Sources
My Video Review:
I have a long-standing tradition of reviewing SMSL Audio gear. My first-hand experience was trying their unusual looking, but great sounding M500 DAC/Amp combo a few years ago. I wasn’t a huge supporter of its wagon-like look, but it was a darn good sounding DAC for its price. In …
My Video Review:
Hey folks. Another month is passing by and that’s music to my ears as finally, my seasonal allergy would fade away, but for the audiophile community around the world that resonates with one thing only: Topping is going to announce brand new products. Before you start lighting your …
My Video Review:
Don’t ask me why the most covered manufacturer I have around here is Topping Audio, but if you do…it wasn’t one of my goals. You really wanted to know my opinion on most of their doings and the rest is history. I have no regrets, as the most commented articles are for gear coming …
My Video Review:
You got to give some credit to Hi-Fi brands coming out of China that forever changed the definition of entry and mid-level Hi-Fi. The biggest competition they have right now is…themselves. Companies like SMSL, Topping and Gustard are no longer competing against Western companies, …
My Video Review:
Ah…the sound of a high-quality R2R DAC after a sea of chip-based Delta-Sigma converters feels like tasting an aged single malt whiskey for the first time. That deep, velvety smooth, indulgently sweet aroma reminiscent of French patisserie and a long-lasting aftertaste can’t be …
My Video Review:
It is finally summer time meaning that two things are going to happen. I’ll drown myself with Belgian beer on Fridays with fellow audiophile friends and it also means it’s time for fresh new portable DAPs. You see, most DAP manufacturers are showing their new portable units in …
My Video Review:
Oftentimes I’m being asked which DAC is the best you can get at less than one grand. That is a very broad question that can’t have a simple answer from my part, as I can’t possibly know your music preference, your stereo or your headphone setup. In spite of everything, Topping D90 …
My Video Review:
I was dismayed when FiiO announced that their M11 PRO and M15 will be fading away into the history books. We all knew it would happen at some point, but that fire at the AKM factory skyrocketed the prices of the remaining stock, making it happen sooner rather than later, with …
My Video Review:
Il Suono Italiano…now confess to me, how does that sound to you? Like a sweet melody whispered gently in your ear by a delicate midnight muse? Like a stroke of brush by the great Buonarroti that separated the sublime genius from monotony of formal thoughts? Like a poetry …
My Video Review:
Alright folks, I might not get too excited seeing another AKM or ESS Sabre based DAC been released in such a crowded landscape that digital audio has become, I’ve covered plenty of those already…but how about some fresh new Cirrus Logic based DACs? I don’t remember listening to …
My Video Review:
I still remember when ESS Technologies released their newest all-in-one ES9218 DAC and headphone amplifier on a single SoC silicon a few years ago, that would revolutionize the affordable DAP market in a very good way. It meant replacing a big chunk of PCB space with just a single …
My Video Review:
After a long and stressful 2020, xDuoo started a fresh new year stronger than ever. In January they already revealed several cool new devices such as Link2 USB dongle, some tube-based MT-601 and MT-602 headphone amplifiers, the lady in red TA-10R came next, followed by their …
My Video Review:
Gustard proved multiple times that good digital audio runs through their veins. X26 PRO was a huge surprise that I didn’t see coming, outperforming pretty much every oversampling delta/sigma DAC I’ve tried at my place…except for one unit that I’m using for quite some time now. The …
My Video Review:
The most secretive and mysterious DAC manufacturer from China is surely Gustard. They aren’t amazing when it comes to web design, they aren’t that great when it comes to marketing, they still struggle putting their drivers online, they aren’t very talkative in a language other …
My Video Review:
I like the most about xDuoo is that they are not copying anyone, just look at all their portfolio. They are still releasing plenty of tube-based amplifiers, hybrids for the most part so that harder to drive headphones would perform well. They are very much into transistor-based …
My Video Review:
Making good sounding digital audio players (DAP) takes time, dedication and a lot of experimentation, but making great sounding players is pure passion mixed with madness that can take years of polish until perfection is being achieved. Portable players of any kind took a huge …
My Video Review:
Two years ago, I was posting my first written review on this website and my first video over Youtube for the xDuoo TA-10 DAC and hybrid headphone amplifier. I had plenty of experience with tube amplifiers and DACs, but I have never tested an xDuoo tube amplifier until that point. …
My Video Review:
Hey folks. Today is big day, as I will be testing a mammoth of a unit that packs a serious punch and costs as much as an entry level interconnect cable. What it is exactly? Well…it’s a single ended and a balanced DAC, it has full MQA support and by that, I mean a full-MQA unfolder …
My Video Review:
When FiiO embraced the future putting USB Type-C ports on their Q3, it was only a matter of time when the same would happen to their upper echelon portable units. Q5S was still their flagship portable DAC/Amp, but it was plagued by an aging Micro-USB port and by the Lightning only …
My Video Review:
Can you guess which is my favorite DAC manufacturer from Asia? That’s right folks, that’s Topping… and if you are asking yourself why? It’s a cumulus of multiple factors: Build quality and aesthetics are first, feature set comes second, price point comes next and most importantly …
My Video Review:
I still remember the craze Audioquest started several years ago with the introduction of their Dragonfly line-up. The idea was very simple: transforming your OTG capable smartphone into an audiophile quality source that could drive higher-quality headphones, without a need of a …
My Video Review:
When FiiO released their portable Q5S portable DAC and headphone amp combo some time ago, people that were serious about portable Hi-Fi were ditching their award-winning Chord Mojo and were jumping into the Chi-Fi bandwagon. Why would you do that you might ask. Mojo was noisy near …
My Video Review:
A lot of people don’t know but in Asia often times audio engineers are working on multiple projects of different audio manufacturers. Remember the Musician Audio and Denafrips fiasco? Well, that is common practice in Asia and shouldn’t be considered as bad practice. If you check …
My Video Review:
I have a pretty long history of reviewing Matrix Audio gear. My first ever review was for their beautiful New Mini-i that I’ve done in the July of 2014. I felt in love with its form factor, with its smooth clean lines and with its beautiful OLED screen. It borrowed some design …
My Video Review:
One of the most mysterious DAC manufacturers from China is surely S.M.S.L Audio. We already tested some products made by them, more exactly 3 DACs, a headphone amplifier and an integrated amplifier. Funny thing is that most of them looked so different, that I would never guess …
My Video Review:
About a month ago I’ve tested an affordable true-balanced ESS-Sabre DAC that also happened to be the best sounding entry-level unit I ever stumbled upon. Soncoz LA-QXD1 simply ticked all the boxes for me, it sounded marvelously close to mid-range DACs that I’ve felt the urge to …
My Video Review:
I’m a curious person by nature and when a music making machine lands on my table, I usually try to understand it first. I would pop its case and I will follow the signal path from inputs to outputs. I would always seek limitations and compromises put in place mostly by cost, …
My Video Review:
At the end of 2019 I was given the honors for a world-premiere Burson Conductor 3 Reference review, which changed the way I am looking at ESS Sabre-based DACs/Preamps and headphone amp combos. From linear, lean sounding and straight as a line in terms of frequency response, …
My Video Review:
When an established audio manufacturer from China is releasing its newest flagship DAC, they are targeting not only its competition from the West, but more often they are aiming they own brethren from the East. Remember the waves Topping did with their D90 DAC? That happened …
My Video Review:
When it comes to digital audio, the last two years were turbulent, restless but also exciting and rewarding. Few years ago, high-end digital audio meant shelving big amounts of cash, eating less pudding and more bread and water. Yet for the last two years or so, I’ve experienced …