FIIO M11 PLUS ESS REVIEW
March 13, 2022 Comments Off on FIIO M11 PLUS ESS REVIEW
And, like the previous M11 Plus, you get… typical FiiO sound with gorgeous lows, vibrant voices, and clear highs. That said, the more I got accustomed to this new player, the more I heard how hard-hitting those same highs could get on my usual techno tracklist. It’s not painful or ear-piercing, but it can get damn close, notably if you choose sensible IEMs as I did.
Head to head against the Shanling M6 Pro 21, those are two very different animals, even if both share an ESS core. The lows are gorgeous, with just the right amount of “oomph”. Even more with the Audeze which, thanks to the super-wide membrane, exerts an almost deafening sound pressure. It goes deep, and the dynamic range seems absolutely insane compared to the total sum of elements you hold in your hand. In that regard, I think that FiiO did the right choice keeping the THX-AA chips as they give, in my opinion, the best bass from any player in this price reach.
Kimber Kable Carbon Series 16 and Carbon 18XL Cables Review
March 12, 2022 Comments Off on Kimber Kable Carbon Series 16 and Carbon 18XL Cables Review
Kimber Kable Carbon Series 16 and Carbon 18XL Cables
Naturally, I couldn’t resist a “way-back machine” moment, so I hooked up my trusty 4VS (now part of Kimber’s Base Series) and listened in on one of my acoustic favorites, the Rutter Requiem. There’s a reason why these cables were and are so popular. Their rich smooth midrange and general tonal honesty are hard to beat. Nonetheless, in comparison to Carbon, the 4VS’s had a mildly subtractive sound, with a narrower soundstage, a bit less top-end air, and lighter and less well-defined bass. Transients were also not as quick.
That said, what struck me most was the consistency of the Kimber’s voicing. There was nothing embarrassing about the performance of these 20-year old cables, which show a closer kinship to Carbon 8 than you might expect.
WELLS AUDIO DRAGON LEVEL III HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER REVIEW
March 12, 2022 Comments Off on WELLS AUDIO DRAGON LEVEL III HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER REVIEW
Headphone Amplifier coupled with the Wells Audio Cipher Level I DAC is the second most expensive Headphone Amplifier / DAC combination I have had on my desk, the legendary Questyle “Gold Stack” still reigning at $12,500, and things have progressed a lot since then and on almost every front the Wells Audio system offered superior and more musical performance. That is to say, though this is a high budget reference-quality proposition, if you have the resources it is well worth the expense. Music lovers, especially those with hard to drive headphones like the HE6se or the Abyss AB-1266, or as it turns out if you are an especial fan of Focal headphones, are going to want to give the Dragon a listen, and if you want to get the most out of your Dragon you’ll want a Cipher to go with it.
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
.
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.
Audiophilepure 
You must be logged in to post a comment.