NAD T 778
Focal
NAD T 778
iFi Audio
iFi Audio

Integrating a hi-fi system into a multipurpose living space can be complicated by all the wiring needed to connect the various components. This is particularly true of speaker cables, especially if they have to cross an open area of the room. Even if they aren’t tripping hazards, they’re unsightly.

On a Friday morning, two years ago this month, an unexpected e-mail from SoundStage! publisher Doug Schneider appeared in my inbox. I say “unexpected” because, at the time, I barely knew Doug. We’d met a few times at such audio events as CEDIA and the Consumer Electronics Show, and I knew Doug by reputation, having been a regular reader of SoundStage! publications since the Network’s launch, in 1995. We arranged to chat by phone.

If you want to establish a new audio brand, where do you start? That was the question faced by Andover Audio, a Boston-area company founded in 2012 by ex-employees of Cambridge SoundWorks, when they decided to offer products under their own brand.

The American brand Audio Alchemy was founded in the 1980s and folded a decade later. It re-emerged in the early 2000s, and was purchased by Elac in 2016, where it has undergone a renaissance. Audio Alchemy founder Peter Madnick now acts as a consulting engineer for Elac, and is responsible for developing Elac’s Alchemy series of electronic components, now in their second generation.

In the two years I’ve been writing for SoundStage! Simplifi I’ve reviewed 15 stereo loudspeakers, all of them active or powered models. There’s a practical reason for this. I don’t have a dedicated music room, and our living room isn’t big enough to accommodate a conventional audio system of separate components: sources, amplifiers, and passive speakers. So the music systems in our current home have been built around active speakers -- first, Dynaudio’s Focus 200 XD, which, following a firmware update, is sonically and functionally identical to the newer Focus 20 XD ($5999/pair, all prices USD); and, later, Elac’s Navis ARF-51 ($4599.98/pair).

Reviewers' ChoiceIn the past few years, the French speaker maker Focal has had an amazing run on SoundStage!. Reviewed by Diego Estan on SoundStage! Access, the Chora 806 ($990/pair, all prices USD) received a Reviewers’ Choice award, and was later designated a Recommended Reference Component. The same honors were bestowed on Focal’s Stellia headphones ($2990), reviewed by Brent Butterworth on SoundStage! Solo; and on the Spectral 40th floorstanding speakers ($9990/pair) and Sopra No1 minimonitors ($9990/pair), both reviewed by Diego for SoundStage! Hi-Fi. The Spectral 40th was also named a SoundStage! Network 2019 Product of the Year in the Hall of Fame category. That’s a mighty impressive record.

When I reviewed Elac’s Navis ARF-51 active floorstanding speakers ($4599.96/pair, all prices USD) in September 2019, I rediscovered something I’d been missing for the previous six years: kick-ass bass.

When computer audio took off, a decade ago, many hobbyists opted to use active studio monitors, rather than the usual amplifier and passive speakers. It’s not hard to see why. Especially for desktop audio, where space is at a premium, speakers with built-in amps are convenient.

Do you need a powerhouse computer just to play music? Not everyone does -- I use a nine-year-old, mid-tier Apple Mac Mini, and it does just fine. I’ve modified it for music playback, swapping out its spinning hard-disk drive for a solid-state drive (SSD), and bumping up its RAM from 4 to 16GB, so that music plays from memory rather than storage.

Can an audio component be more than the sum of its parts? Bryston’s new BDA-3.14 streaming DAC-preamp ($4195, all prices USD) invites that question. Essentially, it combines two products on one chassis: the acclaimed BDA-3 DAC ($3795) and a network streamer based on the BDP-Pi ($1495). The BDP-Pi derives its name from the Raspberry Pi single-board computer at its core. Hence the model number of the new integrated product -- 3.14 is an approximation of the mathematical constant pi (π), denoting the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

Many of the products I’ve recently reviewed for Simplifi have been DACs with built-in streamers -- most recently, Bryston’s BDA-3.14 ($4195, all prices USD) and iFi Audio’s Pro iDSD ($2749); and, before that, NAD’s Classic C 658 ($1649), Lumin’s T2 ($4500), and Naim Audio’s ND5 XS 2 ($3495).

In my last three columns, I wrote about how streaming is changing the ways people discover and experience music. In my January feature, “The State of Streaming,” I looked at streaming services that deliver lossless CD-resolution and high-resolution music. In “The Name Game,” published February 1, I wrote about how streaming has given rise to whole new classes of audio components, and set out to establish some definitions. And in my March feature, “Rules of the Game,” I discussed the software protocols that enable these new components to talk to one another, and compared their benefits and drawbacks.

A half-century ago, when I got into audio, most amplifiers had front panels that looked like jet cockpits. And the higher a model was in its manufacturer’s product line, the more knobs and switches it had.

Is there a hobby that’s less domesticated than home theater? Ever since people began connecting their TVs to their stereos in the late 1970s, audio manufacturers have been encouraging them to add more and more speakers -- and it’s gotten a bit crazy.

Reviewers' ChoiceLast November in Warsaw, Poland, at the Audio Video Show 2019, I saw several products that fit Simplifi’s mandate to cover “convenient, lifestyle-oriented hi-fi,” many of which I knew I wanted to get in for review. At the top of the list were two new active loudspeakers from Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries (DALI): the Rubicon 2 C stand-mount ($5799/pair, all prices USD) and the Rubicon 6 C floorstander ($7999/pair). DALI’s passive Rubicon models are just one tier below their flagship Epicon series, so the prospect of reviewing these new active versions was mighty appealing.

In last month’s feature, I looked at the various kinds of components that can make up a Simplifi’d music system. As I noted then, networked music systems include three broad classes of components that traditional hi-fi systems don’t: servers, which send audio data (and metadata) over a home network; streamers, which receive and render that data; and controllers, with which users select music and control its playback.

The audio world knows of Pro-Ject Audio Systems as a major brand of turntables, but this Vienna-based company also makes an extensive line of electronics that lately have been winning all kinds of awards. For the past three years, Pro-Ject has received awards for its turntables and its electronic components from the Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA).

“You want to put those in our living room?” Over the years, words like these have scuttled countless plans for new home-entertainment systems. If the components themselves didn’t push the spouse acceptance factor into the red zone, the cables needed to connect them did.

I sometimes wonder if the name of this site, Simplifi, contradicts its stated mission to cover “convenient, lifestyle-oriented hi-fi,” per the blurb on the SoundStage! Network portal.

At a press event last May at High End 2019, in Munich, a chorus of oohs and aahs rippled through the audience when iFi Audio unveiled, for the first time, its Aurora tabletop music system ($1399, all prices USD). A glance at the photographs accompanying this review make it easy to understand this reaction.

Reviewers' ChoiceWhen Naim Audio introduced a new version of its acclaimed Mu-so wireless music system in May 2019, at Munich’s High End, it seemed inevitable that an updated version of the Mu-so Qb would soon follow. And so it did. In early August Naim announced the Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation ($899, all prices USD), and in late October my review sample arrived.

It’s the start of a new year -- and, depending on your math, the beginning of the 2020s or the end of the 2010s. Do the 2020s officially begin on January 1, 2020, or on January 1, 2021? Whichever, it’s time to look at the top audio trends of the past year and the past decade.

These days, it’s becoming increasingly common for audio manufacturers to offer integrated amplifiers with built-in, high-resolution DACs. For audiophiles who want a low-footprint system to use in real-world living spaces, that’s a very good thing. Add a pair of speakers and a digital source component like a notebook PC or network streamer, and you have most of the world’s music at your fingertips.

Judging by the crowds at Audio Video Show 2019, held Friday-Sunday, November 8-10, in Eastern Europe hi-fi is a family affair. The 23rd edition of the show was held in three venues in central Warsaw, in Poland: the Radisson Blu Sobieski and Golden Tulip hotels, and the PGE Narodowy, or National Stadium.

To my knowledge, in the 24 years of the SoundStage! Network only one product has ever been retroactively granted a Reviewers’ Choice award. That product was the Hegel Music Systems Röst integrated amplifier-DAC, reviewed for Simplifi by Al Griffin in February 2017 -- in fact, the Röst was the first integrated amplifier to be reviewed on this site.

In his coverage of CEDIA Expo 2019 for SoundStage! Global, Brent Butterworth called DALI’s Katch One soundbar ($999, all prices USD) the “product at the CEDIA Expo that I’d most like to have right at this very minute.” I found this surprising -- not because I had any doubts that the Katch One is a fine product, but because there were so many other lustworthy products at this year’s Expo, including several Brent outlined in his four show reports. A few highlights were Revel’s PerformaBe speakers, NAD’s T 778 nine-channel A/V receiver, and MartinLogan’s 40XW in-wall speaker, each of which has 40 driver-units. There were also lustworthy video products, including 4K laser projectors from Epson, JVC, and LG, and Sony’s modular Crystal LED wall display system.

Reviewers' ChoiceIt’s been just over five years since Canada’s Lenbrook Industries Limited launched the Bluesound brand of streaming multiroom products, and many of the decisions Lenbrook made during Bluesound’s formative stages now seem prescient. These include developing the underlying BluOS technology in-house, rather than sourcing it from a third party, and supporting high-resolution playback right from the start.

What would you rather do on a glorious Canadian autumn weekend: Go for a hike in the woods? Do some urban exploring? Listen to great audio equipment in a suburban hotel?

Over the weekend of October 18-20, 3500 people chose the third option, spending hours or days at the second edition of the Toronto Audiofest, held at the Westin Toronto Airport Hotel in Mississauga, Ontario.

Based in Coquitlam, British Columbia, on Canada’s left coast, Kanto Audio has made a name for itself with budget-priced powered stereo speaker systems. These include the YU2 ($219.99/pair, all prices USD), a two-way desktop speaker with USB DAC and 3.5mm stereo analog input; and two bookshelf models, the YU4 ($329.99/pair) and YU6 ($399.99/pair), both featuring Bluetooth connectivity, a built-in phono preamp, a TosLink digital input, and a line-level analog input. The YU4 has a 4” Kevlar woofer and a 1” soft-dome tweeter, driven by a 35Wpc RMS class-D amp; the larger YU6 has a 5.25” woofer and a 50Wpc RMS class-D amp. Kanto’s most ambitious design yet is the Tuk powered minimonitor ($799.99/pair). Inside each rear-ported enclosure is a 5.25” aluminum woofer and a 28 x 45mm Air Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeter.

On the various websites of the SoundStage! Network you’ll find reviews of all kinds of source components -- CD players, streamers, DACs, turntables, cartridges, and phono stages. But to my knowledge, in its 24-year history SoundStage! has reviewed only one smartphone: the LG G7 ThinQ.

  1. Lumin T2 Network Music Player
  2. Naim Audio ND5 XS 2 Network Music Player
  3. Elac Navis ARF-51 Active Loudspeakers
  4. Streaming the Classics
  5. Devialet Phantom Reactor 900 Active Loudspeakers
  6. Play Nice Together -- An Interview with Rob Darling of Roon Labs
  7. PMC result6 Active Loudspeakers
  8. Bowers & Wilkins Formation Duo Active Loudspeakers
  9. Active Voices, Part Three: KEF's Jack Oclee-Brown
  10. Naim Audio Mu-so 2nd Generation Wireless Music System
  11. McIntosh Laboratory MTI100 Integrated Turntable
  12. High End 2019, Simplifi'd
  13. Yamaha WXA-50 MusicCast Streaming Amplifier
  14. NAD Masters M10 BluOS Streaming Integrated Amplifier
  15. Active Voices, Part Two: Axiom Audio's Andrew Welker
  16. Primare SC15 Prisma Streaming DAC-Preamp
  17. Montréal Audio Fest Simplifi'd
  18. Naim Uniti Core CD Ripper/Music Server
  19. Elac Navis ARB-51 Active Loudspeakers
  20. Active Voices, Part One: Elac's Andrew Jones
  21. Bluesound Pulse 2i Wireless Speaker
  22. SVS Prime Wireless Active Speakers
  23. Let's Keep it Simple
  24. Totem Acoustic Kin Play Powered Speakers
  25. A Roon of One's Own
  26. KEF LSX Active Loudspeakers
  27. Bluesound Vault 2i CD Ripper-Server-Streamer
  28. Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra Music Streamer
  29. How I Simplifi'd My Wi-Fi
  30. Kii Audio Three DSP-Controlled Active Loudspeakers
  31. Aurender S5W Battery-Powered Wireless Active Loudspeakers
  32. Are Downloads Dead?
  33. Cambridge Audio Yoyo (L) Wireless Speaker
  34. Hi-Rez Streaming: Tidal vs. Qobuz
  35. DALI Callisto 2 C Active Speaker System
  36. Toronto Audiofest 2018 Simplifi'd
  37. Kanto SYD Bluetooth Speaker
  38. LG G7 ThinQ Smartphone
  39. How I Simplifi'd My Hi-Fi
  40. Pro-Ject Juke Box E Turntable-Integrated Amplifier
  41. Time to Celebrate: Five Years of Google Chromecast
  42. NAD D 3020 V2 Bluetooth Integrated Amplifier-DAC
  43. How Good Can Voice Recognition Get?
  44. Polk Assist Wi-Fi Smart Speaker
  45. Are Smart Speakers Any Good for Audiophiles?
  46. MartinLogan Unison Wireless Preamplifier
  47. High End 2018, Simplifi'd
  48. Dynaudio Music 7 Wi-Fi Speaker
  49. Musical Fidelity M6 Encore 225 Music System
  50. Cocktail Audio X35 Music System
  51. Is the Smart Speaker a Dumb Idea?
  52. Peachtree Audio decco125 Sky Integrated Amplifier-DAC
  53. Technics Ottava f SC-C70 Music System
  54. What's Up with Apple AirPlay 2?
  55. JBL Link 500 Wi-Fi Speaker
  56. The Spotify Dilemma
  57. Trinnov Amethyst DAC-Preamplifier-Processor
  58. Control4 Triad One Streaming Amplifier
  59. Elac Discovery Z3 Wi-Fi Speaker
  60. CES 2018, Simplifi’d
  61. Klipsch Heritage Wireless Three Wi-Fi Speaker
  62. Farewell, CES
  63. Paradigm PW 300 Wi-Fi Loudspeakers
  64. Thiel Audio Aurora Home Wi-Fi Speaker
  65. Room Tunes
  66. Hegel Music Systems H190 DAC-Integrated Amplifier
  67. Social Streaming
  68. Yamaha R-N803 Network Stereo Receiver
  69. Onkyo TX-8270 Network Stereo Receiver
  70. CEDIA 2017, Simplifi’d
  71. Dynaudio Focus 20 XD Active Loudspeakers
  72. Riva Audio Festival Wi-Fi Speaker
  73. Naim Audio Uniti Atom Wireless Streaming DAC-Integrated Amplifier
  74. Classical Prime Time
  75. NAD Masters Series M50.2 Digital Music Player
  76. Bryston BryFi BW-1 Wi-Fi Speaker
  77. The Röst Reconsidered
  78. Arcam rPlay Music Streamer
  79. Auralic Polaris Wireless Streaming DAC-Integrated Amplifier
  80. High End 2017, Simplifi'd
  81. Simaudio Moon Neo ACE DAC-Streamer-Integrated Amplifier
  82. Vinyl: There's an App for That
  83. Metadata: Life with Roon
  84. NAD C 368 DAC-Integrated Amplifier
  85. The Internet and Audio: The Good, the Bad, and the Impossible
  86. Lumin M1 Integrated Amplifier-Network Music Player
  87. Arcam Solo Music DAC-Integrated Amplifier-Universal Player
  88. McIntosh Laboratory RS100 Wi-Fi Loudspeakers
  89. The State of Streaming
  90. Hegel Music Systems Röst Integrated Amplifier
  91. CES 2017, Simplifi'd
  92. Naim Audio Mu-so Qb Wi-Fi Speaker
  93. Why "Simplifi"
  94. Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 2 Wi-Fi Speaker