Spendor A7 Review
July 6, 2018 Comments Off on Spendor A7 Review
“Refined yet entertaining, the top-of-the-line A7s continue Spendor’s knack for combining stunning precision, clarity and subtlety with hugely enjoyable dynamics and rhythm.If you’re in the market for a new pair of speakers, these elegant Spendor A7s should make their way to the top of your list.”
BH Sound SV-661R Bookshelf Speaker Review
July 5, 2018 Comments Off on BH Sound SV-661R Bookshelf Speaker Review
“If you are a lover of jazz, acoustic, classical, opera, or vocal-centric music, you will find RBH Sound’s SV-661R to be a very satisfying speaker. It has excellent soundstaging, with accurate layering and positioning of players on that stage. Because of its proprietary AMT driver, the SV-661R delivers beautiful timbres/tonality/colors in the very important midrange and treble regions. This tonality is delivered in a slightly warm/silky way that allows you to relax into the music, but it doesn’t get in the way of transparency or micro-details. Plus, the physical appearance of the SV-661R speaker is quite attractive, and its rather small size makes it easy to place in most listening spaces.”
Sony WH-1000XM2 Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones Review
July 5, 2018 Comments Off on Sony WH-1000XM2 Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones Review
“I conducted several lengthy listening sessions with the Sony WH-1000XM2, with various musical genres, and watched a variety of video content, from energetic action movies to quiet dramas, wired and wireless, with and without noise cancelation, and there is no doubt these headphones sound wonderful. I would easily rate them near-audiophile quality. No smiley face EQ curve here, unless that’s what you want, as you can easily dial-up whatever EQ settings you like. Sony even added LDAC, which enables hi-res audio, and when your source is not hi-res, DSEE HX is a digital sound enhancement engine, sort of like the audio equivalent of video up-converting.”
Woo Audio WA33 Elite headphone amplifier $8,000 Review
July 4, 2018 Comments Off on Woo Audio WA33 Elite headphone amplifier $8,000 Review
The WA33 Elite is a tube amplifier, so yes it has some tube noise/hiss lurking in the background, but it was only audible when I played quiet music or movies. I do have issues with the four small knobs flanking the volume control, turning them they feel clunky and stiff, for this kind of money I want smooth and buttery.”
MAGNEPAN 30.7 FOUR‑PANEL DIPOLAR PLANAR LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM $30,000 REVIEW
July 3, 2018 Comments Off on MAGNEPAN 30.7 FOUR‑PANEL DIPOLAR PLANAR LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM $30,000 REVIEW
“Magnepan’s 30.7 is in my view a landmark design—one that does all things well and some things (textural and transient nuances, three-dimensionality, and realistic image scale) extraordinarily well. While $30,000 is a lot to pay for any pair of loudspeakers, the fact is that the 30.7s deliver sound quality competitive with (and in some respects superior to) loudspeakers ranging from two to nearly ten times their price. This means the 30.7 is at once an expensive product that also offers exceptional value for money! If you have the chance, I urge you to hear Magnepan’s 30.7, if only to experience what a world-class $30,000 loudspeaker system can really do.”
Spendor A7 Review
July 2, 2018 Comments Off on Spendor A7 Review
“Such qualities could easily nudge the Spendors over into ‘clinical-sounding’ territory, but instead they’re full of expressive melodies and undulating dynamics.
From sparse, mournful Ólufar Arnalds compositions to the chirpy hip-hop of Salt-N-Pepa, the A7s masterfully weave their way through whatever rhythm they’re confronted with, engrossing us with their performance along the way.”
NAD VISO HP50 Headphone Review
July 2, 2018 Comments Off on NAD VISO HP50 Headphone Review
“To be clear, the black headphone target frequency response curve is the equivalent of a loudspeaker in a reference listening room with a measured response of ~ 10 dB downward slope from 20 Hz-20 kHz. Both of which are subjectively preferred and perceived as flat or neutral sounding to our ears. Or put another way, as Floyd Toole describes, accurate and preferred are synonymous. The green dotted curve is the equivalent of the in-room measured response that is flat from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, which is not the preferred response, but used as the reference point for the listeners to adjust bass and treble to their preferred response.”
Focal Clear Headphones $1,500 Review
July 1, 2018 Comments Off on Focal Clear Headphones $1,500 Review
“The Focal Clear is an exquisite-looking and brilliantly executed pair of headphones. Its extremely well-balanced performance would provide long-term satisfaction for an overwhelming majority of listeners. Yes, if you’re the questing type and money is no object, you can spend more and get more—but a lot of folks with four figures to spend might want to stop right here.”
PS Audio • Stellar Gain Cell Digital-to-Analog Converter and Stellar M700 Mono Amplifiers
July 1, 2018 Comments Off on PS Audio • Stellar Gain Cell Digital-to-Analog Converter and Stellar M700 Mono Amplifiers
“After reinserting the Emerald Physics EP100.2SE stereo amplifier into the chain, the most immediate thing I noticed was the need to increase the volume setting in order to get the same level as that reached with the M700s. Those 350 on-demand watts per channel do make a difference. With the Emerald Physics amp, I did notice a very slight narrowing of the soundstage and I thought I could hear a slight softening of the mids and highs, although I cannot make a definitive statement on this. In fact, I find it difficult to make any definitive comparative statements regarding the sound of the two amplifiers. They are that close. Perhaps the explanation is that they both use Danish ICEpower modules. Both provided ample power to pressurize my room when called for and both seemed equally able to plumb the lowest bass frequencies without feeling any pain. If anything, the Emerald Physics EP100.2SE summoned up more robust, if less controlled bass than the M700s, as evidenced on the Pan Sonic track cited earlier. As for the mids and highs, well, these are not tube amps and they did present, in my experience, a more analytical, less euphonic sound in this range than tubes (the Emerald Physics EP100.2SE less so). I personally prefer this sound.”
AURALIC VEGA G2 STREAMING DAC/PREAMP $5,699 REVIEW
June 30, 2018 Comments Off on AURALIC VEGA G2 STREAMING DAC/PREAMP $5,699 REVIEW
“The VEGA G2 is equally effective on tightly focused and purely acoustic material such as the track ‘Le Boulet Rieur’ from Joël Grare’s Grare: Paris – Instanbul – Shanghai[Alpha, 16/44.1]. Grare leads a remarkable percussion ensemble whose talents and multi-coloured instrumental voices are highlighted in the jaunty, syncopated ‘Le Boulet Rieur’. As the track played through the VEGA G2, three things caught my ear: the brilliant purity and richness of the tonal colours of each of the instruments in play, the dead-accurate rendering of the dynamic envelopes of the instruments (and especially of their distinctive attack and decay characteristics), and—once again—the striking three-dimensionality of the overall presentation. In short, the G2 offered up a sound that was at once invigourating, elegant, refined, and realistic.”
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