Innholdsfortegnelse for March - April 2017 i Australian HiFi

Is it just my imagination, or are warranty periods for hi-fi components getting longer? If you’re new to the audio world, you’ll probably be horrified to learn that back in the 70s, the maximum warranty period on any hi-fi component was one year, and for many items, it was just three months. These days, the only hi-fi product I can think of where you’re offered only a three month warranty is one where valves are involved and frankly, this puzzles me the most out of all hi-fi warranties because valves are—bless their warm little thermionic hearts—inherently reliable devices. During the early stages of the Vietnam War, for example, almost all the radios that were being chucked out of helicopters and dragged through jungles and paddy fields were valve-based. Until rather…

Newport Test Labs measured the in-room frequency response of the Yamaha NS-5000 speakers using a pink noise test stimulus and you can see the result in Graph 1. This graph is unsmoothed, though the fact that nine traces have been averaged to obtain this one trace does introduce a slight smoothing effect as a result. As you can see, the trace is superbly flat and is superbly extended both down into the deep bass and also out to the extreme treble, where the NS-5000’s tweeter is still going strong right out to the upper calibrated measurement limit of 40kHz. At the bass end, the trace is 3dB down at 38Hz, so overall, the response of the NS-5000 was measured by Newport Test Labs as being 38Hz to 40kHz ±3dB. Graph…

Questyle is a newish company on the scene, drawing on high-tech enthusiasm and skills from China. I am not entirely sure, in fact, whether it is pronounced ‘cue-style’ or ‘quest-aisle’. What I am sure of is that the Questyle CMA600i DAC/Headphone Amplifier is a well built, versatile and fine-sounding headphone amplifier and DAC. THE EQUIPMENT The first thing you will notice about the CMA600i is that it is one well-constructed piece of kit. The case is made of slabs of aluminium. It’s smaller than standard component width (it measures only 330×55×200mm WHD) but still weighs a very solid 3.2 kilograms. It has a certain old-timey/hobbyist feel to its styling, thanks primarily to the three main front panel switches. They remind me of the switches on the (lamented) Electronics Australia projects…

Tom Waters : Do you have a first memory, a first unforgettable musical experience that left an impression? Eddie Howe: My father had a Grundig tape player on which he played Chinese opera, whilst my eldest brother had a Kriesler record player on which he played musicals. I ended up loathing Chinese opera but loving musicals. Chinese opera has a totally different intonation than Western opera; most people would think it sounds like a high pitched, piercing sound. My father was fanatical about these operas. TW: I read in a magazine, probably The Absolute Sound—or maybe even Australian Hi-FI—that there are many golden-eared people in Asia and that that could possibly be because of the somewhat melodic-sounding languages. Their ears are attuned to hearing pitch more acutely than a…

There’s no doubt you’re paying for luxury here to some extent; B&W could no doubt have delivered the same sound quality for less money by using cheaper leather, or less metal or a non-folding design. But that’s clearly the point here; the company has been celebrating its fiftieth anniversary by releasing some of the greatest products it has ever made, and the release of the P9 Signature shows that the company is purposefully heading the art of building headphones to its very heights. THE EQUIPMENT The ear pads of B&W’s P9 Signature headphones are no faux leatherette solution, but genuine Italian Saffiano leather from Scamosceria del Brenta in Vicenza, a company even older than B&W—indeed it was already softening cow hides back when Mr Bowers was first meeting Mr Wilkins…

How the unit sounds with headphones depends almost entirely upon the characteristics of the particular headphones At first glance, Sony’s UDA-1 USB DAC Amplifier looks like just the thing. A stereo amplifier with high quality USB DAC—with DSD support—built-in and support for headphones. But some things about it make me wonder: where precisely does it fit? THE EQUIPMENT In addition to the standard USB socket you can see on the front panel, there’s a USB-B input on the rear, along with optical and coaxial digital inputs, plus a stereo analogue audio one. The USB-B socket supports PCM up to 192kHz and 32-bits, plus Direct Stream Digital at both normal and double rates (ie. 5.6MHz). The coaxial supports PCM up to 24/192 and the optical up to 24/96. The front USB…

At a time when the death of CD is being predicted by many (we believe it is still a long way off), it may seem a little odd for someone to release a high-end CD transport which incorporates new technology. However, when you find out that it was eight years in research, plus another two in development, this PS Audio product makes a little more sense. The DirectStream Memory Player (DMP) is a transport only, capable of reading Blu-ray audio, DVD-Audio, SACD, HRx, CD, all of the associated read/write formats, as well as stored data via its USB input. Much of the sonic appeal of the DMP comes from the Digital Lens – first introduced in 1993, but greatly improved on here. The lens electrically isolates the mechanical transport/laser mechanism…

Marantz are also renowned for their ‘SE’ or Special Edition products – designs that showcase what the company is capable of, rather than building down to a price. I have always believed that this is the calibre of product that all manufacturers in this industry should aspire to – beautifully designed and engineered, superb performance, relatively affordable, and importantly a product that you would be proud to own for decades to come. We have just added two ‘SE’ models to our range. The PM14S1 SE is a 95-watt/ channel integrated amplifier selling for $5,490, and the matching SA14S1 SE CD/SACD player sells for $4,990. While neither product could be considered as ‘budget’ they are a fraction of the cost of audiophile equivalents. They could also be considered to be an…

While the industry has been talking about MQA for the last year or so, we have been hearing it tossed around a lot more over the last few months. High resolution audio clearly provides fantastic sonic reproduction – but accessing it has been problematic. MQA promised to change that, and we are finally starting to see its acceptance. TIDAL began streaming a select number of albums in MQA last month, and its library keeps growing. The addition of a good chunk of David Bowie’s catalogue was timed nicely with the anniversary of his passing, and a little high-res ‘Young Americans’ reminds you of his greatest. The great thing is that TIDAL offered this at no additional cost to those currently on the ‘Hi Fi’ subscription plan. But what is MQA,…

Have you purchased a new television or had a home projector installed? If you’ve had your new visual device home for a few weeks and have been trying it out with your favourite content, you might be wondering – what can I do to make it look better? There are lots of setting options buried in the menus of modern devices, including Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, Colour, Dynamic Range, Greyscale and CMS. It’s an extensive list – and that’s not to forget that all these parameters also relate to one another as well as to how the image is presented. Typically we tend to adjust for overly bright and saturated pictures, and this is how the brain has been conditioned from viewing devices in store – often under super-bright commercial lighting.…

Canton’s Chrono Series comprises three floorstanding loudspeakers—the Chrono 519DC, Chrono 518DC and Chrono 517DC—two compact stand-mount models—Chrono 513DC and Chrono 512DC—a compact wall-mount model designed for home theatre applications (Chrono 511DC), a centre-channel, the Chrono 515DC and a powered subwoofer, the Chrono Sub10.2. All models feature Canton’s unique aluminium-manganese 25mm dome tweeter, which in addition to its unusual dome material, also has an aluminium wave guide to improve dispersion. Although the Chrono Series has been around for some time, Canton has gradually been improving it, yet so subtly and over such a long period that it almost appears unchanged, but if you look closely you’ll see the new diamond-cut aluminium rings on the drivers, the improved cabinet construction, the different down-firing bass reflex ports and more. Internally, the crossover networks…

Albert Hammond wrote his hit song ‘It Never Rains in Southern California’ with his tongue in his cheek, but if he’d relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, the city that each January hosts the world’s largest electronics show, he’d have been spot-on, because the annual rainfall in Vegas is mostly less than 25mm a month but some years doesn’t manage this over an entire year. Which means that when journalists from around the world descend on the place (and there were 6,534 of them in 2017) they don’t have to worry about packing raincoats. This year getting a US visa to visit the show proved easier than usual (well, perhaps not for NSW octogenarian parliamentarian the Reverend Fred Nile, who was initially denied one), so apart from the outrageous prices for…

In the early days British amplifier manufacturers were renowned for building low-powered amplifiers. Exceptionally high-quality low-powered amplifiers, but low-powered all the same. It was their penchant for this that provided American amplifier manufacturers with their first foothold in the audio industry, because they became equally renowned for building high-quality high-power amplifiers. So if you wanted a low-powered amp you bought British and if you wanted a high-powered amp you bought American. One person who never bought into this paradigm was Antony Michaelson, who founded Musical Fidelity in the UK in 1982 and is still its sole owner and managing director. His first power amplifier, the strangely named Dr Thomas, was rated at 120-watts per channel, his second (the A370) at 185-watts per channel and he later went on to build…

Frequency response at the line outputs was measured using 44.1kHz and 96kHz sampling and is shown in the graphs. (Ignore the mild output reduction at the bass end, which is a characteristic of the particular test set-up). You can see that the high end with 44.1kHz sampling has a very gentle roll off from 10kHz up, to be down by around 0.2dB at 20kHz. Immediately thereafter the brick wall is hit. The 96kHz response is unusual. Most DACs take advantage of the extended bandwidth enabled by the higher sampling frequency to implement a gentler low-pass filter. But this one holds output to around –1.1dB at 44kHz, and then cuts rapidly beyond that point. With 24-bit audio, the A-weighted noise level was measured at –107.6dB, THD at 0.0013% and IMD+N at…

This writer recalls meeting the legendary, yet ever so modest, founder of Audio Research Corporation, William Zane Johnson, when he travelled to Australia in the mid-1990s to launch what were, at the time, ARC’s latest flagship monoblocs, the original and now legendary Reference 600s. I lusted after those monos. I loved the retro design, and I admired the construction and engineering… and then there were those gorgeous meters. Alas, at the time, because I was in the throes of starting a new business, all my funds were being channelled towards what was to be the means for putting bread on the table. But just to appease my desire to own even just a modest item, a humble piece, from this American audio icon, I purchased a pre-loved Audio Research SP9…

Absolutely the coolest feature of the Gold Note PH-10 is its multi-coloured TFT front-panel display... With typical Italian exuberance Gold Note proclaims its new PH-10 to be ‘the most innovative phono pre-amplifier today’. I don’t know about that, but certainly it’s the most colourful phono preamplifier today, as it’s available not only in black and silver brushed anodised aluminium finishes, but also in gold and red-coloured anodised aluminium finishes. THE EQUIPMENT Gold Note certainly has a claim to being innovative. Whereas almost all the phono stages I am aware of that are currently on the market require you to move multiple tiny DIP switches from one setting to another, or insert wire links into sockets, in order to adjust phono stage gain and impedance—sometimes even requiring you to remove the…

Time flies – it is now three years since Chord launched their Hugo DAC, a product that went on to redefine the portable DAC/headphone amp segment – while proving itself to be an exceptional standalone DAC in its own right as well. Chord have just announced Hugo 2, which will sell for $3,700. The features of the new Hugo Mk2 model include: ❙ A newly designed precision-machined aircraft-grade aluminium case, so Hugo 2 is distinct from its predecessor with its sharper, lower profile design and four spherical control buttons. The top-mounted volume-control sphere has been retained and made larger for more intuitive operation. The stylish new design and additional functionality has been introduced in anticipation of greater indoor use within both desktop and conventional home audio systems, despite Hugo 2’s…

A newly constructed home brought the opportunity to incorporate a dedicated Home Theatre Room for this lucky Sydney owner. With a specific space set aside for the build, Len Wallis Audio was tasked with the challenge of designing and installing a room to mirror a commercial cinema experience. It’s important to understand that a great home theatre is not made up of just one element, rather it is the fusion of a number of considerations that come together to create a special place. This is one of the many reasons why it’s important to employ an expert to design and manage a home theatre build. Taking the space into consideration and the requirements outlined by the owner, Senior Custom Sales Consultant Alberto Vangi set about designing the room. This starts…

This has been a while coming (and in fact at the time of writing still has not arrived). However the release of the Peachtree nova300 has been highly anticipated. This is firstly due to the success of the smaller nova150 , their 150-watt integrated amplifier released mid-last year. Secondly there has been a groundswell of favourable reviews and comments since it hit the overseas markets. Influential online publication Computer Audiophile commented “The Nova 300 is the homecoming king, the captain of the team and the senior class, rolled up into one item. Power, control and finesse. This is the nova you want”. John Darko stated “I doubt that there’s a loudspeaker on the planet that this Peachtree won’t drive with sure-footed authority. Peachtree’s own nova150 aside, I also doubt that there’s…

Devialet’s new Expert ‘Pro’ 130, 220 and 440 hybrid amplifiers are now available in store, replacing the previous Expert range. If you aren’t fully familiar with the Devialet Expert amps, a brief overview is to think of them as a complete high-end hi-fi system compressed, without compromise, into a classy darkened-chromed slab of timeless futuristic design, with a chassis milled from a single aluminium block. Of course it’s not just about good looks. Inside there is a network streamer, DAC, amplifiers, a phono stage and much more. One of the most compelling features is in configurability, allowing you not only to adjust with absolute precision settings for each source but to define active source outputs on the amp itself. Building on their quest for zero distortion, Devialet have done a…

Yamaha has a longer history in the musical instrument business than it does in the hi-fi business, having been established in 1887 in Japan to manufacture pianos and reed organs.* This history is reflected by the company’s logo which, if you examine it closely, comprises three interlocking tuning forks. Indeed Yamaha is still one of the largest piano manufacturers in the world, not least because in addition to manufacturing its own Yamaha pianos it now also manufactures pianos for Bösendorfer. So it’s safe to say that its skills in manufacturing musical instruments inform its skills in manufacturing hi-fi components, not least of which are the Yamaha NS-5000s, which have assumed the mantle of being the company’s flagship loudspeakers. THE EQUIPMENT Yamaha’s musical instrument heritage is immediately evidenced in the absolutely…

Newport Test Labs measured the power output of the Musical Fidelity M5si with both channels driven into 8 as 153-watts per channel at 1kHz, an output that dropped to 150-watts when 20Hz or 20kHz test frequencies were instead employed. This meant that Musical Fidelity could rate the M5si at 150-watts per channel, which it does… exactly… which means there’s not a lot of leeway for production variations, so the company is obviously confident about its quality contol. When only a single channel is driven into 8 loads, power output increases slightly except when the test frequency is up at 20kHz, at which frequency the M5si is onlyl capable of delivering 150-watts of power. That said, 150-watts per channel is ‘way more than most people are ever going to need… and…

Armando (A.J.) Conti, owner and founder of Basis Audio Inc, has died, aged 59. Conti started out in the hi-fi business as, in his words: ‘an audio fanatic selling retail audio equipment part-time at night out of my own home.’ As is usual with this type of business, the equipment he was selling was expensive and visits to his home were by appointment only. Due to his background in mechanical engineering studies at both RPI and Northeastern and work experience that included research and development into both missiles and helicopters, Conti became disenchanted by the build quality and performance of the turntables he was selling, and disillusioned by their price/ performance ratios, so in 1985 he decided to design and build his own turntable… which became the first Basis turntable,…

Newport Test Labs measured the maximum output voltage of the Audio Research Reference 6 as being 12.5-volts at 1kHz from its single-ended outputs and 2.8-volts at 1kHz from its balanced outputs. These maximum voltages are only delivered below 20kHz: above 20kHz, maximum output of the unbalanced output drops as frequency increases, dropping to 500mV at 77kHz. Channel separation was excellent, with Newport Test Labs measuring channel balance at 116dB at 16Hz, 113dB at 1kHz and 86dB at 20kHz, the last figure would have been very good for a solid-state amplifier, but is excellent for a valve amplifier. Interchannel phase was very good, just 0.01° at 20Hz, 0.02° at 1kHz and 0.5° at 20kHz. The balance between the channels was outstanding, at 0.013dB at 1kHz, and this match was maintained across…

CES in Las Vegas is the greatest gadget show on earth. There are in the vicinity of 3,800 exhibitors representing over 20 product categories, 165,000 attendees and 5,600 press from 150 countries. While getting around the show may be a little uncomfortable at times, it is certainly the place to be if you want to see where the industry is heading. The show reports indicate that this year was no different, with many companies announcing new models, and a number of them giving a peek into the future. TV: There have been a few companies who have been sitting on the fence with OLED TV. Panasonic and Sony (along with others) have announced OLED models in the past just to pull the plug again. It appears that these companies are…

In our last edition of ‘Headlines’ we announced the release of the PS Audio Direct Stream Junior DAC – a high quality Roon-ready DSD DAC with a built-in streamer. So how do you make this offer even more appealing? Simple – you offer a 20% discount. Until the end of March we will be offering the Direct Stream Junior for $4,695 instead of the usual $5,895. Also from PS Audio we have recently received their new budget offering – the NuWave DSD DAC. With a retail price of $1,795 this is an extraordinary product, offering a performance level well beyond what a lot of its peers can achieve for the price. Stereophile reviewer Jim Austin (a self-confessed analogue lover) commented “...PS Audio’s NuWave DSD, whose sound possesses many of the…

Sonos-style wireless multi-room offerings are now big business. While Sonos enjoyed 100% of this market for a decade we have recently witnessed the rise of higher-resolution alternatives such as Bluesound, HEOS and Yamaha’s MusicCast. NAD have released a Bluesound module that can be added to a select number of their integrated amplifiers, and Yamaha have incorporated MusicCast into a myriad of their products, ranging from their AV receivers to soundbars, midi systems and wireless speakers (see page 20). Marantz have just released their new flagship Audio-Visual receiver, the SR7011, which has HEOS streaming on-board. This is a substantial AV receiver, arguably the best that we carry, and a great choice for anyone who uses their system for both Home Theatre and music. Marantz have always treated musical reproduction with respect,…

Yamaha MCR–N470 Yamaha’s new MCR-N470 is now available, offering a wide range of sources and functions from CD, USB and radio to the latest versions of Wi-Fi, MusicCast, AirPlay and Bluetooth. It’s not only convenient, it delivers a high sound quality, along with support for MusicCast wireless multiroom operation (see opposite), so that by adding other MusicCast compatible components, you expand your musical enjoyment even further. The MCR-N470 is priced at $699. Yamaha ISX-18D Decorate your living space and enjoy your music with the feature-packed ISX-18D. Both stylish and compact, the ISX-18D can be placed like a work of art to beautify any interior on a shelf or a wall. It includes a DAB+ digital radio tuner, giving you access to a large selection of radio stations with high sound…

Bluesound have added to their multi-room streaming range with the addition of a subwoofer – the Pulse Sub. At this time the Pulse Sub is a partner for the Pulse Soundbar (which is one of the best soundbars on the market), but we understand that a future software update will allow the Sub to be wirelessly partnered with any Bluesound component. This subwoofer is a little unusual – it is very compact, and can be positioned either standing up or on its back, allowing it to be hidden away under furniture etc. This is the ideal solution for anyone with limited space, or who simply does not want their living environment dominated by a large black box. Price is $999. NAD C338 Integrated Amplifier It has been a while coming,…