Squeezed neatly on the fashionably cool Great Portland Street between food emporium Villandry and Regents Park’s Frieze Art Festival is “Ideaworks”, the venue for the preview of Anthems new AVR range, built on their two and a half year old MRX range and 30 years of research. Ideaworks is a stunning showpiece of conceptual sound and vision design, showing off 4K Black Diamond Screens and an interactive fish tank projection in the entrance alone. More »
There’s a huge problem with HD music today say Benchmark and recent advances in high-resolution digital formats have
well outpaced most existing amplifier technologies they say. Whilst recordings are possible that have dynamic ranges that exceed 120 to 125 dB Benchmark claim it’s hard to find a power amplifier that can deliver more than 100 to 105 dB of dynamic range. Benchmark’s AHB2 power amplifier approaches 130 dB, making it “10 to 30 dB quieter than the typical audiophile power amplifier”.
The frequency response of the AHB2 extends beyond 200 kHz, to “deliver the ultrasonic detail and fast transients captured by high-resolution recordings”. At the other end of the audio spectrum, the low-frequency response extends below 0.1 Hz. The AHB2 has a high damping factor that augments its extended low-end to deliver “solid, well-controlled bass”.
THX recently patented two new technologies that address crossover distortion, and Benchmark incorporated these innovations into the AHB2 design. These new innovations claim to virtually eliminate crossover distortion while offering opportunities to improve efficiency, damping, and dynamic range.
Oppo, those of the famous DVD and BluRay players, have announced they will be launching a new Planar Magnetic 
Headphone (PM-1) and a headphone amplifier (HA-1).
The PM-1 headphones use an FEM optimised magnet system with very high energy Neodymium magnets. The headphones magnetic system and conductor patterns are said to be optimized for maximum sensitivity and consistency over the whole of the radiating area.
The Oppo PM-1 headphones are said to give a very open, transparent and very dynamic sound with balanced tone and very low distortion.
The HA-1 headphone amplifier from Oppo offers a Class A balances power amplifier section with the ESS 9018 Sabre 32 Reference DAC. In effect the headphone amp doubles as an asynchronous USB DAC, a stereo pre-amp, a digital audio dock for smart phones etc and a Bluetooth audio transport.
The control knob is motor driven so users can use the remote or turn by hand and they will have a choice of balanced XLR or quarter inch headphone jack. Line level inputs are given both RCA and XLR sockets.
“The Cartridge Man is Len Gregory and he’s been making cartridges for a good number of years now. He used to 
produce a cartridge based on the AKG P8ES, but as AKG ceased production and were eventually bought this eventually meant that Len’s supply of components dried up. Around the same time (twenty-ish years ago) Grado ceased production of their “Signature” range of cartridges and after speaking with John Grado, Len gained permission to build his own version of the “Signature” range of cartridges.”
Here we listen to the £750 moving iron cartridge from The Cartridge Man and see if it lives up to its music making name.
Read the full review of The Cartridge Man Music Maker III phono cartridge.
Forming part of the bijou Chordette range, the new Qute EX adds a new chipset and circuit board which enables 
decoding at up to 384kHz PCM and DSD 128 over USB (against the QuteHD’s 192kHz PCM and DSD 64). Existing QuteHD DACs can be upgraded with the new chipset and board at the factory for just £200 (plus shipping); the price differential between the two which seems very reasonable.
The Qute EX offers a range of bespoke DAC technologies taken from the flagship QBD76 HDSD (£4,995), which forms part of Chord Electronics’ Choral range.
Ready to take advantage of today’s advanced studio-master-quality (DXD – Digital eXtreme Definition) music files, the Qute EX can handle sample rates from 44.1kHz to 384kHz (PCM).
The Qute EX benefits from an asynchronous USB input (up to 384kHz) and has to two additional digital inputs: coaxial and optical.
In addition to 384kHz PCM files, the QuteEX can also process DSD 128 data using the latest DSD-over-PCM standard (DoP). Whether using Mac OS or Windows OS, Chord Electronics’ own proprietary driver software is provided, removing the restrictions of current operating system audio playback.
Price: Qute EX £1,195
JoSound Cartouche loudspeakers use a Voxativ driver and an innovative bamboo construction that makes these €22 000 
loudspeakers really stand out from the crowd.
“We first came across the JoSound range of loudspeakers twelve months or so ago when we attended the Paris Hifi and Home Cinema Salon and were very impressed with what we heard. Later at Munich we again made the effort to go and have a listen and were equally impressed and asked if it would be possible to get a pair of one of the range in for review.”
Read the full review of the JoSound Cartouche loudspeakers.
Norwegian-based manufacturer and quirkily named QNKTC (Quantization Noise Killed The Cat!) has unveiled its new 
competitively priced DAC, the £110 AB-1.2.
The device has is roots in an open source project, as a hardware implementation of the Audio Widget venture. The project was started by an online group who wanted to develop the very best solution for a USB DAC. AB-1.2 is the third (counting from 1.0) Analogue Board from the project. The AB-1.2 lets you play high-resolution audio (up to 24-bits at 192kHz) from Windows, Linux and OSX computers.
The analogue section of the DAC design puts equal focus on three areas with a fundamental influence on audio quality. The AKM4430 DAC chip comes from Asahi Kasai, the clock is made from two precision crystal oscillators from Golledge and the power supply uses low-noise regulators from Analog Devices. The DAC generates its own negative power supply, something that QNKTC say makes the whole design less complex and easier to implement. The asynchronous USB protocol (available in both USB Audio Class 1 and 2) makes the DAC the timing reference which is said to minimize jitter errors and further improves on the sound quality.
Brand new to me but a staggering forty five years old Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera’s eponymous album is enjoying a re-release on Grapefruit Records and it’s a really entertaining listen indeed.
Starting out as an R&B/Soul band called the Five Proud Walkers, EGVO took a pretty dramatic change in direction in 1967 after supporting Pink Floyd at a gig on the legendary Eel Pie Island in London. They seemingly got a good deal of airplay but failed to transfer this into record sales. More »
Hifi Pig announced the launch of these new loudspeaker cables from Atlas way back in June and here Jerry takes a listen
to them and gives his impressions of how they perform in his system.
“The cables appear well made and very easy to use – the “Z-plugs” (4mm banana) on the set of cables provided for review were a miniature marvel. I usually find expanding / locking banana plugs to be a right pain in the fundament, but these are superbly thought out and a pleasure to use.
Apparently, the plugs are custom made for Atlas and feature solder-free connections. They certainly are impressive.”
You can read the full review of the Atlas Ascent 3.5 Mkii speaker cables here.
At the top of the Tellurium Q range the Black Diamond USB cable comes in at £636 for a 1 metre length. Dan gives it a 
serous listen and see if it reaches muster.
“The Black Diamond, as all other Tellurium products, doesn’t come accompanied with a huge white paper of techno-babble, it simply comes with a suck it and see label.
The cable is of a substantial build quality, firmly thick and solidly terminated with male A to B connectors. The cable is a little stiffer than many on the market but in no way too stiff to manage with the 1.5m cable I demoed being very easily routed throughout my rack and around my equipment”
Read the full review of the Black diamond USB Cable from Tellurium Q.
“So much to see here in the darkness…”
Australia (and indeed the world) is enjoying a wealth of heavy music right now. Metalcore, new-school thrash, death and progressive metal are all thriving and our newsfeeds are chock full of new releases, gigs, tours, mind boggling arrays of sub-genres and all manner of heavy goodness. Yep, metal is alive and well.
Enter Circles. Hailing from Melbourne, their debut 2010 EP ‘The Compass’ was released to universal acclaim and (willingly or otherwise) immediately had the mark of “progressive” stamped upon it. The band seemingly has a most promising future. ‘Infinitas’, their self produced full length album has been (to use a hackneyed cliche) ahem… highly anticipated. More »
Kathryn Williams is Liverpool-born but resides in the fine city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Crown Electric, the company Elvis used to drive for before finding fame, is her tenth album and her first solo record in four years.
The album is the distillation of over sixty songs that were narrowed down to the thirteen we hear on Crown Electric. The album was recorded live in three days at Bryn Derwen Studios in Snowdonia with Neill MacColl as guitarist, bandleader and producer, Lamb’s Jon Thorne on double bass and Cinematic Orchestra’s Luke Flowers on drums. It was mixed by David Wrench with sumptuous strings added later at Ray Davies legendary Konk Studios, arranged and recorded by cellist Ben Trigg (Dexys, UNKLE, Arctic Monkeys). There are collaborations on the record with Ed Harcourt appearing on three of the tunes and James Yorkston on another. More »
Keith Monks today announced that the new discOveryOne Record Cleaner had started production in the UK. Jon Monks, son 
of the founder, Keith, will be demonstrating the discOveryOne Record Cleaner during the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.
Cleaning is a simple process of applying cleaning fluid and cleaning brush manually in the case of the standard model or using the Mini Cooper washer pump and classic Keith Monks wash system in the discOveryOne Classic. In both cases the cleaning fluid is fresh and previously unused for each record and the contact with the record during the vacuuming process is by a virgin piece of thread ensuring no contamination from previous records. It’s also very quiet at 37dB, C weighted, 1 metre.
The discOveryOne and discOveryOne Classic will be available from selected specialist retailers for £1295 and £1595 respectively.
The next generation of Motive speakers from Neat Acoustics, the SX series, will be demonstrated for the first time in 
Atrium Room 422 of the Denver Marriott Tech Center Hotel at RMAF.
The first and most obvious change from original to SX is to the tweeter. A newly designed, aluminium dome that is black anodised for added stiffness has replaced the original titanium dome, which Neat say now delivers a more natural and cleaner tonal balance.
The simple three-element crossover has been revised using Mundorf components, more akin to those used in Neat’s more upmarket models. The SXs will be single wired as standard but bi-amp terminals are available as a chargeable option on order.
The internal bracing and damping have been upgraded and the LF tuning optimised and the HF units now operate in their own enclosures to minimise driver crosstalk.
The Motive SX series comprises three models: the SX1, a two and a half way floorstander; the SX2, a two-way floorstander and the SX3, a two-way stand mount. The bass reflex port on the two floorstanders is fitted to the bottom panel of the cabinet and is vented through an outlet in the MDF plinth.
A matching centre channel the Motive SXC will be available in black oak finish only.
The Motive SX will be available in four finishes and prices are as follows:
USA
Motive SX1: $2,995.00 per pair
Motive SX2: $2,395.00 per pair
Motive SX3: $1,795.00 per pair
Motive SXC: $1,195.00
UK
Motive SX1: £1885.00 per pair
Motive SX2: £1395.00 per pair
Motive SX3: £1085.00 per pair
Motive SXC: £705.00
If you’re new to Drugstore (and I am) then here’s a brief history lesson. They’re labelled as a dream pop (whatever that is) band who formed in 1993 and debuted with an eponymous album which reached 31 in the UK charts…their second album from 1998, “White Magic for Lovers”, reached number 45. In total they’ve released four albums and had a top twenty single with “El President which was a duet between the band’s Brazillian singer-songwriter and bassist Isabel Monteiro and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. “The Best of Drugstore” takes, not surprisingly, songs from these albums. More »
Big Sexy Noise is made up of Lydia Lunch, James Johnston and Ian White of Gallon Drunk fame they offer an all out brutal attack on the senses with this double album – the band’s last studio album from 2011 and a live recording made in Italy.
The studio album “Trust the Witch” is proper rock and roll as it should be – dirty, raunchy and sleazy. The opening track “Ballin’ the Jack” has heavy guitars riffing away in the background, touches of Velvet Underground, soaring saxophone and all topped off with Lunch’s seedy vocals laid over the top – OK, I’m not sure she’s gonna win any prizes for delicacy but that’s not really the point here – she’s menacing, disturbing and absolutely perfect for the music playing in the background. More »
Meridian Audio has announced the introduction of their Distributor 3, a seamless way of distributing audio from a central 
location to three additional “zones”. A zone can be built from a pair of DSP loudspeakers up to a full entertainment system with local sources.
Each zone can be fed a discrete audio signal as well as control over an RS232 interface. “Distributor 3 is the ‘glue’ enabling additional Meridian audio zones around the home and is intended to be used in tandem with a home control system”.
Meridian’s new Distributor 3 plays all of your sources through any Meridian DSP loudspeaker allowing seamless integration with your entire home audio system and provides integration with your home lighting and entertainment control system.
UK Price (SRP) £900.00 incl. VAT
When a manufacturer baptises a new audio component in honour of a Greek goddess whose name literally means 
“beautiful voice” and follows that up with a five-figure price tag, this represents a definite promise and considerable commitment on their part… but that’s just what Gryphon have done.
Premiered in late prototype form at the Munich High End Show, the Gryphon Audio Designs Kaliope D/A converter has already generated a great deal of interest and we were lucky enough to hear it with the company’s Trident 2 loudspeakers.
Flemming E. Rasmussen elaborates, “We designed the Kalliope to be a moving target in the rapid evolution of ultra high-resolution digital audio. For once, hardware seems to be out in front of software, as the Kalliope offers playback of PCM up to 32-bit/384 kHz and DSD up to 6.144 MHz. This is an exciting time to be in audio and we can hardly wait for more well recorded, interesting music to appear in these ultra hirez formats. I think music lovers will be startled when they finally experience the untapped potential of Gryphon amplifiers and loudspeakers.”
Kalliope deploys eight ESS Sabre ES9018 DAC chips in a dual-differential, dual-mono topology capable of full 32-bit processing. The heavily regulated, fully discrete, Class A analogue output stage employs zero negative feedback and offers both balanced XLR and single-ended phono outputs.
Gryphon Kalliope removes one of what the company say is the “weak points in more conventional DAC designs: dependence on USB bus power, i.e., 5V fed to the USB receiver from the source computer via the USB cable’s power line which “bleeds” noise and interference into the two data lines with significant audible impact”. The 12.5 Farad SuperCap dedicated power supply of the Kalliope USB module acts as a virtual battery, delivering low-noise, stable, regulated power, eliminating the computer as a power source altogether.
Price 19.800 euro plus local taxes.
Bryston got in touch with us to let us know what they would be exhibiting at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest this coming 
weekend and here it is.
Loudspeakers will be in the shape of Brystons new Model T Signatures and these will be fed with a pair of S8BSST thousand Watt amplifiers. BP26 preamp and its MPS2 power supply will have a BDA2 DAC supplying the music, whilst the source will be the company’s BDP2. Power conditioning will be supplied by the BIT 20 which all adds up to a system costing almost $41 000.
Norbert Lehmann is the CEO of Lehmann Audio in Germany, a company that produces headphone amps, phono stages and an amplifier as well as pro audio equipment. He is a graduate in audio engineering and is a keen guitarist. More »
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