Innholdsfortegnelse for September - October 2022 i Australian HiFi

Newport Test Labs measured power output only for the SoulNote A-2’s conventional stereo mode, the results of which are shown in the ‘Power Output’ table accompanying this review. At 1kHz, both channels driven into standard 8-ohm loads, the SoulNote amp delivered a maximum undistorted power output of 117 watts (20.6dBW), which very slightly exceeds the manufacturer’s specification. Driven into 4-ohm loads under the same conditions, Newport Test Labs measured a power output of exactly 200 watts per channel, which was exactly as specified by SoulNote for this impedance. Look closely at the tabulated results and you will notice that the SoulNote A-2’s output increases compared to the both-channels-driven figures when only a single channel is driven, suggesting an unregulated power supply, but you can also see that when both channels…

There are few better afternoons, at least for people like me, than one spent digging through the crates in a record store, market or thrift shop. Reissues are abundant now in this second coming of vinyl, but there is still nothing quite like finding an older press still in sparkling condition, and hopefully at a bargain price — especially considering the not-insignificant price of new releases these days. But it is not only in the finding of a record for which you’ve long been searching; it is as much about the condition in which you find it. That may be a given, but knowing what to look for and how to get your hands on it can be a tricky game. Every collector will have their own routines and insider…

Australian Hi-Fi magazine is a proud member of the worldwide Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) community, which is formed of expert reviewers from 60 technology magazines and websites specialising in hi-fi, home theatre, in-car electronics, mobile electronics, photo and video from 29 countries around the globe. Each year, EISA members come together to judge the best product of the year in each class and decorate the manufacturer with a coveted EISA Award — and, despite some ongoing complications due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year was no different. Australian Hi-Fi magazine voted on every award allocated in the Hi-Fi categories in a complex process that involved nominations, shortlists, listening sessions, extensive laboratory testing and a comprehensive final voting session. On the following pages are all the winners of the…

Meze Audio ADVAR in-ear headphones Meze Audio has established a very solid reputation in a very short time frame. For the archaic civilizations of Romania, where Meze Audio is based, an Advar was similar to a talisman, amulet — a symbol of the absolute, fated to bring blessings and good luck to whoever wears it. Like the ancient amulet, the ADVAR in-ear monitor is a work of art with its solid stainless-steel chassis and high-gloss Black Chrome plating. The ADVAR is more than just art, though. These are, like all Meze Audio offerings, superb sounding headphones. It is this commitment to performance that dictated that these phones are not wireless. Despite recent advances, Bluetooth is a convenience technology, one that comes at a price, and that price is performance (this…

There is a definite appetite for single-box ‘just add speakers’ solutions at the moment. With the reduced dependence on physical data (CDs, cassettes etc) and the ascendancy of streaming, it is easier to package everything you need — amplification and streamer — into a single chassis, resulting in a more discrete alternative to multiple separate components. NAD has been active in this market for some time, with both the M10 and the superb M33 being firmly established. And it has just released a more economical version of the above with the new C 700 you see here. Despite its modest $2,699 price, this is a feature rich piece of electronics. Using the BluOS Controller app, you can cue up music from dozens of streaming and internet radio services, or play…

To mark the 10th anniversary of their common ownership, Naim Audio and Focal have released an exceptional limited-edition system — the one you can see above. The system comprises a pair of Focal Sopra No.2 speakers featuring concrete side panels and a ‘tin’ facia (and they look a lot better than they sound!). They also sound much better than the standard version. The electronics consist of the cutting-edge NDX 2 music streamer and Naim’s NAC 282/NAP 250 DR pre-power amplifiers, complete with matching NAPSC and HiCap DR power supplies. These components are finished in a steely grey finish to match the speakers, and the system is sold with all the necessary connections, including a pair of Naim’s top-of-the-range Super Lumina speaker cables. This system represents what a limited edition offering…

Pro-Ject Metallica Turntable This is not the first time Pro-Ject has released a limited-edition, artistbased turntable, but it is one of the most unusual. The surface of the aluminum turntable body has been treated with a mirror finish, the ‘S’ shaped arm comes with a detachable headshell, and the platter is manufactured from high-density zero-resonance glass, giving this turntable its very distinctive look. The feet are adjustable, and the speed change is a simple flick of a toggle switch, instead of removing the platter and changing the position of the belt on the pulley. There is even an optional belt that allows you to play 78s. Despite its unusual and playful design, this is a quality turntable, representing good value at $2,299. It is a limited edition, though, so if…

Sennheiser’s fourth effort keeps the momentum alive Had Sennheiser decided not to let slip the battery life of its Momentum 4 Wireless noise-cancelling headphones in a teaser earlier this year, my eyebrows might’ve impeded my hairline upon spying the spec sheet that accompanied the recently released news announcement. Instead, I was relieved that the company was able to see through its promise of a 60-hour battery life, which is around twice as long as the competition typically offers. That feat is bolstered by a fast-charging feature that offers six hours of listening from just a 10-minute charge, too. That’s not where the headlines for these all-new Momentums end, either. They are Bluetooth 5.2 compliant and support the high-quality aptX Adaptive codec — in addition to, of course, the more standard…

+ • Accurate voltage • Clean power • High current - • Cost-effectiveness • DC lead length RRP $1,899 I feel a bit betrayed whenever I unpack a hi-fi component and find that it’s powered by one of those cheap ‘plug-pack’ power supplies that plugs directly into a 240V mains power socket (unkindly known in the trade as a ‘wall-wart’). This has become a bigger problem than ever before as increasing numbers of hi-fi manufacturers decide to circumvent the myriad electrical regulations of the different countries around the world by using off-the-shelf plug packs to power their products, on the basis that the required electrical certifications are then the responsibility of whichever firm manufactures the plug-pack. Quite apart from the fact that I am not totally convinced that all plug-pack…

Graph 1 shows the frequency response of the GoldenEar BRXs, as measured by Newport Test Labs. Overall, it shows a response that, between 70Hz and 22kHz is ±3dB, is admirably flat. It’s also quite a balanced response, in that the 3dB variations across that bandwidth are relatively randomly spaced, rather than being concentrated in one area of the audio spectrum. Also, there’s no spectral skew that would otherwise tilt the response in such a way that it might favour the bass over the treble, or vice versa. The graph does show a slight lift in output across the region between 500Hz and 2kHz, and there are two small peaks in the high frequencies at 3.5kHz and 6.2kHz, but these are so small and have such a high Q that they…

Dallas Clarke was virtually raised in a recording studio. As a child, he was surrounded by guitars and amplifiers and microphones — and electrical wiring, the crucial element that would lead to his career as an audio technician. “I’ve always been fascinated by electricity and its connection to recorded music,” he says, reclining in his busy workshop in Glen Waverley. For Dallas, it is a place of imagination, just like it was for Geppetto, the creator of Pinocchio. Some suggest that Dallas breathes life into dormant metallic objects, much as Geppetto gave life to Pinocchio from a piece of wood. Dallas’s father nurtured that audio interest. Bruce Clarke O.A.M was a renowned composer and guitarist who initially worked with studio legend Bill Armstrong to produce high quality themes and jingles…

Muse Will of the People WARNER/HELIUM-3 When Muse lifted the visor of the VR headset that had transported them into the retro-futurist 1980s of 2018’s Simulation Theory album, the apocalypse they’d long predicted was raging around them: despots, diseases, mass uprisings, wildfires, the nuclear shadow… Having already made the decision that their ninth album would reflect world events, pickings were rich. It opens with the title track, a glam-rock satire of Trump’s January 6th foot soldiers determined to ‘push the emperors into the ocean’ and ‘smash a nation to pieces’, along to a tune heavily reminiscent of Marilyn Manson’s The Beautiful People: singer Matt Bellamy concludes: ‘We need a revolution, so long as we stay free.’ From there we get a sonic newsreel of the pandemic era, from Black Lives…

According to Musical Fidelity, “for a solution to be true to the Musical Fidelity tradition, it has to have our warm but transparent and incredibly detailed signature sound, and not just be technical wizardry to give clean technical measurements. We need to hear it, we need to feel it, and we need to move with it inside and out”. This philosophy has obviously been applied to the MX-Stream, Musical Fidelity’s first dedicated streamer — due for release in late October. In keeping with this purist approach, this is a streamer only; there is no DAC or pre-amp built in. It’s the streaming equivalent of a CD transport, a device designed to plug into an existing DAC or amplifier that has an integrated DAC feeding a USB input. The MX-Stream is…

If you have been a client of ours for 30+ years, you will recall the heyday of Perreaux. In the late 80’s/early 90’s, we sold truck loads of Perreaux amplifiers — and for very good reason. They sounded good, they were well priced, and they were reliable. This was a great example of a simple design done very well. Much was made of the build quality and indestructability of these amplifiers, with images circulating of Peter Perreaux throwing an amp off the top of the building, or of an amp being run over with a truck. Perreaux has undergone a few changes of ownership since those days, and a couple of the new releases have caught our eye (for more than one reason). The 200iX and 300iX integrated amplifiers are…

You know how it is: you do your research and read plenty of reviews but the pair of speakers or piece of kit you really want is priced just out of reach. Bugger! There’s a way around that problem without having to lower your sonic ambitions, and that’s to buy second-hand. It takes a fair bit more legwork to get exactly what you want compared to just clicking a ‘buy’ button on your favourite retailer’s website to purchase something new, but there is a strong chance you will get what you want for less expense. Therein lies the appeal of second-hand hi-fi, after all, and it can be a satisfying experience if you are careful in the buying decision and process. How affordable should second-hand hi-fibe? Typically, you should find…

It is possible you noticed that this newsletter has a different look about it. After some decades, Len Wallis Audio is having a re-brand. Nothing drastic — same friendly staff, same fabulous products, same showroom (although there are some changes underway here as well), but all folded into a slightly different package. This includes a new website which will soon go live, and we are in the process of updating our internal operating systems too. Our marketplace has dramatically changed during the last few decades. The traditional ‘audiophile’ has now been joined by a new brigade of younger consumers who have been raised on low-fi, having all the music in the world available at their fingertips without any suspicion of how good it could sound. This generation, reared on an…

One of the downsides to most multi-room wireless streaming systems (BlueSound, HEOS, Sonos, MusicCast etc) is that their application is restricted primarily to playing network-accessed music. It may be possible to add an additional source, but the options are limited. BlueSound has recently announced HUB, a wireless audio source adaptor that will accept numerous analogue and digital input sources, including phono, line-level, optical, coaxial and HDMI eARC. You can even have two simultaneous audio streams — one via an analogue input and the other via a digital input — per hub. The HUB connects to your network via Wi-Fi or hardwired. It then allows for a number of sources — a turntable, a CD player, a TV etc — to be distributed wirelessly through your existing BlueSound network. We are…

JBL Synthesis The Home Theatre market has gone through a maturity phase in recent times. The vast majority of domestic theatres built in the past have been constructed around brands and products, particularly speakers, that were initially designed in a two-channel world. However, the needs and requirements of the two worlds vary considerably. More recently, a number of companies have commenced designing and manufacturing products specifically for the Home Theatre market. Len Wallis Audio spent a considerable amount of time researching various brands and, for a number of reasons, we believe that the best offering comes from the JBL Synthesis. Firstly, and most obviously, is its performance. JBL has a long heritage in Home Theatre. The first talking movie, The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson in 1927, utilised JBL speakers.…

Consumers buying their first audio systems are not at all surprised that there are differences in sound quality between different speakers. After all, even if you know nothing at all about the technologies underlying differently designed loudspeakers, it seems commonsense that large speakers in large cabinets would be louder than small speaker in small cabinets, and that, even, large speakers would produce deeper bass than smaller ones. Yet those self-same consumers are always completely surprised that there are differences in sound quality between different amplifiers. The differences in sound quality between amplifiers that are entirely constructed using solid-state components — transistors, MOSFETs, are sufficiently subtle that it usually takes a discerning ear to hear them, assuming that variables such as power output, circuit noise and damping factor are taken into…

Another new brand on our shelves is Aurender. Aurender has established itself as arguably the finest manufacturer of streaming products that our industry has to offer. The offering is comprehensive, ranging from the compact $5,495 ACS10 CD ripper/storage/streamer through to the $42,995 referenceseries, two-box N30SA server/streamer. Aurender is characterized by the two attributes we all look for in a music streamer, the first one being performance. A good indication of the standing within the industry for any brand is how many companies who don’t manufacture a competing product use its components at industry shows. At the Munich High-End Show in particular, Aurender is indeed the most common source of choice used by noncompeting companies. The second is control — irrespective of how well a product performs It must also be…