A startup called Spatial is unveiling its first suite of products today, focused on creating audio experiences that are immersive, interactive, and automatically generated. The products themselves are a little complicated to explain, but the result is simple: ambient and interactive audio for public spaces that’s easy to create and more dynamic than the usual tracks.
Although Spatial has a consumer offering, the most likely customers are going to be businesses. Think hotels that want a different audio experience in their lobby, theme parks that want to develop audio for their spaces faster, brand activations, or AR experiences (National Geographic is an investor). Think about how corny the canned audio at the zoo often is; Spatial wants to fix that.
In one demo a couple of weeks ago, I sat in a room and heard the sounds of a forest all around me, with birds chirping in one spot and then moving to another — until a dragon flew overhead and scared them all away for a little while.
That’s frankly nothing special: audio positioned in space is simple. What’s complex is the engine that created all of that audio. Spatial’s goal is to make designing custom sound for a space easy and also to make that sound happen generatively instead of on a loop or a track. There are three main pieces to it.
First, there’s Spatial Studio, a Mac app that’s a sort of unholy melding of Logic and Unreal Engine. It defines a 3D space where users can place audio objects – either sounds they’ve created themselves or pulled from Spatial’s library. Users can even pipe in live audio as an object – say, if they want to bring the sound of the nearby ocean up into the lobby or just run a Sonos stream.
What’s special about Spatial is that those audio objects have behaviors. A bird might move along a predetermined track (with some randomness so it doesn’t get boring) or an ocean tide might appear at certain times of day, for example. Those audio objects might also react — either to each other or to something that happens in the real space.
The second part of Spatial’s system is turning all those dynamic audio objects into actual sound that you can hear in a space. For that, it uses Mac minis (or, for corporate customers, Linux) to run a real-time audio engine called Spatial Reality. It will take inputs from various sensors if need be, or simply let the little audio world run its course — and since the things in that little audio world have different behaviors, it will sound different all of the time. Spatial has also created an iPhone app for more direct interaction.
You’d think the third part is the speakers, but that’s actually Spatial’s third trick: it can work with any speaker setup. Spatial’s engine serves as an abstraction layer that is aware of the speakers’ position in the room and automatically adjusts the sound to ensure correct 3D positioning of the audio. Instead of a strict set of placement rules, Spatial can work with what you’ve got.
Michael Plitkins, one of the cofounders, tells me that fundamentally he believes that laying down audio on a static track is backwards. It’s better, he says, to let the computers figure it out in real time based on what they know about the speaker system. As the product stands right now, Spatial isn’t bothering with any real-time tuning to the audio in the room. It will work with any speaker setup, but users will need to program in what they have in the Spatial Studio app.
At the start, Spatial’s main competition is some combination of Muzak for public spaces and whatever custom tools Disney Imagineers use for the audio in their theme parks. It may appeal to some hobbyists too — part of the inspiration for the company was Plitkins’ desire to create a soundscape in his own back yard. I had a demo of that space too, complete with cave sounds under the deck so authentic it was eerie.
Whomever the customers end up being, it probably won’t be an easy sell. (And launching a product meant mainly for public spaces while a pandemic is still on is another challenge.) Dynamically created rain and birdsong doesn’t sound any different from a static audio track if you only listen for a couple minutes.
But during a long interview in a conference room where the team explained the ins and outs of their product, they turned off the cabin in the woods-themed audio that had been gently playing the whole time. The silence was weirdly stressful, the way conference rooms usually are.
We’re celebrating all things British hi-fi this week on What Hi-Fi?, so we had to include our newly updated round-up of our favourite sets of speakers to have emerged from these isles.
This list includes some big, some small, some heavenly high-end, some much more affordable – but all straight from the top draw when it comes to performance-per-pound value.
Our verdict? The hi-fi industry has been, and continues to be, spoilt with British engineering talent, as you can see for yourself from the following list of superlative hi-fi speakers…
See all our British Hi-Fi Week 2021 reviews and features
Wharfedale Diamond I (1982)
The original Wharfedale Diamonds were the seeds for what has become one of the most successful speaker ranges of all time.
While speakers these days come in more shapes and sizes than ever before, these pint-sized efforts, standing at just 24cm high, were designed for those who needed a speaker to fit into a tight space.
They had a particularly praiseworthy midrange and bass considering their budget price, though they were slightly fussy in terms of partnering kit, working better with more upmarket amplification.
That Was Then… Wharfedale Diamond review
Heybrook HB1 (1983)
Heybrook was a British hi-fi manufacturer that started life in 1978 and was named after Devon’s Heybrook Bay, which was near the site of the company’s original factory.
Heybrook got off to a flying start after its inception, with the Peter Comeau-designed, entry-level HB1s proving a highlight of What Hi-Fi?‘s early years. It was the first product to win three What Hi-Fi? Awards in a row, no less.
With a sealed box design, they worked well close to a wall, but aside from that, thanks to a high-quality finish and dynamic sound, the HB1 were another example of a speaker that could hold its own against much more expensive efforts.
Acoustic Energy AE1 (1988)
Acoustic Energy’s AE1 were also smaller speakers whose performance belied their size. They were capable of impressive punch and dynamic reach – in part thanks to their metal drivers, which were rare at that time.
They also weren’t limited to one decade, evolving over several years and several variations to inspire what is today one of our favourite active speakers, the suitably-named AE1 Active.
Epos ES11 (1991)
We enter the ’90s with Epos’ ES11, which were similar in sonic character to the legendary ES14 but available for a fraction of the price. A win-win, then.
As was usual for the brand, the crossover was minimal – it employed a single capacitor for the tweeter – helping them produce surprisingly sturdy bass and excellent resolution, in addition to superb rhythmic drive and dynamic expression.
A modest-looking but really musical pair of speakers, they could deliver just the right amount of aggression, delicacy and restraint as a song demanded.
Monitor Audio Studio 20 (1992)
The Studio 20 were, back in 1992, one of the most detailed-sounding speakers we’d encountered.
They needed some fine-tuning and a fair bit of running-in thanks to those metal drivers but, these issues aside, they were incredibly well finished and sounded terrific.
It was no surprise that their successors, the new-and-improved Studio 20 SE, arrived a few years later and occupied our test rooms as our reference model for many years.
13 of the best Monitor Audio products of all time
Mission 753 (1992)
The 753 were an important speaker in Mission’s history, ushering in a new slim floorstander design no wider than an, erm, ice skate (see above).
Both looking and sounding the business, they had a smörgåsboard of drive units with four 13cm drivers – two mid/bass drivers, two low bass units – and a single 25cm dome tweeter, through which a fast and punchy sound ensured whatever they were playing was enjoyably involving.
Tannoy Mercury M2 (1997)
The Mercury M2 made an immediate impression when they burst onto the scene in the late ’90s. Back then, we said they were the closest anyone had come to creating the perfect mass-market standmounter.
Quite frankly, our ears hadn’t heard a more satisfyingly musical all-rounder at their price (£150), so it’s hardly surprising that we called them “an extremely safe bet [that] will suit a wide variety of systems”.
Wilson Benesch A.C.T. One (1999)
Five years after launching its first product, the Wilson Benesch Turntable, the British company launched a second: the A.C.T. One speaker.
Unveiled at the 1994 Frankfurt High End show, the floorstanders, were made mostly out of carbon fibre (like many Wilson Benesch speakers after them), introducing the world’s first curved carbon fibre composite panel in a speaker design.
These superbly-engineered and elegant-looking towers were the most analytical and musical speakers we’d heard before the turn of the century.
Read the full Wilson Benesch A.C.T One review
Quad ELS 2805 (2008)
This side of the millennium we have the Quad ELS 2805. After all, it would be sacrilege to not include one of the British company’s legendary electrostatic speakers in this list. So here it is.
“Fifty years after its electrostatic speakers first wowed the hi-fi world, Quad breaks new ground,” we said of the 2805 in 2008.
These one-way speakers (meaning there was no crossover in the signal path) fired equal amounts of sound backwards and forwards, so care was needed setting up. Any bother was well worth it, though. The lack of punch and slightly lumpy bass were drawbacks, but in every other way they were truly exceptional performers.
Read the fullQuad ESL-2805 review
B&W 800 Diamond (2012)
Continuing the high-end trend, these £18,500 speakers represented the pinnacle of B&W’s cutting-edge technology back in 2012. “The ultimate expression of all the company’s trademark technologies.” This has since manifested itself in the latest Diamond range.
From tweeter domes made out of diamond, to cleverly braced and shaped cabinets, to cones made out of Kevlar, they were innovative speakers that at the time showcased unrivalled clarity, dynamic reach and volume. The bass was stunning, as was detail, and all of this sound was delivered with speed and punch.
Read the full B&W 800 Diamond review
KEF LS50 (2012)
The KEF LS50 were, and remain, blindingly good speakers. They’ve won multiple What Hi-Fi? Awards over the years and have recently formed the basis of active versions in the shape of the LS50 Wireless II and LSX, as well as the passive LS50 Meta – all three What Hi-Fi? Award winners themselves.
Of course, a hat tip deserves to be directed to KEF’s trademark Uni-Q array (an aluminium dome tweeter in the centre of a magnesium/aluminium–coned mid/bass), which was largely behind the LS50’s insightful and musical, bassy yet balanced sound.
Read the full KEF LS50 review
Neat Iota (2012)
He who dares wins, right? With a sideways orientation that makes them look more like an AV centre channel speaker than a pair of stereo speakers, the 13cm-tall Neat Iotas were certainly different, but brilliantly so.
The Teesside-based speaker company’s unusual design allowed us to experiment using them with the tweeters placed on the inside or outside, the latter of which we preferred. The Iotas sounded remarkable – big and bold, with plenty of detail, weight and scale on offer. And their tiny-boxed design only added to their appeal.
Read the full Neat Iota review
Q Acoustics Concept 20 (2013)
The strength of the competition at this price is always fierce, but it speaks to the talents of Q Acoustics’ Concept 20 that they remain firm favourites.
They utilise what is still some of the company’s top-tier technologies, such as the complex cabinet design that sees two layers of MDF separated by a lossy Gelcore material in an effort to dampen resonances. And due to such innovative engineering, they produce a multi-talented, all-round sound that delivers everything from punch and attack, to subtlety and precision.
The fact they’re available at nearly half their original price these days is staggering.
Read the full Q Acoustic Concept 20 review
PMC Twenty 26 (2014)
Speakers from PMC’s Twenty range have not only been winning awards in recent years but also occupying our test rooms.
Few rival floorstanders are as musical or as balanced as the Twenty 26, whose strong dynamics, impressive detail, even tonality and seamless integration is hard to find fault with. These may not be the latest models in the Twenty range, but they are among our favourites.
Read the full PMC Twenty 26 review
Spendor SP2/3R2 (2016)
It’d be easy to dismiss Spendor’s SP2/3R2 as a retro throwback, but that would be to miss out on a stellar speaker that very much deserves the attention of anyone with this budget. “Despite a design ancestry that dates back to the 1970s, there’s much this dinosaur could teach its modern competition,” we noted in our 2016 review.
Sonically, they’re huge, with a scale and authority that’s made for epic blockbuster soundtracks. But there’s absolutely no shortage of dynamics or detail either, and while they don’t deliver the last word in punch or drive, rhythms are delightfully measured.
Read the full Spendor SP2/3R2 review
ATC SCM 50 (2019)
(Image credit: ATC)
We’ve been using ATC’s SCM50 as our reference speakers for well over a decade, and in that time they’ve been connected to just about every piece of electronics that has passed through our test rooms. And guess what? They’ve never let us down.
Every so often we come across rival speakers – usually of higher cost – that better these ATCs in some respect, whether it’s outright resolution, openness, stereo imaging or rhythmic precision.
Yet we haven’t managed to find something that’s as satisfying an all-rounder or as practical to use as a day-to-day review tool. Considering the SCM50 was originally introduced in the mid-80s, that’s quite some achievement. It seems great engineering doesn’t date.
Read the full ATC SCM 50 review
ProAc Response D2R (2019)
(Image credit: ProAc)
Don’t let the lack of curved cabinets or fancy cone materials fool you. The ProAc Response D2R are among the finest speakers we’ve ever heard and are more than worth of their spot on this list.
You’ll need suitable stands, suitable electronics and to spend a decent amount of time tinkering with positioning, but once sorted, these exceptional standmounters deliver an intoxicating mix of detail and entertainment that is tough to beat at this price.
Read the full ProAc Response D2R review
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See all our British Hi-Fi Week 2021 reviews and features
KEF is one of the most well-respected British brands in world hi-fi and has been for well over 50 years.
The company’s ethos is based around engineering, design and development found in trademark technology such as the Uni-Q driver, which still features heavily in its products today.
In recent years the brand hasn’t been afraid to diversify, either, and now covers a wide range of categories, from stereo speakers to custom installation solutions to headphones, wireless speakers and all-in-one streaming systems.
To celebrate British Hi-Fi Week, we’ve rounded up 11 of the best KEF products to pass through our test rooms since the birth of What Hi-Fi? In 1976. So kick back, relax and reminisce.
See our British Hi-Fi Week news, reviews and features
KEF Coda III (1985)
The oldest model on this list, the KEF Coda 3 originally featured in What Hi-Fi? way back in 1985. At just £99, the Codas were a serious bargain and although they didn’t feature KEF’s trademark Uni-Q driver, they still managed to impress. We noted their “excellent stereo imagery” and “clean, controlled and well-extended bass”, as well as their tendency to sound “slightly dry and splashy” with “high level rock”. The Coda III used a KEF designed and Japanese built 3cm fabric dome tweeter, plus a 20cm paper pulp mid-bass driver which was glued into the cabinet to ensure a solid seal. Proper budget speakers didn’t get much better in 1985.
KEF 105/3 (1990)
The 105/3 (pictured above, middle) were clever speakers that combined a couple of different KEF technologies. The company’s trademark Uni-Q driver was present, but it was also joined by what KEF referred to as its coupled-cavity bass loading tech, which had two drive units actually firing within the speaker’s cabinet. Bass frequencies would then emit from a solitary opening on the front of each speaker. This was done to lower distortion, improve power handling and deliver more bass from a small cabinet. The speakers served a solid, tangible soundstage and rich, textured bass.
KEF Coda 7 (1995)
In the mid 1990s, the budget speaker market place was a tough place to be. Mission had a stranglehold and were proving difficult to beat. Enter the Coda 7, KEF’s brave attempt to wrestle back some of that market share. Their 30cm cabinets used an upside-down driver layout with a 13cm coated paper bass driver sat above a 25mm soft dome tweeter. Not the most high-tech design, then, but they still managed to produce an outstanding sound. At the time we said the KEFs “not only throw down the gauntlet to the likes of the Mission 732, they cock a snook and thumb their nose too!” High praise indeed.
KEF Q35 (1997)
Small and compact floorstanders have a certain charm and this was definitely the case with the diminutive KEF Q35, which debuted in 1997. They weren’t keen on being cranked to the max, but if the quality of your recordings was up to scratch, the KEFs were capable of delivering one of the most realistic sonic experiences available at their £349 price point. We described the quality of their imaging as “almost eerie”, and able to “give a three-dimensional, almost tactile effect”. We also strongly advised that you listen to them bi-wired, which we found only further enhanced their resolution, which was “unrivalled at the price”.
KEF Cresta 2 (1999)
The Coda 7 were always going to be a tough act to follow, but KEF managed to maintain its lofty standards with the arrival of its new Cresta 2 standmounters. At 37cm high, they were relatively tall for budget standmounters and this extra size was reflected in the exceptional sense of scale and openness. Like the Coda 7, the Cresta 2 used a simple 25mm soft dome tweeter with a 13cm coated paper cone, but in a more traditional arrangement, with the former positioned above the latter. Tonal evenness and subtlety weren’t their forte, but it was the stunning musicality that won us over.
KEF KHT2005 (2001)
If you want a home cinema icon, then look no further than the KHT2005 from 2001. Affectionately known as the KEF ‘eggs’, this sub/sat system offered not only performance in spades, but a serious dose of style too. The cast aluminium, egg-shaped satellites looked the business and were a welcome distraction from more traditional-looking boxy alternatives. Together with the system’s 150W subwoofer, they combined to produce an exciting, entertaining and cohesive surround sound experience that entertained us for many a year.
Read our That Was Then… KEF KHT 2005 review
KEF Reference Model 203 (2001)
KEF completely revamped its flagship Reference range of loudspeakers in 2001. The Reference 3 were four-way baby towers that boasted beautiful curved cabinets, and a time-aligned tweeter sat on top of a Uni-Q driver. The configuration of the speaker meant KEF had five separate drivers to integrate, yet the 203 still managed to produce a “beautifully seamless” sense of cohesion across the board. We said the speakers delivered a “dynamic, exciting performance that gives a crystal-clear view of the music.” Even at £3k we felt they were worth every penny.
KEF iQ5SE (2007)
The Q35 evolved over the years and 2007 saw the launch of the iQ5SE variant, which battled it out with the truly exceptional Monitor Audio BR5 and B&W 685 speakers. Like its ancestors, the iQ35SEs were a compact and attractive pair of hugely talented floorstanders. The speakers majored in speed and punch and combined this impressive rhythmic accuracy withn excellent dynamics and stereo imaging, even if they couldn’t quite knock the B&Ws off the top spot.
KEF LS50 (2013)
In 2013, to mark KEF’s 50th anniversary, the company celebrated by launching the LS50 standmounters. They weren’t a high-end, mega-money pair of loudspeakers, but they still made quite the impression, blowing the competition out of the water and receiving a glowing five-star review for their troubles. The LS50 boasted striking looks and saw KEF use a new DMC (Dough Moulding Compound) material for their curved front panels. They also featured unusually flexible bass reflex ports designed to reduce unwanted midrange distortions. Needless to say the LS50 sounded exceptional, with impressive dispersion, a huge stereo image and big, communicative bass. They’ve left a lasting impression, too, laying the foundations for further LS50 models we have noted below.
Check out our full KEF LS50 review
KEF Reference 1 (2018)
The price tag might be high but the Reference 1 are worth every penny – you won’t find a better bookshelf speaker in KEF’s entire stable. They’re a shining (and shiny) example of KEF’s high-end engineering at its best, and set a benchmark that few rivals can match. They look stunning in the flesh, with beautifully finished cabinets that you bolt onto KEF’s matching stands. A simply gorgeous speaker with the sound to match, the Reference 1 speakers are brilliant all-rounders that work superbly across across a wide range of music, systems and rooms.
KEF Reference 1 review
KEF R3 (2018)
You don’t have to trawl back very far through the What Hi-Fi? Archive to find the KEF R3. They’re on page 62 of our 2018 Awards issue, complete with the stereo speaker Product of the Year stamp of approval. Such an accolade doesn’t get handed out to any old pair of speakers so you’d be right to assume the R3 are something special. We noted “a level of insight and detail resolution way beyond most rivals” and the fact they deliver “a sound good enough to worry most speakers below the two grand mark”. The KEF R3 are the complete package and one of the most talented all-rounders we’ve heard from the brand in recent years, only recently eclipsed by the brand’s own LS50 Meta.
Read the full KEF R3 review
KEF LS50 Wireless II (2020)
(Image credit: Future)
Which brings us to another LS50 descendent.
When it comes to innovative and entertaining sequels, Wayne’s World 2 or Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo may spring to mind, but in 2020 KEF released the LS50 Wireless II all-in-one streaming speaker system and quickly earned a reputation as a follow-up of rare quality as well as a What Hi-Fi? Award. The Wireless II address the LS50 Wireless’ minor imperfections and, while proudly maintaining the familiar chassis and Uni-Q driver arrangement, manage to squeeze out even more performance by introducing a new KEF innovation called Metamaterial Absorption Technology (also found on its LS50 Meta passive speakers, and hopefully on many more KEF models to come).
MAT is basically a clever way of absorbing sound waves that radiate from the rear of the tweeter dome so that they don’t distort the unit’s forward output, effectively creating an ‘acoustic black hole’ and absorbing 99 per cent of the unwanted sound. The effect was a purer treble, clean mids, and a more defined bass, with the whole presentation, opened out, offering subtler but more precise detail and greater instrument separation.
Did you know that you could mute all system audio by simply holding the mute button on the DualSense for about one second? I’ve had a PS5 for months, yet I only now realized this hidden feature exists after watching a YouTube video that the algorithm served me. You’ll know it’s working when the orange mute light strobes softly, then you won’t hear any system sounds.
Apparently, this trick works to disable all audio, no matter the audio source, be it your speakers, headphones wired into the controller’s 3.5mm jack, a wireless gaming headset, or one plugged in via one of the console’s USB ports. Even though the DualSense has some limited PC support, this feature is exclusive to PS5, it seems.
This video isn’t the exclusive source for this information, and it doesn’t appear to have been the first to crack that the function exists. A Google search for this feature shows a steady stream of gamers are accidentally stumbling upon it on a rolling basis, perhaps as more PS5 consoles become available to buy.
Given that the console is still difficult to buy, let alone find in stock, I figured it’d be useful for anyone reading this who’s trying their luck at getting one. I’m not sure I would have ever figured it out myself if I hadn’t been served that one video, either.
It’s a handy feature, though it might take a little practice for me to take advantage of this feature versus my usual muting method, which is just to yank my headphones off.
Sony has announced that from 6th April 2021, customers in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain can enjoy 360 Reality Audio immersive, object-based content on Sony’s premium home wireless speakers when using Amazon’s CD-quality streaming service Amazon Music HD.
The two models receiving 360 Reality Audio support (aka Sony’s proprietary spatial sound technology to rival Dolby Atmos or Apple’s Spatial Audio) via Amazon Cast are the RA5000 and RA3000 – Sony’s January 2021-launch high-end immersive wireless home speaker propositions.
360 Reality Audio tracks are streamed over wi-fi through Amazon’s premium Amazon Music HD service, to incorporate three-dimensional sound location data and boast an “all-encompassing sound” when played on the RA5000 or RA3000.
In addition, Immersive Audio Enhancement, a unique algorithm from Sony, promises to enhance the audio experience of any two-channel stereo track to create ambient room-filling sound.
(Image credit: Sony)
Andre Stapleton, global head of artist and label relations at Amazon Music said: “We believe sound quality matters, and by expanding Amazon Music HD’s audio experience to Sony’s new home wireless speakers, more people than ever will be able to enjoy music in its highest quality.”
Richard Palk, head of product marketing and product planning at Sony Europe said: “We’re proud to continually evolve the 360 Reality Audio ecosystem, are thrilled to have Amazon Music HD as a new streaming partner for our new premium home speakers.”
Introduced in 2019 with 1000 tracks, Sony’s 360 Reality Audio now boasts approximately 4000 songs from artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, Noah Cyrus, Zara Larsson, Paloma Faith and more. Sony 360 Audio makes it possible for artists and creators to produce music by mapping sound sources such as vocals, chorus and instruments with positional information and placing them within a spherical space. This revolutionary musical experience, powered by Sony’s spatial sound technologies, promises to evoke feelings of being in a music studio or live concert venue – all without leaving the comfort of home.
Don’t have an Amazon Music HD account? It’s OK. In addition to Amazon Music HD, 360 Reality Audio is available to stream using Tidal, Deezer and the streaming service for live gigs, nugs.net (Deezer coming summer 2021 via Chromecast built-in) on the RA5000 and RA3000 speakers.
We’ve not yet had the pleasure of welcoming Sony’s premium wireless home speakers to our testing facility (The RA5000 boasts Alexa/Google Assistant built in, three upfiring speakers, three mid-drivers and a subwoofer and retails for £499, the RA3000 is priced £299) but for more information, you can visit Sony’s website.
MORE:
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Read all our Sony reviews
Check out our pick of the best music streaming services 2021: free streams to hi-res audio
Scandinavian sound specialist Audio Pro is launching a limited Lemon edition of its Addon T3+ portable multi-room speaker.
Designed to co-ordinate with Pantone’s 2021 colour of the year, ‘illuminating yellow’, just 500 speakers will be produced worldwide – a rare delight for home interior devotees. The compact style means it will be a lovely option for garden parties and picnics in the park, or to add a pop of colour to your home system.
The T3+ speaker is essentially a retuned version of Audio Pro’s celebrated Addon T3, which was our wireless speaker Product of the Year three years running until 2017.
Audio Pro says the limited-edition Lemon T3+’s genuine leather handle and solid aluminium details offer a simple yet solid design, boasting straightforward operation and a good battery life of up to 30 hours at half volume, or 12 hours at full whack. Under that lemon paint job, the speaker boasts a Digital Class D amplifier, two 20mm textile dome tweeters and a 9cm woofer.
In our review, we praised the original T3+ for its “spacious, detailed sound” and “great scale for the size”. Although we knocked a star off because, under direct comparison, the sound was a little less engaging and expressive than before, it’s still a solid performer and now quite the looker.
The Audio Pro Addon Lemon T3+ speaker is available for pre-order from electricshop.com and audiopro.comfrom 20th April, priced £180. But hurry, only 500 are being made…
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It’s time to dust-off your union jack, give any British hi-fi you own an extra workout and polish, and celebrate the best of British hi-fi with us. This week we’re saluting some of the most influential British brands, products and technologies to have appeared in What Hi-Fi?.
We’re also speaking to Cyrus about its all-new XR Series, asking hi-fi brands what ‘British sound’ is to them, and bringing you fresh reviews of British hi-fi kit from Wharfedale, Cambridge Audio, KEF and Spendor. And that’s not all!
While the definition of a British company has become increasingly blurred, there remains a great number of audio companies from the British Isles that have delivered (and, in the face of Brexit, overcome adversities to continue to deliver) great hi-fi products for our listening pleasure.
From speakers to streamers, amplifiers to turntables, British hi-fi continues to punch above its weight when it comes to delivering great sound. And even as the world becomes smaller, and we all have the chance to see, hear, review and buy products from all over the globe (something we’re very happy about), rest assured What Hi-Fi? is continuing to champion the best of British.
We’ll be adding news, features and reviews throughout the week, so watch this space.
You can read our British HiFi Week 2021 features so far here
Cambridge Audio’s inaugural P40 integrated amplifier was the first-ever amp to use a toroidal transformer – a significant innovation in 1968. It’s still a standard component inside high-end amps today, irrefutable proof that what Gordon Edge, Peter Lee and a few other noted individuals tried out in their new premises alongside the old Enderby’s Mill in St. Ives, Cambridge, worked out rather well.
But neither that, nor Wharfedale’s Gilbert Briggs – noted for building the first two-way loudspeaker, the ceramic magnet and the double cabinet to reduce resonance, mostly from his Ilkley home – has made our list.
We’re mentioning these hi-fi breakthroughs here for emphasis, because what you’re about to read is the culmination of days of diligence to produce six of home audio’s most innovative and trailblazing releases, from firms who put their success, money and necks on the line to facilitate better sound.
To mark British Hi-Fi Week, the inventions below all hail from What Hi-Fi?‘s original home turf, Blighty, but wherever you are in the world, as one of audio’s visionaries, geeks, problem-solvers, creators, tinkerers and triers, we salute you. We’re here because of you. If you have a dream, stick at it.
1. Quad electrostatic technology and ‘current dumping’ amps
Quad (an acronym for ‘Quality Unit Amplifier Domestic’) was founded by Peter J. Walker in 1936 in London, but the firm had to relocate to Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire in 1941 following the bombing of the capital during World War II.
In 1956, Quad unveiled the first true full-range electrostatic loudspeaker. Known later as the ESL 57, it used a very light plastic film as a moving diaphragm between two charged plates. Compared with moving-coil loudspeaker designs of the time, the ESL 57 marked a huge step up and remained in production, virtually unchanged, for almost 30 years.
1975 saw the arrival of the Quad 405 ‘Current Dumping’ Amplifier. It was the same year that Peter Walker told Wireless World magazine: “An audio power amplifier is required to produce an output signal that differs from the input signal in magnitude only. It must therefore have occurred to every circuit designer that it should be a simple matter to take a portion of the output, compare it with the input to derive an error signal. It is then only necessary to amplify the error signal and add it to the output in the correct amplitude and phase to cancel completely the distortion of the primary amplifier.”
Walker put this theory into practice using two amplifiers per channel, where the first stage ‘error’ amplifier was low powered but very high quality, and the second high powered but of lesser audio quality. (As you may know, it’s extremely difficult to achieve very low distortion in high-powered amplifier stages.) He designed a way to compare the high-powered output with the original audio input and derive the necessary error correction signal to inject into the audio path – and crucially achieved a very low distortion figure, even at much higher power levels.
In essence, Current Dumping is a way of combining the sonic purity of Class A amplification with the much more efficient Class AB.
Sound a tad complicated? That was never Walker’s intention, as evidenced by his famous quote: “The perfect amplifier is a straight wire with gain”. The idea that nothing should be added or subtracted from the original signal to leave you with a bigger version of it at the end is the best summation of the perfect amplifier we can think of.
Walker never said he’d achieved this, mind, despite the fact that Quad was given the Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement for the Quad 405 in 1978. Nevertheless, his remarkable circuit topology remains one of the few truly original amplifier designs – and it still features in Quad products today.
9 debut stereo amplifiers from iconic hi-fi brands
2. KEF Uni-Q
(Image credit: KEF)
KEF’s website proudly states that of the many landmark innovations the company has pioneered, arguably the greatest of all is the Uni-Q point source driver array. With its even off-axis dispersion, built following twenty years of innovation, research and development, the Uni-Q driver array boasts the ability to let sounds come at you in a whole new way.
How, exactly? Unlike conventional speakers (where the tweeter sits above the midrange driver), the Uni-Q unit is two drive units in one coincident assembly – the tweeter is situated slap bang in the middle of the midrange driver, like the bullseye of a dartboard. Thus, midrange and high frequency sounds come from the same physical ‘point’ in space.
KEF says this configuration also offers a wider dispersion and does away with the traditional notion of a sweet-spot for listening, because the projection of sound is more even across the frequency range and less susceptible to beaming and lobing in the vertical plane.
Does it work? You might say – have a quick glance over our KEF reviews. But KEF doesn’t have time to rest on its laurels. For its most recent (and What Hi-Fi? Award-winning) LS50 Meta, the Uni-Q driver array has been reworked, taking in all the refinements that KEF has developed over the past eight years and adding something new in the form of Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT).
MAT is KEF’s way of coping with the sound that comes off the back of the 25mm aluminium tweeter dome. In a conventional design, this sound usually fires into a chamber behind the dome where it is mostly absorbed by damping material. But some sound energy always bounces back through the dome to add distortion.
Here, the tweeter still sits in the throat of the mid/bass unit, but the rearward sound feeds into something about the size of a hockey puck that looks like a plastic circular maze. It is layered and made up of 30 tubes, each tuned to absorb a different frequency. KEF claims that, once combined, the tubes absorb a wide range of frequencies – from around 600Hz upwards – much more effectively than alternative methods. The result? Cleaner, less distorted highs.
Quiz: can you name these 10 inaugural products from British hi-fi brands?
3. dCS Ring DAC
(Image credit: Future/dCS )
OK so it doesn’t look like a cute piece of jewellery but, as is often the case in engineering, there comes a point at which the performance of an existing technological approach cannot practically be improved. When this happens, progress means trying something different. And that, says the Cambridge-based digital specialist dCS (Data Conversion Systems), is essentially what happened when it developed the Ring DAC.
Although off-the-shelf silicon DAC chips can be bought for relatively little online, dCS wanted more than someone else’s best efforts.
So dCS engineers did it themselves. The Ring DAC is a bespoke digital signal processing engine designed by and unique to dCS. This DAC (early model pictured above) is a clean-sheet solution running code written and regularly refined by the firm. It uses a network of FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) programmed to run dCS firmware and handle all digital filtering and digital-to-analogue conversion.
Why go the long way around rather than buying in from reputable semiconductor suppliers? In 2014, dCS director of product development, Chris Hales, said, “Because we’re in control of the digital signal processing we can improve it. For example, the mapping algorithm – which is pretty crucial to the way the Ring DAC works – is something we change if we see fit. The filtering is completely under our control, so we’re not at the mercy of what’s in the chip that you buy, we can change it arbitrarily to whatever we want. We can even do that retrospectively and put that into products already into the field.”
Doing a digital converter the dCS way is far more expensive than buying in off-the-shelf DAC chips, but the results are undeniable – dCS DACs sound unlike anything else on the market because, well, that really is what they are.
The quest for perfection: inside dCS, a British hi-fi success story
4. Bowers & Wilkins Continuum drive units
(Image credit: Bowers & Wilkins)
If T. S. Eliot had written a possum’s book about practical hi-fi (rather than cats), the opening line might read: “The making of midrange drivers is a difficult matter, it isn’t just one of your holiday games.”
The issue for any speaker manufacturer is the delicate dance between lightness (read: agility, speed) and rigidity (accuracy in movement) which makes perfect sense when you consider that the movement of the speaker cones generates the sound.
Nano-carbon fibre, sand-filled ultra-thin aluminium, Beryllium DLC (whereby a layer of ‘Diamond Like Carbon’ is deposited on the diaphragm surface using chemical vapour deposition to boast “diamond-like” strength) are all material solutions offered by hi-fi’s greats. The aim, of course, is increased rigidity, transparency and accuracy.
So what did Bowers & Wilkins do? Well, if you’re not completely happy with the minerals nature has supplied, you go back to the drawing board and create something new. Traditionally, Kevlar was the material of choice for B&W’s midrange and bass drivers (a heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibre first used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires) but the company now uses its own material, dubbed Continuum. Marvel fans might be thinking of Wolverine’s skeletal enhancement, Adamantium, or even Vibranium (only mined in Wakanda) right now – and that’s actually fine by us. It’s that good.
Bowers & Wilkins claims Continuum reduces the degrading effects of the vibrations of the mid/bass drivers, resulting in a cleaner sound with less distortion. Its inclusion has trickled down from B&W’s flagship 800 Diamond series and happily you’ll now find it used across all of the company’s latest speakers. Do we like it? We do – just have a look at our Bowers & Wilkins reviews.
How to get the best from your Bowers & Wilkins 606 S2 and 607 S2 speakers
(Image credit: Acoustic Energy)
Being consistently successful for more than 30 years isn’t easy, but the Acoustic Energy AE1 Classics managed to handle it with aplomb. If it’s a set of standmount audio-industry game-changers you’re after, this is the pair we’d guide you towards.
The AE1s used an unusual-for-the-time all-metal drive unit line-up, twin forward-firing ports and a cabinet lined with plaster (designed to not only minimise the build-up of internal standing waves but add damping, too). The result was a sonic presentation packed with stunning dynamics, excellent detail and surprising authority – just as long as your partnering system had the required quality and muscle.
They’ve evolved over time, of course; the 2006 20th anniversary version featured cabinets that were glossier on the outside and thicker on the inside, but they were still lined with plaster – not everything changes.
The latest (and rather splendid) AE1 Active still features the pure piston ceramic aluminium cone technology we’re celebrating here, now in its fifth generation. It offers exceptional stiffness without weighing the speakers down too much – and it all started in 1987.
At launch, Acoustic Energy’s first-ever ‘mini-monitor AE1’ speakers cost big money (about £700, which is getting on for £2000 in today’s money) but they also shattered perceptions of what small speakers could do. A year later, in 1988, the company released the larger AE2s. These featured pretty much the same technology, but the cabinet was about a third bigger in each direction and packed in two of the 9cm alloy mid/bass units with three reflex ports.
In many ways, the AE2s were better than their smaller siblings, including delivering more powerful bass performance and greater authority – but they lived forever in the AE1s’ shadow, probably because they lacked the surprise factor of the smaller speakers.
That Was Then… Acoustic Energy AE2 Signature
6. Wilson Benesch A.C.T. One’s use of carbon fibre
(Image credit: Future)
Behold, the Wilson Benesch A.C.T. One speakers as they appeared in What Hi-Fi? magazine in 1999 (when we partied like it was, because it genuinely was).
Sometimes, a product sets a company’s engineering template, and these floorstanders did just that for this 1989 Sheffield audio start-up. You’d think the engineers might have tried steel, but no.
Wilson Benesch turned heads back in 1991 with its first products, the imaginatively titled Wilson Benesch Turntable and its partnering tonearm, the A.C.T. One. Those initials stand for Advanced Composite Technology, and carbon fibre is at its heart. The deck used the material in its sub-chassis and the arm flaunted it in a beautifully shaped armtube, the impressive rigidity, low mass and good self-damping giving them quite the edge over contemporaneous rivals.
Even today, the use of carbon fibre is considered somewhat novel, but back then there were just three other UK companies capable of producing the composite parts: Lotus Racing and two specialists working for the Ministry of Defence – high company for a fledgling hi-fi brand to keep.
Rather than going the predictable release-a-more-affordable-record-player-follow-up route, in 1994 Wilson Benesch surprised us yet again with the A.C.T. One floorstanding speakers, this time grabbing headlines thanks to the use of curved carbon fibre flanks.
Even by modern standards, these towers are hugely capable, which is testament to the quality of engineering involved. In 2019, we reviewed Wilson Benesch’s latest entry-level standmount speakers, the Precision P1.0s (£5995, $8800), and comparing the two models was fascinating. It’s no surprise that the newer design is the more revealing and insightful – but that doesn’t stop us admiring the originals, the template from which all of Wilson Benesch’s subsequent designs are made.
Both are transparent and detailed performers, capable of delivering sound in an insightful, and musical manner – not a bad legacy for a firm that started out making turntables.
10 of the craziest-looking high-end hi-fi products on the planet
MORE:
Want to see our reference speakers? Check out the making of: ATC SCM50
Read up on the best audiophile headphones 2021: ultimate high-end headphones
Join us inside the test rooms: Audiolab, Quad, Wharfedale
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Apple’s AirPods Max just might have ushered in a new norm of $500-plus wireless headphones. My argument in support of this? V-Moda’s new M-200 ANC headphones, which sell for $499.99 and, as the name makes obvious, are the company’s first headphones to include active noise cancellation. V-Moda is a company that’s well-known in the DJ world, and prior headphones like the original M100s and Crossfade 2 Wireless have earned it some fans in the audiophile crowd. With the M-200 ANCs, V-Moda is trying to compete in a higher price bracket than ever before — but the results are a little uneven.
If there’s one thing that V-Moda has never wavered on, it’s durability. Like past models, the M-200 ANC headphones feel phenomenally strong and reassuring no matter how harshly you handle them. These things are built like tanks. My old pair of M100s must be at least seven or eight years old at this point, but the folding joints and other core hardware have never given out — even long after the headband material has started to wear and show its age. I still use ‘em as a gaming headset with V-Moda’s add-on boom mic.
I think it’s fair to question whether this is the same V-Moda that it used to be; before the company was sold to Roland, I’d regularly sit down with founder Val Kolton, who seemed to hold the brand to an obsessive level of quality assurance. But so far, I don’t see any reason to question the robustness of these new headphones.
The M-200 ANCs stick with the usual V-Moda aesthetic: it’s mostly a mix of metal and artificial leather. They also still fold down into the company’s signature carrying case. However, the size of the shield plates on each ear cup has changed. So if you’ve got old, customized plates, those will no longer fit. The ear pads (filled with memory foam) now attach magnetically and feel nice and cushiony. It used to be that you had to buy V-Moda’s aftermarket “XL” earpads for the best extended comfort, but not so this time around. I’m also glad they’re so easy to replace. Magnets!
There are buttons at the top of the right ear cup for play / pause and volume controls, and this is where the M-200 ANCs start to betray their asking price. The buttons are mushy, which I can understand since that means they don’t click loudly as you’re listening to music. It can still feel a bit cheap. Aside from this, their location so far at the top can make them awkward to reach when you’re actually wearing the headphones. Maybe it’s just my enormous head, but I struggled at times. The buttons at the bottom for power and noise cancellation are much simpler to reach (and for some reason, they’re clickier, too).
Out of the box with EQ settings left untouched, the M-200 ANCs have an extremely neutral sound profile. I don’t know that I’d call them reference studio monitors, but they’re very flat. This can make for a jarring change if you’re switching over from other headphones like the AirPods Max or Sennheiser’s Momentum Wireless cans, which try to show you everything they’re sonically worth right off the bat without any adjustments. In this case, you’ll want to immediately explore the EQ presets (V-Moda’s app lets you take full manual control) to find something that sounds the best to you. Even if you crank the low-frequency sliders, the M-200 ANCs won’t rattle your brain. But you can get them to a point where EDM and hip-hop don’t underwhelm, which they can if you stick with the default, balanced EQ.
When you do take the time to nail the EQ, the M-200 ANCs sound very good. V-Moda downsized to 40-millimeter drivers (from 50mm in the original M-200), but these headphones do a terrific job of preserving the mids through all sorts of EQ adjustments. “$500 noise-canceling headphones with neutral sound” strikes me as an odd zone to be playing in, but V-Moda can certainly paint itself as a standout here. They support aptX HD, aptX, AAC, and SBC Bluetooth codecs, so they’re well-rounded for wireless audio. I also tested them wired with my Apple Lossless files and streaming Amazon Music HD, and the M-200 ANCs proved wonderfully layered and rich. (They don’t seem to pass audio over USB-C, unfortunately, so that port is just for charging.)
I’ve noticed that V-Moda’s app can be buggy; sometimes it’ll display a spinning loading indicator that never goes anywhere. The M-200 ANCs have also given me “iPhone can no longer connect to this device” errors, which required me to pair the headphones all over again. Roland needs to put more work into its software. Most frustrating of all is that the M-200 ANCs can only store two paired devices in memory. If you add a third, the first one will be overwritten. Want to switch between a phone, tablet, and PC without much fuss? Sorry.
The M-200 ANC ear pads attach to the headphones magnetically. Underneath them are these 40mm drivers.
These headphones don’t have a dedicated transparency mode that you can toggle on for hearing outside noise. But V-Moda did blatantly steal a trick from Sony: you can hold a hand on the left ear cup, the music will drop in volume, and ambient noise will be piped in using the built-in microphones. Once you remove your hand, your music volume and ANC return to normal. That’s a useful feature for quick interactions or listening to an announcement at an airport or on a train, but at $500, I would’ve liked to see some way of keeping transparency mode enabled for as long as desired — no arm-lifting required.
The M-200 ANCs lack sensors for detecting when they’ve been removed from your ears, so they won’t pause audio automatically like other premium noise-canceling headphones. Again, for $500, those extra convenience tricks should be part of the experience. Another would be multipoint Bluetooth pairing, which these headphones don’t give you either. Battery life is rated at 20 hours, which is on par with Bose and Apple but short of Sony.
V-Moda is new to noise cancellation, and it shows. The M-200 ANCs can’t rise to the level of the AirPods Max or even lower-priced options like Sony’s 1000XM4s or the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700. They’ll cut out a lot of lower-frequency noise, but the overall effect isn’t quite on the level of competitors. The V-Moda app lets you choose between 10 levels of noise cancellation, but even fully dialed up, I never quite felt like I was in that personal bubble of silence that the best ANC headphones provide. On the positive side, V-Moda’s noise cancellation didn’t result in any discomfort, nor did it noticeably alter the sound, which can happen with some headphones.
Who will be next to join the $500 noise-canceling headphones squad?
Along with the headphones and case, V-Moda includes a 3.5-millimeter cable, USB-C charging cable, and an airplane adapter. I really wish the company had bundled its BoomPro microphone — sold separately for $35 — right in the box with the M-200 ANCs. It feels like a missed opportunity, as the BoomPro is truly a great accessory for gaming and Zoom calls. Keep in mind that Apple didn’t even include a headphone cable with the AirPods Max, so I can’t knock V-Moda too hard, but this would’ve been a prime moment to give customers that bonus. It also would’ve helped boost the M-200 ANCs at voice call performance. As is, the built-in microphones are nothing special, and callers might find it difficult to hear you in loud or windy environments.
I genuinely wonder if V-Moda would have priced these things at $500 in a world without the AirPods Max. With Apple’s cans set aside, you’d be looking at an upper echelon of Bluetooth headphones with options like the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 and Sennheiser Momentum 3 that tops out around $400. (No, I haven’t forgotten about those $800 Beoplay H95s, but come on.) The M-200 ANCs are a solid pair of wireless headphones, and they maintain V-Moda’s fantastic build quality. But it’s impossible to overlook what’s missing when a company is asking for this much cash. The balanced sound signature will be a definite win for people who are explicitly looking for that. But these really needed to have a true transparency mode and better ANC to keep up with the pack and to warrant the significant investment.
Home/Component/Graphics/AMD Radeon Software update adds Performance Tuning tool and improves Radeon Boost and Anti-Lag
João Silva 12 hours ago Graphics
Besides a multitude of fixes, AMD’s latest Radeon Software 21.3.1 driver also comes with some new improvements for Radeon Boost and Radeon Anti-Lag, as well as a new stress test to ensure all of your settings are stable.
With the AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.3.1 driver, users can take advantage of Anti-Lag in DirectX 12 titles. Radeon Boost also received DX12 support, allowing users to optimise selected games featuring Variable Rate Shading.
Another feature included in this driver is the Performance Tuning Stress Test, a new built-in stress tool to test GPU overclock stability. AMD has also redesigned portions of the UI to simplify the process.
The following list includes all the fixes coming with AMD Radeon Software 21.3.1 driver:
Radeon Software may sometimes have higher than expected CPU utilization, even when a system is at idle.
A system hang or crash may be experienced when upgrading Radeon Software while an Oculus™ VR headset is connected to your system on Radeon GCN graphics products.
Minecraft DXR may exhibit corrupted or missing textures when ray tracing is enabled on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics products.
An application crash may occur in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with ray tracing on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics products.
Lighting fails to render correctly on Radeon RX 6800 series graphics products in Star Citizen.
A black screen may occur when enabling and disabling Enhanced Sync while vsync is enabled in some Vulkan API games.
A black screen or system hang may occur on Hybrid Graphics systems for some Vulkan API games when Enhanced Sync is enabled.
Bethesda launcher may experience an application crash on startup when launching some games.
Users may be unable to create a new scene in the Radeon Software Streaming tab on first launch or after a settings factory reset.
Game specific performance tuning profiles may fail to load when a global performance tuning profile has been created or set.
Disabling HDCP support and performing a factory reset and/or system restart may sometimes trigger a system crash.
Epic Games social overlay or launcher may exhibit color corruption.
Xuan-Yuan Sword VII may experience an application crash with DirectX 12 ray tracing enabled on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics.
Color corruption may be experienced in Cyberpunk 2077™ when Radeon Boost is enabled.
Display flicker or corruption may occur on high refresh rate/resolution multi-monitor system configurations on Radeon RX Vega series graphics.
Audio loss or cut-out may intermittently occur on some TV displays when Windows® audio is set to use 5.1 or 7.1 speaker configurations.
The new Radeon Software graphics driver also adds support for Radeon RX 6700 graphics and DOOM Eternal: the Ancient Gods – Part Two. Lastly, it also brings back Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) and enhances Vulkan support.
You can download the new AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.3.1 driver HERE.
KitGuru says: The Performance Tuning Stress Test and DirectX 12 support on Radeon Boost and Radeon Anti-Lag are welcome additions to the software. Did you already try these new features? What do you think of them so far?
João Silva 2 days ago Featured Tech News, Monitors
This week, Samsung launched its new S27A800U display. Aimed at professionals, this latest monitor packs a 27-inch IPS panel with 4K resolution and HDR10 capability.
The 27-inch 4K IPS panel of the Samsung S27A800U features a 5ms G2G response time and offers wide 178º/178º viewing angles, so colours should remain uniform across the panel when looking at it from various angles. Other features include 10-bit (8bit + FRC) colour depth and HDR10 capability. However, it is not the brightest monitor on the market, with a typical brightness of 300 nits. The contrast ratio is 1000:1 out of the box, although the monitor ships with a Dynamic Contrast feature that can boost this.
The Samsung S27A800U also features flicker-free and low blue light modes, which are certified by TÜV Rheinland. Available video outputs include HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2 and a USB-C port with DisplayPort Alternative Mode, capable of delivering 90W of power.
As you would expect, there is also USB-passthrough, with 3x USB-A ports, as well as a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones. The included stand supports tilt, swivel, pivot and height adjustments.
Pricing and availability has not been announced yet, but we should see this monitor popping up at retail this month.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru says: Are any of you in need of a new monitor for work rather than gaming? What do you think of the new Samsung display?
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Jamhamster is a maker with an affinity for retro hardware, and we’re right there with him! For this project, he managed to fit a Raspberry Pi Zero inside of a custom cassette tape to emulate an old ZX Spectrum computer.
The cassette features artwork boasting “ZX Spectrum” in the title box. This isn’t an original cassette; the label was custom-designed just for this project. Inside is an aluminum plate that acts as a giant heatsink for the Pi Zero.
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(Image credit: Jamhamster)
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(Image credit: Jamhamster)
Fitting the Pi Zero inside wasn’t easy as the width of the Pi and clearance between the reels and tape bottom don’t match. According to Jamhamster, four GPIO pins had to be sacrificed. The final rig includes plenty of external ports though and even a safe shutdown button.
For audio, Jamhaster created a headphone socket and wired to the Pi Zero. The project also has a USB hub with two ports accessible from the top.
The best Raspberry Pi projects are the ones you can recreate. Check out the original thread shared by Jamhamster on Reddit to see how this project works in greater detail.
After almost a decade of total market dominance, Intel has spent the past few years on the defensive. AMD’s Ryzen processors continue to show improvement year over year, with the most recent Ryzen 5000 series taking the crown of best gaming processor: Intel’s last bastion of superiority.
Now, with a booming hardware market, Intel is preparing to make up some lost ground with the new 11th Gen Intel Core Processors. Intel is claiming these new 11th Gen CPUs offer double-digit IPC improvements despite remaining on a 14 nm process. The top-end 8-core Intel Core i9-11900K may not be able to compete against its AMD rival Ryzen 9 5900X in heavily multi-threaded scenarios, but the higher clock speeds and alleged IPC improvements could be enough to take back the gaming crown. Along with the new CPUs, there is a new chipset to match, the Intel Z590. Last year’s Z490 chipset motherboards are also compatible with the new 11th Gen Intel Core Processors, but Z590 introduces some key advantages.
First, Z590 offers native PCIe 4.0 support from the CPU, which means the PCIe and M.2 slots powered off the CPU will offer PCIe 4.0 connectivity when an 11th Gen CPU is installed. The PCIe and M.2 slots controlled by the Z590 chipset are still PCI 3.0. While many high-end Z490 motherboards advertised this capability, it was not a standard feature for the platform. In addition to PCIe 4.0 support, Z590 offers USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 from the chipset. The USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 standard offers speeds of up to 20 Gb/s. Finally, Z590 boasts native support for 3200 MHz DDR4 memory. With these upgrades, Intel’s Z series platform has feature parity with AMD’s B550. On paper, Intel is catching up to AMD, but only testing will tell if these new Z590 motherboards are up to the challenge.
The MSI Enthusiast Gaming, or MEG for short, line of motherboards represents the best of the best MSI has to offer. Last year’s Z490 MEG line offered some of the best overclocking available on an Intel platform. Memory overclocking was particularly noteworthy due to such innovations as MSI’s tabbed memory trace layout. Those same innovations return on MSI’s new Z590 lineup with even more refinement. The MSI MEG Z590 ACE features a massive 19-phase VRM with top of the line 90 A power stages and a robust VRM cooling solution, four M.2 slots, Thunderbolt 4, and a plethora of overclocking features. The MSI MEG Z590 ACE has a premium spec sheet, let’s see if there is premium performance to match!
1x BIOS Flashback button 1x Clear CMOS button 2x SMA antenna connectors 1x HDMI port 2x USB Type-C® Thunderbolt ports 2x Mini DisplayPort input 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports 2x USB 2.0 ports 1x RJ-45 port 1x optical S/PDIF Out connector 5x audio jacks
Audio:
1x Realtek ALC4082 Codec
Fan Headers:
8x 4-pin
Form Factor:
ATX Form Factor: 12.0 x 9.6 in.; 30.5 x 24.4 cm
Exclusive Features:
8 layer PCB
AudioBoost 5 HD
DDR4 Boost with steel Armor
Thunderbolt 4
Mystic Light
Quad M.2 with M.2 Shield Frozr
Testing for this review was conducted using a 10th Gen Intel Core i9-10900K. Stay tuned for an 11th Gen update when the new processors launch!
Astell & Kern — the company best known for its high-end portable digital audio players — is making a USB-C DAC (digital-to-analog converter) that’s designed to help get better-sounding audio from modern smartphones and computers that may lack a 3.5mm headphone jack.
If you want to use any digital device with a 3.5mm headphone jack, you need a DAC. Older devices that had 3.5mm headphone jacks featured integrated DACs (some better than others, like LG’s famous Quad DAC system on its former flagships).
But the death of the 3.5mm headphone jack on modern smartphones in favor of exclusively USB-C (or in Apple’s case, Lightning ports) has left a gap for audiophiles. Now if you want to use older headphones or sound setups, you’ll need a USB-C to 3.5mm headphone jack dongle — which, by default, is already technically a DAC. (In fact, some, like Apple’s $9 USB-C dongle, are apparently fairly decent.)
But the new Astell & Kern USB-C Dual DAC promises a higher-fidelity experience, offering two CS43198 DACs paired with an analog amplifier to offer a better sound experience, with support for 32bit/384kHz playback. And given the $150 price tag, it had better offer a better experience than Apple or Google’s sub-$10 dongles.
Astell & Kern says it’s drawing on its experience of creating portable media players to build the new USB-C DAC, and while the DAC itself doesn’t have an external power supply (instead drawing power from the phone or computer), the company says it can still drive a pair of “high impedance headphones with a 2Vrms (Condition No Load) output level.”
The new DAC should be compatible with “most” Android smartphones and tablets and both macOS and Windows 10 computers. But Astell & Kern says that iOS devices — even USB-C ones like Apple’s recent iPad Pro lineup — won’t be compatible.
The new Astell & Kern USB-C Dual DAC is available to preorder now from the company’s website ahead of a planned May release date.
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Any business laptop that comes out these days is entering a tough field full of very established players. The world is already stuffed full of ThinkPads and Latitudes, which have strong followings, cover price ranges across the board, and are highly attuned to what workers need.
So my question with lesser-known business laptops is usually: Where does this fit? What customer is it catering to who might be underserved by a ThinkPad?
With its TravelMate line (specifically the TravelMate P6), Acer seems to be going for two potential openings. The first is that the TravelMate is, as the name implies, specifically intended for frequent business travelers. It’s light, portable, and sturdy, at the expense of some other traits. And the second is its price. Starting at $1,199.99, the TravelMate line is targeting a more price-conscious demographic than many business laptops that would be considered “premium” are. I think the TravelMate succeeds in filling these two niches in particular. But it has some other drawbacks that make it tough to recommend for a general audience.
The aspect of the TravelMate that should be a big help to mobile business users is the port selection. Despite being quite thin, the laptop is able to fit a USB Type-C (supporting USB 3.1 Gen 2, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3, and USB charging), two USB 3.1 Type-A Gen 1 (one with power-off USB charging), one HDMI 2.0, one microSD reader, one combination audio jack, one Ethernet port (with a trap-door hinge), one DC-In jack for Acer’s adapter, one lock slot, and an optional SmartCard reader. The fewer dongles and docks you have to travel with, the better.
Portability is another priority here and is another one of the TravelMate’s highlight features. At just 2.57 pounds and 0.65 inches thick, the TravelMate should be a breeze to carry around in a backpack or briefcase. Acer says it’s put the product through a slew of durability tests for weight and pressure, drops, shocks, vibrations, and other hiccups you may encounter during the day.
Another area that’s likely important to some mobile professionals is videoconferencing capability. I found that to be a mixed bag here. The TravelMate’s four-microphone array had no trouble catching my voice, in both voice recognition and Zoom meeting use cases. Acer says they can pick up voices from up to 6.5 feet away. The webcam also produces a fine picture (though this unit doesn’t support Windows Hello for easy logins) and has a physical privacy shutter. The speakers are not great, though — music was tinny with thin percussion and nonexistent bass.
Acer promises that the TravelMate can survive “the bumps from airport security, accidental drops, and other mishaps.”
The TravelMate also includes some business-specific features including a TPM 2.0 chip and Acer’s ProShield security software.
In other, less business-y areas, though, the TravelMate has a few shortcomings. Shoppers looking for anything more than portability out of the chassis may be disappointed. While most of the TravelMate is made of magnesium-aluminum alloy, it has a bit of a plasticky feel — and while the keyboard is sturdy, there’s considerable flex in the screen. And then there’s the aesthetic: the P6 is far from the prettiest computer you can buy for $1,199.99. It’s almost entirely black, with very few accents (and the ones it has are a drab gray color). And the bezels around the 16:9 screen are quite chunky by modern standards. Plus, the 16:9 aspect ratio is falling out of fashion for a reason — it’s cramped for multitasking, especially on a 13- or 14-inch screen — and the panel maxed out at 274 nits in my testing, which is a bit too dim for outdoor use.
The color is called “mild black.”
The TravelMate looks and feels like it was made a bit better than budget fare. But it also looks and feels closer to an Aspire 5 than it does to a top ThinkPad. For context, you can get an Aspire 5 with identical specs to this TravelMate model for just over $700. Another comparison: the Swift 5, a gorgeous consumer laptop that’s even lighter than the TravelMate, can be purchased with comparable specs for just $999.99. This is all to emphasize that you’re sacrificing a bit of build quality (as well as some extra money) for the TravelMate’s weight and business-specific offerings.
The touchpad is also not my favorite. For one, I had some palm-rejection issues. Those didn’t interfere with my work per se, but it was still unnerving to see my cursor jumping around the screen while I was typing. In addition, the touchpad on my unit had a bit of give before the actuation point, meaning one click required me to make (and hear) what felt like two clicks. And its off-center placement meant that I was constantly right-clicking when I meant to left-click, and I had to consciously reach over to the left side in order to click with my right hand. Finally, the click itself is shallow and far from the most comfortable.
I also didn’t love the power button. It contains a fingerprint sensor, which worked quite well. But the button itself is stiff and very shallow. I know this sounds like a small nitpick, but it was really irksome and made turning the TravelMate on in the morning more of a hassle than it could’ve been.
Some TravelMate models support facial recognition, but my model did not.
The TravelMate model that I received to review is sold out everywhere I’ve looked as of this writing. The closest model to it is listed at $1,199.99 (though it’s cheaper through some retailers) and comes with a Core i5-10310U, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage. My unit is the same, but it has a Core i5-10210U. Those processors don’t have a significant performance difference, so my testing here should give you a good idea of what to expect from that model. You can also buy a model with a Core i7-10610U, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD for $1,399.99. Both configurations run Windows 10 Pro and include a 1920 x 1080 non-touch display.
For my office workload of emails, spreadsheets, Zoom calls, etc., the TravelMate did just fine. I sometimes heard the fans spinning at times when my load wasn’t super heavy, but the noise wasn’t loud enough to be a problem. Note that this processor has Intel’s UHD graphics, rather than its upgraded Iris Xe graphics, which means the system wouldn’t be a good choice for gaming, video software, or other graphics work.
But there’s one area where the TravelMate really impressed, and it’s one that’s quite useful for travelers: battery life. Running through my daily workload at 200 nits of brightness, my system averaged nine hours and 15 minutes of continuous use. That’s almost twice what the budget Aspire 5 got with my same workload. It also beats the Swift 5 and the pricier ThinkPad X1 Nano. If your workload is similar to (or lighter than) mine, you should be able to bring this device around an airport or conference for a full work day without being attached to a wall.
The notebook can charge up to 50 percent in less than 45 minutes.
One performance complaint, though: this thing comes with bloatware. My unit was pre-installed with all kinds of junk, including games (Amazon was pinned to the taskbar) and other software like Dropbox. Most annoyingly, it came with Norton, which bugged me with annoying pop-ups all the time and also seemed to impact battery life: the TravelMate consistently lasted around an hour longer after I uninstalled the program. It doesn’t take too long to uninstall everything, but I’m still morally put off by the idea of so much cheap crapware being loaded onto a laptop that costs over $1,000. And it’s especially troubling to see on a business laptop, because it can expose users to cybersecurity risk.
The TravelMate line is filling a pretty specific niche, and it fills it just fine. If you’re a frequent business traveler who needs a light device with plentiful ports and all-day battery life, you’re shopping in the $1,199 price range, and you’re willing to overlook a mediocre touchpad, dim 16:9 display, and other hiccups, then the P6 will be a better choice for you than something like a pricier and heavier Dell Latitude or the shorter-lived and port-starved ThinkPad X1 Nano.
That said, the P6 has enough drawbacks that I think the bulk of customers would be better served by other laptops. Those who like the Acer brand may like some of Acer’s other offerings — especially those who don’t need the business-specific security features. The Swift 5 is lighter, nicer-looking, and more affordable than the TravelMate, with a better touchpad, screen, and processor. And budget shoppers can find much of what the TravelMate offers in any number of cheaper laptops. The Aspire 5 and the Swift 3 don’t have the TravelMate’s battery or port selection, but they do improve upon its touchpad, audio (in the Aspire’s case), and looks (in the Swift’s case). And, of course, there’s a litany of other laptops in this price range — from HP’s Spectre x360 to Dell’s XPS 13 — that are excellent in almost every way and also offer 3:2 screens.
Ultimately, the TravelMate isn’t a bad laptop — but if it’s the best laptop for you, you probably know who you are.
It’s long-lasting but mediocre in other ways.
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