New music and technology: September 2021

By: Gary Steel, Photography by: Supplied

Date: 03.09.2021

The latest in music and technology

Pro-Ject Debut Pro Turntable
$1299

Anyone getting into vinyl records for the first time—or getting back into vinyl for nostalgic reasons—knows that Pro-Ject turntables represent great value at reasonable prices. But with its latest spinner, the Debut Pro (along with its new Pick-It Pro cartridge and Record Puck Pro), they’ve come up with a package that will appeal to both novices and experienced audiophiles on a budget.

Pro-Ject’s new Debut Pro turntable—for novices and audiophiles alike

Its gorgeous form factor is one thing, but the Debut Pro turntable has a host of new attributes, including an 8.6-inch one-piece carbon aluminium sandwich tonearm for a high degree of rigidity, an avoidance of plastic by featuring nickel-plated metal, perfect speed control, and a 300mm dampened platter with a ring of thermoplastic elastomer. Add the Pick It Pro cartridge ($219) and the Record Puck Pro ($89) and you’ll be spinning records until noise control turns up.
interdyn.co.nz

iFi Zen Stream
$699

You can read about some incredibly expensive gear on this page, and we all secretly aspire to own the best of everything. But genuine bargains are great, too, and here’s one for you. These days, most of us are streaming music rather than using old-fashioned sources such as LPs and CDs, and this diminutive, stylish wee thing is tailor-made for squeezing the juice out of streamed music. Unlike more expensive streamers that accept files from the internet or hard drive music collections, the Zen Stream is dedicated to the former. Its singular purpose of getting online streaming music sounding its best through your high-fi is its great strength.

The Zen Stream from iFi will rehabilitate music from your internet source

With true high-res capability and adaptable open-source tech, the Zen Stream promises seamless operation via your Wi-Fi/LAN port and features a powerful 64-bit quadcore ARM Cortex microprocessor and a load of other smarts to eliminate jitter and make it as flexible as possible to render Spotify, Tidal, and other streaming music services. Supporting PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz over Wi-Fi and Ethernet cable and DSD up to 11.2Mhz, the most important thing to remember is that it just works.
capisco.co.nz

Luxman L595ASE Integrated Amplifier
$21,999

Lotto winners put in your order now for the Luxman L595ASE

Okay, so we know that affording one of these beauties is in the realm of science fiction for most, but what price dreaming? Only 300 of the Luxman L595 Special Edition integrated amplifier have been manufactured worldwide and three of them are destined for lucky New Zealand owners. The iconic Japanese brand is celebrating 95 years of business with this classically styled amp, which it’s fair to say is a no-compromise product in design, materials, and sonic abilities.

Already receiving accolades overseas, probably the key point is that the L595ASE is a genuine Class A amplifier, which means it’s always giving of its best. Modelled on the brand’s legendary 1980s L-570 amp, which even today has many fanboys frothing at its inherent musicality, the L595ASE replicates the design flair and sonic glory while using 21st-century technology where desired.

This includes equipping the amplifier section with ODNF-u, which apparently "supports a fresh and dense tonality with an overwhelming amount of musical detail." Oh, and ODNF-u stands for Only Distortion Negative Feedback (ultimate). With the latest circuitry and intricate detailing, here’s one that’s destined to become a real classic.  
wildashaudio.co.nz

Judas Priest—Reflections

Metal hammer—classic heavy metal in a huge box from Judas Priest

Here’s one for those of you who love a bit of metal. Reflections is (get this) a mammoth 42-disc box set commemorating the group’s entire history from the mid-’70s on. One of the more outrageous British groups of the era, Judas Priest helped to define heavy metal’s renaissance in the ’80s and for anyone who loves a bit of headbanging, they’re essential.

Boasting eight unreleased live recordings as well as all their albums, book, and loads of memorabilia, this one’s for hardcore fans with the cash to splash. For the rest of us, we’ll make do with its imminent debut on the usual streaming services, where we’ll shake that dandruff out to the bombast of ‘Breaking The Law’, ‘Living After Midnight’, ‘Painkiller’, ‘Screaming For Vengeance’, and ‘Hellbent For Leather’.

John Hanlon—Naked Truths

John Hanlon’s Naked Truths—potential demise produces an album of deep thoughts

Back in the 1970s, John Hanlon was one of New Zealand’s trailblazing music acts and our top-selling singer-songwriter. His distinctive vocals framed classic hits such as the ecologically themed ‘Damn The Dam’ as well as less confronting tracks such as ‘Lovely Lady’. But then he took off to Sydney, disappearing from our collective memory and into an alternative career.

Those early songs, along with a treasure trove of unreleased material from the 1980s, are available on the After The Dam Broke compilation, and now here’s his first proper album since the ’70s, recorded while he faced a potentially lethal medical condition head-on. Hanlon is happily still alive and sporting a new kidney, and Naked Truths stands as a testament to an artist whose melodies still linger and whose words resonate with simple expression of deep thoughts.

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