Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 2 - 2018 i Audio Esoterica

Forty years of audio tuning at Marantz by Ken Ishiwata are celebrated in the latest (and if Ken is to be believed, possible the final) KI-Signature products — the ‘KI Ruby’ CD/SACD player and 100W integrated amplifier. The disc spinner has digital inputs to its DAC section, while the amplifier stays firmly analogue, including a mm/mc phono stage using Marantz’s latest phono EQ circuitry design. A limited run of 500 units each, they’re due in Australia in October, prices TBA.…

Digital Signal Processing is today no rarity, although (as you’ll see elsewhere in these pages) there’s still no shortage of the more traditional approach to system building, where analogue sources (or digital sources and a DAC) deliver analogue signals to an analogue amplifier where volume, tone and other adjustments can be made in the analogue domain, before the signal is amplified to drive a pair of passive loudspeakers. Other companies have come to accept that — especially in today’s largely digital world — it makes better sense to keep the signal digital for as much of the system chain as possible. Volume adjustment, tone and even complex EQ can be calculated in the digital domain without the distortions introduced by physical analogue components. What’s remarkable about Meridian in this regard…

Loudspeaker companies do love an anniversary. It gives them a chance to highlight their heritage and explain the innovations that have led to their position in the market. So when the German company Canton recently celebrated its 45th birthday, it punctuated the party with the release of a limited edition set of speakers, of which this A 45 is the main floorstander. It was designed and engineered by the company’s founder himself, no less, and is flagged by Canton as representing “the best of our 45 years”, by which it means to say that the A 45 encompasses all the design innovation and materials research the company has achieved thus far over its four-and-a-half decades. FROM THE PAST… It is not entirely fair, however, to call Canton merely a loudspeaker…

Revel is a dedicated high-end brand founded by Harman International in 1996 — and as a point of interest, Revel was only the second company actually started by Harman (which is itself now owned by Samsung). Apart from the harman/kardon brand, all the other brands owned by Harman are the result of acquisitions and mergers. The F208s were designed by Kevin Voeks, who has been Director of Engineering at Revel since its founding. Voeks was previously the head designer at Snell, having taken over from founder Peter Snell after his tragic death from a heart attack, aged just 38, in 1984. Prior to working at Snell, Voeks had worked for famous Canadian manufacturer Mirage. Some measure of the popularity of Revel’s F208 floorstanding loudspeakers can be gauged by the fact…

The news is out! – Yamaha is going back to black with a new range of turntables on the way, topped by this magnificent GT-5000, channelling Yamaha’s classic GT-2000 design (GT for ‘Gigantic & Tremendous’!), but reinvented with belt-drive (as opposed to the direct drive of the original), a specially designed (short and straight) arm, a hefty 5kg aluminium platter, and heavy-duty feet to boot… all topped off with that Yamaha ‘Piano Gloss’ finish. The flagship GT-5000 is scheduled for release in April 2019.…

All hail the Relentless Monoblock amplifier, the result of Mr D’Agostino’s desire to deliver an amplifier that can maintain its harmonic integrity and full performance from 0 to 1500 watts (or, indeed, 6000W into two ohms), no matter how demanding the speaker load with which it may be presented. A 5.5kW power supply feeds a custom-designed rectifier circuit and a 600,000μF/100V capacitor bank, with D’Agostino’s exclusive high-voltage Super Rail concept making maximum use of these remarkable resources to feed roughly 100 output devices. And of course it maintains the sheer gorgeousness of previous DD’A designs, with the copper and aluminium of the heatsinks, massive binding posts made from gold-plated brass, and a new eight-inch power meter on the front, glowing in gorgeous green. Nice. Advance Audio tells us the Relentless…

I designed and made a preamp for myself… an audio dealer friend heard it, and almost by accident, I was back in business…– Antony Michaelson on the origins of Musical Fidelity “I have always been passionate about hi-fi and music,” Antony Michaelson told us when we interviewed him back in 2012. “Musical Fidelity is the wild love child of those joint passions. It gets me out of bed in the morning. Running the business… the ups and downs, it’s one of the joys of my life. There are many things to get me out of bed in the morning — ready to get out and… do it!” Well, now Mr Michaelson can enjoy a lie-in or two. At this year’s Munich High End show, he joined Heinz Lichtenegger, founder of…

Yamaha has never deserted its proud role in the development of two-channel stereo. If the company was distracted for a decade or two by its wild success in the realms of surround sound, well, that’s fair enough. Its audio-visual processors and receivers led the world at a time when every self-respecting living room required at least three if not five additional speakers to deliver the atmospherics and effects of the latest and greatest sonic experience on offer. Fast-forward to the 21st century, however, and the focus of many listeners has returned to the more contained delivery of high-quality stereo reproduction, and Yamaha has responded by returning to its roots. The company has reinvented its realisation of ‘Natural Sound’, a tag which it has applied to products as far back as…

Whenever we revisit Audio Solutions, the hi-fi emporium based in Mascot in Sydney’s south east, what strikes us most is the atmosphere of the store and their clear connection to their customers. It often seems to be as much an extended family as a retail relationship. Nick, whose new system you can see on these pages, is one such longterm customer. “Nick has been a client since the beginnings of Audio Solutions, so that’s more than 15 years,” says Tony Stantzos, co-owner of Audio Solutions. “We’ve built many systems for him over the years in the many houses he’s built or renovated.” Those ‘many houses’ are an indication of Nick’s job heading a team that tackles major projects in urban design and master planning, as well as apartments, houses, public…

The reel-to-reel resurgence continues to gather momentum, the extraordinary example here coming from Metaxas & Sins, headed by former Melburnian Kostas Metaxas. Despite its stunning appearance, the ‘GQT’ (Georges Quellet Tribute) open reel-to-reel recorder is designed as a 15ips portable machine for on-location recording as well as for home or studio playback. The Georges Quellet reference credits the founder of Stellavox, and points to the design cues taken here from the classic Stellavox SM8 portable, considered by many professional engineers to provide the most transparent and three-dimensional sound of any portable. The Metaxas variation has, we gather, the full blessing of Stellavox’s founder M. Quellet.…

A couple of years ago, M&K Sound had a demonstration set up in a side room at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre in Sydney, during the annual Integrate event technology show. It was a large room, but I was alone there with Lars Johansen, the company President, who was telling me about the rebirth of the company in Denmark, its long experience as the choice of Hollywood professionals, and the new drive to deliver the company’s key technologies to both consumer and professional markets. The system in the room was a full complement of the new S300 monitors in surround configuration, including support for the immersive audio of Dolby Atmos. One of the demonstrations was the opening of Mad Max: Fury Road, freshly released on the then brand-new UHD Blu-ray…

It’s easy to see why Audio Solutions is such a favourite with Sydney’s audiophiles. First there’s the credibility of the owners, Nicholas Papas and Tony Stantzos, who have dedicated their working lives to the audio industry, culminating in them establishing Audio Solutions 18 years ago. Then there’s the fact that they can give completely unbiased advice to their customers, as Audio Solutions is exclusively a retail operation, unlike retailers who also import the equipment they sell in their store. The store not only has a great display area on the ground floor, but also spacious and great-sounding listening rooms on the first floor (surprisingly quiet considering that the store is located in Mascot, close to Sydney’s domestic and international air terminals). There’s freshly brewed coffee from the store’s steampunk coffee…

A lot has been happening at B&W in recent times, with the company increasing the size of its R&D team by 40%, which entailed closing its old research facility in Steyning and re-locating it to a new, larger, and better-equipped facility in West Sussex, England… and also opening a new factory in Zhuhai, China, where all the 700 Series 2 loudspeakers are built. That means that as of now, the only B&W speakers manufactured in Great Britain are the high-end 800 D3s and the famous ‘Snail’ design of the Nautilus. But while the 2016 purchase of this venerable British company (by the tech firm EVA Automation from California) may have precipitated some changes, other things remain the same, especially in the area Bowers & Wilkins has made and maintained its…