Table of contents for July - August 2021 in Sound + Image

Zoom briefings instead of press launches have been a great success during the past year. Epson recently broke the drought with a proper PR bash to announce its partnership with National Geographic to save the permafrost, and perhaps the world, which on Epson’s side involves ridding it of laser printers. They hosted a launch and a lunch overlooking a sunny Sydney Harbour, and rejoining a physical group was most enjoyable, a reminder that however casual a Zoom chat may try to be, there simply isn’t the natter-level conversation either with the company or from journos on different beats covering technologies that may you may have missed. It’s so good to share. It’s also easier, in the flesh, after some chit-chat, to ask a serious technical question in a friendly manner.…

We often remind readers who are building a system to remember to retain perhaps 10% of their system budget for cables. So it will need a fairly esoteric system for that 10% to stretch to the latest line of Transparent’s Generation 6 ‘Connoisseur Collection’ of cables and interconnects. A 2.4-metre-long pair of top-of-the-line Transparent Magnum Opus speaker cable, for example (with its newly-configured stiffer and heavier polymethyl methacrylate plinth and isolation feet for the custom-machined constrained-layer-damped-acrylic carapace platform with its thick carbon-fibre sheet embedded in epoxy resin), has an Australian RRP of $112,050. But there are many ranges at more affordable prices: the pictured Opus cable is only a little more than half that price. They are distributed here by Advance Audio: www.advanceaudio.com.au…

Polk’s position within the Sound United stable of products has given it a new home in Australia alongside the rest of Sound United’s brands: Boston Acoustics, Bowers & Wilkins, Classé, Definitive Technology, Denon and Marantz. The change coincides with a new range — the Polk Reserve series of speakers, which sits just below the company’s premium Legend series. Indeed the new speakers use the same custom-made drivers developed for the Legends, including the proprietary Pinnacle tweeter and ‘turbine cone’ midrange. The Reserve range is extensive indeed, with three floorstanding models, three centres, two standmounts and a pair of height modules which can sit atop other Reserve series speakers or be mounted to the wall to deliver the height effects of Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Needless to say, then, the Polk…

We’re always keen to try soundbars which aim to work without a subwoofer, like JBL’s $599.95 Bar 5.0 Multibeam. The 71cm-wide bar incorporates five powered race-track drivers measuring 80×45mm, each with amplifier power of 50W (measured at 1% THD), along with four passive 75mm bass radiators to supplement the low-end using the drivers’ back energy within the cabinet. There’s built-in Virtual Dolby Atmos to benefit movie and gaming sound, while JBL’s MultiBeam technology aims to creates a wide soundstage, including Automatic MultiBeam Calibration (AMC) using the remote as the microphone sensor. The Bar has one HDMI input capable of 4K Dolby Vision passthrough to the HDMI output, which also supports eARC to play audio back from your TV, including multichannel formats if your TV obliges. There’s also an optical audio…

Sonance has made this issue’s ‘Spot The Invisible Speaker’ competition rather easy by framing them neatly either side of a TV. The company’s new Motion Flex Invisible Series employs wide-bandwidth Wave Flex drive units which behave as combined high-bandwidth midrange and high-frequency transducers, then a low crossover to carbon-fibre Air Flex woofers which connect to a chamber of air behind the speaker diaphragm, allowing sufficient excursion to produce promised “robust and powerful bass”. A repeatable and simple installation process includes a high-accuracy depth gauge and embedded locator discs to measure the thickness of a finish applied over the surface of the speaker. Six new models are available. For more information visit www.ambertech.com.au…

It’s game on with BenQ’s very latest projector, which comes with special game modes to make the most of gaming in general and the new Xbox and PlayStation consoles in particular. It could also be described as one step ahead, as it is so freshly minted that it represents a full production cycle forward of other key models in BenQ’s range. So let’s see what’s new, why it’s especially smart, and how it allows gamers — and entertainment lovers too — to get that step ahead. Equipment BenQ has taken to expanding on its range of pixel-flipping Ultra High Definition projection by means of specialisation. Most of our readers likely have a focus on home entertainment, where BenQ has offered the CinePrime W2700, and above it the W5700 and CinePro…

JBL’s ‘HDI’ models heralded a new direction for the US loudspeaker company. JBL is, of course, active across both the professional and hi-fi speaker markets, and it’s often been the case that its hi-fi designs have the heft of that pro background (see News p12), so that even their loving owners might be pressed to describe them as ‘décor-friendly’. So the HDI range has been designed to be easier on the eye, with new finishes, and cabinets where the only flat surfaces are their tops and bottoms. Yet all the main speakers in the HDI range also sport JBL’s patented HDI (High Definition Imaging) waveguide technology and its associated high-frequency compression driver, of which more below. Our first encounter with this range was with the second largest floorstander, the HDI-3600…

Sensational sounds from simplified systems Here at Sound+Image we are great believers in speakers which have amplification built-in. They can wildly simplify the traditional hi-fi system into something far more suited to the modern age, modern homes and modern décors. Instead of a stack of hi-fi components, you might reduce your system to a pair of streaming powered speakers with your TV plugged into them. A good pair of powered speakers used in this way will trounce the sound from your average soundbar and will very likely also provide a far neater solution. The best of them have become well-known and even revered — notably KEF’s great success with the LS50 Wireless speakers and the smaller LSX, both of which are included in this round-up. But truth be told, many…

KEF’s LS50 Wireless speakers, now in their MkII form (see separate review) proved such a hit with customers and reviewers alike over their first few years that KEF realised there was a potential market further down the price scale, bringing similar attractions to a wider audience. The result was the LSX design, which squeezed the concept and much of the tech of the LS50 Wireless into a new design which roughly halved both the size and price. But it is “not simply a baby LS50W”, we were told when the product launched. The LSX design was also about KEF changing what hi-fi can be. “A product for the 95%, not the 5%”, was the catch-cry – raising the quality for those who want simplicity and style. We also applaud another…

Where many wireless active speakers are all about receiving the signal wirelessly so you can keep things exceedingly neat up front, ELAC has gone a different way. You could go wireless here, using one of ELAC’s transmitter boxes. But you may not thereby enjoy the very best these speakers have to offer. For that, you should give them an analogue input, either RCA unbalanced or XLR balanced. Because their designer, the invariably impressive Andrew Jones, has kept those inputs entirely analogue, free from DSP right through the internal amplification and on to the drivers. In so doing, Jones has delivered a thoroughly pure and magnificent-sounding active speaker – which can work wirelessly, if you need it to. Equipment Germany’s ELAC is best known today for its hi-fi speakers, award-winning subwoofers…

The Musical Fidelity M3x Vinyl phono stage is a first for Musical Fidelity in more than one way. To begin with it’s the first phono stage in the company’s M3 Series, which Musical Fidelity promotes using the catch-phrase “Great-looking, superb-sounding hi-fi doesn’t have to cost a fortune.” The M3x Vinyl is also the first Musical Fidelity component to be built entirely in countries in the European Union, rather than its long-term manufacturing base in Taiwan. In 2018 Anthony Michaelson sold Musical Fidelity to his good friend Heinz Lichtenegger, the owner of Pro-Ject, who with his wife Jozefína (who owns European Audio Team) has multiple manufacturing facilities in the EU. So the M3x Vinyl is the first Musical Fidelity product to be built in one of these facilities. It remains to…

Yamaha has finally released information on four new models for its 10th generation of Aventage premium AV receivers. The RX-A8A, RX-A6A and RX-A4A offer 11, 9 and 7 channels respectively, joining the 7-channel RX-A2A which we have reviewed in this issue. That RX-A2A model is available now, with the RX-A8A available in Australia from June. Release dates for the RX-A6A and RX-A4A are yet to be confirmed. They represent the biggest change in external design since Aventage made its debut in 2010, with a simplified modern design moving the main volume knob to the centre, a new high-resolution LCD display to the right with a rotary jog dial and touch-sensitive buttons. The sound quality is also enhanced, says the company. “We broke the mould when we premiered our flagship Aventage…

Cambridge Audio has released two versions of an all-in-one streaming amplifier which aims to offer a complete just-add-speakers solution. The $3299 Cambridge evo 75 is rated with an output of 75W per channel and the $4299 evo 150 at 150W per channel, both using use the highly-regarded Hypex Ncore ‘Class-D’ modules for their power. The company’s ‘StreamMagic’ streaming platform is onboard, enabling easy access to online music services including Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Qobuz and internet radio, while there is also both Chromecast and AirPlay 2, plus Bluetooth with AAC and aptX HD codecs, so the evos can easily handle streaming from any other apps. There’s also DLNA avaiable for network streaming, while ESS Sabre DACs are used for the digital-to-analogue conversion — the ES9016K2M DAC in the evo 75…

As previewed last issue, Qobuz has finally launched its music subscription and download service here in Australia. The French-born Qobuz (pronounced koh-buzz) is unique in offering both streaming and downloads at high resolution up to 24-bit/192kHz, and it claims the “richest choice of catalogue in Hi-Res quality.” Crucially its streaming arrives in uncompressed FLAC format, sounding impeccable in the month we’ve spent enjoying the desktop app (see reviews this issue), with all files at a minimum of CD quality, a great many at 24-bit/44.1 or 48kHz, and others rising to 24/96 and 24/192. You can set your streaming quality from the maximum resolution down to 320k MP3 should your bandwidth be causing streaming issues with the larger files. The desktop app is neat, attractive and well-curated, with new playlists specific…

New Nodes is good news! Bluesound has released a new generation of its Node streamer and Powernode streaming amplifier, both models upgraded with new digital-to-analogue converters, more powerful DSP processors, and touch-panel controls with presets and proximity sensors. The Node is designed to play into an existing audio system, while the Powernode is a ‘just add speakers’ solution, its onboard power now 80W per channel of HybridDigital amplification (two channels driven, no distortion figures quoted, but being NAD’s sister company, they’re probably reasonable; also quoted is IHF Dynamic Power of 220W into 4 ohms). The BluOS platform onboard both models connects to key streaming services including Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz, with MQA decoding onboard to ‘unfold’ Tidal Masters to high resolution. It will also build a rapid access library from…

It may seem a familiar look for those who have visited Australian hi-fi shows, but this modular false-wall design for behind-screen home cinema use comes not from South Australia but from US manufacturer Klipsch. The Real Custom Cinema systems are designed and built in Arkansas, USA, leveraging the company’s experience in real cinemas to provide combined LCR and subwoofer packages for the home market. There are three versions. The RCC-102-BTS is designed for rooms up to 30m3 and screens of 117-129-inch 16:9 ratio, or 110-121-inch 2.35:1. The LCR modules have 1.75-inch titanium-diaphragm compression drivers and 15-inch polyfibre woofers, whole the sub modules have 18-inch polyfibre drivers. Next size up is the RCC-112-BTS, with larger 3-inch compression drivers, and suited to rooms up to 55m3 and screens of 128-140-inch for 16:9…

SOUND+IMAGE PRESENTS WORLD-CLASS AUSTRALIAN INSTALLATIONS If you’re going to build an extension to your home, what better use for it than a reference-level home cinema! Wavetrain Cinemas was engaged to design this home’s new cinema space from the ground up, as an extension to the existing house. “The client was after a cinema that could match commercial cinema performance,” says Wavetrain’s David Moseley. “And from the very start we knew we would exceed that goal by correctly designing all elements of the cinema.” And according to the lucky owner of this eight-seat theatre, David Moseley’s confidence was not misplaced. “Wavetrain far exceeded what I thought would be possible in a home cinema environment,” the owner tells Sound+Image. “Initially I thought it was about ‘coming as close as possible’ to the…

The first wave of 8K televisions seemed almost absurdly redundant. Quadrupling the resolution of 4K Ultra HD, which had itself quadrupled the resolution of Full-HD, seemed potentially excessive when few people were watching even 4K content, and there was no 8K content at all, except a few test scenes generated for the purpose of 8K demonstrations. We saw first Japan’s Sharp launching an 8K TV in Europe, then South Korea’s LG and Samsung presented their 8K TVs to Australian audiences and the rest of the world. At that stage we were somewhat dismissive of the need for 8K. Others pointed out that the higher resolution is impossible for the eye to discern at any normal watching distance. What was the point, we asked, except to have something new to sell?…

Ruark Audio, once a builder of traditional loudspeakers, has reinvented itself over the last decade through nifty DAB radios and other compact audio systems. These MR1s saw the company putting several of the company’s key technologies into a neat pair of standalone powered speakers. Originally released in 2013, they are now in a Mk2 version, still just as usefully compact. Size and design Yep, compact indeed. They stand, basically, 175mm tall by 130mm wide and 135mm deep, so usefully small that you might expect them to be, shall we say, less than full in their sound. (Spoiler: you’d be wrong.) They certainly have an attractive design, with their rounded edges and the neat wrap, available in “rich walnut veneer” or “soft grey lacquer” finishes, both with grey nonremovable ‘British milled…

DALI has not one single wireless active speaker available but three whole ranges of them. This standmount is the most affordable of the stereo pairs, from the Oberon C group which includes a pair of floorstanders and a wireless centre speaker. Higher up there are Rubicon C and Callisto C series, with each set of ‘C’ active versions based on established passive speaker ranges. All of them use separate a wireless network preamplifier to connect sources. The one for the two higher ranges is called the Sound Hub, while the Oberon C range introduces a smaller version, the Sound Hub Compact (pictured). Although DALI notes that this speaker series is intended for hi-fi music, the Hub’s connections indicate clearly that TV audio is a goal, and that DALI sees its…

The original LS50 Wireless speakers were almost universally praised, and rightly so – they pounced on the clear need for higher levels of hi-fi in wireless audio. Taking the then-passive LS50s with their Uni-Q combined driver array, KEF added amplification, streaming and smart operation. With modern minimalist looks – and with various special editions too – they were as close to a guaranteed success as the hi-fi industry has seen. Now comes the sequel, the LS50 Wireless II, modestly described as “the perfect all-in-one speaker system”. KEF is going here for easier integration – improving the simplicity and reliability of use without losing any performance. So the Wi-Fi networking now has mesh-network frequency-hopping abilities for improved robustness. Gone are any of the control app hiccups which sometimes occurred with the…

UK-based Naim Audio became first renowned for its amplification, proving the importance of power quality from the early 1970s. Three decades later Naim was also quick to recognise the future of file-based and streaming music, and today enjoys great success with its Mu-so wireless speakers, while the Uniti range of all-in-one streaming systems deliver simple but definitely hi-fi just-add-speakers solutions. In a way the three levels of Uniti player brought together everything Naim has learned – the wireless, multiroom and control elements of the Mu-sos, with the solid hi-fi amplification developed over decades, including more recent trickle-down tech from the developmental fillip of investment made in the company’s no-holds-barred Statement amplifier project. Now here comes the Uniti Atom HE, which takes the smallest of the existing Uniti all-in-ones and does…

Grado’s Prestige headphones were the original range designed by John Grado when in 1990 he bought the company from his uncle Joseph, a former Tiffany watchmaker who had begun making phono cartridges in the 1950s. Nephew John had been with the company since 1965, watching the rise and then fall in cartridge demand during the 1980s; the Prestige line of Grado headphones were, indeed, the saviour of the company. This latest Prestige X Series gains enhanced drivers, enhanced cable designs and more comfortable headbands, the drivers in all five models using newly designed voice-coils and diaphragms along with a magnetic circuit that has been revised in such a way as to improve efficiency, reduce distortion and linearise the frequency response, also making them easier to drive across a variety of…

It’s been longer than usual in the waiting, delayed by the pandemic, but now it’s ready for launch — Yamaha’s 10th series of Aventage receivers. First launched in 2010, they were the result of Yamaha rethinking every element of their longstanding receiver designs, a grand reset for a new decade — Aventage is a portmanteau of ‘AV entertainment for a new age’. They gained instant success, followed each year by iterative improvements that have maintained the momentum through the addition of Dolby Atmos height channels, Yamaha’s MusicCast streaming multiroom platform, and the endless other pieces and abilities that go to make the model of a modern receiver. Their success can be gauged by an Aventage receiver having won the top Sound+Image receiver award every year possible. Now we have a…

This home cinema is the first we’ve seen in Sound+Image to feature a new range of speakers called Elementi. Designed specifically for home cinema use (though the largest of them could potentially service commercial applications), the Elementi brand includes ‘Fire’ and ‘Air’ speaker ranges, plus an ‘Earth’ range of subwoofers, and an upcoming ‘Water’ range of Atmos speakers. The ‘Fire’ range (pictured opposite) uses compression drivers for high frequency delivery, while the ‘Air’ models share the cabinet and mid-bass drivers from the Fire range but switch to a pleated diaphragm ‘tweeter’ along the lines of Oskar Hail’s air motion transformer. MOVING THE AMPLIFIERS Aside from the merits of each individual speaker design, Elementi brings a significant shift in equipment layout in a home cinema, by removing the power amplification from…

SOUND+IMAGE PRESENTS WORLD-CLASS AUSTRALIAN HOME CINEMAS It’s one thing to design a home cinema for a movie enthusiast, but another thing entirely when your client actually works in the movies. Matt has spent his working life in editing suites working on major blockbuster movies, so when he and his family decided to commission a dedicated theatre on the lower level of a new-build home, he knew exactly what he wanted. “I wanted a professional director’s screening room,” Matt told us when we visited the spectacular ocean-front residence and were led downstairs, where a corridor leading to the underground car park branched left to an engraved cinema door. “Having worked in the film industry for over 20 years as a director and editor, I have this passionate love for cinema, and…

powered speakers The Fives arrived for review after most of the others, and directly following the Q Acoustics Q Active 200s. The contrast between those unusual modernist designs and the Klipsch Fives couldn’t be greater. The Fives are lighter, squarer, more wooden – hand-crafted MDF with a walnut veneer or matte black painted finish, and presenting a more traditional fascia, though with that big patented Klipsch Tractrix horn and compression driver dominating the top half where a dome tweeter might more normally sit, and a 114mm (4.5- inch) high-excursion fibre-composite mid/bass cone beneath. One speaker has knobs on the top, and you have to link the other speaker with a four-metre signal cable, since only one speaker is active, the other passive. Pleasingly you can select which is left and…

When Bowers & Wilkins released the Duo wireless speakers as the top offering in its Formation suite of wireless multiroom products, we liked them very much, and gave them a Sound+Image award. But we did highlight two potential issues for users. First was that they have no physical inputs at all (except for power); these are entirely wireless speakers. Second was they didn’t much help with the streaming either – the Home app which controls the speakers just helps set them up, then aside from onboard Spotify Connect it leaves you to work out your own way to stream, even going so far as to suggest Roon as the best solution, requiring additional and regular outlay. But both these problems have since been addressed. The new Music app (pictured right)…

The very definition of a Parisian intellectual, the 20-something Godard became a critic for film mag Cahiers du Cinema in the 1950s, alongside fellow future directors Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut. Rubbishing the era’s French cinema, Godard’s prose revered Hollywood and popularised the idea of auteur directors. When Truffaut turned filmmaker with The 400 Blows (1959), it was only a matter of time before Godard followed. Godard’s 1960 debut, Breathless (A Bout De Souffle) 1, showed he could walk the walk. It was nothing less than his sharp criticism in film form, shot with insolent cool and intent on redefining cinema with its attention-grabbing use of the jump cut. Later films would be awash with captions, slogans, colour filters and sudden bursts of silence or music: anything that interrupted…

It’s all around you, as much as you desire – on the radio, TV, countless digital platforms and other means of delivery. It goes with you on your phone, iPod, laptop and tablet. You’re bombarded with it in shops, pubs, bars, restaurants, cafes and on call-hold. These days music is everywhere, whether you want to hear it or not, to the point where it can be hard to get away from it. But it wasn’t always like that. Until the UK got Radio 1 in 1967, and Australia got Double Jay on AM in 1975 along with the expansion of FM broadcasts, if you wanted to discover new music, often even the popular stuff, you had to make an effort, tuning in on time to the few music programmes that…