In the latest issue of HifiCritic, journalist Kevin Fiske reviews the MU1 and is touched by its magic. So much even that he offers it the HifiCritic Audio Excellence Award. We are happy to offer the full review pdf for you to read. Some excerpts are copied below.
“With PCM and DSD files, the MU1 exhibits class-leading dynamic expression right across the audio band. There is no sense that DSD or higher sampling rate PCM files have been levelled down; low-end musical content whatever file type is played has satisfying weight and texture, by turns tight and punchy, and rich and sonorous when it should be.
Dynamic agility and tonal colours too are arresting, and yet at the same time unforced and natural, enhanced by the absence of uncomfortable brightness or jarring intermodulation. Well recorded soundstages are rendered as deep and immersive, almost tactile performance spaces. Crucially, the MU1 pushes the emotional buttons of listeners too with a delivery that is fluid, natural, without any hint of the bright, mechanical digititis that I found so disappointing in some alternatives.
“After having lived with the MU1 for some three months I realised one day that despite owning quality vinyl and CD front ends I was now opting to stream much of the time. This new habit was in part simply a logical submission to the ease of discovery that streaming affords. But it was also to a larger degree an emotional response; music delivered via the MU1, from the Internet or locally played, was reaching the parts many other streamers had failed to reach.”
“The MU1 was reaching the parts many other streamers had failed to reach.”
Kevin Fiske, HifiCritic
