Hifi Pig

Acoustic Sounds, the online music store, has announced it will be offering mainstream albums from leading labels in the DSD format – used to master SACDs.

Initially 46 albums will be available in the DSD format including Counting Crows’ ”August and Everything After”, Rickie Lee Jones’ “Traffic From Paradise”, Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” and John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”.

Prices start at $24.99 per download.

Quadral have contacted us to tell us about a new range of loudspeakers soon to be introduced.

First up is he quadral Rondo active desktop monitor which comes with a 115mm polypropylene woofer and a titanium RiCOm tweeter. Rondo will have an aoutput in excess of 100 Watts, has Bluetooth (aptX), USB and soundcard connectivity. It has a separate sub output and comes in high-gloss black or white.

Next up comes the Ferrum which is a AV set up and intended for use with the companies new Qube 7 subwoofer. The set is available as a whole or you can simply purchase the front two (Ferrum 700) speakers. The Qube 7 has 100 Watt power a 220 mm long-throw woofer in a compact bass reflex housing.

Quadral have also announced an upgrade to their Argentum (Pictured) range which will consist of two shelf speakers, two upright speakers and a single centre. They sport aluminium coated polypropylene membranes for the woofer and midrange, a newly developed silk tweeter and will be available in black or white.

Finally there is the Magique which is essentially a soundbar. It’s an active 3-way TV speaker with 2 x 19 mm silk domes, 4 x 65 mm midrangers and 2 150 mm woofers. It comes with remote control, Bluetooth, coax and optical digital inputs and can support a maximum load of 40 kg.

The guys at Akiko got in touch to tell us all about there new website launched this weeks that they seem pretty proud of. They have eight new products and a fully stocked webshop so you can purchase stuff direct.

“It feels like a new start,” said co-owner Sander van Berlo, who started along with his father producing ‘handmade’ audio accessories and distributing them from the Netherlands in 2011.

The company manufacture an interesting power strip called the Quattro, some newly designed power cables and something called the Tuning Stick (pictured) which is designed to “Cleanse the earth of the mains”.

Audio Research has announced the new SP20 vacuum-tube preamplifier which the company say is influenced by some of their classic SP preamplifiers but with performance that is only achievable their best LS- and PH-series.

The front panel has a new 4.3″ LCD touchscreen, with two large rotary knobs on either side. For the first time ever on an Audio Research preamp, there is a ¼” headphone jack

Through the touchscreen you can change inputs, select stereo or mono, Mute, adjust Phase, adjust left-right balance, and adjust the phono input Load (50, 100, 500, 1000 or 47k Ohms). Through a Settings menu, you can customize other items. When the tube hour meter reaches 4,000 hours, the settings icon will turn red to warn the owner it is time to change the tubes.

In addition to the Phono input, there are four other single-ended inputs, two balanced inputs, separate Monitor-in and Record-out, and two pairs of balanced outputs. There is also an RS-232 port, IR-input, 12V trigger, and a 15A IEC connector. The SE4 input can be configured as a home theater pass-through.

The SP20 is fully balanced, pure Class-A with zero feedback. There are seven levels of voltage regulation, a large power supply, and a very low-noise R-core power transformer. Both the line and phono stages feature low-noise JFET inputs and 6H30 (2 per section) outputs.

Units with natural front panels, knobs and buttons will begin to ship in early September whereas units with black front panels will be available around mid October.

Price will be $9000

New Zealand based manufacturer, Plinius Audio, has announced it is introducing the Tiki network media player and Toko digital media player.

Tiki is essentially a network capable digital to analogue converter, it connects to a home network via Ethernet to retrieve music files stored on a server or NAS. The Tiki prioritises the treatment of the sensitive audio signals and avoids additional sources of noise and for this reason the Tiki does not support wireless connectivity.

Playback of FLAC, AIFF, LPCM and MP3 files up to 24 bit, 192kHz is controlled by the use of a DLNA media controller or UPnP smartphone app such as the Plinius Arataki app (available from the Apple App Store).

The Toko offers all the same features as Tiki but is also supplied with a built in slot loading CD transport mechanism for playback of an existing CD collection.

Brian Whilloughby, Plinius’ managing director, commenting on the introduction of Tiki and Toko says, “As digitally stored files are becoming the medium of choice we are seeing music lovers’ desire to have digital music reproduction perform to a higher level and so it is a requirement that they can do so through Plinius equipment at each stage of the signal handling.” He continues, “The Tiki and Toko are a new direction for us. These network capable, digital to analogue converters and media renderers focus on performance playback through a robust design implementation that lives up to the Plinius promise of getting you to the heart of music.”

Following a ballot of the members of The Clarity Alliance (an alliance of the best of the audio and video industries in the UK), Laurence Armstrong, managing director of Henley Designs, has been elected as the next chairman of the Alliance.

In order for the Alliance to be successful in its objective of raising the profile of the UK hi-fi and home cinema sector, it is essential that members of the industry come together and work on a common plan for growth. Laurence was extremely enthusiastic about this necessity when the plans for consumer facing campaigns were presented to him and pledged to offer Henley Designs’ help in whatever way it can assist.

Laurence succeeds Alan Sircom, as chairman of the Alliance. Alan took on the role during the formation and initial launch stages of Clarity, driving the creation of its constitution, planning its training and qualifications and overseeing the development of the first consumer facing campaigns. Alan will continue to serve on the board of directors in an ex-officio capacity during Laurence’s chairmanship.

Commenting on his new role, Laurence says, “I’m delighted to of been voted as the new head of the Clarity board. Having been involved in the hi-fi industry for many years, I’m proud to be a part of something that is designed to keep us all together, moving forward to a better, more successful future.  I believe an industry body that represents all sectors of our community and promotes a symbiotic relationship between all parties is the key to a stable future.”