I learned about the RME DAC when stumbling upon The Master Switch’s “Best DAC” list. I don’t remember what led me there, but from that list it sounded like it stacked up well against some other popular audiophile DACs from the likes of Mytek, Schiit, Benchmark and Chord. After a bit of online research I was intrigued by the internet buzz around it, and its pro-audio heritage, ostensible quality (made in Germany!) and unique feature set. And at USD $1,149, it hits a price point that many audiophiles can stomach. This is not another $299 made-in-China special off Amazon - not that those can’t s ..read more

It’s been 2 weeks since FedEx Freight dropped off a 250 lb. pallet cradling my new Audiovector SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté speakers, and while I’m enjoying them immensely, I’m quickly learning something… breaking in a big loudspeaker is a challenge! My wife and I had gotten a pretty good feel for the sound of the SR 6 during an extended audition at AudioVision SF a few months back, and upon first firing them up in my home they did not disappoint - they sounded every bit as fantastic as I remembered. She made one astute observation, that the system at the dealer was a tad warmer and more open. It w ..read more

With everyone stuck at home (but hopefully healthy!), I imagine many have some extra time on their hands to play with their systems. I’ll be starting a series of #audiotips posts to share tweaks that I’ve found useful. My first #audiotip has nothing to do with sound, but caring for glossy finishes on speakers. My @audiovector SR 1 in piano black has a paint job very similar to luxury automobiles, and I’ve found that Meguiar’s Ultimate Quik Detailer spray does an excellent job cleaning and polishing them. On both my car and the speakers, it creates a flawless shine that has just the right amou ..read more

After moving to a much larger living space last summer, it became apparent that my fondness for large-scale orchestral music combined with the volume of my listening area (a 26’/8m long open space with 12’/3.7m ceilings) were going to be an insurmountable challenge for my current speakers, a rotation of the Silverline SR17 Supreme and Audiovector SR 1 Avantgarde Arreté. They actually both do an admirable job - the Silverline has the body and tone of a much larger speaker, and the little Audiovector is shockingly capable of energizing the space. But physics are physics, and as they say in the ..read more

With everyone and their extended families wanting to be audio reviewers, we have been inundated with volumes of positive commentary. As a reviewer, you are dependent upon manufacturers to provide you with equipment to audition and write about. If a writer wants to be around after that initial written review, the pressure is great to submit something popular to the publisher, specifically, coverage that will keep the review sample spigot flowing. After all, what manufacturer seeking to gain a foothold in the industry is going to send their precious product to someone they think may disseminate ..read more

miy-taww: I’m currently reviewing a couple very fine preamps from @bryston_ltd and Valvet, and found myself lacking a stable reference of my own to ground my evaluation. So on the recommendation of my esteemed colleague MGD, I picked up a clean preowned example of his reference - the @pass_labs XP10 (originally $5,250). It was supplanted about a year ago by the XP12 ($5,800), but I was interested in having more of a “known quantity” in my system, plus having the same point of reference as a fellow reviewer is always handy. Stay tuned for a shootout between 3 starkly different designs! [view ..read more

Furutech DSS-4.1 Speaker Cable & DPS-4.1 Power Cord The Audiophile Weekend Warrior (TAWW) TAWW Rating: 5 / 5 Attainable ultra-high-end performance. PROS: Incredibly quiet, transparent and open-sounding; powerful and resolving frequency extremes; pure and organic midrange; fast and unfettered dynamics; remarkable sense of space. CONS: Only sold in parts form, so you’ll need to figure out termination; power cord can put some strain on jacks. My first couple decades as an audiophile were relatively frugal. I bought a pair of used Merlin TSM speakers out of college that I used for 16 y ..read more

I’ve made a terrible mistake. For the last few years, mostly for practical reasons but also due to the allure of hi-res streaming, my CD collection has been sitting in boxes. After my last West-to-East Coast move, I did not unpack them. I haven’t even owned a CD player in a while - I sold my only one, a low-end Onkyo, before that move. The CDs have been sitting in a storage unit, and I was planning to give them to family. The other day, on a whim, I decided to pull out of storage a couple discs and a Pioneer BluRay player I had bought a while back for the sole purpose of ripping SACDs. I grab ..read more

Legacy iv2 stereo amplifier The Audiophile Weekend Warrior (TAWW) TAWW Rating: 5 / 5 Class D power going toe-to-toe with Class A refinement PROS: Nonexistent noise and distortion; tube-like midrange purity; full tonal balance with stellar bass; effortless power delivery; top to bottom refinement. CONS: Ever-so-slight reductions in top-end extension, low-level resolution and dynamic life; slight mechanical buzz; binding posts could be nicer. Class D (a.k.a. switching) amps have been around for decades, but really started to hit the audiophile scene in the early 2000′s. My first experienc ..read more

Okay, let’s get this out of the way: with a combined retail of over USD $40k (and that doesn’t include another $6k for the optional Zena DAC module), The Gryphon’s Essence preamplifier and stereo amplifier are by far the most expensive electronics I’ve ever had in my home! They might be the Danish firm’s entry point into separates, but that’s akin to calling a $146k Aston Martin Vantage “entry level.” There was a time in the not-so-distant past when spending such sums of money on stereo gear struck me as pointless excess. Perhaps I’ve been numbed by flipping through t ..read more