AURALIC ALTAIR WIRELESS STREAMING DAC REVIEW
October 19, 2017 § Leave a comment
“Does your setup include excellent headphones? Probably not for you then, if you are only buying for headphones. If you want an all around, all purpose can do almost anything source, then you need not look further, the Altair scores a massive 9/10 for Value. It dishes out almost anything you need and has a good price when considering just what it can do. Hi-res files, DSD, Wifi, Ethernet-enabled, BT input, three outputs, intended as a streaming device, can pull via an HDD or a home network server as well? Hell of a product and also one of the sexiest sources I’ve had in-house in a long time. Well done, Auralic.”
Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2v2 SE REVIEW
October 8, 2017 § Leave a comment
“Some of you are going to feel that a good DAC’s USB input should be totally immune to the degrading effects of a computer connection. Wyred 4 Sound states that “the DAC-2v2 SE’s USB connection utilizes galvanic isolation to eliminate computer noise from the audio signal completely.” I have yet to find a USB DAC that is totally immune to computer noise from the output signal; this includes my reference DAC, the Ayre QX-5 Twenty.”
NAD C 338 Hybrid Digital Wireless Streaming DAC-Integrated Amplifier $649 Review
October 5, 2017 § Leave a comment
“Going in, I wondered if the Google Chromecast built into NAD’s C 338 would provide no more than a more seamless variant of the $35 Chromecast dongle Google sells. It was indeed seamless — and more. NAD has made Chromecast easier to use, more flexible, and sound better. In fact, so remarkable is NAD’s implementation that I wish they’d sell a Chromecast box as a separate source. The C 338 is filled out with an impressive, natural-sounding DAC, and an amplifier section that should easily fill most rooms. The NAD C 338 is an excellent value, especially for those interested in using Chromecast.”
SW1X DAC 1 – REVIEW
September 24, 2017 § Leave a comment
” Under the same circumstance, above all the active DAC 1 is more controlled overall and more precise in the bass than the passive version, as well as more “immediate”, with faster transients and more attack. The active DAC’s sound seems more balanced, more even, but because it is more controlled, also seemingly less freely enthusiastic than the passive version. Although the active version would perhaps measure more accurately, perhaps due to its midrange being more well-behaved, the active DAC 1 comes across as being less enthusiastic than the passive DAC 1. On the other hand, although it may be not strictly be the case, subjectively speaking the active DAC’s frequency curve seems flatter and it strikes me that this may be objectively speaking the more accurate sound. The midrange is now more neutral, less forward so to say. Switching to the Wadia confirms that the DAC 1 active indeed sounds more alike, but I’m not sure if I prefer the higher precision of the active version, or the freeer sound of the passive version.”
DeVore Fidelity Gibbon X – Review
September 16, 2017 § Leave a comment
“I think this new Weapon X from the MonkeyHaus up in Brooklyn, NY, is a show-stopper. Played at volume, it’s literally a stunner. The Gibbon X is room filling, precise, and gloriously immersive in its presentation. You can get inside of your recordings with tools like these, and with the Gibbon X fronting your system, you can safely start investing in the good food they want and need in order for them to fill your heart, mind, body and soul with the music of the spheres. And I’m serious about that, they’re going to sound better and better, the better and better the gear that is feeding them happens to be. And yes, these Gibbons will let you know every time the diet improves.”
