I have been to many HiFi shows this year, but in May, when I was at the Munich MOC High-End Audio Show 2024, I was first introduced to the stunning Montaudio brand. Tannoy was using their beautiful Manuka MR Reference HiFi rack for one of their demo rooms showing the new Autograph 12 speakers. It was one of the show's best-sounding rooms for me and for good reason, the level of components was superb and Montaudio was one of those components.
In September of this year, Symphony Distribution was officially announced as their official partner in distributing their stunning brand to us audiophiles in the UK. So when Daniel Raggett (owner of Symphony Distribution) asked me if I would like to review some of their cables and products I felt a great privilege to be one of the first journalists to review the Montaudio brand here in the UK.
Montaudio was founded by a group of avid audiophiles in Auckland New Zealand who wanted more than off-the-shelf components, they set out to create their own brand of products carefully selected to be the best for their audiophile needs. The product line takes on the names of the natural landmarks in their beautiful country and reflects the Kiwi spirit in each product. Each material used is carefully selected and crafted by true artisans whose cables and products look stunning and sound stunning. Their ethos embodies everything they do: Pure, Natural, Simple, Elegance - Magnificence in every creation!
For this review, I have a selection of their cables from their product line but also the simply gorgeous Manuka MR Reference HiFi Rack. This is going to be a different review as I will be looking at these products and giving my opinions on both and culminating them into one review. I have had many different HiFi racks over the many years of my audiophile journey but never one so prestigious and high-end as this one, I am totally smitten by the looks but also the quality.
Build Quality and Features
Starting with the modular Manuka MR Reference HiFi rack which comes with four tiers of shelving for your components and is made from solid Walnut and Birch plywood sandwiched between the Walnut which gives it a beautiful but totally natural look to the finish. The dampening that the Manuka uses is the Montaudio Vibration Isolation Pillar (MVIP) design. At the centre of each shelve, it features a beautifully stepped honeycomb pattern in the Walnut finish which looks stunning and sits between the air-gapped Birch plywood, unwanted vibrations are forced downwards, allowing your components to perform flawlessly. At each corner of the pillars is the Montaudio Isolation Pod (MPOD) which allows for secure fitting and isolation of each pillar and therefore the rack. At the centre of each pod is an extra-deep crater which is designed in-house and allows for what they describe as the Montaudio Secure Fit (MSEC)system and allows each spike to sit perfectly into the Pod. Each of the satin-finished stainless steel legs can be ordered in varying lengths of 170mm, 220mm, 270mm, or 320mm leg packs to meet specific customer requirements. The rack comes in four beautifully packaged boxes and each one is very heavy due to the solid build, Montaudio states that each shelf can sustain 100 kg of weight, which gives you an idea of how well-built this rack actually is.
For the speaker cables, I have been provided with the Chatham SH-1 speaker cables which are at 5M lengths but can be supplied at 1.5M, 3.0M, or 5M lengths depending on the setup. The BOWEN AC-1 XLR cables are provided at 1M length and again varying lengths can be ordered. The BOWEN AC-1 RCA cables at 1M length take care of the analog side of the connections. For the digital side, I was given the beautiful RAKAIA EH-1 ethernet cable and also the USB GODLEY -UH-1 cable both at 1M lengths.
The CHATHAM SH-1 cables feature a silver hybrid and copper metal combination and feature a high-quality polyethylene dielectric on the main conductor with a natural cotton filler and are heavily shielded. The connectors are made from pure red copper and 24K gold-plated banana plugs which are encased in natural solid walnut housings which also laser-engraved.
The BOWEN AH-1 is a triple-conductor balanced design analogue XLR interconnect cable and features a high-quality copper content and a high-quality polyethylene dielectric on the main conductor. Shielding is with full copper foil and OFC braided, the connectors are made from pure red copper and 24K gold-plated banana plugs which are encased in natural solid walnut housings. The BOWEN AC-1 RCA cables feature the same design principles as its XLR sibling.
The RAKAIA EH-1 is the ethernet cable that I have been supplied and it is such a beautifully well-made product. This is one serious cable that meets the strict standards of MFP8 Cat.8.1 for an ethernet design and therefore will transmit data with complete integrity of the signal. It is a silver hybrid copper design with high-quality polyethylene PE dielectric on the main conductors and a natural cotton high-quality filler. It uses a triple shielding - twin copper foil screen and silver-plated OFC braided shielding, available in 1M or 1.5M lengths or custom length if required.
The look and feel of each of the above cables are simply exquisite and each of them is built to an extremely high standard with attention to detail, the natural walnut wood finish on each of the cables adds to the superb quality, and the fit and finish of each of the products. Considering these are the starting point for Montaudio’s cable range they are very reasonably priced as you have the Reference and Ultra series which sit above these, I am extremely impressed by the quality of each of the cables both on the analogue and digital side.
For this review, I am using the Chord Electronics TT stack of components which consists of the stunning Hugo TT2 DAC with the M Scaler for the number crunching duties and the brilliant BerTTi stereo power amplifier. These are connected via the Montaudio CHATHAM SH-1 speaker cables to the beautiful Tannoy SGM10 speakers that I am using. The BOWEN AH-1 XLR cables are used between the Hugo TT2 and BerTTi power amplifier. For CD playback I am using my Cyrus Audio CD8SE CD player and for streaming, I am using the Bluesound NODE. To connect between my network switch and Bluesound Node I am using the Montaudio RAKAIA EH-1 cable. The flexibility of each of the cables means that they are easily manipulated in tight spaces allowing for easy connecting of the components. This is a complete digital front end that I will be using for this review but I will also be using the RCA cables instead of the XLR ones to test out those cables and see which I prefer.
I will be choosing a few different pieces of music to test this system with music stored on my NAS HDD but also from Qobuz to stream, and some music via CD playback.
Sound Quality and Performance
I own several Stokfisch Records recordings in high resolution and Volumes 1 & 2 are just full of some great music of the highest quality with a sampling rate of 24bit 88.2kHz and are perfect for testing this sort of caliber of kit. The Tannoy speakers have a wonderful way of projecting the music into your space with incredible accuracy but with some of the lushest midrange and top end that I have heard from any speaker brand, they can also sound relaxed but incredibly dynamic when the music demands it and have spent many hours listening to them with such delight, the Montaudio cables and Manuka rack have brought about a wonderful synergy into what I am hearing through this system which has made the music so engaging and allows you to hear the natural timbre of the different instruments with stunning definition and ease.
Track 1 Stars by Sarah K is a beautiful piece of music and demonstrates perfectly how articulated this system sounds with brilliant instrument separation which has more air and space around them. The guitar notes have real texture and a tangible feel to the sound, while the vocals are powerfully defined.
My favourite track 10 from this volume is Caruso by Cristian Willisohn, the piano notes have such an amazing tone and texture to the sound which allows the beauty and emotion of this music to be felt, Christian Willisohn's vocals sound so soothing but with amazing clarity and immediacy to the sound as if he is in the room with me. The upper bass notes of the piano sound so rich with a wonderful tonal balance, while the beautiful clarinet plays in the background, the depth of the image in my room with this track is simply wonderful projecting a truly three-dimensional soundstage. The Montaudio cables allow the music to flow freely with the electronics and speakers allowed to perform flawlessly, the Manuka rack isolates the Chord Electronics TT stack and Bluesound streamer perfectly to perform optimally and the benefits can be heard in the performance and the sound.
On the Stockfisch Volume 1 track 1 No Sanctuary Here by Chris Jones sounds amazing with such a powerful performance the guitar and bass notes have real power which you can feel with great harmonics from the vocals which again sound so powerful with amazing clarity to the sound, the guitar strings have a tangible sound that you can really feel allowing for a simply wonderful rendition of this superb track.
Track 9 Four Wild Horses by David Munyon has incredible depth to the image and resolution with his vocals and guitar playing center stage and the harmony of the vocals behind him, the didgeridoo instrument sounds so well defined and with each breath, you can feel it resonating in the room.
Track 13 No Sleep by Mary MacMaster and Donald Hay has the electro harp playing which sounds amazing as the notes play they seem to hang in the air with such realism and clarity, at the same time it is a strange piece but I am drawn into the music by the incredible sounds that this system manages to project into my room as the electro harp sounds so good with every note played.
While listening to all of the music in this review, I managed to swap out the BOWEN XLR to the BOWEN RCA cables between the Hugo TT2 and BerTTi stereo power amplifier and found that I preferred the XLR cables, with some slight differences in the amount of detail and spatial context to the music that I was hearing, but both cables offered stunning clarity with superb resolution. I also changed out the RAKAIA EH-1 Ethernet cable to a standard one between the network switch and Bluesound NODE streamer and I immediately noticed the difference in sound that I was hearing with more background noise introduced which resulted in a loss of detail to the music, the air around instruments sounded more constrained and shut in giving a less airy sound, with the RAKAIA EH-1 in place you had less noise, therefore, better instrument separation and ultimate fidelity of the music, proving what a difference it made and to the excellent quality of this cable.
As a whole, this complete Montaudio cable loom has provided excellent results and fidelity to my system and the enjoyment of the music that I am hearing, the Manuka MR Reference HiFi rack has added the benefit of properly isolating my equipment from damaging vibrations with the sonic benefits of a properly isolated system.
Conclusions and Final Thoughts
The Montaudio Manuka MR Reference HiFi rack and analogue and digital cables have allowed my system to absolutely shine and breathed new life into the beautiful music from the Stockfisch Recording Volumes that I own as I cannot stop listening to them such is the quality of the sound and the music that I am now hearing. The Manuka rack may be expensive but you most certainly get one of the finest HiFi racks on the market today and easily one of the most beautiful looking racks with the gorgeous Walnut and Birch Wood finish, with clear benefits to the sound through proper isolation of the components.
The analogue and digital cable looms offer excellent performance and are very reasonably priced when compared to other brands on the market today, I would love to hear the Reference and Ultra series as the performance of these cables far exceeded what I was expecting.
The Speaker Shack awards the incredible Montaudio Manuka MR Reference HiFi rack with the Editors Choice award as it is easily the most stunning rack I have had in my music room.
The Speaker Shack also awards the analogue and digital cable loom from Montaudio with an Outstanding award as they offer superb performance and excellent value for money from this stunning high-end audio brand.
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