LOTUS SUMMER 2024 NEWSLETTER

We are now up and running with our G3 demo models of both Contriva and Piano floorstanders which were launched at Munich last year. Jorn at the team at Koln have moved the performance of these two exquisite loudspeakers even further. Piano G3 are a much more complete speaker than the outgoing G2 with astonishing levels of bass response and low end transparency, especially for such a modest driver array. Contriva G3 are now so open and neutral that they are nipping on the heels of the mighty Akira.

For the summer of 2024 we will be showcasing both speakers with the full Tidal system you see in the pictures, Contros Streamer/Dac/Linestage and Intra stereo power amplifer. It will be open house here so consider it a permanent fixture for the next 2 or 3 months and we implore anyone with an interest in Tidal Audio to stop by for a listen. Simply email or call to book.

The ultra high end brand from Madrid has felt imminent for some time now in the UK. Their digital has dominated not just the pages of the Absolute Sound and other premier publications but many of the world’s most important shows and indeed many of the biggest and best rooms at Munich Highend these last few years. Finally then, it is with great pleasure that Lotus have been appointed exclusive and sole custodians of the Wadax Atlantis reference digital suite, in conjunction with our friends and UK distributors Boyer Audio.

The Wadax is undoubtedly expensive but then rightly so. Such is the gulf between it and the rest of the industry that the conversion rate from other big name digital DACs and Streamers, many of which are nipping on the heels of the Wadax in terms of price, is a flawless 100% for customers who have had the means.

 So instructive was our 3 month trial of the full level 4 Wadax digital Dac and Streamer that it actually altered our belief system around the nature and possibilities of digital music itself. A re-eduction of an entire medium then, the Wadax Atlantis Reference finally achieves parity with what’s possible from the very best Vinyl replay setups and this then, is how it won our hearts and catalysed what is a huge investment for our soon to be delivered demo units.

Perhaps more interesting for most Lotus customers is that Wadax will be stealing even more thunder than normal at this years Munich show. In room E207 they will unleash a brand new product called “Studio”. You can expect a much more affordable price point yet the same sonic standards set by the reference. You can also expect comprehensive all singing and dancing functionality and of course class leading craftsmanship.

This will surely be the all encompassing end game digital solution for many customers and replete with lots of trickle down technology, it it is a unit that is expected to cause a real stir in the marketplace at its retail price.

In early 2024 we trialled a selection of ingenious resonance control and anti-vibration products from this South Korean company. We didn’t need too long to be completely convinced by the Hifistay Absolute Point equipment footers, the Stella Triple swing isolation feet for loudspeakers and the Centum IX anti-resonator. These beautifully made products are good value relative to other similar products in the market and the sonic improvement they provide means they very easily sell themselves during demos. Crucially, the sound upgrades they so obviously offer differ markedly in presentation from both Stillpoints and Tungsten Grooves which we already carry. We found they have a particular synergy with both Tidal and Thrax equipment

Alan Sircom has penned a very insightful review of the Absolute Point footers in this months Hifi Plus and I would say his decsriptions of what they do are extremely accurate. The Hifistay equipment racks are also coming soon. These are built full of all their technology and were seen extensively at Munich last year in rooms such as Vitus Audio and Thrax.

We now have both the Sirens bookshelf and Lyra SE standmounts with optional Hades subwoofer towers on permanent demonstration. Prepare for levels of clarity and openness some way far beyond your expectations at the pricings. The Sirens come in a tiny box and at £10,500 represent the starting point for speakers here but they should not be viewed as a compromised solution but rather a fully fledged high end transducer, and a worthy alternative to other illustrious options we offer which are considerably more expensive – Avalon PM1, Vimberg Amea. Our very own Martin Colloms recently reviewed the Sirens for Stereophile. He absolutely loved them and it certainly shows in his very comprehensive report.

If the Sirens with their highly advanced Purifi drivers offer the listener a half a degree of extra energy to counterbalance their tiny size, then the £18,500 Lyra SE standmount present in an even more mature and neutral manner and possess the kind of resolve and see through ability which can do justice to the very best of electronics. As a pure standmount they will happily do battle with Avalon PM1 and Vimberg Amea / Mino but then furnish them with the optional £12,500 low frequency add on stand with integral 9 inch woofer and their performance starts to become very grown up; a beautifully transparent and holographic loudspeaker with an electrostatic like top end, and one that avoids the weaknesses of both a standmount and a floorstander and makes a very convincing statement for anyone who cannot quite reach the budget for a Rockport or Tidal speaker. A personal favourite of mine for sure.

I predicted a dramatic effect from this brand and so it has been in the first 6 months of our exclusive partnership. This is one of the most important outfits ever to come to Lotus, partly because cables here are at least as important as boxes for the way we build systems but also because Hemingway wires wield an ingenious control mechanism of deleterious magnetic properties which ultimately gives rise to a noise lowering effect in the entire system.

Natural detail and pronunciation, calmness, discipline, speed and timing, harmonic and textural saturation and of course very strong 3d and dimensionality. The Hemingway strengths are easy to hear in just the first few tracks. So special are these cables that they are creating a glut of new customers for us every few months, customers who have been less than impressed with many of the usual suspects sold elsewhere and were looking for a true high end cable that not only gave them up upgrade but a complete transformational effect on the entire system.

In one instance, the £3000 Indigo II beat a secondhand set of well thought of cables we had on Ebay for the same money which were over £6000 when new. In another demo, the customer was about to give up and sell on his amplifier until we showed him that a basic set of Indigo II could inject a new world of vitality, life and vigour into the system.

I have already written extensively about incredible Hemingway synergy with Vitus electronics and this remains true. At least half our large quantity of Hemingway sales so far have been to Vitus owners and we implore you to try a free of charge, no obligation home trial to experience just how far they can take your system.

Yet to appear on the website, we are now offering this superb range of Italian made racks. There are a number of performance options and visual styles and even the cheapest range contains inherent technology to get more from your equipment. We have so far taken delivery of an Aeroline rack and a pair of carbon fibre Revolution X amplifier stands for the demo room and we were startled by the sonic improvements brought about versus a more conventional and simplistic support system.

Hifi furniture is of course a very personal thing and people’s appetite to spend money in this area also varies enormously so unlike perhaps other areas of the system, it’s a good idea to offer a very wide range. Shortly joining Bassocontinuo, Neo and Stillpoints will be the superb technology laden racks from HifiStay and Austria’s beautiful FalkenOhr. Watch this space.

That completes Lotus news for this Summer. The next major bulletin here will of course be the completion of our 2nd luxury bespoke demo room in the late Summer, even bigger and better than the first and built to exclusively house Tidal and Tidal for Bugatti with a system running 365 days a year so more customers can sample the wonderful Tidal experience more often, more of the time. Works on this have started already.

I will of course be a Munich Highend in a few weeks time for the duration. Text or Whattsapp me if you are there too. I am looking at a number of other exciting brands and product for later in the year as well so lots to look forward to.