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MartinLogan Renaissance ESL 15A
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Equipment

AudioQuest NightHawk Headphones

Details
Feature Reviews

AudioQuest Nighthawk measurements can be found by clicking this link.

September 2015

I couldn’t even guess how many companies have gotten into the headphone business since 2010, but I doubt any has done it so boldly as has AudioQuest. Their NightHawks ($599 USD) are the result of a from-the-ground-up effort to improve headphone sound. In fact, so much about the NightHawks is radically different that I mention here only their most important features; if you want an in-depth explanation, AudioQuest has devoted to them an excellent microsite.

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PSB M4U 4 Earphones

Details
Feature Reviews

PSB M4U 4 measurements can be found by clicking this link.

August 2015

Reviewers' ChoicePSB’s new M4U 4 earphones raise an important question for audio manufacturers: After you’ve achieved near-perfection, where do you go? Before PSB’s founder and chief engineer, Paul Barton, built his first set of headphones, he read all the existing research and did a lot of his own. The result, the M4U 2 over-ear headphones, were indeed close to perfect, according to reviewers. But a manufacturer generally has to offer a complete line of headphones -- and Barton is responsible for designing headphone-related products for two of the audio brands owned by the Lenbrook Group: PSB and NAD. What’s a designer to do? Voice them all the same, so there’s little reason to spend more for the more expensive models? Or make some models sound different from the others?

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Bowers & Wilkins P5 Series 2 Headphones

Details
Feature Reviews

Bowers & Wilkins P5 Series 2 measurements can be found by clicking this link.

August 2015

Bowers & Wilkins continues to be one of the most popular manufacturers among audiophiles. Mere mention of the name makes me think of hi-fi icons like their Nautilus loudspeaker, and the Nautilus 801 and 802. These speakers were far ahead of their time for their build quality, materials used, and acoustical engineering. Somewhere along the way, B&W made the leap from a pure hi-fi firm to a premium audio company, likely with its introduction of the Zeppelin iPod dock. Since then they’ve moved from strength to strength, offering a variety of wireless speakers, as well as a full range of earphones and headphones. The subjects of discussion here, the P5 Series 2 headphones ($299 USD), are a perfect marriage of old-school hi-fi and class-leading industrial design.

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Aurender Flow Headphone Amplifier-DAC

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Feature Reviews

July 2015

Reviewers' ChoiceIn a recent column, I complained about the rapid growth in the number of lookalike headphone amps that are little more than a DAC-amp chip stuffed into an extruded-aluminum box. The Aurender Flow ($1295 USD) is the exact opposite: a product that represents a major rethinking of what people -- specifically, audiophiles -- need in a headphone amp.

I’m writing this review on a sleek, highly portable Hewlett-Packard Spectre laptop equipped with a modestly sized solid-state drive (SSD) that makes me wish I’d spent the money on a bigger drive. Despite my efforts to move my storage-intensive audio and video files to an external drive, my SSD has just 2.2 gigabytes of space left. Yet thanks to the Flow, I can now use this overstuffed computer to access my entire collection of digital music files, and I can add more music without worrying I’ll run out of space.

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Oppo Digital PM-3 Headphones

Details
Feature Reviews

Oppo Digital PM-3 measurements can be found by clicking this link.

July 2015

In just one year, Oppo Digital has become one of the biggest names in audiophile headphones. The new PM-3 closed-back headphones ($399 USD) follow on the impact Oppo made with its other models, the PM-1 ($1099) and PM-2 ($699). Not only is the PM-3 the least expensive model Oppo has made, it’s their first closed-back model, which opens it up to a much wider audience. Closed-back headphones provide some degree of isolation from sounds around you, so you get less noise and more music. I’d guess closed-back headphones outsell open-back models by 100 to 1.

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Torque Audio t402v Headphones

Details
Feature Reviews

Torque Audio t402v measurements can be found by clicking this link.

June 2015

It’s a good thing most headphones are relatively inexpensive, because they’re the riskiest purchase an audio enthusiast can make. Headphones vary greatly in tonal quality -- more than speakers do, at least according to my ears and my measurement gear. Listeners’ opinions of headphones also seem to vary more than do their opinions of gear in other audio categories. Yet it’s rare to be able to listen to headphones before you buy. Sometimes you can check them out at a headphone meet or hi-fi show, but for the most part you have to rely on reviews written by people who may or may not share your taste in music and/or sound.

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Optoma NuForce DDA120 Direct Digital Integrated Amplifier-DAC

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Feature Reviews

June 2015

Reviewers' ChoiceNuForce, the California-based audio brand best known for their proprietary class-D power amplifiers, was recently acquired by Optoma Technology, known to many as a major maker of DLP projectors. Also recently, the high-end division of NuForce was spun off as a new company, NuPrime, which will manufacture more expensive products, such as the amplifiers based on NuForce’s high-end, class-D amplifier modules with Cross Matrix Array (CMA) capacitor boards.

NuForce itself will continue to manufacture less costly products, but gone from their product line are many of the very small models -- e.g., the Icon integrated amplifiers -- which were popular for use with desktop systems. However, NuForce continues to offer compact stereo and home-theater components, and high-quality earphones. Thankfully, my favorite NuForce product, the DDA-100 Direct Digital integrated amplifier (discontinued), now lives on as the DDA120, which adds some key new features and a slight increase in price, from $549 to $699 USD.

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Phiaton MS 100 BA Earphones

Details
Feature Reviews

Phiaton MS 100 BA measurements can be found by clicking this link.

May 2015

The new MS 100 BAs -- Phiaton’s first earphones with balanced-armature drivers -- make me wonder once again why there’s not more controversy or disagreement about balanced armatures. Look at all the stuff audiophiles do disagree about: tubes vs. transistors, the benefits (or lack thereof) of high-resolution audio, whether or not cables make a difference. Well, the audible difference between using balanced-armature and conventional dynamic drivers in earphones is much more significant than the differences you’d hear in any of the pairings just mentioned.

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Marshall Headphones Mode EQ Earphones

Details
Feature Reviews

Marshall Headphones Mode EQ measurements can be found by clicking this link.

May 2015

How many new consumer-audio brands have emerged in the last seven years or so? I doubt anyone’s counted, but I bet the number has at least doubled, and perhaps tripled. With so many new marques emerging, the entry of the legendary guitar-amp brand Marshall Amplification into consumer audio didn’t get as much attention as it probably would have 15 years ago. That’s sad, because it deserves better.

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NAD Masters Series M17 Surround-Sound Processor

Details
Feature Reviews

April 2015

Having established, over the past 40 years, an excellent reputation for manufacturing affordable yet high-quality audio gear, NAD has recently gained the attention of audiophiles with their Masters Series models, most of them priced at a few thousand dollars -- relatively expensive for NAD models, but not when compared to gear from many specialty-audio makers. And, like other NAD products, the Masters Series models have already become known among audiophiles for providing excellent performance and value, even at their higher prices.

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  1. NAD Masters Series M27 Seven-Channel Amplifier
  2. Moon by Simaudio Neo 430HA Headphone Amplifier
  3. Oppo Digital PM-2 Headphones
  4. Onkyo TX-NR838 Network Audio/Video Receiver
  5. Bluesound Pulse Wireless Loudspeaker System, Powernode Streaming Receiver, Duo Sub/Sat Loudspeaker System, and Vault CD Ripper and Storage Device
  6. Calyx Audio M Portable Media Player
  7. M2Tech Marley Headphone Amplifier
  8. Alpha Design Labs EH008 Earphones and A1 USB DAC-Headphone Amplifier
  9. NuForce Primo 8 Earphones
  10. Grace Digital Encore Wi-Fi Music Player and Internet Radio
  11. Oppo Digital HA-1 Headphone Amplifier-Preamplifier-DAC
  12. Samsung Level In Earphones
  13. Brainwavz S5 Earphones
  14. KEF M200 Earphones
  15. Definitive Technology Incline Desktop Loudspeakers
  16. Oppo Digital PM-1 Headphones
  17. Astell&Kern AK240 Portable Media Player
  18. NAD Viso HP50 Headphones
  19. Bowers & Wilkins P7 Headphones
  20. Aura Note V2 Music Center
  21. Audiofly Performance AF140 Earphones
  22. Focal Spirit Classic Headphones
  23. Audeze LCD-X Headphones
  24. Pathos Acoustics Aurium Headphone Amplifier
  25. Alpha Design Labs X1 USB DAC-Headphone Amplifier
  26. NAD Viso HP20 Earphones
  27. Audeze LCD-3 Headphones
  28. Sony XBA-H1 Earphones
  29. Logitech Harmony Ultimate Universal Remote Control with Ultimate Hub
  30. NuForce AVP-18 Surround-Sound Processor
  31. Sherwood R-807 Audio/Video Receiver
  32. Boston Acoustics MC100 Blue Bluetooth Speaker
  33. Miniwatt n4 USB DAC-Headphone Amplifier
  34. Mass Fidelity Relay DAC-Bluetooth Digital Converter
  35. Alpha Design Labs H118 Headphones
  36. Astell&Kern AK120 Portable Media Player
  37. Focal Pack 5.1 Bird Loudspeakers and Sub Air Subwoofer
  38. Cardas Audio EM5813 Model 1 Ear Speakers
  39. Audioengine W3 Wireless DAC
  40. Shure SE535 Earphones
  41. Definitive Technology Sound Cylinder Bluetooth Loudspeaker
  42. Definitive Technology SoloCinema XTR Sound Bar and Wireless Subwoofer
  43. Audio Pro Avanto 5.0 HTS Home-Theater Speaker System
  44. Cambridge Audio Azur 751R A/V Receiver
  45. DarbeeVision Darblet DVP 5000 Video Enhancer
  46. Oppo Digital BDP-105 Blu-ray Player
  47. Arcam rBlink DAC-Bluetooth Digital Converter
  48. Axiom Audio ADA-1000 Multichannel Amplifier
  49. Atomic Audio Labs Mac Platform
  50. MartinLogan Motion SLM On-Wall Loudspeakers and Dynamo 700w Subwoofer
  51. Logitech Harmony Touch Universal Remote Control
  52. Bowers & Wilkins MT-60D Home-Theater Speaker System
  53. Audio Pro Living LV2e Wireless Powered Loudspeakers
  54. PSB Imagine Mini / Mini C / SubSeries 200 Home-Theater Speaker System
  55. Autonomic Controls Mirage MMS•5A Media Server
  56. Cambridge Audio Azur 851C CD Player-DAC-Digital Preamplifier
  57. Polk Audio UltraFocus 8000 Active Noise-Canceling Headphones
  58. Anthem AVM 50v 3D Audio/Video Processor
  59. Dynaudio Xeo 3 Powered Wireless Loudspeakers
  60. Paradigm Millenia CT Powered 2.1-Channel Loudspeaker System
  61. MartinLogan Mikros 70 Earphones
  62. Hegel Music Systems HD20 Digital-to-Analog Converter
  63. Bowers & Wilkins P3 Headphones
  64. Calyx Audio DAC 24/192 Digital-to-Analog Converter
  65. Beyerdynamic Tesla T 70 Headphones
  66. Totem Acoustic Element Ember Loudspeakers
  67. Bowers & Wilkins 802 Diamond Loudspeakers
  68. HiFiMAN HE-400 Headphones
  69. HiFiMAN Express HM-601 Portable Audio Player
  70. NAD Viso 1 iPod Dock
  71. Dynaudio Focus 110 A Loudspeakers
  72. PSB M4U 2 Active Noise-Canceling Headphones
  73. NuForce Icon uDAC-2 Digital-to-Analog Converter/Headphone Amplifier
  74. Audioengine D2 Wireless Digital-to-Analog Converter
  75. Fluance SXHTB+ Home-Theater Speaker System
  76. T+A Elektroakustik E-Series Music Receiver
  77. Polk Audio UltraFit 2000 Sports Headphones
  78. Paradigm Series 7 Monitor 11 / Center 3 / Surround 3 / Sub 12 Home-Theater Speaker System
  79. High Resolution Technologies Music Streamer II+
  80. Stax SR-507 Lambda Signature Earspeaker Headphones and WooAudio GES Headphone Amplifier
  81. SoundMagic PL50 and EH11 Earphones
  82. Densen Audio Technologies Beat B-130 Integrated Amplifier
  83. HiFiMAN HE-500 Headphones
  84. Polk Audio Blackstone TL350 / DSWpro 550wi Home-Theater Speaker System
  85. Etymotic Research ER-4PT Earphones
  86. Bowers & Wilkins C5 Earphones
  87. Smyth Research Realiser A8 Audio Processor
  88. April Music Aura Groove Integrated Amplifier and Aura Neo CD Player-DAC
  89. Audeze LCD-2 Headphones
  90. PSB CS1000 Outdoor/Indoor Loudspeakers
  91. Velodyne Digital Drive+ 10 Subwoofer
  92. Etymotic Research hf5 Earphones
  93. Focal Chorus 826V Loudspeakers
  94. TEAC SR-100i iPod Dock
  95. HeadRoom Balanced Ultra Desktop Amplifier and Sennheiser HD 800 Balanced Headphone System
  96. Ultrasone Pro 900 Headphones
  97. Cambridge Audio Azur 650R A/V Receiver
  98. Axiom Audio Epic 80-800 Home-Theater Speaker System
  99. Vizio VMB070 Portable 7” TV
  100. Audioengine N22 Integrated Amplifier
  101. Integra DTA-70.1 Multichannel Power Amplifier
  102. Logitech Harmony 300 Remote Control
  103. Logitech S715i Rechargeable Loudspeaker and iPod/iPhone Dock
  104. KEF XQ40 Loudspeakers
  105. Asus O!Play HDP-R1 Media Player
  106. Velodyne Optimum-10 Subwoofer
  107. Paradigm Reference MilleniaOne / Seismic 110 Home-Theater Speaker System
  108. Schiit Audio Asgard Headphone Amplifier
  109. Paradigm Reference Signature S6 v.3 Loudspeakers
  110. Definitive Technology Mythos XTR-50 / Gem / SuperCube II Home-Theater Speaker System
  111. Logitech Squeezebox Touch WiFi Music Player
  112. Curvi-Hifi Model 1 Version 2 Loudspeakers
  113. Aperion Audio Home Audio Link
  114. Paradigm Reference Signature S6 v.3 / C3 v.3 / ADP3 v.3 / Sub 1 / PBK Home-Theater Speaker System
  115. Western Digital WD TV Live Media Player
  116. Monitor Audio Silver RX6 / RX Centre / RXFX / RXW-12 Home-Theater Speaker System
  117. NAD T 175 A/V Processor
  118. Aperion Audio Intimus 6-IC In-Ceiling Loudspeakers
  119. Polk Audio RTi A1 / CSi A4 / DSW Pro 400 Home-Theater Speaker System
  120. Naim Uniti All-in-One Audio Player

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