Why it’s IMPOSSIBLE to play SEPTEMBER’S MELODY
July 4, 2023 Comments Off on Why it’s IMPOSSIBLE to play SEPTEMBER’S MELODY
Parasound JC 3 Jr. Phono Preamplifier REVIEW
July 4, 2023 Comments Off on Parasound JC 3 Jr. Phono Preamplifier REVIEW
Now, the Parasound JC 3+ has slightly more flexible loading options than its predecessor. You can choose 47K for your MM cartridge, 47K for your MC cartridge if you wish (some of the Transfiguration cartridges like this setting) and finally a variable setting (with custom-built Vishay dual-gang potentiometers) where you can choose between 50 and 550 ohms. I’m going to say that these are all the loading options I need.
The price of the Parasound JC 3+ phono preamplifier is $3000. That’s the same price as the Vendetta Research back when it came out in the early ‘90s. I have a feeling that if John Curl started making Vendetta Research phono stages again, just like the originals, he could charge a lot more than $3000. That’s what Parasound brings to the table—a scalable continuation of a legend.
LSA Signature 60 Monitor Loudspeakers $999 Review
July 3, 2023 Comments Off on LSA Signature 60 Monitor Loudspeakers $999 Review
With the impressive level of bass I experienced with the Signature 60 in the large room, I’ll admit that I was a bit concerned that they might overpower the smaller dimensions of the analog room. As it turned out, no worries—the room is fairly well-damped, and the bass level was absolutely perfect! Again, the imaging of the Signature 60 was spot-on, and as in the larger room, they simply vanished during playback, giving me a really great illusion of being live in Glasgow with Travis at this incredibly entertaining concert. The Signature 60 projected a stereo image with a greater degree of scale than one might expect from a standmount monitor; I was constantly amazed by this. My PrimaLuna EVO 300’s EL34 output tubes were an excellent match for the Signature 60, and helped imbue their sound with a very liquid and lush character. And the AMT driver presented a top end that was supremely musical, with incredible clarity and transparency—this really took me back to my first truly high-end loudspeakers, a pair of ESS AMT 10b that I was totally smitten with back in the late seventies.
Aavik Acoustics I-280 Integrated Amplifier €10,000 Review
July 3, 2023 Comments Off on Aavik Acoustics I-280 Integrated Amplifier €10,000 Review
https://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2023/1/3/aavik-acoustics-i-280-integrated-amplifier
As usual, manufacturers are pretty well spot on (for the most part!) with costing out high-end audiophile components. €10,000 will get you a cracker of an integrated. I have not heard the 280’s lower and upper siblings, and I can only imagine what a €10,000 premium over the I-280 gets you with the I-580. I will be able to tell you what an extra €50,000 buys you with the new I-880, which is a completely different animal to the 180, 280, 580. Shipping to the island soon. In the here and now, and if you can stretch to the I-280’s price, your pre/power needs will be set for a long time no matter your speaker choice. Highly recommended.
HiFiMAN Ananda Nano vs. MoonDrop Venus: Best Headphones for $600
July 3, 2023 Comments Off on HiFiMAN Ananda Nano vs. MoonDrop Venus: Best Headphones for $600
VTL • TP-6.5 Series II Signature Phono Stage $15,000 Review
July 2, 2023 Comments Off on VTL • TP-6.5 Series II Signature Phono Stage $15,000 Review
https://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/vtl_tp65_ii_signature.htm
At its best, the TP-6.5 II has that rare ability to shrug off its technological baggage, sounding neither overtly tubelike, nor dryly etched and solid-statey. Instead, it cleaves to the musical character of the recording, burrowing into its musical core and then giving it a healthy shove in the right direction. There’s more than one way to skin a musical cat, and allowed to do so, this phono stage can perform the task with such sleight-of-hand you don’t even notice it happening — and that’s the mark of a product that will deliver not just great performance but long-term satisfaction. Party tricks and the sonically spectacular will quickly pall. The TP-6.5 II’s core musical virtues are made of sterner stuff. If you’ve ever wondered how VTL gets all those Best Sound at Show accolades, now you know: they play records and they play them through a genuinely excellent phono stage. Time and again, in public and throughout this review, VTL’s TP-6.5 Series II Signature phono stage has demonstrated that it is more than capable of producing (and reproducing) performances that are both musically powerful and compelling, the very essence of what vinyl replay should be about
Mission 770 Loudspeaker $5000 Review
July 2, 2023 Comments Off on Mission 770 Loudspeaker $5000 Review
https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1773-mission-770-loudspeaker
From its deep bass to its extended highs, the 770 proved commendably neutral, which is quite an achievement if it was truly designed more by ear than by measurements. But perhaps the ear-tuning is what instilled the performance aspects I liked most—the rich, powerful bass combined with a midrange that blossomed with realism with all the music I played, yet still provided detail akin to the best speakers I’ve heard. I was also surprised how well the 770 gets the sound out into the room, without those telltale big-box colorations that can make old-school speakers sound muffled rather than open and spacious. That sort of thing is tough to suss out with measurements, so maybe that’s what Comeau and crew used their ears for. That could be a lesson for those who rely more on charts than their ears.
Woo Audio WA22 Balanced Headphone Tube Amplifier and Pre Amplifier Review
July 1, 2023 Comments Off on Woo Audio WA22 Balanced Headphone Tube Amplifier and Pre Amplifier Review
HiFi Rose RS520 streaming integrated amplifier $3695 Review
July 1, 2023 Comments Off on HiFi Rose RS520 streaming integrated amplifier $3695 Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/hifi-rose-rs520-streaming-integrated-amplifier
Because HiFi Rose is an engineering-centric company (footnote 8), niceties like translation and spelling sometimes seem to get short shrift. On the RS520, linguistic quirks were never particularly enigmatic, but perfection is a ways off. When connecting to Bluetooth, the message you get is the slightly off-kilter “Execute [Bluetooth] to search for available devices.” The screen that lets you choose among three font sizes for streaming music says, by way of instruction, “Enlarge a Playback information.” Even the company’s official English-language website (footnote 9) states, “Before the sudden change, the tool until yesterday is meaningless.” Jon Derda says HiFi Rose has been “making small changes with each iteration of [the RS520’s] firmware (footnote 10), to Americanize the product further.” Importantly, the 64-page product manual is written in rock-solid English, no complaints.
Audiophilepure 
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