The earth was made so various, that the mind of desultory man, studious of change, and pleased with novelty, might be indulged. So said William Cowper in the 17th century, and though it is unlikely he had loudspeakers in mind, there is undoubtedly mo

We like hi-fi. You might have gathered that. What that really means is that we love music and we want it to sound as good as it possibly can. That’s why we like hi-fi, because good hi-fi does that. A hi-fi system is a music machine. But what is a hi-

Signature loudspeaker designs were once exactly that… loudspeakers that bore the actual signature of the person responsible for designing them. That’s still true in some cases, but in many other situations, it’s now used more in the spirit of a top c

Epson is the world no.1 for projection, across all categories from the home to the classroom, from sporting events to conferences. And within our particular focal point of consumer AV projection, there’s hardly a niche in which this Japanese company

You may know exactly what you want. Or you may realise it instantly when you read one of our reviews — ‘that’s what I want!’ But for many people on the path to a great home entertainment system, it’s a good idea to ask yourself right at the beginning

MartinLogan has come a long way in the 40-odd years it has been building loudspeakers, an undeniably long history that includes one enormous change in direction: when the company started making loudspeakers using conventional dynamic drivers. You see

Complete the following sequence: 5000, 3000, 2000… ? Got your answer? Congratulations if you said 1000, and bonus points if you realised from the context that these are the descending series of stereo hi-fi components available from Yamaha’s music di

Advance Paris is quite likely a new name to most of our readers; it is indeed a fresh face here in Australia. But it’s far from a newcomer. With a 25-year history in its domestic market and Europe as Advance Acoustics, the company was making loudspea

Denon has been making direct-drive turntables for a long time. Its very first was the DN-302F made for use in Japanese radio stations, released in 1970 — co-incidentally (or not) the same year that Matsushita released the world’s first direct-drive t

BenQ’s projector variations continue to proliferate, especially in the field of plonk-and-play all-in-one projectors which have streaming smarts and speakers built-in. Some of BenQ’s projectors look like traditional projectors, but then there are cir

Wavetrain Cinemas is no stranger to awards: its home cinema designs have won many Sound+Image awards and Asia-Pacific awards from CEDIA, global peak body for smart-home professionals. But this project netted Wavetrain CEDIA’s ultimate accoldate: ‘Bes

For almost a decade, we have been able to associate Sennheiser’s Momentum wireless over-ear headphones range with not only a top level of sound quality at their price point but also classy sleek style: their grainy leather headband, pearlescent or ma

Given the current ‘retro’ hi-fi revival, the re-release of a Musical Fidelity amplifier plucked from the 1980s might be viewed as a cynical marketing exercise, especially as the company recently announced retro BBC-style speakers as well. Are they ju

Did we notice a few eyebrows raised during one of the reviews earlier in this issue, when we talked about a $3000 amplifier being ‘midrange’? For some, that might seem a little high for midrange. But such categories are a matter of perspective, and w

Despite vinyl’s ability to seemingly never die, the fact remains that we are most definitely in a streaming era. With quite literally millions of songs at our fingertips, accessible from the cloud, potentially in resolutions higher than those of CD,

When you look back at the history of projection, whether it be film, video or photographic, they all involve setting up a projector in front (or behind) the screen to display the projected image. The positioning of the projector would be determined b

You know that a particular loudspeaker design has achieved iconic status when audiophiles who are discussing it don’t mention the name of the manufacturer, just the model name (or number) of the speaker itself. Richter’s ‘Wizard’ speakers are certain

It was Tivoli Hi-Fi & Stereo Repairs, with a sideline in burglar alarms, when two hi-fi technicians and a security-savvy third partner first set themselves up in Melbourne, back in October 1973. It was “a typical backyard situation”, says one of the

Welcome to Leica’s ‘Cinema TV’, an ultra-short-throw projector with TV tuners, smart streaming, and a built-in sound system — as the name suggests, it is intended as a complete TV replacement. You can plug in external sources, but the Cine 1 could pr

The Cinema 40 is the current top of the range for one-box Marantz AV receivers, outperformed only by the separate flagship AV 10 and Amp 10 multichannel preamplifier and power amplifier combo — and those come in at more than $25k the pair. Here it’s

Undeniably, one of this year’s significant launches comes from Musical Fidelity, a brand known for its remarkable electronic creations, now pioneering an unprecedented venture. They’ve unveiled the Nu-Vista series, an ensemble of amplifiers that prom

The general ethos at Tivoli Hi-Fi in Melbourne is nicely summarised in one of its favourite taglines: ‘Music Lovers With A Purpose’. “Tivoli Hi-Fi is run and operated by music and movie lovers,” the team says. “We listen to music, buy music, stream m

It was while reviewing for the previous issue of Best Buys Audio & AV that we first encountered Revival Audio, an entirely new operation hailing from Alsace in France, close to the German and Swiss borders. Although a new company, it has been co-foun

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Phono cartridges produce an output signal that is tiny, being inducted only by the bouncing and shimmying of a diamond through a vinyl groove. To play this into a line-level amplifier input, the signal needs to be much bigger — boosted by a phono pre

Happy birthday Rega. It’s 50 years since its founding in 1973 in Southend-on-Sea, UK, where the company still lives, designs and manufacturers Rega turntables, electronics and speakers. The Planar 3 arrived just three years into the company history,

BenQ seems pretty excited about its new W4000i home theatre projector. It’s a premium model, although not stratospherically priced. Do we think its excitement is warranted? Let’s see. At first glance, this compact black-coloured projector doesn’t loo

Not so many years ago we were steering readers away from soundbars wherever possible. But our views have been changed by developments at the premium end of the market, where a soundbar system like JBL’s range-topper here can be priced up at $2k. That