Audiotron vs Rio Receiver - Round 2

["Tony Butler" <tony@xxxxxxx>]

Today I hooked both the Rio and the Audiotron up to my Parasound ZAmp to even up the testing - as a =A3250 amp vs whatever pants is in the Rio
isn't really fair.....

The Rio certainly sounded a _hell_ of a lot better through the ZAmp than using it's own internal amplifer.

I'm not an audiophile by any means - I just know what I like and the Rio still sounded a bit harsh in comparison to the Audiotron (this may be
what audiophiles term a 'bright' sound?).  The mid range I think lacks= a
bit and it seems to have too much treble compared to the .tron (Okay, I
could alter that, but that doesn't bring the mid range back).

Playing 'The Shining' by Badly Drawn Boy, when the string plucking kicks in about 30 seconds into the tune, that sounds quite harsh on the Rio,
whereas it's quite mellow on the Audiotron.  Also, when the Boy himsel= f
starts crooning, it's an altogether more rounded sound on the tron, but
with the Rio it sounds a bit reedy and thin.

As I say, I'm not an audiophile, so if I wasn't comparing the two, I
probably wouldn't notice these things, turn the treble down on the Rio
and be happy enough with it.
BUT - this is using a separate amp rather than the internal RIO one -
that I instantly noticed sounded rather shabby.

Adding an extra amp to get decent quality negates the principal
advantage of the Rio - that of size.

The proper transport controls, streaming web radio support (though sadly the UK stations stream at a much lower quality than the US ones), web
interface, API, no need to run a server app, and the superior sound
quality still lead me to choose the Audiotron despite the extra cost.

If SonicBlue did a version without the built in amp and put the money
saved towards a better display and controls set then I might be happy
living without the rest of the features the Audiotron offers and go for
the lower cost Rio.....


Tony

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