Hi Fi News January 2022

Depending on when you devour this latest copy of your favourite hi-fi magazine you’ll either be diving headlong into the festive season (however you choose to celebrate) or ringing in the New Year with a glass of whatever takes your fancy… From us all at Hi-Fi News, we wish every reader a happy, Covid-free and music-filled 2022. As the nights get a little longer, audiophiles across the land will be settling down for an evening’s music-making with their fave LPs and hi-res streams. And while you are surrounded by stereo what better than a copy of Hi-Fi News by your side? After a two-year absence we’ll certainly be looking forward to our UK Hi-Fi Show Live at Ascot in September where this month’s cover stars – the magnificent Wilson Audio…

Priced at £1300, NAD’s C 700 is the Canadian company’s latest BluOS streaming amplifier to feature a full-colour front-panel display, and the first to do so in its affordable Classic Series. Indeed, there’s much about this ‘just add speakers’ component that’s reminiscent of NAD’s award-winning but costlier Masters Series M10 [HFN Jun ’19], including its compact aluminium chassis design and connections roster. Digital sources are supported on coaxial, optical, USB, HDMI eARC, Wi-Fi/Ethernet and BT, alongside two sets of analogue line ins. The C 700’s amplifier stage features the more cost-effective Hypex UcD Class D modules rather than the Ncore devices of the Masters Series. Power is rated at 80W/8ohm, allowing for dynamic peaks to 120W. As with all of NAD’s BluOS amps, the C 700 supports iOS/Android/Windows app control…

Newly arrived from vinyl specialist Vertere are the Super Groove SG-PTA and SG-PTA HB tonearms, priced at £2000 and £3500 respectively. Ranged below the company’s Reference design, they feature Vertere founder/designer Touraj Moghaddam’s ‘Tri-Pivot’ bearing, a development of a conventional uni-pivot that’s stabilised within a nest of three silicon nitride balls. ‘Roll wrapped’ carbon fibre is used for the armtube, while headshells are aluminium (SG-PTA) or Titanium (SG-PTA HB), connected by a ‘non-resonant structurally bonded alloy’. Vertere says its new medium effective mass arms are better suited to ‘today’s less compliant cartridge suspensions’ and include a steel ring that slides along the tube, fine-tuning both tracking weight, the arm/cartridge resonance frequency plus structural modes. Vertere Ltd, London, 0203 176 4888; www.vertereacoustics.com…

MAGICO DIVES DEEP Launching what it claims is ‘the ultimate powered subwoofer’, Magico is looking to make an impact in both AV and purist hi-fi markets. The £37,998 Titan 15 features a pair of 15in aluminium-coned woofers, each with a 4in high-temperature voice-coil and a custom-tooled 10in suspension that boasts 1.6in of linear travel in each direction. They are mounted in an opposed, force-cancelling configuration within a massive (175kg), sealed aluminium enclosure. Each driver is powered by an integral 3.2kW Class D amp. www.magico.net HYPER DIGITAL Atlas’s new Hyper AES/EBU 110ohm digital interconnect draws on the materials technology of its costlier Mavros cable. Within, a pair of silverplated OFC conductors are insulated in a microporous PTFE tape and double-screened by an alloy/Mylar film and OFC braid. Prices are £185 for…

Available in black or silver, the V5 Titan sees IsoTek revamping its mid-tier AC power cleaning model designed for ‘high-current’ systems. Claiming to reduce common and differential mode mains noise, and featuring a trio of independent outputs (one for use with an active subwoofer), the V5 Titan boasts upgrades to the PCB topology to lower resistance and increase inductance, plus improvements to its protection circuitry. A new ‘System Link’ feature, meanwhile, allows multiple IsoTek devices to be daisy-chained back to a single wall socket. Pricing is £4499, and it comes with an EVO3 Premier power cable. IsoTek Power Systems Ltd, 01592 744710; www.isoteksystems.com; www.finesounds.uk…

Grado has added two new models to its Reference Series of headphones, built around its 4th-gen X-Driver technology that includes a ‘reconfigured’ diaphragm, low mass voice-coil and more powerful magnet system. The top-of-the-range £799 RS1x and £599 RS2x [pictured] are both rated at 99.8dB/1mW and have custom-designed, hand-built wooden capsules. Claimed to be matched to within 0.05dB, the RS1x’s 50mm drivers reside in an enclosure comprised of a maple sleeve, hemp core, and cocobolo outer ring, while the RS2x’s 44mm drivers – also tightly matched – sit in maple/hemp housings. Both headphones are open-back designs and include further upgrades to the ‘super annealed copper’ eight-conductor cable (the 3.5mm termination has a 6.35mm adapter) and black leather headbands of Grado’s earlier Reference Series models. Grado Labs, New York, USA, (Armour Home)…