Sound + Image January - February 2023

I have been spending too much time recently creating AI art. You give it a prompt:“three chickens on Everest”, and the program draws it in maybe 20 seconds. Only a year or so ago, public versions of AI art were interesting, but pretty crude. By the end of 2022 the images have become brilliant, and startling. You can lengthen prompts to include details, art styles, materials, lens types. You can use your own picture as a reference, then use a prompt to turn it into something else. Example: the images above started as a Sound Burger image I took, plus various prompts. My prompt for lower left, for example, was fairly abstract: “Just an illusion. Super detailed masterpiece art work on show in a circus.” These were created using the Stable Diffusion…

I have been spending too much time recently creating AI art. You give it a prompt:“three chickens on Everest”, and the program draws it in maybe 20 seconds. Only a year or so ago, public versions of AI art were interesting, but pretty crude. By the end of 2022 the images have become brilliant, and startling. You can lengthen prompts to include details, art styles, materials, lens types. You can use your own picture as a reference, then use a prompt to turn it into something else. Example: the images above started as a Sound Burger image I took, plus various prompts. My prompt for lower left, for example, was fairly abstract: “Just an illusion. Super detailed masterpiece art work on show in a circus.” These were created using the…

LEM WALLIS AUDIO* Marantz Model 40n finally here After a long wait we have finally received the new Marantz Model 40n streaming amplifier. This conventional looking integrated amplifier features a high quality DAC, a raft of analogue and digital inputs plus Marantz’s own streaming system - HEOS - on- board. The popularity of ‘just- add-speakers’ streaming amplifiers continues to gather pace, and this is not the first Marantz piece to fall into this category, but it is their premium offering to date. Being optimists we at Len Wallis Audio are holding our collective breaths that products like the Model 40n will herald a shift in the way consumers access home entertainment. Over the last decade or so there has been a seismic shift towards soundbars, and given the poor quality sound offered…

If you thought orthodynamics were something you might slip in your sneakers to improve pronation, then Yamaha would like to take you on a journey back to 1976, when it introduced the HP-1 orthodynamic headphone. Orthodynamic headphones are a type also known as planar magnetic, or isodynamic. Twin sets of thin perforated magnets are placed either side of a thin membrane — this diaphragm being somewhat similar to that in an electrostatic speaker or headphone, having the thinness of cassette tape, except that planar magnetic membranes have embedded conductors woven through the membrane itself, often in spiral or circular patterns. These move as their electrical signal varies within the fixed isodynamic magnetic field (one created by multiple drive points). The membrane is driven across its entire surface, as opposed to the…

LEM WALLIS AUDIO* Marantz Model 40n finally here After a long wait we have finally received the new Marantz Model 40n streaming amplifier. This conventional looking integrated amplifier features a high quality DAC, a raft of analogue and digital inputs plus Marantz’s own streaming system - HEOS - on- board. The popularity of ‘just- add-speakers’ streaming amplifiers continues to gather pace, and this is not the first Marantz piece to fall into this category, but it is their premium offering to date. Being optimists we at Len Wallis Audio are holding our collective breaths that products like the Model 40n will herald a shift in the way consumers access home entertainment. Over the last decade or so there has been a seismic shift towards soundbars, and given the poor quality…

Ruark R2 We currently have Ruark’s R2 medium-sized tabletop wireless speaker/streamer/radio running in our office, and we can report that it positively encourages radio listening of every kind: FM, DAB+ digital, or internet radio (just no AM). In addition it has Bluetooth onboard, and also Wi-Fi streaming with Spotify Connect and support for Deezer or Amazon Music. Physical connections include an analogue input, USB-C playback, and a headphone output. Control is via Ruark’s longstanding and intuitive RotoDial controller on top, or the Undok app (a remote control is also available as an extra), while the R2’s warm and rich sonics benefit from solid Class-AB power and Ruark’s neodymium-backed NS+ drivers. This is the Mk4 version of Ruark’s R2, and it slims down a little on the previous version: it is now 34cm wide…