Features
The SoundStage! Australia Products of the Year Awards 2024
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 15 December 2024 15 December 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?
Restoring a Memory: Tandy Electronics Mach One Loudspeakers
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- Written by Barry Jones Barry Jones
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 01 December 2024 01 December 2024
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…
SoundStage! Talks Australia Video: Hi-Fi Brands & Products that Experts from Gryphon, Harman, Nordost, Linn Admire
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- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 13 November 2024 13 November 2024
The idea was this: Get reps from major hi-fi companies to gather in the same room, at the same time, for a podcast-style chat about their favouite products, competing brands and the industry's future. We made it happen!
‘High-End Audio Innovators’ Event at Audio Connection, Sydney
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 22 October 2024 22 October 2024
On Friday evening, 18 October, industry luminaries from Denmark, Sweden and the UK gathered at Audio Connection, one of Sydney’s premier hi-fi retailers, courtesy of distributor and sister company Advance Audio. Each representative would host a presentation with an emphasis not just on providing insights into specific products, but to also instil a deeper understanding of their company’s vision.
StereoNET Hi-Fi & AV Show 2024 – Standout Rooms
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 18 October 2024 18 October 2024
It’s now become a tradition. That breezy 90 minute flight from Sydney to Melbourne in October. Mind you, after driving nearly two hours to the airport from the Blue Mountains. Then, a soft-landing at Tullamarine Airport. Soon, I’ll be taxiing the runways of Australia’s largest audio show. That’s the StereoNET Hi-Fi & AV Show at its traditional home at the Pullman Melbourne Albert Park. I arrived mid-afternoon on kick-off Friday. Checked-in. Then, by the show’s entrance, a bombardment of low frequency shell-shock pulses. Audio PTSD. But hey, with a full-metal-jacket SD card magazine locked and loaded, itchy shutter trigger-finger, scrawly notepad and battle-scarred backpack at the shoulder, the campaign to move forward through the show began. Onwards and upwards.
SoundStage! Talks Australia Video: 50 Years of Wilson Audio's WATT/Puppy—from David to Daryl Wilson
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- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 25 September 2024 25 September 2024
In 2024, Wilson Audio reintroduces The WATT/Puppy in the ninth version of the classic design, in celebration of the company's 50th anniversary. Being synonymous with the Wilson Audio brand, it was the ideal model to make into a celebratory product. In this video, CEO Daryl Wilson discusses the history of Wilson Audio and the WATT/Puppy heritage, and he also gives insights into how this new speaker model was designed.
The Adelphi Show Singapore 2024
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- Written by Barry James Johnston Barry James Johnston
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 05 September 2024 05 September 2024
The Adelphi Centre in Singapore should be familiar to many audiophiles and music lovers alike. The Centre presents a unique offering unlike anywhere else in the world, with around thirty audio stores all in the one location, offering everything from entry level components, head-fi and home theatre, all the way through to esoteric über high-end brands which are the aspiration of audio enthusiasts around the globe.
Factory Tour – Marten and Jorma Audio
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 15 June 2024 15 June 2024
Sweden; Popularly famous for Volvo, ABBA, and Ikea. Fun fact: it’s home to the longest urban underground art gallery in the world. Did I mention Spotify, the biggest streaming platform? Yep, Swedish. Alfred Nobel? Ingmar Bergman? Saga Norén (IYKYK)? Yeah, all Swedes. Oh, let’s not forget those delicious meatballs in mushroom cream sauce. Talking loudspeaker design, Sweden has yet another notorious child via the specialist simply known as Marten. Marten has steadily escalated its endeavours, becoming a high ranking global player in the high-end space. Plus, the company recently acquired fellow Swede Jorma Audio, a cable manufacturer with its own successful track record. Marten and Jorma Audio already had a proven symbiotic relationship through product synergies; now, it’s a cemented partnership. We visited Marten HQ recently and were struck by the dynamic ‘Band of Brothers’ leadership and the dedication of the company’s workforce. The formula, evidently, is a winner… read on.
SoundStage! Talks Australia Video: Marten's Martin Dunhoff on Crafting Ultra-High-End Speakers in Sweden
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- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 05 June 2024 05 June 2024
In this video, SoundStage! Australia editor-in-chief Edgar Kramer talks to Martin Dunhoff, the global sales manager for Marten, a Sweden-based maker of ultra-high-end loudspeakers. Edgar discusses Marten's approach to designing speakers, including using drivers comprised of differing material types, as well as how Martin Dunhoff feels about joining this unique brand, since starting at Marten only three months before this interview was conducted.
SoundStage! Australia’s Favourite Exhibits at High End Munich 2024
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 21 May 2024 21 May 2024
Over the last few High End Munich shows, my modus operandi has been to visit as many of the exhibits as possible, there were 500 this year in total, in order to compile a list of standouts. It would be an exercise in abstract futility to even attempt to cover the entire 30,000 square meters single-handedly. No way no how. Not to mention SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider and I, preferring the personal touch, had to schlep a bunch of annual award trophies to hand out to company principals and designers including Vivid Audio, Mission, Lyngdorf, Monitor Audio, T+A, Technics, Pro-Ject, Stenheim, Wilson Audio, Totaldac, VYDA Labs, etc. So, with that out of the way, I went on to seek out the best in-room experiences. Oh, and check out our combined social media platforms – SoundStage! Network and SoundStage! Australia IG and FB – which also provide further insights into the in-room hustle and bustle. So, which rooms reigned supreme?
High End Munich 2024
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- Written by News Editor News Editor
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 08 May 2024 08 May 2024
Step right up folks! Get ready for the most spectacular audio show on the planet. We’re hitting the pavement with a four-strong team of SoundStagers, arriving from the North and from Down Under. Over the next few days, we’ll be bringing to you a torrent of new product announcements covering all aspects of high-end audio. Right from the trenches!
Australian Hi-Fi Show Sydney 2024 Report
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Features Features
- Published: 15 April 2024 15 April 2024
The Australian Hi-Fi Show Sydney 2024, or the “Sydney” show, as local audio enthusiasts like to call it, was again held at the Sydney Central Hotel, Haymarket (previously the Novotel), a convenient location just a breezy five-minute walk from Central Station. Off the cuff, as a short preamble, I found it gratifying to see a cornucopia of homegrown produce from brands who over the years have garnered international prestige, right across to emerging, smaller concerns. Overseas readers will, no doubt, marvel at the ingenuity and individuality of the many Aussie brands mentioned below. Well, as is my usual modus operandi, the coverage will follow my semi-random meanderings through the venue across the three days I attended. So, let’s hit the mosh pit, shall we?
