Hi Fi News September 2017

There’s not quite so much art as science involved in the design of today’s top-? ight hi-? , but neither are the fresh ? agships of ? delity conceived solely ‘by the numbers’. The three exclusive cover stars featured this month explore every aspect of modern industrial and electronic design – from the supremely hi-tech marriage of digital media embraced within T+A’s MP 3100 HV [p32] to the minimalist ‘high art’ craftsmanship embodied in the outrageous Metaxas Ikarus ampli? er [p40]. These two products may occupy two very different regions of high-end hi-? ’s Venn diagram, but when the circuit emulation and CAD/ CAM programs are exhausted and the computers switched off, both these company’s designers fall back on an intuition honed from years – decades – of experience. In audio…

Cor – a PMC amp! FOLLOWING A QUARTER-CENTURY OF DOMESTIC AND PRO LOUDSPEAKER DESIGN, NOW COMES PMC’S FIRST AMPLIFIER PMC suggests that the de? nition of its ? rst integrated amp – the cor – means (anatomy) heart and (? guratively) soul. The rest of us will probably take ‘cor’ as the popular expression of surprise. After all, PMC has been designing loudspeakers, including active models, for over two decades so the introduction of a partnering outboard ampli? er is arguably long overdue. The layered alloy casework is inspired by the work of Dieter Rams (Braun) and Raymond Loewy (the ‘father of industrial design’) while the internal circuit design is as straightforward as possible, using a Darlington output con? guration to deliver a rated 2x95W/8ohm and 2x140W/4ohm. Also under the bonnet, the 360VA…

Latest from the UK’s only high-end hi-fi show Not only will Brinkmann Audio be wowing visitors to the Hi-Fi Show Live with its Spyder turntable but the new Nyquist DAC will also be unveiled – complete with custom tube/ transformer analogue ? lter stage Tickets On Sale Now A tapered tube absorber shows the form and function of Vivid Audio’s G3 loudspeakers in perfect harmony. These iconic designs will be making sweet sounds alongside Mola-Mola’s latest electronics [HFN Aug ’17] at The Hi-Fi Show Live Hi-Fi News’ readers were granted an exclusive insight into SME’s plans for its future [HFN Jun ’17] but only visitors to The Hi-Fi Show Live will get to see and hear the very latest vinyl-spinning delights, fresh the famous factory... Music Masterclass The extraordinary cellist, Vincent Bélanger, will be playing live…

Sights and sounds from around the globe One thing’s for certain: Hong Kong is no longer cheap for UK visitors. In 2007, £1 bought you HK$16. Ten years later that same pound buys you less than HK$10. But that didn’t stop local audiophiles turning up in droves for the second HK Audio Visual Expo. The show is now spread over two hotels in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, rather than just the one. And thanks to the sunny weather the crowds were bigger too, up more than 10% to 2400 on the ? rst day. Among newcomers were King’s Audio, Kii Audio and Bang & Olufsen while there were many new local companies present, such as SNM International with low cost products from across the Chinese border in Shenzen. Show organiser Ken Wong…

The analogue revival has created a thriving market for old original home hi-? in good condition. It’s also fuelling demand for old analogue recording studio equipment. An EMI TG12345 MK IV mixing desk, as used to record Dark Side Of The Moon – and now on show in the foyer of the Victoria and Albert Museum – recently sold for £1.4m. This has also created demand for engineers who can make old studio gear work, interface old with new and keep it all working. Most of the engineers doing this are those who ‘graduated’ around 50 years ago from the three unof? cial Universities of Audio Engineeering – EMI, Decca and the BBC. ANALOGUE ARMOURY I met up recently with Dave Harries, one such ‘graduate’ who is now working with British Grove, the…

Network-enabled outboard DAC/SACD player Made by: T+A elektroakustik GmbH & Co. KG, Germany Supplied by: Kog Audio, UK Telephone: 01353 721089 Web: www.taelektroakustik.de; www.kogaudio.co.uk Price: £12,690 The expansion of digital technology in audio has brought modular design increasingly to the fore. Not only is it possible for a manufacturer to build, say, a network music player by taking a standard ‘off the shelf’ module and adding its own analogue circuitry around it – as some have done – but it also opens the possibility for those companies developing their own technologies to amortise their costs by using the same basic building blocks in models at a range of prices. FOR THE COMPLETIST On a super? cial level, that may make T+A’s £12,690 MP 3100 HV SACD/network player/DAC look like something of a grabbag,…