REVIEW - NUFORCE PRIMO 8 - AN AUDIOPHILE PHASE COHERENT QUAD BALANCED ARMATURE DRIVER IEM   BACKGROUND:   My first venture into the world of IEM was with the Shure E2c in 2007, when I wanted some isolation for private listening at home in bed. Prior to wanting the extra isolation I used some Bose noise-canceling headphones, because they helped remove the noise of my window air-conditioning unit. But I was mostly into using speakers, and felt that the entry level E2c didn't have the clarity or frequency balance of my vintage Polk Compact Reference...

RSA F-35 Lightning   HISTORY:  My first portable headphone amplifier was the Ray Samuels Tomahawk in 2007.  I needed it because my Shure E4c were not very efficient and needed more power to wake them up or energize them, and my Sennheiser HD600 were much more demanding and needed significantly more power than my iPod could supply - without the amplifier the HD600 felt dull and bland, while the E4c lacked impact and dynamics.  An amplifier transformed them both, and thus began my Head-Fi journey.   Since then I have grown to appreciate what a...

THIS REVIEW MUST BE PREFACED BY MY DAC-100 IMPRESSIONS, AS THE HAP-100 IS VERY SIMILAR TO IT BUT YET REPRESENTS FURTHER IMPROVEMENT OF THE DAC-100 AMP SECTION IN SEVERAL WAYS AS DESCRIBED BELOW.   See the following link for my DAC-100 impressions in the DAC-100 announcement thread from Sept 2012:   http://www.head-fi.org/t/615533/nuforce-dac-100-news#post_8694564 http://www.head-fi.org/t/615533/nuforce-dac-100-news/15#post_8702583 - update http://www.head-fi.org/t/615533/nuforce-dac-100-news/15#post_8705099 - summary post with everything...

  I have to say the JH16Pro Freq-phase are outstanding.  < That's the short version for those who would post TL:DNR (too long : did not read).  Take advantage of the 15% off pre-Xmas sale NOW!   Associated Gear:  My impressions are with my iPad 3 using lossless music and Pico Slim with TWag LOD, as well as with CCK and Pico DAC, and also right from the headphone jack of the iPad 3, iPad mini, and iPhone 5.   Photos:  To follow soon, as I am having artwork added to them now.   Music Used:  To follow soon, as the list is quite long.  ...

V-MODA CROSSFADE M-100 REVIEW.   Associated Gear:  Macbook Retina Pro, iTunes 10.7 with Amarra Music Player, CEntrance DACmini and DACport, Nuforce DAC-100, Woo WA6, Eddie Current ZDT, HiFIMan EF5, HM-801, iPhone 5, iPod Nano (5th and 6th Gen), CablePro Reverie LOD, Whiplash Audio TWag V2 LOD, Headamp Pico Slim, and RSA SR-71b.   MUSIC USED:  See review.   M-100 FEATURES (from website):   - Modern Audiophile Sound 50mm Dual-Diaphragm drivers (patent pending) Analog Noise Isolation No Batteries or Artificial Processing 3+ Years...

HM-602 IMPRESSIONS:     At RMAF 2010 last weekend I picked up a demo HM602 which had been burned in by Fang, and I've put an additional 24 hours on it since Saturday night.  Low volume channel balance with the HM 602 is good with sensitive IEM, whether in low or high gain, just like the HM 801 which has enough power for HD800 and yet works great with IEM (and has no gain switch).  I have not unpacked my full size phones from RMAF yet, and all my listening was with my best custom IEMs.  I typically do not listen to full size phones with a DAP anyway...

UM3X Review - starting from scratch.     My rating is among other universal IEM in any price range, but not vs custom IEM.  I consider a 5/5 to be the best that all universal IEM strive to reach, which I may not have heard yet.   I've posted in the past that I liked the UM3X almost as much as the W3, where most of my comparisons were done with my UM56 tips which tend to equalize the disparity a bit between these two IEM.  I've compared the UM3X with W3 at Canjam 2009, Colorado meet July 2009, and then my most recently in Oct 2009 at RMAF (after...

I've had the Brainwavz M2 here for several weeks, and I'm sorry that I haven't had the time to post my thoughts on them sooner, but I'm doing so now after enjoying them the whole time.  My Star rating is against other IEM in the $100 and under range.  I received these as a free review sample, but they did not buy any special favors.   The build quality is not bad for a budget IEM. The cable feels nice and is fairly tangle free, as well as having only a small amount of microphonics. I did have an issue where the strain relief on the right earphone...

I received the HE-5 LE about 7 weeks ago and I've been dying to post a review on them. But I haven't been feeling well lately and it took me longer than usual to put my thoughts together. I'm sorry this is not as organized and coherent as I would like it to have been, but I can't delay posting this any longer.   As they arrived:      INTRODUCTION:  I probably have about 400 hours on the HE-5 LE right now, with about 250 being 24/7 burn-in and 150 hours from listening to music or movies. I want to start by saying that during this time the...

REVIEW of HM-801:   I've had a loaner 801 here for a week and a half, playing a multitude of 24/96 hi-res downloads and 16/44 FLAC or WAV files, and all I can say is that I've already emailed Fang that I want to buy this one to replace my iMod/Vcap dock.       I took it to Westone on Wednesday to try out their new ES5 demos which sounded wonderful with it (better balance, depth and out-of-head soundstage than my ES3X which I love).  During our 2 hour listening session p0derh0und23 (Doug) agreed with me that the 801 with 24/96 FLAC sounds a...

  I posted a review in the Computer Audio and Source forum in Feb 2010, but with the newer 2010 forum layout it was recommended that I should put a copy of the review in the gear review section.  I updated this a little bit since it's being reposted 3 months later, but most of this is verbatim for what I wrote initially.   The DACport definitely a nice source and amp worth investigating. I've previously posted a little about the DACport in my Nuforce HDP thread when comparing them as 24/96 USB DAC/amps, and I want to give DACport it's own...

  LUXMAN P-1u REVIEW:   I just finished spending 2 weeks with the Luxman P-1u headphone amplifier from Todd @ TTVJ and this amp was a pleasure to listen to.  I just shipped it back two days ago, but if I didn't already have an Eddie Current ZDT amp then I would have been sorely tempted to try to buy the Luxman which ranks among the best dynamic headphone amps that I have tried.  Thanks for the opportunity Todd!   GEAR:  I used a Samsung DVD > Synergistic Research active shielded coax cable > PS Audio Perfectwave DAC > anti-cables XLR and...