The Wand gets thicker
Simon Brown makes the Wand tonearms and turntable in New Zealand, for High End 2023 he brought along the new Dark-Light arm (c.£5-7,000) which is a very distinctive design with a tapered carbon fibre beam with a massive 40mm diameter at the counterweight end. A nominal 10 inch design it has an adjustable mount to suit three different overhang lengths. It has a plate that fixes to the usual cartridge mountings that bolts into slots that allow set up in the aluminium headshell.
The new Wand 14-5 turntable will be approximately 1.5x that of the existing 14-4 model and incorporates a battery power supply in the isolation base, adjustable Isoacoustics feet and a second arm mounting. It also has a carbon fibre mat and the top is laminated in the same material.
Atlas adds Arran Assist tonearm cable
Atlas have an upgrade for their Mavros cables using the Latik 3D printed plug dielectric developed for Asimi cables. This is available as a retrospective upgrade to existing Mavros owners which must be a first in the cable universe and will be fitted to all Mavros RCA interconnects from now on. They have also made a new tonearm cable called Arran Assist, this is a dual balanced design with solid core OCC conductors and comes with a standard or low profile plug for Linn LP12 users, price £1,200. At the entry level end Atlas are offering the Element streaming cable, a 24 awg silver plated OFC ethernet for £57/1m.
CAD Controls USB noise
Computer Audio Design or CAD had a full streaming system complete with Ground Control noise crushers making some great sounds via Wilson Benesch loudspeakers and Trilogy amps yet the only new product that Scott Berry brought to the event was possibly the smallest thing in the whole show. The CAD USB Control is a small block with a USB A connector that’s designed to reduce noise on the ground and the 5V line of any unused USB connection. When left open these sockets act as antenna for RFI and provide a conduit for noise to enter the component, this £675 device is designed to stop this and create a quieter environment for signal processing.
Dali mixes Kore with Epicon
Dali followed up last year’s introduction of the mahoosive Kore loudspeaker with a model that bridges the gap between it and the Epicon 8 model beneath it. The Epikore 11, see what they did there, is a substantial loudspeaker in itself with four 8inch bass drivers, a 6.5inch midrange and both a 35mm soft dome tweeter and a ribbon super tweeter. Dali claim that it has an amp friendly impedance (3.2 Ohm minimum) but had brought along two NAD M23 power amps (bridged for 700W) so that control was never an issue. It has to be said that they demonstrated well thanks to the use of SMC motor systems in the drivers and crossover, and paper and wood fibre cones.
Dali also showed the upmarket IO-12 headphones (£999) which can be used with or without wire so both passively or active via Bluetooth aptX adaptive. These have 50mm paper fibre cones in damped and braced capsules with square leather earpads. This is the first headphone to use Dali’s proprietary SMC magnets which is claimed to give them electrostatic style clarity in the midrange.
Elipson gets some Micromega magic
Daniel Schar once made some very musical CD players under the Micromega brand today he is designing electronics for Elipson. There is now an entry level Performance range consisting of a preamp (€499), power amp (€799), CD player (€499) and an integrated with streamer onboard (€1199). Schar has also created the I2140 integrated (€3.990) for the Elipson Reference range, this has a Pascal Class D output stage with 130W per channel and an onboard DAC.
Elipson have also expanded their Heritage speaker range with the XLS7 (€799) and added the Horus entry level speaker range with the 11F floorstander coming in a (€849).
Innuos tracks Pulsar
Innuos have finished the biggest model in the Pulse line of streamers. Pulsar (£4,949) has a PhoenixUSB Lite reclocker on the USB output, a single level cell SSD for the operating system and a substantial power supply with high end components from Mundorf and Audio Note UK. It was demonstrated against the Pulse below it in the range and the difference was not small via a swanky system consisting of dCS Rossini Apex DAC, Pilium Ares and Achilles amplification with Estelon X Diamond MkII loudspeakers.
Mk2 Classics from JBL
JBL have been upgrading its classic models to Mk2 status with upgraded drivers with a new spider and bigger magnets, and an upgraded crossover these changes making the L100Mk2 £4,000, L82 Mk2 £2,000 and L52 Mk2 £1,000, apparently orange remains the most popular colour for the foam grille which is good to hear.
The 4329 studio monitor is a new active wireless model with 150W of power and a horn loaded tweeter, it doesn’t require wire between the two channels and comes in at £4,000 with black or white finish. JBL have also finished the classy looking Classic series electronics with wooden cheeks, the range is priced from £850 to £1,800 and consists of a CD player, streamer, two receivers and a turntable. At the entry level there is the JBL Spinner BT turntable for £400.
Brighter Lumin U2
Lumin from Korea have an upgraded version of their U2 streamer on the way. This has new architecture, a new processor, linear power supply and an SFP optical network port, something rarely seen on streamers even at the $5,000 price point for the US.
Mofi gets serious about playing records
Mofi are upping the ante on the vinyl replay front with a range topping turntable and a very interesting phono stage. The Masterdeck ($6,000) turntable calibrates itself to the mains frequency in its location to avoid speed fluctuation and has a Delrin and aluminium platter on a sapphire and tungsten thrust bearing. The arm is a 10inch carbon fibre type with a pivoting vertical bearing and a unipivot horizontal one, the headshell is removable and adjustable for azimuth with a collet style fitting.
Peter Madnick is rightly proud of the Mofi Master Phono ($6,500), combined with a Mofi test record it assists azimuth set up and will have the facility to establish the best impedance match to any MC cartridge using the VU meters. It has distinct current and voltage inputs with the latter on RCA and XLR. The gap in the chassis is to isolate the SMD power supply from the signal stages, the former has cascade regulation and the system has two grounds for chassis/earth and floating signal ground. There’s more but it’s safe to say we haven’t seen a higher feature count on a phono stage at this price before.
Moon 700 series takes off
Moon announced their North Collection before High End but it was another thing to see and hear it in the flesh. In a system fronted by Dynaudio Confidence 60 speakers the 791 network preamp (€18.000) and 761 power amplifier (€16.000) sounded excellent playing Buddy Guy’s Blues Singer album. Moon have put some effort into the remote control for the 700 series, fitting the volume knob with bearings so that it feels like the high quality example on the component itself and finishing it in the same style. It’s a Bluetooth device so need not point at the device being controlled.
Neat with added Mystique
Neat Acoustics had a busy stand in one of the huge halls with which to promote the latest addition to their range. The Mystique Classic is a scaled down version of the Elite Classic announced at Bristol with an air motion transformer tweeter matched to a 134mm mid/bass driver from the company’s Motive range. A plinth allows for the down firing port which makes it easier to place in the room and the Mystique comes in at £2,500 in black, white and veneered finishes.
Rethinking the unipivot with Supatrac
Chris Beeching is currently reviewing the Supatrac Blackbird tonearm but it was good to see it at High End. It’s distinguished by a pultruded carbon fibre arm beam and a bearing that’s variation on a unipivot where the point faces the cartridge with the arm hanging on two threads in a similar style to the Well Tempered designs. The pivot point is placed below the vinyl to maintain consistent downforce and the counterweight is magnetically attached to the ‘truss’ at the back with three sizes of weight available. Any length of arm can be made with the 9 inch version priced at £2,100 and 10 plus inch versions at £2,400. The unusual cord finger lift is designed for ease of cueing for both right and left handed vinyl lovers but Supatrac also supply a more conventional solid lift that fixes to the headshell.
Magellan’s Cello
French speaker specialist Triangle continues its 40th anniversary celebrations with the Magellan Cello. This feature’s a horn loaded tweeter, 160mm paper cone midrange and bass drivers with fibreglass and paper for high stiffness and damping. It’s a typically high efficiency design with a 90dB sensitivity that’s suited to rooms from 20 to 50 square metres. The example shown is in the Shadow Zebrano finish and costs €11.000.
Trilogy jump the shark
Hybrid electronics specialist Trilogy have jumped the shark by building the all transistor 921 integrated amplifier (£5,900). This has taken seven years to finalise and offers 75 Watts per channel from a Class AB output stage. Trilogy also showed the 914 fully balanced valve preamplifier (£12,500) and 994 hybrid monoblock power amps (below) which produce 20W in Class A or 140W in AB for £10,000 apiece. Finally there’s the 975 two box phono stage, with choke input power supply and MM and MC capability.
Falcon for listener engagement
Falcon has made a conscious decision to move upmarket with the M series the most unusual of which is the M30 which features a Coles supertweeter alongside a SEAS tweeter and their own B200 mid/bass unit. The aim with the range is to re-engage enthusiasts with listening to music using traditional BBC voicing.
See part 3 of our High End 2023 coverage here