Album art displayed big and informative and my only nit was that file resolution showed as just kBit/s without format declaration. But then our Norse box adds extras for those who want to upgrade their television sound: acceptance of Dolby Digital and DTS data. Equal opportunity employ extended to MP3/AAC for lossy formats, FLAC/ALAC/WMA for lossless at 24/1292 PCM and 5.6MHz DSD.


Given the latter, I started with DSD using either my Teufel 500S monitors or GoldenEar's Aon 3. With 3 x the power over the 20-watt Linn Sneaky DSD, both speakers behaved fully mature, exhibiting no stress or listener fatigue. Even ambitious boxes like Elac's 247.3 showed no sleepiness. Interesting was the speed whereby the Rena SA-1 switched to DSD; quickly, very quickly. 2L's freeware "Magnificat 4. Et miserocordia" in DSD 128 from Magnificat  took no time or fits to start up. Even sonically the difference between DSD and standard Redbook was crystal in a hurry. Particularly classical fare, on CD, felt spatially more compressed, forward and less locked on images. A duel with the Linn was out because that refuses DSD by design; a clear bonus for the Norwegian. Not so for standard and hi-res PCM where the Sneaky DS showed off its chops: transparent, silky, powerful yet feathery and fluid in the bass, with an expressive glowing bouquet of midrange. On Jazz like the Helge Lien Trio's "Calypso in Five" from Badgers And Other Beings, neither my feet nor fingers stayed still. The Norwegian's slimmer more sober personality felt more tuned for concentrated listening, with a very balanced neutral reading that fell on the non-spectacular side of things with no flourishes or excess. No complaints from me especially when the dose of extra colour and oomph for the Scot entailed €1'000 more to live in a different price class entirely.


Again with the Teufel 500S monitors, I cued up "Burning Hot" from the Tomasz Stanko New York Quartet's December Avenue. Already on the Helge Lien Trio I'd noted a tendency to sharply focus and outline individual bits on the virtual stage. Rather than show up with unusual width and depth, staging occurred within believable dimensions. And that very precisely separated the foreground bass from the background percussive elements which delineated with contour and body for a solid overview of the musical action. I physically felt where each musician was. That this component's calling card was grippy image localization became particularly apparent on drum beats whose decays were packed for ambient recovery.