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I sought out the MCX-800AD because of my fascination with the lossless 24/48 TrueHD content at up to 7.1, which is certainly Atmos. Here's why. Multichannel audio is how I listen to music, and for two decades I have been able to obtain and enjoy multichannel recordings on disc or by download. In the past two years, those sources have withered, as labels large and small have been drawn away by the siren song of Dolby Atmos streaming, mainly from Apple Music. Record companies that used to offer discs or downloads now offer only streaming links. It seems…

Description: Eight-channel power amplifier with analog and digital inputs, DACs, volume control, and remote control. Analog inputs: eight RCA, eight XLR (balanced, via DB25). USB Digital input supports stereo (PCM to 32/768, DSD Native to DSD256), eight channels (to 32/192), and six channels (DSD Native to DSD128). Analog outputs: eight RCA (trimmer adjustable from 0 to –6dB) and eight speaker level. 12V trigger in/out, USB-C service port, two USB-A accessory power ports. Two slots for optional I/O plug-in cards provide AES3 and audio-over-IP connectivity. Error…

Digital sources: Custom Intel/Win11 music server running JRiver Media Center v34, Roon 2 and DiracLive-ART, Merging Devices Hapi MkII and Okto DAC8 Pro DACs, QNAP TVS-873 NAS. Oppo Digital UDP-103 universal disc player.
Power amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2 (3).
Loudspeakers: KEF Blade 2 Meta with IsoAcoustics GAIA II feet (3). KEF LS60 (2); KEF KC92 (2) and SVS SB 2000 Pro subwoofers.
Cables: Digital: Mogami Gold AES TD DB25-XLR0 snake. Analog interconnects: Mogami Gold AES TD DB25-XLR snake, in-wall analog and digital wiring per AES72 via CAT6 and…

A+:

J.Sikora Reference: $48,000 w/o tonearm
This Polish company’s top-of-the-line turntable is a nonsuspended, high-mass design, weighing 253lb. The dynamically and statically balanced platter alone weighs 40lb! Drive is with four square belts spun by four Papst DC motors. MF found that the plinth was immune to knuckle raps and motor start-up noises and wrote that the Reference was very quiet. He decided that this J.Sikora ’table had been superbly tuned to extract deep, well-controlled bass free of overhang or excess. The measured speed accuracy was impressive, as…

Wow!, I thought. This WiSA thing is the future of home…

In its day, the Muse label featured a roster of significant artists including Sonny Stitt, Cedar Walton, and Kenny Barron. Muse never acquired cult status like Blue Note and ECM. Why? For starters, it lacked their sound quality and collectable cover art.

But time changes everything. Fifty years on, Muse now looks like a repository of…

Richard Ashcroft, the opening act for the new global Oasis reunion tour, remains forever linked to The Verve. That band's blend of Brit pop and neo-psychedelic haze gave Ashcroft a wide emotional canvas to explore. But when he struck out on his own in 2000 with Alone with Everybody, his music took on deeper resonance. That record was a critic and fan favorite, full of sonic things to explore.

In the years since,…

Capitalizing on the modest buzz created by their debut, Talking Heads: 77—"Psycho Killer" got some FM airplay and notoriety—the band hit the…

I used my Audio Precision SYS2722 system to examine the M10 V3's measured performance. Other than the maximum gain being 8dB higher than that of the original M10, at 37.5dB into 8 ohms, the analog line-input performance was very similar to that of the original M10. The source impedance was still impressively low. The maximum power was 150Wpc into 8 ohms (21.75dBW) and 290Wpc into 4 ohms (21.6dBW) compared with the M10 V1's maximum power of 155Wpc into 8 ohms (21.9dBW) and 295Wpc into 4 ohms (21.7dBW). These powers were obtained at 1% THD+noise; the specified continuous…