News

It’s just over 12 months since we looked at luxury headphones in a Group Test, but the market has grown so rapidly in the past year that we felt it was time to revisit this increasingly popular sector once again to compare six of the most significant home-use designs that are grabbing the headlines today. The rise of the once humble headphone has been well documented in these pages, and has been fuelled partly by a passion for music on the move and fashionistas wearing trendsetting cans. But there are several other reasons closer to home for the expanding headphone market, that has seen it reach audio fans who are turning to a pair of quality ear speakers as their transducer of choice. In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need headphones for home listening at all.

Atlas Cables has announced the release of its new updated Ascent Ultra interconnect and Ascent XLR cable. Hand-built at its factory in Kilmarnock, the Ascent Ultra uses a fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), which is extruded around the bare OCC copper conductors. This process, says Atlas, allows the required geometry of the conductor within the dielectric to be maintained and offers greater manufacturing consistency and wider bandwidth. The Ultra Plug has a claimed 57 percent reduction in mass over its predecessor and includes solder-free construction, self-cleaning insertion and material consistency that helps, says Atlas, to deliver the best fidelity.

Originally conceived 17 years ago as a cost-no-object nearfield monitor for use in recording studios and broadcast vehicles, Leema Acoustics’ Xen loudspeaker was the result of a research project to squeeze a BBC-graded monitor into a small standmount cabinet that quickly found favour with music lovers. Unlike the original Xen, which was never designed for domestic use, the new Xen 2 offers a host of improvements over its professional predecessor. With a front baffle that’s the size of an A5 paperback book, the new Xen 2 is ultra compact and boastsa claimed frequency responseof 57Hz-25kHz and an output of between 60W and 150W. It benefits from two bass reflex ports, which extend into the cabinet then fold down behind the bass driver – each measuring 260mm.

Following in the footsteps of high-end tonearms like the Nima, Tabriz and Artemiz, Roksan's latest tonearm the Pug is based around a large, yet light and rigid 22mm diameter carbon fibre arm tube, combined with black chromed anodised aluminium. Users can choose between two adjustable counterweights (depending on the weight and tracking force of the cartridge) to get the perfect balance, while the anti-skate mechanism is the familiar ‘weight and thread’ option. The internal wiring is from Cardas, and Roksan tells us that it was chosen specifically for its speed maintenance and ability to retrieve micro-details. The manufacturer describes the Pug’s sonic performance as being fast and airy with a highly refined level of detail.

Quad has unveiled details of its latest speaker range, the S Series. Consisting of five new models (two floorstanders, two standmounts and a centre for home cinema use), the S Series features advanced Kevlar-coned mid/bass drivers and a specially designed ribbon tweeter to supply what Quad describes as “effortless sonic expression to capture all the nuances and passion of the original performance”. The £600 S-1 is a two-way standmount with the new12 x 45mm True Ribbon tweeter, 100mm woven Kevlar midrange and a reflex port. It claims sensitivity of 84dB.

Dynaudio has announced details of its new Contour LE series, consisting of the S 1. 4 LE bookshelf loudspeaker (pictured above) and the S 3. 4LE floorstander. The rigid cabinet design features what Dynaudio describes as a “unique baffle” made up of three layers – including a layer of damping material and a thick metal plate.

Big news has reached us from Roksan concerning the latest addition to its K3 Series – the CD Di, which is acombination of CompactDisc player and digital-to-analogue converter that expands the range to a greater choice of input sources, the manufacturer tells us. We loved Roksan's first set of K3 components, launched earlier this year, when we partnered the CD player with matching integrated amplifier and the combo received a well-earned Editor's Choice back in the April issue (HFC 396). Roksan continues: "The idea behind the CD Di is to provide audio enthusiasts with a high-quality digital source that will not only play an existing CD library to the expected audiophile standard, but willalso host an array of other digital sources as one audiophile 'hub'. By incorporating both CD player and DAC into one box, users can save space by avoiding the need for extra boxes and achieve consistent audio performance across digital platforms.