What's New
StereoNET Show Australia
By Amrit Lall
Product Manager
Consumer Audio ANZ
Recently, a group from the HARMAN International team led by Vice President & GM of Luxury Audio, David Tovissi, had the opportunity to attend the StereoNet show in Melbourne, Australia. StereoNet, which ran from October 11-13 at the Pullman Hotel in Albert Park, is Australia’s largest Luxury audio expo featuring Hi-Fi, Home Cinema, Headphones, Connected/Smart-home products and accessories. It brings together all of Australia’s key distributors and provides end-users with a chance to experience the full gamut of major Hi-Fi brands in one location. The event takes over three floors of the hotel in varying sized spaces from larger conference halls right down to smaller boutique rooms.
There was a lot to be excited about this year for HARMAN particularly, as it was the first time we, through our distribution partners Amber Technology and Advance Audio, would be showing the new JBL MA AVR and Stage 2 speaker ranges plus the latest ARCAM Radia models to the Australian public. The feedback was everything we could have hoped for!
Those of us who have experienced demonstrations of the Classic product range can attest to how heartening the experience is and Amber Technology’s lead room provided showgoers with the opportunity to hear the JBL SA750 amplifier switching between our stalwart L100MK2’s and their smaller brother L82’s. It was fantastic to see smiles on faces and taps of feet as people engaged with the music, while the audio accuracy left little to be desired even when, (or perhaps because) the audience had come from rooms containing sound equipment orders of magnitude more expensive.
Where things got even more interesting was with the pair of Stage F280’s – the largest of the new Stage 2 speaker line – sitting astride the L series and being driven by the equally new MA9100HP networked receiver. This combination proved to be a revelation for all, myself included, as we had a chance to make a direct and bold comparison between high quality, proven performers in the Classics range vs the most attainable line of products in the HARMAN Luxury portfolio – the brand-new Stage 2 speakers and MA receivers.
HARMAN engineers have put countless hours of work into the development of these new products and their labour of love has produced a far higher level of sound than any “entry” level equipment has a right to. Initially being wowed, it allowed us to play a game of “how much do we think these speakers are worth?”. Suffice it to say, many would have been able to buy three, five, or on more than one occasion, ten times as much product as they were listening to based on their own valuation.
Whilst much of this can of course be attributed to sound quality, it would be remiss not to mention showgoers reception toward the design of these new ranges – styling that proved to be a breath of fresh air when compared with much of what was on offer elsewhere. The big screens, modern colour palettes and most of all simplicity were a big hit. Many different types of people attend audio shows, but it is probably fair to say that we would all love to change the balance a little towards a younger and more gender diverse crowd. The design of these ranges speaks to that wish to bring a new audience into luxury audio and the products certainly did resonate with the target group they were created for, but I was also struck that they didn’t seem to alienate the traditional audience who have supported JBL for decades. All in all, exciting times ahead…
Meanwhile on the middle floor, wonderfully adjacent to the show’s vinyl store, the new ARCAM Radia range was being showcased by Advance Audio. Many of these products were dummy models flown in at the 11th hour to provide a taste of what’s to come in the world of ARCAM and it was here while chatting with the crew from Advance that I had one of my favourite moments of the show. It occurred when a member of the public walked over to us to say that their primary reason for attending StereoNet this year was to see the SA45 streaming amplifier which they planned to buy as soon as available. This, as one of the dummy units, had arrived in the country just days before, so it was particularly satisfying to be able to give the customer a sneak peek at the unit they would have in their home shortly.
interview with David Tovissi here
ARCAM is one of those brands that has achieved ultra brand loyalty over many years. The Radia series features a new and refreshing design language, industrial but with splashes of yellow to add some personality and flair. The smaller amplifiers are of course in market now and already receiving accolades, but when the more powerful G class models and new streamer are released later this year the feedback is that there will be a market of customers raring to go…
Elsewhere at the show, the new buzzword in cinema seemed to be “infrasonic bass”. This term refers to frequencies lower than the spectrum of human hearing which can be felt only, rather than heard. They certainly made an impression with two distributers showcasing enormous “infra-woofers” capable of shaking the concrete floor of the building, however both times I was left feeling a lack of audio cohesion and of losing something more than gained. It drove home to me just how much the planning, integration and tuning of these larger scale systems is critical to the final result – elements that HARMAN brings together exceptionally well with our own JBL Synthesis solution.
The day following the show started in the leafy green Melbourne suburb of Carnegie, with a round table discussion at Sound Gallery Premium HiFi store. This saw David speaking for HARMAN as well as international guests from four other brands – DCS - Alasdair McDonald, Export Sales Manager, Gryphon Audio - Rune Skov, Global Sales Director, Linn - Michael O’Rourke, Business Development Manager and Nordost - Bjorn Bengtsson, Product Specialist. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear thoughts on the industry from leading colleagues at other vendors and to see how their views aligned or otherwise with our own. It’s fair to say, the mood from all was extremely positive as to what lies ahead.
Monday evening saw another combined event, this time at The Audio Experts in Cheltenham just outside of Melbourne. This specialist dealer has built a loyal customer base over many years and they turned out in force for an after-hours event featuring local wine, tasty canapes and of course, some critical listening sessions. The central area featured a pair of JBL Studio 4349’s driven by Hegel amplification and connected with Audioquest interconnects. Once again, David was on hand to give the 60 strong audience an insight into HARMAN as a company, the scale of the business and why we do things the way we do. In a secondary area we demoed some Classics range product, the Stage 2 with an MA9100 and also had the Radia range on hand for viewing.
An enormous amount of positive feedback was forthcoming and crucially, the event generated additional sales afterward. There was a lot of interest in the MA, Stage 2 and ARCAM products and questions about when the new models would be available. The Audio Experts will take the initiative to contact all who attended once demo stock lands. Due to the success of the night, another event is planned for early next year with a strong ARCAM focus on the incoming Radia series models.
The time spent with our distributors, dealers and of course the end-users over a busy few days proved invaluable and I anticipate the next few months and indeed years with huge optimism. The HARMAN Australia team would like to take the opportunity to thank David for making the trip Down-Under, along with our partners at Amber Technology and Advance Audio for the hard work put in to make it a great week!
Looking forward to next year already…
Amrit Lall, Product Manager – Home Audio ANZ
More information on the StereoNet event can be found here:
https://stereonet.com/au/features/2024-stereonet-melbourne-hi-fi-av-show-report