Marantz Project T-1 Amplifier Review £30,000
April 26, 2021 Comments Off on Marantz Project T-1 Amplifier Review £30,000
https://www.hifinews.com/content/marantz-project-t-1-amplifier
The amp’s way with textures carries over to each and every instrument, enough to allow you to use a compilation like the tribute, Rattlesnake Guitar: The Music Of Peter Green, as a guide to different guitar models. lt also means that incredibly fine details come through without a fight, with spatial clues so vivid that you can picture the walls of Abbey Road’s Studio 2 when you play the Fab Four. And you will hear vertical images just like the Cheskys said you would. It’s a near- magical experience, restricted only by speaker sensitivity rather than frequency response, driver type or impedance. Still, it has power to burn, compared to a SET.
Usher Audio SD-500 Loudspeaker Review
April 26, 2021 Comments Off on Usher Audio SD-500 Loudspeaker Review
https://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2020/11/30/usher-sd-500-loudspeaker
It is a major accomplishment the resolution from Usher’s Diamond DMD tweeter doesn’t come with any fatiguing brightness. The tweeter is also well integrated with the woofer and the overall result is a sound that is highly detailed and spacious yet still laid back. This combination makes for an extremely satisfying speaker that is easy to live with for the long term. The stunning fit and finish only sweeten the deal. The Usher SD-500 is an excellent speaker for high performance systems installed in small to medium spaces. To be displayed with pride, listened to with rapture. Highly recommended for connoisseurs of 2-way monitors.
QUESTYLE CMA TWELVE FLAGSHIP DAC/HEADPHONE AMP $1499 REVIEW
April 25, 2021 Comments Off on QUESTYLE CMA TWELVE FLAGSHIP DAC/HEADPHONE AMP $1499 REVIEW
I threw a number of genres and headphones at the CMA Twelve and the results were all good. It is worthy of the flagship moniker. The option of single-ended and two balanced connection styles makes it accessible to a wide array of headphone choices. The switchable BIAS allows for an even wider choice of headphone or two-channel pre-amp options. The DAC is very clear without being overly bright and uses a favorite DAC of mine, the AKM 4490. I came to enjoy the front panel LED layout as it did not take long to be able to glance at it and know the type and bit rate of the file being played. A good thing for a Roon radio user. Given the build quality and track record of Questyle, I would expect the CMA Twelve to have pride of place in your headphone listening space for many years to come. Highly recommended.
Bowers & Wilkins 705 Signature Loudspeakers Review
April 25, 2021 Comments Off on Bowers & Wilkins 705 Signature Loudspeakers Review
Downie’s s sounds were accentuated by the B&Ws but not by the Revels. The 705 Signatures’ extra treble energy occasionally caused some distraction, so for this part of the audioband I pick the M126Be’s. It’s also important to note that I listen at fairly high volumes (90-95dB SPL, C-weighted). Turning down the volume by 10dB does tame excessive sibilance in speakers, such as the 705 Signature, that lean toward a bright sound—then again, the 705 Signatures brought out top-end details that a more neutral speaker might obscure a bit more. So consider your own listening preferences when narrowing down your speaker choices.
But when I played Vanessa Fernandez’s recording of “Here But I’m Gone,” which does not suffer from excessive treble and/or sibilance, I found myself choosing the B&Ws. In the opening kick-drum thumps, the B&Ws produced more output and extension while retaining all their solidity and punch, without bloat or overhang. Through the B&Ws Fernandez’s voice sounded light, surrounded by more air; through the Revels it was a bit more meaty and rich. When the recording played didn’t possess extra treble energy and/or sibilance, I preferred the extra bit of presence and delicacy I heard in the B&Ws’ midrange.
Schiit Audio Vali 2+ headphone amplifier Review
April 24, 2021 Comments Off on Schiit Audio Vali 2+ headphone amplifier Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/schiit-audio-vali-2-headphone-amplifier
I do not report these tube-rolling observations to criticize the Vali 2+’s performance as delivered and tested, nor to second-guess Stoddard’s choice of tube. The new-old-stock GE/CGE 6BQ7A is a tube of the highest quality. The stock Vali 2+ is an excellent amp, which exceeded my highest expectations. I mention this little tube-rolling experiment to remind everybody that, just as Jason Stoddard suggested in this column’s opening quote, experimenting with tubes is the Vali 2+’s raison d’être.
GRYPHON AUDIO DESIGNS ESSENCE PREAMP AND POWER AMPLIFIER £20,299 REVIEW
April 24, 2021 Comments Off on GRYPHON AUDIO DESIGNS ESSENCE PREAMP AND POWER AMPLIFIER £20,299 REVIEW
Gryphon Audio Designs Essence preamp and power amplifier
Some good systems remind you of why you got into audio in the first place and while the Essence does that well, more importantly it reminds you why you got into that piece of music in the first place. This is no small feat; often those of us who have a lot of musical miles on the clock can get a bit jaded by it all (especially when playing test discs); many tracks in your collection have been overplayed to the point where the excitement and the musical intent have been worn away. The Essence strips away those years and presents your music anew. It doesn’t trigger memories of that first time you heard Dylan or Joni Mitchell, Led Zep or Beyoncé… it’s like it’s the first time you heard them, and all that excitement hits you.
A lot of this comes down to the Essence duo’s remarkable combination of leading-edge performance, powerful dynamic range, excellent detailing, and that aforementioned authority. Music is vibrant, visceral, and red in tooth and claw. This is amplification for people who like to stand and applaud a good performance, and in a year where a good performance is a recording rather than a live event, you might feel a little silly standing up and cheering a CD or a streamed track, but go for it. That’s what the Essence does for you and your music.
MELLOW ACOUSTICS FRONTRO FLOORSTANDING ELECTROSTATIC LOUDSPEAKER REVIEW
April 23, 2021 Comments Off on MELLOW ACOUSTICS FRONTRO FLOORSTANDING ELECTROSTATIC LOUDSPEAKER REVIEW
Mellow Acoustics FrontRo floorstanding electrostatic loudspeaker
Ultimately, this is a speaker for those who play music in rooms that don’t like loudspeakers! Electrostatics tend to thrive in large rooms, and the FrontRo is the exception. In small to mid-sized rooms where electrostatics usually struggle, the Mellow Acoustics FrontRo delivers a fine standard of performance, especially with speech. I’ve concentrated on vocals in part because the FrontRo shows how poor many loudspeakers are at reproducing the human voice, but it’s not simply designed for speech replay; a loudspeaker that gets the human voice right tends to get music right, and unless you are a fan of trouser-flapping, filling-loosening organ music or genres that include the word ‘dub’ played in barn-sized rooms, this is the antidote to rectangular wooden boxes and the limits they impose on sound
Siltech Crown Princess Interconnect $5500/m Review
April 23, 2021 Comments Off on Siltech Crown Princess Interconnect $5500/m Review
For better and worse, things aren’t what they used to be. Take silver as a conductor material, for example. I bet if you were to time-travel a Siltech Crown Princess balanced interconnect into the hands of an audiophile circa 1990, he wouldn’t know what to think when he heard it. “Ain’t no silver sounds like that!” He’s right—back then it sure didn’t.
The Crown Princess sounds thoroughly modern, the sound of our time, with a cluster of characteristics that those of us who’ve been around a while would consider shouldn’t coexist in a single product; they would seem to cancel each other. At once unfailingly beautiful, yet quite capable of unleashing controlled aggression that’ll strain the capacity of your room, all while acting as if it’s no big deal. Rich sounding, but on the cool side. And there’s nothing timid about the thrust of her lower register. It’ll be the envy of your pals.
ZMF VÉRITÉ CLOSED REVIEW
April 22, 2021 Comments Off on ZMF VÉRITÉ CLOSED REVIEW
Starting from the lowest frequencies, the ZMF Vérité Closed makes a very good account of themselves in this department. The bass is slightly thick and dense, but comes replete with a great blend of texture, impact, and authority. It is a very good middle ground for listeners who prefer a more austere bass presentation, and those of the basshead persuasion. It can, and will, conjure a fantastic, potent bass response when your song or track requires one. Otherwise, it’s happy to sit in a corner on the stage, producing great lows but never making it a standout feature. In that sense, you’re getting a presentation that is polite, yet powerful when it needs to be. There’s very good control in the low-end here.
Tidal review
April 22, 2021 Comments Off on Tidal review
https://www.whathifi.com/us/tidal/review
We also originally noted that Masters tracks and albums (all marked with an ‘M’ logo) could be hard to find, but Tidal has worked to make this less of a sore spot by offering a growing number of Masters playlists and increasing discovery of these hi-res streams.
The Masters home page in the ‘Explore’ tab is a good place to start. Or you can type ‘Masters’ into the search bar, filter by ‘playlist’ and see curated selections for pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B and even for more niche genres such as K-Pop and latin. Masters-specifics playlists expand past genre, too: there’s now ‘Tidal Masters: New Arrivals’ and ‘Tidal Masters: Essentials’, genre-specific (‘Tidal Masters: Motown’) and artist-specific (‘Tidal Masters: The Smiths’) options, plus ‘Master Edition’ Artist Radio and Track Radio stations, which allow subscribers to listen to an uninterrupted stream of Tidal Masters tracks based on their listening habits.
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