Audiophilepure

The Topping Centaurus has some fluidity in its sonic presentation, which is my single-word description of an antithesis to the ultra-clean sounding modern-day all-digital DACs.

There’s an absence of digital jaggedness in its overall and final product, and music seems to flow in a circumfluent manner.

The overall frequency response is well extended both ways, and the overall presentation of the curve is neutral. But if you’re not feeling it, you can always use that advanced PEQ to sculpt that curve to your preference and spice things up.

In general, the overall sound is clean, precise, highly detailed, neutral, and transparent. You get what goes in basically, in a natural and uncolored manner.

It’s a refinement of the Topping house signature since this DAC has many refinements within the overall sonic performance compared to other Topping DACs. It’s Topping, renovated and improved.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/bat-vk-90-tube-preamp

It was the Antonio Forcione Quartet’s In Concert live set [Naim Label, 44.1kHz/24-bit] that really sold me on BAT’s preamp. This album encourages a close listen, as the guitarist – accompanied by cello, percussion, bass and flute – explores various textures and rhythms within the acoustic of Tunbridge Wells’ Trinity Theatre. The VK-90 appeared to sweep nothing under the carpet in terms of detail, shining a light on Forcione’s slick guitar playing in the languid ‘Heart Beat’, and conveying the force of Adriano Adewale’s snare drum hits in the jazzier ‘Attempo’.

These pieces sounded effortlessly musical, aided by a spacious soundstage. Yet when Rebecca Pidgeon’s ‘Underwater Boys’, from Sudden Exposure To Light [Toy Canteen Records], required the opposite, being music with a tightly focused image, BAT’s VK-90 followed suit. Here was a precise, punchy presentation, with Pidgeon’s vocals, complete with odd ‘underwater’ effect, pushed forward of insouciant-sounding piano and keyboards.

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/quad-33303-2024

Forget everything you know about the sound of the original 33/303. Playing old-and-new side-by-side, the Sixties pairing still sounds wonderfully warm, but lacks the ultimate precision, bass control and extension at the frequency extremes. Consider what Peter Walker unleashed in 1967, and you accept that these were voiced first and foremost for the Quad 57 ESL – their most likely partner. The new 33/303 has to face a world of lower impedance if typically higher sensitivity speakers to succeed.

And, wow, do they ever! We try out speakers from 4-15ohm impedance and 85dB-93dB sensitivity and power is never an issue. Adding a second 303 changes not just the dynamics due to the added wattage, but audibly tightens up the lower registers. All remarks from here on refer to a single 303 running in balanced mode, with the 33 in its tone-off position.

Appropriately, the first music sampled comes from a mono 1964 LP. The Animals’ eponymous debut is, for many, preferred in that mode, House Of The Rising Sun probably heard by more people over AM radio than off vinyl. Via the 33’s MC phono stage, the sound is crisp, with plenty of ‘twang’ on the guitars, while the two star elements – Alan Price’s Vox Continental organ and Eric Burdon’s achingly raw, inimitable vocals – are afforded a tactile presence you’d probably expect of a pairing with a zero added to the price.