With a myriad of components from some of the world’s biggest brands fighting for shelf space, a good Hi-Fi can be bought for a relatively small amount these days. This has opened the door for you to enjoy pure quality time with your favourite music without costing the earth.
Some days though, we all want to dream a little larger. What if our budgets had an extra zero or two on the end? What would we go for then? Things get a whole lot more glamorous when designers and engineers add flourishes both audible and visual to really get collective imaginations going. If you’re thinking your system may be due an upgrade, or if you just like to drool over shiny new tech, we’ve put together a few components that’ll really get you salivating. Welcome to the world of high-end Hi-Fi!
Amplifier – Roksan Caspian M2 Integrated / Power combo
The heart of any Hi-Fi, the amplifier is the glue that holds a system together. With the award-winning Caspian range, Roksan’s engineers have selected only the highest quality components and housed them in absolutely rock-solid casework. Running off a massive 350VA toroidal power supply, the M2 is able to throw 125WPC into a 4 ohm load, and 85WPC into 8 ohms.
Not content with just the one power supply, the M2 features another one solely for the pre-amplification side of this integrated unit. Using these two toroidal supplies allows each vital part in the audio reproduction chain to work at its very best, and that really shows when listening to this wonderfully insightful amplifier.
The Caspian M2 Integrated amplifier also allows for the addition of a M2 Power amplifier pushing the sound quality to another level. Bi-wireable speakers (which we will shortly talk about) are able to take advantage of this setup delivering huge gains to soundstaging, imaging and resolution.
Given mankind’s never-ending breakneck technological march towards the next big innovation, it’s heart-warming to see sales of the humble turntable grow with each passing year. In the case of this particular deck however ‘humble’ is not an applicable adjective, say hello to the Project 6!
Offering stunning good looks with its suspended chassis built in clear acrylic, the ‘6’ is a modern design marvel. Utilising magnetic suspension (most turntables that use suspension are spring-based) and with a sub-chassis manufactured from a material called Corian, this turntable is able to offer the very best in isolation and vibration damping.
The space-age tech doesn’t stop there – there’s also a huge carbon-fibre tonearm employed to create a super rigid but extremely lightweight method of holding your cartridge to the record, thus offering clear and pure sound quality. Add in a strong metal clamp to hold your record firmly in place, and aluminium feet that contain their own isolation pads, the Project 6 makes it seem like records were only invented yesterday! It’s no wonder What Hi-Fi awarded it a 5-star review.
Network Music Streamer – Pioneer N70A
From classic set-ups to the bang-up-to-date systems, no modern Hi-Fi would be complete without a way of streaming digital music. Whether it’s your own personal collection or through Spotify and the many other subscription-based content providers, what’s needed to pull all this together is a solid network music streamer. Pioneer’s N70A is right up there with the best for turning decent digital sound into brilliant digital sound.
Built on top of a 3mm base to quash internal vibrations the N70A takes RF interference very seriously, separating digital and analogue sections of the amplifier, and shielding the power supplies there too. Network streamers are nothing without a comprehensive set of codecs for audio playback, and the Pioneer is packing in plenty. MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, FLAC, ALAC Apple Lossless, AIFF, LPCM and DSD formats are all catered for. File playback is also available up to 384khz/32bit bit-rates, and those files that are lower can be up-sampled. Navigation is easy as anything too, with a full colour 3.5″ screen provided for showing album art, tracklistings, and menus. Pioneer also put a fair amount of work into the app you use to control your music (available for both Android and Apple devices), offering a smooth-running and simple usability.
Given its pedigree, finding a set of XLR outputs around the back of the N70A is no surprise, and those who can use them should. Anyone who can’t isn’t left out though, with RCA, optical and digital coaxial all available, too.
Multiple bass and mid-range drive units are nothing unusual on a speaker, but multiple tweeters are something special. For Danish manufacturer DALI, it’s the best way to achieve the purest sound quality money can buy. These great speakers combine a regular soft-dome tweeter found on most loudspeakers with a ribbon tweeter to offer the smoothest transition between frequencies across the audible range and beyond.
Alongside DALI’s own custom-made wood pulp mid-range drivers, these hybrid units are unrivalled in their ability to convey the human voice in all its detailed glory. Add in the IKON 7’s double woofers, created from the same material, and you get superlative performance in all areas. These speakers are capable of plumbing the very depths of bass driven tracks, and soaring right up to the highest, most delicate notes in any genre. They’re tall and imperious looking but they’re excellently crafted with a lustrous finish to the drive units themselves. A truly great high-end option.
You can learn more about these components and many other high-end head-turners, check out the Richer Sounds website, or pop into one of our stores for a free demo! *
Author – Chris, Liverpool store
* Due to exclusivity, certain high-end products are only available in selected branches. Please check with your local store for stock availability before making a special journey.
