Schiit Lyr+ Fusion Architecture Headphone Amp & Preamp Review
October 12, 2025 Comments Off on Schiit Lyr+ Fusion Architecture Headphone Amp & Preamp Review
As a solid-state amplifier, the Schiit Lyr+ Fusion Architecture Headphone Amp & Preamp is easily competitive with anything in its price range, truth is, there just aren’t that many discrete amplifiers under a thousand dollars; they almost all implement some chip-based op-amp or other. On the other hand, once you stick a tube in it, the Lyr+ knocks it out of the park. While it is not the most powerful amplifier in my arsenal (my reference amplifier puts out 35Watts per channel), it appears to have enough go juice to drive most any headphone to levels that will satisfy most listeners.
For a tube amplifier, the Lyr+ has an epically low noise floor, which means it can deliver reference-level detail and soundstage, the only limit being the headphone you choose to listen with. For those who are hung up on push-pull amplifiers (“balanced”), again, the Lyr+ has plenty of power to do the job, and retains the sonic advantages of single-ended amplification (a bridge amp requires two perfectly matched amplifiers, and no such devices truly exist, which means low-level details are lost).
So in conclusion, though I miss the versatility of the modular design of the Lyr3, the improvements in sound quality more than make up for that, and I believe the Lyr+ could easily stand as the end-point choice for most headphone enthusiasts.
TRUTHEAR PURE $90 Review
October 12, 2025 Comments Off on TRUTHEAR PURE $90 Review
The low-end on the TRUTHEAR PURE takes on a more neutral and restrained approach, never aiming for heavy slam or physical rumble. It still provides a steady presence, adding foundation without pulling focus.
Control is its strength, staying consistent across tracks without spilling over or sounding bloated. Rather than chasing power, it focuses on accuracy and balance, keeping basslines clean.
Quality outweighs quantity here, with drums and subbass notes coming through with enough body to be convincing. They don’t push for weight but instead keep a steady grip that makes them sound precise.
Can these PSVANE Summit Tubes beat my best NOS models?
October 12, 2025 Comments Off on Can these PSVANE Summit Tubes beat my best NOS models?
Charisma Audio™ Caprisse Bookshelf Loudspeakers Review$6200 Review
October 9, 2025 Comments Off on Charisma Audio™ Caprisse Bookshelf Loudspeakers Review$6200 Review
So you’re trying to build a time machine out of a 1973 AMC Pacer. You want to time travel back to the mid-70s to hear the glorious midrange sound of an original pair of Quad ESL-57 loudspeakers. I hear ya. I get it. I have audiophile dreams like this too.
Then again, maybe you don’t need to risk life, limb, and a whole lot of 88 mile-per-hour speeding tickets to get that midrange sound quality? Today, in the summer of 2025, a current-production bookshelf monitor exists that sounds remarkably similar to a vintage pair of ESL-57s. With decent tube amps driving them, Charisma Audio’s Caprisse bookshelf speakers can deliver the same sonic quality and breathtaking midrange purity as Quad’s legendary electrostats.
Down through the last 40 years, I’ve owned two pairs of Quad ESL-57s and three pairs of ESL-63s. The Caprisse reminds me—fondly—of a vintage pair of ESL-57s. It has lightning-fast transients, lifelike PRaT, and magic in the midrange. The genius of the Caprisse is that it doesn’t need a large room to create the jaw-dropping sound quality of an old-school electrostatic floorstander.
If your listening room is small to mid-sized, do yourself a real favour and audition these speakers. It’s far easier than trying to get a vintage Delorean up to 88 miles an hour.
Unison Research Reference monoblock power amplifier $49,998 Review
October 9, 2025 Comments Off on Unison Research Reference monoblock power amplifier $49,998 Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/unison-research-reference-monoblock-power-amplifier
If an Italian sound exists, I gather it isn’t an engineering spec but a sensibility. Where most gear aims to get out of the way of the music, boutique hi-fi from Italy participates in it. It isn’t neutral in the strictest sense. For many, it’s more human.Sonically, the 845s occupy their own terrain. They don’t punch like KT150s or dazzle with immediacy. Instead, they bloom. They stretch space, thicken tone, and draw you in with an unhurried, dimensional ease. They flesh out the harmonic body of a note and let its decay hang in the air without collapsing the structure around it. The Unison Reference amplifiers make full use of that character.Are they worth the price? How attached are you to your second kidney?When everything settles and the mind calms, what’s left is music: vivid, beautiful, whole, and rendered with uncommon care. The Unison Reference amplifiers turn spending into savoring, and savor them I did.
Heaven 11 Spartan Amplifier Review
October 9, 2025 Comments Off on Heaven 11 Spartan Amplifier Review
Evolution Acoustics Model One bookshelf speakers $3,950 Review
October 8, 2025 Comments Off on Evolution Acoustics Model One bookshelf speakers $3,950 Review
“The EXACT constant voltage series crossover is a tour de force in engineering. Far from a conventional dividing network, the EXACT filter circuit elevates performance to the outer limits of sonic possibilities, delivering much higher emotional content, not by added tonal warmth or artifacts, but by allowing the signal to be fully rendered, keeping it pure and completely faithful to the artistry of the original event. This dramatic improvement is accomplished by isolating all the mechanical distortion nodes of each of the drivers and suppressing their influence on the overall sound, generating ruler flat frequency response, with incredibly low distortion. The electrical performance of the system is made more linear, yielding much tighter impedance deviations, or smaller phase shifts. This combines to create a loudspeaker that is more accurate, both sonically and electrically, resulting in much greater realism in both tonal reproduction and sound stage presentation.”
Aurender AP20 reference all-in-one music server class D integrated amplifier Review
October 8, 2025 Comments Off on Aurender AP20 reference all-in-one music server class D integrated amplifier Review
The AKM 4497 is a circa 2016 32-bit two-channel DAC chip. I have fond memories of enjoying music from CD players and DACs of the early 2000 using AKM chips, and I have found those made by Burr Brown, Analog Devices, Wolfson, etc., all adopted by manufacturers at one time, promising. The ESS chips of late are a different breed as their design is so integrated that manufacturers often take advantage of it and create their consumer products with minimal additional original engineering. The result is various models from manufacturers all sounding similarly. There are exceptions, of course, such as in the case of the Audio Research DAC 9.
On the company’s choice of selecting the AKM 4497 chipset, it is noteworthy that an October 2020 fire at the AKM facility disrupted supplies of the AKM 4499EQ, the latest flagship. Aurender Director Harry Lee offered that, “When we developed the A-series (Analog outputs) about 10 years ago, we had narrowed down our choices to AKM and ESS DAC chips. The decision was primarily made due to sound signature of the AKM chips winning out with our development team. Because this essentially became part of our A-series house sound [on top of the disruption of the 4499EQ chip supply], we decided to stick with the AKM 4497 and push the envelope on getting the very most out of this brand of chip with each new iteration/model.”
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