Rotel Michi M8 Mono Power Ampiifier £5399 (each) Review
December 9, 2020 Comments Off on Rotel Michi M8 Mono Power Ampiifier £5399 (each) Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/rotel-michi-m8-mono-power-ampiifier
Whether with powering guitars and pounding bass and drums, or delicate solo and small-ensemble music, these amps are entirely in their element, as evident when falling back on an old audiophile favourite, the Antonio Forcione/Sabina Sciubba version of ‘Why Can’t We Live Together’ [Meet Me In London; Naim cd021].
The sheer focus of the sound is breathtaking, from the openness of Sciubba’s voice to each strike on string or tap on the body of Forcione’s guitar, and the subtle additions of percussion. It has probably been demonstrated to death, but in the hands of the Michi P5 preamp and M8 monoblocks it still has the wherewithal to tingle and show what made it so special.
Wadax • Atlantis Reference Digital-to-Analog Converter $145,000
December 9, 2020 Comments Off on Wadax • Atlantis Reference Digital-to-Analog Converter $145,000
http://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/wadax_atlantis_reference.htm
In playing these three, very different renditions, the system’s ability to capture not just the notes, their amplitude and pitch, attack and sustain, but also the gaps the player leaves between them, is paramount. Such is the temporal precision of the Wadax Reference, the clarity with which it places and spaces notes, that the yawning chasm in the expressive range that separates Uchida’s sensitive, exquisitely weighted and deeply emotive performance, from the smooth color-scape of Perahia or Lisiecki’s fireworks displays, matches the artistic separation you experience hearing these performers live, reflecting both personal preference and who you’d choose — or pay good money — to see and hear in concert. Do we really need another set of Beethoven Piano Concertos? When the performance delivers such depth of musical and emotional insight — and when we have replay systems capable of revealing that insight — then the answer is definitely “Yes.” Hearing Uchida playing these familiar pieces through the Wadax Atlantis Reference Transport and Reference DAC is an experience that not only shows them in a new light, but engages you with the full power and emotional range of those original performances. The overall temporal, dynamic and musical coherence of the musIC process has always brought impressive communicative qualities to the Wadax products. But combine it with the black silence, dynamic potential, tonal range and absolute stability of the Reference DAC’s operating environment and you have the basis for natural musical reproduction that is, in audio terms, unprecedented — something that moves us demonstrably closer to the original event.
KALDAS RESEARCH RR1 CONQUEST REVIEW
December 8, 2020 Comments Off on KALDAS RESEARCH RR1 CONQUEST REVIEW
Looks-wise, the Kaldas Research RR1 Conquest is certainly unlike anything else out there on the market. It has a ‘sci-fi-meets-industrial’ kinda vibe, and it looks all business with its exposed wires on the outside of the cups and overall Spartan aesthetic. Build-wise, the RR1 employs a mix of spring steel for the headband, anodised machined aluminum for the headband assembly, and injected thermoplastic for those signature, large earcups. Finding your perfect fit with the RR1 requires you to get a bit ‘hands-on’. Kaldas supplies a pair of allen wrenches for adjusting the length of the headband, as well as the amount of articulation on the earcup yokes. It’s a little finicky, but it’s certainly in keeping with the RR1’s ‘industrial’ DNA and no doubt helps to keep the RR1’s price-point as sharp as it is. On the head, the RR1 is supremely comfortable after a few adjustments here and there and it’s certainly an ‘all-day’ proposition due to the fact that it tips the scales at only 366 grams. While the replaceable pads themselves are quite thin, the cup size is generous with plenty of room for my ears. Clamp-force is fairly light, but the leather-like suspension headband has to do most of the work
BRISE AUDIO YATONO RH2+ REVIEW
December 8, 2020 Comments Off on BRISE AUDIO YATONO RH2+ REVIEW
The 2-pin connectors are more rounded than some other cables and they have blue & red markings for left & right, together with Brise Audio logos. They look pretty nice and complementary to the rest of the design and they also feel rock solid to me. In this Yatono model, they have a gray painting to reflect this particular series.
One thing I really liked though is the memory wire area. The memory wire is short with a good balance between flexibility and stiffness. Also, the material on the memory wire is soft, so it doesn’t bother your ear with its presence, even with long listening periods. This is critical for my experience with aftermarket cables.
Another exceptional detail for the memory wire is that Brise Audio uses a slim titanium rib for bending the memory part around the ear. Also, the tips of that titanium rib are twisted to prevent any tearing problems with the wire (which happens with some stock or aftermarket cables), and also for the users’ health. The attention to detail here is astounding.
QUESTYLE CMA TWELVE REVIEW
December 6, 2020 Comments Off on QUESTYLE CMA TWELVE REVIEW
As it turns out, I’ve had a Questyle product rooted firmly on my desktop for the past couple of years now – their CMA600i DAC/amp combo unit. I’ve used the CMA600i as both my daily solid-state headphone amp as well as my benchmark reference amplifier when it comes to testing headphones, and as a reference benchmark for testing other source and amplification gear. It’s earned a permanent place on my desktop thanks to its killer build and superb flexibility when it comes to being the ‘heart’ of my desktop system, performing flawlessly as both a balanced headphone amplifier and as a preamplifier. The CMA600i was released several years ago now, but it still hasn’t been knocked off its perch around these parts despite having had much more expensive gear pass across my review desk in the meantime. As well as being brilliant to live with, the chief reason I love the CMA600i so much is that its all Class-A ‘Current Mode Amplification’ (hence their ‘CMA’ prefix) stage just so happens to sound bloody”
Rosson Audio Design RAD-0 Headphon REVIEW
December 6, 2020 Comments Off on Rosson Audio Design RAD-0 Headphon REVIEW
“The bespoke nature of the Rosson Audio Design RAD-0 is a nice bonus at this price point. Surprisingly, it’s not common in the space outside of custom in ear monitors, which by their very nature have to be customized to fit the wearer’s ear. The colors are art in and of themselves, and the way the material is crafted pushes the quality to something above and beyond the average. It’s very original in that way, a slight escape from the black plastic or sanded wood options from the rest of the competition.
Sound quality is equally unique to the headphone. It’s artful and constructed with purpose. The low bass is tasty, while the vocals have weight and presence to them. One of the best constructed headphones I have ever reviewed. Sturdy, heavy and audiophile to the core. It’s surely one to add to your collection, the variation from the pack is just enough to add something (aka fun) without detracting. But if it’s your only top tier headphone, you probably wouldn’t need another to fill the space.
Joseph Audio Pearl 20/20 Graphene Loudspeaker $37,995 Review
December 5, 2020 Comments Off on Joseph Audio Pearl 20/20 Graphene Loudspeaker $37,995 Review
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/joseph-audio-pearl-2020-graphene-loudspeaker/
Choosing to go even bigger, I put on the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 from Stokowski Rhapsodies LP/tape [LSC-2471, RCA/Classic Records reissue or 15ips RRAP 0009 Analogue Productions Ultra Tape]. Liszt begins with a big, rich, full-throttled sound (from strings, horns, percussion, and bass) that immerses the listener in a huge soundscape with a sense of stage depth, size, and grandeur appropriate to this music. The direct sound is reinforced by reflected sound from the orchestra’s hall that is easily heard as a supporting contribution rather than a homogenized facsimile. The Pearls maintained the direct-versus-reflected aural distinction embedded in the recording, while also allowing individual instruments to sound fabulous within the mix.
CAMPFIRE AUDIO VEGA 2020 $899 Review
December 5, 2020 Comments Off on CAMPFIRE AUDIO VEGA 2020 $899 Review
Campfire Audio Vega 2020 Review
The Vega 2020 for me is something new, not revised, or tweaked, but a fresh sound and a tuning that I think is more sure-footed in terms of how Campfire want to stamp a unique performance on each monitor they sell.
What does that mean? Well, having heard the Dorado 2020, I can understand why the Vega 2020 has gone for a weighty smooth tone because to some extent the Dorado 2020 might be closer to the classic Vega treble in terms of energy. The Vega 2020 goes its own way and that is cool because now I can look at each IEM they sell and I remember exactly how each one sounds.
In this day and age when we are totally washed over with tons of choices, a memorable sound is critical, one that you can easily describe when someone mentions the name. A rich and powerful bass response and a smooth euphonic mids and vocal timbre are very easy key points to remember regarding the Vega 2020.
MARTIN LOGAN BALANCED FORCE 212 SUBWOOFER $4,499 REVIEW
December 4, 2020 Comments Off on MARTIN LOGAN BALANCED FORCE 212 SUBWOOFER $4,499 REVIEW
The phase dial is the lower-most one in the photo. This adjusts the phase-angle of the deep bass sound. You have to do this by ear. Play some music with deep bass and turn the dial until it “sounds” the most appealing.
At the bottom are push buttons to play a Tone Sweep (120 Hz to 20 Hz). This lets you find out if you have anything resonant in your listening room so you can fix the problem. I ran this test and found a resonance in the 100 Hz – 120 Hz range. The spectrum below shows the sweep from left to right. I used an accelerometer for this test. There is a large peak in that range. Since it is above the highest crossover (Low-Pass) frequency of 80 Hz, it is not a problem that would be caused by the subwoofer.
Fleetwood Sound Company DeVille Loudspeaker $9600 Review
December 4, 2020 Comments Off on Fleetwood Sound Company DeVille Loudspeaker $9600 Review
Fleetwood DeVille Speaker Review
The overall in-room response, as measured on the tweeter axis and within a few inches above and below the tweeter midline, was fairly uniform to about 300Hz, where room modes began to appear. A response dip of about 3dB was seen in the upper midrange with the measurement mic positioned a few inches below the horn. I’m not suggesting that a single measurement is predictive of the in-room tonal balance when listening in the far field, where spatial averaging of sound energy becomes important. However, I had set up the DeVille as I would a mid-field studio monitor, and found listening height to be a critical factor to obtaining the most accurate tonal balance. Mounted on the 24-inch-tall factory stands, the horn ended up above my ear height. I experienced a significant increase in upper-midrange energy when I stood up, such that my ears either lined up level with or were slightly above the horn. I went the extra mile here and acquired 16-inch-tall stands (featuring a slight tilt back) so I could lower the horn midline by about 8 inches and match the horn height to my ear level. This gave the most accurate tonal fidelity with my favorite sopranos.”
Audiophilepure 
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