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"Bespoke 2 channel Audio, Vinyl paradise, preloved Highend."         
 

Happy new year and a warm welcome to my 2015 winter newsletter. Now the cogs of daily life are finally oiled and easing into motion I thought it might be a good time to have a quick recap of the action-packed year that we just left behind and also bring a little news of exciting things to come in 2015. Before moving on though, I would as always like to thank you for all your business and continued support. Through your custom and loyalty I have been able to go from strength to strength here and offer not just better service but an increasingly robust and complete portfolio of products.

BRINKMANN AUDIO

The biggest new team player here at Lotus is Brinkmann Audio. It's perhaps not typical of me to engage with such a well trodden and ubiquitous brand but when it comes to turntables I feel that longevity, residuals and marketplace confidence is paramount. Not only that but Brinkmann offer arguably the most comprehensive and compelling range of turntables out there at this present time; belt drive direct drive, skeletal and plinthed, single-arm dual-arm multi-arm, low medium and high budgets, they build something to suit everyone. Crucially their sound also dovetails beautifully with the Lotus way; neutral and uncoloured, precise and highly resolving yet fluid and full of beauty. My brands and systems are all about real fidelity, creating a neutral chain of very low distortion and a complete natural musical whole. Get it wrong at the source with say too much colouration or an overly analytical sterile presentation and that signal will never be saved effectively, no matter how skewed or highly seasoned the equipment downstream may be.

For most customers the decks of interest will be the direct drive Bardo and Oasis and the brand new belt drive Spider. The Oasis and Spider start at £10,490 with the 10" tonearm and the Bardo is a slightly cut down version of the Oasis at only £6990 with tonearm. The Oasis and Bardo are fairly close sonically. As a direct drive fan I am keen supporter of both these decks. They have the incredible speed and pitch stability that direct drive is known for with fabulous timing, explosive dynamics, a highly locked-in sense of imaging and a very accurate and fast presentation. Unlike some other direct drive designs though, they do not fall into the trap of sounding too aggressive, too bleached, too dominated by detail. Colours are there in abundance and harmonics and inner details are allowed to blossom and percolate forth from the disc. Speed, precision, timing but with beauty too.

Moving on, the Spider is Helmut's latest creation and reviews are just starting to emerge and dealers are just beginning to take stock. As its name suggests it's a skeletal design that can accommodate multiple arms as and when you wish to add them. It has a typical belt drive sound but perhaps more refined and elegant than you might have heard previously. Beautiful timbre and texture, lovely harmonics and a deep and wide soundstage, the Spider is simply a gorgeous sounding deck with great functionality too.

Finally, for customers who seek the ultimate in Vinyl playback the new two arm Balance with RoNt Tube power supply and HRS isolation platform will fit the bill. The Balance is also belt drive design, a natural development from the now discontinued 'La Grange'. It's high mass design and exceptional speed stability gives it a very large majestic sound with thunderous bass and quite exquisite fine details. The Balance through an Allnic phonostage is simply a remarkable experience as many of you found out in my demo room last year.

Brinkmann's build quality and craftsmanship needs no blurb. The finish and engineering is outstanding throughout the entire range and all turntables and tonearms have an ethos of simplicity at their cornerstone and are 100% fit and forget. As ever, just get in touch to hear the range either here at Lotus or in the comfort of your own home.

AURENDER

Whilst on the subject of newly adopted brands, Aurender joined us last year too and is our go-to highend streaming solution. With integral storage, a beautiful ipad app and keen functionality and file format compatibility, the X100 and W20 represent fully fledged standalone music players that simply plug into your chosen DAC and need no other ancillaries.

For me, it's taken many many years for streaming to approach the musicality of good transport (early market offerings were simply appalling) but with Aurender we are literally now there. Chris Thomas of Hifi+ recently reviewed the flagship W20 and found that at half the asking price it came to within a hairs breadth to the state of the art £25,000 DCS Vivaldi transport and in some respects was actually preferable. At the budget end the little X100 at £3250 has proved a real winner with Lotus customers whether used with a Vitus or Allnic DAC or something pre-existing and in the demo room here it is equally as pleasing as any of the transports that I have to hand. The hot-rodded and HiFaced Mac Mini or Macbook is now something dead, buried and forgotten.

As you'd expect, Aurender are growing and moving fast with several new product announcements at CES this month. First up is the N100 which is essentially a cut down X100 without the hard drives and intended for use with a pre-existing NAS. Secondly, the X725 is a single box 100 wpc DAC/Amplifier. This sits very neatly above an X100 to form a very compact and simple music solution (see picture). Just add speakers and you are away, perfect for second systems, offices, kitchens and bedrooms.

Look out for a February review in HiFi World where the X100 music sever picks up the coveted 5 Globe award.

VITUS AUDIO

There can be no doubt that 2014 was the year of Vitus. From the moment I invested in this highend Danish brand enquiries demos and orders came thick and fast. Many existing customers and also brand new customers moved to Vitus with me last year and as far as I know none have taken even a moment to look back.

The most popular items sold were of course the two stunning integrateds, the £9500 RI-100 and £18,500 Class A SIA-025. These two very special amps offer a true highend performance which punches way way above their price points and over the past 12 months my secondhand inventory has been continuously peppered with market leading amplification taken in part ex against these two.

Second most popular was Vitus digital. The RD-100 combined dac/preamp proved a big hit especially in combination with the RS-100 power amp and the signature class SCD-025 cd player/dac, which Hifi+'s Chris Thomas described as "quite simply the best single-box CD player/DAC that I have heard to date", also made it into a handful of lucky customers homes. For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure, Vitus digital follows the amps; a fluid and very analogue sound which is never fatiguing or analytical yet is as alive and dynamic as you could wish for and exudes a sense of precision and purity. Instruments are highly textured, expressive and full of microdetail and in typical Vitus fashion the overall the presentation is suitably 3d and layered.

2014 also saw the release of a smattering of new products from the Vitus stable, an upgraded set of Signature class monoblocks the SM-011, an all new MP-S201 masterpiece stereo power amp but perhaps more interesting for Lotus customers, the bargain basement RCD-101 cd player/dac. Compared to the model it replaces this CD player/DAC has had a very extensive rework including DSD/SACD compatability, a new & highly modified sony drive, a better power supply and a much improved dac section. Sonically this is now at least as good as the old Signature class SCD-0101 (which eventually was developed into the current SCD-025). The UK distributors are doing a special on this of £7990. That makes it the cheaper than the outgoing model and about £1000 less than pretty much any other market outside the UK.

Please see my Vitus Blog for more info.

ALLNIC

The biggest UK seller for Allnic in 2014 was undoubtedly the entry H1201 phono stage. This little sub £2000 gem, in truth a bit of a loss leader for Allnic, has found its way into dozens and dozens of UK homes and is working its magic alongside all sorts of decks from LP12's to SME's, Michell's, Roksans, Garrards to the more exotic from the likes of Brinkmann, TW Acustic and Notts Analogue.

My second year with this wonderful brand again proved just how infectious the sound and price/performance ratio is. We had many existing phonostage customers move into the preamps and power amps last year and this seems to be a general trend throughout. Most customers entry point is via a phono but once they enjoy this for a time, their interest is piqued and they soon wish to explore what else Mr. Kang Su Park has to offer. In this vein, quite a few enthusiasts on my books now have full Allnic systems and a couple, the full flagship DHT setup with fairly gobsmacking results.

Last year saw no let up in Mr. Park's ingenuity and his dedication to the world of the DHT tubes - notoriously difficult to work with and abandoned by all but a very small and talented group of designers. The biggest news was his first foray into digital with the world's first Direct Heated Triode DAC. The D5000 DHT launched in the Autumn and has already been causing quite a stir on the forums and been lavished with some pretty high praise for its very analogue spacious sound, its dynamic pressurised DHT style of play and most of all, its wonderful sense of flow and tunefulness. If you have yet to discover a digital source which does not in some small way feel a little mechanical and manufactured then the D5000 could well be the answer to your prayers. In the UK it's had a flying start and has been keeping the various Vitus digital offerings fairly honest in the dem room. I have around a dozen customers enjoying this world class front end now and the unique delights of the DHT circuit which it embodies.

The second product to mention which was also a first for the UK is the little AUT2000 step up transformer. This lovely chunky unit retails for £1395 and I have found it to be a wonderful upgrade for all sorts of phono stages. By passing your deck's moving coil signal through the AUT2000 and then onto the MM input of your existing phono the music tends to take on a new level of clarity, naturalness, realness and overall aliveness. Whilst it makes a fine upgrade to the entire range of Allnic phonos (especially the H1201), customers have also reported that it works wonders with many of the popular SS phono stages seen in the UK marketplace which can tend to be a little sterile and overly solid state sounding. Look out for a very nice review in Hifi+ shortly, penned by Alan Sircom.

Finally for Allnic, just a quick word on the flagship L5000 DHT linestage. In the past this highly bespoke piece could be a tricky install and often required a little nursing on a system by system basis to get the microphonics to behave. The new mk2 version though is now with us with a newly designed Euro tube and I have to say it is now a totally robust fit and forget unit and extremely quiet for a DHT design; KS Park has achieved the near impossible. In complete honesty this preamp is probably the finest I have ever heard. The DHT's bring about the most amazing sense of life and realism rarely experienced in this hobby. A number of my customers have moved to this from the L3000 and at less than half the price of many an exotic preamp it demands your keenest attention.

 

Entreq

The other big new brand in 2014 for me was the Sweedish make Entreq. This ingenious line of interconnects, mains and grounding products fit extremely well into my existing lineup and the overall sound which I am known for. Natural, fluid, spacious and effortlessly quiet, Entreq is all about lowering the distortion in our systems to even smaller levels. It has made a great start here and the grounding products in particular have sold like hot cakes. The Silver Minimus and Silver Tellus grounding boxes are doing sterling service now in many Lotus systems. Not only do we feel that the performance lift they give is value for the money but it also portable to future equipment/systems and most importantly, what it does cannot be brought about by any other product out there in the marketplace. Plugging in one of these small inconspicuous wooden boxes into your system is for most, an instructive and eye opening experience which challenges pre-existing notions and compels one to rethink their beliefs about sound quality and system building.

Entreq are another brand who do not rest on their laurels. In 2014 they launched their RG45 earthing cable. This plugs into your router or music server using a USB socket. Customers are reporting that its effect is in many instances even greater than grounding their amps or sources ! Hot of the press I also have news of two new major products the Olympus Minimus and Olympus Tellus. These are set to represent Entreq's flagship grounding boxes and provide the highest performance that their current knowledge and expertise can provide. Details will appear on the Entreq website very soon once principal photography is complete and demo models are available from me now.

Please see my Entreq Blog for more info.

STILLPOINTS

Entreq was joined in 2015 by multi award-winning STILLPOINT isolation products. They have quickly become a no-brainer additional purchase for customers buying new Speakers and Electronics here. They have also been endlessly going out on home loans to be trialled in pre-existing systems and here they are similarly giving a performance lift far far larger than their retail prices would suggest. Speakers improve the most dramatically followed by power supplies and amps and then sources. More resolution, more space and air, faster and more dynamic transients and ultimately just a more real and alive sound.

The other added benefit of stillpoint feet is that they lessen the importance for an expensive bespoke hifi rack. This makes them very useful for customers who are wedded to their existing living room furniture as hifi cabinets and shelves. The system can be seamlessley integrated into their living environment but the stillpoints still isolate their equipment from the negative effects of everyday furniture and bring about top notch sonic results.

 

2015

I am hoping that 2015 will bring as much action as last year and there is indeed plenty to look forward to. At the top of the list is a new brand of speakers. I have been working on this for some time now and trialling lots of different things. The problem I'm having is there really isn't very much that I feel passes muster and most speakers i've encountered over the past 12 months don't even get the basics right of making the drivers and cabinets totally inaudible and having an even and balanced frequency spectrum. There have been a few makes that I felt could possibly stand proud against Avalon's lineup but in both cases these have been even more expensive than Avalon and not necessarily any better or different and if anything, a little too much on the analytical side of things which seems increasingly to be the trend now in highend speaker design. That said, there are a few new contenders on the horizon that I have very high hopes for so stay tuned.

Ole Vitus certainly had his work cut out last year but we are hoping for the DAC module for the RI100 to be released very soon. This will be a low cost slot-in module which will effectively turn the RI100 into a fully fledged control centre ... simply add speakers and a streamer.

Over at Allnic Mr. KS Park will be as industrious as ever. We are expecting some new products some time in 2015 and whilst I am unable to confirm for sure, there have been rumours of a budget priced DAC.

So that's about it for now. If you got this far then you certainly did good ! Have a great year and hope to be of service to you in the very near future. As always if there is anything I can help with from a simple question to a huge life-changing predicament then simply email or pick up the phone.

 

Richard Morris, Jan 2015

 
 
  
 
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