Here a short first-impressions-review of the AH-MM400.   First of all let me mention that I am very fond of the previous Denon top models, be it the AH-D7000 or the AH-D7100; as such my statements here might be slightly biased... anyway, I will try to be as objective as I can.   After unpacking I was truly amazed. The build-quality is far beyond anything I ever held in my hands with this price tag to it. If anybody would have told me, that it costs twice its price I would have believed so without hesitation. The AH-D7100 was critisised for the...

Whereas I am also an old school hard-core vinyl aficionado, I (luckily) jumped the digital high-res train early enough to nowadays be equipped with the most necessary hard- and software to be able to really enjoy that playground.   After the rise of CDs in the early 80s I started to examine the options with Sony’s SACD as soon as it became available on the consumer market. And to a certain degree I still use SACD. Namely the SACD plugin (…or “add-on” or whatever…) for foobar2000 to play DSD via my ifi micro iDSD.   Concerning portable high res...

I received the Fiio X1 as part of the X1 world tour which I forwarded to the next in line after 10 days of extensive usage. I am in no way affiliated with FiiO; my impressions as follows:   Since there are more than enough reviews about the X1 describing its general qualities, I will mainly focus on the X1’s ability to drive different Headphones.   I limited myself to cans that are at least halfway ready for mobile usage; meaning they show electrical properties allowing them to be combined to DAPs. With mobile I do not necessarily mean walking on...

I owned the X5 since 3 weeks when I wrote this mini-review, and there is absolutely not regret in relation to that purchase..   The design is not really my piece of cake, but this is not supposed to be a judgement, because I can imagine that others will especially like the X5 for it's looks.   The sound is as good as you could expect it from a portable unit in that Price range. The sound stage is stable, the background as dark as I could wish, and there is no recognizable coloration and distortion. Just make sure your headphone is on the rather...

Yes, initially I also experienced what many others did: Excessive bass with related compression effects at higher volumes. Still, after in between let's say 500 hrs the sound has changed dramatically. And frankly, Denon should burn them in at least 300hrs before distributing. They could avoid some irritation sides their customers.    I really would like to know how the d7100 would measure now! The bass is still pronounced, but it integrates much better and  can I not recognize any compression effects anymore. Anyway, recently the d7100 gave me some...