Consonance Wax Engine and Charisma Eco £1,895 Review
July 12, 2022 Comments Off on Consonance Wax Engine and Charisma Eco £1,895 Review
Consonance Wax Engine and Charisma Eco
For the money, this package is a bargain. While it offers a modest discount on the individual elements if bought separately, the overall end product is one whose performance far outweighs the sum of the separate parts. There’s a synergy which not only retrieves an awful lot of information from the groove in terms of sound quality, but it also does that indefinable thing of engaging with the listener and really ‘making music’.
Think about it. A more than half-decent MC cartridge, a superbly capable finely engineered pick-up arm, and a turntable which has the pedigree of an exceptionally fine centre bearing coupled with a high quality motor on a robust non-resonant chassis.
It really is punching above its weight in terms of ‘bang for buck’, and quite honestly, there are a few other arm/deck/cartridge combinations out there which might need to look nervously at their own price points because this pairing is a serious contender in the sub-£2,000 stakes. Performance-wise, it really should be priced a fair bit higher. From my experience it deserves a hearty recommendation, and I encourage you all to seek one out and really give it a fair test; I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
JBL HDI-3800 Review
July 11, 2022 Comments Off on JBL HDI-3800 Review
JBL HDI-3800
I also played a lot of vinyl through these speakers and that always worked well, Lou Donaldson on Blue Note was full of energy and groove, the JBLs revealing the character of the recording as well as the brilliance of the performance with ease. The Enleum AMP-23R amplifier that I enjoyed so much last year happened to be in the system at the same time and while it doesn’t have enough power to deliver the full bass potential of the JBLs it did deliver some inspiring tunes. The emphasis on the musical message came through as well as it did on smaller speakers and voices sounded superb, the combo proving very good for exploring new music by bringing out the best in a wide variety of material. Even dub sounded good with this amp, the emphasis on tunefulness over power making even the heaviest mixes easy to enjoy at sensible levels.
Aavik U180, U280, and U580 integrated amplifiers Review
July 11, 2022 Comments Off on Aavik U180, U280, and U580 integrated amplifiers Review
The Pascal UMAC power amp module was easy to spot and I was pleased to see such a neatly laid-out preamplifier board. There’s an XMOS input receiver and a PCM1792 DAC chip. Mounted on the power amp module’s heatsink are three full-width PCBs full of Tesla coils that together take up roughly a third of the U-580’s internal volume, and as we will see, not without reason. What I could not find, at first glance, was the preamp’s power supply. I assumed that it could be powered from the Pascal module’s integrated power supply but that was not the case. Then, I noticed that the incoming mains power cable led to the preamp/DAC PCB where it was split off to the power amp module. And then I saw it: underneath a wide flex cable was a positively tiny switched power supply brick. It’s common practice to use either a linear power supply or a custom-built switched supply for analog sections but Aavik does not tend to do things in a conventional manner.
MEZE AUDIO LIRIC HEADPHONES $2000 REVIEW
July 9, 2022 Comments Off on MEZE AUDIO LIRIC HEADPHONES $2000 REVIEW
The Meze LIRIC comes across as neutral. On tracks I know very well I could not sense any form of frequency shaping toward warmth or coolness. Ideally, that’s what I want in high-quality headphones. Let the music and the recording speak for themselves.
When I compared the headphones to some more expensive products I had, the Liric’s held their own. Headphones at the same or a similar price sounded just a cut below the quality of the Liric’s, and some less expensive headphones, like the Apple EarPods, could not complete either in bass or smooth high frequencies.
None of the headphones I had on hand could compete on comfort due to the light weight of the LIRIC headphones, although I found some of the foam pads on competing headphones a little softer against my ears, exerting less pressure. That’s not to say the Meze LIRIC is uncomfortable. Far from it.
Primare A35.8 Multichannel Power £4500 Amp Review
July 8, 2022 Comments Off on Primare A35.8 Multichannel Power £4500 Amp Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/primare-a358-multichannel-power-amp
The million dollar question – okay, the £4500 question – is how much of the A35.8’s output is really ‘usable’. With the aforementioned speakers, I never got the chance to find out. I was listening happily at room-filling levels, worrying only about my neighbours and not distortion. ‘My Demons’, from Tears For Fears’ The Tipping Point [Concord Records; 44.1kHz/24-bit],
was delivered as fully energetic electropop, all clean lines and pure fidelity, even while the rhythmic drums and percussion pounded away. On this evidence, any speaker that benefits from a kick up the proverbial will find Primare’s latest power-pusher an able partner.
Thales TTT-Slim II, Simplicity II, X-quisite CA turntable Review
July 5, 2022 Comments Off on Thales TTT-Slim II, Simplicity II, X-quisite CA turntable Review
Live recordings are delivered with a strong sense of scale and image depth and the better studio productions can sound superb. Joni Mitchell’s Mingus [Asylum] being one clear example where everything sounded spot on, the voice stood out with beautiful tone and nuance and it felt as if you could hear right into the studio. Making it particularly easy to appreciate the efforts of the various top-notch musicians Mitchell gathered for this project; Jaco Pastorius, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Peter Erskine being the best known but even the percussion playing is in the top flight. All of this is revealed by the way that this Thales record player shows you not only what and how each note is created but, equally important, ensures that those notes stop and start precisely and allow what artists call the negative space, the quiet between notes to be clarified as well. I forgot to put the clamp on initially with this album so got to hear the way it solidifies the bass and adds definition to leading edges when it’s added. On some turntables clamps are not always beneficial but here it brings obvious increases in resolution.
Bass is a strong point on the Thales. The low-end is both solid and particularly articulate. I often play a hi-res digital version of ‘The Drycleaner from Des Moines’ on a streamer and digital usually has advantage in the bass but this record player made it clear that vinyl can compete in this arena where there is fine detail to be extracted from an analogue recording. Tonal character is usually an area where good turntables excel and that’s certainly the case here, on Conjure’s ‘Skydiving’ [Music For The Texts Of Ishmael Reed, American Clavé] instruments like congas really pop out of the speakers and there is strong contrast between the various horns, guitars and sounds in this rich mix with all elements getting to occupy a space in the soundstage. This is relatively easy with smaller ensembles but the Thales can do it with larger bands too.
Zu Audio Soul VI Loudspeakers $5995 Review
July 5, 2022 Comments Off on Zu Audio Soul VI Loudspeakers $5995 Review
I am left truly speechless when I think of how to describe the Soul VI to friends and audiophile colleagues. I want to tell people it is the perfect speaker; I also want to be transparent and say that I have not heard every speaker in the world so my ability to say it’s the “best” or “perfect” is nonexistent. However, they are easily the best speakers I have ever heard in my home, and they give me the same warm and fuzzies when I listen to them as I get when I listen to speakers like the Wilson Audio Sasha and the B&W 800 Diamonds in an acoustically treated dealer listening room. I did not have either of these speakers in my house so I can’t provide a direct comparison, but the fact that I get the same feeling, the same level of satisfaction, when literally nothing has done that before tells me how good these speakers sound.
The Soul VI has my highest recommendation. If you have a formal living room that you want to add a high end two channel system to, the Soul VI should be on your list. If you have a listening room that is on the smaller side, and you want a set of speakers that will show you everything and still be fun, the Soul VI should be on your list. If you want excellent sound, at a comparatively affordable price, that will scale with your stereo system into the $60k – $80k range then the Soul VI should be on be on your list. Thank you Sean, Phil, and the Zu Audio team. I liked the Soul VI so much that I bought it. I can’t provide a better recommendation than that.
KEF LSX II review
July 3, 2022 Comments Off on KEF LSX II review
https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/kef-lsx-ii
We’re used to KEF’s UniQ driver producing a stereo image that’s like a bubble of sound and this quality is apparent with the new LSX. Play Tina Turner’s Proud Mary and the system gets the layering of all the different elements of the track spot on. As different elements introduce themselves such as the guitar, drums, Turner’s voice and the accompanying male voice hanging in the background, the music becomes more interesting to listen to – and that’s before she launches into the more frantic section of the track. Tonally, the whole presentation is extremely inviting and shows a lot of natural warmth. And this rings true whether you’re listening to the speakers in a more conventional set-up on the stands or you’re sitting more up close and personal using them on a desktop. The closer you get, the more precise and focused they sound – so from this point of view, they’re extremely flexible too.
NEXTLEVEL ACOUSTICS REFERENCE CINEMA IN-WALL SPEAKER AND CI-HV18 SUBWOOFER REVIEW $4,999 Review
July 3, 2022 Comments Off on NEXTLEVEL ACOUSTICS REFERENCE CINEMA IN-WALL SPEAKER AND CI-HV18 SUBWOOFER REVIEW $4,999 Review
There is nothing negative I can say about the NextLevel Acoustics Reference Cinema In-Wall Speakers and CI-HV18 Subwoofer. The in-walls perform better than most cabinet speakers I’ve heard, and the sub delivers the extension and volume of a ported cabinet with the precision of a sealed one. NextLevel Acoustics has bent the laws of physics here, most definitely in a good way.
If you want a discrete speaker system that sounds better than any commercial cinema, the In-Walls can literally disappear behind an acoustically transparent screen or behind color-matched grills. They are a zero-footprint solution. The CI-HV18 sub is easy to hide too thanks to its bandpass design. Put it up front behind a partition or along a side wall and prepare to have your room shaken.
The NextLevel Acoustics Reference Cinema In-Wall Speakers and HV18 Subwoofer are a premium and convenient audio solution that doesn’t compromise sound quality in any way, shape, or form. They receive my highest recommendation.
Audiophilepure 
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