Context for this review: I have a small, but carefully developed two-channel system that I have been tweaking since high school. Nothing in this setup is specifically high-end; built for playback of 16 bit/44.1kHz CD-quality files, each component could be acquired right now on Amazon or eBay for less than $200 per item. Through roughly 15 years of making small adjustments focused on sensible engineering and consistent source improvement, however, I've achieved some synergies that have led to a really precise, neutral sound that lets excellent recordings sing and crucifies poor ones. Defects in production are very obvious on this system, and that's intentional. I have the ears of a trained violinist, which is to say, very picky, and I have unusual pitch sensitivity for an adult - up to about 18.5kHz. What sounds like a defect to me, many people will not hear.
The signal chain in question: MacBook Pro & Chromecast Audio (using Apple iPad power supply) -> TrippLite cables for both USB (MacBook) and optical (Chromecast) -> SMSL Sanskrit 6th (Wolfson WM8740-based DAC) using an iFi iPower noise-canceling power supply -> Blue Jeans Cable LC-1 RCA/RCA interconnect (1 ft long) -> Trends TA-10.2se amplifier (Tripath TA2024 chip-based amp) -> 12g professional quality copper cabling w/ generic gold-plated bananas to the amp and bare wire to the speakers -> JBL LX-22 "bookshelf" speakers, 89dB/W sensitivity. This is a specifically low-powered (only about 10W of clean power), exceedingly low-noise, small-box setup. All power supplies live more than three feet away from their associated device, and I'm a stickler about cable routing.
As a new parent, I wanted to add a high-quality headphone component without altering the otherwise-excellent sound through my current speakers. The Sanskrit DAC has only one output, and the Trends amp has neither headphone amplifier nor signal pass-through capability. I've always been leary of signal splitters, but splitting signal from the DAC to both a headphone amplifier and the Trends seemed the obvious solution. The AudioQuest hard splitters were the highest-quality, affordable solution I could find, and a number of reviewers suggested they had no impact on sound quality. Great! Based on input impedance of the amplifiers, voltage drop should be minimal across the split and line-level output is a low-current proposition already. I expected I'd hear a little attenuation, but hopefully nothing that couldn't be fixed with a volume knob.
Well, here's the truth: there was indeed only slight attenuation. Very little. Probably less than 2dB. But the sound quality - the sound quality made me sad.
Let's be clear: these splitters do not sound bad. On a normal system, even a very good one, only a very small fraction of listeners are going to notice a difference. And the fit and finish are beautiful. The heft is impressive, they grab RCA outs with just the right amount of force, and the surfaces alternate a beautiful gold-plated blasted and polished finish. Classy. They are certainly a full-freight AudioQuest product.
But I don't care as much about the fit and finish as I do the sound, and even with adjustments applied for attenuation and allowing several hours of use, inserting these splitters reduced detail and separation. Guitar distortion in Green Day and Franz Ferdinand became noisy rather than musical. Bartok's quartets went from bracing to irritating. It became harder to distinguish instrument positions in the mix across genres - an actual loss of information. Which is to say, listening through these splitters made me sad. I wanted my old sound back. Thankfully, that was easy to achieve.
I wanted to like these bits of AudioQuest prettiness. I really did. And, hearing what I heard, I wouldn't hesitate to use these in a home theater or less-revealing stereo setup. I would certainly recommend trying them for yourself. But in my experience, they weren't audibly transparent, and that's the primary qualification of a device like this.
| 包装尺寸 | 22.7 x 7.3 x 2.3 cm; 60 克 |
|---|---|
| 制造商 | Audioquest |
| 型号 | M22F-HRD |
| 型号年份 | 2014 |
| 保修说明 | 5 years |
| 商品重量 | 60 g |
