FIIO FA1 REVIEW $100
April 14, 2019 Comments Off on FIIO FA1 REVIEW $100
“Using the FA1 with phones, you will notice the boost in clarity especially in the treble, the bass is quite shy and attacks comfortably not covering up the sub-bass content. This helps the bass extension sound deeper and makes the overall tuning more dynamic. The tuning is not veiled on either the treble or the lows although it is limited by a single driver’s capability. The soundstage is fairly large and there are no obvious flaws in the tuning.
In particular, I like how the crispiness in the treble makes the upper vocal range and percussion instruments more pronounced, strengthening the texture and resolution of female vocals and violins.”
Krell K-300i $7,000 Review
April 12, 2019 Comments Off on Krell K-300i $7,000 Review
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Compared to my reference McIntosh MB50 streamer, the Krell provides a more intense presentation to the Mac’s slightly sweeter rendition. If I didn’t already have an outboard streamer, I could happily live with the one built into the Krell. For the less than the price of a decent pair of signal cables and a power cord, you can have it all inside the chassis. A great thing for those craving simplicity.
Just a quick note about the HDMI performance of the K-300i. In a word, it is phenomenal. Watching Mary Queen of Scots, my wife and our friend agreed, it was like we had upgraded our modest Epson projector several levels. Color saturation and detail rendition was startling as was the contrast and brightness. If you are like me and your audio system does double duty as your home theater, the upgrade in video quality alone not to mention the ease of integration is worth at least half the overall cost the K-300i.”
FIIO M9 DAP REVIEW
April 12, 2019 Comments Off on FIIO M9 DAP REVIEW
“The FiiO M9 uses a locked down Android and only supports specific applications. Repeat after me: “The FiiO M9 uses a low-power processor meant for wearables and only allows white-listed Android apps or else performance will suck”. And say it over five times, please. As one of the main contributors to Head-Fi’s FiiO M9 thread, it is excruciating to get the plethora of tin foil hat theories of why FiiO limits the apps you can install despite low-level engineering explanation and even James (CEO of FiiO) coming into the thread and confirming. The M9 comes with Tidal and some other music apps that are more relevant in Asia like KKBOX or MOOV with the ability to install Spotify through downloading the APK onto the SD card manually.”
Elac Navis ARB-51 Active Loudspeaker $2000/pr Review
April 11, 2019 Comments Off on Elac Navis ARB-51 Active Loudspeaker $2000/pr Review
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Audiophiles who delight in mixing and matching components have largely rejected active speakers. And maybe at the upper end of our hobby they always will. But where space and design are considerations, I think the scenario is rosy for actives, in that they can make a major musical statement without blowing up the room décor. I couldn’t have been more impressed with the electrifying performance and value of the Elac Navis ARB-51. It’s one of the rare small compacts that you don’t have to scale back expectations to enjoy. So, audiophiles, you’re on notice. Elac’s latest is rising fast on my short list for next year’s Product of the Year Awards.”
Ultrasone Edition 15 Headphone Review $2999
April 10, 2019 Comments Off on Ultrasone Edition 15 Headphone Review $2999
The icing on the sonic cake is Ultrasone’s choice of treble balance. The Edition 15s are ever so slightly rolled off or shelved in the upper registers, but this avoids calling unnatural attention to the upper octaves. Many high-end audio products sound a little edgy, clinical, sharp, or brittle in an effort to maximize perceived resolution. This is not, however, how live music actually sounds when it is most engaging. By avoiding gratuitous brightness the Edition 15 invites you to enjoy the music. At the same time, it offers clear, extended high frequencies, successfully revealing venue acoustics and overtones.”
Raidho D1.1 $25,000/pair Review
April 9, 2019 Comments Off on Raidho D1.1 $25,000/pair Review
“Most impressive about the D1.1s, as with my reference X1s is their ability to do a great job on less than pristine musical selections. These are musical speakers first, not audiophile speakers, limited to a few perfect tracks. Thanks to the incredibly low distortion in the Raidhos, these are speakers you can listen to all day long with no fatigue.
As mentioned earlier, the bass that these speakers can generate is of extremely high quality, and extends quite low, lower than the 50hz spec might suggest. Tracking through a long play list of hip hop, electronica, and classic rock tracks with plenty of low bass output was indeed satisfying, though with the Bryston amplifier’s 1000 watts per channel on tap, I did have to be careful not to bottom those little woofer cones!”
EARSONICS PURPLE REVIEW
April 9, 2019 Comments Off on EARSONICS PURPLE REVIEW
“Treble is somewhat a little more laid back with the warm mode and you don’t hear that supremely crisp and articulated treble with the warm mode. So this mode has an effect on treble, unlike the mid section. If bass is your priority though, you can definitely switch to this mode.”
Quad ERA-1 Planar-Magnetic Headphone $799 Review
April 8, 2019 Comments Off on Quad ERA-1 Planar-Magnetic Headphone $799 Review
“Is the ERA-1 the headphone equivalent to Quad’s ESL-57 speaker? It certainly captures the ESL-57’s uncanny transparency, but in many respects I think the ERA-1 actually surpasses its illustrious predecessor. The ERA-1 offers better and deeper bass, equally subtle mids but with sharper transient attacks and broader dynamic capabilities, plus highs that consistently impress with their extension, clarity, and delicacy. In short, the ERA-1 now stands as one of the finest sub-$800 headphones that money can buy.”
Klipsch RP-8000F Tower Speaker Review
April 8, 2019 Comments Off on Klipsch RP-8000F Tower Speaker Review
“Klipsch has divided the RP-8000F horn into two sections by the copper ring embedded into the horn. The inner section is a conical plastic piece which serves as the throat of the horn, and the outer section, the mouth of the horn, is a softer silicone piece that takes on a more orthogonal shape. The softer silicone material of the mouth is used to avoid bell resonances in the horn. The throat of the horn is a round conical shape in order to reduce early diffractions as the soundwave leaves the tweeter diaphragm. The squarish mouth shape governs its dispersion pattern. A 1” titanium dome tweeter is used to load the horn, and it uses what Klipsch calls the ‘Linear Travel Suspension’ system which is a carefully designed suspension that allows for larger excursions of the moving assembly before the suspension thwarts linear motion thereby incurring distortion. Titanium seems like a natural choice for the diaphragm material since the horn-loading and lower crossover point might be more than softer dome types such as fabric could withstand. The rear chamber of the tweeter is vented to allow backwave energy to better dissipate instead of being reflected back into the diaphragm which would also increase distortion. ”
The PS Audio DirectStream P15 Power Plant Review $7,495
April 7, 2019 Comments Off on The PS Audio DirectStream P15 Power Plant Review $7,495
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Because the Power Plant is providing you with fresh AC, that six feet of power cord now makes an even bigger difference. The P15 and P20 make it much easier to discern the improvement that a premium power cable provides. You need look no further than the touch panel scope on the front panel of the P15 to see it in action. In my office/studio which features recent cabling and more attention to the Earth ground, the AC power only had an input distortion of 2%, coming from a 20 amp dedicated line and new breaker panel. In my house, with older wiring and a breaker box from the early 70s, that distortion rises to 3.5%. Interesting. Both Power Plants reduced output distortion to around .1%, a major increase in clarity.”
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