Lumin T3 Music Server/DAC Review

June 16, 2023 Comments Off on Lumin T3 Music Server/DAC Review

https://www.hifinews.com/content/lumin-t3-music-serverdac

The T3’s pristine playback also has you looking at old tracks in a new light. I thought I’d heard it all from Bon Jovi’s rock ballad ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’ [Slippery When Wet; Island Mercury, 96kHz/24-bit], knowing every beat, lyric, and artificial harmonic in Richie Sambora’s guitar solo off by heart. Through Lumin’s T3, however, the song took on a more polished, more detailed quality than I recall. Keyboards sounded fuller, percussion crisper, guitar riffs more cutting. Follow-up track ‘Raise Your Hands’ is more up-tempo and chaotic, and the player seemed to shepherd its various elements with precision while unleashing all the energy in the rhythm section and Jon Bon Jovi’s vocal yelps.

It’s an open sound, even with these dense pieces, but not to the point where the overriding feel or vibe becomes lost. So Ted Nugent’s ‘Stranglehold’ [Ted Nugent; Epic, 96kHz/24-bit] sounded as woozy and improvisational as ever, the guitar solo flourishing above the effects-heavy bassline, while the textural juxtaposition between David Bowie’s smooth vocals and Freddie Mercury’s snarls on Queen’s ‘Under Pressure’ [Hot Space; Virgin/EMI, 44.1kHz/16-bit] ensured the song still raised goosebumps, 41 years on

Avantgarde’s DUO GT

June 16, 2023 Comments Off on Avantgarde’s DUO GT

NOBLE AUDIO VIKING RAGNAR $4000 REVIEW

June 15, 2023 Comments Off on NOBLE AUDIO VIKING RAGNAR $4000 REVIEW

From an ergonomics point of view, the Viking Ragnar is not a very small monitor, so you need to go through the necessary trial & error process. However, with the right ear tips, it is very comfortable which is a nice surprise for me. I have had zero issues with the Ragnar in terms of fit, comfort or isolation.

Sure, they don’t come close to what a custom IEM offers, but this is as good as it gets for a universal. I highly recommend Final Audio E Tips, which I’ll mention in the closing stages of the review. Let’s go on.

Yamaha A-S3200 Review

June 15, 2023 Comments Off on Yamaha A-S3200 Review

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/yamaha-s3200

Rhythmically the Yamaha is a battler. It doesn’t quite have the fluidity and lyricism of some similarly priced tube amps, but still makes music engaging and lively. This is achieved in two ways; firstly its midband has formidable transient speed, with a great rhythmic snap to the proceedings. Secondly, the bass is big and solid, but importantly has next to no overhang. There’s none of that spongy sensation that gives a pleasant bloom to proceedings, yet which slurs one note into the next. For these reasons, I find subtle pop songs like The Dolphin Brothers’ Catch The Fall sound surprisingly infectious through this bruiser. This big integrated amplifier is fast, detailed and lithe enough to make even relatively intricate music sound like it has a raison d’être.

MoFi SourcePoint 8

June 15, 2023 Comments Off on MoFi SourcePoint 8

The PARADIGM Founder 120H Speakers

June 15, 2023 Comments Off on The PARADIGM Founder 120H Speakers

Burmester 216 power amplifier £23,800 Review

June 14, 2023 Comments Off on Burmester 216 power amplifier £23,800 Review

The 216 represents a Burmester for the 2020s and beyond. It takes all that went before and improves on that without making sacrifices along the way. A good power amplifier should be impressive without being ‘obvious’; it makes an impression by perfect interpretation of the preamp and perfect control of the loudspeakers, and that makes the 216 damn near perfect!

Sonner Audio Allegro Unum Monitors | REVIEW

June 14, 2023 Comments Off on Sonner Audio Allegro Unum Monitors | REVIEW

The Legato Duos are still extraordinary values–what they do for less than $10K remains staggering. The Sonner Audio Allegro Unum, however, connects with me in the way that only high-quality, high-performance two-way monitors can. A lot of that has to do that added coherence between the drivers, the simplicity of the crossovers, and the ability to disappear easily into the room. Heck, most decent monitors do all that. I think what sets these apart from the others is the Sonner Audio design team’s  attention to voicing  by listening to different capacitors/resistors/inductors and internal wire to match well with the speaker drivers. As I mentioned in the Legato Duo review, the team is constantly changing the designs so they can discover sonic improvements. They’ll change the radii on one of the curved surfaces of his speaker enclosures, find something worthwhile to explore, then redesign everything else around that finding. Gunny has an electrical engineer on the team who worries about the fundamentals–Gunny is a supreme lover of music, and he just wants to deliver the finest version of it he can.

Magico M6 Schnerzinger Naim

June 14, 2023 Comments Off on Magico M6 Schnerzinger Naim

Creating music records in Camarillo

June 14, 2023 Comments Off on Creating music records in Camarillo