matthewb on Warpcast

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https://warpcast.com/~/channel/hifi

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first up is this system with Vimberg speakers, Metronome DAC/streamer, Vinnie Rossi hybrid tube/solid-state amps and preamp. $120k+ USD total. pretty meh, nothing special. had some weird colouration, tonality didn’t sound right to me. honestly if I were an outsider to the industry and walked in, I’d never guess this was worth the same $$ as a really nice car.

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next up is this system with Davis Acoustics speakers and Jadis tube DAC and preamp. streamer appears to be a laptop (lol). $50k+ USD total. ear-splitting, very sibilant and harsh. upper mids and 5-10kHz were way too emphasized, sounded like a snake (“ssssssss”). didn’t last more than 2min before needing to leave.

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next up is this system with Acora Acoustics speakers, VPI turntable, Audio Research tube amp and preamp, and Grimm streamer. $80k USD+ total. okay now we’re talking. plenty of tubey goodness, sounded great with jazz. vinyl was especially enjoyable with a more spacious and relaxed presentation. fun fact: these speakers are actually made of solid stone. perhaps the only speaker line of its kind currently in production.

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next up is this system with Audionec speakers, Nagra and VPI turntables, Nagra monoblock amps, Nagra preamp, and Nagra phono. easily the most expensive in the show at $500k+ USD total. they were mostly playing large-scale orchestral music which this system excelled at. I think it would be a bit dry and boring for non-classical music, very revealing and honest (to a fault). speakers are bit bright for my taste as well. can’t say that I was blown away given the price tag but it is pretty remarkable that you can just summon a virtual “orchestra” in front of you with some speakers and boxes. I’ve listened to many orchestras and played in just as many as a musician, and this actually sounds like the real thing if you close your eyes.

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next up is this system with Audionec speakers, CS Port tube amp and preamp, CS Port and VPI turntables, Nagra DAC and streamer. $150k+ USD total. okay this was pretty good, very easy to listen to and relax. still not my favourite speaker choice and was missing some low-end, but very enjoyable overall particularly on jazz. usually if you can allow your body to relax, the system is doing its job properly. if you’re tense and/or analyzing what you’re hearing, probably a bad sign.

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next up is this system with Wolf Von Langa speakers, Burmester integrated amp, and Lampizator tube DAC. not sure what they’re using as a streamer. $40k+ USD total. mixed bag. vocals were velvety and the presentation was layered and spacious. unfortunately the speakers were terrible, zero low-end so they sounded wimpy as hell. I’m pretty intrigued by tube DACs because they are mixing tubes and digital D/A conversion which seems counterintuitive but for some reason just “works” to make digital sound less… digital. it either makes perfect sense or it’s a travesty as purists claim.

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next up is this system with Von Schweikert speakers and Westminster monoblock amps and preamp. streaming only but not sure what exactly. $150k+ USD total. pretty relaxing and enjoyable listen but nothing too exciting. overall a little dark but I’ll happily take that over brightness or harshness. maybe a little dynamically compressed but can’t complain overall. Westminster is an interesting amp manufacturer that claims to have made 100W+ pure class A amps that are compact and run cool. everyone likes how class A sounds but it generates crazy amounts of heat which requires massive heatsinks and therefore gigantic cases. they claim to have cracked the code, others claim they are full of shit. stay tuned for the Maury episode.

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last up is this system with Audio Note everything: speakers, tube amp and preamp, turntable, tube phono, CD player, tube DAC. even cables are Audio Note. $60k+ USD total. decidedly different from everything else in the show. this system had the most emotion of anything we listened to, you totally forgot about the gear and got swept up in the music. they also brought in a live cellist to play chamber music along with the recording to show how lifelike the system reproduces acoustic instruments. of course you can tell the difference but it sounds spooky real. even though the speakers look wimpy, they use extreme corner placement and the boundary effect to reach down to 18Hz in-room. sure it’s not earth shaking bass but for their size it’s remarkable and their suggested placement makes them very room-friendly.

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part 2 with more notes and photos: https://warpcast.com/matthewb/0x94894aeb

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masky pfp

did you listen to same thing on all?

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nick pfp

Which one is you

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