savoy014

Introduction R2R DACs seem to be all the rage nowadays. However, not everyone can afford the DACs from MSB or Totaldac. Luckily we do have some more affordable options now. Soekris Engineering brought discrete resistor R2R to the masses, with an affordable full populated board - just add a suitable power transformer and you were effectively good to go. Wait a minute - can't read a circuit diagram to save your life, and scared of handling potentially lethal voltages ? Have no fear - our very own local company, Vinshine Audio has come up with a ready made product utilising a Soekris board. My review model came with the Rev 3 0.02 % board. To an oldie audiophile like me, the fuss about R2R is quite amusing. When I started out in the hobby, all CD players utilised R2R DACs. A short while later, Philips started extolling the virtues of bitstream DACs. In fact, I secretly lusted after a Marantz CD 10 that used a bitstream DAC. Fast forward to the present, and the DAC in my main setup is ...

Introduction Italian hand-made things are beautiful - artistic, and made with passion and flair. You may not necessarily agree with their aesthetics, but they invariably make a statement ! Neutral Cable are a Rome based company that makes their cables by hand. The cable on test here is the USB Reference I (Improved) and is their flagship USB cable. The conductors used for data are made of teflon insulated 7N purity solid core silver wires. Meanwhile, the power supply conductors are shielded and spaced from the data cables to avoid interference. The new improved version promises better separation between instruments, better dynamics and articulation of low frequencies compared to the USB Reference. My review sample came in a nice velvet case. The 1.2m cable was sheathed in a nice bright yellow jacket and was neatly and well-made with a single USB head (Neutral Cable's website mentions that a double-head type cable can be made upon request).  The USB Reference I is Neutral Cable'...

Introduction It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. ISSE 2016 ran from 25th November to 27th November at Parkroyal Hotel, Kitchener Road.  While there were some notable absentees from this year's event, we had a new contingent of exhibitors from China and Taiwan.  Second Floor - Large Rooms First up is X Audio's lovely Vivid Audio setups. Swee and Ryan had set up a Vivid B1d with Octave amplification. Sources were Aurender's new streamer/DAC, the A10 and a MSB DAC.  Their second setup was anchored around the mighty Vivid Giya G1, with Acustic Arts monoblock amplifiers. The absolutely delectable Phasemation preamplifier and phono amps were also being used, while source equipment included the Aurender N10 streamer, MSB Select DAC (with mono power supplies) and AMG turntable. Cabling was a mixture of Acrolink, AET and Goebel HIgh End. Accessories included power conditioning from Torus, and a ground conditioner from Entreq. I really liked the sound from the Giya...