Focal Diva Utopia Wireless Streaming Active Loudspeaker $39,999 Review
March 20, 2025 Comments Off on Focal Diva Utopia Wireless Streaming Active Loudspeaker $39,999 Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/focal-diva-utopia-wireless-streaming-active-loudspeaker
I ended up with the speakers about a quarter of the way out into my large living room. Their rears were about 4½’ from the back wall, their centers about 80″ apart. My ears were about 90″ from the center point between the fronts of the speakers. I toed them in a bit, but not so much that they fired directly at my ears. In that configuration, they presented a balanced if somewhat bass-forward sound and threw a wide, tall, 3D stereo image.
Listening to each speaker in turn, I was struck with how alike they sounded, indicating not just excellent frequency-response matching but also that their placement in the room wasn’t messing with the sound much. Also striking: True mono content sat dead center, not spread unnaturally wide and flat (footnote 7).
These speakers put out a lot of sound. They’ll do best in a large room, allowing for some distance to the listening seat. Given the somewhat omnidirectional projection of bass (the radiation pattern is actually more wide-cardioid, since there are no ports or radiators on the backs of the speakers, but the woofers fire to the side and true bass is everywhere once the room is energized; footnote 8), I’d keep them some distance away from the back and sidewalls.

HumminGuru NOVA HG05
March 20, 2025 Comments Off on HumminGuru NOVA HG05
https://www.stereophile.com/content/spin-doctor-22-cleaning-lps-and-humminguru-nova-hg05
With any type of cleaning process, whether it’s for dishes, cars, or records, it’s always important to ask yourself where the dirt is going. The problem with my childhood blue cleaning fluid and brush method was that the dirt mixed with the fluid to create a kind of slurry, which I then pushed around the record with the brush until the fluid evaporated, leaving most of the dirt behind. A vacuum-type cleaning machine suspends the dirt in the fluid, then sucks the fluid away, taking the dissolved gunk with it and leaving the record dry and clean. This is the basic principle behind all vacuum-type record cleaners, whether they’re the string-and-nozzle type like the Keith Monks or the slot-and-tube type still made today by VPI, Nitty Gritty, and now a host of other companies.

SVS Ultra Evolution Tower Loudspeakers | REVIEW
March 19, 2025 Comments Off on SVS Ultra Evolution Tower Loudspeakers | REVIEW
https://pt.audio/2025/02/09/svs-ultra-evolution-loudspeakers-review/
Next up on the “SVS Testing” playlist was a great track that my sons put me onto, “Monsters” by All Time Low and Demi Lovato. Somehow this song was released four years ago but I’m just now hearing it, primarily because it has explicit lyrics and when I heard my kids listening to it, I had a bit of a conniption fit until I realized it was quite good. The vocals and slamming guitar intro turn into a fantastic hook that played very well on the Ultra Evolution towers. I was particularly impressed with how the sound engineers were able to blend Lovato’s and Alex Gaskarth’s voice on the second verse, and this was reproduced flawlessly by the SVS Ultra speakers. Lovato has shown that there is real talent to be had coming out of a Disney Channel child-star meat grinder, and I for one am very happy to see her overcome her earlier personal struggles and continue to be so successful in the notoriously ruthless music business. On “Monsters,” which was co-written by Lovato, the edginess of the track is combined with the somewhat dark lyrics that invariably impart an autobiographical slant on the song. This is of course typical of any songwriter, but it doesn’t always land well with audiences. This one was a real success in my humble opinion, and I was left jamming to the track on the SVS Ultra Evolution Towers on repeat for a while, both giving the speakers their run-through as well as just enjoying the music as it was meant to be heard.

Audia Flight FLS10 integrated amplifier Review
March 19, 2025 Comments Off on Audia Flight FLS10 integrated amplifier Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/audia-flight-fls10-integrated-amplifier
With a slightly mellow midbass and a potent, agile bottom end, the Audia Flight isn’t warm in a bloated, nostalgic way, but its sensuous shimmer keeps pulling you in. More than once, I perceived phantom tubes in the system, although my ears also told me that second-order harmonic distortion is reassuringly low.
The FLS10 sounded even more commanding than it looked in my room and on paper (200Wpc into 8 ohms, almost double that into 4). Basswise, the amplifier doesn’t produce slam as brutally visceral as my beloved Krell reference does, but for the first time I’m considering that the Krell may be overly prodigious, and that the Audia Flight has it beat for musicality.
I enjoyed every minute I spent with the FLS10, and every recording I played through it. Its departure will leave a bittersweet void


Assembly – Invictus Jr NEO by Acoustic Signature
March 19, 2025 Comments Off on Assembly – Invictus Jr NEO by Acoustic Signature
YG Acoustics Talus Loudspeakers REVIEW
March 18, 2025 Comments Off on YG Acoustics Talus Loudspeakers REVIEW
https://pt.audio/2025/02/14/yg-acoustics-talus-loudspeakers-review/
The Descent sub, however, is both a sophisticated one and a simple one. It’s sophisticated because it’s an active, DSP-powered subwoofer. The internal power amp has 1000W, for example. The driver is “an entirely new, 11″ (28 cm) BilletCore driver with 3″ voice coil, titanium former and advanced magnet structure.” The DSP filters are “based on advanced computational modeling, state-of-the-art measurements and extensive listening tests, with presets frequency and phase curves to accompany bookshelf, small floor-stander and large floor-stander speakers.” in addition, the control panel on the back of the Descent has all the features you’d need from a subwoofer with this excellent pedigree. There are both balanced and unbalanced inputs, and the balanced connections are distinguished between an input that can be used with a subwoofer (or two) out on the amp/preamp and an “XLR through” which allows you to “chained from a preamp through the Descent and onto a power amplifier for that channel of the main speakers.” There’s also a high level input, which I used, for “an expert set-up.” More on that in a bit.

EMM Labs DA2i D/A processor $35,000 Review
March 18, 2025 Comments Off on EMM Labs DA2i D/A processor $35,000 Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/emm-labs-da2i-da-processor
Setup was a snap. I placed the unit on the top shelf of my rack and supported it with the same Wilson Audio Pedestals I use under my reference DAC system and other components. Then I attached the input, output, and power cables and fired it up. Instead of using the supplied Kimber power cable (footnote 7), I used the same power cable I use with my reference. I also stuck exclusively with the DA2i’s XLR (balanced) outputs, because the D’Agostino Relentless preamp in my reference system only accepts balanced.
From cold, EMM Labs recommends keeping the unit on for 3-4 days before listening. It isn’t necessary to run signal through it during this period, they say. Because first impressions make an outsized impact, I waited a good four days before listening. I compared the DA2i to the much more expensive, three-piece Vivaldi Apex system, my reference. It took me just a minute or two to easily switch between them by moving a single USB cable and pair of XLR cables between the two DACs.

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