LATEST ADDITIONS

Loudspeakers
Triangle Trio - £1, 449
Ed Selley  |  Jul 20, 2010  |  0 comments
Triangle Trio - £1, 449 A touch of French class, both in its tasty cabinetwork and the unusual application of a horn-loaded tweeter The most costly member of our test group, Triangle’s Trio is also one of the largest – and the flashiest too, with its curved cabinetwork, the multi-hued part-external horn-loaded tweeter that protrudes above the top panel, and the shiny flared front port. The Trio is the smallest of three stereo pairs that make up Triangle’s mid-market Genese range, designed to take some of features introduced in the upmarket Magellan models, make them available at lower cost and bridge the gap between the Magellans and the vinyl-covered budget Esprit EX models. A generous-sized two-way standmount, based on a 160-millimetre bass/mid driver, this Trio has much in common with Triangle’s more costly Magellan Duetto SW2 (HFC 317). While the deep front panel is high- gloss black, the rest of the enclosure is attractively finished in a real wood veneer, stained to give a mahogany effect.
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Loudspeakers
Spendor SA1 - £1,295
Ed Selley  |  Jul 20, 2010  |  0 comments
Spendor SA1 - £1,295 The BBC-inspired, relaunched SA1 isn’t cheap, but its loveable presentation won over our blind listening panel Over the years Spendor has introduced a number of small sealed-box sub-miniatures inspired by the BBC LS3/5a. Its first design, christened the SA1 and with a squatter, dumpier shape than a 3/5a, was launched in the mid-1970s. It was highly regarded, even though the company subsequently took out a license to produce the LS3/5a and this new SA1 revives the name, though not the shape of the original. In fact, it’s similar to a 3/5a dimensionally, albeit swapping over width and depth.
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Loudspeakers
MAD My Clapton - £3,999
Ed Selley  |  Jul 20, 2010  |  0 comments
MAD My Clapton - £3,999 Newcomer My Audio Design is no slowhand when it comes to building speakers here in England The names are a giveaway. MAD is an acronym for My Audio Design, while christening this particular speaker My Clapton, is further evidence of designer and principal Tim Jung’s background. The My Clapton loudspeaker is designed and manufactured here in the UK. It’s an unusual speaker in a number of respects, mounting a 200mm coaxial drive unit into a generously proportioned, rather bluff and four-square ported enclosure.
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Awards 2010
Sony Walkman NWZ-A845 - £149
Ed Selley  |  Jul 02, 2010  |  0 comments
Audiophile adventures Sony’s latest Walkman is an impressive personal audio and video player. Adam Hartley thinks it will make a dent in Apple’s digital hegemony You can put Apple’s ownership of the portable music market down to two things: Steve Jobs’ marketing nous and (iPod designer) Jonny Ive’s understanding that most people value convenience and gadgetry above audio quality. So it’s easy to believe that Apple doesn’t give much thought to fidelity. Thankfully, judging by our test of the new Walkman NWZ-A845, Sony thinks differently.
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Network Media Players
QSonix Q105 - £5,000
Ed Selley  |  Jul 02, 2010  |  0 comments
Rip, touch and play Malcolm Steward test runs the Qsonix Q105, a 21st Century music library system for people who have no interest in computers here is a vital question facing any manufacturer of a hard-disk music player. It has nothing to do with what size disks to use or what sort of case to put it in. It is rather more rudimentary, i. e what sort of person is going to buy it? If the answer is the hard-core audiophile, then the manufacturing task is immediately simplified.
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Cables & Accessories
Rives Audio Parc - £2,690
Ed Selley  |  Jul 02, 2010  |  0 comments
Room service Thanks to this innovative room correction device, enjoying studio quality sound in your own home is a lot easier than you think, says Richard Black Novelty is a bit of a moveable feast. A CD player can still have novelty interest if it uses a new DAC chip or a different kind of output circuit. The PARC, though, is something quite unlike any product we’ve reviewed in Hi-Fi Choice before. It’s a room correction unit, and it’s true we’ve seen the odd one or two of these, but it works in a very different way from any other we’re aware of.
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Awards 2010
Naim CD5 XS - £1,790
Ed Selley  |  Jul 02, 2010  |  0 comments
Entry-level excellence Naim regards the CD5 XS as an entry-level player. But as Malcolm Steward discovered, its performance tells a completely different story The Naim XS series, which includes the CD5 XS, is more than just a simple evolution of the previous X series models. Each component is said to have been engineered to work harmoniously with the rest of the range and providing significantly enhanced overall system performance. Naim also regards the XS range as a superb introduction to its Reference series models by offering what it says is genuine high-end performance at an affordable price level.
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Phono Preamplifiers
Linn Uphorik - £1,850
Ed Selley  |  Jul 02, 2010  |  0 comments
Bright and beautiful In this exclusive review Jimmy Hughes looks at Linn's new 'universal' phono stage and discovers a must-have tool for LP lovers It goes without saying that Linn’s Uphorik phono stage will have plenty of appeal to serious vinyl enthusiasts: those lucky individuals with a top class turntable, arm and cartridge, who are intent on making their precious collection of LPs sound as good as is humanly possible. Yet, the Uphorik will also appeal to record fans in general, proving once and for all that the vinyl LP is still very much alive and kicking in 2010. Which is pretty impressive news, given that its rival, the compact disc is fast approaching its 30th birthday. More importantly, vinyl is becoming increasingly popular among younger hi-fi enthusiasts born long after its heyday - see our feature on p84.
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All-In-One Systems
Consonance Forbidden City Ping - £1,495
Ed Selley  |  Jun 20, 2010  |  0 comments
Consonance Forbidden City Ping - £1,495 It looks like a chunky amplifier with a CD and radio added on, but the Ping has plenty of bang for your buck Out of all the systems in this group, this is the one that most resembles an amplifier with added bits. Mostly that’s because it’s quite powerful and, therefore, has the real estate that’s associated with powerful amps (big transformer, reservoir capacitors and heatsinks), but it’s even bigger than it strictly needed to be and is really quite imposing. The front panel layout can be annoying, though – all those little squares prevent one taking in the button labels in a hurry! Features are minimal, but there is a USB input. Although it’s an A-type socket, which would normally be for a USB stick or similar, it’s actually intended for use as a DAC fed from a computer – you’ll need an A-to-A USB cable, but one is provided with the Ping.
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All-In-One Systems
Harman/Kardon MAS110 - £650
Ed Selley  |  Jun 20, 2010  |  0 comments
Harman/Kardon MAS110 - £650 These futuristic black boxes look and sound the money, but don’t be hoodwinked by their lively style At an attractive price (including loudspeakers, which we didn’t include in the review though a brief listen suggests they’re decent), this little system looks rather futuristic, with its shiny black finish unspoiled by buttons or other such fripperies. It shows fingerprints, but a quick wipe sees things right. Although quite a lot of functions are in fact banished to the remote, including source selection, the front panel of the CD player does at least have transport controls, touch-sensitive ‘buttons’ which light up when power is applied, while the amp has a volume control. Actually the ‘CD player’ is also the preamp part, but no, you can’t mix and match the parts as they share a power supply and the only input to the amp is via the multi-way lead.
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