CHORD ELECTRONICS POLY MUSIC STREAMER / PLAYER REVIEW
May 9, 2018 § Leave a comment
“The Chord Mojo is already one of the strongest contenders in the portable audio arena. The addition of the Poly supercharges the Mojo and what was already a hugely versatile piece of equipment.I’m told there are a few tweaks in the software roadmap that I am personally looking forward to, but overall this is a worthy and essential upgrade for your Mojo.
Esoteric Grandioso D1 DAC, P1 Disc Transport, C1 Linestage, and M1 Monoblock Power Amplifier Review
May 7, 2018 § Leave a comment
“Comparing the Grandioso stack to my reference gear proved instructive. My Goldmund electronics are slightly faster and airier, thanks to their megahertz bandwidth and the speed that comes with it. The Goldmund gear also more accurately follows the shapes of notes. By comparison, these rise and fall a bit too quickly on the Grandioso stack; this is my one real complaint. On the other hand, the Grandioso series is more neutral than my reference electronics. And in other areas, such as dynamics and resolution, the Grandioso stack is among the scant few components I’ve encountered that can go head-to-head with Goldmund gear.”
Audio Research DAC 9 $7,500 Review
April 26, 2018 § Leave a comment
“Another amazing quality of the DAC9 is the ability to render layered depth. Images are placed with three a dimensional presence that is surrounded by air allowing for great separation and a front to back precision that keeps individual instrumental timbre distinct and untangled. The accuracy of front to back distances or layering goes back, all the way back with stunning clarity. Orchestras are mapped out to the performer. All the modern studio recordings I sampled benefited greatly by the hologram like presence put forth by the DAC9 and holds true to the reputation Audio Research has earned over the years.”
Brinkmann Audio Nyquist DAC Review
April 25, 2018 § Leave a comment
“Keep in mind for your reference; my own bias is for overall system balance to be ever so slightly on the warm/natural/neutral side of straight-up neutral. I like as much detail as I can get without the overall presentation getting harsh, yet I crave as much warmth as possible before things become slow, or sloppy. Tracking through the original Chicago Transit Authority, the enormous sonic landscape painted is tremendous, with a smoothness to the layers of drums and percussion incredible.”
RME ADI-2 DAC$1,000 REVIEW
April 23, 2018 § Leave a comment
“In the introduction I mentioned that RME searched contact with the audiophile headphone scene and this is the outcome. The trend for many IEM designers seems to be to push their sensitivity higher and higher. It becomes very difficult to control the earphones’ performance and they also pick up hiss more easily. Campfire Andromeda and Vision Ears VE8 being two examples.”
Cary Audio AiOS Review
April 20, 2018 § Leave a comment
“MQA streaming from the handful of MQA tracks I had on hand (mostly downloaded from 2L’s excellent test track repository) showed a very subtle effect of non versus their non-MQA encoded versions. The MQA tracks showed a little more rhythmic ease and a little more light in the midrange and a more delicate high end especially on cymbal work, but I would not say that it was a super obvious difference. MQA streaming via Tidal Masters showed similar differences between 16/44 and MQA versions of the same tracks. Testing versus the MQA certified Mytek DAC showed again that there was a slight loss of tonal colour with the AiOS MQA decoding.”
DACs: everything you need to know
April 11, 2018 § Leave a comment
“Finally, there are the DACs that are designed to work as part of a bigger home audio system. These will usually have even more inputs – particularly more niche sockets such as AES/EBU – and, potentially, more features too. They’ll support the full range of high-resolution music formats, for example, or offer Bluetooth connectivity for streaming wirelessly from your smartphone or tablet.”
