Acknowledgment    Thanks, @Andykong at Cayin, and @Takeanidea for organizing the UK wing of the worldwide extravaganza of i5 tour. It is always an honour to work with great companies and dear friends.   Introduction I’d been trying to get my hands on a review unit of the i5 for a while through various contacts with Andy and I’d been following the i5 thread when @Takeanidea asked me if I’d been interested in joining the UK wing of the i5 worldwide tour he’d be organizing. Of course I said yes.   The i5 was has a customised Android 4.4.0...

Acknowledgment    Thanks, Jomas’s Travel for supplying this review unit as a sample in exchange for my honest opinion.     Introduction I’ve reviewed a lot of Bluetooth headphones, with my total now at six before this review is completed. Four out of six have been inexpensive units that have failed to be anywhere near giant killers, all in the below £25 price range. Most of these have sounded like average consumer headphones with inoffensive signatures that don’t move me in any way. This is not a recipe for audio pleasure. So far, my experience...

  Acknowledgment    Thanks, Syed, at 1MORE UK for providing this review sample in return for my honest opinion. The MK802 is available from POCKET ROCKET UK (1MORE's official UK retailer) for £115.99 ($140).     Introduction I find myself in a strange position. I love wired headphones. I like the plugs, I like the feel of aftermarket cables and sexy looks. I like that I can be confident that my music won’t be interrupted. I’ve reviewed a lot of Bluetooth headphones, with my total now at six before this review is completed. Four out of six have...

  Acknowledgment    It’s always a privilege to check out new gear in exchange for your honest opinion. Thanks, iFi, for letting me in on this particular party. I’ve been borrowing this unit as part of the worldwide iFi tour.   Introduction This is my fifth review of a piece of iFi gear. I’ve previously reviewed the Micro iUSB3.0 (own it), the Micro iDAC2, and the iPurifier2 (extreme value for money and good performance)(links are to the reviews), and have a pending review of the Micro iCAN SE (link to the iCAN SE thread). I’ve also had brief...

  Acknowledgment    Thanks 1MORE UK for providing this review sample in return for my honest opinion.   Introduction Bluetooth is weird. There are a good many people who have stood on the position that all we need to hear is 320kbps MP3s. If this is so, than nobody needs the headphone jack and Apple has it right in getting rid of the archaic technology. Surely we should get rid of all technology that is more than 100 years old. My doorknob needs to be retired, as does my toilet. I don’t know what I’ll replace them with, but they are old...

    Acknowledgment    Thanks 1MORE UK for providing this review sample in return for my honest opinion.   Introduction I heard about 1MORE from a fellow HeadFier, who told me I should check out the triple driver, so I went searching. The triple driver is in such high demand that there are none available for review as I write this. According to the 1MORE rep I’ve chatted with, the 1MORE MK801 and 1MORE EO323 are great introductions to their sound, so they sent me them to review. After reviewing these offerings, I decided I wanted to hear...

  Acknowledgment Thank you HiFiMAN for providing this review sample in exchange for my honest opinion.   Introduction        HiFiMAN has been around a long time now. They’ve gone from bargain OEM to one of the best and brightest headphone manufacturers in the world. Personally, I have a long history with HiFiMan. In 2009, I had gotten tired of my $70ish Sony IEMs (can’t remember which ones they were and tossed them long ago) and was looking for a new pair of budget headphones to play out of my PSP—dated. Through |joker|’s thread, I discovered the...

  Acknowledgment    Thanks Alex Sventitsky, founder of WyWires, for providing this sample in return for my honest opinion.   Introduction This is a first for me. I’ve never reviewed a cable. It feels a little daunting. With a cable there are no specs to look at, no scientific reports to prove that one material works better than another for audio production. There are some consensuses about constructing to physically counter electro-magnetic interferences, and general agreement that better wire should be used. The world of cables is rife with...

    Acknowledgment    Thanks @Luke Pighetti of Vibro labs and @ejong7 for setting up this tour. I was loaned the Maya for two weeks in exchange for my honest opinion.   Introduction The Mayan’s were an incredibly advanced civilisation, in art, literature, mathematics, engineering, and in astronomy. Their calendar was incredibly accurate, and extended hundreds of years past the demise of their civilisation, a source of many doomsday predictions . My Dad did his college studies in cultural anthropology and was absolutely fascinated with Central...

Acknowledgment  Thank you HiFiMAN for providing this review unit on loan in exchange for my honest opinion. Introduction        HiFiMAN has been around a long time now. They’ve gone from bargain OEM to one of the best and brightest headphone manufacturers in the world. Personally, I have a long history with HiFiMan. In 2009, I had gotten tired of my $70ish Sony IEMs (can’t remember which ones they were and tossed them long ago) and was looking for a new pair of budget headphones to play out of my PSP—dated. Through |joker|’s thread, I discovered...

Acknowledgment    Thanks 1MORE UK for providing this review sample in return for my honest opinion. Introduction I heard about 1MORE from a fellow HeadFier, @canali, who told me I should check out the triple driver, so I went searching. The triple driver is in such high demand that there were none available when I asked. According to the 1MORE rep I’ve chatted with, the 1MORE MK801 and 1MORE EO323 are great introductions to their sound, so I’ve be reviewing both of these offerings. In the future I'll be reviewing even more 1MORE. As of this...

Acknowledgment    Thanks Arcam of Cambridge for including me in the UK tour in exchange for my honest opinion. Introduction The more I look at the audio industry, the more amazed I am at the number of enterprising and innovative folks getting into the market. Arcam isn’t one of those companies. It doesn’t mean that they can’t be innovative, but they’ve been around too long to be called a new firm. Over 40 years in operation out of Cambridge, England puts Arcam in pretty rarefied company.     Vital Statistics (specs from manufacturers and...

      Acknowledgment    Thanks 1MORE UK for providing this review sample in return for my honest opinion.   1MORE UK has provided a coupon code for the readers of this review to use that entitles them to 20% off all 1MORE headphones on uk.1MORE.com:  MRAUG20.   Introduction I heard about 1MORE from a fellow HeadFier, @canali, who told me I should check out the 1MORE triple driver, so I went searching. The auguries from the interwebs seemed to indicate that it was something worth having a listen to in the sub-$100 bracket. Alas, when I contacted...

  Acknowledgment    Thanks @Tony-HiFi for loaning me the Fidue Sirius A91 for the purpose of providing an honest review.     Introduction Sirius is the brightest star in Earth’s night sky, so bright that under ideal conditions it can even be viewed in daylight. Sirius, an illuminated compass for dividing up the night sky to Polynesians and Ptolemaics. In early Catholicism, the position of Sirius in the firmament was used to guide the timing of nightly prayers. Will this new flagship release from Fidue scorch the inner universe of the ear leaving a...

Acknowledgment    Thanks to @Tony-Hifi  of HiFi headphones for making me review this desktop DAC/Amp as a favour. I love reviewing loaners, but it’s always sad to package and send them off afterward. It’s definitely a carpe diem kind of experience, for you know the end is nigh. Thanks, Tony, for feeding my manic/depressive cycle of celebrating audio beauty just to watch it leave me to other hands and ears. Parting is such sweet sorrow.   Funnyjunk     Introduction Schnikies! I only had 9 days to review this beauteous Questyle...

Acknowledgment    Thank you Shozy for the review sample in exchange for my honest opinion.   Introduction Shozy is a manufacturer out of Hong Kong known for their interesting portable DAC/Amps and price to performance ratio. The company responsible for the brand has also manufactured under the name Cozoy. I think Shozy sounds nicer. The Zero continues in the same price to performance vein where the esoteric Alien and Alien Gold DACs have tread before, but the Zero is a lot more approachable.   Shozy sells the Zero on their website for $60 and...

Acknowledgment    Thanks @Tony-Hifi at HiFi Headphones for letting me participate in the UK tour. It was fun as always. The Pinnacle is available from HiFi Headphones for £179 (no guess what that is in dollars, Brexit, after all).   Introduction I’ve been hearing about MEE products for years! I don’t know why it has taken me so long to hear one in these ears of mine. I’ve recommended them to neophytes based on @ljokerl’s IEM thread—the place where my audio journey kicked off on HeadFi—and in other recommendations. In the past I’ve recommended some...

Acknowledgment    Thanks @George-gearbest of Gearbest, for the opportunity to participate in this review tour.  The Syllable D900S was provided to me as a review sample in exchange for my honest opinion. Thanks also for the understanding when I let you know that my review would not be positive.   Introduction I’ve reviewed a few Bluetooth headphones with mixed results, but none of those headphones was completely wireless, with a charging case—shiny shiny. The Syllable D900S represents what seems to be a growing consumer demand for a totally wireless...

Acknowledgment    Thanks @Tony-Hifi at HiFi Headphones for letting me participate in the UK tour. It was fun as always.   Introduction Like many of you, I had no idea who Audio-Opus were before reviews of the Opus #1 started showing up on Head-Fi. They are a new industry entrant out of South Korea. Audio-Opus are still getting their feet wet in the audiophile industry. The Opus #1 is their first player, but more are planned. In this player they’ve kept it simple, no big bells and whistles on this Android based player.   Before I put forward my...

Acknowledgment    Thanks @PhilW for loaning me these headphones for a week. I know how much you missed them.   Introduction    After being so impressed with the ERIB-2a (link to review), @PhilW told me that they were child’s play compared to the EAMT-3w that had been his main IEMs for a bit. He surprised me and sent them to me whilst I was visiting @Takeanidea in Cornwall. We put them through the paces. Four DAP/DACs, one beast of an amplifier, the Echobox Finder X1, the HD800, and the ERIB-2a were on hand for the weekend (it was a very nice...