“The Human Brain: It’s a funny ol’ thing” is an unlikely summary to be found in the dissertation of a prospective neuro surgeon. However, when given the unenviable task of reviewing a product like the Russ Andrews Clarity Pro you begin to enter a perilous world, doubting your sanity at times, constantly questioning your ears, brain and the connections between. If you are a fully paid up geek, you will find yourself performing the wackiest experiments, short of standing on your head, whistling Dixie, in order to try to get a grasp of what the heck “Coherence Technology TM” is supposed to be.

The size of a small headphone amp, the Clarity Pro is marketed as a system enhancer. You simply plug it into your mains through the supplied 12V DC power supply and position the unit as close to the amplifier or source, as you can.

My initial thought was how an unconnected device influences the equipment’s sonic abilities. I will spare you the manufacturer’s gobbledegook but précis it:  we believe that our Coherence Technology offers a fourth way of improving an electrical circuit – after the three conventional ways of making improvements – the design, the materials, the ambient conditions.

Claiming it “neutralises noise inherent in circuits... noise that is caused by discrepancies of time and amplitude in the ground plane. And there is also an improvement in the listener’s ability to appreciate and gain greater entertainment value out of the sound reproduction”.

 Perhaps I should be sitting cross legged in my kaftan to appreciate this fully, but I tend to adopt a typically English attitude of scepticism, when a whiff of Californian clap-trap comes my way. I do enjoy a challenge, however, and thought it was my duty to do a little more research into its concept, which I understand is based on the findings of a Dr Schumann and unsurprisingly known as Schumann resonance. Again I will précis this:  the Earth has a background resonance caused mainly by sonic booms from the 300 odd lightning strikes occurring each minute somewhere around the planet. In the early 1960s magnetic transducers were developed to record these atmospheric resonances, which  consist of a base frequency of around 8 Hertz (they fluctuate depending on atmospheric factors such as tides, magnetosphere, and day time verses night time.) It gets more complicated, of course and, if you have nothing better to do, you are welcome to research it more thoroughly.

We humans apparently have our own resonance at around 6 hertz and because the resonance produced by this product seem to work by emitting a magnetic strobe field close to this at 7.83 cycles per second (by using a magnetic Field Generator, mini harmonizer) I deduced the upshot is that the gadget gives a good ol’ dose of well being – a sense of wellness – and greater overall energy.

 (Wellness? Do infrasonic weapons not operate around 7Hz? A colleague who designed loudspeakers had to leave work feeling ill on several occasions: he then discovered a unit being tested in his laboratory was emitting an extreme LF signal: when it was switched off his ‘mysterious’ bowel pains disappeared – Editor)

At this juncture I thought I could detect the aroma of Dr Feelgood’s snake oil... Alas, the very thing I hoped for – an improvement in the sound – escaped me.

I think I wanted to hear things but didn’t.  I was not expecting night and day differences and there could be a host of reasons why I detected nothing: cloth ears, of course, being one of them. But I gave the unit some months of use and could not honestly come to any positive conclusion. I tried everything: turning it up and down, listening at different times of the day and night, moving it around to different positions but still I could not say there was a definite improvement evident.  This is a shame because I have many other Russ Andrews products, some of which have rendered certain luminaries I will not name (even the die-hard sceptics among them) in the hi-fi world well and truly gobsmacked. As far as I am concerned a little inexpensive squirt of Relees or a dab with Reveel (£29.95 for both in a combination pack) offer better results than the £559 Clarity pro.

Dave Malden Browne

 The National Audio Show at Whittlebury Hall, a venue which went into administration in September, surprised me this year. Visitor numbers seemed noticeably higher than last year and, despite this, I did not come away from the event, as I did last time, needing a week in bed to recover from germs coughed and sneezed over me by some ill-mannered cretin who was unaware of the availability of tissues that enable one to keep one’s infections to oneself.

Forum visitors writing their show reports and comments could not, as usual, agree   on anything.  One commentator lavished praise on the event while another noted “a flop. it won’t run again. even reps said it (the show) was sinking fast”.  Equally one room that I vacated declaring it a completely music-free zone was adjudged as delivering one of the best sounds of the show. It takes all sorts, I guess.

As I only spent 9:30am to 4:00pm on Saturday at the show, and three of those hours were spent at a lecture, interviewing Hayato Ishiguro of Oyaide (cables  and accessories), and taking lunch, I don’t feel it appropriate to issue pronouncements about too many of the exhibits because I simply didn’t get to see all of the rooms.

I liked the look of the Burmester system, in particular the fabulous looking hard disk player with its in-house-written software. I also liked the sign above the system declaring “Burmester: Coming back soon to the cradle of high-end audio,” overlaying a Union flag.  I guess that means the company is finally sorting out new distribution for the UK, which has to be good news for well-heeled audiophiles, particularly those with a penchant for chromium plating.

Alongside its room filled with the Stella Utopia loudspeakers, Focal also had some extremely funky looking active desktop speakers on display. Needless to say, given our fascination with high-end audio on the desktop, I registered my request for a loan pair for review immediately.

Arriving with me for review almost immediately I hope is the dazzling little Media Player from Pro-Ject. I heard this £600 device playing through a £200 amplifier and a £100 pair of loudspeakers, and the performance was instantly engaging. I greatly look forward to having a proper play with the unit under the more controllable circumstances found in my office environment.

One exhibitor I visited during the afternoon was having to contend with a manufacturer of horn loudspeakers playing truly awful music at astronomical levels in the room across the corridor. How he managed to restrain himself from introducing fisticuffs into the situation I have no idea. It was not just the SPLs that were annoying: it was the fact that Herr Honkenboom was playing Queen’s low rent anthem “Another one bites the dust”... One day people will realise that the “mine’s bigger than yours” approach is not relevant when judging bass performance: it’s quality not quantity that counts.

One room in which Queen most definitely was not playing was that shared by Kudos loudspeakers and retailer Cymbiosis.  We used the Kudos Titans to compare two tweaked Linn Sondeks – one with a Naim unipivot and one with a Linn Ekos tone-arm – playing Bad Company. Remember that scene in Wayne’s World, where Wayne and his chums are head-banging in unison in his car? We replicated that in Syndicate 21. That is the problem with systems that communicate effectively: they make sophisticated middle-aged gentlemen behave like gauche twenty-year-olds. Party on, Linn!. Party on, Kudos!

Other rooms that subscribed to the “do something a little out of the ordinary to make people remember you” rule were Axhorn loudspeakers who had a light display playing on the wall behind their distinctive looking horn speakers, which managed to avoid obviously sounding like horns. The guy in charge of the room remarked that the lighting was “a bit rock’n’roll and that is what this is all about, isn’t it?” Whatever your opinion of the “rock’n’roll” nature of the room, you were not going to forget it in a hurry. Another exhibitor was playing recordings transferred from his laptop onto a reel-to-reel. When we asked why he was doing this his reply was simple: “Because I can.” He was having a good time and not hard selling his products: he was just the sort of chap that audiophile enthusiasts could engage in conversation for hours on end, and the type of character that one needs at specialist shows such as this. In moderation, of course.

I mentioned earlier attending a lecture. This was the “Computer Audio – An Introduction” given by Abbingdon Music Research Director, Vincent Luke and Audirvana developer Damien Plisson. Speaking publicly about computerised audio is not a task I envy anyone. How does one pitch a talk so that one neither patronises nor fails to deliver sufficient detail, when the subject is relatively new and changing minute by minute? The two speakers did remarkably well, in particular Mr Plisson for whom English was not his first language, and duly entertained their audience.

HIFICRITIC publisher and reviewer, Martin Colloms put his Journalistic credibility on the line by launching a pair of kit loudspeakers that he had designed, The Rhythm Kings.  A floor-stander about a metre high, the design uses a Balanced Mode Radiator as its primary drive unit, and a conventional bass unit to deliver frequencies below the range of the BMR. Colloms shared the room with Wilmslow Audio, who supply the speaker kit and components, and DNM, who provided loudspeaker cabling for the demonstration. Selling for around £1200, the speaker demonstrated distinct promise and rewarding subtlety. (And there was a genuine shortfall in subtlety in most of the demonstrations I witnessed...)

All things considered this was not a bad show: certainly it was better than those that had preceded it. Assuming that Whittlebury Hall stays in business, it will be fascinating to see how and if the show develops in 2012. My only reservation is whether this type of event has had its day or if there is a way that someone can breathe more vitality into what, for many people – not least exhibitors, appears to be a rather tired format.

From the Publisher:

I can’t believe I am saying this, but I actually enjoyed the show this year. After the debacle of the London, Park Inn show, I did not hold out much hope for Whittlebury (it is organised by the same company, The Chester group). I had originally planned to attend just on the Saturday but found myself only about three quarters of the way around the show come closing time. So back for a second day.

Attendance was definitely up this year, especially on the Sunday which is a very promising sign. The exhibitors all seemed in an upbeat mood and there was a good vibe in general around the show.

Great to hear a wider variety of music as well: Ensemble delighted with some rousing classical pieces; Audio Note with The Stranglers; and Axhorn having their own little party with rock all the way.

It was also great to see what could be classified as an audiophile show fully embracing serious computer based audio and show casing this technology as a genuine alternative to the more established source components.

 At a time when music is available at our fingertips and more people than ever before are listening to it on the move through their mobile phone or mp3 player, it's not surprising we sometimes have people walk into our store a little baffled by what we sell. You can buy cheap and cheerful mini systems and play music through your TV or phone at home so why buy a hi-fi? At a time when our sales of hi-fi are better than ever and we cater to a large range of customers, we couldn't help thinking that we could do a little more to demonstrate and explain the reasons behind buying a proper hi-fi system (separates or otherwise) for anyone new to the concept of real hi-fi.

While customers of two-channel separates have changed dramatically over the last 20 years, and the hi-fi industry has become more specialised, it's worth considering that more people seem to be listening to music than ever before. The availability of music on iDevices, online, on television and everywhere has created a new generation of music lovers whose only experience of sound might be listening through the give-away earphones supplied with their phone or a substandard mini system.

 The argument against real hi-fi might go as long as I can hear the music I am fine with what I have or I need something quick and easy but this is missing the point. Music has the ability to affect us in many ways - to change our mood and make us feel elated and happy; to comfort us when things get tough; to make us think about things we wouldn't otherwise think about; to realise someone has been through the same break-up or love story we're going through; to start the day with a blast of energy; and to help us wind down after a long, stressful day. With music being such a large part of our life (arguably more than ever), doesn't it make sense for that music to sound as good as it can? Could the quality of the music being better enhance our mood even more and let it become a more comforting part of our lives?   

The majority of car manufacturers realised this in the late 1990s and early 2000s, along with realising most cars (not just luxury types) had become a personal space rather than just a tool to convey us  from A to B. Many of us spend a lot of time in our cars and with more options on more cars for leather seats, custom interior features and more mirrors and cupholders, options included upgraded sound systems and indeed many new cars (even smaller cars) can sound quite good. We're not going as far as suggesting a car sound system can sound as good as your music system at home: but it has become an important part of driving and making the commute more tolerable – being able to listen to music with excellent sound quality. 

So, why is the same less true at home nowadays? With a recession in the early 1990s reducing sales of non essentials, sales of hi-fi separates declined and the multiple stores began to carry larger numbers of cheaper and more affordable systems that then overshadowed the importance of good sound. While high end hi-fi (which we classify as any item costing over £1000) will always be a specialist pursuit, we feel the change in how real hi-fi was offered to the public from the 1990s onward is a great injustice for a population of people who, for the most part, love music and want music to be part of their lives. The UK isn't Louisiana (where music is a massive part of the culture), but what real hi-fi represents is the chance to enjoy a less stressful day from the mood enhancing benefits of good music when you get home, great sound when you're in a good mood and the feeling of being able to enjoy as close as possible to real concert sound in your home - any day of the week. What a substandard mini system can't give you, only real hi-fi can.

We feel the hi-fi market is massively undersold. If anything, this comes from lack of retailers who explain and demonstrate real hi-fi to a new generation of music lovers and bank on an older generation who already know about hi-fi because they grew up with it. While we value all of our customers and, although the hi-fi audiophiles are the core of our market, we hope to help the new generation learn about hi-fi and what great sound can do for their lives. We will happily demonstrate the benefits of real hi-fi to anyone who visits our store with their MP3 player, a few CDs, or some music on a USB stick. Hear the difference between a basic mini system, a budget real hi-fi, and a truly impressive separates hi-fi system.

We will be launching the new desk top audio section in the journal in a few weeks and what better way to start it off than with the ultimate boys toys desk. It comes complete with the latest iMac so just add your Audio streamer and speakers of choice for the ultimate desk top audio experience.

 Luzzo Bespoke Limited is a new company formed by Alan Sawyer, a furniture designer and maker who developed a manufacturing process to improve the quality and durability of decorative wood components used in car interiors. The company allows Sawyer to combine his passion for making bespoke furniture with his love for classic cars by producing executive desks inspired by the great names in Motorsport such as Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Bentley, Bugatti, Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche and American Indy cars from the 1930s.

Luzzo’s first project is inspired by the 1930s’ Grand Prix cars created by Ettore Bugatti; cars like the Type 35 and 59.  Apart from the French Racing Blue ‘bodywork’ the beautifully cast aluminium components in the desk are a true homage to the original car. For example, the desktop is lifted and lowered by a mechanism using up-scaled Winfield carburettor synchronisation quadrants as found on the Type 59 Bugatti. The attention to detail in this product is simply astonishing and is the product of over 3,000 hours of CAD, machining, polishing, sheet metal work and lacquering by a highly skilled workforce.

At a practical level, the desk incorporates an Apple Mac, which is deployed by a motorised mechanism and disappears into the assembly at the touch of a button.

This particular desk retails at £150,000 but other versions are available starting from £40,000.

A limited edition of only 10 desks in this style will be produced: each will be numbered and have its own individual log book recording the build team, materials, colour and finishing processes.

 I love Italy, and I am very keen on Milan in particular. And that is not only because the Autodromo Nazionale at Monza is only a few minutes’ drive away. Regardless, I was hardly likely to refuse the invitation to the Top Audio Show in Milano. If nothing else, the climate was especially encouraging: I left a cold, miserable London and two hours later the plane touched down into glorious sunlight, with the temperature in the low 30’s. The only down side of this weather was that I was immediately set upon by mosquitoes – even so the collection of bites I amassed was a small price to pay for this visit to Milano, its show, and its coffee bars and restaurants. The only other aspect that was disappointing was the local taxis, a great many of which were the awful, leaden, Toyota Prius, which does not really lend itself to the eyes-shut, hell for leather driving style of most Milanese natives.

The Top Audio show took place at the Atahotel Quark on the Via Lampdusa in the Ripamonti Corvetto area. This is a pleasant enough, modern hotel with a selection of conference rooms, traditional hotel bedrooms, and public areas spread over five floors to accommodate a large number of exhibitors with a variety of requirements and budgets. That last point seemed to be highly relevant because it appeared to me to be that those in the obviously more costly areas devoted more time, care and attention to setting up their exhibits while, typically, those in the first and second-floor bedrooms appeared to have dumped a pair of loudspeakers on the floor and placed some electronics between them... and often wired them together with the thickest mains and speaker cable in the known universe thinking that that would suffice.

I thought prior to visiting this event that the Germans had a monopoly on, shall we say, outrageous looking hi-fi, especially loudspeakers. They do not. The Italians run them a close second, in particular when it comes to amplifiers. I doubt that many of those highly distinctive models I saw would sail through too many of today’s Health and Safety checks. Many of them certainly failed the most basic performance tests, sounding ponderously slow and tuneless. Their shockingly amateurish set-ups did not help, with cable-dressing clearly being an art that no-one has yet discovered in many rooms. Spoiling the ship for a halfpenny’ worth of tar seemed to be a prevalent malaise.

There was a goodly mix of front-ends in use, including air-bearing turntables, valve CD players, music servers and laptops. I saw the odd “Viynl rules” sign, which, in this day and age, excludes any interest in what that company is selling from virtually anyone other than old chaps like me. There is, after all, a generation of potential audiophiles out there who have no idea of what a record shop was. What is more, how many people nowadays want a very ordinary sounding turntable that comes complete with air cylinders attached, for example? That home-brewed looking approach might have worked in the 1970s but it sure won’t impress too many buyers in the era of the iPod. Equally so, the music used for demonstrations sucked donkeys through a straw, to quote a computer journalist friend. What relevance does “Hotel California” or anything by Genesis or Dire Straits have for today’s audience? Bugger all, unless you are a 70-year-old hi-fi geek who stopped buying music in 1990. Companies really need to employ people who can keep them in touch with what is happening in music today so that their demonstrations can appeal to the generation of buyers they wish to attract. For example, at the start of this year, Anna Calvi released a brilliant and great-sounding debut album that is a perfect demo choice. Did I hear anyone playing it, even once? Of course not, but I did hear Hotel California playing over... and over ... and over...and over.

The show was not all disappointment, though. Naim Audio revealed its new, inexpensive, slim-line network audio player to the world, the ND5 XS, in a very decent sounding room/set-up. The player had all the characteristics and outstanding finesse of the rest of the components in the XS series: it delivered a composed but exciting presentation at a performance level well above what you would expect for its (relatively) modest price. Indeed, I even managed to sit through and appreciate opera playing through it without wincing once. Also worthy of note was that it is the first Naim network player to offer 24-bit/192 kHz native resolution playback. Note to NDX owners: Naim has not forgotten you, and the company told me that an update for your machines to enable 24/192 playback should be available in October/November 2011.

It was also fascinating to spend time chatting with Naim MD, Paul Stephenson, and Focal MD, Gerard Chretien about the recent merger of their two operations into Focal & Co. We are planning an interview with Paul Stephenson soon, and you will be able to read all about what the plans are for both companies in that piece rather than rely upon forum conjecture and guesswork for your information.

NEAT Acoustics was also in a revelatory mood, demonstrating the eagerly awaited – by me at least – Ultimatum XL10. This development of the outstanding flagship MF9 model is set to be available in November 2011 and I am extremely keen to play with this eight-driver, £15,000 monster, which stands 1.5m tall and weighs 60kg. The primary improvements over the MF9 include: refinements to the cabinet; bracing and acoustic damping; a new HF unit; and substantial revisions and improvements to the crossover network. It was remarkable how superb the XL10 sounded in a not especially spacious room being driven by rather languid-sounding electronics and sources. I presume these were selected by NEAT’s distributor to show off his other product lines and not because they extracted the best musical performance from the speaker. That is a consideration of which one needs to be aware in any distributor’s room at any show. Regardless, the XL10s got their message across successfuly, no matter what music was played. I eagerly await their arrival chez moi where there is a pair of Naim NAP 250s waiting to bi-amp them and give them the sort of musical impetus they will appreciate.

Gerard Chretien, MD of Focal-JMlab, alerted me to another practice of demonstrators of which I had been aware but that simply had not crossed my mind on this occasion: selecting music that they thought the most applicable for a particular event, culture or nationality. Focal had chosen a selection of, to me, rather curious tracks that clearly demonstrated the technical and hi-fi potential of their mighty Grand Utopia loudspeakers but failed to convey their emotive capabilities because, he told me, this was the sort of music that was expected and liked by enthusiasts at this particular event. Focal had also opted to use Moon electronics, which appeared to me, unfortunately, to major on the presentational rather than the emotional aspects of performances. That is fine if you want your favourite musicians to sound like a school band revealed in all its scrupulous splendour, but I do not. I would rather hear it playing like all the musicians were enjoying themselves and playing in total accord with each other. I have heard the Grand Utopias sounding far, far better at the Focal factory, so I know that they can perform quite magnificently given the opportunity.

One of the few small bedroom exhibits that was producing acceptable sounds was the one housing ProAc loudspeakers. The company was celebrating an anniversary of the famous Tablette loudspeaker and the little boxes seemed to be having a great time and singing for all they were worth. Nevertheless, one of the best sounds I heard at the show was coming from a stand selling previously-owned vintage equipment. The stallholder had set-up a pair of ancient AR speakers playing off 1940s’ Quad PA amplifiers: this sounded rather engaging despite the pensionable age of the system.

Shows always offer journalists the opportunity to catch up with colleagues that they do not normally get the chance to see. So it was a real pleasure to run into Marco Manunta of M2Tech and discover that not only had he become a father since we last met but that the Palmer power supply for the Young DAC would soon be on its way to me. I look forward to hearing this superb DAC taken to an even higher level of performance, which I hope and I trust the Palmer will help it deliver.

It was rewarding to see computerised audio burgeoning at this show and interesting to note the growth of interest in room treatment devices. I spotted a sign for RPG Diffusor Systems. The company supplies a range of “spatial, imaging, combination, bass management, and software tools” to counter acoustic aberrations in a room and not, as its name might suggest, Rocket Propelled Grenades. These offer another way of dealing room problematic rooms, and one I felt tempted to deploy on several occasions: Goodbye Hotel California!

Over the past decade or more there has been one consistent date in my diary: the German High End Show, first in Frankfurt, at the Gravenbruch Kempinski Hotel, and subsequently, after it outgrew its home there, the M.O.C. exhibition centre in Munich. When the show moved to its very different – non-hotel – home there was some hesitancy about the suitability of the new venue. However, these concerns turned out to be groundless because the spacious and airy M.O.C. proved itself to be a near perfect home for this kind of show, offering facilities for both static and dynamic displays, and, just as importantly, an excellent beer garden.

The show has in recent years broadened its remit and is no longer exclusively focused on high-end audio. While that remains the main drawer, AV has also entered the proceedings. This year I steeled myself for an introduction to 3D TV. I did not find it at all a rewarding experience and concentrated instead on my search for ‘new media’ components; network audio players, USB DACs, and, I confess, for my own personal interest, high quality active desktop computer speakers.

I felt the most outstanding sound of this year’s event, though, came from the unlikeliest of loudspeakers: a modified single-unit, stereo, horn-loaded enclosure fashioned around a rare, 1928, Western Electric 16B cinema enclosure driven by a pair of single-ended, 18 Watt, valve amplifiers. Silbatone Acoustics had added a pair of 1930’s WE 597A tweeters and an in-house designed subwoofer using four Altec 515B drivers in a push-pull isobaric configuration to the speaker to create a performance optimized for contemporary listening. There was, as one would expect, a hint of coloration to the sound but this was completely outweighed by the dynamism, subtlety and sheer presence the monster satellite and subwoofer created. I visited the room several times, hoping to find it empty but I had no luck: on each visit the room was packed with eager listeners… and justifiably so in my opinion.

Excellent sounds were also emerging from the new and far more conventional, floor-standing, NEAT Ultimatum XLi. I am usually impressed by NEAT speakers because they seem unfailingly to put listeners in touch with the message or feeling that the musicians are trying to communicate. That is a quality that eludes most loudspeakers. NEAT designer, Bob Surgeoner is himself a very capable multi-instrumentalist semi-pro musician and always seems able to inject that extra degree of musical communication into his speakers. Having a recording studio set-up in his factory doubtless helps, too. And a business partner who also plays guitar and is an experienced songwriter and recording engineer is quite useful, I’d imagine. The Xli will be available in July and will cost around £6000 a pair.

Also impressive were the curvaceous Dali Fazon F5, aluminium enclosure loudspeakers at €1499 per unit. They sounded appealing and looked extremely attractive. Their industrial design was superb right down to the specially designed speaker terminals and cable management.

They were smaller but none too dissimilar in shape to the KEF Blades, which were shown as a concept last year. These, however are in production but come with a £20,000 price tag, just like the Boston Acoustics flagship model, the aXPERIENCE, tweaked by celebrated loudspeaker guru, Karl-Hienz Fink and Marantz Brand Ambassador, Ken Ishiwata. (Mordaunt-Short is no longer Marantz’ loudspeaker partner. That role has now been taken by Boston.)

Visit any show in the UK and a horn loudspeaker tends to stand out from the crowd: in Munich the reverse is true. Some examples are good; some are bad; some are as coloured as a completed Jackson Pollock canvas; some are as dynamic as Daley Thompson; and many simply quack like angered geese. All of which seems to appeal to the ear brought up on oompah bands. I wonder why?

Among some of the worst sounding at the show I felt were those from Cessaro, which were in a room heavily treated to room treatments. My only question was how awful had they sounded before all those treatments were applied.

Also falling worryingly low on the satisfaction scale – and, I presume on the Health and Safety scale if the Germans are bothered by such rubbish – were the Farber Equilibrium loudspeakers. Not only were they quacky-sounding but the ‘duck’s beak’ protrusions poking through the horns seemed ideally placed to remove the eye of any inquisitive child or dog.

Moving away from loudspeakers for a moment, I caught sight, but could not hear, the new network streamer from Pro-Ject. As part of the ‘box’ series of electronics it seemed a little more expensive than I had imagined it would be with a suggested price of €1050. Nevertheless, it still is not a King’s ransom and one can only hope its performance will be up to scratch.

I also had a look at the forthcoming Burmester Reference 111 Line Music Server. The pre-production model on display included high quality CD-ripping, a mirrored 1TB hard disk for storage of approximately 1500 uncompressed CDs , support for FLAC, WAV, AIFF, and MP3 files at up to 24-bit/182kHz, and six digital and three analogue inputs. A spokesperson revealed that the price is likely to be somewhere between €20,000 and €30,000.

Also on display back on Planet Normality was a London Taxi fully kitted out as the control room for a mobile recording studio. It is a brilliant concept and was at the show as part of the Adam exhibit, whose loudspeakers you can see in the internal photograph.

Talking of Adam, I have ordered a pair of its ARTist 5 active, nearfield/desktop 50 Watt monitors to see just how much performance I can squeeze out of them with my office system powered by a Naim UnitiQute.

Also high on my ‘I want to hear that at home’ list is the Signature music server by YBA. I was fortunate to meet its designer, Yves Bernard Andre, who treated me to a demonstration of an unusually efficacious tweak involving a square of material placed on the top surface of a pair of loudspeakers. With the material in place the sound quite markedly gained transparency and clarity over the untreated enclosures. Apparently, the cloth removes vibrations in the top plate that muddy and diffuse the reproduction.

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS

There was a section of the show floor dedicated to Italian high-end gear, much of it rather striking in its appearance. The picture of the rear of one loudspeaker, however, shows that a healthy price tag and a swish real-wood cabinet can sometimes conceal horrors such as bell-wire internal cabling all nicely coiled to improve its function as a radio aerial.

M2Tech currently manufactures my favourite, mid-price DAC, the Young, and has now produced an optional power supply upgrade to replace the original, supplied wall-wart. The company was also showing a prototype of the ‘Young on Steroids’ top-of-the-range DAC, the Vaughan. Twice the size of the Young, one can likely expect some world-beating performance from it when this new unit appears.

Munich would not be Munich without an outrageous turntable or two. There was the Transrotor model featuring the famous Bachman Turner Overdrive switch… Let’s Rock!

And here is one of Transrotor’s fabulous floral displays surrounding the Zet 3 Gold deck.

For the absolute antithesis of the Transrotor design ethic look at this horn loudspeaker that appears to have a chimney. How could any sentient human being imagine that anyone would want to have that monstrosity in their living room unless it were generating massive heat?

The opposite of the above approach was the simplicity and cleanliness of the design of the Shanling DAC-50 where its function elegantly exploited its form: the top caps of the front support pillars, for example, were the on/off and volume controls. The simple design uses a 24-bit/96kHz Burr Brown PCM 1796 chipset.

Several companies really pushed the boat out with their industrial design this year producing hi-fi and systems that looked truly innovative and funky. One such was Revox with its Re:system M100.

If, however, you prefer typical teutonic over the topness, look at the photograph of the jewellery shop display of cables below…

Finally and much to my dismay, many exhibitors were using a favourite track from the Nils Lofgren Acoustic Live album for demonstration purposes. They clearly had not witnessed his live performance of Keith Don’t Go: had they done so they would have realized that he plays a steel-strung amplified acoustic guitar rather than a plank with rubber bands stretched along it. They would then have further realized that the latter was what their systems made his performance sound like, along with the nasal colouration they added to his voice. I must have run from half-a-dozen rooms playing this track, which rather shows the lack of imagination and musical understanding among many hi-fi company demonstrators.
 

In spite of any negative comments I may have made, though, I shall most definitely return to Munich next year, for another helping of music, modernism, and totally mad products!

Malcolm Steward

 Following the success of Cool Gales’ ‘Take Five’ event last year, proprietor Ivan Kursar decided to repeat and extend the formula, the result being the Cool Gales Analogue Fest 2011 which took place on Saturday 4^th June 2011 at the Bath & County Club, a lavish retreat in the heart of the historic city of Bath, Somerset, UK.

Several notable figures from the hi-fi community were there to demonstrate their latest products and to answer questions. Returning for the second year were Leema Acoustics’ Lee Taylor and Mallory Nicholls, Audio Reference UK’s Martin Brewster, Aesthetix president and designer Jim White, Diverse Vinyl’s Paul Dawkins and Hi-Fi+ editor Alan Sircom.

This year’s event was bigger than last years’ so joining these hi-fi luminaries were Hideto Watanbe and Chris Tuck of Eclipse TD, the ‘man in the white coat’ Jonathan Monk with the Keith Monks record cleaning machines, Nigel Crump of high end distributor Symmetry, and Thomas Mayer with his exquisite single-ended valve amplifiers.

Despite a security alert on the main Paddington to Bath railway line, which prevented many London-based audiophiles from getting there, attendance was up by approximately 60 per cent.

The show witnessed at least two outstanding product debuts. Leema demonstrated its new Elements series, still in prototype phase, for the first time. The new babies of this range are beautifully put together and promise to set the bottom end of the audiophile market alight with their combination of cutting-edge technologies such as 24 / 192 asynchronous adaptive USB DAC inputs and fabulous sound quality. The Elements amplifier in particular seems like a sure-fire winner, featuring as it does typically Leema excellent drive capabilities, outstanding flexibility and bullet-proof build quality in a very elegant design that’s smaller than a shoebox.

Also drawing attention in the Leema room was the new SA-1 turntable, designed by Frank Schroder and manufactured in California by Artemis Labs. This very elegant turntable was making great sounds with the matching TA-1 tone-arm through Leema’s Elements Phono phonostage, Pyxis and Hydra amplifiers and Xeta loudspeakers.

The main hall contained a very different system built around Thomas Mayer’s beautiful hand-crafted single-ended valve amplifiers and Aspara Acoustics horn loudspeakers. Also in the main room was a vast selection of new vinyl on sale courtesy of Diverse Vinyl’s Paul Dawkins whose encyclopaedic knowledge is a very welcome aid when record browsing wanders into unknown territory.

The second main demonstration room contained a system comprising a Brinkmann turntable, Esoteric amplification and the highly unusual but equally unbelievable Eclipse TD loudspeakers. These single driver, egg-shaped loudspeakers give an almost unbeatable insight into a recording. They certainly deserve to be heard because what they do well, they do better than any other loudspeaker that I can think of.

The third main room contained the other real highlight of the show. Jim White was presenting his new flagship, the Aesthetix Io Eclipse phono stage. The Io Eclipse is available in various configurations and making its UK debut was a two-box stereo power supply version complete with volume controls that allow it to bypass a line stage and feed the power amplifiers direct. Designed and built to be the best phono stage in the world, with entirely passive RIAA correction and 80 dB of all-valve gain, the Io Eclipse certainly is in a league of one. Detail, clarity, sound staging, speed and musicality were simply jaw dropping. The Io was being fed by the gorgeous Clearaudio Innovation Wood turntable, which was fitted with the brand new Graham Phantom Supreme tonearm. When configured with volume controls the Io Eclipse also includes one line level input and this was being put to excellent use by the long-awaited Aesthetix Romulus DAC/disc player. First shown this time last year, the Romulus was making extremely good noises for a digital component and is now only a matter of weeks away from full production. 

Ex BBC recording engineer Mike Valentine gave a very interesting, if slightly long-winded presentation about different recording techniques and microphones. The event was another great success for Cool Gales and I, for one, am looking forward to Analogue Fest 2012. 

The Stage Manager

The stage manager is one of the unsung heroes’ of the live gig. Their job is to ensure all goes well. Star throwing a tantrum, drummer forgotten his trousers, where the stage is or easier to deal with and something that never causes panic a mic going down mid performance, it is the job of the stage manager to ensure all goes ahead on the stage in the smoothest possible manner and in most cases that the audience is oblivious to the ensuing chaos.

Chapter one

The adventures of Keef LeSheath. Mild mannered librarian by day, mild mannered stage manager some of the other time.

Stage Manger – Keef LeSheath (please note the names have been changed to protect the guilty)

Aaaah, showbiz …. The thrilling adrenaline rush of a live performance, an eager audience crackle with excitement and backstage the performers buzz, preparing to take the stage and give their all…

Throughout this maelstrom one man stands firm – Keef LeSheath, Stage Manager! His brief? – ensure that everything runs smoothly and on time, from soundcheck to encore – liaising with artists, sound engineers, lighting technicians and stage crew, security, in fact just about everyone involved with the performance. Armed with little more than a clipboard, walkie talkie and obligatory laminated A.A. (that’s All Areas, not as many would claim Alcoholics Anonymous) pass, how does he work his magic?

Over a (purely medicinal) pint of Guinness, I probe Keef’s mind for the secrets of stage management, beginning with the skills required to fulfil this often demanding role. Good communication and awareness are paramount it appears, as well as the ability to organise and inspire all involved to give their best for the show. Timing is crucial too, many venues have stringent cut off times for performances with financial penalties levied at artists and promoters who over-run. Has there been such an occurrence at one of Keef's productions I enquire? “No”, he states firmly, we just “unplug ‘em….”

Professional perils abound for the stage manager – Keef has had to deal with fire alarm evacuations mid performance, faulty P.A Equipment, near monsoon conditions at open air events, even amateur surgery to remove a broken earpiece firmly lodged in the inner ear of a … you guessed it, drummer. For an event to run seamlessly the stage manager has to be juggling many tasks simultaneously, “Are the next act ready to go on?”, “are the band on stage running on time?”, “are the radio mics charged?”. He also needs to act as the liaison between the lighting and sound engineers and to ensure they all have the correct information schedule so the timing is perfect as a result they need to be calm but forceful at the same time. LeSheath typifies the breed even after I spilt my drink over him he still remained calm, but was very insistent that he used 3 ply not balm to wipe himself dry!

It is clear Keef maintains a healthy respect for the musician and artists he works with, and has been impressed by their commitment to live performance – If he’s been witness to celebrity tantrums and mis- behaviour he’s certainly not telling….

So what of the future for Mr LeSheath? With an extensive and credible list of artists under his belt already, who would he particularly like to work with? “The London Community Gospel Choir, Prince, Beastie Boys, Gorillaz, Tower of Power”…. Variety, it would appear, is the spice of this stage managers life. Bigger and better is the motto – some more festivals, an arena or two … wherever there’s a stage to be managed …. It’s only rock ‘’ roll but Keef LeSheath really rather likes it!

The Advertising Standards Authority today released the following article detailing their increase in consumer protection. Up until now their remit covered all published media excluding online media. From March 2001 this is due to change.

From the ASA website:-

http://asa.org.uk/Media-Centre/2010/ASA-digital-remit-extension.aspx

The digital remit of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is to be extended significantly to deliver more comprehensive consumer protection online.

The ASA's present remit online includes ads in paid-for space and sales promotions wherever they appear. But from next year, the rules in the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (the CAP Code) will apply in full to marketing communications online, including the rules relating to misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of children. The remit will apply to all sectors and all businesses and organisations regardless of size.

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), the body responsible for writing the CAP Code, has decided to extend the digital remit of the ASA in response to a formal recommendation from a wide cross-section of UK industry. CAP has today published a document detailing the new remit and sanctions. In summary:

The new remit will ensure the same high standards as in other media and will cover:

•    Advertisers own marketing communications on their own websites and;

•    Marketing communications in other non-paid-for space under their control, such as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Journalistic and editorial content and material related to causes and ideas - except those that are direct solicitations of donations for fund-raising - are excluded from the remit.

Sanctions

In addition to the ASA's present sanctions, which already achieve a high level of compliance, CAP member bodies have agreed new sanctions to apply to the extended remit such as:

•    Removal of paid-for search advertising – ads that link to the page hosting the non-compliant marketing communication may be removed with the agreement of the search engines.  

•    ASA paid-for search advertisements - the ASA could place advertisements online highlighting an advertiser's continued non-compliance.

Funding

The industry has agreed to apply the standard 0.1% levy on paid-for advertisements appearing on internet search engines through media and search agencies. This is an extension of the existing funding mechanism in other media that pays for the ASA and it will be supplemented initially with seed capital from Google.

Implementation

The remit will come into force on 1 March 2011 after a six month period of grace to allow the ASA and CAP to conduct training work to raise awareness and educate business on the requirements of the CAP Code, particularly amongst those who may not previously have been subject to ASA regulation. Website owners and agencies are urged to sign up to CAP Services to receive guidance and training to help ensure their sites comply with the new rules before 1 March 2011.

ASA Chairman Lord Chris Smith said, “This significant extension of the ASA's remit has the protection of children and consumers at its heart. We have received over 4,500 complaints since 2008 about marketing communications on websites that we couldn't deal with, but from 1 March anyone who has a concern about a marketing communication online will be able to turn to the ASA.”

CAP Chairman Andrew Brown said, “Extending the online remit of the ASA has been a top priority for UK industry over the last couple of years. Our aim has been to extend further in the online world the principles that are already well established in our system, namely those of effective consumer protection and fair competition.”

While the ASA should be applauded for offering a degree of control designed to give consumers some protection from unscrupulous manufacturers, I do find it amazing that they rule against a company, getting them to remove content from the web because there website or advert is seen to be misleading yet individuals can freely post death threat or messages of hatred without fear of any kind of retribution simply because they are not asking for money. With the majority of countries taking the stance that the internet is too difficult to police effectively due to the global nature of beast, I fail to see how the ASA feel they can be effective in controlling it themselves. Unlike conventional media where they can have something removed from the shelves how can they stop Joe blogs ltd in China making any claims they want to? Is it simply going to be the case of all British companies are going to be under stricter control than the global companies they are trying to complete against?  See the hifi journal blog for more of our opinions on the announcement.

With a number of hifi companies (especially accessory companies) claiming their latest product development is based around quantum theory it is easy to get baffled and I maybe a little cynical in thinking this is what they are trying to achieve.

 For most, the concept of Quantum mechanics will be quite shocking and decidedly weird and if your level of knowledge only extends to a vague comprehension of Bohr’s atomic model (which you will now find is far from correct) the ideas and theories of the world of the Quantum will seem so far detached from the world we live in that they will seem like they have jumped from the pages of a science fiction novel. Whereas if fact they provide the underpinnings of all modern science. One book I found to be extremely informative as well as an enjoyable read was  John Gribbin’s.  In Search Of Schrodinger’s Cat.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Schrodingers-Cat-John-Gribbin/dp/0552125555

For me the experience was made even more surreal as I picked it up in the airport on the way to Barbados and sat reading it on the beach with the waves lapping at my ankles and the hypnotic rhythms of local Barbadian bands as my sound track.  So arm yourself with a basic understanding of the Quantum so when the salesman tries to baffle you next time with talk of Quanta and blackbodies  as well as funnelling jumping electrons you will at least not feel like you have just jumped on to the set of Stargate SG1.

When researching the best methods for turntable setup to be used in our instructional video I fell into the trap that almost all audiophiles I know do. On the video I neglected to check the speed accuracy and stability. This is something I had done when the deck originally arrived but overlooked in the video itself!
I know may audiophiles who spend hours setting up their turntable to get the maximum performance from it only to make this oversight as well. You may say about the speed control systems on modern decks are very accurate and don’t need checking but you would be surprised. A lot of improvements experienced in turntable performance can be attributed to improvements in speed stability and accuracy so it is well worth checking.

Once you have gone through the process of checking or replacing the bearing oil, cleaning the belt clean adjusting the arm VTA, Cartridge alignment, azimuth, tracking weight and anti skate, surely 60 seconds to check the speed would not do any harm. Most  simply take it for granted that the speed will be accurate or they use the printed freebee disc they got with some old turntable 20 years ago and with whatever light happens to be in the room at the time (compact  fluorescent lamps flash at an unrelated rate so are useless for strobe illumination by the way).

At a recent hifi show I came across Keystobe a small British company producing very high quality strobe disc and lights. They are by far the best disc I have come across and they do a variety of different models to suit your deck. Their site is informative and very helpful and because they do a great job of explaining about the different discs and lights as well as types of deck I don’t feel the need to elaborate on their text. You can glean the information you require and can buy them from the below link. Well worth the modest investment.