AUGUST 2021 MACWORLD 121and the piano was just a tad congested in
the low end.
Turning to some rock, I cued up “Sex
Shooter” from Prince’s posthumous album
Originals. In this case, the vocals were
somewhat farther back than I had heard
them up to now, while the synthesizer was
more up front. Interestingly, the synth bass
was not overbalanced, though the kick
drum was pretty dominant. Overall, the
sound was clean and clear.
As I was looking around the Tidal Master
library, I came across an artist called Mozart
La Para, so I listened to “Golpe De Estado”
from the album Niveles. I thought it might be
music inspired by Mozart, but no—it’s
Spanish-language rap with bass you might
hear booming from a passing lowrider. The
pronounced bass dropped almost into
infrasonic territory—in fact, this track benefits
from the Radiance’s emphasized bass. The
vocals were very clear and way up front.through an iFi hip-dac, reviewed at fave.
co/3ypMGKO. Also as usual these days, I
started with a track from the amazing
Jacob Collier—in this case, his cover of
the Police classic “Every Little
Thing She Does” from Djesse
Vol. 1. Right away, I noticed
bright highs and deep bass that
was a bit overdone, especially
the low piano note at the end,
though the rest of the bass
seemed slightly too forward as
well. On the other hand, the vocals were
very clear and present, and the overall
sound was smooth and well integrated.
A new discovery for me is Artemis, a
seven-member, all-female, modern-jazz
ensemble consisting of a rhythm section
and several horns. “Goddess of the Hunt”
from the group’s eponymous album
features some wonderfully inventive
composing, arranging, and improvising.
On the Radiance, the bass was slightly
overbalanced, but the horn section was
clear, and the soloists emerged nicely.
For some more straight-ahead jazz, I
turned to Diana Krall’s new album The
Dream of You. Her rendition of “That’s All”
is a simple quartet of piano, guitar,
acoustic bass, and drums accompanying
her wonderful voice. The Radiance
produced a clean, clear sound with her
vocal way up front, which is probably in
the mix. The bass was slightly overbearing,
The earcup and driver are carefully designed to deliver
excellent sound quality.