LATEST ADDITIONS

Loudspeakers
Tannoy Revolution DC6T- £800
Ed Selley  |  Jun 16, 2011  |  0 comments
Join the Revolution This brand new member of the Revolution series looks like much better value than its Signature equivalent says Paul Messenger The Revolution DC6T is an impressive newcomer dual-concentric full- range driver, with a 150mm bass-only unit (similar in specs to its sister product, the Signature DC6T, that we reviewed in HFC 314). All this is contained within a compact 30-litre, rear-ported enclosure and the detailing throughout is excellent. The enclosure is tapered so that the back is significantly narrower than the front, helping to spread and distribute internal reflections and standing waves. All this is elegantly wrapped in an attractive dark ‘espresso’ real wood veneer and the overall stability of this model is substantially enhanced by the provision of a black plinth, which significantly increases the footprint.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Funk Firm Vector 3 - £1,800
Ed Selley  |  May 31, 2011  |  0 comments
Funk Firm Vector 3 Funk Firm’s Arthur Khoubessarian has broken the mould once again with the Vector 3, his latest non-resonant turntable The Funk Vector is based on a very simple chassis made into a curvy shape and with a DC motor controlled electronically – fine control for each speed is available via a small screwdriver adjustment just behind the speed switch. The ‘Vector’ part of the name refers to the Vector drive system, which uses two small idler pulleys in the belt path, in addition to the motor. The idea is to balance out the sideways pull from the belt so that the platter is less inclined to ‘precess’ around the spindle. A flat belt is used, which in principle should be more stable than a round-section belt, though the one on our review sample showed some tendency to twist.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Pro-Ject Xperience 2 Pack - £775
Ed Selley  |  May 31, 2011  |  0 comments
Pro-Ject Xperience 2 Pack Brand new acrylic turntable combines Pro-Ject’s impressive credentials with a top-quality hi-fi performance Acrylic is not actually the perfect material for turntables, but it’s a good one. It is reasonably stable dimensionally, not very resonant, quite tough and, of course, capable of being polished to a very high standard of finish. In this case, it is supported on three very slightly compliant feet, adjustable to set the deck level, which are the only suspension in the design. Across to the left is the motor, a low-voltage AC type which is fed from a simple wall wart supply and which drives the outside of the platter via a square- section belt.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Rega P7 - £1,325
Ed Selley  |  May 31, 2011  |  0 comments
Rega P7 Rega’s P7 has some impressive aesthetics, but the blind-listening panel are divided over its sound quality In so many respects this is a classic Rega, but it actually shares very few components with the famous old Planar models. It has an AC motor mounted directly behind the bearing, but it’s a low-voltage motor powered from an external generator, which also allows electronic speed switching. It has a short belt drive to the subplatter, but there is actually a pair of round-section belts and the sub-platter is metal. There’s a hard, rigid platter with a felt mat, but instead of the original glass this one is made of ceramic, complete with Michell-style underslung weights around the periphery.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Scheu Analog Cello - £1,595
Ed Selley  |  May 31, 2011  |  0 comments
Scheu Analog Cello A new contender on the UK hi-fi scene, this German-made turntable boasts a respectable track record Aalthough a relative newcomer to the UK, Scheu has been in business since the late 1980s. This makes it one of a number of turntable manufacturers who started up their business just as the LP was allegedly in its death throes. Perhaps, for that reason, the company’s range is not vast, (there are only four turntables and three arms available), but distinctly exotic-looking in design. The Cello (including a Jelco SA-250 arm) is a rectangular slab of acrylic with three feet, an arm mount and a bearing.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Townshend Audio Rock 7 - £3,300
Ed Selley  |  May 31, 2011  |  0 comments
Townshend Audio Rock 7 Townshend Audio's unique damping trough introduces a whole new approach to turntable performance The Rock range of turntables has invariably been distinguished by the front-end damping trough, developed as a result of research at Cranfield Institute of Technology and commercialised by Townshend in the 1980s. In many ways it’s a very different turntable from the old ‘Elite Rock’ that made the brand famous. Construction is based on 6mm steel plate, with the main chassis cut out in a pleasingly curvy shape – which accommodates the huge main bearing, the arm mounting and the three bellows suspension feet. These are a development of another long-standing Townshend idea and consist of a spring inside a rubber bellows with a small air leak.
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Outboard DACs
Antelope Audio Zodiac Plus - £1,895
Ed Selley  |  May 24, 2011  |  0 comments
Star qualities This new compact DAC/preamp from 'prosumer' digital clocking expert Antelope is better equipped than anything else says Jason Kennedy Antelope Audio is putting Bulgaria on the hi-fi audio map with a new cutting-edge DAC/preamp built for the Pro World. The Zodiac Plus is an innovative compact cube that has digital, analogue and USB inputs, a volume control on the outside and a 24-bit/192kHz convertor inside. But what separates it from the pack is the company’s expertise in digital clocking. Antelope’s Pro heritage also shows in the dual headphone sockets on the front panel and the full range of XLR sockets on the back.
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Integrated Amplifiers
Consonance Cyber 10 Signature - £1,595
Ed Selley  |  May 17, 2011  |  0 comments
High-end challenger Despite just an 11-watt output this gorgeous, retro integrated tube amp is easy to love says our very own ‘golden ears’ Jimmy Hughes How much power is necessary for most kinds of music given an average-sized room? Well, the Consonance Cyber 10 Signature offers just 11 watts RMS at 1kHz, with harmonic distortion rated at about one per cent at seven watts. Frequency response goes from 6Hz to 60kHz (-3dB) at eight watts output and a signal to noise ratio of 87dB is claimed. Input sensitivity is 180mV. These are certainly decent figures, although distortion levels are higher than a typical solid-state design.
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Cables & Accessories
Colorfly C4 Pro - £549
Ed Selley  |  May 17, 2011  |  0 comments
Portable perfection Richard Black discovers an exciting and unique proposition – a high-resolution portable player/recorder with upsampling and a built-in DAC Including, but by no means limited to, the various iPod models, there are currently dozens of portable music players out there – hundreds if you include mobile phones, most of which have some kind of music-playing capability. Many of them give very decent results, but they’re not really Hi-Fi with capital letters: commodity consumer electronics, more like. True audiophile The Colorfly is something a bit different. It’s a portable music player all right, but it’s aimed fair and square at the true audiophile, the individual who owns a carefully selected system of high-quality components and a decent library of recordings.
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Loudspeakers
Dynaudio DM3/7 - £1,300
Ed Selley  |  May 17, 2011  |  0 comments
Fine Dyning Danish-made with in-house drive units, the DM3/7 is one of a dying breed of well-priced 'homemade' speakers says Paul Messenger One of several ranges from this upmarket speaker brand, the ‘plain-Jane’ DM-series loudspeakers are primarily intended to combine Dynaudio’s core technologies within cost-effective suits of clothes. The DM3/7 is certainly no exception, being a straight two-way that combines two 170mm bass/mid drivers operating in parallel and a 28mm doped fabric dome tweeter inside a decidedly plain and understated enclosure. But while the DM3/7 won’t stand out in any fashion parade, it does look neat enough in its own understated way and also incorporates much of the fundamental engineering content found in the company’s more costly models. The DM3/7 is actually the latest of a DM-series that currently comprises three stereo pairs and a centre-front AV model.
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