In case you yearn for a higher-end hi-fi system that may just about do all of it, we may have saved you a whole lot of leg work and analysis. The excellent set-up we have now right here covers the digital bases of the compact disc and music streaming and marries it with a really tremendous turntable to sort out the whole lot the trendy hi-fi buff might want for.
However there’s extra. This technique, due to the good Arcam amplifier, additionally means that you can hearken to your music wirelessly over Bluetooth; enter the splendidly musical new Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e wi-fi headphones. For many events, although, whenever you need to share your music with your loved ones, pals and the world, PMC’s outstanding Prodigy 5 floorstanders are an astonishing cut price even at their virtually two grand worth.
The system
Music streamer + CD participant: Technics SL-G700M2
The Technics SL-G700M2 is a surprisingly efficient piece of package. It’s a CD-playing streamer – on the face of it, a superbly cheap ambition for a supply part within the 2020s. However, aside from the truth that the 2 digital sources reside in the identical steel field, little effort has been made to combine them into one harmonious piece.
Nonetheless, have been you to take its twin skills and put them in two separate packing containers, you’ll be very comfortable along with your separates system – the efficiency is extraordinarily aggressive for the value; a minimum of a 4 if not a five-star score throughout the board. Which, take it from us, isn’t any simple feat. That is a particularly spectacular compromise in a one-box resolution.
The SL-G700M2 has a managed and clear supply that works nicely no matter what we play. It’s a detailed and insightful presentation, and manages to organise the musical data in a cohesive and entertaining approach. We discover the identical traits after we swap to the streaming module. This participant provides balanced outcomes whatever the supply. It’s daring and authoritative when it must be, however can change down the gears effortlessly when requested to render one thing delicate. The perception on supply and the understated but nonetheless musically partaking nature of this unit are spectacular certainly.
Turntable: Technics SL-1500C
The turntable we have now chosen to share supply duties with the Technics SL-G700M2 is its Award-winning stablemate, the SL-1500C. This stable, well-engineered deck is a agency favorite of ours and it has a terrific phono stage built-in. It’s fairly clearly probably the greatest decks we have now heard at this sort of worth with a clear, exact and skilful presentation.
We’re impressed by the SL-1500C’s sonic agility, the best way it resolves loads of element and manages to ship all that data in a cohesive and musical complete. There are few rivals at across the £1000 mark that do it higher.
Built-in amplifier: Arcam A15
There’s a new child on the block performing the ability duties on this setup. After we heard Arcam’s massively spectacular A5 built-in amplifier, we have been a bit fearful in regards to the step-up A15. How, we puzzled, might it do justice to the value hike over its gorgeous entry-level brother? We needn’t have fearful. The step-up amp in Arcam’s vary is greater than a mere buff, pumped-up model of the A5.
The A15 is extra authoritative and provides a extra spacious sound than its little brother, however in addition they have distinct sonic characters. The A5 provides extra richness in tone and a extra full-bodied method to music. This A15, however, is extra clearly open, extra revealing – and succesful, within the last evaluation, of greater than the A5 might hope to disclose. It is a splendidly commanding and managed performer, excelling by way of grip and composure, and delivering far more by way of scale and authority when put next with its little brother.
Stereo audio system: PMC Prodigy 5
The Arcam amplifier is greater than able to with the ability to take a starring position in a system with loudspeakers costing over the £2000 mark; which is the place the PMC Prodigy 5 are available in. At nearly that worth break, these will not be low cost choices in anybody’s eyes – however they actually carry an entire lot of PMC’s fantastic premium qualities to a barely extra reasonably priced market than most of the British firm’s earlier choices. What you get with these floorstanders is the essence of the massively admired PMC sound condensed into the least costly package deal they may make. So the end on the packing containers, whereas completely acceptable, is probably not fairly as “two grand” as a number of the many rivals there are on the market. In terms of the necessary stuff, nevertheless – how they sound – at this worth, they’re just about unimaginable to beat.
As we are saying in our evaluation of the Prodigy 5: “It’s clear from the outset that PMC has hit the sweetest of candy spots with the Prodigy vary, balancing delicate particulars and musical thrives with a perceptibly heightened sense of presence, poise and confidence.” They’ve the outstanding present of with the ability to present the most effective of all musical worlds with out a trace of sonic sacrifice and are actually complete performers.
What’s extra, they’re a genuinely enjoyable pay attention, immensely diverting throughout virtually all genres.
They usually handle all that with out being significantly fussy about placement. You’ll get the most effective out of them by positioning the PMCs round 40-50cm away from the wall to keep away from some overly dominant bass, however they’re removed from demanding about that. Angle the Prodigy 5 in barely in direction of your listening place and you’ll obtain an expansive but well-focused soundstage.
Our evaluation conclusion places it finest: “Whereas pennies might have been pinched externally, each ounce of sonic efficiency has been squeezed from this expertly engineered pair of floorstanders. That is nearly pretty much as good as we have now heard a pair of audio system sound at this worth.”
Wi-fi headphones: Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e
The ultimate piece of this excellent system is a pair of headphones, for these occasions whenever you merely need to be cocooned away in your individual world – or you may’t threat the wrath of fellow housemates maybe. As talked about above, the Arcam amp has the neat trick of two-way Bluetooth, so you may each stream to it from a smartphone and obtain a sign from it on a pair of headphones. That’s a really helpful asset for a lot of households.
The Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e are probably the most aggressive wi-fi headphones to come back from the south-coast speaker specialists for a protracted whereas. In our evaluation of those smart-looking over-ears, we spend a very long time waxing lyrical about their construct high quality, options and look (all of which must be actually top-notch at this kind of worth, after all).
All that’s all nicely and good, however it’s fully pointless if the headphones don’t sound pretty much as good as they feel and look. This time, after all, B&W has nicely and actually hit the nail on the top. We’ve discovered plenty of earlier B&W headphones succesful however not fairly as musical as or sufficient to unseat the class-leading Sony rivals, as an example. The Px7 S2e are the primary in a protracted whereas with a personality that’s likeable relatively than one thing merely to be admired. With glorious perception and a extra compelling stability over their forebears, to not point out a tremendous sense of fashion, the Px7 S2e are a splendidly full package deal.
The decision
Which is, by probability, a relatively neat summation of this gorgeous hi-fi system as an entire.
In case your music assortment spans all kinds of codecs – vinyl, digital downloads, streaming companies, CDs – this mix of merchandise will guarantee you may play all of it. It is a versatile system meaning you will by no means have to decide on or persist with a selected format – and why do you have to? The great thing about at this time’s hi-fi panorama means you may hearken to all of it, in numerous methods, every time and nevertheless you need. And if you wish to hearken to your intensive music library by way of headphones, nicely you are able to do that too – in model and in splendid sound high quality, too.
MORE:
The CD changer is again – and Yamaha’s new CD-C603 has one thing I want mine had in 2005
Desire a CD-only system? This contemporary CD system provides a easy however profitable mixture
Take a look at our information to the finest CD gamers for all budgets
And our information to the finest music streamers for all budgets
