Hifi Pig

McIntosh Laboratory introduces three new products at High End, Munich, including luxury headphones and two compact amplifiers.

The trio includes the new MHP1000 headphones, plus the MC152 and MC301 amplifiers.

New: MPH1000 headphones

“The new MHP1000 headphones have been designed to offer the legendary McIntosh sound quality from a portable product.  They combine McIntosh’s famous fidelity with high output levels, resulting in outstanding resolution despite their lightweight and all-day comfort. The MPH1000’s considered impedance and high sensitivity allows the headphones to match the output of today’s most popular electronic devices” says the press release.

New: MC152 and MC301 solid-state amplifiers

The press release continues “The MC152 and MC301 amplifiers are McIntosh’s first solid-state amps that leverage their renowned technology to offer lower-power options. Each amplifier features McIntosh’s iconic blue power meters and sleek black chassis, this time at a slim 130mm height.

Operating at 150 watts per channel, the MC152 is McIntosh’s smallest solid-state stereo amplifier to date; prior to its introduction, McIntosh’s smallest power amplifier, the MC302, operated at twice the power.

The MC152 is the perfect power amplifier for music lovers looking for McIntosh’s trademark craftsmanship, build and sound quality, without the colossal amount of power McIntosh is capable of. The MC301 amplifier is McIntosh’s smallest monoblock solid-state amplifier, operating at 300 watts”.

McIntosh will also be showing some new products at High End, previously debuted at CES 2014, Las Vegas: The MHA10­­0 headphone amplifier, the MXA70 integrated audio system and MB100 Media Bridge.

Chord Electronics’ all-British reference-level system and The Chord Company partner at High End, Munich

The two ‘Chords’, Chord Electronics and The Chord Company, will be active at High End, Munich this year, showing some of their latest products, along with some newcomers. Chord Electronics will be taking its regular suite, Atrium 3, Room C122, and while The Chord Company is not directly exhibiting this year, its products will be widely used by some well-known partners throughout the event.

Chord Electronics will be demonstrating an all-British reference-level system using its flagship Reference Series electronics, top-of-the-range Sarum Tuned ARAY cables from The Chord Company, plus £25,000 speakers from PMC’s SE range.

Its Reference Series system comprises the DSX1000 streamer, CPA8000 preamp and SPM14000MkII power amps, plus the Red Reference MkIII CD player. PMC’s BB5SE speakers complete the all-British system.

Tisbury Audio, whose little passive preamplifier we reviewed here, has today released its flagship headphone amplifier: the Challenge Amp 1. The new headphone preamplifier has been designed to drive audiophile headphones and the company’s press release says “it combines class-leading performance with beautiful industrial design at a highly competitive price”.

The Challenge Amp 1 is hand made in the UK from American black walnut, aluminium with premium components sourced primarily from UK suppliers and is available direct from the manufacturer for £349 with free shipping to most countries, a 30 day returns period and three year limited warranty.

The amplifier circuit itself is the result of 18 months of development, testing and listening trials says the company. It combines LME49600 current buffers, “precision spec”. surface mount parts and a compact ‘high speed’ board layout that is unusual for a headphone amplifier.

“The name ‘Challenge Amp’ came from the extremely difficult criteria we set for the design,” says Wes Young of Tisbury. “We wanted something that was beautifully engineered and very high performance but also reasonably priced. With over a year of prototyping and development, I’m confident we’ve completely smashed those goals; hopefully our customers will agree.”

This year Swiss high-end manufacturer Weiss Engineering celebrate their 30th anniversary.

Daniel Weiss contacted Hifi Pig and commented ”We took the opportunity and created the gold plated MAN301DAC-A, available in a limited edition, manufactured during 2014 exclusively”.
The MAN301DAC-A uses a new DAC section: Based on the company’s discrete single ended output Operational Amplifier (the OP1-BP) design, it uses a discrete, balanced output OP-Amp design.

Existing MAN301SERVER or MAN301DAC units can also be easily upgraded with the new DAC section.

The Directwave is a new UK based company formed 6 months ago, catering to the mid to high end audiophile market. Their first product ‘The Director’ analogue interconnect cable is currently available via the company’s UK dealer LW Audio who also uses The Directwave cables to demonstrate their Audio Music 833 class A amplifier.

Iain Borthwick of LW Audio is quoted as saying, “The Director has superb clarity without inducing listener fatigue”

The Director interconnect uses gold plated solid silver conductors with a passive screen and WBT  0114 Cu connectors.

Derek Robinson, Technical Director at The Directwave added“All our cables are designed and built from the ground up, We do not use off the reel cable from other manufactures”.

RRP = £360 1 metre pair.

“The USB Box S+ from Box Design by Pro-Ject Audio Systems brings the most advanced technologies surrounding asynchronous USB data transfer together into a simple-to-use Digital/Analogue Converter; turning computers into a serious hi-fi source” says the press release.  And this little box of tricks certainly seems to be continuing the Pro-Ject philosophy of keeping prices down and spec’ up!

The USB Box S+ uses an XMOS chipset to handle asynchronous USB streaming up to 32-bit/384kHz, with the lowest possible levels of jitter. The sample-rate of a playing file is displayed on the front panel, but in the device all digital streams are up-sampled to a higher level for optimal conversion without any loss (44.1, 88.2 & 176.4 sample rates are up-sampled to 352.8kHz; 48, 96 and 192kHz sample rates are up-sampled to 384kHz).

The compact device utilises a single PCM5102A chip from Burr-Brown and also offers a 2.1V RMS output meaning the audio signal path after the chip is clear of unnecessary extra capacitors, which can limit the overall sound quality. The two selectable Filter settings allow users to tailor the sound to suit by switching between “Brick Wall” FIR (Finite Impulse Response) and “Apodizing” IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) filters.

The USB Box S+ matches the size and aesthetic of other models in the Box Design ‘S’ range and is simple to set up and use the company say being compatible with Windows, Apple and Linux systems

Available from June in the UK the USB Box Plus will cost £169.

Viola Audio Laboratories based in the US will be exhibiting at this years High End Munich show where they will have their Crescendo pre-amplifier (pictured) and Bravo power amplifier on demonstration.

They’ll be backed up with Oceanway Audio speakers, Artesania Audio Racks and ZenSati cables all fed with a Nagra Transport.

You can visit Viola Audio Laboratories at Atrium 2:2 F213 at high end 2014.

The Pro-Ject Xpression Carbon UKX is an entry level turntable costing just £575 and including an arm and cartridge. At this kind of price point we really wanted to hear what it could do and so Peter gave it a review for Hifi Pig and loved it. Having given the turntable a score of more than 8.5/10 the turntable went off to a second reviewer to see if it merited an Outstanding Product award.

“Over time, and as budgets allow, I can also see that the UKX could provide considerable opportunities for tweaking.  My first stop would be the cartridge. As would be expected, while good enough for a sub £100 piece, the 2M is very much the limiting factor in this package. If I owned the UKX, I would hesitate before trading up either ‘table or arm until I had tried a better cartridge, possibly even an MC; keeping to the Ortofon theme, I see no reason why any of the new Quintet series would not partner happily with the excellent arm, but any medium mass cartridge might be worth a spin”

and from the second review

“Next on the turntable was the Violin Concerto Number 2 on the Decca label, SXL 6802, Conduced by George Solti with Kyung-Wha Chung on the violin. The transcription had a rich bass end but the lower treble harshness from the transducer did it no favours! Although it did interfere with the performance, I did listen to the disc from end to end.”

Here you can read both the reviews in full of the Pro-Ject Xpression Carbon UKX Turntable

Hifi Pig though this looked a funky little item for when out and about, it’s, Denon’s new £169 Envaya Portable Bluetooth Speaker.

“With its personalised styling that comes in two different finishes – high gloss white and matte black – and a choice of four beautiful fabrics – Lunar, Sunset, Fandango and Indigo – there is a colour for every occasion” says the company’s press release.

Envaya delivers music collections, connecting wirelessly to all Bluetooth designs. Devices with aptX® capability can enjoy completely lossless audio transfer. If Envaya is used to watch movies on the move, it isn’t affected by those irritating ‘lip sync’ issues thanks a low latency of just 32ms. NFC-enabled devices only have to be brought close to Envaya and it automatically pairs up. To make life even easier, Envaya reconnects to the Bluetooth device, automatically remembering any model. There is also the option of an auxiliary input.

The Envaya portable Bluetooth speaker incorporates two proprietary 57mm full range drivers   and a 100mm passive radiator. Patented Denon Digital Sound processing, proprietary amplification and extensive European sound tuning “ensures the Envaya delivers Denon’s renowned sound quality”.

The simple grab-and-go design is completely portable with a 10-hour rechargeable battery on board. Envaya even looks after your mobile devices, being able to recharge any smartphone or tablet from its USB port while the user is out and about. Envaya also comes with an innovative built-in stand – just squeeze the device for the stand to appear – meaning the model can be placed wherever suits. Rubber footer on the bottom adds stability.

When it’s time for a bit of quiet Envaya can be tucked away in the optional sleek neoprene carrying case.

Focal & Naim today announces that Naxicap has acquired a majority stake in the Group, alongside Aquasourça and the existing management team.

Christophe Sicaud, CEO of Focal & Naim commented “We are thrilled to begin this new stage in our history with the strong support of Naxicap and Aquasourça. Their investment represents a resounding endorsement of our company’s success and our commitment to R&D and creating innovative, high quality audio products for our customers. Our new investors have a strong track record of supporting R&D and manufacturing within fast growing European companies, making them ideal partners for us.”

“It has been a pleasure to work with CM-CIC, who have been a valued shareholder for 12 years. We also thank Jacques Mahul for everything he has done for the company over so many years. While he stands down as Chairman today, we are thrilled that he will continue to support the company as a brand ambassador.”

Angele Faugier, of Naxicap Partners added “We are very pleased to have the

opportunity to back Christophe Sicaud and his outstanding management team. We look forward to supporting the teams in Saint-Etienne, France and Salisbury, UK as they continue to build a leadership position in the global audio industry.”

Vincent Menudier, of Aquasourça added “Focal and Naim are incredible French and British brands with an impressive history. We are very excited to be supporting the further expansion of those brands into new markets and product areas.”

Paul Stephenson, Managing Director of Naim added: “Naim has a dynamic road map for business growth going forward. We welcome our new investors and their shared vision for our future.”

Since the merger of Focal and Naim in 2011, both brands have continued their rapid growth, preserving their unique market positions while also working together to develop new products in new categories and most importantly producing pure and authentic, beautiful sound.

To mark this next chapter in our history, we also today announce our new Group identity. Focal & Naim becomes Vervent Audio Group (VAG), a home to dynamic brands and a dynamic team of professionals.

Wolf von Langa who we’ve heard very good things about here at Hifi Pig, got in touch to tell us about their presence at High End 2014 in Munich.

Wolf von Langa is a speaker manufacturer from Bavaria and will present the company’s product range. They’ll be in  room F231c of Munich MOC in Atrium 4 and will have their modular speaker system on show.

”To transform live recordings in a live experience”, is Wolf von Langa’s aim in his loudspeaker designs and to “make the nuances of the music heard”.
While most modern speaker are driven by a permanent magnet, in Wolf  von Langa’s models the magnetic field of a field coil is controlled by a power source.

”Such electromagnetically driven speakers already existed long before today’s conventional permanent-magnet speakers. Recently, however, the field coil speakers are making a comeback – and rightly so” he said. “Unlike a permanent magnet, the strength of the magnetic field in a field coil can be changed easily via the current source and the sound character and timbre can be ideally adapted to any space. In addition, the field coil loudspeaker have, compared to conventional systems, an extremely low distortion.