Thanks for the great review. I was impressed by this piece until the upper midrange bark and 6 db gain. Almost seems like the manufacturer is trying hard to "impress" listeners, much like TVs on display at one's local dealer that have the brightness and contrast set to max. Bummer. At $2,750, us poor folks expect better. Loving your Denon and KEFs.
Great review 👍 From the Design & OS i prefer my Mytek Brooklyn in that Price Range. The menu from Mytek looks for me better. When you have the chance, test out the Sotm SDP1000ex DAC
You said that Tidals MQA is simply louder, this is not correct and shows some ignorance on your part, no disrespect intended. I suggest you go to Suzan Vega's Toms Diner on Tidal which is available as both MQA and CD quality. Play the beginning of both and simply up the volume of the CD track a few dB to balance the volume and you should hear how the MQA track opens up her voice very nicely compared to the CD track. I’ve made this comparison on a number of tracks from different albums and MQA definitely has this effect. I’ve also compared Tidal MQA to high res on Qobuz. Now whether someone likes it or not is up to them and their hearing. Some may prefer less detail so will choose the non MQA tracks, others may like the detail so will prefer the MQA tracks. Personally I can take it or leave it. MQA is nice on some albums, unnecessary on some albums, and slightly detrimental on some albums. Overall I would be very happy with the high res on Qobuz but they have no Qobuz Connect, their platform does not integrate well within BluOS, and their library is not complete enough for my needs. So I’m using Tidal for now. I simply disable MQA when I prefer it that way.
I tested many songs back to back using same DAC and MacBook Pro as music server with Audirvana and same set up streaming Tidal master monitoring with db metal says otherwise. I would never mentioned publicly without proper testing, thanks
@@Tharbamar MQA can be a touch louder, I’m not disputing that. I am simply saying that once adjusted for volume, even making the MQA track a touch lower volume, I can clearly hear a difference in the MQA track. I’m not sure how to correctly describe the difference but it’s basically a more openness in the voices, more dynamic range overall. This MQA difference benefits many albums but not all to my liking, especially less well recorded albums / older less well recorded albums, they sound better to my ears with less rather than more “resolution”. I’m tending now to a bit smoother sound so I can live without MQA.
Tharbamar, I was searching to find if you did review on the R700 and saw this review so I watch again. For this iFi, would you say the sound signature is more analytical, bright and less warmth? Also,,output is DSD and upsample DSD even when playing from MacBook Pro? Did you use anything in between such as software or?
@@Tharbamar so with Audirvana the DAC will show DSD? I’m using Pine Player and it shows PCM. Also tried Vox and VLC Player also shows PCM. When I use the iFi Gryphom portable DAC amp, it shows DXD.
Tharbamar do you feel this is your most musical set up sound wise you have heard in your room so far? This Grace Mahya track through this setup on my JBL head phones sounds very very good.
What is this TBR-DS Custom speaker cables, may i ask? Currently breaking in your recommendations, belden 8402 rca and canare 4s11 speaker cables. Would love to tryout your next favourite. Subscribed!
From what I have reviewed? that would be Loxjie D50, If the price is no object Esoteric K-03X would be my favorite but I have not listened to newer models from Esoteric. Thanks