Focal Azurys and Hadenys Headphones $749 Review
April 4, 2025 Comments Off on Focal Azurys and Hadenys Headphones $749 Review
These are interesting releases from Focal. And also, my first experience with headphones from their brand. The price for what you get is interesting as there are many options at this level. The Cambridge P100 comes to mind, and that is a wireless ANC headphone that is much more flexible and can be fine-tuned with an app. Still, for the money, these are very solid entries for Focal. They sound great and having a choice between open or closed-back should appeal to a wide variety of people.
Lotoo PAW Gold Touch 2 $3,200 Review
April 4, 2025 Comments Off on Lotoo PAW Gold Touch 2 $3,200 Review
Another example would be Gorillaz’ Last Living Souls. Here the bass goes remarkably deep with top level resolution, texture and body.
The PGT2 gives this track a bit more body than I am used to from other DAPs, but it makes it just the more enjoyable and impressive to me.
A more real-life instrument example for excellent bass would be the track Millionen Legionen (unplugged) by the German Hip Hop Legends Die Fantastischen Vier.
The Lotoo reproduces that Bassoon in the opening seconds so carefully exact, with top body and resolution. It gives it a slight warmth. The kick-drum in the same track comes across with good impact, tact and punch.
Gryphon Diablo 120 integrated amplifier Review
April 4, 2025 Comments Off on Gryphon Diablo 120 integrated amplifier Review
MBL Cadenza C41/C21 Streamer/Stereo power amp Review
April 3, 2025 Comments Off on MBL Cadenza C41/C21 Streamer/Stereo power amp Review
https://www.hifinews.com/content/mbl-cadenza-c41c21-streamerpower-amp
During digital recording, music signals are sampled and then quantised to create the binary code that represents the amplitude of each sample in time. However, if the highest digital values are then normalised close to 0.0dBFs, then it’s entirely possible that a DAC’s oversampling filter will reconstruct signal peaks between samples that notionally exceed 0.0dBFs. It’s important to appreciate that the digital data is not ‘clipped’ but that in the process of upsampling this data, signals are realised that lie above this digital glass ceiling, beyond which is a netherworld of catastrophic clipping and momentary bursts of distortion. Of course, if the interpolator is designed with a few dB of headroom in tow – as is the case with MBL’s ‘True Peak Technology’ – then these peaks, known as ‘intersample overs’, are carried through without clipping.
Pro-Ject X2 Vinyl LP Turntable $1299 Review
April 3, 2025 Comments Off on Pro-Ject X2 Vinyl LP Turntable $1299 Review
https://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0220/Pro_Ject_X2_Vinyl_LP_Turntable_Review.htm
As the review progressed, and even though I knew I wasn’t auditioning the most expensive turntable on the market, I would soon forget about the delivery system and simply focus on the music. I realize that last bit might sound cliché, but it’s true, I really was able to forget about what type of turntable or cartridge I was listening to, even whether or not I was listening to a digital stream. This didn’t happen all the time, but occasionally a passage would make it known that I was listening to vinyl, mostly because of the treble, in that it was much more organic sounding than when I play it through just about any digital player I’ve had in this system of late.
The X2 was able not only able to track what I considered the most difficult passages on some of these LPs, but more importantly, was able to separate all the instruments, vocals, and sounds on these records, and place each of them into a discrete area in a huge soundstage that would fill the front portion of my listening room. This turntable was able to perform what I consider a very important feature of high-end turntable, the feature that separates the merely good from the very good, and that is for the music to have a sense of weight behind it. I have a sneaking suspicion that this was caused by the extra mass that the designers have added to the newest version of this turntable, and the structural integrity of the components that they have attached to it.
Wilson Audio CHRONOSONIC XVX, D’Agostino RELENTLESS, DCS Vivaldi
April 3, 2025 Comments Off on Wilson Audio CHRONOSONIC XVX, D’Agostino RELENTLESS, DCS Vivaldi
Sound Lab Majestic 945PX electrostatic panel loudspeakers $60,000 Review
April 2, 2025 Comments Off on Sound Lab Majestic 945PX electrostatic panel loudspeakers $60,000 Review
Throughout the years I auditioned speakers of various drivers count and published my findings on a few flagship speaker systems of the larger physiques with the lowest drivers count, the most meritorious among them being the single-driver, dual-concentric Tannoy Churchill Wideband, the Tannoy Westminster Royal SE, the oversized horn of the Destination Audio Vista and the large electrostatic panels of the Sound Lab Majestic 645. Most noteworthy is the fact that Tannoy’s 15-inch dual-concentric driver was the only one with a solitary dual-concentric driver to exhibit nil excursion playing some of the most rambunctious passages I could muster from my music library. The importance of a woofer’s property of resistance to excursion cannot be overstated for a distortion-free sound, a problem resolved by the electrostatic membrane drive system summarily.
ProAc D20R review
April 2, 2025 Comments Off on ProAc D20R review
https://www.whathifi.com/speakers/hi-fi-speakers/proac-d20r
he technical highlight here is the use of ProAc’s well-proven ribbon tweeter. This 10 x 60mm design has long been used to good effect in the company’s premium Response range. It has a damped chamber behind the diaphragm to help with dynamics and clarity, and unusually uses an Alnico magnet-based motor system rather than the more fashionable Neodymium alternative on performance grounds. The company makes a slightly cheaper version of this speaker with a capable soft dome tweeter, but in our experience, its ribbon models tend to produce clearer and more insightful results, though they prove more exacting in terms of angling towards the listening position.
The D20R’s 16.5cm mid/bass unit is almost as impressive as the tweeter. It has a woven glass fibre cone, a generous motor system mounted to a rigid chassis and an unusual acrylic phase plug to help even out the response at the top end of its operating frequency range. The mid/bass is tuned by a downward firing port that exits in the gap between the base of the cabinet and the plinth. Such a design is claimed to make the speaker’s bass performance more consistent across a wider range of placements in a room, and that proves true in use, though these floorstanders still need space around them to shine. ProAc claims an impressive 28Hz low-end extension, but doesn’t quote the output level limit at that frequency.
Audiophilepure 
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