Connected issue 42 by Russ Andrews

CONNECTED TO MUSIC & MOVIES

NEW Russ Andrews HC-3 headphone cable page 8

Spotlight on ... ABZORBER

page 16

Confessions of a HI-FI MAGAZINE EDITOR

page 22

CUSTOMER SYSTEM

page 10

Plus...

REVIEWS, LETTERS, OPINION

Issue No. 42 Spring 2018

All Torlyte® until 27th July 2016 See page 18

“Sonically, I am treated to a sound that is fast and open with good clarity and sparkle, but importantly without any unpleasant edginess or harshness to the sound.”

Torlyte® Turntable Stand Hi-Fi Choice magazine December 2016

LIGHTWEIGHT

RIGID

CUSTOMISABLE

www.torlyte.com Call UK Orderline 01539 797300 Buy atthewww.russandrews.com Russ online Andrews is sole UK retailer of Kimber Kable International Tel +44 (0)1539 797300 Buy online at

Mail Order Direct • 60 Day Cable Home Trial • Cable Upgrade Scheme • Free Delivery (orders over £100 within UK Mainland) Mail Order Direct • 60 Day Cable Home Trial • Cable Upgrade Scheme • Free Delivery (orders over £100 within UK Mainland)

F IR S T WOR D S Paul Simon's Graceland CD has long been a favourite 'go to' disc for system assessment: musically inspiring and compelling, but deeply disappointing technically for its controlled and compressed studio limitations. It has proved to be a very useful disc over the years to judge system dynamic range and musicality. A real challenge for any system to deliver an open, clean and rhythmic experience. One of, sadly, many such discs I reach for when I want to assess how big an improvement I have made with an upgrade. You know the ones: good content musically, but you struggle to get satisfying sound quality from them. Last weekend, Sue and I visited our old friend Chris in Dundee to enjoy the Six Nations matches together. On the Saturday morning, to subvert any suggestion of a shopping trip, I rummaged through my large and varied collection of music DVDs for something interesting to warm up the projector ready for the afternoon match. I hit upon Paul Simon's Graceland concert in Harare, Zimbabwe from 1986. A recording I had 'lost and forgotten'. Firing up the Oppo and struggling to get the correct 4:3 aspect ratio, we settled back to see what this grainy, washed out film could offer. In short, we were entranced, thrilled and totally riveted by it! This was Graceland as it was meant to be experienced in its African context; live and very, very musical. Freed from the western 'whalebone corset' of

IN THIS ISSUE

Regulars

contents

First Words Welcome News Reviews Letters Competition & Results

3 4 5 24 27 30

Customer System From Inside the Industry

10 22

New Products Russ Andrews CD Players

8 14

Features

Graceland :The African Concert 1986 DVD. Paul Simon. 1980s studio/ record company norms, Simon's music and lyrics communicated directly and viscerally with our emotions. All three of us were frequently in tears (but silently and privately, of course, we are British!) The well known CD is a familiar piece of western music with an interesting African flavour (but not too strongly, we don't want to scare the horses!). This live concert though, was unashamedly African in delivery and emotional impact, but with the familiar Paul Simon signature firmly on it. We weren't actually aware of anything missing in the sound quality by not being an "audiophile " recording. The combination of good filming and world class musicianship from all the performers … leapfrogged the replay system barrier and injected the music into our hearts. Perfect! ■ Russ Andrews Postscript: I have the follow-up documentary Under African Skies on Blu-ray lined up to watch soon… as they say, watch this space.

Products

Spotlight on... AbZorber™ Silencer

16 21

SHM-CD Update Dalton’s Deliberations

18 26

Opinion

SPRING PROMOTIONS AT A GLANCE

OFFERS END 11TH APRIL ’18

20% off AbZorber™ 20% off Select KS-1016 20% off Speaker Zaps 25% off Kimber 4VS & 8VS

SAVE £19.95 on Cleaning Kit FREE SuperFuse

with ANY power cable

Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 3

e welcom

WELCOME

Welcome to the Spring edition of Connected to Music and Movies. We’ve lots to tell you about in this new issue: alongside all the usual customer letters, review updates and news, we have a feature on the AbZorber, the Silencer mains conditioners, and even a peek at the CD players we sold in the early 1990s. Also, we’ve the first in a regular series of opinion pieces from David Price, respected Hi-Fi reviewer and former editor of Hi-Fi World and Hi-Fi Choice magazine; he gets the ball rolling in this issue with an affectionate (!) look back at the trials and tribulations of his role as magazine editor. Don’t say I haven’t warned you… We’ve also given over four pages to this time’s Customer System. It’s a Torlyte and SuperKord tour de force with our very best power cables partnered with a Linn-Naim-PMC set up. Peter and I had a very enjoyable afternoon listening and very good it sounded.

The joy of ownership This time’s Customer System had CD and LP as its primary sources. In conversation, I explained to Ian, its owner, that I had moved away from playing physical CDs, having ripped all of my CDs to computer. Like Ian, I still have an Oppo player for playing DVDs and Blurays, but all of my music is stored on a hard disc, controlled via a tablet or phone. Although I now have a computer-based set-up, I still buy CDs – in fact it’s still my main way of buying music. In many cases I find it’s cheaper to buy a disc and have it sent in the post, then rip it to my hard drive and play the resultant files, than buying and downloading an album directly. I see this as a win-win situation; I save money and I have a physical copy in the form of the

CD, just in case the unthinkable happens and I have a problem with my computer and my back up and I lose all of my computer files. (I do download music – but these are usually Hi-res files, higher than CD quality.) There’s a third benefit – the joy of ownership. Even though my music collection is digital, consisting of ones and zeros on a hard disc, it’s a collection of music I have put together – curated – myself. I can listen whenever I want. My collection is unique to me and each album in it is one I have chosen to be part of my collection. I have a Tidal account and can stream music, but I don’t get the same satisfaction from streaming music through the ‘pipes’ as I do playing my own files. My internet connection is pretty robust, but there’s always the chance of an outage, and if there was I’d have no music to listen to if I relied solely on streaming. Plus, albums that appear on Tidal one day aren’t necessarily there the next; artists and labels can choose to have their music removed at any time. Imagine going to your collection to listen to a favourite and it’s not there… Tidal and Spotify and other streaming sites are good for discovering new music, but if I hear something I like, more often than not I’ll head off and find the CD or download and add it to my ‘physical’ collection. I think I might be in the minority here… or maybe not. I see that streamed music accounted for over 50% of sales of music in 2017, with downloads accounting for a little over 15%. (In contrast, CDs sales accounted for about 30% and vinyl for 3%). But this figure includes everyone listening to music. I wonder what that figure is for us ‘audiophiles’? My suspicion is that us enthusiasts tend to prefer buying CDs, LPs and downloads over streaming. ■ What do you think? Do you agree? Let me know at john.armer@russandrews.com

John Armer, Editor 4 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

NEWS

Visiting us We have a small shop area in our oﬃces in Kendal in the Lake District and you are very welcome to visit. We have a range of our products available for you to look at and buy – but be aware that some products are made to order so do phone to check availability before making a special journey. We also have our ever-changing range of pre-owned and warehouse clearance products available – many customers find that it's the ideal way to pick up a bargain as not all of the items in the shop are on the clearance section of the website!

news

Easter opening times and May Bank Holidays Please note that our phone lines for advice and to place orders are closed for Easter on Good Friday, 31st March and Easter Monday, 2nd April. We will also be closed on the following Bank Holiday Mondays in May: 7th May and 28th May. Our normal opening hours are MondayFriday 9am – 5pm except Bank Holidays. Call us on 01539 797300 (+44 1539 797300 from outside UK).

Using ReVeel® on 4K discs Power Products catalogue Want to see the range of Russ Andrews power products that are available? Don't forget to request one of our Power Catalogues. It focusses on the complete power range, from power cables to extensions, conditioners, plugs, connectors and balanced mains units – in fact almost everything we oﬀer that's power-related. If you would like a copy or would like to pass one on to a friend, give us a call on 01539 797300 and we'll pop one in the post for you.

Prompted by a customer query, we've been testing our ReVeel optical disc wipes on 4K discs and assessing its eﬀectiveness when they are played via our Oppo 203 4K disc player. We're happy to report that ReVeel works – and it works very well when applied to a range of 4K discs used. Highly recommended!

ReVeel® Code: 5414 optical disc cleaner/enhancer

£14.50 for box of 20 sachets will clean up to 100 discs

Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 5

news

NEWS

Custom TorlyteÂŽ Torlyte features extensively in this times' Customer System (see p10) and it's worth knowing that the AV rack featured is of slightly diďŹ&#x20AC;erent dimensions to the standard rack size. Since all Torlyte is hand made for us, it is relatively straight-forward to have it made in specific sizes to suit your particular set-up. Torlyte racks, platforms and Speaker Plats can be made in custom-sizes. Equipment racks and the AV Rack can be made wider and deeper (or narrower and shallower); Platforms can be made in just about any size you require, as can our Torlyte Speaker Plats for floor-standing speakers. The height of the Torlyte board itself is fixed and cannot be made thicker or thinner. Custom Torlyte is subject to a 10% surcharge and is supplied in approximately 6-8 weeks. If you are interested in having some Torlyte made to your specific requirements, please contact us. Please note that our 60 Day Money Back Guarantee does not apply to custom made products.

Contact details: Email: info@russandrews.com Phone: 01539 797300

Torlyte AV Rack

6 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

Torlyte Equipment Rack

NEWS

news

Match your Rupert Neve headphone amp with the Supplier DC Our Supplier DC power supply is now available in the correct voltage and plug size to match the superb Rupert Neve Headphone amp. Our separate stand-alone power supplies have benefitted from upgrades in the last year and the Supplier is now our best performing DC supply. It incorporates a host of technologies including an intelligent switch-mode design which is suitable for all worldwide voltages and our Silencer mains filter with SuperClamp spike protection. Six models with diﬀerent output voltages are available; the version for the Rupert Neve headphone amp outputs 24V DC. The Supplier is fitted in a UL-approved case and a secure XLR-output socket connects the woven Kimber link cable to the headphone amp. We don't include a mains cable with The Supplier – it is fitted with an IEC socket to allow you to connect your choice of power cable – though we recommend choosing our YellO Power cable – or better.

The Supplier DC Code: 1956 for Rupert Neve Headphone amp 24V DC £461 includes 1m DC link cable Dimensions: W 150mm x H 53mm x D 210mm. 2 year warranty

See all our Russ Andrews Power Supplies at www.russandrews.com/powersupplies or call 01539 797300 to request a copy of our FREE Power Products Catalogue and browse our entire range of exclusive Russ Andrews power products. Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 7

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NEW PRODUCTS

3.5mm or ¼” (6.35mm) jack Four braided KIMBER KABLE copper conductors

New HC-3 headphone cable

High performance plugs connect to Sennheiser earpieces

We’ve long been fans of Sennheiser’s superb HD 600 and HD 650 headphones and we were intrigued to hear that Sennheiser have launched a new model – the HD 660 S. These headphones feature a new transducer, and Sennheiser state that they offer reference-class fidelity from portable and mobile players as well as from a dedicated headphone setup. The older 600 and 650 models had reputation for needing a decent headphone amp to drive them, so it’s good news if these new headphones can be driven from a wider variety of sources. For quite a few years we’ve offered a Russ Andrewsbrand aftermarket cable for the Sennheiser HD 600 and the HD 650 – the Russ Andrews HC-2 headphone cable, made with Kimber Kable. The

headphone cable is detachable and uses a particular type of plug to connect the cable to the earpieces; the new HD 660S headphones use the same type of plug which means that our cable fits this model too.

We’ve also taken the opportunity to update the design of the headphone cable. The new HC-3 is compatible with the HD 600, HD 650 and HD 660 S headphones. It uses a different type of woven Kimber Kable in its construction than the HC-2; it is slightly thinner, meaning it’s more flexible, lighter and has a softer insulation, making it quieter in use. We use high performance plugs to connect to the headphones; at the other end we offer a 3.5mm stereo mini plug or the larger ¼” (6.35mm) jack.

Where does it fit in the range?

In our opinion, the HC-3 headphone cable offers a clear upgrade on the standard, out-of-the-box headphone cable and represents superb value for money. If you are looking for the very best performance choose the Kimber AXIOS cables: made with either copper, copper-silver or all silver, the AXIOS cables all feature a unique woven design with a seamless transition to the two tails which maintain the woven design. Visit www.russandrews.com/axios for more information. 8 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

Twisted tails

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

WARRANT Y

25 YEAR WARRANTY

Russ Andrews HC-3 headphone cable Code:5755 1.0m 1.5m 2.0m 3.0m 4.0m 5.0m

£149.00 £159.00 £169.00 £189.00 £209.00 £229.00

neduwcts

NEW PRODUCTS

pro

New

Male IEC to Fig 8 Adaptor

Made with high performance woven Kimber Kable and a compact figure 8 plug, the Male IEC to figure 8 adaptor enables an effective connection where space is tight. It is ideal for equipment with recessed figure-8 sockets or where the space around the figure 8 socket is restricted, meaning that in normal use it is impossible to use the PowerKords with WattGate figure 8 plugs or our standard figure 8 adaptor. The cable on the adaptor is flexible and allows you to position the Male IEC plug for easy connection to any of our standard IEC PowerKords.

New 3-Way Chassis Ground Banana Adaptor 4mm eyelet for Our Chassis Ground banana adaptor used for connecting Technical Ground Weave to your equipment casework is now available in a three-way version for connecting more than one component to an item of equipment. The 3-way adaptor would be used when connecting, for example, multiple sources to your 'hub' when following Russ's grounding guide.

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

WARRANT Y

25 YEAR WARRANTY

Code: 1923

Male IEC to Fig. 8 Adaptor £69.00

Overall length 200mm

connecting to your casework

3 x 4mm banana sockets

See www.russandrews.com/grounding

New ESD Brush Kit

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

Code: 3198

3 way Chassis Ground Banana Adaptor End to end length approx. 100mm

These ESD brushes are great for cleaning equipment. Unlike traditional brushes, in use they won’t generate static with can in turn attract dirt and dust - precisely what you are trying to avoid! Use for removing dust around sockets before applying DeoxIT contact enhancer, or for cleaning CD drawers before applying ReleeS – or generally keeping equipment casework clean.

WARRANT Y

25 YEAR WARRANTY

£36.00

Soft and gentle bristles made from staticdissipative nylon fibres Code: 4330 2 brush sizes - 45mm and 15mm wide

ESD Brush Kit £22.00 Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 9

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CUSTOMER SYSTEM

PMC speakers either side of Sony TV

Russ Andrews customer Ian from County Durham started on his system’s upgrade path with us about ten years ago. Over that time he has been able to get a really pure mains supply for his Naim system – using our Ian upgrade scheme to work his way up to using our very best power cables. Ian also uses our Torlyte equipment racks, and Kimber speaker cables and interconnects. I knew from talking to him over the years that this was a wellsorted system so we arranged a visit, and Pete and I travelled over the Pennines one wintry February day to meet Ian and his wife Shirley, and to have a listen to their system, writes John Armer. Ian uses Naim amplification, partnered with a Linn LP12 turntable, a Naim CD player and PMC speakers. The Hi-Fi system is on our Torlyte equipment rack at the back of the room; a Torlyte AV rack sits between the speakers at the front of the room housing the AV kit – Blu-ray Disc player, set top boxes and TV screen. This is a two-channel system that’s set up primarily for playing music, but, as we shall see, great care has been taken on 10 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

the visual side of the set-up too. The Naim set-up was preceded by a variety of systems. The first, Ian told me, was a Philips 312 turntable with Alba amp and Wharfedale Glendale speakers in the late 1970s / early 1980s. This gave way to a Rega Planar 3 turntable, Arcam A60 amp and Heybrook HB2 speakers – "our first proper system" Ian said. The Naim system followed, initially feeding Naim's SBL loudspeakers. "As I upgraded my system's cables" Ian told me, "the Naims got rather 'shouty'. I replaced them with the PMC Twenty.24 floorstanders and I'm much happier with them. Incidentally, I once auditioned some Celestions (the ones with the Aerolam cabinets). They were more detailed and I was initially impressed, but after just a few minutes I found myself looking around the room and not listening. They just didn't engage me; and that's what I look for in any component I audition – to draw me in to the music." Ian’s CD player is a Naim CD5 XS used with FlatCap XS power supply. An LP12 is used for spinning vinyl; it is fitted with an Ekos arm and Ortofon Cadenza Red cartridge. Of the turntable Ian told me "I got my LP12 new in June 1992 and bought it together with an Armageddon power supply so the on/off switch is deactivated. Except for

CUSTOMER SYSTEM

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servicing and occasional replacement of springs, grommets and belts etc. it is still box-standard. Linn went into a frenzy of updates after buying it, with the Trampolin and such, which I avoided. Later, people said that all the subsequent 'improvements' resulted in a more digital sound. More CD-like. No thank you, I quite like the sound of vinyl being different." The LP12 connects to one of Naim's Stageline phono stages. Naim’s NAC 202 preamp provides control (used with the HiCap power supply) and Naim NAP 250 power amp provides the muscle. As well as CD and turntable, the home cinema sourcecomponents are also connected to the preamp so that TV sound plays through the PMCs that sit either side of the 46” Sony screen: An Oppo-103 universal player is used for DVDs and Blu-rays, and

Ian uses Naim amplification, partnered with an LP12 turntable, a Naim CD player and PMC speakers. one of our Russ Andrews-upgraded Humax HDR Freesat boxes is used for TV. A Technomate digital satellite receiver is used with a separate satellite dish for picking up European TV programmes, and a Pioneer HDD/ DVD recorder is used for burning recordings to DVD.

Torlyte equipment rack at the back of the room houses the Naim electronics along with our PowerPurifier.

Ian uses two of our X6-Block mains extensions: one behind his TV and one behind his Naim equipment rack. It’s clear he’s a fan of our SuperKords… all six outlets of the X6 behind his Naim system have a SuperKord plugged into them! A SuperKord-300 powers the Armageddon turntable power supply, and five SuperKord-500s power the CD player, FlatCap, HiCap, power amp and our PowerPurifier mains conditioner that sits on the Torlyte rack next to the HiCap. Ian believes that the power cable feeding the PowerPurifier is crucial to its performance and has fitted the best cable he possibly could. A Clarity-8 conditioner completes the purification duties and SuperSockets and UltraSockets enable connection to his living room’s ring main. X6-Block with SuperKords powering the system Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 11

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CUSTOMER SYSTEM

Over on the other side of the room, a similar set-up is used for the TV system. While a PowerKord-100 supplies the DVD recorder, a SuperKord-100 is used for the Technomate digital satellite box; a SuperKord-300 for the Humax box and three SuperKord-500s for the TV, Oppo Blu-ray player and for a second Power Purifier. A Clarity-4 power conditioner sits alongside the PowerPurifier and everything connects to the wall via an X-6 Block and our UltraSocket. Clearly Ian has really worked hard to create a clean mains for his system, but what of his interconnects and speaker cables? Kimber 8TC is used to connect the speakers – a longish, 9.5m pair is used with the Naim amp and, along with Kimber 8TC jumper cables, works really well. Some older Naim amps have a reputation for not liking long speaker cables, but Ian has had no issues here and everything is working beautifully. By his own admission, Ian has tweaked the turntable less than the CD player; the Linn’s original tone arm cable is being used whereas the CD player has benefitted from one of Kimber’s Hero Interconnects. The original Naim interconnects are being used between preamp, HiCap and power amp and I feel an upgrade to these cables

Kimber 8TC speaker cable with 8TC jumpers, both with Super Burn-in.

PowerKord-500 and UltraSocket 12 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

SuperKord-500s connecting the electronics

could well be in the offing in the future (in a Naim system, the signal is routed from the preamp via the power supply and onto the power amp. We can make Kimber PBJ, Silver Streak and KCAG interconnect cables in the correct configuration and with the correct DIN plugs). Good quality but non-Kimber analogue interconnects are used in long lengths to connect the video sources to the preamp and three HD-19 HDMI cables connect the sources to the TV screen. After having taken in the system, we settled down to have a listen. Ian’s music collection ranges from the popular – Genesis, David Gilmour, Marillion, movie soundtracks, to the more unusual – Philip Glass, Yoshida Brothers… and everything in between. We started with the CD soundtrack to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and it was immediately apparent that this was an open and transparent system. It sounded light and airy. Undoubtedly thanks to the well-sorted mains, the system itself was very quiet with no transformer noise to speak of. The sound was dynamic, and even when played comparatively softly, it was clear that there was

CUSTOMER SYSTEM

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plenty of muscularity with palpable weight in the bass. We stayed about three hours, listening to a range of music; for me The Art of Noise’s The Seduction of Claude Debussy was a highlight – the system’s effortless reproduction of rhythm and timing made sense of the atmospheric drum and bass and electronica that could have been just a noise on a lesser system. We finished our listening with a quick taster of what an interconnect upgrade could sound like. Ian had asked us to bring along a Kimber interconnect to try in place of his Hero-Cu that connected the CD player to the preamp. We brought a selection with us, but Ian opted to try the all-silver Kimber KCAG, and the

PowerPurifier (left) sits next to Naim HiCap power supply. The NAP 250 power amp is on the bottom shelf of the Torlyte Rack.

Linn LP12 turntable on Torlyte Turntable Stand

copper Select KS-1016. I was interested to hear what these very different cables would do in his system. Ian chose three discs and we listened to a track from each with the KCAG in place, then the same three tracks with the KS-1016. It was clear from the off that Ian liked the KCAG; it sounded fuller, richer, and there was more information. Ian liked it but his wife Shirley encouraged him to listen to the KS-1016. That was even better, sounding more natural: “you can hear Imogen Heap breathing as she sings” said Shirley. Ian has a birthday coming up and, although we took our KS-1016 back with us, I feel that it might just be returning to his system sometime soon. ■ JA

Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 13

Spotlight on...

UPGRADED CD PLAYERS CDs are dead? Long Live the CD! So wrote was immediately obvious that the theory was right. For the first time from CD I heard timing Russ back in his First Words in Connected and rhythm information which was much closer issue 35. Russ has long been a fan of CD to that which we had come to expect from vinyl. as a medium for storing and playing back Three-dimensional and low level ambient recorded music… something that dates information was actually there recorded on the back to the early 1990s when he finally little silver disc.” realised that he could get more musical Following a period of R&D, enjoyment and better Russ launched his own CD ‘it’s testament to the player, based on these dynamics from CD than he Pioneer LaserDisc players. performance of the could from LP. John Armer These weren’t simply Pioneer that until the rebadged investigates the Russ Pioneers, but Andrews CD players sold in Meridian player came benefitted from extensive the 1990s. upgrades to both the power along, no CD player supply and post DAC So what lead Russ to believe tested could equal it, circuitry. Superior voltage that CD could, after all, sound so let alone sound better.’ regulation was introduced good? It came from the most and the new analogue unlikely of sources: a Pioneer circuits and regulators resided on their own LaserDisc player. As well as playing the LaserDisc circuit board in the casework. Writing at the time, format, the LaserDisc players were also able to Russ felt that “the result was a one box player at play conventional CD, and rather well at that: US magazine Stereophile were impressed enough to moderate cost after all the upgrades which gave a performance from CD which rivalled vinyl LP include a favourable review. The LaserDisc performance, sounding musical and with real players were not primarily CD players of course, rhythm and timing”. and that was their advantage; they were designed to play 12” video LaserDiscs, weighing twice as much as a vinyl LP rotating at 2000RPM. Playing comparatively-lightweight CDs at just 450RPM was hardly a demanding task. The theory was that this over-engineered transport (in terms of playing CD) meant that it could provide a degree of control and stability far beyond the capabilities of most CD-only players. When Russ first listened to one, he remarked “It

14 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

The players were launched in our 1993 catalogue and were initially available in two versions, based on the Pioneer CLD-1750 LaserDisc player: the RATA Reference Upgrade with Russ Andrews PowerKord, Vishay resistors, Kimber copper TC wiring and glass epoxy PCB, and the RATA Excel Upgrade with better Vishay resistors, Kimber silver AG wiring and a teflon PCB.

“… this is a real tweak product, being an extensively modified Pioneer CLD-1750, and I don’t think Laurie Anderson’s Strange Angels has ever sounded more ‘right’ overall. The party intro to Beautiful Red Dress took on a magically natural quality, with a sweetness, delicacy and lack of ‘digital grain’…” Paul Messenger, HiFi Choice magazine December 1994

Russ continued with the development of the players: the RATA Excel Plus had a custom-wound 500VA mains transformer housed in a separate box and connected by umbilical cables, and the RATA Pro-CD with a larger transformer and additional electronics which necessitated the re-housing of the player into new, larger casework. This is the CD

player that both Russ and his friend Chris used up until it was eventually replaced in 2009 by the £10,000 Meridian 808.2i CD player, and it’s testament to the performance of the Pioneer that until the Meridian player came along, no CD player tested could equal it, let alone sound better. ■

Features

Want some of that?

All of the LaserDisc players offer:

We have a small number of refurbished Pioneer LaserDisc players, some with Russ Andrews upgrades, available for purchase. These are second hand players, but they have been fully serviced and capable of giving good and – in the case of the upgraded versions – great performance.

•

Dual system: plays both PAL- and NTSC-system laser discs

•

All-disc capability: compatible for 30cm and 20cm laser discs (CAV/CLV) and CD, including 8cm ‘singles’ and any 12cm CDV.

Picture and sound:

• 440-Line (PAL) horizontal resolution • Multibit DAC (1450 model) 1-Bit DAC (1750 and

What’s available? Contact us for a sales sheet, or visit www.russandrews.com/laserdisc

1950 models) Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 15

ABZORBER™ Spotlight on...

We’ve featured the AbZorber™ a number of times before in the pages of Connected but it still seems to carry an air of mystery about it, being one of those products that we are regularly asked about. Is it a mains filter? Or is it a spike/surge protection device? Well, it’s both – in a way. Simon Dalton explains.

What are spikes and surges? A spike is a very brief over-voltage 'event' ranging from a few tens of volts above the highest legal peak voltage (360V for 230V), up to several thousand volts. They are typically under 1 millisecond in duration, are very common and often (though not always) the energy involved is small. Longer duration events are called surges and have the potential to do more damage, but mercifully these are less common (sometimes both terms are used to simply describe spikes but this is not technically accurate). Spikes are caused by things such as lightning strikes, power outages, tripped circuit breakers, fluorescent lights, refrigerators and washing machines switching on and oﬀ. The quality and severity of spike activity varies during the day, and from day to day. Even with well-designed equipment, spikes or transients – if regular – can and will prematurely stress and wear out critical mains-connected parts and their insulation.

In our opinion, high voltage spikes can also cause audible degradation of Hi-Fi sound by their eﬀect on a Hi-Fi system's power supply and by raising the background noise level in amplification circuits. The spikes saturate the core of the mains transformer, preventing normal transformer operation during the period of each spike and causing distortion to the waveform. Mains spikes reduce the capacity of the power supply by 'strangling' the transformer operation producing subjective eﬀects on an amplifier like softened bass and increased high frequency distortion.

Our SuperClamp and MegaClamp devices are designed specifically to ‘grab’ these voltage surges as they hit above approx 340V – and a very effective job they do too! The only trouble is that they cannot work on the effects of this spike activity within the normal 240V mains supply as this would have a negative effect, clamping the normal voltage rather than just the spikes and surges. This means that spike activity still remains within this normal voltage.

Enter the AbZorber Ben Duncan spent many hours researching this issue, convinced there must be some solution to the problem. We are not aware of any other product on the market which is able to achieve this, but Ben succeeded and the AbZorber components do indeed work within the normal mains voltages up to 240V, ‘mopping up’ these residual eﬀects of spike activity. For best results, plug in the AbZorber as close to your system as possible – a spare socket in the mains extension that powers your Hi-Fi system is ideal. The AbZorber can be used with Hi-Fi and Home Cinema systems of all levels.

Add a mains cable such as the Yello Power for £60 16 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

By using this technology to clean up your mains, the eﬀect can be surprisingly good. Overall musicality is improved with a more natural reproduction of the music and ambient acoustics and, more specifically, the sound is cleaner and clearer with more musical bass, smoother midrange, sweeter treble and a more detailed presentation.

Passive, parallel design simply needs to be plugged in close to your system

Dimensions: 226mm x 68mm x 243mm WHD

Made with impact and fire resistant UL94 ABS casework for your peace of mind.

10A IEC socket input for your choice of power cable

Gloss black fascia with green status indicator

Is it worth using more than one AbZorber? Like many of our filters, the AbZorber is designed to be used as a stand-alone filter, in combination with our other filters or in multiples. We have one customer who owns six AbZorbers, three for use with his Hi-Fi and three for use in his Home Cinema system! The reason for this is simply because as he added each one there were clear improvements to be heard. Our advice would generally be to combine the AbZorber with other models of filter first before purchasing multiple AbZorbers, simply because you are more likely to gain bigger benefits by addressing more issues - fit an AbZorber and a PowerPurifier, for example, and you will create a really pure mains supply. If you’ve already done this, though, we would definitely say it is worthwhile adding another unit, using our 60-Day Money-Back Guarantee to test its eﬀectiveness.

Voltage/ frequency input: 100-250V 50/60Hz. Suitable for all worldwide voltages.

The AbZorber™ was reviewed in Hi-Fi World magazine in March 2013 by Paul Rigby. Testing the product, Paul observes that the eﬀect is immediate: "your favourite records ... suddenly benefit from a lowering of the noise floor." Listening to the track Fog over Frisco by Yo La Tengo, he noticed how, without the AbZorber in place, the twangy guitar was far too dominant, whereas with the filter in place "bass heft was enhanced and was fully formed while the previously invasive twangy guitar was appreciably calmed". Again, moving onto Handel's Sinfonia he observes that, without the AbZorber, "the delivery is a sonic mess as each instrument falls over each other". Plug it in and distortion is removed, allowing "the edges of detail to be present and correct". Here is a good lesson in the importance of listening rather than judging the sound performance of a product on the way it looks; in summing up, Paul states that the AbZorber "is a simple piece of technology in appearance ... but it works hard to remove deleterious noise, improving all aspects of the musical spectrum".

20% OFF AbZorber™ Until 11th April 2018

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£689.00 £137.80 with 1m YellO Power cable The AbZorber, right, is pictured here alongside our PowerPurifier. It’s half-width casework means it will sit comfortably on a Hi-Fi shelf.

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SAVE 20% NOW £128.00 £512.00 £551.20

Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 17

SHM-CD and Enhanced CDs The subject of the last Dalton's Deliberations in issue 41 spurred a number of readers to get in touch with their own experiences of SHM-CDs – and indeed other 'enhanced format' CDs. Simon Dalton assesses the correspondence he received.

What are SHM-CDs?

SHM-CD stands for 'Super High Material CD'. SHM-CDs are playable on standard CD players but use additional technology (including a diﬀerent polycarbonate material) that is said to make them sound better than standard CDs. They're not easy to find though – in many cases you'll need to import the discs from Japan. One of the diﬃculties of my own assessment of these discs was that I had limited experience of listening to them, but following my column in the last issue of Connected, however, I received lots of letters from readers who had listened and compared far more than I had. Ray wrote to me to say he’d been intrigued by the article so decided to try an SHM-CD for himself; “It was Queen A Day At The Races and it cost me £45.64! The most expensive CD I have ever bought! It wasn't my first choice album but the others were out of stock. In my CD collection I have 2 SACDs 18 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John and another one by the singer Vanessa Fernandez. I have to say that in terms of sound quality it is superior to both SACDs. In fact I would probably say it is the best sound quality CD that I have. The SHM-CD results in more clarity, depth and definition of sound, bringing the listener ever closer to the music of the original master.” Milt Ingarfield concurs. He owns a number of these discs but there was one in particular he was taken by: “One of my recently acquired discs in this format is the Iggy Pop album from 1977 Lust for Life which I have owned since the recording came out on vinyl over 40 years ago, so I know the album really well. The record had a really aggressive sound on the opening title track. In 1990 this album was released on CD and, being an Iggy Pop and David Bowie fan since the age of 14, I hot-footed it to my local music store to buy a copy. Imagine my horror when I got home and the version on CD sounded so bad, all the details such as percussion, throbbing bass and backing vocals from Bowie harmonising with Iggy were almost drowned. So the CD was on the shelf for years without being played and then earlier this year, while trawling e-bay for SHM-CDs, I found a copy of Lust for Life for £20 from Japan, so I took the gamble and pressed the ‘buy it

now’ button. Oh joy! gone was the cold metallic sound of the 1990 CD pressing and in its place was a warmer sound with the throbbing bass back which now also had a pleasing reverb sound, and the drum kit had so many details that had been lost. I could hear so much more; crashing cymbals, hand claps which now had an echo on them and the call-answer chorus of Lust for Life had a greater sound of emergency.” Paul Sutcliﬀe is another customer who has experience of SHM-CD: “I have many CDs and can compare the original Japanese CD with the SHM version, and it‘s like a camera lens bringing the sound into focus, SHM-CDs sound more analogue as well! There are some more expensive ones called Platinum SHM, which usually have had albums released with diﬀerent mastering in Japan, some good, some not as good they usually say DSD mastering from flat analogue master, HR cutting. One example is Dire Straits‘ first album. I have the German remaster, the SHM version of this (the Platinum version, the non Platinum version - same mastering) and the SHM SACD! The last three versions use the DSD remaster; which do I prefer?! Well in most respects the original 24bit SHM remaster; it sounds

really good. The SACD is also one of the best that I’ve heard, and the platinum is quite bright, more detailed than non-platinum DSD version (some older players may not play platinum SHM-CDs, I have never had any issue; if it plays a CD-R it will play it). My Hi-Fi ears on the platinum versions detect a "sound" difficult to describe, but I believe its something in the DSD mastering process. I have Supertramp’s Breakfast in America on standard SHM original 24bit remaster and it blows away the platinum to the dust! That sounds really dull with missing top-end detail - something gone wrong somewhere!” As is often the case with these things, though, nothing is ever quite so straightforward. Paul, above, alluded to the issue a couple of times in his letter. The problem is mastering. Comparisons between the formats are valid only so long as all other things are equal. But, as Paul Thompson points out, that’s not always the case: “For rock CDs, unless it’s a brand new release or worldwide reissue such as the recent Sgt Pepper, quite often the Japanese remastered the CDs at the same time as issuing them on SHM-CD. This makes deciding what difference SHM-CD can make difficult. If you prefer the SHM-CD is this because of the remaster, the SHM, or both? A few years ago I bought David Bowie’s Low - 30th anniversary edition CD. Out of curiosity I then bought the SHM-CD. This sounded freer and sounded more dynamic, even though when I measured it it wasn’t. The sound quality

improvement was fairly small but still significant. Impressed by this I bought the SHM-CDs of David’s Heroes & Scary Monsters but couldn’t hear any diﬀerence between these and the standard 30th anniversary CDs.

One SACD (Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs) is mastered by Shawn R. Britton at Mobile Fidelity. The other SACD (Universal) is mastered by Darcy Proper at Sony. The DVDAudio disc has the same mastering carried out at Sony.

A while later I bought the now expensive secondhand RCA CDs (these have been written about in earlier issues of your magazine) and these were FAR better than the discs I owned.

The Mobile Fidelity SACD is my preferred high resolution version, but I do think that the SHM-CD has greater clarity. It wasn't cheap, however, I think I paid about £60? I probably paid less for the SACD about £30.

My conclusions drawn from this experience are that SHM-CD can oﬀer a slight improvement to CD playback but the most important thing is to get the master that best suits your ears.”

“Comparisons between the formats are valid only so long as all other things are equal. But, that’s not always the case.” George McCoach had some similar thoughts about the significance of mastering in comparing formats. His view is that SHM-CDs do sound superior. He writes: “One in particular stands out Marvin Gaye Let's Get It On: Deluxe Edition (UICY-94039). The booklet indicates that it was mastered by Kevin Reeves at Universal Mastering. The same information can be found in the booklet accompanying the 2001 UK 2CD set (440 014 757-2), so the mastering would appear to be the same. The Japanese SHM-CD, in my opinion, sounds far superior with much greater clarity. I also have 2 SACDs of Let's Get It On and a DVD-Audio disc. These are diﬀerent masterings, however.

I have SHM-CDs by Steely Dan, Norah Jones and Buﬀalo Springfield and they all seem to possess greater clarity than ordinary CDs. I also have one Platinum SHM-SACD, Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells A Story, and it blows away any other version that I have. Once again, not cheap, and many (most?) people would be astonished that I paid over £50 for this when the ordinary CD is available for £5.99.”

Formats Galore

This is starting to get complicated: as well as mastering, we now need to compare CD, SACD, SHM-CD, Platinum SHM-CD, DVD Audio… and that’s before we even get to high res files. But don’t think it ends there; oh no. Here’s George again: “There is another Japanese CD format - Blu-spec CD. This is a Sony development and the releases that I possess involve artists such as Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, The Byrds etc. Once again, in my opinion, these oﬀer superior sound to the ‘normal’ CDs, but they are also expensive. Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 19

SHM-CD update cont. Blu-spec CD, to me, sounds superior to the Sony SACD released in 2003. I will add, however, that my Steve Hoﬀman 1990s remaster on DCC Compact Classics Gold Disc (GZS 1021) is my preferred version of this record.” And there’s more. Milt Ingarfield expands: “Blu-spec CD2 is Sony's answer to SHM-CD. This disc, as the name suggests, is made from the same materials as a Blu-ray and is encoded with a blue laser rather the usual red which makes playback (on a standard CD player) even more accurate than SHM-CD, according to Sony's blurb. I have several of these discs in the format as well, allowing me to compare them with albums which I have on standard CD such as Sade’s Diamond Life (remastered and pressed in 2000, and which I thought sounded so much better than the original CD). Then I heard the Blu-spec CD2 version which is a revelation with details not evident on the 2000 remaster, a warmth about the sound, the lead vocal gave an even better feel of the performance and musicianship of Sade’s backing band - a pleasure to listen to.” George McCoach emailed me back with more details of another format - I think I need a drink! ”HDCD, on the other hand, isn't Japanese. HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) was developed by Pacific Microsonics in the mid 1990s. It claimed to provide higher

20 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

definition audio, if you possessed a player that could decode the information on the discs. Warner used HDCD for many of its 1990s remasters - Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne etc. MCA Nashville also used HDCD for many late 1990s releases by Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill etc. HDCD was purchased by Microsoft, but they seemed to lose interest about a decade ago. The release of HDCDs certainly dried up around the time that Microsoft purchased the technology and it's rare to see it on any newer releases. HDCDs were never more expensive and you can pick up Joni Mitchell and Neil Young HDCD discs quite cheaply in HMV and from Amazon. Unfortunately, you do require a player that can decode the HDCD information to hear any benefits. It is my opinion, however, that listening to an HDCD on my Oppo BDP-105, via a Kimber KS-1130 cable with Super Burn-in, to the balanced inputs of my Moon 340i amplifier often gives a superior listening experience.”

So there’s an irony; after all these ‘super’ formats, we end up back at one of the early ones! There’s still further to go though, because Paul Thompson points out that: “as well as SHM, the Japanese have also come up with HQCD (High Quality CD) and the later and better UHQCD (Ultra High Quality CD), as well as using Platinum to make SHM-CDs, all of which work in a similar way to SHM as far as I can tell.” So, what do we learn from all this? Clearly all these formats can have advantages and I’d say it’s well worth getting hold of some and doing a little experimenting for yourself. I emphasise ‘little’ here; these things can take over the enjoyment of just listening to the music. Once you get past a couple of formats things start to get confusing, and you have difficulty trying to remember the sound you’ve heard a few minutes ago. I would avoid going down that path. Ultimately, I believe it’s about enjoyment, so I would treat these formats in the same way as I would different recordings of the same song. I far prefer the live recording of Roadhouse Blues by The Doors to the studio recording. I don’t need to make endless comparisons between the two to know this, nor do I need to know why; I just do, so that’s the one I listen to the most. Treat different masterings and formats in the same way, and you won’t go far wrong. Right, where’s that whisky bottle… ■ SD

Shhhh...

SILENCERS

Create a quiet area with our Customer Raymond Slack wrote to us recently having taken delivery of a Silencer.

the Silencer that came with the Noise Sniffer and after two weeks the sound is changing and getting better every day”.

We featured his system in Connected issue 39 and, when we visited, Raymond was using our Mini Purifier mains filter plugged into his PowerBlock, along with a ClarityMains and three Silencers – one close to his system and two more spread throughout his flat.

“I bought an additional Silencer and I now have five Silencers in my system – one next to the Hi-Fi, two in the kitchen, one in the hall and one in the bedroom… and I only have a one bedroomed flat!”

Along with the fourth Silencer, Raymond had arranged to borrow a Noise Sniffer to find out if there was mains noise coming from other household appliances and electrical items in his home and to see if he’d benefit from additional Silencers. In his own words: “I put the Sniffer into the

Russ Andrews Silencers are compact devices that can be used connected close to your system (to create a ‘quiet area’ around it) and, as Raymond has done, spread throughout the house close to sources of mains noise to reduce the effect of it at source. Common problem areas

mains socket in the hall and it went off like a Geiger counter! I added the Silencer and the Sniffer stopped making a noise. I did the same to the socket at the back of the fridge: that one made a loud noise as well. I kept

About the Noise

Sniffer

If you want to know exactly what items are putting noise onto the mains we have a number of ‘Noise Sniffer’ power line analysers available on a seven day loan. The Noise Sniffer is a unique device developed to detect noise travelling on the mains power line. Using an internal circuit which converts mains noise to a signal that will drive an internal speaker, the Noise Sniffer makes it possible to ‘listen’ to the noise and harmonics present on any mains ring or spur circuit. It’s absolutely fascinating to hear how much rubbish there is on the mains

are the kitchen, or anywhere where there’s a computer plugged in and it’s usually worth having one in each of these areas. Nothing needs to be connected to the Silencer for it to work – it just needs to be plugged into an empty mains socket and the socket switched on. Silencers are passive differential and common mode filters designed to give noise cancellation of up to 70dB; they also incorporate our SuperClamp components* which help to reduce mains spikes and surges. The Silencer Code 1403 Pack of three

£55 £150

(save £15 on buying them individually).

*We recommend replacement of SuperClamp parts every five years to maintain their effectiveness. The cost for replacement is £31.00

and what a huge difference the aptlynamed Silencer makes. The loan costs £30 and includes the loan of a Silencer (to allow you to solve the mains noise problems identified with the Sniffer) and carrier collection at the end of the rental period. The Noise Sniffer Code:1875 £30 7 day loan includes return collection. Please note: we can only send the Noise Sniffer to UK mainland addresses. Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 21

o n i s s s e f on

OF A Hi-Fi Magazine Editor

David Price is a Hi-Fi journalist, reviewer and former editor of Hi-Fi World and Hi-Fi Choice Magazine.

GK Chesterton once rather sagely observed, “is Ladies and gentlemen, I was – for a very literature in a hurry…” memorable decade – a hi-fi magazine editor. The physical toil of all this keyboard pounding was During this time, I edited Hi-Fi World, and then quite considerable – both for my MacBook Pro and for a shorter period Hi-Fi Choice. For a (near) me. I remember taking my computer to the Apple lifelong audiophile like yours truly, it was a Store for a memory upgrade ten or so years ago, ‘busman’s holiday’ – where you get to do your and the assistant looking hobby and get paid for it. stunned to see that many of the However, things weren’t ‘Most people in the Hi-Fi letters on my keyboard had quite as simple as that, as I industry are fine and worn oﬀ! “What the hell have soon discovered… upstanding folk, but it does you been doing with it?”, he said. “Don’t ask”, I replied. have more than its fair You might think that the job consisted mainly of sipping share of eccentrics.’ In a way though, this was the freshly ground coﬀee and easy bit, and I really enjoyed listening to the latest remaster of Dark Side of the getting my teeth into good, long reviews – Moon, on a large comfy sofa in some dream especially of an interesting product. The downside listening room. Although there was some of that, was that there were lots of middling bits of kit considerably more time was spent bashing away at around, about which it’s hard to write a single a computer keyboard. Most of my waking hours sentence – especially in an interesting or engaging saw me penning reviews, or sub-editing other way. But what really taxed me was the process of people’s, at not inconsiderable speed. “Journalism,” maintaining diplomatic relations with the outside world. Most people in the hi-fi industry are fine and upstanding folk, but it does have more than its fair share of eccentrics. Indeed back when I was in the editor’s chair, there were considerably more than now… Some of the characters I had to deal with – in the normal process of procuring products and making reviews happen – were at least one Mars bar short of a picnic. In the hi-fi business, there are some who think that their products are literally the best in the world. They either genuinely believe this, or they’re very good at pretending. Trouble is, there cannot be more than one “the best”, and that’s when people’s delicate sensibilities get upset. Just as Formula One racing teams can’t all win the 22 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

constructor’s championship in one year, so it is impossible to pretend that some products aren’t better than others. The editor is the one who gets to deal with the petulant behaviour of manufacturers who feel wronged. I still have a small file of emails from industry figures alleging all kinds of idiocy, corruption and incompetence on my or the magazine’s part. To my eternal amusement, they were often followed up by glowing praise for my great skill, when their next product got a better review. Sometimes I wished I was a grandmotherly figure who could just say to them, “now boys, calm down and play nicely.” They’re a bit erm... ‘esoteric’ don’t you think? There’s something about loudspeaker manufacturers in particular that attracts people display. Fascinatingly, the sort of letters we would whose self-belief exceeds their engineering ability. get to hi-fi magazines were far less polemical, and I was regularly approached by hobbyists in sheds more interested in getting a good sound – whereas who called themselves “a manufacturer” but had many forums seemed to get quite feisty with not started their company yet, let alone made any industry politics and individual people. I loved the except “the dem pair” that they were going to crowd sourced wisdom that the better online hi-fi kindly lend us. Their idea was sites supplied – a wonderful that we would review them, ‘the sound quality of Hi-Fi resource previously unavailable to measure them and basically tell products isn’t automatically hi-fi hobbyists – but mused how them what was wrong a function of their price... sensationalist some were (invariably almost everything) you can easily find £1,500 becoming. and they would “come back speakers that sound better For me, the greatest aspect of my when it’s finished for a definitive review and maybe advertising”. ten years editing hi-fi magazines than £5,000 ones.’ They seemed to expect us to do was having direct access to vast unpaid consultancy work for them, apropos of amounts of products of all shapes, sizes and prices. nothing. Many times I had to politely explain that I made it a rule to listen to everything featured in this wasn’t going to happen, but occasionally this my magazine, and that gave me a deep market wasn’t good enough. “You’ll be sorry”, said one lost knowledge, especially good for dispensing soul. Another told me that his new loudspeaker upgrading advice. My most interesting conclusion was light in the bass, so when we were measuring was that the sound quality of hi-fi products isn’t it, “could you turn up the bass control on the amp a automatically a function of their price, which is to bit please?” say that you can easily find £1,500 speakers that sound better than £5,000 ones. The great thing Towards the end of my tenure, hi-fi forums really about hi-fi is that you don’t need to be rich to get took oﬀ. It became interesting to read of how superb sound, you just need to be smart. I biased “the dead tree press” were, from keyboard discovered that new isn’t always better than what warriors with black and white views about certain has come before, and that you can mix and match products. I watched with interest as how every new modern and classic kit very successfully. Last but forum brought new issues – some were not least, the way systems are set-up makes a huge professional and accurate, others downright diﬀerence. Such are the secrets of ascending the bonkers. The internet is a sort of human zoo, and all stairway to heaven… ■ of its weird and wonderful creatures were finally on Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 23

REVIEWS

REVIEWS Keep up to date with the latest reviews at: www.russandrews.com/blog

The Supplier DC capacitors, internal Kimber Kable wiring and the The January 2018 edition of Hi-Fi Choice addition of our Silencer filter. The cable that magazine featured a review of our latest connects the Supplier to the piece of audio replacement power supply unit, The Supplier. We equipment is not ignored either, and features a have two models in the range; an AC and a DC high quality plugs and Kimber’s woven version. Reviewer Neville Roberts partnered a 15V DC Supplier with an Alpha Design Labs GT40a copper cable. DAC, comparing it with the The results of all this attention are power supply shipped with “ this is one of the clear to hear: "A 24/192 FLAC of The the unit. best switched-mode Scottish Chamber Orchestra performing Beethoven's Piano Starting his review, Neville power supplies Concerto No.4 provides a noticeably notes the problems with I have used ” wider and more convincing budget switch mode power soundstage" he writes, and adds that "string supplies that are commonly packaged with new instruments display considerably more Hi-Fi components. He says that such supplies "can refinement". introduce their own problems if poorly designed". In particular, "a low-cost unit can generate RFI and Giving the Supplier the highest possible award of EMI, so to get the very best from your equipment, '5 stars Recommended', he concludes this short you really need a top-quality power supply to survey by stating that "this is one of the best replace the one that comes bundled as standard." switched-mode power supplies I have used and I am clearly able to discern significant sonic We absolutely agree. All products are understandably made to a cost and priorities have improvements in my system with The Supplier in place". to be made. Most manufacturers place the emphasis on the product itself rather than its See the Supplier at: power supply. That's not too surprising, but it www.russandrews.com/powersupplies does compromise performance. The Supplier, by contrast, starts life as an already impressive power supply and then gains significant improvements through such upgrades as Kimber Kap and Panasonic audio-grade 24

CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

The Supplier DC power supply Award: Price: Magazine: Issue:

Recommended £449 Hi-Fi Choice January 2018

REVIEWS

AXIOS headphone cables Featuring in the Hi-Fi+ Magazine Awards for 2017 is Kimber's range of AXIOS headphone cables.

AXIOS is a range that greatly impressed publisher Chris Martens when he had the cables for review back in July 2017, prompting him to report that "The bottom line is that Kimber's AXIOS headphone cables can and do help high-end headphones be all that they can be - often in quite dramatic ways."

"considerably finer resolution of low-level

transient and textural details in the music, more focused and coherent rendition of layering within recordings (sometimes to the point of exposing low-level layers that had not been discernible through standard cables), superior bass control and pitch definition, and acrossthe-board improvements in soundstaging".

In this their Awards 2017 issue, Hi-Fi+ suggest that "it's hard not to be impressed by the performance uptick AXIOS brings" and "an award was almost mandatory!". Chris Martens states that, to an already impressive headphone set-up, AXIOS adds:

Phew; that's quite some list of improvements! See all AXIOS cables at: www.russandrews.com/axios

AXIOS headphone cable Price: from ÂŁ698 1.2m Magazine: Hi-Fi + Issue: Awards 2017(154) Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 25

DA LTO N ’ S D E L I B E R AT I O N S

Listening to music is good for you!

Email Simon at: simondalton@russandrews.com

Normally, you’d find me writing this column sat at my work desk - that’s no great revelation. This time though, I’m jotting down my thoughts at home whilst convalescing with a bad back.

For the first few days I was hobbling about with a walking frame and the only thing I could manage to do was watch TV and listen to music. OK, you can put away the hankies now; sob story over! The point is that this short time being restricted to the house got me thinking about the various benefits to health that listening to music brings. I found that, whereas watching TV - or films could hold my interest for a certain amount of time, listening to music was a diﬀerent matter. That’s partly because of the breadth of music I now have available to listen to - not only my own collection of CDs and vinyl but also the limitless supply from Spotify and Tidal. Of course, to a lesser extent that’s also true for TV, though I can’t say that quantity is matched by quality! But it’s not just about availability. I can listen to a single album over and over again but I would never dream of doing that with TV or film (over a period of time, perhaps, but not consecutively). Music, it seems, has a special draw, an ability to capture our attention and engross us like no other medium. 26 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

It’s not surprising, therefore, that there are in fact many proven health benefits to be gained from listening to music. Recent research, for example, has shown a very positive eﬀect on memory stimulation in Alzheimer patients and there is even a branch of psycho-therapeutic practice based around music.

Music, it seems, has a special draw, an ability to capture our attention and engross us like no other medium. Even on a more general level, there are many benefits to be gained for all of us who listen to music. And in the interests of public service (!) I bring you here just a few;

•

Various studies have shown that listening to music whilst exercising or performing sports can have a positive eﬀect on performance and endurance, boosting the health benefits. In addition, it also helps speed up post-exercise recovery too.

•

A 2008 study into the sleeping habits of college students in Hungary found that listening to classical music is an eﬀective treatment for insomnia - a far healthier alternative to sleepinducing medication. Need to lose some weight? •There’s good news here too. It seems the romantic dinner for two has an impact on our eating

habits. A University of Cincinnati study found that dimming the lights and playing some soft music in the background stimulates us to slow down whilst eating with the result that we eat less - possibly because we become more aware when we are full.

•

In 2009, a study showed that listening to music can even reduce the perceived intensity of pain, especially in older patients.

•

Italian researchers found that listening to music releases stressreducing biochemicals into the brain. Not only that, but another study added this feel-good effect has a positive impact on blood vessel function by increasing blood flow. It may also be the case that this stress-reduction can even replicate a meditative state. Specifically, listening to slow music can promote brainwave activity similar to meditation or hypnosis which can, in some instances, have a therapeutic effect. Slow, relaxing music for instance, has been shown to relieve the symptoms of depression in some cases (beware though; heavy metal and techno have been shown to have the opposite effect). So, there you have it; not only is listing to music one of the more enjoyable things you can do but it’s also officially good for you. I’m off to take some medicine...! ■

LETTERS Budget Blues Hello team, am I alone in this? Has anybody else noticed? Every year about late November, early December, I eagerly buy my lastof-the-year AV magazines. I can’t wait to read which product won “best of” in each category. Every year I get more and more amazed and disappointed too, when you get products costing sometimes many thousands of pounds being judged and tested against products costing just a mere couple of hundred pounds. How can that be fair? Why oh why can’t they have “budget”, “mainstream” and “high-end” categories as completely separate testing grounds? As a mere mortal with budget in mind I can’t imaging spending £12,690 on any disc-player… I’d need a fairly hefty lotto win for that one. It’s always great to have a drool over tech you can’t afford, of course, BUT. Meanwhile back on planet me? My aged and beloved systems… yes I have two. Old Quad and old Mission amps, in separate rooms, still pumping out the sounds. Old-school? me? All my best for a great 2018 to all the Russ Andrews team. Andrew Bowden, by email.

New Year – New Resolutions Hi Russ and all at RA. Whilst the gales are still blowing and wreaking merry havoc with the trellising outside I thought I’d just

you r s letter shelter in the warm and wish you guys all the best for the New Year. That’s the good news. Now the bad, well bad-ish for you that is. Despite reading and re-reading the latest Connected and trawling your web site I can find nothing that I need to even consider purchasing from you again. No, it’s nothing you’ve done or said. Well actually it is sort of because of what you have done. You see at the back end of last year I splashed out a pile of readies (interest-free credit of course, I’m not that flush!) on a new Audiolab CD Player and Project Turntable, both considerable leaps forward, as it turns out from those they have replaced; old friends now for 20-odd years. Hooked up with all the lovely cabling and interconnects I’ve bought from you over the years I am really now hearing what I always thought I was hearing before – music, just music. No ifs, no buts, just pure, unadulterated, totally absorbing, mellifluous, wonderful music. No need to turn the wick up either; it all just flows out over the whole room and draws this willing slave into its embrace. Doesn’t get any better methinks, unless there’s any more Single Malt in that bottle.... So from one contented (former?) customer may I say “Thanks” for all your products have done and good luck trying to get me to buy more!! H. Lane, Berks

Win a Silencer mains filter, worth £52.00

STAR LETTER

Want to share your experiences with our readers? Or simply want advice? Write to us! We’ll publish the best, funniest and most interesting in each issue of Connected. The writer of this issue’s Star Letter receives a Silencer, worth £55.00

Get in touch at: connected@russandrews.com or write to us at: Connected, Russ Andrews Accessories, 2b Moreland Court, Westmorland Business Park, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 6NS, UK.

P.S. You may get a tetchy message from the wife asking you to find a way to drag me away from the Hi-Fi as I’ve been glued to the sofa since early December doing my Timothy Leary bit – you know, turn on, tune in drop out...! We see that as a challenge, Hugh.

Positioning the AbZorber In the latest Connected (issue 41) Kevin Phillips asked about positioning an AbZorber. In his reply, Peter Bevir explained the AbZorber will vary in its effect depending on where it is positioned. An interesting thought! My system is based on a Roksan Xerxes 20 Plus record player, with valve phono, pre and power amps. There’s always been a very slight buzz and hum from the system. Only audible a few Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 27

you r s letter

LETTERS

inches from the ‘speaker and certainly not audible from the listening position. I’d never worried about it and assumed it was valve noise. As it wasn’t intrusive I’d never quite got round to trying to track down the troublesome valve or valves. My AbZorber is plugged into a RA ‘Toblerone’ PowerBlock, which is fed from a balanced mains transformer. In Peter’s system the AbZorber performed better when it was plugged in before the balanced mains supply rather than after it. Had to be worth a try. You can see where this is going, can’t you?! Plugging the AbZorber in before the balanced mains instead of after it has reduced the hum and buzz to almost nothing. And it’s opened up the sound of the system even more. Everything sounds less constrained and more natural. Amazing, considering how good it sounded before this simple change. So, thank you Peter for an incredibly simple, but incredibly effective, suggestion. G Pettigrew, Dorset

Your equipment upgrade service I have been a customer of Russ Andrews for many years. So I needed not much persuasion to go the extra mile and have my much-loved equipment upgraded this October.

28 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

A second-hand Arcam CD37 player which I bought through a well-known auction site. CHORD amp and pre amp bought preowned from a high street hi-fi specialist.

and excellent service.

I went the ‘full Monty’ and upgraded as discussed and quoted. I also had five cables processed with Super Burn In whilst the kit was out of action. So now whole signal route has that feature.

PowerKords on less expensive equipment

After set up on return, cold out of the boxes . . . BLOWN AWAY ! Vocals, musicality, bass, emotion, significant improvements throughout on all replay. What’s it going to be like once run in . . .? * Having a wide musical interest with replay from CD and vinyl, I can’t wait to wend my way through my collection. I hope to arrange a trip to RA and the Lake District next spring to have the pre-owned Thiel speakers upgraded too. How much would it cost to buy a three box equipment replacement ? ? ? Save up, blitz a zero interest credit card, rob the piggy bank, see the bank manager, stay in for a year, give up smoking, drinking and relationships. Well maybe not all of those . . . ! Many thanks to the RA team for many years of ‘sound’ advice

‘Trevthetrains’, by e-mail. *So after two weeks of bedding in, again - amazing/brilliant.

Will your power cables help with less expensive equipment like a NAD3020D integrated amp and REL 5Ti subwoofer? R Luke, by email The simple answer is… yes! Plenty of customers who have very budget equipment (much cheaper than the NAD), or even second hand equipment bought at a very modest price, have taken the plunge and tried our PowerKords and had great results. Indeed one of our most popular demos at Hi-Fi shows is doing an A/B comparison between very basic ‘out of the box’ cables and our cables on a second-hand Arcam amp and CD player bought from eBay for £300. The mains supply can have massive effect on sound quality and our specialist mains cables, extensions and filters all seek to improve the quality of power to your equipment. In my experience, less expensive equipment benefits just as much from a power cable upgrade as higher end kit… and remember, our 60 day money-back guarantee allows you to audition them in your own system for two months. PB

LETTERS Your LP collections and The Great Plains of Africa. I recently got chance to see the Koffiefontein diamond mine in South Africa, flying approximately 12000’ altitude over the ground during a cross country gliding flight in December. Raw diamonds are flown out from the mine’s secure airstrip at irregular intervals and end up in the world’s top jewellers and quite possibly your cartridge stylus playing your treasured LPs! Koffiefontein mine diamonds are reputably of the highest quality and mining here has been active since 1870. The massive mining hole seen here is currently over 700m deep. The huge expanse of Africa combined with powerful thermals and high cloudbases enables flights of 500km or more to be achieved fast with powerful

you r s letter lift (and sink!) conditions being the norm - significantly more so than gliding conditions in northern Europe.

I don't really bother. If something I've bought works then I am content and my silence is my approval.

The Ventus glider that I was flying is based at Blomfontein, courtesy of www.soaringsafaris.com, so I thought that Koffefontein might be of interest to fellow readers and Russ Andrews customers. I was delighted to return to the UK where a delivery of loudspeaker Zapperators was waiting for me. Thanks!

However, after ordering a little more stuff today, I am moved to tell you how pleased I am with the upgrades to one of my PowerBlocks with UltraSockets, 4 of which are with Ag (Silver) wiring. If that sounds like an understatement then it belies my amazement at the utter transformation of the sound on my, now, quite elderly system. I reserved the silver sockets for the engine (as it were) i.e. the pre and power amps plus CD player and the rest for ancillaries. I am a devoted listener to classical music - both CDs and Radio 3; the orchestra now has real depth and spatial precision across the stereo image; soloists and singers seem to be more solidly placed in their own space and the strings have a real sense of horsehair on wire as in the concert hall ( very hard to reproduce on stereo systems I used to find); tympani seem to thwack and resonate as they do in the live performances. What more can I say? It had been worth every penny, so congratulations to Russ Andrews' team and to all those internet trolls out there who maintain a nasty sceptical position I say, put aside your prejudices and just use your ears!

R Robertson, by e-mail

Silver Sockets

STAR LETTER

Nowadays, I'm not normally given to writing letters or emails for products; time was when it was normal but of late with pressure of work, old age (well, relatively) and the frustration of computers

Andrew S Johnson, by e-mail PS I should add that the BMU is also between the Powerblock and the mains! This was also a big change for the better... Koffiefontein diamond mine in South Africa. Photo by R. Robertson. Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 29

W IN

COMPETITION

Competition

WORTH

£60

And the answer is...

Last issue we ran a competition that oﬀered you the chance to win a 1m YellO Power mains cable worth £60.

We asked you to tell us what product was featured in the detailed photograph (right) and it certainly proved a challenge. However, we did receive a number of correct answers of the Russ Andrews PowerBar S (we also allowed ‘PowerBar’). Close-up detail of the Russ Andrews PowerBar S Congratulations to Paul Rowland of Lancashire who was chosen at random from the correct entries.

Want to win a Torlyte Platform worth £184? Enter this issues competition opposite...

Keep in touch...

The whole picture

Become a fan on facebook www.facebook.com/russandrews.accessories

Connect with us on Instagram http://instagram.com/russandrewsaccessories

See us on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/russandrewshifi

30 CONNECTED MAGAZINE Issue 42 Spring 2018

C O M PCompetition ETITION

Win a Torlyte® Platform

W IN

WORTH

£184

For this issue’s competition we want you to find the following words in the puzzle below. Words may run horizontal, vertical, diagonal and forwards or backwards. Good luck!

O W E

O R

D P W I

O P

O W E

U R

N D Z

O R

Y M A

N S

M I

R I U R

O A B

O R

S O

O M I

S W E

D N A

U R

M U P M A

U S

G D M K

M B

N S

U P

U R

N R

O R

U A

D E

O X

O M U B

N I S

Entries must be received by 30th April 2018 and the winner will be picked at random from all the correct entries. The winner will be informed by 11th May 2018. Photocopy, scan or cut out your completed wordsearch and send it to:

KIMBERKABLE DEOXIT

MINIPURIFIER

SUPERBURNIN

YELLOPOWER

POWERPURIFIER RUSSANDREWS

CLARITYMAINS TORLYTE

POWERKORD

SUPERCLAMP

ABZORBER

ZAPPERATORS ISOMIKE

RINGMAT AXIOS

Russ Andrews Connected 42 Competition, 2b Moreland Court, Shap Road, Kendal, LA9 6NS, UK. Alternatively you can photograph or scan your entry and email it to competition@russandrews.com.

Name: ________________________________________________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ Contact phone number __________________________________________________________________ Terms and Conditions 1. The closing date for entries is 30th April 2018 and the winner will be notified by 11th May 2018; 2. The rules of entry are given in the text of the competition; 3. The winner will be chosen at random from the correct entries; 4. No purchase necessary to enter; 5. There is a single prize of a Torlyte Platform worth £184. 6. The prize is not transferable, cannot be exchanged for cash nor will a cash alternative be offered; 7. Our decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into; 8. We reserve the right to feature photographs and the names and counties of all winners in future publications and publicity; 9. This promotion is not open to employees of Russ Andrews Accessories or their families, or anyone connected with the promotion; 10. The promoter is Russ Andrews Accessories Ltd, 2b Moreland Court, Westmorland Business Park, Shap Road, Kendal, LA9 6NS, UK. Issue 42 Spring 2018 CONNECTED MAGAZINE 31

FREE

SuperFuse™

So that’s anything from YellO Power mains cables, through to all our PowerKords and SuperKords (SuperKords also come with a SuperFuse fitted as standard).

Customer Number

Your fuse will be packaged separately so you can choose to fit it to your new cable or to another existing one.

Return address: Russ Andrews Accessories Ltd, 2b Moreland Court, Westmorland Business Park, Shap Road, Kendal LA9 6NS, UK.

Up until 11th April 2018 we are giving away a FREE Russ Andrews SuperFuse worth £25 with any purchase of a new mains cable from the Russ Andrews range.

Reference Code

with EVERY new power cable purchased

WORTH

£25

Order yours now

Your FREE SuperFuse will automatically be added to your order online at russandrews.com or when you order by phone on 01539 797300.

Oﬀer ends 11.59pm 11th April 2018

www.russandrews.com Call UK Orderline 01539 797300 Int Tel +44 (0)1539 797300 Buy online at

Exclusive UK distributor

Russ Andrews Accessories Ltd, 2b Moreland Court, Westmorland Business Park, Shap Road, Kendal LA9 6NS, UK.

Mail Order Direct • 60 Day Money Back Guarantee • Cable Upgrade Scheme • Free Delivery (orders over £100 within UK Mainland)