Perhaps Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15, recorded in the Mercator Halle in Duisburg with a lot of spatial information, will help to detect more differences between FireBird and Dragon than the first brief comparison: With the latter, the stage seems to be a bit wider and a bit deeper. The instrument groups manifest themselves three-dimensional to the touch, and the high-frequency range comes across a bit warmer and more elegant. Also, in terms of microdynamics, one gets just a tad more. In this piece, the improvements introduced by the Dragon are clear. The Dragon also impressed me with Keith Jarrett's "God Bless the Child": I have never heard the cymbals and especially the hi-hat so precise and rich in timbre. I had expected that the bass drum is reproduced with impressive pressure and that also rhythmically everything is well, and I am not being disappointed. However, this clarity in the high-frequency range without any hint of sharpness is surprising and simply superb! The FireBird lacks a little air around the instruments, even if the spatial representation in absolute terms is one of the best I know. There is almost no difference to the Dragon in terms of timing and energy in the low-frequency range.

When I still frequently used vinyl records for testing, "Malinye" from the album Codona 2 was one of my favorites. In the meantime, I have purchased the files at Qobuz in CD quality but was not particularly taken with it at the first hearing. With the FireBirds, I make a second attempt, and immediately the well-known melody draws my attention: The timbres shine more golden than silvery, the timpani come with power, the melodica has bite without being annoying, the vocals ingratiate themselves, and, above all, the pocket trumpet and cymbals glisten brightly. One could already go into raptures at this point – if the Dragon didn't make it even more apparent how far into the depths of the room the timpani had been mixed, how the melodica's sounds are reflected in the large studio space, and how finely accented and intricate the cymbal playing is. What impressed me most was how the pocket trumpet not only sounded clearly in a large but also high room. The Dragon simply gives you access to a crucial bit more information. Very impressive!