Did our Listening Test week light up the fire inside to dust off some old records and whip a turntable back into shape to start enjoying them again? It’s really easy, and cheap. Here’s how.
Proving that more expensive is not always better, a $US25 “value” stereo system has obliterated $US1,000 equipment from Sony and JVC in a British customer choice award as voted on by 500,000 people.
Japanese firm Hario just came up with this rather beautiful new speaker system, dubbed Harion. So far, so groovy. It’s made of heat-resistant glass (the first to be like it, according to Hario) and the woofer, two tweeters and two mid-range speakers proved so complex to create that it took a small army of companies—23 in total—to work out how to make them. And its hand-made. So far, even groovier. Here’s the un-groovy bit: all that beauty, presumably wonderful sound quality, and custom-made design means they cost $US168,000. Why do you need heat-proof speakers anyway? Go get some glass Sony Sountinas: they’re about 17 times cheaper. [Crunchgear via Gearlog]
This IS301 dock system from Marantz looks pretty swish, particularly as the dock part can be rotated for wall-mounting, but it’s a little confusing. It adds Bluetooth remote streaming to your hi-fi, which is nice, can charge iPods (including touch, but not iPhone) when it’s powered up, and it allows for direct control of Marantz receivers, but what’s up with the S-video out on the base station?
In the early 1990s, Vanilla Ice was popular. That was not a good thing. I remember the DJ at my Year 6 dance played Ice, Ice Baby three times. Three times! Jerkoff!
Another thing that was popular back then was big, boxy stereo systems, complete with tape deck down below and CD drive up on top. This new $329 Hi-Fi from Sharp reminds me of them, except in the place of cassette slot is a dock for your iPod. It’s even got the built-in AM/FM radio tuner, so when the thousands of tracks on your iPod and CDs aren’t enough, you can tune into some radio station to listen to that crappy DJ play Ice, Ice Baby. Except now it’s retro and cool, right? Wrong! Vanilla Ice will always be a tragedy (except for his cameo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze – that was awesome.)
Jean-Michel Jarre has stopped twiddling with his synthesiser long enough to design this iPod dock/speaker system dubbed Aerosystems, and it’s undeniably stylish. And un petit peu phallic. It’s aimed at the top-end of the dock market, since it’s specifically designed to deliver high-quality audio: the circuitry in its integrated amp is apparently clever enough to add back some of the quality that’s missed by MP3 encoding, and it’s got ultra-resistant glass for its enclosure. Though what that’s for, other than making it sturdy enough to survive being knocked over, I’m not sure. Still, that may not be your problem: for now it’s retailing in Europe for an equally sturdy $US570 (€449). [BornRich and Audioporncentral]
SE2 Labs let us have a look at the ITC One, an integrated movie, TV, gaming and music system announced last year. The all-in-one approach purports to simplify setting up a high-end home entertainment system easier by cramming everything you could imagine into an expensive box. The concept is interesting, but so is the US$25,000 price. The system is beautifully assembled and impressively spec’d, but unless you’ve got that kind of money just floating around and don’t know what Blu-ray discs are, this probably isn’t for you.
Arcam aren’t exactly the biggest name in the home entertainment world, especially in Australia, but they do have a good name for themselves when it comes to high-end quality. So good, in fact, that I expected to see a price tag for their new A38 integrated amplifier to run at twice what they’re charging.
Their latest range comes in three different flavours – The A18, A28 and A38, which replace the A70, A90 and A32 models. To give you an idea on build quality, all three new models have a five year warranty.
There’s a full rundown on the A38′s features after the jump, but as I alluded to in the opening paragraph, the best thing about these new models is the price – the A18 is $1498, the A28 is $1998 and the A38 is $3498.While that’s still pricey for most people, it’s fairly cheap when compared to other high quality audio kit.
Marshall says that their new MXL USB.009 USB microphone is the first in the world to record at 24-bit/96 kHz without needing some expensive A/D converter. The 24-bit sampling gives your tracks very high-resolution detail for your mixing, capturing every single detail of your off-key singing. The mike has a gold sputtered diaphragm, with a high dynamic range of 114 dB; it also has a headphone jack for zero-latency monitoring and comes with a stand and flight case. Compatible with Macs and PCs, it’s out later in the US Spring for US$400. [Futuremusic and Yahoo]
