Audiophilepure

Our cottage is on the smaller side. Cozy, but not the best place to visually showcase an amplifier of the Rotel’s caliber. My setup would have to be tucked away into a corner and brought out for listening sessions. Listening at high volumes for long periods wasn’t going to happen either as our cottage doesn’t really have the space. I gave it the old college try mind you but all I succeeded in doing was damaging my hearing and knocking things off shelves.

The benefit of our cottage is that it’s quiet. I mean, I knew that it was quiet, but I didn’t realize how quiet it was until I started reviewing the Rotel A14 MkII. Compared to our former home in the city, there was a lack of noise pollution. Construction, cars, people talking (or yelling in our old neighborhood). Making listening much more insightful and subtleties more apparent. It got me thinking of a future renovation of our cottage to make room for a proper listening area.

Equally important, the Enyo’s sonic consistency and lack of coloration in its high-level input, phono, and digital modes are all notable. The phono and digital modules have very little sound character of their own, and the same is true of the passive preamp and tube power amp. The Enyo modules provide a clean, neutral sound; the power amp is also neutral, rather than a classic or “warm” tube amplifier. You don’t hear “new” aspects of the music in the upper midrange  and the highs. You hear what is on the recording. The lower midrange has equally accurate timbre, and there is no added emphasis on low-level detail, or tendency to provide more exciting dynamics than you find on the recording or source material. If you are looking for a unit that  changes or accentuates some aspect of your recordings, has a euphonic emphasis that suits your musical taste, or complements some favored coloration in your speaker or cartridge, this simply isn’t the unit for you. 

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/schiit-audio-yggdrasil-less-is-more-review-r1049/

Another instrument where you hear the improvement with the LIM is a Hammond B3, which just has more of that warm organic tube sound of the real thing. As for bass, listen to the track Starbuck Blues from The Ray Brown Trio, live at Starbucks (link). I was fortunate to see Ray Brown perform once in a club and through the LIM, this is what I remember his bass sounding like, even more so than through the OG. Meaty, rough and gruff. Ditto for the track C.C. Rider from Overseas Special featuring Monty Alexander on piano, Herb Elłis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass. Through the LIM, you hear even more of the club ambiance in this live recording. Please check this one out if you haven’t already.

The Marantz Model 30 Integrated Amplifier is in some ways, something of an anachronism. Its lack of digital circuitry may rule it out of consideration for some audiophiles. However, if you’re the consumer who wants the ultimate in simplicity AND great sound in a minimum number of boxes, this amplifier could serve as a great anchor for your stereo sound system.

On the other hand, if you have a primarily phonograph-based system and/or a separate digital front end, you get amazing sound at a fraction of the cost (but 99% of the sound quality) of MUCH more expensive separates systems. So, consider carefully what you want from an integrated amplifier, and if the Marantz Model 30 meets your needs, then buy without worries! The sound quality of this integrated amplifier more than justifies its price.

The Manley Snapper Monoblocks

One more thing worthy of note, while some tube amps these days support an auto-bias configuration, the Snappers need to be biased manually. Manley provides excellent instructions in the owner’s manual and on their website -it’s not that tough. They are even kind enough to include a basic digital multimeter (DMM) so you won’t have to source one. Usually, biasing power tubes needs to be done when they are new, again at about 100 hours, and maybe double check every few hundred hours. Somewhere down the road, one or more of the output tubes will no longer bias up, or you’ll notice a bit of softness in the high frequencies. That’s when it’s time for new tubes. Unless you’re made of money, work with the standard tubes. Rolling EL-34s these days is expensive.

REVIEW: The Naim Uniti Star

I have to confess being a huge fan of the Naim Uniti products. They offer so much value and performance in a relatively compact chassis, it’s the perfect spot for the music lover wanting a high-performance system without huge footprint. If you’re an all-digital music lover, just add speakers. As a vinyl lover, I had to add a turntable to the mix, in this case a Rega Planar 3, and just to keep it all British, pulled out the Naim Stageline phono. Sitting on top of a Herman Miller Nelson Bench, this all looks smart as hell, while delivering the goods.

I ran the Star with everything from the $149k/pair Focal Stella Utopia Ems down to a pair of LS3/5as. Personally, I really enjoyed this system with the Focal Kanta no.1s. You can order this as a combo from your Focal/Naim dealer and live happily ever after. As long as you choose a pair of speakers with about an 86dB/1watt rating, you should be just fine. The Star makes a lovely match with a pair of Harbeth C7s too.

https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/cambridge-audio-cxa81

The CXA81 perhaps sounds a little forward, but its level of expression is such that it is sympathetic to more minimal, sombre recordings as well. Feed it a solo piano work or chamber quartet and it is only too pleased to show you its more caring, gentle side.

What really shines through though is a level of clarity that not only pips its rivals, such as the Rega Elex-R, but also makes them appear a touch cloudy. It is one thing beating this talented Rega amp for timing and dynamics, but to offer a more polished, insightful, even more mature presentation is a real turn up for the books.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/vac-sigma-170i-integrated-amplifier

This prowess, however, wasn’t dependent on the superior pressing at higher speed. With the 2014 reissue of Etta James’ sublime Tell Mama on Bear Family [BAF108026], certainly not known as a label of the audiophile tendency, the otherwise average recording did not hold back one iota of James’ peerless, powerful vocals on this milestone LP.

You want emotion? Here Etta James rips out your heart, and the Sigma 170i ensured that every dynamic moment was treated with respect. Damn, this is a fine amp.