I have on my desk an engineering sample of an Aune DAP. The M1s.   I spent time with the Aune M2 about a year or so ago, and I liked it, but it  had some rough edges on it. The sound it put out was like nothing I had heard. The UI was delightfully simple and functional. No bells and whistles, no unnecessary gee-taws, no bull$h1t. It bested a lot of other DAPs I had heard. In fact, it still mentally ranks remarkably high in my memory. It had horrendous battery life though. A deal killer for me.    Fast forward to today. A friend recommended I hear...

Last time I reviewed a FiiO DAP, it was (I think) the X5ii. If I recall correctly, the X5ii sadly succumbed to the exotic charms the Pono offered. I ditched my plans to settle down with a nice safe option like the X5ii, and ran off with the exotic Pono, with its balanced output, weird, yet appealing shape and hellishly temperamental UI.   Today I received a review sample of the X5iii to try out for a little while and then forward on to the next reviewer in the schedule. This unit is part of yet another legendary FiiO review tour. I am getting no...

The Shozy BK has been out for a little while now, and I have had a pair in my messenger bag for work for some time. There’s an assortment of buds and players in there, from the crass (the Sony MDR808+, with its unapologetic bass) to the refined (the VE Zen 1, recabled with BTG Audio wire). I switch between using a FiiO X1, an iPod Touch, 64GB, an iPod Classic (modded to 256GB) and one of those funky little Walnut V2 players.   I have been listening to the BK off and on, and these are my (subjective) impressions.   The most prominent improvement I...

This might be a lackluster review from me. This happens sometimes. I get overwhelmed with new products, and as a result, they all become a hodgepodge of different objects that do the same thing for me…it becomes harder to see the standouts in the crowd.   Bear with me, though. Lately, earbuds have become kind of a thing. The only downside is, a lot of them are coming out of the Far East, and are only available on TaoBao or AliExpress. A lot are also limited runs, by small businesses, run by random gentlemen with an exquisite ear that they can only...

A screenless DAP. It makes you question just what is necessary on a media player, and what you want from it. I am currently listening to Derek Gripper’s “One Night on Earth”. I think that’s the album’s name. I don’t know for sure, and I can’t recall the year it was released. I also have an image in my head of the cover art…I am a little clueless, not because my tagging on my library is lacking, but because I am listening on the Shozy Alien DAP.   I have the gold edition, and like its successors, it has no screen. It’s a remarkably simple affair. An...

The Venture Electronics saga continues…I am probably going to get some disagreements on this review (burn-in always seems to provoke fits of rage on the interwebz…), but I am going to play the cards as they lay for me. As always, listening and sound impressions can be incredibly subjective. It’s particularly hard to cleanse your palette between headphones and give a completely unbiased impression of any one pair, however, I hear what I hear with these…   This review is focused on the VE Asura 2.0. I used my Pono primarily when I listened to them. I...

After my experience with the HiFiMan Edition X I wasn’t too sure I wanted to listen to the HE400s. I wasn’t a big fan of the responses to criticisms levelled at the Edition X, and I wasn’t too excited at the prospect of listening to another great-sounding headphone with a mediocre build that no one would step up and take constructive criticism on.   This review was written using a sample pair of HE400s, provided by HiFiMan. I received no financial compensation for this review, and will be mailing them back in the next few days.   So it was with a...

Life is full of compromises. I don’t like the word compromises though. It has negative connotations. It smacks of despair, quiet sadness, waiting and never quite reaching that ecstasy, always thinking that if you had just had your way, things would be perfect. Trade-offs is another filthy word for me.   My semantic hang-ups aside though, it’s true. Life is often compromise. So for me, wherever possible, I like to at least strive for perfection, my way. I can’t get this always…in fact, it’s rare that I get that pinnacle, but when I do, it’s that...

As an avid DIY’er and Grado Modder, I am always on the lookput for new drivers, cabling ideas, cup designs, etc, etc…I turn my own cups in my workshop, and primarily like to use vintage Grado SR80 drivers, the pink variants. I also have a penchant for the Symphones Magnum drivers.   SR80 “Pinks” are Grados built in and around the mid-nineties. They are named “Pinks because the cheesecloth over the driver grill fades to a shade of pink with age. The cheesecloth has no magical powers to impart upon sound signature, but, it does indicate the drivers...

I would like to thank Meze for kindly allowing me to listen to a review sample of their 99 Classics model. I will freely admit to being a little bit of a review whore lately. I have become curious to hear what is going on outside of my normal headphone stomping grounds. I am a Grado modder and an earbuds enthusiast. I turn my own wooden cups on a lathe in my workshop, and am always trying new drivers, new shapes, new headbands, etc, etc. I am also a very devoted follower of the new earbuds being put out by Venture Electronics. The Zen V1 and V2 are...

I remember when the FiiO X3 came out. It was an idea that had originally been shelved, but was later resurrected, and released. In retrospect, I see it as FiiO’s opening shot, an exploratory probe in to the world of DAPs. After cutting their teeth using the X3, FiiO moved swiftly and decisively. The X5, X3ii and the X5ii followed in quick succession, each a step forward, a refinement of firmware, UI, build and in the background, subtle, but still there, sonic changes (the biggest was the switch from the X3’s warm sound signature, to the more...

I am sitting at my desk, staring at a $1799 headphone. I am not naïve, and I know that $1799 is on the brink of being declared “mid-fi” territory. I want to mull over this price-tag a little though.    I’ve been on Head-Fi since the eighth of July, 2011. I am not a veteran by any means, but I wasn’t born into the world of headphones yesterday. The Sennheiser HD800 goes for just shy of $1100 on Amazon these days. That means a better deal can probably be found somewhere, especially on the second-hand market. The HD800 was regarded as the pinnacle of...

Grado headphones have lived in infamy among headphone enthusiasts for decades. They have a fiercely devoted following, for whom the company’s trademark aggressive, in-your-face signature is the holy grail of listening pleasure. Frequently these devotees are also followers of the classic rock scene and for good reason….Grados aren’t bass monsters, they aren’t pretty, but they can bring tears to your eyes if you use them to listen to a little Led Zeppelin…   Like all good cults though, there are some Grado tribe splinter groups. A prominent set are...

A week ago I mailed off the Shanling M2 Tour review unit. As I walked out of the Post Office, I had a few interesting thoughts and observations. I chewed over them for a week. These are them post rumination.   I had the Shanling M2 for about a week. During that time I listened to it extensively, primarily at my office. I did not use it as a DAC. I have a private space with a closing door. I use a variety of headphones (after all, variety is the spice of life…except when you are married…all wives reading this, put away your pitchforks please…). My...

Brainwavz have just released a new headphone, the HM2. I was offered the opportunity to review a pair, and accepted. In case you couldn’t tell from my ramblings below, I have received no financial compensation for my thoughts, they are entirely my own.   I am neither old, nor young, and am on the cusp of being or not being a millennial. I have been a lifelong music-listener, with interests that range far and wide, from African Jazz all the way through to EDM, with plenty of stops in between (Tuvan Throat Singing anyone?).   I use a variety of...

FiiO continues to rampage through the audiophile market. Maybe rampage is the wrong term. FiiO are more like a fox with a burning brand tied to his tail, sprinting through the wheat fields of audiophilia.    Their core mission statement of high quality audio products at humane pricing is popular, and everywhere they touch catches alight. They started with amplifiers, and have an extremely respectable range of units for all tastes at incredibly competitive pricing. Chances are, your first foray into portable audiophilia probably involved a FiiO amp...

VE Monk Review              A few months ago Clieos reviewed two pairs of new earbuds produced by a relatively unknown vendor in China, VE (Venture Electronics).   Since then, VE have developed a rapidly growing, cultish following…and for good reason. Their flagship, the VE Zen is almost universally praised by those who hear it properly driven (it has a whopping 320 ohm impedance, that from personal experience, sounds dreamy on the Pono player, especially when driven in balanced mode). Its little sibling, the Asura, is similarly praised (although...

This review will cover the X5ii, comparing it to the Pono player and the original X5. I have a Pono in my possession now. I unfortunately sold my original X5 prior to receiving the review sample, but had spent a good amount of time with it before selling it (I pre-ordered it at its release time from B&H).   The X5ii I listened to was a review sample sent out on a tour of the United States by FiiO. It was not given to me, and I am in no way affiliated with FiiO. It was forwarded on to the next tour participant as soon as I had spent ten days with...

The VE Zen and the VE Asura   If you're going to buy an earbud, you should chat to the fellows at VE...   Earbuds are an odd little throwback. An anachronism now, when once they were the defacto form factor for headphones bundled with phones and mp3 players (back when they were called mp3 players, and not “DAPs”…time was a brother would ask for some DAP and you’d give him a fist bump…alas, no more…).   Like Elvis though, earbuds never died, they just moved to another planet. They are still out there, actually being produced by loving, enthusiasts'...

How much more can we possibly hear? At some point audio, and personal audio by default, becomes a continual series of efforts to throw oneself over the walls of the physical world. We try desperately to defy our bodies and minds, and so chase file resolution, processing effects, driver technologies endlessly. We are Alice in Wonderland, chasing the White Rabbit, eating this cookie, that mushroom and experiencing all manner of auditory hallucinations.   I am drawing dangerously close to a drug analogy, so I’ll wrap this up quickly….Alice took...