Indholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2023 i Australian HiFi

Like every year (bar the past couple, of course), I spent the first days of January 2023 attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas (of all places!) to see first-hand some of the most exciting audio products on the near horizon, as well as the biggest innovations that could materialize beyond that. The hi-fi industry is hardly the headliner of the world’s biggest annual technology show, with its ever-shrinking physical presence somewhat overshadowed by Big Tech, automotive tech, biotech… This CES, eyes goggled (and I swear I saw some drooling) over Sony’s prototype Afeela electric car (created in collaboration with Honda and pegged for a 2025 release), which has an interior clad in screens and features an actual display on the front bumper that the owner can use…

Astell & Kern might be best known for its hi-res portable audio players, but it hasn’t been shy in casting its net wider into the digital domain. Its players are complemented by earbuds, wireless speakers and an amplifier — and most recently a portable USB DAC. The new HC3 follows the very decent HC1, which was discontinued some time ago, and is billed as a hi-fi-grade USB-C DAC with microphone connectivity, so in addition to music listening it can also be used for shouting at opponents while gaming online, or for video calls (hopefully with less shouting). Inside is the ESS ES9219MQ DAC, which has a reputation for high-quality audio performance and e¦ cient power consumption. It works with any 3- or 4-pole 3.5mm plug headphones and headsets, and is…

Soundbites Audio-Technica has concluded its 60th-anniversary celebrations with a whopper: it has brought back its iconic Sound Burger portable turntable. But this is no mere re-heating — it’s been thoroughly modernised with fresh new ingredients in a bid to make it a record player to relish. If you missed it the first time around, the Sound Burger was a portable deck that, thanks to its mix of pop art style and high-fi delity sonics, took the 1980s vinyl scene by storm. The new model rocks a similar look but has some modern touches such as wireless Bluetooth connectivity and a USB-C port for charging. The battery lasts 12 hours, which provides plenty of out-and-about listening time. And for those who want to listen to it at home too, there is…

Two years after having registered patents for a pair of headphones with a built-in air purifi er, Dyson made headlines last summer after announcing that it had indeed developed a pair of wireless active noise cancelling headphones with a unique air purification feature, the Dyson Zone. Now, the quirky Zone headphones are a huge step closer to reality: they are set to hit shelves early this year. They will first be available in China this month (January), with the US, UK and other markets to follow in March. Australia is likely to be one of those 'other' markets considering I have received offcial press information from an Australian outlet, though at the time of writing Aussie pricing is yet to be confirmed and can only be estimated at around $1,400…

iFi has added another two affordable and well-kitted-out portable DACs to its extensive portfolio. The first is the Go Link, said to be the British company's first "super-affordable” model, which it certainly is at only $99. The pocket-sized dongle promises to deliver "supercharged sound when connected to smartphones, tablets, PCs and Macs via a USB port”, so if you are looking to upgrade your desktop or on-the-go sound without upending your finances, this could be a solid starting point. The Go Link also doubles as an adaptor, enabling wired headphones and earbuds to connect to digital devices that don't have a 3.5mm output. Despite its eye-catching price and diminutive size, iFi has packed in some impressive technology, including a high-performance and powerefficient DAC chip from ESS Technology’s Sabre HiFi series.…

On Test Yamaha YH-5000SE Planar Magnetic Headphones • Lightweight yet strong build • Stunning clarity and detail • Price will put them out of most people's reach $7,499 Sometimes looking back is helpful in moving forward. It’s certainly a popular approach in hi-fi right now as brands are increasingly launching new retro-modern designs based on old classics in their catalogues. And it’s one Yamaha decided to take six years ago in order to develop the forthcoming YH-5000SE flagship headphones you see before you. Yamaha looked back quite a way — 50 years. In the 1970s, the more ambitious hi-fi and headphones manufacturers were looking beyond the dynamic driver that was prominent at that time. They were experimenting with electrostatic and planar technologies in order to push the heights of consumer…

On Test March Audio Sointuva WG Loudspeakers • Huge sound for a standmount • Irresistible enthusiasm for music • Gorgeous finishes • Midrange occasionally affected by bass • Low efficiency • No grille $5,999.99 You wouldn’t know it from looking at them, but there are four reasons why March Audio’s most recent version of its Sointuva loudspeaker is very exciting. Firstly, the bass/midrange driver uses a new, highly innovative surround suspension. Secondly, it uses a motor with a unique design that enables higher performance than has been previously available. And thirdly, these two driver and motor innovations have allowed Australian speaker designer Allen March to replace the usual problematical bass reflex port with a passive radiator (or, to be precise, a pair of passive radiators) that use the same innovative…

On Test esoterica Jeff Rowland Capri S2-SC Preamplifier • Great looks & build • Customisable • Stunning sound • Volume control • Headphone output $9,200 Jeff Rowland’s products are unmistakable. First, they always stand out visually due to the beauty of their appearance and their obviously superb build quality. And their exemplary sound quality is another reason why they stand out, though the company’s recent decision to concurrently produce both classic Class A/B power amplifiers and the newer Class D power amplifiers has divided opinions amongst the marque’s many fans, with some decrying the move to include the latter and others applauding it. I guess Jeff Rowland’s view is that those who approve of his Class D amplifiers can buy them, and those who disapprove can buy his Class A/B…

There's Nothing But Space, Man! PARLOPHONE Having been catapulted into the public eye with his performance of cosmic pop gem Space Man at 2022's Eurovison, Sam Ryder has had a stellar rise that feels distinctly 21st-century. Yet despite the impressive streaming stats and a TikTok-centric fan base, the British, Essex-based songsmith is a refreshingly old-school talent — there's a whiff of Woodstock in both the album's title and his hippie-ish demeanour. So while this combination of radio-friendly rockers (Deep Blue Doubt), funky pop bangers (Somebody) and tear-jerking ballads (All The Way Over) comes with a ruthlessly commercial sheen, his impassioned delivery reminds you that there’s always a human heart beating somewhere beneath the gloss. It's impressive stuff, but Ryder is at his best when riffing through the 70s piano-pop playbook.…

Head Trap TREPANATION They might be from England's port town of Ipswich, but Lebrique's sound is beholden to the misanthropic urban-industrial hellscapes of Unsane, Uniform and KEN Mode. Blaring riffs, rasped snarls, and melodies that sound like they've been fed through a meat grinder and then hung from power cables, every track on 'Head Trap' feels like it's been prodded, poked and agitated to the point just short of frenzy, and then let loose in a claustrophobic space to wreak havoc. Through it all, some melody manages to shine through. Keep Down shows just how adept the band are at cultivating beauty amid the wreckage, a queasy, lumbering bass line giving way to ragged, sharp melodies. It's never long before the crushing rhythms come stomping back through, however, with the…

We Are Puppets DEMON Timing is a huge factor for any band on the rise, and arguably Tiger suffered from the fact that they emerged just as the Britpop bandwagon was running out of steam. Guitar bands were on the way out, Mr Evans — in indie rock at any rate — and although these Buckinghamshire scruffs got no shortage of love from the weekly music press, there was a sense that they were too unconventional to quite maintain our attention Which is a shame. Because as this reissued debut album shows, their blend of scuzzy but punchy guitar riffing and fuzzy, Kraut-y keyboard hooks plus faintly oddball-sounding vocals was a thrilling one when it all came together, as it did on breakthrough single Race, one of many highlights here.…

Boys & Girls ROUGH TRADE Rarely has the musical heritage of America's southern states been distilled so skilfully as on the debut album by this quartet from Athens, Alabama. In this reissue, it's repackaged along with live radio session tracks that rival the original studio takes for earthy R&B analogue electricity. The elastic thwack of Heath Fogg's guitar and the intense, gutsy emotional thrust of Brittany Howard’s voice are at the heart of their sound throughout, but, as ever with this kind of music, it’s that intangible bluesy groove that you've either got or you ain’t got. Although created by young musicians who formed Alabama Shakes at school, they gel together like seasoned Muscle Shoals hit makers. The tracks on this version, taken from a live radio session, also show…

Into Sorrow Evermore NAPALM German black metal duo Imperium Dekadenz continue to hone their distinctively harsh ambience on their seventh album. Heavily inspired by 90s Norwegian black metal, their sound certainly heralds the past, but it has an identity of its own too. This lies in their ability to combine buzzsaw guitars with abyssal tones and melancholic melodies in tragic yet uplifting unison. Memories… A Raging River embodies their introspective style, as floods of harmonised tremolo-picking and emotive beauty go hand in hand with ferocity. It's often the case with bands that infuse their harsher elements with melody that those softer elements eventually dominate. Imperium Dekadenz show no signs of this, staying true to their inspiration and delving ever deeper into their sound. The result is a record with fewer…

Horrors Of Human Sacrifice HAMMERHEART Defy The Curse's 2018 self-titled EP made no secret of their affection for the benchmark-setting, HM-2 pedalbattering 90s Swedish death metal scene, and that love affair has only grown stronger on their inaugural fulllength. Boasting former members of Collision, The Guilt Parade and Legion Of The Damned in their ranks, the seasoned four-piece has an album here that is a lean, mean romp down memory lane. Unashamedly worshipping at the altar of Entombed's seminal 'left Hand Path', the Dutchmen have loaded this 12-track album with crust-flecked, buzzsaw riffs and bullish vocals. The brief but brilliant flirtation with stoner rock on the gloriously groovy The Tower Of Suffering is a huge highlight, as is the feral Existence Consumed, and they help ensure that 'Horrors Of Human…

On Test Cambridge Audio Alva ST Turntable • aptX HD Bluetooth • Onboard phono stage • Great performance • Fully manual • Counterweight markings $1,699 Despite having been in the hi-fi business since 1968, Cambridge Audio didn’t build a turntable until after the turn of the century, with the release of the TT60. It was then over a decade before its next turntable, the Alva TT, which the company claimed was the first turntable in the world to offer aptX HD Bluetooth streaming. It wasn’t quite so slow to release its third, the Alva TT V2, which arrived in 2022, just three years after the original. The V2 model came with a pre-installed high-output moving-coil cartridge and a built-in phono preamp, plus continued with support for aptX HD Bluetooth. However,…

Sound Travels esoterica It was the ideal background for engineer and inventor Mark Döhmann, who has arguably developed ‘the most accurate audio playback device today’. And that isn’t just an idle claim made by certain audiophiles, so it appears. The Helix was recently adopted by Stanford University as its audio reference to analyse vintage recordings from the Smithsonian archive. It also won Golden Ear awards from online publication Positive Feedback (an Absolute Sounds rival). It’s an appropriate award given that ‘helix’ means the curved edge around the top of the outer ear. In this case, it spelt the DNA of success. Döohmann said kudos should go to his business partner, George Moraitis, whose financial backing freed him from mundane obligations to concentrate on R&D—a big step for audio kind it…

Jared James Nichols BLACK HILL Following a horror tour accident that left the Nashville guitarist with 16 screws in his picking arm, Jared James Nichols’s self-titled third album feels like a man resetting after an identity crisis. If these 12 songs are his new set of clothes, they’re a good fit, with his promised "loud-ass guitars” convincingly sprayed over his hardest collection to date. An early highlight is recent single Down The Drain, a spindly, nihilistic, throat-flaying alt-rocker with a riff the 90s grunge mob would have gladly claimed and a wah-wah solo they couldn't have pulled off. Likewise Hard Wired, which opens with a sonic freak-out like Hendrix riding a giant hornet, before settling into a caveman clud that suggests an unhurried Bill Ward behind the drum kit. Sabbath…

Reissues Music Reviews Live And Dangerous 8-CD Super Deluxe edition UMC MERCURY Since June 1978 we've debated whether Deep Purple, UFO, Status Quo or even Kiss released a better double live album than 'Live And Dangerous'. We've also fretted about the impact of studio overdubs. Now we can answer the second conundrum. Like UFO’s 2020’s boxset containing all six gigs recorded to create ‘Strangers In The Night’, this Super Deluxe version of ‘Live And Dangerous’ delivers again Lizzy’s original masterpiece, plus seven live sets. There are three Johnny the Fox tour nights at Hammersmith Odeon in November ’76; two from Philadelphia and one in Toronto in October ’77 when ‘Bad Reputation’ was new, plus the Rainbow Theatre set of March ’78 (taped after work on LAD had begun, sticking close…

Beyond The Black NUCLEAR BLAST When an already established band decides to release a self-titled album, It feels like a statement. In the case of Beyond The Black's fifth full-length, the German symphonic metal stars are definitively telling us: this is who we are now. Exploring the folk-metal aspects of their sound far more on the stomping Reincarnation and album standout Dancing In The Dark— which incorporates what sounds like throat singing and an urgent, percussive heartbeat — they've also stripped away some of the subgenre’s OTT trappings, focusing more on punchy melodies. What’s clear about 'Beyond The Black’ is that they’re storytellers, and the relative simplicity of their compositions allows the tales they weave to really come through. Sounding more like a gospel choir than a symphony chorus, they…

Want to simply and affordably add network streaming without taking anything away from your existing hi-fi system? Audio Pro has unveiled the latest version of its audio streamer, designed to add wireless connectivity to traditional hi-fi systems in a straightforward, cost-effective manner. A refreshed version of the Link1, the fittingly named Link2 has been designed to help bridge the gap between the traditional and more modern audio components in your home. So long as there's access to Wi-Fi, it can bless any system with AirPlay 2 and Google Cast, and Audio Pro’s own streaming platform integration means the Link2 can also integrate into a wider Audio Pro multi-room setup within a home. The Link2 has more connectivity options than its predecessor, including RCA line-level inputs and outputs, coaxial and optical…

Soundbits Devialet has unveiled its first-ever portable speaker and it looks exactly how one who is familiar with the French brand might expect it to. The Devialet Mania has a suitably luxurious design in tune with that of the company’s famous Phantom speaker, promising ‘adaptive 360-degree stereo sound’. In fact, Devialet describes the design as “an ode to the Phantom”, hence the spherical, polished ring surrounded by a luxe woven fabric. The bowling ball-sized, 2.3kg-heavy Mania packs a condensed version of the French firm’s proprietary audio technology, which here sees four full-range drivers working with two subwoofers in a ‘push’ confi guration. They promise to cover an impressively wide frequency range between 30Hz and 20,000Hz. Active Stereo Calibration, meanwhile, uses four microphones to adapt the Devialet Mania’s sound to its…

On Test EarMen CH-Amp Headphone Amplifier • Crisp, open and precise-sounding • Solid, traditional casework • Good spread of analogue connections • Beaten for dynamic expression • Primitive on-unit buttons $2,650 EarMen was created as an arm and sister brand to respected European manufacturer Auris Audio by its founder Milomir “Miki” Trosic to serve a specific purpose: enhance portable listening. Unlike Auris Audio’s catalogue, which isn’t afraid of the super high-end (as its 24k gold Hawk tonearm and high-spec, hand-crafted range of amplifiers demonstrate), EarMen’s was to be filled with small, affordable, battery-powered and USB DAC/headphone amplifiers designed to give phones, computers and other portable/desktop devices the sonic boost they so desperately needed. But then in late 2021, once EarMen had a nice line of such units under its belt,…

Music Reviews Top Picks Every Loser GOLD TOOTH/ATLANTIC Before we get to the nitty-gritty of what makes it so, let's get straight to the point: this is a great Iggy Pop album, probably the best he could have made at this particular moment in time. Teaming up with producer du jour Andrew Watt (who has previously done the business for Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and Ozzy Osbourne, and is in the process of completing the next Pearl Jam and Morrissey records) was a truly genius move. Watt —an ex-member of California Breed alongside Glenn Hughes and Jason Bonham, and a current member of Eddie Vedder's touring band Earthlings —who doubles on guitar and keyboards, indubitably knows his rock and clearly had a vision for 'Every Loser'. When engaged for the…

Love In The Void HAMMOCK MUSIC/SECRETLY In the 18 years since their debut album Kenotic, this hip Nashville duo's sweeping, swirling, reverb-soaked blend of post-rock, shoegaze and ambient music has justly earned them the endorsement of Sigur Rós' Jónsi and Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne. Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson's 12th studio record as Hammock follows their lush lockdown album 'Elsewhere', and while it's not a drastic swing for the stylistic fences, 'Love In The Void' features some of their most brash and abrasive guitar tones. The title track comes with some properly jagged squalls amid the echoing guitarscapes. Release is ironically named — it builds into a tsunami of sound and then cuts off, absolutely release-free, It's OK To Be Afraid Of The Universe eddies to jangly, Cocteau Twins-y guitar…

The Complete Reprise Studio Albums Vol 2 REPRISE The second volume of Clapton's vinyl overhaul covers his five studio albums from the first decade of this century, starting with 2001's 'Reptile', which is one of his most diverse, covering obscure R&B hits, songs by JJ Cale, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, plus his own mid-tempo rockers. He went full-beam on Robert Johnson in 2004 with 'Me And Mr Johnson' and 'Sessions For Robert J’ the former a surprisingly upbeat take on the brooding genius of his blues hero, the latter accompanying a DVD with a more technical approach played solo, duo or with a band. 'Back Home' from 2005 is a celebration of domestic bliss that he's now enjoying. He's happier working up songs with bandmates and producer Simon Climie…

Yummy CHEERSQUAD Vim Fuego, guitarist with much-loved Brit rockers Bad News, would tell anyone who listened about his technical prowess. "I could play Stairway To Heaven when I was twelve," he would say. “Jimmy Page didn’t actually write it until he was twenty-two.” So what are we to make of 'Yummy', the breakthrough third album by similarly much-loved Aussie punks The Hard-Ons, which ends with guitarist Peter 'Blackie' Black failing dismally to play the same song? Well, it suggests that the band — whose previous releases include the album 'Dickcheese' and EP 'Smell My Finger' — might have grown up by 1990, but they hadn't lost their sense of humour entirely. 'Yummy' is the purest of Australian pop-punk, Radio Birdman-meetsRamones-meets-surf and skate, with grit and grunt carried aloft by giddy…

Digital Noise Alliance CENTURY MEDIA Queensrÿche are a long way from metal's cutting edge today. This fourth album since the acrimonious departure of original singer and Geoff Tate is solidly dramatic and inarguably proficient, but the inspiration and imagination that fuelled 1986's 'Rage For Order' and 1988's stateof-the-art 'Operation: Mindcrime' are long gone. Mid-paced plodders Lost in Sorrow and Nocturnal Light find the band trudging where they once soared. Vocalist Todd La Torre hits the big notes, but he lacks the range and control of the mercurial Tate. The stately Forest is a high point, largely because it sounds like it's been beamed in from 1990. But unfortunately any good work is undone by a grisly, dads-at-the-wedding-receptionstyle cover of Billy Idol's Rebel Yell. Maybe it's unfair to compare 'Digital Noise Alliance'…