Atoll ST300 Signature streaming DAC REVIEW
January 20, 2024 Comments Off on Atoll ST300 Signature streaming DAC REVIEW
Plinius Reference A-150 power amplifier Review
January 19, 2024 Comments Off on Plinius Reference A-150 power amplifier Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/plinius-reference-150-power-amplifier
The right button, labeled “Class A,” is for choosing between class-A and class-AB operation. In class-A, the LED lights. If I forgot to switch to class-AB after a listening session, the amp’s “Ecologic Control” reverted to class-AB a half-hour after I departed. The rear panel includes two pairs of speaker binding posts to facilitate biwiring (footnote 5), and one set each of RCA and XLR input jacks. Between them lies the previously discussed “amplifier configuration selector.” A power toggle switch, 15A IEC connector, remote trigger socket (for integration into a home theater/multimedia system; I didn’t use it), and a ground-lift toggle switch complete the back-panel layout.
The ground-lift toggle switch has two positions: ground lift and chassis ground. States the manual, “In some installations a hum loop may exist due to duplicate ground paths from different equipment. Use this switch to remove the connection from 0V to ground thus allowing some flexibility in your particular set-up, although when using Balanced XLR inputs, the ground lift switch should always be set to ‘chassis.'” Through experimentation, I learned that if you don’t switch to “chassis” when using XLR cables, hum is present at levels impossible to ignore.
Reed Muse 1C Turntable & 5T Tangential-Pivot Tonearm Review
January 19, 2024 Comments Off on Reed Muse 1C Turntable & 5T Tangential-Pivot Tonearm Review
SHANLING EH3 REVIEW
January 18, 2024 Comments Off on SHANLING EH3 REVIEW
You might feel that the top markings, such as the MQA badge, Hi-Res Audio markings, or the block diagram, are a bit unnecessary. It would have been better if they had followed a similar approach to the flagship M30 unit, which displays small areas of the circuit board, but this one is all enclosed.
The topic of design is always subjective, but I doubt anyone would find a flaw in EH3’s build quality. The device is exceptionally well-built, featuring a glass front and a complete aluminium wrap-around chassis. It feels like a rock-solid device from top to bottom, and the volume control is particularly impressive with good rigidity and satisfying clicks. All of the ports, inputs, and outputs are also nicely built, leaving me with zero complaints.
Astell & Kern AK UW100MKII Review
January 18, 2024 Comments Off on Astell & Kern AK UW100MKII Review
The two biggest drawback of the earphone is probably the touch interface and the overall build of the case. The touch interfaces is a bit…touchy. While this is by no means unique to the AK UW100MKII (I’ve come across far too many hard-to-use touch surfaces in the TWS market) a ultra responsive surface would just have been more consistent with the rest of the steller features of the earphone. To get the touch capabilities to work, one needs to touch the earphone only on the conical tip of the design, and nowhere else. The touch needs to be done with an exact pressure as well, which takes some getting used to. With proper training, a useful interaction can be had, but I found this hurdle to be under par for the rest of the exceedingly impressive feature set as a whole. However, outside of a few athletic implications, I typically just control things from my phone, so the issue is neither here nor there for most of my daily listening routines.
2023 EMMA, IASCA, & MASQ Finals Competitor
January 18, 2024 Comments Off on 2023 EMMA, IASCA, & MASQ Finals Competitor
AUDEZE CRBN ELECTROSTATIC HEADPHONES $4,500 REVIEW
January 17, 2024 Comments Off on AUDEZE CRBN ELECTROSTATIC HEADPHONES $4,500 REVIEW
Clarity is the watchword of the CRBN with a timbre that is pure Audeze, a warm bottom end, a lively realistic midrange, and unlike many electrostatics that will try to bite your head off, a mellow yet extended high-end. And, of course, to top everything off, there is that expansive open soundstage that you can only get from electrostatics. It is not for nothing that the Audeze CRBN earned a much-deserved Editor’s Choice Award for 2023 from our publisher Frank Iacone who will be following this review up with a review of his own.
Congratulations to Audeze for a challenge well met in designing an electrostatic headphone that can not only meet the demands of medicine but the hypercritical desires of the audiophile also.
Audiophilepure 
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