Keith Monks Audio Works Prodigy Record Cleaning machine Review
February 14, 2022 Comments Off on Keith Monks Audio Works Prodigy Record Cleaning machine Review
The Keith Monks Prodigy leaves LPs looking and sounding very clean. Cleaning time per LP is somewhere between 8 to 10 minutes. Although a bit slower in operation, the Prodigy delivers excellent results that are fully comparable in every way to Keith Monks’s full-size RCMs. For those willing to pay more, Keith Monks also offers the discOvery Redux model (£2,995) which provides faster, quieter operation, and more automation. However, the Prodigy costs a more wallet-friendly £795 and looks more domestically appealing; it does a great job at a great price and comes highly recommended!
T+A elektroakustik Caruso Multi-Source System $3990 Review
February 14, 2022 Comments Off on T+A elektroakustik Caruso Multi-Source System $3990 Review
Living with the Caruso Multi-Source System was a fascinating experience, as it brought into sharp focus the differences in the way audiophiles and the other 99.999% of the music-consuming world listen to music at home—and how a tension between these two perspectives can develop in a product from a manufacturer with the engineering chops to make the best. It’s a tug-of-war between aesthetic values that must be finessed. Does the Caruso pull it off? Does it succeed in offering a compact design certain to appeal to interior decorators and the impeccable engineering of a famously tech-savvy German manufacturer? That T+A is on to something may be reflected by who is buying Carusos: Jim Shannon told me that the company estimates that, historically, at least 30-40% of them have been sold to women.
Kharma MIDI Exquisite 3.0 + system
February 14, 2022 Comments Off on Kharma MIDI Exquisite 3.0 + system
Mark Levinson No 5101 Network No 5302 Power Amplifier Review
February 13, 2022 Comments Off on Mark Levinson No 5101 Network No 5302 Power Amplifier Review
The end result is that the No 5206 gives you least three components—all designed with the same lack of coloration—for the price of one: A standard preamp, a DAC, and the kind of phono preamp that I wish were integrated into every preamp. The phono section fully complements the sound character of the high-level analog sections; it is unusually quiet, although best used with normal rather than ultra-low-output moving coils. The phono sound is about as revealing as the LP permits. It does a great job of handling low-level passages, and the cartridge and recording—not the preamp—will limit the accuracy of timbre and soundstage.
Another key feature of the phono preamp is that the DIP switches on the rear panel provide a much wider range of loading for moving-coil cartridges than usual. This is a feature that has real practical value in getting the best moving-coil frequency response, and one where I’ve found user experimentation can really pay off—particularly in smoothing the upper midrange and highs and in getting a smooth balance with the rest of the midrange and bass. Loading is a tweak that’s really worth several hours of listening, during which you may well find the cartridge manufacturer’s recommended load is not the best option. (Go for natural musical sound, not warmth or exaggerated highs.) There also are four capacitance loadings for moving-magnet cartridges. Finally, the No 5206 has a number of other features that are described in detail in an exceptionally well-written and detailed instruction book. These include the ability to update the No 5206 using your home computer, home-theater pass-through mode, and a subwoofer high-pass filter that can be switched between the RCA and XLR outputs
Rosson Audio Design RAD-O planar magnetic headphones Review
February 12, 2022 Comments Off on Rosson Audio Design RAD-O planar magnetic headphones Review
The implacable low frequencies of The Bug’s ‘Poison Dart’ are served up with depth and substance, carry an absolute stack of information regarding both texture and their origin – and yet they’re utterly controlled. Too often this kind of bottom-end presence is undermined by ill-disciplined entry into or exit from individual notes, but the RAD-O brook no argument – and as a consequence, Warrior Queen’s imprecations in the midrange are beautifully poised and defined, alive with both detail and malevolence.
AVM Inspiration CS 2.3 All-In-One Solution Review
February 12, 2022 Comments Off on AVM Inspiration CS 2.3 All-In-One Solution Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/avm-inspiration-cs-23-all-one-solution
Some may wish for a bit more bite, but the Inspiration CS 2.3 is all about generous, beautifully controlled music-making, ensuring listening is as easy as it is rewarding. Add in superb build quality, a comprehensive feature-set and ease of use via the new RC X app, and this unashamedly luxurious little system has the wherewithal to win over buyers, even in the face of more keenly-priced competition.
Paradigm Founder 120H Loudspeaker £8600 Review
February 11, 2022 Comments Off on Paradigm Founder 120H Loudspeaker £8600 Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/paradigm-founder-120h-loudspeaker
While far from the largest speakers to have graced the room in recent times, the 120Hs did a more than fair job of both filling the space with sound and conveying hugely exciting and involving music. The crystalline recording quality of Anna Fedorova’s Shaping Chopin recital [Channel Classics CCS 43621; DSD128], rewarded us with the familiar combination of beautifully-realised instrumental timbre and a good sense of the concert-hall acoustic.
Yes, we’ve heard this set rendered with slightly more solid imaging, and an ever-greater impression of the ambience, but the 120Hs still deliver that winning mixture of substance and detail required for a convincing picture of a large instrument being played in a generous space.
Technics SU-R1000 Digital Integrated Amplifier
February 11, 2022 Comments Off on Technics SU-R1000 Digital Integrated Amplifier
https://www.stereophile.com/content/technics-su-r1000-integrated-amplifier
The Technics SU-R1000 Digital Integrated Amplifier provides nearly everything I could hope for in a contemporary integrated amplifier. It reproduces vinyl and digital files with high levels of transparency, dimensionality, spaciousness, and dynamics. Its various modern technologies actually, obviously work, allowing me to achieve the highest levels of realism I’ve heard in my circa-1865 listening space.
The Technics does not equal my reference Shindo amplification in the areas where they—the Shindo components—excel: tonal and timbral verisimilitude. Nothing else I’ve tried does; that’s why they’re still my reference. But the Technics was superior in every other way. The SU-R1000 is a technological breakthrough and a remarkable integrated amplifier.
New Pre- and Power Amps from McIntosh
February 11, 2022 Comments Off on New Pre- and Power Amps from McIntosh
https://stereo-magazine.com/article/new-pre-and-power-amp-from-mcintosh
With the also new C12000, the developers from Binghamton realized tube and transistor preamplification with complete separation of the control and power sections. In each of the two chassis – the C12000C controller and C12000ST preamplifier – the left and right channels are electrically and mechanically separated to allow true dual-mono operation. The C12000 preamplifier offers 12 analog inputs: six balanced, four unbalanced, and two unbalanced phono inputs, which can now be freely configured as either moving coil or moving magnet inputs with adjustable capacitance, resistance, and gain.
The two-part high-tech preamp offers both a tube and a transistor output. A total of six tubes power the high-level preamp section, with two 12AT7 and one 12AX7A tubes assigned to the left and right channels respectively. The transistor output worka via a discrete, balanced operational amplifier. The phono stage uses four 12AX7A tubes, with two per channel in a fully balanced configuration with RIAA equalization. The new preamp flagship is equipped with four outputs: 1x tube (balanced), 1x transistor (balanced), 1x fixed (unbalanced) and 1x programmable (unbalanced, tube or transistor selectable). For headphones, a high drive amplifier is available, which aims to harmonize with a wide range of models. Finally, the power control functionality allows other connected McIntosh components to be switched on and off automatically.
Stenheim Alumine Two Loudspeakers $13,079 Review
February 10, 2022 Comments Off on Stenheim Alumine Two Loudspeakers $13,079 Review
https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1652-stenheim-alumine-two-loudspeakers
Below about 100Hz or so, I found the Alumine Twos’ bass output to be seriously lacking in my room—especially given the speakers’ high asking price. So, if you expect and demand that your two-way standmount speakers have good bass output and extension, then, unless you have a very small room and are willing to place the Twos quite close to the wall to leverage some bass boost from the room, I must urge you to look elsewhere—either that or consider matching these speakers with one or two subs.
That recommendation for the sub(s) is something I hope you might take seriously, because the Alumine Twos’ midrange and treble reproduction was, without question, the finest I’ve ever heard in my room, providing spot-on tonal accuracy combined with transparency that was second to none—I could hear the recordings so clearly it was uncanny. Song after song, the solidity of the aural images and their 3D precision placements as they emerged from an empty space in my room consistently left me mesmerized. Those sounds, so sharply and expertly carved into tall, wide, deep soundstages, were so utterly devoid of even the subtlest cues that they were emanating from the utilitarian-looking square-ish boxes I knew were reproducing them, I found the sound of the Twos difficult if not impossible to find fault with. Except for the bass, that is.
Audiophilepure 
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