Acapella Audio Arts – The Audio One music server Review
May 17, 2019 Comments Off on Acapella Audio Arts – The Audio One music server Review
“Acapella has recently come out with a music server. You’ve seen it at shows, but it is now in production and we’ve been using it here on both the big and small systems for a month or two now.
On the big system we run it into the Audio Note “Fifth Element” DAC at 24×96 and it sounds very good. Not as good as the very expensive Audio Note CDT-Five transport, but sometimes the laziness bug strikes and one just wants to set it and forget it.”
MARK LEVINSON NO515 TURNTABLE $10,000 REVIEW
May 17, 2019 Comments Off on MARK LEVINSON NO515 TURNTABLE $10,000 REVIEW
“I checked out this album during the holidays and found it to be very fun and engaging. Of course the No515 deck brought out the best in it. When we had my wife’s family over on Christmas afternoon, this was one of the albums I played during their visit. Everybody took note of the excellent sonics. It became more than just background music and soon enough there was a small group gathered around enjoying the funky arrangements. The next thing I knew, my mother in law said she could “listen to this all day”. That was another first!”
FLUANCE RT85 REFERENCE HIGH FIDELITY TURNTABLE REVIEW
May 16, 2019 Comments Off on FLUANCE RT85 REFERENCE HIGH FIDELITY TURNTABLE REVIEW
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The vaunted ‘speed regulation’, was a curious note for me initially in that the RT85 seemed to spin fast when the tone arm was lifted only to settle down after a few seconds later before properly regulating the speed. The only way to mitigate this was to lift the tonearm and remember to wait a few seconds for the speed to regulate and then place the needle down. It’s not a deal breaker but it is noticeable and mildly irritating.
I had to fight the urge to touch the vinyl as I normally do and kept the dust cover on for most of my listening, so I wouldn’t give it a shot.
While the RT85 is quite substantial in appearance, I did find that having only three isolation feet rather than four made the deck susceptible to wobbling or tipping over if nudged by accident. Again, unfairly compared to the Technics which is much heavier and planted on four feet, I realized I couldn’t be as hard on this turntable as I am with my DJ gear, as sometimes the needle would jump or even worse, I would fear flipping the turntable deck itself! So, I backed off.”
KEF LSX Wireless Music System Review
May 16, 2019 Comments Off on KEF LSX Wireless Music System Review
“There was definitely some boundary-reinforcing going on and while the bass felt large, it never sounded sluggish or boomy. Things had a noticeable improvement thanks to a little help from the KEF Control app which lets you use DSP settings to fine-tune placement parameters. KEF calls this their “Music Integrity Engine.” These parameters include; where the speakers are placed (desk or stands), distance from the front edge of desk, distance to rear wall, room size, room tuning (Dampened, Moderate, Lively), dB-adjustments (-6dB~0dB) for Desk Mode, Wall Mode, Treble Trim, Phase Correction and Bass Extension (Less, Standard, Extra). Dialling-in the DSP helped tighten-up the notes between the lower octaves without it sounding like it had lost any of its punch. Ditto for upper-frequency extension which remained sweet, and airy without sacrificing resolution. Midrange was defined, bouncy, had meat on the bones and instruments like guitars, cellos, stand-up bass, piano and organ carried impact close to commiserate with their size.”
Meet Jill, her Klipschorns were too big for her house, so she bought a bigger house
May 16, 2019 Comments Off on Meet Jill, her Klipschorns were too big for her house, so she bought a bigger house
Classical Streaming Service Primephonic Enables Easy Offline Listening
May 15, 2019 Comments Off on Classical Streaming Service Primephonic Enables Easy Offline Listening
“The services differ in several crucial aspects, however. Of major importance, Primephonic now offers two streaming tiers, Premium ($7.99 USD/month or $79.00 USD/year) that is limited to an adaptive bit-rate of 320 kbps MP3, and Platinum ($14.99 USD/month or $149.99 USD/year) that streams full CD quality and, when available, hi-rez 24-bit FLAC in adaptive bit-rate. While Primephonic’s hi-rez offerings put it a step above Idagio, which does not offer hi-rez streaming and has no current plans to do so, Idagio users who subscribe to its lossless Redbook-quality tier can store tracks for future playback at full CD quality, which sure sounds better than a sampling rate of 160 kbps.
SVS SB-3000 Subwoofer Review
May 15, 2019 Comments Off on SVS SB-3000 Subwoofer Review
“The driver uses a lightweight and rigid aluminium vented cone with a composite fibre dustcap, which is combined with a proprietary injection moulded gasket and long-throw parabolic surround to allow for extreme excursion and incredibly deep bass. There’s a dual ferrite magnet motor assembly weighing over 11kg, along with a flat edge wound split-wind voice coil within the motor assembly. Together, they deliver sufficient power at the highest excursion levels, but reduce mass and improve overall driver efficiency.The driver’s ability to move massive amounts of air is backed up by a rear-mounted Sledge STA-800D2 amplifier, combining the high current output of discrete MOSFETs with Class D efficiency to deliver a claimed 800W RMS and peaks of up to 2,500W. All this is governed by a 50MHz Analog Devices DSP with 56-bit filtering that SVS claim is the most advanced digital processor ever used in a subwoofer.”
Master & Dynamic MW65 Active Noise-Cancelling Wireless Over-Ear Headphones Review
May 14, 2019 Comments Off on Master & Dynamic MW65 Active Noise-Cancelling Wireless Over-Ear Headphones Review
“I flew down to Palm Springs in February and looked on with envy at passengers with comfy, over ear ANC headphones. We had none in for review and my old Bose set broke some time ago. So, I organized a couple of reviews of top models in time for Audiophilia’s trip to High End Munich 2019 (we’re live blogging May 9-12). I could write the reviews and then test them in the noisiest environment I know, Air Canada’s Q400 and its two howling Pratt & Whitney turboprops. The plane is used for the 10 minute flight from Victoria to Vancouver, where the big jets fly. As we are flying on the date this review is published, I had to test the M65s in alternate noisy environments. I’ll post an M65/Q400 follow up in Comments, for those interested.
I contacted three manufacturers, two of which I knew had highly regarded models debuting this year, and one, Sony, who never got back to me. I didn’t bother with Bose. They’ve been done to death and the result is always the same, great ANC, but sound is usually below those of similarly priced models. Ditto for the current Bose QC35s ($349). The Sennheiser PXC 550s ($349.95) arrived the day after my request (thanks Katie Kailus) and the review will appear in June. ”
REVEL PERFORMA M126BE STAND-MOUNT LOUDSPEAKER REVIEW
May 14, 2019 Comments Off on REVEL PERFORMA M126BE STAND-MOUNT LOUDSPEAKER REVIEW
“The other half of the ‘not what you do’… equation is to be found in the crossover; the M126Be has a ‘high order’ (actually, fourth-order) slopes provided by film-only capacitors and air core inductors. This is a well-regarded approach to keeping distortion at a minimum and transparency good and high. The mid/bass driver has an aluminium cone of the sort Revel describes as a ‘deep ceramic composite’ and is finished in the same white as the tweeter waveguide. The colour contrast gives it and the PerformaBe floorstander a distinctive look that sets them apart from the crowd, but you can’t help wondering if they got the idea from their colleagues at JBL who have used white woofers for decades. Little is said about the box itself, which presumably means it’s fairly conventional in construction but distinguishes itself with a curved top section finished in metallic black with the brand embossed in relief using a process called electroforming. The finishing overall is to an exceptional standard. On the back panel there is a reflex port and a single pair of cable terminals. Bi-wiring seems to be on the wane these days; it’s hard to say whether that’s because of fashion or the limited aesthetic appeal of cables in an increasingly wireless world, but I for one am all for it. ”
Audiophilepure 
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