KEF Reference 5 Meta Loudspeaker £17,500 Review
August 9, 2023 Comments Off on KEF Reference 5 Meta Loudspeaker £17,500 Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/kef-reference-5-meta-loudspeaker
Succumbing to the temptation to hear the speaker’s quartet of bass drivers in real action, I steered my listening towards the ‘Cowboy Song’/’The Boys Are Back In Town’/’Don’t Believe A Word’ sequence from the 1977 Philadelphia set on Thin Lizzy’s remastered Live And Dangerous boxset [UMC 0819035]. Here I was instantly rewarded with Brian Downey’s powering drums, Phil Lynott’s voice and thundering bass focused dead centre, and the soaring interlocked guitars of Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham.
This is no-frills power rock done proper, and thrilling, as the band wraps one track and slams straight into the next. Sleek and elegant these big speakers may be, but they’ll take – and deliver – some serious level, too, making them just as adept when rocking out as they are portraying the most elegant of ‘audiophile’ recordings.
PS Audio BHK M600 Monoblock Power Amplifiers $32,500 Review
August 9, 2023 Comments Off on PS Audio BHK M600 Monoblock Power Amplifiers $32,500 Review
ELAC Miracord Series Turntables Review
August 8, 2023 Comments Off on ELAC Miracord Series Turntables Review
https://www.analogplanet.com/content/elac-miracord-series-turntables
Meanwhile, the step-up Miracord 60, which is also intended to be an heir to the Miracord 90, comes equipped with a diamond chamfered 22mm die-cast aluminum platter, lightweight carbon-fiber tonearm with gimbal bearing and removable headshell, and a built-in optical sensor that sends its signal to a PID algorithm in the microcontroller that is then said to “tune the speed” of the DC motor.
Pass Labs XP-12 Preamplifier Review
August 8, 2023 Comments Off on Pass Labs XP-12 Preamplifier Review
With the XP-12 governing preamplifier duties, the soundstage, detail, depth, and vividly viscerally of HD movies, shows and music videos are an ongoing source of pleasure and amazement for us at home. Be it the creaks of timbers straining, then snapping—followed by a thunderous building collapse, the engine whine and screeching tires of James Bond’s Aston Martin, or Andrea Bocelli’s bewitching baritone tenor in “Perfect Symphony,” it’s a sensory treat that keep us glued to our couch way past bedtime.
KEF Reference 5 Meta Loudspeaker £17,500 Review
August 6, 2023 Comments Off on KEF Reference 5 Meta Loudspeaker £17,500 Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/kef-reference-5-meta-loudspeaker
With more intimate recordings, the ability of the towering Reference 5 Meta to sound small and precise, yet with plenty of weight, is again in evidence. Erin Bode’s cover of ‘In My Life’, from her YourSong Volume 1 album [Bandcamp download], was given a rock-solid stereo image, every breath clearly delineated, as was her version of ‘Happy Together’, where the presentation was like a high-definition version of something wonderfully old-fashioned, with every word crystal-clear. Rachael Price’s voice on ‘Join Me In A Dream’, from the Rachael and Vilray I Love A Love Song set [Nonesuch 075597909746], was equally lucid, bringing great vivacity to a piece with a deceptively simple – but gorgeous – arrangement. And with Thibault Cauvin’s acoustic guitar arrangement of the Bach ‘Toccata and Fugue’, from his Bach album [Sony Classical 19658784622], the Reference Meta’s superb resolution did a magnificent job of placing the solo instrument in an atmospheric, reverberant space, with laser-like focus and every touch of finger on string clear to hear.
SME 60 record player $71,900 Review
August 5, 2023 Comments Off on SME 60 record player $71,900 Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/sme-60-record-player
Using my Model 30/2 turntable and Series V tonearm as a benchmark, I was able to directly compare the Model 60 with the Series VA arm with my Model 30/2 with the Series V arm. SME’s fixed headshell-mounting holes made it possible to align my test cartridges identically in both arms then move the cartridges back and forth between them easily without having to go through a complete realignment each time. I did this with both my Dynavector DRT XV-1s and my Lyra Atlas cartridges, allowing easy and meaningful comparisons.
You’d be forgiven if, after looking at the Model 60’s brutal stance, you thought it was likely to sound like the musical equivalent of a Vin Diesel acting performance: big on drama and action, but with some of the subtlety lost along the way. Nothing could be further from reality. This brute can dance on its tiptoes, with finesse and fine gradations of tonal color that go beyond even the formidable 30/2 Series V combination.
kenaz Speakers Review
August 4, 2023 Comments Off on kenaz Speakers Review
CHORD MOJO 2 HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER $775 REVIEW
August 4, 2023 Comments Off on CHORD MOJO 2 HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER $775 REVIEW
As a DAC the Chord Mojo2 is quite an accomplishment, after all, it does equate to the summit of all of Chord’s accomplishments, and it will crush almost any chip-based DAC, which pretty much means anything in its price range, on the other hand, despite having the most up to date software you can’t really expect it to compete with the more expensive Chord products, hardware does account for a great deal, which leaves me still wanting to audition one of their higher-end products in a controlled environment. But, if you are looking for a portable DAC/Headphone amplifier for under $1,000 you simply can’t do better than the Chord Mojo2.
PrimaLuna EVO 100 Tube Phono Preamplifier £3398 Review
August 3, 2023 Comments Off on PrimaLuna EVO 100 Tube Phono Preamplifier £3398 Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/primaluna-evo-100-tube-phono-preamplifier
Let’s get one thing clear from the outset. With the exception of (London) Decca cartridges, which are out there in their own space, the EVO 100 Tube Phono excels with moving-coils, as these are more simpatico with the overall nature of the unit. That said, if you find it too warm, moving-magnets from Ortofon and others add a touch of coolness or even restraint.
Having ascertained that the Ortofon MMs – three different colours of 2M – were sounding of their best and even benefitting from the very tubes that they corralled, I moved onto MCs, including an aged Tsurugi (which sired Lyra), the EAT Jo No8 [HFN Dec ’19], and the reborn Kiseki [HFN Jul ’18]. It was here that I began to appreciate the phono stage’s two-pronged approach of matching gain and impedance. To my delight, none of the settings were best at the manufacturers’ recommended values, the EVO 100 reinforcing my belief that you need to set your cartridges by ear.
Audiophilepure 
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