Subjective Listening Tests - Electronics Overview
Subjective Listening Tests
For our listening tests, we are required to select other gear from our collection to set up a complete system. We decided on:
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Speakers: AV123 Elt 525m Stereo monitors
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Subwoofer: Edifier S Series.
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Amplifier: TCA Gizmo Class D stereo amplifier
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Cabling: JPS Ultraconductor2 Series
We used the system for specific testing but also used it for day to day audio tasks and every time the system was being used we commented on how good it sounded. The MKII sounds quite warm without sounded washed out. There is still a great deal of clarity and detail present which makes the test tracks very musical.
The Spitfire MKII has a very open, airy analog sound signature. Instrument separation is clean, no noticeable mud or smearing of the imaging. The DAC offers a crystal clear signature while avoiding harshness or that grating high range �digital� sound that some DAC�s seem cursed with. The bass signature is pretty tight and articulate without bloat or boominess.
We found the signature very musical and can get you be-bopping when you are listening to this DAC module.
We tested the Spitfire MKII first and then we added the Bravo digital processor for further testing. The SF MKII sounded great, but when we added the Bravo DAP, we noticed further enhancements to the sound signature. We noticed improvements in the signatures overall clarity, detail and soundstage. We noticed and improvement in the images focus and layering.
The Bravo DAP and the SF MKII provide and excellent sounding desktop system during our testing.
Electronics Overview
We like to open up the devices we are reviewing to show our readers the designs and explain to what they are actually buying with their hard earned audio dollars. Nice that FSA included a handy wrench to easily open this unit for our inspection. Nurse, time to operate!
Spitfire MKII
DIR9001 Receiver Chip
The DIR9001 is a 24 bit, 96Khz digital audio interface receiver chip that offers low jitter of 50ps using a Low-Jitter Clock-Recovery System. This digital receiver ship has been seen in many higher end DAC�s we have seen lately and seems to be a favorite among designers.
