Table of contents for January - February 2021 in Sound + Image

It has been a strange 2020 for the hi-fi industry, as for everyone. While all shows and launch events were necessarily shut down, hi-fi and home entertainment have not had a bad year; indeed many retailers and distributors are telling me that they’ve sold more kit than for many many years gone by. The reason is fairly obvious — everyone is concentrating on their home life, because they’ve been stuck at home. Isn’t money tight? For some, certainly, but for others there’s been the removal of holiday expenditure, not to mention the possibility of irresponsible splash-out spending thanks to various ongoing assistance payments and that highly dubious ability for Australians to yank out thousands of dollars from their Super and let their retirement income go hang. Not that I’ll be…

HANDS ON with Austere ‘Clean & Protect’ We’re not usually much for recommending cleaning systems, whether fluids which claim to improve cable connections (as opposed to simply cleaning them), or cleaners for TV screens, for which dedicated solutions seem a bit of overkill when a dry microcloth is usually enough to remove dust and bits of dirt, although occasionally we’ll spray on some of the stuff the optician gives us for use on spectacles. But when we did that recently on a shiny Samsung TV screen, the dog-shaken chunks of dirt we were endeavouring to remove simply smeared all over the surface rather unpleasantly (first image). Then we remembered that distributor Audio Active had recently sent a sample of its Austere III Series ‘Clean & Protect’ package, which contains a…

The UK’s Ruark has released a Mk4 edition of the R1 radio which was the original product that began the company’s change from Ruark Acoustics, making fine British loudspeakers with thrusting names like Sabre and Swordsman through the 1980s and 1990s, to Ruark Audio, maker of modern-featured radios and all-in-one audio systems. Described on its original release by the UK’s Sunday Telegraph as “the Aston Martin of DAB radios”, the revised R1 Mk4 uses a linear amplifier and the company’s full-range NS+ driver, along with level-adaptive equalisation which aims to ensure a friendly and full sound across all volume levels. An OLED display shows time, alarm and programme information, and auto-adjusts to ambient light levels, handy for bedside use. It includes FM analogue and DAB+ digital reception, plus a Bluetooth…

Audio-Technica delivers another brilliant ‘budget’ turntable in the AT-LP120XUSB, a well-designed, full-featured, robustly-built, high- performance ‘work-horse’ turntable that will be ideal for anyone seeking a way to discover or rediscover the joys of vinyl replay in a fuss-free package. Its basic design follows that of Technics’ classic SL-1200 DJ turntable, right down to the arm-shape, speed slider and buttontry, along with lights to illuminate the strobe lines on the side of the platter. And that means direct drive, rather than the more common belt drive in hi-fi turntables, with speed here controlled via d.c. servo, constantly monitored and variations compensated for in real time, which gives very exact control combined with tremendous torque. The platter of a direct-drive turntable can move from stationary to 33⅓rpm in under a second, while…

It’s often neglected, the humble phono preamplifier, but when you consider how very tiny are the signals delivered from a cartridge, there is every reason to consider the merits of undertaking their de-emphasis and initial amplification in a dedicated offboard box, rather than a phono stage built into a main amplifier or the turntable itself. A fine phono stage can entirely transform the sound of a turntable. And Parasound’s $1249 Zphono XRM is not only fine in its performance, but also in its flexibility. It contains completely independent preamps for moving-magnet and moving-coil cartridges, so you could plug in one of each, but more to the point this has allowed Parasound to optimise sound quality specifically for each input individually, rather than having to make a compromise. The Zphono XRM…

Small boxes delivering big results have become something of a specialty for the UK’s iFi Audio — the company’s iFi Zen DAC grabbed itself an EISA award this year, while this rather more humble Bluetooth streamer won us over by filling a potential hi-fi hole with all the musical panache you could reasonably hope for in a Bluetooth streaming device. For many years, of course, we’ve been steering everyone away from Bluetooth whenever possible — it’s a transmission format which in itself hasn’t improved its musical credentials since its earliest days. Others have, however, intervened, so that third-party Bluetooth codecs can today achieve much better results when (and this is important) the third-party codec is supported at both ends. So the iFi Zen Blue’s purpose is to bring Bluetooth streaming…

The UK’s Cyrus Audio has taken its Cyrus One amp on quite a journey since the very first ‘One’ was launched in 1984. More recently it was reinvented in the friendly yet purposeful design pictured here, first as an entirely analogue amplifier, then in a version with digital inputs as the Cyrus ‘One HD’, and now as the Cyrus ‘One Cast’ which, as its name suggests, adds Chromecast to the mix, along with Apple’s AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth. This transforms it into an easily selectable end-point for streaming music services, a smart amplifier to which you could, at a minimum, just add speakers if all you want is a high-quality streaming playback system. To make this even easier, the One Cast can be controlled by any of the three main…

Once (and still) known for its high-value entry-level and midrange separates, NAD has had its reputation transformed in the last decade by its Masters series, which has taken the company to a new level. This $8999 M33 is the latest in the series, described by NAD (in a bit of a mouthful) as as a ‘BluOS Streaming DAC Amplifier’, to emphasise the inclusion of the BluOS streaming/multiroom platform (also making it able to communicate with all Bluesound products), and the fact that it has a DAC — as do the vast majority of amps these days, so hardly worth headlining. We’d just call it a smart amplifier — very smart, indeed, both visually with that enormous touchscreen on the front, all the high-res and streaming capabilities, along with a far…

In the same way that Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of Toyota, Michi is the brand name adopted by Rotel for its highest level of product. Around the back, in relatively small lettering, this is declared as ‘Michi by Rotel’, but on the front, where it matters, Michi — often translated from the Japanese as meaning ‘Righteous Way — stands alone. And it comes with quite the promise, managing director Peter Kao saying that “We have used all of our 55 years of design and manufacturing experience to create our best-ever products.” The S5 and P5 certainly look and feel exclusive. The $5999 P5 Control Preamplifier’s austere exterior, with its black glass plate and two large rotary controls, gives absolutely no hint as to the complexity of what’s inside…

The JBL Link Music is cheaper than the Link Portable, as it saves by not having the battery, yet it sounds significantly better, given its larger driver, a greater physical volume, and possibly significantly more power given that it has permanent access to the mains, while the Portable will have been designed to maximise its battery life by pulling less. The Music also sounds far better — cleaner, less processed — than either the JBL Link 10 (a previous award-winner) or even the larger Link 20 which sounds positively muffled in direct comparison. JBL really does seem to have advanced its sonics significantly in the latest generation. Some specific comparisons: the bass line from The Chats’ Smoko pounded out of the Link Music with an impressive size; from the Link…

With Naim’s full-sized Mu-so Gen 2 recognised in last year’s awards, it was inevitable that the smaller and roughly cubic ‘Qb’ version should also get a Gen 2 upgrade. The result is a bulging box of abilities — roughly a 21cm cube — still offering exactly the same streaming abilities, so loaded with Chromecast inside, AirPlay 2, network streaming, an excellent app bringing together Tidal, Spotify Connect and many more services — plus one minijack input, one optical and a USB slot for sticks and drives. Note, however, there’s no HDMI input on the Qb, as appears on the larger Mu-so. There are new colours for the optional grilles you can order should black not be to your liking: Olive, Terracotta and Peacock (pictured above). You now also get a…

The most obviously unusual technology in the Premier 800F sits in front of the 165mm carbon-infused polypropylene midrange driver — a patented ‘Perforated PhaseAligning’ (PPA) lens, which it says “increases and smooths its output without colouring the sound”. Loudspeaker manufacturers have been putting such devices in front of tweeters for more than half a century, but one in front of a midrange driver is, while not without precedent, relatively rare. The lens aims to minimise problematic sound-wave interactions, while at the same time maximising the useful ones. But it’s not the only clever tech aboard these Paradigm speakers, which are made in the company’s Canadian home. There’s another PPA lens over the 25mm pure-aluminium dome tweeter, while the 130mm carbon-infused polypropylene bass drivers benefit from Active Ridge Technology, patented corrugations…

Regular readers will be aware that we have championed OLED screen technology as delivering the finest available television pictures that money can buy. This has been true for around five years now. Yet neither of our TV award-winners has an OLED panel. Both are LED-backlit LCD TVs. What, then, are we thinking? Well, we’re thinking that OLED screens are still great, but they haven’t moved forward significantly in the last few years — iterative improvements, sure, but nothing thrilling, plus the prices have stayed at a significant premium. LCD panel makers, on the other hand, have been coming up with ways to make their blacks blacker and their colours brighter (the latter an inherent advantage of LCD anyway). So the gap has narrowed. And if your TV is going to…

This is the first of two very different Epson projectors to appear in our awards this year, with the EH-TW7100 the more conventional of the two, yet still coming with a few surprises. It’s equipped with Epson’s 4K Pro-UHD feature, involving a dedicated 4K Pixel-Shift processor, so the first surprise is its price-tag of $2649. The projector itself is an attractive and curvy design in white, and has built-in speakers, though its picture quality deserves a rather better sound system than this. There are no analogue video inputs, just two HDMI ins, and importantly these are rated to accept 4K UHD signals at up to 60Hz: 10 bits for 4:2:2. The imaging technology involves three full-HD polysilicon TFT active matrix LCD panels, long Epson’s projection technology of choice. Each panel…

So a confession is required at the start of our soundbar section — or let’s call it an update on our overall view of the hi-fi and AV universe. For years we’ve been merely tolerating soundbars, considering them a second-ratesound solution. With very few exceptions, we didn’t much like them, especially for playing music, a role soundbars inevitably adopt once sitting centrally in the main entertainment space of a home. Well, times have changed. Pricier soundbars up in the thousands have extended the abilities of soundbars to remark- able new territory. But the biggest surprise is to find competent sound even at the entry- level, as here, with Yamaha’s SR-B20A. This is a soundbar alone, without the common wireless subwoofer. This not only keeps the price down to $329, it…

We’ve already recognised one of Bowers & Wilkins’ Formation range, the Wedge, on p50 back in our smart speaker section. Formation is a fully networked wireless and multiroom platform which runs all the way to high-end stereo (the Formation Duo speakers won an award last year) — you might think of it as Sonos but classier, except that the control app here is radically simplified compared with that platform. And as with nearly all such systems, a key element of the platform is a soundbar and wireless subwoofer to cover the needs of TV entertainment in the main living space. The Bowers & Wilkins solution for that is this Formation Bar, alongwith the Formation Bass for subwoofer duties. You can further add a pair of Formation Flex speakers as rears,…

It’s been a good awards for Bowers & Wilkins this year, with two Formation products, a pair of speakers, and now this subwoofer all gaining recognition. As noted in the soundbar category, the company has a remarkable ability to coax impressive levels and quality of bass from relatively small subwoofer enclosures, and here’s further proof. (And while we’ve grouped our subwoofer awards with ‘AV sound’ products, we should start by stating that subwoofers can be as effective in augmenting a stereo system as they can in supporting a home cinema.) It seems odd at first that the $2799 DB4S should be the lowest-priced of the company’s DB series, yet not the smallest. Its 250mm driver is actually larger than in the next model up. But that’s because it uses just…

Some say that once you’ve owned electrostatic headphones, you’ll never settle for less. We reckon that’s certainly true for this combination of $7750 Stax SR-009S earspeakers (as they call their headphones as a deliberate indicator of their quality) and $5900 SRM-700S ‘driver’ (headphone amplifier). You need the driver because you can’t plug the headphones into normal headphone sockets, because of the high voltages (around 600 volts) required to be sent through the cables to drive their electrostatic designs. The SRM-700S’s enclosure is quite ‘old- school’, with an anodised aluminium fascia and grey/black coated steel for the chassis, but the quality of the build is exceptional... particularly the fascia. There are two sockets for headphone connection, so you can listen with a Stax-equipped friend. The SR-009S headphones have the company’s typically…

It’s a tough call to compete in the wireless noise-cancelling headphone arena against established brands like Sennheiser and Sony. All the morekudos to Danish loudspeaker company DALI for taking its time to research and develop its first headphones, approaching them as if they were building loudspeakers for the head. These are not a ‘me-too’ headphone. While relatively compact, the iO headphones manage to incorporate large 50mm cone diaphragms which show DALI’s speaker heritage in using not the common Mylar or other synthetic material, but honest-to-goodness paper/fibre cones. The over-ear enclosures are braced and stiff like speaker cabinets, with rubber dampeners inside to eliminate vibrations. Even the fabric inside guarding the diaphragms is imprinted with a matrix structure like a loudspeaker grille. The result is genuinely distinctive, and luxurious in feel.…

Along-time client of Len Wallis Audio, an avid music and technology lover with experienceof Focal’s loudspeakers, asked LWA to build and install a system around this French company’s flagship Grande Utopia speakers. When the recent EM Evo series was announced, Len Wallis Audio sourced the only pair of Grande Utopias available in Australia at that time, presented in striking metallic blue, and paired them with a entirely modern two-channel system. A customised Roon ‘Rock’ music player was built to handle the supply and storage of lossless music, with the Roon software handling the music management, adding TIDAL streaming and control from any smart device in the home. Then the power: four mighty Meridian Reference 857 two-channel power amplifiers, each offering around 1500W when bridged, and here also in a bi-amped…

You cannot capture a man’s entire life in two hours. All you can hope for is to leave an impression of one.” So says New Yorker critic turned playwright turned script doctor Herman J. Mankiewicz (played by Gary Oldman) — or Mank, as he’s known to friends, colleagues and venomous rivals — of his screenplay American, later to be retitled Citizen Kane. And just as Mankiewicz and Orson Welles most certainly achieved this objective with their rise-and-fall-and-so-much-more story of Charles Foster Kane, so too does this telling of how Mank co-wrote The Greatest Film Ever Made. Directed by David Fincher from a script by his journalist father Jack, Mank, like Kane, utilises multiple flashbacks to piece together a life. The here-and-now is 1940 in a ranch in Victorville, California, as…

So we’re all about every system being tailor-made — that’s why we’re called The Audio Tailor,” says Stuart a Taylor, downplaying the suspicion that the pun on his surname is not entirely coincidental. “It’s about getting every link in the chain really strong. It doesn’t matter what the budget: we’re putting a lot of thought into product matching — so if they own a pair of speakers, Bowers & Wilkins, say, we’ll be very particular about what sort of amplifiers we match up to those. And cables etc. So it’s an end result, rather than just ‘pick your box and go away’. It’s more about trying to find exactly the right sort of solution.” And that’s precisely what we’d been hearing in the comments from our online poll to select…

Bowers & Wilkins Australia has done very well in this year’s Sound+Image Awards — four gongs in all, including two for its wireless Formation series of products. This shows how the quality of product seems to have been unaffected by two changes of ownership in four years (see panel), the latest of which brings it back together under the Sound United umbrella with its former electronics brand partner, Classé Audio. This has enabled the Australian arm of Bowers & Wilkins to bring Classé back to Australia, making available the company’s third-gen Delta range of amplifiers first announced at CES in 2019, and launched at the following Munich High End show. There are three models: a preamplifier plus a choice of stereo or monoblock power amplifiers, all designed by Classé in…

The ultra-short-throw (UST) projector is not a new concept in itself, but over the last couple of years it has undergone a transition from a projection sideline to a genuine consumer alternative to a large-screen smart TV — although there are still some significant things to consider before fully imbibing the UST Kool-Aid. Firstly, while they’re brighter than ever, their images will still wash out in a room subject to significant ambient light, which is most lounges in Australia during day time. And while the pictures you’ll find on company websites tend to show a nice little box tucked against the wall, throwing a simply enormous image onto the wall surface or preferably screen, the boxes are actually significantly bulky, and for the largest possible images they may need to…

The latest of NAD’s amplifiers to employ Purifi’s Eigentakt amplification (see the M33 award, page 38) is the new C 298 power amplifier, NAD noting that it manufactures its own Eigentakt modules under license from Purifi, allowing NAD to optimise performance for each specific model. The stereo power amplifier delivers a a claimed 185W per channel (both channels driven, into 8 ohms), rising to 340W when driving 4-ohm loads. However, it can also be configured as a monobloc, in which mode NAD claims a continuous power output of 620W. Signal-to-noise ratio is specced at 120dB (A-weighted) and distortion less than 0.005% It has both balanced and unbalanced inputs with level trimming, a line output to enable easy connection of an active subwoofer, and auto-on sensing to enable it to be…

From the electronics wing of the company which delivers some of the most carefully-curated vinyl on the planet, Mobile Fidelity, comes the ‘plus’ version of its StudioDeck, indicating the inclusion of a pre-installed StudioTracker cartridge at a package price of $2499, while for an additional $369 you can add the optional Mo-Fi Super HeavyWeight record weight to go on top — though we didn’t reckon the StudioDeck+ needed it. This is beautifully-designed deck created in collaboration with Allen Perkins of Spiral Groove, the MDF plinth strengthened and given mass by a bonded aluminium plate, with the platter made of Delrin (a DuPont polymer resin), and driven by an attractive orange belt turned by a 300rpm stepped-pulley AC motor which provided excellent speed stability. The tonearm is a fully-adjustable 10-inch straight…

If CD players are on the way out (given that vinyl has now taken its final revenge by outselling the silver discs), this may therefore be the very time to invest in a high-quality CD player which will give a lifetime of performance for the collection of discs you’ve accrued. Metronome’s AQWO (which we’re told means ‘I listen, I hear’ in ancient Greek) is certainly that, but also significantly more. It offers top-loading silver-disc playback — of both CDs and SACDs — with a magnetic polyoxymethylene puck provided (and required) to clamp down the disc. But it also has inputs to work as a DAC, so it will convert digital signals from another transport, your DVD player, your streamer, your computer… indeed from any device that has a digital output.…

Lumin has not only garnered huge support from audiophiles right around the world in the relatively brief time its components have been available, but it has also expanded its range dramatically so that it now caters for almost all applications and covers a range of price-points. That’s all been made possible largely because the company behind Lumin is the famous Hong-Kong-based electronics firm Pixel Magic, with its own team of highly- experienced digital engineers, and building its Lumin-branded products in its own factory in China. But it’s also in part because it uses the same software throughout its range, as well as much of the same hardware and circuitry. And when we say ‘much of the same hardware’, the U1 Mini is a perfect example, because it uses almost exactly…

Our judges ended up having to choose a winner between this Cambridge and the Arcam opposite for this category — but ultimately decided to give the full nod to both, one of only two joint awards this year. After all, they’re significantly differentiated by price, the Arcam being right at the top of the price break, the Cambridge significantly more attainable at $2499. The CXA81’s predecessor, the CXA80 from 2014, won itself a Sound+Image Award as well, so we were happy to hear that Cambridge hasn’t messed too much with the fundamental circuit design, rather focusing on “doing everything we can to make it ‘more’… more refined, more precise… more musical,” by tweaking at the component level, notably upgrading most of the op-amps in the signal path, and the capacitors…

At 550W per channel into eight ohms, the $12,000 M8xi is not only the most powerful integrated amplifier in Musical Fidelity’s current extensive line-up, but also the most powerful integrated amplifier Musical Fidelity has ever built. As the first new product under the leadership of Heinz Lichtenegger, it’s a statement that he isn’t dumbing down the company, rather extending the brand and filling in gaps below, while retaining the services of long-time Musical Fidelity designer Simon Quarry, and the high-tech factory in Taiwan (not China) that’s been building the company’s high-end gear for the past 30 years or so. There’s very little on the front panel of the M8xi to suggest that it’s a very full-featured integrated amplifier, with two balanced and four unbalanced analogue inputs, plus two coaxial, two…

Spending time with a McIntosh amplifier at this level — ten bucks short of $36,000 the pair — is just a joy. McIntosh manages to maintain its amplifier ‘sound’ even with solid-state designs, the secret being what the company calls autoformers, similar to the transformers in the output stages of its valve amplifiers, ‘looking’ exactly the same (electronically speaking) to any loudspeaker that is connected to one. And while the power output of a solid-state amp will vary depending on the impedance of the speakers you connect to it, the power output of an amplifier with an autoformer will remain the same, irrespective of impedance, or of the frequency at which the power is delivered, so that the four amplifiers inside the MC462, each pair operating in balanced differential mode…

If you’ve heard of the award-winning HEOS wireless multiroom platform, well, this is its latest evolution in terms of standalone wireless speakers — a new three-strong ‘Home’ range from Denon. The HEOS platform allows music streaming to multiple rooms under a single app control for both your own music collection and streaming services such as Spotify and Tidal. So these three speakers can work together with the whole HEOS ecosystem — which includes soundbars, AV receivers, hi-fi systems and components. These new speaker units take over from the longstanding HEOS-branded range, and move the focus away from the HEOS brand back to the company which created it (partly in Australia), Denon. We thought the tallness of the middle $849 Home 250 makes it a slightly odd looker, but sonically it…

Confirming that Bowers & Wilkins hasn’t been ignoring its traditional speaker strengths in order to deliver the tech-laden Formation series, the company has recently delivered new ‘Signature’ editions of its 700 Series, and even more recently four ‘Anniversary’ editions of models in its 600 Series — these to commemorate 25 years since the very first 600 Series appeared. (These new models represent the seventh 600 Series.) The 606 standmounts are the larger standmounts of two in the 600 Series, and were already a stand-out performer in their previous iteration introduced in 2018, but the Anniversary edition manages to improve them still further — even though the only changes to their sonic performance would seem to be from similar crossover upgrades to those implemented in the 700 Signature models: “greatly improved”…

JBL’s ‘HDI’ models herald a new direction in speaker design for the company’s high-end domestic Synthesis range, especially externally, with the HDI models offering new finishes and cabinets where the only flat surfaces are their tops and bottoms. They also include many of JBL’s tried-and-tested technologies, including high-frequency compression drivers, HDI waveguides (as JBL prefers to call the horn construction at the top) and Advanced Aluminium Matrix cone drivers. The patented HDI (High Definition Imaging) waveguide technology works with its associated high-frequency compression driver, and is designed to deliver neutral frequency responses both on-and off-axis, as well as a seamless transition between it and the driver below that delivers the midrange frequencies, one of three 165mm ‘advanced aluminium matrix’ drivers, the other two being dedicated to the lowest frequencies. The…

It’s true that we’ve spent the last two years telling readers not to buy an 8K television. There has been almost no 8K material to watch, and the difficulties of upscaling other material to 8K has meant that 8K TVs have been arguably inferior to the cheaper 4K equivalent. Times, however, change. The new Xbox and PlayStation consoles do support 8K, so now the TVs have a purpose. Samsung, meanwhile, has been rather clever in reserving a couple of its latest technologies only for its 8K TVs so that if you want the very best Samsung picture on the market, it’ll have to be an 8Ker. Another trend playing into 8K’s hands is the continuing rise in screen sizes — again Samsung’s promotional bite that “75-inch is the new normal”…

Lesser projectors offering Ultra High Definition deliver the required pixel count by pixel-shifting panels of lower resolution. Sony’s VW790ES is native up to full 4K, and let’s cut to the chase — it’s the best picture we’ve ever seen. The VPL-VW790ES uses Sony’s SXRD — Silicon X-tal Reflective Display — a form of reflective silicon. And it uses Sony’s Z-Phosphor light engine with a laser diode to stimulate phosphor into producing white light. The advantages over conventional lamps are long life, quoted at 20,000 hours, and the ability to rapidly adjust brightness. Its native resolution is actually a little higher than UHD, at 4096 x 2160 pixels, so it is a true 4K projector. But of course it can act as a native Ultra-HD projector. It has display modes that…

Samsung was one of the first companies to really raise soundbar performance, and its premium offerings have won our awards several years running, ever since a sonic transformation led by its Californian ‘audio lab’ set up by Allan Devantier, formerly of Harman. This year we were impressed by a bar and subwoofer combo further down the range at $949 (sometimes less), the Q800T described as a 3.1.2-channel package, repro-duces left, centre and right channels from the front, plus additional left and right height channels from its top surface — all genuine, not simulated. There’s also a ‘Q-Symphony’ option of incorporating the built-in speakers of a 2020 Samsung TV for extra sound. You get a not-insubstantial wireless subwoofer with its 8-inch driver firing to the right. The 98cm bar is nicely…

This category covers one of our favourite product types — stereoamplifiers which have HDMI inputs. No longer do you plug all your HDMI cables into the TV then struggle to get good sound back again. Instead you plug all sources, both music and video, into the Marantz NR1200, then simply switch inputs on your amp, not your TV. So there are, for starters, five HDMI inputs, all of which support 4K and High Dynamic Range. The single HDMI output goes to yourTV but also has ARC (Audio Return Channel) so the amp can play sound back from your TV (video services streaming direct to the TV, say). Then you have a good range of audio inputs — three line-level stereo inputs, a moving-magnet phono input for a turntable, plus on…

As with all Magico speakers, the ASub subwoofer’s enclosure is made from 10mm-thick sheets of solid 6061 T6 aluminium — a precipitation-hardened alloy including magnesium and silicon. How hard is that? NASA used it to create the plaques mounted on the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 space-craft. So well hard. The ASub internally is braced and damped, and it’s a sealed design, Magico’s founder Alon Wolf having no truck with bass-reflex cabinets. And don’t be thinking that being made from aluminium means the Magico is light. The 46×37×45cm box weighs 49kg which, as the courier who delivered the review sample told us grumpily, “is heavier than my wife”. The 10-inch cone of the ASub’s driver is also aluminium (Magico claims that many of its cone drivers are so strong you…

This is the second product from Nura, following the over-ear ‘Nuraphone’ in 2017, and we greeted it with similar praise. Nura is one of several companies offering hearing-adaptive features — a hearing test is used to adjust the headphones to deliver what you didn’t know you were missing. Most of these have seemed to us to be little more than glorified EQ. Nura’s system appears an exception, with more useful results. It’s not, like most rivals, simply a “can you hear this?” test of multiple tones. The NuraLoop instead listens to you, aiming to detect ‘otoacoustic emissions’ — tiny signals originating in the cochlea in response to a sound. When these then vibrate your ear drum (at around one ten-thousandth of the level of the sound which went in) Nura…

Our Sound+Image GOLD Awards are reserved for thebest of the custom installations which we cover in Sound+Image, Australian Hi-Fi, Audio Esoterica and Best Buys Audio & AV magazines, whether they be dedicatedhome cinemas, mixed purpose media rooms, stereo hi-fi installations, or an entire smart home decked in tech from its foundations to its roof-mounted CCTV cameras. It’s the quality of work we look for, in the design, planning and implementation, often working with a builder or any number of other trades to deliver an entertainment space which will keep on giving at the highest quality possible for the budget. They’re also the one award type we give that doesn’t have an expiry date. We don’t attach a date to the GOLD Awards as we do to our annual product awards…

The original Neeo came from an independent Kickstarter project aiming to deliver the perfect touchscreen universal remote, one which would work easily with Control4’s smart home solutions. It worked so very well that Control4 itself was smitten, and bought the company. This Control4 Neeo is their love-child, designed with the same attention to Swiss-like styling on the outside, and inside fully optimised for Control4’s Smart HomeOS 3, giving easy access to everything from entertainment — tele-vision and radio stations, streaming services, playlists — to lightingscenes, door locks, and more. And it uses a sensible combination oftouch controls on the bright three-inch colour touchscreen alongwith real buttons below for when you want to control a movie ormusic without the backlights popping on. It’s a good solid remote control, in machined aluminium…

“Black-and-white engages a different part of your brain than colour,” says Mank’s director David Fincher. “To my way of thinking, the beauty of black- and-white is that it engages you in a formal way that is beyond beauty. It’s more substantial to me. I don’t know why that is. It engages the analytical mind in a different way.” When it came to concocting the unique look and sound of Mank, the guiding principle was “for the entire experience to feel like it was on a shelf in an archive next to a Citizen Kane reel; it just happened to be found and dusted off and put on a film projector and experienced,” says sound designer Ren Klyce. “Even though we have now fantastic sound and capabilities, David wanted it to…

Does the new Model 30 pairing of SACD player/streamer and amplifier herald a new era for Marantz? The exterior design certainly makes a statement, with a complete overhaul of Ishiwata-period aesthetics, and yet incorporating signature design elements from the brand’s products from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. “Our main goal in updating Marantz was to effectively capture the timelessness, musicality and passion the brand has brought to the world for nearly 70 years,” said Joel Sietsema, SVP of Brand at Marantz’s parent company Sound United. “This is why we dove into the brand’s history first to design the Model 30 and SACD 30n.” The Model 30 integrated amplifier ($5990) is rated at 100W per channel into 8 ohms (200W into 4 ohms); it’s an all-analogue design with a fully discrete…

For 31 years, since 1989, the Sound+Image Awards have been celebrating the very best in audio and AV, recognising the products which have wowed us over the previous 12 months of our magazines Sound+Image, Australian Hi-Fi, Best Buys Audio & AV, and Audio Esoterica, and which represent our recommendations of the very best products available in Australia today in every category from teeny-tiny true wireless buds up to unliftably large amplification. Under normal circumstances we’d currently be inviting the great and the good of the Australian hi-fi industry, perhaps even some of the less great and slightly mediocre, to gather together with us for our glitzy annual Presentation Dinner, where the candlelight and the wine and the unprecedented levels of mingle-tingle come together for what is often described as a…

In recent years Yamaha has been reconfirming its abilities to deliver stunning two-channel audio, releasing the 5000 Series, which is all-analogue, and headed by this $12,995 GT-5000 turntable, the final component released as source for the pre/power amplifiers, plus the iconic (and award-winning) NS-5000 speakers. While it’s made to match those components perfectly (with the option of using balanced outputs into the preamplifier), the GT-5000 will impress in any suitable system of quality. It makes quite the impression just physically, indeed. This turntable takes cues from the company’s 1982 GT-2000 (some of whose engineers were ‘recalled’ to advise on the development of the new turntable), back when GT stood for ‘Gigantic & Tremendous’, clearly a concept while still applies. In our picture above, the GT-5000’s platter looks a bit small,…

What is the point of a personal and portable music player when every smartphone can carry vast quantities of stored music or deliver infinite tunes via streaming? Quality is the answer, and particularly for those with a high-res music collection. Smartphones are not dedicated music machines, so it’s not hard for a carefully-designed PMP to outperform their DACs and headphone outputs (if they even have one), while many, including the M11 here, are also able to provide useful service at home, either playing music directly into a full sound system, or working as a DAC for other sources. When compared to other Fiio DAPs like the M9, the M11 is thicker and heavier, but diving into its parts explains why. Socketry is generous: it has two microSD slots, so with…

The Questyle CMA Twelve is one versatile slab of electronics. As well as a hub and high-quality DAC for your system’s digital sources, the Twelve also proved a fine headphone amplifier able to drive even the most esoteric of headphone designs. So as a DAC you can use it for all likely forms of digital audio, since it’s equipped (see back panel) with one input each for optical digital audio, coaxial digital audio, AES/EBU digital audio (the standard used in studios) and for computer audio via a USB-B input. This last supports all the way up to 32-bit/ 384kHz PCM and DSD256. It handles DSD in both native and DoP formats. The unit has no analogue inputs at all — you wouldn’t expect any on a normal DAC, but it’s…

Joint winner in this category with the Cambridge, though nudging the category ceiling at $4995, Arcam’s amplifier looks traditional enough, but turns out to be a fine example of a thoroughly modern amp combining music streaming with traditional connections. With its integration of Chromecast, AirPlay and UPnP streaming, Arcam has essentially satisfied the ‘complete stereo system in a box’ concept it first offered in the Arcam Solo Music several years ago, but here with some serious amplification power which benefits from the SA30’s Class-G circuitry. Arcam’s reputation was built on amplifiers, and particularly this breed of high-quality midrange integrated. They remain instantly recognisable; while the aesthetics are updated, someone transported from the 1990s would have no trouble spotting the evolutionary path that has led to the latest SA models, which…

Boulder’s 866 is more powerful than the amplifier it replaces, while it’s also electronically and sonically superior — and much better-looking… so we expected Boulder to be charging rather more for it. But it is actually less than its predecessor, thanks to several years of analysis during which Boulder minimised the operations necessary to cut and finish the metalwork, refining any detail that could reduce costs without reducing performance — down to even the colour of the circuit board masking. Boulder can do this because it builds everything entirely in-house — not just assembly, but every circuit board and each piece of metalwork is put together in Colorado. Indeed the company claims to be last manufacturer in the USA to be doing so. And of course this makes the Boulder…

Two winners from the same range of JBL speakers — and it’s not the first time they’ve taken out our awards. These are no mere Bluetooth speakers: they also connect to your home Wi-Fi network and have Google Assistant built-in, so you can use them just like any Google speaker, asking questions, requesting music, etc. And both the $249.95 Link Portable here and the $199.95 Link Music shown opposite are also blessed with the additional streaming platform of Apple’s AirPlay 2, making them even more versatile for iPhone and iPad users. This taller Link Portable has the significant advantage of portability, sitting on its charging tray ready to be picked up and taken wherever required, and promising around eight hours of battery life depending on the level of playback, remembering…

This category has two winners — the judges felt both needed recognising, for reasons we’ll explain. First, then, the $1499 Formation Wedge with its stunning diamond-sectioned front cloth cover and interesting 120-degree wedge design which sits well in a corner (though we preferred its sound in free space), the rear panel having a real feel of craftsmanship. It’s larger than you might imagine from pictures (23cm tall), and on top is a small display for basic volume and play/pause functions. Under that silky diamond cover there’s a three-way driver configuration, with two 2.5cm double-dome decoupled aluminium tweeters (from B&W’s 600 series) sitting top right and top left, with 40W of amplification apiece. Underneath each of those is a 9cm midrange driver similarly amplified by 40W, and in the middle a…

The Harlequins, from Australia’s own Richter Audio, are outstandingly good speakers. We liked everything about this latest ‘Series 6’ release: sound quality, appearance, power handling ability, and efficiency. And we most particularly liked the price of $1899. They are floorstanders, combining in a slim cabinet the company’s new low-distortion soft-dome tweeter partnered with an also newly- developed 6.5-inch mid/bass driver. Don’t expect the bass extension and sheer ‘thwack’ that you’d get from, say, a pair of Richter Wizards, but you’re going to be very pleased with the bass you will hear when you audition the Harlequins, because it is tight and rhythmic, the type of slam and pace you’d expect to find only in a much larger and more expensive pair of speakers. Plus its bass goes deeper than you’re…

Loudspeakers look like large boxes because that’s the easiest way to build them. But it’s not necessarily the ideal way, as Vivid Audio attests and its unique designs prove, standing like modern sculptures of sound, but with every curve, every part designed in the service of better sound. Vivid’s new Kaya range includes three floorstanders, and this Kaya 25, the number indicating 25 litres of internal volume, is the slimmest, and we reckon also perhaps the most attractive Vivid design yet, physically balanced, relatively restrained (visually), and simply drop-dead gorgeous. The Kaya 25’s height is 116cm, and it weighs a substantial 24kg, sporting a two- driver, two-way system. Up top is Vivid’s famous D26 tweeter (used on all its models), a 26mm catenary-shaped dome of aluminium with anodised carbon stiffening,…

Fancy a movie in your tent, or a binge on your bedroom wall? BenQ’s dinky and portable $1299 GS2 is ready to oblige. This is, as you can see, a very different design to the usual style of home projector. It’s near cubical, coloured a gentle tan, built with some level of impact protection and splash-proofing — because this projector is not intended to stay at home. The BenQ GS2 comes with a canvas carry bag, and it can operate on its internal battery pack. There have been previous portable pico projectors, and indeed BenQ had the GS1 predecessor to this model. But where the GS2 scores is in having such an array of built-in smarts — plug the included Wi-Fi dongle into its USB socket and it runs an…

Ultra-short-throw projectors are going great guns — a projector sitting on a bench to deliver a large-screen ‘TV-like’ experience. As a consequence the ultra-short-throw is rapidly evolving. If it’s going to work like a TV, shouldn’t it have speakers? Shouldn’t it be smart, like a TV? Yes it should. So here comes Epson, a company which declares itself the world no.1 in projection (on the reasonable basis that it has been declared so by Futuresource Consulting and others for the last 17 consecutive years), with the EH-LS500, originally revealed in 2019 but only recently launched here in Australia. The first surprise is the price. Other USTs arrived above $10k (last year’s winner in this category from Hisense had an RRP of $19,999: and is currently $11,999), while the LS500 is…

This was a real surprise to us — we have not previously rated LG’s soundbars anywhere near the top of our recommendations. Some could handle movie sound OK, but music, eek, not so much. But things have clearly changed. From the moment the SN9YG and its subwoofer powered up, it was obvious that the sound here has moved a notch above, perhaps thanks to Meridian’s involvement in LG’s latest designs. And this performance certainly doesn’t come at the expense of facilities: the $1399 SN9YG comes fully loaded. It has built-in Google Assistant, so you can ask of it anything a Google Home-type speaker can do, as well as using voice commands to control the soundbar. And once connected via Ethernet or Wi-Fi it gains the associated Chromecast Audio, able to…

While the months under COVID-19 have seen more hi-fi sold than for many years (see p4), it has also delayed the arrival and release of many products. One of the cycles most affected seems to be AV receivers, those marvellous multichannel boxes of power laden with endless inputs and abilities. These usually arrive just before our annual Awards, but this year not so; we have some of the new-generation Marantz receivers on test as we go to press, but we await Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, Pioneer and others — so clearly, aside from re-recommending last year’s winners (right) for anyone who simply must have a new AV receiver now, or suggesting a peek at EISA’s Awards, of which Sound+Image is a full voting member (opposite), we are simply not a position…

You can have your Bluetooth, your noise cancelling, your True Wireless buds — when you’re at home, indulging in some evening entertainment, there’s no substitute for plugging a pair of open, wired headphones into a decent headphone amp and letting the music flow. Sennheiser’s $319.95 HD 560S is so open (meaning the headshells allow music out, as well as external noise in) that when we first checked them for fit and comfort, we were astounded at how little they curtailed the sound of music then arriving from our hi-fi speakers. Comfortable they are too, firm not clamped, and with velour earcups and headband, not the common pleather which we find deteriorates far faster in a challenging Australian climate. The cable (for there is no Bluetooth) terminates in a full-sized quarter-inch…

The model number confuses, since Sony’s over-ear noise-cancellers are named the WH-1000XM3, now updated to XM4, so that some are predicting an imminent similar upgrade for these true wireless earbuds, the WF-1000XM3. But COVID-19 may have delayed that as far as late 2021, even 2022, which leaves these XM3s in an established position as the wireless buds to beat. While we’ve found other designs that can equal them for sound quality, the Sonys have enjoyed price reductions — they’re currently $279 or thereabouts — that give them a clear edge in value. Against most contenders they have edges in both features and sound quality too. There’s noise-cancelling, as impressive as with Sony’s full-size headphones, which is to say the best on the consumer market right now. Further customisation within the…

Scott Rogan and his team at Rogue Home Cinema first worked on this project in Western Australia a number of years ago, expanding an existing DIY cinema into this grander room which filled a space formerly occupied by a twin car port. A 180-inch screen heads up this dedicated home cinema, with nice touches including a drinks cabinet with lights that fade as the movie starts, and equipment cupboards on the back wall hidden behind movie posters. Ten seats plus a daybed lounge at the front means plenty of room to entertain. And with Parasound amplification and Atlantic Technology speakers throughout, it surely sounds as good as it looks. This year Scott’s team has returned to the project, to update the specifications. “Yes, it’s time for this room to go…

It looked like a good idea on paper: Francis Ford Coppola’s musical fantasia could have been the La La Land of its day. After Apocalypse Now, Coppola wanted the musical to define American Zoetrope as an old-school Hollywood-style studio, with contracted stars Frederic Forrestand Teri Garr playing on-the-rocks lovers. Using pioneering ‘electronic cinema’ production techniques and huge sets, Coppola envisioned a lush hybrid of studio classicism, live TV and theatre: one from the giddy heights of movie artifice. What went wrong? After Heavens Gate’s flaming flop, the profligate reputation of the ‘1970s movie brats’ tarnished Copp’s film from birth. His production methods hardly helped: he directed the action from an Airstream edit suite via on-set speakers, leaving the leads looking lost. Meanwhile, Coppola and MGM chafed as the budget soared…

The winners of CEDIA’s annual awards were announced in an online ceremony hosted by CEDIA’s vice president of engagement and global development Wendy Griffiths and Australia’s own Paul Skelton, with the event (and cocktail recipes) sponsored by Bowers & Wilkins, Crestron Australia, and Convoy International. Those who saw our last issue will have noted the quality of the competition, and several entries (below) took out multiple awards, the standout success being Boutique AV’s remarkable ‘Bespoke Art Deco Media Room’, which won five awards in all, including going on to win in CEDIA’s Global Awards in the Best Media Room category. Our congratulations to them and all the worthy winners! CEDIA is the global trade association and central touch point for residential technology, representing 3700 member companies and serving more than…