Audiophilepure

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/fosi-audio-za3zd3

I play a Tidal stream of the access-all-sonic-areas Work S**t Out by Dirty Loops. The Fosi duo keys right into the breakneck tempo and groove with an icy precision that immediately sounds classy and expensive. Bass, usually a Class D strength, is excellent – deep, taut, agile and articulate with good weight, pitch and texture. Midband insight is just as compelling, tonally perhaps a little cool, but so open and explicitly detailed you don’t feel you’re missing out on anything in the mix.

It’s all good, but a word of caution: this up-front style of presentation tends to flatten depth perception, particularly with dense, complex productions, landing music in your lap rather than layered tiers ghosting through the front wall behind the speakers. Lateral soundstage perspectives, conversely, usually remain splendidly spacious and the images therein always tightly formed.

https://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/wadax_studio.htm

Let’s now talk about the main reason a music lover wants to own a disc player. Just as CD players started to grow digital inputs, they began to offer streaming, but I doubt anyone in the market for a Studio Player is thinking of disc replay as a convenient accessory to a streaming DAC. If they are, they will likely be changing their minds once they experience the Studio Player’s disc replay. There are some who think streaming and downloading have replaced the need for physical media, just as there are those who think that CDs sound as good as vinyl. However, the prime reason the Studio Player has generated so much excitement is because it is a downsized version of the Reference system, and demonstrating just what that means in musical terms is best done using its CD/SACD transport. The fully loaded Reference system, which I have been lucky enough to enjoy several times in different situations, is the only CD player that has tricked me into thinking I’m listening to a world-class turntable. Or more significantly, it allowed me to forget that I’m listening to CD. Given price and size of the system, Reference performance is out of reach of all but a very few. So naturally, the question is, how much of that slice of heaven is available to the rest of us with a Studio Player?

Perhaps even more remarkable, once set within a proper habitat, is the sheer anticipation—much like the stillness before a storm—the expectation of experiencing fully unwined and heightened musical drama. This alone elevates the Greek preamplifier to its deserving place among true highlights.

The PST100 MK2 SE circuitry stems from a concept beyond conventional design, breaking free from closed-loop thinking and offering a distinctive proposition: an endgame scenario where emotional impact and dynamic flow are delivered without coloration or compromise— the listening perception itself shifts; regardless of volume, the signal follows in the natural way in sync with how our ears and brain decode sound/music.

Where redundancy plagues many preamplifiers regardless of price, the PST100 MK2 SE stands apart with natural transparency and an extraordinary balancing act. It presents a spatial expansion that respects the recording, maintaining horizontal and vertical equilibrium while providing a harmonious richness, upper-level density, and out-of-ordinary depth. This unearths subtle layers without ever retouching or embellishing the music, depicting it exactly as it is.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/eat-f-dur-turntable-f-note-tonearm

The EAT gave Passos’s voice more haunting depth. It sorted the music better and enlarged its scale. The F-Dur consistently surprised me with its ability to surprise. Even as it expanded the soundstage, it assembled the many elements of a recording into a well-polished, cohesive, refined whole. Hearing this, I felt that the Thorens combo, for all its many virtues, was generalizing some. With the EAT, I heard more specificity—more of what’s on the record, moment to moment.When I swapped out phono stages, the EAT let each shine with its own character: the Tavish Audio Design Adagio‘s lush, tube warmth; the Manley Chinook‘s razor-sharp attack and punch; and the PrimaLuna EVO 100‘s balanced, composed refinement.