Opinions

Introduction The audio cable business is dominated by myths, beliefs, false expectations and sky-high prices. After all, who would you trust? You can either be in the camp of non-believers buying the cheapest possible speaker, rca or xlr cables from Amazon or spend literally thousands of Euros on expensive boutique products. Fortunately there’s a path […] Read more

Introduction As many of you may know, I’m a huge fan of Roon as a music streaming solution. It integrates well with local libraries and it’s a dream to have Tidal (or Qobuz in my case) integrated natively. Unfortunately, Roon Labs raised their pricing for the lifetime membership to a whopping US$ 699 starting from […] Read more

Introduction If you’re coming from iTunes on a Mac or PC, you may be looking for some additional features that are only available in premium software tools. I personally wanted to have a choice of multiple target file formats – not just Apple Lossless. For instance, music playback software can deal much better with Flac […] Read more

Introduction Looking for ways to finance your audiophile dream product? If so, you may be in for a pleasant surprise. Don’t worry, I’m not going to give you a bunch of links to Amazon products :) Like most of you, I love shiny audiophile gear from Accuphase, Burmester, Pass Labs – you name it. Unfortunately […] Read more

Introduction I have mentioned my good feelings about Hifimediy products in general but it’s time now to check out their products in the real world. And so I went ahead and ordered the fabulous looking HiFime UAE23HD USB DAC (ES9018K2M+SA9023) on October 22nd. It only cost me less than 75 Euros including shipping. I will […] Read more

Introduction Why the heck would you even consider a CD player in 2019? Isn’t the CD industry slowly fading? Let me emphasize that although I’m streaming most of my content with Tidal or Qobuz, I do occasionally still buy CDs. Being a music lover, I also own a sizable collection of physical discs. I stream […] Read more

Introduction Audioquest is probably better known as a maker of audio cables or accessories but in recent years they’ve been successfully branching out into other areas of the audio business. In 2015 they introduced their Nighthawk headphones which received praise in the audiophile community. I remember hearing them briefly at an audio show and was […] Read more

Many of my readers keep asking me to quantify the actual differences between DACS and whether it makes sense to shell out big bucks for an expensive DAC. So I thought it’s about time to dispel those myths without the usual audio BS, just the facts. Myth #1 „You need a DAC“ No, you don’t. […] Read more

Introduction Classical preamplifiers are leading a niche existence these days. With digital-to-analog converters such as the Mytek Brookly or my very own Gustard X20u serving double duties as a digital volume control, there seems to be no real need for them anymore. And most of us have digital sources anyway. Historically though, preamps were designed […] Read more