Sound and Image

A friend has been wanting to upgrade his hi-fi for years, and this month he finally took the first step, replacing his 12-year-old Denon receiver. His choice of replacement surprised me — a 30-year-old Kenwood amp. It’s quite the beauty, built in Jap

There are very few brands in our industry with the appeal of B&O. In an age where many consumers are trying to hide the audio system out of sight, B&O is unashamedly designed to be proudly placed on display. This is a true merging of design and music

NAD has used CES in Las Vegas to announce its first product to feature a new Class-D amplifier technology called HybridDigital Purifi ‘Eigentakt’ (which means ‘self-clocking’ or ‘self-oscillating’), developed in collaboration with Danish amplifier mo

Rega’s new reference stereo amplifier, the Aethos, has received its Australian launch, taking concepts from the UK company’s award-winning Elex-R and Elicit-R amps to the next level in this dual-mono design. The Aethos combines striking looks with hi

Loewe’s bild 2 range of televisions is now available in Australia through Indi Imports, in another indication of the revival of the German brand as it comes under the new control of Cyprus-based international investment company Skytec. The bild 2 tel

Dynaudio is expanding its architectural speaker offerings, with a new Performance range marking the entry point to its Custom product line-up, and also two new outdoor speaker models. The Performance series includes both in-wall and in-ceiling speake

The first seven products from a new brand, Theory Audio Design, have been released and will be available in Australia through Queensland-based distributor Cogworks. Theory Audio Design is a newly-established division of Pro Audio Technologies, based

There can be few occupations where you are working with the heart and emotion as much as you are working with the head and logic. At the same time there are things about this industry that frustrate me. Panasonic has recently announced that it is exi

While high-end audio has all but left the building at CES in Las Vegas these days, there’s no shortage of headphones on display, with True Wireless designs to the fore. A couple we’d seen before — JBL’s Live 300TWS was shown at IFA in Berlin last Sep

Streaming has taken over our viewing so rapidly and totally that it’s easy to forget that Netflix launched here only five years ago. Prior to that, tech-savvy Australians resorted to VPNing US Netflix into their Australian homes (and many still do),

The Mandalorian doesn’t have an opening ‘Star Wars’-style crawl, but if it did it could easily start “Guerre Stallari, Episodio VI E Mezzo: C’era Una Volta Nello Spazio.” Because it’s basically a spaghetti western in space. And that works — heartwarm

Our Editor is always banging on about Kanopy, partly because so few people are aware of its existence. It began in Perth, but has become an international cross-platform service loaded with material considered arty or educational; indeed it began as a

Blu-rays and DVDs are in undeniable decline since the rise of streaming, while 4K Blu-ray has found a niche, but a small one. With one new Blu-ray like to cost more than a month’s subscription to perhaps two streaming services offering hundreds of mo

PREMIUM PRICES SLASHED! WHICH TECH WINS? LG OLED Panasonic OLED LAST CHANCE TO BUY! Samsung QLED Sony 8K Sony Master Z9G 85-inch 8K TV Price: $21,995 Panasonic TH-65GZ2000U Price: $8299 Samsung QA65Q90R Price: $6099 (but see article) LG OLED65C9PTA P

The Sony television overleaf is the only 8K television in this group — and it’s a cracker in many regards. But as you’ll read, we’re not convinced anyone needs to buy an 8K TV yet, because a lot could change before any real 8K content arrives to make

Any readers following our magazine’s cover-lines about slashed TV prices may want to flip a few more pages on. Sony’s TV here is 85 inches on the diagonal, and it’s 8K. And it’s $21,995, precisely because it’s 8K and an 85-incher. Sony Australia isn’

This was a treat, followed by a blow. Panasonic has been one of the few TV companies prepared to ship largescreen models out for a full review, rather than offering limited ‘hands on’ time. And we were delighted to spend time with its top-ofthe-range

Short of opting for the currently dubious benefits of 8K resolution in Samsung’s Q900R series, the Q90R is Samsung’s flagship QLED model until the new TV ranges arrive in April-May — and this final sales period is the time to make some remarkable pot

Ah, OLED. When this front-emissive display technology arrived, it made everyone go ‘wow’ — televisions like this had never been seen before. Not only were they super-slim, but their picture quality was to die for, especially in the blacks, because wh

We’ve been wildly impressed by Sony’s OLED televisions, especially the sloping no-legs monolith designs like the current A9F, though we know these didn’t appeal to all, since more conventionally styled TVs were quickly introduced for those finding th

When Mission: Impossible – Fallout was released on Blu-ray, Tom Cruise sent out a surprising tweet to his fans. It was a plea from himself and director Chris McQuarrie to turn off your TV’s motion smoothing before watching their (or any) films. So wh

$TBC ◊ Launch: TBC Samsung has showcased its MicroLED tech before, but this is the first time the panels have looked like they might fit into a normal human home. The smallest on offer is now down to 75 inches, rising through 88, 93, and 110-inchers

REVIEWED Denon $1699 Marantz $2570 Onkyo $2999 In recent years we’ve come to regard the Denon ‘AVR-X2-something’ level as occupying a sweet-spot among Denon home cinema receivers. That is, they have everything that a receiver really ought to have, wh

Fyne Audio is a brand which is new to Australia, arriving also through a new distributor in HiFi Collective, and indeed Fyne is a new company in itself, having launched its first products two years ago, which included the standmounting F500 loudspeak

Nine channels is a handy number when you’re putting together a home cinema system. A nine-channel AV receiver will suit a great many users — not too many channels, but not too few. And that’s what the Marantz SR6014 home theatre receiver offers. And

The last two receivers, from Denon and Marantz, both ultimately hail from their common owner Sound United. While the brands differentiate, they have had an increasing amount in common since they came together. And as we reviewed this Onkyo receiver,

Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant is dominant in the US market over Google’s, but here in Australia the positions are reversed. So the smart speaker market is an important one for Amazon, a point of persuasion for getting its smarts into Australian home

Bowers & Wilkins PX wireless noise-cancelling headphones While Bowers & Wilkins has been making speakers since the 1960s, it entered the headphone market only a decade ago with the on-ear P5 Mobile Hi-Fi headphones. Those strongly leveraged B&W’s rep

Which day do you choose for piano day? Why, the 88th day of the year, of course, matching the number of keys on this instrument which is one of the hardest for any audio system to nail perfectly. Not only does piano have one of the widest frequency r

Bowers & Wilkins PX5 wireless noise-cancelling headphones On-ear headphones — supra-aural rather than circum-aural — are often neglected as a breed in favour of either in-ear buds or full-size overear headphones. Some don’t like the permanent press o

In a genre that can be stubbornly conformist, it’s always a pleasure to hear a bluesman breaking out of his lane. Tim Holehouse has never exactly been a dogma-reciting 12-bar bore – the highly prolific Plymouth UK songwriter’s lo-fi mutant blues on 2

Skullcandy Crusher ANC wireless noise-cancelling headphones Three technologies headline these wireless noise-cancellers from Utah-born Skullcandy. Firstly there’s noise cancellation to provide a quieter background for your music in noisy environments

Ausdom ANC7S wireless NC headphones These wireless noise-cancelling headphones came to us from Altronics, the 44-year-old Perth supplier which still produces the chunky great mail-order catalogue which graced the shelves of every electronics hobbyist

JBL Pulse 4 portable Bluetooth speaker Smart lighting is all the rage, and everyone needs a Bluetooth speaker — so why not put the two together? JBL’s Pulse is now in its fourth generation, a right rippling piece of party electronics ready to deliver

The Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray and Disney+ releases have completed the journey for Disney’s photo-realistic computer-animated remake of The Lion King, which opened in cinemas in July 2019, quietly going on to overtake Frozen as the highest-grossing animated

How many times has a comic-book movie been described as the darkest, or most adult, ever made? Well, Joker really is that film, dumping quips and capes, ostentatious VFX and large-scale action set-pieces into a vat of chemicals. It emerges, stripped

The forgettable Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) was no way for a starship captain as iconic as Jean-Luc Picard to retire his commission after 15 glorious years exploring the final frontier, across seven TV seasons and four movies. Nearly two decades on, th

“It’s not a message I ever intended to convey in words,” said director Stanley Kubrick of his 1968 science-fiction epic. “2001 is a non-verbal experience.” And of course music plays a huge role in that, with around half of it used in the movie either

It hit cinemas close to the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, and Ad Astra feels like a glimpse of some alternate future where the space program never sputtered into public indifference and Apollo was a straight arrow to the stars. It’s a film th