MikeJazz

While I truly admire the effort of this review I would never put myself in the position of doing so many "tweeks" and deal with so many variables. It also reminds me that we can also have pleasure in simpler things; and as I grow older, starts to make sense to me to not pursue the avenue of looking for the ultimate resolution... Bug hey...admirable effort! And great reading as well.

Mitch, I live in an apartment and getting decent bass from a pair of QUAD ESL's is a bit frustrating. I know I would enjoy immensely a full but well defined bass. Lack of definition and articulation in bass is mainly what has stopped me from moving away from ESL's as I found that is not easy to get that quality without investing serious money... Maybe there is a good solution here.

I have a more question about usability. What exactly happens when we are listening to music with the dragonfly cobalt and we have a incoming call and we want to listen to it. Does the DAC (1) silence the music automatically (2) pass trough our sound, if the headphones have mics... Thanks anyone!

Brilliant review. Rarely I read something so clearly outlined. Makes me want to listen to these great machines.

The description and the approach is wonderful. I just hope that some of the magic can be obtained with a much smaller budget, because a circuit based on DSD opens the door for some "simplification".

Thanks Firedog!

Sorry mates, one more question. If what I am after is to introduce the benefits of optical isolation between my very standard switch and my linn ds (ethernet input streamer, spdif output to dac) how can I apply the sonore optical module to do that ? Will I need one extra device? Thanks

This will be (finally) my first Sonore product. I would prefer to source from a European online retailer. Will it be sell in this conditions in europe? Another question. Will it make any difference to upgrade the power supply?

This was a great review. Having had great experiences with Chord DAC's before, this makes me wanna spend money, so I must admit I have to calm down now!

I am interested in that DIY approach. And a integrated server/streamer of HQPlayer, embedded, even if running the more economical DSD512 filters.

Condolences. So glad you had a musical father and have those memories. I hope to be also a "musical father" to my young son..

http://audiodesigner.pt/

I follow his work with great curiosity and hope to have one of his designs one day.

Thanks Mitchco, that's very useful information to me. Sure I can try to have a second listen one day, because the Kii score high in other departments to me (simplicity of the solution, fun factor, dinamics..).

Thanks for the excelente analysis. I was so excited to experience the kii that recently went to the local dealer to have a listen. This must have been one of the most disappoint experiences I had. Maybe in part due to the previous hype surrounding the kii. I hear some of the well know qualities: spacious sound, dinamic, revealing, time coherent, yes. But I also heard a speaker with some issues on presenting tone. Tone was not rich, voices did not sound natural, but a bit harsh. On the end it was a bit disappointing hear that the speaker was lacking on the tone department. Tone is very important to get me involved in the music. The quest to find a replacement for my QUAD ESL 2805 continues...