The best of both Worlds? Or a War of the Worlds? Can tube and solid state truly live in harmony together? Last month saw a newcomer to myself; a hitherto unknown streamer, the X35 from Nova Fidelity. The X35 contained lots of mouth watering goodies for the completist amongst us. Power in spades, wi-fi or ethernet connectivity, crazy amounts of storage possible, Deezer, Tidal MQA, Amazon or Spotify HD, CD ripping, DAB radio, FM radio, Phono preamp and recorder, Headphone amp, DSD capable DAC, analogue amp, speaker amp, preamp; it's mind boggling...

Campfire Audio Ara – American Muscle Introduction Welcome to you, and may I also welcome myself ; this, remarkably, is my first experience with a Campfire Audio product. Notwithstanding a brief taste of an Andromeda in Harrods back in February, which I admit to as much for the sheer glamour of the experience as much as for the sake of disclosure. February’s audition was somewhat hampered by the hour I spent with Sennheiser's HE1 prior to being shown the Campfire brand. As good as they may well have been, the HE1 is a hard act to follow! With...

SCV Distribution X35 - AKA Cocktail Audio AKA Novatron You may not have heard of this South Korean Company yet. These people have possibly thought of everything an audiophile could want in their pursuit to rid the World of boxes Introduction I have seen the future. It lies within this box of gadgetry. All in ones have come of age. You like vinyl but want the convenience of a digital interface, to play back your records as if they were streaming on Spotify? Check. You like all these dacs, headphone amps, tidal players, cd players, phono pre amps...

HiFiMan TWS 600 - the ugly duckling which can be turned into a beautiful swan This is a brief description of the first 6 months with my first TWS earbuds. HiFiMan sent me these for my opinion. In the true nature of headfiers to headfiers, there has been no influence on what I write here; good or bad. Introduction The TWS market has really started to spring into life. As we all must realise by now, wireless is the future of the audio industry. Consumers are more than happy to not be trailing wires and stacking components on top of each other to...

Ibasso AM05 Cheeky Chi-Fi Mid Tier Madness China in Your Hands This is how they do it I have great pleasure in telling you; apparently there is still some life left in the wired World of wacky weird wonderful IEMs. I am the temporary owner of a set of Ibasso AM05 universal in ear monitors. Before I dive into nonsensical whimsical prose about linearity, functionality and banality, I must tell you some facts about me and these here tiny things. 1- I try not to read any material, especially reviews, of equipment that I will be getting my...

FIIO M11 PRO V FIIO M11 – THE NAKED TRUTH The Fiio M11 in action Hi to you all. Dillan and I having just come back from the Bristol Hi-Fi Show have made some new friends and have reacquainted ourselves with some of our long term pals. Advanced MP3 players joined forces with our friend Mark Ramos, of HiFiMan. Mark provided some bling in the AMP3 room on the 2nd floor at the Marriot Hotel, adorning the tables with Ananda BT, HE1000SE, the very new Deva, and the Sundara headphones. I knew both Mark and Chris from amp3. They have been in the audio...

The ultimate IEM? The Final Audio A8000 May I thank you for at least reading these first few words, in a World where everything seems like it's taking too long or is out of date before it's on the shelf. Bear with me, if you will, for a 15 minute dip into the thoughts of a like minded individual just like you. You are caught up in a maze of choices, all of which seem to good to be true, and too tempting to avoid. I'm here for you. Stick with me, let us see where the journey takes us:relaxed: and welcome to my first written article for some time...

introduction For some reason, the BT One has not made an impact on headfi as of yet. Curious..Are you curious? I have been sent a pair by Justin of Status, so that's about to change now. Released in Spring 2019, the Bt One is a US Headphone. It is an on ear model. That is, it doesn't have deep cups and deeper ear pads that your ears will fit inside of. Instead the earpads will provide a soft clamp around the outer edges of your ears. You can still fit a fairly decent size driver into a design of this size. In this case, Status has opted for a 40mm...

Introduction Purchased by myself from VE directly. Retailing at $158 for a limited time, as of October 2019. Wild Lee, owner and force of nature behind the legendary VE brand, has said that you are basically getting the cable and paying nothing more for the Zen LL Earbuds. Existing Zen owners can upgrade for $88. All for a limited time, much in the tradition of VE's philosophy. Wild Lee wanted to make the "most comfy sleep earbuds" there are. He also wanted a pair of earbuds that would satisfy the most demanding of all day gaming sessions. Here...

Introduction It's been a while. But don't worry, I'm back :relaxed: In this latest episode I shall bring out some of the big guns. I will pit the best midChiFi against some pretty amazing competition. You may ask..why? I may answer...because I can, and I was fed up with writing the same old reviews. Thus, the Lark Studio LSIV 4 Balanced Armature Driver IEM becomes the guinea pig, allowing myself to indulge and showcase several IEMs, several of which have become legendary in the annals of Head-Fi. The review is a complement to the YouTube epic I have...

Introduction I am part of the review tour that @TeamHiFiMan organised for the World. I have been busy; I received the HiFiMan TWS600 Earbuds within 2 days of the Ananda's arriving. I was the first to receive these, I have not burnt them in. I didn't have the time or the patience, sorry HiFiMan! I got them out the box, I listened to them whenever I got the chance. It's that simple, to start with, anyway. I have no affiliation with HiFiMan, I just tend to like the sound of their kit. As you already know, I have given these a 5 rating. I don't give...

Introduction The latest product, of many, coming my way, (I am keeping up, but only just!) is from a USA company called Status Audio. Their web site has a clean, minimalist approach and is mirrored in the Facebook page, which has over 7000 likes. Up until a week ago, I confess, I had not heard of the Company. Status are all about the direct approach; they are keeping their costs down by cutting out the middle man, in other words, they are a direct sales company. They have a shopfront on Amazon, here is the US one and here is the UK one. The usual...

Amazon has this for next day delivery as of 5th March 2020 at £52.49 Introduction This latest offering from Rock Jaw has been sent to me in return for a review in such prestigious places as headfi. I have had them for a little while now and feel it's time for me to send my opinions out to the masses. I must confess, it has been a little while since I auditioned a pair of Bluetooth IEMs. I have a Bluetooth cable for my detachables, and several full sized, including the Audeze Mobius, which many will know. I have also had a sneak preview of some...

HiFiMan Jade II Electrostatic Headphone System – the return of the legend Disclaimer I am part of the loaner tour for HiFiMan’s new Jade II system. I don’t own it, more’s the pity! I’d love to tell you that once this article has been written, I shall be able to retire in comfort on the proceeds of the huge sum of money that HiFiMan has paid into my Swiss bank account. Sadly that is not the case. As always, this undertaking is purely for love, not for money. As you can guess, sometimes I imagine I am a superstar in the audio world with company...

This has been supplied to me for review purposes. I ordered this with customs fee paid to the UK and expedited shipping and it still came in at under £20. That is less than I would previously have considered for an IEM purchase so the question is- is it worth spending so little? Answering the question takes a little while, just over 15 minutes actually I have lovingly crafted (hashed together) a first impressions video for my YouTube channel. I find this a good way to confront myself with on the spot observations. The end result is not quite as...

I must first explain that one of the two cables was sent to me free of charge in return for my comments and feedback. The product is not currently available on the UK site. It took 6 days to arrive from the States and customs fees were prepaid. Each cable cost £34 including expedited shipping. You can have a look at te official information here I have produced 2 YouTube videos which give a detailed insight into the unbalanced 2 pin and the unbalanced MMCX cables. I thought both were worth the money and were an obvious upgrade from the stock cables...

With thanks to CCA who provided these for me to review, I'm pleased to say I have no hesitation in recommending the CCA-C10 10 Driver, yes 10 Driver and hybrid to boot! IEMs. Fit Is as close to perfect as I've found for my REALLY annoying ears! They have the classic olive shape that I'm a huge fan of. Isolation Is high, it was always going to be with the snugness of the fit. Angled drivers push halfway into the ear canal. Pretty soon one gets the impression of being under water without there being music pumped through. Comfort These are metal...

Ruizu X02 Digital Audio Player A review sample sent via Amazon I was approached by Ruizu following my last review of the AKG K1000. I agreed to write an honest appraisal of a product of my choice. So here goes.... Intro Who are Ruizu? They're a Chinese company. They have been going since 2010. They can make everything from recording pens to jump starters. They can chuck out 6000 items a day. The products available on Amazon are very cheap indeed. About the X02 This costs a measly £22.99. Prime members will get this delivered free the...

The AKG K1000 Bass Heavy now fully restored to it's glorious best .....and maybe even better This is a brief story. I shall attempt to explain to you how the impossible was not only dreamt of, but subsequently asked and then, to my amazement, was achieved. Perhaps the quirkiest headphone of them all; the AKG's earspeaker design, their flagship model for many years, of which much hype has been written. Having these now, back with me, believe me folks; these headphones are a sight for sore eyes indeed. There is much love for the AKG K1000...

The Dac battle Part II HiFiMan HE-6 with open grill mod Another week another Dac… With many thanks to Søren Kristensen I have managed to get my hands on the Soekris dac1541 R2R dac/amp. This has been at the same time as I happened to have 2 other extremely proficient Dacs at my disposal, having finished a previous article on Portable v Desktop. The debate can now move to an even wider area. I can now include R2R technology against, well, normal digital conversion technology in my comparisons between 3 remarkably different Dacs. The...