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Introducing the all new Teac USB DAC and USB amplifier!
(January 13, 2012)

From the digital specialist, Esoteric, comes the more affordable USB based products from the parent company, Teac.

A-H01 Stereo amplifier with USB input

Equipped with an ICE powered amplifier section and a 32 bit/192 kHz digital to analogue converter, the A-H01 is one amplifier you should seriously consider to partner with your desktop audio system. The built-in amplifier is rated at 22 watts rms into 8 ohms will drive any efficient desktop or bookshelf speaker with ease. With 2 analogue line inputs and three digital inputs (USB, Toslink and coax), the A-H01 also comes with a high quality headphone output as well as line-level subwoofer output (for an add-on active subwoofer). Usual $750, now at KEC Sound System only $699

UD-H01 32 bit/192 kHz Digital Converter with USB input

For even higher performance, the UD-H01 is made for the purist – with dual 32 bit DACs, three digital inputs (USB, Toslink and Coax) single ended and balanced analogue output together with a high quality headphone amplifier with its own volume control, this device will playback your computer music files to 192 kHz! Usual $599 now at KEC Sound System only $550!

The Point Source Effect
(December 10, 2011)

Christophe Cabasse introduces the Cabasse Point Source loudspeaker

A full range, single drive unit loudspeaker has always been the dream of loudspeaker designers. With a single drive unit reproducing the full frequency spectrum means there is no need for a crossover hence greater efficiency with less distortion in terms of phase shifts and time shifts. Typical loudspeakers need to employ at least two drive units to cover the full frequency range of human hearing. More elaborate loudspeakers even deploy three or more drivers to achieve better bandwidth and power handling. In doing so increases the complexity of the loudspeaker design, increasing it’s cost and increases the amount of distortion.

“Phase and time shifts refer to the fragmented relationship between the time and phase of the signal arriving to the listener’s ears from two or more drive units. For example the leading edge of the high frequency sound from the tweeter may not coincide with the lower frequencies from the woofer. This lead to a character that would be deemed too thin and bright sounding, a common complain for less expensive loudspeakers where time and phase correction is not compensated for in the crossover.”

To overcome phase shifts, Cabasse pioneered the coaxial drive units – where the tweeter and midrange driver is formed into one single drive unit. In doing so, the two drive units behave as if it were a single drive unit. Mechanical time alignment of the two drive units to an extent, alleviate the problems mentioned with discrete drive units. Cabasse loudspeakers have pioneered the use of 2-way and 3-way coaxial drive unit design for many years in their loudspeakers. Until recently, making a 3-way coaxial loudspeaker is considered an engineering marvel, now Cabasse has launched their most ambitious loudspeaker yet – the La Sphere which is the world’s only four way coaxial loudspeaker design. But it isn’t as simple as it seems. To tell us more about Cabasse’s flagship, La Sphere, which incidentally has just landed in Singapore, is Mr Christophe Cabasse, the third generation member of the Cabasse family who had been building loudspeakers since the fifties.

Christophe: The La Sphere is the development from the previous flagship, the Atlantis. What we have done is incorporate digital crossover where the use of analogue crossover for the Atlantis limits the ability of how we can handle the problem of time delay (time and phase shifts). It took us 12 years to find a DSP powerful and fast enough to handle the required bandwidth, the SHARD processor at 48kHz was to be the heart of the extensive signal processing employed in the La Sphere.

The concept of the La Sphere is simple – the reverse of the microphone to reproduce the full range of frequencies from one point source. At least in theory. When we developed the Atlantis in the early ‘90s, all we had was analogue crossovers. Analogue crossover cannot do time delay as efficiently as a digital crossover. Now with digital crossovers, we have far better control over the time and phase alignment of the coaxial design. The La Sphere includes a digital processor, which is placed between the preamp and the power amplifiers. As the La Sphere is a full range coaxial loudspeaker using four drive units per loudspeaker, it requires 8 channels of amplification. We have very exact requirements for the amplifiers and we can supply our Cabasse amplifiers that were designed specifically for this speaker but the La Sphere is flexible enough to allow the use of any make of amplifier the owner prefers. It is important that the amplifiers do not exhibit phase shifts on its own, it will render the whole point moot. A La Sphere system needs to be calibrated for every system in the room it is meant to use in.

MOD AV: The La Sphere produces a very big and immersive soundstage, it works better in larger rooms?

Christophe: The La Sphere can work in smaller rooms; we have just installed one in a room of about 25 Sq m. The beauty of the La Sphere is it allows us to calibrate to the room, the size of the room is of no consequence to its performance. We can balance between direct and reflected sound – larger rooms, more direct sound, less reflected sound for a more intimate sound.

We tune each speaker in an anechoic chamber in the factory, the driver relationship is then corrected and optimized. The system is then time aligned in the factory and again once the speaker is installed in the room. This way, only small corrections are necessary at the customer’s house.

We always wondered how high performance loudspeakers with multiple drive units are able to work properly. There is always the problem with correction and is a nightmare to make them work properly. With Cabasse point source loudspeaker technology and DSP correction, it eliminates the problem that other speakers face. The point source loudspeaker also allows for a larger listening area. When you go to a concert, no matter where you seat the timbral balance, frequency balance and timing is always correct. The La Sphere achieved the same performance.

Cabasse has been supplying loudspeakers to radio stations and recording studios for many years. One thing we realize if the loudspeakers are phase perfect, there is no listening fatique and the sound engineers can work longer hours without feeling tired. We achieve that with the La Sphere.

Boston TVee Soundbar Systems
(October 21, 2011)

Soundbars are the hottest thing in Home Cinema today. Easy to setup, easy to use and not too expensive, they look good - either wall mount or place in front of your flat screen TV and sound pretty good too. One of the latest Soundbar system is from Boston Acoustics – there are two models to choose from – the TVee25 ($599) and TVee30 ($899).  What do these two models offer?

Both models offer wireless subwoofer connection and the TVee30 offers additional Bluetooth connectivity. The systems come with Dolby Digital decoding with Boston exclusive DSP control to maximize performance of the Soundbar for both music and home cinema (virtual surround) playback.

The power output and drive unit configuration differs between the two models – the TVee25 uses Boston’s Hyperbolic High Rigidity Transducer – a pair of these full range drive unit (1.5 x 6 inch) in the Soundbar provides the left and right channel with virtual surround giving the enveloping effect. The subwoofer comes in a compact enclosure housing a 6-inch drive unit.

The more sophisticated TVee30 uses a more advanced 3.1 configuration with DSP providing virtual surround sound. Within the TVee30 soundbar is a trio of Boston’s compact transducers – the 3.5-inch Fiber Ceramic Copolymer Material and .75-inch dome tweeters giving a true left center right or LCR drive unit configuration. The wireless subwoofer though housing a larger 7-inch driver, is more compact because it comes in a slim enclosure allowing the subwoofer to be placed vertically (close to a wall) for a small footprint or placed flat on the floor below your couch!

The Boston TVee series soundbars are now available at the store.

Acoustic Energy Aego M
(August 20, 2011)

Stunning Surround Sound
(August 20, 2011)

Wharfedale DX-1 home cinema system

It’s all too easy to dismiss the current trend towards miniature speakers for 5.1 systems as a misguided attempt to woo buyers with a disdain for big boxy speakers. I mean, two big boxes are bad enough, then five large speakers plus another big box in the form of a subwoofer is going to complicate matters. The truth is, small and slim boxes means the physical size of the drive units, especially the woofers, is going to be physically constrained. Is it any wonder all such slim and compact loudspeakers sounded less than convincing, physically emaciated and somewhat honky sounding?

So when it comes to the new Wharfedale DX-1 system (RCP S$1299), I told myself, another opportunist wannabe home cinema system! However, knowing Wharfedale’s track record of making some pretty affordable yet exceptional sounding speakers in the past, I am more than inclined to give a little leeway to this system.

Visually, the DX-1 is STUNNING. The demo set we have is in gloss white (also available in gloss black). The curve cabinets may be fashionable for mid priced speakers but not something in this price range. The speakers look more expensive than its asking price, and if the finishing is exquisite, then compromises must be in the drive units. No way, here we have nice woofer cones with woven polypropylene cones. And gawd almighty, there are even soft dome tweeters! The smallish 3-inch woofers may be a suspect but the shiny aluminum trimmings around the tweeter and woofers lift the design above its similarly priced peers.

The four satellites come with a single tweeter and woofer while the center channel comes with dual woofers flanking the tweeter. The cabinets are sealed which helps placement but the downside would be the need for more power than a vented enclosure. The speakers are rated at 4 ohm, which increases the amplifier demands a little more than typical 8 ohms load. As the system is designed for small rooms, I doubt the need for amplifier power will be an issue. Wharfedale suggest anything from 20 – 80 watts for the sats and a little more for the center. Most good AV amplifiers, even inexpensive ones are well spec-ed in this respect so I would suggest, this is of no great issue.

The subwoofer is a simple 8-inch affair with a built-in 150-watt amplifier. For an inexpensive 8-incher sub, I wouldn’t expect the sort of slam and extension comparable to say, the cheapest SVS subwoofer but in the context of the system, that's just fine.

So how does the DX-1 system sound like? Putting Ironman 2 through the paces and an entry Denon AVR on Blu-ray, the DX-1 acquits itself admirably. Sonically, I did not have the slightest impression the sound is coming from a set of small speakers. The coherence of the sonic soundfield is entirely convincing, the voicing of the center channel is excellent and the subwoofer, if a little less extended that what I would prefer (I am spoiled), blends perfectly with the soundfield.

There is not the slightest doubt in my mind, that this is one system I could live with if I have a very limited budget and a small room. In fact, the little DX-1 may even embarrass its bigger brother, the Diamond 10 system for instance, not to mention the competition. Aesthetically, the DX-1 would have won over my better half, so its just a matter of deciding if its gonna be gloss black or gloss white. My vote? Gloss white!

Cabasse MC40 Majorca
(June 28, 2011)

Cabasse, the French loudspeaker company is best noted for its ‘eye-ball’ louspeaker, which cumulates to their flagship La Sphere and La Ocean. Cabasse has a good reason for this design – a sphere has been determined as a good enclosure and the coaxial design of the tweeter and midrange as one integrated unit ensures it behaves like a good point source loudspeaker. The unique design of Cabasse coaxial driver is proprietary to Cabasse.

The distinctive Alcyone, Eole 2 and Baltic Evolution are more geared towards lifestyle-oriented customers with their compact spherical enclosures and subwoofers. However we all know box speakers tend to sound better, at least in terms of superior warmth and body it imbues to the sound. The MC40 series essentially is a Cabasse coaxial driver in a normal speaker enclosure. In doing so, it allows the addition of dynamic woofers to augment the bass instead of passing over to a subwoofer. For an all round loudspeaker for music and movies, the sonic performance of the MC40 is worthy of serious consideration.

The MC40 Majorca ($4300) is the largest of the MC40 series – a 3-way 46-inch tall floorstanding loudspeaker with dual 8-inch woofers. The tweeter/midrange coaxial driver – code name BC10 comprises a small soft dome tweeter and a white concave midrange cone. This unit is tasked to reproduce the frequencies from 900 – 23,000 Hz, essentially from the upper midrange to the extreme high frequencies. The two bass drivers are driven in tandem with the bass reflex vent at the base of the speaker.  Finished either in light or dark stained cherry, sorry no black. There is a complementary center channel, on-wall surround channel as well as an active 8-inch subwoofer if you want to go the full multi-channel route. Rated at a nominal 8 ohms with a minimum of 3.2 ohms, the Majorca is an easy load, up to 150 watt rms would be perfect, it is capable of handling a peak of 1000 watts should the need arise. The Majorca accepts a single pair of speaker wires, no bi-wire option available here.

If not for the ‘queer’ looking ‘tweeter’, the Majorca may be mistaken as another loudspeaker. It follows the popular curved sides popularised by B&W, then followed by almost every other loudspeaker company. I suppose if it's a good thing, why not?

Connected to a full Cyrus setup – the CD8SE CD player, the Cyrus Pre XPd with its attendant PSX-R power supply and the X Power stereo power amplifier, the Majorca offers an insightful and effortless sound quality. The Majorca works best when placed a little distance from the back walls to keep the prodigious output from overwhelming the other parts of the frequency spectrum. Yes, if you like good bass, the Majorca is sure to please. Not just fat and overpowering bass but one that is well integrated into frequency spectrum. Credit must be given to the downward firing port design – it seems to work very well here, the bass quality is superb – deep, extended and well controlled - it gave the sound a sense of scale only big speakers can give. The Majorca is mid-sized by any standards so it would suggest it has a big and voluminous soundstage.

If you value neutrality in a loudspeaker, the Majorca should score high in your shortlist. Nothing gets out of control, no signs of splashy or metallic sounding tweeters, or ‘horny’ midrange. Initially I thought I heard a slight honk in the upper midrange but it disappears after a couple of minutes playing. It could be the electronics warming up. The Majorca is that transparent to its partnering amplifier!

Cabasse Alcyone
(May 28, 2011)

Cabasse flagship loudspeaker, the La Sphere performance owes its success to the shape of the enclosure, which comes in the form of a sphere. With no parallel walls and immense rigidity of a cylindrical shaped enclosure, miniature versions of the La Sphere can be found in Cabasse more affordable range of speakers – the Alcyone, the Eole2 and the high end Baltic Evolution.

The Alcyone is Cabasse most affordable spherical enclosure loudspeaker – designed for music and home cinema applications. At just 4-inch in diameter, the compact loudspeaker offers tremendous flexibility and can be used in various configurations – shelf placement, wall mount or stand mount. The stand allows the speaker wire to be threaded through the stand's rod supports while the magnetic base supplied for shelf or wall mount of the Alcyone can be easily oriented in any direction for flexibility in placement.

Like all Cabasse loudspeakers, the acoustical qualities of the Alcyone are exemplified by its high efficiency, power handling, transparency and stability of the sound stage. The Alcyone satellites are fitted with the new full range, wide bandwidth drivers designed according to the Cabasse SCS (Spatially Coherent System) principles. The speaker is easy to drive and with its high efficiency of 91 dB, it takes very little power for the Alcyone to deliver a performance beyond its price tag.

For home cinema applications, the system comes with the matching Santorin 17 active subwoofer (7" woofer and 100 watt amplifier) with 5 Alcyone satellites ready for bookshelf or on-wall use. Available in white or black finish.

Cabasse Eole2

The next level up, the Eole2 is a 2-way loudspeaker housed in a slightly larger sphere of 6.5” in diameter. The larger 4-inch woofer affords a better bass extension and a separate 29mm tweeter offers more high frequencies extension to 22 kHz. Yet the Eole2 remains easy to drive with high sensitivity of 91 dB. Like the smaller Alcyone, the Eole2 is available as a shelf mount, wall mount or stand mount with a special dedicated stand. In addition, the Eole2 is also available as an in-ceiling version.

For 2.1 or 5.1 application, a larger matching subwoofer is offered – the Santorin 21 with a larger 8” woofer and a more powerful 250-watt amplifier. The system is available in white or black finish.

Cabasse Baltic Evolution

The reference high-end compact satellite loudspeaker.

The 3-way Cabasse Baltic Evolution loudspeaker continues the Cabasse favoured spherical enclosure with the tri-axial TC23drive units for compactness and perfect dispersion. The Baltic Evolution offers definition and dynamic range comparable to more sophisticated systems available yet remain easy to integrate and position in a room.

Polk F/X wireless Surround
(May 4, 2011)

To create a fully immersive surround sound (especially for 3D) we need speakers to be placed around us. Placing speakers around the listening area requires running speaker wires from the receiver to each and every speaker. For the front three speakers – left, center and right, is not an issue as most of us would place the AV receiver and other equipment near the display, projectors excepted of course. The speaker cable to the surround speakers, however are the longest, typically 5 times longer than those used for the front. The surround speakers have been a point of contention for many homes that  we even have HTIB that comes with 2.1 virtual surround instead of real surround speakers! Of course there are limitations of such surround effects. How nice if those rear speakers can be done away with!

One elegant solution to get around the 'need for surround speakers' is the use of a Soundbar. Soundbar are popular for its 'all-in-one' solution. It makes use of a special design passive crossover using phase shifts to simulate sound coming from the side or behind you. As such, the effect is not as convincing as using proper surround speakers. There are more sophisticated Soundbars that use DSP to generate the surround effect, the effect though far superior to the passive versions but once you experience the effect of real speakers coming from behind you, you will strike out this option.

If you can’t do away with the use of surround speakers, there are wireless solutions to convey the surround channel signals to a separate amplifier to drive the surround speakers. The problem with this solution is of course the expense of an additional power amplifier for the rear speakers, not to mention the extra cabling. Alternatively you can make use of active speakers (speakers with built-in amplifiers) for the rear channels to save on the amplifier but that would mean having a separate mains and running fairly long power cables to the speakers, especially those using compact wall mount bookshelves for side and surround back.

Now there is a third solution – Polk Audio F/X Wireless Surround. This is the perfect companion for Soundbars to compensate for their less than convincing surround capabilities. Of course the F/X will work with just about any speaker system. With just one speaker unit, connected wirelessly to the receiver’s surround channel and placed behind your viewing position, it recreates the side and rear (for a 7.1 channel system) or surround for a 5.1 system. The F/X Wireless Surround gives the user the flexibility in the placement - on a wall shelf, table level or even on the floor. With just one power cable, the F/X provides an optimal surround soundfield as if coming from 2, 3 or even 4 separate loudspeakers.

The unit is like a small center channel, with four full range 2.5” drive units firing upwards towards the ceiling at an angle. Polk Audio calls this Controlled Dispersion Array. The speaker is marked so as to direct the left and right channel respectively. A single ported 5.25” woofer provides the lower foundation from the summed surround channels. Within the enclosure is a wifi receiver and a 120-watt multi-channel DSP amplifier to power the speakers. All it takes is one power cord and a wireless (2.4GHz wifi) signal for the F/X to come alive.

A small wifi transmitter box is included in the system and you don't need a wifi router to perform the task. Though the wifi box and the speaker are already paired in the factory for convenience, you can pair the system again should the connection is broken. The transmitter box accepts line level and speaker level connection. They can be tucked away behind your AV receiver.

The only thing you would need to do is to decide how and where you are going to place the F/X Wireless Surround. Polk Audio suggested that for both wall and table top (more likely a sideboard) that you have the unit at least 2 feet above your listening level. The trick is to place the F/X in such a way our ears cannot detect where the sound is coming from. As the speaker fires the sound upwards, there should be no obstruction above the unit.

Setting up the F/X

How does the F/X perform?

The F/X sells for a very affordable $639, for that money you get 2 or 4 surround channels, a multi-channel amplifier with DSP, I would say, this is a bargain.

Minx, where small is just right!
(December 27, 2010)

Everybody loves a small loudspeaker – they don’t need a lot of space and they blend well with the décor. Let’s be realistic about it, mini speakers sound, well, mini. Small speakers give a miniaturized presentation and even when partnered with a subwoofer, it just cannot generate the sort of energy a larger speaker could. Small speakers can be acceptable if background music is all you are expecting. Obviously, to play music at realistic levels call for something more substantial.

With the new Cambridge Audio Minx, you don’t need to compromise between accepting a quality of sound no better than elevator music or losing real estate to big loudspeakers in your living room! As the name implies, the Minx comes in a small and attractive package – just 78 x 78 x 85mm (HWD) for each of the satellite modules (they come in glossy black or glossy white).

Cambridge Audio little wonder isn’t your typical plastic satellite speaker – it has solid engineering foundation to enable the design to realize its designer’s dreams. The 2.25-inch single full range drive unit is fabricated with a sandwich honeycomb speaker membrane. It acts as a stiff piston like drive unit and simultaneously behaves like a passive radiator thereby pushing more air than a typical drive unit of the same size.

The speaker uses the more powerful neodymium magnets, which compared to conventional ferrite magnets, neodymium magnets of equivalent strength is a fraction of the size of ferrite magnets. The smaller magnet frees more internal airspace to extend its low frequency performance.

The baffle of a loudspeaker is another area the Minx scores over many inexpensive speakers, the drive unit mounted on the baffle exerts a lot of energy on it and a weak baffle tend to lose some of that energy. Losing that energy means a significant amount of output is lost and may even generate colouration within the enclosure. To avoid that, the Minx uses a machined aluminum extrusion for a solid foundation to ensure all the driver movement is radiated as sound wave. This improves the dynamics and output level of the speaker. Finally, the damped enclosure is molded from thermo polymer material which is inert and do not add colouration to the sound.

The full range driver is good from about 140 Hz to an extended 20 kHz. From the upper bass onwards the sound is one cohesive whole, no crossover at the critical upper frequencies – this is the benefit of a full range drive unit. Below 140 Hz, Cambridge Audio offers three compact subwoofers – the X200 being the smallest of the trio comes in a box no bigger than 9 inch for every dimension, within that compact enclosure, it houses a 6.5-inch subwoofer, a 6.5-inch passive radiator and a built in200 watt amplifier turns the low end at a respectable 39 Hz. Ideal for small rooms such as a bedroom sized system.

The mid sized X300 subwoofer (300 watts) comes with an 8-inch subwoofer and an 8-inch passive radiator and takes the low bass down to 33 Hz. The enclosure is appropriately sized at 12.4 x 10. x 11.0 inch HWD. To fill a larger living room, the mighty X500 (500 watts) comes with a 10-inch subwoofer and a 10-inch passive radiator and the low end extends to an impressive 23 Hz, yet still reasonably sized at 14.3 x 12.6 x 13.8 inch HWD.

The Minx is packaged as a system in the following configurations:

• A stereo 2-channel system – a pair of Min10 satellites and the X200 subwoofer forms a compact music system.
•  A compact 5.1 system utilizes five units of the Min10 satellites with the X200 subwoofer, ideal for smaller rooms.
• A midsize 5.1 system with stacked Minx satellites, the Min20 and the X300 subwoofer. The stacked Min20 is a pair of the 2.25-inch drive units in each of the 5 enclosures instead of the single 2.25-inch for the Min10. This enables the system to play louder and sound more dynamic - for larger rooms.
• For extreme Home Cinema applications, the stacked Min20 with the large X500 subwoofer offers all the benefits of a high performance yet compact 5.1 system.

The new Minx from Cambridge Audio is now on demo in our showroom. Price starts at $1299 for the 5.1 setup. Do drop by for a demo!

International Sound & Sight Journal Exhibition 2010
(December 2, 2010)

JOCAVI Room Treatment
(November 22, 2010)

In our years of installing home cinemas and two channel systems, we come across rooms with all sorts of acoustic problems. Tall ceilings, sloped ceilings, sharp corners and so on, creating an acoustic nightmare for high performance systems. Many AV receivers, even budget ones, now come with adaptive tuning that can even take into account the delayed reflections which help considerably in taming ‘problem’ rooms. Sometimes, it works, sometimes it doesn’t. In the latter case, there is simply no better solution than to ‘treat’ the room. Room treatment can cost a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands – many companies specialise in room treatment like RPG which is good stuff but hardly practical as it is imposing and well, not quite acceptable for many house proud owners!

We need to find something that works, affordable and most importantly, as discrete as possible – we found this brand from Portugal – Jocavi who has been treating rooms from small home cinemas to large concert venues for many years. Jocavi developed a full range of 24 different type of treatment panels – from diffusion, absorption to acoustic sound barrier. Jocavi developed an acoustic simulator, which helps us to design your room to have the best acoustic for sound. Once your system sounds right in your room, you would feel more comfortable as well! If you have room acoustic problems you might like to speak to our installation specialists, we’re here to help!

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ADAM loudspeakers
(November 22, 2010)

German loudspeaker company ADAM Audio started as a professional loudspeaker company making monitors for studio use, not PA speakers. So crossing over to home loudspeakers seems like a natural progression. Well, unlike most home loudspeakers, most studio loudspeakers are ‘active’ meaning they come with built-in amplifiers. In studios, speakers are driven directly from the mixer using long interconnects with XLR (balanced) connectors. Effectively, for home use, all you need is a preamp and a source (ie CD player), for home cinema, just make sure your AV receiver has line level preout for the 5 or 7 channel output and you are good to go.

Unique for ADAM Audio loudspeakers is the use of a ribbon tweeter. Every model in their range comes with ribbon tweeters. Ribbon tweeters offer extremely low distortion, speed and resolve information better than conventional dome tweeters. In fact ribbon tweeters have extended high frequency response – typically as much as 50 kHz, dispensing the need for ‘super tweeters’ to realize the potential of 24Bit/192 kHz HD Audio music files.

The ARTist, Classic and Tensor series are now on demo in our showroom.

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Epson EH-R4000/EH-R1000
(November 22, 2010)

Epson’s new projectors represent a turning point, call it an epiphany in projection technology. The new EH-R4000/EH-R1000 sports the new ‘3LCD Reflective Panel Technology, which produces deeper blacks, brighter whites, and lush, lifelike colours across the spectrum for the ultimate cinematic experience…'

The flagship R4000 sells for $9,999 with a contrast ratio of … 1,000,000:1! That is industry-leading figures and totally swap that of DLP projectors and the usual LCD projectors are considered ‘leading edge’ should it gets anywhere near 50,000:1. The cheaper R1000 ($6,999) manages 500,000:1. That is class-leading performance that we cannot imagine just a few years ago! Or we should ask, how did Epson do it? The ‘Reflective Panels’ is a new projection technology that uses the best of DLP and LCD – providing a sharp and contrasty image that does justice to High Definition.

‘Other picture-enhancing features include frame interpolation for smooth motion and fluid action sequences; super resolution to increase the quality of standard definition sources, such as DVDs; and five different color modes to suit a variety of environments and applications.’ Motorized lens movements ease the setup especially on overhead placement.

Cheaper projectors fall flat when it comes to smooth motion – using HD material (eg Blu-ray discs), their shortcomings become more apparent, even if it claims to be 1080p. The new Epson R4000/R1000 shows its mantle, not only with HD material but also lower resolution DVDs show considerable image quality enhancements. If you are in the market for a high performance projector in this price range, do drop by our store to check out these new projectors before you make a buying decision!

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Updated SVS price list effective Oct 2010
(October 27, 2010)

Notice
All customers who bought/ordered their SVS subwoofers during the launch period please contact our customer service hotline 6564-3188. You may be eligible for a rebate voucher if you have paid a higher price than the abovementioned.

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Can I have your Naim?
(October 27, 2010)

Naim CD5i
Naim Nait 5i
Castle Conway 3

Naim Audio is one hifi company that has a sense of humour – witness their advertising spree with cute tag lines like ‘sorry, I didn’t catch your Naim’ with a picture of a guy looking rather apologetic with a Naim amplifier crashed into the floorboard! Of all the British hifi companies, Naim Audio seems to be one of the most progressive – an online music store, music servers, multi-room music distribution, Naim music system for Bentley luxury cars and so on.

Still the bread and butter for Naim lie with its components. The entry level ‘5’ is now reNaimed (pun intended!) as the ‘i’ series, for ‘improved’ I guess. The CD5i compact disc player and the Nait 5i integrated amplifier form the basis of this entry-level system using Naim’s electronics. The all black chassis with green lighting has timeless appeal and Naim is one of those products that hardly looked dated even after years of use. Naim used to make a great deal about its quirky DIN connectors, but now they have fully subscribed to the RCA community. They left two legacy pair of DINs though, I mean hey, everyone has their favourite cables right? Naim is also particular about speaker cables – for a good reason too – Naim amplifiers work best on high inductance speaker cables, high capacitance speaker cables can affect the performance and even reliability of the amplifiers. Of course you can use any speaker cable, just stay away from high capacitance type will do. If you are not sure, just stick to Naim NAC A5, which has been around for ages and is cheap. And you can run long lengths of this cable with Naim amplifiers without worry of signal degradation. It’s a very stiff cable though – it uses thicker copper strands but with less stranding and couple with a pretty inflexible insulation – it’s a PITA when installing them.

Castle loudspeaker never seems to have caught the attention of the media and consumers alike despite being around for more than two decades. Despite that, a good thing about Castle is they don’t replace their range every year or two, in fact some models date back to the eighties, with some updates over this period of time of course. The model used here, the floorstanding Conway is now in its third generation - that’s staying power! Castle loudspeakers are beautifully made and the veneer on the Conway 3 is absolutely gorgeous!

The 50 watt rms rating of the Nait 5i drove the Castle Conway to very high levels and Naim is famous for its ‘boogie’ factor in its sound, and not so for its architectural presentation. As such Naim lovers tend to gravitate towards Jazz and pop music rather than classical where the presentation plays an important part. The ‘Naim’ sound tends towards a two dimensional presentation – flat without any evidence of layering. Fans of Naim have iterated the current Naims are much improved in this respect but I don’t seem to hear it.

Still, there are horses for courses and Naim seems to run its own course, and endears to its legion of fans. It is true the ‘Naim sound’ communicates music in such a way that some non-Naim systems tend to sound clinical in comparison. If this is what you are after, you can start your musical journey with this system and slowly work your way up the Naim hierarchy. As always, a Naim system is a very personal choice and for many music lovers, a Naim a day, keeps boredom at bay!

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Cyrus CD8 SE CD player | Cyrus 8 XP integrated amplifier | Tannoy DC 6T loudspeakers
(October 27, 2010)

The Cyrus components have come a long way, once an electronic arm of Mission Loudspeakers; it had since separated and progressed as an electronics specialist in its own right. For the twenty odd years of production, Cyrus stayed with its shoebox form factor for its entire product line, while decidedly unfashionable in the eighties (of the last century), its compactness has become much copied by other manufacturers today.

The Cyrus 8 integrated amplifier on review here is the most basic of the three versions – of the same amplifier. This unit comes as a 70 watts rms integrated amplifier with six analogue inputs. The next version up is the 8 XPd with the inclusion of a build-in DAC with 2 coaxial digital inputs, two toslink and a USB port effectively turning the 8XP into a digital hub for all your digital devices. The highest performance 8 is the 8 XPd QX with the use of a high end QX DAC card with 192kHz upsampling for all digital inputs, anti-jitter circuits and a special low noise analogue filter. There are no model markings on the faceplate to differentiate, you need to see what’s on the display when the unit powers up. There is a good reason for this, you see all Cyrus gear can be upgraded to latest specs and not having the model name means no one is any wiser – the 8SE can be upgraded to the 8 XPd or the 8 XPd QX. That means your Cyrus investment stays relevant to your expanding needs, not bad huh?

The CD8 SE CD player in contrast, has no upgrade option. OK Cyrus does offer a CD transport upgrade but it will no longer output in analogue. Should you choose the 8 XP integrated then it will go with the CD8 SE CD player. As an alternative, you could always opt for the CDXT SE+ CD transport then you would be looking at either the 8 XPd or 8 XPd QX option. Obviously the latter two will be the more expensive options. And that’s not all, you can go one step further by adding Cyrus PSX-R power supply to both the amplifier and CD player. The PSX-R is a heavily regulated power supply that enhances the performance of designated Cyrus products. We decided that for the review of this system, we stick with the most basic configuration that most people will start off with – the CD8 SE with the 8 XP amplifier. It’s nice knowing there are options available after the purchase to improve the equipment’s performance.

We have not said much about the CD player – it’s a slot loaded, using the exact same mechanism as the CDXT SE2 transport, which means the main difference between the CD player and the transport is in the electronics. The CD player uses a 24-bit DAC and housed in the same silver or black cast magnesium (as per the 8 XP amplifier), which is really nice for a product in this price point. Slot loading gives the unit a more luxurious feel as most drawer type transport mechanisms are flimsy and exposes the laser to potential damage, which will not happen to a slot loaded mechanism. The admittedly solid chassis should be a costly affair – it requires a substantial investment in molding but Cyrus claims the benefits are multiple – its non resonant, act as a good heatsink and a non magnetic electrical shielding. That should pay off in the long run when other makes using cheaper folded sheet metal casings start to rust!

For loudspeakers, the choice is Tannoy’s DC 6T tower speakers from the ‘Revolution Signature’ series. The DC 6T uses Tannoy’s exclusive coaxial unit – a 6-inch midbass with a one inch titanium dome tweeter mounted on the cavity of the voice coil of the midbass drive unit. The idea is to simulate a full range drive unit, Tannoy claims the dual concentric design improves the speaker’s dispersion. It has a second 6-inch midbass only drive unit to augment the low end. The cabinet features curved sides, this is fast becoming the ‘standard’ cabinet shape of the times! The crossover point seems low – at 1.7 kHz, which may be pushing the metal dome tweeter a little.

Using cables from Chord to hook up the system, we allow the cold electronics and the loudspeaker voice coil to warm up a bit, around 20 – 30 minutes and the sound changes dramatically compared to when stone cold. When cold, the sound tends towards a certain blandness, but once warmed up, the Cyrus/Tannoy combo really starts to groove.

We start off with some simple female vocals to see if there are any major colourations. I am happy to report sibilants are pretty well controlled with a superb detailed midband which I believe is the highlight of this combination. The soundstage is wide but not particularly deep though there is a sense of layering, which is mighty pleasing. The speakers are front ported so placement is not as critical as rear ported designs but even then the DC 6T works best with the backs of the speakers at least 12 - 18 inches from the rear wall and definitely more from a corner. Once that is done, the bass quality is pleasing to the ears – rich and full-bodied if not particularly extended.

Next we switched to something more contemporary – Coldplay’s ‘Speed of Sound’ is one tough track for any system – like trying to make sense of the dense mix. The Cyrus/Tannoy retains control and renders an enjoyable presentation. Not the absolute best I have heard but I suspect for the money, it is a job well done.

The rather dynamic and forward presentation of the DC 6T can be attributed to the coaxial drive unit design. It does manage to sound very coherent as if it were a single full range driver, which of course it ‘almost’ is. Tannoy reckons the dispersion pattern of their coaxial design eliminates the sweet spot some speakers exhibit, allowing for a larger listening area, which I can only say, right on!

The Cyrus/Tannoy combination represents the sort of balance between performance and value for money. The system stands as a sort of middle ground between less satisfactory, less expensive system versus entry level high end where the price starts to curve exponentially upwards at an incredible rate while performance gains momentum at a more sedate pace. For this alone, the system deserves attention.

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