Indholdsfortegnelse for February - March 2017 i Sound + Image

Most turntables on the market today are relatively simple devices, by necessity. The more mechanics you add to a turntable the more it increases the chance of external noise being transferred to the stylus, smearing the sound. For this reason most turntables are belt-driven, with manual operation. However we realise that not everyone is comfortable with a manual turntable, and wish for at least a minimum level of automation. Enter one of the most respected names in audio – Thorens. We have added two Thorens models to our range: TD190 (below) – a $999 fully automatic turntable that comes complete with the highly respected Ortofon 2M Red cartridge. TH295 (left) – $1,599 complete with an Audio-Technica AT95E cartridge. What makes this turntable unique is that it is promoted as a…

Just as we unplugged the AT-LP60BT from this issue, we heard of a new model that splits the difference between that and the AT-LP5 which won a Sound+Image award earlier this year. The new AT-LP3 will price here at $469 with a pre-mounted AT91R Dual moving magnet cartridge and a built-in phono preamp so you can take its output at line-level into any amp, as well as phono level into a phono stage. It is also fully automatic! The AT-LP3 will be available in black or a snazzy-looking white, both with the striking red removable headshell, and we aim to have a review next issue. More info: www.audio-technica.com.au…

It sounds like a new detective pairing, but no, these are brands at the high-end of audio, delivering stunning pieces of equipment. Two new releases are sure to dampen your drool ducts — one digital, one firmly analogue. Firstly the Kalista Dreamplay CD Turntable (right) — released last November in Europe, and making its US debut at CES 2017. Kalista is the brand name Metronome Audio uses on its luxury hi-fi products, and the Dreamplay will sell in the US for US$35,700. Its chassis is mostly aluminium with transparent parts of 60mm-thick methacrylate, and some stainless steel. In common with all Kalista products, the Dreamplay is completely built by hand in France. It’s a ‘CD Turntable’ because it uses a Philips CD Pro mechanism (with numerous “proprietary improvements”, of course),…

Aussie-founded Audiofly released its wireless AF100W at CES 2017, which has a single full-range micro-driver similar to that used in the company’s high-end IEM models. According to Dave Thompson, CEO and founder of Audiofly (pictured above), the new AF 100W uses the same Bluetooth module as the AF56W BT in-ears, but because the battery and the module are housed in separate capsules, the AF100W is able to be super lightweight yet still provide at least five hours of playback. If you need more than five hours, a ‘Quick Charge’ option re-charges them within 20 minutes. “The AF100 series [pictured] was designed and released last year as an entry-level IEM — a pocket rocket with all the makings of a studio-level monitor for those just dipping their toes in the Pro-Audio…

SUMMARY Sony PS-HX500 USB turntable Price: $799 + Solid sound with excellent soundstaging + USB recording to a variety of formats + Easy to set-up - Manual operation Our first turntable of three this issue is a masterpiece of understatement — it’s low, it’s black, there’s no massive logo on the mat, a marked lack of bling, an exercise in restraint. But what about this high-res audio logo on the right side of the plinth? This is vinyl — analogue, not digital; how is it high-res exactly? Equipment Sony’s turntable is, itself, analogue, of course. And it can be used like any other turntable, with its moving-magnet cartridge playing at phono-level into a phono stage or the phono input of an amplifier. But it also has an electronics section within.…

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, surround sound was the latest thing, and all the rage. Your audio-visual receiver powered five speakers positioned around your lounge, later seven or nine, plus a subwoofer or two. And boy how those soundtracks could rattle your walls. And how those boxes got in the way. Cables ran around the room, or under the carpet. People objected. Research began showing that the majority of ‘home theatre in a box’ set-ups ended up with their rear speakers staying in the box, because they were simply impractical in a family home. Don’t get us wrong. If you want a true cinema-level experience, if you want infrasonics to go as deep and as loud as the movie-makers intended, then a proper home theatre is the way to…

SUMMARY Yamaha YAS-306 soundbar Price: $649 + MusicCast multiroom + Two ways to orientate + Bluetooth & AirPlay - Better for movies than music - Better wallmounted than flat Yamaha’s YAS-306 soundbar offers a new low entry-point to the company’s MusicCast multiroom audio system — so low that this soundbar model doesn’t come with a dedicated subwoofer. Bars on their own rarely produce a satisfyingly balanced sound — so does the Yamaha have a trick up its sleeve? Equipment The YAS-306 is just 95cm wide, and offers two possible orientations. In front of a TV, you lie it flat, as shown above, to keep it low and prevent it from potentially obscuring the bottom of low-standing screens — it automatically passes through IR commands to transmitters at its rear. Oddly…

SUMMARY Panasonic SC-ALL7CD compact stereo system Price: $659 + Many paths to music + Records CDs to internal memory + AllPlay multiroom streaming - No depth to the sound - Memory only 4GB Does this all-in-one from Panasonic come off retro or futuristic in its design? We couldn’t quite decide. It’s certainly fully contemporary in its abilities, for in the space where you might think to get a wireless speaker, this SC-ALL7CD includes a CD player, internal memory into which you can rip CDs, a tuner for both FM analogue and DAB+ digital radio, Bluetooth streaming, USB playback, and networking for Panasonic’s multiroom platform of choice, Qualcomm’s AllPlay. Equipment Panasonic’s list of features includes tweeters quoted as capable of 50kHz response, a ‘High Res Sound’ logo is included, and for…

A beautiful object, the P9 Signature, offering a level of luxury to which upmarket B&W owners may well aspire, so that, especially in today’s ever-rising headphone market, the price-tag of $1399.95 is no great eyebrow-raiser. Just feel the quality. The earpads are no faux leatherette solution, but genuine Italian Saffiano leather from Scamosceria del Brenta in Vicenza, a company even older than B&W — indeed it was already softening cow hides back when Mr Bowers was first meeting Mr Wilkins in the Royal Corps of Signals during WWII. The leather is soft where it touches your head, stylishly stamped on the outer parts, while even the carrycase (right) is wrapped in luxurious Italian Alcantara, a suede-like man-made fabric sensibly chosen for its durability and stain resistance. And the case is…

A difficult initial call here, since we were tempted to let the visuals over-ride the aurals. The headshells are a classy turn of walnut, a curvy cone into which are embedded the cable connections down low, one to each ear. The headband hangs onto the peak of the cone, secured by a giant golden rivet, while the strut holding the adjustable inner headband is similarly golden bling, as are the cable entries, the cable joint and the minijack plug. This bling thing may go down well in trendy Melbourne, but on the morning bus in Sydney we noticed people staring if not actually pointing at us, while the missus and work colleagues actually ridiculed them. Possibly we could pull it off if we looked like the alien young man in…

C ES 2017 saw the first ‘QLED’ television demonstrated by Samsung, with the technology pitched as competing with the quality of displays that use the OLED screen technology dominated by LG (the panels are made by sister company LG.Display) and now taken up by companies including Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Grundig among others. So what is QLED? It stands for Quantum (Dot) Light Emitting Diode. And it is not a self-luminous front panel technology like OLED. It is an advance in Quantum Dot technology, making it possible for the TV to express a significantly improved range of colour, and claiming much greater detail compared to conventional TVs — so says the official release from the event, giving performance specs but not much underlying technical information. Samsung’s Joe Stinziano’s description of…

As with Windows, Mac users have an extra task or two to ensure high-res audio is getting through as desired. Macs do not automatically adjust their output frequency to your USB DAC when the file-type changes. So if you leave it on the default, it’ll most likely output 44.1kHz CD quality regardless of what Tidal is playing. Open the Mac’s ‘Audio MIDI Setup’ utility (it’s in Applications/Utilities, or just search for it), select your output device and the Output tab, and you’ll see what’s currently going out (as on this screengrab). It’s most likely showing 44.1kHz regardless of what Tidal is playing, so you won’t be hearing high-res audio. Your choices are to change this manually every time you play a different format (inconceivably inconvenient — and prone to error…

I was pondering, the other day, on highly anecdotal evidence, whether there might be more widely spread support for a hypothesis that people who are mad about music are often not so much into sport, and that people who are mad about sport are, likewise and contrariwise, not so much into music. This might be, of course, just because there is not enough time in the day and night to accommodate two such all-encompassing passions to the full. Or perhaps it is a just matter of nurture — I have no recollection myself, for example, of being taken to the local ‘rec’ to kick or throw balls around, whereas many days of my school hols were spent in recording studios where my father was producing popular music artists and radio…

Following the introduction of a Klipsch Stream range of standalone speakers and soundbars, all equipped with DTS Play-Fi for streaming and muiltiroom operation, some special edition units have been announced as a tie-in with Capitol Records’ 75th Anniversary, also emphasising the heritage of Klipsch, which recently turned 70 itself. So the Capitol Three, for example, is a special edition of the Klipsch Three (above), a stereo tabletop system featuring two 63mm full-range drivers and a 5.25-inch long-throw woofer supported by dual-opposed passive radiators of the same size. Inputs include DTS Play-Fi, Bluetooth, two analogue inputs, a turntable phono stage, and USB from computer. The two other Capitol models (badged as shown here) will be the Capital One and the Capitol Heresy. The standard Three has an Australian RRP of $799.…

SUMMARY Audio-Technica AT-LP60BT Bluetooth turntable Price: $299 + Remarkably good sound + Fully automatic + Bluetooth/line-level/phono - Looks its price - Still sounds best via cables A wireless turntable? Has the world gone mad? Or is this actually a darned smart thought? Everyone is using Bluetooth speakers, after all, and many will have an amplifier or receiver that can receive via Bluetooth. And everyone wants to get back into vinyl. But vinyl needs a phono-level input, or a separate phono stage, and soon the extras and cables can start getting in the way of an easy return to the black stuff. So instead, plonk down your AT-LP60-BT, pair it with your Bluetooth speaker, load an LP, and press START. Equipment So we are sending vinyl, famed for being analogue and…

SUMMARY LG SH7 soundbar & subwoofer Price: $799 + Performs the soundbar basics of movie & TV audio + MusicFlow multiroom app + Sleek & shiny - Not a musical performer In the past LG has had both soundbars and sound ‘bases’ (flat speakers to go under your TV) on its books — but currently it’s all soundbars, with a range of six models, at least until 2017 arrivals come through (CES 2017 saw a Dolby Atmos-equipped SJ9 announced). For now, then, this SH7 is second-top in LG’s Australian range, a 2.1-channel model with soundbar and wireless subwoofer each relatively compact — the soundbar 106cm wide but just 53 × 85mm in cross section, and the dinky subwoofer 171 × 320 × 252mm. Both units come in the silver grille…

SUMMARY Samsung HW-K950 soundbar system Price: $1999 + Powerful immersive sound, good with movies, TV & music + Good multiroom app control + Wireless rear speakers - Do you want rear speakers? - Best for use with Samsung TV When soundbars first started their rise, they generally pretended to be a more home-friendly substitute for a full surround system, given that few living rooms really suited the installation of rear speakers and trails of cables around the room. These days the pretence of achieving surround from a front bar is often dropped, and soundbars have become promoted as a straightforward TV audio solution. With the HW-K950, Samsung is squaring that circle, creating a soundbar which comes with not only a separate subwoofer but also a pair of rear speakers. None…

SUMMARY Cambridge Audio Yoyo M Bluetooth speakers Price: $599 + Nice balance and true stereo + Rechargeable & portable + Can reach max volume from smart device control - Uneven volume changes - 10-minute auto power-down even on mains power - Two big power adaptors With many Bluetooth speakers, you can purchase a second one and pair them together to deliver music in stereo. Yes, stereo! — the two channels of music we’ve been using since, well, let’s date it to when the Beatles first gave a toss about an album’s stereo mix, and say 1968, with The White Album. Established as you might imagine stereo therefore to be, many Bluetooth speakers released in recent years are mono; the smaller they are, the more likely this is. Even when you…

The Special Edition Premium 14 Series was created by Marantz to celebrate 30 years since the release of its first ‘Special Edition’ component, which is thought to be the whole audio industry’s first Special Edition product, even if it was actually labelled as Limited Edition — the CD-45LE. The story goes that this came into existence because the company had many of the 14-bit CD-45s left in the warehouse when the first 16-bit players had been released. Figuring nobody would then buy the ‘old’ technology, the marketing manager accepted a suggestion from a young Ken Ishiwata to modify them and make “the most musical CD player available — and then we’re going to sell them for 50 pounds more!” They sold out in two weeks, and Special Editions have been…

Quick quiz — if you have a budget of $2000 for a pair of loudspeakers, would you be better off with… a) a good pair of $2000 floor-standing speakers, or… b) spending $1000 on similar quality but smaller speakers plus $1000 on a good subwoofer? I’d go for the subwoofer. And yet there’s a lot of ‘conventional wisdom’ on subwoofers that would say otherwise. Many will tell you they’re just for the deep booms and bangs of home cinema soundtracks. Others will say it’s very difficult to integrate them successfully with stereo speakers, and certainly many may have been discouraged in this regard by hearing small satellite/subwoofer combinations that come with ‘one-box’ systems, generally falling short of proper hi-fi. Without drowning you in technical details (well, perhaps just a few),…

“MQA is a revolutionary end-to-end technology that delivers master quality audio in a file that’s small enough to stream or download. It can be streamed or downloaded via any lossless format such as FLAC, Apple Lossless or WAV. MQA is not a new format, but it carries additional ‘hidden’ detail in a unique way. What’s more, it’s backwards compatible, so will play on any device. And because it’s fully authenticated, you can be sure you’re hearing exactly what the artist approved inthestudio.” MQALtd. After several years of presentations and explanations but little in the way of actual available material, MQA high-res audio is now live and streaming in Australia on the Tidal music platform, and potentially other sources as well. The result should be ‘master quality audio’, not only at…

Now this is one bold TV show. One that probably won’t get as much attention as it deserves, since it’s Norwegian. Norway, as we know, is the country that is wrapped around Sweden, to Sweden’s west and north. It also has a border with Finland and, way up north, a short border with Russia. So, what happens if a big country — say Russia — wants something that a small country has? That’s what this 10-episode series is about. Set, as we like to say, in the ‘near future’, this is a world where NATO has been unwound and the United States has retreated from engagement. Norway, which has been a huge producer of oil from the North Sea, is under the leadership of a Greens government, and announces that…

Hmmm. On the one hand we have 6.7/10 on IMDB. On the other hand, we have a US$873m international box office take. On the gripping hand (SF nerd alert!), we have general critical panning. On the... whatever... we have director Zack Snyder, who I thought did the best ‘Dawn of the Dead’ ever. On yet another hand, I really, really enjoyed the movie. It turns out that what I watched on the Ultra HD Blu-ray was not what people saw at the cinema, nor is it what is on the regular Blu-ray disc also in this pack. What was shown at the movies was the 152-minute version, and that’s what’s on the Blu-ray. What I watched on Ultra HD Blu-ray was the ‘Extended Cut’. This pushes out the running time…

Beyond the realm of Marantz’s premium integrated AV receivers lies the company’s long-running pairing of AV processor/preamp and power amps, and there’s a new version of the preamp model now available in the $3970 Marantz AV7703. The AV7703 carries full 4K UHD video capability and the latest processing and format capabilities, including Auro 3D, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Surround, DTS:X and Neural:X. (Neural:X is the DTS equivalent of Dolby Surround, spreading the channels from legacy formats across whatever speaker layout is available, including height.) HEOS multiroom abilities are also included, in keeping with parent company D&M’s plans to spread the now high-res-capable HEOS multiroom platform through a wider range of products. The AV7703 can deliver its output through up to 11 channels with two subwoofer outputs, the pre-outs being available…

DALI’s new four-model Spektor series consist of four nicely affordable models for stereo or surround configuration. From left to right above are pictured the Spektor 1 standmount model at $399 a pair, the larger Spektor 2 at $549, the floorstanding Spektor 6 at $1199, and the Spektor Vokal centre at $399. DALI recommends its SUB E-9 F as a suitable subwoofer to add for delivering home cinema performance — a wall of sound, perhaps? They will be available in Black Ash and Walnut; more information: www.dali.com.au…

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) this year racked up 50 consecutive years of running CES. It remains an enormous event, covering so many sectors that even though high-end audio exhibitor numbers were down, overall exhibitor numbers were up, with more than 3500 of them showing their newest products to around 175,000 visitors. The larger halls filled with the latest TV technology were as impressive as ever. While other brands, including Panasonic and Sony (see p16) have adopted OLED screen technology over the last year, LG continued its leadership showing the LG Signature W7, described as a “paper-thin wallpaper” OLED TV (pictured left), available in 77-inch and 65-inch sizes, the latter being just 2.57mm thick. Samsung’s TV tech was led by QLED, an enhanced version of its Quantum Dot backlighting technology…

True stereo sound from a single speaker is just one of the tricks Lexicon’s SL-1 SoundSteer speaker has up its curvy sleeve. Looking more like a dressmaker’s mannequin than a loudspeaker, the Lexicon SL-1 is a fully active loudspeaker with each of its four bass drivers, 16 midrange drivers and 12 tweeters being driven by separate Class-D amplifiers. In addition to ensuring a perfectly flat frequency response, the combination of amplifiers and drivers, plus DSP beam-steering technology developed by Dr Ulrich Horbach of Harman (above), allows the Lexicon SL-1 to deliver a perfect stereo image to any listening position in the room, no matter where in the room the speakers are located. What’s more, the ‘sweet spot’ can be narrowed for a single listener, or widened for two or more…

SUMMARY Klipsch R-15PM Turntable Pack Price: $1499 + Clarity of sound + Complete system with vinyl, USB, Bluetooth, optical and analogue inputs + Turntable from a top brand - Speakers sound good but don’t go low - Thin credit-card remote - Turntable lid hinges stiff We’ve been excited about this, the last of our issue’s three ‘vinyl with a twist’ products, since it was announced in the middle of last year as the ‘Music Crate’ — a marvellous name which was later replaced for reasons unknown by the rather more prosaic ‘R-15PM Turntable Pack’. The idea is perhaps to emphasise the inclusion of the R-15PM active speakers, which are, after all, the bit provided by Klipsch, whereas the turntable, though branded to the company, is in fact a ‘special edition’…

SUMMARY Q Acoustics Media 4 soundbar Price: $749 + Solid sound with movies & music + Bluetooth with aptX + Easy to mount - No networking or smarts (though at this price, that may be a good thing) As with the Yamaha bar in this group, the Q Acoustics Media 4 (M4 for short) has no subwoofer, though you can add one, if you wish. But it differs from all the others here in lacking a built-in multiroom audio system. There’s Bluetooth, but no networking or app control. Not quite so smart, then, but that leaves more coin for fundamental engineering. It’s an equation that works in its favour. Equipment We certainly have confidence in the brand. Q Acoustics has won multiple awards at home and abroad — Sound+Image has…

SUMMARY BenQ W11000 AV projector Price: $7999 + Ultra HD for the big screen + THX HD approved picture quality + Excellent value for money - No support for HDR nor wider colour gamuts - Converts Australian 50Hz content to 60Hz, leading to jerky pans You have to hand it to BenQ. Somehow it has managed to use a single DLP panel with 4.15 million physical pixels to produce an actual, honest to goodness, display resolution of 8.3 million pixels. And it has done this with all the displayed pixels in, more or less, the correct positions. Which means that the new BenQ W11000 AV projector provides Ultra High Definition projection in the home at a price just under $8000. That’s impressive. Equipment We shall return to how this feat…

“If you’re unable to spill sound willy-nilly... or if you need a good flat analytic musical tool, the closed-back DT 1770 Pro may be your go-to...” Having granted a 2017 Sound+Image Award to Beyerdynamic’s DT 1990 Pro headphones, our affection for them is already clear. But a year or so prior to their introduction, the company had already released the DT 1770 Pro, a very similar design, but with closed headshells rather than the semi-open design of the award-winners. Would we like to compare the two models side by side?, asked Beyerdynamic’s new distributor in Australia, Synchronised Technology (aka Syntec). Yes indeed we would — the 1770 builds upon a classic design, and the interesting contrast between similar closed and open designs turned out to be a task made still…

Even if you’re sitting at home reading this through a pair of Superduper High-End Headphones, we reckon you might enjoy having a pair of these $249 Fostex T50RP mk3s around — they’re just so much fun. They bounce with life, their sound is far above their price, partly because these — like the Beyers on p62 — are another contribution from the studio side of headgear. Studio headphones seemed expensive only a few years ago, but now that consumer headphones have gone bananas with audiophilia, studio models can seem a positive bargain. So the T50RP will look familiar to many studio users — they use a semi-open design and the proprietary ‘Regular Phase’ driver system that Fostex began using about 40 years ago (along with RP microphones as well), the…

Ultra HD Blu-ray serves, I think, two purposes. The first is showing off the amazing detail and picture quality of the movies shot today with the latest technology. That includes blockbusters, of course. But it also makes available some of the greatest movies from past decades to the enthusiast in a format which shows, well, everything. Absolutely everything! Blu-ray went a long way towards that, but it still had its limitations — a little in terms of resolution, a greater amount in terms of dynamic range. Ultra HD Blu-ray, I’d argue, exceeds what has ever been available before in terms of picture quality, and by that I include what’s in the cinema. So let’s take GoodFellas, one of best movies ever made (currently #17 on IMDB with 8.7/10, up from…