Year in Review 2024

Click pic to enlarge. This is an older iteration. Top shelf, Kondo M7, PJ Miaolai A4; middle, SMPS, 6P6P Preamp, Philips AK601 CDP; lower, BRZ FU-50 Amp. Flanks are vintage Rogers 15-ohm LS3/5A.

2024 in Review

Season's Greetings Time flies, and in my case that ought to be frightening, but I cherish every day, especially with music around. Yes, this recent stretch has seen me in relatively reasonable shape, as evidenced by thirst for good food for the body and soul (music). I wish you all well.

Giving Thanks Foremost, I want to thank our writers for contributing. Especially ELO, who is basically tireless in his tweaking - a hard act to follow. I thank too all you readers who sent words of encouragement during difficult times (Vivek, here's one for u).

What's Up Shawn P has a surprise article up his sleeve. ELO has another on his beloved "Studer" cable. As for Me, there are so many articles that I want to write or am composing in my head (not just audio), but only a fraction can be realized. I am also taking short trips when treatment allows, having just traveled to Shantou 汕头 and Shanwei 汕尾, and going on a short trip to Taipei in a few days. Perhaps that's worth a short blip and a few pics. As you can see from the top pic, I haven't stopped building my systems either. Litmus Tests for El-Cheapo Chinese Gear For the 3 years of 2021-2023, basically I had built an all-Chinese el-cheapo system in Shenzhen without reference to my usual higher-end gear. NOW, you can see that I have transposed most of the cheap stuff to Hong Kong, where they face much more expensive gear. You already see the Kondo Preamp, and stuff like Sun Audio Amps shall follow when I get a friend to move them from the old house. How do the cheap stuff fare? Surprisingly well! There will be articles on that.

Without further ado, the Year in Review below

Best Sound It has got to be at the place of SinG (Taimonsing). Highly unusual gear that are eye- and ear-openers. Read one of the visits here

Trend of the Year For me, this is the year of the Bluetooth (here). Having lived and experienced cheap Chinese gear for a long time, here are my General Thoughts.

Power Supply ELO has an article on LPS vs SMPS, and praises iFi. My own experience with more robust SMPS units have been great (here), and I urge you to get one, if not more.

Gear of the Year has to be the BT/DAC Douk U4 (aka PJ Miaolai A4). If you have not read about it before, I urge you to read all the (many) bits in this blog. It's actually quite astonishingly good, and I have paired it with Kondo! I should mention that my great NYC friend and analog guru Andy, who's super picky, got not one but two and is totally satisfied for its use downstairs with horns (he uses WE tubes, which I don't have here). For a one box solution, I highly recommend the PJ Miaolai A7 (I use it almost exlusively in SZ). And BT Antenna should not be regarded as accesories, rather MUSTs. Even a generic one will enhance the BT experience, not to mention the Kinnie (here).

1:1 Transformers are permanent fixtures in our systems. Read about UMI here. Less resolving but even more musical is Reisong (here).

Audio Technica Sound Burger This has surprisingly musical performance. Those with cramped spaces now have no excuse not to play with analog!

Have Fun!