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Details: Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer; Category: Reviews Reviews; Published: 01 March 2025 01 March 2025

SpectraFlora Celata 88 Loudspeakers

In a market which could be seen as overloaded with participants, be it hi-fi, the automotive industry, fashion, whatever… how does a nascent enterprise signal a powerful intention, a running start entrance? One way is to eye-catch with a distinctive approach in juxtaposition to the established competition. Embracing that ideology, relatively new Australian loudspeaker manufacturer SpectraFlora has drawn market attention by entering the high-end space with the Celata 88 loudspeaker. The Celata 88 is a differentiation, an unconventional loudspeaker featuring a suite of technologies and design aspects seldom combined in the one product. Then, SpectraFlora ramps up the wow factor by posing an off-beat aesthetic, separating it from the mundane while opening opportunities for customisation. In this most challenging of product categories, is SpectraFlora a genuine disruptive innovator or has it not seen the forest for the trees?

Details: Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer; Category: Reviews Reviews; Published: 15 February 2025 15 February 2025

Marantz MODEL 10 Integrated Amplifier

Back in the early days of my hi-fi walkabout, I lusted after the ingot-tinted pinnacle Marantz products. Anything ‘Marantz Gold’ represented, to me, some of the finest products offered by a multinational corporation. I wanted the widely celebrated, searing-furnace PM-80 integrated. I longed for the two-box CD-94/CDA-94, an iconic duo of early digital. The MA-24 Class-A monoblocks driving impossibly large JBL speakers also made an indelible impression. I would have killed for the stunning CD-15 CD player but avoided the slammer by settling instead for the over-performing CD-63SE which, alas, only came in black. In the early 2000s, the glorious MA-9S1 monos made a helluva splash. Yes, throughout its illustrious history, Marantz has sporadically offered extraordinary electronics tailored to discerning audio enthusiasts. Fast-forward to 2025, and the venerable brand has re-entered the premium market with the MODEL 10, a high-end integrated amplifier poised to join the ranks of revered Marantz immortals.

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 14 February 2025 14 February 2025

McIntosh Laboratory Introduces DS200 Streaming DAC

McIntosh Laboratory’s new DS200 blends the latest technologies with the company’s traditional aesthetic language to produce a highly versatile and attractive addition to its digital line-up.

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: Features Features; Published: 28 January 2025 28 January 2025

SoundStage! Talks Australia Video: Discussing Audio Research's Best and Most-Iconic Amplifiers—From Founding Until Now

In this video, SoundStage! Australia’s editor, Edgar Kramer, talks to Audio Research’s brand director, Dave Gordon, about the company’s iconic products; founder William Z. Johnson’s aims of designing the best audio amplification, whether tubes, solid-state or hybrid technologies; and the new flagship Reference 330M monoblock amplifier.

Details: Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer; Category: Reviews Reviews; Published: 01 February 2025 01 February 2025

Audio Research Reference 330M Monoblock Amplifier

Has it only been a few months since I met audio icon Bill Johnson? Nope, it just feels like it. More like three decades ago! Don’t even… It was the late 1990s and the Audio Research Corporation founder was in Sydney to present the company’s new-then Reference 600 flagship amplifiers to a captivated ensemble of audio enthusiasts. And yes, it could be argued that those near-30-years-young amps are, to this day, in the upper tier of performance and engineering dedication. Yet, the industry has moved on. We’ve seen advances in circuit sophistication, parts quality and manufacturing methodologies. Generations down the track, Audio Research is under new ownership – after several baton passes in a multi-member relay – with the company’s top-dog title now bestowed on the brand new Reference 330M monoblock amplifiers.

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 21 January 2025 21 January 2025

Elekit Debuts TU-8888 Monoblock Amplifier Kit

Japan’s kit amplification specialist Elekit has announced a limited run and ready to assemble, KT-based monoblock amplifier kit.

Details: Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer; Category: Reviews Reviews; Published: 15 January 2025 15 January 2025

YG Acoustics Carmel 3 Loudspeakers

Colorado, USA, is renowned for its natural beauty, rich in snow-blanketed fractured peaks rising above densely wooded mountainsides. From a human standpoint, it’s also known for an abundant community of artisans where a sub-group of craftspeople forge immaculately-machined metalwork for equally talented, entrepreneurial engineers from varied industries, audio being one. Enter YG Acoustics. The company’s flagship Reference series loudspeakers are starkly styled, yet, to these writer’s eyes, each model fuses simplicity and elegance with engineering intricacies which reflect the company’s expertise in acoustic design. In for review here is Carmel 3 which, despite being the entry point into the Reference series, incorporates YG Acoustics’ most advanced technologies trickled down from the Sonja flagship.

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 07 January 2025 07 January 2025

Atlas Harmonic Announces New Tufnel Loudspeakers

Emerging Australian wunderkind designer Atlas Gouverneur’s newly-launched Atlas Harmonic design house announces the new Tufnel horn loaded, high power loudspeaker.

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 07 January 2025 07 January 2025

Musical Fidelity Introduces Nu-Vista 600.2 Integrated Amplifier

With the Nu-Vista 600.2, Musical Fidelity continues the strategy of producing high power amplification bearing large power supplies and battleship chassis construction.

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: Features Features; Published: 22 December 2024 22 December 2024

SoundStage! Talks Australia Video: Why Audiophiles Should Care About the YG Acoustics Carmel 3 Loudspeaker

In this video, YG Acoustics’ CEO, Matthew Webster, talks to SoundStage! Australia editor-in-chief Edgar Kramer about the Carmel 3 loudspeaker, the entry point to the company’s flagship range. Webster explains some of the in-house technology involved in the making of the drivers, cabinets, and ancillary parts while also discussing signal propagation through crossover networks, the importance of phase alignment, and much more.

Details: Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer; Category: Features Features; Published: 15 December 2024 15 December 2024

The SoundStage! Australia Products of the Year Awards 2024

I feel fortunate to live in Katoomba, more fondly referred to by locals as K-Town, a history-rich town an hour-and-a-bit from Sydney central. K-Town teethers on the edge of ragged, rocky escarpments which put on a daily show of breathtaking beauty and drama… each scene enriched by an ever-changing palette of natural magnificence. It’s where coarse, high sandstone cliffs are often veiled by rising, ghostly mists which are there… and then not. Where dense gum-bush lines the rocky edges of shimmering waterfalls. Where the unique wildlife can be cute, or savage, or… deafening. Cicadas. This spring, after a seven year hiatus, the hordes are back in ridiculous numbers. The orange-tinged ‘Eastern Double Drummer’ is as boisterous as Danny Carey on steroids. Yep, near-120dB! Shouty, aroused males, throating a piercing chorus underlying the soundtrack to the SoundStage! in-room Insta reels. Heck, I’ve even had post comments pointing to that communal, ringing mayhem. Yet, here I am, presenting to you the antithesis of all that racket. I’m talking the best audio of 2024. How’s that for a segue?