Review : Uniharpa Tube Amp, Neumi bookshelf speakers, D'Addario power cord, Sonice cable

Budget Esoterica Review Magazine
October 2020 Extravaganza Edition

Up for your reviewing pleasure, I have a tube amp, bookshelf speakers, power cord and bulk speaker cable.Three out of four are available at Amazon.com. Below i will list them separately with a short description of each. After that i will listen to the system as a whole and give you my listening impressions. 

     1. Uniharpa X9 Vacuum Tube Amplifier

The Uniharpa amp is available at Amazon.com currently selling for $439 with free shipping. Output power according to the owners manual is listed at 75 watts per channel into 8 ohms with full frequency response. The build quality appears to be excellent and the amp weighs a hefty 9 KG. On the front panel we have a 3 position source knob which allows you to choose cd, aux or bluetooth function. On the middle of the amp we have a push button on/off switch. To the right of that we
have the volume knob. On the top of the amp we have 2 tubes , the WY-P3 and the 6N3J (5670) on the left side flanked by the same tubes on the right hand side, with a good size transformer in the middle. Moving to the rear you can find very high quality RCA jacks with provisions for aux input, cd input and even a Preout jack! The speaker connectors are also very high quality and you get a detachable power cord and a fuse box in the back. Very impressive ! The amp runs fairly hot so i don't think i would venture to keep it powered on overnight. I will give the amp a 8 hour warm up before doing the review.

     2. Neumi BS5 Passive Bookshelf Speaker

This is an impressive speaker that is sold on Amazon.com currently priced at just under $90. If you look at the pictures of the components you can tell that this is no cheap speaker! For example , look at the quality of the 5 inch woofer made of fiberglass with rubber surrounds. We also have a 1 inch woofer with waveguide. This is a front ported design. The crossover is equally impressive. This is an 8 element design using superior audio quality components. I also like the impressive binding posts. I mounted the Neumi speakers on my Target speaker stands.

     3. D'Addario Accessories 10 Foot Power Cord

This is a 10 foot 12 AWG power cord that is available at Amazon.com for under $22. This is an excellent power cord that competes with some of my audiophile power cords. There are no fancy plugs or jacket , but the length gives you great flexibility on amp placement. 

     4. Sonice High performance speaker cable by Kirmuss Audio

This is a bulk cable that is priced reasonably low. I terminated this cable with my silver plated BFA banana plugs. Audiophiles like thick speaker cables and the Sonice is no slouch measured at 8 AWG thickness. The speaker cable itself consists of 
silver plated copper. According to the manufacturer, the silver plating allows for increased imaging in mid tones and treble with an undistorted presence and bass. The conductors are insulated with white and orange PVC. Each channel conductor is shielded with a 20 gauge tinned copper drain wire that is wrapped around each conductor. The cable is ideal for amplifiers with power rating up to 350-400 watts. 

Listening Tests

The strength of this system lies in the reproduction of female vocals with very good upper mid range performance. This is also helpful for reproducing brass instruments. Listening to my favorite Joni Mitchell cd, "Blue", the vocal range and conveyance of emotion is very , very good. Next up i pulled my , The Masters Of Jazz Fusion cd from my collection and listened to track number 8, "Speed Ball". I could hear the same positives from the range of the saxophone. The instrument just seemed full sounding and slightly  open with a slight touch of "throaty" quality thrown into the mix. I always like to test the bass and i bought a cd a short time ago from Oldies.com that has plenty of it. Super Lounge, "Musical Journey", is the cd i am referring to. Hugger Mugger is the track i listened to. Bass was thumping tightly and i have no complaints in that area at all. 

Summary And Recommendations

I love the Uniharpa amp. Not only the looks and build quality, but also the sound. I believe this is a fairly priced amp that would be an excellent choice for the beginner audiophile. The Neumi speakers are also very good looking and built with quality parts. I have no hesitation recommending this as a very good place to start for the budget audiophile. The D'Addario power cord is just as good sounding as some of my audiophile power cords. You don't get fancy connectors or jackets , but you do get a very good sounding power cord that gives you plenty of flexibility of placement of amps due to the 10 foot length. Highly recommended for the audiophile on a strict budget. The speaker cables do perfectly well, but i think it would be interesting to try them out in a higher end system with full range speakers. A pretty good buy for the price, i think. There are a lot of good buys out there for the unheeled audiophiles but proceed with caution.  Major Healey over and out. 

Associated Equipment

Uniharpa X9 Tube Amp
Jefferson Memorial T-Amp Stand
Neumi BS5 Passive Bookshelf Speakers
Sonice Speaker Cable
Morrow Audio Entry Level Analog and Digital Cable
Musical Fidelity DAC
Target Speaker Stands
Entry Level Sony DVD Player 
D'Addario Power Cable