KEF new Blade loudspeakers $28,000 Review

March 11, 2022 Comments Off on KEF new Blade loudspeakers $28,000 Review

The Blade Two is not a trickle-down product that does a rough approximation of the Blade One to hit a lower price point. Priced at $28,000 per pair, the Blade Two does exactly what the Blade One does in large rooms, but the Blade Two low frequency system is designed to work better in smaller environments. Essentially, room gain will differ between large- and medium-sized listening rooms, and the Blade Two is meant for the latter so that bass overload doesn’t become a difficult issue.

Consider the Blade One Meta and Blade Two Meta to be KEF’s latest work on bringing this all together, remembering that work on the first Blade was begun in 2006 and continued for 5 years before it’s 2011 introduction. KEF has had 10 addition years to work on the Blade and get it even closer to the ideal. The improved linearity (same electrical or acoustic characteristics at all frequencies) in the Blade One Meta and Blade Two Meta are impressive achievements: nearly every parameter got better on an already outstanding speaker.

ASTELL&KERN A&ULTIMA SP2000T MUSIC PLAYER REVIEW$2499 Review

March 11, 2022 Comments Off on ASTELL&KERN A&ULTIMA SP2000T MUSIC PLAYER REVIEW$2499 Review

While this DAP supports Bluetooth, I was very happy to see it work as a Roon endpoint over Wi-Fi. I think the audio quality is better than Bluetooth and I love having all my music available on this DAP anywhere in the house.

For many audiophiles, the SP2000T is going to be priced out of their budget. Still, it’s rare to review something that is so feature-complete and not disappointing in some way. Astell&Kern have put a lot of thought into this product. In many ways, I think it is a better and more portable solution to home music listening than being tied to a high-quality headphone amp. For travel, it can’t be topped.

ENLEUM AMP-23R REVIEW

March 9, 2022 Comments Off on ENLEUM AMP-23R REVIEW

Anyone looking for a fuller bottom end with these headphones needs to hear them on the AMP-23R as soon as they possibly can! Transparency and clarity were equally there in this pairing and I was so very impressed with the AMP-23R’s ability to portray even the smallest of details and nuances within a recording with complete ease. This amplifier was simply the best I’ve heard these headphones sound and I’ve heard the Susvara through many top-flight desktop headphone amplifiers (and several speaker amps as well). If you own these headphones, please check this amplifier out…you will not be disappointed!

LAMPIZATOR BALTIC 3 HI-RES DAC $6000 REVIEW

March 8, 2022 Comments Off on LAMPIZATOR BALTIC 3 HI-RES DAC $6000 REVIEW

As my biggest complaint about digital playback is its potential to be more tonally “barren” and considerably less dimensionally accurate or representative, what I was hearing with the Baltic 3 had me encouraged with this unpretentious and more affordable LampizatOr offering. Once the unit was in place and had about one hundred hours of run-in, it had become clear that I was being treated to the lion’s share of the naturalness and space that had won me over with both the Golden Gate and Pacific.

ATC SCM40 Loudspeakers $7999 Review

March 7, 2022 Comments Off on ATC SCM40 Loudspeakers $7999 Review

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1081-atc-scm40-loudspeakers

The ATC SCM40 is an extraordinary loudspeaker at this price and it’s very hard for me to think of anything that comes close, even at twice its cost. There are speakers that reveal more at very low listening levels—my own Naim SBLs, for example—but the SCM40s opened up and took a clear lead once the volume rose a little. The ATCs are beautifully built, easy to accommodate, possess world-class dynamics, deliver a powerful full-bandwidth sound, and are blessed with what I think is the world’s best midrange driver. Fed by good sources and driven with enough power, they delivered superb transparency and soundstaging. With their refined new tweeter they are more tolerant of poor recordings than many loudspeakers at this level. The SCM40s had astonishing timing and speed—there was zero overhang, and transient sounds were delivered like a bullet through a plate-glass window. They could groove and rock with the best, yet displayed superb delicacy on classical instruments or solo piano.

Deezer Review

March 7, 2022 Comments Off on Deezer Review

https://www.whathifi.com/us/deezer/review

Regardless of the device used, subscribers can access a catalogue of over 90 million songs, which Deezer now assures us are all available in the CD-quality FLAC format. It’s an impressive figure, but with all music streaming services making similarly huge claims, the numbers game is rendered a little academic. 

What matters is whether the tracks you’re looking for are available and, in our experience, Deezer produces the fewest blanks after Spotify. It’s rare to find a song in Spotify’s catalogue that isn’t also available in Deezer’s – and in that higher-quality format. 

We find Deezer stocks pretty much every track of the diverse range we search for, and all in CD quality too. Just be aware that, unlike Apple Music and Tidal, Deezer doesn’t have artist or album window ‘exclusives’, although it does occasionally release its own live sessions with big artists.

Diptyque DP 107 Review

March 6, 2022 Comments Off on Diptyque DP 107 Review

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distortions and colorations, but they never sound dry or overdamped and they have impeccably natural timbre. Their transient behavior is absolutely impressive, bordering on what the Magicos can do and certainly not what I am accustomed to hearing from Magnepan or Apogee. And in addition to sounding technically impressive, they also move me emotionally. So what’s missing, one might ask. Well, that would be bass impact and overall slam, and to a lesser extent, soundstage depth. But do note that it’s not bass depth that is missing, only the kind of “kick” that you get with cone drivers.

But for a speaker costing 6000 euros, I’d say that is a major achievement. There’s no such thing as the perfect speaker and there will always be lesser aspects. Certainly with cabinet speakers. So, if you are in the market for an ultra-revealing speaker and your musical diet does not lean very heavily on metal or hard-rock, the DP-107’s could be ideal.

Klipsch La Scala AL5 Loudspeakers $13,198 Review

March 4, 2022 Comments Off on Klipsch La Scala AL5 Loudspeakers $13,198 Review

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1657-klipsch-la-scala-al5-loudspeakers

So what was there to do at that point other than nip downstairs and listen to The Wall from start to finish. It’s a glorious album, huge in scope and huge in its ability to reach through time, always managing to sound fresh through the years I’ve been listening to it. My pressing of choice is the Japanese Sony (LP, Sony 4OAP 1750-1); it just slightly betters the 2017 reissue. About halfway through “One of My Turns,” when Pink loses his shit and starts throwing stuff around, the quick transition slammed me back in my seat and for the first time, made me focus on how the keyboards help drive this track. I also took note of the way the La Scala’s fairly sharp bass cut-off made me miss some of the power of Mason’s kick drum and Waters’s bass. With this track in particular, and with bass-forward music in general, I realized that when I get my own huge industrial loft and end up purchasing my own pair of La Scalas, I’ll definitely want a couple of equally large, equally powerful subwoofers to flesh out the range below 50Hz.

Goldmund Telos 590 Nextgen II $29,750 Review

March 4, 2022 Comments Off on Goldmund Telos 590 Nextgen II $29,750 Review

https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/goldmund-telos-590-nextgen-ii

All this talk of detail and precision could set alarm bells ringing for those that are wary of sterile but highly detailed presentation. To those people, we say there’s no need to worry. Older Goldmund amplifiers may have erred towards the clinical, but not this one. The 590 Nextgen II sounds natural and fluid, and certainly delivers this Arvo Pärt piece with all the verve and emotional impact it deserves.

While this Goldmund’s stereo imaging isn’t the most spacious we’ve heard, there’s no denying the focus and stability in its presentation. Instruments and sounds are locked into position making it easy to place the orchestra within the recording venue. It’s a sound packed with confidence and authority.

iFi hip-dac 2 $189 Review

March 3, 2022 Comments Off on iFi hip-dac 2 $189 Review

https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/ifi-hip-dac-2

Now, 44.1kHz and 48kHz files are represented by a yellow light, but 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 352.8 and 384kHz files will be denoted by a white glow. DSD64 and 128 files are signified in cyan, while DSD256 (aka quad-rate DSD) files will now make the LEDs glow red. Thanks to the DAC’s ‘three unfold’ decoding process, now performed internally (as opposed to just the final unfold in the manner of an MQA ‘renderer’ – the method undertaken by the original hip-dac), MQA files glow green but MQA Studio tracks are now recognised too, glowing blue. Magenta means the file is playing in its original sample rate (MQB). The keen-eyed will note that iFi has added two new colours to the swatch here (red and white) to accommodate this functionality – and very helpful they are too.

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