July - August 2019

Australian HiFi

Australia's No 1 guide to home audio

Australian HiFi3 min readTechnology & Engineering
Who’s Talking… And Who’s Listening?
According to The Guardian newspaper, within two years there will be more voice assistants on the Internet than there are people on the planet. This is particularly relevant to the world of audio now that more hi-fi components are integrating voice as
Australian HiFi21 min read
Soundbites
Parasound’s new $1,199 Zphono XRM phono preamplifier bridges the price gap between its entry-level Zphono ($399) and its award-winning Halo JC 3 Jr, which retails for $2,995. The new Zphono XRM includes balanced XLR outputs, a switchable rumble filte
Australian HiFi13 min read
Dynaudio Evoke 50 Loudspeakers
Great news! Dynaudio has trickled down one of the technologies it uses in its high-end loudspeakers to a totally affordable model. The ‘Hexis’ geometry Dynaudio developed specially for its Esotar3 tweeter—as used on the company’s Confidence range—is
Australian HiFi4 min read
Laboratory Test Report
Newport Test Labs measured the Dynaudio Evoke 50 loudspeakers using its standard test procedures. Graph 1 shows a frequency response that was obtained using two different techniques. The section of the trace below 900Hz is the averaged result of nine
Australian HiFi7 min read
Yamaha Cd-s300 Cd/usb Player
You can blame my Nana for this review. She’s 89 but she’s still as sharp as a tack. She’s lost grandpa, but she hasn’t lost her hearing… or her enjoyment of music. But she hasn’t been listening to much music lately, because her CD player carked it an
Australian HiFi2 min read
Laboratory Test Report
Newport Test Labs measured the wow and flutter of the Rega Planar 8 at both speeds and it was identical for both speeds: 0.07% CCIR weighted and 0.018% DIN weighted. These are excellent results. Speed accuracy was perfect… again the lab tested it at
Australian HiFi11 min read
Ifi PRO IDSD DAC/HEADPHONE AMP/STREAMER
Sick of having to pick and choose? Want product A because it has this feature, but you’d also like that feature which is only in product B? But product B doesn’t have the first feature. Well, the iFi Pro iDSD is, I think a device which eliminates tha
Australian HiFi13 min read
High End 2019
The High End show in Munich is beginning to dominate the audio calendar, its scale and the ability to attract visitors from across the globe mean it is the place to be if you want to make a mark in the hi-fi business today. The sheer quantity of exce
Australian HiFi4 min read
Laboratory Test Report
The measured frequency response of the Yamaha CD-S300 was extraordinarily flat, as you can see from the tenth graph accompanying this report. The first thing to note when looking at Graph 10 is that each horizontal line represents a difference in lev
Australian HiFi16 min read
Rega Planar 8 Turntable
If you think that designing, engineering and building a turntable might be a fairly straight-forward task, I totally recommend you invest in a unique and exceedingly interesting book titled ‘A Vibration Measuring Machine’ that is self-published by Re
Australian HiFi17 min read
Audia Flight Fls10 Integrated Amplifier
Italian high-end hi-fi manufacturer Audia Flight has in recent years worked very hard to not only increase the number of products in its range, but also increase the diversity of its range, this last a project that is enhanced because most of the com
Australian HiFi7 min read
Laboratory Test Report
Newport Test Labs measured the power output of the Audia Flight FLS10 at 225-watts continuous, both channels driven into 8 , just barely (+0.5dB) above Audia Flight’s specification of 200-watts at 20Hz and 1kHz. At 20kHz, the FLS10 delivered 215-watt
Australian HiFi4 min read
Super Fidelity
Craft Recordings has released a 180-gram double vinyl of The Best of R.E.M. which has 18 songs that represent a cross-section of the band’s career and includes some obscure gems. Side One hits an immediate high with Man in the Moon. Side Two starts w
Australian HiFi3 min read
Top Picks
Never before has a supergroup made as little sense as The Damned Things, whilst somehow sounding as goddamn brilliant as they do. Following their severely underrated 2010 opus Ironiclast, High Crimes offers all the best elements of its constituents’
Australian HiFi4 min read
Rock On
The Boss is promising a return to his full-blown rock’n’roll, lest anyone take ‘Western Stars’ for a retirement notice, this album following the intimate delivery established during his Broadway run—filmed last year as another Netflix production (see
Australian HiFi3 min read
Jazz Track
They recorded this 50 years after first playing together. Meanwhile Evan Parker became a key post-Coltrane tenor saxophonist, and Holland one of the world’s most revered bassists. The two Britons also epitomised the increasingly pivotal role played b
Australian HiFi3 min read
Hi-fi Deconstructed
Chances are that you, as a reader of Australian Hi-Fi Magazine, are interested in the black art of acoustics. And it’s pretty certain that you know more about acoustics than the average Joe of 1789. There’s probably a big chance, also, that you would

Australian HiFi

More Issues From Australian HiFi