Australian HiFi

Whether it comes to us without warning as an unshakeable itch over a tormenting week or during a visit to a friend’s house which has been newly furnished with an amplifier costing twice the price of your own, we hi-fi hobbyists are prone to ‘upgradeitis’ just as much as the common cold. The nail a former colleague hit directly on the head: “We’re known for our inability to buy a system, set it up and listen to music — we have to tweak this, adjust that and constantly buy new bits and bobs.” It’s hardly a reputation we, as a collective, can refute. In my years of daily, 9-5 access to state-of-the-art testing facilities, I still fully exploited my opportunity to borrow (always borrow!) kit to swap in for something…

Cambridge Audio has unveiled its debut pair of wireless over-ear headphones, and in the face of the daunting task of making their mark alongside the established heavyweight rivals from Sony, Bose, Sennheiser and the like, the Melomania P100 look like real contenders. They offer an industry-leading 60 hours of battery life, active noise cancellation (ANC) and the same Class A/B amplification used in the company’s acclaimed CX Series stereo amps. That marathon battery life matches the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 4 and is among the longest I’ve come across in the market. Turn off noise cancellation and it extends to an unmatched 100 hours. The Melomanias charge up quickly, too: just five minutes of plug time gets you two hours of playback, or four hours without ANC. Like Cambridge Audio’s other…

Lumin is typically associated with the higher echelons of the hi-fi market, but with its introduction of the P1 Mini, the Chinese company seems to be taking steps to bring its top-class streaming prowess to a wider audience. The miniature, peg-down version of its premium P1 streamer isn’t what many would call ‘affordable’ — it retails in Australia for $7,690 — but it does point to a growing streaming market and the demand for more accessible high-quality streaming. To that end, the P1 Mini offers extensive streaming capabilities alongside DAC and pre-amplifier functionalities, with Lumin promising engineering designed to deliver “an elite level of signal processing and versatility to the heart of every system” . While announced earlier this year at the High End Munich show, the P1 Mini is…

Soundbites While they aren’t predated by as many as 88 iterations, Monitor Audio’s new Studio 89 do by name nod to the history of the British brand’s famed Studio model: the Studio 15 model was introduced in 1989 as two-way standmounts that married a glossy black finish with gold-anodised drivers. Indeed, as you can see in the accompanying image, the new Studio 89 pay homage to that ancestor in not only name but also aesthetic. Uniquely in the current Monitor Audio speaker range, they combine a high-gloss black finish with metal cone drivers finished in gold. They certainly look the part (and they sound it too, according to my colleagues at What Hi-Fi? who have already had the pleasure of their company). They’re more compact than the Studio 15 of…

Lenbrook Media Group has announced plans to launch a new music streaming service built around MQA’s Airia technology in a bid to take on the likes of Tidal and Qobuz. The hi-res audio specialist, which acquired MQA Ltd when it went into administration last year, recently announced the formation of MQA Labs and revealed its newly branded ‘Airia’ (formerly known as ‘SCL6’), ‘Foqus’ and ‘Qrono’ initiatives. These include wireless streaming protocols designed to “bring audio processing enhancements across the music supply chain” . Some of these protocols are now finding their new home, with Lenbrook announcing it is partnering with digital music download store HDTracks to produce a new, yet-to-be-named music service aimed at audiophiles, using its Airia technology. Airia is a transmission codec promising the best resolution possible regardless…

Soundbites If you are on the hunt for a cartridge upgrade for your high-end record player, your buying decision has just got that little bit harder (or easier), because Audio-Technica has recently launched the reference-level AT-ART1000X moving-coil design. The Japanese company has over 60 years of experience in making turntables and related components, and the new AT-ART1000X is billed as its “most advanced cartridge to date”. Quite the statement indeed. This next-generation flagship phono succeeds the AT-ART1000, which made its debut at 2016’s High End Munich show. With eight years of development since then, the new design aims to take Audio-Technica’s pursuit of sonic excellence to new heights by way of "a more refined direct power system for improved efficiency and enhanced bass reproduction” . Indeed, the AT-ART1000X continues to…