Search the Community

Item: Hulgich Audio Astor Loudspeakers Location: Sunbury, VIC Price: $8500.00 Item Condition: As new. Reason for selling: Funding a new build by Hulgich Audio, that impressed I have been by this speaker. This listing has the blessing of Hulgich Audio. Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, Paypal (+fees), or Credit Card (With associated fees) Extra Info: I received these very early from Hulgich Audio for a no-obligation product review for StereoNET. They've been here for approximately 12 months I assume. So impressed was I by what I heard, I called Nick and bought them full price, no questions asked. They've remained my benchmark reference speaker at the price point easily up to speakers I've heard approaching $25K and more. You can read my full review: https://www.stereo.net.au/reviews/review-hulgich-audio-astor-loudspeakers I do also have a custom design and built (by Hulgich), matching centre channel if you're interest in Home Theatre duties also. Price by negotiation. Auditions available here in Sunbury. I do have the original transportation crates that these were shipped from South Australia in, but for local transport I would suggest the normal care and wrapping / blanket etc. Preference is given to a local buyer, but if necessary freight can be arranged by the buyer and I will assist from this end. Pictures:

Read the full article: http://hifishow.com.au/news/hulgich-audio-debuts-new-ella-mk2-loudspeakers

Hello Sydneysiders, Anyone in Sydney who would like to listen to the Ella Mk II speakers in a home environment please follow and reply in the link below. I have the speakers on loan in my system for this week only, they need to return to Adelaide after that. Don't miss the opportunity to hear these great sounding speakers while you can. Cheers Steve. P

For our March club meeting, we are very pleased to have Nick Hulgich of Hulgich Audio present his Ella Mk II speakers. The speakers of Nick and his design partner Göran Niréus have been attracting much attention worldwide. Their speaker design and performance is of the highest standard. Nick and his company is based in beautiful Adelaide – all Hulgich Audio speakers are meticulously crafted in Adelaide from the best quality components. More below… Details of the system…. Presented by Nick Hulgich of Hulgich Audio – refer to http://www.hulgichaudio.com.au/index.html Hulgich Ella MK II Loudspeakers - http://www.hulgichaudio.com.au/ella.html. Also read about its Best In Show rating at the 2017 International HiFi Show - https://www.stereo.net.au/features/stereonet-awards-2017-international-hifi-show Nord Acoustics Nord One SE Mono Block amps - https://www.nordacoustics.co.uk/product-page/nord-one-se-up-nc500mb-mono-block-black-single and http://hifipig.com/nord-one-up-nc500-dmst-power-amplifier/ FTM Cables - http://hulgichaudio.com.au/ftm-cable.html Mac Mini with External HD - presenters music Bricasti Design M1 DAC - http://www.bricasti.com/en/consumer/m1.php Classe CP-800 Pre Amp - https://classeaudio.com/cp-800/ Oppo BDP-105D Multi Player - http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/oppo-bdp-105d-audiophile-blu-ray-disc-player/ The second half of the music sessions will be our popular BYO. Members and guests are welcome to offer music to share with us all. So bring along your favourite music on CD/SACD or Flash drive. Sorry, no vinyl this month. All we ask is that the music and recordings be interesting. We'll ask you to tell us a little about the artist/recording before it is played. Tracks over 6 minutes will be faded out, to give everyone a fair go. Whether you are a novice or a seasoned veteran, you will have the opportunity to listen, learn and share your experiences with others. Feel free to come and hear the capabilities of the system, or to just share the experience with like-minded music lovers in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. Guests are welcome – we are a very friendly club so you don't need to know anyone to join us for an afternoon of fine music and sound. Venue: Epping Creative Centre, Dence Park Address: 26 Stanley Road, Epping When: Sunday 11th March 2018 Doors open 1pm Meeting starts at 2pm Best regards, Tom Waters President Sydney Audio Club W: www.sydneyaudioclub.org.au FB: https://www.facebook.com/sydneyaudioclub E: tomwaters@sydneyaudioclub.org.au

Item: Hulgich Audio Centre Speaker Location: Melbourne Price: $4,000 Item Condition: Mint Reason for selling: Never required Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, Paypal, COD Only Extra Info: I bought this from @Marcto guarantee purchase of his Hulgich Astors (he wanted to sell as a package and there was a long queue of people wanting to buy them) on 14 Nov 2017, so I've had it a couple months but don't use it. He had it custom built by the Hulgich speaker designer to match the Astors. I don't believe he had it long. Marc paid a fair bit more for it and, according to Nick from Hulgich Audio, it is worth more than he paid. It is a serious centre speaker and is very heavy. It goes very low (30sHz I'm told). When I first used it I mistakenly thought the subs were on. I don't actually use it because the speaker spots on my amp are used by the mains and the Marantz AVR is different Ohms and I thought that could break it. It has a really nice custom built Hulgich stand, also very heavy, and a speaker cover (it looks better without). I had a shorter one of the new Hulgich Audio FTM speaker cables made for it, which you can have. http://www.hulgichaudio.com.au/ftm-cable.html It has some nice silver spikey feet (you might be able to see them on the Astors - I think they go under the stand? I think the specs are on the plate I photographed. If you want to know anything else I can ask for you. Local pickup preferred. Like all good audio, it is heavy and might be costly to ship. Actually, I don't have a box for it either. Pictures:

This will mostly just be some thoughts on what I've observed and how I've felt these wonderful speakers have performed. I will try and steer away from describing music choices as I listen to most music and I don't feel it will add to this 'review' as so much can change based on the source and amplifier. Although I don't really believe in burn in, I've waited around 300 plus hours to do the review so as to be fair to Nick from Hulgich Audio. The Serenades are a statement piece. Beautiful like a painting, slightly imposing but impressive, they make the room feel like is has a purpose without overpowering the room like a set of floor standers can. They have a high WAF and the finish is top notch; many of our friends (including women) comment on how nice they look. The high gloss white is gorgeous. Nick must be a perfectionist because it has a finish that looks like it would suit a piano. Even the speaker connectors are top notch and look all class. The speakers’ cabinets feel really inert and easily pass the knuckle test. So overall, build quality is what you expect from something made in Australia. The matching stands really do make the speakers and are equally well made. Mine are a gloss black, with an unmistakable style, a beautiful match for these large standmounts. Although you could live without them, I don't think I could, now knowing how well they suit the speakers. Undeniably worth every penny and very stable (child proven). The speakers were delivered packaged better than anything I have seen to date. They would have survived anything including a drop from great heights. Too give you an idea, it took me 45min to unpack the speakers and stands (frustrating but worth it). In terms of sound: The sound seems to be generated from the ether, almost like if you’re were floating in the inky blackness of space and somehow music just started to flow out of nowhere. Another thing of note is the amount of bass generated by the 6 inch driver. This is a speaker that does actually reach below 40Hz. How Nick does this is anyone’s guess. You can hear kick drums and bass guitars and I've found that a sub for music isn't necessary unless you need depth below 35Hz or love chest thumping bass. Although the mid-range is magical on these speakers the treble is detailed without being too bright but won't be polite if the recording is 'hot' or a singer/instrument is hitting powerful high notes (this is how a speaker should sound...'live'). Live music is awesome, well recorded music is equally fantastic and even poorly recorded music is still listenable. You will hear and understand what makes it so. The Serenades really are a window in the music without feeling that something artificial is helping create the sound. The biggest thing I've found though is what people call tone. Does it sound right? Spendors, Harbeths, some higher end speakers and now the Hulgichs are the only speakers that have done Missy Higgins' voice justice. Having heard her live on multiple occasions, I would always feel disappointed hearing a song of hers on a hi-fi system. For information, the worst audition demonstrating her voice was on a KEF LS50W. This is not a knock on the KEFs but unless the room was at play, they did not reproduce female vocals well. Not only are female voices created beautifully with the Serenade but so are their male counterparts, instruments feel equally well developed and honestly just sound 'right'. I have yet to hear something and felt it sounded 'wonky'. I am also a huge fan of drums and the Serenades do really show what great recorded drumming sounds like. An example is how good the recording at Sound City was like for drums. Tool's Undertow, Rage Against the Machine's self-titled album and Nirvana's Nevermind; all excellent examples of this. Hearing every strike of a drum or the rim and how hard it was struck is something new to me and I quite enjoy it with the Serenades. On top of this is the fact that every instrument, voice and nuance has its own space and it is easy to track each separately. With every DAC I've used this remains true, even the NOS based Paradesia 3, Aune X1S, Hifimediy UDA38 and the PDX DAC (level 2). Two of these DACs contain tube outputs if that helps. I found that these speakers are far from coloured and really do give you an insight into what is feeding it. DACs (within this, even tube choices) and amplifiers make huge differences; this was not the case with my previous, rather modest speakers. It was during some testing that I realised that my NOS Paradesia 3 paled in comparison in terms of the 'width and depth' compared to the PDX DAC (this was alleviated somewhat with a tube and op amp change in the Pardesia). On my old speakers (Monitor Audio S6) the DACs sounded quite similar but after changing to the Serenades the gulf widened to the point where, I simply couldn't listen to the Paradesia 3 on my main system. I never really knew what people meant about pressurising a room but now I do. These speakers can easily pressurise my 3.5m x 4m room with ease without losing composure and do this without having to increase the volume to ear splitting levels. One of the best things I've discovered is that like most people my lounge is a shared space so the speakers need to be close to a wall, fortunately these speakers are made to be close to a boundary. Are there negatives? Of course, all speakers have some. For example, these speakers need power, 80W into 8ohms is just enough but I would say that over 100W is more ideal and after getting a 130W amplifier they just opened up another level. They do take a bit of power to come 'on song' as some people might say, which means that in some instances a preamplifier with gain may be needed. They will need the additional compensation circuit to be able to be driven from tube amplifiers. The stands are expensive but after seeing and using them, I believe they are necessary and the cost is justified. They are just as gorgeous as the speakers and I imagine, probably take as much work if not more to produce. When it comes to music reproduction or when watching a movie, I don't hear any shortcomings and this seems like the end goal for many people, including me. The serenade is a very well rounded speaker that I believe would not be embarrassed being driven by high end amplification and sources. If people would like me to give a detailed breakdown of some of the songs I used to test please just ask and I'll add to the end of this review after I've sat down for another critical listen of a few songs. In case it's of merit I am currently running the following gear (Pic attached): Power Regulation: 700W pure sine wave UPS Streamer (USB): ALLO USBridge running DietPi Media player (TOSLINK): PS4 Pro Source: HIFIMEDIY UDA38 PRE: Schiit Saga POWER: Sansui 707i Cheers, Mung

Hulgich Audio & Holton Precision Audio 8pm Wednesday 21st August Willis Room, City of Whitehorse Offices Maroondah Highway (Whitehorse Road), Nunawading Melway Map 48 Ref G9 Contact: 9437 1249 This month we have two interstate companies joining forces to present their Hi Fi products at the MAC. Both have exhibited together at the Melbourne International Hi Fi Show, winning "Best of Show Overall" for 2017 as well as "Best New Comer". Hulgich Audio is a new speaker company based in Adelaide headed by Nicolas Hulgich (pronounced Eu-Lich), who has spent more than twenty years in both Australia and his native Argentina building speakers with a variety of designs. He will be presenting to the club his statement speaker the 'Duke', with his in-house FTM (Feel The Music) speaker cable and interconnects. The 'Duke' is a 3-way floor stander designed as a dual enclosure. The upper enclosure houses a 1.2 inch dimple dome tweeter, and a 6 inch midrange made of papyrus fibres. The lower bass enclosure is a ported design that houses a 10 inch woofer also made of papyrus fibres. Hulgich has designed the 'Duke' to have a huge sweet spot and a large sound stage. By applying 'Low Diffraction Baffle Technology' (LDBT) that insures a smooth frequency response whether sitting off or on axis, and 'Coherent Sound Technology'( CST) which provides driver time alignment and phase integration. Nicolas will be playing his music with a modified OPPO 103 Multi-disc player and a AudioGD R8 Ladder Dac. Amplification is provided by Holton Precision Audio. Based in northern Tasmania, Anthony Holton has been designing and building high end amplifiers that have been demonstrated internationally at the 2018 Paris and Munich Hi-Fi Shows Anthony will be demonstrating two stereo amplifiers on the night, the Holton One-Zero-Zero Supreme (2x120W into 8 Ohms), and the Five-Zero-Zero Supreme (2x500W into 4 Ohms) with the matching Gain Block One Preamp. On static display will be a Phono Pre, while a 'DC Blocker One' will be used to look after the AC mains. This audio grade conditioner removes DC and filters the noise from the mains. With two presenters for the night, we are certainly going to have twice the value when it comes to sound quality. Not to be missed. Nick Karayanis, Program Co-Ordinator. Ken Tripp Wise and Wonderful Webmaster Melbourne Audio Club, Inc. http://www.melbourneaudioclub.org.au