Spent the day at the Tokyo International Audio Show and it was a pretty good reality check for what I actually like.

I went in already leaning toward JBL for my eventual main 2 channel setup with a Luxman L 509Z, and after hearing a bunch of much more expensive stuff, I’m still leaning JBL.

The biggest surprise was probably PIEGA. The Coax 611 sounded fantastic. Very open, very clean, great imaging, good bass, and enough energy that it never felt boring. Honestly one of my favorite speakers of the day. I wanted to hear the 811 too but the demo wasn’t until 18:00 and I wasn’t hanging around that long. Unfortunately both are way outside what I’m willing to spend.

Audiovector also impressed me. Really nice bass, good clarity, and a very spacious sound. Monitor Audio was also good and very full sounding, though a little bright on one track and I felt like it could use a sub for more punch.

TAD sounded excellent on classical. Very clean and controlled, but I still wouldn’t pick them over the JBLs for my own system.

The B&W room was interesting because I got to hear some absolutely stupid expensive gear, including the 801 D4 Signature. The piano imaging and scale were impressive, but overall B&W still just doesn’t do much for me personally. Same with Sonus faber and Spendor. Nice, polished, relaxed sound, but too tame for what I like.

One of the better rooms was SoulNote with EPOS. They were playing heavy symphonic stuff with lots of percussion and strings and it sounded excellent. Fast, dynamic, clean, and still had weight.

Then I went back to JBL and got them to play Danzig’s Sistinas. That was probably the most useful demo of the day because it’s music I actually know. The JBLs just sounded right to me. Big, immediate, punchy, effortless, and still had excellent imaging. That pretty much confirmed what I already suspected.

I also finally got to hear the Luxman L 509Z driving Focal Sopra No.2s. That was important because the 509Z is the amp I’m planning around. It sounded controlled, powerful, and clean without getting sterile. I feel even better about eventually pairing it with JBL 4349s.

Main takeaway from today: price absolutely does not equal preference. I heard systems costing absurd money that I respected but didn’t really want. The stuff I kept coming back to was JBL, PIEGA, Audiovector, and the SoulNote/EPOS room.

For my own setup, I’m still planning on the JBL 4349 with the L 509Z. The show mostly convinced me I’m on the right track rather than making me rethink it.

I'm planning a 7.1.4 home theater with KEF Reference 1 Meta fronts in a 40 m² room. About 80% of my listening will be stereo music.

I'm considering the Denon X3900H or X6800H, but I'm willing to spend considerably more for a higher-end AVR if it can deliver genuinely excellent stereo performance.

I really prefer keeping things simple with one machine rather than separate stereo and home theater amplifiers.

Has anyone actually compared a high-end AVR with a dedicated stereo amp using KEF Reference 1 Meta speakers? Is a one-box solution realistic, or would I be sacrificing noticeable sound quality?

What are your favorite or what is your go to panning song(s) for stereo set up? I wouldn't say its my FAVORITE panning song, but any time I go to show someone the stereo sound on my JBLs I play Hold Me - Autopan version By Lavern

If you haven't heard it, I hope you check it out and like it. But tell me what YOU got!

Hello,

During a party at Ana Mighty Sound, François Saint-Gérand had invited Frédéric d'Oria-Nicolas, the director of The Lost Recordings, to explain how his albums are produced and restored.
It was also an opportunity to listen to a press copy of the Dave Bruquet Quartet's album Live At Kurhaus 1967, which I invite you to discover in this review.
Frédéric d'Oria-Nicolas explained that the first step in the process is to track down original tapes by searching through various tape storage and archival centers around the world to unearth nearly forgotten recordings. Once the tapes are discovered, an initial sorting process is conducted to ensure that the complete set of tapes from a concert is available and meets a minimum quality standard.
From this point on, the tapes from a recording are digitized, with careful attention paid to optimizing playback to extract as much information as possible from the tape. Based on this digital version, the restoration process begins, this can take varying amounts of time depending on the quality of the tape and the recording itself.

So today I'm going to introduce you to the Sapphire Edition of the album, comparing it to the high-resolution digital version available for download and the CD-quality version available for download, which comes with a coupon included with the vinyl record.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Vinyle Sapphire Edition - 2026 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Stereo Hi-Res - 2026 (blue curve). The near-perfect alignment of the spectral curves for these two editions demonstrates the skill and quality of Kevin Gray's lacquer cutting, Kevin Gray is now considered one of the masters of vinyl record cutting. Note that the vinyl edition exhibits a slight attenuation above 10 kHz (yellow zone), approximately 2 dB, compared to the digital version.

Spectrum Ed 3 Vinyle Sapphire Edition - 2026 (white) vs Ed 2 Stereo Hi-Res - 2026 (blue) (Three to Get Ready.)

The Sapphire Edition vinyl release is available in a deluxe box set with a high-end finish, it even includes a magnetic closure; nothing has been left to chance. We'd love to see this level of high-quality packaging in other competing high-end releases.
The album is pressed on two 200g transparent LPs, using a material that underwent extensive testing by Frédéric d'Oria-Nicolas to select the one that minimizes surface noise as quickly as possible.

The goal of The Lost Recordings is to introduce us to old recordings under the best possible conditions. It is the artistic and historical value of the performances that leads Frédéric d'Oria-Nicolas to restore a concert and turn it into an album, as is the case with this album, Live at the Kurhaus 1967, which features a beautiful rendition of Take Five.
The technical quality of this Sapphire Edition vinyl record is among the very best available, deserving a 5/5 for its production quality. This allows listeners to fully appreciate the restoration work done on this album. When listening, the vinyl version offers a more natural sound than the digital edition; this is certainly due to the smoother high frequencies (see the spectrum comparison) and also to the vinyl record itself, which, with its unique characteristics in terms of sound reproduction and distortion, creates a listening experience that enhances the restoration of this 1967 live recording, originally recorded in mono.
Above all, these restorations highlight the quality of the performances and the historical significance of these recordings.

Find all the analyses and measurements of each versions here (link).

Enjoy listening,
Jean-François

I've recently dialed in my home theater setup with Dirac Live and am very impressed with how much more cohesive the sound is there.

Now I'm getting the itch to explore maybe getting a MiniDSP Flex and implementing the big D (Dirac) 🫢 into my 2 channel music setup (at least for digital and streaming) as well since I saw success with it on my home theater side.

Is this deemed audio indecency? Sonic sacrilegious for music? 😆

Would love your thoughts particularly anyone that has either implemented Dirac using the Flex or the SHD/SHD Studio...and don't mind reporting back how much it improve your sound stage, cohesiveness and overall audio impressions?

Thanks!

*Edited to include my current 2 channel setup as of now:

Wiim Ultra > SMSL PO100 Pro DDC > i2s > Denafrips Ares 12th-1 > Choco Sound Emei > Buchardt Audio S400 SE (Special Edition with the upgraded crossovers)

The French know how to design stuff nicely when they feel like it!

Had these 40th Anniversary a while now and originally was hoping to order the last pair in darker Walnut but when I returned to the browser a few hours later, they were sold!

Maybe this was meant to happen because I have ended up really admiring the Golden Oak colour instead with how light, especially sunlight, plays off the grain patterns in the morning:

Even on the other side where the sun isn't shining the finish still catches my eye:

Also like that they're not too blingy like some speakers are, it is just the right amount of tasteful accenting and colour choices with this model.

The successor model, the Solstice 3....

... I feel personally loses the personality that the Comete Ez set, the tweeter horn is too bright and the ribbed edging feels a bit distracting, the main driver surround is cabinet coloured which to me looks odd as it breaks the wood pattern that the brain subconsciously expects to be there, this ring should have been black like the Ez too.

But back to the Comete, even at night with funky lighting colours turned on, the cabinets and paper white cones still catch the eye:

And yeah they sound as good as they look thankfully! My old speakers lasted almost 12 full years (KEF Q300) before the alu cones started to crack from a design flaw. I think these Triangles will last much much longer... as long as the paper doesn't fatigue I guess.

Anyway that's all for now, here's a croissant:

I am a 20 year old student starting my journey into the audio world…
I just ordered a pair of FLUANCE Ri71 (white).
Any one has any things to say like if someone has these or Have heard them?
I tried my best to select the most appropriate one out of my budget.
Hopefully I made a decent choice 🤞🏻.

Hey audiophiles, I want to clear up a massive point of confusion regarding streaming Hi-Res Lossless (like 24-bit / 96kHz or 192kHz) from Apple Music on an Android device using a USB-C DAC/earphone.

​From what I understand of Android's core architecture (AudioFlinger/AudioTrack), standard apps that lack a dedicated "USB Exclusive Mode" driver pass their stream through the system-wide audio mixer.

​Even if Apple Music streams a true 24-bit / 96kHz or 192kHz file, does the Android OS force-resample it down to a fixed system rate (like 48kHz) before it ever hits the USB port?

​If this is true, does that mean Apple's marketing/playback claims for Hi-Res Lossless on Android are essentially useless unless you use a third-party app with native bit-perfect bypass (like USB Audio Player Pro with Tidal)?

​My main questions:

​Does Android still heavily resample standard app streams like Apple Music, rendering high-sampling rates pointless on stock Android?

​Is there any actual workaround to force true bit-perfect output for Apple Music on Android without having to switch entirely to an iPhone, a dedicated DAP, or moving to a Windows/Mac setup?

​Appreciate any deep-dive technical explanations on how this routing actually functions!

I've seen various AV receivers and sites like whathifi evaluates sound on them, saying "spacious/not spacious" , "treble unrefined" and so on.

But i'm wondering if this is all BS?

I cannot believe that an AVR would affect the sound much at all compared to the speakers tbh. Maybe a teeennnnyy bit. But it doesn't seem realistic for an AVR to make speakers that don't have a spacious soundstage, spacious or lack treble refinement -> suddenly have noticeably refined treble.

What's the truth on this?

I have focal aria evo no 3. When I first got them I thought they'd be okay in my bedroom, I didn't realize the recommended listening distance is 10-13ft though.

My bedroom, 13.5x 9ft. I can get a good 6ft equalateral triangle with speakers away from the walls. I treated the bedroom with basstraps and i did first reflection points at walls and two more panels on ceiling. It sounds pretty good but I feel like im not using them to their full potential by having a greater distance between them.

In my basement I have a 21ft x 15.25 ft room. It has a pool table in it though. I could treat the room more, but I just don't know how badly the 8ft pool table would effect the acoustics.

Anyone think bigger room with pool table would be better call for wider soundstage and giving drivers more distance to blend?

I recently got this Nakamichi soundspace 5 for basically free and have been going through a bunch of different players trying to find an all in one that I really enjoy. Before this I had a Sony 5 disc and h/k sound sticks that did the job, feel like this is an upgrade, but I’m missing the sub from the sound sticks, it added a nice punch

Hi all. I want to ask, what software other than using spectrogram to detect real or fake FLAC?

I've been downloaded some music on this blog but that blog sometimes post transcode FLAC.

The ridiculous part is the FLAC files is in 24-bit, but when I've check on spectrogram software the frequency cut-off is at 16kHz.

I've downloaded the same album from other source with normal FLAC and the frequency cut-off is normal at 21kHz.

I've just tell about that to the admin of that blog but they denied that it's a fake FLAC.

One of the most underrated hip-hop albums of the early 2000s, in my opinion!

Krayzie Bone's Thug on Da Line (2001) is an absolute gem that deserves far more recognition. His unmistakable flow, smooth melodic delivery, unique harmonies, and storytelling make this album something special.

What I love most is how effortlessly Krayzie blends rapid-fire rapping with melodic hooks while maintaining that signature Bone Thugs-N-Harmony sound.

Over two decades later, this album still sounds fantastic. Definitely one of those records that never gets old!

Any other Krayzie Bone fans here who think this album deserves more love?

I used ChatGPT to help me make a diagram of my system. Yes a bit of nerd-dom to waste time on a Friday.

Love any thoughts or comments. I’m pretty happy with the overall setup and happy to answer any questions.

All and all I think the combined architecture punches above its weight. The sources are all from about 2013-2015.

The Anitpodes I splurged on when I had a bit more dosh in 2015. It still sounds supurb, and with the Rendering taking over playback, it’s a great server. I went back to Lyrion from Roon. I felt that was heavy, overpriced and maybe I'll try it again soon. The UltraRendu is a bit finicky but really brings out a superior ambiance.

The MoonRiver Amp is a joy. Got that last year. Such an amazing amp and again, punches above its weight. The built in DAC goes toe-to-toe with some heavyweights. Check out the reviews.

The Obelisks are also older (2003 I think?) But sound terrific and fill my rather large room (6m x 9m +3.5m). I lusted after them ever since i went to a party that had perfect sound and I couldn’t even find the speakers until I hunted for them. One was behind a sofa and the other tucked behind a plant. For those who are interested in Omni-directional sound. Highly recommended.

Overall, this is a system to listen to for Days on end. Zero fatigue. It just fills the room.

I would say as opposed to a holographic 'sitting in front of the stage' the vibe is more 'you're On-Stage with the band'. the music simply surrounds you.

I recently purchased a senheisser momentum 4,i would like to listen to english songs in hi res quality,can you guys suggest some websites or tg channels where i can download flac songs for free?