Australian Hi-Fi Magazine July / August 2020

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Australian Hi-Fi Magazine July / August 2020

Since 1969, Australian Hi-Fi Magazine has kept audiophiles up to date on all the latest advances in audio technology and the hi-fi components available to enjoy music. All equipment reviews and music reviews are written by professionals who are experts in their respective fields, and are checked for accuracy by experienced sub-editors. Every audio component reviewed in Australian Hi-Fi Magazine is also independently tested by a NATA-certified test laboratory, whose test results and graphs are published with each review, together with a detailed technical analysis of those results. Australian Hi-Fi Magazine also maintains a complete database of all Australian and New Zealand distributors of hi-fi equipment, along with updated listings of the brands they distribute. Australian Hi-Fi Magazine is published six times a year and on sale at thousands of news agencies throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well as being available in selected audio stores across the country plus International mail and online via digital download.

Features
3 Editor's Lead-In
Are hi-fi products built to fail? Some of them will certainly fail because of the way they are built. But whose fault is it, and can you guard against it?

6 Sound Bites
Audio Technica ATH-AWKT headphones, Ned's Head Covid Face Shields from Kyron, Arcam updates models to Auro-3D, AURALiC updates award-winning G2 and GX product ranges, Dali's unique Katch One soundbar, Bose 700 Bundle pack, Campfire Audio Ara earphones, Cogworks' Cinema seats, new distributor for Clarus Cable, Franco Serblin Accordo Essence speakers, Gold Note DS-10 Plus network player/headphone amplifier, English Electric Ethernet Switch, Lyngdorf MP-40 Surround Processor, Elrog valves arrive in Australia, famous English amplifier manufacturer Leak is re-born, Jelco shuts down, Electrocompaniet releases two new integrated amplifiers, and B&W releases Signature versions of its best-selling 702 and 705 models.

Equipment Reviews
16 Stax SR-009S/SRM-700S Earspeakers
In an ideal world, Staxearspeakers would be your headphones of choice, and the SRM-700S your ideal electrostatic driver amplifier.

22 Audio-Technica AT-LP120XUSB Turntable
Every great turntable needs a back story, and back stories don't get any better than the one behind the creation of this particular model.

30 Dali iO-6 Wireless ANC Headphones
Dali's first-ever headphones are proof that when a loudspeaker company gets into the headphone business, other headphone designers should pay serious attention!

36 Richter Merlin S6 Loudspeakers
We put the current holder of the Sound & Image award for 'Best Loudspeakers of the Year under $1,000' into a listening room and then into an acoustics test laboratory.

Australian Hi-Fi Magazine July / August 2020

42 Aurender ACS10 Music Server/Streamer
Aurender's latest is an impressive feat of engineering with enormous capabilities and superb reliability. It's also very easy to use!

54 McIntosh MA252 Integrated Amplifier
The valves glow green, not red, and the price sticker is 'way lower than you'd expect. What's going on with this new amplifier?

62 APL Hi-Fi DSD-AR USB DAC
In these times of mass replication, it's refreshing to find a hi-tech product that's made by hand, to special order so you can, if you wish, make your model truly 'one of a kind'.

Esoterica Section
50 Sound Travels
Tom Waters interviews an audiophile who loves beats and rhythms and, in the past, was a dab hand at building his own audio equipment, which informed his present purchases.

54 High End Review
We review the first hybrid amplifier that this famous US manufacturer has ever built... and it comes on the back of more than half a century of designs. Why this? And why now?

Music
68 Top Picks
Brissie band Custard is back with what is probably their best-ever album and Dance Gavin Dance's ninth album has the band's sharpest writing to date. Plus Emery, Nicole Atkins, The Strokes, Sister Sandy and more...

69 Rock On
Six great new albums this month, from NZ's City of Souls, to the NT's Adjuster, with side trips through Attractors, Nick D'Virgilio, Gold Ray and GUM.

70 Folk& More
More because it's folky but not exactly folk, particularly when it comes to the fantastic musical find that is Maya Rae and her newest album Can You See Me? or the new Leonard Cohen, Mr. Alec Bowman.

71 Jazz Track
Two completely different 'Live in Paris' albums, one from 1975 and the other from 2018. One of them you're going to love, or love to hate. And a release that has Stan Getz playing two tracks you'll never have heard him play before.

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