THE HI– FI HEADLINES
ne of the roles of any good consumer-based business is to seek out the best solutions for their client base. As audio retailers, our job is to seek out the best products in our specific market place, and then present them to our customers. This is the main thing that separates specialist audio retailers from the mass marketers – we take the time to listen and evaluate, and then promote accordingly. The alternative is to leave the buying to the deal makers where products are selected on profitability, exclusivity or marketability, usually generated by the brand itself. Performance is rarely a consideration.
It was refreshing to see our choices validated at the recent Sound+Image Awards held in Sydney. A great number of the products that we carry were honoured on the night. These include (deep breath) the Triangle Elara LN05, Richter Wizard V, B&W CM6 S2 and B&W 802 D3 speakers, with a personal favourite of ours, the Axis VoiceBox ‘S’ being named as the ‘Small Speaker of the Year’. Also the Velodyne SPL1200 and B&W DB-1 subs, the Naim Muso wireless speaker and the Bose Soundlink II Bluetooth speaker picked up awards.
Sennheiser had a big night picking up awards with the HD471s, Momentum Wireless, and the RS175 & RS185 wireless models, while the Bose QuietComfort 25 and B&W P5 Wireless headphones also collected awards. The Musical Fidelity Merlin system was the System Solution of the Year.
The Soundbar of the Year under $1,500 was the Yamaha YSP-1600 (it was also the Multi-room Soundbar of the Year) and the Focal Dimension package was the Soundbar of the Year over $1,500.
Other awards went to the Marantz PM6005 and NAD M12/M22 amplifiers, the Avid Sequel SP turntable, the NAD C546Bee and Marantz CD6005 CD players, the Chord Hugo TT DAC (no surprise there), along with the Panasonic DMP-BDT460 Blu-Ray player and DMR-955 Blu-Ray recorder. The Sony VPL-VW520 4K projector, the Marantz NR1606 amplifier and Yamaha RXA3050 receivers were on the list, with Richter picking up the Speaker Package of the Year under $5,000 and B&W’s CM9 Theatre 2 being named as Speaker Package of the Year over $5,000.
The Multiroom System of the Year was Yamaha’s MusicCast, the Multiroom portable player of the Year came from HEOS with their HEOS 1, and the Multiroom Component of the Year again went to Yamaha with the NX-N500 speakers.
While it may seem impressive that one store could have so many awardwinning products on their shelves, this should not come as a surprise. We (and most specialists like us) spend a lot of time evaluating and selecting product, this process can at times take many months. We spent more than six months evaluating Naim (and what a good move that turned out to be!), and almost as long before making a decision on Devialet (which again has proven to be a wise decision).