Sound and Image

I don’t have a lot of gaps in my life. Magazines don’t make themselves and expand to fill the time available, plus I’ve recently been working feverishly (though not, I should quickly clarify, with an actual temperature) on the Sydney hi-fi show which

JBL is making some noise about its new HDI series of speakers, a five-strong collection with performance founded on JBL’s patented ‘High-Definition Imaging’ waveguide technology coupled with a patented 25mm 2410H-2 high-frequency compression driver.

Nirvana Sound is a new audio distribution and consulting business based in Melbourne, with a select network of national dealers, along with its own demonstration rooms, “dedicated to representing the finest audio equipment to discerning music lovers”

Australia’s hi-fi showgoers and followers of the high-end will know Kyron, whose unique speaker systems have carved the company’s position at the highest levels of audio performance, using box-less dipole designs which deliver literally showstopping

If you’re at the opposite end of your vinyl journey to those considering the Dohmann Helix turntable opposite, then Pro-Ject’s latest release may apply less pressure to the purse-strings. The T1 SB is the first in the company’s new T Line of turntabl

JBL’s wildly successful soundbar range is lifting to a new level — that of overhead Atmos channels — with the arrival of the JBL Bar 9.1. This has detachable wireless rear speakers which pop off the main soundbar to go behind the listening position,

With Sydney’s HIFI2020 Show cancelled and, as we go to press, doubt regarding any events still scheduled in 2020, we should enjoy the the few shows that did take place before the Great Lockdown descended on us all. With thanks to our EISA colleagues

Cambridge Audio has launched its CX Series 2 component hi-fi range, with particular emphasis on the advances made in amplifier technology since the original CX range debuted five years ago. “CD players haven’t had to change at all,” says the UK Cambr

Researchers at the University of Chicago have delivered one in the ear to voice assistants (and, indeed, all covert listening devices) by designing a bracelet which, when activated, ‘jams’ all microphones in the area. It works by emitting white noise

BOWERS & WILKINS FORMATION WEDGE ♦ DENON HOME 350 LINN SERIES 3 ♦ NAIM MU-SO Qb ♦ TECHNICS OTTAWA S SC-C30 How about having just one speaker as your whole hi-fi system, streaming music, looking great, sounding fine. It’s a tempting proposition, espec

The Bowers & Wilkins Wedge is part of the recently-launched Formation series, a collection of products which can form a B&W multiroom system throughout your home, all connected at high resolution, and using their own wireless network to do so. The We

This new range of wireless multiroom speakers took us by surprise. They come from Denon, which released the ‘HEOS by Denon’ range of wireless speakers and components in 2014. But since then HEOS has developed as a brand in itself, with a whole ecosys

Linn was one of the first hi-fi brands to launch a music streamer back in 2007, simultaneously announcing with some prescience the imminent death of the Compact Disc. So it’s surprising the Glasgow-based company has waited this long to launch its fir

Naim Audio really does have all the hi-fi bases covered. In its earliest days as an amplifier-centric UK hi-fi company it grew a deeply-entrenched base of fans who were true believers in its views on amplification (then considered ‘out there’, now ac

With Panasonic withdrawing TVs from sale in Australia, the company has more time to focus on the rest of its catalogue, which only recently welcomed Technics back into the country, although Panasonic had relaunched its mothballed audio brand elsewher

Ever since the first premium one-box systems arrived, there has been a cloud hanging over our reviews. Are you buying this one-boxer as a system for a secondary room, a bedroom, or study? Or are you going to put this in your lounge instead of a real

Here at Sound+Image we get to visit some pretty stonking home cinema builds, often created by professional installers, sometimes by the home owners. Some rooms stand alone, others sit within an entire smart home of connected video and audio zones und

CEDIA is the peak body for custom installers and ‘home technology professionals’, and when it conducts its annual awards it describes a media room as “designed to serve multiple purposes suitable for family entertaining… can be an open floor plan or

Budget: Cheaper TVs are all LCD TVs, which are illuminated by either a backlight or side-lights of LEDs. Side lighting can help achieve a thinner TV, whereas backlighting inevitably adds depth and bulk to the TV. But we reckon you’ll hardly notice th

Budget: There are some amazing bargains in the projector world if you stick with full-HD resolution of 1920 x 1080. Indeed you can go even lower and still enjoy a big-screen image — we spent an enjoyable review period recently with Epson’s dinky litt

So often underestimated or misunderstood, acoustics can be a gamechanger, the difference between a room which is a pleasure to inhabit, and a space which feels unfriendly and noisy. Bright and hard surfaces won’t do your audio any favours, just as so

The Panasonic DP-UB150 UHD Blu-ray player is a more important piece of kit than perhaps its makers realise. It occupies a golden niche for the product category — a 4K Blu-ray player for less than $300. And with Panasonic withdrawing from televisions

There’s a new breed in town, and it’s breaking down the differences between projectors and TVs. These two display technologies have long been separated by a number of fundamental differences. Projectors have required installation on the ceiling or at

An ‘integrated hub’, is how Ayre Acoustics describes the EX-8. That’s nice, we thought, but what the heck is an ‘integrated hub’? We have not previously encountered a thing so described. The problem, of course, is that there are now so very many diff

APPLE ♦ BLUEANT ♦ BOSE ♦ JABRA ♦ JBL KLIPSCH ♦ PLANTRONICS ♦ SENNHEISER ♦ SONY When it comes to ear-buds, there’s wired, then there’s wireless, and then there’s true wireless. The distinction between the last two is that wireless buds receive their s

You’ll always remember your first love, your first kiss, your first dog. But with very few exceptions, hi-fi models are transitory things, launched to great fanfare until a year or two later comes a new model which is even better, often correcting fl

We confess to having had no immediate love for Apple’s AirPods when they first arrived — they looked daft, didn’t sound great, and didn’t create a seal against environmental noise. But they’re Apple, and Apple rarely gets such things entirely wrong,

The Pump Air 2 are certainly among the smallest earbuds we’ve tried, and they achieve decent sound quality despite both this and being relatively affordable for true wireless buds. They also arrive with the choice of seven different silicon ear-tips,

As the name suggests, these true wireless buds are built with sporty types in mind, both sweat- and water-resistant, and with a rugged feel to them that might indicate durability, although they are also relatively weighty (well, a whole 9 grams), whi

Jabra has come to the personal audio market by way of its long expertise in all things Bluetooth, including a claim to having made the first ever Bluetooth headset. As part of the GN Group it is also a sister company to ReSound, a company with its ex

JBL is a heavy hitter when it comes to true wireless sports earphones, and the Reflect Flows reveal clearly just why. Available here in four colours — green, black, blue and the pictured ‘teal’, subject to stock — their RRP is already below the most

After Jaybird entered the true wireless market with the promising but ultimately flawed Run range of in-ears in 2017, we were eager to see the company have another crack. And we pleased to find that the Jaybird Vista has addressed every earlier short

Klipsch is an American speaker company which plays on its heritage (the firm was born out of an Arkansas tin shed in 1946), but that hasn’t stopped the company stepping up to the true wireless plate and taking a swing at the new age of wireless with

This more recent addition to Jabra’s true wireless offering bundles together more than a dozen improvements in an effort to tackle competitors that have arrived since the 65t. The upgrade has largely been a great success — as before, they’re comforta

You’ve sourced the best music you can, put it onto your iPhone, found an app to play it and now all you need to do is pipe it into your head through your nice, new headphones. You might think that the job was done. The only trouble is that the qualit

Plantronics also has quite the history — how’s producing the headset used by the first astronauts on the moon for heritage! Fifty years on, you can have their more Earthly true wireless offering hanging out of your own ears. The BackBeat Pro 5100 bud

Model numbers are hard enough without companies having one product called the WH-1000XM3 (over-ear noise-cancellers) and another, these true wireless earbuds, called the WF-1000XM3. But the point is presumably that the buds successfully capture every

It seems to some that Sennheiser has taken its time joining the true wireless party, observing quietly from the sidelines how it might best approach this particular headphone category. But those with longer memories will know that Sennheiser was in f

With many of us currently having more time than ever to devote to video streaming from catch-up and subscription services, you need to ensure that your home Wi-Fi isn’t a weak link in the chain. If wireless woes are throttling your flow to a trickle,

This movie is a battlefield of potential futures. There’s one in which the Terminator franchise survives, oozing like liquid metal into further sequels, prequels and reboots. Alternatively this is the brand’s final stand, crushed like one of those sk

The latest DC movie starts with Harley Quinn splitting from her infamous long-term BF. Whether this has anything to do with her seeing his last film is unclear, but it’s difficult to imagine this Harley looking at that Joker and thinking ‘Phwooarrr!”

When David Arnold began scoring for Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond films, veteran Bond composer John Barry offered him this Fleming-like advice: “It must always be all about cock.” But make no mistake, Barry undersold his MI6 record there. Proof abounds

Bon Scott — rock’n’roll singer par excellence, charismatic frontman, the free-spirited larrikin hellraiser whose easy charm earned him the epithet ‘Bon The Likeable’. AC/DC’s 1979 album ‘Highway To Hell’ was the band’s first million-seller, and in th

Gawd bless James Hunter, the aitch-dropping, chain-smoking British geezer who has, inexplicably, the most glorious soul voice of his generation; you suspect he could croon a Centrelink on-hold message and leave you shivering. And his Daptone output i

In the fourth episode of his labour-of-love podcast, also called ‘Digging Deep’, Robert Plant puts his finger on the freedom and frustrations of Life After Zeppelin. “I disappeared up my own rectum,” he says of his embracing of new technology in the

Neo-progressive ground zero dusted down and tidied up. It took the Steve Hogarth line-up of Marillion almost three decades to fill the Albert Hall, and in light of such gentle progress it’s easy to forget just how rapid the ascent of the original ban

As illogical as it might sound, especially to anyone who flinches at the notion of noodly sixstringers, the most soulful moments on ‘Shapeshifting’ often occur during solos. Joe Satriani – the man who first made smart, horrifyingly skilled guitar pla

While a motivated and indomitable artist, Marc Bolan, perhaps the ultimate efflorescence of the mod narcissus, chiefly fed on fame. And for a good 15 months — post-T. Rex’s Hot Love TOTP and pre-Bowie’s Starman TOTP, as glam birthed and blossomed all

Why do some people buy standmount speakers and others buy floorstanders? Why do manufacturers make both? If the floorstanding versions are bigger and more expensive, is it just a question of having the budget? So many questions. But you’re right to a