Hifi Pig

ENIGMAcoustics  from Irvine, California makes its long-awaited Rocky Mountain Audio Fest debut in Denver, Co., this October with the award-winning Sopranino self-polarizing electrostatic super tweeter, the first of its kind in the world.

Also making its RMAF debut is the Mythology M1 Series, a full-range high performance bookshelf speaker. Custom-tailored to integrate with the SBESL™ (Self-Biased Electrostatic Loudspeaker) technology, Mythology utilizes highly rigid and hybrid cabinet structure with laminated birch wood, tempered glass and machined aluminum baffles with integrated speaker stands. Combining with phase-coherent design for optimal transient performance, the result is said to be a “breathtakingly seamless fusion of entirely custom-made dynamic and ESL drivers that is truly groundbreaking”.

Whilst at the Paris Hifi and AV Show yesterday Hifi Pig managed to get a sneaky peek at the new Lyric from the guys over at Cyrus, which was getting its world debut by all accounts.

From what was said by the chap in the auditorium, the Lyric will be available in two flavours – the Lyric 5 and its bigger sibling the Lyric 9 which will have more “audiophile” bits and bobs inside as well as more power output from its amplifier.

So what is it? The Lyric is a CD (taken from Cyrus’ latest tech), a streamer, an amplifier, a DAC, a DAB radio, an FM radio….and more.

The amp will offer either 175 Watts into 8 Ohms from the Lyric 9 and 100 Watts from the Lyric 5. Both will be iPad certified which means they’ll work with both iPads and iPods. amps are of Cyrus’ own design! As well as all the digital jiggery pokery there will also be analogue inputs.

The DAC is of Cyrus’ own making and will be a 32Bit model developed in the main from the Anniversary DAC we had a look at a while ago.

One of the more interesting features on an already very interesting product is the inclusion of an onboard DSP (made by Cyrus) which will adjust settings to whatever loudspeakers are attached and match them to the room.

Price on the day was €4000 for the Lyric 9 but UK prices are unknown I’m afraid – I’d expect around £3000 for the 9 and £2500 for the 5.

There is clearly a market for products that cater for those music lovers that want a simple and elegant solution that sounds good and doesn’t involve filling the living room with a hundred and one boxes of electronics.

Audio Pro, from Sweden, has announced the latest addition to its ADDON wireless speaker range – the T10.  A compact single stereo speaker with modern Scandinavian style, T10 uses the latest Bluetooth 4.0 standard and aptX technology for wireless music transmission.  Available in the UK now finished in black or white matt lacquer standard finishes, the Audio Pro ADDON T10 has an SRP of £299.00.  A Special Edition ADDON T10 finished in orange gloss lacquer with a leather handle is also available with a UKSRP of £349.00.

It has a built-in digital amplifier, DSP (Digital Signal Processing), digital filters and measures just 32 cm wide yet Audio Pro say it “delivers deep and powerful bass and crystal clear treble thanks to its high-quality drive units and 80 Watts of power”.

As well as the wireless connectivity there are two wired inputs (1 x 3.5 mm stereo jack / 1 x twin RCA) accessible from the back panel along with a USB socket for charging of a smartphone.  For additional bass reinforcement, a subwoofer can also be added, such as the similarly styled Audio Pro ADDON SUB and the supplied remote control.

Uniting Monitor Audio’s latest engineering with a slender design, the newest Silver range offers an “exceptional balance of performance, versatility, lifestyle appeal and value”.

The Silver range includes two stand mount models: Silver 1 and 2; three floor speakers: Silver 6, 8, 10, together with dedicated centre, ‘FX’ surround and active subwoofer models.

Available in a choice of real wood Rosenut, Walnut, Natural Oak, and Black Oak veneers, together with high-gloss black and white finishes

Available from October the Silver range comes in at between £500 and £1650.

Taking place over the anniversary week of KEF’s founding in 1961 (1^st Oct – 7^th Oct.), the company is staging an event to celebrate all things KEF. The campaign will focus around its official Blade retailers in the UK and will make them the destination stores for a weeks’ worth of activities.

Commenting on the event, Michael Johnson, UK KEF Head of Marketing says, ‘National KEF Week is aimed to highlight everything that’s great about KEF; the people, the products, the stores, everything. The week is designed to appeal to new and existing KEF customers and incentivise them to visit one of our official Blade retailers for the chance to take part in great competitions, expert demo sessions undertaken by KEF staff and benefit from some great product promotions. We hope this will be the start of a great annual campaign for KEF, and who knows it might turn into something that we might be able to develop into a much wider campaign across many more official KEF stores – it’s a very exciting proposition!’

Anyone interested in hearing Devialet’s new entry-level amp/DAC, the Devialet 110, should get themselves down to Audio Lounge on Tuesday 17th September. Audio Lounge in London W1 is co-hosting a Champagne reception with Absolute Sounds, Devialet’s sole UK distributor, to herald the UK launch of Devialet’s new integrated audio hub on the final day of London Fashion Week. The event will be open to members of the public from 6pm – 8pm!

The Devialet 110 takes the patented ADH (Analogue Digital Hybrid) amp tech from the D-Premier – the Parisian company’s first product  – refines it and delivers it at less than half the price.

The 110 is the entry-level model of three new-generation components. All three will be on display at the Champagne reception, with the 110 on demonstration in the listening room. Representatives from Devialet will be on hand to explain the thinking behind the company’s technologies and design principals.