A wishlist of gear to be reviewed by Amir

[Oski1928]

I’ve really wanted to see a review of the Apollon PET 950 Monoblock

 

[mocenigo]

Audio has always been about feelings. Even before they started selling cable jewellery. An industry of buzzwords. And now they have found some new ones. Nobody worried about SNR when tube amps was the hottest shit, and sound was good too. Anyway! Im quite happy with current state of affairs. Been loving high SNR stuff ever since I got my first Technics Mash CD player, with a jog wheel for search. I didnt even have speakers. HP out with a couple of AKG´s. This stuff has come a long way since then.

Well, my first CD player was a portable Technics MASH CD player, with SONY headphones. It accompanied my whole university studies.

 

[DonDish]

Well, my first CD player was a portable Technics MASH CD player, with SONY headphones. It accompanied my whole university studies.

I miss Technics, and Sony ES stack´s. Those where glorious days of personal audio!

 

[fpitas]

Testing the case is correctly grounded! What is this madness?

Right? We know from PS Audio, real audiophiles connect the case to the Hot power lead.

 

[Nathan Raymond]

Thanks. I suspect their measurements are correct. In general though audio gear doesn't care about such filtering since it has it's own. I test everything with unfiltered power and exceptional results all the time.

Right! However I'd guess most of the equipment plugged into your house's grid is fairly recent and in tip-top shape, so probably not much AC noise to filter. Some of us are into vintage things, for instance I am a fan of retro computing (I have things like an original 1984 Mac, some Apple II's, etc.) and with my old gear running, who knows what kind of noise I might be putting into my AC, so maybe filtering in a surge suppressor has real value for someone like me, since I don't always know the internal operational state of all the power supplies in my old equipment until they fail.

Speaking of the Apple II, since you got your computing start on one, you might get a kick out of testing some recent Apple IIgs sound cards people have made, like the ByteBoosters Darksound Apple IIgs Stereo Sound Card and Digitizer:

https://console5.com/store/darksoun...d-and-digitizer-w-amplifier-line-out-2gs.html

Or the 2soniq Stereo Sound Card from Manilla Gear:

https://www.reactivemicro.com/product/2soniq-stereo-sound-card-from-manila-gear/

Something to think about if you want to take a walk down memory lane with some modern hardware!

 

[-Matt-]

Sorry if it has already been suggested...

How about comparing the performance of Audyssey's individually calibrated microphones (ACM1-X) vs a selection of the mics included with receivers?

 

[davidperrenoud]

Behringer Flow 8

Channels 1 and 2 supposedly have very low-noise ADC. It can also be used as a 4-output USB DAC with parametric EQ, delay and limiter.

 

[Robbo99999]

The new Soundblaster X5 DAC/amp that's just been launched seems like they're really starting to get closer & closer in the way they're marrying proper audiophile products with gamer products, looks pretty good overall:

Sound Blaster X5

The Sound Blaster X5 is an external USB DAC and amp sound card that is packed full with top-notch audio components, including 2 Cirrus Logic CS43198 DACs and a fully balanced Xamp headphone bi-amplifier. It supports playback of up to 32-bit / 384 kHz and DSD256 ultra-high resolution, and doubles...

uk.creative.com

Would quite like to see that measured, just wish they'd included a 10 band parametric EQ in there rather than the standard Graphic EQ, I'm assuming Graphic EQ because they don't specifically mention parametric.

Looks like it's a step up from the G6 that was measured at end of 2019 - that's a good product, yet this this X5 is taking it a step further with balanced headphone out and a more audiophile bent in terms of the display, etc.

 

[Robbo99999]

AKG K-702 doesn't have a review here on ASR. I have bought the headphones, but would be interested to see a review.

Just randomly seen you post - you could try my EQ out if you like, it's based on a set of 4 units of K702 that I've measured:

AKG K702: a valid alternative EQ to Harman Curve for you to try

I'd like to offer you all an alternative EQ to the Oratory EQ, it's still done to the Harman Curve but it's using a different set of measurements. Oratory's measurement for the K702 has changed by a large amount over the various versions of pdf's he's released for it, and for my 4 units of K702...

www.audiosciencereview.com

It's an alternative to the Oratory EQ, eventhough it's based on an EQ to the Harman Curve.

 

[Bamboszek]

MDA2-140PAF - MDA Series - Marani Pro Audio

Marani Pro Audio - Marani by Seed, is a professional audio company involved in designing and manufacturing advanced signal processing equipment and power amplification.

marani-proaudio.com

Marani MDA2-140PAF
2x 140W Class D amplifier with <0.003% (90 dB SINAD) and build in DSP. It's dedicated for professional market, but specs looks very promising.
I can't find any price or dealers however so it might be worth contacting the manufacturer. There are higher power options too.