Mytek HiFi Manhattan II D/A preamplifier-headphone amplifier $5995 Review
August 18, 2017 Comments Off on Mytek HiFi Manhattan II D/A preamplifier-headphone amplifier $5995 Review
” Who knows? MQA may disappear in a few years. All I know is that Camille Thurman’s new MQA-encoded CD, Inside the Moment (Chesky JD397), is the most lifelike, 3D-sounding recording I’ve ever heard. Featuring the tenor sax and voice of Thurman—with guitarist Mark Whitfield, bassist Ben Allison, and drummer Billy Drummond—this binaural recording of a concert at Rockwood Music Hall, on New York’s Lower East Side, is outstanding among audiophile recordings because, all the way through, the band, the audience, and the listener at home all sound and feel as if they’re in the same room. Plucked double bass, brushed and struck drums, and audience applause were all so hauntingly real that it was distracting. As I listened through headphones with my eyes closed, the air that vibrated around Chesky’s binaural B&K dummy head as this concert was recorded felt as if it was vibrating around my head. The Rockwood audience was next to and behind me. In front of me, the band was tangibly present. The intensity of this experience of virtual reality compels me to ask: If you were contemplating the purchase of a new DAC, why would you not want it to include MQA processing?”
Emotiva Airmotiv T1 Tower Speaker Review
August 17, 2017 Comments Off on Emotiva Airmotiv T1 Tower Speaker Review
“The Emotiva T1 tower speakers deliver stellar performance for their price, making them not only a real value but also a real performance front-runner in affordable high-end audio. The fact that you can have this much fun with a full 5.1 Airmotiv home theater speaker system for under $2,000 would have been unheard of just a few years ago. Emotiva has been shaking up the electronics market for a while. I have a feeling they are going to do the same to the loudspeaker market based on their newest offering. Can you get noticeably better performance? Yes, but you would have to spend more … maybe considerably more.”
HIFIMAN MEGAMINI REVIEW
August 17, 2017 Comments Off on HIFIMAN MEGAMINI REVIEW
” Its slight warmth is a boon to the RE800, an earphone which has swiftly become a personal favourite. The Megamini shows a slight high-end roll off of about 0,5dB. If you can hear that, you’re not human. Perhaps the biggest reason it sounds warm is its beautifully solid stereo signal. No matter the load, lows, highs, and mids, share neutral load patterns, ensuring nearly equal sound pressure in any stereo band. Typically, high-frequencies and sometimes low frequencies congeal, pulling spatial attention away from the centre, and put too much emphasis on the extremes. Megamini keeps the middle intact.”
CAYIN IDAC-6 & IHA $999 EACH – REVIEW
August 16, 2017 Comments Off on CAYIN IDAC-6 & IHA $999 EACH – REVIEW
“It may lack some of the micro detail prowess of the ESS flavored DACs but if you want something a little punchier then the iDAC-6 will give you that. A good example is the voicing when switching from the Oppo Sonica DAC to the iDAC-6 using the iHA-6 amp. I get a more euphoric but slightly edgier and less refined timbre with the iDAC-6. Technically, the Sonica is thus the more accurate for my money but the iDAC-6 is the more engaging and dynamic of the two for vocals so I tend to get more personal pleasure from the iDAC-6 performance with the right amp pairing.”
Essence HDACC $500 Review
August 16, 2017 Comments Off on Essence HDACC $500 Review
” Using the HD800 from the HDACC with ohm setting to 300-ohms the difference was palatable also. With the Flac recording via USB Katherine’s vocals fell back a bit into the orchestra and lost a little in body. Switching back to the disk via HDMI immediately the vocals sounded more accurate and life like. Instrumental positioning was not as flat allowing for better spacing and generally an airier feel to the recording.”
Elac Discovery Music Server $1099 Review
August 15, 2017 Comments Off on Elac Discovery Music Server $1099 Review
“Upping the ante further to Kubala Sosna’s Expression cables—which retail for twice the price of the Discovery—and now timbre and tone closed the gap to my twice as expensive DAC. This was getting much closer to my reference and suggests to non-audiophiles what makes people audiophiles. It’s a measure of accomplishment, to me at least, that performance with the Discovery so ably distinguished cables. Yes, my more expensive DAC delivered a more realistic timbre, and delivered a high level of detail, gently, sweetly and incisively, as well as deeper bass and higher highs, if you will. But at no point was I suffering with the Discovery in my system.”
Conrad-Johnson • Classic Sixty-Two SE Stereo Amplifier $5750 Review
August 15, 2017 Comments Off on Conrad-Johnson • Classic Sixty-Two SE Stereo Amplifier $5750 Review
“Concerned that I should try a conventional speaker with the Classic Sixty-Two SE, I packed up the amp and took it to Kent Johnson’s house. Kent recently retired from reviewing at Positive Feedback and has a nice listening space featuring Revel F208 speakers driven by Primare electronics fed by an Esoteric universal player. At 250Wpc, the Primare amp has no trouble controlling the Revel’s dual 8″ woofers, but could the Classic Sixty-Two SE keep up? After a brief listening session to acclimate our ears to the sound, we swapped out the Primare for the C-J amp. I knew we wouldn’t have as much ultimate volume moving from 250 watts to 60, but neither of us listen too loudly, so my fears weren’t warranted. I was pleased that the Classic Sixty-Two SE sound was instantly recognizable and similar to my initial reactions after break-in.”
Margules Group U-280sc “Black” Amplifier $10,800 Review
August 14, 2017 Comments Off on Margules Group U-280sc “Black” Amplifier $10,800 Review
“As much as I like the “Black” in triode mode one of the amp’s strengths is how good it sounded in the ultra-linear mode. This gives one the opportunity to own a Class A amp that can drive rather inefficient speakers. I should also mention this amp brought out the best of a very good digital source. Some might say that means it is a forgiving amp, but I’d rather say that somehow it lets you hear the best of the source as long as it is a good musical source.”
Tekton Design Brilliance Floorstanding Loudspeaker $3000 Review
August 14, 2017 Comments Off on Tekton Design Brilliance Floorstanding Loudspeaker $3000 Review
“Within my 6000 cubic foot room I did very well with 18 Class A watts from my SET monoblocks. In a smaller room, 8 Watts from a 300B tube should do quite nicely at reasonable listening levels. The same principle applies to solid state amplifiers if you lean in that direction and to other components in your rig, as well, although I would caution against going cheap at your front end. Everything matters and the affordable price of the Brilliance may leave you with additional funds to improve other areas of your system.”
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LINN PRODUCTS KLIMAX SYSTEM £58,700 REVIEW
August 13, 2017 Comments Off on LINN PRODUCTS KLIMAX SYSTEM £58,700 REVIEW
“Those wanting a damn fine system with no pre-existing Linn Konditions are a little more nuanced in approach, but not much. In a way, the complete Klimax system makes multiple arguments at once: it makes a case for the Linn way of doing things, it makes the ultimate expression of active, Exakt, and Katalyst performance, and it suggests why that “the source is in the speaker” tag line actually makes quite a lot of sense when you listen to the ultimate expression of that concept.”
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