Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the noisy, crowded, and tiring Bristol HiFi Show this year, but there is a load of news coming from the show, a few notable bits and highlights are enclosed.

Naim

In advance of Bristol, Naim announced they were upgrading several of their streamers (though not mine, an N 272) with Qobuz high-resolution music-streaming support and offering full browsing and playback experience integrated into the Naim app.    The Naim Qobuz update is available now for owners of Uniti Atom, Star and Nova systems, plus ND5 XS2, NDX 2 and ND 555 network players. An update for Naim Mu-so 2nd Generation and Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation wireless speakers will follow in Spring 2020 (in the meantime, owners of the speakers can enjoy Qobuz in up to 24bit/96kHz quality via Chromecast).

PMC

PMC says it is “launching the twenty5i series, following a substantial re-engineering of the multi-award winning twenty5 series, to benefit from the research carried out while developing the company’s flagship loudspeakers. The result is the removal of anything that detracts from the music, providing greater realism, transparency, and musicality”.  I for one will be looking to have a really good listen to these this year, they look gorgeous.

The six strong twenty5i range consists of four two-way designs: the compact twenty5.21i, with its 130mm bass driver, the slightly larger twenty5.22i with a 165mm driver and the corresponding floor-standers, the twenty5.23i and twenty5.24i. The range is completed with the three-way twenty5.26i and a dedicated center channel.

The twenty5i series will be available from March 2020 in the UK.

Pricing is per pair (except twenty5.Ci) inc. Vat is as follows:

Dedicated stands for compact models are £295

Moon

To celebrate their 40th anniversary MOON has put together a very exciting MOON musical prize called Elevate The Talent.  MOON has created the competition to encourage and inspire the musical creativity of young and promising artists who would like a kickstart for their career with the opportunity to create an original masterpiece.  With a fantastic prize of $10,000 (Canadian dollars), a professional recording session and a vinyl pressing of the finished work, it is a competition that any aspiring artist will want to enter.  Full details here.  Unfortunately, you need to be a Canadian resident, maybe they’ll extend it for some of the territories!

Kudos

Kudos Audio, the UK’s Isobaric loudspeaker design and manufacturing specialist, announced today it was making KS-1 loudspeaker cable available for retail sale.

This follows many requests from Kudos retailers and distributors. KS-1 was developed by Kudos around a year ago for use for internally wiring its high-quality, high-end loudspeakers. KS-1 was another element in ensuring the absolute consistency of product quality over time.  As someone who has since retired from the hi-fi industry once said: “Anyone can make a good prototype: it’s whether the 10,000th is the same as the first that sorts the men from the boys.”

Kudos KS-1 is the result of the KISS principle of design: the right materials, well-executed win over fancy marketing related engineering every time.  KS-1’s conductors are 19 strands of silver-plated Oxygen-Free Copper (OFC) insulated with Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP) run with a slow twist and all surrounded by a hard PVC outer for protection, physical damping, and simplicity of use.  FEP shares PTFE’s ideal low dielectric constant but is a little softer for improved mechanical damping. The choice of 19 strands is not random: there were multiple listening tests carried out to identify sonic differences from the number of strands changing while keeping the overall conductor diameter the same. Nineteen proved to be the ideal.

Kudos KS-1 will supply retailers in 100m drums to allow termination and length as the customer requires.  Kudos anticipate that KS-1 will cost £30 per linear meter unterminated.

Elipson

Elipson’s new flagship Legacy Series 3230 loudspeaker was launched at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show, and boy it looks good and heavy!

The flagship in their new range of high-end audiophile two-channel loudspeakers, the new Legacy Series perfectly embodies the brand’s 80+ years of Hi-Fi heritage by taking advantage of innovations derived from their legendary speakers, such as the La Religieuse speaker designed for the French ORTF in 1962 and the 4050 model which formed the sound system of the Grenoble Olympic games in 1968.   Since taking over the brand in 2008, owner Philippe Carre wanted to reconnect with these avant-garde design high-end audio speakers with key models such as the 4260, and the current Planet L and M spherical speakers.

Manufactured in France, the new Legacy Series continues this quest in the form of three speakers all developed with bespoke components, cabinetry, loudspeaker drive units, and filters. The range comprises a stand-mount/bookshelf speaker, the Legacy 3210 and two floor-standing speakers, the flagship 3230 and smaller 3220.  The Legacy Series will be available in the UK from next month and in walnut real wood and black satin silver oak veneer options at a UK SRP of £7,490 per pair.  Take a look at the pictures here.

Fyne Audio

Fyne Audio launched five new models (plus a set of stands) over four display/demo areas in Bristol this year.  Fyne Audio unveiled three new models to its formidable UK made F700 Series, the compact F700 bookshelf and F701 standmount models, and the substantial F704 floorstander. The move brings the popular series to five strong and now includes the optional FS8 dedicated speakers stands for the smaller models.