Audiophilepure

I was fortunate to have Wattson Audio’s $4995 Madison LE streamer in for review while I wrote this. At twice the price, the Madison LE is certainly more refined, with truer tone, less audible congestion, and a deeper soundstage. That said, doubling the price did not, in fact, double the quality. For me and my audio geek buddies, the Madison LE offered a clearly audible advantage but, without a direct comparison, I doubt most folks would have a beef with anything sound-wise from the Orchard Audio piece.



The PecanPi+ is about the same price as Bluesound’s NODE ICON, and the PecanPi+ offers about the same step size in sound quality compared to the ICON as going from the Pi to the Madison LE. What that tells me is that Orchard Audio has paid better attention to those design factors that affect final fidelity, rather than relying on fancy packaging and building their own rather clumsy operating system as Bluesound has done. Ayzenshtat cleverly let the Volumio team do the heavy lifting for an operating system, so he could concentrate on the audio path. Given that he’s one guy compared to who knows how many bodies on the BluOS team says a lot to me about working smarter and not letting the marketing team drive a product’s development.



https://www.hifinews.com/content/arcam-sa45-streaming-amplifier

Equally, the rough-hewn, boogie vibe of The Doors’ ‘Peace Frog’ [Morrison Hotel, 50th Anniversary Deluxe Ed., Rhino; 192kHz/24-bit] was handled as confidently as the ambient swirls and dub-style basslines of Seefeel’s ‘Moodswing’, from their Pure, Impure EP [Too Pure; CD res.]. On this instrumental, the SA45 again showed off its excellent low-end grip and midband detail.

There isn’t overt softness or warmth to this amp’s sound – tonally it’s generally neutral – but it remains inviting to hear. And the comprehensive connections and app controller make the SA45 ready for many sources. During my listening I spent hours with Radio Paradise via the amp’s Internet Radio, aiming for background music. Soon, though, Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s ‘Lucky Man’, from their debut [Island Records], had me paying attention. There was sparkle to the acoustic guitars, the drums were widely staged, and that Moog synth solo sounded as eerie as ever.