ABYSS DIANA PHI REVIEW
May 27, 2019 Comments Off on ABYSS DIANA PHI REVIEW
“We have seen many good headphones in the recent months and years, but it seems that the higher end segment is concentrating on planar magnetic drivers. The market is filled with cans from established orthodynamic headphone manufacturers like HiFiMAN, Audeze and Abyss themselves, but we have seen new introductions like the Empyrean by Meze, the MrSpeakers Ether headphones and the newly launched Rosson Audio Design RAD-0 from Alex Rosson (ex-CEO of Audeze).
I can only compare the Diana Phi with what I have in my inventory though, as I won’t make any judgements based on short term listenings or sessions from the past. Those aren’t credible in my books and I won’t add comparisons to something I haven’t heard at home. Let’s take a look how the Diana Phi compares to my other headphones.”
Pass Labs INT-60 Amplifier $9,000 Review
May 26, 2019 Comments Off on Pass Labs INT-60 Amplifier $9,000 Review
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A high level of tonal and timbral accuracy also makes the INT-60 tough to ignore. Pianos, violins, and other acoustic instruments sound incredibly right, and with a pair of speakers in the 87-90db/1-watt sensitivity range, you will have to push the INT-60 very hard to get it to clip.
Rounding out the picture, the INT-60 paints a very engaging, three-dimensional musical landscape, with rock-solid pace. Listening to the Stones’ “Low Down” (from Bridges to Babylon), the INT-60 keeps Charlie Watts drumming solidly anchored through the melody, while Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood sneak up behind Jagger’s lead vocals, going “woo, woo” during the chorus, as if they were up on stage together. Pure acoustic performances delight, and the level that this amplifier unfolds densely packed music is truly world class.”
GoldenEar Technology Triton One.R Loudspeakers $5999 Review
May 26, 2019 Comments Off on GoldenEar Technology Triton One.R Loudspeakers $5999 Review
“Lately, to gauge audio components’ reproduction of women’s voices, I’ve been listening to Carpenters albums. Richard Carpenter’s backing vocals irritate me to no end, but Karen Carpenter’s pure-sounding contralto mesmerizes me, and it’s her voice that’s always front and center in the mix. One of their best albums for evaluating gear is With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (24/48 FLAC unfolded to 24/96 MQA, A&M/Tidal), a new album comprising remasterings of already-recorded Carpenters hits with overdubbed accompaniment by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Richard Carpenter, who oversaw all production. Richard has the reputation of being a perfectionist, and from what I heard he got it right — this is one smooth, clean-sounding recording.
In “For All We Know,” the GoldenEars rendered Karen’s voice so clearly that I was spellbound — she hovered unwaveringly in space between the speakers, sounding clean, clean, clean. Had I not been going back and forth between the One.Rs and the two-way, stand-mounted Focal Kanta No1s ($5999/pair), also in for review, I’d have had trouble dredging up a single complaint about the One.Rs in that area. But the Kantos reproduced the sound of Karen Carpenter’s voice just a little bit more purely and a touch more openly than did the One.Rs. Don’t read that as a knock against the Triton One.Rs — they were surprisingly close to the Kantos even in this regard, and in the bass they cleaned the little Kantos’ clocks, as you’d expect a couple big floorstanders to do against a pair of minimonitors.”
MARK LEVINSON NO 585.5 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER $12,000REVIEW
May 25, 2019 Comments Off on MARK LEVINSON NO 585.5 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER $12,000REVIEW
“As mentioned above, the No 585.5 includes Mark Levinson’s trademarked Clari-Fi® circuitry that is used to reconstruct much of what is lost when audio files are compressed. I used this often and it has an intensity control that you can adjust. After trying out the different intensity settings, I wound up keeping it at the factory default.
As mentioned previously, the No 585.5 includes a very flexible phono stage. It’s great that it is all controlled via the front display. There is no need to open up the case and toggle dip switches. Nice. Besides all the available settings discussed above, the unit also had a balance offset for the phono stage. Typically one would ensure good channel balance by properly adjusting and calibrating their tonearm/cartridge but in some cases, certain phono rigs have a characteristic channel imbalance. This is where you can make a default setting that varies by up to +/- 3 dB in 0.1 dB steps.”
SME Synergy All-In-One Turntable Review
May 25, 2019 Comments Off on SME Synergy All-In-One Turntable Review
“That’s probably down to its precision yoke housing with 10mm ABEC 3 ball-bearing races. The yoke is mounted to the 23mm-diameter heat-treated, ground and honed steel pillar, with a pair of 17mm ABEC 7 ball bearing races widely spaced to resist tilt.
SME’s partnering cartridge of choice is the highly regarded MC Ortofon Windfeld Ti [HFN Jan ’18]. It too is beautifully engineered using the company’s Selective Laser Melting technology where fine particles of titanium are welded together to create a body core optimised for rigidity and low weight. It is fitted with gold-plated 6N oxygen-free copper coils, coupled to a cantilever tipped by Ortofon’s Replicant 100 diamond. Its low-ish 0.2mV output is certainly suited to the integral Nagra phono stage.
Most will enlist the services of their friendly local SME dealer to set up the Synergy, but if that’s not possible then it’s actually fairly straightforward to get going.
STAX SRM-D50 ELECTROSTATIC DRIVER AND DAC REVIEW
May 24, 2019 Comments Off on STAX SRM-D50 ELECTROSTATIC DRIVER AND DAC REVIEW
“In all my years as a headphone listening enthusiast, one thing has remained clear from the very start – there is nothing quite like listening to a Stax system. There’s a certain charm to it; the retro and unashamedly bulky styling of the earspeakers and the proprietary energiser system combine to create an unusual and very untraditional (in the modern world) Head-Fi encounter.
Listening to a Stax system always leads me on a listening journey. I start with my familiar test tracks and end up winding down an experimental path of music and genres I’ve never listened to before… just to experience it.”
Parasound Halo Hint 6 integrated amplifier $2995 Review
May 24, 2019 Comments Off on Parasound Halo Hint 6 integrated amplifier $2995 Review
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Is Parasound’s Halo Hint 6 Integrated Amplifier a party amp? A hard-rock enabler? A suave, swinging jazz proselytizer? It’s all these things. The Hint 6 worked well with every speaker I threw at it, delivering an upfront, slightly cool, dynamic sound, LP after LP. Even at its higher price of $2995, the Halo Hint 6 offers good value in true Swiss Army knife fashion. I can’t think of another integrated amplifier that offers so many options and has such solid, generous sound. Recommended.
Benchmark Media Systems HPA4 Headphone Amplifier $2995 Review
May 23, 2019 Comments Off on Benchmark Media Systems HPA4 Headphone Amplifier $2995 Review
“It would be nice to say that the sound of the HPA4 is the sound of nothing getting in the way of the music. However, I think some listeners would say that it has a certain, albeit subtle, character with tight bass and a very slight treble dryness. I’d comment that the bass is a feature, not a bug, but you need the right headphones. And the more I listened, the more I concluded that the dryness was actually the HPA4 revealing a character of the recording chain.
This adds up to a super-revealing amp that isn’t going to correct the mistakes of the rest of your system. I thought top-flight headphones sounded great as a result, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the amp for you. I, however, wish the review sample didn’t have to go back.”
Conrad-Johnson Announces Reference Headphone Amplifier
May 23, 2019 Comments Off on Conrad-Johnson Announces Reference Headphone Amplifier
“The conrad-johnson design team is particularly excited to announce the release of our latest product, a headphone amplifier that just sounds right. The HVA1 is a reference quality single-ended class A triode amplifier designed to power low-impedance headphones (around 20 to 32 Ohms). The HVA1 accommodates two line-level inputs. Power output is 3 Watts into 20 Ohms. The enhanced triode circuit (similar to that introduced in our flagship GAT preamplifier) employs two 6922 vacuum-tubes (one for each channel) for voltage gain coupled to a high-current FET buffer stage (source follower). Each of the two channels is powered by its own independent DC regulator. CJD Teflon capacitors and Vishay resistors are featured in the circuits. The level control is a discrete stepped attenuator constructed entirely with Vishay resistors. The circuitry is housed in a heavy, elegant aluminum chassis dressed with anodized brushed aluminum panels on front, sides, and top”
Unisinger UIA – 2 Series Platinum loudspeakers $28,990 Review
May 22, 2019 Comments Off on Unisinger UIA – 2 Series Platinum loudspeakers $28,990 Review
“In actuality, the integration of the drivers was such that it was impressively conducive toward piano music listening. The Unisinger’s portrayal of the slowing aging Murray Perahia’s Chopin 24 Etudes was first-class in dynamic contrast and tonal integrity. The reproduction of harmonics was ethereal and surreal. This level of integration makes listening to solo classical piano fun, because their way of reproducing music was complete and completely spectacular.
It’s not unconventionally long in development history for a speaker to be created in nineteen months, and now in hindsight, seeing what Dr. Zhang and his team can do, I wish they had taken a bit longer to amaze us with something even more extraordinary.”
Audiophilepure 
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