Australian HiFi

I have often railed about the miserly amount of money musicians are paid by streaming services, and have always encouraged readers to try to buy direct from those musicians from their own websites either as downloads or as physical media, or by using platforms such as Bandcamp*. My constant frustration is that so few users of streaming services realise how the money they pay for their subscription is distributed. First, let’s say that you’re paying $144 a year for your subscription. The sad truth is that only around $18 of that goes to musicians. Even sadder, most of that measly $18 doesn’t go to the musicians whose music you’re actually listening to, but to the musicians whose music the streaming services’ algorithms say are the most popular on the service. Apparently Deezer is…

MARANTZ MODEL 40N The arrival of the Marantz Model 40n has been lauded by some audiophiles as a “re-imagining of the classic integrated amplifier”, in part because in addition to being a classic integrated amplifier, it also has all the features you need for digital music streaming, multi-room operation and the ability to integrate with your TV. First and foremost, the Model 40n is a very high-performance audiophile integrated amplifier rated with a power output of 70-watts per channel into 8Ω that uses a traditional linear Class-AB output stage amplifier. “This is a totally new amplifier that exceeds the performance of earlier models with similar power ratings,” said Joel Sietsema of Marantz. “It has a larger power supply transformer, four output transistors per channel, heavy copper bus bars, advanced HDAMS and very…

Never before was a speaker series so appropriately named! Paradigm’s Founder series is so-named because it’s the first completely new speaker series that has been built after Scott Bagby, the company’s original founder, re-established sole control over the Paradigm by buying out the shares held by private equity firm Shoreview Industries, which had acquired a controlling interest in the company in 2005 following the departure of Jerry van der Marel who with his brother Bill and Bagby, had all founded the company back in 1982. Actually, Bagby did pretty well out of the deal, because he got Paradigm as part of a job lot that means he also now owns the famous Canadian high-end brands Martin-Logan and Anthem. He also gets to work with his son John, who was — and…

Readers interested in a full technical appraisal of the performance of the Paradigm Founder 40B Loudspeakers should continue on and read the LABORATORY REPORT published on the following pages. Readers should note that the results mentioned in the report, tabulated in performance charts and/or displayed using graphs and/or photographs should be construed as applying only to the specific sample tested. Newport Test Labs first tested the in-room frequency response of the Paradigm Founder 40B speakers, using a pink noise test signal, the result of which is shown in Graph 1. You can immediately see that the frequency response returned by the Paradigm Founder 40B was incredibly flat and linear and also well-extended at both ends of the audio spectrum. Across the region from 200Hz to 10kHz, which includes everything from the upper…

If you were to ask me the single most annoying issue I have with wireless earphones, or IEMs (In Ear Monitors if you prefer this acronym), it would be battery life. There is nothing more annoying than running out of juice, particularly if you’re kilometres away from anything resembling a power point. So for me the feature that would put Audio-Technica’s ATH-CKS50TWs at the top of my audition list would be that 20 hours claim for battery life, even though if you examine that claim more closely, it is with the active noise cancelling circuitry switched off and with the volume at a sensible level. However, even with ANC switched on and listening at rather louder levels you are still guaranteed 15 hours, which is still exceptionally good for a…

Despite having been in business since 1972, Mark Levinson did not release its first turntable, the No. 515, until 2017. This new No. 5105 does not replace the No. 515, nor is it a ‘stripped down’ version of it. In fact, despite the similarity in the model numbers, the No. 5105 is a completely new design, specifically intended to be the analogue front-end for Mark Levinson’s 5000 Series components. EQUIPMENT One reason it is a completely new design is that whereas the No. 515 turntable was made in the United States in partnership with turntable specialist VPI (based in Cliffwood, New Jersey), the No. 5105 turntable is made in Germany, in partnership with a German turntable specialist whose name Mark Levinson is not prepared to divulge. This makes the No. 5105 something of…