Hifi Pig Reviews

Stupinder

Rather than clogging up the main forum with updates on new reviews I thought i'd pop them all into one place in Chews. Hope that's ok, guys!

First up is a review I've been waiting for for a while. I heard the German Physik Unlimited Mk2 speakers in Munich and was really impressed by them. Jerry, as you know runs the omnidirectional MBLs and so we thought a comparison with the omnidirectional GPs would be in order. They're not cheap at just shy of nine grand but they seem to do a lot of things very well indeed. Have a read of what Jerry says

Second up is right at the other end of the price scale. The Mistral DT307 is a hybrid amp that costs just 249 quid and offers 25 watts a side. Dan put the little amp through its paces and enjoyed what he heard. Review is here

uglymusic

Sure. No probs.

Stupinder

Tisbury Audio's little 135 quid passive pre. Jerry's been talking to me about these for a few weeks so I thought i'd have a play with one. http://hifipig.com/tisbury-audio-mini-passive-preamplifier/

Stupinder

We took a look at the Schiit Audio Modi USB DAC (99$) and their Magni headphone amp ($99) and found them something of a bargain!
http://hifipig.com/schiit-modi-usb-dac-and-magni-headphone-amplifier/#more-8822

Stupinder

Dan reviewed some pretty interesting cables from Finland recently (Graditech). The
speaker cables look particularly interesting in that they are 3 different
cables in one...sort of ...http://hifipig.com/graditech-kide-di...les/#more-8837

Dan

There's 7 different standard configurations to the speaker cables to suit system synergy, they are called the Lumi3

Alan

That was some mammoth review Dan - looks kike you had fun though! Considering the way many adjust the tone of their system with cabling, that seems a very logical way to design cables. Graditech just need audiophiles to be honest enough with themselves to get over the psychological hurdle buying cables that really can be described as 'tone controls', even if that's over simplistic and possibly rather dismissive.

By the way, Jack Savoretti's album is titled 'between the minds'. 'Between the mids' might indicate a previous cabling problem, perhaps best solved with a high end Scandinavian digital interconnect.

Thanks for an interesting review, and for bringing an interesting product up which I have never heard of before.

Stupinder

Thanks, Alan...my mistake on the album title now sorted :-)

Stupinder

Greetings Chewists :-) Chord company have introduced 3 new entry level interconnects which
start at 55 quid a 1m pair. Dan has had a play with them and put them
through their paces and you can read what he reckons here  http://hifipig.com/chords-new-entry-...interconnects/

Stupinder

Here's a review that will be of interest to a good number of you. It's the Totaldac D1-tubedac and as the name suggests it uses valves ;-)  http://hifipig.com/totaldac-d1-tubedac/ Dan quite liked it I think !

uglymusic

Sounds interesting, but maybe just a bit 'one-trick'?

Stupinder

Dan certainly loved it but does say it's not for electronica. Hopefully I'll be popping up to Mont St Michel to have a bit of a listen to it shortly.

uglymusic

Take some girls with acoustic guitars ;-)

Stupinder

The Technics 1210 has been a fave for years on
the club circuit but here I take a listen to one of the decks modified
by adding Origin Live upgrades. Most folk reckon that the power supply upgrade is the most important...I don't!!
http://hifipig.com/origin-live-modified-technics-1210-turntable/

Stupinder

Hi guys...well after an absolutely awful day yesterday we have the Hifi Pig site back up and running and finally I get to post mine and Linettes thoughts on the Roksan Oxygene amp and CD player.
If you don't know it the Oxygene kit is somewhat of a departure from the normal run of the mill design and will, i'm sure, divide opinion. Anyhoo, here's the linky http://hifipig.com/roksan-oxygene-amplifier-and-cd-player-4/

You can also see Jerry's show report from Whittlebury here http://hifipig.com/category/hifi-shows/

Lin and I are off to Paris on Saturday to visit the Salon Hifi Home Cinema so expect lots of pics and comment from the show. Personally I'm looking forward to having a listen to this €35 000 CD player http://hifipig.com/neodio-origine-gets-european-unveiling/

Colin

Stu, not Saturday I was popping over then oh poo

uglymusic

What happened in the Piggery Stu? Did you get hacked?

Stupinder

No there was a conflict between one of the plugins we use which in my attempts to fix I actually managed to delete every bit of content :-)  There was a fair bit of shouting i'm afraid but we got there in the end....

uglymusic

Oh bugger!

At least you're back.

Stupinder

Yeh, it was a bit of a scary few hours to say the least!!!

uglymusic

FWIW I host Writing For SEO on a specialist WordPress host that has staging so that you can try out plug-ins, themes and so on before going live.

Stupinder

Is that Blue Host ?

uglymusic

Nope. It's WP Engine. Not cheap when compared to most shared hosting, but fast, stable, secure blah, blah, blah. And going from my old host to them improved the site's Google performance.

Here's my affiliate link, should you decide to use them.

Stupinder

Cheers for that. I did look at that but thought it was pricey. May well look at it purely for Hifi Pig in a very short while! S

uglymusic

That's exactly how I use it. Writing For SEO only, and if anything else becomes a significant earner, that'll go there, too.

Stupinder

A review by Dan of the Oriton Cones at 80 quid a pop. http://hifipig.com/oriton-support-cones/

Stupinder

Dan has a look at the Tellurium Q Black Diamond USB cable http://hifipig.com/tellurium-q-black-diamond-usb-cable-2/

Colin

Stu, Dan nice review thank you.

Stupinder

Morning Chewists...A couple of new reviews have been published
on the Pig in the last two of days including Jerry's thoughts on the
Atlas Ascent 3.5 Mkii loudspeaker cables at £1100 for a 3m pair and mine and Lin's (Mr Hifi Pig) thoughts and opinions on the €22000 JoSound Cartouche loudspeakers.



We've also put together a document outlining our review process and
other FAQs and this will be uploaded when I get a chance to breath. We've done this to clarify just how we go about reviews and why there are a good number of recommended products...should clear up some questions you may have :-)

Stupinder

I'm sure many of you will know Len, The Cartridge Man and his Music Maker III moving iron cartridge. He got in touch and sent us one and we're glad he did - it's wazzed all over my current cartridge :-( ... http://hifipig.com/the-cartridge-man-music-maker-iii-cartridge/
Len's a nice guy, clearly knows his stuff and puts a lot of effort into these cartridges...and it shows!

Stupinder

Just to let you know that we've been working on a FAQ section to the site for a while now and it's now published on the site. This outlines our review process, what we do/don't accept for review  etc.
http://hifipig.com/faq/
Hope it helps with any questions you may have but feel free to ask away by PM or via e mail
Stu

uglymusic

thanks Stu

Stupinder

No worries :-)

Stupinder

Our coverage of the Coolgales Bath Audiofest http://hifipig.com/coolgales-bath-audiofest-2013/

Stupinder

For £550 including stands I thought the little Concept 20s from Q Acoustics were very good indeed. Struggled a little down the main room but then that was asking a bit much, but put them in a realistic environment (we put them firing across the room about 2.5 m from the listening position) and they were great - pretty transparent and not too shabby at all. Full review is here http://hifipig.com/q-acoustics-concept-20-loudspeakers-2/

Stupinder

Here's a link to Jerry's review of the £3650 Longdog audio VDt1 DAC
http://hifipig.com/longdog-audio-vdt1-dac/

Colin

And it has internal TQ Graphite USB connections and cable.

Stupinder

I noticed that, Colin

IslandPink

"No, fear not, it isn't a hairshirt ...... bolted together in a musty, backstreet garage ...."

Indeed not : it's bolted ( carefully ) together in a musty outbuilding, surrounded by a 5ft high sea of RS boxes and envelopes, next-door to 25 lurcher kennels !!

( ps. it really does sound fab too - especially on 24-bit )

Stupinder

We met Konstantinos who is the founder of Black Pearls at the Munich
show earlier in the year. He had with him his only product the Birth 100
integrated amplifier and unable to listen there and then we thought
we'd see if we could get one to review. After a good deal of messing
about (not helped by careless couriers who damaged two of the amps) we
finally got an undamaged one in for review. Here's the Black Pearls Birth 100 review in full.

Stupinder

We don't just review the esoteric at Hifi Pig. Today we've posted world first reviews of Musical Fidelity MF 100 over-ear headphones (£119) and the KT BT amp from Roksan (£850). http://hifipig.com/category/hifi-reviews/

uglymusic

I may investigate those headphones. I could do with some for the office.

Stupinder

They're good value I thought. For a fat head like me they were a bit tight but I'm assured this was identified before the final production models were done...

Colin

I may investigate those headphones. I could do with some for the office.

At home office or work? To drown the sound of ZZ Tips Tops maybe? or to ignore the bosses commands?

I did not like the what Stu said about wet ears on leather it should be thighs.

uglymusic

Perve! 

Work office. I'm even thinking of a couple of those Shiit boxes that Stu likes to use with them.

The home office is exceedingly well equipped. 

Stupinder

I may investigate those headphones. I could do with some for the office.

At home office or work? To drown the sound of ZZ Tips Tops maybe? or to ignore the bosses commands?

I did not like the what Stu said about wet ears on leather it should be thighs.

Wet thighs on ears..or wet ears on thighs :-)

Stupinder

Review and a bit of a fitting instruction thingy for the Mike New bearing for the Techy 1210...it had a much bigger effect than I was expecting if truth be known! http://hifipig.com/mike-new-bearing-for-technics-1210-turntable/

Stupinder

Greetings Chewists :-) Here's a couple of reviews from this last week or so on the Pig. First up is the very curiously named [URL="http://hifipig.com/q-n-k-t-c-ab-1-2-dac/"]"Quantization Noise Killed The Cat" (No really) DAC[/URL] which Dan calls his budget audio product of the year so far - it's $170!
Next is Jerry's review of the little [URL="http://hifipig.com/dynaudio-excite-x14-loudspeakers/"]Dynaudio Excite X14[/URL] standmounters
We've got some VERY exciting news coming up at the end of this month so keep your eyes peeled :-)

Stupinder

This little £150 streamer is great http://hifipig.com/qed-uplay-stream/#more-10095  Not the last word in audiophilia but for the money it really is a no brainer!! Doesn't have digital out but that's all I can say negatively about it!

mattlynch

thanks for that Stupinder , just what i have been looking for to use in the workshop , i dare say it wont be long before someone has one apart to add a digital out socket >-

Stupinder

No worries. It's a fab little bit of kit. A digital out and it'd be perfect. May well get one and set up a little bedroom system :-)