Part-Time Audiophile

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April 21, 2018 in Announcements // Vancouver Audio Festival 2018: Shelter from the storm on Opening Night
April 19, 2018 in Announcements // Vancouver Audio Festival 2018 kicks off this Friday
April 15, 2018 in Announcements // Vancouver Audio Festival returns April 20-21st at Hifi Centre
April 9, 2018 in Announcements // Aqua Hifi to premiere Discrete R2R DAC module for La Voce S3 at AXPONA
April 8, 2018 in Announcements // AXPONA 2018 Advance: New venue, more gear, live music

The Newest Thing

Vancouver Audio Festival 2018: Shelter from the storm on Opening Night

by Rafe Arnott in Announcements

First the rain came straight down. Then the rain came sideways. Then it seemed to be coming up at me from the ground as I ran from a coffee shop to make my way to Hi-Fi Centre for the opening of the Vancouver Audio Festival late Friday afternoon. I was reminded of a scene in Forrest Gump where he describes similar rain experiences in Vietnam during his time in the war, and I was silently thankful to be taking shelter from the storm in warm, and cozy environs with like-minded audiophiles. If [...]

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AXPONA 2018: Einstein Audio, persistence is Art

April 21, 2018 // 2 Comments

The Story I detest writers who start an article by detailing the specifics of how they got themselves into an exhibit room. Two feet, one after the other – so what? But it’s not that simple. So in what may appear like a masochistically literary move, I now wince at mentioning that Alan Kafton of The Cable Cooker pleaded with great emotion that I hoist myself up to the 15th floor to see (and hear) what he exclaimed to be “a perfect system.” Being Alan’s friend and myself a member of [...]
AXPONA 2018: Stereo Haven lives up to it’s Name

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AXPONA 2018: Ironically, it’s Technics taking me for a spin

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AXPONA 2018: Sunday morning coming down

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AXPONA 2018: The MUST SEE Rooms of Day Three

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AXPONA 2018: Friday Night Lights, and Saturday delights

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AXPONA 2018: The MUST SEE Rooms of Day Two

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AXPONA 2018: The MUST SEE Rooms of Day One

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AXPONA 2018: Triode Wire Labs, Border Patrol, Volti Audio

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The Path of Shindo – A Journey through Japanese high fidelity

April 14, 2018 // 9 Comments

This is an article that first appeared in our new online PDF, downloadable magazine The Occasional this March in our Spring 2018 edition. We’ll be rolling out articles from it over the next several weeks in anticipation of our upcoming third issue – the Summer edition – which is scheduled for publication in May. We hope you enjoy this new, exclusive content, and that you’ll check out the current Winter Edition of The Occasional and its 140 pages of fresh high fidelity reviews, [...]
Review: Entreq Olympus Tellus Grounding Box

5 Comments
Review: Pass Labs X600.8 mono block Power Amplifier

9 Comments
DVL Album of the Month for March: The Bee Gees

3 Comments
Review: ZYX 4D Ultimate MC Cartridge

2 Comments
Review: Mytek puts the + on the Brooklyn DAC

9 Comments
DVL Album of the Month for February – Traffic

3 Comments
Review: Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 loudspeaker

11 Comments
Review: HiFiMan Susvara headphones, assault on the state of the art

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Review: ZYX 4D Ultimate MC Cartridge

March 31, 2018 // 2 Comments

This is an article that first appeared in our new online PDF, downloadable magazine The Occasional this March in our Spring 2018 edition. We’ll be rolling out articles from it over the next several weeks in anticipation of our upcoming third issue – the Summer edition – which is scheduled for publication in May. We hope you enjoy this new, exclusive content, and that you’ll check out the current Winter Edition of The Occasional and its 140 pages of fresh high fidelity reviews, [...]
Review: The Pro-Ject RPM 9 Carbon turntable with Sumiko Blackbird

4 Comments
The List: Five of the Best Turntables in the World

13 Comments
Spending time with Fern & Roby for a factory tour, film, and interviews

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Review: Living in the future with KEF LS50 Wireless + Roon + Shinola Runwell

7 Comments
Review: Audio Research Reference Phono 3

5 Comments
Review: McIntosh MP1100 Phono Preamplifier, digging into your vinyl grooves

11 Comments
Turntable manufacturer sees sales surge 400% to keep up with vinyl numbers

6 Comments
Review: Dynamic Sounds Associates Phono II

5 Comments

Review: Mytek puts the + on the Brooklyn DAC

March 25, 2018 // 9 Comments

There is this one kind of reviews I don’t want to take, the ones I am not sure I will enjoy. I prefer analog to digital sources and if I must spent some time listening to zeros and ones, I prefer them comin’ out of a ladder DAC and not some ΔΣ of the shelf chip. But I am open to suggestions, new ideas and I have several friends always asking me for relatively affordable components, and those usually come with an Asahi Kasei or ESS chip inside. Mytek, known for being among the [...]
Hey you! Get on to Redcloud! PS Audio updates the DirectStream DAC.

5 Comments
Review: dCS Network Bridge – The Swiss Army Knife of Streamers

3 Comments
Review: Living in the future with KEF LS50 Wireless + Roon + Shinola Runwell

7 Comments
The List: Five of the best CD Players on the Planet

32 Comments
Review: Aurender A10 digital music server and DAC

8 Comments
Revisited: PS Audio DirectStream DAC and Memory Player

2 Comments
Review: Clones Audio HOST Music Server

4 Comments
Review: BorderPatrol USB Digital to Analogue Converter (SE Version)

19 Comments

Review: Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 loudspeaker

February 25, 2018 // 11 Comments

Pipe and slippers. If you’ve ever been into high fidelity gear from the United Kingdom then you’ve heard that phrase bandied about as a descriptor for British Isle-built sound. I love the images it conjures up in one’s imagination: Gust-driven rain pelting against a window partially concealed by thick Hunter Green velvet curtains, lots of built-in wooden shelves stocked with books, CDs, and LPs… an overstuffed, weathered leather wing chair, thick Persian rugs, aged [...]
Review: AmpsAndSound Hudson

4 Comments
The DeVore Fidelity O/93 loudspeaker long-term review

15 Comments
Review: Living in the future with KEF LS50 Wireless + Roon + Shinola Runwell

7 Comments
Mini-Review: Shinola Audio Bookshelf Speakers

4 Comments
Review: DeVore Fidelity Gibbon X

18 Comments
Mini-Review: Zu Audio Dirty Weekend Omen Version II

15 Comments
First Listen: Wilson Audio Alexia Series-2 takes my breath away

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Review: Fritz Speakers Carrera 7 Be Loudspeakers

5 Comments

Review: HiFiMan Susvara headphones, assault on the state of the art

February 24, 2018 // 0 Comments

This is not for the faint of heart, or wallet. If you think headphones have reached overwhelmingly high prices spare your time and don’t read this review. You have been warned. Walking down the Munich High End corridors Bumped upon Riccardo Yeh, talented musician, opera lover and HiFiMan’s international sales director. Come in he said, we have both Susvara and Shangri La playing side by side. I was sold. Fast-forward a couple of months Early summer, I couldn’t get those lush [...]
Shinola launches new Canfield Headphone Collection

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Review: Fostex TE100 IEM headphones

1 Comment
Review: Fostex TH-610, Massdrop TH-X00, and TH-X00 Ebony

3 Comments
Review: SPL Phonitor X headphone amplifier

7 Comments
Dr’s Orders: Study anatomy (hands on with the Metaxas Marquis Memento Mori headphone amp)

5 Comments
Review: Pass Labs HPA-1 headphone amplifier

3 Comments

Review: Pass Labs X600.8 mono block Power Amplifier

April 7, 2018 // 9 Comments

Do you want the hernia or the double hernia? The voice on the phone asking that question was Bryan Stanton, a communications specialist who works with Pass Labs. A few weeks prior, we had begun chatting about Pass sending me one of its X-series amps for review. I had agreed, and now Pass wanted to know if it should ship the 127-pound X350.8 stereo amp or a pair of the top-of-the-line, 123-pounds-each X600.8 mono blocks. I didn’t hesitate for even a second. “Oh, the X600.8s. [...]
Review: McIntosh MA252 tube/solid-state integrated amplifier

6 Comments
The List: Five of the Best Power Amps in The World

13 Comments
The Part-Time Audiophile guide to the best hi-fi gear of 2017

20 Comments
Review: Merrill Audio Cara preamplifier

3 Comments
Review: Pass Labs XA60.8 Mono Amplifiers

3 Comments
Review: CH Precision L1 Dual Monaural Line Preamplifier, and M1 Reference Power Amplifier

5 Comments

Review: Entreq Olympus Tellus Grounding Box

April 8, 2018 // 5 Comments

This is an article that first appeared in our new online PDF, downloadable magazine The Occasional this March in our Spring 2018 edition. We’ll be rolling out articles from it over the next several weeks in anticipation of our upcoming third issue – the Summer edition – which is scheduled for publication in May. We hope you enjoy this new, exclusive content, and that you’ll check out the current Winter Edition of The Occasional and its 140 pages of fresh high fidelity reviews, [...]
Review: The Shunyata Denali’s Towering Achievement

4 Comments
Black Cat Cable: A history with founder Chris Sommovigo

0 Comments
Review: Heresy with a Nordost Heimdall 2 ethernet cable

43 Comments
PS Audio P10 Power Plant Regenerator: An impressive start

1 Comment

DVL Album of the Month for March: The Bee Gees

April 6, 2018 // 3 Comments

This is a monthly series of album reviews I will be doing for DVL Audio here in Canada. I’ll be heading out to a local record store in Vancouver, digging through the bins, and coming up with an intriguing LP to discuss here on Part-Time Audiophile. I’ll never go out with something in mind beforehand, and there is no criteria for whether it’s a new album, an old album, an out-of-print LP, electronic, classical, jazz, punk – whatever – it just has to sound good to me. I’ll [...]
RIP Maestro Jose’ Antonio Abreu

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Part-Time Audiophile’s favorite albums of 2017

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Review: Getting my groove on with one-step vinyl releases

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David Bowie “A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982)” 13 LP box

3 Comments

Buy A Record Label and Blue Coast Prime

Buy A Record Label and Blue Coast Prime

In recent years there have been major changes in the music industry. Sales of optical discs have declined while interest in other ways to get music albums including music downloads, streaming and formats like LPs and even Analog Tape are on the upswing with sales of some albums reissued on LP by Mobile Fidelity reaching... Read More »

AXPONA 2018, Photo Essay Part 6

AXPONA 2018, Photo Essay Part 6

All photos by Dave Clark, words by Carol Clark... more on AXPONA 2018. Also, just a note. Not all rooms provide equipment lists, so many times I have to go by what is on the door sign. If you notice an error we are happy to correct it. Thank you! Sennheiser headphones in the EXPO... Read More »

AXPONA 2018, Photo Essay Part 5

AXPONA 2018, Photo Essay Part 5

All photos by Dave Clark, words by Carol Clark... more on AXPONA 2018. Also, just a note. Not all rooms provide equipment lists, so many times I have to go by what is on the door sign. If you notice an error we are happy to correct it. Thank you! The Audio Company had an... Read More »

AXPONA 2018, Photo Essay Part 4

AXPONA 2018, Photo Essay Part 4

All photos by Dave Clark, words by Carol Clark... more on AXPONA 2018. Also, just a note. Not all rooms provide equipment lists, so many times I have to go by what is on the door sign. If you notice an error we are happy to correct it. Thank you! Vanatoo loudspeakers. Dan Wright of... Read More »

AXPONA 2018 - My Top Rooms for Sound

AXPONA 2018 - My Top Rooms for Sound

AXPONA 2018 was an absolute delight. More head count. More smiling faces. More listening rooms. Friendly hosts. Friendly patrons. It wasn't the shoulder to shoulder crush of people and the waterfall of merchandise like the CES of 10 to 15 years ago, but the good vibes and positive energy was everywhere. This was the first... Read More »

Why We Should Drop The Audiophile Label and Start Wearing Watches

March 22, 2018 // 17 Comments

“The only thing worse than audiophile snobbery, is the anti-audiophile snobbery.” Firstly, and mostly to get this out of the way, the term Audiophile sounds [...]
A visit to Hawaii’s oldest record store: Hungry Ear Records

February 18, 2018 // 0 Comments

It was sun tan lotion, and fresh rain… no wait, tropical flowers. Errr, maybe a whiff of roasting meat on a BBQ mixed in too? This is what greeted my nose upon [...]
The Reluctant Sommelier: Wine Gifts for Valentines Day

February 13, 2018 // 0 Comments

By Nina Sventitsky There’s still time to get a cool wine-related gift for your top person – even if that person is you. Some ideas follow, and my short list of [...]
The Smoking Jacket: Pablo’s Boutique

July 23, 2017 // 0 Comments

By Marc Phillips As an agnostic progressive, I’ve learned to keep my own counsel when herfing with strangers or casual acquaintances. I don’t want to perpetuate any [...]

The Far Corners: Ova Audio SCE Loudspeaker Treatments

April 1, 2018 // 4 Comments

By Modest I. Predlozheniye “Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan’s egg.” –Hans Christian Andersen “Often a hen who has [...]
Warning: Do Not Use

October 31, 2017 // 0 Comments

Friends, I must confess. I have not been as careful as one might wish, and certainly hindsight is proving to me that my shivering fear and self-loathing are insufficient [...]
The Far Corners: Intraoperative Brain Mapping for Audiophiles

October 31, 2017 // 9 Comments

By Modest I. Predlozheniye Ah, dear readers! How have you been? Old Modest has spent the last few months traveling extensively through North America and has been collecting [...]
The Far Corners: The 2017 Gibraltar Audio Show Report

April 1, 2017 // 4 Comments

By Modest I. Predlozheniye One of my favorite places to visit in all the world is Gibraltar since it is the intersection of so many different cultures. Where else can you [...]

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