June news

Peter Munt moves to Blenhiem

After ten years at Auckland’s Smiths Sound and nearly five years managing Eastern Hi-Fi’s flagship store in Newmarket, Peter Munt has set up an audio consultancy in Blenhiem.

Many audiophiles will remember Peter’s straightforward no bull approach and irreverent sense of humour.

Peter’s new business, Sound Decisions, sources products from Cyrus, Rotel, Project, Grado, Image, Perreaux, Denon, Kef etc. Peter is a well known vinyl expert and can service many brands. Custom install work in Malborough is also a speciality.

Peter can be contacted on 027-338 8086 or sounddecisionaudio@xtra.co.nz

NAD’s new CD player

The NAD C525BEE replaces the best selling 521 player in NAD’s lineup. The C525BEE is lead-free in its construction and meets the strictest environmental standards in effect around the world. NAD’s engineers also have fine tuned the circuit that reads and tracks the CD to improve performance with the latest copy-protected and hybrid CDs. Finally, we improved the audio performance by upgrading the OP Amp to lower distortion and improve musicality and detail. The 525 uses a Burr-Brown Sigma-Delta 20 bit digital to analogue converter and separate power regulators for analog and digital sections. The C525BEE sells for $549.

Q-Acoustics new from old

Q-Acoustics may be a new brand in loudspeakers, but it is one with a history. When UK speaker manufacturer Mission was purchased by Chinese interests, many of the design and marketing people went to form Q-Acoustics. As with most budget speakers, the Q-Acoustics range are made in China, but the company points out that all of the design and engineering work is driven from the UK.

1010 bookshelf $399
1020 bookshelf $499
1030 compact floorstander $999
1050 floorstander $1399
1000C centre $399
1000S active sub (8 ins, 100w) $799

Quad goes active

The Active L-series are powered versions of the famous L-series loudspeakers. The two models, the '11L active' and the '12L active' both feature two amplifiers per speaker (60W/40W dual amplifiers, Current Dumping) each tailored to match its drive unit.

Use with PCs, network media clients, iPods - indeed anything with a volume controlled output - including the Quad 99 CDP-2 compact disc player. Each speaker requires mains power and has RCA, XLR (balanced) inputs and volume controls.

The speakers are available in high gloss silver or black and sell for $1399 (11LA) and $1799 (12LA).

Perreaux's new phono

Perreaux's Silhouette Series SXV2 is a precision phono preamplifier. It includes two separate low-noise input stages - one tailored specifically for moving coil (MC) cartridges the other for moving magnet (MM). Matching the SXV2 to the cartridge couldn’t be simpler; adjusting load resistance, load capacitance, gain and RIAA curve via the external DIP switches. As with all Perreaux products, the SXV2 features the finest audiophile grade components. The styling of the SXV2 is subtle and discreet, allowing seamless integration into existing hi fi audio systems or the perfect compliment to other products from the Perreaux range.

Epson's high defintion LCD projector

With true high definition resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (1080p) the three Crystal Clear Fine LCD panels give the highest resolution digital output from HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players.

Epson claim that the EMP-TW1000 is the world's first projector with HDMI 1.3 supporting full 10 bit colour processing, producing up to 1.07 billion colours. The Epson TW1000 sells for $7999.