Intro
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Over the past year, we have rewarded seventeen products with an Alpha Approved award. In our opinion, these are special products within their segment. Maybe it just sounds exceptional. But it can also impress in another way. Think of a bizarre price/quality ratio. Bottom line: special products. We’ll sort them out for you. Nice and easy
Every author has a preference, of course. But sometimes we are all in complete agreement about a product. The seventeen products listed below have all been approved by the entire Alpha editorial team. All pearls. Sometimes very expensive, often just very affordable. Let’s start with the first one!
Metrum Acoustics Baby Ambre
The Metrum baby ambre is a streamer without dac. A ROON bridge to express it very technically. The Baby Ambre costs around 500 euros, making it a very affordable streaming bridge. Note: Roon is needed to play. It’s striking how close the Baby Ambre is to the ordinary Ambre. On a good system you can hear differences in control, peace and depth, but then you have to listen very carefully. All in all an amazingly beautiful product for a competitive price.
Bryston 7B SST3
The Brute of Brutes… a 4B SST3 in mono… what more do you want? The Bryston 7B SST3 is an impressive machine for the enthusiast who really needs power and control. And also wants to combine that with refinement and speed. A balerina on steroids as it were. We love it, witness the Alpha Approved Award.
Metrum Acoustics Onyx
Is a Pavane too pricey? Do you urge for that level (or almost that level of performance)? No problem: the Metrum Acoustics Onyx can deliver that. As a result of the more compact form factor, Metrum didn’t need to put a lot of money in the housing. That significantly lowers the price. And this while the number of connections is not really less. And neither is the display. Because the Onyx also runs on the Transient-2 chips… yeah, less… but you have to come from a good home to hear that right away.
DALI Phantom 280S
The DALI Phantom 280S is the first in-wall that has convinced us that an in-wall can sound really good without immediately going bankrupt. Of course, there are nice in-walls. But really good ones are just pricey. The Phantoms certainly don’t come cheap at 6,000 a pair, but boy… how good they sound. And so they are complete and easy to dispose of, which has enormous advantages. Impressive set this!
dCS Bartok
Anyone who has read the review will know that it’s hard to find words for the dCS Bartok. We’re just in love. What a sound: complete, refined, detail, imaging… everything just sounds right with the dCS the Bartok. A player that can easily replace our Pass Labs XP-12, Ambre and Pavane… And that says everything.
