WELLS AUDIO HEADTRIP II HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER $7,000 REVIEW
May 13, 2019 Comments Off on WELLS AUDIO HEADTRIP II HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER $7,000 REVIEW
“The original Headtrip had two blue LED’s by the Right and Left outputs to indicate power was on. A few clients complained that the lights were bright and distracting so they were removed and replaced with a green lit power button that is more subtle but still indicates the unit is on. The original had dual 3-pin XLR’s for balanced out while the new version has one 4-pin balanced XLR output. What has not changed is the units power output of 50 WPC at 8 Ohms, 25 WPC at 32 Ohms and 1.8 WPC at 600 Ohms. It is a powerful amplifier and yet in listening to it, you discover a vanishingly low noise floor. The Headtrip II also has the ability to display all the nuances of the recording including the most subtle and delicate passages and details. No matter what headphones you own, the Headtrip II will drive them with aplomb.”
IBASSO DX220 $899 REVIEW
May 13, 2019 Comments Off on IBASSO DX220 $899 REVIEW
“The DX200/AMP1 sound has this slight bloom of warmth in the lower mids, nothing extreme but enough to create a little softness in the tone of the DX200. The DX220 timbre is more neutral to my ear, not as soft and not as warm but nothing I would describe as overly analytical or cold sounding.
The control on the treble presence on the AMP1 MK2 is excellent and partly why the DX220 sounds a little more neutral in timbre compared to the AMP1 first gen. It injects a little more odd-harmonic presence in the DX220 instrumental and vocal timbre so notes sound a touch cleaner and more articulate.
The accuracy and details levels seem to have gone up a notch even if the overall lower-midrange instrumental body drops down marginally.”
Revel Performa F228Be Loudspeaker £10,000 Review
May 11, 2019 Comments Off on Revel Performa F228Be Loudspeaker £10,000 Review
“Let the Revels begin: these wonderfully enjoyable speakers are able to conjure realistic scale and impact while conveying all the detail and flow of whatever’s being played. With effortless dynamics, fine integration and the ability to create excellent 3D soundstage images, they deserve very serious auditioning if you’re in the market at this level – and show a clean pair of heels to some more expensive rivals, too. ”
FIIO M9 DAP REVIEW
May 10, 2019 Comments Off on FIIO M9 DAP REVIEW
“Using FiiO Link is easy and FiiO is promising even more integrated support. To start, make sure your smartphone has FiiO Music installed and the Bluetooth is enabled. Then on the M9 or other FiiO link supported device, enable Bluetooth and hit the switch on “Bluetooth decoding amp mode” and then turn Bluetooth on again. Open the FiiO Music app, hit the gears Settings icon and enable FiiO Link. Then on the smartphone’s FiiO Music app, also go down to FiiO Link, enable that and hit Client. And you’re good to go. This needs to be done every single time and so is painful at the moment but FiiO says they are working on making it more seamless. The experience of using FiiO Link with the M9 DAP is mind-boggling with it still in a beta phase. It feels like you are untethered from having the headphone wire going to your device as you go to change your song since you are now using your DAP remotely. The speed is great and delays are rare. You can effectively do almost all the functions of the M9 as you would normally using the app, from searching for songs, browsing your playlist, changing the volume and even favoriting. Album art gets downloaded only when you click into the song and what is shown is lower quality to save on size of caching, but is good enough as is.”
Clearaudio Innovation Basic Turntable | Review
May 10, 2019 Comments Off on Clearaudio Innovation Basic Turntable | Review
“Earlier in the week, I had matched levels between The Clearaudio + TRACER + Hana ML + D’Agostino Momentum Phono vs. my dCS Vivaldi Digital stack. So I decided to have some fun and listen to Mercy Street on a Vinyl LP vs. Mercy Street in DSD.
I started the track on both devices simultaneously and switched back and forth. Sure there were differences (some LP noise for example), but in general I didn’t prefer one over the other. YES, I usually prefer the AMG Viella V12 over the dCS for a lot of content, but in this case the Clearaudio + D’Agostino Momentum was just as enjoyable as listening to that track on the gold standard dCS Vivaldi.”
Paradigm 200B Small Monitor Speaker $1000 Review
May 9, 2019 Comments Off on Paradigm 200B Small Monitor Speaker $1000 Review
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This seemed a little odd to me because, in my previous history with Paradigm monitors, they had an outstanding bottom end. Because I was somewhat perplexed, I moved to a different style of music, putting on Bob Marley’s Exodus, which is somewhat defined by the bass line. Once again, things just didn’t seem right.
After running through a variety of music I pushed the speaker back a little closer to the back wall in an attempt to boost up the bottom end. Although the bottom end was slightly better, the image stayed solid, so I kept them closer to the wall for the majority of my time with the Paradigms.”
Schiit Aegir amp Review
May 9, 2019 Comments Off on Schiit Aegir amp Review
“That depends on how loud you listen, the size of your room, the sensitivity of your speakers, and the music genres you enjoy. Big rooms soak up more power than small rooms, and high sensitivity speakers need less power to play at a given volume level than lower sensitivity speakers.
I split my Aegir listening sessions between two sets of speakers, the low sensitivity KEF LS50 and high sensitivity Klipsch Forte III speakers. Fueled by the Aegir, the LS50’s sound took on a burnished glow, with the tone richer and sweeter than I’m used to. Stereo imaging was superb, that’s what the LS50 is known for, but paired with the Aegir there’s more depth and body to the sound of vocalists and instruments on acoustic music.”
WOO AUDIO WA11 REVIEW
May 8, 2019 Comments Off on WOO AUDIO WA11 REVIEW
“The WA11 has absolutely no problem getting the 300 Ohm Sennheiser to blasting volumes. Loudness isn’t the problem of the Senn, as it’s an easier to drive headphone, but it can be very picky when it comes to sources. With the WA11 I feel it’s a good match. You will still get all the details from the Senn, but you will receive good amounts of body from the WA11, which makes a great blend of the two.
Don’t expect the bass of the HD800S to be elevated to levels of the Empyrean or even Diana Phi though, it’s still light on the lows, but mids are a notch denser with the Woo, which is also an area where the Senn could be improved on its own to me.”
Fluance RT85 Reference High Fidelity Turntable $499 Review
May 8, 2019 Comments Off on Fluance RT85 Reference High Fidelity Turntable $499 Review
“A few days later, I had my aha moment! I took delivery of a pair of Fluance’s new Ai60 Powered 6.5” Bookshelf Speakers (review coming soon). With powered speakers I was able to remove the amplifier from the equation and listen to a full Fluance system. This configuration was just great. Like all around great. Listening back to Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, the warmth all but disappeared and the overall sound was bright and crisp while retaining its low-end grunt. This proves that system matching is key. Potential buyers should look to audition Fluance RT85 with a few different systems first to achieve the sort of sound that they prefer.”
MARK LEVISON Nº585.5 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER $33,995 REVIEW
May 7, 2019 Comments Off on MARK LEVISON Nº585.5 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER $33,995 REVIEW
“I am firmly in the camp that believes that every component in the reproduction chain, has a ‘sound’ or distortion that it adds to the music source. In the recording studio, it includes the microphones, cables, mixing desk, software, and any number of additional processes before we even consume or playback the original performance. We can only attempt to get as close as possible to the musical truth.
The combination of components we choose will ultimately have a bearing on the final result, and that is what will dictate ‘synergy’ in your audio system. Why do I bring this up? Because initially, I felt I wasn’t quite able to obtain a level of synergy with the Nº585.5 and various loudspeakers that I was happy with at this level. I came close a couple of times but felt that since the amplifier was very likely voiced with fellow-Harman brands JBL and Revel speakers, which of course I didn’t have on hand, that I didn’t quite achieve the audio nirvana that I am personally looking for. This is not a criticism of Mark Levinson or the amplifier, but we are talking about a pairing of two critical components that have much to do with the tonal balance and overall enjoyment.”
Audiophilepure 
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