When it comes to high-end network music players, the smaller specialist audio companies have led the market.

Linn and Naim are perhaps the best-known examples, with Cyrus joining the party somewhat later – the larger mass-market brands have been cautious in this area, and only now are we seeing signs that the whole music-streaming idea may be in some danger of going mainstream.

The two arms of the D+M Group, Denon and Marantz, were a bit ahead of their rivals in this sector of the market, with the former’s DNP-720AE and the Marantz NA7004 each slotting into their manufacturer’s respective ranges. Meanwhile their streaming systems, such as the Marantz M-CR603 – just replaced by the M-CR610 – and the CEOL systems from Denon, offer all in one solutions.

Only now are the likes of Yamaha and Sony joining in the party: though both have had proprietary streaming systems in the past, now they’re conforming to the same industry-wide standards adopted by their rivals.

Those original Denon and Marantz streamers, while popular, have had a somewhat rocky ride in the market: features from the essential – gapless playback – to the fashionable – Spotify, AirPlay and the like – were missing when the products first appeared, and have been added in later updates, while the prices of both units have fallen to a fraction of their launch levels.

The Marantz NA7004, when it first appeared, was around the £700 mark, and can now be had for around £300 without too much Googlage, while the Denon DNP-720AE launched at over £400, but is now around £250. With the latest firmware updates, that makes either pretty much a steal.

However, lurking in the background of the D+M range has been the Marantz NA-11S1, a high-end network music player in the company’s Reference Series line-up, and designed to match the S3 versions of the SA-11 SACD/CD player and PM-11 amplifier.

I describe it as ‘lurking’ because the product first broke cover at the 2012 High End Show in Munich, Germany, alongside the likes of the Consolette all-in-one music system (which also took its time coming to the shops).

That was in May 2012, but by the time we got to that year’s annual D+M dealer conference, held in Valencia, Spain, the word was that, while other Marantz products previewed in Munich were on the way in the following few months, the NA-11S1 was on hold.

Intrigued, and keen to get my hands on a review sample – at £3499, the Marantz looked to have the makings of a serious rival for the rather more expensive Naim NDS/555PS and Linn’s Akurate DSM, one of which I am currently using as a reference, and the other the subject of a recent Gramophone review – I asked why, and got the usual Marantz answer: ‘Oh, you know Ken…’.

New readers start here: Marantz Brand Ambassador Ken Ishiwata (above) is not only the company’s travelling advocate, opening up new markets and giving his celebrated demonstrations worldwide, but also very heavily involved in the tuning of a wide variety of Marantz products.

Frankly, while I wouldn’t mind his air-miles balance, I’m not too sure how he keeps it up: every time I email him to ask a question about a product, it seems he’s in China or some other far-flung place promoting Marantz products or giving interviews. He’s based in Belgium, not too far from the Marantz offices in Eindhoven, Holland, but I’m not too sure how often he sees home!

Anyway, Ishiwata has something of a reputation as an inveterate tweaker, always nagging away at a product in the belief some more can be screwed out of the performance: as someone high up in Marantz said to me when I asked why the very cute Consolette system had taken a while to get to the shops, ‘There came a point when we had to say “Right, that’s it – let’s make it.” If we’d left it to Ken he’d still be tweaking it now’.

When Ken’s not happy…
What soon became clear about the NA-11S1 was that Marantz – and more to the point, Ishiwata – wasn’t happy with the product, and so the decision was taken to hold it back until it could be made more competitive.

It seems that some of the concerns were around functionality, in what is a fast-developing market seemingly, almost as driven by the need to have the latest widget as is the AV receiver arena. And Ishiwata clearly thought work was needed on the sound of the product, too.

As he put it in an email to me: ‘Premature information was given to sales before the design was finalised, and I had been discussing with the engineers in Japan the problems of computer audio, and especially noise.

‘As you are well aware, a computer is just a noise generator from a pure audio point of view! Therefore, we have to take extra care of every connection you have between the network audio player and PC – otherwise you’ll end up having all those nasty noises coming into your audio system!

‘Of course it requires specific technologies and know-how to avoid that interferences from the PC, and I requested certain things in the NA-11S1, but the original design application was simply not the standard we wanted….  NA-11 is our first high-end network player!

‘This meant large changes to be made in the original design, and consequently more time was required…. However, in my opinion, it was the right decision, and the proof is in the product, which has been getting rave reviews all over the world!

‘The funny thing was, before we came up with NA-11S1 our Japanese organisation was saying, ‘Oh, there isn’t a market in Japan, we won’t be able to sell such an expensive network audio player!’

‘When they started, they got the shock of their lives: it immediately became reference in opinion leader’s systems and received amazing reviews, with the end results that now they simply can’t supply enough.’

So there we have it: the Marantz NA-11S1 finally got demonstrated at this year’s Munich High End show, and then again at the 2013 D+M conference in Sorrento, Italy, as part of the company’s 60th anniversary celebrations (about which I have written elsewehere).

What’s immediately strikes one about the product is that it’s as solidly, and slickly, built as the company’s other Reference Series products. Mind you, that’s a sense of quality Marantz also seems able to percolate through to its less expensive products, too: even one of its entry-level amplifiers or CD players has that same feeling of precise, high-quality engineering.

Copper-plating and HDAMs – of course
The NA-11S1 is hefty, too: this ‘no moving parts’ product is still a 14.6kg lump of equipment, complete with signature Marantz design elements such as a substantial copper-plated chassis (above), strengthened with an extra metal plate for increased stiffness, a substantial toroidal transformer shielded in its own copper-plated housing, and the company’s HDAM and HDAM SA2 Hyper-Dynamic Amplifier Modules.

There’s also in-house DSP and digital filtering, used in association with the high-current DSD1792 digital conversion to create Marantz Musical Mastering, which uses a combination of oversampling, noise shaping and dithering to get the purest possible analogue sound.

There are also switchable digital filters available for some more tinkering with the sound if you get bored: the standard setting lets the signal through as is, while the second allows slightly longer post-echo than pre-echo, giving a smoother sound. I have to say the difference were very minor, and in the end I stuck to the first filter position.

Like other Denon/Marantz network products, the NA-11S1 is capable of streaming a wide range of music formats from a computer, NAS drive or whatever, handling content at up to 24-bit/192Khz over a wired Ethernet connection – there’s no Wi-Fi here – as well as having internet radio, support for streaming services such as Last.fm and Spotify, and AirPlay when suitable devices are connected to the network on which it’s sitting.

There’s a remote control in the box, natch, the NA-11S1 can also be driven using the Marantz Remote App, which is available for both iOS and Android devices (or you can just type the player’s IP address into a browser window on a computer on the same network, and get control from your desktop), and outputs are provided on both balanced XLRs and conventional unbalanced phono sockets, as well as optical and coaxial/electrical digital connections.

It’s a DSD DAC, too
However, that’s only half the story: the Marantz is also a high-quality DAC, with the usual digital inputs plus asynchronous USB. And it’s through the USB input that it can handle music files up to and including ‘double speed’ DSD5.6, the higher-resolution version of the original DSD2.8 format used for Super Audio CD.

Getting the Marantz optimised for those DSD files was another reason its launch was held back: there may be a relatively small library of DSD recordings out there – from the likes of Norway’s 2L, Channel Classics and Blue Coast Records, as well as e-Onkyo in Japan – but it’s growing, and Ishiwata is also an advocate of upconverting existing CD-quality files to the DSD format in the computer, and then playing them back through a DSD DAC such as the NA-11S1.

Why so? Ishiwata says his enthusiasm for DSD ‘has nothing to do with the original recording format or quality – it’s simply due to the fact that the majority of today’s D-to-A converter chips are utilising Delta/Sigma technology.

‘DSD can by-pass certain processing within those D-to-A converter chips, so you ….  get a less processed signal with DSD compared to PCM, which of course will influence the sound quality.’

Playing such files through the NA-11S1 isn’t just a matter of firing up iTunes: dedicated software is needed on the computer to play the tracks. On PCs, Ishiwata recommends JRiver, while for Macs he’d go for Audirvarna, and he also suggests trying Korg’s AudioGate for playing DSD files.

Suitably kitted up on the software front, with Audirvarna and AudioGate already loaded on the MacBook, connected to the Marantz with a 5m run of Chord USB cable, I tried a wide range of source material, from speech internet radio through to DSD files from both 2L and Channel Classics – thanks to both labels for content used in this review.

It sounds very – well, Marantz
It’s easy to hear the hand (and ears) of Ishiwata in the sound of the NA-11S1: the balance is big, rich and powerful, with no shortage of bass extension and slam, making for a real room-pounding ability provided your amp and speakers can do the job, but listen for a while and you start to appreciate just how much information is being delivered, and how well it’s being organised to make effortlessly enjoyable music.

From classical music to lovingly-recorded acoustic jazz, the Marantz is capable of delivering glowing, vibrant instrumental textures while at the same time keeping the music motoring on with a real swing. It isn’t a matter of a series of admirable audio tricks being laid before one to be marvelled at in the manner of a magic show – rather the NA-11S1 does all the clever stuff, but employs it to make you concentrate more fully on the performance, not the hi-fi.

The smallest nuances are clearly delivered, and yet the player has all the power required to crash out big orchestral climaxes or motor through rock discs with a real sense of ‘go on, then – turn it up a bit more’.

The leading edges of notes have real attack and impact, decay naturally, and performers occupy a stable position in the soundstage picture – which has its characteristic Marantz three-dimensionality – when the recording requires.

True, I think the NA-11S1 gives away a little to the Naim NDS/555PS combination when it comes to absolute involvement, detail and power, but then it does cost less than a third on the ticket on the British-built player, and have the benefit of that DSD capability.

So, was the NA-11S1 worth the wait? I think so: the Marantz joins a small, very select group of high-end dedicated network music players, and also manages to bridge the gap between what some perceive as a European bias towards streaming over a network and the American preference for ‘Macs and DACs’. The NA-11S1 does both, and does both very well indeed, giving it an appeal for the serious computer music enthusiast way beyond its use in an all-Marantz system.

Marantz NA-11S1
Network music player | £3499

Formats played WMA, MP3, AAC, WAV (to 192kHz), FLAC (to 192kHz), Apple Lossless (to 96KHz), DSD 2.8/5.6 (via USB PC input)
Other audio options Spotify, Last.FM, Apple AirPlay, Internet radio (including podcasts where available)
Audio inputs Optical and coaxial/electrical digital, asynchronous USB (for computer), USB (for memory devices or iOS devices)
Audio outputs Optical/electrical digital, balanced or conventional stereo analogue, headphones
Other connections Remote control in/out, external infrared sensor, Ethernet, RS232
Remote control via handset supplied, Marantz Remote App for iOS/Android, or web browser
Dimensions (WxHxD) 44×12.7×41.7cm
www.marantz.com

From time to time, you have to challenge your preconceptions of what constitutes ‘serious hi-fi’: fortunately, the Peachtree Audio nova125 is everything a ‘normal’ amplifier isn’t

It’s mainly designed for use with digital sources, yet has a valve in its preamp stage; it’s capable of a hefty 125W per channel output, yet comes wrapped – yes, that’s the only suitable word – in a curvaceous sleeve, available in a choice of finishes; and it’s not the most ‘hi-fi’ amplifier in the world, but is a seriously enjoyable listen.

The Peachtree Audio nova125 is just about everything you wouldn’t expect a £1249 integrated stereo amplifier to be: based on the company’s original product, the decco – they’re big on lower-case at Peachtree –, it’s very much designed for the download generation, more likely to be playing music on a smartphone or tablet, computer or network streaming device, rather than via a CD player or even a turntable.

To that end it has just one analogue input, but four digital: asynchronous USB, two electrical/coaxial and one optical. And it’s described by the manufacturer as ‘Four Products in One Chassis:  24/192 Upsampling DAC, 125 Watt per Channel Amp, Hybrid Tube Pre-amp and Headphone Amp’.

Well, if you put it like that, it looks like you’re getting quite a lot for your £1249…

The intentions for the product are pretty clear in Peachtree’s sales pitch: it says ‘When you connect the digital output from a Sonos player, a Squeezebox, an Apple TV or Apple Airport Express you’ll get the full benefit of the quality built into these products. And when you connect your computer to the nova125’s digital USB input – we think you’re going to love what you hear from your music library from compressed music files to high resolution!’

Haul the amplifier out of its substantial box, and it looks a lot more imposing than the pictures suggest, especially in the gloss black of the review sample. It’s almost 37.5cm wide and stands a smidge over 11cm tall, and while that black finish certainly looks classy against the silver of the metal front-panel, you can also have the amp in a choice of rosewood or cherry veneers for £50 extra.

Or you can tell Peachtree you’d like to have it finished to match your eau de nil curtains or taupe wallpaper, and it shall be done – to order, of course.

As if all that wasn’t eye-catching enough, there’s a little window in the simple six-button fascia through which the single valve – a 6N1P – can be seen. It’s used in the preamp stage to add a spot of warmth and smoothness to the sound at the push of a button on the remote, and when in use it’s lit up, just to make the point. Peachtree says it’s there ‘to add a dose of warmth and take the hard edge off compressed audio sources like MP3s’.

Also under the skin here is asynchronous working for the USB input – there’s a driver disc in the box for your computer, though you won’t need it if you’re running a Mac – and upsampling of signals below 24-bit/192kHz to make the most of the ESS Sabre 903 DAC used here. And just to make sure electrical noise doesn’t find its way through to the amplification, there’s galvanic isolation between the digital inputs and the amp stages.

The power amplification itself is from Danish company ICEPower, part of Bang & Olufsen, and is designed to drive speaker loads all the way down to 2ohms, while increasing its nominal 125Wpc (into 8ohms) to 220Wpc when 4ohm speakers are used.

Speaker-friendly
The nova125 is effectively a decco65 – the current version of Peachtree Audio’s debut product – with an enhanced power amplifier section and power supply provision, designed for greater dynamics and detail. That makes it an amplifier designed to drive a wide range of speakers without falling over or showing signs of distress. It’s all part of the user-friendly brief for the nova125: whether you’re thinking a small pair of speakers sitting on your desktop, or a pair of floorstanders to fill a larger room, the Peachtree amp will do the job.

Completing the specification is a headphone section fed directly from the preamp, but still capable of muting the speaker outputs when a jack is inserted in the proper 6.3mm socket on the front panel – no messing around with little 3.5mm micro-jacks here! –, and a pair of preouts to enable the connection of an external power amp or an active subwoofer.

Now, you wouldn’t expect the nova125, for all its semi-retro cuteness, to be a shy violet – after all, the company, which by the way has on its staff an ‘Ambassador of Awesome’, says this about the amp: ‘More power. You want to play your music louder without distortion. You want to feed your power hungry loudspeakers all of the watts they deserve. You want to fill a cavernous room with a throbbing bass line. You need more power. You need the nova125.’

Awesome.

Exciting, but in a good way
Fortunately for all concerned, the amp lives up to its billing: this is one seriously exciting product, but not quite in the usual ‘hi-fi’ exciting way. Rather than a bright, exciting, highly transparent sound, of the kind able to deliver all the sting of a cymbal and all the brain-shredding awfulness of highly-compressed music, the nova125 does the hard-hitting thing, but at the same time keeps things big, rich and deeply impressive, whether with those small desktop speakers or some hefty floorstanders able to make the most of its fast, well-extended bass.

Yes, it’ll do smooth and lush and warm, as you might like for a spot of late night jazz or soul at modest volume levels (hint: kick in the valve stage for the full smoochtastic effect). But when you decide to crank it up and party, it becomes every amplifier you wanted when you were somewhat younger, rumbling out bass-lines while driving the music hard, and with sufficient openness up in the midband and treble to make sure vocals and solo instruments sing out in best ‘can’t help joining in’ style.

And that’s as effective when pumping along through electro tracks as it is when some air-guitar is called for, with the added benefit that when you’ve enjoyed a track so much you want to play it all over again, but LOUDER this time, the nova125 has the muscle to let you do just that. I ran it with my array of ‘usual suspect’ speakers, along with a pair of NEAT Motive SX 1s I’m getting used to for a forthcoming review, and every time the Peachtree made me want to listen more, rather than getting on with the job in hand.

In absolute terms, this isn’t the most ‘hi-fi’ amplifier you can buy for this sort of money, but it is considerably more fun, across a wide range of music styles and file formats, than many a more ‘conventional’ amp at or around its price.

I know which would get my vote…

Written by Andrew Everard

The new headphone amp from Meridian is its most ambitious personal audio product so far, with analogue and digital inputs, processing to get the sound out of your head and the ability to be used as a preamp

And then there were three: on the heels of Meridian’s Explorer DAC/headphone amp and recently-launched Director DAC comes the new Meridian Prime Headphone Amplifier, the company’s most ambitious to date.

With both analogue and digital inputs, and the ability to function as a dedicated headphone amp or even a preamplifier straight into a power amp or active speakers, the Prime will sell for £1200 when it goes on sale in December, with the option of a dedicated Meridian Prime Power Supply (below) at £800 to replace the plugtop PSU supplied as standard.

The Prime Power Supply uses a handbuilt toroidal transformer: a high-mass, low-profile, low magnetic field design. It has an integral magnetic shield, and is mounted on a metal plate to shield electronics from noise. The PPS uses six extremely low noise regulators, and as well as providing 5V 1A power for devices such as the Prime Headphone Amplifier, for which it has a USB pass-through arrangement with a Type B input and Type A output, it also has five 12V 500mA outputs on mini-DIN sockets for other Meridian components, as you can see below.

I haven’t been able to test the Prime with its hotrodded power supply: at the time the review unit of the Headphone Amplifier was delivered, in packaging slightly obviously explained not to be the finished article – plain brown box and lots of foam –, there was only one pre-production Prime Power Supply so far released into the wild, and it hadn’t been released in this direction!

Anyway, back to the Prime Headphone Amplifier, and rather unusually these days, it has only one digital input, on a Mini-USB socket, along with two analogue ins – one on a pair of RCA phono sockets, the other on a 3.5mm stereo socket. Front panel headphone outputs are provided on two 6.3mm sockets and one 3.5mm, so no need for fiddling around with adapters whichever kind of plug is on the end of your cable.

Look past that simple litany of sockets, pausing only to wonder whether the odd S/PDIF connection – on either an electrical or optical connection – might have been handy, and you’ll begin to realise that this isn’t actually a DAC with a built-in headphone amp, but primarily a headphone amp with the added benefit of a DAC able to take audio from a computer.

Mind you, I guess the clue is in the name of the product…

Inside story
Not that this means the digital side of the device is in any way a makeweight – well, you wouldn’t expect it to be, given how deeply steeped Meridian is in all things digital. The USB input is a true asynchronous type, able to handle signals at up to 192kHz sampling rate, and upsample 44.1kHz or 48kHz signals to 88.2 or 96kHz respectively.

It uses high-quality oscillators based on those used in the company’s Reference Series digital products – handy, given that the Prime Headphone Amplifier looks like one of those units in miniature – and has the company’s Meridian Resolution Enhancement, including the proprietary apodizing filter, to increase the quality of the digital signal being fed to the digital-to-analogue conversion.

Used with a USB input, that section of the Prime is powered from the computer; unplug the USB hook-up to use the Prime as a headphone amp with analogue sources, and the entire digital section is shut down to avoid any chance of noise being introduced into the analogue circuitry.

You can also turn off the preamp-level outputs to make the most of the sound through your headphones of choice: press and hold the power button and it turns green as the Prime enters headphone-only mode.

Even the headphone outputs provided are different, and not just in size: although all are active at the same simultaneously, the 3.5mm socket has an impedance of around 2Ω, suitable for most portable-friendly ‘phones, while the two 6.3mm sockets have a much lower impedance of about 3mΩ, which is better suited to high-quality home-use headphones.

Whichever headphone output you use, Meridian’s Analogue Spatial Processing can be switched in if required: it’s designed to give a listening experience more akin to music on speakers. The idea is that, whereas headphones deliver left-channel audio only to the left ear and right to right, when listening to speakers each ear hears sound from both speakers; the ASP system is available in two ‘strengths’ to replicate this effect, and all its processing is done in the analogue domain.

I mentioned the styling of the Prime earlier, and as you might expect from this company, there’s more to it than just looks: the work of Allen Boothroyd (the industrial design counterpart to Meridian’s electronics designer Bob Stuart – the two co-founded the company), the casework is assembled from interlocking dual-skinned extrusions, and is held together without screws, a magnetic release mechanism allowing it to be opened for servicing.

Or at least apparently so: I have to admit I couldn’t fathom out how to get inside it, but then I was always rubbish at Rubik’s Cubes, too!

And the Prime’s tiny, at just 16cm wide: it may draw on technology from the company’s Reference Series, but an 800-series product absolutely dwarfs it!

Even that volume control is unusual, with a flexible coupling linking the knob to the volume potentiometer within, to ensure external vibrations don’t get through to the sensitive audio circuitry.

Question is, how does it sound? Well, I’ve been playing for just over a week now, using the Meridian with a range of headphones including a pair of monster old Sony MDR-CD3000 ‘phones from way back when – they were a rather more affordable version of the MDR-R1, beautifully made but in slightly less exotic materials, and still some of the best-sounding headphones I have ever used –, B&W’s P3s and a pair of Bang & Olufsen BeoPlay H6 Agave Greens.

In each case the Prime made the headphones sound as good as I have ever heard them, including when they were used with the fine headphone stage in the Naim DAC-V1, whether I tried it fed directly from the line-out on my Naim NDS network player or fed via USB from my MacBook Air.

In fact, to see just how much the Meridian was bringing to the party, I even tried it connected to the line-out on the Fiio X3 portable music player, allowing it to prove not only how good a headphone amplifier it is, but also just how well the little Fiio delivers high-resolution music when it’s not being asked to work hard to drive your headphones.

Analogue Spatial Processing
The Analogue Spatial Processing? We-e-e-ell… I can hear what it’s trying to do, and yes it definitely makes a difference when switched in, reducing that slightly claustrophobic sensation one can get with some headphones in its first position, and giving a very open and spacious sound at its second setting.

However, the effect varies fairly wildly between recordings, and what can sound rather appealing with one album can get a bit too weird and phasey with another – or in some cases from one track on an album to another –, especially in using the ‘ii’ setting.

My worry is that I’d be constantly switching between the settings while playing music, and would be spending too much time flicking between them to give my full attention to what was being played. No, let’s clarify: I did exactly that, to the point that it was driving me slightly crackers with all the ‘Oh, that’s good – ah, hang on…’.

As a consequence, I’ve left the Prime’s ASP on its ‘i’ position, which is relatively subtle in its effect, for most of the time I’ve spent with the amp to date, only resorting to changing the setting in the odd ‘I wonder what it’ll do to this’ moment.

The simple version is that the Analogue Spatial Processing works best with a really good recording, where it can give a slightly uncanny ‘out of the head’ soundstage seemingly floating in front of you in best ‘Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope’-style.

With poor recordings or streams, such as internet radio, BBC podcasts or even some volume-levelled (for which read compressed) sources such as Spotify, the results are – well, let’s say somewhat less predictable. Things can get get a bit swimmy and unusual inbetween the ears.

What’s in no doubt is that the Prime sounds noticeably different through its headphone outputs when the preamp section is on or off, gaining extra transparency through its headphone outputs when running in headphone-only mode; click it back over to running preouts and headphones in parallel, and there’s just the slightest loss of focus. Which, given how crisp, clean and powerful the Meridian sounds through headphones at its best, is a loss worth avoiding.

However, it does also work very well as a preamplifier when required: I ran it straight into a pair of mono bloc amps and then on to my speakers, and it was remarkably crisp, clean and powerful-sounding whether connected to the computer or to analogue sources.

Buy one, get two free
So we’re really back to the name of the product, and maybe the Meridian Prime Headphone Amplifier’s title isn’t quite as self-explanatory as at first it seems. In fact, this little product is actually a headphone amplifier, an upsampling asynchronous DAC and an analogue preamplifier, and it can do any of those jobs separately, or all at the same time. And whether doing one thing or all three, it performs equally well. Or rather extremely well.

Put like that, what at first might seem to be a rather steep price for this compact little box seems to make perfect sense. After all, you do get quite a lot for your money…

Meridian Prime Headphone Amplifier
£1200
Inputs Asynchronous USB, analogue (on 3.5mm stereo socket and one pair of RCA phonos)
Outputs Headphones (on two 6.3mm and one 3.5mm sockets), preouts
File formats Up to 24-bit/192kHz, with 44.1kHz and 48kHz signals upsampled to 88.2kHz and 96kHz respectively
Power supply Plugtop mains adapter supplied; Meridian Prime Power Supply £800 option
Dimensions (WxHxD) 16x5x18cm (depth includes volume control and sockets)
www.meridian-audio.com

Written by Andrew Everard

While the links to history are obvious, there’s a distinct whiff of ‘I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore’ about the Quad Platinum range.

In my position as Audio Editor of Gramophone, I do occasionally have to disabuse people of a few well-rehearsed myths about the readership.

No, the magazine’s readers didn’t all start with the first issue, back in 1923; no, they don’t all sit in book-lined studies listening to their music dressed tweeds and mustard-yellow waistcoats, a glass of port from a dust-encrusted decanter at their side; and no, while they’re not all listening to high-end set-ups with five-figure price-tags, neither do they all have systems last updated when Quad announced the 33/303 pre/power amplifier combination.

Early adopters
In fact, I’ve always found the Gramophone readers a very long way from the stereotypical Home Counties retired colonels and the like: they – and the magazine – adopted the CD with alacrity, while some of the hi-fi magazines – and manufacturers – were fighting ‘over my dead body’ pro-LP rearguard actions.

More recently, they’ve embraced SACD, and even high-resolution audio, to an extent many would find surprising – but then I recall a survey some years back showing Gramophone readers used the Internet more than those buying magazines more obviously aimed at the ‘yoof’ and ‘tech’ markets.

That finding caused some head-scratching among the romper-suits in charge of the magazines, believe you me, but I guess makes sense when you see how ‘bricks and mortar’ retailing of classical music declined, to be replaced by mail-order operations offering superior deep-catalogue selections long before the online retailing boom kicked in.

In my day-to-day dealings with the readership of the magazine (which to my amazement are now extending toward 15 uninterrupted years), I’ve found many to be just like any other audio enthusiast – only sensible.

They’re passionate about their music, and want to be convinced that any change to their system will bring more enjoyment of their (usually extensive) music libraries. It’s an appealingly no-nonsense approach, and one that informs my monthly selection of products for review in the magazine: I’ll always choose a product likely to become a ‘keeper’ rather than some manifestation of a possibly transitory fad.

For all those myths, I have to admit there remains a strong sense of affinity between the readers of the magazine and that manufacturer I mentioned earlier: Quad. Maybe that’s because the brand has historical link with classical music, not harmed at all by its long-running sponsorship of Gramophone’s annual CD guide (of blessed memory). Maybe it’s that Quad products – from those famous pre-power amplifiers to the legendary electrostatic speakers – were just so well suited to the playback of high-quality recordings. Or perhaps it’s all down to folk-memories of Peter Walker’s famous ‘live vs. recorded’ demonstrations.

Whatever the reasons, the two brands do seem to make a rather good fit. Or maybe it’s just that Quad equipment shares some of the same myths.

I’m just working up a review of a couple of components from Quad’s Platinum range: the DMP CD player/DAC/digital preamp (above) and the Stereo power amplifier. The review will be published in the March issue of the magazine, which goes on sale next month, but having had the system delivered in the week before Christmas I’ve had the benefit of spending some more time playing with it than is usually allowed by publishing schedules – and I have to that over the last month, some of my preconceptions have been challenged, too.

You see, I first saw the antecedents of the Platinum range getting on for five years ago, on the IAG stand at the always-enjoyable High End Show in Munich, and to say they were eye-catching for all the wrong reasons is perhaps being generous.

The stack of components looked over-large, over-styled and over-the-top, leading a fellow journalist to suggest that the China-based owners of the brand had finally decided to bling up the brand and make a grab for a chunk of the status-symbol-led emerging ‘BRIC’ markets – Brazil, Russia, India and China –, with their newly-affluent middle classes.

Time moved on, and various styling iterations of the products appeared at various shows until they kind of dropped of my personal radar, until a chance conversation had me wondering ‘whatever happened to…?’, Curiosity got the better of me, and so review samples were ordered up.

As 2013 rolled into this year, the financial commentators were telling us that the MINTs (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey) were the new BRICs, and that the previous prediction of the rise of the CIVETs (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt and Turkey) may have been wide of the mark.

Silver on black
The UK’s big luxury car-makers – OK, German- and Indian-owned, but they manufacture here – were reporting huge success for top models in export markets, and planning to take on extra staff, and a delivery man was standing on my doorstep admiring the silver-printed black boxes he’d just put down and asking what was in them. That’s a first – a lot of exotic stuff comes and goes, and usually with no more than a ‘Sign here. Surname?’.

Unboxing the Platinums revealed another surprise, and something you just don’t get from the pictures of the products: far from being huge, they’re actually narrower than the industry norm – 36cm wide plays the more usual 43cm or so – and thus surprisingly compact.

Yes, the somewhat forthright styling, with the detailing on the front panels reminding me of some of those deco-inspired high-end Musical Fidelity products of the past, won’t be to all tastes, but the products look and feel built exceptionally well, and to my eyes are more appealing in the metal than on the page or screen.

So, what have we got here then? Well, the two units sell for £2500 apiece, placing them at a suitable distance from the products in Quad’s Elite line-up: equivalent models in that range are about half the price. In addition to its high-quality CD transport, heavily engineered for smoothness of operation and longevity, the DMP has six digital inputs – two RCA electrical, three Toslink optical and one USB Type-B –, plus digital outputs on BNC, RCA, Toslink and AES/EBU connections, along with a choice of analogue outs on balanced XLRs or conventional RCA phonos.

The outputs can be set to fixed level, allowing the DMP to be used with conventional preamplifiers, or variable for connection straight into a power amp, and the whole thing is controlled by a hefty metal-shelled remote handset, complete with an integral stand.

The power amp in question here is the Platinum Stereo, only slightly boxy in its dimensions in the manner of past Quad amplifiers, and capable of 140W per channel, using what Quad describes as ‘a large number of output transistors, each one driven from its own driver transistor to maximise linearity.

‘This unusual output section enables virtually flat output impedance to be presented to the loudspeaker across the frequency domain, leading to a more natural dynamic performance throughout the audio spectrum,’ while ‘direct coupling of each stage is enabled by the use of a DC servo – a circuit that compensates for any unwanted DC voltage and removes it without affecting the music signal’.

One thing that’s certain when any piece of equipment spends more than a few days around these parts is that it gets worked hard. Working at home as I do, I have at least one audio system running from around 7am until at least 10pm, and for the past few weeks the Quad player and power amp has been the main system in use in the house.

That means it’s done everything from providing all-day radio and playing network-stored music via a USB connection from a computer, to playing CDs and even carrying TV sound via one of those digital inputs. In other words, it’s been used just as it would in the real world, except probably much more intensively.

The same – but different
And while extensive use has revealed the sound conforms to the commonly-held view of how Quad equipment sound – the combination’s presentation is big and rich, with no nasty hard edges to the treble, making it a remarkably easy-going listen – it’s also able to punch harder than mythology would have you expect, and drive a wide range of music to exciting effect.

In fact, there’s nothing slow or overlush at all going on here, but instead a superbly detailed, vibrant and involving sound whether playing CDs or decent-quality content fed in through that USB input.

Indeed, I’d go so far as to suggest that, while the CD-playing section of the DMP is very good, the star turn here is the digital-to-analogue conversing, offering upsampling to 24-bit/192kHz and a choice of digital filter settings offering slow or fast roll-off.

Using my usual MacBook Air computer connected to the Quad, and using Audirvarna and Amarra players, the Quad proves capable of quite remarkable scale and detail, whether with classical downloads or well-recorded rock or jazz ripped from CD. Set-up is a breeze – the DMP is plug and play with Macs, but needs drivers for Windows computers. These, along with installation instructions, are provided with the unit.

Yes, it sounds far from impressive when used with low-bitrate content or just fed from a computer playing music via iTunes, which sounds bleached and uninteresting even with lossless or uncompressed content.

Use higher-quality player software, however, and the DMP is fully able to do what it does: the upsampling seems to contribute to clean, precise sound, and while that switchable digital filter gives you a choice of smoother or sharper, it’s selectable from the remote handset, so which position to use is really down to personal choice, and either position retains the essential attractive qualities of the player/DAC.

What’s really deceptive about the Quad combination is that it makes everything it does seem so easy: recordings are opened up and made compelling, and yet require very little effort from the listener. Yes, the Quads will do the ‘lean forward’ thing, rewarding close attention with superb insight into a good recording, but they’re just as impressive in ‘lean back’ listening mode, when you relax into the music – any music – and just let them do their thing.

The power amp is also a gem: it has excellent grip and control, ensuring speakers connected to it sound taut and focused, and play rhythms cleanly and crisply without any sense of smear or lack of dynamics. That’s effective for all kinds of classical music, and serves jazz very well, as you might expect – but what it also does is make rock, pop and dance tracks really thunder and growl out of the speakers. Which is nice.

Way beyond ‘exciting’
Even better is that the Quad combination will go seriously loud – way beyond usual ‘exciting’ levels and well into air guitar territory – without the slightest sign of stress or strain. The Stereo power amp feels like it has limitless reserves of power, and most speakers will start showing signs of reaching their mechanical limits before the amp is getting anywhere near running out of puff, which I assume it will do eventually – I chickened it when the levels were still going up, out of respect for my hearing.

Yes, that loud, and still clean as a whistle: this is an amplifier fully able to rock out when required, and do so with real verve and conviction.

The Platinum is a deeply impressive power amp, lacking the sheer bulk of the archetypal US muscle-amp, but still with plenty to give from its compact enclosure. Meanwhile the Platinum DMP is far from unique – and may seem slight overkill if you already have a decent disc player and really only want a high-quality DAC/digital preamp –, but there’s no denying the appeal of the two units used together as a system.

This is a Quad player and amplifier capable of serious snarl and grunt, and able to play the grittiest of tracks without misting them over with a mask of refinement, and a Quad amp able to drive as hard as most of us would ever want, and for as long as we could desire, while still seeming to be well within its limits.

For those with the ‘tweeds and mustard waistcoat’ view of the brand and its users, such qualities will seem completely out of character, but for a brand seeking to widen its appeal, such qualities are highly desirable.

And that’s the really clever trick this player/amp combination pulls off: the kind of velvet glove balance and control likely to please those with a stereotypical view of the Quad sound, while at the same time keeping hidden up its sleeve a few dodgy tattoos as evidence that it knows how to look after itself in a fight.

That’s come as a real revelation during the time I’ve spent with the DMP/Stereo, and is what makes this combination so much more than just a simple exercise in taking the brand upmarket.

Quad Platinum DMP
Digital Media Player (CD player/DAC/digital preamp) | £2500
Disc formats played CD, CD-R/RW, MP3, WMA
Digital inputs USB Type-B, two coaxial/electrical SPDIF, three optical SPDIF
Digital outputs Optical, coaxial, BNC and EAS/EBU
Analogue outputs Stereo, on balanced XLRs and two sets of RCA phonos, fixed or variable level
Other connections 12V trigger, Quad System-link
Accessories supplied Remote handset, USB cable, Quad XU1 Audio Driver disc for Windows computers
Dimensions (WxHxD) 38x10x31.5cm

Quad Platinum Stereo
Stereo power amplifier | £2500
Power output 2x140W into 8ohms
Inputs Stereo RCA phonos and balanced XLRs
Outputs 2prs combination speaker terminals per channel
Other connections 12V trigger
Dimensions (WxHxD) 38×13.5x41cm
www.quad-hifi.co.uk

Written by Andrew Everard

…And here’s what happens when mainstream hi-fi players start taking desktop audio seriously

Until recently, the whole world of desktop audio wasn’t something troubling the big names of mainstream audio unduly. True, everyone from high-end companies to accessory specialists and even all-but-unknown start-ups had already gone down the route of providing digital-to-analogue converter bridges between computer and hi-fi systems, but it’s only recently that we’ve seen some of the best-known names joining in.

Sony has added a high-resolution-capable DAC to its range in the form of the £500ish UDA-1, which combines a USB DAC and an amplifier to make a ‘just add computer and speakers’ system (although at the time of writing it’s awaiting the completion of drivers for Mac computers, perhaps as a legacy of the company’s Vaio-making days).

TEAC also has some rather good ‘desktop DACs’ in its range, in the form of the £400 UD-H01 and the £700 UD-501, the latter part of its latest ‘modern retro’-styled range, and capable of handling content up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM or DSD 5.6MHz, not that such file formats sound any better than CDs or decent MP3 files, if you believe all you read online. Yeah, sure…

The latest arrival in this arena is Denon’s DA-300USB, which – as the model designation suggests – is a USB-connectable DAC, and undercuts those rivals with a very competitive £329 price-tag.

The format is pretty familiar, in that the DA-300USB is packaged in a compact enclosure – it’s just 17cm square and 5.5cm tall – also able to be used standing vertically (with a clip-on stand provided in the box) to reduce the amount of desktop space it occupies, while a clever switch to adjust the orientation of the organic electroluminscent display when so used adds a touch of class.

It has a bit-transparent asynchronous USB input able to accept content at up to 24-bit/192kHz as well as DSD 2.8MHz and 5.6Mhz, which it handles using DoP (DSD Audio over PCM frames) – you can read more about this standard by downloading this document.

The USB input’s interface ground circuit is isolated from the converter’s audio section to exclude noise from computers.

Alongside the USB Type-B connection are the usual suspects when it comes to digital inputtery – one coax/electrical and a brace of opticals, all capable of handling up to 24/192 files –, a high-quality headphone stage with its own volume control and a pair of fixed-level analogue outputs.

That last point is a bit of a pain – I mean, I can see that Denon intends this unit to be used with its own amplifiers, receivers or mini-systems, but a variable-level analogue output would open up the DA-300USB for use straight into a power amplifier or even with active loudspeakers.

Yes, you can control the level from your computer when using the USB input, but you’re a bit stymied when using S/PDIF inputs unless you’re going into an amp with its own volume control.

As it was, I tried the Denon with my own amplification and systems, as well as with a rather fine pair of active speakers (review coming soon) complete with their own volume controls, which required some juggling of levels but delivered an impressive taste of what could have been.

I guess the alternative would be to consider an external volume control/passive preamp of the kind available from studio suppliers from about £20 and upwards (or making one’s own), but then that would involve an extra box on the desk and more cables. Missed opportunity, Denon…

Anyhoo, under the lid the DA-300USB uses Denon’s proprietary Advanced AL32 Processing, designed to ‘enhance the reproducibility of weak signals by expanding 16-bit digital data to 32-bit’, feeding 32-bit/192kHz-comaptible digital-to-analogue conversion. Independent master clock crystals for 44.1kHz and 48kHz are used to ensure incoming signals are clocked accurately at any sample frequency.

The AL32 system has been refined by the company over many years, and found in its high-end players and DACs, such as the £1500 DCD-2020E SACD/CD machine. It’s a fine example of how technology trickles down the range (or is the modern term ‘cascades’?).

Completing the package is an external plug-top power supply, while the DAC itself has a switchable auto-standby function.

In use, the Denon delivers what can safely be described – and I choose my words carefully there – as a very Denon sound. It’s not the most hard-hitting or exciting presentation of music, and there’s no shortage of rivals out there with more bite, harder edges and the ability to sound more savage when grungier music and recordings require.

However, the DA-300USB never sounds dull or uninteresting; rather the balance here keeps things smooth, controlled and assured, while still revealing plenty of detail in fine recordings and giving a very mature listen.

I tried the DAC both connected via USB from my Mac Mini and MacBook Air computers and (just to check functionality) on the end of a little Asus netbook loaded with the appropriate drivers, while ‘conventional’ sources included a Cambridge Audio Blu-ray player, Sony’s HAP-Z1ES hard disk player and a variety of network music playing devices, and in each case the same surefooted, confident sound was in evidence.

What this DAC does is bring out the fine detail in high-quality recordings – those subtly audible cues so informative about the studio or location acoustic, the position of the performers within it and so on – while at the same time flattering the rougher stuff with the warmth and generosity of its presentation.

Top-notch DSD recordings sound superb, with a fine sense of presence and timbral detail, while at the same even low-bitrate compressed music files or Internet radio streams sound perfectly listenable, even though there’s never any doubt about the underlying lack of information on offer.

If your choice of music means you listen to some little internet radio station broadcasting from who knows where at 64kbps, you won’t find anything else at this kind of price level so able to render it listenable, rather than exposing its deficiencies to the point where you really don’t think it’s worth the effort.

That’s the clever part of the Denon’s sound: that it manages to deliver this smoothing warmth with low-quality content, but kick down a gear or two and play hard when music at CD quality or better is on offer.

This is a rather accomplished piece of equipment for the money, whether you’re looking to improve the sound of music on your computer by feeding it through a hi-fi system, refresh an old CD player, or get better sound when playing music on a DVD or Blu-ray player.

Oh, and there’s another string to the Denon’s bow: it’s an excellent headphone amplifier. Tested with a high-quality pair of ‘phones – in this case Bang & Olufsen’s fine-sounding and extremely comfortable BeoPlay H6 model – the DA-300USB proves its ability in this respect with a rich, clean and powerful bass, smooth, natural midband and an open, informative treble.

The headphone provision here is far from being a makeweight, to the point that it would actually be worth buying the Denon DAC even if all you ever wanted to use it for was as a headphone amplifier, making the line-level capability the icing on the cake, rather than the cake itself.

So, Denon’s first foray into the affordable desktop DAC market is a very impressive one, combining value for money with flexibility in a sleek, beautifully built package. Could one really ask for much more?

Denon DA-300USB
USB DAC | £329
Inputs Asynchronous USB, one electrical/coaxial and two optical digital
Outputs Fixed-level line on RCA phonos, headphone on 6.3mm socket with volume control
DAC 32-bit/192kHz with Advanced AL32 Processing
File formats Up to 24-bit/192kHz on all inputs, plus DSD 2.8MHz/5.5MHz via USB
Accessories supplied Power supply, stand for vertical use
Dimensions (WxHxD) 17×5.7×18.2cm (including knob and terminals, horizontal), 11.4×17.5×18.2cm (vertical, with stand)
www.denon.co.uk

Written by Andrew Everard

Fine-sounding converter is now even better value with DSD capability

DSD: it’s a contentious subject among those interested in all things high-resolution.

I’ve been subject to some quite scathing comments from some keyboard warriors for suggesting anyone should buy products not supporting DSD, which they see as the way, truth and light; others, meanwhile, see the format originally adopted for Super Audio CD as a red herring, sure to spread confusion if the mass-market is ever to be tempted beyond MP3 and into downloading and playing music at CD quality and beyond.

I can see both sides of the argument: while on one hand I’m in agreement that a whole raft of new formats, some of which can only be played via certain pieces of equipment, is likely to confuse the market – after all, why do you think SACD was mainly developed as a hybrid format, with a secondary layer able to be played on standard CD hardware? –, I’m also all for being able to play music in a form as close as possible to the way it was originally recorded and mixed.

And if that means 24-bit/192kHz, 24-bit/384kHz or 2.8MHz/5.6MHz DSD, then so be it – provided, at least, it can be done without strewing the desktop or equipment rack with a mass of boxes, endless plugging and unplugging, and of course having to spend the money for all those boxes.

Free upgrade
For that reason, the latest move by Pro-Ject seems entirely sensible to me: the company has recently launched a free DSD update for its DAC Box DS digital to analogue converter: existing owners of the unit can update it via a download using a Windows PC, while all the units now on sale will come complete with the new software ready-installed, at £299.

I’ve long been a fan of the Pro-Ject/Box Design concept, ever since it moved on from the first arrival – an offboard phono stage for the company’s turntables, which has gone on to sell in the hundreds of thousands – to a complete range of compact hi-fi components, now separated into a number of sub-ranges.

There are digital components from CD players barely bigger than a disc to DACs, iPod docks and even USB/card players through to a range of streamers, while the analogue range extends to integrated amps, preamps, power amps and tuners, plus a tiny receiver just over 10cm wide and 3.6cm tall, but complete with FM tuner and a 2x25W amp built-in.

Of course there are still the phono stages: there are simple models, tube-powered models and versions with USB outputs for recording to a computer, plus the flagship Phono Box RS, a dual-mono design complete with switchable loading and equalisation.

The Box design models are always a feature of the company’s show stands, complete with smart multicoloured wooden sleeves (above), designed to fit four of the little boxes into less than the space occupied by a standard hi-fi component.

But back to the DAC Box DS, which sits in the company’s midrange line-up, above the entry-level DAC Box s and the hideaway DAC Box TV (the latter designed to connect TV sound to a hi-fi amplifier, and in the company’s no-frills black ‘Elemental’ casework) but below the high-end DAC Box RS, which offers a tube output stage, balanced and RCA outputs and an I2S interface for use with the company’s CD Box RS.

The DAC Box DS is in the ‘narrow but tall’ casework of the other DS components, at just over 10cm wide and twice as tall as the smallest S-Line products, at 7.2cm. There’s a prominent blue on black display, selectors for input (coaxial/electrical, Toslink optical and asynchronous USB-B) and filter (‘steep’/’optimal phase’) and an external power supply and – well, that’s about it.

Under the lid it uses TI’s PCM-1792 converter with 8x oversampling, and can handle PCM at up to 192kHz, and – with the update – both 64x DSD and 128x DSD sample rates. Operation couldn’t be much simpler – a 24-bit/192KHz driver for Windows PCs is provided on a disc in the box, but with Macs, and for lesser formats on Windows, the Pro-Ject just works as soon as it’s connected to a computer via the USB socket.

Using the Audirvana player on my Mac Mini desktop, I was able to play everything from Internet radio and MP3 files all the way up to full-whack 5.8MHz DSDs through the Pro-Ject, running its output straight into the Focal Pro CMS 50 desktop monitors via a simple preamp – in this case the Trends Audio PA-10 – and also connecting the DAC via a longer USB cable to my main Naim Supernait 2/PMC system.

And in each case the little DAC Box gave a good account of itself: perhaps it’s a little warm and safe at times when compared with much more expensive DSD-capable DACs, and indeed some non-DSD models designed to handle high-resolution music, but this balance is infinitely preferable than the brittle, slightly ‘trying too hard’ balance exhibited by some DACs at or below this price-level.

The warmth on offer here is never intrusive, and the presence and ambience that’s so much a part of a good DSD recording is largely n evidence, but the bass is just a shade lush and bloomy, whereas others deliver a tighter punch.

Similarly, while it’s appreciated that the DAC Box DS is lacking in any brittleness or treble sting, there is a slight sense of the top end being slightly rounded off, which is probably no bad thing when using the DAC with budget amplification and speakers, but leaves the feeling that the music has a bite more to give with better partnering electronics.

What’s not in doubt is that the Pro-Ject gives an entirely enjoyable listen across a wide range of sources, file formats and genres, from radio drama – it was very impressive with the recent Radio 3 Antony and Cleopatra – through to hi-res music.

Playing the new San Francisco Symphony Mahler Kindertotenlieder in DSD it has a winning combination of drama, orchestral weight and close focus on the singer’s intonation and expression, while it conveys the infectious rhythms of Lake Street Dive’s fab Bad Self Portraits set, a FLAC download from the band’s website, with fine impetus.

Trying the two filters reveals that Filter 1, the ‘steep’ one gives a bit more drive and an impression of more bass, while the ‘optimum phase’ Filter 2 setting is generally a little more open and spacious, making more of the three-dimensional stereo effect on high-quality recordings.

There’s a lot of personal preference and ‘your mileage may vary’ in all this, and I’m not going to make any recommendation that one setting or the other should be adopted as a default; in my listening I often found myself switching back and forth between different recordings and even different tracks on the same album.

Nicely screwed together and with a big, involving sound free from sonic nasties and with much to enjoy, the Pro-Ject DAC Box DS is a fundamentally very good product made even better with the free addition of new capabilities. Whether you’re a DSD fundamentalist or just like your music played well and your options kept open, this is a pretty solid buy.

Pro-Ject DAC Box DS
Digital-to-analogue converter | £299

Inputs Coaxial/electrical and optical digital, asynchronous USB
Outputs Stereo analogue on RCA phonos
DAC Texas Instruments PCM-1792, 8X oversampling
Formats played Up to 24-bit/192kHz (96kHZ max via optical), DSD up to 128x
Finishes Silver, black
Accessories supplied 18V/500mA power supply
Dimensions (WxHxD) 10.3×7.2×14.4cm (16.3cm deep including sockets)
www.project-audio.com
www.box-designs.com
www.henleydesigns.co.uk

Written by Andrew Everard

Free download improves the user-interface immensely, and the £160 digital media player now handles more music formats and plays them better, too

The Fiio X3, the Chinese company’s great-sounding little digital media player, just keeps on getting better.

You may have read my original review of this bargain-priced device back in August last year, and the news that a firmware upgrade had added asynchronous DAC functionality for free, making the X3 even more of a steal at around £160 or so.

Now the manufacturer has launched v3.0 firmware, and while the most obvious change is a slick new graphical interface, available in a choice of ‘themes’ (for which read colours), there’s a lot of new stuff going on ‘under the hood’, too.

For a kick-off, the X3 can now handle DSD 2.8MHz files, adding to its already wide-ranging format compatibility, while support for HE-AAC, MP3 CUE and 32-bit/64-bit/floating point music tracks has also been added.

MP3, WMA, ogg Vorbis and FLAC decoding has been improved, along with the removal of the noise previously occasionally evident on MP3 files, and the gapless playback is even slicker, without even a hint of track changes: the X3 was always good in this respect, but could occasionally have the tiniest hiccup when tracks ran together. Now it’s truly seamless.

Tag support and album art display is now enhanced, library updating is now faster when a loaded microSD card is inserted, with a real-time read-out of how many tracks have been indexed, and track changes are faster as part of an overhaul of the responsiveness of the controls.

There’s also a whole raft of other display changes – not least that big, clear main menu with just six main menu icons, a large onscreen charging indicator in addition to the little LED on the front of the unit and a much improved start-up/shutdown display.

The X3 now looks even more like a real consumer electronics product and not a bit of computer geekery, and that suddenly makes it an even more appealing pocket player, all set to give iPods and iPhones – not to mention the forthcoming PonoPlayer – a run for their money.

I’ve been using the X3 a lot since my initial review. and the more I do so, whether when travelling with some small in-ear headphones from Phonak, via Fiio’s little Mont Blanc E12 portable headphone amplifier, or used as a digital source into my main system – it has both line-out and a coaxial digital output –, the more I appreciate the quality of this player, and the amazing value it offers.

For a while back there, I’d been hankering after the new Fiio X5 player, and even more so after having a play with it at the recent Munich High End Show. Now, with the new firmware installed in the X3 – which must have taken all of a couple of minutes – the cravings are subsiding, and I’m back to enjoying a familiar piece of equipment in a whole new light.

It feels solid, has performed faultlessly for getting on for a year despite being slung into travel bags and dropped a few times, and to these ears sounds so much better than any iThing or other tablet/phone player I have tried.

With its new firmware, the Fiio X3 is even more of a steal, and for less than half of the projected price of a PonoPlayer, sets the bar high for the new digital music devices we’re likely to see this year.

Written by Andrew Everard

Bells, whistles and solid engineering in this all-in-one headphone amp and DAC, plus a smooth, confident sound to make the most of the superb PM-1 ‘phones

Headphone amplifiers are clearly like buses: you wait ages for one, then two come along at once. And so it was, just as I was wrapping up my review of the TEAC HA-P50, that the Oppo HA-1 arrived. And yes, I had been waiting a while for that one to turn up.

I first got to hear the Oppo HA-1 headphone amplifier at the launch event for the company’s PM-1 headphones, which I reviewed some three months ago, and having said in that review that Oppo made things simple for us reviewers by letting us each take a pair of their upmarket cans away with us, it’s taken a few months of cajoling to get the partnering headphone amp home and try it.

That I was keen to do so was something of an understatement: having heard the HA-1 briefly at the launch event, it was clear when I started testing the headphones that, excellent though they sound with a range of amplification driving them, they possibly had more to give when hooked up to the HA-1.

Arguably so they should, given that the headphones are £1099 and the amplifier a further £1199, but then just as the PM-1s are the result of extensive research and development by Oppo’s engineers, so the HA-1 is rather more than just a headphone amplifier, and has been built to sit at the heart of a complete system.

Headphone amp, preamp and DAC
What we have here, in a box about half the width of a conventional hi-fi component, but chunkily put together (as a 5.9kg fighting weight suggests), is a headphone amplifier delivering both conventional output on a ‘full size’ 6.35mm socket and balanced working on a multipin XLR, a preamplifier with both single-ended and balanced inputs and outputs, and a DAC.

And not just any DAC, but one capable of handling content at up to 32-bit/284kHz or DSD256 (that’s at 11.2896MHz, as opposed to the 2.8Mhz and 5.6Mhz supported by other DSD DACs, and which the Oppo also handles), and with digital inputs on AES/EBU and optical/coaxial S/PDIF inputs, as well as asynchronous USB.

It also has a further USB socket on the front panel, which is compatible with iOS devices – iPods, iPads and iPhones – for content at up to 44.1/48kHz, and just to complete things digital also has Bluetooth (with aptX) for use with wireless tablets, smartphones and computers.

The Bluetooth connection can also interface with an Oppo HA-1 control app, available for iOS and Android devicesand operating all major functions of the amp. This is in addition to the high-quality remote control handset supplied with the HA-1.

In addition, the HA-1 even has a home theatre bypass/unity gain function for use in preamp mode, enabling it to be combined with the front-channel preouts of an AV processor or receiver.

The basis of the digital to analogue conversion is the digital audio stage of Oppo’s BDP-105 Blu-ray player, using ESS Technology’s SABRE Reference ES9018 solution, which combines that company’s 32-bit Hyperstream DAC architecture and Time Domain jitter eliminator.

Downstream of that is a Class A fully-balanced output stage, using made-for-Oppo components, while the whole plot is powered by a hefty toroidal transformer.

A choice of displays is available on the large colour panel in the centre of the fascia:  as well as readouts for the likes of input selection, gain adjustment and volume, you can also have information about in which mode and format the amp is working, a ‘spectrum analyser’ (which is essentially pointless, but fun for at least a moment) and a pair of VU meters.

Fortunately you can also dim the display down and turn it off completely!

Too hot to handle?
That’s almost the only practical consideration worth mentioning, apart from the small matter of this being a Class A amplifier, which means it runs hot. Very hot. Almost too hot to touch hot, in fact, but only if you leave it idling – when it’s working, driving headphones, things cool down appreciably.

That’s the way of the world with Class A amps, unfortunately: all that energy’s got to go somewhere, and if it’s not into your lug’oles it’s going to be used to warm your room, which will make for a nice cosy experience on chilly autumn evenings, but was less fun when the mercury was nudging towards 30C.

The HA-1 has been getting a workout of late with USB feeds from my MacBook Air and Mac Mini computers, an iPad Mini via USB and Bluetooth, and the digital outputs of Krell Connect and Naim NDS/555PS network music players. Content has ranged from Internet radio all the way up to DSD5.6 and 24-bit/352.8kHz, and I’ve been using software players including Amarra and Audirvarna on the Macs.

As is usually the way, the HA-1 need no drivers to be used with Apple computers; software drivers are downloadable from the Oppo website for Windows operating systems.

To characterise the sound of the Oppo in one sentence, I’d say it was massively powerful and dynamic, while at the same time rich, warm and relly rather cultured. It makes a fine foil for the remarkably explicit, open and airy HA-1 headphones, which I hooked up to it using the balanced cable Oppo supplied for the review (which was rather short, thus making me aware of the amount of heat the amp was chucking out). 2m and 3m versions of this cable are available to buy as accessories.

The other point worth making about the Oppo system is that it doesn’t suffer fools gladly, in that it’s rather revealing of content at lower bitrates. 320kbps MP3 was just about OK, although noticeably rougher-sounding than via more forgiving amplification/headphone combination, but things were much more acceptable when moving up to uncompressed CD quality, and kept getting better as I moved up to higher-resolution content.

Weight and control
Yes, the Oppo combination sounds rather warmer and more generous in the bass than some hyper-analytical headphone set-ups, but there’s no looseness or lack of control down there – bass-lines are richly developed but at the same time fast and well-controlled, and drums and electric basses have real growl and thunder and drive, as was obvious with some of the prog-rock warhorses I’ve been trawling out of late, not to mention a hi-res version of The Who’s Quadrophenia.

At the same time, the HA-1/PM-1 package does an impressive job with the scale and depth of a full orchestra, delivering double basses and cellos with a real sense of the bite of bow on string, and orchestral percussion with suitable weight and attack. This rich, characterful bass slides effortlessly into a smooth, natural midband and sweet but extended treble to create an overall sound that’s at once highly involving and extremely easy to enjoy.

As I’ve already mentioned, there are other headphones better able to pick over the bones of a recording – for example, the Focal Spirit Professionals, at a fraction of the price of the Oppo package, reveal their studio background by stripping bare every element of whatever you choose to cue up –, but for sheer enjoyment, for that sense of being swept up in the music, in the performance, the HA-1/PM-1 has much going for it.

If all my listening was via headphones, I’m pretty sure I’d have no problem justifying the expense of the Oppo amplifier and headphones, simply because so much of the time I’ve spent listening to them has had me thinking ‘You know what? I could spend a lot of my life listening like this.’

The combination is both intriguing and very seductive: yes, using the HA-1 does change the sound of the PM-1s, adding those undertones of warmth and richness to complement the speed, detail and airiness of the headphones and create an overall impression of weight and dynamic power along with the ‘out of the head’ balance of the ‘phones.

You could easily enjoy the PM-1s without the HA-1 headphone amplifier: I’ve had good results with the likes of the Schiit Magni, the TEAC already mentioned, and the headphone stage built into my Naim Supernait 2 integrated amplifier.

However, as a one-stop solution for audio from a variety of computer-type sources – from desktops and notebooks to handheld devices – as well as more conventional hi-fi players, network streaming devices and even analogue components, the HA-1 has much to commend it, and when used with the PM-1s it does have an obvious synergy, the sound of the two proving extremely attractive, involving and fulfilling.

When I first started listening to the PM-1 headphones I was impressed that Oppo had managed to stake its claim in the luxury audio market with so impressive a design; the arrival of the HA-1 headphone amplifier has done nothing to diminish that admiration.

Oppo HA-1
Headphone amp/preamp/DAC | £1199
Analogue inputs single-ended on RAC phonos, balanced on XLRs
Analogue outputs 6.35mm stereo and balanced XLR for headphones, single-ended on RCA phonos, balanced on XLRs
Digital inputs AES/EBU, coaxial/optical S/PDIF, Type-B asynchronous and Type A iOS-compatible USB, Bluetooth 2.1 wireless with aptX compatibility
Format compatibility 44.1-384kHz, 16-32-bit, plus DSD to 11.2896MHz on USB-B input; 44.1/48kHz 16-bit with iOS devices via USB-A; 44.1-192kHz, 16-24-bit on other digital inputs
Headphone max output power 800mW into 600ohm, 2W into 32ohm (XLR input and balanced output); 200mW/500mW (RCA input/6.35mm output)
Accessories supplied Remote control
Dimensions (WxHxD) 25.4x8x33.3cm
www.oppodigital.co.uk

Written by Andrew Everard

I’ve been following the development of the products chosen by Panasonic to revive one of the best-known names in audio – and they’re nothing if not ambitious

Technics is back.

Speaking at IFA in Berlin today, Michiko Ogawa – former Technics engineer, celebrated jazz pianist and the leader of the Panasonic project to revive the famous name – announced the arrival of two new systems in December, both built around network music streaming and high resolution audio.

And they’re nothing if not ambitious: the Reference R1 system (above), pitched at €40,000 (or about £32,000), comprises the SU-R1 network music player/preamplifier,

the SE-R1 stereo power amplifier (below), and the floorstanding SB-R1 speakers.

Meanwhile the C700 Series, seen at the top of this story, is described as ‘premium class’, and is expected to have a system price  of about a tenth of that of the R1 models: the line-up is the ST-C700 network audio player, the SL-C700 CD player, the SU-C700 integrated amplifier and SB-C700 bookshelf/standmount speakers. This shot shows the network player, amp and speakers in more detail.

The network player, amp and speakers will sell together for €4000, or around £3200.

Here’s a video introducing the return of Technics:

In at an early stage
The Technics comeback has been a closely-guarded secret ever since I was one of a very small group of journalists invited to Osaka last December to hear some work being done on what was described as ‘an exciting new high end audio project’. Would I be interested in going, given that the whole thing was going to be covered by a heavy non-disclosure agreement, and I wouldn’t be able to write anything for nine or ten months after my visit?

Not surprisingly, I accepted, and so at 9am on December 4th last year I found myself in listening room at the Panasonic plant in Kadoma, on the outskirts of Osaka, ready for the first session.

Here, Osamu Okauchi, in charge of audio products, introduced us to what was described as the ‘Next Gen Audio Products Proposal’.

It was explained that during the summer of 2013 there had been big discussions within Panasonic about the right customer profiles and products for a return to the serious audio business, and a project team of 30 people was established.

The objective was summed up in the slogan ‘Rediscover Music’ – which incidentally has carried through all the way to the final launch of the products – and when we were told no decision had yet been made on branding, and that ‘we will decide when the product is more developed’, all eyes instantly flicked to the large Technics logo on the wall of the listening room.

OK, so perhaps it was a hangover from the Technics products of the past, but from there on in, we were referring to the development among ourselves as ‘The T Project’.

But why would Panasonic even consider reviving the Technics brand? After all, as recently as 2008 it dispensed with all the various sub-brands it had been using, including the National brand on which it built much of its business – with everything from lightbulbs and TVs to bicycles, domestic appliances and even lifts – in Japan.

At the same time it even dropped the name of founder Konosuke Matsushita from the corporate masthead, changing its name from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. to Panasonic Corp.

So why the change of thinking? Well, it was explained, at that time it had been decided to centralise the brand around Panasonic, with the company’s flat-panel TVs as the halo product. However,  by mid-2013 the company realised that the TV panel market was ‘saturated, over’, and so new projects, and indeed different brands, were being considered.

Saying that the main target for the new systems was the European market, the engineers then proceeded to play us – well, what, actually? Some of the press group asked that question more than once: the system we were hearing appeared to comprise a network player more ‘Clyde Built’ than ‘Made in Osaka’, a prototype DAC (at a so early a stage of development that the engineers were able to change power supplies and filtering to show us what they were working on), power amplification from another third party plus some more prototypes, and a choice of ‘hot from the workbench’ speakers or B&W 801s.

It was all interesting stuff, allowing an insight into the very early steps of a product, and the engineers spent time switching between the internal digital conversion of the streaming source and their DAC work, from amp to amp, and between their speakers and a pair of KEF LS50s, to which the ‘T’ speakers bore a more than passing resemblance at that stage.

We listened, we switched, with the engineers carefully level-matching (after a bit of pushing from the assembled journalists), we listened again; the engineers looked expectant, but to be frank it soon became a bit confusing what changes were being made.

By the afternoon I think my only useful contribution was that the speaker stands being used were perhaps a bit short, given that we were sitting on office-type chairs: things had been pretty woeful, but got much better if one slumped in the chair (not hard, as jet-lag crept in), or when the speaker stands were finally raised on plinths, transforming the sound as we came back on-axis.

Oh and that if I ever hear Sting’s Englishman in New York again it will be too soon, so many times was it repeated during the session.

Pick an amplifier
We were also shown a range of styling mock-ups for potential new hi-res products, ranging from the fanciful to the retro. While we all oooed and aaahed over the ones looking like scaled down versions of old Technics receivers – all trim and backlit VU meters – I was also taken with an amplifier with the appearance of having been taken to the local custom car outfit and shrink-wrapped in a matt silver foil.

It was explained to me that the smoothly tapered vestigial volume and tone controls and switches would operate purely by touch, so you’d make a turning movement with fingers on the volume ‘knob’, and it would increase or decrease level, and so on…

Would sir like speakers with that?
Fascinating, but probably too odd for some tastes, if not by some distance the most wacky design concept: others ranged from tubular speakers and striking geometric shapes to one reminiscent of Sharp’s high-end digital amp of a few years back, and another dismissed by one of our group as ‘looking too much like an LG lifestyle system’.

The jury was even out on the retroTechnics look, with a discussion briefly flickering as to whether Young People Today associate the brand more with DJ turntables than massive old glow-in-the-dark valve receivers.

Almost six months later…
The next time I met with the Technics engineers was when they visited the UK back at the end of May, as part of a tour of Panasonic’s European offices. The demonstration was held in the subterranean mini-theatre under the Bracknell HQ building, but before that we were given a presentation on progress to date, and how plans for the systems had changed since we’d seen them back in Osaka.

A slight change of plan

Making adjustments in Bracknell, May 2014

Again the demonstrations were inconclusive, not least because the Panasonic room, while set up for home cinema demonstrations with its tiered seating, is hardly ideal for hi-fi listening. But the form of the systems was much closer to the launch set-ups, with a streaming preamp and a remarkably hefty power amplifier, plus early prototypes of some of the 700 Series models.

Also new was the revelation that the SE-R1 power amplifier, currently expected to weigh around 55kg and seen above in late prototype form, will have a digital input from the SU-R1 network audio player, so signal is kept in the digital domain all the way to the power amplification using a new Technics Digital Link. In the power amplifier, what the company calls its JENO (Jitter Elimination and Noise-shaping Optimisation) Digital Engine combines high-precision jitter reduction and PWM conversion circuits.

The amplifier also has a speaker calibration system, based on measurement of the speakers with which the system is to be used: this LAPC (Load Adaptive Phase Calibration) is designed to achieve ‘flat amplitude-phase frequency characteristics’.

Oh, and by then the integrated amplifier was in a much more finished form, as seen below.

The new products revealed: the R1 Reference system
The SU-R1, described as a ‘network audio control player’, is said to achieve ‘maximum silence’ through the use of the company’s Digital Noise Isolation Architecture. It uses separate R-Core transformers for analogue and digital sections – as well as a range of digital inputs including AES/EBU and three electrical coaxial, one optical and both USB-A and USB-B, the SU-R1 also has two sets of analogue inputs, and both analogue and digital outputs.

It can handle PCM content at up to 24-bit/192kHz on the coaxial input, up to 24/96 on the optical, while it will stream content in FLAC/WAV/AIFF up to 24/192, ALAC up to 24/96 and MP3/WMA/AAC up to 16-bit/48kHz, with the USB-A socket accepting the same formats as the DLNA streaming.

The USB-B input can accept up to 32-bit/384kHz, plus DSD 2.8/5.6MHz in asynchronous transfer mode.

Connection between the SU-R1 and the SE-R1 power amplifier is purely digital, using that Technics Digital Link, capable of 32-bit/284kHz, with the volume control in the power amp itself, though ‘driven’ by the controls on the network player/preamp. That way the volume setting is immediately ahead of the digital-to-analogue conversion stage, for ultimate signal purity, before the signal is passed to the 150Wpc power stages.

Finally the 126cm-tall SB-R1 speakers weigh 76kg each, and use a Phase Precision Driver – a flat unit combining a 16cm midrange with a coaxially mounted 25mm carbon graphite dome tweeter – straddled by no fewer than four 16cm bass units.

The 700 Series ‘Premium Class’ system
The more affordable 700 Series models draw heavily on both the design work carried out to create the R1s and tried and tested Technics thinking: the SU-C700, for example, has both the JENO and LAPC technologies found in the SU-R1/SE-R1, and a similar range of input format capability, right up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM on its three coaxial digital inputs and 32-bit/192kHz plus DSD 2.8/58MHz on asynchronous USB.

The ST-C700 network music player (above) has similar input capability, plus streaming at up to 24/192, aptX Bluetooth and DAB/DAB+ and FM radio tuners. It uses Technics’ Virtual Battery Operation, seen in past amplifiers and players from the brand, to isolate the audio circuitry from mains-borne noise.

Featured on the SL-C700 CD player is a High Res Re-master function, designed for ‘high-precision expansion of bandwidth and bit depth for high-quality sound reproduction from music CDs’, and independent Burr-Brown PCM 1795 DACs for each channel.

The SB-C700 speakers, which stand 33.6cm tall, use the Phase Precision Driver technology found in the SB-R1s, and like those speakers use an ‘entasis-form cabinet’ – i.e. with curved sides to control internal reflections and standing waves – finished in piano black.

Back to the enthusiast listener
So, not great news for those hoping the Technics comeback would be all about a revival of the classic direct-drive turntables, but a real statement of intent. With the revival of the brand, Panasonic wants to make a go of appealing once more to the serious music listener, saying it’s identified a trend not only to higher-resolution listening, but back away from family music to systems bought and used by single listeners for private enjoyment.

There’ll be those who’ll quibble with that analysis, but Technics is clearly focusing its efforts on what it sees as a viable enthusiast market – and that can’t be anything but good news for a market said by many to be in decline, and in need of a powerful shot in the arm.

Review samples of the Technics products have been requested as soon as they’re available, so watch this space for my initial listening impressions once I get hold of them.

After following this project for the better part of a year, I’m hoping they’ll prove to have been worth the wait…

Written by Andrew Everard

New Classé Sigma SSP processor, launched with two matching power amps, plays it simple in the quest for ultimate sound quality

Interesting afternoon at the London Bowers & Wilkins office yesterday, hearing about – and hearing – the new Classé Sigma series with company CEO Dave Nauber.

The range is designed to slot in below the existing Classé Delta models, but above home cinema electronics from mainstream manufacturers: it has been built with performance very much in mind, and to be as capable when used in two-channel mode as it is in 5.1- or 7.1-channel working. And to that end, the £4250 Sigma SSP processor/preamplifier at the heart of the system is as remarkable for what it doesn’t have as it is for what it does.

Nauber points out that most AV processors and high-end receivers are over-complex, and have a stack of facilities most users will never explore. While agreeing with my point that this is symptomatic of the features arms-race between manufacturers, he noted that many of the sockets on the back of such products will never be used.

For example, how many analogue video sources do you now have in your system? Are you really still running a VCR through your AV system? No, thought not – which is why the Classé Sigma SSP has done away with all those composite and component sockets, and concentrates on HDMI video and audio. As Nauber says, if a buyer really wants to connect an analogue video source, there’s no shortage of third-party add-ons available to do the conversion.

Similarly, the Sigma SSP is light on analogue audio inputs for the same reason, having just three sets – one on XLRs, and two on RCA phonos, with the option of a phono module fitted internally if required.

What it does have is a good range of digital audio connections, with three coaxial, two optical, asynchronous USB on the rear panel for computers, a re-clocked asynchronous USB on the front panel for iOS devices and the like, Ethernet for DLNA streaming and AirPlay.

There’s also full digital bass management, nine-band parametric equalisation, and of course eight channel output for the connection of power amps. Interestingly, a balanced option is only provided for two channels, Nauber pointing out that it made more sense to go for a high-quality balanced option for the stereo channels rather than attempt to do so on all channels, which would entail the use of less expensive balanced sections – or of course a substantial price hike!

The SSP is also built with modular audio DSP and video boards, so that features such as Dolby Atmos/Auro 3D sound and 4K video can be accommodated once sufficient software is available and standards are set, Nauber pointing out that current products with 4K video handling may not be compatible with final 4K standards in a couple of years time. As he says, the company could have built in 4K handling sufficient to handle future standards, but feels the processing required needs some more work on reliability and consistency – but that’s coming.

The power amplifiers in the new Sigma series – the £2950 two-channel AMP2 (above) and £4250 five-channel AMP5 – both use Class D amplification, delivering 200W per channel into 8ohms, with new switching technology developed for the company’s CA-D200 amplifier used in both the power supply and amplifier stages.

This uses controller circuitry to analyse and adjust the dead-band time – the minute fraction of a second during which the amplifier is off in the middle of its switching cycle –, thus reducing the need for negative feedback and requiring only filtering at the switching frequency, way beyond the audible band, rather than the high-frequency roll-off Nauber says is used in most other Class D designs.

As he puts it, ‘some dead-band time is needed, otherwise the amp will go into short-circuit and explode’, so what the start-up analysis does is detect that ‘go bang point’ and then back off just a shade, allowing dead-band time in the single digits of thousandths of a second to be achieved.

The Classé approach, both in the simplification of the processor and the design of the amplifiers, which are slim and cool-running, seems to make a lot of sense to me, and it was interesting that, in the listening room at B&W, we were treated to a program of music in stereo, played through a pair of 802D speakers, with not a sniff of anything surround or movie-related.

That made a welcome change from the usual ‘Here’s our amp and here’s how loud it’ll go’ home cinema demonstration, complete with liberal use of Pixar animation or scenes from Pacific Rim.

Built like other Classé products at B&W’s own factory in Zuhai, China, the Sigma models are designed at engineered at the company’s HQ in Canada, where the team combines what Nauber calls ‘youthful enthusiasm and curmudgeonly experience’. He says the secret of this strategy is that all the clever stuff is done at the design stage, meaning the products can be assembled consistently without the kind of fettling that used to be part of high-end manufacturing.

I can’t help feeling Classé might be on to something with this more minimalist but totally sound-related approach, and initial impressions (albeit with all the usual unfamiliar room/music caveats) were impressive – although I’ll be interested to see how the new products will play with the logo-obsessed AV crowd and those who drool over pictures of the rear panels of behemoth receivers.

I’ve requested review samples of the processor and the two-channel power amp, and I’ll report back when I’ve had time to have a play.

Written by Andrew Everard

New Korg DS-DAC-10R offers DSD128 decoding/encoding, and has built-in phono stage for simple recording of vinyl to hi-res audio

Just announced by Korg is the DS-DAC-10R, combing the functions of hi-res digital-to-analogue conversion and analogue-to-digital for recording to DSD. Selling for £439 when it hits the shops in January 2016, the new model even has a built-in phono stage, allowing a turntable to be connected directly to it, and the DSD output stored on a computer running the partnering AudioGate 4 software.

The DS-DAC-10R supports the 5.6 MHz and 2.8 MHz DSD format—for playback and recording—as well as PCM formats up to 192 kHz/24-bit, and has a built-in phono equaliser compatible with the standard RIAA curve used when cutting records, as well as five other equalisation curves.

As well as being stored on the computer, files can also be burned to DVD-R discs, and can be played on a variety of SACD players, or to recordable CD for playback in standard definition.

Under the lid, the DS-DAC-10R uses the same TI PCM4202 analogue to digital converter found in Korg’s MR-2000S 1-bit studio recorder, and the the Cirrus Logic CS4390 DAC also used in the MR-2000S as well as the company’s DS-DAC series, as used for the current Prime Seat ‘double-DSD’ live concert streaming.

The new unit also has a prominent volume control and a front-panel headphone socket, enabling it to be used as a headphone amp, while to the rear there are line analogue outputs, a USB Type B connection for the computer, and switchable line/phono inputs complete with am earth terminal for record players.

The DS-DAC-10R can also be used for playback with Korg’s iAudiogate app running on an iPhone, connecting via Apple’s USB camera connection kit.

Nothing looks quite like the extraordinary Astell & Kern AK500 system ‘stack’ – but if you’re expecting it to be style over substance, think again…

The Astell & Kern AK500N is unusual enough: a high-end CD ripping/storage/network player, all housed in a near-cube with styling apparently inspired by the Matterhorn, powered by internal batteries and with a flip-up touchscreen display set into its top panel.

Look at the pictures and it looks huge; get to grips with it and you realise it’s actually remarkably compact – it stands around 24cm tall, and that display is a little under 18cm diagonal – if reassuringly weighty, at about 11.4kg.

Not only is the AK500N a departure for a company best-known for its portable players, from the little AK Jr. all the way up to the flagship AK380, it’s also both ambitious and – let’s face it – decidedly odd: after all, home audio components don’t usually look like this, and I lost count of the number of times I was asked ‘What actually is it?’

Now, as if the AK500N wasn’t strange enough, it’s been joined by the rest of the company’s AK500 system, comprising a matching power amplifier and high-capacity offboard power supply, complete with a stand onto which is mounted a wand with the sole purpose of providing some mood lighting to show off the sculptural design of the three products.

The three stack together using mounts built into the base of each unit, and are locked in place using screws on the mounts, the finished result being a system small enough to sit on a table or substantial shelf, and yet clearly designed to challenge many a high-end network set-up.

It’s priced to match: the AK500N starts at £6999, complete with 1TB of internal SSD storage, and goes up to £8999 with 4TB onboard, while the AK500AP – the power amp and power supply, complete with AK LED stand, sells for £5999, allowing existing AK500N users to upgrade to the full stack system. Or you can buy the complete package at prices starting from £12,998 with the 1TB AK500N, and rising to £14,998 complete with the 4TB player/server.

See what I mean about serious intent?

So what’s going on here? Well, that’s a question I found myself asking the first time I encountered the AK500N, earlier this year: when it arrived for review I’d seen the pictures, read the press information, and yet still hadn’t quite got my head around what it was all about.

I think the unusual styling probably played its part, with that asymmetrical protrusion on the front echoing those rock formations mentioned in the A&K press information, but reminding me of a more conventional style that’d found itself on the end of a left hook, and until I spent some time with it I’d assumed it was an all-in-one ‘just add speakers’ system, rather than the source component it actually is.

Take a look to the rear and the truth reveals itself fairly rapidly: the player has both fixed and variable-level analogue outputs, so it can be used into a conventional amplifier or preamp, or straight into a power amplifier, and also a choice of optical and electrical digital inputs and outputs, the latter on coaxial RCA, BNC and AES/EBU balanced socketry, as well as Ethernet, asynchronous USB Type B for data transfer from a computer and USB Type A host (for use with external storage), plus Wi-Fi.

Meanwhile the side panel has a further USB Type A socket for external storage, plus audio outputs on 2.5mm, 3.5mm and 6.3mm sockets for headphones.

A control panel within the touchscreen menu system allows you to select the connections you want to use, while switching off those not in use to minimise interference.

The same thinking applies to the way the AK500N is powered: it comes with a mains power supply, but this is used to recharge the internal lithium-ion battery, and disconnects when the battery is charged. Indeed, once the battery is topped up, the mains adapter can be disconnected completely if required.

The battery, by the way, is designed to be easily replaceable when it reaches the end of its working life, and the same applies to the other internal components of the AK500N: the SSD storage devices are entirely standard, allowing future upgrades or replacements, while the disc drive is also an off-the-shelf model, and can be swapped out if required.

Modular design
This modular design means it’s easy to start with one of the smaller storage capacities and increase it later, and the AK500N also offers a choice of RAID configurations to allow the user to choose between maximum capacity and maximum data safety (although of course I’d always suggest a device such as this is used with an external back-up for optimal storage security).

The A&K will rip content from CDs to its internal storage and then both play those files itself and make them available to other UPnP/DLNA clients on the same network. A novel twist is that it can also upconvert files to DSD format, allowing them to be handled in optimal form by the AK500N’s native DSD digital-to-analogue conversion: this applies both to CD and high-resolution files, and also to 32-bit/384kHz WAV files and 24-bit/352.8kHz, should you have any music in those formats to hand!

The DSD audio engine here is a proprietary Astell & Kern design, not surprisingly derived from the company’s work on its high-end portable digital audio players, and like the other aspects of the design is aimed at minimising noise throughout the conversion and playback chain.

As well as playing content stored internally, the AK500N will also function as a network player/client for music on computers or NAS devices on the same network, and can also access Deezer streaming audio, and Internet radio via the vTuner platform. Those last two are new arrivals since first I looked at the unit, as is a much-improved AK connect control app, available for both Android and iOS smartphones and tablets – this makes using the AK500N much more intuitive, and provides the player with the interface it deserves.

The AK500A power amplifier is a relatively chunky design, about half the height of the AK500N, and delivers 100W per channel from a balanced topology – again, all about minimising noise. It has no capacitors in the input section and DC feedback loop, in the interests of the most direct signal path, and isolates the input buffer, driver and output sections from the main audio amplifier to eliminate interference.

Optical sensing is used for the protection circuits, again to break any physical or electrical connections liable to give rise to interference. The amplifier has balanced inputs and hefty WBT combination terminals for speaker output, plus a Neutrik-type connection for the power input from the AK500P.

The power supply itself is almost the definition of ‘generous’: it has a similar Neutrik output to feed the power amp and a four-pin locking socket to match that on the AK500N, and has a capacity of 1100W despite its compact dimensions – again, it’s about half the height of the power amp. Somewhat flying in the face of established audiophile thinking, which suggests linear power supplies are good, and switched-mode bad, the AK500P uses switched-mode, but of an aerospace grade, very high frequency design, and offering a very high refresh rate.

Add in the stand/light pole, clamp the elements of the system together using the grub-screws and tool supplied in the box – along with all the connecting cables – and that’s about it.

Actually, ‘that’s about it’ hardly covers it: assembling this system and setting it up is enough to demonstrate that this is no ordinary stack system, but a beautifully-made – if definitely very unusual – audiophile set-up in miniature. There’s a feeling of quality about the three units to which the pictures really don’t do justice, and that’s helped significantly by the heft of the components, which gives the whole enterprise a welcome sense of solidity and craftsmanship entirely in line with the way the Astell & Kern portables feel in the hand.

I have to say I’m not too sold on that ‘light pole’ built into the stand, but the light it casts does definitely bring out the sculptural front panels of the three boxes in a way it’d be tricky to achieve with conventional room lighting, and there are different light modes to play with, controlled from the AK500N’s set-up screen.

It certainly makes a talking point of the system – as if a high-end audio set-up this small and so unusual-looking needed any more set-dressing – but while it’s fun in the short term, I’m not sure I’d want to use it all the time. I guess it’s a matter of personal taste.

What’s less divisive is the way the AK500N system sounds: having already been very impressed with the player alone when I used it as a source in my main system, I have to admit I was hoping the amplification – more of an unknown in the Astell & Kern repertoire beyond the headphone amps built into the portable players (which are very good, by the way) – wouldn’t let the side down.

Audiophile capabiity
It seems I really needn’t have worried: having run the set-up in for a few days with a pair of small speakers in a second room, I connected it with just a little trepidation to the big floorstanders I happen to be running at the moment – the Bowers & Wilkins 803 D3, which cost a little less than the entry-level A&K system package, at £12,500 a pair – tapped play, sat back, and…

The Astell & Kern system breezed it, not only powering the big floorstanders with no signs of stress whatsoever, but also controlling them beautifully, and to excellent effect – exactly as I hoped a near-£6000 power amplifier would be able to do.

OK, so the 803 D3s, for all their size and mass, aren’t exactly the most demanding of speakers in electrical terms, their maker quoting 90dB sensitivity and an 8ohm nominal impedance falling to a minimum of 3ohms, but for all the slightly comical looks of the little A&K stack sitting between the two hefty-looking floorstanders, this proved to be a set-up not just able to work in purely practical terms, but to do so in an entirely convincing fashion when it comes to music-making.

Confounding prejudice
Just as the AK500N itself confounds prejudice when you see and hear it in use, so the AK500N/A/P combination has the ability to re-align views on what ‘serious hi-fi’ should look like: this isn’t just a quirky set-up from a company known for its idiosyncratic personal players, but instead a system as striking in its capability as it is in its design.

That there’s also obvious pleasure to be had in the disconnect between the compactness of the package and the size of the sound it delivers simply adds to the experience, as it does when using one of Astell & Kern’s pocket players: there’s an enjoyment in being ‘in on the secret’, in discovering something unknown to all those audiophiles with their racks of visually mismatched, macho-looking hi-fi components.

However, the effect doesn’t wear off when the delight in the novelty of it all is dismissed, and the A&K system is fixed with the cold, hard stare of financial reality: even when looked at with the knowledge of what else the thick end of £13,000 could buy, this set-up makes perfect sense.

In fact, hide it away and drive it with its app on a mini-tablet, and this system sounds every bit what would be expected of a high end audiophile system of the ‘big box’ kind – though why one would ever want to conceal it escapes me, unless it was to provoke visitors into asking ‘Where’s the hi-fi?’, and then revealing this diminutive set-up.

There’s so much to enjoy here: with the app now completely sorted, one can operate the system with the display panel folded down into the top-plate of the AK500N, enhancing the anonymous, monolithic look of an object really giving no hint as to what it is or does now the last tell-tale ‘hi-fi’ clues have been removed. What’s more, the app is now the equal of any in the business in terms of slickness and enjoyability, while at the same time giving access to all the major functions of the system.

But it’s the sound of the system to which one keeps returning, from the powerful, confident and effortlessly controlled bass right the way through to finest of detail in the midband and treble.

Driving the big Bowers & Wilkins speakers, which aren’t exactly backward in coming forward when a recording has plenty of information to deliver, the A&K gives a thrillingly open and explicit view into fine performances and engineering, while at the same time being able to reveal all the grit and impact of rather rougher recordings rather than attempting to smooth off the edges.

Beat the reviewer
I tried all the reviewer’s tricks to throw it off the scent, from barely listenable MP3 files and low-bitrate BBC local radio streams, all the way through to DSD and very high sample-rate DXD FLAC files, and in every case the A&K proved itself to be more than up to the task it was set. The grumbling electronic bass-lines of the latest Jean-Michel Jarre album had toothsome weight and slam, while the 80s pop of Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin, drawing on everything from 60s classics to XTC and Thomas Dolby has both the low-end power to excuse the prolific synths and a glorious view of Gaskin’s effortless vocals.

That last album was enough to have me off on an odyssey of 80s nostalgia, from Level 42 to Thompson Twins remixes, and believe you me there was some rough production going on back there – of which the Stewart/Gaskin set is emphatically not an example! And the ethereal quality of Gaskin’s voice also found me drifting to the rather disturbing Stay Awake compilation of Disney soundtrack covers from the same year, where the bleak darkness of the soundscapes sounded magnificent thanks to the A&K’s ability to get deep into a mix while at the same time communicating the music in captivating style, from a smoky rendition of Baby Mine by Bonnie Raitt and Was (Not Was) to Tom Waits giving it full-on bonkers on the dwarves’ marching song from Sleeping Beauty. Gloriously mad, yet immaculately produced, and the Astell & Kern/Bowers & Wilkins package (if you can think of it in those terms) simply nailed it.

Having recently spent an amazing evening seeing Courtney Pine playing tracks from his recent album Song (The Ballad Book) with pianist Zoë Rahman in a small, intimate jazz club, and marvelling at the percussive sounds and scintillating runs of notes he managed to extract from his weapon of choice, the bass clarinet, it was fascinating to come home and cue the album up on the A&K system in the cold light of day, and be just as carried away by the cool precision of Rahman’s piano and that great blasting then whispering then soaring and shrieking sound. This is a lovely recording, in 24-bit/44.1kHz, and the system delivers all the space and expression of the interplay between the two musicians.

Christmas comes early
OK, weirded out a bit there on the music choice, but it’s been an odd time of late, what with the nights drawing in and magazine schedules suggesting rather more Christmas music in heavy rotation than you’d get in a shopping mal. By the way, standouts through the A&K/B&W system have been the new Dunedin Consort Bach Magnificat and Christmas Cantata on Linn and the lovely Dancing Day set by New York’s Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, conducted by the late John Scott, who died just days after this album went to press in August, and released in 24/96 on Resonus. The latter has a marvellously atmospheric reading of the Britten ‘Ceremony of Carols’, and playing it on the A&K proved totally immersive, from the opening processional right the way through the end of the piece, as did the Rutter cycle from which the album takes its title.

On a smaller scale, but just as dramatic, the glorious Fitzwilliam Quartet recording of Bruckner’ string quartet and quintet, in 24/192 on Linn Records, simply pours from the speakers in the best ‘stop reviewing and start listening’ way through the A&K/B&W, thanks to the winning mix of fluidity, insight and unrestrained dynamics, giving the performances that superb ‘reach out and you could touch the musicians’ combination of power and intimacy.

What’s more, the A&K system absolutely shines when you play DSD content through it, as I discovered with some recent downloads from the excellent NativeDSD site: the sheer bite and subtlety on offer from these (mailny classical) recordings is simply amazing, and the AK500 set-up really brings out those qualities.

So we’re coming up on two weeks with the A&K as the ‘house system’, and I have to say that I’ve enjoyed every moment of it, playing familiar music and new arrivals alike, and relishing the way it sounds so much bigger than it has any right to – although of course physical size has little bearing on scale of sound these days – and most of all just sounds right with almost everything I chose to play on it.

It does full-on orchestral music; it rocks; it brings out all the character in voices and solo instruments, and yes – gives that ‘listen in’ ability with just about any recording you summon up from your computer, network storage or its own internal drives.

No allowances required
On top of all that, it’s simple to use with the upgraded app, immensely flexible without sacrificing any of its audiophile credentials (thanks to features such as that ability to switch off unwanted inputs and outputs), and reveals more – both operationally and musically – the longer you spend with it. No allowances whatsoever need be made for the radical styling and compact dimensions, and get a very firm feeling it’ll never be a case of wondering whether the right choice has really been made when the novelty wears off, simply because I think it would be a very long time before that happened. If ever.

Yes, the A&K is undoubtedly unusual – I think I may have conveyed that impression by now! – but its performance is never in question, and sets this system well up there with ‘conventional’ high-end separates, not to mention showing a clean pair of heels to quite a few ‘roomful of boxes’ set-ups.

There’s the odd feature I’d like to see to make it perfect, notably an analogue input to enable the AK500N to be integrated with a home cinema system, but then that would fly in the face of the purist digital design here. That aside, and partnered with a suitable pair of speakers (hint: think a long way beyond what you’d expect to use with a system sitting in a footprint of less than a square foot!), this is a set-up to confound prejudices about ‘designer hi-fi’, and satisfy the most demanding user.

But then this isn’t designer hi-fi in the usual sense of the word, but rather superb hi-fi designed to attract the attention with its looks, not require excuses to be made.

In fact, I’ll even forgive it the lighting…

Specifications
System price from £12,998
AK500N inputs Digital on coax, optical, AES/EBU and BNC; networking on Ethernet and Wi-Fi; asynchronous USB on Type B socket; 2xUSB Type A
AK500N outputs Digital on coax, optical, AES/EBU and BNC; fixed and variable level analogue out on XLRs/RCAs; 2.5mm, 3.5mm and 6.3mm headphone out
AK500N internal storage SSD, max 4TB
AK500A power output 100Wpc (into 8ohms)
Dimensions (full system with stand, HxWxD) 49.3×31.9×27.9cm
Weight (full system with stand) 27.3kg
www.astellnkern.com
www.unlimited.com

Written by Andrew Everard

New digital amplifier revives the famous Marantz MusicLink name – and does so in style

Last weekend’s system? Mac Book Air providing the tunes, Bowers & Wilkins 803 D3s filling the room.

Linking them together, the Marantz HD-AMP1 – the company’s new super-amplifier-in-miniature,  yours for just £799.

Yes, a compact and highly affordable integrated amplifier driving a pair of speakers with a price-tag in the region of £12,500; and however ridiculous the combination may sound on paper (or screen or whatever), it works – and spectacularly well.

Having first encountered the Marantz HD-AMP1 in decidedly dummy form back in the summer at the D+M Group’s annual conference for dealers and press, I’d been keen to get my hands on a sample for some listening as soon as possible, and for a couple of reasons.

One was that it builds on the success of the company’s HD-DAC1 DAC/headphone amplifier, which I reviewed at the beginning of this year, and which I’ve been using ever since as a reference for headphone testing; the other was that, like that product, the new one has been overseen by Marantz Brand Ambassador Ken Ishiwata. And I’ve known Ken well enough for more than two decades now to recognise when he thinks a product is on to something special.

Classic looks
That ‘something special’ description certainly applies to the HD-AMP1: for a start it has the classic looks of the HD-DAC1, complete with the references to Marantz products of the past in its ‘porthole’ display and star detailing complete with blue power indicator, not to mention the classy metal casework and wood – oh, all right then, wood effect – side cheeks.

Whether in black or the company’s ‘silvergold’ finish, the HD-AMP1 one looks solid, substantial and well-proportioned, the precisely resolved styling of the HD-DAC1, with its ‘high end in miniature’ appearance, scaling up very successfully in this new model.

It’s also a lot more than just a slightly larger version of the previous model, with a quick fix power amplifier bolted in: Marantz – and Ishiwata – doesn’t work that way. Instead, what we have here is a product with a cosmetic similarity to its smaller sibling, but with extensive re-engineering – and new features and capabilities – under its substantial lid.

To cover off the obvious question first, the HD-AMP1 will do almost everything possible with the HD-DAC1, including decoding and converting high-resolution audio and driving headphones to a very high standard – there’s even adjustable gain for the headphone output to ensure it’s able to power even electrically demanding cans. Just about the only thing missing is line outs, or preouts to enable it to be used as a preamp straight into power amplification.

But then why would it need these, when it has onboard amplification able to deliver 35W into 8ohms and 70W into 4ohm loads? Especially when, as we’ll see, those apparently modest figures belie its real-world speaker-driving ability.

Input flexibility
What you get instead is a choice of analogue or digital inputs: two sets of entirely conventional line-ins, plus one coaxial and two optical digital inputs, plus both USB-B and USB-A sockets, the front one for memory devices and portables, complete with iOS compatibility, and the rear one operating asynchronously with extensive isolation to keep noise from a connected computer at bay.

Completing the line-up is a set of high-quality speaker terminals, able to accept 4mm plus, spades or bare wires, a single subwoofer output, and Marantz remote control in/out sockets, as found on almost every product from the brand.

The amp modules here are the respected Hypex UcD (Universal Class D) switching-mode units, while the digital-to-analogue conversion is in the hands of the equally ESS Sabre DAC, as found in a wide range of top-notch digital devices these days – most of them being considerably more expensive than the Marantz. This converter allows files of up to 384kHz/32bit resolution to be handled via the USB-B, along with not just DSD64/2.8MHz, but also DSD128/5.6MHz and DSD256/11.2MHz, with the conventional digital inputs good for 192kHz/24bit. That’s what you call future-proofing.

Supporting this is a dual-clock system allowing correct conversion of a wide range of formats – one clock handles 44.1kHz and its multiples, the other 48kHz, 96kHz and so on – along with filtering downstream of the DAC making use of the famous Marantz Hyper-Dynamic Amplifier Modules, in their upmarket HDAM-SA2 and –SA3 versions.

I still reckon someone came up with the HDAM name and then thought of a meaning for the acronym, but these modules, built from discrete components and used in place of the more common chip-amps, have been used to very fine effect in generations of Marantz products.

Musical filter
Finally there’s a user-selectable digital filter – Marantz Musical Digital Filtering, no less – which to these ears delivers subtle, but worthwhile, differences. In the standard filter 1 position, the sound has a characteristically Marantz (or do I mean Ishiwata?) combination of depth, tight focus and warm, deep and yet beautifully controlled bass, along with what I can only really describe as a luminous view of voices and instruments.

By contrast, the sound with the filter in its second position is subtly, but noticeably, more hi-fi, in a way that’s slightly too ‘obvious’ for my taste. There’s certainly more attack to the sound, but it can begin to sound like detail is being hurled at the listener with some force, and while instruments stand out from a mix even more clearly, they can appear a little over-projected and lacking in their characteristic weight and resonance.

OK, so I’m slightly overplaying these differences in the cause of comparison: as I said, they’re subtle, but they’re definitely there. I know which I prefer, but I wouldn’t say one was right and the other wrong: rather the selection of these settings will be down to personal taste, and may well even vary according to the music being played at the time.

A very Marantz amplifier
What is beyond any doubt is that this is not only a remarkably accomplished amplifier for its size and price, but also a very Marantz amplifier, for all the reasons I mentioned above when talking about the ‘filter 1’ position. And that’s especially so when the amp is used in line with Ishiwata’s suggestion that I stuck to listening with the ‘source direct’ setting in use, giving the cleanest possible signal path through the circuitry.

Very Marantz? What I mean by that is its ability to develop that broad, deep, yet precisely focused soundstage between and around the speakers, thrilling you with the impact of instruments and voices, and allowing you to hear elements of mixes previously thought familiar, with the effect that almost every track listened to comes up fresh.

And yet all this is achieved without any sign of effort or the smoke and mirrors involved in creating the illusion of a three-dimensional performance – the music just happens before the listener, and it’s hard not to be swept away in the performance.

There’s another aspect of the HD-AMP1 worth mentioning, too: along with the announcement of the arrival of the amp, Marantz announced that it also marked the revival of the MusicLink range, last seen in the company’s catalogue some time in the 1990s.

Relatively short-lived, the line-up comprised much the same kind of ‘hi-fi in miniature’ components as we see here, but in the form of a CD player, preamps and a range of power amp options. We’ve been running a preamp and a pair of monoblocs in our dining room system for many years now, and they’ve performed faultlessly.

One can only assume, if the MusicLink range is being revived with this unit – and presumably the HD-DAC1 (seen above with the HD-AMP1) will become part of the line-up – that there are more products on the way: taking a clue from the rest of the Marantz catalogue, the obvious contenders would be a disc player and/or a network music device, which should make for an interesting 2016!

Exceeding expectations
And the HD-AMP1 is more than up to the task of exceeding expectations, as it demonstrated when used with the big Bowers & Wilkins speakers: it really shouldn’t have worked, but it not only drove the 803 D3s, but did so in an entirely convincing fashion, whether with the fine detail of solo or small-ensemble classical music, or pounding or rock with all its impact intact.

Not that you need to go as far as the big floorstanders from Worthing to hear what the HD-AMP1 can do: I had good results when using it with much more affordable floorstanders, in the form of the long-discontinued PMC GB1 speakers, some high-quality compact speakers I have on-site for review at the moment, and even the little Neat Iotas I use as my desktop loudspeakers.

In fact, whatever you choose to drive with it, the Marantz shines, and it’s also more than capable of revealing the benefits of stepping up through the choice of hi-res files on offer out there, as was apparent when comparing DSD64 and DSD128 versions of the same track, and even the very few DSD256 files I have in my library.

Played through the Bowers & Wilkins speakers in particular, the HD-AMP1 just delivers more presence and sparkle as you move up through the DSD spectrum, but it’s also entirely convincing both when used with more modest speakers and when playing files at standard CD resolution. This is an amplifier you can buy with confidence for your current music collection, knowing it has the wherewithal to handle whichever direction your purchases may take you in the future.

Just occasionally I come across a product beyond the extremely good and well into truly special territory – having used the HD-AMP1 for a while now, I’m convinced the Marantz team has done it again. Compact it may be, but this amplifier has definite giant-killing ability, and is one of the most convincing products in its sector this side of £1000, if not beyond.

Add in the stylish ‘retro’ looks, the solidity of build and the comprehensive specification, and you have a real hi-fi bargain on your hands. That’s not a bad start for the New Year, is it?

SPECIFICATION
Marantz HD-AMP1
Type Stereo integrated amplifier with built-in DAC
Price £799
Inputs Two sets of line analogue; two optical, one coaxial digital; asynchronous USB-B for computer connection; USB-A for iOS devices and USB memory
Format handling Up to 192kHz/24-bit via conventional digital inputs; via asynchronous USB up to 384kHz/32-bit and DSD to DSD256/11.2MHz
Outputs One set of speaker terminals, subwoofer, headphones
Output power 35Wpc into 8ohms, 70Wpc into 4ohms
Finishes Black or silvergold, with wood-effect side-panels
Accessories supplied Remote control handset
Dimensions (WxHxD) 30.4×35.2×10.7cm
www.marantz.com

Written by Andrew Everard