Rosso Fiorentino Pienza Loudspeaker $4900 Review
September 10, 2022 Comments Off on Rosso Fiorentino Pienza Loudspeaker $4900 Review
records are uniformly fine sounding, a few so much that they’ve made their way to this magazine’s Super LP List. On her third release, The Window, you’ll find her moving take on “Somewhere” from West Side Story—a wonderful live recording on which she’s accompanied by collaborator-pianist Sullivan Fortner in a breathtaking give and take. All the qualities I’ve attributed to the Pienza were in evidence—wonderful purity, warmth, texture, a more-than-impressive sonic vanishing act. But ultimately it was my getting lost in their performance, actually tearing up at the song’s conclusion, that made me truly appreciate what Francesco Rubenni and his team have accomplished. Bravo!
IBASSO DX320 REVIEW
September 10, 2022 Comments Off on IBASSO DX320 REVIEW
Once the player is turned on, you really can’t miss the app, safely docked in the lower half of the screen. A black icon, displaying the brand logo, the mighty white triangle. It’s still the main app for music playback, but if you want to completely turn off the Android experience, this isn’t an option anymore.
The app is fast, well-designed, and it really feels like the brand took time to improve the UI and fix various bugs: it’s much easier to use than before. The sorting options are numerous, the equalizer settings are awesome, and if it crashed a lot when I received it, after a few software updates, everything seems flawless now.
KEF Blade Two Meta loudspeaker $28,000 Review
September 9, 2022 Comments Off on KEF Blade Two Meta loudspeaker $28,000 Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/kef-blade-two-meta-loudspeaker
The Blade Two Metas are consistently rewarding and satisfying and gave me great pleasure with all the recordings I played. They offer a remarkably open, transparent, coherent soundstage and taut, extended bass. Are they flawless? That would be a strong claim, but I have not yet found a flaw.
In sum, as of today, the Blade Two Metas are the best speakers I’ve heard in this room (or perhaps anywhere), and I urge an audition to anyone interested in music reproduction of the highest quality. The Blades were picked up about 24 hours ago, and I miss them already.
Musical Fidelity M8xi Review
September 9, 2022 Comments Off on Musical Fidelity M8xi Review
Switching to a fairly new pair of PMC twenty5.26i loudspeakers which have a lower sensitivity than the 802s but offer an easier load the sound initially seemed a little dry from a tonal perspective. After a few tunes this characteristic took a back seat to the spectacular combination of timing and muscle on offer from the M8xi, with track after track offering up oodles of detail in a very coherent and engaging manner. Even an orchestral Schubert piece was delivered with the tempo in full effect, this didn’t take precedence over the dynamics however which were delivered with gusto yet without any discomfort in crescendos. All that power really counts when you are trying to reproduce a ‘big band’ with real world loudspeakers, and it matters with smaller stuff too. Somewhat controversially I put on Nils Lofgren’s rather overplayed dem favourite ‘Keith Don’t Go’, just for old times sake you understand, and heard a fabulous acoustic guitar, a croaky voice and the energy of a live event in surprisingly convincing virtual reality.
CAYIN HA-3A REVIEW
September 8, 2022 Comments Off on CAYIN HA-3A REVIEW
The amount of bass is a bit bigger than in a fully neutral amp. Bass has a great kick and punch, and the delivery is with good impact. Bass control is good, and bass reaches down low to sub levels with an excellent rumble down low. I don’t find the bass to be overly present, but it can’t be ignored either, luckily the quality is good.
The mids, as said, are spacious and airy and the vocals here are slightly more focused and too the front, but not too much. Mids perfectly connect to the bass section for what body is concerned. The mid presentation has that lovely tube smoothness but not too much. It makes the mid timbre really addictive and special.
McIntosh MA9500 Integrated Amplifier $15,000 Review
September 7, 2022 Comments Off on McIntosh MA9500 Integrated Amplifier $15,000 Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/mcintosh-ma9500-integrated-amplifier
The MA9500 is a memorable all-round package, one that’s distinctively and originally styled, highly versatile and hugely powerful too. Most importantly, it is engaging across a wide range of musical genres while its three output taps invite subtle sound tuning. Best partnered with smooth, warmish-sounding speakers, this mammoth Mac should make many prospective purchasers very happy indeed.
Peachtree Audio preDAC and GaN400 Review
September 7, 2022 Comments Off on Peachtree Audio preDAC and GaN400 Review
Regular Class D amplifiers generally offer a lot of power for the money. The GaN400 does too, but adds to it a level of sonic sophistication that left this Class D sceptic thoughtful and marginally disorientated. Driven by the accompanying Peachtree pre-amp the GaN400 gave a better, more rounded and believable musical performance than I associate with even the best of MOSFET Class D amplification.
When the Icon4 Pro passive line stage was used in place of the preDAC the GaN400 revealed itself to be capable of better still performance, with generous servings of the immediacy, dynamic expression, timing acuity and spatial detail that we expect as audiophiles. I have no hesitation in observing that thus paired, the GaN400 is truly competitive with Class AB stereo power amplifiers at a similar price point or higher and is therefore well-deserving of consideration. Audiophile Class D may be truly coming of age.
Audiovector QR 7 loudspeaker $6,500 Review
September 6, 2022 Comments Off on Audiovector QR 7 loudspeaker $6,500 Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/audiovector-qr-7-loudspeaker
At $6500/pair, Audiovector’s QR 7 is competitively priced, though it is up against other floorstanding speakers in this price region, such as the PSB Synchrony T600 ($7999/pair), which I reviewed in November 2021, and the Canton Reference 7 K ($6995/pair), which I reviewed in September 2021. The Audiovector offers a different balance of qualities than those two loudspeakers: While its midrange has a little more character than the PSB, its highs are more neutral-sounding than the Canton’s, and it offers more extended, more powerful-sounding low frequencies than either of those speakers. The QR 7 will work best in medium- to large-sized rooms. Recommended.
Audience aR12-T4 Power Conditioner $11,400 Review
September 6, 2022 Comments Off on Audience aR12-T4 Power Conditioner $11,400 Review
Sometimes you eagerly anticipate a product arrival, but when you put it in—zilch, nada—you don’t hear much difference. Then, if you throw a reference-quality CD in the tray—bam, it’s right there in front of you. That’s what happens when the product has very low coloration and high fidelity to the source.
This was the case with the adeptResponse Power Conditioner. The aR12-T4 doesn’t shift the frequency response one way or another or change the aural picture you already have. Instead, it’s a matter of good being made better. If you already have good sound, the aR12-T4 will make it better by applying the finishing touches, fleshing it out, and completing it.
Midway through the audition, my path forward was laid out. The Audience adeptResponse was going to become my reference for the entirety of my system’s AC needs. It is a serious investment: $11,400 for the aR12-T4 + $6300 if you spring for a 2m frontRow High Power powerChord upgrade. That makes a tidy $17,700 to handle the front-end gear. Later on, I would add an aR6-T4 and a frontRow High Power powerChord for my amps. That’s $6600 + $6300, another tidy
Meze Audio Elite headphones Review
September 5, 2022 Comments Off on Meze Audio Elite headphones Review
The Elite headset weighs 430gm. Its headband is made of carbon fiber, its headrest of leather. Inside the Elite’s leather headrest, on each end, where it joins the sliding earcup pillars, are springy metal leaves that Meze calls “pressure distribution wings.” According to Meze, these wings relieve pressure points (on the user’s head) by encouraging the Elite’s headband to conform to a greater length of the head’s circumference.
My Elite review sample came packed in an aluminum briefcase, with two sets of earpads (one real leather, the other a leather-Alcantara hybrid), held in place magnetically with Meze’s own “Isomagnetic earpad coupling technology,” and a 2.5m cable that attaches to the headset with four-pin mini-XLR plugs and to my amplifiers with a 6.3mm plug. The Elite’s cable may be ordered with 3.5mm or XLR input terminations. Meze also offers two types of upgrade cables, each with four termination options, one made of braided “Furukawa PCUHD copper” wire, which Alexandra Rizolu says “adds warmth and smoothness,”
Audiophilepure 
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