The Latest
APL’s New DSD-AR DAC Now in Australia
In-keeping with its DSD processing adherence, digital specialist APL has announced the new DSD-AR, a mid-priced option for those wishing to experience the company’s highly-acclaimed Digital-to-Analogue converters.
- Details
- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 May 2020 01 May 2020
SB Acoustics Rinjani BE Loudspeaker Kit
It’s been my experience that audio sees very rare true bargains. Yes, there’s gear that presents varying degrees of value-for-money for different reasons. It may be due to an unexpectedly high build and parts quality at the asking price. Sometimes, components may be widely perceived to perform beyond expectations. There may be reasons attached to a company’s reputation or a given product’s legacy which may automatically bestow added worth. But a genuine bargain from a product that offers most of the above, and considerably more in a number of important areas, is akin to the sighting of Bigfoot… or if in the Aussie bush, the spotting of the mythical Yowie. The SB Acoustics Rinjani BE debunks the myth – Yowies do exist after all.
- Details
- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Ed Comment Ed Comment
- Published: 01 May 2020 01 May 2020
Very Human Games – An Introduction to Stephen Dawson
SoundStage! Australia has had the good fortune of attracting a team of audio writers with enormous experience. Each is a passionate music lover and a true audiophile. Yes, they love the gear too… the industrial designs, the luxurious materials, the engineering, the often heroic construction and the passionate people behind the products. SoundStage! Australia’s writers have also dedicated a collective lifetime, or two, assembling audio systems which are not only reference points, in varying degrees, but also intimately reflect the biases and personalities of their music-loving architects.
- Details
- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: News News
- Published: 24 April 2020 24 April 2020
i of the Storm – Dynaudio’s New Contour i Series
Loudspeaker powerhouse Dynaudio has released an improved version of its highly popular Contour loudspeakers first launched in 2016 and now marked with the ‘i’ classification.
- Details
- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 15 April 2020 15 April 2020
Feature & Interviews – The ‘New’ Duntech Audio & Halcro
Around the mid-1980s and again in the late 1990s, two Australian brands jolted the high-end audio industry with uniquely-designed and disruptively-engineered debut products… In fact, you could say Duntech Audio’s towering Sovereign loudspeakers and Halcro’s distinct super-low distortion dm58 monoblock amplifiers were quite revolutionary. In fact, revolutionary was the word used in Halcro’s dm58 review on Stereophile magazine while Duntech Audio’s flagship were said to be “the most neutral and accurate” loudspeaker design in the world.
- Details
- Written by Stephen Dawson Stephen Dawson
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 April 2020 15 April 2020
Simaudio Moon 680D Network Player/DAC
What do you want from your audio gear? Usability and convenience? An absence of aggravation? Or supreme audio quality? The magic that can sometimes be realised in a fine stereo system? Sometimes these two considerations can be at odds. But not, it seems, with Canadian Hi-Fi maker Simaudio. I’ve now put two of its Moon-branded products through their paces and both have been glorious in their acoustic performance while being delights to use. The first was merely a straightforward DAC. But achieving similar effectiveness in a combined DAC and Network Streamer is a harder ask. Yet the Moon 680D has achieved just that.
- Details
- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: News News
- Published: 09 April 2020 09 April 2020
Yamaha’s New High-End Electronics & 3000 Series Loudspeakers Launch
Following on the 100 series’ ardent consumer praise and universal high acclaim from the audio press around the world, Yamaha now announces the new upgraded 200 series.
- Details
- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: News News
- Published: 08 April 2020 08 April 2020
Grado Needle-Drops New Opus3 Cartridge
New York’s cartridge and headphones specialist Grado has launched the new Opus3 cartridge, with the company aiming to incorporate many of the technologies included in its higher-end models into a mid-level product.
- Details
- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: News News
- Published: 07 April 2020 07 April 2020
aqua Announces LinQ Network Interface
aqua (acoustic quality) has launched the LinQ, a completely modular ‘Network Interface’ which marries your network to the company’s family of products to provide an all-round digital playback and streaming solution.
- Details
- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: News News
- Published: 01 April 2020 01 April 2020
World Exclusive: Dutch Master's Personal Collection Flagship Cartridge Debuts in Melbourne
Dutch company Van den Hul, known for decades as maker of superb cables and cartridges employing exotic materials and technologies, has shipped the sole sample of its new flagship cartridge to Australia for a global debut.
- Details
- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 April 2020 01 April 2020
Gryphon Audio Designs Ethos CD Player/DAC
How can an audio component, which is effectively a device with a specific function, stray as far away as possible, design-wise, from the ubiquitous plain rectangular box and still fulfil its purpose? What’s more, as an industrial designer, how to free yourself, how to deviate from constraints enforced by the rigours of architecture, functionality, usability, performance? Irrefutably, Gryphon Audio Design’s new Ethos CD player is proof-of-concept. It eschews design convention, seemingly tossing away the rule book…
- Details
- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Ed Comment Ed Comment
- Published: 01 April 2020 01 April 2020
Racks Not Ruin – SGR Audio’s Revamped Hi-Fi Rack & Manufacturing in Australia
For three years now, the extraordinary audio support systems from Australia’s own SGR Audio have been my reference racks-du-jour for component isolation and general vibration control at the highest level. My two three-tier Model V Statement racks not only perform as advertised – the Model V Statement features no less than six combined isolation strategies – but are also superbly built, beautifully finished and rather attractively designed.
