Markaudio-SOTA Tozzi One Speaker Kit

Introduction

The Tozzi One speaker kit is likely the easiest speaker kit on the market. I assembled it in an hour, half of which was spent looking for my tools, and cleaning up. This is the perfect kit for beginners as there is no soldering involved - all you need is a screwdriver. 

The kit costs USD 395 per pair if purchased direct from the manufacturer, but it can sometimes be found cheaper from other merchants. 

Description

Based on their in-house CHN 50 full-range driver, the Tozzi One is built around an ABS and fiber-reinforced cabinet. 

The driver is mounted in a shallow wave-guide, while the cabinet is rear-ported. Sensitivity is rated at 85 dB, and impedance at 6 ohms. The anechoic frequency response is specified at 80 Hz - 22 kHz (+/- 6 db). The cabinet measures 200 x 126 x 200 mm, and weighs 1.42 kg. The cabinet is angled up slightly, so you should be fine listening to it in the near-field while placed on your desk. 

The waveguide has a textured finish, while the sides of the cabinet are finished in a faux leather wrap. 

Assembly is straightforward enough. The instructions were in Japanese, but the diagram is clear enough to figure out. 

A thin gasket is placed between the front baffle and the speaker driver. The driver is held in place with five hex nuts. The supplied wiring is terminated in push-on terminals and o-rings, so you just need to connect them to the speaker driver and supplied five-way binding posts. The rear panel foam needs to be affixed using the supplied double-sided tape. Install the gasket into the rear panel groove, and attach it to the speaker cabinet with screws. That's it! Building and programming a custom keyboard is far more challenging than this. 

The beauty of full-range driver designs is that there is no crossover to mess around with. From a technical viewpoint, you get the best possible coherence from using a single driver and higher efficiency and purity from skipping the passive crossover. There is no free lunch though. Asking a driver to cover the whole frequency range results in uneven response. Most designs have to rely on complex cabinet designs with some form of a back-loaded horn to get usable bass output. 

Sound Quality

Straight out of the box, the Tozzi One has a clear and engaging sound, but with some rough edges. A few hours of run-in sorts that out nicely.

As expected from a full-range driver speaker, you get a lovely transparent and coherent sound. The Tozzi One sounds bigger than it looks although the very limited low-frequency output and extension makes it more suited for background listening in a large room, or listening in the near-field. In a large room, you definitely need to pair this with a subwoofer.  

Fast forward a month later, and the Tozzi One has had everything thrown at it while it sat on my computer and work desk - gaming sessions, background music, serious listening sessions, etc. As desktop speakers and with proper amplification, the Tozzi One will eat your computer speakers for lunch. I paired them with a spare Kingrex T20U amplifier that I happened to have lying around. The Kingrex delivers 10W per channel into a 4 ohm load and is enough to drive the Tozzi One to fairly loud levels for near-field listening purposes. I found it to have enough grunt to make explosions, gunshots, and orchestral crescendos equally satisfying. The rest of the frequency range was handled quite well without the midrange honk or peaky top-end that I sometimes hear from full-range drivers. In fact, the midrange is laidback and on the warm side of neutral. 

Where the Tozzi One really nails it is staging and imaging that is both spacious and pin-point. There is plenty of soundstage width, depth, and a good sense of dimensional layering.  

 

Conclusion

The Tozzi One is an excellent addition to my work desk. With the present world situation, this may be just the thing you need to preserve your sanity during long work-from-home stints. It may need more effort to set up than the usual powered speaker suspects, but it is well worth it.

MarkAudio-SOTA

http://markaudio-sota.us/

Price : USD 395 per pair

Vivid Kaya S12 Speakers

Introduction

News of a new bookshelf model from Vivid Audio surfaced sometime last year, and a pre-production model made its appearance in a number of Hi-Fi shows. The Kaya S12 is Vivid's smallest speaker yet - a two way bookshelf speaker in a compact form factor. 

X-Audio recently received the S12, which is currently making its rounds to selected dealers worldwide. I took the opportunity to see how the S12 would stack-up against its larger siblings.  

Description

It's small size means that certain signature Vivid designs cannot be employed - no twin-opposed firing woofers, nor tapered tube for the midrange / woofer driver. However, they  managed to fit in a tapered tube for the tweeter, as well as the flowing curved cabinets seen in their Giya and Kaya range. To manage the back-force from the single midrange / woofer, a curved shell directly behind the driver absorbs and helps dissipate the energy. X-Audio informed me that this helps to reduce cabinet resonance in both the vertical and horizontal planes.

The S12's cabinet is finished in British racing green, although it looks almost black under normal lighting

A port is situated on the rear of the S12, with a single pair of binding posts placed below the port. As the binding posts are all the way at the bottom of the cabinet, stiff speaker cables and / or spade terminals could prove to be tricky not to mention dangerous. 

Pricing has not yet been finalised, and there is also some talk about matching speaker stands. Given how small the S12 is, a dedicated stand with the ability to securely bolt down the speaker would be mandatory to avoid accidents. X-Audio hopes that the speaker with matching stands will be able to reach our shores with a price tag below S$ 10,000 (keep your fingers crossed).

Admittedly, the S12 will in all likelihood be priced dangerously close to the Kaya 25, but still significantly more affordable than the rest of Vivid's line-up. I did have some reservations - could it handle dynamic swings as well ? The small cabinet volume also meant limited low frequency response. The two-way design required the midrange / woofer to cover a wider frequency range and work much harder compared to Vivid's more sophisticated and complex multi-way designs.

Impressions   

My apprehensions turned out to be unnecessary Audiophile fussing - hearing the S12 proved to be satisfying and appealing to both my analytical and emotional demands. 

The S12 delivered a solid kick in the bass and sounds much larger than suggested by its diminutive size. The midrange / bass driver is used effectively to sound full and deliver impact and weight when required. This is helped by unflappable composure at very high playback volumes, which is testament to the outstanding engineering of both the drive units and enclosure. 

Vivid speakers have many strengths, including excellent integration between drive units, super imaging and soundstaging, lightning fast transients, extremely high resolution and dynamic range. Most of these qualities are thankfully possessed by the S12. However, I felt that the S12 compromised on the scale and size of the soundstage - sounding smaller and less grand than Vivid's larger models. As brilliant as Laurence Dickie is, he is not able to re-write the laws of physics, and the S12 has limited low frequency output. This compromise is most noticeable on large-scale orchestral works and rock. 

On the positive side, the S12 really shines in near-field listening and would be my first choice as a near-field monitor. Given how prevalent small apartments are in Singapore, the S12 may be a more suitable choice in small listening spaces compared to Vivid's larger models. 

Conclusion

As a long time Giya G4 owner, it was very easy and comfortable to listen to the S12 over the duration of my listening session. I ended the session walking away very impressed that the S12 was able to deliver a performance as satisfying as the rest of Vivid's range, with some sensible and acceptable compromises. I eagerly await the S12 to make it into full production.

Price : TBD

X-Audio Pte Ltd

Bukit Timah Plaza
1 Jalan Anak Bukit #01-01S
Singapore 588996
Tel : 6466 4624



   
  

Sony SRS-HG1 Portable Wireless Speaker

Introduction

According to Sony, the SRS-HG1 is the world's smallest High-Resolution Audio portable wireless speaker. Available in 5 trendy colours, my review sample was finished in a very striking Lime Yellow colour.

Description

The SRS-HG1 measures 204x62x60 mm and weighs 790g. The driver complement consists of dual 35 mm full range drivers and a single passive radiator. Sony's S-Master HX Digital amp pumps out 12 watts of power. The DSEEHX Digital Sound Enhancement Engine processes lossy music files to address the quality lost during compression.

The SRS-HG1 can be connected via Bluetooth (Version 4.2 is supported with compatibility with the following protocols, A2DP, AVRCP, HFP and SPP) or via USB. The onboard DAC supports bit depth of up to 24 bits and sampling rates up to 192 kHz.

You can also stream music via wifi (this speaker is DLNA compliant), or hook up a legacy device via the stereo mini-jack on the rear panel.

Delving deep into the manual shows that the SRS-HG1 has a formidable feature set. A wireless multi-room setup can be created to stream different music to multiple SRS-HG1 speakers in different rooms. You can also pair a set of these speakers to create dedicated stereo pairs. With selected Sony Home Theater systems that support a wireless surround function, the SRS-HG1 can function as wireless surround speakers - messy wires begone !
Google Cast and Spotify connect are also supported.

The top panel of the SRS-HG1 has a row of LED indicators on the left, and a row of control buttons on the right. Two separate USB ports are provided on the rear panel, one for charging the unit (you get 12 hours on a full charge), and the other for hooking up your computer.

Sound Quality

I listened to the SRS-HG1 via both Bluetooth and its USB port with a variety of music (both CD quality and High-Resolution audio). 

The SRS-HG1 has a very clear, detailed and spacious sound. This helps reproduce the ambience of the recording venue and giving a nice lift to string instruments and cymbals. Midrange has a crystal-like quality too and female vocals are reproduced very cleanly. Separation is also good, with a clear distinction between the various instruments in a recording mix.

Bass is tight and well-defined, but does not go deep nor loud. Unfortunately the laws of physics cannot be defied and the SRS-HG1 is held back in this respect by the smaller drivers used and the small cabinet volume. Hitting the "Extra-Bass" button results in either muddy, bloated bass, or distortion - best to leave that button alone.

Generally, the SRS-HG1 prefers to be used at safer volumes. If you like bass-heavy music or listen very loud, better to have a look at one of Sony's larger models.

Removing the speaker grill (a small switch below the unit gracefully ejects the grill) reveals drivers that fire straight ahead. I found that the drivers do not have a wide dispersion pattern, and sound a lot better when listened to on the same vertical axis, or not more than 20-30 degrees off-axis. Best to tilt these speakers upwards if required.

The diminutive size of these speakers also means that your left and right channel drivers are quite close together, which limits soundstage width. Now, imagine using two of these speakers in paired stereo mode !

Conclusion  

The SRS-HG1 are incredibly well equipped speakers, with an impressive feature and specification set. Although a bit pricey, these speakers are well made and sounds very clear and detailed. The limited bass and volume capabilities will exclude certain potential customers though.

Sony SRS-HG1
Recommended Consumer Price - S$ 359

Thiel TT1

Introduction

I saw the Thiel TT1 some time back at Sound Decisions, the local dealer for Thiel. The company has with a change in management and ownership, taken a very different direction with it's products. I made an appointment with Sammy Low, principal of Sound Decisions to have a quick listen to the TT1 sometime later.

Description

The TT1 bears little physical resemblance to past models. The TT1 is a four drive speaker in a slim rear ported enclosure. High frequencies are handled by a 1 inch titanium dome tweeter, while a 4 1/4 inch fibreglass cone handles the midrange. Low frequencies are taken care of by two 6 1/2 inch aluminum cone woofers.

Frequency response is stated as 39 Hz to 30 kHz (no limits stated), while in-room sensitivity is rated at 90 db. Impedance is specified at 4 ohms nominal and 3.67 ohms minimum.

The drive units are not Thiel's in-house designs - according to Thiel's official website, the woofers are produced by Scanspeak to Thiel's specifications.

Physical dimensions are 40.1" (H) x 10.2" (W) x 10.0"(D). Each speaker weights a healthy 58 pounds.

The list price of the TT1 is S$7,900 per pair.  

Sound Quality

If you are a fan of the late Jim Thiel's work, you probably already know that the TT1 does not attempt to follow his key design objectives, i.e. a time-aligned and phase coherent design. My first "high-end" speaker was the Thiel CS 1.2 (definitely high-end to the wallet and ears of the young school going person as I then was), and I subsequently bought a CS 1.6 and a 2.7 (which I still have today). I decided it would be best to approach this speaker with an open mind, rather than to evaluate the TT1 as a continuation of legacy models - it clearly is not, and neither is it trying to.

The TT1 was setup for me with a Bel Canto digital front end, and an AVID turntable rig. Amplification was handled by a VTL preamp and monoblock amplifiers. 

Earlier Thiel models had a tendency to sound clean and transparent. You could never accuse them of sounding fuzzy, nor euphonic. They were true to the source, warts and all. With careful setup, and suitable partnering equipment, they were holographic and delivered amazing amounts of detail. When you got it wrong, they could sound lean, harsh and flat.

The TT1 is voiced very differently. Mid-bass had a warm and rich bloom to it, while the midrange was velvety smooth. The top-end had the right amount of life and expression, ensuring that the recordings are reproduced with a certain amount of air and sparkle.

Soundstaging and imaging were good, with a comendable portrayal of instrument placement and the recording venue. The TT1 sounded pleasant at all times, maintaining its composure as the volume was increased. 

On the downside, deep bass was lacking (not surprising given the limited internal volume of it's cabinet). I also felt that the TT1 took the approach of trading off accuracy for musical enjoyment. This is not necessarily a bad thing and will suit owners who just like to sit back and enjoy their music, instead of trying to hear exactly what was done by the recording engineer.

Conclusion

At the end of the audition, I felt that the TT1 was worthy of serious consideration, and delivered quite a lot for it's price tag. No, it will not please the fans of legacy Thiel products. However, it will please the person looking for an affordable, well-finished and easy-on-the-ear speaker.

Sound Decisions

1 Coleman Street
#04-49/62 The Adelphi
Singapore 179803

Tel: (65)6733 8227
Fax: (65)6733 8229

www.sounddecisions.com.sg

The Freedom Speaker

This crowd-funded speaker on Kickstarter piqued my curiosity - The Freedom Speaker.

The creator, Mr. Jaime Solorzano Garcia has a website with a detailed explanation and a very nicely produced video on the speaker. 

http://thefreedomspeaker.com/

This is an active open baffle dipole design. Room correction via DSP and a lot of other interesting features - please have a look. 

Nola Boxer S1 Speakers

Introduction

Many years ago when I was a wee little lad, I came across the most interesting looking speaker at a dealer's shop. The speaker was conventional rectangular box, but had an externally mounted midrange and tweeter, housed in what looked like a flat cut-out of a person.

"What are those ?", I asked innocently. The dealer in his usual gruff manner replied, "Alon speakers." I did hear them off and on for the few years that they sat in the shop. Nice speakers. 

Fast forward to the present, and Alon is no longer in business. However, Carl Marchisotto, principal and designer of Alon, now designs under a new company - Nola (Alon read backwards). 

Description

The Boxer S1 is a 2 way bookshelf speaker that is part of Nola's Boxer Collection. The cabinet measures 15 1/2 inches (H) x 8 inches (W) x 11 1/2 inches (D). Rated impedance is 8 ohms, and frequency response is specified as 44 Hz - 28 kHz. Sensitivity is high at 90 dB.

The 6.5 inch bass driver utilises a laminated pulp cone, while the high frequency unit is a silk dome tweeter. The tweeter face plate incorporates a shallow wave guide and a felt ring to control diffraction. A detachable black cloth grill is supplied.

The S1 is a bass reflex design with a rear firing port. A single pair of high quality binding posts are located on the rear panel of the speaker. It is worth a mention that the terminals are mounted directly through drilled holes in the cabinet, and not large plastic terminal trays used by much of the competition.

Compared to the base model Boxer, the S1 gains Mundorf oil caps in its crossover and internal Nordost mono filament wiring. 

The review sample I received was finished in a glossy piano black finish.

The cabinet was not as rigid as I would have liked, with a lively response to the audiophile knuckle rap test. The quality of the supplied grills were also not up to mark with the rest of the cabinetry work. They imparted a veil over the high frequencies and were left unused in the box during the review period. 

Setup

The S1 is positively setup friendly. An initial placement on my 24 inch Partington Dreadnought Broadside stands about 6 feet apart sounded fine, and a little bit of adjustments in placement and toe-in (about 15 degrees inwards) completed the setup process.

Choosing partnering equipment for the S1 was similarly drama free and I got good results with both my Gryphon Diablo integrated amp and Job 225 power amp. Both amplifiers were fronted by a Antelope Audio Zodiac Platinum. In the case of the Job 225, the Antelope's excellent volume control stage handled preamp duties. I had a slight preference for the Gryphon, and used it for most of the review.

Sound Quality

The S1 was tonally on the warmer side of things, with a large and musical presentation.

Bass quality was good with weight and a nice bloom that gives the S1 a scale that belies it's physical size. I did notice on certain tracks though, a slight trace of colouration in the mid-bass. This was not always noticeable and seemed to occur only at certain frequencies. Cabinet resonance at play perhaps ?

Midrange deserves a special mention with the S1 reproducing the midrange with one of the most liquid and buttery smooth presentations I've heard in its price range. It reminded me very much of the tone from a good paper-in-oil capacitor. This gave vocals an anlogue and grain-free presentation although there was some trade-off with microdetail.

Interestingly, the S1's high frequency response was extended, clean and quite prominent. This gave the S1 a "U-shaped" tonal balance. I've heard plenty of smooth performers, usually to the point of boredom (especially if the treble is rolled-off). However, the S1 manages to sound smooth and laidback, while having a certain amount of liveliness, sparkle and air in the upper registers.  

In terms of staging, the S1 presents music with a slightly forward perspective, almost like sitting in the fourth or fifth row of seats in a concert hall. Soundstage width is good, but with some truncation in depth and height perspective.

Imaging was also good, albeit not to the superlative degree of the KEF LS50, or the Sony SS-NA5ES which I recently reviewed. Image sizes were slightly larger than normal. 

Resolving power was good on the top end of the frequency spectrum, with some loss of microdetail and articulation in the midrange and lower frequencies.

Listening to jazz quartets as an example, the performers sounded "big" with impact from the double bass, low piano notes, and the kick drum. The brass instrument had a warm and laidback glow, while the percussion work on the cymbals rang loud and clear.

Moving to violin solos, the instrument had a fuller tone than usual, with a sweeter tone and less "bite". Similarly, vocalists had a chestier quality, and singing techniques like vibrato did not come through as clearly as they should.

Conclusion

The S1 is a very enjoyable and musical speaker. It may not be the most neutral or detailed speaker around, but it sounded good across a wide genre of music. It made an admirable attempt to communicate the music in an engaging fashion, regardless of the quality of the recording. 

If you are looking for a speaker that errs on the warm and forgiving side of things, the S1 will likely please. It is a fuss-free speaker that will just let you sit back, put your feet up, and relax while enjoying your music. It's been a while since I had so much fun.

While I did find the S1's performance compromised in several areas, I found the overall strengths of the S1 to outweigh it's shortcomings. 

The Nola Boxer S1 is carried locally by Horizon Acoustics and lists for SGD 3,450 (with stands). The review sample was supplied by Horizon Acoustics and thanks goes to K.M. Poon for making the necessary arrangements.

Horizon Acoustics

144 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#03-15 Beauty World Centre
Singapore 588177

Telephone : 91259149

Website : http://www.horizonacoustics.com

Sony SS-NA5ES Speakers

Sony SS-NA5ES Speakers

Introduction

My first encounter with the SS-NA5ES was during Sony's "Feel the Air" event last year in October. I was quite impressed by the performance of the NA5ES, despite it being paired with a home theater receiver, and setup in a large acoustic space.  

This is certainly not your run-of-the-mill speaker. The cabinet is constructed out of Scandinavian birch wood (chosen for it's density due to the slow growth of trees there) and finished in deep brown gloss veneer by craftsmen in Japan. Under dim lighting, it appears to be almost black, and has one of the most impressive lacquer finishes I've seen on a speaker cabinet. Needless to say, the quality of the cabinetry work is top notch.

The rather petite cabinet (355 mm(H) x 205mm (W) x 325mm (D)) is deceptively heavy (10 kg). The woofer is a 130 mm cone driver, while the tweeter is highly unusual. The tweeter is termed by Sony as "I-Array" and has a single 25 mm fabric dome tweeter, flanked by two smaller 19 mm drivers on top and below of the main tweeter unit.   

A single pair of binding posts sits below the twin reflex ports which are slightly flared, presumably to reduce port noise. Unusually, the base of the speaker is attached to a metal plate.

A close-up view of the beautiful ply used. My review sample was well-used from the looks of it.

Specifications wise, the NA5ES has a nominal impedance of 4 ohms and sensitivity of 86dB. Rated frequency response is from 45 Hz to 45 kHz (no limits stated), and maximum power handling is 70 watts. 

The NA5ES retails for a recommended consumer price of S$ 2,499 per piece (yes, they are sold singly), or S$ 4,998 per pair.

Setup

I took much longer than usual to setup these speakers. They did not like my high mass Partington Dreadnought Broadside speaker stands, sounding too damped and restrained. A pair of half-filled Atacama SE24 stands proved to be a far better match.

Coming to amplification, the match with my Gryphon Diablo was personally underwhelming. It sounded alright, but not really up to the mark of my previous experiences with the NA5ES.  A pair of Bel Canto Ref 500M monoblock amplifiers sounded much better, but they really performed with my Conrad Johnson GAT and ART mono blocks. 

I set up the NA5ES in both my bedroom system and main listening room. In both cases, they were used quite far away from the walls, with a minimum of 90 cm from the rear of the cabinet to back wall, and at least 60 cm from side walls. I ended up toeing in these speakers more than my usual angle of about 10-15 degrees inwards towards the listener, and settled for an angle of just under 30 degrees (being barely able to see the inside edges of the speaker cabinet). Listeners should avoid being too far off the vertical height of the tweeter array. While the I-Array tolerates vertical offset much better than say a ribbon tweeter, it does sound fairly different if your listening position is more than 2-3 inches above the tweeter's height. 

Sound

The NA5ES has a very put together and refined sound. It sounds far bigger than it looks, thanks to a dynamic low-end punch and a fondness for higher than average volumes.

Low frequencies are reproduced with a full mid-bass and very nice bloom. Faster music is handled well and the Sony's 130mm woofer (slightly over 5 inches) is capable of moving a good amount of air with commendable agility. 

Midrange is smooth and somewhat laidback. There is decent clarity and vocals are presented with a slightly warm and pleasing tone. Some detail is traded-off here, and this is likely to appeal to listeners who want to hear a more musical presentation, rather than those who are seeking a more analytic approach.

Despite having three drivers devoted to high frequencies, the NA5ES sounds anything but bright. The I-Array unit is deployed subtly, with a silkiness and refinement that is quite outstanding. While the treble is very detailed, it is presented with less prominence compared to the rest of the frequencies.

Tonally, these speakers reproduce the piano with more grandeur than usual, but with a slight reduction in attack and articulation. Similarly, string instruments have a sweeter and fuller sound, with less bite. I would hesitate to describe the NA5ES as coloured though. Perhaps a more apt description would be to describe these speakers as romantic and sensuous. 

The NA5ES really shines in the areas of coherence, staging and imaging. It presents a very wide and deep soundstage, with very good placement of instruments and the vocalist. The Bel Canto amplifiers tended to portray a flatter perspective and drier top-end, but the Conrad Johnson amplification really added a three-dimensionality and air that I've seldom heard in this price range. The sheer holography of these speakers when paired at such, created such a powerful illusion that I totally forgot my task at hand being momentarily transported to the venue of the recording !

While I greatly appreciated the NA5ES's strengths, it is not perfect (no component ever is).  From a pricing point of view, the NA5ES is expensive and has to face-off with very keen competition. Some of it's competitors can outperform the Sony in certain areas for less, but few can compete with it's beauty of tone or ability to soundstage and image so convincingly.

I also found it to be quite fussy with placement, and partnering equipment, necessitating careful matching and setup. A healthy dose of experimentation would likely be required to bring out the best from these speakers.

Conclusion 

I must confess to have been very taken with these speakers - they are visually beautiful (sans their underwhelming grills), and really draw you in to the music. They do not resolve to the nth degree, but are always refined, elegant and musically communicative.

I was quite sad when the time came to return these speakers to Sony, and they certainly will be missed.

If you think these speakers may be just the ticket for you, do given them an audition at Sony's flagship store at 313 Somerset. 

I would like to thank Sony Singapore, and it's media partner, Waggener Edstrom for supplying the review sample, and making all the necessary arrangements.

Pioneer SP-BS22-LR Speakers

Introduction

There is a high chance you would have heard of the SP-BS22-LR speaker - this speaker has been creating a lot of buzz since it's release.

Designed by Andrew Jones (who spends most of his time designing the delectable TAD speakers), the SP-BS22-LR is a compact 2-way bookshelf speaker. The woofer is a 4 inch structured surface woofer, while the 1 inch fabric tweeter handles high frequencies. This is a bass-reflex design, with the port located on the rear of the speaker.

Nominal impedance is stated as 6 ohms, and sensitivity at 85 db. Frequency response is listed as 55 Hz - 20 kHz (no limits stated).

5 way binding posts are provided, and the crossover is specified as a 6 element crossover. Looking at the photos of the crossover on the internet, this appears to consist of 2 sandcast resistors, one air core inductor, one iron core inductor, one plastic capacitor and one electrolytic capacitor.

Physically, the Pioneer is well built with the boat shaped MDF enclosure feeling solid and much better than suggested by it's price tag.

This is a small speaker, with dimensions of 7 1/8 " (W) by 12 9/16 " (height) and 8 7/16 " (depth) and a weight of 9 lbs and 2 oz each. For the metricised world, that is approximately 18 cm x 32 cm x 21 cm and 4.14 kg.

Coming back to the price tag, this speaker retails for the shockingly low figure of USD 129 per pair. If that is not enough to floor you, do be aware that this speaker regularly sells for far less than that, with Amazon offering these speakers a shade below USD 60 when it is feeling especially generous. Based on the bill of materials in this speaker, I am not too sure how Pioneer makes any money on this, especially after taking into account distribution costs and the like.

Herein lies the biggest problem with this speaker - it sells for SGD 399 in Singapore. This becomes a problem for reasons that will be explained later.

Sound Quality

I set up the Pioneer on my partially filled Partington Dreadnought Broadside 24 " speaker stands. The ideal position ended up with the speakers about 6 feet apart, and 2 1/2 feet from the back wall. The speakers were toed-in, firing almost directly at my ears.

The Pioneer was paired with my Gryphon Diablo integrated amp, and hooked up with Acrolink 7N-S1400III speaker cables. The source was my Antelope Zodiac Gold DAC, fed either with a Oppo 103D, or a Mac mini. 

Admittedly, the partnering equipment is not representative at all of what the Pioneer will be used with, but I wanted to see how well the Pioneer could perform, without having to second guess whether the rest of the chain was holding it back.

The Pioneer was fresh from the box, and I gave it a burn-in of 48 hours at fairly low volume, and then a further 3-4 hours at higher than average volumes.

Listening to a variety of music, I was struck by the quantity of bass produced by these tiny speakers. They had a full and warm bass, and sounded much larger than suggested by physical dimensions or driver cone size. Turning up the volume didn't faze these speakers one bit. On the contrary, they really came alive at louder than average volumes.

The grills darkened the sound noticeably, and I did most of my listening with the grills off.

Midrange was smooth and pleasant. This helped temper harsh recordings but smoothed over microdetail such as the vocalist's breathing or subtle voice texture. There was also an occasional touch of nasality, but this was very much dependent on the recording.

I found the treble to be a bit recessed. The information was all there, but with less prominence and presence. On drumwork, the Pioneer emphasized the kick-drum, rather than the cymbals. 

Detail wise, this is a big picture speaker. As an example, Double Bass could be felt and heard, but without the definition of the strings and resonance from the body of the instrument. 

Imaging and staging were done reasonably well, although by absolute standards, soundstage depth was a bit lacking, and imaging specificity could be better.

Moving away from absolute performance, these speakers were a lot of fun to listen to. They sounded big and pleasant, and took a good stab at a wide genre of music. From a value perspective, these speakers are excellent. I can see a lot of these being used in small bedroom setups, or as a replacement to the afterthought speakers supplied with most micro component systems. They certainly hold their own and would likely be competitive with most speakers below USD 250. 

Based on the local price of SGD 399 (that is about USD 300 at time of writing), the value proposition becomes less compelling. You could do a lot worse, but the Pioneer ends up competing with a lot of other attractive options, such as the Usher S-520, or the Monitor Audio BX2 for just a little bit more money. The Usher does sound a lot leaner than the Pioneer, but both the Usher and Monitor Audio have the edge in terms of detail, staging and overall refinement.  

Conclusion

The Pioneer is certainly the finest speaker I have heard below USD 150. However, it is far from perfect, and not the answer to all speaker problems in life.

It is definitely a slam dunk at the prices offered in the United States, but purchasers should be realistic and reasonable as to the performance of these speakers. At local prices, it becomes a bit of a tough call. 

 

The review sample was kindly loaned by Chris L. Thanks Chris ! 

Sony MAP-S1 Multi Audio Player System and SS-HW1 Speakers

Introduction

The Sony MAP-S1 is a compact all-singing and dancing micro component system. 

As tiny as they come - the MAP-S1 is nevertheless functionally fully loaded.

The MAP-S1 consists of a 50 watt per channel (into 4 ohms loads) receiver integrated with a front loading CD slot. The built in DAC is capable of decoding high resolution audio files of up to 24 bit resolution and a sampling rate of 192 kHz. 

Input flexibility is excellent with a front panel high current (2.1 A) type A USB port for thumb drives / hard drives and a rear type B USB port for connection to a computer. DLNA support is provided via Wi-Fi or ethernet. All major file formats are supported, including DSD. Airplay and Bluetooth are also supported. On the analogue front, a pair of line level input and output jacks are also provided. 

The lacquer finish on the SS-HW1 is good enough to pass off as fine furniture.

A close-up shot of the top-mounted super tweeter.

Rear facing port and 5 way binding posts.

The SS-HW1 is a small bookshelf speaker, sporting 4 drive units, in a 3-way reflex loaded design. The drive complement consists of a 13 cm mica loaded woofer, a 25 mm soft dome tweeter, and a pair of 19 mm super tweeters. One of the super tweeters is forward firing, and the other unit fires upward.

Specifications wise, the SS-HW1 has a rated frequency response of 50 Hz - 50 kHz (no limits stated), 4 ohm nominal impedance and 83db sensitivity. Compared to it's peers, the SS-HW1 could be considered to be an inefficient and difficult to drive load. 

A detachable grill is provided, although in a rather daring move, the top mounter super tweeter is left fully exposed. I certainly hope Sony has a large stock of super tweeters on hand - itchy fingers are bound to result in a lot of dented units.

The reflex port is located on the rear of the speaker, together with a single pair of 5-way binding posts. The circular shape of the terminal block may present a bit of difficulty if your speaker cables are terminated with large spades.

The SS-HW1 is 171mm wide, 273 mm deep and 309 mm tall. A single speaker weighs in at 5.1 kg. 

Operation

Using the MAP-S1 out of the box was not too difficult. In fact, most of my time was spent removing the plastic inserts out of the speaker binding posts in order to use my banana plug terminated speaker cables.

Accessing the unit's functions via the various buttons and knobs on the front panel was a bit fiddly. It was far more efficient to download the recommended Sony app, "SongPal". Once I had the app running on my iPhone, I connected my phone to the MAP-S1 via Bluetooth. The app then prompted exporting the wireless settings of my home network to the MAP-S1, and established a connection within seconds. SongPal supports Deezer, and internet radio via TuneIn. SongPal definitely gets top marks from me for ease-of-use and stability. 

For purposes of this review, I set up the SS-HW1 on 24 inch tall Partington Dreadnought Broadside stands, with the speakers placed about 6 feet apart, and well away from the side and back walls. The speakers were toed-in with the speakers firing to a point a few feet behind me.

Although speaker cable was supplied, I used a 2.5 m pair of Acrolink 7N-S14000III speaker cables terminated with Oyaide SRBN banana plugs.

I tried the various inputs, but for most of this review, I settled for playback via CD, or feeding the MAP-S1 via USB from my Macmini running Pure Music software.

Sound Quality

Paired with the SS-HW1, the MAP-S1 exceeded my expectations given the high feature count and modest price tag.

The SS-HW1 produced a full mid-bass, smooth midrange and an airy top end. Mid to high frequencies showed a bit of restraint, with a slight emphasis on very highest frequencies. On classical music, this translates to sweeter and fuller than usual violin tone, with an increased sense of ambience of the recording venue. 

The Sony speakers also had no issues casting a wide and moderately deep soundstage with a good sense of image height (courtesy of the top mounted super tweeter ?). Image sizes were slightly larger than usual. The listening sweet spot was also generously large, and you probably won't need to fight with other family members for the best seat in the house. 

Resolving power is above average, although the SS-HW1 can be best described as a speaker with a "big-picture" perspective. There is some smoothing over of detail, but this can be quite useful in taming "hot" and poor quality recordings.

Any other downsides ? I noticed a bit of mid-bass colouration especially at louder levels (cabinet resonance perhaps ?). I also found that the SS-HW1 sounded better on smaller scale music like acoustic jazz, female vocals, chamber music, etc. The bass response on the SS-HW1 showed some signs of congestion on louder and fast types of music.   

Although I had some reservations about the ability of the MAP-S1 to drive a difficult load such as the SS-HW1, the combination seemed fine, with sufficient power and control at typical domestic listening levels. 

To further evaluate the quality of the SS-HW1, I hooked them up to my personal equipment, a Gryphon Diablo integrated amp paired with an Antelope Audio Zodiac Gold DAC. 

The generous power on tap (the Gryphon is rated for 500 watts per channel into 4 ohm loads) and grip really helped to keep the bass performance of the SS-HW1 under control. The Antelope / Gryphon lifted the performance of the SS-HW1, with a healthy increase in bass grip, speed, dynamics, staging confidence and overall resolution. 

Conclusion

I really think that Sony got it right with the MAP-S1. It sounds good, and it's internet / network play capabilities offer great flexibility. Performance wise, it punches well above its weight, especially for its asking price. I would highly recommend the MAP-S1 for the budding audiophile, or anyone who is looking for a compact and good sounding all-in-one component.

The SS-HW1 sounds good with the MAP-S1, and it is nice to know that these tiny speakers can grow together with any system upgrades. They are more expensive that I would have liked, but are otherwise a competent performer in a superbly finished package. I found it easy to overlook it's shortcomings and enjoyed it's rich and pleasing reproduction of music.

The recommended consumer price for the MAP-S1 is S$ 1,199, and S$ 999 for the SS-HW1.

I would like to thank Sony Singapore for supplying the review unit, and it's media partner Waggener Edstrom for making all the necessary arrangements.  

Sony's "Feel the Air" - High-Res Audio Event

Introduction

I remember seeing my schoolmate's Sony Walkman many years ago. There was a hushed silence - a mix of awe and respect when he took it out. The small circle that formed around him handled it carefully. It was heavy, generous with its use of metals and obviously meant business.

Fast forward through the years - I never did manage to own one. But in those days, Sony was associated with top quality, albeit expensive products.

Sony used to make serious high quality audio products, notably, it's CD and SACD players launched under its ES range.

I felt a mix of nostalgia and curiosity when I received the invitation to attend Sony's "Feel the Air" event on the 2nd of October, 2014. Was Sony making a comeback to high-end audio ?

Feel the Air

A variety of products were exhibited, many of which were setup for demonstration purposes. Some of the products were unusual to say the least (do we really need vibrating headphones ?).

Based on the lineup of products on display, it was clear that the market trend was headed towards portable devices (portable music players, earphones / headphones and bluetooth speakers etc).

A variety of short presentations were also made to explain the technology behind the NWZ-A15 digital music player, and the MDR-Z7 headphone.

Home Audio

One of the rooms was set up with the UDA-1 USB DAC Amplifier and the MAP-S1 Multi Audio Player System. The latter was paired with it's recommended matching speaker, the gorgeous gloss finished SS-HW1. 

The MAP-S1 is equipped with a front loading slot for CDs, and plays a variety of file formats too ( as a DLNA renderer), or through NFC / Bluetooth. A built-in 50 watt per channel amplifier completes the picture. The only thing missing is built-in storage.

The MAP-S1 / SS-HW1 impressed me with it's sound quality and clarity. This is well worth taking a second look at. The MAP-S1 retails for S$ 1,199, while the SS-HW1 retails for S$ 999.

I did not get an opportunity to listen to the UDA-1 as it was hooked up to the MDR-Z7.
 

Speakers 

A large sized listening room displayed two speaker models from the "ES" series. An earlier presentation provided a brief background into the design and manufacture of these models - the SS-NA5ES and SS-NA2ES.

These beauties are made out of Scandinavian BIrch Wood and handmade in Japan. The tweeter units are what Sony terms, "I-Array", a triple driver vertical array arranged with a central 25 mm soft-dome tweeter, flanked by smaller 19 mm drive units.

The bookshelf model, the NA5ES, is a 2 way design. The floorstanding model, the NA2ES is a 6 driver, 3 way model. Basic specifications for both models are as follows :-

SS-NA5ES

2-way, 4 drivers, Bass reflex
130 mm aluminum cone woofer
25 mm soft dome tweeter
2 x 19 mm soft dome supertweeter
4 Ohm impedance
86 db sensitivity
45 Hz - 45 kHz frequency response (no limits stated)
10 kg weight

SS-NA2ES


3-way, 6 drivers, Bass reflex
2 x 165 mm aluminum cone woofer
130 mm paper cone midrange
25 mm soft dome tweeter
2 x 19 mm soft dome supertweeter
4 Ohm impedance
90 db sensitivity
45 Hz - 45 kHz frequency response (no limits stated)
32 kg weight






A closer look at the I-Array drive units

I came away very impressed with the short demonstration (3 tracks were played for each model). The most impressive audition for the day was actually the smaller model, the NA5ES. It had incredibly bass extension for its cabinet size, and a spacious natural top end. Despite being driven by an AV receiver, and matched to a very large acoustic environment, this petite overachiever really delivered the goods. It's larger sibling, the NA2ES had deeper bass extension and a grander scale. 

I noticed some listener height sensitivity, with quite a marked difference when changing my listening position in the vertical plane.

In both cases, the systems were fronted by the HAP-Z1ES. Sony is well aware of the local grumblings about the non-availability of the Z1 in Singapore and they mentioned that they are carefully evaluating the situation. 

Personal Audio and Headphones

When news of the MDR-Z7 first leaked out, internet forums went into overdrive with the rumour mill making all kinds of stories, including the Z7 being the successor to the infamous MDR-R10.

The Z7 is a closed phone featuring a massive 70mm aluminum coated liquid crystal polymer diaphragm. With a bat-pleasing frequency response stated to extend from 4 Hz to 100 kHz, this pair of cans will have high-res audio suitably covered.

A sample of the massive drivers, with a mock-up ear for size comparison.

Impedance is specified as 70 ohms, and sensitivity at 102db/mW. Detachable headphone cables allow an easy swap to optionally available balanced connection cables. The cables are made by Kimber Kable, which gives it instant audiophile credibility.

Construction is top rate and this has to be one of the most comfortable phones I've tried.

This is not intended to be a successor to the R10, and priced much more modestly (based on overseas pricing - Singapore prices were yet to be fixed at the time of the event).

Why not relaunch the R10 ? Speaking to several Sony executives, as well as Nageno-san, the answer is simple - it can't be done. Many of the components used in the R10 are simply no longer available.

The PHA-3 portable DAC / headphone player is the natural match for the Z7, and both were displayed together for testing purposes. The PHA-3 sports balanced connections, and a claimed output power of 320 mW into a 32 ohm load (balanced), or 100 mW (unbalanced).

I heard the Z7 quite briefly in balanced drive. It has good bass, but probably not enough for bass heads. I found the overall balanced to be slightly on the dark side, with good pleasing midrange, and a slightly laidback treble. Subjectively, it's tone sits between the Audeze LCD 2.2 and the Sennheiser HD600. 

It's top end is more open than the LCD 2.2, but the Audeze has the Sony licked in the area of bass slam and extension. 

It leaks sound a bit (probably through the bottom vents), but at lower and moderate volumes, this is unlikely to disturb nearby people.

Fit and finish was excellent, and top marks were awarded for comfort. Headband pressure was not excessive, and the curvature of the band did not interfere with my spectacles. 

I can't comment on how they heat up in our tropical weather, as the display booth was strategically placed directly beneath the air-con vent. True to Singapore fashion, the thermostat in the venue was set at an ideal temperature for penguins.   

Interview with Koji Nageno and Hideyuki Uemura

I was also given the opportunity to speak to Mr. Koji Nageno (chief engineer for headphones) and Mr. Hideyuki Uemura (engineering team lead for the A15 digital music player). 

Nageno-san shared his thoughts on the challenges of designing headphones and in-ear-monitors (IEMs), the constraints being the distance of the driver from the ear, and the size of the driver.

I asked Nageno-san about the size of the driver vs frequency range, in particular whether there were difficulties in having a large diaphragm reproduce very high frequencies.  He shared some insights into driver design, the materials used for the diaphragm, and the careful shaping of the diaphragm to overcome this. 

Nageno-san seemed to favour closed designs and explained that a typical household has at least 40 dB of ambient noise. He felt that a closed design is better, allowing better clarity in such circumstances. He also explained that a headphone design is not a choice of fully open or fully closed, and a design is always a mixture of open / closed. In respect of the Z7, he described it as being approximately 80 % closed and 20 % open.

I broached the topic of balanced headphone drive. Nageno-san shared that from a technical point of view, the increased voltage swing and non-shared ground are well worth having in a headphone setup.

With respect to choice of driver design, I asked Nageno-san what he thought of other technologies, especially electrostatic driver designs. He replied that he has a lot of respect for his competitor companies, and some of their headphones. He felt that good results could be obtained, regardless of choice of the type of drivers used.

Given Sony's long association with DSD, I mentioned that it would be good if future portable players could decode DSD - especially with it's current popularity. Both Nageno-san and Uemura-san replied that this is currently under consideration. 

Conclusion

Looks like Sony is back on track to make some waves in the audiophile market. Let's hope to see more goodies from Sony. On behalf of all audiophiles in Singapore, I can only say this - "Don't forget about us here in Singapore."

I would like to thank Sony Singapore and it's media partner, Waggener Edstrom for inviting me to this event.