Icon Audio PS3 MkII Signature Pure Valve Phono Pre-Amplifier Review
March 16, 2021 Comments Off on Icon Audio PS3 MkII Signature Pure Valve Phono Pre-Amplifier Review
https://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2020/11/30/icon-audio-ps-3-phono-stage
The opening of the Reiner Pictures is always first on the turntable for phono tests. Bud Herseth’s famous trumpet sound perfectly placed in barrel shaped Orchestra Hall, back right, then as the full brass chorale enters, the balance is, like the players’ intonation, flawless. The PS3’s bloom and magical tonal qualities ensured listening was a continuous musical delight. As heard via the very best, I could hear the ppp 4th horn wobble on his muted low Db in bar 4 of ‘Gnomus’. Many phono stages miss that X-ray. Reiner missed it, too. The Allnic, Sutherland and both Icons do not. Quality.
Esoteric Grandioso K1X SACD/CD Player-DAC and Grandioso PS1 Power Supply $36,000 Review
March 15, 2021 Comments Off on Esoteric Grandioso K1X SACD/CD Player-DAC and Grandioso PS1 Power Supply $36,000 Review
Mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland and pianist Sergei Osadchuck’s performance of the Gerald Finzi song “Come Away, Death,” from the album of that title (SACD/CD, 2L 2L-064-SACD), is haunting, with superb sound. However, its wide dynamic range can wreak havoc with a stereo system, particularly at high volumes. Even more than the K1, the K1X nailed the utter transparency, close miking, and subtle ringing of this mostly dry recording. Further, Kielland’s most pronounced vocal peaks, which sound a bit rough through the K1, were now tamed.
In most tracks on Come Away, Death, the same change was evident in the top notes of Osadchuck’s piano, which were now much more polished and crystalline than I’d heard before. As this album begs to be played loudly, I turned the volume high, even though my YG Acoustics Kipod II Signature speakers don’t really do well at sky-high volumes. Nonetheless, the K1X’s ultra-low noise floor became even more apparent—it was now a lot harder to get these speakers to misbehave.
Ultrasone Edition 15 $3,000 Review
March 15, 2021 Comments Off on Ultrasone Edition 15 $3,000 Review
JL Audio Dominion d110 Subwoofer $1000 REVIEW
March 13, 2021 Comments Off on JL Audio Dominion d110 Subwoofer $1000 REVIEW
The trick to getting better sound with subwoofers than you can get without them is to set up and configure them optimally for both your room and the loudspeakers they are paired with. I was very pleasantly surprised by the many ways in which the addition of the CR-1 and the stereo Dominion d110 subwoofers improved the overall sound of my system. The first and most obvious improvement was bass extension. Listening to the song “Heaven” by Meshell Ndegeocello, which combines her luscious voice with a real piano and synthetic bass, it was hard not to be wowed with the Dominion’s low-frequency performance. The bass was powerfully big—phat but also controlled, with well-defined textures and detail. Oh, and clean, too.
RHA TrueControl ANC Review
March 13, 2021 Comments Off on RHA TrueControl ANC Review
https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/rha-truecontrol-anc
The RHA’s sonic character plays into the hands of such a track: it’s big and full, warm and smooth, with an abundant low-end and rich mids that are able to get stuck into the meaty electric riffs and double-kick drumming. There’s a fair amount of detail in the mix, too.
Switch the noise-cancelling on and it doesn’t affect the sonics as much as we’ve heard with some other earbuds – all in all, it’s pretty satisfying. Their best efforts to reduce background TV noise and everyday road traffic are laudable, although as is to be expected from this kind of design they won’t cloak you in isolation to the extent that heavy traffic or engine noise is completely muted. You’re still likely to be disturbed when playing at low volume or mellow instrumental tracks, too.
FELIKS 300B integrated amplifier REVIEW
March 13, 2021 Comments Off on FELIKS 300B integrated amplifier REVIEW
Technics Ottava F SC-C70 MK2 Review
March 12, 2021 Comments Off on Technics Ottava F SC-C70 MK2 Review
https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/technics-ottava-f-sc-c70-mk2
The key, of course, is finding a good balance; the Auto Space Tune does a good job of that, and the ability to further tweak is welcome. But you won’t be criticising this Technics speaker for not having enough in the way of bass weight.
Detail levels are generally okay as well, giving enough information to keep that full-bodied presentation from becoming soft – in the upper registers at least. Unfortunately, though, the other side of
Sonus Faber Olympica Nova III Loudspeaker Review
March 12, 2021 Comments Off on Sonus Faber Olympica Nova III Loudspeaker Review
So where does that leave us in the overall scheme of things? For $13.5k the Sonus Faber Nova III certainly draw heavily on expectations, and from this reviewer’s perspective, deliver big on several fronts. The first being a very approachable frequency response. There are severe hand-me-downs from the extremely favorable Aida flagship, allowing for non-fatiguing rich tonal structure across range. This, paired with a level of detail retrieval expected from a device that costs the same as a used car – is something that brings next-level characteristics into the equation. Now, that alone is good enough for most speaker makers in the audiophile realm, but some of the secret sauce of Sonus Faber is intelligent and massively alluring industrial design.
Audiophilepure 
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