Recent product highlights from great Hi-Fi brands

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# Autumn/Winter Newsletter 2024
## We would love to see you! We are always delighted to see our customers in person in our newly redecorated shop. If travelling by car, apart from on-street parking, there is pay and display parking at the St. John the Baptist church which is right by the shop. There is also parking in the Frascati and Blackrock shopping centres, a short stroll from the shop and we can organise getting your hi-fi to your car, as needs be. We are of course also accessible by bus and DART and offer free delivery on any purchases made in store.
Contact and opening hours
## New Digital Players from TEAC
As Irish agents for Esoteric Audio, the high end arm of the Teac corporation, we know the depth of talent and resources available to this titan of Japanese audio. This is reflected in the fact that Teac use their own patented VRDS/Atlas transport mechanism rather than the usual option of an optical drive that has its roots in the retrieval of computer rather than audio data. The new 70 series from Teac looks for all the world like a slimmed down Esoteric setup – and that is a very good thing indeed. The range celebrates Teac’s 70th anniversary, hence the name. The digital range begins with the VRDS-701 which is a full featured CD player at €2,499. Weighing in at 11kg, the 701 is a substantially built CD player featuring Teac’s famous VRDS transport mechanism which is isolated from the player’s chassis. In fact, everything about this machine suggest high quality, from the smooth action of the controls to the natural unforced sound quality and digital inputs and MQA decoding is also included. The player also has a USB input, allowing it to function as a USB DAC using its trickle down Discrete DAC technology which originally debuted with Esoteric.
Moving up, there is also the option of the VRDS-701T transport, coupled with the UD-701N. The UD 701N is more than just a DAC as it can also function as a network player, an analogue preamp and a headphone amplifier. Finally, for the icing on the cake, there is the CG-10M-A a 10 MHz master Clock which can be used with either the standalone player or the Transport/DAC combination. The core function of a clock in a digital system is to reduce jitter. In audio terms, this translates to improved resolution of fine detail, but more significantly, a sense of ease and naturalness that just makes music more real and more relaxing to listen to. Lastly, to round out the system, there is a matching power amplifier, the AP-701, which is a high power Class D design built around the highly regarded Hypex modules complemented by Teac’s own dual mono power supplies.
## Shunyata Research
We are delighted to announce that at Cloney Audio we are now agents for the acclaimed power and signal cable products from Shunyata Research. Reproducing recorded music begins with mains electricity. Alternating current from the wall socket is converted to direct current and then manipulated and modulated in various ways to turn electricity into sound. Reproducing music is an incredibly challenging task given its dynamic and frequency range with two big enemies to making recorded music sound real. These two “bêtes noires” are firstly: current flow restriction and secondly: noise. Shunyata, more than any other company we know, has tackled these issues in the most comprehensive way possible, including unique, patented, technologies. Shunyata’s systemic approach begins with the power cable and continues with power distribution. The cables can be used by themselves or in conjunction with a power distributor and the audible improvements from both the cables by themselves and/or the cables and power distributor are immediately and clearly audible. What to expect: the system gains more power, instrumental separation increases, backgrounds become “blacker” so individual musical lines are easier to follow, dynamic contrasts are greater and fine nuances in the musician’s playing are revealed.
The Shunyata system should not be thought of as an accessory or “add on”. Our experience with the improvements brought about by Shunyata’s power cables and Everest, Denali and Typhon power distributors show them to be the equivalent of a major core component upgrade – they really are that significant. We are coming to Shunyata at an opportune time as the cable lineup has just received a major upgrade with the affordable Gamma and Theta cables and the new “X” upgrade to the Alpha, Sigma and, just announced, Omega lines. Shunyata also makes outstanding interconnect and speaker cables and the amazing Altaira grounding system which we will cover in a future issue.
## Return of a Legend – Wilson Watt/Puppy
The Wilson Audio brand is founded on the legendary Watt/Puppy loudspeaker. The original Watt/Puppy was notable for proving just how much enclosure design influences sound quality. Heroically non-resonant cabinet construction has since become a Wilson Audio hallmark. The original WATT/Puppy underwent a total of eight evolutions from 1986-2011 before being discontinued in favour of the Sasha DAW, since superseded by the Sasha V. Those eight iterations utilised a variety of materials, each strategically integrated and available during their respective development periods. Each evolution of material usage pushed the boundaries of what was achievable in loudspeaker capabilities at the time.
Now the Watt/Puppy has returned in a form which uses all of Wilson’s latest technologies and improvements to cabinets, crossovers and crossovers with a form factor and price which places it between the Sabrina X and Sasha V. The Watt/Puppy is noticeably more compact than the Sasha V and is ideally suited to a wide range of listening rooms.
## Magico A5
The obvious competitor to the Watt/Puppy is Magico’s A5. Where Wilson utilises proprietary very high density composite materials in their cabinets, the A5 is made entirely of 6061-T6 aircraft grade aluminium. Another fundamental difference is that the Magico is an infinite baffle sealed enclosure design, whereas the Wilson is ported. The A5 incorporates the company’s first 5-inch pure midrange driver as well as enhanced midrange and bass driver cone technology which Magico say “achieve unprecedented stiffness-to-weight ratio, a key parameter that Magico has pursued over the past 15 years.” As you might expect, these differences result in different flavours of sound - both extremely appealing but each offering a slightly different perspective on the music. In truth, we would be extremely happy with either speaker. At the time of writing our ex-demo A5s are on sale at a very attractive reduction off the new price – though we can’t promise they will be around for long!
## Innuos – streaming without compromise
While we continue to be fans of the once much maligned silver disc, the advent of streaming has opened up a whole world of musical choice. And as with CD and Vinyl we see streaming as peacefully co-existing with these two historical formats. However, for those in pursuit of sound quality as well as choice and convenience, streaming offers real challenges. After all, we are taking digital files sitting on a host of remote servers across the globe and attempting to reassemble packets of musical data into a coherent, musical whole. And then there is the user interface as each streamer manufacturer has to develop the graphical software to allow the listener to browse and replay music. Aside from Roon which requires a dedicated computer to run it, the two best apps we have found are Innuos’s Sense and dCS’s Mosaic.
We are delighted to have taken on the full Innuos range including the Zen, Pulse and Statement series, along with the Phoenix Network Switches and USB Re-clockers. A quality streamer really does make a massive difference to sound quality and Innuos streamers are simply the best we have heard, which combined with the usability of the Sense app, makes them a very compelling proposition. It is important to note also, that a number of the Innuos models are not just streamers – they feature fully fledged music server capability with storage and cd ripping file capability and the ability to read off their internal storage or external drives, while the Sense app is capable of building a unified music library from these diverse sources.
## Small Bites!
As this is already a bumper newsletter we will mention some juicy titbits which we will cover in more depth in our next issue.
### Luxman The history of the legendary Japanese Luxman audio brand goes right back to1925, at the birth of radio broadcasting. We are delighted to now represent Luxman in Ireland. Luxman is proper high end audio with build and sound to match and very competitively priced. The Luxman range includes vacuum tube and solid state amplifiers, highly regarded CD players and also turntables. We have already had great success with the PD-191A turntable complete with integrated tonearm. While outwardly simple and elegant, the PD-191A contains a sophisticated internal chassis and the latest PWM digital motor control electronics. Just add the cartridge of your choice to hear the best vinyl sound. [Cartridge Alert! Regardless of your turntable, talk to us about the latest additions to our line of cartridges including Shelter and Analogue Relax]. We also have on demonstration the L509-Z integrated solid state amplifier which packs 120 watts per channel of power, delivered with the refinement that Luxman is famous for. For those who would prefer valve sound, we have a study in petite perfection in the form of the SQ-N150 integrated valve amplifier.
### Passlabs Along with Dan D’Agostino (see below), Nelson Pass is one of the legends of audio design. Nelson is particularly known for his Class A power amp designs. At Pass Labs he joined with the preamplifier and industrial design talents of Wayne Colburn and Ireland’s own Desmond Harrington to form a powerhouse trio. Pass Labs produces integrated and pre/power amplifiers in Class A and Class A/B and highly regarded phono stages. Over the past number of years they have proved to be tremendously popular for their refined and astonishingly musical sound – so much so that they are part of our long term reference system. More details of our favourites in the next issue. ### Franco Serblin The late Franco Serblin was the man behind Sonus Faber. His spirit lives on in his second eponymous company. Franco Serblin loudspeakers take the tradition of the original Sonus Faber designs with their gorgeous hardwood cabinets and bring them up to date with the latest drive unit and crossover technologies. We currently have the beautiful and beautiful sounding Accordo Goldberg two way stand mount, complete with its matching stands on demonstration.
### dCS dCS make the finest digital audio systems are constantly working on R&D to advance the state of the art. The retrofittable Apex upgrade took what was already outstanding and improved dCS’s sound quality to a surprising degree. This was followed by the more affordable Lina series which includes DAC, Clock and Headphone Amp. We will present a more in-depth review of clocking in digital audio in our next issue but, suffice to say, more accurate clocking makes a big difference. For the moment the key piece of news for existing dCS owners – and Bartok owners in particular, is that the Lina clock is fully compatible with the Bartok. And it is now available in a matching silver finish. ### Cary Audio Dennis Had of Cary Audio is one of the key people who was instrumental in the revival of the “Western Electric” 300B valve as a force in high fidelity audio. 300B valves are frequently used in single ended configuration which is one of the simplest and purest forms of audio circuit, having the minimum of components. In a quality design this yields a naturalness, especially through the midrange where voices and other key instrumental frequencies reside, that some find simply unforgettable. The limitation of SE 300B amps is power output – but with high efficiency speakers such as those from Devore Fidelity, this is not a problem. We now have in stock the latest edition of the classic Cary CAD-300SEI, which really shows what audio magic a top quality 300B design can deliver – lovely!
### Spendor Natural, musical and affordable. From way back in the days of Spencer and Dorothy Hughes, we have always loved the natural “BBC monitor” sound of Spendor loudspeakers. And today's models are simply wonderful. We have in stock the following: the A1, A4, A7, and Classic 2/3s. At the time of writing we also have a pair of pre-owned D9.2s, complete with original packaging in stock. Speaking of which, be sure to check out our highly popular pre-owned and ex-dem section of www.cloneyaudio.com for a constantly changing selection of hi-fi bargains! ### Dual 618Q Dual is Germany’s best known turntable maker and their 618Q Direct Drive model uses an absolutely noiseless brushless motor which is entirely vibration free. In addition Dual’s double gimbal arm design using precision ball bearings ensures ultra-low friction resulting in superb sound from your favourite LP records. The 618Q comes factory fitted with a high quality Ortofon 2M Blue pickup cartridge which - if purchased separately - would cost over €200. For maximum convenience the tone arm can be set to automatically lift off the record and switch off the motor. But the Dual 618Q is about more than convenience as it delivers seriously good sound for affordable money at €1,099. And like all Dual turntables it comes with a 5 year warranty. ### CREEK 4040A Amplifier Compact and elegantly styled, the new Creek 4040A amplifier not only sounds superb but also features all that you would ever need of a high quality amplifier with 3 line inputs including balanced XLR. Digital inputs include Coax SPDIF, Opt Toslink, Usb class 2, Bluetooth AptX HD using a high quality 32 bit Sabre 32 DAC from ESS. One line input can be converted to a phono input by fitting a Creek Sequel phono board. Tone controls which can be switched out of circuit to give the purest signal path are also included. The amplifier puts out 55 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 110 into 4 ohms with a peak current of 20 amps – plenty to drive almost any speaker. During last year’s Dublin hi-fi show the 4040A impressed all who heard it in conjunction with Dual CS 618 turntable and Quadral Signum 20 speakers – a modestly priced, but great sounding system! The 4040A sells for €899 We also offer the matching 4040 CD player for €799. ### ARCAM CD5 Nowadays, affordable good sounding CD players are thin on the ground. However, Arcam’s latest CD5 might just be what many are looking for – good sound for sensible money. What Hi-Fi recently gave the CD5 a Five Star rating in a recent review commenting: “there hasn’t been a seriously good, seriously capable and seriously fun CD player at this level for a very long time. The Arcam CD5 changes that: it’s a tremendously talented player that deserves audition if you are still holding on to your beloved CD’s and want to give them a new lease of life.” Priced at only €799 this terrific sounding player offers great value for money. ### Rotel is Back After change of UK distributors one of our favourite hi-fi brands is available again: reliable, great sounding and keenly priced electronics including the highly acclaimed A11 Mk2 & CD11 Mk2 amplifier/ CD player.
## D'Agostino – Epic amplifiers
Dan D’Agostino is something of a legend among audio designers, having been one of the first to really show what solid state amplification could achieve at the frontiers of music reproduction. Following his many years at his original company, Krell, Dan departed to found the company that bears his name Dan D’Agostino. D’Agostino’s amplifier range has three lines Progression, Momentum and Relentless. We were recently able to provide one of our customers, and indeed, ourselves) with the opportunity to progressively (pardon the pun) audition monobloc power amplifiers from each of these ranges – the Progression 550s, Momentum MxV400s and finally, the Relentless Epic 800s. All of these amplifiers are spectacular – powerful, revealing and musical. The Progression 550’s are real powerhouses capable of driving any speaker to concert hall levels, with incredible slam and control. The Momentum’s present a slightly different balance being less “rockstar” and more “music Maestro: in their presentation. But to be clear, we are talking nuances here, but clearly audible nuances nevertheless.
Moving on to the Relentless we enter the perfect sweet spot – take the very best of what the Progression and Momentum ranges do and move it all to another level – more drive, more control, more detail, but all with incredible refinement and musicality. As with all Dan D’Agostino’s amplifiers, this iron fist in a velvet glove sound quality comes wrapped up in stunningly designed and manufactured casework that has to be seen and even felt to be believed. As you might imagine, this level of quality does not come cheap, but D’Agostino sound can also be experienced in the Progression MxV integrated amplifier which we currently have on demo. The Progression features Dan’s core design strategies including discrete, balanced, direct coupled circuitry married to a substantial output stage delivering 200WPC into 8 Ohms and 400WPC into 4 Ohms. It comes as standard with line level inputs but can be specified to cover all sources including vinyl and digital.
## SYSTEM AUDIO – Wireless real Hi-Fi
Well known for their passive speakers, System Audio of Roskilde Denmark recently launched their Silverback range of wireless speakers which can be controlled by your smartphone. Ole From System Audio ran a very impressive demonstration room during our previous hi-fi show at which a lot of the time visitors were convinced the larger models were in use when in fact the compact Silverback 1’s were playing.
The Silverback 1 is a new member of the award-winning Silverback family. It's made for music lovers who dream of great music and sound experiences without having big speakers in the living room. A power cord is all it needs to become part of a wireless music or home theatre system. The first thing people notice about Silverback 1 is the amazing and pleasant bass. The sound is rich and warm, even when playing at low volume. This is due to the specially designed woofers and their perfect match with the built-in amplifiers. It sounds like a much bigger speaker and we're especially impressed by its inviting musicality. The tweeter's patented acoustic lens covers the living room with sound, so you hear all the nuances of the sound, no matter where you are in the room. And it can handle surprising volume considering how small it is. The Silverback can play music directly from your phone or wireless streaming device. But with the optional SA Hub you can also play your CD’s and LP’s through the speakers wirelessly! In addition room correction and manual equalisation can be carried out with your smartphone using the SA Cockpit App. Make no mistake, although the Silverback 1 is wireless and incredibly convenient, it is proper hi- fi, with scale, accuracy and musicality. Just call us to arrange a demonstration – we think you will be impressed.
## Clearaudio Concept Signature
The original Clearaudio Concept was always regarded as one of the best, if not the best mid- priced turntables around, as reflected in the fact that Clearaudio have produced over 20,000 Concepts. The new Signature model takes a fundamentally excellent design and moves it forward to a new level of sound quality. Like the original, the new model is user friendly and comes ready to play out of the box with all critical adjustments carried out by Clearaudio at their factory in Erlangen Germany. The really big news is the completely redesigned drive electronics which uses trickle down technology from Clearaudio’s limited-edition Reference Jubilee – specifically the decoupling of the new DC motor from the turntable’s chassis. This is joined by the TSC Tacho-Speed-Control electronics which constantly monitor’s the motor’s speed and allows immediate response to even the slightest variation in speed from factors such as belt tension, friction of platter bearing or even room temperature. This is a unique and very effective feature on a mid-priced turntable. TSC also performs auto speed calibration on every start up with manual calibration also available at the push of a button. Sonically, this translates to more drive to the music and, at the same, a more relaxed listening experience as it becomes easier to place instruments in space and follow different melodic and rhythmic lines within the piece. The ultra-low friction Verify tonearm with magnetic bearing can be specified as standard with your choice of phono cartridges from Clearaudio’s extensive range, from the Concept MM to the Talisman V2 Gold. All this elevates the Concept Signature to an even higher level of sound quality making it easily our favourite record deck in this price range offering unbeatable value starting at €2,500.
#### Clearaudio Reference Jubilee
At the Dublin Hi Fi Show 2023, in our large room which featured Passlabs amps, Wilson Audio and Sonus Faber speakers, we were delighted to demonstrate the Clearaudio Innovation Turntable complete with Universal Arm and Hana Umami Blue cartridge. Even though our digital source was impeccable, the “popular vote” kept dragging us back to the analogue source. Recently, we were delighted to take delivery of the Clearaudio Reference Jubilee which sits in the range above the Innovation. The Jubilee is a limited edition but continues to be available for the present. And while the Innovation remains an absolutely superb turntable, the Jubilee Reference is a step up again. The deck uses the same Ceramic Magnetic Bearing and Acrylic (POM) and Stainless Steel platter combination as the Innovation. But it featured a completely different motor mount system and much more sophisticated control electronics. In a direct comparison using the same arm and cartridge, the Jubilee delivers an even blacker background, more air and space around instruments, coupled with the kind of drive and pace in the bass that we usually hear from direct or rim drive turntables. A genuine “Outstanding Product” that we are delighted to endorse. And for those who want to really reach for the stars, there is now the brand new Master Jubilee complete with Clearaudio’s new state of the art Unify tonearm.
## Stop Press – Quad 33/303 A Classic Reborn
In 1967 Quad released one of their most highly regarded pre/power amplifiers, the 33/303, which went on to sell in huge numbers. The 33 preamplifier sold 120,000 units with the 303 power amp clocking up almost 100,000 units, many of which are still in daily use. Quad has always been known for its outstanding industrial design and the reborn 33/303, like the modern Fiat 500, maintains the essence of the classic 60’s visual design while bringing the internals bang up to date. Technical features of the 33 Preamp include a high quality MM/MC Phono stage, single ended and balanced inputs & outputs, classic Quad Tilt/Lift bass and treble controls and full remote control, naturally. The 303 power amp outputs fifty watts per channel and can be further upgraded by the addition of a second 303, running in a bridged monobloc configuration, with each amp delivering double the power – 100 watts per channel. We are really looking forward to the return of this all-time classic – available from mid-November.
We hope this Newsletter has sparked your interest and look forward to welcoming you in our store in Blackrock. You can also get in touch via facebook, our website or email by clicking the links below. Keep listening, The team at Cloney Audio
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