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Like the original Telos RCA Cap ? Telos has launched their new Quantum Cap. Sold in packs of four pieces, each RCA cap is made out of copper and gold plated. The cap is subject to cryogenic treatment and treatment from Telos's proprietary QBT run-in treatment. The red pad inside the RCA cap contains undisclosed materials. Compared to the original RCA cap ( see review here ), the Quantum Cap is longer and heavier. I am still trying these caps around the house. They do clearly make a difference on equipment they are used with. During some initial experiments, I tried covering the output jacks of the Calyx Coffee DAC / headamp, and they clearly resulted in changes to the sound - a smoother presentation, albeit with some restraint and reduction in dynamics. Not really to my liking over there. Trying them next on my Conrad Johnson preamp, I placed one pair on a spare input. The effect seems to take a while to stabilise, and I had a listen after leaving them in position for a day. The mo...

(Revised - 8 November 2015) Introductio n Do you believe in aftermarket audio fuses ? This is a controversial topic - engineers and other naysayers are quick to point out the ludicrosity of the whole matter. Give it a try. If it makes no difference, you've saved yourself some money. I recently purchased the Telos and Synergistic Research Quantum Fuse and thought it would be nice to run some comparisons between these fuses and some other fuses on the market. I took a dive into my stack of parts and found a Create Audio Luxury Nano fuse I used some years back. I texted my audiobuddy TC and he passed me a Hi-Fi Tuning Supreme and Super Cryo fuse too. I tried the fuses on my Conrad Johnson Classic 60 SE power amp, but ended up trying the fuses on a variety of equipment. Left to Right - Schurter SMD-SPT, Synergistic Research Red, Telos Audio Quantum X2, PADIS New - Synergistic Research Red Fuse (US$ 89.95) The Red Fuse has a similar tonal balance to the SR20 fuse, but has noticeably mor...

(Revised 8 April 2014) Introduction A fairly sturdy centrally mounted disc tray and USB port in front. IEC socket for lovers of aftermarket power cords, two additional USB ports, and optical and coaxial digital outputs. The BDP-103 does not have any digital inputs, you need to step up to the BDP-105 for that. The Oppo BDP-103 and 105 are very popular Blu-ray players. I recently purchased the BDP-103D (Darbee equipped version of the 103), and put it through it's paces to see whether it could serve as a high quality CD/SACD player or digital transport.  The 103D was evaluated through its on-board DAC and analog output section, as well as fed into my Calyx Femto DAC. The Oppo is serious business as far as Bluray players go, tipping the scales at 4.9 kg. Build construction is sturdy and inspires confidence. The Oppo is equipped with a DAC chip from Cirrus Logic, the CS4382A which is capable of 24 bit / 192 khz sampling. It's more expensive sibling, the BDP-105 sports twin ESS Sabr...

Just came back from ISSE 2013 ! It seems even more crowded than last year. Live Concerts Live concerts are my favourite part of ISSE. Joey - lovely voice with good control and emotion Astor Fong - Hong Kong's version of Karen Carpenter. Thank you very much for taking time off from your holiday to sing for us. Unfortunately, I did not have the time this year to catch the other singers. The Large Rooms Steinway Lyngdorf The eagerness of audiophiles to get into the Steinway room hinted that something special was going on inside. S$320,000 price tag for the Model D but guess what ? Buy it during the show and enjoy a 10 % discount and get the home theater speakers free. I reached for one of my pockets but only found some lint. I must admire the sales representative, he made the price tag sound like it was perfectly normal for the typical audiophile. Open baffle design. Air Motion Transformer tweeter.  The control centre. Fully active system that has room correction processing. The speak...