Sound + Image July - August 2020

the hi–fi headlines

We are seeing some tantalising bargains at the moment while manufacturers and distributors attempts to keep business flowing during these interesting times, with one of the more enticing being from PS Audio. SAVE $1,000 ON THE PS AUDIO STELLAR POWER PLANT 3. The Hi-Fi community has now discovered the advantages of power conditioners, and PS Audio is arguably the most recognisable brand out there. While PS Audio make a range of excellent Hi-Fi products their reputation for power conditioners is second to none. Like most PS Audio offerings, the Steller Power Plant 3 is a power regenerator. It takes the incoming voltage and rebuilds it to perfect AC. The P3 includes 3 separate zones delivering 300 watts of pure regenerated power, 500 watts of short-term power and a whopping 900 watts for short…

no going back

One of the hallmarks of the lockdown was (or ‘is’, depending on your location and what happens between when I’m writing this and when you’re reading it) a gradual realisa-tion that some things — like restaurant takeaways, working from home, washing our hands — might be new ways of doing things that will stick with us beyond the confines of COVID-19. This has always been the way of the world: the discovery of something better is often such a one-way trip, part of the evolution of our individual lives towards greater efficiency or greater enjoyment. But this crisis has shoved a whole tray of new things before us, with changes we’d never have made — or been allowed to make — without such an enormous push from government and plain…

yamaha’s latest hi-fi expansion

If you’ve been hankering after Yamaha’s 5000 Series of hi-fi with a wallet too thin to oblige, you’ll be delighted to discover that the company has revised and reengineered the rest of its hi-fi integrated amplifiers to take advantage of some of the 5000 Series concepts. The new A-S1200, A-S2200 and A-S3200 integrated amplifiers have now arrived, priced at $3499, $4999 and $9999 respectively. Although the new amplifiers look similar to the preceding A-S1100, A-S2100 and A-S3000 models they replace, Yamaha says they share several key features with the 5000 Series, including toroidal transformers with drawn-out wiring to reduce energy loss, mechanical grounding to reduce unwanted vibrations, and nicely thick wires for ground connections ensuring lower impedance. The A-S3200 is the most powerful amplifier in the series, rated with a power output…

klipsch commits a new heresy

Klipsch has updated the long-running Heresy model from its Heritage range to MkIV status, making substantial changes to deliver a very different speaker from either the one introduced in 1957, or the previous 2006 model. For a start, and for the first time in the model’s long history, the Heresy is now a bass reflex design with a Tractrix geometry port, which Klipsch says has improved low frequency extension by almost 10Hz. The necessary crossover upgrade draws on the steep slope designs of the legendary Klipschorn, La Scala and Cornwall speakers. Klipsch now rates the frequency response at 48Hz–20kHz ±4dB and its efficiency at an amazingly high 99dBSPL (2.83V/1m). It also claims it can deliver continuous maximum in-room sound pressure levels of 116dBSPL. Warn the neighbours. High frequencies are delivered by…

maverick flies late as trolls sow doubt on same-day home movies

The closure of cinemas during COVID-19 restrictions has led movie companies to experiment with sending new movies straight to video-on-demand streaming services, instead of sticking with the usual cinema-exclusive model. Home cinema fans would welcome more of this, especially since the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Apple et al investing heavily in their own content has already brought into question the traditional model of a cinema run followed by video release. Now cinemas risk being removed from the distribution chain altogether. One great VOD success during the shutdown was ‘Trolls World Tour’. The Wall Street Journal reported that this movie had made US$77 million from VOD domestic sales in the three weeks to the end of April. Because Universal Pictures will get about 80% of the streaming royalties compared with 50% of…

meet’n’greet iris

Arevolutionary new audio experience that dramatically increases sound quality by introducing the space that is normally missing from recorded audio, unlocking the ‘live’ dimension that’s often lost.” That’s the pitch for IRIS, a new proprietary sound processing algorithm which claims to transform your music listening by “splitting out and increasing the phase information sent to the brain. The listener’s brain then reassembles this vast increase in information and becomes far more active in the listening process.” This ‘Active Listening’ is a buzzphrase used throughout the new company’s litera-ture. IRIS will market a pair of headphones (shown above) to showcase the technology, these to be launched through crowdfunding site IndieGogo. But the application is intended for much wider use. IRIS can integrate with third party hardware or applications, and operates on any audio…