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Three days of Sydney sunshine complemented the sunny sounds emerging from four floors of the Australian Hi-Fi Show 2025, over its three days at the Sydney Central Hotel from 4th to 6th April this year. Variety of delivery was one hallmark of the Show this year, so that you could hear half-million-dollar hi-fi systems next to set-ups under $10,000, you could compare the sound of traditional valve amplifiers with new-age sculptured wireless speakers, home cinema and more.
And whenever your ears needed a break, the Show’s location in downtown Haymarket, next to Sydney Central Station and Chinatown, brought as many culinary choices out in the sunshine as there were sonic ones back in the Hotel. In addition to the usual 'Best Sound of Show' discussions, we overheard many deciding on their vote for the best momos and gyoza within easy walking distance.
But here, we’ll focus on the sights and sounds of the Show, going room by room, starting up on the 9th floor Corridor of Sound, where among the major brands you could hear a great many Australian companies showing once again what globally impressive strengths we have here in Australia in both audio and audio-visual equipment. Let’s get into the highlights…
Level 9: THE CORRIDOR OF SOUND
March Audio
914 March Audio
March Audio brought not only its award-winning Ukkonen floorstanders (Finnish for ‘thunder’) over from Western Australia but also a new smaller pair of floorstanders, to be called the Kuoro (Finnish for ‘choir’ or ‘chorus’).
These 90cm-high floorstanders (the red ones in the images) use the smaller Purifi 6.5-inch driver from its standmount Sointuva speakers but doubles this up and supplements it with the latest Purifi tweeter samples with an aluminium dome and a new waveguide for directivity, delivering a brighter more open sound, says Alan March, as well as bass response which is within 1.2dB of nominal at 50Hz and down to 37Hz at -3db. Expect their price to be around $8500.
Spectraflora
924 Spectraflora
From Inverleigh in Victoria, Spectraflora was demonstrating the extraordinarily deep soundstaging available from its Celata 88 speakers, loaded with their patent-pending Dynamic Waveguide and push-pull slot-loaded subwoofer configuration. While the baffle holds the one-inch compression driver (oversized 52mm voice coil and mineral-loaded ketone polymer diaphragm) and a seven-inch graphene-coated magnesium mid-bass cone, there are two further eight-inch woofers inside which drop the 91cm-high speakers’ response to 33Hz at -3dB.
The pair playing were black-stained with stunning diamond-stitched leather on baffle and sides, with the waveguide in Northern silky oak. On display were other finishes — one natural, and one natural with cherry leather and a red ironbark waveguide from wood salvaged from a former WWII Royal Australian Air Force base in Dubbo, New South Wales – a bit of history with your $38k Celata 88s!
Powering the speakers for some fine tunes from Jethro Tull and the Black Crowes were Supratech Mondeuse power amps handbuilt by Mick Maloney in Margaret River, Western Australia, with an Audio Research Ref 1 preamp and Chinese Gustard R2R R26 DAC on signal duties.
Richter
911 Richter
The big news from Sydney’s Richter loomed large on the outside of the array of satin black speakers facing listeners in Richter’s room up in the Corridor of Sound: new Richter Dragons!
The new Dragon will debut as the first of a Series 7SE, slotting into Richter’s range between the 110cm Excalibur and the 97cm Wizards, and it is like no Dragon before it, says the company. A new curved cabinet is finished in a room-friendly natural walnut veneer with front baffles in ‘anthracite grey’, while the top section adopts an MTM arrangement of midranges, doubling up on the Wizard’s 6.5-inch composite paper cone, while the dedicated bass driver gains from the Bass Shelf Extension system developed by designer Dr. Martin Gosnell for the larger Excalibur speaker, so employing two quite differently-tuned bass systems – one for low-frequency depth, the other for clean transient performance at all volume levels.
The result, says Richter’s Brian Rodgers, is a speaker that can be used at a dinner party, but is ready for a dance party. Price – currently an estimate – $6500 a pair.
Richter’s Wizards and recently award-winning Merlin S6plus were also ready to play, with tunes from a Bluesound Icon streamer through a Musical Fidelity M6 amplifier. Notable tune from the dem: YOOKiE’s Sunshine of Your Wub: fun!
Serhan Swift
910 Serhan Swift
Brad Serhan and Morris Swift were coy about upcoming new developments waiting in the wings, but showgoers were treated to beautiful sounds from both the slim floorstanding mμ3F floorstander launched at last year’s Show, here supported ably by Boulder’s 200W 866 integrated amplifier.
impressive delivery also from a smaller desktop system using the Serhan Swift mμ2 standmounts just sitting on a table (on towels), showing how simple a great-sounding system can be.
Highlights included a wide-open and dynamic acoustic version of Walking on The Moon by the Yuri Honing Trio through the standmounts, and thrillingly-portrayed acoustic bass and cymbal work from Patricia Barber’s sultry Regular Pleasures through the floorstanders.
Pantheone Audio
918 Pantheone Audio
A very different delivery from Pantheone Audio, demonstrating the Sydney company’s uniquely-crafted high-end wireless speakers – 'part sculpture, all sound!', as the company says. Pantheone’s two models were both on audition.
Two larger egg-like Pantheone I active speakers sat apart on the floor, not playing as a left-right pair but rather both delivering their individual room-filling 360° experience, which come from a set of four silk-dome tweeters in each unit, with twin 4-inch midrangers and two 6.5-inch high-excursion bass drivers, and a total of 400W of Class-D power. They can stream with AirPlay 2, Bluetooth, high-res Wi-Fi streaming or can play via a minijack input.
The smaller active speaker is the Obsidian, its sculptural form inspired by volcanic stone, also streaming via WiFi or Bluetooth and further able to operate on battery power (15-hour life is quoted). These were playing as a stereo pair.
These very different speakers were generating great word of mouth at the show for their very different approach to wireless audio, their philosophy of ART + FORM + SOUND, and being proudly Australian to boot.
Secret Chord Analogue
907 Secret Chord Analogue
Secret Chord Analogue switched things up this year, adding a demonstration room with its baffleless speakers and valve amplifiers to the space in which it could show its Record Restore system in operation.
The Record Restore cleaning fluid claims not only to bind contaminants into an emulsion which can then be peeled away after drying, it also removes static charging in the process.
Founder Stephen Price had an excellent demo of its effects running courtesy of a Bud Powell LP where alternate tracks had been cleaned or left dirty, playing through the company’s Confluence open baffle speakers under the power of an Elekit single-ended triad power amp kit.
The company’s valve amps can be purchased either as a kit or fully built – or can be built under tutelage at regular ‘Amp Camps’ in Sydney’s Blue Mountains.
Microphase Audio Design
903 Microphase Audio Design
Company head and designer Jean-Marie Liere was on hand with his array of M.A.D. cabinets made from inert marine-grade birch plywood handcrafted in Australia with bespoke drivers, including drivers often hidden away, side or rear-facing. Key for demonstration were the latest standmounts, the Sat Mk3.3 (the .3 indicates the latest crossover tweaks); their 25cm cabinet holds three Audax-sourced drivers: the time-aligned tweeter, a main 13cm paper-membrane full-range, plus a rear 17cm paper cone, and all crossover components from Mundorf, SCR and Dayton Audio, a combination which delivered an impressively rendered version of Patricia Barber’s slightly strange recording Constantinople.
A larger scale sound was soon emerging from the second speaker demonstrated, the 3-way 5-driver Tower 4 Signature, with an integrated active subwoofer combining back-to-back shallow bass drivers, a remarkable fit in such a slim cabinet, powered internally by 150W MosFet amplifiers designed by Holton Audio in Tasmania. Above these a Mundorf air-motion-transformer tweeter sits between MTM 13cm midrange drivers, all delivering, as Liere himself noted, “more of everything”. More Barber, this time Light My Fire, proved the point to be made.
Dan A Digital
922, 923 Dan A Digital
New South Wales’ DanA Electro Acoustics active loudspeakers were heading the delivery in Room 923 of the Corridor of Sound, these unique towers containing an active crossover and a power amplifier matched to each driver.
The URS (Ultimate Reference Sound) 108 model playing (and pictured) uses a triode valve amp in its top section for the main driver, and solid-state amps for the other drivers.
Prominent between the two towers was a large F12 AC line filter, capable of providing 12 standard capacity power filtered sockets (2400W max) or six high capacity (4800W); we also spotted a six-socket DanA F-line filter operating with Masimo’s Marantz/Bowers system elsewhere at the Show.
DanA’s second room was under re-configuration when we visited.
Yamaha headphones
921 Yamaha Music Australia
A major global first from Yamaha was up in a bonus headphone room on the ninth floor, where listeners could book in a demo of YH-4000 open-back orthodynamics (pictured), one of two new high-end headphones from the Japanese company. The open YH-4000s retain the 50mm orthodynamic (planar magnetic) drivers, but use a few lesser materials and components to come in at a lower price, while aiming to deliver similar transparency and openness.
Perhaps the most exciting arrival is the low YH-C3000 (‘C’ for ‘closed-back’) ‘armodynamic’ headphones (page through the pictures in the gallery above) with ‘orb-like’ glossy black headshells of German beech wood and a more traditional 50mm dynamic driver, though one which uses the same Zylon for the ‘armodynamic’ diaphragms as is used in the drivers of the company’s 5000 Series loudspeakers. They brought a slightly more closed-in soundstage, but a punchier and more solid delivery. Prices are yet to be announced, but the nod is on for the YH-3000s coming into Australia around A$3000.
Sennheiser
918 Sennheiser
More headgear in Room 918 from Sennheiser, with an extensive range of headsets and earbuds, from the HD 820 S and HD800 through the 600 Series and the brand-new open-backed HD 550 (pictured), described as “an open invitation to unpack the lush layers of today’s music and games for hours on end”; we find them a neutral yet analytical listen.
Those in search of new best buds could try the IE 300, 600 and 900 models, the premium A$2400 IE 900s with each precision-manufactured aluminium housing containing a single dynamic driver of the highest quality backed by Sennheiser’s innovative X3R technology triple–resonator chamber technology.
Along with the latest Momentum wireless models, Sennheiser brought the lot for those wanting to find their best personal sound.
Magenta Audio
920 Magenta Audio
When you’ve got a speaker that does everything, there’s not much to show in your demonstration room! – no stack of sources and amplifiers, because the pair of award-winning Dutch & Dutch 8c speakers here have their own internal power, their own streaming, and plenty of other hidden wonders.
While they present as an apparent two-way, with magnesium alloy-dome tweeter and eight-inch midrange, there are two more 8-inch high-excursion drivers to the rear, while the 49cm-high oak cabinets contain three amplifiers providing a total of 1000W of power.
The result is a claimed utterly flat response from 20Hz to 20kHz, along with customisable onboard DSP to integrate the 8c speakers into a room – “Bad Room? Great Sound” promised Magenta’s pull-up sign.
They certainly did the job with Doug MacLoud’s Ain’t It Rough on Reference Recordings, its extended chat intro with fully-realistic drum punctuations before his storytelling blues kicked in. The speakers can take a balanced XLR input, but can also stream direct using Spotify Connect or (preferably) Roon.
HeyNow Hi-Fi
909 HeyNow Hi-Fi
Geoff Haynes of HeyNow Hi-Fi had lost his voice by the time we sat in on the Sunday of the show for a listen to his system: his goal for the Show was to let people know about his Melbourne store and the different approach of HeyNow Hi-Fi, which is purpose-designed as a contemporary apartment, so that its media room and home theatre enable realistic demonstrations, as if in the comfort of your own home.
Uncharacteristically quiet as Haynes was, his system did all the talking, with Fischer & Fischer 470M SN loudspeakers flanking a stylish AG Lifter rack laden with such delights as Dohmann’s Helix Two MK3 turntable playing through a Sutherland phono preamp, an EMM Labs/Meitner MA3 DAC/streamer, and the Air Tight ATM-1E EL34 power amplifier.
Audio Magic / Krispy Audio
908 Audio Magic / Krispy Audio
It was another double rack of hi-fi joys from Audio Magic and Krispy, fronted by the Kudos Titan 808 speakers with their distinctive split-cabinet design that separates the extra low-bass resonances from the bass-mid enclosures so enabling their flawlessly clear delivery of the sounds coming from a system including the substantial Esoteric Grandioso K1X SACD player (claiming the highest rigidity and heaviest construction in the 30+ year history of the company’s Vibration-Free Rigid Disc-Clamping System!), or for analogue fans the Bergmann Modi airbearing turntable with its side pump keeping the platter floating, with an Ayre phono stage, and the Copland CTA407 valve integrated amp with its quartet of 6550 output valves.
Another stunning performance from this room.
Masimo Consumer
904 to 906 Masimo Consumer
Three rooms (all pics in the gallery above) formed an exclusive corner of the Show for the best of Masimo’s many brands, including an excellent Denon/Polk system, with the Denon DNP-2000NE streamer pulling tunes from Tidal for the recently award-winning Denon PMA-3000NE amplifier to drive Polk’s Reserve R700 floorstanding speakers; the performance, when applied to Smilk’s Last Rainforest, was simply exceptional at the price (around $11k): perhaps the best-value performance of the Show.
Yet also in the room was a suggested system of simply Denon Home compact streaming amp (with HEOS streaming and HDMI eARC A$1199) with the little Polk Reserve R100 (A$1099); there’s a bargain little system with significant abilities too.
Next door the lusciously-finished Bowers & Wilkins 805 D4 Signature loudspeakers, at A$21,900 the pair, were supported by twin DB3D subwoofers (A$4399 each) and a stack of Marantz 10 Series electronics, with the Link 10N network audio player, SACD 10 reference CD player, and 2 x 250W of Purifi amplification within the Model 10 integrated amplifier.
The stack was topped by Denon’s flagship DP-3000 direct drive turntable with DL 103R cartridge – two more Sound+Image award winners (from 2024) right there. Yet all this desirable kit melted away as the tunes played, a Ronnie Earl track with awesome piano tone and such toe-tappingly fine rhythms that we felt like applauding at the end.
Masimo’s third room focused on the Marantz Horizon and Grand Horizon wireless speakers, a chance to get touchy with the ‘AuraControl’ of these luxurious all-in-one solutions. Nice side exhibits too.
Audio Marketing
902 Audio Marketing
A week after the Show our ears were still feeling the effects of the demonstration in Audio Marketing's room, perhaps a few dB higher for us than for most visitors, showing the ability of Triangle’s active streaming Capella standmount speakers to deliver astonishing dynamics and volume levels when playing Ghost Rider’s Make Us Stronger.
The Capellas can be a system in themselves, streaming from AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Bluetooth or Roon, though their included ‘hub’ also adds USB-B, three opticals, an HDMI, a coaxial input and analogue inputs.
Also in the room were Musical Fidelity’s acrylically-clear M8xTT turntable and new M8x Vinyl phono stage, but the acoustic shock from the Capellas had us withdrawing politely before these could be added to the chain.
BASEMENT THEATRE ZONE
Leica Camera Australia
BASEMENT THEATRE
Leica Camera Australia
Bright, colourful and comfortable are words that describe both Leica’s lounge suite on the hotel’s basement floor and the images from its pair of projectors, which easily demonstrated the great advantage of high-quality glass lenses, the secret weapons that make Leica’s projectors so successful.
Brighter, sharper, less aberrated than rival lenses, Leica’s glass leads a series of design upgrades that have pushed the brand to the high-end of home projection over the last three years, first with the ultra-short-throw Cine 1 ‘Cinema TV’ and the more recent and smaller semi-portable Leica Cine Play 1. Both were projecting at the Show, with the Cine Play 1 was deliberately set up off-axis to show how it can nevertheless use its built-in smarts to deliver a bright and colourful large-screen image.
A delightful sanctuary, with excellent information as well as performance.
GROUND FLOOR
Synergy Audio Visual
Synergy Audio Visual
Synergy was celebrating its 30th anniversary – our congratulations, especially as it issued a commemorative booklet for the Show which greatly reduced the necessary note-taking required for us to list their extensive main system!
This included Rega’s reference Naia turntable and Aura phono preamp, an Aurender N30SA Digital Output Network Transport with Audio Research DAC 9, REF 6 SE preamplifier and REF 330 M power amps, and not only Sonus faber’s IL Cremonese Ext3me floorstanders ($105k) but six REL Carbon Speaker subwoofers stacked in sets of threes behind them. We make that something over A$471k of kit, without cables.
After some Boz Scaggs ad London Grammar, the company’s Jack Sarkissian demonstrated the difference made by removing the REL subwoofers from the system, even just by removing two of the six when listening to what he correctly identified as an unpleasant pop diva recording.
A second reference system in the room offered the joys of McIntosh, including the newly-awarded C2800 preamp, the MC462 power amp and MT2 turntable, again with Sonus faber speakers, this time the Olympica Nova V floorstanders.
Outside the room was a bonus Ruark system, the neat little R610 Music Console (a streaming amplifier), just A$2299 alone, or A$3600 with Ruark’s speakers.
Focal / Naim
Focal/Naim
Westan Australia and Melbourne’s Premium Sound store brought the remarkable Focal Diva Utopia speakers to their big room on the Ground Floor – remarkable because they stood alone in the room, no supporting stack of electronics required for these streaming active speakers, though they were given the slight sprucing of Atlas power cables.
Otherwise the Divas used their streaming smarts (they also have physical inputs) to deliver a gorgeously lush rendition of HAEVN’s We Are (symphonic version), and a thrilling delivery of Annie Lennox’s Georgia On My Mind, her vocal hovering in space between the two lone floorstanders.
The synergy of active speakers is obvious, but few have attempted it at this level of speaker: the Diva Utopia shows the idea to hold impressively true even at the highest level.
Yamaha Music Australia
Yamaha Music Australia
With a self-playing Clavinova baby grand piano tinkling away in the lobby area, and a selection of brass and guitars in the room available for audition (though with a Wayne’s World ‘No Stairway To Heaven’ sign), Yamaha was emphasising its musical credentials as the basis of its hi-fi prowess in the large ground floor room, where Wollongong’s Sturmans Audiovisual team joined Yamaha staff in presenting a clean and convincing demonstration from the NS-2000A and NS-800A speakers, in piano black naturally, driven by the matching R-N2000A streaming amplifier.
Tight, solid and high-value sound emerged whether for Fink’s ethereal So We Find Ourselves or JJ Grey & Mofro’s far funkier Rooster, while Les Davis & Son were also on hand to proffer their latest anti-vibrational wonders, now including a ‘Field Marshall’ to target electromagnetic noise around IEC plugs.
FIRST FLOOR MEZZANINE
Vivid Audio
Vivid Audio
At the top of the entry stairs, Avation presented a room of loudspeaker sculpture by Vivid Audio, with Laurence Dickie’s innovative designs which are entirely engineering-led, their curves created to bring perfectly transparent, natural sound free from colour, resonance and reflection.
On display to one side were the Kaya 90, S12 and C35, but upfront and glorious in a deep blue that shone purple under the lights were the latest Gaya G1 Spirit, proving themselves worthy of their pinnacle position in the range. This is a true four-way system with five separate drivers, including reaction-cancelling bass drivers supporting the three-way front baffle in this 1.6-metre marvel of the loudspeaker art.
The Giyas were driven by PS Audio’s Bascom H. King-designed M600 power amps, with a Bricasti M21 DAC keeping the signal path smooth via its delta sigma and ladder DAC PCM conversion.
All in all, a combination of visual and musical beauty to behold, right by the Show’s entrance.
Wavetrain Cinemas
Wavetrain Cinemas
We admit to putting our fingers in our ears to protect them during the more extreme moments of David Moseley’s high-end home cinema demonstration, which brought a Christie K 4K-15 RGB pure laser projector to deliver full Rec.2020 colour and a blistering lumen count for the film clips, while a Storm processor with Dirac Live ART active room treatment fed Elementi’s digital active Fire speakers in a seven-channel system, backed by no fewer than four subwoofers – two of them mere Elementi Onyx with 15-inch neodymium-magneted ultra-low distortion drivers, but two being the simply vast Elementi Kola subwoofers (named after the Kola Deep, deepest hole ever dug into the Earth’s crust).
The Kolas (first image in the gallery above, with a salt cellar on top to show scale) have 24-inch drivers, and are recommended for use 8-18 metres from the seats. Here they were rather closer, which may have explained the need for protective fingers during the fist-slamming clip from John Wick 4. Impressive, if also oppressive.
Beyerdynamic
Beyerdynamic
Synchronised Technology lined up a tempting array of their Beyerdynamic headphones of various ilks: key news includes a new generation of premium studio headphones in the closed-back DT 1770 Pro MkII and the open-backed DT 1990 Pro MKII, bringing the newly-developed TESLA.45 driver to these highly-regarded studio staples, both priced at $949.
We were especially intrigued, however, by a new group of DT IE in-ear monitors which feature application-optimised sound signatures, as well as very high passive sound insulation of -39dB, making them a standout cabled IEM solution. The four models share dynamic TESLA.11 driver systems with extremely low distortion and high maximum sound pressure levels up to 137dB, but they differ according to proposed use. The DT 70 IE is designed for mixing and critical listening, with a normal reference balance, but then the DT 71 IE has a deliberately powerful bass foundation, recessed mids, and strong treble profile, deemed ideal for drummers and bass players, while the DT 72 IE is for guitiarsits and vocalists, and the DT 73 IE for pianists, keyboardists and orchestral musicians – a subtle boost in the treble range above 5 kHz ensures precise overtones. Intriguing! All versions are IP68 certified, and retail at $849.
Sydney Audio Club
Boomerang Records
Thanks also to Sydney Audio Club for manning their mezzanine desks and for spreading the love of fine music and good hi-fi, while Boomerang Records loaded up their crates of vinyl for the last day of the show… and we thank them for contributing a nice clean copy of ELO’s ‘Out Of The Blue’ to our Editor’s oversized vinyl collection.
We hope everyone, exhibitors and visitors, enjoyed the wonders of the Show: stay tuned for news of upcoming Shows and events!
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