Hi Fi News November 2020

No-one needs reminding this has been a pretty bizarre year so far. I certainly hope that all our readers have been free of personal tragedy – and that being the case then many of us will have been reassessing not only what is important in our lives, but also how we choose to live and pursue our passions. Those things that bring us joy – and I count listening to music on a quality hi-fi system as high on that list – have been brought into particularly sharp focus. Changes that may have taken years – how we shop and certainly how we work – have ‘evolved’ in a matter of mere months. Families are leaving cities in favour of homes with green spaces just as many workers have discovered they…

Following its debut of the Chronosonic XVX in late 2019, Wilson Audio has now unveiled a ‘ground up rethinking’ of its smallest floorstander. Utilising technology from the XVX, the new 102cm-tall SabrinaX has been designed, says the audiophile marque, to ‘stand alongside much larger systems’. Priced £21,500 per pair in standard Galaxy Grey, Quartz and Carbon finishes (or £23,000 in Ivory, Diamond Black and Crimson Satin gloss variants), this three-way features the Convergent Synergy MK5 tweeter first developed by Daryl Wilson for the XVX, plus that speaker’s custom binding posts and spike/diode assembly. Its 145mm doped paper-pulp midrange is joined by a 200mm low frequency driver (originally crafted for Wilson Audio’s Sasha DAW), while the crossover network uses the company’s recent AudioCapX in-house capacitor design. While outwardly similar, the X-Material…

Boulder, Colorado-based PS Audio believes its PerfectWave SACD Transport (PST) is its ‘finest achievement’ in silver disc playback. Key to the evolution of its established Digital Lens technology, which buffers and reclocks the output of the transport block, is another layer of galvanic isolation, this time implemented earlier still in the chain after the optical pick-up. The new £6500 CD/SACD spinner offers S/PDIF and DoP digital outputs on RCA, BNC and XLR sockets with pairs of BNC and XLRs employed to accommodate double-rate DoP. Naturally there’s also an I2S output, on an HDMI socket, for raw but secure delivery of SACD’s DSD layer into PS Audio’s DirectStream DACs. Billed as a plug-and-play model, the PST (available in black or silver) features wired and wireless network connections for firmware updates. PS Audio, Colorado,…

Marantz has kickstarted what it says will be a ‘new era’ for the brand by rolling out two hi-fi components with a revamped look intended to highlight its near 75-year heritage. Both the Model 30 integrated amplifier and SACD 30n disc player (£2700 each) are available in black and champagne-gold finishes, with front panel stylings that ape their 1950s/’60s/’70s antecedents. The SACD 30n leverages a deal of know-how from the existing SA-12SE, but with the addition of a built-in hi-res network player based around the HEOS platform, while the all-analogue 2x100W Model 30 shares the same Hypex Class D power amp as the PM-12SE [review p52]. Sound United/D&M Holdings, Kanagawa, Japan, 02890 279830; www.marantz.com/en-gb…

It’s twenty-five years since the 600 Series – Bowers & Wilkins’ most affordable range – hit hi-fi retailers, during which time it has been revised through six generations and, says B&W, sold over one million units. To celebrate, the brand is launching Anniversary Edition models of the 603 S2 floorstander, 606 S2 and 607 S2 standmounts, and HTM6 S2 centre channel speaker. Driver and cabinet construction for these 7th-gen speakers is identical to their predecessors but a promised performance boost comes courtesy of upgraded crossovers, now using the Mundorf bypass capacitors introduced in the step-up 700 Series. There’s also a new oak finish alongside previous matte white/black options. Pricing ranges from £450 for the 607 S2 to £1500 for the 603 S2. B&W Group Ltd, 0800 232 1513; www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk…

Technics has added a ‘fully digital’ integrated amplifier to its premium Reference Class range. The £6999 SU-R1000 is rated at 150W/8ohm and employs the PWM bitstream power amp, JENO anti-jitter and speaker compensation technologies premiered in its SE-R1 power amp [HFN Feb ’15]. The SU-R1000 sees an additional raft of DSP innovations, including ADCT (Active Distortion Cancelling Technology), together with a revised switchmode PSU. Connections include balanced XLRs and RCAs, dual USB-B and optical/coaxial S/PDIF. There’s also an MC phono input – this is tethered to the SU-R1000’s user-adjustable ‘Intelligent Phono EQ’ regime which includes a supplied calibration LP. Available in black or silver, the SU-R1000 showcases Technics’ Reference Class styling, complete with its traditional VU meters. Panasonic Corporation, Osaka, Japan, 0844 844 3899; www.technics.com, http://panasonic.net…