the
mid-seventies had retreated back to
Cambridge where he lived as a recluse until
his death in 2006, seemingly impervious to
his cult status as a wayward genius.
By the time of his retreat in 1968, seismic
changes were also taking place in the music
industry and the post-Barrett Floyd were
perfectly placed to exploit them. The
1969 1969
long-playing album was swiftly displacing
the three-minute juke box single as the
principle form of expression, music was now
‘for the head’ rather than for dancing and the
core audience was to be found in student
union bars rather than at home in parental
living rooms watching Top Of The Pops.
In short, pop music had grown up. The
‘progressive’ era had dawned and Pink
Floyd were in its vanguard.
Gilmour described prog as “a genuine
attempt to find a new way forward beyond
the diktat of the three-minute pop song”.
Starting with 1968’s post-Syd A Saucerful Of
Secrets, Floyd became the ultimate ‘album
band’, mixing space-rock epics such as Set
The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun and
Careful With That Axe Eugene with the woozy
1970

PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN
Syd Barrett dominates the
only album he made with the
Floyd, writing all the songs
and taking lead vocals. The
whimsical subject matter
includes gnomes, scarecrows
and bicycles as well as the
space epics Astronomy Domine
and Interstellar Overdrive.
A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS
Despite losing Barrett, the
‘summer of love’ spirit infuses
what might have been a
difficult second album,
but instead it turned into a
triumph thanks to classics
like Set The Controls For The
Heart Of The Sun and Let
There Be More Light.
MORE
The soundtrack to Barbet
Schroeder’s Ibizan hippie film
found Gilmour coming to the
fore not just as a guitarist
but also as lead singer.
The highlight is Cirrus
Minor, a perfect synthesis
of the Floyd’s pastoral and
space-rock modes.
UMMAGUMMA
A brave double set, consisting
of a fine live album and a
patchy second disc dedicated
to solo experiments by all four
group members, in which
Waters’ Grantchester
Meadows and Gilmour’s
The Narrow Way stand
out as classic Floyd.
ATOM HEART MOTHER
The Floyd’s ‘progiest’ art-
rock album, the suite-length
title track features orchestra
and choir, but smartly
manages to avoid toppling
into pretentiousness, while
the second side consists of
an often gorgeous four-song
pastoral sequence.

JANUARY 2017 103

 MUSIC LEGENDS
PINK FLOYD

tensions. Waters subsequently opined that in

And then there were
three: post-Waters Floyd
pastoralism of songs such as Fat Old Sun and
Grantchester Meadows.
On 1970’s Atom Heart Mother, one entire
side was taken up with the six-part suite of
the title track. The following year’s Meddle
devoted the whole of side two to the
prog-epic Echoes. The cinematic quality of
their music was also much in demand with
film-makers and they created atmospheric
scores for Michelangelo Antonio’s Zabriskie
Point and Barbet Schroeder’s More, while
their 1972 album Obscured By Clouds was
essentially the soundtrack to La Vallée,
another Schroeder film (see HFC 417).
By the time Obscured By Clouds was
released, the group was already in the studio
working on its next album, which would
transform them from underground prog-rock
heroes into mainstream musical aristocracy.
Dark Side Of The Moon, which took 15
months from conception to completion,
regarded as an inordinately long gestation
period at the time, found Waters taking
charge as he came up with all of the lyrics,
which addressed the fear, madness and
paranoia of modern living on tracks such as
Time, Breathe, Us And Them and Money.
“Roger worked all sorts of hours on the
concept and the lyrics while the rest of us
went home to enjoy our suppers,” noted
Gilmour, whose glistening, liquid guitar solos
remained at the core of the sound. But with
Waters contributing the concept and all of
the lyrics, he began increasingly to regard
Pink Floyd as “his” band.
It was an attitude that would create huge
strife and eventually result in a fissure. The
gargantuan success of Dark Side Of The
Moon – which remains the third biggest-
selling album of all time, only outstripped by
Michael Jackson’s Thriller and AC/DC’s Back
In Black – further exacerbated the internal
addition to turning Pink Floyd into the
biggest-selling band in the world, Dark Side
Of The Moon was also the record that
“finished Pink Floyd off once and for all”.
Given that he would remain with the band
for another decade and write virtually all of
the material on four further chart-topping
Floyd albums, on the surface it was a curious
pronouncement. Yet one can see what he
meant. By the time The Wall was released in
1979, Mason and Wright had been reduced
to little more than sidemen and were not
even mentioned in the record’s packaging.
A more immediate problem, however, was
how to follow Dark Side Of The Moon. It took
two and a half years and Waters described
the process as “laborious and tortured”.
When Wish You Were Here finally appeared
in 1975 it was themed around the concepts
of absence and alienation, partly influenced
by the lost-in-action spectre of Syd Barrett,
whose troubled spirit inspired the lead track
“Which one is Pink?” a
record executive is said
to have asked early in
the band’s career
Shine On You Crazy Diamond. When Barrett
turned up unexpectedly in the studio while
they were recording the album, his former
band mates initially didn’t even recognise
the bald and bloated figure that was dressed
like a tramp.
By the time Animals was released in 1977,
the punk insurrection was in full-on rampancy,
its ‘year zero’ adherents deriding Pink Floyd
and their ilk as “dinosaurs” and “old farts”.
But although several lesser prog-rock acts
wilted under the onslaught, Pink Floyd were
barely affected as they loftily gazed down

1971 1972 1973 1975 1977

MEDDLE
One Of These Days kicks off
the album with an electronic
sheen that marks the Floyd
out as techno pioneers.
But the undoubted highlight
is the 23-minute Echoes,
which crystallises the early
Floyd’s expansive sense
of adventure.
OBSCURED BY CLOUDS
Perhaps Floyd’s most
conventional rock album,
which may explain why it was
their first to break into the
American top 50. The 10
tracks are short and
simple with little sonic
experimentation – and no
hint of what was to come.
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
Meticulously planned, striking
tunes and lyrics, intriguing
sound effects and
immaculately produced,
there’s both depth and
emotion: put on a pair of
headphones and you will still
marvel at the sonic detail all
these years on.
WISH YOU WERE HERE
Sleeker, steelier, chillier
and more cynical than its
predecessor, some fans rate
this even more highly than
Dark Side. Musically it’s a
close-run thing with some
of Gilmour’s most soulful
soloing and Waters’ writing
at its most intense.
ANIMALS
Beneath the nursery rhyme
oinking, barking and
bleating and song titles like
Pigs, Sheep and Dogs lies
some of the Floyd’s bleakest
and angriest music in which
the idealism of the sixties
has given way to a darkly
dystopian vision.

104 JANUARY 2017

 MUSIC LEGENDS
PINK FLOYD

from the summit of rock’s Mount Olympus at
the seething streets below.
And in an odd and unintentional way,
perhaps Animals reflected something of the
anger, nihilism and sputum of punk, a grimly
Orwellian-derived concept on the sorry state
of humanity in which Waters attacked the
ruling classes, rapacious capitalism and the
apathy of the masses.
This is Spinal Tap...
Just as striking was the cover, which featured
the memorable image of an inflatable pig
floating above Battersea Power Station,
while the stadium tour that accompanied
Animals release took rock theatricality to
new heights of ambition with props that
included a flying pig that exploded over
the audience, an inflatable nuclear family,
fireworks which released sheep-shaped
parachutes when they exploded and giant
animations by the cartoonist Gerald Scarfe.
The tour that accompanied Pink Floyd’s
Picture credits: left-hand page: Albert Watson. Right-hand page: Andy Earl
and Joanne Whalley. But for Pink Floyd the
writing was well and truly on the wall.
With Wright ousted at Waters’ insistence and
working as a hired hand rather than a member
of the group and the semi-detached Mason
spending more time with his collection of
vintage Ferrari and Bugatti cars than with his
drums, the recording of 1983’s The Final Cut
was a grim experience, with Gilmour accusing
Waters of having reached a “megalomaniac
Despite their wealth,
they have stubbornly
maintained the profile
of anti-celebrities
stage where he could not tolerate anyone else
having any say in what was going on”.
The Final Cut might have been called the
final straw, although Waters did not officially
leave the band until 1985. When Gilmour
exchange of insults that ensued was
unedifying; yet instead of destroying the
mystique, the feuding only seemed to
deepen Pink Floyd’s enigmatic appeal.
When Waters lost the battle, two further
Pink Floyd albums appeared under Gilmour’s
leadership, 1987’s A Momentary Lapse Of
Reason and 1994’s The Division Bell. To the
chagrin of Waters, both were enthusiastically
received by fans with sky-high sales and
record-breaking tour receipts.
There was widespread astonishment,
therefore, when the following year he agreed
to reunite with Gilmour, Wright and Mason to
play at Live 8 in Hyde Park. It was the first
time the classic Floyd lineup had played
together in 24 years since the final concert on
The Wall tour at Earl’s Court in 1981 – and it
would be the last. They performed just four
numbers ending with Comfortably Numb and
then went their separate ways again.
The death of Wright in 2008 extinguished
all hope of a further reunion, although

next project, 1979’s The Wall, was even and Mason then brought Wright back into Gilmour and Mason guested during a Waters
more lavish. Conceived by Waters as both the fold and announced Pink Floyd would concert at the O2 Arena in 2011. There was
a stage show and an album, it was the continue as a trio, Waters took legal action one further surprising coda to the Pink Floyd
most ambitious ‘rock opera’ since The Who’s to stop them using the name. The public saga in 2014 with the release of The Endless
Tommy and told the self-referential story of a R
River, the first
rock star and the psychological “bricks” that F
Floyd album in
confine and imprison him. 2 years. Based
20
Reviews of the album were suspicious and o material left
on
almost uniformly terrible. Melody Maker o
over from the
accused Waters of “choking on his own s
sessions for The
platitudes”, NME called the album D
Division Bell, it
“hopelessly clichéd” and even Time b
became the most
magazine joined in to accuse Waters of p
pre-ordered LP in
“narcissism”. Even so, that didn’t prevent A
Amazon’s history
The Wall from selling 24 million copies or a topped the
and
the extracted Another Brick In The Wall U charts. Even
UK
topping the singles charts on both sides t
though the
of the Atlantic. b
band no longer
After the spectacularly theatrical live shows The Floyd in Prague e
existed, Pink
back in 1994
came the movie version, directed by Alan F
Floyd still couldn’t
Parker and starring Bob Geldof, Bob Hoskins b eclipsed ●
be

1979 1983 1987 1994 2014

THE WALL
The concept might be over the
top and self indulgent, but
there’s no denying the sonic
ambition which makes The Wall
a monumental aural treat from
the inventive use of synths and
sound effects to perhaps the
definitive Floyd guitar solo on
Comfortably Numb.
THE FINAL CUT
Almost a Waters solo album, but
his monomaniacal anti-militarist
vision – inspired both by the
death of his father killed
in battle in WW2 and the
Falklands war – lends the
album a compelling intensity,
enhanced by Michael Kame’s
stately orchestrations.
A MOMENTARY LAPSE
OF REASON
Gilmour’s attempt to return to
the classic Floyd sound of the
seventies is somewhat
undermined by the bombastic
eighties production – and the
lack of substance in the songs
indicates how much they were
missing Roger Waters.
THE DIVISION BELL
A return to form with
Gilmour’s new wife Polly
Sansom providing the lyrics
and a quiet power in the
music as the empathy
between Gilmour’s guitar
and Wright’s keyboards
manages to restore the
Floyd’s eternal mystery.
THE ENDLESS RIVER
Almost entirely instrumental,
a fitting epitaph largely
built from tapes rescued
from The Division Bell
sessions and smartly
reworked into an impressively
cohesive whole by Gilmour
and co-producers Youth
and Phil Manzanera.

JANUARY 2017 105

 THEKNOWLEDGE
Take the floor
With more floorstanding speakers available than ever, we look at how
choosing the right design for your room can lead to hi-fi nirvana
ack in the beginnings of home
B audio, horn loudspeakers were
made for use with radios and
were usually separate from the
radio itself. This was a derivative of the
horns fitted to early phonographs, which
were purely mechanical reproduction
devices. It was the invention of the Audion
triode amplifying valve by Dr Lee de Forest
in 1906 that changed everything and paved
the way for the development of the paper
cone loudspeaker drivers that were
introduced in the mid-twenties. As radio
cabinets began to be made larger to enclose
both the electronics and the loudspeaker,
designers discovered that the enclosure had
a major effect on the bass response of the
speaker. And so a brave new world of
experimentation with various different
designs of enclosure began.
Up until the late fifties, high-quality home
loudspeakers were all floorstanding while
smaller alternatives had a reputation for
being cheaper and offering poor audio quality.
That all changed in the sixties as some
manufacturers began to make more compact
high-fidelity speakers and technical
106 JANUARY 2017
advancements, along with improvements in
amplifiers, resulted in high-quality bookshelf
models. Nevertheless, it’s always been a fact
of physics that reproducing low frequencies
requires large movements of air that a smaller
cabinet will never be able to achieve.
Apart from the obvious problem of size, one
of the main issues with floorstanding speakers
is that the panels are large and can make tiny
movements. This can result in unwanted
resonances that need to be eliminated, which
is where internal bracing comes in.
Brace yourself
Early drive units were simply mounted on an
open baffle, or a piece of braced wood with a
hole in it to accommodate the driver. Apart
from being cheap to produce, this allowed
the electronics (which produced significant
heat) to have free air flow from the rear of
the enclosure. The snag with this approach is
that the cone and its suspension of the drive
unit has its own natural resonant frequency,
which can cause unwanted peaks in the
response curve. It’s for this reason that
cabinets are designed specifically to meet
the requirements of the drive units.
Loudspeakers invariably contain multiple
drivers designed to handle different bands of
audio frequencies. The bass driver, or ‘woofer’
is the largest and is designed to move the
volume of air required to reproduce low
frequencies. Meanwhile, the tweeter caters
for the high-frequencies at the top end.
Optionally, a midrange driver covers the
midband frequencies. This requires a
relatively small enclosure while the tweeter’s
enclosure is often part of the drive unit itself.
So, the bulk of the loudspeaker cabinet is
usually designed to support the woofer, which
is where a floorstander comes into its own.
One of the simplest cabinet designs is the
sealed box or infinite baffle. Here, the driver
is mounted in a very large sealed enclosure.
Conceptually, an infinite baffle is a flat baffle
that extends out to infinity in both directions.
While a genuine infinite baffle remains
effectively impossible, a very large baffle such
as the wall of a room can be considered to
be a practical equivalent. A genuine infinite
baffle loudspeaker has an infinite volume, but
in practice, an infinite-baffle loudspeaker is a
speaker enclosed in a box large enough for it
to behave as if the drive unit is mounted in a

Bi- and tri-wiring allows
independent cables to be
used for each drive unit
genuine infinite baffle. Noting that the sound
radiation from the rear of a cone is out of
phase with the radiation from the front, the
infinite baffle effectively isolates the sound
from the rear of the cone and this can be
dissipated by wadding in the enclosure that
effectively converts this energy into heat.
However, this doesn’t address the issue of the
cone’s resonance.
Bass reflex
A bass-reflex loudspeaker is a sealed
enclosure that has a vent or port to improve
the low-frequency output while taming
the natural resonance of the driver. The
dimensions of the enclosure and port have to
be carefully calculated and matched to the
driver. The port exploits the principles of a
Helmholtz resonator to dampen the driver’s
resonance. The port tuning frequency is a
function of its cross section and length. As
with all sealed enclosures, the box may
be empty, lined or filled with damping
materials. This enclosure type is common
and is more efficient than a sealed enclosure
of the same volume, making it suitable for
both bookshelf and floorstanding designs.
A variation of the bass-reflex enclosure
is the passive radiator speaker. This uses a
second passive driver (another cone unit that
has no voice coil), also known as an auxiliary
bass radiator. It provides a similar low-
frequency extension and control of resonance
to a ported enclosure. The passive driver
moves in response to changing pressures
inside the enclosure.
A transmission line enclosure has, in theory,
an infinitely long line that is stuffed with
absorbent material so that all the rear
radiation of the driver is fully absorbed,
down to the lowest frequencies. A practical
transmission line is a tapered enclosure
whose length is around a quarter of the
wavelength of the resonant frequency of the
woofer. The line is folded so that the far end
exits at the front of the speaker and exploits
the fact that the sound undergoes a 180°
phase shift through the quarter-wave line and
THEKNOWLEDGE
– as the sound from the rear of the cone is MAXIMISE PERFORMANCE
180° out of phase compared with the front –
it reinforces the bass below resonance. With Once you have your floorstanders correctly
careful design and damping at strategic points positioned (see Tuning your room HFC 417), you
should consider the floor that you are standing
within the line, it also damps out the natural them on. A good way of reducing the vibrations
resonance of the woofer to provide a very flat from your speakers being transmitted to your floor,
and well-extended bass response. Among and vice versa, is to use spikes fitted to the base.
These will penetrate the carpet and sit on the floor
the first examples of this enclosure design underneath, which is fine if you have a concrete
approach were proposed by Dr AR Bailey and floor, but not so good if you have a polished wood
AH Radford in Wireless World magazine in surface. In this instance, you can fit spike shoes,
which are typically discs of metal with a dimple in
1965 and by Chris Rogers in Practical Hi-Fi the middle to accommodate the spike and protect
and Audio in 1976, as well as the commercial the floor. An alternative approach is to put the
designs, such as those from IMF Electronics, speaker on some form of isolation platform, such as
Townshend’s Seismic Isolation Bars, which provide
which received critical acclaim at the time. damped and sprung isolation through the use of
As previously mentioned, most loudspeakers individual load cells.
employ multiple drivers to cover the entire Room tuning is an important consideration and
audio spectrum. Budget speakers may opt for you may want to think about using some acoustic
baffles placed in strategic locations around the
a single drive unit or one-way design. The room. These are also known as bass traps and can
drive unit is a full-range driver that has a be very effective. A fine example are those from GIK
dome in the centre to radiate the high Acoustics (HFC 367). They are especially useful
when placed in the corners of the room and will help
frequencies, leaving the cone to transmit with some boundary reflections in the front of the
the bass and midrange frequencies. room and with front-to-back standing wave issues
that can result in a boomy bass.
Two-way configurations Fitting bungs into the speaker’s ports can also
help tune the bass response to your room. Some
Two-way designs have a separate woofer manufacturers supply foam bungs with their
and tweeter to handle the lower and higher speakers. They often use an open-cell foam so they
frequencies respectively. The advantage of don’t block the port tube completely, but instead
impede the flow of air in it. Many transmission line
this approach is that each drive unit can speakers have a foam panel in the exit port of
be designed to handle a narrower band of the line, which helps match the line to the room.
frequencies and so doesn’t have to make the However, if you are fitting them yourself, remember
that less is more and too much bunging will alter the
necessary compromises to handle the full acoustic properties of the speaker that have been
audio spectrum. However, an additional correctly tuned by the manufacturer.
passive electronic circuit, or crossover
network, has to be included to make sure the
correct range of frequencies is fed to the
appropriate drive unit. A crossover consists
of capacitors, inductors and resistors and
high-quality components are required to
work at the power levels found in a speaker.
The crossover network is more complex on
three-way loudspeakers as it has to separate
three bands of frequencies. A variation on
the three-way speaker, the 2½-way has the
midrange and high frequencies filtered from
the woofer while the bass is not filtered from
the midrange. This requires a simpler (and
cheaper) crossover than a three-way design,
although the midrange driver will receive the
bass frequencies in addition to the midrange
frequencies. This can make the midrange
sound slightly muddy.
Having multiple drive units allows bi-wiring
and tri-wiring. This means that a separate
speaker wire can be used for the different
band of frequencies of the drive units and is
accommodated by simple modifications to the
crossover design. Some believe that running a
separate speaker cable for the bass connection
and another for the midrange and treble
results in an improvement in sound quality,
but of course this requires twice the amount
of speaker cable, and so can be costly.
Whatever type of floorstander you choose,
the same advice as always applies: try to
audition your preferred models in your
listening room before making a final decision,
as they are a key component of your audio
system and play a significant part in the sonic
prowess of your setup ●
JANUARY 2017 107
 THEKNOWLEDGE
FLOORSTANDING LOUDSPEAKERS £299-£4,990
Fabulous floorstanders
Our pick of the best tower speakers designed to take your main system
to the next level with a sound that gets you closer to sonic heaven
ATC
SCM19A
PRICE: £4,990 TELEPHONE: 01285 760683
WEB: atcloudspeakers.co.uk REVIEWED: HFC 413
The active version of ATC’s largest passive
standmount (the SCM19 – HFC 390), the
SCM19A comes with separate amplifiers
optimised for each driver’s frequency band
(32W to the tweeter and 150W to the mid/bass
unit), with intermodulation distortion reduced
by around 20dB due to the fact the dedicated
amps operate over a narrower range.
Meanwhile, the active filters give better roll-off
characteristics and improve polar response to
deliver a larger soundstage with precise stable
imaging. Each enclosure weighs 31kg, which is
not all down to the onboard amplification and
heavy mid-bass driver. The braced, sealed and
multi-layer laminated cabinets are superbly
finished in cherry or black ash real-wood
veneer and feel outstandingly sturdy.
Sound quality
Even if you’re familiar with the dynamic
largess and gloriously unhyped presentation
of the standmount version of the passive
SCM19, the floorstanding active version takes
performance up a level. In raw terms it goes
louder with less distortion while exhibiting
tighter control, wider and more finely graded
dynamic contrasts, a deeper, harder hitting
bass and greater rhythmic impetus and drive.
If you really want to hear what your music
collection sounds like, look no further.
WE SAY: An important and effective
addition to ATC’s range and one of
the best active designs at the price
108 JANUARY 2017
ELAC
F5
PRICE: £599 TELEPHONE: 01285 643088
WEB: elac.com REVIEWED: HFC 411
The entry-level floorstander in ELAC’s Debut
lineup, the F5 is the work of British speaker
wunderkind Andrew Jones – formerly of KEF and
latterly of TAD. It’s a big box for the money and is
not unattractive to look at. It employs the same
family of bespoke designed drive units as the
Debut B6 standmount (HFC 407), but runs as
a true three-way loudspeaker. The two lower
drivers work as woofers, wired in parallel, while
the upper large driver is the mid/bass unit and on
top of that is the tweeter. The F5 employs a bass-
reflex port to provide deeper low frequencies
than you’d otherwise get from a cabinet of this
size. This makes the speaker easier to drive, but
also means it offers a rather poor (quoted)
sensitivity of 85.5dB. Considering the price, the
F5 looks impressively presentable in its unusual
black brushed vinyl finish.
Sound quality
Impressively, the F5 is so much more than just a
lot of loudspeaker for relatively little money. It’s
an extremely well-crafted budget floorstander
that allows the listener to enjoy a wide range of
music in the spirit it was intended. While some
speakers have an obvious character that flatters
some music while detracting from others, the F5
is a well-rounded product at the price that’s
never less than enormous fun to listen to.
WE SAY: A charming and musically
exciting design that is one of the best in
the crowded budget floorstander market
Quad
Z-3
PRICE: £2,500 TELEPHONE: 01480 447700
WEB: quad-hifi.co.uk REVIEWED: HFC 416
According to Quad’s design supremo Peter
Comeau, the Z range from which this
floorstander comes is about as close an
approach to the ESL sound as you’re likely to
find from a box with dynamic drivers. Key to
this success is, of course, the ribbon tweeter,
which is nearly twice the size of the one you’ll
find in Quad’s S series. Completing the
package are brand new Kevlar-weave bass
and midrange drivers, re-engineered
crossover networks, a more elaborate design
of reflex port and those lovely enclosures
with ‘boat back’ curves and sloping tops.
Multiple layers of lacquer are applied over
black, white or rosewood veneers, with each
being hand polished to a sheen to give that
stunning finish that has to be seen in the flesh.
Sound quality
It’s often said that the most satisfying speaker
is one that manages to nail the elusive sweet
spot between refinement and excitement,
and the good news is the Z-3 does this so well
that it has an almost chameleon-like ability to
‘become’ the music rather than bending it to
its will. Its capability with all types of music,
however loud or soft, and its impeccable
imaging, makes it one of Quad’s finest.
WE SAY: Finally a speaker to step out
of the shadow of the ESL, the Z-3 has
muscle and poise to spare
 THEKNOWLEDGE

Correct positioning of your speakers is extremely important. If you place
them too close to a wall, it will tend to reinforce the bass at particular
frequencies. Obviously, having them too far away from the wall is
impractical, but try to aim for at least 30cm as a starting point. Also, ensure
HELP & that the distances of the speakers from the back walls and the side walls
ADVICE are different. If they are the same, the inevitable reflections from the back
walls will tend to either reinforce or cancel the reflections from the sides,
creating another potential source of peaks and troughs in frequency
response. Another issue is the apparent soundstage depth. Increasing the
distance from the speaker to the wall behind will increase depth, but this
can have a detrimental effect on instrument focus. A trial and error
approach will help determine the best positioning for your loudspeakers.

Spendor Tannoy Totem

A5R Eclipse Three Sttaf
PRICE: £1,995 TELEPHONE: 01323 843474 PRICE: £299 TELEPHONE: 01236 420199 PRICE: £1,799 TELEPHONE: 0032 15 285585
WEB: spendoraudio.com REVIEWED: HFC 413 WEB: tannoy.com REVIEWED: HFC 415 WEB: totemacoustic.com REVIEWED: HFC 417

A newly revised floorstander, the A5R is
designed for medium-sized rooms where the
larger dimensions of Spendor’s A6 prove just
too intrusive. While it’s easy on the eye, closer
inspection reveals it’s rather different to most
of its floorstanding rivals in that it eschews the
bass port. This is an infinite baffle design,
which means there’s none of the time smearing
of reflex-ported designs, while bass notes stop
and start in a more natural way. The 2.5-way
design sports three drive units. The bass has a
cast magnesium allow chassis, high-efficiency
motor system and optimised electro-dynamic
damping. The 150mm polymer midrange
crosses over to the Kevlar composite 150mm
bass driver at 900Hz, while at the other end of
the range – at 4.6kHz – is the 22mm tweeter.
Sound quality
The infinite baffle cabinet demonstrates
impeccable precision. All the instruments are
placed accurately and lead vocals are carried
with confidence, hanging ethereally above the
rest of the mix. You find yourself drawn to the
vocal line because of the A5R’s innate clarity
and smoothness in the midband, which is
partnered to a tight, taut and propulsive bass
that is very well timed and largely devoid of
weight. The Spendor has the sort of refined
musicality one would expect from a high-end
speaker, but at an affordable price. The slight
lack of punch and vitality is a given,
considering its size.
WE SAY: Regardless of price, you’ll
struggle to find a better-performing
loudspeaker at this size
Every now and then a product comes along
offering a mixture of performance and price
that are just too good to be true and you find
yourself asking where’s the catch? Standing
nearly a metre tall on its sturdy outrigger feet,
with an internal volume of 26 litres and
sporting three good-looking drive units, the
Eclipse Three is a perfect example of such a
phenomenon, but hard as we try, it’s difficult
to figure out where corners have been cut.
The slightly larger than usual 28mm woven
polyester dome tweeter claims an impressive
32kHz frequency ceiling, while the brace of
127mm mid/bass drivers employ light and stiff
coated enriched paper pulp cones. The spec
rates system efficiency at 90dB, yet the Eclipse
is said to be comfortable with peaks
approaching 240W.
Sound quality
Clearly the Eclipse Three doesn’t sound as
good as its more expensive rivals on these
pages, but for the modest asking price it’s a
ridiculously canny proposition. The treble is
free from spitty brightness and grain, the tonal
balance sits just the right side of neutral and
there’s plenty of bass for your buck, too. Okay,
so it won’t go as deep as some rivals here can,
but the bass that it does manage to conjure up
is beautifully measured and controlled with
satisfying weight and extension, but with
nothing in the way of bloat or boom.
WE SAY: The Eclipse Three is that rare
thing; a budget floorstander that’s
capable of a terrific performance
The disarmingly slim Sttaf goes against the
norm of having an imposing stature, standing
just 850mm high and weighing in at a
comparatively featherweight 10kg.
Nonetheless there’s clearly a painstaking
amount of precision work that’s gone into the
construction of this svelte speaker. This starts
with the construction of the enclosure. The
joints between the panels are made using
traditional interlocking mitering methods for
superior fit, strength and sealing. The box is
stiffened by two cross braces and as it’s only
minimally damped, the bottom can be mass
loaded to aid stability – although Totem is of
the opinion that it sounds better without.
There are just the two drive units, a 25mm
fabric dome tweeter and a 140mm mid/bass
driver with a doped paper cone.
Sound quality
This gem of a speaker blows the misnomer
that you need a big box with multiple drivers
to create a convincing sound clear out of the
water. It throws out a far wider and deeper
soundstage than it has any right to, partnered
with convincing spatial perspective and
stunning cohesion. The bass might be a little
softer than many, but it is tuneful, decently
extended and effortlessly musical.
WE SAY: Don’t be put off by the distinctly
titchy dimensions, this svelte
floorstander is a mini marvel

JANUARY 2017 109

 THEKNOWLEDGE

Floorstander
accessories
Having chosen your perfect loudspeaker, you’re
going to need some add-ons to really optimise its
performance,
nce, here
here’s
e s our pick of the best
BLACK RHODIUM TWIST VS-4 £195
(FOR A 3M PAIR)
TELEPHONE: 01332 342233
WEBSITE: blackrhodium.co.uk
TESTED: HFC 416
This surprisingly flexible speaker cable
provides fantastic sound quality with a huge
dynamic range and excellent timing.

TOWNSHEND SEISMIC ISOLATION

PODIUM £1,500 PER PAIR
TELEPHONE: 07808 789002
WEBSITE: townshendaudio.com
Suitable for wood, tile or carpeted floors,
the Seismic Podium brakes the acoustic
connection between the floor and the
speaker, cutting out those nasty vibrations.

RUSS ANDREWS KIMBER ATC SE

JUMPERS FROM £42.50
TELEPHONE: 01539 797300
WEBSITE: russandrews.com
TESTED: HFC 403
If you opt to not take the bi-wire route, these
well-made jumpers will give your top-end
SPEC CORPORATION RSP-501EX performance and added smoothness.
REAL-SOUND PROCESSOR £495
TELEPHONE: 0203 5442338
WEBSITE: nunudistribution.co.uk
TESTED: HFC 410
They might not look like much, but these
little magical boxes will help to widen and
deepen the soundstage of your speakers.

THE CHORD COMPANY CLEARWAY

£156 (FOR 3M)
TELEPHONE: 01980 625700
WEBSITE: chord.co.uk
TESTED: HFC 405
These stylish silver foil speaker cables
give a clear, well paced and exciting
performance with excellent imaging.

110 JANUARY 2017

 Christmas deals on Bel Canto systems: Up to 10% off or
up to 20% to spend on award-winning Analysis+ cables

Bel Canto is famous for delivering stunning sound quality coupled with beautiful design. Their award-winning
e.One series proves that elegant, compact components can provide truly world-class audio. From the ultra
high-end Bel Canto Black system to a single box e.One solution, we have the full range available for demonstration.
Please come to our Cambridge showroom where you can relax and listen in one of our purpose-built demo rooms.

www.criterionaudio.com info@criterionaudio.com 01223 233730

AND MANY,
MANY MORE
 A Versatile Affordable SE Solution!
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You are welcome to contact us for more information by phone or email. Colour brochure on request. Phone, email or see our website.
UK price inc VAT £1999.95
www.iconaudio.com sales@iconaudio.com (+44) 0116 2440593 Leicester UK
 EXTRAS

Pure
Evoke H6 portable DAB radio

UK-BASED PURE WAS recently

sold off to a venture capital outfit
in Austria, but it’s business as usual
for the time being and it has just
updated its Evoke range of digital
radios in time for Christmas. Prices
start at £129 for the new H3 model,
and £170 for the H4, both of which
are based around a single 3in
(76mm) driver. Here we look at the
top-of-the-range H6, which adds a
second driver for stereo sound.
It’s a neatly designed unit, with a
sturdy wooden cabinet that looks
smart and helps to reduce vibrations.
And, despite that second driver, it’s
not quite as bulky as the specs on
Pure’s website suggest. The actual
dimensions are 305 x 155 x 110mm
(WxHxD), so it’ll sit comfortably on
any shelf or tabletop at home. The
H6 runs off mains power, but Pure
sells an optional battery pack (£35)
that it claims will provide up to 50
hours of playback.

Feature comforts
Sitting between the two drivers is
a 2.8in colour display that shows
station information, while a set of
buttons and dials below the screen
allow you to adjust the volume,
select various menu options, and
create up to 40 presets. The carrying
handle also doubles up as a
‘snooze-handle’ that will give you
another five minutes of sleep when
you reach out and touch it to turn
the alarm off. And, although it’s
barely mentioned in the manual,
there’s an equaliser hidden within
the menu settings, which includes a
variety of presets for jazz, classical
and other types of music, along with
the ability to adjust treble and bass
to your own personal tastes.
The H6 supports both DAB and
DAB+, along with FM broadcasts
and Bluetooth streaming for mobile
devices, and aux-in for wired
connections. There aren’t many
DAB+ stations currently available in
the UK, but Jazz FM sounds suitably
cool despite the modest 32kbps that
it uses for its DAB+ broadcasts. I
turn on just in time to catch the new
Norah Jones album, with the piano,
electric keyboard and double bass
of Carry On all sounding clear and
distinct, while Jones’ voice is warm
and smooth in the foreground.
Switching to the 128kbps of Classic
FM on DAB, the H6 maintains the
clarity of the choral voices on
Borodin’s Prince Igor very well, so
the next step is to use Bluetooth
streaming at 256kbps from my iPhone
to pile on the massed harmonies of
Queen’s Somebody To Love. The
results with Bluetooth streaming are
more mixed, and reveal the limits of
the H6 as a general-purpose music
system. To its credit, it packs more
power than I would expect, and its
DETAILS maximum volume is certainly enough
PRICE to annoy the neighbours. It also
£200 produces a clear and detailed sound
TELEPHONE that copes equally well with the
0845 1489001
multi-layered hysterics of Queen and
WEBSITE the wistful tones of Damien Rice.
pure.com
Yet it’s a rather narrow, confined
OUR VERDICT sound, and tends to focus on a sweet
spot just a couple of feet directly in
front of the unit. You have to sit right
in that sweet spot to get any real
sense of left/right separation from
the two drivers, and the sound
doesn’t really allow an expansive
production, such as Enya’s
Watermark album, to really breathe
into the space around it. That might
be a lot to ask from a modestly
priced radio, but we have heard
comparably priced Bluetooth
speakers that are capable of
creating a much wider, more
dynamic soundstage.
Radio Times
The Evoke H6 is, of course, a digital
radio first and foremost, and on that
score it works very well. It doesn’t
bring anything new to the DAB
market, but it’s a good option for
listening to a variety of stations and
musical genres, while its alarms and
other options will come in handy
at bedtime or even in the kitchen.
It’s less impressive as a Bluetooth
speaker, but it will still earn its keep
if you simply treat it as a high-end
digital radio that provides Bluetooth
as an added extra. CJ

JANUARY 2017 113

 EXTRAS

Noble
Savanna in-ear monitors

CALIFORNIAN-BASED NOBLE
IS perhaps best known for its
custom fit in-ear monitors, which
come in a variety of lively finishes
and materials. The Savanna is the
second most affordable model in its
generic fit Universal range that’s
built around a quartet of armature
drivers and is designed to do justice
to a variety of genres of music.
Noble is tight lipped about its
designs and won’t divulge any
information about the configuration
of its drivers or whether each
handles a specific part of the
frequency range or if any are paired
up. The drivers are placed in an
enclosure that first appeared in
Noble’s 10-driver K10u. While older
universal models used a body made
entirely out of acrylic, the Savanna
has an aluminium end cap that is
mated to a composite section that
the earbud is attached to. I confess
to rather liking the anonymity of the
older look which was unlikely to
attract any attention, but this new demonstrates the same smoothness in the range having different
design looks very smart. The across the frequency response that its specialities, the £599 Dulce Bass
machined logo and the dimpled bigger brother does so well. Listening is arguably more than equipped to
effect on the metalwork is nicely to Yello’s Toy album, it delivers the deliver this bass force if you require
implemented and the join between curious bassline of Dialectrical Kid it, and possesses incredible levels of
the two sections is perfect. with effective timing and reasonable low-end thrust.
impact while allowing the backing
In the loop vocals to hang perfectly in the air Thumbs up
A structured loop of cable fits absolutely laden with detail and When not being asked to generate
around the ear before it heads off to texture. There is the same uncanny PA system-style bass, though, the
wherever you’ve placed the source. I sense of space and depth to the Savanna delivers on Noble’s
find the fit comfortable, but a little soundstage that Noble does so ambitions of it being a capable
bit of work needs to be done initially well and that is not commonly all-rounder. The even handedness
to get a really good seal in the ear encountered with similar models and outstanding tonal accuracy it
canal, and the cable is as easy to at this price point. delivers means that pretty much
tangle as ever. Noble supplies an When you really lean on the anything you play sounds believable.
excellent selection of buds, trees Savanna and ask it to deliver the It never fails to sound lively and fun
and domes on a very smart metal crunching bass of the remaster of when appropriate, but not at the
casting that holds everything neatly Carbon Based Lifeforms’ Interloper expense of accuracy or when the
in place. The case is robust, but is DETAILS there is a sense that it can’t quite music doesn’t call for it.
even larger than its predecessor and PRICE match the depth of some rivals that The Savanna proves to be highly
is unlikely to fit in a pocket. £439 augment their low-end frequencies impressive, and from what I’ve
The Savanna does a convincing TELEPHONE with a conventional dynamic driver. heard comes close to matching the
0208 9429124
job of demonstrating that the The bass is detailed and exceptionally performance levels of monitors from
improvements to the performance WEBSITE fast with no sign at all of bloat or Noble’s more expensive line. Throw
nobleaudio.co.uk
are as important as the changes to sluggishness, but it can struggle to in the solid build, impressive
the aesthetics. Connected to Chord’s OUR VERDICT generate the sheer energy that the sensitivity and good comfort levels,
Mojo (HFC 405) which allows for material undoubtedly has. There is a and it’s extremely worthy earphone
quick and simple A-B testing, it caveat to this in that with each model even at the increased price. ES

JANUARY 2017 115

 STYLE.
PERFORMANCE.
FUNCTION.

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K3 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER & CD PLAYERS

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WRJHWKHUD5RNVDQ.V\VWHP\RXōUHJXDUDQWHHGDSDFNDJHWKDWLVWUXO\XQULYDOOHGIRUWKHSULFH

Distributed by Henley Designs Ltd.

T: +44 (0)1235 511 166 | E: sales@henleydesigns.co.uk | W: www.henleydesigns.co.uk
 EXTRAS

TP-Link
Archer C3200 router
THE INTERNET HAS
revolutionised entertainment at
home, but in an increasingly
networked world, connectivity
is becoming the issue. With
on-demand music and TV services
finding their way into most of our
lives – thanks to improved broadband
speeds – how do we stay connected
to our favourite music services while
the rest of the family use catchup TV
providers and social media on
devices around the home?
It’s not just about the speed of the
connection into your home, the
quality of your router is critical to
ensuring there’s enough headroom
to cope with the family’s wireless
demands while also transferring
files using a computer, for example,
without breaking into a sweat. Lack
of bandwidth is a common problem,
and if you have an older router
supplied by your ISP, then it may be
struggling to cope with
today’s demands.
Need for speed
TP-Link’s Archer C3200 is
a tri-band router with six
fold out antennas, offering
2.4GHz and two 5GHz
bands. The 2.4GHz band
offers a maximum speed of
600Mbps and each of the
5GHz bands claims speeds
of up to 1,300Mbps. Build
quality is decent and it has
four useful Ethernet and two USB DETAILS
ports. It’s powered by a 1GHz PRICE
dual-core processor and supports The setup procedure isn’t the £170
the 802.11 b/g/n/ac networking smoothest, but once correctly TELEPHONE
0118 3271135
standards. As well as beamforming, installed, it handles the wireless
WEBSITE
which sends wi-fi signals directly, it demands of the household, as well as uk.tp-link.com
also has TP-Link’s Smart Connect running two home offices without
technology, which automatically breaking into a sweat, and music OUR VERDICT
assigns the best frequency band streams from Tidal and Spotify are
based on network traffic. superfast and dropout free. LD

Leema Acoustics
Reference 1 digital optical cable
ONE OF THE most common
problems with Toslink cables is that
the plugs can be a poor fit in the
sockets of the equipment, if they are
not good quality. This can result in
end connectors not lining up properly
with the optoelectronic devices in
the component, resulting in an
intermittent loss of signal. Also,
low-quality fibre-optic wire is often
used in cheap cables and this can
be lossy and also prone to spurious
internal reflections. All of this will
DETAILS cause imperfections in the transmitted
PRICE digital data that will result in jitter,
£175 for a 1m cable which the DAC has to correct. So the
TELEPHONE use of a good-quality digital optical
01938 559021 cable is as important as the use of
WEBSITE high quality-copper interconnects.
leema-acoustics.
com Leema’s Reference 1 digital optical
cable uses a 6mm diameter fibre-optic
OUR VERDICT cable, which is terminated in
metal-barrelled Toslink connectors.
The connectors feature a sprung body,
which gently pushes the end
of the fibre core firmly into
the receiving socket in order
to ensure the best possible
quality data transfer across
the optical boundary. The
cable is finished off in a dark
blue PVC outer jacket, which
in turn is fitted with a rugged
blue mesh outer cover.
Plug and play
The Reference 1 cable is
certainly beautifully made shows that there is no evidence of
with high-quality components. any dropouts and the music is
Connecting it between a PrimaLuna reproduced with accuracy and
ProLogue Eight Mk.2 CD player clarity with no hint of edginess to
and the optical digital input of my the sound. In particular, the flute
Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6 v2 and the individual instruments
(HFC 393) acting as an external DAC, comprising the Basso Continuo are
I find the quality of the plugs is such all separately identifiable within the
that I have no problems plugging soundstage, meaning that this
them into the equipment. Playing a substantial Leema Acoustics cable
CD of Vivaldi Sonatas For Flute Op.10 comes highly recommended. NR

JANUARY 2017 117

 EXTRAS

Russ Andrews
RF Router Mk2
A GOOD EARTH connection can
reduce or even eliminate mains-
borne noise and prevent it from
entering the audio signal paths in
your system. The connection in a
mains socket is linked to the local
earth from your fuse box. The
neutral connection of a mains socket
is actually the earth connection from
your mains electricity supplier and
can be a considerable distance away
from your property. Both connections
are likely to pick up a lot of noise
along the way. This is why many
people consider having a separate
earth spike for their hi-fi, such as a
copper rod sunk into the ground.
Down to earth
However, having multiple earth
connections can result in hum loops,
which can be quite a challenge to
overcome. Furthermore, recent
changes to the safety regulations
would result in the wiring regulations
being contravened by attempting to
fit such an auxiliary earth connection
to your system.
The RF Router Mk2 means any
earth connections you make comply
with the latest wiring regulations and
effectively dump high-frequency noise
out of your audio system to earth.
This also allows a safe connection to
the earth terminals fitted to Russ
Andrews Silencer Blocks,
PowerBlocks, SuperSockets and
UltraSockets. The RF Router is fitted
with two input posts to connect two
separate earth connections to a single
earth spike.
I have an earth terminal fitted to the
mains distribution block of my audio
system and I connect the RF Router
Mk2 to the earth terminal and to an DETAILS
external earth connection. As a result, PRICE
the music takes on a more open £189
sound that adds to the overall realism TELEPHONE
01539 797300
of performances. The silences
WEBSITE
between tracks seems ‘blacker’, which russandrews.com
indicates a decent reduction in the
almost imperceptible background OUR VERDICT
noise. It may be pricey for a filter,
but it’s a worthy addition. NR

SLiC Innovations
Eclipse C MKII interconnects
THE MARK ONE version of this
interconnect has gained a great
reputation since it was first launched
a few years ago. There is not a great
deal that can be said about the spec of
the MKII version, mainly due to the
fact that the company doesn’t publish
any details about the design or
materials used. The cable seems well
made and is fitted with good-quality
gold-plated RCA phono plugs. Also,
MCRU will burn-in the cable prior to
dispatch on its Nordost Vidar cable
burner at no extra charge.
DETAILS extended. The clarity of the rendition the orchestra is clear and has a great
PRICE Smooth as silk is amazing and the imaging is superb. presence in my listening room. The
£540
I connect the interconnects between A complete change of genre is soundstage is both wide and deep,
TELEPHONE my preamp and monoblocks and start provided by a CD of Fauré’s Requiem. which adds to the overall realism of
07908 056978
listening to some guitar music with a The singing is both moving and the performance.
WEBSITE
mcru.co.uk recording of Gordon Giltrap’s El Greco. commanding and the male solos, Whatever SLiC has hidden away
The Eclipse C MKII produces a very which are well-positioned in front within the black braids of the
OUR VERDICT captivating and involving performance of the orchestra, come through Eclipse C MKII, this interconnect
and the bass line near the end of the particularly clearly. All the vocals are certainly seems to work well and
piece is particularly smooth, deep and effortless and refined. Once again, gets a thumbs up from me. NR

118 JANUARY 2017

Give your music a stage.

+44 (0)1572 756447 hifiracks.co.uk

INTERVIEW
JAKE ISAAC
New kid on the block
With a growing reputation and an original, authentic sound, Jake Isaac is
rightly winning plaudits. Rob Lane wonders where Elton John, Paul Simon,
Michael Jackson and Sting fit into all of this
inger/songwriter Jake Isaac might not yet be
S a familiar face, but his reputation within the
music industry and burgeoning, loyal fanbase
is set to rocket him to stardom – fuelled by the
backing of his label, Virgin, and his management
company, Elton John’s Rocket Music.
Jake has already had two top-10 hits on iTunes, but it’s
his live performances that are driving sales and building
his following. He’s difficult to categorise, and at a time
when so much chart-friendly music sounds so similar, it’s
refreshing to note that his sound is startlingly original.
“A&Rs always want to see you as the next Motown or
whatever, and people don’t like it when they don’t know
what to categorise your music as or compare you to. But
as far as I’m concerned, as long as it moves you, cool;
whoever gets it, gets it and if they don’t get it, no problem.”
Jake signed a record deal with Virgin in 2015, but was
already selling out venues in the UK and Europe before he
put pen to paper. Currently producing his own album – a
“mind-blowing” privilege as he’d assumed Virgin would
dictate which producer he’d have to work with – he’s
recording it at home and at Rocket Studios.
“It’s all about me trying to communicate this absolute
confusion of genres and styles that I’ve grown up on,
p g to write and p
while attempting produce songsg that I
mean. If I don’t mean what I say, why should anyone
listen? I’ve found that just by getting up and performing in
front of people. You know the saying: it’s not just what you
say, it’s how you say it. And when they do go hunt me down
on Spotify and YouTube they get it, even though it’s not
produced by Max Martin, Dr Luke or any other massive
producer; it’s just me in my bedroom or my mum’s kitchen!”
Jake’s formative years listening to music were informed
mainly by his dad – who loved Jim Reeves, The Reverend
Dr. James Cleveland, Patti LaBelle and Earth, Wind & Fire
– and had a modest but influential vinyl collection. Jake
thanks his dad for getting him into music from an early age.
“It’s down to him really. Even though he can only play
three chords on a guitar and sing camp fire songs, the
music he played around the house literally inspired a
massive part of my journey to where I am now!”
The boy in the bubble
It was Paul Simon’s Graceland album that had the greatest,
early impression on the young Jake. “I can’t remember
when I exactly started listening to Graceland, but certainly
since I was born my dad has always played it, so probably
from the get-go. Whenever we used to go on long drives
to the countryside as a family, dad would play Graceland.
He’d literally put the tape in, listen to side one, then switch
to side two – and keep doing it all the way to our
destination! It had a massive impression on me.”
Another hugely influential artist – but this time for one
track – was Michael Jackson. Jake was eight-years-old
when he first heard Jacko, although given this particular
song’s notoriety as a video it’s unsurprising that his initial
experience of it was multi-sensual.
“We were visiting my auntie and uncle at their new
house in Bermondsey, and at one point I was left in the
front room with my younger cousin when this crazy music
video came on the TV – it was Thriller. I was so amazed by
it that I looked around at my cousin to check that they
were seeing what I was seeing. It freaked me out! I hid
behind the sofa, but although it was scary and I didn’t
want to have nightmares I kept on looking back at the
screen: it was something about the music and the dance
moves that were – in spite of how scared I was – making
me want to dance.
“When I was older and making music I always had that
experience in the back of my mind thinking that my music
needs to captivate completely: when you perform, if it
doesn’t stop people in their tracks and change the mood of
the room you haven’t poured your heart into the music.”
The experience of seeing Thriller aside, Jake’s early years
weren’t particularly contemporary, music-wise. The family
never listened to the radio – “We’d just listen to tapes and
watch TV mainly” – so he wasn’t really aware of what was
going on in the charts and what was influencing eighties
and nineties youth; ironic given the huge cultural change
that was taking place with ‘Madchester’ and acid house.
“It was only when I was at school [St Joseph’s College,
an all-boys’ secondary in Croydon] that I started to take
 INTERVIEW
JAKE ISAAC

HI-FI HOPES AND DREAMS

Unlike many of the musicians interviewed in these features, Jake
surprisingly doesn’t own much in the way of hi-fi, preferring instead
to listen to tunes on his iPhone via the supplied headphones. “I’ve
realised that the majority of people only listen to music via their
smartphone headphones or in the car. So what I do is to mix my
songs so that they sound good on iPod headphones. Seriously!”
Assuming financial success follows critical plaudits, Jake does
have plans to up the hi-fi ante. “Assuming the record does okay I’ll
probably build my old man the big hi-fi system he’s always wanted,
with a record player, a tape deck, CD etc. – as well as all the new stuff,
like Bluetooth; the modern bells and whistles. A friend told me about
KJ West One [New Cavendish Street, London], a high-end hi-fi shop.
That’s where I’ll go to check out kit. I probably wouldn’t bother with a
turntable. There are a lot of people that are into the old school ways
just because it’s seen as cool! But they really don’t have
a clue about the difference sonically or what the actual benefits are.
I’ve heard a Yamaha CD player [the CD-S700] at a mate’s house and it
rocks. Not a particularly new player, but it got great reviews. I also
fancy some small floorstanding speakers and I read that the small
Kudos ones [X2s] are punchy, but small enough not to take over
your front room. I’ll have to read Hi-fi Choice to work out what
amplifier I should match those to.”
If Jake could choose one musical hero to meet, it would be Sting:
“I’d love to write a song with him: if he could just write me a guitar riff
I’d come up with the words.” But he’s into contemporary artists too,
and particularly enjoys Brits that record “proper” albums. “I think
there are album artists and there are single artists. The one recent LP
I’ve been listening to is by Clare Maguire [Stranger Things Have
Happened]. Michael Kiwanuka is another. “

notice of what else was out there – garage, drum & bass
and jungle, at the time. As a teenager at secondary school,
of course I wanted to be in with the cool kids, in terms
of what they looked like mainly, and also listen to what
they’re listening to. And it was only really at the back end
of school that I started to double back to Paul Simon and
the Thriller LP in particular.”
By this time Jake was playing drums and was keen to
be a professional drummer, and started listening to jazz
musicians such as John McLaughlin, John Scofield, Pat
Metheny and Living Colour.
“Back when Smooth FM was called Jazz FM, I used to
listen to it a lot, particularly Dinner Jazz. I used to spend
hours looking out of the window and listening to it. That
was my late secondary-school life. I absolutely loved it.
Then I’d go into school and listen to my mates’ music,
including Rinse FM [legendary East London radio station].
I guess it was quite confused musically, but it worked out.”
Jake grew up
“If the record does playing drums in
church – “my old
okay I’ll build my old man is a vicar, a
man of the cloth”
man the big hi-fi – and the drumming
he’s always wanted” kept him on the
straight and narrow.
“Rhythm – groove – have always been a massive part
of what I am. When I used to listen to garage MCs, I
remember thinking ‘the music sounds great, but if you’re
not into this type of music it doesn’t stop you in your tracks’.
Then I’d go back to Thriller and think ‘no matter whether
or not you’re into this music, as soon as you hear this type
of stuff it stops you; it’s a mind trap.’ So now, I don’t give a
monkey’s if you’re into my music or not, I just want to be
able to stop you where you are and make you listen.”
Having had the privilege of hearing Jake live at the
Curious Arts Festival in the New Forest, he certainly does
that. Impossible to categorise, he writes songs and delivers
live music like a musician with many years behind him,
rather than just four years of writing and touring. There’s
an authenticity and originality to his sound.
Jake has a theory of where this authenticity comes from.
“Michael Jackson earned his stripes on his earlier records,
Some of the
influences that
have helped
shape Jake’s
unique sound
allowing him to do whatever he felt like with Thriller. But
this was accepted by the public due to the fact that he had
already earned his stripes.” Jake theorises that it’s this
earning of musical stripes that unlocks the unique sounds
of artists like the king of pop and also Sting – another firm
favourite (Jake particularly loves Live In Berlin).
Keeping it real
“It’s the authenticity. When you hear any of those guys
sing, there’s not only salt in their stuff, there’s emotion.
There’s a lot of smart songwriters and then there’s a lot of
emotional songwriters: it’s really amazing when you get
songwriters who value both emotion and salt when it
comes to writing songs. And they don’t just think about
the song, they think about what goes around it both
musically and sonically. ”
The paradox is that it’s difficult to nail down any clear
and obvious influences in Jake’s sound, but at the same
time it feels really fresh and original. So he is sort of doing
a Sting – creating authentic and original music – without,
yet, earning the stripes.
This perhaps explains why he loves artists like Sting.
He’s unlocked the formula for originality and authenticity
usually reserved for experienced artists. He’s doing what
he wants, creating fresh, unique sounds, just as Michael
Jackson did when he recorded Thriller. The difference –
apart from the still-to-be-earned stripes – is that Jake
has no plans to shoot a horror video or to radically change
his appearance. He’s far too authentic for that.

JANUARY 2017 121

 Reader Classified ads www.hifichoice.co.uk
For sale / Wanted

Reader LINN Majik DS/2 Streamer. 2015 model. Current specification

with Dynamik, Sound Optimisation, Exakt links. Excellent
condition. Original box with accessories. £1,495: 01793
728103, or email: 01793728103@talktalk.net (Wiltshire ).

Classified
Welcome to Hi-Fi Choice Reader Classified,
a free private ads service for buying and
WANTED Jamo Concert
11 loudspeakers, will collect:
0191 2815482
(Newcastle upon Tyne).
MUSICAL FIDELITY A3.2
RDS tuner £175. Absolutely
spotless, remote, original
compact hi-fi system: email:
garyhardwareuk@yahoo.
co.uk (Essex).
NEAT Momentum 3i
standmount speakers. Bought
September 2013. £2,000+,
unmarked oak finish, all
box. Kept covered original packing. Collection or
selling second-hand hi-fi components. and clean. Beautiful: send at buyers cost £1,200:
07500 804700 or email: 07807314801 or email:
These pages are a must-read if you’re The simplest way to send your ad is via imeldayates@hotmail.com. rachells@btinternet.com.
thinking about buying used kit, or if you email to: letters@hifichoice.co.uk or AUDIOPLAN Powerstar (Leigh on Sea, Essex).
have hi-fi you want to sell. It’s free – simply mail: Reader Classified, Hi-Fi Choice ‘S’ mains distribution block LFD Grain-Free Signature
submit your ad of up to 50 words (we will magazine, AVTech Media Ltd, Suite complete with 7 Powercord bi-wire speaker cable x2m,
edit them if not), remembering to include 25, Eden House, Enterprise Way, ‘S’ leads. Boxed and unused, cost £550, for sale £225
your email, phone number and county. Edenbridge, Kent, TN8 6HF. so ‘as new’. Made in Germany ono, plus LFD balanced
This service is open to private advertisers only. Just one ad per household. and highly rated. £300 ono: interconnect XLR cost £160
Images are for illustration only and do not represent what is for sale 01932 341421 or email: for sale £75 ono. Both £250:
chrisjones4you@gmail. 01634 842874 or email:
FOR SALE com (Surrey). p.evans11@live.co.uk
HOVLAND G3 packaging and manual £199: NEAT Motive 1 floorstanding (Chatham, Kent).
THE CHORD COMPANY
Epic twin single wire, interconnects for sale. 2x 1m 01847 892081 or email: speakers, cherrywood veneer, REGA Brio 3 integrated
terminated with BFA/4mm pairs RCA-to-RCA little used. michael665booth@ excellent sound, can demo, amplifier, 2x 50W, silver
twin screw type plugs: 2x In original boxes. £150 per btinternet.com (Glengolly). £600 ovno: 07957 384795 4½ yr. old, nice condition
3.5m, 2x 1.5m and 1x 2.5m pair: 01625 430510. SONY CDP-CX355 CD (London). £200. Rega Fono Mini
lengths. The Chord Company player/CD storage. Digital and SONUS FABER Grand A2D MM phono to USB,
GARRARD 401, Rega
Prodac 1m digital cable. All analogue outputs, remote, Piano Domus (Home), gloss new £65: 07510 687880
RB300, Goldring 1042 with
cables in first-class condition. instructions, boxed. £120. black, good condition, little (Bedfordshire).
plinth/cover, great sound and
£25 per metre: 07810 131947 condition, £1,499 ono. Power Collect, or delivery maybe used, £550. 25kg each, buyer GARRARD 401 with Rega
(Norwich,Norfolk). supply for Class A amps, for possible: 07801 831972 or collect: 07532 349953 RB300 and Goldring 1042,
amps of around 15-20W, email: mel17dept@outlook. (Hants). great sound and condition,
TRANSPARENT
£300 ono: 0207 4998729. com (Dorset). BOWERS & WILKINS £1,400. Power supply for DIY
AUDIO MusicWave Plus
SOUNDSTYLE 5-shelf PM1 loudspeakers/FS PM1 Class A amps (JLH 1969/1996
Speaker cables, 10 feet long QUAD 405 Mk2 fitted with
hi-fi rack, Opus Green, stands. Beautiful condition etc.) £300: 0207 4998729.
terminated with 8mm spade Net Audio Mk3 boards and
terminals. Excellent condition, dual mono power supply smoke glass shelves £60 with boxes and manuals. MUSICAL FIDELITY
owned from new. £20: 01590 finished in satin black £350 ono. Soundstyle 4-shelf hi-fi £1,195 ono. Possible delivery: M6i amplifier plus B&W 685
674669 (Hampshire). ono: 01244638797 or email: rack, Opus green, smoke 07402 299243 or email: S2 speakers mint condition
peterrog@talktalk.net. glass shelves £50 ono. Buyer frank8ush@ntlworld.com with all packaging. Happy to
LEHMANNAUDIO Black collects: 07913 374413 (Cardiff). demo, will split. Pix on request.
Cube linear headphone amp. EMOTIVA Stealth DAC/ (Spalding, Lincolnshire). RRP £3,000, asking £1,500:
Mint and boxed. £295: 02392 preamp/headphone LINN Keilidh LS300
RUSS ANDREWS floorstanding loudspeakers in 01902 884694 or email:
453382 (Hants). amp. As new with original jukey39@yahoo.co.uk
Powermax Plus mains cables medium walnut with Ku-Stone
1x 1.5m and 2x 1m. All under spiked stands and cloth (West Midlands).
18 months old. £90 the lot inc covers. In superb condition, HARBETH C7ES-3
carriage: 07986 987380 but stands have been loudspeakers mint condition,
or email: heddondt@ re-coated. With original Linn rosewood finish, original
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REGA RS3 loudspeakers in ParcelForce delivery: 07833 £1,450: 01373 834578 or
piano black finish, offered in 894242 or email: email: john.dixon32@
immaculate condition boxed, redeye@talktalk.net. btinternet.com (Somerset).
NAIM FlatCap XS, boxed, manual and leads. Excellent
condition now surplus due to upgraded system £250: 01275 new cost £800, selling for LOWTHER SPEAKERS ARCAM FMJ CD36 CD
462948 (North Somerset). £400: 01934 521621 or Acousta 115 circa 1980 for player (new factory-installed
email: stemar2@me.com. sale or exchange for a decent, laser assembly three years

BUYING TIPS BUYING SECOND-HAND can be a great way to pick up a bargain. A formerly expensive second-hand component might well prove a better long-term bet than a
brand-new product if the price is right. DO SOME RESEARCH on which brands have a good service back up, so if something does go wrong, you can get it fixed. Unless you
purchase from a dealer, you’re unlikely to get any warranty, so it’s up to you to ensure the fitness of any gear that you buy. USUALLY speakers should be less prone to breakdown than
amps, and amps should be more reliable than CD players. But any abused component could be trouble – have a proper demo and judge the seller as well as the goods!

122 JANUARY 2017

Reader Classified ads
ago) in black, VGC, £235.
Musical Fidelity M1 HPAP
headphone amplifier in black,
as new – hardly used, £225.
Trichord Diablo (serial no.
0104-4185) MM/MC phono
stage in silver, VGC, £325. All
boxed in original packaging:
01494 269889 (Bucks).
ARCAM CD 73 player and
matching T61 FM Tuner. Both
as new with all leads and
remotes, £120 the pair or will
split. Collection preferred:
07710 256440 or email:
eadymike@gmail.com
(Sussex).
WANTED vintage hi-fi. All
sorts of intriguing and unusual
items wanted for collector.
Will travel: 01179467188 or
email: sikw@btinternet.
com (Bristol).
RUSS ANDREWS Power
Pack 3, as new. £90 including
carriage: 01825 722936
or email: spartridge37@
btinternet.com (Lewes).
TANNOY Mercury MX 2
speakers, light maple, good
condition, boxed £75. Buyer
to collect: 07968 869957
or email: shaunhenrys@
outlook.com (South
Yorkshire).
TARGET 2 shelf wall rack,
black finish £30. Buyer
collects: 07941 174804
(Slough).
AUDIOLAB 8000P
excellent condition £150.
Isotek Multiway four sockets
£125: 01484 427426
(West Yorkshire).
SME 3009 II tonearm.
Fixed headshell. Pristine
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR FREE AD
YOUR DETAILS
Name
Address
Email address
Daytime telephone number
Date
YOUR ADVERTISEMENT
SEND YOUR ADVERT TO
Hi-Fi Choice, AVTech Media Ltd, Suite 25, Eden House, Enterprise Way, Edenbridge, Kent, TN8 6HF
condition, original packaging
and manual, little use £300:
01373 301423 or email:
JC007r9379@blueyonder.
co.uk (Wiltshire).
MONITOR AUDIO Bronze
5 floorstanding speakers in
black oak. Mint condition with
manual £350 ono:
01943 467859 (Yorkshire).
TANNOY Turnberry Gold
Reference speakers. Manley
Labs Steelhead RC phono
stage. Art Audio Quintet Mk2
valve amp. Avid Pulsare phono
stage. All mint condition,
please call for details:
07770 772647 (Wigan).
RUSS ANDREWS AC-24
1000 PSU for Rega turntables
£120: 07982 926831 (Kent).
WANTED AVI S2000MC
Reference 24-bit CD player:
01275 872777
(North Somerset).
NORDOST Pulsar Points
(£65) will sell for £35 or two
sets for £55: 01484 427426
(West Yorkshire).
RESOLUTION AUDIO
Cantata digital hub with
CD player, DAC, preamp,
REGA Brio 3 amplifier, satin finish, excellent condition. Box and
manual included £150: 07510 687880 (Luton, Bedfordshire).
streamer. Mark 2 version with
latest firmware. Hardly used,
with remote, manual, leads,
boxed, mint. £6,000 new,
will accept £3,000. Can post
Parcel Force: 07833 894242
or email: redeye@talktalk.
net (Isle of Wight).
CREEK Destiny 2 integrated
amplifier, black, little use,
boxed and owned from new:
£600. Buyer collects: 0191
2815482 (Newcastle).
RUSS ANDREWS AC-24
1000 power supply £120:
07982 926831 ( Kent).
REL Strata III, walnut, perfect
condition: £225. Denon
TU-425RDS tuner, barely
used £40: 07770 601097
(Hampshire).
DYNAVECTOR P75 Mk3
phono stage. Comes with all
manufacturer’s packaging
and instructions. £300. Sorry
no offers: 01934 521621 or
email: stemar2@me.com
(Weston Super Mare).
Asimi Ultra
Interconnect
To submit your advert to us,
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 Call: 0845 6019390 Email: choice@2ndhandhifi.co.uk
The UK’s biggest and best used audio SALE NOW ON!
Analogue Amplifiers Digital Loudspeakers
Amazon Referenz Turntable, excellent boxed used 1999 Aesthetix Atlas stereo power, superb and mint x/d 4999 Art Audio Expression Precision Monitor/Subs used 1999
Arcam CD8, remote good condition used 99
Avid Acutus Ref power supply x/d 2499 Arcam Alpha original integrated used 99 Aspara Acoustics HL6 in Oak, REDUCED new 1749
Arcam CDS27, nr mint boxed x/d 499
Avid Volvere SP turntable, as new REDUCED new 2499 Arcam Alpha 9 Integrated amplifier, excellent used 199 ATC SCM7, excellent boxed used 499
Bakoon EQA11r phonostage, boxed with stand used 1499 Arcam A19 Integrated amplifier, excellent boxed used 449 Arcam CD73, nice player but fair condition used 179 B&W CDM7NT, vgc used 599
Benz Micro Glider SL, as new x/d 599 Arcam AV9 Pre/Processor excellent boxed used 349 Cambridge Audio Sonata NP30 Streamer used 169 B&W PV1D subwoofer used 799
Clearaudio Unify Tonearm excellent boxed REDUCED used 599 Art Audio Jota 520b, excellent used 3999 B&W 602S3 vgc boxed used 249
Chord QBD76HD, our demo unit, mint boxed x/d 2999
Audia Flight Pre and Flight 50 Class A power x/d 3999 B&W ASW600 vgc boxed used 199
Clearaudio Basic Symmetry Phono Stage REDUCED used 399
Audio Research Ref 610 Monos, boxed REDUCED used 12999 Chord Hugo TT DAC/Headphone amp, as new used 2199
Consonance Cyber 40 Phono stage, excellent boxed used 599 Castle Inversion 15, vgc boxed used Due in
Audio Research LS17se, near mint boxed £4.5k new x/d 2499 Chord GEM DAC excellent! used 229 Dynaudio Focus 220, excellent boxed used 1199
Creek PBH9SE Phono stage, excellent starter unit used 79
Audio Research LS7 Pre and D130 Power, boxed used 1749 Epos M12i, excellent boxed used 249
Fidelity Research FR64fx, excellent used 899 Consonance CD2.2, new sealed new 699
Auralic Taurus balanced line stage used 999 Focal 861w, in excellent condition used 699
Fidelity Research FR64S boxed, excellent used 1499
BAT VK50se Preamplifier, factory service 2016 used 2499 Cyrus CD8, excellent condition used 349
Focal Aria 948, excellent in gloss black used 1899
Garrard 401, Jelco 750 12” arm, new plinth and lid used 1199
Boulder 1010/1060 Pre/Power, near mint boxed used 10999 DCS Puccini and Wordclock in black used 6499 Focal Electra 1008, mint boxed x/d 2249
Graham Phantom Supreme 12”, SME cut x/d 3249
Chord Electronics Mezzo 140 Power, mint x/d 2249 Focal Electra 1028, mint boxed x/d 2749
Graham Slee Fanfare Gramamp 3 used 179 EAR Acute 3, our demo unit near mint x/d Call
Cyrus XPD Preamplifier, excellent used 699 Gallo A’Diva Micros plus 150 Sub used 399
Linn Akiva cartridge used 899 M2Tech Young DSD DAC used Call
DartZeel NHB108B, excellent £20+k new used 7999 Gallo Nucleus Reference 3.1 & matching amp used 1999
Linn Axis with Basik and K9 used 299
Devialet 400 combo, mint boxed one owner used 6499 Marantz CD63KI Mk2, excellent used 149 Kef Q100. near mint boxed used 299
Linn LP12, Basik Plus, excellent condition, boxed used 699
Devialet 120, mint boxed, our demo unit x/d 2749 Kudos C20 (later version) excellent in oak used 1299
Meridian Sooloos Control 15 and Twinstore NAS used 1999
Linn LP12, Cirkus, Ekos, Lingo, Troika, boxed in black used 2499
Devialet 250, mint boxed, our demo unit x/d 7499 Kudos C20 excellent boxed in sycamore used 1249
Linn LP12 Majik, Keel, Akito 2, Hercules, DV17d3 used 2999 Mission daD 5 CD player near mint boxed - a classic! used 119
Esoteric C03/A03, pre/power ex demo boxed used 8999
Kudos C30 excellent boxed in rosenut used 1699
Linn LP12 Cirkus, Khan, Sole, Lingo 3, PU7 tonearm used 3249 Musical Fidelity M1 DAC, boxed REDUCED used 199
Graaf GM50B Mk2 Integrated, ex dealer demo x/d 2999 Leema Xandia Mk1 in black, REDUCED new 1999
Linn LP12 Cirkus, Lingo, Ekos, Trampolinn, cherry plinthused 2499
Heed Obelisk PM Monoblock pair used 1299 Musical Fidelity Trivista 21 DAC used 599 Le ConToure Mobile 160, boxed, REDUCED used 1399
Lyra Skala, excellent boxed used 2249
Jolida Envoy 211 Monoblocks, £7k new, vgc used 1999 Magneplanar MG1.7 mint boxed REDUCED x/d 1499
Lyra Argo, excellent boxed used 499 Musical Fidelity V link Dac, excellent used 99
KR Audio VA320 Antares used 1899 Martin Logan Quest, superb sound, REDUCED used 1199
Michell Focus One with Linn Basik LVV used 299 NAIM UnitiQute 2, excellent boxed used 849
Krell KAV400xi, excellent boxed used 1199
Martin Logan Prodigy, excellent used 3499
Michell Hydraulic Reference, Fluid arm used 899
Lector VFI 70L, 70watt Hybrid Integrated, excellent! used 649 NAIM N172XS Streamer/Preamp, radio module x/d 1330 Martin Logan Ethos, near mint boxed used 3499
Naim Stageline S, excellent used 199
Levinson 331 stereo power excellent boxed used 1999
NAIM CD5i, excellent condition used 499 Martin Logan Vista, excellent boxed used 1399
Nottingham Analogue DAIS, near mint, ex demo x/d 3999 Linn Akurate 4200, Dynamik PSU, boxed used 2499
Martin Logan Electromotion, excellent boxed x/d 1599
Origin Live Illustrious Mk2 Tonearm used 799 Marantz PM80, typical heavyweight integrated used 299 NAIM CD5Sx, excellent with remote used 649
Martin Logan Vantage, active bass, REDUCED used 1999
Project RPM 10 turntable with arm and platform x/d 849 Marantz PM7001, great entry level integrated used 179 NAIM HDX - SSD, upgradeable, as new used 2499 Martin Logan CLS Anniversary, cherry used 2999
Project Debut Carbon, near mint REDUCED x/d 249 Marantz PM6010OSE, excellent bargain integrated used 99
Pioneer N-50 Streamer used 299 Monitor Audio GS10, good condition used Due in
Rega Fono, excellent entry level MM stage used 119 McIntosh MC275 Power Amp, near mint boxed used Call
Prima Luna Prologue 8, ex dem boxed, REDUCED x/d 1199 Monitor Audio GR60, vgc+ used 599
Rega RP3/Elys 2, white boxed, just a few months old used 399 Meridian 501 preamplifier, excellent used 299
Monitor Audio Silver 10, gloss black excellent x/d 999
Rega RP6/Exact boxed, near mint x/d 699 Micromega IA100 integrated, boxed REDUCED x/d 449 Project Streambox DS, excellent boxed x/d 399
NEAT Elite SX, near mint boxed used 1199
Rega Planar 2, RB250, AT95e vgc used 199 Ming Da MC5S 5 channel Valve Power amp boxed used Call
Quad 66CD, excellent with remote used 299 PMC Twenty 22, nr mint boxed used 1199
Rega Planar 3, RB200 S shaped arm, cartridge used 249 Moon W7RS, excellent used 4499
PMC Twenty5 23, nr mint boxed used 1999
Rega Apollo R, excellent boxed used 399
Rega Planar 3, RB300 arm, K9 cartridge used 299 Musical Fidelity A308cr Preamplifier used 799
Proac D20r, excellent boxed, ex dealer demo x/d 1899
SME 3009 excellent boxed used 349 Musical Fidelity MX preamp and psu used 399 Rega DAC, excellent rare in satin silver used 349
Quad 25L Classic ex dealer demo boxed used 999
SME 3009 improved, vgc+ used 199 Musical Fidelity 550K Superchargers excellent boxed used 1499 Rega Saturn R, our demo unit nr mint x/d 999 Quad 12L in birds eye maple excellent used 219
SME V12, nr mint boxed used 2249 NAD C355Bee, excellent remote used 249
Sansui WLD201 Streamer, mint boxed REDUCED used 119 Quad ESL57, vgc used 599
Sugden Masterclass Phono stage, excellent boxed used 1199 NAD C370, excellent remote used 299
REL T5 Subwoofer boxed used 299
NAIM NAIT 5i, excellent used 499 Sugden Masterclass CD original version REDUCED used 899
Technics 1210, Timestep PSU etc used Due in
Revolver RW45, excellent boxed used 699
Technics 1210, New bearing, Hynes PSU, Funk platter used 1499 NAIM NAIT XS, Mk1 version, excellent used 749 Sugden Masterclass PDT4F CD newer version boxed used 1799 Revolver Music 1, excellent boxed used 299
Thorens TD170 Auto excellent boxed REDUCED x/d 229 NAIM NAC152XS, excellent boxed used 649
Unison Research Unico CDE, digital in, superb x/d 1649 Revolver Cygnis Gold in Black, £14k new x/d 4995
Thorens TD209 turntable package REDUCED x/d 649 NAIM NAC202, ex demo nr mint x/d 1299
Ruark Etude, excellent in black used 179
NAIM NAC82, excellent boxed used 899 Wadia 170 itransport, excellent boxed, remote used 149
Thorens TD150, 2000 Plinth and 3009, superb used 599 Sonus Faber Elipsa, superb boxed, REDUCED used 5699
NAIM NAC62n, excellent c/w MM boards used 299 Whest Audio DAP.9 used 299
Transfiguration Temper W, great condition. used 699 Sonus Faber Electa Amator 2, superb used 1749
NAIM NAP250 upgraded DR 2012, nr mint boxed used 2499
VDH Colibri M/C cartridge, as new boxed, REDUCED x/d 2899 Yamaha CD-S3000 SACD player nr mint boxed used 2499 Sonus Faber Venere, various models x/d Call
NAIM NAP250/2, 2014 model, nr mint boxed x/d 2499
VDH Condor M/C cartridge as new boxed, REDUCED new 1899 Spendor A5, vgc boxed used 749
NAIM NAP250 Olive excellent boxed 1998 used 899
Whest Audio 30RDT Phono stage, vgc+ used 1599 Spendor A6, vgc boxed used 899
NAIM NAP200, 2005 excellent boxed used 899
Spendor BC1, near mint boxed used Due in
NAIM NAP200, 2008 excellent boxed used 999
Radio/Recorders Accessories/Cables Totem Mite in black, ex dealer demo REDUCED x/d 399
NAIM NAP180, excellent used 599
Akai GX4000, vgc used Due in Audeze headphones, most models ex demo x/d Call Totem Sttaf, near mint boxed new 999
Pathos InPol Remix Hi Dac, ex dem, REDUCED x/d 2199
Fostex G16, 16 track Reel to Reel, amazing! used Call Pathos Logos Integrated, excellent, REDUCED Usher Mini Dancer 1, excellent boxed REDUCED x/d 1599
used 1499 Elemental Audio speaker stands x/d 499
Mitsubishi DA-F10, excellent used 249 Usher S520, excellent boxed x/d 249
Pioneer SA9500, vgc 70s retro integrated used 499 Grado headphones many models x/d Call
NAIM NAT101 & SNAPS, excellent £500 NAIM service used 899 Vandersteen Quattro, accessories, transformers used 2999
Primare I21, excellent used 449 M2Tech Harley headphone amplifier used Call
NAIM NAT01 & PSU, excellent, boxed used 1199 Veritas H3 (Lowthers) gloss black, 100db, x/d 2499
Primare Pre32 with MM30 module, boxed used 1599 NAIM Flatcap 2X used 349
Naim UnitiServe, near mint boxed used 1299 Wilson Benesch Square Two Mk2, boxed used 1399
Quad 33/303, vgc, serviced used 299 NAIM HiLine, boxed used 449
Nakamichi 680zx, vgc used 349
Nakamichi HiCom II, noise reduction system boxed used 199
Quad Artera Stereo Power amp, nr mint boxed used 899 NAIM Powerline, boxed used 349 Special system deals
Quad 44/405, excellent condition used 499 NAIM Supercap Olive, boxed choice from used 799 Arcam Solo Mini, remote boxed used 299
Pioneer PDR609, vgc used Due in
Sugden A21se, excellent used 1199 Arcam Solo Mini and Usher S520s used 499
Quad FM4, vgc, serviced used 149 NAIM Supercap 2, vgc+ from 2002 used 1599
Devialet 400 & Magneplanar MG3.7i speakers used 9999
Revox PR99, crated, REDUCED used 749 Sugden Masterclass Monoblocks used 3999
NAIM HiCap, Olive with SNAIC used 399 Devialet 200 & Magneplanar MG1.7 speakers used 5399
Revox H1, just serviced, great condition, REDUCED used 449 Sugden Masterclass LA4 Pre & MPA4 Monos boxed used 5749
Oppo HA1 Headphone Amp excellent used 749 Naim Muso nr mint boxed used 699
Revox B77mk2, just serviced, great condition used Call Tandberg TPA3003 Power amplifier, excellent! used 499
Naim UnitiQute 2 with Unitiserve used 2099
Pathos Aurium Headphone amplifier used 749
Sony MDS JB940, excellent minidisc recorder used 199 Unison Research Unico Pre, nr mint x/d 1599 Naim UnitiQute 2 with Usher S520s used 1199
Stax 404/006 system used Call
TEAC X1000M, serviced, superb used 599 Unison Research Unico DM Power amplifier x/d 1599 Naim UnitiQute 24/192 used 849
Technics RS1500 in flightcase near mint used 2499 XTC Pre 1 & Pow 2, Pre/Power combo, excellent used 799 Stax 4070 closed system, excellent RARE! used 2499 Naim SuperUniti, nr mint boxed x/d 2999
Yamaha T-D500 FM/DAB Tuner, excellent used 199 Yamaha A-S3000 Amplifier excellent boxed used 2249 Stax Omega 007 system, excellent boxed used 2499 Scansonic USB100 Turntable & Active Speakers new 349

Tel: 01642 267012 or 0845 6019390 Email: choice@2ndhandhifi.co.uk

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 BEAUTY &
THE BEAST

“Quite simply one of the most

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With a conviction that has endured for four decades,
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absolute sounds ltd.

International Distributors & Consultants of Specialised Hi-End Audio & Video Systems
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