Innehållsförteckning för June - July 2018 från Sound + Image

I have always listened to music, or have preferred to listen to music, at or near reference level, which is, by most people’s standards, quite loud. But this was the level at which music was played in our sitting room growing up — my mother would sit reading, sometimes with her fingers in her ears, while my father listened to new albums or the studio recordings he had made of bands, big bands and radio orchestras. So for me, this is the level at which music comes alive. Vibration is vibration, after all, and while musical information can get to your ears via headphones, there’s nothing like the physical vibration of skin, body, eyes (they do say eyes can register high audio frequencies) from a big system on song. That’s…

Audio-Technica says its new $1399 belt-drive AT-LP7 turntable is the finest it’s ever made. The AT-LP7 is fully manual in operation but offers electronic speed change between 33⅓ and 45rpm speeds. It comes with a J-shaped tonearm fitted with a removable AT-HS10 headshell that is in turn fitted with an Audio-Technica VM520EB moving-magnet phono cartridge. The VM520EB has a 0.3×0.7 bonded elliptical stylus and Audio-Technica’s ‘dual magnet’ geometry, where the two magnets are precisely positioned to match the left and right channels of the groove walls, with the aim of improved channel separation, stereo imaging, response and tracking. The AT-LP7’s platter is a 20mm-thick polyoxymethylene anti-resonance design, the chassis is 40 mm-thick MDF, while the J-shaped tonearm has gimbal bearings and is adjustable for tonearm height. But the AT-LP7 is…

If it’s AV and systems integration you’re after, the leading European show is ISE (Integrated Systems Europe), filling 15 halls of RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre — and growing, with exhibitor numbers up 25% on 2017. For the second ISE in a row, one of the star turns was Bowers & Wilkins with its demonstration of the ‘Diamond Cinema’ — a custom home cinema solution built on the prowess of B&W’s legendary 800 Diamond Series reference hi-fi loudspeakers, and using the same Diamond tweeters and Continuum and Aerofoil driver technologies as used in the latest D3 versions of 800 Series. Last year at ISE 2017 the ‘Diamond Cinema’ range was just freshly announced; this year the company went all out with the dedicated cinema pictured here, in addition to showing the…

It says ‘network CD player’ on the box, but the company’s byline for the ND8006 is that it is “a unique complete digital music source player”. That’s quite the claim in an age when digital sources are evolving every year, and with no shortage of manufacturers aiming to deliver the ultimate do-it-all product. So is the ND8006 really ‘complete’, and what makes it ‘unique’? Equipment We’ll list the extensive abilities in a moment (in a nutshell it’s a CD player plus DAC plus HEOS). Equally important, however, is the quality to which Marantz has designed this component. As you can see from the price, this is no entry-level unit. It’s solid, and it’s heavy for a source, with a rigid, double-layer chassis on the outside, a shielded toroidal transformer inside…

This is quite the offering — an amplifier presented with the design cues of Yamaha’s finest stereo components, loaded with networking abilities including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirPlay, Spotify and all the benefits of Yamaha’s MusicCast multiroom system. The price, sir? Just $699. Say again, $699? Something has to give, right? Equipment The R-N303D does a lot in the networking space, but let’s start with its more conventional amplifier duties. It has six audio inputs in all — four analogue line-level (in the US one of these is replaced by a turntable input, perhaps a disappointing omission for vinyl lovers here), and two digital inputs, one optical, one coaxial. So the only obvious omission in input terms besides turntable is USB, with neither USB-B for computer connection nor a USB-A slot for…

We felt privileged just to be breaking the golden seal and unclasping the leather straps that held these remarkable Klipsch headphones within their triple layers of packaging, let alone getting to live with the product for an extended review period. While headphones at this price are no longer quite the rarity they were a decade ago, it’s nevertheless fascinating to see a mainstream manufacturer deliver a statement headphone atop what is now an extensive range of Klipsch headgear covering every niche from sporting earbud to luxury home headphone. The HP-3 design bears Klipsch’s ‘Heritage’ tag, which has been used for a range of products that hark back in exterior design to the golden age of radio and the very earliest days of audio equipment, and the HP3s continue those design…

Goodness me, where has the time gone? It is ten years since The Dark Knight hit the big screen, and it instantly became a classic. Heath Ledger died six months before the release, having turned in the most distinctive performance of his career, and having created one of the most chilling villains ever to appear on screen. Right now The Dark Knight is Christopher Nolan’s highest rated movie on IMDB with 9.0/10, fourth on IMDB’s Top 250 list. I need say no more about the movie. If you haven’t seen it, do something about that. Perhaps by starting with this Ultra-HD release. Picture This, famously, is the first feature film to use significant amounts of IMAX footage. That typically gives more than seven times the resolution of 35mm film. The…

It’s JBL’s most expansive soundbar series to date — and literally expansive in the case of the JBL Bar 5.1 (pictured right), which transforms from a soundbar into a wireless 5.1-channel system when you detach two battery-powered wireless surround speakers from the ends of the bar. It’s a concept we saw some years ago from Philips, and a clever one in that the wireless speakers are used at the front, kept on charge, for normal TV viewing, popping off for special occasions such as movie nights and sports matches. The Bar 5.1 includes a wireless 10-inch subwoofer as well, with a total quoted 510W of system power, three UHD-compatible HDMI inputs, Bluetooth, and both Dolby Digital and DTS processing. The rears should last 10 hours on battery power once charged.…

So, 33 million pixels (7680 × 4320) — four times more than 4K Ultra HD, and 16 times as many pixels as Full HD. This 8K resolution was always on the roadmap, especially for broadcast organisations, for whom 4K was a technology that “escaped from the wild”, becoming a standard simply because panel makers started releasing them. The result has been the inexorable rise over the last four years of larger screens — 55-inch is the new 42-inch, as they say, and 65-inch is the new 50-inch. But 70-inch and above is also growing, and it needs 8K to deliver the best results, claimed Sharp’s Sascha Lange, speaking to IFA’s Global Press Conference in Rome. A 128-inch screen with 8K resolution has the same pixel density as a 32-inch panel…

Sonus faber has used High End in Munich to announce a new ‘Sonetto’ collection with eight models. It inherits from the Olympica Collection a top in natural leather handsewn and embellished by the branded Sonus faber logo (see below), and also the so-called “Voice of Sonus faber” configuration of DAD (Damped Apex Dome) tweeter and natural fibre midrange cone, a combination previously only available on the higher Olympica, Homage and Reference collections. The Sonetto collection comprises three floorstanders (Sonetto VIII Sonetto V and Sonetto III) two standmount/bookshelf models (Sonetto II and Sonetto I), the Center I, and the Sonetto Wall, an on-wall speaker for use as main stereo, multichannel surround or LCR solution. The simultaneous release of this on-wall option with the more conventional box speakers at this level brings…

Voice assistants and ‘smart speakers’ are taking over the home, connecting home devices with music, entertainment and smart-home functions. Adam Turner debates whether it is yet time to surrender your lounge room to the all-powerful smart overlords. Speech recognition is being touted as the biggest change since the mouse. No need for a screen interface, a keyboard, a mouse, even a touchscreen. The various breeds of talkative smart assistants are now battling for command of Australian smart homes. But should you be in a rush to abdicate your rule over the lounge room? Too many apps For a while it has seemed that smartphones would be the interface with which the smart home would be ruled. Even those companies involved in professional smart-home systems, who had their own touch-screen controllers…

All Yamaha’s MusicCast abilities are included here, barring only the new MusicCast Surround which is soon to appear on the company’s next run of AV receivers and MusicCast soundbars. Besides the access to streaming services and network music shares, MusicCast is a multiroom platform which can share any of this receiver’s inputs with other MusicCast-enabled devices on your home network — each device is allocated a room, and you can group rooms with a master device under your control, and other MusicCast devices as slaves to follow its output. This has especial versatility given that Yamaha’s range of MusicCast devices is wide indeed, from receivers to soundbars to standalone and stereo speakers, and lifestyle audio systems. MusicCast also has the clever trick of sending via Bluetooth (in addition to receiving…

Just a few months ago we took a close look at Sony’s UBP-X800 Ultra-HD Blu-ray player, which was generally pretty impressive. But step down a model to the UBP-X700 and you’ll save a useful $150, while finding surprisingly little has been omitted. Equipment With regard to features, that is. Physically, some 2.4 kilograms of mass has been omitted from this device, along with a fair few cubic centimetres of volume. It’s a 320mm-wide unit, rather than the standard 430mm component width. And quite thin and not especially deep. We’ve become used to entry-level components, and sources in particular, arriving in non-standard widths, and of course many amplifier, DACs and other gear can come in compact packages too. If you have a stack of equipment that you’d like to remain consistent,…

Astell&Kern is the brand name used by long-time portable audio player iriver for its high-end stuff. We’ve covered a few of those over the years, including the company’s multi-thousand-dollar flagship portable music player. This time, however, we have something a little different. It’s the Astell&Kern ACRO L1000 Desktop Headphone Amp. Equipment It is a slightly unusual device in terms of functionality, so it’ll be best if we start by making that clear. It is a headphone amplifier — but only for computer-like devices. It has only one input. That’s a Micro-B USB socket. You plug it into a computer and it becomes an audio playback device for the computer. An external sound card, if you will. But there’s more. The box is labelled ‘Made for AK Portable Player’. I guess…

WELCOME Our buying guide is based on the Sound+Image Awards that are presented each year – the very best value at each price level. We list all the latest winners, but also every still-available product from previous awards, varying the categories each issue. First from the back: loudspeakers... Loudspeakers up to $6999 Every model listed here has won a Sound+Image award – so they represent the height of loudspeakerdom, each offering top-value performance at its price, whether low or high! A ‘ ’ means you can read our full review on AVHub.com.au. Prices can vary with finish. Key AWARD Shows the year and level of Sound+Image Award W = Product of the Year HC = Highly Commended PRICES marked * indicate a superseded model, see notes AVHub indicates where full…

Having been first introduced in 1988, Sennheiser’s HD 25 headphones have achieved impressive 30-year longevity in an increasingly busy headphone market. Initially conceived for professional broadcasters, the HD25 has since become championed by DJs for their combination of sound and durability, and the fact that the rotatable capsules are perfect for one-ear monitoring. The latest variation is a strictly limited edition branded to German DJ Robin Schulz. “I had seen that almost all of the major DJs were working with them,” he recalls. “I knew that I had to have them. I was beyond happy the first time I had my own pair of HD 25s on my head.” The limited edition HD 25 is available through Sennheiser Australia for $229.95. Visit: en-au.sennheiser.com…

Yamaha’s MusicCast platform has proven one of the most successful at connecting together multiple devices in different rooms for multiroom music playback. Now the company is extending the system to the movies, connecting together devices in the same room, including use of its successful soundbars and AV receiver ranges with wireless speakers, in what amounts to an impressive simplification of surround sound for the home. Other multiroom systems, including Sonos and HEOS, have previously allowed the use of their wireless speakers to supplement the relevant front soundbar product, but Yamaha’s implementation of MusicCast Surround with proper AV receivers will allow far more input flexibility, including full HDMI switching, a higher calibre of surround processing and a wider choice of speaker solutions. MUSICCAST SURROUND RECEIVERS The new technology appears in Yamaha’s…

We have a soft spot for AURALiC streamers and DACs (with Sound+Image award-winners in their ranks in previous years). At High End the company showed off the brand-new LEO GX Reference Master Clock (pictured below), a component designed for G Series DAC products — both its current VEGA G2 and future models. It’s claimed to be an entirely new type of dedicated clocking component that serves as a complete DAC clock replacement, rather than being limited by the DAC’s own internal clock, the precision of which usually limits the system. Separate temperature-controlled clocks for 44.1k and 48k-based signals operate at 90.3168MHz and 98.304MHz respectively, and the direct interplay between LEO GX and VEGA G2 removes the need for PLL (phase lock loop) circuits. A Premium LEO GX will include a…

At the Sydney launch of Panasonic’s smart speaker, Aaron Waters, Panasonic Australia’s product manager for audio and video, pointed to research showing, pleasingly, that smart speakers are being used primarily to play music. A later study bore him out — eMarketer reported in May that the dominating use is for listening to music, podcasts and radio. Yet some of these smart speakers are humdrum in terms of audio quality, as we found in our first round-up of voice-activated speakers two issues back. One solution is to use a basic smart speaker to send music to a Chromecast-equipped hi-fi system. The other is to get a better smart speaker. Panasonic has both options available. At its recent Sydney product launch it demonstrated three slimline audio systems with CD, radio (including DAB+)…

In the decades since the digital revolution in audio, the digital-to-analogue converter has become a vital link in the hi-fi chain. DACs first arrived as standalone units for upgrading CD players, graduating to a full role once file-based replay became a thing, so that an offboard unit was required to turn the potentially hideous noise from computers into high-quality audio. Today most amplifiers have built-in digital inputs and DACs within. But for the best possible quality, a separate DAC is still very much the way to go. These converters are reversing the digitisation performed in the recording studio, where analogue microphones are digitised at a high level for mixing and mastering (unless the studio in question is one of the few analogue hold-outs, in which case the ADC may be…

As noted, the Sony UHD Blu-ray player reviewed here not only worked fine with other brands of equipment, it proved compatible with their HDMI CEC abilities (where one remote can control other equipment through HDMI). However there are definite complementarities to the way Sony has built its ranges, and when we reviewed Sony’s STRDH790 receiver last issue, we realised that many of the things omitted from the receiver in order to hit its $849 price are provided here in the X700 UHD Blu-ray player — so the Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking, and online services like Spotify Connect, YouTube, MUBI (subscription, curated movies), Netflix, catch-up TV and so forth. By pairing the two units, you get all this without needless duplication. You can read our full review of the receiver by…

This is the latest version of the ’phone created for Audio-Technica’s 50th celebrations back in 2012, since when not a year has gone by without a special or limited edition arriving with tweaks and/or some new colour scheme. Last year the M50x went red, but this year’s colour is blue. The packaging impressed us — strong recycled cardboard internally, while the headphones themselves emerge, well yes, extremely blue. To paraphrase Spinal Tap, aside from the black headband and ear-pads (hence the full name of ATH-M50x Blue/Black), it’s hard to imagine how they could be any more blue. These are closed headphones, using large 45mm drivers backed by copper-clad aluminium voice coils and neodymium magnets, and they come with three cables: one curly coiled for home/studio use, one long 3-metre minijackterminated…

The unofficial theme of Indi Imports’ 2018 ‘Intermeet’, conducted in Melbourne as a brief on development of its many brands, was ‘passion’. As we’ve previously reported, Indi Imports was started up three years ago by Paul and Denise Riachi to gather together a set of prestigious high fidelity and home entertainment brands, and give them the support the Riachis believe they deserve. Previously they’d had a couple of decades in retail with their two Melbourne-based Rio Sound & Vision stores. The 2018 Intermeet is the first of a planned biennial schedule of future Intermeets. It brings together selected Indi Imports brands to show their wares and make announcements. The Intermeet is mostly to allow the brands to present themselves to Australian and New Zealand retailers, but a couple of us…

It has been called ‘pure cinema’. Sometimes critics complain that some work or other ‘tells’ rather than ‘shows’. Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk shows, and apart from a card giving the briefest of historical background at the start, does nothing but show what’s going on. This movie verges on being silent. But that’s not right either. Indeed, there is very little dialogue, and often spaces of minutes at a time when not a word is uttered. But it is anything other than a silent movie, because the score speaks just about as much as the visuals, and far more than the dialogue. But back to the start. Before this movie started everyone talking, Dunkirk was apparently an event little known to the general population. I was shocked to discover that. Arguably, the…