Summit

Extract from Mark Nottingham’s review. The new McIntosh Light is nothing less than amazing. The light is so clear and resolving and at the same time so smooth and rich in color. McIntosh Laboratories' have truly succeeded in replicate the true green light that they before only have used in their top of the line McIntosh MC2KW that cost 50 000 USD. McIntosh Laboratories chef designer says that the special green glow only been possible to make with their laboratories cutting-edge nano-pulsar technique.

I see that we have a new MQA supporter. He would most likely had got along fine with Brinkman.

McIntosh probably did a market research and the result was that their prime costumer thought the McIntosh green light was more important than the sound, so they skipped audio circuits altogether 🤑.

Matt, you are of course correct that not many are reviewing pure CD transports anymore. Terry London has had most of the best CD transports and his impression is intriguing. A few others that own CEC, and the design of the CDT2 Mk2, have peeked my curiosity. I was not really looking for a CD transport and it got my attention then I read up on the Kinki studio integrated amp, which I bought. The CDT2 Mk2 is big and I don’t know there to put it if I ever get the real itch to buy one. HomeTheaterReview.com colleague Terry London had this to say: "Right out of the crate not even broken in yet, it's outperforming my CEC double belt transport in the reference system. It retains all the liquidity and analog smoothness of the belt transport but offers more detail, tighter bass and a larger layered soundstage with more air between the players." To put his enthusiasm into context, Terry then listed prior transports he had experience with - "CEC TL-1x, Mark Levinson N°31.5, Ensemble Dirondo, MBL 1621, CEC TL3N. For my tastes, the CEC TL3N surprisingly outperformed the much more expensive MBL1621. The CEC TL3N is still a great transport but the Jay's Audio CDT2 Mk2 outperforms it across the board, is built to a higher standard and costs less... I also heard the latest generation PS Audio DS transport and prefer what the Jay's does in my system with my DAC. I use the term liquidity to mean a lack of grain or dryness without becoming euphonic at the expense of punch/macrodynamics or detail. For my tastes, the Jay's Audio transport offers more of this than the PS Audio at the straight Redbook sampling rate." And Mike Powell of Alvin Chee's US-based service centre had this to say: "I've never ever seen a product like this. Esoteric's are the closest thing." From someone tasked to support Alvin's product catalogue in the colonies on a contractual basis, that's high praise. And for mechanical devices like turntables and CD transports, top build quality isn't about vanity but longevity.

The Hifiman HE-1000se is my favourite headphone. It’s worth to lend home for a "proper" audition IMO.

So many excuses and so few SR7 completed.

I’m more interested in the Jay's Audio CDT2-MkII CD transport. https://darko.audio/2018/09/kih-61-lets-get-physical/ https://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/jaysaudio/1.html

Mark Levinson 585 is awesome. At least Mark Levinson older amps was like ARC a bit dark sounding compared to Krell et al, nothing wrong with that.

He must love this place 😉.

Thanks. Punter is an awesome reviewer. I would love to read a compare between the Auralic Aries G2, the Pink Faun 2.16X and other SOTA network streamer/servers.

Thanks I have read it before. I was wondering if some else than CA has listen to the Auralic Aries G2 and compared it other top network streamer or servers.

Have anyone had the chance to listen to the Auralic Aries G2 yet? Maybe even compared it to other network streamer/servers like Pink Faun or Zenith SE?

Great post! But what’s the answer to your question 😁?

To get 20-25 Hz quality sub bass out of your speakers you need not only a top notch audio system but also a big treated listening room. With headphones you don’t need a big room and acoustic treatment and can obsess over other things. Even the quietest room has noise floor of 35-40 db or more. For XXXX dollar/euro you can get a really good new headphone system. A new speaker system at the same price would maybe sound okay, but no cigar. Btw most record studios use headphones to mix and record and use speakers for the last arrangement.

Lol I tried to explain some of your recent findings regarding low power PSU vs the quality of components in the PC and the significance of using a quality LAN card that can be powered separately etc in this and other threads here. It was in 2017 when low power and external clocking seemed to be the ultimate goal around here 😄.