Kind of Blue. Disclaimer & Preface First, I'd like to thank my wallet (not _______ from __________) for affording me the opportunity to eat poorly for a few weeks in exchange for a new toy. My suffering is mine only. Joking aside, I pre-ordered these earphones after I saw a local dealer teasing its renders. I did some research, and was impressed by the driver setup, the ergonomic-looking housings, and the do-no-wrong frequency response curve. I made the very first mention of the BGVP DMG on these forums, and decided to pull the trigger. (I do not...

I borrowed my friend speakerphone's (@speakerphone) LG QuadBeat 3 for this micro-review. Thanks to him for the loan. You can check out his measurements (two separate units) of the QB3 on his personal blog: (A) http://clarityfidelity.blogspot.kr/2015/05/lg-quadbeat-3-sample-measurement.html (B) http://clarityfidelity.blogspot.kr/2015/06/lg-quadbeat-3-sample-b-measurement.html     I've always been intrigued by the LG QuadBeat series of in-ears. They're meant to be bundled with their smartphones --- afterthoughts that many assume can be thrown into...

  Note: Review was done with a sample provided by DUNU-Topsound. For a more complete picture, please visit the dedicated thread for the DUNU DN-2000J (here).   The DN-2000J is a classically U-shaped earphone, with a sound signature that sounds most similar to a mixture between the AKG K3003 with Reference filters and High Boost filters, tending toward an analytical, detail-filled, and exacting nature. DUNU has long professed a desire to create an earphone that matches or outperforms the K3003, and has released a couple of well-regarded and...

If it looks like an Ety, quacks like an Ety...   They look just like the EtyKids, but in grey, and only in grey. One shade of grey.   I'm not going to go into detail about the way Etymotic earphones work --- you have to insert deeply (up to the second bend of your ear canal, where you'll mostly cease to hear tissue occlusion effects), and no, they don't care if you're not used to it --- you're just going to have to do it. For science.   Once you're fitted properly however, and they include two triple flange tips and a pair of foam tips for...

Foreword   As the creator of the Titan 1 thread on head-fi, I have most of the information given here placed in the thread; however, this review is a coalescing and enhancement of the various aspects of the DUNU Titan 1 that I've previously discussed in the thread. Anything that I don't bring up here is probably found in the first post, or any of my other posts in the thread.   Special thanks goes to Andy H. and the rest of the Taiwanese office of DUNU-Topsound for their graciousness in accommodating me in their office, as well as their continued...

Disclosure: This review is based off a review unit of the retail version of the S5, provided by Brainwavz. This is my first in-depth encounter with a Brainwavz product, having only demoed previous Brainwavz products very briefly in Hong Kong three years ago.   Brainwavz S5, with a 10 mm dynamic coil driver and CNC metal body   Battleground: The Sub-$100 Price Category & The Dichotomy of Sound Philosophy   The sub-$100 price category is an all-important battleground for earphone manufacturers. It used to be the sub-$60 or sub-$80 category that...

          The Linum cable is thin (0.9 mm diameter). It is light (3.0 grams).   It uses next-gen materials (Polyether Block Amide [PEBAX] Thermoplastic Elastomer).   It is built tough (60 Newtons of pull).   It comes from Denmark. It has three variants (Music, Vocal, and BaX), each with a different resistance value (1.9, 3.9, 1.4 ohms, respectively).   Most of all, it's just a dramatically different experience from whatever you've ever had...   It looks different.   It feels different.   It's a new age IEM cable.   For the full...

Foreword   Chinese/HK headphone manufacturer Astrotec is known for its value-priced products (beginning with their lauded AM90), and they've stuck to their guns by pricing the AX35 (and its near identical sibling AX30) aggressively at under $80. The list price for the AX35 in Mainland China is 399 RMB (~$65 USD), while the AX30 is priced at 299 RMB (~$49 USD). Current eBay prices for the AX35 hover around $70 USD. Considering the overall quality of build and acoustic design, the lower end of Astrotec's Hybrid Series certainly promises to deliver a...

Preface This is a short review intended for concise information presentation. The data presented in this review was provided by a good friend and a disinterested third party to whom I owe many thanks! All data is uncompensated (except for 1/12th octave smoothing), and measured with a fully IEC-60711 (IEC60318-4) compliant ear simulator.   Why Review the AM70?   Over the past few years, audio companies in China have gotten very serious about raising the overall competency of their products. Astrotec is one of the companies leading the charge. In...

This review was adapted and modified from my review originally written for CYMBACAVUM, based off a review sample that I promptly purchased because I was so impressed with it.   You may have heard of Resonessence Labs — this small company in Kelowna, British Columbia rose to the top of audiophiles’ wishlists in 2011 when they released the Invicta — a meticulously engineered ES9018-based DAC that blew peoples’ hats away. They managed to pull off this feat by understanding ESS chips inside and out; Mark Mallinson, head honcho at Resonessence Labs, was...

We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious.   They cursed us. Murderer they called us. They cursed us, and drove us away. And we wept, Precious, we wept to be so alone. And we only wish to catch fish so juicy sweet. And we forgot the taste of bread... the sound of trees... the softness of the wind. We even forgot our own name. My Precious.  

Looking back at this unit, it was excellent for the price. It had great connectivity (coaxial S/PDIF output, both 3.5/RCA full scale outputs, 9 Vrms headamp) despite only being USB-powered,   The OPA1611-based 9Vrms headphone amplifier was smooth and laid back, sometimes a little too laid back for the detail lover in me, but very pleasant to listen to. It had low and high gain, and <1 ohm output impedance, so it paired well with multiple sources, equally at home with both my IEMs and my HD598. I compared it to the DACPort, and I thought the Class A...

A while ago, I bought some DIY cabling from Los Angeles-based plusSound Audio and loved the immediacy of their customer service. Being a native Angelino, I also wanted to support SoCal businesses as well, so I decided to check out their Exo series cable.   plusSound Audio specializes as a bespoke, handmade, full-service boutique cable service, and the Exo is one of six different cable series offered by plusSound, along with the Dionysian, the Apollonian, the Echo, the Poetic, and the X8 (as well as an upcoming X6 that I know little to nothing...

At around $65 USD (but also priced just over $40 USD in Taiwan), the entry-level Malleus is an economic tour-de-force. It does come with a much sparser set of accessories than the A03, with no felt carry case, no extreme bass-sealing tips or silicone elastomer rings (according to RedGiant, both may be included in future revisions), but it doesn’t mean RedGiant skimped on the Malleus.   The A00 Malleus, pictured with the dual flange tip that I find a better sonic fit with both the A00 and A03.   Roughly the shape of a kidney bean, the A00...

****The following is riddled with hyperbole and flowery, long-winded writing; if you’re not interested in any of these things, please skip to the SUMMARY section, or close down your internet browser, slam your mouse down in disgust, and curse me. Also, the pictures are again taken with a sub-par camera, as my camera has been undergoing numerous maintenance changes.     What is a star at the end of its life?   It’s a burgeoning mass of spent gases --- a giant red fireball, simmering in the sky. Its gentle glow belies the immense power it...

  For those into photography, all my photos are taken with an ancient (by digital camera standards) c. 2006 Canon PowerShot S3 IS. It only has a 1/2.4” CCD sensor and has an 36-432mm (35mm equivalent) lens, so dynamic range isn’t great and high contrast edges are very prone to color fringing, but it does have a 0 cm Super Macro mode, so that’s why I shoot with it. Unfortunately, I do not have a macro lens for my 40D, nor do I have any desire to purchase one.   BACK TO BLACK It seems like every manufacturer wants a piece of the headphone...