UpComing Reviews

George 47

Subjectivist
Staff member
Jan 1, 2006
8,423
6,070
193
United Kingdom
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Upcoming reviews, hopefully before Christmas. Giving you something to read over the holidays and maybe help with next year’s purchases.

Mr Underhill reviews a very interesting DAC. It measures superbly well and the manufacturer actually listens to it. Mr UH loves his Chord Qutest (I agree and bought one) with an M Scalar and he was set on keeping them for some time. Along comes this DAC and it sounds great and it is not a fortune. A real challenger but was he tempted?

I was offered a review of a very interesting amplifier from Poland. It is a hybrid with a valve preamp and a solid-state power amplifier all in one box. Many hybrids have failed as they bring out the less than good features of valves and solid state. BUT this company makes professional amplifiers for bass guitars and has been doing so for years. They succeeded at a great price. Eastern Europe looks to be a place to keep an eye on as they make great audio and not at over-inflated prices.

I wanted to hear some aspirational DACs so I got a Mola Mola Tambacqui in for review. The distributor said you MUST also get the Grimm MU1 streamer and digital cleaner-up as well. So they duly arrived and form the core of the review. But by a series of great coincidences, I also had two of their big competition DACs at the same time. That does not happen that often.

The dCS Bartok duly arrived and it gives a significant amount of the more expensive dCS range but in a much less expensive package. It also has a built-in streamer and with a great superb sound. And for the more traditionalists a CD/SACD player. But not any CD/SACD player but one of the best, the Luxman D-10X. That should work really well with my Luxman 900 pre and power amplifiers and it did. But what sounds did I get from all three and was there a best-of-class?

Coming to a great forum soon.
 

George 47

Subjectivist
Staff member
Jan 1, 2006
8,423
6,070
193
United Kingdom
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
A bonus review coming soon. I have just read an excellent review of the Audionote Tonmeister Silver Signature integrated amplifier. This review was written by Rabski and as you may expect it is a great read. And takes head on the big question, is it worth the extra money, if you have it, over the copper version?
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamieMcC

ozzric

Wammer
Wammer
Sep 23, 2014
289
303
83
Norwich, Norfolk
AKA
Cliff
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
A bonus review coming soon. I have just read an excellent review of the Audionote Tonmeister Silver Signature integrated amplifier. This review was written by Rabski and as you may expect it is a great read. And takes head on the big question, is it worth the extra money, if you have it, over the copper version?
Quite looking forward to reading that!
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamieMcC

George 47

Subjectivist
Staff member
Jan 1, 2006
8,423
6,070
193
United Kingdom
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
The BBC LS3/5a monitor is a classic and has stood the test of time. Recently there have been a few Chinese copies that claim to be as good. Are they? Mr Underhill investigates with surprising results.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamieMcC

marko

Wammer
Wammer Plus
Feb 20, 2007
2,026
1,306
193
N.Yorkshire.
AKA
Mark
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
A bonus review coming soon. I have just read an excellent review of the Audionote Tonmeister Silver Signature integrated amplifier. This review was written by Rabski and as you may expect it is a great read. And takes head on the big question, is it worth the extra money, if you have it, over the copper version?
When will Richard’s Tonmeister Silver Signature review be available?
 
Last edited:

marko

Wammer
Wammer Plus
Feb 20, 2007
2,026
1,306
193
N.Yorkshire.
AKA
Mark
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Looking forward to reading your review Richard. In another life, I owned a Meishu Silver Signature - fabulous!
 
  • Like
Reactions: ozzric

simon g

Senior Wammer
Wammer Plus
Sep 11, 2006
2,913
2,257
193
Lincolnshire Coast
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Whilst these reviews will certainly be of interest, there is an evident tendency to review very costly kit. There are some on here who can afford this gear; I would imagine most cannot. £10k streamer/DAC, £15k streamer/DAC, £15k SACD player, et al.

I suppose this is akin to reviews in car mags about £100k machines of which most readers can only dream. However, there are many, many posts and interest on here for 'budget' gear. Anybody thinking of venturing in to a real hifi for the first time may well be put off by all the high end reviews. So many of the mags went that way and subsequently just, well, went.

I would suggest a series of reviews of £500 components, with a follow up of <£1k components.

What does a system at £1k sound like, for example?

An 'entry level' one brand system maybe?

Perhaps even a comparitive review of a £1-2k system and a £10-£20k system. What does 10 times the expenditure bring?
 

George 47

Subjectivist
Staff member
Jan 1, 2006
8,423
6,070
193
United Kingdom
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I agree and we have reviewed less expensive but high-performing equipment. I have to admit I like finding high-value equipment. We avoid the >£50K equipment for reviews apart from visits. Tomorrow we will be visiting Crescent Recording Studios and will write up what we hear. I expect the equipment there will be very expensive.

An example of a high-performing item was the Chord Qutest. It costs £1K and was so impressive that I and a fellow reviewer bought one. The Chinese speakers that Mr U will review are about £550.

Organising a complete system is not impossible but it is very difficult unless it all comes from one distributor, especially now when there is a worldwide shortage of chips and companies are putting them into the higher priced items.

Despite those excuses, it is a good idea and I will see what we can do in future. I would also like to have reviews of (well-performing and working) used items. They can represent real bargains provided care is taken, but some items can be real traps with microprocessors no longer available and unable to be replaced, like in a well-known amplifier.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Steveh

Hifimad1

Wammer
Wammer
Mar 28, 2007
886
422
93
United Kingdom
AKA
James
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Whilst these reviews will certainly be of interest, there is an evident tendency to review very costly kit. There are some on here who can afford this gear; I would imagine most cannot. £10k streamer/DAC, £15k streamer/DAC, £15k SACD player, et al.

I suppose this is akin to reviews in car mags about £100k machines of which most readers can only dream. However, there are many, many posts and interest on here for 'budget' gear. Anybody thinking of venturing in to a real hifi for the first time may well be put off by all the high end reviews. So many of the mags went that way and subsequently just, well, went.

I would suggest a series of reviews of £500 components, with a follow up of <£1k components.

What does a system at £1k sound like, for example?

An 'entry level' one brand system maybe?

Perhaps even a comparitive review of a £1-2k system and a £10-£20k system. What does 10 times the expenditure bring?
Whilst I get your point about affordability, i personally, being an engineer, love to hear about higher quality products that are less constrained by small budgets to see what can be achieved if the designers goal is targeted to achieve the best he can do.I count Luxman in that camp along with Accuphase , end game aspersions.
 

BettisDad

Wammer
Wammer
Oct 23, 2019
329
264
83
Wigan
AKA
Phil
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Not posted yet Mark. Will be early next week, just before I have to sadly return it. The fact that the 'sadly' should be underlined, in bold typeface and heavily emphasised should offer some clues ;)
Very much looking forward to reading your review!
 

Mr Underhill

Reviewer
Reviewer
Apr 9, 2006
564
261
78
HiFi Trade?
  1. Yes
Benchmark DAC3 Review Published.

Falcon Acoustics vs Sound Artist LS3/5a next.

Roon 2.0 under way.

Chord 2yu & 2go just arrived.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamieMcC

BettisDad

Wammer
Wammer
Oct 23, 2019
329
264
83
Wigan
AKA
Phil
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Wouldn't it be considerably cheaper if you bought the basic model and got a competent engineer to do the upgrades you wanted ?
Not really for a couple of reasons, firstly it would void the warranty on a brand new amp, secondly Audio Note no longer sell their transformers separately as far as I'm aware.
 
  • Like
Reactions: garn63

rabski

Everything in moderation
Staff member
Dec 2, 2006
32,873
1
26,119
173
Kettering
AKA
Richard
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Not really for a couple of reasons, firstly it would void the warranty on a brand new amp, secondly Audio Note no longer sell their transformers separately as far as I'm aware.
It would also seriously dent the resale value. Also, an aftermarket engineer who could be trusted with the work would be billing for a lot of labour time.

In fact, the parts cost if you use genuine AN transformers would be higher than the price difference. You could of course resell the standard ones, but I doubt the market is drowning under people who want a pair. As far as I know, AN will still supply transformers, but they're needed for production, so waiting times are extensive.

Add it all up, and it makes sense to just buy the 'right' spec.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BettisDad

garn63

Wammer Plus
Wammer Plus
Mar 3, 2020
12,284
18,700
198
www.avfc.co.uk
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I guess its AN 's pricing structure that beats me every time.
If I hear their stuff that I like & has "promise", to then enquire about a slightly better presentation usually involves accepting that I should forget the idea. :)
 

Forum statistics

Threads
113,444
Messages
2,451,263
Members
70,783
Latest member
reg66

Latest Articles

Wammers Online