Table of contents for February - March 2024 in Sound + Image

EDLINES Every time we put together an issue of Sound+Image focused on vinyl, I plan to open it up with a comment piece extolling the joys of LP records and how much pleasure this surviving music format brings to my life. But it seems that every time, something happens in the world of Bluetooth that interrupts my thoughts. It's happened again. Bluetooth, Bluetooth, Bluetooth. We love it, but we hate it. It serves us so well so much of the day when we're out and about, anywhere the music itself is perhaps more important than the ultimate quality at which it reaches us. We can accept that and keep our efforts at purity for the home. So it's important that we do know the quality available from the various ways…

news 1990s FLASHBACK WARNING! Yamaha is tempting us back to the silver stuff with a new five-disc CD changer that brings a twist to the classic carousel arrangement. Not only does the new CD-C603 let you play or shuffle through potentially 5 × 74 minutes of music, it has a neat feature called Play X Change, which allows you to change four discs while one is playing, guaranteeing a non-stop music party! Such CD changers were originally about convenience, but for the new model Yamaha has also attended to the sound quality, including a ‘Pure Direct’ option as seen on Yamaha amplifiers and receivers, shutting down the digital audio output and turning off the display, thereby reducing the noise MQA bought by… The Lenbrook Group of Companies — owner of…

audiovisual 4K Mini LED television SUMMARY Hisense 65U8KAU Price: $2499 + Consistent strong image + Good blacks and local dimming + Image pings in Standard mode + Excellent VIDAA interface with extras + Gaming features – Less impact in HDR modes – TV sound lacks dynamism Hisense is a company which embraces various TV technologies. It has had OLED televisions on its books in the past, though not in its ongoing ranges: instead the top sets are now firmly focused on Mini LED, with locally-dimmed groups of increasingly small LEDs behind a conventional LCD panel. Mini LED is proving itself both under review and in the market, delivering (at its best) higher brightness levels than OLED, and beating it on dynamic range, the number of stops between the lowest level…

hi-fi turntable Vinyl LPs are, amazingly, the fastest-growing category in Australian music. Last year's ARIA sales figures won't come out until March, but in 2022 vinyl sales increased 23% in volume in Australia, while subscription streaming services rose only 8.9% and compact disc sales plunged more than 17%. Vinyl now brings in almost twice as much money as CDs. Hoorah. Here at Sound+Image we continue to celebrate the fact that vinyl records have gone from survival to revival. It has brought the joys of vinyl replay to many new listeners, and unlike streaming, you can't do it with your phone, so that the vinyl revival has also fed a new interest from a new generation in amplifiers, speakers and hi-fi in general. What's the attraction? We don't think it's the…

hi-fi turntable group SUMMARY Pro-Ject Primary E Price: $499 + An enjoyable temperament + Nails the sonic basics – Entirely free of frills Pro-Ject's most affordable turntable may come with a ‘Primary’ moniker which implies it resides in some ‘My First Turntable’ category. And yes its price puts it first among the lower vinyl spinners in our group here, thanks to the Primary E being traditionally designed and entirely no-frills in terms of facilities. Of course there are a good number of lesser turntables which you may be able to find cheaper that this or the preceding Sony — turntables in a box with speakers that you might stumble upon under special offer in an Australian Post outlet, capable of making sound with a cheap ceramic stylus. But not capable…

hi-fi turntable group SUMMARY Rega Planar 1 Plus Price: $849 ($899 walnut) + Clean lively sound quality + Good built-in phono stage + Very easy set-up – No phono-level output It would be a strange turntable round-up that didn't feature Rega, so here's the Rega Planar 1 Plus. This is essentially the company's entry-level Rega Planar 1 turntable, but with the ‘Plus’ bit indicating that there is a phono stage built-in, so you can plug it directly into a line input of any amplifier or active speaker. As we're seeing in this group, the inclusion of a phono stage is not uncommon on turntables at this price. But until this Planar One Plus models first appeared in 2018, it was certainly uncommon at Rega. Yet the UK company, which still…

hi-fi turntable group SUMMARY JBL TT350 Classic Price: $1999 + Clean and neutral sound + Lovely looks + Upgradeable styluses – Phono-level only – Prominent silver cankles From the other turntables in this group it's a bit of a price jump to our final vinyl spinner this issue. But this TT350 comes within our group's price ceiling by a whole dollar — and besides, this is a deck of particular interest. We've already seen the JBL Spinner BT perform admirably at its price level of around $650 (see p60-62). But that youth-orientated Bluetooth-equipped turntable was preceded in its announcement, if not its Australian arrival, by this more upmarket TT350 Classic. And that makes this the first-ever turntable released by the Harman/ Samsung-owned US marque in all of its 78 years.…

news If Wilson Audio fans want cinema-like immersion, it would be easy enough to stick five or seven Wilson Chronosonic XVX speakers around the room for surround. But how would you position the middle one for the centre channel without hiding the screen? Thankfully Wilson customers can relax, as the US company has updated its dedicated home cinema offerings with the release of two centre-channel speaker designs, along with a subwoofer and an upgrade of the Alida multichannel on-wall speaker (above), together making the whole Wilson home cinema offering just a tad neater, if no less unusual. Pictured right and top left is the remarkable new Mezzo CSC centre-channel unit, which clearly owes its origins to the ‘WATCH’ (Wilson Audio Theater Comes Home) Centre released back in 2000, the new…

news CES 2024 A revolution revolution in automotive artificial intelligence, AI medical breakthroughs, AI smart toilets, AI kids' strollers, an honest-to-Betsy flying car from China, a mask behind which you can make silent phone calls (while looking quite frightening) - CES is a lot of things, and hi-fi these days is far less of a star turn than in days gone by, when the Venetian Tower was packed and there was a bonus high-end show down the strip. But the music is still there, with some major speakers and electronics launched at CES 2024, along with announcements from key headphone brands and, gosh, even a personal cassette player. Meanwhile the AV never went away: CES remains the key annual launch pad for all the major TV players, and this year…

audiovisual soundbar + subwoofer Over the last few years Yamaha has completely rebuilt its soundbar offerings. Gone are the likes of the YSP-5600B which won our Sound+Image Awards in 2018 with its final reinvention of Yamaha's unusual ‘Intellibeam’ concept where literally dozens of small drivers (46 of them in that final model) were used to create a wide soundbar soundfield, even beaming sound to particular places in the room. Those YSP bars worked well — but weren't particularly affordable. Since then Yamaha has gone the other way, producing mini-miracle soundbars with relatively minimalist driver counts, achieving prices as low as $279 for a bar alone, or even more remarkably including a wireless subwoofer for as little as $399. Last issue we reviewed Yamaha's new soundbar range-topper, the ‘True X’ system…

hi-fi wireless active speakers When we first visited Sonus faber's product page for the Duettos (they've since changed it), it was led by an artily-faded image of a young couple facing a pair of these luxurious-looking speakers on their dedicated stands, flanking a leafy bay window. The couple are touching, apparently held rapt by the music, although they might possibly have just nodded off. Anyway, superimposed over all this is a block of colour with the company's first statement about the Duettos which reads: “The sound of Sonus faber, now wireless”. And really, that is so much the story here in a nutshell that we were worried for a while we might find little more to add. Everything else is just adding detail to that statement. Although that assumes you…

hi-fi turntable group BUDGET Few hi-fi components offer as much value for an increase in spending as turntables. These complex mechanical systems showcase profound differences between entry-level, mid-level, and high-end options. If you're considering allocating extra funds in your audio set-up, the turntable (and the phono stage) can be efficient ways to use the cash. PHONO STAGE The minuscule signal generated by a cartridge necessitates dedicated phono amplification and EQ. While some amplifiers provide a dedicated phono input, others may require a standalone phono stage. Alternatively, turntables can come with built-in phono stages — look for a line-level output in the specifications. Only one here, the Rega, doesn't let you also use the phono-level output instead for a future phono stage upgrade. AUTOMATIC OR MANUAL In the realm of vinyl,…

hi-fi turntable group SUMMARY JBL Spinner BT Price: $649.95 + Good sound for the price + Great looks + Phono stage & Bluetooth streaming included – Unconventional looks JBL was founded in 1946, but seemingly hasn't had the urge to produce a vinyl-playback machine until now. And it's made two — both are freshly arrived, and both in this group test. This Spinner BT is the more modern and purposeful in both looks and operation, perfectly addressing the younger JBL audience who know their soundbars and smart speakers better than they do their K2s and Everests. Their system might currently comprise just a Bluetooth speaker and a smartphone. For such users a Bluetooth-capable turntable like this would be the coolest possible addition to such a set-up. And who sells more…

hi-fi turntable group SUMMARY Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo Price: $1099 + Top-rank sound at the price + Electronic speed change + Design maturity & colours – No extras – Not without rivals It's no surprise to find a second Pro-Ject turntable in our group: the company has more models (and more versions of those models) than any other company. Appropriate, too, that our second Pro-Ject is a ‘Debut’, a model name that has been on Pro-Ject's books for over 20 years, back at the end of the company's first decade when the original Debut emerged from efforts by Lichtenegger and his UK distributor and longtime friend Laurence Armstrong to create a new record player that a younger generation could afford, but which could deliver as close to high-end sound as…

Musical Fidelity M8×TT $18,000 Described as “a High-End turntable with radical concepts and innovations originating from its legendary predecessor, the M1 from 2004,” MF's return to vinyl replay certainly looks very similar to the 2004 model, but being now a sister company to Pro-Ject, the former SME arm is replaced with a bespoke TA10 10-inch arm (the deck is around $15k without the arm); no cartridge is included. The turntable follows high-mass high-isolation principles, weighing a stonking 31.5kg, which includes a 10kg damped aluminium platter and a heavy aluminium record puck. Outputs are available on both phono-level RCA and balanced XLR outputs for moving-coil cartridges. audiomarketing.com.au Ortofon 2MR cartridges for Rega $various Ortofon has a brand new range of 2MR cartridges, which adapt the popular 2M cartridge range with a…

music & movies classic movie CLASSIC MOVIE Ah, young love… a time of first dates, awkwardness and violently getting your junk stuck in your zipper and having to rely on the fire department to help pry yourself free. Odds are you can relate to at least the first two things on this list. The third may be best remembered by Ted Stroehmann (Ben Stiller), the bumbling teen looking for love in the opening moments of 1998’s raucous comedy There's Something About Mary. Directed by sibling duo Peter and Bobby Farrelly, this sleeper hit found adult Ted still obsessed with his estranged teenage crush Mary (Cameron Diaz). Keen for a second shot at love, he hires sleazy private detective Pat Healy (Matt Dillon) to track her down, only for the PI…

news We often say of Arcam's hi-fi components that you can tell an Arcam instantly from its look. While the UK-based company's designs have evolved over the years, you'd never mistake them for anything else. So the all-new Radia family is not only news in itself, but notable for defining a new look for the company, a revised aesthetic which Arcam describes as “purposeful yet playful”, saying this will define the company's image for years to come. With Arcam being part of Harman International since 2017 (and Harman itself wholly owned by Samsung), Arcam turned to Huemen, Harman International's in-house design firm, for the new look. The main design feature for the rebranding is the introduction of ‘Radia Yellow’, chosen for its contemporary look, its differentiation in the audio industry…

hi-fi streaming amplifier SUMMARY Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier Price: $3499 + Rich, powerful sound + BluOS streaming + Remote and app control – Minijack headphone Roksan is a UK brand which goes back to 1985, when its graduate founders launched the Xerxes turntable at a UK hi-fi show, its novel groove-tracking design wowing punters and critics, and beginning a long line of successful turntables and tonearms. So it's a bit rude, perhaps, in this issue packed with vinyl joys, that we're not looking at a Roksan turntable, but instead the Attessa Streaming Amplifier, an example of the electronics into which the company later diversified during an evolution which included acquisition in November 2016 by British loudspeaker manufacturer Monitor Audio (itself recently enjoying the 50th anniversary of its founding by legendary…

hi-fi turntable group SUMMARY Sony PS-LX310BT Price: $288 + Vinyl on Bluetooth headphones + Good sound for the very low price + Four outputs for versatility – You could spend more to get more Like many other companies, Sony all but stopped selling turntables during vinyl's years of decline. But also like many other companies, it was encouraged back to the medium by its revival, both by the numbers and by vinyl's sheer cool-ness. In 2016 it announced the quite serious PS-HX500 turntable, which received excellent reviews including a Sound+Image award. It included both its own phono stage, and a USB connection to a computer which, using supplied Sony software, could then easily digitise the vinyl played on the turntable, and at high-res, no less, in the Sony-derived DSD format…

hi-fi turntable group SUMMARY Lenco LBT-225 Price: $699 + Great looks and build + Solid fundamental sound + Phono stage, Bluetooth & USB – Bluetooth issues on our sample – Some noise on USB output It's a clear trend that in this group, three of our four lowest-priced turntables are not simple turntables, but loaded with digital electronics. Lenco has a long history, originally Swiss, revived several times, and currently part of the Commaxx stable of brands in the Netherlands, and again here, this seems like a lot of turntable for the money. The LBT-225 is a belt-driven turntable 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 tracking the tunes (which is the same cartridge…

hi-fi turntable group SUMMARY Cambridge Alva ST Price: $1199 + Great performance + aptX HD Bluetooth + Onboard phono stage – Fully manual – Counterweight markings Despite having been in the hi-fi business since 1968 in some form or other, Cambridge Audio is another company which didn't build a turntable until after the opening of the current century. Then it took more than a decade to make its next, the Alva TT, which the company claimed was the first turntable in the world to offer aptX HD Bluetooth streaming. An Alva TT V2 arrived in 2022, just three years after the original, with a pre-installed high-output moving-coil cartridge and a built-in phono preamp, plus continued support for aptX HD Bluetooth. But Cambridge Audio also used 2022 to release the Alva…

interview Fraunhofer & LC3 An off-hand comment about a new Bluetooth codec brought us an invitation to talk with audio engineers at Fraunhofer, the world's leading applied research organisation. We took them up on the offer to talk about their new pair of codecs, while also discovering that they think high-resolution audio, and lossless high-res in particular, is mainly marketing spiel — a waste of the audio consumer's energy and money. This interview is long, and needs context. The previous piece was an editorial comment about the new version of Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE (for Low Energy). Bluetooth LE will allow some useful things, like sending a signal to each earbud individually (currently Bluetooth goes to one earbud and has to be rebroadcast to the other). You may also be able…

music & movies classic movie scenes One of the most famous scenes in Rob Reiner's 1986 classic Stand by Me sees our four kid heroes - Chris (River Phoenix), Gordie (Wil Wheaton), Teddy (Corey Feldman) and Vern (Jerry O'Connell) - gingerly set out to cross a 100ft-high railway bridge that spans a river. Naturally, the train arrives when they're at the midpoint and a terrifying race ensues. “When I was in college, there was a trestle that went across the river,” says Stephen King, whose 1982 novella The Body acted as vivid source material. “One of the rites of passage at that time was you had to go out and cross the still water on the trestle.” Set in the late 1950s of King's youth, Stand by Me strings together…

music & movies classic track At the time they recorded American Idiot, Green Day were finished, washed-up, done. The California trio could still fill a room on the fumes from 1994’s ‘Dookie’, an album that had chimed with a rock scene that needed cheering up after Kurt Cobain's suicide and grunge's death rattle. But creatively and commercially it had been a long decade's downturn, capped by the ignominy, on 2002’s Pop Disaster Tour, of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool trading headline status with thunder-stealing successors Blink182. “For some fans,” wrote biographer Ben Myers, “it was total confirmation that Green Day had lost it and were resorting to touring with their own lightweight doppelgängers.” But perhaps these thirty-something punks still had something up their sleeves. Measured against globe-shaking…