Dan Clark Audio...focuses on building products that provide incredible performance, comfort, reliability, and value. These are just the types of products that the audio community on Apos has come to appreciate and we are thrilled to partner with another great audio brand.
SMSL SP200:Â This little unit surprised me so many times already as it sounded almost as detailed as HPA4 and actually in terms of frequency response it surpasses the THX-789 because the sub-bass is better, goes lower and has a better sustain. ...Soundstage size is about on the same level with THX-789 and only sometimes I felt it smaller in size and cozier somehow. All in all, SP200 amazed me how energetic and punchy it can be and how close to HPA4 it can sound at only a small tiny fraction of its price. This one has the best value of them all and probably the best value of any desktop headphone amp as of right now.
This is my first contact with Gustard and I hope it will not be my last. DAC-A22 shown to me that if you know how, musical and smooth sounding sources can still be made with flagship D/S chips too. I had absolutely nothing to reproach in the frequency response as from the lowest to the highest octaves, everything was preserved clean, defined and transparent. I consider it having an amazing tonal balance, offering a warmer and heavier tonality, add that impressive holographic image, a wide soundstage on all axes, a smoother presentation and you could listen to music all day long without any listening fatigue. ...I consider it a really affordable solution and a no-brainer in a speaker setup.Â
Launched in late 2019, TOPPING's extraordinary D90 made waves among the audiophile community, and now finally the D90's MQA ready counterpart is available. In terms of hardware the only change vs the base model is the upgrade to a XMOS 216 chipset on the MQA variant over the original's 208. It's likely the new chipset is present to aid in the MQA decoding the original does not support. I, for one, appreciate that TOPPING chose to utilize a more powerful XMOS USB interface to aide in the added MQA support, which is available only through USB input.