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Brik DAC/NuForce DAC to Brik amp: While the multi-tasking NuForce is rather costlier, it was the closest AC-powered converter rather than inline USB unit I had available. "Noah's Dream" from Asita Hamidi's Bazaar Blue Ark spun up the iPod's hard drive. Like fellow Swiss Andreas Vollenweider, Asita plays the harp in contemporary World Beat settings. This 7.5-minute number is exceptionally well recorded and sports powerful low bass from 6-string acoustic bass guitar and upright bass, bansuri flute, complex percussion, vocals with acoustic gargling effects and Anita on harp, gu-cheng, new-cheng and vocals. With these high-performance time-aligned speakers the Brik achieved vertical lift-off at barely above 9:00 on the dial. The companion converter was set to output 2V, the NuForce pot also to 9:00.


The converter contributions were quite on par in how many of the percussive slaps popped out of the mix switching channels as they should have for a quite intricately fanned soundstage with very specific placements. That said the NuForce unit was the more specific and focused performer. With a music track whose recorded potential can very much emphasize these traits, the HDP made the most of its advantage to move ahead on separation power and subjectively stripping away more subliminal cob webs.

With Polish vocal seductress Anna Maria Jopek and the title track of her collaborative Upojenie effort with Pat Metheny, the NuForce difference manifested on the cymbal swirls as being more lit up and energized, on Jopek's breathy pipes as occasionally more sibilant. The solo sax's bite had more metallic elements which the Brik toned down a tad. The hollow sound of Metheny's solo opening played in a range which didn't highlight these differences but the later cymbal stick work again had more copper and less Platinum with the Brik. On poppier fare like Angélique Kidjo's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" from her Keep on Moving best-of compilation, the slightly brighter NuForce imparted more slam on power beat impacts and in general sounded a bit harder and grittier.


While that befitted the general AfroBeat vibe and energetic personality of the powerful performer from Benin who now lives in Paris, it's also fair to say that the slightly more forgiving (less resolved?) Brik converter would do better on much overcooked boom sizzle Pop. Mindful of review tendencies to exaggerate differences, here it's important to say that both converters performed in the same class or league. Within that category the NuForce sat slightly higher but not enough to depart the club and take out membership across town in a fancier neighborhood. Practically speaking this means that unlike costlier ranges which get progressively sweater, smoother, more fluid and non-mechanical, this range still stresses transient sharpness and edge for good vitality and certain more spectacular elements of hifi staging but also suffers obvious limits on more organic sophistication.


Brik DAC into Brik/NuForce amps: With the amps of either company very tightly matched on price, this perhaps should have predicted a virtual stand-in on sound too. The actual difference was greater than with the converters however. Now a more unambiguous nod went to the NuForce crew in California's Milpitas for higher clarity, greater focus, bigger dynamic swings and a laterally more liberated virtual stage. The music felt more direct, present and tangible. In this instance I'd consider the performance gap sufficient to move the NuForce Icon amp into the next-higher weight class, say from bantam to super bantam. The class D implementation by NuForce appears to be the more sophisticated, mature and refined. It's not merely detail and more detail but adds a good degree of tone weight to better combat the particular whitishness and accompanying dryness that's quite common with budget class D.


With NuForce arguably having set the standard in this price range of class D solutions, it's no loss of face for the Brik Audio newcomer not to top this standard with an inaugural first release. Some in fact could prefer its greater warmth and what by comparison seems like a subliminal layer of fuzziness attended by some spatial compaction and as such closer in personality to ICEpower as implemented in my Bel Canto integrated.

With that stated, the iPod-Pure-Brik-Brik-ETBT signal chain performed in a clearly higher league than what I hear in local retail stores with their piped-in background music. Even my friend Nino with his Larim'Art bijouterie in downtown Vevey—a hard-practicing music fiend (regular concerts, constantly new CDs) with four ceiling speakers in the store powered from an older second-hand Marantz receiver played at stout levels with no customers present—would find the Brik combo a worthwhile upgrade. That's a useful reflection on the state of the upper midfi/transitional hifi art. When used as intended, stuff that's cheap due to its origins but which has sufficiently experienced engineering behind it can open the sound curtains and de-smudge the hifi windows to a surprising extent. It's far more caffein and far less mud than it used to be.

With my particular background—spoilt rotten by years of upscale hifi—I'd not dedicate the Briks to primary hifi duties in the big room. The volume levels needed there push into greater THD density while some of the inherent leanness becomes more obvious. For desktopping or console hifi in a secondary room it's more about setting a mood than closing eyes, furrowing brows and pricking up the ears. There these micro components go farther than you'd give them credit for without hearing them first.

For such occasions our Peachtree Audio iDecco is nearly overkill already. But where the iDecco transitions without snooty complaints into the big rig to make a formidable system with say Zu Audio Essence speakers, I'd have the Briks stick to the small Amphions in console mode and call it quits. At $159 per, this set would make the perfect gift for the 12 to 18-year old crowd living at home in their own room. It's equally à propos for adults in a den, studio, bedroom, home office and on the desk top. Such circumstances tap the Briks right in their sweet spots to make you feel quite clever for not having spent more to get such resolved modern sound.
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