Chord Hugo 2 Portable Headphone Amp/DAC Review – video
January 25, 2018 Comments Off on Chord Hugo 2 Portable Headphone Amp/DAC Review – video
Woo Audio WA33 Fully Balanced Headphone and Pre Amplifier $7,999 Review
January 24, 2018 Comments Off on Woo Audio WA33 Fully Balanced Headphone and Pre Amplifier $7,999 Review
“With the power hungry Abyss Phi (some were using speaker amps to power the Abyss, for good reason), I preferred the WA33 with 100% of my listening. There’s an application of palpable textures and visceral impact to all genres of music and I’ve found it sounds great with poor/harsh recordings. Guitars have more crunch, drums have more smack, and violins are tactile. The WA33 provides a more dimensional and weighted sound which complements the DAVE’s DAC beautifully. Separation and smoothness are also better presented. Surprisingly enough, I felt some of the micro-details were brought forth in natural fashion while female vocals and cymbals had improved timbre. From direct DAVE, the detail was there but it quite a bit leaner and thinner. I also felt the image was larger and more forward with the WA33. There’s also more sonic extension and headroom with the WA33.”
Bryston 14B³ Stereo Amplifier Review
January 24, 2018 Comments Off on Bryston 14B³ Stereo Amplifier Review
“When it was time for the Sonus faber Il Cremonese speakers to go home, I connected the 14B³ to my stock speaker system: the Vienna Acoustic Schonberg speakers in a 5.1 setup. Being so accustomed to this setup in my room, I could clearly hear the elevated clarity, dynamic range, and imaging I got with the 14B³ connected to the system. While not as impressive as the Il Cremonese, my Vienna Acoustics speakers displayed improved detail and weight in the midrange that I never thought possible with this speaker system. The Schonberg always possessed a smoothness and balanced character, and the Bryston did not take that away, but rather improved upon it with additional subtle sonic details.”
Jam Ultra $100 Review
January 24, 2018 Comments Off on Jam Ultra $100 Review
“But the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with serious gusto—like there’s a subwoofer in your skull. There are times when the vocals sound like they are distorting—as if you are listening to a very low bit rate file. This has the effect of making the vocals sound overly sibilant—not ideal at all, but especially not when they are also being somewhat overpowered by the bass response.”
CHORD ELECTRONICS HUGO 2 TRANSPORTABLE DAC/HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER $2379 REVIEW
January 23, 2018 Comments Off on CHORD ELECTRONICS HUGO 2 TRANSPORTABLE DAC/HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER $2379 REVIEW
“So here I am about 3 months into my Chord Hugo 2 ownership and I am still one very happy camper! This little unit has served as an excellent desktop DAC/amplifier for literally all of my headphones and IEMs, but has also performed gallantly as the guts of my portable setup too! While harder to drive headphones like the Audeze LCD-4, Abyss Phi, or Hifiman Susvara headphones will likely require a dedicated (and quite powerful headphone amplifier), I can’t think of any other pair of headphones that the Hugo 2 won’t drive without breaking a sweat! Throw in truly world class transparency and tonal balance and leading edge detail retrieval, the Hugo 2 is a slam dunk in my books”
SVS PB-4000 Subwoofer Review
January 23, 2018 Comments Off on SVS PB-4000 Subwoofer Review
“In the end, I lost … and it wasn’t any of the big, dumb action set pieces that did me in. It was a scene in which Dom (played by Vin Diesel) pulls his ’71 Plymouth GTX up to a New York City intersection, revs the motor, then floors it into a right turn. At roughly six dB above reference listening levels, the bass cranked out by the PB-4000 in this scene literally made me physically discombobulated. My chest felt queasy. My heart went floopy. I had to bring the system back down to reference levels just for the sake of my own bodily comfort. At no point during any of that, though, did I hear anything other than perfectly clean, perfectly sustained, perfectly forceful and articulate low-frequency energy.”
EAT C-Sharp Turntable Review – video
January 23, 2018 Comments Off on EAT C-Sharp Turntable Review – video
CES 2018: Lamm, Vandersteen, VTL | Stereophile – video
January 22, 2018 Comments Off on CES 2018: Lamm, Vandersteen, VTL | Stereophile – video
Sony NW-ZX300 Review
January 21, 2018 Comments Off on Sony NW-ZX300 Review
“This is a Sony very much in the manner of its personal music players we’ve had the pleasure of testing, but that brings with it the same Sony shortfalls. Were the NW-ZX300 to match its clarity with equally opulent dynamic punch it would be a shoe-in for an Award, but again this is where it misses the mark.”
Silverline Minuet Grand Loudspeakers $2,000 Review
January 21, 2018 Comments Off on Silverline Minuet Grand Loudspeakers $2,000 Review
” This was not a bad thing, just different. The lower bass was just as good but with even more detail and definition with tubes in use. I got a better sense of the space and ambiance of the recording venue with the E.A.R. equipment. The ability of these speakers to render ambiance so well is quite exceptional for such an affordable design. Oddly, the width of the soundstage narrowed but seemed deeper with a better sense of layering in depth”
Audiophilepure 
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