Acknowledgment   

Thanks, @Tony-Hifi at HiFi Headphones, for organizing this tour and graciously allowing me to join. My honest opinion of the Fidue A65 follows.

 

Introduction

I always start with a bit about me. More details are below the fold, but here’s a little insight into my grading. I grade primarily on sound and value. Coming with 20 pairs of tips won’t help a headphone, and coming with a stupid awful case won’t hurt it unless there are other cascading detractors.
 

 

Vital Statistics (specs from manufacturers and distributors)

Tony and the crew at HiFi Headphones in Lancing, UK do a very good job providing the features of the products they have for sale. These stats are lifted directly from the Fidue A65 product page there. From the rumours I’ve seen around HeadFi, these have the same guts as the Fidue A63, but these look far more premium, in my opinion.
 
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

1. Drivers: Custom 8mm dynamic driver with Titanium composites
2. Frequency range: 16Hz - 22kHz
3. Impedance: 16Ω
4. Sensitivity: 101dB
5. Max input power: 30mW
6. Distortion: <1%
7. Plug: 3.5mm straight gold-plated jack
8. Cable: 1.2m, 7N-OFC

 
FEATURES

1. Micro dynamic drivers with titanium composites
2. Solid metal housing construction eliminates distortion
3. Ergonomic body design and robust metal microphone, splitter and jack
4. Universal microphone and control button compatible with most smartphones
5. Various silicone eartips effectively isolate and provide secure fit
6. Can be worn in a cable down or over the ear configuration

 
See more at: HiFi Headphones. Tony has also done a video review there that I think was quite good.
 
I’m a sucker for images showing machines being taken apart like they are being pulled apart by duelling magnets in a paper white zero-g outer space. This image is also stolen from HiFi Headphones. A google image search turned up only HiFi Headphones for this image. I don’t know why Fidue isn’t plastering it all over the internets, because it’s darn cool.
 
 

 

Form & Function

The Fidue A65 is light weight and pretty ergonomic. It is a nice coppery rose gold colour with a little bit of directional texture. It’s like the IEM body was extruded from a piece of copper—it wasn’t, it’s aluminum. The strain reliefs have the best right left identification I’ve come across on any headphone; it is a simple elegant solution to the right/left ear dilemma that can serve any level of visual acuity. Stevie Wonder would look great with a pair of these and the little raised dot on the right strain relief would tell him exactly how to wear them. Most headphones use lettering or colour coding, but these don’t serve you well in a dark airplane cabin or on a late-night coach to London. The little raised dot is a perfect solution. It also allowed me to switch quickly between headphones during testing—bonus! You can see the raised dot in the picture below.
 

 
 
The cable looks fairly inexpensive. I’ve seen it online on a variety of inexpensive Chinese headphones on aliexpress. The cable also has some microphonics—not too bad, and I don’t run often so it doesn’t really affect me. Luckily, for those who do run, it comes with not one, but two clips. I guess they probably knew about that microphonics issue. The cable can be worn up or down, but I found that the Fidue A65 are most comfortable worn down due to the feel of the cable over-ear. The cable is a bit stiff, so doesn’t contour as nicely to the top of the ear as I’d like. Ear-guides would probably make these easier to wear up.
 
The A65 cable has has a microphone and one button remote for answering calls. The button assembly is plastic with an aluminum shell. I regret to say that I didn’t test out the microphone. I don’t like listening to music out of my phone, and I also don’t like being interrupted when listening to music, so microphone testing ends up low on my listening priority list. I’ll have to remedy that in future reviews.
 
The package is a nice size, has good icons, nice packaging and presentation, and contains the following:

1. Fidue A65 IEMs
2. 3 pairs of single flange silicone eartips (S/M/L)
3. 1 pair of double flange silicone eartips (M)
4. Cable clip
5. Shirt clip
6. Velvet carrying pouch
7. Warranty card

 
The accessories aren’t as generous as the RHA s500i or the RHA ma750 (two headphones, I think that this one sits in between, reviewed here), but I think that they are sufficient. The silicone tips were good quality. I like the velvet carrying pouch, it has a nice feel and a nice mechanism: you press the sides and it snaps open and release and it snaps closed. I think it is a perfect size for the headphones, and will do a decent job keeping dust off of them, but will probably be prone to dust on the case. It isn’t a terribly protective case, but I think it will do the job just fine. If you want something heavier, there are lots of inexpensive cases on Amazon and ebay. I was satisfied with the accessories included, I don’t need to be wowed when it comes to accessories for any headphone.
 

 

Audio quality

The Fidue A65 have a nice relaxed sound signature. When playing out of the iBasso DX50 on low gain, the bass is easygoing, and the sound is not overly forward. It has a nice warm sound on the bass and vocals. When I flip the gain switch to high on the DX50, it’s almost like the headphone transforms a little, it gains more sub-bass and low mid-bass body.
 

 
Testing the difference between the gain settings, it seems that the volume scale difference between each level of gain is about 5 to 7 points. When listening to Neil Young – Out on the Weekend (Pono 24-192) turning the gain from low to high suppresses the guitar on the right slightly, lowers the mids in relative terms, and darkens the overall presentation of the headphone.
 
Comparing the RHA ma750 to the Fidue A65, the ma750 isn’t as clean. It has a bit of fuzz on the lower end of the bass where frequencies are emphasized when on high gain. Lowering gain to medium reduces the fuzz but doesn’t eliminate it. The ma750 has a really romantic feel to the vocals, but the guitars aren’t as transparent. Overall the sound is a bit more congested, it is a more forward overall signature than the A65. Vocals on the A65 are more forward in relative terms to other instruments in the signature than they are on the ma750, but they are less forward in absolute terms. The ma750 just has a much more energetic, in your face signature.
 
The s500i has an overall drier sound with thinner presentation on metallic instruments. There is less decay on the bass, and the guitar on the right side of On the Weekend is a bit more forward. You can’t hear the stage as well on the s500i as on the A65, reflections off the back of the stage are a bit muted, comparatively.
 
Something that I observed that I believe is important to note, and also why I’m not sure that ABX really is measuring what it thinks it is measuring, is that for the first 10 seconds or so between switching between any of these headphones, if done in quick succession, they sound more similar than after the first ten seconds. I think our brains try to re-create the sound we expect to hear rather than the sound that is really there. I’d advise that when switching between headphones that you throw out the first ten seconds to overcome this signature smoothing effect.
 
I also tried out the ERIB-2a and the 64Audio X2 compared to the A65. It wasn’t a contest on either. The ERIB-2a tops everything in this review, and it should, as it’s $775 instead of $75. The 64Audio X2 is my favourite headphone I own (don’t own ERIB-2a, yet). The 64Audio X2 was a Kickstarter special that was made because 64Audio was unable to produce the Control headphones they promised on their Kickstarter. A 64Audio rep has indicated that it is a version of the 64Audio U2 ($399). I feel pretty good about getting it for $150 plus import fees. The 64Audio X2 has better soundstage depth and width, better drum slam, better transparency, and better note decay all around than the A65. It is just better. It is also a more efficient headphone, performing best on low gain on the DX50. If you see an X2 on sale, you should strongly consider buying it.
 
Continuing with the comparison between the A65 and the ma750 (this time with both on medium gain), I threw on Queen – Loser in the End. I like this track for testing drum slam, guitar crunch, soundstage, and I love the vocals and wood blocks. It is a slamming track. With the RHA ma750 bass is a bit less focused, and the soundstage has less depth and width. The drums kick wonderfully with the ma750. The overall presentation is tighter on the A65 and less forward. While the signature is not as lively as the ma750, it isn’t sleepy in any way. The sound is nicely balanced with no over-emphasis anywhere in the spectrum.
 

 
 
Further comparisons using Fleetwood Mac – Dreams and Tony Furtado – Bolinas give the advantage more to the RHA ma750. On dreams the ma750 did a better job of vocal separation during the chorus, but the overall sound wasn’t as clear as on the A65. The A65 liked the extra bass weight that came with higher gain. This added weight was independent of volume. Whilst the A65 was clearer on Dreams, unexpectedly, it sounded a touch veiled on Bolinas, and sounded a little artificial. The ma750 had better air around the guitar plucks, while still feeling a touch congested, I don’t know how it manages to do that. Neither headphone had the tone quite right on Bolinas.
 
Putting on City of the Sun – to the sun and all the cities in between for a final comparison between the A65 and the RHA s500i. The A65 has average depth and width on the sound stage. It is easier to drive than the s500i. The backing vocals on this track are a bit hazy with the A65, whilst the sound is clearer and airier with the s500i. The s500i has less bass quantity than the A65, but it has a more precise signature (tighter, crisper) that works well with this track.

 

Conclusions

The Fidue A65 is a very good performer for it’s price ($50 to $75)(£49 at HiFi Headphones). I found that the signature falls in between the RHA s500i and RHA ma750. The signature isn’t lush and energetic like the ma750, but it isn’t dry like the s500i. It is a nice balanced signature. The soundstage has average depth and width. On some tracks parts of the treble can sound veiled. The A65 has swings in sound signature due to changes in amping, so it may be that different amping setups will provide subtly different sounds. Some will like this flexibility, if you have more sources, you can find a good match, or even if you have gain settings on your player. If you have a source that doesn’t mesh well, you may find fault with this variability. So the changes in sound signature based on amping may be a positive to some people and a negative to others. The accessories are adequate, but not extensive.
 
Overall, I liked the Fidue A65. It is a good headphone at a good price with a nice balanced sonic presentation. The coppery rose gold finish of the shell is gorgeous to look at. For me the swings in sound signature with different gains were a positive, so I’m giving the A65 credit for them. I thought this headphone was as good as the two RHAs I primarily compared it against, so I would rate it the same 4.25 rating that I would give the RHAs if it existed on HeadFi. Since 4.25 doesn’t exist, I round up to 4.5. Give me a scale with quarter points, please, HeadFi. If Untappd can do it for beer, you can do it for headphones.
 
Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment and ask questions below.

Acknowledgment   

Thanks Airist Audio for organizing this tour and producing this brilliant amp. I was the last stop on the tour and bought this amp directly from Airist Audio (without sending it back) with a small discount.

Introduction

First, I’ll tell you a bit about me, below the fold. Every reviewer is biased, but we all have different flavours of bias. I think my flavour is maple walnut, cause I’m the sweet mildly complex stuff with a bit of crunch and overall neutral visual tone that is an ironic reward for a trip to the dentist in the winter cold of Fairbanks, Alaska (my home town). Like dentists, audio gear is pricey, and the good ones don’t charge that much different than the bad ones. It doesn’t matter if it’s cold outside give me that creamy smooth frozen yummm—Hot Licks, RIP. Frozen eyelashes and blue lips build character.
 

 

 

Airist Audio: aiming for the stars and quicker student loan debt relief?

Airist Audio is a New York startup founded by a small group of audiophile tech nerds with a passion for audio. These 5 baby-faced entrepreneurs have some serious school credibility, these kids are either done with or doing degrees at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, etc…. If these kids are anything like me, their student loan debt would make most of the bourgeoisie blush. That’s the American education system for you—I saved money by getting a degree in England. I hope this audacious endeavour pays off some of those debts. Go get ‘em kids. Look at those faces. So much courage!
 
 
 
 
 
If you’d like to know more about this start-up from New York, check out Airist Audio’s website for some hot pics and information. They don’t skimp on catwalk worthy New York style (I'm so sorry, I had to do it).
 
 

 

Vital Statistics (what the manufacturer says about their gear)

Audio gear comes with fancy charts and marketing descriptions. Here are some from Airist Audio. The main selling points that Airist Audio puts forth are a completely flat frequency response accomplished with a completely accurate phase response. They also boast of ridiculous resolution, silence, and lack of distortion. The proof is in the pudding. This amp is neutral, silent (with right impedance headphones), and instrument placement is special. To the charts and graphs!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Yep, that tape measure isn’t drooping at all. Ruler flat on frequency response. Looking below, we see something I’ve never seen and can’t really judge without having sufficient math or engineering expertise, a flat phase response across all frequencies. From the explanation on the website, this means that instruments are in the exact place they should be without bleeding into other instruments. I can confirm this, and its gorgeous.
 
 
 
 
 
Courteously, Airist Audio provided lots of numbers. Here are the rest of the numbers Airist Audio has provided:
 
 
The noise floor and SNR really stand out when listening.
Other features listed in the owner’s manual include the following:

1. 100% discrete power supply and amplification circuits
2. Minimum phase amplification with bandwidth from DC to 30Mhz
3. Active power regulation synchronized with the amplification circuit
4. No coupling capacitors or DC servo in the signal path
5. OCC pure silver wiring in the signal path
6. Highest grade toroidal transformer with a laser inscribed carbon steel core and American-made winding wires
7. Power transformer with overhead capacity rated at 5x power consumption
8. Class A output power with an internal chassis design that keeps the Heron 5 warm, not hot to the touch (without ventilation holes  on the top—winning!)
9. Soft start circuit protects your headphones from equipment destroying start-up peaks
10. Elite grade Mundorf capacitors in the main power supply

 

Form & Function

The Heron 5 is a big hunk of aluminum that has reassuring heft whilst maintaining lean lines and a serious stately stature. The amp has no visible screws and keeps the facia simple. It features a delicate curvature to the top and bottom of the facia, the Airist Audio insignia (like two birds flying in concert), a simple small power button, two headphone jacks marked high and low (more on that later), and a big stepped attenuator volume knob with a red LED line drawn in a black circle signalling the benthic depths of the joy pumping into your cranium. The Kraken, Leviathan, and Dandân battle in the depths here.
 
The back of the unit has has the IEC port, a pair of balanced inputs and a pair of RCA inputs. You can flick a switch to choose which you’ll be listening through. My balanced source died before I could get a chance to listen in balanced mode, so all my listening in this review was done in single-ended mode, which is fine, as the internals are single ended.
 
The front headphone jacks are somewhat confusingly labelled. The ‘High’ jack is intended for lower impedance headphones (Airist Audio says for better impedance matching), whilst the ‘Low’ jack is for high impedance headphones. I found that basically everything sounded clearer on the low jack (high damping factor) but it was also more prone to buzz, the high jack adds a bit of body to headphones and is slightly less prone to buzz. I don’t think either of these jacks are truly low impedance and Airist Audio doesn’t tell us any output impedance statistics. If I had to wager, I’d guess the low jack has an impedance of around 5. The reason for this being that my venerable RE0 iems (64 ohm impedance) had no buzz at all out of the Heron 5. Actually they sounded pretty darn great.
 
Inside the box are the unit, a manual, and a USA plug IEC cable. The manual is informative, with good diagrams, details about features, startup instructions, dos and don’ts for using the Heron 5 and a short FAQ. I would have liked if I could lay the manual flat—I had to type most of the above bullet points one-handed because the binding is too tight. The included power cable appears to be well made, but I didn’t use it during the review as I have a shielded IEC cable that has a UK plug. Airist should be making plugs for the region the amp is being sent to, not telling people to use an adaptor. This is something to fix in the future. I don’t have much confidence that my available adaptors will provide enough quality to the power lead.
 

 

Audio quality

In one word: spectacular. I used this with a number of pieces of excellent gear in the test-bed. Here are the constant parts:
 
Acer Revo RL70 mediaPC to LH Labs Lightspeed 2G USB Cable to iFi iUSB3.0
 
The LH Labs Lightspeed 2G cable adds definition to the upper end, blackens the background a bit and opens up the soundstage a bit. The iFi iUSB3.0 makes the background even blacker and increases soundstage in all dimensions whilst giving notes a rounder more natural attack and decay (review of iUSB3.0 here).
 
Other elements that were used include Atlas Element Integra interconnects, a LH Labs Lightspeed Micro USB, a custom made Van Damme 3.5mm to RCA cable, the Chord Mojo, the LH Labs Pulse X-Infinity, LH Labs Geek Out V2, and a pantheon of headphones. The mountaintop vista included such headphones as the Sennheiser HD600, Sennheiser HD800, HiFiMan HE6, AKG K1000, oBravo ERIB-2a, HiFiMan RE0, and Echobox Finder X1. I won’t list impressions with all of those headphones, but will attest that there was some buzz with the Echobox Finder X1 and the ERIB-2a (dependent on track and volume), but no buzz with the RE0.
 
The first setup I listened to was the X-Infinity feeding the Heron 5 with the Atlas Element Integra interconnects, a 2^nd Lightspeed 2G USB cable from the iUSB3.0 to the DAC, and the HD600 as the headphone. I nearly cried. I’ve never heard the HD600 sing like it does with the Heron 5. I listened to City of the Sun – to the sun and all the cities in between, and to Keith Greeninger & Alex deGrassi’s  Live at the Fenix (from Blue Coast music). City of the Sun is binaural and very immersive especially with the Heron 5. I was getting sound like a speaker presentation. Live at the Fenix has the best recording of a live acoustic environment that I’ve ever heard. The purchase of the set in advance for Live at the Fenix was the best audio decision I’ve made so far this year (all formats including DSD256 for $25). Listening to the album with the HD600 fed by the Heron 5 was like sitting in the front row of the concert venue next to the very California lady telling Keith Greeninger when he’s done a ‘nice job’ just to your left.
 

 
My X-Infinity packed it in the next day (RMA in process—I’m sad), so I listened with the GO V2 with all other elements the same (adaptor to use the interconnects was a cheapie ebay number, but works). The GO V2 doesn’t have as much stage or as much precision as the X-Infinity, but it still pairs wonderfully with the Heron 5. The HD600 continued to sing, but not like any long-necked marsh bird you ever heard. The Heron should be the Blackbird 5. There are few things as pretty as a blackbird’s song sweetly sung while the sun is just awakening dusky eyed from its nightly slumber. With 9bach – Llwynog in 24-96 the background is completely black, silent. The soundstage has exceptional depth and height. Instruments are coherently arranged with articulate interplay in a well-defined sonic space—percussion instruments hang in the air and echo in the soul. The bass grooving throughout the track has excellent weight and tonality. Notes are well-rounded, but with excellent precision. I can find no flaw in the transient representation. The sound is clean, yet musical. There is no white coat sterility here. The sound is like a buxom renaissance nude with a coy smile that grows ever more suggestive and more vivid in your mind with more time spent with her. The canvas of the tune is alive with sonic brush-strokes.
 
Turning to Fleetwood Mac – Never Going Back Again (a track I like for the acoustic presentation) reveals no new insights, but provides a pleasurable listen to the articulate guitar with organic attack and decay.
 
There are moments when the Heron 5 tells you the truth about your music, and you might not be ready for it. When listening to Father John Misty – Nancy from Now On, the Heron 5 reveals track noise from the recording process. This album isn’t audiophile top fare and it is apparent, but I love it none-the-less. Aside from bringing out noise, the amp also highlighted some subtle over-dubbing on Josh Tillman’s voice on ‘run boy, run boy….’ I never noticed the layers in his vocals on that before. On Hollywood Forever Cemetary Sings (the music video is spectacular and features Aubrey Plaza of Parks and Rec—watch her), the cymbals and tambourines crash within their own violent little halos more than I’ve ever heard them. Heron 5, I dub thee the Phase King.
 

 
The Heron 5 is a truth-telling straight shooter from New York. In the classic mythology of six-gun slinging straight-talkers, this amp should really hail from The West, The Frontier, somewhere like Arizona or Colorado, or a gold panning town in the streams surrounding San Francisco. New Yorkers have no right to mete out frontier justice on my audio. When listening to vinyl rips, the vinyl is more apparent with the Heron 5 than any other amp I’ve heard, there is no doubt that your digital track came from a flawed purely analogue source, no matter how well that record was cleaned, no matter how good the recording set-up.
 
Eurythmics – Love is a Stranger is a great track for looking at imaging. The Heron 5 doesn’t disappoint. Drums are back in the deep depths of the stage, Annie Lennox seduces from up high and at the front of the stage, whilst David A. Stewart’s grunts undulate from low to middle height and from varying depths in the stage with excellent precision.
 
The spacious aeries of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn gave the Heron 5 another opportunity to be a straightshooter, this time about the limitations of the HD600. I’ve listened to the record with speakers, and the soundstage can extend up to the ceiling from my almost pension-collecting Mordaunt Short bookshelf speakers (28 years old is past most speakers retirement age).  For the first time, the HD600's stage height goes a bit higher than my head, which is truly impressive. The panning cars zoom across miles of horizontal space.
 
I found myself taking notes about the flaws in the music or the flaws in my headphones. It was especially apparent on my West German Target CD pressing of Stairway to Heaven. The track is not an audiophile track, it has compression artifacts, an elevated noise floor, and other flaws. The Heron 5 pulls no punches. The Heron 5 doesn’t force anything but honest representation of the music. It sounds natural, neutral, and transparent with precise imaging and expansive soundstage. I think that my other components (especially the iUSB3.0) help the Heron be the best it can be, but it is something special in its own right.
 
When listening to Rodrigo y Gabriela – Viking Man I was wondering who let these Mexicans in the house and what kind of beer that brilliant person wants in thanks. It was like being in the front row, while the guitars duel at breakneck speed, with the amp and headphones keeping up, never missing a beat, never smearing a string transient. If you want to blow your mind on a supremely layered percussion track, go check out KUNIKO – Xenakis IX Pleiades 1. Melanges. The track is busy as hell on a Saturday, but every element of the stage is beautifully articulated.
 
I also booted up the HD800, HE6, K1000 and ERIB-2a (review of ERIB-2a here) with the Heron all fed by a Chord Mojo connected to the iUSB3.0 with a LH Labs Lightspeed Micro USB cable and a custom made Van Damme 3.5mm to RCA cable. The Heron really lets each headphone shine. The best pairing, to my mind was the HD800. I threw City of the Sun on again, and for the first time, the haze (it has a sort of ambient feel) that is prevalent on the album was pulled back a little. Sennheiser lifted a veil.  The sound was crystal clear, the soundstage was vast (especially in width), the treble had excellent attack while sounding organic. The ambient tones from hanging transients are plucked like so many apples for Grandma’s pie. The pie is delicious and there’s no need to wait for it to cool on the window sill. With the HE6 the menace of organs on Jan Kraybill – Allegro from Symphony No. 6 in G Minor (HD Tracks 2015 sampler, which is free) is present, but the HE6 doesn’t quite have the treble clarity of the HD800 (the only mod on this HE6 is removal of the screens, a lot more can be done). The K1000 was also beautifully powered by the Heron 5. There wasn’t a headphone that sounded under-driven on the Heron 5. From memory, I prefer the HE6 with a custom made First Watt F6 30w per channel power amp fueling them (the minibeast). The HE-6 likes the extra energy. I don’t think the HD800 has ever sounded better than it sounds with the Heron 5. HD800 owners should be lining up around the block to buy this amp.
 

 
I did find some flaws with the amp, mainly related to the front headphone jacks. The labelling is not intuitive, so those who hurry to listen and don’t read the manual will likely be disappointed in what they hear. I would have rather had one well-labelled (labelled with output impedance instead of ‘low’) high damping factor output than two ambiguously labelled jacks. Both outputs buzz with low impedance headphones, this may be related to the fixed, decently high gain (12.5 dB). This isn’t really a design that makes you think: ‘You know what this big beefy amp needs to power? An uber sensitive iem!’, but it would be nice to have the option. I think having variable gain might solve some of the problem. When comparing the Heron 5 to the iFi iCAN SE, the iCAN SE did a much better job at impedance matching, but was worse at everything else (even with switches engaged).
 
Some reviewers on the tour reported volume issues with the stepped attenuator, after hearing on Massdrop that there were two versions of the volume control I asked William at Airist Audio for clarification. Apparently, the first six or so amps were made in two batches. The first batch had some units with volume control issues. All amps built after that point, including all European units don’t have a volume control issue. Speaking of Massdrop, this amp is currently live on Massdrop (3 days left at time of writing). Two more people and the price will be $749. That is a steal of a deal, and people should consider it strongly, especially if you've got an HD800.
 
Other reviewers have expressed disappointment that the amp doesn’t have a balanced output. However, the amp has single-ended internals, a balanced output wouldn’t have sounded better than the single-ended outputs the amp has. Adaptors are prevalent, get an adaptor for your balanced cable. I’ve got one, you can get one. This amp sounds better than my Pulse X-Infinity balanced out sounded, and competes with my memories of previous listening on the balanced Schiit Ragnarok with the HD600. It’s been too long since that listening session to draw any clear comparisons, but both amps are fantastic.
 

Non-audio niggles

Airist Audio is inexperienced, and it shows. When they took volunteers for the tour, they were incredibly brave. The person who was supposed to be after me on the tour was a person with 0 posts with a freshly minted join date. I was concerned that I would send off the amp with tracking and it would be to a phony address meant to steal the amp, luckily that zero post Head-Fier never responded, which might have led to my purchase of this amp. Because I was the last on the tour, the amp was going to be shipped across the ocean to Airist Audio after me.
 
I asked about buying the amp, and was offered what looked like an unbeatable price. Before I paid the invoice (I was still debating), the official price was cut in half. I don’t think economies of scale quite covers that. Beyond that they offered a CanJam discount to $850, but now have a potential $750 price on Massdrop. Not only that, but the price of shipping to the UK on their website was $190, whilst the price of shipping to the UK on Massdrop is $73. Airist Audio needs to realise that people won’t trust you if you sell them a product and then immediately lower the price.
At this point I’ll put it down to inexperience, but it is something they need to be vigilant about in the future lest they create customers who feel that Airist Audio has taken advantage of them.
 
I think if Airist Audio keeps putting out gear that is as special as the Heron 5, they have a bright future. With the new lower MSRP of $1000, I think they have a headphone amplifier that could be a run-away hit.
 

Conclusions

The Heron 5 is a special amp. It has wonderful transparency, tight natural bass that digs as deep as your headphones will go, treble that is smooth and natural without any touches of harshness, flawless imaging, and a tell me no lies injectable truth serum quality that still manages to be forgiving as it is revealing. Until the Heron 5, I never felt like I was reviewing the music and the headphones more than I was reviewing the amp when I was taking notes on an amp. The Heron 5 doesn’t impose it’s will on the sound, it is natural and neutral, the music and headphones are completely allowed to be themselves without any colouration from the amp. For these reasons I bought the Heron 5.
 
The only problem I have now, is that I feel like I need the HD800 to pair with it. That match is made in heaven, and that heaven is a Southpark heaven. Fly, Kenny, fly.
 

 
I can’t wait to see what their DAC has to offer in the future (make sure it has a pre-amp, Airist Audio).

Acknowledgment    

Thanks @ejong7 for organising this tour, you are a gentleman and a scholar. Also thanks go out to the mysterious unnamed provider of the ERIB-2A. Mysterious benefactor, you redefined Easter for me. I’m not religious, but these headphones make me want to be a little blasphemous—altars built in high places only to be struck down by some highfalutin prophet and all that old-religion jazz.

 

Introduction

“Drip drip drop there goes an eargasm.”
-Big Boi
 
Why!? For the love of God, WHY!? Why did I have to hear these aluminum ear-boxes of absolute bliss, when I just don’t have the money to even think about bad decisions I could make. I’m not going to mince words. These are some of the best headphones I’ve ever heard, and I think they are good value for money at their price. I respectfully disagree with a previous reviewer who said these were too expensive, they absolutely are not. I think these are well worth £549 ($775) (the price at the time of the review). The rest of this review will be about telling you why my wife probably thought I was emotionally cheating on her for the week I had these.
 
First, I’ll tell you a bit about me, below the fold. If you think I’m not a biased reviewer, I’ve got a bridge to sell you, even if you’re from Arizona and have already bought a famous bridge. Read below the fold if you like, or swallow the blue pill and continue on in naïve ignorance.
 

 

 

oBravo does things a little different

To my knowledge, there isn’t another headphone manufacturer that is making headphones like oBravo’s line-up. They have a line of IEMs that pair a planar magnetic tweeter and a dynamic driver, the ERIBs, of which the ERIB-2A is one. Their IEMs come with choices of material for differently tuned sound, aluminum for crystalline clarity and balance, wood for warmth, ceramic for delicate detail. oBravo has a further technology that is unique to them in headphones, air motion transformer tweeters. They use this technology in their EAMT line of IEMs, and in their HAMT line of full-size headphones. I can’t wait to hear this technology next time they visit a show I’m at. All of oBravo’s lineup have a clean metallic industrial design, but all work in notes of wood to provide some organic flavour and warmth to their image. I’m a fan.
 
If you’d like to know more about these upstarts from Taiwan, check out oBravo’s website for some hot pics and information.

 

Vital Statistics (what the manufacturer says about their gear)

Almost every headphone comes with some summary measurements about the piece of kit you’ve just thrown your coin on the table and bought, and many of them aren’t relatively true. I’ll leave that judgment up to you. I found that the ERIB-2A lived up to it’s measurements, to my ear, at least. I’m also inclined to believe the frequency response is being conservative. They have another headphone that they list as having response to only 28Hz.
 
From custom-cable.co.uk, my local seller of oBravo goodies

• The world first Coaxial two-way IEM design by an implementation of Planar tweeter and NDD to deliver a rich sound stage listening experience.
• World class Comply ear tips implementation for balanced sound stage.
• A Wooden ear cup designed model - (erib-2w), and a Precision Ceramic ear cup designed model - (erib-2c) to provide a choice for different sound styles.
• Easy way to enjoy a ultimate sound from a balanced output by an optional 2.5mm Balanced cable.

 
Specification:

1. Frequency Response: 20Hz~35KHz
2. Tweeter: 8mm Planar Magnetic Tweeter
3. Dynamic Driver: 10mm Neodymium Driver
4. Impedance: 16 ohm
5. Sensibility in dB: 102dB
6. Weight: 35 g

 

Form & Function

The ERIB-2A comes in a large zippered container, like a little clutch full of foam and other things to make it look precious. It makes me think of blown plastic inserts on boardgames. They make everything seem organised, but they aren’t really fit for purpose, they are inflexible overkill that you end up tossing out to better use the space in your box. oBravo’s case is ludicrously large, and they appear to have learned their lesson with some of their other headphones (ERIB-5A comes with a logical sized pouch). The case has enough real estate to fit four sets of headphones in it. The case has enough real estate that they had to come up with new inventions to fill the ludicrous space. You’ll find in the packaging something besides the IEM that is special to oBravo, IEM tip organizers. These handy dandy little nails will hold your tips while you drop them down into specially cut foam cubby holes. I would have much rather they gave me an appropriate case to fit the IEMs with a couple sets of tips. The case is a pile of dumb. Luckily everything else about these is pretty brilliant.
 
They feel a tiny bit awkward at first, as they stick out a bit from your ear. It was emphasized on the tour that you shouldn't really jam the Comply foamies all the way into your ear, that they should be a touch loose to allow a bigger soundstage. What they say works. It doesn’t take long to get acclimated to the feel of the headphones when the sound makes you want to leave them in so much. The cable feels of sufficient quality, but I’m not a huge fan of the proprietary connector. I experienced no microphonics with the cable.
 
The ERIB-2A can be worn up or down, but I found them most comfortable down due to the big strain relief on the cables. Isolation is not great on these as they are basically an open design IEM, you can see little holes on the wood exterior of the headphones. You’ll hear all the traffic around you, but the music is so clear you still won’t care, and I live in one of the worst traffic cities in the UK. Like every other IEM I own, these didn’t anger any of my office mates when I blast some AC/DC. Win win.
 
Inside the box you’ll find:

1. The aforementioned oversized case (clutch?)
2. The coaxial headphone cable
3. The IEMs
4. Silicone ear guides for helping the IEMs stay in
5. Some silicone tips
6. Comply foamies
7. An awesome stubby 3.5mm to 6.3mm adaptor (so good I asked if I could buy just the adaptor if nothing else)

Audio quality

I took these to work with me every day for the week I had them and ignored the world as much as I could, which is normal, but I was very committed to this ideal whilst I had these. I played these at home out of the 5W Airist Audio Heron 5 amplifier, and out of the 4W iFi Micro iCAN SE, and I played this out of a cheap low power DAC/AMP, and the iBasso DX50. These didn’t sound bad on anything, but they definitely sound better on certain pairings. I compared these to my favourite headphones I have on hand, and I took them into Richer Sounds and compared them to full size cans from Oppo and Audeze. These little IEMs are top tier stuff.
 

 
My first listen on these was using the Airist Audio Heron 5 (my next in line review) with the Chord Mojo as the DAC. I loaded up Roger Waters – Amused to Death and listened to Late Home Tonight Part I, Late Home Tonight Part II and Too Much Rope. These tracks have fantastic levels of micro-detail, big soundstages with lots of pans including one of the only sky to ground vertical pans I’ve ever heard in a music track (BOOM). If you are okay with highly political prog rock, you should definitely add Amused to Death to your listening list. The headphones took a couple minutes to warm up. Once they did they had a touch of warmth to the upper mids, super clear vocals, and supremely natural guitar on Too Much Rope. The soundstage width is spectacular, the height is impressive when the bomb drops in Late Home Tonight, and the image is layered with excellent depth and space for each element of the cinematic experience. The details of the woman leaving and entering rooms of the house holding her baby whilst the TV news plays and music goes on in the street were intricately and precisely detailed—like I was following one step behind her as she went about her everyday normal human day. If I spoke Arabic, I would have understood every syllable of the broadcast and speech. I haven’t had that kind of detail on any IEM I’ve listened to this track with.  My first observation was that the sound is crisp, like a collared shirt hard-edged with starch. I think some of this may be the effect of pairing with the Mojo, as the Mojo has a very precise, sharp sound while still having smooth flow and a natural sound. I was also still burning in my brain on the sound, it sounded smoother on future listening.
 
City of the Sun (on Chesky Records/HD Tracks in binaural+), recently released an album that is spectacular. The album has several fantastic test tracks, my favourite probably being the title track, To The Sun And All The Cities In Between. When I played the ERIB-2A out of the iFi iCAN SE with the LH Labs Geek Out V2 as the source with none of the iFi iCAN SE switches engaged the sound was duller and flatter with less bass than the Heron 5 pairing. Engaging the XBass switch to one dot had the bass show up, whilst three dots made it overbearing. The 3D switch on the iCAN SE boosts treble and made the sound less flat sounding. A comparison to the HD600 revealed the ERIB-2A to be a formidable competitor. I threw on The Beats, Man – Yummmmm and micro-detail was just popping all over like amplified water droplets from a soaking rain perched on a leaf diving into a lake teaming with activity, like a popcorn popper inside your head. The music would have given Salvador Dali a rise. The ERIB-2A was more detailed than the HD600, and not subtly so. The ERIB-2A has greater soundstage height, greater soundstage width, but slightly less depth than the HD600. It has insane imaging and clarity, and jaw-dropping separation between instruments. Every instrument has its own space, every note plucked has its own place. The ERIB-2A feels like it has a touch more body, while the HD600 has a more delicate touch. The HD600 is a great reference headphone, but this in-ear is blowing it away. I’m drooling like a St. Bernard now. Roll over Beethoven, some Pasadena family will be adopting me soon. Who can resist this face?
 

 
Switching back to the Heron 5 for the comparison on City of the Sun, the bass is healthier (no boost necessary with the right amplification). The sound has an airy ethereal quality with absolutely stunning mids. Higher guitar notes are something special to hear. Transients are naturally portrayed with excellent instrument decay.
 
With the Heron 5 and the iCAN SE, I did notice some buzz during quiet sections, but whether it shows up depended on volume level listened at. I also had an interesting effect with the headphones that I think was due to the supremely high amount of current feeding them. The ERIB-2A warmed up and shocked my ears a bit. I wonder if the case is being used as a ground. I think these should probably have a bit less powerful amp hooked up to them, even though they sound absolutely amazing on the Heron 5. I also tried these with the Geek Out 1000 straight out of the high damping factor 0.47ohm jack—they lost about half the soundstage volume compared to the iCAN SE, but still sounded lovely, but a bit thicker tonally. Luckily, I found an inexpensive but brilliant source that I absolutely loved them on, my iBasso DX50.
 

 
I listened with the DX50 (on high gain) for two days and compared back and forth with the DX50 alone and DX50 feeding the iCAN SE. I preferred the DX50 alone. I didn’t do a comparison of the DX50 to the Heron 5. I think the Heron 5 probably has a bit too much impedance for these, but the buzz isn’t noticeable on every track. I listened to Led Zeppelin for a whole day—Led Zeppelin I all the way through Presence. That’s a darn fine day. The bass was a touch recessed, but tonally accurate with rich timbre. Jimmy Page’s voice had a nice edge to it, and the DX50 is churning out a soundstage as impressive as the iCAN SE.
 
At this point, we’ve identified the one minor weakness of these headphones sonically, the bass is a touch recessed. I decided to throw down with Beck – Midnight Vultures, which is a bass forward album. The bass isn’t as forward as on other headphones but is deeply satisfying. The mids are special from lower mids all the way up to the top of the mids ladder. Drums kick right and falsetto occupies the sonic aeries meant for its creepy-cool vibe. I wanna get with these, and their sister, I think her name is EAMT. Get Real Paid is a big highlight; it has sounds popping all over the stage, verticality, width, panning, falsetto, electronic blips and bloops, cool percussion, etc…. I decided to take the ERIB-2A and the DX50 to Richer Sounds to compare to some full size cans using Beck - Get Real Paid.
 
At Richer Sounds I had to wait a bit to get into the goodie case, but when I did I asked for the Oppo PM3 (£349) and the Audeze EL8 Open (£599). Both the PM3 and the EL8 are designed to be able to be driven out of an iPhone, so the comparison is fair. The ERIB-2A was better than both. The Oppo PM3, was tops on my list for work headphones as it has silky smooth liquid mids and satisfying presentation on the rest of the spectrum. The Oppo PM3 had bass that was a touch slow and loose, the treble clarity was good and the mids were as liquid as I remember them. The PM3 had some boosting in the mids and some added warmth to the signature. Comparatively, the ERIB-2A was cooler sounding, it was clearer, had a much wider and deeper soundstage, more precise instrumentation, and tighter more accurate bass (though less quantity). The EL8 was clearer than the Oppo PM3 with a more forward signature. The treble on the EL8 is less detailed than the Oppo PM3. The EL8 has less stage depth than the ERIB-2A, is a bit warmer, has a touch of grain to the sound, and a more congested presentation. The ERIB-2A also has more height in the stage and better treble definition. The ERIB-2A has less bass, but better bass than the EL8. I handed the ERIB-2A over to one of the shop employees to listen, and they confirmed my preference. They also said I can come back and let them listen to headphones I’m reviewing any time I want.
 
The ERIB-2A at £549 ($775) beats the £599 Audeze EL8 in basically every way and it is an in-ear headphone.
 
I also compared the ERIB-2A to the following: Trinity Audio Atlas (orange filter), Echobox Audio Finder X1, RHA ma750, 64Audio ADEL X2, and the Fidue A65 (watch for my review). The ERIB-2A dropped the trousers of the Trinity Audio Atlas, RHA ma750, and Fidue A65 like the class bully on the nerds at your high school. Those are all really good headphones, especially the Trinity Audio Atlas. The Echobox Audio Finder X1, and 64Audio ADEL X2 were closer to the ERIB-2A. The Finder X1 is an impressive little (emphasis because it is crazy tiny) headphone—superb detail, v-shape sound, excellent transparency, healthy but not overpowering in any frequency. The 64Audio ADEL X2 is very natural and fluid sounding, very balanced, with excellent decay and impact on bass and drums. When listening to Neil Young - Out on the Weekend (Pono 24-192) the bass chugged along beautifully with the other two guitars making good appearances and nice vocal reflections off the back of the stage giving an excellent idea of stage size. The ERIB-2A still beats both of the most competitive handily. Micro-details like string scratches on guitar and guitar placement are showcased. The bass is the fastest. The layering is the best. The resolution is the best. The harmonica is perfectly placed at the height of the vocals in a way that none of the other headphones accomplished. Listening to Queen – Loser in the End—a great track for spaciousness, crunchy guitar, wood blocks, and most of all drum impact—the 64Audio Adel X2 was more forward with good impact, but didn’t have the epic transparency, layering and instrument separation of the ERIB-2A.

 

Conclusions

These headphones are absolutely spectacular, unless you are an unrepentant bass-head or a glutton for the warm sound. I’m neither of these, so I was cursing my ill finances when I had to send these on to the next in line. I want to listen to these more. After sending them on and listening to other very good to great headphones I just find myself missing these. These headphones have spectacular resolution, speed, tonal accuracy and soundstage. I think these will beat many equal or higher priced headphones on sound, including full-size open headphones. There is only one sonic weakness on these headphones to my ears, and it is a minor weakness compared to the copious amounts of strengths these exhibit: the bass is a touch recessed. I didn’t EQ these, but in my experience low bass quantity is generally correctable with EQ. I would buy these with no regrets. These are top of the line, and £549 ($775) is not too much to pay for them.
 
If you’ve got £549 ($775) in coin and are looking for a new IEM, you should do your best to have a listen on these. You might never look for another headphone—but you will go buy another case, because the case is terrible; unless the EAMTs are as good as their reputation. Hopefully when I hear those I won’t end up divorced and compromising myself in horrible ways to afford them.
 
 

Acknowledgment    

Thank you Meze Headphones for allowing me to participate in your European tour in exchange for my honest opinion of the Meze Headphones 99 Classics.

Introduction

Meze Headphones is a relatively new headphone manufacturer. The 99 Classics were funded through a Kickstarter campaign and are now out trying to conquer our ears with lush mid-range overtones. When I write reviews for items that I didn't buy, I use the lower price of Amazon.com or list price. The conquest proceeds after the break, but first here's a little bit-o-junk about me. There is no such thing as an impartial observer, so I suggest you know where reviewers you invest your trust in are coming from.
 

 

Manufacturer Specifications

I’ve decided after a bit of reading around that @Brooko is right, if a manufacturer provides specs, we should list them. I’m not convinced that specs are always accurate, or that specs even matter on many headphones. Plenty of headphones don’t sound like their measurements, for better or worse.
 
Here are the specs for the Meze Headphones 99 Classics from Meze Headphones' website:
 
 
Meze Headphones also provided a frequency chart for the 99 classics:
 


I found that what Meze Headphones represented their headphones as was fairly accurate. Using test-tones from Audiocheck.net I ran through some frequency checks. You need a sampling rate of at least double the frequency to test any given frequency, so I use 16/48 tones. At 16Khz there was plenty of bass still there. At 10Khz, the sound bass was still audible, but very faint. These are definitely high performers on bass extension. I don’t think much of anybody hears up to 25Khz, but I did test these at 23Khz and the tone was still audible. I’ve never heard tones above 23Khz, and most people won’t hear that, so I don’t bother trying. Using my SPL meter, I found that roll-off on treble starts at about 16Khz. The dip before and then peak at 5Khz is audible on some tracks—we’ll return to that later.

 

Form & Function

The Meze 99 Classics come with a smorgasbord of goodness when it comes to form and function. They are dead sexy looking, and come with two cables in separate lengths (a shorter cable with microphone, and a longer one without), an airline adaptor, a 3.5mm to 6.3mm jack adaptor, a high quality hard-case (with a zipper pouch for carrying accessories), and all of the parts or 100% user serviceable. Meze Audio also used the increasingly popular 3.5mm dual mono connectors for their headphone cable (HiFiMan headphones from 2015 onward, Sennheiser HD700, Oppo PM2, Oppo PM1). This should allow cheap and easy custom cable acquisition for playing these in balanced mode. Pretty dang sweet. I didn’t get to try balanced mode during my demo, but it is an exciting prospect. If I receive the pair after the tour, I’ll update this review with impressions in balanced mode.
 
The Meze Headphones 99 Classics are likely the most aesthetically beautiful headphones in their price bracket. The dark walnut wood and gold highlights ooze luxury and quality, and you don’t have to be a model on Meze Headphones’ website—there is more make-up in those photos than at a MAC counter—to immediately look more fashionable for wearing them. I hope Sex Bob-omb—
 

 
 
—headphones like these make certain B-words now owned and marketed by rounded corner rectangle slinging fruit merchants rapidly go out of fashion. I want to puke every time I see those cheap plastic crap cannons on anyone’s ears.  Please never get sponsorship from them, Head-Fi.
 
The pads are made of artificial leather that feels and looks nice enough, but they have a small cup size and are too thin. Now I don’t discriminate on cup size normally, but if something says circumaural in its description, its perimeter better make it around my ears. I think these could go around my 8-month old daughter’s ears, but my 8 year old nephew might have some problems. My average size 34 year-old ears make the 99 Classics fall strictly in the supra-aural category. I found that the headphones built pressure on my ears over time, with the soreness most notable after removing them, especially on the lower ears for me. It took about two to three hours for this effect to happen. I think the clamping pressure could probably be relieved somewhat by relaxing the metal band tension a bit, but I didn’t want to stretch out headphones on loan to me.  I know it doesn't look as stylish, but I'll take comfort over style—give me bigger earholes and deeper pads.
 
Isolation is pretty meager with these. Walking next to light traffic there is almost no isolation. They performed well in a quiet office, neither allowing me to hear much sound outside of the music I wanted to listen to and not allowing my neighbours to hear me blasting ‘a little silhouette of a man’ into their consciousness for all time. There was no Wayne’s World head-banging in my 1976 AMC Pacer of an office. My office-mates are not worthy, apparently.
 



Now for some audiophile content rated M (the headphones are inappropriately sexy):
 
Yeah, I know, those were good, but the lede was misleading. Here are the pictures you actually wanted to see:

 

Testbed

The equipment used for technical testing was as follows:

1. Wensa SPL Meter
2. iFi Micro iDAC2
3. iFi Micro iUSB3.0
4. iFi iPurifier2
5. 2 LH Labs Lightspeed 2G cables
6. Meze Audio 99 Classics Headphones
7. Sennheiser HD600 (panty-hose mod, increases soundstage, removes ‘veil’)

 

Audio quality

For most of my impressions I was listening out of the iFi iDAC2 with the iPurifier2 (reviews here and here), but I also did some listening with my LH Labs Geek Out 1000 paired with the iPurifier2. There was never any point where the 99 Classics were under-powered, it only took about 20% volume to power these to loud with the GO 1000. They are remarkably easy to drive. They may be too easy to drive as I think a little bit higher impedance would make some tracks have less distortion on the low end.
 
These do an excellent job separating out vocal layers. On Fleetwood Mac - Dreams (West German Target pressing) this is especially apparent in the chorus. Each of the three vocalists is distinctly identifiable in space. Well done, Meze Audio, this isn't usually the case. I think these do a little better than the HD600 on this song.
 
On Eagles - Hotel California (DCC Gold), the jet pan is a little lost in the mix. I think it is due to some emphasis on other parts and the relatively limited soundstage depth. Imaging is generally good, but there isn't very much air around most instruments. There is an average sound stage. Bass sounds a touch warm and thick.
 
Listening to the new jazz album from Jenny Maybee and Nick Phillips, Haiku, I'm caught off guard in a couple tracks by some dagger sharp piano. I think this may have to do with the 5Khz peak on the frequency response chart. One thing that is interesting about listening to headphones that push some frequencies to extremes, is that you notice peaky parts of recordings you hadn't noticed otherwise. When I switched to the 64Audio ADEL X2 (2 BA ADEL model), the sharp piano was still there, but it was less emphasized and not painful. The same was true with the HD600.
San Francisco Orchestra - Mahler Symphony Number 8, Part I, IV. Gloria Patri Domino (DSD64) is a great track for looking at vocal extremes and separation. These headphones are very suited to choral work. Absolutely fantastic! The soprano sounds dynamic and vibrant and the other singers are nicely placed and layered. Similarly, Trondheim Solistene - Magnificat, Et Misericordia (24/352.8) has great vocal separation. You can't pick out individual voices in entirety, but the flourishes of individual vocalists pull away from the choir nicely.
 
On Why - Strawberries the bass is a bit bloomy. It still sounds good and has decent extension (still shows up at 25hz, but doesn't drop as low as this track can go with any authority). The percussion is good but not among the best of headphones I own. It feels a touch slow on transient response. I get more out of my Trinity Audio Atlas IEMs and Echobox Finder X1 IEMs on transient speed and note decay. The slow decay gives a bit of a romantic character to the sound, but I tend to prefer incisive lighter tones.
 
In another story of revealing characteristics of the headphones, the quality of Regina Spektor's track, Fidelity, is exposed a bit at the beginning when the bass is dropping. There is a little bit of noise in the track that I hadn't really noticed that the Meze 99 Classics amplify a bit. I confirmed it with the HD600 and one of my favourite in ears the 64Audio ADEL X2; it's definitely there. Similar listening on 2Pac – God Bless the Dead, a track I throw in because of its heavy bass and poor mastering that I happen to love, shows that the Meze 99 Classics amplify poorly mastered bass. There is a lot of that going around, especially if you listen to metal music. Not all headphones make that poorly mastered bass as apparent. I think that higher impedance would probably remove some of the amplification of bad bass noise, but I didn’t have an adapter to test that during the time I had them. If I get them again, I’ll test the effect of higher impedance. Proceed with care.

 

[size=24.57px]Conclusions[/size]

These have stunning vocals, beautiful design, premium feel, great accessories; some treble fatigue, unforgiving of noise in the low end of recordings, bass thick but not very textured, overall thickness to sound from bass, cup size not big enough (that's right I said it), and can cause ear soreness due to small pad size and clamping. I think that these compete well with the OPPO PM3 for best work headphone, but I find the OPPOs a little cleaner on sound and more comfortable on the ears. Both headphones have amazing mids, and warm bass.
 
I had thought these would be easy to get a balanced cable, but I was mistaken, 2.5mm mono jacks are common on headphones, but not 3.5mm. The best route for Meze would be to manufacture their own balanced cables, but reterminating the stock cable is another option. Since it comes with two cables, this shouldn't be too much difficulty.
One potential advantage that I haven't got to hear on these is the ease of getting a balanced cable. These have the now ubiquitous mono 3.5mm dual jacks (HiFiMan HE1000, HiFiMan HE-X, HiFiMan 400i and 400s circa 2016, Sennheiser HD700, Oppo PM1, Oppo PM2) so balanced cables are easily available. If I owned any of those headphones, I would have been able to do a balanced shoot-out between the HD600 and the Meze 99 Classics using the LH Labs Geek Pulse X-Infinity. It would have been exciting. Maybe if I win these at the end of the tour I can update my review.

Acknowledgment

The iDAC2 was provided on loan to me by iFi along with the iPurifier2. Thanks for the loan! I love reviewing. That said, the thoughts here are not for sale. They are my own. I own them.

 

Introduction

This is my third iFi product I’m reviewing. I own a Micro iUSB3.0 and borrowed the iPurifier2 that was used during this review.  I write this review now with the iDAC2 and the iPurifier2 sent back to iFi with thanks, postage and a small sense of loss. Yesterday, a fourth iFi product, the iFi Micro iCAN SE arrived. With similar timing, the Airist Audio Heron 5 arrived. It was almost like two duelling postmen raced to my door trying to see who could fire their parcel into my wife’s waiting arms faster. Those two amps are waiting as if to draw pistols at dawn, two sleek silver masses of amplification menacing each other in the close quarters of my living room with foam tiles and an 8-month old on the floor. My father once gave me a piece of advice: “if you frighten a big man, he will hurt you; if you frighten a little man, he will kill you.” I’ve never underestimated the little dog in the fight, and I won’t underestimate a $299 amp vs. a $1999 amp. It is with this impending duel in mind that this review will be presented as a series of duels.
 
For roughly the last month I’ve carried the iDAC2, the iPurifier2 and my Geek Out V2 to work and listened daily, comparing performance with the Meze99 classic and IEMs at work and comparing performance with the HD600 at home. We’ll see which DACs in my possession or formerly on holiday in sunny Southampton marked this man. In some of the match-ups the iDAC2 is a decided underdog, and in others it should stand on relatively even footing. With a little further ado, to the review!
 
One last thing before we start. I’m a biased mother-listener, and if you’re honest with yourself, so are you. After the fold I give a little impression about my bias. Read it if you are interested. Or don’t. Make an informed decision.
 

 

Form & Function

The iDAC2 comes in iFi’s standard white box. It is sleek, with simple, informative graphic design and easy to pick up in your hand and easy to throw in a backpack. I didn’t throw it in a backpack, this is a loaner! I wrapped the iDAC2 in bubble wrap and put it in an appropriately sized box with the iPurifier2 and the Geek Out V2.  Inside the iDAC2 box, you’ll find a pair of purple RCA cables that are just long enough to string between components in your iFi stack. So if you are rocking a Micro iCAN SE, you are all set, probably for life. That iCAN SE has some extra juice, like an orchard's worth. If you want to hook up to something more than 4 inches away, you’ll need to go buy a proper set of interconnects.
 
Here’s a list of features on the iDAC2 from their website:

1. PCM 384Khz, Native DSD256 (quad speed)
2. Burr-Brown chipset
3. Pure Class A amplification (Class A Tube State), with fully discrete analogue state (does HD600 enough, but not to full potential)
4. RCA out for outputting to a bigger, badder amplifier
5. Coaxial digital out for hooking into a Sonos or other similar device with a DAC on board (I didn’t use this, as why waste a good DAC outputting to something that changes its character)
6. A feast of top-end electronic innards (Elna Japan Silmic II, TDK C0G, Vishay MELF,  et al.)—this isn’t your mama’s meatloaf, unless your mama only puts the finest Kobe beef and mangalitsa pork up in that loaf.

 
I noticed something a bit strange with regard to vibration when trying to stack the iDAC2 on top of the iUSB3.0. With headphones hooked in and no power, mechanical vibration was heard as static through the headphones. Pressing down on the iDAC2 removes the static. I tried stroking the top of the DAC from front to back along the logo plane and found that this created a humming noise. The DAC needs a surface that absorbs vibration. I didn’t have any vibration issues with the iDAC2 sitting on my office desk at home or work, but assuring that the rubber feet are stable is key to avoiding mechanical interference.
 
Enjoy some pictures. I did. The stool is from IKEA, the camera is a Panasonic GX7 and the lighting is natural with some flash for good metre.
 
 
[size=24.57px]The Testbed[/size]
In this section I’ll let you know a little bit about the equipment that I’ve tested the iDAC2 with. I like listening to full size headphones, IEMs and my speakers in my two channel set-up in the living room. With an 8-month old baby, I have to get special dispensation for shutting myself up in the man-cave and ignoring the outside world. Luckily for me and you, my lady is mighty generous. The equipment used for this review was as follows:

1. Wensa SPL Meter
2. iFi Micro iUSB3.0
3. iFi iPurifier2
4. LH Labs Geek Out V2 (GO V2)
5. 2 LH Labs Lightspeed 2G cables
6. Supra USB Cable
7. Sennheiser HD600 (panty-hose mod)
8. Meze Audio 99 Classics Headphones
9. Trinity Audio Atlas (orange and gold filters, Sony isolation tips)
10. Echobox Audio Finder X1 (black filters, comply foam)
11. 64Audio X2 (JVC Spiral Dot)

 

Audio quality

I ran the iDAC2 primarily with the iPurifier2, but did do a comparison using the Micro iUSB3.0 also. I love that Micro iUSB3.0 (that hyperlink is to my review, check it out if you like) but also got some listening time with my LH Labs gear (X-Infinity, GO V2, and GO 1000). The iPurifier2 and iDAC2 have been my constant companions for nearly a month. They are good company and work well together, but if I could only put my money into one, it would be the iPurifier2. In my iPurifier2 review, I used the analogy of superheroes and sidekicks. While my affection was more for the sidekick on this occasion, I still enjoyed the iDAC2.
In general, I found that the iDAC2 sounded better with some help from the iPurifier, or the Micro iUSB3.0. On Kraftwerk – Kometenmelodie2 the iDAC2 flying solo smeared some treble detail, but with the iPurifier2 the treble was cleaned up and more detailed. When listening to Mavis Staples – If It’s A Light backing vocals are more distinct when the iPurifier2 is added. Mavis’ lead vocal has tighter definition and the bass track has more groove with the iPurifier2. On Teddy Thompson’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s brilliant Tonight Will Be Fine, vocals are on display with just a touch clearer image with a blacker background and better instrument spacing.

 

iDAC2 vs. GO V2 (the terrific 2s)

 
I took the iDAC2 to work in my Havit I8 box with bubble wrap protection, which happened to be just the right size to fit the iDAC2, the iPurifier2, a Lindy USB3.0 B to A adaptor, and the LH Labs Geek Out V2 (GO V2). I duelled these two DACs for the better part of a month. I hooked up both with the iPurifier2 and played the Tidal HiFi Before the Beatles playlist. On Johnny Leyton’s – Johnny Remember Me, the iDAC2 was clear, but had a touch of static, adding the iPurifier2 cleared this up. Compared to the GO V2 with the iPurifier2, the iDAC2 has less height in its soundstage, and less tight treble. The GO V2 sounds more full, with more natural guitar plucks. The guitar sounded brittle compared to the GO V2 with the iDAC2 paired with the iPurifier2. I observed a similar differences with Regina Spektor – Hotel Song; the iDAC2 sounded thinner. On Bjork – Stonemilker, the iDAC2 was brighter with slightly rougher treble. Both had roughly the same power thrown into the HD600. I’m not convinced that the GO v2 is operating at 1W of amplification, the number is probably a bit misleading.
 
The iDAC2 and GO V2 are both varieties of neutral. Both are very good sounding DACs, the GO V2, at the same price, is excellent. I think that some folks will prefer the iDAC2, those who like a leaner slightly more treble accentuated sound. The GO V2 has a fuller sound, with a more natural timbre and a bit more precision to the sound; the iDAC2 has a bit more treble extension but doesn’t win on treble definition versus the GO V2. I preferred the GO V2 with the iPurifier2 to the iDAC2 with the iPurifier2. The little pocket-size dongle won the duel.

 

iDAC2 vs. Pulse X-Infinity (snipers on the ridge?)

 
 
I conducted a comparison between the iDAC2 and the Geek Pulse X-Infinity via the Micro iUSB3.0, and the iDAC2 mostly held it’s own. The signal chains were not perfectly identical, so there may be some bias in the comparison. The signal chain for the iDAC2 was HTPC to Micro iUSB3.0 via Supra USB cable, Micro iUSB3.0 to iDAC2 via LH Labs Lightspeed 2G (split power and data) USB cable, iDAC2 with the HD600. The HD600 was volume matched using white noise to 75dB for both setups. The HD600 was playing balanced off the X-Infinity and unbalanced from the iDAC2. I also did this comparison with speakers, with thei DAC2 outputting to the Cambridge Audio azur 540A via Van Den Hul MKIII interconnects, and the Cambridge Audio azur 540A to 28 year old Mordaunt Short speakers. The speaker-based comparison set-up was the same for the X-Infinity, but with different interconnects, the Atlas Element Integra. It very well may be that is a driver in the differences, because later I compared the Atlas to my Audioquest Evergreen, and the Atlas was clearer with an expanded soundstage. I’ll be picking up a second Atlas Integra for future comparisons (it deserves the What HiFi 5* rating). I’ll present the HD600 comparison first, and then the speaker comparison.
 
When listening to Kraftwerk – Kometenmelodie2 (a good treble torture test) I found the treble a bit shrill at the beginning. This shrillness reappeared later. Instrument separation was excellent. The stage width was sleightly wider than the head, depth about the size of the head, and height extended to the top of the head. The treble remained emphasized and a bit hot.
 
With the X-Infinity, the highs were still shrill—it’s just how Kometenmelodie2 plays—but the treble was a touch smoother, a little more restrained. Depth was greater with the X-Infinity (just sleightly out of head), width was a touch narrower (like an inch or so), and height was the same.
 
When playing the same tune via speakers, the X-Infinity had a sound stage that lept into the room and shouted down from the ceiling. The stage thrown from the iDAC2 was 2 to 3 feet shorter and didn’t extend as far into the room in width or depth. The edges in treble expression were maintained from the HD600 comparison.
 
With the HD600, I found the iDAC2 and X-Infinity tightly matched. Both are very capable. But I found the increased depth and slightly more pleasant treble gave the X-Infinity the edge. The iDAC2 took one in the shoulder, but walked away from the duel alive and with some honor intact. As a pre-amp, the X-Infinity set up on high ground, with a 34” barrel length, 70 caliber Sharps rifle. It only would take one shot from that sucker to fell a dang buffalo, but the X-Infinity was quick to reload. It wasn’t really a duel, it was a low down dirty assassination, but it was fun to listen to.

 

Headphone pairings

I played the iDAC2 with a lot of headphones. My favourite pairing was probably the 64Audio X2. The X2 has a little bit of roll off in the treble, so synergizes well with the treble lift on the iDAC2. If you tend to like treble rolled off headphones, you’ve probably got a great pairing on hand for the iDAC2. I could see the mid-centric Oppo PM-3 being a good match, from memory (I didn't have one on hand). I also enjoyed the iDAC2 with the Echobox Finder X1 IEM. The Finder X1 likes the power on hand on the iDAC2 and takes nearly as much on the volume knob as the HD600. I’ve recently discovered that, contrary to my preconceptions the HD600 will take a crap ton of power if you give it and will scale with that power. The iDAC2 and the GO V2 can’t drive the HD600 to its full potential. You can drive the HD600 to loud enough volume with lots of amps, but the sound stage and dynamics need more power. I’m getting a dose of that right this minute listening to the Airist Audio Heron 5 playing some live recorded DSD128 via the GO V2. It is absolutely stunning. When someone tells you that something is fully driving the HD600 that isn’t a mega-amp, they probably don’t know what they are talking about. On that note, people saying the Chord MoJo drives the HD600 or HD800 well don’t know what they are talking about. It isn’t a flaw of the iDAC2 that it doesn’t squeeze every ounce of capability out of the HD600, because the HD600 has consistently presented me with surprises on what it can do. Between the Chord MoJo and the iDAC2, the MoJo wins that DAC battle (though I didn't have a MoJo on hand). The MoJo is one of the most organic sounding DACs I've heard.
 
The iDAC2 worked okay with the Meze Audio 99 Classics, but both have tendencies towards sharper treble, so it wasn’t as good a pairing as it could have been.

 

Conclusions

The iDAC2 didn’t win any of its duels in this review, but it came armed with a good revolver and didn’t always end up in a casket. I enjoyed listening to it. I think that it is best paired with the iPurifier2, as it provided a marked improvement in transient response, and improved clarity, soundstage width and soundstage depth.
 
When it comes to value, there isn’t yet much distribution of the GO V2 in Europe, but you can get the iDAC2 readily. Annoyingly, the best prices are in the USA (stupid VAT) for the iDAC2. I’d appreciate it if iFi stopped selling the iDAC2 for less money in continental Europe than in the UK. The USA retail price of both the iDAC2 and GO V2 are $299, but in Europe you’ll have to deal with shipping and customs costs. I preferred the GO V2 to the iDAC2, but it isn’t a day and night difference and others will prefer the presentation of the iDAC2.

Acknowledgment

The iPurifier2 was loaned to me along with the Micro iDAC2 by iFi for the purpose of this review, and I previously won an iFi Micro iUSB3.0 in the launch contest for the iUSB3.0. The opinions in this review are my honest opinions.

Introduction

Last year I won the iUSB3.0 in its launch contest. I have had the iUSB3.0 for about 6 months and have used it with several DACs: LH Labs Geek Out 1000, LH Labs Geek Out V2, Schiit Yggdrasil, LH Labs Geek Pulse X-Infinity, and the iFi Micro iDAC2. My observations in my iUSB3.0 review were that the iUSB3.0 had several effects: the noise floor is substantially lowered; instrument separation is increased; soundstage depth, width and height are increased; and the decay of notes is fuller and more natural. On reflection, I think most of these elements are related to the first element, lowering the noise floor. The Micro iUSB3.0 is a fantastic bit of kit, and I’m very glad to have won it, but when I’m traveling, it isn’t terribly portable. It needs two USB cables and a power socket to run, which adds up to a lot of gear to carry around. It also costs a pretty penny at around $400 (£329 when I won it). The honest folks at iFi say that you shouldn’t get an iUSB3.0 to use with a DAC that is less than $5000,and they are probably being sensible on that.
 
Quote in the Nano iUSB3.0 launch thread (post 5):
“If your USB DAC is:
1) USB dac <US$500 eg nano DSD = iPurifier 2 (ie. no need for mUSB3.0 or nUSB3.0).
2) USB dac US$500 to US$5k eg iFi/Chord = nano USB3.0.
3) USB dac >US$5k eg DCS/AMR = micro iUSB3.0.
 
Hopefully this summary shows that if you have a <US$1k DAC, then the micro iUSB3.0 is overkill as unlikely to hear the additional performance.”
 
I’ve used the iUSB3.0 with lesser DACs to good effect, but I didn’t pay for mine.  I also use two double ended USB cables that I got at big discounts through the LH Labs Geek Pulse IndieGoGo campaign (the campaign that less people are threatening to burn LH Labs down over).
 
The iPurifier2 has most of the technology in the Micro iUSB3.0, but is about ¼ the price and at most requires one USB cable and an adapter. The iPurifier2 comes in three varieties, all with USB3.0 female ends to insert a USB cable jack, but with different outputs: USB-A (female) for hooking up to the iFi Micro iDSD or a stick DAC like the Audioquest Dragonfly or Geek Out V2, USB-B for hooking up to most full-size DACs, USB-C for next generation devices, and USB-micro for many portable devices out there. The unit I received was the USB-B unit, which included USB-B (male) to USB-A (female) adaptor. The adaptor was appreciated as it allows wide usage. I was able to use the device with every DAC or DAP I own (most of us own a USB-micro cable for charging some electronic device).
 
Every person walking around this earth is biased, and I’m no different, so I’ve included a blurb about my particular flavour of bias below the spoiler. Read it if you want to.
 
 

Form & Function

The iPurifier2 is tiny and comes in a tiny box not much bigger than a pack of cards. The box includes a warranty card, instructions, the iPurifier2, and in the case of the iPurifier2 USB-B version, a USB-B (male) to USB-A (female) adaptor.  It will fit in a change pocket or small purse, but you’ll still need a USB cable. If you are carrying around a DAC, you’ve probably got room for the iPurifier2.
 
 
 
The iPurifier2 has two LEDs. When the device is receiving power but not plugged into a DAC both lights are blue. Plug the iPurifier2 into a DAC and the left light turns green.
 
According to the iFi website:


Comparatively, the Micro iUSB3.0 has the following features (video from product launch), stats from iFi website:


 

The Micro iUSB3.0 is much larger. You’ll need two cables and you’ll probably want a case to carry it around. It has Micro in the name, but it is really inconvenient to move, especially when you consider that you will be carrying around the iPower and probably will be using two USB cables. I use the Micro iUSB3.0 plugged into my LH Labs Geek Pulse X-Infinity, which is a spectacular DAC and pre-amp with a middle of the road headphone amp, hooked up with two split power and data LH Labs Lightspeed 2g cables (I got the pair for <$250).
 

Technical testing

The equipment used for technical testing was as follows:

1. Wensa SPL Meter
2. iFi Micro iDAC2
3. iFi Micro iUSB3.0
4. iFi iPurifier2
5. 2 LH Labs Lightspeed 2G cables
6. Meze Audio 99 Classics Headphones
7.  

When I initially listened to my DACs fed through the iUSB3.0 I noticed that my music sounded louder. As many are aware, louder music generally sounds better to our perception, so a device that increases volume will be perceived to increase sound quality and bias our judgment. At the time I won the Micro iUSB3.0, I didn’t have a SPL meter, but this has since been remedied. I decided that the first test I would run in this review was to see if there were any differences in SPL measurements with the iDAC2 at the same volume between the iDAC2 alone, iDAC2 with iPurifier2 and iDAC2 with Micro iUSB3.0.
 
The test procedure involved the following steps:

• Set volume level using white noise (Ayre Acoustics – Irrational But Efficacious System Enhancement Disc) to approximately 75 dB using SPL meter set to A weighting and slow response with iDAC2 as the source. This is to establish baseline.
• For each of iDAC2, iDAC2 with iPurifier2, and iDAC2 with Micro iUSB3.0 repeat seven times
  • Turn on SPL meter
  • Set to slow and A weighting
  • Angle foam capped condenser microphone into Meze Audio 99 Classics left earcup
  • Begin white noise track and let play for three seconds
  • Begin one minute timer
  • Record minimum and maximum decibel measurement (range) during one minute interval
  • Estimate median SPL measurement
  • Turn off SPL meter

 
I did not use clamps to maintain fixed position of the headphone or SPL meter. All measurements were done by hand, which introduces additional potential for measurement error. The results of the testing are in the table below.
 
 
Given the table results above, it does not appear that there are any measurable differences between the iDAC2 alone and with USB devices. The small sample size caveat applies, but it is also the case that given the measurement error in hand measurement that further trials would have likely yielded little or no additional information. These results can be interpreted to mean that any perceived volume differences are due to elimination of noise on the signal, which is a tangible benefit to audio quality.
 
After I had already run this experiment, I was informed by iFi that it isn’t possible from an engineering perspective for the iPurifier2 or Micro iUSB3.0 to make the sound physically louder. This little experiment is a good example of why you can’t always trust your brain, while at the same time being an example of why you should trust your ears. That perceived louder sound is really about lowering the noise floor and creating a blacker background. It makes your music more dynamic, which is also what happens when you increase the volume. The brain doesn’t always make the right diagnosis of what the ears are hearing.
 

Audio quality

I used the iPurifier2 primarily with the iDAC2, but also got some listening time with my LH Labs gear (X-Infinity, Geek Out V2, and Geek Out 1000). The iPurifier2 and iDAC2 have been my constant companions for nearly a month. They are good company and work well together, but of the two, I prefer the iPurifier2. The iDAC2 is supposed to be the hero, Batman to the iPurifier2’s Robin, but I like the sidekick. The iPurifier2 probably won’t be killed through any sort of supervillainy either, it feels substantial in its tiny aluminum package. I tested the iPurifier2 with my LH Labs Lightspeed 2G cables and with the USB3.0 cable that came with the Micro iUSB3.0. I listened to many different tracks, and many different styles of music. I listened through speakers and through headphones The iPurifier2 performs similar feats with all of them.
 
What I hear when I listen with the iPurifier2 is a blacker background, which lends to better instrument separation. Instruments have a more ‘suspended in space’ quality to them. Bass is fuller and drums have noticeably more kick. Notes have a more natural feel to them, a pleasant roundness. When listening to Kraftwerk – Kometenmelodie2 via the iDAC2 there was a slight smear to treble detail without the iPurifier2, adding it to the chain improved timing and made the treble more detailed. When listening to Mavis Staples – If It’s A Light I notice backing vocals more distinctly with the iPurifier2. The lead vocal has more definition and the bass is tighter and groovier. On Teddy Thompson’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s brilliant Tonight Will Be Fine, I hear the vocals just a hair cleaner and instrument spacing improved in the better blacker background. Others have proclaimed miracles about the expansion of sound stage. The iPurifier2 will not be keeping a drunken party going like a tiny British Jesus, but it will add some power to the cocktails already there. I didn’t hear miracles. I did hear improvement in depth, a little improvement in width and no discernible difference in height with the iPurifier2. The headphones I listened with were the Meze Audio 99 Classics (which I had on loan from Meze Audio), and my panty-hose modded Sennheiser HD600 (mod increases treble definition, removes some veil and improves soundstage, try it), and a variety of IEMs (Trinity Audio Atlas, 64Audio X2, Echobox Audio Finder X1). It may be that bigger differences in improvement on soundstage are had with higher end headphones, but I didn’t have any of those on hand, so I can only report my observations with what I have. The iPurifier2 made a nice difference when I listened with the generic USB3.0 cable supplied with the iUSB3.0, but when I upgraded cables to LH Labs Lightspeed 2G, I didn’t hear as much uptick in performance as I did with the Micro iUSB3.0.
 
The iUSB3.0 expands width a bit more and depth plainly more than the iPurifier2, but also gives a boost to height. When listening to Kraftwerk – Autobahn through 28 year old Mordaunt Short speakers I got for £20 off ebay,  the X-Infinity, and the Cambridge Audio Azur 540A the soundstage is as tall as my living room. It is spectacular. I didn’t get the same improvement with the iPurifier2. The iUSB3.0 also responds to higher end USB cables in a way that the iPurifier2 doesn’t. When I got the iUSB3.0, I had a Supra USB running between the computer and the Micro iUSB3.0 and a Lightspeed 2G cable to my Geek Out V2, replacing the Supra cable with the LH Labs Lightspeed 2G improved the treble definition. Switching between the cables on the iPurifier2 didn’t seem to have an effect. Hooking my portable hard-drive into the Micro iUSB3.0 also improved my sound a smidgeon. The sound was a little cleaner, more organic. Differences in sound stage were relatively easy to hear on the iUSB3.0 vs. the iPurifier2, but the change that I think most people will notice is the increased richness in the bass. The bass is fuller and richer on the iUSB3.0, it is a joy.
 

Conclusions

I’m a fan of the iPurifier2, but I’ve been spoiled on the much more expensive and more performance laden Micro iUSB3.0. Since my loan period began on the iPurifier2, the Nano iUSB3.0 has been released, bringing  much of the features of the Micro iUSB3.0 at half the price. I think that this is a good strategy for iFi, as all of these technologies work, but using the Micro iUSB3.0 with an inexpensive DAC is definitely overkill, albeit beautiful sounding overkill. I think iFi’s bracketing of prices has as much to do with the gear they expect people to be listening with as the price of the DAC that the iPurifier or iUSB3.0 device is feeding. Whatever your budget, iFi now has a device at a reasonable price to improve your USB DAC’s sound quality.
 
I think that the iPurifier2 is a great value. At $110 it is better value than basically any audio device you can buy in that range. It provides definite improvement in soundstage depth, lays down some tight and groovy bass, and improves note definition by improving the blackness of the background and preventing time smearing (as noted in Kometenmelodie2). I give these a solid 4 stars. They are extremely portable, work universally, and give marked improvements in audio quality

Preamble    

I received these as part of Havit’s roll-out of review units. This is the second Havit unit that I have received as a review sample. I was provided voucher codes that made these free from amazon.co.uk. I think that is a really clever way to send review samples and I applaud Havit for their ingenuity. The views in the review are my own and not for sale.
 

Introduction

Havit is a Chinese manufacturer of electronic goods, making a variety of items from Bluetooth headphones to elaborate and fancy looking backlit gaming keyboards and mice. Shiny shiny.
 

 
Havit is entering a crowded market with their latest entries into Bluetooth headphones and headsets in the under $50 range. For an idea of the amount of stuff in the market, go to your local amazon website or check your local department store. This market is crowded.
 
These were £24.99 (roughly $38) on amazon.co.uk. I previously reviewed the Havit I8 sports Bluetooth headphone. I didn’t find the sound to my taste, but didn’t think it was bad value.
 

I’m biased, you’re biased, tunings are biased, here’s my bias

A wise HeadFier once told me that without acknowledging your own biases in your reviews, you risk misleading those who read them. So this is about me and what I hear and like to hear. If you’d like to go in blind to my bias, you may figure it out by the end anyway. Feel free to skip the hidden text.
 

 

Form and function

These came in cheap plastic transparent container with cardboard to hold the headphones and hide the accessories. These are made of many types of plastic and almost certainly okay for vegans. There may be metal somewhere in the band (I doubt it), but the only metal I could see was the screws. The finish is primarily softly rubberised plastic. The earcups and headband padding are a mid-grade pleather.  The band can get a little bit of a hotspot on the top over time, but this is almost always the case with this type of padded pleather. Clamping power makes the tops of my ears hurt over time. I don’t think this is a headphone that I would toss in a backpack or large purse, even though these having a folding design that encourages you to do so. I think these would break rather quickly as the build quality is not convincing.
 
This doesn’t come with a charger and I have multiple chargers with varying current output, so I never bother to record how long it takes to charge for any device that doesn’t come with its own charger. Havit says it should take 2-3 hours to charge. It doesn’t take terribly long in my experience with 2.1 amp and up chargers.  Go watch a couple episodes of your favourite HBO or Showtime series and check back, it will probably be ready for you. The battery life from full to empty that I got was 10 hours 55 minutes, which is significantly better than the 8 hour time it said in the manual.
With regards to the manual, it was in English. This shouldn’t be a surprise! With the Havit I8, I received a Chinese manual with a Chinese pairing buddy speaking in my ear. Whilst the manual is in English, it could use some improvements. Instead of using named buttons throughout (e.g. power, volume up, previous track), they refer to labels on the headphone diagramme in the manual (S1, T1, etc…). This is unintuitive and led to some confusion on my part. This manual is better than the 100% Chinese one I received last time, but improvement is necessary to capture this headphone’s target market.
 
Manual issues aside, I had no trouble pairing this with my Note 2, or my Aukey BT-C1 transmitter (I need to get a better transmitter). Range was a little under 30 feet. I didn’t get 10 meters of range before having complete drop-out, which occurred around 30 feet. I got about the same range from the Havit I8, and this is about the range I got with the Ausdom M05 (it had a little more solid signal). It may be that my transmitters aren’t as strong as an iPhone 6 or Galaxy Note 5. Your meterage may vary.
 
The volume up and volume down buttons have helpful tactile dots and worked well, though the levels of volume adjustment are very limited. I found myself adjusting volume using my computer or a combination of phone and the headphone. The headphone volume controls were not sufficiently sensitive for me. The other buttons were very frustrating to use. The right earcup has all the buttons on the outside, but it is a touch panel. The touch zones aren’t very responsive and I found myself not knowing if I’d successfully hit the buttons due to time lag. I could pause a track, but I couldn’t get it to start back up. Tactile physical buttons would be much easier to use and could be accomplished while maintaining the same single panel smooth exterior by using a softkey underlay with some pivot built in on the top layer.
 
Call quality was good when used with my Note 2 and my partner in testing had no trouble hearing me. The call switched over to the headphone seamlessly.
 
I put these on my wife’s head to find out how they leak or don’t leak sound, and like the Ausdom M05 these leak, a lot. These are not headphones to wear at work. They are okay for around the house, but a bit obtrusive in public.
 

 

Sound

First off I did a test of the frequency extremes to see what I can hear. I tested this by bringing out my headphones with the widest band of frequency response, strangely, the 1.5* rated Geek Verb, which has audible response all the way down at 10hz and all the way up to 23Khz. Yep, still hearing them. I then moved onto the Havit HV-H911BT. The Havit HV-H911BT has audible frequencies (tone not just vibration) from 20hz to 18khz. I tested this using test tones from audiocheck.net with a 48Khz sampling rate.

 

The playlist

• Eagles – Hotel California (DCC gold CD) (for overall sound impression, love the jet pan)
• Fleetwood Mac – Dreams (layering of vocals on chorus, Stevie Nicks has a temperamental voice)
• Katherine Bryan – Flute Concerto Alla Marcia (treble torture test, transient response, timpani impact)
• Massive Attack – Angel (need I say bass)
• Why? – Strawberries (bass and interesting sound effects)
• Camera Obscura – Country Mile (spacious)
• Father John Misty – The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apt. (vocal test, his voice can get a phlegmy sound with the wrong emphasis)
• Schizoid Lloyd – Suicide Penguin (speed and modern loud)

 
For reference, I did this listening test using the iDAC2 with an iPurifier2 and a Supra USB cable. I began the test using Bluetooth through a cheap and cheerful Aukey BT-C1. The Aukey is too cheap. I find that it has a high noise floor that interferes with the music. The tracks were mostly 16/44.1 FLAC, but Katherine Bryan and Father John Misty were in HiDef, 24/192 and 24/88.2, respectively.  As I think a decent DAC is key to listening, I kept the iDAC2, iPurifier2, and Supra USB cable in the chain and listened to these corded with a 3m Audioquest Pipeline 3.5mm extension (purchased for £5 on eBay). The cable that comes with the headphones is flimsy and cheap, which made me reluctant to use it for critical listening. It didn’t feel like I was getting a good physical connection with the stock cable. I didn’t burn in the 3.5mm lead, so maybe it will sound different later. I honestly don’t know. I’ve had sound change from burn in on dynamic drivers and on amp/dac components, but I haven’t heard anything notable in cables yet.
 
For Hotel California, Dreams, and Flute Concerto: II. Alla Marcia I listened using the Aukey BT-C1 in Bluetooth mode. After one time through Flute Concerto: II. Alla Marcia, I switched to corded and relistened to Flute Concerto: II. Alla Marcia. I didn’t go back. I don’t know if better Bluetooth devices would have better results, but it was clear to me that the headphone sounded better with the cord, so I stuck with the cord.
 
On Hotel California, I like to listen to the panning of the jet plane overhead and the shimmer of the cymbals for spacing. The plane is a bit submerged in the other parts and doesn’t stand out as it should. The cymbals are located well, but the soundstage is average size. The bass is slow. The overall sound is a bit muffled.
 
On Dreams, I’m mainly listening for if I can hear layering for all the singers on the refrain vocal ‘thunder only happens when it’s raining.’ The vocal is tightly layered, but most headphones don’t get a lot of separation between the layers. The HE1000 does this beautifully, probably better than any other headphone I’ve listened to, the HD600 does okay, most headphones I’ve listened to do crap. This headphone does a crap job, so it’s average. The individual vocalists can be heard, but barely, and they have no separation in their vocal images. It’s all the vocalists from the same place in space. The other reason I listen to this track is I like sultry vocals and midbass emphasis tends to thicken up these vocals, which I’m not into. Stevie Nicks has a thick sultry voice, I don’t want it thicker. The Havit thickens this up a bit, but not unbearably so. The overall presentation is a bit congested. It needs more detail retrieval.
 
Flute Concerto: II. Alla Marcia will reveal if your headphones have any nasty treble peaks and the song is excellent for showing transient performance. I didn’t detect any particular nastiness on the treble, but one of the highlights of the track: giant timpani strikes that thunder outwards, was a bit muted. The timpani strikes lacked impact in Bluetooth mode, and were only slightly better when in corded mode. The treble is brighter in corded mode, but at this point in listening I’m not getting fatigued by the treble yet. The presentation wasn't as detailed as I like to hear and the transients were a bit slow. When listening through Bluetooth there was some low level hiss. It was very noticeable with the BT-C1 and still present with the Note 2, but it is gone in corded mode.
 
Bass needs to thump on Angel, and these deliver. The snare drum has really good slam with these. There is something going on in the treble that my ears aren’t liking at my customary listening volume. I wish I had tools to measure it. On modern popular tracks like Angel, I had to turn the volume down. I’m now sitting comfortably at about 10:00.
 
Why?’s track, Strawberries has a wide array of sounds: deep real bass guitar and artificial super-deep sub-bass, piano, forward vocals, maracas, glockenspiel, xylophone. There is a lot going on. The Havit does a good job with the higher percussion instruments, but it doesn’t go as deep on the sub-bass as the artificial sub-bass does. So while these have a good quantity of midbass, their sub-bass disappears right at 20hz.
 
The soundstage on Country Mile is a large open empty space with distant walls that make Tracyanne Campbell’s voice echo back in loneliness, which I’m pretty sure was intentional. While not boxed in, the Havit’s presentation isn’t wide or particularly deep. The stage size is average-small.
 
On Father John Misty – The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apt., Josh Tillman’s voice can get a bit thick on many headphones. Though the more I listen to this album on different phones and sources, the more I’m convinced that the album is easy to make sound great on just about anything. The wrong headphones or amp can make Josh Tillman sound a little phlegmy, but that isn’t happening here. The bass guitar is more forward in the mix than usual. The presentation is a little stuffy.
 
Schizoid Lloyd presents loud avant garde psycho metal. I like it a lot. The album is all loud. It only has a dynamic range of 5 according to JRiver Media Center, and it sounds like that. The drums get pretty fast in points and the Havit isn’t quite fast enough. The details smear a bit. The guitar lacks some crunch and isn’t as satisfying as it can be. Details generally aren’t as vivid as they should be.

 

Havit HV-H911BT vs. Ausdom M05

For this comparison I used both headphones in corded mode and used the LH Labs Geek Out V2 as the DAC of choice with the iPurifier2 hooked up (the iPurifier2 mainly tightens bass). Corded mode allowed for quick switching between the two headphones. I listened to TidalHiFi (CD quality streaming).
 
First, the Ausdom is superior in build quality in every way. It has tactile buttons, nicer pleather, nicer rubberised plastic, softer earpads and headband, and generally better fit and finish. I found the Ausdom M05 more comfortable. The Ausdom also has double the battery life and more reliable Bluetooth transmission.
 
Both headphones have warts, and upon more listening to the Ausdom, I need to revise my initial enthusiasm in original review.
 
I listened to the following tracks: Bjork – Black Lake, Eagles – Hotel California (Hell Freezes Over), 9Bach – Llywnog, Rodrigo y Gabriela – Viking Man (Live in Japan), and Kamasi Washington – The Message.
 
In general, the Havit has tighter bass presentation than the Ausdom M05, but isn’t as fast. The vocals on the Havit are a bit recessed and tend towards being a bit coloured. On Llwynog, Lisa Jen Hoyland’s voice has a touch of romance from the added midbass/lower-mid weight, but is cleaner on the M05. On Kamasi Washington – The Message, the Ausdom M05 midbass bleeds into the mids, giving a cloudy presentation with slightly muted guitar. The Havit’s treble is fatiguing on Viking Man and aggressive, whilst the M05 treble is well defined and clear without slamming your eardrum.
 
The Havit isn’t as fast as the Ausdom, losing the pace a bit on Viking Man.
 
The soundstage has more depth and height on the M05, but the two headphones have similar soundstage width; I’d give a slight edge to the M05 on width. In terms of total stage volume, I’d say the soundstage is about twice as large on the M05. The centre image is generally really clean and well delineated on the M05, especially noticeable on Black Lake. In general, the soundstage is much more 3-dimensional on the Ausdom M05, which is one of its chief strengths.

 

Conclusion

Overall, the sound has a midbass emphasis, isn’t terribly detailed, is somewhat slow, and a bit congested in presentation. I found that these caused some treble fatigue.  I found the sound pleasant, but not really my cup-o-tea. For the money, it doesn’t perform badly. I have a little bit of concern with the noise floor in Bluetooth mode, but it may be an artefact of my sources, so your mileage may vary. I’ll be looking into a Bluetooth transmitter I can right home to Mom about. Just kidding, Mom can barely use the internet, Bluetooth would send her into the pits of despair.
 
When compared to the Ausdom M05, the M05 was superior in every way with a couple notable exceptions: the bass was tighter on the Havit HV-H911BT, and a bit of midbass bleed clouded up the M05’s mids on Kamasi Washington – The Message. Both headphones need improvement, but I’d definitely pick the Ausdom M05 as my affordable Bluetooth on/over ear of choice. It has better fit and finish, is more comfortable, has a nice 3-dimensional soundstage and generally sounds better. With a little bit better tuning and slightly more clamping power on the ears, the M05 has the potential to be the top Bluetooth headphone on the market.

Introduction

First, I would like to say thank you for RHA Audio providing the s500i headphones as a review sample. The opinions are my own, and not supported by any review sample related euphoria, even though these were the first review samples I ever received.
 
This is a dual review of the RHA s500i and the RHA ma750.
 

Fit and Finish

As they always do, RHA audio sent a loaded up sexy looking package for the s500i. They even gave me three windows to see into that beautiful cardboard house, two for the headphones, with a tastefully placed divider around the midsection, and one for all the ear jewelry. In all there are 7 pairs of silicone tips: 2 each of small, medium, and large single flange designs, and one set of double flange silicone tips. The tips include a plastic insert that is really useful for keeping your tips from floating about. Also included inside the box were a small mesh pouch and a shirt clip. The insert does not fit in the pouch. It would have been a nice touch. Next time, RHA, next time.
 
I didn’t get the ma750 at retail, I borrowed them from a friend and then worked out a deal to keep them. They were my daily drivers from late November to early January. The ma750 comes with even more tips in a swish metal insert inside a nice rectangle carry case. The ma750 also comes with foamies, which many will like, but I find I only like when I really need to shut out ambient noise. Foamies colour bass sound, in my opinion, and I become too aware of their presence.
 
The cable and in line remote on the s500i have nice quality and texture. I didn’t use the in-line remote as I don’t have an iPhone and generally control my music with my DAP or computer+DAC. The ma750 has a rugged stainless steel capsule that looks bomb proof. It comes with built in ear hooks. I found that the ear hooks were a bit too floppy, making it difficult to wear the headphones with the cable behind the neck. I didn’t notice any problems with microphonics with either cable, but I also didn’t break into a sprint at any point during my review. Most of my time was spent sitting at fake wooden desks typing away at keyboards as I am now.
 
A note on RHA tips: they rock. I found they give a good seal, good isolation, and a balanced presentation. Don’t change your silicone tips for nobody, RHA.
 
 

Comfort

These microdrivers are miniscule. They weigh next to nothing. I found them most comfortable worn down. It is possible to wear them up, but it feels strange. Worn down they settle right into the crook of the ear. I really like the RHA silicone tips.
 

Sound

I have conflicted emotions about how these sound. They make me realize that I may not be a one headphone man—I know, funny for someone in this hobby to say that. I started out on HeadFi as a lurker in 2009, looking for the one set of IEMs that would satisfy my every need for the price that I could pay, I got the HiFiMan RE0 off of |joker|’s recommendation, and I was quite satisfied. I bought a Cowon D2+ off of HeadFi recommendations later that year.  That combination sated me for four years—until I figured out that I can’t wear IEMs for 8 hours a day at work. My ears won’t tolerate it, and that is when I got a set of overears. The KRK KNS8400 on HeadFi recommendations and wrote my first review on HeadFi, a three-way review between the KRK KNS8400, the RE0, and the Shure SR440. The KRK was for one purpose: work. When I bought my third set of headphones, it was the HD600, and they also had one purpose, listening at home. I’ve only ever owned headphones for a single purpose until this year. These headphones are part of a realisation, to paraphrase Marshawn Lynch’s favourite candy, that there is a whole rainbow of aural pleasures to sample out there. It’s time to hear the rainbow.
 
I’ll say it up front, before I got these headphones I had a bit of an infatuation with their older sister, the RHA ma750. She had been my daily driver for two weeks and I was beginning to get comfortable cozied up in her sonic curves. The ma750 is a fat bottomed girl, and they do make the rocking world go round. When coming from the luscious bass with sweet funky tone of the ma750 the s500i sounded thin, distant, cold and metallic. It was shocking. I liked elements of the sound. I’d been listening to analytical headphones with the RE0 before, but I found that I’d become accustomed to the more coloured coiffure of the ma750. I came to the conclusion that these sounded great, but that I wanted to spend my time with a fat-bottomed girl, not the Thin White Duke. This was before Christmas, and I hadn’t listened to any Bowie while I was taking my review notes.
 
I started writing this review yesterday (Jan 18, 2016), and stared down at my notebook of audio insights and saw that in spite of listening to the s500i for nearly 40 hours, I’d stopped taking notes at two pages. I had ten pages on the ma750 from my listen with the Lotoo Paw 5000 review unit. I really hadn’t given these a fair listen. I had reached a conclusion about the ending while the story was still unfurling. I hadn’t listened to Bowie. David Bowie, whose echoing voice in Ziggy Stardust first told me what a good pair of headphones can be when I plugged the RE0 into my Cowon D2+.
 
I played Ziggy’s guitar through the s500i for obvious reasons. Listening to Black Star was a cathartic goodbye from Bowie over the last week. It felt like Bowie was giving his own eulogy at a funeral that all of us were attending. It was a deeply personal and deeply public goodbye. Who but Bowie could turn their own death into an artistic masterpiece?
 
I put on Ziggy, the incarnation of Bowie that I first fell in love with. I took out my pen and notebook, and wrote down what I felt about the RHA sisters, playing them back to back, examining their curves, their sharp cheek bones, their sway under the serious moonlight. I didn’t just listen to Bowie, I said hello to Freddy, too. Roger Waters, Charles Mingus, and Regina Spektor joined the party for a bit.
 
The s500i takes more convincing to show her personality. I don’t think I understood that when I first played her. I didn’t do much adjustment for comparative volume on my first forty hours of listening. The s500i likes to be driven hard. On the DX50, I routinely had the volume 9-10 points higher for the s500i while comparing to the ma750. The s500i really likes it when you crank up the volume. Similar differences were found on the Geek Out V2.
 
I put ‘Space Oddity’ on. The s500i has tight well defined bass, while the ma750 is a bit more funky. The s500i has precision, and razor details. The ma750 has ambience, theatrics, a hint of sugar in the vocals. The s500i sounds more natural with Bowie’s vocals. Both are airy, but the s500i sounds cleaner, a little colder. There is a little bit of a metallic sound to some of the treble, and I suspect it’s partly due to the aluminum capsule (I still can’t bring myself to say aluminium after 4.5 years in England). I find myself preferring the s500i in everything but the treble presentation. Some highs are a bit piercing, and there is a touch of tin in the cymbals.
 
On ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ the drums kick a touch reluctantly and without sufficient conviction with the s500i. Clapping hands sound great, but the tin remains in the cymbals. These s500i like big drums, but can be a bit recessed on more mid-sized drum offerings. The ma750 is fuller and more forward. The details seem to come at you with more force with the ma750. There is an ambient dimensionality, the soundscape sounds full and broad on the ma750. Cymbals have their proper shimmer. The texture of the drums after ‘big big woman...’ is more pronounced and more convincing. Advantage ma750. Mounting up for ‘Bicycle Race’, the ma750 maintains its advantage. It sounds more dynamic and engaging. The musicality and warmth of the ma750 pair well with the music.
 
Switching to female vocals, I summon up Regina Spektor – Fidelity. The s500i wins this round. It has a natural vocal weight with no added thickness. The ma750 colours Regina’s voice making it thicker and more weighty. The sound is clearer on the s500i.
 
On Roger Waters – Late Home Tonight, Part One; the presentation of the street scene versus the sound inside the home and the impact of the bomb is better deployed on the ma750. The s500i has clearer details, a clearer and more forward representation of the fighter jet approach and more natural treble feel on the violins. Slight edge to the s500i.
 
Charles Mingus is my favourite jazz musician. The ma750 did his song, ‘Ecclusiastics’, better. The tone was richer, with more full tone on piano. The horns sound better for the s500i. Both headphones show some recording noise, but the sound is more forward on the ma750.
 
Returning to David Bowie – Moonage Daydream, the contest is a push again. The s500i has a more visceral razor sharp feel to guitars, but doesn’t have as much impact on drums. The drums impact like Tommy Gun rounds for the ma750. There is a touch of sweetness in the vocals of the ma750. Piano sounds clearer and spacing of instruments is more apparent on the s500i.
 
While writing this review I listened to Best of Bowie, and Black Star exclusively with the s500i. I never felt like I needed to switch to the ma750. The s500i has a leaner sound, but it isn’t thin. The leanness leads to some details showing up better. The bass is tighter and more focused than the ma750. In terms I heard about the RE0, it has good bass quality, but unlike the RE0, it has a decent quantity too. The treble presentation, can be a little fatiguing over time.
 

Conclusion

Both of these headphones are fantastic value, and I find that they are like two flavours out of one delicious bag of skittles. After giving myself some time for perspective, and getting to know the s500i outside of the formidable shadow of her big sister, I found myself really appreciating her unique qualities. At £29 the s500 (mic-less version) has no right to sound as good as it does. It is detailed, with tight accurate bass, airy soundstage, and great visceral texture on guitars. Instruments are well spaced and generally well-played. I give the s500i a 4.25--HeadFi, your rating system isn't sensitive enough, either go to 10, or do 1/4 points.
 
The ma750 is a worthy headphone to step up to, but double the cost. It has a fuller bottom end, better cymbals, more impactful drums, and a warmer sound with a touch of sweetness on the vocals. It is less analytical, and doesn’t fatigue. I find the sound a bit more engaging from the ma750. I think that the ma750 will appeal to people who state they are searching for a warm analogue sound. It delivers that in spades. I give the the ma750 a solid 4.25.
 
Buy both headphones, or buy whichever flavour sounds more to your liking. Also, buy Black Star. I think it is Bowie’s best album since Berlin. It borrows some sound from his Berlin years, infuses some soul from the 80s and more modern production techniques. It is a remarkable stylistic synthesis of the career of a remarkable man. It is as fitting a eulogy as anyone could have given.

Acknowledgement

I’m very happy that I was chosen to receive a review sample from @Ausdom Audio. Whilst I didn’t pay for this unit, it doesn’t influence my thoughts on these headphones. These thoughts are mine. I own them.
 

What’s in the tin

I’ve been slow as molasses getting this review out, but trust me, these headphones are as tasty as blackstrap organic. The cookies are worth the wait. If you don’t know how good molasses cookies are, ask some Americans, somebody will set you straight. We’ll get to that in a moment.
 
The packaging for the Ausdom M05 is simple. It doesn’t scream premium, it frankly states functionality, like a pocket protector circa Revenge of the Nerds 3. Nerds rule the world now, a bit of functionality is good, but this headphone deserves a bit better advertisement of how good it is for the money. I little more swagger on the box wouldn’t be a bad thing. Inside the box is a manual in as many languages as on the tin—refreshing after getting a review sample that spoke and wrote in Mandarin—and a plush mesh bag and thin 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable.
 
I was told by Ausdom that they were the OEM for the Meelectronics Matrix 2, it’s a pity they didn’t include the awesome case that comes with the Matrix 2. Sound comparisons of the two will come later.
 
 

Form & Function

I found these very comfortable. I like the rubberised feel of the surface of the headphones, their light, they fit my head nicely, and the pads are very comfortable. The flat folding worked well, with an appropriate tightness to the cup rotation mechanism. These aren’t going to rotate unless you want them to rotate.
 
With the positives on fit, there are some negatives. They leak like a sieve, and they don’t isolate. My office mates sent me an email telling me I was playing my music too loud. I wore these on the 1.5 hour walk to work and then back and could hear all the street noise. If you want to wear these outside wear them somewhere zen—not that you’ll be inclined to meditate with what I listen to. These headphones have “Amused [me] to Death,” (Roger Water's album sounds great on these) but you’ll have little chance of not noticing that car coming turning into you. Roger Waters has been a lovely companion with the MO5.
 
I didn’t have any trouble pairing these with my Dell Vostro, Note 2, Avantree BTTC200X, or Aukey BT-C1. I can’t report the kind of range that others have gotten, but trust their judgments. I got about 20-25 feet maximum and it only comfortably dealt with one wall at a time. Maybe with a better transmitter it will perform how others have reported. I also found that different transmitters affected the sound quality and character, so your source really matters with this.
 
I found the interface easy and intuitive, and the instructions Luddite-proof. If you can hold down a button, you can use these marvels.
My battery life test found that it lasted for about 23 hours, so right around what the manual claims. Good on ya’, Ausdom.
 

 

The really big show: SOUND

I listened to these with many tracks and really enjoyed these. I found the sound lush, 3-dimensional, and a beautiful listen. My first remark when I listened to these was that I was hoping for good Bluetooth headphones, these are good headphones, period. There is no need for a caveat on them being Bluetooth.
 
Most of my listening was done using the Aukey BT-C1 Bluetooth transmitter hooked up to my DX50, but I'd already nailed down the sound in my notes with the Geek Out 1000/Avantree BTTC200X pairing. Most of my notes were written with the Avantree BTTC200X (Saturn) in transmitter mode hooked up with a Monoprice 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable. I found that the Avantree had a fuller sound in spite of not being able to confirm whether it has AptX or not whilst the Aukey BT-C1 was thinner sounding with more treble emphasis (has AptX low latency), but more convenient (it can transmit while charging, and the cable folds into the unit).
 
I listened to a variety of genres from classical to rock to rap and places between on the spectrum. I compared the M05 to the Havit I8, and to its elder twin the Meelectronics Matrix 2. If the Matrix 2 is considered a game changer, consider Matrix’s game over. The Ausdom M05 reset the clock and started it over.
 
I will now take you through the musical journey to fratricide. Before starting the journey I left the M05 overnight cooking with Neapolitan noise—that’s  pink, white, and brown noise—interspersed with digital silence off of Ayre Acoustics – Irrational But Efficacious and Binkster Audio – Test CD.
 
I started my journey listening at work with the Geek Out 1000. The Geek Out 1000 is pretty neutral with a bit of a metallic sheen on some of the treble presentation, it worked well with the M05 and the Avantree BTTC200X. I started out with some 2Pac in 16/44.1 to get me some bass on. Keep Ya Head Up was clean, with good sounding bass that was a little loose. 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted  had nice airiness and separation with the ethereal tones weaved into the track making their heavenly presence known. Backup vocals on the track were a touch forward but pleasant.
 
Shifting to some female vocals I threw on 9Bach to get my daily dose of Welsh. If you didn’t know that you needed a daily dose of Welsh, you haven’t listened to 9Bach. I discovered 9Bach through Bowers & Wilkins’ Society of Sound—worth every penny, go get it.  The Tincian album won BBC 2’s best folk album award—it deserves it. Listening to 9Bach – Lliwiau.  Lisa Jên Brown’s vocals are heavenly with a little bit of added weight from the M05, but never heavy or thick. The sound from the M05 is smooth but still maintains some texture. There is lots of air around the percussion (sticks) and they sound very distinct. On 9Bach – Llwnog (a fantastic test track) the bass is really grooving, the percussion is 3-dimensional with nice clean separated hand drums, triangle, wind chimes, and cabasa. I still note some looseness in the bass.
 
In general, the instrument separation is really good on these. These don’t sound like $50 headphones (amazon.com rough price at time of receipt). The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd sounded as they should, with a tiny bit of thickness on Roger Waters’ vocals. When listening to Father John Misty and Anamanaguchi I notice that the mids are bit forward, which is good because I dig that sound. I threw on Art Brut and reveled in the forward ‘vocals’ of Eddie Argos ‘talking to the kids.’ The vocals were engaging and the drums sounded very natural on My Little Brother. The layering and separation were excellent on Brand New Girlfriend. Maternity Ward had superb 3d imaging.
 
At this point in listening I wanted to see how a different source sounded. I dropped my Note 2 down on the desk and paired the old battered white phablet up to the M05. One of the reasons I got the Note 2 was because I’d heard good things about the Wolfson DAC hanging out inside it here on HeadFi. It doesn’t sound like it has a good DAC through the Bluetooth connection. It was touch muffled sounding and I had my signal drop frequently where it hadn’t with the Avantree BTTC200X.
 
I found that the Aukey BT-C1 gave me similar performance to the Avantree, but with a bit thinner, more fragile sound. Listening with the Aukey BT-C1 gave me a little bit of listener fatigue. I think the BT-C1 has a little bit of treble emphasis, or makes the treble stand out more on the M05. With the Aukey BT-C1, I noticed that there was a touch of static in silent parts, especially at the end of tracks. It sounded like there was a shadow of music playing with a bit of transmission lag. This transmission lag was observable when I watched KUNIKO perform Xenakis – Peaux. Her movements were not even close to in time with the sound I was receiving, even using the low latency Apt X transmitter, the BT-C1.

 

Ausdom M05 vs. other headphones

Here are a couple brief comparisons of the M05 to other headphones:
 
Vs. V-Moda XS The XS is darker with a more closed in presentation. The bass is less focused even though the emphasis is on the low end. The XS can really slap the bass.
 
Vs. Havit I8 The I8 is warm and smooth. Comparitively the bass is turned way down vs. the M05.
 
Vs. MeElectronics Matrix 2 The headphones are far more similar than different, which is expected since they are both made by Ausdom, share the same features, and the same appearance. The Matrix 2 is a bit more forward sounding with a brighter character. The Meelectronics was $40 more at time of listening, and unless you really love the case and would pay $40 for it, you’d be crazy to pick the Matrix 2 over the Ausdom. I found the Ausdom a touch closer to neutral, though it does have a slight v-shape to my ears. Though I like the case that comes with the MeElectronics Matrix 2, I don’t $40 love it. At time of writing, I've heard that the Matrix 2 will be phased out (there was a deal on Massdrop at time of writing). Tyll Herstens put the Matrix 2 on Inner Fidelity's Wall of Fame, and the Ausdom M05 is equal but slightly different to the Matrix 2.

 

Ausdom and mid-bass bleed, EQ

There have been other reviews on Head-Fi for these. I think I’m the last of the selected reviewers to post a review. I’ve read other reviewers and digested comments about the midbass bleed on these. This is what I think. I heard some looseness in the bass, but I didn’t like what I got when I turned down the levels on the midbass to recommended levels, it felt like the soul had been sucked out of the music. It was more dry and clinical, and not really my thing. I advise that people try them stock and try them with the EQ recommended in Brooko’s review. I preferred them stock but appear to be in the minority.
 

Conclusions

For its price, this headphone is stacked with features, good form and function, has a 3-dimensional engaging sound, gets good battery life, can be ran in cabled mode, and has good Bluetooth functionality. I found that the quality of my source mattered quite a bit, and that different transmitters affected the sound signature. If you are in the States and can get the ridiculous bargain price on Amazon, go do it. Buy some as gifts while you’re at it. Bluetooth doesn’t just sound passable with these, it sounds genuinely great and it should be shared. As Love-a-lot Bear says, “Sharing is caring.”

Acknowledgement

Thank you, Gary Zhang of Havit, for providing this review sample. Havit provided an Amazon coupon code that made the headphones free, I just paid for shipping (£3.99). The opinions expressed here are my own and not influenced by this being a review sample.

A box and some characters

The headphones came in a box inside a box that showed the color of the ear-tips, that little blue dot in the corner, and thanked me for my choice. You are very welcome, Havit.
Inside the box were the headphones; “technology from the Uk.”, apparently, with some items I didn’t recognize or expect—why do I need to remove a sim card from an old-school iPhone?—and a tiny flat USB micro cable for charging the headphones. There are also some instructions, entirely in Chinese. I’m not impressed, as I’ve never used a Bluetooth headphone before. How am I supposed to turn this on, how do I pair it? If this technology is from the UK, why are all the instructions in Chinese?
 
 
The box tells me some stuff about the headphones, but it doesn’t tell me how to turn them on or pair them, I’m on my own for that. Here’s what the box tells me:
 

 

Fit and Function

Even before charging these I wanted to fit them and form them to my ears so I’d be ready when the time came to listen. The headphones come with some nifty flexible memory wire that I was able to get a pretty good fit on my ears with. I used the medium size tips that came with the headphones. They were plenty comfortable. The concha of the headphones are quite large and stick out good bit from the ear. Excuse the beaver pelt in the picture. I come from the untamed wilds of Alaska (originally), which necessitates wearing a shoddy bum beard and unkempt hair. It’s my avenue to rugged charm and rustic street cred. I think it’s working.
 

 
 
Being that these headphones advertised being sport & fashion headphones on the package, I decided to put their sportiness to the test. I set a timer going and started jumping around shaking my head a little bit from side to side and doing jumping jacks (star jumps in British English). Maybe these will work for running in a straight line, but they only lasted 18 seconds in my ears in my test. You won't be doing any Jennifer Beals impressions in these headphones. I didn’t get to test how they fared against sweat and rain, but I’m not convinced that I’d use these as sport headphones.
 

 
 
Since the instructions are in Chinese, I didn’t test out the phone answering features of this, but I did manage to figure out how to turn it on, pair it, and turn it off. Volume up and down are fairly straightforward and are clearly marked on the lanyard remote. I kind of figured out how to pause, skip, and reverse tracks. To turn the I8 on, hold the center button. To put them in pairing mode hold that centre button even longer till you get a red and white flashing light, put your transmitter in pairing mode and wait. There is also a Chinese lady that speaks to me when I press buttons the right way—is she rewarding my perseverance? When I turn on the headphones she tells me that I should do some Taichi, I think. Her pairing dialogue has a similar rhythm to ‘ready to pair’ but it’s in Chinese. To advance track, hold the minus button, a bit counterintuitive. Holding plus button takes you back to the beginning of the track. In order to reverse tracks, I first had to pause playback (middle button) and then hold plus, but I didn’t have consistent success, so I must be doing something wrong.
 

 
 
I tested out time from 100% charge to 0%, with my Chinese Jiminy Cricket warning me that I was taking it too far repeatedly as I drove these closer to the precipice of their battery life. When I finally exceeded the limits of the I8 and the cricket lady feinted from the trauma with one last exclamation, 9 hours and 24 minutes had elapsed.
 
The I8 did fine walking around my office, getting about 20 feet of range with minor issues. Volume control was responsive enough. I was able to find a good level with my DX50 attenuating volume. I had no problems pairing with any source.
 

Diving into that I8 sound

Before trying out the sound, I gave these puppies about 16 hours of neopolitan noise burn-in, that’s brown, white, and pink noise off of the Ayre Acoustics – Irrational but Efficacious System Enhancement Disc interspersed with digital silence from Binkster. For my listening tests I used a number of Bluetooth transmitters: my Dell Vostro, my Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Avantree BTTC200X with a Monoprice 3.5mm line-out cable, and the Aukey BT-C1. The last two allow me to use Bluetooth with any source, which is awesome. I found that the quality of your transmitter and the DAC that you use really affected the sound. The laptop and Note 2 sounded like garbage, comparatively. Listening out of the DX50 was definitely the way to roll. I recommend using a good DAC to test Bluetooth. The other advantage of a good DAC is being able to stream HiDef to your Bluetooth device, which I did. I threw DSD, 24/192 and lots of CD quality FLAC at these white ear decorations.
 
I did a lot of listening, and compared a lot of headphones to the I8. Headphones on hand were the SoundMAGIC PL30 (£19), RHA s500i (£29.99), RHA ma750 (£75), HiFiMan RE0 (~£55 many years ago), and the Ausdom M05. I tried different transmitters and settled on the Aukey BT-C1 as the easiest to use and transport with acceptable sound. The computer and Note 2 sounded crappy, and the Avantree was too bulky. I ran the Bluetooth transmitter from the line out on the DX50 and non-Bluetooth headphones out of the headphone out. I tried to keep volumes close, but didn't do formal volume matching. I listened to a wide variety of tracks with some of my standards making the rounds: 2Pac - God Bless the Dead, Rolling Stones - Beggar's Banquet (DSF Album), Schizoid Lloyd - Suicide Penguin, Queen - Jazz (24/96 Vinyl Rip Album), and Roger Waters - Amused to Death (24/96 Vinyl Rip Album).
 

 
 
On first mounting these in my ears with nothing playing there is a bit of static and what sounds like fuzzy pistons alternating between each ear. When music is applied these sound a bit muffled. They are warm. The bass is a bit loose, but my ears quickly accommodate. There is nothing sharp and unpleasant in the sound, there are no overemphasized regions of the frequency spectrum, no awful mid-bass hump bane of my existence, and no saccharine sweetness in the upper vocal ranges. Vocals sound natural, if a bit veiled, and guitars have some satisfying crunch. Overall, they are a pleasant listen and very functional for £15.99.
 
Switching to the SoundMAGIC PL30, the PL30 has a wider soundstage compared to the average soundstage on the I8, and a touch of sweetness in the upper vocal range. The overall signature is richer. That sweetness doesn’t work for every vocal for me, making Mick Jagger sound a little bit off on Dear Doctor and other vintage Rolling Stones tracks. Father John Misty picks up some of that same sweetness with the PL30. I prefer male vocals on the I8.
 
Jumping to the s500i is like having your rocket ship crash on an alien mass. The s500i is cut and muscular like a Fight Club era Brad Pitt. The bass is tighter, the sound has more punch and slam, but there is a bit of a metallic sheen to the top end. The sound is more airy and transparent, but edges more towards a cold hard sound and can sound a touch thin. The sound stage is narrower on the s500i. I like both sounds, but I find the details that emerge in the s500i sound more rewarding.
 
The RHA ma750 is my current favourite IEM. It is vibrant without being fatiguing, it slams hard on drums and grooves on bass guitar. Vocals aren’t sweetened or cold. The sound is full without losing the details of the s500i.
 
The RE0 is like a more balanced version of the s500i with less slam in the signature. I still really dig the RE0.
 
The Ausdom M05 is lively, detailed, and casts a big 3d soundstage with great air and instrument separation, for $50, it is better than the I8 in every way but one. The sound can be a bit fatiguing, as there is a bit of treble emphasis.

Conclusions

I think that these headphones are a good value proposition for someone looking for a pair of Bluetooth headphones for a reasonable price. There is a lot of competition at this price-point, and I don’t have any experience of the competitors’ value propositions. The I8 has a pleasant non-fatiguing sound, but won’t win over detail freaks, or people who go for big tight bass. The packaged instructions were not fit for the UK market, and this is something that needs to be remedied quickly. For walking around the office without your player these are great. Do pair them with a good transmitter, though, as they perform to the level of the DAC that is hooked up to them.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Tony at HiFi Headphones for the opportunity to join in the Lotoo PAW 5000 UK tour. I was loaned the Lotoo PAW 5000 for one week. It wasn’t enough. The opinions here are my own, and are not influenced by the tour status of the player.
 

Inside the goodie box

When I opened up my box of joy inside a DPD bag, I didn’t expect to see such a diminutive player. I can say with confidence, that it isn’t the size of the DAP that matters—unless you need something that will strap perfectly to a MoJo—it’s the emotion of the music, and this little DAP delivers.
 
The box was appropriately sized, with all the components in the right place. They let the Lotoo PAW take center stage, by surrounding it in a sea of black velvetized foam. The box has plenty of information on it, and inside it gives you some good information, too.  Tony at HiFi headphones sent me a link to use instructions before I received the player, but it comes with English instructions in the box. It didn’t come with the latest firmware, and I didn’t update it till right before I shipped it to the next reviewer and tour compadre, Kryten123. The unit arrived with firmware 6.1.0.4, and left with 6.1.0.7. A friend and PAW 5000 owner told me the latest firmware allows exFAT to be used. I didn't get to test it.
 
The box contains a USB3 cable, a holster for jogging, and a strap to hold the holster. I didn’t test out the sporty items, because I’m a few meatballs short of a coronary and don’t like running in the rain. Rain exposure can’t be great for a review unit either, so I’ll leave the sporty test to the next in line. Everything appeared to be of sufficient quality, and fit into a small box inside the main box.
 
 
I present to you a gallery of views. Show us what your working with, PAW 5000.
 

 

Vital Statistics

From the box:
 
 
From my testing:
 
 

Cruisin’ like a racer in Outrun circa 1986

Right after receiving it, I loaded in a fresh Samsung 32GB microSD I had laying around the house and it was instantly recognized. Loading music was a bit slow, which I think is due to FAT32 not keeping up with the USB3.0 slot the PAW 5000 is equipped with. I didn’t get to test out exFAT in the new firmware, but it should be much faster to load music. Once the memory card is loaded up, the player recognizes the library almost instantly. The engine doesn’t need to warm up, it’s pedal to the metal from the word ‘GO!’ Petrol fumes and burning rubber never sounded so good. Recognition with a 200GB Sandisk microSD card that arrived later was also super quick, no road hazards or spinouts here. You’ll be satisfied with how quickly you get to listen to your music.
 
With music loaded onto my card, I moved with trepidation towards interacting with a graphically basic scroll wheel based UI. I was scared, I was petrified…. Luckily this UI has got enough zip to leave no doubt that we’re stayin’ alive. I’ve been spoiled with the simple, intuitive operating system on the DX50 that is my daily DAP. The PAW 5000 is just as easy to use, and a bit faster overall.
 
The scroll wheel on the PAW 5000 is super responsive; going from top to bottom on a long list of music takes way less time than on my DX50 with it’s tiny little scroll bar at the right side of the screen. It goes as fast as you can spin it, and that is pretty fast. The wheel is much more responsive than the Q1PR that I tried out at CanJam London, and I liked the feel better than iPods or the FiiO players I’ve tried, from memory (with all the inherent recall bias there). The center “action” button is responsive, but feels a little loose. A more firm seating would give a bit more confidence. The UI is turbo charged. You are never more than a few clicks or wheel spins away from what you want to access.
 
To my great surprise, I didn’t find myself missing touch screen navigation. I enjoyed pushing the wheel and accelerating through the various options and shifting lanes with the well-appointed buttons. The clicks were satisfying as I lapped through my collection with my retro HUD keeping time and showing the volume spikes in the road. I could almost feel the pixelated California sun, but the sound quality was oh so much better than Outrun.
 
Speaking of those options, there are many hidden in the menus. You can assign a function, like mute, or several other options to a long press of the music key. There are parametric equalizer presets and custom equalizers that you can load from external settings or create your own. There’s what Lotoo call the Acoustic Timbre Enhancement (ATE), which are an either or with equalizer settings. You can easily make playlists (I didn’t try loading playlists in from computers), and remove items from playlists (something I’ve never figured out how to do on my DX50). I didn’t much care for most of the equalizer presets on their own, rock was alright, but I did find a use for them. With the Havit H2555BT, I found that the midbass was overblown and the Techno preset helped the Havit sound better. Your mileage may vary with how much use you get out of the presets. I tend to not use equalizers, but some headphones call for them, and we can’t all go buy better headphones. The ATE settings were all very subtle, with the most noticeable effects from the ‘field’ effects.
 
The UI is not without its limitations:

1. It is completely file based
2. I repeat, no tag based browsing
3. No album art with your tracks and the Covers folder only shows art intermittently and is a bit pointless—who wants to see album art disconnected from the music in a weird low-res screen format?

 
Many folks already use file based navigation, so the lack of tag support may not be a con for you. But if you’ve got inconsistent filenames from downloading from a variety of reputable sources to go with your dubious sources, you’re music library is going to be littered around like an open garbage bag in the back of a pick-up truck barreling down the highway. You won’t like this player if you don’t have good naming on your files or good file structures. One important thing to note: you will need to make sure your files include track numbers before track names, or all you will get is alphabetical ordering when you are playing your albums. File-based systems are a wrinkle, but not really a flaw. Wrinkles give you character, and the PAW 5000 is chock full of character.
 
Below is a video of me playing around in the UI. I hope it helps somebody out there.
 

 

Connectin’ like Lego blocks

The PAW 5000 has tons of connectivity options:

1. An optical out to turn it into a digital transport
2. Bluetooth for wireless fun with your magic pair of wireless headphones
3. A line-out for feeding a headphone amplifier or two channel setup

 
I grabbed all those connector blocks and chucked ‘em together like a kid at Christmas.  I fed the optical out into the Pulse X-Infinity DAC, and tried it on with a bit of mobile joy (you know the right Chord). It connected beautifully. If you are thinking of getting a MoJo, you need a good transport, and this is a perfect size and feature match for the MoJo. The Bluetooth was tested with an Avantree BTTC200X feeding my two channel set-up, the Pendulumic Stance S1, and some Havit H2555BT (the most descriptive name ever given to a headphone) headphones. There was never any trouble pairing. The Havits didn’t quite have it right off, they had some drop-outs, irrespective of range from the PAW 5000. Given that the Havits were the only set that wasn’t with it on pairing, I’ll put it down to the quality of the Havits. They settled down after a couple minutes. All the headphones were stable to about 30 feet.
 
 
The line-out was a bit of a disappointment for me. Plugged into the back of my Cambridge Audio azur 540A using an Audioquest Evergreen 3.5mm to RCA, it sounded feeble and distorted when I turned up the volume. When I plugged it into my Feliks Audio Elise, it wasn’t totally clean. I could hear a noise floor that just isn’t present with my X-Infinity or my Geek Out V2 DACs. I don’t think that the PAW 5000 is putting out enough juice on the line-out for it to work terribly well with my amplifiers. Maybe it would work better with a portable amplifier, but I didn’t have one on hand to test.
 

SOUND! SOUND! SOUND!

I’m only shouting because this is what most of you have been waiting for.
 
I tried the PAW 5000 with the following headphones:

1. V-Moda XS
2. HiFiMan RE0
3. RHA ma750
4. Sennheiser HD600
5. AKG K3003
6. Sennheiser IE800
7. SoundMAGIC PL30
8. Pendulumic Stance S1
9. Havit H2555BT

 
It didn’t matter what headphone I was using, I always used High Gain, and High Damping (the toggles on the side). I only turned the damping down on one song where the treble got a bit much in one week of testing, and switched back after that song was done.
 
The V-Moda XS sounds great out of the PAW 5000, the V-Moda can have a bit too heavy bass emphasis, but the PAW balances it out a bit. Led Zeppelin – In My Time of Dying rocked my brain into some sort of strange fluorescent jelly. Don’t worry, I recovered. The background was pitch black and everything was just grooving and slamming. Father John Misty – I Love You Honeybear had perfect presentation of Josh Tillman’s voice. His voice is easy to get a bit off by thickening up the lower mids (like the DX50 does), but the PAW 5000 nails it. Oh the violins! On Pink Floyd – Time the sound stage was small, but the instrument separation was as it should be.
 
Rocking the RE0 on the next day Cyndi Lauper – She’s So Unusual (Album) sounded a little hollow compared to the sound on the DX50. I took a leisurely listen through Beach House – Bloom (Album) and Victoria Legrand’s voice was precise and incisive. I’ve heard this album sound blurry on other sources, but it was very clean while still maintaining its emotional payload. The soundstage warmly glows expansively on this album. Nice. On Beck – Nicotine and Gravy, the breathy man moans and grunts are super distinct and strangely alluring. Sonic texture like a fine medieval brocade made into a space onesie—so comfortable out here without gravity, get your funk on.
 
The RHA ma750 has a very forward but very textured presentation. I threw 2Pac’s Greatest Hits on, and blessed some dead Gs. Queen – Jazz (album), really made me not want to stop. It was really lively and rich in texture.
 
The Sennheiser IE800 didn’t much like the PAW 5000. On Massive Attack – Angel the headphones sounded good, but the bass just wasn’t powerful enough. On Led Zeppelin – Custard Pie the mids were a touch recessed. When I switched the PAW 5000 into transport mode with the Chord MoJo doing the sonic portraiture, the vocals came out of recession, and the sound was more musical and dynamic. I think the IE800 might need more driving power than the pack of cards sized PAW 5000 deals out.
 
Switching gears, I threw the HD600 at the PAW 5000 and the MoJo, neither drives it well. The PAW 5000 has to be all the way at max in balanced mode, and the MoJo is almost there, but lacks something. The MoJo is magical, but the HD600 can do more than the MoJo says it can do.
 
I also gave a listen with the K3003, but I think I didn’t have well fit tips, so I’ve chosen not to report those impressions.

 

What about other players/DACs?

I compared the PAW 5000 to the DX50 and the Geek Out V2, but only briefly. They are all nice sounding players and a good choice should they fit your needs.
I found the PAW 5000 to have slightly thin bass, and a bit of treble emphasis, which makes it a great pairing for headphones with slamming bass. The soundstage had a bit better air to it than the GO V2 and the DX50. The instrument separation is great, and it has a very clean black background.
 
I found the GO V2 to have more recessed bass on Dire Straits – Money for Nothing than the PAW 5000. The DX50 had more funk on the bass, and more weight on the vocals with it’s characteristic lower mid emphasis, and had more airy treble than the GO V2. It also had more impact. The GO V2 was hooked directly into the computer, it jumps some notches when played through a clean USB (iUSB3.0) with good cables (LH Labs 2G). In comparison, the PAW 5000 had the most controlled bass, and the most air in Mark Knopfler’s vocals. The ethereal electronic sounds are more tight and focused with the PAW 5000.
 
I think which DAC is my favourite is a toss-up. The GO V2 levels up well with cleaner source gear, but I haven’t compared the DX50 with the same upgraded source gear as an external DAC. The PAW 5000 cannot be used as an external DAC, so this is as good as it gets right now.
 
Between the two DAPs (DX50 and PAW 5000), there are some features that I miss from the DX50 when I’m using the PAW 5000. I miss USB OTG, and I miss using the player as an external DAC. I love these features, and honestly think that I want them on all my future DAPs. USB OTG allows me to have tons of portable storage. I can hook up a 128GB USB stick and dramatically expand my DX50’s storage. External DAC function means that I can always have good sound, so long as I have my DAP. It also means being able to introduce people to good sound with their own music.

 

Conclusions

The Lotoo PAW 5000 has a lot of things going for it: it’s tiny, has lots of connectivity, has a snappy full featured UI, and it sounds great. It also has it’s detractors: no tag browsing, not enough amplification for demanding cans, and lack of USB OTG or external DAC functionality. I think the last two cons (USB OTG and external DAC) can be fixed with firmware upgrades, I hope that Lotoo does so.

Like many folks who've had experience with LH Labs, I was sold on the company by their Geek Out line of dongle style DAC/Amps. I own the Geek Out 1000, and have since purchased an Geek Out V2, several of their USB cables, and a desktop amp, the Geek Pulse X-Infinity. I have generally been impressed by their value proposition and the high quality sound that their products produce, if not their communication, lack of marketing tact, and overloaded crowd-design schedule and inevitable delays associated with the process. A search on most any audio forum will turn up lots of complaints, but I am very happy with every piece of LH Labs gear I own, except for the Verb. The Verb is a disaster that is only mitigated by the fact that it only cost me $49 through the Cyber Monday special in the Forever Funding Pulse campaign on IndieGoGo. At $159 it would be daylight robbery.
 
On to the review!
 
In and Outside the Box
The Verb comes in a nice magnetic clasp heavy box with a great finish. This box is retail fools gold. It has some pretty stupid marketing text on the back:
 
"Verb/'verb /: 1. Premium headphones that distinguish your actions, occurrences or state of being. 2. Leading-edge acoustic technology and form factor design. 3. Inspired by the movements of life. 4. Verb isn't just another headphone. 5. Verb is a headphone that inspires your every action. 6. The question isn't what can Verb do for you. 7. But what will you do with Verb."
 
We'll set aside the uninspired, poorly written inappropriate JFK reference. These IEMs aren't repeatedly trying to invade Cuba or assassinate Castro, almost setting off a nuclear holocaust, embroiling us deeper in the Vietnam war, or moving us toward a more equal America or world. The choice to turn a sentence into two fragments is illustrative of these IEMs sound, though--we'll return to that later. Given the braggadocio and overzealous marketing puffery of the box text, I think it only fair that these IEMs be evaluated according to these claims.
 
"Premium headphones..." usually come with more accessories than 3 pairs of eartips (S/M/L cheap generic black silicone). If I'd opened this box having payed $159 for it, my question would be "where's the rest of it?" Where are the double flanges, where is the token pair of medium foamies, where is the shirt clip to protect against microphonics--can I get a 50 cent pouch to carry these in?Everything in the box was nicely encased in foam with felt lining on the top. The foam has a little bit of that diesel smell that cheap Chinese foam has.
 

 
 
Build Quality / Comfort
The metal housing is rigid and feels pretty sturdy. The cable has a nice weight to it and feels good. The strain relief at the phone end is pretty chunky. Bending it away from the drivers makes me wonder how the strain relief will hold up to time as it separates away a little bit, but I don't think the kind of force I'm applying would happen in common usage, so they are probably safe on that one. The metal on the splitter and the plug appears to be a polished aluminum. During the review process, my plug has gotten a scratch on the shiny metal surface. The headphones have a line level control. It feels cheap and plasticky. I don't think it would hold up to being battered inside a bag--soft case, anyone?
 

 
"Leading-edge acoustic technology and form factor design."The fit of these is excellent, if you only want to wear them cord down. They fit very nicely to the contours of my medium sized ear cord down, but the rigid strain relief and nozzle angle make these nonsense for wearing over ear. This is another reason the accessories are unacceptable. I think that any IEM that can only be worn down should include a shirt clip. Personally, I prefer wearing IEMs over ear, and I like cable cinches to stop microphonics. I didn't test these for cable microphonics, as I didn't really feel like jumping about when wearing them or going for a walk. You go for walks with companions you like, I merely tolerate the Verb. I'm not sure if these are really "inspired by the movements of life" as they don't seem to account for said movements.
 
I tend to use medium tips, but the medium tips never seem to get a quite perfect seal without some force on these. The smalls are way too small for my ears, and the larges are way too large. There wasn't a happy medium for me, no Goldilocks tip. I listened to these for quite a bit with the stock tips before I decided to try some other tips I have on hand, with some improvement in sound.
 
Sound!
I hope that this is the reason that people are reading this review. I won't rule out schadenfreude for those who are familiar with LH Labs, but for now I'll assume you want to hear how these sound for the purpose of informing buying decisions rather than to bask in the dull glow of an opponent's failure. Mmmm schadenfreude is delicious.
 
When I first put these IEMs in and turned them on playing out of the Geek Out 1000 DAC/Amp, I was overwhelmed by the muddiness and bass forward sound presentation. It sounded like details were masked in there and just desperately trying to escape the hold of some mud wrestling luchador called El Verbo. So I burned the headphones in using three flavours of noise: pink, white, and brown--the neopolitan ice cream of noise; and accompanied that with full frequency glide tones from the Ayre Acoustics - Irrational but Efficacious CD, interspersed with digital silence from the Bink Audio Test CD. Noise and glide tones are hard work for speaker diaphragms, you need to give them rest in between exercises. With each successive 8 hour session of burn-in the sound cleared up a bit, but didn't change after about 32 hours, El Verbo was still hanging out, but decided to get in the ring instead of wrestling in the pit.
 
I listened to a variety of music with them, but where they really fell down was in passages with complex mids. When listening to Anamanaguchi - Prom Night the female vocals were strangled by the bass, it just bloomed out and swallowed everything like Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors, but without any great tongue in cheek song renditions. I was not pleased, and complained about them on LH Labs' forums. How did they find some shill "audiophile" reviewers to like these things?
 
I did some tests of frequency response, and these guys can reproduce tones to 10hz with authority, which I guess is a plus. These aren't v-shaped, or neutral, they are an L-shaped curve like a curve that has fallen over after one too many pints. These are bass forward with progressively receding other frequencies until the treble just fades away into obscurity. It isn't an audiophile sound, it's Beats by LH Labs.
 
I put these buds away for several months. I was despondent. These didn't sound like "premium headphones" and they didn't do anything to "distinguish" my actions because I didn't want to wear them while doing anything distinguished. It's hard to affect something if you aren't involved. They also made me worried for this young company I was supporting, LH Labs. If this was most people's introduction to LH Labs, they wouldn't be inclined to buy the Geek Out DAC/Amps or any other quality LH Labs gear.
 
After several months of them sitting exposed and unused on a changing desk and several gear upgrades I decided to give these another shot. Here's a flow of how the music got to the Verbs:
 
Computer ==> Supra USB Cable ==> iUSB3.0 ==> LH Labs Lightspeed 2G USB (split power and data) ==> Lindy adapter ==> Geek Out V2 on 100mW ==> Geek Verb IEM
 
I tested the Verbs with a number tracks, the list is below (all 16/44.1):
 
2Pac - Keep Ya Head Up (starting them off if their comfort zone)
Massive Attack - Angel
Metermaids - Break Down (get it from their Bandcamp for whatever you want to pay)
Anamanaguchi - Endless Fantasy
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lodi
Dragonforce - Heroes of Our Time
Eagles - Hotel California (DCC Gold CD, Steve Hoffman remaster)
 
At that point in the playlist I started trying other tips.
 
Through the first 4 tracks, the Verbs sounded really good. They were still bass forward but they were handling the tracks that I was throwing at them with aplomb. My remark in my notes was that the iUSB3.0 must be like audio steroids. The sound was much cleaner and I found myself enjoying the listen. It made me wonder whether Casey Hartwell at LH Labs had been listening to these playing out of the Geek Pulse XFi with a LH Labs LPS hooked up instead of a more typical portable setup.
 
Over the next three tracks, the headphones started to be exposed more. Lodi sounded thick and not as clear as I'm used to it sounding through speakers or through my HD600 headphones on the same set-up. Dragonforce exposed the drums and speed capabilities of the IEMs. They sounded loose and the drums were lacking impact and their decay was cut short. The treble was noticeably recessed. The sound stage was lacking depth (which is something that every LH Labs built DAC is good at showcasing). Guitars were a bit veiled. I think these tend to have trouble with highly complex and layered passages. I missed the ambience that usually accompanies the kind of ethereal backing choruses. When I put in Hotel California, the shimmer was gone in the intro. The panning aerial sound effects were pushed to the background till they were nearly out of the picture. Drum impact continued to be a problem.
 
At that point in the playlist I started suspecting that the tips might be some of the problem and tried out my fake Sony Hybrids and the white tips that came with my SoundMAGIC PL30.
 
When I put the PL30 tips in the treble slightly improved and the mids came forward a bit. The soundstage width also improved. Switching to the fake Sony Hybrids further improved the sound, they got more airy and the treble improved. The mids were still a bit recessed. The bass is still way forward. These IEMs are more tip dependent than my HiFiMan RE0, and the SoundMAGIC PL30. I decided to continue with the fake hybrids, and to start comparing them to some more headphones to avoid too much brain burn-in.
 
Some more tracks with quick impressions:
 
Billy Joel - Keeping the Faith (DSD64)
Drums really thin. Billy Joel's voice sounds great on these. Bass too forward. HD600 only headphone that I have that captures the soundstage. RE0 sounds best of IEMs. PL30 rich and bassy, but not detailed enough.
 
Neil Young - Out on the Weekend (24/192 Pono remaster)
Neil's voice sounds a bit thick, the treble is recessed. The stage echo comes across well. I really have to re-evaluate this bass, it isn't forward, it is the entire front of the stage. No matter what track you listen to the bass is in front of the vocalist, which isn't appropriate, not even in hip-hop.
 
Electric Light Orchestra - Sweet Talkin' Woman (24/96 vinyl rip, sounds much better than remastered CDs)
Thick sounding. Bit of upper bass bloom. Bass a bit more controlled in this track.
 
Fleetwood Mac - Dreams (Original West German Target CD pressing, massive dynamic range)
Little mmm-mmm at start of track almost completely forced out of the picture. Dynamic range compressed. This sounds terrible. The drums are really thin and unrealistic sounding, like a badly done drum machine. This isn't realistic sounding and is very coloured. When I switched to the PL30 the mids were better, but it thickens up Stevie Nicks' voice too much.
 
John Butt - JS Bach Well Tempered Klavier Prelude #21 in B Flat Major (24/192)
I put this track in to test a theory: the 4mm driver size on the headphones is insufficient to handle wide dynamic range and tuned to emphasize bass. By going for an all treble track, I could see how the Verb did without the distraction of bass. It did a good job. The track sounds natural with good weight on the notes. Because there isn't anything to move the priority of the treble down it doesn't sound recessed. I think the driver is the problem. The PL30 was more detailed.
 
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven (1980s Sidore West German Target CD)
The intro is fine and the flute sounds good, but when that bass shows up it swallows all the other guitars. It's a massacre.
 
Schizoid Lloyd - Suicide Penguin (16/44, highly compressed but good sounding track)
This sounds pretty good on the Verb. This is also a very loudness war kind of track. I'm detecting a pattern here.
 
Queen - Bicycle Race (24/96 Vinyl Rip)
Freddy's voice is too thick. Bass is swamping the front of the stage. Track sounds muddy and veiled. PL30 better, with more balanced and natural presentation.
 
Osamu Kitajima - Benzaiten (24/96 Vinyl Rip)
This is the only track that the bass wasn't in front of the vocalist, but that is only because the bass is so deep in the mix (confirmed with HD600). The soundstage was really compressed and the whole presentation lacked texture with the verb.
 
Overall Verdict
Do not buy these headphones. I decided out of honour to not try to sell them and not to give them as a 'gift'.
 
I think the problems are as follows:

1. The tuning is dramatically unbalanced and doesn't fit any audiophile tuning profile, which is who these were supposed to be for.
2. The 4mm driver is not physically capable of pushing all frequencies at once without some of them suffering. On bassy tracks it was fine, and an exclusively treble track was also fine.
3. It doesn't like music with high dynamic range. It crushes the music like a can of Budweiser. Good music isn't analogous to Budweiser, it's more of a craft beer kind of thing. The Verb performed decently on modern highly compressed tracks. I have a feeling this is primarily what the folks at LH Labs listen to. No accounting for taste, I guess.
4. Treble is grossly recessed most of the time
5. Sound is highly dependent on fit and source. These needed a really good source to sound decent.
6. There is simply not enough in the box for the MSRP of $159. Most competitors offer far more at lower price points and are also produced in China.

 
I found that the PL30 was consistently better than the Verb. I imagine that SoundMAGIC's current offerings would also beat the Verb.
 
These headphones aren't a Bay of Pigs type fiasco, but they aren't good either.

I bought these headphones because I thought that closed cans were getting a bit fatiguing (pressure on the ear-drum from closed environment), because I wanted a can that could adapt to a balanced cable well, and because I wanted a neutral sound signature. I got all of those things.
 
These are great all around performers and one of the best bargains that you can get in Head-Fi if you are willing to buy them used. I live in the UK and searched around for these in the UK and Germany used (always good to look at prices in several countries). I ended up picking these up for £135 off of a seller in Germany. I saw others go for more, and later others go for less, but I still feel they are one the most spectacular non-free bargains I have gotten in Head-Fi.
 
The pair that I got has older drivers in it, and newer ones are reported to sound better--they have different materials in their voice-coils. Mine had worn down pads that made the bass sound muffled and limpid. It was like someone had strangled a snake and bathed it in chip oil. It was terrible sounding bass. Luckily, that was easy to fix, as soon as I got my replacement ear-pads they sounded like a completely different headphone. The veil was lifted, the bass was released from it's greasy dungeon, and the headphone became much more enjoyable. It still lacks on the bass, though.
 
I listen to all kinds of music, from Miles Davis to Megadeth with stop-overs in weird Indie land, twee town, and the punk pits. These play what I like very well. I compared these to the stock HD800, and found that I thought the HD800 bass sounded loose and unsatisfying. The HD800 does space and bright lights well, like the Hubble telescope pointed to far away galaxies, but it's bass image was like if you turned that Hubble telescope at earth and didn't adjust the focus enough. I don't feel that way with the HD600, yay for my wallet!
 
In the not too distant past, I finally got to try these beauties with a balanced cable, thanks, @pedalhead. I hooked up some Cable Pro Panorama balanced cables, plugged them into the balanced headphone out on a LH Labs Pulse Infinity + LPS stack and pressed play. The sound stage expanded dramatically, note impact and fullness shot up, and I found these inexpensive used purported to be mid-fi headphones performing on par with MrSpeakers Ether playing out of a single ended amp. I didn't do a direct head-to-head with both having balanced cables, and both playing out of the same amp (the MrSpeakers Ether was playing out of a special Cary Xciter Moon Audio upgraded valve amp), but damn those HD600s scale beautifully. At the Cambridge Head-Fi meet in April I had a similarly surprising experience with the Icon Audio HP8 MkII valve amp (there is one in a used shop down the street from me, very tempted). The soundstage exploded at me like a pile of black cat fireworks on the 4th of July with insufficient length faulty fuses. Luckily, no one was injured.
 
I think everyone should own the HD600. If nothing else, it is a way to keep more expensive headphones honest. I know that I won't be buying a MrSpeakers Ether after hearing the HD600 with a middle of the road balanced cable, the MrSpeakers just isn't worth $1200 dollars more to me. I've also had the privilege of hearing this with the iFi iCan, and can say that the bass boost on the iCan made it sound like the headphone I've been wanting. The iCan and Micro iDSD are stellar choices, by the way, and drive the HD600 beautifully. One big advantage of the HD600 is it's neutral signature. If I listen with these, I know that any colour I'm hearing is from the source or the amp, so they are very good headphones for critical listening.
 
There is one caveat I should apply: my HD600s have been modded. I removed the neutral acoustic foam and replaced it with what is referred to as tights in Britain (panty hose in the USA). This mod opened up the soundstage a little and made the HD600 a little brighter and crisper. Not everyone prefers it this way, and when listening to my suddenly bright Feliks Audio Elise tube amp (it's the C3G tubes) it can be a little fatiguing. The HD600s have a similar signature either way, so I'd advise people to try both ways. You can put the foam back in and tights cost next to nothing. I'm curious to try with a bit thicker acoustically neutral material to tame some of the overbright pairings. Speaking of pairings, for 300 ohm headphones, these are actually pretty easy to drive. They are listenable out of my Dell Vostro's headphone jack, and my DX50 sounds good with them. More power is better, especially for bass performance, but is not required for an enjoyable listen.
 
If you don't have these headphones. You should remedy that, unless you are a basshead. End of review.

I'll start off with an intro to me. I'm a 33 year old long time audio enthusiast that has only really started to get seriously involved in the audiophilia hobby in the last year. In that time I've picked up almost my entire collection of audio gear (more on that below). My music tastes are very broad, but don't include much main stream country music, EDM, or mainstream tween pop. It would not be an unusual listening session to for me to have Frank Sinatra in the morning, Amon Amarth at noon, with some Pink Floyd, Aesop Rock, Beck, Charles Mingus, and an awesome and obscure Japanese band called Boy's Age to round out the day.
 
My home rig consists of the following:
LH Labs Geek Out V2
Feliks Audio Elise Valve Amp w/ C3G driver and C13s power tubes
HD600 headphones
LH Labs Lightspeed 2 Split power and data USB cable
...and various interconnects and a shielded power cable for the Elise
 
I did not buy this iUSB3.0. I was lucky enough to win one through an iFi giveaway here on HeadFi, and iFi was gracious enough to get it to me very quickly so I could test it out with a top-tier DAC or two that I do not own. I was only able to get it hooked into the Schiit Yggdrasil, but I'll be getting my own high end DAC soon.
 
When I got this, my mother-in-law was here, there were presents for the new baby brought from across the ocean strewn all over and no space to take any sexy pictures of the packaging and contents. For those kind of pictures go to the iFi iUSB3.0 thread. I do have some pictures from a little meet-up where the iFi upped the game of the Schiit Yggdrasil. That's it in the picture below hiding behind the computer whilst feeding the Schiit Yggdrasil/Ragnarok stack some delicious tunes.
 

 
You can also hook multiple DACs up at the same time for quick A/B testing of the DACs and headphones. Below I've got it hooked up to the LH Labs Geek Out V2 and Geek Out 1000. The observance of another mini-meet goer was that it made the sound more refined. I agree, but there is more.
 

 
When I received the iFi iUSB3.0, I immediately tested it out with my favourite test track:
 
Katherine Bryan - Flute Concerto Alla Marcia
 
The track has a lot of stage depth and width, extreme differences in pitch, big tympani strikes, and incredibly fast well-defined flute notes that are a perfect torture test for seeing if you've got a treble emphasized piece of equipment.  Switching between the Geek Out V2 plugged into the computer using the Lightspeed 2 USB cable and fed through the iUSB3.0 via the included usb 3.0 cable with the Lightspeed 2 USB feeding the DAC, the difference was immediately apparent. The iUSB3.0 adds significant soundstage depth on my Sennheiser HD600 headphones, and a little bit of extra width. Drum strikes were noticeably more rounded and defined, the instruments were suspended in the aether with precise locations. When I switched to one of my favourite acoustic tracks, Tony Furtado - Angeline the Baker, the guitar plucks picked up a much more natural decay, bringing the feeling closer to live music.
 
I've listened to a lot of music through this now, and got the opportunity to do the same test tracks on the Schiit Yggdrasil to similar effect as the Geek Out V2. The Yggdrasil is incredibly resolving, and I was listening out of a HE-1000, which is also incredibly resolving, but it gave a little bit more depth and a nicer impact on drums and nice pluck on guitars compared to Yggdrasil without it. This iUSB3.0 is magic. I can't say I completely understand how it is working, but it is most definitely working.
 
Some additional music I've listened to: basically all of the Queen and Pink Floyd albums, loads of Led Zeppelin, Father John Misty, Black Sabbath, Massive Attack, Miles Davis, Fleetwood Mac, Boy's Age (very weird and very good), and some metal from my favourite metal band, Unleash the Archers.
 
I've used it to charge a couple of devices, my Note 2 and my DX50. It does what it says on the tin.
 
The main negative I've had is that when the music isn't flowing and I take my headphones off in a silent room, if I'm within 5 feet of the iPower, I can hear a high pitched sound. It is similar to the sound of my Samsung Note 2 charger whilst charging, probably up around 18 to 20k in pitch (I can hear 22k). Also, when I had this hooked in and a neighbouring USB slot was being used to transfer data to an external hard drive it made it sound like my system was broken--garbled interference crap all over the place. This was with the bog standard USB 3.0 cable that came with the iUSB3.0. I haven't tested it with my spare Supra USB cable as the interconnect between the computer and the iUSB3.0. Maybe a better made USB cable will make a difference, maybe not. I also found that I usually had to restart JRiver in between tests with and without the iUSB3.0. JRiver treats your DAC like it is a new DAC being plugged in when running through the iUSB3.0 for some reason I don't comprehend.
 
Overall, I'm very impressed with this little wonder. It boosted DAC function on DACs ranging between $300 and $3000 in price. I'm very happy to have it in my system and stopped doing comparisons pretty quick--the difference was that noticeable. I can't wait to show it off to more folks and try it out with my next DAC to arrive, the LH Labs Pulse XFi. I'd love to compare it to the Uptone Regen, but that will have to wait a bit.
 
Update 14/01/2016
The lovely folks at iFi contacted me to see how I was getting on with the iFi Micro iUSB3.0 and I told them I love it and I've only had the one issue. They took care of the issue immediately. They sent me a replacement iPower and now my primary complaint is gone. I use this with my Pulse X-Infinity (I got an upgrade) in my main system and the system is lovely. The pulse has a lovely stage and this only makes it better. I'm a big fan. Thanks iFi for your great customer service and great products! I hope every launch is a huge success! I wish I could have an iUSB3.0 on every system I have. Maybe I should get the iPurifier2 and see how that goes. 

About me and my setup (including this Elise):

I've been lurking on Head-Fi since 2009, but only officially joined in 2012. Since 2012 I've made the transition from redbook only to being a big fan of high definition music, including DSD. My collection of audio gear has exploded in the last year from being a Cowon D2+, a pair of HiFiMan RE0 IEMs, and some KRK KNS8400s to everything that is now in my profile, and it is glorious!

Headphones: Primary: HD600 (tights mod) with HD650 cable, also have run HD800, HiFiMan HE-500 and HiFiMan HE-6
Integrated Amp: Cambridge Audio azur 540A
DAC: LH Labs Pulse X-Infinity
Interconnects: Atlas Integra to Elise from Pulse X-Infinity, Van Den Hull MKII to azur 540A
Power Cable: Mains Cable's R Us Screened 1.5m power lead
USB: LH Labs Lightspeed 2 1m to iUSB3.0, LH Labs Lightspeed 2 USB 2m from iUSB3.0 to LH Labs Pulse X-Infinity
Speakers: some nearly 30 year old Mordaunt-Short bookshelf speakers won off of fleabay for £20 (pretty good for the price)
Speaker wire: generic multistrand OFC copper.

Most of my components serve to lower the noise floor, especially the USBs and the power cable. Differences were detectable by the non-audiophile spouse.

I won this Elise in the Cambridge UK Head-Fi meet and have used it with the stock tubes for about four months, but I'd only been using it as a preamplifier until today, when I got my adapters for my Lorenz C3G tubes.

Impressions

This amp has been brilliant the whole time I've owned it as a pre-amp. It improved the noise floor and imaging of the azur 540A and they have worked together nicely. However, when I listened to the Elise out of the headphone amp using the stock tubes, it lacked top level bass and treble extension, and was a bit too warm for my liking. I did a quick back and forth between the Elise and my Geek Out 1000 (I didn't have the V2 yet) for about an hour of listening and preferred the crispness and tight sound of the Geek Out 1000 to the Elise. This led to my head-amp function of the Elise going unused for four months.

I've been looking forward to trying the C3G as a driver tube for the Elise for about a month, and today my wait ended when an adapter made by an early adopter of the Elise arrived. Boy, what a difference the tubes make! These suckers have tightened the bass, cranked up drum and bass impact, and extended the highs while increasing soundstage depth and width. The headphone out may be a little bright now (satisfyingly detailed but a bit fatiguing), so I may look for a warmer/richer set of power tubes to run this. Today I've enjoyed the heck out of Pink Floyd - The Wall, Lou Reed - Transformer, and now Crosby, Stills and Nash - Deja Vu. I'll be listening some more and sharing this tube setup at the next meet that I can bring it to.

I highly recommend checking out the Elise threads:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/732875/feliks-audio-elise-previously-6sn7-6as7g-6080-prototype
http://www.head-fi.org/t/782754/feliks-audio-elise-new-thread
http://www.head-fi.org/t/765460/feliks-audio-elise-tube-rolling-guide-6sn7-6as7g-6080-5998

There are also many other references for tube rolling, and the Elise is compatible with a wide range of tubes, many of them inexpensive for your rolling and wallet pleasure. I've got 6n23p, 6n1p and C3G tubes with adapters. I haven't tried rolling the power tubes yet, but it may be next for me. There is a really nice community around this amp and the folks at Feliks are a family operation with great customer service, I had some enquiries and they were very helpful.

Happy listening!

Blasting the HE-6

This weekend we had a mini-meet and brought one of the most hard to drive headphones out there, the HE-6, the volume rarely had to go past noon and it sounded amazing. The HE-6 sounded best out of another amp that was present, the First Watt F6 power amplifier running speaker taps, which had a little bit better bass but the Elise did an impressive job running the vaunted HE-6 (they are my favourite headphones by sound quality). I have a feeling that with upgraded power tubes that the Elise can approach that level, and the Firstwatt F6 is worth £3000. The Elise punches way above it's weight class when given the right tubes. The C3G upgrade with hypnos1 custom adapters took this to another level, but I wonder how far it can go with further upgrades. This is an extremely good value piece of kit.

This weekend it had the LH Labs Pulse X-Infinity acting as a pre-amp, and I think that ups the performance even further. All I know is it sounded glorious.