It is the end of the year again! And that means we will be back with lists. Martijn, as second editor, shares his TOP-5 with you! 2024 is the year of research and ‘a British affair’ as far as his reviews are concerned.
Audirvāna Core Player
With Core Player, Audirvāna has created a long awaited version, at least for me. The best-sounding software can now run on a NAS, on a cheap small computer or on a standard PC, as long as the Linux operating system is the base. The first music servers to include Audirvāna Core Player have already been announced.
The Core Player version has allowed us to find out what affects sound quality and has resulted in my new music server at home: a Raspberry Pi 4B running DietPi OS, powered with an SBooster power supply. Music files are located on a NAS, somewhere else on the network and mounted as a drive on the Pi over the network. It has proven to be the final piece of the puzzle in the home setup, I’m not willing to tweak it anymore.
Creek 4040A
A music machine serving as the heart of an audio setup and within reach of many. Combine it with a Raspberry Pi computer running Audirvana Core Player, powered by an iFi iPower2 power supply and a price-friendly AudioQuest USB cable and you can stream whatever you like at high quality. I unfortunately didn’t get to test the MM phonostage, but you can hardly go wrong with a budget-friendly turntable. Pick up a nice second-hand CD transport, connect it through TOSLink and you are guaranteed hours of listening pleasure.
Graham Audio LS3/5
Unbalanced in terms of price, but an extension to the Creek in terms of character. The LS3/5 is an audio enigma. You have enthusiasts and people who find an LS3/5 inadequate for whatever reason. I am firmly in the enthusiasts’ camp. What a set of beautiful and lovingly built speakers. And that is what they sound like: lovingly.
Art Speak SPDIF cable
Digital cables and sound quality, how controversial do you want it to be? This is me sticking my tongue out to the cable sceptics: the louder you keep shouting that it doesn’t matter, the louder I will turn up the amplifier to hear what magic this cable has on a CD transport.
In Leiden, we connected a Rega Planet CD player to a Weiss DAC using this cable. Music nirvana.
64 cables
Once, but never again: 32 interlinks and 32 speaker cables compared. The conclusion: price does absolutely not predict the sonic result. Surprisingly, interlinks magnify the differences more than speaker cables. The 1970s recording of the opera Carmen proved to be a flawless gauge: you can hear exactly what a cable does on the reproduction.