Australian HiFi

objective vs subjective

One disagrees with J. Gordon Holt at one’s peril. Although he’s no longer here to defend himself (which he could do quite frighteningly), having left these realms for one in which there are no distortions and the music from the harps is always gloriously in tune, there are many who will troll you even after all the bridges have fallen. For those who weren’t around when JGH was running Stereophile magazine, he was the person who introduced the word ‘subjective’ to the sphere of high-end audio. ‘While it is true that a loudspeaker which measures poorly will almost invariably sound poor, it is equally true that speakers that measure exceedingly well often sound almost as lousy, in a purely subjective listening test, as ones that are objectively poor. This is why,…

australian hifi

Editor: Greg Borrowman hifi@nextmedia.com.au Art Director: Kristian Hagen Managing Editor: Jez Ford Photography: Oliver Delprado Contributors: Carolyn Cannon, Lesley Swan, Jutta Dziwnik, Nada Grkinic, Steve Holding, Madeleine Ella, John Shand, Jez Ford, Karyn Brown, Val Barbour, Whendi Walkley, Tina White. Advertising Sales: Lewis Preece 0434 439 032 Advertising Liaison: Diane Preece dpreece@nextmedia.com.au Divisional Manager & National Sales Manager: Jim Preece 0400 808 900 Production Manager: Peter Ryman Circulation Director: Carole Jones Executive Chairman: David Gardiner Managing Director: Hamish Bayliss…

soundbites

ROGERS LS3/5A RETURNS One of Britain’s oldest loudspeaker brands, Rogers, is now again available in Australia. The new distributor is Melbourne-based Audio Magic. ‘Rogers has been internationally synonymous with quality audio equipment since 1947,’ said Aleksandar Maksimovic of Audio Magic. ‘Rogers’ founder, Jim Rogers, through his inspiration and inventive ideas, produced a sequence of consistently improved and refined loudspeakers which are now available again in updated form, such as the celebrated Rogers LS3/5A, which is now available for sale in Australia for $4,950 per pair.’ Rogers International UK Ltd says that more than 50,000 pairs of the original Rogers LS3/5a Classic 15 Ohm design had been previously manufactured. ‘Rogers is now once again manufacturing this landmark speaker in the UK exactly in accordance with the original BBC specifications,’ said Andy Whittle, of…

eisa awards 2019-2020

Australian Hi-Fi Magazine is proud to be a member of the world-wide Expert Imaging and Sound Association—EISA—which each year gathers together expert reviewers from 62 technology magazines and websites specialising in hi-fi, home theatre, in-car electronics, mobile electronics, photo and video from 29 countries around the world to judge the best products of the year in each class, and reward the manufacturer with a coveted EISA Award. As a member of EISA’s Hi-Fi Expert Group, Australian Hi-Fi Magazine voted on the awards given in the various audio categories, which was an exhaustive process that involved nominations, short-lists, more short-lists and then attending listening sessions in Europe, before an exhaustive final voting session. Unlike in some of the other EISA Award categories (which are listed on page 23), all of the…

additional eisa award winners

HOME THEATRE AUDIO EXPERT GROUP EISA AV RECEIVER 2019 – 2020 Denon AVR-X2600H EISA BEST BUY HOME THEATRE SPEAKER SYSTEM 2019 – 2020 DALI OBERON Series EISA HOME THEATRE HIGH-END 2019 – 2020 Focal Astral 16 EISA HOME THEATRE SPEAKER SYSTEM 2019 – 2020 Arendal Sound 1723 Monitor S THX 5.1 EISA HOME THEATRE SUBWOOFER 2019 – 2020 SVS SB-3000 EISA PREMIUM HOME THEATRE RECEIVER 2019 – 2020 NAD T 758 V3 EISA PREMIUM SOUNDBAR 2019 – 2020 Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar EISA SOUNDBAR 2019 – 2020 LG SL8 (In Some Markets LG SL8Y, LG SL8YG) EISA TV SOUND SYSTEM 2019 – 2020 DALI KATCH ONE COMBINED WITH HI-FI/HT VIDEO&DISPLAY EXPERT GROUP EISA AV ACCESSORY 2019 – 2020 Isotek SMART Delta COMBINED WITH HT VIDEO&DISPLAY EXPERT GROUP EISA UNIVERSAL PLAYER 2019 – 2020 Pioneer UDP-LX500 HOME THEATRE VIDEO&DISPLAY EXPERT GROUP EISA 8K TV 2019 – 2020 Samsung QE82Q950R EISA BEST BUY OLED TV 2019 – 2020 Philips 55OLED804 EISA BEST BUY…

wilson benesch p1.0 loudspeakers

Wilson Benesch labels its P1.0 as a ‘floor-standing/two-way design’, a description which should immediately result in questions from the floor, the most obvious one being why it’s called a ‘floor-standing’ design when, as you can see quite plainly from the photographs accompanying this review, the P1.0 looks very much as if it’s a stand-mount design, with the bookshelf speaker-sized cabinet being, after all, perched atop what looks very much like a speaker stand. The not-so-obvious question is whether the P1.0 is a two-way design at all, because unlike almost every other two-way loudspeaker on the market (about which more later), its bass/midrange driver is connected directly to the speaker terminals at the rear of the cabinet, so there is no crossover network between it and your amplifier. I’ll get around to…