Stax SR-Omega headphones $7000 Review
August 17, 2020 Comments Off on Stax SR-Omega headphones $7000 Review
“If you want the truth, however—at least as honestly as I’ve heard it in any headphones—you want the Stax SR-Omegas. They’re nothing less than stunning. In fact, short of an inherent headphone inability to render an accurate soundstage or that truly visceral feeling of power and weight through the bass, the SR-Omegas will stack up against any loudspeaker I know of in overall balance, definition, and sheer ability to convince the listener that he or she is indeed hearing exactly what’s on any given recording.”
Quad Vena II Play Integrated Amp/DAC Review
August 17, 2020 Comments Off on Quad Vena II Play Integrated Amp/DAC Review
“Piano stage left, ringing out with all the naturalness you could hope to hear. Audience arrayed around and to the sides, percussion on the right. Ray himself just left of centre, precisely where the pianist/vocalist would be sitting. Silky, smooth, open – ‘Hallelujah I Love Her So’ was punctuated by authentic-sounding saxophone and brass while the ‘door knocking’ on the snare drum had punch and crispness to dazzle.
Above all, it was sounding so spacious that it delivered what I couldn’t quite derive from the live McCartney feed. The Vena II Play was an open window into this audiophile-grade recording. £799? I am humbled.”
1MORE TRUE WIRELESS ANC IEM REVIEW
August 17, 2020 Comments Off on 1MORE TRUE WIRELESS ANC IEM REVIEW
As for controls, there is a multi-purpose button and a touch sensor on each side. You can control pretty much anything. This means that you can start & pause the playback, increase & decrease the volume, summon voice assistant, answer, decline & hang-up calls, tune in to the next or previous track. Call quality is also good for the price. It does handle calling in tough situations like a crowded Cafe. The people I called did not have a problem understanding me. Kudos!”
Pro-Ject’s T1 Phono SB is a turntable Review – Video
August 16, 2020 Comments Off on Pro-Ject’s T1 Phono SB is a turntable Review – Video
LSA HP-1 Headphones $1399 Review
August 15, 2020 Comments Off on LSA HP-1 Headphones $1399 Review
“Listening to Melody Gardot’s “Mira,” one of my go-to test tracks, the HP-1 captured the essence of the performance in a textbook manner. The dynamics were conveyed incredibly well, vocals were clear, and the overall frequency range was represented very well. My memory of headphones that I have had at the price point of the HP-1, put the HP-1 far ahead of like priced competition, and in my opinion makes it simply a no brainer at its retail price.”
PMC Fact.8 Signature Loudspeakers Review $12,000
August 15, 2020 Comments Off on PMC Fact.8 Signature Loudspeakers Review $12,000
“As I whiled away my COVID-19 isolation, I had plenty of time to reflect on PMC’s origins as makers of recording-studio monitors. Accurate reproduction of the source material is obviously the primary goal of all audio components, a goal whose fulfillment is often diluted by any number of design choices. From nonlinear speakers to tube amps to LPs, designers and audiophiles often choose euphony over accuracy. Just so you know where I stand: I’ll choose an easy-to-listen-to, euphonic-sounding system over a ruler-flat, dead-nuts-accurate system every time.
Over the years, I’ve tuned my reference system to nip off many of the sharp corners, installing tubes and vinyl to make soft pillows for my ears. I was at first extremely nervous about replacing my aging, no-longer-reliable, all-tube Audio Research VT100 power amp with the solid-state, pro-audio Bryston 4B³. But I took the plunge, and I’m thrilled with how well the Bryston has slid into my system. So with this toe dipped in pro audio, I felt comfortable — heck, even a bit tingly — as I inserted the banana plugs of my Nordost Tyr speaker cables into the Fact.8 Signatures.”
Pass Laboratories XA200.8 pure Class A monoblock amplifiers $42,000 per pairReview
August 15, 2020 Comments Off on Pass Laboratories XA200.8 pure Class A monoblock amplifiers $42,000 per pairReview
“Finally, regarding the power supply, the smaller amps have one third more storage capacitance. All .8 models still use very large Plitron toroidal transformers, and have new On/Off switching and high current delay, allowing conformance with the stand-by draw of 1 Watt. The front-end circuits have larger power supply decoupling, “This coupled with interleaved layout techniques has reduced the output noise of the amplifiers by another 10 dB. The range between peak output and average noise floor is greater than 130 dB.”
Even in the vault-like room, the noise level of the XA200.8 through even higher efficiency speakers is to my ear nonexistent. Note that 130dB is in the range of Class D amps! The only time I heard a peep from these monoblock amps was sometimes, when warming up or cooling, a tine of the heatsink fins might ping once or twice, but not continuously. The quietness set the stage for music played at a moderately high listening level to explode from the coveted “black background”— an exciting experience!”
KINERA FREYA $249 REVIEW
August 14, 2020 Comments Off on KINERA FREYA $249 REVIEW
“The highs never get harsh or piercing even though the highs seem to extend very well and are not recessed. The highs here are present and well and are not hidden away in the background. There is no ringing or graininess. No sibilance either. I did detect a touch of hiss at certain times but I am unsure if it was a character of the recording or the Balanced Armature hissing away.
Perhaps even my amp was the culprit but I did use more than one amp. If you do some research you will find that hiss occurs at around 8khz and these have a spike at that frequency. The high frequencies on the Kinera Freyas have good air, a medium amount of sparkle, and can handle complexity fairly well.”
dCS Bartók Digital-to-Analog Converter $14,500 Review
August 14, 2020 Comments Off on dCS Bartók Digital-to-Analog Converter $14,500 Review
“These days, $2000-$2500 buys most audiophiles a near-state-of-the-art DAC. Whether an FPGA design from PS Audio or Chord Electronics, a multibit model from Schiit Audio, or a delta-sigma from Benchmark or Mytek, to name just a few, there’s no shortage of excellent options. In fact, you could buy a Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ ($2195) just like mine, plug it into your high-dollar system, and I’m confident you’d be shocked at how clean and resolving its sound is. And you’d be right. My extensive praise for the dCS Bartók might have given the impression that a substantial chasm in sound quality yawns between it and, say, the more proletarian Mytek that hails from Poland. That chasm is narrower than you might think.
With the Bach Partita, Viktoria Mullova’s delicious violin sounded about as transparent through the Mytek as it had through the more-than-six-times-as-costly dCS. That alone is a huge achievement. Still, the Bartók’s re-creation of the Allemanda was distinct in some subtle ways. The soundstage was a touch more compressed through the Mytek — Mullova’s instrument sounded slightly more two-dimensional. Gone was the dCS’s analog-like ease and liquidity, replaced by a more urgent and vivid sound with a more mechanical, stereotypically “digital” feel. I actually enjoy that sort of well-articulated sound, but it’s inherently unnatural, and ultimately, I preferred the Bartók’s version.”
Audiophilepure 
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