Girls needed for sound to look good!

Almost a year ago I read about the Swedish brand Molami the first time. A brand dedicated to design listening devices for hifi and gadgets with contemporary design and exclusive materials. Since then Maria von Euler who is heading Molami has proven herself again and again. When I finally got a chance to look through the products I was impressed. First of all for keeping the very highest quality of sound. But also for the efforts to bring headphones and hands frees into the world of looking good. I guess the coolest item is the combined hairband and headphones, The Twine Silk, 2000 SEK (see the white below). But also the more traditional headphones in skin and suede, The Pleat Napa, 3000 SEK. See more: www.molami.com.

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Munich: Cool is just the first name!

I guess we all remember the horrible "bergsprängare" (mountain blowers?) which some dragged to the beach and made life harder playing the wrong music all the time. Beware – in Munich I listened to the digital generation "bergsprängare". They come from TDK (yes they actually produced cassette tapes). The Boombox 2 is a powerful device with two 6 inch coaxial drivers delivering a stunning AND clear 20 wpc sound. You connect your iThingy, a USB stick or an external hard drive. With the controls on the Boombox you control the media input. The only catch – you need 10! D batteries to operate it. Estimated street price in Stockholm: 4990 SEK.

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Ingenious italian digital conversion

M2Tech has already made a name with their small converters, among them one of the first USB to SPDIF. M2Tech takes a huge step forward by introducing four boxes which will make some of your music jump out in your listening room (though maybe not as much as the DAC on chromosomes I mentioned earlier today from NAD). The Evo series is a combo which specializes in three areas: conversion of the signal, clocking and DACing. The fourths box is the standalone power supply. M2Tech has used the quite basic Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC chip. If they had been a bit more generous and used for example the ESS Sabre Reference (not many Euros in difference) the result would have been remarkable. So the three boxes are first and foremost the converter which takes a signal via USB, Toslink or SPDIF into a proprietary format. The standardized signal is then shipped over to the EvoDAC which, with the help of the Evo Clock do the analog conversion. Not very simple really! With warm hand I hand over all the amazing details which you can find on the site www.m2tec.biz. 

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Eclipse ramps up beloved sphere!

Eclipse, part of Fujitsu Group, has continues to develop their driver-technology with there spheric Eclipse TD speakers. With its 120 mm wide range driver the result is amazing. The official explanation is, that with the TD712zMK2, the wider frequency response has been dramatically improved by increasing the internal volume of the cabinet by approximately 20% from the original model. Because the cone needs to be extremely light, offering greater elasticity whilst still possessing a high radial rigidity, fibreglass has been chosen as the ideal material for the drive-unit. It is then connected to the enclosure by a highly flexible, rubber surround incorporating a re-designed damping system. This allows precise, lateral piston movement. The magnetic flux density is approximately 10 percent greater than in the original design, providing a more powerful motor system. More info: www.eclipse-td.net.

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NAD goes very high end!

NAD introduced earlier a high end media player including a breakthrough in DAC-technology. Now NAD has released the M51 which is a standalone DAC and digital pre-amplifier. We will test it at the High End Show in Munich in a couple of weeks but here are some specs.
Running at 108MHz, the M51 resamples the incoming pulse code modulated (PCM) signal and converts it to a pulse width modulation signal (PWM) with a sampling rate of 844kHz. Operating in a differential mode with double precision, the M51 has state-of-the-art specifications for low noise and freedom from distortion. The extreme headroom afforded by the 35-bit architecture allows for a DSP-based volume control that does not reduce resolution. The conversion process from PCM to PWM completely eliminates any jitter present on the incoming signal; again, offering state-of-the-art performance in this most important parameter. Due to the very high clock speed and mathematical precision of our reconstruction filters, the resulting audio signal is totally free of digital artifacts like ringing. A Pure Class A analogue stage with very low output impedance provides the perfect interface to an amplifier. Also, both balanced and single-ended outputs are available.
The M51 includes the industry standard SPDIF, AES/EBU, Optical and Coaxial inputs, it also includes the latest USB technology called USB Audio Class 2. USB Audio Class 2 supports sample rates of 192kHz releasing the previous limitation of USB at 96kHz. More info: www.nadelectronics.com.

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Dogs that bark!

As I think you have guessed I appreciate companies that question the traditional in our music industry. The US company Well Rounded Sound specializes in creative and green solutions for the desktop.  Their "dogs" are really very neat solutions with natural wood or bamboo material combined with wool from New Zeeland. Considering the specs the drives used have an acceptable quality.  The Jack Terrier 2 shown here should of course be combined with a subwoofer. The company offers two "doggies" for sound as well. Small scale, elegant and very nice material.
Power Handling: 15 watts RMS, 30 watts max, Impedance: 8 ohms, Frequency range: 100-24,000 Hz, SPL: 88 dB 1W/1m
The speakers can only be ordered from the producer, www.wellroundedsound.com. The Jack Terrier 2 described cost 299 USD + freight and toll.

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Mikael Reichel: Obsessed by horns

In the latest issue of the Swedish magazine HiFi & Musik we did an in depth interview with one of the sound pioneers of Sweden, Mikael Reichel. We have a strong tradition in our small country with audio giants such as Stig Carlsson and Olle Mirsch. In fact – Stig Carlssons early work is still cited by several modern loudspeaker producers (like Zu Audio). On of his disciples, Ingvar Öhman, will be interviewed further on, especially for his part in the speaker brand Guru. In the next issue of HiFi & Musik (no 5 2012) I will do a top ten in design and innovation. The five most iconic (design wise) amplifiers and five speakers.

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Truly innovative!

Sometimes you stumble over a product which is truly innovative in our industry. Last year it was Joey Roths Ceramic Speakers. Yesterday I saw the glass speakers from People People for the first time. It's still a project in development but the speakers were hailed by Wired at the CES Show in Las Vegas.
Simple, beautiful and non-invading in their transparency. And with an IKEA thought behind. You get a kit in a very flat package and the glass pieces are sourced by a local glass store to reduce size and weight. Very sustainable.
Few technical details are available so I let you enjoy the concept and will come back with a better description further on. See more on www.peoplepeople.se

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Extraordinary people behind extraordinary hifi!

First an excuse to everyone trying to follow the lately very silent blog. My writing for the magazine HiFi & Musik and the design magazine Bruno is really taking up most of my spare time. However I like to do some advertising here:

If you live close to Sweden and read swedish don't miss out on the latest or coming issues of HiFi & Musik. In the December issue I wrote about the amazing men Lars and Timo Engström and their outstanding amplifier The Lars, www.thelars.se.

In the January issue I got the opportunity to look behind the US rebel brand Zu Audio and get to know Sean Casey, the founder. www.zuaudio.com

The February issue I made a visit to the home of Mikael Reichel, the man behind the loudspeaker brand Earo and its The Eight and The Ulf. www.earo.eu

In the April issue you may get the chance to agree or disagree to my totally egoistic iconic design lanels in the hifi industry. In the pipeline is also a deeper interview with Laurence Dickie who first created the legendary Nautilus speaker for Bower & Wilkins and later The Giya for Vivid Audio.

The design magazine Bruno is run by some brave people. Normally design magazines never include hifi equipment in their features or posh roomsets. But we will show that there are several hifi brands today which design for more than the sound - contemporary design for living with your equipment. Stay tuned!