Wells Audio Innamorata III Stereo Power Amplifier $8500 Review
January 15, 2025 Comments Off on Wells Audio Innamorata III Stereo Power Amplifier $8500 Review
Jeff Wells has a never-satisfied mindset that strives for the ultimate reality. Last year in a conversation at the Capital Audiofest 2023 he mentioned that he has been voicing his amplifiers for 14 years. I can identify on a personal level with his hunt for the very best. Years ago I bought a wreck of an old Dynaco Pas 2 preamplifier and stripped it down to its bare bones. I replaced the old phenolic circuit board with a fiberglass board and searched for the best audiophile Teflon wiring, metal-film resistors, and plastic-film capacitors that I could find. I installed a new Zener-regulated power supply. After every part substitution, I placed the preamplifier into my system to listen for the results. I learned firsthand that nothing is unimportant, everything matters. And that in an electronic chain nothing can sound better than the poorest performing part.\
ZMF Headphones Aegis $3499 Review
January 14, 2025 Comments Off on ZMF Headphones Aegis $3499 Review
The Aegis delivers a natural to smooth response, produced with a satisfying reproduction of the fundamental frequency when required. Those headphones with a good bass performance will not sound underwhelming.
The sound signature with the stock tube configuration sits somewhere in between the airy and hyper-spacious holographic sound of the HA-300MK2 and the ‘chocolatey girth’ from the darker tuning of the EUFORIA evo.
What that means is a slight diminution in the highs compared to the HA-300MK2 but more treble sparkle and headroom than the EUFORIA evo. And on the other side of the coin, the Aegis has more weight and punch than the Cayin but less sub-bass bias compared to the Feliks.
RDacoustic Silentmax 3D Luxury Edition
January 14, 2025 Comments Off on RDacoustic Silentmax 3D Luxury Edition
Reverberation time is the main acoustic parameter of an enclosed space. It is relatively easy to measure and should range from 0.2 to 0.5 seconds. An overly dampened room feels oppressive, whereas in a room without any damping there is a noticeable echo; for example the unpleasant reverberation of a clinking spoon. Put simply, the issue is that of accumulation of acoustic energy caused by reflections from solid surfaces of the ceiling, floor, windows and especially the walls. Reverberation time can be controlled using a variety of soft, acoustically absorbent materials. In addition to specifically developed acoustic materials in the form of panels and diffusers, these include, for example, thick curtains, carpets, upholstered furniture and so on.
Topping D90 III Discrete $999 Review
January 13, 2025 Comments Off on Topping D90 III Discrete $999 Review
Turning to the back panel, the D90 III Discrete offers everything you’d expect from a high-end DAC, with connectivity that covers a wide range of setups. All of the unit’s inputs and outputs are located on the rear panel. The D90 III Discrete has unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR outputs. The inputs are USB-B, optical, coaxial, AES, and IIS. The quality of the connectors is great, as you would expect from Topping. The sockets feel rigid and durable without any wobble. For added convenience, you also get 12V trigger I&O.
Overall, the D90 III Discrete feels like a solid and reliable DAC. The sturdy materials, rich I/O options, and user-friendly layout make it a solid option in the market. That said, I can’t help but feel that Topping missed an opportunity to update the design to match their newer, more aggressive monoblock aesthetic. This feels particularly relevant considering their new flagship D900, which uses a similar PSRM module but doubles the 16-phase design to 32-phase for even greater performance and sports a more modern and premium look. While this decision might be a way to differentiate the two products, I would have preferred a sleeker, more contemporary iteration for the D90 III Discrete.
APL Hi-Fi Endless Reference Speakers $120,000
January 13, 2025 Comments Off on APL Hi-Fi Endless Reference Speakers $120,000
With a sensitivity of around 86 dB, bi-amplification is possible, allowing the sub-bass active driver and the rest of the drivers to be powered separately via the Main and SLF binding posts. In other words, the sub-bass driver and the rest of the drivers each have separate binding posts of the highest quality, manufactured by Furutech. These binding posts feature a torque guard for optimal speaker cable connections when using spade connectors.”
JDS Labs Atom Phono Review
January 13, 2025 Comments Off on JDS Labs Atom Phono Review
Noise: nothing to say here, it’s dead silent, even with the 40 dB gain setting activated. Even with the tone control ON, noise floor remained absent and the EMI shielding did a great job during all my listening. Of course, I could hear some pops when I played my vinyl, but that was only due to the dirty grooves and as a pre-amp, I never encountered any parasites or any real buzz during my listening.
Power: The Atom Phono really packs some punch, even with the basic 30dB gain option. It’s suitable for 5-20mV phono signals and sensitive cartridge like the new Ortofon Concorde Music series should give great results, but on my “old” 2M, I already had more than enough to play with.
Jadis DA88S MkII Vacuum Tube Integrated Amplifier $18,900 Review
January 12, 2025 Comments Off on Jadis DA88S MkII Vacuum Tube Integrated Amplifier $18,900 Review
In terms of what they expect from their components, the design team at Jadis has adopted a culture that strikes me as very much of a piece with the design approach that Fredrik Lejonklou has adopted for his line of electronics. Though Lejonklous and Jadis components sound very little like one another, they are very much alike in terms of their design briefs than Jadis and their ability to execute on it. Neither is satisfied to produce a particular sound, pleasant or otherwise. Neither seeks to be forgiving of poor source material. Each however is committed to creating a musical experience for the listener that brings them closer to some fundamental feature of all music – whatever its type or whatever the source.
In the case of Lejonklou, the intended function of his creations is explicitly to bring the listener in touch with music’s emotional content. As I hear it, the intended function of Jadis equipment is to bring the human elements of music, from its creation to its performance to the listener. Each excels at what it seeks to do in ways that no mere technical accomplishment can.
Driade Premium Model 9 Review
January 12, 2025 Comments Off on Driade Premium Model 9 Review
With a long history involving electrostats, magnetostats, and ribbon speakers, I have grown particularly demanding of treble performance. Of course, not all ribbons are created equal, and it is hard to achieve perfect integration with a hybrid ribbon-dynamic driver design. Nevertheless, I’ve come to expect a certain quality from the treble range. So far, Magico has been among a select range of speaker brands delivering the high-frequency performance I crave. I should note that the current Magico S- and M-series differ significantly from the initial Q-range, with equally high resolution but a more organic and much sweeter balance. In any case, based on my listening experience in the Driade room, the feeling arose that the Premium Model 9 could be added to that list.
Audiophilepure 
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