THE REVIEWS
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GRIMM AUDIO MU1 - REVIEW
The Grimm Audio MU1 streamer is easily at the forefront of technological progress and stands as testament to the fact that high-fidelity musical reproduction is light years ahead of where it was just a few short years ago, let alone the days of my youth. But that is only half of the picture!
BLUE HAWAII SPECIAL EDITION - REVIEW
The first thing one notices about the Blue Hawaii SE is its naturalness, its ease, and its gravitas—or its ability to put flesh on the bones of real performers/performances across the frequency spectrum—its palpability. There is no thinness, nor ghost-like apparitions wafting about the stage with hollow voices. There is instead the solidity of female and male vocalists, a strummed viola-de-gamba, a plucked upright bass, a raging Steinway, etc.
ACCUSTIC ARTS PLAYER II - REVIEW
Formidable. The Accustic Arts Player II rendering of CDs bested its streaming counterparts and even higher resolution versions of the same CDs(!) time and time again, regardless of genre. And this came as quite the surprise. It is also preternaturally engaging and immersive, alive, dynamic, incredibly resolving, and, at the same time, the doppelgänger of analog.
VIVA EGOISTA STX HPA\E - REVIEW
“You-are-there” describes succinctly my experience with the Viva Egoista STX electrostatic headphone amplifier. And it is an experience that will not soon be forgotten. As mentioned, the Top-Of-the-Line STAX SRM-T8000 is not a contender, though at approximately one third the price, it shouldn’t be. It isn’t. As I write this, there is no competition for the Viva Egoista STX electrostatic headphone amplifier. Where that contender may come from has yet to be discovered, but then competition is good, especially when the competition provides a different yet compelling perspective.
ENLEUM AMP-23R - REVIEW
Can exacting, yet minute changes make a world of difference in the sound of a given component? Yes, and the results, in this instance, are stunning! Soo In Chae has been on to something and in his latest iteration he moves his creation ever closer to perfection in small, measured, short-signal-path steps.
THE MEZE EMPYREAN ELITE - REVIEW
The Meze Empyrean Elite represents something new. New in that it appears to sit at the crossroads of a hybridized sound and technological profile—planar magnetic as wed to electrostatic. Perhaps the loss of 30% of the driver’s mass was sufficient to couple it to, at the very least, the boundaries of the electrostatic universe.
STAX SR-X9000 - REVIEW
The new and undisputed flagship of the STAX earspeaker-headphone line is the STAX SR-X9000 electrostatic headphone! And after listening these past weeks, this was perhaps one of the easiest calls that I have made to date. … Did I mention how extraordinarily immersive the STAX SR-X9000 is? Well, you will experience the sounds, the emotion, the ambiance, the ease, and even the ‘sights.’