Audiophilepure

During the past weeks I have used the EXA100 in my stereo system as integrated and power amplifier. Though most time went into it being used as a stereo power amplifier. The Cambridge Audio EXA100 was placed in the chain together with my Chord Electronics Hugo TT2, the Cambridge Audio EXN100 and the Eversolo DMP-A10 as sources. Pre-amp duties were laid on the Holo Audio Serene KTE and the LAiV Audio HP2A.

Streaming came through my self-built Roon ROCK server. All my gear is powered by my AudioQuest PowerQuest 707, while all analogue cables were AudioQuest’s Black Beauty interconnects.

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/superioraudio/equipment/0725/Genesis_G7_Samba_Floorstanding_Loudspeaker_Review.htm

I listened to a variety of genres via both analog and digital sources. The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s most recent vinyl pressing of the 1968 chart-topping album Electric Ladyland was a 3 double LP “Deluxe” edition, which included an all-analog version of the album mastered by Bernie Grundman. The album begins with an explosion of bass thanks to engineer Eddie Kramer’s slowing down of the tape. The remaining album features not only Jimi Hendrix’s most sophisticated psychedelic blues compositions but also his first-class guitar performance. 

This album’s newest mastering brings out the clearest treble and smoothest-sounding midrange I’ve ever heard on the oft-played masterpiece. The Sambas were able to envelop me in sound. The speakers’ huge soundstage surrounded these large speakers and extended far behind and to their sides. I was amazed at how the speakers, which were more than five feet tall, could disappear into the front of my listening room. Their pinpoint imaging, for example, on drummer Mitch Mitchell’s cymbals, swirled above the speakers, separated from the sonic fray.

The Topping Centaurus has some fluidity in its sonic presentation, which is my single-word description of an antithesis to the ultra-clean sounding modern-day all-digital DACs.

There’s an absence of digital jaggedness in its overall and final product, and music seems to flow in a circumfluent manner.

The overall frequency response is well extended both ways, and the overall presentation of the curve is neutral. But if you’re not feeling it, you can always use that advanced PEQ to sculpt that curve to your preference and spice things up.

In general, the overall sound is clean, precise, highly detailed, neutral, and transparent. You get what goes in basically, in a natural and uncolored manner.

It’s a refinement of the Topping house signature since this DAC has many refinements within the overall sonic performance compared to other Topping DACs. It’s Topping, renovated and improved.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/bat-vk-90-tube-preamp

It was the Antonio Forcione Quartet’s In Concert live set [Naim Label, 44.1kHz/24-bit] that really sold me on BAT’s preamp. This album encourages a close listen, as the guitarist – accompanied by cello, percussion, bass and flute – explores various textures and rhythms within the acoustic of Tunbridge Wells’ Trinity Theatre. The VK-90 appeared to sweep nothing under the carpet in terms of detail, shining a light on Forcione’s slick guitar playing in the languid ‘Heart Beat’, and conveying the force of Adriano Adewale’s snare drum hits in the jazzier ‘Attempo’.

These pieces sounded effortlessly musical, aided by a spacious soundstage. Yet when Rebecca Pidgeon’s ‘Underwater Boys’, from Sudden Exposure To Light [Toy Canteen Records], required the opposite, being music with a tightly focused image, BAT’s VK-90 followed suit. Here was a precise, punchy presentation, with Pidgeon’s vocals, complete with odd ‘underwater’ effect, pushed forward of insouciant-sounding piano and keyboards.