Sound & Vision The Bristol Show 2010 (Part 4)

March 01, 2010 — Article

Sound & Vision The Bristol Show 2010: Part 4…

Acoustic Energy Reference

British speaker firm Acoustic Energy announced that it has been inspired by its pro audio roots with the Reference bookshelf speaker. It features a DXT Lens tweeter, which matches the high frequency dispersion to that of the bass/mid driver to improve integration and deliver a more natural sound.

The underhung bass/mid driver features an ultra long-throw oversized magnet for lower distortion and greater power handling while the self-damping cabinet is made of two layers of MDF surrounding a rubber strip. The Acoustic Energy Reference will be on sale in April for £1,500, dedicated stands an extra £250.

KEF Concept Blade

KEF demonstrated its latest concept model, the Blade. Though it’s unlikely to become a consumer product, much of the technology developed for it over the last three years is likely to appear in future KEF speakers.

It has a new, tenth generation Uni-Q point source driver with ‘tangerine waveguide’ at the front of the curved cabinet, which is made from a carbon fibre developed for Formula One racing cars. At the sides are four 10in bass drivers, glued together in pairs in force-cancelling configuration.

Vienna Acoustics Klimt Kiss

Newly brought to the UK by Cyrus, this German brand offers a range of speakers from the high end to the simply pricey – £1,000-£20,000. At the higher reaches of the scale is the Klimt Kiss at £18,500 including its distinctive stand.

Seen here in its smaller incarnation without its additional bass driver, it has a distinctive non-circular coaxial driver cone called the ‘spider’ because of the acoustically defined web lines that stretch across it, which are said to give it added strength and resonance control.

Each of the speakers is housed in a separate cabinet and the tweeter box at the top can be angled via a pair of adjustment rods at the back for perfect positioning.

Vienna Acoustics Concert Grand series

Vienna Acoustics also has a broad range of quality stereo speakers in its Concert Grand series, which runs from the Beethoven with its three 7in spidercone woofers, 6in midrange driver and 1.1in silk dome tweeter…

…to the standmount Haydn with its single 5in bass/mid driver and 1in tweeter.

Chord CPM 2800

The Chord Company showed off a suitably ostentatious digital integrated amplifier in the CPM 2800. It offers 2 x 170W RMS along with three pairs of single-ended RCA inputs, two pairs of XLR balanced or RCA phono single-ended inputs, plus coax and optical digital inputs.

It also has Chord’s aerial-boosted Bluetooth wireless connection offering lossless streaming to a suitably adapted iPod or mobile phone up to a 30m range. It’s on sale now for £6,025.

Chord Cyan Click

Chord’s other newbie was the diminutive Cyan Click amplifier which comes in 100W or 50W flavours.

Both offer a pair of single-ended RCA phono inputs and a pair of XLR balanced inputs, as well as coax, optical and USB digital inputs as well as A2DP stereo Bluetooth. Both are available now, the 100W version for £4,215, the 50W for £3,875.

Yamaha YSP-5100

Yamaha was first in the affordable soundbar pool and its latest is the YSP-5100. It’s an expanded version of last year’s £1,200 YSP-4100 and is suitable for 50in screens or larger. It’s a fully enclosed virtual surround system with built-in 7.1 AV receiver capable of pumping out 120 watts total power from its 40 beam drivers plus an additional woofer and tweeter at each end.

If its onboard sound isn’t enough, it uses Yamaha’s AirWired wireless tech to connect to an additional sub (£150) and there’s also a wireless iPod dongle available for £150. The YSP-5100 is available now for £1,500.

Arcam Solo Neo

Arcam debuted the next evolution of its Solo one-box music system at the Bristol Show. The Neo includes a CD player with 24-bit Wolfson DAC, 50W RMS amplifier and DAB/FM radio tuner but now includes networking capabilities via its Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections for hooking up to internet radio, NAS drives or computers on your network.

It will also play music from memory sticks or hard drives via its USB port and can handle WAV, MP3, AAC, WMA and lossless FLAC file formats. The Arcam Solo Neo will be on sale either late April or early May for around £1,350.

REL G1 subwoofer

REL’s mighty new subwoofer is the G1, which features a massive 12in long throw driver with carbon fibre cone in an elliptically shaped cabinet. It offers 700 watts of class A/B power and includes separate high and low level inputs, each with their own volume controls.

If you really need to, it’s possible to daisy-chain two or more G1s together and it comes with a distinctive circular remote control. The G1 is due to go on sale in April in a choice of poplar, black and cherry finishes for £2,500. A more modest version will be the G2, which has a 10in driver and 500 watts of class A/B power.

Castle speakers

Castle speakers have been absent from the UK for a few years but they burst back at the Bristol Show with the Knight series. The brand is now owned by the IAG group, which also has the likes of Quad, Mission and Wharfedale in its roster.

There are three floorstanding models in the range along with two standmounts: the Knight 5 (£1,000), Knight 4 (£800), Knight 3 (£600), Knight 2 (£400) and Knight 1 (£200). All are available in a range of real wood veneer finishes sourced from sustainable timers: black oak, natural oak, antique oak, maple, cherry, rosewood, walnut and mahogany. The Knight series is available from now.


All about ...

Acoustic Energy
Arcam
Chord Electronics
KEF
REL
Vienna Acoustics
Yamaha