Equipment Impressions

"Firstly, hello! I like to go by the name of “Flux” online, and without getting too long-winded in my introduction, I bring to you the first of many reviews I look to post on AAC.

This is my second time visiting New York for a CanJam (NYC 2020), although this most recent visit was primarily to visit with friends and colleagues instead of studying every single booth on the Marriott Marquis show floor. "

Happy Sunday friends! We have my impressions video on the LCD-5 Premiering today at 9 am PST.
I will share my impressions of the Flagship Planar Magnetic Audeze LCD-5. This video will focus on the build quality, design, and some of my sound impressions about the LCD-5. I purchased the LCD-5 last year when it was first released after hearing it at Can Jam, so I have had plenty of time to formulate my long-term impressions about the LCD-5 paired up with several amplifiers, as well as I have already made some sound and build quality comparisons to a couple of other flagship planar magnetic headphones in the same price range such as the DCA Stealth and most recently the Meze Elite videos which will be linked at the end of the LCD-5 Video. I hope you enjoy this video and have a wonderful rest of your weekend.

Check out his thoughts here:

Check them out here:

After recently buying and being utterly blown away by the elekit TU8600S tube amplifier I was really excited to inject some tube magic into my speaker chain. Enter a recently acquired ARC Ref5SE unit that I purchased from a seller in USA. ARC had a look and tested it to ensure it was in good working order. They just replaced the top plate with a thicker one less prone to warping and a Sovtek 6550WE with the Tung Sol tube for the PSU as they preferred it in terms of sonics and reliability of the former.

It was about a 2 month wait but I can say it was absolutely well worth it. Once in my system and given some hours to warm up it was immediately obvious the sound out of both my ATC SCM7s and especially NS5000 had changed significantly from my prior Audio gd HE9 preamp (my power amp is a Pass Labs X350.8) .



Imaging, sound stage
Through the ARC sound completely detached from the speakers and became much larger and diffuse sounding...

Cross posted from my stereonet impressions:

Hi Guys,



So I managed to go see @GC HiFi (Gold Coast audio dealer) twice in the last few weeks and have to say Terry is a great dealer and host! He has set up some world class systems to show off in his beautiful home.

Session 1:

The first visit was fantastic, we listened to the Atc scm11 active speakers with S series antipodes stack and ps audio mono blocks, this is a fantastic little system, sounding far more expansive and weighty than it really should with the incredible mid-range detail that the ATC range renders so well . For entry level hifi or small rooms I would be definitely recommending the 11s.

...

I got the elekit TU8600S in with most all upgrades in (only thing missing is VCAP CUTF, has odam instead). Tubes are: COSSOR Black Plate 300B, Western Electric ECC83/B759, RCA 12AU7 X 2 (clear Top).

Intro
If I have to summarize the amp's sound with 1 word it would be captivating. I wanted to warm up HD800S and inject some musicality into it... the Elekit... well lets just say I am lifting my jaw off the floor after hearing it.

Setup
I had some issues initially with a bit of noise and static. I fixed this by doing 2 things. First I took the XLRs out of my denafrips terminator that were connected to my he9, second I added to the tube cage. After doing this the elekit is insanely quiet with a cosmic void like blackground. I honestly think it sounds as quiet as the he9 and possibly even quieter than my pass speaker amp.

Tone
The first thing that hits you is this supremely musical tonality throughout the frequency...

Please find an impressions video of the Raal Sr1a ribbon headphones from Andrew DiMarcangelo of Bloom audio.


His site is linked here: Bloom Audio

Beautiful and majestic. Two words that come to mind when thinking about the NS5000. And if I had to be brief with my overall thoughts I would simply state those two words and head back into my listening room.

I first heard the NS5000 at the toronto audio fest 2019. I recall a massive huge hall and jazz ensemble music playing.. It was a triangular corner of the hotel that must have had 20 foot high ceilings and a 50 x 40 foot floor space. I noticed the yamaha sign and was curious. Why was yamaha here? Are they displaying their instruments at an audio show. No. They make speakers? Wow. Please excuse my naivety… I set my eyes on these 2 black polished boxes. I looked around expecting some massive floor standers somewhere but couldn’t find them. As I proceeded deeper in the room I was immediately struck by how real the band sounded. The tonality was just right… piano keys ringed with a pleasing crispness, saxophone blossomed and dynamically scaled in its sound through the halls the...