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FOR A NUMBER of years now Sony has had a reputation for very fine tuners and this year they won out with their model ST-S444ESX. Its outstanding specification includes an ultimate signal-to-noise ratio of 96dB in mono and 91db in stereo. RRP is $893. WINNER IN THE Technological Development category, the Bose Acoustimass system uses the very small stereo satellite speakers pictured above, which are only 19cm high and have magnetically shielded drivers, allowing them to placed near video monitors. The Acoustimass woofer module, pictured below, can be positioned anywhere in the room. 'IHE 1987 IIlFI AWARDS - TIIE WINNERS From a limited field of runners, this year's CESA Grand Prix hifi awards produced some interesting winners. Consistent performers like Marantz and Sony were there again, as was Yamaha, while Bose chalked up its first award. BEST AMPLIFIBR this year was the Marantz PM-64Il which has comprehensive input control facilities, including video inputs and CD-direct, which bypasses the tone controls and other preamp circuitry. Power output is 100 watts RMS per channel and up to 300 watts (IlIF music power) into 2-ohm loads. RRP is $1099.00. 12 SILICON CHIP YAMAHA HAS been one of the few Japanese loudspeaker manufacturers to really gain a reputation for its loudspeakers. This is not the first time it has won the CESA award for best loudspeaker. This very fine 3-way system, the NS-10000, uses carbon fibre technology in the woofer and beryllium for the tweeter and midrange domes. RRP is $13,000.00. By LEO SIMPSON The CESA Grand Prix hifi awards have been having a rough trot since their inception three years ago and each year has been marked by less entries as more hifi distributors retire from the field to lick their wounds and comtemplate an ever toughening market. A surpise, but no surprise really, was that there were no entries at all in the turntable category. The Japanese have virtually abandoned the field altogether to chase after the burgeoning compact disc market. This, while millions of people around the world still have billions of records they wish to play. Winner in the amplifier category was the Marantz PM-641( making it two consecutive wins for this company. The PM-64II is a keenly priced model with plenty of power and facilities. Runner up was the powerful Perreaux PM2350 with 200 watts per channel. No award was made in the receiver category, since it was only a two-horse race. Similarly, the judges decided not to make an award in the cassette deck category - it was a field of plodders but the racers of the day hadn't been entered. In spite of the large number of CD players on the market, there were only five entries in this category, from Marantz, JVC, Yamaha, Sharp and Sony. Sony was the winner, with their highly rated model CDP-555ESD. Sony also won the tuner category, with their ST-S444ESX model which has very high performance in its FM section. The other two awards, for best loudspeaker and for technological development, were interesting because the respective winners were originally not entered in their ultimate award category. The Bose Acoustimass, a sa telli te-cum-superwoof er system was entered in the loudspeaker category but won the award for technological development. And the Yamaha NSl0000, which was entered in the category for technological development, won the prize for best loudspeaker. Let's hope there are a lot more horses running next time. SONY'S top-of-the-line CDP-555ESD CD player has every feature you could think of, including remote volume control. It can also be teamed with an optional linear D-A converter, the DAS-702ES, for even higher performance. RRP of the player on its own is $2299.00. JANUARY 1988 13