Recent content by brandonhall

Thanks to Amir and Erin for the reviews, and another thanks to a very nice gentleman at BestBuy who let me A/B these against a set of KEF R3s a few weeks ago. In terms of tonality, we're talking about a night and day difference. By a significant margin, my ears preferred the R3s while the sales...

I decided to go active (Kali IN-5) in my office and I'm looking to sell my ELAC Carina's as well as my SMSL DA-9. One of the Carina's was measured by Amir and he liked it. They have positive reviews on Crutchfield and are on the Stereophile recommended list. In a word, they are excellent. I'm...

The mere fact the writer at PSAudio mentions cheap cables at the beginning and end and expects hate mail tells me he knows the game is basically over. The justification about pairing cost is a feeble attempt to appeal to a buyer's rational side.

Agree about the tubes. I know they are popular on Amazon though. I love XLR as much as the next guy, but I understand not including them since this unit is a match for the RCA only amplifier. Nearly all these low-cost preamp/DACs include a remote.

Yes. I'll update the post.

Fosi is definitely green. I was trying to consider the whole picture when talking about the variations. Some jaggedness is completely expected since this is coming out of a speaker. The waves just appear larger with the SMSL. Of course, that's just how I interpret it and others may see things...

I have the SMSL DA-9 and I'm a complete nerd, so I did some measurement comparisons with Fosi Audio V3. Setup: Speakers right next to each other UMIK-1 positioned one inch out from each speaker Microphone was positioned between the woofer and tweeter of my ELAC Carina's (strongly recommended!)...

Wow! Thanks for all the details Amir.

@amirm I think it makes sense to clear up the op amp mess in the original review with an addendum of some sort. Buried 20 pages in, we learn that the company literally shared purchase orders and comparisons. An unbelievable and commendable amount of transparency. I don't think it's fair to Fosi...

I'm largely happy with the DA-9 I purchased from Amazon. On two occasions, one of the channels just went out which a power cycle fixed. Felt like a software bug more than a hardware problem. Who knows. I leave it running all the time and have been since November 2022.

@BoredErica I'm running the Audient ID14 MKII into the SMSL DA9. I have the Audient passing through at full power and use the volume control on the SMSL DA9. It's not perfect but it's the best solution I've found which allows me to use a remote and an audio interface.

I only use Tidal HiFi because HiRes isn't important to me. Tidal's positioning is actually really clever. You just basic HiFi for $9.99 a month which is awesome for most folks. If you want "innovative audio formats", you can pay $19.99 a month for those. It's a clear difference in what you get...

The Tidal CEO did an AMA at Reddit today and he announced they are introducing hi-res FLAC for HiFi Plus subscribers.

I don't have any insight to add or knowledgeable contributions to make. I just wanted to say that stuff like this is why I love ASR. Brilliant work all-around!

The 1961 Center appears to be $599 while the 1961 Monitor looks to be $1099. @amirm Just to confirm, is this the 1961 Monitor?