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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

PASP Part 2 - A visit in Germany - you can do it on Friday @MHE 2024 -> Hall 3, Box K05

After you had all the information necessary to understand the Pure Acourate Sound System objectively ...  You'll get now my auditive impressions from that extraordinary session. Here is a small subjective run through to the most impressive tracks in the playlist, which  you can find at Qobuz: -> https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/21340128 There are 2 more related playlists to be found here and here . Angel by Massive Attack: A reference track of mine, given the austerulous e
DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

PASP Part 1 - Visiting the Pure Acourate Sound Project in Germany (MHE 2024 -> Hall 3, Box K05)

The P-Experience: Pure Acourate Sound, PuRiFi and a Porsche Visiting the Pure Acourate Sound Project in Germany    Mid-April I was travelling from France to my home region near Frankfurt/Germany -  it was time to celebrate a 54-years friendship with my best friend in our hometown close to Frankfurt, where I had some duties as a DJ for his 60’s anniversary event. I used the fact of having already done the first 500 miles to organize a trip up north, into a region where the formerly
DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

Visiting the Pure Acourate Sound Project in Germany (MHE 2024 -> Hall 3, Box K05)

The P-Experience: Pure Acourate Sound, PuRiFi and a Porsche Visiting the Pure Acourate Sound Project in Germany    Mid-April I was travelling from France to my home region near Frankfurt/Germany -  it was time to celebrate a 54-years friendship with my best friend in our hometown close to Frankfurt, where I had some duties as a DJ for his 60’s anniversary event. I used the fact of having already done the first 500 miles to organize a trip up north, into a region where the formerly
The Art of Audio Conjuring

Responding to posts elsewhere ...

Until the dust settles, a bit, ... I'll reply in this thread,     Ummm, in old recordings, of the 1930's or so, there was only one microphone. And the drumkit was, is, a creator of some solid transient sounds. So, to prevent overloading of the poor ol' mic they set the drummer waaay back in the proceedings - which you can easily hear in replay of a decent standard of these sort of tracks. More recent stuff? All bets are off, of course ...   Note, I've just posted an 'a
fas42

fas42 in General

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

Podcast Recommendation - The Vinyl Archivist vs. PBTHAL chez Concert Buddy

https://vinylcommunitypodcasts.podbean.com/e/concert-buddie-mind-of-the-record-collector-patrick-pbthal/ Just came across an interesting podcast about Patrick from California, aka the vinly.archivist (https://www.instagram.com/the.vinyl.archivist/ ) and also known as PBTHAL (the real or who knows …) In a recent review / comparison of the newly published “Stop Making Sense” reissue from the Talking Heads, Darko.audio has digged into the qualities of “vinyl rips done right” comparing the
DuckToller

DuckToller in Podcasts

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

The Arylic BP50 Bluetooth Pre-Amp - modern age switch board for the next generation

The Arylic BP50 Bluetooth Pre-Amp The BP50 was send to me by Arylic’s European distribution for a thorough testing of the device and giving my honest judgement about it in this blog. Who are Arylic? Arylic is brand name for products designed and manufactured by a Chinese company called Rakoit. No - they don’t offer audiophile pleasures like Auralic and they aren’t close to that level of high-end audio (yet)! The company was involved in the first wave European distribution
DuckToller

DuckToller in BT Phono DAC Pre Amp

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

You can now pre-order the WIIM AIO amplifier - a real Bluesound Powernode challenger at 349€

Again bad news for the established brands like Cambridge, Moon or Bluesound that offer veritable AIO devices at equally veritable pricepoints.   WIIM, the Linkplay brand with an impressive pipeline of affordable and (inter)-connectable products, like the WIIM mini. WIIM Pro and WIIM Pro+,  during the last 2 years, have launched the pre-sales information for their latest product: An amplifier using the TI TPA325x chipset - well known from Aiyima, Fosi and Topping  (you may want to have a
DuckToller

DuckToller in Amplifier

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

Arylic BP50 - Another Jack of All Trades in the post today

Bonjour encore! (was it Howard Carpendale who did the "denglish" transfer of it?)   This morning I received a package from Arylic, again. Another sort of "Jack of All Trades", this time for Bluetooth Audio outside of the recent LDAC and Qualcomm APTx Lossless cosmos. I have agreed to review it bc the promise of it seems to be very interesting for many people looking for a wireless digital solution on a budget suiting existing gear. No high-end guaranteed, only sheer functionality.
DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

iFi NEO iDSD 2 - A second coming

[gallery900x640] [album]168[/album] [/gallery] IFi Audio announced yesterday an upgraded version of their “balanced” DAC, Pre- and HP-Amp NEO iDSD, called - who will wonder about that – NEO iDSD 2. I tried to have a short preview on the documents but gave up on quick & short and allow myself to show you more details on the available information than I was expecting this morning. The device is announced at 899 Euro/USD/GBP. I need to excuse my typo, initially I wrote 699. [ED
DuckToller

DuckToller in DAC PRE HP AMP

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

The audiophile friends travel blog – PART 2 - The Cubs are coming vs. Boys don't cry

Day 2 Present: Gloria, Dave Peter, Tom. Canadians at the Gite.   Our place to stay: Our Gite “Ty Josephine” chez “Les Gites de Kervac’h” – Erdeven - A range of fully equipped traditional houses, to be rented for a reasonable prices, dog friendly  & no pool - but the Ocean only 5 km away. Main activity : Welcoming the friends from Chicago at Port de Saint-Goustan in Auray Gloria and Dave (the Cubs) arrived from Chicago over Paris CDG early in the morn
DuckToller

DuckToller in Travel log

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

The audiophile friends travel blog: PART 1- Who was where ?

The audiophile friends travel blog - Who was where ? A couple of friends from Germany, France, Chicago and Canada were at Erdeven, a small town close to the Quiberon peninsula at the French Atlantic coastline in the Brittany region.   Day 1 Present: Peter, Tom, Frisby & Isis (the Canadians – Nova Scotia & Labrador) The history: When the dates for the Munich Hi-End 2023 were announced the year before, I have sent out mails to Chris, my contributing colleague
DuckToller

DuckToller in Travel log

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

Updates on the Arylic HD DAC – it’s (more) functional now! - PLUS WIIM Pro Plus in the store

I have some good news about the HD DAC: The firmware has got an update in March (4.6.509530.45 / 20230302) and it doesn’t brick the device anymore, at least with the unit under review. The 4stream app received as well an overhaul (3.1.18.230210) in February, and they included the 5Ghz network toggle that was missing and which was heavily criticized. Thumbs up for that!              The app itself still has a search engine on valium, but the app throughput i.e.  like Radio Pa
DuckToller

DuckToller in Streamer - DAC

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The Art of Audio Conjuring

What is, "Big Sound"?

As many say, when you experience "big sound", you know it ... . Not equivalent to loudness, though the volume setting is part of the equation - a pretty good description of various aspects is here, https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/what-does-big-sound-mean-to-you.1157065/#post-30558048.   The above link alone says that this is not an "impossible dream!" - people have achieved this regularly, pretty well since the birth of audio recordings, using various methods. A key part of this
fas42

fas42 in General

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Results from Native DSD's Expanded Catalog

Results from NativeDSD's Expanded Catalog Written by Rushton Paul for Positive Feedback.

Written by Rushton Paul for Positive Feedback. You may have seen that NativeDSD recently decided to expand its catalog offerings to now offer albums originally recorded in PCM 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, and 192kHz rates in addition to the DSD/DXD recordings they have always featured.  So, after a month under the new policy, I've been watching to see what this change brings to us as listeners. And, thus far, I've been quite pleased with the additional titles from their existing label par
PAP

PAP in DSD

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The Art of Audio Conjuring

Finally, an audio show to visit! Sydney, 2023

After something like 8 years, a proper exhibition of many setups - and, it was, for me, something of a surprise. Last show the hit rate was about 1 in 10 - that is, systems that were worth listening to, more seriously, counted for a single finger on two hands; this round, it was probably better than 8 out of 10 ...   So, what happened? Well, probably a combination of everything moving forward - exhibitors had a better handle on what to do, the designers of gear are steadily discovering
fas42

fas42 in General

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

The long promised iFi iDSD Signature & NEO iDSD review (Part 4) - The Red Elephant

The red elephant & the art of product life cycle enhancement There is an elephant in the room, and it is kinda red. PART IV: The micro iDSD Signature by design is a transition product between the good-ole iDSD Black Label edition and the new streamlined iDSD Diablo. This might explain why it comes with a limited availability. The Diablo may show the new direction of iFi products - it comes in aggressive Lamborghini Red as the king of the purist design hill, a top-o
DuckToller

DuckToller in DAC - Reviews

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

A recent Qobuz offer - 2 month free testing gift code (expired)

Bonjour Blog readers! I have received information from Qobuz that right right now the standard 1-month trial has been enhanced to a 2 month sequence, using this link and the code below. Though, I have no idea how long the offer will be valid, you better redeem asap ;-) I have also understood that this offer is limited to the 24 countries Qobuz operates and read that it may work adding that gift code to your existing subscription. The link works only without VPN, or at least us
DuckToller

DuckToller in Music & Playlists

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

The long promised iFi iDSD Signature & NEO iDSD review (Part three) - NEO iDSD

NEO iDSD (around 700-800 $) : HIGH HOPES I need to underline that iFi had understood some of the critical input raised by the reviewers and made changes to the package and the firmware selection. The recent incarnation of iFi neo iDSD comes along as the  iFi Audio Performance Edition at 799$ MSRP. The NEO iDSD Performance Edition now does include now the iPurifier3 USB B reclocker plus the SPDIF iPurifier and gives you a firmware choice that allows you to use all capabilities of the B
DuckToller

DuckToller in DAC - Reviews

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

An Xmas Mixtape for the AS readers / members chez Qobuz

How boring ;-) Stop right there! The tapes are coming back …. Just click here … https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep365-the-return-of-the-cassette-tape/id1048766030?i=1000586927145 https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/zdovki/the_return_of_the_cassette_tape/ https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-start-cassette-collection/ It’s a thing. And it brings up memories. I had roughly 2 decades in my life in which I was working with tapes. From cutting mu
DuckToller

DuckToller in Music & Playlists

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

The long promised iFi iDSD Signature & NEO iDSD review (Part two) - iDSD Signature

Great expectations, high hopes & the elephant in the room iFi Audio Micro iDSD Signature & NEO iDSD review The Micro iDSD Signature - Great Expectations Contents Part two: Signature review Exhibt 2:  4.4mm balanced output Pentaconn Exhibit 3: The GTO filter Signature review Last November I was kind of surprised when I read the announcement of a Signature edition for the iFi Micro iDSD. Great expectations had been raised instantly about this shiny new
DuckToller

DuckToller in DAC - Reviews

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

The long promised iFi iDSD Signature & NEO iDSD review (Part one)

I have re-read my 2021 review about these two iFi devices, which I wrote between December 20 and Mars 21,  and found that the work is likely worth to be published, even it is seemingly kind of old news, as the Neo iDSD has already received a revamp.   I will make a series of entries out of the material, starting today with Part 1 1. Review intro and overview 2. The Micro iDSD Signature - Great Expectations 3. NEO iDSD -  HIGH HOPES 4. The red elephant & the art of product life
DuckToller

DuckToller in DAC - Reviews

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

DA, DAW, AIO and nCore

I have already posted the pics and the links for the Audiophonics.fr DA and DAW all-in-one amplifier here. Here are the links to Audiophonics . DA250NC and DAW250NC . From my personal experience with AIO amplifiers, the integration of different PCBs with specialized services & functions, like DAC input /output, Wifi and BT input isn’t easy-peasy at all. You’ll get something wrong in the firmware, and your units suddenly lose a lot of their value. No UPnP/DLNA? Meh! Spdif in
DuckToller

DuckToller in Amplifier

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DuckToller's Sonic Encounters

Arylic UP2STREAM HD DAC – A blog rant

The company has sent me this device, the Arylic UP2STREAM HD DAC and the S50+ Pro Pre-amp / Streamer / DAC in return for giving it a thorough and honest review. With the HD DAC board I received a remote control and the Arylic acrylic case option (no pun intended). I was asked to publish the review this week, starting yesterday, and the company was aware of my findings. I’ve produced a set of pictures that you’ll find in the galleries, a work which may underline my serious enthusiasm to revi
DuckToller

DuckToller in Streamer - DAC

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sonore

aurender

Lumin

HEAP

Schiit

SOtM

Mytek

mutec

uptone

jcat

sotm usa

audioquest

Taiko Audio

Teddy Pardo

Eversolo




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