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totaldac d1-seven
I first reviewed a totaldac, the d1-Dual DAC, in September of 2014 wherein I said, "...you end up with a presentation that sounds so natural, so life-like, it leads you directly to the music being...
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PS Audio Stellar Gain Cell DAC/Preamp
Imagine your uncle Bob comes over unannounced and before he rings the bell, your doorbell rings. That's not right. That's not natural. Thankfully, the Stellar Gain Cell DAC/Preamp comes with your...
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The Great DAC-Off!
On a lovely March evening, Herb Reichert, Alex Halberstadt, Stephen Mejias, and I met up at John DeVore's place for The Great DAC-Off!
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Métronome Technologie C5+ DAC
As an audio reviewer, there are times I find it necessary to pull back from over-analyzing the sound of a product and get back to the fundamentals that drew me into this hobby in the first place....
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Review: DENAFRIPS Terminator DAC
The several months I’ve spent living with the DENAFRIPS Terminator have been nothing but consistent, feral fun.
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Aqua La Voce S3 Discrete arrival
Musicality, resolution and realistic timbre to instruments seems to be the overarching focus of the engineering behind the proprietary FPGA-based digital decoding (with no digital filtering) and the...
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dCS DeBussy to dCS Rossini: A comparison review of two DACs
Whether a marketing stroke of genius, or merely as an honest statement of intent in their naming conventions, choosing 18th and 19th century composers’ names to represent their hi-fi efforts is...
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Chord Qutest DAC preview
Oh clichés, you wouldn’t be around if you weren’t so true so often and I’m going to start this little preview for what’s just dropped in at AudioStream with a classic cliché.
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Audio Note UK DAC 5 Special preview
I’ve heard the word “Special” used pejoratively or sarcastically in relation to my sense of humour and jokes, but in all seriousness it usually carried a more weighty connotation, or inference when I...
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LampizatOr Pacific DAC preview
The LampizatOr Pacific DAC makes you forget completely about the fact that it is reproducing the recorded event and unconsciously allows one to be utterly engaged in the music playing.
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Aqua Acoustic Quality La Voce S3 Discrete DAC review
Sub·lim·i·nal – /səbˈlimənl/ Adjective (of a stimulus or mental process) below the threshold of sensation or consciousness; perceived by or affecting someone's mind without their being aware of it....
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Totaldac D1-Direct DAC Review
Expectations can be a tricky thing. Some people say they are essential, others are of the “don’t get your expectations up” camp. I usually fall somewhere in the middle, but when it was time to write...
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Chord Qutest DAC review
I had to wonder out loud to myself (I just had a baby girl with my partner last week, so I’m talking out loud to myself a fair amount these days because of sleep deprivation) about the coincidence of...
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LampizatOr Pacific Balanced DAC review
The ability to present the 3D-image of a recorded vocalist like Frank Sinatra in a startlingly realistic spatial and timbral manner was one of many initial sonic impressions of the LampizatOr Pacific...
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Audio Note DAC 5 Special Review: The $43,500 Question
When I was growing up my father spoke to me about the danger of hyperbole – I was 11 or 12 years old at time. I bring it up because that moment popped into my consciousness again as I was transcribing...
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