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Naim Audio 300 series arrives

Welcome to a new era in sound

Since 1973, the Naim Classic range has embodied the best separate Hi-Fi elements, combined to create the music system of your dreams. The 200 Series line includes the NSC 222 preamplifier and streamer, the NAP 250 power amplifier, as well as the uncompromising NPX 300 power supply. 

The 300 Series line includes NSS 333, a high-resolution streaming solution, the NAC 332 preamplifier, the NAP 350 power amplifier, the NVC TT phono preamplifier and its dedicated power supply NPX TT.

Designed and developed by Naim engineers in Salisbury, United Kingdom, these timeless products are the fruit of Naim’s unique electronics expertise. The New Classic Series is at the cutting edge of innovation and technology, bringing you years of listening pleasure.

The streamer/pre and mono block power amps are now on demo and we'll be putting them through their paces over the next few weeks.



We have an event in store and with Naim Audio on Friday the 13th of October from 12 till 5. Come along, meet Naim and the new 300 series. All welcome and no ticket required.

Uncategorized - 09/08/2023
Rega Aya

Rega launch Aya loudspeaker

Breaking the mould

News recently got to us of something new coming from Rega and today we can announce the AYA loudspeaker. Developed over ten years by a team of Rega designers headed up by our founder Roy Gandy, the AYA loudspeakers promise to deliver a detailed, balanced performance no matter which genre of music you decide to play. Using Rega designed handmade drivers, coupled with our ZRR high frequency tweeter and a new crossover, our engineers have fine-tuned every aspect to deliver the best possible performance. The sculptured cabinets create a pleasing floating effect which adds to the unique appearance.


We'll have the speakers in and on demonstration soon and will provide you with our findings as soon as we can. In the meantime full specifications can be found beneath;

KEY FEATURES

  • Custom GRC cabinet (glass reinforced cement)
  • Band pass cabinet design
  • 2.5 way system
  • Rega designed ZRR high frequency unit
  • 5" Handmade MX-125 Bass mid driver
  • 7" Handmade RR7.8 Bass driver
  • Optional loudspeaker grilles
  • Lifetime warranty against manufacture defects
Uncategorized - 09/06/2023
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In Conversation with........Peter Comeau from IAG Group

Afternoon Peter and thank you for taking out questions. Please could you introduce yourself and tell us what sparked your interest in HiFi and in particular loudspeaker design? 

Sure, I am Director of Acoustic Design for IAG Group and design loudspeakers for the brands Wharfedale, Mission, QUAD, Castle and Leak.  My first commercial speaker design was for Heybrook, a company I started with Stuart Mee in 1978.I grew up in the Devon countryside being surrounded and fascinated by the sounds of nature.  Sound is as interesting as vision when you’re exploring the countryside and its wildlife.  Plus I was exposed to a lot of church music, my mother was a piano player and organist and I sang in choirs and was a boy soprano soloist.  I suppose I just became fascinated with sound and, through that, capturing and reproducing what I heard for the entertainment of others.  I had a succession of reel-to-reel tape recorders and microphones and had access to decent amplifiers and it seemed to me that the weakest link was the loudspeaker. So I always wanted to make better speakers.

What was your first system? 

I guess you’re talking about hi-fi system because my first ’stereo’ was a reel to reel tape recorder.  At that time, in the ‘60s, I was fascinated by making my own recordings, even creating my own sound effects and going so far as to build a simple electric guitar as another element in my multi-track vocal recordings.  Anyway my first experience of hi-fi was my parent’s B&O system (with nice Peerless designed speakers) and, as a student, I assembled my own system with the innovative Cambridge P40 amplifier, a Lenco GL75 turntable with G800SE cartridge, and Wharfedale Unit 5 kit speakers.

What were the first loudspeakers that you designed, built or tinkered with? 

I tinkered with various full-range drive units in my own design of cabinets for a couple of years before realising that I really needed to start with a decent set of drive units and a crossover that properly matched them.  I chose the Wharfedale Unit 5 kit, which was identical to the Dovedale but you could build it into a larger cabinet for improved bass extension.

After you studied electronics at University, why did you go into retail and not into HiFi design & manufacturing? 

When I left University I really wanted to be an engineer in a recording studio and headed to London with that in mind, but ended up working in sales and service in various Hi-Fi Shops instead.  That was invaluable experience as it gave me a lot of insight into what customers were looking for and the problems they faced when putting together a system.

What did the retail experience do for you in terms of HiFi knowledge? How did you get into HiFi reviewing for magazines? Did you think your reviews offered a different perspective on HiFi? 

There’s nothing like having to deal with customers every day, whether you’re selling products or handling service problems, to force you to expand your hi-fi knowledge and to analyse why some products work together harmoniously and others don’t.  I was intrigued, for example, that the big JBL speakers sounded so different to the big IMFs and why the former suited hard rock and the latter classical and folk.  Similarly why did Japanese amplifiers have difficulty driving some speakers while UK designed amps had no problem? At that time (mid to late ‘70s) hi-fi magazines didn’t even begin to delve into these problems.

I’d discovered that Linn were making turntables that completely upgraded most people’s ideas of what a turntable could do, that Naim were making amps that could drive just about any speaker easily and that QUAD Electrostatics were the most accurate speakers on the market.  Then A&R Cambridge brought out the A&R A60, Rega introduced the Planar 2 and Stewart Tyler at Celef designed his great sounding Monitor speakers, all together making up a highly affordable, musical system. So I started recommending systems that were incredibly involving, musically, and my comments got through to a magazine editor who asked me to write about them.  This subjective approach to matching products together to make systems that worked musically might seem normal now but was ground-breaking at the time.  And readers and customers responded to it positively, of course, and it shook up the whole way of selling as well as reviewing hi-fi.

What made you start up Heybrook? How long did you run Heybrook for? BTW the HB1 and the HBS1 stands were one of my first signigicant upgrades.

I was managing a hi-fi shop in Plymouth when Stuart Mee walked in and asked me if I had any speakers better than his Celestion Ditton 15s.  Actually the usual small speaker I was recommending was the Videotone Minimax and, good though it was, it didn’t win over the Celestions.  So, we entered into a discussion about why there weren’t any really good bookshelf speakers under £200.  Based on my kit speaker experience, and knowledge gained from a Gilbert Briggs Loudspeaker book, we thought we would have a go at designing something that satisfied both of us.  After about 18 months of experimenting, and a lot of discovery and learning about cabinets, drive units and crossovers, we had our first prototype.  It was so good that we realised it would sell really well, and that was the basis of the Heybrook HB2.

Heybrook really took off, in terms of turnover, with the HB1 speaker, the first of my designs to win three What Hi-Fi Awards in consecutive years.  My friend, Shane White, developed a prototype turntable which we refined and turned into the Heybrook TT2 and I worked with Tim de Paravicini on some amplifier designs.  Along the way I had a lot of fun designing speakers like the Sextet - altogether it was 15 years of extremely hard work and a lot of design exploration, learning and enjoyment.

After Heybrook, did you go into freelance speaker design and go back into reviewing? 

Eventually Heybrook grew to the point where I was spending more time in administration than design and development, so I made the decision to sell out.  That left me free to do speaker consultancy work with a sideline reviewing, as consultant editor, for Hi-Fi News magazine and I also expanded my fascination with computers and IT by writing for computer magazines.

What was your initial remit when you joined Mission? 

I’d done a lot of consultancy work with NXT (Mission’s flat speaker technology offshoot) so, when the speaker design engineer vacancy appeared at Mission, they asked me to come and work in Huntingdon. Mission were well known for popular, award winning affordable speakers and their customer base was completely in accord with what I loved doing which was making small speakers which sounded lively and musically inspiring.  I made some mods to their best selling range, which turned into the 77e series, and those immediately got universal 5 star reviews.  My first clean-sheet design, though, was the 780 which, like the HB1, won 3 consecutive years of What Hi-Fi Awards.  I’m still enjoying designing and making great sounding speakers for Mission today. 

You have been involved in reintroducing old models that have been brought up to date. (E.g Wharfedale Lintons, Mission 770 etc) Was this totally your idea? 

It started with an idea I had for an anniversary model for Wharfedale.  Looking back over 80 years of Wharfedale history, the best selling models were the Denton and Linton.  The original Industrial Design of these was so good that I felt it would still look great in people’s homes today, so we started with the Denton to see what people’s reaction would be.  It sold so well that I really wanted to bring the Linton up to date too.  The marketing people were worried that it would be too big to sell well but, actually, it has turned, once again, into Wharfedale’s best selling speaker.
As I’ve often pointed out, larger speaker cabinets with bigger bass units make the speaker designer’s task so much easier and do a better job of delivering full scale musical reproduction in the home. Clearly customers have reacted positively to this and it has resulted in other brands dusting off some of their vintage designs too!

What, in your opinion, makes the Mission 700 & 770 speakers so good? 

Well, the 770 is still a classic speaker.  If you are lucky enough to get hold of a pair of the original 770s today you’ll be surprised at how good they still sound. Sure, a reviewer would criticise the slightly unruly bass and some steeliness in the treble performance, but the midrange is magical.  I wanted so much to recreate that midrange performance but upgrade the bass and treble to match, as well as to suit modern recordings and digital sources, that I spent two and a half years developing and refining the new 770, building a total of 174 prototypes until I was happy.Both the original 770, and the very first 700 design, featured that magical midrange which captured your attention and made you want to play record after record late into the night.  I’ve just read a neuroscience analysis of music which explains that the first thing we latch on to, as toddlers, is rhythm.  What these speakers do is present musical rhythm, as well as natural instrumental and vocal detail, in a really infectious way.  I’ve got the new 700s in my lounge at home and I love seeing people’s reaction when I play some music to them.  There’s a sort of instant feeling of musical satisfaction that brings a smile to their faces and gets their toes tapping and bodies moving.  Isn’t that what hi-fi should be all about?

Some 20 plus years ago, you released a high end Mission speaker called the Pilastro (which was absolutely superb). What are thoughts on that speaker now? Would you want to bring out a newer version to the market? 

Funnily enough a German reviewer came up to me at the recent Munich show and told me Pilastro was still his favourite speaker.  I’ve also made friends with a guy in Norfolk who has collected three pairs, he loves them so much.  It’s a great speaker that probably works better today than it did when it was first launched simply because amplifiers and recordings and sources are now so much better they show what the Pilastro can do.  It was an expensive speaker at the time and it would venture into the ultra high-end to recreate a new version now and I’m not sure Mission has the distribution clout to handle that, but it would sure be fun to try.

Pilastro is one of the very best speakers I've ever heard. Without a shadow of a doubt. Do you prefer to work on High end speakers designs or more real world priced designs? 

It may seem odd but I just love designing speakers that people can afford.  To know that tens of thousands of people world-wide are using my speaker designs to enjoy music to its utmost in their homes is very gratifying.  Sure, it’s lovely to have the budget and resources to push the boundaries of speaker design with higher-end products, but I’m not in accord with the ultra high-end where you might end up making 100 pairs a year if you’re lucky.  Wharfedale Elysian was a lot of fun to design and is probably my most expensive, popular speaker but we will still sell upwards of a thousand pairs.

What is the most important thing for you when you design a speaker?

Getting the music across to the listener in a totally engaging way, first and foremost, as well as helping you believe that you are listening to real musicians.  To do that you have to make sure the rhythmic structure is presented intact and that the tonal balance is natural and that you can hear through the speakers to the musical performance.  To do that you have to make sure that the fundamentals and overtones of instruments and vocals are in balance, which is more tricky than you might think.  Although I use measurements and computer prediction and analysis in the early stages, the real work comes from hours and hours of listening, tinkering and fine tuning.  During this period I’m making adjustments that are difficult to measure but are clearly audible.I also think that speakers should be a relatively easy load for the amplifier.  I’ve no idea what amps people are going to use with my speakers, so I avoid demanding loads which have ridiculously low impedances or violent swings between capacitance and inductance as you sweep through the frequency bandwidth.

With the success of the recent Wharfedale & Mission speakers, are there any plans for other revised versions of classic models? 

Why not?  There are some great favourites from the past which I’d love to bring up to date.

What are your all-time favourite pieces of hifi? (Speakers & other items) 

I would class all-time favourites as the ones that I continue to enjoy, so QUAD Electrostatics are still on that list and every time I’ve heard the top-of-the-range MBL Radialstrahle 101 system I’m in awe of the way it immerses you in the musical experience.  For turntables I’m still a fan of the Garrard 401 (in a slate plinth) but recently found that the new Thorens DD version of the TD124 can produce much the same performance.  For modern amplifiers I’ve recently been using the Audiolab 9000A a lot and can’t fault it and for a source I’m a big fan of using Qobuz via Roon through my MacBook Pro though the Lumin U2 is on my shopping list.  My favourite amplifiers tend to be valve based and I still have a fondness for the Radford STA25.

Having made a great sounding turntable (Heybrook TT2), have you ever considered revising that for today's market? 

Not really but if I did I’d probably make it Direct Drive!

Do you think HiFi has got better, over the last 40 years? 

Definitely.  It’s hard to quantify when you look back and try and remember what music in the home was like 40 years ago because a good system was as enjoyable back then as it is now.  But when you actually take some of the equipment that I loved back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s and put it up against what is being designed now, it’s obvious how well-designed modern equipment just makes music sound more real.  With a careful setup of even a moderately priced system it is possible to make the hi-fi disappear so that all you’re aware of is the musicians in the room.  That was much more difficult to achieve 40 years ago.

When you were with Heybrook, you tried to make active speakers popular. What are you thoughts on active speakers today? Why do you think they are not as popular in the HiFi market? 

The Hi-Fi market is often quite conservative in its likes and dislikes.  Whilst the rest of the market is gobbling up networked smart speakers, Hi-Fi buyers still seem to prefer the three unit system of source, amplifier and passive speakers. I’ve no objection to this as I feel that passive crossovers are more easy to mould to the requirements of real world drive units. For active speakers the drive units really need to be as perfect as you can make them, because it is more difficult to tailor the electronic circuits to achieve the acoustic crossover slopes that you need.  As DSP, so-called Class D amplifiers and drive units get better I can see a future where active speakers really will start sounding superior plus, of course, you can build all the required networking into them.

However, the market uptake is going to be slow.  In one way you’re depriving the customer of choosing what type of amplifier they want to use - designing an active speaker crossover and amplifier using valves, for example, would be wasteful of resources and energy consumption. I think it’s best to consider a system approach where everything is properly matched and simple to network and is easy to use.  But then you’re depriving the customer of choice - putting together a traditional system is quite a lot of fun for the audiophile.

Do you think you will revisit active speakers in the future? 

I have already started.  Mission LX Connect was fun to design and provides a plug-and-play, hi-fi quality, true wireless stereo system at a moderate price.  But, in a way, it’s perhaps too close to the smart speaker end of the market.  Maybe something more sophisticated in performance at a higher price would sell better?  I’m often broaching this subject with the marketing department.


Loudspeaker technology seems very well established. It has been refined but perhaps not “shaken up”, what can you see happening in domestic loudspeaker design in the future?


Again, I think we’re battling against what is a traditional market when we try and introduce new concepts. People get all excited about new technologies but the fact is that they take many years to mature before we begin to see/hear the true benefits.  We’re still making better and better moving coil drive units through our understanding of the causes of resonance, coloration and distortion.  And we’ve found out how to refine and improve tried and tested technologies like ribbon and AMT treble units. I think that process will continue for some time.What I’ve always tried to do is to make speakers that work well in a variety of homes.  Most audiophiles, reviewers and hi-fi retailers think that speakers sound best spaced well away from walls and corners whereas, when I see the pictures that a lot of customers post on social media, speakers are often pushed back against the wall or into corners.  I’ve done it before and would like to do it again and that is to design speakers that you can integrate into walls or corners.  That’s not a new idea, Gilbert Briggs and Peter Walker advocated corner speakers in the mono days and Roy Allison did a lot of designs that worked against walls.  It might not suit the die-hard audiophile but I do think it is one way forward to achieving a more predictable performance in the listener’s home environment.

What new developments are you working on? 

I’m always trying to make things better by simplifying them.  For example we’ve come to think that cabinets need to be heavily braced in order to make them inert.  But the fact is that you can’t really make a wood cabinet totally inert, you’re just shifting panel resonances around. We could make mineral loaded resin cabinets like Pilastro, but veneered wood has a lot of appeal when you consider that speakers are viewed as items of furniture in the home.  Now that we have the technology to analyse cabinet behaviour we’re exploring superior methods of controlling cabinet resonance so that it doesn’t affect the musicality of the speaker.  This understanding of which resonances and distortions interfere with the music and which ones don’t can also be applied to everything from drive units to amplifier circuits.  It’s all part of the continuous development of making systems sound uncannily real and thoroughly enjoyable.

Peter ComeauDirector of Acoustic DesignIAG Group Ltd

Thank you Peter for your excellence in loudspeaker design and for taking the time to discuss your career with us.


Uncategorized - 08/25/2023
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Streaming made simple(r)

One of our customers suggested we do a guide to digital replay.

“For me digital music is where it gets really hard …., Routers, transports, DACs, servers, NAS, Roon, Rock, NUC ……. It’s been a slog to interpret all of this over the last few years and I’m certainly not claiming to be an expert now.. but I do think there must be a market for a “dummies guide” to digital replay”

Streaming is simpler than it appears. Many people who are confused by it already use Netflix, BBC i-Player or Amazon Prime, which is streaming only with video rather than music.

So with that in mind; here we attempt to debug it, take the jargon out of it and hopefully (you’ll be the judge) simplify it.

What is it?

Audio streaming is a way of listening to music in real-time over the internet. Instead of downloading the entire audio file and then playing it, you can start listening almost immediately as the audio data is sent to your device (we’ll refer to it as a Streamer or Network audio player)  in small pieces, or "streams." It's a bit like watching a video online – you don't have to wait for the whole thing to download before you can start watching; it plays as it's being sent to your screen.

So, with audio streaming, you can enjoy music, podcasts, radio stations, or any other audio content without needing to store the entire file on your device. It's a convenient way to listen to your favourite sounds without taking up a lot of space or waiting for a full download. It also opens up almost the entire
world of music to you for a relatively small monthly subscription. You can find almost any track or album - there are exceptions but they are now few are far between.



Streaming is also listening to music stored on your network, computer or memory storage device. Streaming is also listening to internet radio in the same manner.

Is it any good?
Yes it can actually be very good indeed. In fact a very good streamer will hold it's own against an extremely good (high end) record player. Even an affordable streamer presents an extremely capable source and this only gets better with higher performance units.

Music is stored in digital files. You access those files from your network, storage or online. They are reproduced extremely accurately but they are only ever as good as the files themselves. Some can be compressed to MP3 files whilst others are totally uncompressed and sound as good as a CD (16 bit). Hi-Res files are 24 bit and above and can sound even better still. High resolution provides the very best of performances and allows you to hear everything the artist intended. On a well produced recording, Hi-Res presents the pinnacle of the digital medium and this is really something you should hear for yourself.

However it is also worth bearing in mind that the better streaming services have content in at least CD format or better, whereas only about 10-20% of music is hi-res. If you're looking for just hi-res then Qobuz is probably your best choice.

You can also stream from your own stored music library. Or indeed a combination of both. I’ll cover each of these in a little more detail.

Subscription services

You sign up to a music provider. There are many to choose from but the two best are Tidal and Qobuz. We say this because we feel with both of these you get a well designed platform, a wide choice of music to select and a very high standard of file. That is to say the very lowest quality of file you'll get is CD standard or 16 bit. And you'll also get a wide range of higher resolution files to explore.

You pay a monthly fee and enjoy access to a massive library of music delivered to you by your internet. It's like borrowing songs from an immense music library. You pick a song or an album you want to hear, and it plays instantly through your streamer and also through (for example) your mobile phone. You don't have to download the songs or own them. You just listen to them as they come streaming to you over the internet. It's like having access to a vast music library without having to store all the songs on your device. The cost of this varies but is usually between £10 and £30 per month.

In order to do this you need a Streamer, an amplifier, a pair of speakers and access to the internet.

Your Streamer connects to your network either wired or wirelessly. You sign up to a streaming service, create an account and use these details to log in via your streamer. You only need to do this once. The Streamer will then remember your details and provide you access whenever you want it and for as long as you wish.

An ethernet cable connects your router to your Streamer. If this is not possible it can usually be done wirelessly if you have a good wireless signal. Some players do not work wirelessly but we can help and advise here.

You browse your music library and control your Streamer with a mobile phone or tablet. This gives two way communication and allows you to enjoy music in a similar way than you might watch Netflix or Amazon Prime. Think of that device as a posh remote control with far better visuals. How this works is that each product is a network enabled device. So they can talk to each other in real time.

Streaming services are also very good at introducing you to new music. It will suggest music you might like based on your choices of song or genre. It may suggest a song, an artist or even a playlist of similar music. A playlist is a list of songs created by someone else and shared. You can also create your own playlists.

Don't be intimidated by all of this. It is simple in practice and like anything; once you've experienced it for yourself you'll quickly use it with comfort.

Many subscription services off free or reduced price trials. It's a good way to determine if that service is good for you.

NB. Some people use a computer of some description to stream. A laptop will suffice, an old tower or even a NUC (a very simple form of computer with enough power to perform this task with ease). Streaming this way interests some people, particularly those who are computer savvy. It is capable of good results but does rely on some technical knowledge to build and configure. It can suit the less techie poorly and I’m not going to go in depth into streaming via a computer as this will be covered better elsewhere.

Building your own library

This isn’t a difficult thing to do but it can be tiresome as it usually involves a computer and some software. I’ve known customers spend a lot of time building a library from their own CD’s only to then subscribe to Qobuz and discover that they wish they hadn’t bothered. I did this myself and then wondered why. Other people like the idea of accessing their CD's without having to load them into a CD player. For those people ripping is the answer. It sounds terrible but like anything else it isn't and with the right software and a little help you're on your way.

How to rip your own CD’s

To do this you use a computer with a CD drive. We use some software called DB power amp. It’s not expensive but it is bit-perfect ripping software. Ripping means extracting the data from your CD, verifying it and saving it. DB power amp works by comparing the data on your CD with a number of online databases. It compares the information it rips with this to ensure it has captured all the data. What you wind up with is a perfect copy. This is then stored to a destination of your choice. It can be stored as either FLAC or WAV files and both of these are bit-perfect.

Some products have inbuilt storage. Those that don't leave you a choice of two storage solution;

USB memory device
USB sticks or drives will plug directly into the back of most streamers. They can store plenty of music and are ideal for small or medium sized music collections. There are no limitations on quality but Hi-Res takes up more room than 16 bit CD rips. The USB will also only provide music to the device it is connected to and this is not so good if you have more than one streamer or indeed more than one listener.

NAS drive.
NAS means network attached storage. This plugs into your router and is then available to be enjoyed anywhere in the house. It is also the best way of storing music if you stream to multiple devices in different rooms in the house.

You can also download music into your library from online suppliers. You can choose MP3 (avoid) FLAC 16bit (CD quality) or HI-RES files.

In our opinion NAS drives and there use required quite a lot of technical knowledge and experience. We can help with this but it can be a fraught process and should only be tackled if you're comfortable with such technology.

Ripping is somewhat time consuming. And it can be a nuisance if you have thousands of CD’s. However what you wind up with is a stored library of all your music accessible by artist, album, song or genre.

You can also buy Streamers with built in ripping and storage software. These are called servers. They will take the fuss out of building a music library but will also be more expensive to purchase. They will rip, store and catalogue all your music and the only requirement from you is to load in the CD’s. Some rip and store on internal drives and others point towards external or NAS drives..

Router

An ordinary router is all you need to stream music at home. You don’t need anything special and the standard one provided by your internet provider will do the job perfectly well. Streaming audio isn’t as demanding as video so if you use Netflix, BBC i-Player or the like then you’ll have no issues streaming audio. Many people assume they'll need an expensive or high performance unit but this isn't true.

Not do you need exotic and expensive ethernet cables. Cat-5 or 6 ethernet cable is all you require.

Choosing a Streamer

There are many different streaming products and some of that is for the reasons above. There are also differences in performance too; just as there are with CD players. I’ll go into some detail to explain those differences shortly.

Our streamers start at £150 and go up to £5000 plus. Most of them do exactly the same thing but with varying degrees of performance. All will access your music library (if you have one), subscription services, internet radio, access your iTunes and music stored on your phone. They will all also play most resolutions of quality from MP3 up to Hi-Res.

What makes for the huge differences in cost?

In a word performance or sound quality. Like anything in the world of audio performance is usually heavily influenced by budget. In a streamer you have two essential components; one is the streaming engine which retrieves the digital data and the other is the DAC or Digital to Analogue Converter. Both of these can be improved but doing so increases the cost.

Some Streamers are called streaming transports because they do not have a DAC built in and this allows you to choose your own.

However there is an all important factor here which is often overlooked and I want to talk about that first.

The App


The app is the thing that controls the streamer and enables you to access your music. Many otherwise excellent streamers fall down badly because the app sucks. Crashes, dropouts and failure to access your music when you want to means the experience is a bad one and that basically means you don’t use the product. Believe me when I say that no matter how good something sounds; if it doesn’t work its little more than a paperweight.

App development is critical and expensive. Naim (for example) spends more money on app development as they do on product development and it shows in the ease with which that app controls their products. They’re not unique in this and the same can be said for most of the leading players. In fact I’d also include Sonos whose app is far better than their products.

App development is also why there are relatively few players in the market and unlikely there will be too many more. It is simply too expensive for many companies to develop their own platform. Specialist hi-fi companies don’t have the huge budgets required to develop a streamer AND a World-class app. Some get round this by buying someone else's platform. Bluesound is a very good, stable platform and quite a few companies have adopted it as their own and added a little of their own technology within the constraints of the platform. Cyrus and NAD are examples of this. 

Apps are free downloads onto your device.

DAC technology


With all streaming, whether via the internet, or from your local files delivers a digital file to your
streamer you need a DAC to translate the digital signal to analogue - which can then be sent for amplification, and on to the speakers.

Most streamers have a DAC in them. This is the circuitry which converts the Digital stream into an analogue signal which your amplifier can then amplify. A better DAC can make substantial improvements to the performance of your streamer by making it more detailed and natural sounding. This is particularly important at the top end, producing more detail but without harshness or “brightness”. A digital signal emulates a musical sine wave but with blocks of data. These blocks can add harshness which is detrimental to music. A better DAC can handle this better by using clever technology in an attempt to produce a smoother and somewhat warmer sound. DAC development is expensive and the more capable a DAC is usually means it has had a lot of time and money spent on it and this will increase the price.

Technology might offer improvements but it is listening to them that will offer you the greatest insight. It is a simple thing to listen to and determine for yourself. Better streamers will have better DACS and they should offer clear improvements. If they don’t then of course they’re not worth the extra investment.

For those looking at improving a digital product they already have then it can make more sense to add an external and improved DAC. An additional DAC will benefit any digital products you might listen to from CD to the telly (fools lantern).

Almost all the above is relevant to CD players as well as streamers. Both retrieve digital information which needs converting to analogue.

Connectivity

A streamer will have the most if not all of the following connections;

  • A pair of RCA connectors to connect it to your amplifier
  • A digital and optical output to enable to take a digital feed from it to add to a DAC for example
  • A digital input (to enable you to connect a TV or similar)
  • An Ethernet input to connect it to your router
  • An HDMI Arc connection to enable you to connect a TV
  • Most likely a wireless network connection aerial.


You can connect these units into an amplifier, an existing stereo unit and even a pair of active speakers (speakers with amplifiers built in).

Once you’ve grasped the principles behind streaming it’s worth having a listen. Our demo rooms are at your disposal. We firmly believe that listening to something is the only way to discover how good something is. Listening and perhaps comparing it with other units to determine how good it is and how much you want to spend to match the rest of your system. Listening (and even a home trial) is critical in this. It’ll help you find the best match to your system and budget.

Many people dip their toe in the water by trying an affordable streamer, even though it might not be up to the standard of their turntable for example. Vinyl is getting expensive so a lot of our customers use a streamer to discover new music which they may then choose to buy on vinyl. Often those same customers are surprised at how capable a humble player can sound.

Here are our three most affordable streamers, all with internal DACS; making them plug and play into an existing stereo.

WiiM Pro £149
Bluesound Node £549
Innuos Pulse Mini £899

They all do the same thing but with varying levels of performance. We'd be glad to demonstrate them for you at any time. They all offer exceptional value for money in their own different ways. We certainly have streamers above these in terms of performance but I wanted to concentrate here on the principles rather than any specific products.

I hope this has offered some enlightenment. If there’s anything I haven’t covered in sufficient detail or depth then please let me know.

Finally here is a glossary of terms you might also useful when exploring streaming

Roon (Roon ready etc)

Roon is a music management and playback software designed for audiophiles and music enthusiasts. It provides a high-quality, feature-rich experience for organising, streaming, and playing music from various sources. Roon is known for its user-friendly interface, extensive metadata capabilities, and support for high-resolution audio.

Key features of Roon include:

  • Music Library Management: Roon helps you organise and manage your music collection, whether it's stored on your local hard drive, networked storage, or streaming services. It can automatically identify and tag your music files with rich metadata, including artist information, album artwork, lyrics, and more.
  • Streaming Integration: Roon can integrate with popular streaming services like TIDAL and Qobuz, allowing you to access a vast library of music directly within the Roon interface.
  • Multi-Room Audio: Roon supports multi-room audio setups, allowing you to synchronise and control playback across different audio devices in your home. This is especially useful for whole-home audio systems.
  • High-Resolution Audio: Roon supports playback of high-resolution audio formats, making it a popular choice among audiophiles who want to enjoy their music in the best possible quality.
  • Rich Music Discovery: Roon offers personalised music recommendations, artist information, album reviews, and links to related content, helping you discover new music and explore the stories behind your favourite artists.
  • Integration with Hardware: Roon can be used with a wide range of hardware devices, including networked audio players, DACs (Digital-to-Analog Converters), and audio streaming systems. Many manufacturers offer Roon Ready devices that seamlessly integrate with the Roon software.
  • User Interface: Roon is known for its visually appealing and intuitive user interface, making it easy to navigate your music collection, playlists, and settings.

It's important to note that Roon typically requires a subscription, and it works in conjunction with a Roon Core software installed on a compatible computer or server. The Roon Core manages your music library and communicates with Roon Ready devices for audio playback.

Roon has gained a following among audiophiles and music enthusiasts who value both the audio quality and the comprehensive music management features it provides.


UPnP

UPnP stands for Universal Plug and Play. It is a set of networking protocols that allows devices and appliances to discover, communicate, and interact with each other over a local network, such as a home network. The UPnP protocol simplifies the process of setting up and configuring devices in a networked environment by enabling automatic device discovery and interaction.

If you’d like anything else explaining or adding please leave a message here or get in touch and I’ll do my best to answer.

Thanks for reading.





Uncategorized - 08/10/2023
H600Front

Hegel announce H590 replacement



In many respects the H590 defined the "reference" one box approach. Superb amplifier, inbuilt streamer and DAC with enough power to drive just about any loudspeaker. It won many fans including us and that's why we were curious to see what would replace it.

The H600 launches in late September 2023 with a retail price of £10,500. Here's what Hegel have to say about it.

H600 is our reference integrated amplifier. With its 303 watts in 8 ohms, a damping factor of 4000, and 2 ohms drive capability, this powerhouse of an amplifier can drive any speaker with confidence and ease. The amplifier is a dual mono design, bringing it as close as possible to the performance of two mono amps in a single box. It also boasts a state-of-the-art preamplifier with the extremely precise volume attenuator found in our reference P30A amplifier. All electronic circuitry is designed in-house, and we only use the best-quality components. This gives us unprecedented control over the amplification process. When we combine this with our SoundEngine2 correction technology, we are left with an audio signal that is as close to the original recording as possible. The result is an immensely wide and deep soundstage with incredible dynamic range and tremendous bass control. This amplifier reveals all the details and nuances in the music. All you have to do is connect a pair of really good speakers of your choice.

The H600's D/A Converter is a bit-perfect design, offering pure audio fidelity without any resampling or upsampling. The DAC has a large, dedicated power supply that ensures uncontaminated and stable performance, and it is shielded by a thick steel plate so there is no interference from other electronics inside the amplifier. The result is a cutting-edge D/A converter with incredible resolution and smoothness. The chassis is made of aluminium for better audio performance. It includes a solid bottom chassis and top cover with vents milled in two layers for added rigidity and airflow. Big aluminium feet with an anti-scratch design ensure excellent stability and reduced vibrations, while high-quality RCA connectors and optimized positioning of the analog and digital connectors provide less noise and better channel separation. The large control knobs are equipped with touch control, making this amplifier effortless and intuitive to operate. They also have a very nice tactile feel, making every adjustment a delight.

Hegel H600

At Hegel, we believe that great audio should not come at the expense of ease of use. That is why the H600 features a comprehensive list of streaming options. It supports UPnP streaming, Spotify Connect (pending), Airplay 2, Tidal Connect, and Roon Ready (pending). This is however only the beginning. This highly advanced streaming engine will ensure the amplifier is always up to date with the latest options for you to stream your music. The H600 is also highly customizable to ensure it suits any environment. All digital inputs except USB have signal sense. This means that any device connected to these inputs can wake the amplifier and set it to the right input. In addition, the volume can be limited so that it suits your max volume preference. With our remote-control feature, you can program the amplifier to be commanded by common TV remotes, eliminating the need for using two remotes and making it easier for all members of the household to get great TV sound. Most inputs can also be set as a fixed high-level Home Theater input, making it easy to combine the H600 with surround receivers or multi-room devices. As with streaming, more features will be available in the future. These firmware updates are of course always free, and the amplifier will install them automatically when they are launched, ensuring your H600 is always up to date.

Hegel H600

The amplifier boasts a large array of analog and digital connections to accommodate various audio sources. There are two pairs of True Balanced XLR inputs and two pairs of RCA inputs. On the digital front, it features a LAN network port, an USB 32/384 input (supporting DSD256/DoP), three optical inputs, a coaxial input, and a BNC true 75-ohm input. For analog outputs, it offers a pair of RCA fixed-level outputs and a pair of RCA variable-level outputs. Additionally, it provides a BNC fixed-level true 75-ohm digital output. The H600 is an extremely capable and great-sounding amplifier. It is highly versatile and delivers high-end sound and ease of use, all in a high-quality and minimalistic housing that fits any interior style. The H600 is a hub for your digital music, a home for all your connected sources, with a sound suitable for mansions. H600 is a powerhouse.

Technical Specifications

Power output: 2 x 303W in 8 ohms, Dual Mono
Minimum load: 2 ohms
Analog inputs: 2 x Balanced (XLR), 2 x Unbalanced (RCA)
Digital outputs: 1 x Coaxial (BNC) S/PDIF - 24/192
Digital inputs: 1 x Coaxial (BNC) S/PDIF - 24/192, DSD64 (DoP), MQA 8x, 1 x Coaxial (RCA) S/PDIF - 24/192, DSD64 (DoP), MQA 8x, 3 x Optical S/PDIF - 24/96, MQA 8x, 1 x USB -32/384, DSD256 (DoP), MQA 8x, 1 x Network - 24/192, DSD64, MQA 8x
Line level outputs: 1 x Unbalanced fixed (RCA), 1 x Unbalanced variable (RCA)
Streaming: AirPlay 2, Roon Ready (pending), Tidal Connect, UPnP
Streaming formats: MP3, WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, DSF, DFF, AAC, PCM, MQA, Ogg
Frequency response: 5Hz-100kHz
Signal-to-noise ratio: More than 100dB
Crosstalk: Less than -100dB
Distortion: Less than 0.005% @ 50W 8 Ohms 1kHz
Intermodulation: Less than 0.01% (19kHz + 20kHz)
Damping factor: More than 4000 (main power output stage)
Dimensions/weight: 17,1cm x 43cm x 44,5cm (HxWxD), 22kg
Dimensions/weight US: 6,74" x 16,93" x 17,52" (HxWxD), 48,51 lbs






Uncategorized - 08/09/2023
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Keeping things simple

I recently asked some customers on our facebook group what they’d like to see from us and one customer's question was so simple and on the nail that it stopped me in my tracks.

“A basic breakdown of kit - what the various parts do and when you need them. Things like Amp, Dac, Phono Stage. A bit of a newbie guide. I see loads of posts here but don't know or understand what some of the things do or whether I should consider them for my system”

So I’ll attempt to tackle all of that here and I’ll try to keep it short and sweet.

Here is a list of all the kit you might need to listen to music and a brief description of what they do.


Source components


Record player/turntable



Rotates vinyl and recovers music from it. Still one of the best ways of listening to music and quite complex if you really want to dig down and understand it. But in its simplest form a record player plays records.

Radio/Tuner

Received radio signals. There are three types; FM, DAB (digital audio broadcasts) and internet radio. All offer good performance.


CD player

Plays CD’s.


Streamer/Network music player.


Plays digital files. These are on the internet and the Streamer is connected to your internet either wired or wirelessly. You can buy and download these and store them locally on a hard drive. Or you can use subscription services like Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz and others to listen to their content. All this can be done at very high quality. Streamers also allow you to connect music stored on your mobile phone and also give you access to internet radio.

DAC - Digital to Analogue Converter

DACS are built into most digital products. The reason for this is digital products are digital whilst amplifiers are mostly analogue. A DAC will convert the digital signal to an analogue one which an amplifier can understand and make louder. Digital to Analogue converters are available to suit all budgets. If you have any digital product and you wish to improve the sound then a DAC can sometimes be the most sensible way of doing it. 

Phono Stage

This is only for people who want to play records. These can be required because turntables have a very low output. Actually it is less than a tenth of a CD player. So an additional unit is required to step it up or make it louder. Some amplifiers have these built in. Some don’t. Hence the requirement in some but not all instances.

Amplifier

Amplifiers are needed to make the small signal recovered from the source component louder in order to pass the signal to loudspeakers and give you control over the volume. 

There are three types of amplifier. Integrated amps are the most popular and the most affordable. An amplifier is made up of two parts. The first is the pre-amp which deals with the signals coming in from the sources. The second is the power-amp which generates watts to power the loudspeakers. An integrated amp has both parts in one box and is “integrated”.

When higher performance is needed then these two parts can be isolated and put in their own enclosures. This generally offers better performance but increased cost.

Loudspeakers

Speakers come in all shapes and sizes and all prices. From very small to quite large. Larger speakers are generally better for reproducing bass. But there are exceptions because not everyone has a large room or wants a large speaker.

Speakers reproduce the sound but are actually not the most important component in the system. In terms of importance we find the source is the most important, amplification next and loudspeakers last. This sort of sounds counterintuitive but the speaker can only reproduce the quality it is given. So very high quality speakers can only do a good job if they’re given a superb signal. 

All-in-one systems

These are systems where as much as possible is built into one box. This has advantages and disadvantages and sometimes these are worth looking into before deciding which items you decide to purchase.

You do not need all of the above. Just the source component that suits how you enjoy music, an amplifier and speakers.

We’re aware that this is complicated and it is our job to help guide you through this mire of information. We have listening rooms where you can listen to equipment that suits your budget, the size of your room and your requirements. Our 41 years in business will help guide you to getting something that will transform your enjoyment of music.

Please ask any questions you might have at the bottom of this page or get in touch with us however you prefer for some clarification, advice or help.


Uncategorized - 08/04/2023
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In Conversation with........Kieran Pickaver from Henley Designs

Henley Audio is one of the UK and Ireland’s premier audio equipment distributors. Bringing together a variety of high-fidelity brands from around the world, and serving one of the UK’s largest specialist retail networks.

Hello Kieran, thank you for taking part. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the Hi-Fi business.

Thanks for asking me to take part in this Paul. It is great to be able to talk about the industry we work in and the passion we all share for it. My name is Kieran Pickaver, Field Sales Manager for Henley Audio. When I was 14, I was asked by my school to choose a placement for work experience for one week in the run up to Christmas. Not really knowing what I wanted to do, I saw an option for a 'music shop' and like most people, I have always loved music. It started with my mother who used to play records whilst she was cleaning our home - anything from The Sex Pisols to Bob Marley to classical music and more. I started my own collection after watching the film Wayne's World with a tape of Queen's Greatest Hits and it grew from there. So when I arrived at this 'music shop', the owner asked me what my favourite piece of music was - of course I chose Bohemian Rhapsody and he played it for me on the best system he had at the time and I couldn't believe my ears.

From there I was hooked and I started working for Zouch Audio after school on a Friday and on Saturdays. After a couple of years out, I returned to work there, in my early 20s,  full time until I joined Henley in 2011. It sounds cheesy to say I loved every minute of it, but I did - every day was different, meeting different people and helping them get that buzz from their music that I got every time I played a piece of music I loved on a great HiFi system. We focused around a good mix of Musical Fidelity, Pro-Ject, Ortofon, DALI, Quad, Chord Electronics and Roksan as well as brands from Metropolis Music who were distributors for brands like Hovland, Lumley Loudspeakers and many more. 

We played so much different music too, I found my love for The Doors there with Riders on the Storm played on a pair of DALI Megalines, Musical Fidelity KW750 with matching Pre and a Roksan TMS 2 turntable - an experience I will never forget. We also played music I knew too, from rock (I went through a fairly long System of a Down phase that does still return to the forefront on occasion) to drum and bass on systems ranging from hundreds of pounds to hundreds of thousands of pounds and as long as the system worked together, regardless of price, that buzz was always there. I am very proud that my children share my love of music and it is a huge part of our lives. My son has his own record collection now (Queen's Greatest Hits also features in this) and my daughter loves streaming some Disney classics. It is fantastic to see them get such joy from music, as I still do. 


What is your job at Henley Designs?

I joined Henley in 2011 as Area Sales Manager, looking after our dealers in the Midlands and South Yorkshire primarily and over the years, my area has grown to include parts of the south and east and Ireland. My role has changed a little this year. In addition to being a salesman, I now work with the other members of our sales team and other departments within Henley to make sure we are supporting our independent dealers across the UK and Ireland in the best possible way - trying to share our passion for the different brands we are representing. This focus is not something new for us but as we grow and our involvement with more national and high profile multi branch groups increases, it was important for us to make sure we continue our work with the independents alongside the nationals. 

Henley distributes a lot of brands. Tell us about some of them. I imagine you have your favourites?

Favourites is a hard one! This is a long list as we distribute 19 brands at the current count, each brand having their own range of products which usually cover a number of categories (Pro-Ject for example offer turntables, speakers, electronics and accessories such as clamps, turntable upgrades and cables to name a few) but each brand does generally offer something unique within our range. We are probably most well known for Pro-Ject and Ortofon as we were formed as part of a management buy out of Ortofon UK in 1997 and at that time we were already involved in bringing Pro-Ject into the UK so these are our longest standing brands and considered very special for that reason by everyone in our team. I love both of these brands for probably the same reason, in that I can get so much joy from a relatively inexpensive turntable based system with a fairly modest Ortofon cartridge but then I can play our Pro-Ject Signature turntable with an Ortofon MC Windfeld or Verismo fitted and fall in love with a piece of music all over again like it was the first time. In my experience, it is rare to find brands that can offer something deeply impressive across such a range of price points. 

Musical Fidelity holds a special place for me as this was a strong brand from my time at Zouch Audio and I was very happy when we were appointed distributor in 2018. We are all very excited about the A1 but every time I listen to an M6si, I cannot imagine a better all round amplifier for the money. Since MF was acquired by Audio Tuning (the parent company of Pro-Ject), Heinz has been working hard on a vast array of new products which still hold true to the roots of the brand. 

Klipsch came on board with us in 2016 and this is a very important brand for us, they offer something very different from most other speaker brands and that is a rare thing to find (we speak from experience here). Klipsch also offer a range of active speakers and it is great to be able to offer products that allow people to get a great sound from their turntable and their TV (as well as other sources) for a fairly modest amount of money and taking up less space than a conventional separates system. 

I cannot not mention HiFi Rose, a brand which we first brought to the UK only a couple of years ago and we are very happy to see it grow and thrive. The functionality and sound quality is amazing but made all the better with a lovely touch screen that makes them so easy to use. This is brand that is definitely going places! 

Roon is a brand we have been working with for a number of years, with our focus being on the hardware rather than the software. Roon is amazing for those who stream - there is so much you can do with it but the way that it helps you find new music still astounds me every time I use it. The team at Roon are hugely passionate about what they do and you can see this and how the software has improved over the years. 

We have an awful lot more in our portfolio too such as Sumiko cartridges, Reloop HiFi who offer a range of typically direct drive turntables, Jamo, Magnat and Heco loudspeakers.


I know the forum members have been excited about the new incarnation of the Musical Fidelity A1. What can you tell us about it?

The A1 is finally just around the corner now, launching with a pair of LS3/5a, and when we heard it for the first time at Munich it was frankly amazing! The design is essentially the same as the original 80s model but with modifications to the chassis including a wider footprint and venting in the side panel, meaning it deals with the heat better than the original. So it's an original A1 amp, improved. Being a low powered Class A amplifier, it will suit high impedance speakers like the LS3/5a or high efficiency offerings from Klipsch and others well, but we have seen some good results with 'normal' speakers too. We are very excited about this product but it's also great to see some new products from the brand. 


What do you look for in a brand? What makes you want to sell a product?

Our portfolio is already fairly well packed so we are looking for products and brands that don't conflict with brands we already represent. When we find a potential new brand or a manufacturer approaches us, we are looking at saleability in terms of how good is the fit and finish, what is the support likely to be like from the manufacturer and are the products priced appropriately? Once we have answered those questions then the big question is how does it sound? We have always said that everyone's perception of what is a 'good sound' is different so we listen as a team and as we all have slightly different preferences in how things should sound - we generally come to a team decision. The reputation of a manufacturer is also important but we tend to make our own mind up rather than listening to what everyone else says. Fundamentally, we have to like a product and believe it represents good value for money to the consumer. 


I know this is probably a team decision rather than a personal one but if there was one brand you’d wish to be added to the Henley Portfolio what would it be?

We all have a view on brands which would fit out portfolio well and a few that we should have gone for but ultimately our mix of brands is good and allows us to work with a variety of fabulous retailers and if we had taken on a different brand at a different time then our current mix might not be as good. I have great admiration for brands like Hegel and I believe Bill at Auden Distribution is one the class leading distributors in the UK (alongside ourselves of course!) but we operate on the basis of each brand having it's forte - MF for electronics, Pro-Ject for turntables, Rose for streamers etc. – even though each brand will cross over with another in some way. So if we had another excellent electronics brands then it would not allow us to focus the right amount of attention on Musical Fidelity and would draw some question over which brand is our 'preferred brand' within the same category so the honest answer is ,that right now, we couldn't be happier with the brand mix we currently have.  


How important is music to you? What was the 1st and last album you bought and what was the last gig you went to?

In short, very! Music plays such a huge part of my personal life; I listen to it when I am doing most things. Exercising, driving, working, relaxing, I listen on my own, either on headphones or a speaker somewhere in the house, and I listen with my family. In my work, it is the core of what we do. A good hi-fi system, regardless of budget, should bring your favourite music to life, it should inspire the strongest emotions and should be something you can share - so it is a hugely important part of my life! First album was Queen's Greatest Hits and the last concert I went to was actually an AC/DC cover band called Live Wire which I went to with my son and they were amazing, they got the sound and the theatrics so right. Before that, it was Mumford & Sons at the Sheffield Arena. This is the third time we have seen them. I'm a big fan of the early stuff and my wife is a big fan of the later albums. They were amazing each time. We saw Kasabian play at the King Power stadium when Leicester City won the Premier League in 2016 and this is one I will always cherish - no massive album push or new song to plug, just them playing some great music and everyone having an absolute ball.

How successful are hi-fi shows? Tell us about your experiences and what you see as the good and bad aspects of them.

It depends on how you measure them. If you were to ask whether we can financially justify our attendance at shows based on sales made directly off the back of the show - then no! If you measure the viability of a show on customer interaction and an opportunity to show people products or combinations of products that they may not normally hear, then they are important. Customer feedback is hugely important and although we hear this on a daily basis when we are contacted by end users, shows do provide a platform to hear what customers want to say. 

There are a number of shows in the UK and many of them cater for people with different interests, the Northwest Audio Show is very different from the Bristol HiFi Show which is, in turn, completely different from the HiFi News Show, held at the Ascot Racecourse.  All important in their own way but all very different. It is important to say that no show is a cheap show, especially when each brand in our portfolio deserves some good representation at every one we visit so we tend to try to balance the products on demonstration with what we think visitors will be keen to see. So this year at Bristol, we had a large stand with loads of display space and a few active systems and encouraged anyone looking for a demo to visit their local dealer. At the Northwest show, we took a system consisting of a Pro-Ject turntable, a Rose RS250a, a Synthesis valve amplifier and Klipsch high efficiency loudspeakers. It was great to see other exhibitors using MF, Rose and other products from our stable. The plan for the HiFi News Show is still a little up in the air but MF will feature in some way, either the A1 or possibly the Nu Vista Pre and Power system. We will also have the new Rose RS130 streaming transport then too so we will be able to run that with an MF DAC too (M3, M6 or possibly the Nu Vista DAC?!).

As far as good and bad experiences go, we all tend to enjoy working at shows - it gives a rare opportunity for us as a team to spend some time together. It is also great to see others from the industry for a chat (over a beer if you're lucky), many who I would consider friends too. Happily, there are rarely any really bad experiences.

My favourite shows are generally the ones we present in dealers. These are usually far more focused on one area but allow us to present a really nice, bespoke experience and spend far more time talking with groups of people about their own experiences and music they love.  When we have presented the Ortofon comparison events, we always see a great mix of opinions and some great conversations - and some great music! 


I get the impression that you still enjoy your job. IMO that’s vitally important in our industry because it’s all about people and relationships. What do you like best about your job?

In short, yes I do and once again, it's hard to put it down to one thing! In nearly twenty years, I have had two jobs - Zouch Audio and Henley Audio. The people I work with is a huge part of it. Zouch was founded with a purpose (much like your own), to make good music accessible to people at a variety of budgets. That goal didn't change whilst I was there. Henley was founded by Laurence and Nick, ultimately because they believed in the analogue format,  and is still privately owned by those two directors. They believe in the brands we represent and this is shared by our entire team and this makes the job much easier and far more enjoyable. We have a good time too! Laurence and Nick generally arrange a team get together once or twice a year as part of team building and it's always great to catch up in person rather than over the phone or via teams. 

Our dealers are also a huge part of it. I would consider many of my customers to be good friends so whilst it isn't all fun and curries - it is far easier to work with people who you get on with and generally want to spend time with. Everyone expects our job to be sitting down listening to music all day long and you know yourself that it is not the case but this job does afford some opportunities to listen to some great music and also be introduced to new music on a regular basis, which can't be said for many career choices out there.

Do you have listening facilities at Henley Audio?

Yes we do, it is important we listen to our products to understand how they sound and how they work. We have always welcomed dealers and end users through our doors but we do operate a dealer first policy. We know that a good dealer can generally offer a far better demonstration and consultation service than we can so our aim is for customers never to need to visit us but we have them should anyone wish to visit. The only thing we ask is for anyone wanting to visit is to book ahead.


What equipment do you use at home? Are you analogue or digital

So for many years, I have been using Pro-Ject electronics at home with great success - initially chopping and changing speakers until I settled on some Jamo Studio 8 speakers as they were front ported and were placed closer to the wall. I chose Pro-Ject's Pre Box RS Digital because I essentially used lots of digital sources and one analogue and went with the matching power amp and upgraded power supplies. They have brought me many years of joy and have worked very well with whatever I have thrown at them. I stream and spend most of my weekday listening using Tidal but have always made sure I've had a turntable in my system too as this is what I really love - playing records and thumbing through album sleeves and notes. As I said earlier, it is something we do as a family too. So for streaming, I've a Sonos Port connected in for when we want to play something throughout the house but I've also got Musical Fidelity MX Stream for ‘proper listening’. On the analogue front, I fell in love with a Roksan Xerxes many years ago and this love affair is still going on - although the turntable is nearly as old as me, it’s still going strong with the occasional rest for some restorative work. For this reason, I've added a Pro-Ject Debut Evo to the roster, with a few upgrades as you would expect. I've added an upgraded sub platter and main platter and upgraded the cartridge to an Ortofon 2M Black. The phono stage is a Lehmann Black Cube II and I'm playing around with power supplies for both decks (different ones for each deck). 

I love my Xerxes but added the Debut for more simplicity so my children could enjoy their records when I wasn’t necessarily at home and I have to say, the result of this relatively modest setup is outstanding. 

Lastly, I’ve also been playing around with a HiFi Rose RS520 all in one - I use my HiFi system to power my TV sound and the 520 has HDMI ARC built in so this is much easier and it sounds awesome to be honest. Streaming sounds fantastic using Tidal and we’ve taken to using Rose Tube (a skinned version of YouTube to finding new music or trying out recommendations from my friends. I think this is going to become a permanent addition. 

My son uses a Pro-Ject MAIA amp with a WiiM Mini for streaming, combined with a well loved pair of DALI speakers in his room and my daughter has recently been gifted a Klipsch The Three for her room so she can play those Disney classics in peace. We tend to bring kit home from work so the setups can be a little fluid but these are what we go back to when I have to begrudgingly give back some tasty piece of MF or Synthesis!  

Please join me in thanking Kieran for sharing his experiences, his passion and his love of music.

Uncategorized - 07/15/2023
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Innuos Network streamers join our range

We spent the spring looking to add some more Streaming products to our range. We'd heard good things about Innuos so this was top of our list.

Pulse Mini is an affordable solution retailing for £899


Innuos was founded in 2009 to upend conventional thinking about digital music as a source, and engineer innovative, artful HiFi products that deliver unexpected warmth and accuracy – products that unleash the full potential of digital music playback. At Innuos, we are driven to go far beyond simple “ones and zeros.” Innuos products elevate music enjoyment by offering true audiophile performance. We believe remarkably high-quality audio and ease-of-use are essential parts of any memorable music experience. Through precise matching of bespoke hardware and in-house developed software, Innuos music servers, streamers and more, continue to prove that digital music sources can still be pushed to new levels.

Initially we're stocking the Pulse and the Pulse Mini but we'll add other products from the range shortly.

Uncategorized - 07/08/2023
Jason Saxon 1Portrait

In Conversation with........Jason Saxon from Cyrus Audio

Introduction and brief history of Cyrus

Cyrus Audio is an internationally acclaimed, high-end audio brand based in Cambridgeshire, England. Originally founded as the electronics offshoot of Mission Loudspeakers by Farad Azima in 1984 until separating into a standalone business in the early 90’s. 

The company has been at the forefront of the audio scene for nearly 40 years. Having launched the original Cyrus One amplifier back in 1984, it quickly established itself as a company providing outstanding quality for the most discerning of music-lovers, and it has been designing and manufacturing award winning audio products ever since. Cyrus is proud to be one of the few remaining independent British brands, with a range of integrated amps, CD players, power amps and power supplies continuing to be manufactured in the UK.  

Its talented R&D team has been responsible for several industry firsts over the years, and it continues to push technological boundaries in pursuit of bringing a better music experience to its customers.  The brand's key focus is on ensuring the emotional content of the music is captured, which is why listening to music on a Cyrus system is a truly engaging and uplifting experience.  Cyrus has also gained a reputation for products that have a stylish, compact design and, because they can be upgraded, provide lifetime value for the customer.

Hello Jason and thanks for taking part. Tell us a little about yourself and how you got involved in the HiFi industry and describe your current role within Cyrus.

Hi Paul, absolute pleasure, thank you for asking me. 

I have been the sales and training representative for Cyrus Audio for the past 4 years now and I am responsible for supporting our retailers along with the UK sales manager, with my role also focusing on training and public events. 

The Hi-Fi industry is something I kind of fell into. I have always been involved in music since school, playing guitar in bands etc but I started to enjoy the recording/production side more than the playing. I went to college to study Music Technology which then continued through to university. In my third year of university, I took a year out and found a job working for Revolutions Studios in Cheadle under studio owner Andy Macpherson. For any Who fans out there, Andy remixed several of The Who albums in the early 90’s. I started off basically as a runner, getting coffee, tidying up, setting up equipment etc and when I could, observe freelance engineers and get involved in recording sessions. I continued to work for Revolution throughout my final year of university and a few years after where I ended up becoming assistant engineer to Andy, working with local bands a few known ones; it was an exciting time. When Andy retired the studio closed and I struggled to find enough freelance work to keep me going. I saw a job advert for a HiFi sales assistant for Superfi in Stockport thinking this would tide me over until I could build up some more freelance work. I ended up falling in love with the job and the industry. I found myself doing less and less freelance work and have been in the industry ever since. I had a brief stint out of the industry, but realised how much I enjoyed working in the HiFi industry and was able to use the skills I’d gained there to help secure my role at Cyrus. 

What does your day generally involve?

My day involves working closely with our retailer network to ensure they are up to date with all things Cyrus and support them in any way I can to help them fully represent the brand for us to achieve and implement our UK sales and marking strategies. I cover pretty much the west side of the country, from Aberdeen down to Swansea meaning quite a bit of time on the road. 

I work closely with R&D and marketing putting together training material for our retailers on Cyrus equipment, keeping their knowledge fresh and up to date. I also host factory tours for our retailers to get further in-depth knowledge on the brand and to see the manufacturing process of our products. This is something we have started opening to the public through our retailers. 

I also represent Cyrus at all dealer events and Hi-Fi shows talking about and demonstrating Cyrus products.

We’ve experienced ourselves the hard work you put in doing Cyrus events. What do you particularly enjoy about taking directly to the public?

I have a real passion for music and equipment; I just love talking to people that share the same passion and being around like-minded people. It’s amazing that you can meet a stranger, but with this single common interest you can speak to them like you have known them for years. It creates connections, friendships, and interesting debates. 

It’s also great to work for a company that creates such amazing performing products and has a strong history. Being able to talk to someone who still owns an original Cyrus ONE and is enjoying it as much as the day they bought it is quite special. I also enjoy it in a demo when you can see people’s reactions as they hear the difference from one model to another or by adding a power supply, It’s always a look of amazement.

I feel lucky to be able to have a job that it also my interest/hobby and don’t take that for granted.

We’ve been Cyrus stockists for almost 35 years. One of the things we love about the brand has been the fact that cosmetically it has retained its chassis size and appearance which offers customers a degree of security and brand recognition that is quite unique. Has that presented Cyrus with a disadvantage in any way?

The Cyrus chassis is half width and very well designed and established.

The Cyrus design has become somewhat iconic and is instantly recognisable, so it’s hard to stray too far away from this format. The form factor does come with its challenges for our R&D department though. The main challenge is space. Our R&D department have to come up with innovative designs and really think creatively to achieve the high performance that our products deliver. 

A great example of this is our chassis which we have used since 1993, it has gone through some tweaks over the years, but the fundamentals have always stayed the same. 

Our chassis is made from aluminium through a process called die casting, die casting is a process where molten aluminium is injected into a mould under extreme pressure. This gives us a dense rigid case to build upon; if you ever get a chance to look on the underneath of our chassis you can see the mounting points for the PCB and the transformer are part of the design.  

The aluminium alloy we use also works very well for heat dispersal. As many of you will know, the bi-product of any amplifier is heat and most full width amplifiers have two big heat sinks running either side of the power amp section, but because of the size and limited space of our design the heat sinks are built into the chassis.

Aluminium as a material is also non-magnetic and thermally efficient which gives a stable mechanical and electrical platform.  Being non-ferrous also means that we can reduce the possibility of stray eddy currents moving across the chassis, helping us to control its radiated electromagnetic performance. 

This is just one of many ways where our R&D have to be considerate of every little detail of the design, board layout, components, materials, even what type of screen we use is all down to getting the best sound possible from the product. 

Tell us a little bit about how a digital company came to make such a superb phono stage as the Phono Signature?

I suppose with our reputation for creating award winning CD players and DAC’s I can see how we might be perceived as a digital company, but Cyrus has enjoyed a long history with vinyl and has been designing phono stages since the beginning. Our original Cyrus ONE and TWO amps had a wonderful MM and MC phono stages built in and this carried through to Cyrus 3 which was the first amp using the chassis that we are still using today. After the Cyrus 3i we stopped putting built in phono stages in our amplifiers and launched our first separate phono stage, the aEQ7 back in 1998, which was replaced by the Phono X and then by the Phono Signature. 

Designing DACS shares a lot of similarities when designing a great Phono stage as you’re dealing with low level circuity. It is very dependent on the power supply design which, along with amplifier deign, has always been the main strength of our R&D department. With the Phono Signature, we deigned a phono stage with an incredible low noise floor, high versatility, and upgradability, making it the perfect phono stage for any system. The Phono Signature inspired design aspects of the XR range, utilizing relays for the input switching instead of using solid state switches for a cleaner signal path. 

Vinyl will always have a place within the Cyrus product range, with all current amplifier models having built in MM phono stages, using designs from Phono signature. We also look to embrace Vinyl even more into the future with some very exciting things to come.  

Cyrus recently moved part of their base of operations from Huntingdon to Nottingham. What has this meant for the company?

A few years ago, we entered a partnership agreement with one of our manufacturing partners Smart Made Simple (SMS).  As part of the agreement SMS took over the complete manufacturing of our products, taking advantage of their modern manufacturing facility here in the UK. Our supplier relationships, component sourcing and supply chain management was also taken over by SMS, enabling us to take advantage of their superior purchasing power, logistics and procurement expertise, which really came into play during the high level of component shortages in COVID.  We were fortunate to have stock and carry on building products while many in the industry struggled. 

The partnership also gives us direct access to their state-of-the-art design and prototyping facility, which not only speeds up product development processes, but also shortens the production engineering and product testing phases, meaning a huge improvement in the time it takes us to get new products to market.

Our offices, R&D and service department are still based at the same Huntingdon site and this relationship allows us to put more time and resource into our R&D team and allows them to develop core technologies for a new generation of products that will continue to be manufactured here in the UK.   

What do you see as the brands strongest points?

Cyrus has a great heritage, turning 40 next year and what comes along with that is a strong reputation for building high performing products and a loyal customer base. It’s always nice speaking to customers who have been with the brand for years and the system journey they have been on.  

As you mentioned earlier, our products are unique due to their form factor. We have been consistent and stuck with a small footprint design as it makes our products extremely practical in today’s world of ever decreasing available living space, or for customers that do not want their Hi-Fi to dominate their room, without compromising on sonic performance.

At the heart of Cyrus, we have a talented R&D department who, over the years, have developed several unique technologies such as Servo Evolution that have kept our products ahead of our peers as well as continuing to push the sonic performance of our products and creating a better music experience for our customers.  

We’re pretty excited to get our hands on the two new Cyrus streamers later in the summer. Tell us a little about how Cyrus made the decision to use the Bluesound front end in their forthcoming streamers. Our customer are fans of Bluesound and they’d love to know how you have gone about adding your own experience and knowledge.

This is a product that I have been very excited to start showing and talking about. BluOS is one of the best streaming interfaces on the market. It supports a wide range of music services and hi-res formats. It has multiroom capabilities along with an interface that makes the product simple to set up and easy to use, so it was a no brainer to partner with them for our next generation of streamers. This, along Airplay 2 and being Roon Ready makes sure we are covering all bases on how people can stream their music. 

We have a strong reputation in designing DACs and power supplies and it’s these decades of experience and knowledge we have put into our BluOS streamers. The DACS in the streamers are using our latest QXR designs, which are based around an ESS ES9038Q2M chipset. These DAC’s have been designed with reducing as much noise as possible, which results in increased dynamic range. This, along with the ability to fully tune the DAC, results in a DAC which re-constructs the analogue signal with incredibly accuracy and precision. 

Along with highly specked power supplies within the products these can be further enhanced by adding the relative external power supply. 

With our DAC and power supplies based around BluOS streaming module, it creates a range of streamers that offers incredible sound quality, versatility, usability, and upgradability. 

What equipment do you use at home?

I have a few systems around the home, with a couple ongoing projects. 

In my kitchen I have Dali Phantom E-80 ceiling speakers being driven by a Cyrus ONE Cast and using Chord Leyline X speaker cable. I am a sucker for technology and use this mainly through Google home. I love the automation and voice control abilities, along with the power and control that ONE Cast offers, it works excellently in this space. 

I am currently putting together a home cinema system in my lounge, which is an ongoing project. Home cinema is something the whole family enjoys, which is the main reason for going down this road. I first started by soundproofing and treating the room so we can enjoy it to its full potential. It will be a 5.1.2 Atmos system running Dali Phantom M375 inwall speakers for the front, Dali Phantom H-60 for the rear and Dali Phantom E-60 for the ceiling, an Arcam AVR30 will be doing the processing and to improve upon the amplification I will be running Cyrus power amps on every channel. I still need to get a subwoofer, which will probably be single or twin REL’s and a Projector, which I am still undecided on. Cabling is from Chord, a mixture of Odyssey X and Rumour X speaker cable, Shawline subwoofer cable with AudioQuest Cinnamon HDMI.

In my home office I mainly use a Cyrus i9-XR. This is such a versatile amplifier with plenty of grunt and precision. I still need to source some speakers for this system and still deciding on what to get, but currently I use some Sennheiser HD600 headphones which I have owed for years. I also plan on putting a turntable in this system eventually, but that will be further down the road.  

What was the 1st and last LP you bought?

The first record I bought was Peter Gabriel’s So! album. This album is a classic and amazingly recorded and produced, there is not a bad track on there. I like how timeless Gabriel songs are and with a lot of music you can clearly tell the era through the instruments or production techniques, but this album still easily stacks up against modern recordings. 

The last record I bought was the Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness Remastered reissue. I am a huge Pumpkins fan and think Billy Corgan is such an underrated guitarist. Easily one of the best bands I have seen live. This album takes you on a journey; it’s one I especially like listening to from start to finish uninterrupted.

What was the last band you saw live?

The last band I saw live was a local band from Glossop called Rook and the Ravens. These guys really put on a show and grab you from the start, a real talent with some unbelievably tight harmonies. Definitely worth checking out their tracks online and catching live if you can. 

Other than Cyrus what products do you particularly like and have time for and why?

I think we are in a great time in Hi-fi where there is so much wonderful and high performing kit about. I think the days are gone where you get a really bad product, it’s just a matter of personal taste. There are a few brands though that have really grabbed my attention.

Dali is a brand I really like, as you probably guessed as I own them. Dali make a great range of speakers that are well priced, well made and sound phenomenal at every price point. Their new higher end speakers also look very impressive, and I can’t wait to have a listen.  

I have worked closely with Spendor and use their speakers a lot. They are really nice people to work with and make some classically modern looking speakers. The D7.2 are my favourite go to speakers whenever I do a demo. A modest sized speaker that performs like a much bigger one and produce a big revealing soundstage, especially when being powered by Cyrus. 

With electronics my favourite at the moment is the Linn Klimax DSM. What a beautiful piece of kit that is cleverly designed. It has a classic look that will stand the test of time and a screen that won’t date in years to come. I really like the modular approach that Linn takes too, great for upgradability. It is also a really well engineered piece of equipment with excellent use of materials.    

My last item is a product that I have been following and managed to use a few times for demos over the years. It’s a German speaker brand called Audio Physic. They are an innovative company, like us in many ways but their speakers just effortlessly disappear when listening to them and they deliver a huge soundstage which easily lets you create a picture of the band or artist you are listening to and forget you are listening to Hi-Fi System.

What can we expect from Cyrus in the future?

This is a subject that I can’t delve too deep into unfortunately. This year we are focusing on completing the Classic and XR range with a small surprise product thrown in. We are launching our Cyrus streamers in August that runs on the BluOS platform, along with new power amps in September. Next year is our 40th Birthday and we plan to go big with some very exciting products that will surprise a lot of people. 

Finally which direction do you see our industry taking in the future?

This is a hard question, if only we all had that magic glass ball. I think there are two sides to this, the retailer side, and the product side. 

Within the Hi-Fi industry I think the bricks and motor retailer will always be needed, a place for a customer to demo a range of equipment and get unbiased truthful advice in a comfortable friendly environment is essential. Music and listening to music are a passion and I think people always like to buy from people who share that passion. The high street is no longer becoming the place for a Hi-Fi shop, instead destination stores with a boutique feel and space for parking are favoured to create an incredible and special instore experience. The internet and social media are also a powerful tool, especially the latter. You are already starting to see this, but as well as sales staff, content creators will become essential for a shop as well-produced, unique, informative material can be a big influence on where a customer purchases their equipment from. 

On the products side, HiFi equipment and technology has always been determined by the format that is most popular and I see streaming will continue to grow and become more advanced. I think as households are becoming more automated, we also will see more traditional Hi-Fi products integrate this technology to easily allow music to be played seamlessly. There will still always be a place for the physical format, but this side will continue to be dominated by vinyl, I think. 

This was brought up in a previous conversation post, but AI technology will play a huge part in the Hi-Fi industry as well as everywhere else. I believe we are only seeing the start of this technology and see it being a big part of the future, whether this is a good or bad thing is hard to say right now. 

Sincere thanks to Jason for taking the time to share his experiences and his enthusiasm with us. Many of our customers have met Jason and know how dedicated he is.

Uncategorized - 07/07/2023

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