Hi-Fi-July 2021

TECHNICS’ TECHNICAL TRIUMPH!

£5.99

HOW MUSIC SHOULD SOUND JULY 2021 • 197
www.hifiplus.com

WORLD EXCLUSIVE!

SOLSTICE: NAIM’S
FIRST EVER TURNTABLE

WIN! DARE TO BE DIFFERENT: KROMA MIMI

A PAIR OF DAN
CLARK AUDIO
ÆON 2 NOIRE
HEADPHONES
WORTH £899!!!

PLUS
FINKTEAM KIM
KEF LS50 META
MCINTOSH MHA200
SENNHEISER IE 900



EDITOR editorial
Alan Sircom
Email: editor@hifiplus.com E very few years, the same tale is told, just with a slightly
different spin. This year, it came from yet another team
CONTRIBUTORS THIS of neuroscientists; the secret to happiness, it seems,
ISSUE INCLUDE: is to set low expectations. Those who set themselves
Branko Bozic lofty goals are rarely fully satisfied, and those who set
Dennis D Davis their sights to more attainable and realistic aspirations are more
Steve Dickinson likely to have longer, happier and more fulfilling lives. This doesn’t
Kevin Fiske sit right with the pursuit of musical excellence, but might explain the
Sean Hannam ever-shifting sands of ‘audiophilia nervosa’.
Jimmy Hughes
Jason Kennedy Let’s be honest here; it’s in the very In such cases, saying ‘set your
Simon Lucas nature of enthusiasm to have at least standards lower’ is about as worthless as
one eye on the next big thing in your telling someone with an anxiety disorder
GRAPHIC DESIGNER hobby, be it that high-tech derailleur, to ‘pull yourself together.’ The usual
Jenny Watson the next ‘must have’ camera lens, or advice for audio obsessives is to step
the latest kitchen gizmo. And there is away from the audio system for a while,
Fonthill Creative, Salisbury nothing wrong with a spot of aspirational but I am not convinced this is merely a
dreaming; even if you’ll never own that delay tactic, and the issue will return.
ADVERTISING MANAGER new Ferrari, it’s part of the dream and
Tom Hackforth there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with It’s going to sound controversial
that at all. but perhaps, the secret is to have an
Tel: +44 (0)1425 655255 easy side-project. I used to live near
Email: tom@hifiplus.com However, the notion of setting lower an amateur car-restorer who got so
expectatons is also worth exploring. We obsessed by rebuilding the pefect
PUBLISHER all know people who have become so MGB, the project came to a halt as he
Pete Collingwood-Trewin absorbed by their hobby and passion spiralled on the minutiae. His way out of
Tel: +44 (0)1425 655699 that they become obsessed by it and that quicksand of his own making? He
Email: pete@hifiplus.com the last 18 months haven’t helped such bought a low-maintenance runabout to
conditions. In the audio world, while enjoy driving again. It worked, and the
THE EDITORIAL OFFICE Mr. ‘£50,000 worth of cables and three MGB was finished to a high – but not
CAN BE CONTACTED AT: recordings’ is more myth than reality, crazily high – standard soon after.
we all know people who are perpetually
Hi-Fi+ Editorial restless, always changing something in Who knows? Maybe a small, easy
Absolute Multimedia (UK) Ltd their system and never quite happy with second system everyone can enjoy is
Unit 3, Sandleheath Industrial Estate, how it sounds. Some even spend less your way out of audio obsessiveness.
time listening to music, and more time
Sandleheath, Hampshire tweaking their system to make it sound Alan Sircom
SP6 1PA as good as it’s possible to get. The editor hifiplus.com
satisfaction of sitting back and listening
United Kingdom to an album becomes impossible.
Tel: +44 (0)1425 655255

URL: hifiplus.com

Absolute Multimedia (UK) Ltd is a
subsidiary of TMM Holdings LLC,

2500 McHale Court, Suite 100
Austin, TX 78758, USA

PRESIDENT
Lee Scoggins

CHAIRMAN AND CEO
Thomas B. Martin, Jr.

All Rights Reserved.
Not one word of Hi-Fi+ may be
reproduced without the written consent
of the Editor. We are perfectly happy
to co-operate, but we don’t want
quotations to appear out of context.

Printed By
Pensord Press, Caerphilly

Hi-Fi+ is published twelve times a
year by; Absolute Multimedia (UK) Ltd

ISSN 1465 5950

hifiplus.com

ISSUE 198 ON SALE AUGUST 5 2021 (UK) SEPTEMBER 9 2021 (US)

1 ISSUE 197

“Undeniably, there is high quality and authenticity
in each CrystalConnect by Crystal Cable product”

Now certified by the NFC Tag and App.

Get the FREE CrystalConnect App on

The CrystalConnect App is a tool for authenticating and registering your products, and also lets you access our
product catalogue, the latest CrystalConnect by Crystal Cable news, and other website updates.

Distributed in the UK and Ireland by Padood
www.padood.com | [email protected]

+44 (0) 1223 653199 | Nine Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 1GE

contents ISSUE 197

EQUIPMENT+

COMMENT REVIEWS

7 INCOMING! 11 NAIM AUDIO SOLSTICE
Your views on all complete turntable, arm, cartridge
things audio and phono stage system

89 MEET YOUR MAKER 21 FINKTEAM KIM
stand-mount loudspeaker
Gabi and Edwin Rynveld
of Crystal Cable and 28 KROMA AUDIO MIMI
Siltech stand-mount loudspeaker

MUSIC 33 TECHNICS REFERENCE CLASS
SU-R1000
97 HOW TO FALL IN LOVE WITH integrated amplifier
CLASSICAL MUSIC PART 2
A beginner’s guide to 41 MODWRIGHT KWH 225I
classical box sets! integrated amplifier

101 JOHN MURRY 47 KEF LS50 META
American singer-songwriter, stand-mount loudspeaker
now living in Ireland!
53 SENNHEISER IE 900
111 CONTEMPORARY, CLASSICAL universal fit in-ear monitors
AND AUDIOPHILE MUSIC
59 ANSUZ ACOUSTICS D2 SERIES
103 COMPETITION! cables, power conditioner, star
Dan Clark Audio Æon 2 earthing and network switch
Noire headphones worth
£899 must be won! 65 McINTOSH MHA 200
headphone amplifier
107 BACK ISSUES
71 MONOPULSE TYPE SA
108 SUBSCRIPTIONS active floorstanding loudspeaker

119 ADVERTISER INDEX 77 QUIESCENT APEX 40/PEAK SPEAKER
MODULES
120 NEXT ISSUE microphony couplers
Find out what’s
happening next time! 83 AUDIOQUEST PEARL 48, CARBON 48,
DRAGON 48
HDMI cables

87 NEEDERLAND TRUESTAND
headphone stand

3 ISSUE 197







Please send your letters to Hi-Fi+, Unit 3, Sandleheath Industrial Estate,
Sandleheath, Hampshire, SP6 1PA, United Kingdom.
Or email them to editor@hifiplus.com

incoming!

in association with

LETTER OF THE MONTH WINS A DRAGONFLY BLACK

Both AudioQuest and Hi-Fi+ are passionate about music and the sound it
makes. We know what makes a good audio experience, and we know what
makes it better. Most modern audio equipment is good, but with the right
attitude, right advice, and the right components, the sound it delivers can move
from ‘good’ to ‘great’ to ‘fantastic’. AudioQuest has to deal with a lot of queries
regarding audio systems, because almost everything in an audio system is
connected with a cable. The company has amassed a wealth of information on
a range of topics in audio, both in general terms and with a team comprising
keen, specialist audio experts willing to impart their expertise.

Which is why we’ve teamed up with the good folks at AudioQuest to award the
letter of the month a free AudioQuest Dragonfly Black headphone amp/DAC.

Tube, or not tube... that is the question This applies just as much to the
I’m writing this during a brief heatwave in the UK so it’s probably entirely input stages of a preamplifier as it does
the wrong time to be thinking about this, but what are the benefits of to the output stages of a DAC. And while
valves or tubes, especially in devices like DACs! in the past, a valve-based output stage
could be made to smooth out some of
My take on this is they are outmoded devices adored by people who the brightness of poorer quality digital
like a spot of ‘retro’ in their lives, but have no real place in a modern audio conversion, generally those making digital
system. I can understand why guitarists love them for their distortion, but converters with tube output stages are
surely if we are attempting to eliminate distortion in audio, then opting for aiming for a best of both worlds DAC,
something that inherently adds distortion is a bad thing. with both good digital performance, fed
through an output stage that delivers an
However, I’m keen on getting the best possible sound in my system, extremely linear, impedance matched
and my local dealer has no valve products and no interest in valves. output that sounds outstanding.
Should I cast my net further afield and try a valve-based system?
Is trying a valve/tube amplifier or
Mike Harris, via email DAC worth it? Absolutely! Is it worth
undermining a good working relationship
This is almost two questions in one, but they are related. Just to explain, with a nearby dealer? Perhaps less so.
the first is whether or not valves (or tubes) have a place in a modern Think of it this way: ‘twas the night before
system, or if their inclusion is – as you say – just ‘retro’. The second is Christmas, when all through the house,
whether it’s worth potentially severing a working relationship with a nearby not a creature was stirring... because
dealer in order to find musical satisfaction at a greater distance. your input triode tube just burned out.
Your local dealer should be on hand to
Speaking personally, I’ve had an ‘on again, off again’ relationship with repair, replace, or even loan. Will the new
valve amplification. While there are some low-power amplifier systems guy on the other side of the country do
that are derived from 1930s cinema amps that have several orders the same?
of magnitude more harmonic distortion than any modern solid-state
amplifier, that distortion spectrum tends to be in even-order harmonics, Robert Hay, AudioQuest
which tend to be inaudible or at most add some ‘richness’ to the sound.
While you are correct in saying that goes somewhat against the notion of
‘high fidelity’, many tube amps err on the side of good sound.

INCOMING

In defence of systems features approach to audio reviewing. I will respect the author’s desire for anonymity,
Dear ‘Angry’ (‘System features? No but I guess if I were going to pen something almost deliberately contentious,
thanks!’, Incoming, Issue 196). Wow, just I might desire a spot of anonymity too; audio enthusiasts haven’t had many
wow. I am not sure where to begin. Is this a opportunities to meet up at shows recently, and the last thing you’d want is
wind up email or is it what you truly believe? to rock up at a post-pandemic show only to be frog-marched out again by
If you are a Libertarian as you claim then the angry mob.
why do you want to have people only do
reviews in a manner that you prescribe? That being said, I can see a kernel of truth in what was said. There is
I thought you would be against control on a risk of ‘type-casting’; if product X is demonstrated with brands Y and Z
what reviewers are allowed to review. too often, there’s a tendency to think product X ‘only’ works with Y and Z;
this is ultimately self-defeating. Maybe a more balanced approach is to
Anyway you are entitled to your discuss systems when appropriate; such as you describe, when trying to
opinions even if I disagree with them and find appropriate loudspeakers for high-efficency systems and low-power
your premise and your logic and your SET amps. – Ed
manners.
Loudspeaker Line of Duty
How do you listen to your high-end I have been sipping gently at the Devil’s cup of hi-fi from my early teens.
audio equipment? Do you listen to each However, I always felt there was a Grand Canyon-like gulf between the
piece individually or together as a system? sound quality of red book CD and SACD playback.
If it is the latter what exactly is wrong with
reviewers reviewing a whole system. In Then one day, I happened to be passing my local hi-fi store, when I
reality even if a reviewer is testing a specific asked, “How can I get my CDs sounding closer to SACD quality sound?”
piece of equipment it is rarely in isolation A few minutes later, I was listening to top-tier streaming for the very first time.
and will be part of their system or indeed I sat there transfixed for several hours, vowing to one day replicate not just
systems. How is that so different? that sound, but more importantly that ‘emotion’ it extracted from the music.

Also you seem to have decided that That was seven years ago.
you alone know what constitutes high-end I started out by buying speakers at the top of my price range, B&W
audio and what does not. 803D2. They are still my speakers of choice to this very day. However, I am
also on my third amp and my third streamer. I’ve changed everything several
For example only ‘reasonably’ efficient times. My system always sounded impressive but I had not fully replicated
speakers can be high-end and high that original experience, so on to my next upgrade on the journey: I swapped
efficiency speakers ‘require’ to be powered single-wired Tellurium Q Ultra Black for Ultra Black 2 bi-wired speaker cables.
by SET amps. I utterly refute your premise Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey… I now believe in
on both these points. I could pick out many miracles.
more issues you have raised but I can’t be From that very first listen, everything was right with the world. The sound
bothered as I have more music to listen to. was mesmeric but most importantly that elusive ‘emotion’ was washing
through my whole body. That was a year ago, and still remains my last
In conclusion, I welcome the inclusion serious equipment purchase. Every day since I have luxuriated in the glorious
of system reviews and believe they add to sound, never longing to return to a sense of ‘listening to improve’; I was now
the process of deciding what your choices listening to enjoy, all the time.
might be and encourage the review team to
include more of these. Kevin Eyles, via email

Ian Melville, via email

The email I received surprised me with its I’m pleased you have reached some equanimity in your system, and nice use
vitriol directed toward a more systemic of a Ted Hastings quote too. – Ed

8 ISSUE 197

ESSENCE

is Music

The Gryphon Essence Mono & Stereo Power Amplifier
The Gryphon Essence Preamplifier

www.gryphon-audio.com



EQUIPMENT REVIEW

Naim Audio Solstice
turntable system byAlanSircom

I t’s a little strange that for all its importance in vinyl replay in a series of quality boxes that give the product the look
over its first 48 years as a manufacturer, Naim Audio has and feel of something special right from the moment of box-
never made a turntable. Sure, there have been power opening. The Solstice is also supplied with an album from
supplies, phono stages, and even the Aro tonearm, and Naim’s own label, although that wasn’t supplied at the time
yes… a heavily modified turntable or two were bounced of review. The paradox, however, is a lot of this case-candy is
around the Salisbury-based company’s ‘skunkworks’. But going to be experienced at first by the installer; Solstice is only
a company that was one of the two defining vinyl brands sold through Naim’s most tippity-top dealers (which perhaps
for more than a generation of music lovers never made a explains why it’s in white on black ‘Statement’ livery) who have
turntable; until the Summer of 2021. to install it as part of the package. However, for the most part
Solstice is that first complete turntable from Naim Audio, the installation process is refreshingly free from PhD grade
a 500 turntable run special edition turn-key package launched installation demands; fitting the platter on the magnetically
– as befits the name – on the Summer Solstice (Naim’s levitating bearing while keeping the belt in place has a bit of a
Salisbury HQ is precisely 2.5 metric Druids from Stonehenge, knack to it, but otherwise it’s more about keeping the turntable
and sometimes that rubs off in moments of uncontrollable tie- level and making sure the cables are well-dressed and
dye). This really is turn-key – the turntable is supplied with destressed. Your only options with Solstice out of the box are
arm and cartridge fitted, and the power supply feeds both the choice of cable from the phono stage to the preamplifier
the turntable and a separate phono stage, all of which come and which sort of equipment stand to use. Naim recommends

11 ISSUE 197

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / NAIM AUDIO SOLSTICE

“Those expecting half-turntable, half bouncy castle are likely to be
surprised by Naim’s choice for the Solstice.”

its own Super Lumina cables, which were supplied, used, sound. Still, those expecting half-turntable, half bouncy castle
and proved a good match… natch. Also, one of the design are likely to be surprised by Naim’s choice for the Solstice, and
criteria Naim imposed on the Solstice is that it should be able just as likely to be surprised by its performance.
to fit on a Naim Fraim stand. This means while the platter
sits relatively tall and the plinth relatively low (‘relative’ in this The turntable itself is made in Germany by Clearaudio.
case comparing it to the brand of turntable that was at least Given that Naim’s Salisbury shop floor is given over to building
once commonly associated with Naim systems!), the footprint electronics, retasking that production to make turntables is
of the turntable will not challenge standard sized equipment unnecessary and would hold up production of its electronics
supports (it fitted on a Quadraspire without a problem) and the line. So, handing turntable production over to a company
two off-board units (PSU and phono stage) could sit side-by- like Clearaudio effectively delivers the ideal combination of
side on a single shelf. resources and specialisms to make the Solstice. However,
after almost half a century of not making turntables, Naim
In the past, turntables associated with Naim systems isn’t going to settle for an off-the-shelf design; Naim’s design
have tended to be suspended designs, so it might come input is stamped right through the Solstice from the outset
as some surprise that its first complete turntable eschews a and there has been a lot of prototyping and works in progress
suspension and goes more down the high-mass route. Well… moving between Wiltshire and Bavaria. This is no mean feat
not quite. The use of a floating magnetic bearing is a sort of given the privations of the last year and a half. This could have
best of both worlds option, combining the temporal precision gone one of two ways; both companies insisting on their own
and quicksilver leading-edge definition of a bouncy deck with ‘magic bullet’ and ending up with something that is almost,
the more stentorian bass depth and dynamic range of the but not quite, entirely unlike ‘good’, or the two companies
more ‘hewn from solid’ designs. While these are sweeping could work together to produce something really outstanding.
generalisations, they have more than a grain of truth behind As is the case here.
them, and similarly the few floating bearing designs I’ve heard
seem to have that ideal-option performance underpinning the Yes, there were some cross-continent head-scratchy
moments; allegedly, the magnetic bearing so beloved by

12 ISSUE 197

PhoenixNET

Audiophile-Grade Network Switch

Precision | Power | Stability

“It’s safe to say that the PhoenixNet is a first class
network switch, one that allows oodles of detail
through and delivers it with a very light touch’’

Jason Kennedy

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / NAIM AUDIO SOLSTICE

“It took longer to write this sentence than it took for the Solstice to make
its mark; a foot tappin’, gormless smilin’, music lovin’ mark.”

Clearaudio was not as high a priority at Naim, and Clearaudio has traditionally used locking DIN connectors over phono as
was initially sceptical of the impact of the Discrete Regulator a preference… even of those in the know tend to use these
based power supply. But in both cases, the ‘technical’ and DIN connectors unlocked, for similar reasons to the floating
‘theoretical’ were resolved in the ‘practical’ of listening, even connections in the company’s power cords).
down to which side of the mat sounds best!
The only strange part of the operation is there is a top-
Of course, the part that will draw Naim aficionado’s mounted power switch on both the turntable and the power
attention most is that tonearm. And those people are already supply, which perform the same function. This causes some
hopping from foot to foot asking three obvious questions. And consternation when mildly ‘refreshed’ as you press one button
the answers to those questions are ‘yes, it really is an Aro’, to turn it off, press the other (because you are being the
‘no, it isn’t available separately’, and, ‘hopefully a new stand- inebriated version of ‘diligent’) and it turns back on! The deck
alone Aro will follow’. The differences between this arm and spins up from a standing start to 33 or 45 relatively quickly; not
the original Aro is that it has a proper (as in, not an after-the- ‘direct-drive’ quickly, but also not as glacially slow as some of
event Aro-matic) lift-lower system with built-in arm rest, an on- the very high-mass designs.
the-fly VTA adjustment that I seriously doubt anyone will use,
and a carbon-fibre arm-tube; the original would have had the While it’s likely that many Solstice systems will go
same, were neatly engineered carbon-fibre widely available into Naim systems, I consciously wanted to place this in a
and even remotely affordable in the late 1980s… such is the wider context. Placing the front-end package into a system
progress of material science in the intervening decades. comprising Burmester 068 preamp and 911 power amplifier
into a pair of Wilson Audio Duette 2 on Townshend platforms,
There is a fourth question that would be asked by eventually settling on Nordost Odin 2 cable throughout (except
existing Aro owners, and the answer to that is ‘yes’… it has for the aforementioned Super Lumina) is almost as un-Naim as
a slotted headshell; the original Aro had three small holes in it gets. Would it sound good in context or is it designed simply
the headshell, designed to fit the Linn Troika cartridge, and to slot into Naim systems? Would it put a smile on my face or
if your cartridge wasn’t a Troika and had a different distance leave the sound cold?
between mounting holes and stylus tip, alignment was
more luck than judgment. While the supplied Naim Equinox Normally such questions might take a day or so to
moving coil cartridge (also made by Clearaudio) has three answer, but the Solstice responded instantly. Granted this
mounting points – making alignment relatively easy and adds was one of the first samples and had been thoroughly run
to rigidity of contact – should you wish to move beyond the in, but it took longer to write this sentence than it took for the
Equinox cartridge at some point, the arm now allows greater Solstice to make its mark; a foot-tappin’, gormless smilin’,
adjustment at last. This sounds trivial, but was in fact quite music lovin’ mark. Right from the moment Lana Del Ray
a feat of engineering, because the design of the original intones “Goddamn, man child!” at the start of ‘Norman f***ing
Aro headshell would lose some structural integrity if slotted Rockwell’ [NFR, Polydor/Interscope], I knew this was going
and making a similar headshell without compromising in to be something special. The way the vocals had excellent
performance or ‘aro-ness’ would be difficult. presence and focus, but backed by instruments that both
existed in their own vivid, visceral dimensional ‘space’ and
While Solstice is considered a turn-key device, that it integrated with the music as a cohesive whole is so very Naim
allows future changes in cartridge would be of little benefit Audio and so hard to find in wider circles.
if the phono stage itself was locked into the parameters of
the Equinox alone. Fortunately, the Solstice phono stage has Better yet, the more I listened, the more I liked it. This
a range of cartridge loading options on its back panel. This coincided with one of the few heatwaves the UK gets, and
is something of a nerve-centre for the Solstice system, as that at a time of unlocking after COVID, so if ever there was a
the rear panel also provides options on logo brightness and time where a record player would sit around getting minimal
standby options. It also provides options for DIN output (Naim use, it was this. And yet, I couldn’t help myself; out came
records from the back of the collection, such as Nic Jones

14 ISSUE 197

(R)Evolution

“Sometimes products really are simply better
– a lot better. This is one of those times.”

Roy Gregory, Hi-Fi+ Issue 194

Setting a whole new standard for audio amplification
– the new CH Precision 10 Series

For a dealer or distributor near you:
www.ch-precision.com/where-to-experience

ch-precision.com • [email protected] • +41 (0)21 701 9040

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / NAIM AUDIO SOLSTICE

“Here, you get the impressive recording, but you also always get the sense
of a musician playing with great skill and passion.”

Penguin Eggs [Tropic/Three Black Feathers]. ‘Canadee-I-O’ is ‘easy on the ears’ side of things, and it doesn’t take well to
a fine bit of fingerstyle acoustic guitar picking that is supremely complex layered classical music) are either simply not an issue
well recorded and Jones deserves to be thought of alongside or are reduced to near-total inaudibility. Yes, the Aro’s mid-
of Bert Jansch and Richard Thompson on the basis of this bass bloom (which gave music its characteristic ‘bounce’) is
record. It’s one of those tracks that always sounds good, but still around in vestigial terms, but it only serves to make the
rarely sounds great because the intent of Jones is subsumed sound more beat-oriented and exciting, and doesn’t detract
by the impressive recording. Here, you get the impressive from music above or below that region. Like all good audio,
recording, but you also always get the sense of a musician the Solstice is focused on making music sound entertaining
playing with great skill and passion. as well as accurate. Those who like their music more like
a science experiment than something to enjoy might find
In a way, the Solstice isn’t something that unveils endless comfort in other front-ends, but the rest of us are playing to a
amounts of new information off the groove (although the very different equation, and enjoying the coefficient of rhythm.
turntable’s overall performance is extremely detailed); it’s how
it ties everything together so well and makes that sound natural There’s a phrase I’ve been holding onto with many
and entertaining. All the elements that contribute to good sound Naim reviews, waiting for the one product where it is truly
(dynamic range, good stereo soundstaging, etc) are there and appropriate… and I am pretty sure the Solstice is that product.
represented well, but the same could be said of almost any This turntable is just so ‘Julian Vereker’. This is not just a pithy
decent turntable. The combination of turntable, arm, cartridge statement… just ask Naim’s Technical Director Emeritus, Roy
and phono stage is well developed, and the individual products George, who came out of retirement to work on the Solstice
work in harmony (as much as it’s possible to check given there Special Edition project; “I started working for Naim in 1985
are limited swappable options at this time), but so do many and immediately began working with Julian and the team
well-assembled turntable packages. What the Solstice does to optimise the performance from vinyl, using our favourite
so well, however, is render all that academic. Most other decks turntables at the time; either Linn or Phonosophie. We
you experience or enjoy; this one helps you enjoy the music, all developed several modifications, including detailed mechanical
else is at best a secondary concern. changes, motor power supplies and phono stages, to extract
the best from vinyl replay. Not all these advances made it to
The arm in particular is a joy to use, retaining all the easy market – though they certainly got a lot of use in our personal
‘plonk it on the record and play the thing’ nature of the older systems! – but they all helped maximise the music source to
arm, but with just enough of a lift/lower to make cueing up a enable the design of better pre and power amplifiers. I still
record possible. Looking into the past, some of the limitations often think about Julian, and how he would have regarded
addressed at the Aro of its time (I used one in the 1990s; it the products we have designed since he died. I was a Naim
was great, but a little rolled off top and bottom, it errs on the

16 ISSUE 197

Winning performance

ChordMusic Accessory of the Year
cable system English Electric 8Switch

Chord Company Signature, Sarum and ChordMusic
form the vanguard of our cable ranges. A master
collection that features our latest conductor, insulation
and connector technology.

Audiophile quality at a realistic price and each
one built to your specific requirements. Book a
demonstration at your nearest Chord Company
retailer and hear the difference for yourself.

Also including the multi-award-winning English Electric
8Switch & new 16Switch.

Designed and/or hand-built in England since 1985 by
a dedicated team of music lovers. Discover more at
www.chord.co.uk

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / NAIM AUDIO SOLSTICE

customer for 11 years before I joined the company, so I’m TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
well and truly steeped in the Naim vision. I believe he would
have very much approved of the engineering solutions and Type: Turntable system
final performance of the Solstice Special Edition.” NVS TT turntable
Plinth: 47 wooden layers, metal skinned
Solstice has got that combination of drive, excitement, Decoupling: arm and bearing island
foot-tapping energy, dynamic punch. Sure, it’s more even- Bearing/Platter: Magnetic bearing, high-mass platter
handed as befits the more 21st Century approach to music Speeds: 33.33rpm, 45rpm
replay and also the way Naim sounds today… but it’s also got Motor type: High torque, 24V DC brushless motor
that ‘put a smile on your face’ love of music that permeated Motor Control: Optical feedback
really well thought-through ‘chrome bumper’ Naim products Dimensions (H×W×D): 182 × 420 × 358mm
of yore. Which fits the only sadness I feel about the Solstice; Weight: 25.4kg
those who are no longer around who would have absolutely ARO unipivot tonearm
loved the deck. Listening to the Solstice makes me think Arm height and azimuth adjustment: Yes!
about the late Malcolm Steward shoe-horning in a pair of SBL Tonearm connection: 5 pin mini DIN
loudspeakers into a room only slightly larger than the boxes Equinox moving coil cartridge
in which they were packed, and playing Gregson & Collister Output voltage: 0.4mV
and Richard Thompson albums at ‘Def Con 1’ levels on his Impedance: 11
Pink Linnk’s, Aro’d up LP12. Malcolm would have adored this Recommended MC input values: 100 , 1000p , high gain
turntable and its sound. So, perhaps it’s fitting that one of Weight: 8g
the last records I played on the Solstice was one I remember NVC TT Phono stage
playing at his place decades ago; ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ by The Input: phono (MM, MC), earth tag
Velvet Underground [Verve]. The fragile nature of this song (just Output: Stereo RCA, 5 pin DIN, 8 pin DIN
Lou Reed’s voice with a very simple backing) is deceptively RIAA accuracy: ±0.1dB
difficult to do well, but when it’s right… it simply stops you IEC cut (Partial): -2dB at 20Hz and –3dB at 14Hz
in your tracks. That’s what the Naim Solstice can do so well. Gain: 42dB (MM), 61dB (MC, low gain), 67dB (MC, high

Personal weltschmerz aside, there are few downsides gain)
to this system as a complete package, save for it being a S/N ratio: 83dB (MM), 84dB (MC)
complete package. While you could theoretically swap out THD+N: <0.005%
either the cartridge or the phono stage, there is no provision for Crosstalk: >75dB
doing so when specifying the Solstice. As I can’t help feeling Max output signal: 8Vrms
that the Solstice isn’t going to be many people’s first LP rodeo, Loading: 47k /100p (MM), 1000 , 600 , 430 , 330 ,
I can envisage some mild gnashing of teeth among those who
want to upgrade parts of the LP replay system instead of the 250 , 215 , 185 ,165 ,150 , 140 , 125 , 115 ,
whole caboodle. In fairness though, the package itself is so 105 , 100 , 90 , 85 , 100p , 400p , 700p , 1000p ,
damn good in and of itself, I think that downside is a bit of a 1300p , 1600p , 1900p , 2200p , 2500p , 2700p ,
‘reach’; in reality, after about five minutes in the presence of the 3100p , 3400p , 3700p , 4000p , 4300p , 4600p (MC)
Solstice you will be too busy tapping in your credit card’s PIN Dimensions (H×W×D): 70mm × 214mm × 329mm
number to think about what’s presently sitting on your shelves. Weight: 3.4kg
Otherwise, for cat-related reasons, I’d like a lid… that’s it! NPX TT Power Supply
Standby consumption: <0.5W
In a way, what buoys me most about Solstice is the Dimensions (H×W×D): 70mm × 214mm × 329mm
potential it holds. It’s a great turntable package and I hope Weight: 5.6kg
Solstice isn’t a ‘one off’, but instead the first of a series of Price: £16,000
vinyl-related components that add a high-performance Naim
LP source component to a wider range of price points. I would Manufacturer: Naim Audio
love to see a Naim turntable that sits alongside a Supernait URL: naimaudio.com
in price and performance, for example. If the Solstice is the Tel: +44(0)1722 426600
launch pad for such a range of devices, 2021 might just turn
out to be one hell of a summertime!

18 ISSUE 197

30th ANNIVERSARY 1991–2021

BUY • SELL • EXCHANGE

GREAT VALUE NEW & PRE-OWNED HIGH END HI-FI
Huge range of high end brands • Expert system matching advice • Used High end hi-fi bought and sold

Part exchange available • All items checked and guaranteed • Major credit cards accepted

Choice HiFi… Not missed a beat in 30 Years!

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIERS Reference £9,990 Merrill Williams REAL 101.2 & MD1 Cardas Cross 1m RCA £290 Focal Stella Utopia Be III EM £28,990

VTL IT85 £2,490 Naim NAC 202 £990 controller £3,990 Cardas Clear Light SC 2.25m Estelon YB £9,900

Vitus SIA025 mkI £8,500 Naim Headline & NAPSC psu £350 Kuzma Stabi R- 1 Wing Spade/Spade £550 Estelon XA £16,990
(4Point9 mount)
Vitus RI 101 with Dac £9,500 McIntosh C2600 £4,990 £5,450 CD/SACD PLAYERS & DACS, Dali Euphonia MS4 £2,490
STREAMERS/DIGITAL
Quad II Classic Integrated £2,290 Krell KCT pre-amp £3,490 Kodo The Beat MagDrive STORAGE B&W Signature Diamond £10,990

Turntable £17,990

Primare Prisma i15 £995 Gryphon Sonata Allegro with Graham Engineering Phantom Elite Wadia 270 Transport & B&W Matrix 800 £5,990
27 DAC
Krell KAV400xi Integrated £1,490 Legato phono input £5,490 (TechDas Spec) £8,999 £6,990 B&W 802 D2 £8,990

Kondo Ongaku Special Edition £49,900 Conrad Johnson PF-1 FET £890 Graham Engineering Vitus SCD 025 mkII £13,500 Axjet AX Superjet £49,990
Pre-amplifier Phantom B44
Gryphon Callisto 2200 £4,490 £2,490 Avalon Precision Monitor Series
Theta DS Pro Generation V
Boulder Amplifiers 1008 Phono Brinkmann 12.1 Tonearm £3,590 Avalon Acoustics Time
Devialet Expert 220 Pro £3,990 Digital Processor £1,490 Loudspeaker
Pre-amplifier £9,900 £34,900
Artisan Fidelity 301 Statement £13,500
Analog Domain Audio Boulder 2010 Pre-Amp £14,990 Theta Digital Casablanca/
M75D mkII (On-Demo) £17,500 CARTRIDGES Xtreme II DAC & Six Shooter £1,990 Audio Acoustics Sapphire
Bel Canto Black- Ultimate
Allnic T2000 25th Anniversary £4,450 Theta Compli £1,790 Ti-C SE £55,000
Amplification System £27,500 Van den Hul The Frog £750
Audio Acoustic Sapphire Ti-C £19,990
POWER AMPLIFIERS B.M.C. Audio DAC1PreHR £3,250 Van den Hul Colibri XGW Koa T+A E Series CD mkI £790
Analog domain Argus
VTL ST150 Stereo Power Amp £3,490 Audio Note M2 Phono £2,950 Stradivarius (for heavy Sony SCD1 (CD/SACD) Player £1,990 Loudspeaker £19,900

VTL S200 Signature Tonearms) £3,900 Quad 99 CD £325
Stereo Amplifier
£8,990 PRE & POWER COMBINATIONS Van den Hul Colibri XGW Prism Sound Callia DAC £990 HEADPHONES
Grand Cru
VTL MB-450 Series III VTL TL7.5 Series III & £8,500 Primare Prisma i15 £995 Naim Headline & NAPSC psu £350
Monoblock Amplifiers MB 450 series III Mono
£12,500 Combination £23,500 Van den Hul Colibri XGW £2,490 Orpheus Laboratories System MAINS CABLES, FILTERS,
POWER CONDITIONERS &
Tom Evans Audio Design Linear Quad 306/ 34/FM4 £795 Cello Cartridge (by Miyabi) £4,990 (see details) £5,990 GROUNDING
A MkII Pass Labs XA30.8 £4,750
Orpheus Laboratories System CABLES- SPEAKER & Jadis JD3 CD Drive £1,980
NAT Audio Magma SE INTERCONNECTS Torus Power AVR 16 £6,000
Limited Edition (see details) £5,990 Exogal Comet DAC with
£17,900 Wireworld Platinum Eclipse XLR Comet Power Supply Tice Audio Solo £390
Bel Canto Black- Ultimate £1,990
McIntosh MC2301 Interconnect 1m £1,790
Mono-blocks Amplification System £27,500 Esoteric P03/ D03 £7,500 Tellurium Q Black Power Cable £450
£17,990
Transparent Audio Music Wave Plus EMM Labs XDS1 V1 Tara Labs The One Power £890
PHONO STAGE (V2-MDAT DSP upgrade) £16,990
Krell FPB 700cx £7,990 25ft Bi-Wire £750 Kondo Audio Note Japan ACz

Jadis JA500 MKI Whest PS.30RDT £1,590 Townshend Audio Isolda DCT Conrad Johnson D/A 2b & DR-1 Double-Avocado 1.75m
(4 Chassis valve monoblocks) £13,990
VTL TP2.5 Series II MM/MC 8m Pair Speaker Cable (DAC/Transport) £1,490 Mains Power Cord £1,990

Graff GM200 OTL £3,990 Phono Stage £1,990 Banana/Banana £1,490 B.M.C. Audio BDCD1.1 Kondo Audio Note Japan ACz
CD Player Avocado 1.75m Mains
Fourier Sans Pareil OTL £3,500 Tom Evans The Groove Plus Townshend Audio Isolda DCT £2,750 Power Cord

Conrad Johnson MF80 £690 SRX mkII psu £3,990 5m Pair Speaker Cable Audio Note CDT Five £990
CD Transport
Conrad Johnson MF200 Tom Evans The Groove £790 Banana/Banana £1,250 £15,900 Entreq Silver Tellus Infinity £1,390
MOSFET Power Amp
£1,450 Tom Evans Mastergroove Townshend Audio Fractal 1m Analog Domain Audio DAC1 Entreq Silver Tellus £990
MKII & PSU & /V £15,500
Cary 805c Mono-blocks £3,990 £7,490 RCA Interconnect £790 Entreq Silver Minimus £325

Bel Canto EVO 6 Gen III £1,990 Clrearaudio Balanced Reference TelluriumQ Ultra Black 2x2m £750 LOUDSPEAKERS Entreq Silver CleanUs £1,450
Spade/Banana
Dual Mono Phono Stage £2,500
Bel Canto Black- Ultimate Tara Labs The One Balanced Entreq Poseidon £2,790
Boulder Amplifiers 1008 Phono Wilson Audio Alexia 1 £24,990
Amplification System £27,500 1m XLR + FGS £990 Entreq Olympus Tellus £4,250
Pre-amplifier £9,900 Ubiq Audio Model 1
BAT VK 655se £11,990 Nordost Heimdall 2 USB £270 (Duelund Edition) Entreq Eartha Ground Cables- See list
B.M.C. Audio MCCI £7,500
B.M.C. Audio M3 Monoblocks £7,990 Phono Stage
£1,990 Nordost Frey Tone-arm Lead £350 Townshend Audio Maximum Entreq Eartha Apollo 3.5mm to
Supertweeters
Audio Research Reference Audio Research PH5 Pnono £1,490 MIT Cables Matrix HD12, £990 Spade Ground Cable £270
75se £5,500 1m RCA Interconnect
Audio Note M2 Phono £2,950 £390 Tannoy Canterbury GR (OW) £23,990 Entreq Challenger 3V PowerUs

Audio Note Neiro Audio Note AN6 Silver Step up Entreq Primer Pro USB £290 Spendor SP9/1 £2,100 (6-US Outlets) & (4-Schuko
Monoblocks
£16,990 Transformer £4,990 Entreq Challenger 3V Sonus Faber Olympica Nova III £8,990 Outlets) £1,190
Speaker Cable (3.7m pair) £1,990
Analog Domain Audio M75P MKII TURNTABLES & ARMS Sonus Faber Amati Entreq Challenger 3V £990
Stereo power (On-Demo) £16,500 Entreq Challenger 3V Anniversario GR £11,990 Power Cables
Interconnect XLR
Analog Domain Audio Artemis Vertere DG1 turntable c/w £990 Proac Tablette 50 Signature Entreq Apollo PowerUs
Magneto MM cartridge (Ebony) & Stands (US outlets)
Mono-blocks £69,990 £2,450 Entreq Atlantis XLR Interconnect £2,490

PRE AMPLIFIERS Technics SP10 mkII/ Obsidian Plinth & (1.65m) £4,500 £695 STANDS, SUPPORTS &
ISOLATION
VTL TL-7.5 Series III Reference SH-10E Power Supply £2,990 Entreq Atlantis Speaker Cable Proac D38R £2,990

Line Pre-Amplifier £12,990 Stillpoints LPI Record Isolator £450 (3.7m pair) £7,500 Nola Viper Reference II £6,500 VertexAQ Leading Edge
Platform & 3 Cones
Tom Evans The Vibe & SME Model 30/2 £16,500 Entreq Atlantis Speaker Cable Martin Logan Summit £3,490 £750
Pulse SEmkII
£5,990 SME Model 15A £7,500 (2.5m pair) £6,500 Manger Audio P1 £4,990 Stillpoints Ultra SS (3 sets of 4) £750

Theta Digital Casablanca/ Roksan TMS 3 Artemis/Shiraz/ Entreq Atlantis Speaker Cable Kudos Cardea C1 & Stands £690 Stillpoints Ultra 6 (with Base) £750
Xtreme II DAC & Six Shooter £1,990
Caspian DS1.5 Power Supply & (1.65m Pair) £5,900 KEF R900 £1,490 Stillpoints LPI Record Isolator £450

Plinius CD LAD £1,290 Reference Phono Stage £7,490 Entreq Apollo XLR 2012 £2,990 JBL Project EVEREST Ian Edwards JT-6 Bespoke
DD67000 HiFi Racks
NAT Audio Magnetostat SE Absolute Nordost TYR Phono (Din-RCA) £590 Entreq Apollo Infinity USB Cable £990 £44,990 £690

...much more at www.choicehifi.co.uk

Email info@choice-hifi.com
Telephone 020 8392 1959 / 07768 720456

STOCKIST OF Acapella Audio Analogue Domain ATC Audio Physic Aurosal Avalon B.M.C. Audio GmbH Burmester Cat Clear Audio
Denon Entreq Estelon Exogal Graham Tonearms JBL JM Lab Kiseki Lexicon Mark Levinson Melco Monitor Audio Nad Note Audio Origin
Live Ortofon Panasonic Parasound Pioneer Plinius Primare Pro-Ject Revel Roksan Shun Mook Audio SME Stillpoints T+A Telluriumq

Tom Evans Townshend Transfiguration Ubiq Audio Velodyne VTL Yba AND MANY OTHERS

PASS

Stereo Power Amplifier
GM70PA

Stereo Preamplifier C3PR Analog Disk Player LFT1

Monaural Amplifier 212PA

Phono Equalize Amplifier C3EQ IME1

Distributed by Select Audio | Tel 01900 601954 | www.selectaudio.co.uk

EQUIPMENT REVIEW

FinkTeam Kim stand-mount
loudspeaker

by Steve Dickinson

S o, there I was, squirming, while Charlie Haden
and John Taylor played ‘Song for the Whales’
from Nightfall [Naim]. Not squirming for the
reasons you might expect, perhaps: this was not
a squirm of embarrassment or awkwardness,
this was a squirm of discomfort caused by the fact that my
last cups of coffee had recently hit my bladder and were intent
on escape. But the music was so utterly compelling, the
event so captivating, that mere corporeal considerations
had to wait, and this moment just couldn’t be interrupted.

So the FinkTeam Kims got off to a promising start
despite their somewhat unconventional looks, and
quirky name (it’s a Star Trek genre thing). The thing is,
there have been systems which can make me squirm
with awkwardness on this track, because as a piece
of music it can be a bit challenging and some systems
just fail to communicate, collapsing into a mess of
what can easily come across as self-indulgence. But
there I was, transfixed, as Charlie Haden coaxed the
most extraordinarily evocative sounds from his double
bass; I don’t think I have ever heard his attempts to
conjure whale song, and the unfamiliar world it arises
from, portrayed with such sensitivity. As a piece of music,
it’s not difficult to dismiss this as a simple piano melody,
bookending some vaguely whale-y and rather pretentious
noodling from the bass. Quite a lot of loudspeakers permit
you to do just that; and even those that give you all the
tonal depth and colour so you appreciate the attempt, rarely
show you the sensitivity and musicianship that gripped me
in this moment. It’s not just the evocation of the sound of
whalesong, somehow Haden evokes a wistful empathy for
these magnificent creatures from his bass, too, and that
realisation was what kept me in my seat despite a pressing
need to be somewhere else.

I’ve heard this track rendered convincingly by other
loudspeakers, notably the Kudos Titan 707s I reviewed
recently, but usually it’s the tonal colour, the shading and
the realism of the instrument that gets all the attention. Here,

21 ISSUE 197

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / FINKTEAM KIM

“A sort of halfway house between a stand-mount and a floorstander in
that the stand is integral.”

all those things were ably served, but with added layers of the rather exuberant ending doesn’t disappoint by getting all
sensitivity, musicianship, and sheer awe-inspiring technique. overexcited, the Kims hold it together for the full front row
And that’s what’s so remarkable about the FinkTeam Kims, the centre experience. When things get louder, you sense the
way they not only give you the wideband tonal experience, but increase in energy and effort, not just the change in volume.
they get right into the heart of the music, and the performance. Orchestras can be big, bold and brash without getting out
At almost £9,000 for a pair they’re operating in rarified territory of shape, so Leonard Bernstein’s wonderfully jazzy phrasing
for what are, conceptually, standmounting loudspeakers; but on ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ [DG] contrasts beautifully with the
actually they perform in many ways more like floorstanding energy and scale of the LA Philharmonic, the Kims balancing
designs, so comparison with other standmounters is perhaps the forces as skilfully as Bernstein did; fast, with very little
a little specious anyway. What we have here doesn’t seem overhang things feel free from constraint, but not loose, so
to fit many of the conventional niches we’ve become you can enjoy the ride without worrying that it’s all about to
accustomed to. trip over its own feet.

The FinkTeam seems to have got into making a range of There’s a lot here that rests on the technical choices the
loudspeakers almost by accident. As a business, Karl-Heinz FinkTeam has made. The decision to use an 8” bass/mid
Fink heads up a team of specialists who act as technical driver dictates a wider cabinet than is usual nowadays for a
consultants to other loudspeaker makers. They didn’t set out speaker of this size, but it provides extension and scale that
to design a range of speakers so much as explore the art isn’t easy to achieve with the more common 5” or 6” units.
of the possible. One thing led to another, which led to the It’s a little harder to integrate with the Air Motion Transformer
flagship WM-4 model, then the (£25,900) Borg floorstander, tweeter but the results speak for themselves. FinkTeam
and now the Kim, a sort of halfway house between a stand- maintain that damping materials can slow the loudspeaker
mounter and a floorstander in that the stand is integral, and down and slug the sound, and the Kims make a strong case
there’s no way this model was ever going to fit on a bookshelf for the more intelligent technical solutions they advocate to
anyway. The cabinet size and proportions calls to mind the ensure the cabinet does its job without singing along. Similarly,
classic large BBC monitors of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and is rather close attention to the design of the rearward-firing reflex port
different to the slimline designs we mostly see nowadays. The avoids the more common pitfalls heard in ported designs while
backwards-leaning stance reminds me more of a certain Star retaining the essential benefits in terms of bass extension and
Wars droid than a Star Trek character, though. The external power handling. Amplifier and room-matching are also catered
dimensions suggest a cabinet volume of around 45 litres. In for by two adjustable selectors on the rear panel, one for
reality it’s smaller because some interior space is given over damping factor, the other for a small amount of treble output
to Helmholtz resonators and other technology, the better to adjustment. Clearly the designers don’t intend quirky amps or
control cabinet resonance and associated unwanted output, difficult rooms to be a barrier to purchase. I’m generally a fan
but the overall cabinet volume is still broadly comparable to of simple crossover designs, but here we have a 4th order unit
many a respectable floorstanding design. which somehow exemplifies transparency, while also doing a
very decent job of preserving the phase relationships that I
Large scale works are handled as well as you’d expect have come to think are crucial to a properly involving musical
from a good sized driver in a decent sized enclosure. experience.
Tchaikovsky, ‘Capriccio Italien’, the LSO’s account under
Kenneth Alwyn [Decca] is a firm favourite chez Dickinson as And involving it is. The Kims seem to specialise in
he takes it at a rattling pace. And here today the substantial preserving the spatial and temporal relationships within the
forces are well balanced, laid out before us with excellent music. Everything happens when, and where it should, so as
tonal shading and it’s easy to see how the composer is a listener you have less work to do and can just get on with
playing with the spatial and tonal differences between strings, the business of enjoying the performance. And, interestingly,
woodwind and brass. There’s real scale and weight, too, and you don’t need to drive them hard to get satisfaction. Some

22 ISSUE 197

Now more connected than ever with Spotify Connect

390 - Network Player/Preamplifier // 330A - Power Amplifier

For more details on the full range of MOON products available in the UK,
visit www.renaissanceaudio.co.uk

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / FINKTEAM KIM

“Played at, ahem, robust levels round these parts, this now has all the
multi-layered complexity, dynamics and tonal colour I could wish for.”

loudspeakers impress most when delivering realistic concert- connection between Fonseca’s piano and Cachaito Lopez’
style levels; the Kims can do that, too, and will go very loud bass all the better for being rendered at a gentler volume.
indeed without getting hard, shouty or overblown. Just for old Who knew? In contrast ‘Ishmael’ from the same album drives
times’ sake I dug out some of the old warhorses, ‘Telegraph relentlessly on and, turned up loud, the Kims will rock with
Road’ from Love Over Gold [Vertigo] kept its composure even the best of them, while still digging deep into the fast, tactile,
in the loudest, busiest bits, retaining the structure sufficiently complex percussion. There’s an ability to portray the layers
intact that you could easily appreciate the phrasing and within a performance, to retain the structure of the music and
technique behind all the bombast. But they’ll also deliver the the way the parts blend, collide and interact, regardless of
goods at modest volume settings, giving a coherent, dynamic volume setting. The Kims were totally unfazed by the energy
and engaging performance even at late-night levels: Agnes and complexity in Gogo Penguin’s ‘Raven’ from A Humdrum
Obel ‘Familiar’ from Citizen of Glass [PIAS] was revealing. Star [Blue Note], keeping all the polythythms intact while also
Played at, ahem, robust levels around these parts, this now giving me all the shading of tones, and the sheer energy of
has all the multi-layered complexity, dynamics and tonal colour the performance.
I could wish for, even when played quietly. Other aspects of the
music come to the fore, too; there’s a coherence, a ‘rightness’ It’s clearly a very accomplished design. The
to the performance that just engages the musical brain with unconventional approaches must present a myriad of ways
little obvious effort. Roberto Fonseca, ‘Llegó Cachaíto’ to royally screw things up, so the fact that I haven’t found the
from Zamazu [Enja] was subtle, delicate and affecting, the slightest evidence of up-screwing, royal or otherwise, tells me
that the FinkTeam clearly know their business. The crossover

24 ISSUE 197

DIABLO 300

Integrity and Integration

www.gryphon-audio.com

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / FINKTEAM KIM

“There’s some latitude in the sweet TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
spot and off-axis listening doesn’t
destroy the imaging.” Type: Two way, refle ported, stand-mounting
loudspeaker with integral stand
is largely undetectable, partly perhaps because the passband
is lower than usual, at 2200Hz; bass is deep, tuneful and Driver complement: 1 × 8 mid/ ass driver, paper
agile, the better to underpin one of the most natural-sounding cone with ru er surround; 1 × 110mm Air Motion
treble units I’ve heard. I’ve used a few loudspeakers with Transformer high frequency unit, pleated Kapton
ribbon tweeters over the years, notably from Elac and Raidho, diaphragm with 50 m aluminium strips
and there’s usually a moment when you hear a discontinuity
between treble and bass/midrange units and, once heard, Distortion: 0.2% THD @1W
you can’t un-hear it. The AMT operates differently to a ribbon Crossover frequency: 2.2kHz
design despite looking superficially similar and I have to say, Crossover type: 4th order acoustic inkwitz- iley; all-pass
that moment hasn’t yet happened with the Kims. I’ve been
trying to catch them out so I’m reasonably confident in saying delay for the H unit; impedance compensation.
that this is the best-integrated pairing of two dissimilar driver Air core inductors, Mundorf polypropylene film
technologies I’ve yet had the pleasure of using. capacitors and Mundorf low inductance and Bifilar
resistors. Additional controls for H e tension and
The tweeter seems to have quite wide horizontal damping
dispersion, too, as there’s some latitude in the sweet spot, requency response: (in room, typical) 35Hz–25kHz,
and off-axis listening doesn’t destroy the imaging. And ad usta le to 45Hz–23kHz, -10dB
imaging is one of the strengths here; it goes to that overall Impedance: Average 8 hms, 5.9 hm minimum
coherence thing, but staging, ambience and positioning of Sensitivity: 86dB 2.83 / 1 metre
performers and instruments is solid, stable and not tidally- Dimensions (H×W×D): ca inet: 500 × 300 × 310mm
locked to one crucial listening position. Vertically, though, a (height & depth 854 × 412mm with stand)
bit of experimentation with the adjustment of the angle the Weight: 25.1Kg each
cabinets lean back will pay dividends. The integral open frame inishes: Choice of veneer finishes and front panel
stand sets the speaker at a slightly disconcerting, laid-back shades
angle, the better to project the sound up and into the room Price: £8,900/pair (standard finishes)
based on typical listening heights and distances; fiddling
with the height of the spikes front to back gives a degree of Manufacturer: inkTeam
fine adjustment if you listen outside that notional range. The : finkteam.com
canted-back arrangement reminds me of those cheap and
cheerful IKEA speaker stands all my friends had in the 1980s, K distri utor: Kog Audio
but rather more effective in its implementation here; it also, Tel: +44 (0)24 7722 0650
happily, prevents the cabinets becoming resting places for
teacups, plant pots, and cats. : kogaudio.com

I could go on, but suffice to say the Kims seem pretty fragments passed around the orchestra like tiny gifts. Utterly
agnostic as to genre. Classical, jazz, rock, country, electronica, delightful. As was Solveig Slettahjell and her incomparable
girl and guitar; whatever I’ve thrown at them has always version of Tom Waits’ ‘Take it with me’ on Silver [ACT]. Never
been delivered in a fundamentally lucid way, all the relevant less than laid-back, this was positively languid, she has all the
elements of the music interlocked securely and tightly, but not time in the world to perform, and all you need to do is give
in a buttoned-down sense. Everything is free and expressive, yourself the space to luxuriate in it.
but cohesive. It’s like every musician in my collection got sober
and upped their game. Anitra’s Dance from Grieg’s Peer Gynt The Kim is that rare and beautiful creature: an entry-level
Suite [Decca] was definitely a dance, rhythmically fine-boned, product that needs no excuses. This is no corner-cutting and
with accents and punctuation points just so, little musical cost-shaved bare-bones model, the Kim competes on its own
terms and has the balls, and the finesse to challenge anything
at or near its price. Or a fair few costing a good deal more, for
that matter.

26 ISSUE 197

A NEW LEGEND IS BORN

SILTECH CLASSIC LEGEND

G9 PURE SOLID SILVER-GOLD CONDUCTORS
MILITARY GRADE TRIPLE INSULATION
WIDE FREQUENCY SHIELDING

World’s best cables. Only from Siltech

www.siltechcables.com

Distributed in the UK and Ireland by Padood
www.padood.com | [email protected]

+44 (0) 1223 653199 | Nine Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 1GE

EQUIPMENT REVIEW

Kroma Audio Mimi
stand-mount loudspeaker

by Alan Sircom

T he Mimi is a clever and distinctive two-way itself is backswept and tall the stand is relatively low, but the
stand-mount bass reflex loudspeaker. However, speaker+stand combination looks good and the Panzerholz
there are a gazillion two-way stand-mounted plinth stands slightly proud in the middle of the speaker’s lines.
loudspeakers, many of which are ported. Do we The Mimi comes with a set of tiny clear plastic blobs to attach
need another one? Kroma shouts a loud ‘yes!’ to the base of the speaker, just to stop it moving around on
and on the basis of the Mimi, the company makes a very good the semi-matt top of the Panzerholz plinth. The combination
case for its inclusion in the mid-sized stand-mount pantheon. of Krion and Panzerholz is also used in the new Organic range
of Artesania Audio stands, which is perhaps not that much of
Kroma Audio is a Spanish audio company. Spanish audio a surprise when you discover there is a business connection
brands are relatively rare, but the manufacturing community between these two Spanish companies.
there can best be summed up as ‘small, but perfectly formed’,
with a few brands generally making outstanding products, An interesting aspect of the Mimi, and Kroma speakers in
as opposed to a plethora of companies making some OK general, is the nature of the port. It’s a carefully tuned choice of
and some not so OK product lines. Kroma makes seven cedar or fir, as used by Spanish and Flamenco guitar luthiers.
loudspeakers, two stand-mounts and five floorstanders, of
which the Mimi represents the entry point. It also makes a The Mimi is a ‘Tiger Moth’ of a loudspeaker. While that
generic stand for bookshelf loudspeakers and cable elevators. probably prompts a solid ‘huh?’ from most people, to a few
The Mimi’s cabinet – like all the other speakers in the range that explains a lot. Here’s why; the De Havilland Tiger Moth
– is made from Krion, a material produced in Spain made of biplane was a well-liked trainer aircraft used by the Royal
two-thirds gibbsite (aluminium trihydrate, or ‘ATH’) and one- Air Force (and others) from the mid-1930s until the 1950s
third resin. Think of Krion as a rival to Corian, but with a look because it was considered an easy aircraft to fly but a hard
closer to porcelain (Corian often goes for marbled or stone- aircraft to fly well. Virtually every allied pilot flying in the Battle
like finishes, thanks in part to its extensive use in kitchens and of Britain learned their craft in a Tiger Moth, and some are still
bathrooms). in private use to this day. This is useful for more than simply
padding out the text, as partnering and installing the Mimi is
Mimi itself is a back-swept design with a fully Krion also easy to do but hard to do well, hence the whole RAF-
cabinet. Although the front, rear, top and bottom of the related aside. You can use it with more or less any amplifier
cabinet are finished in white or black, the side-walls have (90dB efficiency and an eight-ohm load would not tax any
a range of options that go from ‘contrasting’ to ‘wild’ with modern amp design except possibly one of the handful of
the Vacas art finishes. There’s even a 24ct gold leaf finish! super-low powered single-ended triode amps), but careful
It features a Hiquphon tweeter with a 165mm Scan-Speak choice makes a big difference.
mid/woofer. The single-wired, front ported cabinet hides a
crossover made of some of the finest new and new-old-stock Similarly, the difference between getting the loudspeakers
components known to man, all sealed in resin. The matching broadly in the right place in the listening room and taking
stand is also made of Krion, but with a Panzerholz top plate time to micro-manage that right place is crucial. In fact,
and feet. Panzerholz is an extremely high density ‘tank-wood’ this was one of those loudspeakers that benefitted from
plywood material that can be used as a metal substitute and is being fired along the room rather than down its length. It
actually bulletproof (think of it as a 21st Century alternative to seems placement relative to the rear wall isn’t as important
ebony without the terrifying sustainability issues). This means as its position relative to the side walls and any reflections
you get the anti-resonance and acoustic damping effect of produced by those walls. Some subtle room treatment for side
Panzerholz and Krion combined. Because the loudspeaker wall reflection is also useful, suggesting a loudspeaker with
excellent dispersion qualities.

28 ISSUE 197

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / KROMA AUDIO MIMI
29 ISSUE 197

Timeless Joy.

The Aqua equipment closely reflects &D innovations and know-how developed
in-house, resulting in the highest level of sound quality and standards.

Superlative materials, careful construction, and future-proof upgradea ility of
their modular electronics, guarantee a sonic performance that is always at the

high-class level and preserve the value of your investment.

aquahifi. c om uilt t achie e true hi h fi elit
s u repr ucti
Distributed
in the UK by ask about our unique risk-free 30 Day Home Trial

[email protected]

eliteaudiouk.com | 0800 464 7274

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / KROMA AUDIO MIMI

“Mimi always makes
music fun thanks in
part to its deceptively
deep bass.”

Interestingly, while getting the partners and placement right is paramount, TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
the Mimi is not so fussy as to room size; its physical size and that it has a
single 165mm bass driver per side puts it more into small to medium-sized Type: Two-way stand-mount
rooms (the kind of spaces most urban city-dwellers might have), there is a loudspeaker
good degree of flexibility in room dynamics. In no small part, that comes down
to the bass delivery from that driver, which is capable of some extremely deep Drivers: 1× Hiquphon 0.75mm soft dome
and rich tones. The Mimi just about passes my Trentemøller test, as those fast, tweeter, 1× 165mm ScanSpeak
almost square-wave deep beats in ‘Chameleon’ [The Last Resort, Poker Flat] Classic mid/bass cone
don’t choke up the front port unless played at ‘healthy’ levels. However, in
playing that track, the ‘fight or flight’ response one can get to deep, malevolent Sensitivity: 90dB (anechoic)
bass tones is fully retained. Usually, those deep bass notes are the stuff of Nominal Impedance: 8
bigger loudspeakers than the Mimi, so making those Lovecraftian rumbles is
a sign of quality. ecommended amplifier power: >15W
Finish: various (see text)
Really good loudspeakers fall broadly into two camps; those that go for Dimensions (H×W×D, excl stand):
absolute precision and fidelity to what is recorded, and those that go for a more
musically integrated approach that is always a pleasure to hear. The Mimi falls 39.8 × 20.8 × 25cm
very much into that latter camp. Those who want to extract sonic information Weight: 16kg per loudspeaker
from their recordings to get that peculiar ‘accuracy under duress’ stark Price: £7,950/pr. old/ acas finish:
presentation will find the Mimi wanting; this is all about making a sound that is
lifelike and engaging; you are always aware of listening to music – not simply add £1,595/pr
the sound music makes while trying to escape the loudspeakers – through the
Mimis. That means a lot of those test-bed recordings that I’ve played so much Stands: £3,495/pr
I’ve worn the digits flat, end up either being musically uninspiring (I’m looking
at you, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances and also at you Un Bal by Berlioz... Manufacturer: Kroma Audio
it’s a fine piece of music, but not the classical be-all and end-all it sometimes URL: kromaaudio.com
becomes in audio reviewing), but others truly shine.
UK Distributor: Boyer Audio
URL: boyeraudio.com
Tel: +44(0)330 223 3769

This a loudspeaker that can play loud
comfortably, but most importantly also Mimi
always makes music fun thanks in part to its
deceptively deep bass. In the process, your
attention is directed away from musical micro-
management elements like micro-dynamics
and filigree detail and all the ‘tinkly’ bits
some audiophiles crave; this is all about the
music. A deceptively big sound with a wide
soundstage from a relatively small speaker
makes the Mimi hard to ignore, especially as
it looks as good as it sounds.

31 ISSUE 197

Bandwidth – Efficiency
Neutrality – Dynamics

YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL!

® HIGH END

“…rocked my world…
Full range, low distortion, no
coloration: The thoroughbred

performance of the Divin
Marquis…presents serious
competition to…the cost-no-
object loudspeaker world.”

John Atkinson, Stereophile, October 2020

The end of your high end musical odyssey.
Göbel High End Loudspeakers

Creating and installing world class systems.

www.audioarthighend.co.uk | Tel: +44 7545 484785

EQUIPMENT REVIEW

Technics Reference Class
SU-R1000 integrated
amplifier by Alan Sircom

A criticism levelled – with some justification – Technics, on the other hand, doesn’t ‘do’ retro in
at the audio industry is that it’s backwards that sense and has the backing to do that kind of ‘blue
looking and technologically moribund. In part, sky’ research into new audio tech. That might sound a bit
the reason this criticism can be justified is that odd, when describing a brand perhaps best known for its
few companies in audio are large enough to do turntables, but bear with me. One of the good things that
any real ‘blue sky’ research and development these days, so come out of audio’s inherent reactionary stance is the notion
new products are frequently older designs with minor tweaks. that change for change’s sake is pointless unless the change
In a world where the technology of five years ago seems like can be justified in performance terms. Technics takes this
they have instruction manuals in Latin, amplifier circuits that approach where possible throughout; the company didn’t re-
are variations on a design first seen when Yuri Gagarin was still engineer its direct drive turntables just to ‘cash in’ on the vinyl
just a test pilot are like something out of the Jurassic Era. And revival but rebuilt its advanced turntable projects from scratch
yet, there are modern audio amplifiers that draw inspiration once more because it was the right thing to do to push sound
from models made in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. quality forwards once more.

33 ISSUE 197

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / TECHNICS REFERENCE CLASS SU-R1000

All of which brings us to the Reference Class SU-R1000 either native digital or 24bit, 192kHz converted analogue.
integrated amplifier. From a surface inspection, this looks like These are then fed into a sample-rate converter and a delta-
a well-made, classic-looking upper-tier Japanese amplifier; sigma pulse width modulation converter, maning the output
the kind of elegant brushed-aluminium powerhouse that is a 1.5MHz PWN digital stream. This is fed to a FET driver
would look equally at home in the 1980s as it does today. The power amplifier stage. Continuing down the ‘it’s not a Class
timeless looks are deceptive, however, as under that classic D amplifier’ route, where the switching system of Class D
exterior is an amplifier unlike any other. allows a MOSFET to spend at least half its time switched
‘off’ meaning a Class D amplifier typically runs cool, the FET
I’m going to begin this exploration of why the SU-R1000 output stage of JENO needs to dissipate some heat, so those
is so different with a bit of a rant. This is a digital amplifier, NOT heatsinks and vents are not simply for show. OK, it doesn’t run
a Class D amplifier. Moreover, Class D does not mean ‘digital’; Class A hot and it’s still cooler than most conventional Class
Class D is a high-speed, high-efficiency switching amplifier. AB power amps capable of delivering 150W into eight ohms,
The nearest this gets to ‘digital’ is the input signal modulates a but nowhere near the ‘is this thing on?’ of Class D.
high-frequency sawtooth wave, and the resultant high-speed
pulse-width modulation to switch the MOSFETs in the output The reason why a full-digital amplifier has not been used
on and off. It’s ‘digital’ in the same way that turning a light on more widely is few companies have the resources to resolve
and off while exposing a roll of film is ‘digital photography’. the jitter that has the potential to plague a high-speed, high-
precision digital datastream. Put simply, the sample rate
Technics went its own way with its JENO-engine amplifier. conversion system used by Technics takes care of that.
This is a true digital amplifier, in so far as the input signal is

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / TECHNICS REFERENCE CLASS SU-R1000

This JENO engine has been used by Technics before, quacks, this is an electrical rather than acoustic measurement.
but the SU-R1000 brings a new circuit – ADCT or Active Frankly, my mind went from ‘LAPC’ to ‘LAPD’... and given the
Distortion-Cancelling Technology – to the table. This monitors tones produced are effectively the amplifier shouting “Freeze...
both the power supply of the amplifier and back EMF from the Impedance Police!” to the loudspeaker, maybe that’s no bad
loudspeakers, corrects through cancellation, and introduces mnemonic. One thing to note, however; each time you change
the cancellation waveform into the JENO engine, between loudspeakers or even speaker cables, you need to run the
the sample rate and the delta-sigma conversion stages. And, LAPC routine, as it’s sensitive enough to compensate for
staying with the ‘getting things wrong’ rant-mode, this isn’t impedance changes between loudspeaker cables. One might
akin to negative feedback circuits; it’s more like active noise argue that LAPC reduces the impact of different cables by
cancelling in headphones. factoring in their impedance into the sound of the amplifier...
You might think that. I couldn’t possibly comment!
The other module in the full-digital amplifier is Load
Adaptive Phase Cancellation, or LAPC. This circuit sends But perhaps, of all the clever parts of this amplifier, none
a calibration signal to the loudspeakers, measuring at the are quite so brightly lit as the intelligent phono preamplifier.
speaker terminals the impedance of the loudspeakers (and There are three extremely clever aspects to this. The first is
cables) to both compensate for any nasty phase angles in the the use of a part analogue, part digital ‘Hybrid EQ’ which
impedance plot and ensuring the amp delivers a signal tailored keeps the low-end of the curve in the analogue domain, and
to the loudspeakers early into the digital amplification process. the higher frequencies converted to digital. This is done to
Although the loudspeakers make some interesting pings and keep noise low and precision high. This resulting signal is

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / TECHNICS REFERENCE CLASS SU-R1000

“Like the LAPC, all of these phono optimisation systems can be turned
off, but why would you do that when they work so well?”

then modulated through two processes that require some system, all of these phono optimisation systems can be turned
input from the record player itself; Crosstalk cancellation, off, but why would you do that when they work so well?
and response optimisation. The SU-R1000 is supplied with
a four track LP, each track being an identical combination While this phono stage would prove difficult to break out
of trigger signal, frequency sweep and white noise. The into an independent box (at the very least, the signal would
sweep is to optimise the cartridge to the phono stage, the need to go into and out of the digital domain), it would be
white noise is to determine and cancel out crosstalk. The a joy to use and a fine match for top-end Technics decks.
results of this test record can be stored in the SU-R1000 Technics could make the LCD screen a bit bigger, too, while
memory, with up to four cartridges stored and named to fit they are at it.
your bill (although if that involves giving a cartridge the name
‘flauccinauccinihilipilification’, find another bill). Like the LAPC All of this high-tech take on audio is as nothing if it
doesn’t sound any good. More importantly, it doesn’t
do any good if it doesn’t sound good from input to input,

36 ISSUE 197

• • •
• • •
• • •
• • •
• • •
• • •
• • •
• • •
• • •

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / TECHNICS REFERENCE CLASS SU-R1000

“A lot of information extraction, TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
with no impediments between
input and loudspeaker driver.” Technics Reference Class SU-R1000
Type: oad-adaptive integrated digital amplifier with
and it’s here the Technics SU-R1000 really shows what it’s
capable of. It doesn’t really matter whether you are feeding phono stage
the amplifier through its RCA inputs, via a digital link or Analogue inputs: CA line inputs (×2), XLR balanced line
through the phono stage, the amplifier returns an extremely
consistent performance throughout. It’s also a musically input, CA phono input (MM/MC), phono input
consistent performance; not focusing on one specific aspect (MC only), CA main/record inputs
of the musical ‘whole’ and instead making a good, powerful Digital inputs: Optical digital ×2, Coaxial digital ×2,
presentation across the board. You get the sense of a lot of USB-B ×2
information extraction, with no impediments between input Analogue outputs: CA preamp/record outputs, 6.3mm
and loudspeaker driver. In listening to the Technics amp, you headphone socket, A-B loudspeaker terminals
begin to discover how rare and how good it is to experience Power output: 150W per channel into 8 , 300W per
that type of performance. It however makes pulling out channel into 4
musical examples a bit academic, because that consistency requency response: 5Hz–80kHz (-3dB, 8 , line and
means what applies to one applies throughout. Whatever you digital inputs), 20Hz–20kHz ( IAA deviation ±1dB, 8 ,
put through this amplifier, and whichever input you choose, MM input)
you will get the same large, dynamic, detailed and bold sound USB Support: SB 2.0 high-speed, SB Audio Class 2.0,
with excellent imaging properties. Put simply, if it’s on the Asynchronous mode
recording, it’s damn well coming out of the loudspeakers... Codec Support: PCM (32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192,
that’s the maxim the SU-R1000 lives by! 352.8, 384 kHz / 16, 24, 32 it), DSD (2.8 MHz, 5.6
MHz, 11.2 MHz, 22.4 MHz ASI ative mode only)
But perhaps the phono stage best highlights this Dimensions (W×H×D): 43 × 19.1 × 45.9cm
egalitarian approach to music. Here, while other phono Weight: 22.8kg
stages often focus in on something like the pace, rhythm and Price: £6,999
timing of a piece of music, the Technics is more attuned to
the general performance. That means the Technics doesn’t Manufacturer: Technics
force you to tap your foot along to the beat as much as some, URL: technics.com
but temper that by the Technics’ more detailed presentation Tel: 0333 222 8777 ( K only)
with outstanding soundstage properties and an extremely low
noise floor. You get the feeling that there is a lot of information for its own sake. It’s clean, detailed, precise, dynamic and
being extracted from the record, but not in a soulless way and has an excellent walk-in soundstage with very good solidity.
a lot of the surface noise is less immediately noticeable due Furthemore, unless you are trying to drive lumps of steel and
to the leading-edge speed of the Technics design. The recent concrete masquerading as loudspeakers, this takes control of
box set of Abbey Road by The Beatles [Apple/Universal] is a the loudspeakers with precision and authority; not changing
fine example of how this works. ‘Something’ or ‘Because’ are the sound of the loudspeakers, just setting them up to sound
almost perfect demonstration tracks for the Technics amp, as good as they can.
as the combination of detail and space, with good dynamics,
makes these classics come to life between your loudspeakers. Technics also made a product in the SU-R1000 that
On the other hand, Ringo’s famous drum solo on ‘The End’, changes the shape of audio amplification, which could so
though equally detailed and dynamic, lacked the ‘rooted’ easily have become a technical exercise with no real benefits.
rhythmic properties of the more beat-oriented designs. Instead, it’s an amplifier that deserves to be taken seriously
both for what’s going on inside it, and the sound it produces.
However, I think the key things about the Technics SU- Not everyone will get this, because many like their comfort
R1000 are that consistency of sound across all sources zone set to 1970s time, but to listen to the SU-R1000 is to
and that this is not simply an exercise in amplifier design experience a bit of audio’s future... and that future sounds
pretty damn good.

38 ISSUE 197

beautifully honest MADE IN FINLAND
®

Distributed in the UK by Amphion Loudspeakers Ltd.
www.audendistribution.co.uk | +44(0)7917 685 759 | [email protected] amphion.fi | +358 17 2882 100 | [email protected]

Primer Cables

By ENTREQ

Just plug ,play and enjoy .

A natural place to start with our cable concept.

Connecting you with the brands you love

For more information contact : [email protected] 07548796382

EQUIPMENT REVIEW

Modwright Instruments
KWH 225i integrated
amplifier by Jason Kennedy

S ome of the more interesting companies in amps, but he’s aware that not everyone has the budget or
this industry started out by modifying existing space to accommodate multi-box amplification and this
components; Tom Evans made his name spurred the creation of the KWH 225i hybrid integrated amp.
upgrading the clocks in CD players to good It’s based on the company’s KWI 200 transistor integrated, but
effect in the UK, and in the USA Dan Wright of has a preamplifier section built around a pair of triode valves
Modwright fame brought out the humanity in digital audio by which can be seen through an opening on top of the box. The
adding tubes to the analogue outputs of DACs and CDPs power amplifier stage uses bipolar transistors and is specified
around the turn of the millennium. Today, Modwright also to deliver 225 Watts into eight Ohms and nearly twice that
makes a range of electronics using a mix of tube and solid into four, so it’s a powerful device and not just a heavy one.
state technology. As founder Dan Wright puts it, “I prefer tube The blue anodised heat sinks on either flank are not just there
circuits for line-level applications, such as source, preamp, to complement the display. It’s no bulldozer however, as the
phono or any voltage gain stage. I prefer SS components first 25W are in Class A and Wright stipulates that there is no
anytime that current is being amplified. This is not 100% hard global feedback used.
and fast as I have also designed and been quite happy with
both SS and PP [push-pull] all tube designs.” Internally it is constructed from modules which must ease
maintenance as well as future upgrades. In standard form,
Modwright follows this thinking by making valve-based the KWH 225i is a line-level amplifier with three inputs on
preamps, phono stages and DACs alongside transistor power RCA and one on XLR plus a fourth RCA pair for home theatre

41 ISSUE 197

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / MODWRIGHT INSTRUMENTS KWH 225I

“Equally important,
however, is the option
to dim the display
down to nothing for
those moments when
you need to eliminate
distractions and
ascend to the cosmos.”

bypass/preamp input purposes. Unlike some Modwright and clean detailed sound, balanced with the right amount of
amps you can’t add a DAC module, but there is the option to tube body and weight.” And that is what I heard; this amplifier
install a solid-state phono stage for MM and high output MC has excellent transparency to detail allied to bass that is fuller
cartridges; gain is only 50dB, so those with regular MCs will and juicier than found on an all transistor amplifier. Wright has
need a step up. Alternatively, Modwright makes standalone clearly managed to combine these two technologies rather
phono stages that cater for both cartridge types and have well because it was all I could do to press pause and drag
tube rather than solid-state amplification stages. my sorry arse off the listening seat and over to the keyboard.

I like the large displays for volume and input on this amp. Initially I put on Skylab’s #1 [Astralwerks] just to warm
It certainly beats squinting across the room for the marker on up the system in the background, but the quality of burbling
the edge of a volume knob. Equally important, however, is the was just too interesting to ignore and I was soon bathing in
option to dim the display down to nothing for those moments some seriously subterranean rumblings that were as much
when you need to eliminate distractions and ascend to the physical as aural. What’s more, the melodic bits over the top
cosmos along with David Gilmour, or whoever floats your remained open and inviting at the same time; this album has
escape pod. Display dimming, input selection and volume deeper bass on it than most but usually this aspect becomes
can be adjusted with an aluminium handset that is unusually tiring after a while. Here, the Modwright provided the low
chunky, but not very large and more ergonomic than it might end in context so that the music came first and the sound
appear. The handset can also turn the amp on and off. A few second. Something that valves seem to be rather good at
other buttons are present but do not relate to this amplifier, more often than not. With Keith Jarrett on the stage [‘Part VII,
and don’t detract from its functionality. London’, Paris/London – Testament, ECM] his stomping
was low enough to feel yet not overpowering nor injurious
Listening commenced with the KWH 225i hooked up to to the brilliance of the playing. What’s clear is the solidity and
an iFi Pro iDSD DAC, using the tube output stage setting, power of the piano, it has a greater physical presence in the
and a pair of PMC twenty5.26i floorstanding loudspeakers, Modwrights hands than usual but this only enhanced the
a pairing that proved to be highly engaging and entertaining. performance by putting the player and instrument in the room.
Wright says that “Sonically, I like black backgrounds, low noise

42 ISSUE 197

Old’s cool.

The new Dynaudio Heritage Special.
Classic premium hi-fi, handmade with love in Denmark.

Listen to craftsmanship. Listen to real wood. Listen to true, Each of the 2500 limited-edition pairs is unique. And they’re
state-of-the-art, hand-built tweeters and woofers. To more brimming with the spirit (and flødebolle-fuelled boldness) that
than 2000 hours of devoted R&D. To the depths of your made the Dynaudio name. Run your fingers over the hand-
record collection. Listen to what you love. finished American Walnut veneer. Pause at the groove around
the baffle (you’ll remember it from our speakers that you coveted
‘Heritage Special’ isn’t just a name. It’s a salute to traditional years ago). Then play some music and rock your socks off.
high-performance Danish audio design, featuring Dynaudio’s
now-legendary materials, technologies and performance. It isn’t for everyone. But that’s OK. We made it for you.

Heritage Special

www.dynaudio.com/heritage

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / MODWRIGHT INSTRUMENTS KWH 225I

“(Imaging) was more on depth TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
than width/height but the sense of
musical flow was very powerful.” Type: Hy rid, 2-channel integrated amplifier.
Analogue inputs: Three single-ended line-level inputs
The KWH 225i positively encourages music with decent
low end, and I don’t need much encouragement in the first (via RCA jacks), one balanced input (via XLR
place, so Bob Marley’s ‘Natural Mystic’ soon found itself in connectors), one home cinema bypass input (via
the play queue. Here what strikes one initially is the reverb RCA jacks)
on the voice, which is not usually a clear characteristic, but Digital inputs: N/A
this amp is particularly transparent and reveals such details Analogue outputs: Pre outputs (via RCA jacks),
with ease. That said, the bass guitar does sound particularly loudspeaker terminals on 5-way binding posts
good in a chocolatey way; it’s open strings seemingly looser Supported sample rates: N/A
and more relaxed than usual. Realising that I was being pulled Input impedance: 20kOhms
down a river of bass I switched to an orchestral piece where Output impedance (preamp): N/A
other qualities might be revealed. Maxim Emelyanychev’s Headphone Loads: N/A
take on Schubert’s ‘The Great’ [Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Power Output: 225Wpc @ 8 Ohms, 400Wpc @ 4 Ohms
Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944, Linn] is a large scale work Bandwidth: 20Hz–100kHz
with plenty of scale and dynamics that the Modwright revelled Distortion: ot specified
in. The emphasis image-wise was more on depth than width/ Signal to Noise Ratio: ot specified
height but the sense of musical flow was very powerful and Dimensions (H×W×D): 165 × 432 × 432mm
made me want to listen for longer. Another classical piece with Weight: 29kg
solo violin revealed the tonal qualities of the amp, bringing out Price: £8,500
the character of the instrument and player, the slight extra
warmth of the balance countering any tendency to stridency Manufacturer: Modwright Instruments
in the higher notes. URL: modwright.com

Going back to more contemporary instrumentation UK Distributor: Elite Audio
of Laurie Anderson’s ‘Gravity’s Angel’ [Mister Heartbreak, Tel: 0800 4647274
Warner Bros] underpinned the sense that you can hear an URL: eliteaudiouk.com
awful lot through this Modwright; it zooms in on the quiet
stuff somehow and shows you just what’s going on. At the transparency and three dimensionality. What’s more, a number
same time there’s power and weight in the bass line, and it’s a of pieces created a soundstage that was so real and deep
great bass line, and there are some weird phasey effects with that it felt as if you could walk into it. The solid-state power
sounds shooting around the stage, the combination making amplifier serves to amplify the beguiling qualities of those two
for a very solid sonic picture for the listener to watch and triode valves and produces results that are electrifying in their
wonder at. As Dan is a vinyl fan I put on a couple of records immediacy and atmosphere. The recording needs to be good
via a Tom Evans Groove SRX phono stage and this proved to achieve this of course, but plenty of the tracks I tried did
to be a very worthwhile exercise. The new Abbey Lincoln re- the trick including the distinctly lo-fi eponymous debut from
master from Craft Recordings (Abbey is Blue) sounding superb Tortoise, the track ‘Night Air’ having a reach out and touch
with very clear acoustic from the venue and excellent image it presence that encouraged level and extended listening. In
definition, the beautiful tone of the original tube electronics fact all the better sounding tunes encouraged me to push the
bringing out the soul of this fine singer. volume, the 802 is a little reluctant in the midrange and this
amp balances this perfectly so the end result is very pleasing.
It’s always interesting to try different speakers with any
amp so I wrestled a pair of Bowers & Wilkins 802s into place. Dan Wright has done a fine job of marrying the qualities of
There’s an enthusiastic quote from an 802 owner on the valve and solid state electronics in the KWH 225i which is a well
Modwright website and it instantly became clear why this is the built and musically compelling amplifier that will charm many
case; the sound they produce was nothing short of vivid in its listeners, especially those with revealing loudspeakers.

44 ISSUE 197

R 1 ARRETÉ

KRONOS AV · WEST SUSSEX & DUNGANNON • NINTRONICS · WELWYN GARDEN CITY • NOTTINGHAM HI-FI CENTRE · NOTTINGHAM
P.J HI-FI · GUILDFORD • PREMIUM SOUND · LONDON • RIPCASTER · CHECKENDON • SUPERFI · LINCOLN • LOUD & CLEAR · EDINBURGH

“Discovering rich new meaning in well-worn LPs is perhaps the most profound testament to the Transcendence’s
preeminence. I consider the Transcendence one of the greatest achievements of high-end audio, not just in
turntables and tonearms, but across all product categories.”

- Robert Harley, The Absolute Sound, July/August 2019
“The A.J. Conti Transcendence is an invaluable tool for me, in addition to being supremely pleasurable to listen to!
To put it simply, it tells me the truth about the vinyl I have on…I spend a lot of time in studios and the only thing I can
compare it to is a perfectly maintained Studer tape deck.”

- Joe Harley, Record Producer

THE A.J. CONTI TRANSCENDENCE

Hand built in New Hampshire with materials sourced exclusively in the USA and Canada
BASIS AUDIO | www.basisaudio.com | +1-603-889-4776

EQUIPMENT REVIEW

KEF LS50 Meta stand-mount
loudspeaker

by Alan Sircom

U nless you have been spending
WAY too long in your man-cave in
recent years, you will have heard
at least something about the KEF
LS50 in all its active and passive
guises. Originally inspired by the LS3/5a but
brought very much up to date with KEF’s latest
Uni-Q driver array, the small, high performance
stand-mount has been the loudspeaker to beat
since it first appeared almost nine years ago.
If, as Rab Butler said, “a week is a long time in
politics”, then nine years is a lifetime for a loudspeaker. Few
of the LS50’s peers from 2012 are still around in their same
iterations, but it’s something of a testament to the original
LS50 design that it took until the latter part of 2020 for its
LS50 Meta replacement to roll out, and on the face of it,
differences are minimal in the extreme. The LS50 Meta has
the same form-factor, the same basic cabinet construction
(a resin/GRP compound to produce the gently curved front
baffle, with a braced MDF cabinet for the rear and sides). The
cabinet has been cleaned up slightly, but you really need a
pair of original LS50s in side-by-side comparison to spot the
cleaner rear panel (no more visible bolt holes holding the front
baffle in place). But the only real changes are additional colour
ways, such as the Royal Blue version I received.
No, the changes are more to do with the Uni-Q driver itself
and the crossover network, and both of these are extremely
difficult to see even on close inspection. The most significant
of these changes is ‘MAT’ (short for Metamaterial Absorption
Technology). This is an internally mounted labyrinth behind the
aluminium tweeter at the acoustic centre of the Uni-Q
cone. The 30 tubes inside this MAT are designed
to absorb different frequencies from about
600Hz on up, in the process reducing rear
resonance firing into the cabinet itself. Meaning
the already inert cabinet is even less likely to sing
along with the tweeter, making a sound that is less
distorted at high frequencies and high levels. The drive
unit itself has been re-engineered to reflect eight years of R&D.

47 ISSUE 197

EQUIPMENT REVIEW / KEF LS50 META

“The KEF LS50 Meta has some big shoes to fill as the LS50 was one of
the best-loved loudspeakers of its time.”

An essentially ‘new’ Uni-Q driver requires a new crossover While it also retains the drive and impact of the original LS50
network, but these appear relatively minimal, with just a mild (which comes over in the space around her voice and her
change to the crossover frequency, down by 100Hz to 2.1kHz. ability to sing at eyeball-rattling intensity), the addition of that
Everything else reads as it did in 2012. That means the LS50 ease and refinement in the upper midrange and treble is
Meta follows the LS50 in being relatively undemanding a beguiling and highly addictive.
load; 85dB sensitivity isn’t ‘high’ and that – coupled with a
minimum impedance of around 3.5 ohms – means a little In fact, the LS50 Meta is more of an all-round win than first
more care and attention in partnering is required. KEF is often expected. Yes, it makes well-recorded music soar and spring
demonstrated with Hegel at the moment, and this happens to to life even more than it did before, but it is also in the process
be an excellent combination. But realistically, most competent a little more forgiving of some of the less-well recorded albums
modern amplifiers will work well. in a collection: I’m looking at you, Oasis... (What’s The Story)
Morning Glory? [Creation] might have sold in the grillions,
Setting up Uni-Q-based speakers can be slightly different but it sounds thin, shouty and compressed. The LS50 Meta
to the norm, in that often toe-in is negligible, and the speakers doesn’t transform it into an audiophile recording, but neither
end up firing down the room almost parallel to one another. does it make an already vexatious recording unlistenable. That
They need some breathing space from the rear wall, however, clean, refined mid-range and treble don’t tame this album, but
and at least half a metre will help. neither do they expose painfully its sonic iniquities.

The KEF LS50 Meta has some big shoes to fill as the LS50 It’s difficult in this review not to ignore the importance
was one of the best-loved loudspeakers of its time. It was, of the original LS50 sound, and instead focus on the
however, perhaps a little bit rough-edged at times, especially improvements between that and the LS50 Meta, but it’s worth
when playing classical, folk or jazz. They were transparent, going over what’s unchanged in the presentation, because
with a fine sense of musical bounce into the bottom end, but it’s still so damn good. This is a loudspeaker that images
when faced with the elegance of a fine folk or opera singer, the beautifully; there is a three-dimensionality to the sound that
original LS50 perhaps lacked a little finesse and elegance. In both scales well (small sounding vocals remain small, over-
fairness, this was more than made up for by its detail, imaging produced 1970s Olympic Studios drum sounds remain giant)
and impressive senses of scale, headroom and dynamic range and can cope with everything from small folk combos to large
for a compact loudspeaker. orchestral pieces, remaining surprisingly solid and precise
throughout. It’s also extremely dynamic and times surprisingly
The LS50 Meta addresses the elegance issue without well, too. Vocal presentation in particular is clear and articulate,
undermining the speaker in any of its over performance as you might expect from a loudspeaker designed to carry the
objectives. The LS50 Meta is significantly more refined than LS3/5a baton into the 21st Century.
its predecessor. When I had a pair of LS50s, I was surprised
at how well they played ZZ Top, but now they add Mahler to However, in truth, I thought the name a bit silly and
that list of impressive things played loud for scale. expected to lay into KEF over it (“What’s next? The Blade
Zeitgeist Edition?”), but in fact it’s absolutely right. This is
I hardly noticed the cabinet of the LS50 singing along with not a ‘Mk II’ or a ‘special edition’, but it’s more than just an
the tweeter, but in hearing the LS50 Meta, you quickly recall LS50 with a lower-case vowel as a suffix. ‘Meta’ has several
where it used to interact, because such cabinet intrusion has meanings, but the three that spring to mind are ‘describing
been whisked away. That high frequency ‘sizzle’ that made something of a higher-order (like a metalanguage)’, describing
the LS50 a little too exuberant at times has gone, but it hasn’t a change in condition (like metamorphosis) and something
taken any of the excitement to the higher frequencies with it. self-referential (but not in a sarcastic way). The LS50 Meta
Instead, you get energy and extension without any sense of ticks all those boxes; it’s made very much with reference to
‘sizzle’ or ‘zing’. This means Joyce DiDonato’s voice singing the LS50, but the LS50 is transformed by the Meta updates,
Bellini’s ‘I Capuleti e i Montecchi’ [Stella di Napoli, Erato] holds and it makes it a higher-order design.
a purity and finesse that the LS50 could never fully reach.

48 ISSUE 197