News

Putting in an appearance for the first time at The Bristol Hi-Fi Show back in February, British speaker brand Falcon Acoustics has partnered with UK distributor Karma-AV. The first fruit of this team up is the introduction of the Reference Audio Monitor (RAM) Studio series with three models: Studio 10, 20 and 30. The first and smallest in the range, the Studio 10 (from £1,395), is a two-way ported standmount loudspeaker with a 150mm mid/bass driver and custom 25mm soft dome tweeter. Falcon says it’s designed to deliver a smooth and detailed response, precise imaging and an extended soundstage and is rated at 89dB sensitivity into 8ohm.

By its own admission, AudioQuest is a tweaker – and the latest modifications to its Rocket cable range are on the launch pad. The affordable Rocket 11 (£12. 50/m pictured above) and 22 (£20/m) speaker cables are suitable for bi-wiring applications, and AudioQuest is confident ofthe improvement they’ll bring to any home audio setup. Both cables feature what itcalls “semi-solid true-concentric conductors” for the first time.

Just like the summer weather, the British floorstanding loudspeaker market is hotting up. We’ve seen several impressive high value for money floorstanding designs of late that offer serious hi-fi clout for a relatively low outlay. Regular readers will have marvelled at the 3050i from Q Acoustics that we reviewed last month, which received a coveted Editor’s Choice award and is the hottest, value floorstander we’ve seen so far. But contenders are already lining up to take its crown – including this month’s £600 cover star, Fyne Audio’s F303 (p46), and Monitor Audio’s Monitor 300 (p60), priced at just £550.

Wilson Audio is perhaps best known for its high-end floorstanding loudspeaker designs with their uncompromising levels of performance and money-no-object designs. We've been lucky enough to experience some of the brand's extraordinary models at The Hi-Fi Show Live showcases runby our sister title Hi-Fi News, and the brand is sure to draw eager crowds once again to its UK distributor Absolute Sounds' listening rooms at this year's event running from 10-11 November – advanced tickets on sale now through eventbrite. co. uk.

IsoTek has unveiled a trio of new mains conditioner products that include a mains power cleaner, mains synchroniser and 12-way power conditioner. Kicking off with the mains power cleaner, the new EVO3 Gemini is a compact two-way solution rated at 10A and offering filtration of common and differential mode mains noise. It costs £249 and is available from July. The Syncro Uni incorporates DC-cancelling electronics to reduce transformer hum when used with hi-fi separates.

Chord Electronics opted to use the High End Show in Munich (see full show report in the July issue, now on sale)to debut its next-generation analogue amplifier design – claimed to be its first fundamentally new topology since the company’s inception back in 1989. Developed and implemented by Chord’s owner and managing director, John Franks, the Choral Étude stereo power amplifier is describedby the Kent-based company as heralding a new era for powerful, wide bandwidth, low noise and low distortion amplifiers. Based upon multi-feedback and dual feed-forward error-correction amplifier technology, the new design intelligently adjusts and compensates the high-powered MOSFETs, which have been arranged into two banks of four. Power output is rated (conservatively according to Chord) at 150W into 4ohm or 300W in bridged mono mode and comes from proprietary ultra-compact switch-mode high-frequency power supplies – one of which controls the auxiliary rails, while the othertwo feed the high-current active power rails.