Innehållsförteckning för August - September 2015 från Sound + Image

While we await the Australian CEDIA Awards results, our friends at CEDIA EMEA (Europe and beyond) have shared their winners across 19 categories, which include custom installations from the UK, Belgium, Cyprus, India, Switzerland, the UAE, including this pictured project from 3Logic in Poland, which won Best Home Cinema £40k-£100k. Other winners included some classic UK hi-fi stalwarts, including Graham’s, The Cornflake Shop, H&H Audio-Visual, Kensington Audio Visual, and a special recognition award for Peter Aylett, a former CEDIA Director, now at Archimedia Middle East. The pictured 3Logic project was in a newbuild property where the cinema was to act as the centrepiece feature of the home, its owner requesting nothing less than flawless operation in terms of acoustics, sound and picture. Crestron control connects the cinema to the rest…

SUMMARY LG Electronics 55EG960T OLED UHD TV Price: $5999 + The best picture on the market + Gorgeous styling + Powerful and effective smart features - 3D crosstalk at top and bottom of screen USB and others Three USB sockets show how important these sockets have become in a world of digital playback, storage and streaming. There is both Ethernet and dual-band Wi-Fi for network connection. HDMI & HDCP 2.2 This TV’s HDMI inputs are all able to accept 4K at up to 60Hz and support the HDCP 2.2 copy protection system which Hollywood will inevitably insist on applying to 4K movies. In preparing for writing this review I had a quick search through my reviews folders to see what other OLED TVs we’d reviewed in the past. And I…

SUMMARY Cambridge Audio TV5 speaker base with Bluetooth Price: $649 + Unobtrusive base speaker + Simple connections + Good sound especially when turned up - Check size works with your TV Rear porting Don’t shove the TV5 hard against a wall, since the rear ports need a bit of space to breathe — a certain amount of bass tuning is possible by varying this distance from the rear to the wall. Analogue/digital outputs This sound ‘plinth’ uses the simplest of connections — an analogue RCA pair and minijack (use either but not both) or an optical input from your TV. There’s also Bluetooth available. Solid cabinet construction Cambridge Audio has used a composite wood cabinet — it needs to be solid not only to minimise vibration and distortion but to…

SUMMARY TCL U55H8800CDS 4K LED-LCD TV Price: $2499 + Excellent value for money + Good overall performance + Extremely low latency, great for gamers - No FreeviewPlus - Terrible 3D - Buggy EPG Connections This is a well-connected television, with four HDMI inputs but also analogue ins and outs using adapter cables into the small minijacks sockets on this side-facing panel. Audio outputs Many TVs these days are providing only optical audio output, which can limit system connections. The TCL has optical but also analogue line-level and headphone outputs. Networking This TCL is a smart TV, and offers networking via a choice of dual-band Wi-Fi or the wired Ethernet connection. Back panel This separate back-facing panel has a set of composite video and audio inputs, plus the Ethernet and headphone…

Tesla Model S — Tesla electric motors have only one moving piece: the rotor. As a result, Model S acceleration is instantaneous, silent... and smooth. Witness the ultimate in electric car technology, at Stand 53 AudioXtra is bringing the best in-car audio to the Show — including Blaupunkt’s Cape Town 940, the ultimate in-car multimedia and infotainment. Control smart-phone content via mirror mode and access the world with built-in internet browsing! Stand 59 SUMMERNATS — the annual car festival of elite street machines held each year in Canberra is visiting New-Tech with a sample of those award-winning machines! See the tech, hear the quality, and get the latest Summernats news at Stand 58 Yamaha’s flagship supersports — Yamaha’s amazing new YZF-R1 is designed to dominate on the racetrack as well…

Bowers &Wilkins has released a wireless version of its P5 headphone, making a Bluetooth connection from your device, using the aptX codec if you use an Android device which supports it. B&W aimed to match the audio quality of the P5 Series II and notably the P5 Wireless was tuned passively, using mechanical and acoustic techniques, with no additional equalisation from the electronics when in wireless mode. Design follows the wired model but puts three-button controls on the right headcup, allowing play/ pause, previous/next track and call answering (two microphones and Clear Voice Capture 2 technology). Battery life is quoted at 17 hours from a single charge, and a back-up cable allows normal use if charge runs low. RRP is $599.95. More info: www.convoy.com.au…

It is no secret we have been highly impressed with OLED screen technology, and we’re delighted LG has now launched two 4K OLED models in Australia, the fourth market globally after South Korea, the US and UK. Initial demand in those market so outstripped supply that Australia and other markets had been instructed to “hold off” until now. The 65-inch EG960T will retail at $9999, with the 55-inch at $5999 — our review of the smaller model begins on p30 of this issue. While initial availability will be limited to a number of stores (selected Harvey Norman outlets), LG tells us the rollout will expand into more stores as the year progresses. The secret to LG’s success in OLED is the ability of LG.Display to increase its panel yields so…

HOW SMART DO YOU WANT YOUR HOME TO BE? SMART LIGHTING & SWITCHING: Philips Hue, Belkin WeMo & IFTTT CUSTOM INSTALLATION: Control4 Smart devices and smart homes — should you put them together yourself, or call an expert? The proliferation of consumer devices has made the ‘internet of things’ a buzz-phrase for companies hoping to ride the smart-home revolution with everything IP-addressed and talking to each other. But there’s a combination of networking and programming required before these supposedly friendly devices work at all, let alone cooperate with other devices and brands. We’re borderline geeks ourselves, so we called in a selection of smart home lighting and switching before settling down for a conversation with Control4, whose business model is to do all that hard stuff for you. Were we…

Belkin is cases and bags, Belkin is cables and covers, Belkin is surge protection and lifetime connected equipment warranties. Belkin is Linksys, which it acquired in 2013 from Cisco. And Belkin is also WeMo — a family of connected products for the home. Although WeMo has become Belkin’s brand for connected home devices, the company was offering simple automation long before this. There had been Belkin switches which could be remotely controlled, and power blocks where some sockets were slaves activated by a master socket — so turning on the TV also turns on your AV receiver, for example. In these ways Belkin has long been a pioneer in consumer smart-home devices. The WeMo products, as with Philips Hue, are consumer devices to be purchased, taken home and installed by…

SOUNDBARS & BASES BY REAL HI-FI COMPANIES Arcam Solo Bar & Solo Subwoofer, Cambridge Audio TV5 soundbase, Definitive Technology W Studio, LG LAS950M soundbar & subwoofer Soundbars seem to be entering a second stage of evolution. At the beginning it was all about having a small décor-friendly alternative to a proper surround sound solution. Problem was, small and décor-friendly often meant that the sound quality was equally small; there were a few standout performers among them, but soundbars as a breed developed a dreadful reputation among audio fans, especially when it came to playing music as well as TV sound. But they have been highly successful in the market. More recently this has led serious audio companies to reinvent the concept, delivering premium soundbars (and in one case here, a…

SUMMARY Definitive Technology W Studio soundbar, subwoofer & wireless multiroom system Price: $1999 + Excellent sound on movies and music + Part of a multiroom system + Versatile connections and control - No ARC or lipsync adjustment Analogue/digital outputs Use the W Studio as an HDMI hub – three inputs and one out to your TV. The HDMI output doesn’t support ARC, so also connect an optical or analogue cable to hear other sources connected to your TV, its own tuner and smart TV stations. Two issues back we took a long look at Definitive Technology’s wireless multiroom system. It’s something along the lines of Sonos, forming a network of speaker units and music zones all around your home. There’s wireless music streaming, and full control via smartphone or tablet…

SUMMARY Bush Heritage II Connect DAB+ radio with Wi-Fi, internet radio & multiroom Price: $499 + Excellent ease of use from device or app + All the functions of a full multiroom offering + Rich round radio sound - Network streaming not Mac or high-res friendly INPUTS & OUTPUTS With most signals arriving either through the broadcast airwaves or Wi-Fi network connection, there’s just a minijack auxiliary input and a headphone output on the back panel. GIVE IT SPACE The Bush is a sizeable ‘radio’, and remember that for DAB+ and FM radio broadcasts you’ll need to extend the telescopic aerial up to 70cm. Anew digital radio from Bush Australia — we allocated a page for this in our magazine, thinking that should about cover it. Not even close! Because…

2014 – Roadshow Entertainment What does one think about ‘biopics’? There are a lot of them about. According to IMDB the first five of the breed were made in 1899, all concerning Alfred Dreyfus, a French officer accused of passing military secrets to the Germans. (Poor Dreyfus wasn’t exonerated until 1906.) Since then the genre has grown, well, quite a bit. There were more than 4000 movies biographical movies released in 2014, again according to IMDB. The problem is that even an actual documentary about a person, or a past person, may be less than entirely truthful. A movie about a person can depart even more from the truth, yet seems convincing through the occasionally dark arts of movie making. The better the movie as a dramatic work, the more…

WIN A STAX SRS-3170 Classic Electrostatic Ear speaker system! Audio Marketing in conjunction with Stax is giving away this superb headphone system valued at $2149 — just complete the form to enter the draw at Stand 7 Electrostatic Ear speakers! The SRS-3170 combines the SR-307 Classic open-back headphones with the SRM-323S solid-state DC amplifier for a stunningly natural sound with the legendary Stax openness and ability to deliver revelatory detail — hear your music as never before with these stunning audio devices. www.audiomarketing.com.au WIN A YAMAHA ISX-B820 audio system! Yamaha is giving away three of these premium style systems with wireless connectivity on the Saturday of the show. To enter, visit Stand 2 More info: au.yamaha.com WIN A BOSE SoundTouch Portable Wi-Fi music system! Bose will be giving away THREE…

Barco Orion Cinemascope projector — Transformers director Michael Bay recently selected a Barco projector for what he describes as “one of the very best home theaters in the world” in his newly constructed California home. You can find out why, when you see this new compact projector with native Cinemascope resolution and unrivalled image quality. Find out more about Barco Residential at Network Audio-Visual’s Stand 10 It’s above you! — Experience the new dimension in home cinema with QualiFi’s Marantz and M&K Dolby Atmos system in Sound Studio 3 Definitive Technology — From new active NC headphones to the ‘W’ wireless multiroom range and a Dolby Atmos demo... it’s all happening at Audio Connection’s Stand 4 Audiofly — Be among the first to hear new-release AF240 and 240+ over-ear headphones,…

Sony has delivered the start of its own multiroom system — the app is called SongPal Link but the system itself is simply ‘Sony Multi-Room’. The ecosystem of products at launch is a good size, with three wireless speakers including one portable, plus one soundbar and one soundbase, and the SX7 micro hi-fi system. Usefully two Sony AV receivers are also compatible — the STR-DN860 and 1060 models. The multiroom abilities include DLNA streaming at high-resolution to 24-bit/192kHz (all except the portable), and all include Bluetooth streaming with NFC pairing. The Bluetooth implementation is interesting in using Sony’s own LDAC audio coding technology, which Sony claims enables Hi-Res Audio over Bluetooth, a bit-rate of 990kbps compared with maximum Bluetooth SBC rates of 328kbps. This must be achieved by stepping outside…

As we were listening to the soundbars from hi-fi companies this issue (see p67), news of Dali’s Kubik One — a soundbar with a difference in offering three colours as standard (Black, Ice and Red) as well as six optional coloured grilles —Azur Blue, Lime Green (pictured), Orange, Purple, Misty Grey and ‘Petrol Green’. Needless to say Dali is also focusing on sound quality of the 98cm-long bar, which has two 13cm wood-fibre woofers and twin tweeters, while connectivity includes Bluetooth with aptX, USB-micro, analogue inputs on RCA and minijack, plus two optical inputs. There is a subwoofer output available if you want more in the low-end. Those coloured grilles are interchangeable and the bar itself can be shelf or wallmounted. The RRP if the Dali Kubik One is $1999.…

Philips is huge in lighting, obviously, but it also has a decade-long track record in getting unexpectedly clever with background lighting through its Ambilight televisions, such as the one we reviewed last issue. Ambilight TVs used first CCFL tubes and then LED lights along various rear edges of the television, back illuminating the wall to create a floating effect for the television. This met with mixed reviews from the start, though you could always turn it off, and Philips (as a TV brand) has persisted with Ambilight, increasing the number of edges from one to four on its top models, and using the variable colour gamut of LED to match that of the TV screen itself. Most imaginatively, Ambilight uses the video signal to pick the colours, the idea being…

SUMMARY Arcam Solo Bar and Solo Sub soundbar & subwoofer Price: Solo Bar $2199, Solo Sub $1199 + Upmarket soundbar & sub solution + HDMI hub, Dolby/DTS HD processing + Movies can go loud without loss of clarity - Sub performs better wired than wireless - Remote volume buttons Subwoofer settings Arcam’s subwoofer links wirelessly to the soundbar, but unlike most it offers full subwoofer controls and a wired input, so this is a unit that could be used with systems other than the Solo soundbar. The wired input It’s worth trying the Arcam subwoofer with a cable connection instead of the wireless mode — we found quite a favourable variation in performance. While soundbars as a breed have always had a mixed reception from our reviewers, there has been…

SUMMARY LG Electronics LAS950M Music Flow soundbar and subwoofer Price: $1299 + Very good audio performance for a soundbar + Attractive styling + Versatile with Music Flow abilities - Doesn’t seem to use several of the built-in speakers - Confusing Audio Return Channel operation - App and instructions somewhat obtuse HDMI inputs & outputs With three HDMI inputs and one output to your TV, the LG soundbar is designed to be a hub for your home entertainment devices. IR blaster If the soundbar covers your TV’s infra-red receiver, you can plug the provided IR blaster into this socket and the soundbar will repeat your instructions to the TV. Ethernet or Wi-Fi You can connect to your network using dual-band Wi-Fi, but if you’re considering high-res audio streaming, try to give…

SUMMARY Pure Midi / Maxi Digital/FM radio + Bluetooth Prices: Midi $169/$179(without/with Bluetooth, Maxi $229 + Neat design & tech + Great combo of DAB+/ FM with Bluetooth - Thin sound www.pure.com/au Two neat units from digital radio guru Pure, each capable of receiving DAB+ digital radio, FM radio, plus Bluetooth streaming from your smart device of choice, and a minijack auxiliary input. That’s a pretty good combo, and Pure’s tech is impeccable — the wonderful wide white knob on top does ‘pop’ up (flush when in standby, raised when in operation), controlling volume in all modes except Bluetooth, where your smart device is in command. And the controls are intuitive — a set of five preset buttons on top to access 10 favourite stations on each waveband, and a…

3D Printing — It’s not an orange, it’s a 3D-printed replica, made by Mcor Technologies’ amazing 3D printer, the most economical and eco-friendly 3D printing anywhere, using plain paper, and producing no toxic waste. See it at the show. There’s also T-Shirt printing at Digital Graphic Supplies’ stand, with the chance to have your photo or selfie printed on your NewTech ’15 T-Shirt... Visit Stand 39 Hear the Silent Guitars! — Yamaha’s SLG is a brilliant idea... the perfect instrument for practice, travel or stage use – any time an acoustic guitar just won’t do. Yamaha’s exclusive SRT-Powered pickup system gives incredibly natural acoustic tone through headphones or line-out, with studio-quality on-board effects. Check them out at Stand 2 ActionCam adventure! — Adventurer, film maker and Sony ActionCam Ambassador Matt…

BenQ’s treVolo — This unique Bluetooth portable audio system uses electrostatic-panel wings to create an airy treble plus conventional woofers for the bass... with Bluetooth streaming and battery operation it’s a portable sound system that will impress even audiophile listeners. Hear its sound and ask about BenQ’s 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee on the treVolo at Stand 19 Triangle loudspeakers — Audio Marketing has gained the Australian distribution of French brand Triangle, a wide-ranging and technology-led speaker company based in Picardy’s Villeneuve-Saint-Germain, France. Triangle designs and engineers its speakers in France, and still handcrafts its high-end models there. Triangle’s ranges cover everything from top-end loudspeakers to smaller models suitable for desktop listening — and you can find out all about them at Audio Marketing’s Stand 7 Rhyme Acoustics – Just launching in…

SOUND STUDIOS SS1 Sound Studio 1 Live Recording Demo SS2 Sound Studio 2 Redefy Audio Pty Ltd SS3 Sound Studio 3 QualiFi Pty Ltd SS4 Sound Studio 4 Avation STANDS 1 Bose 2 Yamaha 3 Synergy Audio Visual AUDIO BOOTH 4 Audio Connection AUDIO BOOTH 7 Audio Marketing AUDIO BOOTH 7A Stax 8 Astell&Kern 8a BusiSoft AV 8b BusiSoft AV 10 Network Audio Visual AUDIO BOOTH 19 BenQ Australia 21 QualiFi 22 Otomoto (Rhyme Acoustics) 23 Audiofly 25 Parrot 26 Audio Heaven 32 LG 33 Camera House 34 Dynamic Music 35 Sony Australia 39 Digital Graphic Supplies 43 NextMedia 50 University of Western Sydney-Solar Car Project 53 Tesla Motors 58 Summernats 59 AudioXtra…