Quick note - this is part two of a series covering various tweaks from iFi Audio. Part one focused on the Gemini3.0 dual head USB cable while the next post will cover the DC iPurifier2. The focus of this installment is the iSilencer3.0, which is a $49 "USB Noise Eliminator". iFi promises the device will cancel noise via their "Active Noise Cancellation+" technology, as well as reduce jitter and "re align" the USB signal via their "RE Balance" feature. As with all iFi gear, I've learned to not get overwhelmed by the marketing terms and just listen...

iFi Gemini3.0 Dual Head USB Cable Dual head USB cables have always struck me as interesting and fairly clever. Rather than a standard single-cable, source-to-DAC link, they split the power and signal connections into completely separate portions - which then combine at the DAC input. The result is a "Y" shaped cable offering a total decoupling of potentially dirty USB power from the source device. Users are free to instead use a high-quality supply on the power leg for the cleanest possible power. If the USB stage of your DAC draws power over...

I've been using a dedicated network attached storage, aka NAS, device for about 8 years now. I originally wanted one in order to easily share files between several different computers on my home network. Prior to that I had just used an external hard drive attached to my wireless router, but that wasn't a very robust or speedy solution for my needs. Once I got the NAS all set up, I discovered a myriad of uses which I hadn't even thought of before. Now I can't imagine living without it. At the time I went with a Synology unit, only to discover it was...

Who makes better cars - Toyota or Lexus? How about Honda versus Acura, or Nissan against Infiniti? Of course, these are silly comparisons, as Lexus, Acura, and Infiniti are simply the luxury divisions of their respective manufacturers. The cars themselves often share a basic platform, with the luxury version shooting for more style, features, and brand cache. This succeeds or fails on a case by case basis but I can clearly see the point of it - the "Lexus" marquis allows Toyota to sell LS-series sedans for $75K+ when nobody would accept a...

What do you use for a transport? Could you do better without spending a fortune? I bring this up because I'm continually surprised at how little attention some people give to this aspect. I've met quite a few enthusiasts who go all-out on exceptional amplification, quality D/A conversion, precise speaker placement and/or top-class headphones (often with custom cables), signal reclockers, linear power supplies, and so on. And yet when I ask about their transport, the answer seems out of place; it's often just a standard PC or MacBook, or occasionally...

Full review can be seen HERE In summary, this an amazing upgrade for many devices that benefit from cleaner power. It can be configured a number of ways, including dual outputs at different voltages.

Full review available HERE Quick summary to satisfy the minimum character requirement: The Matrix X-SPDIF 2 is a fearsome competitor to the popular Singxer SU-1. Matrix matches the Singxer when run straight from USB, and can surpass it when using an external linear power supply.

Review available HERE - I will just say a few words here to fill the minimum character requirement. The Euphony PTS silent server is an extremely high quality music server. It's not priced like a high-end server, as those often start around three times as much and rapidly increase from there.

A few months back, I had an interesting discussion with a forum friend. While chatting about the general state of all things audio, he congratulated me for my recent debut at Digital Audio Review, and mentioned how often he agrees with my gear assessments. According to him, most people find me "fair and balanced" (with no political reference intended). How nice! I was actually feeling pretty full of myself. Then he added "Shame about Yulong though..." as if to point out that my record isn't completely sterling. "What do you mean?" I inquired...

Veritas. Latin for Truth. In a perfect world, this describes the ideal source component for quality audio reproduction. Convert those ones and zeros faithfully, making an honest representation of the original source material, and send that resulting analog signal out to a gain stage. Simple, right? And yet here, in the real world, it doesn't seem to be quite so easy. Take a look at the many hundreds of current designs, using different and often contradictory approaches to achieve the same goal. That number balloons much higher if we include...

Problem - computers are noisy, messy things. Multiple fans. Tons of background processes. Data flying every which way through a variety of system buses. The end result can be great for playing the latest first-person shooter, but not ideal for high-quality audio reproduction. Plus - have you tried fitting a PC or laptop into an audio rack? Historically, it isn't a great fit. Solution - attack from multiple angles. Add a USB widget to clean and reclock the output. Run dedicated playback software instead of the baked-in player that came with your OS...

Imagine yourself in charge of a traditional HiFi speaker company - a segment where sales are trending relatively flat (or worse) for the past decade or so. You look at the market and salivate at the rising sales figures of the "personal audio" category, pondering how you might get a piece of that action. Slowly, cautiously, you begin having your team translate their design prowess from speakers to headphones, under the assumption that they have a lot in common - it certainly makes more sense than designing turntables (the other hot category at the...

Have you tried Roon yet? I haven't written much about it thus far, but to be honest it's sort of a game-changer in my view. Now any company wanting to make a streaming audio device can avoid the massive headache of designing their own user interface - as long as they can work out the licensing details with Roon Labs of course. UI is a frequent challenge, with otherwise excellent devices only earning "cautiously recommended" status thanks to their cludgy controls. Even Aurender, with their very well thought out Conductor App, can't compare to the joy...

    Not too long ago, USB audio was considered a joke by most "serious" audiophiles. And to some degree they were right - most early USB capable DACs had very poor implementations, which meant computer audio prioritized convenience over sound quality. Think Spotify which is great for music discovery or background entertainment but not really suitable for critical listening.   Fast forward a few years. The USB inputs on a lot of DACs began improving to the point of competing with, and sometimes managing to outperform, their SPDIF counterparts...

Custom In-Ear monitors. I love 'em. There's nothing quite like the experience of a custom-molded, perfect-fitting IEM which practically melts into your ears. I can listen for hours without fatigue, and on the rare occasion where I use a universal model, I'm inevitably uncomfortable within a half hour or less. Then I switch back to a good CIEM and all is right with the world once more. I realize that aspect is different for everyone - some people get along just fine with universals, so it's definitely an individual preference.   I recall the early...

    There simply can't be too many affordable devices on the market. It's not possible. More choice is always a good thing. This assumes, of course, that at least some of these options will be solid performers. But if we think about it, the odds are in our favor when more and more devices hit the street. If we assume an arbitrary number of products - say 50% - will be terrible, with perhaps 30% being decent and the remaining 20% being good... a larger pool of designs to choose from will result in more "good" options standing out from the crowd...

    Another day, another interesting Massdrop exclusive. It seems to be a trend by now. The first collaboration we saw was with AKG, resulting in the hugely popular K7XX. While based on the discontinued K702 65th Anniversary Edition, the K7XX has some customization in terms of colors, along with a major price drop compared to the original. That's always welcome. Next came the K553Pro - now a standard model in the AKG line and available elsewhere, it was nonetheless exclusive to Massdrop for several months upon release, and again had a lower price...

Ever hear of Pure Piper? Neither had I until the company recently sought me out, asking if I'd be interested in trying their new A2 device. They found me at a good time when I happened to be (briefly) all caught up with reviews, and their pricing ($269) seemed very reasonable. So I agreed to give it a shot, making no promises as to what the result might be or if I'd even publish a write-up at all. This is actually pretty standard for me - I get a LOT of gear passing through that I don't end up writing about, for various reasons.    While the review...

Nowadays, there's more headphone-oriented gear on the market than you can shake a stick at. Headphones are abundant. Headphone amps come in a wide variety of styles, prices, and topographies. And plenty of DACs now feature quality onboard headphone amplification. It's a headphone lover's dream. Things were not always this way. Go back about 10 year, and there was far less of.... everything. In particular, if you wanted a quality all-in-one DAC/headamp solution, choices were rather limited. The major contenders came not from audiophile brands but...

      If you visit HeadFi on a semi-regular basis, you've likely encountered some reference to Yulong Audio and their high-value DAC and headphone amp products. They might not be a household name but they have grown substantially in the last few years, and to my mind they are an ideal representation for the quality of gear coming out of China these days. Many of the big name brands of audio gear have their stuff made in China anyway... perhaps more companies than would care to admit it. So there's really no reason why Yulong can't be just as good...