AUDEZE CRBN ELECTROSTATIC HEADPHONES $4,500 REVIEW
January 17, 2024 Comments Off on AUDEZE CRBN ELECTROSTATIC HEADPHONES $4,500 REVIEW
Clarity is the watchword of the CRBN with a timbre that is pure Audeze, a warm bottom end, a lively realistic midrange, and unlike many electrostatics that will try to bite your head off, a mellow yet extended high-end. And, of course, to top everything off, there is that expansive open soundstage that you can only get from electrostatics. It is not for nothing that the Audeze CRBN earned a much-deserved Editor’s Choice Award for 2023 from our publisher Frank Iacone who will be following this review up with a review of his own.
Congratulations to Audeze for a challenge well met in designing an electrostatic headphone that can not only meet the demands of medicine but the hypercritical desires of the audiophile also.
Usher Audio UA-50 Anniversary Three-Way Monitor Loudspeakers Review
January 16, 2024 Comments Off on Usher Audio UA-50 Anniversary Three-Way Monitor Loudspeakers Review
The Usher Audio UA-50 Anniversary loudspeakers are very impressive, delivering detailed, and wide-staged imagery, cohesive top-down from their diamond tweeters through a rich and lush midrange, into the mid-bass, and a little below. On their own, they render a variety of material from classical to jazz, blues, and rock. Combined with quality sources and electronics, they’re quite compelling. And if you need extra lower end, you can always deploy a quality subwoofer (or, better yet, a pair of subs) to your heart’s content. However, for the vast majority of time spent listening to them, the thought rarely crossed my mind. They really drew me into the music.
Summed up, if you’re into an immersive audio experience, high-performance three-way monitors with a slick retro 80s vibe, a lush and detailed midrange, and modern accouterments like an updated curved chassis and modern diamond tweeters, the Usher Audio UA-50s just may be your end game. But, don’t wait long; there are only a few left!
Audiophiles room build
January 16, 2024 Comments Off on Audiophiles room build
https://www.stereophile.com/content/working-room
Here’s the main thing: A dedicated high-end space allows your music’s full dynamics to blossom (and not just decibels, though that’s a big part of it). It’s next to useless to play Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks,” Control Machete’s “Si Señor,” or the Minnesota Orchestra’s version of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Snow Maiden” at low levels. I’m not embarrassed to say that for me, the power of such recordings isn’t unleashed until the SPLs begin to border on unreasonable.
Most audiophiles have spent a small (or large) fortune on speakers and electronics, and another bundle on cables, antivibration solutions, power conditioners, and so on. The vital component most often overlooked is the room. I’m very fortunate that I was able to build mine almost from scratch. The expense seemed excessively self-indulgent until I realized that, unlike equipment, an extra room should more than pay for itself when the time comes to sell the house.
Tribal People React to Pentatonix Hallelujah
January 16, 2024 Comments Off on Tribal People React to Pentatonix Hallelujah
Simaudio’s Moon 791 Streaming Preamplifier:
January 15, 2024 Comments Off on Simaudio’s Moon 791 Streaming Preamplifier:
I’d be remiss to not point out that one way to better the 791’s performance is to opt for the company’s top-of-the-line streaming preamplifier, the Moon 891. Dimensionally similar to the 791, albeit taller, the 891 improves on its sibling through subtle circuitry refinements to the line stage, phono stage, and digital-to-analog sections, as well as to the volume control. The resulting improvements would undoubtedly show up on the test bench, but whether they’d be discernible to the ear, given the extraordinary performance of the 791, is questionable. The 791’s noise and distortion figures, and other performance parameters, already dip below the theoretical threshold of audibility. A side-by-side comparison would be the surest way to find out.
The takeaway
In implementing a large set of valuable features with no apparent compromises to its performance, the Moon 791 marks an extraordinary departure from the expected norm, linking fancy features to performance penalty. In fact, the outstanding test-bench results of the 791 led Diego to write to Dominique Poupart, “Bravo on a technically exceptional product!” Diego rarely offers such commendations, and rarely do I heap such praise on a component, but the audiophile-grade 791 is exceptional: it is a straight wire with gain and it has oodles of features. Have your cake and eat it too!
B&W 603 S3 Loudspeaker Review
January 15, 2024 Comments Off on B&W 603 S3 Loudspeaker Review
The most significant – and presumably most expensive – upgrade for this generation is to be found in the tweeter. Diamond or carbon domes, as used higher up B&W’s range, are not tenable in this price category, so instead the manufacturer has developed a new titanium dome tweeter. A two-part design, this features a 25µm-thick main dome framed by a marginally chunkier (30µm) titanium ring, and fires through a new mesh grille derived from the 800 D4 series’ tweeter assembly. For this generation, the positioning of the tweeter is also closer to the midrange below (their trim rings ‘overlap’) to improve driver integration.
The titanium dome is mounted into an elongated tube that’s hidden inside the cabinet. The principle behind this design is nothing new for B&W – albeit more apparent with its ‘Tweeter-on-Top’ models – and is intended to progressively attenuate the rear output of the tweeter, minimising rear reflections while also isolating the driver from pressure variations within the main cabinet.
Audiophile Today Room Tour Revisited
January 15, 2024 Comments Off on Audiophile Today Room Tour Revisited
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