Echo's End reviewed in High Fidelity magazine

Dear Esteemed Customers,

A new review of the Echo's End DAC and Firewall 5X has appeared.

Echo's End is:

-- S/PDIF ready up to 192 kHz / 24 bits
-- USB ready with no driver installation required for MAC OS computers
-- DSD and 2x DSD ready



Some highlights:

"...sounds almost as good as the vinyl disc on the best of analog systems."




"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."

Get a Firewall 5X and you'll be amazed at the difference in sonic performance! No coloration, no artificial enhancement; just more purity, more depth, and more revelation!

Regards,