THE REVIEWS
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MEZE EMPYREAN II - REVIEW
The Empyrean II is the chair ‘just right’, the porridge ‘just right’, the bed ‘just right’ and it is superb in its ‘just right’ pursuit of conveying high-fidelity music. In this, the Empyrean II surpasses the Abyss AB1266 Phi TC headphone via its incredible bass response coupled to its resolution, its transparency, its detail, and refinement. The Empyrean II represents a new standard for bass response for a Meze headphone.
SONNET KRATOS AMPLIFIERS - REVIEW
Sonnet Audio is offering excellent value here with the Kratos mono block amplifiers, taking into consideration the harmonically rich and spacious sound. It was essentially impossible to find a flaw with these beautifully built amps, and they had plenty of power to drive 4 Ohm speakers.
EXASOUND AUDIO s82 STREAMER - REVIEW
There are numerous digital options out there these days, from media players to streamers to digital transports, as well as CD players and CD transports, of course, which should not be forgotten in the event of a momentary internet glitch—just saying. And in truth, streamers and their like have come a very long way in terms of their technical abilities and sound quality. When matched to a Top of the Line (TOTL) DAC (Mola Mola, Bricasti Audio, etc.), the resulting sound can challenge all formats.
AUDIO MIRROR TUBADOUR IV - REVIEW
If one were to assume I have a bias about digital–to–analog converter architectures, which I do, it would speciously point to non–oversampling DACs as my preference. Of late, I have reviewed the Merason frerot, MUSICIAN’s Pegasus and Mojo Audio’s Mystique X SE. All of these are firmly in the non–oversampling (NOS) camp. As pop burnout Britney once sang, “Oops!... I Did It Again”.
THE MEZE POET - REVIEW
The Meze POET represents the second headphone of three Meze headphones being reviewed, in succession. It is the first open-back, planar, magnetic headphone in this trio of reviews. The first was the STRADA ($799), a dynamic, close-backed headphone, at about mid-tier pricing, which compared very favorably with other headphones, many of which were several times its price! The final review will be the Empyrean II.
REGA P10 - FOLLOWUP
This is an update of the Rega P10, which was initially reviewed by Andre Marc, a Senior Editor at audiokeyreviews.com. My update and comparison comes as both the Rega P8 and the Rega P10 were in-house… Suffice to say, in every conceivable way, the Rega P10 outperforms the P8, period. There is no wait-and-see moment and no extended observation necessary to immediately understand this truth.
REGA’S P8 TURNTABLE - REVIEW
In my research for a new turntable, I asked Andre Marc, a Senior Editor for AKRMedia (audiokeyreviews.com), for his opinion regarding a new turntable and he immediately suggested the Rega P8 or the P10, should I want to spend the additional monies. He mentioned their ease of setup and operation, as well as their low maintenance, care, and their required ‘feeding’. Being new again to vinyl these were very attractive points.