Audiophilepure

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/aurender-ap20-integrated-review-r1256

The design of the AP20 is really something to behold. It’s the right horse for not just a single course, but many courses. Its flexibility enables it to be used as an all-in-one or as a single component of a larger system, or as something that falls in between those two. I used it in two different systems, and mainly as the only component connected to my Wilson Audio Alexia V loudspeakers. I still have a smile on my face when thinking about playing Mahler’s Third through this system, with little volume attenuation. Enough transients to scare any listener and plenty of delicacy to please even the most discerning audiophile. The team at Aurender has seriously outdone itself.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/bat-rex-500-power-amplifier

Joining this is the sheer atmosphere the REX 500 brings to tracks, big or small. ‘My Home Is In The Delta’ by Muddy Waters [Folk Singer; Geffen 96kHz/24-bit] was immensely evocative. Tiny details of his slide guitar playing were picked out, and the intimacy and ambience of this sparse recording shone through. At the other end of the scale, ‘America’, from Deutsch Grammophon’s live capture of Bernstein’s West Side Story featuring Jose Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa [96kHz/24-bit], saw vocalists placed along a wide, deep stage. Dynamic brass moments arrived with force – a counterpoint to softer percussion and shimmering latino guitar parts. This chaotic track is as much of a melting pot as its subject matter, yet the REX 500 gave equal footing to every tone and texture.

BAT’s amp performs just as admirably with music of a more modern bent. Daft Punk’s ‘Giorgio By Moroder’ [Random Access Memories; Sony Music 88883716862] began with a sonorous rendering of Moroder’s monologue and an almost surround sound delivery of the background ambience. Then we’re into wah-wah guitar and a club vibe, hammered home by a pounding kick drum and deep bass. The Perlisten S7t LE speakers were kept on a tight leash here, and the imaging between them was seamless.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/rotel-michi-x3-series-2-integrated-amplifier

And in the next moment, Rotel’s amplifier can deliver a beautifully atmospheric yet focused view of Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’, in the 2019 Thomas Oliemans release accompanied by Paolo Giacometti [Channel Classics CCS 42119]. Here, the wonderful texture of the baritone voice was revealed, the piano beautifully measured, while the sense of chill ran right through the whole enterprise. There’s no shortage of information here, yet again the Michi X3 Series 2 seems to downplay its contribution to the sound: this may be something of a big bruiser of an amp, but it’s also light on its feet and deliciously crisp.

I thought to maintain the atmosphere with the Hoff Ensemble’s classic Quiet Winter Night set [2L 2L-087], which is both another one of those remarkable Morten Lindberg recordings set in a generous church acoustic, and a perfect jazz album for long, cold evenings. Again, the X3 Series 2 showed just how much information it could deliver, from Jan Gunnar Hoff’s beautifully restrained piano to the soaring vocals and brass, plus serious punch in the ensemble’s drums and bass. It sent a tingle down the spine, and not just due to the wintry themes.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/dagostino-mxv-integrated-integrated-amplifier

Turning to digital, the mainly unplugged remakes of his back catalogue on Bob Dylan’s Shadow Kingdom [Columbia/Legacy 19658767492 CD] are tricky ones to employ, because decades (literally) of familiarity with songs such as ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ and ‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’ are thrown out with the bathwater. The performances bear no resemblance to the well-known originals, so it’s harder to focus just on the sound.

That said, I had played the disc enough times to feel confident about using it, and there was a reward in the way the MxV Integrated handled vocals. Those who have followed Dylan over the past 60 years have heard the changes in his voice – the same applies to all singers, from Cher to Springsteen to McCartney – and this soundtrack CD most assuredly is Dylan circa-the-2020s. Dan D’Agostino’s designs have always viewed music through a micro lens, and the tiniest traces of rasp and richness underscored the more common nasality.