Reviews
Linn Klimax Solo 800 Monoblock Amplifier
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 29 April 2025 29 April 2025
Perhaps through sheer innovation, skilled engineering and a tendency to divert from mainstream market conventions, Scotland’s Linn has become one of high-end audio’s most successful brands. Linn stands out from the black box bunch with sophisticated products featuring advanced engineering, elegant industrial design, and proprietary technologies that all trumpet a “We’re doing things our way” ethos. Partly due to that distinctive spirit and through its lengthy history, the company has been fervently embraced by a loyal customer base. Yet, with Linn’s new Klimax Solo 800 monoblock amplifier, it would seem that, on the surface, the company signals its flagship amplification as a more… traditional product. Hmm… that’s not Linn. Yeah, within its elegant chassis lies a stream of innovative technologies which, once again, deviates the Klimax Solo 800 from amplifiers that, in comparison, may seem simply… conventional.
Antipodes Audio Oladra Music Server/Streamer
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 April 2025 01 April 2025
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.
LUMIN T3X Network Player
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- Written by Barry Jones Barry Jones
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 March 2025 15 March 2025
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.
SpectraFlora Celata 88 Loudspeakers
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 March 2025 01 March 2025
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?
Marantz MODEL 10 Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 February 2025 15 February 2025
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.
Audio Research Reference 330M Monoblock Amplifier
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 February 2025 01 February 2025
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.
YG Acoustics Carmel 3 Loudspeakers
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 January 2025 15 January 2025
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.
Monitor Audio Gold 100 6G Loudspeakers
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 November 2024 15 November 2024
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?
dCS Lina Network DAC and Master Clock
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- Written by Barry Jones Barry Jones
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 November 2024 01 November 2024
When peering into the stratosphere of DAC technology one quickly meets dCS, who provides a range of exquisitely crafted and engineered ‘listening experiences’. At the pinnacle lives the recently released Varèse, along with Vivaldi, Rossini, and Bartok, products upon which dCS has built its reputation (and rumour has it a new flagship Varèse SACD/CD transport is around the corner). And now, Lina, a relative newcomer in as little as one, or as many as three pieces (Network Streaming DAC, Headphone Amplifier and Master Clock) which dCS claims represents a new frontier in music playback. I had the Lina Network DAC and Master Clock for evaluation as the subjects of this review.
ZenSati #1 Cable Loom
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 November 2024 01 November 2024
I first came across ZenSati cables at CES in Vegas many, many moons ago. There, at the Venetian, that year, company founder Mark Johansen exhibited a full line of his cables in a system which was one of the standouts. Naturally, I ended up spending quite a bit of time in that musical oasis. I got to know Johansen, whose passion for music was evident, as was his enthusiasm for its accurate reproduction. While, of course, the sum of the components was the ultimate manifestation of the excellent sound, it was the system’s musicality which drew me to consider the interface between each piece of kit. Being such honestly neutral conduits, ZenSati cables were toll-free highways to a musical destination. Through the subsequent years, I went on to review many of the company’s products, with the crowning bunch being the sublime sILENzIO range. Now, ZenSati has produced a new design, a more attainable model in the company’s Hash Tag range, which is crowned by the voluminous #X. Enter the new, and sparkly-silver #1.
DS Audio DS-E3 Optical Cartridge
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- Written by Vedran Simunovic Vedran Simunovic
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 October 2024 15 October 2024
Phono cartridges are a finicky lot, and especially the magnetic ones. If you want to make a mark in that area, you have to invest in the finest materials, meticulous assembly processes and eons of human expertise bordering on black magic. DS Audio dispensed with most of these complications by devising a line of optical cartridges that works in a completely different manner, follows completely different rules and achieves sound quality on a completely different level. The DS-E3 is DS Audio’s newest product and is a grand entry point to the company’s optical cartridge line-up.
Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista Vinyl 2 Phono Stage
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- Written by Barry James Johnston Barry James Johnston
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 October 2024 01 October 2024
Once in a while, a component comes along that really makes you sit up and take notice. Vinyl has been around for a long time and for many years, most people, had you asked for their opinion, would have gladly told you, without a shadow of a doubt, that the turntable’s era was well and truly over. Well, we all know that hasn’t been the case. Plus, with the advanced materials, mechanical and motor technologies, our groovy black plastic discs have become ever more appealing, more complex, feature packed, and OTT. Even with regards to outrageous design architectures and pricing, the playing field is now, more than ever, not even!
