Good News - The new firmware for the AVR550 & 850 adds full DIRAC EQ of the height channels!
Bad News - DTS-X Update wont be with us until Q4 of 2016 with no exact date as yet.
Bad News - Prices are going up as of 1st August £2699 for an AVR500 & £4499 for an AVR850.
Good News - There is a new base level AVR! The AVR390 which will come in at £1999. Similar spec to the AVR550 but no toroidal transformer.
For those of you who were interested our art journey, you may remember that we sponsored a tour of paper butterflies made by an anonymous artist who as left wonderful paper sculptures in libraries and museums. We gathered together paper butterflies made by young and not so young from all over the world. These have now been made into a final, paper sculpture by the anonymous 'booksy'. The Butterfly Tree and Lost Child can be seen at the Edinburgh Book Festival. If you are in Edinburgh during August, you are welcome to have a peek at this wonderful collaborative project that we are pleased to have supported.
My yearly round of amplifier tests starts in earnest. We have a bit of a queue forming this year and all of the following will be assessed at some point over the next few months; Marantz SR7011, Denon AVR-X6300, Pioneer SC-LX901, Arcam AVR390 & Yamaha RX-A3060. The latter was first through the door this year.
I managed to get the 3060 set up over last weekend and have so far lived with it for a number of nights. For reference it replaced an Arcam AVR550 which I have been running for the past 6 months waiting for the first of the new arrivals to test.
The general look of the chassis has not changed for some years, but it would appear that something may have changed underneath. Overall I have to say I think it is an improvement over the RX-A3050 which I tested last year; in some key areas. It was difficult to put my finger on exactly why as the changes were subtle; but for me, important. I do feel this year’s unit is a bit more balanced, particularly with dialogue which is what the RX-A3050 I felt struggled with. The RX-A3050 last year seemed to almost sound different every time I sat down with it, and I was constantly trying to adjust it for differing content. This year it was definitely not the case and once set-up I have left it as is. From late night listening to large scale DTS-X soundtracks all were portrayed with a very even, likable hand.
The Yamaha to my ear has its usual a very easy going sound out of the box; which for dialogue needs crisping up a little to hear the pronunciation of the words at lower volumes. Some editing with the manual PEQ setting on the centre channel brought much more insight to the sound. Overall I have been really impressed. I strongly believe you can make the Yamaha’s sound how you want them to sound, at a base level with the manual PEQ and also on a system & surround effect level with the adjustment of the DSP surround mode editing on an I-pad.
If there is areas of criticism, the EQ section is laid out poorly and the menu system is a little complex for most basic users. I also found the video scaler added no discernable benefits to the video performance, turned on it actually produced some minor image tearing on football scaled to 4K. All in all, it is a very accomplished performer, well worth its asking price. Next Up Pioneers SC-LX901.
The second of this year’s tests starts in earnest and the Pioneer SC-LX901 is next up to bat, replacing the recently reviewed Yamaha RX-A3060 in my system at home. There seems to be a major overhaul with Pioneer this year which probably has something to do with the recent purchase of the brand by the Onkyo Corporation. This as it turns out looks to be a large positive. The set-up menu system has been totally overhauled, and the graphical user interface is much better laid out than previous iterations with a higher resolution and better graphics, by far the best looking on the market. The entry point into the on-screen menus is familiar giving the options for; System set-up, MCACC Set-up and Network/Bluetooth Setup and rather than the cluttered jumble usually presented on high end amplifiers. This is easy to navigate with clear options as to what you are changing and what the effect of that change will be.
As usual the MCACC excels at the set-up stage, and is by far the best automatic EQ system on the market provided by a Japanese manufacturer. The fact the amplifier seems to make a huge stab at correcting for phase within the system is a massive plus point. Distances were correct down to the centimeter and levels were bang on including the subwoofer which is rare from these basic automated systems. I didn’t take any amount of care with the initial EQ mic position, rested on the back of the sofa for an initial run gleamed a great result, so much so that I didn’t feel the need to revisit this. I suspect if I had with a proper mic stand, the results would have been even more impressive, if that is even possible. So many EQ systems particularly Audyssey are fussy about the microphone positions, it is refreshing to see one that isn’t and still gives a fantastic result giving it a clear advantage to the novice user.
Pioneer amplifiers in the past have often been described as “bright” which is unfair, they are not bright but rather very clear, ruthlessly so. If there are any issues within your system, chances are the Pioneer may find them. What I experienced was a super accurate clean joyous sound, not bright at all. Over the years Pioneer seemed to have developed their digital amplifiers to the point where they are super-efficient giving you loads of power on tap, without the unit itself ever getting stressed or harsh sounding. In previous years Pioneer included their X-Curve system for people who felt the top end was a bit lively. Proper use of this tamed the amplifier in larger rooms, at higher volumes, to great effect. This year’s amplifier seems to be happy at higher volumes and the further refinement of the digital amplification would appear to have enabled Pioneer to remove this feature form the 901 (or at least I couldn’t find it!).
Rather like Denon & Marantz products 3D up mixing was confined to its original source material so DTS Master Audio cannot be used with the Dolby Surround Up mixer, no great shakes as the unit seems to seamlessly switch between the two while also letting you have a preferred-up mixer for TV for example.
The real star of the show though is Pioneer I-pad control app, leagues ahead of the competition. This gives you brilliant access to the main features in the unit, Hi-Res 2ch up conversion, bass & dialogue emphasis and overall system emphasis. Usually I would avoid any tweaking after the initial set-up as you invariably make things sound worse. The Pioneer is slightly different. It seems to have the ability to subtly change the sound with clever finger swipes and pinches, without effecting the initial EQ to any great degree. Most importantly, once you are done fiddling, it is east to get back to the original refence point. Again, brilliant for the novice user to maximize their enjoyment of the system.
Add into the fact that the 4K video scaler is very good, way better than most TV’s internal scalers making all video content benefit, 11 channels of internal amplification and build quality like a tank, makes it a serious contender alongside the likes of any Anthem or Arcam with their advanced EQ system. For my two pence, I think it is outstanding. The Pioneer SC-LX901 is now on demonstration in the shop.
Next up, the Marantz SR7011………….
Dan
Absolutely nothing to do with Commander Bond’s least favourite secret criminal organization, SPEKTOR is a new affordable range of DALI speakers, engineered to the high standards you expect from your favourite Danish brand, and designed to complement the existing PICO and ZENSOR offerings.
The new range will comprise four bass-reflex models at launch, all being available in either black ash or walnut. The baby of the range is the £159 SPEKTOR 1, boasting a 4.5in wood-fibre bass driver married to a 21mm soft dome tweeter.
SPEKTOR 2 (£199) ups the ante by incorporating a 5.25in woofer married to a more capable 25mm soft dome tweeter in a slightly larger cabinet. Topping the range is the £499 SPEKTOR 6, a beautifully proportioned floor stander with two 6.5in woofers partnered with the same 25mm soft dome tweeter.
Last but not least, there’s the all-important centre-speaker model, the £169 SPEKTOR VOKAL. Boasting a pair of the 4.25in bass drivers used in the SPEKTOR 1, allied to the larger 25mm tweeter from the SPEKTOR 6, the VOKAL will deliver outstanding clarity as well as superb dispersion.
Trinnov have announced that the will be launching a slimmed down version of the Altitude32 later in the year. The Altitude32 has yet to be challenged technologically, especially in terms of its rendering and processing, but Trinnov felt a fully-featured and capable mid-level immersive audio processor was still missing on the market. Trinnov intends to change that. Details are still scant but the unit will include 3D-Remapping and the Optimizer which are two features which currently make the Trinnov Altitude the best domestic home cinema processor money can buy. We expect to see this unit around September 2017.
We have now added Piega Loudspeakers to our range. Piega's speakers hone a mixture of ribbon technology and seamless aluminium housings - Which are one of the main features responsible for the outstanding sound characteristics of their loudspeakers.
Piega was founded over 25 years ago, and the passion of Leo Greiner and Kurt Scheuch to develop and build speakers has continued unabated, as well as their ambitious aim that the sound from Piega loudspeakers must "reproduce" the original.
All Piega Loudspeakers come with a 6 year warranty. Contact us for a demonstration, ill be adding the range to our website in the coming days.
Prices range from £250 - £16,000
PIEGA WEBSITE - CLICK HERE
I finally got this puppy set up in the demonstration room which is on loan from Goldenear. It is just running in at the moment but I have already placed an order for a demonstration unit based on it's out of the box performance. Once both are run in and I have had a proper listen Ill produce a written review.
It’s been a while since we had a general news roundup, so here we go!
Subwoofers - Velodyne
I’ve recently completed an in-depth course of calibration training with Velodyne, mainly covering their DD+ range of subwoofers. While these have been on the market for some time, they still offer the pinnacle of performance and room EQ technology of any subwoofers on the market today, and trust me I’ve heard and sold them all. What makes them unique is a couple of things. Firstly, the RTA (Real Time Room Analyser) giving you an invaluable tool to find the best position for your woofer/s in any room. The unique way the set-up test tone sweeps through the entire system, not just the subwoofer means you can not only analyse the subwoofers performance, but also the crossover accuracy of the main and surround speakers as well as well as their integration. This also lets you set up multiple subwwoofers perfectly, as the test tone sweeps these at the same time taking them into account during each step of the calibration. For those tricky rooms including the stacking of multiple subwoofers to gain bass height or extra delivery in a sweet spot, the Velodyne also includes a manual 8 band Parametric EQ which works at the same time as the RTA, giving you instant feedback for a manual tune up. Notwithstanding the performance of the subwoofers (which nothing can touch) these features alone take the guesswork out of bass, and particularly the set-up of multiple units. We have permanent dual DD10+ subwoofers set up in our small demo room if you wanted to experience – perfect bass, if ever there were such a thing?
Room EQ – Trinnov Optimiser 2.0
I recently had the pleasure of testing a Trinnov ST-2 Hi-Fi at home on my hi-fi system. The main components of my hi-fi at home are; Audio Research SP9 Tube Pre-amplifier, Arcam Alpha 10P Power Amplifier and Harbeth Monitor 30.1 speakers. I’ve been happy with the sound of my hi-fi, and the inclusion of the Trinnov into the system was partly to compliment my ongoing research into room EQ and its effects on various systems (good and bad). What it gave me more than anything was a visual insight in the form of graphs into the acoustic problems within this room and area, and how best to tackle them. It flat out improved my sound in this room, that is without question, significantly so. This shouldn’t be a surprise as it is the same technology in use in their cinema processor the infamous, Altitude. Most impressive was its ability to still let the system breathe and not remove its natural sound which is very accurate and warm anyway, probably more important to listeners in hi-fi systems than in a cinematic scenario.
Projectors – Optoma & Sony
Optoma have released some 4K UHD capable DLP projectors, the UHD-60 is available now for £2498, its larger sibling the UHD-65 will be available later in the year and will sport a better contrast ratio. While not a native 4K chip, our experiences with “faux 4K” on projectors have overall been positive, most outperforming the native 4K Sony’s these days on both specification and performance so we look forward to seeing it in action. Speaking of Sony, they will launch a replacement for the VPL-VW320es next month. After a couple of years of small upgrades, we are hoping for something significant. Time will tell.
TV – LOEWE & Panasonic OLED
Anyone who knows me knows I’ve had more flat screen TV’s than I care to mention, something like 13 in 12 years. With the advent of OLED technology and the price of these screens tumbling it was finally time to move to the more innovative technology of OLED at home. Traditional LED TV’s have been developed now to the point that they are actually very good, the recent Panasonic 902 being a notable highlight. Unfortunately, the technology was never designed to hold a moving image, let alone be a TV set. The re-purposing of this technology (mostly it seems based on low energy consumption and cheap build costs) has some legacy effects in terms of being able to light the LED TV panel evenly, and marks in the image known as DSE (Dirty Screen Effect) on motion with a consistent colored background (skiing and football being the worst culprits) plagued LED sets and seemed to be part of the manufacturing process. In recent years efforts have been made to use dimmable zones to control the light on LED sets which in most manufacturers screens have produced more consistent, blacker images, but when you are already starting from poor, these improvements put in context seems less impressive. Dimmable zones produced another problem of haloing, where light and dark scenes are adjacent on the screen the screen lights the whole “zone” creating a light halo, again not great. Plasma screens were the answer for some considerable period, providing great consistency, but as the resolutions got higher so did the energy consumption and at the dawn of the age of 4K, plasma was extinct. OLED was somewhat a whisper of a promise for many years, Sony produced the very first OLED screen which you could go into a shop and buy, but only LG committed to it and bet that it would be the display technology of the future. Years of high panel failure rates off the production line along with a major accident killing staff on the OLED production line failed to dampen their commitment to the point now where LG are the only producer of OLED panel technology for TV sets in the world. Reliability has soared and prices have come down, effectively leaving us with a massive leap in picture quality from both LED and Plasma, truly the display technology of the next age. Some discussion still rages about the perceived limit of the brightness of OLED compared to LED sets, which in the most part is true. In my view, it depends on the purposing of the monitor and in the real world, side by side there is no doubt in my mind that OLED is a considerable leap forward in consistency and quality. While we can sell all the current OLED sets including LG and Sony, we have LOEWE and Panasonic sets on display in our showroom and are happy to answer any questions.
Speakers – Piega
Our Piega Classic speakers have been running in the demonstration area for a few weeks now and are really starting to shine. For AV use I have always loved what is possible from ribbon tweeters and the Piega sports one of the best on the market. If you are in the market for a larger speaker I would seriously consider them. They have garnered some great reviews over the past few months and make some very impressive higher end offerings for Hi-Fi enthusiasts and cinema buffs alike. We can offer demonstrations of these models by appointment should anyone be interested.
We have been tasked by PIEGA to help clear out some models which are about to be or have been discontinued. There are limited numbers of these available. All of them are currently listed in our special offers section of the website, link below.
themovierooms