Vandersteen Audio Kento Carbon Loudspeaker $39,475 Review
February 5, 2021 Comments Off on Vandersteen Audio Kento Carbon Loudspeaker $39,475 Review
If you are the type of listener who desires sound that is demonstrably more truthful to the signal feeding your speakers, the Kento Carbon is a product to evaluate. There is something unique about the way a time-and-phase-aligned speaker replicates the electrical waveform, making it sound of-a-piece from top to bottom. Some people are not sensitive to this impression; others are. If you are one of the latter, if you are able to distinguish this time-and-phase-aligned acoustic representation of the waveform and feel that the sound is truer to life and want that kind of sound from your loudspeaker, the Kento Carbon will surely make a most favorable impression when properly setup. Prepare to enjoy the listening experience with whatever type of music floats your boat. At the very least, an audition is highly recommended.
FIIO FD5 REVIEW
February 5, 2021 Comments Off on FIIO FD5 REVIEW
But, what’s really impressive is how natural and inoffensive the FD5 seems to be. Even when I cranked up the volume, or played my usual Techno tracklist, the IEM never threw me back. On this aspect, the FiiO FD5 sounds much more like an open-back headphone, than an IEM: wide soundstage, powerful low kicks, and a very nice layering, that keeps the voice upfront all the time.
Bass especially, feels amazing. It’s deep, clean, and dwells deeply into my eardrum, without overpowering the rest of the spectrum. It’s a cool rumble, one that carries you through your musical journey and leaves you in a better shape than you were when you embarked. Even more, if you can hook up some nice player like the FiiO M11 Pro,
Wilson Audio SabrinaX Loudspeaker £22,998 Review
February 4, 2021 Comments Off on Wilson Audio SabrinaX Loudspeaker £22,998 Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/wilson-audio-sabrinax-loudspeaker
Surely such less-crowded pieces beg for intimacy? Smallness? Absolutely. And yet there was a feeling of all-embracing atmosphere, of presence, of – yes, air on a colossal scale. It happened again with Nancy Wilson’s Just For Now [Capitol Y1T 272; open-reel tape]. Her breathless, edgy take on ‘That’s Life’ was made all the more real by details which attested to the Wilson (Audio) bloodline. I wish Dave were alive to hear what Daryl’s design did with this 1967 treasure. You could sense the studio’s space.
So far, so subtle. But I really needed something that wouldn’t tax my tear glands, so I turned to the fabulous new release of The Crickets’ 1970s canon, A Long, Long Way From Lubbock [Rollercoaster RCCD3075]. It contains that lost masterpiece, Bubblegum, Bop, Ballads & Boogies, with Glen D Hardin, Elvis’ pianist, delivering the finest-ever cover of Huey ‘Piano’ Smith’s ‘Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie-Woogie Flu’.”
Vinnie Rossi L2i Signature Edition Integrated Amplifier-DAC Review
February 4, 2021 Comments Off on Vinnie Rossi L2i Signature Edition Integrated Amplifier-DAC Review
Finding a suitable point of comparison for the L2i Signature Edition was difficult, given its uniqueness. No one will be cross-shopping the far-more-boutique Vinnie Rossi against my reference integrated amp-DAC, Hegel’s H590, with its whopping 301Wpc (8 ohms) output and its Scandinavian minimalism. The same goes for other high-priced integrateds I’ve recently reviewed, such as Simaudio’s Moon 700i V2 and Constellation Audio’s Inspiration Integrated 1.0. As good as those amps are, they’re not, well, special.
Gryphon Audio Designs’ Diablo 300 ($15,990), by contrast, is special. Like the Vinnie Rossi, this massive integrated can be ordered with an optional DAC ($5990) or phono ($2250) stage—but unlike the L2i-SE, not with both. The powerful Diablo boasts 300/600/900Wpc into 8/4/2 ohms, and is nominally class-AB but biased into class-A for the first 10W. It’s been several years since I’ve had the Gryphon in my listening room, but it made a strong impression on me. Its obvious power advantage means that it can be paired with any speakers in any room. It was a current monster, with staggering control of the bass, and its sound through its optional digital inputs was similar to the L2i-SE’s. But the Diablo’s appearance, best described as gothic noir, is the opposite of classy or elegant—it looks like an amp that demands respect, speaking more to the owner’s fight-or-flight response than does the Vinnie Rossi’s greater décor-friendliness.
50 Greatest Bargains in High-End Audio
February 3, 2021 Comments Off on 50 Greatest Bargains in High-End Audio
50 Greatest Bargains in High-End Audio
UPPER END
Magnepan MG 3.7i loudspeaker, $6600
Vandersteen Audio Treo CT loudspeaker, $8400
JL Audio Fathom f112v2 and f113v2 subwoofers, $4000/$5000
Aesthetix Mimas integrated amplifier, $7000
Rogue RP-5 and RP-7 preamplifiers, $3495/$4995
VTL TP-2.5i phonostage, $5000
Bryston BDA-3.14 streaming DAC, $4195
Dr. Feickert Volare turntable and Origin Live Silve
Dan Clark Audio Ether 2 Review
February 3, 2021 Comments Off on Dan Clark Audio Ether 2 Review
https://www.hifichoice.com/content/dan-clark-audio-ether-2
The contemplative opening of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring is deep and moving but leads into a sprightly and energetic section that heralds the start of the exciting middle, and the Ether 2 propels me through the music. The piece concludes with a complex movement that was written to reflect youthful aspiration in the American heartland, and although it is really well handled, overall the imaging and clarity occasionally feels a little blurred during the crescendos.
Tempo and timing show no signs of weakness, however, and the Oscar Peterson Trio playing You Look Good To Me really gets my feet tapping. The performance is quite three dimensional with well-defined instruments, while the tuneful double bass is clearly located on the right-hand side of the soundstage with drums placed on the left just behind the central piano.
Vocal performances are captivating and Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Mad About The Boy has a remarkably smooth and easy-going sound. Salvant and all the instruments have their own clearly defined position and the piano is believable and refined.
Volumio Primo music player/streamer Review
February 2, 2021 Comments Off on Volumio Primo music player/streamer Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/volumio-primo-music-playerstreamer
Volumio seems to rely on the library’s file structure for organization, but it provides no library-management tools, and the documentation says nothing about how it expects a library to be configured. I have set up most of the directories and files in my library by date added and not by artist, work, etc. Other programs, like JRiver and Roon, are okay with this: They use flexible, sophisticated metadata tagging. Volumio’s system, however it works, didn’t play as well with my library. Search often returned incongruous results, and the standard views, such as Albums, Genres, Artists, Playlists, and Favorites, failed to display cover art for a substantial part of my collection. (Why didn’t it discover all the cover art in my library?) Maybe this wouldn’t happen if I were a more scrupulous curator, but it has not been a problem with other servers I’ve used. Also, Volumio seems unable to search by file format, and it cannot tell me a file’s sampling/ bit rate until after I start playing it.
HiFiman HE-R10P Closed-Back Planar Magnetic Headphones Review
February 1, 2021 Comments Off on HiFiman HE-R10P Closed-Back Planar Magnetic Headphones Review
https://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2020/11/30/hifiman
Now down to business. I found that the HE-R10P offered an overall smooth and warm airy sound with superb clarity, deep bass, and the illusion of a soundstage much more spacious than I expected from closed-back headphones. There was an intimacy with (say) singers and small ensembles; singers were close up in front sometimes making you feel that they were sitting in your lap. Even after long listening sessions while lying on my back on a couch or the floor even (after all there is no `sweet spot’ with headphones), the comfort level of wearing them was enduring. And they made me appreciate lyrics more than I usually do.
PS AUDIO STELLAR STRATA INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER $2,999 REVIEW
February 1, 2021 Comments Off on PS AUDIO STELLAR STRATA INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER $2,999 REVIEW
“I found the Strata to be quite robust operationally. In digital playback, it never failed to swiftly lock-in and play the digital signals fed through it. Using its USB input, high-resolution PCM signals up to 384 kHz and DSD signals up to 5.6 MHz (DSD128) were processed reliably. Even in streaming mode (Bridge), I found that the Strata worked well, although a bit sluggish in buffering tracks in comparison to a specialty streaming device like the Auralic Aries G1. This might be attributed to the smaller buffer capacity of the Strata’s Bridge as compared to the Aries G1. The PS Audio Connect streaming app was quite easy to use and it had an appealing interface. It had only basic streaming control functions, but it was quite sufficient for streaming control of the Strata”
WILSON AUDIO TUNETOTS WITH TUNETOT STANDS £11,500 REVIEW
January 31, 2021 Comments Off on WILSON AUDIO TUNETOTS WITH TUNETOT STANDS £11,500 REVIEW
Wilson Audio TuneTots with TuneTot stands
To wrap up, I believe what the Wilson Audio team has done here is quite special. Have a small space like a flat in London or New York? Otherwise limited on space? Or just have a nice home office and want audiophile sound like your larger listening room? This is a really superb solution. It’s really hard to fault these stands. They improve the mids and highs, are built like a tank and look elegant with the monitors and the isolation bases. And Daryl informs me that the posts on the stands come in all the standard TuneTot colours.
Audiophilepure 
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