iFi Neo iDSD – The new headphone DAC/amp from iFi
January 4, 2021 Comments Off on iFi Neo iDSD – The new headphone DAC/amp from iFi
VPI HW-40 40th Anniversary Edition turntable
January 3, 2021 Comments Off on VPI HW-40 40th Anniversary Edition turntable
This is the first VPI turntable I’ve reviewed that provides a high degree of isolation from the surface upon which it rests. Despite the cones, feet, inserts, bladders, and what have you that VPI has used over the years, this is the first one where, if you tap (or bang!) on the platform, nothing gets through to the stylus. According to VPI, two years of work went into producing this level of performance using a combination of mass loading, mechanical stiffening, selective damping, and a combination of elastomers.
In and of itself, the top plate is still somewhat lively, but compared to my memory of the Classic Direct, the HW-40 is better damped, letting through only a subdued, quick-to-settle “pop” when the top plate is struck. Bettinger told me that the outer frame is well-isolated, too. I was able to corroborate that: Tapping on it produces nothing through the speakers.
Volti Audio Razz Loudspeaker $4999 Review
January 3, 2021 Comments Off on Volti Audio Razz Loudspeaker $4999 Review
It is one thing to spotlight all the technical wonders of a high-end loudspeaker, and quite another to lose oneself for hours on end listening to it for the pure pleasure of doing so. In the last week of my review audition, Razz showed me its truest sonic intentions: forget the reviewer-speak, just play music!
Greg Roberts has succeeded in building a smaller, less expensive speaker for the Volti Audio product line. Razz does indeed carry the Volti sonic signature, and that is a very good thing. Audiophiles looking for a speaker in the $5k price range—especially those with small to medium sized rooms—should definitely investigate this lively, lovable, and livable, loudspeaker.
Sonus faber Olympica Nova III Loudspeaker $13,500 Review
January 2, 2021 Comments Off on Sonus faber Olympica Nova III Loudspeaker $13,500 Review
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/sonus-faber-olympica-nova-iii-loudspeaker/
For her debut compact disc Fantasy, violinist Tessa Lark had the good fortune to be recorded by veteran engineer/producer Judith Sherman. Several of the works on the CD are unaccompanied, including a pair of Telemann Fantasias and Lark’s own Appalachian Fantasy. The tonal shadings created by the soloist on her 1683 Stradivarius are reproduced with realistic immediacy through the Sonus faber speakers—bow grabbing string, the resonance of the instrument’s hollow body, minute changes in bow pressure, the room adding body to the sound issuing from the violin. String quartets, solo wind instruments, and keyboard recitals are enthralling, utterly believable in tone and timbre—these loudspeakers are a chamber music lover’s dream. And aficionados of great singing will find the most distinctive voice rendered with every ounce of its character intact.
AURENDER A30 CACHING MUSIC SERVER/CD RIPPER/STREAMER
January 2, 2021 Comments Off on AURENDER A30 CACHING MUSIC SERVER/CD RIPPER/STREAMER
http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/aurender-a30-caching-music-servercd-ripperstreamer/
Moving over to Tidal and their MQA Master files I selected Jan Lisiecki and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performing Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No.1 in G Minor, Op. 25, MWV O7 – 1. Molto allegro con fuoco. [2019 Best of Tidal Masters].Growing up in a home where my father is a professional piano player it was exciting to hear a piano recording sound so authentic. Fronting the orchestra, the piano had the right attack and decay. The tone was near live and the space between notes in the allegro was just that small space to show off the recording’s quality (and the pianists’ considerable skill!). The strings, horns and woodwinds played their support role with live energy and tonal accuracy. Over the years I would have needed an SACD or vinyl album in the house to enjoy this level of connection with a recording. To experience this connection via streaming was truly magical and illustrates how far audio has come over my lifetime.
JBL HDI-3600 Loudspeaker $3,800 Review
January 1, 2021 Comments Off on JBL HDI-3600 Loudspeaker $3,800 Review
https://www.soundandvision.com/content/jbl-hdi-3600-loudspeaker-review
Easing into something a bit more subtle and quiet, I streamed harpist Mary Lattimore’s “Til a Mermaid Drags You Under” (16/44.1 FLAC, Tidal), a track from her latest release, Silver Ladders. The song’s dry, cascading layers of harp, mixed with reverb-heavy guitar (from Slowdive’s Neil Halstead), were conveyed with impressive clarity by the JBLs, and there was a notable sense of spatial depth. When the song’s bass synth drones are introduced about halfway through, the sound becomes anchored with a massive foundation that serves to enlarge both the horizontal and vertical scale. The HDI-3600 towers rendered this perfectly, disappearing into an endless-seeming soundstage that somehow reminded me of sitting in a planetarium.
Sony WF-SP800N Review
January 1, 2021 Comments Off on Sony WF-SP800N Review
https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/sony-wf-sp800n
At the top of the frequency range, the Sonys are never less than crisp. In the wrong circumstances, it’s a trait that could possibly manifest itself as thinness, but here the WF-SP800N summon just about as much top-end attack as is acceptable.
Through the midrange, they load Beck’s vocal with information – he often sounds lazy and half-hearted when delivering a vocal, but through the Sonys the subtlety and nuance in his technique is revealed. As a result, he sounds more engaged, and is more engaging, than is usually the case through a pair of reasonably affordable true wireless earbuds.
Wilson Audio XVX Chronosonic Assembly
January 1, 2021 Comments Off on Wilson Audio XVX Chronosonic Assembly
Yamaha GT-5000 review
December 30, 2020 Comments Off on Yamaha GT-5000 review
https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/yamaha-gt-5000
It won’t come as a surprise to regular readers to find that that very first LP I placed on the Yamaha GT-5000’s platter was my new favourite recording of Eric Satie’s Gymnopédies as performed by Anne Queffélec (Virgin Classics 522 0502) whose tempi are perfect and whose rubato is glorious. I just love the liberties she takes with the score, which elevates it from just being ‘another virtuoso performance’ into another league completely. (Though as another reviewer was insistent I point out, she was not brave enough to omit the final chord.)
The reason for playing Satie was, of course, that slow (very slow, insanely slow) piano music will immediately reveal if a turntable’s platter is ‘wowing’ (slow speed variations) or ‘fluttering’ (higher speed variations) as it rotates. I can happily report that I heard zero wow and zero flutter when auditioning the GT-5000. I also did not hear any cogging effects which, of course, is precisely the reason Yamaha elected to use a belt drive rather than a direct drive for its GT-5000 in the first place.
Audiophilepure 
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