Hifi Pig

 Hifi Pig met up with the highly entertaining Pim Van de Leur at the Munich High-End show and we’ll hopefully be reviewing his company’s new preamplifier and amplifier combo in the coming months.

At a recent Dutch high-end audio shows, Café Engels 2013, Van de Leur Audio held a unique demonstration of live music. A band played their music, first fully acoustic, then supported by the Van de Leur Audio set up. After the performance, they played back the recordings made by STS-Digital of the very show. So successful “experiment” that there were requests to release the recordings on a STS-Digital demonstration CD. They decided to go another way and are giving away three of the best recordings via Facebook. Recordings include a John Mayer and Sam Cooke cover.

The high-res recordings have been put online in lossless FLAC quality. Go to the Hifi Pig Facebook page and you’ll find a link to Van de Leur’s Facebook pages with instructions.

July 12th and 13th sees the launch of the new Sonus Faber Olympica loudspeaker at O’Brien Hifi in London (UK).

As well as being able to hear the new loudspeakers there will also be the opportunity to experience the latest Ducati motorcycles, classic Alfa Romeo cars and to sample some traditionally baked Italian pizza.

The event runs from 4pm – 9pm on the 12th and noon ’til 6pm on the 13th.

Hifi Pig had a brief look at the new Olympica range (two floorstanders and a standmount) at the Munich High-End 2013 and the finish looked absolutely superb.

Oswalds Mill Audio (OMA) have launched a graphite headshell which the company believes may be the first of its kind in the world. Other companies have made headshells out of exotic carbon fibre and graphite compounds – these are composed of graphite particles or carbon fibres, in a matrix of resins.

OMA has carved a headshell out of true crystalline graphite, the hardest and most durable form of graphite, which is composed of a lattice of graphite crystals.

OMA developed the graphite headshell using the same type of graphite from which their turntable mat is made, but a harder, higher density grade.

The headshell is a single piece of graphite, with no joints. OMA say that graphite is unparalleled at damping resonances and vibrations, allowing the cartridge to track the groove with minimal interference. OFC leads are included, along with a variety of mounting hardware. Azimuth is fully adjustable via a set screw accessed from the top of the headshell.

Weight (with cartridge leads but without screws) 12.65 grams.

Price – $350

Bryston has announced that it has added Gary Dayton as a Product Specialist, working in conjunction with US Sales VP, Craig Bell. Dayton was formerly with THIEL Audio and so should bring a wealth of experience, particularly in the performance loudspeaker market, to Bryston. As Product Specialist, Dayton will create and execute training programs for Bryston’s sales channel comprised of independent reps and dealers. 

Bryston is a technology driven company, and having a factory-trained evangelist in the field supporting the sales channel is a critical asset. “I couldn’t be more excited about my role with Bryston, a highly respected brand and a company dedicated to making great sound,” commented Gary Dayton from his office in Lexington, KY. I am looking forward to working with the Bryston team and developing key relationships with the reps and dealers in each region,” he added.

Funjoe of Clones Audio, whose 25i gainclone integrated amplifier Hifi Pig reviewed and gave a “Recommended” award to in April, has been in touch to tell us about the launch of the company’s first standalone preamplifier the AP1.

The AP1 has the same chassis as the 25i integrated, has 3 line-level inputs, 1 line level output (with the option of adding another) and comes with a 5 year warranty.

Price is $549 for the 230v version and $569 for the 115v version.

Louis Motek of LessLoss contacted us to tell us about an interesting opportunity for audiophiles in New York to hear the Kawero! Classic loudspeaker system.

The Kawero! Is an interesting loudspeaker as it’s made totally out of dense Panzerholz wood-based laminate which Kawero! claim is a first. The cone drivers on the speakers are a specially treated, custom made paper and carbon sandwich from Audiotechnology in Denmark coupled with a RAAL 70-20XR ribbon tweeter. Mundorf CFC10 copper foil inductors, Mundorf silver-gold-oil capacitors and hand made Dueland VSF copper caps are used in the crossover network.

Until July 4^th the speakers will be set up in a brick and timber loft conversion in lower Manhattan where you can schedule a private listening session.

Prices for the loudspeakers range from $56 000 to $68 000.

Following the successful launch of the Anniversary Series System, British hi-fi manufacturer, Cyrus Audio, has launched the Signature Series, an exclusive range of components that continue Cyrus’s 30th anniversary celebrations well into 2013.

Initially comprising a four-strong range, the components share many of the modifications seen in the limited-edition Anniversary Series System and have been fine-tuned by Technical Director, Peter Bartlett. The Signature Series will represent Cyrus’s flagship product line up and comprises the following: DAC X Signature (DAC); DAC XP Signature (DAC/preamp) and the Mono X 200 and 300 Signature (mono power amps). Further models are expected to join the range later in the year.

DAC X Signature

The DAC X is a multi-input DAC with new twin 32-bit stereo DACs, designed in dual-mono configuration, enabling balanced transfer and the operational elements of the system, such as the digital control signals, to be optically isolated from the twin mono DAC cards. The DAC X Signature also has a carefully specified power supply system based on a custom designed ultra-low-noise torroidal power transformer; the power is cascaded through a number of sophisticated regulation stages and isolation techniques that ensure each section receives an unrestricted, noise-free, power supply.

DAC XP Signature

Its DAC chips have been upgraded to 32-bit resolution running in fully balanced operation and there have been numerous enhancements to the power supply including: upgraded power transformers; extensive new power filtering and improved smoothing on the DAC supply; new ‘short path’ analogue input switching stages plus an updated XLR output design, providing a purer balanced output circuit.

Mono X 200/300

The Mono X amplifiers come in at 200 and 300 watts respectively. The Signature Series updates include a replacement input buffer op-amp with a higher slew rate and higher gain bandwidth plus additional power filtering to reduce electromagnetic interference across all supply voltages.

DAC X Signature (DAC)                                        £1,750

DAC XP Signature (DAC/preamp)                         £2,750

Mono X 200 Signature (mono power amp)            £1,950

Mono X 300 Signature (mono power amp)            £2,750

International high end audio distributor Absolute Sounds contacted us to tell us about an open day at Oxford Audio on 19^th of June between noon and 8pm.

The open day will be showcasing the three new amplifier models from French company Devialet – the Devialet 110, Devialet 170 and the Devialet 240 – which Hifi Pig was lucky enough to catch a brief listen to at Munich High-End earlier this year.

In addition to the amplifiers themselves Mathieu Pernot a research and development engineer from Devialet will also be on hand to answer some of your question.

New from Krell is the Connect wireless streamer. It plays pretty much all of the formats available at the moment (excluding DSD) and plays up to 192kHz/24-bit audio and Internet radio. Gapless playback is possible.

The Connect is of course, WI-FI equipped and comes in two versions – digital only or with an onboard DAC. The DAC used is the 32-bit ESS Sabre chipset with discrete, direct-coupled analogue circuit which outputs to RCA or balanced outputs. The digital version comes with coax and Toslink optical outputs.

You can control the Krell Connect via iOS and Android apps or via the onboars 3.5 inch QVGA LCD screen.

• Up to 192kHz/24-bit playback
• 3.5-inch QVGA (320×240) LCD Display
• Internet Radio UPnP/DLNA-compliant
• iOS and Android apps for control. IR Remote optional.
• V-Tuner equipped
• Wi-Fi and USB, plus Toslink optical and coax digital inputs (DAC model only)
• Rack Mountable
• Optional 32-bit ESS Sabre DAC features 192k/24-bit playback, with Krell fully discrete, balanced, Current mode analog circuitry
• DAC model features RCA and Balanced outputs.
• Supported Formats: FLAC, Ogg, WAV, WMA, Apple Lossless, MP-4a, MP3

Price in the UK will be £2500 for the digital only version or £3500 for the version with the onboard DAC.

Hifi Pig caught up with Joe Jouhal, the founder and designer of the JoSound range of loudspeakers and Inès Adler, head of Voxativ, at the Munich High-End earlier this year. We’d been interested in Joe’s loudspeakers since we heard them at the Paris Show in September 2102 and so we thought we’d take the opportunity to ask a few questions about his designs, his philosophy on loudspeaker design, a bit about his background as well as the involvement of Voxativ.

The “interview” here is a combination of transcribing the recording we made during the interview, conducted in the evening after the show, and a series of follow up calls and e mails. We hope you enjoy this, the first, in an ongoing series of interviews with hifi industry.

Read the full interview with JoSound and Voxativ

electricbeach is a small company based in the UK owned by Steve Jay making a single driver, horn loudspeaker based on the well known and well loved Frugal Horn design.

The Frugel3 is a hybrid, adopting a part horn and part transmission line design. The  first part of its internal chambers are constructed to utilise the transmission design and the lower part is based on a horn loudspeaker with a rear bottom mouth allowing the driver to breathe and recreate lower frequencies.

In his exhaustive audition, Hifi Pig reviewer Dan finds out if the Frugel3 loudspeaker lives up to expectations.

Read the full review of Frugel3 Loudspeaker.

Monster is expanding its Inspiration line of headphones. In addition to its over-ear model, the company has introduced its Inspiration In-Ear headphones (SRP: £149.95). The new in-ear Inspiration headphone provides consumers with a lighter, extremely thin profile without sacrificing any of the sonic qualities of Monster Inspiration over-ear headphones. 

Founder and Head Monster Noel Lee, the audio engineer behind the sound of Beats by Dr. Dre^® headphones, noted: “Our original Inspiration headphones gave serious music lovers a way to really kick up their listening experience, while at the same time expressing their personal style in new ways. Now, with Inspiration in-ear model, we’re offering much lighter designs that are ideal for business travellers and style-conscious women looking for a lighter, great sounding headphone option. For instance, thanks to our in-ear model, travellers now have a high-quality, easy-to-carry compact listening option that silences unwanted noise almost as well as a much larger noise cancelling over-ear headphone.”

They will be in both Titanium and White versions.