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I'll be doing some comparisons with the older siblings, so will offer you links to the HD 600 and HD 650 measurements.

Raw frequency response plots for the three headphones show the HD 660 S is essentially flat from 100Hz to 900Hz while the other two headphones are gently humped below about 400Hz. You can also see that the HD 660 S response begins to rise more quickly to the 3.3kHz peak at about 900Hz while the other two are more scooped on the rise. I feel this tonal profile causes the HD 660 S to…

How Insensitive! Part 3: The Measurements
May I have a drumroll, please! Here is the expanded amplifier measurement chart, presenting the essential measurements in a way that consumers can actually use, without forcing them to become engineers. At first it appears to be a daunting looking chart, but consumers will be presented with only a few of these measurements.

The Pass
I added one…

Headphone manufacturers pay attention: If you want to build a high-end headphone, this is the way to do it.

I've got to wonder how long Focal's strategic timeline was when they first entered the headphone market with the Spirit One in 2012. Focal is a long time high-end speaker manufacturer, so they're no doubt well familiar with the difficulties and time needed to produce world class equipment—and make no mistake, they do produce world class speakers.

From the initial crinkled diaphragm problems with the Spirit One; to…

Other than "+" appended to the name on the amplifier's top and bottom plates, the Brooklyn AMP+ appears identical to the original Brooklyn AMP that was reviewed in the September 2018 issue. I summed up the earlier amplifier's behavior on the test bench by writing "Mytek's Brooklyn AMP is a tiny powerhouse offering respectable measured performance." I used my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It") to test the Brooklyn AMP+. Like its predecessor, the AMP+ has an output stage operating in class-D, so I inserted Audio Precision's…

Shunyata's roots are in the scientific understanding and engineering base Gabriel has developed during his career. I've long been impressed by those scientific underpinnings—which extend not only in audio but also to other fields including medical devices—and by how open the company is in talking about its technologies.

Description: AC power conditioning and distribution system. One IEC C19R 30A input, four duplex 8 NEMAA5-20R 20A receptacles with six internal isolation zones, one each enclosing four outlets, one each enclosing two duplex outlets.
Dimensions: 20¾" (527mm) H × 8" (20.3mm) W × 14¾" (375mm) D (with cable cradle). Weight: 34lb (16kg).
Finish: Brushed aluminum.
Serial number of sample reviewed: 20EJ01. Designed and built in Washington.
Price: $8000. Approximate number of US dealers 52.
Manufacturer: Shunyata Research, 26273 Twelve Trees Ln.,…

Digital sources: Primare CD35 Prism CD player, Mytek Brooklyn DAC+.
Analog sources: Spiral Groove SG-2.1 turntable and Centroid tonearm, VPI HR-X turntable and tonearm; Grado Epoch, The Reference, and Signature Reference, Benz Micro SL, Audio-Technica AT-MONO3/LP phono cartridges.
Preamplifiers: Sutherland Phono Blocks Refined and Phono Loco phono preamplifiers; Sutherland Line Blocks line stage.
Power amplifiers: VTL Ichiban monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Sasha DAW and SabrinaX, Elac Debut 2.0 F6.2.
Cables: Shunyata Alpha v2…

Grado Labs Lineage Epoch Mono cartridge
The Lineage Epoch Mono is based on Grado's stereo Epoch, which I reviewed in my December 2017 column, and to which it looks identical. According to John Grado, who hand-builds each one, while the stereo version has one pair of coils per channel, the mono version has just a single pair of coils, configured to pick up a single channel; the resulting signal is then fed to both outputs. Grado says that…

Another of the Infinity's great strengths was its unwavering…