SoundStageAustralia.com

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 15 April 2025 15 April 2025

Totaldac Announces d1-CD Transport

French company Totaldac continues on its product development path with the new d1-CD, a disc transport which mates seamlessly with the company’s highly regarded digital-to-analogue converters.

Details: Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer; Category: Features Features; Published: 15 April 2025 15 April 2025

Australian Hi-Fi Show 2025, Sydney

The Sydney Central Hotel has been the home, for a number of years now, to the Australian Hi-Fi Show. It’s a great location. A short hop from Central Station and a skip from Sydney’s new $20-million “concrete playground”, the haven of international cuisine now known as ‘Hay Street Market at Paddy’s’. Across the road, you’re in Chinatown, where its red gate invites the sampling of its own wonders. I have to admit that having attended Hi-Fi shows for over 30 years, this is the best location for after-hours activity (with an honourable mention going to CES’s Vegas strip). That aside, after all this time, I still get a buzz when I hit the show floors. I guess audio runs through my veins. Yes, my name is Edgar, and I’m an audio addict…

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 10 April 2025 10 April 2025

SVS Launches New 5000 R|Evolution Subwoofers

Featuring substantial enhancements and technology innovations, SVS’s new PB-5000 and SB-5000 high power subwoofers cater to both the highest quality audio and multi-channel systems.

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

Antipodes Audio Oladra Music Server/Streamer

Until relatively recently, configuring computer audio playback was fraught with a whole lotta issues which could, even to the higher than average aptitude individual, bring on knife-point migraines. First, you almost needed an IT doctorate to configure the various handshakes between software, drivers, hardware and both LAN and global networks. Then, there was the scarcity of music service providers and playback software options, with available solutions being laughable in terms of features, metadata provision, and functionality when compared to modern alternatives. And sound quality? Let’s not even go there. However, in the last few years, things have powered along like a snowball tearing down a K2 black piste. Now, the space is populated with numerous brands and innovative, high performance products. Not to mention the plethora of streaming and file providers. Since 2004, Antipodes Audio has been continually refining its digital player concepts. Recently, it expanded its portfolio with Oladra, a flagship component bearing the company’s full suite of design and engineering skillsets.

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 18 March 2025 18 March 2025

Audionet Debuts Mach Preamplifier and Schrödinger Monoblock Amplifier

Mirroring the industrial design and engineering from its ‘Scientist’ series, Germany's Audionet adds to its upmarket product portfolio the new Mach preamplifier and Schrödinger monoblock amplifier.

Details: Written by Barry Jones Barry Jones; Category: Reviews Reviews; Published: 15 March 2025 15 March 2025

LUMIN T3X Network Player

It’s the Labour Day long weekend here in Western Australia. I’ve just sat down for a proper listen to the new LUMIN T3X network music player. I’ve owned and enjoyed LUMIN’s T1 streamer now for around eight years. The T1 has provided thousands of hours of musical delight and has stood its ground against numerous digital source components that have passed through my system over the years. Including some costing more than six times its price! It’s been a faithful companion that I’ve come to rely on to provide consistent high performance, neither adding or subtracting from whatever material I’ve presented to it, but rather remaining neutral and natural sounding. It was also the first digital component in my system that didn’t sound ‘digital’. With the T3X in my rig warming up with some casual listening for the past couple of weeks, I was looking forward to hearing what improvements had been made possible by the LUMIN design team.

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

Rotel Introduces DX-3 Headphone Amplifier

The new DX-3 headphone amplifier from Rotel promises audiophile sound quality while packaging a comprehensive functionality and features list in a small chassis form factor.

Details: Written by News Editor News Editor; Category: News News; Published: 05 March 2025 05 March 2025

Musical Fidelity Announces M8x DAC Digital-to-Analogue Converter

Musical Fidelity’s M8 line has been augmented by the M8x DAC, an upsampling high-end digital-to-analogue converter with an extensive features list.

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.