It's been almost 12 years since I first started a thread "introducing" a company called xDuoo to HeadFi. At the time the company was focused on portable amp/DAC units, and their offerings seemed quite well sorted for that era. They had extensive functionality and very competitive sound for what I thought was fair pricing, and I enjoyed the time I spent with a few of their demo units. Since portable gear wasn't really a big focus of mine, I kind of lost track of what xDuoo might be up to from there, despite my enjoyment of their UA-05 device in...

Matrix Audio has released a good number of products over the years, and nearly every one I've tried has been quite competitive in its price range. But the one thing they had yet to offer - despite me telling them they should, over and over again - was a dedicated transport. They did end up adding streaming audio playback functionality to all their DACs, some of which also had pre-amp capabilities and/or headphone outputs, but still never gave us a device to handle that function on its own. Finally, the team at Matrix offers just that, in the new...

The Background I recently completed a roughly two-year journey to find a new reference DAC. The project involved listening to dozens of highly-regarded options, comparing and contrasting them in endless combinations, and attempting to judge them all on features, value, and sonic performance. In the end I chose the Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe as my new reference, which resulted in one of the longest write-ups I've ever done. You can read that HERE if you've got a decent amount of spare time on your hands. My approach to reviewing the Cen.Grand Silver...

History Long story short: I've been using a Resonessence Labs Invicta DAC as my reference for over a decade. Thankfully Invicta was more of a platform than an individual DAC (think Schiit Yggdrasil) and thus did not remain stagnant during those years. It started with the original ($3999) and evolved multiple times, culminating with the Mirus Pro Signature Edition at nearly $8K. I absolutely loved that device and despite comparisons to others costing more than double the price, I never found anything that spoke to me quite on that same level. I was...

(Note that I originally wrote this up as a combined review of the Aquarius DAC and Andromeda amplifier. HeadFi's category system doesn't lend itself well to that sort of thing, so I'm duplicating the content into entries for both products.) I apologize in advance for all this, but it seems we can't talk about Musician Audio without also discussing its "sibling" brand Denafrips. So let's get it out of the way now: Musician Audio products are probably designed by the same team, and built in the same factory, as the well-known Denafrips equipment. Much...

I apologize in advance for all this, but it seems we can't talk about Musician Audio without also discussing its "sibling" brand Denafrips. So let's get it out of the way now: Musician Audio products are probably designed by the same team, and built in the same factory, as the well-known Denafrips equipment. Much (but not all) of the gear from each brand has a corresponding version from the other firm. Rather than rehash the topic, I'll point you to this fair and balanced summary by Srajan Ebaen, which lays out much of the behind-the-scenes info and...

Way back in 2016 - an eternity in audiophile years - Matrix Audio teased HeadFiers with news of an upcoming device called the X-Server. It was slated to be a dedicated music server with integrated DAC, Roon capability, robust connectivity, absurdly solid build quality, and stunning dCS-style looks to match. I spent some time with the prototype model and came away impressed by the overall experience. The X-Server never ended up coming to market. I don't know the exact reasoning behind it, but the firm instead focused on their growing line of...

The older I get, the more I seem to enjoy complaining. To be frank, I've gotten pretty good at it, and there is certainly no shortage of topics to choose from. One of those topics has been around for a while by now but I am no less frustrated by it - that would be the omission of 3.5mm headphone jacks on nearly all high-end smartphone designs. I could tell you all about how the first mainstream high-end device without a headphone jack (the Moto Z, announced in early 2016) actually made sense - it was a one-off, ultra-slim phone which just didn't...

I confess to not having been very familiar with Sendy Audio until recently. The brand is actually a subsidiary of Sivga Audio, a Chinese firm which focuses on relatively affordable headphones and in-ear monitors. Much like Toyota who launched Lexus in the 1990s to bring upscale designs to market, Sivga created the Sendy imprint for their more opulent offerings. Sendy's most ambitious model to date is the Peacock which sells for $1499 - not a budget product by any means, but also a far cry from Audeze, Focal, HiFiMAN, and others where flagship models...

Honda's 1990 NSX, sold under their Acura banner in North America, made a huge splash in the automotive market. It took Honda's well known traits - reliability, practicality, and value - and applied them to an exotic sports car design the likes of which has not quite been replicated even thirty years later. True, it had an asking price roughly four times that of the best-selling Honda Accord, but in return offered legitimate supercar performance typically associated with more expensive (and temperamental) firms. For those who have never had the joy of...

At this point, I don't feel the need to make long-winded introductions about the Violectric brand. I've written extensively about their gear over the past decade, along with their more studio oriented Lake People gear and now the ultra-high-end Niimbus imprint. Most readers have a good handle on the history and pedigree involved, so I'll cut right to the chase on this one. The V590 is Violectric's latest flagship. It's a true all-in-one DAC, headphone amp, and preamplifier, with equal attention given to all three aspects. This deviates from prior...

I've been using the Euphony PTS music server for a few years now. It's a simple, compact, silent source which does everything I could ask from a device like this. To get the most out of it, I pair it with a Keces Audio P8 linear power supply, and the resulting performance holds its own with far more costly devices I've owned or auditioned. The secret sauce to the PTS is the Euphony OS, which is a dedicated audiophile platform based on Linux. I won't go into the technical bits here, but I'm convinced of its efficacy based on what I hear. They also...

Kennerton Audio is the upscale division of Fischer Audio, which - although perhaps still not so well known in some circles - has been around for quite a while by now. I remember first using the Fischer FA-003 about a decade ago, and that same pair is still going strong after being gifted it to a friend who uses them daily. While I always felt Fischer made high-value gear, Kennerton is significantly more upscale - with pricing to match. Kennerton is not just throwing together fancy looking headphones and charging a bundle for them. The company is...

Custom IEMs tend to be expensive, and there's a good reason for that. Even when dipping into the murky waters of no-name IEM brands from overseas (I'm based in the USA) - where admittedly there are occasional gems to be found - I generally prefer sticking with universal designs. Customs require a level of care and customer interaction that doesn't really lend itself to language barriers or unproven operations. This translates to entry level customs from 64 Audio and Ultimate Ears starting at $499, whilst Noble Audio, Empire Ears, and JH Audio charge...

Long story short: Oppo Digital used to be a player in the audio market. They had some of the best universal Disc spinners around, which were very highly regarded both for their audio and video performance. They also had an excellent line of planar magnetic headphones - the most popular of which seemed to be the PM-3 ($399). It's been nearly 2 years since Oppo left the market, and many of us still miss their contributions. I regularly use the Oppo UDP-205 player (with ModWright upgrades, though the original was great too) and wish I had purchased a...

It's been well over a decade since I started reviewing audio gear. As you can imagine, I've ended up on the mailing lists of quite a few audio companies and PR firms since then. I get solicited for reviews on a regular basis but unfortunately only have time to accept a very small fraction of the offers. This means the item in question must be fairly compelling - maybe a new product from a well-established firm, or an item that has lots of buzz on the forums, or perhaps a new technology that I find interesting... something to stand out from the many...

My first experience with Yulong Audio was covering their D100 DAC way back in 2010. At the time, nobody had really heard of the brand apart from perhaps the local enthusiasts in Shenzhen. The D100 offered features and sound quality typically found on devices costing several times the price - very impressive for a small upstart audio firm. 9 years and many products later, Yulong no longer needs any introduction. While still not what I'd call "mainstream", the brand is quite well known across a wide range of forums including headphone and speaker...

Resonessence Labs has always specialized in DACs. From the original Invicta which put them on the map back in 2011, to the diminutive Herus DAC/headphone amp, the Concero series, their superb Veritas, and the latest flagship Signature edition of the Mirus Pro - when people think Resonessence Labs they think D/A conversion. That changes with the recent launch of the Fluvius, a streaming audio device designed with the same attention to detail as the rest of the Resonessence lineup. Fluvius sells for $1750 and is a perfect aesthetic match for the...

Cayin has been around for quite some time, but within the last few years have really made a push into the personal audio space. Their iDAC-6 D/A converter, iDAP-6 file-player, and iHA-6 headphone amplifier make a brilliant stack. Their HA-1A mk2 delivers sumptuous tube goodness. And their numerous portable audio players have something to offer at almost every budget. Having offered some extremely high-value designs for the headphone crowd, Cayin recently moved upmarket to try their hand at an extremely high end desktop amp. This resulted in the...

Confession time: I don't really like reviewing cables. It's a controversial topic that can often be more trouble than it's worth. And even when dealing with a crowd of cable enthusiasts, most would generally agree that cable upgrades represent a much smaller change in sound compared to swapping headphones, DACs, or amplifiers. I tend to think of cable upgrades as a "last few percent" type thing - squeezing the absolute best performance out of the system I already love. With this in mind, I actually have done the occasional cable review, such as when...