![]() ![]()
C-MARC™ RCA InterconnectsC-MARC™ XLR InterconnectsC-MARC™ Speaker CableC-MARC™ Power CableC-MARC™ Bulk Wire and CableFirewall ModuleEcho's EndBindbreakerBlackbodyLaminar Streamer
DFPC Original (legacy)DFPC Signature (legacy)DFPC Reference (legacy)DFPC Series (legacy) (all)Digital Cable (legacy)Firewall (legacy)Anchorwave (legacy)Homage to Time (legacy)Tunnelbridge (legacy) All Because of the sheer number of reviews, you can sort them above to quickly find LessLoss products of interest.
![]() Echo's End: will take you beyond the audiophile aspect of music.
June, 2020, author: Pierre Fontaine
"The LessLoss Echo's End converter turns out to be a superb musical companion."
"The final positive impression comes from the naturalness of a liquid restitution combined with great precision." "The top of the spectrum, silky and modulated, gives a lot of presence to voice thanks to its nice clarity of the high-medium range." "We are delighted with a very pleasant open sound and the presence of a lot of air around the interpreters." "The perfectly homogeneous medium-low register also reveals a lot to hear, especially with bass that goes down very low, without exaggeration, even on the first octaves." "The dynamics are surprising not because they are expressed dramatically, but because of their fine revelation of the ringing and vigorousness of percussion and plucked string instruments." "Here is a device that has a sense of rhythm and that will take you beyond the audiophile aspect of music." "The sound image overflows the speakers to make them disappear, with an ease worthy of what you'd expect from a high end product range." "Width, depth and even height, everything is there, and the very precise focus confirms a sound aesthetic with character." "You really feel like you're in the middle of the orchestra, without the need to resort to intellectualization." "But above all, and this is perhaps the highest quality of this converter, we remain very pleasantly impressed by the naturalness that emerges from this device like no other. It has proved surprisingly tolerant of all the files or discs that we have given it to transcribe." "The LessLoss Echo's End is undoubtedly one of the most musical devices, offering nuances and expressiveness that will charm the music lover looking for an opportunity to listen for a long time without suffering ear fatigue." "Furiously attractive, as much by its aesthetics as by its singing and musical character, the LessLoss is a well-designed device that deserves to be listened to without preconceptions of its origins, thus demonstrating that we are dealing with some of today's most creative designers." "This converter's sound reproduction is particularly pleasant and relatively addictive." "This softness, this fluidity, and this ability to immerse yourself very deeply into the heart of recorded music creates its own category." "This will obviously not be the choice of the general populous, but rather of the already seasoned music lover who is looking for a product capable of transcribing the heart of digital files as faithfully as possible, revealing the substantial marrow." (French language) ![]() Echo's End Original "provoked the proverbial tear or two," has "vinyl-like charm," provides "relief from digital harshness."
December, 2019, author: Dawid Grzyb
"LessLoss Echo's End is many things, but surely not a regular DAC. If I had to point my finger at the most minimalist hassle-free machine of this particular sort, today's would be my easy top pick with no afterthoughts."
"Simply put, it was clearly made by people strongly convinced that less is in fact more if done right." "As a reporter with more than a decade under his black audio belt I've seen and heard dozens of such products, but nothing quite like this publication's purist machine." "Echo's End doesn't pursue the usual voicing trends but instead it handles music in an unmistakably enchanting way, which well-trained ears will map in a jiffy. It's a very expressive product, with strong and always present character of its own." "Felt more grounded, rounder and clearly milder." "Echo's End swiftly redirected my attention from resolution and insight to blackness of its background, general politeness, musical tissue and that particular well-known moist sensation." "We could narrow this profile down to quite vinyl-like charm or relieving freedom from digital tint and harshness." "Careful avoidance of excessive fat and warmth, which would undeniably cover details essential in music, is where the Lithuanians truly got the job done right. Echo's End simply didn't sound overly thick, sluggish or bloated, but pleasantly earthy and organic instead. It performed like a vintage top class d/a converter with PCM1704 on-board, albeit with its upper end not trimmed but in perfect check, namely as audible as everything else." "That's why to my ears the Echo's End introduced no second-grade core flavour in comparison to its far pricier opponent, but something from elsewhere; more substantial and less light-spirited at its core, yet very much appealing on a purely subjective emotional level, enough to provoke the shedding of a proverbial tear or two." "This review item's sound landed in the zone occupied by quality, chic and maturity, not quantity, exposure and abnormal zeal. All traits listed above effectively turned LessLoss Echo's End into a most pleasing product. Its sound came through undeniably effortlessly and never was piercing. It always felt pleasantly gravitational and coherent yet not even once overdone or extreme in any way." "I've found this product's sound as focused as it was tactile and euphonic. Its agility and wide dynamic contrasts supported traits which elevated expressiveness and charm." "Bass [is] internally focused, fabulously elastic, texturally very generous, admirably deep and upon demand capable of hitting like a truck with no apologies involved." "That's what Echo's End is about, with this machine one's focus will be on qualities related to pleasant undisturbed music flow and not its informational load. Such voicing my ears have found tasteful and yours might as well, should your taste in sound presented in an organic way be a priority." "Right from the get-go LessLoss Echo's End introduced itself as a great performer for the coin, but in time it flourished into a major overachiever, that's the key takeaway." "I would not change a single thing in this machine's voicing. Never had I the urge to actually ponder about any potential sonic improvements. Not even once. I've found it simply too vivid, seasoned, coherent and pleasant to bother. Each time the Echo's End was on, I was instantly immersed in its reality and always had a blast, whereas its inherently forgiving approach towards repertoire of lesser quality enabled struggle-free ventures beyond my usual musical diet. If after switching from a product five times as costly - that would be my DAC - all this remained, then that's pretty much all there is to be said." "Its purposely applied operational minimalism I've found liberating. LEDs, knobs, switches and alike usually all deemed as necessary, today's experience turns into a bunch of distractors. It's a well-made, hassle-free affair, always ready for action. Its simplicity isn't ordinary but elegant." "All things considered, if a plug & play brilliantly voiced minimalist DAC is on your hit list, then this report's LessLoss DAC fits the profile just perfectly. That's the target right there." ![]() "This has to be among the finest built bespoke digital converters out there."
May, 2019, author: Danny Kaey
"smitten with LessLoss"
"this has to be among the finest built bespoke digital converters out there." "Without a doubt, Echo's End Reference follows the clear sound path set forth by everything I have auditioned from LessLoss" "organic, authentic, resolved, dynamic." "Whereas some digital systems favor a more spotlit presentation, cueing the listener into each of the themes, Echo's End presents you with more of a stage view, which is to say you are listening to the entire production rather than drawing your focus to and from each note and phase effect." "That organic, natural and neutral sonic signature of Echo's End plays fantastically well" "Echo's End proved once again that no matter the input and source, this DAC's sonic signature stayed the same. "Echo's End further helped clarify this with its organic character highlighting just how good, nay, great, good old compact disc can sound." "build quality, internal makeup and parts quality are undoubtedly first rate" "more musical information, detail retrieval and texture. Editorializing isn't part for the course. What you hear is what you get. Once you bite off the LessLoss tree, you may not look anywhere else." "Reference quality in every regard." "to genuine, bona-fide audio and music connoisseurs to whom bling is a dirty word and likely not even in their vocabulary." "It's all about the music, nothing more, nothing less. Here, Echo's End shines and then some." ![]() 6moons on Echo's End Reference: "everything hangs together like one breathing organism"
April, 2018, author: Srajan Ebaen
"Audiophilia's pursuit for more liquidity, generosity or humanity is very common. It's typical counterpoint to ever-increasing resolution and the related obsession with more detail. Whenever reviewers describe an exceptionally lucid component but want to distinguish it from aloof pornographic explicitness, they add words like humane or organic.
More so than any other DAC in recent memory, this Panzerholz-clad converter from Lithuania had that quality in spades." "If your current system seems to you shy on tonal moisture, textural elasticity and general connective tissue–if everything is very clear but feels strangely 'apart' without that certain ne sais quo whereby everything hangs together like one big breathing organism–the Echo's End Reference should be a very strong contender." "If to you digital seems like an endless parade of near sameness disguised behind escalating specs and claims to the contrary, the LessLoss Reference DAC stands out as being unapologetically different." "Just don't let the name fool you. It's not about a dry desiccated sound at all. Quite the opposite." ![]() "...sounds almost as good as the vinyl disc on the best of analog systems."
November, 2017, author: Marek Dyba
"Echo's End offers exceptionally long, full reverb tails, which is usually the domain of tube devices."
"I listened to a lot of acoustic recordings with piano, string instruments, acoustic and classical guitars and in each of them this Lithuanian transducer had to offer even more than my LampizatOr. The one element that makes music different is that it seems to be fuller, and above all more natural, more 'right.'" "I did not expect from this non-tube device - the naturalness, or actually even the organic nature of the sound. It's a feature I associate with vacuum tube based circuitry. And yes, I did happen to encounter it in some transistor digital sources, but only at a significantly higher price level." "Let's just take a look at Michel Godard with Monteverdi's music and the variations on the theme (A trace of grace), which is absolutely gorgeous on vinyl, and from the digital version it always seemed a bit worse / poorer, though still very good. Playing from the file via USB input, Echo's End for the first time in terms of rendering spatial aspects and tone quality, sounds almost as good as the vinyl disc on the best of analog systems. The Noirlac Abbey's courtyard opened up to a huge size, the breadth of the sound was freely circling its distant corners, each clean, saturated sound filling the air, all complementing the palpability of large, precisely arranged apparent sources. All this together made a huge, realistic sounding panorama." "Echo's End has shown that the resolution, the amount of information that can be extracted from recordings, also puts it in a really high league of digital sources, as does serious separation. In the case of the above mentioned recording, it was a great pleasure to listen to the sound of individual instruments. The insight into the color, the texture, the dynamics at the micro level was unique. This makes each instrument singular and all very realistically convincing." "Another similarity to the well-known vinyl version of this recording was the softness of the sound, sometimes called analogue nature. In the digital world, it is associated with the sound of DSD files rather than "harder" PCMs. As in the case of the analogue disc, this "softness" of the sound is due to the softening of the attack phase, but without loss of speed. So when we have sudden, strong impulses of the leading edges of instrument attack, we still jump in our listening position, even if it is a tad lighter than other transistor DACs. Thanks to this, Alan Dawson's drumming performance was excellent on We're All Together for the First Time." "One more feature that is worth mentioning, and which only audio devices with refined power feature, is a very black background. The latter comes from a lower level of noise and distortion, of which we may not be aware, but which do lower the sound quality and enjoyment of listening." "So I plugged in a Firewall 5X module between the power cord and the Echo's End and it quickly confirmed that the sound of this device was partly obtained through the use of the onboard Firewall modules. In the simplest terms, all of the above-described features of the DAC sounded deeper. This made no noticeable negative impact, but the sound was made even cleaner, more organic, more colorful (not to be confused with colored), more illuminated - just more real. Adding a second "5X" further aggregated this effect, though I felt rather less than the first one. The playback was even smoother, more consistent, less choppy, but still fast, live sounding and energetic." "Looking at the form of this device, and even at its interior it is difficult to guess how much it has to offer. You have to accept the lack of switches, displays and indicators, or the need to physically disconnect or turn off previously used sources. However, one quickly accustoms oneself to the elegance of this nicely made wooden box, especially since the sound of Echo's End easily convinces." "It is clean, organic, smooth with amazing tembre, with beautifully rendered acoustics (where it's in the recording), but also dynamic and fast. Regardless of the type of file being played, Echo's End offers sound normally associated with DSD files - smooth, saturated, plastic, sharply focused, with a gentle but fast, powerful attack. It's one of those devices whose sound creates a spell from which it is difficult to break. It became hard to point out specific advantages over competitors, because overall I felt I just want to listen to the pure flow of the music." ![]() ...better than any DAC I've had in my system...
|