Earlier in 2017 Exposure Electronics launched its new ‘XM’ series of hifi components, packing a complement of high-end features into a compact and affordable design. Now, the XM3 phonostage and XM5 integrated amplifier are joined by the new XM7 preamp and XM9 mono power amp. More »
G-Point Audio and Malvern Audio Research will be exhibiting again at this year’s two day Cranage Hall, North West Audio Show. More »
SparkoS Labs have been manufacturing discrete op amp and discrete voltage regulator products for high end audio use for around 4 years. Now they’ve decided to start making high end audio equipment themselves using those discrete devices. More »
For the first time Zanden Audio will participate in the High End Munich show from May 18th to the 21st. Zanden will have a static display at the MOC in Halle 4 U19. More »
Hifi Pig Advertising Promotion
Hifi Pig brings you a series of promotional articles about our Great British Brands exhibiting at High End Munich 2017. We let them tell you all about their philosophy and products.
Professional electronics engineer Graham Slee has been involved in circuit design, manufacturing research and development, broadcast audio and high fidelity since 1974. In 1998 he established the company Graham Slee Projects Ltd to manufacture and market his designs of phono pre-amplifers and headphone amplifiers. The company is now called HiFi System Components Ltd and the product line has expanded to include DACs and power amplifiers as well as a range of highly successful interconnects and loudspeaker cables. More »
Audio Hungary Ltd., owners of the Qualiton brand, started off in 2012. This essentially came about when they purchased Univox Ltd, a manufacturer of industrial PA equipment. Without wanting to make this a lesson in economic history: the company started back in the 1940’s operating under the names of “Audio” “EAG “and BEAG until the 1990’s. That was when Univox was created from a manufacturing unit of BEAG (Budapest Electro-Acoustics Factory). BEAG used to be one of the largest and most renowned players in the industry in the Eastern bloc, having also supplied the entire PA system for the Moscow Olympics back in 1980. More »
Goldmund has just released a new generation of analogue products. Anne-Karine of Goldmund got in touch to explain further: “They represent a milestone in the way amplifiers and preamplifiers are designed while they continue capitalising on the expertise Goldmund has developed over almost 40 years of research and development”. More »
Vista Audio has introduced an extension of their Phono-1 phono preamplifier. Phono-2 ($399) has no capacitors in the signal path and RIAA compensation is executed with high precision film capacitors and low noise resistors. More »
Audio Hungary got in touch to tell us more about their Qualiton brand, their products, philosophy and their history. “Audio Hungary Ltd., owners of the Qualiton brand, started off in 2012. This essentially came about when they purchased Univox Ltd, a manufacturer of industrial PA equipment. Without wanting to make this a lesson in economic history: the company started back in the 1940’s operating under the names of “Audio” “EAG “and BEAG until the 1990’s. That was when Univox was created from a manufacturing unit of BEAG (Budapest Electro-Acoustics Factory). BEAG used to be one of the largest players in the industry in the Eastern bloc, having also supplied the entire PA system for the Moscow Olympics back in 1980”. More »
High End hifi shop, KJ West One are teaming up with Vertere to bring you the first of their new Vinyl showcase evenings entitled ‘Strictly Vinyl’. More »
In 2013 DS Audio launched the world’s only optical phono cartridge, the DS-W1. A further-advanced flagship model, the Master 1, followed in 2016. Now, the company is launching a new entry level design: the DS 002, drawing on innovations from the Master 1 while offering a more affordable way in to optical cartridge technology.
More »
At the end of 2009, B.M.C. Audio presented the MCCI Phono preamplifier, with a new concept for proceeding MC-cartridge’s signals. More »
From Greece, the Echo Diastasis PH-79 Phono Stage is a dual mono design using E-Core transformers and costs £2760. Janine Elliot gives it a whirl. More »
From Greece, the Echo Diastasis PH-79 Phono Stage is a dual mono design using E-Core transformers and costs £2760. Janine Elliot gives it a whirl. More »
Channel Islands Audio, who are celebrating their 20th anniversary, have announced the release of their PEQ 1 MKII MM/MC Phono Preamplifier. More »
The rPhono is the latest addition to Arcam’s Black Box rSeries. Previewed at CES and launching to the public at Bristol’s hifi Show at the end of February, the Arcam rPhono is designed specifically to upgrade an in-built phono stage or to add a turntable input to an existing amplifier. More »
Lancashire based Rothwell Audio Products Ltd have announced the release of their Signature Two discrete transistor moving coil phonostage which is the result of over twenty-five years’ experience in the design of these devices. Within the phonostage itself, there are neither transformers nor op-amps resulting in, say Rothwell, “a stunningly clear aural experience”. More »
Exposure Electronics has launched its new ‘XM’ series of hifi components. Responding directly to the resurgence of vinyl amid a digital age, the series offers a solution for those who seek performance across multiple media but don’t want the size or cost of their system to spiral out of control. Kicking off the series, the XM5 integrated amplifier includes both a phonostage and a DAC in a compact half-width size. More »
Constellation Audio has announced the introduction of the new Revelation Series of components, and their new Centaur II 500 Stereo Amplifier, at CES 2017. CEO Dr. Murali Murugasu challenged his team of designers and engineers to develop a new series of Constellation Audio components that “could deliver the essence of the Performance Series”. More »
McIntosh’s new MP100, the first dedicated phono preamplifier from the legendary US brand and one featuring USB outputs for (24-bit) ‘rips’ from vinyl collections has arrived in the UK . More »
At £2500 the AVID Hifi Pellere Phono-stage borrows a lot of its make up from its more expensive sibling costing £4300, but does it cut the right kind of groove? Janine Elliot finds out. More »
At £2500 the AVID Hifi Pellere Phono-stage borrows a lot of its make up from its more expensive sibling costing £4300, but does it cut the right kind of groove? Janine Elliot finds out. More »
Zesto Audio has announced the debut of their newest product, the Andros Téssera Phonostage. The official launch will take place at the annual Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver, Colorado USA, October 7-9, 2016 in exhibit room 6011 at the Marriott Tech Centre.
Téssera means 4 in Greek. This newest product from Zesto Audio is aptly named as it is designed to work with up to 4 different tonearms or turntables. George Counnas, President and Design Engineer for Zesto Audio says, “There are so many great specialized phono cartridges available today, I wanted to design a phonostage that was easy to use, while providing the necessary inputs to accommodate multiple tonearms and be able to save the settings when you switch between channels.”
The Andros Téssera designed with 100% tube circuitry and no solid state devices anywhere in the signal path and all switching is done with reed relays.
Building on the success of Zesto’s original Andros Phonostage, George wanted to take it further, not only sonically but with more features resulting in a quieter, fuller and more dynamic sound. 
Some of the new features include true transformer balance outputs driven by dedicated output tubes. The Andros Téssera has a new circuit design that is partnered with significantly upgraded larger MC step-up transformers to capture the most delicate signals in the grooves.
The Téssera is designed with 2 completely independent dual mono channels that can accommodate 1 MM and 1 MC per channel. It is easily adjustable “on the fly” 12 position MC load per channel without clicks or pops, so you can hear the changes, as well as save the settings when you switch between tonearms. One of the unique features is the 4 MC ground switches which helps to eliminate those noisy ground loops.
Specialist UK Distributor Sound Design Distribution Ltd has signed a UK distribution deal with Mola-Mola. Mola-Mola is the brainchild of Bruno Putzeys, “he wunderkind of Class-D technology” originator of Universal class-D (UcD) in 2001 while at Phillips and as chief tech guru at Hypex, responsible for the development of its game-changing NCore Class-D amplifier technology. 
Presented in strikingly distinctive rippled all-aluminium enclosures the ‘Makua’ Control Amplifier, complete with modular DAC and phono options, and ‘Kaluga’ Monoblock power amplifiers will be the first Mola-Mola designs to be made available to UK audiophiles through Sound Design Distribution Ltd.
The Makua is a fully balanced gain stage and routing matrix, accommodating optional DAC and phono stage modules and programmable via a dedicated App through USB or Bluetooth to access any combination of channel, processing and routing. Via the phono stage option for instance, vinyl-lovers can connect up to five turntables and program the settings individually for each. All five inputs are switchable between XLR and floating RCA connections, and all can be assigned as either phono or line.
All stages in the Makua employ discrete amplifier modules using a little known topology called “single-ended driven differential”, which prevents noise from propagating all the way through to the outputs (paralleled for bi-amping). The relay-based volume control directly controls the gain of the output stage.
Based on Bruno Putzeys’ Ncore technology the Kaluga amplifier uses a circuit from Mola-Mola derived from the Hypex NC1200 amplifier, featuring an audiophile layout of short, isolated signal paths and eliminating board-to-board connectors in favour of star-quad cables soldered directly to the circuit board. The input stage on a separate circuit board uses the same discrete buffers as those found in the Makua pre-amplifier. The redesigned output filter uses monolithic capacitors.
The DAC from Moma-Mola has been designed from the ground up using circuits and digital algorithms developed entirely in house. The converter is a three board stack that fits in one of the option slots in the MAKUA preamp. On the first board, all incoming digital audio is upsampled to 3.125MHz/32 bits and converted to noise shaped PWM. The two remaining boards are mono DACs, in which a discrete 32-stage FIR DAC and a single-stage 4th order filtering I/V converter convert the PWM into analogue with a 140dB SNR. This is near the theoretical limit for 24-bit files and far beyond that of even quad-speed DSD.
A standalone version of the Mola-Mola DAC is in the final stages of development
The RIAA add-on for the MAKUA Preamp has MC/MM input stages are optimised for current noise and voltage noise respectively.
Unlike the more common arrangement of MC head-amp feeding the MM stage, the two stages are fully independent, realising an equally short signal path for both. Input gain is switchable in 5dB steps over a 40dB range. Input resistance and capacitance are individually switchable. Available EQ settings cover practically all known cutting curves ever used, including most 78RPM.
UK retail price (inc VAT):
Makua – £7,299; Kaluga (each) – £4,999; DAC board for Makua – £3,999; Phono stage for Makua – £1,699
Availability: September 2016
iota-audio-design have been in touch with Hifi Pig to tell us about their phono stage. The name may be new to you but hey have a company history that goes back more than 25 years and many of their products are being revised, upgraded and improved.
Their balanced phono stages have evolved over a very long time, the original was created in 1995, and now with the 2016-Rev II versions the company say that these “reference grade products” have taken another step forward.
iota Signature Reference Phono Stage
2016-Rev II…………..£ 1,495
The iota Signature Reference Balanced phono stage in Rev II 2016 form is now available. These brand new two box units come with a full 3 year parts and labour warranty.
iota Median Phono Stage
2016-Rev II …£ 625
iota are offering an opportunity for all existing owners of iota Signature Reference, and the iota Median balanced phono stages to upgrade any previous version of the products to the recently released REV II-2016 versions. The cost of the upgrade is just £240.00. This includes any service or repair that may be required to the phono stage or power supply, and this will apply whether you are the original owner or you purchased the equipment second hand. Following this significant performance upgrade the re-calibrated item will also then benefit from a full one year guarantee, whatever its age.
Copyright © Hifi Pig and Hifi Pig Magazine,
Big Pig Media LLP
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material (in part or in full) without express and written permission from this website’s author
and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Hifi Pig and Big Pig Media with appropriate and specific direction (link) to the original content.
Hifi Pig is part of the Big Pig Media LLP group
of companies.
Partnership No OC397825
