Beyerdynamic DT 1350 headphones REVIEW
March 25, 2016 Comments Off on Beyerdynamic DT 1350 headphones REVIEW
” Getting down to the business of listening to the DT 1350 didn’t feel like work, as acoustic music had an organic natural quality. Voices inside these headphones sounded like actual human voices, imagine that! Flying Lotus’ “Until the Quiet Comes” album is jam-packed with texturally and rhythmically dense instrumentals that practically massaged my ears with its low bass beats. The DT 1350 plumbs the depths of the music, no problem.”
Violectric-V850 Review
March 24, 2016 Comments Off on Violectric-V850 Review
” The V850, like the V800, offers resampling/upsampling and you of course can only sample up till you’ve reached the chips’ limits (1x, 2x, 4x). The LEDs indicate if the resampling function is activated or not. When using the “BEST” setting, the digital input word will be recombined and forwarded to the D/A converter at a sample rate of 96 kHz, a rate at which most contemporary converters perform best according to Violectric. After installation of Violectric’s drivers a Violectric “mini app” will show you what bitrate the DAC is receiving. To know what bitrate the Violectric V850 is receiving without looking at that you can always check it by trying the upsample feature. 88.2 will be possible to upsample twice and 192 only once of course. Personally I’ve always set the upsampling to “Best” as this is what Violectric recommends. I do find there is an audible difference when using the upsample function, so just let your ears decide what they like most.”
Transrotor ZET 3 INFINITY Turntable Review
March 24, 2016 Comments Off on Transrotor ZET 3 INFINITY Turntable Review
” Vinyl is a wonderful music medium. It offers its own, unique in many ways, performance and a mechanical nature of its reproduction brings it closer to a human nature, human needs. It also easily comprehensible unlike digital form of music (that, in my opinion, might one day deliver even better sound quality, but not yet) is completely detached from us, humans, and from music.”
AUDIO ALCHEMY DDP-1 PREAMP/DAC/HEADPHONE AMP, DPA-1 STEREO POWER AMP, AND DPA-1M MONOBLOCK POWER AMP
March 23, 2016 Comments Off on AUDIO ALCHEMY DDP-1 PREAMP/DAC/HEADPHONE AMP, DPA-1 STEREO POWER AMP, AND DPA-1M MONOBLOCK POWER AMP
“The Alchemy products threw a large and well-defined soundstage, with outstanding depth, dimensionality, and separation of individual instrumental lines. On “Mars” from The Planets (Mehta, LA Philharmonic, Decca), the insistent snare drum that drives the rhythm was well back in the stage, with a real sense of air and space around it. The call-and-response lines of the tenor tuba and trumpet were well differentiated from each other and from the rest of the orchestra. The sense of size and scale was outstanding. Other hallmarks of the products were clarity and transparency—the sense of nothing between you and the music. The soundstage lacked the veiling that diminishes the sense of realism of instruments at the back of the stage.”
HiFiMan HE-560 Over-the-Ear Headphones Reviewed
March 23, 2016 Comments Off on HiFiMan HE-560 Over-the-Ear Headphones Reviewed
“The HE-560 has gone through a couple of small design changes since its introduction. The most noticeable cosmetic change was the enclosure, which was originally made of wooden cups; however, they were prone to developing cracks, so the company replaced the wood with a laminate and completely redesigned the enclosures. The earpads were also changed both in composition and physical structure. The current earpads are softer with a slight wedge-shaped angle that puts the back of the headphone slightly farther away from your ears than the front. My review sample had the current earpads and cup design, but the older cable connection. The headband design has not changed. It depends on the spring tension of its metal section for side pressure. My preference would be for slightly less pressure.”
Paradigm Prestige 95F Floorstanding Speaker Review
March 22, 2016 Comments Off on Paradigm Prestige 95F Floorstanding Speaker Review
” Each tessitura is in a solid relationship with each other — nothing juts out, nothing jars. I threw on Track 1, ‘the’ Track 1 that should be in all audiophiles’ arsenal — Thomas Newman’s soundtrack to American Beauty. You all know of my fascination and admiration for this chart and its composer. Unique, catchy and made up of untuned and tuned percussion and synths. I use it to test driver speed. Do you hear all of the resonance inside the Latin Percussion (noun, not adjective), the true timbre of marimbas numerous and the super low, tight synthesized bass? This CD should be on all your ‘to purchase’ lists. If your system is dialed in, you’ll hear subterranean bass utterly removed from the mid range and treble (Newman wants it this way) and a myriad of struck and bowed percussion, each in its own time and space. Don’t forget to listen carefully to the synth gliss shortly after the opening. How many layers can you hear? The Paradigm held its own and replicated the colours and dynamics well, if not in primary colours. There was a little builder beige, if I’m being completely honest”
HiFiMan Edition X Headphones $1,800 Review
March 22, 2016 Comments Off on HiFiMan Edition X Headphones $1,800 Review
” To my ears, the obvious difference between the Edition Xes and the HE1000s was in the treble. So I put on “Airpower,” from Larry Coryell and Philip Catherine’s Twin House (16[-bit]/44.1[kHz] WAV, Wounded Bird), an album of acoustic-guitar duets that’s especially revealing of treble quality. The HE1000s got “Airpower” pretty much right, with extremely clear but not overemphasized sounds of picks on strings, and fingers sliding up and down fretboards. The guitars’ bass notes also sounded wonderfully resonant through the HE1000s; I got a real sense of the instruments’ soundboards vibrating. “It might be just a tad bright, but it still kicks ass,” I wrote in my notes”
Miyo DAC/Amp
March 22, 2016 Comments Off on Miyo DAC/Amp
” Just over a year ago, a bunch of audio nerds launched a Kickstarter to get a new digital-to-analog converter and headphone amp into the hands of fellow high resolution music lovers. The Colorado startup promised backers that the palm-friendly Miyo would deliver the same kind of audio quality and sonic detail found in a professional recording studio. The campaign proved successful and the aluminum brick has since started shipping to consumers. We’ve spent the last few weeks rocking out with this useful audio toolbox, while also feeling the warmth radiating from the device itself.”
The Pass Labs HPA-1 headphone amplifier
March 21, 2016 Comments Off on The Pass Labs HPA-1 headphone amplifier
” The Pass Labs HPA-1 is a reference-grade component designed with well-heeled headphone enthusiasts in mind — ones that already own at least one world-class headphone. If that describes you, I hope you can get to hear the HPA-1. For everybody else, there’s a fair chance this level of performance will come down in price, in 5 or 10 years.”
Classé Audio Sigma Amp5 Multichannel Amplifier Review
March 21, 2016 Comments Off on Classé Audio Sigma Amp5 Multichannel Amplifier Review
” As I prefer to listen to music through only two speakers, I have few, if any, multichannel discs in my collection — so all of my musical listening was to two-channel recordings. I kicked things off with “When We Were Young,” from Adele’s 25 (16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC, XL Recordings). Two instruments open this track: piano and bass guitar. Not surprisingly, each was cleanly delineated by the Classé Sigma Amp5, yet with a vast difference in size. The piano filled the room, seemingly emanating from outside and slightly above both of my Atrias, while the bass guitar was neatly placed at center stage, sounding precise in scale. When Adele entered, she completely filled the center stage, sounding dimensional, powerful, and, frankly, massive — but something interesting was happening. Despite the room-filling piano and Adele’s soaring voice, I could still hear the picking of each string of the bass guitar. In fact, I found it easy to focus on whichever facet of what was happening on stage I wanted to, be it the bass, Adele’s voice, the voices of the backing singers, or the subtle shakes of the maracas to far left. Each sounded neutral, fulsome, dimensional — and, in the case of Adele’s voice, highly dynamic.”
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