Audiophilepure

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/nad-c-3030

This new NAD amplifier is an interesting purchasing proposition. It is not – out and out – the finest-sounding design at its price point, yet it’s probably the best all-round package. Obviously many audiophiles will love the retro styling, but this isn’t a gimmick because the user interface is excellent. With no messing around with touchscreens and menus, you can get whatever you want done with it instantly.

There are enough inputs for modern audiophiles, although a coaxial input would have been nice. Its phono stage and Bluetooth features are well implemented and its audio engineering delivers a smooth and engaging sound that’s hard to fault at the price. All this means the C 3030 makes a great case for itself to budget-conscious buyers. Rather than being just a gimmick, its retro styling really adds to the overall experience.

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/2040-svs-sb17-ultra-r-evolution-subwoofer

Next, I took some frequency response sweeps with the microphone at my listening position. In the audio band where the subwoofer was operating, this revealed a large peak at 26Hz and a smaller dip at 36Hz. Both of these frequency aberrations were also present in the output of the pair of Arendal speakers alone, indicating they were being caused by the room response, rather than originating from the speakers or subwoofer. However, adding the SB17 only served to further exaggerate both modes, so I used the six-band parametric EQ on the SVS app to try and tame them. I was able to reduce the size of the 26Hz peak by lowering the energy at this frequency by 10dB in the app. Similarly, by adding a 6dB boost at 36Hz, I was able to increase the output enough to produce a small shoulder that somewhat mitigated the loss of energy in this region. I’d be curious to see how well SVS’s room-equalization function would deal with these peaks and troughs in my listening room, but in the absence of this or other room-correction software, it wasn’t possible to further flatten the response in my room. It’s well known that rooms tend to dominate how systems perform below 300Hz, and mine is no different.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/aurender-n50-serverstreamer

Footnote 1: Aurender describes the clock architecture as “FPGA-disciplined, OCXO-referenced, VCXO topology.” The OCXO (oven-controlled crystal oscillator) provides a precise and stable reference, while the VCXO (voltage-controlled crystal oscillator) is driven by the OCXO and provides a high-spectral-purity clock signal. The net result is a precise clock frequency devoid of slow or fast frequency drifts.Footnote 2: For example, if the clock frequency drifts up and down 200 times a second, the result will be that a 1kHz tone will get two additional spurious tones: one at 800Hz, and one at 1.2kHz (1kHz ±200Hz). The relative magnitude of these spurious tones compared to the main signal increases as the frequency drift gets bigger. Search for “Audio Precision TN-23” if you’re interested in a detailed explanation of jitter in digital audio systems. Also see this 1993 article in Stereophile.

1 Personal User-Profile (Genre-Mode)
Throughout a filter in the HIGHRESAUDIO Streaming App, the content of our streaming service can be customized to the personal music needs and requirements. When registering and subscribing, we ask for gender, age, preferred artists, genres and moods. This user-profile is saved and the filter which may be switched on and off in HIGHRESAUDIO Streaming App will change the content of the streaming service in the iOS App as desired. In the HIGHRESAUDIO account settings, the filter can be altered and saved and switched offed at anytime.

2 Customers that don’t have a subscription, can still download the iOS App and stream free-of-charge their purchased HRA downloads from the HRA-VirtualVault (a private locker) server.

The well build and clearly structured iOS App, offers the customer an intuitive navigation to access: New Releases, Back-Catalogue, Editorial Recommendations, Performance Charts, Multi-Genre Playlists, Discover Mode, Customize Personal User-Profile (Genre-Mode), Create Own Playlists, Edit Playlists.

HIGHRESAUDIO doesn’t manipulate, re-encode or use any filters to match the volume level across playlists of an album or curated playlists. Customers receive unaltered and full dynamics – different for each track, album, playlist. HIGHRESAUDIO doesn’t down-sample on-the-fly or uses adaptive-streaming to adjust to narrow bandwidth connections. The worldwide play-out of the streams to the customer, goes via the Akamai Cloud. Most expensive but the very best solution!

HRA-Streaming by subscription:

• 7 days free trial
• HRA-Streaming: Special price: 79,00 EUR / 69,00 GBP (6 months)
• HRA-Streaming: Special price: 149,00 EUR / 129,00 GBP (12 months)
• HRA-Streaming + Downloads3: 199,00 EUR / 169,00 GBP Streaming and
  Downloads (12 months)

The smaller storage case comes in a black leather finish and feels quite premium in hand. The only issue is the space inside. It is very limited.

It can hold the cable and ear tips, but not the IEMs themselves. I wish this case were a bit bigger, but it has a really nice vibe to it and feels too good to be used only for small extras.

The larger case is much more practical for day-to-day usage. It is spacious and very nicely built. In orange, it looks very funky. The case has clean stitching, a plush inner lining, and a gold zipper running through the center.

The brand name is engraved on the top, which gives it a neat finish. This case can easily hold the IEMs with the cable attached, so this is the one most people will actually use daily.

Overall, both cases are well-built. No real complaints there. The smaller one feels more premium but less usable, while the larger one is more practical and better suited for carrying Valor around.