Recent content by Interference

You are probably right. For a second I thought they could have implemented some kind of dual rail configuration for the power stage, just because of the "linear sounds better" audiophile mantra. But it's much more likely as you say.

Interestingly enough, this product has re-surfaced under the brand of a different manufacturer, that is: "Esoteric Pro Audio" from Northern Italy (see here, however note that that webzine is mostly "advertorial"). The new product takes the name of "Caravaggio" features a solid graphite (!)...

By dissecting a SOtM operating system image, it seems to be based on Fedora Linux running an armv7hl kernel. All dtb files start with the sun7i-a20 prefix, which would suggest the device uses an Allwinner A20 SoC.

It is about speaker cables, which in Italian is "cavi di potenza" so literally "power cables". Power cables are instead "cavi di alimentazione". Italian AudioReview magazine has always kept a reasonable balance between "listening" and "measurements", being among the few magazines publishing...

I have the XLR version, combined with a balanced-output DAC. A dead-simple source-direct clipping-free (*) setup. (*) given the standard output levels of DACs it's very hard to bring the amp to clipping, but in general with digital attenuation and displays it's easy to control how far you are...

I am not surprised at all: had in my hands an Atoll DAC 100 once, and from a quick measurement with REW and an E-MU 0404 I could see pretty similar distortion patterns. It seems nothing much has changed since then.

1. Given today's prices, I would not pick anything which is below 24 bit / 96 kHz. 192 kHz are also quite common but it's not a must. As long as the interface is modern enough I would not worry about the usual S/N numbers: they are sure good for the job. 2. I mean measuring S/N and distortion of...

I remember the 0202 being slightly lower spec'd than 0204 and 0404, but please check the data sheets to confirm. The old E-MU site had all that nicely outlined in text but now is buried in the Internet Wayback Machine and I don't have a link at my fingertips. ADC performance should still be...

The driver looks very much like a Scan-Speak Revelator, I can hardly believe it's a clone. Although the speaker pair costs less than the retail price of a pair of drive units.

Thought about giving a field report. I have been using my E50 for about 8 months. Connected via USB to a Raspberry Pi 3B+ running Moode Audio and via TOSLINK to a Samsung AU8000 TV (previously a Xiaomi Mi Box Android TV Box). It's driving (balanced) a Hypex Class D amplifier based on the...

The absence of a comprehensive and user-friendly software DSP platform (edit: on the market) is not Topping's fault though. If we think about having embedded DSP, the requirements can change a lot depending on the application. Equalisation and crossovering with IIR filters are "easy" but, for...

Oh, the irony: Today, they use ridiculous amounts of technobabble and pseudoscience talk to promote cables and all sorts of "harmonizers" (cables are not even the worst part). As a side note: unsubstantiated claims of Nordost collaboration with NASA and/or involvement in the electromedical...

I would have been curious to see the Powersoft on the bench as well! Hope there will be a chance in the future.

It seems this has not been mentioned: when measuring the output level one should be aware of the output impedance of the DUT vs input impedance of the measurement device. The Cosmos ADC has a fairly low input impedance while DACs usually have a Z out in the order of 100-600 ohm. Mentioning the...

To people who care enough to check what the designers have to say, it is well known that balanced is the recommended interconnection for Hypex and Purifi amps. Yet you came here with random uninformed advice such as "XLR only when you power and amp are far apart more than 3 meters run." So I do...