Some changes to my audiophile mindset have long been brewing. Since I started headlining SoundStage! Ultra, I’ve been slowly, slowly learning that (a) expensive doesn’t necessarily translate to better, and (b) much, if not most, accepted audiophile lore is categorically bullshit.
Although it’s ostensibly my job to report on the highest of high-end audio equipment, I’d end up feeling like a con man, like a shill for this stuff, if I didn’t at least try to create some sort of framework for defining and unearthing value. Also, I’d be a full-on failure if I continued propagating the audiophile myths that plague this sport.
So I’ve been keeping my eyes and ears open, absorbing knowledge from manufacturers and designers. In the course of my review-writing process, I’ve chatted with such industry heavyweights as Ed Meitner of EMM Labs, Anders Ertzeid of Hegel Music Systems, Heinz Lichtenegger of Pro‑Ject Audio Systems, and Viktor de Leeuw of International Audio Holding, which encompasses Siltech, Crystal Cable, Sphinx Audio Engineering, and HMS Elektronik. That’s just over the past year—and I’ve spoken with numerous others at audio shows.
These discussions have had the cumulative effect of making me reevaluate many of my audio worldviews. Just a couple of years back, my review system was exclusively analog. All of my listening in the reference rig was via LPs. I was proud of this. I was an analog snob, I guess.
Q: How do you know if someone is vegan?
A: Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.
This old joke also holds for lovers of vinyl—I did proselytize a bit. I still do, but for different reasons.
The trouble began when Doug Schneider talked me into assembling a digital front end for my reference rig. An obvious choice to get me started was an MA3 from Meitner Audio. The original plan was to start with this (admittedly already high-end) Roon Ready streamer and later upgrade it to one of EMM Labs’ even higher-end models. I wrote about the process of building this conglomeration of software and hardware back in January 2024. Rereading the three editorials that document that project, I can sense the fatalism that washed over me as I finally gave in.
You have to invite a vampire into your house, or so the legend goes.
So my reviewing habits have changed. I now listen to digital music about 50 percent of the time. If I’m not careful, that ratio could easily tilt to 75 percent or greater in favor of the dark side. I need to constantly be mindful to spin records. It’s not the sound quality; my VPI–DS Audio–EMM Labs analog chain is simply superb. It’s that the Roon‑MA3 setup is so convenient. Next thing you know, I’ll end up buying a quartz watch and retiring my manual-wind Speedmaster.
That’s where things have remained for a while, with me feeling somewhat like I’ve given up and lost a small part of my individuality. I still love my records, and there’s a point in every listening session where I look guiltily over my shoulder at my 5 × 5 Ikea Kallax rack that’s stuffed with LPs. Still, my system sounds fantastic. Every speaker that’s cycled through my room over the past few years has worked great, performing as well, if not better, than they’ve sounded at shows or at manufacturers’ facilities. So there’s no faulting the front end.
Another aspect of 21st-century technology has begun to infiltrate my house, and it’s even more insidious. A few months ago, I purchased a WiiM Amp Ultra to replace both my Logitech Squeezebox Touch and Hegel H120 integrated amp–DAC. The Squeezebox had gasped its last, and an integrated solution like the WiiM held great appeal. I wasn’t expecting much from this little guy, especially given its low price, but it surprised me—its appearance, build quality, feature set, and sound all flew far above its price point.
What I didn’t realize was that I had also invited the Amp Ultra’s RoomFit digital room-correction system into my house. Using the microphone on my Samsung S24 and WiiM’s attendant app, the WiiM ran a frequency sweep on each speaker and then calculated a correction curve to apply in the digital domain.
Now, I get the feeling that RoomFit isn’t a Dirac Live–quality piece of software and that it’s probably fairly rudimentary in its capabilities, but holy hell, does it work well on my main-floor system. I demoed RoomFit for my neighbor Rob during one of his visits, and he was astounded. He did not know that this DSP-implemented technology existed, and he was fascinated. The fact that RoomFit can be toggled on and off in real time was the cherry on top. Rob was sold.
As I mentioned in my March editorial, the inclusion of Dirac Live was one of the reasons I decided to obtain a loaner of NAD’s Masters M66 streaming preamplifier to use for my evaluation of the PMC MB2 SE speakers that had recently landed in Rob’s house. Rob’s kind offer to host the speakers in his house—his listening space being much larger than mine, so better able to accommodate large speakers like these PMCs—and to allow me free use of the room to review them made me want to repay him with an amplification chain that would keep him amused. When NAD shipped the M66, they fell for my pitch and kindly included two M23 V2 amplifiers, which crank out a nuclear 700W each when bridged into mono. Roger Kanno reviewed the M66 for SoundStage! Hi-Fi in September 2024, and in July 2024 he wrote about his experience using a pair of the previous-generation M23 amps bridged in mono. He had a ton of fun with them, so I had no doubt that they would absolutely slam with the PMCs. I’m going to save the full details on the unboxing and setup of the NAD system for the upcoming installment of My Audiophile Neighborhood on SoundStage! Global.
We set up the full NAD Masters system in mid-March, swapping out Rob’s everyday amplification chain, and spent a number of days listening to the PMCs driven by those chonky amps. I was correct in my guess that the PMCs could benefit from big-ass amps—they just came alive, especially in the bass—a big deal for Rob, with his heavy-metal musical bent.
I will, however, give you some insight into how this system has generated significant existential discomfort, setting me on my ass in a similar way to how Roon and the Meitner Audio MA3 turned me right around.
For those two weeks, Rob, our neighbor Ron, and I were in absolute awe of the MB2s. With those two M23 V2 amps spanking them, we had a huge dynamic presence; crystalline, rock-solid images; and more volume than we could handle. And the bass. Holy hell. Rock-solid, deep, powerful, unlimited bass. It was magnificent. Admittedly, there were a couple of bass modes that jumped out at us, but that was a given. Rob’s huge main floor gave the MB2s plenty of room to breathe, but the two-story cathedral ceiling right above them made things sound a bit lumpy. I’d experienced these same modes before with the DALI Epikore 9s a while back.
Over the years, I’ve become adept at hearing through or hearing around room problems. My own room has a hump around 40Hz, and I have implemented a notch filter in my brain so that I can effectively ignore it. Our minds are powerful computers, and it’s possible to ignore almost any constant stimulus. So while I was aware of Rob’s room problems, they were in no way an impediment to me enjoying these superb speakers.
Two days before writing this report, I took my laptop over to Rob’s place, downloaded and installed Dirac Live, and connected it to the M66. The measurement process was quick and easy, and in short order I’d installed two room-correction curves in the NAD. The M66’s remote allowed instantaneous switching between the uncorrected Dirac-off setting, the recommended Dirac Live filter, and NAD’s target curve.
The difference was astounding. Those room modes? Gone. The center image was now bang in the middle of the speakers, instead of being pulled to the left by the windows on one side and the open room on the other. The midrange was meatier, and the highs were slightly less immediate.
It sounded like a speaker change rather than a small adjustment. Flipping back and forth between the nude signal and the Dirac Live filter was disorienting. There was no doubt in my mind that the corrected version was better, but if I swapped in the untreated signal and listened to that for a few minutes, my mental EQ would re-engage and I could just about forget that the Dirac Live version existed.
I had to leave Rob’s house and return to my listening room, where I fired up the Engström Arne tube amp. Rather than listen to digital, I threw the half-speed-mastered version of Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden onto the VPI and sat back for a listen to an all-analog signal chain. It felt like I was traveling back in time to a simpler era.
First streaming, now room correction. The world was moving too fast. It felt like my DNA was being altered, changing me into a new life form. Look—if I weren’t a reviewer, if I were an audiophile whose only goal was better sound with some convenience added in for a sweet bonus, then room correction would be nothing but good news. Of course, my appreciation for vinyl would represent a curveball, because you’d need to digitize that analog signal for room correction and that’s just . . . hard to accept.
But as a reviewer and an audiophile, the addition of room correction is a complication that I’m going to have to wrap my head around. Think of it this way: the audiophile in me wants the best sound, to listen to music presented in the most enjoyable, accurate way possible. But this reviewer has to listen to and evaluate a speaker, such as the MB2, in its pure, unaltered form. I know, I know—Dirac Live removes the room from the equation, but it’s still a form of equalization, and some of its changes likely include some smoothing out of the actual speaker’s frequency deviations. So with Dirac Live engaged, I’m not listening to the speaker alone—I’m listening to the speaker as Dirac Live wants it to sound. It’s not a valid way to evaluate a speaker. You, the reader, need to learn how the speaker sounds, within the same parameters as other speakers I’ve reviewed. In that context, room correction is a non-starter for me.
More importantly, reviewing a speaker in a system (such as Rob’s) could now be much more difficult, as I have to shut out the potentially confounding effects of the corrected sound and concentrate only on the naked signal. Unless I’m very careful and very disciplined, knowing that the corrected signal exists could make me second-guess my evaluation, not to mention add some confusion into the mix.
It’s early days yet. I’ll figure out how to get around this. I have to.
. . . Jason Thorpe
jasont@soundstagenetwork.com
