I was a fan as well. Seems like a great guy, too.
Iāve watched a bunch of Darko and have decided I like him, not withstanding his penchant for stuff I canāt afford. He doesnāt just do that, and also I like his descriptions of things. His reviews of Meze 99 and Empyrean, for example, are good. I liked his Campfire Comet review, also. Also, I donāt think he buries the lede and gets lost in details, the way I sometimes think Currawong does, or also Metal571. Darko also has best in class production values.
With Metal571 (who needs to up his production values game), my complaint is when he gets well into the weeds with different frequency ranges. Too technical for me, I guess.
As a rule, though, I like reviewers who talk about cheap stuff and am pleased when they point to something and say, āyeah, this is all you need.ā I also appreciate learning things. One of the reasons why I like Z is that aside from the entertainment value, Iāve learned a ton. DMZ, Josh, and JoeNTell also are helpful. JoeNTell tends to do gear Iām not interested in, but thatās on me.
Darko is polarizing because he defends things like expensive audio and power cables and doesnāt go by the idea of ābits is bitsā, which tbh maybe they actually do make a difference i dunno because i would have to drive 40 miles to a hifi shop to see if i could test it out or spend 40 bucks on an RCA
I just ignore those videos and watch the ones Iām interested in. And those I like. Honestly, my biggest problem with him is that his musical tastes are very different from mine, and I canāt trust that something that does a good job with obscure German post-punk is going to work well with a Bach cantata. A case in point is his Mezze 99 review. Great review, but again, what makes his music pleasant isnāt necessarily something that works well with other genres.
I was initially turned off by darko because I found him through his site first and heās never updated his manifesto, which was to focus on affordable audio. So I get this āAffordable!ā Sign everything costs at least 2 grand.
Its clear heās evolved since then and I now appreciate him for what he does (regardless of cost heās one of the few audiophile reviewers that doesnt just listen to Gothic barbershop quartets accompanied by a platoon of spanish guitar lotharios and the dude hitting the drums from the slave ship scene in Ben hur, recorded in a 70 thousand year old cave painting cave in a remote part of france)
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Got any recās for this type of music?
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InnerFidelity also deserves some love. Informative. No nonsense. I mean, sometimes I like nonsense (hello, Z), but not always.
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Donāt know how well recorded this is, but this springs to mind
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This probably closer to what Iām describingā¦
Now I want to produce this kind of music.
Both a heavy rock variant and a traditional one
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Itād make absolutely no money and maybe liscenced for a single art film
But a bunch niche weirdos with 15 ipm reel 2 reels and DSD enthusiasts will rave about it from their wood panel covered basement and thatād be kinda nice
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its nice that there is the expensive audiophile who doesnāt have to forcefully listen to DSD recordings of mozart and bach all day and the coolest music they listen to is maybe some norah jones.
i like that he at least listens to more indie rock and electronic music
R2R is the bestā¦ Ive never heard source material better than properly mastered R2R. Its a PITA, expensive, obscure, not cool, and did I mention expensive. To source my favorite album on R2R itās $450 on vinyl itās ~$10 and FLAC/CD itās < $5.
I want the denafrips terminator or a Holospring Kitsune edition (@M0N advocates for this one but I do want a dac with DSD good DSD capability as well, just for the sake of having it)
Do you have a good amount of DSD recordings?
Another option may be something like the dCS BartĆ³k. Itās a well regarded AIO.
I donāt know if you have or have listened to one, but the Schiit Bifrost is also well regarded.
Hereās a top 10 list from someone highly respected in the audio community thatās heard most of everything Iāve seen mentioned on this forum.
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Iām slightly anxious to take his opinion seeing as he put the Chord Dave in at number one. Have you ever listened to it?
Not the Dave, just the Hugo TT2.
Ah well give it a listen when you next can, itās really not worth half the price you can get it used in my opinion. I know a few people that agree