Innholdsfortegnelse for September - October 2018 i Australian HiFi

British hi-fi brand Exposure has released a 5010 preamplifier to complement its previously-released 200-watt 5010 monobloc power amplifiers. The Exposure 5010 preamplifier has six line inputs, all switched by high-quality relays to ensure short signal paths, one of which can be configured as either an MM/MC phono input or as a DAC with the addition of an extra PCB. The 5010 fits only one or the other of these two options—you can’t install both. The Exposure DAC is capable of up to 192/24-bit PCM and DSD 64, and comes with two inputs: USB and BNC, with auto-switching between the two. The preamplifier has balanced and unbalanced outputs and is d.c.-coupled using servos at the output and only one capacitor at the input. Its power supply features a 200W transformer, fast…

Melbourne-based high-end audio distributor Absolute HiEnd is now distributing APL Hi-Fi equipment in Australia. APL Hi-Fi, headquartered in Ruse, Bulgaria, was established in 1988 by audio engineer Alex Peychev. The company manufactures DACs, transports, streamers, preamplifiers, power amplifiers, loudspeakers, power cables, speaker cables and interconnects. One thing that sets the company apart is that Peychev says that he designs and builds all his own conversion circuitry, eschewing the use of ‘off the shelf’ devices, so inside the company’s top-of-the-range DAC, the DSD-Master Reference, proprietary technology is used for the asynchronous USB input module, the PCM to DSD converter module, the 64-bit digital filters and for the DSD digital-to-analog conversion. Output from the DAC section is amplified using a pure Class-A, differential valve stage that’s equipped with current production E182CCs (dual…

German manufacturer RME Audio has released the RME ADI-2 DAC, a two-channel high-end digital-to-analogue converter designed with features targeted at appealing to both studio professionals and audiophiles alike. The RME ADI-2 DAC is a further development of the renowned ADI-2 Pro AD/DA reference converter. Its input options include a coaxial SPDIF connection, an optical SPDIF/ADAT connection and a USB2 port. After D/A conversion the analogue signals are available at the stereo XLR and stereo RCA outputs, or at the TRS standard and mini jack outputs of the headphone amp. ‘Using the latest 32-bit/768kHz reference converter RME Steady-Clock technology for excellent jitter suppression and a powerful DSP processor, the ADI-2 DAC offers zero-compromise conversion and playback of digital signals into the analogue world,’ said Bill Barsby, of Innovative Music Australia, which…

Hegel rates the output of the H80 with an output of 75-watts per channel, both channels driven into 8 and this is exactly what Newport Test Labs measured on its test bench, and it measured this output right across the audio spectrum from 20Hz to 20kHz. This is obviously a good result, but it’s also one that shows that Hegel has such confidence in its manufacturing and quality control procedures that it doesn’t feel the need to build a little ‘headroom’ into the specification to cope with model-to-model variations. Hegel doesn’t specify the H80’s output into 4 loads, but you can see from the tabulated results that Newport Test Labs measured the output of the review sample as 110-watts per channel at 20Hz, 114-watts per channel at 1kHz and 106-watts…

James A. Michener in his 1971 novel ‘The Drifters’ indulges in a bit of cheap psychologising, suggesting hi-fi fans are principally interested in a sense of control. That flies in the face of the minimalism of the past few decades: the shedding of tone controls and graphic equalisers, and the preference for having only a volume knob for control. That said, when it comes to digital audio there are things that are worth controlling. Michener’s mythical control freak would love the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ because it has adjustments for just about everything. Hi-fi purists will love it too, for its other virtues… and, perhaps, because it has adjustments for just about everything. THE EQUIPMENT First, what is the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+? It is a DAC. It is a headphone amplifier.…

Newport Test Labs measured the frequency response of the B&W 702 S2 speakers as 38Hz to 38kHz ±3.5dB, which is an excellent result. A smaller section of this response (between 20Hz and 10kHz) is shown in Graph 1, and you can see that in addition to the superb linearity, there’s also no spectral skew, which if there had been would have resulted in incorrect sound balance, irrespective of the ±dB variation. The graph shows a very slight suck-out in the response between 1.5kHz and 3.5kHz that I suspect is more related to a microphone positioning issue than to the speakers themselves, but it’s so minor it would not be audible. The low-frequency roll-off that starts at 100Hz is controlled, even and extended, suggesting superior bass response. An expanded view of…

Australian Hi-Fi Magazine has been a member of EISA—the Expert Imaging and Sound Association—since 2017, so we were part of the judging panel for the hi-fi expert group that decided the winners of this year’s EISA awards in the hi-fi audio categories. To win an EISA award, products undergo a comprehensive multi-step judging process, with products first tested at the facilities of the individual member magazines and also auditioned at the Association’s annual Convention. A short-list of potential winners is debated after which final deliberations take place at EISA’s annual General Meeting, where a democratic voting process establishes a consensus of excellence and determines the winning products. Presented here for the first time are the EISA award winners in the hi-fi category, with full product details and the judges’ citations.…

Len Wallis Audio is now selling JL Audio subwoofers in-store, as a result of Managing Director, Len Wallis’ recent experience at the Munich Hi-End Show. ‘One of the reasons for my visiting Munich was to unearth a premium subwoofer brand which would sit comfortably above our highly respected Sunfire range,’ said Wallis. ‘After thoroughly examining and researching the various brands on offer, and numerous visits to JL Audio’s stand, the choice became obvious because I was not only impressed by the demonstrations given, but also by the company’s unmistakable commitment to quality—both in terms of build and performance.’ Len Wallis Audio will be ranging the complete JL Fathom range of free-standing subwoofers, starting with the JL Audio Fathom F112 V3, which is a 1,500 watt sealed enclosure design using a…

Sennheiser has won an iF Design Award for its Momentum Bluetooth earphones. Developed in collaboration with Zurich design agency StudioWeber, the iF Design Award-winning Bluetooth neckband earphones are a recent addition to Sennheiser’s Momentum range. ‘It is a great honour for the Momentum In-Ear Wireless to be recognised among the world’s best examples of product design as, without a passion for design, there would be no Momentum,’ said Oliver Berger, Head of Global Design Management at Sennheiser. ‘We have sought to re-define the world of headphones by offering a unique combination of outstanding sound quality, progressive technology and aesthetic purity. With the Momentum In-Ear Wireless, we brought this ethos to a Bluetooth ear-canal model for the first time.’ The Sennheiser Momentum in-ears are manufactured from impact-resistant polycarbonate, as well as…

SGR Audio has released a new range of modular hi-fi equipment racks in three different styles: Signature, Symphony and Statement. ‘Our new hifi equipment racks are a seamless blend of innovative engineering, compelling performance and luxurious aesthetics,’ said Stuart Ralston, CEO at Melbourne-based SGR Audio. ‘Disruptive vibrations from your equipment and from the surrounding environment inhibit and distort the quality of your sound. Our layered isolation technology works seamlessly to protect and enhance the listener’s experience.’ The entry-level rack in the new range is the Model 1 Signature, which retails for $795 per level, so $2,385 for a three-level rack with customisable height adjustments. ‘For the uninitiated, this rack will awaken a passion for hi-fi rack technology,’ Ralston told Australian Hi-Fi Magazine. ‘The remarkable adaptability of our modular design enables…

Esoteric’s N-01 Network Player now supports Roon, and existing owners can update their players for free. If you already own an Esoteric N-01 Network Player and want the Roon upgrade, simply fire up the ‘Esoteric Sound Stream’ app and use it to update the NET firmware of your machine to the latest version. ‘Roon is the most engaging, enjoyable way to browse your music,’ said Michael Marchant, of Reference Audio Visual, which distributes Esoteric in Australia. ‘Being Roon Ready means that Esoteric network players transparently discover and connect to Roon, with no network configuration, and with bit-perfect delivery of audio to your DAC. Together, Roon and Esoteric deliver the power, flexibility, and performance benefits of networked audio, with the easiest setup and highest reliability available.’ Based in Tokyo, Esoteric is…

Aesthetix’s Saturn Series Eclipse edition is now available in Australia. Components in the Eclipse Edition now have StealthCap capacitors, distributed node film capacitors, and ‘super-matched’ output devices. ‘The Saturn Eclipse Series incorporates numerous StealthCap capacitors in critical inter-stage and output coupling functions,’ says Boris Granovsky, of Absolute HiEnd, which distributes California-based Aesthetix products in Australia. ‘Each capacitor is individually hand-crafted and tailored specifically for the Aesthetix Eclipse by Peter Moncrieff, whose StealthCaps are renowned for their ability to dramatically reduce reflections, with incredible sonic results.’ In the Eclipse editions of the Janus and Calypso preamplifiers, high-frequency tuning capacitors are hand-adjusted to tailor the frequency response to 0.1dB standard and the Eclipse edition of the Atlas power amplifier now has 32 ‘super-matched’ bipolar output devices, which Aesthetix claims reduce ‘specific aspects’…

Acoustic treatment products made by Sonitus Acoustics are now available in Australia through Convoy International. ‘Sonitus Acoustics’ panels come in a multitude of different colours, thicknesses and designs to allow a wide variety of acoustic treatment solutions,’ said Geoff Matthews, CEO of Convoy International, ‘and the company’s product line includes a wide variety of absorbers, diffusers and bass traps.’ One of Sonitus’ most popular products is its Decotrap Natur bass trap, which is one of a line of four and is a semi-covered low frequency absorber. It’s made from a polyester foam material Sonitus calls ‘USAP’ (Unique Sonitus Acoustic Polyester) foam, a heavy and high density polyester foam, which is covered with a perforated plywood plate. Decotrap Natur bass traps offer absorption over a frequency range of 50Hz–500Hz, but are…

For very small geographic region, with an even smaller population, Scandinavia is over-represented in the field of high-end audio design and manufacture… particularly the countries of Denmark and Sweden. But Norway isn’t letting the side down, as the Hegel H80 proves. THE EQUIPMENT Like all Hegel’s components, the H80 has very ‘clean’ lines, mostly due to the use of microprocessors for control, so all the control actions required can be accomplished with just the two controls that are positioned either side of the front panel display. What you can’t do with these two controls is switch the H80 on and off. For that you need to use the power button. Unlike most manufacturers, which put that button around the back on the rear panel of the amplifier, where it’s often…

Maybe Parasound should provide ‘Work in Progress’ signs with its JC 3 phono preamplifier, because it’s definitely a work in progress, with both Parasound’s owner, Richard Schram and his designer, John Curl, now on the third iteration, with both apparently unwilling to jettison the original ‘JC 3’ model number. So in the beginning there was the JC3, which begat the JC 3+, which begat the JC 3 Jnr. However, the JC3 is no more, leaving only the JC 3+ and the JC 3 Jnr extant. I can see the reason for their attachment to the ‘JC 3’ model number. The JC stands for John Curl, of course, but long (and I mean long... it was ‘way back in the 70s) before he started designing for Parasound, Curl was designing for…

Furby anyone? Probably an obscure reference, considering that the Furby (a small electronic robotic toy with big ears) craze peaked more than 20 years ago, but when I first unpacked Krix’s Esoterix Altum and saw those enormous ear-like waveguides on the front baffles, a Furby was the first thing I thought of… possibly because of my daughter’s passion for them when she was a child. For journalistic accuracy, I Googled a picture of a Furby to refresh my visual memory and discovered the Altum looks nothing like one… but first impressions are first impressions, even if they’re not particularly faithful! My first real intellectual thought was that Krix must have had a very good reason to fit such a large waveguide to such a small speaker, not only for reasons…

The long-awaited Mag-Lev ML-1 turntable, whose platter is not only supported entirely by magnetic force, but is also rotated by magnetic force—so there is no drive motor or belt—is now available in Australia for $3,495 (RRP). The Slovenian company behind the Mag-Lev ML-1 turntable (Mag-Lev Audio) has not released details of exactly how the platter is rotated, other than to say that there is ‘no motor’, and that it’s powered by a ‘magnetic coil drive’. Wow and flutter is claimed to be ‘0.17%’ (no measurement standard specified) and signal-to-noise ratio as ‘–73dB’ (no reference level specified). The turntable platter is made from an ABS/carbon-fibre composite into which are embedded both sections of metal and neodymium magnets, so it weighs 2.2kg. The platter can be rotated at either 33.33 or 45…

McIntosh has released what is now the company’s most powerful stereo power amplifier, the MC462, which is rated at 450-watts per channel. The McIntosh MC462 replaces the MC452 but, like that amplifier, uses an autoformer so the output power remains the same irrespective of whether you’re driving 2 , 4 or 8 speakers. The capacitance of the power supply in the MC462 has been increased by nearly 50 per cent, according to McIntosh, which it claims has resulted in an increase in dynamic headroom from 1.8dB to 3.0dB. ‘This increase allows the MC462 to easily handle drastic swings in dynamics and effortlessly reproduce music with virtually no distortion,’ says Philip Sawyer, of Synergy Audio Visual, which distributes McIntosh in Australia. ‘Bass performance is also improved as a result of the…

The new Vinnie Rossi L2 Signature preamplifier and monoblock power amplifiers are now available in Australia. The Vinnie Rossi L2 Signature Preamplifier uses ultra-wide bandwidth Class-A circuitry that incorporates direct heated triodes (DHTs) powered by dual mono linear power supplies that use Belleson super-regulators. Each power supply has its own 100VA toroidal transformer and 100,000µF of storage/smoothing capacitance. Control over volume is delivered by a discrete, 64-step resistor ladder volume control using Pickering England silent signal relays. Uniquely, the DHT section of the circuit can be replaced by a Class-A JFET stage simply by flicking a switch. The L2 has true active balanced (XLR) and single-ended (RCA) inputs and outputs. The Vinnie Rossi L2 Monoblock power amplifier is rated with an output of 75-watts into 8 and 140-watts into 4…

The remote that comes standard with the H80 is a low-cost ‘plasticky’ credit-card-sized Chinese-made device powered by a CR2025 button battery (and disappointingly, despite it being supplied separately in a blister pack, the battery supplied with mine turned out to be flat… I had to go out and buy a fresh one) and only controls the basic features of power switching, volume control, input selection and muting (most of the buttons are used to control other Hegel components). If you’ve been looking at the Hegel H80 and been thinking to yourself that something’s missing, you’d be right… If you want to use all the Hegel H80’s features, you have to pay extra and buy the Hegel RC8 master remote control. This more complex, better-built remote will allow you to set…

Newport Test Labs measured the audio-band frequency response of the Parasound JC 3 Jnr as 20Hz to 20kHz ±0.2dB, which is exactly as specified by Parasound, and is shown in the accompanying Graph 1. You can see from the graph that the response has a very slight boost at low frequencies (peaking at around +0.2dB at 40Hz) then slowly rolling off to to 1kHz, after which there’s an even smaller boost in the response that ‘peaks’ at 8kHz, before rolling off to 20kHz. The response is certainly wideband, being 3dB down at 8Hz and at reference level out to 100kHz. Channel separation was outstanding, with Newport Test Labs measuring a best result of 101dB at 1kHz, but it was still at or better than 93dB at 16Hz and 20kHz, as…

The advantages B&W claim for its FSTs include improved transient response, improved damping and a reduction in dynamic distortion A lot has been happening at B&W in recent times, with the company increasing the size of its R&D team by 40 per cent, which entailed closing its old research facility in Steyning and re-locating it to a new, larger, and better-equipped facility in West Sussex, England… and also opening a new factory in Zhuhai, China, where all the 700 Series 2 (700 S2) loudspeakers are built. (Which means that as of now, the only B&W speakers still manufactured in Great Britain are the 800D3s and the Nautilus.) THE EQUIPMENT B&W pioneered the ‘curvy’ loudspeaker cabinet, so in some ways, the fact that the cabinet of the 702 S2 is conventional…

Newport Test Labs measured the overall frequency response of the Krix Esoterix Altum speaker as extending from 38Hz to 36kHz ±3.2dB, which is an excellent result and is shown as the black trace in Graph 1. You can see that the trace is flattest across the range 100Hz to 17kHz, where it deviates by only around ±1.5dB. Below 100Hz there’s the expected roll-off while above 17kHz it appears there’s a rise in the tweeter’s output to a resonant peak at 20kHz, after which the response falls away but easily extends out to 40kHz and beyond. Note that the response is not spectrally skewed in a way that would indicate the speaker might emphasise one region of the spectrum at the expense of another, even given the ±3.2dB response envelope: the…