Innehållsförteckning för January - February 2023 från Sound + Image

I have been spending too much time recently creating AI art. You give it a prompt:“three chickens on Everest”, and the program draws it in maybe 20 seconds. Only a year or so ago, public versions of AI art were interesting, but pretty crude. By the end of 2022 the images have become brilliant, and startling. You can lengthen prompts to include details, art styles, materials, lens types. You can use your own picture as a reference, then use a prompt to turn it into something else. Example: the images above started as a Sound Burger image I took, plus various prompts. My prompt for lower left, for example, was fairly abstract: “Just an illusion. Super detailed masterpiece art work on show in a circus.” These were created using the…

Ruark R2 We currently have Ruark’s R2 medium-sized tabletop wireless speaker/streamer/radio running in our office, and we can report that it positively encourages radio listening of every kind: FM, DAB+ digital, or internet radio (just no AM). In addition it has Bluetooth onboard, and also Wi-Fi streaming with Spotify Connect and support for Deezer or Amazon Music. Physical connections include an analogue input, USB-C playback, and a headphone output. Control is via Ruark’s longstanding and intuitive RotoDial controller on top, or the Undok app (a remote control is also available as an extra), while the R2’s warm and rich sonics benefit from solid Class-AB power and Ruark’s neodymium-backed NS+ drivers. This is the Mk4 version of Ruark’s R2, and it slims down a little on the previous version: it is…

BusiSoft AV has two announcements: it is in the process of rebranding as Addicted To Audio distribution, and it has been appointed as the official distributor of Germany’s Clearaudio turntables for Australia and New Zealand, effective 1 January 2023. Founded in Germany, Clearaudio began its journey in 1978 with the launch of the Delta and Sigma loudspeakers, and has become especially associated with vinyl replay after the acquisition of patents for tangential tonearms in 1988, for newgeneration moving coil cartridges in 1998, and in 2008 for a Ceramic Magnetic Bearing. BusiSoft acquired the brand from its longtime Australian distributor Advance Audio, and takes over just as Clearaudio’s high-end Reference Jubilee turntable (pictured) becomes available; this 22kg vinyl spinner is already listed by Addicted to Audio at $30,999 in its basic…

aptX Lossless is two things really: it is the first and only Bluetooth codec capable of losslessly (that’s important) streaming CD-quality audio, and it is part of a package of Qualcomm audio technologies called Snapdragon Sound that will feature in a number of next year’s Android phones and wireless earbuds and speakers. aptX Lossless was announced in September 2021 and is just starting to appear in the first trickle of devices, with more expected in 2023. While Qualcomm’s aptX Bluetooth codecs (aptX, aptX HD and aptX Adaptive, to list them in chronological and capability order) are among the better-sounding methods in which we listen to music over Bluetooth, alongside the likes of Sony’s LDAC and Apple’s ALAC, the latest aptX Lossless is the first codec that is claimed to transmit…

“Audio Connection is all about experiencing better audio,” says Nigel Ng, Director at Audio Connection, located in Leichhardt, Sydney, on Parramatta Road. “Nothing makes us happier seeing our customer’s reaction when hearing their favourite song or watching their favourite movie come to life. We’re an experienced team of people, putting the quality and fun back into audio. Whether it’s a simple system in a study, or a flagship end-goal system, we've got it in store.” More info: audioconnection.com.au…

How KEF made the LS60 Wireless so… UK-based KEF has found great success putting amplifiers inside its speakers over the last five years. First there was the highly-regarded LS50 Wireless launched in 2017, then the family baby, the little LSX, which recently got its refresh as the LSX II. But the $9995 LS60 Wireless floorstanders, released as part of the company’s 60th anniversary celebrations (extended from 2021), are a departure. They are an extraordinarily slim tower design, and they introduce technologies which Dr. Jack OcleeBrown, vice president of technology at KEF, says made the new design for him a “transition point” (we guess ‘tipping point’ would be a bad choice of words for such slim speakers) in the debate of relative merits between passive versus active speakers. Notably the LS50…

One of the reasons we called in this soundbar was the honesty of its marketing. There on the box and on the website it says “2.0 soundbar”. It doesn’t say it’s going to bounce sound all over the world. It does make a big thing about having Dolby Atmos, but that’s OK — Atmos can be decoded for any speaker configuration from mono to, well, 24.1.10 was the original notion of a domestic limit, but dedicated processors can take you even further now, if you wish. So here we have Dolby Atmos decoding, to a stereo soundbar. There does seem some kind of processing which tries to achieve a sense of virtual height, since a note on the box says “Atmos for vertical surround”, and there’s a “vertical surround” button…

Theory Audio Design is a relatively new company, but comes from solid stock, having emerged in 2018 as a sister brand alongside a marque of nearly two decades standing: Pro Audio Technology. Both share their President/Product Designer Paul Hales and hail from Orange County, California, where the two brands cohabit a swish ‘Lake Forest Experience Center’. They share distribution in Australia as well, under Audio Active. The two brands have different goals. Pro Audio Technology brings professional-level cinema sound to high-end residential home theatre. Its founder Paul Hales already had a track record with Hales Audio in high-end two-channel speakers before working with pro audio company QSC from 2000 to 2004, assisting that company’s highly successful move from pro amplifiers into loudspeakers. But at the same time Hales was running…

Samsung’s soundbars have regularly won Sound+Image Soundbar Awards across the last five years, and the main reason for their success has been simply how good Samsung soundbars sound. And this has been no chance development, rather the result of some serious investment. Back in 2013, in a market where soundbars were selling on their convenience factor rather than their audio performance, Samsung set up a special team in California, taking key personnel from a number of reputable institutions as well as the hallowed hi-fi halls of Harman, a company it now owns. That team built a new Samsung Audio Lab that enshrined the highest hi-fi principles of testing and measurement. Yet the new team set to work not on some high-end stereo speaker project, but on redefining how a soundbar…

With the band’s former singer Paul Di’Anno having eaten, drank and drugged his way to dismissal after the ‘Killers’ tour the previous year, and with their last single having not even charted, it was rebirth or bust for Iron Maiden when they went into the studio in ’82 to make their third album. ‘The Number Of The Beast’ proved to be a glorious example of the former, and proof of it can be heard in the opening bars of this triple vinyl reissue: Invaders, a typically high-octane, exhilarating tale of the enemy coming over the horizon, establishing Maiden’s stock-in-trade — a galloping metallic anthem full of fearful talk of war, carnage, derring-do and Horrible Histories-style mayhem. But it wouldn’t have worked half as well without their new singer. Compare the…

LEM WALLIS AUDIO* Marantz Model 40n finally here After a long wait we have finally received the new Marantz Model 40n streaming amplifier. This conventional looking integrated amplifier features a high quality DAC, a raft of analogue and digital inputs plus Marantz’s own streaming system - HEOS - on- board. The popularity of ‘just- add-speakers’ streaming amplifiers continues to gather pace, and this is not the first Marantz piece to fall into this category, but it is their premium offering to date. Being optimists we at Len Wallis Audio are holding our collective breaths that products like the Model 40n will herald a shift in the way consumers access home entertainment. Over the last decade or so there has been a seismic shift towards soundbars, and given the poor quality…

New power requirements for TVs will come into effect inside the EU from 1 March 2023. The new rules are based on legislation dating from 2019, in a Commission Regulation “laying down ecodesign requirements for electronic displays pursuant to Directive 2009/125/ EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 1275/2008 and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 642/2009”. Dreary as that sounds, the creeping legislation could amount to a complete ban of 8K televisions within the EU. The key change from March 2023 is that displays higher than 4K-UHD resolution are no longer exempt from the rule allowing a maximum EEI (Energy Efficiency Index) of 1.1, and indeed this figure will be reduced to 0.9. And the 8K Association (of companies with an interest in…

Anyone launching a new speaker brand faces a Herculean task of differentiation. With so many loudspeakers in the world of every shape and size, using materials traditional and exotic, how can a newbie make a dent in such a densely-populated market? Enter Revival Audio, from France, though very close to the German and Swiss borders in picturesque Mulhouse, Alsace (pictured above). It is an entirely new operation, but co-founded by industry stalwarts who have significant experience, what they call “nearly four decades of ‘savoir-faire’ behind many well-known flagship models among top tier brands”. Revival has now released its first two loudspeaker models, both fully designed, engineered and assembled in France using all ‘in-house manufactured’ I components, the company declaring firmly that “We DO NOT buy off the shelves!” And both…

THE BIG REVIEW There are two ways we could review this radical four-speaker surround system from Sony. We could tell you what Sony says it does, then describe how it sounds. But we only half believe what Sony says it does; we’re left taking that pretty much on faith. So it might be easier if we tell you what we’re sure this system does, and how it sounds. Well discuss the conjectural stuff in a panel overleaf. Because the HT-A9, what do we think? It’s just brilliant — it’s clever, it’s neat, it sounds great, it’s well-priced. Let’s get into it. Really very Sony Sony has been through such transformations over the last decade or so — separating and restructuring its divisions, outsourcing TV production and far more — you’d…

There was an initial disappointment here, because we’d been hoping this soundbar would arrive in red. We’d been told they were coming in red, and we ran news last issue telling you they were coming in red. But it turns out not. Instead the little SR-C20 compact soundbar ($279) has come to Australia with red and white colour options. When we reviewed that little bar-only solution a year ago we labelled it a minor miracle. And now in red: nice. The new SR-C30A, however, is coming to Australia in black onlv. It doesn’t much matter: soundbars are probably better in black, while for some strange reason, few people choose to buy red hi-fi anyway, even if it looks great in a shop window (or a magazine). So we got over…

SOUND+IMAGE: Can we first address the duplication of processing? The Theory system requires a decoding processor prior to the ALC1809, in this case an Anthem AV processor, so there is calibration and optimisation available both in the Anthem and then again in the Theory controller. We gather that here the Anthem calibrated first, then this was fine-tuned with the Theory controller. Is that what you’d recommend? PAUL HALE: There is no need to utilise the processor for calibration, and in fact we recommend against it to ensure the best audio performance of your Theory system. Our recommendation is to set all levels on the other AV processor to zero, and to use the very capable and user-friendly Automator software on the ALC-1809 — this will yield the best results. No third-party surround…

Where do you look for the finest examples of home cinemas and smart home installations? We regularly feature some of Australia’s finest in the pages of Sound+Image, of course, but once a year there’s a flood of superb systems revealed through the winners and finalists of the annual CEDIA Awards. These awards are global, and were delighted to bring you right here, right now, all the finalists from the Asia-Pacific entries for 2022. And for a little more insight, we turn to CEDIA Australia’s Paul Skelton, to explain CEDIA’s role. CEDIA is the industry association that represents everybody who designs, manufactures and/or installs smart-home technology,” Paul tells is. “We’re a global group that represents more than 4000 members, in more than 70 countries. We have a long history in Australia…

Spending your career dressed like a butterfly and also providing hair inspiration for Billie Eilish suggests someone with varied musical inspiration. The result is a smorgasbord of collaborations that makes the inside of Todd Rundgren’s head seem like some kind of insane fairground run by the characters from the film ‘Labyrinth’. Complex bass lines underlay the synthesised airy reverb of Puzzle and Head In The Ocean, broken up by the four-minute funhouse trip that is Your Fandango. Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo guests on buoyant ska track Down With The Ship, followed by yacht-rock sugar rush Godiva Girl. Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen helps Rundgren blow off some steam during STFU, and Steve Vai closes the album, articulating his reverence for female mysticism through the medium of shredding. Rundgren may be the…

If you thought orthodynamics were something you might slip in your sneakers to improve pronation, then Yamaha would like to take you on a journey back to 1976, when it introduced the HP-1 orthodynamic headphone. Orthodynamic headphones are a type also known as planar magnetic, or isodynamic. Twin sets of thin perforated magnets are placed either side of a thin membrane — this diaphragm being somewhat similar to that in an electrostatic speaker or headphone, having the thinness of cassette tape, except that planar magnetic membranes have embedded conductors woven through the membrane itself, often in spiral or circular patterns. These move as their electrical signal varies within the fixed isodynamic magnetic field (one created by multiple drive points). The membrane is driven across its entire surface, as opposed to…

news 8K TVs • Roku TVs • Clearaudio The Roku smart TV platform has been in use overseas for years, but has been available to Australia only via grey import and usually a VPN. So it’s big news ‘that Roku is now officially available here, arriving on smart TVs from China’s TCL. Nor is it a pricey option. TCL’s first pair of Roku TVs for Australia are the 55-inch 55RP630 at just $699, and the 65-inch 65RP630 at $899. Both are direct-LED backlit 4K TVs supporting HDR (including HDR10 and Dolby Vision), with three HDMI inputs including one HDMI 2.1 spec with eARC. The Roku bonus begins with the home screen combining inputs and live TV with access to the Roku Channel Store, which offers thousands of free and paid streaming…

Following great success with the $8999 EH-LS12000B, Epson is bringing its 4K Pro UHD technology to a lower price with the newly-announced EH-TW6250 home theatre projector. Priced at just $2099, the TW6250 uses three 15.5mm C2 Fine LCD panels, compared with one-panel projectors using DLP technology at such a price; as Epson notes, this 3LCD approach delivers equally high white and colour light outputs, key to the brightness of Epson images, here quoted at 2800 lumens and a 35,000:1 contrast ratio. This projector joins the growing ranks of ‘smart’ projectors, as it comes with an embedded second HDMI input populated with an Android TV dongle, so there are built-in smarts with Android TV offering more than 4000 apps, and easy Chromecasting to the projector. Since the Android is a separate…

THE CHALLENGE In our ongoing series of Dealer Systems, we ask a hi-fi dealer to recommend a hi-fi system. This is, of course, a rather general request — a good hi-fi store will ask their customer (you) about musical preferences, your home, the way you listen, as well as budget, so that they can help find you the perfect hi-fi for the job. But here we’re asking for a system they themselves enjoy. This issue we’ve returned to Sydney’s Audio Connection in Leichhardt, because back in #342, when they came up with a massive $250k vinyl system, they also suggested a far more affordable combo. So here it is. “ This system is a great simple system, something I call ‘The Baby’, Audio Connection’s Arthur‘Arty’ Petrides tells us. “The Linn…

Only six months ago, we wrote a little history of Audio-Technica, by way of celebration of the company’s 60th birthday in 2022. And as we passed through the information and memories of the 1980s, we were reminded of the time when the company came up with a bright red attempt at a portable battery-powered turntable, released in some markets as ‘Mister Disc’, but known to most of the world as the ‘Sound Burger’. The Sound Burger could play both singles and albums, it came with a set of fold-up headphones, and was supported by some natty advertising. In our little history we ended that section with the comment: “How much do we want a re-release of the Sound Burger!” Those in the know at Audio-Technica must have chuckled. They were…

We’ve avoided mentioning the headline ability of this system so far. Sony calls the HT-A9 a “360 Spatial Sound Mapping Dolby Atmos®/DTS:X® Home Theatre System". We’ve no problem with that in theory, but they explain it in some curious ways. For example: “The system uses two microphones on each wireless speaker to measure the relative positions of the speakers and reproduce sound wave fronts from up to 12 'phantom speakers’ (simulated sound sources) that are assumed to exist somewhere outside of the physical speakers.” So OK, with this system there are four dear phantom ceiling speakers, produced by bouncing sound from those four very real upward-firing drivers. And it’s reasonable to refer to a phantom centre here, since a physical centre is omitted, assuming you’re not using a Sony TV…

As NAD today celebrates 50 years since its original founding in 1972, its audio equipment is sold in some 80 countries worldwide. The company is recognised for pioneering work in amplification from the budget mid-range to the highly-regarded series of Masters series products which have pioneered ongoing development of new ‘digital’ amplification technologies. And in the new millennium under Canada’s Lenbrook Group, NAD has successfully leveraged wireless multiroom technology from its sister brand Bluesound/BluOS to lead the new wave of smart streaming audio equipment. Even as it has pushed to these new heights, however, its success has remained built on core values established by two key personnel: Martin (Marty) L. Borish, who died in July 2017, aged 89, and hot-shot Norwegian designer Bjorn ‘BEE’ Erik Edvardsen, who passed in December…

Although this was recorded in Port Chester, NY, four years ago with his well-harmonised outfit the Lighthouse Band, this might be the last time we hear David Crosby trot out his homilies and homages to a long-gone era. The night in question found Crosby in decent voice — more surprise than blessing when the newish material is heard. Things We Do For Love and the wishy-washy Vagrants Of Venice are pleasant but dull, so it’s a wait for the old stuff with fingers crossed. The quiet long run arrives with hippie anthems Guinnevere. Carry Me and Déjà Vu, chased down by Woodstock. Sadly it feels like nostalgia for no apparent reason. Max Bell…

It’s not a bad idea to take another look at something as idiosyncratic and as popular as'Tubular Bells’, although Charles Hazlewood had the same idea back in 2011. Mike Oldfield’s major work can certainly withstand this reworking by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a gaggle of (shamefully uncredited) session musicians and actor Brian Blessed. (Throw in four more Oldfield pieces and, voila, a double album.) On the downside, it lacks Oldfield’s guitar wizardry and sense of wonder, and where Vivian Stanshall was the original’s perfect MC, Blessed is so far over the top it’s a wonder he doesn’t holler “Gordon’s alive!” rather than “tubular bells!!” at the end of Part One. Yet there’s much to relish. The orchestra and Simon Dobson’s bold arrangements add layers of depth to Tubular Bells itself,…

Having demoed some of their new ideas for their fourth album at Island Records’ Basing Street studio in Notting Hill Gate, in January 1971 Led Zeppelin returned for two weeks to Headley Grange, the crumbling stone structure in which they had first lived and worked the previous spring. Sometime Rolling Stones piano player Ian Stewart and engineer Andy Johns arrived with the Stones’ mobile recording studio loaded into a truck. Mic leads ran through the windows of the drawing room, its walls soundproofed with glued-on empty egg cartons. Stewart had brought his piano, and ended up adding his Johnnie Johnson 88-key style to a handful of works-in-progress, including what Jimmy Page would later describe as a “spontaneous combustion number” called It’s Been A Long Time — soon to be retitled…