Innholdsfortegnelse for August - September 2018 i Sound + Image

Having been well impressed by Samsung’s HW-K950 soundbar when it was released for the Christmas 2016 season, we were keen to hear Samsung’s updated version, the HW-N950, launching at the same $1999. If that sounds pricey for a soundbar, and a Samsung one at that, take a look at the specs. This is a full 7.1.4 immersive sound system with dedicated drivers for each channel, rather than virtualisation (other than the side-surround position being delivered by side drivers on the front bar). There are separate physical wireless rear speakers, and four drivers dedicated to the height channels of Atmos and DTS:X — a pair of upfiring drivers on the bar, and two more at the rear, one on each rear speaker. At the Sydney demonstration we asked for a Dolby…

For a relatively new category, smart speakers are taking over the world — 18% of Americans now have one in the home, according to the latest research from NPR. For listening of all genres, the most popular option among Americans is smartphone or tablet (26%), followed by smart speakers (22%), though it’s rather pleasing to see AM/FM radios still scoring 17%. IHS Markit has also released a smart speaker report, similarly gung-ho on sales, predicting 328 million units will be in the global market by 2021, with the China market dominating. IHS points to simple usage dominating current smart speakers — its survey showed less than a quarter of users have ever purchased anything through their smart speaker, while more than 80% ask questions, check news and weather, or listen…

The announcement last year that EISA, the European Imaging and Sound Association, was going global felt like an inevitability. While audio markets and sometimes models do vary around the world, consumer electronics has never been so globalised as it is today, and spreading the EISA footprint allows the organisation to deal directly with global head offices, as well as bringing in opinions from outside its European headquarters. Ours, for instance! We were invited to consider joining EISA in 2016, and agreed, knowing both the organisation and many of those already involved, so both Sound+Image and our sister publication Australian Hi-Fi were officially enrolled as members in 2017. EISA’s Awards go back to 1982/3, when they began in the photographic categories, joined by Hi-Fi and Home Theatre categories precisely 10 years…

Chase AV chose to build the home’s control and automation around RTI’s XP-6 control processor (pictured), supplemented with a PCM-4 port control module and two ZM-24 Zigbee transceiver modules for control and communication between the processor and the handheld remote controls. The XP-6 controls the Samsung displays, Foxtel cable boxes, three of the four Apple TVs, and the theatre’s Pioneer Blu-ray player via IR. The Optoma projector is controlled by RS-232, while two-way IP drivers created by My Device provide seamless integration with an Apple TV 4 and the Clipsal C-Bus lighting and blinds system. The homeowners have complete control over their technology using three T2x handheld remote controls, in addition to an iPhone and iPad running the RTiPanel app. They can also view feedback from the Apple TV 4…

Distrustful person that I am, I prefer to select the appropriate surround mode myself. It’s especially easy with the Yamaha Scene system. So, can Surround:AI do better? First impression: with high quality surround tracks on movies, there was very little difference between Surround:AI and just having Dolby Surround selected. There seemed to be a slightly wider left/right separation for sounds at the back of the room, but there wasn’t a huge difference. Second impression: I used the walk-around-the-room track from an ancient Video Essentials DVD. That was weird. For two thirds of each circuit there was little difference from straight Dolby Digital. The other third? Between the right front speaker and the right surround speaker the voice had gobs of reverb folded into it, as though the talking man had…

The software which allows both room correction and control of ‘The Ones’ is free from Genelec’s website. We downloaded the GSM 3 version for Mac, which on first installation declared OS High Sierra too advanced for the software, on second launch dived into a software freeze, but on third attempt launched and worked successfully. You need hardware too, and as mentioned in the main panel, it comes at additional cost. This network adaptor kit includes a small hardware box into which plugs a USB cable for your computer, the microphone which comes as part of the kit, and an Ethernet cable off to one speaker, from which a second Ethernet cable connects to the other speaker. In fact the software is capable of tuning and controlling far more than a…

It seemed to surprise even Sony’s own local employees when we mentioned it to them, but the company was recently described to us as the world’s most efficient company when it comes to TVs (see panel overleaf). Back in 2014 when Sony abandoned its PC business, many predicted its TVs would be next, given a decade of losses totalling over $7bn to that point. But then-CEO (now-President) Kazuo Hirai was smarter than your average axe-wielder, and was not about to see Sony exit a market which many considered fundamental to its public image. Instead he isolated the company’s TV business, hoping the independence would speed up strategy decisions. He did the same with its camera and audio divisions a year later. Now look at the results. Sony has a wildly…

Few people these days will consider a full AV receiver and surround set-up in their lounge. But you’ve got to have something — native TV sound alone is unlistenable, today’s thin TVs delivering, with very few exceptions, underpowered sound that is a disgrace to the wonderful images available from their large screens. There are good stereo options — plug the TV output into a traditional hi-fi, or neater still a pair of active speakers flanking your TV. But the market success has, of course, gone to soundbars, and as competition for this growing category has mushroomed, the claims for their abilities have become ever more effusive. They promise you a miracle. Very few of them deliver. Which are they? The four reviews that follow are all of soundbars from $599…

Several issues back we carried a review of the Questyle QP2R high resolution portable audio player (you can read it at avhub.com.au/QP2R). Therein we mentioned the availability of the Questyle HB2 Hub. You can pop the QP2R player into this (as pictured from rear and front below) and charge it up. It also takes the analogue output from the player’s USB Type-C connection and makes it available via proper RCA stereo sockets (there’s also an optical output). I did run some quick measurements on the Hub, and things like frequency response were essentially identical to that of the player, the output was about a decibel higher, but the noise performance was significantly worse. Significantly, I say, not necessarily audibly. But if you can measure it, at least potentially you may…

We’ve examined the unlikely resurgence of the compact cassette before, with bands releasing limited runs of cassettes more as a trendy way of garnering publicity than a love for its audio quality. But now things are getting serious, with AVTechnology Europe reporting that a reel-to-reel specialist has committed to production of new blank tapes. “Cassettes being sold out there today are at least 15-years old,” Jean-Luc Renou, CEO of RecordingTheMasters’ parent company Mulann SA, told AVTE. “But that stock is depleting and within three years, it will be all over. There will be no more stock left.” So RecordingTheMasters, a company in Normandy, France, which has previously specialised in high-quality reel tapes for studio, radio and (whisper it quiet) miltiray and NASA clients, will be releasing its own ‘Fox’ brand…

First up, then, we need to sort out a question we’ve long had regarding products from McIntosh. Their illumination. We can think of no other audio brand which is so defined by its lights and colour — backlit laser-cut glass front panels, softly-lit bouncing power meters. Head to a hi-fi show and you can almost locate the McIntosh room by the distinguished green glow which emanates from the room, and the sighs of hi-fi fans as they enter to face a set of racks loaded with this most iconic and desirable of brands. But is it green? McIntosh never mentions green — it goes on about its “signature McIntosh blue watt meters” (sometimes nailing the shade more accurately as ‘teal’). So green versus blue — is this like that dress,…

Loewe’s back. Loewe is, of course, the German TV maker much beloved of Australian video cognoscenti of the early 2000s. You could have your Japanese and Korean TVs back in those days, or you could go for quality German stuff. Indeed, I did just that. For several years my own reference TV was a Loewe Xelos 32-inch model. (I mention that for a reason to which I’ll return.) Under the local management of Indi Imports, the brand is being reinvigorated in Australia, once the company’s largest non-European market. Here’s the first model from its new wave on which we’ve laid eyes: the Loewe Bild 3.55 OLED TV. Equipment ‘Bild’ is German for image, or picture, or photo, scene, sight... that’s what my elementary Google skills tell me. OLED means what…

JBL recently launched a range of four soundbars, rising from the economical ‘Bar Studio’, a 60cm bar-only design, through the subwoofer-equipped Bar 2.1 and this Bar 3.1 up to the rangetopping Bar 5.1, which has the clever solution of sections at each end of the bar which can pull off and operate as battery-powered wireless rear speakers — a notion we first saw in a Philips Fidelio product some years ago. For our review we have the Bar 3.1, which offers three channels of sound at the front, plus an impressively-sized wireless subwoofer to handle the bass. It’s priced at $699 in Australia (comparing well with its US pre-tax price of $499), and is particularly notable in offering three HDMI inputs on the bar, all of them fully compatible with…

Sonos is not a company that throws out new products willynilly, nor does it update its hardware every year, preferring to delight existing owners by adding new abilities via firmware update. This has its limits, of course — the ability to have voice control, say, requires a microphone, though Sonos has been quietly building those in since the Play:5 refresh in 2015. One of the headlines for this Beam release is AirPlay 2 compatibility, again rolling out also to a limited number of existing Sonos models. The company has obviously taken a liking to the TV audio space, the Beam bringing the number of TV-centric Sonos models to three — the existing Playbar and Playbase, and now the Beam, which is smaller and cheaper than either. Sonos suggests the Beam…

Not mere wireless speakers, these, but ‘intelligent wireless music systems’ — that’s how Dynaudio styles its first tilt at the standalone and multiroom market. And as usual, the company does things a little differently. We played with two of the four-strong range very early — indeed a few things changed after our review came out, notably the removal of Spotify, for regular readers who have held onto the review from our Feb/March 2018 issue. Now we have the other half of the range to examine — the second largest in the range, the Music 5, and the smallest and most portable model, the Music 1. Full range Dynaudio does aim to deliver a difference, notably in sheer size with its Music 7, which presents itself an impressively wide 82cm from…

Broadcast television might be out of fashion these days, but it’s still the best place to find some of your favourite content — especially live sport. Yet as our homes get increasingly networked and connected with IT cables or Wi-Fi, the humble antenna connection is getting sidelined. Instead of an antenna socket in every location you might want a TV, now you might have an Ethernet socket instead, or just Wi-Fi. What are you supoposed to do for live TV — shove a pair of rabbit ears on top? It’s hardly the high-tech dream. Equipment The $299 HDHomeRun Connect Quatro aims to solve the problem — distributing live TV all over your home via the IT network. And not just playing, and not just to televisions. It aims to stream…

Sixteen years ago, Kasey Chambers famously and plaintively sang “Am I not pretty enough?” as her relationship came to an end. Now in 2018 another long-term relationship is reportedly ending, as more and more auto manufacturers seek to ditch the compact disc player from their new model cars. It is a relationship that has lasted more than three decades, so why is it on the way out now? Well, it turns out that compact as a CD disc slot is, it is not quite compact enough to keep its spot on today’s dashboard — dominated as this now is by the trend for ever larger infotainment screens. Locally, Holden has been quietly deleting the CD since late 2012, with some models of the pint-sized Barina losing the wherewithal to spin…

Some intellectual property — I guess that’s what we call fictional characters these days — simply won’t translate well to the movie screen. Or so it seems. It’s a mystery why this might be. How come Thor and Iron Man can work so well, but poor old Lara Croft only gets IMDB ratings of 5.8 and 5.5 for Angelina Jolie’s two outings in the character, and a slightly better 6.4/10 for Alicia Vikander’s version. Could it be the actors? It seems unlikely. Jolie and Vikander are both first-class. Indeed, both are Best Supporting Actress Oscar winners (Jolie in 2000 for Girl, Interrupted and Vikander in 2016 for The Danish Girl). It has been quite a few years since I watched Jolie’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and I never caught the…

Users of Roon, the paid music management software, may find their list of endpoints expanding dramatically with an update which brings Chromecasts within the list of devices to which Roon can send music. So that’s good for sending to all Google-equipped speakers, all Android TVs, direct delivery to audio Chromecasts, and to video Chromecasts for which it adds a visual interface. Roon was already able to address AirPlay devices, iPhones and iPads, and Sonos products, plus of course any Roon-ready kit, or DACs connected to the computer hosting your Roon Core. Powerful, then, if you are up for the US$119 per year or $499 ‘lifetime’ fee. roonlabs.com…

We re no fans of buying audio equipment online — we recommend local hi-fi shops every time. But with Amazon now offering Australians two levels of ‘Prime’ service including video streaming, Adam Turner assesses the value on offer versus rival streaming services, and finds that while Aussies pay less for Amazon’s streaming video service than Netflix or Stan, but in return there’s less to keep you entertained. An Australian Amazon Prime Video subscription will set you back $4.99 per month, rising to $6.99 in January 2019. Alternatively you can access Amazon’s video library as part of the new $12.99 per month Australian Prime service. Either way, you can use three different devices simultaneously, with the option to download and watch offline. Meanwhile, Netflix and Stan start at $10 per month…

Welcome to ahome which is filled with music and entertainment— and we’re not just talking about the equipment installed by Chase AV, which oversaw the connected side of this newly-renovated home in Sydney. We’re talking about the owners and their lifestyle. “It’s a great family,” says Chase AV’s founder Erin Murphy. “They’re always playing music through the home, and they love their entertainment, as well as entertaining others. So while with some jobs you wonder how much use people will make of the options you’ve made available, this was a job where we knew the family would love and use the results.” Erin could be confident of this because he already knew the family from a previous installation. “A few years ago I was called in at the eleventh hour…

Yamaha’s ninth series of premium Aventage receivers has now arrived. And they’ve arrived with some interesting changes, including one that might alter the way you interact with your home entertainment equipment. The first one we’ve been able to examine is the Yamaha Aventage RX-A1080, which is right in the middle of the range. Equipment Before getting to those changes, let’s refresh our memories about the capabilities of this receiver. It is a seven-channel unit, providing a solid 120W per channel (into 8 ohms, full bandwidth, 0.06% THD, two channels driven). As is Yamaha’s long-standing practice, only the front two channels can be used with four-ohm loudspeakers. The rest — at least if you want to comply with the manual’s stated requirements — need at least six-ohm speakers. The receiver supports…

How easy is it to incorporate ‘professional’ audio equipment in a more consumer hi-fi context? In some areas, pretty easy. Take headphones — not so very long ago, consumer headphones were priced below professional headphones, for the apparently obvious reason that pro gear was going to operate to higher standards than consumer gear. But then consumer headphone prices rose higher and higher, and today your staple studio headphones — a Sennheiser HD280 Pro or beyerdynamic DT770, say — are looking more and more the bargain (though specifications can vary — some pro headphones are not designed for portable use, for example). What about speakers, and in particular active speakers? Active speakers are the new darlings of home hi-fi, being exceedingly décor friendly, no amplifiers required, and potentially no sources either,…

Eighth-generation, eh? How quickly the years pass. LG’s OLED TV offerings are now in their eighth year. The first we ever reviewed was third-generation — it was a full-HD model with a curved screen. LG has long since abandoned curvature (it really was just a stylistic fad, unless you live in a light-house), and all its OLED TVs are now Ultra-HD in resolution. As in recent years, there are three series of OLED TVs. The C8 series (of which we are here reviewing the 65-inch model) has the rather immodestly-priced ‘entry-level’ models. But I’m told that the panels are all the same across the three series. What you get with the more expensive ranges are different styling and sound solutions. But not different panel sizes. You can get the C8…

As recently as two years ago we wouldn’t have recommended or even been keen to review a Samsung soundbar; our regard for its audio products wasn’t high. That changed last year, with the release of Samsung’s Sound+ range, designed and/or tuned in the company’s new California Audio Lab, helmed by ex-Harman Allan Devantier, who had joined the company with the remit to transform its audio products only to have Samsung then buy the whole of his former company Harman for a great many billions of dollars. The acquisition seemed particularly prompted by Harman’s automotive technologies, but netted all its audio brands in the process — so that’s JBL, Harman Kardon, Mark Levinson, AKG, Lexicon, Infinity, and Revel. One of the first mainstream products out of California was the MS650 soundbar,…

The claims for Sony’s HT-X9000F soundbar+subwoofer combination are significant — “Vertical Surround”, and Dolby Atmos and DTS:X compatibility for these object-based height-enhanced soundtracks that can send sound elements wherever the processor thinks is most effective with the speakers available. Yet it’s so small! The bar has only two drivers in it! Can it be another miracle soundbar? Equipment Mechanics first. As the model number indicates, Sony’s little soundbar is clearly designed with the TV range in mind — the bar is just a little shorter than the width of the 55-inch X90F’s splayed legs, with its sides angled back to nestle within its thighs, as it were (as pictured above). The socketry lies within a single cut-out section to the rear: it has 4K HDMI, though only one input and…

Dynaudio’s $1299 Music 5 is the second largest player in the range of four — and given that the rangetopping Music 7 is very large indeed, that leaves the Music 5 with still quite the physical presence — it’s a full 66cm wide. After experiencing the Music 7’s performance via HDMI as a kind of superior TV audio system (see February/March issue), we tried the Music 5 also in soundbar position, receiving the TV sound into its optical input (you may need to set your TV to output PCM). It impressed with movie soundtrack depth, the lower decks of the ship in Alien Covenant have some impressive throbbing going on, and the Music 5 served it all with remarkable bass content, while again keeping clarity for dialogue. And while (as…

Steven Spielberg still has it. At 71 years of age, he can deliver a techno-thriller that’s entertaining, that’s beautifully made, and that is not idiotic in depicting possible future technology. It’s 2045 and most of America’s people spend most of their time in a VR world called Oasis. Its creator (played by Mark Rylance) has died a few years earlier and has willed this half-trillion-dollar world to the first person who can complete a particular quest within Oasis. Our young stars, Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke, hope to be the ones. As does a big business led by Ben Mendolsohn. He has tasked hordes of players to win control for him. One could quibble about Oasis. The graphics looks like a video game. But will computer graphics look like that…