Features
Australian Hi-Fi Show Sydney 2024 Report
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 15 April 2024 15 April 2024
The Australian Hi-Fi Show Sydney 2024, or the “Sydney” show, as local audio enthusiasts like to call it, was again held at the Sydney Central Hotel, Haymarket (previously the Novotel), a convenient location just a breezy five-minute walk from Central Station. Off the cuff, as a short preamble, I found it gratifying to see a cornucopia of homegrown produce from brands who over the years have garnered international prestige, right across to emerging, smaller concerns. Overseas readers will, no doubt, marvel at the ingenuity and individuality of the many Aussie brands mentioned below. Well, as is my usual modus operandi, the coverage will follow my semi-random meanderings through the venue across the three days I attended. So, let’s hit the mosh pit, shall we?
Factory and HQ visit – Yamaha True Sound: The Concept, The People and The Room
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 15 January 2024 15 January 2024
As I enter the sprawling reception area of Yamaha Corporation’s Hamamatsu headquarters I find, dead-centre in the space, an arrestingly realistic, life-sized sculpture. It’s by artist Junya Okabe from BLAST and part of the ‘Animals As Art’ series, depicting a dormant, yet protective polar bear mother, cub resting by her side. Yet, despite being inactive, the exhibit symbolises an attentiveness, given its location at Yamaha HQ. There’s a of sense serenity; the majestic animals appear… comforted, calmly nestled by the passive enjoyment of music. That, right there, represents Yamaha, the world’s largest and longest-running electronics and musical instruments company. So, I’m here to experience the company’s maxim philosophy permeating across all of its audio products which, in two simple words, encompasses an ideology shared by all music lovers. Yamaha calls it ‘True Sound’.
SoundStage! Talks Australia Video: From Australia to Japan to Learn About Yamaha’s "True Sound" Pursuit—Part 2
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- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 19 December 2023 19 December 2023
SoundStage! Australia editor-in-chief Edgar Kramer visits Yamaha HQ in Hamamatsu, Japan, to visit the flagship 5000-series production facility and to learn about the company's "True Sound" design philosophy. Full Feature to come to www.SoundStageAustralia.com soon.
SoundStage! Talks Australia Video: From Australia to Japan to Learn About Yamaha’s "True Sound" Pursuit—Part 1
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- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 14 December 2023 14 December 2023
In this episode, editor Edgar Kramer is at Yamaha HQ where he was the first western journalist to experience the near-finished True Sound room. In this superb acoustic space, Edgar interviews key Yamaha personnel to get insights into the True Sound philosophy.
The SoundStage! Australia Products of the Year Awards 2023
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 06 December 2023 06 December 2023
Here we go folks. I’m sitting at my desk looking out at the Narrowneck escarpment – and yes, it’s blue – thinking about what this time of year means for this publication. To me, it literally feels like it was just last week I was compiling last year’s SoundStage! Australia Awards, and now I’m doing the exact same thing again for 2023’s selections. Amazing. Going back and surveying the extraordinary products we reviewed throughout the year, I am pleased with the breadth of categories we, as a dedicated SoundStage! Australia team of authors, smashed through in 2023.
SoundStage! Talks Australia Video: Gilad Tiefebrun on Jony Ive and the $60,000 Linn LP12-50 Anniversary Turntable
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- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 04 December 2023 04 December 2023
Linn's CEO, Gilad Tiefenbrun, talks to SoundStage! Australia's Editor Edgar Kramer about social media platform trials, how he connected to industrial design icon Jony Ive, and how the Sondek LP12-50 Anniversary Turntable came about.
Linn Launches Sondek LP12-50 Anniversary Turntable in Sydney
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 23 November 2023 23 November 2023
Last Tuesday evening, SoundStage! Australia attended a soirée, organised by Advance Audio Australia, at Rekōdo Restaurant and Vinyl Bar, to celebrate and officially launch the new AU$90,000 Linn Sondek LP12-50 in Sydney. The new turntable is a 50th Anniversary limited-run refinement of the company’s iconic deck and one certain to become a desired collector’s item.
Tokyo International Audio Show 2023 Coverage
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 13 November 2023 13 November 2023
Konnichiwa! I was landing in one of my very favourite cities in the world yet, despite all my previous visits to Japan, criminally, I had never attended this, from all reports, delightfully quirky and densely teeming show. Hitting the Tokyo International Forum early on the morning of the first day (Friday, as this is a three-day show), I was impressed by the anticipating throngs assembled. It was, after all, the Tokyo International Audio Show’s 40th Anniversary, so the sense of excitement was palpable. Further, I was struck by the Forum’s architectural grandeur, a complex edifice of metal and glass. I was off to a kakkoii start.
Standout Rooms at StereoNET’s Melbourne Hi-Fi & AV Show 2023
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 24 October 2023 24 October 2023
Like a foghorn blaring over Albert Park lake, StereoNET’s Hi-Fi & AV Show summoned audio and music lovers from around the country and delivered a bigger and super-varied audio feast at its traditional venue, Pullman Melbourne Albert Park.
SoundStage! Talks Australia Video: From Italy with Luxury: Livio Details the Sonus Faber Serafino G2 Loudspeaker
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- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 23 October 2023 23 October 2023
SoundStage! Australia’s editor in chief, Edgar Kramer, talks to Sonus Faber’s chief of design, Livio Cucuzza, about the Serafino G2 loudspeaker’s design, technology, and performance targets for the penultimate model in the company’s upmarket Homage series.
Photo Feature – Hong Kong High-End Audio Visual Show 2023
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 13 August 2023 13 August 2023
In what seems like a stronger-than-ever comeback, the extremely popular Hong Kong High-End Audio Visual Show is back again for 2023. While this writer did not attend this year, SoundStage! Australia was fortunate enough to have had reviewer Peter Katsoolis’ bovver boots firmly planted on the flamboyantly carpeted ground of the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. He’s heroically submitted a pictorial summation of the weekend’s huge high-end audio fest.
Factory Tour – Göbel High End
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- Written by Jean-Marie Liere Jean-Marie Liere
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 22 June 2023 22 June 2023
On the occasion of their 20 years in business, and to inaugurate their brand new factory in a new industrial estate about 40 minutes outside Munich, Oliver Göbel invited members of the press, some of his best dealers and their clients to visit his new premises. And I was invited along on behalf of SoundStage! Australia by my good friend and Chief Editor Edgar Kramer.
