21You give love a rad Naim
NAIM SOLSTICE SPECIAL EDITION
If you need evidence that vinyl’s resurgence isn’t a passing fad, note
that British audio brand Naim has seen fit to make the first turntable
in its 50-year history. Just 500 are being made, each one with a plinth
crafted from 47 separate layers of wood and an Equinox MC cartridge
sitting in a solid aluminium housing machined from a single billet. The list
of hi-fi nerd specs is long and distinguished, with a self-calibrating drive
system, a tungsten and carbon-fibre tonearm, and phono stage tech
nabbed from its £170,000 flagship Statement amplifier. Naim has
labelled the coming of the Solstice as a ‘new dawn for music’, which
is a bit much, but nevertheless we’ll take two.
£16,000 / naimaudio.com
I was made for oven view
OONI KARU 16 MULTI-FUEL PIZZA OVEN
When it comes to impressing us with inches, it tends to be screen sizes
in Stuff... but with Ooni’s latest outdoor oven it’s all about how big the
pizza is. This new flagship furnace can handle 16 inches using wood, gas
or charcoal-fuelled cooking. It’ll also roast meat, sear vegetables and
bake bread – but let’s be serious, it’s all about the cheese discs. Heat
things up to 500°C in 15 minutes then make stone-baked pizza in just
60 seconds, checking your bubbling baking base through the clear
glass door. Ooni is the only home pizza oven maker certified by the
Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) — the Italian body
protecting true Neapolitan pizza – so please, hold the pineapple.
£699 / uk.ooni.comIs this the US spelling of ‘special audio’?
Now, now. Spatial Audio – with Dolby
Atmos, no less – creates immersive,
multidimensional sound and clarity that
comes from all around and above you, so
think of it like surround sound but for music
rather than dumb films. Sony is already
doing something similar with 360 Reality
Audio, but now there’s an Apple version and
they won’t shut up about it.Presumably it’s expensive?
Actually that’s the good bit, because
Spatial Audio songs on Apple Music are
available at no extra cost, which is a pretty
hefty shot across the bows of streaming
rivals like Spotify and Tidal. The upgrade
is in addition to a catalogue of 75 million
songs in Lossless Audio also available to
Apple Music subscribers for £9.99 a month.But I need Apple headphones, right?
Well, yes, you’ve got that bit right. Spatial
Audio tracks will play on Apple Music by
default in iOS 14.6 on all Apple AirPods and
Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip,
as well as the built-in speakers on the
latest iPhones, iPads and Macs. How about
HomePods? You’ll need a new Apple TV 4K
(reviewed on p78) to go with them.How do I set it up, then?
In Apple Music’s settings under Audio
there’s an option to set Dolby Atmos to
‘Automatic’, ‘Always On’ or ‘Off’. Apple’s
also building Spatial Audio authoring tools
directly into music-making apps like Logic
Pro – later this year it plans to release an
update to Logic so anyone can create and
mix songs in the format.What’s there right now, Ed Sheeran?
Inevitably, along with “some of the world’s
biggest artists and music across all genres”,
and Apple has slapped a Spatial Audio
badge on song details to make them easily
discernible. There’s also a set of curated
playlists remixed for the format.WTF IS
APPLE
SPATIAL
AUDIO?