hy would anyone today, in the second decade of the 21st century, in the time of audio files and the demise of physical media, need a CD player? The question can be answered directly, without any philosophizing: in order to play CDs. That, however, immediately raises another question: who the hell needs CDs anyway? This cannot be answered in one sentence. And the answer will not be unequivocal and binding – each time it will be more of a personal statement containing opinions, convictions and faith in certain phenomena of the person you ask. Here is MY answer. After “Positive-Feedback.com” published a report of the Krakow Sonic Society meeting dedicated to the comparison of various CD editions, I received a lot of different questions, not at all as kind as those in the previous paragraph. They came from angry or sometimes amused readers for whom the very act of focusing on CDs does not make sense, not to even mention comparing them. Their position is that the only thing worth listening to is high resolution audio files or SACDs (see HERE). The other group obviously involved analog record and tape recorder enthusiasts who believe the whole discussion about digital audio as such to be pointless. The CD is in this unfortunate position that it is cornered between the past, which by coincidence and through vinyl enthusiasts’ persistence slowly becomes the present, and the future, in which all digital data, free of physical attributes, immaterial and preferably high-res, is stored in the “cloud”. One and the other portray the CD as a limited format, archaic at the time of its launch, which due to its user friendliness and the powerful lobbying of music companies enjoyed an incredible success that has not been and will not be repeated ever again by any other format. In other words, people have been deceived. It is therefore hardly surprising to see the euphoria of those manufactures that from the beginning claimed that vinyl sounds so good and the CD so bad that we should not bother with the latter. That was the position of Linn, Naim, Rega, but also Audio Research. The latter is the only one that never manufactured turntables or their components, but it has “always” offered phono pre-amps. Its conviction about the superiority of analog formats over digital formats lasted so long that the first Audio Research CD player, the CD1 from 1995, was offered only a few years ahead of the market launch of high-definition discs: SACD and DVD-Audio (1999 and 2000 respectively). And how much self-awareness and self-criticism you need to call your player “reference” ten years after your first such design! Most high-end manufacturers build their “reference” (at least in theory) product immediately in their first year of business operation. AR didn’t offer a Reference line CD player until 2005 when the Ref CD7 was launched. Three years later came the Ref CD8 and in 2013 the Ref CD9 that is the subject of this review. We’ll find in it everything that the Plymouth-based manufacturer has been known for. It is a top-loader, like all previous Audio Research designs, with a tube-based analog section. It employs 6N30P tubes I am very familiar with, e.g. from Ancient Audio CD players and the Loit Passeri. The 6N30P is a dual triode, originally Soviet- and now Russian-made. The analog section power supply is built on two more tubes, a powerful 6550WE beam tetrode and another 6N30P. This circuit has been tried and tested repeatedly to great effect in this manufacturer’s preamplifiers. The player sports the proven Philips CD Pro2R drive and can be used as a transport, with digital signal accessible through the AES/EBU and BNC outputs. I find it hard to imagine why anyone would do something like that; a much more likely scenario is to use the CD9 as a DAC. Its rear panel features four digital inputs: asynchronous USB 2.0HS, AES/EBU, RCA and Toslink. All of them are 24-bit, 192 kHz capable. To start using the USB input you need to install an appropriate driver on your PC. It can be found on a CD-R that comes with the player, but can also be downloaded directly from the manufacturer’s website and turns out to also support the Reference DAC. This is no coincidence as the D/A converter section design is directly based on what AR engineers learnt by the reference DAC and the DSPre. What they used here is two stereo DAC chips in dual-mono configuration with two separate clock oscillators – one for the 44.1/88.2/176.4 sampling-rate family and the other for 48/96/192 kHz. We can also choose one of the two digital filters, “slow” or “fast”, with or without upsampling. . Audio Research in "High Fidelity" • REVIEW: Audio Research Reference 5 SE – line preamplifier, see HERE • AWARD OF THE YEARD 2012: Audio Research Reference 75 – power amplifier, see HERE • REVIEW: Audio Research Reference 75 – power amplifier, see HERE Albums auditioned during this review CDs ABBA, Gold - Complete Edition, Polar/Universal Music Japan UICY-91318/9, 2 x SHM-CD (2008). Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms, Vertigo/Universal Music Ltd. Hong Kong 5483572SX, SHM-CD/XRCD2 (1985/2011); Et Cetera, Et Cetera, Global Records/Long Hair LHC00071, CD (1971/2008). Ivie Anderson, Ivie Anderson With Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra. 1932/1940, EPM 157352, “Jazz Archives No 42”, CD (1991). Judy Garland, Over The Rainbow, Going for a Song GFS236, CD (?). Kombi, Kombi 4, Polskie Nagrania Muza/Polskie Nagrania PNCD 999, CD (1985/2005). Kombi, Nowy rozdział, Polskie Nagrania Muza/Polskie Nagrania PNCD 985, CD (1983/2005). Mel Tormé, The legend of Mel Tormé, Going for a Song GFS360, CD (?). Mills Brothers, Swing Is The Thing, Trumpets Of Jericho Ltd/History 20.3039-HI, “The Great Vocalists of Jazz & Entertainment”, 2 x CD (?). Perry Como, Perry Como’s Song Collection, Going for a Song GFS284, CD (?). Savage, Tonight, Extravaganza Publishing/Klub80 Records CD001, “25th Anniversary Limited Edition No 59/150”, CD (1984/2009). Sting, The dream of the blue turtles, A&M Records/Mobile Fidelity, UDCD 528, gold-CD (1985/1990). Suzanne Vega, Nine Objects of Desire, A&M Records, 540 583 2, CD (1996). Tommy Dorsey, Masterpieces 15, EPM 158342, “Jazz Archives”, CD (1995). Wolfgang Dauner Quintet, The Oimels, MPS/Long Hair LHC59, CD (1969/2008). Hi-Res audio files SATRI Reference Recordings Vol. 2, Bakoon Products, FLAC 24/192. Al Di Meola, Flesh on Flesh, Telarc, 24/96 FLAC, Ľródło: HDTracks (2011). Charlie Haden & Antonio Forcione, Heartplay, Naim Label, 24/96 FLAC, Ľródło: NaimLabel. Dead Can Dance, Anastasis, [PIAS] Entertainment Group, PIASR311CDX, "Special Edition Hardbound Box Set", CD+USB drive 24/44,1 WAV (2012); Depeche Mode, Delta Machine, Columbia Records/Sony Music Japan SICP-3783-4, FLAC 24/44,1, Ľródło: HDTracks (2013); Miles Davis, Tutu, Warner Brothers Records, FLAC 24/96, Ľródło: HDTracks. Persy Grainger, Lincolnshire Posy, Dallas Wind Symphony, dyr. Jerry Junkin, Reference Recordings, HR-117, HRx, 24/176,4 WAV, DVD-R (2009). Sonny Rollins, Tenor Madness, Prestige, WAV 24/96, Ľródło: HDTracks (1956/2012). Stan Getz & João Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto, Verve, 24/96 FLAC, Ľródło: HDTracks (1963/2012). Stardelay A New High Fidelity, Ozella Music OZL22006CD, FLAC 24/44,1 Ľródło: Linn Records (2008). Japanese editions of CDs and SACDs are available from Collecting special CD editions, searching for rare and unique titles, bargain hunting on CD Japan and eBay must be one of the coolest, most fulfilling hobbies I know. Regular contact with music, continuous education, gaining experience and the joy of owning a physical, a beautiful object is a unique experience. Fun guaranteed for life. In the words of Mieczyslaw Stoch, the owner of the largest collection of vinyl in Poland: “Money is not a value in itself. It is a means to get things you love. That seems cool to me. Collecting things also expands our horizons and does not bring us down. It gives a sense of freedom. No need to go to the concert hall to listen to the best performance of your favorite music pieces”. While he refers to black discs, the mechanism is the same and so is the end goal – music. “The collector has no doubt that vinyl is the most fantastic music media devised so far. Among other things, it is very durable. But there are many more advantages. In this day and age when speed is everything, we slowly lose our humanism and. I think it was Wojciech Mann who once said that the analog record is more human. I agree. Vinyl has retained a certain softness, spaciousness of the sound, and friendliness. The analog sounds generate the calming alpha waves. And from what I heard neither plants nor animals respond to digital sound – he said in TOK FM” (see HERE). CD albums Among the thousands discs I own most are still normal “plastics”, or regular CD releases, which used to fill all music stores when they were part of every town’s landscape. My collection includes a number of old and very old recordings, released by specialist labels that reissue recordings whose copyright has expired, usually in the form of disc compilations. Judy Garland, Andrew Sisters, Bing Crosby, Vera Lynn, early Sinatra, Ivie Anderson, Tommy Dorsey, Mills Brothers, Perry Como, Mel Tormé and many, many others. The necessary remaster of the source material, usually restored from shellac discs, is carried out in the analog or digital domain. The system that is commonly used for this purpose is CEDAR. I have a continuous problem with these albums – few CD players are capable of handling them. Interestingly, no media player so far have played any single one of them (as CD rips) satisfactorily enough to make me want to listen to it from beginning to end. It’s more than just the sound. It’s about something irritating and annoying, as if someone shoved a finger into my eye, making me retch and instead just switching off playback. I have never had such problem with analog records containing the same recordings or recordings from a similar period, even if technically they seem even weaker than their digital remastered versions. Analog enthusiasts will be quick to declare that it is quite common and normal because digital media in general are irritating. Audio files apologists will, however, claim that the problem lies with the Compact Disc and its limited resolution and frequency range. I will offer another suggestion: the players that we normally use cannot apparently handle this type of distortion. And I know for a fact from personal experience that the CD is capable of sounding at least good, and sometimes simply phenomenal. There is always something for something, especially if we are talking about low-cost components, but the vindication of this format has recently significantly accelerated and things will only get better. And what’s the Reference CD9 got to do with all that discussion? Well, it simply is one of the four or five CD (and SACD) players that are capable of playing the albums I’ve mentioned above and make them sound similar to what they do on vinyl. The others are players from: Ancient Audio, Mark Levinson, EMM Labs and, among the less expensive, Human Audio. That’s not to say that others are rubbish. They have numerous advantages and often sound excellent. It’s just that their designers concentrated on improving other characteristics than those I have discussed. In the case of Audio Research and other players that are similar in this respect to the American machine, the focus has been on conveying coherence and liquidity, resulting in a smooth, coherent and holistic sound. Another characteristics are the lack of treble harshness and a warm, smooth and absolutely non-irritating upper midrange. This trinity defines the CD9 sound and puts it in a league that’s not particularly crowded. It does not mean that this is the best CD player in the world. My only, or perhaps main, point is that it is a player that plays CDs – but also audio files, more about which later – in an absolutely and uniquely smooth and non-irritating way. That alone should draw to it the attention of those who regard the digital medium as a plague, or those who are looking for a “final solution” for their CD library. The Audio Research under review may indeed be something like that. It has its weaknesses and a clearly programmed own “sound”, but in what it does well it does it brilliantly. Its sound is shaped similarly to other components from this manufacturer. I could actually quote entire paragraphs from my reviews of the Reference 5 SE preamplifier or the Reference 75 power amplifier and it would be just fine. But since CD playback draws our attention to slightly other sonic aspects than signal amplification does, and we interpret them differently, I will resist the perspective – however tempting – of using “copy and paste”. The tonal balance is shifted towards the lower midrange and upper bass. The attack is slightly rounded which makes everything sound friendly and deep. This is helped by excellent vividness with lots going on among larger bodies and sound planes. The sound creates a great first impression that lasts longer and holds our attention even after many hours of playing. I say ‘after many hours’ as the AR encourages long listening. It is not pushy but consistent in doing that. As I said, its tonal balance is shifted downwards. It was mostly audible with classical recordings with vocals recorded in a large space – e.g. Ramirez’s Misa Criolla. José Carreras sounded a little thickened as if he were further away, and the soundstage was even greater than that I know from other presentations. There is no problem if the recording is a little dry and lacks the bottom end, like Tosca performed by Maria Callas, and those albums will actually sound better. However, if everything is in its place, we get a lower, deepened perspective. As noted earlier, there is nothing for free and that’s the price we pay for the absolute distancing of the Reference CD9 from the digital realm. Perhaps that’s why I spent most time with other recordings. Quality components somehow direct our hand that reaches for the albums to play. With the AR I listened primarily to the above mentioned albums recorded in the 1920s-1940s, to the rock from the 1970s to 1990s and to discs recorded by Polish artists. The American player did with the latter the kind of wonders I had never before experienced with the digital medium. Take, for example, the albums Nowy rozdział and Kombi 4 by the band Kombi. Released in in 1983 and 1985 respectively, they bear all the blows once taken by the Polish phonography. Their sound is rather dry and shallow. This often renders the rich arrangements completely invisible while the flat perspective kills the tension between space and color. The CD9 does a sort of “remaster” of this type of albums. The sound is richer, more vivid and set primarily on powerful, deep bass. The recordings sound more balanced overall. However, it is not only Polish albums that suffer from this type of ills. Listen to Abba, and you will hear the same thing. Disco target of most quartet’s recordings, short production deadlines as well as a fairly relaxed attitude to the sound quality resulted in most albums by the Swedes, the winners of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, sounding horrid. No matter what treatment they underwent and how they were released. As usual, vinyl records are privileged in this respect, which is the advantage of this format. Yet even the SHM-CD version sounds light and lifeless. The difference between the latter and well-produced CDs is dramatic. It will be much smaller on the CD9. I will say more – it makes for a pleasant listen, without paying attention to the technique nor seeking what lies behind the presentation. There are other albums that will sound exceptional on the AR. Generally, each disc will play very well, as I already said, but some will get a second life. So will be with Sting’s The Dream of the Blue Turtles and Dire Straits albums, especially Brothers in Arms. The former was recorded on analog equipment, the latter on digital, yet both sound somewhat flat and lifeless on the CD. I have their best digital releases I know – Sting on Mobile Fidelity and Dire Straits on SHM-CD XRCD2 – but some things just cannot be overcome. Played back on a regular CD player they will sound correct or perhaps even good. The American unit, just as previously with Polish discs, brought out what’s best in them, revealing fantastic arrangements, color and complex texture. It mostly benefited the guitars – really great! – but the bass (which is understandable) and drums also sounded meaty. Digital audio files My description of the Audio Research Reference CD9 player will be incomplete if I don’t say anything about its playback of audio files, especially via the USB input. The machine plays CD rips or CD-quality files downloaded from Linn Records, Naim Label or HDTracks very similarly to CDs, but ultimately I have preferred the physical medium. While the USB input provides a deep and warm sound, the CDs will be slightly more open and resolving, which happens to be of value here. After all, it is a Compact Disc player. The difference will not be striking, though, and if someone has a large collection of CD-quality recordings on the hard drive, they will be a joy to listen to. What’s more, however “non-kosher” it sounds, MP3 files were also very, very nice… And so we have reached the gutter. Bouncing back towards the stars, however, and to high-res files we immediately ride the rising currents. With this type of signal the CD9 sounds not only vivid and dense but its tonality is also more linear. As if hi-res files didn’t need the additional support of a stronger bass. In absolute terms, the difference between the CD and hi-res was not large enough to be able to talk about qualitative leap. The reason was that the physical media sounded so convincingly, so good that a better depth, more balanced frequency response and slightly clearer treble of the 24-bit signal did not turn anything upside down. They had, however, their own value. Digital filters and upsampling Like any high quality digital source, the Audio Research player offers the capability to shape its sound. It is limited and nothing extravagant, granted, but still. First of all, you can use upsampling. This technique was first introduced to the audio world in the 1990s to immediately gain immense popularity. In short time, audio components without upsampling were treated as defective. In retrospect, we can see why. In theory, each component in the signal path introduces additional distortion. It is also true in the case of digital circuits. However, sometimes it is worth sacrificing something to get something else. Such additional component that became DAC’s integral part was the upsampler. Its role was to convert the input signal sampling frequency from 44.1 kHz (CD) or 48 kHz (DVD) to 96 kHz and then 192 kHz (that refers to an asynchronous upsampler; the much less common synchronous upsamplers converted the signal to a multiple of the basic frequency: 44.1 kHz to 176.4 kHz, and 48 kHz to 192 kHz). The upsampler also extended the word length from 16-bit to 24-bit, which was something of an extra function. After all, it’s a Sample Rate Converter and the name obliges. The sound quality improvement it brought resulted from two things, one of which used to be considered major (also by me) and the other was usually passed over in silence. The first was to feed the DAC a pre-processed signal with the highest parameters it was able to handle. That way the DAC was spared the additional internal processing that was carried out in the preceding circuit. The second issue related directly to jitter. Upsampling, whether asynchronous or synchronous, consists in signal re-clocking. That was, it seems, the main value of upsamplers. Re-clocking allowed to improve the signal precision and thus reduce jitter. Pretty soon the problem of signal clocking has been widely noticed and given a lot of attention, like using separate oscillators for the two sampling-frequency families with their own dedicated power supplies, and other techniques. A player that does not exhibit high jitter reacts to upsampler differently than other players. In addition to the above solutions, the Ref CD9 also features a separate digital filter that re-clocks the signal reducing jitter to the very low value of 10 ps. Hence, switching on the upsampling here rather changes than improves the sound. Everything gets tighter and more focused, with improved sound definition. However, the natural softness and lower midrange body disappear and they are key for the CD9. Hence, I auditioned the player with the upsampling off. We also have an option to change the DAC output filter. Without going into details, the signal in the D/A converter must be properly filtered. Without that, there will appear additional distortion that was not originally there. The filtration can be carried out in various ways. The Burr Brown chip used in the CD9 allows us to choose between the “fast” and “slow” filter. Without a shadow of a doubt, the latter results in a more natural sound, although from a technical point of view it is inferior as it generates higher distortion. Conclusion Audio Research continues to do its own thing and even the change of ownership in 2008 did not disrupt anything. The Reference CD9 is another step up on the once chosen path. Hence, we are not talking here about a revolution, breakthrough, etc., but rather about continuation, polishing and dotting the “i”. The sound is a dense, warm, with the accent shifted towards lower midrange. The CD9 handles digital signal in a special way, eliminating from it what is commonly associated with digital technology: treble impurity, harshness and nervousness. The only nervousness we can experience with the reviewed player is reaching the album end and needing to swap it for another. There is so much old, already known music to listen to and so many new CDs to unpack… This is more of a friend than a tool – with all the benefit of inventory. The resolution and selectivity of, say, dCS players is an order of magnitude better, as is the ability to separate individual planes on the soundstage of Ancient Audio and Mark Levinson players. However, the top AR player from its Reference Series has something that no other CD player I know seems to have: the freedom to reproduce any material in a way we would like to hear it on LP. There are some cons to it but the pros far outweigh them. The built-in digital inputs, most importantly including USB, are a valuable functional addition that is necessary in the 21st century. It is a machine for years, made to easily survive the passing of time and sounding so well that no temporary audio fads or “inventions” will wipe the smile of the face of a music lover who has purchased it. There is no confusing Audio Research components for anything else. Their aesthetics, worked out years ago right at the beginning of the company’s existence, referring directly to lab or recording studio equipment, has proved timeless. That’s a rarity. What we have here is a large aluminum enclosure with two handles mounted to the front panel. This is taken directly from pro audio racks, where the handles are used to slide the component in and out of a large rack cabinet. Here they just serve as decoration and they serve it well, indeed. The large front panel features green display, green LEDs and silver drive operation buttons. The display is a classic type for the transport used and is sold bundled with the Philips CD Pro2R drive. It is small and assigned to the drive. It cannot be used to display other information, such as digital input sampling frequency or the bit length. The latter data is not available to us in any case, but the sampling frequency is indicated by a vertical row of LEDs right next to the display. It is a pity that AR did not use here the display featured in its preamplifiers. The second row of LEDs shows the selected input (or the CD drive), and the third row is used to indicate the currently selected digital filter, power-on and upsampling-on. The latter is synchronous. While the choice is infrequent, it is well-grounded as the necessary signal processing is significantly easier than with asynchronous upsampling. 44.1 kHz and 88.2 kHz signals are upsampled to 176.4 kHz and 48 kHz and 96 kHz to 192 kHz. The USB input is treated differently with only basic frequencies being upsampled – 44.1 kHz to 88.2 kHz, and 48 to 96 kHz. The CD9 is a player featuring balanced analog stage. Consequently, it offers balanced XLR as well as unbalanced RCA analog outputs. The latter are particularly noteworthy. Although they bear the AR logo they look like they were manufactured by CMC (Charming Music Conductor) and are really very good quality. Digital input RCA connectors come from the same manufacturer and are found right next to three other inputs: AES/EBU, Toslink and USB. All accept signal up to 24-bit and 192 kHz. The USB input is of the asynchronous 2.0HS type. While nowadays it is an increasingly less necessary function, the CD9 can also be used as a transport. Hence the presence of digital outputs: BNC and AES/EBU. They are always active and I have found no information whether they can be disabled. The disc is placed directly on the motor shaft or rather on a plastic “cup” mounted to it, under a manually sliding door. We press the lightweight aluminum disc. The disc’s TOC is loaded after closing the door. Opening it automatically stops playback. This is not a machine with interior full of air that plays the lead role. The entire space is tightly packed with circuits, mainly due to the use of a tube-based analog section with dedicated tube power supply. Both the I/V conversion section and gain/buffer stage are tube-based. They employ the large 6N30P dual triodes from Russian Sovtek. The two tubes in the power supply come from the same manufacturer and are the 6550WE beam tetrode and another 6N30P. I don’t see any coupling capacitors between the tubes in the signal path. We find Wima coupling capacitors in the output and RealCap and MULTICAP filtering caps in the power supply. The power supply is very complex. I counted six secondary windings of a very large R-core transformer as well as many large filtering capacitors and integrated voltage controllers. The power supply and analog circuits are mounted on a large circuit board bolted to the bottom of the enclosure. The side featuring the transformer is mechanically decoupled with dampening material under the board. Vibration isolation seems particularly important to Audio Research engineers. All electrolytic capacitors feature damping material; so does the underside of the top panel. The 6N30P tubes sport rubber rings to reduce microphonics. The digital section is mechanically and electrically isolated from the analog stage. It is mounted on a small separate PCB bolted to the rear and side panel. At the input we have a Burr Brown SRC4391 frequency converter. It is followed by two Burr-Brown PCM1792 stereo D/A converters, one for each channel. It is these DAC chips that allow built-in digital filter selection. Both channels work in each of them in parallel. The USB input is handled differently. Its PCB is plugged “upside down” to the main board. That allows for easy future upgrade. The circuit is based on a Cypress Perform CY7C68013A. Next to it is another integrated circuit, programmable Xilinx Spartan FPGA along with two master clocks, each for one of the sample-rate families. The company literature claims that signal from all sources is re-clocked to minimize jitter. I would bet it happens here. All electrical digital inputs as well as outputs feature impedance matching transformers. The CD drive is mounted to a large T-shape profile, machined from an aluminum block. The drive is bolted via springs, which come complete with the whole set. The remote control looks old-fashion, just like the component itself. It takes some skill to operate it as the buttons are close to each other and are quite small. In addition to the basic commands for the drive, the remote can be used for input and digital filter selection, switching on the upsampler and darkening/disabling the display. Specification (according to the manufacturer) Frequency Response (XLR output, 200kΩ load/192kHz input): 3Hz - 96kHz (+0/-3dB) 20Hz - 20kHz (-0.15dB) THD + N

t is difficult to briefly tell the story of a company whose roots date back to 1926. The first important event in its history, when it was called Tulsemere Manufacturing Company, took place in 1929 when Guy R. Fountain (Pic. 1), its founder and longtime head, developed a new type of electrical rectifier intended for home use. Its design was based on using two pieces of dissimilar metal immersed in an electrolyte. One metal plate was made of tantalum, and the other of lead alloy. The combination of the words ‘Tantalum’ and ‘alloy’ brought the company name effective today, Tannoy, registered March 10, 1932 year. A year later, Tannoy presented its first speakers and then microphones. A crucial event was the development in 1947 (other sources claim it was 1948; see HERE) of a coaxial speaker system simulating a point source of sound, which was called Dual Concentric. Its inventor was the chief engineer Ronnie H. Rackham, and the first product was the two-way Monitor Black system sporting a 15-inch midwoofer. 1953 brought the most famous Tannoy speaker, the Autograph (Pic. 2). Incidentally, it was another Rackham’s design that employed a newer version of the Dual Concentric, called Monitor Silver. A special, limited edition of this speaker was launched in 2001. Guy R. Fountain retired in 1974 and passed away in 1977. In 1982 Tannoy presented the Prestige line, the first ever intended for the Japanese market. It included the Westminster, GFR Memory, Stirling and Edinburgh designs. In the 2006/7 season the Prestige series was upgraded to the SE (Special Edition) status. In 2013 Tannoy introduced a further fined GR – Golden Reference series, which features design solutions pioneered with the flagship Kingdom Royal speaker. It includes only three models: Westminster Royal, Canterbury and the Kensington GR reviewed today. Even this brief introduction shows that we deal with a legendary company, and if we add that in colloquial British English usage the term ‘Tannoy’ is synonymous with public address, advertising, etc., everything should be clear. I refer those readers who would like to learn more about Tannoy’s history to its Polish distributor website (HERE). I also recommend the 2004 book by Julian Alderton titled The Tannoy Story. The Kensington GR speaker under review is the smallest, which does not mean small, design in the new series. Built using 10-inch Dual Concentric system housed in a characteristic cabinet resembling a piece of furniture from before WWII, it is a modern speaker through and through. In spite of that, it looks wonderfully anachronistic and surprisingly appropriate at the same time. It is one of the few speakers my wife would be happy to keep in our living room. Its front grille is locked with a key (!) and the cabinet is made of veneered plywood. The speakers rest on solid spikes and treble can be adjusted by two switch blocks labelled ‘Energy’ and ‘Roll Off’ on a large, golden plate on the front baffle. The Energy control is a +/- 3dB shelving filter over a frequency band between 1.1kHz and 27kHz, and the Roll Off provides adjustment in the range of +2dB to -6dB per octave at high frequencies between 5kHz and 27kHz. The speakers are large, measuring 1100 x 406 x 338 mm, and heavy – you need another person with you to carry them. They have extremely high sensitivity of 93dB (2,83V/1m) and friendly impedance – nominally 8 ohm and minimally 5 ohm, which should make for an easy load. Frequency response is specified for 29Hz-27kHz, at -6dB. Tannoy in “High Fidelity” TEST: Tannoy DEFINITION DC10A – kolumny gło¶nikowe, see HERE Albums auditioned during this review Okihiko Sugano Record Collection, Victor Edition/Trio Edition, Audio Meister XRCG-30025-8, 4 x XRCD24 [2012]; Clan of Xymox, Clan of Xymox, 4AD CAD503CD, CD (1985). Daft Punk, Random Access Memories, Columbia Records/Sony Music Japan SICP-3817, CD (2013); Depeche Mode, Everything Counts and Live Tracks, Mute Records INT 826.831, maxi-SP CD (1993). J.S. Bach, Die Kunst Der Fuge, wyk. Marcin Masecki, Lado ABC C/13, CD (2012). Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static, Brushfire Records 756055, CD (2008). Johann Sebastian Bach, St. John Passion, BWV 245, dyr. Kenneth Slowik, Smithsonian Chamber Players and Chorus, Smithsonian Collection of Recordings/ADDA ND 0381, 2 x CD (1989). Marc Copland & John Abercrombie, Speak To Me, Pirouet Records PIT3058, CD (2011). Miles Davis, Seven Steps To Heaven, Columbia/Sony Music/Analogue Productions CAPJ-8851, SACD/CD (1963/2010). Neu!, Neu! ‘75, Brain Records/P-Vine Records PCD-93529, CD (1975/2012). Nino Rota, La Strada Concerto Soirée…, dyr. Josep Pons, piano - Benedetto Lupo, Orquesta Ciudad Granada, Harmonia Mundi HMC 901864, CD (2005). Wolfgang Riechmann, Wunderbar, SKY Records/bureau b BB 027, CD (1978/2009). Japanese editions of CDs are available from With audio products that are long awaited and highly anticipated the first impression is most important – the first album or even track played on them. Poorly selected can spoil mood for a long time and, in extreme cases, put off the auditioned product. It is not even so much about the quality of the recording, or at least so I believe. It is rather a matter of emotions. On the one hand, we have in our throat and over our chest a ready built pedestal for the product while, on the other, it is supposed to be shoved onto the pedestal by our emotions evoked by a well-known and liked song (album) that has a connection with our past. In my case, that sequence of events is applicable each time.. The Tannoys arrived just when I was reading Depeche Mode’s biography by Jonathan Miller, and reached the period of time when they’d released their third album titled Construction Time Again, or more specifically the first single from it, Construction Time Again (Jonathan Miller, Stripped: The True Story of Depeche Mode, 2004). Hence, I had – really! – no other choice but to listen to this very single. I chose its version on the CD that was originally released in Germany as a 12-inch maxi-single, which here features the 12-inch mix in addition to the basic 7-inch mix and live tracks. The band’s instrumentation grew significantly over that time and included first digital samplers. And Martin Gore finally began to write songs that made the band as we know it today, not without considerable help from a new member, Alan Wilder. The sound on the single and on the entire album was darker, denser, more selective, but also sharper. But let’s get back to the point: the Tannoys pretty quickly showed their overall tonal balance, and let in some light on their understanding of soundstage. I hope it is clear that there is no such thing as a “reference” home soundstage, and it all depends on a given recording and the system that is used for playback. The British speakers under review are no exception here, although they do some things more accurately, or simply better, than other British speakers – my Harbeth M40.1. Not everything, as there are things where the Harbeths can hardly be beaten, but elsewhere the Tannoys showed their claws. I did not have to listen to Depeche Mode for too long before concluding that I preferred a slightly different tonal balance. The Tannoys at their default factory setting of treble level and roll off (both positions set to FLAT) sounded too forward for me in my system. Treble clarity was exceptional, better than the Harbeth and as good as that of the Krypton3 http://highfidelity.pl/@main-330&lang=en speakers from Anssi Hyvönen (Amphion). The level of treble and upper midrange, however, seemed too high to me. As I said, the third DM album is brighter and sharper, which partly justifies what I did next. I lowered treble level by 1.5dB and changed its roll off setting to -2dB (Treble Energy = -1.5dB | Treble Roll Off = -2dB). Everything “clicked into place”. After a while of getting used to Tannoys more selective (but not more resolving) sound against the Harbeths, I was listening to jazz when I tried another treble setting with the Energy at -3dB and Roll Off at +2dB. The sound was now slightly different but also good. What was important for me was that I could use the controls to compensate for the acoustic characteristics of my room and audio system to fit my personal preferences. While the changes may have seem small – after all, what’s a two decibel change, isn’t it? – the sonic improvement was dramatic, from a rather hard to precise yet deep sound. On the one hand, the Kensington GR sounded similar to the Harbeth, but on the other they were completely different. I ran through many comparisons between them in my mind, trying to assign both pairs of speakers to one or another group, yet I could not find any simple parallels between these two designs. By the end of auditions I could only say one thing for sure (which was incredibly insightful…) – they are different. However, to make you aware of the kind of that “otherness” and to demonstrate that, in spite of this, the Harbeths have more in common with the Tannoys (and vice versa) than with other speakers I will say that if I were to compare them to headphones, the Westminster GR would be tonally the HiFiMAN HE-6 magnetostats, while the Harbeths would be the Sennheiser HD800. In turn, when it comes to soundstage the illustration would be exactly opposite. Yet both of the speakers would build on momentum, dynamics, intensity and soundstage. The Tannoys sounded selective, offered a dense tonality, especially at the bottom end, were extremely dynamic and showed a soundstage that’s characteristic for a given recording studio, reverb or concert hall. They differentiated them better. The M40.1, although even more resolving, tried to show everything in a better light, prettier, which – at some level – resulted in hiding the minute differences. You could hear them when you listened carefully, but it was other elements that were in the foreground. The Tannoys, in turn, built a larger soundstage and showed it immediately “as is”. Which way is better? It depends on what you are looking for in music. One thing must be said objectively: the speakers reviewed today build the kind of presentation characteristic for studio speakers, which means no compromise. The next piece of information should therefore come as no surprise: their tonality is very even. The M40.1 are rather warm with a slightly emphasized mid-bass, which helps them build larger phantom images, but also gives a bit of a soft character to the whole. The Westminster GR are more linear in that respect. Sitting down to auditions with the Depeche Mode album in hand I had no other recordings scheduled. I was ready to go where the speakers would guide me. And they did it straight away. It works this way: I play an album, listen to it, skip between tracks and it creates in my mind the need to hear something different, to try another quite specific disc to verify this or that. With the Depeche Mode, once I clearly heard the tonal differences between the title track on the 7-inch and the 12-inch versions (the extended versions were created in a hurry and in a slightly different way than standard versions, so they sound different), I just had to play material from Bach’s Die Kunst Der Fuge performed by Marcin Masecki. This great yet simple looking CD was released by Lado ABC. The cover features an embossed ambigram, which viewed from one direction reads "der Kunst" (Marcin Masecki), and from the other "der Fuge" (Bach); spot on of what this recording is. It is a well-known fact, so let me just say that Masecki is an anarchist musician with his own controversial approach, also to the recording process. In this case, he simply put a voice recorder on the piano and recorded the whole material in one take. It might seem, especially to an audiophile that it just cannot sound on any acceptable level. And yet it sounds amazing. How did the Scottish speakers react to that? Well, in their own way. First they built a credible soundstage, especially in terms of its size and depth but also showing “air” – not by drawing a sterile, dissected instrument with reverb layered on top, which is not true. It was not a very dense presentation as the Tannoys do not do anything like that. Yet its clarity, excellent dynamics and good resolution managed to convey the “temperature” of this performance, of this moment and event. It is something beyond the usual hi-fi concepts, but I’m sure you understand what I’m talking about. The listener’s (as in: my) attention was not drawn to individual sounds but rather to their sequence; not to details but to how they form larger textures. However, it would be difficult to say that the “cabinets” under review do not show details. There are lots of them, almost as much as in the Amphions I referred to earlier. Their presence, however, stems mainly from clear, unblurred attack transients. Here, when something appears it appears immediately. The Harbeths, by contrast, tend to slightly round everything and introduce a minimal but present delay. Hence their phenomenal ability to engage in music that’s never irritating. But also a slight softness, especially when it comes to the top and bottom end, which is not present in the reviewed speaker pair. What matters here is a more direct way of presentation. That, perhaps paradoxically, results in much larger emotional temperature changes between tracks, for example by better showing differences in instrument recording – whether microphones had been positioned closer or further. It was possible to easily ‘read’ such albums as Bach’s St. John Passion performed by Smithsonian Chamber Players and his Chorus and organ works performed by Amadeus Webersinke on the brilliant XRCD24 Cutting HR reissue. The latter with a higher tonal balance and a fairly large distance to the organ, the former slightly lower tonally, and also closer. And Nino Rota songs, recorded in a fairly narrow perspective (too narrow). The differences were large and clear, and added a lot to album reception. Modern productions, such as Daft Punk and Jack Johnson, also sounded spectacular, due to high dynamics and interesting bass presentation. The bass was tight, deep and superbly differentiated. It was not as focused as with the Amphions, nor did it have such “density” as with the Harbeth. In absolute terms, however, it sounded – between the three – most “concert-like”, in the sense that this is how we hear the bass guitar during a concert or how we perceive the double bass in a small club. I do not mean that the Amphion or the Harbeth showed it worse; it’s rather that they attempted to compensate for the lack of eye contact with a performer (instrument) by emphasizing something, each in its own way. With Jack Johnson I heard something I had to verify immediately and which showed that nothing’s for free and some solutions force a certain distribution of emphasis in the “debit and credit” category. The Harbeth sounded lower and had more saturated, denser midrange. The Tannoy focused rather on its precision and contourness than body. It is a top high-end design and what it does, it does it very well but compared to other high-end designs clearly shows differences in its approach. Dense electronica, such as on Wolfgang Riechmann’s album Wunderbar, or tasty, elegant jazz on Miles Davis Seven Steps To Heaven sounded less saturated and dense than with the Harbeth. This mainly concerned vocals and lower midrange. In this respect, the M40.1 are perfect, even if they do it at the expense of other parts of the frequency range. As a result, the volume of sound seemed larger with the English speakers than with the Scottish. Not entirely, as the Tannoy had a huge momentum, but the energy focused on the midrange and powerful upper bass brought a better sense of the physicality of sound and its stronger “presence” in this range. Harbeth’s bass offers slightly deeper extension and is warmer and in consequence more enjoyable. Only that it is less differentiated. Conclusion As you can see, you need to sacrifice something to get something else. I perceive the differences between the speakers as a function of the Harbeth’s dedicated midrange driver and larger woofer. Let’s admit it, size matters. On the other hand, the Tannoy shows more things in a recording, and more differences between various recordings. Its sound is not exaggerated in this respect, nor is it detailed to the point of being annoying. It is simply a presentation that contains more data, built on precise attack, accuracy, coherence and dynamics. What needs to be emphasized, the speaker tonality is very even. It is also a much easier load than the Harbeth. I think they will be best paired with tube amplifiers. My Leben, though not on par with the Tannoys, showed things in the texture and harmony that the much more expensive and – objectively – better Soulution 710 treated less carefully. They are fantastically made speakers, with an incredible charm. They look absolutely unique and yet will fit in any room, even by way of contrast. The reason lies in an extraordinary attention to detail in their cabinet manufacturing. If I did not have the Harbeths, I would be proud of the fact that the Tannoy Kensington GR may stay with me as my reference speakers. Although the Kensington GR speakers are large and look very solid, they are also very easy to drive. The basic amplifiers during the auditions were the Soulution 710 solid state amp and the tube Leben CS-300 XS [Custom Version], but to verify this observation I also used the following all-in-one systems: the Block CVR 100+, the Naim UnitiQute2 and the one with the lowest power output, working with a tiny Class D power stage, Pro-Ject Stream Box DSA. Even the smallest one offered dynamics, momentum and bass that will not be possible with other speakers. Generally, however, I see the Tannoy driven by a tube amp. The speakers were positioned in exactly the same place as such designs as the Definition 10A from the same manufacturer, the Raidho D1, the Estelon XA or the Amphion Krypton3. All of them, including the Kensington GR were compared to my Harbeth M40.1 sitting on specially designed, custom made stands from Acoustic Revive. I achieved the best results pointing them directly at the listening position and removing their front grille. Although the latter actually may easily remain in place as the speakers look great with them. The Tannoys, just like the Harbeths, were placed on the Acoustic Revive RST-38 quartz isolation boards. A comparative test had the character of an A/B comparison, with 2-minutes music samples. Whole albums were also auditioned. The original shape of this type of speaker cabinet design was first seen with the launch of the Tannoy Autograph in 1953. A wooden (here 18 mm veneered plywood) cabinet and its decorative components are reminiscent of a piece of furniture rather than an audio product; a characteristic front grille, and above all the fact that it is locked in position with a key - it all makes the Prestige Gold Reference line absolutely unique. The Kensington GR is the second model from the top. It is a two-way distributed port speaker design, where the rear side of the driver cone is loaded by the cabinet sporting vents in the form of narrow vertical slots on both edges of the front baffle. Wooden surfaces are waxed rather than painted and they look insanely well. The manufacturer supplies wax which should be periodically used to polish the cabinets. Interior braces made of chipboard are used to strengthen the cabinet. One of the braces supports, suppressing resonance, the magnet of the Dual Concentric driver developed in 1947, the “pearl in Tannoy’s crown”. Dual Concentric coaxial driver used in the Kensington GR is the latest Tannoy development. It consists of two sections or units, high and low frequency, crossed over at 1.1kHz with 2nd order filters both from the top and bottom. The high frequency driver features an aluminum / magnesium alloy huge 2-inch (52mm) diaphragm, loaded into a very long, gold anodized steel horn with characteristic holes on the throat side – hence the name Pepperpot. The diaphragm is formed in a 5-stage advanced technological process to ensure very high stiffness to mass ratio. The diaphragm is attached to Mylar suspension with venting holes. The voice coil is made of aluminum. The driver sports a rear damped acoustic cavity to decrease its own resonance. Multi-stranded copper wires are used for signal output. The tweeter horn connects smoothly to the 10-inch (250mm) midwoofer cone. The latter is made from paper pulp with synthetic micro-fiber additives, and is suspended on a twin roll, damped fabric suspension. The cone is driven by a powerful Alcomax 3 magnet. It is an iron and nickel alloy with additions of cobalt, aluminum and other rare metals (not specified by the manufacturer). The magnet is supposed to combine the advantages of classic AlNiCo and Ferrite magnets. Since Alcomax 3 is also an electrical conductor, it suppresses any non-linear eddy currents usually induced in the magnet metal components (pole shoes). The cone is supported by a very robust die cast basket, gold painted on the outside. Ten mounting bolts that are used to hold the basket in place are also gold. The crossover network is mounted on MDF boards that are bolted to the cabinet side panel. Point-to-point assembly is used, with 99.99% purity silver wires. The low frequency section that includes polypropylene capacitors bearing Tannoy’s logo and iron core coils and the high frequency section sporting air coils are soldered separately. The latter features lots of PCOCC 99.9999% purity copper lead out wires to connect to the gold plated switch block terminals on the front baffle, which are used to control the treble level and roll off slope. As the wires are connected using crimp connectors (a few of them in the signal path), in Asia, after determining appropriate values, they are often permanently soldered. Yet this is treated as a design interference and it voids the warranty. The whole crossover assemblies deep cryogenically treated (DCT), which consists in rapid freezing to extremely low temperatures and slow warming up. It relieves stresses at crystal structure level and reduces signal noise. The speakers sport fantastic WBT Nextgen speaker terminals on the rear panel. As usual with Tannoy, there are not four or two, but five terminals. The fifth terminal is used for ground connection and is connected to the driver chassis. Tannoy demonstrates the measurements to prove that properly set up system helps reduce signal noise. Both crossover sections, the high and low-midrange frequency, are connected outside using a shielded cable, the same (minus the screen), that is used for internal wiring. Bi-wire links come in a beautiful wooden box in which we also find a golden grille key, wood wax, spikes with lock nuts, and a great mini-guide to Tannoy history, describing main design solutions used in these speakers. There is also a separate owner certificate, with the signatures of people responsible for checking the individual components. I found a quality check stamp inside, on one of the braces, and it so happens that the person has a classic Polish first name: Genowefa Sarley. The whole unit looks insane, and the buyer is confident to be SOMEBODY. Distribution in Poland Electronic International Commerce Sp. z o.o. 02-434 Warszawa | ul. Łuki Wielkie 3/5 | Polska tel.: (22) 594 83 83 | fax: (22) 594 83 84 e-mail: eic@eic.com.pl www.eic.com.pl

„DOM&WNĘTRZE” REDUX perfectly remember the day and place where for the first time I bought “Dom&Wnętrze” (“Home & Interior”) monthly magazine dedicated to interior design. It was 22 years ago, at the Aleje Solidarności (Solidarity Avenue, which I think already bore that name but I wouldn’t be my life on it), around the Swedish Park, in the Nowa Huta district of Krakow. I have no idea what I was doing there or why I came to this particular newsagent. I used to go that road back from school by bus but I never got off at this stop. Maybe we were out of school early, or the day was so beautiful that I decided to walk back home and took a longer route than usual. In any case, it was the 2nd or 3rd issue of the magazine, I don’t remember exactly, either. I must be getting old or something. I liked the magazine right away, because in addition to advice on interior design it contained short articles not necessarily directly related to it, and essays on art. It was a good magazine, just right for me. I used to buy it regularly for several years, then reached for it less and less frequently, until finally completely gave up the habit of sitting down in the evening with a cup of tea, headphones on my head and “Dom&Wnętrze” in my lap. The magazine started to irritate me with its poor articles that were getting dumber, and eventually it turned into an advertising leaflet with a few articles thrown in here and there that were actually more like advertising. On November 9th, 2013, at 18:30, after a dozen year break, I bought the current issue no. 217 of the magazine. I was mostly tempted by its changed new layout and a few articles that looked promising. This is the first issue of the “new start”, return the magazine back to its place. I was not disappointed. I read the most part on the train to Krakow, coming back from the Audio Show 2013, satisfied and convinced that the new management had taken the right direction. Sure, I was irritated by the right-page ads, much more desirable by advertisers than the left, but then no one is perfect. In a perfect world articles would not be split by full-page ads (assuming that even there the magazine would need to be ad-sponsored) and they would all start from the spread or on the right page. Just as they do in the Japanese “Stereo Sound” audio magazine. Maybe the Japanese already live in such a world? Looking at what’s happening in audio over there it may well be true. Reading the next articles, however, I was puzzled by something that wouldn’t have earlier drawn my attention: the authors of articles seem to pretend that there is no audio equipment in the homes they described. In the whole magazine I found one, attached as an ornament, Bang & Olufsen speaker on the ad of Woodwork Design furniture, a rather tacky mini-hifi hidden shyly in an article on Stéphane Arriubergé and Massimiliano Iorio’s Paris apartment (Moustache) and a pair of speakers that just couldn’t be cropped out, in an article on Caecilii Porter, an interior designer (incidentally, another model from B&O). Not a single photo of Ania and Piotr’s system, although the text makes it clear he’s an old punk guy, a graphic designer who loves comic books and vinyl. What does he listen his LPs on? It remains a mystery. After a long search, I found one speaker in the picture of his studio, but if I didn’t know what to look for I wouldn’t have seen anything. And nothing anywhere else, not a single bit, as if interior designers and journalists were giving the subject a wide berth. Of course, we can speculate that many audio systems are not entirely presentable or not very ‘design’ like. But that, too, is part of life; a very important one for many. Castrating descriptions from this sphere is plainly stupid and it distorts reality. Something has to change in this matter; people involved in interior design need to have some sort of mental switch triggered. It is necessary to understand that not everything looks like B&O. And neither it should. For now, everything that is good and well-arranged, is associated over THERE with that kind of audio. In turn, whatever is dirty, maybe even twisted – with vacuum tubes and reel-to-reel recorders, or with turntables. You don’t believe me? Please watch again the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with Daniel Craig and note the villain’s house (dir. David Fincher, 2011). To start changing it, the people responsible for what and how we live should once a year visit the Audio Show held in mid-November in Warsaw, which this year has reached its seventeenth edition. AUDIO SHOW BEGINNER’S GUIDE Audio show is a place where distributors and dealers of audio products and their manufacturers present audio systems by playing music on them, while visitors go from one room to another, examining the components, listening to the music and having discussions with the exhibitors, manufacturers and other visitors. The Audio Show is a traditional show, taking place in hotel rooms. For the last few years, the AS has been held in three hotels. The of them are located next to each other – the Radisson Blu Sobieski and the Golden Tulip, while Hotel Bristol is 15-minutes away by taxi. Most exhibitors are located in the Sobieski, but it has the smallest rooms of all the three. The most expensive systems are traditionally found in Bristol, but it only offers a few rooms. The Tulip usually has expensive and very expensive systems located in a dozen rooms. Visitors’ characters are clearly determined by the character of the particular hotels. This year, the Sobieski was crowded as usual, but – so it seemed – there were slightly less people than the last year, the best one so far. This did not prevent the companies from preparing the best presentations in the event history. Shortly after the show I was asked by Andrzej Kisiel, the chief editor of “Audio”, how I would briefly characterize it and it immediately occurred to me that it was completely “normal”. And so it should be, I think. It is the largest event of its kind apart from Munich, each year attracting most of the important audio manufacturers. There were fewer of them this year and, what’s more, I didn’t know about a number of them until the last minute when it was too late to arrange an interview. Most of those absent were attracted by an audio show in Moscow, this year taking place at the same time. In any case, it was a normal show, mainly because of the exhibitors’ approach. Not all, but the vast majority of them. It was hard to find audio systems costing tens of thousand dollars that would be put just any old where and any old how, and connected via shoelaces or lamp wire. Most of the exhibitors were solidly prepared, taking care of proper hi-fi racks and room acoustics, and a suitable description of what’s currently playing and how much it costs. That’s the starting point and the only way for people outside the audio world to understand at all what this is all about. In this regard, it was very good, much better than usual and as good as at the Munich High End, the most important event of this type in Europe. Maybe even better. On the other hand, the music presented was even more nondescript than usual, which is also typical for big events. While I may have heard Nirvana’s vinyl in the room with electronics from Tellurium Q, Armin Krauss may have played Dire Straits on the Avantgarde Acoustic Zero1 Pro speakers, and the visitors could hear Kaczmarski’s vinyl on the Sugden system, yet even death metal played I-don’t-remember-where didn’t change the situation. Music was dull, bland, and usually very well recorded. This plagues well-organized events, where madness and folly gave way to planning and cautiousness. It will be really difficult to change that. It’s a package deal. That’s why it’s so important to take own CDs to an audio show and to ask for playing them, and to demand it if necessary. If you’re told it’s impossible, avoid those places; they are not worth your time. This year, you could listen to your own CDs in some rooms, but CD players are evidently slowly passing away as mechanical parts go extinct. In many systems, even with tube-based amplifiers and open baffles with full-range drivers, such as Ardento, the source was a computer and audio files. In Japan, it is a natural change, as it is believed there that the CD was a mistake and vinyl’s direct successor are high-resolution audio files, better still DSD. DSD because the SACD format is still strong in this country. In Warsaw, SACD players were few and far between and most of them were used as CD players, anyway. A minority in the minority… To sum up, a retreat from the CD was clear. Interestingly, not too many exhibitors decided to play from network audio players, usually using a computer and a USB DAC. I don’t know why that happened, but maybe the reason was convenience. That was the case in the system with Sveda Audio speakers and Mytek DAC, in which he worked JPLAY software player and many others, but also in Jarek Waszczyszyn’s (Ancient Audio) who once gave over his soul and body to vacuum tubes and CDs. Interestingly, in the computer audio system the sound is nothing he can not break off with me, but it was usually sensible and could hear it. Network audio player, on the other hand, and there were some, played very whimsical; they were fantastic in some systems, such as the PS Audio PerfectWave with speakers from Audio Physic or in the Lampizator system, and dramatically bad elsewhere. I have no idea where it came from. Hence, it was interesting to compare three different audio formats: the CD, files and turntable in a system with the Dynaudio Evidence Platinum speakers and Ayon Audio electronics. I had no doubt that what played the best was… Compact Disc. Turntables this year there were not many, and most of the comments gathered from playing in the Sudgenem model Alexia's Helius Design and McIntosh in the company's system of speakers Rockport Technologies Atria. He was also Akai tape recorder in the room with speakers ART Alnico 8 Silver Signature Art Audio and electronics. I assume that no one asked for restoration of his belt. But maybe I'm wrong. What was the show like, then? Normal, as I have already mentioned. Very well organized. If you knew what to look for, you could see a lot of money invested in the arrangement of systems and rooms, and much work behind that. I didn’t find any room with the sound that would have floored me, as it had happened before. But there were also lots of systems that sounded in the way audio gear should, in my opinion. You will find their list below, after Mr. Wojtek Kotarba’s eye-witness account and before the report by Mr. Jacek Lewandowski who prepared it to the readers of “High Fidelity” for the third time (see his previous report HERE.) THE SHOW THAT WILL STAY WITH ME Text: Wojciech Kotarba Walking through the hotel rooms of this year’s Audio Show in Warsaw, unhurriedly and without unnecessary emotion, I listened to subsequent audio systems. My “audition” often ended right at the room doorstep. My impression is that many of the presented audio systems sounded average and they were connected to tiny speakers, which must be apparently the current fashion or necessity brought about by the “crisis” we so often hear about. Seasoned in auditioning, I hastily skirted any average and poor sound. Of course, this is only my subjective opinion on the matter and the hotel room conditions are what they are, as the show participants could find out for themselves. I did, however, listen with pleasure to the system from Avantgarde Acoustic with the ZERO 1 PRO (encouraged by the review of my namesake, Mr. Wojtek Pacuła). It was twice as interesting to me because I use a computer as the source, but the rest of the system is tube-based. Nearly a year ago I learnt about and bought the excellent JPLAY software player. I contacted program’s author and with his tips and suggestions managed to set up everything. My comments on the program were included in JPLAY’s review by Mr. Wojtek Pacuła (see HERE). I highly recommend this player! It can elevate the sound quality of the source, which is more and more often a computer, to an entirely different class. The program itself obviously does not resolve the problem and you need to see the system as a whole. But enough digression. On the second day of the show, already a little tired, I found the TR STUDIOS room. I went in and stayed, or actually vanished, for two hours. The owner of the company was just introducing the technical solutions adopted in his systems. I listened with interest and I became more and more interested in the subject. I was sitting in the back seats. In a moment, the music played. The presentation was strong and full of dynamic contrasts. I could hear amplifier’s freedom and its tube sound (my home amp is the Jolida 300B on tubes from Create Audio, Siemens and Telefunken, driving speakers on full-range Lowther drivers). After a few minutes I was able to move over to the best middle seat in the first row. I was in for a shock. The sound was extremely precise and clean, with tangible phantom images, almost painfully tight and with a distinct imaging deep into the soundstage. Midrange purity had me on the edge of my seat. The treble was precise and accurate, cymbal decays accurate and full of sparkling detail, but conveyed without any aggression and exaggeration. The bass did not dominate the whole presentation, but only complemented other sub ranges, ready to thunder if necessary. It was the midrange that dominated, however. The sounds of individual instruments appeared as if by magic, here and now, without any sign they were just about to materialize. They simply magically appeared and disappeared, leaving behind a black silence where they were just a moment ago – sheer perfection. No need for discussion about the attack or full bodied sound, imaging, just full holography. Barbra Streisand's vocals appeared, whom I really like. I heard it for the first time about ten feet in front of me, slightly to the right. Excellent, natural vocal reproduction. The vocalist was present in the room, gracing the visitors with her presence and voice, simply incredible! I stopped listening to the sound of the audio system and just sat there about half an hour listening only to the music because I hadn’t yet had a chance to listen to it rendered so beautifully. Most importantly, the presentation of what I think is most important in music – EMOTIONS – was perfect. That was what the Zeta Zero speakers sounded like. Later, I took part in a blind audition. The company’s owner used a special switch to quickly swap between the amplifiers. The contestants were the monoblocks from TR STUDIOS (operating in Class D) and the MOMENTUM from Dan D'Agostino (solid state in Class AB). The price difference between the two was fundamental. The $40,000 MOMENTUM vs. the $8,000 monoblocks meant that the two designs were separated by a meager 30-plus thousand dollars. Of course, I didn’t know which amplifier is no. I and which is no. II on the switch. The sonic difference was small yet essential for me. The amplifier no. I offered a very correct and full sound. All the details were presented immediately and without hesitation. However, after switching over to no. II, there appeared more naturally created sonic planes. The vocals were fuller and had even more emotion, more charm and nuances, naturalness and brilliance. They were more real and exciting. After the audition I gave my vote to the amplifier no. II and found out that it was the MOMENTUM. The TR STUDIOS design wasn’t really lacking anything in particular, but it was the Dan D'Agostino that conjured more magic. But due to its price it’s also out of your John Doe’s reach. All the more congratulations to the TR STUDIOS’ own design. However, it was by far the speakers that determined the sound quality and uniqueness of the whole presentation. I don’t know when it will happen or what sacrifices I will have to make, but I will do my best to have the ZETA ZERO one day in the comfort of my room. I just can’t forget their presentation, naturalness and the emotions I experienced. I suspect that it will be my purchase for life, although we should never say never. After the audition, Mr. Tomasz Rogula, the company’s owner, must have noticed my interest and the state of my mind, as he asked me for an entry in the book with opinions on the showcased equipment. I added my opinion, followed by a conversation with him that lasted a good half an hour. I learned much more about the technologies used and held in my hands the samples of material used to make the diaphragms of proprietary ribbon driver units. The Zeta Zero speakers above 500 Hz only ribbon drivers with unique parameters (this is not a description from the company literature, but my own experience based on auditions). Mr. Rogala turned out to be an extremely nice person, an enthusiast and expert at the same time, of the kind who are harder to come by every day. He is a man for whom there are no technological barriers. He breaks through them in a typical engineering fashion by constant experiments. If he lacks some material he deems to be necessary for sound quality improvement, he proceeds to fight for it or to develop his own method of production. And if the said material does not yet exist? He will attempt to make it from scratch. I am very impressed with this man, his extensive knowledge and passion with which he strives to improve his products’ sound. To give an example, Zero Zeta cabinets are made of five kinds of deciduous trees. It is not a simple assembly of various cabined components made of different kinds of wood. The cabinets are made of several hundreds slices of five kinds of wood. It’s the first time I saw such an advanced design solution. Of course, the company also needs to be business-oriented, but this particular company seems to put the quest for perfection in the first place. It is unfortunate that in our times such companies and people with similar business approach are fewer and far between. Full respect. Wojciech Kotarba WHAT WAS MOST INTERESTING, OR BEST SOUND AUDIO SHOW 2013 Every year I face the same decision, and it’s not an easy one. Two reactions and two different forces brew within me, each trying to tip the scales to their side. Everybody knows that the sound at audio shows can’t be too great. Audio systems are based on a delicate balance that can be thrown off with a nut-shot from improper electric installation and/or bad acoustics. It’s hard to pick yourself up after something like that. The exhibitors arrive at the hotels on Thursday evening or Friday morning and have one day to get everything under control. Most of them finish setting up on Saturday morning, right before letting the visitors in, and they have to fight their sleepiness and fatigue. In spite of that, there’s no way that in 24 hours you can get the sound nowhere near the level that people strive towards for years in their homes. But there’s another side, equally motivational. If you go to a show and you don’t even get the chance to hear what all these components, speakers or even entire systems are really capable of, what’s the point of that kind of show in the first place? I’ll answer that from the depth of my heart and with all of my experience, although that will be my personal opinion. First of all, you get to see what’s currently available on the market and what’s important, and get a good orientation of how things are. Nowhere else will you get to see this many products, distributors and manufacturers in one place. It’s incredibly important to talk to all those people to first get some knowledge of what you’re talking about. Having a wider choice makes us better audiophiles and music lovers. And there are systems whose sound gives you a good idea of what you can expect of them in better conditions. It’s also a salute to the people who set them up, because there’s a good chance that they can put together an equally well-sounding system in your home, or at least give you some good advice on how to do this yourself. It’s really priceless knowledge that you can’t learn at an evening class – who I have lots of respect for – or from reading. You have to work it out. And that’s probably the best answer to “what do we need audio shows for”: to find people who can help us and to get to know what’s currently available on the market. And you can buy yourself a CD, and talk to your friends. It’s great :) Awarded systems: Zeta Zero speakers + Dan D’Agostino Momentum Stereo amplifier + dCS SACD player (pic. 8). JBL S3900 speakers + Mark Levinson electronics (pic. 10). Extreo Scene speakers (pic. 11). Pylon Audio Topaz Monitor speakers + Musical Fidelity amplifier + Lector CD player (pic. 12). Monitor Audio Silver 10 speakers + Cambridge Audio electronics (pic. 21). Sonus faber Aida speakers + BAT electronics + Pro-Ject turntable (pic. 24). ATC speakers + electronics, system prepared by Q21 (pic. 34). Audio Physics Avantera Plus speakers + PS Audio PerfectWave digital audio player + Rogue Audio Pharaoh amplifier (pic. 41). System DIY audiostereo.pl (stand mount speakers, pic. 49). Raidho D-1 speakers + Jeff Rowland electronics (pic. 56). ART Alnico 8 Silver Signature speakers + Art Audio Harmony 300B Silver Signature monoblocks + Systemdek 3D Signature turntable + Transfiguration Proteus cartridge (pic. 61). LampizatOr electronics (pic. 68). PCM Twenty.22 speakers + Naim Nait 1 + Naim UnitiQuote2 (system prepared by Audiopunkt, pic. 88). Dynaudio Excite 34 speakers + Heed Audio electronics (pic. 101). Trenner&Friedl Ra speakers + Bakoon Products AMP-12R/EQA-12R electronics (pic. 104). Wilson Audio Sophia 3 speakers + Audio Research Ref 75/Ref 5 amplifier + Ref CD9 player (pic. 121). Dynaudio Evidence Platinum speakers + Ayon Audio Spheris III preamplifier + Orthos XS power amplifier + CD-T/S-5 (pic. 127). Rockport Technologies speakers + McIntosh electronics + Transparent Audio cables (pic. 128). Sounddeco speakers (pic. 137). Text: Jacek Lewandowski Another year, another show, and another mandatory trip you-know-where. Due to objective reasons I had to limit myself this year to one-day visit only. Contrary to popular belief, this can easily be done, even without any medical supplements. Below you’ll find my subjective opinion on this year’s show. I’ll start by saying what upset me. I won’t say things like “this particular system was crap, my ears bled while listening to it” and other such nonsense. I’m talking about something else here. Having been to the Audio Show quite a few times already, I’m starting to wonder whether some of the exhibitors actually know anything about what they’re doing. In many cases, I’ve got serious doubts. I’m not saying I’m some sort of expert – I couldn’t do it better myself – but that’s not the point. When I go to a show, I pay for the ticket and expect a “product”, something like going to the movies or theatre. I expect somebody to get involved in preparing a presentation, doing everything to make it “work”. But then you walk into some odd room, and what? The presenter plays some track and after 15 seconds half of the people leave. There’s this one exhibitor – I visit them for half a minute at each year Audio Show and can’t believe that people buy their products at all. Someone can think that I must just be complaining, that the sound wasn’t my type, that maybe it was too warm or too analytical, etc. Aw, shucks. I believe I can tell bad sound from good sound, or at least a correct one. That can’t even be disrupted by the “music” coming from some rooms. But some pattern has formed over the years, where visiting some of the exhibitors you always get something nice to listen to, while with some others it’s just mission impossible. Someone can say, “Dude, what are you even talking about, it’s just a show!”, “You can’t judge the systems too quickly”, etc. But it seems to me that I, as a viewer, listener and potential buyer, have the right to judge even based on only a few minute audition. At least to form some basic opinion. Such are the times – you can’t really spend too much time deliberating over one product or phenomenon. It’s the same deal with cars, wine and women. You either like them or you don’t. My boss says that “nobody cares what you have a problem with”. You can throw a fit about how this is an inhumane attitude, how can he be like that, and what a soulless man he is. But I think I’ll have to agree with that. When I come to the show I hope to hear (and see) nice audio systems and suggested configurations that I could buy in whole or in part, or at least try out with my own. Some exhibitors don’t give themselves any chance to exist in my – and not mine alone, I believe – conscience. If a manufacturer or distributor thinks that a customer, with hard-earned money in his or her pocket, will get interested in their products after listening to some crap at the show, they’re wrong. We later hear that the room was too small, the components weren’t warmed up, the acoustics was poor, the electricity was shit and there was a lot of noise from the street. You just have to remember that we rarely get a second chance in life. Maybe instead of embarrassing themselves, next year some of them should stay home with their family, cats and dogs. Choosing the music is a whole separate issue. I really don’t know if playing special compilations is somehow “obligatory”. If we get to hear pop or electronica it’s “the end of the world”. Although it’s a good thing that Armin Krauss, for example, never gives a monkey’s about that and his presentations are always the best parties. Quite surprisingly, his room is always crammed with people, but that’s probably because “people don’t know what’s good”. I laugh at stories about this or that component’s gut-wrenching bass or something, which later turns out to be some third-class musician’s farts. But the main thing is a reportedly “excellent production”… Coming back to the topic, let me say a few words about what my eye and ear liked. Contrary to what one may think at this point, there was quite a bit of that. The first system that grabbed my attention had JBL speakers paired with Mark Levinson electronics. The sound wasn’t strictly “audiophile”, but I could and would want to live with it. It was all very much alive, convincing and tangible. Just real – perhaps not “perfect”, but acceptable at the very least. One of the systems that make you scream inside “I WANT IT!!!” after hearing them. Moving on, I had the great luck of coming across a fantastic discussion about music, life, and the hard life of a designer and consumer in the room with products from Extreo. Apart from an excellent (big) speaker prototype, there was also an exchange of words about audio-related sacrifices we make and the general pain we go through to taste these things in our life as we please. Whoever went there, knows what I’m talking about; those who missed it should definitely regret it. The only shame is that according to some rumours these speakers will probably be very expensive. Either way, one other thing that was established was that we all like bread with lard. Sound-wise and music-wise, Lampizator’s room was also really interesting, with very original speakers to boot. I mean both their design and looks. I will probably never buy them, because my wife would kill me or worse, but I believe it’s a piece of modern art of sorts. When it comes to one-brand systems I really liked electronics and speakers from ATC presented by Q21 (the SCM 11s were connected when I came in). Not a very expensive system, but very well-organized sound. The system may not have blown you off your chair, but it was the sort that made it difficult for you to get up and leave once you sat down to listen. I was kind of forced to pay another visit to Pylon’s room – the second time this year – and I left it perplexed yet again. Their $500 monitors sounded so well that half of manufacturers with much more expensive products should hide in a hole and stay there, ashamed. I suspect that a direct confrontation with certain far more expensive designs could bring about a very interesting effect, but I fear that a large part of the competitors wouldn’t agree to such comparison for various reasons. Either way, they sounded really well for their price – maybe even outstanding. Right upon entering the room you could tell that something interesting was going on in there. Many visitors had quite confused faces after looking at the speakers’ prices. Bravo! When it comes to the question of the Sound of the Show award, I won’t be too original and say that I would give it to the presentation of McIntosh electronics with the speakers from Rockport Technologies. The price was obviously astronomical, but what does that even matter. I can’t afford a Maserati Quattroporte either, yet I secretly dream about having one. This will probably be a similar story, but what would life be without dreams? After this show I could even accept that annoying glow from electronics. That was something! The only downside was the fact that they only played vinyl, and I wonder what the system sounds like with CDs or audio files. The combination of the flagship Dynaudio speakers with Ayon electronics was also quite nice. Aside from the fact that the music choices were really poor, which took a lot of pleasure out of listening to it, you could feel that it’s a great, synergic system. Fantastic soundstage and lots of freedom.. Jacek Lewandowski

ften asked if we have good time during our KSS meetings, I answer that we have absolutely splendid time. We meet with people we like, we are interested in each other and in new records as well as old album reissues, we like wine which we strive to consume regularly. The music we listen to is played on top notch audio equipment. It would be very ungrateful to claim otherwise and equally unfair to say that I have some kind of issues with the KSS. The other thing is that each one of us uses the opportunity and makes their own deals – deals associated with music and audio gear, of course. A significant proportion of our joint auditions are devoted to things that aspire to be integrated into our own audio systems, to the records that have the ambition to replace the old editions in our collections. Pure self-interest. But because the comparisons and auditions are conducted by the book and it is important to us that the conclusions were of more general character than “I kind’a like it” or “I don’t give a flying…” we hope that more people can benefit from this, people of mutual interest. For the rest it might just be an interesting reading, maybe even amusing. The important thing is not to leave anybody indifferent. And it works, so it seems. Our meetings generate money flow between banks, stimulate handing it over, in one word they improve economy. And it’s the economy (one would like to add “stupid” but in the context of what we are doing more appropriate is to say “friend” or “comrade”) that is most important. Or, to be more serious, the meetings shape our own audio systems and music collections. Their outcome influences us directly, not only our wallets and bank accounts, although that is what it eventually leads to, but also the way we perceive music and equipment. We learn a lot. To prove the point, let me provide several examples. The easiest one relates to new record releases. I feel for those who are fed up with all of this, all the zoo as they say, and are not waiting anymore for the hundred fiftieth version of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and hundred thousandth remastered version of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells – I do understand them very well. But I still got kicks out of it. I am curious about what can be made better, how the new technology translates into better sound quality. Besides, if I like any given album I would like to listen to it in the best possible quality. Even though I own every single of the 192 former editions. That is also the reason that every new album I buy is a SHM-CD version, whenever possible. Although there are gold-CD editions with even better quality, the average is high and I am all in, no problems here. This is an easy example and not very expensive one. Things get more serious when we start talking about audio components, cables and so-called accessories. After the meeting with Paweł Skulimowski and his Franz Audio Accessories anti-vibration products, all the present simply HAD to buy Ceramic Disc Classic which we now have installed under our CD players, preamplifiers and amplifiers (see HERE). After listening to Siltech cables from the Double Crown series we had no other choice – Janusz and I bought interconnects, still dreaming about speaker cables (see HERE). During the last KSS meeting you are reading about Rysiek officially unpacked my pair (see the photos). After the meeting with Mr. Ken Ishiguro we made an order from Japan that would have satisfied several audio shops. My whole system uses accessories from Acoustic Revive and Janusz and Rysiek have just received their equipment including something I do not have – acoustic panels. Now we have six such panels between us in KSS so we are going to have another meeting devoted to them used in a full (recommended by the manufacturer) combination (see HERE). These are only some of the examples from the last two years. Power cords – not so “hot” a subject anymore (although none the less actual) This is a much, much older issue which roots go as far back as the year 2008 (at least). I am talking about Acrolink cables from Japan here (see HERE and HERE). It was then that we came across the top high-end power cords from this manufacturer and it was then that we spent first serious money for this kind of cable. While both Janusz, Rysiek and I had owned in our systems the cheaper 7N-PC6100 from Acrolink, the quality leap (as well as price jump) to the ‘9100’ was stunning, indeed. The next shocking surprise was waiting for us two years later when we received for a review its successor, the Mexcel 7N-PC9300. In this case the changes was so profound and multidimensional that me and Janusz replaced most of our power cords with the new ones. Our friends followed and in such a way Kraków suddenly boasted a world’s year supply of Acrolink cables. The 7N-PC9500, announced for 2012, due to time shifts related to its production, arrived here in the middle of 2013. Another KSS meeting was just a matter of time. When we were starting listening to power cables our awareness of changes that they introduce to the sound was rather unimpressive. We were going through a learning process ourselves, regularly laughed at both by some readers and Jarek Waszczyszyn (Ancient Audio) who did not take our cable experiments all that seriously. He could not find any satisfactory explanation for an audible difference between various power cords. They did not teach this at universities, anyway. But because Jarek has an open mind, he does not resist it if something convinces him, even if he does not entirely understands the mechanism behind it. He will continue to be troubled by it because taking something on faith is quite traumatic for his scientific mind, but he is a tough guy. It was no different with power cords. When he heard the Acrolink 7N-PC9100 for the first time, he was “bought and sold”. Not only him – convincing someone to something that has rather weak theoretical foundation requires multiple auditions and comparisons in various systems; trials and experiments. After some time and effort devoted to the task there is no turning back, though. If someone is not convinced, my experience tells me that the experiments were not conducted properly. Generally speaking, more and more people start to pay attention to this part of their audio systems and appreciate the improvement a good power cord brings, without being stingy about the cost. Same here. The arrival of the new Acrolinks to Krakow electrified the whole “company” and we quickly arranged a meeting. This time, we wanted to compare not a single power cord but the entire system – six cords in all. One to power the First Generator Ancient Audio mains conditioner, one to power the CD transport, another two to feed the CD Lektor Grand SE mono D/A converters from the same manufacturer, and two more to power the Ancient Audio Silver Grand Mono power amps, featuring 300B triodes from Takatsuki power amplifiers. The starting point was the Acrolink Mexcel 7N-PC9300, from which we started the audition. Let me remind you that it made such a change in our systems that it took us a long time to absorb everything it offered. Let me also remind you that the system at Janusz’s is powered from a Furutech mains wall socket which is fed from a dedicated power line on an Acrolink power cord and an audiophile fuse in the fuse junction panel (see HERE http://highfidelity.pl/ @ kts-1084 & lang = en ). To keep it simple, I will use the term ‘9500’ when referring to the Mexcel 7N-PC9500 and ‘9300’ for the Mexcel 7N-PC9300. The audition is divided into several sessions; in each one we were comparing one track - or more - from the given album. SESSION I Richard Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra, dyr. Zubin Mehta, K2HD, LIM Zbyszek I have no doubts – the 9500 is definitely a better cable. With it you can hear things that weren’t– and I’m sure of it! – audible before. I have a feeling that the sound was much sharper with the 9300, as if there were some little needles, while everything was so smooth here. It can be heard in a split second, right? Wiciu I’ve got to say that I don’t like having breaks between the tracks to compare because it’s harder for me to concentrate on the differences. But I understand that there is no way around it when you’re comparing power cords, and it’s clear that you have to unplug them, turn the system off, and then turn it on, wait for the tubes to warm up; and that takes time. But in this case I had no doubts that the 9500 is a better cord and that I like it more. I agree with the observation made about the treble, but the bottom end sounded better, too. The recording we listened to suddenly became 10 years younger. And those warm high tones… The choice is clear for me – the 9500. Janusz Sz. I liked both cables; I mean, the system sounded excellent with either of the cords. I understand that the guys know their stuff better and the worse simply sounds worse to them, but to me, such top class system is something completely new and I really love both sets of cords! But if I were to delve into this, I’d have to say that the 9500 revealed more information from the speakers, so I was able to experience more music emotions. Ryszard B. I preferred the 9300 with the first track. I’m used to this sound and I like it. But now I see that I may have outran myself with criticism :) I preferred the 9500 on the second track and it helped me look at the previous track in a new light, with hindsight. The new cord has a wider frequency range, greater dynamics, and better tonal differentiation – these are things you can hear straight away, without any need to analyze. Ryszard S. I don’t know if we’re all listening to the same system, but I find the 9300 to be far better, and the 9500 to be a huge step backwards! Alright – I’m kidding ;) But the loud “shiiiii-” at the start probably gave me away… I’m very impressed by how much has changed. I remember the comparison of the 9100 and 9300 very well, and if my memory serves me right, the difference between those two cords wasn’t as great as that between the 9300 and the 9500. It was particularly audible with quieter material, which the new cord handles much more easily – it shows more information while sounding freer, softer, without unnecessary strain. Jarek Yes, I agree with Ryszard. The better resolution they bring into the system certainly speaks in favor of the new power cords. The bass resolution improvement is particularly surprising to me. Now you can hear that there are six double basses and organs playing, much better than before. It was good there, too, but when you hear something so much better, the previous becomes much worse in this light. Sad. But a few things have to be said and paid attention to. Firstly, nobody should think that using a power conditioner – not a panel and filter, but an actual conditioner – “gets the job done” and power cords really have little more to say. Such people are painfully wrong. I designed the First Generator after listening to the previous Acrolink series, angry that they’re capable of such an influence on sound. I thought that providing the components with perfect sine wave will allow me to worm my way out of using power cords, and decreasing their “importance”. Now I can see that it just doesn’t work that way, which really hurts my engineer’s heart. The First Generator improves the sound, but good power cords do the job equally well. Together, they give you something unique, but wasn’t the conditioner meant to do everything? And second of all – with all their advantages, these Acrolinks expose any system flaws. Once again, I can hear what I’ve got to improve in this system. Will this ever end? Andrzej For me, the 9500 is the clear winner of this showdown. I’m actually curious how anyone can not hear the differences between these two power cords… But let’s not diverge. The 9500 is superior and I actually didn’t expect such a wide gap between these two cords. Although I really liked the 9300, and I still do, in this direct comparison you can hear exactly what they “don’t do”. For example – with the 9300 I didn’t have the feeling that the recorded planes “enter” the room. They were really well-shown, and precisely drawn, but the 9500 did all of that, and did it more “here” – more naturally, as if it were a live performance. And bass control – the difference here was really unbelievable, in my opinion. I remember when we compared the 9300 and the 9100 we talked about how the older cord made the bottom end sound more controlled, although its tonality was inferior. And now you can hear this difference even more clearly, because the 9500 does it wonderfully. Everything in the bottom range is shown with the kind of energy that can’t be simulated by simply raising the volume. Janusz S. What struck me most in this change – and it was obvious – was the way the kettle drums sounded. With the 9500, their attack was quick, open, and incredibly energetic. They were just spectacular – fast and powerful, very natural, as if at a live performance. And we’re merely using stand mount speakers! Sound attacks and decays were fantastic! I never heard anything like it. And I’m not just throwing these words around – this aspect is important to me. Their energy – unbelievable! I started by mentioning the kettle drums, but it is in classical music recordings that they create something like a base for other things, they “make” the sound scale. With the new Acrolink everything opened up, not only them, and there were definitely more details in the midrange. Not in treble, since that could disrupt the tonal balance, but in the dense, full midrange. With the new cord everything got in order. Now the sound is “correct” and distinguished. And hellishly dynamic, at that. An unbelievable upgrade to the already wonderful 9300!!! SESSION II Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, XRCD, JVC Wiciu It’s basically the same story as before, although obviously the accents are arranged slightly differently, since we’re dealing with different instruments here. The saxophone sounded lower, fuller, and more “substantial” than before, with the 9300. Everything on the soundstage seemed a little closer up, not through some warming up but through more sound energy in all ranges. Yeah, it’s great! Janusz Sz. I second the fact that the whole soundstage moved up closer, but I turned my attention to something else. Despite a more energetic sound with the 9500, the saxophone was better communicating with the other instruments, and blended in with them a bit; but in a good way. It was more isolated with the 9300 – it may have sounded more effective, but also less natural, as if it were “artificially made”. The newer cord made the intro livelier, clearer, and more “normal”, and less “recorded”. The saxophone itself was more consistent and smoother. But also deeper – much like the other instruments. Rysiek B. It’s my second time listening to it, and again I had the feeling of participating in a live performance with the 9500. Incredible musicality. The grand piano was marvelous – resounding, big and normal. And the saxophone was really more consistent, deeper and smoother. To me, it’s world-class brilliance. I know that this is exactly what we said about the 9300, back in the day, but I guess this is what learning is all about. Now I can hear that drum cymbals can be even thicker and more physical. But the most important change to me was the double bass that was set lower. It’s what Janusz mentioned before, while talking about the kettle drums – adding energy in the bottom-range isn’t just turning up a slider on a mixer; that would be crude. More energy means more sounds coordinated together in time, without any blurring. And that’s how the double bass sounded now – much better. The resolution of the lowest sounds was also much better. Rysiek Sz. I confirm everything that the guys have said before me, and I’ll just add that what struck me most was the double bass longer and deeper reverb. It’s as if the higher resolution and energy brought it out from the background. The cymbals were also better integrated with the rest of the instruments, although they usually play quite “separately”. Jarek I think the changes weren’t as huge as with the previous recording. Don’t get me wrong – they were definitely there, and I agree with everybody, but they were less impressive than with classical music – they were jaw-dropping before! Andrzej I don’t want to repeat what Jarek has just said, but the difference really seemed smaller this time, and the changes weren’t as spectacular. Although if I hadn’t listened to anything beforehand, I would’ve been greatly impressed. The hierarchy of sound for any given instrument has improved with the 9500. Before there was a slight accent on the mouthpiece, you could hear the air flowing in, and something in the treble, but now what I heard was a fuller, deeper bell and its precise mouth. Second of all – the impact and attack of the grand piano. It now shone bright as an independent instrument, not only a saxophone background, which is what it sounded like previously. Janusz S. Personally, I think that the new cord’s most important characteristic in this comparison was the saturation of the sound – truly deeper. Although the 9300 is already masterwork in this regard – I remember what I said about it when we compared it with the 9100 which suddenly seemed so “thin”. To me, this one little difference is something colossal, and a massive change in the sound’s character. These aren’t some small details, instrument mouths, grand pianos and double basses – with all due respect – but a complete paradigm shift, and a change of point of view. Not some crap – pardon my language again – but a “thick” and punchy sound. Sometimes a tiny drop can tip the scale in favor of something – in this case, new things have been added to the wonderful 9300 that take us into a whole new world. SESSION III The Stockfisch DMM-CD/SACD. Vol. 1, CD, Stockfish Zbyszek I waited for this album, because I was very curious of how it’d sound. It’s very unique-sounding because of how its material is prepared [Ed. Note: see HERE]. On one hand the sound is extremely dynamic and natural, but on the other, it can sometimes cause some cringing in the top-range … Maybe that’s why the 9300 was awful. Okay, I’m exaggerating, but that’s how I perceive it. With the 9500 the top-range finally appeared, and it wasn’t just uncomfortable pings. The vocals shortcomings were less audible, while their vitality and openness was emphasized. And the bass was much more dynamic, it had – if I can say so – a larger “diameter”, but in the sense that it was more spacious; it was a bit small and dry with the 9300. Now it’s possible to comfortably listen to this album. It’s as if they were both water pipes, and the older cord had a much smaller diameter than the new one… Wiciu I’d like to say something more general – I have a feeling that both cords have a tendency to emphasize the mid- and bottom-ranges, while lowering the treble. It’s one of the reasons why the record sounded so interesting. The guitar came out very well, particularly so with the 9500. It terrified me a bit with the 9300 – there’s something wrong with this album. The dynamics and energy are indeed phenomenal, but the tonal balance is totally off. If I had to listen to it, I’d listen to it with the 9500. Janusz Sz. I preferred the male to the female vocals on the Stockfisch’s album – the latter were a bit too bright. And that’s regardless of the system; although the 9500 clearly shows as the better one. But it’s with this cord, and on this CD, that the bottom-range irritated me. I’m trying not to exaggerate, since it was still a great playback, but it was the first time I had any negative critique for the cord. It was all about emphasizing the range, which I hadn’t noticed before. Rysiek B. I’m listening to these cords – the 9500 – for the second time, and I can now see that speaking favorably about them isn’t a problem because they’re just great. But they also bring out the recording imperfections, which isn’t so great anymore. It shows polished mastering brilliantly, and with the Stockfisch album – which is pretty wackily produced – it came out very nicely. The vocals were much worse with the 9500; well, the vocals in general. And it’s because they have a lot of sibilants. The 9300 covered it up and put it slightly out. Rysiek S. No, I don’t see any weaker elements in here. It’s a pretty troublesome record, yeah, but it’s not the cord’s problem. To me, even with this album, the 9500 is a big step forward compared to the 9300. Jarek This audition confirmed what I said before – we get the sound with the whole benefit of inventory. If something is bad, it gets worse, and if it’s good, then it just becomes wonderful. It’s a cord that brilliantly differentiates recordings, which I understand as understanding the signal better. Andrzej MI have to say I didn’t hear that pumped-up bass Janusz was talking about. To me, these low frequencies have much better control with the 9500. The new cord is brilliant when it comes to “cleaning” the background – you can now clearly hear the bass behind the acoustic guitar. With the 9500 you could tell it was a separate instrument, while the 9300 made them sound similar. The difference was just colossal with the second track, as if somebody removed the limiter from the audio path. Janusz S. The way the bottom range was pumped up on the 9500 – you have to admit this cord has a strong bass – slightly threw off the album tonal balance. Despite that it’s still so good that it’s just a more effective presentation. I think it takes each aspect of the music presentation a notch or two higher. Why is it such a great cord? Because it shows “more” of everything while being insanely musical. It’s the first time I hear and describe a power cord the way I did the best interconnect I know – the Siltech Double Crown. Not only is this Acrolink’s best power cord thus far, it’s also the best power cord I currently know, and the gap between it and its predecessor is larger than ever before. Now I can see that the transition from the 9100 to the 9300 brought merely cosmetic changes, no matter how much of an improvement it was. But now the change is just cosmic. Conclusion As far as I can remember, it’s the first time my friends from the Krakow Sonic Society approached Acrolink’s new power cord more enthusiastically than me. I think we all heard the same thing, and I confirm most of the main observations, however the 9300 is still so good that even the clearly superior 9500 didn’t convince me into an immediate upgrade. It did happen eventually, as I have to move on (my whole system now uses the 9500), but it was an arranged marriage, not like when I fell in love with the 9300 when upgrading from the 9100. But regardless of my personal feelings, there are some solid facts: the new power cord from Acrolink sounds much denser and fuller. There’s more of everything – I agree with Janusz on this one. The bass is bigger and more massive, which – paradoxically – doesn’t throw off the tonality but rather completes it. The sound is darker, although there is more treble and more going on in terms of drum cymbals, woodwind instruments and violins. The midrange is deep and massive. The soundstage has an unbelievable size. It’s all big and dense. And the cord is brilliant, although I’m saying it with clenched teeth. It’s the best power cord I’ve heard so far. . The review first appeared in English in Positive-Feedback.com, in November/December 2013 (see HERE)

hat do we need audio shows for, I ask you? I hear the question over and over again from the manufacturers and distributors alike that - yet! - participate in them. I try to answer the question honestly and to the best of my knowledge. I also write about this in my show reports. I might as well talk to a brick wall. Nothing, niente, punto. And yet there is a definite answer that cannot be ignored: if they cannot see us, they won’t write about us. Those that are not written about usually slowly disappear. Unless they opt for alternative promotion strategy, which is not easy and does not guarantee success. It is all about promotion and about gaining product interest among as large a group of people as possible – both potential customers and the press, some of which may also become users of a given product. If, for example, Straussman hadn’t showed up at the High End 2013 in Munich, I wouldn’t have heard of this manufacturer. It wouldn’t have received “High Fidelity” Best Sound 2013 award (see HERE). And I wouldn’t have met Jürgen Straussman, its founder, head and chief engineer. Nor would I have visited him in his Berlin home. THE TRIP Trips to visit interesting companies, places, countries and meetings with interesting people are all part of journalism. The most pleasant part. Provided we like travelling and have time for it. Which is not necessarily my cup of tea. I do not really have time for such trips; I would have to take it away from my family and to give up a few reviews. And while I like travelling, it's only with my family. Hence I face the catch 22 situation, which is why for some last 10 years I haven’t accepted any invitations to conferences or to visit factories and companies. I know that it limits my knowledge and experience, but I accept it and I'm fine with it. How did it then happen that in the middle of August 2013 I accepted Jürgen’s invitation to Berlin, where I spent a few days? I have been looking for an answer myself and came up with a few ideas that can shed some light on this matter. First, Straussman components struck me as extremely interesting. In Munich the company presented a phono preamplifier and amplifier, or actually a system that consists of three parts – the central module with volume control and two amplifier modules. The units are tube-based and feature no single capacitor in the signal path. Yeah, that’s right. The second reason could be the designer himself. While we did not meet in Munich, shortly after the HF publication of my coverage from the show I received a nice email with an invitation to visit the company and listen to some vinyl, being Jürgen’s basic “diet”, in a better surrounding than that during the show. I declined politely, thanking for taking me into account; he could have chosen anyone else. So what happened that I came, I drank beer, I listened and discussed, and I met Oliver von Zedlitz, the owner of KlangwellenManufaktur (see the review of his Cantano turntable HERE )? Well, it just “happened”. Not only that, but I actually flew over to Berlin with my family and we had plenty of time for sightseeing and excursions. No, not at Jürgen’s expense, just to be clear. THE CONCEPT The Straussman system has the already mentioned Cant turntable as the source. Hence, its main component is the MC-Phono 2010 phono preamplifier, which is equally expensive as the rest of the system (read: very, very expensive; final prices are not yet confirmed). But it is the amplifier, the idea behind it that seems most interesting to me. The company, which part is Straussman, is called D/AmP Audio, which is a rather “telling” name. It was founded in 2009 as a branch of Laurens Organ Company, where Jürgen indulges his other passion for restoring the Hammond organ. He has two representatives of this genre at home, alongside a grand piano. But it is the Hammond organ and records featuring the Hammond that he is really excited about. He delved so deeply into the subject that he now offers upgraded amplifier modules that make the organ sound as they did while leaving the factory in the 1960s. His next idea was upgrading CD players, for which purpose he designed discrete D/A converters with an active output stage that was powerful enough to drive the speakers directly. The whole circuit was mounted on a characteristic polygonal circuit board. Hence the name D/AmP. The results were very promising, but it was ultimately vacuum tubes that became the central component of the new amplifier, or actually a ‘system’ as it is referred to in the company literature: Holographic Music Reproduction System (HRMS). The control center unit handles all control functions and features an integrated proprietary D/A converter (not based on any ready-made DAC ICs). Interaction with the user is via a large touch screen user interface, duplicated on a tablet that is used for remote control. The analog signal is fed to the monoblocks that, while nominally being (together) an integrated stereo amplifier, do not work without the control center. If we use the DAC, there is another cable to connect to the amplifier modules; the whole circuit from input to output has a balanced topology. During DAC development the best result were achieved with direct signal coupling, without any capacitors. Applying this same principle to the tube-based amp proved to be rather difficult, but eventually successful. The E-50 amplifier operate in Class A and feature the 6C33C Soviet-era power triodes, sometimes referred to as “horny devils”, to deliver 50 watts into 8 ohms. Modular design is used throughout, which means that any section can be upgraded for a newer version, once it’s available. This promise can be found on the manufacturer’s website and it looks to be a serious approach to the subject matter, rather than a marketing gimmick. Both in- and post-warranty customer support is as important for Straussman as the sale itself and it’s reassuring that after buying such expensive products you can count on professional and dedicated support by the manufacturer. Although in the high-end this should be as natural as breathing, it often seems a truly endemic phenomenon. That was the person at whose door I arrived one morning. Before we broke the ice during breakfast in the back garden of an Art Deco-style villa, I already met two pet cats, Mau-Mau and Timmy that bravely accompanied us during the auditions over the next few days. A villa in Berlin? In its historic western part? And with a large garden? Not to mention the Hammond organ in one room and a grand piano in another (I should actually call them “chambers”). In order to grasp what kind of person we are talking about, I suggest you read the story of Jürgen Straussman’s life and career, as told by himself. WP ICH BIN EIN BERLINER I was born on December 22th, 1954, in Berlin. Although I do not believe in horoscopes, I learned that people’s character DOES depend on the date they are born. I am a Capricorn with Capricorn ascendant. I’m also a Horse in the Chinese zodiac, which describes a similar character to the Capricorn. So you can say I am a triple Capricorn with all its characteristic, both good and bad. Be that as it may, this helped me along the path of life. My father, born in 1919 in Ornontowice, located in the Silesia region that is now part of Poland, was a typesetter by profession. He was wounded during the WWII and his lung was damaged. After the war, because of lead used in typesetting he was not able to work anymore in his profession and became a violinist in the Berlin orchestra. Playing the violin had been his hobby and he was very talented. He lived in West Berlin, but played in the Metropol-Theater in East Berlin. After Berlin Wall was built, the orchestra changed its name to “Symphonisches Orchester Berlin”. My mother, born in 1930, grew up on a ship. Her parents owned the ship that transported cargo such as coal, etc., along the Elbe and the Oder to Hamburg or other port cities. As my grandfather wasn’t a Nazi nor did he sympathized with them, in the mid-1930s he did not receive any more shipping cargo, which left the family in financial ruin. They had to sell the ship for next to nothing and to live in a one-room flat. The flat had to accommodate a family of four as my mother also had a brother who was born in 1928. fter they lost their ship, my grandfather, who was 55 at that time, had to work as a night guard at a factory, which had to be very frustrating after having been a ship owner. He died shortly after the end of war. My uncle, my mother’s brother, started to study electrical engineering in Dresden and shortly after graduating became an engineer working for Telefunken and later AEG-Telefunken. My mother had an office job in that company and married my father in 1952. They split up shortly in 1956 and my grandmother and I moved to Berlin, where we lived in a small two-room flat with my mother. Early on in my life, I was discovered to be very talented musically. As far as I remember, my first instrument was a chime on which I played all kinds of songs I heard at the age of three. Soon enough I started missing the half tones and I got a better chromatic instrument, so I could play in other harmonies or play songs that required the half tones. My mother often told me that she was impressed when I played Petit fleur after hearing it only once on the radio (which was the only audio equipment at that time). My next instrument was a Hohner Melodica, which had keys like a keyboard. My father had a very good sounding piano at his home but he didn’t let me play it for the fear of disturbing his neighbours. At school I began learning to play the English flute, to soon give it up as playing just one tone at a time was too boring for me. After that we bought an old piano and I began learning to play the piano. I was lucky to have a very good teacher, a 75 years old lady. During that time, between 1962 and 1969 I joined a boy choir, the “Schöneberger Sängerknaben”. There I received a proper musical education, including music theory, and also became familiar with many kinds of music. Our choir was hired by the West-Berlin opera house, the “Deutsche Oper”, whenever they needed children voices. This way I got to sing in various operas, from Bizet, Puccini, Mussorgsky to Hans-Werner Henze, just to name a few. The choir demanded a lot of time because of two rehearsals a weak and live performances. We all learned a lot of discipline and also gained independence, as I had to go back home from the opera at 23:30 by train. We also travelled a lot with our choir. Another positive effect was that we got a little money for every performance. I had little but regular money come in every weak, which I saved for my other projects. My other interest was electronics. When my other friends played Cowboy and Indians, I would go to the library and fetch some books explaining the inner workings of radio and radio control, and the principles of building model airplanes. I always had the desire to understand how things work. Eventually, I would build up radios and model airplanes. Radio controlled equipment was very expensive at that time and it took me several years to save enough money from my job as a choir boy, but I did it in the end. My musical interest changed during my youth. When I was 6 years old, my favourite were German singers, like Freddy Quinn, the singing sailor and some similar stuff. Later I listened to the radio stations that played top international music charts. I bought a tape recorder to record the music by the likes of Bee Gees, Beach Boys, Beatles, etc… I had a friend who was 6 years older than me. He influenced me with two things. First, when I listened to the music he played from a cassette player in his car, I was impressed by one track titled “Brandenburger”, which was Keith Emerson and his band’s “The Nice” version of Bach’s third Brandenburg Concerto. The most exciting thing was the sound of the HAMMOND organ. The second impressive thing was that he built up his own electronic organ, although he couldn’t play one single note. I decided to do the same. This organ was sold as a kit by a company called “Dr. Böhm”. I took several jobs to save up the money I needed to buy the kit. The end result was very disappointing. With the Hammond sound as my ideal, the organ sounded nowhere close to that and not like the church organ, either. Later I sold this organ to my father who liked it, and bought my first Hammond M-3. My first upright piano was replaced by an old Bechstein grand piano, which filled my small room. When I was 16, there was a decision to make regarding my future. There was the possibility to study sound engineering to become a “Tonmeister”, which would be a good combination for my music and electronics skills. I would first study music and later electrical engineering. But the chance of getting a job as a “Tonmeister” in Berlin was very small, so I decided to treat music as my hobby and after finishing the high school started studying Electrical Engineering at the “TU Berlin”. My favourite music around that time was mainly that which featured keyboards, especially the Hammond: Keith Emerson (Nice, ELP), Brian Auger, Jimmy Smith, Yes, Colosseum, and Friedrich Gulda, to be joined later by King Crimson, Miles Davis and others. I didn’t really like orchestral music back then, but I enjoyed the combination of rock and classical music. During my study at the TU Berlin a new technology developed: microcomputer technology. Long before personal computers became available, I built my own computer system. I was also fascinated with writing software and compiling own programs written in assembler. As I always needed money for my hobbies, I had to work while studying. Hence, it took longer to finish my studies. During the last semesters I managed to build a house together with my girlfriend, with very little money. After I got my degree in 1983, I started my first job as a development engineer. At the end of the year I got married to my girlfriend. The work in the first company was not enough of a challenge to me. After nine months I quit and joined another company that claimed to have the highest quality methods and tools for software development. I started to work as a microprocessor software developer. I was involved in several projects, mostly communication software for local array networks (LAN). One of my ideas led to a patent, which I gave over to SIEMENS. After a short time I became a software project manager for various software projects. My work for the company did not fully satisfy my hunger for knowledge. I started developing my own projects and building microcomputer software at home. With the money, I could fulfil some of my longtime wishes: I could afford a new Steinway B grand piano to replace the old Bechstein and buy a Hammond B-3. Buying a new grand piano was a process that took a lot of time. I tried out all kinds of brands, including Bechstein and Bösendorfer. But I found out that Steinway was the one that inspired me most. Still, finding the “best” one for me was not easy. Over a period of twelve months I played all Steinways available in Germany. In the end I chose the one that I reserved right at the beginning. During this time my wife, who worked in the financial department, started her own business as a tax advisor. When her business grew, I wanted to help and to become a tax advisor. One requirement was to have a degree in economics. So I quit my job and started a second degree at the age of 36. Shortly after graduating our first daughter, Stephanie, was born. This event changed my personal career. As the second requirement was a three-year work experience in a tax company before you could take an exam, which is one of the hardest exams in Germany, we decided that I’d take care of the baby while my wife continued to work. Two and a half years later we had our second daughter, Julia. My plans had to change again. Because of my age and the overall economic situation in Berlin at that time, there was no chance for me to find a job in a company. In this situation I needed to think hard what to do next. I looked at my Hammond B-3 which I couldn’t play as it was in Julia’s room. When I bought the instrument in 1990 for 11.000 Deutsche Marks, it was real fun to play at first. However, after some time I was no longer satisfied with the sound. I could play Keith Emerson stuff, but it didn’t sound the way I heard it on his records. The same was with Jimmy Smith stuff. I decided to move the B-3 to another room and started a new project: to find out why the sound had changed and to develop procedures for restoring the sound of these instruments. There turned out to be many people in various Internet user groups who were facing the same problem. I studied their opinions, but had the impression that they were taking a wrong approach. After working over a year in a more scientific way, I found out the real reasons for the sound ageing and was able to restore it. Hurriedly, I managed to join the MUSIKMESSE 2005 in Frankfurt, where I presented my restored B-3. The visitors’ reaction was very positive. My goal became to restore the sound of organs and to sell restored organ. Restoring the sound of the Hammond organ raises one question. I had people come to me and ask: How can you prove that your restored Hammond sounds the same as original? You couldn’t have played this instruments in the 1960s (the Hammond used to be a very exclusive and expensive instrument at that time and was often sold by Steinway). My answer was very simple: Everyone can hear, how the Hammond sounded originally; just listen to the records that have preserved its sound before it’s aged. You just need to have a good quality HiFi equipment. When you play the same track with the same proficiency as the original instrumentalist did and employ the same register, it should sound the same as on the record. Then I would say that this is a stock-like sounding organ. To present the sound of my restored B-3 to other people, I had to record it. I used 3 microphones in the same arrangement as for miking the Leslie and the same digital recording stuff. I had the organ in one room and my stereo equipment, a Burmester 911 amp and 877 preamp together with B&W 801 S2 speakers, in the other. The end result was disappointing; all the fine details produced by the B-3 and the Leslie were gone. I first thought about changing the microphone placement. Then, while on my way to my electronic distributor, I had an idea of building my own amplifier based on a totally different design concept, considering that future recording process would be mostly digital. The idea was to minimize the amount of components used, as each additional component can cause unwanted side effects, which degrades the sound. My idea was to integrate the D/A converter into the amplifier in order to eliminate a preamplifier stage. As I was convinced that vacuum tubes are the only way to go for the best sound, I decided to use the 6C33 triodes. I developed a D/A converter that was capable of driving the 6C33 directly, without any coupling capacitor. The development took me over a year and many, many semiconductors sacrificed their lives on the way… D/A converter output stage has to be optimized for best noise through proper deglitching techniques. To minimize distortion, I used other methods than negative feedback, as negative feedback is one of the worst things you can do to an amplifier. It gives the lowest measurable distortion but the worst sound at the same time. When I was finally able to listen to this new amplifier, which I called D/AmP as it integrated the D/A converter into the amp as a preamplifier, the sound was terrific compared to my Burmester system. I used the same speaker, my B&W 801. I tried to patent this amplifier design, together with some other new concepts, only to be told that many aspects of my inventions had already been patented. However, I was granted a patent on one thing: my D/A converter with a native approximation output, which I call 4-switch D/A-converter. It turned out that even the concept of D/A converter integration into the amplifier as a kind of preamplifier had been known before. In 2000, Wadia presented an amplifier design called “Power DAC”, but its signal to noise ratio was too low and the project was cancelled. All along, there was just one minor issue. I always had the feeling that vinyl records sound better than digital recordings. Yet my new D/AmP only had digital inputs. When I wanted to play analog stuff like LPs, I needed a phono preamplifier connected to an A/D converter, feeding a digital signal into my D/AmP. I used a high quality A/D converter and the Burmester 877 build-in phono stage. The resulting sound quality was disappointing. That system was no proof that vinyl records are better than digital, even though my analog front-end was of high quality: The SME 20 turntable equipped with the SME V arm and Ortofon Venice cartridge. The reason could be the quality of the A/D converter or of the phono stage. As I used the best available integrated A/D converter, I tried to change the phono stage. From an audio dealer I fetched a 2000 Euro phono preamp that had very good reviews. It sounded even worse than the Burmester 877 phono stage. This is when I decided to design my own phono preamplifier. I studied all other designers’ concepts trying to figure out a way to avoid their design errors. My main objective was to eliminate any capacitors in the signal path (except those in the RIAA equalization network) and to use vacuum tubes in a fully balanced circuit topology. Hence, the whole phono preamp was DC-coupled. When my design was finished, the measured S/N-ratio was fantastic, especially for a tube based phono preamp. But when I plugged it to the Burmester 877 line input, the sound was not as good as the measurements showed. After some time I found out that while the Burmester 877 had balanced inputs, there was no differential stage in the input, which is necessary to make any sense of balanced signal processing. Instead, only one phase was processed and in the end converted back to balanced output. And to think that Burmester is so proud of its balanced signal processing… In order to hear the benefits of my phono preamp, I designed my own preamplifier with true balanced signal processing. As I did not want to spend much money on such a preamp, I decided to develop a conventional analogue amplification system. The requirements were: tube-based circuit, zero negative feedback, DC-coupled, and no OTL. The result of this was my “Holographic Music Reproduction System”, which basic prototype was ready shortly before I joined the Norddeutsche Hifi_Tage 2013 in February. At last I could hear the benefits of my Phono Pre and the sonic advantages of vinyl over digital. At the High End 2013 I could still only present my prototypes. I will hopefully present my fully featured system at the Munich High End 2014. I have many ideas for the future: improving the sound quality with additional special signal processing (I know which and it’s no DSP) in order to have a product series above the E-series, downsizing the whole concept into a more budget-oriented direction, eventually selling my patented 4-switch-D/A as a separate unit, and at the very end maybe thinking over if there is any progress possible in the field of speakers (as it happened in the amplifier sector and which no one expected). Last but not least, developing an amplifier based on the D/AmP-concept to complete this project that started all other things… Reading all this, it might look as if it were a straightforward development process, but it wasn’t. There were many situations when I thought I had enough and wanted to give up because of the problems I did not yet have solutions for. But being a triple Capricorn, I never really gave up on my project. What has been driving me forward was not the money, which I will (hopefully) make in return for many years of my efforts, but the desire to hear my favorite music in the best possible way. As you’ve learned, my life has been filled with many activities. Looking back, I would say that all I’ve done and what has happened in the past brought me to where I am now and proved useful for my recent project. As I do not have two left hands, I can do all kind of work myself, which sometimes comes useful and saves time as I am not dependent on other people. Even my interest in and adventure with the Hammond were necessary as they were the reason for starting my amplifier project. I did not mention that I’d never built any amplifiers before, except for an amplifier for my organ, when I was 14. If you had asked me, before I started my amplifier project, about my opinion on what’s the most important part in the audio system, whether the amp or the speakers, I would have pointed to the speakers. I’m glad I didn’t swap my B&W 801 for “better” speakers because paired with my amps their sound improved in the way I would have never expected. I took piano lessons until the age of 30 and never gave up playing the piano, which has helped me in my design and development work. Neither did I give up the music of my youth, and I still like to play it. As a matter of fact, I am now practicing a very difficult piano piece from ELP’s debut album, which is titled Lachesis and is part of the Three Fates suite. Although Youtube is a platform where many people upload their covers of Emerson stuff, this piece is very rare due to its technical difficulties. I may upload my version to show some of my piano skills. Anyway, it surely helps me relax from my work. THE VISIT It’s not the kind of story you manage to read during a cigarette break, is it? Reading it for the first time, I felt like I were holding a movie script in my hand. Even though I already knew most of the facts. But Jürgen himself is a very interesting and colorful person. I spent a few days with him, listening, eating and drinking beer (in that particular order, to convey the “volume” of each) and a few things seem certain to me. He is a man who knows what he’s doing and has a clearly defined goal which he is determined to achieve. He is never in a hurry and if something requires more time he will devote time to it. Jürgen loves music and has a large collection of vinyl records, mostly original releases, some of which I have seen and heard for the first time. And last but not least, he designed and built an absolute top high-end amplifier system. Is it the best in the world? Uh, there’s no such thing. This system also has its own character. However, there are things about it I have never heard anywhere else. The system is dynamic to the extreme, exhibiting near-live event dynamics (or something like that). You must surely remember my remarks concerning the dynamics of sound played back at home, on audio systems. It is merely an approximation, not even exact, of what takes place during a music concert. There is no physical possibility to transfer one experience onto another. The limiting factors are room dimensions, speaker size and amplifier power output. The latter seems to be largely minimized on Jürgen’s equipment. Vinyl records played on the KlangwellenManufaktur turntable with the Ortofon Anna cartridge had forward momentum and drive, or air and breath I only know from very few systems, rather with very large loudspeakers and more often from pro audio stage systems. Although dynamics is often associated with power, it actually depends on resolution and transient response (slew rate), and only then on output current. The latter is more important as a ‘peak’ or ‘impulse’ response rather than a constant current output. The Straussman system exhibits all these characteristics in one outstanding package. On top of that, it maintains great tonal balance. The Bowers speakers, Jürgen’s favorite, tend to dry up the midrange and prefer speed over fullness. So they sounded here. Yet there was so much sonic information and it was conveyed in such delicious manner that I easily waved it aside. The thing that helps us lose our natural reserve towards a new product from a new company is soundstage and space. I listened for a while to the Burmester system, in itself very capable, and it sounded as if it were playing mono records. After some auditory accommodation, something would click in my brain and I could hear soundstage again, but it took a while. Going back to reality, in other words to what the Straussman system proposed, took only about 1/10,000 second. THE TRIP In his heart and on his lips, Jürgen is a Berliner through and through, a West Berliner at that. Since I took a peek at what living in that city might be like, I think I understand him and for a moment I felt like I was its resident. The lakes surrounding Jürgen’s villa, superb transportation system, fantastic food and great beer – they all make you want to live there (although I had to get used to the very light Pilsner they drink in Berlin; those drinking Bavarian ale or wheat beer are looked upon with gentle understanding that everyone has to do something stupid from time to time, and to taste something exotic). What’s also important is the proximity of Potsdam and the Sanssouci Palace, built by the King of Prussia much loved by the Berliners, Frederick the Great, whose Kapellmeister was Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach’s son. There is a well-known picture (featured on the Straussman website), in which Carl Emanuel playing the piano is accompanied by Frederick himself, playing the flute. And just to think he’s the same ruler who took an active part in the partitions of Poland that made it disappear from the map of Europe for more than 100 years. Regardless of everything, next year I will go back there with my family because for a moment we all felt Berliners. And we loved it. WP

In "THE EDITORS" series we have interviewed so far: Dirk Sommer, „HiFiStatement.net”, Germany, chief editor, interviewed HERE Marja & Henk, „6moons.com”, Switzerland, journalists, interviewed HERE Matej Isak, "Mono & Stereo", Editor-in-Chief/owner, Slovenia/Austria, interviewed HERE Dr David W. Robinson, "Positive Feedback Online", USA, Editor-in-Chief/co-owner, interviewed HERE Jeff Dorgay, "TONEAudio", USA, publisher, interviewed HERE Cai Brockmann, “FIDELITY”, Germany, chief editor, interviewed HERE Steven R. Rochlin, „Enjoy the Music.com”, USA, chief editor, interviewed HERE Stephen Mejias, „Stereophile”, USA, Assistant Editor, interviewed HERE Martin Colloms, „HIFICRITIC”, Great Britain, wydawca i redaktor, interviewed HERE Ken Kessler, „Hi-Fi News & Record Review”, Great Britain, Senior Contributing Editor, interviewed HERE Michael Fremer, „Stereophile”, USA, Senior Contributing Editor, interviewed HERE Srajan Ebaen, „6moons.com”, Switzerland, chief editor, interviewed HERE ojciech Pacuła: Please tell me something about yourself, your career, background etc. Chris Connaker: I was born an audiophile. I’ve loved music and great sound quality for as long as I can remember. I’ve also been a computer geek for a very long time. I graduated college Summa Cum Laude with a BA degree. After college I stared working in enterprise Information Technology for the world’s largest hair care company. I’ve done everything from desktop computer support to designing, configuring, and managing global data networks. It’s very interesting to see technology I used in the enterprise get scaled down for home use. I used to administer a multi- million dollar EMC SAN / NAS infrastructure. Now audiophiles can purchase NAS drives for their audio systems for a few hundred dollars. There are major differences between enterprise and home computing, but the general concepts are identical. Photography is also a major interest of mine. I traveled to Kenya in 2002 on a photo safari with five other people and two professional photographers. It was an experience I’ll never forget. Recently I shot the 2013 Rocky Mountain Audiofest using my Hasselblad 503CW and Ilford Delta B&W film. When there are only twelve shots on a single roll of film each photograph is much more important than when shooting digitally. Medium format film was much harder to shoot at an audio show, but was much more rewarding from a photography perspective. How did “Computer Audiophile” start? Where did the idea come from? I had been using computer based audio solutions for several years. However, none of them sounded very good. Near the end of 2007 I started to get serious about putting together a computer based system that would sound better than my CD, DVD-Audio, and SACD players. I researched computer audio but didn’t see exactly what I was looking for at the time. My expertise is information technology and I’m an audiophile, so I decided to start “Computer Audiophile” November 20, 2007. My goal was to help audiophiles increase their enjoyment of this wonderful hobby by using music servers and computers rather than disc spinners. I knew the entire world was moving toward computer audio and that high end audio would eventually have to change or risk dying out completely. Fortunately, some in the industry are now moving in the right direction. How do e-magazines differ from print magazines? What can we learn from each other? The biggest differences are cost and finality. Running a print magazine and shipping physical copies around the world is expensive. The cost of entry into the online world of publishing is nearly free. Both online and print publishing have pros and cons. The online world has many more self-appointed experts who will say anything to get attention and have nearly nothing to lose. The print world has writers who think of themselves as Ministers of Information because they’ve been writing in print for so long. Making money from an online publication can be much more difficult than from a print publication. Online publishers are competing with Google for advertising dollars and must deal with the misconception that online advertising isn’t as important as print advertising. Plus, the established print magazine advertising model has been around for hundreds of years. Manufacturers looking to advertise frequently go with what they know or what is most comfortable, and that’s print publications. In addition to cost a major difference between online and print publishing is the concept of finality. After an online article is published it can be updated endlessly. After a printed article is published and mailed to customers it can never be changed. The online publishing world can learn a lot from the editing process used by print publications. Once a magazine is printed it’s final. All the work leading up to the final product must be as thorough as possible. I’ve made many mistakes when publishing my articles online. I know that I can always go back and fix a mistake so I end up making more mistakes. Forcing myself to edit my articles better is difficult. I wish I could afford to hire a full time editor. Do you thing that the PC is a good environment for the music signal? Yes and no. Some PCs are excellent while others are terrible. Computers designed for low noise and low power can make excellent music servers capable of better sound than any disc player, turntable, or reel-to-reel tape player. This great sound also depends on the Digital to Analog Converter used and the digital interface between the PC and the DAC. How is music signal processing different from PC’s normal computing job? Or maybe it isn’t? The only difference is when time is involved. For example, sending a file over the Internet or unzipping a word document can be done in reverse order from the last bit to the first bit. The final product is a readable file. Playing music must be done in perfect order from the first bit to the last bit and without large variations in timing or jitter. What should be a neophyte’s starting point to play music from the computer? Don’t worry about making mistakes or putting together the perfect system. Just start using a computer to play back music. People will run into problems along the way but these problems can be solved. Computer audio isn’t rocket science. What would a properly setup computer-based system look like? What is most important? There isn’t a single best way to setup a computer based system. It must start with the user’s needs. Some people want a great iPad remote control application and are willing to give up some sound quality. Others want to use an external word clock for better sound quality and must manually change the sample rate between tracks. One very important thing to eliminate in a computer based system is electrical noise. Computers can be very noisy and send garbage all the way from the computer to the audio system. There are methods of isolating the computer from the DAC such as fiber optic cabling, isolation within the DAC, powerless USB cables, linear power supplies, and battery power supplies. What is the upper limit for audio files in terms of bit-depth and sampling rate? Any thoughts? The sample rate arms race is ridiculous. There is no need to go higher and higher. Sample rates have no direct correlation to sound quality. Consumers want the highest number and manufacturers want to sell components to consumers so they support higher sample rates. Consumers need to be educated about sample rates rather than sold components based on marketing hype and higher numbers. Some components perform much worse at higher sampling rates but consumers think the opposite is true. I’m sure next year we will see at 32 bit / 768 kHz DAC and maybe one song in that sample rate. It doesn’t make any sense but I’m sure someone will want to purchase such as product. I’m happy with 24 bit / 192 kHz and lower. How about DSD – is it going to be a widespread format for downloading music? DSD is a small niche in an already small niche. It will never be widespread compared to PCM. Maybe five to ten online stores will offer DSD downloads. The limiting factors are music and playback devices. Most people don’t like most of the DSD music available for download. Sony, Warner, and Universal will release DSD content in 2014. This will improve the music selection, but will not address the playback devices. Most devices in the world are design to play PCM. If someone has the option to download DSD or PCM, knowing that the DSD version might not play on all of his devices, he will select the PCM version. I don’t think DSD is better than PCM. DSD is just different. There is some great music available as DSD downloads. I love the Nat King Cole albums in DSD. However, I don’t like that my DSD downloads can only be played on my main stereo system. I like to bring my music with me in the car and while traveling in an airplane. This is much harder to do with DSD files. What should music labels change with respect to music files preparation? This is impossible to know without knowing how much it costs to produce the music and how much it costs to make the music available for download. Building a download site is expensive. Music labels or online stores must recoup this cost. I hope downloads will be inexpensive, but everything has a cost. What is their current worst mistake? Not embedding the right metadata and album art. Any thoughts about FLAC (AIFF) vs. WAV comparison? It’s free to test all formats. If one of these is preferable to listeners then I recommend using that format. I think there are much more important issues with respect to computer playback than file formats’ sound quality. When considering metadata FLAC is the best by far. How often should we reformat our hard disk drives to prevent signal quality deterioration? Never. The quality is identical from the first day to the last. What is your current home system? Music Server(s): C.A.P.S. v3 Carbon with RWA Black Lightening battery, Aurender W20, MacBook Pro Retina 15” Music Server Operating System: Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit), Microsoft Windows 8 (32-bit), Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit), Linux Preferred Digital Interface(s): USB, AES/EBU (Single Wire), S/PDIF Coaxial (BNC), Ethernet (UPnP/DLNA) Digital to Analog Converter(s): Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Series 2, EMM Labs DAC2X, Auralic Vega Digital to Digital Converter: Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB, Wavelength Audio WaveLink Preamplifier: Spectral Audio DMC-30 SS Series 2 Amplifier(s): Spectral Audio DMA-260 Loudspeakers: TAD CR1 Compact Reference Interconnects: MIT Oracle Matrix 50 Analog Interconnects (RCA), Wire World Silver Starlight USB Cable, AudioQuest Diamond USB Cable, Kimber Kable B Bus Ag USB Cable, WireWorld Ultraviolet 5 S/PDIF Coax Cable (BNC), AudioQuest Eagle Eye S/PDIF Coax Cable (BNC) Loudspeaker Cables: MIT Matrix HD 60 Bi-Wire Power Cables: ALO Audio AC6 Remote Control(s): iPad (3rd Generation), iPhone 5 Remote Control Apps: JRemote, Apple's Remote, Aurender iPad App Miscellaneous: Cisco SG200-26 Switch, Baaske MI-1005 Ethernet Isolator, Micro Connectors Augmented Cat6A Ethernet Cable, Apple AirPort Extreme, Cisco RVS4000 Router, Cisco DPC3000 Docsis 3.0 cable modem, Comcast Extreme 105 Mbps Internet Service Headphones: JH Audio JH13, Grado RS-1, Sennheiser HD600, Etymotic ER-4p, Ultimate Ears ue11 Pro Headphone Amplifier(s): Astell & Kern AK100, ALO RX Mk3 Portable Player(s): iPhone 5, iPod Classic 160GB Could you give our readers a list of 10 albums they should listen to straight away? This is the fun part! 1. Pearl Jam, Ten 2. Leonard Cohen, Old Ideas 3. Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, This Is How We Roll 4. Nat “King” Cole, The Very Thought of You 5. Ottmar Liebert, One Guitar 6. Pearl Jam, Vs. 7. Jack Johnson, In Between Dreams 8. Cowboy Junkies, At The End of Paths Taken 9. Chet Baker, Chet 10. Pearl Jam, Vitalogy I naprawdę na sam koniec – jak długo, Twoim zdaniem, fizyczne formaty (CD, BD) będą jeszcze z nami? Odtwarzacze fizycznych formatów będą z nami jeszcze przez jakieś dziesięć lat, ale tylko dlatego, że ludzie lubią korzystać z rzeczy, które znają. Ściąganie plików to dla wielu ludzi „dziedzina tajemna”, dlatego wolą kupować fizyczne nośniki. Ja nie mam odtwarzacza tego typu od 2005 roku. Wolę kupować muzykę i ściągać ją online.

he bottom panel of the electronics module mounted on the Zero 1 PRO speaker’s rear baffle features an identification plate. In addition to information about the place of manufacturing – here Avantgarde’s new large factory in Reichenbach (Lautertal), Germany – we also find a cleverly given serial number. The speakers that came to me after initial break-in at the manufacturer and then by the distributor were labeled as "ZERO.0008". This made them one of the first Zero 1 PRO pairs that had ever been assembled. The very first one went to the High End Show in Munich, where it made a great impression. Awarded by “High Fidelity” the Best Sound High End 2013, the speakers are indeed extraordinary. And it’s not the kind of extraordinariness that we got used to and that is associated with “otherness”, but rather a real, solid, technologically-based “grand extraordinariness”. To come to this, however, first we need to take a closer look at them and find out what is behind their smooth, white or black, finish. We ought to start as the manufacturer does in the information brochure, which is “from the beginning”. The Zero 1 PRO is a horn-loaded, three-way active speaker system. Each of the two horn driver units is driven by a separate 50-watt X50 amplifier, and the woofer by a powerful 400-watt Class D amplifier. The midrange and treble units operate in pure class A, with zero negative feedback and fed from the power supply taken directly from the XA power amp. Power to them is so often filtered, and the control system has stabilized power supply. The sensitivity of the midrange and tweeter drivers is high - as with horns - and reaches 104dB. It's just that we are familiar with that from many other designs. Yet even here we can point to certain characteristics that are unique to this product. First of all, its size. Horn speakers are large by definition. Their size can of course be modified and there are attempts to scale it down, as reflected in the Uno Fino (see my review for “EnjoyTheMusic.com” HERE), yet classic horn speakers are large or very large. In comparison, the Zero 1 PRO appear like a miracle, with their front baffle almost exactly the same size as my stand-mount Harbeth M40.1. That alone is a great achievement. Yet it is when we look at the speaker from the side that we clutch our heads and ask, where the hell the subwoofer enclosure has gone? The speakers are no deeper than an Ikea bookshelf in its carton packing. And these woofers are some powerful 300 mm beasts, boasting the low frequency range of 30Hz (at -3dB). Such miracles have been made possible by harnessing the power of digital circuits. Speaking in Munich with Armin Krauss, whom you should easily recognize (each year during the Audio Show in Warsaw he’s the Avantgarde presenter who likes to play Rammstein at a concert-level volume), I couldn’t help but notice that describing the new project he spent most of the time to explain an innovative formula of the whole system. We are quite familiar, as he said, with active speakers as such – just have a look at the D’appo from the Polish manufacturer Sveda Audio. Active speakers are fed by a line-level signal straight from a preamplifier or sound source, which is then crossed over in an active crossover network and amplified separately for each driver unit. The Zero 1 PRO is different as it accepts a digital signal that is first processed in that form by D/A converters before going to analog amplifiers. The speaker features an active crossover but signal processing is carried out in the digital domain. The manufacturer has employed here 66-bit FPGA-based processing that offers high performance, with precision down to 10Hz. Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters guarantee outstanding impulse response for each of the three converters. Avantgarde engineers managed to shape the filters in the way that gives them almost perfect phase characteristics (with deviation of less than 5 degrees in the PRO version) and nearly absolute synchronicity. Digital filters usually have very steep characteristic to effectively divide the range between the drivers. Many designers and music enthusiasts believe that the best results are achieved with the least steep of the available filters, a first order crossover of 6 dB per octave. Avantgarde subscribes to this view and comes up with a progressive steepness filter. A 6 dB filter is used at the crossover point, which then becomes progressively steeper until 100dB at the cut-off point. We know, therefore, that the Zero 1 PRO is an active three-way speaker with a digital crossover. It stands to reason that the signal used to feed them should also be digital. And so it is. The whole electronic circuit, including amplifiers, is housed in an aluminum cast enclosure mounted to the rear baffle and covered with a nice grille. From below we can plug in a USB or Toslink cable, two digital S/PDIF cables and one AES/EBU – in other words nearly all existing standards. If we want to use WLAN transmission, we need to connect to the Toslink input a suitable receiver, such as AirPort Express. The signal is fed to one speaker, which serves as the master. The other is the slave speaker that receives a 16-bit, 44.1 kHz digital signal over the air. During our conversation, Armin Krauss devoted much time to describing this wireless signal transfer between the speakers and the measures taken to minimize distortion. This was a priority in developing a proprietary transfer protocol. The transmitter operates at the frequency of 2.4 GHz. However, if you believe (like me) that nothing beats the wire, an Ethernet cable can be used to connect the speakers with each other. The wireless transmitter then turns off automatically. An interesting fact is that the speakers are available in two versions that differ only in software. The “cheaper” (named Zero 1) sells for 9,900 Euro per pair, while the pair of the more expensive Zero 1 PRO sets you back 11,500 Euro. Which shows what is the real cost these days – the software. The more expensive version has been designed for no-compromise audio and employs the “minimum phase” software, responsible for its shockingly low phase shift. The less expensive speaker is no slouch, either, but its performance is slightly inferior. We are reviewing the PRO version. Technology is the key here, as this is what defines the Zero 1 PRO. Equally important, however, is its user friendliness, which is respecting the time and frustration of people who want to use these speakers for listening to music. The rule is that the less time we spend on connecting and calibrating the system, the more we can spend on listening. And music is always the winner. The speakers from the company headed by Holger Fromme are one of the most technically complex audio systems available and they are at the same time the easiest to use. They are essentially maintenance free. You pay money for that but nothing in life is free. Technology and user friendliness are both incredibly important. Yet it is very likely that these speakers’ “to be or not to be” will be decided by their form. Horn speakers are associated with large dimensions, imposed by large horn mouths. AA offers them in any size and color. They always dominate the room interior and draw attention. They are not really visible at first sight in the Zero 1 PRO. Their cabinet is very shallow, the reason being that the front baffle also doubles as the tweeter’s and midrange driver’s horn mouths, as well as the woofer’s mounting point. Classic AA designs employ mechanical phase alignment of the two former drivers by their appropriate placement relative to each other. Here, the same operation is performed on the signal, in the digital domain, which makes it possible to position the speakers as shown in the pictures. The electronic modules mounted to the real baffle are housed in solid aluminum alloy casts, resembling the XA-line amplifiers’ heat sinks, with connectors placed on the bottom side (only the master speaker features input connectors). However, in order not to disturb excellent stylistic consistency they are covered with magnet-fitted grilles made of ABS polymer, the same as that used for the cabinets. The speakers are tilted back a few degrees and sit on rigid stands made of chromed flat bars. They look amazing. Avantgarde Acoustic in “High Fidelity” BEST SOUND HIGH END 2013 AWARD: Avantgarde Acoustic ZERO 1 – floorstanding loudspeakers, see HERE KRAKOW SONIC SOCIETY: Meeting no. 83 - Holger Fromme and his Avantgarde Acoustic XA Series, see HERE REVIEW: Avantgarde Acoustic DUO OMEGA - floorstanding loudspeakers, see HERE REVIEW: Avantgarde Acoustic PRE – line preamplifier, see HERE NAGRODA ROKU 2006: Avantgarde Acoustic UNO PICCO – floorstanding loudspeakers, see HERE REVIEW: Avantgarde Acoustic UNO PICCO – floorstanding loudspeakers, see HERE Recommended reading: REVIEW (“EnjoyTheMusic.com”): Avantgarde Acoustic UNO FINO – floorstanding loudspeakers, see HERE Albums used during auditions CDs Jesteś Bogiem, soundtrack, Magic Records 3719533, CD (2012). Mission, Cecilia Bartoli, Decca/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UCCD-9885, SHM-CD + DVD (2012). Vivaldi con moto, Carmignola, Academia Bizantina, Dantone, Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv Produktion/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UCCA-1099, SHM-CD (2013). Alan Parsons Project, I Robot, Arista/Sony Music Japan SICP 30168, “Legacy Edition”, 2 x BSCD2 (1977/2013). Antonio Caldara, Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo, René Jacobs, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Harmonia Mundi France HMC 905222, 2 x CD (1996/2002). Black Sabbath, 13, Vertigo/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICN-1034/5, 2 x SHM-CD (2013). Depeche Mode, Enjoy The Music....04, Mute XLCDBONG34, maxi-SP (2004). Enya, Enya, BBC Entertainment BBC CD 605, CD (1987). Nat “King” Cole, Welcome to the Club, Columbia/Audio Fidelity AFZ 153, SACD/CD (1959/2013). Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Atlantic Records/ORG Music ORGM-1081, SACD/CD (1959/2013). Richard Strauss, Also sprach Zarathustra, dyr. Zubin Mehta, wyk. Los Angeles Philharmonic, Decca/Lasting Impression Music LIM K2HD 035, K2HD CD (1968/2008). Siekiera, ”Nowa Aleksandria”, Tonpress/MTJ cd 90241, 2 x CD (1986/2012). Audio files SATRI Reference Recordings Vol. 2, Bakoon Products, FLAC 24/192. Charlie Haden & Antonio Forcione, Heartplay, Naim Label, 24/96 FLAC, źródło: NaimLabel. Dead Can Dance, Anastasis, [PIAS] Entertainment Group, PIASR311CDX, "Special Edition Hardbound Box Set", CD+USB drive 24/44,1 WAV (2012); Depeche Mode, Black Celebration, Mute DMCD5, “Collectors Edition”, WAV 24/48 (1986/2007). Depeche Mode, Delta Machine, Columbia Records/Sony Music Japan SICP-3783-4, FLAC 24/44,1, źródło: HDTracks (2013); Miles Davis, Tutu, Warner Brothers Records, FLAC 24/96, źródło: HDTracks. Nagrania z płyt DVD-R pisma “Net Audio”. Persy Grainger, Lincolnshire Posy, Dallas Wind Symphony, dyr. Jerry Junkin, Reference Recordings, HR-117, HRx, 24/176,4 WAV, DVD-R (2009). Yes, Close to the Edge, Warner Music, FLAC 24/192, źródło: HDTracks (1972/2007). Japanese editions of CDs and SACDs are available from The Avantgarde Acoustic loudspeakers communicate with each other via a radio link. They only need to be hooked up to the mains with the digital input of the master loudspeaker connected to the music signal (e.g. via AirPort Express). That's it. (Avantgarde Acoustic product literature, see HERE) It’s all true. Although manufacturers of advanced digital equipment write about “user-friendly”, “smooth” and “nice” operation of their devices, this is almost always more wishful thinking than reality. In practice, the number of steps required to get the sound from an audio device having anything to do with computers and digital sources seems to be growing exponentially with their capabilities. Thus, quite unexpectedly, CD and SACD players turn into a symbol of true ease of use and reliability. Even a PhD degree in computer science does not guarantee you will get the sound straight after unpacking the unit, and any setup change will almost certainly make you repeat the installation process. That is one of the reasons why I think of computer as a valuable but bothersome sound source. It has no “play” button and all too often I have to go to extra lengths to force any sound out of it at all. For me it’s a waste of time. Avantgarde speakers are a real “"plug and play”. Within the first ten minutes I managed to have them unpacked and set up. Their positioning does not take too much time and they actually sounded best placed in the very same spot once taken by the Uno Fino and earlier by the Uno Picco. You just need to make sure that the tweeter is directed towards your ears and the closer you sit the more the speaker needs to be tilted back. Connecting the power cords and the signal source takes another five to ten minutes. In my case, the sources were the Ancient Audio CD player equipped with the Philips CD Pro-2 drive and my PC, with the signal sent via USB. The Zero 1 PRO USB receiver accepts 16-bit/44.1kHz (and 48 kHz) signal and does not require any software driver. Other inputs are up to 24/192 capable. It takes only half an hour, from speakers’ delivery to our door to opening a bottle of wine, before we can listen to music. We will immediately know we’re listening to Avantgarde speakers. The Zero 1 PRO sound in the way that is hard to mistake for anything else. Their sound is extremely dynamic. The German manufacturer has accustomed us to that and it hardly makes much of an impression on anyone. It’s simply the way it is and that’s it. The problem is to switch back to classic designs which, by contrast, seem slow and sluggish. Only magnetostatic and some electrostatic speakers combine speed and tonality in the way that the Zero 1 PRO, and in further perspective all speaker designs from Reichenbach, do. The longer I listened to the reviewed speakers the better I profiled my musical choices, and the more distinct was the similarity of my “playlist” to what I usually listen to on my HiFiMAN HE-6 magnetostatic headphones. What stood out first were classical music recordings. Almost all the speakers I know have a problem with them. Or many problems at once. Some more pronounced, other better disguised, but in general almost all tend to get lost and do not show the detail and the whole equally well at the same time, usually focusing on one or the other. The Zero 1 PRO, just like the HiFiMAN headphones, are capable of both simultaneously. Their sound is detailed and coherent at the same time, thus showing the whole music event. If we want to, we focus our attention on any instrument, artist or their group, and if don’t, we can “move away” and listen to the whole orchestra. It came intensely into play in the Prologue from Also Sprach Zarathustra. The opening low rumble was not merging together into one because it was conveyed as consisting of a variety of small components. Yet they were only audible when I was drawing my attention to this or that. I remember Damian Lipinski, who is responsible for Savage’s CD remasters, talk how he was surprised that each sound (instrument) on this musician’s recordings came from layering several and sometimes even dozen tracks together. A simple snare was composed of a dozen separate strokes. But it is only audible on a good audio system, i.e. the sound is rich and multi-layered. On a poor system it’s just a strange sounding snare (see HERE). The Avantgarde coped very well with it. The sound on Also… was quiet, like the double basses closing this part, but when the orchestra played forte everything developed immediately and sounded very loud and extremely fast. This level of dynamics and selectivity cannot be faked, and only stage audio systems and large studio (active) speakers are capable of sounding that way. No wonder Armin often plays Rammstein. But it is not only dynamics and excellent selectivity that will surprise us in such an unusual combination. They do not exist just for themselves but are only a base for coherence. The company literature talks much about nearly perfect phase characteristics of the D/A converters and the digital crossovers are excellent in this respect, at least in theory. I must say I have probably not heard any digitally filtered speakers that sounded like the Avantgarde. It’s not a perfect design, nor aspiring to be one for all I know. But we get here all the things that the manufacturer promises. And the time coherence I mention translates into an incredible tangible sound. The lower midrange seems almost warm. The speakers do not sound warm, quite on the contrary (about which soon), but it may appear so. This is caused by the lack of any irritating components and the elimination of some kind of sonic “wobble”, a more or less annoying artifact that is, however, quickly recognizable. Classic speakers usually conceal it because their sound is slow. The Zero 1 PRO impulse response must be incredible because we can hardly hear the attack – it simply is there. Electrostatic speakers, also very fast, very often emphasize and harden the attack, while classic speakers tend to round it. Then it can be heard. The Avantgarde horns do not draw our attention to it, letting us focus instead on the full bodied sound. The latter is felt differently than I am used to. The sound is projected by the Zero 1 PRO on the speaker line and in front of it, in an incredibly vivid and tangible way. The soundstage depth is only slightly marked. That is partly why everything seems to be fleshy. But that is only the beginning. The real ride begins when we realize that everything can be heard here. A conundrum, isn’t it? After all, selectivity implies something just like that and there seems nothing to talk about. It only seems so, though. As a matter of fact, selectivity describes how the elements that are sonically different, such as instruments, human voices, acoustic characteristics, and even various parts of larger instruments, are separated from each other, and how exactly the difference between them is shown. What I would like to say in the context of the reviewed speakers is something else still, not even associated with resolution, which is not better than in passive speakers from the same price range. I think of something that gives us vividness without rounding the attack, without withdrawing treble and without minimizing the amount of detail. Each of them leads to a vivid presentation, but each one also irreparably distorts the sound. The Zero 1 PRO sound “immediate”, if I may say so. Speed ​​is one thing, but the other is a sort of an orderly universe, a here-and-now sound without looking for sounds getting slowly out of the background, while on the other hand without cowering before sonic urgency, sharpness and aggressive attack. Here everything fits together; the sounds, instruments and planes do not fight each other but have their inner “communication” that is invisible yet synchronizing everything. I have not heard that in any other speakers from this manufacturer. Actually, I rarely ever hear such a thing. The speakers under review are similar to the Uno Fino, one of the better sounding speakers from Avantgarde – in my opinion, of course – in dynamics, speed, frequency range, selectivity and soundstage. On the other hand, they resemble my all-time favorite but no longer manufactured Uno Picco with their understanding of the presentation as a coherent structure, a grid with finish superimposed on top. And what I wrote earlier is simply unique to them. However, one needs to be aware that they are one of the less expensive speakers in this manufacturer’s product lineup. If we take into account that we get here a pair of three-way speakers with – say – active bass (as in other AA speakers), together with two stereo Class A amplifiers, a stereo (that’s how it can be viewed – it converts stereo signal) DAC, and active crossover to boot, then there is no use expecting them to sound at the same level as more expensive speakers with active bass that still need a power amplifier, preamplifier and DAC. What is the difference between such systems? First of all, resolution. Secondly, bass definition. And thirdly – soundstage. What is surprising, however, is not what we just said – that happens to be absolutely normal. It is so and that’s it. The real surprise is the degree of similarity of the Zero 1 PRO to flagship designs from this manufacturer. I think first of all about tonality. Horn speakers cannot be mistaken for any others. Their strength lies in the immediacy of energy transmission, which is perceived as more accurately rendered textures, better dynamics and generally superior differentiation. Their resolution is not particularly impressive; selectivity comes out much better. The Numero uno, however, are all about the midrange presentation. If classic speakers sounded similar, I would say that their upper midrange is stronger than what is below. Here it is interpreted as part of a larger package. It’s a bit like ‘temperature’ and the so-called ‘perceptible temperature’. While the thermometer shows a certain reading in winter, the temperature we actually perceive can be a few or even dozen degrees lower, depending on wind chill and air humidity. In classical speakers, emphasizing the upper midrange is perceived unambiguously as something wrong, very wrong! The Avantgarde show that range in a way that is like opening the window. We get sounds along with reverb and accompanying acoustics, immediate and instant. I think it’s more about speed rather than emphasizing the midrange. It seems stronger to us because we are used to a different presentation. The top end is pretty sweet and detailed, although it does not draw our attention unless an instrument happens to venture into this region or the producer plays with counter-phase. Then it immediately jumps into our field of vision. The bass is strong, low and fleshy. Its low extension is amazing, especially with such a small cabinet capacity. It is here that the wonders of digital processing are best heard. However, the upper bass is not as saturated and full as in classic speakers. It is better defined than the bottom end but also a little more distant. Such karma. And technology limitations. Conclusion Writing about the sound of these speakers is lots of fun. Yet I wouldn’t be quite fair if I said that that’s what’s most important about them. Everything is in its place, the speakers play with panache and perfectly scale the sound to the listening room size. Auditioned in Munich in a 50-meter hall they played with a greater volume and forward momentum than at my room, placed about 2.5 meters from the listening position. I found no problems with the bass. Everything was simply slightly smaller than in the large hall. In this respect, they are phenomenal. They also have something about them that makes us listen to music with interest, waiting for what’s coming next – a rather important feature in audio, isn’t it? However, in my opinion, the strength of this design lies in its form combined with the ease of use and only then supported by the sound. Their outer form is truly amazing. The speakers remind me the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick (1968), and the curvature of the horns perfectly matches the rest of the cabinet shape. Connecting them to the audio system is piece of cake and everyone can do it. The Zero 1 PRO do not require any in-depth knowledge of electronic equipment to use them. It’s a world championship. There will be no sudden software “glitch” nor will we “lose” connection. The speakers resemble in that my ideal piece of audio gear, the CD player. What would I change in them? There are two things that – had I had a magic wand – I would have done differently. I would design the remote control to display the volume level and selected source. Groping around, without knowing how much the speaker was “turned up” was quite frustrating for me. I would also prefer the speakers to transmit the signal with higher than 16-bit resolution between each other. That is the only playback quality they are – in fact – capable of. But these are just my wishes and each user will probably have their own. Against everything that the Zero 1 PRO CAN DO they are just the grumbling of an old audio enthusiast. On the technical side, the Zero 1 PRO is a complex system that can, however, be broken up into relatively simple factors. These are much easier to describe. It is a three-way active speaker design. The 25mm tweeter and the 125 mm midrange driver are horn loaded to increase their sensitivity. The horn diameter of the former is 130 mm and of the latter is 400 mm. Their configuration is reversed, i.e. the tweeter horn is below the midrange horn. The woofer is loaded classically into a vented enclosure. The port is a gap on the rear baffle. The 300 mm woofer driver has a paper cone supported by stiff folds of impregnated fabric. The woofer is covered with a grille made of gray fabric stretched on a plastic, pretty stiff frame. The speakers are tilted back and the angle can be adjusted for their proper phase alignment. They ought to be positioned so that the tweeter radiates towards our ears. This, however, is not the only adjustment we can do. The rear baffle sports a row of DIP switches to set the subwoofer gain level. For me, the best setting was +4 dB. The electronics is mounted on a large circuit board bolted to a solid, big, heavy cast, working as a heat sink. Its form resembles that of a car amplifier, only better built. Each speaker is equipped with one such module, but only one of them sports inputs connectors. We have at our disposal two electrical S/PDIF RCA inputs, Toslink optical input, USB input (16/44.1/48) and AES/EBU. In addition there is an Ethernet port. The latter, however, is not used to connect the speaker to the Internet (which more and more companies choose to do, thus having the option of remote equipment maintenance), but for alternative connection between the speakers. As the digital signal is fed to only one of them, it is transmitted wirelessly to the other. It can also be done in a traditional way, via Ethernet cable. A careful look will reveal a pair of balanced analog inputs. This option will be available very soon, allowing to connect the system to analog audio sources. Inside, there is a suitable place for mounting the board with A/D converter. As it turns out, the electronics is mounted in a modular fashion using both manufacturer’s own “blocks” and components from Hypex Electronics BV. The digital signal is fed into the main board housing the digital receiver, USB-S/PDIF converter and FPGA unit that carries out the calculations. The USB receiver is the well-known TAS1020 chip capable of handling the signal up to 24-bit and 96 kHz. The fact that it is limited here to CD quality is due to design choices. The electrical inputs feature impedance matching and isolating transformers. After selecting the active input the signal first goes to the AKM4113 digital receiver and then to two AD1895 stereo frequency converters that convert any input signal to one that is accepted by the adjacent big FPGA chip. After processing, the signal is sent to a separate board with the actual digital-to-analog converter, a four-channel Burr Brown PCM4104. And only from there it gets to the two amplifier modules mounted on separate boards. The upper- and mid-range is handled by a classic Class A solid state amplifier. It is based on two medium-sized complementary transistor pairs per channel. The PCB sports excellent high-power Dale resistors, Wima, Elna and Nichicon capacitors – no money was spared. The bass is handled by an amplifier module from Hypex Electronics BV, the UcD400 in OEM version. The amplifier has its own switching power supply, also from Hypex. The other two amplifiers share a common switching power supply, with much more complex circuit. Due to its modular design, I can easily imagine a future system upgrade of any of its sections. Technical Specification (according to the manufacturer) Subwoofer frequency response: 30 – 250 Hz Midrange horn frequency response: 250 – 2.000 Hz Tweeter horn frequency response: 2.000 – 20.000 Hz Horn sensitivity: > 104 dB Digital processing: 6 channel, 66-bit FPGA Filter steepness: Up to 100 dB/octave Filter type: Progressive FIR filters Phase shifts: < 5 degrees Digital-analogue converters: 3 x 24-bit Burr & Brown Power amplifiers: 2 x 50 watts + 1 x 400 watts Master/slave radio link: 2.4 GHz ISM/SRD Amplitude linearization: Yes Phase linearization: Yes Room adjustment/equalization: Yes Colors: White and black Width x height x depth (cabinet): 490 x 1040 x 318 mm Weight: 30 kg

ittle over a year ago Wojtek started his review of Bakoon's AMP-11R with a quote form manufacturer's website, that read: "The design goal of the AMP-11R is to be a world best high-end compact amplifier." A year passed and I received a new model AMP-12R that replaced AMP-11R in Bakoons range. Does it mean that this bold declaration in the quote above was false, or lost its meaning? Absolutely not. It means that Bakoon's designers created the best product they could a year ago, the product was highly acclaimed but these guys worked hard to make it even better. A drive towards perfection is one of the best attitudes audio (and not only audio) designer could have. A „perfection” in this case should be understood as a sound reproduction as close to original performance as only possible, Yes, it will never be perfect, that can't be done, but people driven but an urge to achieve it will never stop looking for the way of improving their designs, and that's an obvious benefit for us – users of their devices and music lovers. Such an attitude seems to be even more important when it comes to a small/medium size company usually run by truly passionate, driven guys who don't have to create designs that fit into predetermined „cost scheme”, which is a case in most large companies. These guys, if they feel that using a particular element improves sound, they simply use it and reflect that in final price. And when they come up with certain number of improvements to previous design they decide to release a new version, or new model that simply sound better than a previous one. Bakoon doesn't really share any information on improvements implemented in AMP-12R, and by looking at the device or parameters you won't really find any. For me it was even more difficult as I had no chance to listen to nor even to see AMP-11R. So what I can do is to focus on how this device looks like and how it sounds (a little explanation – I finally sent an email to Bakoon asking for information and I received an answer but almost just before sending ready text to my editor, so I added my questions and answers but as a separate part of this text). And it looks great! During last few years more and more Korean companies have been proving that they really know how to make a great looking, perfectly finished casing of aluminum. Examples? Sure, let's bring up Eximus DP1, Stello U3, or Calyx 24/192. When looking at the last two (of those three) and also at Bakoon products you can see some inspiration in Apple products, like miniMAC for example. Is it a bad thing? Not in my book – if you look for inspiration look up to the best, a after you do make sure that you can also do it right, and all these companies really can. AMP-12R comes in fact as two separate devices, or one device in two casings – power amp makes one and power supply makes second. Both casings look much alike, with the same size, build and finish. Both are carved from solid aluminum blocks, both finished either in silver of black (-ish). Basing on my first hand experience with this device but also with a silver HPA-21, I had a great pleasure to review recently, I know I would definitely go with black (-ish). But that's just me - de gustibus non est disputandum – so some of you prefer silver version. What's important is that there is a choice. I received reviewed unit together with a two-level rack, exactly the same as the one Wojtek reviewed AMP-11R with. This anti-vibration rack is made mostly of aluminum, does its job very well and offers a bonus – a way AMP-12R with its power supply look when placed in it. It's a simple, but well thought out solution that does it's primary job and allows Bakoon devices to occupy a relatively small footprint (as you could build it up, adding more levels for other, future Bakoon products), plus a place to „breathe”, or radiate heat (surely that's more accurate), as there is a lot to radiate. Amplifier that gets quite hot occupies upper level while power supply sits on the lower. They are connected with a short, aggressively red power cable (why the hell red?!). Again – it looks damn good, and weights, surprise, surprise, a lot. Rack sits on solid, large and sharp spikes, so I decided to put them on Franc Accessories Ceramic Discs to avoid have deep holes in my own rack after the test. I was too lazy (and too scared for a well being of my rack) to try whether is sounded better with or without Ceramic Discs, but these had never failed me before whether I had placed them under electronics or speakers, so why would they now? What hasn't changed for sure (apart from casing), comparing to AMP-11R, is the SATRI circuit, developed years ago by Mr Akira Nagai. It has been already described in details by Srajan and Wojtek in their reviews so I will not go into it again. If you want to know details please refer to one of these two reviews, if you don't need details all you really need to know is that all amplifiers deal with voltage signal while SATRI deals with current signal (even voltage input signal is converted to current one). Another thing that hasn't change is a minimalistic set of inputs and outputs. There are two inputs – one a regular, voltage one (a pair of RCA sockets you can use to connect any source you like), and a second called SATRI-link – a pair of BNC current inputs to be used only with other Bakoon devices (today there is a phonostage, in the near future there should be also a DAC and preamplifier). As for outputs at th back you will find two pairs of solid speakers posts, and on the side of the amplifier there is a headphone output. Long story short – unless you have a Bakoon phonostage for the moment you'll have only one usable input. I know a lot of music lovers that have a single source systems so that wouldn't be a problem for them. As for the rest of us – we need to get used to plugging and unplugging our different sources, and keep hoping for a Bakoon preamplifier :). I guess that limited number of input at least partially came from a small size of this amp (see below, what Mr Soo In Chae has to say about that). Another sign of minimalistic approach of Bakoon designers is a lack of input selector, or should I rather say: lack of a selector we are used to. Of course you can chose which input should be active and you do it using a simple, small toggle switch placed on the back of the device. A volume control wheel is placed horizontally and composed into the casing in the upper, right corner so you might even miss it when checking AMP-12R for the first time. It fits right in there, sports the same color as casing so really not easy to spot. The on/off switch sits on the left side panel, next to the headphone output. It is also a small toggle switch. Power supply is always on, unless you pull plug off from receptacle – but as I already mentioned it's the amp that gets real hot not power supply, so I guess it doesn't really show on electricity bill. Both devices sport a single, yellow LED the lits when they are on. That's it – simple, but good looking piece of equipment. Let's see how it sounds... Recording used during test (a selection) Beethoven, Symphonie No. 9, Deutsche Grammophon DG 445 503-2, CD/FLAC. Albeniz, Suita Espanola, KIJC 9144, LP. AC/DC, Live, EPIC E2 90553, LP. Patricia Barber, Companion, Premonition/Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-45003, 180 g LP. U2, Joshua Tree, UNIVERSAL UNILP75094, 180g, LP. The Ray Brown Trio, Summer Wind, Concord Jazz CCD-4426, CD/FLAC. Rodrigo y Gabriela, 11:11, EMI Music Poland 5651702, CD/FLAC. Marcus Miller, A night in Monte Carlo, Concord Records B004DURSBC, CD/FLAC. Kermit Ruffins, Livin' a Treme life, Basin Street B001T46TVU, CD/FLAC. Pavarotti, The 50 greatest tracks, Decca 478 5944, CD/FLAC. Wycliff Gordon, Dreams of New Orleans, Chesky B0090PX4U4, CD/FLAC. Leontyne Price, The complete collection of operatic recital albums, RCA Red Seal, 88697940512, CD/FLAC. Arne Domnerus, Jazz at the Pawnshop, Proprius/First Impression Music 012-013, XRCD. Looking for any information about differences between AMP-12R and its predecessor on manufacturer's website all I found was just a general note about some improvements implemented in AMP-12R, but no more specific information was to be found. Even parameters of both amplifiers seemed identical. All I could do was to ask, so I send an email to Bakoon as it reads below: MD: My name is Marek Dyba and currently I'm preparing a review of your AMP 12R amplifier for HighFidelity.pl magazine. Would it be a problem for you to let me know what kind of changes/improvements comparing it too AMP 11R have you introduced? I found no information on the subject on your webpage so your answer would be of great help. SIC: My name is Soo In Chae and I’m the managing director of Bakoon Products International. Thank you for your email and your effort on AMP-12R review. I hope it is working well with your setup and you are enjoying it. The AMP-12R’s biggest performance upgrade from the previous 11R is due to its completely new bias circuit. The new circuit controls the MOSFET pair simultaneously and achieves far more stability and linearity over the previous circuit, resulting more precision and details in sound. MD: Another question I have to ask since there are these "current" inputs - how is the work on your DAC coming? These current inputs make sense only if one has also a source with current output. For now using only one input (I mean the regular RCA one) can simply be not enough for many people even though your amplifier offers a great performance. SIC: For the SATRI-Link (or current input), we currently have the EQA-12R but we do plan to introduce more models, such as DAC and preamplifier (although we cannot guarantee if they would come sooner due to some other new development items). The AMP-12R is actually a “gain controllable” power amplifier, hence the limited numbers of input connectors. MD: One more question - are you planning a new rack for AMP12R? The one you offered for AMP11R is on your webpage now in the archive section. So will there be a new one, or you decided that it wasn't necessary for AMP12? SIC: The same rack (RCK-11) comes standard with the AMP-12R. We just removed it from the product list as we won’t offer them as a separate product. Let's be honest AMP-12R is not a powerful beast that can drive any speakers. What you get is 15W per channel so you need to chose your speakers carefully. I guess that is why a Polish distributor of Bakoon set this amplifier up with Austrian Trenner&Friedl high efficiency speakers (and with fantastic Lumin as a digital source), which worked really well. I listened to it with my Bastianis Matternorn speakers as well as with Amphion Argon 7L. The latter I've been using for the last couple of months and grew to know and love them. A sensitivity of these speakers is quite high at 93 dB, so with it obviously quite speaker friendly impedance curve these nice boxes make good partners even for low power tube amplifiers. That is why I could use them also in my listening sessions of Sugden IA-4 and also Bakoon AMP-12R as an alternative for 100 dB Matterhorns. Well, in fact I liked 7L with Bakoon so much that I used this setup for most of the time. Both setups looked bit... curious (let's put it that way) as a small, tiny even 20x20x4 cm amplifier drove large floorstanding speakers.... Matterhorns are really huge boxes, and nobody would call Argon 7L small so there was a huge size contrast that changed into totally different story once music started to flow... . But before I get to sound impressions, there was one more thing I was worried about. My trusted LessLoss speaker cables are quite heavy so each time I have to use them with such a small, not so heavy device I need to be extra careful not to let them drag amplifier down of the rack (yeah, that happened once and never again!). So it happened more than once that I had to improvise to keep amp from falling of the rack. This time, as I mentioned before, regardless of small footprint, these two devices placed in heavy rack put enough weight to keep them steadily in place regardless the cables I plugged in. I faced another small problem though while trying to connect my speaker cable with spades. It would have been so much easier if the speakers posts were bit longer to stick out outside back edge of the rack. Use cable terminated with bananas and you won't have any problem, of course, but spades and stiff cables are signs of serious trouble. That is the only thing I might humbly suggest Bakoon's designers to think about – maybe there is something they could do about it. Surely there will be some guys complaining about lack of remote control, but hey – that's for your won good! No remote forces you to move at least once in a while instead of spending several hours in a comfortable chair. Finally I started to listen. First impression – it got really quiet around. I just made sure I was comfortable enough in my chair (yeah, I like it comfortable too) and a moment later I forgot about the whole world going for my trip to the wonderful music world. Actually I started with one of the latest purchases – a RCA Red Label 10 CD box with recordings of my favorite Leontyne Price. I loved this deep, rich and powerful voice, this time shown quite close to me creating an immediate connection on emotional level. Even though this time I listened via speakers it reminded me a lot what I experienced recently when started an audition of HPA-21, a Bakoon's headphone amplifier perfectly matched with Sennheiser's HD800 (using current output). It was a totally different musical world from almost anything I had known before, which made it quite difficult to assess it using standard categories. What music lover would be able to assess bass, mids or treble while admiring wonderful Leontyne Price as a fiery gypsy in Carmen, or while witnessing how she was able to build an intense drama pointing listeners to the tragedy to come at the end, and all that just with her incredible voice? Would you really want to consider a timbre, or a texture of a voice of unforgettable Luciano Pavarotti while, with a smile on his face, he sings: O sole mio?! Or while you can „see” seriousness, fear and hope on his face when singing Nessun dorma from Turandot? There is no way you could when listening to that presented by Bakoon's AMP-12R. You just sit there trying not to lose any second of this wonderful performance as, on subconscious level, you fear that this is just one time experience. Obviously all you need to do is hit „replay”, but that's reasonable thinking that doesn't really work during first audition. You know what they say – you never forget the first time... (yes, I'm still talking about listening to the music). While listening to the same piece of music for a second or third time you know what to expect so while this is still an amazing experience it is not that intense as during the first time even if now you can probably spot some other elements of the performance that you haven't during first time. So I did the only thing I could think of – I played more and more recordings, acting bit like an adrenalin junky who needs a new rush over and over again. It took me a while to satisfy that rush and when I finally did I could start to try to analyze what I had heard. Vocals, meaning midrange obviously, were impressively rich, detailed, smooth and palpable. There was one more feature of the sound (not just midrange) that really stood out – its clarity and transparency – this might have been the key to the uniqueness of this performance. Bakoon presented both texture and timbre of voices in a very natural, yet detailed way. There was this, as I call it, „human element” in each and every voice – that's something that makes voices sound real, authentic, that creates a bond between vocalist and listener, that makes us believe that we listen to a blood and flesh person. Let me one more time point out to my experience with HPA-21 – my perception of this close contact was similar even though then I listened via headphones and now via speakers. Both devices surprised me as, to be honest, I don't really expect such an intense, emotional experience when auditioning solid-states device, that's something that very good SET amplifiers usually give me. So I have to express my respect for Bakoon designers as they achieved that with SATRI circuit and MOSFET transistors. That's one of the things I love about audio world – it always has some surprises for me hidden up its sleeve. In above mentioned recordings of Leontyne Price and Luciano Pavarotti they were, of course, accompanied by orchestras These might have played in the background but still played an important role. Bakoon, with both pairs of quite efficient speakers, was fully capable of delivering, in some scale of course, dynamics of an orchestra, even sudden changes of it, moving from a full scale forte to sudden piano and so on. What was very important was how detailed the sound still was even at the low levels. In an operatic music orchestra isn't really laid out in the space very well, but when I switched to Beethoven's IX, conducted by Boehm it all changed. Now there were rows, group of instruments nicely placed in both width and depth of the soundstage. Clarity of the sound and a very good resolution and selectivity Bakoon delivered allowed me to follow any chosen group of instruments, investigate timbre of strings or brass whenever I liked. Important thing was a very fluid, harmonic combined presentation of all instruments that allowed to perceive the orchestra as a one, huge instrument playing wonderful music in sync. It sounded truly mighty when needed at forte, but quite gently when it came to pianissimo. This particular recording of the IX symphony is conducted in a quite a fast pace and it's very dynamic, which made me like it so much but also made it a good testing material for amplifiers and speakers. AMP-12R passed this test smoothly which was kind of surprise considering its limited output power. After my initial experience with Bakoon presenting vocals I already knew it would deal with acoustic music with similar grace and class. It's mostly about midrange so if you hear amplifier playing vocals very nicely it will (almost always) play acoustic guitar, violin, or saxophone equally well. One of the recordings I used during Sugden IA-4 review was famous Jazz at the Pawnshop, so while having this experience freshly in my memory I decided to play the same record again. It was already clear for me that while I truly like both amps very much, AMP-12R and IA-4 offered different sonic characteristics. The former delivered very even frequency characteristic, without much ups or downs, the latter based on a powerful, deep bass and a very dense midrange that combined created an impression of slightly darker sound. So I wondered how would Bakoon make vibes sound, as I truly enjoyed the very rich, dense but still vibrant sound that British integrated delivered. Just as expected this time it sounded bit different, not that dense, but with slightly faster and more powerful attack and it ... well, for the lack of better word, it shined, glittered more. Wycliffe Gordon's trombone had a life-like „body”, a deep, powerful tone with a proper tad of harshness a brass should have. Kermit Ruffin's trumpet sounded in a similar, yet „lighter” way – very lively, sometimes smooth as silk that in a split of second turned into a razor almost hurting my ears. No matter how big the band, as long as recording allowed, Bakoon precisely placed each instrument in a particular place on stage, nicely defining which ones are closer, and which further away from listener. The only thing I might still wish for it to do was to add that amazing holographic imaging of each sound source that only best SET amplifiers are capable of. Bakoon left no space for doubts about which instrument stands where, what size is it of. It showed it as a 3D image but not as precisely shaped as, for example, Kondo Souga was capable of delivering. But hey! That's where our imagination come in – just close your eyes, and let your brain work. With that much information delivered our own personal computer will produce a very nice, precise image of the whole band. While I didn't want to give up acoustic music just yet, I also wanted to hear more fire, more energy, than most such recordings provide. There is probably no better way of doing that than just playing some acoustic heavy metal, as Rodrigo u Gabriela call their music themselves. Yup, there was a fire, there were tones of energy, and amazing dynamics just for two acoustic guitars. Bakoon delivered a proper mixture of strings and wood and spiced it up with proper speed and explosive dynamics. And while AMP-12R does not offer such a heavy, rich bass as Sugden does, pace & rhythm are still it's clear assets. And it worked not only in acoustic music. Australian veterans from AC/DC who followed Mexican duet, overflowed me with their incredible, never ending supply of energy, crazy pace, fantastic guitar playing and so on. Oh, I had a lot of fun delivered by 15W amp! What made a difference between those two amplifiers was not really bass extension, as it was very good in both cases, but how rich, how „heavy” the lowest notes were. Sugden simply placed more weight even to the lowest bass, while Bakoon focused rather on mid- and upper-bass. To be clear – when listening to the music that didn't bother me at all. Not even when listening to Ray Brown's or Isao Suzuki's double basses – there was very nice timbre, there was wood, dynamics, details on macro and micro scale – everything I expected was there even if this very, very low bass notes in Aquamarine were only heard and not felt. As I reviewed fantastic HPA-21 headamp shortly before AMP-12R I didn't really spend much time this time using headphone output. I simply loved HPA-21 with Sennheiser HD800 – that was a perfect match, but also with my Audeze LCD3 it was a very, very good setup (although I felt there was no such a ideal synergy as with HD800). As first of all AMP12-R was primarily an amplifier for speakers, and secondly I did not have HD800 anymore (which I expected also here to be the best match) I gave a headphone output only a short try, to find out it again sounded very good with LCD3. But if you have Audeze cans don't let me stop you for trying them with Bakoon amps – many people love such setup, and also these two companies (together with wonderful Klutz headphone stand) offer their products as a system, so no doubts that is a nicely matched setup. It delivers a rich, detail, rhythmically involving sound, with low, punchy bass, dense, smooth, colorful midrange, and quite impressive spacing. The only thing that stopped me from calling this setup a perfect one was lack of something that for example Schiit Mjolnir, or Sugden HA-4 did, as these two amps shed some light into the upper end of frequency range. I tired to explain that when reviewing Mjolnir – it is not about amp being bright in the upper end, not about making cans sound brighter. I compared it with photography – the more light you shed on the object the more details come out of shadows, to more you see, but it doesn't blind you, as simple brightness could. And it seems that both Bakoons lack this one thing for me to called them a perfect match for Audeze cans, at least from my perspective. After this short listening session with LCD3 I think it is safe to say, that headphone output of AMP-12R is: 1. a very good one; 2. similar in sonic characteristic to HPA-21; 3. not so far behind HPA-21 in terms of performance. And you need to remember that what you buy is an amplifier for your speakers and a great headphone output is just a welcomed bonus. Most of AMP-12R will never look for a separate head-amplifier. Summary Listening to various recordings I tried to catch Bakoon red-handed, so to speak, trying to color the sound I knew very well, change it in any way, but I failed. That was my impression from the very beginning – an amazing clarity and purity of the sound, playing exactly what comes from input, at least as far as the amp was capable of providing (vide lowest bass). This means that AMP-12R also differentiates recording very well, showing upsides and downsides of each of them. It is not highly analytical, doesn't point out those downsides of particular recording for you, but it doesn't hide them either. So even if it come to listening to some poorer recording it might still be acceptable as long as music itself is likable and involving letting you forget about „technicalities”. When it comes to high quality recordings it's your choice whether you want to study it in tiniest details, or just let the music flow take you away with it. And let me tell you that it is easy to let Bakoon charm you with the beauty of the music it plays, with palpability of the presentation, with real emotional connection with musicians and vocalists. It's an amazing performer – all you have to do it let it do its job by setting it up with some efficient speakers. AMP-12R, as Mr Soo In Chae explained, is not really an integrated amplifier, not in common understanding anyway. It is a power amp with gain control. It seems to look exactly like its predecessor, AMP-11R. It sports an external power supply, and is delivered together with a two-shelf, anti-vibration rack. Power supply sits on the lower shelf, while amp sits on the upper one. Power from one to the other is transferred with a red cable with solid multi-pin plugs. Twin casings for amp and power supply were both carved from aluminum blocks and both sport a metal bottom fixed with screws. A volume control is a horizontally placed, metal wheel, sitting in the upper right front corner of the device. A space for it was carved in the aluminum body of the casing so that it is not so easy to spot, as the wheel fits right in it. It would be nice if there was some scale next to the wheel making it easier to set required volume. It could be placed in the top, next to the wheel, maybe in a yellow color (like company's logo placed on the front) – that should look nice, and be useful. Fronts of both, amp and power supply, apart from already mentioned logo, sport one yellow LED. As the power supply is always on (unless you pull out the plug) also the LED is permanently on. As for amp, LED is on when amp is turned on. A tiny on/off switch sits on the side of the amplifier, next to the headphone output (for 6,3mm jack). On the back there are solid speakers posts from Cardas, one „regular” (meaning voltage) input (RCA) and one SATRI-link ( current input with BNC sockets). Between them there is another tiny switch operating as simple input selector. SATRI-link might be used only to connect another Bakoon device with proper output. For now there is a EQA-12R phonostage, but in the near future company is going to offer also a D/A converter and preamplifier with current outputs. Inside looks quite similar to the one of AMP-11R reviewed by Wojtek – a very similar circuit with a large main PCB with smaller ones with SATRI circuit and impressive, separate power supply. What what I learned from Bakoon the main difference is a new bias circuit. The new circuit controls the MOSFET pair simultaneously and achieves far more stability and linearity over the previous circuit, resulting more precision and details in sound. Technical specification (according to manufacturer): Maximum power output: 15 W (8 Ω, 1 kHz) Gain: 20 dB (max) Frequency response: 10 Hz - 1 MHz (gain at + 10 dB) Inputs: 1 x SATRI-LINK (BNC, current input) + 1 x RCA (voltage input) Input impedance: 3,68 Ω (SATRI-LINK) | 100 kΩ (RCA) Outputs: 5 way Cardas binding post | 6,35 mm headphone output Signal/Noise ratio < 50 μV (gain at + 0 dB) DC Offset: < 1 mV Power consumption: 20 W (idle) | 50 W (max) Dimensions: 195 mm (W) x 195 mm (D) x 40,5 mm (H) Weight: 6,4 kg

ever before, until now, have I seen or heard products from Auralic located in Hong Kong. While “High Fidelity” has published a review of the Auralic ARK MX+ D/A converter, its author was Marek Dyba, not me. In the conclusion he stated that it was a fine device performing great on both ends of the frequency range that slightly overshadowed the midrange. He saw its place in systems with a dominating midrange that needed some “opening up” on both ends. The ARK MX+ got favorite reviews from all over the world, including Srajan Ebaen from 6moons.com (see HERE). The owner and editor of this Swiss (earlier Cypriot and earlier still American) magazine emphasized its mature functionality and bode well for its future. As it turned out, he was right. Even then, two years ago, the work started on a more advanced flagship converter, the Vega. Presented for the first time at High End Show 2013 in Munich (see HERE) it gained immediate recognition. Called by its designers the “Next-Generation Component”, it houses a D/A converter and preamplifier in one enclosure. The DAC receives PCM signals with up to 32-byte word length and 384 kHz sampling frequency (read: Digital eXtreme Definition [DXD]) AND DSD 2.8224 MHz (DSD64) and 4.6448 MHz (DSD128). The latter two seem to be increasingly recognized as a natural complement to converter capabilities, as both the recently reviewed Mytek Stereo 192-DSD and the Ayon Audio Stratos I reviewed for the Polish “Audio” support that format. This wide functionality is becoming a standard and the sound itself started fighting hard for its rights. To achieve the feat, the engineers from Hong Kong dived right in the middle of the issue and instead of assembling the device from ready-made components and modules they decided to program the processor themselves, writing appropriate algorithms and digital filters. Recognizing the capabilities of their newborn baby they did not call it “DAC” but “Digital Audio Processor” instead. The heart of the device is a multi-core micro-processor with ARM9 architecture, running at 1000 MIPS. Femto Master Clock was used, i.e. a clock with extremely low phase distortion. It is based on a quartz oscillator used in space projects, complex power supply and temperature change compensating circuit. In effect, the jitter is down to 82 fs (femtoseconds!). Such precise clocks are extremely rare and even then the price tag is sky high, like the Platinum DAC IV from MSB. There are some clock-related settings in the menu that are user adjustable. The Vega user is allowed to adjust the sound to his/her own system and taste. There are six digital filters to choose from – four for the PCM signal and two for the DSD. They were optimized based on auditions followed by adjustments. Unfortunately, the selected digital filter is not displayed on the huge and extremely easy to read front display and to change it you have to enter the menu. The unit has five digital inputs, including USB with the proprietary Active USB circuit. The enclosure has been given a careful thought and is not made of aluminum but of the special AFN402 alloy including iron, nickel, silicon and rare earth metals. To further minimize vibrations, the enclosure components are coated with a special material called Alire Resonance Damper, consisting of several layers of different materials. A few simple words from… Wang Xuanqian | President & CEO As it can be seen, AURALiC is focused both on two-channel and headphone systems. Our current product lineup includes the VEGA, the TAURUS PRE and the MERAK for two-channel systems and the GEMINI 2000/1000 and the TAURUS MKII for those that use headphones. Three years ago we started thinking about a D/A converter with asynchronic USB input and as a result the ARK MX was our first design that came to life (replaced later by the ARK MX+). The ARK MX+ turned out to win us many awards and found its way to many audio systems. A year ago we came up with a new design called the VEGA. It was the first D/A converter to accept the DSD, double DSD and DXD signal. We were the first to offer the Femto Clock at a reasonable price. A year later the Vega is still a top product and is used by well-known audio reviewers as a reference DAC in a number of systems. We have recently launched the GEMINI, a headphones dock, which is another revolutionary product that features a DAC and Class A headphone amplifier. The Gemini immediately won a reward at CES audio show for its unique design. Many people are wondering what the next step will be. As you can see, the only product we are still lacking is a source. And to be frank, we have been working for years on a network streamer platform (yes, it is a whole platform rather than a single product) and now we are ready to conclude our work. This product has so many functions that you would find it hard to even imagine them. We are going to launch it at the next year’s show in Munich. It will be another component to redefine the audio business. Digital audio is undergoing very rapid changes, more rapid that people can imagine. AURALiC will always be in the vanguard of technological changes and will try to implement new technologies in real world products at a reasonable price. Albums auditioned during this review CDs Black Sabbath, 13, Vertigo/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICN-1034/5, 2 x SHM-CD (2013). David Sylvian, Sleepwalkers, P-Vine Records, PVCP-8790, CD (2011). Depeche Mode, Should Be Higher, Columbia Records 758332, SP CD (2013). Mel Tormé, The Legend of Mel Tormé, Going For A Song GFS360, CD (?). Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells, Mercury Records/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICY-40016, Platinum SHM-CD (1973/2013). Mills Brothers, Swing Is The Thing, History 20.3039-HI, “The Great Vocalists of Jazz & Entertainment”, CD (?). Mills Brothers, Spectacular, Going for a Song GFS275, CD (?). Siekiera, ”Nowa Aleksandria”, Tonpress/MTJ cd 90241, 2 x CD (1986/2012). Hi-Res audio files Opus3 DSD Showcase, Opus3, DFF 2,6 MHz + DFF 5,2 MHz. Opus3 DSD Showcase2, Opus3, DFF 2,6 MHz + DFF 5,2 MHz. Charlie Haden & Antonio Forcione, Heartplay, Naim Label, 24/96 FLAC, źródło: NaimLabel. Dead Can Dance, Anastasis, [PIAS] Entertainment Group, PIASR311CDX, "Special Edition Hardbound Box Set", CD+USB drive 24/44,1 WAV (2012); Depeche Mode, Delta Machine, Columbia Records/Sony Music Japan SICP-3783-4, FLAC 24/44,1, źródło: HDTracks (2013); Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Columbia/Legacy/Sony Music Entertainment, FLAC 24/192, mono i stereo [źródło: HDTracks] (1959/2013). The Joe Holland Quartet, Klipsch Tape Reissues Vol.II, Klipsch, DFF 5,6 MHz (1955, 67/2013). Japanese editions of CDs and SACDs are available at The Vega is not a budget DAC. It is considerably more expensive than the Mytek Stereo 192-DSD, the main “dealer” among PCM/DSD DACs. On the other hand, it is half the price of the Vaughan from M2Tech (see HERE) and the Ayon Stratos mentioned earlier. It is not as versatile as the others as it does not feature analog inputs (and analog pre-amp) or headphone amplifier. At a closer look, though, and I am talking functionality here, the verdict can be different. As I have emphasized, the headphone amplifier is something extra in the Mytek and it does not appear in the Ayon at all. Analog inputs in the Ayon are useful but only when our system includes a turntable, FM tuner, reel-to-reel or cassette deck. This is highly unlikely, though, as the standard today is one or more digital sources. There is still a matter of digital volume control in the DAC from Hong Kong. For me, it always sound inferior to analog volume control and I almost always prefer the sound of an active pre-amp regardless of its location, whether built in the CD player or a standalone unit. Great many systems based on modern sound sources, mainly a computer, will actually be friendly with the Vega volume control, i.e. potential gains from using an external device for that purpose will be greater that losses, such as the need for additional device, additional pair of interconnects and a power cord, another remote and further system complication. Hence, I do understand those who will see volume numbers other than “100” on the DAC display. Having said that, I kneel and touch the Vega tenderly as it gives something I have longed for: its technical design aspects are not made to serve the PR, nor do they strive for higher definition and purity at the loss of body. Employing the technologies I mentioned earlier, backed up with multiple auditions and probably some other factors that I am not aware of and never will be, resulted in fulfilling their purpose – they provide an extremely resolving and selective sound but the resolution and selectiveness are “hidden” behind the sound. This is not the best DAC I know. My CD player plays CDs better, even compared against high resolution files on the Vega. Not in every aspect, as there are elements that are unquestionably better on the Auralic, but my overall opinion was biased by the fact that I preferred CDs to audio files. The difference was minimal, though; much smaller than I am used to comparing other similar devices. I reviewed only three, maybe four that were clearly better than my Lektor. They were the Accuphase DP-9000/DC-901, the Ancient Audio Lektor Grand SE and maybe the Platinium IV system from MSB Technology. I would also add the Mark Levinson No. 512 in certain aspects. The price of the first three is one order of magnitude higher than that of the Vega; the No. 512 is four times more expensive. More or less, of course, as the prices may differ from country to country. I did not exactly kneel, though; I just wanted to precisely convey my feelings when listening to the DAC. “Kneeling” stood for my respect and joy for the so-called “presence”. Religious readers should understand what I meant. The device differentiates recordings, instruments, sounds, details and acoustics in an unbelievable way. It does not drag the problems to the front or boast by presenting them, but we know, nevertheless, what is going on. If analog tape-sourced recordings feature a slight noise, it is constantly present as a soft background. It gives real touch and credibility to the presentation. The same happens with older recordings. During this review I listened to CDs with material recorded in the 1930s and 1940s of the last century. I might be getting older. Or, maybe, it simply turns out that what says the most about the sound quality is the way the device builds its structure, the information about the depth of sounds and the freedom of transition between them and the way the DAC handles the recordings’ shortcomings. Those elements are best audible on those recordings. I prefer the second option. It reminds me what I heard while reviewing the pimped up Stratos DAC/preamp from Austrian Ayon. But then it was a Class A, zero feedback, tube-based output unit, powered by a full-wave tube rectifier with anode voltage filtration solely on huge polypropylene capacitors (no electrolytes!). The Auralic is painfully modern, i.e. it has not much to do with vacuum. There are some intersecting points, though. What drew my attention was the way the Vega builds the instrument bodies. The DAC does it like a pro, i.e. the way that constitutes the high-end, not fooling around with detailness and other crap. I was presented with a very clear foreground that extended deep into the soundstage in every dimension. It seemed tall at the same time. The vocals of Mills Brothers became absolutely three-dimensional, almost holographic, although these are mono recordings from the 1930s. The presentation seemed a bit warm – I will talk about it later – and energetic, as a teenager in a coeducational tent. At the same time the sound had one hell of a resolution. To verify that, I compared several Mills Brothers tracks released by Going For A Song on a much better looking double album Trumpets of Jericho. The former wins in every aspect, especially its consistency. It might just be due to the CEDAR remastering system used there. The Vega presented both versions in a pleasant way. From the very beginning it was clear, though, that if something had a more saturated and fuller midrange, it would be identified and emphasized. In this case it translates into a deep refined sound. I usually divide my descriptive part into what happens with the standard CD signal, i.e. 16-byte 44.1 kHz, and with high resolution files. There is no need for that here. The dividing line is mainly between the signal from the external CD drive and from the computer, or in a broader picture between PCM and DSD files. C’est la vie. The Vega’s USB input is extraordinary. In my opinion it comes very close to the Platinium IV MSB Technology mentioned earlier. The latter was the best USB DAC I’d ever heard. Image stability, its substance and depth were exceptional. Still, I could not shake off the impression that the same records played on physical media sounded even deeper and more natural. Comparing their high resolution versions I had more breath and better macro dynamics, but the elements I am talking about remained the same. And they are decisive, for me at least, when it comes to presentation fidelity and its ability to enter the mind and heart. One can always argue that having an even better “equipped” computer would make me change my mind. This just might be, but my experience suggests otherwise. All this applies to PCM files, though. DSD files sounded different, especially DSD128. It breaks my heart to think how few files will be available in this format and most of those will be some audiophile garbage. It is the second or maybe third time that I can hear a DAC that is fed the signal from a computer, which sounds the way audiophiles have always dreamt about, since the time that digital source became the main method of music distribution. DSD has its weaknesses that I described in my Mytek review. But right now, to my knowledge, it is the best existing format. It might just be that people responsible for preparing those files pay more careful attention to their work than in the case of PCM files, and that the latter could sound better still. Maybe, but here and now the reality is that DSD recordings sound exceptional. As I said, I did not divide the review into separate parts for CDs and audio files. The reason being that the Auralic handles both in a similar way. With the albums where most important is the midrange, it emphasizes just that. With those that have a proper tonal balance, the bottom and top ends are strong. The bass is emphasized in the region responsible for the kick drum and electric guitar sound. These are strong and energetic, slightly dominating some of the recordings. They often benefit from that as this type of boost is positive for the overall tonal balance, but on classical recordings the accent is shifted down. The top end also seems to be slightly emphasized, but in a very attractive way. With albums like David Sylvian’s Sleepwalkers, where the vocals of ex-Japan member are very strong and forward but still on a verge of tonal correctness, even such slight interference draws our attention to sibilants. They are not overabundant – that is not the point – but are simply more “present”. On the other hand, the albums that have some inherent problems, like the vocals on Siekiera’s Nowa Aleksandria did not show any abnormalities. It very much depends on a particular recording. Summary The best digital sources I know, and to some extent also my Lektor AIR, will present a more refined gradation of the sound depth and holographic instrument presentation as well as the room response. At first glance, the differences do not seem profound and are easy to swallow even for me. One should remember, though, that it can still be improved. One will be hard pressed, however, to find any weak points in the presentation of space as a whole. Phantom images have considerable body depth, which by itself puts the Vega in a unique place. It can be heard in the most astounding way with DSD recordings, where space is as natural as that from a top turntable. It has a proper consistency and bass foundation, giving the instruments a big volume as if performing live. This is an exceptional DAC. Moreover, it is really not that expensive, at least if we consider the components it is compared to. It is easy and pleasant to operate, slender, equipped with a splendid front display and offering plenty of settings. It also sounds as a tube component. I am sure this is due to lower jitter and proper processing of the digital signal. Apparently, people from Auralic know the field inside and out. The DAC receives the RED Fingerprint Award. Since it already received an award from “6moons.com”, it also receives a joint “High Fidelity” and “6moons.com” BLUE Fingerprint Award. The Auralic Vega arrived at my place in a special moment. Either just before or at the same time, I had the pleasure to put my hands on a couple of very interesting DACs – the MSB Analog DAC from, the Ayon Audio Stratos and the Mytek Stereo 192-DSD. Each one of them sported a different set of features but all of them proved to be great. The Vega seems to offer the best value for money and is only slightly inferior to the two most expensive units. The only DAC that was clearly better was the Reimyo DAP-999EX Limited. Their character was very similar but the Japanese converter came out on top in every aspect. But only with CDs. The Vega was tested with the Ayon Audio CD-T transport (Philips CD-Pro2 LF) and the Ancient Audio Lektor AIR V-edition CD player (Philips CD-Pro2 LF). The USB input was fed the signal from my HP Pavilion dv7 laptop with Windows 8 Professional x64, 8GB RAM, 128SSD + 520GB HDD, and JPLAY/foobar2000. As with the Mytek, I experienced problems with sending native DSD files. I would like to thank (again) for the help of Marcin Ostapowicz, the owner of JPLAY, who solved all the problems. This kind of help is of paramount importance in case of computers – the Vega comes with a free copy of JPLAY software. The computer was connected via the Acoustic Revive USB-1.0PLS cable and the JCAT cable (JPLAY Computer Audio Transport). The DAC rested on three Franc Audio Accessories Ceramic Disc Classic feet and the Acoustic Revive RIQ-5010W quartz insulators. I put a couple of books on top of it to further dampen the slightly “working” top panel. The power supply was fed via the Harmonix X-DC350M2R Improved-Version power cord. The test itself had a character of an A/B comparison with the A and B known. The music samples were 2 minutes long and whole albums were also auditioned. A few simple words from… Marcin Ostapowicz | JPLAY – owner The best results with the Vega can be achieved when connected to a computer via USB. To raise the bar even higher, each Vega sold in USA is provided with a full version of JPlay free of charge. I have no other option but do the same here, in Poland. In terms of computer requirements, it should have a rather fast CPU (at least 2-core; four would be great), at least 4 GB of RAM and Windows 8. This configuration allows JPlay to offer the best performance, with all playback modes including the most recent UltraStream, thought to be the best by many. It is worth setting the buffer to minimum both in JPlay and Vega control panels. The improvement will be audible at no cost whatsoever. One should also remember that the DAC will perform at its best an hour after being switched on; the most precise Exact clock mode activates after that time. I also recommend to pay attention to the USB cable quality. This often underestimated component can bring significant sonic improvement. The stylistic design of Auralic products seems to be well thought out and matches the demands of a modern, computer audio oriented music lover as well of those with a more traditional knack. The latter, usually older than not, will appreciate the excellent, pretty and legible orange OLED display screen. It will tell them the currently selected source, volume level, master clock setting as well as input signal sampling frequency. In case of DSD signal, the information will read “DSD64” or “DSD128”. Inputs have pretty associated icons. There is no information about the selected digital filter, though. The display is also a convenient interface to move around the menu, which is quite elaborate. In addition to the already mentioned settings, one can control channel balance, absolute signal phase and other useful things. The front panel, apart from the display screen, features a knob that acts as a button and encoder. We can use it to adjust the volume level and to navigate around the menu. There are five inputs – two coaxial (2xRCA; one BNC wouldn’t be out of place), AES/EBU, optical TOSLINK and USB. All of them receive PCM signal from 44.1 kHz (the display will show this as 44.1 KS/s) to 192 kHz and 24 bytes. The USB input is much more versatile as it is capable of DSD64 (2.8224 MHz), DSD128 (5.6448 MHz) and PCM up to 32-bit, 352.8 and 384 kHz. The PCM input signal is converted to 32-bit and upsampled to 1.5 MHz. The input connecters are from Cardas – with rhodium contacts – and the XLRs are from Neutrik with gold contacts. The enclosure has already been described; I’ll just add that the unit rests on three feet. Although the whole electronics is mounted on a single PCB, it is divided with a screen into two sections: input and the converter proper. Next to the inputs we see isolating components. RCA and XLR connectors are coupled via impedance matching transformers, and the USB input features a receiver with power supply. The signal then goes to a massive DSP chip with the ‘Auralic Sanctuary Audio Processor. Powered by Archwave’ print on it. Archwave is a Swiss company that specializes in audio signal processing. There are only a handful of companies that can afford such advanced customization. The DSP chip includes a digital receiver, upsampler and digital filters. The same part of enclosure also houses a power supply with a large Schaffner filter and sizable toroid transformer with three secondary circuits, separate for each section. On the other side of the screen there is the DAC part. The input stage sports DAC chips in a metal enclosure together with master clocks. It is supposed to improve circuit temperature stability. Unfortunately, I have no idea about the DAC chips used. I/U conversion is based on IT OPA1621, accompanied by nice Wima and Elna capacitors. Near the output there is a buffer and output amplifier stage. It is placed inside metal “caps” and filled with epoxy to eliminate vibrations. The modules sport a heat sink mounted to the top. It comes handy as the output circuits operate in Class-A. Their topology was designed in-house and they are called ORFEO Class-A Output Modules. As described in the company literature, it is based on the amplifying circuits of the legendary Neve 8078 mixing console. The components are surface mount and temperature stabilized. The DAC can handle ultra-low impedance loads, down to 600 Ω. The assembly quality, both mechanical and electrical, is top notch. The remote control included is a generic unattractive plastic unit. MICRO-TEST JCAT USB JPLAY produces specialized software dedicated to the playback of computer audio files. JPLAY software player is used by many leading audio reviewers all over the world. Some time ago, Marcin Ostapowicz (the owner) decided to extend his product lineup. He worked on the assumption that while he provides a great software tool, he has absolutely no influence on what happens to the signal after it leaves the computer. Relying on his experience and tests in his own system, he prepared several products intended to improve the signal coming out of computer and also became a distributor of several brands of products that were designed, as he says, with a similar philosophy to his own. One of the new products from JPLAY is the JCAT USB cable. I saw it for the first time at the Audio Show 2013, where Marcin told me a few things about it. Its mere look says a lot about it – the cable has got exceptional connectors. While it might seem that the connectors “do not play”, the truth is to the contrary. I thought that Acoustic Revive from Japan use top shelf connectors and I was right, but the JCAT sports even better ones. The conductors are made of silver coated stranded copper wire (20% silver) in Teflon isolation. The plugs with anodized aluminum body have standard USB impedance of 90 Ω. I compared this cable to my reference Acoustic Revive USB-1.0SPS which in turn replaced the former USB-1.0SP. This is the cable with separate signal and power runs, which is why we have two plugs at the computer end instead of one. It allows for yet another upgrade, i.e. connecting the power plug to a battery power supply. Before the audition I did some online reading, interested in opinions where the names of Acoustic Revive and JCAT occurred in the same sentence. To be honest, I ended up in the same place as many of “High Fidelity” readers who write to me. I found as many different opinions as the number of their authors, and each next opinion seemed to be more radical. This would confirm my hunch about the importance of audio magazines in our “online” world, where audio salons with their experts virtually died out, and what remains is just distributing stores and the real sales take place online. In this new reality, the importance of knowledge centers is even greater and is still growing. Contrary to common expectations, the greater number of opinions does not translate into their quality and does not help in a better understanding of a given issue. The comparison between the Japanese and Polish cables yielded very interesting results. The JCAT sounded smoother, more pastel-like. In turn, the AR sound was deeper and set a bit lower. It was also darker. It seemed to have more air and better resolution. But it is not the case where I would bet all my money on the one or other interconnect. JCAT’s presentation is exceptionally well balanced and coherent. The AR sounds s bit raw in comparison. The JCAT is a great cable. For its performance and build quality, it is also very reasonably priced. The AR shows some characteristics that are undoubtedly better. However, the differences are so small that JCAT’s slightly different, more pastel-like presentation could even prove better in some systems. Price: 349 euro 299 euro (special price for JPLAY owners) Shipping costs – 10 euro jplay.eu Technical Specifications Frequency Response: 20 - 20 kHz (+/- 0.1 dB) THD + N:

ingle-ended triode (SET): an ultimate dream of many music lovers, usually these more experienced ones, people who consider a fall of the Berlin Wall an event of quite recent history, and not something that happened when they were kids. An age of said dreaming person is a key to understanding this phenomenon. It is not about deterioration of human hearing, but about something else. Some loss of hearing especially of high frequencies is inevitable for each of us, so unless our brain is able to compensate for that, our perception of sound has to degrade over time. But time, or age gives us also an advantage – an experience that we gain over time. As long as our experience doesn't become a routine, we can benefit from it. What does experience tell us about amplifiers? It tells us that unless our favorite music is heavy metal, or some other alike, or we need some ultra-low bass, or we have a huge room, than the best possible option is a SET amplifier, preferably with a single power tube per channel offering output power as low as 5-8W. The only distortions such a device produces are even harmonics, that are interpreted by our hearing as elements of basic sound. On the other hand push-pull amplifiers, that are a majority of products available on the market, deliver mostly odd harmonics, that result in some harshness and nervousness of the sound. Obviously, it is not a golden rule, it works but not in each and every case. I can easily name some examples like Lavardin IT-15, Jeff Rowland 625, or Dan D’Agostino Momentum Stereo, all of them not fitting to solid-state push-pull stereotype at all. On the other hand there are some tube amplifiers, some from Ayon Audio for example, that offer very open, dynamic sound despite having only a single triode in the output stage. Anyway this stereotype I described above is still quite popular and followed by a lot of people. SET means single-ended triode, which is a tube amplifier that sports a single triode tube in the output stage. This is quite a popular solution still today. There are also some variations of SET design like parallel single-ended triode, with two (or more) triodes working in parallel in each channel, or even a penthode single-ended, with a penthode or tetrode working in single-ended setup. All these designs are quite popular today and we've already got used to them. Solid-state amplifiers are a different story. Almost all of them are push-pull designs. The variations base on different types of transistors – bipolar, or field-polar ones (MOSFET, HEXFET, etc.) and on different types of push-pull configurations. But the solid-state amps working in single-ended setup come extremely rare. To understand why we need to realize why solid-state amplifiers were introduced in the first place. Obviously transistors were supposed to replace tubes. A transistor was smaller, more effective, less noisy and more reliable. There was one downside though - transistors required more complex circuits, but for a long time designers weren't bothered by that. Over time designers learned of more issues of such designs but it was too late for history to make another turn and for majority of designers to go back to tubes. But fortunately tubes haven't died off, they found their niche on the market making many people quite happy about it. One the main advantages of transistors was a high output power they were able to deliver. To push the power boundary even further designers use transistors in push-pull setup. Such setup offers also some other than high power advantages, like much lower harmonic distortion. So in fact designing a low-power, single-ended solid-state amplifier goes against currently effective canon. So where the idea of building a single-ended solid-state amplifier came from? Why such a serious engineers like for example Nelson Pass (Pass Labs) or Colin Wonfor (Tellurium Q) decided to build SE transistor amps? The answer is very simple: it's about the sound such amps deliver. Srajan Ebaen, a man who loves his single driver speakers is also one of the biggest admirers of single-ended solid-state amplifiers. He's been using FirstWatt (a second brand of Nelson Pass) for a long time, and also a while ago he sold off all his tube amplifiers to „make a room” for SIT-1 monos (see HERE). Those use a single silicon-carbide power JFet output device exclusive to Pass which at its operating point exhibits true triode curves. This amp provides 10 W per channel. Nelson Pass is not the only one who prefers this type of design. A British company renown for its unique cables, Tellurium Q offers now also electronics, including a power amplifier called Iridium 20 (now in its second incarnation, which is easy to differentiate from a previous one because of its red power button). It's a large device working in a single-ended mode with MOSFETs in the output stage, without any capacitors in signals path (DC-coupled), that utilizes an interesting way of bias setting. This amplifier offers 18W per channel for 8 Ω loading, but only 9 W for 4 Ω (which is quite the opposite proportion to what we know from classic amplifiers, working as a perfect current source – I'm quoting „HiFi World” here). It's output impedance is very low which resulted in quite high damping factor: 93. To achieve such a high damping factor designers used two, working in parallel, N-channel transistors. These operate with a high voltage (100 VDS) and impressive threshold working temperature of 175ºC. The supply voltage is regulated by a pair of bipolar transistors. No capacitors in the output stage and low distortion in an open-loop came from the philosophy of Tellurium Q designers. According to them what „kills” music is a phase distortion. So their main aim when designing both, cables and electronics, is to minimize it. After a short test of a Ultra Black speaker cable I conducted I was simply amazed with what these guys had achieved with this not so complexed design. So when I agreed with a distributor a review of this amp I requested also Tellurium Q cables to be delivered with it, because I assumed only then Iridium would really shine. I received a Black Diamond IC (preamp-amp), Black Diamond speaker cable and Black Power power cord. You should treat this test as a review of a whole Tellurium Q system – amplifier + cables, although you can check for our separate review of cable set in January. During this test Iridium worked in a system with Ayon Audio Polaris III preamplifier and Dan D’Agostini Momentum Preamplifier. It drove my own Harbeth M40.1 speakers, but also JBL S3900. Tellurium Q in HighFidelity.pl MicroTEST: Tellurium Q ULTRA BLACK – speaker cable, see HERE Recordings used during audition (a selection) Antonio Caldara, Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo, dyr. René Jacobs, wyk. Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Harmonia Mundi France HMC 905221.22, 2 x CD (1996/2002). Black Sabbath, 13, Vertigo/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICN-1034/5, 2 x SHM-CD (2013). Can, Tago Mago. 40th Anniversary Edition, Spoon Records/Hostess K.K. (Japan) 40SPOON6/7J, 2 x Blu-Spec CD (1971/2011). Carmen McRae, Carmen McRae, Bethlehem/JVC VICJ-61458, K2HD CD (1955/2007). Charlie Haden, The Private Collection, The Naim Label naimcd108, 2 x CD (2007). Clifford Jordan Quartet, Glass Bead Games, Strata-East/Bomba Records BOM24104, CD (1973/2006). Massive Attack, Heligoland, Virgin Records 996094662, CD (2010). Mel Tormé, Mel Tormé sings Fred Astaire, Bethlehem/JVC VICJ-61457, K2HD CD (1956/2007). Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells, Mercury Records/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICY-40016, Platinum SHM-CD (1973/2013). Mills Brothers, Spectacular, Going for a Song GFS275, CD (?). Nat “King” Cole, Welcome to the Club, Columbia/Audio Fidelity AFZ 153, SACD/CD (1959/2013). Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Atlantic Records/ORG Music ORGM-1081, SACD/CD (1959/2013). Sting, All This Time, A&M Records 212354-2, SP CD (1991). Vangelis, Blade Runner, soundtrack, reż. Ridley Scott, Atlantic Records/Audio Fidelity AFZ 154, “Limited Numbered Edition No. 2398”, SACD/CD (1982/2013). Japanese editions of CDs and SACDs are available from One of the ground rules of any scientific development or experiment is gathering as much information that is already available on the subject as possible. Our business, audio, is no different, as what we are trying to do is to assess products qualities using our hearing. So when I got such an interesting product as Iridium 20 for a review/assessment I simply had no choice but to look for any and every information I could find, or get on it, from the net, or via email. There is quite a lot of information in previous tests, there are some on manufacturer's website too. Not all technical details are revealed though, but what we have is still more than what's given about Tellurium Q cables as manufacturer share no information about their design at all. I found some things very interesting like a comparison Srajan Ebaen used in his review. He wrote that while class A, especially SE solid-states amp could be compared to SET amplifiers, Tellurium Q reminded him more of a SE, class A amp but based on a single penthode per channel rather then triode. Another thing that caught my attention was Marek Dyba mentioning in his integrated amplifier Sugden Masterclass IA-4 review, a 33W, class A machine, that the way it sounded reminded him somehow of Audeze LCD-3 headphones. Both Srajan and Marek refer to a very specific group of products, class A solid-state amplifiers. And it seems that both of them stick to a stereotype of a class A amplifier, even if they did some deconstruction of it, and refer it to it indirectly. This stereotype associates this type of amplifier with a warm, deep sound, with a delicate treble and poorly controlled bass. As any stereotype also this one has some real bases for it – it is true that a lot of solid-state amplifiers with a bias set to rather high values sounded like that – Sugden A21, Pass Aleph 0, or Musical Fidelity A1 to name just a few. But a lot has changed since then. Modern, nicely build class A amplifiers offer different sound today, like, for example, Accuphase A65 and A200, or tube amplifiers like most SETs Ayon Audio offer. Iridium 20 is an example of yet another approach to the topic. Before we move to the actual sound description I need to mention few other things about this amplifier and its everyday's usage. I'd say that this is a device for so called „hardcore” audiophiles. Simply put there are things about it that many people will find unacceptable. First of all there is a loud „puff” you will hear in your speakers each time when you turn amplifier on or off. That was pretty loud already with not so sensitive Harbeths, even louder with JBLs, so I can't even imagine how loud does it get with high-sensitivity speakers Iridium is in fact designed to work with. It happens because there are no capacitors nor coils, that were not used in this design because they introduced phase distortions. To be clear – this „puff” no matter how loud should not damage speakers, but it will get on user's nerves so many of them will go for another amplifier, just not hear that sound. Another bit problematic issue is how hot radiators, hence enclose get. All class A amplifiers get hot, some, like above mentioned A200, get even hotter. But in this particular case every 3 hours amplifier overheated and turned off. The safety measures put in place for situations like this worked like a charm so each time, after cooling down, I could play music again. To speed up the process I used hair dryer. It looks like to total surface of radiator is not big enough, should be bigger to ensure that amplifier wouldn't overheat. Using some coolers is an alternative but this always create some level of noise. It is possible that with different speakers of higher impedance problem will be gone. But listening to this amplifier provoked me to argue with above mentioned stereotype, and that's obviously a good thing. The sound of Iridium 20 is quite characteristic and can't be really confused with any other amp I know. It offers huge, expansive sound. I takes you by surprise with powerful range extremes and impressive micro-dynamics At the same time nicely extended, powerful bass lacks some control. Neither with Harbeths, nor with JBLs I managed to overcome that – I couldn't get tight, punchy bass I was used to. Well, I could probably solve that issue using speakers that didn't play lowest bass at all, or with lowest tone seriously rolled off. So this is where Iridium 20 fits into the above mentioned stereotype of class A, s-s amp. When I listened to Charlie Haden from The Private Collection his double bass sounds were sustained too long, or extended for a longer time they should have been. I was still fun to listen to but it was also clear that there was no true „fidelity” to the recording. The other extreme was quite impressive though. Its openness and great resolution reminded me of the best SET amplifiers. I have no doubts that this is what Iridium's designers were after, as the quality of treble that this amp delivers is so much better than anything most of solid-state competitors offer. Maybe not in all aspects, but surely in majority of them that „overwhelm” those slightly less impressive ones. Considering how well it fit into the whole context I was truly amazed. The point is that most solid-state amplifiers present treble that is at least slightly muffled and lack bit of dynamics. Usually you can't really hear that as speakers cover it up, but if you know exactly what to look for you will notice that each time. Only the top, very expensive devices are able to get rid (mostly) of that indigenous feature of solid-state technology. But even these can't offer such an openness and resolution that would properly deliver all the correlations between particular sounds, bigger structures and then sound within these structures. In fact solid-states do the opposite – try to enhance resolution and selectivity to achieve more detailed sound and basing on that build something more. So they try to achieve something that's indigenous to high quality SET amps. Iridium 20 seems to come close to those SETs. The way this amp presents both frequency range extremes has a large influence on how we perceive its sound. But it would be a mistake to describe a sound of Iridium 20 as a one of both extremes pushed forward. It's a sort of phenomena I come across in audio every now and then. The amount of bass and treble does not determine our perception of a midrange, midrange is not rolled off. After a while I realized that the whole range is very energetic, vigorous and demanding my full attention. But since bass and treble get our attention more easily that's what we perceive at first. At least until we play some vocals. Then you realize that all you thought you already knew about this amplifier is not so obvious any more. To verify that I listened to many recordings coming from Bethlehem label, re-issued as K2HD by JVC. Regardless if it was Mel Tormé from Mel Tormé sings Fred Astair, or Carmen McRae, or any other vocalist, each and every time Tellurium Q delivered a large, rich voice right in front of me. There was a slight emphasis on upper part of each voice, right below sibilants. That opened sound right in front of a listener, so to speak. And it felt like it complemented very well everything that was shown in frequencies below this one. And this sounded very... „mature”, I don't know how else I could call that. This emphasis on an upper midrange is a part of both above mentioned recordings, and Iridium 20 did nothing about it – just delivered it as it was recorded. When it came to some „smoother” recordings like Nat King Cole's Welcome to the Club this emphasis was gone which proved the Iridium's ability of differentiating recordings really nicely. It was not about simple „brighter or darker” presentation, but about de-constructing presentation in such a way that would allow brighter recording sound bit bright, a smoother ones smooth. In both cases it was clear that this amazingly open treble „ruled”, but it „ruled” in a different way depending on the recording. But when it came to some recordings with no treble at all, like additional pieces on McRae's album, Iridium 20 offered me a warm, sensual voice, without even as much as a trace of brightness, harshness or anything else that could spoil this amazing performance. Jazz wasn't the only music that sounded spectacular with Tellurium Q. Although, as I mentioned, bass could be better defined, but that might be an issue only with the recording, that were taken with microphones placed very closely to instrument (Haden's recording is a good example here). When I played jazz from 1950ties there was no problem at all, as at that time bass was recorded with different microphone placement. Also when I listened to Vangelis I didn't have a problem with bass as I simply had no idea how it was supposed to sound. I mean I had my vision of it gained by listening to this recording on different systems, but it was about my vision, or preference and not the „real” sound, as I couldn't possible knew it. When playing Blade Runner, on Audio Fidelity CD , Iridium 20 delivered large, deep soundstage, and was able to create an unforgettable ambiance of that movie. This ambiance was build up with details, that Tellurium Q show in a pretty intense way, but they don't just exist on their own, but rather are a part of something bigger, of some point this kind of presentation is trying to make. Summary What Tellurium Q is offering is so different from anything available today on the market that it is really difficult to say who's gonna like it and who's not. It should be used with Tellurium cables as they help to shape the final sound. It gets warm as hell so I would recommend to use speakers with way above average sensibility and impedance. It won't offer crazy volume levels so most likely it's not the best possible partner for heavy rock and heavy metal fans. It should attract attention of people who look for sound that is different from anything else, who know exactly what they want. Jazz, vocals, electronic music (the last one was quite a surprise) – that's what you need to play to witness this amplifier to „come to life”, to really shine. Instruments have true bodies, sound is amazingly open, and treble resolution is remarkable. It reminded me of best performers among SET amps, although rather these with 845 and 211 tubes, than 300B or 2A3. Bass that is not so well controlled won't be an issue with properly chosen speakers. With the right ones it will still be rather on the „soft” side, but it shouldn't be a real issue. And there will be plenty of bass. That is an amplifier for certain group of individuals with certain expectations, and in proper setup it will be unmistakable for its remarkable sound. This is a large amplifier that radiates a lot of heat, which means it needs a lot of space around it. The casing is quite simple, surely not that level of sophistication as Soulution 710, or even inexpensive, made in China casings of Cambridge Audio or Arcam. One can clearly see Iridium 20 was made in a small shop. It's casing is made of aluminum. The front baffle is a thick piece of that material. There are three LEDs there, that change color from red to green after circuit stabilizes from stand-by mode to operation mode, and a large, red on/off button. At the back there is a pair of speaker bindings, a pair of RCA inputs, and power inlet with a mechanical switch above it. All sockets seem solid, although surely are not fancy ones. The power circuits are bolted to aluminum plates and these to large radiators. The latter have a quite rare shape of a herringbone. The power stage is proprietary Tellurium Q design. It's a parallel single-ended setup with two N-type MOSFETs per channel, with also single-ended controlling circuit. The voltage is regulated via bipolar transistors. Voltage regulation is supposed to help eliminate large part of distortion that is a large issue in most single-ended designs. Current source is based on transistors in a Darlington array, controlled by a precise integrated circuits. This is a dual-mono design with separate power supply for right and left channel. Two toroidal transformers are mounted next to the front baffle. Build quality of both, the casing and electronic circuits inside seemed to me like a very well done, but still DIY product, something that was made by hand in a small shop. So one might consider it's look and finish as a downside, but a certainty that each piece has been built by hand and carefully checked surely comes as an upside. DanTechnical specification (according to „Hi-Fi World”) Output power: 18 W/8 Ω | 9 W/4 Ω Frequency response: 1,5 Hz – 60 kHz Channel separation: 102 dB Noise: -90 dB Distortion: 0,03% Input sensitivity: 1 V Dimensions: 430x290x220 mm Weight: 21 kg

y visit with family to Berlin earlier this year has left me with only good memories. Very nice food, great beer and some really cool people (see Straussman Story HERE). Hence my surprise at Andreas Krebs’ casual remark, while carrying the speakers up to my third floor, that he may have visited Berlin only once and wasn’t even sure when. Apparently, that’s possible, too. Perhaps he’s found his own place on earth in his “small homeland” of Trautskirchen, north of Munich, and he doesn’t need any other. A photographer by profession (still practiced), Andreas now works with assembling and selling Langerton Configurations speakers. He is not their designer, which is Norbert Heinz’s job. Another person involved in this project is Walter Langer, after whom the company took its name. Andreas and Walter came to me on a cold October Wednesday when I was just watching on the news warnings against the storm called “Christian” about to hit Germany. I was afraid that they may have not made it, but they did as they said. I wondered how they had found me. The answer turned out to be simpler than I expected and at the same time showed how many different elements in the audio business are linked together. Walter, because it was him to decide about the review, had once read my review of the Ascendo System ZF3 SE speakers, in which he’d found everything he wished to learn about them, both as a designer and an audiophile. And he knew exactly what to look for as he had been working for years as a freelance speaker designer for many German manufacturers, including Ascendo. Hence, he knew the ZF3 SE in and out. One day I received an email from Andreas with an invitation to Trautskirchen for an audition. I politely declined due to the lack of time, but I suggested they come to me instead. I realized rather too late what I’d missed when I googled the castle and the town where it’s located, and I did regret it. The region is a beer province, one of the places where you can eat well and have a good drink. And the town itself looks like a fairy tale. Not all’s lost, though, as you will soon find out. For now, however, since we agreed for Andreas’ visit to Krakow, we went on with arranging its details. Dear Mr. Pacuła, If you want to visit me in our showroom, it is no problem when you want to come together with your family. We have a nice hotel a few minutes nearby. Nuremberg (Nürnberg) airport is only 45km away so please feel free whenever you want to come. I would be happy to welcome you here at your earliest convenience. I must admit that I would be happy if we managed to arrange the review date as soon as possible as autumn marks the beginning of the best season in a year for business and of course a season with good reviews is better than one with nothing (I noticed that business changed a lot during the last 10 years; now everything is about reviews and very few people take time to listen and compare), and you definitely have a very, very good reputation in the high fidelity scene. I also googled the distance between Trautskirchen and Krakow, and found out it that is about 850 km or a 7 1/2 hour drive. So if you like to review our speakers (no matter if you manage to come to Trautskirchen or not), we could bring them to you to Krakow. And don´t worry about the 3rd floor; if you take the "Configuration 217", it is not that big and heavy (as the "Configuration DuoCapable"), so I am not afraid of carrying the speakers upstairs. Some additional facts about Langerton: We are a very new and at the same time a very old company. New, because Langerton started only 1 year ago; this year’s hifideluxe show in Munich was our entry to the market. Old, because our head of research and development, Norbert Heinz, has been one of the most brilliant minds in the speaker industry for about 30 years. He is the former founder of ASCENDO and he left ASCENDO last year to concentrate again only on research and development. As we have known each other also for about 30 years, he asked me to set up a no-compromise production facility and to take care of a showroom, sales and marketing. I am very happy about his confidence in me and I like this challenge because music was our first love and we are both maniacs in our quest for perfection. Andreas B. Krebs Phew, that’s lots of information, isn’t it? At least it helped to explain the strikingly similar appearance of the Configuration 217 and Ascendo products. But Capable Duo are quite different. Columns that came to me was relatively easy to bring, because consist of two modules: low-midrange and tweeter, stawianego a large woofer enclosure. The concept of a phase alignment of transducers, they are set relative to each other depending on how far and at what rate sit, is not new. Used by many companies to mention even the Swiss Goldmund http://www.goldmund.com , or American http://www.goldmund.com Wilson . But it is Ascendo "implanted" it in the consciousness of audiophiles. Beautiful, newly constructed columns of mechanisms allowing for precise control of the speakers to each other, appealed to both the mind and the heart. The model 217 also have the ability to set the tweeter module, but in a simpler way - this is on the bass module and it just move forward or backward. We start from the initial position, that is, from offset backwards by 6 cm. From this you should start experimenting. It should also take some time to find the right angle bend columns. Andreas set them so that their axes crossed at about 50 cm in front of me. It just so happens that the vast majority of columns in my best game set in this way, especially monitors. A few simple words from… Andreas B. Krebs | production, head of sales and marketing I don’t know if there’s any significance to this, but I noticed that many German manufacturers have their roots in Central Europe. For example, Norbert Heinz had a Polish grandmother, my grandmother comes from Wroclaw, and Walter's roots are in the Czech Republic. And speaking about Walter, he is not only a co-owner of LANGERTON Equipment and Cables Division, which is a separate part of the company dedicated to cables, but has also been Norbert Heinz’s technical assistant for 10 years. The company’s name, LANGERTON, comes from Walter’s surname – Langer [ed. note: by sheer chance, my parents’ next door neighbor’s name is also Langer], and goes back about four years when he began manufacturing cables. After Heinz left Ascendo and asked me to organize the production of his speakers, we decided to use the name ‘Langerton’. To keep the two entities independent, we divided it into separate branches dedicated to speakers and cables: LANGERTON Configurations Division and LANGERTON Equipments and Cables Division respectively. Both parts of Langerton Configuration work very closely together and with strict cooperation with Norbert Heinz’s research and development laboratory called R&D by 4C. Albums auditioned during this review MJ Audio Technical Disc vol.6, Seibundo Shinkosha Publishing MJCD-1005, CD (2013). Abraxas, 99, Metal Mind Productions/Art Muza JK2011CD07, gold-CD (1999/2011). Antonio Caldara, Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo, dyr. René Jacobs, wyk. Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Harmonia Mundi France HMC 905221.22, 2 x CD (1996/2002). Black Sabbath, 13, Vertigo/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICN-1034/5, 2 x SHM-CD (2013). Can, Tago Mago. 40th Anniversary Edition, Spoon Records/Hostess K.K. (Japan) 40SPOON6/7J, 2 x Blu-Spec CD (1971/2011). Clifford Jordan Quartet, Glass Bead Games, Strata-East/Bomba Records BOM24104, CD (1973/2006). Massive Attack, Heligoland, Virgin Records 996094662, CD (2010). Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells, Mercury Records/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICY-40016, Platinum SHM-CD (1973/2013). Mills Brothers, Spectacular, Going for a Song GFS275, CD (?). Project by Jarre for VIP room, Geometry of Love, Aero Prod 606932, CD (2003). Roger Waters, Amused To Death, Columbia/Sony Music Direct (Japan) MHCP-693, CD (1992/2005). Sting, All This Time, A&M Records 212354-2, SP CD (1991). Japanese editions of CDs and SACDs are available from How can you not talk about speakers’ “personality”? Of course, we can naively believe that there exist speakers – electronics, too, but this time it’s not about the latter – with perfectly flat and neutral tonal response. If that were true, they would faithfully reproduce exactly what they receive from the amplifier output. As newcomers to the audio world we may even believe in this Holy Grail, and it works to our benefit. Unable to find it, we look deeper and deeper, getting to know various designs and becoming familiar with the design philosophies of particular manufacturers. Sooner or later, there must come a kind of “awakening” with the resulting understanding that there is no such thing as a “neutral” speaker. There are only various speakers that embody these or other design assumptions. And the latter are the result of a certain vision of sound and of the compromises in its implementation. Each speaker simply has its own “inherent” sound, intended by its designer. That’s why I listened so intently to Walter’s remarks he was making while setting up the 217s in my room. Those that struck me as most important were related to imaging and space. I will perhaps not be too wide off-mark if I say that imaging, holography, soundstage, and all elements associated with re-creating the musical event in space, are Langerton engineers’ obsession. The first album Walter picked up was Roger Waters’ Amused To Death, played by all audiophiles over and over to death. However, it is no coincidence (both being picked up and played over to death). The album is actually a textbook example of how you can get surround sound from just two speakers, without losing any fullness or definition. Although very tempting, I did not start my auditions from it but instead picked up the album 99 by the Polish band Abraxas. In 2011, it was released on gold disc (not remastered, though, it seems), which I bought recently and now had an opportunity to test it. The album was recorded in a Warsaw studio with a pretty self-explanatory name: Q-Sound (I can’t find it on the Internet; could it be possible it no longer exists?). And QSound is a surround virtualization and spatial enhancement audio technology that was used on Waters’ album and makes it sound so spectacular. QSound Labs that invented it is primarily known today for its stereo enhancement systems used in mobile phones. Things were different back in the day, though. There used to be more albums recorded in this technology and, apart from Waters, the most famous musician whose albums feature the familiar logo was Sting. That’s right; his first three albums were recorded in the QSound system. The fourth unfortunately wasn’t as it was recorded on a digital recorder and QSound was originally an analog system. I will come back to Sting later. Listening to 99, especially the short interludes where the surround effect was used to the fullest, I was trying to figure out what type of space it was and how it was presented by the German speakers. They did it unlike almost any other pair of speakers I’d ever had at home. I don’t think I need to mention that they are extremely spacious as that’s rather easy to guess. Yet they don’t sound the same with anything they play. While each album, even in mono, received its own proper setting in the form of individual, clear acoustics, its particular elements were presented differently from one album to another, and often from track to track. I didn’t even realize previously that some of these differences existed. The dog on Waters’ album that barks from behind the window or the sound of sled running on the snow behind us – that’s normal. You can hear it even on a small portable stereo in the kitchen corner, as long as it has two speakers. Referring to it in the context of high-end in order to emphasize audio system spaciousness is downright offensive. It can only be a basis to build up something bigger. The Langerton speakers do it perfectly. Not only do they define phantom images on the sides and at the back, but they also combine them with what is happening in front of us. If the reverb on 99 runs from front to back, it is continuously audible, without jumping between these two points. When the infamous dog barks, it doesn’t happen for its own sake but in a certain space in which we are also located. There is a connection between HERE and THERE; both have the same exact set of distinctive sounds, reflections and reverberation. This “connective tissue” referred to above was even better audible on Sting albums, including the single All This Time from his third album The Soul Cages. In addition to the title track, it features his composition not found anywhere else that, in my opinion, is the most beautiful track recorded by the former lead singer of the Police. It just happens to be an instrumental, titled I Miss You Kate. QSound is used on Sting recordings in a slightly different role than on Waters’. It is to help recreate large acoustics, with no “special” effects. And it sounds just great. The German speakers captured this aspect perfectly, as it was almost imperceptible. I just suddenly found myself in a large space without being aware of it, so naturally it sounded. As a matter of fact, I heard the same thing on classically recorded albums, like Clifford Jordan Quartet’s Glass Bead Games. The double bass that starts most of the tracks, is supported on one intro by arpeggios on the piano strings. The double bass is located centrally in front of us, large and full, and the strings suddenly appear on its both sides, widening the field of “vision” and opening up the soundstage. However, to reduce these speakers’ advantages only to great imaging would be most unfair. I think that their ability to show the space so precisely and naturally, and so well differentiated has some other origin: a very flat and even frequency response. These are really neutral speakers. Perhaps this is the reason for such a tight and dense connection between the front and back and the sides. Creating spectacular space is often done at the cost of thinning down the lower registers and emphasizing a few frequency ranges. I didn’t notice any of that here. Even though, at first, the listener unprepared for such a presentation may find the bass slightly lacking. And this is another aspect that makes these speakers different from the majority of other designs I've ever heard. The 217s sat in the same exact spot that was taken only a few days earlier by the powerful JBL S3900 horn speakers. The sheer scale of sound of the latter was unprecedented, as was their tonal saturation. However, their emphasized parts of bass and midrange resulted in everything sounding equally big and impressive. I really liked it, as the presentation was spontaneous, unrestrained and full, just the way I like it. But I couldn’t close my eyes to the fact that the differentiation of events suffered, reduced to a common denominator. The Langerton speakers are not lean or thinned out. Note the deep bass extension on the Massive Attack album Heligoland, the deep growls on the disc Project by Jarre, or the least obvious but easiest to verify double bass sound on Clifford Jordan’s album. It was all rendered with sensitivity and attention to color and detail; slightly soft and very, very natural. Woofer tuning reminds me of what I heard in well-designed closed-enclosure speakers. They usually allow for a deeper bass extension than equivalent ported designs, although the latter seem to offer a stronger bottom end. And it is stronger, but only because part of it is boosted and emphasized. They pay for it with their inferior transient impulse response and lower definition. The Configuration 217s sound as if they had no bass-reflex vent on the rear, yet when a strong, deep bass impulse is needed they simply generate it. The tonality of these speakers seems to be, or should I rather say it simply is brighter than that of the Harbeth M40.1. It generally resembles the JBLs mentioned earlier, which also have a better constructed treble, with higher definition. The frequency response of the 217 is flatter, however, with no unevenness that is always present in horn designs. Yet it is not a "bright" sound. I have mentioned the strong bass earlier on. The midrange also sounds saturated and very stable. It is helped by the method of driver mounting and the selected crossover network. But the main thing is that the speakers differentiate very well and hence the vocals will not always be strong and saturated, nor will be located in front of us on each album. When the recording was made in a large space, such as church – Antonio Caldara’s Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo, for example – the vocals are recessed deep into the soundstage. When it is a mono recording made with a close up microphone, right before the singer, his vocals will be in front, just before us. However, since we are used to the fact that the sound at home is to a large extent “made” or recreated, it puts us slightly off our stride. Due to the physical constraints of audio playback on speakers in small spaces, sound and production engineers who monitor it in even smaller sound control rooms attempt to condense the sound to make it “fit” between the speakers, without reducing the volume of individual instruments. It's very difficult but feasible, as evidenced by the best examples. This is the path taken by speaker designers who "help" them create a large volume. An outstanding example of such thinking are the Harbeth M40.1. The ‘217’ are different, closer in this respect to what I heard from the Amphion Krypton3. They create in our room a balanced picture with very natural proportions between the instruments and the space in which they have been recorded. This is why some of the former will be smaller than with the Harbeths. The tonality will also seem brighter. At a certain volume level everything settles down, however. Turn it up a bit and it gets too bright. That is a sign that the speakers perfectly "sense" the signal that is fed to them. Albums are mastered at a certain specific sound pressure (and hence volume) level and the perfect reproduction of the mastering studio conditions is only possible at the same level. The 217s easily follow these changes. They are simply very honest and reliable speakers that earn our increasing recognition, which further grows with each next album. Listening to them for half an hour will leave us with an impression that everything is more or less OK, but there is nothing to be particularly excited about. After an hour, we enter into their world with growing curiosity and respect. In time, this can grow into love. Conclusion “School of Sound” is a basic audio concept that is worth remembering. One can of course talk about good and bad products, but most of them are simply dull. However, if something is good, it will most likely be different from other good things. The Langerton Configuration 217 speakers are also different from most others, resembling – I couldn’t help saying that – the Ascendo speakers I once auditioned at home. I don’t know how it’s possible, but the 217 seem more refined to me. While the ribbon in the System ZF3 S.E. is far better than the 217’s tweeter, bass delivery and a total integration of everything into one smooth whole are better with the speakers Andreas and Walter lugged up to my third floor. These are speakers that show the soundstage as it really is. Instead of creating it, they do their best to re-create it as faithfully as possible. The price for it is a smaller optimal listening field and smaller sound sources further down the soundstage. The advantages are truly amazing, however. I believe that you will hear many of the elements that create recording’s holographic dimension for the first time, no matter what kind of speakers you currently use. You just need to give the 217 some time as they are not the sort of speakers that fill us with awe in the first minutes of listening. Their bass is really special because it is natural and deep at the same time. It is also well differentiated – hence some recordings may seem slightly "lean". But that's only because they have been so produced. We will not get an equally high sound pressure, filling the room tightly, as from the speakers equipped with large woofers, like the Harbeth M40.1 or the JBL S3900. This design is much closer to the Tannoy Kensington GR. The speakers require a high-current amplifier, even though their sensitivity is above average on paper. Their positioning is quite simple, although proper placement of the tweeter module takes some time. Finish quality is outstanding. The speakers receive the RED Fingerprint Award. The 217 were set up and positioned by Andreas and Walter. They took the same exact spot as all other speakers before them, but were heavily toed-in, with their axes crossing well in front of the listening place. I also tried less toe-in, but that suggested by my new friends turned out to be optimal. I experimented with the treble modules, though. The guys left them positioned 6 cm back from the front of the bass modules. My attempts to move them further back led nowhere as everything was getting blurry. However, moving them forward to about 3.5 cm from the front resulted in the most coherent and stable sound image. The audition had the character of an A/B comparison, with the A and B known. Music samples were 2 minutes long; I also auditioned whole albums. Since the speakers came equipped with their own isolation plinths, this time I didn’t use the Acoustic Revive isolation boards. The idea of a phase corrected speaker design was first realized by Norbert Heinz in 1988. Perfected over the years by Ascendo, it received a new form in the 217 Configuration speakers, based on electrical rather than mechanical phase correction. As Walter said, the real key to these speakers is their crossover network, their true heart and brain. Its proper design and tuning is always the most difficult aspect of maintaining linear phase response between the drivers. In the reviewed model it’s divided into two separate PCBs, on in the low-midrange and one in the tweeter module respectively. They feature high-quality components, such as expensive capacitors and air coils from Mundorf. The modules are decoupled from each other via aluminum feet with rubber inserts. Underneath the bass module are cap-shaped discs with matching recesses in the base plinth. The latter is quite thick and rests on three cap-shaped feet. They can also be replaced with larger spikes. The cabinets are made of thick MDF and filled with loosely compacted felt. The speaker terminals look fantastic and are high quality connectors from Furutech. They are not the most expensive Furutech model, though. Walter said he tried them once and not only was their clamp mechanism prone to breaking down quickly, but the speakers also sounded inferior compared with the ones that were being used. It's hard not to believe him; the speakers are expensive and their designer didn’t cut corners on components. The terminals are mounted to large, thick aluminum plates. They are separate for each of the two modules and need to be coupled with a short cable, as in the Avantgarde Acoustic speakers. During the review I was using cables provided by Walter who is a true cable "guru". These were the NL2 Mk2 that use copper and silver conductors. The drivers come from Scan-speak: a 28mm soft dome tweeter from the Prestige line and a 200mm mid-woofer with coated paper cone, from the Classic line. The top module features a sealed enclosure, while the bottom one is rear ported. Technical Specifications Design: Two-way, bass-reflex Sensitivity: 89 dB at 1 W / 1 m Maximum power: 110 W Height: 1008 mm

udio magazines are called differently: for some they are a monthly, for others they are simply a magazine, while there are even those who refer to them as a “newspaper”. From the publication frequency point of view they are most often monthly publications, although all Polish print magazines have traditionally had a summer vacation break, and publish a July/August joint issue. It is much harder to determine the type of Internet-based audio magazines, as most of them are simply web portals or are published irregularly, like “6moons.com”. The exceptions to that are the following monthly web magazines: “ToneAUDIO”, “EnjoyTheMusic.com”, or “High Fidelity” that you are reading now. For me, audio publications will always remain magazines. The online “Oxford Dictionary” defines a magazine as “a periodical publication containing articles and illustrations, often on a particular subject or aimed at a particular readership.” This is how I understand “High Fidelity” – as a monthly and a magazine. This is also the case of “ToneAUDIO”, which is my model publication in terms of layout and pictures (graphic design). However, many years earlier, even before Internet magazines came to be regarded as publications and not as blogs, I saw and was enraptured by a German print magazine published in Bavaria, “image hifi”. The quality of photos, their layout and interplay with the text, fantastic covers and, finally, the whole idea seemed very interesting to me. In my opinion, this is one of the best looking audio magazines. As quickly as I could, I arranged an interview with the then chief editor, Dirk Sommer. The interview was conducted during the first High End Show in Munich, and was published in print by Polish “Audio”. Actually, you should remember Dirk, as an interview with him was also published not so long ago in “High Fidelity” (see HERE). Recently, quite by chance, an opportunity presented itself to come back to "image hifi" and ask a few questions to better introduce the magazine as well as the interesting German market. I conducted the interview (via the Internet) with Helmut Hack, an editor in the rank of Executive Director. Wojciech Pacuła: Tell me something about yourself, your career and your background. Helmut Hack: Well, actually I’m just a guy who loves listening to music and who refuses to grow up. It’s as simple as that, so I wouldn’t speak of any career. Before I joined “image hifi” in 2008, I worked as a journalist for the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, a Munich-based daily newspaper, and as a taxi-driver in Munich. Playing with audio-gear is something like a bad habit, like smoking that’s hard to quit. I’ve been hooked on it since I was probably 13 or 14 years old. But I’m no technician; I clearly come from the emotional side. The technical side has always been just a means to an end, which is to hear something that sounds good, to compensate for the outside world that seems to be caught in a kind of everyday loudness-war. Of course, I feel attracted to fine made record players and tube-amps, but if it comes to the point where I close my eyes, it doesn’t matter whether it’s valves or Mosfets, all that counts is how it sounds. Tell us briefly the history of “image hifi” – how did it start, who was behind it, etc. “image hifi” was founded in 1999 by Rolf Winter, a hi-fi-enthusiasts and photographer, who still shoots all the pictures for the magazine. Since then it's been the home of critical and aesthetical hifi-journalism. If you take a look around there, you'll notice that many of the leading hifi-writers started their career in “image hifi”. Our former chief editor, Dirk Sommer, was among the founders as well as our current Uwe Kirbach. Speaking of Dirk Sommer, can you tell us why he quit? That was quite some time ago and I was not an inner-circle member back then. I used to write reviews as a freelancer and did admire the work of our former chief editor Dirk Sommer a lot. In fact, I got some very useful advice and handy tips from him. But as you might know, Dirk Sommer has a great passion for the recording process and is nowadays a very successful producer of audiophile recordings. From a different point of view, one might say, he switched position to the other side of the speakers. But, as a matter of fact, he is still running “HiFiStatement.net”, a highly regarded online audio magazine. How and why did you change the direction of “image hifi”? I didn’t change the direction at all, but I tried to make some small corrections. First we (it’s more correct to say „we“, as “image hifi” is not and has never been a one-man-show) overhauled our layout to achieve a more classy and spacious look that suits the elegance of our reviewed devices even better. Second, I’m especially focused on the writing style of our authors. “image hifi” reviews should always be a pleasure to read, they should be written witty, with individual quality and eloquence. L’art pour l’art in this case is not a bad thing. I think high-class-audio-equipment should be honored with reviews, which are written damn well and show some cultural or intellectual background. Not because this is necessary, but because it’s more fun for both – the author and the reader. My aim is that all image-authors are proud of what they are doing, because their opinion is taken seriously. In my humble opinion, there is no need for a high-gloss-fanzine in which everything is great and fantastic. I believe in the freedom of speech and I am a child of the Enlightenment. Therefore I know that there has to be a shadow somewhere even in the brightest light. For example, there is no such thing as a perfect amplifier – for god’s sake, it would be the end of our hobby and my job. I try to speak clearly about disadvantages of the reviewed equipment, because this is the way to achieve improvement – sadly not every manufacturer takes notice of this chance How e-magazines differ from print magazines? What we can learn from each other? Well, I don’t know, maybe the fact that the latter are printed? You know, last week I saw a print-magazine edited by bloggers and thought: Uh, print is the new online? Seriously, online-journalism has its major advantages in its quickness. One is able to publish the news online the moment they are happening. Take a look at the videos posted recently from countries like Syria, Turkey or Egypt and you will know what I mean. Traditional newspapers with their professional way of working could never achieve such an impact. Also, you online-journalists may talk about issues that are actually happening, i.e. the death of Lou Reed, the new pope, elections or whatever, and your readers will be able to follow you straight away. In my case, I have to be very careful what to write about, because in maybe six weeks, when our magazine starts selling, my readers will have forgotten what happened weeks ago and therefore will not get my hilariously funny and sharp-minded comment on it. Furthermore, your bunch of “online-journalists” don’t have to do research, because nobody believes in what you write anyway (just kiddin’ – at least a bit); print-authors on the other hand should better be writing the truth, because once it’s printed, it stays forever or as long as the next issue arrives. Again, seriously: I think magazine-journalists should use the time they have for an article to really do a proper old-fashioned research and to ideally know a lot more about the subject than what can actually be found in the article (but you might read it between the lines). Because I know that readers can “feel” the depth of an article. This is something they claim for in a printed magazine and don’t really expect from a quick internet-surf. Last but not least: “image hifi” has some pictures in it as well, which are so explicit that even hardcore-audiophiles who have seen and done everything will get sweaty hands looking at them on nice, clean, thick and glossy paper – go try this online What is the most irritating thing about e-magazines for you? Everything’s for free!!! How shall we compete with that??? On a different note: do you see a future for independent audio stores? Can they compete with online sales? I don’t know. Will there be any future at all, in which goods are being sold? Is capitalism the end of history or is it just a step (in the wrong direction). I know what I’m supposed to say, small independent stores should focus on brief guidance and consulting, they have to install systems plug and play for their customers to make them lifelong-buyers and they have to take care of the system even after it is sold and paid for. And I really hope this is going to happen now and then, but I have already had different experiences. And I think it’s ridiculous to ask the customers for an “anti-capitalistic” behavior to save the small market from suffering. To make it clear: Everybody tries to make as much money as possible and to spend as little as possible – these are the rules of the game. Every manufacturer, independent or global player, has to follow them. I do have deep respect for manufacturers that try to produce their goods fair in terms of human rights, environment and durability, even if it costs them more money. But they will have to use this as a marketing-instrument, otherwise they are not following the rules of the game. Nothing is just good, it also has to bring profit. So I find it very arrogant to look down on people who buy cheap on the internet. Spending more money than necessary on something is a luxury not everybody can afford. Okay now, what’s gonna be the future? I hope there will be some kind of cooperation between independent and online stores. Can’t the online-seller pay the store-owner a kind of consultation fee as soon as the customer buys online? How about that? Independent-stores change to showrooms, where customers can hear exactly the product they want to have (not the one that the store-owner has to sell) and order it online afterwards. And what about computer audio - is PC a good environment for the audio signal? Of course not, who told you so? For years now, we Audiophiles have been trying to free the music captured in the computer. And why? Because computer-programmers are nasty, ugly ignorants who just eat cold pizza and drink big coke-bottles and have no cultural sense at all, and don’t give a damn about good sound. But nevertheless, it’s gonna be the future of music reproduction, therefore it’s time to fight back. We need Audiophiles to design computers right now! How does audio signal processing differ from normal computer processing? Or maybe it doesn’t? Music reproduction is extremely complex, and that’s the reason why cables, amplifiers, stands, styluses, record players an so on, have an impact on sound quality. Do you really think a standard-PC cares for that? No. As I said, we need Audiophiles designing PCs, even if they don’t want to. Is there an upper limit for audio files in terms of bit depth and sampling frequency? Just a technical question that leads in the wrong direction. First of all, what is most important is a producer who knows what he’s doing. Second, my vinyl records don’t have bits and bytes on them, so why should I accept artificial digital limits? Infinity is the limit! How about DSD – is there a chance for it to become a widespread format? It seems so. But remember the SACD story! In the end it will be – as always – a question of profit and not one of music lovers’ needs. So, I don’t care. I prefer to blame the music industry afterwards, as soon as it wrecked a good format just to fit it in its contracted mind And finally, how long will physical media (CD, Blu-ray) be with us? Vinyl will stay forever, CDs were born dead – we just haven’t realized it so far.. What is your home audio system? A good one that reproduces music not frequencies and makes me shiver any time I listen to a beloved record. But I guess you’re keen on material, you want names and prices and spectacle, don’t you? Here we go: Turntable: Feickert Analogue Firebird Tonearm: Scheu Classic Cartridge: Audio-Technica AT50ANV Phono Pre: Lehmann Audio Black Cube Decade Preamplifier: MFE Tube One SE Power Amplifier: DNM PA3S CD-Player: Revox C221 Soundcard: Edirol FA 66 D/A Converter: PS Audio Digital Link III, King Rex UD 384 FM Tuner: Sansui TU-X701 Speakers: Steinmusic Masterclass SP 1.1 Cables: Audiophil, Musical Wire, Audioplan, MFE, DNM Accessories: Sun-Leiste, Steinmusic Tuning, Finite Elemente 1000 Hz-Resonator, Acoustic System Resonator Bronze & Silber, Schumann-Resonator, Clearaudio Smart Matrix record cleaner Could you list 10 must-listen albums for the readers of “High Fidelity”? Just 10! That's ridiculous, which ones should I choose? I'll do it quickly, without thinking too much about it, and I try to avoid some widespread classics Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, No More Shall We Part Marvin Gaye, What's Going On Andre Williams & The New Orleans Hellhounds, Can You Deal With It? Magnolia Electric Company, Josephine Johnny Cash, At San Quentin Hank Thompson, Songs for Rounders Hank Williams, No More Darkness Bettye LaVette, Do Your Duty Otis Redding, The Dock of the Bay Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Frenzy What is your review methodology? I always try to get inspired by the component itself. Sometimes it speaks to me, sometimes not. So not every review is equal in terms of quality and writing style. A good sounding turntable makes it easy to write about it and a lush and harsh playing Class-AB amp makes it nearly impossible to create an entertaining story about it. That’s all right with me, readers might as well read between the lines whether I enjoyed the test or not. Most of the time it’s not possible, but I really do like not knowing the price of the component at the time I start reviewing – this I quite a big issue, because a price-tag will influence your opinion, no matter if you want or not. The second thing is listening, and then listening and afterwards I listen again. That’s the only way to find out whether a component suits my needs (which are not always the needs of our readers, but it is very hard to communicate that); there is no such thing as an objective audition, so I don’t try to do that. This is for the magazines with measuring diagrams – they don’t have to listen, because they do have objective measurements. My most serious methodology that always helps me to find the weak points is: Pretend to be a dork and start right at the beginning. There is no visible power button! Where can it be? There are vacuum tubes coming out of my CD player! What are they doing there? /p> In your opinion, will young people go for high quality audio or not? How can we push (or maybe pull) them? Kind of funny, it's always old men asking this question. What's their goal, why do they care how the younger generation prefers to listen to music? I remember that in former days the old folks complained about the style of music the youth was listening to. Nowadays it's exactly this former youth who got older and is now complaining about the sound quality of music that young folks are listening to. Is it really the nature of old men to always get grumpy and to tell everybody how they have to live their lives? Why should we (or I) push or pull anybody somewhere? Speaking for me: I'm glad most of the time that nobody is pushing or pulling me and I try to hold it this way with other people. Try to see it from a different angle: Why should a fifteen year old girl who is a big fan of the heavily compressed music of, say, Lady Gaga invest in high-quality audio gear? To hear her favorite music much worse than over her iPhone in a cheap dock with crappy speakers? Got me? High-End HiFi would deconstruct the bad sound of modern charts productions – so, from the point of view of the young girl, what's the sense of it? HiFi is for old men – this will not change until the music industry remembers the good productions it used to publish. Twenty years from now, High-End audio will be a geeky hobby of a few strange old men. Don't blame the youth, blame the music industry. Last but not least – “image hifi” is published in Puchheim; could you tell me something about Puchheim? Puchheim is really nothing special, just a small town a little west of Munich, where I live. Puchheim seems to be the end of the world as we know it, but in fact it's already one step further. In “THE EDITORS” series we have interviewed so far Dirk Sommer, „HiFiStatement.net”, Germany, chief editor, interviewed HERE Marja & Henk, „6moons.com”, Switzerland, journalists, interviewed HERE Matej Isak, "Mono & Stereo”, chief editor/owner, Slovenia/Austria; interviewed HERE Dr. David W. Robinson, "Positive Feedback Online", USA, chief editor/co-owner; interviewed HERE Jeff Dorgay, “TONEAudio”, USA, publisher; interviewed HERE Cai Brockmann, “FIDELITY”, Germany, chief editor; interviewed HERE Steven R. Rochlin, “Enjoy the Music.com”, USA, chief editor; interviewed HERE Stephen Mejias, “Stereophile”, USA, assistant editor; interviewed HERE Martin Colloms, “HIFICRITIC”, Great Britain, publisher and editor; interviewed HERE Ken Kessler, “Hi-Fi News & Record Review”, Great Britain, senior contributing editor; interviewed HERE Michael Fremer, “Stereophile”, USA, senior contributing editor; interview HERE Srajan Ebaen, “6moons.com”, Switzerland, chief editor; interviewed HERE

n 2013, we reviewed over 120 products in the "regular" tests. These do not include product auditions at the Krakow Sonic Society meetings, or those presented in columns and reportages. Whole audio systems were treated as one unit. It's really a lot. All products have been selected either directly by us or after our consultation with manufacturers and distributors. However, we never accept products that the latter WANT us to review. We only review products that are interesting to us, those that pique our curiosity and seem to be promising. If they meet our initial expectations, we conduct and then publish their reviews. We do not review things that we don’t really care about (we are indifferent towards), those that are not promising or are simply promoted by the manufacturer. We’d rather spend our time on something else. Of the entire group of reviewed speakers, electronics, cables and accessories we try to select those that are, in our opinion, most interesting and most worthy of attention and our recommendation. The choice is far from simple and my hand trembles each time I cross another product off the list of “nominees”. The selection procedure, in my case, is to write out a preliminary list of products that have been lodged in my memory because of their special characteristics. This year there were more than 40 items on the list! Even though I went through earlier self-censorship. It was only from that preselected group that I crossed out, one by one, those components that could do without such an award. Six (and a half) awards have gone to Polish manufacturers, which is particularly satisfying for me. Without being given any extra handicap and treated on equal footing with foreign competitors, they turn out to be products that have nothing to be ashamed of and usually come out better. At the same time, I did not have a predetermined number of awards to give out, although I tried to narrow it down as much as possible so that the High Fidelity Best Product 2013 had real value and was not given “routinely”. My heart hurt as the group was being further diminished, but I did my best not to give in to my feelings. By the way, I wonder whether Marek who has chosen only two components, went through similar problems. “His” awards are marked by the ‘MD’ initials at the end. In addition to Best Product, we have also given two High Fidelity Statement Awards to single out the products that are absolutely unique and timeless, changing our thinking about top audio systems. This year, two companies are the recipients of the High Fidelity Statement Award: Siltech, for the Royal Signature Series cable system, and Reimyo, for the upgraded DAP-999EX Limited DAC. The Innovation Award went to Avantgarde Acoustic for the Zero1 Pro active digital speakers. And finally, we gave a special award to Asus, for its unprecedented entry into the area previously forbidden for “computer” manufacturers. We hope that this list will be your guide and reference point. It is also worth keeping in mind that these are not the “best existing products” but rather those that are most moving, interesting and inspiring for us personally. Do not buy them on spec but listen to them first, preferably in your own audio system at home. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you, our dear readers, for reading our reviews, for all your kindness to us, for clicking on the ad banners and for shopping at our friends, CD Japan. And we wish you and expect ourselves another, equally good year 2014, when “High Fidelity” will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Our congratulations to all awarded manufacturers and distributors – well done! And lots of respect from us. WP REVIEW: “Enjoy The Music.com” January 2013, see HERE Siltech Cables are the best interconnects I have heard so far. That fact alone should be enough to give them the BEST PRODUCT 2013 award. Their uniqueness does not end in being the best, however. The influence of the Siltech on the sound can only be compared to upgrading a good component, such as the source or speakers, with one that is outstanding. The cables change our approach to reproduced music, introducing into our dictionary such concepts as "soft resolution", "depth of detail" and "inaudible dynamics". After hearing them nothing is like it was before. Hence our STATEMENT AWARD. WP REVIEW: “High Fidelity” 2013, No.116, see HERE The Compact Disc is passé and there's nothing we can do about it. Not only is it abandoned by the so-called mainstream, but even in the perfectionist audio that occupies us the format is being ousted by a side branch, which is computer audio. It seems that the CD will share the fate of Homo neanderthalensis (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) and the newcomer will finish it soon. However, contrary to popular belief, the Neanderthal was a highly intelligent creature, much more developed and better organized than his contemporary Homo sapiens. Based on recent new discoveries and research, the latter comes out as a primitive killer. Fortunately, much of our genes come from our wiser cousin and we were lucky to have cross-bred with him once. It is a similar story with the Reimyo, which is a D/A converter that only supports the CD signal. It does it fantastically, however; almost certainly thanks to the new version of the K2 digital filter with signal upsampling. Only the Ancient Audio Lektor Grand SE player is capable of showing the sound equally well, although differently. Depth, smoothness, fullness and absolute calm – these are some of the terms I have no doubts about in this context. I am very glad that there are still people thinking about the CD, in my opinion one of the best audio formats that have been created so far. WP REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.115, see HERE INNOVATION AWARD for horn speakers, given to the company that boasts about using a technology invented at the dawn of hi-fi, may seem out of place. Avantgarde Acoustic is, however, an unconventional company that goes in its own direction, ignoring cliques and fan clubs. It recommends driving its horn speakers with high-power solid state amplifiers, and its latest offering is the Zero1 Pro fully active speaker system with DSP controlled digital driver correction. They look delicious. There are also outstanding when it comes to their capabilities: hook them up to any digital source and forget any worries. Finally something for small, designer rooms, yet offering the kind of sound that belongs to the high-end. I thought that no one can do that any longer these days. WP Our STATEMENT AWARD has gone this year to a D/A converter that only accepts the CD signal. At the same time, we give our SPECIAL AWARD to a computer company for its line of D/A converters that accept almost any type of audio files. This type of schizophrenia will accompany us for a few years to come, by the time the CD goes underground to give the battlefield over to the all-powerful audio file. Asus joins the revolution in a unique way, entering the area reserved for specialized, small manufacturers. Its DACs, both those inexpensive models and the flagship Essence III are unique, as they seem to be fulfilling audiophiles’ wishes. Their functionality is amazing, as is their sound. Bravo for the courage and the consistent pursuit of the goal of high fidelity sound! WP REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.105, see HERE Each new product from Katowice-based RCM Audio, and there have been only a couple so far, is a special event. They have never happened to be good components (I talking about an amplifier and phono preamps). They have either been very good or outstanding. Just as TheRIAA phono preamplifier, which is a more expensive version of the Sensor Prelude IC, the one I have been using for several years. And not only me; several other audio journalists from all over the world have it in their systems, too. TheRIAA, although designed by a different designer, retains all the strengths of the Sensor, but does it much better. The signal-to-noise ratio seems to be increased, the dynamics higher and the tonality better saturated. Its high price does not diminish my enthusiasm for this unit. WP REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.109, see HERE The Japanese are the masters of small form. Like phono cartridges, for example. Mr. Noriyuki Miyajima developed his own method of their design, different from anything else on the market. As a result, his cartridges sound different than the rest. They require heavy tonearms, in return offering an outstanding sound – warm and dense, reminiscent of classic Ortofon SPU cartridges but with better resolution. The Zero is the flagship mono cartridge from Miyajima Laboratory. Simply outstanding. The presence of musical events is straight out shocking, and mono records show what the stereo versions failed to maintain and make us wonder if such "progress" is a real progress. In this comparison it comes out as a mere juggler’s trick. WP REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.114, see HERE One of several Polish representatives in this year’s group of awarded manufacturers. That’s right, Polish. Registering the company in the USA and working from there was the result of Mr. Michał Jurewicz’s, the company’s head, life choices and was aimed at injecting the brand directly into the audio bloodstream, which at best only has capillary veins in Poland. Major veins and arteries are to be found elsewhere. And it’s just as well, since Mytek is now a "hot" name that brings fame to Polish technical thought throughout the world. The Stereo192-DSD DAC is not a perfect converter, but its price is several orders of magnitude lower than that of the units capable of showing something more. Multi-functional, with a very good headphone amplifier and decent preamp, and a phenomenal playback of DSD files including DSD128, it shows its teeth to the contenders. And it can bite if need be. WP REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.109, see HERE To nominate for the AWARDS OF THE YEAR only two components out of all reviewed by me this year is always a difficult moment and considerable challenge. Surely, I wouldn’t have nominated all the reviewed components, but there would definitely be more than two, if I only had the chance. But here I am and have to choose only two… One of the choices has been absolutely obvious this year, however, and I did not have to think for a second: the Kondo Souga. Never before and never after (so far, that is) have I had at home a component that would allow me to have such a close, intimate contact with music and its performers, and to experience such deep emotions. The Japanese amplifier is the essence of SET, translating into a beautiful, breathtaking sound from which there is no getting away. Listening to music on it, in the comfort of your own room, is the kind of experience that can only be "beaten" by participating in an – importantly – exceptional, not just any, concert. With the necessary sum available, I would not hesitate a moment and would also put it into my last will to be buried with the Souga, so that I could use it in the world to come, too :) MD REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.110, see HERE Judging by their looks, the components from the Swiss manufacturer may be associated with a neutral, impersonal sound. In reality, they offer a creamy deep presentation with incredibly balanced frequency response. The 530 may look a bit eccentric, as it resembles a small fridge and is equally big. What turns out to be truly eccentric is its price. The thing is that listening to this amp is enough to become seduced, and then most of two-piece amplifiers for similar money will seem crude, coarse and not particularly refined. This is really the best integrated amplifier I've ever heard. It holds the rest at bay. WP REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.113, see HERE While choosing the first component, the Kondo Souga, was simple, I had a much bigger problem with the second nomination. Gradually eliminating others, what eventually remained on the battlefield was, for some reason, two tube amplifiers – the Linear Audio Research IA-30T mk2 and the Amare Musica Entropy. Both Polish designs deserve recognition/award, despite coming from two different price points. The former offers absolutely outstanding value for money in terms of sound quality and features an excellent headphone amplifier. The latter is in turn an insanely finished and fantastically sounding amplifier that can compete with many high-end designs. The LAR could compete in the global market with Leben amps, for example, and wouldn’t be fighting a losing battle, while the Amare could take on tube amps from Audio Note, Ayon or Audio Research, and many a time come out victorious. You understand my dilemma, don’t you? Being forced to choose one of these devices, in the end I picked up the Entropy, purely and simply because in absolute terms it is superior to the LAR (which costs three times less). However, I say emphatically that both Polish designs deserve enormous recognition. I am proud that such products are made in our country, and highly recommend both of them to the lovers of beautiful sound! MD REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.108, see HERE The Ayre captivates us with the simplicity of its concept and elegant complexity of design, in which each element has its place and is needed. Its warm, big and resolving sound qualifies it to being "the last amplifier in life." Even if its imperfections are known. Its strength lies in its sonic coherence, which is one of the things we look for in life, and not only in audio components. Hence, when we come across such a treasure, we’d better hold on to it and not let it fly away. Let us not be deceived by its 'integrated amplifier' status, either, as it sounds as a mature two-piece amplifier system. And yet we’re only left with one box, which means saving on cables. The AX-5 sounds best when placed on a good anti-vibration platform, on which it also looks great. Just buy it and enjoy it, all of you. WP REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.111, see HERE When it comes to turntables, vibration control is something obvious that does not evoke great emotion. It just has to be like that and that’s it. It is similar in the case of tube-based components, and even CD players. However, when it comes to solid state equipment and even power supplies, more than one eyebrow is raised. And experience teaches us that everything vibrates, which is reflected in signal transmission. Vibration is death to audio signal. That's why you need to beat it wherever possible. The German company finite elemente does it better than most other manufacturers in the world. And its products are simply beautiful furniture. The platform that receives our award has a dual function: technical and aesthetical. It performs both these tasks extremely well. Suffice it to say that after my review I finally ordered for my reference system a three-level Pagode Edition rack. I enjoy every second spent with it. Just like my wife does. WP REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.113, see HERE Suddenly, out of nowhere, Forza AudioWorks jumped straight into the mainstream of the Polish headphone scene. Worth much more than you need to pay for it, the headphone cable from this manufacturer is built in a way that other producers from the "world" have not yet mastered. Every detail is carefully perfected, including the packaging box. You can sense an aesthete with a good taste behind it. The cable takes the headphones a few levels up. It's worth a try; you are in for a surprise. WP REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.114, see HERE Sitting in audiophile paradise and basking in the glitter of the Siltech, Tara Labs and Acrolink it’s easy to forget that not everyone wants / can afford / have faith in such expensive cables. And although one gradually grows up to it, one also needs to start from something. There’re plenty of affordable, even cheap cables on the market. Almost all of them are made in Taiwan or China and they work really very well in the sense of conducting electric current. But when it comes to audio signal transmission, they buckle, indicating that they haven’t got much clue about it. Including those branded by large, well-known companies from Western Europe and USA. Melodika thus appears in a very good moment. The Polish brand under which the cables are manufactured and sold, gives the middle finger to almost entire competition. Not only does it look good, but also sounds great and is inexpensive. It is hard to imagine a reason why anyone who has any audio system at home, even a mini stacking hi-fi, should not change the stock cables for the Polish product. A very well put together tonality, proper handling of all sonic aspects and professional calm. It is enough to be lured.WP REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.114, see HERE For the last few years, products of the "vintage" type have experienced their second youth. Promoted primarily by "6moons.com", "Stereophile" and "Hi-Fi News & Record Review," they enter more and more boldly into high-quality audio systems. It has to be said, however, that they never left many of them. Many of their strengths and benefits could not be repeated in modern products and seemed to have been lost forever. Audio "custodians", not giving in to the latest trends, have preserved this knowledge for us. It describes both users and journalists as well as companies. Tannoy never renounced its roots and nothing has changed in this regard, even after being bought by TC Group. You could say that the understanding of its past actually improved. Currently available 'vintage' line of product makes use of new developments, but only to the extent that they do not destroy what the predecessors achieved. The Kensington GR speakers are a beautiful piece of furniture; they superbly show what is lacking in new speaker designs and sound simply great. Momentum, dynamics and saturation – these are some of their “christen” names. WP REVIEW: „High Fidelity” 2013, No.116, see HERE

spent nearly six years working as a sound engineer in Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Krakow. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that this rather short period of time would change my way of thinking so much, and turn out to be so enriching. And that even a dozen years later I would still draw on these experiences. Above a powerful analog Soundcraft mixing board in the sound control room, there hang three-way, absolutely normal-looking American speakers from Altec/Lansing. The theatre stage and auditorium was equipped with speakers from the same manufacturer, as well as JBL speakers in the side towers. While the latter looked absolutely normal, with horn loaded tweeters but otherwise classic looking cabinets, the main speakers were unlike anything that was used at that time. They were powerful two-box designs. The subwoofer unit sported four 300 mm woofers in a sealed enclosure, and the other unit was equipped with a midrange driver loaded into a massive horn over a meter long, and a tweeter loaded into only slightly smaller horn. What's more, stage monitors used 360 mm drivers with a centrally placed horn tweeter. Such designs were absolutely unique at that time, because most PA systems were based on small, integrated units, like those from JBL. As it happens, both Altec/Lansing and JBL share a common history. PREHISTORY The company's founder, James Bullough Lansing, was born James Martini on January 14th, 1902, in Macoupin County (Millwood Township), Illinois. From young age he showed interest in DIY and radios. Little did he know, however, that his life would be associated with transducers, and his initials would for many become synonymous with speakers. It all started in 1930 when Western Electric created a department to provide support and to design speakers and electronics for use in movie theaters, which was the beginning of Electrical Research Products Incorporated (ERPI). In 1938, WE sold its shares in this department, and a year later they were bought out by a group of engineers from that company who gave it a new name – Altec Service Company (Altec as in "all technical"). The company was doing well, however, in order to grow it needed production facilities to manufacture its own products. For this purpose, in 1941 it purchased Lansing Manufacturing Co., which was on the verge of bankruptcy, and changed name to Altec Lansing. In a short time, it was awarded a government contract for the development of magnetic detectors for U.S. submarines. The research in that field resulted in creating Alnico V magnet material for speaker use. After his mother's death in 1924, James Martini moved to Salt Lake City, where he founded Lansing Manufacturing Company, producing car speakers. In order to grow, the company was moved in 1927 to New York. October 6 of the same year saw the premiere of The Jazz Singer, the first ever feature-length movie with sound made by Warner Brothers, which became a tremendous success. The history of high-quality loudspeakers also started from the same year. Since the existing PA technology and systems were rather primitive, MGM decided to do something about it. Douglas Shearer, chief sound engineer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, contacted James Lansing and between 1933 and 1935 they both developed basic design ideas of horn loaded speakers, which became a standard for the entire industry. In 1936, Lansing and Sharer’s sound system received an award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Everything was going great until the military maneuvers in 1939, during which Ken Decker was killed in an accident. He was a businessman dealing with Lansing Manufacturing financial matters. An attempt to find his replacement failed, and in 1941 the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. What helped it to survive was the acquisition of its shares by Altec Service Company. JAMES B. LANSING SOUND, INCORPORATED Jim Lansing became vice president of the new company, Altec Lansing. In those years he developed the A-4 theater system that became the cinema standard for many years. Unaccustomed to work under someone else's leadership, after his five-year contract expired in 1946, he left Altec Lansing and on October 1 of the same year started a new company, Lansing Sound, Incorporated. The principals of this company were James B. Lansing, Chauncey Snow and Chester L. Noble. Since the name Lansing was commonly identified with the former company, Altec Lansing lawyers objected to it being used in the new company name. It was finally agreed that the new company change its name to James B. Lansing Sound, Incorporated, or JBL for short. Although its first designs were very promising, the company headed for financial disaster. James Martini may have been a brilliant engineer-designer, but he was a lousy businessman. Devastated by rising debts, as a result of depression he committed suicide on September 24, 1949. The death of JBL’s founder, paradoxically, brought a cash injection to the company. Jim Lansing secured a high life insurance in the name of his company and the payment of this policy helped save the business. It was the company treasurer, William Thomas, who reactivated James B. Lansing Sound, Incorporated, and after buying one-third share of the company from Lansing’s wife, became its sole owner. In 1969, JBL was purchased by Jervis Corporation, part of Harman Kardon. As a result, Jervis Corporation changed its name to Harman International Industries, Incorporated, and Arnold Wolf who was the creator of the Paragon industrial design, became the president of JBL. It is worth noting that Wolf is also credited with the JBL logo design. PROJECT EVEREST The Paragon, mentioned above, the iconic product of the early JBL years, was referred to as company’s second “Project” speaker. The first one was the Hartsfield. In 1980s there arose an urgent need to develop a new flagship system, or the third “Project” speaker. The Project Everest was the brainchild of Bruce Scrogin who was the President of JBL International. Since the Paragon, whose production ended in 1983, was sold almost exclusively in Japan, it was decided that the new flagship speaker would be targeted exclusively at that market. Keizo Yamanaka, one of the best-known Japanese audio journalists, was hired by JBL as a consultant (such co-operation between audio journalists and manufacturers is quite common in Japan and almost every prominent editor has a contract with one of the big companies). The project, which was originally meant to be only an upgraded version of the already existing design, consumed a lot of time and money. However, its extensive evolution led to the final configuration based on a new concept, and was unlike anything created before: the DD55000 Project Everest. The DD stands for "Defined Directivity", originally ​​Don Keele’s concept, intended to provide a wider optimum imaging area by using asymmetrically positioned speakers. The Project Everest was a giant success: over 500 pairs of these speakers were sold, which, given their price, is a staggering number. It remained in production until the launch of the smaller K2 in 1989. Design work on the latter began a year earlier, as it was planned to introduce a flagship speaker every four or five years. While the Everest was a single speaker system, the K2 was designed as an entire series of speakers. The basic premise was a two-way speaker looking similar to the Everest, but with a simpler design. The top-of-the-range model was the K2-S9500. The concept for the K2 came again from Bruce Scrogin who assembled a team of engineers and designers, almost the same as before, to execute the design. All the drivers and crossovers were designed from the ground up for this project, unlike the Everest that used already existing drivers. The K2 featured Bi-Radial horn design. The K2-S9500 and K2-S7500 were presented to the press in 1989. In 1993, they were joined by the smallest K2-S5500. I happen to perfectly remember its European debut at the IFA show in Berlin. Harman Kardon rented the entire Berlin Opera to hold demonstrations, concerts and associated events. It was the one and only time when I spent full six days at an audio show… The K2-S5500 pioneered a crossover design referred to as "Charge-Coupled Linear Definition Dividing Network", which used a battery to maintain a constant biasing voltage. It was to help minimize distortion by keeping the music signal from crossing the dielectric zero-point of the capacitors. Although the smallest in the series, the speakers looked fantastic and sounded just as good. At the beginning of the 21st century, in 2003, the world saw the launch of the K2 S9800, followed by the K2 S9900 a few years later, both based on the Project Everest. However, as early as 2002, the work began on the revitalization of the original Everest. The DD66000, planned for the company’s 60th anniversary and presented in 2006, was destined for success. It received awards all over the world, especially from the Japanese "Stereo Sound" magazine, which similarly awarded all its previous incarnations. The story ends with a broadening of the Everest series. A few years ago, JBL launched to the market the DD65000 and this year the most expensive DD67000, with a distinctive front baffle made of carbon fiber. S3900 It just so happens that in the same year 2013, during the CES show in Las Vegas (USA) JBL presented one of the least expensive so far incarnations of these speakers, the S3900, a three-way design with a 250 mm woofer and a medium-high frequency driver covering the range from 850 Hz to 12 kHz. Jim Garrett, director of sales and marketing for HARMAN Luxury Audio Group and Loudspeakers says that one of design objectives was to create speakers that would be easier to set up and position than the S4700 introduced a year earlier, while maintaining the advantages of the Project Everest DD67000 and Project K2 S9900. The new design uses dual paper cone woofers with very large 3-inch coils and the 175Nd-3 medium-high frequency driver with an AquaPlas treated titanium diaphragm and neodymium magnet, loaded into a Bi-Radial horn. The 138Nd ultrahigh-frequency driver with a pure-titanium diaphragm is also Bi-Radial horn loaded. Sources The JBL Story - 60 Years of Audio Innovation, JBL Pro Audio Publications, 2006. “Lansing Heritage”, czytaj HERE. alteclansingunofficial.nlenet.net. Albums auditioned during this review Paganini For Two, Gil Shaham, Göran Söllscher, Deutsche Grammophon/JVC 480 246-5, XRCD24 (1993/2009). Black Sabbath, 13, Vertigo/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICN-1034/5, 2 x SHM-CD (2013). Charlie Haden & Chris Anderson, None But The Lonely Heart, Naim naimcd022, CD (1998). Depeche Mode, Should Be Higher, Columbia Records 758332, SP CD (2013). Dominic Miller, Fourth Wall, Q-rious Music QRM 108-2, CD (2006). Eva Cassidy, Songbird, Blix Street Records/JVC VICJ-010-0045, XRCD24 (1998/2010). Hilary Hann, Bach Concertos, dyr. Jeffrey Kahane, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music LLC [Japan] UCCG-50058, SHM-CD (2003/2011). John Dowland, Lachrimae or Seven Teares, Jordi Savall, Hespèrion XX, Alia Vox AVSA9901, SACD/CD (2013). Mel Tormé, The Legend of Mel Tormé, Going For A Song GFS360, CD (?). Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells, Mercury Records/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICY-40016, Platinum SHM-CD (1973/2013). Nat “King” Cole, Welcome to the Club, Columbia/Audio Fidelity AFZ 153, SACD/CD (1959/2013). Patricia Barber, Companion, Premonition/Mobile Fidelity UDSACD 2023, SACD/CD (1999/2003). Japanese editions of CDs and SACDs are available from Horn speakers, regardless of whether all or only some of their drivers are horn loaded, have several features in common. It does not matter what company they come from, what design idea stands behind the that finally take the shape of these tubes - their sound is big, fast, and the sound waves seem to reach us in no time ; generated by the drivers seem to at the same time hit the eardrums of our ears. This is largely similar to listening through headphones, but with a tangible, physical bass and without any spatial location problems. The S3900 add to this set of features a couple of their own, which position them slightly outside “horn mainstream”. The JBL speakers play music that is saturated and thick, unlike many similar horn designs that thin out musical fabric, favoring attack and speed instead. The latter were of course present in the pair under review, but not for their own sake. The speakers’ dense sound, large instruments’ depth and fantastic tonal balance (as for horns, more about which later) meant that they always showed something good and interesting, no matter what kind of music I played and what the volume level was. They will certainly not be boring. Although I went with them through most of the musical genres that interest me, I could not help but start the auditions by playing an album that features double bass in the leading role. Double bass, like two bass drivers in front of me – perhaps not the closest possible association, but one that turned out quite accurate. I bought the album None But The Lonely Heart by Charlie Haden and Chris Anderson, released in 1997 on Naim label, straight after its release, on the wave of enthusiasm for the hit (if it may be so called) disc Beyond The Missouri Sky on which Haden played with Pat Metheny. While I absolutely loved Beyond…, Haden and Anderson’s duo seemed to me downright boring in comparison. I had a problem both with album’s length, about 30 minutes too long, and track selection. Some ten years later my musical preferences made a U-turn and it is now the album with Metheny that I consider to be flashy and empty musically. It also turns out to be far inferior in terms of sound production to the album recorded by Ken Christianson, chief sound engineer for the Naim label. The JBLs confirmed my assessment and showed even more explicitly than most very expensive speakers what the power of piano and double bass duo is. The lows were strong and dense. At the same time they also had high resolution – high enough to leave me with no doubts that Christianson had recorded Haden’s instrument using only two microphones visible in the pictures, in stereo configuration (they look like the AKG C414B-ULS, though I'm not sure), although the sheer bass power could indicate a third close-in mic, picking up direct sound. That’s not the case here, though. This recording is in Naim’s patented True Stereo technology, and it was the JBL’s slightly stronger and more resolving bass, which was heard immediately. The piano was shown by the S3900 as it should have been, that is from a distance yet with great definition and beautiful acoustic environment. The horn loaded mid-high and ultrahigh-frequency driver proved great as complementing the low and upper bass, without sounding detached and without attracting attention. It's actually most unusual, because the horns are always audible. They generate specific distortion, usually on the edges of the acoustic range. The JBLs are not free from that, but it does not attract our attention on most recordings. The duo’s album sounded thick and dark, in the sense that the treble could be “deduced” from the sound, rather than being heard as something separate. Superb! Speaking about distortion, I would like to mention how the use of horns affects the S3900’s sound. Let us not have any illusions that it doesn’t. Part of the crossover range, around 800-900 Hz, is emphasized. This frequency range is responsible for midrange body and the so-called ‘presence’. The JBLs did not sound aggressively, in that they did not irritate with the attack. Yet the lower range of female vocals, part of the violin sound, especially if recorded slightly higher, as on Deutsche Gramophone CDs, will sound stronger and somewhat nasal. There’s no trace of brightening, “ticking”, or glassiness: the American speakers sound absolutely coherent and well thought out, with which they embarrass many other expensive horn speakers. The change in tonality I am talking about translates into emphasizing the violin, enlarging it and accenting its nasal sonic characteristics. This was what happened with Gil Sham’s instrument on Paganini For Two and with Hilary Hann’s on her Bach. Concertos, even though the former was released by JVC as XRCD24, and the latter by Universal Japan as SHM-CD (in other words, as theoretically top current CD formats). In part, it is the result of certain recording techniques used by DG, but also of the speakers’ character that happen to deviate from neutrality in this particular sonic range. It was different with stringed instruments whose sound is located lower, like on the album Lachrimae or Seaven Teares performed by Jordi Savall and his Hespèrion XX. The latest Alia Vox release sounded equally thick, with accent on the lower midrange, as the Haden’s album. This was due to another characteristic of the JBLs, namely their ability to build a full, mature midrange, particularly with male vocals and instruments having a tonal center in that range. Playing Nat “King” Cole or listening to Dominic Miller’s Fourth Wall, or even Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells on the latest Platinum SHM-CD release, should be convincing enough. If you do not have these albums, use others that are characterized by a saturated lower midrange, "opened up" by the top end not allowing it to close off in a thick pulp. What you’ll get is something that happens with best warm tube amps and fast speakers: the unity of tonality and micro-dynamics, tangibility and soundstage depth, and most of all instruments/vocals. Talking about Haden’s album, I mentioned that it conveyed interior acoustics with great taste. This was possible thanks to a very careful tonality setting of the horn drivers and the fullness of woofers. The latter sound strong but without exaggeration, in the context of the speaker design idea. We will never run out bass. It will extend very low, although will not be particularly selective at the very bottom. However, at a few hundred Hertz its resolution will be well above average, as good as that of the Amphion Krypton3 that are fantastic in this respect, at the same time providing a larger (and therefore better) sense of its physical presence than the Finnish revelations. It proves beneficial to calm instrumental and dynamic vocal music, but also to electronica. That is why I’ve mentioned Oldfield. The JBLs offer a very large, intensive sound. They perfectly convey spatial aspects, including those around the listener, at least when we talk about the foreground. What is further up is of less importance; the foreground takes a clear preference. Hence the fantastic Cole’s vocals, but also the thick sound of electronic instruments and the sense of fullness with this type of albums. Thickness, fullness and coherence are characteristic features of that design. Admittedly, these are not the kind of sonic aspects we look for in horn speakers. I’ll go even further to say that they are often sacrificed on the altar of other advantages. We tend to “give up” on them in good faith, believing that remarkable speed, selectivity and dynamics will make up for them. Hence, the S3900 seem very special to me. They do not lose anything from the above list, while adding to it something more on their own. An example of that is their clean treble capable of showing the size of instruments in this range. The horn drivers work together so well that I couldn’t identify the spot where they are crossed over, or even notice any sonic artifacts that usually indicate the crossover point. There’s detailness and resolution, supported by “meat.” That is true not only with small ensembles, but also with a big band. Wind instruments are customarily horn speakers’ “favorites”, which is due to a similar way of sound reinforcement in both. With the speakers under review they will sound strong and resounding, but not aggressive. The latter is key for me, as that is what distinguishes speakers with aspirations to sound well from those that are really suited for that. And you can never be sure with horns. Conclusion In addition to small classical and jazz ensembles as well as electronica, the S3900 were also tested with Megadeth, Metallica, Depeche Mode, Portishead and old recordings from the 1930s. They were all very interesting and had proper “power”. The sound was dynamic, big and strong. The first planes seemed to be most important, as the guitar, drums and vocals were shown slightly before the speaker line and had a large volume, i.e. size combined with body. These are speakers that do not pretend to be “correct”. But neither do they make a “point” of their differences. They are not interesting just because they are different. It is their advantages that make them a good counter-offer to classic speakers. Their dual woofers offer an even fuller sound than the 30 cm woofer in the Harbeth M40.1. They are not as agile and fast, but the difference is not large. Their treble, on the other hand, is better than that of their British “colleagues”. I have no doubt that the M40.1 tweeter, no matter how fantastically combined with the rest of the acoustic band, is not one of the seven wonders of the audio world. What is surprising is that the most important sonic characteristic of the S3900 is its dense and coherent midrange. The speakers make it sound as if we were listening to a small stand-mounter of the Sonus faber Guarneri kind (in terms of tonality). And we have a strong, low bass to boot. It is possible to point out the range where their horn nature becomes audible. Actually, it will manifest itself with the violin, but it is not a particularly unpleasant irregularity. Either we accept it and it does not constitute any problem, or we don’t, and then we need to look for something else. Fortunately, it is not that we have to gnash our teeth and wince in pain only to "enter in", coveting what the S3900 really shine in. The arrangement is clear and good: after some initial acclimatization and accommodation to that sound, we listen to violin recordings with pleasure. Fully aware that it can be done better but also with peace of mind, knowing that other sonic aspects we get are truly unique. High sensitivity speakers, especially horn designs, are usually associated with small tube amps. There is lots of truth in that. Many such designs, especially speakers from the 1930-60s, work best with less than 10 Watts, preferably SET, amplifiers. Many modern speakers also sound better paired with low power tube amps. However, in my opinion, the JBLs sound best with powerful high-end solid state amps. It is with the latter that they can achieve their maximum capability and sound really magical. I was driving the S3900 with my Soulution 710 amplifier and it was an optimal pairing. The speakers were carefully placed in the exact spot normally taken by my Harbeth M40.1 and were not particularly demanding in terms of positioning or toe-in. They will sound equally well almost everywhere, even in a small room. The audition had the character of an A/B comparison, with the A and B known. Music samples were 2 minutes long. Whole album were also auditioned. It’s worth placing the JBLs on good isolation boards. In my case, these were the Acoustic Revive RST-38H platforms with the SPU4 spike receptacles. The S3900 is the distant heir of the Everest project, and a direct successor of the S9900. Slightly smaller than the latter design, housed in a simpler cabinet with smaller midrange driver and tweeter horns, they have two 250 mm woofers in place of a single 300 mm unit. It is, however, still a three-way, partially horn loaded, ported design. The 100F-12 woofers have pulp-fiber cones with characteristic concentric ribs to increase their stiffness. Unlike other low-frequency drivers used in high sensitivity speakers, like the Tannoy Kensington GR, their suspension is, however, rubber made, not textile. This brings their design closer to classic woofers. The chassis is made of very solid aluminum alloy cast, and the whole is equipped with a powerful magnet with magnetic flux linearization. The bass response is as deep as 33 Hz, but at -6dB which is worth noting. Usually the quoted frequency response is at -3dB. High- and ultrahigh-frequency drivers are mounted from the rear to a die-cast section made of proprietary material called SonoGlass. It is a resin and glass fiber variant, rigid and vibration resistant. The cast features two characteristically shaped horns called Bi-Radial, opening up symmetrically in two directions. The larger horn loads the driver that covers a very wide bandwidth, from 850 Hz to 12 kHz. Its 50 mm titanium diaphragm is coated with material called AquaPlas, which is a resin variant. Ultra-high frequencies are handled by a 19 mm titanium diaphragm driver. It reproduces frequencies up to 40 kHz. Both drivers feature powerful neodymium motor assemblies and quality chassis. The cabinet is made of 25 mm MDF reinforced from within with a few braces. The inside walls are lined with uncompressed felt. The crossover network is divided into two parts: the low frequency section, located at the bottom of the speaker, and the medium-high section mounted to the rear wall. They sport air coils and large polypropylene capacitors. The inside wiring is on stranded copper. The system is bi-wiring and bi-amping capable. The speakers have a high sensitivity of 92 dB and high nominal impedance of 6 Ω. Technical Specifications (according to the manufacturer): Frequency Response: 33 Hz – 40 kHz (-6 dB) Recommended Amplifier Power: 25 – 250 W Sensitivity (2.83 V / 1 m): 92 dB Nominal Impedance: 6 Ω Crossover Frequencies: 850 Hz, 12 kHz Dimensions (H x W x D) 1001 x 370 x 368 mm Weight: 86.3 lb. (39 kg) / pc.

he recent changes in music distribution have been nothing but revolutionary. Since the dawn of mechanical reproduction of sound we have always dealt with the physical media, first strip of paper, then a cylinder and a flat 78 rpm record, through vinyl Long Play, reel-to-reel and cassette tape, to the Compact Disc. Dozen other consumer and professional audio formats came and went along the way, never to be heard of again. Yet it is the CD that seems to have become the last link in this chain. Its success has not been and will certainly not be repeated by either DVD-A, SACD nor Blu-ray Audio. For many years to come, what will remain on the battlefield will be vinyl and – for some time – Compact Disc. The future, and for some already the present, is the music “cloud”. An audio file. However, disappearing of a well-rooted technology brings about a sort of accumulation of innovations that are expected to give it a second lease of life and delay its retirement. I have no idea what causes the "swan song" that is visible today in the case of the Compact Disc format. This is partly due to the desire to maintain revenues from patents in a particular technology or related to a given format. This means cutting the inflow of money to companies working on further innovations. It is the same with record pressing plants – when the demand for physical media decreases, a substantial part of their revenues will also disappear. I know that many of them, including those in Poland, are urgently looking for other sources of income. But perhaps that is the reason behind the real explosion of innovations related to the Compact Disc format. It’s visible both on the “software” side, or CDs, and the hardware side, or CD players. I wrote about the former in my editorial to the November issue of “High Fidelity” (Audio Files – a wonderful new world, see HERE). The driving force behind those changes turn out to be Japanese companies, led by JVC Victor Company, Sony Music and Universal Music. The first of them, aside from continued improvements to the XRCD, and now XRCD24 Super Analog (in the case of analog tape source) and Refined Digital (digital tape source), has come up with something that is currently taking the market by the storm and is used by both other companies: HR Cutting. As we know, HR Cutting (High Resolution Cutting Process) is a new invention owned by JVC, it seems. It is a modified method of cutting the glass matrix, which is used in the pressing plant for the production of CDs. Ordinary music companies send the material to the pressing plant in the same format it is to be cut; in other words 16-bit, 44.1 kHz. It can be provided on a CD-R, DAT, or sent over the Internet. The material is then encoded and laser cut in a glass matrix. JVC modified the process many years ago to minimize the number of actions (steps) that take place between the music material leaving the mastering studio and the finished CD. The material is first digitized (in the case of analog tape) or reclocked and upsampled (digital tape). Then it is recorded on Sony Magneto Optical (MO) Disc with the 24-bit resolution (in the case XRCD24; it was 20-bit with the XRCD and XRCD2). The sampling rate is 88.2 kHz, which is twice that of the CD. Conversion to 16/44.1 took place just before burning the disc and was made “on the fly”. These CDs bear the XRCD, XRCD2 and finally XRCD24 logo, and the technique has been called K2. HR Cutting seems to be its further development. The material delivered to the pressing plant has 24-bit resolution and the sampling frequency is 176.4 kHz, which is four times higher than on the CD. Conversion to 16/44.1 and signal encoding is made “on the fly”. There is, however, an important difference - the K2 process was used exclusively by JVC, and the discs were only pressed in its factory in Yokohama. The discs that use HR Cutting are also pressed by other companies, not only JVC. Sony does it on CDs and Universal Music on SHM-CDs and Platinum SHM-CDs. It turns out that thanks to these efforts even such a limited format as the Compact Disc can be further improved. But to take advantage of what the companies “squeezed out” of the Red Book standard defining the Compact Disc format, it must be properly played back. And here the hard part begins, which is hardware related. “All the real CD players are gone”, to paraphrase a classic Mel Cooleys’ song. Well, not entirely, given the example of the DAP-999EX Limited D/A converter from Japanese Reimyo under review today. They do, however, slowly become a disappearing species. That alone should be enough to include it – incidentally – in the Red Book of Endangered Species. Mr. Kiuchi, the owner of Reimyo (and of Hamonix, Bravo!, and Enacom; co-originator and co-owner of XRCD patents), mentally a Samurai and the master of kendo by choice, believes that it is worth doing it. His system, which consists of the CDP-777 transport and DAP-999EX Limited DAC is one of the best products of this type in the world. The transport uses the flagship Philips CD Pro-2M mechanism that now falls out of production, and the DAC employs the K2 processor Mr. Kiuchi is particularly attached to, both on the recording and mastering side. Once used exclusively by JVC, even now it is found in just a few audio products, all hailing from Japan. The Limited DAC sports its latest version. The DAC has one task: to decode the signal from CDs. Its input resolution is 24 bits but its upper sampling frequency is limited to 48 kHz. I do not believe in coincidences. Hence, when I found out about the modification, I was sure that it was directly related to HR Cutting. Previously, the processor, as it is described in the company literature, interpolated the 16-bit signal to 24-bit and upsampled it to 88.2 kHz (as with the XRCD24). Now it interpolates it to 24-bit (no change here), but upsamples it to 176.4 kHz. While not mentioned explicitly, it is exactly the same process that is used in HR Cutting, where the material delivered from the mastering studio has a lower sampling rate. In a surprisingly detailed technical description that we find in the booklet accompanying the album Il Trillo del Diavolo by Tartini, Veracini, Mossi and Bonporti (Enrico Onofri, Imaginarum Ensemble) we read that the material was recorded in Italy in 24/96. After arriving at the Japanese pressing plant it was first upsampled to 176.4 kHz in a k2HR device to be then encoded in 16/44.1 and pressed on the CD. That is exactly the same thing we get, in a consumer form, with the Limited DAC version from Mr. Kiuchi. A few words with… Kazuo Kiuchi, Combak Corporation - owner Wojciech Pacuła: How does the Limited version differ from the previous one? Kazuo Kiuchi: The Limited upsamples the input signal twice higher than the older DAC version - we now have 176.4 kHz instead of 88.2 kHz. It does it in a smooth manner using newer technology. We do not pit the old and the new version against each other, as they are completely different devices. How did you come across the K2 converter and become its supporter? The K2 processor was developed on the basis of musical signal processing in the JVC recording studio laboratory and not in the laboratories of electronic companies and is, in my opinion, the most amazing digital processor. To get out of this processor as much music as possible, we have employed the resonance control technology used in Harmonix products. Please tell me something about the Hi-Q project, in which you are involved. I am personally responsible for the music production released on XRCD24 Hi-Q Records, ordered by Red River Export Company. We also help them with sales, using our partners around the world. As we all know, Philips stopped the production of the CD Pro-2M transport – how does your company deal with that? When it comes to servicing our players and transports, I would like to reassure all our customers that we have accumulated spare parts for many, many years to come. As to whether the CDT-777 will still be in production, we have the same situation: we have purchased enough CD Pro-2M drives to continue selling the CDT-777 for a long time. Albums auditioned during this review Okihiko Sugano Record Collection, Victor Edition/Trio Edition, Audio Meister XRCG-30025-8, 4 x XRCD24 [2012]; Alan Parsons Project, I Robot, Arista/Sony Music Japan SICP 30168, “Legacy Edition”, 2 x BSCD2 (1977/2013). Antonio Caldara, Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo, René Jacobs, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Harmonia Mundi France HMC 905222, 2 x CD (1996/2002). Bach, Violin Concertos, Yehudi Menuhin, EMI/Hi-Q Records HIQXRCD9, XRCD24, CD (1960/2013). Bach, Violin Concertos. Double Concerto, Yehudi Menuhin, EMI/Seraphim 5685172, 2 x CD (1960 | 1961 | 1962/1995). Black Sabbath, 13, Vertigo/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICN-1034/5, 2 x SHM-CD (2013). Depeche Mode, Should Be Higher, Columbia Records 758322, SP CD (2013). Dire Straits, Dire Straits, Vertigo/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICY-40008, Platinum SHM-CD (1978/2013). Exodus, The Most Beautiful Dream. Anthology 1977-1985, Polskie Nagrania Muza/Metal Mind Productions MMP 5CD BOX 002, “No. 0020”, 5 x CD (1980 | 1982/2006). Happy The Man, 3rd - “Better late…”, Belle 132047, SHM-CD (1983/2012). Miles Davis, The Complete Birth of the Cool, Capitol Jazz/EMI 4945502, CD (1957/1998). Nat “King” Cole, Welcome to the Club, Columbia/Audio Fidelity AFZ 153, SACD/CD (1959/2013). Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Atlantic Records/ORG Music ORGM-1081, SACD/CD (1959/2013). Perfect, Perfect, Polskie Nagrania Muza/Polskie Radio PRCD1596, CD (1981/2013). Siekiera, „Nowa Aleksandria”, Tonpress/MTJ cd 90241, 2 x CD (1986/2012). Tartini, Veracini, Mossi, Bonporti, Il Trillo del Diavolo, Enrico Onofri, Imaginarum Ensemble, Anchor Records UZCL-1019, “HR Cutting”, CD (2013). The Enid, In the Region of the Summer Stars, EMI/Belle 132084, SHM-CD (1976/2013). Japanese versions of CDs & SACDs available at You can see an iron consequence in what Mr. Kiuchi does. What I mean is the sound of his signed products and the discs that he produces. And it doesn’t matter whether we look at components from two or five years ago, or the latest ones. The changes are obvious and I remember clearly what the previous version of the DAP-999EX sounded like. But all the new stuff falls into a goal which has been – or so I think – set long ago, when the owner of Reimyo started working with audio devices. The most important characteristic of the reviewed converter is the density and depth of sound. If I were to outline a path whose one direction is Reimyo, the other one would be Audionet, Sony and older components from dCS. In a team with DAP I’d group up units from Audio Research, Jadis, emm Labs, and Vitus Audio. At a closer look, this kind of generalization should be of course discarded but it’s useful at first glance. Playing any album on the Reimyo source you’ll experience a déjà vu. But only if you’ve previously heard some top turntables. If yes, you’ll quickly make a connection with what you’ve heard some time in the past: the Japanese DAC sounds in a way that we usually associate with a thick, saturated turntable sound, like that of the Avid HiFi designs. You can’t mistake this for anything else, because it’s not the result of suggesting certain sonic characteristics but rather a consequent developing of the idea of presenting music on an emotional level. Even this brief introduction should be enough to figure out that we are not talking here about a “neutral” sound – far from it! The DAP has a clearly shaped sound that evidently shies away from such terms as “absent”, “hidden” or “accurateness”. While all these things are good and valuable in themselves, they are usually poorly used in audio. Becoming a goal in itself, they distort the presentation, thus separating us from the “suspension of disbelief” and participation in music. And that is unforgivable. In his brands, including Reimyo, Mr. Kiuchi offers a complete change of perspective. The DAP Limited sounds lush and incredibly tangible, compared with the previous generation of products from this company and from other manufacturers in general. It treats all kinds of music material in a similar way, regardless of what we currently play. For example, we spin Depeche Mode Goodnight Lovers single and play isan Falling Leaf Mix from it, and we are literally blown away by how brilliantly Gahan’s voice can be presented. Soon we start looking for other vocal oriented CDs (even though Depeche Mode is not a “vocal” band, i.e. all its musical elements are balanced) and each time absorb with our entire being everything that is generated by the speakers. What we hear is “from the gut”, meaty, and somewhat similar to the sound of the Lumïn network music player. But – to be honest – the Reimyo system does it even better. Despite the fact that we’re talking about an outdated 16-bit and 44.1 kHz standard. I referred to Depeche Mode because I longed for years to hear something like that, and even with the original vinyl pressings the vocals are thinned out, emaciated and hidden deep in the mix. The DAP clearly modifies the sound, but it does it in a way that sends shivers down my spine. For I have not yet heard SUCH Gahan. As it seems, it’s all about emphasizing the mid and upper bass and the lower part of midrange, where the male vocals stop operating. This is a clear departure from neutrality, but it is done in good faith and carried out with success. And it is the winners that write the history, isn’t it? Anyway, the point is not about simply emphasizing a part of the frequency band. That can be as well done in a $300 player or amplifier, but without the slightest chance of getting the same result. The DAP does it a bit like it were remastering the material, as if it were a tube device used to redo a multi-track master tape, maintaining the right balance between the vocalist and the instruments. Even this, however, would be only a “trick”, not a “strategy”. The Reimyo does it deliberately and in depth, without simply skimming the surface only to impress us. We will notice a similar effect with all other instruments that frequently sound too thin or too light, like B3 Hammond Organs, electric guitars, and analog synthesizers. I could carry on with the DM example, as their last three albums have been a brilliant display of using the latter instruments, but what perhaps burned even more vividly in my mind were the remasters of the debut albums by Perfect and Budka Suflera as well as Exodus’ Supernova. What I’m talking about are Polish bands and their recordings from the 1970s and early 1980s. I know them from the original vinyl LPs, and this is how I appropriated them. I am aware of their technical limitations, not helped by the quality of vinyl they were pressed on. Hence, their remastered digital editions seem to me more attractive than the original analog versions. Such is life. But even they carry the “original sin” not removed by the baptism carried out by the remastering team. Their sound is fairly shallow. This cannot be corrected by simply bumping up a part of the frequency band. The DAC from Mr. Kiuchi does it effortlessly each and every time. Its sound is very resolved, and it performs a kind of emphasizing of individual mix components that are present in the relevant frequency range. It is therefore not simply a heavier, darker sound. It is more vivid, more natural and denser, but not with the density of syrup but rather of good port wine. And it goes straight to your head just as easily. This kind of bottom end shaping makes the recordings sound quite serious, in a way that is engaging and does not allow the listener to fall asleep. An attempt to read something while the Reimyo is playing will quickly make us realize that although we are still holding a book (newspaper, magazine, ebook reader, etc.), we do not really see the letters anymore. We’re listening. Instruments’ bodies are shaped almost perversely, thickening right in front of us, putting on a body that begs to be touched. I'd never before heard such nice sounding guitars by Hołdys or Sygitowicz, nor had been so impressed by Komendarek’s keyboards. The vast quality difference I’m talking about, which affects not only Polish albums – I just referred to them as an extreme example of how their sound can be improved, is best shown by the comparison of Bach’s Violin Concertos under the direction of Yehudi Menuhin. On the one side, let's put the box with an analog remaster produced by Mr. Kiuchi (released by Hi-Q Records), and on the other side any EMI digital remaster. I have a 1995 double CD version with the first three Concertos, released by EMI in the Seraphim series. Although once I was not particularly bothered by its sound, I cannot listen to it anymore. The reason is that I heard the XRCD24 version, simply brilliant in its depth, density and instruments’ presence. The old remaster sounds dead in comparison. I am fairly sure that the majority of digital sources will sound just like that when pitted against the Reimyo. However, one should bear in mind those sonic characteristics that may raise doubts. The soundstage depth is not the biggest I have heard. You may not hear it – I actually doubt anybody can realize that without having a top Lektor from Ancient Audio or a flagship dCS for direct comparison. The reason is that the instruments seem absolutely three-dimensional and presented here and now. Consequently, we just don’t care so much about what’s behind them. There’s a lot going on there, too, but it is secondary compared to the foreground. The vocals were charming and the guitars were sending shivers down my spine for a reason. The sound was extremely vivid, so you can’t talk about a flat perspective. It’s just not the type of presentation that would open up a very deep space behind the speakers. The main idea here is, as it seems to me, the complete opposite. It’s about making the act of listening to music more intimate. We’re meant to feel as if we were in the middle of it all, engulfed in a bubble of dense sound. What’s right in front of us is the most important. And that seems almost real. It’s worth noticing the behavior of the 4-5 kHz range. When Gahan was taking a breath, the lower range was slightly emphasized – I’ve mentioned this before – but the “throat” related elements also seemed stronger. Even the cymbals had part of their range slightly accented. So did the brass section. And the violins. It is part of the total sonic package I’ve mentioned previously, rather than a problem to be solved. But you hear it as a “turning up” of or “pushing the pedal down” on the sound even harder. If this accent fell somewhere lower, it could be referred to as emphasizing the sibilants. The DAP sounds sweet and rather warm, and doesn’t even know what “emphasized sibilants” are. But it knows perfectly what to do to make the instruments seem more natural than live, and even more tangible than at a concert. But it does it through turning up and boosting this range. The sound is thus open, powerful and warm at the same time, as if the output stage was tube rather than solid state based. Holding something like the DAP-999EX Limited in your hand, it’s hard to stop yourself from conducting tests and experiments. The unit practically provokes you to auditions, promising to submerge you in the presentation and realistically fulfilling this promise. It does it not only thanks to its fantastic resolution, meatiness, density, fluidity and coherence, but also through several processes that turn even the most boring stuff into an exciting spectacle. The bass is strong and filled with harmonics; it’s internally coherent which makes it saturated. The entire region up to the lower midrange seems more powerful. And I have no doubts about that. But it is not a matter of simply raising the level of the entire range, but has to do with adding energy to individual instruments – it’s not the same thing. To verify this difference I listened to several albums which originally sound low and dense. I couldn’t stop myself from what could only be compared to the results of homeopathic healing methods. As you can read in the company literature, DAP’s digital filters, including the K2, convert the 16-bit input signal to 24 bits and upsample it from 44.1 kHz to 176.4 kHz. It so happens that the signal fed to the HR Cutting glass matrix machine has the exact same parameters. From the technical point of view this is irrelevant, because the signal is converted to 16/44.1 right before the laser either way, and the DAC receives 16/44.1 signal from the CD transport. But there is something about the sound of HR Cutting CDs that works really well with the Reimyo. It is actually a very similar set of characteristics. Density, tangibility, resonance and resolution. Regardless of whether it is classical music on a regular CD (Il Trillo del Diavolo), rock on a Platinum SHM-CD (Dire Straits and The Rolling Stones) or, again, classical music on an XRCD24 (Okihiko Sugano Record Collection box). What they all have in common is how their sound becomes fuller and denser. If we dealt here with bumping up of a particular subrange, whether on the recording’s or the DAC’s side, they would be superimposed on each other and emphasized. The Reimyo does something completely different: it enters into the sound even deeper, even fuller, and in an even tastier way. Conclusion Those seeking precision in the source sound will be disappointed, though. At least in the following understanding: purity + attack + selectivity. That is something the DAP Limited will not guarantee. It digs deep, but it does that at the cost of the above. Its frequency response is shaped “with a certain idea” and it emphasizes the region between the bass and midrange and a part of midrange above, where the cymbals’ range begins. The latter lights up the sound a bit, but it is evidently a “treatment”. However, I think that anyone who has ever heard a high-end component from Japan, be that a Kondo or a Reimyo, knows that they are from an entirely different world. And ‘out of this world’ is the best way to describe the sound of the new DAC from Kiuchi-san, the Samurai. I best learned what it can do with the recordings during my headphone audition, with the Bakoon HPA-21 amplifier and the HiFiMAN HE-6 magnetostatic headphones that had not sounded like that ever before. It was a top high-end headphone system, which had both the meatiness of dynamic cans, and the full body and speed of electrostats. With my Harbeths, the Reimyo unfurled the kind of things I rarely ever experienced at home. Never before had Depeche Mode and Polish albums from the 1970s and 1980s sounded so well at my place. They may not have had such an accurate texture as on my Lektor Air, or such a deep soundstage. But this offer is as attractive as a credit card associated with an account that is always full to the brim. And how can you not use it? Preparing for the DAP review, I tried out several transports to determine whether they are really so much different from each other as I remembered it. An additional incentive for that was my conversation with Jarek Waszczyszyn (Ancient Audio) who talked about his attempts to use ordinary computer CD drives, similar to what MSB Technology does. While I expected that, the results surpassed even my wildest expectations. For comparison I used the CDP-777 Reimyo transport, the Ancient Audio Lektor AIR V-edition, the Audio Research Reference CD9 (all sporting the Philips CD Pro-2M), the Naim CDX2 and two multimedia players – the Asus BDS-700 Blu-ray player and the Dune HD Max file/Blu-ray player. The differences between them were huge! The Dune disgraced itself in this role right at the outset. The Asus coped well, but it was obvious that it makes no sense to go with anything more than a $700 DAC to improve its sound. The Lektor and the CD9 fared much better, beaten by a whisker by the CDX2 due to its better bass. However, I had no doubts that the CDT-777 was the only source that could be pitted against the DAP-999EX Limited. Only the most expensive CEC TL0X might have shown something equally good. I used the Harmonix HS-102 digital interconnect to connect the transports to the DAP and the Harmonix X-DC350M2R Improved Version power cords throughout. The CDP-777 transport has so widely spaced feet that I could not set it up on the Acoustic Revive RAF-48H platform and it sat directly on the decoupled shelf of the Finite Elemente Pagode Edition rack. The platform was under the DAC that was additionally seated on three Franc Audio Accessories Ceramic Disc Classic feet. The audition had the character of an A/B comparison with the A and B known. Music samples were 2 minutes long. Whole albums were also auditioned. Mr. Kazuo Kiuchi is a supporter of tube designs, keen to use so-called audio accessories – anti-vibration spacers, racks, cables, mains-related components and others. However, looking at the DAP-999EX Limited DAC, it would be hard to suspect him of that. Right from the beginning, one thing is clear, though: the K2 processor is for him the central component of this unit. The DAC is not really big. Its low front panel sports four buttons to select one of the four inputs, AES/EBU, RCA, BNC or Toslink. The choice is indicated by a green LED above the selected button. To their left are additional LEDs indicating the sampling frequency (48 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 32 kHz), the transport lock, possible lock error and de-emphasis. The latter is virtually unheard of anymore, although DACs have it installed as a standard. I found literally a couple CDs from the 1980s at home, which require it. The rear panel is a reflection of what we see in the front, with the central spot occupied by four digital inputs. Next to them are two pairs of analog outputs, unbalanced RCAs and balanced XLRs. The manufacturer does not indicate which XLR pin is ‘hot’. In order to use it both with ‘European’ (now also American) and ‘Japanese’ (and formerly American) cables, the rear panel sports a phase switch – 0/180º. One needs to pay attention to another thing – the DAC output voltage is significantly higher than the CD standard: 2.55 V instead of 2 V (on RCA outputs). Consequently, it will play much louder than other players and this needs to be corrected during auditions by turning down the preamplifier volume. The only on/off switch is on the rear panel, so apparently the DAC should remain powered on. The converter is supplied with the Harmonix X-DC/1.5 m power cord. The unit is housed in a solid aluminum enclosure that features specially designed feet. We can have a peek of what to expect inside, looking at a block diagram attached (in accordance with the best practices of Japanese manufacturers) to the manual. While my Limited arrived with a manual from the previous version, it still proved valid in the fundamental areas. The signal from the inputs is first sent to the digital receiver, and from there to the LSI K2 DSP, where it is converted from 16/44.1 to 24/176.4. That is a novelty as the previously used K2 chip upsampled the signal “only” to 88.2 kHz. The basic method, however, remained unchanged – it is still synchronous upsampling. The next step is a system of digital filters with 4x oversampling. This section is coupled to the DAC chips via optocouplers to isolate the input from the DACs. The latter are 24-bit units with 8-times oversampling. They are followed by low-pass analog filters and gain and buffering circuits. And the output. The PCB with electronic components occupies the entire bottom of the unit. The "Digital Audio Processor" designation used by the manufacturer seems to be spot on in this case. Almost everything we can see here has been taken directly from the previous version. But we can also spot a change – and it is crucial. Before we get to it, the signal first gets to the digital receiver – a venerable Yamaha YM3436D chip, valued by manufacturers for its low jitter and distortion resistance. The chip accepts the signal up to 24 bits, but its sampling frequency is limited to 48 kHz. The receiver is isolated from the input by impedance matching transformers. In the previous version the signal then was sent to the K2 JCV8009 chip soldered right next to the receiver, which handled the interpolation and 16-bit to 24-bit conversion and upsampling to 88.2 kHz. Now it is different. In the center of the main PCB, in what looks like dedicated spot, there is mounted another PCB with logic circuits. At the input we see the same K2 JCV8009 chip (the one on the main board appears to be inactive), here surrounded by eight CMOS gates working - I presume - as part of the upsampling circuit and digital filters. The NPC digital filter used previously appears to be inactive. The board also features an excellent master clock, far better than before, with an even better power supply. Before leaving the board, the signal goes to digital filter – another mature but excellent circuit: Burr-Brown DF1706. It is known for being used with the Burr Brown PCM1704 D/A converters (long out of production). We can see them on the main circuit board, at the output, and what’s important is that they are paired. They are surrounded by excellent Sanyo capacitors (purple), which are also used in my Lektor AIR. I/U conversion is handled by the OPA627 BB, and low-pass filters and gain stage is based on the standard JRC 5534 opamps. There are two large polypropylene capacitors that are not in the signal path, though. The section with the DAC chips is isolated from the K2 circuit via optoelectronic components. The output connectors are not gold-plated. The power supply section is truly outstanding. The mains socket sports filters from 2Pi and Enacom, another Mr. Kiuchi’s company. Other components are a very good fuse from HiFi-Tuning and two elegant C-core transformers. They feature five secondary windings (separate for the analog section, D/A analog and digital sections, PLL, and digital section). There are a lot of filtering capacitors and precision voltage regulators. It is a professional device, using many long-out-of-production NOS components. Technical Specifications (according to the manufacturer) Input Quantization: 16-bit Sampling Frequency: 48 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 32 kHz, auto-switching Digital inputs: 1 x AES/EBU/Input Impedance: 110 Ω 1 x BNC/Input Impedance: 75 Ω 1 x RCA/Input Impedance: 75 Ω 1 x Toslink (Optical) Digital Processing: K2 Technology (K2 LSI, 16-24bit) D/A Converter: 24-bit, 16-time oversampling Output voltage: XLR - 5.1 Vrms RCA - 2.55 Vrms Frequency Response: DC – 20kHz (+/-0.5 dB) S/N Ratio: > 114 dB (IHF-A) Dynamic Range: > 100 dB Channel Separation: > 105 dB (1 kHz) Linearity: +/-0.5 dB (+10 dBm ~ 90 dBm) 1 kHz IHF-A THD: > 0.003% (1 kHz Vo = F / S) (30 kHz LPF on) Power Consumption: 15 W Dimensions: 430(W) x 44(H) x 337(D) mm Weight: 5.5 kg Standard Accessory: Harmonix X-DC2 / 1.5 m power cord The review first appeared in English in Positive-Feedback.com, in November/December 2013 HERE

he recent meeting of Cracow Sonic Society that hosted Raveen Bawa, the export chief of dCS, who presented Vivaldi system, was sort of revelation for all of us. First of all because of the result of comparison between top of the line dCs setup and top of the line CD player, Ancient Audio's Lektor Grand SE (see HERE). For the first time we witnessed a digital source outperforming significantly our „large” Lektor. And we had heard many wonderful sources including top turntables (see HERE) and reel-to-reel tape recorders (see HERE). It's been years now and I still can't figure out how was it even possible to create such a top performing CD player, as Lektor Grand, in a country without any high-end traditions. This shouldn't have happened but somehow it did. There were few elements that made creation of that device, as well as less expensive but not much worse in terms of performance Lektor AIR V-edition, possible. First one was a guy who new a thing or two about digital technique, second was another guy who listened and heard differences, and third was a bunch of guys who encouraged those two. This has been working as a self-adjusting mechanism. I am pretty sure that this duel lost against dCs will (or already has) set this mechanism back in motion and the result might amaze us once more. The creative process followed two main assumptions. Lektor was supposed to outperform the best competitors on the market but it was also supposed to reproduce live performance in the best possible manner. To put these two assumptions into effect man people responsible had to do a lot of „training”, or „exposure” to both, live acoustic music and the best CD Players. There is a space where these both world collide. Do you remember Jürgen Straussman? If you don't let me encourage you to read my text (see HERE). A pianist, electronic, software developer, who plays at home both Steinway piano, and one of two (different) pieces of Hammond B3. So he has a chance to experience at home, to compare sound of acoustic instrument and probably the best ever created electronic version of piano. The sound of former is passively amplified, the sound of latter actively and it is reproduced by Lesli speakers. There is a group of instruments though that combines both these methods and electric pianos are among them. I am pretty sure that most of you saw it at least on TV while watching some concerts – they usually use such pianos made by Yamaha. Such an instrument looks like a smaller version of a piano – it sports a keyboard, a soundboard and a lid above it. But, in the version I'm talking about, under a lid there are no steel strings nor hammers, but speakers. The simplest electric pianos don't even sport this part, and they send out a signal via output, just like any other source like, for example, CD player. So there are two elements that decide about final sound – quality of an instrument and quality of an amplification. When it comes to electric pianos with soundboards both elements come together and they are suppose to deliver sound a similar to an acoustic piano as possible. Jarek Waszczyszyn knows about creating such, live-like sound, more than most people. So when asked to design and manufacture an amplifier for an electric piano he agreed at once. Or at least that's how I think it happened. When working on this project he had to face several issues, and the biggest one was a question of how to reproduce a full range sound out of a small driver and how to achieve that with as few coloration as possible. In course of his experiments he selected a few different drivers suitable for the job and developed an analogue amplification and correction system for those particular drivers. As you have probably guessed already at this point he was almost ready to build his own active speakers. In fact that is a story of how Studio Oslo speakers came to life (see HERE). They sport a single, wide-range driver, a Dayton Audio RS100-4, driven by a Philips TDA8566Q amplifying circuit, and they generated a large, spacy sound that lacked nothing in particular and looked really cute. At the same time Jarek was working on a few more projects and one of them has already reached its final stage. It is called a Master Oslo. The name suggests that it might be intended for mastering studios. Well, that fact is, that this Ancient Audio all time bestseller is used mostly in home recording and mastering studios and during away sessions. They deliver a sound that is such a good reproduction of real instruments that it is more useful as a tool for professionals rather than as an expensive desktop speaker. A driver they sport is slightly bigger than in previous model (100 mm vs 115 mm), and an analogue „processor” that corrects driver's errors works now even better. And an amplifier almost doubles an output power (30 W vs 50 W). These speakers are still tiny and still have their cute look. Since a bass-reflex port shots downwards manufacturer equipped speakers with precisely designed plinths that keep proper distance to b-r's exhaust. Master Oslo sport additionally XLR inputs, even though they sport an unbalanced amplifier. Additional, 400mm stands are optional. Who needs them? They will come handy if you use them as desktop speakers, placing them on both sides of your screen. They are tilted backwards so that the axis of driver is lined up with listeners ears. Many users take these speakers with for their vacation and use them with their iPod/iPad. Some use them in the same way at homes instead of classic amplifiers and speakers. The former might be interested in purchasing and using a very nice travel case made by Barczak Cases, the latter could use optional stands. A few simple words… JAROMIR WASZCZYSZYN | Ancient Audio - owner I've started my work on high performance but tiny speakers two years ago. The first model, Studio Oslo, proved to be a great success. One could use them with a computer, TV, or a mobile phone and that worked very well. In fact last year this product was our bestseller. I assumed that Studio Oslo would be used as near field monitors, most likely in desktop systems. But their potential turned out to much more impressive, especially with subwoofer added. They did not so bad as a full range system too. One of the customers set some kind of record using them in a primary system in a living room, that combined with open kitchen was like 60 sqm big! Many customers and people from press asked me for a bigger version. Sooner or later some inspirations had to appear. A first one was a test of a bamboo enclosure. Until that moment when I thought of bamboo what came to mind was for me was a fishing rod or the first airplanes – something very light and gentle. But in fact a pressed bamboo is a hard, rigid and nice looking material. Since it's a multilayer material it is not affected so much by changes of humidity as wood is. I could test it myself having made enclosures for a future, bigger model of speakers. I was truly excited examining first pair. The design reminding me of famous monitor from 1950ties looked great – at least when I looked at it from a distance. But when I took a closer look I was disappointed. It was poorly made and the only proof I needed was a difference between front and back baffle width. I received few enclosures manufactured using different techniques and all of them were very poorly made. Some of my friends told me I was lucky. Usually samples made but manufacturers present outstanding quality, than you place on order for a large lot and receive a container full of crap. Somehow I didn't feel lucky. So I gave up on this project despite nice performance and low production costs (price for one enclosure was only 3,75 $...). Another inspiration came from a different project. People have been trying to create a digital piano that would sound like a real acoustic instrument for years. Despite great efforts and lot of money spent they came nowhere close to success and the sound of digital imitations of real instrument was still really poor. So people keep trying. One of the manufacturers got interested in my active speakers and asked if these could be used for his electric piano. There was a chance of success as the sound of the sound reproducing modules he used was pretty good. For this purpose Studio Oslo need a subwoofer support, but that made a design of an instrument much more complicated. A solution were two more powerful speakers. I needed a bigger widerange drivers than. The final test was made in a location close to Italy. In a 100 sqm big room we have 3 concert pianos, couple smaller ones, and a digital one. Name of manufacturer and project itself are still confidential so I can't share these, nor any pictures. But what was really important was a result of that trial. In all cases our pianist preferred a sound of acoustic piano. It simply produced sound with its full body and a reproduction of such a complex acoustic setup is, at least for now, impossible. But all listeners, sitting in a distance between 5-9 meters preferred a sound a digital instrument, as it offered more interesting, better differentiated timbre and dynamics that was much more impressive than what an average acoustic piano could deliver. It was still not a Steinway model D or Fazioli F 308 kind of performance, but still probably the best one we had ever heard out of a digital instrument. This project is still under development as the final result is expected to be the best digital piano ever, so you have to wait for the final result. The sound of piano is the most challenging, most difficult to reproduce because of its resolution, neutrality and dynamics throughout the whole range. In fact any speakers that could stand up to such requirements should be perfect for any music reproduction. But there is not that much of energy in the upper part of range when it comes to a piano, and the same could be told about a driver I used. It's true, that due to larger diameter, magnet and coil it reproduced much more energy in the sound than Studio Oslo did. However its limitations was treble. I realized that I needed a modified version of this driver that would better suit my needs. Soon I had a chance to examine another driver manufacturer from China. Nobody complained about my requirements, a lead time was quite short, full container order not required. This time I couldn't complain about quality either – after all this manufacturer provides a certain famous British loudspeaker manufacturer on daily basis... It took me a year to develop a better signal processor, enclosure and amplifier. The latter delivers 2 x 50 W of output power, which allows a 6 dB higher sound level than Studio Oslo had offered. A new signal processor combined with a paper cone is able to deliver better spacing, more details than a Dayton metal one could. The enclosure was designed from a ground up and a special base for it too. This base solved a problem that some users of Studio Oslo complained that stability of speakers was not good enough. A heavy speaker cables were able to knock the previous model over if the user was not careful enough. This new concept of an enclosure takes that into account and is surely much more stable. The last thing to do was to chose a name for a new model. Since it's bigger, with more punchy bass, larger scale of sound it can be used for mastering purposes in small recording studio, hence MASTER OSLO. JW Ancient Audio in High Fidelity HYDE PARK: Ancient Audio STUDIO OSLO – active speakers, see HERE TEST: Ancient Audio STUDIO OSLO – active speakers, see HERE ANNUAL AWARD 2011: Ancient Audio Lektor AIR V-edition – Compact Disc Player, see HERE TEST: Ancient Audio Lektor AIR V-edition - Compact Disc Player, see HERE ANNUAL AWARD 2009: Ancient Audio Silver Grand Mono – power amplifier, see HERE TEST: Ancient Audio Silver Grand Mono – power amplifier, see HERE ANNUAL AWARD 2008: Ancient Audio Lektor Grand SE – Compact Disc Player, see HERE TEST: Ancient Audio Lektor Grand SE - Compact Disc Player, see HERE COVERAGE: Ancient Audio in USA (reprise), see HERE TEST: Ancient Audio Lektor V - Compact Disc Player, see HERE ANNUAL AWARD 2006: Ancient Audio Lektor Prime - Compact Disc Player, see HERE TEST: Ancient Audio Lektor Prime - Compact Disc Player, see HERE COVERAGE: Antwerp – Silver Grand amplifier premiere, see HERE COVERAGE: Ancient Audio Silver Grand – premiere, see HERE COVERAGE: Harmonic cooperation - Ancient Audio Harmony speakers, see HERE Recordings used during test (a selection) CDs Black Sabbath, 13, Vertigo/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICN-1034/5, 2 x SHM-CD (2013). Deep Purple, The Audio Fidelity Collection, Warner Bros./Audio Fidelity AFZB 019, “Limited Edition No. 0878”, 4 x gold-CD (1970, 1971, 1972, 1973/2013). Glen Gould, Bach: The Goldberg Variations, Sony BMG Music/Sony Classical/Zenph Studios 9703350-2, “Zenph Re-Performance”, SACD/CD (2007). John Coltrane Quartet, Ballads, Impulse!/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UCCU-40001, Platinum SHM-CD (2013). Oscar Peterson, Unmistakable, Sony Music/Zenph Studios 951702, “Zenph Re-Performance”, CD (2011). Perfect, Live, Savitor/Polskie Radio PRCD 1656, CD (1983/2013). Piotr Anderszewski, Piotr Anderszewski at Carnegie Hall, Virgin Classic 267291 2, 2 x CD (2009); Tangerine Dream, Phaedra, Virgin/EMI Music Japan VJCP-68867, CD (1974/2004). Hi-res files Charlie Haden & Antonio Forcione, Heartplay, Naim Label, 24/96 FLAC, źródło: NaimLabel. Dead Can Dance, Anastasis, [PIAS] Entertainment Group, PIASR311CDX, "Special Edition Hardbound Box Set", CD+USB drive 24/44,1 WAV (2012); Depeche Mode, Delta Machine, Columbia Records/Sony Music Japan SICP-3783-4, FLAC 24/44,1, źródło: HDTracks (2013); Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Columbia/Legacy/Sony Music Entertainment, FLAC 24/192, mono i stereo [źródło: HDTracks] (1959/2013). Japanese versions of CDs & SACDs available at If you read a review of Studio Oslo already you know that a key element to a review in such a case is proper methodology. Master Oslo, just like its predecessor, is a small, near field monitor. It means that a listener should sit around 1 meter from a speaker line. That's how I tested them at first. I used my PC and two portable file players as sources. The PC was my trusted HP Pavilion dv7 z Win8, 8 GB RAM, 128 SSD + 500 HDD, with JPLAY/foobar2000 player. Signal was sent via USB cable to external D/A converter. During previous test I used Hegel HD11, this time it was Hegel SUPER, that I reviewed for „EnjoyTheMusic.com” (polish version HERE). Also my primary portable player was a newer model – HiFiMan HM-901, with Chord iChord mini-jack/2 x RCA cable. Following Jarek's advice, I listened also to a classic setup, with speakers placed on stands with signal delivered from Ancient Audio Lektor AIR V-Edition CD Player. In this way I could compare this listening session to the „desktop” one. I found out that in both cases a key element I had to take care of was to decouple speakers from whatever they were placed on. One could do it in many different ways but I chose the best one I know – I placed them on Acoustic Revive TB-38H platforms. Listening to these speakers placed almost (bit closer then usually) as any other speakers I reviewed showed me a tendency that Jarek had mentioned before. Master Oslo deliver large and involving sound. I mean sound is larger than from many classic monitors. Especially when it comes to music that should be particularly challenging – to rock music. Child in Time Deep Purple, wonderfully remastered by Audio Fidelity moved much more air in my room that I could have expected. Knowing what Studio Oslo could do I realized that these were speakers different than any „regular” active mini-monitors. But even that knowledge left some room for me to be surprised again. There were large guitars and particularly dynamic drums and I particularly enjoyed a sound of cymbals. The whole presentation had a proper volume, was shown close to listeners position, but it was a clarity and intensity of cymbals that caught my ears. It was quite unexpected as the loudspeakers used a not so small widerange driver, and this kind of driver usually delivered at least a slightly rolled off treble, or – if manufacturer used some tricks to change that – there were at least some coloration. There might have been some here too, but I there were they were below my threshold. That threshold is not constant, it changes depending on product, but this time it nothing came even close to it. It was probably so, because sound was so rich, so dense that my attention was focused totally on that aspect. As the sound didn't present any signs of urgency it seemed very natural, which, by the way, was, again, rather unexpected. An impulse that lead to creating Master Oslo was an electric piano project. The ultimate goal of that project was to achieve a sound as resembling a sound of acoustic piano as possible. A large soundboard and a few speakers working inside are a move in the right direction. If the setup is done properly effects might be quite satisfactory. But let's not full ourselves – a single driver in a small enclosure is not able to do achieve the same effect as few of them in a large box. To confirmed that I listened to Piotr Anderszewski's recital in Carnegie Hall, and to two wonderful Zenph projects with Glen Gould and Oscar Peterson recordings mechanically replayed on Bösendorfer Imperial (with Stahnke Engineering 2 mechanics). These recordings showed me precisely what had to be sacrificed and what was preserved. It was a real piano that proved to me that Master Oslo did not deliver a large scale sound after all. And that the sound was a bit nasal. The longer I listened the better could I understand why those small setbacks could be omitted. But than I started to get closer and closer to the speakers and I realized that listening to them from a larger distance wasn't really what they were created for. When I got close enough sound wasn't nasal anymore, got richer, more weighty. Timbre got more interesting, planes more tangible. And during near-field listening they were also more resolving and offered a better selectivity. At this point „Master” in their name become self-explanatory. Listening to the music via Master Oslo was easy. It was like listening via large headphones but without any problems can related. I mean there was a realistic spacing with rich, natural timbre. But what was most convincing about them was how resolving they were plus a fact that it came with hand-in-hand with selectivity too. Both Zenph recordings I mentioned earlier were recorded in two different ways – a classic one, with several microphones, but also using a binaural technique, using an „artificial head” - Neumann KU-100. The difference was not only about different presentation of space, it seemed rather like these were a two totally different performances. The binaural recording was shown like from a greater distance with a slight accent on a midrange. The classic recording was very dynamic, more distinct, shown up-close. And one more thing – a „head” had been place exactly where a musician would have sat, so it „heard” a right hand on the right side, while in a classic recording microphones where placed from soundboard's side which showed a right hand on the left side. That's what made these two different performances even though they were recorded at the same time and place. Master Oslo despite being small and using inexpensive driver had no problem with clearly showing these differences between recordings. They put them in proper context and tried to present each recording in a „friendly” way, different for each of them. They never tried to make both recordings sound the same. What had surprised me before when listening Deep Purple, i.e. a vibrant, crisp treble, now wasn't so obvious anymore, at least until I specifically looked for it. Treble was also presented in a totally different way in a classic and binaural recordings. What was very important was a fact that treble was always a part of the whole range, it never tried to get ahead of the rest of the range. Such a good differentiation these speakers presented is always a basis for a realistic presentation, which in audio world leads us to high performance. If it is combined with proper tonality, you get a very good sound. When listening to these speakers from up-close I also appreciated their bass performance. The resolution was good enough even though it didn't match what larger monitors with a high class amplification could deliver. A good example were Castle Richmond Anniversary with Clones Audio i25. It could seem, that the sound was somehow similar, but careful listening revealed differences and it was clear that a larger system had more to offer. Master Oslo didn't give up that easy. Jarek equipped them with a powerful tool - an analogue „processor”, an active circuit taking care of proper linearity of the sound, allowing some „tuning” of speakers-amplifier setup. When listening to them I didn't really care about up- and downsides of the presentation. I accepted it as it was. Of course this wasn't a performance comparable with what high-end systems offered, but it was attractive enough even for „hard-head” audiophiles to truly enjoy the music. Summary This time I decided not to describe listening sessions with different sound source separately. A high end CD Player was clearly superior so it was an obvious choice. But in a real world a computer will most likely be a primary source for these speakers. Portable speakers like iPod Classic 160 Gb and HiFiMAN HM-901 sounded nice, but the presentation was not so emotional as with PC, and not so clear/pure either. And clarity is what I truly enjoyed when listening to Master Oslo, especially combined with density and coherence of the presentation. No crossover and a single driver give this design an edge over other, similar designs. Small, sleek, well equipped – Master Oslo are the best active desktop speakers I know. I remember perfectly a sound of small mastering monitors, Yamaha's for example, from many different studios and Ancient Audio speakers outperformed them totally offering a real sound reproduction. Master Oslo loudspeakers are similar to the previous model Studio Oslo. At least when you look at them at first. There are the same „imperfections” like a cable running between two speakers taken by Jarek (I am 99% sure of that) from some garden lamp, or no descriptions of sockets and controls. But when you take a closer look you will find some improvements that make these speakers look somehow better than their predecessors, more handsome despite being bigger. These are active speakers with a single wide-range driver, which means also they don't need any crossover. The amplifier module together with active circuit taking care of presentation's linearity are placed in one of speakers, the one with volume pot and red power on LED on the front. Speakers are slightly tilted backwards to ensure they are pointed at sitting close listener's ears. It is very important and it ensures a flat frequency response and no rolled off treble. Larger drivers have indigenous feature – the higher frequency the narrower soundwave beam. At few kHz it is already so narrow that it your ears are not in the axis you will hear significant treble roll off. Both speakers sport integrated bases, separated from main enclosure with small pieces of some material (I'm sure these came from the same garden, as the above mentioned lamp cable). These pieces help to keep speakers in proper position which is important as the port of bass-reflex is placed on the back of the speaker. Jarek offers also optional 40cm high stands, if you want to listen to Master Oslo same way as to any other speakers. These will cost you another 800 PLN. A description of all connectors is placed on small piece of paper attached to the bottom of one of the basis. One will find out that there are three stereophonic inputs – two RCA sockets and one XLR – and two outputs – one with high-level signal for the second speaker, and one monophonic, low-level for optional subwoofer. Visitors of AudioShow 2013 could check out the sound of complete system, with subwoofer. An active subwoofer called Sub Oslo with cost you 2999 PLN. These two RCA inputs have different sensitivity – the upper one will suit better sources with lower output level like portable player, smartphones, TV sets and other alike. The lower one will accommodate „regular” source delivering 2 V signal , like most classic CD Players do. As there is only one XLR input it will accommodate any signal you deliver to it. I didn't find any input selector so I guess all inputs are active at all time. There are two knobs for treble and bass equalization. I did use the one for bass when performing a „regular” listening session, but I didn't need them when doing a near-field listening. There is a radiator on the back baffle that helps TDA8947J – a power amplifier circuit to disperse heat. This circuit in soldered to a small circuit board that accommodates also the rest of circuits. Most of them were damped with some rubber-like substance to damp resonances but at the same time it makes it impossible to read any markings on the used elements. All I could see was that Jarek used some inexpensive, open potentiometers, and some nice passive elements like precise resistors and polypropylene capacitors. A 115 mm driver, with paper cone was made by one of the Chinese manufacturers, that provides its drivers to half of world's loudspeakers manufacturers. It was placed inside MDF enclosure reinforced with a single, vertical enforcement inside. There is some damping material inside that look like artificial wool. The bass-reflex pipe is made of cardboard. Three standard finishes are: natural veneer (Masaccar Ebony), high gloss black and white. Custom finishes are optional – one can chose any color from RAL palette, or any (legal) veneer. Prices fro custom finish start from 300 PLN. Speakers are powered by external, universal power supply. Unlike in case of most competitors this power supply sports a nice, aluminum casing. I know its shape very well – it look exactly as casings of iFi devices (see HERE). At least I know now where the British order casings for their products. Additionally you can order great travel cases made of aluminum, plywood and Bakelite. It will set you back 800 PLN. I really loved Master Oslo. I can tell you already that Jarek will prepare a special version for „High Fidelity's” 10-th anniversary. We are preparing a special contest for our Readers with special prices – 10 products made by Polish manufacturers especially for the occasion. So these will be a fantastic devices, each made only in one copy (!), that not only will offer lucky winners a great performance but will, hopefully, become a special memento. At the moment I'm happy to tell you, that we have already few companies preparing their products, like: (already mentioned) Ancient Audio, Franz Audio Accessories (anti-vibration accessories), Abyssound (linear preamplifier), Ad Fontes (a first unit of a new turntable from series called „Szczeniak” - a „Puppy”) and Linear Audio Research (a new hybrid amplifier, and again the first unit will be our price!). We are waiting for information from other companies what exactly will they prepare for us. Stay tuned – information about our contest will be announced in the next editorials. 10th anniversary of „High Fidelity” we will celebrate on May the 1st. [hfgallery] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/05.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/05.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/05.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/06.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/06.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/06.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/07.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/07.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/07.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/08.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/08.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/08.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/09.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/09.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/09.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/10.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/10.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/10.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/11.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/11.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/11.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/12.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/12.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/12.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/13.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/13.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/13.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/14.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/14.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/14.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/15.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/15.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/15.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/16.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/16.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/16.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/17.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/17.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/17.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/18.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/18.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/18.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/19.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/19.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/19.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/20.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/20.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/20.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [img mini="foto_testy/1401/aa/th/21.jpg" big="foto_testy/1401/aa/21.jpg" src="foto_testy/1401/aa/21.jpg" desc="HighFidelity.pl"] [/hfgallery]

he Black Diamond series is the latest addition to Tellurium Q product lineup. The manufacturer, whose heads come from the pro audio world, thereby offers a really expensive system, contradicting the stereotype that audiophile cable folly is nothing more than idiocy. The fact that the system under review is still relatively inexpensive against some of the audiophile cable stratospheric prices may be a lifeline to Geoff Merrigan and Colin Wonfor to save them from the charge of betraying their pro audio unbelief in cables. Diamond Black cables have been created in response to requests from the customers who complained that the models from the Graphite series sound too heavy and “fat” in some audio systems, emphasizing the low frequencies. That pushed the two gentlemen to further research and experiments with the configuration and materials used, followed be subsequent auditions. As they write about themselves, they love to take on challenges to learn something new, regardless of anything else that happens. During their research they tested some new material combinations, one of which was a specific copper tellurium compound used in the connectors. It is worth noting that the same type of copper is used by Acrolink in their connectors. Other things have also been changed. Unfortunately, Tellurium Q is extremely reticent about describing the particular configuration and materials used – see below for Geoff Merrigan’s brief statement. Fortunately, some things can be inferred from visual inspection. We can tell at a glance that the Graphite served as the starting point. The cable consists of two very thick wire strands located far from each other. Such designs, resembling flat 300-ohm antenna cable, were tested earlier by Linn and Naim (referred to as the “eights” in Poland). The point was the maximum reduction of cable capacitance, yet at the cost of increased inductance. The result of this quest surpassed the wildest expectations of people from Tellurium Q. The black mesh-clad interconnects are quite stiff and terminated with screw-on connectors, resembling those from WBT. They are directional. The speaker cables are thick and fairly heavy. Those that came for the review were terminated with banana plugs. The power cord is not particularly thick, and it uses the Furutech F1-E11-N1 (G) Schuko connector. A few simple words from… Geoff Merrigan | Tellurium Q | owner I have been thinking about what we can tell you and it is difficult because the materials, processes and scientific reasons are our trade secrets that we do not want to give to our competitors. But I would like to say a few general things. After doing the calculations taking into account material properties etc. we then make prototypes and listen using our own amplifiers and a stand mount speaker, a small floor stander and a larger floor standing speaker. Then we usually have to make adjustments because the theoretical world doesn’t quite match the real world. When we are finally happy with the sound through all three types of speaker we make a small production run and lend those products to a range of people from studios through to customers who we trust. We then collate their feedback and the process sometimes needs to start again or we can move to full production. This process can be very long but we were lucky with the Black Diamond because it only took us 6 months to find the solution to what we were looking for because we made a few discoveries based on the Graphite and what we learnt from making it more system compatible. Tellurium Q in “High Fidelity” Micro-REVIEW: Tellurium Q ULTRA BLACK – speaker cable, see HERE REVIEW: Tellurium Q IRIDIUM 20 – power amplifier, see HERE Albums auditioned during this review Can, Tago Mago. 40th Anniversary Edition, Spoon Records/Hostess K.K. (Japan) 40SPOON6/7J, 2 x Blu-Spec CD (1971/2011). Carmen McRae, Carmen McRae, Bethlehem/JVC VICJ-61458, K2HD CD (1955/2007). Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms, Vertigo/Universal Music Ltd. Hong Kong 5483572SX, SHM-XRCD2 (1985/2011). Massive Attack, Heligoland, Virgin Records 996094662, CD (2010). Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells, Mercury Records/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICY-40016, Platinum SHM-CD (1973/2013). Miles Davis, In A Silent Way, Columbia/Mobile Fidelity UDSACD-2088, “Special Limited Edition, No. 1311”, SACD/CD (1969/2012). Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Atlantic Records/ORG Music ORGM-1081, SACD/CD (1959/2013). Perry Como, Perry Como’s Song Collection, Going for a Song GFS284, CD (?). Schubert, Lieder, wyk. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, dyr. Gerald Moore, "Signature Collection", EMI 55962 2, 4 x SACD/CD (1955, 1957, 1958,1959/2012). The Modern Jazz Quartet, Pyramid, Atlantic Records/Warner Music Japan WPCR-25125, “Atlantic 60th”, CD (1960/2006). Tommy Dorsey, Masterpieces 15, EPM 158342, “Jazz Archives”, CD (1935-1940/1995). Vangelis, Blade Runner, soundtrack, reż. Ridley Scott, Atlantic Records/Audio Fidelity AFZ 154, “Limited Numbered Edition No. 2398”, SACD/CD (1982/2013). Japanese editions of CDs and SACDs are available from After carefully selecting for years my audio system components, cables and accessories in order to hone specific sonic aspects, I have eventually reached a place where I feel happy. It took me many audition hours and even more money. The final effect, however, has more than paid for it. I’m now afraid to change anything in my system, as while I’ve heard better power amplifiers, better CD players, preamps and even speaker cables, each change for the “better” also brought about side changes and it was the kind of “side” that didn’t fully suit me. Hence, although I think about it over and over again, upgrading any of the components is a difficult decision for me, almost a trauma. As a result, my system has been changing pretty slowly, of course taking into account the sheer amount of audio products I deal with. To put this in a proper perspective, let me compare it to the life of creatures, great and small. One of the theories explaining life expectancy claims that every living creature with a heart and circulatory system has a “pre-programmed” number of heartbeats (assuming nothing unexpected happens, like an illness or accident). The classical music lover/audiophile would then be a turtle – a calm, slow moving creature, whose heart does not beat too often. The reviewer such as myself would be more like a hummingbird whose heart beats 500-600 times a minute, with a maximum even up to 1260, which gives him 15 years of life in all. I’m sure that you understand me: my years of auditioning are like “dog” years compared to your “human” years. In the same period, doing tens, perhaps even hundreds of times more listening, and thus changes. The problems I had to face with assembling my system may be classified into two categories: the problem of sound as such (its quality) and the problem of compatibility. The former is easier to deal with, because a dozen or so auditions and comparisons with what I already have is enough to tell me where I am at. A few control session at Janusz’s allows me even more precisely define the range I refer to. The latter, however, causes no end of problems. Reviewer’s reference system is not only to give pleasure and to listen to music, but also serves as a diagnostic tool. To make it effective and meaningful, it should be compatible with the widest possible range and variety of other audio products. That involves inevitable compromises. It is of course possible to limit its compatibility and to specialize in one type of products. Such choice is mostly rational, as it minimizes these trade-offs. So does Art Dudley from “Stereophile”, focusing on vintage products or those of a similar provenance. So also does Srajan Ebaen of the “6moons.com” fame who favors high sensitivity speakers, preferably with a single full range driver, and who literally loves single-ended solid state amplifiers. I cannot afford such a luxury. Each component of my reference system must be “swappable”, i.e. hooking up any other component I will very likely hear its sound rather than its problems of “fitting” into my system. No, this is not a fragment of my biography nor is it a review of my reference system. I had to address this problem, however, even if it were to take a large part of the actual review text. Otherwise I would have to devote even more time to explaining the phenomenon of Tellurium Q cables. They partly revealed themselves in my previous mini-review of the Ultra Black speaker cables, but only now did I have a chance to fully look at them in the context of my reference cables. I was immediately and strongly struck by what is their greatest strength, often absent in cables from other manufacturers, regardless of their price: the ability to bring out system coherence. I listened to the Tellurium Q in a few various configurations and each time, while not as good as my reference cables, they restored each particular system coherence and were a sort of "bypass" around the problems. Their tonal balance was perfect; slightly different with each next auditioned album and keeping up with their changing nature rather than pulling them along. It was a bit technical on Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms, with quite a lot of treble and the cymbals clearly shown in the foreground. Perry Como’s album and Schubert’s music surprised me with their absolute lack of sibilance, incredibly naturally conveyed master tape noise and general order. Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way added to that more depth and warm noise. I found the top end particularly interesting, because while in itself only part of a larger whole and normally not important if not accompanied by something more, like body, texture or weight, it is however key to them all. There was a good deal of treble with the Black Diamond, more than with the reference system, although not as much as with the Acrolink Mexcel 7N-DA6300. Still, that was no brightening to it, not even close. The Tellurium Q simply makes some things, like the cymbals, seem larger and closer to us. An apparently small difference, as the starting point is a strong treble, yet the final point of arrival is completely different. Here we are in full agreement with what’s happening and if that’s the kind of presentation we are looking for (in terms of its type, rather than quality), we will integrate it into something more in our mind. And that “more” means a strong midrange and average bottom end. At first glance, we should not even talk about it, because if the bass, midrange, and treble are all strong then what’s weaker or withdrawn? In this case only the low bass, but then I should not mention or elaborate on anything that’s above. This case is, however, different – the particular sub-ranges seem strong because they are full of “life” and energy. The sound attack does not seem hardened, and I would even say that if it were to “seem” anything it would rather be rounded. Still, it would only seem so. The attack is simply just the way it should be and not much different from that of the reference system. The sound as a whole is absolutely coherent. If the manufacturer’s claims about minimizing the phase shift are true (and I assume they are as they are made by serious people), they would manifest in the following way: smaller phase shift = better coherence / internal harmony / easier listening. And that is exactly how the music sounds with the reviewed cables in the system. They calm down any existing nervousness, without muffling the treble or dulling the attack. What’s more, as I said earlier, they are capable of "attracting" individual audio components to each other, melding them into a real SYSTEM. Conclusion The comparison of the British cables to the reference cables shows what we have to pay for if we want to get something more. It will be a better sound definition and deeper, more energetic bass. A slightly less exposed treble, but even more resolving and better integrated into the whole presentation. The soundstage will be deeper still. We get all that with the Siltech Double Crown, the Tara Labs Omega Onyx and the Acrolink 7N-PC9500. The price difference, however, is huge; you could even say astronomical. While the Tellurium Q cables are expensive and definitely not low budget, in the world of high-end they are near the entry price level. Their ability to vividly convey the best qualities of electronics, speakers and recordings is as interesting as it is rare. I have so far associated such colorful yet pleasant sounding cables with the weakening of treble and blurring of many annoying sonic features. The Black Diamond and Black Power don’t do that, and they sound refined and simply good, if that word still means anything. Audio journalists, myself included, are guilty of using superlatives too often. We find certain grounds for doing that, as it is part of the process of translating our emotional and intellectual experience into the medium of language. Its side effect is, however, a transition to a higher level of assessment, i.e. losing the sight of basic concepts. We cannot change that as such is the specificity of art evaluation (literature, music, theater, painting, sculpture, applied art and craftsmanship, including audio). For the purposes of this review let’s assume for the moment that it is not so and that this text exists in a vacuum. I will then simply say this: these are good cables that will consolidate any system, bringing out what’s good in it. The Tellurium Q cables were reviewed as a cable system (set), replacing the corresponding reference cables in the reference system. A separate audition was dedicated to their operation with the Tellurium Q Iridium 20 power amplifier. In the former, the Black Diamond interconnect was used between the CD player and the preamplifier; in the latter it was used to hook up the preamplifier to power amplifier. The Power Black cord was used to supply power to the Ancient Audio Lektor Air V-edition CD player in the former, and to the power amp in the latter. A separate audition involved a system with the Langerton Configuration 217 loudspeakers. The review had a character of an A/B comparison with the A and B known. The music fragments did not exceed 2 minutes, but whole albums were also auditioned. 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