Hi-Fi Choice May 2020

A month ago I kicked off my first Welcome column as HFC’s new editor with some words about the clocks springing forward and an urge to get out and about. How quickly things have changed! Right now, at the time of writing this, most of us are hunkered down at home with no clear idea of when we might start to resume living our normal lives. In such an unprecedented situation, it strikes me that the role of HFC is to try and make the best of these tough times by cracking on and finding our readers ways to fill the many hours with as much fun as possible. It may sound glib to say: “Hey, being stuck in our homes gives us more time to enjoy our hi-fi,” but…

THE LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS… PRICE: £2,000-£20,000 AVAILABLE: NOW WEB: FLAREAUDIO.COM “I WAS ON a mission to produce the perfect loudspeaker that wouldn’t harm ears and wouldn’t harm the planet. The world needs to look at how we can produce new technologies with natural fibres.” This is the mission statement from Davies Roberts, founder of Flare Audio, whose new Zero loudspeaker is the first to use recycled paper in the fabrication of its exterior. Customisable across 16 colours, it clamps layers of 2mm-thick recycled paper between solid, milled aluminium plates so that the paper becomes rigid as concrete. There is no acoustic wadding in the cabinet to damage sound purity, according to the company, and no electronic correction is required. The Zero’s ‘pure’ sound comes from layers of rigid paper forming…

PRICE: £1,300-£1,700 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 0113 2771441 WEB: EU.AUDIO-TECHNICA.COM AUDIO-TECHNICA HAS A long tradition of producing headphones in a variety of woods, including everything from the alpine cherry of the ATH-W10VTG to the ATH-W1000Z’s (HFC 402) teak. Now it has added the £1,700 Kokutan and £1,300 Asada Zakura to its Flagship wooden range. The closed-back dynamic Asada Zakura (right) is made from a rare Japanese wood said to have excellent acoustic properties. Its 53mm driver has a diamond-like coating called DLC for improved frequency response, a quoted sensitivity of 99dB/mW and claims to produce a rich sound with a gentle low range alongside crisper mid and high frequencies. The darker striped ebony housing of the Kokutan is split into two separate acoustic chambers for smoother bass reproduction in a proprietary…

VPI WEISLINE TONEARM CABLE • US turntable manufacturer VPI has partnered with Nordost to create the new VPI Weisline tonearm cable, designed to maximise vinyl performance. The cable has four x28 AWG, solid-core OFC conductors, Nordost’s FEP (Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene) extrusion and twisted pair cable construction to eliminate inter-channel crosstalk. It boasts individual shielding for left and right channels for maximum defence against EMI/RFI, separately shielded, silver-plated bond wire running parallel to the signal channels for optimum grounding capabilities and is terminated with high-quality, low-mass, gold-plated connectors. The Weisline is available in a choice of 1m, 1.5m and 2m lengths, costing £600, £700 and £800 respectively. VPIINDUSTRIES.COM…

Drawing its inspiration from Audio Analogue’s 20th anniversary line, the PureAA series has so far incorporated the AAcento amp (HFC 434) and AAphono. Now the company has introduced a digital-to-analogue converter in the shape of the AAdac. Constructed from discrete components–each of which has its own power supply–the AAdac is designed to provide Audio Analogue’s famed analogue character. The digital stage is fully balanced with high-quality components for claimed ultra-low noise and distortion. With Sabre’s ES9038 chipset at its heart, the AAdac offers processing of up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD512 files. It features an Amanero USB converter up to 32-bit/392kHz as well as coaxial, optical and AES/EBU digital inputs. Bluetooth aptX is on hand for wireless connectivity and there’s a 6.3mm headphone port. The chassis is available in a…

PRICE: £49 AVAILABLE: NOW CONTACT: 01279501111 WEB: IFI-AUDIO.COM IFI AUDIO’S ISILENCER and iDefender thumb-sized sticks, designed to remove the electrical noise that distorts the signal between computers and components, have been updated. The new iSilencer+ removes electrical noise (including EMI/RFI) at source, enabling bit-perfect transfer of audio data to the DAC by combining passive filtering with its ANC II (Active Noise Cancellation II) circuit. ANC II works in a similar way to active noise-cancelling headphones by generating a signal identical to that of the incoming electrical noise but in the opposite phase, actively cancelling it out. The iSilencer+ is also designed to reduce jitter and re-balances the signal so that what comes from the DAC is identical to the original source. While the iSilencer3.0 was only available with USB-A connectors,…