Description: Network-connected audio converter with two expansion slots for input/output boards. Base unit digital I/O: 8 AES3 I/O (DB-25), 8 ADAT/2 S/PDIF (TosLink), RAVENNA/ AES67 (RJ45), Word Clock (BNC), Sync I/O (DB-15: LTC, MIDI, Video Reference). Base unit analog output: Two headphone (6.35mm, 3.5mm TRS). Voltage (AC): 90V–260V, 47–63Hz. Voltage (DC via optional supply): 10–14V. Max power consumption: <30W. Specifications via headphone-monitoring jacks: THD+N: <–106 dB (0.0005%) at 1kHz, 0dBFS. Dynamic range (A-weighted): 118dB. Frequency response:…
search
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Custom Intel/Win11 music server running JRiver Media Center v31 and Roon, exaSound s88 Mark II, and Okto DAC8 Pro D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifiers: Coleman Audio 7.1SW for balanced DAC-to-amp switching.
Power amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, NAD C 298.
Loudspeakers: KEF Blade 2 Meta (L/C/R) with IsoAcoustics GAIA II feet, Revel Performa3 f206 (SL/SR). Two JLAudio e110 and one SVS SB-3000 subwoofers.
Cables: Digital cables: AudioQuest Coffee (USB). Analog interconnects: Mogami Gold AES TD DB-25–XLR snake, Benchmark…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
KR was still working on his review at the time I was scheduled to measure the Merging Hapi MkII, so Independent Audio loaned me a different sample for the testing. This sample had the serial number H95861 and was running firmware version 1.5.1b55774. I followed the instructions in the quick-start guide to download and install both the Merging MTDiscovery app and the RAVENNA/AES67 Virtual Audio Device (VAD) driver on my MacBook Pro. After I connected the Hapi to my router, the app found and identified it and opened its local control webpage on my browser. This page…
"The phonograph record is an art form itself," Lester Koenig wrote in March 1959, "and one of its advantages is the performance that exists uniquely of, by and for the record." Remarkably, when Koenig included this pronouncement in his liner notes to Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders, the 12" long-play record had been the dominant carrier of recorded music for less than a decade, and stereo discs had been mass-produced for just over a year.
For Koenig, this issue wasn't merely academic. Before making his name as head of Contemporary Records in Los Angeles, he had attended Yale…
In comparison with the Manley Steelhead RC phono stage I've been using, the Tron produced richer, more colorful images and simply sounded more beautiful. But it omitted some of the ambient information and long decays that the considerably more expensive Manley extracted from my records. After Ken and I listened to the title track from an early stereo pressing of Miles Davis's Someday My Prince Will Come (Columbia CS 8456) on the Manley, we switched to the Tron. "The halo around Davis's trumpet is gone," Ken remarked, and sure enough, the distinctive reverberant presence of Columbia's 30th…
Sometimes I think expensive components—I'll let you decide what constitutes expensive—should come with a big red sticker on the box that reads "WARNING! This product will probably not meet your expectations!" That's because when you spend a lot of money on something, you expect that something to have no flaws and to sound nigh perfect. Why else would you have paid so much? As you gaze at it, touch it, and listen to it, it constantly reassures you that you made the right decision by picking it over all the other, less pricey candidates. It has to be unambiguously better than any component of…
Once in a blue moon, something happens in my listening room that feels like a full-circle event of rare occurrence, like a solar eclipse but indoors. It's when, following some change to my system, the soundstage suddenly appears so locked in, so unaffected by my oddly shaped room and its furnishings, it's as if it had been pushed out of the speakers and given a life of its own, one existing on a plane of self-sufficient ease. This holographic, out-of-(room-and-speaker)-body effect happened with the Leak in my system.
That same sense of soundstage integrity was evident on Patricia…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid state, Roon Tested, class-AB, stereo streaming integrated amplifier with DAC, JFET–based moving magnet/high-output moving coil phono preamp, dedicated headphone amplifier, tone controls, and remote control. DAC section employs ESS Technology's ES9038Q2M chip. Analog inputs: 2 pair RCA line-level, 1 phono. Digital inputs: HDMI ARC, USB-B, S/PDIF on RCA, TosLink, aptX HD Bluetooth. Analog outputs: 1 RCA pre-out, 1 ¼" (6.35mm) headphone, speaker binding posts. Digital outputs: 1 optical, 1 S/PDIF on RCA. Hi-rez support via USB input: PCM 32/768;…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog source: Rega P5 turntable with RB700 tonearm and Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 cartridge.
Digital source: Simaudio Moon 260D CD transport.
Integrated amplifier: Grandinote Shinai.
Loudspeakers: Focal Aria K2 936.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Carbon (RCA S/PDIF). Interconnect: AudioQuest Yukon (RCA). Speaker: AudioQuest Robin Hood Zero (w/ banana plugs). Power: Shunyata Research Black Mamba CX, LessLoss DFPC.
Accessories: Shunyata Research Venom PS8 power conditioner; a component rack and a wood plinth stand (under turntable) whose…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured a different sample of the Leak Stereo 230, serial number LH000805CFD1195, than the one RS had auditioned. I performed the measurements using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. I preconditioned the Stereo 230 by following the CEA's recommendation of running it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the black grille on the amplifier's top panel was hot, at 118.1°F/47.9°C.
Looking first at the amplifier's behavior with its single-ended analog line input, with the Leak's volume control set to its…