This review is posted here in partnership with Soundnews.net. It was originally written and published by Sandu Vitalie of Soundnews.net on June 14, 2020. One of the biggest hypes I ever encountered in the headphone kingdom was the announcement of THX Achromatic Audio Amplifiers that revolutionized the way we listen to music. By far, the biggest impact on the market had the THX-AAA-789 by Drop. The company that made it, prepared a big budget for a powerful marketing push, to me that amp was simply a declaration of war for the expensive and bad measuring headphone amplifiers.Â
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.
Analytical, neutral, detailed: these words may best describe the Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro, a pair of open-back studio headphones that have sent ripples across the audio world since their release.Â
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
What speaker brand comes to mind first when I say, electrostatic speakers? For us Europeans, it’s most probably Quad and for Yankees, it is most probably Martin Logan. I still remember searching for a nice floor-stander that works with rock music and Quad ESL will always pop into that list. Since the headphone market has grown exponentially in the past years, Quad decided to have a small slice of that huge pie. The weird thing is that Quad decided to go with a planar-magnetic design and not with an electrostatic one. I’m however very glad they chose this (rightful and dangerous) path. I don’t like to fiddle with additional electronics just to listen to a pair on headphones, I’m sure Quad had the same thought.
All my best headphones that I am using right now are planar magnetics and that is not because I don’t like dynamic headphones or that those are weaker in technology, that is not true. I just feel connected to my music a lot more with them. I still didn’t listen to all dynamic headphones or to all planar-magnetics so I am still open-minded. I know a day will come when I will have goosebumps all over my body listening to some dynamic headphones as I am having right now with an LCD-4 from Audeze, that day will surely come, but not yet. I do appreciate some good measurements; I do appreciate linearity and I do appreciate all the technicalities a transducer can have in a headphone or speaker form. But I care the most if that acoustic membrane will be capable of creating music and emotions.