THE REVIEWS
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HEADAMP GS-X MINI - REVIEW
The HeadAmp GS-X Mini offers up prodigious detail, and resolves beautifully with a richness and natural warmth that are both beguiling and compelling. It has one of the best dynamic ranges that I’ve come across at its price point. And, as I stated above, though there are better headphone amps, they come at multiples of its price.
BURSON AUDIO PLAYMATE 2 - REVIEW
The Playmate 2 is an unassuming desktop digital–to–analog converter (DAC) plus unbalanced headphone amp (HPA) from Aussie operational amplifier specialists Burson Audio.
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.
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.
ASTELL&KERN SE180 - REVIEW
A DAP that travels and that does not leave one yearning for one’s home-based desktop or even one’s HiFi system! I would have thought the SE180 the Astell&Kern TOTL DAP when judged by its abilities, but it is not. Are those above it that good? Or does the employment of new technologies in the SE180—TERATON ALPHA Audio Technology and Astell&Kern’s Next Generation AMP Technology—push it beyond them?
FERRUM OOR & HYPSOS - REVIEW
The Ferrum OOR and HYPSOS are two beautifully designed components that together render a truly transparent, highly resolving, neutral, though engaging platform that lets one’s music be. There is exceedingly little to no editorializing, though the combo offers a wealth of options should one seek to ‘editorialize’ one’s music.
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.