Recent content by MasterTape

I've sold some things I very much enjoyed, more than what I currently own, but I wouldn't say I regret it. I've just come to accept that my interests ebb and flow a bit and if I've been listening to an awful lot of HiFi during a given year the interest tends to fade a bit. At that point I don't...

When first getting my P3ESRs I had a humble little setup consisting of a Rega Brio R and its matching Rega DAC. I think I got them for £550 used, and then the P3ESRs from ebay UK for right around £1k shipped, in as new condition. I later upgraded to various amps closer to the msrp range of a...

I think the low entry cost ruins the reliability of online opinion in the headphone segment. Anyone and everyone who gets their first pair of $300 headphones to use with their phone seem to feel the need to post 5 star confirmation biased reviews with a sprinkle of technical lingo they picked up...

Casualties of Cool - Casualties of Cool.

I way prefer the simple vocal + guitar/piano versions of her tracks floating about on youtube. Hearing the album when it arrived was disappointing in comparison for me.

They did so it should be better with noise sensitive DACs like the Mojo. And of course the Mojo shouldn't have been this vulnerable to noise from the start.

The Mojo is susceptible to noise over USB so the source needs to be clean. With the Pi you're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't. Use WiFi and you'll have RF noise. Shut the Wifi module off and Ethernet happens to sit on the same upstream internal connection as the USB hub, so every...

I think it's true for the entire album. Very rewarding to have the bass and drums 'brought up to scale' in a system with good imaging. I think the listening experience is a bit similar to Rush in the way that the sparse mix feels so spacious and dramatic when the drumming in particular is...

@raysablade The RME is a lot more powerful, I'm at 50% with Hugo with Senn HD600 and with the RME in high power mode I was below 25%. And the RME is more comfortable to listen to very loudly, not that I do it hardly ever. Not sure how the Hugo 2 compares, I seem to recall it being more...

It arrived pretty quickly. It's as detailed as anything I've heard but uninspiring for me. Still a bargain at that discounted £310, certainly best VFM I've tried. It just comes off as a bit flat and lacking in nerve, I enjoyed the RME ADI-2 DAC a lot more so I don't think it's a giant killer or...

I listened in a little near field triangle in that setup and don't like listening too loudly, so it's entirely possible this was my issue as well. I don't recall cranking it to try and if my tech just put the volume on 11 o'clock before measuring he might have missed it. Impossible to say in...

Still growing for me as well, I think all of the full tracks are very good and some of them can be added to the very top tier of Tool songs. That's more than I expected so I'm very happy with the record.

I think Chord's WTA filtering sounds different in the same sense that zapping through an assortment of fast and slow linear or minimum phase filters will sound different - not a huge difference but some will find a preference. If there was one such filter that was 'coming home' to my ears, where...

Hejira and Blue are both amazing, I think Blue is my favourite as well. The last few years I've listened quite a bit to Travelogue, sort of a greatest hits where she has re-visited a lot of her best work and made quite sophisticated orchestral versions. I love it.

It certainly sounds made for the radio, by far the loudest album in my current rotation. I agree that she has her place and is amusing when you're in the right mood. No masterpiece here though, too shallow and I can't help but chuckle at how hard they are working her talk-singing to make it...