Audiophilepure

https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/trafomatic-audio-primavera/

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/wiim-amp-review-value-priced-multi-room-audio

The WiiM app is the central control hub for the amp, supporting an extensive array of music services, including Amazon Music, BBC Radio, Calm Radio, Deezer, Napster, Pandora, QQMusic, Qobuz, Radio Paradise, SoundCloud, SoundMachine, Spotify, TIDAL, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and vTuner. This broad compatibility ensures access to a wide variety of music sources, both popular and niche, without being restricted to a particular ecosystem. The app also functions as a media server when connected to a network music library, indexing downloaded music for easy management and playback directly from a computer or NAS drive. The interface of the app facilitates straightforward navigation through the play queue and other music selections, with simple adjustments to audio settings and preferences to personalize the sound.

Once I unpacked the unit, I had it set up and running in under 15 minutes. I ran a PS Audio DSD Perfectwave DAC into input 1 and an Oppo UDP-203 optical disc player into input 2. There are upgrade modules available from Fezz to make the amp Bluetooth capable or to add sub outputs (not included on my review sample), but I used my Perfectwave as my streamer and most of my listening was done via Qobuz. I will not go into an essay on how tubes affect the sound quality because Dr. Johnson gave a comprehensive treatise on it when he recently reviewed the Octave Audio V 110 SE integrated. The irony for me is that I just recently purchased a Benchmark AHB2 amplifier which outputs virtually no distortion even at full rated power (.0003%). When using a tube amp, having some euphonic secondary harmonic distortion is part of why one chooses a tube amp. I enjoy the sound of each amp, but I want to use a low-distortion amp for critical listening to review various products. 

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1236-naim-audio-nap-350-mono-amplifier

The ATC SCM40 isn’t an especially difficult load to drive. Its impedance drops to just under 6 ohms, but it’s inefficient by modern standards, delivering just 84dB at 1W/m. As a result, it needs a lot of power to get it to move air—those drive units are very heavy. In truth, my NAP 250 delivers the bare minimum to get the job done: the significantly greater output from the pair of NAP 350s enabled continuous high output levels with ease. I never managed to drive the monoblocks into thermal shutdown, which occasionally happens with my NAP 250. The NAP 350s got pretty warm, but they were completely stable. Furthermore, the sonic character didn’t change with output level, lending the NAP 350 pair a sense of effortlessness that my NAP 250 simply lacked.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/fern-roby-amp-no-2-integrated-amplifier

One night, as I was listening to my system with the Amp No. 2, I found myself thinking, Omg! This amp is really lighting up those DeVores! I wondered how F&R managed to get this much vivid, high-energy excitement out of an amp that looks laid-back and tasteful. Then I remembered that the Amp No. 2’s designer, Michael Bettinger, and his company G.A.S. have carried on a 40-year relationship with the designs of one of my heroes, James Bongiorno, chief designer at SAE, G.A.S., and Sumo.

As I remember it, Bongiorno’s wild-style Ampzilla was the opposite of tasteful and domestic. It had an industrial look and a type-A personality, and it was the first solid state amp I felt I could marry and settle down with. During these auditions, Fern & Roby’s Amp No. 2 performed like a silk-suited version of that renowned monster. And that is extremely high praise.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/linn-klimax-solo- Review800-monoblock-power-amplifier

The amp’s support feet, derived from those on Linn’s flagship Klimax DSM network music player, are machined stainless steel with an impressed silicone O-ring to aid isolation. Their height ensures that Linn’s natural convection cooling process functions as intended. Nonetheless, Rodger gave me the okay to try aftermarket feet, noting that during the design process, Linn listened with its own feet and “very standard interconnects and speaker cable.”

More on this topic follows. Linn doesn’t think the Klimax Solo 800’s Utopik power supply requires external power conditioning, and Rodger doesn’t think the monoblock will feed back noise into the line. “That said, if an end user wants to employ a high-end [power] conditioner, and they like what it does to the sound of the whole system, we have a saying in Scotland: ‘Fill your boots,’ which means ‘that’s your prerogative, so go for it.'”

Upon receiving the Linns, I was advised to leave them on 24/7. Standby kicks in after 20 minutes of silence; when it happens, what Rodger called “a jaunty little animation” appears on the tastefully illumined LED roundel in the center of the front panel.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/hifi-rose-ra280-integrated-amplifier

There’s no power or agility lacking here, so the RA280 typically communicates dynamics and excitement without edging into extreme warmth or betraying an undue focus on high treble detail. However, what might be described as a pleasantly ‘organic’ sound can have its balance tipped by the speaker. Its coupling with the DALI Rubicon 2s appeared a little lighter-sounding than usual, for example.

If it wasn’t for Damon Albarn standing in as producer, Bobby Womack’s The Bravest Man In The Universe [XLCD561] wouldn’t have sounded like the album it does. Or even existed, as the soul crooner seemed to be fin de carrière until he met with Albarn on the Gorillaz project. Fortunately, the record came to be, and contains some fabulous tracks, including ‘Dayglo Reflection’ featuring the backing vocals of Lana Del Rey. Here, the RA280 floated her typically languid voice above the electronic beat and grittier lines sung by Womack.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/balanced-audio-technology-rex-500-power-amplifier

I decided to evaluate the amp in three ways. First, I went without a preamp, using the volume control of my main source, an Aurender A20 digital transport and server. Then I listened to the REX with the Aurender connected via the line stage of my Benchmark HPA4. Finally, I pressed the VK-90 into service, again using the A20 as a source.

While I did indeed prefer the sound with the BAT preamp in the chain by a small margin, I spent the least amount of time with that combination because I wanted to home in on the sonics of the REX without the wild card the VK-90 presented.

BAT co-founder Steve Bednarski told me he’s keen on listening with a preamp in the system. I asked him why: What’s the downside to feeding a power amp the output stage of a DAC or other digital source? “A well-designed active line stage will provide greater current delivery from its output stage than almost any source omponent,” Bednarski emailed back. “Current delivery gives a sense of liveliness and joie de vivre to the reproduction of music. For instance, a CD player that uses an op-amp–based output stage will provide weak current delivery. When such an output stage is connected directly to an amplifier, the music can sound flat and uninvolving.”