Anyway, back to the setup that Aris brought along for the demonstration. It's a digital system through and through. Aris told the audience that the guiding principle in its design was "as much digital as possible". The setup consisted of a pair of Keystone speakers, two Ochto amplifiers and the Cardia DSP unit, and a laptop to feed it a streaming signal (provided by a 4G wireless modem hooked up with a Roon ROCK server). The Bedrock, an additional pair of bass speakers, is available for larger rooms and those with a bass fetish, but was not brought along for the evening demonstration.

Aris Theocharides and equipment

The Keystone speakers are a fully active, four way system with seven drivers per channel - one ScanSpeak D3004 beryllium tweeter on the front, a ScanSpeak 12MU papercone upper midrange above it, and a ScanSpeak 15WU papercone midwoofer below it, supported by four Dayton DCS1654 Kevlar coated paper subwoofers, two facing to the rear and the other two on opposing sides. With the exception of the four bass drivers, each driver sits in its own hamber and is fed by its own amplifier based on Hypex NC252MP modules in the Ochto amplifiers. Crossover frequencies are about 300-350 Hz, 1200 Hz and 2800 Hz, using custom crossovers developed with Acourate DSP. The crossovers are based on 256k FIR implemented in 64 bit resolution in the DSP unit (see below). The speakers weigh 26 kg each and are made from CNC cut Baltic birch laminate.

Keystone Speakers

Each Ochto amplifier has eight independent 250watt Hypex Class D amplifier modules to supply the individual drivers in the speakers of each channel. Power management and fan-assisted cooling is undertaken by a dedicatedRaspberry Pi 4 in each amplifier.

The amplifiers are fed by the Cardia DSP unit, which divides the music spectrum from the streamer and supplies each amplifier element with its tailored and specific frequency band. It also controls the time alignment of each driver, individually. The unit includes a 32 channel pro-audio DAC based on 192 kHz sample rate. It is sufficient to run the Keystone system and the Bedrock system of up to 30 drivers for the two channels.

All of this, of course, requires dedicated cabling to connect the Cardia DSP unit to the Ochto amplifiers to the Keystone speakers: simple runs of two-channel interconnect and speaker cable are not going to work in this system!

Ochto Amplifier

Around 9:15 Aris got his system to work. He introduced it to us first with Nick Caves' Red Right Hand, followed by Jimmy Webb performing Glen Campbell's famous Wichita Lineman and, in response to a request from an audience member for the all important 'female vocal' to which I unkindly suggested Janis Joplin, the blues songstress' Mercedes Benz. Who could argue with lyrics that go: "Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town? I'm counting on you Lord, please don't let me down Prove that you love me and buy the next round Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town?"

An audiophile-quality recording from Patricia Barber followed, followed by the Italian duet Musica Nuda performing Sting's Roxanne. My musical tastes are pretty eclectic, marked only by a loathing of the self-indulgent, otiose horrors of prog rock, stadium rock, anthem rock and blues rock, but Musica Nuda's rendition was not to my liking at all. The word 'strident' springs to mind. Joe Morello's interpretation of the theme from Mission Impossible followed.

At this stage I left the Willis Room to discuss with some fellow MAC members what we'd heard so far. I always try to get a couple of views from club members when preparing my reports, as everyone knows I have tin ears. The positive attributes included descriptors such as 'punchy', 'energetic', 'very quiet backgrounds' and 'very good channel separation'. One member I overheard speaking to another said it was among the best sounds he'd experienced in the club. The bass was well regarded too. Less favourable impressions centred on a lack of depth to the reproduction ("very 2D sound" was one description) and a reticent, uninformative midrange and treble. On the other hand, I'd have a polite tonal balance every day over a midrange and treble that is so forward that is shouts and quickly wears you down with its ferocity.

At this point in my write up it seems timely to make a couple of comments on the complexity of the all digital setup. Yes, it was a very complex setup, possibly the most complex we've seen in the Willis Room for years. But complexity is a two-edged sword. Einstein was famously suspicious of unnecessary complexity: he is reputed to have said sometime in the early 1930s that "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler". Similar sentiments go back at least half a millennium in Western thought. William of Ockham, the 14th century English philosopher, came to the same conclusion as Einstein. He recommended that, given two explanations for a given phenomenon it is best to choose the simpler one. Given three or more, again go with the simplest. This advice has since come to be known as Occam's Razor; in its more philosophic expression it advises "Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity".

A striving for maximum simplicity accounts in part for the very great success of seemingly retrograde and outdated audio technologies such as single-ended triode (SET) amplifiers paired with high efficiency horn loaded speakers. An argument can be mounted that we are consistently seduced by power and by complexity nowadays. The vinyl record, moving coil cartridge, lowpower (valve) SET amplifier, and horn loaded, sometimes single driver, speaker audio set up is a response to that trend, and who could argue that the most living, most emotionally engaging, most three dimensional renditions of any recording have not been achieved with such simple technologies? The same philosophy informs the QUAD electrostatic speakers. Many knowledgeable audiophiles and equipment reviewers regard the original ESL (now known as the ESL57 to differentiate it from the later, two-way ESL63) as having the best midrange of any speaker ever built - and it's a one-way, fullrange system.

Aris noted that one drawback of using so many drivers in the two Keystone speakers (let alone with the optional Bedrock speakers) is simply the cost associated with so many drivers if they are to be of acceptable quality. The ScanSpeak tweeters are A$700 each, the midrange drivers A$470 and $560 each . The eight subwoofer drivers in the Keystone speakers alone cost A$880. Ouch. And there are 24 subwoofer drivers in the entire Keystone/Bedrock system. Double ouch.

I believe that the experience of other, well established audio manufacturers is relevant to this matter. Remember the original B&W Nautilus active speaker from 1993? It was B&W's flagship speaker, a four way active system with four drive units and an outrageous Gaudilike cabinet. One is currently for sale from Klapp Audiovisual in Prahran for a measly A$105,000. But when B&W came to commercialise this groundbreaking technology for the subsequent 800 series of studio monitors, they reverted to a threeway, passive set up with cross over frequencies of 350 Hz and 4000 Hz. Even B&W, with fathomless R&D and production resources, did not believe it could make a fourway active system a commercial success. When they did release it for limited commercial production, a pair of Nautiluses cost over A$100k.

A similar, pragmatic-economic, argument can be made for the 32-channel DAC. Aris told us that the DACs in the Cardia DSP unit are all professional grade (and in later correspondence with me, that they are highly regarded), but the problem remains that having 32 of them means they cannot be truly highend audiophile quality unless the cost becomes prohibitive. Readers will know that I'm mightily sceptical of so-called 'audiophile' grade components and reckon that too often all that term reflects is a greedy manufacturer seducing a gullible consumer. But I am reminded of a demonstration in pre COVID times when Peter Allen compared his new Chord Electronics Qutest DAC (with its vaunted Rob Watts' transient-aligned filter array) against his existing Benchmark DAC, which itself is no mean performer. On the night the Chord Electronics DAC was audibly better than the Benchmark: the sound was more 'real', more fluid, more 'there'. Had the comparison been with the Qutest DAC against a less illustrious instrument, I'm sure the differences would have been even starker.

Aris Theocharides and equipment

The problem I see for a system using a 32channel DAC in the DSP unit is that each DAC can't be as good as an audiophilegrade two channel DAC for anything like realistic money. The retail price of Chord Electronics DACs with their clever transient-aligned filter arrays ranges from A$1000 for the entr-level version up to $19,000 for the top-of-the-line DAVE. The very popular Hugo comes in at about A$9000. All are two-channel devices, so if we had to cater for 32 channels with a similar audiophile performance we'd be up for at least A$16,000 for the simplest Chord DACs and a worst case scenario of A$300,000 for sixteen DAVEs.

We can make the same argument for the thoroughly delightful DACs from Audio Research (roughly A$20,000 each, so a final cost of A$320,000 for the necessary 32 channels - ye gods!), let alone the stratospherically priced DACs from a specialist firm such as dCS. You don't get the top-end two channel DAC from dCS for under A$70,000, and that does not include the optional A$37,000 upsampler. That's works out at around A$1.6 million for a 32 channel equivalent, assuming there are sixteen dCS DACs extant in the entire southern hemisphere. Ouch, ouch, ouch, if you want that leading edge DAC technology in 32 channels. The DAC used by 3SB Audio is the RME M32 DA Pro, and at roughly A$6,000 looks like a good balanced between performance and capacity required for the Keystone and Bedrock speakers.

The other practical aspect of any complex audio system, and arguably the most essential, is its ease of use. The buyer will rarely be as technically astute as the designer/manufacturer or some of the more computerliterate members of the MAC, so can we expect him/her/they to get everything to work correctly, all the time, with a minimum of fuss? At a fundamental level, audio gear to be commercially successful has to be able to be used on a regular basis by Average Joe/Joan without too much thought or technical proficiency - and woe betide any manufacturer who forgets that. In fact, one could argue that the failure of computer audio to 'take off' in audiophile circles is due almost entirely to the complexity of the required set up and the way it so often simply fails to work reliably (viz some of our prior experiences in the Willis Room)

So, to conclude, full marks to the Three Sad Bastards for making such an adventurous leap into the realms of an all digital audio setup. I imagine the next steps are threefold: (1) get it all to work flawlessly, every time, even for the nonexpert; (2) make it sound more engaging, especially in the vital midrange ; and (3) to be able to sell the setup at a price that's competitive with the myriad of other products currently on the market. We all wish them the very best luck in this ongoing endeavour. I'm sure many club members will want to see (and hear) the next iterations.

Paul Boon
Selby, Victoria.

Photos by Nick Karayanis

I don't like superlatives. I try not to use absolutes. But last month's presentation by Hugh Dean was the best I'd experienced in the Willis Room. I hear you ask, what criteria do I use to make such a call? Well, there are three. First, the presenter has to have obvious mastery of his (or her) subject. Second, he has to be able to communicate that knowledge fluently and convincingly to the audience. Third, the show has to be entertaining. Prior speakers have often met one, sometimes two, of these criteria but it's very rare for anyone to achieve all three. Hugh did just that, and combined his narrative with a thoughtful collection of a dozen tracks carefully selected to illustrate the specific point he was trying to make. Again unlike so many other demonstrations I've experienced, Hugh's choice of music was anything but gratuitous.

Hugh has been making amplifiers for over 25 years. His guiding philosophy, informed greatly by the ideas of Jean Higara and John Linsley Hood, has not changed much over this time. An interview I found on the web from 1999 has Hugh concluding "I believe that a hifi system is approaching nirvana when it makes you weep". Full copy of the interview is available at [http://www.arduman.com/aa/Sayfalar/hugh/hugh.htm] The way this might be achieved is laid out in a paper Hugh presented to the Melbourne section of the Audio Engineering Society in 2015 [https://www.aesmelbourne.org.au/meeting-report-august-2015/] Hugh argues for the importance of a 'distortion profile', a cascading arrangement of harmonic distortion, dominated by the 2nd harmonic (at about -75 dB from the fundamental), with the 3rd some 15-20 dB below that, the 4th another 15-20 dB lower, and the 5th lower still, at about -115 dB For those interested in following up other aspects of Hugh's approach to music and audio, see Peter Xeni's interview with Hugh in the 'Sound Travels' section of Australian Hi Fi of November 2018

Last month Hugh showcased to the club the latest amplifier encapsulating these ideas, his 100 watt per channel monoblock power amplifier the Titan, named after Mahler's 1st symphony. It sits between Hugh's entry level Saksa 85 integrated amplifier and the Maya 200. A pair retail at $4200. Unlike the two earlier mosfet amplifiers, the Titan uses good old fashioned bipolar transistors (30 MHz Toshibas). Why? Hugh said bipolars gave a more punchy sound than mosfets, better suited to loud and highly dynamic music such as rock (a case of 'mosfet mist'?). In any case, Hugh had a couple of hundred of the Toshiba transistors lying around the workshop and didn't want them to add to the collection of audio stuff his long suffering wife would have to deal with when he shrugged off the mortal coil.

Hugh Dean and equipment

But unlike so many high-powered amplifiers that rely on a phalanx of power transistors to deliver the end grunt, Hugh is of the firm belief that 'less is better' (ergo the simple preamplifier used on the night) and so the Titan uses only two pairs of power transistors in the final stage of each channel (i.e. six including the two drivers). I've always thought this a good idea: I remember one critic arguing that a solidstate amplifier that uses an array of multiple power transistors must inevitably sound like a chorus and not a soloist, and it's a soloist we need it to be for highest clarity after all.

Onto the gear and music. Hugh used a pair of his monoblock Titans, fed by an HP laptop running JRiver software, passing the bitstream to a Cambridge Audio DACMagic 100. Hugh used mostly high-resolution tracks, mostly 24/96 from 1500 kbps to 6700 kbps. The pre-amplifier was a simple 24step passive attenuator. The speakers were inexpensive (~$1600 according to Hugh) pair of floor standers from Adelaide Speakers in South Australia. I checked the Adelaide Speakers website [https://www.adelaidespeakers.com/index.html] the model was the 1293 Summoner, which now retails at $1800 a pair constructed, or $1050 less the cabinet. Sensitivity is quoted at a wonderful 93 db/watt/metre but Hugh informed me it was closer to 90 dB/watt/metre. Impedance is a nominal 6 ohms, so they should be pretty easy to drive.

I'm not sure anyone would chose the cabinet-less option, as the speakers on the night were very, very attractive. They were flawlessly finished in real American oak but other veneers are available according to the manufacturer's website. The driver complement was a 12" Peerless bass driver, 5" SBAcoustics midrange and 1" dome waveguide SB acoustics tweeter. These are by no means ultra-hiend or expensive drivers. The box loading was described by Ron Newbound as a peculiar mix of bass reflex and semi or quasi transmission line.

I must say this combination of a large (12") bass driver in a three-way floor-standing system has so much to offer. Some long-standing English firms, such as Spendor and Harbeth, still offer this arrangement in their top-of-the-line models. My motor-enthusiast mates often say "There's no replacement for cubic displacement" and this applies to speakers as much as to automobiles. A single 12" driver can move as much air for a similar displacement as four 6" drivers, so why not take advantage of that? The only way you can get a small bass driver to move as much air as a big one is to drive it with a atom smashing amplifier that pushes it far beyond what its physical fundamentals would normally dictate. It's like supercharging an internal combustion engine.

The great English automotive engineer W.O. Bentley was utterly opposed to his 4.5litre racing engine being fitted with a supercharger: "to supercharge a Bentley engine was to pervert its design and corrupt its performance" he was reported to have said in the late 1920s. "If you want my cars to go faster, fit them with a bigger engine". (A 4.5litre Bentley won the 1928 Le Mans 24 hr race, and came second and third in the following year; the supercharged version never won a race.) We can apply the same logic to bass drivers, and who can argue that the best bass we have ever heard came from Gerald's massive 18" Klipsches?

The crossover in the speakers was a universal design adapted for different Adelaide Speaker models. The crossover was obviously the weak link in the chain, so Hugh worked with Ron Newbound to wave a magic wand over the existing design, transforming it from a series crossover to a parallel 1st order crossover for the bass/midrange (somewhere around 250 Hz) and a 3rd order crossover for the midrange/tweeter (somewhere around 2500-3000 Hz). The bass loading also was rejigged to be adjustable by having the lower moving shelf within the cabinet, thereby adjusting the port size. What a great idea! Many bass reflex speakers come with foam bungs that allow you to tune them (a bit), but Ron's implementation is so much more flexible.

As I noted earlier, a great strength of Hugh's presentation was the alternation between explaining how he designed and built his amplifiers and then his providing a musical track to demonstrate a specific point. The first track, 'Flight of the Cosmic Hippo', was chosen to highlight the bass response of the setup (the bass line on this track is played on a 5 string fretless bass). And what a bass response it was! Was it a bit overblown in the upper bass? Who could tell unequivocally, given that we were in the Willis Room?

It was followed by Patricia Barber's 'A Taste of Honey' and then by Dead Can Dance's 'Opium' to demonstrate that great imaging depth can be achieved with a transistor amplifier if sufficient care is taken with the voltage amplifier stage and the feedback regime. Hugh argued that an amplifier's voltage amplification stage is where musical engagement is made, either dead or alive. Both tracks were superb in the Willis Room, which really is to say something with the venue's well known wayward bass response and harsh, reflective walls. Some Mozart followed (Divertemento in D), recorded as delightfully as ever by the Chesky brothers in New York.

Hugh then spoke about the benefits of making an amplifier as simple as possible but as Einstein is reputed to have said on an unrelated topic, "no simpler than that". The next tracks, 'Baby Elephant Walk' and Greg Brown's wonderful 'Billy from the Hills', were played to demonstrate the advantages of avoiding large amounts of global (negative) feedback and instead having only local feedback applied. The Titan uses no more than 30 dB global feedback from the output, and only nested feedback from the output to the voltage amplifier stage. Most solid-state Class AB amplifiers use up to 65 dB of global feedback, so Hugh's design is a significant departure from much conventional thinking. Hugh pointed out that he used one metallised polystyrene capacitors in a critical point of the output stage of the amplifier typology, and this choice was paramount for the final sound quality of the amplifier.

Titan 125 Amplifier

The result of all this careful design and implementation is great image depth and, critically, musical engagement. I wrote in last month's writeup that I'd yet to find a Class D amplifier that engaged me much at all, so was heartened to hear that Hugh also places this value high up on his 'musthave' attributes for amplifiers. Curiously, I was flicking through a back copy of Stereophile while enjoying breakfast this morning and came across John Atkinson's review of the ultrahighend Gryphon DM100 power amplifier. He found the sound of the Gryphon was very similar to the much lauded - but idiosyncratic - Jadis 200 valve amplifier but "there was an uninvolving character to the solid-state presentation that left the music's customary magic in the bottle" (Stereophile November 1994, page 123). Yep, that's often the difference I find between valve amplifiers and solidstate amplifiers, but somehow Hugh has managed to bridge that gap with his Titans.

Titan 125 Circuit Board

An audience member then asked about the Titan's power supply. Hugh responded that he preferred traditional linear supplies and pointed out the main problem with switchmode supplies was noise, something not important for most applications but very significant for an audio amplifier, which is essentially a modulated power supply. No argument from me there! The last few tracks included one from the Buena Vista Social Club, the infamous theme from the Pink Panther, a revisiting of the Dead Can Dance recording (a live event recorded in Melbourne and astonishing in its aural width and depth), a symphonic piece by Scriabin and, to finish the night, a gloriously farting, honking saxophone blown by Sonny Rollins.

To conclude, what a night! It was worth venturing out into the cold, blustery rain on a Melbourne winter to hear what Hugh had to say about amplifier design and to experience a masterful exposition from someone who clearly understands his topic, can relate that to an audience, and can keep them entertained for well over 2 hrs. And it shows again that to enjoy our hobby does not require extremely deep pockets: $1800 speakers and $4200 monoblock power amplifiers formed the guts of the setup we heard, and the DAC was certainly not an uberexpensive one. Yet the combination provided a rare degree of musical enjoyment and, dare I say, engagement

Paul Boon
Selby, Victoria.

Photos by Nick Karayanis

July 2022

Rega, Sonus faber, McIntosh & Aurender

Last month's meeting allowed us to hear two systems imported by Synergy Audio Visual in Heidelberg Heights. The team from Synergy is well known to MAC members, having demonstrated various pieces of equipment in the Willis Room over the years, always to the enjoyment of the audience. I believe the last time they were here was October 2017, when they showcased a high-end Sonus faber/McIntosh system. This month the team demonstrated two systems that differed greatly in recommended retail price but were delightful in their different ways. Phil Sawyer led the demonstration and was ably assisted by Paul Mueller and Jonathon Baillie.

The first system was Rega's System One, advertised by Rega "an all in one box analogue solution". It consists of a Planar 1 turntable with RB110 tonearm and Rega Carbon MM cartridge (RRP $649), io amplifier (RRP $949), pair of Kyte loudspeakers (RRP $1,199) plus interconnects and speaker cables. The all-up price is $2,599. This compares with ~$2,800 for the individual components plus of course the cost of the cabling, which I guess would be an extra couple of hundred dollars.

A short description of the gear: the Planar 1 turntable is the entry-level model in the Rega catalogue and it would seem to have few competitors at this price, perhaps only the baseline Pro-Ject Essential III.

Rega P1 Turntable

The io amplifier is rated at 30 watts per channel and mercifully is a fine old-fashioned Class AB design, not a new fangled Class D. I've yet to hear a Class D amplifier that truly engages me, where as Class AB has a venerable history going back decades and has been the preferred typology for affordable hi-fi amplifiers because of its reasonably good efficiency (meaning they don't run blindingly hot, as does a Class A amplifier, and so don't need massive heat sinks), low crossover distortion (depending on the amount of bias applied) and (for a transistor-based amplifier) good linearity. It comes with a built-in phonostage, headphone output and remote control. Not bad for under $1000.

io Amplifier

The little Kyte loudspeakers are in fact the second iteration of speakers from Rega to bear this name. The first Kyte hailed from, if my memory serves me correctly, the mid-1980s and were funny looking things with a triangular cut out in the corner of each grille for the (front) bass port. Mind you, Rega is no stranger to visually arresting designs: remember the bizarre Rega Planet turntable from the mid-1970s. Even the skeletal RP8 turntable from 2012 is unlike any other turntable on the market. The current-day Kyte is a petite, stand-mount 2 way speaker, finished in matt/satin black. In this it departs from the glorious real-wood finish of the original Kyte, but the cabinet of the new model is one-piece and cast from polymer resin with an internal ceramic brace, so is undoubtedly more dead-sounding than any speaker made from common-place materials such as MDF.

One Melbourne retailer notes on their webpage that "this loudspeaker has made no concession to fashion or aesthetic but is a really interesting design that images well outside the box with a full well balanced tonality". It has been well received among audio reviewers, one saying the Kyte was clean, balanced and non-fatiguing, with very good bass performance. Like the turntable and amplifier, the Kyte is made in England - indeed even the drive units are made in their factory in Southend-on-Sea (don't you love English place names? Mind you, we have some corkers too: try Mooloolaba in Queensland, or Eurobodalla and Wallerawang in NSW or Widgiemooltha in WA. The Kyte is rear-ported, which might make placing them on walls or in bookcases inappropriate; a custom-designed stand is available for them for $99, which might be a necessary investment given their sloping base.

Rega Kyte & Sonus Faber Olympica Nova III

There was a feeling of instant surprise and I noted more than a few raised eyebrows when Track 1, a Mobile Fidelity pressing, was played through the System One set-up: it was fast, clean and spacious. The bass from such a small speaker was really quite substantial in terms of quantity and, perhaps more importantly, quality. Subsequent tracks, including a special 95th anniversary pressing from ELAC, the German loudspeaker firm, and another Mobile Fidelity LP were just as impressive.

The second system was in quite a different league. Consisting of Italian Sonus faber Olympica Nova III floorstanding speakers, an American McIntosh MA8950 integrated amplifier and Aurender A15 music server/streamer/player, it retailed at just under $60k, not including cables.

There is no doubt in my mind that Sonus faber makes the most beautiful speakers in the world. In comparison almost every other brand looks as if it's been knocked up in the back shed by your slightly eccentric uncle. Too many of today's offerings are either unbearably bland or hideously ugly; some manage the feat of being both. Sonus fabers, by comparison, are always simply drop-dead gorgeous. Take a look at (and listen to) the little standmount Electa Amator III and if you don't fall in love, you are an android with the emotional depth of a Vulcan. The speakers on show this month were the Olympica Nova IIIs, a tall (1.1 m), lyre-shaped, wooded blob of gorgeousness that tips the scales at 35kg. Yes, they are so pretty - but I still reckon the model they replace (the original Olympica III) is prettier still. (Confession time: I own a pair of Olympica IIIs.) Their RRP is ~$24,000.

Sonus fabers always do glorious things with vocals, especially with the type dubiously known as 'female vocals'. I've always been perplexed by that classification: by 'female vocals' do we mean Janis Joplin or Emma Kirkby or Mama Cass Elliot or Big Mama Thornton or Eilen Jewel or Bessie Smith or Janice Martin or Eva Cassidy (or my heartthrob, Michelle Phillips)? All 'female vocals' but a universe apart in style and delivery. Anyway, the third track played through the Sonus fabers was a song by The Waifs, a folky bluesy band with an idiosyncratic female lead vocalist, hailing from Western Australia. The Waifs have a peculiarly Australian tinge to their songs, just as unmistakeable as those by the fabulous Pigram Brothers (interestingly, also from WA, this time Broome). There's an openness, a longing, a resignedness, a slight sense of melancholia that so matches the Australian psyche. So here is real contemporary Australiana popular music - and by that I don't mean the obvious and odious stuff put out by 'country' singer-songwriters such as Lee Kernaghan and his ilk.

The amplifier needs no introduction. McIntosh has been making these behemoths with their stunning blue power meters, exposed workings, glossy black glass fascia and silver edge pieces for decades. No other brand has the instant recognition factor that these have. The model on show - the MA8950 - is a 200 watt per channel integrated transistor amplifier, with six unbalanced and one balanced inputs, including for MM and MC, a host of digital inputs to feed its onboard DAC, home-theatre bypass, 5-band tone controls (hurrah - a model amplifier with tone controls; the stupidity of the 1980s English hairshirt brigade has been banished, finally) and an inbuilt headphone amplifier. And, most critically, it feeds those 400 watts through a pair of McIntosh Autoformers, making it one of (the only) solid state amplifier to use output transformers. Like the Sonus fabers, it oozes style and heritage - 34 kg of style and over 70 years of New-York-built heritage. Cost? $19,000.

McIntosh MA8950

McIntosh MA8950

The source was the Aurender A15, a product from the South Korean firm that has garnered many accolades as perhaps the best digital music server/streamer/player around (RRP ~$14,000). I must confess that I've had little interest in music streamers in the past, for a variety of reasons. I'm not sure I want to buy (actually, rent) music that I've bought at least three times before: as LPs in the 1970s and 1980s, as CDs in the 1980s and 1990s, then as remastered versions or as SACDs more recently. Second, I really don't like to have to use a phone or a tablet to control my audio set-up when I can get up off my backside and twiddle some knobs to adjust the source or volume. Third, I'm worried that the streaming services we currently have will be non-existent in a few years. Tidal and Spotify may well go the way of earlier services: who remembers Rhapsody or Napster? Even MQA, the darling of streamers or downloaders, seems to have lost its lustre recently. Lastly, FM radio provides me with a free way to listen to music I've not come across before and has the benefit of being chosen by someone knowledgeable in the field, not by a computer algorithm based on your prior listening habits. Enough of my grumpiness. How did the system sound? Glorious: warm and yet detailed, spacious and utterly nonfatiguing.

Aurender A15 Music Server

The question then becomes: How did the two set-ups compare? Well, the Sonus faber/McIntosh/Aurender costs about 20 times that of the Rega set-up. Was it better? Unequivocally Yes. At one listen it brought home to you what those extra thousands of dollars bring: body, depth, finesse, filigree. But was it 20 times better? Or to put it another way, did the System One deliver 5% of the music that the more expensive setup gave us? No. No. No.

So, what's the solution? I reckon you should consider buying the System One as a going-away-from-home present for your children when they finally leave the nest and establish their own place. Or when they get married (what an old-fashioned idea that is!). What better investment than a middling $2,600 to give them a music system that will last them years and years. The Sonus faber/McIntosh/Aurender system you should keep for yourself, as a present when you retire or the firm you work for makes you redundant to make way for younger, less irritable, more malleable staff. Your partner could only congratulate you on bring home a piece of domestic stuff that not only looks glorious but sounds glorious too.

Paul Boon
Selby, Victoria.

Photos by Nick Karayanis

June 2022

Bring Junk, Buy Treasures

Is your old hi fi stuff gathering dust?

Has that pile of CD's in the corner of your room, been getting ever so higher it threatens to topple over any minute. Is your equipment rack filled to the brim with another piece of audio? Not another piece of classic Hi-Fi equipment !!!

Then it's time for on early spring clean. This month fellow members, you have the opportunity to bring your...

: Surplus Audio Gear, DIY Bits & Pieces

: CD's and LP Records

This Annual General Meeting is a wonderful opportunity for MAC members to sell and haggle over those unwanted goodies, but please, keep the haggling to a respectable level ;-).

Melbourne Audio Club members, who wish to sell on the night, will have access to the Willis Room from 6:30pm, with plenty of table space to display their items.

Don't forget to label each item with a price, and your name somewhere on the display.

Refreshments in the form of Pizzas and Beverages will be provided on the night.

May 2022

Dacman presents Denafrips

Stav the DAC Man

Hulgich Audio Nina Speaker

Kinki Studio EX II Amplifier

Denafrips DACs. Pontus II & Ares II

Jays Audio CDT2 CD Transport

ATC SCM 40 Floorstander

Photos by Nick Karayanis

April 2022

Those ELAC speakers? Almost too good.

It is rare that I will wax lyrical about any equipment demonstrated in the Willis Room. That is not to say that I think that the gear is sub standard, it is more that I need to discount the Willis Room in order to make a judgment, one that can place the kit in my listening room. Let's face it no rooms of members that I know of, except, of course, the late Gerald's mighty barn, can hope to be even one fifth the size of the Willis Room.

Until, that is, the April GM. These small towers from ELAC were something of a revelation, or maybe just a delight to listen to, in what way? The vast majority of people are not critical listeners, they just hear want to their favorite music, often while they go about their daily lives.

So why am I concerned with them? A company has to appeal to as many of the public that it can, and this they have done really well. However, and this is the stealer, they produced a speaker that had me entertained and I do count myself as a critical listener, how so?

For $3500 approximately you get a speaker that for me, ticket all the boxes. The tweeter was sweet with no fizz or glare. The midrange, which was unusual, as it was a dual concentric design with the tweeter, did not shout at me, which was a real benefit with the saxophone piece we heard. The base, which came to us from three 5" drivers, was surprisingly deep, perhaps aided by a very unusual porting arrangement, and was, above all, very musical.

I sat there and listened the whole evening without the need to shrink from a dominant midrange or wince from an overly sharp treble. Perfect? Of course they weren't. But for the price, they had it all over some of the so called high end, who perhaps often try a bit too hard to be different. In this case, for me, well balanced won the day.

Martin Bray