Audiophilepure

Read Here

“In the bass, the MP amplifier is less than tight and tends to slightly blur bass lines. If you’re a rock music fan, you may never even notice these issues (after all, I’m comparing this modestly priced amplifier against a reference system where cost was of little concern). But if you listen to classical or jazz music, the bass may be more troublesome for you. Because of its output transformer, the MP has a relatively low damping factor (meaning that it may not control the woofer cones as tightly as would a solid-state amplifier that lacks the output coupling transformer).

Now if I’ve given the impression that I don’t like the sound of the Monoprice Pure Tube Stereo Amplifier, I apologize. Despite its sonic shortcomings detailed above, the sound can be captivating, entrancing, and exciting. This will be more so with some program materials than others, but at its best, the MP sounds like a FAR more expensive amplifier! The MP can sound like real music where many (most?) other (solid-state) amplifiers in its price range fall far, far short. This amp will easily trounce many AV receivers that I’ve heard.”

Read Here

“The handsome front panel’s two output meters can be set to display either “Peak” or “VU”; the latter, says the manual, “shows an effective audio output value that represents the way sound is perceived by human ears.” If you want to, you can dim the meters or turn them off entirely. On the chance that meter operation and illumination could negatively affect sound, I turned both off during serious listening.

Input can be selected by either the large input knob—there’s another large knob to control volume—or the lightweight plastic remote that controls those functions and more. According to the manual, the “Audio Mute” toggle “reduce[s] the current volume level by approximately 20dB and lights up when activated.” Add in a balance control and another toggle for choosing the type of phono cartridge in use (MM or MC), and you’ve got everything on the A-S3200’s exterior deserving of attention.”

Read Here

“I borrowed Purist Audio Design Neptune speaker cables ($2905/2 meter pair) from Dave Clark. They sounded quite good for the short time I used them. They were massive and resistant to staying fixed in place. They quickly slipped out of my speaker terminals a few times til I got bold enough to really exert pressure on the binding posts. So I thought. Within a day the Netptunes slipped out of the binding posts again. I swapped in a pair of Audioquest Castle Rock bi-wired cables. ($1799). These surrendered to the will of my five way binding posts, but were slightly harder to work with due to more mechanical stiffness, a new but resolvable problem. They both sounded better than my twisted pair of Romex, so… one does what one must. I have trouble believing that the costs of making speaker cables is anywhere equivalent to the cost of building an amplifier, and so I am bothered that I had to resort to such expensive cables. But, I’ll also acknowledge that they did sound superior.”

Read Here

“So far, I’d streamed everything. To hear if the H95’s sound remained constant regardless of storage format, I played a track I’d ripped from CD to my solid-state drive of music files: “Where Are You Tonight?,” from the Cowboy Junkies’ The Caution Horses (16/44.1 FLAC, RCA). It did — the clarity, high resolution, and prominent-but-not-too-bright highs I’d heard before I now heard again. Margo Timmins’s voice was so immediate I could’ve sworn she was in the room, singing to me. Immediately after, I put on “New Rules,” from Dua Lipa’s Live Acoustic EP (16/44.1 FLAC, Warner Bros.). The highs were similarly prominent; Lipa’s voice had tremendous presence, which viscerally punched to the fore just as Knopfler’s had; and each note of the piano accompaniment had startling clarity.”

Read Here

“Constellation Audio’s Inspiration Integrated 1.0 is everything you’d want in a fashion-forward, nearly state-of-the-art integrated amplifier. Its inspired industrial design will be appealing to many, as will its remote control, one of the very best I’ve used. But it’s the Integrated 1.0’s sound that places it in the upper echelon of integrated amplifiers I’ve spent time with. It serves up equal and healthy helpings of clarity, smoothness, linearity, and dynamics without sacrificing anything along the way. For that reason, it proved one of the more difficult products to review of my experience: it gave me effectively nothing to glom on to — to my thinking, an emphatically good thing.”

Read Here

“Well recorded piano music had a crystalline quality. Some of the felts’ softness was hardened somewhat, but returned when playing in Triode. Interestingly, the crystalline quality remained in Triode in addition to the tactile sensitivities. For example, my old mate John Bingham (a long time, beloved piano Prof at London’s Trinity College of Music) sounded as beautiful as ever via the Icon on his ‘70’s benchmark Schubert Songs, arr. Liszt on a Meridian LP (audiophiles, you should search for this record). His delicate touch sounded as effective as ever in Ultralinear. You’ll be one happy, tube-loving audiophile. But, in Triode, the sweetness on the trailing edge of notes was beguiling. ”

Read Here

“If you’re of the persuasion that no amount of power is ever enough, or perhaps simply want to future-proof yourself against the unlikely purchase of impossibly insensitive speakers, then Musical Fidelity’s M8xi is your man. But this integrated amp, bluff exterior and all, is not only capable of driving a short piece of damp string, but does so with a dexterity and fleetness of foot that utterly belies its bulk. Chalk one up to Austria.”