Headline, Sublime sound compensates for annoying shortcomings, by Rod Easdown.
The migration to quality audio after years of compressed MP3 music is becoming a stampede - just look at the market. Start with all the serious brands now making earbuds. Focal has newies for $220, or about $200 more than MP3 music could justify, or pay $300 to $400 for Bang and Olufsen or Bose offerings, or get right up there with Westone's W60s at $1449. If you go for proper headphones, and plenty of commuters are happy to wear these on public transport, the pickings have never been richer. Even the big discount stores now deal in premium models from Bose, Beats, B and O, Bowers and Wilkins, Sennheiser, Monster, Philips and Sony. It's happening because portable music sources can now store lots of music at full CD quality and better and, even for non-audiophiles, the improvement in sound is extraordinary. Sony now has four high-resolution Walkmans on offer, Astell and Kern have five. You can pay $279 for a nipper with 16 gigabytes of memory or go comfortably into four figures for something with thumping internal amplification and endless memory on SD cards. Now, one of the venerable names in hi-fi, Acoustic Research, has entered the portable market. AR is best known for its speakers and headphones, and it's big with professional installers for interconnects and cables. One of its founders, Edgar Villchur, invented the acoustic suspension loudspeaker that produced more bass from smaller cabinets and made AR famous. His co-founder, Henry Kloss, was the man behind the tuners for Tivoli radios. So when AR announces a portable music player, one has high expectations, especially when it's $1 less than $2000. Well there's good news and bad news. First impressions of the ARM2 aren't encouraging. Fifteen years ago, iPods set the standard for controls that were simple and intuitive, and we're now used to devices we can operate straight out of the box, no directions needed, but you'll need the owner's manual with this one. Even turning it on is something of an art, and all you get in the box is a quick start guide. Download the manual, and read it. There are other frustrations. There's no hold switch, so you can trip buttons without intending to when the player is in your pocket or bag. Want to see what track you're listening to? With a Sony, you tap the play button, even when the hold switch is activated, but here you must tap the power switch and then unlock, and it took me ages to discover how to get to the full settings menu without interrupting the music. It's also heavy. Although it's a bit smaller than an iPhone 6+, it's 40 per cent heavier at 245 grams, and there are sharp corners that can make it uncomfortable in a top pocket. Ah, but the good news is very good. This is the best sounding portable I've ever listened to. The sound quality isn't excellent, great or wonderful - it's sublime. The definition is razor sharp, the balance between highs and lows is brilliant. It has lightning-fast attack and strolls through big musical transients. This is not just down to state-of-the-art electronics and an ability to handle the full range of high-resolution formats, including WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, and DSD up to 24 bit/192 kHz. The ARM2 has genuine grunt. It has enough power to drive even the most demanding headphones to the limit of their abilities. You won't need a separate headphone amplifier, because there's one built in, which I guess explains the weight. It has 64 gigabytes of internal memory and accepts micro SDXCs. The amplification is probably why it lasts only nine hours between charges, so you'll likely need back-up power for a long flight. Sony's NWZX2 (22 hours at its highest resolution) is a better deal: it's $500 cheaper and 99 people in 100 will struggle to notice the slight drop in sound quality. The Sony has much better software too. Purists, however, will suffer the ARM's shortcomings for the pure bliss of the music. ********** Those of a positive and enquiring frame of mind will leave the rest of the halfwits in this world behind.
