My only regret is that I didn't buy these earphones earlier. I had reasons for hesitating: $250 is a lot to take a gamble on something that didn't really have any informative customer reviews online, and as an EDM guy I was concerned about the bass rolloff at 40hz. Massdrop solved the first problem for me by dropping them at $99, and it turns out the second was never a problem to begin with. (KDE stands for Koss Dual Element [referring to the two dynamic drivers per ear. That makes the full official name the Koss Koss Dual Element 250...Per Koss...

The Hifiman HM-601 is my favorite portable player for the following reasons: *Sound quality--it has a warm, smooth, very musical, very analog sound. Detail and clarity are good, but this isn't the best player to listen to an audiobook, perhaps. Instead it's geared for music, and it's extremely good at it. There is an effective 5 band eq if you want it. *Soundstage--it's the only player I have with a soundstage that rivals my best desktop amps. It's very satisfying in this regard. *Power--this player has enough power to drive full-size dynamic...

Note: this review is for a Stax Lambda Pro. I'm not certain each review is for the same model here :/ This headphone (along with a Stax SRM-727a amp) is the finest audio experience of my life. If you're used to dynamic drivers, it'll be a shock the first time you hear what music is supposed to sound like. There is ZERO muddiness anywhere in the spectrum. Every frequency is reproduced cleanly and separately from the others. Voices and instruments sound so realistic, in unfamiliar music I'll often think someone is in the room with me, before...

The LH Labs Geek Out V2+ is a DAC/amp without compare. And for that we can be thankful. It will tantalize you with fantastic sound quality one minute, it will leave you in tears and your headphone drivers in shreds the next. How great is the sound quality? The Chord Mojo is better, but only just. If you like music driven by the bass, the GOV2+ might even eke out a win over the Mojo, which is no slouch in the bass department itself. It it worth putting up with everything else about it? That's for you to decide. (DISCLAIMER: I wasn't around for...

Many audiophiles today eschew bluetooth completely. I have never been one of them. There are situations where using a dangly cord can be inconvenient or outright dangerous, and bluetooth was a "good enough for some" solution. Can the Astell & Kern XB10 ("Xtreme" Bluetooth) wireless DAC and headphone amp change this paradigm in any significant way? About me: 37 years old, and I'll admit to being an audiophile. It comes from a formative experience hearing great DJ music on an exceptionally clean, well balanced 20,000 watt (or thereabouts, claim their...

Walk into any Target,store, anywhere, and head to Electronics. Hidden among the low-end Sonys and Skullcandys, overshadowed by the $198 Jaybirds and sprawling areas dedicated to Bose or Beats by Dre (who even knows what they charge for those things), is a little IEM from Philips marketed with the words "Rich Bass." They might easily be confused with the similar looking "Beats n' Bass" packaging. The latter are the lower-end SHE3595, which are widely acclaimed for their price/performance, but to me have several glaring flaws in the sound (most notably...

UPDATE: The following review is for the TBSE1 with 3rd party velour covered memoryfoam earpads from massdrop. I added a bit about how other earpads effect the sound at the end: What a great headphone! Disclaimer: at my house to get any head time at all, you've got to match up with the Sennheiser HD800, PSB M4U 1, Klipsch Status, HiFiMan RE-262, and others. In short, the Koss Tony Bennet is the over-ear equivalent of the RE262; both are mid-forward with deceptively strong bass and calm highs. I don't find them to be excessively bass light, thanks to...