High res portable music player shootout – Video
April 29, 2016 Comments Off on High res portable music player shootout – Video
CAYIN N5 $319 REVIEW
April 28, 2016 Comments Off on CAYIN N5 $319 REVIEW
” I stated before the N5 has a fairly small non touch screen (2.4”) and that requires an easy to use Interface. I’ll get in to the menus right away but first a bit more on the screen. While every bit of information you might need is there, the LCD screen is packed as full as it can. Right now on the top from left to right it displays: Volume level – SD Card – Gain – Phone (scrolling) – Playing now – Play/Pause – EQ OFF – Shuffle play – battery level – battery icon. 80% of the screen is taken by the album art that loads in less than 1 second after you start playing a song. In the album art you’ll find the name of the album, the file name, the bit-rate and the type of file. Beneath that you’ll find a bar that shows you where in the song you are and how long the song takes. It also shows the total number of files and which one is playing. If you don’t have any album art stored on your card, generic wallpaper will be shown. Anyway, that’s a lot of information for such a little screen, but it does what it needs to do.:
Onkyo DP-X1 MQA Enabled Hi-Res Player
April 26, 2016 Comments Off on Onkyo DP-X1 MQA Enabled Hi-Res Player
” Based on Android OS, the DP-X1 digital audio player supports many High Res Audio formats, up to DSD 11.2MHz, 384kHz/24bit FLAC/WAV audio files, and now MQA. With years of experience in building audio components, the DP-X1 contains many design initiatives dedicated to “Pure Sound”. To isolate sources of internal noise, the Audio circuit board and CPU board are built on separate boards. The Audio circuit design uses ESS technology’s SABRE DAC ES9018K2M and SABRE 9601K amp in a dual setup with a 2.5mm 4 pole jack for full balance output with support for normal BTL balance and Active Control GND drive, a first for the product category. With the ability to expand its storage up to 432GB and access to Google Play, the DP-X1 was built for expansion beyond the built-in functions.”
ASTELL&KERN AK380 PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYER REVIEW
April 24, 2016 Comments Off on ASTELL&KERN AK380 PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYER REVIEW
” So I proceeded to compare the sound of the AK380 when streaming over WiFi versus playing directly from its internal memory. What I found was that the difference is nearly impossible to hear—a welcome and astonishing result. If I listen hard, I can detect a slight veiling of voices when in streaming mode. Norah Jones, who is always recorded in such a way that her voice comes across intimately, sounds subtly less “there” when streaming. But that’s about it. As it turns out, the AK380 sounds great regardless of how it’s accessing music.”
Sony’s NW-ZX100 high-res music player – Review
April 22, 2016 Comments Off on Sony’s NW-ZX100 high-res music player – Review
“During comparisons with my Astell & Kern Jr high-res music player it didn’t take long to hear the NW ZX100 sounded richer and fuller-bodied. I listened with Audeze EL-8 and AudioQuest NightHawk full-size headphones, and heard similar differences between the two players with my Jerry Harvey Audio JH13 in-ear headphones, the NW-ZX100’s sound was consistently more satisfying than the Jr’s. There’s a sure-footed solidity to the presentation, so instruments and vocals sound more life-like with the NW-ZX100. That one also trumped the Astell & Kern Jr in resolving the quieter details of recordings, like the way a singer phrases the lyrics, the Jr glossed over those details. High-resolution files had slightly better transparency than standard res files.”
Astell & Kern AK Jr Music Player $500 Review
April 20, 2016 Comments Off on Astell & Kern AK Jr Music Player $500 Review
“If these listening results seem a little mixed, it’s because I threw three headphone models with dramatically different personalities at the AK Jr, and then made its life even tougher with odd content choices—especially, as it turned out, the Beethoven symphony. If memory serves, the AK Jr seems a bit more dispassionate, and less euphonic, than either the original AK100 or its step-up siblings that I’ve tested. But it’s more truthful than schematic, and definitely don’t file it under ruthlessly revealing. It’s another winner from a company whose reputation as a class act of the high-end music-player field is well earned.’
FiiO M3 Review – Best Budget Player? – Video
April 8, 2016 Comments Off on FiiO M3 Review – Best Budget Player? – Video
Acoustic Research AR-M2 hi-rez portable player Review
April 7, 2016 Comments Off on Acoustic Research AR-M2 hi-rez portable player Review
” Acoustic Research doesn’t include lossily-compressed MP3 or AAC files in the list of formats the AR-M2 will play. However, it did play a 256kbps AAC file of Nat King Cole singing “Nature Boy” (Capitol), which I’d bought from iTunes, as well as a 256kbps MP3 file of “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” from Smashing Pumpkins’ (Rotten Apples) Greatest Hits (Virgin), purchased from Amazon. Also, AR lists DXD files under the formats supported, which are sampled at 352.8kHz. I don’t have any DXD files, but playing a WAV file of a 1kHz tone sampled at 384kHz resulted in pink noise.”
Acoustic Research M2 Hi-Res Portable Music Player – 24/192 DACs plus DSD. High power headphone amp and much more
Queststyle QP1R – Review
March 31, 2016 Comments Off on Queststyle QP1R – Review
” Take the track Strom from Australian modern jazz trio Trichotomy. This immaculately engineered 24/48kHz recording sounds like a very decent improvement over CD played on the FiiO: bold, warm, lavishly detailed and dynamic – especially through the Oppo PM-2. On the QP1R, the sound is warmer and richer yet also more pristine, resolute and atmospheric. Drummer John Parker’s delicate stick work acquires new levels of subtle intricacy while Sean Foran’s piano has harmonic complexity and a sense of its own acoustic space, which the FiiO suggests but can’t quite nail. The experience sells ‘hi-res’ so powerfully, it soon has you wondering if you can ever go back to ‘mere’ CD quality.”
Audiophilepure 
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