Articles, Reviews and Measurements of Audio Products

The Florida International Audio Expo 2024

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One week to go! All eyes on Tampa for Feb. 16–18:
The Florida International Audio Expo 2024!


Tampa, Florida—February 9, 2024—The Florida International Audio Expo takes place Friday–Sunday, February 16–18, 2024, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Tampa Airport Westshore hotel. Qobuz returns as the show’s official streaming service. David Solomon, Chief Hi-Res Evangelist for Qobuz USA, will host his famous Flash DJ sessions throughout the show.

Attendees will have the opportunity to experience, in more than 80 listening spaces on 12 floors, over 200 brands of audio systems from the industry’s most coveted brands worldwide. As they roam the halls, attendees can meet industry influencers, icons, and product designers, all enjoying music together.

Tickets are still available: Single-day admission, $25; admission for all three days, $35; free admission for students, children, and spouses...

Polk ES60 Tower Speaker Review

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This is a review, listening tests, equalization and detailed measurements of the Polk ES60 tower speaker. It was purchased new and kindly donated to the forum by a member. ES60 costs US $511 on Amazon and has 4.5 start average review (1925 ratings):
Polk ES60 Home Theater Tower Speaker Review.jpg

The ES60 is in entirely different class than other budget towers with good bit more weight and fit and finish. It uses the down firing port that Polk has in other speakers in the series.

I measured the ES60 on Klippel NFS without the grill with acoustic center of the tweeter. Temperatures in the measurement "chamber" was on the cool side at 57 degrees F/14 C.

Polk ES60 Speaker Measurements
As usual, we start with our suite of frequency response and directivity measurements:
Polk ES60 Home Theater Tower Speaker frequency response measurement.png

I like the deep bass extension and high sensitivity. On minor side we have a resonant peak around 550 Hz and generally elevated treble response. The latter is shared with other Polk...

Policy Change for "Desperate Dealer Forum"

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Hello industry members who are posting in the Desperate Dealers Forum.

It was brought to my attention that we require members to be donors to post anything for sale while allowing companies/dealers to try to do the same in Desperate Dealers Forum without such a requirement. It seemed only fair that we apply the same rule to dealers/companies. You can contribute to existing threads but creating a new thread requires being a donor at any level. See: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Please use the Forum Promotion option #2 as otherwise your account will not automatically be tagged as a Donor.

Please note that this not an invitation for overt advertising to membership. Your postings should have technical value that members appreciate.

Thank you for understanding.

Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary Speaker Review

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This is a review, detailed measurements and listening tests of Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary bookshelf speaker. It is on kind loan from a member and costs $599 a pair.
Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary Bookshelf Speaker Review.jpg

I don't know if it is visible in the picture but there is a very thick frame with drivers and baffle recessed around half an inch. This makes it a bit odd looking and probably doesn't do much for sonics. The grill nicely counteracts the former, giving a vintage yet elegant look to the speaker:
Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary Bookshelf Speaker grill vintage Review.jpg

Back panel causes a bit of culture shock with very modern binding posts:
Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary Bookshelf Speaker back panel vintage Review.jpg

Surprised to see two ports instead of a single larger one.

Speaker itself is quite heavy for its size...

Pro-Ject Phono Box DS3 B Review

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Pro-Ject Phono Box DS3 B phono preamplifier. It was kindly drop shipped to me by a member and costs US $799.
Phono Box DS3 B balanced XLR Phono Stage Preamplifier Review.jpg

I have a soft spot for white aluminum cases such as we have here in DS3B. I do wish the corners were a bit softer though as they are sharp enough to cut your hand! Nice to see so much flexibility as far as settings. Even better is a rare feature: balanced input and output:
Phono Box DS3 B balanced XLR Phono Stage Preamplifier back panel Review.jpg

It is a shame we don't see more balanced phono stages as their are so susceptible to ground loops due to their high gains. We even have trigger control for automation.

Not a fan of the 18 volt external switching power supply though at this price level. The low voltage is also liable to limit the headroom of DS3B.

For testing, I exclusively used XLR input and outputs.

Project Phono Box DS3 B Measurements
I started my testing using the usual dashboard and setting the gain...

SMSL VMV P2 Headphone Amp Review

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This is a review, detailed measurements and listening tests of SMSL VMV P2 balanced stereo headphone amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $999.
SMSL VMV P2 balanced stereo headphone amplifier unbalanced review.jpg

The design follows the new look of the VMV D2R DAC. I am not a big fan of the new look but maybe you are. Nice to see the three common output jacks with the balanced output being differential (i.e. increases power). The volume control is analog with a definitive minimum and maximum. I was very surprised to see the gain controls positioned in the back:
SMSL VMV P2 balanced stereo headphone amplifier back panel preamplifier review.jpg

If you use multiple headphones with very different sensitivities, this will be an annoyance, having to reach back here to change settings. Fortunately for the set of headphones I use, the medium gain was sufficient.

On positive front, the connectors seem very high quality. And oh, the whole...

Antelope Amari Measurements

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Hi,
First review here, so don't hesitate to tell me if you see something odd.
I just bought an Antelope Amari for mastering work and Antelope's specs were not precise enough to my taste.
Since the APX555 was just there I did some measurements. I tried to be consistent with most measurements I've seen on the forum.

1706139756992.jpeg


DAC:
Inputs: ASIO
Outputs: XLR
Fs: 44.1kHz

Monitor:

Here's the monitor with a 0dBFS input.

1706139878651.png


Frequency Response:
Here's a sweep at 0dBFS. Keep in mind the left axis scale has 2dB amplitude.

1706139900870.png


THD+N:
THD+N for a 0dB sweep (sorry for the timeout).

1706139923670.png
...

Poll: Audio Science Review in the World (2024)

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ASR World map-3-2.jpg
Hi Folks,

Back in November 2019, I started a thread/poll thread here, in which I was wondering where our fellow members were actually living. Initially, when ASR started back in 2016, most first registered members were either from USA, UK, Canada, or Australia (according to @amirm), with somehow the intention of being multinational from the start. I remember my first days visiting ASR, when I personally felt like I had landed mostly in NA territory. With the forum getting more and more popular over the years, this feeling went away, and I observed quite an amount of people coming from literally everywhere in the world.

@AdamG made a relevant suggestion about posting a new...​

Sony MDRV6 Headphone Review (with/without BRAINWAVZ Pad)

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This is a review, listening tests, Equalization and detailed measurements of the Sony MDRV6 headphone with aftermarket Brainwavz suede pads. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $495 plus $19 for the pad.
Sony MDRV6 Studio Monitor Headphones BRAINWAVZ Suede pad review.jpg

No, you are not seeing double. After testing the MDRV6 from the member (right), I went to look up its cost on Amazon and it tells me I already purchased one back in 2017 (left)! It was sitting in a box with a bunch of other headphones I bought initially as I was getting into headphone testing. Other than being used a few times, it is in as new condition. So I went back and measured it as well listening to it.

As you will see noted in the measurements I could not get a proper seal on the member headphone on the right channel. I thought that was bad until I tested my stock one. That was *much* worse in both channels with the right channel also delivering significantly lower volume no matter what I did on my Gras 45CA testing rig. Ah...

TOPPING D90 III Sabre DAC Review

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the TOPPING D90 III Sabre balanced stereo DAC. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $899.
Topping D90 III Balanced Stereo DAC USB Review.jpg

As you can see, the design is what we have know about most of the Topping products. I do wish at this price that we had a high resolution display that showed VU meters and such. Usability would be better that way although the included remote is easy to use. Back panel is as you would expect:
Topping D90 III Balanced Stereo DAC USB Sabre Review.jpg

Nice to see Topping continuing to provide trigger support for automatic turn on of the downstream amplifiers and such.

TOPPING D90 III Sabre Measurements
The DAC has two output setting modes. One that provides max of 5 volts nominal and one that is 4 volts. For fairness I tested using the latter. DAC was allowed to warm up which improved its performance by about 1 dB.

As usual, we start with our dashboard:
Topping D90 III Balanced Stereo DAC XLR Measurement.png

This is the best...
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