As in previous years, we’ll be adding to the product reports as we go, with new items appearing at the top of the column. Just check back on this article and any updates should be immediately obvious.
Wadax Reference Transport Clamps
By Roy Gregory
In Vienna, as in Munich, there were prototype parts or products, kept well away from the public gaze but present to gauge informed comment. Amongst them was a tenable clamp being developed by Wadax to complement the Reference Transport.
The clamp consists of the circular magnetic plate that interfaces with the disc spindle, and the smaller top disc or handle. The standard clamp has a narrow neck that fits between the leaves of the transport’s iris closure. The tuneable clamp has a tiny Torx screw in the centre of the handle that allows owners to disassemble it, accessing a stack of rings that sit around the central shaft. It is those rings and the ability to change them that makes the clamp adjustable for mass and musical presentation. The company had two of the tuneable clamps in Vienna, one using five aluminium rings was noticeably lighter than the standard clamp. The other used three alloy rings and polymer dampers top and bottom was considerably heavier.
With Göbel using an all-Wadax, Level 8 front-end, including the Reference Server and Transport, we had the opportunity to compare the three different clamps, with a marked (and universal) preference for the lighter, tuneable version, which delivered a significant lift in agility, articulation and flow in the playing, micro-dynamic jump, focus and transparency in the presentation. While Wadax is still experimenting with the various combinations and results will vary with different systems, this looks like a really worthwhile development for Ref Transport owners, allowing on-site/in-system optimisation of optical disc replay.
It seems like playing optical discs and vinyl are getting closer every day – and not just in terms of absolute performance.
The Fink Team Spot Loudspeaker
By Steve Dickinson
I also, er, spotted a new loudspeaker from FinkTeam: the Spot. Yes, really. Named after Lt Data’s pet cat, this follows the FinkTeam tradition of naming its own speakers after Star Trek characters. I’ve used their Kims (Der Prinz… – Gy8) in my own system for a few years now and still love their combination of coherence, cohesiveness, natural timbres and energy; areas where, in my experience, they have few peers at their price. The Spot is somewhat more conventional (and I suspect, to many eyes rather more attractive) in appearance than the Kims, being a modestly-sized 6-inch, 2-way, floor-standing design, still with an AMT tweeter, but all now housed in an attractively curved, wood finish facia which may find more domestic approval than the Kims’ open frame, built-in stand arrangement. Starting at a projected price of less that €10K, they are a little cheaper than the Kims, but still sit above the EPOS range, which FinkTeam also owns and manufactures. Sounding well worthy of further investigation, I’m planning to pursue this as they become available for review. This was another of the smaller systems that was giving a very good account of itself in the ACV rooms, where larger, more ambitious systems seemed to struggle.
