LATEST ADDITIONS

From Southern Germany comes a seriously heavyweight deck that's built on solid foundations. But will the Thunder's roar light up the skies or rain on the parade? Thanks to pioneering automotive inventors such as Rudolf Diesel and Karl Benz, German engineering has a long established reputation for ‘quality and innovation’. These qualities could also be used to describe the nation’s hi-fi industry where brands such as ELAC and T+A have been proudly flying Germany’s audiophile flag for decades, paving the way for relative newcomers like Acoustic Signature, with its ranges of turntables which are regular players in the superdeck league. The new Thunder boasts a number of features in common with the ‘milestone’ Ascona (costing £10k more).

The inexpensive Studio series represents fine value for money Not for the first time with inexpensive JBLs, we wonder how – if – they can possibly turn a profit. The Studio 190 offers outstanding value. In most respects this speaker represents familiar fare for a modern floorstander: the cabinet is a conventional tall, narrow box with rather resonant side panels; and the bass is reflex-loaded via a single rear-firing port. The Weave design of the front baffle JBL calls ‘bold and dynamic’, and that appears to be the sum of its purpose – to catch the eye rather than influence the sound.

The PB1i is the latest PMC speaker to get the Signature treatment One key difference is a revised crossover network featuring custom-made chokes and tuning by PMC founder and designer Peter Thomas. The driver complement remains twin PMC-designed 170mm bass drivers with cast magnesium chassis, and a SEAS/PMC co-developed 27mm soft dome tweeter. In between these is PMC’s legendary 75mm dome midrange unit, isolated in its own enclosure. The speaker also gets a brushed aluminium serial number plate, a certificate signed by Peter, and an array of nickel finished driver bolts.

Bryston presents a simplified method of enjoying computer audio Confronted with the burgeoning of computer audio, manufacturers of conventional hi-fi equipment have reacted in diverse ways. A few have buried their heads in the sand; some have made USB DACs, others hard-disk players, still others streaming network players.