GRYPHON AUDIO HEAVEN
February 11, 2018 Comments Off on GRYPHON AUDIO HEAVEN
“A mighty Gryphon Audio Kodo Speakers with full-blown Gryphon electronics system. A system owned by Pham Thanh Cuong from Saigon, Vietnam.
FIIO X3 MARK III REVIEW
February 10, 2018 Comments Off on FIIO X3 MARK III REVIEW
“This is where FiiO has pushed the boat out for a sub $200 DAP. All the inputs and output are housed on the bottom panel as is the case with the X1 2nd gen. The top panel is flush metal only. You retain the3.5mm digital and line out of the older 2nd Gen DAP but you also get an additional balanced 2.5mm TRSS on the opposite side.
Previously the line and digital outputs were houses in a dual purpose single 3.5mm output. Switching was done through the OS controls in settings. On the X3iii you now have a 3.5mm jack with tri-functional capability. It now includes 3.5mm unbalanced for headphones and IEMs plus lineout and coaxial”
YG Acoustics Sonja 2.2 Loudspeaker $76,800 Review
February 10, 2018 Comments Off on YG Acoustics Sonja 2.2 Loudspeaker $76,800 Review
“Basically, the Sonja 2.2 carries through whatever the characteristics of the upstream system give it and does so with a kind of assuring competency. Of course, if you play a bad recording or a system mismatch exists upstream, the 2.2 will let you know. Neither of the two Sonja models I have lived with fall into the “twitchy racehorse” category of speakers, requiring only a relatively narrow selection of partnering electronics and cabling to make them rewarding to listen to over the long haul. On the contrary, I find the 1.2 and now the 2.2 to be a great all-rounders with both tonal neutrality and affording flexibility in system-matching. The only caveat on this point is that—even though the crossover has been updated to accommodate less powerful amplifiers—I would still recommend using an amplifier with at least 100 watts (YG recommends at least 60), and I would still favor high-current solid-state amplifiers or higher-powered tube amps over other types.
TRAFOMATIC PRIMAVERA REFERENCE FLAGSHIP HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER
February 10, 2018 Comments Off on TRAFOMATIC PRIMAVERA REFERENCE FLAGSHIP HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER
“An exclusive look at the all-new upcoming Trafomatic Audio Primavera flagship headphone amplifier. This single ended, reference headamp will use Svetlana 811-10 output tubes and Saša Čokić’s favorite little triode driving tube; the 6S45P. Rated output 10W/50ohms. World premiere at the CanJam 2018 in New York (17/18 February).”
Schiit Magni 3 Affordable Headphone Amp and Preamp $100 Review
February 9, 2018 Comments Off on Schiit Magni 3 Affordable Headphone Amp and Preamp $100 Review
“I remember falling for the Objective 2 amplifier hype several years ago. My world turned upside down the day I A/Bed an amp that measured similarly but sounded better. I’ve come a long way since then. It’s funny to see not only how the Magni 3 is priced lower today than a new O2 amp, and meets or exceeds its specs (much more power on tap), but sounds like an amplifier in a completely different tier of performance and overall refinement in comparison. The last time I felt this good about a solid state amp, from a holistic standpoint, was with the Eddie Current Black Widow, which are hard to find these days. That sort of pleasing gut feeling is telling.
Dynaudio Special Forty Loudspeakers Review
February 9, 2018 § 1 Comment
“Those 20 hours didn’t change the Fortys’ sound enough to make them sound like a different pair of speakers, but the improvements were significant. The first 30 seconds of “Misguided Angel,” from The Trinity Session, told me that the bottommost octave was still missing — only to be expected with a speaker of this size and driver configuration — but also that the octave just above now sounded fuller and even tighter than before, and no longer thuddy. And the clarity of the bass was astounding — playing at fairly high volumes such kick-drum-heavy tracks as “Objection (Tango),” from Shakira’s Laundry Service (16/44.1 FLAC, Epic/Tidal), or the title track of Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty (16/44.1 FLAC, Asylum/Tidal), I found the bass much cleaner than I’ve heard from any other stand-mounted two-way. Furthermore, when I push most two-ways very hard in my big room, I can often get them to make nasty sounds through their ports — chuffing and/or other nonmusical noises that are audible at my listening seat. Not the Special Forty. Pushed to pretty high listening levels, their sound remained clean through the bass and the rest of the audioband.
Assembly of a 300B Part 11 : Sealing the base
February 9, 2018 Comments Off on Assembly of a 300B Part 11 : Sealing the base
Chord Poly Review
February 8, 2018 Comments Off on Chord Poly Review
“It turns out the Mojo sounds its best with the Poly and in my testing, better than even a direct USB cable. So not only are you cutting the wire out, you’re actually getting better sound. We all know our PCs are noisy and USB conditioners could only do so much. This is a very compelling case for using WiFi to transmit high-res files. Although I’ve heard WiFi will compress the music being streamed, I’ve actually never tested this (or heard it). All I know is…streaming from the Poly’s internal card reader has given the Mojo a new life it didn’t know it needed.”
MQA Reviewed
February 8, 2018 Comments Off on MQA Reviewed
“Time for a real curve ball, HQPlayer. In order to use HQPlayer with the Meridian Prime, I had to change software settings for the microRendu, which takes about a minute. Since sending music through HQPlayer breaks the MQA chain, I was only able to compare HQPlayer upsampling everything to 24/192 PCM (using the poly-sinc-mp, NS5 settings) to my recent memory of the MQA-decoded version. Hmm. There remains the more obvious Ms. Simone to the right placement with MQA, but HQPlayer appears to add, back?, some of that lovely spatial information that MQA did so well with this recording. In other words, HQPlayer helped close the gap between the 24/96 file played through the Meridian Prime and the MQA-encoded/decoded version.”
Audiophilepure 
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