The Latest
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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?
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- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: News News
- Published: 09 December 2024 09 December 2024
Lumin Introduces T3X Network Player
Lumin’s new T3X Network Player amps-up technologies and electronic design in its highly acclaimed, award winning T3 streaming/DAC platform.
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- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: News News
- Published: 06 December 2024 06 December 2024
Gold Note Debuts HP-10 Headphone Amplifier
Italy’s high-end audio marque Gold Note continues to expand its compact half-sized ‘10’ series components with the addition of the new HP-10 headphone amplifier.
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- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: News News
- Published: 06 December 2024 06 December 2024
McIntosh Laboratory Announces New MSA5500 Streaming Integrated Amplifier
The new MSA5500 integrated amplifier promises superb versatility encompassing an extensive suite of McIntosh Laboratory’s proprietary amplification and the latest digital technologies.
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- Written by Barry Jones Barry Jones
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 01 December 2024 01 December 2024
Restoring a Memory: Tandy Electronics Mach One Loudspeakers
I’m at a friend’s place, one evening, and after dinner we sit down to watch a few eps of the latest Trek “Strange New Worlds” when Pat points at his beloved speakers. Sadly, he tells me his wife is “making me get rid of them”. Pat’s hearing isn’t the best these days, so it kinda makes sense. It was actually through Pat that I first became interested in hi-fi, and it was Pat who gave me my first job. I used to ride my bike down to the local shopping centre after school some days to buy the latest Top 40 compilation LP record. One day, on the way out, I discovered the Tandy Electronics store (Radio Shack in the USA). Pat was the owner, and he had set up what was to me an absolute killer system. On that day, he was demonstrating it to a customer…
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 November 2024 15 November 2024
Monitor Audio Gold 100 6G Loudspeakers
What audiophile and music lover worth their mettle would forget the near-iconic Studio 20SE from UK’s Monitor Audio? Hearing that speaker back in mid-1990s at a now defunct audio store in Sydney, triggered a personal reassessment of the sweet spot in performance versus cost within the high-end loudspeaker space. Large enough to provide adequate low frequencies, expertly balanced with a marvellous blending between the mids and highs, and finished in the most luxurious veneers, the Studio 20SE was once heard, never forgotten. The company has exponentially blossomed since those days, as has its product portfolio. Here, I’m evaluating the brand new Gold 100 6G, Monitor Audio’s largest standmount speaker. Will the new speaker carry, and indeed build upon, its predecessor’s classic DNA imprint?
