Innehållsförteckning för August - September 2024 från Sound + Image

We reported recently with some surprise that the Lenbrook Group of Companies had acquired MQA’s technologies after MQA Ltd went into administration last year, despite the compression technology being potentially tainted from the manner in which it was formerly licensed, marketed and maintained by MQA Ltd, and from MQA’s subsequent removal from Tidal, which has now switched fully to FLAC high-res, as it might have better done in the first place. Both MQA files and the even less successful Sony 360 Reality Audio format are being removed from Tidal servers, while the service has recently realigned its subscriptions to deliver high-res (and Atmos versions, which remain) on its single lower-priced subscription ($12.99 a month, or $5.99 for students). Sony’s immersive audio format remains available on Amazon Music and Deezer. But…

Kudos to WestCoast Midland for turning the recent collaboration between Maserati and Sonus faber into an opportunity to bring the two brands together for a series of VIP evenings hosted by Barbagallo Maserati in Osborne Park. Maserati has three models for which the Italian hi-fi marque Sonus faber has created audio systems: the MC20 supercar, the Grecale, and the pictured GranTurismo. Indeed the GT has two options: Premium, with 860W of power through 14 speakers, or High Premium, with 1195W of power and 19 speakers — all, of course, designed and engineered in Italy, and employing the brand’s signature silk-dome tweeters and paper-cone midrange drivers. The evenings in Perth have included a showcase of these sound systems alongside the rest of the Maserati range, suitably accompanied, we are told, by…

IN-CAR EXPERT GROUP EISA IN-CAR HEAD UNIT 2024-2025 Sony XAV-9550ES EISA IN-CAR AMPLIFIER 2024-2025 BRAX REVELATION RX2 PRO EISA IN-CAR DASHCAM 2024-2025 BlackVue DR970X-2CH Box Plus EISA IN-CAR DSP AMPLIFIER 2024-2025 ESX VE1300.11SP EISA IN-CAR HIGH-END COMPONENT 2024-2025 ESB Novemila Series EISA IN-CAR INTEGRATION 2024-2025 Eton UG BMW Ultimate Series EISA IN-CAR OEM PREMIUM AUDIO SYSTEM 2024-2025 Lotus Eletre with KEF Reference Audio System EISA IN-CAR PREMIUM UPGRADE 2024-2025 HELIX V EIGHTEEN DSP EISA IN-CAR SUBWOOFER 2024-2025 Ground Zero GZPW-10SQX EISA MARINE AUDIO COMPONENT 2024-2025 Hertz Venezia V8 DSP PHOTO EXPERT GROUP EISA ADVANCED FULL-FRAME CAMERA 2024-2025 Nikon Z6III EISA APS-C CAMERA 2024-2025 Sony Alpha 6700 EISA BEST BUY TELEPHOTO LENS 2024-2025 TAMRON 70-180mm F/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 EISA BEST BUY WIDE ANGLE ZOOM LENS 2024-2025 TAMRON 17-50mm…

audiovisual 4K Mini LED television SUMMARY TCL 65C855 Price: $2999 + Great overall pictures + Google TV interface + Free ‘TCL Channel’ − No headphone ability TCL’s new season of televisions is upon us, and what an extraordinary range it is. TCL today is an undeniable technology leader; it may have established its brand in the market via hotly-priced entry-level ranges, but this is a massive Chinese company which now competes on quality and technology with any Korean or Japanese manufacturer. It has made staggering US$40bn investments in CSOT, the Shenzen panel manufacturer it owns, which can now make any panel size — up to 130 inches. On its $8bn ‘Gen 8.5’ fab line it can slice a 5.5m2 sheet of mother glass into either six 55-inchers or two huge…

hi-fi all-in-ones Integrated music systems, all-in-ones, call them what you will: their main merit is convenience. They are the ultimate convenience product: a one-box music system. Indeed towards the end of this group we see one-box systems that can do the job for music and TV entertainment together. A one-box audio system can be very small. We decided to put in a couple of units at the beginning which are primarily just radios, because they fit the general breed; also some of the higher-level all-in-ones deliberately mimic the aesthetic of radiograms of old, perhaps to persuade purchasers that these are acceptable pieces of furniture for the home. Of course, things have very much been a-changing over recent years. While some keep radio (as a still vibrant and wide-ranging music source),…

SUMMARY Yamaha MusicCast 200 (TSX-N237D) Price: $999 + Full and punchy sound for size & price + MusicCast streaming & multiroom + CD and radio too – Cheap remote – Small display Yamaha calls the MusicCast 200 “a multimedia music system”, which is a good stab at summarising the abilities of this attractive box, because it is rather more complicated than it can first appear. With its antenna raised up, you might think it was a larger table radio (it is some 37cm wide). Or given the prominent sleep/snooze button on the front you might think it to be a bedside music system. And it could be either of those. It has FM radio, DAB+ digital radio too, and alarms or tunes to wake you up. But there’s also a…

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin The Zeppelin became an instant archetype upon its original launch in 2007, not only for its shape, but for its price, which unashamedly defined a new level of premium all-in-one system, first appearing as an iPod dock, then twice as a wireless speaker, now today as simply the new ‘Zeppelin’. It still looks stunning, and its price of now $1199 for the standard model looks a lot less stratospheric than in its early days, given the numerous higher-priced arrivals over the years. There are no audio inputs round the back of the Zeppelin at all, just power, plus a USB-C slot for service purposes or wired Ethernet networking. Otherwise it’s wireless all the way, using B&W’s ‘Music’ app, AirPlay 2 for Apple users, Bluetooth with SBC,…

HAWKWIND In Search Of Space (2CD+BD) Remixed, remastered? You shouldn’t do that… When in 1973 Pink Floyd said ‘I’ll see you on the dark side of the Moon’, they didn’t realise that Hawkwind had been there, done that and bought the spacesuit a full two years previously. In October 1971, ‘In Search Of Space’ touched down a little over 12 months after the Hawks’ self-titled debut, and it’s light years ahead of that fledgling far-out fandango, thanks to the band’s remarkable musical advancement and embracing of all matters cosmic. Still, there had been inter-dimensional disruption in the run-up to ‘ISOS’. Guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton had disappeared following a bad LSD experience at the Isle of Wight festival (Tiny Tim’s set most likely sent him over the edge); synth-warrior Dik Mik had…

news Wireless speakers can offer a wonderfully simple solution, what we call an “all-in-two” in our group this issue (see p63). Instead of a single-box hi-fi, you get two boxes, which can be positioned for genuine stereo. The delight of wireless speakers is that no other gear is required: the speakers themselves contain the electronics to stream, amplify, and play your music. In most cases they also have inputs, so you can plug in other sources, like a CD player or your TV, but the main convenience factor is in having an easy, space-saving two-box solution. So here comes Triangle, from France (thus most accurately pronounced ‘tree-ongeler’), with these Capella wireless speakers, which are resplendent in a series of luxurious finishes, including the pictured cosmic Astral Blue. But the Triangle…

As we’ve mentioned once or twice, DTS:X is as close to a failed format as you could imagine, utterly dominated by Dolby Atmos as a next-gen object-based sound format capable of delivering height as well as surround information. DTS:X has been adopted by no major streaming service in Australia and only tiny examples globally, so that some electronics manufacturers have already stopped supporting DTS:X as a format on their products — why pay the licence fee when there’s no chance of a consumer receiving any? DTS:X has been relegated to certain Sony Pictures releases on optical discs, hardly a sector where one can hope for growth. But the brand’s owner, Xperi Corporation, is also the owner of the IMAX brand. So some years back it switched to promoting an ‘IMAX…

It’s a classic all-analogue stereo amplifier, attractively priced at $649 in either its black or silver versions, making the new Rotel A8 now the most ‘cost-efficient’ model in the company’s ‘14’ series of products. Yet it’s engineered as a no-compromise Class-AB integrated amplifier, built on an in-house high-current toroidal transformer. Remaining all-analogue will certainly keep it clear of any digital nasties, if limiting the inputs to three analogue line-level inputs plus a moving-magnet phono stage for a turntable. There’s a minijack headphone socket on the front, with tone controls that allow ±6dB adjustment at 100Hz and 10kHz. It’s impressively low-slung, considering the toriodal inside: just 6cm high, and the usual 43cm hi-fi width. The power of the A8 is being listed as 2 × 40W into four ohms, but those…

Hegel H400 streaming amplifier Wilson Audio The Watt/Puppy loudspeakers ▶ Advance Audio: www.advanceaudio.com.au NAD Masters M66 streaming preamplifier PSB Alpha iQ wireless bookshelf speakers ▶ Amber Technology: www.ambertech.com.au Musical Fidelity A1 amplifier Triangle Capella wireless bookshelf speakers ▶ Audio Marketing: www.audiomarketing.com.au Meridian Ellipse wireless speaker ▶ Cogworks: www.cogworks.io Austrian Audio The Composer headphones Blok Stax 2G AV furniture Monitor Audio Gold Series 300 6G loudspeakers Pro-Ject XA B turntable Rotel RAS-5000 streaming amplifier T+A R 2500 R multi-source receiver SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers ▶ Interdyn Brands: www.interdyn.com.au Bowers & Wilkins 700 S3 Signature loudspeaker series Marantz MODEL M1 streaming amplifier Marantz CINEMA 30 AV receiver ▶ Masimo Consumer Australia: www.marantz.com/en.au www.bowerswilkins.com/au Primare SP25 Prisma home cinema processor Direct to dealers: https://primare.net Samsung 65S95D OLED TV Samsung HW-Q990D soundbar Samsung…

The ‘TCL Channel’ (for which there is a short-cut on the remote control) is not one channel, but many. A great many! Such free streaming channels are being offered by a number of manufacturers in various levels of profusion; TCL’s offerings are here organised by its subsidiary company FFalcon, and it’s a generous and sensibly-curated collection. In live channel terms we could access 21 sports channels, 6 news, 4 gaming and e-sports, 6 food, 4 ‘faith and family’, 5 finance, and 8 channels each of entertainment, movies, comedy, music, doco, kids, outdoors, and lifestyle channels, plus 8 in Spanish and 7 in other languages. They varied in quality but it’s a lot of stuff, and that’s only the live channels. In addition to those (see top menu above) there are…

hi-fi all-in-ones We thought we’d start this look at all-in-one systems with a couple of smaller units — not everyone needs a $1000+ music system in every room, and our first two featured minimal devices also have the merit of operating on batteries, so they don’t have to be in rooms at all. Witness Richter’s little digital/FM radio, the Core+. Many of our readers will know Richter as a legendary Australian loudspeaker manufacturer, loaded with award-winning designs famed for high sound per pound, and invariably named after a mix of mythologies — the Thor subwoofer, their flagship Excalibur floorstander in ‘Special Edition Black’, and two best-selling legends in their own right, Richters Wizard and Dragon. But alongside these loudspeakers, Richter has run a sideline in digital radios since its current…

While all-in-one music systems are convenient (and, as we are seeing, the best of them can make good music), they have the inherent performance limitation of being box-bound in a single position. Stereo speakers were invented to spread music wide, and most music is mixed to be heard that way. While those traditional stereo speakers require separate sources and amplifiers ( just the sort of stuff we’re hoping to jettison for the convenience of an all-in-one), there is a breed which doesn’t. In recent years active stereo speakers (with internal amps) have evolved into streaming active speakers, which might be described as an ‘all-in-two’ system. They are a valuable alternative to an all-in-one, with the same overall control of everything under one remote, as it were, and potentially better suited…

Given that Christine is about obsessive love, it’s ironic that John Carpenter has never been that into his 1983 film. When it reached its 40th birthday last December, and we mention its acclaim as a classic or genre masterpiece, he scoffs down the phone: “Oh come on, stop, that’s ridiculous. I know there were rumblings about its anniversary. My question is, ‘Why?’” Carpenter is fond of his adaptation of Stephen King’s book about a deadly car named Christine, and he sure had a blast making it. But he’s always regarded it as a gig for hire rather than a personal project like the movies he made before (Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York) and after (Prince of Darkness, They Live). That he chose to sit…

news REL’s drivers are ‘hand-thrown’; it’s the only way, says the company, to truly randomise the fibres within the lightweight-but-stiff hot-pressed paper that forms the main body of the 12-inch downfiring cone inside the new Classic 99 subwoofer. Random fibres ensure excellent self-damping, it says, revealing one of REL’s secrets. Bringing the driver to complete silence produces the subwoofer’s startling dynamics. The new Classic 99 model builds on the previous Classic 98, with a new cabinet using solid walls as thick as 32mm, clad in a hand-fitted walnut veneer, and imbued with more power — a 450W Class-D amplifier fed by an all-analogue PerfectFilter front-end, extending useful output deeper than before, well into the low 20s of hertz, impressive depth for such a goodlooking subwoofer at the price of $3699.…

news Lenbrook’s Bluesound brand is reinventing its ‘Node’ streamers, the unpowered version of its streaming and multiroom networking boxes. Where once there was one, now there will be three, with a revamped version of the standard Node joined by a new more affordable ‘Node Nano’, and a souped-up reference streamer, the ‘Node Icon’ (pictured). The Nano is shipping immediately; the Node follows at the end of September and the Icon in November. The Nano is $499, the replacement Node (aka N132) rises to $999, and the Node Icon will be $1799. The Nano thereby offers quite the price-drop; indeed previous to this the inclusion of a Bluesound module in any product seemed to add about a grand to the price; we had queried this with Lenbrook in relation to the…

We don’t often include thirdparty competitions in our pages, with magazine lead times being as they are, but when this issue publishes you should still have a few clear weeks to enter Krix’s remarkable contest to win one of its legendary MX-20 front baffle module cinema systems (right) — famously dubbed the ‘Wall of Sound’. It’s the company’s biggest ever giveaway, a celebration of the company’s 50 years in operation. “Krix’s 50th anniversary is a testament to our commitment to innovation and engineering in the audio industry,” says Gary Krix, MD of the South Australian company. “We’re thrilled to continue our celebration with this extraordinary giveaway.” Recognising that not every consumer could accommodate the MX-20’s five-module behind-screen array incorporating 15-inch subwoofers, 10-inch main drivers and waveguide tweeters, remarkably shallow though…

1 EISA TURNTABLE 2024-2025 Pro-Ject XA B EISA STREAMER 2024-2025 Eversolo DMP-A8 2 EISA STREAMING PREAMPLIFIER 2024-2025 NAD Masters M66 EISA PREMIUM STREAMING AMPLIFIER 2024-2025 Hegel H400 3 EISA STREAMING AMPLIFIER 2024-2025 Rotel RAS-5000 4 EISA COMPACT STREAMING AMPLIFIER 2024-2025 Marantz Model M1 (joint with HTA Expert Group) 5 EISA ENTHUSIASTS AMPLIFIER 2024-2025 Musical Fidelity A1 EISA INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER 2024-2025 HiFi Rose RA280 EISA BEST VALUE STREAMING AMPLIFIER 2024-2025 WiiM Amp 6 EISA PREMIUM WIRELESS LOUDSPEAKER 2024-2025 Meridian Ellipse EISA PORTABLE LOUDSPEAKERS 2024-2025 Morel Biggie EISA PREMIUM SOUNDBAR 2024-2025 CANVAS HiFi, CANVAS (joint with HTA Group) 1 EISA PREMIUM ALL-IN-ONE SOLUTION 2024-2025 T+A R 2500 R 2 EISA PREMIUM WIRELESS BOOKSHELF LOUDSPEAKERS 2024-2025 Triangle Capella 3 EISA BEST VALUE WIRELESS BOOKSHELF LOUDSPEAKERS 2024-2025 PSB Alpha iQ EISA PREMIUM LOUDSPEAKERS 2024-2025…

audiovisual custom installation This home cinema was constructed on the top floor of a new extension to an older home, and the owners of the home carefully defined its different areas well before the build began. Downstairs would be the husband’s entertaining area and home office. Upstairs, the new cinema room, and behind that, his partner’s new sitting room. But the cinema room, as thus defined, was not a large one: approximately 4.5 metres by 5.2 metres, and notably non-symmetrical, with the right wall angling in towards the front of the room. There was no continuous straight wall or ceiling line in the whole room. “The ceiling height was low as well,” notes David Moseley of Wavetrain Cinemas, the home cinema design company engaged for the task. “Considering what we…

headphones sonic sunglasses SUMMARY JBL Soundgear Frames Price: $169 + Sunnies and sound in one! + Full awareness + Can add prescription lenses - Not very private - Headsize-critical Get a pair of your own sunglasses and put them on your head. Push them firmly against your face. Now rest your finger in your ear and grab the wing of your glasses in exactly that position and keep hold of it. Then take off the glasses and measure from there to the front of the glasses. What’s your measurement? For our Editor, it’s 10.5cm. For his wife, it is 9cm. Why does this matter? Because when JBL created its Soundgear Frames, which cleverly house electronics and speakers in the wings of a pair of sunglasses, they had to choose how…

hi-fi all-in-ones SUMMARY Majority Little Shelford Price: $110 + DAB+/FM & Bluetooth + Mains or portable use + Price – Basic sound – Plastic appearance Second up in our group, a larger DAB+ and Bluetooth system, which is also the first product we’ve ever heard from Majority. This is a UK company founded on Bluetooth products by two friends from Cambridge in 2012, beginning with a little ‘burger’-style Bluetooth speaker and growing to sell some three million units (and counting) of soundbars, speakers, systems, radios, even DVD players. At the end of their first decade they won themselves one of the Queen’s Awards For Enterprise. Our colleagues at WHAT HI-FI? have reviewed one of Majority’s soundbars and rated it as good value. Their prices are almost all remarkably low, partly…

SUMMARY JBL Authentics 500 Price: $999.95 + Lots of fun, lots of sound + Good app, good streaming + Google/Alexa smart speaker – No digital inputs for more Atmos – Hard to tame bass dominance – No physical remote control We have a strong presence from JBL in this issue, with the sonic sunglasses on p50 and two very different all-in-one systems in this group. This first is the largest of three new ‘Authentics’ wireless loudspeakers, rising from the smallest ‘200’ model at $500 up to the 47cm-wide Authentics 500 which we review here, at twice the price. The Authentics 500 is not only a wireless speaker but, thanks to its accompanying app, also a smart speaker, with its own microphone and your choice of Google or Alexa voice control.…

SUMMARY JBL L75ms Price: $3299 + Big and beautiful + Sensible streaming & HDMI in + Full and punchy sound – No radio or CD – Awful remote control – Avoid ‘SFX’ effect – Crazy position for bass-cut button It was exactly a decade ago that we reviewed a JBL all-in-one system called the Authentics L16. We liked its performance very much, but it was, we warned, quite the size, and also demanded “an aesthetic assessment before you can even consider bringing one into your own home.” It was clearly ‘retro’, we noted, but not the 1950s retro then common; instead a 1970s retro, with clear references to the company’s classic white-woofered JBL L100 Century speakers. The 1970s may have been a golden era for JBL, when its engineers, likely…