Balanced tonality, crisp airy soundstage, rock-solid imaging, quick transients, punchy, slammy, and good dynamics with a decently wide soundstage. These combined terms don't typically come from me on most of the review units I receive, much less ones that are priced in the affordable range and by an obscure no-name Chinese brand like 7Hz. But, so it is. I have never heard of 7Hz before, and Lillian from Linsoul asked if I wanted to try out this new planar magnetic driver in-ear monitor earphone called the "Timeless" several months back. As some may...

The Helios is a new in-ear monitor product from a relatively new brand out of Singapore called Symphonium. The brand started out in 2017 and have three current products in their line-up. The Helios is their flagship product and comes in at about $1099 USD. The Helios features four balanced armature drivers in a configuration that was developed in collaboration with some familiar faces for those of you who have followed Audio Discourse on YouTube -- mainly Leneo, Toranku, and Valoncia, who have started their own brand, Subtonic, and working on...

The Falcon Pro is Dunu's latest ECLIPSE-based single dynamic driver in-ear monitor that uses trickle-down technology from the Zen and Zen Pro and their flagship Luna. This new IEM comes in at a relatively low price of $219 and is packed with goodies, which I'll talk about a little bit more below. First off, I'd like to thank Tom of Dunu for providing me this review unit to try out and provide my impressions here. The Falcon Pro is not only just a new IEM, but it also features the first use of Dunu's new modular cable connector system that I'm aware...

The all-new P1 Plus is the latest in the P-series of planar in-ear monitors from Tin Hifi, and comes up against some very tough competition with the very good and recently released 7HZ Timeless. The P1 Plus was provided by Linsoul for review and retails for $159 USD, which is actually less than the previous P1 and P2 models. Find the product here: https://www.linsoul.com/collections/all/products/tinhifi-p1-plus Visually, the P1 Plus looks just like the P1 and P2 models with a stainless steel mirrored-finish housing that has a rounded triangle...

For me, and for many entrenched in this audiophile world, there is always this fascination with analog tube amplifiers. It's old school, it's cool and unique looking, and it has its own set of parameters to mess around with. It also provides a different listening experience for the curious ear. I've gone through a number of tube amps in the past: from hybrids, OTL, or SET-style tube amps for headphones and speakers, and I've also gone through a few portable tube amplifiers as well. While I've had some success with the desktop ones, the portable ones...

The Sonion-developed electrostatic tweeter driver has been gaining a lot of popularity in the past year or two with many manufacturers jumping on this bandwagon. The EST driver, at least in my opinion, combines some of the characteristics of a standard balanced armature driver and some of the high powered electrostatic driver. But, first, let's not confused Electrostatic Tweeter with a real electrostatic driver, like the one used in the Shure KSE-1200 and KSE-1500 or a typical Stax-brand headphone. Those require a separate energizer unit to power the...

The Empire Ears Odin is a luxury piece, priced at $3400, and is the second most expensive in-ear monitor from the Georgia-based brand, behind the Empire Ears Wraith. The Odin was provided to me for an extended loaner demo by Headphones.com who are an official seller of the Odin and overall good people. Now that aside, I will take a deep look into this IEM in a different perspective than I probably normally do, and I am doing this because I came away totally enamored by this thing. It makes my Unique Melody MEST and Hidition Viento sound so plain and...

The Shuoer Tape Pro is the follow-up to the popular Shuoer Tape released a year ago. I have not heard the original model, so this quick review/impressions will be based solely on listening to the newest model from this brand. The Stuff The Tape Pro comes with a carrying case, a fancy-looking cable, and a series of tips. In addition, there is a cleaning brush, and a tool to unscrew filters placed flushed within the shell. Let's talk about teach quickly. The carrying case. It's small and the same case I've seen on other Shuoer products I've...

I thought Thieaudio was going to slow down on the releases of their in-ear monitors but then they come out with the Legacy 4. This four-driver IEM comes packed with a single dynamic driver and 3 balanced armature drivers and retails at $195, placing it in-between the Legacy 3 and Legacy 5, both of which I've reviewed this year. The product was sent to me by Linsoul, who are the makes of the Thieaudio brand and are found at http://www.linsoul.com. Packaging The Legacy 4 comes with a new dynamic driver that has not been used on previous...

When Cayin announced the N3 Pro in early 2020, I was very excited for what it could be. On paper, it seemed like a cheaper and smaller N8 -- Cayin's Flagship Digital Audio Player. The N8 was extremely well-built, fast, and had a solid-state and tube amplifier mode using Korg Nu-Tubes. It was also extremely heavy, and extremely expensive! The N3 Pro, instead, is a lighter-weight and smaller player that fits well in my hands, and also has the ability to switch from solid-state to a discrete tube amplifier with a press of a button on the touchscreen...

Lotoo is a Chinese brand who has been in the audio market for many years making audio players and audio recorders and have had a line of digital audio players that have been very well received. I personally had never had a chance to really play around with one save a few minutes with the Lotoo PAW Gold. In looking at various DAPs to invest in, the one that I always came back to was the $1200 Lotoo PAW 6000. I never committed to buying it because I always felt I wanted to have streaming capabilities and quickly turned my attention to Android-based...

It's always interesting to see a brand grow from its infancy into a full-fledged competitor and this is how I am starting to feel with Thieaudio, Linsoul's house brand of portable audio gear. They started with headphones, and then moved to their bread and butter IEM products with the Voyager (multi-BA) and Legacy (dynamic driver + BA hybrid) products. I've reviewed a few of their products in the past with mixed results, but this latest batch of products -- the Clairvoyance and the Monarch -- come with great anticipation and a certain bit of hype...

It's always interesting to see a brand grow from its infancy into a full-fledged competitor and this is how I am starting to feel with Thieaudio, Linsoul's house brand of portable audio gear. They started with headphones, and then moved to their bread and butter IEM products with the Voyager (multi-BA) and Legacy (dynamic driver + BA hybrid) products. I've reviewed a few of their products in the past with mixed results, but this latest batch of products -- the Clairvoyance and the Monarch -- come with great anticipation and a certain bit of hype...

The Studio series is a new lineup of multi-balanced armature (BA) in-ear monitors from the Chinese brand Dunu. If you have not heard of Dunu, they are not a new company like most of the Chinese brands that get hyped up on a weekly basis. Dunu has been around for 26 years and have been a known name in the portable audio world for some time. I believe the Studio series, however, is their first foray into an all-BA setup. Their lineup up until this point featured dynamic driver and hybrid (dynamic driver + BA) product forms and the Studio series changes...

The Sony IER-M9 originally came out at the MSRP of $1499 but has since dropped down to $999 in recent months. This puts in the shouting distance of other multi-BA IEMs like the Hidition Viento and the Moondrop S8. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to hear the S8 yet, but I was very excited to try the IER-M9 and see how it stacks against my custom Hidition Viento-B. This unit was sent on loan to me by community member, tma6. Thanks! Unboxing The IER-M9 is a 5-Balanced Armature driver in-ear monitor that features a black magnesium housing with...

The Unique Melody Mini MEST is the new and smaller sibling of the very likeable MEST that I reviewed a few months ago. The Mini MEST is one of the lower priced products from luxury brand Unique Melody. As of right now, I believe the $599 Mini MEST is the lowest price product in their lineup, which will soon introduce a $300 USD triple-dynamic driver IEM in the near future. This Mini version strips away both the dynamic driver and the two EST drivers from the larger MEST as well as reduced the balanced armatures count to 3. It still retains the...

The EVE20 is a limited edition IEM from german manufacturer Vision Ears. The EVE20 is planned to be only available to purchase in 2020 and comes in a universal form factor for $1300 USD through MusicTeck or 1300 euro (including VAT) directly from Vision Ears. This review demo unit was provided by Vision Ears through Barra's Audio Tiers/Head-Fi Loaner tour. Package & Fit The loaner unit sent out did not include the box, and only included the metal round case, a black braided cable and the IEMs themselves. The case is similar to the one that came with...

Campfire Audio has gone through a lot of iterations of their popular Andromeda line of in-ear monitors over the years and it's still one of the most popular premium IEMs on the market. It's always had the nice shell design with bold colors and a good technical and sound experience for the most part, which has made it a staple recommendation for years now, despite the continual change and special edition models that have come out. And there's been a lot. Even last year, Campfire released two updates to the Andromeda brand, with the 2019 update...

I do not really know how to begin my impressions of the Empire Ears flagship in-ear monitor from their EP series, the Wraith. This $3500 IEM is one of their newer models that also includes the use of four Sonion EST electrostatic tweeters, as well as 7 balanced armature drivers, making this an 11-driver hybrid. I say I’m not totally sure how to begin this because I was mostly puzzled when listening to this IEM for the first few songs. As I listened to it more, the progressively worse state of shock I found myself in. I joined a Head-Fi tour of the...

The VX name seems to be popular amongst Chinese brands for earphones. This is now the third VX-named product in the past couple years – the Moondrop VX earbuds, the qdc Anole VX, and now this, the TRN VX. While the qdc Anole VX is the flagship and my favorite IEM on the market that I’ve tried so far and retails for over $2200 USD, this VX from TRN comes in at a much more budget-friendly price of around $75 USD and comes in black and green shell options. The TRN VX was provided to me for review by Linsoul and can be found on the Linsoul site...