Hi Everyone, 

I have just been sorting the rest of my photo’s out from the Munich High End Show and thought I’d post them here.

For me the ‘Fine Sounds’ room was the was one of the stars of the show, Fine Sounds are the owners of McIntosh, Sonus Faber, Audio Research and Wadia, not too bad a portfolio, it was a stunning room which shows that the Fine Sounds group really understand what High End means as a lot of the rooms were just crazy, but for me this room had names that are known in HiFi and they were displayed beautifully.

I have already posted the Sonus Faber pics from that room but here are some of McIntosh and Audio Research, if there is one more brand I would love to bring on at HiFi Lounge, it will have to be McIntosh, their look seems to divide opinion but personally I love it but to represent it properly at HiFi Lounge is one hell of an investment, and the trouble is I sold my house to fund HiFi lounge so I haven’t got anything left to sell :( Hopefully one day though, it’s nice to have something to aspire to :)

Anyway, here we go with some of that beautiful McIntosh kit, there are quite a few pics so it may go on a little -

The Beautiful McIntosh Turntable

This is what you call a HiFi System 

How Gorgeous is this, The McIntosh 275

Time for some serious power

The Wall Of Sound, this was awesome, it was kinda recreating a PA rig that was used at Woodstock and by the Grateful Dead, as they both used McIntosh power.

A rather large McIntosh Centre Speaker

If you can read this it is quite interesting regarding the ‘Wall Of Sound’

Time for some Audio Research

So that is all the McIntosh and Audio Research Pictures, I think I got a bit carried away, here are some more random ones of other highlights from the show as far as I was concerned -

This is definitely not your average mains block

This was most definitely the hottest room at the show, huge valves.

Time for some Crazy Turntables

This could well be the final Speaker Brand that I’m thinking of adding to HiFi Lounge, Martin Logan, I spent a lot of time listening to these speakers, they took a while to acclimatise to and they are quite different, but they were actually extremely good, especially if you like a clean and detailed sound, more research required first though.

Who said girls don’t go to hifi shows 

Now this was most definitely the craziest thing that I say at the show, it is basically a power amp twice as big as me that can kick out 2 x 60,000 watts of pure class A, apparently, certainly looked cool, more like a Transformer than an amp, here is a link with a video on it so you can see it in action -

www.onlycreative.it

A very horny pair of speakers

I really haven’t got a clue what was going on here, definitely not living room friendly though 

This was very swish

If someone had asked me what this was away from a HiFi Show I really wouldn’t have known, it is a speaker that is omni directional, costing only around £200,000.

These speakers really did sound excellent, not too sure I would want a TeleTubbie in my living room though.

The T+A room was certainly one of the busier rooms

This room was mad just for the cabling.

Apparently talking to someone at the show, these ‘Living Voice’ speakers were the best at the show, unfortunately every time I went in the room they were running their smaller system, definitely a reason to go back next year.

So that was that, it was a massive show and these pictures were only a fraction of what was on show, some crazy, some amazing, all interesting though, it will certainly be a show I will be attending every year from now on, Thanks again to PMC Speakers for taking me along, it was a real eye opener :-)

Hi Everyone,

This wasn’t something I was expecting when I went to Munich, especially so soon after the launch of the new Venere range, but Sonus Faber have announced a new range of speakers that I believe will sit between the Venere’s and Cremona’s, to start with there will be 3 in the range but it sounds like that will expand over the course of the year, in normal Sonus Faber tradition they are a very attractive design of course.

I have to say the Sonus Faber room at Munich really was something else, an amazing array of high end speakers, they even had the Aida’s on show, this is what I call a speaker, unfortunately they weren’t running, but just to see them was enough, if ever a speaker could be worth £65,000 a pair then the Aida is certainly it, I’ll post some pics further down as they really are something quite special, hopefully next year they will have them hooked up.

If you would like a closer look at the range I have now added the Olympica Range of Sonus Faber speakers to the HiFi Lounge Website -

http://hifilounge.co.uk/sonus-faber/Olympica-Collection-by-Sonus-Faber

Anyway here are a few pics of the new Olympica range, as soon as these are available then HiFi Lounge will be getting a couple of pairs in for demo, at this rate I’m going to need a bigger building :-) 

Here are some better quality pics from Sonus Faber -

Here we go some real High End HiFi, the Sonus Faber Aida’s, the trouble is that the pictures just don’t convey their size, lets just say, they are massive.

Here a few random Sonus Faber Pictures from the show also -

Here’s a couple of pictures of the Venere’s new walnut finish, not overly sure about this finish myself -

Has the back of a speaker ever looked so good :-)

Sonus Faber certainly don’t muck about, if you are going to do car hifi surely there isn’t much better than Pagani.

Hi Everyone,

It was great to see Naim at the High End show in Munich, the Naim/Focal room was very impressive so I just wanted to share a few photo’s, the main demo room was an NDS/555PS, 552 and 3 x Nap 500’s with partnering power supply’s with a pair of Focal Utopia’s, I’m not 100% sure of the model, but I think they were the 2nd from the top, in all honesty I was hoping to hear an active S-800 setup as I’m still to hear this, but I have to say the Naim/Focal set up was very impressive indeed, very clean and revealing but also quite delicate with an underlying power that was there ready and waiting when called upon, for me I would say it was in the top 2 sounding rooms at the show, along with PMC, which considering the size of the Munich show is going some, and by some standards the cost of the Naim/Focal rig was quite reasonable in comparison, a great showing Naim  :-)

Anyway here are a few pics -

Hi Everyone,

Well I’ve just got back from Munich for the launch of the new Fact.12 speakers from PMC, it has certainly been an interesting couple of days, the Munich High End show really is something quite special and has been a real eye opener into the world of the what a weird and whacky world HiFi can be, the pinnacle being an amp twice the size of me that opens up like a transformer to display all the connections and inner workings, I’ll post some pics later, quite amazing though. One thing that struck home though was that although there is some really crazy kit out there that costs an absolute fortune it doesn’t make it good, I lost count of the amount of times I walked into a room worth many 10’s of thousands of pounds only to leave uninspired by the cold, clinical, lifeless sound, just goes to show how good Britain is at making hifi that actually makes music, every time I went back into the PMC room it was like the comfy slipper syndrome, it sound sounded so right and musical, helped by the fact that they weren’t playing flute or classical music I guess. So I Just want to say a massive thanks to PMC for giving me the opportunity to join them at the show, as being new to this trade it was a real eye opener and very educational.

Anyway onto the main event, the FACT.12, I spent many an hour listening to these over the last 2 days and to be honest I don’t know where to start, obviously being a FACT.8 fan I had high hopes and unless PMC had made a horrible mistake they were going to be good, but in all honesty I never thought they could be this good, especially considering the cabinet size, only slightly taller and deeper than the FACT.8 but producing a sound that is quite spectacular, they really have defied the laws of physics and somehow created a tardis speaker in my opinion, you almost expected a far larger speaker to be hidden behind the graphics behind the speakers, infact the most common question Tom had to face was ‘So where is the sub hidden?’

Like many others I thought when they were announced at £11,995 it was going to be a tough sell, I was hoping for under £10k really, but I know that once people have experienced these speakers they will agree with me that they are worth every penny, if not more to be honest. I guess it is expected for me to say they are great but I met a guy in the PMC room who had been into HiFi Lounge to demo the MB2 SE’s a month or so ago, he had spent 2 days at the show and declared that the PMC room was amongst the 2 best sounding rooms at the show, the other room was ‘Living Voice’ which are rather large and expensive horn speakers, so for the realtively small FACT.12’s to get an accolade as that from someone, shall we say, more impartial than me, just shows how good the FACT.12’s are.

The FACT.12’s are a total new design compared to the FACT.8’s, only the tweeter remains, now being a big fan of the PMC 75 mid and very accustomed to it I was really keen to hear how the new 2” mid range would compare, in all honesty I really couldn’t hear much, if any difference, obviously it is difficult to draw an exact conclusion until I have the FACT.12’s in here to listen to in a room I know but there was that familiar richness to vocals that the PMC 75 is so well known for and considered by many to be the best mid range cone available, it may be smaller but you wouldn’t know it.

More of a shock to me was the bass performance, the new bass drivers really are quite amazing, many times I would be chatting at the back of the room and this low bass note would come in and everyone would stop in their tracks and look at the speakers in disbelief that those small speakers at the front of the room just produced such a low, rich bass note, but the real star is the speaker as a whole, everything about the sound is so natural, full, rich and effortless with great imaging, separation and great integration across all the drivers, I can only imagine how much work went into getting the crossover so right.

How does it compare to the bigger IB/MB PMC speakers? it is hard to compare directly as the FACT has always been able to do things that the bigger PMC’s couldn’t do, like the clarity and speed, but what PMC have greated in my view is a speaker that has all the key attributes of the FACT.8 but really fleshed it out giving a fuller, richer sound, more organic whilst retaiing that insight and clarity.

I think PMC really do need to be applauded here, as far as I’m concerned they have developed the perfect domestic loudspeaker as it gives big performance like the IB2i, although not the same, but in a cabinet that most people could get away with in their living room. Personally when I’m in a position to build a hifi at home again I always imagined a pair of MB2i’s but I know now that it would be the FACT.12’s for me as they are such a pretty speaker with an amazing full sound that will just vanish into the room compared to any other speaker I know that can perform at this level.

I hope this hasn’t come across as overly keen and people thinking that I just want to sell a few pairs and PMC took me out to the show so I owe them a good reveiw, OK, so I am a little biased to all things PMC, but as an enthusiast I really never thought that the FACT.12 could perform at the level it does, they really are very impressive.

Walking round a show like the High End show in Munich you see many kinds of speaker designs of all shapes and sizes but there really is nothing like the FACT range of speakers, some rooms had huge speakers in that could really only disappoint in reality, where the FACT.12’s won was that it was a very simple display with just the speakers up front and no whacky electronics and there was no mistaking what you were in the room listening to which really helped add to the disbelief that such a huge, full sound was coming from those quite un-assuming speakers in front of the display, great idea :)

In the end, although I liked the white finish I decided to go with the Walnut for demo, so as soon as my demo pair arrive I will be holding a FACT.12 open day as I will be really interested to hear what other people think, but everyone that left the PMC room at Munich all seemed to agree that the FACT.12 was very good indeed as many of them commented.

PMC are hoping to start production by the end of June, so all being well I will have my pair by mid July, although being that this is a brand new speaker made up from many parts PMC are keen to stress that this date could possibly change, fingers crossed it doesn’t though as I really can’t wait to get them in here to really put them through their paces against the MB2 SE’s :)

Here are a a few pictures of the  Fact.12’s, I will also be blogging some other news stories from the show over the weekend, along with some pictures of the weird and wonderful from Munich, I’ve also just added the promotional video PMC have done for the Fact.12 -

http://youtu.be/aKrsE4Sh8qs

A couple of pictures showing the beautiful new white finish.

I thought I would update this with some more pictures that I have just found on a Memory stick given to me by PMC all about the Fact.12, slightly higher quality than mine I have to say but you can never get enough Pictures :-)

I have also now added the Fact.12’s to my website if anyone would like a look -

http://hifilounge.co.uk/pmc-fact-12

Here is also a link to the PMC Fact.12 Brochure -

http://www.pmc-speakers.com/sites/default/files/attachments/420_fact12_brochure_web.pdf

Hi everyone,

As many of you will already know, this coming weekend sees one of the worlds main HiFi shows take place in Munich and thanks to PMC Speakers, who are kindly flying me out for the launch of the Fact.12, I will be flying out tomorrow to sample all of its HiFi delights.

So the bag is packed, the camera charged, the alarm set for silly o’clock tomorrow morning, Munich here I come :-)

Obviously for me the main attraction is the launch of PMC’s new Fact.12 speaker, this should be very special indeed, especially as this is the first time that a variation of PMC’s fantastic mid range cone will be seen in a domestic speaker that will be extremely living room friendly, but I’m also going out to see what other brands take my eye.

I’m really hoping that McIntosh, Audio Research, Krell and Martin Logan have a good showing, but as I’m really keen to bring a valve based brand on board at HiFi Lounge I’m also looking forward to checking out Copland as they have been recommended to me a few times and anything else that may take my eye that is valve based, and I’m pretty sure it goes without saying there will be some weird and wonderful turntables on show, can’t wait, although there could be far too many temptations making it a very dangerous place for a hifi enthusiast.

I will be back late Friday so I will do my best to update this blog asap with pictures and initial impressions of the FACT.12’s but also on any other HiFi kit that takes my fancy.

It’s all very exciting, Auf Wiedersehen :-)

I’m really excited announce that very shortly we will be adding Michell Engineering turntables to our portfolio of brands, they were always on my wish list when I thinking about starting HFL but I had to be a little patient with my plans to bring them on board straight away. Being an Orbe user before starting HiFi lounge I really do know how fantastic these turntables are so I can’t wait to get both the Orbe and Gyro in here for demo. As I’m sure many will agree Both the Gyro Dec and Orbe are 2 of the finest looking turntables ever designed, they have a real presence, but just as importantly, if not more so really, they sound equally amazing. I am hoping that within the next month I will have both turntables here on demo, now I just need to speak to SME to see if I can get an account for their amazing tone arms to partner with the Orbe and Gyro :-) 

We can now take orders so if anyone would like any more information please don’t hesitate to get in touch and all being well we will have all the products up on our site in the next few days.

As many may have noticed, In anticipation of Michell Engineering joining HiFi Lounge I had these 2 banners designed for my homepage, not sure which one I prefer so I keep alternating them for now, + I’ve added a couple of other pictures just to show how stunning the Orbe and Gyro are.

Over the last year or so Rega have steadily been working their way through and updating most of their entire range of products and now the end is in sight with the release of 3 new products that will sit nicely at the mid level of their range and complete the Rega range.

First there is the Saturn-R CD Player that also doubles up as a DAC, then there is the Elicit-R integrated amplifier and the Aria switchable MM/MC phono stage along with new interconnects, the Couple 2, new Speaker cable, the Duet and a new Rega universal Remote, the Solaris.

So there really has never been a better time to look at Rega for all your HiFi needs, especially considering they make some of the best turntables available today at any price.

Please find more info below on these exciting new products, needless to say we will have the full range on demo once available in the coming weeks, if you would like more information please do get in touch.

Saturn-R CD Player / DAC - £1598

http://hifilounge.co.uk/rega-saturn-r-cd-player-dac

The Saturn-R is a high specification CD player and DAC with a 192K-24bit asynchronous USB input. The CD player section will benefit from the use of the dual Wolfson WM8742 DAC’s used in the digital to analogue conversion stage found in the hugely successful Rega DAC. The DAC section offers 2x optical inputs, 2x Co-axial inputs, 1x USB and 1x digital output to feed digital processor. The CD section has an independent ‘direct’ digital output from the CD playback section of the player.

Elicit-R Integrated Amp - £1598

http://hifilounge.co.uk/rega-elicit-r-amplifier

The Rega Elicit-R amplifier further advances the performance of the previous model. Combining the Brio-R power amplifier circuit with the existing Elicit II FET discrete line preamplifier circuit and the programmable stepped attenuator volume control, this third generation Elicit will no doubt be a serious contender. Improvements have been made to the power amplifier circuit with better power supplies and an increase in the output power to 100 Watts per channel. The Elicit-R offers an on-board high specification MM phono stage as standard. Extra provision via the back panel to bypass this internal amplifier via dip switch is available for you to connect an alternate phono stage (such as the Aria MM/MC) via the same socket ensuring those valuable inputs are not wasted

Aria Switchable MM/MC Phono Stage - £798

http://hifilounge.co.uk/rega-aria-mm-mc-phono-stage

Design:

Housed within our latest half width custom designed case are two entirely separate high performance phono stages. One fully adjustable dedicated moving coil and one moving magnet. Each stage is designed and engineered to maximise the potential of your vinyl system whilst remaining easy to use and set up. 

Technology:

The Aria is an “all analogue amplifier” with no digital control circuitry. The fully aluminium case screens the internal circuit from any stray RFI signals. Our designers have avoided including any superfluous gadgets as they obstruct the signal path and degrade the sound quality. The Aria incorporates many innovative design ideas including a self-adjusting servo control to keep the MC input circuit at its optimum, compensating for any variations in ambient or operating temperature. Both stages have their own separate input sockets and input pre-amplifier circuitry. This enabled us to design bespoke input circuitry for each cartridge type without compromise. Signal switching is performed at high level and low impedance (via relays) ensuring there is no degradation of the signal. 

MM Stage design & features:

The MM input uses low noise bipolar input transistors configured as a compound pair. There are two separate power supplies for each channel and further sub power supplies for each of the low noise input circuits. Nichicon FG electrolytic capacitors have been used in critical positions throughout the power supplies. Polypropylene capacitors have been used in the signal path and equalization networks. Discrete circuitry is used throughout the signal path ensuring full control of the circuit design. 

MC stage design & features:

The MC input uses parallel connected low noise FET’s (Field Effect Transistor’s) configured as a compound pair. The use of FET transistors ensures there is no bias current flowing in the cartridge coil so as not to upset the delicate magnetic geometry of the cartridge. The MC input has the provision for selecting resistive input loading of 70Ω to 400Ω and capacitive loading of 1000pF to 4200pF. The input sensitivity can be changed by 6dB, via the back panel.

Couple 2 Interconnect - £99/m

http://hifilounge.co.uk/rega-couple-2-interconnect-cable

This Rega designed cable is manufactured to the highest standard to perfectly complement any audio system. Offering the perfect combination of the highest quality pure copper signal conductor and ultra flexible outer shield, the Couple2 maximises signal transfer whilst providing uniquely high levels of quality and performance. Couple2 utilises purpose designed Rega gold plated phono plugs. The signal pin and screening clamp are joint-less by design keeping the music signal pure. The plugs employ an outer locking sleeve to clamp to your amplifier phono sockets. Simply loosen off the silver sleeve before fitting then tighten once connected to maximise contact and performance. 

Duet Speaker Cable - £14.98/m

http://hifilounge.co.uk/rega-duet-speaker-cable

A brand new high quality Rega designed flat, flexible speaker cable containing 250 strands per channel and totalling 4mm square cross section made from the highest grade 99.99% copper. Designed to maximise the potential of your Rega system, this cable is also a versatile solution for other systems and installs. Available now with optional high spec 4mm gold plated banana plugs.

Solaris Universal Remote - £45

http://hifilounge.co.uk/rega-solaris-remote-control

Rega are proud to announce a brand new system remote handset is available. Designed to accommodate the new functions available with the new Saturn-R and Elicit-R this all-in-one solution offers total control over the current Rega range whilst remaining backwards compatible with all previous remote controlled products

Hi Everyone,

PMC Speakers have just released this tantalising new video to announce the imminent release of their new Fact.12 speaker and its worldwide launch at this years High End Audio Show in Munich next month from 9th-12th May.

In equally exciting news, PMC have offered to fly me out to the Munich Show for the launch of the Fact.12, obviously I thought long and hard about this and after 5 seconds I gratefully accepted their very kind offer, so expect plenty of coverage and pictures once I get back from Munich.

The Fact.12 certainly promises to be a very exciting speaker and a great addition to PMC’s already fantastic lineup of speakers, from what I understand it is going to be a true 3 way speaker design, with a dedicated mid range that is based on their world famous 75mm soft dome mid that is found in their very best speakers of the IB2i’s, MB2i’s and BB5i’s and 2 extremely high quality dedicated bass drivers in a cabinet that is only slightly bigger than the existing Fact.8 cabinet but promising performance to rival PMC’s far bigger IB2i making the ideal speaker for most living environments.

It is certainly going to be an exciting trip and needless to say I have a pair of Fact.12’s on order for demo and as soon as possible we will hold a Fact.12 open day for anyone who would like to be amongst the first to hear what promises to be a very exciting new speaker, watch this space.

Anyway, onto the video, at the end if you look closely enough you can see the true 3 way design with the dedicated mid, that is enough to get me excited :-)

Please click on the below link -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCIyCy-bju0&feature=youtu.be

Hi All,

This is just a quick post as something quite unbelievable happened today, yes after all the waiting the much anticipated Sennheiser HDVD 800 headphone amp finally arrived today.

This has been demoed at shows for the last year or so and was supposed to be with us late last year but never quite made it but now we finally have it on demo, it has been designed to get the most out of the Sennheiser HD700 and HD800 headphones and comes in 2 flavours, there is the analogue HDVA 600 version and the Digital HDVD 800 version which is the model we have on demo.

Anyway after all this waiting I’m off to have a listen and compare it to what I consider to be its 2 main rivals, the Bryston BHA-1 and the new Naim DAC-V1, so I will update this tomorrow once I have drawn some conclusions, in the meantime here are a few pictures to prove that it is actually in the building :-)

UPDATE

Well I’ve just spent the last couple of hours putting the HDVD 800 through its paces and although I’m sure it will benefit from further running in I think its fair to say that this amp definitely offers something different from what I have experienced before in a headphone amp and if you own a pair of HD800’s you certainly need to hear them on the HDVD 800 if you want to hear them as Sennheiser intended.

The one thing that strikes you straight away is how clean and precise the presentation is, this is an extremely revealing and transparent amp, if you want to hear everything that went on in a recording then pair this amp with the HD800’s and you have one of the most analytical presentations I have ever heard, not in a cold way though, in an absorbing and drawn in way.

I was using the Naim ND5 XS streamer as a source fed into the HDVD 800 via SPDIF so I could access my playlist of my favourite demo songs, one of my all time favourites being Massive Attack’s ’Teardrop’ I have listened to this on a many many systems over the years with varying price tags but I’m convinced that in the intro I could hear things that I have never heard before, particularly a sound that fades from left to right and back and forth, it is so clear on the HDVD 800 / HD800 combo, this is one of the things that really impressed me, there is amazing separation and stereo imaging, I know with headphones you would expect nothing less but somehow the Sennheiser combination seems to present a very large soundstage for a headphone setup and with the clarity this combo brings you hear stereo like never before.

Compared to the Bryston BHA-1/BDA-1 with the HD 800’s, well they do things very differently, the Bryston rig hasn’t got the out and out resolution, detail and separation but offers a fuller more analogue, organic and I guess natural presentation, that if I’m honest I could probably listen to for longer periods without fatigue. To be fair, my BHA-1 has had a lot of use and I’m really hoping that when the HDVD 800 has got similar hours on it that it will fill out a little and the higher frequencies will smooth out a little, hopefully without affecting the detail.

I guess the new Sennheisers main contender is the new Naim DAC-V1 as they both offer similar spec and at a similar price, but again they are very different beasts when it comes to presentation, the DAC-V1 having that classic Naim sound, great drive and a lovely full midrange but again not achieving anywhere near the levels of detail that the HDVD 800 can attain.

As ever with anything in HiFi it really does come down to general preference as we are all looking for different attributes and presentations for our favourite music, one thing’s for sure though, the HDVD 800 definitely brings something different to the headphone arena and if you are after ultimate resolution and detail retrieval but still very musical then I would certainly recommend a demo especially if you already own a pair of HD 800’s, saying that I tried our Audeze LCD-3’s on it and they sounded great also, in fact they worked really well as they are not as revealing as the HD 800’s but far richer, so the extra detail of the HDVD 800 really gave them a different feel.

It may have been a long time coming but it has definitely been worth the wait, I’m really looking forward to it running in a little more so I can spend some more time with it, as I’ve got that bug of trying all my favourite albums with the HDVD 800 and HD 800 combo as I know It will bring out secrets that are lurking deep in the recordings that I have never heard before, and being a bit of a detail fan that is right up my street.

Well done Sennheiser, The combo of the HDVD 800 and HD 800’s really does offer a reference headphone setup, with the HDVD 800 really showing what the HD 800’s are capable of, much like the new HiFiMan EF-6 amp maximising the performance of the HE-6’s.

If you’ve got a pair of HD 800’s and what to try them with the HDVD 800 or want to explore what an amazing experience a top end headphone setup can sound like please get in touch to book an appointment in our headphone room where you will be left in peace to explore all the different options available today.

Thanks, Paul.

Thought I’d take a few pictures now that the Headphone room is nearly complete, just waiting on Stax for the finishing touch.