Four Award-winning products combine for a stunning Brit-based set-up
Our fourth British-rooted hi-fi system is a heady mix of styles of the terrific-value £1600 separates set-up (p30), and the step-up mid-range digital system from the previous page. It’s a rather more expensive mix, admittedly – but there is certainly still great value in this turntable and compact disc system. This impressive set-up takes four What Hi-Fi? Award winners from over the years and brings them together in a wonderfully musical system that should set up your listening enjoyment for many years.
Turntable: Vertere DG-1 S
This new generation Vertere DG-1 S turntable builds on the excellent original deck to remain at the forefront of the best record players at this level.
It brings a musical sound, as one would hope – one that is rhythmically as surefooted as they come. But it also has a spring in its step when it comes to rendering dynamic nuances, and with it an appealing sense of energy about the way it reproduces sound.
Listening, in our review of the DG-1S, to Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ The Boatman’s Call, Cave’s bold yet vulnerable vocals come through with impressive clarity and we are never left in any doubt as to the feelings he is trying to convey. The backing instrumentation all slots neatly into place, every note neatly organised to form a cohesive and musical whole. Despite the Vertere resolving an immense amount of detail, we find ourselves lost in the music rather than encouraged to analyse the recording or production. And that, surely, is what great hi-fi ought to be about.
We move on to Four Tet’s There Is Love In You, an album that could have been made just to highlight the DG-1 S’s strengths. The mass of instrumentation shows off the deck’s excellent resolution and its ability to keep track of a multitude of musical strands without getting confused. Just as importantly, unlike some other highly resolving products, the Vertere doesn’t sound as if it is in any way diminishing the music’s sense of freedom or life despite having all that control. This is a neat balancing act few manage to do well.
There is no shortage of punch and drive when the music demands. We particularly love the way this Vertere delivers bass frequencies; they are taut, agile and tuneful but also beautifully textured. We haven’t come across a similarly priced alternative that sounds as entertaining and informative as this.
CD player: Naim CD5si
And we could say much the same for the compact disc player in this system. The CD5si bends ov
