Raidho X2.6 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Review
June 23, 2025 Comments Off on Raidho X2.6 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Review
Because I began listening to this album at an incredibly early age, I often get goosebumps when listening to this album on a high-end system. When the Stone’s SACDs were released this furthered my fascination. Thankfully, we can stream these SACDs via Qobuz and high-resolution streaming services. Through the Raidho X2.6 floorstanding loudspeaker, on certain tracks I felt as if I was hearing this album again for the first time, except now I was able to hear all the details I was missing throughout the years. The Raidho X2.6 are extremely transparent speakers; they were able to reproduce every detail of both Rolling Stones albums. Regardless of how long I listened to them, and regardless of how loud I had the volume on my preamp, my ear-brain never became fatigued. In fact, the opposite occurred. The more music I played, the more I wanted to hear.
FX-Audio L07 Integrated Amplifier and DS07 DAC/Preamplifier Review
June 23, 2025 Comments Off on FX-Audio L07 Integrated Amplifier and DS07 DAC/Preamplifier Review
I’ll be perfectly frank: I’m not a big fan of ESS Sabre delta-sigma DACs. That said, there are a number of aspects of DAC design that come into play in the overall sound quality of any given unit that can lift it above the constraints of a less-than-perfect chipset. And while I might have preferred to see an AKM, or perhaps a TI (Burr-Brown) chipset implemented in the DS07, there are plenty of high profile manufacturers at every demographic of the high end that are in love with ESS Sabre chipsets. In terms of audiophile acceptance, it’s the smart choice, and depending on the talent of the designer, ESS chips can obviously provide superb results. I can easily say that despite my reservations, the ESS 9068AS implementation used in FX-Audio’s DS07 is definitely among the very best I’ve ever heard. I didn’t know what to expect, but found the sound of this new DAC to be musical and accurate with a timbre that approached that of my own rig. That said, I’ve always been less than thrilled about digital volume control implementations in delta-sigma DACs, and with this one, there’s no clear way in the menu to defeat the volume control function. The best alternative is to simply turn the volume all the way up on the DAC, and control the output level from the L07 integrated amp. I heard no negatives in my listening through this approach.
Stenheim Alumine Two.Five loudspeaker $23,500 Review
June 22, 2025 Comments Off on Stenheim Alumine Two.Five loudspeaker $23,500 Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/stenheim-alumine-twofive-loudspeaker
I could just hear the 32Hz tone, which was boosted by my room’s lowest-frequency mode, but I couldn’t hear the 25Hz and 20Hz tones. The half-step–spaced tonebursts on Editor’s Choice spoke cleanly and evenly down to 63Hz, though there was some emphasis between 2kHz and 4kHz. I heard no audible wind noise from the port with the lowest-frequency tones, and the tonebursts and warble tones sounded clean, with no “doubling” (second-harmonic distortion). With the Stenheim speakers toed in to the listening position and the tweeters just below the height of my ears at 36″ from the floor, the dual-mono pink noise track on Editor’s Choice was reproduced as a stable central image. The high frequencies sounded smooth and the midrange uncolored. The noise sounded hollow if I stood up. Moving my head from side to side, I heard very little comb filtering.
EMM Labs PRE i stereo preamplifier Review with update on the latest MTRX monoblocks
June 22, 2025 Comments Off on EMM Labs PRE i stereo preamplifier Review with update on the latest MTRX monoblocks
While I had initially intended to follow the format above, I quickly decided that would be a waste of your time as the PRE, if anything, performed even better with the newest version of the MTRX amps. For this reason, I would like to instead talk about the latest version of the MTRX amps and by this I also mean the MTRX2 amps which employ basically identical circuitry.
Keep in mind that I have lived with these amps for eight years and over that period have heard five distinct versions of the input boards, each an improvement over the last. I agreed to update my amps mainly to keep them current as numerous other changes had been made in the interim. In all honesty, I was not expecting a significant improvement (just as I had not expected the PRE to be so much better than previous versions). In that I was once again mistaken. Ed Meitner is approaching his eightieth birthday, a time when most men would have turned over the business to their children. Instead, he has entered what I would consider the most creative period of his design career. In a two-year period, he has overhauled his entire product line.
Martin Logan Motion XT F100 Speaker Review
June 22, 2025 Comments Off on Martin Logan Motion XT F100 Speaker Review
Boulder 1151 monoblock power amplifier $47,000 Review
June 21, 2025 Comments Off on Boulder 1151 monoblock power amplifier $47,000 Review
https://www.stereophile.com/content/boulder-1151-monoblock-power-amplifier
Thanks to the 1151’s manageable weight and modest size (compared to the behemoths that have crossed my threshold), it was a snap to put them on a pair of Grand Prix Monza amp stands. Because more weight is concentrated in the front half, I moved them far back on the stands to help even the load. I placed them atop the same Wilson Audio Pedestals I use under my reference amplifiers.
Boulder’s speaker terminals are extremely easy to tighten by hand. I chose the set that best separated the speaker cabling from the 15A power cord. Once everything was hooked up, I flipped the main power switches on the 1151’s rear panels. In short order, the amps settled into standby mode, the white LEDs on the front panel blinking on and off. It took just a push of the front panels’ only button to turn the 1151s on fully. I allotted a full hour for warm-up. Rosencrans thought that 15–20 minutes would be sufficient.
Dynaudio Contour 20 BE Review
June 21, 2025 Comments Off on Dynaudio Contour 20 BE Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/dynaudio-contour-20-be-standmount-speaker
With spring in the air, it was strange to hear the Christmas vibes of ‘Goose Snow Cone’, but Mann’s voice was portrayed so beautifully by the Contour 20 BEs it was worth a bit of cognitive dissonance. As a whole this song came together very organically, without a trace of stress. Moreover, the intimate nature of the album, which despite the title doesn’t feel depressing at all, was successfully conveyed.
English-born but residing in Gambia, Sona Jobarteh is not (yet) as well-known as her cousin, the late Toumani Diabaté. But as the first female kora player from a griot or djali family (the clans of West African musicians and storytellers which play an important social role), she’s been turning heads during a recent European tour. Her 2022 release Badinyaa Kumoo [AGBK22-2] sounded atmospheric and lively through the Contour 20 Black Editions, which not only evoked the richness of the five-stringed kora, but also Jobarteh’s breathtakingly dexterous playing on tracks like ‘Musolou’ or ‘Ballaké’.
Audiophilepure 
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