Australian HiFi July - August 2015

A confession. I now have a Spotify account… and not a paid one. I have the free one. Mind you, I’m not exactly happy that I have a Spotify account at all, because the technical standard of its streams (320kbps... and less on the free version!) is not up at the quality level I want, but I wished to hear some music from a band I’d been told I would like and it turned out that I had to have to have a Spotify account to hear their stuff because that’s the only place I could get to hear it. And it’s that which intrigued me. I had been under the impression that the only people who made money out of Spotify were the Spotify’s owners and the record labels.…

Goldmund has released the latest incarnation of its famous Telos 360+ monobloc power amplifier. The Telos 360 dates back to 1982, when it was first introduced by this famous Swiss manufacturer. ‘Although the schematic diagrams for this new Telos 360+ are very similar to the original Goldmund model, they do show refinements implemented by nine generations of Goldmund engineers,’ said Boris Granovsky, of Absolute HiEnd, which distributes Goldmund in Australia. ‘Each one of those nine iterations has bought the amplifier closer to perfection, with the internal circuitry of this model improved over the Telos 350+ to provide the strongest “Driver Control” ever achieved, resulting in surprising clarity and exceptional dynamics.’ A particularity of this new model is that it runs much cooler than previous versions, despite having a rated power…

The Mola-Mola Makua Control Amplifier and Kaluga Monobloc power amplifiers are now available from Pure Music Group. The Mola-Mola Kaluga Monobloc amplifiers use the latest generation Hypex Class-D N-Core amplifiers that Mola-Mola says it has modified for use in the Kaluga, which it rates with a power output of 400 watts into 8 and 800 watts into 4 . ‘They will drive pretty much any speaker load with a finesse usually only found in single-ended triode tube amplifiers,’ said Warwick Freemantle, of Pure Music Group, ‘and weighing only seven kilograms each and with a footprint no bigger than a shoebox, they are the most user-friendly of amplifiers.’ The Mola-Mola Makua is a fully balanced analogue line preamplifier that has the shortest signal paths possible to ensure a transparent gain stage…

Pathos has released its Aurium headphone amplifier, which has a Pure Class-A valve preamplifier stage, a MOSFET power stage with zero feedback, and adjustable output impedance (16 –1k ). ‘The Aurium delivers the performance that audiophiles have been accustomed to when listening to Pathos components,’ said Nigel Ng of Advance Audio, which distributes Pathos in Australia ‘exquisite musicality, transparency, dynamics and a total lack of listening fatigue. It’s also packed with innovative circuit ideas, such as the use of a high-precision Burr-Brown device to adjust volume, rather than an ordinary potentiometer.’ The Aurium has four line inputs (one of which is balanced), and a pair of balanced outputs (XLR) and unbalanced outputs (RCA) and is rated with a frequency response of 10Hz to 80kHz, and THD of less than 0.1%.…

Danish loudspeaker specialist Dynaudio has released a new range of powered wireless loudspeakers with inbuilt DACs. Focus XD is a series of actively-powered speakers that accepts high-resolution digital signals up to 24-bit/192 kHz. ‘The Focus XD represents more than just a new high-end loudspeaker; it redefines the hi-fi system itself,’ commented John Davies, of Sennheiser Brands, which distributes Dynaudio in Australia. ‘Focus XD allows a simplified audio system that merges high-end sound performance with a new level of convenience, with only a music source needed, because all models in the Focus XD series contain extremely powerful digital amplifiers, high-performance DSP, and a digital volume control, as well as digital and analogue inputs.’ The Focus 200 XD is an active-compact two-way speaker rated at 300-watts that retails for $8,999; the Focus…

Final Audio Design has released a line of high-end in-ear ‘phones that not only sound good, but are styled in such a way that they resemble no earphones you’ve ever seen before: They wouldn’t look out of place as exhibits in a museum of modern art. The flagship model is the Final Audio Piano Forte X, which retails for $3,299. It uses a 16mm diameter dynamic driver, and has a sound quality that Final Audio says is influenced by the vibratory characteristics of the material used to make the housing: a chrome/copper composite. ‘This material allows the listener to feel the pleasing sensation of sound notes lingering naturally,’ said George Poutakidis of BusiSoft, which distributes Final Audio in Australia. The Final Audio Adagio V ($263) uses 8mm driver units in…