The world’s best IEM? Subtonic Storm Review
May 18, 2024 Comments Off on The world’s best IEM? Subtonic Storm Review
Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter In TrueHD Dolby Atmos
May 17, 2024 Comments Off on Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter In TrueHD Dolby Atmos
https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/immersive/pearl-jam%E2%80%99s-dark-matter-in-truehd-dolby-atmos-r1267
In 1991 I went from an eighth grader listening to misogynistic Motley Crue to a high school freshman awakened by Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten and the band’s activism. Pearl Jam changed my life, and I can’t imagine it going any other way. I would happily take PJ’s music on a mono AM radio, like the one on which my dad listened to WCCO 830 in the bathroom every morning, rather than any other band’s music on the world’s highest resolution stereo. It’s about the music, the message, and the emotion. Sure, we hear music with our ears, but some music we feel in our hearts.
Like the rare solar eclipse, once in a great while we experience the perfect sonic storm, in the best way imaginable. A sublime storm that mixes our favorite music with incredible sound quality, to be played on an audio system built for just this purpose. On April 19th Pearl Jam released Dark Matter on Blu-ray Disc, among many other formats and variants, containing a high resolution TrueHD Dolby Atmos immersive mix. This is an absolute game changer

AUSTRIAN AUDIO THE COMPOSER $2,700 REVIEW
May 17, 2024 Comments Off on AUSTRIAN AUDIO THE COMPOSER $2,700 REVIEW
The Composer weighs in at under 400 grams, which is quite light nowadays for a TOTL headphone. The Composer doesn’t feel like it weighs 385g either, and it is comfortable at all times, even for long listening sessions. The headband does a perfect job of distributing the weight over your head and side pressure of The Composer sits just right. It’s tight enough to move around without having to worry about the headphone sliding of your head. As The Composer comes with a 3m cable, you really will be moving around with it on your head, so that’s a job well-done.
Comfort wise The Composer also comes with tiltable earcups (four positions) to help achieve a flawless fit. As we all know a perfect fit is what you need to get the best possible sound quality and The Composer easily makes that possible. The Austrian Audio design team also chose to attach the cable directly to the headband. This to protect the ears from undue strain. With its large earcups (easily replaceable due to magnetic connection), soft cushioning and excellent headband system, it is one of the most comfortable headphones in my collection.


Story of The World’s Most Expensive Record
May 16, 2024 Comments Off on Story of The World’s Most Expensive Record
Muarah Audio MT-3 Turntable $2990 Review
May 15, 2024 Comments Off on Muarah Audio MT-3 Turntable $2990 Review
https://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2024/1/16/muarah-mt3-turntable
Type “3K turntables” into Google and press the shopping tab. It’s almost overwhelming the choices for your analog dollar. As such, only the very best sound and design value-for-money products will survive. I’m confident that an audition of this ‘table, correctly set up and with an appropriate cartridge, will convince those searching for their next turntable to shortlist the Muarah Audio MT-3. At USD 2990 including a well-designed tonearm, it’s a solid analog bargain. A warm recommendation from me.

JBL Spinner BT $400 Review
May 14, 2024 Comments Off on JBL Spinner BT $400 Review
https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/jbl-spinner-bt-review
Similarly with Mars from Holst’s The Planets, the JBL does a good job of capturing the drama and rollercoaster of dynamics and emotions that the track delivers. There’s a pleasant tone across the board with a good sense of texture from the sweeping strings to the regimented hits of the timpani drum. Low frequencies don’t sound too thick, or lightweight, and nor does it thrash out highs with reckless abandon. In this regard, the Spinner BT is well-behaved.
While we’re using the Arcam’s phono stage, we swap decks to the similarly priced and five-star Rekkord Audio F110. It’s a fully automatic deck but doesn’t have Bluetooth functionality or a built-in phono amp. Compared to the JBL it gives you a little more across the board. We find it sounds more confident and composed. There’s an even greater sense of musicality with elements flowing even more naturally.

Halcro Eclipse Stereo Power Amplifier Review
May 14, 2024 Comments Off on Halcro Eclipse Stereo Power Amplifier Review
The Frequency Response is 7Hz – 90kHz within -1dB and 3Hz – 215kHz within -3db. The maximum slew rate for both small signal and the maximum output voltage is 100V/μs, which is equivalent to a maximum output voltage at approximately 250 kHz.
To ensure trouble-free operation under any circumstances, the Eclipse amplifier is exceptionally well-protected. The power supply is protected against most mains transients. It will cut out if common faults are detected, such as over-voltage, master clock at incorrect frequency, or excessive temperatures. The power amplifier section is short-circuit proof and protected against most input overloads. It has over-current limiting and protection against overheating. It will cut out if a continuous DC offset appears on output or if the output current continuously exceeds 12 A average over a period of a few minutes. The latter may seem like a compromise, but Halcro has rigorously tested this and confirmed that this condition never occurs in normal music reproduction. Hence, it poses no limitations.


Chord teases Suzi pre/power amplifier concept
May 13, 2024 Comments Off on Chord teases Suzi pre/power amplifier concept
The pictures above give an idea of what the Suzi pre/power will look like, but it’s hard to gauge more details or dimensions without seeing them in person. However, we know the Hugo 2 and 2go combo is about the size of a paperback novel, which gives an idea of just how compact the Suzi combo is.
The Suzi preamp and Suzi power amplifier will be launching formally this autumn, at which time we’ll have full details, specifications and pricing to keep you up to speed.
Before that, however, we’ll be on the ground at the High End Munich show to bring you as many details and hands-on images as we can when we see Chord’s new Suzi products on display. Chord has one more product – this time a digital one designed by Rob Watts – to still reveal, so stay tuned for all our Munich show news and coverage as the event starts on 9th May

Octave Audio V70 Class A integrated amplifier $12,000 Review
May 13, 2024 Comments Off on Octave Audio V70 Class A integrated amplifier $12,000 Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/octave-audio-v70-class-integrated-amplifier
I started my vinyl listening with Bell Orchestre’s House Music (LP, Erased Tapes Records ERATP141LP-CA), a rock-classical hybrid instrumental work that includes several string instruments, group chanting, and a menagerie of seamlessly integrated studio sound effects. Via the Octave’s phono stage, the band sounded bigger than six members—more vaulted and sonically varied with a richer, more reverberant consistency. The V 70’s characteristic transparency, big-picture boldness, and the detail retrieval I’d heard with digital came through, if not quite to the same level. (That limitation could be a reflection more of the sources I was using than of the phono itself.)
Texture and transient tactility were conspicuous. On the first track, “Opening,” violin and double bass produced vibrant, rich-brown tone and vibrational texture that seemed serrated. The drums were focused, dynamically spry, and, judging by the arc of the drum hits, compact. The group chanting was almost Star Trek–y, with its extended-vowel, dashing-through–outer-space aura, vocally layered and luxuriantly toned. The phono stage emphasized the music’s coherency, both in the sense of a band playing together in the same room and in their creative complicity, the feeding-off-each-other group dynamic.


Musical Fidelity M8xTT Turntable $10,499 Review
May 12, 2024 Comments Off on Musical Fidelity M8xTT Turntable $10,499 Review
https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1229-musical-fidelity-m8xtt-turntable
The M8xTT is not a forward-sounding turntable, but it is a bit larger than life in all directions. Just to let all the haters know that I’m not stuck in the music of the last 40 years, I threw on Vladimir Ashkenazy’s 1973 recording of Franz Schubert’s Piano Sonata in G Major (London Records CS6820). I chose this record because it’s so huge, so massive—a piano piece that slows time down in a relativistic manner. I was spinning in orbit around the planet that is Ashkenazy’s piano, and the clocks run slower up there. The entire first movement, “Fantasie,” is an exercise in slow-motion capture—huge piano notes that swallow galaxies, with Ashkenazy carefully considering each key before he depresses it.


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