2016 BUYER’S GUIDE: PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYERS
December 12, 2015 Comments Off on 2016 BUYER’S GUIDE: PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYERS
” hese portable players are best thought of as iPods on steroids. With their finely-brushed black aluminum cases and intuitive controls, they give up nothing to Apple in industrial engineering. But iPods max out at a tepid 48/16 resolution, whereas the AKs go to 192/24. ”

Questyle Audio Engineering QP1R Portable Digital Audio Player $899 Review
December 8, 2015 Comments Off on Questyle Audio Engineering QP1R Portable Digital Audio Player $899 Review
“The sound is truly spectacular in delivery, musicality, balance and resolution. It also draws you into the music as only the best mobile can. If you listen solo on the couch late at night looking out at a night sky, you’ll be transported some place magical. I was nightly.”

Pioneer XDP-100R is world’s first MQA-ready hi-res music player
December 6, 2015 Comments Off on Pioneer XDP-100R is world’s first MQA-ready hi-res music player
” Pioneer claims that the player features a high-grade DAC and specially selected internal components to help reduce noise and improve audio quality. There’s also built-in sound adjustment, such as 384kHz upsampling and realtime DSD conversion to 5.6MHz.”

FiiO X7 mobile audio player based on Android – Video
December 4, 2015 Comments Off on FiiO X7 mobile audio player based on Android – Video
Fiio X7 Review
November 16, 2015 Comments Off on Fiio X7 Review
” Next up was the 300 ohm HD600s, and they required 85-90/120. Did they sound as good as out of the micro iDSD? Well actually once volume matched – yep, they actually sounded every bit as dynamic as they did out of the iDSD. In fact I really loved them out of the X7. They were getting close to the limit of the X7’s capability though, and with Classical I was pretty close to 100/120 to get the listening level I prefer. So loud listeners are likely to need a little more than the X7 can deliver.”

Questyle QP1R REVIEW
November 12, 2015 Comments Off on Questyle QP1R REVIEW
“When you’re Questyle, you really have none of it. Damn funk. Or so you’d think. That’s exactly why turning to Foxconn was such a strategically brilliant move. It leverages Apple’s own infrastructure to gild the QP1R’s physical execution. On optics and fit’n’finish, it competes eye to eye against Big Corporate chic. iWantz! That sonics would (have to) squash a Classic iPod goes without saying. That part actually isn’t so hard to do given how many years the Classic hung out in unchanged suspension. The real question is, can Questyle’s GUI keep pace and peace with iTunes; or does it feel clunky by contrast? If the latter, it squashes desire regardless of great sound, current-mode circuitry that’s exotic even by audiophile standards, premium F95 Nichicon tantalum caps, NDK clocks with -150dB phase noise, German Würth power inductors, Japanese Alps encoders and the clearly slick form factor. One audio task the Questyle isn’t down with yet? Docking. Astell&Kern have already caught on to the fact that some users bounce between the tube, exercise bike, park bench, car, desk top and living-room rig all in one day. Their type wants a dock with hifi socketry and charge function. It remains connected to their stationary system; and parks the player upright to read its display. They so don’t want an RCA cable dangling with its 3.5mm end on the floor when not connected.”
Marshall’s London smartphone is made for music – Video
November 1, 2015 Comments Off on Marshall’s London smartphone is made for music – Video
Sony NW-Z2 Walkman Review
October 30, 2015 Comments Off on Sony NW-Z2 Walkman Review
” The Sony has been used with the standard playback app with a mixture of lossless and high res FLAC files and some DSD. Testing has mainly been carried out via Noble 6 in-ear earphones but the Oppo PM-3 has also been used as well as variety of less expensive earphones here on test. Additional testing has been carried out using Tidal and Spotify with content streamed from the cloud and downloaded onto the device. As a means of providing an interesting benchmark for the Sony in the absence of another high end DAP being available here for testing, my standard travel rig of a Google Nexus 5 and the Oppo HA-2 connected by OTG cable was used as a comparison”
Apple iPod Touch (6th gen) 128GB Review
October 22, 2015 Comments Off on Apple iPod Touch (6th gen) 128GB Review
The claimed battery life is, again, 40 hours of music playback, eight hours of videos. We clock up the hours over the course of four days and are still left with 15 per cent of juice remaining.



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