Technics SA-C600 $999 Review
January 18, 2023 Comments Off on Technics SA-C600 $999 Review
https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/technics-sa-c600
Mahler’s Symphony No.10 is a dense and demanding piece of classical music. The Technics does well, though to be fair if you’re after the last word in insight a well-chosen combination of separates will do better. Regardless, the SA-C600 captures the feel of the music convincingly, delivering a combination of drama and fluidity that grabs a firm hold of our attention. A claimed power output of 30 watts per channel (into 8 ohms) is pretty modest, but the SA-C600 exceeds expectations by sounding surprisingly authoritative and suitably large-scale.
The digital inputs maintain this high standard, provided the source is of the requisite quality, of course. It’s only when we feed a signal through the single line-level analogue input do we feel a tinge of disappointment, as it sounds a little more opaque and dynamically constrained than we’d hoped for. Oddly, the onboard moving magnet phono stage doesn’t exhibit these traits to any serious extent and sounds way better than is the norm from such built-in circuits. This phono stage is good enough for most price-compatible turntables, which is an unexpected but thoroughly pleasant surprise.
Radialstrahler MBL 101 X-Treme £225,000 Review
January 16, 2023 Comments Off on Radialstrahler MBL 101 X-Treme £225,000 Review
This comes as a double-edged sword; the intensity of focus and sense of being a part of living, breathing musical events renders some recordings hard to stomach. Poorly recorded tracks (not ‘consciously lo-fi’… badly compressed ‘Loudness War’ casualties) are an unsettling experience, but one that makes you angry with the engineers rather than the system itself. You feel the urge to drag the producer, engineer and mastering engineers to your listening room, play them what they made and demand an apology.
Then you put something on that is well-recorded. Maybe some classic slice of late 1950s clubby jazz or an intelligently recorded singer in a studio. And you… stop. You stop and listen. Your pulse rate slows. You move quickly into that relaxed alpha wave brain state and remember why music is often used as a therapeutic key to unlocking people. Yes, of course, the omnidirectional nature of the sound makes this a visceral experience, and soundstaging elements and staging precision take on an entirely different aspect. But it puts you there in the room with the audience in a genuinely uncanny manner that is as beguiling as it is different to the norms of audio.
I thought that such a different sound might be something of a hurdle, that you would miss the more direct projection of conventional loudspeakers, but that isn’t the case at all. OK, so the big, more diffuse sound of a singer takes some getting used to, partly because we are so used to hearing singers amplified (even in classical music settings now), but even that isn’t a big jump to make in reality.
DS Audio ES-001 Eccentricity Stabilizer Review
January 16, 2023 Comments Off on DS Audio ES-001 Eccentricity Stabilizer Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/ds-audio-es-001-eccentricity-stabilizer
Still, you might be wondering why I refuse to ‘name and shame’ specific LPs. That’s because the ES-001 exposed a dilemma which will drive some of you crazy – that of the deviation between two or more copies of the same LP and pressing. In the past I’ve purchased a few ‘identical’ LPs precisely for A/B’ing turntables and cartridges but some turned out not to be so identical after all. I won’t name them because my pressings might differ from yours, and this exercise is, after all, about inconsistency in manufacturing.
I can see some of you buying an ES-001, taking it to the record store and checking the copies in stock to secure the best – least eccentric – pressing. So the ES-001 will also be a test of LP vendor patience!
SVS PRIME WIRELESS PRO POWERED SPEAKER PAIR $899 REVIEW
January 15, 2023 Comments Off on SVS PRIME WIRELESS PRO POWERED SPEAKER PAIR $899 REVIEW
With various inputs on the right speaker’s back panel, you can access your wired or wireless network. You can plug in your source components, and even a TV using the HDMI port. As I reviewed this unit and listened carefully, I could think of many uses for this system around my home, putting it somewhere where I didn’t have any music or replacing some other system that wasn’t as good, like my office speakers. Without a subwoofer, I don’t think this system is designed for, or at its best, in a large room. But in an office, bedroom, or small family room, this system is hard to beat in sound quality.
In the right room, or with a subwoofer added, something like the SVS 3000 micro, you’d have a great system with minimal investment at this quality level. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find individual components of this quality that can beat the SVS Prime Wireless Pro Speakers at the price.
LSA HYPERDRIVE 2 HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER $999 REVIEW
January 15, 2023 Comments Off on LSA HYPERDRIVE 2 HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER $999 REVIEW
The LSA HyperDrive 2 Headphone Amplifier was a treat to listen to. The excellent engineering, solid construction, and very smooth sound add up to a very dynamic listening experience. On classical, vocal, acoustic, or rock and roll the HyperDrive 2 properly drove a wide variety of headphones and rendered music realistically and when needed, forcefully. Whether the source was digital, or pure analog, there was a lot to like.
Primare A35.8 8-channel power amplifier Review
January 14, 2023 Comments Off on Primare A35.8 8-channel power amplifier Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/primare-a358-8-channel-power-amplifier
The Primare A35.8 amplifier surprised me. Its performance in my system corroborated Primare’s claim that they can make a great amplifier from Ncore modules, one that can rival amplifiers based on the newer Purifi technology as well as amplifiers utilizing traditional, nonswitching technology. Its eight channels and bridged gain options endow it with tremendous versatility. To me, the Primare A35.8 is worthy of an audition in any multichannel setup. It is a pleasure to use and to listen to.
Boulder 866 Integrated Amplifier $14,250 Review
January 13, 2023 Comments Off on Boulder 866 Integrated Amplifier $14,250 Review
Gentle Ben is one of my most favorite albums in my entire high resolution jazz collection. The 866 DAC grabs this digital file and makes it something special. On the first track, “Ben’s Blues,” Ben Webster on saxophone and Tete Montoliu on piano provide the perfect balance of urgency and despair for this beautiful blues ballad. Again, we have the suddenness and dynamic contrast that only the very best components can bring to the table. These musicians and these instruments were now in the room! I also have the outstanding 45 RPM vinyl pressing from Analogue Productions. This was one of the few times that digital was able to really satisfy all that this recording can offer.
Final Thoughts
The Boulder 866 is a star performer and a true standard of excellence. With its superb industrial design and musical presentation, the 866 can easily be the center piece of the very best sound systems. The optional integrated DAC provides tremendous value and performance and competes well with DACs many times it price. Bottom line. The 866 indisputably pushes the envelope for what current integrated amplifiers can now provide—even for the most sophisticated Audiophiles. Highly recommended!
Dynaudio Focus 30 Active Loudspeaker System Review
January 13, 2023 Comments Off on Dynaudio Focus 30 Active Loudspeaker System Review
At the end of Gordon’s exhaustive review, he concluded that the Focus 30 system “deepened” his “admiration for Dynaudio’s active speakers,” and that he was “won over by the Focus 30’s transparent presentation, effortless dynamics, pinpoint imaging, and bass extension.” Gordon added that he “loved the look of the speakers” in his living room, but the support for Dirac Live is “the clincher” when it comes recommending this speaker system to readers. Gordon’s praise in his review earned the Focus 30 speaker system a Reviewers’ Choice award at the time it was published—and that same praise has now earned it a Recommended Reference Component award. Suffice it to say, DSP-based active speakers have come of age for those who are serious about sound—and Dynaudio’s Focus 30 has the features to optimize that sound, too.
Bowers & Wilkins Px8 Headphones $699 Review
January 12, 2023 Comments Off on Bowers & Wilkins Px8 Headphones $699 Review
https://www.soundandvision.com/content/bowers-wilkins-px8-headphones-review
Even without looking at, feeling, or listening to the Px8, there are so many things I love. I truly love that they have button controls instead of touch pads on the earcups. I end up accidentally doing “something” when wearing touch-pad headphones– advancing a track, pausing, adjusting volume, whatever, when I was only rubbing my ear or moving my hair. I love being able to assign different functions to the Quick Access button. I love the pass-through ANC mode. And I love the high-quality streaming function. And did I mention how much I love how they look, feel and sound?
They are expensive and have extravagant finishes. But you really do get what you pay for. With the Bowers and Wilkins Px8, you get luxurious ANC headphones with exactly the sound quality you would expect.
Emotiva BasX TA1 Integrated Amplifier Review
January 12, 2023 Comments Off on Emotiva BasX TA1 Integrated Amplifier Review
In general, the TA1’s performance is of the crowd-pleasing nature you’d expect from a feature-packed integrated at this price – it plays loud and low, has tangible driving ability, and snaps into detail. Depth of soundstage is also handled well, ensuring The Allman Brothers Band’s At Filmore East [Mercury 0600753270240] comes across like the live recording it is. But the amp doesn’t spread the sound particularly wide, meaning that, on the epic-length ‘Mountain Jam’, there’s a suggestion of the players fighting for the spotlight.
This, and the TA1’s lack of real richness and smoothness in mids and highs are where its sonic aspirations come face to face with its price tag. Yet I’ll end on a high, as the amplifier deserves it – Warren G’s hip-hop hit ‘Regulate’ [Violator Records 523 335-2] sounded as vibrant and bouncy as its producers intended, the TA1 digging up warm, room-filling bass and projecting the soul-inflected vocals right at me. That so much energy was coming from a slim, black box was an eye-opener.
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