As 2021 began, despite the roiling world outside our doors I began to ponder how difficult it might be to choose those components that provided solace, peace, and a quiet escape via music. The difficulty came in there being so very many incredible components—DAPs, DACs, headphones, IEMs, headphone/amplifiers, integrated amplifiers, etc.—and me, not wanting to provide awards willy-nilly, looked to tighten the awards process further. The further being only two awards given per price category, though this year there would be honorable mentions.

A time and space machine, indeed, for the when and where the Mola Mola Tambaqui transports one. Impossible it is, to write the concluding notes of this review, to break away from the spellbinding music or magic that this DAC/Headphone amplifier creates. Max Richter’s The Blue Notebook plays and the music sweeps over me as though my yellow-chair-tardis finds its way, through time and space, to this venue and that.

The STAX SR-009S may represent, for many, a transcendent listening experience. It may move you beyond expectation to that which you never imagined possible in a earspeaker or headphone. And should its stable of playmates be able—of good musical repute and like ability and up to task—then you will find yourself in another world of music, altogether…