Best of 2023! Martijn’s Top 5 list

It is the end of the year again! Time for our annual best-of lists. We have had close to 100 products in our hands, so it is quite the task to narrow it down to a top five. But we do our best!

1. Volumio Primo

I precisely remember the moment, while the Primo was playing in the background to break in and Bell X1’s “Arms” album was queued. The track “The Upswing” started. With the first phrase of the singer, I literally dropped everything and started to listen with intent. The Primo extracted an emotion from the voice that I have never heard like this before, and have never heard again with other DACs or streamers since. Time and again, in tests in which the Primo is used, this appears to be the Primo‘s strong point: a ‘hi-fi barrier’ between the listener and the music disappears and the connection with the music is tangible. I feel it physically in my body every time the Primo plays in a test. Is this the best streamer and DAC ever? No, but for the price you really cannot find a better one. No, not even those YouTube-hyped streamers. The Primo is a white raven in audio land: it is all about the connection you have with music. Bravo, bravissimo. Encore Volumio!

2. The Bookshelf Marathon Live Multitest

Why are we doing this to ourselves? That thought crossed my mind between the second and third rounds of listening. During round 3, I knew again why: there is no other way to evaluate the state of the speaker market in such a short time. But pfew, a test of stamina it was. The best part? In this price category, bad speakers are a rarity and the sheer variation in sound reproduction is surprising. There really is something to choose from. That makes it fairly confusing for consumers, but with these three live streams, making a preselection is easy. Alpha Audio at its best.

3. Grimm MU2

Connecting with the music produced by a DAC? Next to the Primo, we had another experience in a slightly different price segment of the market. We have a test sample at this moment, and the review is yet to be written, but the MU2 deserves a place in the Top 5 because of its first impression at this year’s High End Munich. “Lightning Crashes” sang the band Live and that pretty much sums up the experience I had in Munich. I accidentally sat in the right place to have a ‘close encounters’ experience, without the distractions from the madhouse that is the High End. It gave me precisely the essence of what sets the MU2 apart from everything else gathered that moment in Munich for the show. In the wrap-up video, we give our first impression.

4. Naim Nait 50

1973 is a key year in British hi-fi history. So many brands were founded in 1973, including Graham, Rega and also Naim. 2023 is the year Naim launched a new top-of-the-range line, but our attention was occupied by a cute retro amplifier. Once in the Alpha Audio listening room, it turns out there is nothing cute about the amp: it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The Nait 50 has energy, brings fun and, with 25 watts, has an sturdy grip on playback. It is an amplifier reduced to its essence, with an exceptionally good MM phono stage and a very good headphone amp. Production is limited to 1973 copies. There still seem to be copies for sale. Hurry, because this type of amplifier is a rarity in the modern landscape, unfortunately.

5. Vinyl

The theme of this top 5 is the listener’s connection to music. 2023 is also the year I reconnected with vinyl. Streaming has many advantages and I remain a proponent. Nevertheless, over the past few years Alpha Audio has highlighted many challenges that can limit the music experience with streaming. Limitations for which there are solutions; solutions that are actually workarounds for fundamental problems. Streaming is, in some ways, now in an adolescent phase. The Primo and the MU2 show us progress, but the elephant in the room is vinyl. The turning point came for me when Yung pressed the Pioneer turntable from the entry-level turntable test into my hands and said ‘here, go and listen to this for a few weeks’. Only to find at home that for 367 euros you have an instant listening connection, while the home streaming features linear power supplies, switches, the right cables, mains filters and some other voodoo. A sobering experience. As a result, a Rega P6 serves duty alongside the streamer now.