Country of Origin
Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen
Financial interests: click here
Main system: Sources: Retina 5K 27" iMac (i5, 256GB SSD, 40GB RAM, Sonoma 14), 4TB external SSD with Thunderbolt 3, Audirvana Studio, Qobuz Sublime, Singxer SU-6 USB bridge, LHY Audio SW-8 & SW-6 switch, Laiv Audio Harmony and Sonnet Pasithea; Active filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Power amplifiers: Kinki Studio EX-B7 monos & Gold Note monos on subwoofer; Headamp: Kinki Studio THR-1, Enleum AMP-23R, aune S17Pro Evo; Phones: Raal 1995 Immanis; Loudspeakers: Qualio IQ [on loan] Cables: Kinki Studio Fire, Furutech; Power delivery: Kinki/Vinshine Tai Hang on amps, Furutech GTO 2D NCF on low-level gear; Equipment rack: Artesanía Audio Exoteryc double-wide 3-tier with optional glass shelves, Exoteryc amp stands; Sundry accessories: Acoustic System resonators, LessLoss Firewall for loudspeakers, Furutech NCF Signal Boosters; Room: 6 x 8m with open door behind listening seat; Room treatment: 2 x PSI Audio AVAA C214 active bass traps
2nd system: Source: FiiO R7 into Soundaware D300Ref SD transport to COS Engineering D1 DAC/pre; Filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Amplifier: Kinki Studio EX-M7; Headamp: Cen.Grand Silver Fox; Loudspeakers: MonAcoustic SuperMon Mini + Dynaudio S18 sub, sound|kaos Vox 3awf, Albedo Aptica; Power delivery: Vibex Granada/Alhambra, Akiko Audio Corelli; Equipment rack: Hifistay Mythology Transform X-Frame [on extended loan]; Sundry accessories: Audioquest Fog Lifters; Furutech NFC Clear Lines; Room: ~3.5 x 8m
Desktop system: Source: HP Z2 work station Win10/64; USB bridge: Singxer SU-2; DAC: iFi Pro iDSD Signature; Speakers: DMAX P61; Headphones: Final D-8000 & aune SR7000 Audeze LCD-XC
Upstairs headfi system: FiiO R7; Headphones: Meze 109 Pro, Fiio FT3, Raal 1995 Magna, HiFiMan Susvara
2-channel video system: Source: Oppo BDP-105; All-in-One: Gold Note IS-1000 Deluxe; Loudspeakers: Zu Soul VI; Subwoofer: Zu Submission; Power delivery: Furutech eTP-8, Room: ~6x4m
Not your run-of-the-mill oats. It's the motto of Eire's Flahavan's who'll scratch your morning itch for porritch. Little is as Irish as porridge when we don't want potatoes as colcannon, coddle or champ. For years I misread the oat company's name as Flavahan's. Flava as in flavour is today's quick destination. That's because hifi sound and its creator, the system tuning or voicing, come in as many flavours as there are potato dishes around the world. The Irish wouldn't dream of putting cumin or masala on potatoes. Indians, Nepalis and Caribbeanieries certainly do to great effect. So anything not a hifi impulse purchase must consider which flavour profile we're after. That we can only know if we've – um, slept our way through a bunch to mark personal hits and misses. Sow your oats so your harvest may be specific. That and not prolific is the word. Of course we can't sample what we don't know exists or can meet by happenstance. A bit of research beyond what domestic stores carry or fellow practitioners use is key; if we even still have anything proximal. If not, attending one big hifi show or visiting a stereo metropolis like Hong Kong, Singapore or Tokyo can be a deep dive into the Baskins & Robbins of sound. Would sir care for some pistacchio ice cream with sour cherry compote? How about some lemon sorbet with champagne and rose-petal infusion for the lady?
Professional reviewers can often justify owning multiple systems where most civilians must decide on one. In some ways the latter is easier. It doesn't create distractions from alternatives. If a reviewer wants to commit to, say dual DACs, they would ideally be used equally often to earn their keep. Simultaneously they should be as diametrically opposed as possible to represent counter cultures. But if we're to use them equally often, polarization must have us like them equally. Otherwise we're married to one and mostly divorced from the other. Having recently given away seven pairs of speakers and six amps that had travelled with me from home to home and country to country, I know whereof I speak. Keeping a big harem when the resident pasha has a singular N°1 wife only takes up space. If our tastes have matured into extreme crystallization where even minor deviations aren't welcome, it's tough to come up with two sufficiently divergent flavour profiles that we find equally compelling. If it were food, I'd settle on Japanese and Indian. Easy. With sonic flavours? Much harder. I don't know why. But today's ditty would expire prematurely without a sonic payoff. And I recently hit upon an alternate DAC to my Sonnet Pasithea which tickles my temporal bone and tympanic membrane: Cen.Grand's DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe.
"But" the eagle-eyed now retort, "you've had that since its review". Quite. What's changed? A small thing whose upshot was bigger. Designer JianHui Deng recently added I²S as part of the optional POW module. Its other two ports combine fibre-optics for data and BNC for a separate bit clock. To make use of those obviously requires a matching sender. Hello GLD 1.0 Standard or Deluxe Cen.Grand streamer as recently reviewed. What the new I²S allows me to do is resample PCM to DSD256 in Audirvana Studio then pipe that through my usual Singxer SU-6 bridge via USB then from there over I²S/HDMI into the DAC. Alternately the bridge serves the Pasithea 176.4kHz AES/EBU. Though I don't understand the involved math, Audirvana's A-7th-order DSD modulator is my favourite. Running the DAC with DSD256 in non-rising mode sounds better to me than sending it native PCM which the SRC inside the DAC resamples to DSD1'024. The joint alliance between Audirvana and POW represents a spatially more billowy alternative with a less quicksilvery more bronzed treble and more decay than transient-emphatic tuning to the Dutch flagship DAC by Cees Ruijtenberg. My exciting new thing is to now have a second flava I find just as enjoyable whilst being different enough to suit different moods or ancillaries. Eat your porridge, son? You bet, dad. But next time make it steel-cut not rolled oats from McCann's, okay? Whatever floats your boat, son.
The Irish sure know their oats and have cultivated them for far longer than potatoes. Experience which sweats the small stuff. It matters…
