Silviu TUDOR Reviews & WoodWorks

10/10/2026

I had the wonderful chance to see Triosence live at Sala Dalles in Bucharest.

It was such a beautiful concert, building gradually in a lovely crescendo, played with joy and with enough space to really enjoy each piece as it unfolded.

All three of them, Matthias, Stephan and Bernhard, were in fantastic form, and Bernhard’s stories between the songs made the evening even more enjoyable.

Triosence have been on an extended tour through Romania, with concerts in Iași, Bistrița, Cluj, Constanța, Buzău and, of course, Bucharest.

The sound at Sala Dalles was surprisingly good as well. It is a venue with genuinely nice acoustics, and I came away impressed.

At the end, we bought a few records, got them signed and then, of course, finished the evening with a "merdenea" from nea Mihai in Piața Amzei. 😄

triosence

09/10/2026

DALI SONIK 3 have spent the past few weeks in my reference system, and they turned out to be far more interesting than their price might suggest.

What impressed me most was the way they build a remarkably large soundstage, with excellent focus and a presentation that often feels much more ambitious than you would expect from an affordable standmount loudspeaker.

They are refined, open and detailed, with natural mids, tight and controlled bass and a surprisingly mature sense of scale.

Positioning matters quite a lot, especially toe-in, but once you find the right angle, the SONIK 3 can be seriously rewarding.

Full in-depth review coming very soon on silviutudor.ro

Horn Distribution RO DALI Speakers

08/10/2026

This is the new review product for this month: the rather exclusive Denon DP-3000NE.

A reference direct-drive turntable from Denon, this thing is an absolute beast. It takes hours to properly unpack, assemble and configure, and one of the first things that really strikes you, as you can also see in the video, is just how substantial and heavy it feels.

I can’t wait to put it through every test I can think of and then sit down to write a full, in-depth review about it.

Very excited about this one. Stay close!

07/10/2026

Can an audio rack really change the way a system sounds?

For the first time, I took an in-depth look at something that contains no electronics, does not plug into the mains and, theoretically, does not “make” sound at all: Quadraspire X-Reference.

I installed two X-Reference racks in my reference system, and what happened next was considerably more interesting than I expected.

[...] “For the first time in this room, I had the very clear impression that the music continued through the space occupied by the components, rather than simply forming around them. The stereo image opened up, the soundstage grew in every direction, individual elements within it came into sharper focus, and there was more air between instruments.”

So, should we still think of a serious audio rack simply as furniture?
Read the full in-depth review on silviutudor.ro

07/10/2026

Silviu TUDOR Reviews & WoodWorks publică o nouă recenzie de film pe blog. De data asta, vorbește despre o producție super îndrăzneață, semnată Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds. „Inglourious Basterds vine însă cu o perspectivă complet diferită și își permite, poate mai mult decât multe alte filme, să strecoare și zâmbetul în această poveste, fără să uite vreodată ce realitate istorică teribilă se află în spatele lui. ” Lectură plăcută! Citește articolul pe blog.

06/10/2026

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of spending a rather special few hours with Rob Watts, Colin Pratt and Tom Vaughan from Chord Electronics.

It turned out to be a very different kind of interview. At several points, I had the feeling that we were simply old friends who had sat down for a long conversation.

We moved away from the usual questions about FPGAs, filters and the mathematics behind DACs, and instead talked about the music behind Chord Electronics, the music we love, and music itself as perhaps the most important common thread in the lives of audiophiles and melomaniacs.

A huge thank you to Rob, Colin and Tom for accepting my challenge to take part in this slightly different kind of interview and for being so open throughout our conversation.

And, of course, many thanks to my friends at AVstore.ro for making this interview possible.

Coming soon on silviutudor.ro and AVstore.ro.

05/10/2026

I invite you to join me for a rather unusual review, and actually a first for me: an in-depth look at the Quadraspire X-Reference, one of the British manufacturer’s flagship audio racks.

An amplifier, a DAC or a pair of loudspeakers actively process or reproduce music. A rack contains no electronics, does not plug into the mains and, theoretically, does not “make” sound at all.

So the question was obvious: Can a rack really change the way an audio system sounds?

I installed two X-Reference racks in my reference system, replacing the platforms I had been using until then, and what happened next was considerably more interesting than I expected.

[...] “For the first time in this room, I had the very clear impression that the music continued through the space occupied by the components, rather than simply forming around them. The stereo image opened up, the soundstage grew in every direction, individual elements within it came into sharper focus, and there was more air between instruments.”

In the full review, I explore Quadraspire’s unusual rack-within-a-rack architecture, its bamboo platforms and bronze interfaces, and what happened to soundstage, focus, air and tonal balance once the racks entered my system.

By the end, the question was no longer whether a rack can influence the sound. It was whether we should still think of a serious audio rack simply as furniture at all.

Link to the full review in the comments.

03/10/2026

These are the MOON 461 and 491, two rather special additions to the Compass Collection.

They’ve spent the past month on my test bench, and a full in-depth review is coming soon on silviutudor.ro and AVstore.ro.

Stay tuned!

02/10/2026

Today I had the pleasure of visiting AVstore, where I interviewed Rob Watts, Colin Pratt and Tom Vaughan from Chord Electronics.

They travelled to Romania for the launch of the new Chord Electronics Quartet, a fascinating reference-grade digital upscaler and one of the most ambitious products Chord has developed in recent years.

I also had the chance to listen to the system put together by Lucian at AVstore, featuring the new Bowers & Wilkins 801 D5, Chord Electronics ULTIMA amplification, DAVE and, of course, the new Quartet.

And the sound absolutely matched the scale of the system: big, effortless and wonderfully immersive. I was genuinely impressed. I had missed listening to Bowers & Wilkins at this level and, I have to admit, Quartet left me very curious.

Hopefully, we’ll manage to arrange a proper M Scaler vs. Quartet comparison sometime soon.

If you’re in Bucharest tomorrow, don’t miss the Quartet launch event at AVstore Cotroceni, where you’ll also have the chance to meet Rob, Colin and Tom in person. The event takes place on Saturday, October 3, from 10:00 to 13:00.

AVstore.ro

02/10/2026