THE REVIEWS
ads
Subscribe to our newsletter.
Sign up with your email address to receive news, updates, and our free quarterly magazine—AudioKeyREVIEWS!
SHAKTI STONE AIR & ONLINE AIR STABILIZERS - REVIEW
Well, the short and sweet of it is that the Shakti Stone Air and On-Line Air work immediately and beautifully together. They took our electrostatic reference system to even greater high-fidelity heights than we could have imagined. The improvements can be summed up in a few words—more transparent and resolving, more natural, more musical. Once they’ve been placed in your system, I don’t believe you’ll want them to leave.
TORUS POWER AVR ELITE POWER CONDITIONER - REVIEW
When a component brilliantly does what it was designed to do and gets out of the way to let all the other performers—components—shine, well, it deserves an award. We happily award the TORUS POWER AVR Elite power conditioner our DIAMOND AWARD, well deserved for its exceptional work.
MYTEK LIBERTY II DAC - REVIEW
Despite its unassuming appearance, relative affordability and pleasantly diminutive size, the Liberty DAC II brings the listener closer to an artist’s intent than any converter I’ve heard at anywhere near its price. It may be too honest, too linear for some folks who want a velvet painting rather than a photograph but, for me, it’s a definitely worthy consideration. Highly recommended.
PARASOUND HALO JC3+ PHONO PREAMPLIFIER - REVIEW
The Parasound JC3+ is not entry level, but at a buck under $3200, it is a stone cold bargain. Finding fault with the sonics and build is a fool’s errand. If you want pure solid state, accurate vinyl playback, the JC3+ is a standard bearer. If you want colored sound, tube flabbiness, or audio jewellery, look elsewhere. If you have spent upwards of ten grand on your turntable and cartridge, the JC3+ is a must audition.
SILENT ANGEL MUNICH M1 & FORESTER F1 - REVIEW
The Silent Angel Munich M1 and Forester F1, the“Tiny Tots,” while quite small represent an ideal entry-level streamer, linear power supply duo. The value to cost ratio is very good at a combined price for the Tots at $2,049. The Munich M1 will easily compete with your computer but it will need the Forester F1 LPS to bring things to equal with the Roon Nucleus Plus. … In short, the Silent Angel Munich M1 and Forester F1s provide a great deal of music and technical/high fidelity skills for relatively little cost.
HEADAMP GS-X MKII - REVIEW
The HeadAmp GS-X MkII is an exceptional headphone amplifier that not only outperforms its GS-X Mini sibling, but a goodly number of headphone amplifiers that have come my way for review these past years, some being a good deal more expensive.
MOJO AUDIO MYSTIQUE X SE DAC - REVIEW
I had held Berkeley Audio Design’s† as the approach to take when looking for accuracy with musicality. Now, I have another more affordable choice among peers. The Mystique X SE combines the eternal precision of digital with the immortal soul of human performance. I concede, Benjamin’s karate is better. If you’re shopping for a “mid–tier” digital audio converter, you owe it to yourself to make a date with Mystique.