LATEST ADDITIONS

Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
VPI Classic - £2,693
Ed Selley  |  Jan 09, 2012  |  0 comments
VPI Classic A lot of turntable for the asking price, here’s an impressive package from a classic American manufacturer The VPI is a lot of turntable for the money, it’s easily the biggest and heaviest in this group and if that weren’t enough, it has the longest tonearm in the JMW10. 5i. The latter is an elaborate unipivot design, with balance weights around the pivot point that can be rotated so that the stylus sits upright in the groove. VTA variations are accommodated with a substantial stainless wheel on the arm base.
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Phono Preamplifiers
Creek Wyndsor Phono - £1,500
Ed Selley  |  Jan 09, 2012  |  0 comments
Royal performance Creek has upped the ante with its first no compromise phono stage, Jason Kennedy puts the new Wyndsor through its paces Creek introduced the Wyndsor name with its fi rst turntable in 2010 (HFC 302) and now it has a phono stage to match. This is a two-box design with exemplary casework and a front panel interface that allows you to confi gure preset parameters for several different cartridges and have it remember each by name. This will be a boon to anyone who regularly changes cartridge and needs to set specifi c gain, impedance and capacitance for each. Another feature that we are beginning to see on a growing number of phono stages is balanced inputs, albeit not in conventional form.
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Loudspeakers
Acoustic Energy, Reference 1 - £1,500
Ed Selley  |  Jan 09, 2012  |  0 comments
High-class baby Massive construction is just one of the key features that singles out Acoustic Energy’s Reference 1, says Paul Messenger Back in 1988, Acoustic Energy made a very impressive debut with its original AE1, a small Proaudio-oriented speaker that, at the time, essentially re-invented the concept of the modern highperformance miniature. The company has undergone numerous changes since then. Its original founders have long since moved on and the company is currently owned by Malaysian interests, which also provides a source for inexpensive production. The perennial AE1 The AE1 and a number of variations on its theme have been reviewed in Hi-Fi Choice on a pretty regular basis down the years.
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Loudspeakers
PMC, Twenty.23 - £2,095
Ed Selley  |  Jan 09, 2012  |  0 comments
Twenty’s vision PMC’s new twenty series applies some of the lessons learned while developing the upmarket fact models, says Paul Messenger PMC achieved its 20th anniversary last autumn, celebrating the fact by launching a brand new four-strong ‘twenty’ series of models that are intended to fill the gap between its regular ‘i’ series of domestic hi-fi speakers and much more costly ‘fact’ models. In truth, the twentys are priced much closer to the ‘is’ than the ‘facts’, this compact floorstander starting at £2,095 for the real wood veneered version. (There’s a choice of three here, including oak, walnut and amarone, though the highgloss Diamond Black finish costs an extra £210. ) That compares with a current price of £1,525 for the GB1i, its nearest equivalent in the standard range.
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Loudspeakers
Spendor S3/5R2 - £850
Ed Selley  |  Jan 09, 2012  |  0 comments
Figure of speech Spendor has updated its legendary S3/5R2. Ed Selley finds out if the classic character has survived the improvements Few speakers have a pedigree quite as long or distinguished as the LS3/5 standmount speaker. Originally designed for the BBC to monitor outside broadcasts, it’s impressive performance won many fans. So when the BBC requirement ceased, Spendor took over; a success record that has resulted in the latest iteration, the S3/5R2.
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Outboard DACs
NAD DAC 1 £300
Ed Selley  |  Jan 09, 2012  |  0 comments
No cables, no bother! NAD’s new £300 DAC connects both wirelessly and effortlessly. But, asks Richard Black, how does it fare against the competition? In recent years, wireless hi-fi has taken off in a big way, comfortably banishing bad memories of analogue wireless headphones of yore. With wi-fi , AirPlay, Bluetooth and various proprietary formats, we have plenty of choice in terms of sending digits from one place to another. Not all of these are entirely trivial to set up, though, and they aren’t all bit-perfect either: Bluetooth, for a start, so far only supports transmission of lossily coded data.
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Outboard DACs
TEAC UD-H01 - £300
Ed Selley  |  Jan 09, 2012  |  0 comments
Reference mini TEAC’s latest ‘Reference Series’ DAC is more than just a pretty box, says Richard Black, it’s also a ‘star’ performer TEAC has long managed to bridge the gap between mass-market and audiophile. Its mass-market products are exactly that (good, but mass-market), but its more refined offerings are often found in some of the fi nest systems. It may be guilty of over-using the word ‘reference’ in connection with hi-fi products, but the latest additions to the compact Reference range really do look as if they mean business, especially this new DAC. Hi-res Tenor The floodgates are well and truly open as regards hi-res USB DACs, so it’s no surprise that TEAC brings its expertise to the market.
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Integrated Amplifiers
Canor TP106VR+ - £3,950
Ed Selley  |  Jan 09, 2012  |  0 comments
Heavy metal The TP106VR+ is the flagship integrated in a new range of valve products from Slovakian brand Canor. Ed Selley feels the glow Canor is a new arrival in the UK but we have seen some of its handiwork before. The Slovakian based company used to be known as Edgar and its very distinctive wood fronted electronics featured a few years ago. These products are still available but were rebranded as Canor in 2007 and were joined by a range of more conventionally styled units that use valve topology.
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Loudspeakers
Amphion Argon 1 - £1,179
Ed Selley  |  Dec 23, 2011  |  0 comments
Amphion Argon 1 An unconventional standmount from one of hi-fi’s newer companies, based in Finland Amphion is a relatively young brand, founded in 1998 and brings some interestingly different techniques to the party. The most obvious of these is the large waveguide that surrounds the tweeter and matches the diameter of the bass/mid drive unit. This has several implications. The prime purpose is to control the tweeter’s directivity, presumably to avoid the directivity discontinuity that usually occurs in the transition from bass/mid driver to tweeter.
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Loudspeakers
Dynaudio Excite X16 - £1,020
Ed Selley  |  Dec 23, 2011  |  0 comments
Dynaudio Excite X16 This chunky and solidly built Danish speaker has a larger than average main driver Denmark’s Dynaudio operation is one of relatively few brands to enjoy success in both the professional and domestic hi-fi speaker markets – one often notices Dynaudio speakers furnishing BBC TV studios, for example. However, that’s partly due to the high-power handling conferred by the use of extra-large-diameter voice coils on many of its bass/mid drivers. A feature that doesn’t appear to be a part of this new Excite range, which seems to be more obviously oriented towards the price-sensitive home hi-fi marketplace. The X16 sits one rung above the smallest model in the Excite range, which explains why the speaker is a little larger in both volume and main driver than the group average.
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