Welcome to Newsletter #21

Escape M1 Air in use with WiFi offering optical output

Welcome to the September 2022 Newsletter, looking back at a terrific month of reviews, listening to new and old music, and looking forward to upcoming HiFi products on the test bench.

New Reviews This Month

One of the more surprising reviews this month was of the Escape M1 Air.  If you missed it, the M1 Air is a streaming bridge, offering digital and/or analogue output at a fraction of the cost of other streamers.  It is high quality and has excellent resolution, not to mention stability, that belies the price tag.  We said of the M1 Air this month:

…buy one, or possibly two to be honest, in case Escape either stop making them, can’t make them quick enough or they realise that this is a total winner, and they double the price.

The M1 Air has transformed an exhausted and unused Bose Lifestyle system into something that is on daily office rotation with a contemporary front end.

Acoustic Energy 109.2 with the full-length soft magnetic grille

Also reviewed this month were the Acoustic Energy 109.2 loudspeakers.  Acoustic Energy has once again knocked it out of the park at the six hundred pounds price point and the value for money is remarkable, given the cabinet finish and the all-around sound reproduction in this package.  In fact, here at HF&MS, we have the 100.2 standmounted speakers too, for a separate project.  They too are simply exceptional at a £259 price point.  Look out for a future article that will feature the AE100.2s.

Finally, this month, we reviewed the MOON 250i integrated amplifier.  Just analogue but all the better for it.  With a bunch of analogue inputs, simple controls and a dynamic punch under the hood, the MOON 250i represents the perfect entrance to MOON’s stunning range of products, that we are proud to be associated with here at HF&MS.

Coming Up

It has been a very busy week with many lovely deliveries from the likes of Cambridge Audio, PSB, Atlas Cables and Meze Audio.  New arrivals and unboxings are posted on Instagram so you can see what is coming up.

Reviews up and coming this month will include a look at the terrific Zen DAC, seen here with the matching Zen Stream.  The Zen DAC has just found a perfect partner with the arrival of the new Meze Audio 109 open-backed headphones.

There will also be a review of the Cambridge Audio Evo 150 all-in-one (just add speakers) that is running in well as we speak.  The Evo is a little sister to the Edge NQ and Edge W which performed so well last year.  They both feature the excellent Cambridge Audio Stream Magic platform, which is very stable in our experience.

Coming soon, there will be a comment piece on the Chord Company GroundARAY product, which is designed to reduce high-frequency electrical noise in a HiFi system; plot spoiler…. it works!

Other reviews to look for this month or next will be a review of the PSB 50th Anniversary Edition Passif loudspeakers, which have a slightly retro feel to them with a resounding soundstage on first listen.  Separately, there will be a full look at the new Atlas Hyper 5.0 speaker cable, I know they’re not sexy, but good cables are necessary.

New Music

You may have seen a few more playlists in the ‘What we’re Listening to…’ based on Track Radios in Tidal.  The Tidal algorithm has opened our eyes to some terrific new music recently.

This month we have been listening to David Sylvian’s 2009 Manafon album, which necessitated a return to Japan’s groundbreaking 1981 Tin Drum album.

Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam

New music that has caught the eye, this week, includes The Comet is Coming’s new album Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam.  This album is a synth-based crazy jazz album that is currently on repeat.  If you like the chaos of Kamasi Washington’s The Epic, you’ll like this. If you ever need a track to check out channel separation, The Hammer is our new go-to track.

Also released today is the new Blue Note re:imagined II album that features reworked Blue Note tracks by contemporary artists like Ego Ela May, Nubian Twist and Parthenope, who has covered Norah Jones’ Don’t Know Why.  Just listen to this track, it is perfect.