December 22nd - After much deliberation, I've decided not to join any of the myriad of HiFi associations and will join with Apollo HiFi to form the "Specialist HiFi Independent Thinkers - Helping Other True-believers" (Thanks Rod). We still have a couple of Yamaha RX-V1700's and 2700's in stock (no more 'till February) at $1799 and $2250 respectively. I lost a bunch of e-mails due to a system crash over the last couple of days so if you didn't get an answer, please re-send. Our new floor standing speaker, the Australian Acoustics model 18 will be available the first week of 2007, it's been designed with the help of some highly regarded international audio engineers and fine tuned by an eclectic bunch including musicians, both classical and contemporary, along with a bunch of industry ne'r -do-wells (yeh, that includes me) Priced at $1399 pair, they will compete with (and hopefully bury) most of the "name" brand speakers selling for under $2000 pair. They're constructed in China out of the same factory that produces some of the biggest names in loudspeakers (I can't tell you which ones as we borrowed some of their technology to get a speaker this good at such a low price). All I can say is that they are well worth an audition.

The thinking mans A/V bible - Sound & Vision (American edition) just went up a couple of notches in my estimation, they recommend FOUR subwoofers for a perfectly balanced sound. A retailers dream!

December 4th - It's awards time again. This year we start with the 10 most useless or stupid awards in regard to audio and video. The judges are myself and several random drunks so we can be bought and influenced.

Number 10 - The Automatic Volume Level on the sound system of the Lexus GS300. Its supposed to increase or decrease the audio output level of the sound system to compensate for variations in cabin noise. Considering their is almost no variation in cabin noise at any speed, the system is totally and utterly useless.

Number 9 - The Automatic Volume Level on the sound system of the Nissan 350Z Roadster. As its hooked up to a Bose system, increasing the audio output is somewhat akin to increasing the voltage to the electrodes attached to a wailing cat.

Number 8 - HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Both offer better audio and video than a standard DVD player - but only if you have the screen big enough and good enough to resolve that difference. The average user wouldn't get any major benefit and as long as there are two competing systems, the average punter won't purchase either as no one knows which, if any, of the systems will prevail.

Number 7 - iPod Docks for any A/V receiver $2000+. Compressed music through a high quality audio system? - get out of here!

Number 6 - HDCP digital right management over HDMI. Don't know what I'm talking about? Just wait until a couple of your HDMI devices refuse to "handshake".

Number 5 - Any A/V Cable over $150 (HDMI excluded). If the sales guy can't demonstrate the difference between the $99 cable and the $399 "name brand" cable he makes 400% markup with, avoid him and his store like the plague.

Number 4 - David and Stephen Small (distributors of KEF) for listening to the bleating and whining of grotty little HiFi store owners in relation to my (sometimes) aggressive sales techniques (apart from that, they're not bad guys).

Number 3 - George Nasr at Yamaha for not accepting my offer to buy all the superb HX speaker range at a ridiculous price (I ended up buying them at a much higher, albeit still bargain price).

Number 2 - Specification Junkies. These are the customers who don't want to listen to a speaker unless the frequency response is 10Hz to 100,000 Hz or look at a screen with fewer than 10 gazillion pixels. They don't give a rats that a lower specced unit may actually look or sound better.

And the number one piece of stupidity for 2006 is  -   Importers (Castel, Samsung etc.) who are distributing high tech gear like HD DVD/Blu-Ray and will not supply specialist stores since the turnover wouldn't justify the effort. You wouldn't believe the number of calls we get from people who have purchased Blu-Ray players from JB HiFi then have the temerity to ring us on technical questions. We tell them to bugger off (well, I do anyway, the rest of the staff are too nice). The main loser however is going to be Castel (Toshiba HD DVD) as the combined advertising budget of the Blu-Ray camp makes their little outfit pale into insignificance. Without the backing of the small specialists (and maybe even with it) HD DVD will fail and Blu-Ray will become a minor player (much like SACD and DVD-A). Pity!

November 30th - Much as I hate to admit it, my old sparring partner from Smarthouse Magazine, David Richards, got it right in his editorial this month. David had a go at Choice Magazine for being irrelevant in today's consumer market due to their total incompetence in testing techniques (my words, not his) and personally biased opinions. Many years ago at its inception, Choice was the only real benchmark the consumer could rely on as they didn't take advertisers money and they were seemingly unbiased (which of course is rubbish as every journalist and analyst has an opinion or issue in relation to a consumer product). In these days of free reviews on the internet from people far more technically involved in the products, Choice has become a dinosaur and the hope that people will subscribe to their web site at $29 per month to access their content shows how chronologically inept the management of ACA/Choice  really is. Whoops, looks like I now have more enemies.

November 27th - Trying to sell a good subwoofer can be a chore sometimes. People who spend $1000 or more on a sub. want to HEAR it. The problem is, a good subwoofer should be totally unobtrusive for music and totally blend in with the main speakers. I had a guy in this morning who wanted a demo. of a subwoofer and was totally unimpressed when he couldn't "hear" it. When I turned it off, the whole bottom end collapsed and the music sounded flat, when I turned it back on the music was fuller with the bass guitarist right there in the room with us but as he couldn't "hear" the subwoofer, he figured it was no good and went back to Harvey's to buy a Richter which - in his words - Kicked Him In The Nuts. From now on, I figure instead of demonstrating the musicality of a subwoofer, I'll just get a mallet and whack the next guy in the testicles in time with the music, at least I won't lose any more sales to Duff Duff subwoofers.

November 23rd - Busy, busy, still, can't complain as it beats the alternative. Yamaha were stuck with a load of their top end HX speakers when a couple of stores went bye, bye's. If you want a really good speaker at a bargain price, check them out on our specials page. Now if you'll excuse me, I have about 80 large cartons to move!

November 16th - The customer is always right, the customer is always right, the customer is always right, the - oh, sorry, I didn't realize you were there. I'm just trying to get into my head that I really know bugger all about audio and video so I'm repeating the mantra. It all started last week with a phone call from a couple who live near my own domicile, they had a quote from another store and (understandably) wanted a second opinion. Out of the goodness of my heart (and potentially my wallet) I gave up my Sunday morning and went over to check out the room that was to be fitted out. It was acoustic bliss, with the right speaker set up the sonics would have been superb, the other store, which had never seen the room, had quoted a speaker and receiver combination which would have been an absolute disaster (although, considering they import those particular speakers, I wasn't surprised). They also suggested a projector with a 100" screen. considering the seating position was around 2 metres back and the main purpose of the room was TV watching, I could just imagine the ensuing headaches - not to mention the fact that most of the time the curtains would be open to the ambient light. After getting a feel for the room and the usage, I quoted on a 50" plasma panel with a sound system that would absolutely knock your socks off - and for less money than the other stores quote. I didn't hear from them for a few days so I rang to see what was occurring. Apparently the man of the house wanted the biggest screen he could get (I'd love to be his optometrist) and the 50" plasma at 2 metres wouldn't cut the mustard, it was also pointed out that the other store had spent "quite some time" with them and they felt an obligation to them - what the hell did they think a whole Sunday morning meant to me? (my only day off). Anyway, the long and short of it is, they'll  get a system that will give headaches due to both the audio and video set up. In future, I won't do house calls as I always call it as I see it. If I had any sense, I would have run with the projector thing, put some pretty looking (shitty sounding) speakers in, undercut the opposition and taken the sale. Now, where was I? Oh yes, The customer is always right, the customer is always right, the customer.................

November 8th - Well, another's misfortune is our gain. As you've probably heard, there's more than a few electrical stores gone belly up over the last couple of weeks. One of them had a large order with Yamaha which had to be cancelled and as a result we now have a few bits and pieces to help them clear. The best buy is the Yamaha YST-SW1500 subwoofer - a favourite of ours due to the musicality, power (1000 Watts) and remote control, not to mention the cool looking genuine cherry wood veneer finish. These units retail for $1999 and we have a couple to clear at $1299. Delivery is $79 to anywhere in Australia. If you're in the market for a top end subwoofer, this is one of the best buys we've ever had.

OK, since nobody in Australia wants to give us a Blu-Ray or HD DVD Player to test, we thought we'd better get one from another source, one of the lads here ordered one from the America via e-Bay and we now have  Toshiba HD-A1 to play with. It cost A$750 plus $85 for a good 240/110V transformer, I don't recommend the average purchaser to buy from overseas as there's no warranty and it won't play Australian HD or standard DVD's, we're willing to take the chance however in the name of objective research! The difference against normal DVD's varies from "not much" to WOW. By that, I mean the equipments ability to resolve the improvements. The Audio quality on a good system would be around 20 - 30% better (yes folks, that much) and the video quality depends totally on the screen. On a 81cm screen, I wouldn't get too excited (we could hardly pick any difference), a 104cm starts to show maybe a 5 - 15% improvement depending on the quality of display, get to a 127cm and the improvement is in the WOW range (probably 25 - 40%) and on a 100" projection screen using a high quality projector the improvement is remarkable. Our test was done using Serenity as we have both the HD and standard DVD's (both Zone 1). Other movies we have include "Batman Returns" and "U571" - both superb in comparison to the standard DVD's (I'm using a 55" Fujitsu to compare). The unit also converts standard DVD's to 1080i although I'm buggered if I can see any improvement over standard 480p. I can't see how Blu-Ray could be any significant improvement over HD DVD as the picture quality is absolutely mind blowing as it is. All in all, if the stupid morons who run the large companies didn't fight over the whole Blu-Ray / HD DVD format then we'd have a viable and demonstrably better alternative to standard DVD's. As things stand, I'm not sure if either system will go anywhere as consumers will no doubt wait to see who the dominant format will be - just as they did with DVD-A / SACS / DTS 96/24 and the result could well be the same.

November 6th - Talked to Castel this morning regarding stocking the HD DVD - Two problems, the local Retravision store is going to have them and may not like us stocking them due to our close proximity (I can just imagine the technical advice offered by them) and the margin offered to the dealer at the "go" price of $999 is so low that we couldn't justify any time or effort in a full demonstration. We also heard that a region hack for the Blu-Ray players is in the wind so that may open the door to the more technically (on paper) advanced system. As you now see, selling this stuff isn't quite as simple as it first appears.

October 26th - Sometimes, new equipment is just too good. I hate it when a product is THAT impressive that I have to have it. Such is the case with the Sherwood 40" LCD which arrived this morning, after the boys had played with it and set up the colour/contrast etc. I noticed the drool emanating from their oral orifice so I went over and had a look. Bloody amazing is all I can say! It's so good I'll overlook the fact that due to the built in HD Tuner I'll have to cycle through TV/AV1 each time I change sources. It absolutely kills the Panasonic 42" HD Plasma I currently have at home so I've ordered one for myself. The only down side is the price, at $3499 it's more expensive than the Panasonic although $500 cheaper than it's real opposition (Sony "V" Series LCD) which still isn't quite as good as the Sherwood.

October 24th - There are a lot smarter people than I in the industry (obviously) so I find it hard to imagine how any specialist retailer would associate itself with the new web site - smartshopper.com.au - For a start, if you go to their A/V receiver section, around 50% of the listed units have been superseded and are no longer available (this is from a site that was launched only yesterday), the potential customer asks for a bid on the product then the retailer has to give his best price, the customer then has to go into the winning retailer personally to pick up the goods. I can think of a number of reasons this is not a good way of shopping. Firstly, the customer is getting no feedback as to the suitability of the product for his particular situation (there's no contact with him 'till the deals done) so the purchase is done purely on price. The seller certainly won't be keen to offer any more than token assistance with the product as it was bought without the dealers recommendation. With half the stuff on the site unavailable or out of date, how the heck can anyone bid on it unless it's old floor stock.

Smartshopper says this is a way to get the consumer back into the store, well, if that's the case the consumer should get into the store before the purchase decision and talk to the experts about what's actually available and what is the equipment for their particular situation. They'll end up with the product they really need, the service they should really get and a fair price.

Incidentally, the participating dealers have to pay $2,640 for the privilege of  entering the bidding war.

What a load of crap!

(having said that, the new site will probably make a heap - there's a fair few gullible people out there - both retailers and consumers)

I've given up on Blu-Ray, Panasonic won't make the product available to a dealer unless he commits to a package of Blu-Ray Player, 65" Plasma, Panasonic A/V Receiver and Panasonic Speaker System. Apart from the fact we haven't the room in store to display all the stuff, the customers who purchase from a specialist is highly unlikely to be thinking of a Panasonic Receiver ($1450) and a Panasonic Speaker System ($6,500) no matter how good they may be. The other Blu-Ray manufacturer - Samsung - releases their new model next week at $1599, around a thousand dollars cheaper than the Panasonic although there may still be a video chip issue with the unit (TBC) A call to the sales manager at Samsung regarding stocking the product resulted in deadly silence, I guess Eastwood HiFi is too insignificant to be of interest to the might of Samsung.

The other problem of course, is the strict, supposedly unbreakable, region coding and with a whole four titles available before Christmas, it'll be a wonder if the format flies (sorry, fly's) soon, if indeed, at all.

What about my new toy then? Well, thanks to the power of the internet, we've found a mob in the US which will ship a Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD (I don't give a bugger about the format - I just need a toy) for A$750 delivered, allow $120 for GST and customs and it's still a bargain. Considering all I need then is a 240V/120V converter ($50) and there are over 80 titles available already from Amazon.com it sure looks attractive. If anyone sees a downside, let me know.

October 13th - They say a change is as good as a holiday so I changed around my dedicated music room. To give me a more intimate sound I placed the plasma screen and speakers across the room instead of lengthways. This means I now sit about 1.7 metres from the speakers and 42" display panel. There is no question that the sound has improved from what I considered "excellent" in the previous configuration (2.5 metres from the panel and speakers) to "bloody amazing" in the current set up. The only sound I've heard that is better is in Clive Robertson's place where his Paradigm Studio 100's are  about 2 metres from the listener. It just shows the importance of the room/speaker/listener relationship. That's why you really need to talk to a "with it" sales guy if you want the best result in your own environment - he should be able to suggest the best combination of equipment to suit your particular circumstances. I put on a couple of concert DVD's and was totally blown away - until I put my glasses on! Oh boy, what a disaster. I had a 42" standard definition Panasonic plasma and from 2 metres + away, you couldn't see the pixels - in fact because of the native resolution of DVD's and free to air broadcast, the picture looked better than any high definition panel I'd seen, at 1.7 metres however the pixels became obvious and I had to go and change the panel for the new Panasonic 42" HD panel. All fixed! Let that be a lesson to potential purchasers - screen size vs watching distance is a critical factor in determining display resolution.

Another anomaly hit me as I was setting up my new system. Originally I was going to use a new LCD with built in HD tuner (makes sense) except that in a normal A/V set up there's no loop through for the video output of the TV so we're back to messing about with AV1/AV2 switching on the TV itself. All too hard, so I opted for the new Panasonic HD 42" Plasma without the inbuilt tuner,  used a strong SR-5400 external HD box and let the A/V receiver do all the switching. Much easier.

October 12th - Funny how things change (well, maybe not). A few months ago, the best 81cm LCD panel we'd seen was the Baumann Meyer. It was around $2300 and needed an external HD set top box. They released a new model a few weeks ago with an inbuilt HD Tuner and the rep. brought it over for us to have a look at. The first obstacle was the price - $2799 for an 81cm LCD was just a little high, but if the performance warranted the outlay, maybe it would be worth it. The second obstacle was a little trickier however, placed next to the new Sherwood 81cm LCD (also with built in HD tuner), the Baumann Meyer looked soft and slightly out focus. No amount of fine tuning could bridge the gap and the major issue is that the Sherwood retails for $2499 and is currently on sale at $1990. I thought it may have been a one off problem with his demo unit but I then talked to my mate John Chillari, co-owner of Apollo HiFi, the Baumann Meyer was demonstrated in his store with the Panasonic 81cm LCD as reference. His thoughts were the same as mine, next to the Panasonic it looked soft and out of focus (the Panasonic sells for $1990 although it doesn't have a built in digital tuner). If the Baumann Meyer was $1000 cheaper, it'd stand a chance - as it is, it's the Sherwood for me. Amazing isn't it? Hero to Zero in two months, it just shows the level of advancement in technology over a short period of time.

I've seen some stupid designs for Home Theatre set ups in my time but nothing as ridiculous as the system shown in the latest Smart House magazine. Some genius designer suggested a plasma that is mounted around 1.5 metres from the floor, the poor client watching it will end up with a sore neck after the first movie (the centre of the screen should be at eye level when seated) It gets worse on the Audio front - a set of large floorstanding speakers on a wooden floor with no carpet or rug to take out the high frequency bounce and no soft furnishings anywhere to be seen. The surround speakers are mounted on the rear wall facing forward and in line with the listener - all the surround sound will be bounced off the front wall and get mixed in with the primary sound from the two main speakers. The centre speaker seems non existent so I assume they have the centre channel shared between the two mains (yeh, that's going to work). All in all, a total fuck up. The sad thing is that people look at the design and 'cause its in a magazine, think it should be good! The answer is, never let an architect design a home theatre set up without consultation with someone who actually knows what they're doing.

October 11th - Success!!!!!!!! The Marantz DV-6600 fixed everything. As soon as I replaced the Harman Kardon DV47 with the Marantz, everything started to talk to everything else. I don't know why (I suppose I should delve deeper) but I'm just so grateful that things are now working, I'm not questioning. I still believe the HK is a slightly better DVD player in terms of functionality and picture quality, it just doesn't like my Fujitsu - something to do with the fact that the Plasma doesn't accept 720p which happens to be the default output of the DV47. I still don't believe the picture via HDMI is any better than Component from the DVD although for some strange reason, the TV picture from the Strong SR-5400 is better (via DVI) and even stranger, the picture from my Foxtel box (component) has improved a good 20% when up converted to HDMI via the Yamaha RX-V2700. As I find more out, I'll keep you informed.

October 10th - 'Cause I own this little business, I'm supposed to know all about the latest gear, so on Sunday I replaced my trusty Yamaha RX-V2600 with the new RX-V2700. Amazingly, it worked spot on straight out of the box with the default settings just right for all my equipment. After a few tweaks, I have to admit that it does sound more "live" and slightly more musical than the old model. It certainly has more connectivity with 3 HDMI inputs, USB port, iPod docking facility and an ethernet connection for music streaming via the hard drive on a computer. Then the fun began. I figured I'd give this HDMI thingy another chance as the RX-V2700 can up convert to 1080p - I hooked up my trusty Harman Kardon DV47 via HDMI and - bugger all! The whole set up just refused to play. The problem appears to be that when playing via HDMI the signal need to handshake with everything and that just wasn't happening. I'll take home a Marantz DV6600 tonight to see if it's a DVD thing, if not, it's back to the cable drawer and drag out my Gecko Component leads again. I can understand how some customers get totally frustrated by all this new technology, at least I can just drop back into the store and grab a combination that actually works.

Insomniacs beware! Clive Robertson is back on air from Thursday night (midnight 'till 5.30am) on 2UE until Monday. Try ringing him on the open line and ask him a technical question regarding HiFi (phone 13 13 32) otherwise he'll be bored sh*tless.

September 28th - Yamaha's RX-V2700 is now in stock. The surprise is that they actually do sound slightly better than the 2600. There are bigger heat sinks for the output stage and much larger capacitors in the power supply, the overall result is a more dynamic and musical sound. I'm not sure if I'd run out and trade my 2600 for one however as the differences are subtle. The power output is up from 130 Watts to 140 Watts per channel although that's not the main thing - dynamic power has risen substantially and almost matches that of the now superseded RX-V4600. The big news is in the video processing. I won't go into details here (I'll save that for the review) - suffice it to say that if you have an HD Plasma (not a 1024 X 1024 panel) or an LCD, then it's worth while getting the 2700 over just about anything else currently available. It has networking functions allowing connection with a computer via CAT 5 to access music files or internet radio on your PC hard drive, there's also a USB input at the front for accessing a portable device. All in all, it's worth the extra $500 over the RX-V1700 (actually, it's worth a lot more than that).

New download is now available  here for the Clive and Steve chats. Updated today.

September 23rd - We attended the Panasonic release night this week and saw the new Blu-ray player which will be on sale in October. I mentioned this in my newsletter along with its $2500 price tag and the discussions on DTV Forum have been rampant in regards to how expensive it is and how Panasonic are ripping everyone off. What these overseers' of new technology fail to understand is that the new Panasonic is an absolutely top of the range unit in every respect i.e. audio/video/functionality.  Sure its expensive but so is the Marantz DV-9600 et al. Any top of the line player is going to be expensive and I don't think Panasonic should be criticized for introducing its flagship technology in a flagship vessel. If these denizens of technology cyberspace discussion groups want cheap, then lets wait for 2 years and they can get a Blu-ray or HD DVD from Woolies at $69. If Panasonic released the Blu-ray in a $990 player, then the performance would be class leading (don't argue lads, just think about it). Trolling through the discussion forums (as I do daily) is most intriguing, there are several forum member who really know their stuff (way more technically adept that I) and others who are just full of crap. If you can cut the wheat from the chaff however, you will learn some interesting things.

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?

The other release which was just stunning was the first Panasonic Plasma panel to offer true HD display (1920 X 1080 pixels) The screen is 65" diagonal and at a price of around $15,000 will cream the newly released Pioneer 50" of the same resolution (and price). The demonstration we saw using the Blu-ray player feeding the 65" screen was nothing short of breathtaking. Uncle Steve wants one!

Now in store is the Sherwood 46" LCD, not cheap ($4999) but definitely the BEST LCD panel we've seen - if you don't believe me - come and check it out. This is the first large screen LCD I've seen that indicates the future of larger panels (106cm and above) will eventually be the domain of liquid crystal. It may still be a while as the price of LCD manufacture is relatively high and they are still a little slower on movement although it certainly doesn't affect the viewing experience. I've just ordered myself the 40" version (out in 2 weeks) which will sell for around $3300.

September 20th - Yamaha RX-V1700's are now in stock. Makes the RX-V1600's that are left at $1499 (most are ex-display, repacked as new) look like a bargain. There's no sonic difference, no "B" speaker switch, no THX certification. The upside is 1080p up conversion via HDMI (at your own risk), a claimed extra 10 watts per channel (I doubt it however as the input power is identical) so all-in-all not a great change. Retail remains at $1999, not much of a discount on the new model (not much stock either).

Panasonic are releasing two new DVD recorders, the DMR-EX85 and DMR-EX75 at $999 and $799 respectively. The big news is that they now have built in SD Digital tuners. About bloody time! I've ordered mine already (although they won't be available for about 3-6 weeks). I'm off to the Panasonic release night tonight so I may have some more news tomorrow.

September 8th - Just finished having a chat with Clive Robertson about cables etc. - Could be worth a listen (there again.....)

Click here for the fun

September 6th - Finally! I went home early yesterday and ripped my system apart. I threw all the HDMI cables to a drawer marked "Never to be Opened" and replaced them with component/fibre optic cables. All of a sudden my problems have disappeared - no more sync. issues with the plasma, better picture from the Foxtel box (I was converting component to HDMI via the receiver) the only downside is slightly worse picture from the HD set top box although the difference is so small it won't be a worry. DVD playback seems about the same but without the sync. and handshake troubles. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing with this HDMI stuff but if you have to be a genius to get it all working, I can't see the point (I love Plug'n'Play). Why do I get the shivers when I think about Blu-Ray and HD DVD?

I really dislike shopping centres, we've been here for close on 30 years now and the escalator still breaks with regular  monotony. Only yesterday it stopped and there were a number of people on it at the time - they had to wait close on an hour until the repair engineer arrived and yelled "it's OK - you can walk down now" Poor souls.

The new Nexus Comparator should be working this week. Poor old mike has been wiring the thing up and hopefully the old home made relay system we've been using for the past 20 years can be put out to pasture - its a credit to Scott McKenzie that the bloody thing still works (he designed and made it back in the 80's) I wonder if the new fangled set up will last as long?

August 26th - Oh goodie, I lost another couple of sales this week (honesty is not the best policy in this business). Lady rings up and says she loves the web site, has just bought a new $4300 plasma and wants a full surround system which will also play music (Classical and Jazz) to go along with it. How much of your hard earned money do you wish to part with, said I, certainly no more than $1000 said she. The following tirade from my oral cavity was not a masterpiece of diplomacy (something like "we're not a bloody toy shop") - to cut a long story short, I lost that one. Sale 2 went west in the same vein, the main difference is that the customer had just purchased a 60" Plasma for $18,000 but was prepared to spend a whole $1500 on the sound system - I'll leave my response to your imagination. It's enough to drive a man to drink (Jim Beam, Small Batch, preferably). The problem with these purchasers is that they buy the plasma from Harvey Norman or Retravision where the average price of the surround system is $600 then expect me to come up with something decent for around the same money. Its Saturday and I'm going home now.

August 22nd - The Harman Kardon DVD 47's have arrived and I took one home to try on my 55" Fujitsu - buggered if I could get a picture out of it (via HDMI) Talk about frustrating! After 30 minutes of messing around and trying to figure out what the heck was going on, it turns out the setting on the HDMI was 720p and the Fujitsu only recognized 576p or 1080i, fortunately the HD resolution change is actuated by a button on the remote not (as per most other brands) via the set up menu so it was just a case of hitting the HD button until the appropriate output was achieved. Once working, the quality was superb (as expected from HK) although the load time for discs is a bit slow. This is a common feature of any universal player as the bloody thing has to work out whether it has a CD, DVD, SACD, DVD-A or DivX shoved in its orifice. If you reckon 2 - 3 seconds is slow however, just wait for the Blu-Ray or HD DVD Players to surface, you'll be making a cup of coffee whilst the machine decides what to do with whatever you stuck in it.

Another HiFi icon in Sydney is closing down, Audio One at Neutral Bay opened about the same time we did (26 years ago) and has finally succumbed to the pressures of price driven retailing. There's another couple under real pressure at the moment so things aren't looking great for the small independents (Hmm, I wonder if Len will give me a job?)

August 15th - Things are getting exciting, as I mentioned earlier, the interest in two channel audio is booming and with that in mind we've been looking at expanding our pure audio range. After much reviewing and wallet searching we've decided to stock Audiolab, a British design company started back in 1983 and dedicated to realistically priced audiophile quality sound reproduction. The equipment is made in China (there again, what isn't?) with strict QC and superb build quality. More info at

http://www.audiolab.co.uk/index.php

Pricing is quite reasonable with their superb sounding 8000CD compact disc player at $1699 and amplifiers starting at $1499. Well worth a listen.

The other bit of news is the release of the Sherwood range of LCD TV's, these look exactly like the new Sony and Baumann Meyer range (Hmmm). Apparently (so they say) Sherwood have worked some magic into the circuitry on the donor panel and claim better picture quality - but there again, they would! I've seen the samples and they certainly have a fantastic picture, pricing is extremely reasonable at around $2390 (32"), $3290 (40") and $4990 (46") Finish is in gloss black and includes a built in High Definition Tuner. They will be in store next week.

August 12th - Sometimes it makes you feel like packing up and moving to the Gold Coast to retire. Supposedly intelligent people looking to buy audio equipment can be really stupid and unfortunately I'm generally too nice to get stuck into them. It happened this week when Morrie the Moron rang up about CD players, I gave him a run through on what we had (we go from $299 to $4299) and he decided to listen to a $500 ish unit. He didn't bring his own CD (naturally) so we played him our Sheffield Lab demo through a Marantz PM15s1 which is a fairly accurate although slightly laid back sounding amp using the Marantz CD5001 CD player (nice and smooth). The speakers were Paradigm Signature S4's - a very revealing $5000 speaker, Morrie thought the sound of the CD player was way too harsh - quick thinking me then said "hold the phone" and quickly changed the Paradigms for a set of B&W 604's which are a far softer sounding speaker, the top end was considerably toned down and I then asked Morrie if that was more the sound he was after - It was, but Morrie stood up, told me that it wasn't fair changing speakers and stormed out (incidentally, he was using Monitor Audio at home). Either Morrie finally discovered that it's really the speaker that is the main determinant of the sound and didn't like being shown up as a dummy for not knowing, or he really is a moron. Either way, it's not about losing a $500 sale, its really about junior Audiophiles not knowing the why and wherefore of what makes a good system and thinking they know more about the stuff than guys who live and breath audio.  Morrie the Magnificent (his smart cousin) would have brought in his own CD and speakers OR tested one CD player against another using the same set up (again using his own CD as reference). Thank heavens I'm off to Oran Park tomorrow to see the V8 Supercar races - now there's 120dB of pure audio I can really relate to.

August 8th - Hey, this Harman Kardon stuff is pretty good. I've been playing with the AVR 340 ($1499) receiver and it's got balls. Forget the power ratings, they measure differently than most other brands, in fact if you doubled the quoted outputs it would be pretty close to comparing with Denon, Marantz and Yammie. The DVD 23 ($499) DVD Player is great, apart from the usual stuff it provides set up colour bars and one button press for changing from progressive scan to interlaced. Big deal you say, well it bloody well is 'cause every time I play a 4:3 movie on my plasma I have to go into the set up menu of my current DVD player and change from progressive to interlaced otherwise the plasma doesn't let me change the aspect ratio and I get a stretched 4:3. I'll be taking home the new DV47 ($699) when they're finally released next week (they have the same feature). The real excitement will happen however when the AVR 745 becomes available next month, at $3999 it fills a niche left vacant by Marantz and Yamaha, it has a crappy specification of 85 Watts per channel but to get a real handle on the grunt, look at the maximum power INPUT of 1450 Watts, then compare to the power input of, say, the Denon 4603 at 570 Watts (supposedly 120 watts output per channel) and you get the idea that oils ain't oils. The new HK has video upscaling via HDMI, USB computer connection for streaming audio (and those elusive firmware upgrades), colour bar generation for setting up your display and (drum roll) a proprietary version of the Logitec Harmony 520 remote control with internet connection and set up for 8 devices. If it has the audio transparency and dynamics of its siblings, it'll be an absolute killer. I'll do a full review as soon as I take one home, mind you it'll need to be something special to displace my Yamaha RX-V2600.

August 4th - Yeh. yeh it's been over a week since the last update, the place went bananas since July 30th. We ended up with another record month, I'm not sure what we're doing right but when I find out I'll bottle and sell it!

It was also a frustrating week in that we lost some customers to the dreaded "sound lounge is being used" syndrome. Last Saturday we had people queuing up for the demonstration facilities and, unfortunately, some couldn't wait the 30 minutes or so to get in and walked out. My apologies to those people (and the ones who just felt neglected), hopefully they'll return and we can look after them better. We also had the usual run of Wally's, like the one who brought in a copy of Wolfmother to test out some speakers then said they (Paradigms) were no good 'cause he could hear distortion! He went back to Domayne to buy a set of Mordaunt Short 908's which were demonstrated OUTSIDE of the demo room (he couldn't hear any distortion with the same disc in that situation). I'm not even going to try to explain that one to people who haven't heard the Wolfmother disc.

July 25th - Break out the smelling salts! What Hi-Fi? the famous parochial UK magazine has given the Yamaha RX-V2600 the nod over the Denon 3806, Onkyo SR803, Arcam AVR250 and Pioneer AX4AVi. They must actually be testing these things rather than just guessing or giving ratings based on geographic distinction. They say the Denon has a lack of dynamic excitement which is what we call a "laid back" sound, the Pioneer has "hard" treble and the Onkyo lacks detail whereas the Yamaha was said to be the best performing receiver in this comparison. I couldn't have expressed it better myself, as I said, somebody has actually taken the time to listen and compare these units. Pity Marantz doesn't have anything to compete in this price range (that will happen when the successor to the SR-8500 arrives later this year) as the sound lies somewhere between the Denon and Yamaha. As mentioned previously, we'll be running with Harman Kardon as from next month. The reasoning is - if the other brands I approached aren't interested in a potential $500,000 a year sale, they sure ain't interested in Fred average who just bought one of their $2000 units, sonically the HK gear is also way ahead of the Denon and Onkyo in regards to musicality (in regards to their multi channel receivers). We'll be reviewing their stuff as it arrives - should be an interesting comparison against the Marantz and Yamaha we currently stock.

In the aforesaid magazine there's a review on a Wilson Benesch Torus subwoofer, which at around $15,000 should be bloody good, regardless of how good it is though, the manufacturer would prefer it not to be known as a subwoofer, but an "infrasonic generator" Now, if the guy who coined the phrase actually read the dictionary definition, he'd learn that infrasonic means "frequencies below that of audible sound" - if that were true, their $15,000 thingy would have a frequency response of between 1 and 15 Hz, totally useless for music and very limited for movies - Pretentious Crap!

July 20th - It's interesting to read that Shane Buettner of Ultimate A/V Magazine was disappointed in his first experience with Blu-Ray. Using the new Samsung BD-P1000 player, he found the quality of video reproduction via the Marantz VP-11S1, 1080p DLP projector to be somewhere between slightly better than a good standard DVD and not quite as good as free to air HD broadcast. Since his results were gained using a better display than most of us have (or can afford - the projector alone is on the wrong end of $10,000) then it makes me wonder what all the fuss is about - especially for those of us with 42" or 50" Plasma displays which we view from a distance of 3 metres or more. This article from Home Theatre is an eye opener for the uninitiated.

http://www.hometheatermag.com/gearworks/805gearworks/

It goes some way to explaining why specifications of Video Display panels mean absolutely nothing in the real world, not to mention the article from Ultimate A/V by Thomas Norton who expresses the same views - to quote "The best advice I can give you about specifications is to ignore them. Manufacturers don't all use the same techniques to obtain them, so comparing them is next to useless. (Try telling that to some of the Wally's I get in the store). The Ultimate A/V Mag. is a great read and it's well worth subscribing to their free newsletter - here's the link.

http://www.ultimateavmag.com/newsletter_subscribe/

The long and short of this rant is that, for most of us, the motivation to get on to the HD bandwagon is more to do with "Look at me - I have the latest and greatest" than the actual benefits. Hey, I'm not knocking it, I'll be the first on the block to have an HD DVD or Blu-Ray player. Even if I can't see the difference, I know I'll have the best! Having said that, I only sit 2 metres away from my 55" Plasma so maybe I will actually see a difference.

They say it's tough out there trying to move specialist HiFi and Video products, well it can't be going too bad for most importers. I'm currently looking to expand our range of electronics and have approached a couple of importers in regards to assessing their products. In terms of manufacturers we've approached Denon, Onkyo, Samsung (LCD) and Harmon Kardon, all good brands and I would have no hesitation recommending any of them so why would I choose one over the other? Customer service is the answer, and that is reflected by the dialogue with an interested party (me). I've contacted the sales departments of the Australian importers of all the products, Denon and Samsung didn't even have the courtesy to ring back and tell me to bugger off (obviously we're too small a business for them to worry about - or I might have pissed them off about something in the past), the sales manager from Onkyo visited me and then said he'd get back with more info (that was 3 weeks ago and I've heard nothing since). Harmon Kardon however is a different kettle of fish, John Martin of Convoy International (the importers of HK, B&W and other goodies) was most helpful in showing me the benefits of the product and also explained the customer service aspect of the company. Should a consumer have a problem, Convoy International deals with the customer directly - none of the dealer in the middle crap I have to put up with in regards to other brands (I won't mention the worst offender, but it begins with M). HK certainly looks and sounds the goods with way more reserve power and dynamics than most other brands at the same price, even though the actual power output specifications seem low (there's that specification thing again), when the customer satisfaction aspect is taken into account, it looks like a winner. We'll be taking a closer look in a week or so and let you know.

We just received a load of Yamaha Refurbished stock - it's listed on our specials page and could be worth a squizz.

July 13th - Do you change a sound system on the basis of one DVD? Unfortunately, if you've just purchased Pink Floyd in Concert - PULSE, the answer is probably yes. I took my copy into the the den at home which, until now, was perfectly suited for all my audio and video needs. The current set up consists of a Yamaha RX-V657 receiver, Yamaha YST-SW515 Subwoofer, Paradigm Studio 20 main speakers, Jamo D4 Centre and Yamaha NS10 surrounds and Marantz DV6600 DVD. I play pretty bloody loud since my Guitar and Vox Amp sit right next to the lounge and when I feel like playing along to the music, I do a Spinal Tap and turn it up to 11. The wife was in Melbourne last night so I played PULSE at concert volumes. The RX-V657 near shit itself, the subwoofer hit the limiter and I blew one of the surrounds - this was not good. I took the same disc into the lounge room - Yamaha RX-V2600 Receiver, Paradigm Studio 40 mains, CC470 Centre, Atom surrounds, Paradigm UltraCube 12 subwoofer and Yamaha DVD-S2500 DVD. The difference was unbelievable, playing at -5dB it was ear shattering without distortion or the slightest sign of stress. The subwoofer passive radiators were flapping around 3cm from the mean position but showed no ill effects and literally shook the room (track 3). All in all, a thoroughly satisfying experience which could only be generated by a set up with vast reserves of power (and power handling). My new set up in the den will have an RX-V2600 receiver, UltraCube 10 Subwoofer and Paradigm Atom surrounds (the rest of the stuff is OK). I know it seems crazy, just on the basis of one DVD Concert but I just like to know that I can play absolutely anything at any reasonable volume anytime.

Just reading back on that, it doesn't make much sense does it? Oh well.

My old mate Mike Wilson has now left Qualify (importers of Marantz, Jamo etc.) and after dealing with him over the last 20 or so years I'm going to miss the cranky old bastard. He's off to Ultralift who manufacture various mechanical devices to raise and lower projectors, plasma screens etc. All too up market for our little concern so unfortunately our business association is at an end, hopefully, though, his expense account will stretch to the odd meal at Mathew Chan's Peacock Gardens Restaurant. His replacement is Phil Hawkins (ex-Yamaha) who once bought me a coffee and raisin toast - obviously he'll need retraining in the art of the "Business Lunch" (some of these guys have absolutely no idea how much a dealer can commit to under the influence of a good Chardonnay).

July 7th - I keep getting e-mails from potential purchasers as to where they can get "sound" advice (yeh, yeh, very punny) Well, there's a semi professional (I mean that in the descriptive way, not in regards to ability) magazine which can answer and explain a lot of technical issues in regards to sound, vision and home automation. Its called Connected Home Solutions Magazine and is read by most insiders and clued up installers, so as a guide to the potential consumer (or just the curious) it can prove extremely valuable.

http://www.connectedhome.com.au/subscribe.htm

There's the subscription link if you're interested.

July 5th - Yamaha have jumped the technology/price barrier again by announcing a new receiver with networking functions. I won't bore you with the details - you can download them HERE in PDF format - however at the RRP of $1099 this will be a market killer. Availability is mid July.

There are very few reviews in HiFi Magazines that actually mean anything. I figured this out years ago but the fact was re enforced by a review in the latest Audio and Video Lifestyle Magazine. In itself, an excellent source of  reference as regards HiFi and Video products but not a great guide to what's hot and what's not. The review on the Paradigm Studio 60's brought this to light in that it was a glowing review on perhaps the best value for money speaker available in Australia. The summary was 5 stars for performance (perfection?), 5 stars for compatibility (?),  4 stars for built quality (they're built like a brick shithouse - should be 5 stars) and 4 stars for "Value for Money". Much as I love these speakers, I'm not sure if they are the epitome of perfection, surely the Paradigm Signature 8's would be a lot closer to that mark (at $10,000 they bloody well should be) whereas, if they are perfect (according to the reviewer) surely there should be 5 stars in the Value for Money equation. Maybe I'm being picky, but if I were a consumer, I'd like a more definitive reference point on which to base my purchasing decision. I only thought about this after reading a couple of motor vehicle reviews in the NRMA magazine "Open Road" which pulls no punches - if the car is crap - they say so and the reader (potential consumer) gets a warts and all portrait of that particular item. I know it's hard in the HiFi industry where the almighty advertising dollar tends to temper any negative comment, but surely the public is entitled to an unbiased review that can be referenced against some form of standard at a particular price point. I realize that a lot of my own reviews for hardware are very positive - That's because I don't publish the bad ones (I'm subject to pressure from the importers). If you want an honest opinion on a product that we haven't reviewed, then you need to call me (02 9874 2726).

Can I go home now?  

June 23rd - Another great DVD for demonstrating a good system - Neil Young "Heart of Gold", it's supposed to be a movie but actually just a bloody good concert with superb sound with Neil Young singing better than ever. It's not available locally yet (I got mine via Amazon.com) but its an absolute killer. Get it! (that means you Murray)

Eastwood is now predominantly a Korean community, nice people with a pleasant disposition although sometimes not fully conversant with the subtleties of the English language. A good example was one gentleman who originated from the Korean capital and was talking about how all his friends loved it so much here that they called Eastwood Our Seoul. 'Nuff said.

Some stocktake specials have now appeared on our specials page, could be worth checking out.  

Warning! If you want diplomatic answers to your e-mails, don't send them after 4.00pm on Saturdays. I generally go out Saturday nights and have a few Bourbons, when I get home I check my e-mails and answer them if I'm coherent enough. Unfortunately, diplomacy goes out the door and I call it as I see it - case in point, guy e-mails about the number of pixels on a 50" plasma and suggests one of the staff quoted the wrong figure (he probably did), my response was - WHO CARES? - not diplomatic but very obvious. If you're buying a display panel on specifications, you're in big, big trouble, if it's pixels you're after, buy an LCD, if it's contrast, buy an LG - for the best picture, get the new 8th generation Panasonic (I have no idea what the spec's are, I just like the picture). Same goes for speakers, if I get one more "Audio Engineer" telling me what's good and what isn't 'cause of THD figures and frequency response, I'll scream!

If you like the picture and the price - just buy the bloody thing!

Quality doesn't come cheap - case in point, the new Panasonic DVD Player with HDMI is only $279 (LG has one with HDMI at $199) - everyone has been raving that HDMI gives a better picture but that sure ain't true of these budget players, in fact their component output with progressive scan beats their HDMI picture (way too soft) - first decent HDMI output DVD player we've tested is the Marantz DV-6600 although I suspect we'll get cheaper units with clean video outputs as the technology progresses.

June 16th - Panasonics new 32" LCD has raised the bar once again on TV Display panels. It's bloody near impossible to keep up with the latest products in the video field. OK, so they're made in China, at least its out of Panasonics own factory and not an OEM. I won't quote specifications 'cause they mean bugger all in the real world but in terms of colour resolution and motion blur this is the current class leader (and at around $2300, not bad value). This will no doubt change within weeks but I guess it's good to be on the top of the pile for the fabled 15 minutes of fame. The DMR-EH65 250GB DVD Recorders are back in stock now - with its HDMI and up scaling capabilities, its magic value at $920.

June 7th - Just finalized the figures for May and we ended up with the best May in 27 years - thanks to all of you who helped in that regard (I just hope the trend continues), another HiFi store in Sydney's northern suburbs went into administration last week, that's over 10 gone this year in Sydney alone. I'm starting to understand why - pricing! This guy comes into the store yesterday with an instruction manual for a DVD recorder and wanted to know how to operate it (he'd bought a receiver off us 3 years ago), it turns out he'd bought it from - you guessed it - Harvey Norman, why not us? I asked, well it seems our price of $375 was $10 more than HN's, unfortunately they couldn't tell him how it worked so we had to spend 30 minutes with him. Should have charged the tightarse $50 for instruction. Don't worry, we won't be making a habit of free advice for goods purchased elsewhere in future (that we stock that is).

Scary stuff this. Installation "engineer" from a well known company purchases a receiver and set of speakers off us (the speakers were a model we don't normally stock but we didn't try to talk him out of it), he rings up the next day and wants a refund (fat chance on a special order) 'cause his speakers read 4.9 Ohms on his multimeter and the specifications state they are an 8 Ohm impedance speaker. I'm assuming most of you reading this know the difference between impedance and resistance (impedance is the total resistance to an alternating current flow at a specific frequency whereas resistance generally refers to the opposition of current flow as regards DC - yeh, rough, but you get the general idea) If a Home Theatre installation "engineer" doesn't know the difference, how the hell is he supposed to work out any multi room or multi speaker configurations. If you're looking to get a full installation, I'd check to see if the so called "engineer" has been CEDIA trained (Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association) - I don't mean the company he works for is a CEDIA member, I mean the guy (or girl) has been trained by CEDIA. If not, you could be putting your equipment at risk. No, my guy's aren't CEDIA trained, they're Steve trained which is cheaper for me and more specialised but as I can't get around to everyone, CEDIA is the next best thing.

I keep harping on about attending live concerts to get a "feel" for how live music should really sound. I won't say that any longer. On Sunday I took my tribe to the "Classical Spectacular" which involved the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choir and a few hundred other assorted (excellent) musicians playing and singing some of the great classical pieces (I use Classical music in the general, not chronological sense) - well bugger me if the whole thing wasn't miked and played through a very ordinary speaker system. The violins caused a resonant peak in the speakers that was a little annoying but apart from that, the whole concert was thoroughly enjoyable - in fact one of the best concerts I've ever attended. My point is, the overall experience was not one of the purest acoustics and wasn't a true representation of how each instrument actually sounds. As an experienced I absolutely loved it and would highly recommend it, as a basis for high fidelity comparison however, 4/10.

June 2nd - Oh dear, according to GfK Statistics, the average price of a Home Theatre System is now $580. That's overall and generally applies to people who have just purchased a new flat screen panel (LCD or Plasma). Since the average price of a flat screen panel is over $2000 that's a sad indictment on the state of the nation. It makes one wonder what the salespeople at the major department stores are thinking, I guess it's easier to flog an impressive looking screen than take the time to demonstrate the differences between a really crap audio set up and a bloody good one - if indeed the salespeople themselves can tell! I have two set ups at home, the larger screen has the inferior sound (due to room acoustics and aesthetics) whereas the smaller screen has an acoustic set up to die for. I'll take the smaller screen and better sound any day, as one gets immersed in the movie or concert, the sound takes on a much more dominant roll than the size of the picture. My rule of thumb is that the audio portion of an A/V set up should be of equal or (preferably) greater value than the display - and remember - the speaker system is by far the most important factor in presenting the overall sound.

May 29th - New Panasonic DMR-E65 now in. DVD recorder which records onto just about everything including DVD RAM (the only removable format which records native 16:9 - don't use anything else). It has HDMI output with up scaling to 576p, 720p and 1080i, it burns dual layer (no big deal if your recording 16:9 however) and plays virtually anything - DivX, MP-3, JPEG etc. At around $920, it should sell up a storm, I'm taking one home tonight to give it a whirl.

Good new on the Clive Robertson front, Clive's now completed his commitments with the ABC (his show is called Agony Aunts with Clive Robertson and can be seen on ABC TV, Tuesdays at 8.00pm) which means we can continue our Podcasts. If I were an Audiophile (don't worry, I'm not), I don't think I'd like to listen to the first talk.........  The first installment should be in about a week or so.

I just received an invitation in the mail to attend a function called "Recognising Alex Encel". Well, talk about a laugh, the organisers are asking $145 a head for punters to "hear Alex share his experience, insights and vision for the future" - I wouldn't go if they paid me $1000! Here's the guy who imports Loewe TV's - the product that gave me more stress than any other I've sold in the 34 years I've worked in the business  - and then buried his head in the sand when confronted with the facts pertaining to the horrific breakdown rate. I figure his main insight would be where his next $1,000,000 is coming from. I reckon whoever sent me the invite was taking the piss (I hope so anyway).

May 27th - I should have heeded the warning signs, "Let it Be" - a celebration of the song writing skills of Lennon and McCartney performed by some of Australia's best musicians' at the Opera House. So along I went with my wife and 2 offspring in tow, I mean, no one can fuck up the sound in the Concert Hall at the Opera House - can they?

Like hell they can't. Given the Concert Hall is acoustically designed with moveable roof hung acoustic rings etc. one would assume that any competent bunch of muso's would sound great. It was the greatest garbled load of crap I've ever heard, kind of like being at a drunken Beatles Karaoke party without the free booze and canapés. The singing was so-so with the great Leo Sayer resorting to reading the words after fluffing a couple, Christine Anu hitting wrong notes, not because she couldn't but simply because she didn't know which notes to try for. The mix was absolutely atrocious with the wrong mikes being turned on and the various instruments not volume aligned. All in all, I'd have been better off at the local RSL listening to a Beatles tribute band, at least they would have rehearsed and have a balanced sound.

Having said that - the audience seemed to love it (including my wife and daughter) - I guess being in the business makes one a little more aware of what is expected of a bunch of "Australia's top musicians"

If you really want to hear how a professional bunch of musicians should sound - go and see "Dusty" - we went a couple of weeks ago and the sound, both instrumental and vocal was 10/10 - absolutely the best singing and musical backing I've ever heard (big call but true). The show overall was 7/10 losing marks only due to the acting but still rates as a "must see"

May 20th - Well, I sure stirred up a hornets nest with my cable slagging episode (see below) - I guess most people who have purchased expensive cables eventually convince themselves of the benefits, otherwise they have to admit they were ripped off. Now, I have no problem in admitting my mistakes (usually) so I'd write it off as a learning curve after having bought a "Mammoth UniDirectional Audio Lead" for $500 then finding it sounded no better than a $99 Van Den Hul or some such. Video cables are even more of a rip off with the exception of HDMI cables - these can be a real bitch. Up to lengths of around 3 metres, there doesn't seem to be any significant differences (apart from the connectors - but that's another story), as the length of cable increases however, the large amount of data that's passed through these cables becomes a problem and the cheaper cables tend to cause all types of transmission errors. I'll list these as we gain more practical experience, HDMI is still in it's infancy so there's a lot more for us to learn. My current rule of thumb is - don't pay over $150 for any HDMI cable 3 metres or under, $200 for 5 metres in length and max out at $400 for 10 metre lengths. Even these prices are exorbitant, but until they become commonplace, the relatively small production runs means higher pricing. I've found some excellent 1 to 3 metre cables for under $100 although some brands have very "iffy" connections and we have had some problems in regards to those. For heavens sake, don't fall for the "would you like fries with that" approach that some of the major discount stores try, they up sell the cabling after a plasma purchase sometimes getting over $700 for a single Component or HDMI lead. Considering the markup on these cables is well in excess of 100%, and the markup on plasma/LCD screens is generally less than 15%, it's easy to see the logic behind this marketing scam. Even I would feel guilty pulling that stunt (and my middle name is Avarice).

May 17th - Hmm, it's been a while since I updated, probably due to the excruciating pain in my leg due to the dreaded gout. However, due to the wonder of modern drugs (albeit, not ones of my first choice) I'm now pain free.

The most ridiculous thing I've read or heard of in years was advertised in the "Guide" on Monday - here's the link.

 http://www.pymblehifi.com.au/NordostCableBurning.htm

Now if that isn't the greatest load of shit I've ever come across, I must be deaf, blind and dumb (although, I suspect my pinball playing skills would be better). If ANYONE actually believes in that stuff, please let me know as I'd really like an opinion that is diametrically opposed to every scientific theory and fact known to modern man. I don't even mind the reference to another stores web site 'cause the type of customers loyal to us wouldn't consider buying off a Shaman even on price (well, except for a couple of well known tight buggers out there). I just don't fu**ing believe it!

For those of you who think it works however, I have a lovely little abode situated at Bennelong Point which is suitable for hosting large parties and is adorned by sail like roofs. Asking price is only $250,000. Please add to the shopping cart.

May 3rd - Don't you just love it when importers need warehouse space and have to take a kick in the guts on pricing? The importers of Celestion Speakers are currently writhing in agony over their need to clear warehouse space - especially after we helped them out. The cute little 5.1 sub/satellite system AVP305 which retails for $3199 is now clearing for $990. More info on the specials page.

May 2nd - AAAArgh, I've been dragged, kicking against my will, into the iPod age. I have an inherent distrust of all things compressed (except grapes going into the fermentation vat) so when I heard about Yamaha's new receivers with iPod docking and on-screen display of the contents plus remote iPod operation, I was aghast. Then Jamo announced a new iPod speaker system with integrated dock - all of a sudden I knew I was beaten. I had to buy one just to demonstrate this new kit that was infiltrating into the store. I went down to Target and purchased an iPod Nano, well, the bloody thing is actually quite cute. It's so intuitive to load CD's onto that even I could get the hang of it within minutes. The earbuds that come with it are crappy and do nothing for the sonics so I tried it with my favourite headphones, the KOSS Porta Pro, ah! much better, in fact, very good. I'm not yet a convert as I rarely have the need for trolling around with music blasting into my head, but should the fancy ever take me, the iPod is the answer. I'll report on the quality of the iPod via the Yamaha Receivers when the docking stations become available next week.

April 6th - Ho Hum, another rep. rings up to try to flog more product. I decide to check the stuff out with no intention of putting any more stock on the floor, especially LCD TV's as this guy was selling. The product in question is a brand called Baumann Meyer - one of those fancy named brands I'd never heard of, the guy brings in a 32" model and hooks it up to a HD box  - holy cowshit Batman the picture was absolutely brilliant! I'd rate it as good as the Sony Bravia (possibly 'cause the LCD panel is from Samsung as is the Sony). At $2499, it sits between the crap and the Sony with all the benefits of the Sony. It's as good an LCD as I've seen at any price and they now reside on our showroom floor (I'm a sucker for value-for-money). You really need to check them out if you're in the market for a 32" widescreen. It only has an analogue tuner so a digital STB is recommended.

April 5th - Ha, the assassination attempt didn't work, I'm not sure who's behind it although there are a few glaring suspects. It all happened like this - Lease on the Lexus is up next month so it's car hunting time. When out at the airport on Sunday to pick up the wife, there was a nice shiny black car on one of those stands in the arrivals lounge so I trolled over to take a look. It was the new 3.2 litre V6 Volkswagen Passat with the DSG 6 speed gearbox and looked great. I rang a VW dealership on Monday and a nice young salesman drove one out to the store so I could take it around the block. Apart from the fact the dashboard looked like Star Wars on Steroids it seemed like a nice piece of kit. I hooned up the street and backed off heading towards an intersection, as I took my foot off the accelerator the bloody thing decided to commit hara-kiri and sped up! I stomped on the brake pedal which pushed back at me as if to say "your time is up - sucker"  Fortunately the malevolent machine decided to do as it was told and stopped just before heading into a major traffic misfortune. I was still shaking from the experience two days later, needless to say the Passat is now off the list.

What's that to do with HiFi? Nothing, but at least I'm still here to talk about it at a later date.

Latest "bullshit" product on the market - Velodyne's SMS-1 Bass Management System for subwoofers. It's supposed to correct the frequency response to be accurate within the room in which it is being used. Yeh, right, like its going to fix standing wave problems? They are the biggest creators of problems in relation to low frequency reproduction that we have to contend with. There is no answer to the standing wave issue apart from moving the position of either the subwoofer

Yamaha have announced the end of an era - they will no longer be producing Cassette Decks. We still have a few KX-W421 Double Auto Reverse units (retail $549) on special for $399 - then it's goodbye to that technology (at least as far as Yamaha is concerned)

March 22nd - Perception is a funny thing - one reason I changed my Nissan 350Z Roadster for the Lexus RX-330 is that, for around the same money I seem to have a lot more in terms of size and goodies. As I played with my new Paradigm Ultra Cube 10 subwoofer last night, the whole family was amazed by the sound coming out of this little 35cm cubed wonder, it's within a mouse's minim of the Yamaha YST-SW1500's performance even in my 5 X 9 metre room. The only problem is one of perception regarding value for money - the Yamaha is bigger, bolder and looks $2000+, the little Paradigm looks, well, not much at all quite frankly, and the fact that after discounting is taken into consideration, the Paradigm is a couple of hundred dollars more than the Yamaha, doesn't help. Having said that, the wife friendly factor of the Yamaha is around 6.5 with the Paradigm scoring a gold medal performance of 9.5.

Speaking of which, I have one Paradigm Ultra Cube 10 and one Ultra Cube 12 which have had a couple of hours workout in the Neil residence for sale as demo units, Harry the Cat didn't get near them so they're pristine. As we don't normally discount Paradigm subwoofers (bugger all dealer margin) this is a chance for someone to get a bargain. The Ultra Cube 10 retails at $1899 and my demo will be $1399, the Ultra Cube 12 which retails for $2399 will go for $1699. Full Warranty applies (5 years drivers and 2 years amplifier) and I've repacked them in the original cartons. Reviews on these units will appear in our review section within a couple of days.

There's also a Yamaha YST-SW1500 which I've now retired from my second music room at home (low hours - full warranty) which I'll let go for $1299.

Being in the sales business, one becomes a bit of an anthropologist although as one becomes older (not necessarily wiser) the interest in other cultures seems to wane. One thing I've never experienced however is a Jewish wedding so upon being invited to an ex-neighbours daughters wedding, I was looking forward to a new experience. What an experience - upon arrival at the outdoor service I was offered a

yarmulke (skull cap) which I dutifully placed upon my balding dome (only subsequently to learn it's not a requisite) - the 32 degree heat and blazing sun left a distinct mark on my head where the yarmulke had rested. For the next week at the store, every customer was trying to beat me down on price yelling "oy, vey - you can do much better than that" thank goodness the mark has now faded and I can get back to making some profit (that's profit, not Prophet).

March 9th - Sometimes we come across a product that is totally amazing on a price/performance ratio, not often mind you, but when it happens it's very exciting. It's happened. DB Dynamics have always made good value for money speakers and subwoofers but nothing to upset the major speaker manufacturers in the mid/upper range. Be prepared to be amazed, the new DB Dynamics Polaris system is an absolute mind blower. We have the first batch to arrive in Australia and the boys here are all saving for either the whole pack or at least part of it. The main speakers have 3 X 8" woofers, 1 X 3.5" Dome mid and a 1.25" Dome Tweeter - all in all a fairly bland black box but with an overall sound stage and frequency response which will blow you away both musically and for movies., there's a matching centre and dipole surrounds but the killer is the subwoofer, nothing fancy mind but an honest 200 Watt amp and long throw 12" driver which kicks like a mule but blends in seamlessly for music. You wouldn't buy the system on looks but one listen, and if you can overcome the stigma of not having a "Bose", "B&W" etc. name brand then this has to be the best buy in a total Home Theatre/Music Speakers System available under $5000! I shit you not! Retail is just over $3000 and we're doing the total package for around $2600. Grab your favourite CD or DVD and come in for a listen - trust me on this one.

My cat is called Harry, not Dirty Harry (cats are quite clean) just Harry. Harry has cost me over $8000. Vet bills and purchase price for this British Blue are the small part, Harry uses the lounge chairs and sofas as a means of a Claw Manipulation Vehicle (scratching post to you). So far he's destroyed 2 complete 3 piece suites and last night he started on the sofa in my music/media room. I tried to grab him to cut his claws with a very expensive claw cutting instrument but Harry weighs in at around 6kgs and is stronger than the average human male. Harry scratched the shit out of me and disappeared for the night. This morning on my way to work, Harry was seated in the garage opposite the car. As I got in, I said goodbye to Harry who then looked at me with that "F*ck You" look that only cats seem to have perfected. I need to know the hearing range of cats so I can develop a sonic Harry controller so if anyone can tell me (as long as it's outside of human hearing) I'd appreciate it.

The Paradigm Ultracube 10's and 12's will be here next week (hopefully) and from all reports will be an absolute category killer. Pricing has been confirmed at $2399 for the Ultracube 12 and $1899 for the Ultracube 10. They're incredibly small given their stated performance (Paradigm seem to be pretty accurate with their specs) and it will be interesting to put them up against the current king of the under $3000 subwoofers - the Yamaha YST-SW1500, even if they are almost as good, the fact that they are around half the size will give them the "wife factor" advantage. Certainly, in my main theatre room (9 x 5 Metres) there will be no issue - I'll stick with the Yamaha, but in my second room which is mainly used for DVD concerts and 2.1 channel stereo listening, there's a good chance of the Paradigm getting a guernsey (do people still use that expression or is it just me?)

If you'd like some info on the new Paradigms, here's the link to the Ultracube 10, the specs are the same electrically with slightly larger drivers and box with a 19Hz -3dB bottom end.

http://www.paradigm.ca/Website/SiteParadigmProduct/ParadigmModels/UltraCube10/UltraCube10_Specs.htm

February 6th - Gotta love these so called "Lifestyle" magazines which profess to be Audio Video experts. I won't name the offending Mag. as the people involved are actually quite nice - just technically vacant. Case in point - the Loewe Concept L32, 32" LCD - What they say - "First Class Performance, Surprisingly Affordable ($3999)".  What we say - Picture is no better than the ViewPia 32" at half the price. The other gem is the review on the KiSS Z500 DVD/Media Player, What they say - On the first production model, there was occasional "freezing" but nothing to worry about - Nothing to worry about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's like buying a car which just stops for no reason and saying there's nothing to worry about! Obviously the journalists have never dealt with the irate buying public.

In the past 3 weeks we've lost 4 HiFi specialists from the Sydney area, Penrith HiFi, DME HiFi (Birkenhead Point), Sydney HiFi (Parramatta) and Campsie HiFi. Now, apart from DME who I've had good relations with for over 25 years, there's no love lost with the other lot but it is a sad indictment upon the specialist scene when this happens. The buying public are generally buying on price and not the service/quality aspect of the A/V market. This is obvious by the number of phone calls and e-mails I get such as this one -

>Hi there,

>I was hoping that you can give me a quick pointer.

>I have just bought a Yamaha RX-V457 and am in the process of connecting

>it up. I note that you have recently reviewed it and your report was

>part of my decision, so thanks. I am assuming that you are familiar

>with the unit.

>At the rear, the plug for the optical cable is labelled "DVD", whilst

>the digital coaxial plug is labelled "CD". In the diagram in the manual

>it has only an optical connection suggested for a DVD, and only a

>coaxial connection suggested for CD. I had thought that optical and

>coaxial were essentially interchangable when connecting a DVD to an AV

>receiver, and it was more a matter of personal preference. Also, (and

>the reason for my email), I note that when the coaxial is connected to

>the DVD (I have not yet got an optical), selecting DVD on the input

>dial gives nothing, while selecting CD gives me 5.1 channel sound.

>Should I be using the optical cable to get the DVD input to pick up the

>DVD signal and RF connectors for CD input? or, Can I make the DVD input

>pick up the DVD signal by using he coaxial cable only?

>I greatly appreciate any help you can give me.

OK, I don't mind helping but I'm wondering why the shop that sold it couldn't help, so I asked the guy why and this was the reply -

I picked it up for a fairly amazing price of $498 from JB HiFi locally in Brisbane

I was responding to your open invitation on your website for simple advice. Hope this is not too much trouble.

I did not go to JB again for logistical reasons (travel) and they are very hard to reach by phone or email.

That's great! So what happens when ALL the HiFi specialists disappear because Terry Tightarse saves some bucks to buy something on special that probably doesn't suit his needs anyway? The long and short of it is that we specialists have to pay decent wages for technically trained staff and supply listening rooms (which are not available at JB's) whereas the Box Jockeys at the department stores generally wouldn't know a subwoofer from an esky and couldn't demonstrate it properly even if they did.

I try to see as many live shows as possible since I believe the aim of a good sound system is to reproduce the sound as you'd hear at a live performance (assuming the sound system and engineer at the venue are professional) so I trolled off to Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club to see Normie Rowe (a 60's icon for you youngsters) It was absolutely amazing, the guy still hits the high notes with ease (with such ease in fact, I wonder about his testicular availability) plays guitar superbly and is a true all round entertainer, If you get a chance to see one of his shows, grab it.

Can I go home for a Bourbon now?

January 24th - We have our new sound lounge up and running now using the Panasonic PT-AE900E (LCD) Projector. Interestingly enough, using the HDMI connection gives little or no improvement over Component cables and yet in our other sound lounge with the Yamaha DPX-530 (DLP) Projector the HDMI (DVi in this case) cabling is way better than component. Go figure!

We're using the Oz Theatre Screens 100" fixed screen and were upgraded (thanks to Richard at Oz) to the black felt covered screen surrounds - fantastic! I believe it's the best value fixed screen currently available in Australia ($1059).

January 3rd - Happy New Year - Bah, Humbug! It must be the year of the Moron. Freddie Fu**wit rings up and sucks me dry on what receiver to buy, 15 minutes of spec's and set up techniques etc. then tells me he's just off to another store to buy it 'cause it's $49 cheaper than our price - "why didn't you talk to them about it then" I asked, "they didn't know anything about it" he replied. Well bugger me if I nearly reached through the phone to throttle the bastard! I'm going to put in a 1-900 number for technical questions, kind of like a porn line for geeks at $5.50 a minute.

Our fixed projector screen of choice was Screen Technics, mainly 'cause there wasn't a lot of choice in the quality screen market although they stuck it up us on delivery charges. Now we have a new supplier, Oz Theatre Screens (www.ozts.com.au) Their 100" fixed frame sells for $799 and is as good as any sub $1500 I've cast my eyes on, we've just ordered one for our second projector room in the store after testing one using the Panasonic PT-AE900E. There's also a velvet framed version for an extra $260, could be worth while to absorb that leaking light, we have samples of the two different frames to compare.

Reality Check! - I finally upgraded the Receiver and DVD Player in my second (smaller) A/V room at home. I'm running an SD Panasonic 106cm Plasma with a pair of Paradigm Studio 20 speakers, Jamo D4 Centre (the Paradigm CC470 won't fit) and a set of Paradigm Atoms as surrounds, subwoofer is a Yamaha YST-SW515 and the sound using my old Yamaha RX-V550 was spot on. I changed it for a Yamaha RX-V657 along with the DV-S657 DVD Player and after 2 hours of fiddling around I can now understand the frustration of some of our customers! I actually had to resort to reading the manual to re assign the digital input for my Strong STR-5006 STB (co-ax digital out). After everything was working I sat down to listen to one of my favourite DVD's - Kansas - Device, voice drum ( Kansas, Device-Voice-Drum ) and it sounded crap. I had to reset all my levels and it took me around 30 minutes of finessing before I was happy with the sound. Even now I'm not convinced it's as good as it was before the change. One thing I am convinced of is the picture quality. In the progressive scan mode, the DV-S657 is at least 20% better than my old DV-S540, I was amazed at the difference. Interestingly enough though, it was more sensitive to disc imperfections and I had to thoroughly clean a couple of discs before they would read whereas the old DVD player would read them with no problems. I tend to think that as the DVD Players improve, they give a better result by improved tracking resolution hence being less tolerant to imperfections and fingerprints. Once I cleaned my DVD's with Windex (now there's a trade secret) they played perfectly every time.

December 12th - I just gotta share this one with you, one of our long time customers is Normie Rowe who is, as you probably know, one of Australia's most iconic performers. Around 5 years ago he moved from the Eastwood area to the Gold Coast (can't blame him for that one) and over the weekend went shopping locally (as one does) for an A/V system - and here's the story as told to me in his e-mail -

Just read Tweaks Steve. Jesus it’s good to hear someone in the A/V retail game speak sense.
I went into Harvey Norman’s up here with the prime motivation to buy a Plasma screen and Theatre setup. (The Gold Coast is not flush with retail options) After agreeing on a $7000 Panasonic/Onkyo/JBL system, the salesman said “What about cables?” I said “This system doesn’t come with cables?” He said “No you’ve got to have cables to make it work.” “Hmmm, what cables, and how much?” “I’ll do you a favour” he said, “These Monster Cables will do the trick, and they’ll cost you only another $700.” I said, “I’ll buy this system with the cash I have in my bag here, if you throw the cables in” I walked out and he let me. I could have hooked my whole rig up for less than $50 worth of cables, plus two stubbies to quench the thirst while I was doing the setup.

Honestly Joe Average must waste thousands on all that crap.
Oh, I used to be a PMG technician, and I’ve been in Show business all my life, who do these people think they are?
You can use that story on your website if you like.

Normie

Now, apart from Normie's obvious mistake in deciding on the Onkyo/JBL pack (although, as he said, there ain't much choice up there) it's the same old story - they make more money on the cable sale than the Plasma! Whereas the $50 for cables may be a bit of a stretch,

certainly (assuming it's the SD Panel) $100 would get things rock and rolling with as good a performance as the $700 Monster bit.

Incidentally, Normie's web site is as good a read and browse as I've come across in a long time - well worth a look!

http://www.normierowe.com/

November 29th - I must be getting old and intolerant - a guy comes in to listen to a system for his home, it had to be a Marantz with Jamo Speakers. Now this is not necessarily a bad combination albeit somewhat restrictive, somewhat akin to wanting Makers Mark Bourbon and Pepsi Cola. Individually very nice but as a combo....well, you get the idea, could be good or bad depending on your taste. So Mr. Audio Engineer (aren't they all?) won't budge from his pre conceived idea of Brand Name Speakers that he's familiar with are all he's interested in. When asked if sound was the primary criteria for purchasing speakers, the answer was no - it was brand recognition. When asked why, he replied that the major brands that he'd heard of spend more money on R&D so must sound better. As Bose spend more on R&D than any other speaker company, that would negate that argument faster than my wife can max out her credit card (and believe me - that's QUICK). So I ask him if he had any CD's to listen to to which he replied "Why? don't you have any" at which point I indicated we couldn't do business. Maybe If I told the customer what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear..........nah, bugger it, I'll keep on doing it my way!

Novenmber 18th - Busy, Busy - ah well, at least we can pay the rent for another month (which is more than can be said for a few other HiFi stores around at the moment). Over the years we've had great success with ElectroVoice professional speakers, used as either sound re enforcement or domestic speakers. They've just released an absolute stunner.

http://www.electrovoice.com/Electrovoice3/products.nsf/pages/ZX1i

They ain't pretty but boy, do they ever sound good. With a genuine power rating of 200 Watts RMS continuous, there's no issues with lack of noise level. Even though they're an 8" 2 way, they sound more like a 12" system - compact and LOUD. They're suitable for outdoor use and as they're 92 dB efficient, as little as 20 Watts will blast you out of the room. 5 of these with a good subwoofer makes an awesome Theatre system (notice I didn't say HOME theatre). We have them in store for demo. Price is around $799 per speaker.

Stupid Review of the Month Award goes to T3 Magazine. Reviewing the NEVO Remote and giving it 5 stars would indicate a perfect learning remote (even at $1699). unfortunately, and I quote "The only real problem we had was with the infra red learning function - a couple of the commands simply refused to work once learned" That's like saying the new Mitsubishi 380 is a great car except the engine cuts out every 5 minutes. The whole bloody reason of buying a learning remote is so it learns! Stick to the Philips Pronto and take the T3 Magazines reviews with a grain of salt.

The Pommie magazines are at it again - here's a description of a piece of HiFi -

Deep, tuneful bass.

Open and expressive midrange.

Sweet treble.

Flexibility

Outstanding sonic capabilities.

Speakers? Receiver? CD Player? NO - a bloody A/V stand! and they gave it 5 stars to boot!

How the hell did that bunch ever win the Ashes?

September 6th - Don't you just love people who go to a non specialist dealer for their Plasma / Home Theatre set up then get stung for hundreds of dollars on the cabling? I was talking to a guy yesterday who bought his set up from Harvey's and came in for some advice on how to connect it all up (naturally) - He was sold over $800 of cables to hook it up (Monster). Now considering he bought a really shitty Home Theatre in a Box rig to go with his new 50" Plasma (some people have to be kidding) it wouldn't have made any difference if he used pieces of sting to connect things together (not quite, but you get my drift). The main reason buyers from carton selling stores get hit for expensive cables on Plasma sales is that there's more money to be made by the retailer on the cables than on the Plasma (no bullshit) - there might be $400 profit on the $4000 Plasma and $500 profit on $875 of cables. You can get just as good a result from $200 of cables - if you know which ones to use. The other issue here is one that Len Wallis and I actually agree on and that is, the sound is just as important as the picture and anyone paying $7000 for their 50" Plasma then buying $1500 of Source / Audio gets what they deserve - Crap (not to mention getting ripped off on the cables).

Nick Townsend, one of our intrepid staff members, has compiled a list of DVD's to challenge your set up - click here if you dare!

July 27th - Two similar problems - two different responses. Unfortunately, I'm human (although I've been called lots of other things) and I tend to get my back up when confronted with anger. A lady rings up with a problem regarding a repair that's been in for 3 months, starts by telling me it's unacceptable (I agree) and since I sold it, it's my problem (it is) and I should do something about it immediately (it's out of warranty incidentally, although has had previous problems). The tone and anger behind this lady's demands gets my back up (as it does) and I'm still thinking of a way to help - I'll work something out but short of a full refund (that ain't going to happen after nearly 2 years) she's not going to be fully satisfied. An hour later (it must have been one of those days) a guy rings up with EXACTLY the same situation, the unit's out of warranty, it's been at the repairers for 3 months and when he gets it back, the same problem manifests itself BUT he rings and very nicely explains the problem and asks if there's anything I can do to help - he wasn't aggressive and didn't talk down to me as if I'm an idiot (even though I probably am) as the first caller did. He will either get the guts of his machine replaced or get a brand new unit even though it's out of warranty. It's not what you ask for, it's how you ask for it.

July 8th - When is the last time you saw a painting and cried? - Doesn't happen to me or many other people I suppose. Music is a totally different art form, whilst watching a DVD of Rod Stewart in Concert at the Albert Hall last night (admittedly after a few Bourbons) I actually had tears in my eyes from the emotion generated by the songs - musicians (especially the spunky violinist) - and the interaction with the audience. After drying my eyes and lying down on my bed, I started to think about the overall packaging of A/V systems and why we buy a particular set up. The emotions generated by the Rod Stewart episode could not have been created without -

 1) A large Screen TV (I'm currently using a Panasonic 56" Rear Projection, soon to be replaced either by a Yamaha/Fujitsu 55" or Marantz/Pioneer 50" Plasma) watched at a distance of two metres  - that brings an intimacy with the artist and audience not available with lesser screen size/distance ratios.

2) A reasonable quality DVD Player both in terms of sound and picture - I was testing the new Marantz DV-4500 player - a relative cheapie ($299 discount). I compared it to the Marantz DV-9500 ($2500), which is currently one of the best audio/video sources available at any price, and whereas I could see and hear a difference, it didn't affect the emotive response.

3) Bloody good Speakers. The Centre Speaker in particular needs to be clear and accurate with a certain warmth to add intimacy to the vocals, I'm using the Jamo D4 Centre (RRP $1099) - lesser Centre Speakers will grate on the ears and will not allow high volume levels without distress (to everybody). The main speakers are not quite as important when playing concerts, but do need to be musical and allow for high volumes - I play at concert levels - without distortion or braking up. I'm currently using Paradigm Studio 40's which at $2400 a pair are quite possibly the best value for money speakers in Australia today. The surround speakers (assuming SACD and DVD-A are not your main priority) are not as critical - I happen to use Paradigm Atoms ($499 pair) although any good quality bookshelf speaker would suffice. The Subwoofer is absolutely critical, it has to be tight, musical and blend in with the main speakers to the extent that you should not be aware of it - only when you turn it off, in which case you exclaim "what the f**k is missing!" Over the years I've sold Velodyne, M&K, B&W, Jamo, and more - I've NEVER heard a better all round subwoofer than the Yamaha YST-SW1500 when set up correctly. It may not be the best at everything, but it's the best all rounder. Yamaha have just dropped the price from $2500 to $1999 on this one and I'll put it up against anything under $3500 - and a lot above it.

4) The A/V Receiver. The criteria here is that it should sound good with your chosen speakers (any of the major brands, Yamaha, Marantz, Denon, Sherwood, HK will do the job) OK, it's the functionality and TRUE power output which should decide for you. I use a Yamaha RX-V2500 (RRP $2500) because it offers heaps of dynamic range and plays my Dolby Digital 2.0 Concerts with the subwoofer on (try that with the other brands)

5) The Drinks. A most important part of the equation. If drinking Bourbon, Jim Beam Small Batch is the go. White wine should be at least a Tim Knappstein Chardonnay or any good Margaret River white. Red drinkers should opt for a Cabernet Merlot if quaffing (peasants) or a good Shiraz if sipping.  

I guess what I'm getting at here is that your $9000 plasma along with a $1999 sound system just ain't going to deliver the goods, conversely your $1999 76cm screen with a $10,000 sound system looses the plot. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll toddle off to the bottle shop to prepare myself for another night of emotional roller coasting watching another concert. 

May 5th - Get a load of this -

I reckon when Amar Bose sees this ad. he'll sue Sunbeam for every cent they have. They probably sound better than his anyway!

April 23rd - One of the most used phrases I hear when Daniel Dogmatic comes in to purchase a piece of equipment is "I want that particular unit 'cause it won an Award". Hmmm, Big Deal - you may be interested to know the criteria for choosing The Best ****** of 2005 given by one of the top selling HiFi Magazines in Australia. Listed in order -

Build Quality

Features

Appearance

Ease of Use

Ergonomics (wouldn't that meld with Ease of Use?)

Value for Money (Yeh, but that's against retail and only Len sells at that)

Sound and/or Image Reproduction.

Scary? - You bet! This year I might just give out my own awards based on hands on experience by Sydney's two top Audio/Video stores - Apollo HiFi at Marrickville and Eastwood HiFi at Eastwood - Voted the two top stores by John Chillari (co-owner of Apollo HiFi) and Steve (owner of Eastwood HiFi). See how easy it is to become a "Top Store". Between us we sell just about all the major brands so at least we could give an informed comparison. Could be fun, all I have to do is get John sober for an hour or so to talk sensibly about it (hey, it's not my fault the Chillari's own the liquor store across the road). Stay tuned!

March 29th - (Steve in Musing Mode) - I suppose it comes with the territory (having teenage children) but I guess I should accept the fact that the rumpus room and associated sound system has now been taken from me. As I attempted to play my favourite DVD Concert (The Art in Heaven Concert with Mike Oldfield) I was told in no uncertain terms to get out. Now, there's probably a moral to this story but for the life of me I can't think of one.

March 14th - Another assassination attempt foiled! My old adversary, Mel Chillari - co owner of Apollo HiFi with wife Vicki and brother John, tried to eliminate me yet again by inviting me aboard his magnificent motor yacht Oceanis II, getting me drunk then attempting to sail out of Sydney Heads so he could dump me some 5 kms off shore - never to be seen again. Well it didn't work - the sea was so rough outside the heads that wife Vicki yelled at him to turn around as all the food was being tossed on the floor -  Mel had little choice but to do as he was told and so I live to tell the tale. Lovely boat (or ship at over 80' in length) although the Bose sound system left a fair bit to be desired (my opinion only). I suppose if you MUST buy a Bose system (poor misguided fools) you should ring John or Mel at Apollo HiFi on 02 9560 9019. I'd give Len Wallis Audio a plug but he's never even bought me a drink!

January 7th - I just read something that scared the crap out of me - A major chain of electrical discount stores did a survey of their customers and came up with the following reasons for a purchase in this order,

1) Brand

2) Cosmetics

3) Price

4) Performance

My criteria for purchasing is exactly the reverse, I guess some buyers get what they deserve though.

December 11th - Obviously mathematics isn't the strong point when it comes to up market HiFi stores. I came to this conclusion after reading "How to set up a Home Theatre" section in Saturday's Daily Telegraph lift out. The "Dream System" from Len Wallis Audio (sorry Trevor) states that for around $50,000 you can get the ultimate in Home Theatre. The article quotes the rear speakers alone at $15,000, the screen $20,000 and the processor $25,000 - now, to my reckoning, that adds up to around $60,000 and we still haven't got around to buying the main speakers, centre speaker, subwoofer and DVD Player! Oh, and don't forget the $6,000 they'll hit you for cabling (must use all those fancy unidirectional cables to get the best sound) - I figure $120,000 would be closer to the mark. Hey, if those guys think that an extra $70,000 ain't much how about donating some to me.

While I'm on a roll, in the same article, Sony suggests buying their $15000 TV and plonking a $3997 sound system with it - Yeh, real smart. I wonder if anyone actually takes any notice of the crap written in the newspapers and magazines. I trust if you're reading this, you at least have an enquiring mind about audio / video equipment.

I feel better now after venting my rage  - good therapy this.

You wonder how some stores make any money. Harvey Norman puts a fair bit of time into catalogues (not a lot of money, the wholesalers mostly pay for them), so when you go into the store to buy an advertised product, you'd expect it to be there. No! I went to buy a PIN Navaman a couple of weeks ago as it was advertised at $990 - not only didn't they have one, I was told to come back in a week and they could show me a dummy (I figured I was already talking to one so I bought it from Tandy) - Then I went back last week to buy a 1 GB SD card they advertised for $189 - the guy had no idea what I was talking about 'till he got out the catalogue, read it and said he'd try to get one in for me - forget it, if I want something, I want it NOW! Another sale lost.

The best story however is from Bing Lee - I went in to buy the new Canon ip 5000 printer, scarce as hens teeth, I would have paid anything (within reason) for one. They had one in stock ticketed at $349, I said I'd take it, the sales guy went to his computer, came back and sheepishly said that $330 was the best price he could sell it for  - I DIDN"T ASK FOR A BLOODY DISCOUNT! I'm glad I don't have shares in either company.

November 12th - Some of you guy's out there just don't get it do you? If you've surfed our site you know our opinion on esoteric cables and bi wiring (it's 99% bullshit) so quit e-mailing me with pseudo scientific rubbish and take our word for it - after 27 years in the business we've figured out that although cables and interconnects do make a difference, in relation to the source - amp - speaker relationship the difference they make is fairly insignificant assuming the cables are thick enough with reasonable shielding (interconnects) and are well terminated. Our rule of thumb is to spend around 5% of the total system price on cabling - remembering the laws of diminishing returns applies here.

Please! No more of the "I've just bought a 50" Plasma for $9990 and now I need a $399 surround system to go with it" - we're not a bloody toy shop. The sound system is just as important as the video section and should be budgeted for accordingly. Unfortunately, I'm a little too honest when it comes to explaining the facts of life (audio/video wise) and have upset more than a few potential customers who come in with the $10,000 video / $990 audio mindset. Sorry about that but I just call it as I see it (no pun intended).

I've said it before and I'll say it again - don't believe a bloody thing you read. Just because Johnny Journo writes something in a magazine doesn't mean it's true. I spend half my selling time debunking the rubbish quoted in so called "HiFi" and "Lifestyle" magazines. One case in point is in this months Audio and Video Lifestyle Magazine (Australian edition) in which a writer reviews the Onkyo TX-SR502, it's not that it's a bad receiver it's just that giving it a 5 star rating for performance (they list 5 stars as "perfection") is like calling a Hyundai Excel a perfect car! What absolute crap, the Onkyo is outperformed by many other receivers of similar or lesser pricing. The other issue with the test is in the technical file section - get this - power rating is 6 X 75 Watts (total 450 Watts), power consumption is 370 Watts, hmm all my time training as a tech with the ABC wasted, I was taught that you couldn't get more power out than you put in. Call me cynical (That's probably one of the nicer things I get called) but if I'm reading a review in a magazine dedicated to audio and video, I'd expect a modicum of accuracy in technicalities and objectivity.

I have now replaced my M&K V125 at home with the Yamaha YST-SW1500 subwoofer, I always expected it to be better on movies (which it is) but I was totally surprised at how much cleaner it was on music. I'm currently running Paradigm Studio 20's (I'm waiting on a set of 100's)  which are a 2 way bookshelf speaker with a  -3dB point of around 60 Hz. In my rumpus room (approx 9 X 5 metres) the Yamaha sub. blends in perfectly - you're not aware it's operating until you realize that the studio 20's couldn't possibly be giving you the sub 20Hz effects on Terminator 3. Musically, it's as tight as a drum and reproduces bass lines as if you were live at the performance. The remote control is also a boon, allowing setup from the seating position. Highly recommended.

November 14th - It's amazing how many items you dig up in the storeroom when renovating and expanding the store. We've discovered things we didn't even know we had! Check out the specials page to see some of the stuff we're clearing. I played Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells II" for the first time in ages last night and it still sends tingles up my spine - definitely one DVD concert to show off any good Home Theatre System.

     Saturday night I went to the Sydney Entertainment Centre to see and hear YES with the same members that toured 30 years ago. Musically, they are as good (if not better) than ever but they were let down by the worst mix I've heard in years. The genius at the mixing console must have found the stash of drugs I left there at the last concert 30 years ago and taken them without realizing they were past their "use by" date. Rick Wakeman's Keyboards were left in the background (sacrilege) and the mid range amplifiers were into distortion about 30% of the time. I love loud music but can't abide distorted signals. Great Concert - Crap Mix.

    So, when I got to work Monday I thought I'd see if I could get a better "live" sound with domestic gear using Yes - Live at the House of Blues recorded a couple of years ago in Las Vegas in 5.1.

    The set up was as follows - Paradigm Studio 100 main speakers, Paradigm Studio 40's (pair) as Centre Speaker, Paradigm Studio 40 surrounds, 2 X Paradigm Servo 15 Subwoofers, Marantz SR-9200 Receiver, Marantz DV-8200 DVD Player, Electrovoice Q66 Power amp for mains (650 Watts X 2) and Electrovoice Q44 Power amp for surrounds (450 Watts X 2). I should have used another EV Power amp for the centre's but had none left so had to rely on the Marantz's internal amp. (not too bad though).

    The result was something else! The one thing I thought I'd have trouble with was the bass that Chris Squires manages to pour out during the live show - it literally pounds inside your chest - I needn't have worried however, the Paradigm Servo 15's managed to deliver a physical bass attack like I've never experienced outside of a full blown rock concert. My ears hurt and my guts were vibrating but the result was far more satisfying than actually being there (We were using a Panasonic Plasma for the monitor). Maybe in the hands of a better sound engineer the real thing would have been better but at this moment, I'll take our system.

    So - the end result is that I've finally achieved a truly "live" sound in a domestic situation that outperformed the real thing, so I guess that's the end of my search for Audio Perfection - I'll go now.

June 7th - Just been reviewing some DVD-Audio discs and came up with a not so flattering result. I'm all in favour of improved fidelity and imaging (that's what this game's about after all). I may be in a minority here but I figure HiFi is all about accurate reproduction of the music or concert as heard at the original performance. The problem with DVD-A, SACD and DTS 96/24 is that the majority of discs are mixed with the vocals from the front speakers but cymbals, guitars and various synths coming from the surround speakers. This surround stuff is great for DVD concerts where the audience ambience and hall reflections are reproduced but for studio music - forget it. The only time I've heard drums behind me is when I played on stage (before the advent of fold back) so the whole concept to me is artificial. The disc in question was Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and I preferred the original 2 channel recording to the remixed 5.1 version even if the frequency and dynamics weren't as good. Until I want to relive my days on the road as a very bad musician, and my arsehole turns into an auditory canal for rear sound pickup, I'll stick to stereo!

March 20th - Well, the assassination attempt didn't work! There I was lying in hospital unable to move and a person or persons unknown left me a copy of that well known satirical rag "HiFi ****" (February Edition) marked at page 49. Having nothing better to do I started to read it. The bit about adding an AC power purifier giving a "snappier" sound got me giggling a bit (and believe me after having a section of your guts removed, that hurts) but when I got to the bit about how, when a "Silencer" (AC power conditioner) was connected to the reviewers 1954 vintage radiogram, his Jazz 78's sounded "richer" with the sound filling the room more easily and with a "wider spatial presence" I nearly pissed myself. In fact if it wasn't for the fact I had a catheter hanging out I'm sure I would have done.

    When I continued reading (after my initial spasm) the reviewer went on to say how the inherent surface noise of shellac altered in timbre, becoming less obtrusive and more set behind the music. At this stage I was just racked with laughter and as my stomach had only been sewn up the previous day, the pain was almost unbearable. It was this that probably saved me, I was in so much pain I couldn't read on. Was I able to I would have read how the reviewers new interconnects made his sound (hopefully not on his Radiogram) "much easier to get lost in, exploring the individual strands that layer it proving easier than previously" Apart from the atrocious grammar, the mere ludocracy of the whole thing would have been too much for my weakened state and I'm sure would have seen me part this mortal coil. So it didn't work this time, but always beware of the power of British humour (intended or not).

February 19th - The problem is, of course, most people believe whatever they read (some people even believe the rubbish I write). If a HiFi magazine prints an article recommending a system in a specific price range it has to be good right? - Wrong! One of my favourite mags, Australian Sound and Image, has a listing in the current issue of retailers suggesting systems for various amounts of money - what isn't obvious to the casual reader is the fact that a lot of these retailers import most of the products they recommend. Unbiased, I think not. Len Wallis Audio recommends JM Lab Speakers which he imports directly (not a bad speaker incidentally, just overpriced and not my cup of tea) whilst Stereo Supplies/Encel Stereo Group recommend Loewe TV's, M&K, Rotel and Polk Audio Speakers all of which they import directly. I'm not saying it's bad gear but you sure ain't getting a balanced picture of what's best value for money when the retailer gets a double whack at the profit. If you want the best advice on the product that's right for you (not the dealer) first ask your local retailer which of his suggested products he imports!

December 15th - I thought Pommie magazines were nuts - well, there's an article in a revered US mag. that extols the virtues of polishing the AC power plug with a special formulation of metal cleaner using a special cloth bought from Japan. The sound difference was "enormous" with an overall richer and warmer sound. What a bunch of wankers! Still, it re-enforces the normality of the majority of Australians.

October 14th - I notice Bose are offering $500 off one of their little wonders - if this keeps up you'll be able to buy one at the price I reckon their actually worth. (bitchy ain't I). If you wait for my autobiography I'll give you the real lowdown on Bose (I can't do that 'till I quit 'cause I'll get sued).

June 7th - I don't believe it! I just read an article in an American magazine that puts British "Audiophile" w*nkers to shame. How about the guy who tested an AC power filter and not only crapped on about how, when playing music, the silences were velvety black (sounds of Uncle Steve throwing up here) but - wait for it - the picture on his 36" TV improved to the extent of the image having more "snap" (I must invest in a new "snapometer" as mine can't pick up the differences). Said AC filter has a price of US$3000, but don't forget to save another US$1500 to buy improved power cords for your amps etc (the reviewers words, not mine). Hey, this guy will probably pay me $6000 for the new baseball cap I just invented which has a precision molded peak to concentrate the sound waves into my ears thereby improving the apparent frequency response of AM radio to 20,000 Hz. I'd demonstrate it to him except it only works while the crocodile barks during a full moon.