Innholdsfortegnelse for May - June 2020 i Australian HiFi

Italian manufacturer Aqua has re-leased the LinQ, a new Network Audio Interface based entirely around discrete modules, each of which is optimised for one single function. The first two modules available are the RAAT (Roon Ready) module and a UPnP DLNA streaming module, with the company saying it will add more modules later. Each LinQ can accom-modate up to four modules. Indeed the LinQ takes the ‘modular’ concept to the extreme, because each module even has its own dedicated power supply. ‘In addition to the optimisation of each function, this architecture guarantees an exceptional possibility of future upgrades,’ says Mike Kirkham of Ma-genta Audio, which distributes Aqua in Australia. In another unusual move, the Aqua LinQ does not use a USB interface: output is via AQlink, a proprietary I2S connection.…

A new all-Australian designed and built microphone will improve the look and sound of your videos and teleconferences. The Rode Wireless GO ultra-compact wireless microphone sys-tem has become a favourite of filmmakers and vloggers because it’s ultra-small, easy to use, has outstanding battery life, and delivers high-fidelity sound no matter how many other Wi-Fi or Bluetooth transmitters are in the immediate area. But until now, it’s only been available in black with a matching black Lavalier microphone, so despite the tiny size of the transmitter and microphone, they sometimes become obvious in videos, particularly close-ups. Rode, which designs and builds the Wireless Go entirely in Australia, has announced that the entire Wireless Go system–microphones, transmitters, and accessories such as wind shields–is now available in white. The Wireless GO transmitter (TX)…

JBL’s latest upgrade to its original 2017 Boom-box leaves it with a similar appearance to its predecessor, but there have been some design tweaks. The new model is fractionally heavier (it weighs 5.9kg) but the biggest change is that JBL says that it can run on batteries for 24 hours whilst delivering what JBL describes as “original Pro Sound that combines loud-ness monstrous bass”. It also has an unusual handle. Dario Distefano, principal industrial designer for JBL explains: “One element that we wanted to improve was the grip of the handle. We were inspired by motorbike handlebars that have a grip designed for performance in all conditions. We also used new cutting-edge materials to make the speaker super stable even when blasting loud music.” Also now onboard is JBL’s PartyBoost…

Hungarian-made Heed Audio amplifiers are now well-known in Europe, indeed Zsolt Huszti, the R&D Director (and majority partner) at Heed Audio says that in France the brand has the same market share as Rega. So I was surprised when Huszti told me he had to be dragged kicking and screaming into building his amplifiers… it was something he really didn’t want to do. But the story really starts at a time when Hungary was behind the Iron Curtain and Huszti was an electronics technician with a fascination for British audio equipment. ‘The problem was that there was no legal way to import it into Hungary for retail sale.’ he said, ‘It was possible to obtain the equipment if you travelled somewhere the equipment was available, after which you could bring…

In each brick enclosure is a Klipsch speaker system fixed to the concrete slab that literally forms a part of his large house. He laboured for three long months on this life-long design, a design that he says “absolutely eliminates all resonances.” He even topped the brick cabinets with thick pieces of Jarrah wood from Western Australia to reinforce them. He built his dream system using about 150 bricks per speaker and poured 40 years of audio knowledge into the Klipsch design. “My wife would be feeding me my dinner as I worked on them,” he said. “These wonderful speakers have been here in my home for 20 years and will be here as long as the pyramids.” The ports themselves are made of brick to produce a deep and…

Some manufacturers are a little vague about the rooms in which they think their loudspeakers will perform at their best, and the amplifier power most suited to their capabilities. Not Italian manufacturer Chario. For its Constellation II Delphinus model, it specifies: ‘The size of the ideal listening environment should not be less than 9 square metres and not more than 20 square metres. A carpeted floor in front of the speakers is recommend-ed. The minimum power amplification suggested to fully exploit the characteristics of the speaker is 30-watts per channel into 4_.’ It then goes on to suggest that you can use ‘amplifiers rated at up to 70-watts per channel into 4_’ but specifies this as ‘average power’ rather than ‘rated’. That’s pretty specific, except for one thing, which is…

Austrian manufacturer Ayon Audio says its  changed dramatically, so it has released a MkII model that is Roon ready and can be optionally fitted with an in-built solid-state drive. ‘Essentially, the company has rede-signed the S-10 by refining and expanding its original modular concept so that the new Mk II version can be individually configured in different versions to specifically address each specific buyer’s individual requirements,’ says Boris Granovsky, of Absolute HiEnd, which distributes Ayon Audio in Australia. The new Ayon Audio S-10 II includes a network music player, computer playback, USB drive playback, analogue preamp, a new dual mono digital-to-analog converter and an updated PCM–DSD converter that now converts all incoming PCM signals to DSD. It’s also possible to install one of a choice of several solid-state drives to…

Klipsch has updated its long-running Heresy models to MkIV status, in the process making many substantive changes that make it a completely different speaker than either the one introduced in 1957, or the updated 2006 model. For a start, the Heresy MkIV is now, for the first time in the model’s long history, a bass reflex design. ‘The provision of a Tractrix geometry port has improved low frequency extension by almost 10Hz, for room-filling bass,’ says Ralph Grundl of QualiFi. ‘And the necessary crossover upgrade, which draws on the steep slope designs of the legendary Klipschorn, La Scala and Cornwall speakers has resulted in truer-to-life sound with best-in-class efficiency and power-handling.’ The new port is powered by the out-put from the rear of a Klipsch K-28-E12 305mm fibre-composite bass driver, which…

Theory Audio Design, a division of Pro Audio, and a newly established AV equipment manufacturer based in Lake Forest, California, has appointed Queensland-based distributor Cogworks as its exclusive Australian distributor. Paul Clarke, General Manager of Cogworks, says that seven Theory Audio Design models in the initial release include a multi-purpose loudspeaker, two subwoofers, three soundbars, and an amplified loudspeaker controller, and that all are now available from Cogworks’ national network of dealers. All the full-range loudspeakers in the Theory Audio Design initial line-up are either in-wall or wall-mounting designs. The entry-level model in the four-model wall-mount range is the SB-25, a two-way using two 127mm-diameter carbon-fibre coned bass/midrange drivers and a 35mm polymer compression driver housed in an aluminium case. Sold individually, each one sells for $1,899 (RRP). The Theory…

Yamaha has released the A-S3200, the first and most powerful amplifier in its newest series of pure analogue stereo amplifiers. It features many of the same technologies used in Yamaha’s flagship 5000 Series amplifiers and although the new amplifiers look similar to the A-S1100, A-S2100 and A-S3000 models they replace, Yamaha says these latest models use new technology and components. “The new A-S3200 incorporates key features from the 5000 Series, including mechanical grounding to reduce unwanted vibration, thick wires for ground connection to ensure lower impedance and the toroidal transformer uses drawn-out wiring to reduce energy loss,” said Simon Goldsworthy, General Manager of Yamaha Music Australia’s AV Division. “The A-S3200’s circuitry has been re-invented and is the result of years of customer feedback, research and development.” It turns out that…

Boulder makes the bold claim that it builds everything it sells entirely in-house, in-deed the company claims to be last manufacturer in the USA to be doing so. According to its website: ‘Along with assembly and testing, every circuit board and piece of metalwork is produced in-house at Boulder’s dedicated facility for unparalleled quality assurance.’ It’s perhaps because of this ‘do it in-house’ build philosophy that Boulder does not update models very often, not least because it needs to recoup its research, engineering and tooling costs for each model. So the new 866 is a very exciting release. It replaces the Boulder 865 integrated amplifier which dates from back in 2007, but the 865 was in essence just a Boulder 810 preamp and 860 power amp coupled on a single…

Want an easy way to add wireless Bluetooth connectivity to an existing traditional hi-fi system? The iFi Zen Blue can receive signals from a wide range of Bluetooth codecs including aptX HD, AAC and Sony’s LDAC and convert them to a standard analogue audio signal or a SPDIF digital signal. Although there are many low-cost Bluetooth streamers (aka receivers) already on the market, this is one of a handful that puts a priority on good sound. The company’s engineers have tried to make the Zen as accom-modating as possible. So how good is it? THE EQUIPMENT iFi’s Zen Blue Bluetooth streamer is a really nicely built unit that takes up less shelf space than a typical paperback. I was expecting a moulded plastic box, but once I extricated it from…

Metronome’s AQWO SACD-CD Player/DAC is actually part of a trio, because the small French manufacturer decided it would be best to split the cost of the research and development it put into building its first-ever SACD player across an additional two models, which are essentially the ‘building blocks’ of the AQWO. So, at the same time the company was developing the AQWO, it also built a transport, the t|AQWO and a DAC, the c|AQWO. All three are built by Metronome itself in its factory near Montans in the South of France, where it also builds a luxury line under the ‘Kallista’ brand. The front panel of the AQWO (it’s not a model number, by the way, it means ‘I listen, I hear’ in ancient Greek, according to Jean Marie Clauzel,…

Readers interested in a full technical appraisal of the performance of the Chario Constellation II Delphinus Loudspeakers should continue on and read the LABORATORY TEST REPORT published on the following pages. Readers should note that the results mentioned in the report, tabulated in performance charts and/or displayed using graphs and/or photographs should be construed as applying only to the specific sample tested. Newport Test Labs measured the overall inroom frequency response of the Chario Constellation II Delphinus being as 80Hz to 20kHz ±3dB, as shown by the trace on Graph 1, which is the averaged in-room response measured using pink noise, with capture smoothed by a third-octave filter. You can see that within these ±3dB parameters, the response is quite flat across the midrange area, from around 200Hz up to…

Australia has a new distributor, created specifically to import and distribute products made by Line Magnetic, a company based in the coastal city of Zuhai which is said to be ‘the most liveable city in Chi-na’, and is one of China’s premier tourist destinations, not least because it shares a border with Macau. Established in 2005, Line Magnetic manufactures amplifiers, preamplifiers, CD players, DACs and loud-speakers and also specialises in the repair and production of antique products built by Western Electric, Altec, and Jensen. Almost all its products use valves in their design. Line Magnetic Australia was established by Campbell Nunn, who says he was so passionate about the company’s products that he wanted to make them available in Australia in a manner that provided confidence and value. ‘The amp…

The Parasound ZoneMaster 2350 is a new Class-D power amplifier rated at 350-watts per channel into 8Ω that has a two-channel analog subwoofer output fitted with an 80Hz, 24dB/octave low-pass crossover that’s now available for the first timein Australia. Although it’s rated with an output of 350-watts into 8Ω, Parasound claims that it will deliver 600-watts per channel into 4Ωloads and is also able to drive 2Ωloads. ‘The 2350’s high-current design and extensive heat-sinking enable it to easily drive 2Ω loads in demanding applications,’ said Claver Harper, of National AV Solutions, which distributes Parasound in Australia. It retails for $2,695. Other features of the ZoneMaster 2350 include separate line-level and speaker-level inputs, A & B speaker selector, a mono/stereo mode switch, a 30Hz/80-Hz high-pass filter to improve performance with small…

Australia’s hi-fi showgoers and followers of the high-end will know Kyron, whose unique speaker systems have carved the company’s positionat the highest levels of audio performance, using box-less dipole designs which deliver literally showstopping realism. First came the statement Gaia system, currently priced at $289,000, and then the Kronos ($161,000 with its optional subwoofer). And finally the flagship $349,000 Phoenix system, with seven different elements and twice the processing power of Kronos. Now the company is producing all these models in a new and mighty cool livery—the only catch being that you’ll have to buy a $1.3m car first, the world’s most track-focused hypercar, indeed: Australia’s own Brabham Automotive BT62. Only 70 of these cars, with their tubular spaceframe steel chassis and naturally aspirated 5.4-litre V8 engines, will be produced,…

GrilleReaders interested in a full technical appraisal of the performance of the Sonus faber Olympica Nova II Loudspeakers should continue on and read the LAB-ORATORY REPORT published on the following pages. Readers should note that the results mentioned in the report, tabulated in performance charts and/or displayed using graphs and/or photographs should be construed as applying only to the specific sample tested. Newport Test Labs measured the overall frequency response of the Sonus faber Olympica Nova II design as 38Hz to 37kHz ±4dB, which is an excellent result, and one that appears to be somewhat better than that claimed by Sonus faber itself. How-ever, since the company’s specification (of 40–35,000Hz) doesn’t actually specify the amount in decibels that the response deviates over this frequency range I cannot be absolutely certain…

The very first measurements made by Newport Test Labs were of power output. The lab’s results are shown in the accompanying Test Result table and also shown as bar graphs. Measured into 8Ω loads with just a single channel driven, the Boulder 866 delivered 248-watts irrespective of test frequency for all frequencies from 20Hz to 20kHz. When both channels were driven into 8Ω loads, the 866 delivered 221-watts per channel at 1kHz, 215-watts per channel at 20Hz and 224-watts at 20kHz. As you can see, all these measured results exceeded Boulder’s power output specification for the 866. Tested with a single channel driven into 4Ω, the Boulder 866 delivered 418-watts at 20Hz, 422-watts at 1kHz and 436-watts at 20kHz. However, when Newport Test Labstried to repeat the test with both…

The Marantz HD-DAC1 head-phone amplifier and DAC is one of Marantz’s premium models, in the popular, smaller ‘HD’ form factor case, that makes it perfect for bedside or desktop use, or for someone who wants a stylish unit on display in a living room. And it’s certainly stylish, in either its black or silver finish, both of which are trimmed with highly polished real wood side panels. But how does it per-form? That’s what I was keen to discover. THE EQUIPMENT But, first, what capabilities does the HD-DAC1 offer? What functions does it perform? Well, as the name suggests there are two main functions. As a DAC the Marantz HD-DAC1 can decode PCM fed via its two optical or single coaxial digital audio inputs. Sample rates from 32kHz to 192kHz…

It’s unusual for the output voltage of a disc player to be switchable between three different voltages, and I am not 100_per cent sure why Metronome has done it, but done it it has. The output voltage shown in the tabulated test results is for the 2.5V output, measured at the unbalanced outputs and you can see that the 2.4+ volts measured by Newport Test Labsis pretty close. For the same signal, the voltage at the balanced output was 4.9V, which at least shows the AQWO has a true balanced output, rather than one of the ‘pseudo’ types that are appearing on some audio products. What the tabulated Test Result chart does not show are the voltages for the other selectable outputs. When the AQWO is set to 2.5V, the…