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All in Digital
For a deep dive into the big sibling of the new HomePod mini ($99), please refer to our review of the original, full sized Apple HomePod (and our six month follow up). Many HomePod features found at launch and in updates can be found on the new mini.
With the mini, Apple’s smart home ‘Homekit’ features have been improved. Even silly Siri is better and she has added a useful ‘Intercom’ feature. Security, as always from the mothership, is a priority. No ‘anything goes’ Alexa.
There are literally hundreds of reviews on the web and YouTube videos with in depth looks at the features of the mini. I’ll list some important ones below then jump right into our brief, with focus on its use and sound.
If you would like a deeper dive into Innuos as a company and its philosophy, please read my review of their ZENith Mk3 1T Black Music Server ($4249). As promised in that review, here we have a review of Innuos’ top music server, aptly called Statement. The $13,750 Statement is a no-holds-barred entry into the super server sweepstakes. With apologies for the alliteration, the ‘super’ is appropriate—the Statement will be compared to some very serious high end digital players. With the Statement, Innuos has joined an exclusive club after only four short years of manufacturing. Quite remarkable.
Interestingly, as this type of storage device becomes more de rigueur in a high end system, prices have been creeping up. A music server is basically a computer with a high end audio personality, meaning incredibly quiet power supplies (and many other attributes) bringing extraneous noise down to micro levels (there’s so much of it on standard computers through processing, apps, etc), leading to smoother, effortless digital sound for the DAC to apply its magic. Expect to spend several thousands to get top quality servers.
I first heard an Innuos product and the considerable buzz about this fairly new Portuguese company—formed in 2016 in the sunny Algarve—at the 2018 Rocky Mountain Audio Show. The Innuos unit I heard at length was the Statement Music Server, the top of the line unit (up to $15,000—review unit requested). In fact, numerous Innuos units were placed in several rooms—all rooms sounding uniformly collaborative. I heard Innuos models serving products from Spatial Audio, Anticables, QLN Loudspeakers, and Vinnie Rossi integrated amplifiers, amplifiers and preamps. They were all singing Innuos’ praises and the Innuos servers, right back at them. In fact, rarely have I been so engrossed in different showrooms playing digital content.
I enquired about a review unit of any of their products for our readers. Then came the typical, glacially-paced song and dance between reviewer, distributor, dealer and manufacturer after the craziness of a show. When we did finally connect, I found the Innuos chain, from US distributor Well Pleased Audio Vida to Portuguese home base, efficient and patient. As such, I’d like to thank Mark Sossa of Well Pleased Audio Vida and Mandy De Castro, Event Manager of Innuos, for their kind considerations.
The excitement in late Spring 2020 was palpable. Sonos was debuting its most exciting product for years, the Arc ‘Premium Smart Soundbar’ ($799), successor to Sonos’ very popular and very fine Playbar.
Getting an Arc was a challenge, with (communication) hurdles at every level, corporate, distributor, dealer and mass market. I dug deep and found one nailed to the floor of my local ‘Sonos Platinum’ dealer. As usual, the staff were very kind and allowed me a long stretch with its sole Arc for the day. You can read my thoughts here.
Driving with cabriolet top down on a particularly sunny Spring day last month, I heard the CEO of Sonos, Patrick Spence, being interviewed by Nilay Patel of The Vergecast. Spence was particularly smooth and spoke mostly in corporate talk but did take responsibility for the debacle last year where some bright spark at Sonos decided to brick older products when new software updates were applied. Even with a healthy discount, my older purchased review units were expensive and not ready for the landfill. As such, the anger was not typical of the ‘faux-outrage’ you read every day on social media. It was visceral.
The tenor of the Verge interview got me thinking about the birth of Sonos and its exponential growth based on superior engineering and brilliant marketing. Word of mouth, too. And then my thoughts turned to more challenging days—the massive layoffs, the paradigm shift to ‘smart’ speakers and how Sonos navigated those minefields. Finally, the transition to the new products and post debacle marketing.
The vast majority of modern audio DACs use a Delta-Sigma DAC chip because such chips are now tiny, manufactured by companies that sell them in mass relatively cheaply, and have become outstanding in quality. Examples of such chips include the California USA Company’s ESS Technology 9038PRO SABRE chip used in many of the highest-end DACs. Even their slightly lesser chip, the ESS Technology 9028PRO SABRE has been used impressively in some high-end DACs with which I am familiar such as the Mytek Brooklyn DAC + at only $2195.
There are, however, a few companies that use other methods. One novel alternative is illustrated by PS Audio’s DirectStream (DSD) DAC at $6000 that stands out because of its use of a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) which is a circuit board that is programmed with software (that can be upgraded on a regular basis) to perform the essential conversion, and does so using DSD. This FPGA method for use in Hi-Fi audio, however, requires sophisticated software to run which most audio designers do not have the knowledge to assure (PS Audio, for example, leads their effort with one incredibly talented man: Ted Smith). The DirectStream DAC has been my reference for a number of years now.
Mark Sossa from Well Pleased Audio Vida (AV) contacted me several months ago concerning a new DAC that he thought I would be interested to review. He tends to find products that are off the beaten track, are worthy of attention for their outstanding quality/performance, and are not in the very highest level of price range. I agreed to review it after confirming that it would work with my stereo system. The DAC was the Linnenberg Satie DAC at $8995, the newest DAC by Linnenberg and considered their reference.
Linnenberg is a German company, now 25 years old, led by Ivo Linnenberg. Their products are manufactured in Germany where they are hand-assembled. Ivo Linnenberg is an engineer, designer–and artisan.
The MBL N31 CD/DAC was the second of two pieces from MBL’s midrange Noble Line that was sent from Germany to the island for review. You can read about my musical adventures with the striking and powerful MBL Noble Line N51 Integrated Amplifier here. Much like that glorious looking component, the N31 CD/DAC is cut from the same cloth—a machined beauty of metal and gloss black reflectivity.
Like all MBL components and speakers (MBL calls its loudspeakers ‘Radialstrahlers’—MBL Radialstrahler 120 review forthcoming), the N31 was designed from the smallest circuit up by MBL’s chief designer for over 35 years, Jürgen Reis. Reis is a legend, born from the litany of outstanding equipment he has produced. It seems once you go MBL, you rarely look back. From the ‘entry level ‘ Corona Line’ through MBL’s ‘Reference Line’, all the gear looks expensive and consistently sounds expensive.
About 9 months ago PS Audio released a significant software upgrade, Snowmass, for their DirectStream (DS) DAC; I was impressed and wrote about it.
I stated that ‘I think the most apparent changes are in soundstage, imaging and reduction of noise. Snowmass throws a larger/deeper soundstage with a more stable imaging of instruments that synchs so well with my new amps; kindred spirits.’
Before reading this post, please check back to the full review of the Vinnie Rossi L2 Signature Preamplifier. It’ll give you a better understanding of this DAC module review. It may be fun to read the Phono Stage module review, too. It’s the other plugin available for this fully functional and brilliant preamplifier.
The Phono and DAC modules’ MSRP is $3495 each. They are both plug and play. Unscrew the four screws, remove the plate, install the module. Click, rescrew, done.
The grandly named T+A Elektroakustik GmbH was a company hitherto unknown to me. After years in the business, many reviews, shows, events and store visits, I was surprised such a highly regarded company had escaped my notice. I’m going to set that straight with an in depth look at one of the company’s DACs, the DAC 8 DSD High End D/A Converter.
T+A is a German company founded in 1978 and produces a full range of electronics and loudspeakers. The company is based in Herford, very close to my old stomping grounds in Westphalia.
The DAC 8 is from its ‘entry level’ Series 8. Let’s hope the 8 gets some trickle down love from the top DAC in T+A’s HV Series, the $37,500 SD 3100 HV Reference Streaming DAC. Our unit under review has an MSRP of $4450, a slightly easier digital pill to swallow.
Like most progressive digital manufacturers, Brooklyn’s Mytek HiFi ships multi-use, single-box audio solutions. Basically, full function, highly technical, very capable, one-box-cures-all, digital wiz kids. The Manhattan DAC II is Mytek designer/owner Michal Jurewicz’s top wiz kid.
It’s interesting the name of this unit changes from internet source to internet source. The title of our review is the name as it appears on the Mytek HiFi webpage. Others call it Manhattan II D/A preamplifier-headphone amplifier, Manhattan II, Manhattan DAC 2, and other odds and sods. The reasons for this could be as simple as lack of research, an editor’s personal taste, or, possibly, at first glance, a little confusion as to what this box can actually accomplish.
Over four years ago, in May 2014, I reviewed the PS Audio DirectStream (DS) DAC. I ended up purchasing it and I still use it as my reference. Many times over these last four years I have been approached by other audiophiles asking why I have a DAC as my reference that is not ‘new’ and ‘up-to-date’ as compared to other DACs that have the newest DAC chip. ‘Oh no’, I say, ‘you are wrong’, ‘my DAC is only at most months old, it is yours that is old.’
My response is in fact, a fact, and that is what is so special about the DS DAC: Because its electronics are software based not hardware based, you get a new DAC every time PSAudio updates the software—and updates are free of charge. The DS at $6,000 retail does not have a traditional DAC chip built within; instead it uses a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) which is an integrated circuit board that is programmed to serve whatever function it is commanded, including non-audio applications such as medical instruments and defence, distributed monetary systems and security systems.
Some forty or more years ago, the average person who set out to buy a stereo system, typically ended up with a stereo receiver. Things were much simpler then; all you needed was a receiver, a turntable and a pair of speakers. As for ‘audio furniture’, milk crates were the order of the day. A pair of included patch cord interconnects and if you were somewhat sophisticated, a run of heavy gauge lamp cord and you were in business. You didn’t have to give any thought to power cords, because components had captive power cords.
Of course, there were serious hobbyists who bought separates and had furniture grade cabinets made to house their components and speakers. These folks constituted a very small minority of stereo buyers. Once the transistor era took hold, watts per channel was the order of the day; the bigger the box with more knobs and lights, the better.
Five years ago I began using a music server and DAC in lieu of a compact disc player, thus starting my journey into digital audio streaming. Keeping in mind that music servers are in fact computers, my main motivation came from discovering Mojo Audio, a company which at the time modified Mac mini computers to be serious music servers by (among other changes) replacing their internal power supplies with Mojo's own high-end external linear power supplies. Over the last 5 years I have kept the Mac mini as my reference, only upgrading it by changing player software from JRiver to the revolutionary Roon Labs, subscribing to Tidal, and swapping out its power supply by a series of better ones—all made by Mojo Audio, too; currently I use their Illuminati V2—it is a ‘choke input’ power supply and is my favorite [my review of the V1 may be found here].
But five years is a long time in the digital world. Much has happened. I did see and listen to various new alternatives including NUCs (‘Next Unit of Computing’ mini-computers) which were smaller, lighter, typically less expensive, and more energy efficient than a Mac mini. Like a Mac mini, a NUC is ‘headless’, e.g., you do not need to connect a monitor or keyboard to it except for setting it up with software and such. Once set up, controlling music play is accomplished by using a wirelessly connected app on a mobile device or tablet. I also checked out serious commercial high-end music servers, and I have been impressed at times. Suffice to say it has become clear that the Mac mini is on the way out; there are quite a number of alternatives.
In February of 2015, I reviewed the original PS Audio Sprout, the brainchild of Scott McGowan. It was a powerful, small, simple to use stereo integrated amplifier with DAC, analog preamplifier, headphone amp, phono stage, Bluetooth receiver and more; I was dazzled by its performance at $799. Now we step forward 3 years to the second generation for review here: the Sprout100—at only $599.
I ran into McGowan recently at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in October 2017, where he pulled out a prototype of the Sprout100 from his backpack at the hotel restaurant for my perusal; my eyes lit up at what I saw—and hoped to hear soon after. As I will try to convey in this review, some serious thought by McGowan was clearly given to this new version, and by drawing upon the expertise of PS Audio’s engineer Darren Myers, PS Audio has produced a product of exceptional value—and substantially better than the original.