Table of contents for September - October 2023 in Sound + Image

Apple's over-ear AirPods Max were Sound+Image award-winners in 2022, and aside from their wonderfullyinvolving sound quality, one of our favourite features is their ambient mode. While most headphones just pipe through external sounds to keep you aware, the AirPods deliver external sounds in stereo, almost as if your headphones are open to the world. Now a patent has surfaced, noted first by the ever-vigilant ‘Patently Apple’ website, relating to a headphone or headset design which does something seemingly strange. European patent EP4218257 and World Patent WO2022067018A1 describe a headworn device that includes a housing and two extra-aural speaker drivers, where both are arranged to project sound away and into an ambient environment. So these are headphones which deliberately produce sound outside the headphones. Since that might disturb those nearby, the…

Tidal CEO Jesse Dorogusker announced in April that Tidal was “choosing FLAC as our preferred format for high-resolution audio” over its existing MQA-powered Masters. With MQA Ltd now in administration (though with some planned renaissance around the new SCL6 codec), it is unlikely that new tracks will appear in MQA, and also unclear how long existing MQA tracks will remain available. Now that the FLAC files are appearing on Tidal, what type of file will you receive? We gather the playback hierarchy through applications which support FLAC will be HiRes FLAC > MQA > standard FLAC > ACC 9. But Tidal Connect does not yet support FLAC, so this should still play MQA-encoded files. Check your DAC display to be sure! Note that both FLAC and MQA files are only…

Artisans in audio are becoming a dying breed, according to Japan-based Stax, famed for its electrostatic ‘earspeakers’. Stax is currently celebrating the 85th anniversary of Naotake Hayashi founding a recording company in 1938, and also the 60th anniversary of that company becoming Stax in 1963. “In an era where mass-produced products dominate the market, the art of handcrafting audio equipment is getting lost,” says the company. “That is why we believe it is more important than ever to celebrate brands like Stax that are keeping the tradition alive.” To that end it has released a commemorative package comprising the company's thoroughly up-to-date SRM-D10 portable drive unit and SR-003mk2 in-ear electrostatic speakers (pictured), in a special limited edition with an 85th anniversary jumper and commemorative pin. Price for the set is…

news Linn Followers of the Linn Sondek LP12 will know that this classic turntable, now a full 50 years old, has evolved over the decades at a glacial pace, precisely because the design was revered so early on. Once beyond its Ariston origins, the LP12 cemented its status at the front of the “source-first” movement of the 1970s, proferring the then-heretical notion that we should spend more money on our sources and less on our speakers, because ‘garbage in equals garbage out’. Linn and its leader Ivor Tiefenbrun forcefully propounded this hi-fi philosophy, along with Naim's championing of the then equally-unregarded art of amplification, until the rest of the hi-fi world fell into line behind these notions that we take for granted today. Linn has always offered the ability to gradually…

audio-visual home cinema installation Some movie fans will know exactly what they want in their dream home cinema. Perhaps they want it to look like a classic movie house, or to take elements from a particular movie — we've seen Star Wars home cinemas in the past, and one using design ideas from The Matrix. Or they might want specific equipment, or ask for a drinks bar at the back, or to prioritise screen size over all other considerations. There's invariably a wishlist of some kind. But when Wavetrain Cinemas began discussions over the design for this home cinema, there was no initial concept. “The client's brief was simply that he wanted an amazing home cinema,” says Wavetrain Cinemas’ David Moseley, “or to use his own words: ‘surprise us’.” Wot,…

We examined Sony's 360 Spatial Sound Mapping tech in some detail back when we reviewed the company's magnificent (and subsequently award-winning) HT-A9 system, which uses a mini AV receiver and four wireless speakers, subwoofer optional but advisable. That system makes the same claim of generating “multiple phantom speakers all around you so cinema lovers can experience every breath, step, and word as if you are inside the film”. Firstly, this is not to be confused with Sony's music format 360 Reality Audio. No connection. Rather this is a way of presenting an ideal soundfield even if your actual speaker positioning is a bit whack, as they say. Not all rooms allow perfect siting of surround and height speakers, and Sony's 360 Spatial Sound Mapping aims to correct this, delivering the…

hi-fi amplifier Musical Fidelity A1 stereo integrated amplifier SUMMARY Musical Fidelity A1 stereo integrated amplifier Price: $3000 + Bold, smooth and effortlessly musical presentation + Good phono stage + It now has a remote control! – No digital inputs - Still runs very hot The creation of a revived Musical Fidelity A1 amplifier plucked from the 1980s might be viewed as a cynical marketing exercise, jumping on the current ‘retro’ hi-fi revival. After all, Heinz Lichtenegger's Audio Tuning company took over Musical Fidelity only five years ago; it has recently announced retro BBC-style speakers, so are they just pulling out an old amplifier design to fill out a new retro range? The answer to that seems to be a resounding ‘no’. Lichtenegger purchased Musical Fidelity in 2018 after close involvement…

music & movies top Atmos scenes mother! (2017) The final third. Part home-invasion horror, part climate-change parable, mother! has an ingenious Dolby Atmos soundtrack that does all the heavy lifting. Mostly it is filmed subjectively from central character ‘mother's perspective, either over the shoulder, in close-up or POV, and the only long shots are when she's alone. The soundtrack reflects what mother hears. Everything, not just what is shown on screen, is given a defined position that is always slightly elevated. The house's presence as a character is intensified through sounds such as creaks and rattling pipes manipulated to become more human-sounding. As the invasion progresses into a fever dream, these small exaggerations increase and become overwhelming in number and intensity. Even with chaos erupting and people swarming the house,…

music & movies top Atmos scenes The song that made Black Sabbath immortal began as an afterthought. It was June 1970, and the metallers from Birmingham in the UK had assumed their second album — tentatively titled ‘War Pigs’ — was in the can. “Then the label suddenly said, ‘You don't have enough songs,’” recalls guitarist Tony Iommi. “We didn't know what to do. Within a few minutes I came up with the riff to Paranoid, played it to the other guys and they liked it, so off we went. That's how simple Paranoid was — we wrote and recorded it in a day. We didn't want a hit single and we didn't expect it to be a single. We just did it as a filler track.” If Iommi's lean…

news Yamaha Music Australia In the days before soundbars were much of a thing, Yamaha had a range of high-end models that would beam sound around the room using large arrays of small drivers. They were very effective, yet in recent years Yamaha has been scaling down its soundbars to far lower and more compact models. Now it seems the Japanese company is raising its bars to greater things once again, with the announcement of ‘True X’, which it describes as a ‘True Wireless Surround’ system, and which brings Dolby Atmos performance to a Yamaha bar. Some markets are getting two soundbars; Yamaha Music Australia is announcing only the higher SR-X50A soundbar and wireless subwoofer combo, priced together at $1299. The 101cm-long soundbar includes two upward-firing drivers to deliver the height…

news Sennheiser When we reviewed the Sennheiser Ambeo Plus soundbar three issues ago, we noted that the soundbar was really too large to need such a big wireless subwoofer. “It's like this product is caught between the original bar-only pride of the larger Max, and some product yet to come — a smaller bar, as a more sensible partner for the Ambeo Sub”. It has proven to be so. News of a new ‘Ambeo Mini’ leaked onto the internet last month on a number of retail sites, showing the third bar in the Ambeo soundbar series to be smaller still at 67cm wide and 11cm high, with an HDMI ARC connection round the back, though bravely no optical or analogue fallback options as on the larger bars. There is a USB-A…

news Hegel ◆ Rotel Two new arrivals from Norway's Hegel have been heralded by EISA Awards (see full winners’ list this issue), as both the company's new Viking CD player and the H600 reference integrated amplifier have been recognised by EISA's global Hi-Fi Experts Group (which includes our sister magazine Australian Hi-Fi). Hegel began in 1988 at the Technical University in Trondheim, Norway, and in recent years has grown a reputation as powerful as the grunt behind the new reference amplifier, which replaces the also-awarded and highly regarded H590 released five years ago. “We had never made an integrated amplifier at this level before, and we were slightly apprehensive about the reaction,” says Hegel. Presumably now rather more confident of the reception for the H600, the company has invested in a…

news Yamaha • Sennheiser Hearing Yamaha's R-N2000A smart stereo amplifier has been on an awards sweep recently — a Sound+Image award in April, now an EISA award from global editors, recognising the skill with which new-age smarts have been secreted with some subtlety within an amplifier coming from an all-analogue heritage. Now there are two more additions to this genre at at lower-level — the $2299 R-N1000A and $1699 R-N800A streaming amplifiers, also new loudspeakers as shown at Munich this year, the NS-800A and NS-600A bookshelf speakers, which might partner either of the amplifiers to deliver a compact streaming hi-fi set-up. Despite being below half the price of the $4999 R-N2000A, the two lower network receivers adhere to the company's strict engineering template, defined by meticulously symmetrical left/right circuit layouts, the…

A home theatre projector might seem a side-step for Leica Camera AG, the global manufacturer of high-end cameras and lenses, fine mechanical and medical instruments and high-tech devices of the highest standards in imaging. But perhaps not so much — home entertainment has long relied on high-quality lenses, and far earlier than video projection. Many was the 1960s home where a big screen was illuminated by a stylish Leica/Leitz Pradovit slide projector, the height of home entertainment with its cabled remote control which could shuttle the 35mm slides forwards and backwards. So in some ways, the Leica Cine 1 sees the German company reclaiming territory long ceded first to Japanese home entertainment companies, then Korean, now Chinese. And it is with one of the current Chinese technology leaders that Leica…

audiovisual AV receiver It's been a while since we've had a midrange Sony AV receiver in for review — but that's because the STR-AN1000 is a clear replacement for the STR-DN1080, which enjoyed a five-year reign as one of the most highly regarded receivers at this level. Sony clearly isn't one for annual iterations in this market: it's happy to wait until the standards have shifted enough to require a hardware overhaul. With such updates, this new STR-AN1000 gains significant upgrades over its predecessor, internally at least, and also bears some interesting technology from the Japanese giant. We say ‘midrange’, but this receiver is currently the highest in a range of three. In the US there are higher models, numbered 3000, 5000 and 7000, and all boasting Sony's ES ‘Elevated…

audiovisual soundbar + subwoofer SUMMARY TCL P733W Price: $449 + Good sound for the money + App control + Price – Too many EQ options – Not the best for music On the face of it, TCL's P733W is a pretty straightforward soundbar and wireless subwoofer combination. The soundbar is 90cm wide, and operates in three-channel mode, so with front-facing drivers on the left, right and in the centre, but with no height drivers, nor any that are angled sideways. Then there's a sizeable wireless subwoofer standing 36cm high, featuring a rear-firing 6.5-inch driver and port, which should make for some significant bass reinforcement, especially if placed close to the wall as shown in the picture above. The remote control is nicely simple as well — and yet it has…

audio-visual marine installation It's one thing to design a system that will provide reliable and high-quality multizone entertainment across a home. It's quite another when you put that home on water, shrink the living spaces to a nautical compactness, and run the entire system from an inconsistent mains supply. But the prospect didn't much faze Nathan Purcell and his team at CIS Allure. Nathan spent many years in competitive sailing and has combined that passion with his technical skills to deliver premium sound and video systems aboard many vessels. “This was the third boat where we'd worked with this owner, and the client was also accustomed to our interfaces and systems working reliably in his homes,” explains Nathan, Director and owner of CIS Allure. And for this latest project —…

news Advance Paris ◆ Tidal Anew brand is coming to Australia, although Advance Paris is no newbie: it has a 25-year legacy in its home market, formerly as Advance Acoustic, and has been transformed in recent years by the arrival of a new team. Advance Paris is based in Fontainebleau (pictured), and will come to Australia through Synergy Audio Visual, which sees the brand as an ideal replacement for Cambridge Audio, distribution of which is now moving to BusiSoft AV. The Advance Paris catalogue is extensive, and does indeed include streamers and all-inone smart amps which look to exceed those of Cambridge in terms of value and features. The $1699 X-Stream 9 above, for example, has not only a full streaming module for network streaming and access to Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz,…

Rotel has thoroughly updated its A10 and A11 integrated amplifiers and CD11 player to give them second-generation status as the A10MKII, A11MKII and CD11MKII. The original A11 and CD11 were labelled ‘Tribute’ products as they were the final components into which audio maestro Ken Ishiwata had design input, after his ejection from Marantz and before his death a year later, upon which his friend and fellow audio designer Karl-Heinz Fink stepped in to complete the enhanced Rotel designs. So the aim is to remain true to his design while enhancing performance still further via upgrades to ‘critical components’ and circuit design. The CD11MKII gets component upgrades in the digital circuits surrounding its Texas Instruments PCM5102A 32-bit/384kHz DAC, while Rotel says the smooth-action CD tray mechanism, LCD display and intuitive front…

Sony has always encouraged its fans to stick within a Sony world, and of course there are benefits in pairing this receiver with a Sony TV. And this is a unique difference — what other TV manufacturer selling to Australia also makes its own surround receivers? Aside from the ability to use the Sony TV remote for things like soundfields as well as simply volume control, one unique benefit is Acoustic Center Sync, where you can use a Bravia XR TV as your centre speaker “to create an incredible sound-from-screen experience”. Well yes, but hardly a tonal match for a decent pair of front speakers — an object passing from left to right will be squeezed tonally if it goes through a TV as centre channel; a proper centre speaker…

Optoma L1+ 4K UST projector audiovisual SUMMARY Optoma L1+ 4K UST projector Price: $2999 + DLP 4K resolution + Good performance at the price + Nicely compact unit + AndroidTV with Netflix + Good gaming specs – Built-in sound mediocre – Ambient light washes out Traditionally, projectors and TVs have stood apart due to inherent differences. Projectors necessitate cumbersome installation, either on the ceiling or within the room, accompanied by the arduous task of wiring long HDMI cables back to a source. Projectors lacked built-in sound, so a bulky AV receiver was needed for audio delivery, and as an input hub. Projector bulbs required regular replacement, while TVs just lasted forever. And when the smart TV revolution came along, TVs became ever smarter with apps and internet connectivity, while projectors…

SUMMARY Lenco LBT-225 turntable Price: $695 + Great looks and build + Solid fundamental sound + Internal phono stage + Bluetooth and USB out – Rear switch for gain – Some noise on USB output From first sight, this seems like it is a lot of turntable for the money. Lenco's LBT-225 is a belt-driven fully-manual turntable, with a substantial plinth in a very nice walnut finish, fitted with a glass platter, a carbon-fibre tonearm no less, and the ever-reliable Audio-Technica AT-VM95E moving-magnet cartridge to track your tunes. As if that wasn't enough for your $695, under the platter hangs an electronics section which includes a built-in phono stage, so you can take the output at full line-level into any amplifier, rather than at the phono-level which would need either…

hi-fi standmount loudspeakers KEF R3 Meta SUMMARY KEF R3 Meta standmount speakers Price: $3900 + Transparent, refined sound + Even tonal balance + Innovative technology – Best with space and good partnering equipment The history of KEF is one big storybook of innovation and change. There's Raymond Cooke's original ‘light-bulb’ moment, actually a ‘polystyrene cup’ moment, realising that such pressed plastic might allow mass-produced cones to outperform the more laborious paper cones then used in loudspeakers. There's also been the long-running saga of the company's search for a perfect point-source dual driver — and even, more recently in the Blade, a fully coincident speaker design. Most recently there's been the almost cult-like status quickly gained by the company's celebrated MAT (Metamaterial Absorption Technology) innovation. This involves an ingenious backwave absorption…

music & movies top Atmos scenes I felt kind of stupid when I was doing it,’ said star James Woods of the scenes where Max Renn, the protagonist of 1983’s Videodrome, gets up close and personal with his TeleRANGER TV screen. His ‘stupid’ is our disturbing and (whisper it) erotic, as a mesmerised Max approaches the televised lips of Nicki Brand (Blondie's Debbie Harry) and the screen begins to bulge outwards as she puckers, and then billows when she blows. ‘Don't keep me waiting,’ she murmurs, inviting Max to sink his flesh into her open mouth. This he does, meshing man and machine in a prescient horror movie that traverses the edges of reality and consciousness as it explores our fears and fascination with sex, violence and technology. Long live…