The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: Hifiman. Available for sale directly or various authorized retailers, including Bloom Audio. Intro. With the rising popularity of tws, many audiophile earphone companies jumped on the bandwagon to join the party. But not everybody followed the same path. Some thought it will be enough to just take a generic OEM design...

The product was loaned to me for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: Astell & Kern. Available for sale directly or from on-line retailers like Bloom Audio and Musicteck. Intro. When it comes to Astell & Kern, their A&ultima (SP series) flagship releases are often considered to be early adopters of the latest AKM DACs, such as SP1000 and AK4497, SP2000 and AK4499, and SP3000 with AK4499EX/4191EQ. Then...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer/product website: Campfire Audio. Available for sale directly or authorized retailers like Bloom Audio. Intro. When you bring up a new Campfire Audio (CFA) flagship release, some audiophiles assume a new version of Andromeda or Solaris. I mean, it is not uncommon for manufacturers to release MKII or even MKIII versions of their...

The product was sent to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer/product website: Meze Audio. Available for sale from authorized retailers like Bloom Audio. Intro. Back in February when I attended CanJam NYC, Meze team was very excited to let me hear their upcoming new pair of IEMs. I only had a brief listening session with these monitors while using my own eartips, just enough time to form a...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: Shanling. Available for sale from a number of authorized on-line retailers like Musicteck. Intro. After posting the review of Shanling M8, last year on Tw6, we continue to receive many questions about this audio player, clearly showing that popularity of this DAP remains strong. Today, many DAPs strive to achieve higher...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: Cayin. Available for sale from a number of authorized on-line retailers like Musicteck. Intro. It has been over three years since the original Cayin N8 release back in October of 2018, the first portable audio player with Solid State and Korg NuTube (6P1) dual output design. For those who are not familiar, NuTube is a...

The product was loaned to me for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: Astell & Kern. Available for sale directly or from on-line retailers like Bloom Audio. Intro. The previous A&K release of SE180 with a modular dac/amp design caught everyone by surprise, though it made perfect sense as the next logical step after SE200 dual dac/amp design. It was also great to see 4.4mm BAL and LDAC making its permanent...

The product was loaned to me for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer/product website: UM. Available for sale from MusicTeck. Intro. Every time I post a teaser about a new audio product, I get flooded with requests of early impressions and to hurry up with a full review. This time, I got flooded with the same even before I received the product. As a matter of fact, I decided to borrow the latest Mest Indigo for...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: 64 Audio. Available for sale directly or from different retailers like Audio46. Intro. Early this year when 64 Audio posted a teaser with 3 of their upcoming new IEM models, one of them got extra attention due to a design with an open mesh faceplate grill, leading many to assume a new flagship with a planar magnetic...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: FAudio. Available for sale from Musicteck. Intro. I have to admit that prior to this review I wasn’t even aware of FAudio brand and their products, and only heard of them recently when Andrew of Musicteck asked me if I’m familiar with their latest Dark Sky flagship release. After Googling the company, I saw it was...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: Cayin. Available for sale on MusicTeck. Intro. I often say in my reviews that non-Android DAPs have a greater longevity because they are independent of Android OS and don’t rely on trending SoC. With Android DAPs the shelf life is shorter because as time passes by, they can’t keep up with all the latest OS releases and...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: Vision Ears. Available for sale from various retailers like Musicteck. Intro. In recent discussions with my readers, I noticed two dominating trends. Some are on a mission to find a flagship all-rounder IEM that ticks all their boxes with money being no object. Others prefer a variety, especially when they can get their...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: Unique Melody. Available for sale on Musicteck. Intro. Unlike DAPs, it is less common to see MKII versions of IEMs because a lot of manufacturers prefer to release new models instead of updates. That is why a recent Mest MKII announcement caught me by surprise, especially when you consider how popular and well received...

The product was loaned to me for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: Astell & Kern, Available for sale directly or from on-line retailers like Audio46. Intro. Looks like I can’t use “when hell freezes over” anymore when talking about Astell & Kern DAPs. In October of last year, they finally introduced 4.4mm BAL output, in addition to Wireless LDAC protocol, in an all-new KANN Alpha DAP. And if you...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: iBasso. Available for sale directly or other retailers like Audio46. Intro. As I mentioned in my previous iBasso DAP reviews, since the release of DX200 their new audio players have been very consistent and focused more on sound refinement rather than drastic design changes, especially when it comes to CPU, GPU, DAC...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: 64 Audio. Available for sale directly, as well as various retailers like Audio46. Intro. A month ago, 64 Audio announced 3 new 2021 products, teasing us with eye candy computer-generated images, and the rumor mill went into overdrive! In the past, 64 Audio used to spoil us with more frequent new releases, then after...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: Cayin. Available for sale from Musicteck. Intro. Some of you are probably going to find it a bit surprising that I’m reviewing an amplifier. I had to take a walk down the memory lane, trying to remember the last time I tested portable amps, just to realize it was 6 years ago, and coincidentally one of them was Cayin C5...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: iBasso. Available for sale directly or other retailers like Audio46. Intro. Back in pre-pandemic days when we had CanJams and other audio shows, new releases were spaced out to make sure every product gets plenty of attention. Today, I have no idea how manufacturers are managing this, definitely not an easy task. And as...

The product was provided to me on loan from MusicTeck for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. Manufacturer website: Oriolus Japan. Available for sale from MusicTeck. Preamble. The only time I use preamble in my reviews is when I talk about cables because I find that discussion to be a rather controversial topic which needs some additional explanation before the Intro. So why would I start IEM review with a preamble? Because I need to address the elephant in the room, the price tag of Oriolus Traillii which is $6k. When I heard...

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my site, and now I would like to share it with my readers on Head-fi. Manufacturer website: Hifiman. Intro. I was a bit surprised when Hifiman asked me if I’m interested to check out their upcoming TWS800 true wireless stereo earphone considering that I mostly focus on testing and reviewing higher end wired IEMs and DAPs. Besides, I wasn’t even familiar with their previous TWS600 model, but the more I thought...