Innehållsförteckning för December - January 2016 från Sound + Image

The 2016 Sound+Image Awards were announced at our Presentation Dinner held this year at The Grace Hotel in Sydney’s CBD. Pictured here are Sound+Image’s Editor Jez Ford and Australian Incar Entertainment Editor Edgar Kramer, plus awards recipients (from left to right) Michael Di Meglio from Advance Audio & Kedcorp, Simon Goldsworthy from Yamaha Music Australia, Brad Serhan from Axis Loudspeakers, George Poutakidis from BusiSoft AV and Michael Henriksen from QualiFi , . Our thanks to all who attended, and to our The Platinum Chester Partner for the evening, Group, organisers of the Australian Hi-Fi>AV Show! And congratulations to all the winners — the stars of our Awards issue, being the best and best-value hi-fi and AV in Australia today...…

The main reason soundbars took off was their ‘neat’ solution to TV sound. But in reality, soundbars are still potentially messy — out in front of your TV with a varying number of wires running to their always-too-small rear connection bays, and with a separate subwoofer, often wireless these days but still a big box that you need to stick somewhere near a mains socket. Messy bar, inconvenient subwoofer — and sound that can’t match a dedicated surround system — all in the cause of neatness. Where did we go wrong? Focal shows that it doesn’t have to be that way. As we noted when talking about the Cambridge Audio TV5 (p15), we’ve long recognised the advantages of a platform-type sound base over a long thin sound bar. The connections…

Last year we were impressed by a new turntable from the UK’s Avid — the company’s ‘entry-level’ Ingenium span away with our 2015 Sound+Image Award for Best Turntable under $3000 (it’s $2499 including arm but not cartridge). So unsurprisingly we were delighted to spend time with this Sequel SP, which is several models higher up Avid’s range at $11,445 (without arm or cartridge). Available in either a silver or black finish, the Sequel SP is itself a sequel to the original Sequel, which from all reports was a fantastic bit of kit. The new SP benefits from the newest version of Avid’s DSP variable speed power supply, a twin-belt drive and the latest (improved) version of the company’s famous ‘upside-down’ main bearing. After the motor, the bearing (below) is the…

It’s an unusual looking PVR, with its leather top and no display except a single LED on the front. Yet this hides (or enhances, if you like the design) a solid two-tuner PVR which also includes a goodly portion of the media abilities and networking which helped the company’s four-tuner media machine (known as either the ‘4tune’ or the HDR-1000T) to win last year’s PVR Award. So what do you get for your $449? The hard-drive storage capacity is about what you’d expect at this price, with 500GB provided. It has, as its nickname makes clear, two tuners, but you can record four shows at once, provided they’re from a maximum of two networks (e.g. three ABC channels and one from Nine network). Then there is the combination of features…

BenQ has more commonly appeared in our entry-level projector categories, but has been raising its range in recent years, though this new W2000 still comes in at a respectably reasonable $2499, with two pairs of 3D glasses included. As is BenQ’s wont, this is a DLP projector, using a full-HD single chip and six-panel RGBRGB colour wheel that runs at 6× speed. And it comes pre-calibrated with (and defaults to) the Rec.709 HDTV colour standard; this is the standard colour format for HD material and BenQ has put a lot of effort into ensuring that consumer HD is getting accurate colour. The result was an extremely natural appearance, especially with skin tones, yet where called for by the source material the colours were bold and rich. Indeed we were much…

E each year in our highest AV receiver category we weigh up the merits of these multichannel media marvels, and while it’s often a close call, Yamaha’s Aventage receivers have taken out our top accolade year after year. And this year the top Aventage Series VI model, the $2899 RX-A3050, was boosted by yet another new ability — compatibility with Yamaha’s new (or reborn, to be accurate) MusicCast wireless multiroom system. It’s built in to this receiver, so any input, any streaming service, even Bluetooth streams, can be shared with the flick of an app screen with other MusicCast devices around the home. And given the number of inputs it has, that’s quite a powerful scenario. There are eight HDMI inputs, all supporting UHD and 4K up to 60p, ready…

An entrancing set of speakers just to look at, and even better to hear, Bowers & Wilkins delivers a superb combination of speakers for home cinema sound in this $10,796 CM9 Theatre S2 5.1-channel speaker system. The black piano gloss finish of the review system simply exuded quality, while the significant weight of each component of the system also had something to say about the build. The system is drawn from B&W’s revised CM Series 2 — the CM6 S2 from this range is recognised separately on p61. Our winning speaker package is led by the CM9 S2 floorstanders, substantial units weighing an impressive 26.6kg each and standing a touch over a metre tall on the included plinths. These are three-way, four-driver speakers — at the top is a double…

Now in Mk II form, the SoundLink Mini has something about it which breeds affection. We love how it slots in a little tray so you can pick it up without having to remove wires. We love how it creates an impressive kick of warm sound from something you can hold between your hands — several were the times we left it between our normal hi-fi speakers and shocked a visitor by passing them the source of sound. And it hardly needs our recommendation, since it’s become a widely recognised benchmark for Bluetooth speakers at this price level ($299). Next issue we plan a whole group of speakers around this price, but we’re kinda giving away the result of that group test here on this page since the Denon above…

Let’s start with the kicker — the Gryphon Diablo 300 is, we think, the best integrated amplifier ever to grace our audio testing and music-listening environment. Its heritage stretches back to the first high-end integrateds seen in the industry (separate preamp and power amps have long been the high-end way); indeed the original Diablo was considered by many to be the high-end integrated amplifier. The new model has been cosmetically revised in keeping with the Gryphon look (it bears some stylistic resemblance to the company’s Mephisto power amplifier) while substantial circuit upgrades and refinements have resulted in operational efficiencies and potential sonic improvements. As a result it delivers something truly special — uninhibited dynamic expressiveness, superb resolution in conjunction with midrange beauty and treble sweetness. But its the overall musical…

Bose continues to own the noise-cancelling headphone category, and the QC25s are the only product in our whole awards which have returned to triumph a second time — we simply haven’t found better. The QC25s are available in Apple and Android flavours (with different in-line remotes), and a couple of new finishes have been introduced since last year, but it’s the straight-forward quality of both sound and noise-cancelling that keeps them at the top. The active noise-cancellation is effective and gentle, and is powered by a single AAA battery, which we reckon is preferable and more convenient than recharging an internal cell. And in contrast to earlier Bose NC models, these will work passively if you run out of battery power. They fold in several dimensions to fit into their…

In this below-$1000 category, there’s nothing out there to touch Alpine’s iLX-007E. In particular it makes great use of the CarPlay protocol from Apple, integrating iOS smartphones with the head unit in order to access various features in an ergonomically friendly and familiar fashion. Without this, you’re looking at basically an AM/FM radio here, with Alpine’s CD/DVD changer and its TV tuner adding video and CD capabilities to expand the entertainment options — the unit also accepts Alpine’s excellent optional reversing camera. But once hooked up to the iPhone the iLX-007E becomes an excellent music player, a fine navigation system, and also a hands-free telephone and text tool that’s phenomenally easy to use. And of course it’s controllable via the ever-improving Siri (microphone included) or the superbly-responsive 7-inch capacitive touchscreen.…

Alpine has a tradition of releasing special state-of-the-art versions of its amplifiers — going back to the legendary F#1 Status range, which is highly sought-after and still revered among audio enthusiasts the world over. So since gold has always been a symbol of prestige and quality, Alpine has taken this precious metal as the basis of a new series, delivering this new ‘GC’ Gold Collection version of its superb PDX-F6 amplifier. The PDX-F6GC is a high current digital Class-D amplifier with each of its four channels being rated to produce over 150W continuous when presented with a 2- to 4-ohm load. This rating is not overblown marketing hype — the amplifier complies with CES2006 standards and Alpine provides a birth certificate of verification with each amplifier. We’re talking a total…

Another product that came into awards consideration without much challenge whatsoever, Italian company Hertz having built an enviable reputation around the sound competition arena for providing outstanding products in every category. For these new splits, the company spared no expense, the mandate for this entire Mille range being to produce class-leading products at prices that don’t decimate the bank balance. In the highly-engineered third generation (that’s the ‘.3’) the system is made up of the meticulously-designed ML 280.3 tweeter with its 35mm Tetolon fibre diaphragm in a near full semi-circular profile to help reduce distortion. This works in conjunction with the black CNC-machined solid alloy frame and a 28mm 4-ohm copper-coated aluminium voice coil wrapped around a thermally efficient polyamide former. The main driver is a 165mm black-coated rubber surround…

In this new category for pre-boxed subwoofers, the judging panel chose Vibe Audio’s CVENC8-V4, a superbly-built active subwoofer in a metal enclosure which houses a high-power eight-inch woofer driver on its top panel under a tough steel grille. But in order to get big output from an enclosure that can actually fit under a car seat, Vibe Audio cunningly mounted two 170mm by 30mm rectangular passive radiators, one on each side of the enclosure. Powered by an amplifier rated at 120 watts RMS, 240 watts ‘Peak’, the CVENC8-V8 is a shining example of clever design and high performance mixed with convenience in size and placement. More info: www.vibeaudioaustralia.com.au HIGHLY COMMENDED Digital Designs LE-M08 Rockford Fosgate PS8…

Welcome to our Wireless Multiroom categories — last year we had only one award for these, but this year, given the explosion of such systems in the market place, we have drilled deeper to recognise the best overall multiroom system, the best single component, the best portable player, and here the best soundbar which features multiroom abilities. It’s quite sneaky putting such streaming and app control abilities in a soundbar — it’s important, of course, for manufacturers to get that first bit of multiroom gear into your home, as it locks you into their ecosystem. And since Yamaha is famous for its soundbars anyway, some purchasers may be bringing the company’s new version of MusicCast into their home without realising it. Because at $999, the YSP-1600 is a good soundbar…

When we presented this award to Yamaha at our Presentation Dinner, we accused the company of being rather late to the multiroom party compared with some competitors. We were corrected, quite rightly, since Yamaha’s original MusicCast appeared 11 years ago, hopelessly before its time, and so in truth Yamaha was a pioneer and has merely been biding its time. And now it has relaunched an entirely new MusicCast, it has taken the bold decision to put the system in as many of its products as possible. So while the main launch centred on four key products — the BAR (p88), the STUDIO (p91), and the two products inset above, the FRAME and the PLUS, the company also put MusicCast in most of its AV receivers, micro systems and more. Buy…

OpenLIVE is Australia’s first broadly-based high-resolution download site, and that alone is reason to celebrate. But the ‘Live’ in OpenLIVE’s name is there for a reason — the team has a plan to offer ever-increasing amounts of 24-bit live recordings from venues around Australia and, they hope, subsequently around the world. That’s quite an undertaking — and it’s a model that doesn’t obviously scale up well. But they have a secret weapon in MasterBuilder (pictured right), an automatic recording system that is permanently installed in venues, recording performances automatically, and then uploading these high-res recordings to the internet. These are then presented to the artist, potentially within minutes of the performance, and they use a simple web interface to preview and edit the recordings, then OK them for release on…

If you’re considering an Ultra High Definition (4K) television, you might be expecting to pay a significant premium over full-HD tellies given that this is a relatively new technology — the first 4K TVs only landed last year, and there is, as yet, not a whole bunch of 4K content easily available. Yet here is a 55-inch curved UHD screen which we found to deliver very good TV performance, the right connections to be as future-proofed as possible against incoming 4K standards, and as a bonus, brilliant performance for gamers. All for a remarkable $2199. And it’s handsome, its speaker section doubling as a stand, conforming to the gentle curve of the screen, plus what looks to be a panel of real wood veneer centred between two black speaker grilles.…

Let’s be honest — the rise of the soundbar hasn’t been an entirely positive experience. Their raison d’etre was neatness (compared with an AV receiver and 5.1 speaker package), but the worst of the breed (often the lowest-priced) are simply too small to deliver high-quality sound. But if it’s a soundbar you want, we’re here to make sure you get one of the good ones. At entry-level prices, we’ve found time and again that the base designs — a platform speaker on which you put your TV, rather than a bar that sits in front — perform best, and this year Cambridge Audio confirmed that again with its excellent $649 TV5. A base allows more internal volume than a bar, the TV5 including 100W of internal amplification feeding a proudly…

In this category we were looking specifically for network music players that will fit into a conventional hi-fi system — so hi-fi component width, effectively replacing or augmenting a CD player with this new type of source, one that can stream from music shares on your network at hi-fi quality. Many such units also provide digital inputs so that the streamer can double as a DAC — but our winning Denon specifically does not do this, other than having a USB slot into which sticks or drives of music can be plugged, and perhaps most useful for the connection of iPods, iPhones and iPads. By omitting the DAC functionality, Denon has managed to hit a price-point of $849, significantly lower than rivals offering similar levels of sound quality. We reckon…

When Compact Disc launched, we were told that it would provide “perfect sound forever”. We’re fairly sure that by “forever” they weren’t predicting that CD would become the last physical music format in history — but that’s almost certainly the case, along with the delightful shock survival of vinyl. Meanwhile the longevity of the discs themselves are currently delivering a bonanza of bargain secondhand CDs as people ditch their collections — we routinely return from a charity shop with 10 classic CDs for $8 the lot. (It’s worth remembering the same price levels were once applied to secondhand vinyl, but no longer. So get ’em while you can.) You could, of course, rip all your CDs and then play them from computer or to a streamer. But your most reliable…

Blu-ray player and Blu-ray recorder (below) — both awards go to Panasonic, which has a long and proud history in high-quality video products. It has also just launched the first 4K Blu-ray player in its home Japanese market, and with those new UHD disc players on the way, we perhaps wouldn’t recommend buying an expensive 1080p Blu-ray player right now. Hence our award goes to the DMP-BDT460, which sets you back a mere $279, yet which has proper network functions in addition to playing Blu-ray discs, DVDs and CDs, and which also supports media playback from USB and SD cards. It also has a web interface and access to Panasonic apps that add various internet functions. One of the best things about Panasonic Blu-ray players is their superb picture quality…

We have two different awards for personal video recorders this year, those on the previous page being our pick of two-tuner models, and this Beyonwiz being the winner in a second category specifically for four-tuner models. These have only appeared in the last year or two, their increased tuner count allowing recordings from four networks at once, and from multiple channels within those networks. So with this Beyonwiz T4, you might record SBS, ABC, WIN/Nine, and Prime/Seven, all at once — and at least two shows from each at the same time, up to a quoted total of ten simultaneous recordings. (Indeed we managed to get it recording 12 shows at once, but it did start getting a little sluggish in response when so overloaded, so 10 is a good…

For several years now, Sony has had a monopoly on 4K projection in the consumer market, capitalising on technology brought from its professional division to deliver a series of simply stunning projectors, of which this VW520ES is the latest. While the first rival 4K projectors using TI’s new 4K DLP chips should arrive in the next year, as we write, Sony’s projectors remain the only 4K models in town. And we have no problem with that — Sony’s projectors have set an extremely high standard for competitors to try to reach. This VW520ES retails at $14,999, but if that sounds like premium pricing compared to the projectors on our previous pages, we must stress, of course, that you do get premium quality for your money. This projector is a true…

Even if your principal system is an astonishingly high quality audiophile set-up, what about the rest of the house? Or what about the 11 channels required for a full (or 7.1.4 at least) Dolby Atmos system? The $3995 ZoneMaster Model 1250 is a 12-channel power amplifier, extremely flexible, but also of high quality, coming from respected powermeisters Parasound in San Francisco. Although there are 12 channels, it can be used for 11, or 10, or any number down to six. You don’t waste the leftover amplifications — the 12 channels are grouped as six ‘zones’, and each can have its two channels bridged to one (for higher power output) or can be set to be a mono pair (i.e. with left/right signals mixed and output by both channels). Zones can…

So who might be best placed to deliver the sound component of home cinema to consumers? A company that makes real cinema sound systems would be well placed to adapt these to the smaller home environment, you might imagine. Indeed you don’t have to imagine, because we have just such a company right here in Australia — Krix Loudspeakers. For some years now, Krix has had a crossover point between professional and domestic cinema in its flagship home speakers, the Series X range — the ‘X’ stands (kinda) for Extreme. But these are not suitable for putting on either side of your telly in the average Australian lounge! Series X was designed for spare-no-expense home cinemas where only the best speaker systems will do. But aware that not everyone can…

We used to say that Velodyne makes subwoofers and only subwoofers — but in recent years it has started producing headphones as well. Still, its specialism always shows through strongly whenever we put a Velodyne head to head with its opposition. This SPL Ultra with its 12-inch driver is by no means a new release, dating back at least five years, but when it outperforms its rivals at the price ($2899), it gets our award regardless of its age — the best is still the best. The sub’s 12-inch driver has a 75mm voice coil, with coils wound both inside and outside the former, and a massive magnet structure of 9.8kg — nearly half the weight of the entire unit. Sealed enclosure, big magnet — all these things suggest a…

Standmount speakers like those we recognise here are not simply a “poor man’s floorstander” — many audiophiles swear by the magic of the standmount speaker, the mini monitor in particular making up for any lack of low-end extension by providing unrivalled imaging, pinpoint instrumental focus and the proverbial ‘disappearing act’. More solid, less resonant — smaller speakers can provide a cleaner, therefore more accurate, bass response. And here is a prime example, the VoiceBox S from longstanding Australian manufacturer Axis Loudspeakers. Founder John Reilly has recently established a new factory and engaged a new design partner in Brad Serhan, an engineer notable for many product successes from budget to high-end. The resulting VoiceBox S mates a Fountek 50mm true ribbon driver for high frequencies, supported by a 133mm Nomex paper…

The world seems to have had wireless speaker fever in recent years — we see dozens of them every month. But you know what? Nearly all of them are awful. The vast majority, big names some of them, can produce sound, but are not musical — they sound boxy, restricted in space, they distort as you turn them up. Wesometimes call them the ‘processed food’ version of hi-fi — it’s all very convenient, but it’s not the real thing, it won’t keep your music fresh and alive. All the more reason to celebrate, then, when we find good ones. And interestingly we have found great quality among many of the wireless speakers released as part of the wireless multiroom systems that have become prevalent in the last couple of years…

The amplifier may not be the most glamorous element of the hi-fi chain, but it is most certainly crucial. At their core, amps should make little signals large, without changing their nature in any other way. Sound easy? It isn’t. There are as many ways a to design an amp circuit as there are ways to design a loudspeaker. And these days, that’s just the half of it. The rest covers all the secondary tasks an amplifier is now expected to do. Where once there were just a few analogue inputs, now we want lots of them, and digital inputs for modern sources too, so that amplifiers are very often DACs as well (indeed once we all have digital amplifiers, the market for standalone DACs will presumably recede once more).…

In audio terms, pre-power amp combinations have always been the purists’ choice, since you keep the power circuits pure and separate from all the switching and knobbage of the preamp. So if you still think of NAD as a midrange purveyor of traditional separates, you might be surprised to see this pair — $6999 and $5499 respectively — taking out our first pre-power award. We saw the more traditional style of NAD component in our CD awards on p25, but in recent years the company has developed a higher-end line of amplification, based on what it calls ‘Direct Digital’ and in sheer power terms its ‘Power Drive’, a development of the company’s Power Envelope circuit from the ’80s and ’90s . This adds a second high-voltage rail to the well…

In an industry seemingly obsessed with difficult model numbers, all hail Blaupunkt for picking city names for its products! The Cape Town 940 is a superbly spec’ed multimedia head unit, for starters featuring a well-isolated disc mechanism capable of playing back varieties of CD and DVD formats, including MP3, WMA, Xvid, AAC, DivX, MP4, even FLAC, while also being fitted with Blaupunkt’s CODEM IV radio tuner, offering ten presets on both AM and FM bands. Bluetooth is built-in, of course, and caters for both wireless music and hands-free telephony from multiple phones. Connect the unit to a Wi-Fi hotspot (e.g. your phone) and it becomes an infotainment kaleidoscope. Blaupunkt has pre-loaded popular apps such as Shazam, Spotify, TuneIn, Google, FaceBook, Twitter, iGo and Amazon, but obviously the list of available…

Italian high-end car audio specialist Audison has had a tradition of developing products at the cutting edge of technology. The company’s ‘bit’ range of products feature advanced digital processing — and our winner here, the Prima AP4.9 bit, is no exception. The AP4.9 shares the same processor as last year’s award-winning AP8.9 bit, except that in the case of the winner here, the power and channel configuration are now four channels at 70 watts each. And the digital processor allows channel input/output configuration, mating to Audison’s outstanding DRC controller to deliver parametric equalisation, full digital crossover type (Full/High-Pass/Low-Pass/Band-Pass) and configuration selection, phase adjustment, time alignment and much more. Of course all this is coupled with exemplary build quality and specifications, high current drive and a styling which is understated and…

In this category we’re looking for a complete system, or most of a system, which simplifies your purchase decision by giving you everything in one place. And in the middle of 2015, UK hi-fi company Musical Fidelity delivered the Merlin, which could have been tailor-made to fit our requirements. We get excited just remembering how this package got everything right — the mini amplifier and the two oval-fronted speakers came in their bright red finish (silver and black are also available), the amp is weighty, the speakers too, and impeccably finished — those red cylinders are metal, not plastic; their speaker terminals are full-sized binding posts, while the speaker baffle behind the solid grille is interestingly shaped and stepped around the 76mm balanced-mode radiator speaker at its centre. (Musical Fidelity…

A portable multiroom speaker is a bit of a contradiction in terms — multiroom operates using your home network, so if a speaker is portable and leaves the home, it’s not a multiroom speaker any more! So think of these as dual operation — Wi-Fi indoors, but switching to Bluetooth for point-to-point streaming from your phone when you’re out. And we were delighted by the sound quality of the little HEOS 1 speaker — the top half of its response is delightfully open and non-fizzy, and there is enough bass to deliver an enjoyable overall balance; we didn’t feel the urge to mess with EQ as we have done with larger HEOS units. Close up it delivered quite the impact, and even half a room away it was pushing Leonard…

If you asked us for our biggest ‘wow’ moment over the last year, our answer would be the day we took home LG’s original OLED telly — the 1080p one, not this even more stupendous Ultra High Definition version. Only when you’re settled in a softly-lit room do you truly appreciate the extraordinary image quality of LG’s OLED panel technology — no back-lighting, the illumination comes from the pixels themselves, so that when they’re off, they are off, with true black as the background over which colours consequently shine. We were thrilled. Even the missus was thrilled. We watched Blu-rays for days until they took it away again. We could give that full-HD model an award, but now that the UHD version has arrived here, we should rise to enjoy…

This winner appears twice in these pages, because the Yamaha YSP-1600 is not only a capable soundbar, it is also equipped with Yamaha’s MusicCast wireless multiroom technology. That adds all manner of streaming abilities for internet music services and network music sharing, including being able to receive and send via Bluetooth. More about that on p84. We say ‘soundbar’, of course, but Yamaha prefers the term ‘Digital Sound Projector’ to reflect the cunning technology used in all but its entry-level soundbars, where multiple small speakers are used to ‘direct’ the discrete surround channels around your room in an effort to achieve a wide spread of sound. While this does not, in our experience, replace the effect of real rear speakers, Yamaha’s DSP technology does better than most at achieving a…

Shameful to confess, but we dropped turntables from our awards for two years, back when new models were rare and the format seemed reduced to almost cult status. Now vinyl is the great success story among the remaining physical media, sales rising, and turntable sales too, encouraging new designs and allowing us to recommend some exciting new decks for spinning the black stuff. Turntables were always an equipment type which presented the opposite of diminishing returns — the more you spend the better things get, and a cheap turntable is really no solution at all. The price of this Thorens — $1490 including the arm and cartridge — is a fair level to consider if you’re returning to the vinyl fold, especially as Swiss-based Thorens has brought technologies to the…

Italy’s Gold Note is not only based in Florence, but also builds all its equipment there, with the suitable motto ‘The Renaissance of Technology’. It has been building CD players since 1998 (including a model curiously called ‘The Koala’), and the CD 1000 is the lower of its two current models, the other being the Favard Anniversary, with a $23,200 base price. The CD 1000 has a base price of $6900. Base price? Yes, because Gold Note’s players are upgradeable — you can option in one of two different Class-A output stages instead of its standard output stage, either of two different external power supplies instead of its own on-board power supply, and either of two different external atomic clocks instead of its onboard clock. It’s a clever modular design…

It was a surprise to learn the price of Epson’s latest 1080p home cinema projector — at $1149 our bargain sirens were sounding at top volume. It’s a compact unit, for sure, but it nevertheless serves up 2200 lumens of brightness (Epson noting that its three LCD chips combine to deliver the full colour range at up to 2200 lumens as well, whereas some competing technologies can only achieve their stated brightness with full white), while the dynamic iris (which opens and closes rapidly to adjust the overall light levels to improve the effective black levels during dark scenes) boosts the contrast ratio to an impressive 35,000:1. The 200W lamp is rated with a generous lamp life of 4000 hours of operation in normal mode and 7500 hours in eco…

The market for AV receivers has dropped in recent years, paralleling the rise of the soundbar, and yet the receivers themselves have become ever more powerful, more versatile, and much easier to use since the innovation of app control. The addition of networking has brought all the wonders of music streaming, and even for the receivers in our under-$2000 category, a full list of their functions would fill this page and more. There is one commonality among AV receivers, which is their size — big double-height units to fit in all the amplifiers and all the rear socketry. But one company, Marantz, has long been offering an alternative in its line of ‘slimline’ (or more correctly ‘short-arsed’) receivers, this latest NR1606 being a more home-friendly 105mm tall (including feet but…

Our Speaker Packages of the Year bring together full 5.1-channel systems of speakers, including subwoofer — obviously these can be extended for more channels by adding additional units of the rear (or possibly front) speakers to meet your needs. We are keen to emphasise the complete and utter difference between the kind of cheap ‘home theatre in a box’ offerings sold with TVs in chainstores, and a proper set of speakers from a hi-fi manufacturer like these. Our winning package under $5000 makes this point perfectly. These are hi-fi loudspeakers all — Richter Acoustics is an Australian loudspeaker maker established almost 30 years ago, now with its flagship Legend Series up to its fifth version, with significant revisions all round. This impressive 5.1-channel package uses, in all, four models from…

Before the owner of this home cinema opens the door, he uses the Control4 app on his smartphone to select a specific lighting scene inside. Visitors enter to walls of Matrix-style digital rain, parting at the front to reveal a perspective image with silhouettes of the owner’s own family. A spectacular bar area outside the room shines under the illumination of purple LEDs — but wait, when we walked through a minute ago, wasn’t the bar red? Instinct Electrical was the company responsible for the installation of lighting, automation and AV equipment throughout this whole home on Sydney’s North Shore, with a Control4 system running C-Bus lighting, Ness security, video distribution, and Sonos for multiroom audio. But with the home cinema being such a high priority for the owners, Instinct…

B&W’s top-of-the-line subwoofer combines convenience and software control with spectacular performance — indeed it had us walking down the street to hear the results when we reviewed it as part of our subwoofer group test. For your $6500 you get a 44kg design of wood and metal that stands 500mm tall on its feet or spikes (both are supplied), with a footprint of 640 by 410 metres. Inside this extremely sturdy sealed enclosure are two 300mm Rohacell drivers on opposing faces — an extremely large radiating surface. This is powered by a semi-separate amplifier module, perhaps 50mm tall, on which the enclosure rests; the amp is rated at 1000 watts output continuous and has extensive DSP processing. It’s versatile too, not only with its own controls, but with a calibration…

Two winners in this category — we decided we simply couldn’t recognise one but not the other. Both are high-value Bluetooth speakers, the Envaya being $319, wider and nearly three times as high as the Bose, with a fairly enormous power brick to plug in when on mains power, and a USB-A socket which can charge your smart device as it plays. But whip away the mains power and the Envaya keeps playing for around 10 hours thanks to its internal batteries. The unit itself can lie flat on its back or, more usefully, stand upright with a very natty pinch-to-open ‘kick’ stand. For the fashion-conscious, the Denon also has an unusual bit of built-in customisation. The main unit comes in a choice of black or white, but each model…

For such an impressive and versatile amplifier, we were surprised to discover that the H160 (and Hegel itself) has its roots in heavy metal. Back in 1988, Bernt Holter was paying his way through university in Trondheim, Norway, by playing in a heavy metal band, and as they started playing larger venues, they needed more powerful amplifiers. Holter decided to build them himself, using a new amplifier topology he’d developed for a thesis, in which he’d proved that it was possible to reduce distortion in an audio amplifier without adversely affecting other performance parameters, in particular frequency response and damping factor. The circuit is now trademarked as ‘SoundEngine Technology’, and rather than build ‘one-off’ amps, Holter decided the circuit deserved fully commercial products. The results have proven another great success,…

At the top of the audiophile amp world sit pre-power combinations — the ultimate purity of power for the ultimate performance. We revel in our review time with these wonders of hi-fi, and none more in the last year than with this pair from infamous US marque McIntosh, so remarkably chunky that we can’t even fit both of their images full-size on this page — the $12,995 C2500 preamp is pictured above, the $16,995 MC452 below right. McIntosh is an iconic American brand — it provided the amplification for Woodstock in 1969, and was behind the legendary 29,000W ‘Wall of Sound’ P.A. system for The Grateful Dead. Ownership changes and evolution in the 60-odd years since its inception haven’t changed certain aspects of McIntosh — its solid engineering principles and…

As one of the world’s largest electronics companies Sony consistently succeeds in delivering the incar market with head units that balance high level of features with attractive prices, while also keeping the quality at a steady high point. And here Sony has provided oodles of power above the standard fare at this price point. Our sister magazine Australian Incar Entertainment currently has its own dedicated Awards issue on sale with full details of all our incar categories, and they highlight the Sony’s wide file handling via disc, high-speed USB 2.0, or via the 3.5mm analogue auxiliary input. It’s also equipped with a version 3.0 Bluetooth chipset which not only handles telephonic duties but expands significantly upon this via Sony’s downloadable app called SongPal. On the test bench the Sony’s pre-outs…

The AVIC range has for many generations represented the flagship no-holds-barred multimedia head units from Pioneer. This latest-gen F70 range-topper crams in the features and functions, including Navteq navigation software, with 4WD off-road mapping and SUNA live traffic updates. A high-spec 7-inch touch screen uses a bright backlit LED panel with 16:9 ratio/ WVGA resolution of 2400 x 480 pixels, and is able to handle both NTSC and PAL video formats. The AVIC-F70DAB has a built-in mech that handles either CD or DVD formats. The software compatibility is wide, encompassing MP3, WMA, Xvid, AAC, DivX, MP4 and FLAC. Apple’s CarPlay, Android’s Auto, Pioneer’s AppRadio and MirrorLink are all included,. so app-based functionality and smartphone replication is a breeze whatever your preferred phone system, and the GUIs look great on the…

The flagship speaker range for car audio specialist db Drive is the appropriately-named ‘Euphoria’ range — a number of products culminating in the $650 Euphoria ES9 6C component speaker system that the judging panel thought to be quite extraordinary. The 165mm main drivers are housed in heavy die-cast baskets which are coated with anti-resonant material while the 25mm tweeter is surrounded by nicely-milled aluminium rings. These may sound like cosmetics but it all reflects what’s to come. The 165mm’s hybrid glass-fibre cone material looks like carbon fibre with a very tight weave and features a rubber surround. They are specified as being 93dB sensitive and rated to maximum dynamic power of 300 watts (100 watts RMS). The tweeter features a magnesium alloy dome with neodymium magnet system attached to a…

Yes, it looks like a radio, we know, but that’s kinda the point — this remarkable product, developed in Australia by the local Bush team, aims to sneak into your home in the guide of a traditional radio, then blow your mind by revealing itself as being able to connect to your home network and deliver (pause for breath...) app control of DAB+, FM and internet radio, limited UPnP network music streaming, Spotify Connect compatibility, Bluetooth, an auxiliary input, plus potential multiroom growth for most of those sources, and a lovely end unit for playback of all this. All for $499. The friendly radio feel extends to its main controls. With its many available presets you can use it like a simple household radio, selecting digital radio stations, FM or…

Of all the components in all the tests of all the multiroom systems we’ve reviewed this year, one made us go ‘wow’ more than all the others, and that was this pair of Yamaha NX-N500s, part of the company’s MusicCast system (see also p92). Perhaps we’re a little biased — we have a thing for good little active stereo speakers which can present a true stereo sound (regular readers will remember our continuing passion for the AktiMate range), much preferring this over the localised boxier sound of single-piece wireless speaker units. And at $999 the pair, we reckon we’d be awarding these Yamahas something as USB or Bluetooth or wireless speakers, even if they weren’t multiroom capable. Yamaha cites the classic NS-10M Studio Monitor as the inspiration for the N500s,…

It’s the Award you decide — our most downloaded review of the year from AVHub.com.au. So this could be, in theory, a product from many years ago — though that rarely proves to be the case. (The count does, however, benefit reviews published early in the year, which get longer to build up their numbers.) One review has barely dropped off our Top 10 list all year, and that’s one of TCL’s early 4K TVs — we should note that it doesn’t have HDMI 2.0 sockets, so we wouldn’t be recommending this now, but at the time we reviewed it, that was all there was! Meanwhile the rest of the top five reviews were as follows: • B&W 685 S2 loudspeakers (2nd); • Beyonwiz T3 PVR (3rd) • Yamaha YSP-2500…