Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/wilson-audio-wattpuppy

Despite the way The WATT/Puppy dealt with both the delicate and the majestic, it was the latter that proved the most enticing. The speaker was proving to be the opposite of the diminutive LS3/5A, for example, to which I turn for savouring vocals. Thus I was driven to playing the whole of Led Zeppelin II [Atlantic SD8236], with which John Bonham’s juggernaut drumming came ascloseasthis to the Sasha V. The slam, the dryness of the bass drum, the sizzle of the cymbals were reproduced with such command that I was finding it difficult to imagine more.

What sold me, however, was a raw performance from a long-forgotten various artists LP sampler from 1973, Let It Rock [Atlantic K40455]. After a blistering ‘Back In The USA’ by MC5, all scorching guitars with greater speed than The Ramones could muster, I sat back to savour Magic Dick’s harmonica lead on J. Geils Band’s ‘Pack Fair And Square’. Arguably the greatest harp solo in history, it soars while testing clarity and transient crispness. It was, to put it succinctly, as in-the-room as I have ever heard in 50-plus years of loving it.

Of course the biggest feature here is the presence of vacuum tubes, for which Astell&Kern did a lot of work on minimizing the microphonic noise. AK uses a matched set of RAYTHEON JAN6418 miniature vacuum tubes, which are very popular in portable audio designs nowadays. This tube is designed to meet military specifications and traditionally was used in military communication equipment. It quickly garnered recognition for its distinctively warm and soft sound, leading to its integration into regular audio devices.

https://www.monoandstereo.com/pro-ject-the-classic-reference-turntable/

The new The Classic Reference combines technical fi­nesse and luxury design like no other turntable. It is ba­sed on the The Classic EVO and the experience we won designing and building our iconic turntable, the 175 Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Classic Reference is available with a hand-selected Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Anniversary cartridge. The sound of this special cartridge was fine-tuned with members of the Vienna Philharmonics and built in Europe by Ortofon ac­cording to our specifications.

The sound emanating from the RAW-MDA1 varied by source input naturally, and the music source being used. I did prefer the balanced output for listening over the 6.35mm single-ended.

The balanced option helped to spread the soundstage out, allowing the instruments to exercise in their own space. Plus, the balanced output gives a cleaner signature, to me.

The RAW-MDA1 promotes a nearly neutral signature, displaying warmth and richness only if the source or music played does so (or when one of the cool filters is chosen). This comes across as one of the more neutral DAC/amps I have tried and is similar to the DL100.