54 Australian Hi-Fi http://www.aushifi.com
SHOW REPORT
ThenewAuralicAltairis a preamplifi-
er,DACandstreamerina G1chassiswith
colourdisplayand£1,899askingprice.It’s
similarinfunctiontothepricierVegaG1but
hasLightningServeranda lower-specDAC.
Voltaireis a newintegratedamplifier
fromBrinkmann,it’sa high-endhybridvalve
designwiththeoption
toadda phonostage
moduleand/orthe
NyquistDACmodule
completewithMQA
decoding.Poweris
specifiedas300-watts
into2Ωandit hassix
analogueinputs.The
Taurusdirect-drive
turntablerepresents
thenextstepupfrom
Brinkmann’sexisting
DDmodelBardotand
derivesitsdesignfrom
theBalancebelt-drive
turntable.It hasremote
controlspeedchange
andyou’reabletoadd
a secondtonearmbase.PlaybackDesignsgaveitsnewmonster
poweramplifier(probablythebiggestsingle
chassisattheshow)a veryunderstatedname:
SPA-8.It weighs130kg,whichgivesyou
someideabutit’sthesheervolumeofthe
elaborately-machinedcasethat’ssurprising.
It hasa Class-Ainputstageanda Class-A/B
bipolaroutputstagewith
a specifiedoutputof
400-wattspersidewith
eachchannelcontrolled
byitsownprocessor.The
pricelookslikebeing
between$US50,000and
$US60,000butyou’ll
havetofactorinthecost
ofa forklifttoinstallit.
iFiunveileditsfirst
all-in-onesystem,Aurora,
a distinctivetakeonthe
wirelesssoundsystem.
Usinga valveasa current
amplifierfora whatiFi
describedtomeasa ‘kick
ass’sound,it hasflatbass
driversunderneaththe
boxandcanstreamfrom
Spotify,Tidal,Netradioand
Airplayaswellasa local
library.Thebambooandal-
uminiumcasewasdesigned
byFrenchmanJulienHaziza
whotookinspirationfrom
modernJapanesearchitec-
turefortheshape. Simaudio’s latest power amplifier, the Moon by
Simaudio 860A V2 (£16,750), replaces three models
in the range and is bettered only by the megabuck
888 in the Moon by Simaudio range. Monitor Audio has a new
Gold series of lavishly-finished
loudspeakers of which the Gold
300 (right) is the biggest, with
dual 203mm bass drivers. The
Gold 100 standmount retails
for £1,400 per pair.It can be powered by wall-wart or any
high-amperage 12V supply. It retails for
$US1,300.
Mu-so 2 is a 95 per cent revision of Naim’s
original one-box system but it looks almost
identical. Designer Simon Matthews describes
Mu-so 2 as a ‘step change’ in features and
performance, and given that there’s a 13x
increase in processor power, power supply up-
grades for the six digital amps, heavily revised
drivers and some clever software behind the
volume control for more consistency across
the powerband he may have a point.
The case is 8mm deeper for increased
air volume and it’s braced with an ‘I’ beam
for greater stiffness. Voice activation can be
had with third party devices connected by
Chromecast and room placement settings
have been refined.The price looks like being
between $US50,000 and
$US60,000 but
you’ll have to factor in
the cost of a fork lift
to install it