News

Welcome to the November 2015 issue of Hi-Fi Choice – the essential guide to getting the best possible sound from your hi-fi, whether you're buying, tuning or tweaking. . . 


 This is a very good time of year to think about buying yourself a pair of stout new shoes.

Following on from the success of its excellent Hugo DAC (on test HFC 386), Chord Electronics has unveiled a new portable digital-to-analogue converter aimed specifically at the large number of people that listen to their music on their smartphone. Mojo connects digitally to smartphones and portable devices via either Micro USB (a cable is supplied), optical or a 3. 5mm coaxial input and is capable of playing back all format types, including the hi-res Dop and DSD 64, 128 and 256 options. Mojo utilises a new Atrix-7 FPGA chipset from Silicon Valley's Xilinx, which is a programmable circuit that Chord claims makes Mojo the most advanced DAC on the planet.

Ruark’s R4 Integrated Music System (IMS) incorporates a CD player, aptX Bluetooth connectivity, DAB/DAB+/FM tuners with a 2. 1 speaker system. The third-generation R4 IMS looks familiar but, says Ruark, it has a sleeker profile, an OLED display, RotoDial controller and an ergonomically designed remote. The updated slot-loading CD mechanism provides CD text info with compatible discs, and the rear panel has a USB playback port for MP3, AAC and WMA files (which also doubles as a mobile charge port) along with optical digital and RCA analogue inputs.

Announced at the IFA Show in Berlin, Sony’s new CAS-1 Compact Audio System comes with support for 24-bit/192kHz hi-res and DSD 2. 8MHz audio. We’re told it has independent amplifier sections – one to drive the partnering speakers using Sony’s proprietary S-Master HX high-resolution audio amplifier, while the other drives the headphone output section and has a dedicated adjustable gain control to accommodate different headphone impedances. Connectivity includes the facility to attach your smartphone via Sony’s SongPal app and stream your music using LDAC-supported Bluetooth and NFC.

Audiolab’s 8200CD CD player won a well-deserved Recommended badge back in HFC 340, and now its long-awaited successor, the 8300CD, spearheads the all-new 8300 Series, which also includes the 8300A – a completely redesigned update of its original integrated amp. Available in silver or black, the 8300CD is built around the Sabre32 9018 DAC which, it’s claimed, reduces jitter to the levels expected from a much more expensive player. It processes data up to 32-bit/384kHz via USB, and also accepts DSD files, while a full range of inputs and outputs have been retained from the original models, along with an AES/EBU digital input and XLR digital output. The 8300A has a dual-mono power amplifier section delivering 75W into 8ohm and is powered by a 300VA toroidal transformer.

Want to find a way of getting your music distributed around the home without going down the Sonos (or the like) route, yet desire the same kind of multi-room integration using more traditional audio components? Yamaha's MusicCast range of products has arrived with the aim of doing just this. With its own multi-room standard integratedinto its new series of hi-fi components, soundbars and AV receivers, it allows audio to be shared over wired and wireless networks as well as using Bluetooth and AirPlay through connected devices. If the MusicCast name sounds familiar, it's because it is the monicker (but not the tech) that was also given to the brand's hard-disk-based system launched in 2003. With 23 MusicCast products announced – including the MCR-N670D micro system (£700) pictured – there looks to be plenty of component options to enable customers to quickly establish a multi-room setup and share any input on any MusicCast device with any other around the home.

Schumann’s rarely recorded Das Paradies und die Peri featuring a superb lineup of soloists is set to becomeSir Simon Rattle's debut recording on LSO Live with the release of this special boxset containing two SACDs and a Pure Audio Blu-ray disc. Well known as a champion of this rarely heard work, this is the first audio recording Rattle has made of Schumann’s great oratorio. As Sir Simon Rattle says: "It’s the great masterpiece you’ve never heard, and there aren’t many of those now. .