Hi Fi News May 2016

‘We’re calling all readers who’ve been with us from the 1950s’ Whatever new front-end or loudspeaker technologies are developed, chances are that we’ll all still be hankering after a sublimely unburstable amplifier well into the foreseeable future. And two of the most heavenly amplifiers currently available – the Reference 6 preamplifier from Audio Research and NAP 500 DR power amp from Naim Audio – feature on the cover of this month’s issue. Both are evolutions of existing designs and despite their clear technological dissimilarities (the REF 6 is all-tube while the NAP 500 DR employs bespoke transistors), their philosophical lineages are traceable back through the lifetime of each company. So while the experienced audiophile knows what to expect from each brand, it just leaves the question ‘is the improvement incremental or intense?’.…

We reveal the latest products and upcoming events Blending electrostatic headphone technology, state-of-the-art DAC and valve amplification with chiselled Italian Carrara marble, Sennheiser is looking to make an unforgettable statement piece with its Orpheus system. Priced at a heady €50k and hand-crafted in limited quantities, this headphone/amplifier combination is the second in the Orpheus series – the first having been launched way back in 1990/91. Now, some 25 years later, Sennheiser has re-imagined its electrostatic headphone design with exclusive components including ‘gold-vaporised ceramic electrodes and 2.4μm-thick platinum-vaporised diaphragms’. The Orpheus HE 1 headphones integrate Sennheiser’s Class A MOSFET (polarising) amplifiers into its ear cups, the latter precisionmachined from solid aluminium and graced with handmade ear and headband pads fashioned from ‘the finest leather and a soft, allergen-free velour/microfibre’. When not in…

Sights and sounds from around the globe Once again, February saw the Marriott Hotel in Bristol throw open its doors to a long queue of Hi-Fi fans waiting eagerly to feast their eyes and ears on what exhibitors had in store for them at the annual Sound & Vision Show. For this year’s festivities, visitors were presented with audio products and components that catered to all tastes, whether it was wireless Bluetooth earbuds, valvepowered amps or the latest big-ticket loudspeakers. While digital front-ends and streaming products were present in abundance, there were also vinyl-based systems from many brands, highlighting the format’s appeal to both longstanding enthusiasts and newcomers to the Hi-Fi scene alike. An Audio Note TT-1 Deluxe turntable flanked by a Nagra IV-SJ reel-to-reel recorder meant there were analogue treats aplenty in the…

It’s surely not mere nostalgia. In the 1960s and 1970s, the BBC’s Research Department at Kingswood Warren was a unique establishment, with resources far greater than those of any loudspeaker company. It could pursue the goal of accurate sound reproduction almost unfettered by the usual commercial pressures of time and money. The speakers that resulted might not have been perfect, but they were influential. The BBC’s charter obliged it to collaborate with outside manufacturers to supply its needs, and it was thanks to this, and the enterprise of some of those collaborators, that the BBC designs spread beyond the broadcast studios and stirred the imagination of audiophile consumers. A key development of the period was the move from paper to plastic drive unit materials, and here the BBC story intertwines with the…

AUDIO FILE Valve preamplifier Made by: Audio Research Corp, Minnesota, USA Supplied by: Absolute Sounds Ltd Telephone: 0208 971 3909 Web: www.audioresearch.com; www.absolutesounds.com Price: £12,000 Twenty sixteen is the 21st anniversary of the Audio Research Reference Series, and in that period, there have been seven line stage preamps. As a reviewer who takes the term ‘reference’ to mean a standard by which to judge other components, I have been wedded to the range since 2009’s REF 5. With the Reference 6, a new level of performance has been attained at the £12,000 level, the lower tier of the line. Because Audio Research developed the Reference range into a family, rather than just a flagship preamp and power amp (plus phono stages and DACs along the way), the company added stereo and mono power amps of varying outputs and,…

Careful evolution best describes the path of ARC’s single-chassis Reference preamps, which started with the REF 1 in 1995, notable for its resemblance to ‘classic’ ARC preamps with its row of knobs above toggles, between handles. Its gain was all-tube, with eight inputs, but with full microprocessor control of volume, balance, record and input selection. It also featured fully regulated power supplies, dedicated analogue and logic transformers and audiophile-grade components throughout. The REF 2 from 1998 looked the same and allowed ’1s to be upgraded to ’2s. A unity gain stage was added, as was tube regulation. The REF 3 of 2004 was a full re-design, now featuring a fluorescent display and menu that replaced many controls. With the REF 5 of 2009, the circuit design was revised again, now…