Amazon Quietly Becomes High-End Audio Dealer
August 16, 2016 Comments Off on Amazon Quietly Becomes High-End Audio Dealer
” Nearly 20 years after e-commerce became a household word, many high-end audio brands continue to protect their brick-and-mortar dealers by not allowing Internet sales of any kind. Other high-end brands allow customers to purchase online, but only from a dealer that has been authorized by the manufacturer. Until recently, the 600 lb. gorilla of e-commerce was a non-player in any of this…but that’s changing.”
MQA: Questions and Answers
August 15, 2016 Comments Off on MQA: Questions and Answers
“It is now widely, although not universally, accepted that “hi-rez” digital audio, with increased sampling rate or bit-depth, delivers improved sound quality. But it does so at large cost to coding efficiency. A 24-bit/88.2kHz recording requires three times the data rate of a 16-bit/44.1kHz alternative, and that ratio increases by further factors of two as sampling rate is doubled again to 176.4kHz and then to 352.8kHz, the sampling rate of DXD. While the progressive improvement in sound quality is welcome, it takes a disproportionate toll on data rates and storage capacity. Simply increasing sampling rate also fails to address head-on why it is that 44.1kHz and 48kHz sampling rates impose subjective limitations. Instead, sampling rate has become a proxy for resolution.”
HIFIMAN EditionX headphone Planar magnatic Review – Video
August 15, 2016 Comments Off on HIFIMAN EditionX headphone Planar magnatic Review – Video
PEACHTREE AUDIO SHIFT REVIEW
August 15, 2016 Comments Off on PEACHTREE AUDIO SHIFT REVIEW
” Technically the chip in the Piccolo maybe a bit limited but tonally it is a very sweet warm to neutral sound with a nice full sounding low end that stays relatively linear and avoiding any mid-bass elevation. By comparison, the Shift is little more neutral and drier sounding. You do get a decent extension on the Picollo but not as much as the Shift which has a more aggressive low-end response and a bit more slam in comparison. Neither the Shift or the Picollo have the most strident or forward trebles so both are reasonably forgiving with lossy or badly recorded material. The resolution, detail, and dynamics are firmly in the Shift’s corner even when dropping down to 16 bit sampling it just has far more to offer.”
Sennheiser HD 800S Headphones – Review
August 15, 2016 Comments Off on Sennheiser HD 800S Headphones – Review
“I don’t own an original HD 800, so I visited my friend Michael Toto at Stereo Exchange in NYC to compare the store’s HD 800 with the HD 800 S. Plugged into a Chord Hugo headphone amp/DAC, the HD 800 S is sweeter on top and fuller on the bottom, but both headphones share a big-as-outdoors soundstage. The HD 800 S takes a bit of the edge off overcompressed recordings, while the HD 800 lets you hear every last bit of the harshness. With pristine audiophile recordings, I preferred the HD 800.”
Woo Audio’s WA7tp headphone amplifier Review
August 14, 2016 Comments Off on Woo Audio’s WA7tp headphone amplifier Review
“The WA7tp has two headphone jacks, a 6.3mm and a 3.5mm one. I used the 3.5mm jack with a couple of in-ear headphones, namely a set of Beyerdynamic iDX 200 iEs and my Ultimate Ears Reference Monitors. Most tube amps are too noisy to use with in-ear headphones, but the WA7tp was super-quiet, so it could clearly delineate the palpable textures on electronic music, like Brian Eno’s recent album “The Ship.”
Vandersteen Audio Quatro Wood CT Loudspeakers Review
August 14, 2016 Comments Off on Vandersteen Audio Quatro Wood CT Loudspeakers Review
” And clean too. Not sterile clean… not crazy nutty bat-shit clean. No the Quatros’ “clean” is heard in their resolution. Their truth to tone and decay. Their presence and scale. The timing, rhythm, and pace. Tactile and palpable. Texture. Sounds are there in a wonderful sense of being natural and real… even though they were created by a machine or via electronic manipulation—at least on our music. For sure real instruments sound real… well I guess as real as anything recorded and played back in a defined space can sound real. I mean we hear what we feel things should sound like… what we want them to sound like. And for sure our music sounds more musical and less artificial or reproduced. We hear more of what we want and get into it way more than before. Which is what it is all about.”
Devialet’s Phantom Loudspeakers – Video
August 14, 2016 Comments Off on Devialet’s Phantom Loudspeakers – Video
Rega Planar 1 Review
August 13, 2016 Comments Off on Rega Planar 1 Review
“The Essential II by no means leaves the duel red faced, and we must keep in mind our reference system – far beyond anything these turntables are likely to find as partners – is exposing these discrepancies with an inordinate amount of transparency, but it is hard to come to any other conclusion than that Rega have raised the bar here in almost every respect.”
Noble Audio Trident Review
August 13, 2016 Comments Off on Noble Audio Trident Review
“With or without a DAC, the Noble Trident earphones offer a good sense of control, but like an overworked party host, they sometimes sound too busy to have fun.
We’d like them to strike down harder on drum beats, and fleet through the piano sequence with more drive. Dynamics could be a little subtler, too.”
Audiophilepure 
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