Signals news December 2016

pressure selling, signals style winter 2016 / 17 signals.uk.com

So it’s winter. Time to grapple with Adobe InDesign, take a stab at witty but home spun Christmas cards (tick) and generate some sort of written communication. Oh, you lucky people.

And, yes, it has been a while.

Having some news to impart, see back cover, we have decided to revert to the post-out newsletter format of old. As ever, my verbosity has increased the number of pages required well beyond the original plan. And still they are packed to the hilt, just like the stock situation here.

I have majored in this booklet on special offers and new arrivals. A great deal has been left out. The website, updated in the summer

by Creative Intent in Ipswich, has a more information.

Have a very happy Christmas!

Alastair + Andy and Rhea For a little longer, our contact details are: Signals UK Ltd 6 St Mary’s Park Buckesham Ipswich IP10 0DY

Tel 01473 655171 + 655172 enq@signals.uk.com www.signals.uk.com

Almost nearly, maybe soon

New Naim Uniti range now due from January 2017

Announced in October 2016, we had hoped to see the funky new Uniti Atom (above) just in time for Christmas. Sadly, this is not to be.

At the time of writing, late November, we are still anticipating seeing the new music server / ripper, called “Core” before December so the heading is probably not strictly true.

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock during the past few months, we should explain that the entire Naim Uniti range is being replaced. The term ‘new platform’ has been used and this, coupled with the change of aesthetic to the Statement and Mu-so white light / big knob approach has led many to assume that the much loved green logo ‘Classic’ series is on it’s way out.

I confess that we assumed as much here and Naim’s reluctance to say anything about it

only served to fuel the flames.

Nothing, we are now assured, could be further from the truth. Classic Series, the electronic Lego, that it is for many, is maintaining its separate style and new products will come along in due course that continue to match it.

What is slightly less settled at the moment, is pricing. Many manufacturers, Naim included, have price rises lined up for orders placed in January 2017. In the case of the Uniti series, this means that those willing to ‘take a punt’ on a pre-order can make a saving on something that will not actually arrive until next year anyway. The one probable exception, as mentioned earlier, is Core, which we should be able to demonstrate.

Seems that we got to live in interesting times!

fine wires

Super Lumina was introduced by Naim at the end of 2014. It was designed with the new Statement electronics in mind and ended years of speculation over whether Naim would ever launch high end cables.

It has been very successful indeed. With most cable offerings there are a mixture of positives and negatives, in most relevant (read moderately high end) Naim systems, certainly modern ones, the Super Lumina has been wholly positive. Positive, that is, if you ignore the damage to the wallet!

In the summer of 2016, Naim were keen to stimulate some business at the quieter part of the year and offered Super Lumina cables and Power Line mains leads at advantageous prices if we were prepared to commit to buy a certain amount.

This went rather well and, on the very last day of the offer we went a tiny bit mad and stocked up on extra Super Lumina loudspeaker cables and Power Line Mains leads.

The upshot is that we can offer a few

more cables at more than tempting prices.

At the time of writing, we have a few 3m and 5m speaker cables, some interconnects and pre-power leads and, of course, PowerLines.

We went maddest of all there :)

The paradox here is that prices for these are due to rise in January 2017.

We have become slightly blasé about how effective this wiring regime is and were reminded of the remarkable relevance when supplying a used pair of Kudos Titans to a local NDS / NAC 552 / NAP 500 (all DR) owning customer. We set the system up with his original HiLine and NAC-A 5 cable ‘loom’ and then

swapped to the full set of Super Lumina ‘wires’. Suffice it to say that the purchase decision was well and truly in the ‘no brainer’ territory.

Even at NAC-N 272 / NAP 250DR level, these same results hold.

Interestingly, non-Naim systems have responded extremely well to the loudspeaker cables too. As you might expect, we have a substantial collection of demonstration cabling for potential buyers to try.

This collection extends well up Chord Company’s range to include Sarum Super Aray and bargains such as Clearway pictured above.

We have Nordost, Tellurium Q as well as the far from shabby ‘house’ offerings from Linn, Rega and, of course, Naim.

For Arcam, Chord, Linn and Rega electronics, we have established our own favourite and often very good value cabling solutions that we feel get the best from them.

Focal have spent the last four years developing some new and quite radical high end headphones.

In late summer 2016 we heard the fruits of their labours: Utopia (top) and Elear (below left).

Our initial listen was via the remarkable Chord Dave DAC-cumheadphone amplifier and it was a memorable experience.

The Utopia represents a breakthrough level of resolution and musicality and there are reviews out there from seasoned headphone listeners claiming it to be quite simply the best ‘phone in the world.

For sure, they both deserve extremely high quality ancillary equipment but the Elear has a level of inherent warmth that should allow for more latitude in source equipment quality.

Both are extremely spacious in their presentation and are able to convey the impression that you are stepping into an entirely different listening acoustic. Given the price differential, it’s hardly surprising that this quality is more evident with the Utopia.

Focal claims the large, stiff, dome design used for the drivers in both models propagates the sound wave front more naturally towards the ear.

In the Elear, this dome is made from Aluminium-Magnesium and it weighs 150mg. The Utopia uses Beryllium and the dome weighs just 135mg. In utilising Beryllium for the transducer dome, Focal are

taking advantage of their own high level of expertise with this material.

They are keen to claim that it is 35 times more rigid than Titanium and the sound velocity 2.5 times greater. Either way, it offers clarity and insight without the sense that you are listening to a sound analysis device. It may be revealing but it is also engaging and musical.

Anyway, we have stock of both available to those who would like to brush with Nirvana before Christmas.

At a far more modest level, we have the excellent high value Sphear in-ear devices.

Spirit One S Spirit Pro Spirit Classic Sphear In Ear Elear Utopia

£159 £269 £299 £ 89 £800 £3400

The name Club Orpheus is derived from the world’s most expensive headphones developed by Sennheiser in the early 1990s, when Sennheiser set out on a mission to design the best headphones ever, irrespective of time taken and overall cost. They created the Orpheus, which became a legend. Only 300 systems were ever made and quickly sold to music lovers all around the world.

In recognition of this ground-breaking success, Sennheiser established Club Orpheus in the UK in 2012 to ensure their high-end range could only be sold through approved dealers able to offer their customers a personal demonstration and listening experience worthy of Sennheiser’s ambitions. Improbably, we are ‘in the club’.

In 2016, there is a new super-high end Orpheus II, the HE1. We don’t actually have one of these . . .

More usefully, we have the ‘real world gold standard’ HD 800 and HD800s headphones, the snappily titled HDVD800 headphone amp, the IE 800 in-ears, the HD630 and a smattering of a terrifyingly extensive range of more modest models.

The HD800s is a freshly revised and properly improved version of a modern classic, the HD800. Bafflingly, though, the HD800 remains in production with a price differentiation of just £100.

In our view, the HD800S simply makes a very fine thing even better. This is a lovely open, clean, tight and airy high resolution headphone.

The 800s comes with both standard quarter inch and balanced leads.

The latter allowing you to take advantage of the balanced feed on the HDVA600 and HDVD800 or, indeed, any other similarly equipped headphone amp.

This additional cable costs an extra £250 for the standard HD800, making the HD800s effectively cheaper if you choose to used balanced. And, ideally, you would.

HDVA600 £1249 HDVD800 £1649 HD 800s £1199 HD800 £1099 HD630 VB £399

Arcam’s Solo has been one of several new products from Cambridge’s finest for 2016. It’s available as Solo Music pictured below, Solo Movie 2.1 and Solo Movie 5.1.

All offer CD replay, FM and DAB radio, music streaming, either via a UPnP server locally or with Tidal, Quobuz or Spotify via the internet (feel free to quiz us!). The Movie versions add DVD + BluRay to the mix with either simple 2.1 (stereo plus sub) output or the full 5.1 surround sound.

With a start price of £1299 for the Solo Music, £1499 for the Movie 2.1 and £1799 for 5.1, these are amazingly high value items. Sound quality was a surprise (in the positive sense) and these are all proper music systems with Arcam’s fabled Class G amplification, these systems can drive proper speakers too.

By way of deals, buy a Solo Music or Movie from us during December and we will contribute 25% of the unit cost against (new) loudspeakers and cables bought from us. That’s a £325 contribution in the case of the Solo Music. £450 with the Movie 5.1.

Arcam’s irDAC was a huge hit a couple of years ago but a year is a long time in DAC land and we now have the irDAC II. Very good it is too, one of the most serious contenders in what is now a highly contested area of the market.

Is this a clue that there is maybe a deal to be struck? Well spotted! RRP is £499. In December, we are reducing the price to just £399.

It comes with a remote control for input selection and volume control. There are two outputs, one fixed, one variable. And it has an excellent headphone output too, by the way.

Inputs are coaxial electrical, optical and (asynchronous) USB.

Plugged into an integrated or even just a power amp, you have a full digital control centre on a budget. Put it with an Innuos Zen Mini and use an iOS or Android device to control it and it’s a fully networked system that can play anything on the local network, access Tidal, Quobuz and Spotify as well as internet radio.

Do you need it wrapped?

Beyond the Arcam products mentioned here, we have the full set of two channel amplification up to A49 level plus most of the AV receivers. Package deals can be assembled with all of these.

We are chuffed to report that a new British built processor, the AV860, is due early in the new year.

On demonstration, currently, we have the AVR550, and AVR850 looming below. The Dirac room correction that is included across the range is one of the best out there and it’s highly adjustable too.

Dolby Atmos? 4k? All features present!

Southend based Rega really do seem to be on a constant ‘roll’.

Along the top of this page is the new 2017 model of the hugely popular Brio amplifier that should be with us before Christmas.

This promises to have better build quality, improved aesthetics, better sound a headphone socket and only a very modest price hike over the previous model.

The previous Brio-R dominated this sector of the market and it seems likely the new one will continue in the same way.As usual, it includes a very capable MM phono stage.

Earlier this year, the ‘RP’ range of turntables was almost completely replaced by the new and funky ‘Planar’ series. They have returned to the title that pre-dated ‘RP’. Still, going full circle is part of the turntable’s job description. The range starts at £248 including cartridge for the Planar1, pretty impressive for a British made turntable.

All the decks are significantly revised with the Planar 2 effectively replacing the RP1 Performance Pack. You can still “Performance Pack’ the new models by adding the Bias 2 cartridge, white belt and better mat, but this is no longer an off-the-shelf configuration.

Performance has, we feel, improved quite significantly across the board. When we did A-B comparisons, the new decks were noticeably cleaner, tighter, more sophisticated and simply ‘better’ than the previous generation. The most obvious physical changes are to the arms but, despite the visual similarity, almost nothing, cartridge and belt excepted, has been carried over from the old models.

Planars 1 & 2 use the 24v motor as with the Planar 3 but cannot use the TT-PSU. This upgrade is the preserve of P3, RP6 and RP8.

With the nice crisp graphics and glossy finish, we are becoming very attached to the white versions. Finger prints being far less evident!

The RP8 and 10 turntables continue as before but with the Apheta 2 cartridge that launched last year.

The £2998 Apheon cartridge has entered production now. We probably should, but we haven’t . Yet.

The Elex-R and Elicit-R amplifiers are finding many friends as is the Saturn-R CD player that is really a DAC.

And with an Innuos or a Melco connected you can stream with it . . . I’ll get my coat.

Amps with DACs 1 & 2

The Chord CPM 2800 MkII was launched last year. It’s a high quality 120 WPC integrated amplifier with the 2Qute as an in-built DAC. It has blue teeth and everything :)

Connected to, say, an Innuos or Melco server via USB, you get the ability to access on-line music from Tidal, Quobuz and Spotify as well as locally stored music, both within the actual server and in the local network. This can be in any format that you like. It handles DSD natively too, so this format can actually make sense.

There is a lot of interest in reducing box count and increasing functionality yet customers are still, quite rightly, demanding in terms of achieving a level of audio quality. It’s telling that our most popular naim product over the last 18 months has been the NAC-N 272 streamer / preamp. Telling, too, that it is often partnered by some of the more expensive power amps in the range.

Viewed from this level of outlay, the CPM 2800 offers good value, power that will drive most speakers, difficult or not, and an excellent balance of refinement and insight.

We borrowed a Mark Levinson No585 when a local customer asked if he could hear it.

We were so impressed with what we heard that we signed up us Mark Levinson dealers and put one into stock.

With our Melco N1Zs server and Kudos Titans the sound quality was a real shock at the ten or so thousand pound all-in price.

This amp is capable of driving just about any loudspeaker. Big Maggies? Large difficult load B+Ws? No problem.

The in-built DAC is very good, although the £8k Chord Dave does take the performance forward quite significantly.

Learning how hard Mark Levinson are striving to reach the highest possible audio standards and the reasons for this has been Interesting. The real earner for Harman, and new owners Samsung, is automotive. But, to actually keep the automotive business from the likes of Lexus, the high end audio brand needs to be seen, known and heard to be at the very pinnacle of audiophile performance. Great products.

Mainly because they have no choice!

Chord Dave

If you want to ‘just do it’ in terms of DAC selection, then you ought to be considering Chord Electronics’ Dave.

This one took a little time to get under our skin, proving to be oddly settings-sensitive.

But, get it right, and it’s a remarkable, towering achievement, combining stellar levels of resolution, dynamics, tonal colour and refinement with the ability to recreate both the event and the venue.

As with the lower priced Hugo TT and portable Hugo, it can be used to drive a power amplifier directly. The volume control maybe technically digital, but there are none of the low level losses normally associated with this kind of arrangement.

There is a remote control too, so, for digital only systems, it can be used from the sofa.

The headphone output is stupendous, too, by the way, something that became very evident when we first listened to the Focal Utopia headphones.

We have all the Chord DACs, Mojo, 2Qute, Hugo, and Hugo TT. There is even some free stock for fast availability.

Be warned, the prices go up in January.

music servers

Some numpty put the line ‘we could talk for days about hi-fi’ on the front page of our spruced up web site. We thought it funny and left it on there, but if there is one subject are of which this is most true, it’s probably music streaming.

From a purist audio perspective, streaming refers to playing uncompressed copies of CDs or downloaded high resolution music via a local Ethernet network.

The music needs to be ‘served’ by something, be it a PC / Mac, ‘clever’ NAS drive or dedicated music server running something called UPnP software. This software is common as muck and usually free.

The device that plays the music is either a stand alone music streamer, called a ‘renderer’ in computer speak, a pre-amp or AV amp with a built-in board or maybe a combination of one of the newer generation DACs connected to a dedicated music server such as the Innuos above, or perhaps a Melco.

Whatever the hardware, control is usually handled by software running on an iOS or Android tablet or smart-phone.

These days, online music services such as Tidal, Spotify or Quobuz allow the end user to access a vast library of music for a modest monthly subscription. In terms of quality, full broadband access to Tidal and Quobuz gives the highest quality, potentially having a data rate above that of a standard unmolested CD.

All the same, it might not sound quite as good as a locally stored CD rip on the best music server. And herin lies one of the surprises of streaming audio: The serving of the music data, not just the quality or format of the ‘rip’, has some impact on the final audio quality.

Our first introduction to this phenomenon was when we noticed that the Naim HDX and UnitiServe sounded better as UPnP servers than PCs, Macs and NAS drives, even though they were playing identical files.

A few years on, we heard similar gains over the Naim units with the entry level Melco N1A server and even more of an uplift from the N1Zs pictured above.

We already knew that the quality of the network switch, even the broadband router, has sonic implications too, so it was less of a surprise to find that the dedicated ‘quiet’ Ethernet feed from the Melco servers improved on existing feeds from, say, the UnitiServe simply acting as an in-line filter.

The Melco servers initially required you to copy the CDs externally on a computer but, now, you can rip directly into them if you connect a USB3 CD drive.

Innuos recently launched Zen Mini II, ZenII and Zenith ripper / servers some of which compete directly with the Melco and Naim units.

Soon, the new Naim Core will arrive to replace the UnitiServe and give even more choice.

There are differences, though:

Both the Melco and Innuos devices can connect to a modern DAC via asynchronous USB. The DAC and server then effectively become a single device that can act just like a streamer, having access to the internally stored music and anything on the local network.

With the right iOS or Andoid “app’, you can also access online music services and internet radio, just like the stand-alone streamers.

The Naim Core has no USB connection.

The Innuos and Melco servers have varied talents, too. Currently, Innuos has superb editing facilities for modifying the artwork and titling on CD rips, whilst the Melco has nothing.

If connecting to a DAC via USB, the Innuos generally has the sonic edge, too.

Slam dunk to Innuos? Not quite. When working as a UPnP server, certainly with a Naim streamer, the Melco units sound considerably better to even our befuddled ears.

PMC Twenty5

Analogue products continue to form the lion’s share of our Linn business. Andy has really got into the LP12 set-up ‘groove’ too and customers have remarked on how his set-up of their deck is their best yet. Given that these previous set-ups have usually been by highly acclaimed individuals, he now emits a tangible air of confidence.

It might just be the deodorant. . .

The Linn Kore and Tiger Paw Akula, when we can get it, have become staple good value upgrades. The Tiger Paw sKale weight is a bewildering upgrade on, well, everything!

The New Linn Krystal cartridge joined the reference level Kandid and has proved to be an extremely popular choice. The supply situation on both of these has moved from ‘desperate’ to excellent. As well as Linn’s own, good matches for the LP12 remain Lyra, Dynavector, Transfiguration and Kiseki. As I write this, Andy is demonstrating them all in sequence to a customer :)

Chord make an £8000 DAC that seems expensive until you hear it. Here is a £900 mains block that does something similar.

We’ve been selling the MusicWorks Reflex Lite mains block for several years now. Sure it’s not cheap, but it performs a fine job of enabling high end mains cables from Naim, Chord etc to perform to their best.

Last year, they launched the Ultra Block at £895 and, whilst it was better sounding, the gains were fairly modest and we never felt motivated to ‘push’ it, although one or two folks did buy.

This year, we seem to have skipped generations and we have the G3 Ultra Block.

Flipping heck. The different sockets, the altered wiring, different Cryo treatment? Who knows, but this one sounds a whole lot better not just compared to the ‘base’ £485 version but the previous ‘Ultra’.

Supply has been painfully slow, but it is worth the wait. Truly!

The new Twenty5 series was launched

by PMC this summer. Despite physical similarities with the Twenty series, which continues at a reduced price, only the screws securing the tweeter are the same.

The cabinets are marginally wider and taller and the port now has airflow management filtched from designer Oliver Thomas’ time working in formula one. This was required to handle the extra requirements of the new, longer thow bass drivers.

The G Weave cone fabric is new too, and it’s theirs, all theirs. Midrange resolution is noticeably improved, there is a greater sense of ’ease’ too. Bass weight and extension is greater and this can lead to an increased space from walls requirement in smaller rooms.

We have most of the range abailable for demonstration. Oliver Thomas, the chief designer on this series, is the son of top man, Pete Thomas.

The boy’s done good!

neat tricks?

Picturing the dinky little Neat Iota Alphas from a low angle gives a misleading impression. These could double as door-stops, they really are that small.

Are they the answer to a question noone asked or a thoroughly brilliant idea? They certainly sound pretty damned accomplished.

Straight from the box they ran rings around the similarly priced, similarly new, Neat Motive SX2s, but run-in can play strange tricks. Imaging is well clear of and above the diminutive cabinets. The treble quality is excellent, courtesy of the ribbon tweeters and the bass performance rather better than expected or even hoped.

Russell K’s sub-£1000 Red 50 is turning into a cult classic. Properly small, spirited, dynamic and big hearted speakers that release the potential of modest systems and yet justify higher end components too.

The Red 100 stand-mounts and 150 floor-standers re all class-leading too. In fact, a guilty pleasure of mine is running the full Naim Statement rig into the Red 150s. It just sounds so right!

We have the full Kudos range on dem from X2 tiddler floor-stander to the twenty odd grand Titan T808. That’s one sliced above.

From Super 10 upwards, they are all now configured so that the user can feed them actively. For us, this has been solely with Linn electronics, Naim have no active crossover for them. The gains are substantial.

Rega’s RX series broke cover around a year ago and they have made many friends. The RX3 is a particular stand-out favourite but, as ever, the choice is more to do with room size.

There has been a particular, not to say ironic, synergy with the Naim Uniti series. These are now more sophisticated ‘posher’ speakers and prices have risen comensurately.

It’s not just Rega speakers that have risen in price. Just about eveything is ‘premium’, these days, creating a need for good, honest simple relatively inexpensive products.

Q Acoustics have been around since 2006. A chance meeting with Steve Reichert, the brands official ‘golden ears’ at one of our own audio shows led to him coming along to demonstrate and explain. It was a compelling dem!

Steve works with the legendary Karl Heinz Fink in Germany developing the speakers.

Once they have settled on the final product, manufacture is in China.

A lot of science and nous goes into the designs, yet prices are low and quality surprisingly high. The steps taken to maintain quality are rigorous too. Meet our ‘entry level’ range!

The close relationship between Focal and Naim has started to impact in two ways. Naim have stopped making loudspeakers and the once less than ideal match in voicing has given way to products that are actually designed to work together. The new Sopras are hitting the spot and we have even sold a pair in ‘electric’ orange!

Our big news is that we finally purchased our dedicated business premises, a former Roman Catholic Church in Trimley called St Cecilia’s. It’s not even particularly old, as you can see, being built in 1992, roughly when Signals was started.

Planning permission for change of use has been granted and we are now at full tilt buying fittings, setting the specification and getting builders to modify it to our needs. This is probably the most exciting time in our history. It’s certainly proving to be time-consuming!

We are hopeful that we can get the conversions done over the early part of the year, freeing us for a spring launch. Best we wait before making any official arrangements.

Oh, and St Cecilia is the patroness of music. Apt, eh?