Articles, Reviews and Measurements of Audio Products

SMSL D400 Pro Balanced DAC Review

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL D400 Pro balanced stereo DAC with Bluetooth support. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $619.
SMSL D400 Pro Balanced Stereo DAC Review.jpg

The scalloped front together with the high resolution and bright display make this one of the most beautiful products SMSL has released. The processor behind the display is very speedy as well. I like that the volume level is now in big letters and sample rate is small. You have the usual connections in the back:
SMSL D400 Pro Balanced Stereo DAC Bluetooth Back Panel Rear Review.jpg


SMSL D400 Pro DAC Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard using balanced XLR Out with volume set to 0:
SMSL D400 Pro Balanced Stereo DAC Measurement.png

We expect top performance from SMSL and we get that here, landing the D400 Pro in our top 20 list of...

Topping E2x2 Audio Interface Review

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Topping Professional E2x2 audio interface (ADC, DAC, Headphone Amp). It was sent to me by the company and costs US $159.
Topping E2x2 Audio Interface DAC Balanced Out headphone review.jpg

As the British would say, the E2x2 definitely "looks the part" as far as fitting in the general offering of interfaces in the market. And that extends to control app which seems a lot fancier than I expected from a company just getting into this market:
Topping E2x2 Audio Interface DAC Balanced Out Control Panel UI.png

The company must have staffed up on the software side of things. You can power the unit exclusively via USB-C if your host supports its level of power (mine did), or with auxiliary USB-C power:
Topping E2x2 Audio Interface DAC Balanced Out headphone back panel review.jpg


Note an interesting feature that if...

I measured 10 subwoofers.

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Hi, it's been a while!
I would like to thank the people who made this project possible on a scale never before imagined in South Korea. I measured a total of 10 subwoofers, including my own DIY subwoofer(L26RO4Y), and measured them to the CEA-2010 standard using a Klippel TBM module. Below are photos and a list of the subwoofers I measured.

1698458084.jpg


(In order from left to right)

- Arendal 1961 1V

- Arendal 1961 1S

- Neumann KH750

- Bowers & Wilkins DB4S

- SVS SB-3000

- SVS SB-2000 pro

- SVS SB-1000 pro

- Polk audio PSW111

- My DIY Subwoofer

- SVS 3000 micro

This is officially the first time CEA-2010 has been measured in South Korea.
So there was a lot of trial and error, which took a lot of time.
And for the products that were not loaded enough, I did a second measurement under slightly harsher conditions with the owner's permission, and added data.

[ATTACH...

Rega DAC-R DAC Review

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Rega DAC-R stereo DAC. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $1,195 when it came out in 2015.
Rega DAC-R stereo user DAC Review.jpg

I suspect extra money had gone into making the top curved down but it doesn't do anything for me. Fortunately the user interface makes up for the plain looks in how easy it is to select inputs and filters.

Back panel shows rather rich set of inputs and outputs for a DAC:
Rega DAC-R stereo user DAC back panel Review.jpg


Sadly, no balanced analog output is provided. I did not get a remote with it so wonder if one had come with it.

Rega DAC-R Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard:
Rega DAC-R stereo user DAC measurements.png

I saw some mains noise but no matter what I did, I could not impact it even a bit. I suspect that is coming out of the power supply and...

SMSL D-6s Balanced DAC Review

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL D-6s balanced stereo DAC with Bluetooth support. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $199.
SMSL D-6S MQA Audio DAC stereo balanced XLR review.jpg

I was pleasantly surprised with the new industrial design which while minimalistic, manages to impress with its modern style. Love the matt diffuser in front of the white LEDs. And the elevated panel gives a distinct and dare I say, luxury feel. A remote control is provided which makes navigation very easy.

Very nice to have built-in power supply in such a small package:
SMSL D-6S MQA Audio DAC stereo balanced XLR back panel review.jpg


SMSL D-6s DAC Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard with level adjusted to near 4 volts using XLR output first:
SMSL D-6S MQA Audio DAC stereo balanced XLR measurement.png

Distortion products are...

Tekton M-Lore Speaker Review

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This is a review, listening tests, equalization and detailed measurements of the Tekton (Mini) M-Lore speaker. It is on kind loan from a member and costs $US 750 a pair.
Tekton Design’s M-Lore Mini Speaker Review.jpg

As you see, this is a mini-tower speaker if there is such a thing. I had to put a 6 inch stand under it to get the tweeter to my ear height. There is nothing on the back side other than binding post. Not even a label.

Speaker was measured using Klippel Near-field Scanner. Tweeter center was used as acoustic reference.

Tekton M-Lore Speaker Measurements
Let's start with our usual anechoic measurements:
Tekton Design’s M-Lore Mini Speaker Andrew Robinson Frequency Response Measurement.png

Boy, that is a pretty chewed up response. It is not terrible at high level but there are a ton of variations across the full audible band. We also have directivity error due to high...

Audible difference in high-end capacitors? - ABX samples

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As announced long ago the last part on the subject of audibility of capacitor upgrade in crossovers. The comparison ranges from a very cheap, decades-old film capacitor to an expensive high-end capacitor.

As promised, this time there are short audio samples of each capacitor (in a simple crossover) recorded with a microphone via tweeter (test setup see below).
1697403041341.png

The full mini series:
Capacitor upgrade in crossover - Is it audible?
Capacitor upgrade - part two
Capacitor upgrade - part three...

Schiit Skoll Balanced Phono Stage Review

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Schiit Skoll balanced phono preamplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $399.
Schiit SKOLL Phono preamp stage balanced moving coil moving magnet review.jpg

Touch controls select everything from loading of the input (resistance and capacitance) to input type (RCA or XLR), gain and filtering. A remote control is supposed to come with to let you do this remotely but my box had none in it. Back panel shows what is unusual about this phono stage:
Schiit SKOLL Phono preamp stage balanced moving coil moving magnet back panel XLR loading review.jpg

XLRs for input and output! Love that as in this day and age, most systems also have computer connectivity for streaming and that is just asking for ground loop. So even if you don't need it in a phono stage, it is a very good idea from system perspective.

Power is provided through a hefty AC...

Schiit Midgard Headphone Amp Review (Video)

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Here is the companion video review of the Schiit Midgard headphone amplifier. It is rather short (for me :) ) at 15 minutes.


If you haven't subscribed, please go to youtube and do so. Videos are not monetized but we need to make sure our voice travels as far as the ones that are.

Schiit Midgard Balanced Headphone Amp Review

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This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the Schiit Midgard balanced headphone amplifier and preamp. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $219.
Schiit Midgard Balanced Headphone Amplifier Preamplifier XLR HP Review.jpg

While I am not a fan of the symbols Schiit uses instead of proper labels, there are only two to learn which is no big deal (input and gain). Both XLR and 1/4 are provided by power output remains the same. Company says the XLR output is superior due to inclusion of the load in the feedback loop. The design is discrete.

Back panel has what you expect:
Schiit Midgard Balanced Headphone Amplifier Preamplifier XLR HP back panel Review.jpg

Power switch forever seems to stay in the back on Schiit products despite lower usability.

Schiit Midgard Headphone Amp Measurements
For testing I focused on XLR input but did test both 1/4 and XLR outputs. Here...
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