KO in the first round: the butcher of Stoke Row. Reviews aren't blood sports; at least not in hifi. Occasionally though, disparity is such that virtual blood does spilleth. That was the case next. Common sense predicted as much but actually hearing it still found its mark. Ouch. With these true ribbon headphones acting as floating dipoles without any magnets between ear and foil, there's no typical energy storage. As such measured impulse response is super clean to mean lightning-fast rise and settle times. Meanwhile the transducer's very low resonant frequency makes for ferocious dynamics within centimeters off your pink bits. That dynamic acceleration now punched up further. Simultaneously, sweetness and elegance replaced what previously could border on the ruthless and mechanical. The entire topic of annoying edge pixilation with its glittery but nervy metallic attributes too vanished on poorer recordings.
Soundaware A280 as SD card transport ⇒ COS Engineering D1 as DAC/pre ⇒ Job 225 ⇒ Raal Requisite interface ⇒ SR1a, all Crystal Cable silver wiring.
On good recordings like the 24/96 production Sounds of Mirrors by Dhafer Youssef, the attributes of tonal effulgence—what Jonathan Scull at Stereophile dubbed mellifluousness—manifested in earnest. If we consult our trusty dictionary, it tells us that the word means having a smooth rich flowing voice; or being filled with something sweet like honey for a mellifluous confection. The inevitable conclusion of the PSM156's contributions over the unmentionable strip was that music minus innate electrical noise minus its intermodulations with the signal becomes/is naturally sweet.
Where to go from here? I contacted Mike to suggest that if he could dispatch a 3-metre power cord, I still had our 2-channel video and main stereo systems to test. I'd simply not paid sufficient attention to ask for that upfront. "I can now rectify an error on my account. Although the 2m lead is standard in the box, for all units supplied direct from the factory I always ask for the customer's ideal lead length which we accommodate. Apologies that I neglected to check with you if a different length would be better." I also wondered whether he could include their simpler AC/DC-filtering power strip to have me report on how far that keeps up with their big boy for those who wish to spend less.
"I will get a Nema socket DC strip built tomorrow. All its output sockets now have the 15A path to them, with 15 amperes being the overall limit for all outputs combined as its big brother. The supplied £675 PS106-DC power strip also has the new non-sacrificial gas voltage spike clamps. The current uprating is not yet reflected on the top print as we are awaiting fresh front-plate metal work."