Kefine is a new audio brand out of China that have launched a couple products to market. This review will take a look at their dynamic driver IEM, the Delci. The product was provided directly from Kefine for reviewing. The Delci features a 10mm Polyurethane + Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) driver within aluminum gunmetal gray shells. The product is $59 and available on various online retailers. The product also comes with a very nice cable that is a 4-wire braid mixing 2 wires of light copper with 2 wires of dark brown color that gives the cable a bit...

Simgot's EA1000 "Fermat" is a dynamic driver IEM that features 2-drivers, one of which is a normal powered dynamic driver, and a second one being a passive radiator. While passive radiators are commonly found in desktop powered speakers to get a bass impact response when typical smaller speakers can't achieve it, there's only been a small handful of IEMs that have only recently started adding similar ideas into an in-ear monitor. The EA1000 sells for $219 USD and is available at many retailers including Linsoul and Amazon and AliExpress. The product...

The PB5 Osprey is a balanced Korg NuTube portable headphone amplifier made by iBasso and is comes out at the same time as their new D16 1-Bit portable DAC. Since I already owned the DX320 Max, I only purchased the PB5 and used an ownership discount to get the product at a lower price than the $1599 retail price of this unit, which sets out to compete with Cayin's C9 NuTube portable amp and others. I reviewed the C9 a while back and enjoyed its smooth and enjoyable sound, but disliked how bulky it was. The PB5 is a bit smaller and much lightweight...

The Neo Stream is the current flagship streamer from iFi, and is sold for $1299 MSRP. The Stream is a significant upgrade over their previous Zen Stream device and this review unit was sent to me directly from iFi to take a look at. The Neo Stream comes in an all-aluminum metal chassis, and in a relatively small package. It's larger than the Zen series, but is significantly smaller than a traditional audio component, and takes up about 30% of the space of my Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE DAC or Holo Bliss headphone amplifiers, which are the traditional...

One of the cool things I've been able to witness in this audio hobby is the growth of an idea within the community and seeing it blossom into a real thing. I've seen many community members take their ideas and make one-off projects, and some make commercial products that have become successful. I think of brands like ZMF for the latter, and my audio friend Phil for the former, the Aurorus Australis and Borealis, or the now discontinued Prisma Audio Azul IEM. Today, I am sharing another community experience - one that is even closer to my heart, as...

I've always deep down in my heart wanted to enjoy a big bassy headphone or IEM. The problem is, most of them are not very good. They are muddy, boomy, and very poor in resolution, and to balance it out, they make highs very bright, or even worse -- have no treble at all (i.e. L-shape). While there are some fun bassy sets like the Empire Ears Valkyrie and Legend X sets, they are quite pricey, and also can be a tad harsh in the highs. Along comes Fat Freq. This is a Singaporean small boutique brand that makes a series of IEMs with big bass boosts...

The MEST series has been one of my favorite IEM lines since Unique Melody first came out with the original bone conductor-featuring quadbrid earphone. The original MEST had used two "new" IEM technologies at the time with a bone conducting driver and electrostatic tweeters to go along with a dynamic driver and a series of balanced armature drivers. This review will take a look at the company's newest MEST branded product, the MEST MK3. The original MK3 prototype and design that was shown around featured a ceramic shell with a plain looking design...

The DO300 is a new Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) from SMSL and it features the latest ESS flagship DAC chipset, the ES9039MSPRO. The unit comes in at a retail price at $549 and is available to order from our friends at Aoshida Audio. (https://aoshida-audio.com/products/smsl-do300) The product was provided by Aoshida for this review. As per usual, the review is my own set of impressions, and my link is unaffiliated. I have recently reviewed the whole fleet of the SMSL DO and HO series DACs and headphone amplifiers, starting with the small and...

The Supernova is a flagship in-ear monitor product from Indonesian boutique maker, 7th Acoustics. This product comes in at a small $750 USD price tag for a flagship, and has a total of 6-BA drivers in a nicely laid out package. The unit was sent to me by another review, Theo of Precogvision and Headphones.com fame, as part of a 7th Acoustics tour. I had just published a review of the Proxima the other day, which is a neutral reference budget IEM from 7th Acoustics. This one is their top of the line model and takes the neutral tuning and adds a...

I've had the pleasure of an extended review loaner of the $3499+ ZMF Caldera that's been at times on my head and off-times off my head over the course of several months now. It is no fault of the Caldera at all, it just happened to be a rather busy period of holidays, being stricken with illness, recovering, traveling, and just a busy work schedule. But, every time I do reach out for the Caldera, it's been a nice, pleasurable listen that I am going to discuss more in this full review. First off, I did provide my first few days of listening...

Several months ago, I did a Dongle Discourse Shoot-Out and I crowned the Cayin RU-6 my champion at the time. While, I still consider it my favorite dongle of that batch, I wanted to re-visit some of these dongles a bit more, and today I will take a deeper look at the iFi Go Bar, a very popular and pricey $349 USB-C portable DAC/Amp that is full of features, and my opinion of it has changed a bit since then. The iFi Go Bar I am reviewing is actually from Headphones.com and was sent to me from Precogvision of their team many months ago, but I still...

*note: the volume knob has been replaced with a larger gold-colored knob as shown in this photo The Piety is a custom run of a previously prototype design of a Magni by Schiit that was taken by longtime audio community member CeeTee and produced by hand on a small-scale with his own branding, Nitsch. This Piety borrows some of its Continuity circuit amplifier topology from Schiit's Jotunheim 2, but in a much smaller form factor. One of the reasons Schiit never took this specific design to market was due to a shortage on some of the parts, as they...

The Hifiman Susvara was once quite ridiculed and hated for its outrageous price tag at its time at $6000. Yes, that's right, it's $6K. And it still is today, 6+ years later. And while it's still one of the most expensive headphones on the market, there are others in this price range now that compete with it, including even more expensive in-ear monitors! Some of the vitriol against this was the entertaining video interview between Tyll Hertens and Fang Bian, the owner of Hifiman, and also Hifiman's long-going quality issues and relatively...

When the original Yume came out from SeeAudio, I was very excited to see an in-ear that nearly matched my "Antdroid Target Curve." Of course, I did do a little bit of modification to it since then, but it still closely aligns to it, with the major difference being a little lack of upper-treble extension. But FR alignment wasn't everything, as I found the Yume to have an overall mushy and rounded-transients presentation that made it sound a little sluggish and below average in technical performance for its price point, and ended up giving it a mostly...

The DO200 MK II is the successor and a new DAC from SMSL which features dual ESS ES9068AS DAC chipsets and retails for $469 on Aoshida Audio's website. I personally never had an opportunity to try out the original DO200 DAC, so this is a new experience for me, but I am quite familiar with SMSL DACs and headphone amps from owning and reviewing many, many of them in the past. This review unit was provided by Aoshida Audio and you can find the DAC here: https://aoshida-audio.com/products/smsl-do200-mkii-mqa-audio-dac This DAC is medium-sized -- still...

The S12 is LetShuoer's new and first planar in-ear monitor and comes in at $149 USD. This IEM packs a large 14.8mm planar magnetic driver encased in a all-metal shell and comes with a fancy multi-colored braided cable and a tin case. It's quite a decent package all together and it has a nice resolving and clean sound that should please many. First off, I'd like to thank Joseph from LetShuoer for reaching out and sending me a review unit of this new product. As some may know from reading my past reviews, I'm not always the biggest fan of Shuoer's...

The Mangird Tea came out a while back with some positive reviews and a decently pleasant overall sound. I personally enjoyed using it for its warm and somewhat too polite sound. It lacked a bit of air and treble, but the overall mid-range and bass was on point. Fast forward to now, and Mangird has rebranded to XENNS, but still also carries the Mangird name. Confusing, I know. But the Tea 2 is their new product with XENNS packaging, and Mangird on the faceplate. Luckily, its a good sounding IEM and let's dive a bit more into it! First - Linsoul did...

The TTROMSO is a new IEM by Tipsy that is named, incorrectly, after the Norwegian town of Tromsø. The theme around the IEM is based on the Aurora Borealis, I'm presuming, with its color pattern and design. The IEM retails for $89, and is a single dynamic driver in-ear with a V-shaped sound. The TTROMSO was provided for review by Linsoul, and can be found on their retail store at Linsoul.com. The unit comes in a single color choice of PineStone Sea blue/green, and has a matching blue-colored IEM cable with fabric sheathing. It does get tangled fairly...

The RAPTGO Hook-X is an interesting new hybrid IEM that mixes two less common driver technologies together along with an even rarer open-back shell to create an exciting and somewhat refreshing new product on the market. The Hook-X retails for $239 and is sold by online retailer Linsoul. The product page can be found here: https://www.linsoul.com/products/raptgo-hook-x As you suspect, this product was provided free of charge from Linsoul for review. And with that, let's talk more about this new in-ear monitor that's gaining some momentum in the...

The Pegasus is an R-2R Ladder Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) made by Chinese brand Musician. They are a new brand, which some have lumped with Denafrips, but Musician has their own expanding lineup of DACs, amplifiers, and streamers now. The Pegasus was their first product and one I purchased recently at their retail price of $1099 USD. The Musician Pegasus uses a resistive ladder design instead of typical DAC chips that are found in many popular DACs out there that are normally using ICs from ESS, AKM, Cirrus-Logic, or Texas...