Innehållsförteckning för Issue 539 - 2025 från Australian HiFi

PMC has launched a five-strong speaker series that sits above the acclaimed Prodigy range it launched around 18 months ago and sees the British company take a holistic approach to engineering and design. ‘Never has so big a sound been possible from cabinets so compact,’ is the promise for this new Prophecy series. The cabinets certainly are among the slimmest I've seen. While every element of the three floorstanders, single standmount and centre speaker is new, it comes as no surprise to find that they are all transmission-line designs; this has been PMC's way from the beginning. A transmission line takes the rearward output from the bass unit and sends it along an internal path that absorbs all but the lowest of frequencies. This redirected rearward sound is then used…

In November, Bose Corporation announced it was acquiring McIntosh Group, the parent company of luxury audio brands McIntosh, Sonus faber and Sumiko Phono Cartridges and the Fine Sounds distributor. The deal sees Bose take on McIntosh Group ownership from the American private equity firm that acquired the group in 2022, for an undisclosed fee, and expands Bose's consumer audio portfolio by launching it into the high-end audiophile game for the first time. It's pretty big news in the audio world and is reminiscent, you could say, of Samsung's acquisition of Harman (JBL, Mark Levinson, AKG et al) in 2016. Understandably, people had plenty to say about it on social media, with the majority of comments on a Facebook post I shared on What Hi-Fi? pretty negative about the whole thing…

DAC + • Fabulous sound quality • Superb hi-res compatibility • OS and NOS! - • No headphone output or remote control RRP $9,000 Hideki Kato, the Japanese designer of the Soulnote D-1N DAC, is a very clever man. To understand the extent of his cleverness, you must know that there are two completely different types of people — let's call them ‘audiophiles’ — who purchase external DACs. Those belonging to probably the largest group expect DACs to use the very latest technology and deliver the highest possible performance on the test bench. Only once these parameters are met can the DAC's sound signature or quality become a consideration. Meanwhile, the likely smaller group of audiophiles consider the DAC's sonic performance the single most important criterion; they care little for…

Integrated Amplifier/DAC/Streamer + • High power • Great all-round sound • Modular construction − • Lower-quality remote • Discreet power-on sequence RRP $16,500 – $23,590 It's unlikely you will have heard of Michael (Mike) Bladelius, despite him being one of the most famous audio designers in the world. For most of the time he has been in the audio component design business, he's designed equipment sold under other brand names, such as Mark Levinson, Classé Audio and Threshold. His name only came into the spotlight in 1997 when he and his son Alexander established the Bladelius Design Group in Sweden and registered the brand names Bladelius and AB-Tech (the latter incorporating the son's initials into the name). Although Bladelius is most famous for its audio amplifiers, in particular the Grendel…

Loudspeakers tend to be something of a fit-and-forget item. Once you get them home and go through the rigmarole of the initial speaker set-up, they are often just left to get on with their job. And to a large extent that is fine. Provided they aren't damaged or treated unfairly by being pushed too hard, most speakers will go on performing for years and decades to come without issue. However, that doesn't mean that a little love and attention wouldn't go amiss. If you have had your speakers for a while, there is a fair chance that they aren't performing at their very best. Here are some things you can do to make notable improvements to their performance for free or, at worst, less money than you would likely spend…

Manic Street Preachers Critical Thinking COLUMBIA So which Manic Street Preachers do we get this time? Is it the widescreen Manics, with their terrace anthems and technicolour bleakness? Or is it the post-punk Manics, all terse, screaming riffs, balaclavas and slogans like a very cold Clash? The answer with ‘Critical Thinking’ is neither. With this new record they're not pretending to be Magazine or Guns N’ Roses. They're not even pretending to be themselves. This is a much more raw Manic Street Preachers, fuelled by despair as usual but also simplicity. The songs are rock throughout, with big, crunchy riffs by James Dean Bradfield and small-doubt-filled lyrics by Nicky Wire. There are also vocals by Wire, most notably on the Robocopfunk title track and the brilliant closing track One Man…

Headphone and earplug specialist Flare Audio has launched a new in-ear device that claims to remove ear distortions and consequently make music sound more immersive through headphones and speakers and at gigs. This “world's first” device is called Immerse and has been designed to improve the audio experience of any headphone or speaker regardless of their calibre. The logic behind this bold claim? Flare Audio's research claims that our ear internals naturally distort sound by at least 20% due to their shell-like shape. Therefore, sound quality decreases inside this shell as it resonates. You are probably familiar with such ‘HRTF’ (head-related transfer function), which basically refers to how ears receive sound from a sound source; how it naturally disperses when it reaches the head and travels towards the ear canals.…

The new year can mean only one thing: another round of CES. Every January, the great and the good of the technology world descend on Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. While the spotlight is increasingly on TVs (and robots and AI…), the expo still acts as a launchpad for audio brands to introduce their latest and greatest wares to the general public, an opportunity the likes of Onkyo, Technics and Eversolo grabbed with both hands……

Headphone Amplifier + • Well-built, distinctive design • Plenty of connections • Performs to its price - • Big to house • Sound Field Modes may not appeal to all RRP $6,999 You have to feel for those who live in the idiomatic shadow of others basking in the spotlight — Robin, Hollywood stuntmen, introverted kids of celebrity parents… and the Yamaha HA-L7A headphone amplifier. When Yamaha released its landmark and extravagantly high-end YH-5000SE headphones just shy of two years ago, it did so to pretty huge fanfare. Kudos to the company's marketing team; hi-fi reviewers and head-fi enthusiasts far and wide wanted a listen. But in the wake of that launch, and sensibly timed I must say, came the Japanese brand's first-ever high-end headphone amplifier, with comparatively modest pageantry.…

Sadness As A Gift Adrianne Lenker Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief is six albums into her solo career, and the title of her latest, ‘Bright Future’, could just as credibly describe her career path as it does, intentionally and somewhat ironically, her view of the world. This second single from it feels like the perfect embodiment of her style and talent — poetic storytelling alongside heartshattering melodies via Appalachian instrumentation. Describing it as a ‘song for around the bonfire’ perhaps undermines its creativity as a breakup song, but its rustic feel and musical joviality are certainly infectious. That the album was recorded and mixed entirely on analogue tape will play into the hands of tonally warm kit, while a system's midrange expression will be thrust under the spotlight as her…

Preamplifier + • Unmatched sound quality • Phase inversion outputs • Incredibly high performance - • No headphone output or phono input RRP $66,990 Halcro should need no introduction to those “skilled in the art” of audio because it is one of the most famous names in hi-fi history. Indeed, for a time, it was the most famous name. For the uninitiated, or readers for whom Halcro is just a mere memory, the company was named after its founder, Dr Bruce Halcro Candy, who started building amplifiers as a teenager, aiming to combine his technical skills and love of music to build the world's ‘ultimate’ amplifier. In 2001 he told Stereophile magazine's Jon Iverson that his lifelong passion for music and his ability to evaluate audio components were informed by…

Denon closed out last year by adding a brandnew SACD/CD player, the DCD-3000NE, to its Reference Series. It is no small secret that CDs and disc players are quietly but surely having a bit of a revival, so a dedicated, high-performing SACD/CD player from a brand such as Denon is cause for celebration for fans of the physical format. The new player has been meticulously tuned, says Denon, to “reveal unprecedented sonic detail in all of your favourite music”. The DCD-3000NE can play ball with a variety of digital audio, from CDs and SACDs to MP3 and FLAC files. It can also play CD-R/ RWs and DVD-R/RWs in addition to DSD files (2.8MHz and 5.6MHz). Outputs include one pair of analogue RCA, one digital coaxial and one digital optical. The…

Integrated stereo amplifiers that deliver both preamplifier and power duties from one box are neat, space efficient and undoubtedly the most popular option when it comes to driving a hi-fi system, but the potential for optimum sound quality still comes from having a separate preamplifier and power amplifier. Audiolab offers one-box integrated amps across its entry-level 6000, mid-range 7000 and flagship 9000 ranges, but now it has decided to expand its top-tier offering with a dedicated preamp and power amp for the first time in years. The new 9000P is the first Audiolab power amplifier since the 8300XP, which launched in 2016, and is joined by the new 9000Q preamp. Together, they sit above the 9000A integrated amplifier as the range's ultimate amplification solution, and also alongside the 9000CDT CD…

Musical Fidelity made quite the statement when it re-entered the high-end turntable market in 2023. Indeed, its M8xTT arrived with the impressive technical and aesthetic prowess of the 2002-released M1 model that inspired it. There is, however, no getting around the fact that the deck is, both in terms of size and price, a beast — it weighs almost 32kg and costs $18,000. Enter the M6xTT… This second modern-era turntable from Musical Fldelity arrives as a more compact and wallet-friendly version, bringing its sibling's engineering DNA and transparent multi-acrylic structure to a more accommodating form and price point. Like its sibling, the belt-driven M6xTT sports a dual-layer acrylic plinth that naturally isolates the tonearm and bearing assembly from the motor, and sits on four magnetic feet with Teflon spacers for…

Having teased its return just before Christmas, Onkyo is indeed back in the world of hi-fi. It took to the CES stage to launch its new Icon Series of separates, which comprises the P-80 network preamp, M-80 power amp and A-50 streaming amp. It's a modern reintroduction to the brand, which was renowned for its powerful AV receivers, before filing for bankruptcy in 2022. Its subsequent acquisition by Premium Audio Company (the parent company of Pioneer, Klipsch, Sharp and others) and the teaser of a return in December spell the end of its hiatus, with Onkyo now launching these electronics as well as a more affordable line of powered desktop speakers. The Icon Series aims to continue Onkyo's legacy of “delivering unparalleled audio experiences for audiophiles” and is part of…

After years of speculation and rumours, Samsung and Google's co-developed answer to Dolby Atmos will officially launch this year. Initially rumoured in 2020, revealed to a greater extent in 2023 and expected to launch in 2024 (which obviously didn't happen), the long-awaited, opensource, royalty-free alternative to Dolby's licensed immersive sound format is finally set to arrive within months. Previously referred to as Project Caviar and IAMF (Immersive Audio Model and Formats) but now titled Eclipsa Audio, the immersive audio format completes the Dolby-busting duo by joining HDR10+ to rival Dolby Vision in addition to Atmos. The format will reportedly be available on all Samsung 2025 TVs, including the entry-level LCD models and the premium Neo QLED, QD-OLED, and 8K sets. Meanwhile, Google has revealed that YouTube will be the first…

So you've just snuck some new hi-fi kit into your house and have wired it up to your system (being careful to hide the empty cardboard boxes, of course). You've lined up your favourite album of last year (also a covert household purchase) and are ready and eager to listen to how much better it now sounds compared to yesterday and congratulate yourself on your latest (secret) purchase. But between set-up and performance scrutiny is a process that will undoubtedly irk the impatient but could prevent confusion if the kit doesn't sound as you remember it from the demo room, or as you've read about in the reviews. Yep, I'm talking about ‘running-in’. You're probably familiar with the phrase (also referred to as ‘breaking-in’ or ‘burning-in’), if not in relation…

The night wind blew down Bridge Road as the municipal clock near the hi-fi store struck 10pm. The store had closed an hour prior and the street was empty but for a gaggle of men huddled together in the doorway, talking intently. They were strangers but would soon become good friends. The alluring sound of tube amplifiers, lighting the window, was a call from the Odyssey, drawing them together in their winter coats. They had an idea for a club. The men exchanged names and addresses before parting ways in various directions, determined to meet again soon. The store owner, Alex Encel, suggested they meet regularly at some place nearby. This was good for business, which he later boosted by mentioning the club in his audio classifieds in The Age…