Review: Krell Cipher CD/SACD player

The Cipher is a new high-end SACD player from Krell and is a welcome surprise. It shows there's still a market for the medium.

True, SACD software issues are somewhat limited and the format risks being superseded by high-res downloads, but many small classical and jazz labels still support SACD and issue new titles each month.

This is where the new Cipher comes in, replacing Krell's popular EV505 SACD player. It promises an improved performance – especially in terms of Red Book CD playback and while this is very welcome, it's as an SACD player that the Cipher will stand or fall.

Fortunately, Krell has spared no effort to make it as good as possible – with both formats.

The Cipher is an advanced digital disc player offering users a choice of SACD and DVD-Audio playback in two channel and multichannel surround formats. The ability to play in surround is unusual – many purist audiophile SACD players dispense with this option, offering just two channel playback.

There's a choice of three fixed-level analogue outputs: RCA (unbalanced); XLR (balanced) and – for those using Krell amplification with the appropriate inputs – a special four-pin CAST socket (CAST is claimed to offer a significant improvement in sound quality). An output for subwoofers is also included in the mix.

The Cipher's disc drive is mechanically isolated from the main chassis and the mount uses composite materials to minimise vibration-induced errors. Strategically placed damping is used to reduce mechanical resonance and Krell's customised disc-drive firmware is claimed to improve disc-reading accuracy.

SACD disc transports can be temperamental and some players gained a reputation for being mechanically noisy and unreliable. Fortunately, the transport used in the Cipher is very quiet and seems to play a wide range of discs without complaint. CDs that jump or suffer dropout on our other players, played perfectly on the Cipher.

Separate lasers for CD and SACD are employed and these are individually hand-calibrated for accuracy. All signals are fed into a custom-designed Krell anti-jitter module and this is said to reduce jitter to virtually unmeasurable levels, resulting in a perfectly clean digital signal.

D/A conversion is via a pair of balanced 24-bit/192kHz DACs. Most players use a single DAC for each channel, but Krell uses its DACs in pairs and configures them to operate in balanced mode. So, 'balanced' operation occurs throughout the signal chain – from digital through to analogue. Usefully, the Cipher can play DVD-R data discs – though not, it seems, DVD-A discs.

Prior to the launch of SACD, one or two small audiophile labels released audio-only DVDs with a sampling frequency of 48kHz. These provided better-than-CD sound quality and very long (over three hours) continuous playing time.

As an aside, EMI issued its 2005 three-CD set of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde as a special limited edition, with a bonus audio DVD containing the complete recording on a single disc lasting three hours and 47 minutes in 5.1 DTS Surround Sound. The Cipher proved able to play this disc and could even deliver the DTS information. So, if you have any music DVDs, you'll be able to listen to them via the Cipher (most SACD players can't do this).

Another slightly unusual feature is the provision of user-selectable output filters; two for CD, and four for SACD. These alter the out-of-band frequency response and output gain.

The Cipher features all-aluminium casework. Being non-magnetic, aluminium is a good material to use for hi-fi casing, reducing the effects of magnetic eddy-currents. It costs more than steel, but can be relied on to deliver a smoother, more open and natural sound.

Finish is excellent, and the 'Cipher' centre panel looks very attractive. There are about thirty small press-buttons on the front panel – something that appeals to the inner geek in all of us – giving the Cipher a complex 'techy' look.

Fortunately, the button layout is logical and intuitive, so you instinctively find the right one. The buttons have a nice solid feel and operation is smooth and confidence-building.

At a cool £12,255 (including VAT) the Cipher is not cheap. Although well made and beautifully finished, we'd not say it offers 'battleship' build quality. However, excessively heavy build is not always advantageous. From the standpoint of resonance and energy storage, a light but solid case (as here) is often best.

Sound quality is likely to be the determining factor when it comes to deciding whether or not the Cipher justifies its hefty price tag. But give it a good SACD and it delivers a quality of sound that even the finest CD players cannot equal.

The Cipher's exceptionally lucid presentation is notable for amazing clarity and astonishing fine detail. Musically, the sound is open, lean, and crisp – not the least bit warm or romantic. At the same time, there's impressive refinement and (despite the sharpness) a smooth neutral tonality.

Review: Pentax Optio RS1500

Changeable covers may have been all the rage with mobile phones ten years ago, but, for whatever reason, the concept never really took off with compact cameras. With its latest RS1500 model, though, Pentax clearly reckons the audience for them is still there, with the camera equipped with ten changeable covers and two lens rings as standard.

The model follows Pentax's RS1000 which worked on the same principle, only the company claims that the covers may now be changed with greater ease and with no additional tools. And, should none of the ten provided quite suit the user's personality, they're invited to download further options from Pentax's website, or even design and print their own creations using software.

The new model is otherwise a carbon-copy of the previous RS1000. It sports a 14MP CCD and a 27.5-112mm zoom lens, the latter of which incorporates three aspheric elements to help control distortion and spherical aberration. This is particularly impressive for a model priced at £70, as is the 3in LCD screen on the camera's rear, although, unsurprisingly, it's resolution is at 230,000 dots.

On the inside, Pentax has equipped the RS1500 with a trio of focusing options: 3-point multi area, spot and AF tracking. It's capable of focusing down to a minimum distance of 40cm on its standard mode and 15cm when set to its Macro option, although the Super Macro setting only brings this figure down down to a minimum 8cm. Face Recognition, Smile Capture technology and a Shadow Correction option are all provided, as are a range of scene modes and digital filters such as Fisheye and Toy Camera.

The camera's sensitivity settings span a native range of ISO 100-1600, while further options equivalent to ISO's 3200 and 6400 are provided for when the standard options won't suffice. Sadly the camera's metering pattern cannot be adjusted from its default multi-segment option, although the capability of a 3.2fps burst mode at full resolution is a nice surprise.

Not all budget compacts have caught up to offer with HD video yet, but the RS1500 provides 720p recording at a maximum 30fps. While this isn't complemented with an HDMI port, this is unlikely to be a deal breaker for most. Instead, the model relies on a sole micro USB port for transferring images and videos. The model also runs on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, rather than on AA cells common to budget compacts, which helps to keep its profile slim next to similarly priced models.

Review: BetterSnapTool 1.2.3

Window management, in terms of on-screen placement, is one of the Mac's weakest areas, and while OS X Lion's full-screen mode will be fine for focussing on a single task, Windows 7 does a lot better when it comes to multiple applications.

BetterSnapTool is yet another app that brings Windows Snap-like features to the Mac, but it warrants a look simply due to living up to its name – in other words, this really is a better snap tool.

Preferences enable mouse and keyboard settings to be activated or deactivated. On the second of those, you can define shortcuts for maximising a window or sending it to a half, quarter or third of the screen. You can also fire a window to another screen on a multiple-monitor setup.

Further customisation options exist for amending the appearance of the preview overlay when using the mouse to snap windows, delay settings and click actions on window buttons and the window's title bar. For example, you can right-click the zoom button to maximise a window and double-click the title bar to show the actions menu.

Options also exist to move or resize windows below the cursor when a modifier's held. The lack of gesture support is a pity and the app's restore is more like an undo.

But with its healthy spree of options and unusually low price, BetterSnapTool's now our favourite app of this type on the Mac.

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Review: NAD C446

NAD seems to have stuck to its established tradition with the C446 network audio player (the C in the model signifies it being a member of the Classic range).

Like the pioneering 3020 amplifier of many years ago, it is outwardly a giant-killer, giving the sort of musical performance for which you would expect to pay a lot more money, but with an appearance that you might call utilitarian.

If you are enthusiastic about terrestrial radio, the C446 is thoroughly well equipped to deliver these services. It even sounds palatable with bandwidth-limited DAB broadcasts, playing through a highly revealing system. The presentation has unusual, but welcome depth and presence and is far more engaging than any DAB radio has the right to be.

Naturally, the C446 makes an equally fine task of servicing internet radio. Note that selecting and adjusting all the available sources is accomplished through the fascia buttons and rotary control, with the supplied remote control handset, or with an iPhone/iPad app, an Android device or a PC that is running Windows 7.

Setting up favourites on the internet radio can be done through NAD's wi-fi radio portal at vtuner. nadelectronics.com. The C446 also comes fully prepared to play Last.fm, once, of course, you have paid your subscription to the service. You can also play music from a USB memory stick or hard disk connected to the front panel port.

If you do not have a compatible iPod dock, the cable supplied with an iPhone (USB to iPhone jack) does not perform its usual function, so better put £100 aside for a NAD IPD dock.

The C446 will deliver its output as an analogue signal, through RCA sockets, or digitally, through a TOSLINK connection. This discovery sent us rummaging through a pile of wires – or, more correctly the wires and fibre optic box – to find a suitable interconnect. We found that a Chord Company Optichord lead, provided a reliable and sturdy optical connection through this fragile medium.

Our primary interest, however, lay with the media player portion of the C446, which can be served either with a wi-fi input or through a wired Ethernet connection, which was the preferred option, so that its sound could be reliably compared to that of other streamers available to us.

In fairness, however, we have to say that the wi-fi connection seemed to work extremely well, with no suggestion of any flakiness. The sound has a remarkable sense of solidity and purpose.

Regardless, we connected it to a pair of NAS units on a GigaBit network: a VortexBox Appliance, running Twonky v5 and a self-built unit running Asset v3.

The C446 tops out below 24-bit/96kHz recordings, although the literature implies otherwise, with talk of a 24-bit/192kHz DAC. According to NAD, the C446 DAC can handle sampling frequencies up to 192kHz, but in reality that appears not to be the case. The most we were able to play were 24-bit/48kHz rips, which often sounded superior to 16-bit/44.1kHz material.

But if you frequently purchase high-resolution 24-bit/96kHz recordings from HDTracks.com, or a similar web store you will be disappointed and will need to look at another player, such as the Marantz NA7004, for example.

Effectively, NAD has built what looks to be a Porsche GT3, but equipped it with the engine from a 1970's 1200cc Volkswagen Beetle. It is disappointing for those who want to buy higher resolution downloads and anyone who transfers their vinyl onto hard disc: that transcription process is such a palaver that it is really not worth considering low bit and sample rates.

The unit is rather Spartan inside, with a noticeably compact power supply PCB, with a matchbox-sized transformer. There is certainly not the humungous, weighty toroidal transformer that one would expect inside a piece of equipment offering high-end performance. Regardless, we heard no signs of the power supply buckling under the pressure of playing music, so all appeared well.

Its performance on radio sources seemed rather outstanding, in particular the way it refused to sound ethereal or thin and wispy. Instead it sounds full-bodied and firmly rooted and renders voices with remarkable conviction. Performers on Radio 4 broadcasts sound appreciably 'real', three-dimensional and free from any coloration – no chestiness or adenoidal afflictions are evident.

The resolution restriction is unfortunate, because the C446 is otherwise a very fine-sounding network player. With music being supplied from a VortexBox Appliance NAS, through a NetGear GS108 Gigabit switch, the sound from the C446 instantly impresses with its rhythm, dynamism and natural sweetness.

Listening to CD-quality rips, it sounds thoroughly engaging and renders music in a wholly plausible fashion. It sounds smooth and composed, even on lively, maybe slightly over-enthusiastic, recordings.

Review: Cambridge Audio iD100 iPod/Pad dock

This not a review of the iPad, but the rather neat little digital dock upon which it rests: the Cambridge Audio iD100.

The iD100 will operate with various iPods, iPhones and the iPad, from which it will extract a pure digital output that it then delivers to a stand-alone DAC or the digital input on your amplifier (if it has one) for maximum performance.

Pure digital out from the iPod/ iPhone/iPad is definitely the way to go for the best sound quality. The digital outputs on the dock include TOSLINK, S/PDIF coaxial, and AES/EBU balanced through an XLR connector. There is also a USB connector to allow your iDevice to communicate with iTunes.

As well as this useful audio flexibility, the unit furthermore has a switchable video output so that you can view your stored video content through your TV, courtesy of its composite or component connection.

The iD100 comes with rubber adaptors (cushion-like supports) to allow the various Apple devices to connect to the seemingly fragile Apple connector without straining it. The supplied remote control enables you to control, charge and synchronise the iPad – through the USB connection to your computer – while it is connected to the dock. You just need a standard USB 2.0 type A to type B cable for this connection.

The last thing you need in a dock, particularly one that can accommodate the relatively large-screen of a £650 iPad, is any instability. The metal-cased iD100 is reassuringly sure-footed even though it is not unduly weighty.

The unit comes with a wall-wart switched-mode power supply, which you could swap for a linear supply from a third-party supplier if your system has a particular aversion to these now-ubiquitous devices.

Typical of Cambridge Audio products, it almost goes without saying that the iD100 is substantially engineered and offers outstanding performance and versatility for the money. And, of course, the unit works straight out of the box without any undue faffing about, which is what any fan of iGadgets expects these days.

We tested the unit feeding the digital input on a Naim UnitiQute through an inexpensive Chord Company Codac digital interconnect.

Unlike several iPod docks we have experienced, the musical performance of the iD100 comes as a truly pleasant surprise. Apple Lossless CD rips have solid bass, a rewardingly open and detailed midrange and unexpectedly delicate treble with no 'splash' or emphasis of sibilance. The vocals, in particular, on the Squeeze track Cool for Cats are especially well articulated, as is Glenn Tilbrook's dexterous guitar work on Another Nail in my Heart.

Most importantly, the iD100 preserves the dynamics and rhythm of the music and the album rocks exactly the way it should. Similarly, the portrayal of Colin Hay's vocals on his Gathering Mercury album are magnificent, conveying the depth of feeling in his voice on songs such as Send Somebody and Dear Father to the point of listeners becoming visibly moved. Even pop albums from the likes of Adele and country-rock from Jerry Lee Lewis demonstrates that Apple Lossless is a fine file format if you demand music on your iPod with its full quotient of get-up-and-go.

MP3s – even those encoded at the highest bit-rate – do not match the performance of ALAC files, but sound more acceptable than usual, nonetheless. For example, Tal Wilkenfeld does not sound as refined as the ALAC version does. There is neither the same detail nor the grip and control evident with the MP3.

In short, fill your iTunes library with Apple Lossless music and you will quickly discover that the Cambridge Audio iD100 produces possibly the finest sound you will hear from any iPod dock.

Just remember to use a decent digital cable to connect it to your DAC or amplifier. And remember to charge it fully beforehand for the best sound quality.

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Review: Technomate TM-2600 Super

DISEQC motorised mounts, which sit between the existing mounting pole and the dish, have usually been quite expensive. The TM-2600 Super from Technomate, on the other hand, sells for about £50.

As a result it will be attractive to owners of budget systems like the Ross 22300HD-R. During our testing, we successfully partnered the 65cm Ross dish with the mount by fitting a larger U-bolt. The solidly built TM-2600 Super can, however, be used with dishes up to 1.2m in diameter.

We were impressed by the thought that Technomate’s designers have put into this product. For a start, a peek inside the mount (don’t do this yourself or you’ll invalidate the warranty) reveals that the gearing is heavy-duty metal rather than nylon. Although this will make the mount slightly heavier, a longer operational life is assured.

There’s also no ‘play’ to speak of, and so your dish will remain resolutely locked in position once the desired satellite has been reached.

The instruction manual explains in some detail how to install the TM-2600 Super and even provides a web link to a Moteck applet that does all of the calculations relevant to your specific site latitude. A membrane-covered switch on the base will move the dish east or west (provided that a receiver is connected), while a hidden pair of sliders enables hardware dish-limits to be set.

Software limits can also be set via your receiver’s DiSEqC menu. Elevation adjustment combines a knife-pointer with a calibrated scale for readability.

The TM-2600 Super was found to work very well, although as with all such mounts the speed of travel depends on whether the currently selected channel has a vertical or horizontal polarity (horizontal channels rely on the receiver sending a higher DC voltage up the LNB cable).

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Review: NuForce DAC9

The NuForce DAC9 isn't the only DAC to include a headphone output, but it makes more of a point of it than most, and fair enough, adding as it does a dedicated volume control and both flavours of headphone jack, 6.3mm (quarter-inch) and 3.5mm.

The latter, incidentally, also functions as an input, an optical digital input to be precise, in similar manner to some computer sound cards and portable audio devices.

The total input count runs to six, with a further (TOSLINK) optical socket at the rear, alongside AES/ EBU, USB and three electrical S/PDIF sockets, two phono and one BNC; one of the phonos is effectively the same input at the BNC so you can only connect one or the other.

Selection between the inputs is achieved at the front of the unit by a touch-panel, which we found occasionally reluctant to accept commands. The remote control is less fussy and is invaluable in adjusting line-output volume, which changes in 0.5dB steps.

From the front panel, it is necessary to touch and release for each step, waiting more than a second before the next step can be made.

It's just as well that output level is adjustable, though, because at maximum output the DAC9 produces four volts, enough to overload the inputs of a few amplifiers we've seen.

NuForce mentions in its promotional literature that neither sample-rate conversion nor negative feedback is used in the DAC9, which strikes us as a little perverse as the DAC chip (like all current examples of its breed) uses internal sample-rate conversion to implement digital filtering and the analogue circuits include op-amps, which are never used without feedback. They are all high-quality parts, as are the drivers for the balanced output and the analogue volume-control chip.

The power supply employs a very large toroidal transformer. 96kHz digital sources are accepted at the USB input, which is upgradeable to even high sample rates by swapping an internal module.

Comments on this DAC varied between listeners, their reactions depending on personal priorities. It seems that if you value an ultra-clean, high-resolution sound this may not be the best option around, but it has very good drive and dynamics, and possibly the best timing.

The listener who liked it least pointed to a degree of 'grunge' in its sound as his main reservation, but despite that there is still some good detail to be heard.

Midrange is generally neutral, though we came to suspect that the comments about 'grunge' may actually reflect a small degree of subjective upper-midrange lift, which does seem to dirty the sound a little on many recordings.

This is all quite minor stuff, though and while it's easy to be critical in comparisons like this we felt the sound over the longer term is more than acceptable. It would be unkind to close without commending the headphone output, which is particularly revealing and proved worthy of the finest cans we plugged in to it.

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