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Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 03 November 2019 03 November 2019

Audio Solutions Introduces New Virtuoso Loudspeakers

After making quite the splash at High End Munich 2019, Lithuania’s loudspeaker specialist Audio Solutions is now set to make a big impression in Australia with the announcement of the new Virtuoso line and the arrival of Virtuoso M.

Details: Written by Tom Waters Tom Waters; Category: Reviews Reviews; Published: 01 November 2019 01 November 2019

Weiss Engineering DAC502 Digital-to-Analogue Converter

Weiss Engineering is a venerable technology company with leading experience and engineering in the digital domain. Daniel Weiss joined Willi Studer of Studer fame in Switzerland as an electronics engineer in 1979. His work included the design of a sampling frequency converter and the digital signal processing electronics for digital audio recorders. In 1985 Weiss founded the company “Weiss Engineering Ltd”. From the outset the company concentrated on the design and manufacture of digital audio equipment for Mastering Studios. How will Weiss Engineering’s professional expertise fare with the DAC502, a consumer level Digital-to-Analogue Converter?

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 31 October 2019 31 October 2019

Pro-Ject VC-E and VC-S2 Record Cleaners in Australia

Giant analogue specialist Pro-Ject recently announced two new record cleaning machines in differing sizes to cater to all ‘vinylphile’ space and record ‘cleanliness’ requirements.

Details: Written by Peter Katsoolis Peter Katsoolis; Category: Features Features; Published: 30 October 2019 30 October 2019

Nordost Event at Audio Connection Australia

Who’s up for a bit of Hi-Fi dominance and submission? On 15 October, at Audio Connection in Sydney, attendees got to experience exactly that in the form of the latest Nordost QRT devices, the QPoint Resonance Synchronizer and QSource Linear Power Supply. First introduced at Munich earlier this year, the devices have already garnered a number of awards for their ability to “synchronize” the performance of individual system components. The indefatigable Björn Bengtsson of the Nordost design team was on hand, en-route to the Melbourne Hi-Fi Show 2019, to demonstrate the rather obvious improvements these products bring to even the highest calibre of audio systems.

Details: Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer; Category: Features Features; Published: 24 October 2019 24 October 2019

StereoNET Hi-Fi Show Melbourne 2019 – Part 2

Chris Murphy from Hi-Fi Collective at the tune-spinning is usually synonymous with wisely-chosen music that avoids audio show clichés. In a lengthy audition (by audio show standards), Murphy spun a variety of music with a common theme: beautiful song writing. Lucinda Williams and Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen among others were delightfully and quite captivatingly rendered via the new and very, umm…

Details: Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer; Category: Features Features; Published: 24 October 2019 24 October 2019

StereoNET Hi-Fi Show Melbourne 2019 – Part 1

Contrasting last year’s marathon which had me landing from a Linn event in Bangkok, directly uber-ing from Tullamarine airport to the show and hard-clutching high-gear for reporting, my preparations for attending the newly-named StereoNET Hi-Fi Show were rather less feverishly frenzied. Arriving in Melbourne a few days early allowed some R&R, highlights of which were the excellent Melbourne Museum and the guided tour of Parliament House. Ditto for savouring the excellence of this wonderful city’s culinary delights climaxing with the discovery of the institution that is Pellegrini’s for the absolutely best coffee you’ll have outside of Rome’s finest. That morsel of recreational respite aside, Friday October 18 saw me arriving at the Pullman Mercure Hotel Albert Park ready to rock.

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 17 October 2019 17 October 2019

M8audio Announces Tower Maxwell Floorstanding Loudspeaker

Following the well-received Sweet Maxwell standmount speakers, M8audio has announced a floorstanding version which evolves and extends the principles used in its older sibling.

Details: Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer; Category: Reviews Reviews; Published: 15 October 2019 15 October 2019

Hulgich Audio Duke Loudspeakers – Editor’s Follow-Up

Back in July 2019, our writer Tom Waters reviewed very favourably the impressively-built Duke loudspeakers from Australian manufacturer Hulgich Audio (read the review here). Prior to Tom getting the review samples delivered to his home, the Duke speakers had a three-week spell at SoundStage! Australia HQ. Over that period I evaluated the design’s engineering while inspecting, with deserved admiration, the substantial construction merits of Nicolas Hulgich’s and Swedish consulting designer Göran Niréus’ flagship creation. During that stint I also evaluated at length the considerable resolution powers of this tremendous design. Subsequently, Hulgich asked if I could provide him with a second opinion, with my findings meriting a ‘Follow-Up’ article… so here goes.

Details: Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer; Category: Features Features; Published: 09 October 2019 09 October 2019

Rotel Resurrects Revered Michi High-End Brand

In the early 1990s Rotel, already a 20-plus year old company with a rich audio history, announced the release of an all-out attack on the high-end audio space. It launched the now-iconic Michi brand with a limited range of super high quality products featuring advanced circuit designs born from astute engineering and bearing a distinctive Japanese styling (the gorgeous redwood side panels enhanced the elegant lines) married to superb build quality. Now, 30-odd years on, we again see the emergence of the Michi brand with an aim to revive the glory of the nascent products of yesteryear.

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 04 October 2019 04 October 2019

Bowers & Wilkins Releases PX Series Wireless Headphones

Bowers & Wilkins has announced the release of a new group of ‘PX’ high-tech wireless headphones and ‘PI’ in-ear transducers with advanced features and in varying price brackets.

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 01 October 2019 01 October 2019

PS Audio’s Stellar Phono Preamplifier Has Landed

American high-end audio electronics stalwart PS Audio expands its ‘Stellar’ range of products with a new high-feature phono stage the company claims is the best it has ever produced.

Details: Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer; Category: Reviews Reviews; Published: 01 October 2019 01 October 2019

Chord Electronics Ultima 2 Monoblock Amplifiers

For the last few years, Chord Electronics has had a relentless limelight-follow-spot firmly set on its every move in the digital-to-analogue converter space. ‘Tapped’ to ever-escalating numbers, Chord’s FPGA formula has advanced the company to one of the leading positions in digital technology, with its latest DAC products – and the tricked-out M Scaler – receiving a veritable pouring of appreciation from gratified users. The audio press has heaped nothing but the highest praise too, while from stage-left we imagine the competition glaring with covetous squints. Now, with the new ‘Ultima’ line of high-end amplifiers, and with the Ultima 2 monoblocks as the subjects of this review, Chord Electronics has its sights firmly set on the ne plus ultra.