Rega
Rega are getting close to finishing the Mercury preamplifier and Solis power amp that was first shown at Bristol last year. This time they displayed what look like fully finished amplifiers complete with clear covers so that we could see the elaborate circuitry inside. The Mercury pre has both analogue and digital inputs while the Solis looks beefy enough to deliver serious power. Details are still scant but pricing looks like being in the region of £6,500 per unit.
Auralic & Sugden
Digital source specialist Auralic shared a room with Class A electronics brand Sugden at Bristol, the pairing making very decent sounds with the Auralic Vega S1 streaming DAC and S1 power supply via Sugden’s Masterclass IA-4 preamplifier and Sapphire FBA-800 power amp, the speakers were a classic LS 5/9 BBC design courtesy of Graham Audio.
Audioquest & Heed
I was quite taken aback by the scale of sound being produced by a Heed Abacus streamer, Elixir integrated amp and Acoustic Energy AE509 speakers in the Audioquest room. This circa £6,500 system was powered by an Audioquest Powerquest 505 conditioner (£600, on the bottom of the rack) and used the brand’s cables throughout to produce serious bass and a clean, warm sound.
Acoustic Energy
In the basement Acoustic Energy were filling a large room with a pair of fairly compact floorstanding AE3092 loudspeakers (£1,200) driven by a Rega Aethos amp with a Bluesound Node streamer and silver Rega DAC (a model built for the far east). Matt Spandl explained that the midrange driver for this speaker is based on an old Scanspeak design and uses a coconut husk and paper cone in a constrained layer damped cabinet with a bitumen/MDF construction. The sound/price ratio was the most impressive I heard at Bristol.
Wiim
Budget streaming amp specialist Wiim showed their first integrated amplifier the Vibelink (£319), this is a compact design offering 100W of presumably Class D power with analogue and digital inputs. Info is still thin on the ground but the Vibelink looks set to be almost as disruptive as its streaming siblings. Wiim also showed a new subwoofer called Sub Pro (below) but there are literally no details available beyond the fact that it’s compact but not tiny and has a lovely shiny finish.
Cyrus
The last Cyrus phono stage was a great success and the brand is hoping to repeat that with the Cyrus 40 PPA phono preamp at £2,200. This has four inputs, works with MM and MC cartridges and offers 5dB gain steps for an optimal match. It’s built around a six layer PCB and has a very low noise power supply, availability looks to be in June or July.
Wilson Benesch
The Horizon is the latest addition to Wilson benesch’s range of technologically advanced reference grade loudspeakers. Its monocoque cabinet looks like one of the company’s carbon fibre designs but is made from natural materials including hemp with a biological resin and damping courtesy of cork and rubber. The £26,000 design uses the Fibonacci tweeter alongside Tactic 3.0 drivers. These sounded vibrant and dynamic on the end of Trilogy amplification and a CAD enhanced Innuos Zen Mini streamer with CAD 1543 Mk3 DAC (£19,500).
Ruark
I thought that Ruark had abandoned the hi-fi market as a result of their success in real world audio but Bristol saw the return of a standalone speaker in the Sabre R and a matching R610 amplifier. These compact speakers have a silk dome tweeter and 15cm natural fibre cone in a bass reflex cabinet for £699. The R610 Music Console is a streaming amplifier with all the features and a £1,200 price, I’m guess that the smaller unit next to it is a disc drive but don’t hold me to it. The sound was pleasantly relaxed and the driver cones clearly capable of long excursion, suggesting that they can cope with power if required.
Pro-ject
You can tell that Pro-ject aren’t British, they don’t fear colour, in fact in the latest Colourful range they positively embrace it. The most interesting of these is the Colourful Audio System 2 at £1,799 shown in Wine red, this features a Debut Evo 2 turntable, Maia S3 amplifier and a pair of Speaker Box 5 S2 bookshelf speakers with rubber feet supplied to stop them vibrating the turntable. Other colours on the menu include Fir green, Golden yellow and Steel blue alongside the usual monochromes.
The Colourful Audio System E is a proper entry level offering that combines a Debut E turntable with Ortofon OM5e cartridge, Stereo Box E 40W amp and Speaker Box 5 E Carbon speakers for £1,099.
Jason Kennedy