Living Voice • Vox Palladian/Palladian Basso Loudspeaker System Review
April 4, 2019 Comments Off on Living Voice • Vox Palladian/Palladian Basso Loudspeaker System Review
“Despite the price, despite the sheer quality of the finish and the scale of the finished system, don’t confuse these speakers with some luxury exercise in cost-no-object consumption. These speakers are all — and only — about performance. In a market where an increasing number of products appear more concerned with their role as male jewelry than they do with their achievements in musical communication (the audio equivalents of tote bags with logos from the likes of Chanel or Dolce & Gabbana that are so big that they overlap the available surface), the Living Voice Vox-series speakers are a singular — and singularly successful — exception to that trend. If the general public struggles with brand recognition much beyond Bang & Olufsen or its spiritual descendent Devialet, if the likes of Wilson Audio are flying well below the popular radar, then where does that place the Vox Palladians? The simple fact is that nobody will buy them to impress their non-audio friends. You don’t buy them to impress your fashion-conscious audio buddies either. You don’t buy them to convince yourself that you are younger than you feel, and you certainly don’t buy them to impress your interior designer/decorator, who really isn’t going to understand the positional demands they dictate. You buy the Vox Palladians (assuming you can afford to) for one reason and one reason only — to be transported by music. Arguably more than any other speaker system I’ve tested, they stand or fall by that measure alone — and stand they most definitely do.”
MOST COLLECTED RELEASES
December 19, 2018 Comments Off on MOST COLLECTED RELEASES
“Today we’re revealing quarterly reporting from three categories within the Discogs Database and Marketplace. We break down the increasing growth of user collections based on new (2017/2018, inclusive of reissues) and catalog releases. We then take a look at the Most Expensive Items Sold via Discogs over the course of the third quarter of 2018. We also have the Top 20 Best Selling Release Variations, which looks at the distinct release variants that are selling across the Discogs Marketplace. By breaking sales down to a variant level, we’re able to surface other leading releases that aren’t rolled under a singular master release.”
Big Sound 2015 Tylls Take on the Amps
November 16, 2018 Comments Off on Big Sound 2015 Tylls Take on the Amps
Woo Audio WA33 Balanced Headphone Amplifier Review
November 13, 2018 Comments Off on Woo Audio WA33 Balanced Headphone Amplifier Review
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The WA33 could very well be the best sounding headphone amplifier ever to make its way into the lab, but its also the most expensive. Could it sound better? Maybe. I do recall hearing Woo’s own pinnacle monoblocks ($16k) at an audio show complete reset my thinking for what can be achieved in person audio with proper support, but lets keep things (somewhat) practical for this exercise. The dual chassis case will fit on a desktop and despite its high society price tag is manageable and fully balanced for an end-to-end experience that can both wow and whisper. The bonus preamp callabilities make some sense for near field or desktop listening and all other qualifiers as a top tier headphone amplifier are firmly checked.”
BURSON Class-A headphone amp Review
September 8, 2018 Comments Off on BURSON Class-A headphone amp Review
“The Bang is a powerful yet compact power amplifier that would be at home in both a PC based system as well as a HiFi system. If you partner it with the Play you have a remote from which you can adjust the volume, with the Fun you only have the volume pot. The Bang does not shy away from a challenge and it will do justice to many easier to driver speakers out there, it sounds a lot better than the cheaper integrated amps around the same price, the only downside is you will need a pre-amp to match the amount of inputs you need”
Woo Audio WA33 Balanced Headphone Amplifier $15,000 Review
August 4, 2018 Comments Off on Woo Audio WA33 Balanced Headphone Amplifier $15,000 Review
“There have been several songs that have been thrown to the zeitgeist of audiophile tracks as references for music that fully represents entire spectrum of sound for testing purposes. During a tour of Harmen’s testing facilities in California, researcher Sean Olive expressed a nomination for Tracy Chaplin’s Fast Car. While not the most uplifting song every penned, it does a fine job as an amplifier illuminator. Though the WA33 the polished dynamics of the tube driven amp really laid the foundation for a capability to be drawn into the music. The bass was so supportive of the rest of the mix, the overall presentation sounded accurate, but also fun. If one was to break down the feeling into more certain terms, you could look at two separate, but intertwined ideas. 1. its relaxed 2. its intimate. This Woo isn’t relaxed in the sense that it has opened its grip on transparency, control or otherwise, but rather it finds a balance between the analytical nature of pureform detail pass-along and the slowly creeping edge of overpopulating the notion of information presentation. It’s the emotional equivalent of someone saying “relax, we got this” before coordinating a game winning play. There both confidence and authority in the delivery. The intimacy is derived from a robust tonal structure that fills in the lost spaces between reality and recreation. T
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Moon by Simaudio 888 monoblock power amplifier Review – $118,888/pair
July 31, 2018 Comments Off on Moon by Simaudio 888 monoblock power amplifier Review – $118,888/pair
“Not having heard Simaudio’s less costly Moon 880M monoblock, which was reviewed by Brian Damkroger in June 2013, I can’t be sure, but I’d bet the Moon 888 sounds similar, albeit with greater nuance, grace, and finesse, especially in the upper octaves, and greater transparency overall. Of course, if the recording is poor, you’re going to hear that poorness in all its awful glory—but that’s not the amplifier’s fault. However, with the best recordings, regardless of genre or whether it was on LP, CD, or hi-rez file, the Moon 888s produced the highest level of sound quality in my system, passing along warmth or chills, transparency or sludge, grain or greatness, as dictated not by the electronics but by the recording itself.
To say that the Moon 888s delivered what I’d expect and demand for $118,888/pair is not to say that it will necessarily meet the expectations of every audiophile, especially those who prefer warmth and, perhaps, a more fleshed-out harmonic presentation even if it’s not on the recording. But they sure met mine.”
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/moon-simaudio-888-monoblock-power-amplifier-page-2#BeBegP7Hdek1clEm.99
Viva Egoista 845 HeadPhone Amp $13,800 Review
April 14, 2018 Comments Off on Viva Egoista 845 HeadPhone Amp $13,800 Review
“If the Viva Egoista 845’s price is out of bounds, the company also offers the somewhat smaller Egoista 2A3 tube headphone amp for $9,750 in the US. The prices are for the amps in Viva’s standard painted finishes, custom ordered automotive paint finished amps are available for a $500 upcharge for either Egoista amp.
ABYSS AB-1266 PHI HEADPHONES $4495 REVIEW
April 11, 2018 Comments Off on ABYSS AB-1266 PHI HEADPHONES $4495 REVIEW
” This new version of headphones have really come a long way! The world famous Abyss bass is still there, deep, powerful and masterfully detailed and in the end offers some of the very best presentation of the lowest octaves in a recording that you’ll ever hear from a pair of headphones! The stand-up bass portrayal really put the musician literally right there in my minds’ eye. But the two biggest areas for improvement of the new Phi headphones over their predecessor was in the treble region and overall transparency.”
Audiophilepure 
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