Black Lacquer finish

Introduction
I have been a fan of TWS for some time now. This may surprise some of you. TWS has some limitations, theoretically at least. The bitter irony of having complete freedom from wires.....ahhh, lovely! Yet the restriction of not being able to enjoy the leaps and bounds that have been made in choosing from a plethora of near lossless bluetooth codecs. You see, bud 1 has to feed bud 2 with the info it needs. This is done using wires usually. No wires mean compromises have to take place. There isn't much space left inside the shell of a truly wireless earbud. They have a small form factor as they have to be shaped far more ergonomically than a normal iem. There are no cables or around the ear fittings to help keep them in your ears. The cramped conditions mean that normally only the lossier bluetooth codecs are supported. That is beginning to change now. But up til now, you could almost say with certainty, t'ain't gonna be up to a wired earphone.



Pandora's box opened

Why TWS?
TWS has some qualities that leave their wired counterparts lagging quite a way behind on. No cables means no microphonics, the thumping effect you can get from your cables hitting your body and those vibrations travelling up the cable to your drivers. No cables to store sweat in when they are trapped between your t shirt and your torso in an effort to stop cable movement. No cables pulling on your ears and trying to get the IEMs to come out. A discrete fit. Comfort. Elegance.

The Galaxy Buds Pro are a partnership between Samsung and AKG. Well, of course, AKG is owned by Samsung, so all the audio stuff is having a little extra kudos these days. AKG made the first ever headphones. Did you know that? They also were the makers of the iconic K1000 Earspeaker, and the first hybrid IEMs - the K3003. I have owned both of these and they are both incredible.



Showing the improved tips and sculpted shape

The Buds Pro will retail at £179. They are being given away with some Samsung phones, which has put a large number of potential bargains onto the secondhand market. I picked my pair up for £50 on Facebook Marketplace. There was nothing wrong with it, I was able to demo it before I parted with any cash, so if you are tempted to go that way, I would suggest that you don't spend any more than my purchase price, and you'll have a steal on your hands.

The Buds Pro is Samsung's in house competition with Apple's Airpod. As such, they have gone to great lengths to make a good product. The Pro is the flagship of the Galaxy range. I have not tried any of the others. I have not tried the AirPod; for one, the design does not appeal to me.



The cat is in the cradle

Build quality
Connectivity and comfort are the 2 must haves for a successful earphone. Good sound is achieved by a reliable wireless signal and a great fit. The Pros have both. The fit is not as flush as the Sennheiser Momentum but the Pros don't stick out from the ear so much. Therefore they feel a little looser than the Sennheiser but don't suffer from quite so much wind noise. A desirable feature of an earphone is to be supplied with some tips that give a half decent fit and sound quality. Alas, the Galaxy falls down here. The tips are wide bore, and in my ears they sounded shrill and boomy, and none of the sizes locked them properly into place. I changed them for some HiFiMan double flange silicon tips with a smaller bore and was much more satisfied with the results.


There are a variety of settings available on the Wearables App, which is needed to setup the Pros and which can be downloaded for free on the Google Play or iOS stores. You can tune your Buds to your sound preferences by undertaking a series of tests. You can listen in 360 audio, soap to get a Dolby Atmos effect to your gaming or movie experience. There is a variable ambient sound setting. This provides the nicest sound quality on the go, at least to my ears. The other advantage of ambient is that the Buds listen out for loud noises, particularly speech which is directed at you. When this happens you can choose to have the music quiet or paused. The music starts up again after 5 seconds, once it senses there is nothing happening. With the ambient on, the World is no longer seeming so far away. You can hear some street noise that you wouldn't with a normal IEM. If you find this all too strange and you want to retreat further into your own World, don't worry; there's also ANC included. The gesture controls typical of a TWS are all there; play/pause/next/previous track/voice control/taking/ending calls. With the ambient setting, the mics are opened up in such a way that you can hear own voice clearly, so there is no need to take the buds out and risk losing them outside of the charging box. If you do lose them, you can retrieve them using the wearables app. They'll emit a beep until you pick them up and put them back in the box.



A fairly large nozzle but the stock wide bore tips had to go

You can have a play with all the features to your heart's content when you get them; the question is, for us, are they worth having? Well, in a word, yes. The sound quality is good. The tips need to be changed, as we spoke about before. Once that's done, you get a pleasant warm sound that's fairly easy on the ears, and the ambient setting stretches the sound stage out. Although the Buds fit in the ear unobtrusively, I have had to switch off the ambient setting in even moderately windy conditions. This is because the mics which listen out for the things you might be interested in are very sensitive and pick up wind noise in a most peculiar way. The sound of the wind is like a whistle not being blown properly. This is a feature of all the TWS which can do this; in fact, the Momentum Buds were worse.

The verdict
As a straight match up between the Momentum, I felt the Buds Pro won when it came to features. The Bud Pros have a maximum 12 hour battery life when combining them with the charging cradle. The Momentum manages 28. The fit of the Momentum was a lot better and the sound quality of the Sennheiser had a higher level of clarity to it, with a slightly reduced bass performance. The The cosmetics of both were pleasing, although the Sennheiser had a snazzier finish and a better looking charger. In all honesty I could easily be happy with either set, and am looking forward to many more hours pounding the streets with them.



A lot of mic for your money - esp. if you go used

I am relieved to tell you that Galaxy Buds Pro is not an afterthought from Samsung. It's a good piece of kit and has some well thought out features without overly compromising on sound quality.

Lotoo Two - S2 - the ultra portable Dac/Amp from the makers of the Paw Gold


On my travels through the World of portable HiFi it was inevitable that I'd come across one of the range of pen sized top loaders out there. I have previously owned the Dragonfly Cobalt from Audioquest. You know, the one they rave about? The flagship of the Dragonfly range. It seems to me that before the Dragonfly there wasn't much call for these humble looking devices. Since the black, red and blue came out - boom! Tons of them. I sold my Cobalt. Ultimately I never really used it. It didn't have the sound quality of the Chord Mojo, wasn't as powerful and didn't have anything particularly special about it. I haven't had much interest in the ultra portables since the Cobalt, because I felt that if that is the model that all the other companies intended to follow then it wouldn't hold any interest to me. I am pleased to say that the S2 , from Lotoo, kindly provided by Lotoo, has bucked the trend and changed my opinion on these little sticks.


It wasn't too long ago that I finally put some time into a review of the Paw 6000 DAP. If you've read that and watched the vid, you'll know that although I liked it, I wasn't sold on it being the thing to buy from a huge range of similar priced things out there. That being said, it WAS nice; a revisit may be necessary in the future once I have spent real time with the EQ presets that are in abundance. I understand the difference between a review and a life spent with a portable audio product. A little more time and we may have a match for the Colorfly U8 - I still have my DOUBTS on that, but one must keep an open mind! The rather less luxurious S2 from Lotoo is a different proposition. It's place in the market is seriously below that where the 6000 sits - I expect it will retail at or near £200 in the UK - and my thoughts are - money well spent.


The S2 from Lotoo isn't quite as pretty as the Cobalt. But at least it doesn't look like a USB stick. It feels better put together and has more features. It can work as a remote control. It has a ton of EQ presets. It takes USBC. It handles 4.4 balanced as well as 3.5 unbalanced. Therefore, it has a lot more going for it.


My tools of the trade were used, as usual, to bring you a reasonable insight into what the S2 sounds like. I have grabbed 2 samples - 1 - directly out of the 3.5mm jack of my Samsung A52 5G smartphone - 2 - the 3.5mm jack of the Lotoo S2. The headphone I used is a full sized Planar Magnetic - the HiFiMan Deva Pro, of course, in wired mode. I volume matched both tracks and have included 90 seconds or so of each track. Take a listen, but use headphones or earphones , these are binaural recordings and will sound strange through external speakers. I have tried to recreate as accurately as possible what the sound was like when I had the headphones on. The samples may need to be listened to several times before you can say with any certainty what the differences are. It's not you - the mind has a lot of things going on at the same time, it is difficult to focus in just one direction, even for that short space of time needed. If you persevere, you'll hear what is going on, don't worry. Here's the review and the samples are midway through


Isn't he a happy chappy?

I have 2 Dac/Amps that I mention in this YouTube - the Cobalt and the Chord Mojo. I really thought nothing could make me relinquish my cherished Mojo. It took a long time before the Dac/Amp went on it's way to the next owner. The battery stopped working on the Mojo, and it cost me near £200 to get it fixed out of warranty. The S2 needs no battery. It uses your phone battery or the laptop's/PC's power to run it. And, from memory, the S2 is not too far away from the SQ of the Mojo. It beats the SQ of the Cobalt, which I felt was overrated. I found the signature of the Cobalt too be pitched too high. It had a ringing quality in the upper mids and higher frequencies that was tiring and disappointing, especially given that there are no EQ's available on it.


That's about all I wish to have my latest ramble about. I have everything else you need to know contained on the video above. The one thing I will add is a brief look at the presets and how they affect the sound signature. Again, that will be utilising real sound samples taken from using the S2. For that, keep subscribed on my YouTube channel. Until then, if you are looking for a little something that doesn't break the bank and you're not sold on digital audio players, keep these ultra portables in mind. They might just be on to something.

Lotoo's 6000 - A PAWs for thought



With thanks to....
I would like to take this opportunity to thank both Lotoo and my intrepid friend Mark for providing me with this here sample review item as is known as the Lotoo Paw 6000 Digital Audio Player. All the usual caveats apply, whatever they may be.

Introduction
About me
My name is Trev. I review stuff. I have no means of scientific analysis - you won't see me walking around in a lab coat in my videos. I do have some kit that I use to try and evidence what I am saying about audio gear, we can go into that later, try not to worry too much about that at this stage. I get sent stuff in return for a review- none of my suppliers would ever dream of interfering with what I say or what I write. We both have far too much integrity for that. I don't tend to flower things up with a bunch of made up audio terms. I write in plain English and I am here to entertain, not to lecture. Your opinion is as worthy as mine, especially as some of you will have had many months of living with gear as your sole, cherished prize, whereas a reviewer may not have been able to dig as deep.
About the Paw 6000
The Paw 6000 is made by Lotoo. Lotoo are a Chinese Company who have received outpourings of love for their rather exquisite flagship DAP. The Lotoo Paw Gold established a stellar reputation in HeadFi circles, despite a high price and an element of the unknown being that this was for many the first time they had ever heard of Lotoo. The Gold went against the tide of feature packed digital audio and concentrated on sound quality. A bewitching reverence for the Gold shows no signs of abating still; a Touch version is now available which modernises the original by another 20 years, not that this seems to diminish those legions who absolutely get the simplicity, in a World of ever increasing complexity. There are other players in Lotoo's armoury; I have the Pico, a diminutive player with no display, but plenty of punch where it's needed. That product retailed at £130. Then we have the Paw 5000 - I have reviewed and enjoyed that reasonably well. The Pico is now a tricky item to get hold of. We are left with the Paw series - the Gold Touch Titanium, Gold Touch, Gold, 6000 and 5000. The 6000 retails at £1199. The GT Titanium comes in at £2699. The price point is at almost a third of the price of the flagship. The 6000 has been out for 2 years now. The Lotoo collection is not changed with the same turnover as many of the other Chinese Companies, perhaps an indicator of their reputation amongst those in the know in the World of portable audio.



The 6000 has an AKM 4493 chip, an extremely fast boot up of 2 seconds, a bespoke UI, it can handle all the usual formats you can throw at it, it has 300 mW of output power to either the unbalanced 3.5 or the balanced 4.4 jacks provided. It displays the cover art in full screen, it takes a 2Tb sd card which is accessible with the case on, it does Bluetooth both ways. Bluetooth can be sent from your phone wirelessly to the 6000, and the 6000 can send the audio to a bluetooth head/earphone. The usual line out is provided. It has an external DAC feature, so you can plug it into your laptop and get the Lotoo love. You can mount the 6000 and drag and drop files to and from your laptop onto it. It's a Bluetooth 4.2 device, a USB 3.1 device, it reads music from a memory card or a laptop/PC or a smartphone. It has a bewildering array of EQ functions, undoubtedly one of it's strengths.
The 6000 has no internal memory. You're now thinking "Ahah! That's why it's so quick" and you may have a point. The Lotoo has no frills - there is no Google Play Store, no fancy GUI, no WiFi, no digital out. This is a dedicated product for a die hard DAP fan, make no mistake about it. It's a chunky, fist sized piece of luxury for those who insist that their music collection will not be upstaged by the streaming people. I will just whisper this though - there is MQA support for the unbeliever.

Appeal
I'm a fan of the looks of the Paw 6000. It has a timeless elegance. The case, as supplied by Lotoo, is by no means a cheap and cheerful extra. It exudes the tastefulness of the overall look of the DAP, and adds a touch of naturalness to the Corning Gorilla Glass and metal. There are curves here, there is a volume dial, there are tasteful indentations built into the case. The Gold touches are there, but not in your face.

The home screen... it's a bit bland isn't it? It makes me want to get straight into the heart of the machine and explore the contents therein. One has to sacrifice something in the pursuit of the fastest DAP....


I am pleased that Lotoo has spent some time giving their 6000 model an individuality, yet it is unmistakably part of the Gold family. In use, the Paw 6000 flows between tracks without too much effort, hangs on to a bluetooth connection with an LDAC codec, and joins up my Macbook with aplomb. I was unable to get an OTG connection from the 6000, but was pleased with the wireless results I got enough that there seemed no further point in agonising over it.
One word of warning; the 6000 would not connect to my Smartphone nor was it interested in my Macbook. I would get the swirling wheel of doom, then a screen full of old skool 0000s and 1111s. I would then have to switch the machine off and back on. Resetting the DAP made no difference.. The only solution was a firmware upgrade which was easier said than done. If you read this and you have the 6000 and you are encountering this problem - well, I can help. First of all, the instruction manual states to put the firmware upgrade into the upgrade folder. The proposed new version will appear under the existing version when you go into the settings / upgrade firmware screen, right? Wrong. You have to unpack the firmware folder, get rid of the 2 auxiliary files and leave only the main file in that folder. Then, and only then, will the firmware version appear on that screen. Once you click on it, wham! Hey presto! The DAC works , the Bluetooth works. Calm and peace is restored.

The Sound Quality
The Paw 6000 is a serious contender in the sound stakes. It delivers powerful, rich sound and would be an instant hit to those of you who are seeking an upgrade from a mid tier product. That was the easy part of my describing to you what makes this live up to the pedigree of the Lotoo brand. The sound quality shines through, even with the DAP being pushed hard, in high gain mode, forcing it to use a huge chunk of it's 300 mW engine. The HE1000SE needed high gain, and above midway on the dialometer, but it caused an instant smile. "Here we go, let battle commence" was my instant thought.



What do I mean by that? Look, the mystical World of digital is a maze of fact, fiction,plausible, probable, impossible and exaggerated claims. The reality is this folks; headphones and earphones are a whole lot easier to tell the differences. The differences between high end digital gear are a lot smaller. I stand by my claim that there ARE differences between one DAP and another, and I intend to provide some evidence to the Jury. I have the ability to be able to provide you with binaural samples of what I hear when I put a set of full size headphones on. I have some pro in ear binaural mics, a Digital PCM recorder,a dB meter, some decent editing software and an almost infinite amount of patience in being able to bring this to you.



I have made comparisons between several quality DAPs. I have used the 2 main attributes of the Paw 6000 - it's performance as a DAC and how it sounds doing what it's built for. I recorded using 2 headphones - the HE1000SE for DAP duties was placed into the unbalanced headphone port of the Paw 6000, the Fiio M11 and the Colorfly U8. The track used was a FLAC of Simple Minds - Alive and Kicking. The DAC test was rather special. I plugged the line out of the 6000, and the line out of the AK380 Meteoric Titan, into the RCAs of the HiFiMan Shangri-La Jnr. Headphone Amp. The Headphone used? The Shangri La Snr.....

The best headphone in the World? Probably HiFiMan Shangri La Hybrid Headphone Amp

AK380 Meteoric Titan Fiio M11


The Results
These were surprising. I preferred the silkier delivery of both the AK380 and the U8 in the Dac/Dap tests. You can listen for yourself and decide. But, as the reviewer, I'm sure you wouldn't expect me to be sat on the fence. I ultimately enjoyed the extra detail that I could hear from both contenders; the bass had more presence in it's naked form on the Paw6000. That is not to say the slightly less revealing factory sound of the Paw could not be tweaked in an almost infinite variety of ways. Any eqing would have skewed the results of the default settings of all 4 DAPs tested. In the spirit of keeping as much fairness as possible, all settings were switched off, all volumes were matched, the same tracks were used. Please, if you do one thing after clicking on the YouTube video - put a pair of headphones on, really LISTEN to the tracks I've recorded, several times. Only then will you get what you need from these comparisons. I know it's 28 minutes long - if I could've talked faster I would have! Here it all is below:



Conclusions
I enjoy the look, feel and touch of the Paw 6000. I feel that my journey has only only just started. Although I admit that the 6000 was bested by the AK380 - that retailed at £3500 back when it was untouchable in the SQ stakes - the Colorfly U8 is roughly the same price as the Paw 6000. Although the Colorfly range has been a bit hit and miss through the ages, yes, I have owned the C4 and a couple of others from them , they have finally succeeded with the U8. I hope to put out a review for the U8 soon, I feel it deserves it. The Paw 6000 has not disgraced itself, it deservedly gets 4 stars on the scale, it IS a lovely Dap and will grace many deserving homes for many years to come

Deva Pro just how good is it?





Now you can hear for yourself

Just the other day I got to thinking. How much do people agree or disagree with my words and speech? What happens once I set my thoughts on paper and publish them? Do people believe me? How easy is it to explain what something actually sounds like? And, by doing so, are we putting bias into our cherished readers minds? Well, of course we are.



That is perhaps the purpose of a reviewer. A reviewer can take the marketing information from every company out there and give a more judged opinion of it. If we believed the marketing info was all a person needed to make a purchase, then the 1st headphone they came across they would buy. So given that there are many 1000s to choose from, we have been restricted a little in how we as consumers make our decision. It is impossible to sample every headphone on the market, even for the full timers out there. Let alone cost and storage, time would be a governing factor.

There simply aren’t enough hours for 1 person to do a meaningful listen of every existing headphone on the market. And more are coming out every week. All you can do is research. I’d like to give you another angle on that. I have managed to find a way that you, dear reader, can hear what I hear, or at least as near as dammit you can. I can put the headphones on, press record and what I hear is what you hear. The sound is being recorded next to my ear canal, making things like cup size, open or closed back, on ear or over ear, irrelevant to the success of the sampling.


Which brings us to the Deva Pro. I have been waiting a while to bring you this. I have both the original Deva

and the Pro version.

The original is $299, the Pro $329. For that, you get the headphones, which can be used as conventional wired, but you also get this little bluetooth gizmo, called a bluemini. The bluemini has a 3.5 mm jack which plugs into the left hand cable input of the Deva and Pro. It can then be used as the source for wireless sound. Not only that; the USBC charging port on the bluemini can be turned into a dac/amp for laptops and Android phones, thus turning the headphones into a portable dac/amp. The Deva Pro has an R2R Dac, the Himalaya, developed in house by HiFiMan, in which to do the processing. A versatile set of headphones, I’m sure we can all agree on that.





Why have HiFiMan produced an open back planar wireless headphone, when no one else is doing it? Only Fang Bian can answer that, but perhaps the question has answered itself. Because no one else is doing it… That should be enough. People normally buy a closed back wireless headphone because they are taking it out and about and people don’t want to hear loud music on the bus or the train or in the street. But what if a wireless headphone, like the Deva Pro was something where sound quality wasn’t necessarily secondary to convenience? In that case, might people be prepared to seek out the special places where they could enjoy really good sound without disturbing others? By the same token, that level of privacy may make for a more enjoyable, less noisy, listening experience. Added to that, we can go more serious and plug these into our smartphone using OTG, or even more seriously we can get our top of the line dac/amp out and plug these headphones into the 3.5 mm jack in the more traditional manner. There is no doubt that closed back wireless has a place. I wouldn’t want to spoil these headphones by getting them all sweaty. I run a great deal and I just can’t see myself wanting to take these out in that circumstance. A smaller set of on ears or even better still, TWS, tends to be my go to for such things. But for true musical enjoyment, planar full size open backs aren’t too bad an option.





Just how versatile is each headphone? The Deva has the edge on sensitivity but only by a smidgeon. The 18.5 ohms is contrasted with the 18 ohms of the Pro version. The non stealth magnet original model goes louder than the Pro. It tends to sound louder, even at the same volume, and let me explain that. There is more bass presence and a feel of more treble energy happening, prominent on the bluemini and diminishing in degrees as you up the quality stakes by using the dac/amp and then plugging these into the HM1000 Red R2R Dac/Amp. The OTG Dac/Amp, once I got the hang of it, worked a treat. I kept on getting the error message connected/disconnected until I simply switched off bluetooth on my phone. Following that, thankfully it was a breeze. I was able to utilize the USB Audio Player PRo’s bit perfect setting and I have assembled 6 seperate recordings of the track C Moon Cry Like a Baby by Simple Minds. It is a loud, perhaps thunderous 80s track, full of raw energy and crashing cymbals and difficult to follow vocals. Not an easy track for a headphone. The OTG volume hovered around 85% on the Deva and 90% for the Pro. There was enough there but only just enough. Just enough is ok and I got some good results from both headphones. It is perhaps the true test of each one, as this is the best connection they have available. Beyond that the source is taking up the lion’s share of what is being sent to the headphones.


The sound quality of both headphones is high, especially at this end of the market. There is no in ear monitor that I’d prefer over these full sized cans at this price level. The sound signature of the original has much to like, the Pro has much more. The original is no slouch. It delivers bass slam without the bloatedness of being contained within the cups of a closed back design. The soundstage is wide and this is due to the amount of treble energy and linearity being given by the drivers. When you bring the Pro’s into the mix the originals do show some weaknesses. The stealth magnet design is bringing a level of refinement (smoothness) and dynamics (the illusion of more space between the instruments and of there being more things going on despite that). It’s also got the edge on bass quality rather than bass slam. I’m being subjective here, but that’s what it says on the tin, so I make no apologies. The bass does not take up so much space in the track. It punches and withdraws much faster than the Deva. The Pro has not had the bass boosted as much. Which means there’s not been the need to boost the mids and highs. The clarity of the Pro design is something I found easy to spot. See if you can hear micro details more easily in the samples here. The original has a lot to offer; even for some tracks it may bring more pleasure than the Pro’s, certainly it will lend more instant excitement to some tracks. But for extended listening across all genres they can’t live with the new Pro’s.



Don’t take my word for it. You have all the time you can muster to listen again and again to the samples I have recorded. Please use headphones or earphones, you simply will not get the proper quality by listening to headphone samples from your smartphone speaker or even your hi fi speakers. This demands close attention and concentration. I’m hoping it’ll also be a bit of fun. I’m expecting to be able to post many samples of all sorts of headphones in the months to come, so you’ll be able to build up a virtual library of headphone auditions without getting up from your chair. Now how convenient is that? I am hoping that you can make some judgements on what might be for you using not only words and video but now by adding a listening experience to that. from there hopefully you can narrow down this minefield and make some realistic buying decisions that won’t be a source of regret in the future. How does that sound?

TWS

TWS – the 2nd coming – Moondrop Sparks​

The Berylium coated Sparks from Moondrop

Introduction​

This is a link for the Sparks, if you’re interested enough to part with some cash for them. Subjective Reviews was sent a pair in return for our unique take on all matters audio. In this case, ShenzhenAudio, a major supplier of portable audio in China, have asked me to put Moondrop’s first ever TWS offering under the microscope. This one is good enough in quality (berylium), features (VDSF tuning) and price (£65.40) for you to read on further. If you have any interest in TWS, then a quality offering at less than half the price of some rivals is a definite attention grabber.

About the Sparks​

What is TWS?​

The Sparks are Moondrop’s first TWS offering. TWS stands for truly wireless. As opposed to wireless earbuds, which have a cord attached to each driver that hangs behind the neck, the TWS eliminates the need for a cord altogether. TWS are therefore far more discrete. There is no cable sound. Compared to wireless buds/iem’s, there are, however, some inevitable compromises in performance. This is because 1 earbud is sending a signal to the other. In essence, 1 earbud acts as a bluetooth transmitter and earbud and the other acts as a bluetooth receiver and earbud. You can imagine the micro electronics needed to fit all that into something which fits in your ear. Only the smallest bluetooth chips have been able to fit under the tiny hood. A chip has to perform the function of dac (processing your phone’s music) and amp (making it powerful enough to hear). It also has to be versatlie enough to cope with fluctuations in wireless signal strength without affecting the sound quality or volume, yet small enough to last for several hours between recharging. Something has to give. And what is to fall on the sword? The sound quality, of course. In these days of innovations and features first, the audio quality is usually the fall guy.

Codecs​

The codec, which converts the signal from your phone to one which is heard in your ears, is going to put huge demands on that fine balance between battery, performance and the space there is within the driver shell of just 1 earbud. Until now, the lossier SBC and AAC bluetooth audio codecs have been taking on sound responsibilities. That means there is a gap between the resolution possible in a wireless and it’s TWS rival. The Sparks are the first TWS I’ve tested that have succesfully bridged that gap. The Sparks are supporting the aptX adaptive codec. In a nutshell, the aptX codec is described as near CD quality, or almost lossless. Adaptive takes this a step further; delivering HD sound quality that 1 study claimed “was audibly equal to 24 96 tracks”

This statement is quite compelling. Just be aware that 420 kbits/s is the highest possible resolution for aptX adaptive. In real life situations you may be getting a far lower resolution; as low as 279 kbits/s, as the codec searches dynamically for a compromise between a stable connection and a high quality/ low latency output. More info can be found here
Alas, not all devices are able to support aptX adaptive. Astell & Kern,Sony, Samsung and Xiaomi are among some of the 1000 or so that do. For those that don’t, you’ll have to settle for aptX, also built into the Spark’s inventory.

Bluetooth Version​

The Sparks are the latest 5.2 bluetooth technology. Each new version aims to improve signal strength and quality whilst performing more efficiently. This means that by each change made by bluetooth we get a stronger, clearer performance and a longer lasting battery life. The Sparks have incorporated the best bluetooth codec with the best bluetooth version. Theoretically, that renders all TWS devices without these as obsolete. Of course, it’s more complicated than that. That’s why features can never explain what a device is actually like. At least with the Sparks we are off to a good start.

Moondrop Link​

Only currently available for your Android phone, the Link is an app which interfaces with the Sparks. The most obvious applications for the Link at present seems to be a firmware update and an online guide. The firmware update has made my Sparks into version 1.1.7. The online guide is the same as supplied with the packaging. The app claims to allow the Sparks to be eq’d in 2 seperate ways. The 1st is anticipated to be the usual generic presets, such as club, theater, hall, acoustic, rock, pop etc. The 2nd sounds interesting… This is supposed to allow the Sparks owner to change the tuning of their TWS to mimic other earbuds, IEMs and headphones. The question is thus; can the Sparks become a wireless Final A8000? Or a mini version of the Focal Utopia’s? I’ll let your imagination run wild with what may or may not be offered in the future. For the present, the App is undergoing development. It was released in May, and these features aren’t there at the time of writing.

Berylium​

Berylium drivers in a £65 TWS? For those of you unfamiliar with this extremely rare material, it is used as the driver material for the Focal Utopia Headphones. If you have heard a set of Utopia’s, you will know how incredible they spound, irrespective of any preferences for a more intimate sound stage, they are 1 of the best headphones in the World. I have heard the Utopia’s many times. I have auditioned the Final A8000, and my findings are here.


I also happen to have the Believe, from KB Ear, another berylium IEM, but far more affordable than it’s predecessors. Was it truly made from pure berylium, at that price? Due to the controversy over the purity of the materials used for the driver, it is now sadly out of production, but you can have a taste here

Berylium is 1 of the strongest materials on Earth. It can be stretched to an incredibly thin layer. The thinner and stronger the material is the better the accuracy of the sound. Berylium is expensive. It is dangerous to work with as it is extremely toxic. It comes from relatively few factories. A way to get around the cost factor is to spray a fine coating onto your driver diaphragm. You retain some of the characteristics of the original but you enhance the performance with the berylium. This is what Moondrop has done with the Sparks. This is not something I’d expect to see in any TWS, and certainly all the more remarkable in a set of buds at this price level.

Battery life​

The USB-C charging box will give 48 hours of power to the Sparks. That is surely enough to satisfy the most demanding of users! Each charge gives the Sparks 8 hours of in ear use. The occasional overnight charge of the charging box and you have unlimited use of your TWS device. More on the charging cradle later.

The Sparks unboxed​

Accessories​

The Sparks come supplied with the usual full colour box with the anime character logo of a rather attractive young lady on a broom, perhaps a derivative of Sailor Moon? The attention to detail is already evident, as expected from this company. A slide out box has a magnetic clasp holding everything down. Opening the box reveal the 2 buds and the cradle. A USB-C cable is included, as if we didn’t have 1 of them! But it’s a small one and shouldn’t take up too much space on your desk. Leaflets for warranty, safety, inspection, use and a download card for the Moondrop Link app are enclosed. The cradle has a leather case available for £5 extra. It protects the cradle from scratches. It looks lovely and is a no brainer as an enhancement to your overall Sparks experience. A list of specifications on the back is combined with the frequency curve of the buds.

VDSF – virtual diffuse sound field. What on earth is that?​

The tuning is a particular characteristic of Moondrop. They use the VDSF curve for the default tuning of their in ears. This is like the Harman Response Curve but a little punchier. Tuning is a way to describe how a device reacts to different frequencies. This results in the descriptions you’ll come across, like U shaped or V shaped, bassy or mid centric. I try not to use such phrases, but the sound characteristics are a product of the quality of the product and the way in which it has been tuned.

Tips​

You get 3 sets of tips, with the usual 3 sizes. I’m presuming the tips are natural sound, bassy sound and treble enhanced sound, in a small, mediim and large variety. Whether Moondrop should state what each tip does to the sound characteristic of the Sparks is a moot point. I’m assuming those that like a punchier sound would be immediately biased towards the bassier tips and wouldn’t give the others a proper listen, for instance. I found it a little frustrating as I’m always in a rush to get to the best performance that suits my preferences, naturally, because I do a lot of listening to a lot of stuff. It’s a good thing to try every tip and then try your own tips if you have another set of favourites. The tips make a big difference to the sound, so don’t expect the ones that are already on the Sparks to be the best sounding ones. They might not be for you.

Cosmetics​

The look and feel of the Sparks are noteworthy. Some real thought has gone into these mighty midgets. There is nothing blan about the swirly night sky with a Moon for bud 1 and a star for bud 2. The cradle has curves in all the right places, sits the Sparks firmly in place and can be accentuated with a form fitting leather box.

Fit​

The Sparks have a lug sticking out of them. I suspect that is to get them under the flap of the top cartilege of the ear, known as the antihelux. The shells are bulky and they take some moving around in my smaller ears before they can stay in place. For walking and sitting, they can rest in place without any undue stress or strain. For running, or more vigarous workouts, that will not be enough. They have to be wedged in place. The only 2 grip points are the tip, into your ear canal entrance and the lug that sits in your cartilege. The tips do not protrude very far into the ear canal. The design of the TWS does not allow for a deep fit. You cannot rely on that for a decent anchor point unless you are exceptionally lucky with getting a tip to exactly match the diameter of your ear canals. The lug is long enough that it should fit easily under the thinnest of cartileges. I had to wedge the lug firmly into place to stand any chance of it staying at or near the sweet spot in my ear canal without coming loose. In a 45 minute run I had to readjust several times and there was a real chance of my left earbud making a bid for freedom, which no one wants. A more contour fitting driver shell with a higher degree of opportunities to tuck under the antihelux, antitragus and tragus (the lower bit of cartilege) would have have been much more beneficial and would have an added a touch of elegance to the appearance of these buds. Moondrop ; I wonder whether there is scope for a Sparkier Spark in the future? Blessing 2, why not Sparks 2?

Sound​

The sound quality did display some of the characteristics of other berylium headphones and IEMs I’ve been lucky enough to hear. The tightness of the material perhaps gives an idea of how the sound will be. It is tight and accurate. The default sound of the Sparks was a little thin and dry sounding to my ears, having got through the 3 sets of tips supplied and arriving at my preference. I still don’t know for sure, but I suspect that I have put on the bassy tips. I have found a solution to this problem by installing a mini app called Morphet into my USB Audio Player Pro Android App. Morphet enables me to mimic other devices, such as the Sennheiser HE-6 or the AKG K-1000. Wait a minute…wasn’t this similar to what the Moondrop Link App says it will offer? I had a peek around and found the generic buds setting to add the depth and bass response I was looking for. The Berylium coating is arguably setting up for some good detail in the mid and high frequency ranges, making vocals slightly more forward and micro effects more visable than a listener is used to from set of sub £70 IEMs. And remember, these are TWS. No wires… Whatever your preference to your sound characteristics be it for a bassy sound or a detailed airy sound, the Sparks will benefit from eqing. Out of the box they sound too thin and edgy for rock and pop music, which is looking for that lower frequency response and some control of the peaks, where the synergy of multiple instruments competing with each other in the mix can get a little much. For classical music and jazz lovers, I supect that not much will need to be changed. I still preffered the generic buds setting for even these 2 genres, as I felt they offered a little warmth to the colder, more clinical presentation provided as standard.

Conclusion​

The Sparks may lead to a flame. The Link app is in it’s infancy. If it delivers a set of options that can turn your TWS into another IEM, much like the Morphet that I use, then it will showcase the chameleon like qualities of Moondrop’s first foray into the TWS market. The price is right, the looks are good, the codecs and bluetooth versons are class leading. To cap it all, there is berylium added to the drivers. As always, nothing is perfect. The sound needs adjusting, the driver shells want to come out of my ears when under duress, and not every phone supports aptX adaptive. For those of you looking for a TWS device, this is one of the best I’ve come across so far. I’ve heard TWS 3 times this price, and they seem like yesterdays gear, the technology has already moved on so much further. The Moondrop Sparks could get even better yet.

The HM1000 Red - the base model that is anything but basic is compared to the multi award winning Chord Mojo

Chi-Fi v Brit-Fi - R2R v Delta Sigma - Who will win?​

Introduction​

I have in my hands the 3rd in the HM1000 series of dac/amps. I was the first person to be sent an HM1000 loaner and it feels like a long time ago! I have now been sent a loaner of their base model. This is the Red. The Red is the base model and retails at a slightly more wallet friendly price of $599. The difference between this and the flagship is in the preciousness and sophistication of the R2R chips. The Red has 2 lesser spec'd PCM1702 chips; the Gold has 4 higher spec'd PCM1704 chips. The Silver has 2 PCM1704 chips and sits in the middle of the range. Both R2R chips are no longer in production, having been phased out out in the late 1990s. Since they were phased out the PCM chips have achieved a mythical status, and R2R maintains a solid footing in the Dac market, despite the costlier, difficult implementation. The colour difference is the only way you'll tell the Gold, Silver or Red apart. The Chord Mojo uses a standard off the shelf DAC chip. The implementation of said chip remains a closely guarded secret. The Mojo has 2 outputs, both 3.5 mm, whereby 2 headphones, or iems, or headphones and line out can be used at the same time. The reputation of the Mojo has now become the stuff of legends. The Mojo is revered by Darko Audio. It has been given the Darko product of the Decade status. What Hi-Fi awarded it the best DAC (£300-£500) of 2020, some 5 years after it's release. The Mojo has remained my favourite portable Dac/Amp since my review and subsequent purchase of it on the first week of its release to an eager British public. Until now.

About R2R technology​

R2R is the type of chip that went into the earliest digital audio gear. The chips were a lot more costly to produce than modern DAC chips. Modern DAC chips are easier to work with and are constantly being improved, at least in terms of their technical specifications. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of DACs out there have the modern delta sigma DAC chip. To go much beyond this description of R2R would take a lengthier explanation than would be useful for my current purposes. The research I have done into this describes ladders, resistors, noise floors, oversampling, non oversampling and delta sigma and pulse code modulation. One day soon I will do a short, layman's terms description of what this and all the other weird audio technology is out there. For now, think of this in many ways as a tube amp v solid state amp debate. Some will swear by the warmth of tubes and some will thank progress for the more accessible solid state developments. There are those who will state that the sound of an R2R chip is less artificial sounding than a delta sigma chip, and there are those who say that an R2R is coloured in it's presentation. Perhaps everyone is right.

A view inside showing the PCM1702 chips

HM1000 Red v Mojo​

The Mojo has some features that the HM1000 lacks. The first of these is the ability to power 2 iems or headphones at the same time.



When doing reviews, (of course) this is a great way to compare 2 like minded headphones simultaneously. An audiophile need only take a Mojo and their existing IEM/Headphone to a store and they have an quick, easy, wire free way to check out the products they're interested in. One side can be permanently connected as line out to your big amp, the other side can be used as a headphone amp. And it's a pretty darn powerful headphone amp to boot. It'll run a 600 Ohm headphone and it'll run the tiniest of earphones, with little or no hiss. I have tried and tested a lot of other products and I quickly came to the conclusion that adding a Mojo to a Digital Audio Player would more than likely increase the enjoyment of that product. The Mojo can also take an optical amd a coax connection.


This gives it the edge on wired digital inputs as compared to the USB only functionality of the HM1000. The Mojo is smaller and less chunky than the HM1000. The Mojo is a matchbox to the HM1000 being a cigarette packet. The Mojo has a scratch resistant surface. Although neither dac/amp has a gui, the R2R has a brushed glass window. The back of the device is equally as shiny and therefore extremely prone to smudges and scratches. In a certain light, at a certain angle, you can see those precious PCM R2R chips. Otherwise, it looks like it's a DAP. But a DAP it is not.


The HM1000 is more versatile, and more up to date. The HM1000 Red is a wireless device. It has bluetooth. It is a relief to say that the bluetooth does not need a great deal of mastery. You switch the device on, it flashes blue. You search for new bluetooth devices on your phone, connect, pair and the HM1000 will go solid blue. My Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G is 2 years old now and has Android 9 on it. It automatically accepted the Mi on board with an LDAC output, the highest quality codec bluetooth currently has available. LDAC output is only stable at short distances, so be mindful to keep any LDAC device as still and as close to your source as possible when using it. LDAC is as close as bluetooth has got to lossless sound quality. The HM1000 goes close to being a standalone DAP. You can insert a micro SD card, install HiFiMan remote and sync your files from the sd card to the phone. You haven't physically taken up lots of real estate on your smartphone by doing this. Your phone simply knows the location of the audio is being streamed from the HM1000, rather than the phone itself. The HM1000 Red supports 3.5 mm balanced/unbalanced 4.4 mm balanced and line out.


The Mojo supports 3.5 mm unbalanced and line out. Whereas the Mojo uses the older tech micro USB and needs a decent cable to trickle charge, the HM1000 uses USBC. OTG is less hit and miss than with the Mojo. The Mojo has a separate port for charging. The HM1000 can charge at the same time as it hooks up to your laptop as an external DAC. The Mojo will need 2 of your laptops ports to charge and dac/amp simultaneously. The Mojo has an 8 hour battery life compared to the HM1000s 9.5 hours.
Finally, the UK retail price of the Chord Mojo is £399. The HM1000 Red is £424 + postage + customs as per ebay below.


The end price will be considerably more for the HM1000 Red. But, consider this: the only way for the Mojo to achieve the wireless functionality of the Red would be to add it's big brother, the £499 Poly. Decisions, decisions.....

Sound quality - Chord Mojo v HM1000 Red​

The sound quality was where I believed the HM1000 would be left wanting. The Mojo has been with me for so long now and has always produced the goods, despite being up against DACS with much newer technology. And yet.... The tests were conducted using each device as an OTG device and also by hooking them up to my Macbook Pro Retina. I used a HiFiMan HE1000 SE, Drop HExx and Meze Rai Penta to cover all the bases.






The SE is the most demanding of the above headphones. It is easily run by the Mojo but is near the limit of the Red's output capabilities. In each and every headphone, the 1000 gave more music than the Mojo could accomplish. The finesse that the Mojo exemplifies is outclassed by the HM1000. The HM1000 has a smoother, wider, balanced sound with more micro details evident than the Mojo. When the volume was matched with the devices and I was pushing the limits my ears where happy with, invariably I would need to turn down the Mojo and I could cope with the HM1000. There are three gain switches to the HM1000. Of course, these need to be paid close attention. The HE1000SE needed high gain, the Drop HExx low

The $220Drop HE5xx





and the Penta super low gain.

Meze Rai Penta

The Mojo, a disappointment to listen to - the HM1000 Red, a joy. May I offer a caveat to all this reviewing malarkey for those of you who own and love your Mojo? The only way I knew I was getting better than the Mojo was when I tried it directly against the HM1000. If I'd never tried the HM1000 Red, I'd never have known the Mojo wasn't quite as good as I'd held it up to be. And once this device returns to its makers, or is moved on to another reviewer, I'm sure I'll go back to enjoying life as it was before. There isn't anything inherently wrong with the sq of the Mojo; it's just that there is now something better out there, at around the same price.

Notes of caution​

You've read this, you have a Mojo and you were thinking of getting a Poly. Now you're thinking of chucking in the Mojo and getting it sold tout suite before everyone jumps on the bandwagon and getting an HM1000 instead. Ok, fine. There are two things to consider. The first; the HiFiMan Remote functionality. This takes some perseverance to set up. Put simply; it's a nightmare to set up. Headfi.org has some great hints on how to make it work. The Remote is described as in beta stage only, so HiFiMan won't support you on this. Indeed - take a look at that official HM1000 Red page. "TF card slot (firmware updates only)". There is hope; it can be done! I've got a 512 Gb card happily working in the Red. I also managed to get a card working with the Gold model as long ago as last year. It wasn't without tears, but they turn from sorrow to joy in the end!




The second issue is the current availability of the HM1000 Red. Stockists in my neck of the woods are limited. Buying direct from HiFiMan seems to be the only route currently open. This means customs charges and a little longer shipping time. That means sending back to China or the USA if there's something wrong. I can only vouch for the model I have here, and that's all fine and dandy. Lastly, could the problems people are having with the Remote App result in said company ditching this route altogether and offering an even cheaper option that is more user friendly? One day, we may see a device from HiFiMan that delivers on the GUI as well as on the sound quality. A Hidizs style app and player with this R2R setup? Now that would be something, wouldn't it? Until then, we must content ourselves with real good sound and slightly clunky apps. Once we can get our heads round this, life's not so bad, is it?

CHINA IN YOUR HAND – HIDIZS AP80 PRO DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYER​

Fun size & feature packed​

A Facebook find – John Beagley -I bought the complete collection on Bandcamp

With kind thanks from Yihua of Aoshida hi-fi, the AP80 Pro has a retail price of $169.99. In typical Chinese style, it represents a price level that seems way below it’s true worth. Far be it from me to give the game away so early on into my review, but I’m hoping you get the gist of what this is all about.

See what I mean? USBC – for charging or Dac- Standard and balanced outputs AND fixed line out

A tiny piece on what gets onto here and what doesn’t make it​

I don’t like to whinge. I especially don’t wish to waste my time moaning about audio products that don’t reach or exceed my expectations. My time is precious, and I, like your good selves, am holding down a demanding full time job. If I am sent a product that I don’t like, it simply doesn’t get on to these pages. Whilst I may not rave about every product I have reviewed here, there is always something engaging enough for me to warrant the many hours it takes to get the message out there. As always, the devil is in the details, read and research properly and you will find what you desire. I do not read any reviews on products that I am due to receive. This is the way in which I can keep my writing fresh, free from plagiarism, my own views and my own style. I trust that you respect this and take this as the reason as to why each review seems to have so much positivity in it. In a world full of so much bad news, my small part will try and take you
away from that; for a little while at least.

Now; back to business

Can you see it? The USBC cable is terminated in purple in harmony with the volume knob

​

​

About the AP80 Pro​

The question is not what the AP80 Pro does; it’s easier to mention what it doesn’t do! The Pro has no Wi-Fi and no app support. It doesn’t have a massive amp for your HiFiMan HE-6 or your Abyss or whatever crazy big headphone you’ve got. If you’re looking for this, thank you very much for your time so far, and I understand if you want to leave and seek elsewhere. I hope to see you soon. If I still have you with me, let us both take a look at what this thing can do.

I find the screen to be as vivid as my smartphone and just as easy to navigate

You have balanced cables for your posh earphones and need something to try them out on without breaking the bank. Box ticked. The AP80 Pro has a 2.5 balanced and 3.5 jack. A note of caution. Do not try a 3.5 to 2.5 adapter, even if there is one out there. It might damage the amp in the AP80 in just the same way as it would affect any balanced connection. If you want to try a balanced output, get yourself a balanced cable. There are no shortcuts to this. And a balanced cable can be got for $20-$30 (or £). That will look much nicer than an adapter spoiling your new DAP. The AP80 has bidirectional Bluetooth. It can receive a Bluetooth signal, for example, from your smartphone, and it’ll handle LDAC with ease. There is an app you can download and it’ll allow you to control the features of the AP80 on your smartphone, which has a bigger screen than the AP80 so therefore should be easier to navigate. It doesn’t stop there. Bluetooth can be pushed from the Hidizs to a Bluetooth headphone or speaker.

Most As supplied inc OTG cable and silicon case

Other inputs include a DAC facility which has DSD support for 64/128 formats. OTG is supported, so you can strap this to your phone for a wired connection, for example, and output Bluetooth to your wireless earphones. The AP80 has no internal memory but supports a micro SD card of 512 Gb and probably beyond. I can’t yet evidence that capacity but have had no problems with the 128 Gb I’ve been using. The UI on the Hidizs is fast and has plenty of features. There are many clunky operating systems out there for some otherwise good digital players; Hidizs are renowned for a high quality UI and licence this out to other manufacturers.

Another Facebook find – those Groups are treasure troves

In short, they know what they’re doing, and it shows here. The touchscreen and the Samsung display are responsive and sharp. There are side buttons for next, pause and back, and a volume knob that’s both precise and discrete. Within the settings all can be switched off for on the move purposes. In practice, I didn’t find any problems with the AP80 whilst out running and in unlocked mode. I can’t see myself needing to use the app.

The loveliness of the unboxing – never gets old does that

Sound quality​

What, if any, qualities or personality does this little gem bring to the table? Compared to the AK380, or the Fiio M11, is there any discernible difference? I will put some audio clips on and clearly label which ones are from which DAP, then you’ll be able to make that decision yourselves. Bear in mind that the Fiio M11 retails for £449 and the Astell & Kern AK380 is a former flagship DAP. That will set you back £1649…..

Ok, have you had a listen? Good. Now all you need to know is what this will sound good with. Plug in all types of earphones, and some full size headphones will work outstandingly well with the AP80 Pro. I’d suggest you’d be looking at anything with an impedance of 50 Ohms or less would be a good match. For full sized headphones, there is a gain setting within the GUI which needs switching to High Mode. Full sized bluetooth headphones have their own Dac and Amp so are not an issue. I happen to have the Ananda BT which is about as good as it gets with wireless headphones. Of course one must realise that by using bluetooth outputs we are essentially limiting the AP8 Pro to 50% of it’s capabilities, because then it simply becomes a source rather than using it’s analog outputs. The Dac and amp become switched off as those duties are being taken up by the bluetooth headphones.

Andrew Taylor, courtesy of Bandcamp download

Conclusion​

The need for a fast, good looking, feature packed DAP that can communicate with your smartphone and your bluetooth devices and hi-fi is never more important than now. If you want something disconnected from that world, don’t worry; chuck your files onto an sd card and listen in the traditional way. It’s got a clean looking, fast GUI and it hasn’t fallen over on me yet. The AP80 Pro doesn’t have WiFi and apps, which has undoubtedly kept the price level temptingly low. Your smartphone has all that, as has your laptop. So this does the next best thing and uses bluetooth with great efficiency. There is an app to control this from your smartphone when out and about. I can’t see the need indoors with a screen that is this good. My opinion on the sound is that it is difficult to fault at this level; I’m glad they didn’t try and cater for bigger headphones with a bigger amp section, because that would have pushed both the price and the size of the device up into another tier. And who, fellow bargain hunters, would want that to happen?

About ACS​

ACS is a company that has, at least until recently, served the pro audio community with a range of Custom In Ear Monitor solutions. Andy Shiach is the founder, and he was there at the start of it all, in the 80s, when people were using adapted walkman earbuds, or simply going deaf very quickly and not using any hearing protection on stage. Pro Audio Custom In Ear Monitors were borne from reasons of safety. Etymotic, Sensaphonics and JHAudio were there near, or at the start, of the revolution. Without a doubt, ACS were in the mix. Andy used his knowledge as an audiologist who had worked with the tiniest of ears, and his heart, being that he is, sadly, a victim of tinnitus, as are so many musicians who have been through the sound barrier on one too many occasions. ACS was the Company I came across in 2015 when I started researching about Customs. They are based in the UK and USA. I came across an ACS voucher on EBay, and I bought a custom ear shell for my Westone W20 IEMs. That process, (which affects all custom purchases I hasten to add) was not without problems. The longer the journey, the greater the reward, or the fuel bill.


That started a quest for something a little more special. It eventually led me to to the ACS World HQ In Oxfordshire. I was treated like royalty by some really nice people in Banbury. The stars must have aligned that day. I asked if anything could be done to make my DIY ear impressions more accurate. Andy Shiach himself made my impressions right there on the spot! I was sent a set of Evoke Studio PRo CIEMs some 10 days later. And here we must deviate, and bring you all up to date. I am now the owner of a ACS Classic Emotion 5 BA CIEM. It has been provided in return for an unbiased review. It replaces the Evoke's which developed a defective bass driver after 6 years. ACS felt that they wanted me to show you what changed they have brought in those intervening years. They are also extremely keen to see what the consumer will make of these in ears. So, ever helpful, here I am!

What is a CIEM?​

A CIEM is a custom in ear monitor. It is made for you. It will only fit your ears perfectly. Ears are like fingerprints - unique. As you know, from time to time, I have stated in these columns that a universal IEM (I'll call them IEMs from now on) has a "near" custom fit. There is no fit like a custom. If an IEM had a "custom" fit, then they'd only be able to sell 1 - the rest would be returned in exasperation. The range of designs and number of companies providing CIEMs is staggering these days. Back when ACS was founded, there were a handful. You can get as many different colour combinations as you can driver configurations for your Custom IEM (CIEMs from now). More on that later. What you want to know is how? How do you get a large company to make a unique in ear, ship it to you quickly, and still have them make a profit from it? I can answer questions 1 and 2; for question 3, I can only guess that this must be why customs cost a lot more money than the average IEM.

The process for getting a CIEM​

It's complicated. Sorry, I have to be honest with you here. You can't just expect to get these on Amazon Prime, by return of post. Patience, grasshopper. That is what is required. And a little luck.... I have very little of either. Are you the same? So read these next few lines and be under no doubts - you need to wait, and it might be worth the wait. First of all, you need to contact the company. For ACS that's a quick visit to their website . You make your choice and you are emailed a voucher. Armed with the voucher, pop along to your local audiologist. The audiologist will have a look at your ears, and if they deem them safe to make an ear impression from, they will put a gloopy solution into your ears, one at a time. The solution will gradually harden and form a mould. Attached to the solution was a tiny piece of cotton wool on some thin nylon. That way, there is no chance any of the solution can dribble through your ear canal and down into eardrum. Once the mould has gone off, they pull gently at the nylon and, hey presto! One of your ears has been fingerprinted! A normal person has nothing to worry about. If you are a surfer, or an open water swimmer, or suffer from ear wax build up, you may be in for problems. Let's put that to one side for a moment. Your ears are fine. The audiologist sends the impressions back to ACS, who pay them. So there's no hidden charge for you. ACS get to work on your CIEM and your choice of colour scheme and laser embossing on the shell, if you want to take it to that level. They let you know when the CIEMs are cooked and ship them to you, in the UK this will normally be by Royal Mail Special Delivery. I am talking about ACS as regards the above info, of course, other companies will use other couriers as their own setups.

Custom v Universal​

Although the CIEM was invented for the professional musician, increasingly the consumer has turned their envious eyes towards this coveted weapon of choice, as seen at every decent gig on the planet. I mean, if they're good enough for Metallica, they must be good, mustn't they? It was obvious it would happen. Although we worship our bands, should we worship their CIEMs in the same way? I remember seeing many studio full size headphones being worn in videos and photos and thinking "that wouldn't be my on ears of choice". Are CIEM's, like some of these Studio offerings, meer workhorses? I suspect that for customs it's a different approach, because they're unique, and worn at every live gig. Some musicians can afford the very best. Wouldn't they demand the very best for something as important as a live mix that protects their hearing at the same time?


IEMs are less hassle. You can get hold of them quickly and they will have an okayish fit and you can probably sell them on and recoup some of your money if you upgrade. CIEMs take time to get hold of, often it's difficult to try them first, there won't be quite so many people who have them for research purposes, they may even need to be returned to get the fit just right, they will be very difficult to sell as used items. The portable hobbyist may not be too concerned about hearing protection, and this is one of the major selling points of a CIEM. Many of us, despite all of this, will be convinced that we are missing out on the magic unless we get our hands on a Custom. It's that simple. It's madness. But not to us. And so the Custom In Ear people have started to equip the audio community with significant numbers of bespoke in ears....

About the Emotion Classic​

CIEM's tend to be very sensitive. They've been designed to go very loud, very quickly. That's coupled with the fact that they'll be much closer to the 2nd bend of your ear canal. The device you're wanting to use them with will go loud enough, trust me on this. The ACS Classic has over 120 dB sensitivity... The impedance of the ACS is 83 ohms, which is pretty high. Each device I've used them on has had to be turned down significantly compared to comparisons, such as the RE2000 pictured above. The Classics use a multiple Balanced Armature Driver Setup. 5 Knowles per side. This is a change from what I'm used to seeing in the IEM World, which often goes for a DD for bass slam and BA, (or something more exotic), for the rest. My Encore Studios l, from ACS, were bass monsters. They had linum Bax cables that were minutely thin and connections that went almost all the way into the CIEM's shell. The Classics have a more standard look; a conventional cable with Kevlar reinforcement. The linum Bax cables were pretty amazing, but they were a swine to take it and out of the Encores. They had a memory wire function which meant they mostly recoiled to the same state as they were uncoiled. There was still a decent chance of getting into a tangled mess... Other changes from the old range; 1 bore instead of 3, and a deeper recess between the nozzle and the bore. I suffer from ear wax build up and often had to dig deep into the CIEM'S than was wanted in order to keep them clean.

The sound - what's changed v Encore and compared to HiFiMan RE2000 Silver IEMs​

The Encore Studio was designed to appeal to the bass lover in all of us. It had crazy, massive low end grunt, and made the rest of my collection cower in fear when these were on show. The mids and highs had to be rolled back to allow that much bass, and that's how it was, back then. In very much a similar vein, the Emotion Classic has plenty of bass. There is a deep, warm viscerality to the sound signature of the ACS Flagship. These CIEM's have been made with drummers in mind. They are worn by Roger Taylor, the drummer, vocalist and songwriter for 1 of the World's biggest bands; Queen. Yes, I have pretty much the same CIEM's as Roger, less the live backpack that the pro artist's need.


The RE2000 Silver is retailing at exactly the same price as the Emotion Classic; £679. Both HiFiMan (from £1499) and ACS(from £829) have brought their prices down recently. The RE2000, setting aside fit, comfort, sensitivity and looks, which would all easily be bested by ACS, is my preferred sound signature. It is more linear, allowing more clarity into micro effects, stereo imaging and sound stage. I tried the ACS on many platforms, the result was always the same. The ACS will appeal to the consumer looking for lots of grunt, who hates sibilance and wants a more live feel to their music. Please don't think that ACS just makes bass beasts. I have a pair of IEMs from them, a purchase from eBay; the Evoke Studio IEMs. They had a much more linear presentation than the Emotion. They were the only IEM I could find, at a similar price, that could better the sound quality of the Beryllium KBEAR Believe.

The range of items used for the comparison

Conclusion​

Choose wisely. ACS has a range of products, as has other companies, some of which will not be the best match for your musical palette. If I have interested you in ACS, have a read through what their range is aimed at before you take the plunge and just plump for the Flagship, you know, just because, you can. You know what I'm saying! There are some that the Emotion will fit, like a velvet glove. For others, an Evoke style presentation may not cost you quite so much, and yet net a far greater reward. If you can, get a demo with a pair that have been adapted for universal. If you like them; I can say this with authority, the enjoyment you'll get from your own customs will be huge As always folks, tread carefully out there,and your shoes will last you a lifetime

If this track is your preference, then maybe the Emotion is the 1

No.2 product from Aoshida HiFi, with grateful thanks to Yihua, my newest convert to the Subjective mantra, who has supplied me with the little bar of Chinese goodness, the M100 DAC. Available at places like this


Or this


Or even from their main store


I know. I surely have come across SMSL before. But, I'm struggling to remember when I have reviewed any of their stuff. No, having had a quick flick around t'internet, it appears I am a newcomer here. I've seen much but heard little, it would appear. They've been going since 2009, a long time in the Chinese side of the Industry, and specialise in making nice looking bits at fairly attractive prices. The M100 itself is a dinky little thing. It cries out to be part of a cute little stack of components, such as are part of the M series. It's tiny form factor means it'll slot in just about anywhere. It doesn't feed off your smartphone's power if you're using OTG. It needs an independent suply but only needs a side order of Micro USB, so hoping that won't interfere with it's prettiness by having too many cables hanging around. For inputs, the M100 takes Digital only, naturally, and it'll accept coaxial, optical and USB OTG and Asychronous. RCA outputs send the analog result to another speaker or headphone amp to finish off the proceedings.

The Olympus PCM Recorder sits atop the SMSL, almost dwarfing it
Perhaps what we are aiming for here is the audio lover who has no use for a DAP, everything is on the phone or the laptop or PC and it just needs a bit of help when he or she has time to sit down and really indulge and savour a bit of extra quality. Without breaking the bank. This unit costs roughly the price I paid for my last micro SD card, which was wht I needed for my rather more expensive Astell & Kern AK380 digital audio player. I've put the thing through it's paces, and it's easy enough when you get the hang of things. There is what appears to be a power on switch at the front of the M100. In fact it is also works as a switch between the 3 inputs, all of which are numbered on the rear of the unit. In 1 is USB, 2 is optical (full sized) and 3 is coax. A short press and 1,2 or 3 will show up. Be ready with the volume well down on your amp for when this happens!

The recordings​

I will not over eleborate on the sound quality of the SMSL DAC, because you can have the opportunity to take a listen yourselves. I felt it was a competent little performer, improving on the outputs from Macbook or Smartphone, and I took the opportunity to sample a couple of sound files for you. I have clearly labelled them. They've been recorded on an Olympus digital recorder which I use from time to time for such occasions. Yes, the recordings are lossy, but the loss should be equal amongst all recordings.




Now I hope you've had the chance to listen, perhaps you can revisit a few times and decide for yourself; does it sound better? Truly, such auditions, over less than perfect conditions, are not easy. The Macbook Pro Retina is a pretty good sounding Laptop in it's own right, but perhaps you can tell a difference between part 1 and part 2 of the YouTube upload. I have put a high quality CD Rip of 1 of my own collection, Synthesizer Greatest Vol II, and I hope you like the track. It's a cover version of Vangelis' Theme from Antarctica by a little known chap called Ed Starink...

Conclusion​

I hope you've enjoyed participating in this review. For once, it's not just been all about me. I'm sure you'd like to know my opinion on the SMSL M100 MKII DAC after all this. However....I'm going to give you all a little while to make up your own minds, and maybe, just maybe, I shall revisit this little write up and put my 2 pennorth in. Until then, you have been charming company, and I look forward to seeing you again, very soon.

About everything

Hi there and welcome to what I feel is an important chapter in the history of my reviews thus far. Few of us can have failed to see the stories coming out on the KB EAR BE-LIEVE. It's been hard for me to avoid reading too much about these, but, as you know, if there's any chance I can get hold of a pair to review, I really like to abstain from other folk's musings. This way, I give you a fresh insight into what you might be interested in buying. If you just want to know what it's all about, again, at least I should be original. This puts my credibility on the line as a reviewer. I don't mind about that. I want to do my own work. That's important to me. You can use this as a way to evaluate against other reviews out there. Between us all, there'll be a picture emerge.

Do you know about Beryllium?

Beryllium is considered to be an extremely efficient material to use in speakers. It has become a highly desirable feature in full size headphones. The Focal Utopia headphones use beryllium driver. The technology has now made its mark in the IEM sector. What is Beryllium? It's a metal, it's extremely rare, extremely dangerous and extremely strong. This is what it looks like. What you see below is as pure a beryllium as you might expect to see. It has to be extracted from minerals. For every 20 beryllium units there are estimated to be 1 million silicon units in the universe. Once beryllium enters the body it can't be expelled. We all have a tiny amount of this in our bodies. Beyond that amount, even a tiny increase is likely to be cancer causing. Therefore, the manufacturer of this extremely sought after material is strictly controlled and exorbitantly expensive. Whilst brittle at room temperature, once beryllium is heated it becomes strong. Very strong indeed. Not only can it make a fantastic driver, because it can be rolled out to an incredible thinness and yet still be stiff enough to keep distortion down, it makes for 17 times sharper x-rays images and keeps the space shuttle in 1 piece when it's coming home.

This bit of rock is choc full of Beryllium Oxide

Introduction
BE-LIEVE, by KB EAR

The sound, the most important thing, is shaped by a diaphragm made from pure beryllium. This is normally found in much more expensive IEMs, and, even then, there are few models on the market.
There is a single driver per side. Although there is little crossover distortion in earphones with drivers this small, a single design eliminates that issue completely.
Of course, to get a quality sound, you need a decent full range driver, and that driver needs to be tuned just right. To attain as good a response as they could, KB EAR have gone for a Beryllium dynamic driver. The strength and lightness of this metal makes it ideal for a speaker.
The sound signature of the Believe is a thick smooth one, that goes to a good level of detail without sounding harsh and goes very low in the bass with some visceral air being pushed around the contours of the ear.
I compare the IEMs against a number of others; they comfortably outperform the Etymotic ER4XR and the NF Audio NM2+, and compete well with the now discontinued ACS Evoke Studio.
The case is a nice thick leather affair.
The cable and shell designs are gorgeous. The fit is reasonable; some tips will slide the drivers out from the ear canal. The research on the tips has been quite exhaustive. I shall give you my findings and we will see where our opinions have met up, and where they've diverged somewhat.



As you can see, PURE BE diaphragm - cardboard outer

The controversy

A little snippet of what's gone on in my BE-LIEVE journey. It's quite an irony... they've stopped promoting these because some folks have questioned how legitimate the claims of a pure Beryllium diaphragm are. KB EAR have asked for evidence from their Japanese supplier, who have been quite dismissive of them. They can't find anyone who will test their obviously tiny diaphragms without it costing a bomb, so KB EAR are in limbo. The BE-LIEVE has become inexorably tied in with it's own name. Do you believe this is pure beryllium? Or is the cheaper, sprayed on variant? Either way, these should not be overlooked, no way.


The review takes shape - some days in the life of
The Sound, and how tips can make or break these monitors

The KB EAR Believe Beryllium in ear monitors. Day 1 is a tip rolling day, with some insights into 4 of the dozen or so supplied.

This is just the start - these are very tip sensitive

Day 3 and serious testing is now underway. The ACS Evoke is a single driver IEM. It was purchased by myself for £139 2 months ago, this was a 2nd hand price, it retailed for £299 when released. The Believe has a thicker, bassier and less detailed sound. The Evoke has a thinner, more precise sound. The Believe needs more volume than the ACS, as the ACS squash right into the entrance to the ear canal, being much smaller.

You can see the size difference, and bare in mind the Believe is a good fit...

A behind the scenes look at my review process. What you see below is 2 days worth of tip rolling and observations. I continued my head to head comparisons with suitable opposition, in this case, the vintage 4 driver from Sony, the XBA4ip. Still held in high esteem today, these trailed behind the KB EAR Believe in detail, bass, linearity. They would also have been beaten in the fit and comfort category where it not for my custom shells

A 4 driver hybrid from yesteryear - Sony's down from the ear 4 driver model - IP? That stands for iPhone

BE-LIEVE v Etymotic ER4XR & NF Audio NM2+2 more single driver IEMs which are both still on the market, neither we're anywhere near as good as the KB EAR in my opinion. The ER4XR has this reputation of linearity and stunning isolation etc etc. It's uncomfortable, for one. It lacks bass , for 2. And it doesn't the details of the BE-LIEVE. The NM2+ sounds like all the frequency ranges have been turned up compared to the KBEAR. It sounds like it's being pushed too hard, like everything is competing against each other. The NM2+ is far more sensitive, in fact I turned down the volume on my AK380 from 80 to 70 to get a volume match

The NM2+ was by no means a slouch The father of the universal IEM - Etymotic

Many hours later, in I'm now in Day 3 of the Believe. I have now tried and tested every one of the supplied tips. I have been given some advice in the group to try some non generic ones, so when I have recovered from this ordeal I'll try some of those... The best sounding tip was the one I started with! Even the size was the best fit for me.... Hours wasted....Still, it had to be done.And if you're still wondering whether tips make a difference to the sound, try taking the tips off and putting these in your ears

9 tips, tested twice per track, at least - how long did that take?

Spinfit

Day 5 - and on recommendation from an owner, I decided to see for myself whether there was anything in this Spinfit brand of eartips. And this is how it went...
The Spinfit CP145 tips arrived an hour ago. I am a medium fit. The barrel of a Spinfit spins around the outer silicon layer. The outer layer of the Spinfit is thinner than the poshest BE-LIEVE tips. The inner barrel of the Spinfit is more flexible but the same thickness as the posh tips. As you can see there is a significant height difference, but that doesn't translate into the Spinfits making the BE-LIEVE stick out from the ears, or fail to reach into the entrance to the ear canal. How does this translate into the listening experience? The CP145 have more bass, both sub and mid bass are more prominent, with more visceral effects. More air is being pushed around the ear. This airiness is also evident in the mids. The overall volume even seems to be higher. I suspect that this is due to the Spinfits being less rigid. Sometimes, I got the feeling that the micro effects were too much in my face. The upshot? What we need is a Spinfit/posh tip hybrid with the height of the Spinfit and the more rigid outer wall of the posh tip and l, of course, the spinny thing going on. Simple! The posh tips have a tighter bass. The mids and highs are more laid back. There is poise and control here, but at the expense of visceral bass. The track below has it all ; beautiful synth lines, commanding vocals and a raucous bass line to start. It became an excellent candidate for my evaluation.

Almost at the end of my tether tip exploring

Many portable audio fans swear by the Spinfit. I had to try it as I had heard so many people say that these are the only tips they use. The height is much more than the reds, but I was able to squash them in to pretty much the same depth. I've kept the CP145 on for the moment, as I think overall they're a narrow win! I'll try them against the RHAs next....

You get the idea? 25% taller, yet still a good fit - Spinfit is on the right

RHA Dual Density Tips

One of the KB Ear family recommended these, having been surprised (shocked) as to my preference of the CP145 from Spinfit. The RHA are the gent's current favourite. RHA tips? For an intrepid reviewer, no problem! I had some knocking around from a review of their flagship CL1 Ceramic and Dacamp L1. With great expectations I put these on. They weren't as good.... They weren't in the same league, in my opinion. The bass on the BE-LIEVE, when it's setup right, has sub and mid bass viscerality. The bass was not as powerful on the RHA tips. A BE-LIEVE track has rich mids; micro effects are revealed; highs are just short of listener fatigue(think here of cymbals/echo/intentional distortion). The RHA had muddier sounding mids; the sound was less defined, significantly less clear. The tips on the RHA were slightly smaller than the CP145, the inner barrel was much stiffer, the outer layer appears to be the same thickness. RHA tips start at £3.95, Spinfits are £18.95. Ultimately, the choice is yours. One thing I have learned in my week with the BE-LIEVE; they respond to whatever you are doing with them in an obvious way. This is both a blessing and a curse, because you may never be satisfied with your tip rolling on these! It is also a testimony to how much it is possible to achieve from these, rather special earphones.

Spinfit reigns supreme - so far

Sound Quality in a nutshell

The Believe is a seriously good earphone. The bass response varies widely between tips, but is a big feature of the IEMs. It benefits from silicon tips. I felt that the bass was too overwhelming with the comply foam tips. There is some visceral air being pushed around the ear, even with the silicons. That said, the bass was still pretty fast and accurate. I wasn't aware of much bleeding into the mids. The mids and highs sound very clear. The subtle parts of the mix, often lost in other earphones, are fairly easy to pick out. Particularly, percussion is both louder and more realistic sounding than other earphones I compared these too. Only one comparable earphone gave a mid response with more accuracy, at the expense of having less bass response than the Believe.

Are you becoming a BE-LIEVER?

Fit build and cosmetic appeal

KB EAR gave me a decent fit with their entry model, the Lark. These beryllium beauties are a quantum leap from their more humble brothers. The design should go under the flaps of the outer ear of most people. I am now about to get technical, so, stay with me here, you're going to learn something... There are 4 chambers we are concerned about when we put our IEM towards the entrance to the ear canal(that bit is called the external auditory meatus). The cavum is the bottom chamber, the dividing bit is the helix crus, and the top chamber is the cymba. There is a semi circle of cartilage you need to fix the IEM under, to lock it into place. The cartilage that sits to the right of the cavum is the antitragus. For the top bit, the cymba part, that bit is called the antihelix. There now - you haven't wasted your life reading this; you've been educated! Science aside, just how many manufacturers are ignoring all these locking points and just shoving double flanged tips on, or making the IEMs tiny so as they just shove into the ear canal? It's a bone of contention with me. The Sony, Etymotic and ACS mentioned above do not have that ergonomic fit. The newer KB EAR and NF Audio are the correct way forward. They are both trying valiantly to work with the ear's contours, not against them. The result is a nicer looking and a more comfortable fitting earphone. With more of the outer ear covered, there is more opportunity for isolation. With a larger shell, there is less chance of microphonics, that annoying audible thud that comes up through the cable and terminates at the nozzle. Did you know? The Spinfits can add to the luxury of a decent fit too. The inner barrel twists as you turn the shells in your ear, making for an even more precise fit. This is what the Believe looks like in situ.

Technical stuff - KB EAR know what they're doing

The finish of an IEM is important. We buy with the eye, like it or not. Of course, I want to think that you have a little read here to see what the thing performs like, but nevertheless. An IEM that looks nice will sell better than an IEM that looks ghastly. Other than if it has Apple written on it. The Believe not only looks the part, with it's holographic styling, smooth curves, soft copper twin braided cable with a beaded plastic chin strap, a posh as possible jack and 2 pin termination; it also has that practical benefit of staying in the ear without too much effort. I'd prefer a QDC connector, less of a metal termination on the 2 pin, and a right angled jack. I'm being ultra critical here, just to keep you on your toes. It's what I do. I need to point these things out, so you don't have to worry about them. The sensitivity of the BE-LIEVE shouldn't be in question, not at 17 Ohms. Yet, in my Astell & Kern AK380, which is a pretty powerful DAP, being a former flagship, I set my volume at 75-80 in everyday use. I think these IEMs need a DAP to be at their best, and a decent one at that. Something that can throw a bit of power around. Don't put it in a 100W integrated; I'm not saying that. Just something more than your average phone can produce. The BE-LIEVE deserves better.

Showing cable, tips, termination and vents

Conclusion

I hope that KB EAR can find the evidence they seek, and quieten down any dissenters that question the purity of the Beryllium content. Beryllium is a big draw for an IEM and I understand that the Company don't want to lose the trust of their followers. Let us not forget though; these IEMs are pretty special, no matter what they're made from. As a stepping stone to a Custom In Ear Monitor or an upgrade from the sub £100 bracket, of which there are some truly great bargains to be had, I am confident that you would see yourself as advancing your appreciation of your favourite tunes, if you put your faith in the quality that is oozing from every pore of the KB EAR BE-LIEVE. Just....Believe

Thank you for getting this far -I've had a good time


I hope you found what you wanted in
this posting of mine. Stay tuned, I don't think we've heard the last from KB EAR, they're going places


Til the next time


Takeanidea


The Geekologist


Team Subjective

CCA CX10, at all good shops now

CCA are no strangers here. They have crossed my path on a few occasions now. I have dissected a C4, C10, C10 Pro, and a C12. There were parellels to be drawn from all models. All are hybrids. All are cheap for what they offer. All have cheap, bland packaging and bare bones for accesories. There are no frills to be had here. The romance only happens when you push the shells into the ears. I hasten to say, that is not the case for the CCA C4. That was not a great experience. It was too bassy and screechy, and cost about the price of a chocolate bar. Nay, nay and thrice nay! We must push ourselves up the ladder slightly to get a feel for something with some quality.


They sent me these as a review model so I've not paid for them. CCA do 2 different one's - the CX4 and CX10. The 4 being based on the CCA C4 and the 10 on the CCA C10. Needless to say, I have avoided the CX4. I want to give you, kind reader, the chance to experience, at least vicariously, something worth reading about. Perhaps even, something worth a punt. In other words, you might be here because you might want to take the plunge into the icy waters of the Truly Wireless. I can tell you already that you won't be wasting your time here. I'll let you into a secret already ; the CX10 is a TWS worth your time. It is a TWS of it's time, and, for me, the TWS has come of age. At least for specific uses.

Unboxing

Very Important


I must confess to being an utter idiot! When the package arrived, I hurriedly set ot work on it. I have a couple of TWS buds already, so I couldn't imagine there being much difference between at least getting them to work. I had a brief look at the booklet supplied and put the CX10s to work. Nothing. Nowt! They are supposed to instantly go into pairing mode once taken from the case at the same time. No sound, no sign of led. It looked very much like a DOA. After 5 minutes of scratching my head I looked more carefully at the buds. They had almost see through tape over the connecting pins at the back of them. There was no connection reaching the buds and the bluetooth was not going to work like that! I peeled the tape off, put them back in the case and sure enough, on came the lights and the sweet Chinese lady started to whisper in my ear. Then it all went wrong again. The buds would stay on for a second and powered off. So near, and now I was failing again! Sensing a battery issue, I put them back in the case for an hour. Although the buds appeared to stay green throughout this process, clealrly they had run out of charge. After 15 minutes in the case I put them back on and, within a minute, low battery warning was being spoken to me. Please be aware that you are likely to come across the same problem if you buy these. I couldn't find any mention that there was tape to remove and it's quite difficult to see.


The only lights that you get are inside the charging box. This is the same on my 2 other TWS items. Nevertheless it's a pain. It means you have to trust that recharging is taking place. As expected the charging box will recharge the buds several times(4), and a usb charging cable is supplied for the box. The quoted battery life is 4 hours for the buds, in practice it will be much less, depending on the volume, the codec, the quality of the signal etc.




Once out of the box and in pairing mode, it's fairly easy to set up the CX10. I would force the phone to accept AAC, rather than SBC, when prompted that there could a problem with connectivity. So many useful tips for you! In truth, SBC is a poor audio quality codec. It requires much less power to run a stable coonection with, so your phone likes that and selfishly wants it. Bad phone! Naughty phone! I found that AAC is noticeably better sounding. You should not get dropouts from the CX10 if you put your phone in your pocket or are holding it in your hand. Therefore the near lossless AAC codec is for you. The lack of the aptX or LDAC codecs is not a cheapskate move on the part of CCA. Bandwidth is extremely limited on a TWS because the left carries all the information and it has to use a chunk of engine power to sync with the right bud and keep that connection strong. There's not much left over to give us that magical sound we all crave. Thankfully, the sound should be good enough using the twin weapons of AAC and Bluetooth 5.0. The newest Bluetooth tech has much better signal and stability than 4.2, so we are good.


Ok, so here you see a few of the photos regarding the fit. I think you'll agree, they look pretty well squashed in for a set of universals. I have been on a weeks worth of runs with the CCA. Nothing more than an initial adjustment was needed. The rest of the time I was able to concentrate fully on the pain of the run itself...

Sound Quality

I am a fan of the CCA C10 sound. It has bass, whilst not particularly tight, it is pleasant without being ridiculously bloated, and forcing the mids and highs to be turned up in competition, or, worse still, to be muffled and distant. There is a smoothness to the standard C10; so much so that I prefer it to the shinier, punchier C10 Pro. I am pleased to say that, if anything, the CX10 is an improvement on the C10. We have a slightly thinner, tighter bass but the refinement of the mids and highs is still there. I would be pleased if I was to purchase these as an equivalent priced wired model, that's how good they are! I never expected to say that for a TWS, certainly not this early on in the evolution of this genre. It took a budget king like CCA to do it. The sound stage is believably wide. I would be happy to recommend the CX10 for everything from Classical to Club; whilst I'm not a clubber, Eric Prydz' Count on Me conveyed all the excitment necessary. The volume goes to dangerous levels, even when out on the run. The isolation achievable should be enough for relatively quiet listening volumes. It's worth pointing out here that there is no volume adjustment on the gesture control; luckily there is a safety feature here. The CX10, on start up, will be at the 60% volume level. That should be more than enough on a standard walk or commute.

Vs. HiFiMan TWS600 & 800

I have 2 other models to compare the CX10 to.


The TWS600 retails for $49


and the 800 at $299


Sorry HiFiMan. Sound quality loses to the CX10 for both models. Bass in punchier than both the bass light 600 & 800. Detail(this could even be described as clarity) is slightly better on the 600 and slightly worse on the 800, which has been rolled back in the highs compared to the 600. On the 600 the sound signature is bass light, thin and sometimes screechy. This can be toned down with Sony Hybrid tips, but you'll still hear it. Foamies can muffle out some of the detail on the 600 and add some bass, and foamies are an absolute must on the 800 for a half decent bass, but you can do fine with the cheap tips supplied with the CX10 to get a decent all round sound from them. And that's before we even start on the fit issues with the HiFiMan TWS models. I need silicon wings to keep the 600s in, and after 5 minutes of running with the 800s, they're determined to shoot free, especially when they sense a busy road they can drop onto....

Conclusion

There are many erphones on the market. Some look good, but don't deliver. Some look awful, but sound good. Some are for specific tasks, (TWS, for exercising) and fail to do it properly. Some are built poorly or are unreliable. Some fit, but many don't fit well at all. I could go on and on. I often do, that's why this site is chock full of success and failure. Whoever is moving this brand, CCA, forward, is doing a very good job indeed. What criticism I can find of the CX10s are very few; the charging lights aren't very reliable, as they always seem to be on green for the buds. The battery life is small in use; perhaps 3 hours or so using a decent codec and moving about at normal volume levels, the case and box are cheap and cheerful. Everything else, in other words, the important stuff, like sound, fit, connection and looks; all of those can be given a cheerful thumbs up. 5 stars unreservedly from me. CCA has done us hifiers proud once again, and long may this honeymoon period last!

BLON BL-01 Budget beating blockbuster


Coiled and ready to pounce

Blon are a company with a steadily building reputation for value for money IEMs. They have been going since 2014, and are, you guessed it, a Chinese company. It seems most things come from that corner of the globe and head into the hands of the subjectivist.
With many thanks from our suppliers, I have the 2nd BLON product to come into our offices; the BL-01. Why 01 is after the BT-03 model is a mystery to me, in much the same way as most Chinese companies seem to name their respective models.

BL-01, showing super shine and memory wire

The BL-01 is part of a huge market. The 01 model retails at an incredibly low $24.99 on Amazon. When I think of the rubbish that was out there at that price level some 2-3 years ago compared to now... Anyway, a few technical things about the 01. It has a low impedance - 16 Ohms, a reasonably low sensitivity of 102 dB and a reasonable frequency range of 20-20 Khz. I say reasonable; there is nothing ground breaking in the latter 2 figures, but with 102 dB and a decent isiolation, an earphone should be loud enough to work ok in a smartphone or a small dap. The frequency response will go below and above the audible threshold for any human being. Google agrees : "While 20 to 20,000Hz forms the absolute borders of the human hearing range, our hearing is most sensitive in the 2000 - 5000 Hz frequency range". So far so good.
The audio set up of these is that they are a single driver design. There is a tiny port for bass purposes. Single driver designs just won't go away. They work very well if only a decent driver is used, in a decent housing, with decent cabling and a sensible tuning. Although I am told that crossover distortion is less of an issue in IEMs, nevertheless, any chance of interference between drivers is eliminated if you only have one...
The design of the 01 is an around the ear design. Exercise fanatics take note ; this means that it might be possible to take these for a run or in the gym, without 1. pulling out of the ears, or 2. being unlistenable due to cable noise, wind noise or outside noises. The earphones take a qdc cable. Again, a step forward for the portable user, because the qdc is a stronger, tighter and more reliable connection than could be obtained using the old mmcx or 2 pin variety. I explain more in the YouTube vid.....


Within which there are things that be not part of this written piece - like EXCLUSIVE content

Memory wire, clearly but discretely marked L and R plug satisfylingly easily into the usual jewel like appearance of the shells. The cable is a twisted braid type, and is stronger than the cheaper looking fixed cables on the BT-03 that I have. What else? Well, there's a right angled 3.5 jack, I have a single button hands free cable, or, for the same price, you can have a non mic version. The shells are an ergonomic design, and you can get an idea of the fit in the video. The tips supplied are grey silicon and there are 4 types. I needed the ML size. I changed the M ones that were fitted as standard. The cables are replaceable, so not only will the diehard cable swappers be satisfied, but the 01's can be used with one of the QDC bluetooth cables that are now available for pretty darn cheap. I bought myself a rather lovely looking balanced (2.5mm) cable, so I can have the benefit of using the (arguably) superior balanced outs on my Fiio M11 and AKG AK380 DAPs. Ooh, and 1 more thing ; you get a cord bag with these..... Let's send you another pic to capture all this

The contents

We've whipped through all the theory, so how does it add up in practice? BLON have made some good headway. THe 01 slipped comfortably into my ears ; the shells are heavy, as is typical of BLON, but the memory wire, shells and tips all serve to lock the earphones into place, and will hold their own when on the move. The wind noise doesn't easily find it's way into the ear canal because the shells have been streamlined in anticipation. The shells fit into most of my ear, so a reasonable isolation results. Microphonics, the noise that comes from the cable hitting your body when you're out and about, is pleasantly minimal. The 1 touch button does it's job. It plays and pauses the music with 100% efficiency and yet...I just wish we had the 3 button cable that the BT-03 has. With the BT-03 you get volume up and down, play/pause and back/next. The 01 is audibly better than it's older cousin but does not have the practical benefits. I should add that I can't even plug either directly into my Xiaomi 3 5G smartphone. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when either cable worked through my USBC-3.5 adapter. Now that was £7 well spent....

Not sure about the phrase, but the shells look mighty fine on opening the box

The sound is a revelation for $25. The bass response is decent. It's fast, it's accurate. Linear bass. The bass decays quickly enough that it doesn't bleed into the mids. The mids have a good vocal presentation, which means that the vocal, or main instrument, is easy enough to follow. The highs are pushed forward. They sit below the pain threshold that initially sounds exciting and dynamic but in time becomes fatiguing and makes one reach for the volume control, or , even worse, switching the music off. For some of you that are sat on the fence and musing still over the 01, let me tell you ; these make take some time to adjust to their personality if you are used to bassier IEMs. Perseverence will pay off. These have a pedigree that put them well above their asking price. I expect even more from BLON during the course of this and next year.

The time has come. Never before has a headphone received such bad publicity before it has been officially released. For the reasons why, we need to open our history books. Let me tell you a story....

Sony MDR-R10

Some 30 years ago, Sony was at it's creative peak. It released a flagship Headphone. That headphone was the MDR-R10. The launch date was 1989 and just 2000 were made. The limited numbers are just 1 of the elements that have combined to create an almost mythical status to these cans. The headphones had a distinctive appearance. The cups were extremely large. They were wooden. In fact, the wood was taken from a 200 year old tree, Japanese Selkova tree. The tree is revered in the Far East. There are some of these trees still with us after 1000 years. Arguably the first example of a headphone designed using predominantly computer based technology, they were uniquely angled. They start as a dome shape but are flat on the edges. A picture will be the best description here.









They had a closed back design, whereas their closest competition at the time considered open cup designs were the only suitable option for flagships. The AKG K1000, launched the same year, was an attempt to make the most open sounding headphones yet produced. 2 other flagships of the time, the Stax Sigma Pro (1987)and the Sennheiser HE-90 Orpheus(1991) were electrostatic headphones, although Stax felt their product so unique they called it an earspeaker.

No one else put a bio cellulose driver in their phones. At least at the time, Sony's driver appeared in only a handful of their top designs. Perhaps the implementation of the drivers in this instance has established the MDR-R10 firmly into the history books as one of the best headphones ever made. Sadly, to date, these are 1 of the few flagship's I've never experienced. In all my travels I've never seen 1. I'm acquainted with 1 owner in England. Perhaps, after the Pandemic, I will finally get a chance.

Sony made their 2000 MDR-R10's, and sold them all for what was at the time a pretty steep $2500. The patent on the design expired a long time ago. The cup shape (near enough) made a welcome return with the launch, quite recently(2017) of the Sony MD-Z1R.



The conical shape certainly has overtures to it's older cousin, don't you think? This is the closest anyone has gone in recreating that highly unusual look. Until now....


The HiFiMan HE-R10

The wooden cups and the flattened ends are back! HiFiMan have taken a 1989 design ( which looked retro back then) and reintroduced it in 2020. It is a daring move. It has sparked an outcry. The alleged "blatant copying" of a cherished memory has caused a small contingent of headphone purists to turn on HiFiMan in an alarming turn of events. Notwithstanding the obvious allusions to their original counterparts, are there any further similarities?

HiFiMan have made 2 versions of the HE-R10. There were 2 iterations of the MD R-10, the bass light and the normal version. However, Sony produced the MD R-10, and not a version 1 or 2. It is only with careful research that either version would be differentiated. The driver, cup and tuning is the same as far as I can ascertain. It is only a subtle change in materials that have altered the sound signature.

The retail price remained unaffected by any changes made. HiFiMan have a "cut price" R-10, when released officially it is rumoured to be $1500. That model is the D. D standing for the implementation of a dynamic driver. The MD R-10's bio cellulose driver was also a dynamic, but, it is entirely different from the HiFiMan dynamic. For reasons I have not been able to deduce thus far, these types of drivers were used by Sony from 1989 and into the 1990's but have not been used since.



HiFiMan HE-R10D Review

The D has been with me for 2 weeks now. I received it and unboxed on exactly the same day, and at exactly the same time as the P version. I can show you that experience below.




You will quickly realise that I was a little underwhelmed by the HE-R10D. I listened to that having tried the £6000 HiFiMan Susvara as a base and then putting on the HE-R10P. The P model is $5500, $4000 more than the D version. Perhaps in hindsight, even though this was pretty much a live unboxing, a somewhat fairer match up could have been arranged.

Compared to it's more illustrious brother, the R10D sounded compressed and boomy. Seduced by the Planar, and with much of the outside interest being generated by the more expensive model, it's easy to see why the Dynamic had little air time for a week. With the pressure of a new release of this importance, and a sizeable number of eager ears from all corners of the globe anxious for me to complete my part, I simply had to spend proper time with it on week 2. And so here we are. I happen to have a dynamic headphone or 2 in the Subjective Review offices, (Sennheiser HD800 anyone?) and I'm not afraid to use them, if I have to!

To get a feel for how the D competes against its own kind, I happen to have a closed back Audio Technica ATH W1000Z. It has cups made from solid teak wood. It's impedance is a reasonably low 43 ohms and it has a high sensitivity of 101 dB The D and the Z share a lot in common, other than the price. The Z did retail at £1000 up until a year or 2 ago, but, where available, it's £599, or even less. At the time I bought these, I had 1 closed back headphone, the Alpha Dog Prime. I sold the Primes in favour of these. I've yet to be enthralled by any other full sized closed back, so the Z has been with me since 2017. I have several other full sized closed phones, but these aren't in the same league at the ATH.

I put the Z and the D to a duel. The Z has a thinner, more distant sound, with a less linear bass response and a less prominent sub bass. There was less visceral air being pushed against my ears compared to the D, which has a low bass presence that you'd kind of expect from a large cupped design. . Where the Z went slightly into harshness, the D was able to step back from the edge. Where synthetic bass sounds slightly annoying on the Z, the D was able to get some control. Taking the P and the Susvara away from the audition was a way to make me realise some of the qualities that the lesser model has.

Taking on the HD800 would be an altogether more difficult match. I have modded mine, and I've had the original pair, from new, for over 8 years. The famous wide sound stage is still there and I've managed to add slam and reduce much of the ringing around some of the frequency range. These are very much an open headphone but the retail price stands at £1099 which puts them in the same bracket, pretty much, as the RE-10D. The HD800 does outdo the RE-10D, it is simply a more capable headphone in terms of resolution, dynamics, sound stage, linearity. The D bested the bass response of the HD800. It has more bass presence and slam. Many of you reading this will not be surprised in the least at these findings. I should mention that the HD800 leaks quite a bit more than the RE-10, as we're on the subject of the bleedin' obvious!

What appears to be the conclusion from all this? I believe that the RE-10D performs well as a closed back, but...dont expect it to compete with a World Class Headphone. That challenge must be taken up by it's bigger brother.

HifiMan HE-R10P

The Planar version of the HE-R10 looks pretty similar to the untrained eye. A darker colour to the cups and a lighter presentation box hardly give the game away. The clue lies in the weight. Wow! It's weighs a ton! I feel sorry for the Knights of old in their armour with those helmets they had to wear. I know how they feel! If you can get round this; if you don't possess a tiny head(c'est moi); then you may well be in for a treat....



The P can hold its own with the open back brigade. There, I've said it. So much so that I have used all my comparison time between the R10P and the Susvara. This is the league that I believe the R10P is in. You may disagree with me. You may be enraged by this statement. But, at the time of going to press, I am all you've got. Others will follow me and all opinions are needed to form some realistic evaluation of the R10P. These are mine alone, and are influenced by my time being pushed down by the vertical force of these monster cans.



The R10P has all the ingredients needed for a special headphone. As well as all the usual technical stuff that we reviewers bleat on about incessantly, I am looking for a personality. I am interested in what makes this thing different from other flagships. The video below feels like it was made months ago.



In fact, it's less than a week old. I have spent many hours on these, both before, during, and since the Part II of my vlog. The P is a very nice sounding headphone. I hear visceral bass. It resonates just the right length of time for me. It doesn't interfere with the rest of the mix. Those cups do not appear to adding additional reflection; if they are, it only seems to improve the feel of the music. The bass will, I hope, be what people notice about the R10P. The bass from a closed back should be a different sound than comes from an open back. The bass has something to properly push against with the seal from a closed back, and an open back can often be heard as having a tighter, faster low end. Quite how much the wooden cups have shaped the bass from the R10P remains a mystery; whether some of that weight has had an influence is entirely likely. The feeling of the sound stage being kept inside one's head is a feature of these phones. The subliminal messages being sent by the clamping force and the downward pressure no doubt are contributing to this. But, is this a bad thing. The sound stage is precise. The image is really clean. That characteristic mid band thing that HiFiMan do, where even poorly recorded, loud, shouty music is tolerable, is present on these cans just the same as ever. Vocals are right in front of your face, and are distanced further away on the Susvara. I noticed when I swapped between the 2, that there was a subtle "squashing in" of the sound when I went to the R10P. It took a few A/B comparisons to understand what was happening. I'd describe it like a wind noise. The music's all there, and once back in the groove, it's not noticeable. The Susvara has that effortless delivery. Nothing is left out. The sound stage is wide but not surreally so. The bass is more preferable on the R10P, but the warmth and finesse of the Susvara does edge the R10P. I will say this; the R10P, being listened to, for an hour, beside the Wife while she was watching TV, and at that level of quality, was something I urge each and every one of you to get the chance to experience. Try that with a Susvara!

KB – EAR LARK HYBRID IEM HYBRID 1 DD 1 BA
$32


The latest IEM to hit the offices of Subjective, these are preceded by many many superlatives on many many online entries. I’ve done all I can to avoid the reviews and thus avoid the hype. I bring this to you being aware of the above but being ignorant of the reasons why and I hope this can give you the insight that you have come to expect from this site. Above all else, we want to give you our opinions. Regurgitating others’ views is not what we do. It’s not smart. And it’s not art.

I find reviews like this real easy. First the good stuff. It’s $32! What would I have expected for something costing that 3 years ago? I would have walked past. I wouldn’t have paid any attention to it. No longer, my friends. This end of the market is hot, is rife, with bargains galore. Tuning done with precision. Good fits. Good bass. And so much more. I spent some time with BLON earlier last week. That is a down the ear design, not my favourite, but it was ridiculous for the price.

But the Lark? This is surely the Lark ascending! It is an around the ear design (my fave). It has a chin strap (many don’t and it irks me). It has a very low impedance (smartphones are it’s specialty). And it doesn’t have excessive treble energy (phew!) I compare this to the CVJ CS8 in the vid. Both are unbelievable for the money. But, if you want a bit of excitement in your life, then, sorry CVJ. It has to be K Bear. What happened to K Bear? Suddenly, it seems like they’re collection of IEMs has taken on a rather distinguished look. May it continue to do so. There is a model called Believe which mentions that salivating material Beryllium. Maybe one day I shall get my hands on that…. Until then, if you want a bassy non shouty IEM and your ears are anything like mine, get spending that pocket money!

Introduction
Just how curvy is good? My first venture with Moondrop. During the course of this review I’ll discuss the new way forward in tuning hybrid in ear monitors. Stay tuned for further thrills and excitement.


With thanks to my suppliers Shenzhen Audio, (link to their website),the latest Moondrop offering, the Blessing 2, is now available to all and sundry. Shenzhen has sent me the Blessing 2 in return for an honest and unbiased written article to be submitted here within a fairly reasonable time frame. To their credit they have not expected to change even so much as one word and trust that I will do my best to give an objective and entertaining article as it is within my power to do.
Although by the time of getting this far you will already know that I am a fan there are far more things that I want to tell you about the blessing 2 than can be ascertained by a few ratings scores.

I'll try and make my review as exhaustive as possible and cover as many areas as I can but as always I'm more than happy for your comments and we can explore this earphone in as much detail as you need.
Below you will find a list of technical details presented in as untechnical a manner as I can write. You will find my opinion on accessories, build quality, cosmetic appeal and practical benefits. The sound signature is a big factor in this IEM, I will give you a brief on that. The relative sound quality is a must of course and this earphone will be compared to several others all of which are in a higher price bracket. I state this now because in my experience in this field I have not come across a hybrid that retails at this price that is comparable.
About the Moondrop Blessing 2

I have to give you an idea as to whether this will work with the equipment you've got or whether you have to invest in bigger and better to run them at their best. The rated resistance of the blessing to his 22 ohms, which means there is very little resistance. The rated sensitivity of the earphones are 122 dB, which happens to be very high. The good news about this combination is that you should get good results even through a smartphone or, if you have invested in a digital audio player, if it has a high gain function or if you are used to having it turned up quite high, please make sure that you have it set to a much lower volume and the lowest gain setting if you want to get the best results from these.
The number of drivers per side are five. The bass is dealt with by a dynamic driver which is considered to be the most effective for low end performance. Four other drivers, two mids, which are a custom make and two highs, made by Knowles are all balanced armature drivers. The official explanation for the custom driver that runs the mid frequency response is that this has been needed to ensure the VDSF Target curve, more of which later.

The Moondrop Blessing 2 as usual these days has a detachable cable. It is the two pin variety as opposed to the newer QDC or the older MMCX. There are advantages and disadvantages to all three types of cables the two pin appears to have become the standard for most of earphones. This means a ready availability of custom cable if that is your passion or even Bluetooth cable is available from several different manufacturers. To thin pins fit into the drivers and a great deal of care needs to be taken to not bend the pins when you were doing this and also that a solid fit is attained. This is just my opinion but once I have put the cable in, I don't tend to dress and undress it each time I wish to use it therefore I keep the number of changes to the cable at a minimum which lessens the chances of me causing damage to the cable, not that this cable supplied is in any way weaker than any other two pin cable on the market. I just want to lessen the odds of making a mistake.

The jack is a right angle jack, which keeps the cable nicely tucked out of the way when in the pocket.
Other materials used; for the faceplate, Moondrop has used a brushed stainless steel which they claim that you can sharpen your nails with and medical grade acrylic has been used as the housing for the drivers.

Accessories
To make this even better value for money, at least on the Shenzhen site, one can get the faceplate the left side driver laser etched with a series of options of drawings available. You could even submit your own offering, and see if they can produce it for you, to make a really unique version. Taking a look through the various options and colours available, seems yet another good selling point, especially at this price.


A large presentation box with an anime styled Moondrop girl on the dust cover. The inner box slides out to reveal a chinese logo. Within said box there is a large leather zip carry case, not too large to fit into a pocket, but large enough that you don’t have to ram the cable and drivers into it.


There is only 1 style of tips supplied, in a white plastic pouch. They are silicons and are in the small, medium and large sizes.
A pair of tweezers, an accessory I’ve not come across before, and several sets of dust covers for the nozzles of the drivers come in another bag. The tweezers enable a very small piece of film to be put over what is clearly going to be a very small surface and stops there being any chance of contact with your thumb or finger.
A Velcro strap to tie the cable and drivers together has been left in the box for you to put where you wish and has lots of length.
A warranty card and booklet is also enclosed, as is the airport adapter, for when we can finally get on board and start going on foreign holidays again.
Build quality/appeal/fit
It's difficult to find compromises anywhere in the design of these. The cable looks flawless. The double braided copper coated affair is well terminated with clear connectors, and has a very strong round black y split strengthener. My only criticism would be the lack of chinstrap to get that even more precise fit especially when out walking, or dare I say it, running or exercising.
There are no discernible microphonics displayed by the cable. The around the ear design, weight of the cables compared to the drivers and quality of the shielding means you should not be able to hear any vibration being fed from the cable into the drivers should the cable slap against the clothes you are wearing. The lack of chin strap mean that there is more cable movement than there could be.

The design that I received is the see-through type at the bottom and I really like being able to look into the workings and see how neat everything is; from the drivers, right through to the three nozzles that connect the driver shell to the faceplate. The fit into my ears is pretty much as good as you can get without buying a custom. The shells stay in place without there being any need to micro adjust their position to keep your music in the sweet spot. Isolation is above average, music doe not need to be turned up to deafening levels, the shells very slightly protrude away from my ears, so a little wind noise can be heard in gusty weather, but listening to classical music on the move is still achievable.
Sound signature/sound quality, with comparisons

Moondrop has developed their own form of the Harman Target Response Curve. The Moondrop name for this is the VDSF. For those techies out there, and those of us who hate abbreviations, this is short for virtual diffuse sound field. Any clearer? VDSF is a curved line that Moondrop has forced the Blessing 2 to conform to. It is what their engineers believe that most listeners will find to be the most pleasant sound signature. There is a lift in the bass and a slight dip in some areas of the mids and highs, so in that respect it is a somewhat more complex tuning discipline than Harman Labs have developed. I think that Moondrop has got something here. I found the signature to have a good bass impact without there being visceral slam, and a smooth mid to high frequency sound which didn’t pull the vocals into a blurred background and didn’t sound obviously rolled off in the percussion and echoey parts of the mix.
Vs. Obravo Erib 2

This has been around for a number of years. It is still on sale and retails at £539 for the aluminium version, shown here. That is over double the retail of the Blessing 2. It has lower sensitivity at 102 dB but higher resistance, at 16 ohms. In practice this meant the Erib’s needed higher volume. The Erib is a hybrid model, courtesy of a 2 driver per side dynamic bass driver and planar magnetic tweeter.

Using the AK380 Meteoric Titan DAP, no slouch as I’m sure all who’ve heard of this will agree, the Erib 2a couldn’t compete with the Blessing 2. The Erib sounded dull and over emphasised in the bass and lower mids. It was like comparing a runaway horse with a donkey that refused to move…
Vs. AKG K3003i

Another older model, but still available around the World, the K3003 was 1 of the first hybrids. It has 3 drivers per side, 1 dynamic (guess where for?) and 2 balanced armatures. It has a lower resistance of 8 ohms and a higher sensitivity of 125 dB. It needed the same volume as the Blessing 2, probably due to the fact the fit was a down the ear fit and the shells fill a quarter of the space that the Moondrop take up.
The K3003i was a more interesting battle. The AKG still sounds good, even up against the newer crowd. The bass was a little tighter sounding in the K3003. It sounded more realistic than the Moondrop. The mids and highs were slightly clearer, yet slightly thinner than the Blessing 2. 99% of the time this did not go out of control on the AKG. But just sometimes, there was a little too much high frequency energy. This was not evident on the same tracks using the Moondrop. Overall, I felt the K3003i had the better sound quality but not by a huge margin. These are on the AKG website for $1299, $1000 more expensive than the Moondrop Blessing 2.
Vs. Meze Rai Penta

The Rai Penta is the flagship IEM in the Meze range. It is a 5 driver hybrid, 1 dynamic and 4 balanced armature. It has a lower resistance of 20 Ohms and a lower sensitivity of 100 dB. It needs less volume than the Blessing 2, which surprised me, as the fit of both feels identical. The cables are different, of course. The Rai Penta has a retail of $1099. It therefore shouldn’t be in the same league as the Blessing 2. The Blessing 2 does not have the clarity, or punch of the Penta. The Penta’s forward nature, or more accentuated mid response, can clearly be seen against the Blessing 2’s smoothing qualities. In the same way as the K3003i, the Penta can, very rarely, overdo it when the Blessing 2 doesn’t wish to take it that close to the edge. Meze, you can breathe a sigh of relief. You have not been embarrassed by a much cheaper rival.
Conclusion

There has been a new standard set in the mid price IEM market with the Moondrop Blessing 2. I have yet to hear anything that can best it for the money. Pretty much all of the boxes are ticked; detachable cable, around the ear, near custom fit, customisable faceplate, case, good looks, sensible tuning with the drivers to deliver it. The lack of chin strap and the wind noise feel too minor and picky to take even half a star away, and I don’t do that very often. This is the epitome of value for money and should appeal to the ears of most of you out there.

HiFiMan HE400i 2020
$169 for a decent planar magnetic full-size headphone?
Introduction

The usual caveats apply; I'm a reviewer so I get sent stuff. HiFiMan have been very loyal to me and also to many of us on headfi, and we're appreciative I'm sure of the faith they put in us, and I'm also pretty certain of that some of the feedback goes into making their products even better. Of course, that could be why we have arrived at 2020 version of a good seller for them of the HE400, one of their baseline models.
The reason why the question mark over the subtitle is because $169 seems a very cheap price to pay for a pair of full-size planar magnetic headphones given that planar magnetic driver technology is more expensive generally to produce than dynamic driver headphones. What we will want to discover is is are these too cheap and cheerful to consider audiophile quality and where havethe saviour's been met to enable these to be sold at this price level?
Stay tuned and read on and I will give you these answers in very short time,
do not worry...

About the he400i 2020.
Within which I will describe both the technical aspects in as untechnical a language as I can think.
Firstly, you will want to know what the difference is between the original and the 2020 version. If the original has of the traditional hi-fi man headband has different cables and slightly different materials have been used to make the headband and and yoke and cups and cable. HiFiMan have recently changed their headband design and taking it from a 2 piece design at the top to a one-piece design which has created a more modern look. That's the first thing you notice about the 2020 version. The drivers are the same as the original. I will leave others to speculate on the tuning of the new compared to the originals because to be perfectly honest with you I've never heard the old version. Also I do these reviews without reading any other reviews I'm a products that I'm testing to ensure fairness and originality.

Most HiFiMan full-size products need amping to make them sound at their best. By which I mean don't expect a plug these into your smartphone and hear deafiningly loud music come out. It just won't happen. But, being a model in the low price range, at least for a full size headphone that is, the 400i can at least be plugged into a smartphone. Although it has a slightly low sensitivity of 93 dB, compared to an earphone, this planar magnetic headphone has a low resistance of 35 ohms. The corded cable supplied is terminated with a 3.5 mm jack. The idea is to be plugging this into either a smartphone phone, digital audio player or one of these DAC/amp dongles you can get. Low resistance and low sensitivity are not usually a good combination for getting the best out of your headphones by connecting them directly to as low and empty device has a smartphone but of course dear reader I will be doing just that and will give you my opinion on the results of that experiment.

Unboxing accessories build quality
As one might expect at this price level for a full-size planar, there are few frills within the reassuringly large box supplied. Once open the headphones, sans cable, are nestled in the usual velvet inlay. The cable is contained in the middle under a little plastic flap. Otherwise we have an instruction manual and a 6.3 adaptor. There is no case supplied with this model so you'll have to go out and seek your own or get a stand or do without.

I was pleased to see that my packaging arrived from China in a pristine condition; this is because it was double boxed.

The he-400i has flawless stitching around the headband has a decent set of cups, a reasonable clamping force, and at 375g is not overly heavy. I have a very small head but at the minimum setting they didn't feel particularly floppy. These have sufficient adjustment to suit many different sizes and shapes of heads.

I know some of you out there that were not impressed with the rather fragile feel to the surgical tubing style of the more expensive cables supplied with headphones such as the HE1000, and the Susvara. This one has a more robust feel and look to it.

These are good size set of headphones the diaphragm size of the driver's inside are pretty large for what I'd expected at this price.

Sound quality
Introduction
I was very pleased with the sound quality. For $169? You've got to be kidding! I'm a fan of the HiFiMan planar sound. The tuning of these, the size of the drivers, the clamping force of the headband, the quality of the cups, all contribute to create an experience which should leave the vast majority of audiophiles feeling extremely satisfied. No these won't compete with a Susvara. But they will hold their own with the Deva, which is a $299 Bluetooth Planar. the characteristics of the planar sound are all here. We have a fast bass response which is reasonably linear, and we have that crispness in the mids and highs, which doesn't get too bright or energetic unless the headphones are underpowered. The soundstage is reasonably large and of course we are dealing with some reasonably large driver diaphragms inside some good sized cups which have a good depth to them.

Sound from smartphone
As promised I put these into my Xiaomi mix 3 5 g smartphone. My first attempt was not too successful. The sound had to be put up to full volume and was not too pleasant to be perfectly honest with you. the simply didn't feel like there was quite enough juice in my phone to run these properly.
Undaunted I tried my UAPP app. For those of you who have this I used in bit perfect mode and tried some radio channels as I don't have any music currently stored on my phone. The attempt through this app was far better and yielded a less thin sounding result.
I then had a look at my sound settings and realised that I could configure the phone phone for a pair of full-size headphones and that achieved better results again.

I managed a passable sound quality at around 90% volume.
Fiio M11 DAP

I had this in the low gain setting mode at 73% volume. I used Fiio music player in pure mode, which converts all files to dsd. although just for fun I tried other stuff I felt that the fire M11 was more than adequate to produce decent sound out of the HE400i. The recording on the video embedded here uses the Fiio M11, for your reference.
HM1000
Of course this is surely overkill! The hm1000 is a $4500 dacamp. But it's very nice and I've got it with me so why not try it?

Of course the sound was amazing. There are three sensitivity settings on the copper DAC amp. Super low low and high. The he-400i 2020 needs the low gain setting. It needs about 60% volume to sound at it's best.

Supermini
A tiny little DAP. It has a very rudimentary gui, no streaming capabilities and cannot be hooked up digitally to anything. For those who have lots of music files on a microSD card who just want to listen to music on the go however, this thing is superb sounding.

It even has a balanced 3.5, which gives an extra bit of power even when you plug in an unbalanced cable. Who knows what DAC chip is in this one, but I really like it. The 400i works perfectly well on this device.
Conclusion
I can think of very little to criticise here. At $169 I see this as being a very good introduction into the hifiman range of planar magnetic full-size headphones and I'm presuming that they are are in at this price level to tempt you to part with more of your cash down the line and become a member of their Clan.

There will be many temptations with Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas just around the corner. for those not wanting to spend much on a set of full-size headphones this has to be on the list.

NM2+ Single DD IEM from NF Acoustics – mid tier ChiFi challenger



Introduction
The reason why it makes sense to read this review. It’s subjective. That ensures a certain level of professionalism and a modicum of tongue in cheek. It’s also a fact that I don’t read or watch any reviews of any of the product that turns up on this page. My words, my opinions, my original videos. They might stray from the other opinions out there, but if you read something at a later date that sounds similar to what I’ve said ; well, I’m flattered! I shan’t be sueing anyone to prove that I said it first, but believe me, I said it first!
Thanks must be sent out to shenzhen audio, the retailer who sent these to me in return for this review. This is where it’s currently on sale for. Ok, so it’s so new that I don’t believe Amazon UK have these. Shenzhen got these to me in a week. They will guarantee their price as to being the lowest and will hold that guarantee for 30 days from your purchase. That means if you find it somewhere else online at a lower price than you bought it for, send them an email with the link and they will refund you the difference. So, it doesn’t really matter that it might not be available in your Country just yet.




A Chinese company not throwing multiple drivers at a $100+ product surely has to be worth a look/listen. The NM2+, keeps within the current custom of upgrading an existing IEM, namely the NM2, which must have done well for them, but strays from the adage that more drivers maketh a better earphone. NF Audio, established in China in 2014, sent Subjective Reviews these unassuming silver singles and I couldn’t help but be a little skeptical. I mean, this comes a week after receiving the $40 CCA C10 Pro, themselves an upgrade from the CCA C10. The Pro is a 5 driver DD/BA hybrid. The NM2+ is a single DD. And it retails at $169. That being said, there are 1 or 2 decent single driver IEMs out there. The Campfire Audio Ara $1000+, the Sennheiser IE800, the Final Audio Pure Beryllium A8000, all of which I have had extensive time with, and all right up there in the outrageously good territory, and some, naming no names, in the outrageously pricey bracket to boot.

So what do you get for $169, that you don’t get for $40?

The Unboxing Experience

A nifty, sizeable box whets the appetite somewhat doesn’t it? What immediately springs to mind here ; the CCA packaging is a fifth of the size of this box. NF Acoustics must mean business. But what’s in the box?
Just the back of the box – but shiny enough to warrant showing you
Sliding the outer sleeve away to reveal a double box, which opens without any annoying tape which rips half of the cardbord away. Now we can begin to see that quite a bit of attention has gone into making the buyer’s experience a positive one. A distinctive cd jewel box shape on the left and a cd sized presentation of the drivers on the right. Needless to say, the NM2+ have replaceable cables.
Close up of the drivers
The usual instruction booklet, written in Good English, and giving a few insights as to the personality of NF Acoustics
A quick look at what is below the top of the box, again, well thought out. There is an artist’s palette of tips. 2 types, balanced and bass. Don’t be frightened by the word bass for these eartips. They are not going to make the NM2+ into bloated monsters. More on that later. Another welcome addition is the simple word, “balanced” and “bass” to show you the obvious difference between the small, medium and large versions of each set of tips. The CCA C10 Pros had some tips in a plastic bag, and the whole box took up less volume than the NF Audio’s tips….

The instruction manual on the left takes approximately 5 minutes to digest. You get a brief history of the company, their principles, when it’s safe or not safe to wear these, and the standard 1 year warranty. Underneath the instruction manual is a customised black denim box, with the NF Logo embossed on it.
Inside the case
Inside the carry case is a rather nice looking silver cable, and a 3.5-6 mm adapter. Let us now spread all the contents out and have a proper look and start to form some opinions.
Drivers, eartips,adapter And cable, complete with memory wire, transparent (and strengthened) 2 pin connectors, black plastic v split, metal chin strap (or cinch), velcro strap and black plastic and silver 3.5 mm jack.
The NM2+ claims lots of improvements over the existing NM2. Better materials, better sound, lighter weight, better moulding process and an improved cable.
First of all, the drivers. They have just the one colour, which is a small blue logo at the bottom of each shell. The brushed silver appearance is tasteful enough and shouldn’t offend anyone. In it’s lack of standing out from the crowd, it doesn’t have the wow factor of the $40 CCA C10 Pro. It looks a little plain. Of course, once the IEMs are in the ears, they disappear from view. IEMs are meant to be heard and not to be seen. How much time one should spend gazing adoringly at audio purchases remains to be seen. An earring is sold primarily on it’s looks, and once in, only the admiring onlooker catches a glimpse. How much do we shop with the eye when we shop audio? Looks are superficial. But they’re important. They’re also subjective. Oh, but that’s me too!
The NM2+ driver shells have other, aguably more important things going for them. For one, they are an extremely good fit into the concha part of the ear. The shape has been well thought of, and the fit surpasses the good fit of the cheaper C10 Pro. The driver shells have a decent bit of weight to them. That slight extra weight helps to sit the drivers securely into the sweet spot at the entrance to the ear canal, with little need for readjustment. Feel free, those of you who have taken these out for a run or to the gym. Your opinions are welcome as to their abilities when put to those more strenuous tests. I have not yet had the chance to do so, and have spent my time in careful listening contemplation. The tips, shells, memory wire, cable and chin strap all contribute to a decent level of noise attenuation. Isolation on the NM2+ is efficient and backgound noises are reduced down by a good margin. NF claims a 25 dB isolation level. Train and bus journeys should be manageable with these in.
The subjective fit, suitable for most good ears.
The cable is a good looking piece of kit. It has strength where it’s needed and the cable itself wouldn’t look out of place hung around a slender neck. The 3.5 mm jack looks a little out of place amongst all this finery and the black v split looks a little cheap and cheerful. Minor infringements? For sure. More on that lovely cable. It’s a 5N (almost impossibly pure) 238 strands of silver at it’s core, with a bit of oxygen free copper casing to eliminate any interference. The cable doesn’t exhibit any microphonics. These are unwanted vibrations on movement, where the cable flaps against the body and sends a vibration up into the drivers. This is something all too prevalent in IEMs for my liking. But it’s not here, so rant over. The closer one gets to a custom fit (see picture above) the better one can lessen wind noise. Wind noise, when out and about, can turn a £1000 earphone into a £1 sound. If those shells stick out, or if there is a gap anywhere around the shell and concha, wind will find a way in. As you can see, there is a slight gap at the bottom of the earlobe on my ears, close to the entrance of the ear canal. There is some shadow which is making the gap seem larger than it actually is. The seal on these is good. Compared to a standard universal IEM design these can hold back a fair bit of wind. But some wind will get in. The bottom of the shells are angled to get a better fit into the ear canal, inevitably that pulls the bottom part of the shells slightly outwards, so more of them are open to the air. My ears detect less wind than most other IEMs I currently own.
In most conditions, these IEMs go very loud, very quickly. They have the aforementioned 25 dB isolation, 18 Ohms of impedance and 108 dB sensitivity. The impedance is low, good for earphones, and the sensitivity is high, again, what you want for earphones. This means they can be hooked up to your smartphone. If your smartphone doesn’t have a headphone jack, not to worry. There are bluetooth adapters out there and relatively cheap 3.5 dac/amps or adapters, depending on the spec of your device. I have tested mine with both a USB C to headphone jack and a Dragonfly Cobalt Dac/Amp. Both fine, but the Cobalt is waaay too powerful for these!


Sound quality
All of the above; so far so good. We have the Subjective Reviews seal of approval. Technically, yes, a few niggles, but a strong candidate based on looks, design and price. But what now, dear reader, on the nitty gritty? How do these baby’s perform in a real World setting? We don’t do measurements here at Subjective Reviews. If a benefactor has several £1000 to spare and is willing to supply our offices with REAL GOOD gear, then yep, we will put our lab coats on and go a tinkering. And change our name from Subjective. Cos we will go all Objective on you. It’s not the direction I want to go in, I’m a lover not a fighter. So I suspect that this will be the way we shall stay for the forseeable future. I can give you my opinion on how an IEM sounds by shoving them into my lugholes and taking them out quickly and chucking another comparable pair in pronto and repeating this til I’m satisfied. I write the article, film the vlog, and you get to know. An incredibly simple process, but painstaking nonetheless.

Vs. CCA C10 Pro ($40)

This will be short. The CCA C10 Pro, with all of it’s hybridness and it’s beauty, is a steal at $40. But it simply cannot match the NM2+ in sq. The NM2+ sounds in another league in terms of a refinement, or smoothness of sound, in terms of separation, or how easy it is to hear invidual sounds. Of course, the NM2+ IS in another league in terms of price; it’s over 4 x the retail. Do yourselves a favour; don’t listen to something like the NM2+ if you aren’t intending to part with your CCA C10 Pro or similar. In isolation the Pro sounds incredible for the money. It is the usual story that you don’t know what you’re missing until you hear it! I have no criticism of owners of cheaper ChiFi; there is some great stuff out there, I’m currently putting other IEMs through their paces which are at the budget end.

Vs. Shuoer Tape ($129)

This is an interesting match up. The Shuoer Tape is an electrostatic hybrid IEM. It uses dynamic driver tech for bass and an electrostat for the highs. I am a big fan of the Shuoer Tape. This time there was not a gulf between the 2 rivals for sq supremacy. But…The NM2+ still won. The balanced tips offered me very little bass response and were a no no for my ears for the NM2+. If I had used the balanced eartips, I sense the Tape’s would have thrashed the 2+. I am usually reluctant to try anything which mentions the word “bass” on it. Call it a prejudice due to the days in HMV listening to mass market Beats and Skullkandys and the like. I have a distrust. Given the balanced eartips didn’t work, I had to at least try the bass eartips. To me, they were a revelation! There was even some visceral effect. Some air was being pushed from the shell and into the ear. The bass didn’t obscure the rest of the mix of the track. This is the clever bit about using just the 1 driver. There is no crossover to worry about. More on that in the vlog.


The Tapes have a good bass, but it couldn’t compare with the NM2+. There was a thicker, or more bloated sounding bass, which did creep into some of the frequency’s slightly further up the scale. The Shuoer Tape had some sparkle, or extension, in the high mids and treble region. They are quite captivating. The Tape has that sparkle that beats the NM2+ in the upper ranges. But the Tape has to sacrifice that for a slightly less detailed lower mid sound, in other words, the main part of the music, be it vocals or main instrument, are less easy to pick out. The NM2+ is rolled back in the treble region compared to the Tape, but has plenty of detail where it matters. The NM2+ sounds like it has more music inside those shells, whereas the Tapes have a sparkle, but alas, the windows are not quite as thick.


Conclusion
The need for a decent IEM that can perform well and can be compromised into something even more convenient (bluetooth, with a cable) is still with us. Long may that be the case. It will push manufacturers to make ever more advances. And yet, the single dynamic driver remains a potent force. Provided, of course, someone is taking the care needed to give us what we want in our gear. Namely, that is, low distortion and high enjoyment. I believe NF Audio have done enough to convince me they are sailing on the right heading. Thank you to all involved in this latest instalment, and please take the time if you have it to watch my vlog. I always try to include something differnt in the YouTube. As always, listen more and keep it real
Trev

CCA C10 Pro – the $40 Chi Fi Multi Driver Marvel
Tested against the CCA C10 at $38



5 Drivers $40 needs no amping
This area of the market is one of the most hotly contested, with every Chinese Company trying to find ways to outdo each other, to squeeze that last bit of value from their designs. This does mean that compromises have to be made. Something has to give. For a profit to be made, surely it can’t be perfect. Or can it?

About the C10 Pro
The Pro version of the C10 has the same number of drivers. It’s not a 10 driver model; I think CCA are being a little bit naughty, they’re giving the impression that this is a 10 driver earphone, in fact , strictly speaking, it is a 5 driver earphone. Here we have 1 dynamic driver, for bass, and the remaining 4 are balanced armatures; 1 for lower mids, 2 for upper mids and 1, closest to the ear, for high frequency response. The hybrid design utilizes the ethos that dynamic driver (DD) tech makes for better low frequency efficiency and balanced armatures (BA) can then handle the rest of it. The frequency response may provide some interest to any bats we have put there. It’s 20-40000 Hz, not surprising when we look at how many drivers are crammed into those shells. The C10 model has a different DD, a 110 mm driver. This brings the low frequency response down to a crazy 7 Hz. My hearing is middle aged. Discerning, dear reader, of course. But also diminishing, as the angel’s share is taken from a maturing cask of malt whisky. The bottom line is that I am unable to hear any frequency above 16000 Hz. The sensitivity of the Pro’s, or how much power they need to start working, is high. This means they need very little power. The sensitivity rating is 24 Ohms. The C10 has a high sensitivity but is not as efficient as the Pro, weighing in at 32 dB. What does this all mean for you? Both earphones will not need any extra amping, and can work well from all known phones and DAPs.

The appearance of the Pro Model compared to the original, is certainly an upgrade

A bland looking silver shell has been replaced with a black and gold flaked appearance. The kink in the shape of the driver shell on the C10 can’t be spotted on the Pro
The kink on the left which has been smoothed on the Pro The Pro above and C10 below
Having laid out my case on the cosmetics of the earphones, what then of the rest of it? The cable supplied oozes luxury, especially when compared to the thin cheap looking copper affair supplied with the C10.

The cable is shinier, the weak points are all suitably strengthened, The bad points? No case, very few tips, all of which are silicone, a d no chin collar, or cinch, which would help the fit to become even better than it is.
Outside noise is filtered to barely audible. This is done without circuitry, simply a case of get the right driver shape, get the fit well into the entrance of the ear canal, lock them in with decent fitting tips and hook the whole lot round the ear with some decent plastic collars.

Sound Quality
All very well and good so far, but has all the extra attention been put on the looks and has the CCA sound been overlooked?
I am pleased to say that the sound exceeded my expectations. Just as I raved about the C10 last year, I am happy to put the Subjective seal of approval on the Pro version. But… I don’t like the sound as much as the original. My preference is for a smooth sound an overall balance with no particular features shouting ” hey!Listen to me! I can do bass! I can do screaming guitar!” No. Be understated. Don’t throw it at me. There is an element of this in the Pro that is not there in the more refined C10. As with many things in life there are losses along with gains; the great balancing act. The C10 Pro has a wider sound stage,or a more open sound than the C10, and micro details are more evident on the Pro.



My YouTube presentation

Conclusion
The C10 is a lovely looking well made hybrid earphone. The price is a bargain. The cable looks great and works extremely well. The chin collar is missing, thee is no velcro strap to coil the cable up, and there is no case, and the danger is that these earphones will not be treated as carefully as they deserve. Corners have been cut, but I’ve seen worse ommisions in products costing a lot more.
The Pro sound will appeal to those who crave an exciting, “live” sound. A live sound is how I’d describe an earphone with what appears to be a boosted sound, almost as if more than one frequency band has been artificially raised beyond what sounds natural. Provided this is done with some discretion, a successful result can be achieved. I prefer, on balance, the slightly cleaner and smoother sound of the C10. Either earphone, depending on your flavour, are an absolute snip for the price. Gentlemen, start your wallets….

Introduction
HiFiman's TWS 800 have been sent to me as a review sample. I write this to you with my own opinion and nothing more. I have read no other articles on these as is my preference for all things I review. Other than researching the technical information and reading the instructions supplied I come to you with fresh ears, unspoilt by the opinions of others.



About the TWS 800
This is HiFiMan's 2nd TWS model. Their 1st, the TWS 600, is still on sale, and, if you're lucky, may be at a heavily discounted price from it's debut at $199. The TWS 600, and TWS 800, are based on the drivers in the RE600 and RE800 IEMs. There have been adjustments made to the tuning and (I believe) there may be a sprinkling of some magic dust on the TWS 800 at least. In the official wording this is known as a nano particle coating. TWS stands for truly wireless.No cables are evident, at all, in a TWS design. TWS earbuds have a charging case. The case for the TWS 800 will recharge the 6 times before the case needs recharging. The earbuds are charged by placing them into the left and right cradles.
The retail price of the TWS 800 is $299. It is a bluetooth 5.0 model. The 1st HiFiMan TWS, the 600, it is fair to say, created some controversy. Although it looked snazzy in it's alien egg shaped charging case, and was easy to use, the sound signature was considered to be thin and harsh. EQing naturally hid some of the blemishes; these do have the foundations of a pretty decent driver, but for occasions when that wasn't possible, the people suffered. The shape of the TWS600 meant that I had to readjust them constantly when I took them out for a run. In the end I came up with a solution; I found some old hybrid foam tips and some silicon wings that fitted around the outside edge of the shells. I managed to draw out the good points of the sound signature and kept them in my ears. The sound became vivid even when out running. Bass was still fairly light but with effort, yep, I could hear something happening behind the scenes.

Myself and a few others complained bitterly about our experiences. HiFiMan listened, inwardly digested, furrowed their brows, and set to work in their R&D department. From the ashes of the TWS 600 came the TWS 800. So what, if anything, has changed? The 800 has an upgraded driver. It is based on the RE800 IEM.

The TWS 600 is based on the somewhat lesser, but still pretty competent RE600.

I'm hoping you get my drift here. We have the brain of a $599 IEM inside the 800, but the TWS 600 has a pairing that reflects its price much more accurately. Having found this information out, I hope I too, have whetted your appetite. There is surely more potential for excellence in the TWS 800 before they are plucked from the safety of the cardboard outer.
The TWS 800 is not a plastic affair like the TWS 600. It's metal construction adds to the weight and prestige. HiFiMan state that the materials they've used will reduce distortion and raise the frequency response. The TWS 800 is an altogether more sizable affair than the 600. It has a larger bluetooth module and amp than its predecessor. The size has been cunningly disguised. The shape of the TWS 800 brings a modern look to the HiFiMan in ear range. The TWS 600 had an elegant oval shape. It was not a great fit for my ears. The shape doesn't conform to the contours of the outer ear and so it relied on the eartip having a decent relationship with the ear canal entrance to stay in place. Not so with the TWS 800. The shape of the 800 conforms closely to the concha, or middle part of the ear, the bit where you put the driver shells into.
The tuning of the 800 truly wireless has been done more sympathetically. There is now a less analytical feel to the sound signature compared to the younger brother. Technically everything is better inside; so although we have here a more fun and less edgy sounding earbud, we still have some finesse as would be expected with a driver that can dig out more detail.


Build quality,accessories & cosmetic appeal
The TWS 800 construction has been well thought through. The TWS 600 needs the right earbud to be switched on after it comes out of the charging case in order for it to pair with the left. Otherwise you just get sound from the 1 earbud. With the 800, as soon as you take the buds from the case, they pair with each other and with your phone. so far, that is 100% take it to the bank reliable for me. The case has a deeper recess than the alien egg case (which I love the look of) that comes with the 600. The charging pins will align themselves more readily and reliably with the TWS 800, even with larger ear tips on.

This is a picture showing the case and the buds in place and being charged. The blue status indicates the left bud is charged; the right bud is being temporarily recharged. In the centre and at the back of the case and harder to spot in the photo, are a series of orange dots. They indicate the charge left in the case. 4 dots is full and 1 dot is 25% charge left.

As is usual with the minimalism of the TWS tech, there are no buttons to be seen anywhere on the TWS 800. The operation of them is via a series of taps. 1 tap, the most common thing you'll be using, is play\pause and answer\end any phone calls you recieve. The more intricate stuff; 2 on the left for lower volume 2 on the right for more, 3 on the left for last track 3 on the right for next track; suffice it to say, on the run I find it a struggle. On the TWS 600 I was able to do this whilst I was out running. Who knows? It's probably just me. The taps do work; all I'm saying is, more often than not, the 800 thinks I want to pause my music.
As for the build quality, mine work fine, they're made with no issues that I can see. The bit that sits in the concha of the ear, the main bit, has the feel of a rubberised plastic with a bit of grip to it. I applaud that, because it's gonna keep these big things in and there's no metal to burn you when it's going in there on hot summer days, which will hopefully be back before we know it.

The box opened. Leaving aside the inner white and outer black felt at the back of the picture, we have the case, the warranty card, a bag of tips, a USB C charging cable and an instruction leaflet. I have forgotten to include the black felt bag for the case in this picture. The case is very shiny, and will need the bag if you take it with you, because it will scratch easily.

These are the tips supplied. The best fit I got was with the 4th set going from left to right, interestingly exactly the ones I use for the RE2000 Silver IEMs from HiFiMan. In use, if they were pushed too far into the ear canal I'd get a flex noise from them. They could be reinserted with less depth and would still stay in, much to my surprise. The tips supplied didn't give the impression of much bass at all. I had a rummage around and found that a set of Comply Foam Tips gave a decent amount of bass and were much more snug in my ear canal. The seal was such that outside noise was attenuated to near inaudible when on the streets. When using the treadmill I could enjoy classical music without being overly put off by either my flat feet or my breathing. With the tips supplied I found it hard to concentrate on quieter pieces of music.

The look of the TWS 800 is all about bling. It is shiny. Oh yes. There are curves where flatness could have been used. The case is a shining example of that. The smooth flatness is there to accentuate the look of the earbuds and it also serves to hide some of the fatness of the driver housing underneath. I am a fan of the aesthetics. Many of the portable HiFiMan products are a bit dated in their looks, but the TWS 800 are more in tune with what's happening now. As a caveat this is shiny enough that it is prone to scratches, don't drop them! The TWS 600 has that advantage. Yes, they have a plastic construction, but the case and shells on them are scratch resistant.

Sound quality
The shortcomings of the sq on the TWS 600 have been largely taken care of, thanks to the better drivers, amp, bluetooth module and housing. The lack of harshness and overall poise in the sound signature of the TWS 800 made me realise just how serious HiFiMan are in this new market sector. I can state that there is a definite hifi quality to these. The codecs that the TWS sector can accommodate are still lossy, SRC and AAC rather than APTx and LDAC, but in practice I didn't feel like I was hearing much less. When there were occasions that I was just sat down quietly listening to the TWS 800 during the course of the past 3 weeks I felt they could hold their own with their wired cousins, or at least not be trailing a long way behind them. We are not talking like for like between these and a set of wired $299 IEM's. If your interest is value for money above all else, then there are many more better sounding options out there. But take them out on a run, or take them to the gym, then you begin to realise what a necessary luxury the TWS really is.

The bass is lacking with the tips supplied. It is a shortcoming of the potential of the TWS 800, and I achieved a decent, tight bass response by adding some Comply Foams. With a reputation for a boosted bass signature and a dip in the upper frequency range. The mids and highs were none the worse off for this coupling but my ears were thankful for a touch of extra warmth.

Conclusion


The TWS 800 needed to be different from their earlier cousin, the TWS 600, to succeed. so have they managed it? To a great extent, they have. The things look better, sound better and operate with more efficiency and reliability. The case can get scratched more easily than plastic. The bass is too light without foamies and the tapping is difficult to get the hang of, when you're on a run at least. This is an altogether different kettle of fish from the 600. It sounds much smoother and classier, and can hold its own with wired models, not £ for £, but it sounds like something a headfier would be satisfied with, particularly on the move. Once you're out running on the open road the stakes are raised even higher; this is a decent sounding TWS that has eliminated any cable noise and has a great deal of isolation. It may even become an excuse to get out there for a walk, a run, a trip to the gym. If it does that, then your money has been well spent indeed.

Duna Luna - Omega Clarity in an IEM

Introduction
The Dunu Luna has been made available to myself and others who applied in the headfi loaner tour. It is, in the next few days at least, on its way to the next person on the Tour, the great @dill3000 and then onto my equally qualified friend @Ithilstone.
I thank Dunu for choosing me. I know there are a great many other reviews out there of the Luna already, many of which, I am sure, I shall look forward to reading in the days and weeks to come.
I haven't read any reviews of the Duna so far. Why not? Because I like my work and my opinion, to be my own. With the best intentions on the World, were I to read something from one of the giants of our profession (@Currawong immediately springs to mind) inevitably I would be already being led down a path that has already been walked. In other words, my impressions would be developed before I even opened the box. Thus, I steer clear of reviews before I get to try out the items myself. May my name live or die on the basis that this is all me, like it or not
When you read my reviews; they're all me. The only thing I will say is that I have to look at the official website of the manufacturer for the technical information that I need and you all crave. Yes, there is much marketing talk in such sites. Yes, some are more persuasive than others. But all are designed to sell the product they portray and in that way they are less of an influence than a more objective (or should I say Subjective) opinion.



The Luna
The Duna Luma retails at £1399 in the UK. IT can be found here

How much? Well, see here, it's all about this beryllium. It's certainly not based on numbers of drivers squashed into the shells. There's only 1. It's not about tons of different flavour cables. There's only 1. It's a universal. 1 size fits all. Simply, the material that this is made from is where the money is going. The metal (you'll see beryllium mentioned a few times in here) that is used for the driver diaphragm costs lots and lots of money. It is incredibly dangerous to make. So it needs a super duper mega tech lab with people in NASA suits and massive lenses and scopes doing intricate things that cannot be seen except on an atomic level. As you can see, my imagination has somewhat kicked in on this. Whatever the reality may be, this manufacturing plant in the USA is probably charging Dunu a packet for this material. It is incredibly strong. Like kryptonite. But it would smash kryptonite into pieces if they ever met up. That means you can stretch it into really thin peices. The thinner you can get something, the more responsive it is going to be when you push a force at it. This is why companies have been interested in beryllium. Focal's Grande Utopia uses beryllium for its tweeters. So what? You say. I answer, well, they cost £129 000....
The Luna is all about keeping things as minimal as possible to keep distortion as low as possible. A single driver needs no crossover. Crossovers cause distortion. The less strong the material, the less true it is capable of reproduction. There are other beryllium IEMs out there, but the PURE berylliums...I'm afraid they cost quite a bit more than the models that have flakes of the metal sprayed onto the driver diaphragm. Dunu state their cheaper models are semi beryllium and give you a flavour. The real thing is sat beside me...
I have had experience with another Pure Beryllium Single Driver Universal, having been part of the loaner tour for a certain Final A8000. Details of that can be found here


Unwrapping
The tour model comes in a box, without the packaging that would be supplied with the retail product so we can skip that part of the discussion. What we can chat about, is the content found therein. First off, a great big black leather bag.

He's nice isn't he? 3 compartments. 1 for the tips, one for the connectors, 1 for the IEMs. Clearly, once stowed away, the Luna's are bullet proof. Putting the Luna into the bag is rather like dropping a pebble into the black hole of Calcutta... It is rather a large Bilbo Baggins whereas the Dunu Luma is rather small.

Within said bag is a series of other bags. I will virtually scatter the contents of the boutique bag and you can have a ganders. Here goes....


The tips consist of several different styles and strengths of silicone and the complys. I wasn't enthralled by any other than the ones I settled on. I was quite surpised as to how much difference I got from using each of the different types, and not for the better, may I say. I dare say, if you can get your favourite tips to slip onto these nozzles, you may be in for a treat.


These are the connector jacks. They snap on to the end of the cable. What a clever idea! All bits and bobs catered for here; both balanced or unbalanced, you're sorted, without lots of extra metal diminishing the cosmetic appeal of your treasures.

A glimpse of the twisted braid silver cable. It does a good job and provides a decent fit around the ear. Let me show you more

Although my video will give you a proper view of the fit, the end connectors have been subtly angled to aid the fit around the ear still more. You can also see a chin strap in clear plastic. It's all in the details; the chin strap is hardly obtrusive but it feels right.


The velcro strap is the standard affair. I put it on to the tour unit because I find it so much easier to transport around like that.

There it is, all coiled up, in what is essentially a very small pocket's worth of earphoniage. Unless you are going to want to use that bag.

Fit, build, looks
The shells of the Luna are perfectly smooth, sphericly round, thin and tiny. They fit into the ear without an issue. The tips are the only sticking point. The tips, for me, were a compromise. They produced the best tonal range but certainly not the best isolation. They were somewhat loose in the ear canal. Adjustments were frequent and added a touch of inconvenience to the proceedings. The feeling of never quite being in the sweet spot is a plague of many an IEM.

The build, otherwise, is great. Everything feels rock solid, satisfying clicks are evidenced sporadically all through my video. Attention to detail is important when you are spending this sort of money. Bear in mind that this product is on a Tour; there is not a mark on anything. If you are sensible enough to wish to own this as an heirloom and want to use it for the rest of your life each and every day etc. I can say with confidence; you should be fine.

I was impressed by the Dunu Website's look at the Luna. Although it has been written rather more seriously than this here ditty, it is well worth a read.

I thought the pictures that they had of the Luna were amazing. I definetely have the Luna's; but when I look at them, they don't seem the same ones. When you take the moon out of the equation and it starts raining outside.... Oh dear, the lustre seems to fade. I hate to mention this; I find the cosmetic appeal of these to be lacking. The shells, with their almost invisible connection to the stalk, yep, cool with that. Otherwise, I find them a bit boring to look at. Is this because Dunu wanted to avoid alienating any potential buyers with a design that made a statement? At least I am not saying the Luna's look ugly. Says me, in my cargo trousers and t shirt.... Look, I'm not a designer! I just sit in an air conditioned office for a living, imagining I am famous for all sorts of reasons I just know what I like when it comes to stuff, and maybe as a reviewer of all these top products one can become desensitised to looks. I hope you all think it looks sumptuous.


Sound
These are the specifications for the Luna.
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 5 Hz - 40 kHz
To comment with any proficiency on this mind boggling statistic, only bats and instruments need apply. I am out.
TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION: 0.2% at 1 kHz
This is an interesting one. The IE800 has a THD of 0.06%. It is also a single driver IEM. The Luna's sound much more accurate to me.....
NOMINAL IMPEDANCE: 16 Ω
Combined with the 110 dB as shown below, the Luna can be played through a smartphone. There are some of you out there with those precious few audio smartphones. As for me....sacrilege! I used my Fiio M11 and the HiFiMan R2R2000 and HM1000 to squeeze whatever extras I could glean from the Luna. The HM1000 has super low, low and high gain settings. Dunu needed no more than super low.
SENSITIVITY: 110 dB at 1 kHz

Bass
Bass was thinner than I expected from the Luna. The expectation of a supreme bass master came from my memory of the Final A8000. They were incredible in the bottom end. The bottom line is important. It didn't strike me instantaneously as a resonating roar, and of course, then comes the creeping disappointment that objectivity tries desperately to avoid. Heck, I'm a (semi) professional! I gritted my teeth, and girdled my loins, and stuck with it, and waited for the real Luna to emerge. And, sure enough, the bass is there. Lurking, almost sullenly. It has been held back. The bass is accurate and has no bloat. It would seem that there might be something else which the Dunu Luna wishes to draw our attention to.


Mids,highs and sound stage
This is where the magic happens. The Luna's are ultra clear. The precision of the mix and the way in which music is portrayed.... Deep feelings of bliss over many many tracks! Wow! This is not an easy thing, showing up these subtleties, hidden fruit waiting to be plucked by the inner ear, that takes some expertise. Whatever they have done, Dunu has achieved something with these IEMs. Feel proud of yourselves, Dunu! Well done!
The Sennheiser IE800 sounds muddy in comparison to the Luna. I need to get rid of these Luna's, real quick, so as I can forget how they sound. I can then get back to enjoying my other stuff. Go on, Dunu! Be off with you! Before I set the dogs on you!
When you are gazing into the bottom of a pool with a set of eyes stolen from the Six Million Dollar Man, you can see everything. You can see all the mud and the Coke cans, and the crisp wrappers....The Luna has the cystal clear vision. But not all of my beloved music collection was ready for this forensic examination. When you are dealing with this much clarity, there may come a point when, like me, it becomes too much. This is the big league, and not every track is ready to be reexamined wit an HM1000 and the Dunu Luma's. It wouldn't be fair to say that the earphones were fatiguing, but some of the music certainly was.
The sound stage of the Luna was big, not quite as big as the IE800, but appreciably larger than the single driver RE2000 Silver's from HiFiMan. In fact, I concluded that the stage was just right for my tastes, and the IE800, famous for its crazily big stage, was artificially huge.

Conclusion
I have had a fairly long time with these IEMs. It was more than I had expected and I feel privileged to have been allowed to do so. I have, once again, not been able to give maximum marks to my review. There has yet to be a perfect IEM, even amongst the ones I have bought myself. I suppose deep down, there must always be room for improvement, and year after year, manufacturers achieve something new.
The Luna might be one of the most revealing IEMs out there. It shows its strengths in abundance, and they are linked with the holy grail of all audio; clarity. You have to accept less bass and let more music into your life if you want to fall in love with Luna. Push her too hard and she will bite youCompare her to your existing equipment at your peril.. I suspect many people would get an instant wow factor with these. I really enjoyed them, but perhaps the RE2000 is more to my liking, if I had to make that agonising choice between the 2. The RE's had a less precise sound but perhaps because of that, they were more forgiving, especially over longer listening sessions.
It almost feels like a betrayal of what we hold dear to state the above, but there, I've said it now. Whatever way you enjoy your music, I shan't take that away from you. I hope you've had fun reading this. Until the next instalment, I remain vigilent in my search for the ultimate IEM.