PMC announces the introduction of the Bryston Cubed Series amplifiers to the UK, replacing the Squared Series that made its debut in 2009 and bringing significant performance improvements.

The Cubed Series is a statement design platform ideal for music enthusiasts, home theatre installations and professional audio applications says the company’s latest press release. The new line-up will roll out in phases, with the 300 watt stereo 4B³ and 600 watt mono 7B³ the first to be introduced to the UK market.  Both models feature balance and unbalanced inputs, selectable gain at 23dB or 29dB and convection cooling with no fans or moving parts. The 4B³ is also bridgeable to create a 900 watt mono amplifier.

“Cutting edge engineering achievements” are at the forefront of the new designs, featuring a patented super-linear, low noise input buffer that has added to the “remarkable improvements in transparency and overall musical enjoyment”.

The Cubed Series also features a more robust RF and audio frequency noise filtering circuit positioned before the power supplies. The effect of this new design is to prevent unwanted anomalies on the power line from interfering, even minutely, with the audio signal.

The technological advances perfected by Bryston’s engineers result in some remarkable audio advantages, including an expanded spaciousness and depth of focus, improved mid-bass clarity and more air and openness in the high-frequencies.

Aesthetically the Cubed Series demonstrates a progression in Bryston’s industrial design, with the new amplifiers featuring an redesigned milled aluminium front panel.  Standard finish for the range is black, with silver available to order.

As with all Bryston analogue products the entire Cubed Series range comes with the company’s enviable 20-year warranty.

UK Retail Prices (inc. VAT)

Bryston 4B³ power amplifier £5,299

Bryston 7B³ power amplifier £5,449

PMC Unveils the Bryston’s Cubed power amplifier line-up at Sound & Vision at The Bristol Show Sound & Vision 2016 in SS Great Britain 2&3

The new KR VA 200 monoblocks with the KR 842vhd tube application from KR Audio will be presented at the Melia Hotel in Milan for the Milano Hi-End show, Saturday and Sunday, April 2-3, 2016 in the Turchese room by Mr. Luigi Bocca of LAB Audio Technology Amministrazione as a world debut before the official presentation at the Munich Hi-End show next month, May 5-8, 2016 Halle 4, U08.

The VA200 is a circlotron with a Lundahl C-core output transformer. The driver stage is equipped with a depletion mode MOSFET transistors. The circuit is fully symmetrical with a differential input stage. The output tubes 8 x KR 842vhd per chassis) are fully auto-biased so no further adjustment is needed after replacement.

The new VA 200 monoblocks uses not only the KR hybrid circuit with the solid state first stage and the 8 x KR 842vhd tube application per chassis in the second stage, but is innovative for the design concept of the circlotron circuit or floating circuit giving the listener 200 watts.

Technical Data ( one channel ) 

Power Tubes: 8 x KR842

Output Stage: Circlotron, class A

Output Power: 200 W_RMS (THD=1%)

Output Impedance: 4, 8 W

Frequency Response: 20Hz ¸40KHz (-3dB)

Global Feedback: zero

Input Sensitivity: 1V_RMS / 100kW @ 200W

Power requirements: 230/115V_AC , 50/60 Hz

Power consumption: 1kVA

Operating temperature: 5C° to 40C°

Weight: Approx.  40Kg

Dimensions including projecting parts and controls (w/h/d): Approx. 38.5  x 28 x 55 cm

Dominic Marsh takes this €840 package of amp, speakers and speaker cables from TAGA Harmony for a spin.

TAGA Audio hail from Poland and TAGA stands for “To Achieve Glorious Acoustics”, or so their tag line says.  The entire design brief is created in-house by TAGA themselves, while production is in TAGA’s own factory in China, which allows TAGA considerable latitude when it comes to pricing their products.  Their range is rather extensive, with no less than ten speaker ranges, spanning from 5.1 home theatre arrays to their flagship standard floor standing speakers, which doesn’t end there either, as we can also add active and desktop systems to that list too.  Electronic products also feature highly, with hybrid amplifiers, all-in-one music systems, DACs, power filters, the list goes on and on, then a range of interconnect and speaker cables complete their product line-up and one is simply spoilt for choice browsing through their website.  They even cater for the DIYers amongst us with cables off the reel to terminate themselves.

TAGA have sent to Hifi Pig for review a selected package consisting of a Harmony HTA -700B V2 hybrid amplifier, a pair of Platinum B-40 speakers and a pair of 2.5 metre Platinum 18 speaker cables to match.  Add the source of your choice and you can be up and running in a very short time.

CONSTRUCTION

The HTA – 700B V2 amplifier is very compact measuring 14cm H x 17.7cm W x 27cm D, with the review sample supplied finished in bright alloy that has simply superb fit and finish.  It is also available in a black finish. Comparatively heavy too, weighing in at 4.2kg.  To the front panel we find a quarter inch standard headphone socket, a large rotary volume control, an input selector knob that switches between USB input, CD input and Bluetooth.  A pair of recessed 12AX7B valves (tubes) peeps out the top plate of the chassis, half submerged as it were, surprisingly without any protection cages.  Judging by the way the valves light up almost instantly to full brightness when powered on, I suspect the tube heaters are fed by a regulated DC voltage.  Behind the two valves lies the mains transformer housing, again clad in bright alloy.

To the rear we find the Bluetooth antenna socket (antenna supplied), a USB socket, below these two is the RCA phono inputs for CD, then a pair of RCA pre amplifier output sockets, then a single set of four good quality speaker binding posts which will accept spades, 4mm banana plugs and bare wire.  Finally, an on/off rocker power switch and a male IEC AC power inlet socket, complete the rear panel connections.  TAGA supply the software via a download from their website for linking the USB connection to a personal computer running Windows.

Specifications:

The TAGA Platinum B-40 speakers are a compact stand mount design, again manufactured in China to TAGA’s exacting specifications.  TAGA class it as a “bookshelf” speaker, but to me its dimensions aren’t really suited to that position with a depth of over 27cm.  It is a reflex ported design, with the exit port mounted on the front baffle immediately below the 165mm bass driver.  The bass driver cone appears to be of a sandwich type construction, the dust cap being of the same material, with a flexible rubber roll surround.  There is a bright polished alloy outer surround ring engraved with the words “TAGA Harmony” and to me the speaker looked attractive, with or without the grilles present.  The tweeter is a one inch unit with a metal dome, protected by a perforated metal mesh grille and unusually, is mounted partially above the front baffle in a domed plastic extension.  To the rear we find a set of speaker binding posts in a biwire/biamp configuration with the ubiquitous gold plated brass link plates.  The binding posts will accept spades, 4mm banana plugs or bare wire.  I will be mentioning these again in the listening analysis below.  The review sample was supplied in a vinyl Wenge wood finish with faux Walnut and black (Ash?) as alternative finish choices.   The cabinet carcass has curved side panels which adds intrinsic strength but also tales away parallel walls to minimize internal cabinet reflections.

Specifications:

Lastly, as part of this package, TAGA supply a 2.5 metre pair of their Platinum 18 speaker cables terminated with 4mm banana plugs.  This cable is also available un-terminated off the reel, bought by the multiple metre lengths.

Specifications:

It looks to be a workman-like cable, with 16 strands braided into the two main conductors of 8 strands each, bifurcated at each end to around 15 cm from each of the plugs.  However, the plugs don’t really match the quality of the cable itself, the “splines” are not that springy and that complicated matters by having oversized 4mm holes in the speaker’s binding posts which resulted in a poor connection, although the Platinum B-40’s binding posts face upwards so gravity holds the speaker cables in place.   One of the plugs actually lost the 4mm splined part which detached itself while changing cables over from the binding posts on the HTA-700B amplifier, so I had to rapidly re-terminate it with a “Z” plug and of course I will have to fit the other seven plugs to match, or return it to TAGA as is.  I have mentioned my reservations about these particular banana plugs to TAGA and they say they will review the situation shortly and will be looking into fitting another type of plug.

The complete system package as detailed above is 840 Euros at the time of review.

SOUND QUALITY

I was pleasantly surprised when I first connected up this system just how good it sounded and none of the sound spectrum it produced annoyed or offended me, which was a great start to the proceedings.   The word to best describe the sound was “balanced” in that treble and bass were in equilibrium, midband was clean and clear, so it was no effort at all just to sit back and enjoy what I was hearing while the system was warming up.  Of course, it is my job then to analyse and disseminate what’s what so you the reader can assimilate and interpret how I perceived the sound produced.

For such a small unit, the HTA-700B V2 amplifier produced a bouncy gutsy sound via CD input and I don’t recall it  running out of steam, with the Platinum B-40 speakers and with others too that I tried, including my resident speakers.  At that time I also had a pair of Audiofilia SF-6 floor standing speakers in for evaluation and the little TAGA amp acquitted itself rather well with those too, although when pushed hard the sound became more “shouty”, which if you are the kind of person who listens with the volume control past 12 o’clock regularly you’ll need to seek a more powerful amplifier for your needs.  Pairing the Bluetooth connection was simple and straightforward, although I perceived a softer and less dynamic presentation than via the CD player input.  USB input sound quality was almost on a par with the CD input. 

Intrinsically, the speaker cable itself appears to be a good component, the braided weave layout should keep the capacitance at a low level, but the real let down was the quality of the plugs employed.  When the splines section detached itself from the body of one plug while gently removing it from the amplifier’s binding posts it merely confirmed my fears that while they looked good, they weren’t man enough for the job.  Swapping to my resident cables brought a not unexpected improvement in sound quality and I rue that I couldn’t give a fair assessment of the speaker cables’ performance in their own right with more suitable plugs fitted.  You could of course purchase the unterminated cable, or another terminated cable from their range, but that falls outside of the TAGA package deal offer and would probably add to the cost.

Then we move on to the Platinum B-40 speakers and it is by no accident I have left the best until last.  Given that they are priced at circa £320.00 here in the UK, they really can and do outshine other speakers at that price level and well above.  Installed into my resident system they sounded far better than their humble price suggests, with good solid bass free of boom and overhang, a treble that is crisp and clear, plus a midband that doesn’t disappoint either.  I found them a very musical speaker whatever amplifier they were paired with and of course the Harmony HTA – 700B V2 was no exception.

Mounted on 60cm stands and placed around 20cm from the rear wall they gave a full bodied sound, although while the deepest bass registers were not present, there wasn’t any boom or blooming either.  Dynamics were fast-ish, not as lithe as the best speakers but still a credible performance nonetheless.  I simply couldn’t resist removing the brass jumper links and fitting a set of my own pure copper wired links and the sound improvement was considerable.   Paired with the HTA – 700B V2 amplifier the sound stage was expansive, extending out just beyond the speaker boundaries, while my resident amplifier pushed that out even further still and depth acquired a deeper rendition to imaging.

In to the CD drawer goes my reference recording which is Fink’s “Wheels Beneath My Feet” live album.  Track one called “Biscuits For Breakfast” begins with the drummer gently striking the Ride cymbal as the intro, which has to portray the metal ringing in the cymbal to be accepted as real and any masking here shows up instantly and readily.  The Platinum B-40’s gave a good account of themselves with this test and surprisingly good too given that it is fitted with a metal dome tweeter.  Kick drum was portrayed with good weight and solidity, a good deal better than other “budget” speakers I have listened to and the drummer’s rim shots were almost life-like too.  Fink’s voice has a nasal quality to it with a slight rasp and the Platinum B-40’s did a pretty good job of that task too.

As a contrast to that, I followed on with some electronic music in the shape of Tripswitch’s excellent album “Geometry”.  There is some superb layering in this album and it takes a sure footed pair of speakers to unfold and pull back all the layers so each strand is separated out and clearly defined in every respect.  The bass lines really are deep on this album, rather subtle in places too and can easily be muddled by the music around it.  The Platinum B-40’s didn’t quite have full command and control of this album as my resident speakers are able, especially around the bass which wasn’t as deep and tended to collide with other instruments, so once or twice got recessed into the rest of the music.  For a £1,500+ speaker that would be a slight criticism, for a £320.00 speaker that should be taken as a compliment.

CONCLUSION

If I had reviewed this package system as submitted by TAGA, then it would have been the speaker cable plugs that let the entire system down, nothing more.  The oversized speaker binding post holes could have been resolved by fitting better plugs, so I can almost discount that aspect.  Taking each component in isolation however creates a different point of view entirely.

The TAGA Harmony HTA – 700B V2 amplifier is a great little amplifier in its own right.  It has enough features to make it flexible with regards to connections, it sounds extremely good too, more powerful than the specifications suggest and the small footprint means you can house it wherever you like so it remains unobtrusive.   This little amplifier has a lot going for it.

For a cable to part company with it’s connector during a review is unforgiveable.  Having said that, if TAGA take on board my comments about the plugs and upgrade them, then I am prepared to happily change my opinion because I still think it’s a great cable nonetheless.

The Platinum B-40 speakers belie their modest cost and are very able performers.  I could easily live with these, although given that I chop and change components and cables on an almost permanent basis as part of my job, those binding posts would drive me nuts. Still, as part of the package that TAGA offer, they give tremendous bang for the buck and for me they were the star of the ensemble.  Well worth seeking out for audition.

Build quality: 7.8/10
Sound quality: 8.2/10
Value for money: 8.6/10
Overall: 8.2/10

Package Price at time of review: 840 EUros

Pros:  Terrific little amplifier and speakers which give good performances – especially at the price.

Cons:   Those speaker plugs.  

Dominic Marsh

Dominic Marsh takes this €840 package of amp, speakers and speaker cables from TAGA Harmony for a spin.

“The word to best describe the sound was “balanced” in that treble and bass were in equilibrium, midband was clean and clear, so it was no effort at all just to sit back and enjoy what I was hearing while the system was warming up.”

Read the full review of the TAGA Harmony HTA – 700B V2 amplifier, Platinum B-40 Speakers and Platinum 18 Speaker Cables Package.

The Grandinote Proemio Preamplifier and Silva amplifier have just arrived at Hifi Pig Towers for review, but by way of a bit of a preview we’ve taken lots of lovely photographs of the unboxing of this Italian pairing. Prices in the UK for the Proemio Preamplifier is £6500 and £7995 for the Silva Stereo Amplifier.

The amplifier is a 37 W Class A dual-mono and the preamplifier is also Class A dual-mono. The pairing weigh in at a not inconsiderable 55Kg.

Click through for photographs. 

KR Audio, famous for manufacturing their very own tubes will be at this year’s Munich High End where they will have their VA 200 amp rated at 200 Watts and utilising the KR 842 vhd tube application.

Also on show at High end 2016 there will be their P-130 pre-amplifier with KR 05 tube application and the VA300i with KR 300B tube application.

As well as more traditional amplifiers, KR Audio will also have a headphone system showing a VA355i with Abyss with KR 100 tube application. The KR T-00 is, say KR Audio a superior 845 and the amplifier is also known as the ‘baby Kronzilla’.

Read more news about Munich High End 2016 Here and Hifi Pig’s coverage of last years High End Munich here

Boulder Amplifiers, based in Boulder Colorado have announced that with the completion of the HDMI input module, the full release and shipment of the 2120 D/A Converter. The original 2000 Series was in continuous and unchanged production since 1996. The replacement 2100 Series is Boulder’s “highest performing, continuously produced product line”.

International export prices will vary by country.

All electronic circuitry within the 2120 D/A Converter is entirely new and all technological changes were developed over a six-­‐year period that included the engineering of a complete SoM (System on Module) host processor and dedicated video driver to support the front panel display.

Among the numerous features of the 2120 are:

Digital Inputs:

• Standard traditional digital inputs: coaxial S/PDIF, balanced AES3, and Toslink (EIAJ) optical
• Both Standard (computer) and Slave (memory device) streaming USB connections accepted
• Optional HDMI inputs (2x Input, 1 x throughput)
• DLNA/UPnP via Ethernet for bit-­‐perfect network streaming
• Multiple fully modular digital input options available to tailor the 2120 to the user’s system needs and prevent obsolescence

Digital Processing Features:

• Asynchronous digital streaming
• Digital audio file formats accepted: PCM, DSF (DSD 1x and DSD 2x), AIFF, ALAC (Apple Lossless), FLAC, WAV, MP3, OGG Vorbis
• Digital data rates accepted: 16-­‐, 20-­‐, 24-­‐ and 32-­‐bit word lengths at 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4,

192, 352.8 and 384 kHz.

• Digital volume control for direct connection to amplification, featuring an 80 dB range and 1.0 dB step resolution
• A balanced variation of Boulder’s Precise Interval Clock to substantially reduce noise in the clock circuit and maintain ultra-­‐precise data timing at the DACs
• Boulder’s Eigen-­‐algorithm digital filter for optimized frequency and phase response

Analogue Features:

• Three-­‐output power supply (analog left channel, analogue right channel and digital), plus an independent supply for low power consumption standby modes
• Isolated left and right channel analog sections as in the 2110 Preamplifier
• Ten proprietary Boulder 99S gain stages per channel
• Dual balanced outputs for each channel

Operational and Chassis Features:

• Function control by multiple control points on Apple-­‐ and Android-­‐based tablets and mobile devices as  well as iTunes
• Four separate chassis: left analog, right analog, user interface and power supply
• Separate power supply casework ensures optimal noise isolation
• Large, full-­‐color, 12.3-­‐inch (31.2 cm), 1280 x 480 LCD display
• Display provides complete metadata readout, selected input or customized source listing, progress bar, resolution and data rate
• Album art displayed when available
• Automatic software updating when attached to an active Internet connection
• Multiple Standby modes for quick start, standard and ultra-­‐low power consumption
• Comprehensive setup and configuration modes
• IP control with two-­‐way communication for integration with external control systems, such as Savant or Crestron

Swiss manufacturer Soulutions have been in touch to tell Hifi Pig about their new 511 amplifier that will start production in October 2016 and will cost 24500CHF (around £17000). The 511 has the same switched-mode power supply found on the company’s 7 series products and is optimised for audio use.

The 511 can be used in three distinct modes:

Stereo-mode (150W @8Ohms, 300W @4Ohms and 600W at 2Ohms)

Dual-mode which gives the same results as above.
Mono-mode (600W @8Ohms, 1200W at 4Ohms and 2000W at 2Ohms)

The amplification circuit is similar to the 711 and 701 amps from Soulutions having at its core a proprietary voltage amplification stage that consists of linearized amplifiers operating up to a cutoff frequency of 80MHz. The Class A operation is supplemented by 500 000 µF of capacitance storage in the power supply

There are a total of 10 power supplies in the 511with those supplying audio and digital circuits being isolated from each other with optocouplers.

Cyrus ONE is a 100 watt per channel amp using the third generation of the company’s hybrid class D technology.  It is packed full of features including a built-in phono stage, Bluetooth® streaming and a high quality headphone amplifier.

Read the full story of the new amp from Cyrus 

Part four of Hifi Pig’s coverage of High End Munich 2016 featuring: Neodio, Audio Hungary, Bang And Olufsen, Terrastrato Typ 1 Standard, Estelon, Blumenhofer Acoustics and Cammino, Indiana Line, TW Acustic, Constellation and Martin Logan, TAD, D’Agostino, Wadia, Krell, Audio Research, Meridian, EAT, Sonus Faber

Neodio

I’ve seen Neodio at lots of shows, but from memory only ever heard them playing music the once which is a shame as they are reported to be very good and my limited experience was certainly positive. Come on guys, less chatter and more music!

Audio Hungary

New name to me but the kit looks incredibly well made. The company has two distinct lines with the first being aimed at the mid-end marketplace. This includes a compact, Class A stereo amp, a pair of monoblocks using C33C-V tubes, a phono stage and an MC stage. The second line looks equally stylish in their retro cases but are aimed at those looking for more power. There’s also a valve pre in this line.

Bang And Olufsen

I was really looking forward to hearing these after running a news item on the Beolab 90s way back in October. The BeoLab 90 celebrates 90years of the company and will cost a whopping £54 000  if reports are correct. They have an eye-watering 8200 watts per speaker (supplied by 14 channels of ICEpower amps….plus another 4 Class D amps) and weigh in at a back-breaking 137 kilos each with the solid aluminium structure accounting for 65 kilos of this. However, on the day and in the room they were in I found the speakers a little lack lustre and definitely lacking in bass heft. They’re also a lot smaller than you would imagine.

Terrastrato Typ 1 Standard

We didn’t get a chance to listen to this as it was a static display but we were drawn to its unusual and distinctive styling. It’s single ended triode running in Class A1 with zero global feedback and using 2 x 6F3P, 2x 6M70 and a 6N1P tubes to produce 2 x 25 Watts into 4, 8 or 16 Ohms. Chatting to the designer Andreas Lohse (pictured) he said it was basically two mono amps built into a single chassis using many Burklin parts (he was on the Burklin stand) with everything being hand wired on cotton-phenolic boards. Remote is a wired affair! The designer was a bit cagey when we asked price but hinted it would be “Audio Note territory!”

Estelon

Last year Alfred Vassilkov and Estelon introduced the epic extreme loudspeaker at Munich High End. It was a tour-de-force in engineering terms but most definitely extreme and very high-end. This year the Estonian company introduced the YB to visitors to the show and it’s a much more low key affair…though still very striking and very good sounding.

The 8” woofer has an aluminium cone and there’s a 5.25” mid woofer with a sliced paper cone where the slices are filled with damping glue. The 1” tweeter is a beryllium membrane whilst the internal wiring is all Kubala-Sosna.

Blumenhofer Acoustics and Cammino 

Interesting room this, with most of the gear being placed on trolleys that looked like they had come out of a Victorian mill. The turntable was a Pluto Audio 10A Reference whilst the speakers were Blumenhofer’s Genuin FS1-2, a two way model featuring a 1,4” compression driver in a horn and a 16” paper woofer and is ported to the floor. Also in the room were cables by Cammino and a host of “harmonizing” devices.

Indiana Line

Indiana Line are an Italian loudspeaker brand that make no secret of the fact that their loudspeaker range is made in China. They have a huge range from floorstanders to bookshelf speakers with prices that are jaw-droppingly low. They also do a small range of electronics (Puro) which includes an integrated amp, a DAC stereo amp and a CD Player.

TW Acustic

German turntable manufacturer TW Acustic certainly pulled out all the stops with their system. The heart of the system was the company’s Raven Black Night turntable playing though their RPS 100 phono stage. Speakers were Cessaro Gamma horns. Power amps were unknown but looked exotic…Kondo perhaps?

Constellation and Martin Logan

I thoroughly enjoyed this room at last year’s high-end show and wanted to have the opportunity to spend a little more time in there this year. We walked into the room and did as we always do – find a place to listen inconspicuously. We wee then spotted and invited to take a seat which was rather nice and to choose the music…which was even better. This system rocks! Dynamic and up front sound that is nimble and delicate when it needs to be.

Amps were the Hercules II monos with their Altair II line stage. Also on the rack were the Perseus phono preamplifier and the Cygnus Digital file player and DAC. The Martin Logan Neoliths are a big speaker in every sense of the word and played brilliantly to this system’s strengths.

TAD

The TAD room at whatever show you go to is always absolutely rammed and Munich High End was no exception.

Audio Reference (D’Agostino, Wadia, Krell, Audio Research, Meridian, EAT, Sonus Faber)

Audio Reference is a German distributor based in Hamburg and they always have the same huge corner room at High End Munich. Their room is a veritable Aladdin’s cave of high-end treasure including: D’Agostino, Wadia, Krell, Audio Research, Meridian, EAT, Sonus Faber…

More High End News and reports right here. 

Dan Worth gets to grip with a little 50watts a side integrated amp from Serbia that costs just £600 in the UK. 

It’s always interesting when I receive a product for review from British distributor Iain Borthwick of LW Audio. Iain has a long standing relationship with products that provide a truly musical and value for money stance in the marketplace.

Iain was responsible for introducing the well regarded Clones Audio brand to our fair land and they followed suit with his mantra. Also coming up soon will be a preampifier from Audio Music – again another truly musically engrossing product that belies its price. We talked about this new brand on the scene I was very receptive in appraising it on the merits that Iain pursues when taking on brands for distribution in the UK.

The Menuetto is a shoe box sized integrated amplifier with four line level inputs and an output power of 2 X 50wpc into 8ohm and 2 X 70wpc into 4ohms. The unit is of a sleek classical design with two knobs, one for volume and one for source selection and a power button – it includes a remote control. The product feels well made and has a good weight to it and a nice sturdy feeling chassis. Standard 5 way binding posts adorn the rear that are bare gold plated and not encased in plastic which is something I do not like for obvious reasons, but apart from that I can’t convey any other physical grumbles with the fit and finish for a £600 amplifier.

On looking into the Dayens brand and conversing with Iain they have a few amplifier options and some interesting looking fairly priced small form factor standmount/bookshelves and floorstanding speakers which I’m sure we will investigate a little further at Hifi Pig in the future, but for now let’s focus on the Menuetto.

Specifications:

Power (Watt):                                 2×50 / 8 Ohm, 2×70 / 4 Ohm

Inputs:                                             4

Frequency response (Hz):               4Hz – 200kHz

SNR (dB):                                      >92

Dimensions (mm):                           230x105x350

The Sound

From experience amp,ifier a at the £600 or so price point can be a tricky price point to fulfil competently, there have been many hits and misses in this price bracket even from some of the big boys, it toys with what is possible from a unit in the over £1000 category and can also be set upon from offerings from the likes of mainstream companies such as Cambridge Audio and Rega for example.

Connecting up the Menuetto was a breeze as it can really be accommodated anywhere due to its size, so my ever bloated rack which was currently burning in some other products didn’t suffer and nor did my back in having to make room for the modestly sized amp.

First impressions of the sound given by the Menuetto was a terrifically tuneful bass and dynamics that were instantly surprising. Throughout Jeff Beck and Joss Stone’s rendition of ‘I Put A Spell On You’ basslines were convincing, especially in the parameters previously mentioned and Joss’ vocal was silky sounding and never forward which can be a bone of contention even with some high end kit I have listened to recently. This is a good track to ascertain vocal positioning within the soundstage and the Menuetto was bang on the money!

Intricacies from various acoustic music was clear to hear, they may not be as playful as items in my normal rig costing considerably more, but the Menuetto really outperforms many integrated amps I’ve heard in the £1000-£1500 bracket, giving great perception of depth and scale to minimal performances.

I really like the fact that if the Menuetto lacks ultimate finesse and presence that a high end item can offer. It’s not shy in giving the listener every impression of the big boy sound. I don’t sit here listening to this little amp from Dayens with the feeling that I’m being cheated in any way or that I’m missing out on any explanations of the musical picture through lack of detail or weighted scale, it’s a real joy and a great find by Iain Borthwick, continuing his ever stubborn position iof ‘I will not support any brand which cannot offer true musical satisfaction.

Longer listening to the Menuetto got me really engrossed in its sound, it’s warm with vibrancy and surprisingly detailed and transparent, with a terrific soundstage and immediately had me searching their website to see what other interesting products they have to offer. I would only investigate further when a brand which is new to us here in the UK really impresses me and the Menuetto surely does.

Playing Felix Laband’s ‘Red Handed’ vintage Electronica had me sat up in my seat instantly with the Menuetto conveying unforeseen power in the bass and fleshed out treble that gave the top end great density. I find the amp to not necessarily to have a sound colour to it, but it has great character and is as cohesive as I would want an amp to sound if I were a designer The amp sounds more energetic and dynamic than its rated power, and dynamics do not fall short even at much higher volumes.

Now if I haven’t praised this amp enough I will leave this review with one more opinion from listening to Nils Lofgren – if the Electronica wasn’t proof enough for me Nils’ speedy guitar work again was just so reflective from the Menuette, PRaT was just so well conveyed and fond memories of super solid British made amplifiers come racing to the forefront of my mind but with a sprinkle more pizzazz than the colouration of the older take on the famous British sound signature.

Conclusion 

The Dayens Menuetto is a modestly sized amp with modest power and an equally modest price of £600 here in the UK. It comes packed with great PRaT, an informative balance of tone and detail and is dynamically capable of conveying drama and expression that will shock any Hifi aficionado.

Dayens for me is following the trend that has been adopted in the past few years from smaller and larger companies alike that high end sound doesn’t and shouldn’t cost the earth. Would I swap this for my main amps?  Never, their price is far greater and equally so is their performance, so we need to remain realistic here of course, but in this price range and a couple of bands higher, the Menuetto is going to upset some of the more mainstream brands with its confident attitude and remarkable performance.

Pros:

Balanced, powerful, dynamics

Strong PRaT

More detail than expected

Midrange that sits just right

Price

Cons:

The binding posts metal is exposed and should be plastic encased.

Price at time of review: £600

Dan Worth

Electrocompaniet have announced the EC1 6DX that incorporates and integrated amplifier along with a streamer and digital to analogue conversion.The built-in streamer is said to be flexible and easy to use. It can play directly from music services such as Tidal, Qobuz and Spotify, can be fed music through AirPlay or DLNA, and it can index and play from your own music collection stored in your network. The powerful hardware ensures that all popular formats are supported (including DSD) and that continuous software upgrades can support the latest and streaming services. 

The streamer shares the same DNA as the ECM 2 and the new EC Living product line. This means that you can use the same apps and interface, and play all of the same music on all units. All units will work equally well together.

The ECI 6DX can be operated by their iOS & Android application, the universal webinterface, or with the straightforward IR remote control.

The converter will deal with 24bit /192kHz files, has SPDIF; 2 Toslink and a USB input. The streamer section has 802.11 Wifi with MIMO a 1Gigabit Ethernet and a USB for external storage.   Supported formats are: WAV/WAVE, MP3, AAC+, Vorbis, AC3, DTS, ALAC, FLAC, APE, WMA, up to 192kHZ/24bit, DSD, up to DSD 128 (5.6 MHz)

 Specifications

Dominic Marsh and Ian Ringstead take the very well specced £699 Pro-Ject MaiA DS integrated amplifier for a ride and rather enjoy it. 

How do you make a great amplifier even better?   That was the task facing Pro-Ject when updating their excellent little MaiA amplifier that Hifi Pig gave an Outstanding Product Award to back in March 2015’s issue.

The next logical step we can presume then would be to increase the power output, in this case from 25 watts per channel from the original MaiA, up to 50 watts per channel for the DS variant and it doesn’t stop there either, with an extra cost option of the Power Box MaiA DS taking it up to no less than 80 watts per channel. Pro-Ject say the amplifier will cope with speaker loads down to 2 Ohms.  Impressive!

We don’t hand out Outstanding Product Awards lightly and the original MaiA amplifier won that by having no less than 9 inputs packed into a diminutive package and the DS version has that same number still, but some important changes have been made with those it seems in the DS variant.  The phono section has been enhanced for better cartridge matching with the addition of a moving coil input, the DAC section can now also handle DSD data input, plus a new facility included whereby remote controls can be handled via a downloadable app to a phone, tablet or PC.

Construction

I make no apologies for repeating what I wrote to describe the original MaiA’s layout as they are essentially the same, which saves me a lot of typing but worth reading anyway as there are notable differences between the MaiA and the MaiA DS version.

The DS variant is still a diminutive amplifier by anyone’s standards and I can easily see it fitting unobtrusively into countless domestic situations.  Measuring some 206mm(W) x 72mm(H) x 220mm (230mm including speaker sockets) deep and has a slightly larger footprint in depth than the MaiA.  Incidentally, these measurements were taken by me which seems to be at variance with the dimensions given on the Pro-ject website. The separate power supply provides 24 volts of DC at 5 amps and is fitted with a dual pole plug that connects it with the power inlet socket on the rear of the amplifier, with the power input to the power supply unit is via a standard figure of eight IEC socket (Suitable mains lead supplied). Other plugs and voltage matching power supplies are available for non-UK consumers.  The casework is of steel construction with the choice of either a black or silver finish faceplate. Fit and finish of the casework is exemplary and the sample supplied for review was in a silver finish.

When it comes to source inputs, there is an absolute plethora available, with an impressive NINE separate digital and analogue inputs to choose from.  Rarely seen these days although we are seeing a huge revival of vinyl playback, is an RCA phono input that caters for both moving magnet or moving coil cartridges, followed by 3 line level analogue inputs labeled 1, 2 and 3 accordingly, then on to the digital inputs which comprises 2x TOSLINK sockets, an RCA co-axial digital input, a USB input and a Bluetooth connection to APT-X standard, with a supplied external aerial which screws on to a dedicated socket on the rear panel.

There is only provision for a single pair of speakers to be connected.  The group of four 4mm connectors are grouped tightly together at the far right of the rear panel (although not as tightly grouped as the original MaiA) and not insulated from each other either, plus the holes to insert bare wired cables are aligned vertically so extreme care is needed so the wire isn’t pushed right through the connector body to touch the adjacent terminal above or beneath.  A good tip would be to measure exactly how much bare wire is exposed on the cable to be inserted that is less than the connector’s diameter, so none of the bare wire is exposed external to the connector to negate the risk of shorting.  I would not advocate or even contemplate using spade connectors for the speaker connections because of the close proximity of the naked terminals.

On the front panel reading from left to right, we have a power button with a tiny blue LED above.  A real surprise was to see the amplifier perform a soft start operation with the LED blinking while it is being carried out, so no switch on or power down thumps through the speakers from this amplifier, which is rather refreshing to see.  Next we have the remote control window which is a small unobtrusive plastic dome, followed by a 6.3mm headphone socket, which mutes the speaker output when a headphone jack plug is inserted.  We then have a rotary volume control knob to adjust the volume by hand, although the control itself is also motorized for adjustment via the remote control handset.  The control itself is quite stiff to turn by hand, although in all probability this stiffness will ease over time with usage.  The remote control handset provides the basic functions of source selection, volume adjustment, muting and power on/off.   Next on the front panel of the amp we find a source selector button which changes the source in upwards increments, with a bank of blue LEDs to indicate which source has been selected and screen printed in black lettering beneath those LEDs is the source names themselves, then finally another source selector button to change the source in downwards increments.  Incidentally, the front panel LEDs are very small yet still bright, but don’t actually provide much glare as blue LEDs are prone to do.  You can tell the power is applied and which source has been selected without constantly drawing your attention to them – a nice touch.

SPECIFICATIONS

The original MaiA was priced at circa £399.00 and naturally the DS has a price premium of around £300.00 more at £699.00, so let’s see what that extra cash outlay gives you.

Sound Quality

Unlike a standard run-of-the-mill integrated amplifier review, I had my work cut out with this one as it wasn’t just a case of bunging a CD player into it and any old pair of speakers and cables for the output either. If the inputs were there, they all had to be tested which proved to be quite a lengthy and protracted process. Not only that, I had to fit the amplifier into various systems ranging from high end to budget, including ancillaries so hopefully you the reader can get a handle on it’s performance envelope.

Firstly, I paired the MaiA DS with my HTC mobile phone using the Bluetooth facility and this was straightforward and easy to do when following the instructions given in the user manual.  Select the “BT” source on the front panel, and then set the phone to detect any nearby devices and when the BT LED on the MaiA flashes, momentarily press the power button on the MaiA and job done with no need for passwords.  I only have a small selection of MP3 tracks on my phone, but the sound quality was perfectly acceptable nonetheless given the limitations of the MP3 format.  I have Spotify on my tablet PC and the sound was again perfectly acceptable from that source.

With a more accurate signal being fed into the amplifier from my resident CD player, I was stunned at just how good this little amplifier sounded.   Delicious treble performance which was clean and vibrant, the sound of struck cymbals were as realistic as anyone could wish for, with a defined metallic “ting” and the following decay all clearly rendered.  Mid tones were slightly on the lean side giving a slightly cool balance to the sound.   When it came to the bottom octaves, the extra power of DS version certainly added weight and body in the bass regions, which is where the MaiA’s weakness lay, although the MaiA and the DS variant obviously share the same DNA, the DS version sounds like it has a lot more headroom with power in reserve to cope with heavy bass and fast transients.

I found it a very entertaining listen and happy to say that I was never affronted by what I was hearing, or never once thinking to myself “Wish there was more bass, better mids, clearer treble, etc” because it simply wasn’t the case.  Fink’s “Sort of Revolution” CD sounded palpable and full of detail, the propulsive bass line being recreated very well indeed  and the treble especially so, that “ting” from the Ride cymbals in all the tracks never being overwhelmed by the rest of the music so it stood as an individual clear entity.  This album is threaded throughout with close mic’d acoustic guitar recorded so the body of the instrument needs to be captured and the squealing of the finger work on the frets is integral to the performance, adding not detracting from the charm of the album.

As I did with the original MaiA amplifier, I installed the DS into the wife’s TEAC component system and it outclassed the TEAC amplifier in every respect.  No surprise there to be honest.

Time now to really put the MaiA DS through it’s paces with my resident system CD player, speakers and cabling. Now I found that the amplifier wasn’t seriously outclassed at all with every component costing many times more than it did.  The sound moved on into yet another dimension that was snapping at the heels of my resident amplifier which cost some 10 times more than the MaiA DS and the MaiA.  Yes it didn’t have the raw grunt and outright power at higher volumes, but even so it says more about these amplifier’s capabilities and what can be achieved with good design that enabled that.

Back into the CD drawer went Fink’s “Sort of Revolution” and here we are talking about differences between the two amplifiers in the finite range, they were that small.  Bass was 90% of what my resident amplifier gave me, treble was even closer and it was much easier now to pick up the ambience cues in the recording , but it was the mid band was where I heard the greatest difference and the MaiA provided a slightly “leaner” sound, but even that I could probably have lived with on a daily basis without real criticism in the long term, because that is a better compromise than a flabby or chesty sounding midrange which wreaks havoc with the music’s undertones.

Imaging and soundstage were certainly well up to standard with good height and depth, the sound extending well out beyond the speaker boundaries.

The MaiA DS like it’s smaller sibling didn’t quite have the same “punch in the guts” bass power and dynamics that my resident amplifier has and frankly didn’t expect it to be, but I don’t see that as a weakness on behalf of the MaiA DS as my own amplifier has 150 watts per channel on tap.  Incidentally, the casework didn’t even get the slightest bit warm during these high power runs.  A highly commendable performance.

Last, but by no means least, I turned to the digital input capabilities of the MaiA DS.  Both co-axial and optical inputs routed from my CD player in to the DAC section were more than satisfactory with no noise or mush detected.   It was nigh on impossible to tell if the resulting sound via the DAC was any better or different to the DAC within my resident CD player because they sounded so similar.  Signal lock was instantaneous although there is no indicator to show that it was.  USB connection from my laptop PC was of a similar performance so no quibbles there either.   As my television and satellite receiver are in another room unfortunately, I was unable to test how the MaiA DS interfaced with that equipment although I forsee no issues there either.

Conclusion

Whereas the original MaiA amplifier was fine for smaller rooms like a study or a bedroom, the extra power available from the DS version means it will provide more than sufficient output to fill a medium sized room from a good solid 50 watts per channel of clean sound, three line level analogue inputs, a switchable moving magnet or moving coil phono input, remote control, a headphone output too, no less than three digital inputs, the unique remote control facility and a Bluetooth connection as well, adds up to a versatile and highly flexible heart to any hifi music reproduction, computer, or two channel  A/V system.  With a genuine level of swiss army knife versatility that these Pro-ject MaiA amplifiers possess, the savings from not buying separate DACs and high sensitivity phono stages alone makes them a total steal at their asking prices.

The MaiA DS will happily integrate into budget systems, middle ranking systems and not entirely out of place or embarrassed when rubbing shoulders with the esoteric either, so I will say nothing more other than a wholehearted endorsement from me.

PROS:  The closest I could find to a Swiss Army knife in terms of connectivity and functionality.  Sound is considerably better than you would expect from a diminutive little box.  Price.

CONS:  Beware the spacing on the speaker binding posts.

Dominic Marsh

Dominic rated the MaiA DS so highly it was sent to Hifi Pig reviewer Ian Ringstead for a second opinion. 

Given that Dominic rated the MaiA DS so highly I was asked if I could do a follow up to his review on the and took no persuading being a great fan of Pro-ject. The MaiA DS is basically a MaiA on steroids built to higher standards in a very nicely made case and with a solid aluminium front panel. I have owned a Pro-ject RS phono stage which was excellent, so I knew what to expect build wise; could the sound be as good?

The DS is bigger than the standard MaiA with a larger separate power supply to allow for the greater power output it produces. Like the MaiA, the DS is incredibly versatile and is a veritable Swiss army knife as Dominic said himself  in his review. For such a compact unit it packs one hell of a punch with it numerous analogue and digital inputs. I particularly like the fact the very good phono stage has both moving magnet and moving coil switching. I used both to good effect and as a reviewing tool it would be a handy amp to have. The headphone stage is useful as well, and unless you are a purist does a fine job.

The credit card sized remote is neat but could easily be lost down a cushion so make sure you don’t misplace it! I tried my mobile phone with the DS streaming my music and found it a very straight forward process to achieve. The sound was good even though it was only mp3 and a convenient way of playing background music through your system for a party or meal with friends. Although the power output is only 55 watts, it was plenty with my resident Triangle speakers.

MaiA DS can be upgraded with a separate linear power supply that will almost double the dynamic per-formance power and improves the sound significantly in terms of punch and clarity. Power Box MaiA DS additionally offers convenient power wiring for customers who decide to have multiple Pro-Ject components in a system. Up to five products from the Pro-Ject family, including a turntable (DC-only products) can be connected simultaneously.

Dominic has covered all the facilities and features in his review so I’ll just say I loved it as well. If space is a major issue and let’s face it modern homes are smaller than they used to be or you live in a small flat or bed-sit, then the MaiA DS is a real boon without compromising on the quality front. In my room and system the DS was excellent, so I urge anyone who is interested in trying one out to ask a dealer if they will loan you one on a trial basis. As a second system amp it would be superb if you can justify the extra cost. I used it with my Pro-ject Extension 9 and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil and had no issues with the built in phono stage and the separate phono stage I am currently trying out costs more than the DS, and although better ,wasn’t vastly superior, so well done to the design team.

Pros 

Fantastic little amp that is very well built and specified 

Remote control 

Great range of inputs and outputs 

Power supply can be upgraded 

Cons 

The speaker terminals are closely packed together, so be careful with your connections, using good 4mm plugs.

Ian Ringstead

More ramblings and incoherent musings from Stuart; this time he questions why we aren’t all listening to pro monitors and pro amplifiers and finishes off with a mixed case of reds for good measure.

For the last few weeks my bedtime reading has been Howard Massey’s excellent book “The Great British Recording Studios” which goes into loads of detail about individual studios from the fifties onwards, detailing howthey were acoustically designed and treated, the kind of mixing desks they use, the monitors they use, the microphones and outboard they use… let’s just say it is very comprehensive. Reading the book and musing how the different gear used in studios would affect the final records we get to listen to, something struck me.

Pretty much exclusively the monitors used in all the studios discussed were either Tannoy Reds/Golds in Lockwood cabinets or JBLs fed with Crown or Amcron amps… in earlier studios and before the days of solid state circuitry amps were valve/tube Quads and Radfords. Everything went through the main desk to the multitrack tape recorder and then to two track tape (predominantly Studer A80s or similar) before being sent to the cutting room where a lathe would make a master disc. The engineers and producers know the sound they are looking for, much of which was accomplished with various mic’ing techniques, outboard gear, the recording room’s acoustic etc, but the common denominators in all of this were the amps and the chosen monitors. So here’s the question; if we as music lovers, and specifically as audiophiles (yes there is a difference), are looking to get to as near a sonic experience as the producer created in the studio, then why aren’t we all using pro-amps and Tannoy/JBLs being fed by huge tape machines playing direct from master copies? I’m obviously talking here of the pre-digital age!

The final bit of that question is pretty straightforward to answer; studio quality, professional tape machines are expensive to buy and tricky to keep in perfect playing order and, unless you know someone behind the scenes, copies direct from the master recording are rarer than the proverbial rocking horse crap. Yes there are a growing number of specialist reel 2 reel companies providing pre-recorded tapes direct from masters, but the vast majority of popular albums will remain unobtainable to the masses in this format.

The first part of the question is a bit trickier to pin down. I’ve mulled this over a good deal and, if we look at this in logical terms, any person looking to get as close to the original recording as possible will want to have the aforementioned loudspeakers and amplifiers in their home…surely! But it’s not quite as simple as that is it? We all have different rooms with different acoustics and, more importantly I’d suggest, we all have different preferences in the way we like to have our music presented to us. I’ve spent enough time in studios over the years to know that the sound produced in there is not going to please the vast majority of people long term and in a domestic environment.

In short, and in my opinion, the vast majority of audiophiles are not trying to get as close to the original recording as possible, they are trying to get as close as possible to the kind of sound they prefer, in their own space. For example, I use the Avantgarde Duo XD loudspeakers, and whilst they sound absolutely stunning, dynamic and “clean” I know that what is coming out of them is not an absolutely true representation of what the producer heard in the studio. As a bit of an experiment, if you are able, play a few tunes on your current preferred speakers and then swap them out for a different pair. The sound will be completely different of course, but which version of reality is correct? The answer in short is neither is either totally correct, nor entirely wrong. The only thing that is “right” is what you the listener prefers, and what you favour will depend on a whole host of factors. Some will have a preference for a slightly rolled off sound at the top end, some will choose a more in your face presentation, other may favour a less detailed sound… you could go on and on.

I suppose what we’re getting to in the final analysis here is that what comes into play in the home listening environment is TASTE. Yes, it is pretty obvious to anyone with any experience of different gear that there are clearly good products and others that are, let’s be kind here, less good components, but take a series of what are widely regarded as “good” components and within that group you’ll have a host of different flavours to cater to a host of different tastes. We see it all the time at shows and on social media where one group of people will declare a love of all things valve/tube powered, whilst others will say that the only way to the “panacea” of “straight wire with gain” is solid state and that the tubeheads are actually reacting to (and preferring) the sound of odd-order harmonics. Some will prefer a BBC monitor style speaker, others horns, others open baffles…we could go on and on and on an on…

So Who Is Right?

No one is correct and everyone is right, which I suppose could be seen as a bit of a cop out, but if we look at an “everyday” analogy it soon becomes clear that this is the only conclusion one can make. *Take a dozen bottles of what are widely regarded as being good red wines and sit with friends and taste them over the period of an evening. I pretty much guarantee that everyone in the room will be able to appreciate that each of the fine beverages on offer has its merits, but different folks will prefer different grapes, different appellations, different terroir, each of which gives a unique nuance to the wine in our glass …and so it is with audio. We all prefer different things in life and the way we listen to music is no exception and all I can say is vive la difference!

*Drink in moderation of course!

Stuart Smith

Audio Hungary are a relatively new name to Hifi Pig and we first met them at this year’s High End show in Munich where they had their wares on display. This, the Qualiton A20i, is their entry level integrated amplifier. It is very compact, runs 2 x 20 Watts of Class A power and is based on classic push-pull topology.

It arrived, with little help from DPD, in a sturdy double (and surprisingly heavy) boxing, with the amp inside being very well packed indeed. The first thing out the box was the remote…wow, that’s heavy and really rather beautiful! Off with the valve cover to expose the tubes and the gleaming chrome body-work and that’s it all unboxed.

Roksan Audio is adding the blak series of components to its portfolio. The blak series is being introduced as an entirely new design for Roksan – both in terms of sound performance and visual appeal. Featuring a robust, industrial design the blak series is the audiophile solution for those seeking “superlative performance and features within a ‘statement product’ aesthetic, but without the esoteric high-end audio price tag” say the London company’s recent press release.

Handmade in the UK and at a specialised facility in Germany, the range is initially launching with an integrated amplifier and a CD player. These will be followed over time a comprehensive range of products that will offer the same performance-for-cost ratio.

Like the K3 range before it, all blak products will be available in three finishes – Anthracite, Charcoal and Opium – and all will be supplied with a stylish and intuitive system remote.

blak Integrated Amplifier

The blak Integrated Amplifier combines a high-end amplifier with a highly-specified USB DAC, a Bluetooth receiver and a dedicated headphone amplifier; all in one sleek chassis.

The amplifier section of the blak Integrated Amplifier uses hand- selected audiophile components throughout its circuitry, including high- quality relays. The chosen transformers are also tuned to ensure the best sound quality and current power available. This sophisticated internal design allows the amplifier to deliver > 150W (8Ω) output.

The blak Integrated Amplifier boasts sufficient inputs to cater for almost any high-end audio system. Alongside three RCA pairs, there’s also a balanced XLR pair input for superior source devices. There’s  also a Moving Magnet-compatible phono stage inside.

For ease of use, the blak Integrated Amplifier supports wireless music playback via its built-in aptX® Bluetooth module. This allows for up-to CD-quality wireless streaming from compatible laptops and smart devices. For more advanced digital media, the amplifier also boasts a USB (Type-B) digital  input for playback from a computer or laptop. The DAC allows for playback of audio files up to 24-bit/192kHz (PCM) or DSD128, offering an exceptional high-resolution performance.

Finally, whereas many other products include headphone inputs as an “extra”, Roksan have gone one step further with blak. Here the headphone amplifier sits within its own dedicated section, with an independent power supply and toggle switch.

Operation of the blak Integrated Amplifier is effortlessly simple either via the supplied system remote or through the front panel. The large, clear to read (yet dimmable) LED display shows the selected input and the over-sized volume knob has a visual indicator around its circumference to indicate the volume level.

SRP £2,750.00

blak CD Player

Internally the blak CD Player uses a totally isolated disc mechanism to eliminate vibration. Once extracted from the disc, the digital signal is managed by a DAC chip-set for bit-perfect conversion and an advanced digital clock for optimal performance.

For connecting to an external DAC there are three digital outputs available (S/PDIF, Optical or AES/EBU), or for connecting straight to an amplifier – like the blak Integrated Amplifier – there’s the choice of either unbalanced RCA or balanced XLR outputs. Once connected, the whole player is controlled with the supplied system remote or via the front panel; additional handy information is displayed on the dimmable  LED display during playback.

SRP £2,500.00

The blak CD Player is available now in Anthracite, Charcoal or Opium finish.

Technical Information

blak Integrated Amplifier

Inputs: 3 x RCA (pair)

1 x XLR (pair)

1 x MM Phono RCA (pair)

1 x aptX® Bluetooth (wireless) 1 x USB Type-B

Phono Stage:  MM Input

Gain:   76.75dB @ 1kHz

Impedance:     47kΩ Capacitance:     150pF

Line-Level Input Impedance:            24kΩ (XLR) 40kΩ (RCA)

Gain (at 1kHz, 8Ω):   37dB

THD: (at 1W, 8Ω, 5kHz):      <0.02%

THD: (at 12W, 8Ω, 5kHz):    <0.035%

Power Output (at 1kHz):       150W (8Ω) 230W (4Ω)

Frequency Response (at -3dB, 8Ω, 12W):    <20Hz – >80kHz Channel Balance (at 1kHz, 8Ω):  Better than 0.3dB

Cross-Talk (at 1kHz, 8Ω):      <-104dB

Signal-Noise Ratio (at 1kHz, 8Ω):    >76dB

blak CD Player

Outputs:          3 x Digital (Coaxial, Optical, XLR) 2 x Analogue Pairs (RCA or XLR)

Peak Output:  2.5V

THD (at 1kHz, 0dB): <0.001%

Linearity at 1kHz:      >89dB

Jitter:   <135ps

Signal-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted):    >108dB

Stop-band rejection:   >100dB

Introducing Billie, the stereo amplifier that combines  the precision of digital with the warmth of analogue sound in a Nordic minimalist aesthetic. An objet d’art designed with attention to detail inside and out, Billie brings back the transcendent ritual of listening, say the company launching it on Kickstarter.

“Our goal is to go beyond soundbars and bluetooth speakers, back to how music was meant to be experienced.” says Itai Azerad, Heaven 11 cofounder and designer. “We believe that the stereo system is still the best way to experience that ‘live in the room’ feeling. We’re not about ‘multi-room’, we’re about ‘in the room’.”

Named after Jazz Icon Billie Holliday, this amp plays ALL your music beautifully whether it’s from your phone, TV, Spotify or vinyl.

“We designed something for the pragmatic audiophile because we couldn’t find it out there. We built an affordable high-caliber amp that plays all of your music collection –  be it vinyl, Hi-Res digital, line or wireless.”

Combining the detailed soundstaging of digital to the round, analogue smoothness of tubes, Billie features ICEpower amplification by Bang & Olufsen (120W/4Ω), 32bit/384Kh DAC, AptX Bluetooth, RCA, vinyl and Toslink inputs. It comes with a custom-built tube preamp and a powerful headphone amp. The amp is to be manufactured in Montreal, Canada.

Moving away from the current trend of generic design and disposable materials, Billie’s shell is made of thick, machined aluminium. The cool minimalist casing details are balanced by warm, crafted hardwood knobs.

“Design is not just aesthetics, it’s how we use an object, what the object communicates to us and about us.  I believe a stereo’s design ought to be closer to an electric guitar than a cable box -what most stereos look like these days. An electric guitar is quite a functional tool, -not too many useless knobs on there- but it’s also such an intimate object, there’s a mystery about it, you gotta feel a connection, you gotta want to touch it.”

Billie is to be launched on Kickstarter mid-July at the special price of $595 US. After the campaign, the price will be $895/$995 US.

Heaven 11 Audio is a Montreal-based audio company  founded in 2015 by Itai Azerad and Andre Keilani, two award-winning product designers with a lifelong passion for music.

Mitchell and Johnson’s trio of CD Player, Amplifier and Streamer cost a total of £947 which puts them very much in the budget category but can they satisfy sonically? Dominic Marsh finds out for Hifi Pig. 

Very little gets me more excited than budget components being sent to me for review.  Let’s be honest, when cost is no object it isn’t an impossible undertaking to design and build something good if not exemplary yet when the budget is pared to the bone, if a manufacturer can not only get it right but elevate that product above the herd we can only admire and applaud their achievement.  That’s not to say what arrives will be a potential “giant killer” product as I have long since given up on that notion because the products hailed as such rarely ever live up to the hype they are lavished in the cold light of day.

Not everyone has a bucketful of cash to spend on high end esoterica, so scouring the world seeking out those little gems that offer great sound at a great price has been one of my missions running in the background.  It has not been an easy task I will admit and much to my surprise many manufacturers have been rather hesitant in responding to my requests for review samples.  Wonder why that is?

One company that thankfully did respond was Mitchell and Johnson, who were to send something over the early part of last year in fact, but due to their pressures of work and my own pressures of work it was not actively followed up, that is until around a month ago when I did a re-scan of my diary entries during a catch up session.  I sent another email off as a reminder and not one but three items from their product range were submitted for review in super quick time.

But, with three components submitted for review, it means a lot of work evaluating their performances, both as a complete system and of course paired with other components, so I beg your patience if this review expands considerably from the norm.

I will also forewarn you that I will quite often be using phrases like:  “At this price point”, “Within this price band“, etc., I am sure you get the picture.

Construction

At first glance, these three components have the outward appearance of what used to be Sansui build about them and some might think that sticking on some new badges saying “Mitchell & Johnson” instead of “Sansui” is all that has gone into these products, but not so.  Extensive modifications have been carried out to them, not least of which is the bespoke software used to drive these components and major changes in circuit topology too as I understand it.  The front panels were made of plastic in their previous incarnations, now fabricated from brushed alloy under the Mitchell & Johnson banner which lends a quality feel, much better than plastic.

Unashamedly built in China, these units are best described as of functional build quality and given their price points it is not difficult to work out there was a fine line in the budget workings out how much would be spent on outward appearance, yet the end result is rather pleasing and not unattractive, in fact my wife remarked on their nice appearance.  The faceplates are 5mm thick brushed aluminium, more than ample for the task, inset function buttons below the displays also work as they should, although their small size and flush fitting is an annoyance and raised buttons would be much easier to operate.  Rotary turn and push knobs for volume and menu selection, and the streamer in particular has a good quality full colour display panel, although the displays for the CD player and amplifier is rather plain and basic, so what more would you need besides?

The units all measure  430mm wide, 320mm deep (including speaker terminals and the streamer’s  wireless aerial) while the amplifier and CD player are just under 80mm high, the streamer measures a little more at 85mm high.

CDD201V CD player

As stated previously, the front panel is made from 5mm brushed aluminium on the review sample, also available in a black finish option.  To the centre of the front panel is a large display panel measuring 142mm long x 42mm high, set into which is the CD drawer.  The drive appears to be a super slim drawered  CD-ROM drive rather than a dedicated audio CD drive, the giveaways being a lightning fast yet very smooth open and close operation and a very long seek time reading the Table Of Contents on the disc.  Once the Table Of Contents (The innermost ‘tracks’ on a CD) track has been found, the player takes an inordinate 19 seconds to actually produce sound.  Thereafter though track selection is as fast as any other CD player with no delays.  The display itself consists of two rows of LED numerics, the top row showing the function selected as in “PLAY”, “STOP”, “REPEAT” etc., the bottom row showing the track number selected and time elapsed.  I am baffled why Mitchell & Johnson have used 3 digits for track numbering when 2 are more than adequate as I know of no CD that has more than 99 tracks anyway and just as baffling is why playing time elapsed has been awarded 6 digits when again I don’t know of any CD that plays for longer than 99 minutes duration, the extra digits making for a cluttered display.   I would much rather see a track number saying a plain “6” for example than “006” and time elapsed as say “18:09” rather than “00:18:09”.

If I can just revert back to my comment about the small flush mounted front panel buttons which annoy, with the CDD201V player there is also a small delay between pressing (fumbling) with the button and the desired action being initiated and many is the time I have pressed the button more than once which cancels out what I wanted the player to do.  So I soon got used to the notion of only pressing the button once, then leave it alone and let the player do what it wanted in its own time.

The CD player is supplied with a basic remote control, although the remote supplied with the streamer has the amplifier and CD functions incorporated into the one same remote, so that is a good reason to buy the whole ensemble together.

Connections are made via a pair of fixed output RCA line out connectors, an SPDIF digital RCA output socket and a TOSLINK connection.  To the far left of the chassis rear is a standard 3 pin IEC mains inlet.

Specifications

Output Level
1.8V +/- 2dB @ 1KHz 0dB

Signal to Noise Ratio
>80dB (LINE, IHF-A)

Frequency Response
20Hz – 20KHz

Digital Outputs
OPTICAL (TOSLINK) 1, COAXIAL (RCA) 1

Channel Balance
>20dB

Separation
>60dB

Digital to Analog Converter
Mediatek MTK1389DE

Dimensions
(WxHxD) : 430 x 80 x 283 mm

Weight
6.3 kg

Price at time of review:  £249.00

SAP201V Amplifier

Moving on to the amplifier now, this unit shares the same width and depth as its stable mates although the height is the same as the CD player while the streamer is slightly taller.  There is the central front panel display for functions, plus a row of push button function controls.  To the left of the front panel is a mini 3.5mm stereo jack socket for a line level input and a quarter inch headphone socket.  To the right of the display is a large rotary control for volume, plus pushing the control repeatedly cycles through bass, treble and balance functions and a default reset option.  To the far right is a push button on/off power switch, above which is a blue LED to show power is applied which turns red in standby mode.

To the rear we find an IEC mains inlet socket, a single set of four speaker terminals which will accept 4mm banana plugs, spade connectors or bare wire.  To the right of those is a TOSLINK and an SPDIF digital RCA input socket, then a set of  line level RCA socket inputs for TV, AUX, NET-PLAYER, CD, and a  PHONO stage connection (moving magnet), so there is a good selection of input options.

Rare at this price level is a built-in digital to analogue convertor in the shape of a Wolfson Micro WM8761 DAC chip, so too is a phono stage that accepts moving magnet cartridge input.

Specifications

Rated Output Power

40 W at 8 ohms, 2 ch driven, 1 kHz, 0.8 % THD (IEC)

50 W at 4 ohms, 2 ch driven, 1 kHz, 0.8 % THD (IEC)

Dynamic Power  150W

THD (Total Harmonic Distortion)
0.08 % (1 kHz 1 W)

Damping Factor
60 (Front’1 kHz’8 )

Input Sensitivity and Impedance
250 mV/47 k(LINE)
6.5 mV/47 k(PHONO)

Output Level and Impedance
250 mV/47k(REC OUT)

Phono Overload
60 mV (MM 1 kHz 0.5 %)

Frequency Response
20 Hz-50 kHz/+1 dB-3 dB (LINE)
+14 dB, -14 dB, 100 Hz (BASS)

Tone Control
+14 dB, -14dB, 10 kHz (TREBLE)
+0 dB, -14 dB (BALANCE)

Signal to Noise Ratio
>85dB (LINE, IHF-A) 61 dB (PHONO, IHF-A)

Dimensions
(WxHxD) : 430 x 80 x 283 mm

Weight
6.3 kg

Price at time of review:  £299.00

WLD+211T Streamer

This unit again mirrors the CD player and amplifier front panel layout, with the exception being a full colour central display and a USB input port.

It is equipped to receive wireless signals from a mobile device or a PC or via an RJ45 Ethernet LAN connection.  So you can listen to any of the music tracks stored on your computer or network attached storage (NAS) drive, giving you access to your entire library without the need for any other device.  If you own an Android or iOS device you can download the free UNDOK remote control application allowing you to browse all of your music from your mobile device. In addition to all this, the WLD+211T can stream your favourite tunes from Spotify via the Spotify Connect app (Spotify subscription required).

Linking to my PC wirelessly to the WLD+211T streamer was a simple straightforward matter and that thrilled me, as other wireless devices I have had for review seemed to concentrate solely on mobile phones and tablets running Android or Apple iOS and given all my stored music is on my desktop computer it has been rather frustrating at times.  That of course meant I could stream music for as many hours as I wished without worrying about battery power endurance issues from a mobile device.

Again, astonishing at this price level, we find a DAB and FM tuner included and with many thousands of internet stations to choose from, there is bound to be some stations you will enjoy listening to online.  They are thankfully listed in numerical and alphabetical order so if there is a particular station you wish to find, using the large front panel rotary control to scroll through makes it not too difficult a task.  It took me a good 10 minutes of high energy knob twiddling to find my local radio station Pirate FM.   It was a targeted setting up challenge more than an innate desire to listen to what was being transmitted on that station, as I never generally listen to it.

Specifications

Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)
0.02 % (1 kHz 1 W)

Frequency Response
20Hz-20KHz, +/ -3dB

Signal to Noise Ratio
>83dB (A)

Digital Output
optical TOSLINK connection,  COAXIAL RCA

Analog Output
RCA/phono stereo left and right connections

Tuner
DAB (Band 3) DAB+ with additional AAC+ codec

FM
Internet radio (requires network connection)

Frequency Range
FM 87.5 – 108 MHZ
DAB 174.928 – 239.200 MHz

Network Connection
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g – WEP, TKIP, WPA, WPA2, WPS security
RJ-45 Ethernet jack

USB
Audio playback from USB (USB port is NOT Apple compatible)

Universal Plug n Play
Full uPnP support. Windows Media Player compatible.
Fully DLNA compatible. Apple compatibility with DLNA software application.
Windows Media Audio and iTunes playlist compatible.

Music Streaming
FLAC 1.5 mbit/s upto 24-bits/48k
WAV 1.5 mbit/s upto 24-bits/48k
AAC upto 576 kbit/s
MP3 upto 320 kbit/s
WMA upto 384 kbit/s
RealAudio upto 96 kbit/s
SPOTIFY CONNECT music service (subscription required) using Spotify Connect app.

App Control
UNDOK app for iPhone or iPod Touch and Android

Remote Control
Brushed aluminium remote handset which also operates SAP201V amplifier and CDD201V CD player.

Dimensions
(WxHxD) : 430 x 80 x 283 mm

Weight
6.3 kg

Price at time of review is £399.00

Sound Quality As A Complete System

Well, if you have just parted company with the grand total of £947.00 for this system and taken it home, what has your money bought?  The first bonus is you have is no worries about matching and “synergy” which will be a great relief to many I am sure.  Of course, no speakers are included in this package, but I have to hand a few pairs of stand mount speakers and I have averaged out the sound qualities across all of them because there was noted some common themes amongst the speakers being used.  It should also be noted that they cost as much as this system, so it’s not likely they would be paired with it. I have also added a couple of likely candidates that are worth an audition to use with this set of components.

Nothing to do with the sound of course but good to mention at this point in the review, all three units have blue LED power on indicators that draw attention to themselves by their brightness.  The LEDs turn to red when in standby mode, a lot less bright thankfully.

I believe I can sum up the sound of this system in just one word – ENTERTAINING.  “High Fidelity” in the strictest sense of the words it isn’t, but the system does keep you entertained with its bouncy and snappy performance and it’s not until you put it side by side with a system from a higher calibre that you get to realise where the holes in its performance are to be found, none of which cause any real concerns, especially so in this price bracket.  The sound is larger than life and I cannot describe it better than that for you I’m afraid.  The treble and midrange in particular reaches out to you quite readily and with good detail, yet listen closely and subtle ambience cues for example that you know are in the recording are not there, even though the treble region is rendered in spades.  Deep bass with heft and weight too is somewhat diluted and seemed rather anaemic, set into the background almost and it is probably due to that 40 watts per channel power rating of the amplifier, so of course I pressed into service some other amplifiers with increased power on tap for comparison and more about this later on in the review.  However, you could happily crank up the volume and it all held together pretty well with an increase in volume level without the amplifier shouting at you or showing any signs of distress or distortion and it still maintained that bouncy vibrancy throughout the volume range.

The loading time from a CD being inserted into the player’s drawer to it playing music irritated the life out of me to begin with, but someone once told me that if you sit on a rusty nail for long enough the pain eventually diminishes and goes away.  I have no intentions of putting that philosophy to the test thank you very much.  Having said that, as time went on I was less annoyed by the CD player’s long seek time, so there must be some truth in the rusty nail story.  The front panel buttons never did stop annoying me though as I don’t think I have large fingers to begin with and coping with the delay after pressing as well, but I did eventually find a technique that worked for me and thank goodness the remote control handset replicates most of the functions that needed a physical button press for, with the exception of the CD eject button.

I couldn’t detect any sound differences between using the line level RCA connections and via the digital output of the CD player into the amplifier’s built in DAC using a coaxial connection.

The real star of this set for me was the WLD+211T streamer which was an easy job in setting up and simple in use too.  A few moments wait on start up as it establishes the connection to the PC via wireless link and once connected it identified the PC’s disk drive location and directory, you then select which album you want to play and away it goes, the large rotary/push button doing a grand uncomplicated job, aided by that good sized clear colour screen too.   Sound quality was very good through the complete Mitchell and Johnson system, but paired with other components it shone.

I had in for review a while ago (Reviewed in Hifi Pig, March 2016)) some speakers from TAGA Harmony, the B40 stand mounters which were priced at £320.00 for the pair which may have suited this system rather well.   Not evaluated by me personally, some say the Q Acoustics 3020 speakers give a great performance and the price is attractive too at circa £189.00 a pair.  Another great pairing would be the Monitor Audio BR2’s priced at £230.00 a pair, with the stronger bass output from the larger driver complimenting the amplifier’s performance well.

CDD201V CD Player Sound Quality – Standalone

Swapping out the CDD201V player to my own resident CD player and connected to the SAP210V amplifier, the sound really did open out and fill in.  Ambience especially took on solidity and clarity that quite took me aback at first, depth of soundstage went from feet deep to yards deep in one leap and the bass output as well took a massive step up.  Given my CD player has a price tag that dwarfs the CDD201V’s, it comes as no surprise.  It also tells me that my initial judgement about the amplifier’s power output rating being solely responsible for a lack of bass power may have been a bit premature as it seems the CD player was evidently contributing to this trait.  All is not lost however, as I then used the CDD201V purely as a transport into 2 other external DACs, one in the shape of a Primare i32 amplifier with the optional DAC board fitted and the other in the shape of Roksan’s new K3 DAC.  The results were amazing, a true night and day experience, but let’s not get carried away by that, given the price differences involved.    It does say though that if you are searching for a transport, then this component  would be well worth a serious  audition and at this price point I am not aware of any serious competition to it.

SAP201V Amplifier Sound Quality – Standalone

Away from its stable mates, the amplifier let loose its true character.  The vitality and bounciness was still there, but the bass output from a signal fed in that had full bass included, really came to the fore.  There was more heft and power now, but it was wrapped in a firm tautness  so the leading edges had a crisp delineation with no following overhang either, although the very lowest bass registers still lacked drive and impact.  A good example of that difference was listening to “Anonymus II” track on the Focus III album.  This track has plenty of raucous energy for any system to contend with and the first element to suffer is the bass, both the bass guitar and the kick drum which all too readily get overshadowed and lost in the mix while at the same time blurring the cymbals.  Focus were famous for playing a Flute in their compositions and many a system manages to mangle that into a screeching wail that hurts your ears but the SAP201V managed to stay the right side of listenable, as I thought it’s lively personality would set off the screeching, but no, it fared very well in fact.  At 6 minutes 18 seconds into this track the pace slows right down to a great slow bass guitar solo, which slowly picks up the pace, joined soon after by the guitarist with single chord strums and then by the drummer on kick drum and high hat.  The kick drum has to have a thump to it you can feel and that thump has to have shape and contour to it as well, which is very hard to describe in words, but once heard it is never forgotten.  Sadly, the CDD302V CD player missed out on these subtleties, the bass just not meeting my criteria, yet ably handled by my resident player into the SAP201V amplifier, which, at its price point (there it is again) is truly remarkable.

The diminutive Pro-Ject MAIA amplifier has a lower power rating, has Bluetooth, costs more at £399.00 and sounds a lot smoother than the SAP201V but that has small size in its favour.  Faced with a choice, I would pick the SAP201V for its lively presentation and zippy delivery.

As more of an aside, I connected up a pair of Roksan K2 TR-5 speakers that Roksan have kindly loaned to me to the SAP201V amplifier and boy, did this amplifier make the Roksan TR-5’s dance.  Again, not in a true high fidelity sense of course, but a VERY entertaining listen indeed.  I also have here a pair of Axis voicebox stand mount loudspeakers which originate from Australia (Loaned by Dan Worth), that also came alive and danced when coupled to the SAP201V amplifier, despite trying several high end amplifiers with them for a good match.  Again, synergy it wasn’t, but it shows how the sprightly verve of this amplifier isn’t going to be suppressed or tamed and I was grateful  for that nonetheless.

WLD+311T Streamer -Standalone

I can happily report that I was very pleased with every aspect of the streamer.  At long, long, long last I could play high quality music direct from my PC to it with no fuss, angst or pain involved and no need whatsoever to use a mobile device. And I like the price band it occupies, which I cannot find a competitor to rival it.  Brilliant, I want one!

Conclusion

Right, I don’t really need a recap on my findings regarding the pricing of these components do I?  Thought not, so I will therefore sum up my take on this Mitchell and Johnson ensemble.

I wasn’t that enamoured by the front panel push buttons, but I also am aware that even a small change to raised buttons will affect pricing, so put your fingers on a diet Dominic or use a rubber tipped stylus if you really cannot control your fingers.  The CD player’s long seek time is part of the package, so get used to it or spend a lot more on a deck that is faster read loading.  That’s not a big list of gripes is it?

On the plus side, the streamer is a total peach in every aspect, the amplifier has enough bounce and vitality to entertain you for many hours and the humble 40 watt power rating is very deceptive as well, so that could also be money well spent and the CD player is a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing when there is a good sounding transport lurking in there waiting to be discovered.  There are a lot worse ways to invest £947.00 in the world of hifi these days and with the right speakers attached, you probably won’t be in too much of a rush upgrading from this system in the future either.

Pros:

The brushed aluminium front panel and the superb colour display on the streamer.

Incredible bang for the buck.

Cons:

It has small sonic flaws in strict hifi terms of course, which are easily liveable with, especially at the price

Those buttons

Prices

CDD201V CD player £249.00

SAP201V Amplifier £299.00

WLD+211T Streamer £399.00

Dominic Marsh

The MQ-300 is a new generation of vacuum tube stereo amplifiers from LUXMAN that “uses the most thoroughly selected parts and circuits to maximise the performance and tonal quality of the latest direct heated triode – the TA-300B”. Following in the design footsteps of the MB-300 released 31 years ago, the MQ-300 combines traditional design with cutting edge technology.   

Since the foundation of the company 90 years ago, and the subsequent release of the MB-300, LUXMAN has pursued certain core principles for sound generation. These principles are embodied in the MQ-300 as ‘honest and natural sound quality, feeling the sound field without exaggeration’, ‘feeling the unity of sound with sufficient data for the whole audio band’ and to achieve ‘fatigue free listening enjoyment’. Expressing the original sound whilst bringing the spirit of each disk to life are qualities intrinsic to the MQ-300 and those principles.

Design History

The MQ-300 is based on the cosmetic design and circuit configuration of the MB-300, the renowned vacuum tube monaural power amplifier released by LUXMAN in 1984. The elements of traditional design and elegant tonal quality that is unique to the performance of the TA-300B, a direct heated triode, have been maximised in the MQ-300.

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Rated Power Output: 8W + 8W (4Ω, 8Ω, 16Ω)
• Input Sensitivity: 490mV (8W) 240kΩ
• THD: 1% (1kHz / 8Ω / 1W)
• S/N Ratio (IHF-A): 105dB
• Input: 1 x Direct, 1 x  Variable
• Output: Large speaker terminal x 1  set (4,8,16Ω independent)
• Power Consumption: 160W
• Dimensions (W x H x D): 460 × 273 × 340 (mm)
• Net Weight: 29.0kg

The MQ-300 is arriving in the UK later this month, with an RRP of ￡15,000.