Australian HiFi March - April 2023

By the time this issue lands in your letterbox, and hopefully by the time it lands in your lap, Record Store Day will be just days away. The annual celebration of the independent record store and everyone involved in it — the staff, the customers, the artists — takes place globally on Saturday 22nd April and, keeping with tradition, will see hundreds of special release vinyl (over 400, in fact) become available to purchase in stores on that day (and in some cases, online in the following days). If this comes as news, or indeed an unexpected reminder), to you, and you consider yourself a passionate spinner of the good wax stuff, I'd recommend putting aside half an hour to visit www.recordstoreday.com.au before that fourth Saturday in April to peruse…

Soundbites There was really only one name Audiolab could have logically chosen for a new mid-range component series, considering its lineup already comprised the entry-level 6000 Series, the recently announced reference 9000 Series, and the homage-paying 8300 Series. Indeed, the Audiolab 7000 Series is here — a three-strong range comprising an amplifier (7000A), CD transport (7000CDT) and music streamer (7000N Play), and slotting into the middle pages of the brand's catalogue to offer a performance level between the two extremes. And who knows, perhaps the best available at its price. Whether or not Audiolab has created three mid-range marvels here is something we will all have to ponder a little while longer, though thankfully I can readily divulge details around the 7000 Series. The 7000A integrated amplifier ($2,500) nestles between…

What do you get when you upgrade one of the world's best-sounding digital sources with an overhauled Ring DAC circuit that, in a sibling product, has already proven to be capable of transparency of the highest order? By name, the dCS Bartók Apex; by talent, perhaps a class leader in its field… The dCS Bartók Apex represents the next generation of the Bartók network streaming DAC, following on from the 2018-released model that has been very well received by the industry. While the Bartók received a ‘Bartók 2.0’ software update last year, which upgraded the mapping algorithm that controlled its dCS Ring DAC technology and introduced new digital filters and improvements to its DSD upsampling, the Bartók Apex evolves the model further with more advanced hardware and software. Primarily, the…

Soundbites Bowers & Wilkins has unveiled the second generation of its Pi7 and Pi5 wireless earbuds, promising that the new models will be more stable and reliable than their predecessors. My colleagues at What Hi-Fi? found that the original Pi7 had a tendency to drop out, especially in busy signal areas like rail stations, so fingers crossed Bowers has ironed out that rather large crease — not least as the earbuds were very hard to fault otherwise. “We've introduced a new design of antenna and repositioned it within the earbud endcaps,” according to a B&W spokesperson. “At the same time, we have switched to a new endcap material that is more transparent to Bluetooth signals. The result is stronger Bluetooth signal strength, giving us an improved 25m range (double what…

Cambridge Audio has added two music streamers to its ever-increasing arsenal of streaming products — which should catch the attention of those who are looking to modestly modernise their system. The new AXN10 ($1,099) and MXN10 ($899) network audio players sit below the UK hi-fi brand's established mid-tier CXN V2 ($1,799), and in the case of the MXN10 allows for more flexible placement. Perhaps surprisingly, the AXN10 and MXN10 offer the exact same streaming features, file compatibility and functionality as one another. The discrepancy between them actually lies in their size. The AXN10 is a typical ‘full size’ music streamer designed to match the existing AX range of affordable hi-fi separates, while the MX has a much smaller footprint — 52 x 215 x 191mm, which is near-identical to that…

Soundbites MQA, PSB Speakers and hearables start-up company Sonical have partnered to produce “high-resolution audio headphones” that combine hi-res wireless transmission with a computer-in-your-ear operating platform. Indeed, these yet-to-be-named headphones — due to go on sale under the PSB brand early next year — sound ‘next-gen’ in more ways than one. The high-quality wireless connection comes courtesy of MQA's latest technology, SCL6, a codec that has been designed to facilitate truly hi-res audio streaming for the first time in such products. It's essentially a way of packaging an audio file for trans-mission (in much the same way as aptX or LDAC, say) and works for broadcast and streaming across Bluetooth, UWB (Ultra Wide Band) and Wi-Fi, with any file type and regardless of whether the connection is wireless or not.…