rnmezr-tru FORBIDDE ATY PIlIG All-in-one system combines superb build with appealing sound A radical look and fine audio ability set this Chinese unit apart, says Andrew Everard

All of that makes the Ping the nearest thing Opera has to an entry-level product

The Consonance name sounds familiar, but to my knowledge this is the first time any of the company's products have made it into these pages. And what a product — the Consonance by Opera Forbidden City Ping, to give this all-in-one system its full name, combines amplifier, tuner and CD player in one very substantial unit, and also has a USB input on the rear to allow memory devices to be connected or computer audio to be fed in.

But it's likely to be the looks of the Ping that first grab the attention, with its chequerboard patterning on the hefty front panel, and solid metal side-panels wrapping around to aid structural rigidity. It's just a pity that the version that first caught my attention at last year's Munich High End Show doesn't seem to be available in the UK: distributor Alium Audio offers the Ping in black or silver, but not with the lacquer red front panel with black detailing illustrated opposite, which really lives up to the Forbidden City monicker.

So what is Consonance? Well, it's a brand name of the Opera Audio Co Ltd, a Beijingbased company founded the better part of 15 years ago and claiming itself to be "one of the leading tube audio amplifier manufacturers in China". Given the number of Chinese tube amp companies, that's quite a claim.

The company says that "to enable the perfect marriage of workmanship and musical arts, we learn from the past and continue to challenge the perfection level. By injecting more cultural and human factor into the products, it increases both practicality and outlook, bringing more spiritual satisfaction and enjoyment to the users". The Opera catalogue shows an almost bewildering array of products, divided into Classic, Stylist and Analogue Source ranges, plus some limited editions including a special 15th-anniversary amplifier. It makes amplifiers — valve, solid state and hybrid, integrated and separate — turntables, tone-arms, phono stages, CD players, speakers and cables.

There's an emphasis on style as well as sound, both in the teardrop-shaped Droplet range and the Forbidden City line-up which includes the Ping. Other products in the Forbidden City range include the massive Calaf amplifier, delivering 200W per channel, the smaller Tristan amplifier, the Turandot and Orfeo CD players, and a matching turntable, the Liii, again very eye-catching in red with black detailing

All of that makes the Ping the nearest thing this range has to an entry-level product, while the £1450 price-tag here in the UK puts it up against home-grown one-box rivals from the Ekes of Arcam and Primate.

Of course, the one-box audio system is nothing new: in a way this sleek-looking product harks back though mini- and midisystems all the way to music centres (and indeed radiograms, for those of us old enough to remember those sideboard-sized monsters). But there's been something of a revival in this area in recent times, driven in no small part by consumers wanting a high-performance system without filling the whole of their room with separate audio components.

And the Ping certainly seems to have the wherewithal to fulfil those requirements: it uses a high-quality CD transport, loaded using a slim drawer below the display, to feed a digital to analogue conversion system employing the company's Linear design. This uses neither oversampIiig nor digital filters, is designed with minimal components for as clean as possible a signal path, and in effect puts one of the company's audiophile standalone players at the heart of this neat unit.

The amplifier, which delivers a healthy 100W per channel, is of Opera's Cool Class A design, said to combine the cool running of Class AB working with the linearity of Class A but without the latter's large current demands. Inputs — CD, tuner, the single auxiliary input and the USB 1.1 connection — are switched to the amplifier using gold-plated relays, accessed by front-panel buttons or the remote handset, and there's also that built-in FM/AM tuner, which unusually doesn't have conventional seek-tuning, but is entirely manual.

Finally the Ping has what the company calls SpAct on its USB input, designed to recover audio clock operation from sources so connected, thus allowing very low jitter even when playing music from your computer.

It all adds to the air of a thoroughly well sorted system, while the solidity of build and the any old prejudices about the "Made in China" tag.

Amazingly, there are still some who believe such a label signals "cheap and nasty", but while the Ping may be sensibly priced, it's anything but unpleasant to behold or use.

FORMANCE

The big solid slabs of aluminium forniing the casework create a thie impression of value for money, and even the metal remote control feels weighty and solid, being quite unlike the usual plasticky handsets so often included with even quite expensive equipment.

And with the odd operational quirk, the Ping is entirely logical in operation. There's that lack of seek-tuning already mentioned, and the fact that you can only load or unload discs when the unit's in CD player mode, but that's about all there is to know - otherwise everything here does what you expect it to, and works exactly as you'd expect, too.

What's slightly less expected is just how good this unusually named system sounds. It has weight, control and confidence in abundance, sounding much more like a relatively high-end CD player and amplifier being used together, rather than an all-in-one unit.

Even the tuner is rather good, at least once you've found the station you're looking for, and clarity to the sound. However, the bass is slightly on the light side, meaning that big orchestral works are more about speed and impact than truly room-shaking stuff, but the effect isn't so striking as to impinge on the enjoyment unduly, and certainly not pronounced enough to over-excite speakers given to a light and bright presentation.

This slight tonal foible doesn't extend to the sound of the system when playing CDs or external sources, however: instead the balance is an attractive combination of detail and presence, warmth and weight, making this system a more than viable alternative to the likes of the Arcam Solo range, or indeed a CD/amplifier/tuner combination for the same kind of money.

There's superb dynamic ability, with both the big powerful swings of a full orchestra and the subtle interplay of smaller ensembles, and the system has excellent attack and pin-sharp timing, with no sense of notes being smeared or lacking for explosive power.

This speed extends down into the bass, often a weakness of systems of this kind, which tend to go for the warm and lush as a means of covering their tracks. The Consonance instead has excellent bass extension, allied to superb power and grip, making everything from solo cello to the massed big fiddles of an orchestra gutsy and dramatic. It also thrives on orchestral percussion.

Add to that a rnidband fully capable of bringing out all the character of voices and solo instruments, and giving brass a delicious metallic rasp when required, plus the open, sweet and spacious treble, and you have a system fully capable of breaking a performance free of the speakers and giving it real three-dimensionality.

Yes, the radio plays things a bit safe, but that aside this is a remarkable one-box solution for the music enthusiast willing to take the leap of faith that moves them beyond the "comfort zone" of familiar brands. Beautifully built, neatly designed and with a highly rewarding sound, it's excellent value for money.

Striking, to say the least, the Ping is also beautifully built and capable of a highly convincing performance