Sonus faber Olympica Nova III Loudspeaker $13,500 Review
January 2, 2021 Comments Off on Sonus faber Olympica Nova III Loudspeaker $13,500 Review
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/sonus-faber-olympica-nova-iii-loudspeaker/
For her debut compact disc Fantasy, violinist Tessa Lark had the good fortune to be recorded by veteran engineer/producer Judith Sherman. Several of the works on the CD are unaccompanied, including a pair of Telemann Fantasias and Lark’s own Appalachian Fantasy. The tonal shadings created by the soloist on her 1683 Stradivarius are reproduced with realistic immediacy through the Sonus faber speakers—bow grabbing string, the resonance of the instrument’s hollow body, minute changes in bow pressure, the room adding body to the sound issuing from the violin. String quartets, solo wind instruments, and keyboard recitals are enthralling, utterly believable in tone and timbre—these loudspeakers are a chamber music lover’s dream. And aficionados of great singing will find the most distinctive voice rendered with every ounce of its character intact.
AURENDER A30 CACHING MUSIC SERVER/CD RIPPER/STREAMER
January 2, 2021 Comments Off on AURENDER A30 CACHING MUSIC SERVER/CD RIPPER/STREAMER
http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/aurender-a30-caching-music-servercd-ripperstreamer/
Moving over to Tidal and their MQA Master files I selected Jan Lisiecki and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performing Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No.1 in G Minor, Op. 25, MWV O7 – 1. Molto allegro con fuoco. [2019 Best of Tidal Masters].Growing up in a home where my father is a professional piano player it was exciting to hear a piano recording sound so authentic. Fronting the orchestra, the piano had the right attack and decay. The tone was near live and the space between notes in the allegro was just that small space to show off the recording’s quality (and the pianists’ considerable skill!). The strings, horns and woodwinds played their support role with live energy and tonal accuracy. Over the years I would have needed an SACD or vinyl album in the house to enjoy this level of connection with a recording. To experience this connection via streaming was truly magical and illustrates how far audio has come over my lifetime.
JBL HDI-3600 Loudspeaker $3,800 Review
January 1, 2021 Comments Off on JBL HDI-3600 Loudspeaker $3,800 Review
https://www.soundandvision.com/content/jbl-hdi-3600-loudspeaker-review
Easing into something a bit more subtle and quiet, I streamed harpist Mary Lattimore’s “Til a Mermaid Drags You Under” (16/44.1 FLAC, Tidal), a track from her latest release, Silver Ladders. The song’s dry, cascading layers of harp, mixed with reverb-heavy guitar (from Slowdive’s Neil Halstead), were conveyed with impressive clarity by the JBLs, and there was a notable sense of spatial depth. When the song’s bass synth drones are introduced about halfway through, the sound becomes anchored with a massive foundation that serves to enlarge both the horizontal and vertical scale. The HDI-3600 towers rendered this perfectly, disappearing into an endless-seeming soundstage that somehow reminded me of sitting in a planetarium.
Sony WF-SP800N Review
January 1, 2021 Comments Off on Sony WF-SP800N Review
https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/sony-wf-sp800n
At the top of the frequency range, the Sonys are never less than crisp. In the wrong circumstances, it’s a trait that could possibly manifest itself as thinness, but here the WF-SP800N summon just about as much top-end attack as is acceptable.
Through the midrange, they load Beck’s vocal with information – he often sounds lazy and half-hearted when delivering a vocal, but through the Sonys the subtlety and nuance in his technique is revealed. As a result, he sounds more engaged, and is more engaging, than is usually the case through a pair of reasonably affordable true wireless earbuds.
Wilson Audio XVX Chronosonic Assembly
January 1, 2021 Comments Off on Wilson Audio XVX Chronosonic Assembly
Yamaha GT-5000 review
December 30, 2020 Comments Off on Yamaha GT-5000 review
https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/yamaha-gt-5000
It won’t come as a surprise to regular readers to find that that very first LP I placed on the Yamaha GT-5000’s platter was my new favourite recording of Eric Satie’s Gymnopédies as performed by Anne Queffélec (Virgin Classics 522 0502) whose tempi are perfect and whose rubato is glorious. I just love the liberties she takes with the score, which elevates it from just being ‘another virtuoso performance’ into another league completely. (Though as another reviewer was insistent I point out, she was not brave enough to omit the final chord.)
The reason for playing Satie was, of course, that slow (very slow, insanely slow) piano music will immediately reveal if a turntable’s platter is ‘wowing’ (slow speed variations) or ‘fluttering’ (higher speed variations) as it rotates. I can happily report that I heard zero wow and zero flutter when auditioning the GT-5000. I also did not hear any cogging effects which, of course, is precisely the reason Yamaha elected to use a belt drive rather than a direct drive for its GT-5000 in the first place.
ACCUSTIC ARTS MONO II MK 2 POWER AMPLIFIERS £22,500 REVIEW
December 30, 2020 Comments Off on ACCUSTIC ARTS MONO II MK 2 POWER AMPLIFIERS £22,500 REVIEW
Accustic Arts Mono II Mk 2 power amplifiers
The weight and authority of a pair of big mono amps can be a double-edged sword. Faced with no crosstalk in a stereo amplifier and an amplifier with a lot of power in reserve, music can come across as a bit ‘soulless’… but not here. The Mono II Mk 2 manages to combine much of the lithe sound of smaller amplifiers with the bold and effortless sense of dynamic range and scale that only comes with big power amps. That combination comes across regardless of music played; whether it’s Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’ [Deadpool 2 OST, Columbia] or Mahler’s Eighth [Solti, Decca] – and that’s a back-to-back musical combination that you don’t often hear – the Mono II Mk 2 delivers the ‘grace’ and the ‘space’, and quite a lot of the ‘pace’ too. In terms of soundstage, the amplifier goes more for depth than outright width; the stereo imagery is still wide of the loudspeakers, but not Cinemascope-like wide.
Downsides? Naturally, when an amplifier is this good, it is tempered by the quality of the rest of the devices in the signal path. Don’t even think of using these amplifiers in an ‘almost there’ system, as the Mono II Mk 2 will highlight limitations, especially those upstream, and especially in your power delivery. Also, these are not ethereal, floaty sounding amps and neither are they the almost supernaturally fast leading-edge led fast-paced designs. But, even here I’d argue that at the Mono II Mk 2’s price (and way beyond), what you lose by chasing such goals is usually more than you gain. Yes, when you get to the absolute pinnacle of performance, there is something of a convergence, but criticising a £20,000 hand-built pair of amps for not being a pair of £120,000 pair of amps tailor made to your system is more than a little unfair. Besides, what you get here is balance in all things, which is often lost irrespective of the amplifier design, and its price tag.
New Woo Audio First Look & Unboxing
December 30, 2020 Comments Off on New Woo Audio First Look & Unboxing
Cambridge Audio CXA81 integrated amplifier $1299 Review
December 29, 2020 Comments Off on Cambridge Audio CXA81 integrated amplifier $1299 Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/cambridge-audio-cxa81-integrated-amplifier
I greatly enjoyed my time exploring the CXA81. It helped me realize how much music can be had for such a low price. It knocked me flat with its ability to sound good in so many ways. It is versatile, well-made, and smartly designed. Most important, it sounds good to great. If you’re in the market for an affordable integrated amplifier, this one should be on your audition list.
Paradigm Persona B Loudspeakers £8600 Review
December 29, 2020 Comments Off on Paradigm Persona B Loudspeakers £8600 Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/paradigm-persona-b-loudspeakers
This speaker sounds superb with anything you care to throw at it. The Marshall Tucker Band’s live recording of ‘Everyday (I Have the Blues)’ [The Marshall Tucker Band; 44.1kHz/16-bit FLAC] is ramshackle and riotous, the group at times clinging onto its blues rhythm with levels varying wildly. The Persona B conveyed it sublimely, placing crowd claps and whistles at the back of the soundstage, and capturing every half-pitch bend and leading edge of Toy Caldwell’s guitar playing.
Changing tack entirely, Chase & Status’s dance anthem ‘All Goes Wrong’ [Tribe; 44.1kHz/16-bit FLAC] benefited from the speaker’s precision timing and bass handling. The continuous deep notes that carry the chorus had a purity that spoke of a cabinet and driver working in perfect harmony. Less all goes wrong, more all goes right…
Audiophilepure 
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