Australian Hi-Fi Magazine March / April 2016

    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
CD rot returns! Back in the early days, a design flaw made many CDs unplayable. Fast-forward forty years, and a pack.

6 Audio News
Tri-Planar arms, Denon AVR-X520BT, Yamaha Design Award, D'Agostino Momentum, Graham Audio LS5/8, Gold Note A3-XL, Pryma 'phones, Pass Labs HPA-1, Bryston Cubed Series, Pioneer LX Series, Astell&Kern AK T1p, Hana phono, Wilson Benesch Discovery II, Tannoy Eclipse, Sonus Faber Il Cremonese, Klipsch R-15M, Geneva Aerosphere, Sennheiser HD800S, Clearaudio Statement V2, Sol Republic Sport Wireless, Schiit Vali2, Scansonic HD M-Series, Densen B-410XS CD Player and more...

26 DSD vs. PCM
Which format offers the best performance? Be prepared to be surprised!

Equipment Reviews
18 B&W 802 D3 Loudspeakers
This speaker has tweeters made from pure diamond, and bass drivers made from a mystery material that's elevated the performance of this new D3 generation above that of its predecessors.

30 Bel Canto REF-600M Power Amplifier
Enormously powerful, very quiet and with a sound quality that's so tonally accurate that it's a constant delight to the ears, Bel Canto's REF600M is an outstandingly good power amplifier.

36 Audio-Technica AT-LP5 Turntable
Beautifully built, the AT-LP5 screams 'bargain' from the rooftops, with its interchangeable headshells, no need to fuss around with belts and tuning suspensions, and no need for an external phono stage.

40 Sennheiser HD-471i Headphones
With headphone prices soaring through the stratosphere, it's a delight for Sennheiser to remind us that you don't need a second mortgage to enjoy a good pair of headphones!

76 Legend Acoustics Kurre 8 Speakers
These are superb-sounding, incredibly accurate speakers with super-clean, truly depthy bass, complemented by a beautifully extended treble. They have only one drawback...

80 Lindemann MusicBook:25 Network Music Player
Despite being a small boutique brand, German company Lindemann audiotechnik has been consistently ahead of the game for most of its twenty-plus-year existence.

86 Merging Technologies NADAC DAC
With a deepening pool of DSD material and the ever-growing uptake of file-driven content by consumers, can the NADAC be considered a milestone in digital playback design?

Music
96 Rock On
Bad sound quality mars 'new' releases from Phil Collins and Janis Joplin, but the sound is great on Sara Bareilles' What's Inside: Songs from Waitress, and nearly every song is a stunner!

98 Jazz Track
Some musicians play music. The best ones play life, with its bewildering maze of joy, sorrow, pain, stoicism, turmoil and fleeting pleasure. Yes, John Shand's been listening to James Macaulay...

100 Super Fidelity
Who better to champion the works of Henri Herz than the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, with the sound available via 24-bit download (or CD)? Plus there's a new work from none other than John Adams, in hi-res surround!

102 Music on Blu-Ray
Toto fans can rejoice that two Blu-rays documenting their live prowess, Falling In Between Live and Live in Poland, from the 35th anniversary tour of 2013 are beautifully recorded.

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