Jeff Rowland Design Group • Model 825 Stereo Amplifier $32,000 – Review
December 20, 2015 Comments Off on Jeff Rowland Design Group • Model 825 Stereo Amplifier $32,000 – Review
” The Model 825’s sonic profile begins from a very deep well of musical detail that’s free of accompanying noise. It is a model of directness — of neutrality — presenting the music the way it is on the recording with uncommon resolution and purity, and resolving space with singular acuity. And just when you’ve come to appreciate all of this, you realize how liquid and non-electronic it sounds, offering up its gobs of detail with abundant naturalness that at first seems out of place. It is a true connoisseur’s product; beautiful and thoughtfully made, it does its proclaimed job, amplifying a signal, without even a minor issue. It hasn’t just single-handedly redeemed class D for me, but made me take it seriously again, something I would never have imagined without experiencing it for myself.”
HiFiMAN HE1000 Planar Magnetic Headphone Review – Video
November 23, 2015 Comments Off on HiFiMAN HE1000 Planar Magnetic Headphone Review – Video
Woo Audio 234 SET Monoblocks headphone amplifier $16,000 Review
October 18, 2015 Comments Off on Woo Audio 234 SET Monoblocks headphone amplifier $16,000 Review
” I’m hoping by now you know I’m completely smitten with the Woo Audio 234 MONOs. But the question still remains: are they the world’s best headphone amplifier? Until I hear something more amazing, they certainly are to me. $16,000 is absolutely crazy money for a headphone amplifier, but it’s all relative. If you love headphones, have multiple pairs that you cherish and a world-class source or two to provide music, there’s no other way to play the game.
ASTELL&KERN AK500N MQS NETWORK AUDIO PLAYER $12,000 REVIEW
October 17, 2015 Comments Off on ASTELL&KERN AK500N MQS NETWORK AUDIO PLAYER $12,000 REVIEW
“Finally, totally confounding my expectations, I preferred playback from my NAS over my home network to both the other sources. It seemed to combine the best features of the other two: low-end depth and impact were just as great, and I heard just as many bass details as from the SSD and more treble detail than from the USB drive. Microdynamics were just spectacular; the music sounded like a spring being wound up, then suddenly released. While I’ve heard this characteristic from other servers, it’s seldom if ever been as starkly defined as with the AK500N.
AUDIO RESEARCH REFERENCE 75SE STEREO POWER AMPLIFIER
October 8, 2015 Comments Off on AUDIO RESEARCH REFERENCE 75SE STEREO POWER AMPLIFIER
By now, listening to classical and the obligatory well-worn test recordings was almost a formality. The Reference 75 SE harnessed that grace and fluidity of mid-range of great Audio Research amps, included the surprisingly powerful bass of its predecessor, and pulled everything together to make you want to bask in its presence for hours on end. There was nothing that fazed the Reference 75 SE and in partnership with the Wilson Duettes and especially with a Nagra HD DAC and ARC Ref 5 SE front end, this was the kind of sound you could listen to with no need to change for decades. Bigger, more upscale ARC buys you more power for bigger systems and rooms and gives you slightly more finesse to the top end, but as the best bang for your ARC-shaped bucks, you can’t get better than this right now!
MAGICO M PROJECT LOUDSPEAKER $129,000
October 6, 2015 Comments Off on MAGICO M PROJECT LOUDSPEAKER $129,000
While the D-5’s ported bass and contoured frequency response are laughably “inaccurate” by Magico’s linear, low-distortion standards, the D-5 is anything but laughable in the listening. The added mid-to-upper bass sock that this speaker generates, the dark, rich, beautiful tone color from top to bottom, the Magico-equaling transient speed, and the superb treble are, in the words of my friend and colleague Andre Jennings, “simply addictive.” Another way of putting this is that the D-5 and the Wilsons are gorgeous, powerful, and finely detailed on every kind of music. Whether they also sound plausibly like the real thing on every kind of music is a different question. But let me say something else here that’ll rock the boat. For most listeners, the absolute sound doesn’t matter. Let me repeat that again: For most listeners, the absolute sound doesn’t matter. For most listeners, it is the effect of the absolute sound (or of the canned one, for that matter)—the horripilating visceral excitement and ravishing beauty of music and not a fool-ya simulacrum of, oh, a violin or a piano—that matters most.
ASTELL & KERN AK380 HIGH-RES DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYER
October 4, 2015 Comments Off on ASTELL & KERN AK380 HIGH-RES DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYER
First and foremost, the AK380 consistently serves up a precise and firmly controlled sound characterised by transparency, openness, nuance, and an overarching sense of almost boundless attention to detail. Stated another way, the AK380 serves up clarity with a capital ‘C’ and an enchanting quality of musical lucidity that just won’t quit. In my experience, these qualities often caused even casual, first-time guest listeners to stop in their tracks and take notice of the pocket-sized player. I suspect this is because the AK380 tends to shatter preconceived notions of how a portable product will sound, instead delivering the sort of self-confident and self-assured sound that many would associate with premium-priced full-size components.
World’s Greatest Audio Systems- Rockitman, Wilson, Pass Labs, TechDAS, UHA Phase 12
October 1, 2015 Comments Off on World’s Greatest Audio Systems- Rockitman, Wilson, Pass Labs, TechDAS, UHA Phase 12
Dan D’Agostino Momentum Integrated Amplifier review
September 27, 2015 Comments Off on Dan D’Agostino Momentum Integrated Amplifier review
Vinylify makes individual record pressings affordable
September 26, 2015 Comments Off on Vinylify makes individual record pressings affordable
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