CD players seem to be having a comeback if the UK’s annual audio jamboree in Bristol is anything to go by, new examples could be found in several rooms and these were probably only outnumbered by companies using turntables. Popular brands included Kudos speakers which could be found in several rooms even though the company itself was not exhibiting, Rega and Chord electronics were also well spread. There was a good selection of new gear and plenty of systems that sounded great, so without further ado…
Michell
Michell unveiled their new Apollo phono stage with Muse power supply. A beautifully build pairing in machined aluminium casing this phono preamp offers MM and MC inputs with variable impedance, capacitance and gain via dip switches in a panel on the base. The Apollo has two Class A gain stages, before and after passive RIAA EQ and is joined to the Muse PSU with a link cable made by Chord Company. The clamshell construction acts as a faraday cage to keep noise at bay and the price for both will be £3,500 with availability in March. Demonstrated with a Michell Gyro turntable via a PMC cor amp and prophecy5 speakers with one of Hans Theesink’s immacutely cut albums.
Origin Live
Origin Live were playing vinyl with their Sovereign S turntable, Agile MkV arm and a Lyra Atlas cartridge, this sounded very lively via an Aesthetix Mimas amp and Devore O/Baby speakers delivering Ezra Collective with solid bass lines and bright horns.
Hana
There’s a new Hana cartridge at the affordable end of the moving coil scale, the Hana MkII comes in SH high and SL low output versions as well as SL mono for those wanting to get the best out of vintage vinyl, price is £645. The low output version sounded upbeat and on the ball on a Connected Fidelity TT Hub record player.
Ultrafide
We reviewed Ultrafide’s U4PRE/U500DC amplifiers recently but were surprised at the size and power of their latest offering, the Dias power amp. This Class A/B design is based on parent company MC2’s MC250 is specced to deliver a kilowatt from a dual mono design that weighs in at almost 50 kilos. It is fully balanced and delivers the frist 25 Watts in Class A, the big openings at the bottom are to ventilate what is potentially a hot running amp that produced the cleanest high sound pressure heard at the event with the aid of some Kudos Titan 808 speakers. The £27,500 price tag is not so high for something that’s genuinely capable of concert level volume.
Hegel
Hegel combined their new D50 Raven DAC (£4,250) with an H600 integrated streaming amp to good effect via Egglestone Works Nico speakers, the combo making dynamic but not aggressive sounds that encouraged further listening. A request to review the D50 has been submitted but it’s not expected in the shops until May.
Neat
We enjoyed the Neat Momentum JS standmounts a lot last year so it was good to hear their floorstanding alter ego the Momentum J-6 (£9,995) at Bristol, sporting a new high gloss ebony finish and connected to Atoll’s ST300 streamer and IN400 integrated amp this system made a fine job of some Steely Dan, you can’t go wrong with the classics.
ATC
ATC chose to use the active SCM20 ASL LE bookshelf speakers (£10,500) with a C4 Mk2 subwoofer (£3,990) this year, this limited edition speaker is nearly sold out so it was a strange choice but they do look great in the blue finish and the sound of this system lived up to expectations with plenty of detail, great timing and a relaxed demeanour. Sources were a Technics turntable and Auralic streamer.
Fyne
Fyne have incorporated their Isoflare concentric drivers into the new 500S range which has drivers engineered by Chris Mills, son of Fyne’s R’n’D supremo Dr Paul Mills. The driver has a magnesium tweeter dome at the base of a waveguide that was designed for enhanced dispersion. Each speaker has a presence control on the back offering plus or minus 3dB through the midband and finishes extend to piano black, black oak (shown) and a very attractive walnut. F501S (£1,700) floorstander demonstrated was hooked up to a Rega Saturn Mk3 CD player and Aethos amplifier, the sound being clear and precise playing Dylan’s Man in the Long Black Coat.
Chord Co
The Chord Company demonstrated several of their recently released accessories, the Phono Aray (£1,000) offers a very low impedance to the ground connection on turntables which combats the tendency for a tonearm to act as an aerial which injects noise into the ground and reduces perceived signal to noise. It made Dylan’s Tangled Up in Blue sound cleaner, more relaxed and less brash than the standard ground connection.
The EE1 Plus (£600) is an upgrade on the EE1 ethernet filter with Aray tech in a milled ally case with galvanic isolation and lightweight feet that the user is encouraged to loosen slightly for better isolation. It made an Eilish track sound dramatically cleaner, smoother and better timed. Finally we heard Leyline 2XL (£10/m), this is an entry level speaker cable for those at the beginning of their audio journey which demonstrated very nicely against some standard install cable, providing better definition, less splashy treble and a more natural presentation.
Musical Fidelity
Musical Fidelity is one brand getting back into CD with the B1 xCD at £599 and matching B1 xi integrated amplifier at £699, the latter offers 50W per channel as well as digital and analogue inputs including MM phono and ARC HDMI. The company is also bringing back its distinctive tubular X series components (below) with the X Line valve line buffer (£450 – £500, April), the X Power AC conditioner and X Power TT turntable conditioner will be available in the summer.
Kerr
Kerr Acoustics brought a pair of K300 mk.3 standmounts (£6,395) to Bristol and put them on Townshend bases with a Chord Ultima Integrated amp and Innuos streamer to good effect, the sound being engaging and clean at the same time which is a hard thing to achieve at any show.
Soulines
Sound Fowndations have taken on Soulines turntables from Serbia, the tt9 is a skeletal design with an inverted bearing using a Delrin thrust plate supporting a 30mm thick acrylic platter. The Kubrick DCX is a more complex aluminium turntable inspired by the movie 2001 a Space Odyssey. The KiVi M3 tonearm is a unipivot type with one piece yoke and armtube. The combined turntable, arm and record clamp come in at £3,990, a price which looks pretty competitive given the highly engineered nature of the design.
Leema
Leema were one of the brands with a new disc spinner, the Quantum Electron CD is dedicated to the silver disc with no DAC inputs but both flavours of analogue output; RCA and XLR. It costs £1,400. It sounded good via a Leema Neutron preamp and Graviton power amp driving a pair of Serhan Swift MU2 MkII speakers.
Quad
Quad made its mark on the speaker world back in 1957 when it introduced the original ESL, the first push-pull electrostatic in the world. This was superceded by the ESL 63 a few years later when stereo came to the fore and several decades later we saw the 2912 which had extra panels in order to induce lower frequencies in the room. Now Quad have created the 2912X (available June/July for £12-13,000). This is based on the original ESL63 design but with considerable refinements and improvements in manufacturing consistency. In order to combat the electrostatic’s sensitivity to humidity and temperature Quad build the panels in controlled conditions and put a great deal of effort into making each one identical. The electronics have now changed with separate PCBs for the 5kV charge required and the audio signal. They have sought to make the 2912X less obvious in the room with a matte black finish, so if the optional halo lighting and badge are switched off and the lights are low they might just disappear.
Part 2 of our Bristol Show 2025 coverage can be found here