When any new equipment unknown to people appears on the market and wants to create a presence, the product, apart from luxurious and beautiful appearance and reasonable price, the most important thing is that the product must show its real inner worth. It was half a year ago when I first heard the name Redgum. When I wasfalling off to sleep at some early hour of the morning, my close and cheeky friend Mr Zhang rang me and told me that he was listening to Redgum equipment with XX speaker, and told me about its performance,etc… Hence the name of "Redgum", invisibly, made a deep impression on me. Afterwards I wanted to test it but I had no chance to do so. Now we have an agent for this equipment in our own country and we should let the people know about it. Redgum equipment comes from Australia the country of the Kangaroo.

I believe many readers will feel that the equipment is strange. Its appearance is simple and plain. It has nothing strange and eccentric. However there are two characteristics. As far as its performance is concerned, it can be hard to describe……… When the agent sent me the equipment, I connected it to an Axis 38i speaker straight away and had a "meeting of fellow countrymen" (Amp and Spk are both products of Australia). Then I played a saxophone CD Antiphone Blues (FIM CD 003). Arne Domnerus's saxophone sounded on the left, giving people the feeling at the scene of "The wind is mild and the sun is bright". However, the saxophone sound was obviously a little bit light. Gustaf Slokivist's pipe organ even gave a "shaking" performance. I thought the equipment has a lot of potential. Its performance should not be like that. I straight away changed the Flatline speaker lead into MIT.750 higher, Taralabs 1000 lower. I used NBS Junior signal line to replace MIT 330. I found success straight away. Then I got back to listen to the saxophone CD. Arne's saxophone sounded as if " the red sun is rising over the eastern horizon". The feeling of air and smoothness had been increased. Even though the remaining sound couldn't fill up the whole place, the feeling of the saxophone metal substance sad sound warmed my heart. Listening to Paganini For Two, played on the violin by Gil Shaham, the sound was natural and elegant. "The Light Wind Gives Coolness" played on guitar by Goran Sollscher showed the degree of division of two musical instruments was arranged accurately. I listened to the sound of Lieberman. His singing had a special pleasing quality and his sound had warmness and sweetness. And all those accompanying musical instruments, such as aeolian bells, harp and piano can individually express their beauty.

As far as to Redgum is concerned, apart from the fact that the image is comparatively big and the high frequency lacks extensibility I can't pick any fault with it. The converted price of the equipment is only 3000 dollars plus. You can't require it to be perfect. According to my own taste I like to play male vocals rather than females with Redgum. Not because of anything else, just because men's voices sounded more pleasing and relaxing through thick and smooth expression. When you listen to a sensational symphony recorded in a concert hall which was full of people and the music scene is a little bit far in front, building deepness of the sound is better than building wideness of sound. Under appropriate control of the sound volume Redgum can handle the situation with ease. If it works with a high sensitivity Axis speaker, Redgum can deal with the situation as easily as eating beancurd. Finally if you want to challenge Redgum, which only has 60 watts output, and to see its next function, and you want to play "hard bridge" and "hardhorse" CD, Redgum can also work well. The mid-bass of Ukti Mapa is sweet and mellow, but don't think that the next function of Redgum is not good. When a banquet of sound is played on it, its rhythmical performance may surprise you and make you drop your spectacles. The low frequency sounds deep, but strong and the feeling of quality is homogeneous. But we can't deny that Redgum which provides sound of smoothness can't satisfy you if you require "fastness" "ruthless" "chop" "fight" "kill" (otherwise you had better buy and play with Mark Levinson 33). Synthesizing the sound result of the above CD, if you want to achieve "points and dots" image and Hifi results which drive people crazy, sorry, that is not the strong point of Redgum.

The design tendency of Redgum is through soft and transparent dynamics and "feet on the ground" musical flavor. As for Redgum's performance, it is quite friendly without any clear characteristics or the tendency to curry favor by claptrap. If Redgum works with ordinary speakers it can work with ease. If you have enough leads and accessories you can easily make it work well. Viewing the performance as a whole, the speed of Redgum is surely faster than that of Wazoo, but it is slower than equipment with automatic particle accelerator. I don't know how to describe it on the spot. Probably the words "The speed is moderate" are most suitable to describe its speed. The external appearance of the equipment is elegant. The simplicity contains poise. The body of the equipment is a little bit thin. The cooler is built on the back of the equipment and the panel board is made of unknown hardwood polished with shiny paint, showing classic elegance together with the taste of modern times. On the right side of the panel there are three knobs. One of them is the selection knob with five inputs. The other two knobs are used separately for controlling the volume of the right and left sound channels. I think this kind of design is very inconvenient (unless you like to challenge the difficulties). I wonder whether the agent can inform the Australian manufacturers of that? As far as I am concerned I believe that the design using one knob to control the sound volume would be more welcome to people than the design of two knobs. The switch on the left side of the panel is of extraordinary design which you can not see on any other Hifi equipment. Generally the switch for first stage and second stage or for combination equipment can be controlled by the voltage. But Redgum's switch is started by a key. Whether the design is to make itself conspicuous by acting differently, or it would affect the sound volume, sorry, I who have little talent and less learning, can't make any comments.

Conclusion. Generally speaking, in the commonness of Redgum there is nobility. It is combination equipment which you buy and you can't lose. Whether its functions in your hands can be developed to the best, depends on how high your skills are in adjusting it. It is reported that some far-sighted person in East Malaysia had subscribed to four Redgums prior to advertisement of the equipment in this magazine. In the economic depression time can Redgum become your next target?

You Li Agent, Enquiry : 07-2367435/6