• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

A wishlist of gear to be reviewed by Amir

urfaust

Active Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2018
Messages
113
Likes
59
Location
France
aune s7pro Headphone Amp PLZ :)

I really want to know if its performance matches the perfect look.
I dig its design as well, the Aune s6 also, that i find very fine looking and with volume control (something i miss on the Khadas)
 

pozz

Слава Україні
Forum Donor
Editor
Joined
May 21, 2019
Messages
4,036
Likes
6,827
I'd be very curious to see 2 channel DACs measured from the pro world, particularly these companies:
  • Lavry Engineering
  • Crane Song
  • Dangerous Music
  • Prism
  • Weiss
  • Forssell
  • Burl Audio
  • Antelope Audio
  • Apogee
  • Presonus
  • Fostex
And then PS Audio Stellar Gain Cell DAC, and the Sennheiser HDVD 800.
 

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,368
Likes
234,386
Location
Seattle Area
I'd be very curious to see 2 channel DACs measured from the pro world, particularly these companies:
  • Lavry Engineering
  • Crane Song
  • Dangerous Music
  • Prism
  • Weiss
  • Forssell
  • Burl Audio
  • Antelope Audio
  • Apogee
  • Presonus
  • Fostex
And then PS Audio Stellar Gain Cell DAC, and the Sennheiser HDVD 800.
I don't have any leads on those as of now. How about posting on Gearstluz to see if any owners want them measured?
 

pozz

Слава Україні
Forum Donor
Editor
Joined
May 21, 2019
Messages
4,036
Likes
6,827
I don't have any leads on those as of now. How about posting on Gearstluz to see if any owners want them measured?
Will do.
 

pozz

Слава Україні
Forum Donor
Editor
Joined
May 21, 2019
Messages
4,036
Likes
6,827

Feyire

Active Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2019
Messages
272
Likes
314
Location
Netherlands
Anything from Mola Mola. However, perhaps their DAC deserves prioritised scrutiny, given what they claim:

We decided to stay out of that cycle and design, from the ground up, a discrete DAC whose unbeatable staying power results simply from being more than 10 years ahead of the performance curve. There's room enough for improvement: today’s best DAC chip claims no better than 22 bits’ worth of dynamic range and only 20 bits’ worth of linearity. High resolution music deserves better than that. MolaMola’s DAC is designed from the ground up using circuits and digital algorithms that were entirely developed in house.

The converter is a three board stack that fits in one of the option slots in the preamp. On the first board, all incoming digital audio is upsampled to 3.125MHz/32 bits and converted to noise shaped PWM. The two remaining boards are mono DACs, in which a discrete 32- stage FIR DAC and a single-stage 4th order filtering I/V converter convert the PWM into analogue with a breathtaking 140dB SNR. This is near the theoretical limit for 24-bit files and far beyond that of even quad-speed DSD. Uniquely, distortion remains below the noise floor even for full scale signals


Full-Scale Output Level: 20 dBu
Signal to Noise Ratio: 140 dB (standalone version), 130dB (preamp option board)
THD, IMD: not measurable (estimated -150 dB).
Bandwidth: Up to 80 kHz.
Integrated jitter: <1 ps from 10 Hz upwards, <300 fs from 1 kHz upwards.
Jitter rejection: >80 dB at 1 Hz after 20 seconds of lock.
 

audioBliss

Active Member
Joined
May 7, 2019
Messages
258
Likes
294
Location
Sweden
There are a few amps which are highly regarded by enthusiasts:

NAD 208 THX - seems to be an anomaly in the NAD world. I've heard it was engineered in England by a very competent team. I've heard they break quite a bit since they are old by now but the good working samples would be interesting to see measurement of.

Rotel RB-1090

Maybe not highly regarded but often used to drive subwoofers by many DIY:ers:
Behringer EP2500/EP4000
Behringer NU6000

Personally I'm very interested also in multi-channel Ncore amps or other highend class D that I can use to driver surrounds/other speakers. Also Arcam AV390 AVR since I own one and want to know how much of a bottleneck it is. I use is only as a pre-amp when listening to 2-channel and soon also for surround(if I find a good multichannel amp).

And in general high-end AVRs since I think it's a cheap way of getting a multi-channel pre-amp. Out of all the AVRs I've heard only very few seems to be decently made though..

Also I'm(and a lot of others) looking for high power class D that's cheap and powerful enough to drive multiple subwoofers but still measures well. With powerful I mean at least 2 x 450W in 8Ohm, 2Ohm stable and measures excellent from 0Hz-300Hz
 
Last edited:

deafenears

Senior Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 2, 2019
Messages
398
Likes
476
Holo Audio Azure
Azure10-Custom.jpgazure9.jpg
 

Veri

Master Contributor
Joined
Feb 6, 2018
Messages
9,596
Likes
12,036

Considering it is a full discrete design, it might have comparable performance to the Gustard H20 which uses the same approach.
Reaching 96dB SINAD would already be a lot for such a design. As such I would discourage someone from buying one, there's no benefit.

'Discrete sounds better' is simply a lie, a (near)distortionless forward feedback amp like the THX would blow it away.
 
Last edited:

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,368
Likes
234,386
Location
Seattle Area

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,368
Likes
234,386
Location
Seattle Area
1200W amplifier for subwoofer (has measurements provided by seller on description) ~$350
The measurements show a SINAD of 85 dB or so. Not bad but nothing great either (median for the amps tested is 80 dB).

I can't read Chinese but it seems they are confused thinking that the noise floor of the FFT in that graph is the noise floor of the amp. That is not the case at all. The actual noise floor is probably 30 to 40 dB higher.
 

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,368
Likes
234,386
Location
Seattle Area
MJE15024 MJE15025 Class A amplifier ~$200
This one looks interesting if the parts and specs are not fake. Love the old-school TO-3 Transistors. They are quite expensive but dissipate heat well.

How about one of you buying it and drop shipping it to me? I don't have aliexpress account.
 

Another Bob

Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Nov 28, 2018
Messages
80
Likes
128
Location
Madison, WI
IMHO, Amir’s fine work on this site has shown that certain product categories are “solved”. For example:
  • DACs: ASR has documented arguably transparent DACs for under $100, nearly perfect DACs for under $500, and very, very nearly perfect DACs for about $1,000.
  • Headphone amps: The JDS Atom is arguably transparent and better than the vast majority of the products out there for around $100. The THX AAA 789 adds features and power while still keeping the price very reasonable.
  • Power amps over $2,000: who would ever need anything better than the Benchmark AHB2?

So while there is still some entertainment value in testing the latest (or vintage) products in these categories, my vote is that the emphasis should be in “unsolved” areas, particularly power amps at the lower end of the price spectrum. I second the nominations of some of the receivers and integrated amps already suggested, and would like to add the Outlaw Audio 2200 and the Crown XLi 800.
 

Daverz

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 17, 2019
Messages
1,294
Likes
1,451
I'm hoping we'll see some speaker amps with good measurements in the $500 to $1000 price range.
 

v1ru5

New Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2019
Messages
1
Likes
1
Sabaj d5

Appears to be in the price & performance range and wanting to compete with the Topping DX7s..
 

TimW

Major Contributor
Joined
Aug 15, 2018
Messages
1,065
Likes
1,406
Location
Seattle, WA
I would like to see the miniDSP OpenDRC-DA8 reviewed. I know Amir doesn't care for their style of software implementation which is pretty clunky. But as far as ways to properly integrate a subwoofer, or subwoofers, and perform room correction there are not many high performance options. At least not very affordable ones. The miniDSP SHD is a great option but $1150 is a bit out of my price range. With the addition of this kit I think the DA8 would make a good digital preamp.
 
Top Bottom