Merry Christmas to you and your Family & Friends, Follows.

The bit about live music being the reference made me chuckle.. so true:)

Great video, as always. I can listen to you for hours!

Very informative review John. I love the look of those speakers. Have a great Christmas and keep them coming.

Dear John, thank you for a whole year's great videos. Definitely on my short list for this year's yt channel. 🎄

I consider Darko Audio as one of my favorite products of 2021. You’ve increased my interest of audio and music hobby. I always enjoy your informative videos and incorporate them into my systems in order to explore them on my own. Thank you, John. Have a wonderful holiday season.. 🎵

Merry Christmas, John! Thank you for yet another year of amazing reviews and guidance through the cluttered world of audio.

Another wonderful video, John. I enjoyed your systems approach to the 'best of', and Nils Frahm now too. Many thanks!

Love the Zus! Been looking at them to pair with my Leben. Thanks for the round up!

Really unique best of, great work as always!

Brilliant! I’ve been following you for a few months now. I really love your channel. Keep up the great work. Have a great Christmas.

Happy holidays to you John and your team, and all the BEST for 2022. I look forward to your reviews insights ramblings and rants. Great to see stuff in video even if we can't hear or see it in the flesh.

Thanks for yet another wonderful video John! It has been great to see you explore ways to experience the lower octaves in ways that integrate well with the main speakers. Merry Christmas😊

A video worthy of applause and a standing ovation. Encore!

The imagery you created of the person at an audio show was priceless. Thank you again for your perspective and music suggestions.

Great video and great songs in the video! Eagerly waiting for best budget components for 2021 :)

Happy holidays to you john. as well as to olaf & jana

Love that you take the time to explain things like soundstage and other terminology, removing the pretentiousness

The Zu review was great. The whole episode was outstanding too. Your channel is my best audiophile channel of the year!

Yes, we can say Christmas. Happy Christmas and New Year, John. Thank you for your great work and this excellent "Best of 2021". All the best, Rob in Switzerland

Absolutely loved the video and the approach. Season's greetings!

Great one John, keep up the good work. Wish you the best.

On your exact same wavelength here John! In 2021 I bought a preamp explicitly because it has analog high- and low-pass controls. It elevated the sound and undeniably reduced low/mid busy-ness and distortion on the mains, on multiple types of loudspeakers, and lightened the load a bit on the amp. Adding and then better-integrating subwoofers upgraded everything. Thanks for your efforts! Cheers

**PLEASE READ CAREFULLY** 1) Please ask your questions of the Darko.Audio KZfaq community as I'm already off making the next video 2) Polite comments that advance the conversation are most welcome (but no URLs, please) 3) All comments are moderated by a third party: instagram.com/p/CTWcokaszpW/

Delightful system-oriented review! I loved everything about this.

As always awesome 🙏🏻

Nice video John it is wonderful to be alive in 2021 for all kinds of reasons, but certainly my ears have enjoyed this year immensely. Congrats on another great year of reviews.👏👍 And as you said all the best from me in Australia for a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones.

It seems I've stumbled upon the rare and elusive John Darko comment section! Perfect chance to tell you how much I appreciate the time and effort that must go into every one of your videos! Your style of reviewing really is special. You're clearly in a class of your own. Thanks, John!

Good to see you back mate. Hope all is well and thanks for the content. Peace. Ed

John and team, another excellent presentation. I like your idea of looking at your “best-of” componens in a system approach. Happy Holidays! 🎄❄️

Happy holidays and thanks for making this video's John. Tests on my wishlist for 2022, Finkteam Kim, Dynaudio Emit 20, Elac Unifi Reference and Velodyne Microvee X ☺️😉

OK manufacturers, you want my money? Stop brainstorming. Here is what I what. I want a "preamp only" product like the Bluesound Powernode and live my audiophile journey. It needs a streamer, a cross-over management between LFE/main, a LATENCY management between LFE/main (subs have latency which messes everything), latency tests, linear EQ (RME style). Two analogue inputs, coax and spdif input. I want to connect an external DAC (via USB, not coax, not spdif), an HDD with my FLAC, SACD, DSD, MP3, have a remote app on my phone/laptop. With this setup, I can grow and continue my audiophile journey. Cheers!

All the best for the coming new year.

Thanks John! Always a pleasure to watch your content. The room correction treatment; how did that factor in making your decision on best of 2021.

Thanks for your amazing review, even though I'm not in the market for any of theses products I watched the whole thing for its entertainment value. Oh and a very belated "Merry Christmas" to you 🙂

I bought the KC-62 after watching your review. I was in disbelieve for days!!! This tiny thing sounds far better and stronger than SVS SB1000-Pro that I had. The fact that that chassis doesn't vibrate means I can put it anywhere. I have it on top of my media cabinet and it still sounds good! Thank you so much for giving us these quality reviews!

Nice one Johnno. I like the whole of the picture approach. And mate, it's okay to say Christmas The festive season is what the holidays are for. So Happy Christmas and have a great Festive Season. Cheers.

The music in your KZfaq vids make my speakers sound better than most songs :D

Thank you for a great years hard work and content. Have Merry Chtistmas.

Looking forward to another good year of your streams, Happy Christmas or any other festival you celebrate,

Bought the Powernode 2021 based off your review. Extremely happy I did!

Merry Christmas!

Got the Bluesound Node 2i when it launched earlier this year and noticed the sub out. Never took the time to investigate if it would be the better option, but this video explained it and I instantly plugged in my sub and enabled the high and low pass filter. Sweet! Thanks! It can only set to 10hz increments and my speakers are 45hz so I set it to 50hz.

Thanks to your KEF videos I'm enjoying the LS50WII on S2 stands combined with the KC62 sub, all in mineral white. Great vid and indeed 'Favourite products 2021' is the best name. And also happy Christmas to you.

What I have really come to admire about your videos is that I come away feeling that we should as consumers ask for what we could possibly have in our hifi products before we settle for a standard of hifi products. That's what I take away & I agree with you- or maybe just myself, after watching your videos. So, thank you- or me, for this brilliant suggestion!

I remember FUN! Only reason why this hobby roped me back in really. I started listening to all my records purchased form show merch tables by my friends bands I used to follow around the small venues to go see on the regular. Listening to youtube bootlegs of shows Ive attended. Its more than music or even gear much as I love both, its recalling fond experieinces.

John, you do a great job articulating what you hear and experience. I’d love to see you review the Cube Audio single driver speakers from Poland. Keep up the good work. Happy new year.

Would love to see a best of 2021 music.

Thanks Darko You talk absoloute sence Greetings from Bali

Unrelated to the video but I wanted to say you, Dankpods, Z reviews, and other Audiophile KZfaqrs is what gotten me into this expensive hobby. Thanks for providing quality content and methods of getting good audio sources from each devices, from mobile to home. Your vids are amazing!

Your theme of emphasizing the "System" approach via; 1) Room treatment, 2) Speakers + Subwoofer next, 3) And lastly Amplification with HPF & LPF to accommodate - Is forming IMO a new genre: "Deeply Integrated with Compensation". Not only is seamless sound integration a milestone, but efficiency and longevity as well. This may be the start of Holistically Designed Audio with Choice built-in.

I've got the powernode running my Kef q950 and I love it

I've followed this channel for the last 2 or 3 years and both the content and production have steadily improved over this period. So while there may be a better reviewer of audio equipment on KZfaq, as I don't have the time to review every reviewer, I can't say that Darko Audio is the best. I can, however, say that Darko Audio is my favourite reviewer! Thanks for all the reviews this year and for making such excellent content available to everyone via KZfaq!

I've only been to about 15 or so classical music concerts, inc' orchestral, chamber orchestras, octets & quartets and i do put values i hear from, say bassoons, cellos, violas etc that i hear live & always non amplified, on my own stereo. When an oboe, viola, clarinet, bassoon etc etc on record or cd sound like they do in a clasical music venue, it makes me happy that i'm on the right track, hi-fi wise. Of course that only applies to unamplified accoustic music. I occasionally play accoustic guitar with a friends on another accoustic & a small drum machine with built in 2" inch speaker & sometimes our bass player friend joins us on his semi- accoustic bass guitar in my living room & when i hear an accoustic guitar on recording sounding very close to "as live in room" ...that also gives me a buzz that i'm on the right hi-fi track. Of course, as you say, these values don't apply one bit to live amplified rock bands plugged onto the house P.A.'s or just their say Orange or Marshal or whatever amps but ive more classical records now than i have rock. P.S. "Remain in Light" is the best Talking Heads album with "Fear of Music" in 2nd place but "Remain in light" is the only one i still play now & then & uttetly enjoy but i may well sell the other 7 or so Heads albims i have & just keep those 2 mentioned. Talking Heads, imo, kinda got lost after Eno left tho "Speaking in Tongues" is a nln-Eno keeper. Roxy Music did get lost when Eno left, as did any band that Eno left, but i do not care for Eno's own albums one bit.

I love watching these older videos. Some age so well!

🤗. THANKS JOHN FOR SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH OBJECTIVITY 👏👏👏😍😍😍

Everything you said about the Zu Soul 6 applies pretty well to the Zu DW'S. I have the DW'S and absolutely love the sound!

When you feed your signal path like this: analog audio signal, preamp, dsp incl. crossover, high passed signal back into power amp stage of your amp, low passed sub signal into power amp, into speakers/sub. You can use the dsp to alter your signal and do room correction etc. There is no need to spend 1000s of € for a whole new system or sound processor.

Hi Darko, this is a very informative video, thank you for that. I also agree with you on pretty much everything you have said. However, correct me if I am wrong but I've been doing all these settings for years with my AV Receiver: lowpass, highpass, time delay, phase control, crossover point even room calibration, etc... In my actual system, I have outsourced the main channels to a separate amp for stereo playback, using the AV Reciever only as signal processing unit. Which point am I missing exactly?

Hi I just want to say I love your attitude to Hi Fi and have loved every single Video this year. Happy hoildays

Your videos are one of a kind, well-produced, knowledgeable and so fantastically informative!

Very high quality and professional offerings. I wasn't sure I agreed with your conclusions...but then you interlaced your fingers and it became clear : )

Can anyone tell me who makes his mid century stereo credenza/cabinet with the vinyl jacket displays? Thank!

Thank you for this informative video. These Zu speakers remind me of the Rega RX-5s. Any chance on a review of the RX-5 mini floorstander speakers?

Dear John, Generally Speaking, thank you for keeping things grounded and being the voice of reason and not comparing Oranges to Apples in terms of HiFi sound reproduction.

Sehr Awesome!

Yes! You wouldn't want your speakers to sound like live music, which means like a PA system, at least for amplified music.

Ahhh. Alva Noto. A man of exquisite taste I see😁😁. His earliest collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto, namely Vrioon and Insen, are my favorite from his catalog of work.

Of course you can say Happy Christmas! I’m definitely not offended.

Still my favourite hi-fi channel!

Thank you for justifying my recent kc62 purchase

Interesting video. Thanks for bringing attention to the subwoofer integration issue. My 20+ yr old cantons have a crude implementation. 12" passive sub with crossovers that feed a pair of 4" bookshelves all powered by a 50 wpc nad c316bee. Sounds pretty good!

PERFECT!😎

Hi, so is the Sub handling of the BS powernode different to the BS node? I realise the Node doesn't have an amp but does the sub output work in the same way? Cheers 👍

My timing solution for the sub and main speakers is a bit simpler. The sub sits behind me. I have a large recliner and the subwoofer is on the floor behind me. I set the levels to match and the timing works great.

Want those Zu speakers so much!!

Of course, you can say Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas! I live in Utah so Wilson and Zu are local speaker manufacturers (RBH also). Great review.

Been loving your videos! What credenza are you using or what are you using on the front of it?

Nice 👍 merry and happy to all.

Hey folks! Just wanted to ask if somebody can help me with a thought, I’ve been attracted to the powernode and the denafrips ares II for a while now and was wondering if these two can work together (via the powernode‘s analog inputs?) If anyone has tried this combo and if it’s worth it. Thanks a lot in advance !

Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch 😀🎁👍

John, another fantastic video, I love your reviews. Have you ever considered reviewing the Linkwitz Sirius speakers? They're made in your backyard (Germany). Cheers!

Another great video by John I am a novice but like the no nonsense approach and have learned a lot. I decided as ive just retired to splash out and have recently purchased a POWERNODE latest version as here together with Kef LS50 meta speakers in blue with stands and couldn't wait for the Kef KC62 and was offered the KF92 discounted so went for that .I have an Innuos zen server as I had a large CD collection I am very impressed. I did have a Lumin M1 integrated amp on loan while I waited for the powernode and sub to come through. The sound was even better with that amp but not sure if I lose the better sub integration. Things to think about .

Thanks to open-box deals on Crutchfield, I just couldn't resist getting the KEF LS50 Wireless II. I love it so much, even though I don't even use it for its wireless design intentions. It was the configurable high-pass and low-pass filters that really sold me on the package. I can't wait to add a KEF subwoofer to it.

Have you tried the Heco Einklang John? They're also single driver speakers but without the supertweeters and sensitivity is a bit less than the Zu's at 95dB. They got a terrible review from What Hifi but I really like my pair and have no idea what they were going on about.

Welcome back Sir

Perfect

Thank you John, it’s about time some said what you have said at the beginning of this video. That we should not consider our home systems as being what we hear 👂🏾 live or in a professional public venue. There are several audiophiles I follow that constantly drive that idea home in every freakin’ presentation & it’s sickening, to be polite here. Thanks 🙏 again for one audio enthusiast that has freakin’ common sense.

I have a NAD M10 but I am pretty sure the crossover in the Bluesound app only works for the subwoofer and not as a highpass to the main loudspeakers. There is also nothing in the manual about the crossover affecting the mains and I dont experience it. When I turn off my sub and play with the crossover settings I beleave this setting does not affect the lows of my main loudspeakers. Maybe the powernode is different from the M10, but I think it uses the same app.....

if you're using a low pass filter on the ls50 with the sub, is it worth just getting the lsx and save some £££?

Hi John, talking about syatem integration, Do you have any recommendation of an equipment that allows you to save and organize all the music that you already have saved in digital media, but also, and this is the important thing, that allows you to download and save the music you listen to and like it in streaming mode, with as little work as possible.

I have been a fan of point source full range audio for years. Zu is located just up the road from me. I wish I had purchased a pair. Getting crossovers out of the signal path adds so much vitality to the music. I currently listen to fully restored JBL 4425 Studio Monitors and am enthralled. Let's have a cup of James Hoffmann coffee and listen.

Finally someone who gets it! You want the speakers to sound like the PA because that's what U get on a concert.

Fantastic video, I love your insights. Have you played around with a Mini-dsp at all? It will do many of the sub integrating, hi pass, low pass, time alignment and room correction. All for a very reasonable outlay. This being said, I'm off to have a closer look at the KC-62. Keep up the awesome work!

“Sleeved”, what a gorgeous word for it. And what a surprise to think that a subwoofer would be necessary to reach their full potential. I think they are beautiful and I am transported back to a Williamsburg record shop where I first heard some large Ohm Walsh speakers doing their thing. They were pure fun and stopped me in my tracks. How fun it would be to live in this kelp forest of sound, I thought. Some refined monitors on the desk with these in the living room. Not a bad life.

Another excellent 👌 review best on KZfaq

As a professional double bassist (consider how insanely variable my daily experience managing bass sounds) I am glad to see you open with this concept of live vs studio sound. Glenn Gould notoriously spoke out about the limitations of live performance vs studio expression. Imagine moving your hi-fi system to a different room every day, have someone else set it up, and then let them have the remote. The moment you play a note live you have lost control of your sound. Live is a collective experience. PA speakers, even the very best pale to what we listen to in our homes. It’s a very good point.

Marantz Model 40N + Magnat Transpuls 1500.. would it technically be a right combination? Guide please.

Where did you get the plant rollers for the IKEA shelves? Thanks/love the show!

I am very interested in these broadband like speakers. My sound system experiences started with old Philips AD broadband speakers. By no means hifi to modern standards but they still are incredibly pleasing to my ears.