Overview: The RE800 Silver Edition is a revised version of the original gold plated Hifiman RE800. The Silver Edition has a slightly V-shaped tuning, whereas the original had a warmer tuning. The Silvers were also cheaper than the original, coming in at $600AUD (when it was still current, now on clearance at roughly $100), whereas the Original was closer to $800. Design and Build Quality: The Hifiman Re800 Silver has a very simple design, designed to worn straight down, they have an unremarkable, slightly light-bulb reminiscent shape. the build...

Overview: The Hip Dac is iFI's most affordable portable headphone amp, selling at around $250AUD. There have been two further renditions of the Hip Dac, with the Hip Dac 2, and Gold Edition, each slightly more expensive than the original. The original Hip Dac still holds it's own, however, delivering 400mW in 35 Ohms from the blanced output (4.4mm Pentacon), and 200mW from the unbalanced out, utilising iFI's S-balanced curciutry. Design and Build: The Hip Dac has a minimalsitic yet classy design, made to look like it's namesake, a Hipflask. it comes...

Overview: the Elegia was Focal first high end closed-back headphone, followed by the Celestee and Stellia, selling for about $1400AUD ($900USD). The Elegia features a 40mm Focal aluminium M shaped inverted dome driver (rather than beryllium, which is what Focal use for their TOTL headphones such as the Clear and Utopia models, as well as in the tweeters of their high end speakers). They are reasonably easy to drive, at 35 Ohms, 105 dB Sensitivity, easily driven from all Phones, DAPs or Portable Headphone Amplifiers (even my FiiO BTR3K from TRS...

Overview The FiiO X1 was one of FiiOs least expensive DAPs (Digital Audio Players) on the market, originally costing around $150 AUD. for such a small price, the X1 is excellent value, offering many customisable sound and play settings. It supports most file formats, including WAV, FLAC, AAC, WMA, MP3, etc. the X1 doesn't have bluetooth, but for this price and age, that's not unexpected. Features and Functionality The X1 is packed with customisation settings, including theme, EQ, and play settings. it also has playlists, favourites and a handy...

Overview released in 2015, the AK jr was the most affordable (emphasis on "most" affordable, as the AK jr was by no means a cheap device, coming in $500US, or around $750 Australian dollars) DAP (Digital Audio Player) in Astellnkern's line up (Excluding Activo devices, of whom AstellnKern is the "parent company"). For $750 AK jr has: an all Aluminium body, a physical volume control and a glass backing covered in hundreds of tiny AstellnKern symbols, which makes it look all the better, while blatantly screaming I'M AN ASTELLNKERN. (it also means that...

Overview the TFZ My Love 11 is an affordable (approx $75 USD) single dynamic driver, over the ear design IEM (In Ear Monitor), using a 12mm dual circuit Graphene Driver. They are very easy to drive, and have impressive sub bass response (going down to 5Hz). these IEMs have a removable cable, with two pin connectors (no mmcx, sorry). Build Quality The build quality isn't terrible, but they have an all plastic construction, making them feel a tad cheap. The housings themselves are small (these are marketed primarily at the female market, women tend to...

Overview The Fiio btr3k is a good amp for the money, selling at just $109 AUD (or around $70 USD) this amp can be used as a USB C dongle or a Bluetooth headphone amp. this, combined with it's small form factor (approx 6x2.5mm), make it ideal for use on the go. one thing that makes this amplifier even better value, is that it has 2.5 mm balanced output, so you can use it with all of your headphones, or use a balanced to single ended adapter to get a bit more power, which some headphones will need, as this amplifier isn't all that powerful...