Agreed, this product is ground breaking (as you have mentioned). For most folks after a few hours of consultation and listening they choose this product (Note: I don't sell gear I make recommendations based on clients room #1, budget, and how they enjoy their collection)...

Vinyl v.s. CD/DVD/SACD/(PCM audio / DAT 32,44.1,48 and 96kHz sampling) is : stylus v.s. optical element/helical scan drum, Signal Noise ratio, Dynamic range, Cover LP case info v.s. multi ID data. To me Vinyl is more emotion important than its quality, but its personal. A vinyl recorded signed by the music artist itself is so much valuable.

I recently bought a test vinyl from Pioneer i owned during the '70s. Great to hear Greensleeves again. Testing my ears on a audio sweep generator (20-20kHz) and I have to admit my ears are not that good as 50 years ago. At 8kHz my hearing drops down. Clean my ears dayly or weekly. Probably waisted my ears in decades before on Pioneer SE 305. I fix many vintage audio devices made in the '70 and later. Bring them as far as good to the state when they left the assembly line. Recap of power supply and amplifier section, equalizer, loudspeaker crossfilters, belts and pinchroller. Protect high end amplifier inside by adding copper shield against high frequency from smart phone devices. (Me, former technician SonyNL 1983-2010).

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I've thoroughly enjoyed playing these tracks on my modest system. I could list the main Hi Fi main items I've purchased over the last 40 years or so on two hands, most of them still with me, so most of the time these days I'm testing my interconnects or loudspeaker cables. I do have a track, one of many I listen to following any equipment changes I make that is good for checking clarity/resolution. The track is Peter Asplund's Lullaby for Melina from his All my Septembers album. Forgive me for my lack of knowledge of the structure of the track, but what I listen out for is towards the end of the repeat of the first phrase, from timestamp 0:54 to 0:57. What I hear is something that maybe isn't part of the intended track, but rather something that sounds like part of a stray conversation that's been picked up during the recording of the track. I'd love to know if anyone has ever noticed this odd sound, and if so, is it a spoken voice or some other sound from instruments in the studio. Many thanks.

Hi very interesting video.. Personally I'd prefer the rega over the other other two. For me at least, it has far less negatives . I do like the look of the Cyrus and its practicality as it can be placed almost anywhere. The project has too many boxes for me and placing the CD into it means its lid is at 90° . Meaning the device placement is even more restricted than any of the others here. But for me the most important factor is price for level of function and fidelity . I just can't see why you'd spend double, is the sound so much better? But perhaps the choice is at the end of the day just down to personal preference..

Good old Pinkeltje ( a famous gnome about which many books were written )

Bought my player in the mid '80s & never looked back. Today i have the Sony dvp-ns575p s dvd/cd player. It's probably close to 20 years old.

What I would give to listen to this album with your set up 😭

"Air conditioning isn't good for the world's resources"... 😂🙄🙄🙄 I bet this dude loves Starmer.

Here's another Paul Simon: Duncan

You should check out RAYE and her 2023 album My 21st Century Blues

It's interesting when discussing audio essentially Vinyl vs CD. We do not talk about the humble cassette tape. Which has now become obsolete as a medium. I hear the audiophiles in the room scoffing. I recently played a Simply Red cassette on my vintage B&o system (more scoffing). Which I have not listened to for 30 years. I was amazed by the clarity and musicality of a new flame. In the same way the static pops & crackles from vinyl gives you audible pleasure. The faint hiss of a tape should not be underestimated in providing a similar feeling.

Il ne sait même pas lire la pochette du disque qu'il présente : ce n'est pas Steven Kovarich mais Stephen Kovacevich. Après cela, j'ai tout coupé. Ne perdons pas notre temps

Great analysis. Thanks a lot. But I'm surprised you missed the reference to spirited away, the film, in the song CHIHIRO. I find the connection between that song and the great Japanese animation film to be fascinating, but I'd like to learn more about it...

Sunscreen. David Orlowsky, Daniel Shelter, Tommy Baldu.

‘Enjoy the experience’ says it all. I sit down In my ‘listening room’ to play LPs and CDs on my system but I play 45s on a dansette type thing because that’s how I remember them when I bought them all those years ago; if there is a hidden bit of cor anglais in Anarchy in the UK I really don’t want to hear it !

Great review! I’m looking at the Pro-ject RS2 as a transport into a Mola Mola Makua via AES EBU. Or am I wasting money on an expensive transport vs any cheaper options with AES?

The Hi Fi police are coming and you have to ship your pass lab to me. Ha!

Thanks for alerting us to the fast that it draws 200w to deliver less than 25w. Shocking.. hard pass

I'm glad I found this video, because I feel the exact same way...I'm in my mid-forties and knew nothing about Billie. Somehow fell into this album and it's a masterpiece! This young lady and her brother are amazing musical poets. I'm a fan forever

28:29 you’re right 😭😭😭

Han Bennink Spooky drums

I ranked my listening focussing on Vocal placement and level of sibilance, Brass differentiation and smoothness, Drums brush work and cymbals and over all tonal balance when I totted up my scores I got the following completely subjective first reaction: Toping D90MkIII 23.5/30; Topping D10 Balanced 21.5/30; SMSLD400EX 24/30; Sugden DAP800 23/30; Pontus 15th 24.5/30... I wasn't sure of the Brass on the Pontus, so I listened again and dropped it back half a mark thinking I had been too generous so ended at 24/30. I know it's not scientific but I feel the differences are there, although not easy to spot and not neccessarily a flaw, more a difference in presenatation which either appealed straight away to me or left me wanting just a llittle more from the presentation. I have no axe to grind and I suspect I could be happy with most any of these components. As I am just starting my journey into streaming to sit alongside my TT and CD player. I am still working on what is the sweet spot for a streamer only and a standalone DAC; what is the cost ratio that I should be looking for between the two and are thier synergies to be discovered between certain streamers and DAC's. Or perhaps a one box solution can compete in this space.This is going to be a tough purchase or purchases for me. Thank you Harley, for going to so much effort, this helps a great deal. I have money burning a hole in my pocket and desperate to get this addition right.

Somewhat different to the music described here but maybe for fans of electronica. I like to use the first two tracks from the album ‘Are You Shpongled’ by Shpongle. Lots of synths and suble effects panning aroung the soundstage plus some voice and lovely flute playing as well as plenty bass and dynamics. Many systems struggle with these tracks.

Sr, you are so wise and full of knowledge. I think I’m going to need this kind of breakdown will all o her albums. And actually, a lot of pop albums that have made history in music. Thank you so much for doing this content

Thank you, Harley, for a wonderful & insightful discussion about the art of listening. I truly believe that in order for the audio industry to survive & thrive is to have people like you to give public talks about the virtues of good audio & its ability to enrich the listening experience. You have an exceptional ability to communicate the joy of musical reproduction to an audience of non audiophiles that’s absent in hi-end audios. I truly enjoyed all your videos. My favorite is The Beatle’s,”And I Love Her.” Just hearing George Harrison’s playing the classic guitar so vividly on my system is intoxicating. Scribed. ✌🏼& 🎼

Neil Diamond’s Soolaimon is particularly deep regarding percussion while not drowning out his vocals. Not sure if all instruments being used- what do you think the metallic string sound emanating from?

Having 35 dB to 50 dB feels quite high, when I measure with a calibrated microphone I have 26dB in my living room.

Harleydidyoureismsckwithacpyidivorcepspersmyguesherwuestiocoul haveacontentawayfromyoururotherlo good answer though😅

Sugden all the way 🎉

Flim & the BB‘s Tricycle.

Ho provato vari amplificatori integrati e ascoltato vari tipi di configurazioni, anche particolarmente costose (per amplificare). Sono gli altoparlanti a determinare la qualità del suono. È vero che se esistono nei sistemi di amplificazione delle "sfumature", queste vengono riprodotte e si rivelano (dipendono) dagli altoparlanti. Io ho un impianto economico ma sono un fortunato possessore di una coppia di rari altoparlanti RAM. Sono ben definite su tutta la gamma audio. Le amplifico con un piccolo amplificatore in classe D. Non saprei dire di quale qualità, se è alta fedeltà sto parlando, ma è un ensemble molto gradevole. Saluti da Roma.

Does age have anything to do with the ability to appreciate beauty? Not in my experience. I discovered Billie at 39! There's no 'our' music or 'their' music, it's all for us! Love the production of this album, lots of gorgeous little bits I want more of. End of WildFlower - I want a whole song from that! Amazing work :0 Thx

Someone still love the FM radio broadcasting sound quality too.

The Pop music of specially in the 1970s and 1980s, and also the music system of 2 channels Hi-fi stereo pure pleasant sound of Deck System., has really enlightened this universe so rapidly and fast, in all the ways, because those specific certain frequencies and vibration created by those years were Excellent and Great.

I stopped and listened to ‘Linda Paloma’, which I have not heard before. It’s a perfect test song, and challenging. Funny choosing Diane Reeves and Paul Simon, who I worked with as well as Tom Jones. This is awesome.😊

Looking at Sugden to replace my system, this was extremely helpful, thank you. The Sugden Masterclass PA-4 is my choice for vinyl, do you have a review of this?

Hello sir. I couldnt possibly care less about Golden globes, academy awards and all this nonsense as a relevant proof of quality. The intimate experience I can have with a piece of art is all that truly matters. Competition in art is wrong. Elevating someone and their work based of fame, sells, views and any other metric is really detrimental to true art, and the reason why this is seen as an "industry". Like we're manufacturing plastic bags or something.

sugden sounds the best

Would it be a good combination of the Musical Fidelity A1 with the Sibelius speakers behind you?

If I had to pick just one track at this time it would be the fourth movement of Mahler's symphony number one performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Ricardo Muti. This track will challenge a sound system in many ways. Dynamics, timbral accurscy clarity, bass, the ability to play a large ensemble with many instruments playing at the same time. If I had to pick one vocal track it would be Kiri TeKanawa singing Rachmaninoff vocalize. Both tracks are examples where music rises to the level of a fine art, the only justification for a high accuracy sound system IMO.

Ho avuto alcuni giradischi. A me sembra che la qualità sonora dipenda quasi esclusivamente dalla testina. Attualmente ho un giradischi di "media" qualità Denon. Ho montato una Stanton 681 EEE. Per quello che posso dire il risultato "in ascolto" dipende dall'amplificatore e soprattutto dalle casse. Il mio impianto è molto economico. Saluti da Roma e buon 2025.

Well, I understand that this video is about one year old, but still would like to make my comments. Thanks a lot Harley for taking the time! I’m about to make this decision and clearly puts me in NAIA. Also, not from personal experience, but from what I read, the difference with Aura shall be noticeable. Now, the most controversial comment, I’m sure! Somehow I’ve got the felling that reproducibility is more consistent/reliable with Naia than with Naiad… I’ll take any attacks on me! 😝

I downloaded tracks to my iPad and listening with AKG 240 studio and Drangonfly red DAC my ears telling me nd7 sure has the warm mm sonic tones, with the jazz sounds great, of course the Aphelion 2 sounds more open and detailed and a 8x the cost as it should, I personally listen to Rock, Punk and Metal, I think I could live with the nd7 as I switch between the Exact and Ania with an Aria phono, I will keep an eye out for a low hrs nd7 in Australia to compare all 3 All the best for 2025!

Beautiful exploration of her music. Thank you. I love love love that you balance your comments between song, melodies, instrumentation, arrangements, and lyrics in service to feeling and message. Lots of people review music but very few pay such wonderful attention to words, meaning and message. Thank you!

I'm glad you did a video on preamps. So important and often overlooked. And glad you threw a few tube pre's in there. I've got Don Sachs' tube preamp, a further development of Roy Mottram's SP14 linestage. It's hard to explain how much better everything sounds, whether it's streaming, CD player or turntable. And it's not super expensive.

As a Billie Eilishbqnd classical music fan, this video made me so excited, thank you! Thank you for your recommentations too

Volodos. There’s a pirate recording of the andante on You Tube and it really is another level of

Denafrips Pontus 15th, is my absolute favorite.. Why? I just ordered one.. ;-)