Reviewer: Marja & Henk

Financial Interests: click here

Sources: PS Audio PWT; Dr. Feickert Blackbird MKII/DFA 1o5/Zu DL-103; Phasure XX-PC;

DAC: Phasure NOS1 DAC; PS Audio Direct Stream DAC [loaner]; Pink Faun DAC 2.32 [in for review]

Streaming sources: XXHighEnd; iTunes; Devialet AIR; La Rosita Beta; Qobuz Desktop, Tidal.com; Pink Faun AV

Streamer [in for review];

Preamp/integrated/power: Audio Note Meishu with WE 300B (or AVVT, JJ, KR Audio 300B output tubes); dual Devialet

D-Premier; Hypex Ncore 1200 based monoblocks; Trafomatic Kaivalya; Trafomatic Reference One; Trafomatic Reference

Phono One; Music First Passive Magnetic; PTP Audio Blok20

Speakers: Avantgarde Acoustic Duo Omega; Arcadian Audio Pnoe; Podium Sound One; WLM Sub 12; Sounddeco Alpha

F3; dual Zu Submission MKI; Soltanus Virtuoso ESL

Cables: complete loom of ASI LiveLine cables; full loom of Crystal Cable cables; full loom of Nanotec Golden Strada;

Audiomica Pearl Consequence interconnect; Audiomica Pebble Consequence; full loom of Oyaide Tunami cables [in for

review]

Power line conditioning: PS Audio Powerplant Premier; PS Audio Humbuster III; IsoTek Evo 3 Syncro; AudioMica Allbit

Consequence

Equipment racks: Solid Tech and ASI amplifier and TT shelf

Indispensable accessories: Furutech DeMag; ClearAudio Double Matrix; Franc Audio Ceramic Disc Classic; Shakti

Stones; Akiko Audio sticks; Kemp polarity checker

Online Music purveyors: Qobuz.com, Tidal, Bandcamp.com, Amazon.co.uk

Room treatment: Acoustic System International resonators, sugar cubes, diffusers

Room size: ca. 14.50 x 7.50m with a ceiling height of 3.50m, brick walls, wooden flooring upstairs, ca 7 x 5m with a

ceiling height of 3.50m, brick walls and concrete floor downstairs.

Price of review item: AV Streamer €3’990, DAC 2.32 €3’890, extra DAC 2.32 power supply €1’890. Bridge PC

extension board starts at €275, HDMI cable IL-1 I2S €795

Even for a hifi company, Pink Faun seems like a rather odd name. But, it’s definitely hard to forget. Which must be the point.

One of us here used to work for an IT enterprise called Pink Elephant. That name not only stood out in the high-tech

environment, it worked like a sobriquet and helped open doors to many customers. In the end of course, a name is just a

name. Whatever stands behind it should do the real work. In the Elephant’s arena, it had been services. For Pink Faun, it is

audio equipment. Based in central Holland, Pink Faun make their headquarters in an area which for Dutch flat-lined

sensibilities is thought rather hilly and thus imbued with pretty steep descents on the road. These HQ are shared with the

Triple M Audio Shop. Our three Dutch M&Ms stand for music, mind and emotion. Upon entering the premises, it is clear how

the people behind both companies must think differently from your standard audio merchants. Right behind the front door

sits a combined desk/workbench cluster. One of the seats is the niche of founder and Pink Faun designer Mattijs de Vries.

Another seat is for the commercial man, Jord Groen. A third is for Clemens Huijding. Clemens is not only the co-owner but in

charge also of designing their cables and loudspeakers.

Mattijs goes a long way back in the annals of hifi history and is internationally known for his love of tubes. His previous

company MachMat got absorbed in the current setup. Physical proof for all that history comes from their storage room.

Neatly organized, here live over 50’000 tubes, making Triple M into one of the largest tube suppliers in Europe for new, NOS

and used tubes. Of course all bottles are tested before they go on sale and a variety of tube testers are on hand. Where

Mattijs designs all Pink Faun equipment, a special team in a separate room build it all piece by piece and by hand. And when

we say equipment, we mean everything needed in an audio system: cables, speakers and electronics. It’s a one-stop shop. To

support vertical integration for production and their repair department, they have a huge warehouse with a reportedly

5'000'000 parts. Two listening rooms complete a building where all available space is occupied by shelves stocked with sales

items from Pink Faun and other manufacturers. That the company is successful even in these latter days is shown by the

number of employees. There are at least 10 men and women on staff and their figure is growing. Triple M have a second show

room in the North East of Belgium to accommodate Belgian and Luxembourgeois audio lovers. There are even plans to open

something in Poland as well. What that will be, exactly, remains to be announced.

Another expansion that's matured already is a cooperation with Dutch pianist Jan Vayne. Vayne does not merely play the

piano and church organ, he also designs audio applications for churches, schools, hospitals and more. These electronics and

cables are OEM’d by Pink Faun and branded Vayneaudio. One of the more compelling applications is a combination of

Hauptwerk virtual pipe organ software and a full set of Pink Faun-based amplification and speakers. But there’s more still. A

virtual pipe organ is a software program which interfaces samples of recorded actual pipe organs from around the world to

contain their authentic venue sound. That software runs on a computer whose output hits a DAC before it gets amplified.

Computers are notoriously poor audio environments. There is high RF/EMI, the power supplies are unstable, interfaces

dubious. In short, not the best combination to bring a virtual pipe organ to life.

The associated challenges coincided nicely with Pink Faun's R&D to have Mattijs design an I²S interface for a personal

computer. This bridge as Mattijs calls it is a plug-in board built around the CMedia CM8888 multi-channel audio processor.

This chip set is often seen in gaming computers but Mattijs learnt that with the right peripherals, it is very capable of

outputting a high-quality music signal. So he feeds it from a separate power supply that is heavily stabilized. Another separate

power supply is dedicated to a TXCO precision clock. These power supplies get their power not from the motherboard but

from a separate feed off the main supply. Power coming from the PCI interface of the motherboard passes a set of filtering

capacitors but is otherwise left unused to further stabilize the computer board’s local power supply.

The basic idea behind the bridge was to skip as many signal conversion stages as possible, hence the decision to use the I²S

interface. A DAC chip’s input must be I²S compliant. With an S/PDIF or USB source, the signal must first be converted by the

digital receiver chip. Skipping this conversion step renders the signal less prone to distortion and eliminates one source of

jitter. To pipe the I²S signal from bridge to DAC, Mattijs chose HDMI. This format supports 19 conductors and the advised

maximum length for an HDMI cable is 5 meters. Before the signal is spit out via the HDMI port, it gets buffered for even more

stability. Depending on a customer’s needs, the Pink Faun bridge can be configured for 2-channel or multi-channel use. The

CM8888 chip supports up to 14 outgoing channels of which the AV Streamer uses 8 to accommodate 7.1 by means of a special

firmware version. Though the streamer is designed for audio and video, we only assessed the audio and more specifically the

2-channel capabilities (Mattijs uses his streamer at home with a Barco F35 projector).

A bridge module is lovely but when stuck into a standard PC, a lot of hard work put into that bridge gets nullified. Therefore

Mattijs went all out and designed his Ultimate PC for audio and video streaming. The heart of the AV Streamer is an ASRock

motherboard. An AMD Radeon 12-core CPU running at 3.7GHz handles all computing duties. There are no noisy fans, hence

the CPU is cooled passively via heat pipes which terminate in the massive finned heat sink at the right of the streamer’s

cabinet. Also on the motherboard are 16GB of RAM. All software is installed on a 120GB Samsung SSD for another noise-free

solution. The software includes the Windows 8.1 Pro OS and JRiver Media Center v20.

The streamer’s cabinet measures 45cm wide, 41.5cm deep and including footers 15cm high. It is compartmentalized into

basically three areas. One is for the aforementioned motherboard and covers slightly more than a quarter of the total

footprint. A forth part is the bay where optional hard disks can find a place like a NAS for instance. Such a setup will challenge

the 0dB noise emission of the streamer. In the photos, the disk bay is vacant because all our sources were external. The rest of

the interior is partitioned by a heavy 6mm aluminium panel to form the power supply bay. Here Mattijs went all the way and

designed a PC power supply unlike any we’ve seen. Two massive toroidal transformers dominate the scene to compete with a

truckload of capacitors for attention. The left heat sink is not just cosmetic and in charge of cooling the PSU. Have you ever

seen such power cabling inside any PC? At the front there’s the company logo and one recessed blank aluminium switch

surrounded by pink (what else) LEDs. The LED in the middle of the top row is the HDD activity indicator. If you’re looking for

the hard disk in the photos, it sits left of the CPU and is equipped with a white sticker.

At the back there are the standard ASRock motherboard’s i/o. That means a PS/2 shared keyboard/mouse port, two each USB

2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, VGA and DVI-D display outputs, HDMI i/o, a Gigabit Ethernet port , S/PDIF and analog audio jacks. And

of course there are the I²S outputs from the bridge and an IEC power inlet. A nice detail for Schuko users is the built-in power

polarity checker.

For review we received an AV Streamer configured for 2-channel use. Hence only one of the bridge’s three HDMI ports was

active. We didn’t need or want center/surrounds. Stereo left/right would set us up properly. Moreover, the output is based on

TTL signaling. TTL stands for Transistor-Transistor Logic. This communication is based on the presence/absence of a voltage

with respect to ground to determine whether a signal is read as 1 or 0. PS Audio which we’ll get back to later use LVDS Low-

Voltage Differential Signaling whose 1 or 0 values are determined by the voltage differential of two signal-carrying wires.

Mattijs went TTL for its better sound with short cables up to 3 meters. For longer cables, VLDS is the signal transfer protocol of

choice.

Because we had no DAC which could handle TTL via HDMI, Pink Faun shipped us their own DAC 2.32 complete with dual power

supplies. To make the party complete, we also received a full set of Pink Faun cables - power cords, RCA and XLR interconnects

and of course a long HDMI cable to go between streamer and DAC. Straight out of the box the AV Streamer was ready to play

music off a hard disk. The pre-installed JRiver Music Center just had to be told where to locate music to auto-index files. We

connected a 3TB hard disk full of FLAC and WAV files to one of the USB 3.0 ports at the back of the streamer. Via the JRiver

menu, indexing started quickly and within no time thousands of files where accessible via JRiver based on album title or artist.

Our music files are stored on HDD as <root folder>\<artist>\<album name>\<tracks>, with an album cover in the <album>

folder.

Pre-installed too was the Pink Faun I²S bridge software which includes a complementary 64-bit compatible ASIO driver. That

became the output for JRiver. Next we configured JRiver to upsample any format lower than 24/192 to max. Windows comes

with many services and default settings that are not necessary to function as a streamer facilitator. Pink Faun have stripped

their Windows OS of many unnecessary items, leaving just the hifi-relevant ones for a lean operator. We think that Microsoft

did a fairly good job with Windows 8 regarding stability and protection but missed out on the UI. We cannot get used to the

tiles approach so installed an add-on to revert to their classic interface. That plus the provided wireless keyboard with built-in

track pad made working the streamer easy. If desired, a remote control option can be installed on an iPad.

With the music library now known to JRiver, we set up the rest of the first audition system. The Pink Faun HDMI interlink was

just like all the other Dutch cables and very carefully assembled. Overall their cables were supple, soft, quite heavy and

expertly terminated. With respect to the HDMI cable, we should mention that it is a 4-wire affair. Each is individually sheathed

in a woven tress. We suspect that the internal wiring is of the same non-inductive tinned copper like all other Pink Faun cables.

The supplied power cords go a step further and are braided of 7 sheathed wires which help make them extremely flexible to

hang limped off power receptacles without applying any wiry torque.

The DAC 2.32 shipped with dual-mono power supplies to avoid negative influences from a shared power supply. This approach

doubles as an upgrade path. Start with one power supply for both channels, evolve to dual mono later. The DAC itself is built

around four PCM1795 converters per channel. PCM is accepted up to 32-bit 192kHz, DSD64 and DSD128 are equally welcome.

The output stage contains NOS Sylvania Gold 6J6WA/6101/ECC91. All input formats can be delivered as I²S over HDMI; or as

S/PDIF via AES/EBU, coax or optical. Just like the additional power supply option, the DAC itself is upgradeable. Various plug-in

modules include the fully isolated 32-bit USB input card we received pre-installed. Another option is the number of paralleled

DAC chips which the converter can be upgraded to. The maximum is 32. The power supplies use female DB25 output

connectors and the DAC is equipped with a fixed pair of power umbilicals with male DB25 ends. At the front of the DAC sits an

LCD display between two toggle switches. These navigate the menu. Illumination intensity, input selection and system

information are easily accessible. All this plus the simple black anodized aluminium casings give the DAC stack a robust

professional look and feel. This is not your flimsy run-of-the-mill DIY stuff. No way!

From the DAC’s unbalanced output, we ran a short interconnect to the PTP Blok20 integrated 20wpc amp. From there the

Arcadian Audio Pnoe hornspeakers with sub 40Hz assistance from a pair of Zu Audio Submission subwoofers became part of

the initial audition. In JRiver we selected Bill Frisell’s Guitar in the Space Age. Playing started instantly. The sound was open,

detailed and the virtual image seemed no different than when played from our resident streaming solution. We went through

a variety of music styles ranging from classical orchestral works to some mad opera, then Nordic Jazz. In this setting, the Pink

Faun made clear that it was no beautifier. A flawed production was mercilessly lambasted - tied to the whipping post as it

were. And no, Frisell was not the bad recording we had to endure. The voicing of the streamer/DAC combination, the audio

signature of its designer, did not favour compressed thus deadened musical expressions. But well-recorded and produced

music thrived and came alive. Tiny nuances gave away venue clues, enhancing the virtual landscape that unfolded between

and behind the loudspeakers. Who needs surround surround when one can get enveloped by two channels working in perfect

harmony? What about CD quality? Is it really the laughing stock of the industry which wishes to resell us re-whatever'd issues

of old favourites? To our mind, not. There is so much to retrieve from the humble format still that it’s just a matter of the

proper tools for the job.

Which brings us to the next step in our assessment of the AV Streamer. How would it work with Internet streaming? We use

two purveyors for streaming content. One is the original French Qobuz who offer quite a lot of world music not well known

beyond the French borders though retrieving that music from their vaults is not always easy. The second is the newer Tidal

with its own limitations. Neither solution is yet perfect on user friendliness, transparency about what is actually available for

streaming in your country rather than verboten based on all manner of jurisdictional licensing crap. For example, say you find

an interesting piece of music on Qobuz and attempt to play it only to be presented with the message ‘Erreur serveur inconnue’

(Shai Maestro Road to Ithaca); or to learn that playback is restricted to MP3 quality or offers only 30-second teaser samples.

Otherwise, no complaints. Tidal has other issues stemming from the recall of the original desktop app which now inserts

Chrome as the default web browser. Where Qobuz have their own Desktop player which allows for off-line use, Tidal rely on

an Internet connection via Chrome. Twaddle aside, both work when all is happy, which is to say most of the time.

So, we had to configure both Qobuz Desktop and Chrome on the Streamer. For web access, we connected the Ethernet cable

which taps into our downstairs router. Then we used Internet Explorer for the first and last time to set Firefox as our default

browser. With that and a few security plug-ins, we had Qobuz Desktop and Chrome running but insured to pick legit versions

of these programs. Qobuz was easily configured and routed to JRiver. Tidal was a bit more cumbersome as its default system

sound device is used by the Chrome browser. But in the end we could switch between local files from HDD or the Qobuz and

Tidal streaming subscriptions. As a bonus, once the Streamer was connected to the wobbly web, JRiver executed an automatic

software update. In use, JRiver should always be booted up before one launches Qobuz Desktop and Chrome/Tidal.

Running streaming content through JRiver had FLAC files upsampled to 24/192 and processes as WAV as duly confirmed by the

DAC 2.32’s display. Oversampling and other processing occurred in the Pink Faun DACc whose ASCR equipped with its own

TCXO clock converts all data to the preferred 32/192 format of the PCM1795 chips. The best setting for JRiver or any other

player software is thus to output native resolution. Qobuz offered far more control over local buffering and content handling

than Tidal which relies on the underlying Chrome and Windows OS settings. With the intervention of JRiver however, certain

Tidal omissions can be overcome. Still, we are waiting for the relaunch of Tidal’s Desktop app. But in the end we could switch

quickly between all three sources to start our comparisons.

Running off HDD straight into JRiver books a disadvantage of noise since spinning hard drives are noisy. To load music, the disc

has to spin up, when done, spin down again until the next load buffer is due. With network-accessible storage aka NAS, the

disk/s can live in a location other than the streamer. As long as there’s a network connection, it doesn’t matter. Otherwise,

large RAM can reduce rebuffering when a player software reads large amounts of music content into so-called memory play.

Streaming off the Internet cloud can be prone to network interruptions. For some reason we suffer Qobuz unavailability on

Sunday afternoons when, for an hour or so, our network connection does the jojo. Here local storage comes in handy which

Qobuz accommodate. Whenever an album or track is streamed, a copy thereof is stored on a designated HDD – or SSD as in

Pink Faun’s case. When these files are made available offline, one can play them even when the Internet connection is lost.

Mind you, these stored files are encrypted for copyright reasons and no, we have never tried to decrypt them. With Tidal,

there’s no music when the Internet connection disappears. We’re lucky that Holland hosts a stable Internet infrastructure

though our area is without glass-fibre option to relegate all Internet traffic to telephony lines. Here it’s a bonus that most

people today no longer use wired phone to leave plenty of bandwidth for other purposes.

Sonically there were differences, albeit very small. For us playing from local HDD or via Qobuz was indistinguishable. Switching

back and forth between either source playing the same album revealed no cues as to which was playing. Comparing either

against the Tidal version did show a little difference. Tidal sharpened the sound with a little more emphasis on the higher

registers. This was most probably caused by a different approach of JRiver. These impressions were collected using the PTP

Audio Blok20 integrated chip amplifier. One of the reasons for our purchase of it was its tube-like character. The sound is

nicely mellow on top. The mid and lower midrange become more prominent without getting warm. Our inventory also holds a

pair of Hypex nCore 1200-based mono amps. These are the predecessors to the long awaited now available Mola Mola Kaluga.

To get the most useful volume control over these powerful amplifiers (1200wpc into 4Ω), we combine them with our custom-

commissioned Music First Audio passive magnetic preamplifier. The nCore amps only accept balanced connections, the PTP

Audio only single-ended. To turn the whole chain balanced, we used the AES/EBU output from the Pink Faun 2.32 DAC running

the Pink Faun tinned copper XLR cable to the Music First pre. Another balanced run of Oyaide Terzo V2 leashed up the Dutch

class D amps. Loudspeaker cables remained Nanotec Systems SP777 into the Pnoe horns, Crystal Cable into the Zu Submission

subs.

What the nCore amplifiers sorely lack is a sound of their own. In our opinion, they are the closest thing yet to the mythical

straight wire with gain. We kicked off with Tidal and again encountered some sharpness in that same little edge which was

most prominent with cymbals. John Patitucci’s latest Brooklyn release features Brian Blade on drums (Qobuz actually list him

as the album’s main artist). Switching between Tidal and Qobuz a few times made clear that Qobuz held the musical lead. With

real muscle amps in the system now, there was as expected more control and slam. Also there was more magnifying power.

Any flaw was no longer masked by sweetness or covered in love but right in your face. To further examine the capabilities of

the AV streamer, we had another test in mind. PS Audio support the I²S-via-HDMI connection with their Perfect Wave

Transport and matching Perfect Wave DAC. Here it had been completely clear from the start that this was favourable over any

form of S/PDIF which the combination offers as well. Recently PS Audio went a step further with their Direct Stream DAC. Still

offering the I²S-over-HDMI input, this converts all data to DSD. Compared to the Pink Faun, that’s a different concept but I²S

over HDMI is a shared factor. Only the protocol differs, with TLL for Pink Faun and LVDS with a twist for PS Audio (the twist is

the left-right switch on the HDMI receiver end).

When we informed Pink Faun of our desire to asses their AV Streamer in combination with the PS Audio DSD converter,

Mattijs offered assistance. Hence we took his streamer to Pink Faun’s headquarters for an upgrade. They installed a new

bridge which took a few minutes. Instead of the multi-channel output from the bridge—L/R front, center and surround—it

now sported the TTL output for the DAC 2.32, standard LVDS and as a third option, a left/right-inverted LVDS output aimed at

the PS Audio implementation. After returning home with the upgraded streamer, we ran it for a few days to give the new

bridge module a chance to settle in. For the previous setup, JRiver had done the upsampling. With the everything-DSD DAC in

place, that task became obsolete. Again this DAC converts all data to 30 bits at 10 x the standard DSD rate or 28.224MHz to

push conversion noise deeply into the ultrasonic sphere. Before this signal hits a low-pass filter to convert back to analog, it is

down-sampled to DSD128 at 5.6448MHz. The FPGA which does all this work has plenty of bit headroom to dedicate 20 bits to

just volume control over 100 x 0.5dB steps across 120dB. In total, this DSP environment will process 50 bits of data density.

Hence we unchecked all boxes in JRiver that had previously been ticked to upsample for instance 16/44.1 to 32/196. The idea

was to feed the DSD with native content and free the streamer’s CPU of conversion duties. The less a computer is asked to do,

the quieter it will run. Also think of the way Peter Stordiau uses his streamer software. In XXHighEnd, all calculations are done

prior to actual playback. Source files are converted to their desired sample rate and bit depth, then written back to disk. From

there WAV files are read to memory and from there sent to the DAC via USB. At playback time, the CPU essentially idles.

Something like that was now possible too with the PS Audio DSD doing all the work. We restored the PTP Audio Blok20 to

repeat our auditions all over again. Once the desired music was found, be it from local storage via JRiver or the cloud via a

streaming service, playback was instant. Hit play, sit back and enjoy what’s coming at you. With the PS Audio DAC, we enjoyed

somewhat more dynamic power than with the DAC 2.32. On the other hand, the Dutch deck excelled at control and ease;

maturity comes closest. Still, we compared apples and oranges aka PCM via BurrBrown chips versus DSD via FPGA; a tube-

buffered output stage sans NFB versus a passive coupling transformer; and marginal vs. extreme upsampling. Returning to the

nCore, we tried both our passive magnetic and PS Audio’s lossless attenuator. Where the gainclone integrated played the

intimacy card, the class D monos scaled up the aural arena. Common to either setup was that Tidal became our least preferred

source compared to the local hard drive or Qobuz Desktop.

Given that we focused on the AV Streamer as the review subject, we will reiterate that it supports I²S over HDMI regardless of

DAC or converter type. In conclusion, we state that Pink Faun have succeeded in designing and building a multi-purpose

streamer of which we only explored the 2-channel audio capabilities which are super strong indeed. Operating it is as easy as

pie, no computer skill required. All that abstract Jazz is taken care of by the pre-install. Idling or at full boogie, the streamer

runs dead quiet to conceal the fact that it is really a computer in an amplifier enclosure. The innovative design and purpose of

the I²S bridge pay off big time and the multi-signaling option breaks any proprietary barriers to open the market for Pink Faun

and other DAC suppliers. For the future, an investment in the AV Streamer is sound because its platform is fully modular. New

hardware developments will plug in just like software upgrades do. The default JRiver software is adequate and user friendly.

When more or other options are desired, another player software may be installed in parallel. Pink Faun’s own ASIO driver is

the link between that and the final output. Streaming non-local sources is child’s play to support any newcomer to the market.

This puts the user in full control. In short, we loved it!

PS. In a subsequent email exchange with Mattijs, he suggested that we really ought to try his full Pink Faun setup with one of

our tube amplifiers. The DAC 2.32 is a zero-feedback design and so are our valve specimens. According to Mattijs, a full zero-

feedback setup will bring out the best in their kit. So after the formal auditions were over, we experimented with our Audio

Note Meishu and Trafomatic Reference One/Kaivalya options. It so happened that we listened to these late at night. The soft

glow of tubes in plain sight or through cover slits asked for dimmed lights and matching low volumes. Normally our tube amps

are doing chores in our analog corner whilst solid-state or chip-based amps are used with digital inputs. Here the Pink Faun

DAC with its tube buffer was a kind of hybrid. With analog sources, we think that a bit of character injected with a preamp or

power amp is no problem. Vinyl and the older recordings embedded in its grooves are chockfull of character already. Now we

added some character to our digital arena. Mind you, we have tuned our tube amps wherever possible for our own taste. That

is part of the fun in this hobby. Our Meishu is far from stock thanks to Peter van Willenswaard and some heavy tube rolling.

Ditto the Serbian Kaivalya monos.

Aside from listening at low volumes, we were lured to play classical music. One of the more memorable things we played was

pianist Javier Perianes with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo playing Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Lyrical

Pieces. A big orchestra at low levels is an adventure but the all-tube or better, zero-feedback system put up a very open and

clear virtual image of the Barbican Centre. This recording is a must hear. Overall, the combination of music arriving in bits (and

pieces) from somewhere in the Qobuz cloud, being put together again in the AV Streamer, converted to analog in the DAC

2.32, then amplified by tubes to generate enough power to have cones move the air, was a very rewarding experience. Maybe

even a bit magical as tubes have a certain magic about them, already for the fact that they change over time. We don’t really

notice that small deterioration until it is too late. This remains food for thought and an idea for a future review session...

Condition of component received: Excellent.

Reusability of packing: The review sample was hand delivered.

Website comments: in Dutch and English.

Human interactions: Very friendly and responsive, open to suggestions.

Remarks: JRiver can handle DSD natively, however it will convert it to 64-bit PCM during playback. As this is a waste of

CPU cycles, we did not use any DSD-formatted recording in our review sessions.