About the review
 
With thanks indeed to Joe of @Rock Jaw Audio for arranging a Grand Tour of the new hybrid flagship IEM , the Rock Jaw Audio Resonate. The Grand Tour is well underway, whether there are more places left to be booked is a debatable point in itself. If you are interested, LOOK NO FURTHER! Navigate to http://www.head-fi.org/t/834075/rock-jaw-audio-resonate-iem-the-grand-tour , see what you think, and send @Rock Jaw Audio a PM pronto. This and any other review would not be possible without the goodwill of the manufacturers. I accept that we give our time freely in return for a taste of the latest flavours. The market is always hungry for new stuff and as headfier's many of us are too. This gives us an opportunity to sample what's out there and bring it to you. I have listened to stuff hitherto I'd not have come across any other way and as hard as it is it's always an interesting experience.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
About Rock Jaw Audio
 
Joe has come back to the audio community here on headfi and has serenaded us with a new flagship for which there is this the first review, an impressions thread, a question and answer thread, as well as a taster for things to come pre register thread. Rock Jaw has no intention of being left behind by headfi and they've started the Year in earnest. The previous offerings, the Alfa Genus and Kommand and Kontrol all got plenty of good press. Unfortunately, as is the case with 1000s of IEMs out there, I've never heard them. A British Brand should never have escaped my attentions for this long!
 

 
 
 
 
 
About the Resonate
 
The Rock Jaw Resonate comprises the hybrid dual dynamic and balanced armature driver designs previously shown in the Kommand and Kontrol IEMs.  It is 16 Ohms impedance. It's frequency range is 20-20 Khz. It can be worn on or over the ear. The cable is detachable. There are 3 filters supplied with the IEM to colour the signature to your personal preference. Comply style tips are supplied alongside the standard types. The Resonate is a bullet shaped driver shell that will make a decent ingress into the ear canal, certainly for my ear canal, which by the usual standards is quite small. The finishing on the terminations of the Rock Jaw are strong , so these should last at least a little abuse. The 16 Ohm impedance makes the Rock Jaw phone friendly. The inclusion of a hands free cable facility is a giveaway to Rock Jaw's intentions. They want you to be using these on everything. Everywhere.
 

 
Resonate in use
 
There is plenty of juice in these, even through the headphone out of a smartphone, maximum volume is a no go area. The Resonates will raise their game when put through something a little more sophisticated such as my loaner Cayin i5. The volume is therefore not in question, and more later on will show my opinion of the sound signature. The fit of the IEMs in normal use is extremely comfortable and relatively quick and easy to achieve, both in down from and over the ear styles.  When taking them out for a run(surely the ultimate test for an IEM) the cord's natural position of not quite fitting perfectly up and over the ears began to show itself, and on my left ear the cord worked it's way off behind my ear and needed readjusting. I pushed the earguide under the lip of my earlobe and that kept things into check.
There are 3 filters supplied with the Resonate.  Each filter screws into the head of the driver nozzle in a few seconds. The 3 grades - Fusion, Emotion and Energy. Fusion is a middle ground or neutral sound signature. Emotion is a reduced bass and increased treble. Energy - my personal favourite, increases bass response and reduces some of the treble energy. 
Microphonics are pretty much non existent. The cord is thin and light and doesn't take much controlling. Any problems are taken care of with an over the ear fit. Isolation is not class leading. The barrel is pretty much everything that goes anywhere near the earlobes. Therefore there is a significant proportion of the ear which is left to it's own devices and background noise comes through relatively easily. Some may find this a good safety feature as a pedestrian negotiating their way through the heavy traffic of our city streets.
 

 
Sound Quality v Trinity Audio Phantom Master 4
 
I have had both IEMs in my possession for just under a week. I have gone through all 3 filters for the Resonate thoroughly enough to know my favourite. There are a dozen filters for Trinity! Who knows which one will eventually become my favourite? I have tried 4 of them so far. Of the 4 sets of filters I have tried - I prefer the sound quality of the Resonate. The bass has more impact and the mids and treble have more clarity than the Phantoms. Even on the emotion filter, where I found the treble energy was too much for the driver to handle and the higher frequencies were distorting, even then there was much to admire in how much detail was being thrown at you. The fit of the Resonate's is really helping the bass impact - the size of the driver shell for the Phantom's ; as beautiful as they are, is not helping. The Phantoms are trying their damndest to push out of your lugholes every chance they get. The Phantom's essence is of a fundamental move away from the hot treble signature of their predecessors. I find the old PM4s unlistenable with any of the filters because that treble always finds it's way through. The Resonates, compared to the very best money can buy, have a slight thinness to the mids and treble. Nevertheless for just over £100 there is very little to criticise here. 
 

Size comparison Resonate & Phantom Master 4
 
Conclusion
 
It was a fascinating introduction to a British Audio Company that are firmly headed in the right direction. Build quality is solid, an accessories package that should please most, including some filters that really can change the sound signature in a decent way,  a detachable cord cable that can be used for hands free on IOS and Android. The hybrid BA and Dynamic work well together, they beat the rather more bland delivery of the more expensive and flashier looking Phantom Master 4s, certainly to my ears. I wish they worked better over the ears for running although it may even be argued these are too good to wear as workout earphones!
 

Introduction

 
With many thanks to Matt Esau of SCV Distribution and @glassmonkey for introducing us in the first place, I had the opportunity to spend almost a month with the Fostex HP-A4BL Dac/Amp. This was a loan review model offered to me in return for a write up of my opinion on it. The opinions are mine and mine alone, I welcome other's views of course. So much so that it just so happens I have actually recorded a sound sample of the Dac/Amp itself and volume matched it to an Aune S6 and a Chord Mojo. If you wish I shall provide the link and you can listen over and over again to your heart's content. As I had to put myself through..... You  may find that your ears and your tastes put the Fostex on such a pedestal that you will feel compelled to part with your hard earned for it. Or you may not. That , my dear reader, is entirely up to you.
 

 

The Sound Sample

 
I will tell you what I found about using the DacAmp on a day to day basis for a little while and you can use this as a guide against some real world listening to it for yourself. The recording was made using a semi professional Art USB Phono + Analogue to Digital Converter which was fed by the headphone outs of each DacAmp. This was then fed by USB2 back into my MacBook and recorded using Audacity recording Software. The bitrate used was 16 bit 44.1 - standard CD quality. It was recorded as a WAV file for simplicity's sake. The track was a Vinyl Rip of Crucify by Tori Amos. It is track 1 from her debut album Little Earthquakes. The recordings , by their very nature, are lossy. They aren't designed to showcase the very best in Digital Reproduction and won't be of the quality of the original. What they will do is (arguably) show you the differences between the sound signatures of each of the DacAmps. Have a listen here.
 

 

About Fostex

 
The Fostex TH610 was part of the package and was a beautiful sounding headphone, more details of which can be found here. Clearly the phones and Dacamp complement each other.
My experience with Fostex products go back a way. I have been listening to Fostex TH900 flagship closed cans for some time now at meets and CanJams. The TH900s aren't quite my personal flavour due to the portrayal of the low end and lacking the airiness and crispness of open cans like the HD800 and HE-6 . But there's no doubting these flagships have gained a following. In fact, I ended up with a pair of Mr Speakers Alpha Dogs. These are modded Fostex TH50 MKI headphones. And quite a facelift they had too. The cups were bespoke 3D printed. The drivers were tweaked and the cables were replaced. The MK II models are considered not commercially viable to mod and Mr Speakers of course have moved on to bigger and better things. 
 

 
 
 
 

The Design

 
The Fostex build quality is good. Here we have a number options at the front of the device. They can change between the inputs gain and the Dac filter modes by pressing the buttons corresponding to the options. For your info all of my sound files have used sharp roll off filtering. This is how @Joe Bloggs explains my preference :
 
Sharp rolloff: your high frequency hearing doesn't go up to the Nyquist frequency (22050Hz in the case of 44.1kHz sample rate) so you choose to use a sharp rolloff filter. This way you get flat response up to the limits of your hearing and no audible ringing (only inaudible ringing at 20000-22050Hz)
 
So there you have it. There are other filters , as per pretty much every Desktop Dac/Amp I've come across recently. More information can be found here
 


On the back there are the standard RCA outputs , Optical In and Out and USB in. There is also a micro sd card slot.  Fostex have also decided to put 12V through this unit to push some of the more power hungry headphones to greater outputs than their predecessor. The theoretical output is now 300mW at 32 Ohms on the balanced input Ouch! A more conservative 150 mW can be had through the 6.3 socket. Still more than enough to cause a headache.
 

The Micro SD Card Slot

 
This certainly piqued my interest when I noticed the slot. My imagination ran riot. I had visions of a DSD capable playback system using a card with tons of music on it. I was excited to think what Fostex could produce, albeit without an interface. Of course, I was barking up the wrong tree. The micro sd card slot allows for firmware updates. I have a MacBook running OS Sierra. It didn't recognise the HP-A4BL. I've had my laptop over 3 years and this is a rarity for hardware. After a bit of head scratching and some close perusal of the Fostex website this is how you get the 2 devices talking to each other.
You need a Fat 32 formatted micro sd card with nothing on it. It cannot be any larger than 32 Gb. Download the firmware update onto the card. Insert the card into the slot. Switch on the power plug into the laptop. Switch off the power take out the sd card. Something like that anyway.
 

The HP-A4BL in use

 
The HPA finally recognised by my MacBook I got to grips with the various types of files I had stored offline. The simplest way I found to get these recognised properly was through the freeware player Fostex supply from their website. It is a decent enough sounding player to me and may be worth a look. The link is here to the Fostex Audio Player. There are lights above the push buttons on the front of the Dacamp which light up reassuringly to let you know things are nicely under control. No glitches or hiccups were in evidence with the offline playback. Online playback was another story....
At first I could not get the HPA to playback online audio at anything more than 1/4 speed. Very puzzling. Eventually I had a look at my midi settings in the applications folder of the Mac. The Midi settings had been put at 32 384. I put them back to 16 44.1 and voila! Everything working fine online. I go through this so you don't have to........
OTG worked beautifully. No updates were needed. I unpacked the Fostex and my Android Marshmallow using UAPP worked straight out of the box. My phone is a Moto G4.
Optical in worked fine. My MacBook's headphone input also doubles as optical out. With the usual limitations of the maximum output as 24 192 optical worked just fine. Some argue that Optical can produce less interference, so for you this may well be of greater benefit than using the standard USB connection. I couldn't discern any obvious glaring smack you in the face night and day audible differences between the connections.
 

Sound Quality

I hope there is no particular controversy here (for once!) I have supplied you with the means to listen to what the HP-A4BL actually sounds like. It sounds very much like this. If you are interested in purchasing this to further your listening pleasure and you can't get to a show or a showroom to listen to it then at least this is another way to get an insight. It takes several hours to get this sampling done right. It provides a souvenir for me  as a constant reference. Whenever I get a spare moment I can critically AB. It is much quicker than plugging and unplugging the various dacs.
These are my thoughts on the differences between the 3 DacAmps. If you wish to hear for yourself without being influenced, look away now.
 

 

Vs Aune S6 & Chord Mojo

The S6 is a smooth sounding dac that was a very enjoyable listening experience. It was edged out in punch and liveliness by the Fostex. The Fostex sounded rawer and less refined than the Chord Mojo. The Chord Mojo had a linearity and detail that surpassed the other 2 in my opinion. I own the Chord Mojo. I have owned it pretty much since the day it came out. I reviewed a Mojo here. I have had mine since October 2015. As you can imagine, I am comfortable with the sound signature and it will take an awful lot to convince me to part with mine in favour of something better out there. There are better decamps available - the Hugo II was amazing and the Dave - well, what can I say about the Dave? That is a marvel, plain and simple.
 

Conclusion

The Fostex was perfectly fine as a DacAmp. The balanced connection is becoming more prevalent on stuff at this price range and may be of interest especially if you find the sound signature is one you particularly enjoy. I still prefer my Chord Mojo. Although the Mojo needs all sorts of connectors and adapters to get things like balanced headphones working, for me I prefer the sound signature. Bear in mind also that, for the same price, the Mojo will run on battery whereas the Fostex is tied to a desk. The HP-A4BL is a great Dacamp but ultimately it didn't persuade me to put my Chord Mojo in the for sale threads.
 
 

 

 

 

Introduction

These headphones were provided to me in return for a full and frank review - for good or for bad. I share no affiliation with SCV and am not trying to advertise this product. You will see it around various Audio Shows and will get the chance to try it out for yourself. If you buy one and you think it's rubbish. Fine. Tell me/ us on here. the more opinions the better. But take it as you will, this is mine.
With great thanks to Matt Esau of SCV Distribution and @glassmonkey for introducing us and starting this ball rolling, I have another first - for me anyway.  The Even H1 headphones look like your standard wood effect on ear closed back headphones. But look closer. You'll see a 4 button panel halfway down the cable.  That is where all the trickery lies. Inside that box is the means to tune these headphones individually to your ears. It's a case of pressing the Even button at the bottom. Then press twice and a lady called Sarah will take you through a calibrating program which will last approximately 90 seconds depending on how old your poor tired ears are. after that, switch on the Even button so it stays Green. You're calibrated and hearing the best these headphones can throw at you. Provided you've done the test correctly. Don't worry it can be redone by pressing the Even button twice. 
These headphones were the evolution of the E1 earbud and have been possible through raising $2.55 million from some sort of crowdfunding enterprise. There's a sister company called MeQ audio from China involved in this and they have what looks like plenty of experience in the Audio Industry. Beyond that, this is an entirely new product from an entirely new company I had never previously heard of. Obviously not every new technology out there turns out to be exactly new when you come to investigate further. So that's where I come in....
 

 

 

Build Quality

The finish of these is excellent. Walnut wood housing is an excellent way to start your first full size headphones with. There is a shiny steel look to the connector to the headband which is a little out of sorts to the overall look of the H1s. I would have preferred them colour matched to either the headband or the cups. The cups swivel to a flat position and are easily transportable  thanks to the rather attractive carry case supplied. 

Otherwise supplied - a USB cable to charge the amp, a cardboard storage case with a cardboard outer and a double sided colour brochure. And that's your lot. I would have expected an instruction manual here, after all this is "ground breaking tech" we are talking about. It's not particularly difficult to look up the Website if you want more information thankfully. Beyond the investigations of a reviewer it really isn't necessary to learn much about this product. All you need to do is press the Even button then again twice in quick succession. After 90 seconds you'll probably not think about what's happening again. 

One more thing about the build quality, and this could represent an unexpected bonus. All the technology comes from a cable that is entirely detachable from the headphones. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? If you have a set of full size headphones with the right connections, what's to stop you from putting this cable straight into them? So have a look around because if you have a headphone that takes 2 standard 3.5mm plugs this cable will go right in no problem. It's a shame I haven't got any myself to try for sure but I can't see why there'd be a problem.
The headband unfortunately has a clamping effect after the first 6 hours I had them on. It's not quite enough to need to take them off, but your ears know you've had a workout.
 

Sound Quality

 
Introduction
 
There was naturally an urge to try the sound without the calibration. I'm sure everyone who gets this will have to try what it feels like before their headphone was transformed to their own EarPrint. The sound before was pretty good for a closed phone around the $200 mark. Once I performed the threshold of audible hearing test and I switched on the button I was extremely pleased with the results. In fact, I was more than a little shocked at the clarity these headphones have. Are my ears that bad that they need to be calibrated? I wonder what I am missing out on with my other top headphones.....
 
 
Bass
 
The bass is just a little bloated. It's not overwhelming in the sense of a pair of Beats, it doesn't quite have the refinement of my TH610s and isn't quite as visceral at the Meze 99 Classics. For those who like  little extra warmth in their tunes this should do nicely. I found the bass for me listening at home critically in a quiet room was slightly overdone. However, I'd take these out and about quite happily and play them through a Dap or a mobile phone. For such outings I'd be looking for that lower frequency boost to take out some of the rumblings of the City.
 
Mids
 
The mids was where I found these headphones revealing some grain to voices and some micro effects I was simply expecting to hear from a set of headphones this price. The mids are how I would have wanted to hear them had I been designing the headphones. I can't make a higher recommendation than that. 
 
Highs
 
I tell you I'm having a good time with these H1s.  I'm getting some width to the sound. There's lots of treble detail here but it doesn't glare and slap me in the face. I think they've got a good balance in the higher end. 
 
Sound Quality Conclusions
 
At first I thought this was simply a result of the Even H1s not being pushed with the right sort of music. I had been listening to the Classical Spectacular CDs all day.

 
 
I suspected that electronic instruments would perhaps be a tougher match. Queue some 80s American Rock. Cold as Ice by Foreigner Bat out of Hell by Meat Loaf and Legs by ZZ Top all confirmed what I thought was happening. Bat out of Hell can sound rough and congested at the best of times. The Evens brought out all the excitement and power of this, the craziest of all the road kill songs. These headphones are ready to go up against the competition. Even electric guitars cranked up to the max couldn't make these phones wobble. 
 

Conclusion

The Even Headphones are a great product. They are built on a good idea - the idea that you can improve the hearing in your ears in just the same way you can buy specs that make seeing things better. Hearing Aids perform a similar function but are so obtrusive that they are there to listen to the outside world. Not the world we can have to ourselves , in our own ears to the soundtracks of our lives. The Even H1 Headphones are the equivalent of spectacles for the ears. 

Fostex TH610 Headphones
Audio quality	4
Build quality	4
Useability	4.5
Value	4.25
Overall Rating	4.13

The Good :

Bass - in plentiful supply

Mids and Highs - Nothing grating here

The price - it's just been reduced

The versatility of a closed can

The finish - Walnut finish is very tasteful

The Bad :

Lacking the airiness of an Open Can

Meze 99 Classics are close to this in SQ (although not quite there)

On the fence :

Bass - whilst it may be too much for some on some tracks may be what some readers here have been waiting for all their life

The finish - some may prefer a high gloss lacquer finish

Price : £499 from HighEndHeadphones

 

 
 

Introduction

---

It is with heartfelt gratitude to Matt Esau of SCV Distribution and our esteemed  Glassmonkey that I have had the pleasure of a month with not one, but two Fostex products. This is all about the Headphones. After all, it's all about the headphones...



 
 

Fostex have a tremendous reputation in the Audio Industry, specifically for making high end closed Headphones is where I have been involved in them thus far. I'm going to go out on a limb (primates don't find this difficult) and say that when it comes to closed cans and a decent budget, you ignore Fostex at your peril. The TH900 continues to cause the wow factor at every show where they grace us with their presence. They now have a MKII of the legendary flagship retailing for more than double the TH610.



 
Fostex want to try and cut a sizeable hole in our pockets with the lure of the flagship. They are also eager to tempt us into this madness with more budget offerings. The Fostex T50 has been around for many years. The MKI T50 drivers were considered so good that they were the subject of some serious modding by the Audio Community. In essence the drivers were stripped from their housings, tweaked, and sat into some absolutely stunning enclosures. The most noteable company that spawned from this tinkering? None other than the creators of the Aeon and the Ether - Mr speakers.  We are now into the MKII iteration of the T50. The price has gone up slightly, as has the sound quality and the T50s alas are no longer as easy to tinker with to get improvements.



 

Beauty

---

The Walnut finish of the 610 is something to appreciate. Wooden finishes have been around for some time and will be around for many years to come, particularly if a certain company called Grado have any steam left in them. They don't look like slowing down anytime soon. I think for many people that wood has a timeless appeal and lends a natural feel to anything it wraps itself around. The finish can be the difficulty as wood has grain running right through it. Plastic and Metal can be finished as a perfectly even colour and texture conversely. Fostex have the finish down with the cups and they look great, even slightly understated to my eyes.



 
The leather bag supplied is in black. It has a luxurious feel and finish. It should prove effective at protecting the cups from the ravages of the outside World.

The rest of the headphone seems to be exactly the same as the finishing on the TH900 MKII. Nothing to really give you the wow factor, some fairly standard black cabling, some bulky looking terminations to the cups pleather earpads and a pleather headband. The difficulty of selling to so many different Continents is in working out what will not be a dealbreaker for people in terms of cosmetic appeal and it must be a nightmare for a manufacturer.

Build quality

---

The cabling is a 3 metre length and the cable is a tough nylon job.  Hi-FC (detachable 2-pin, rhodium coated) for the more knowledgeable audiophiles out there. It's a reassuring solid click into the terminations. It's pretty much tangle free too. I like Closed Cans to have a decent length cable on them because many people will be sat in their living rooms with them hooked into the amp whilst the partner is watching TV. Dependent on where said hifi is in the room that might be some distance away from the settee.



 
The Matte finish of the earcups the connections to them the housing and stitching around them down to the headbands are all fine. I would have preferred some nicer earpads and a better quality headband but I can't argue that the headband clamped at all.

Comfort

---

I found no difficulties in wearing these for hours at a time and the weight of these (375G excluding the cable) is not too much of a problem. The headband had no feel of clamping and once on there felt no need to reach and adjust the 610s until it came to the reluctant time to take them off.

Isolation

---

The TV at normal volumes in my house could not be heard by me enough that I had to turn the music up on these to drown it out. Obviously in quiet pieces I could still hear some of the action on the box the gains from being able to sit in the front room unobtrusively whilst my partner could do what she wanted to do.... They very much outweighed the setbacks. Very little leakage from the TH610s at below ear damaging levels. Harmony in the household - closed headphones can do wonders with this.

Versatility

---

Closed headphones can be used everywhere without disturbing anyone provided they are well made. That is not in question here. The use of the walnut finish could be slightly off putting for someone to commute with these. I'd suggest that the finish is simply too fragile to take out and about. No, let's be clear; these are indoor only. Doing anything else will spoil their looks quite quickly.

The impedance rating 25 Ohms and Sensitivity 98 dB and Tesla rating of 1 Tesla means these headphones will go very loud on any number of products. Surely not your mobile phone? Well , if you must , yes. Facebook and Twitter stuff and a bit of Internet Radio. I could allow you that if I had to.....

The TH610 will work through a DAP really well. From an Ipod to an AK380 the characteristics of these headphones will present themselves without the need to search for more power. They sounded incredible through my 50 WPCS Power Amp. This is obviously way over the top for a 25 Ohm Headphone which is exactly why it has to be done. My excuse is because you the reader need to know what these cans can do under the most intense scrutiny. Coupled with the fact that I have it so I have to use it.  In short, don't sell your Dacamps, your integrated amps, your amp modules or your AV kit. But don't go straight out and buy any for the Fostex TH-610s. They're quite happy without, thank you anyway.

Sound Quality

---

Bass

The TH610s have lots of bass. Think IEM levels of bass. Have you ever wanted something approaching that in a set of full sized Headphones? Then look no further. The 610s bring a warmth in the subbass and a slam in the midbass. The bass is not tight ; there is a slow decay in the lower end.  It's easy to compare the bass presence on the Fostex to it's big brother , the TH900. I see the bass as being on par with the Flagship Model. The pretender to the Fostex in terms of bass response would be the Meze 99 Classics. I believe the nod would go to the TH610s due to the Tesla 50mm driver being higher quality.

Mids/Highs/Soundstage

The bass does not swamp the mids I am happy to say. The mids is where I find that true quality can be discerned in a Headphone. This is where vocals and instruments are layering the sound. The curtain is either closed herein or the sunlight has been allowed to stream in. The Fostex has a rich clarity which is certainly coloured. The colour lends some weight and extra oomph to the music which is not at all unlikeable.

The depth of the musical image is what you would expect from a closed headphone. Fostex have not tried to squeeze too much extra juice from the highs and mids to create a large soundstage. Mr Speakers managed to push the old Fostex T50 RP driver and create a wider soundstage. Quite how they did this is down to some engineering skill no doubt. The effect could be heard in a noticeable hiss on many recordings on the Alpha Dogs I owned. The feeling is of an intimate gig. This is in itself not too bad an attribute because it brings the detail closer to the ear and vocals and instrumentation are easy to follow.

Comparisons

---

Testing for sound quality were made against the following headphones I own and consider to be in the same bracket.

HifiMan HE-6

 
Now discontinued and needing lots of muscle power to make them work to their optimum, the HE-6 has a linearity and a clarity in the mids that can be breathtaking. They benefit from modding from the earpads supplied to the taming of the highs using various solutions. The HE-6 is a superior headphone to the TH610 in it's linearity. Many will prefer the richness and intimacy of the Fostex. There are no absolutes here.

Sennheiser HD800

 
Another open headphone with an even bigger driver (56mm) than the HE6. The HD800 has it all, but with caveats. Again , there is a harshness to these that benefits from sparing a few moments to tame, Once done, it's a killer. No doubt about it. The super width and incredible tonality of the HD800 are putting it in front of the TH610. Of course, it's twice the price and doesn't isolate and needs working on etc etc etc...

AKG K1000 Bass Heavy

 
You can't get more open a headphone than this. Or perhaps a more quirky headphone than this. The AKGs were put out there as an attempt to incorporate some of the natural sound of a loudspeaker with the micro detail that a headphone does so well. To this end a swivel has been put on both drivers and they can be pulled out to a 45 degree angle. Bizarre? Confused? The end result is polarizing in the extreme. You either love em or you're wrong! Please excuse me I didn't mean that. But you can see where my affiliations lie. To compare the Fostex against the AKG , the Fostex does not sound as airy or have quite the magical clarity in the mids of these crazy cans. But it clearly shoves the AKGs out into the backyard once the drummer really gets going.

Audio Technica W1000Z

 
These are a recent purchase (6 months ago) and replaced the Mr Speakers Alpha Dogs as my reference set of Closed Headphones. They retail at £595 , around £100 more than the Fostex. The bass is clearly better on the Fostex. The mids highs and soundstage are a close run thing between the 2. I could live with either the linearity of the W1000Zs or the extra warmth the TH610 brings. Isolation on the ATs is marginally better thanks to some thicker, slightly better quality earpads.

Conclusion

---

I hope to have given you some insight into the Fostex TH610. It has it's obvious advantages - it looks great , it's a closed can with a sound quality that is comparable to open headphones costing much more. It has it's drawbacks - it has a closed headphone feel to the sound and the Walnut finish may not be to everyone's particular taste. For those needing a closed can without sacrificing the sound quality these have to be worth a listen.



 
 

 

 

Aune S6

 
 

Introduction

Thank you to Shelly from Aune and thank you to @glassmonkey. The Aune M1S Digital Audio Player
 

 
 
came my way and under the intense scrutiny of my reviewing gaze it came up trumps. It was really fast and sounded as good as many far more expensive players. No sooner had that gone than I got the S6 Dac/Amp, a desktop Dac/Amp commanding a mid tier price bracket and with a whole lot more electronics packed into it. I got 7 precious days with the S6. Before you think that is an adequate time to get to know a piece of audio equipment let me tell you ;  a lot more time is needed when you’re having this much fun and when there are so many things to try out. Honestly , I didn’t try everything but I covered the bases as well as I could in the time given, and I wanted to at least get to the stage where I could adequately explain the differences in the sound quality and signature of this against 2 other Dac/Amps I happened to have with me ; the Fostex HPA4 BL and the Chord Mojo. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Unboxing

The S6 was packed in a beautiful black box and was a heavy package indeed.
 

 
 
 
The term reassuringly heavy rings true here. Aune were extremely kind to supply a set of VE Zen Balanced IEMs.
 

 
The Zens are a homage to accessories. These VE people have gone crazy! There is every sort of accessory and converter included here. 
 

 
 
 
The box opened and my first touch of the S6. The all important first few seconds… The Aune has a brushed black curved appearance and is an elegant smooth slab of electronics.
 

 
 
 
 
A good first impression that I felt was sure to turn into a decent sounding piece of kit.   Included with the S6 ; a mains cable of a decent thickness but finished off in an EU 2 pin. I immediately set off to the shops and got the appropriate travel adapter. A shaver adapter would fit but would not be safe for dealing with this many amps. It set me back 1 english pound. The USB cable is a nice looking gold terminated affair. It’s well in keeping with the overall style of the main unit. 
There are many connections to the S6 ; single ended , balanced input and output, RCA line outputs, optical and coaxial input and outputs.
 

 
 
 
It would be nice to have had cables supplied as standard for all these options but this is not standard practice within the Audio Industry so cannot really be counted as a negative for Aune. At least what is in the box looks and works well. 
 

The S6 in use

I tried the balanced out using the VE Zen IEMs first. Well known for the $5 VE Monk in headfi circles, the Zen represents my introduction to the brand. The Zen is an earbud and I find them difficult to wear. Luckily VE have thought of this. There are 2 ways your VEs can fit. The first was standard coloured nylon ear cushions.  Those made the Zens fall straight out of my ears. The silicon collars got the Zens in exactly the right place and locked them in there.  
 

 
I put on Enya’s Dark Sky Island
 

 
on my phone and hooked up the OTG C cable supplied with my Mojo cable pack. The USB C fitted a treat into the S6s cable and the connection was recognized instantly. I was somewhat surprised as to how loud I had to turn the volume control on the Aune to get a decent level but when I got there…. The Zens are amazing! I was shocked at how something this bargain basement looking could sound so authoritative. They had bass and mids and plenty of space. A sure sign of a good sounding device is when you drift. When I find myself sitting back , closing my eyes and relaxing. When I can truly unwind and concentrate on just the music. That’s when I know I’m dealing with something worth talking about. The combination of the humble Zens and the rather larger S6 created a few such moments. It was a Sunday too, I’m sure such days of the week lend themselves to these occasions. Before anyone poo poos the benefits of playing music through an Android phone using OTG, I really have found this a way of freeing my music up. I have several really decent music players (USB Audio Pro, Hiby Music Player, Onkyo Music Player) and 256 Gbs of stored tracks and albums of every genre and bit rate I can stomach, from Classical to Metal.  In these days of instant my phone is always with me and logically the first thing I hook up to a new USB dac/Amp to test it out.
I hooked the USB up to the Macbook Pro Retina running OSX. The Aune S6 was recognized instantly. That wouldn’t have struck me as particularly spectacular apart from the fact that I am having a battle with the Fostex HPA4 BL. I have the Fostex recognized on OSX but with reduced functionality at present. My playback is currently limited to a max of 32 192 non DSD through the HPA. The S6 in contrast played everything my MacBook could throw at it. I am fortunate enough to have an @dill3000 balanced cable for my lambswool and resonator modded Sennheiser HD800s.
 

 
I listened extensively to the HD800s on the S6 as I felt the Aune Dac/Amp was a good match for headphones of this quality. For those who don’t have a pair or who are wondering what the fuss is all about, the Sennheiser HD800 shook up the headphone world when it came out. The size of the speakers the futuristic styling and the immense sound stage created a hype train that is still going now. There limitations in the bass response and a noticeable ringing effect in the upper frequencies. These 2 weaknesses I have addressed with my mods. Knowing the character of my headphones so well , I tend to use the HD800s as a reference point. 

Sound Quality

I almost don’t want to reveal what I thought about the sound quality of the S6. I have taken a track(Crucify – Tori Amos)
 

 
and recorded it 3 times in it’s entirety. I have volume matched the S6 , the Fostex HPA4 BL and the Chord Mojo. I then plugged a jack into the headphone out of each device and recorded the output. I used the semi professional ART USB analogue to digital recorder to capture the sound.
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
This was relayed through USB back into my Macbook and recorded using Audacity – a freeware app. The raw files were saved in 44.1 WAV format. I have them available for anyone interested in hearing the differences in each of the devices. I want others to take part in my reviews and to seek their own truths from my words. When we come to the subjective nature of defining what makes good sound quality I believe music speaks louder than words. The link will enable you, dear reader, to participate in this great debate in a meaningful way. At the risk of guiding your own judgements, this is what I found when I spent a day going endlessly back and forth between these 3 Dac/Amps. I used the Sennheiser HD800s as the reference. Due to the lack of balanced output on the Chord Mojo I was forced to use single ended. I have a rather fetching 3.5 mm terminated cable bought for use with my Chord.
 

 
 
 
 
This did the trick for the day although the Fostex and S6 needed a ¼ inch adapter. 
The differences in the 3 devices struck me fairly quickly. The Fostex has an energetic , forward, punchy feel to the sound. The Mojo has a detailed linear  signature. The S6 was mellow. The Aune has a presence of a deeper sub bass. The mid bass and mids have a longer delay. The upper frequencies are slightly more rolled off than the Mojo. The signature created is convincing. There is a refined laid back effortlessness going on here that is difficult to resist. Juxtaposed to the accuracy of the Mojo and the attack of the HPA we have the tranquility of the S6. Don’t worry; I tried this midweek too. It wasn’t just the Sunday effect. 
 

 
 
There are differences between the sound signatures of the Chord Mojo and the Aune S6. These characteristics should not be viewed as a better or worse sound quality. It’s like asking which is a nicer sunset – orange or red or yellow? There are no straight answers and therefore no clear winner between the Mojo and the S6. Whilst apologizing for sitting on the fence I found this conclusion came as a surprise to me. I have owned the Chord Mojo for 18 months and have struggled to find anything below 1000 pounds that comes anywhere near the sound quality it dishes out.   
As I write this I am acutely aware that for all the words covering these virtual sheets there are very few taken up with the most important thing of all ; of course, the sound quality. This is what governs our beloved hobby with a power to topple both good and bad manufacturers. The need for the best there is overtakes many a decent design initiative before it gets a chance to evolve. So I, as many of you, show an interest in a product and come here to look for an idea of what something sounds like. And that is such a difficult thing to explain. How to explain in words what you hear. How to remember what you have just heard and compare it to what you are about to listen to? It is a tough task.  The differences in source equipment are more subtle than those found in headphones.  There are many distractions that our brains use to take us away from discerning critically what we are listening to. This makes the task even harder and results in more time being needed to spot smaller differences. This is one of the reasons why I decided to start recording the outputs of the various equipment that come to me. That way I have an easier reference. 

Conclusion

 

 
The Aune S6 looks the part. From the moment the box is opened. Even the touch of the surface of the unit has a special feel to it. Sat on the table the smooth curvature is pleasing to the eye. Switch it on there’s a clean display. It’ll play all the different files out there with no problems. Through the USB there is power on tap to push most headphones balanced and unbalanced with headroom to spare. The OTG functionality works well with a slight question mark over how much volume some of my players could give a full size headphone.  Onkyo music player seemed significantly louder than both USB Audio Player and Hiby Music Player was the quietest.  This was more noticeable  on the single ended connection. Listening to the S6 , Fostex HPA4 BL and Chord Mojo Dac/Amps side by side I was able to discern subtle differences in the sound signatures of the 3. Neither the Chord Mojo nor the Aune S6 was conclusively the victor of this supermatch. Aune’s mellowness was contrasted against the Mojo’s linearity and detail. 
 

 
I have recorded a track to help each and every one of you to decide for yourself and I look forward to your findings.  The track was taken from a fine quality recording. The process of recording from a digital source to an analogue has lost much of the quality of the track. The loss is equal across all 3 sources and has been volume matched to the best of my abilities. Enjoy the challenge of working out the difference between them. 

My time with the S6 was short but sweet. Another review is over, another new kid(for me) has appeared on the block. I wish Aune a prosperous future, they are clearly capable of making products that can hold their own with some out there. 

 
 
With thanks to our great supporter of headfi @Andykong, I have had the Cayin i5
 
on loan for a fortnight or so. I have had the chance to listen to it extensively. My focus has mainly been on the sound quality as displayed using whatever methods came quickly to hand with using the features available. Whilst not exhaustive it was as thorough as I could manage given the timeframe. These are my opinions based on my subjective thoughts on what constitutes good sound quality. There are 194 pages of impressions on the I5 on the headfi headgear forums here. These pages contain so much information, pros and cons on even the most insignificant aspects of the DAP that if you don't find what you seek that I haven't mentioned here, it probably wasn't worth worrying about in the first place.
 

Build

During which I tell you a little bit about what's in the box, what the DAP does, how reliably it does it and how easy it is to work out how to use it. The cosmetic appeal of the DAP comes under my scrutiny too
 
 
The above is a USB C to Coax cable. Good for connecting the i5 to a Chord Mojo for instance. And a lovely quality cable it looks too.
 

 

The case provided - the subject of much controversy on the forum thread and I may be told has already been changed. It is excellent, fits beautifully and looks wonderful.
 

 

 

 

The case in 4 parts , with all the trimmings . Pictured below is a decent gauge USB C cable and an instruction manual.
 

 

 
 
 
If you're wondering what the above is - it is a C to Micro converter.
In use, the Cayin i5 worked like a charm for me. Compared to the no frills Aune M1S (review here) which I was lucky enough to review at exactly the same time as the i5, the Cayin was slow to start up and slow to read the Micro SD Card. This is understandable when you consider how much the i5 has to do compared to the Aune. The Aune has 1 task - to play music through the SD Card. The i5 can do so much more.
The i5 has bluetooth which worked extremely well. Whilst bluetooth out didn't suffer any dropouts overly I used it for workouts on my treadmill more than anything serious. The headphone jack is a World away from the muddiness I felt when I had the bluetooth working. WiFi  would be something I would look for in a DAP. I enjoy meandering around YouTube and Netflix and Deezer. The ability to be able to watch and listen with decent sound quality without needing a stack is where DAPs can score. The surfing I did on the i5 all worked fine. Tidal on HiRes MQA unfortunately doesn't at present. I say that without guaranteeing that it will in the future as it's really only Tidal that can fix such a problem. Tidal will work on the bigger processors that smartphones and laptops have these days. The i5s coax out worked beautifully and my Chord Mojo had no problems linking up to the Cayin. 
The touch screen functionality was just as it should be. Some of the GUI for navigating round the screens was a little crude
 

 
but was easy to get used to, The volume control was one of my favourite features. It was so easy to use even when in the pocket and so precise compared to other switches you have to use blindly. 
The cosmetic look of the i5 is appealing to me. There is a move away from the bland look of a smartphone.
 
The elegance of the i5 is in evidence front and back. In particular the rotary volume knob at the top of the player is a bold move design wise.
 
 

Sound Quality

 
The old chestnut that I guess is the whole point of my I'm doing this review. If you're of the opinion that every digital piece of equipment that measures relatively flat sounds the same, then I'm in the clear because this bit will be skipped over. If you're on the fence and trying to find out more about this DAP read on. I have tried to read as little as I can about the i5 so as to be as objective as possible. My mind is my mind and my ears are my ears - full of flaws no doubt , making tiny little assumptions. This opinion can be put against every other opinion out there and maybe a pattern can be found as to whether it's bassier ,harsher,more refined or more detailed than their existing DAP. I find this is the most controversial part of every review I write. Perhaps that makes it the most interesting?
 
There is nothing wrong with the sound quality of this DAP against the Aune M1S
 
and the Ibasso DX100. I did side by side testing over the course of my time with it. The i5 performed just as well to my ears v the M1S. The DX100 was the flagship DAP for Ibasso
 
up til very recently and arguably the one that started all this madness. I have had it for 4 years so I am used to the sound signature and am very attached to the DAP. It's not surprising therefore that I put this one slightly ahead of the M1s and i5 sound quality in the superchallenge. I found the DAP more revealing and more accurate than it's 2 rivals. As to the i5 and M1S , I found the i5 a slightly punchier more lively sound than the more mellow refinement of the M1S. There are no winners or losers here, simply a matter of preference. Each DAP produces a decent sound without any glaring anomalies.  I went to the Bristol Sound & Vision Show on Saturday and was able to listen to another 6 top and mid tier DAPs. Honestly? They were all great. Sorry to confuse the issue even more. My opinion is this - if you get a DAP that has a fairly decent reputation and isn't supposed to sound like a polished turd, chances are that months and years down the line you'll be so used to the sound signature that you wondered why you ever worried about it in the first place.
 

Conclusion

 
The Cayin i5. It's a decent DAP, manfully trying to muscle in on a fiercely competitive marketplace. I really enjoyed using it, lived with the fact that it won't stream hires MQA over the Internet and generally had a great time with it. So the question finally is - would I buy it? If I could be assured of decent support should anything go wrong it would be tempting. Cayin has the looks, a decent enough sound to tempt many out there. I have no doubt we haven't heard the last of this Company , especially as they try to cram as much processing power as they can find to tame the Tidal problem
 

 

 

Introduction

 
With thanks to @glassmonkey , and Aune, here is my first review for 2017 - the M1S DAP.
 
I shall not be labouring the point. There is a 55 page discussions and impressions thread http://www.head-fi.org/t/827960/aune-m1s-impressions-discussion-thread-aunes-newest-hi-res-dap-with-ess9012km-2-5mm-balanced-out. If they haven't spotted something in that thread that represents a deal breaker for you, believe me , it isn't worth worrying about.
What I'm here to talk to you about is what the player sounds like, how it fares against the competition and where I think it stands in the marketplace. To that end , I have used it as thoroughly as a working man can over the course of the last 2 weeks and have concentrated on one thing only - what it sounds like.
What the player sounds like has to be the most important aspect for me when I'm looking at something on headfi. The other consideration that next applies is what value I put on that sound against the competition in the marketplace. The features a DAP has can transform it from  something that lives in the pocket to an item that can be equally at home in the living room. Such versatility cannot be ignored. The availability of a product can enhance it's appeal. On the other hand it is more than likely to struggle in a fiercely competitive field where many equally spec'd players can be had on a next day delivery basis.
 

Build

 
The M1S has been built to last. They have been careful enough to provide spare screen protectors . No need to worry about which pocket you put your keys in now.
Supplied with the M1S comes a swish looking micro USB charging cable. It's rare to see a gold plated affair supplied with a DAP at this price level. The unit isn't a fast charging model but I only charged it a couple of times overnight which saw me through some extensive use.
 


The presentation box is an understated affair but fairly standard and has almost everything you need to get going.


The only noteable exception was a micro SD card. The unit itself does not have an internal storage capability. Without an SD Card the unit will switch on and say no card inserted. Most of us have lots of Micro SD Cards. My 128 Gb and 256 Gb worked flawlessly and updated the database astonishingly quickly. There are no eq facilities available on the M1S. The screen is not a touch screen. All is accessed from a series of buttons on the unit. The buttons are below the screen and on the right hand side.
 

 


Navigating through the various screens is a simple enough affair. It's at least fairly precise if somewhat basic looking through the black and white album artist and track pages. There is an option for fast slow or normal filtering of the ESS9018 chip. The whole ethos of this player is to be bare bones. None of the Android extra features we have come to see in this type of mid tier player. This is a player which has it's own Operating Code. The player is geared towards people who just want to listen to their own music on the move through an SD Card plain and simple. In terms of the speed , the player is a complete success. Naturally we now need to have a look at how the sound shapes up against the competition.
Features on this DAP are as follows ; line out and 3.5 mm in. That's your lot.
 

Sound Quality

I was impressed with the speed of the player, the responsiveness worked well too. The basic design clearly helps these aspects. The other element is of course whether the players no frills assists the sound quality. The sound is a smooth mellow rounded out signature. Nothing too amiss. Nothing to annoy any potential owners that I could detect. I tried the M1S through the line out. The pure line out into an integrated amp will be fine. Into a power amp such as the First Watt F6 I have, as expected there's too much output for running headphones but speakers would be ok. I tried the Westone W60 mainly with the Aune. I had an enjoyable week or so. I tried this side by side against the Cayin i5 and the Ibasso DX100. The i5 was a close run thing, slightly less bass response but slightly more excitement in the higher frequency range was how I would describe this against the M1S. The DX100 was a clear winner to my ears. Of course , I am used to the sound signature of the Ibasso. I've had it for 4 years. I am so used to it it's like it's a part of me. No one must come between me and my DX100! You get the picture. So it was a no contest thing and the comparison was doomed from the start. The DX100 had a clearer more detailed more accurate sound signature across the board. That was what I was expecting of course.....
 
  

Conclusion

The barebones no frills nature of the Aune M1S has created it's own little niche in this hotly contested marketplace. I think it's a rip roaring success in what it's tried to achieve. We have a fast, responsive great sounding music player It plays all the formats and handles a 256 Gb Card.  
The reservations I have are but a few; the DAP is not currently on sale in the UK. That brings to me a few reservations. I've not always had the best of luck with my new purchases. If there is something wrong and it has to go back to another Continent, how long will that take? How much will it cost? Not necessarily a deal breaker but something to bear in mind.
The DAP has no digital out so can't connect to a Mojo for instance. It can't improve your laptop's sound as a DAC. The GUI is very flat as you would expect from an in house design done from the bottom up. The case supplied hides everything and looks bland.
But all these things add up to a DAP that just works. And works very well.
 
 
 
 

  

Hidizs AP60 DAP

SOUND AND BUILD QUALITY

7.5/10​

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SPECIFICATIONS/FEATURES

7.4/10​

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VALUE FOR MONEY

8.5/10​

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Thanks go to http://earphonia.com who kindly lent me the AP60 for review
 
We are in the budget end of the Digital Audio Player market. They don’t get much cheaper than the Hidizs AP60, at the bargain price of $89 and less through various aliexpress.com outlets.
The AP60 sports an awful lot for your money – 24 192, DSD 64 and 128  playback , Aptx bluetooth , 5 stunning finishes, an entry level earphone, a leather carry bag, a decent DAC chip, low and high gain, USB DAC functionality, USB OTG functionality, digital out functionality, 10-12 hours of battery life.

All wrapped up in a 50g package the size of a matchbox. But before you abandon these pages and head for the nearest outlet I must encourage you to read further and together let us judge whether this is a product worthy of our hard earned cash.

Specifications are always worth research, for instance, if you have a huge collection of hi res DSD playback it might be useful to know an Altmann Tera Plus DAP plays only WAV files.

For less money the Audio Opus#2  will play back anything you throw at it, we shall explore the features of the Hidizs AP60 with our own purchased model.

Let us delve into the AP60 and investigate whether this  diminutive DAP warrants your further attention.

The package

The glossy box the AP60 arrives in belies it’s price and puts many far more expensive products to shame. The front an attractive full scale picture of the DAP, the rear of the box gives plenty of insight into the attributes of the player.

Lifting the lid off reveals an exquisitely finished hard felt case holding the DAP securely in place. A black cardboard box takes up the rest of the space.



There is a hollow space underneath the front half of the felt and that contains warranty card, health and safety advice, screen protectors and a user manual.



Opening up the cardboard box and a lovely looking leather bag is crammed inside. drivers.



I was surprised to find within a set of earbuds, solidly built, with large coin shaped shells.



The Easy Earphones website describes the buds as being custom made for the AP60. The earbuds were packed away for thorough testing later.

Please note; the Hidizs has no internal storage. It needs a micro SD card. It can handle all sizes up to 200 Gb. No micro SD card is supplied so factor this into your purchase. It’s possible you will need to spend the same amount of money on a card if you want the top storage available out there. Of course Micro SD cards of a much smaller size can be found for $20 or less.
 

The DAP

The finish is of a high gloss resin. A variety of colours is on offer and we have the dark blue displayed here. The screen is 2” and displays the album art clearly enough.

The shape of the AP60 is not your standard small brick shape. Here again Hidizs has sculpted angles subtly into the form and we have some small cutaways around the sides and bottom of the device.

It is now time to switch on, plug in a decent set of IEMs and a decent sized micro SD card. We shall see whether this thing works and put it through it’s paces.

Operating the AP60

Switching on is the long press of a round button on the top left hand side of the player. A logo instantly appears and within seconds a simple looking menu appears. I had loaded a 64Gb micro SD card with 1 hi res album , Legend by Bob Marley, purchased through HDTracks. I was impressed at the scanning speed but this was for 1 album only. I put in another full 64Gb card and it too scanned that at a rate of knots.

The UI is no doubt contributing to this speed. It is very basic and is accessed by the buttons at the bottom of the AP60. The files all worked that I threw at the Hidizs. There is a low and high gain function, for the IEMs I put through them only low gain was needed. Equaliser functions are another option within the menu; so too are USB options that will have much interest in the audio community.

USB functions

The AK4452VN Dac chip has enough sophistication not only to handle hi res and DSD. It can be developed into an OTG and USB Dac to play from your laptop or smartphone. This aspect is colourfully claimed throughout the literature of the Hidizs AP60 and may already have prompted an impulse purchase by many. They will currently be disappointed. The firmware from the manufacturer is in it’s infancy. USB out did not work on my MacBook. USB OTG the same story. The menu functions have this function ready to roll. The USB device is recognised through iOS but no sound comes from the unit. This we are led to understand will come in future firmware upgrades. The 2nd USB element may be even more useful if the claims are true.

The company has told it’s followers the AP60 will be able to act as a digital out transport giving fans of the Chord Mojo and Hugo and many other excellent Dacamps the ability to strap up a tiny companion for hires on the move. If it worked this would make the HiDizs DAP the cheapest digital transport on the market. It does not currently work. As of early December 2016 we must exercise faith and patience that the technological capabilities of this little marvel can be fulfilled and this won’t become obsolete before it’s time. Believe, brothers!

Bluetooth

Currently the only means of seeing what the AP60 can do as an outboard device. The bluetooth works with the usual distance limitations and is surprisingly good quality with the Aptx on the Hidizs. Your smartphone with your Tidal or Deezer or Spotify is unlikely to outlast the excellent battery life of this little marvel whilst you are out and about. And it takes up no space in your pocket.
 

Sound quality

The chapter you should all have been waiting for, we have turned the DAP over, weighed it in our hands, plugged everything in and fired it up and shuffled through some of the more important menu options.

But what’s going on between our ears? I am aware of other reviews warning of a dip in the lower frequency range of the Hidizs AP60. I put on reggae. Legend by Bob Marley, in all the grittiness of the permanent Jamaican Summer. I am currently putting the Westone W60 IEMs through a review. They have 6 drivers in each shell. They are very special. The W60s give lots of bass weight  to what they are presented with.

There is no shyness with these IEMs. ‘No Woman No Cry’ live at the Marquee puts me right in the crowd. The impression is not of any failings in the DAP itself but more in the performance of the IEM.



As a vessel for it’s audio companions, the music and the earphones, the AP60 is doing a grand job. Stereo separation and depth are what they should be. I see not much to criticise here in the soundstakes but of course an A/B comparison is necessary to see what we might be missing.

I have a Colorfly C3 as a similarly priced product at hand I purchased a few years ago. It is a beautiful machined metal DAP and is almost as tiny in it’s square shape. But it won’t handle hi res so it fails straight away to hold with the competition. I have an Ibasso DX100 I can compare the sound with. Let’s see what the DAP that started this craze has to offer against it’s tiny cousin.

The DX100 has more refinement in the sound and reveals a slight strain to the sound of the AP60 and a trace of distortion in the treble region. There is an effortlessness to the signature of the DX100 that you would expect in a DAP that was Ibasso’s flagship when it was introduced and got every other manufacturer back to the drawing boards to see what they were capable of doing with a budget that size.

The signature of the AP60 you can expect is of a detailed reasonably extended range. Bass is there if you have topflight IEMs to bring this out. The bass may not have the linearity of a flagship DAP but there is plenty enough warmth there to keep you cosy.

The earphones

Given the overall cost of $89 how much must these earphones be worth? The stretching of the thin fabric covers over the sizeable drivers was a task. Care must be taken here. There is only 1 set so they cannot be split. The buds are worn down from the ear but don’t any huge microphonics. They don’t isolate particularly well. The cable is reasonable enough quality and the terminals are all finished adequately.

There is some reasonable presence in the mids although these are bass shy in my ears. The avoidance of harshness has been considered with these earbuds and they are well rolled off in the treble area. Soundstage is tight and squashed because we are mainly dealing with mids. There are no reasons at this stage to recommend selling your IEM and stay with the HidiZs. They are of the standard smartphone quality and you may feel they could stay in the box and perhaps the leather pouch could nestle your Hidizs DAP in relative luxury.

Conclusion

I was disappointed some of the claims; made by every website I went to that sold this device, for want of a better word were false. I hope this changes in the future but for $89 we must work with what we are given and look at it now. Firmware changes are commonplace and can transform what  a digital device can achieve. In this we have hope and the prospect of some pleasant surprises to come. For now I give you the AP60 as is; a tiny, light, fast, efficient, hi res capable DAP that can do bluetooth with a decent sound quality and an unreasonably elegant finish for one so cheap as this fellow.

There are many elements in the Audio Chain. My opinions as to what matter most are arguable. The hobby we have remains a contentious one from the outside. You have something you believe in but to a stranger ; well they wouldn’t understand. Those within the hobby have their own ideas as to what makes good music.

If everything is right we don’t have to worry, if there is a potential weakness in the chain could we get away with it?

Could a decent IEM overcome some, or all, of the shortcomings in a cheap digital player?

To answer this, let me tell you what I think is needed to make my music sound great.



The music is first, without that we are listening to hiss. No one likes hiss. Well recorded subjectively enjoyable music is a must.

The next is what happens between your ears, the setting, ambience, duration; all these things change.

The constant is the headphones, they come after the music. I think they are the next in the chain. A poor set of IEMs will sound poor whatever you plug them into.

But a world class IEM will shine in pretty much anything. Provided we have something which can store what we want to listen to and play it at a volume reasonably loud enough for every setting do we tick the boxes?

In this aspect the Hidizs AP60 cannot be dismissed as an alternative to getting some decent sound quality, in fact a league up from your smartphone. It does what it says on the back of the matchbox. A fraction of the size. A fraction of the price.
 
 

Important Amendment ​

The Hidizs is now outputting digitally to a dacamp. Firmware 1.01 has finally made this DAP into all it could be. We now have USB DAC functionality and digital out functionality. What was promised has been delivered. All of you headfiers running your AP60 with out of date firmware get onto the Net now! Thanks go out to @kreangsakkan and @Jerome Dussart 

by Takeanidea
 theBit Opus#2 Digital Audio Player Review

Overall 8.8
SOUND AND BUILD QUALITY 9.6/10
SPECIFICATIONS/FEATURES 9/10
VALUE FOR MONEY 8/10
 

Thanks go to http://earphonia.com who were kind enough to lend the Opus#2 for review
 

Intro

 
The first time I heard of theBIT company was when I was sent a review model of the Audio Opus 1 in April 2015.
This Digital Audio Player has been around since the end of 2015 and has been consistently improved by the many firmware released, updated to a point where it has gained an enviable reputation in performance versus value for money.
My week with the Opus #1 left me with a feeling that the company was onto a good thing here, even in the highly competitive digital audio player standalone market.
Based in South Korea , theBIT has been around since 2004 and has worked behind the scenes for Samsung , BestBuy and Sandisk.  Until the Opus #1 gained momentum in the portable world it seems no one was aware of these people especially in Europe and the USA .
It seems that with the introduction of a flagship DAP within less than a year after the #1  they mean business.
 
The risks are big ; the #2 retails at roughly 3 times the price of the highly received #1.  If you hunt around you can find excellent deals on the Audio Opus #1 for around £349 in the UK. £100 off their normal price is an absolute steal though!
earphonia.com theBit Opus#2 Digital Audio Player Review
The 1# is much lauded for it’s ability to perform at or near top tier levels for a mid tier price. The BIT has changed all that and gone straight for the jugular; this is their statement to Astell & Kern, Sony and the like. “This is what we can do with £1200” .
I now have the privilege of putting this rather fetching looking DAP under the microscope. Through the course of this scrutiny we will look at each and every aspect of the Opus #2 to see whether it measures up to that lofty title.
 
The following aspects are what drives me to determine the performance of a premium product, as a prospective buyer I want to know what it will sound like above all else.
Next will be ; what can it do? Following that ; how well does to do all those things? Perhaps ; how long is it likely to last? might be the next criteria.
We must as consumers be honest with ourselves too ; the cosmetic appearance will undoubtedly influence our decision making process somewhere in amongst all this. It would be a shame to spend more than £1200 on something that looks ugly after all…..
It is only after taking in all the above factors one might arrive at the inevitable question – is it worth it? Should I buy it?
 
 
We are therefore left with these 6 important categories :
 
Specifications, Features, Ease of use, Build, Sound Quality, Value for Money
 

 Specifications

The quality of the DAC or DAC Chips used in the construction, play an important part in the signature characteristics of this player. Start with a diesel engine and you will never become a Ferrari for example. The implementation of these components is down to the craftsmanship and attention to detail of the Research and Development Centre .This is a complex and time consuming process that demands a special working relationship between the hardware and software developers and a lengthy test lifecycle to ensure consumers get a robust and desirable product. As you know we are some of the most demanding of audiences.

theBIT have put SABRE32 ES9018K2M x 2EA Dual DACs in the 2 .  ESS Technologies describe the 9018 – “with ESS patented 32-bit Hyperstreamä DAC architecture and Time Domain Jitter Eliminator, the SABRE32 Reference Stereo DAC delivers an unprecedented DNR of up to 135dB and THD+N of –120dB, the industry’s highest performance level that will satisfy the most demanding audio enthusiasts.”



The Audio Opus #1 Cirrus Logic CS4398 x 2EA Dual DACs in comparison. The specifications of the CS chip : 120 dB dynamic range -107 dB THD. The 4398 is a 24 bit chip.

My iBasso DX100 has one ES9018 32Bit DAC Chip and was back then a rare implementation of this chip in a portable player.

Questyle’s QP1R a single Cirrus Logic CS4398.

The AK380 uses dual AKM AK4490 32 bit DACs with a patented Velvet Sound architecture. This from the AKM people -“low-distortion technology achieves industry’s best performance of -112dB as a DAC with 120dB S/N characteristic”.

So there we have it ; confusion! 2 DAC chips claiming to be the industry leaders – yet the CS4398 has lower distortion and the ES9018 the highest dynamic range.

There is no doubt in my mind that the quality of the DAC chip has a major part to play in the performance of a Digital player.

The 3 chips mentioned here are expensive parts ; they are not found in smartphones , even the LG flagship with the B&O hifi add on steers clear of the 9018 and uses the 9028.

Interestingly , the D1 Dacamp , which sounds entirely different from the Opus 2 to my ears – has exactly the same ESS9018K2M Dual Dacs.

Great minds think alike…… but they don’t somehow sound alike…..

The signal to noise ratio is 114dB @ 1KHz, the 380 has a slightly better spec at 116dB, Unbalanced.  Signal to noise is a good indicator of how accurately the device is able to amplify the signal it receives without adding distortion.

Crosstalk is 130dB @ 1KHz Unbalanced ; the same as the 380. Crosstalk is the distortion occurring between the left and right channels as they are separated out from the original signal from the DAC.

Total harmonic distortion is 0.003% @ 1KHz, the 380 0.0008% a whole decimal point better. The QP1R manages even lower – 0.0006. THD is how far away from the original input the output device is , the lower the better.

The output level is 2.5 Vrms , the AK380s is 2.2 which is as I suspected , meaning the Opus will power more difficult to run IEMs and even the occasional full size. The QP1R has 1.9 Vrms, this in high gain mode was good enough for me to enjoy the HiFiMan HE1000 at CanJam London.

Jitter is 30ps on the AK380  ; it is 50ps on the Opus 2.  Jitter is the deviation between the signal sent from the digital part of the chip to the analogue conversion ; the lower the score the truer the reading is. Questyle has no public spec for this that I could find.
 

Features

The Opus #2 has a number of interesting and useful features, as would be expected for a top tier DAP.

3.5mm balanced and separate unbalanced output.*

Although unable to give my opinion on whether this bird soars with the balanced , as per the RHA D1 Dacamp, the 3.5mm had no problems accepting any of the IEMs or adaptors I threw at it.



*Soon I will provide comparisons of Balanced and Unbalanced differences, I am waiting on my balanced cable to be fixed. Watch this space for updates

Optical Out

Extremely useful for me to use as an A/B tool for comparisons between the Chord Mojo and the RHA Dacamp 1.

The DSD files will be down sampled to the max allowed through the cable of 24 192.

A great way to marry the DAP to your home kit, in the same way as a MacBook  3.5mm jack doubles as optical out and works flawlessly.



USB file transfer

The Opus#2 software is built using a streamline Android OS, so most users will be familiar with the drop down settings interface which allows the Opus#2 to switch between USB for file transfer, charging only and there’s the added extra feature – USB DAC.

File transfer on a Macbook – the plugging in of the Opus opens up the Android File Transfer Window.

The Opus 2 does not show in the Mac’s version of Windows Explorer (Finder). You can drag and drop to and from Finder by keeping both windows away from each other on your screen.

It’s a simple process with the bonus that you can unplug the Opus after you’ve finished – no need to eject on your Mac or do anything on your Opus screen.

USB Dac

Works instantly on the Mac. Plug the USB in , look on your sound preferences drop down list on the top toolbar and Opus 2 is there.

Just select it from there and you’re off. MacBooks are notorious for there lack of USB ports, my Pro Retina has 2 .

A USB Hub works fine with the Opus, recognising it as a DAC immediately.

The DAC sounds absolutely great , indistinguishable from what is hard stored on the DAP to my ears.

USB OTG

With the appropriate cable (not supplied) the Opus will run certain smartphones with certain software dependent on the Android Version that you are running.

Sorry for the vagueness but there are still many phones out there that don’t do OTG at all well , some have no support for it.

It is quite difficult to get info from the manufacturers – they don’t want to commit because they don’t want returns or phone calls for a niche use that is changing all the time.

I have a Motorola Moto G4 which I purchased in September 2016, it runs Marshmallow (Android Version 6).

The G4 supports apps like the usual USB Audio Player, Onkyo HD player, Hiby player but also natively plays Youtube and Deezer, Spotify and the like.

The Opus ran it all no problems and again the sound was really good. The sound through Direct Mode (selectable on USB Audio Player Pro) was again close enough to the DAP itself to be pretty darn good indeed.

Distortion is prevalent on OTG.  EMI interference from the cellular and data signals can grossly effect your enjoyment of the uniqueness of this musical experience.

Thankfully , EMI seemed very low between my Moto G4 and the Opus, and I am feeling this is a better match than my Chord Mojo.



Line Out

I used the line out to connect the Opus 2 to my 50 WPC custom and fully modded First Watt F6 Power Amp.

I use this to listen to music at it’s most revealing , with my most revealing phones (HiFiMan HE-6 , Sennheiser HD800, AKG K1000 Bass Heavy). With the least sensitive AKG I plugged in tentatively to the balanced cable that come directly from the speaker taps of the amp. The volume tried it’s best to blow the top of my head off….

After I plugged my head back onto my shoulders I realised line out was not going to work for me. I plugged the RCA to 3.5mm into the headphone jack on the Opus. That worked extremely well and I was able to enjoy Disturbed’s 2016 release ‘Immortalized’ and assure myself of the differences I had heard through my IEMs were not simply my ears playing tricks on me.

The volume was switched up around the 115 mark , which astonished me . I really didn’t think the Opus would have enough power to act as a preamp for the power amp.

It had too much! I would encourage any portable lovers to try this just – just , at least once. I had the Opus 2 for a precious week but no way was I going to let this opportunity pass me by.

The AKG K1000 has drivers that pivot away from the ears, so the focus can be more or less intimate as the listener wishes. The soundstage can be manually adjusted. For each song if you want. The sound can be described as having some of the natural qualities of a loudspeaker with some , if not most , of the micro details and stereo effects of a headphone.

The Opus did not let me down here and Disturbed were at their blistering best , despite the attempts to brickwall some of the tracks as much as the mixing desk can take.
 
Bluetooth

With the Bluetooth I found some problems which I solved with perseverance. The range of the Opus 2 is limited and with a limited range Headphone the problem is exacerbated. After 10 feet the DAP can go out of range. After that , I found I had to switch the Headphone off and the DAP off.

Pairing was exactly the same process as any Android phone so was easy. I have several Bluetooth Headphones as I am a keen runner and working out with cables flying around can be off putting. I tried a gentle test of having the Opus placed beside my treadmill and gave an album a try.

The Ausdom AN7s I had always thought were a bassy V shaped signature ; good enough for a workout but quite typical of the lack of fidelity out there in the wireless market. There is another level to these headphones that shocked me ; they sound half decent! The bass is not bloated like I thought ; there are discernible vocals and strings can be told apart from keyboards. Something happened here….

Bluetooth is as much a triumph on the Opus 2 as it’s other attributes. theBIT have shown me here another example of their attention to detail.

After listening to what many purists would consider to be the least important feature in a Flagship DAP , I am even more convinced; this player can make even the bad come good!



150 step volume

The volume wheel on the right hand side of the DAP is a joy, each turn is a subtle tactile click so it can be turned 150 times. The perfect solution for those who need it perfect.



For those times when it needs to be turned up from low to high volume you can drag your finger upwards or downwards on the screen and micro adjust when you are near where an earphoniac should be. For this price , we deserve perfection!

Gain settings

3 gain settings are available on the Opus 2, none of which seemed to alter the sound signature just modifying the gain as expected.

This enables all the 3.5mm and balanced IEMs out there to be tailored exactly to the users needs. Software is a good feature and more discrete than a switch on the side of the casing, adding to the elegant minimalism of the Opus.

Firmware Updates via WiFi(OTA)

Currently on 0.001 version the Opus 2 is clearly in it’s infancy. An enhanced android experience is promised for the future but is not currently offered.

Apparently the Audio Opus 2 may be able to stream music in the future. The OTA firmware update is simplicity itself ; just another option easily found in system settings. The default setting is “search automatically for firmware updates once per week”. I knew a firmware update had been done this week , so I instead checked “search for updates now”. The OTA found theBIT’s server , downloaded the firmware seamlessly and then unpacked it , restarted, and to my immense relief worked straight away and with no change in speed.



Power Savings

The DAP has an ultra power saving capability – it can fall asleep when forgotten about for up to 2 months and will come out of hibernation at the simple press of  a button. The unit takes 4 hours to charge and in normal use , fiddling around with all manner of settings and types of music bitrates I surpassed their rated 9 hours of playback.

128 Gb inbuilt storage and single Micro SD Card Slot

There has been some murmurings of discontent on the lack of a 2nd Micro SD card slot. This would add enough storage space to satisfy most of the quad DSD collectors currently out there. DSD files do take up an awful lot of space. An additional facility of the Opus 2 can be utilised here; at the sacrifice of having a single device unfortunately.



Remember USB OTG? An Android phone could be strapped with this little beauty and , with streaming capabilities , the possibilities are limited only by one’s data package on the go.

Many Android phones have already get Micro SD Card storage themselves too , adding even more options. I am fairly certain that those who decide they cannot live without the Audio Opus 2 will have a phone with them at the same time as they are using the DAP. Why not combine the 2 from time to time ? Go on, you know it makes sense! Now, where are there some really nice looking straps….
 

Ease of Use

The Audio Opus thinks it’s an Android 5 phone which can only play music. It is a touchscreen player which works smoothly and responsively with only 2 external switches . The volume wheel and the case which has a rocker switch allowing next track previous track or pause.  With practice this can be easily achieved without a need to take the unit out of your pocket.



If you know Android , you pretty now how to access everything you need and how to change everything you need.

The drop down settings contain all the phone type essentials ; date, time ,battery percentage, WiFi switch, Bluetooth switch but wait ; there’s more.

The next half of the options contain the customised code which will be used to tweak the music on the DAP.

Line Out(watch that one), Equaliser(3 customisable presets which default at completely flat) Sleep(you can preserve your battery life by telling the device when to switch off) repeat and shuffle.

The dedicated music player has no stop. You wanna stop , you switch off. Otherwise the Opus switches off it’s display as intervals starting from 15 seconds and going up to 30 minutes.

The window has the most important control in pride of place as a gold round icon in the bottom centre of the screen. That is, of course, “Play”. Left and right controls are as expected in black background with white lettering , easily viewable in complete darkness and with the screen brightness set to minimum.



Neat features like this help to conserve the battery. There is album and lyric display available on the Opus and the lyrics , bit rate and file size are found by a press on the middle of the screen.  In the top right of the screen is a short 3 line icon . This is where all that great music is contained. A press up here and you have drop down menu options ;

Playlists, Favourites, Folders, Genres, Artists, Albums and Songs. All easy enough to work out, all in A-Z by default. There is a left arrow in the right hand corner to scroll through the various screens and just keep on pressing it if you’ve got here by accident. You’ll get back to the main screen within 3 clicks ; it won’t take too long.

Build

The screen is a 4” TFT IPS screen and gives a vibrant display with 400×800 resolution. There is a screen protector supplied which is plastic. Plastic! Looks we are not dealing with a Gorilla Glass display here either. Plastic screens (can you tell?) are not my cup of tea. You are trying to protect a screen from getting scratches on it. And you do that by….putting a plastic screen over it that shows up scratches. That doesn’t make sense to me.

It doesn’t to most of the phone manufacturers either. Even a £60 smartphone has Gorilla Glass on it. I think there may just enough room for a gorilla glass protector to fit over the Opus#2 and it not bulge out from the pouch. That would , for the sake of a £4 expenditure on Amazon, be my first (and only) customisation of the DAP.

This would ensure a scratch free fully protected screen which would have a brighter screen as a bonus.





 

The display is moved along quite nicely by the Quad Core Arm Processor with 1 Gb of Ram, this is what makes everything seem so smooth and effortless. The muscle power has been put in the right place – behind the scenes.

The Opus needs to be seen to be appreciated. It looks beautiful in a modern, sculpted way. Lines are tastefully curved and brushed subtly into the bezel of the player. There are 5 understated colours used ; jet black, charcoal, slate grey and a dark blue for the leather pouch that comes as standard to protect your investment(in sound).

There are 4 silver hex screws inset into the DAP , one on each corner at the front . I like the mechanised look this gives the DAP but wonder whether this doesn’t slightly detract from all the other cosmetic flourishes present.



The leather pouch is a masterwork ; from the front we have a tastefully finished cut away container. The Opus 2 fits precisely into it. Precision machined access holes for the USB and the 2 hex screws are great touches. The top half of the pouch then comes away on the right and the bevelled contours of the volume wheel and the platform it is supported on now come into view.

The angles of the Opus 2 now reveal themselves as part of the design solution to protect the body from damage. The leather sleeve fall short of completely covering the screen because it doesn’t need to. Discrete shaping means that the DAP sits on 80% of it’s surface and the remaining 20% can be used to gaze at admiringly. And why not?

Turning the leather casing over reveals a closely stitched rectangle within which is embossed Opus#2 , web address and country of origin. The rest falls gently towards the side of the DAP.

The Opus#2 is heavy for it’s size. Much heavier than a phone. I suspect behind that weight lies the secret of this DAP’s success. Decent amps even on micro devices like this need a bit of weight behind them to do anything decent with the sound. My DX100 is a brick in the just the same way but has a 3rd more thickness, and is only sporting 1 ES9018 Chip.


 

Sound quality

After my comprehensive coverage of the many DAP features and build, lets get onto the most important bit – how is the sound signature quality!



I will look first and foremost at the sound as it comes direct from the Audio Opus 2. The sound signature that comes from a track dropped onto the DAP and played through the unbalanced 3.5mm headphone output. This is the simplest purest test and surely will be the main use for the majority of aspiring owners. I am guessing that the interest here will be for those looking for a no compromise all in one portable solution. I can, and will add other boxes and cables to the Opus , but there would seem little point in doing this if the sound at the heart of the matter was not to the required standard.

The SQ on the Opus 2 is superb , I am pleased to tell you. I am hearing a linear signature that brings out the character of the dozen or so IEMs and Headphones I happen to have knocking around.

I listen as I write to a review model of RHA’s CL750 IEM. this is an IEM launched on Nov 25th 2016. The premise of the CL750 is that it needs an external amp to provide it with sufficient power to work well. With a sensitivity of 89 dBs and an impedance of 150 Ohms these are not for your smartphones. An impedance of 16 Ohms or less and 100 dBs or more is needed to get an IEM loud enough to work in a normal Smartphone or DAP.

Not so with the Opus 2. The normal character of RHA’s tuning is of a crisp bassy affair which tends to lean towards fatiguing. The Opus 2 shows that RHA have upped their game. There is a great combination of linearity which I have no problem listening to for hours. The CL750s work as well through the DAP directly as they do hooked up to their big brother ; the review sample of RHA’s first ever Dacamp – the D1. In fact , the colouring the D1 gives to the 750s may not be as preferable to the neutrality of the Opus.

The RHA C1 Ceramic does sound better through it’s D1 Dacamp as partner. The balanced cable supplied with the C1 has a large termination which does not fit the Opus 2 so a direct comparison was not possible.

The Opus 2 will take balanced and has a mini balanced alongside the 3.5mm. The C1 goes up a notch with the balanced silver cable and the unbalanced is noticeably below the SQ that the Ceramics can achieve. So lengthy auditioning of the RHA flagship was not worthwhile on the Audio Opus as it was not a fair fight.

The oBravo Erib 2a , an unusually retro looking hybrid neodymium planar IEM has polarised those within the Audio Community who have listened to it. There appears to be a lack of sub bass and a highly forward mids signature at first listen to these down from the ear monitors. The qualities that brought me to buy these quirky phones is there in spades on the Opus and I now have a wider soundstage with a visceral quality to the upper bass and mid range. I could go on at length but maybe there is time for one more example of what the Opus is capable of.

I have plugged in my Sennheiser HD800s to the Opus 2. I have managed to get a 3.5mm cable for them , following my purchase last year of the Chord Mojo. I have heavily modded my 4 year old HD800s with a lambswool and SuperDuPont Resonator Mod.

The Audio Opus drives them perfectly well , at 120 from a possible 150 and in high gain , we just stay out of the red. The HD800 Headphones use the landscape provided to them and do their magic unconcerned they are doing it without using the Chord Mojo as their usual companion.

The Ibasso DX100 was used as my comparison DAP. Still acknowledged by Ibasso as the best sounding DAP they have made to date, this is a much chunkier player than the Opus and has an amp inbuilt which can match the power output of it’s rival and even arguably out power it quite comfortably.

Power is not everything of course, the DX100 shows how far we have come in the Digital world since the player’s introduction in Summer 2012. The DX100 was not as enjoyable an audio experience against the Opus 2 . The sound was not as refined , the micro details were less noticeable , the bass was flabbier and the soundstage was more pulled in when A/B’d with the Audio Opus 2 player.

I have recently been to HighEnd Headphones store in Bedfordshire and they have a variety of some very special players. Of course , I had to try the Astell & Kern AK380 whilst I was there.

Another occasion I had some time with the AK380 was at CanJam London 2015. All in all , I have had 1 glorious hour with this work of art. Whilst it is a time apart , I do not feel that the 380 in sound stakes alone had much if anything to offer over the Opus 2.

I feel I preferred the flatter response of the Opus 2 over the crispness and width of the 380; both are up there in a very select group.

Value for Money

I’m not sure if this is tongue in cheek to discuss the merits of the Opus in terms of it’s current retail price. It is difficult for me to convey to you whether this is worth 3 times the #1. The 2 is certainly not 3 times worse than the AK380 Copper. But how can we quantify whether anything that can be done for £10 can be good value doing the same thing at £1000? Such things are an impossibility. The marketing companies will tell us about volume levels , the R&D budget the marketing budget. These all go into determining the price of any such bespoke product. I realise that the cost to produce each Opus#2 is only a fraction of the cost that needs to be recouped.

To put this into context , some loudspeakers out there are fetching £250 000. At least we are not there yet in the DAP market. I think Astell & Kern would like to keep heading that way , they will bring Sony along for the ride no doubt.There is an adage that you get what you pay for .

It does not always hold true in the consumer electrical market. Quality can be wrapped expensively in designer clothing, but strip that down to the bare essentials and you see nothing more than a phone without it’s call functions.

There will always be room in the market for quality. Real quality that just sounds looks and feels -right. People will pay for quality and it is down to the manufacturer to be clever enough to know where that ceiling is. At £2999 for Astell & Kern’s AK380 has dared raise that ceiling even higher.



There is also a DAP with no internal storage , no screen , and no ability to play anything other than WAV files. With only 1 3.5mm connection. No marketing campaign. No major design changes (improvements) since the original was made. And it has had a big price reduction to bring it to the bargain price of a cool £2504! Welcome to the Altmann Tera Player!

At least we see Opus hasn’t gone completely berserk for their opening gambit. This is a Digital Player which is theBIT’s announcement to the market that they can rub shoulders with the best out there. I think this has a market provided theBIT can find some stockists.

My DX100, very expensive when first introduced onto the market, has a 10 year labour warranty. The Altmann Tera has a 6 year warranty. I would like to see theBIT doing their bit too.

Initial cost is no guarantee of a trouble free digital device. My DX100 went back to China twice last year for battery WiFi and DAC Chip replacement…..

Conclusion

theBIT has produced a DAP that can be cherished. It sounds great, has lots of features which will be updated over time , it is beautifully built and looks like an heirloom should.

It seems to solve most of the all in one problems for the discerning audiophile; even down to getting mean and dirty with bluetooth headphones. I recommend it to those who want the best and be done with it. For those of you, the search may be over….

 ​

iDSD BL

Christmas Dacamp with all the trimmings

Introduction

 
I have been lucky enough to be part of a very special tour.  iFi has given me the chance to look at their heavily updated iDSD. They have called it the Black Label Edition. I’m part of a review tour. As reviewers on headfi, we are bound by only 2 things really; we must post a review and we must keep the unit for the length of time specified by the company. iFi gave me 7 days to find out as much as I can about this dacamp. This is the result. Hope you like it. If you don’t I’m sorry. I did my best in the time I had here. I try my hardest to put myself in the shoes of a prospective buyer and I know iFi any other company only want to know what I think about their products. Not what they think. I don’t get paid for this and I’ve done quite a few reviews this year, both on here and on earphonia.com. This doesn’t make my opinion more valid than anyone else’s. It simply shows I’m in this for the long run. 

 
My association with the iDSD is rather short. I used this when I met up with my good friend @glassmonkey on a weekend’s mini meet back last year. I threw a number of headphones at the old model ; the Sennheiser HD800, HiFiMan HE6, Mr Speakers Alpha Dogs were amongst some of my less sensitive headphones. All were powered admirably by the iDSD.  Fast forward to December 2016 and we now have an elegant black number to spend a week with. Micah(aka @glassmonkey) passed it to me last week (it’s a small world isn’t it?) and I have set it off on it’s way with a tearful wave. This is the iDSD but not as we know it. Many things have been changed from the standard model. iFi have moved on since then. Micah has written plenty on the components that have been changed. Suffice it to say, iFi has done more than just a spray job on it. More customisable power but less extreme 3D and bass switching are the order of the day. 
 

Features

 
So what is the BL model and what can the iDSD do? And are these the features you are craving from your source? Or this is overkill for you? When one reads through various threads the impression I get is that there can never be enough spec. Each person has found some aspect of the hifi world that appeals to them, be it DSD or balanced, mp3 or flac. The industry is changing all the time , not necessarily for the better. Many of the changes are to keep up with the changing digital formats available. 200 Gb memory cards are being filled to the rafters with music. These can even fit in some phones, so manufacturers are being forced to get OTG as standard on their units.

 
The iDSD is a Dacamp. It can be fed music from a laptop with it’s high quality USB cable. It can also be fed an optical in signal and output a digital signal through optical. OTG is supported, so phones can output to the Black Label. I was able to use Android Marshmallow natively through Deezer and YouTube aswell as the usual USB Audio Player,  Onkyo Player and Hiby Music Player. All the weird and wonderful formats I had on my Macbook were easily taken care of by the iFi.  The iDSD also accepts analogue signals. The 3.5mm jack by the 6.3mm input, is not as I initially thought for IEMs. To my embarrassment I was informed it was for audio sources without digital out connections to be used on the iDSD. In this way the iDSD will act as an amplifier. The iDSD also can be used as a preamp or direct line out, to form part of a full sized HiFi. The F6 power amplifier I have did not cope with the amount of juice the BL was trying to put into it, so I used the preamp which worked suitable well. The Direct Mode will only be using the DAC part of the iDSD. The preamp uses both. There is a smart charge facility on the side of the unit. This allows for your phone perhaps to get some emergency power once it’s been OTG’d to death. I’m presuming many of you  know this already; even larger newer phones don’t last more than a couple of hours playing OTG out to an external device. The iDSD will easily outlast your phone so should be able to keep it going until you can get to a proper power source. Of course you won’t be using the iDSD as a source by this time and the phone will be all but redundant while it’s trying to achieve more charge. 

 
Within the analogue and digital in realm we have been given a wide range of choices. There are 3 sensitivity switches on the underside of the unit for IEMs. A minijack converter is provided to plug in your earphones to the output. I found the highest sensitivity setting on all the IEMs I tried to be too quiet even with the volume switched to max. The lowest setting was really loud. Wow! There is enormous scope for getting the right balance of loudness setting within those 3 settings. The settings on the side are for full sized. The highest setting was too quiet even for my 32 Ohm AT W1000Z closed cans. The middle setting was perfectly ok for these. The HE6 needed the lowest one but not to the maximum volume.  With the headphones all dialled in for volume, you must then concentrate on the Digital Filter. This is a 3 way switch for Bit Perfect Minimum Phase and Standard. Standard is the most tweaked filter and is designed towards a DSD file. I settled on the standard filter as I felt it added some good punch to the music without making it harsh. All is not over yet. You must decide whether you want more bass in your life. There is just such a switch for this. Maybe your vinyl rips need a touch of extra or your orchestra is not sounding full enough? The bass has an on off setting. The 3D switch will widen the image of your soundstage considerably. Such features are available through various software. For those who will wish to change between filters on various tracks, this as a hardware feature, could be extremely useful.
 

Build

 
With the iDSD comes many bits and bobs.  
 

 

 

 
 
 
The packaging is beautiful. The unpacking of the unit was a sensual pleasure. There are things which impressed. A variety of non standard looking cables and stars and bags fell gently out of 2 shiny white boxes neatly tucked into their respective columns hidden under the belly of the iDSD itself.  
Top left - an analogue cable 3.5mm. Coming downwards a USB converter for OTG. The purple cable is twin RCAs for line out to a full size amp. 2 thick rubber straps to tie your phone or DAP up to the BL. The white shiny card above is a spacer to keep the iDSD from being scratched or rubbed by the thing it’s attached to. The blue USB cable is a thick high quality one. An optical adapter, detailed manual and USB adapter complete things. Other than one really nice extra. 
 

 
 
A black velvet carry pouch. Very nice indeed. 
A sizeable number of accessories. For OTG the cables provided here won’t do the trick. There would be far too much cabling once even a tiny micro usb is daisychained on. Chord supplied one tiny usb cable for the Mojo in comparison. RHA also make sure they have lots and lots of goodies in their DL1 Dacamp box. I used the Mojo OTG cable from their accessory pack with the iFi which created a great little stack for out and about. I would have liked to have seen a dedicated optical cable with the bundle. Adapters are very easy to lose. 
There has been some discussion about the volume control on the iDSD. The original volume control was slated by a vociferous minority for being unbalanced at low volume settings. The volume has not been changed on the BL version.
 

 
 
It still has issues with unbalanced sound at low volume. It’s therefore extremely important to get the switching sensitivity correct to alleviate this problem. This problem does not exist on either the RHA DL1
 
or the Mojo. 
 

 

Sound Quality

 
I have a semi professional analogue to digital converter, the ART Phono Preamp Plus. It’s ability to rip vinyl without electronic interference in the background recording is the reason I bought it. I soon discovered it had many other benefits. I can hook up any line out source, in this case , the iDSD, and record the output straight into the ART and then onto the MacBook digitally. It’s merely a case of picking a track , plugging the device into the back of the ART and pressing record on Audacity.  Only the source is changed. switching is instant. 
 

 
 
Once a volume match is attained, my Chord Mojo can then be compared side by side, over and over again, using the same track, same input, same volume. This testing was done by me on day one. They are freely available for anyone who wishes to listen for themselves. There is no load going into the 2 devices. The analogue stage and the quality of the preamp mean that the sound quality is not as good as you would get from plugging your headphones straight into either device. It will give you a flavour of any differences between the Chord Mojo and the iDSD Black Label. In my opinion the differences are there. Please PM me if you wish to be sent a link to them. They are of a DSD recording so should be pretty good quality. I invite you therefore to listen for yourself as to what you might think of the sound quality of the iDSD BL. If you wish to do that I would encourage you not to read any further. STOP NOW!  
 
 

 
 
 
PM me and I will send you the link. Make your own conclusion, listen as much as you can stand, then come back here and see if you agree with me. I really hope some of you do. I am not the authority here, nor are my ears. We all must decide for ourselves using the information out there whether any audio product will suit our needs and improve on what we have. Only the individual can decide that, ideally with an audition. This is the closest I can give anyone to that experience. You are welcome!
Now it is time for the spoiler, my own opinion of the iDSD sound quality , specifically against 2 devices.  Device one, from memory. The iDSD v the RHA DL1 dacamp.
 
The iDSD is a clear winner against the DL1. I found the RHA to be too shrill in the upper regions and too bloated in the lower regions. This with one notable exception; the CL1 Ceramic IEM in balanced mode  was superb through it. The iDSD v the Mojo; that you can hear for yourself. You can take my opinion with a pinch of salt. For what it’s worth, I did like the iDSD a great deal. The standard filter and mid setting on with the bass and 3D switch off sounded powerful and punchy. It sounded a little thin and slightly recessed in the mid section and less strained in the treble regions than the Mojo.
 
The bass and subbass lacked some of the impact of the Mojo. Although the Mojo was probably slightly more rolled back in the higher FR the iDSD seemed like it was being pushed slightly harder. I have had the Chord Mojo since October 2015. 
 
Clearly it will take quite some beating. I haven’t yet found a portable device that I preferred the sound to. These differences in SQ are not huge differences. I am subtly trying to defend my views on the differences between the 2 if you are unable to hear them. I am merely stating that buying a different pair of headphones would give you a much more obvious set of differences than changing between the iDSD or Mojo. 
 

Conclusion

 
The iDSD BL offers an awful lot of options for the money. It costs more money for the Chord Mojo. The Mojo is a simple device with few options. It can output 2 headphones simultaneously whereas the BL  only has the one. It has arguably better sound quality than the iDSD but the differences are small. It fits a standard 5” smartphone or DAP considerably better than the Mojo without it’s adapter, although for the same money the Mojo has an accessory pack which sorts this problem out.  All choices in the audio world are complicated. If I had my opinion as to which device I would spend my money on, then I would choose sound quality before all else. 
 

 
 
In this regard I would put the iDSD a close second to the Chord Mojo. But, my dear reader, have a listen to the track which I have painstakingly prepared for you. Click here You may have an entirely different take on the matter

Introduction

 

With thanks to my esteemed colleague and front page superstar @glassmonkey for fronting this review spectacular.  3 cheers also go out to Iain and the rest of the RHA team for filling up my dining room table for 10 days.

I didn’t think 10 days would be long enough to get through all this kit; my partner disagreed. She seemed to think 2 days was more than ample and seemed to glare at all those boxes. Especially when I wasn’t looking. I was able to rise above all that, and when push came to shove, I found pointing at my ears and shrugging my shoulders conveyed all the necessary feedback. The moment in history is now gone, the table is back with it’s rightful owner. Barring this, the last of my 3 reviews, we have all moved on.



 
The CL750 from RHA is the more affordable version of the CL1 Ceramic. It uses some of the materials that go into the flagship but retains the standard look of the stainless steel range. The CL750s need just as much juice to drive them as their big brother, but not so much out of the wallet. The price differential is 250 pounds.   The technology that has gone into the driver is a single ultra wideband ceramic design. In contrast the flagship CL1 has a hybrid CL dynamic and ceramic plate driver setup. The sensitivity 89 dB, impedance 150 ohms and frequency response 16 hZ to 45 kHz are identical.  That is where the similarities end. 

 

 
Having packed the CL1 back into it’s box ready for @FortisFlyer75 it was high time I got to grips with the CL750 and I made the most of my remaining time hooked up to such things as my Chord Mojo and the DL1 Dacamp. The Ibasso DX100

 
and an Audio Opus#2



 
took some of the duties.  The CL750 does not look on the face of it to be sensitive enough to be powered by a smartphone. I had to try of course. I got good results from my Moto G4 with the volume at about 80%, they sounded balanced enough to me. I didn’t feel like the CL750s were going to leap out of my ears and walk off in disgust. They didn’t mind a bit of Deezer. Not at all.

 
I normally go for sound quality as my next part of the review. I’m going to take some advice from a fellow headfier and put that all nearer the end. I hope that’ll make people read the review as a whole and get a fuller picture of all the attributes so they don’t miss something. That snippet might be a dealbreaker otherwise overlooked. 

Build

There have been some compromises made in designing the appearance of the CL750. They retain the stainless steel housings of earlier RHA designs. The shell is stainless steel so is strong and looks modern. I do not like the shape of the housings. They do fit snug enough into the ear. The small footprint of the shell leaves a large gap at the top and bottom of the ear. There are much more ergonomic shells out there on universals which follow the general contours of custom in ears.


 
These have a better fit and need a lot less fiddling around with to get the right degree of isolation and comfort. Stainless steel has no give and can pull on the inner parts of the ear as one tries for the last % of sound quality. Not all is a disaster here; there is a good deal of isolation present in the CL750s due to how close to the ear canal these can be pushed. 



 
 

The cable is not detachable. It has a twisted braid design. There is a memory wire part to enable an easy fit around the ears. Detachable cables are not the be all and end all for me. With some of the more difficult designs it is quite hard to get those cables in securely. The more this happens the faster we sprint toward problems in the future. No detachable cables – no heartache. If we had easy push pull connections – and I have several such ones, things are altogether much easier. The advantage of a decent detachable; I can adapt my IEMs to suit my needs. If I want a Bluetooth cable I can take my phones out for a run, if I go for a walk I can put hands free on. If I want to hit it hard and chill - silver core could be in the offing; even balanced, as per the CL1.



 
Microphonics and isolation all score well with the RHA. The memory wire is not as posh or a long as it’s more expensive counterpart but does the job well enough to eliminate any problems holding the weight of the cables away from the ear canal. Sound leakage is no issue as the housings seem sealed completely. 

The terminations are all top notch, the 6mm adapter a great fit into the mini jack. Included is a zippable carry case and plenty of tips, including comply foams. I achieved good enough results using a small silicon tip in my left and a medium in my right ear that I didn’t indulge in further tip rolling. 

Sound quality

Bass

The bass had enough linearity and punch to keep me entertained with my rock music and immersed with my acoustic stuff. The bass did not have the grunt of the CL1s nor the accuracy of my Sony XBA4ips.

 
It didn’t have the depth in the upper bass of my oBravo Erib 2as. It did manage to get close to all of them. That is a fine performance for under 100 pounds.

Mids

Vocals were forward and easy to follow, male vocals slightly less so than the fairer sex. As on the lower FR I feel here the 750 is offering nothing unduly unpleasant. The dynamics and separation from the XBA4ip and Erib2a

 
were a more refined offering but both cost significantly more.

Treble

This is where I was expecting trouble from RHA. I have a sensitivity to the standard RHA signature and expected the forward edgy steeliness commonly found in this part of the market. The extension of the CL1 will undoubtedly cause some differing views. Whilst I personally liked hearing all that energy, not everyone will react in the same positive manner.  The DL1 had a treble energy to it that worked beautifully with the CL1 but I struggled with for other IEMs. Including the CL750. Put the CL750 with the Chord Mojo and the problem disappeared. The CL750s I am pleased to say, are not treble hot. They extend well into the higher ranges but pull back before any damage is done.  The soundstage is wide enough to follow individual parts or simply to relax and enjoy.



 

Conclusion

I raved about the CL1s , whinged about the DL1 and feel I have been suitably glowing about the CL750. It does not need the DL1 to get the best from it. In fact, these IEMs can produce good results from a smartphone. Show them a decent bit of power and you have yourself a bargain. The CL750s didn’t do anything particularly fantastic to make them stand out from the crowd. Arguably such a sound signature could end up being one that produces a keeper. The build is designed for life.  In today’s throwaway world that is a bold statement to make. Farewell RHA til the next time. It was good to finish on a high. Especially as the high was not too grating.

 
Thanks go to  earphonia.com who were pleased to let me give the excellently valued Co-Donguri  earphone a spin.
 

Pairings Equipment

 
Hidizs AP60
Chord Mojo Dac
 

Intro

My second IEM review from the Ocharaku company, little known outside of their native Japan. Ocharaku have no distributors outside of their own country and have not been at any of the shows I have attended in Europe. It would be great to have them exhibit their excellent products in Europe or the USA, as lots of us are missing out on a very special signature.
Concentrating on slowly building up a reputation for no nonsense IEMs which are built to perform , I am sure we will see this company gain a larger cult following that it has already- you may have heard of Stax .
A Japanese company that could produce IEMs along the lines of the Full Sized Headphones of their fellow countrymen – now that would be something to get excited about.
We have talked about the mid tier Flat4 Dynamic SUI , this offering is entirely different.
It is aimed at the budget conscious consumer and that consumer may even dare to exercise with the Co-Donguri. Sacrilege!
 

 
A quick look on the official website
http://www.trdsn.com/eng/product_codonguri.html
Reveals the Sky Blue Model testing here is using another patented technology – the Tornado Equaliser. This attempts to address unwanted resonance in the 6 kHz region. The site does not go into great detail as to how this has been done.
Nevertheless , it’s encouraging to see that even budget earphones are being pushed in their technology. Hopefully , in the right direction. And here’s the fun bit where I get to try them on…..
 
 

The Set Up Configuration

 
To get the best from your IEMs its extremely important to work out what is the best fit for you. I always start with the middle ground that the manufacturers set you up with to get you going.
This tends to be the medium fit tips, although there are often lots of different types of tips. The Co-Donguri was only supplied with the excellent spinfit tips S/M/L.
So in a way this makes things easier. Spinfit tips are quite the thing at the moment anyway , because they can be twisted all the way round , the driver isn’t being twisted at the same time. I normally find the medium tips fit me quite well , occasionally having to go for a medium small for my left ear.
 

 
No problems here – so it was off to my reference album of the moment which is Legend by Bob Marley. 
The ‘Legendary’ Jamaican musician who did so much to put the Rastafarian beliefs into Western consciousness and who brought reggae to a Worldwide audience needs no introduction here.
I plugged the Co-Dunguri into the tiny little Hidizs A60P and leant back into my chair and waited to see what the Dawn Blue could do.
 
 

Sound Quality

Bass

 
The bass is a little soft on the Ocharaku’s, I suspected the Spinfit were not helping the bass to get down and dirty – to push against the contours of my ear canals with that sweltering dub from Trenchtown.
I looked for a set of Comply’s to remedy this problem. The bass became super bloated and muddied up everything around it in a Beat’s style mess. The spinfits are the correct choice for these earphones.
I commend the designers in that they appear to have engineered their product with these versatile tips in mind. Living with the spinfits and the Wailers, the lower end sound began to grow on me . The bass is there but it is linear ; bass playing can be heard nice and clearly and drumming doesn’t swamp everything else.
 
 

Mid Range

 
The mids had a slight veil to them , making some instruments merge quietly in with each other and Bob Marley’s voice just sink a little too behind his wonderful Wailers. The feeling was subtle and I would be surprised to have this area of the music clear of any imperfections as I’ve yet to hear a perfect In Ear Monitor at any price , let alone £30.
 
 

Treble

 
The treble on these earphones have an airy nature, there is a definite shimmery quality to the end notes of the Wailer’s and to the echo which just takes that slight longer to fade into the background.
I think that treble tuning plays a major part in the building of a soundstage – that place we call where we feel we can pick out the performers positions in the mix. The soundstage is much wider than I would expect from an earphone at this price level.
 

Comparison

 
I had a set of Sony MH1s which a headfier from Italy by the name of Guido custom recabled , put memory wire on and sold to me at a similar price level to the Co-Donguri IEM. They are acknowledged as a fantastic sounding IEM for the price level. Guido with his recabling pushed them further. I now have now Custom Earsleeves on them , retailing at £130 , which pushes them to the point were there should be a no contest between the 2 . And yet….
The MH1’s did have a nicer warmth and substance to the bass, but the mids were more veiled than the Sky Blue’s. Treble and soundstage fared even worse between the 2 – the Sony’s sounded muddy and muffled and pulled in.
I was surprised to see the Sony’s winning in only 1 of the 3 departments.
It had , in effect, lost – Miserably. Japan ‘Co Donguri’ David – 2 – Japan ‘Sony MH1’ Goliath – 1.
Shock win from the under contender trained by Ocharaku.
 
 

Build

The build is a stylish one. The Sky Blue metal finish is elegant looking and this fires a shot across the bows of the heavier hitting cousins  , the Flat4 range, which have no finish to them. The diminutive size of the driver shell means a lot more can be put into the ear. This allow for a good sense of isolation from outside noises although the Spinfits don’t isolate as well as Comply Foam Tips. So traffic noise will be picked up and train rumble etc. The music is enjoyable enough to take your mind off most of these mundane things whilst there is enough getting into your shellike to keep you away from those angry cars.

There is no hands free cable facility on these , something often found in IEMs at this price range , the most hotly contended end of the marketplace. It’s always welcome when it’s there , but it’s absent on the Co-Donguri.
These are durable enough that the website compels you to get out into the World and exercise with them. That’s always good. Music and fitness go hand in hand. Sweat and IEMs don’t always find themselves the best of companions.
Microphonics , caused by cable noise reverberating into the ears through the driver, is thankfully not present. This is due to the over the ears style of wearing the IEM. The cable is supported by the ear and not by the driver shell wearing it this way.
 
 

Conclusion

A great value offering from a company I really hope to spend more time with. I hope they make a leap onto the World Stage and I can say to everyone “I told you they were good”.
In the meantime a select few know the secret and can take advantage of a really nice inclusion into the Earphonia gallery.
Until we meet again , Mr Yoshida, thank you very much for your time.

                                                                                         

 

Gratitude and greetings go out to 

RHA Team and @Glassmonkey - thank you so much for giving me the chance to be one of the very first to get my greedy ears on the CL1/DL1/CL750 trio. What a package! Wow! 2.2 Kgs of the Scottish Company’s Battle Cry to the Audio establishment. Do RHA have the strategy to overturn the status quo?  Is it a massacre or will the white flag be waved?
 

Introduction

 
You may be aware of my feelings on the RHA CL1 Ceramic IEM. If not, whet your appetite here. Now, all finished? Good. Part II of a tale in III chapters. The steadfast companion of the CL1 and it’s ultra swanky silver core balanced cable ; the DL1 Dacamp.
 
RHA’s first foray into the hardware market following a series of successful IEMs. The IEMs have been around since 2014. They are developed in Scotland and assembled in China. This makes the products as good value for money as they can do them. 
 

The product in brief

 
I have expounded at length how much I enjoyed the CL1. That is now packed safely away ready for the next member of the UK Headfi Review Team as part of the Worldwide campaign are waging through the pages of this illustrious website of ours. I now turn my focus to my 2 remaining RHA products. The CL750 has been in my ears for 10 hours plus by now and will be left until last to review. Last but not least…. The Dacamp is part II. The DL1 is sure to get people’s interest. There are several reasons why I state this with such authority. First of all, it is the first hardware product from RHA. Secondly, it’s looks are eye catching. Thirdly, it has a lot of versatility, not only can it be used as a Digital Product, it will accept line in and will output line out. Thus line in bypasses the DAC and line out bypasses the amp. Clever. Useful. Finally , the price - £399 in the UK. Domestic Headfiers will immediately realise this is of special significance - there’s something else out there that costs exactly that selfsame price - the Chord Mojo. Guess what? I happen to have one of those….Do I have your attention now?
 

 

 
 

The marriage

The DL1 was launched on November 25th 2016. It was launched simultaneously with the CL1 and CL750 IEMs, both of which require an amp to perform at their best due to their high resistance and low sensitivity. The Dacamp can make the CL1 sing, that is a statement I’ve already made here. They were made for each other , a superb match for my ears. Some will hear treble harshness whereas I hear extension, there is possibly a little too much bass there, on the go that’s a bonus. When you think about it, it’s conceivable that I have already started to describe some of the character of the Dacamp whilst talking about the Ceramic IEM.
 

Sound signature

The DL1 Dacamp is a lively sounding Dacamp that gives a splash of extra colour to the low end and attempts to reach new ground in the higher ranges. I tried a range of music across a range of the inputs using a wide palette of IEMs and full sizes over a number of hours before I was happy to reach this conclusion.
 

The testing starts

 
Acclimatising of the DL1 took place on a very opportune time for me. Not only was I on my hols therefore having lots of extra spare time, I had the house to myself for a few days as my girlfriend got a holiday from me at the same time. I cannot tell you how many hours of music I have got through during that time, but it was a well spent holiday I can tell you! 
I am a fan of vinyl. I make no secret of it. It is arguably not as technically perfect as it’s 0s and 1s partner. It has crackles and rumble, very rarely do I get a black, or completely silent background. But I get a bit of nostalgia and I also(if I use YouTube) get a glimpse into other people’s kit. Some of that kit is amazing. Some is amazing and is let down by the poor quality of the recordings uploaded. A precious few uploads do good justice to the source and the attention to detail is very gratifying to see.  
Being determined to show you some gems I have found, I did a proportion of my research online. I came up with examples of Direct Drive Turntables and Manual Contraptions which are consistently good and of which I can easily AB between. MarkPMus uses a Rega RP8 turntable,
 
Sound Chaser a Thorens TD165,
 
HiFisquarepants a Technics SL1200 Direct Drive,
 
Let There Be Sound! uses a variety, but today it’s a VPI Scoutmaster,
 
perhaps the master of the 4.
Combined with that I have a DSD copy of Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall likewise of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, 24 196 of HDTracks Nirvana Nevermind,  a FLAC of Ed Sheeran’s X Wembley Edition and a 24 96 of Karajan’s Berlin Philarmonic recording of Beethoven The 9 Symphonies. With that I have covered a few of the genres I enjoy. 
I was able to utilise all of the many functions the DL1 has; the YouTube was OTG’d through my Motorola Moto G4 Smartphone, Optical through Macbook, Audio Opus#2 and Ibasso DX100, USB through MacBook, line in through my Moto G4, line out into my modded First Watt F6 power amp. With a bit of muddling through it all worked fine. 
I bundled the Mojo, DL1 and Moto G4 and was able to switch reasonably quickly and did so 100s of times. Optical is just as quick to AB , USB switching takes only a few seconds longer. Here are the results of the battle.
 

Sound quality Intro

 
There are differences between the Mojo and the Dacamp that reach way beyond cosmetic. The way I would describe those - the Mojo more natural, less bassy, the Dacamp more V shaped with a thinner sound in the mids.  For the bass and mids testing described below I used the RHA CL750s.
 
For the treble and soundstage test, the Sennheiser HD800 SuperDupont Resonator and lambswool modded was called into action.
 

Bass

 
The bass in the DL1 with all the dials set to flat - huge! I gave a listen to MarkPMus . He has uploaded only a couple of recordings but they have been done with an RP8 - one heck of a Rega turntable- in contrast I have a 30 year old RP2 which does not compete with this one iota. I followed the bass guitar and kick drum and general rhythm of Mark’s recording of Thriller. The lower bass conveys an oomph or warmth ; the upper bass has an impact that feels like it’s pushing against my lower jaw. The delay is slow. 
The Mojo has slightly less warmth to the lowers , much less impact in the upper bass area and is faster; there much being much less delay.
Mark’s tracks are in fact quite bassy - the Erasure Hideaway song’s sparsity develops a huge bass beat that is even easier to follow. Try it. It’s a great track anyway.
 

Mids

 
You Make Loving Fun  Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie announcing to the world she had found another lover, is a masterful track and it’s difficult to imagine it sounding much better through that crackly old medium than the recording we have here. The DL1 is being treated here. I found Christine’s voice a tiny bit reduced with the backing vocals soaring beautifully behind her. With the vocals reduced it’s often too easy to be distracted by all the other stuff taking place in the mix and coming out of the track wondering what it was all about.
The Mojo moves Christine’s voice more to the front of the stage, the guitars are easier to follow and those jaunty little effects the VPI brings out , like the tambourine juxtaposed against the spartan backdrop of Mick Fleetwood’s drumming, like the 2 keyboards playing against each other; I find them all easier to follow than the DL1.
 

Treble/Soundstage

 
The DL1 has an enhanced treble presence. For the CL1 it works perfectly. The Sennheiser HD800 - which I have modded quite a bit to alleviate some of the edginess in the treble and add some presence in the bass, would be a true test to see whether these phones could deliver through a newcomer. I used a FLAC of One from Ed Sheeran’s X. An acoustic track with lots of falsetto echo and a heart wrenching guitar. The mid section onwards features a string quartet. 2 min 57 onwards - that is why I have a Sennheiser HD800. Turn it up loud, not as loud as @glassmonkey listens(couldn’t resist Micah please forgive me)  and please - be moved. I’ve forgotten where I was…
The DL1 moves me with that track. The bass is a bit much , but it is wonderful. The Mojo moves things on a notch. The 3 voices of Ed , which if you start from 2.38 stay there till that incredible peak at 2.58 one stays on the left the original ed in the middle and his mate Ed 3 on the right are locked in place; with the string quartet behind Ed 1 and further across to the left. 
 

Sound conclusions

 
The DL1 is a worthy opponent of the Mojo. If you like your bass and you feel your current setup is bass shy you simply have to look at the DL1. It chucks out bass like there’s no tomorrow and that’s on flat settings. However, the DL1 comes across as slightly too recessed in the mids and too strained and thinly stretched across the higher FR. 
 
The Mojo has a more linear response through all of the frequency range and achieves a more believable soundscape of the music. This makes it easier to follow the music either in it’s individual elements or as a whole. The magic that is the Mojo has come up against a pretender to the throne - but the King retains his crown. 
 

Build 

 
The DL1 looks lovely. Someone has taken the time to get the cosmetic appeal , brushed rounded silver angles , gold inputs , discrete white lighting slightly offset colouring on the decal , a signature on the back of the unit. All works harmoniously. 
The volume control is a dial and is very sensitive, and is pretty powerful. It is fierce enough to push my HD800 to very loud at 4 out of 10 in low gain. My preferred level for these 300 Ohms monsters is a puny 2.5/10.
For OTG , on my Moto G4, what you need to do to get 100% success is the following. Open up UAPP, set the hardware volume to full. After that, if you want to play youtube for example, open up UAPP, play a track for a second, close the application completely, then open youtube and it’ll work flawlessly from there. OTG has less interference through the DL1 than through the Mojo as a matter of interest. Both were whisper quiet 99% of the time through my smartphone.
Iphone users - I have an Android but am assured that the DL1 works through iOS.
The line in function is another added benefit of the DL1 and it uses a 3 switch system underneath the micro USB port. This is a fiddly switch to use especially with the usb plugged in. It’s a plastic switch but feels strong enough. 
Whilst we are talking of fiddly , there is a nice secure fit to the micro usb port. It will feel like it is fully in but you need a decent amount of pressure to get it right the way home. Definitely something to try if there’s no sound, but for the love of god do not try and turn the volume up to full and forget to turn it down before you try this! It hurts!
The 3 switches , for gain bass and treble , I didn’t really use, other than by accident. But for something which needs more , or less , they are there. They don’t fit in the with the general look of the unit but undoubtedly people will find them handy in a crisis.
 

 
The gain switch will also allow you to charge a device. This needs for the DL1 to be switched off and then it gets some juice into your smartphone, which will drain quite quickly as with every other smartphone when it’s being used on OTG which you’ll want to do a lot of if you’ve got this.
 

Value for Money

 
With line in , line out , usb in , OTG in , charging capabilities, separate bass treble and gain switching, coupled with a balanced in and 3.5mm in, RHA are offering a lot for the money. The Mojo will output 2 phones at the same time , but the DL1 is reserved to 1. 2 earphones are better than 1 for us headfiers but for the real world this probably isn’t a deal breaker.
RHA have also thrown in an OTG cable , a USB charging cable and some note rubber straps for your smartphone/iphone.
 

Conclusion

 
The RHA is worth a listen. It is a great sounding dacamp that looks gorgeous has lots of versatility and power in reserve. Up against the Chord Mojo it came 2nd between my ears. The DL1 has tremendous bass presence; (possibly too much), recessed mids, a slightly thinner treble and less defined soundstage than the Chord. 
If you are looking for more punch downstairs in the bass department this will deliver a slam in the kisser, maybe even a knockout blow. For more linear phones, my vote still goes to Chord. Hats off to RHA though - you fought till the end.

 
 
 
I got the honour of being part of the C1 World Tour .Thank you for the opportunity Micah and the RHA Team. Selflessly our Tour Organiser , @glassmonkey gave me the chance to unwrap this pretty special bundle of 2 IEMs and a Dacamp.Whatever I did, thank you! It’s not every day that 3 new products from the same manufacturer arrive on your doorstep.
I have the rather daunting task on being the first person to receive the RHA Trio - the C1 IEM, D1 Dacamp and CL750 IEM. I won’t say I drew the short straw - of course , everyone wants to get their hands on these ; let’s just say you are on your own when you write the first review. There is no frame of reference , no bandwagon to jump onto. Therefore, and with some trepidation , I step into the unknown….
 
Introduction
 

 
My journey with RHA began in 2015. I won a pair of MA750s
 

 
 
following a slogan competition organised for the Headfi Cambridge Meet. I then went on to review the T20 for a headfi Tour.
 

 
 
The T20s were not to my liking. Specifically there was an edge to the treble that I could not reconcile with. The MA750s likewise had too much high frequency energy to be exactly what I was looking for. For the many many people that own and cherish these 2 IEMs , I mean no disrespect and I know there were good points to both of these IEMs. Some people are less tolerant to certain frequencies - with the build quality and the fit and the accessories and the value for money , I was desperate to like their products. But I couldn’t. Until now….
 
About the C1
 

 
The C1 is a beautiful looking universal fit IEM. It comes with a balanced cable (mini XLR) that fits it’s companion , the D1 Dacamp , launched simultaneously on November 25th 2016. It has a 2nd cable , an unbalanced 3.5mm , for everything else. The cables are sMMCX terminated and have an extra long memory wire , which is not plastic ; it’s really wire and it stays put. 
The C1 is a dual driver configuration , and  another hybrid design. Another unique one. This one is a dynamic and something called a Ceramic Plate Transducer. The dynamic is dealing with everything below 8kHz, the ceramic - everything above , up to where only bats remain. The C1 will fit into your smartphone. But it isn’t going to work properly. The C1 is for amplifiers. A smartphone is looking for an IEM of 16 Ohms impedance maybe 32 at a push and a sensitivity of 100 dB or more. The C1 is 150 Ohms and 87 dB. When we want our low output devices (smartphones, most DAPs) to work straight from the headphones we need that low impedance. In essence , the lower the impedance the less output is needed to achieve a decent volume level. The more sensitive the headphone , the louder it will be at a lower volume level. So why go for a lower sensitivity higher impedance level? I have the explanation from RHAs Iain from a previous entry on headfi prior to launch -
 
From the makers
 
“The IEMs specifically have the impedance they do because of performance. Our engineers were working on wideband dynamic drivers and found that a config with higher impedance allows them to get better control over the higher frequencies in the extended response. At the same time. they were working on the ceramic driver, and the two techs compliment each other very nicely - piezo drivers have very high impedance, a standard dynamic alongside one wouldn't work very well.”
 

 
 
The competition
 
The Sennheiser IE800 , an IEM I own, has a wideband dynamic driver.
 

 
 
So when anyone mentions that word , I listen. Iain is also a fan of the IE800 so I wondered; have they tried to make an IE800 for the 21st century? You know , one that you can put on and it plays music without irritating the heck out of you? 
I looked at the quote again ; the engineers were “working on wideband dynamic” and had added “piezo drivers” to the equation. I could picture in my mind an IE800 with an extended treble. I was worried because of my flawed relationship with the T20. But I was excited at the same time. This seemed like a huge departure from RHAs endeavours to date.  
I was determined to find a way to have a proper listen to these IEMs. I have an awful lot of in ears. I have ACS Encore Pros. They have 5 drivers and they have the most superb bass response. I have the IE800s - a single wideband dynamic driver they have a thick syrupy sound with sparkle in the detail and therefore a decent soundstage. I have oBravo Erib 2as
 

 
 
- a hybrid neodymium and planar IEM with mids I absolutely love - the mids almost have a punch to them. And a dozen others from Klipsch X11is , Sony XBA4ips
 

 
 
down to Apple EarPods. The EarPods did a shootout with a Final IEM I had on review. I preferred the EarPods. That’s another story of course….
I haven’t yet found something I would consider the perfect IEM for me. I have found the best bass(ACS) the best mids(oBravo) and the best highs and soundstage(IE800). Of course I know I’m extremely lucky to have 3 such IEMs but it doesn’t stop me from dreaming. Maybe there is something out there that can do all 3 elements to World Class levels. Read on , and you will see whether the C1 takes on any of these heavyweights…..
 
Sound Quality
 

 
 
The testing begins
 
I spent the first part of my listening starting not from the bottom. I started right at the top. The pinnacle. The peak. Time is short and I am not here to mess around folks. I got the shiniest meanest looking cable plugged it into that D1 Dacamp thingummy,  chucked the USB cable into my MacBook , and fired up some DSD. That is how I roll. A vinyl rip too. Nothing brick walled here. Not yet.
 

 
 
I sat down and spent a lot of time adjusting my memory wire. I try the IEMs exactly as they come out of the box as a starting point. I figure we are strangers but the engineers know best. What they have put on the ends of the drivers are probably what sounds best in their endless research, I’m normally a medium type of guy, straight down the middle. Up until my reviewing has reached critical mass during the last 2 months this has worked well for me. Having tried so many I have finally realised that my left ear canal is much smaller than my right. With shoving so many tips into ears lately the problem of comfort is becoming more critical than before and the differences in isolation I am noticing more than ever. All IEMs are a different shape and comply in particular can be squashed up to a point where both the same size will fit. The C1 has comply supplied but on the drivers are silicons. When I tried the C1s on first I pushed them in and sat back and they were hollow and treble hot. And imbalanced to boot. I went to the box and swapped a left tip for a small silicon and the problem was somewhat diminished but still there. After a few minutes of pulling and pushing I realised the memory wire had so much flex I could manoeuvre them right by the sMMXC terminations. Minute adjustments to and fro up and down and I found my sweet spot. I don’t know your sweet spot. I don’t know you that well! But let’s get intimate - here’s mine. At least for the C1.
 
The fitting
 
I put them into my ears , push down lightly with my thumbs, and with my thumb and forefinger pull the memory wire gently toward my ear lobes until the bass gets loud. I then carefully pull the memory wire up while twisting the driver up. I then pull the top of my ear lobe toward the memory wire whilst pulling the memory wire toward it. We all have our ways of getting the right fit. With these, you just have to try and work at the fit until it goes right. When it goes right ; I truly hope you will notice what I did. This is why I have taken so much time up in telling you how they work for me. For me , all that work was worth it. 
Up until I started experimenting with every conceivable micro adjustment the memory wire could take, honestly ? I thought here is a shinier version of the RHA stock sound - treble hot , too forward and too fatiguing. The sound , as I neared that sweet spot , started to change. The bass started to get big. The mids and highs started to get interesting. Really interesting….
I dialled the C1s to the perfect angle and didn’t dare move. I was rooted to the spot. There was so much high end action going on. But it wasn’t harsh - it was extended. Extended like I hadn’t expected. It was quite a moment for me. The clarity of this was stunning. Of course I was listening to a DSD rip of Mick Jagger’s She’s the Boss. It was pretty well done as a recording. But this listening session was reminding me of putting on a top set of full size headphones, albeit with a bit more trauma to my ear canal. Over the next 6 hours the trauma became less of a problem don’t worry. There was no way I was taking them off, time as I’ve said before , is fleeting…..
 

 
 
Once I got these right , (and I don’t know how long that might take and what size or type of tips it may take, but bear with them) the C1s will soar. They have bass - good bass that comes from a good dynamic and the extension of that top end made me want to check out everything I’ve got. Immediately. A fraction of a degree of adjustment and I was left with a lacklustre treble hot mess of the rhythm and blues. The sound on the sunny side of the width of a hair follicle is a matter only my ears could tell the full story of. I will try and tell you as best I can what the sound signature is.
 
Bass
 
The C1 aims to kill it in the bass. There is sub bass without the full depth and punch of the bass hitters such as my ACS. Nor does it have the linearity and speed of my Sony XBA4s. The IE800s have a little more bloat than these but still a pleasant oomph to the lower end that resonates merrily around the ear canals. The C1 feels like a compromise between the 3 which really works. While we’re here let’s discuss bass a little more. Bass when you are sat down in a quietened darkened room in a chilled out mood listening to the ambient tones of Megadeth at a sedate volume is one thing. But; here’s another thing. You can take these out to play! Bass is everywhere on the streets, those mean streets. I mean low frequency rumbling really. An IEM with the best isolation out there will still be competing against the sounds of the street. There’s lorry’s out there -there’s wrecking balls to avoid. You wouldn’t want to be hit by one of them….. So bass is needed , and arguably it needs to have a lift and a visible presence. Our ears need to see it when we are out and about. Even when I hit the streets with the C1/D1(very carefully I promise you RHA) I had bass I could enjoy and hear where it was intended to be heard. Kate Bush Running up that Hill - has a constant drum beat that swings from left to right in the mix , much like a soldier beating out a march. What is hypnotic on some systems can get really tough to stomach at decent volume levels on something not right. When Kate sings “let’s exchange the experience” during that track - the bass goes down to subbass levels and is an impressive sound to have got out of the studio. Here it is done justice.
 

 
The Jury have voted almost unanimously with the odd reservation. Which has to be there for the purists who like the fast linear bass and the Utopians and Abyssians who have it all and can’t see why anyone else is even trying.
The bass of the RHA C1 Ceramics(this feels very formal now but it’s a hugely important thing for us all) is reaching down into the subbass and gives a vibration that I personally love to feel in a headphone. The mid and upper bass whilst not being super accurate has a great signature that will greatly benefit following the music whilst out and about without bleeding into the rest of the signature. And that I can’t wait to tell you about….
 
Mids
 
The mids are part of the mix here. They feel only slightly recessed. Vocals are easy to follow and guitars wail away effortlessly enough if you want to fix your ears on them. Male vocals , lower in the FR unless you’re much younger than myself, are slightly harder to follow in the overall mix. Female vocals reach higher up into the kHz and at the ends of the notes have that slight more clarity against the rest of the stuff happening behind , in front, to the sides….. 
 
Treble and Soundstage
 
This is where the wow factor occurs for me. That is , if it’s going to happen. The top end of the FR is where the magic is put. All the subtle effects , the echo, the space between the instruments, the places where the producer has artificially added them onto a virtual stage. When I talk about extension, I am really talking about the extra space that is created when I perceive there to be a higher volume of treble being presented to me. Often the feeling I have is that the treble energy is there to compete with a super boomy bass presence and the treble has had to be turned at an artificially higher level than it should be. Whilst on first listen this may seem to have an exciting live feel to it, it can quickly become tiring. What I get from that type of treble is a shrill ,harsh muddy v shaped sound.  That is not what I am looking for and probably not what any of us are looking for. The analogy of putting a curtain between the music could be used to explain this to you.
 

 
 
 
Bass is quite easy to instantly spot , what is going on beyond that is far more difficult to convincingly describe. Well I find it harder anyway. I find the C1s have that elusive extension, they have the live feel that you get that instant feeling for on a v shape. But the depth of the mix; right out to the edges, the clarity is all there. I listened to a vinyl of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells with all the scratches and rumble and sparseness and the six string guitar and mandolin at the start of the record did grate. I was about to try another track , but the track got busier, the record got cleaner and I felt like I was hearing it for the first time. 
 
Sound quality conclusion
 
The C1 has a bass that is full of life. Some may find it too much; I suspect this may be due to being a fraction too far into the ear canal. For me, the bass is great and gives us something to give us that little pick up on our hugely varied journeys to and from our places of work. The mids are slightly recessed to me; I still found it easy enough to concentrate on the vocal but there is an awful lot of other stuff happening desperate to distract me. The treble and soundstage - they got it right. I love it. RHA done good. 
 

 
 
Build 
 
Cables
 
The cable I have been talking about needs further attention on this review. This is 1 of 2 in the box. It is silver core Ag4x and has that Mini XLR connection. The XLR is there to reduce cross channel interference. The braiding on both cables is beautiful. The joins have all had time spent on making them look robust yet elegant. The Y split is metal . The chin toggle , a cheap piece of clear plastic that could have cut from a lemonade bottle on the Noble Savants(which cost more)here are a thick perfectly machined double barrel that slide up and down the cable with no risk of snagging. The sMMCX terminals are colour coded and fit into the drivers with a click to let you know you’re home. This I found difficult to do with any speed. There is a notch that the terminals find but they sit at the top and bottom of the driver shells. I found that I  got the best chance of success by pulling the memory wires straight and spinning the cable gently around the driver until I got it to snick into place. The drivers have a delicate embossed L and R on them. It’s very tasteful. I would have liked a tiny bit of red and blue on the driver inputs to have helped me a little more. 
 
 

 
 
The braided OFC cable with the unbalanced termination has all the same build quality. It didn’t impress me in it’s capabilities as much as the XLR cable. The OFC sounded a little duller in comparison , it had slightly less of that extension I’ve been raving about. It enabled me to plug it directly into theBIT’s Audio Opus#2 which I had on review at the same time. I didn’t take that out and about but I did take my Ibasso DX100 around with them plugged directly in on high gain. Both units powered the C1s to high enough volume levels. The Opus needed to go into the red to fire the C1s into action , the DX100s took them on with ease, weighing in around halfway. The Opus#2 had a bit more magic to it ; what all in one solution that is. The DX100 still sounded pretty amazing for out and about rig. Neither could stand up to the immensity of the OTG bedecked C1/D1/G4 combo. That was everything was how I needed it. Everything sounded slightly lacking in comparison.
 
 
 
Fit/Isolation/Microphonics
 
The shape of IEMs bugs me a lot. I want all my IEMs to be this shape. Can this be arranged? At least from now onwards? This pebble shape fits snuggly into my outer ear. The shape of the RHAs is oval with a nozzle protruding at an angle from the top of the driver shell. 80% of my outer ear is taken up with the shell. The memory wires do their work and I get the magic. It would be a lot easier with the pebble shape. The isolation has not been reduced by the space within my outer ear. The memory wires have 360 degrees of flex over a significant length and push the tips far enough into the ear canal to make the rest of the World disappear. There is some leakage but it wouldn’t be heard on a bus or train or sat within 2 feet of your partner watching a TV programme.
The cables have lots of weight to them. The driver shells are hefty for their size too. Wearing them over the ear is a sensible way forward and everything is set up for this. As such, the weight of the C1 is non existent. Microphonics, the noise perceived as a thud through the cable knocking against one’s body and reverberating up the cable and into the driver, is not in evidence.
 
Value for money
 
Always a bone of contention when you can get an IEM for under £10 and these are £399. The C1s have the extension worthy of a flagship. Flagships from some companies are retailing at over £3000. Yes, for an IEM. Therefore, a flagship for £399 is a breath of fresh air. This IEM is good value. To get the best from the C1s I would recommend partnering them with the D1. That adds another £399 to the equation. For this you get a balanced Dac/Amp and a balanced IEM that I believe will stand the test of time. 
 
Conclusion
 
Thank you to RHA for giving me another chance with your products. I was excited to hear about the C1 particularly. It felt like it was a departure from what we’ve had before. I’ve had a good long listen and an even longer think about what I need to say about this. My measured response is the C1 is an IEM anyone wanting to spend serious money on a portable earphone needs to have a listen to before they spend their hard earned cash. And if they can’t , and they are willing to part with £800 - take a chance! ***Provided they’ll refund if it’s not to your individual tastes(but please fiddle around with those memory wires first)***
I feel like I’m a part of the next chapter in this company’s history. I’ve really wanted to embrace their previous efforts. Now I can jump on the bandwagon. It’s heading in the right direction.
 
 
 
 
Equipment used:
 
RHA
CL1 Ceramic balanced / unbalanced IEM
CL750 IEM
DL1 Dacamp
OTG cable
 
Chord
Mojo Dacamp
Mini Optical cable
OTG cable
 
Sony
XBA4ip 4 driver dynamic IEM
 
oBravo
Erib 2a 2 driver hybrid Universal IEM
 
ACS
Encore Studio Pro 5 driver dynamic Custom IEM
 
Ibasso
DX100 Digital Audio Player
 
theBIT
Audio Opus#2 Digital Audio Player
 
Motorola
Moto G4 Smartphone 
 
Apple
Macbook Pro Retina 15.6"
 
Music played:
 
 
Mick Jagger She's the Boss Vinyl DSD
Kate Bush Hounds of Love Vinyl 24 96
And many others ranging from Disturbed FLAC to Beethoven MP3s

This is my take on the SUI version of the Flat4 Dynamic driver IEMs from Ocharaku of Japan , and is taken from my review on earphonia.com .
 
Ocharaku Flat-4 SUI – In Ear Tech Is Driven Further Forward
by Takeanidea

Flat-4 Sui Ocharaku Earphone

SOUND SIGNATURE 8.5/10
BUILD QUALITY 7/10
VALUE 8/10

PROS
Bass in the realms of a full sized
Sub and mid bass punch and warmth
Mid range detailed clear not particularly veiled
CONS
Treble sometimes slightly too energetic for some tastes
High end sources required for larger sized soundstage
Could be more robust build
 
 
Pairings Equipment
Hidizs AP60
MacBook Pro Retina
First Watt F6 Power Amplifier
Chord Mojo Dac
 
Intro
Just how many different ways can an IEM be made to look? Somehow, a Japanese Company has made their new line look like a fleet of V8 muscle cars. With a pipe running the length of the driver I  had no doubt in my mind that whoever designed these things wants to shake things up a bit in the in ear world.

 
 
The industry is moving very fast with hybrid technologies of the many descriptions jumping in at mid tier pricing levels. There are many tiny shells out there within which lie some truly astonishing achievements in what can be done with so little space.
The paradox is ;
Which one of the many patents out there is truly a new technology bringing something new to our ears?
Are we paying for the new technology or for the sophistication of the sound signature?
Armed with this rather critical approach to the radical new design in front of me , I set to put these diminutive monsters through their paces. I have some in ears which have been with me for a few years. I know the sound signature of these without putting them on. For a fair fight and of course for the pure joy of slipping into something comfortable I made some direct comparisons.
earphonia.com Ocharaku Flat-4 Sui Review
I did side by side A/B testing using my trusty Chord Mojo , put the Flat4 through a smartphone, a Hidizs AP60 soon to be reviewed on earphonia.com, also a completely over the top 50 Watts per Channel Modded First Watt F6 Power Amplifier – with an ultra revealing setup.
 
The Twin Equalizer Element Explained
 
Where many IEMs win or lose in the perceived sound quality is in the mid range. The mids produce the vocals, the strings, the keyboards ; it’s what’s left over after the drummer and the bassist have had their say.

The depth and space between the vocalist and the instrumentation is a problem that faces any tiny driver and has plagued sound engineers for many years.

In this case , Mr Makoto Yamagishiof Ocharaku , owner and head engineer , has put his unique slant on overcoming these shortfalls – he has designed a series of IEMs , each of which has their special characteristics to suit an individuals sound preferences.

All of these new designs have a pipe running from one of the driver shell to the other – creating a visible connection between the 2 drivers and leaving a chamber in the middle.

Bold thinking – but does it work?

The next stage was for me to go from research to practical. The first stage for me is to put an IEM with the tips supplied , into my ears and see what happens. From there , I can tell whether I have the right type and size to move on further at this stage to some serious listening.

This stage can sometimes take a while with some of the more exotic fits out there. For instance , an IEM I shall no doubt talk about in a different article that arrived at my door today needs one small silicon hybrid in the left and one medium hybrid tip in the right ear. Such experimenting undoubtedly reaps it’s rewards.

 Build quality

Microphonics and isolation are inherent problems with IEMs above all other types of headphone out there. Due to their lightness and proximity to the ear canal , a poor cable will produce it’s vibrations against the body and this can be transferred as a thumping sound straight into the drivers. A £1000 can quickly be turned into a £10 Earbud and it’s a humbling experience.
Thankfully , the cable does not produce microphonics ; the Flat-4 Sui earphone with a bit of working out can be worn over the ear so the weight of the cable pulling on the driver shell is almost non existent.  The isolation particularly with the Comply is first class. They are really long comply and they get right tucked in and snug.

All good so far but, hang on…
It would have been nice to have seen a mid tier cable provided with these. The cable is reminiscent of the Klipsch X11i and the Sony XBA4ip. It is perfectly functional but tends to twist in on itself easily. The discrete R marking on the driver shell is tasteful and easy enough to spot in daylight conditions. Colour coding on the cable is always welcomed but seldom done and no markings have been put on the left or right.
The pipe protrudes out from the shell , of course this is part of the design feature. The shape is not my favourite shape but the Flat4s stay in well enough. The Westone style pebble shape is what manufacturers need to be trying to implement into their design criteria.
There is no clasp after the Y bend of the cables to pull the cables tighter together under the chin , or a clasp to fit the cable against your shirt. Both of these things can help keep things from catching , essential when you are out and about. And you will want to show these Muscle Cars off to the World…
There is no hands free cable supplied – many phone users are going to be impressed with the clarity these phones will produce. At 104 dB and 18 Ohms they can go loud enough. Without hands free they will have to be disconnected to take a call on your smartphone. However these deserve better than a Smartphone though!

The first testing

The silicons supplied with the Flat4 were a reasonable fit for me but I could notice to my ears an overly airy somewhat thin sound. I quickly moved to the Comply’s in the Ocheraku Tin. They are quite long and Comply’s being what they are , they can be squeezed down to svelte proportions so they were a great fit for me and I could tell straight away that I was hearing what my ears were expecting. This appearing to have done the trick now called for some serious music listening.

First up , my review model of the Hidizs AP60 , a remarkably tiny but extremely pretty Digital Audio Player which can play up to 24/192 files. Legend by Bob Marley , in High Res 24/192 was my first stop, straight from the headphone out of the DAP.

Here we have mostly bassy tracks and male vocals with a female backing band – Redemption Song being a notable exception as a solo acoustic guitar male voice number. Bass warmth depth punch and linearity would give me my first glimpse of what success Mr. Yamagishi had achieved.

Bass

The bass was big through the Comply’s , big enough to be thinking at times I was wearing full sized headphones. The Comply’s put a slight slowness to the bass but I find this signature to give a pleasant warmth to the overall feel of my music – some purists may not agree but I find in Classical and Acoustic Music I like a slight mid bass lift to give a low end depth that isn’t present in most orchestral instruments.

Mids

The mids of the Flat4s are my favourite part. There is some real class to the depth and accuracy of the mids – the main part of the music. I could follow vocals and instruments were easer to pick out than I was expecting. There did not feel like a veil had been thrown over the mids ; there was hiss when there needed to be and enough space to pick out the odd mistake in the engineering of the track ; even on a DAP barely larger than a matchbox.

Treble/Soundstage

The higher frequencies are taken up by cymbals , peaks in the energy of a chorus , echoes either natural or produced using the magic of the mixing desk. The Flat4s have plenty of treble energy , even with being toned down by the Comply’s (which is after all part of their job). I did not find Legend to be a fatiguing album and my Karajan recording of Beethoven’s First Symphony was equally enjoyable. Treble presence is an absolute must to achieve a decent sized soundstage , where we can get a feel for where the musicians are placed within the recording. This gives us a feel of “being there”. Too much treble energy and the whole thing falls apart because in the worst case scenario I as the listener will be forced to switch the music off!
I decided to try some newer stuff. What could be newer than the Grand Tour? The Amazon Prime Series is into it’s 2nd week already. Needless to say with a budget of £4.5 million it’s well recorded. The Flat4s were plugged into the output of my MacBook Pro Retina. The sound of screeching tyres and revving engines was awesome. The audience was very loud and this too was portrayed with good clarity.
 
Having got a feel for the sound signature the Flat4s can now be plugged into my Chord Mojo and hot swapped between some similarly priced competition. First up – the Sony XBA4ips.

They have a subwoofer bass mid and high frequency driver setup. The Sony’s have a more linear bass signature without the visceral impact of the Ocharakus. The mids of the Sony’s are more forgiving than their competitor. There is less hiss present and the Sony’s still have plenty of detail to offer. The Flat-4 Sui steal the show against the opposition in the mids and there is simply more going on in the mix to focus in on and enjoy. The Sony’s had a pulled in soundstage and a nice sparkle in the higher ranges. The higher ranges were not as detailed and extended as the Flat4s.

The Klipsch X11i , now superseded by the X12i , is a tiny single armature IEM ; certainly the smallest I have come across. Klipsch has managed to get a whole lot of bass into their earphone and bass , using silicon hybrid tips , was on a par with the Flat4s. The Ocharakus had slightly more punch in the mid bass region. Mids were muffled sounding on the X11is in comparison and rolled off at the top. This makes the Klipsch a forgiving IEM for poor recordings and MP3s and they are often my go to earphone for my Ipod Classic. It can’t live with the finesse of the Flat4 SUI’s – they are good but they’re not great.

Supertest

The First Watt F6 Power Amplifier was designed for driving loudspeakers. It is very expensive indeed , retailing for $3500 back in 2014. My model has been modded heavily from the original design and has an extra power supply and far more caps and higher quality components where a difference was worth the cost. It was made specifically to get the most from my HiFIMan HE-6 Headphones. The HE-6 are extremely hard to drive properly.

The First Watt amps are acknowledged as perhaps the best solution for them. The builder of this power amp is at dill3000 from headfi.org and he has a bright future ahead of him in the world of headphones and probably full size systems too. Dillan made me a special balanced to single ended plug that comes from the speaker taps to run unbalanced headphones. With a great deal of care, even IEMs can be run from this monster of an amp….
The Flat4 and Klipsch understandably well overpowered exhibited some hiss through this setup, but musical refinement was what I was looking for in this comparison. The Sony XBA4ip didn’t have too much hiss at all in the test. The Sony’s revealed themselves as being slightly veiled in the mids, the X11i’s less so and the Flat4’s undoubtedly retrieving the most detail. Although this is hardly the sensible match for an IEM it is something towards an ultimate test and it’s always fun to spend some time with.

Conclusion

Ocharakus have produced an IEM that can push the boundaries of what we can expect from the mid tier end of the market.

The Flat4 SUI has a balanced poise with enough bottom end to keep contemporary music enthusiasts engaged and enough detail in the mids and space in the highs to keep classical fans excited.

The balance is always difficult to achieve ; there are many more models on offer out there which will bring different attributes. The SUI could be the middle ground many earphoniac’s are searching for.
 
Retail Price: 

30,650 JPY (approx £220/$270/€255)

Specifications:

Element	010e001 Φ10 mm dynamic x 2 (per single channel)
Sound method/Driver Type	Twin equalized element
Output sound pressure level	104 dBSPL/mW
Frequency Response characteristics	3.5 to 45 kHz(HiRes-ready)
Max. input	400 mW
Impedance	18 Ω
Mass	About 17 g
Plug	Φ3.5 mm gold plating stereo mini-plug
Code length	1.2 m (type Y)
Attachment	ComplyTM foam ear tips T-200 size L (Size M is attached to the main unit.) Ocharaku Can, Instruction Manual & Guarantee

 

My friend @Krisman is on a quest to find the perfect IEM. During this exhaustive search , he bought a beautiful pair of Noble Audio Savants.

 
Recently we did a swap where I sent him my sennheiser IE800s and he kindly sent me these to try. I have had them for 2 months and it is high time I sent them back. Today is the last day I shall have with them so I have put them through their paces for one final time. And what a test it will prove to be.....

 
Introduction
 
The Noble Audio Savants are Universal In Ear Monitors. The Noble website offers very little info on these , but does have some pretty gorgeous ones on offer for £599. The Savant has a detachable cable design with a Westone style 2 pin connector. There is a red and blue colour coding to show which driver goes in which ear. Memory wire helps to lock the ft into place. There is a clear plastic tube after the Y connector to pull the cables under the chin or up around the shoulders dependent on your preferred fit.The cable is a twisted braid style with no mic attachment. There is sheafing by the jack plug and the plug itself has a straight bottom and a rounded top. 
 
Build
 
Here is the bit where I talk about everything from looks to microphonics to isolation ; all the stuff that we need to know to see whether we headfiers can live with this for a long time to avoid the on sale items being even more clogged up.
Plenty of attention to detail has gone into these as one would expect from Noble. The finish on the ones Kris bought are exquisite.

 The cable looks quite similar to many designs on the market costing quite a lot less than these. 
 

 
Nevertheless they look great , are of a strong construction and complement the looks of the Savant nicely. There is a considerable amount of microphonics from the cable . The memory wire and plastic tube pretty much cancel this out. The cable stays tangle free. The driver shape even fits my relatively small ears . I would be surprised if anyone had a problem with these being too big. The fit protrudes out from the ears and there some shuffling around is needed. Once you've hit the sweet spot , you should be there for the entirety of your session. The nozzles are markedly angled. This is usual for In ears this high end of course. Not all are however ,  and each manufacturer seems to have variations in the angles they put in. Isolation is pretty good - should be tube or bus resistant but certainly they won't be tube proof. You will still hear road noise and rumbling noise if you take these out and about. Comfort is great - I had no issues wearing these for hours and hours , they fit well around the ears , there is nothing pressing where it shouldn't be and as light as the design is , the top of the ear supports what little there is. 
 
The sound quality comparison supertest
 

 
I have a few IEMs meself , not necessarily because I am in search of the perfect IEM. I just seem to love buying them and I can never get enough. Anyone else have this strange obsession? I have gone through most sensible layers of the market , from £10 to £600. These are the higher end of the price scale ; the big hitters. The 4 suspects above are from left to right  - Sony XBA4ip , Sennheiser IE800 , ACS ENcore Studio Pro and Noble Audio Savant IEMs. Another one was added at a later stage.
 

 
Showing the magic that lies therein and revealing very little about which one is the more costly ; the fighters take their towels off prior to flexing their muscles.
 

 
Another late entrant - the oBravo erib 2a shown at the bottom amid a glorious mess of cables drivers and tips, the scales are reading a combined weight of a few thousand £s.....
 

 

 

 

 
Lots to get through here but this is a Sunday . there's always time on a Sunday.....
 
Supertest Introduction
 
All IEMs tested work perfectly well through a smartphone. I plugged each into my Motorola Moto G4 and hot swapped as quickly as efficiency would allow. Each hot swap had a Noble Savant listen after it. After all , I own the other IEMs so the Savants deserved as much of a chance as they could get. I guessed that they were likely to be  at a disadvantage because they were the newcomers. All of my test music is available on YouTube. You will hear it exactly as I heard it by clicking on the videos supplied. They are all Vinyl recordings.Most are not exactly recent - I was in my 20s when most of these were made.  All the vinyl recordings have been prepared with great care , on great equipment. I am not saying that Vinyl is better than a CD but a click or 2 will give you an interesting experience whatever your opinion. The 2nd test was done using my Macbook Pro Retina and the Chord Mojo. Hot swapping was even even easier using this method as 2 IEMs can be plugged in at the same time. 
 
The Supertest gets underway
 
With many thanks to YouTube and all those who take the time to showcase some amazing kit my test takes very little time to set up. 

 
 
Yes,there is the odd crackle. One of the tracks is even recorded using an external mic. That one is perhaps the most interesting listen of them all. So here we have a mixture of Full Orchestra to Prog Rock to Disco. Plenty of genres to test bass mids highs soundstage  and detail.
 
Noble Audio Savant
 
The focus of my attention here. I have been listening to these for a number of hours by now. So , after this listening, this is what my ears can tell you about their Sound Signature. The Savants have a punchy forward sound. By this I mean that I feel when I listen to them that is sounds like someone has a Graphic Equaliser and has pushed the sliders in the middle ranges up a notch or 2. I find it quite hard to follow a vocal , to remember the words of a song. I put this down to recording techniques which are so sophisticated they flood the brain with so many different things happening at the same time. Forward mids therefore can be a godsend to me . The Noble Savants deliver a beautiful mid presentation and I find they are one of the easier headphones I have yet heard to follow a vocal track on. Particularly on the Chord Mojo , where there was more refinement present than through my Smartphone, the mids were not fatiguing. Extended serious listening through my smartphone - yes , the Savants just became too much after a while. But whilst commuting , this trait was not present . The Savants were able to push themselves to the forefront and made a long trip seem much shorter. There was a midbass warmth , even on Classical tracks and this is something I love too. I like a sound signature that has a nice soft glow to it. There was little visceral kick in the bass , but I found the low end was linear enough to suit my tastes. The high end resolution of the Savants was only very slightly rolled off in my opinion. There was a feeling, less so with the Mojo , that the soundstage was being artificially stretched if felt like the Savants were a little lacking in the high end. This was my first proper evaluation of the Noble Audio Brand. I was extremely impressed. I tell you  - the first time I put them on , I had one of those moments. My jaw dropped , I could not believe how good they sounded from my Moto G4! I'm sure you are all aware by now that first impressions must be judged against the test of time - which is why the Supertest may find flaws I overlooked due to new toy syndrome. I have had some of my other IEMs for over 3 years. The fact they haven't been on Ebay or Headfi for sale forums testifies that I rate them highly. Could the Savants prove themselves amongst my favourites? 
 
Vs Sony XBA4ip
 
The XBA4ip has a lot going for it. I got it for a bargain. It has 4 drivers. It has a tangle free free cable. It has the best phone mic of any of my IEMs. Six months ago I found out how to get the drivers to stay in my ears using a simple soft plastic wing and a hollow silicon tip. They are now performing at their best. Before this I thought they were a pretty good match for almost any Universal I had heard up to then. The Sony's excel in their linearity ; they feel like they're trying to accurately portray the music rather than putting their own stamp on it. 

 
 
 

Hot swapping with the Savants revealed a steely sound to the Sony's. The signature felt a little too crisp and slightly hollow sounding in the mids. The highs on the Sony's are more prominent than the Noble's. The soundstage on the XBA4 was larger but not by a huge margin. The punch on the bass of the Sony's was certainly faster than the Savant. My IEM of choice here for sound quality would be the Savant's , by a large margin. Such a pity that they don't have a mic cable , and now I've got them working properly , the XBA4ips are on and in perfect position in a couple of seconds. 
 
Vs. oBravo Erib 2a
 
The subject of a previous rave review , I still love these. I've had them for 7 months now. My ears pick up on a juicier midbass than I first noticed and perhaps the light airiness I mentioned in my review after so many 100 hours , I might be tempted to change to a slight hollow edge to the mids and uppers range. The treble is a planar magnetic driver. The upper reaches are well catered for in the oBravos , much detail is evident , a bigger soundstage and a more live feel to the music than the Noble Savant has. Overall , perhaps the oBravos might be described as slightly more fatiguing than the Savants. Given the price is £20 less than the Savants currently on offer at Noble's website , the addition of the midbass , the superior soundstage and detail and the mic cable which has no microphonics present - I still prefer my oBravos to the Nobles. 

 
 
 

 
Vs. Sennheiser IE800
 
I reviewed these at length before sending them off for @Krisman to have a listen to . The Sennheiser had too many fit issues for Kris to seek out a pair for himself , but I think he was pretty pleased with how they sounded. I'm unsure as to how many drivers the Noble Audio Savants have - possibly 2? ; the Sony's have 4 Balanced armature driver and the oBravos are a dual driver hybrid design. The Sennheiser has one driver. It is described as an Extra Wide Band Transducer Driver. The IE800s are by far the tiniest IEMs of 5 on test here. They are also the heaviest.... The signature of the IE800 is a rich detailed one which extends far enough into the highs to give an impression of a wider soundstage than any of the others herein. They have a really stiff kevlar cable which is too short and too heavy and has no mic on it. The tips can't be replaced by any other design - there is a patented twist lock fit to the Senns , so don't lose them . A replacement set will set you back £40. Having tried custom earsleeves for them , complys , everything! the best sound I have heard is always from those annoying twist fit tips. For as long as they stay in my ears that is....
The Noble's do not have the bass impact of the IE800s. The detail in the mids is superior from the Savants but there is simply more polish finesse and more happening in the mix with the IE800s. There is no fatigue with the Sennheisers , yet they reach further into the frequency range than even the oBravos. The Noble Savants are a class act of that I have no doubt. The IE800s are in a class above the Savants in their sound quality. They , for Universal IEMs , in my opinion , are World Class.

 
Vs. ACS Encore Pro Studio Custom IEM
 
Universals at the price level of the Savants will come up against low to mid tier priced Customs as competition. A Custom In Ear Monitor has an exact fit , giving amazing isolation and comfort and probably needing much less volume level to drive them. ACS makes 3 Customs - the single driver Evoke, the 3 driver Evolve and my Encore which is a 5 driver 3 way crossover monitor. The signature of the Encore has a bass which hits hard, lots of detail and slightly rolled in the highs, producing an intimate soundstage. 
The price of the Encore's currently £749 is a little high compared to the Savants. In my opinion if you are prepared to go through an ear impression and the wait for a pair to be custom built to your preference - the Encore's are worth all that extra hassle and that extra money too. The Encore's hit harder , have plenty of detail and put many a full size headphone to shame. The only IEM I own that can compete with these is the IE800. They absolutely wipe the floor with the IE800s in the bass detail and impact. 

 
Conclusion
 
I think we can now rank these 5 for the following
 
Bass
 
1 ACS Encore - lots of impact
2 Sennheiser IE800 - lots of midbass warmth
3 Noble Audio Savant - decent midbass warmth
4 oBravo Erib 2a - slightly artificial sounding midbass warmth
5 Sony XBA4ip - linear sounding bass some might feel is bass light
 
Mids
1 Savant - voices are so much easier to follow
2 IE800 - silky detailed 
3 ACS Encore - enough space to easily pick out the electric from the acoustic
4 Erib - slightly hollow but nicely prominent
5 XBA4ip - accurate but a slight steely sound 
 
Highs/Soundstage
1 IE800 - the undisputed King here
2 Erib - Planar driver technology - it works
3 Encore - slightly rolled off but lots can be heard up there
4 Savant - not as fatiguing as the Sony
5 Sony - slightly fatiguing compared to the best 
 
Practicality-(Build,Price,Versitality)
1 Sony XBA4ip - cheapest,mic cable,tangle free,easiest fit
2 Encore - custom build quality
3 Erib - detachable mic cable ,easy fit
4 Savant - beautiful, snug fit
5 IE800 - they look nice at least
 
The lowest points win - 
9 ACS Encore Studio Pro Custom
10 Sennheiser IE800
12 Noble Audio Savant
13 oBravo Erib 2a
16 Sony XBA4ip
 
I am very thankful to @Krisman for his loan and I hope we can both bring you more reviews from our IEMs in the future. I enjoyed the Savants very much and although the initial wow factor has been somewhat watered down by the giants in this supertest, I'd recommend them to someone looking for a special looking pair of IEMs who really seeks out a vocal (Sade, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Rod Stewart, Sting etc). These could be right up your street

With the kind permission of @Gracesheng of Mixcder I have been sent 2 sets of Mixcder ShameMe 5 Bluetooth Headphones. My requirements were to demo away to my hearts content and to also mix it up with my long suffering headphone widow Jo1. This I have done in sufficient enough quantities to relay to you what I found along the journey towards Bluetooth freedom
I have worked with Grace before on a review tour of the Ausdom M04 , another lightweight Bluetooth headphone that was competitively priced. But this tour was for 2 of the same headphones !  Could such a thing work? The reason why I scratched my head and asked myself this time and again should be clear to all of you reading this ; headphones are solitary devices. Even the biggest device (the goliath that is the Abyss AB1266 perchance?) doesn't fit 2 heads in so easily. Sure , agreed , we all meet up every now and then and that is very social but only for those that know what we know..... And another thing - how many of you out there have concealed the wild spending habits of your precious hobby from your loved one? Hands up! 
 
The package 
 

 
Nice bright packaged box
 
 

 
With a protective cardboard fap underneath
 
 

 
Which goes on to reveal these in the snapped down position
 
 
Why these are called Mixcder ShareMe
The premise of the ShareMe5 ; to share your musical experience with someone else. What you listen to in your headphones , well they get to hear the same stuff in an identical headphone. Not only can you pair the Bluetooth Headphone with your smartphone , Laptop , Boombox or other device , you can pair the Mixcder headphones with any other Mixcder headphones and it's not a difficult thing to do either. Listening to a movie , critiquing the latest Deezer releases , all can be done and adjusted to each person's individual tastes. When you realise that not everyone appreciates ear screeching volumes coming through the loudspeakers (my partner likes to listen at half the volume I do) then maybe one might reasonably consider this has some advantages to it. Each headphone has it's own volume controls on the side - you like it loud , crank itup , you like it soft and there's no need to holler "THAT'S TOO LOUD!!!!!" What this means is , if one's partner can cope with putting on a pair of cans , you the audiophile can have your dynamics and your stereo separation and intimacy etc and you can also share the experience with your loved one who can also share it but on their own terms. Revolutionary!
Let me stray away from the tried and trusted review routines and tell you - these headphones can be shared and can be enjoyed together , if you play it right. Now just think about that for a second. I cannot be alone in saying that my partner has been rathersurprised at my obession with the private world of headfidom. She puts on the headphones as a tolerance to me and my compulsion for perfection on micro details . You can see if leaves her cold. And she really tries ; because I know my Jo. But with the Mixcders I have essentially given my partner her own phones , to use as she likes , to adjust as she wishes , but which she can share what I am listening to , be it a movie or the latest tunes. If I share the same musical tastes (nurtured through repeated concert going) we may have something here. My partner put them on and having been shown the volume adjustment she took to them. So we now have my passion being shared by virtue of a simple volume adjustment and a bit of comfort. Who'd have thought it? Could your partner be sold in the same way?
 
Ease of Use
The Mixcder's here are simple enough to setup. Mixcder has a well written instruction booklet enclosed that shows how to pair the Mixcders together and how to pair your Mixcder to a bluetooth device. The voice verification when done successfully adds another touch and makes this childsplay. 
 
Comfort
These are lightweight , have some lovely memory foam pleather pads
 

 
 
and headband cushion
 
 

 
 
and the clamping effect is minimised with a one screw per cup system.

 

 
 
The cups do not swivel overly but have a decent suspension system coming down from the headband. The combination is a winning one and keep the drivers where they need to be irrespective of how square or thin your skull may be.
 
Isolation
The true magic for me of a headphone - you put a pair on and you escape. You could be anywhere , have anything on your mind it doesn't matter. The music and you can have your own special world. You can zone the World out and bliss is sure to follow. Provided the isolation is right this can even be done in a noisy environment , be it on a plane , on the tube or wherever your life takes you. The better the isolation the more the illusion. I found the ShareMe's to be isolating enough to reach into that makebelieve childhoodlike state whenever and wherever I wanted.

 
That's good enough for me.
 
Versatility
Can the Mixcder's take you and your World anywhere? The gym perhaps , a stroll in the country or perhaps a jog through the park ? In fact the first 2 should be no problem , the ShareMe5 won't fall off your head that easily and go loud enough for long enough to outlast more than one long session. We have a problem for the runners amongst us . The single connector per driver from the headband has one drawback. For each footfall on the pavement during my run , there was a knocking noise which could not be alleviated. The flex inherent in the headband whilst being an advantage for many uses was a drawback for us runners. I really wanted them to work too but had to concede that the build was for comfort and alas ! - not for speed 

 
Build
The Mixcder ShareMe 5s have a plastic and pleather memory foam surrounding a decent size angled driver
 

 
which is finished with a clamp on both sides of the headband. The clamp reduces the footprint of the ShareMe's down to pocket sized. The question as to whether the hinges may fail at some point in the future was not something that unduly concerned me in everyday use but I do accept that some reviewers have chosen this as the weak point of the headphones. Time will tell but I have not heard of any failures with this yet. 
 
Sound Quality
I make no bones about putting the SQ for the ShareMe 5 so far down this review compared to my usual routine. The ShareMe 5 cannot simply be looked at in terms of pure sound reproduction in comparison with other phones in the same price bracket. This is because they are offering something quite different from phones I own. That being said , if they sound dreadful there's not much point in sticking them on your head. I tried these on classical to metal . I received these just after seeing Jamie Lawson's last gig on his 2 year World Tour promoting his album , Jamie Lawson.

He came home to his birthplace - a great way to take stock of just how far his fame has got him. If you still don't know who I mean , you may still have heard this if you come from the English speaking world.
 

 
He was the first signing of Gingerbread Records , a company owned by a chap called Ed Sheeran. Ed heard the above song a few years ago and knew it would be massive. Despite a brief spell in the Irish Charts in 2013 it never got anywhere. Ed rang Jamie and asked him how his songs were getting along and realised he was still in the doldrums. He signed him on the basis of that song alone. If you have Ed Sheeran behind you pushing that song hard , you're in with a chance. And now look at him.....
 

 
Yep that's Ed Sheeran and Jamie Lawson , together on stage , in Plymouth , jamming on their cowritten song -  Can't See Straight
 
Back to listening - I've heard this album recently enough to use it as a reference tool to compare the ShareMe 5 against similar wireless and wired phones I have or that HMV are trying to flog.
 
Bass
Lots of sub and midbass characterise the signature of the ShareMe's. Jamie Lawson's album is mixed with plenty of bass and as many new releases are these days it has plenty of loudness. The album has plenty of punch to it. Critical listening reveals the Mixcder has lots of boost in the bass and is aiming for a consumer sound with a boomy sound.
 
Mids
The mids are slightly recessed in keeping with the consumer feel to the sound of these. Voices are still easy enough to follow , but the strings of Jamie's guitar to give off a tactile feel like the best will.
 
Highs/Soundstage/Detail
I am of the opinion more and more that these 3 things are inextricably linked. Space and micro detail are auditory effects created using the upper ranges and the distortion inherent in every analogue device we use. The ShareMe's are rolled off in the uppers , so they are quite smooth. So the shrillness present in some cheaper headphones , that at least is mercifully not here. The rolled off nature of the tuning of these means the soundstage is quite intimate. Cymbals and the echo created in the studio are artificially muted as I expected.
 
Comparisons
 

The Ausdom M05 from 2015. They retail on Amazon for £41.99. These have a similar sound signature , an aggressive bass recessed mids and rolled off in the highs. The ShareMe 5s had a fuller more detailed sound and the thickness and size of the cups being slightly deeper and bigger may have had a part in this impression.
 

 
The Pendulumic Stance S1+ retail at £169.95. They are several times more expensive than the Mixcder ShareMe 5's which are on Amazon at £45.99. The Stance offer a more accurate tonally balanced detailed signature whilst maintaining a comfort that belies their heavier weight. Whether they are worth the 4x price hike sonically is a question only you dear readers can answer. They are not able to do what the ShareMe's do - we are just talking about the SQ . I believe after 18 months of owning the Stance S1+ they can keep up with the best bluetooth headphones out there.
 
Verdict
ShareMe may have found a niche in the market here. Perhaps we can , as partners or friends , sit down together and put headphones on and have an enjoyable time without feeling too self conscious. And crank up the music sat in the living rooms of our headfi neighbourhoods without the neighbours knowing a thing about it. Maybe the unsociable aspect of using headphones can be addressed here and elsewhere. If that is something you've ever thought about it , then you should give these a try.
There are limitations to the Mixcder ShareMe 5 headphones in absolute sonic terms. I realised that the whole point of this review may not have been about sound quality after all. This is about a closed headphone that lets you into an open world and if you're like me - cuddled up to your loved one listening to something very old done in a refreshingly new way ; it might just put a smile on your face 

 

 

With thanks to @alexsv of WyWires and @ejong7 my esteemed friend and headfier extraordinaire, I have the privilege of bringing to the UK the WyWires Red Headphone Cable. I have been sent these all the way from the USA in return for a review on this here very forum for headphone crazies.

 
Introduction

The Red Headphone Cables are made in a standard 5 feet length, the price for them is $299. Dealers have them available for in home trials. All top headphones with detachable cables can be catered for. The ethos of WyWires? My take on the company is no frills  high purity braided unshielded copper wrapped in organic cotton. Made by hand not by a high volume cable machine. Sourced materials as much as possible from the USA. Made in the USA. The Red Headphone has been designed as a low impedance cable. It has been made to do one thing- to beat the bejesus out of stock headphone cable.
 
The Testing
 
Has been done over a few months. For the proper comparison between these and stock I threw the following into the mix:
 

 
3.5 mm to RCA hand made DIY Van Damme cable (Mojo to Mini Beast)
 

 
StarTech 0.6 foot OTG cable (Motorola G4 to Mojo)
 

 
Speaker tap to balanced 10 feet DIY Van Damme Black series Tour grade cable , lovingly crafted by our very UK based @dill3000 (Mini Beast to HE-6)
 

 
Stock HiFiMan braided copper balanced headphone cable
 

 
WyWires Red Headphone Cable
 
All this was connected between the Android smartphone Motorola Moto G4 , a Chord Mojo Dac/Amp and a DIY built First Watt F5 Power Amp (again built and modded by @dill3000)
 




 
The Findings
 
I powered up Onkyo HF player which instantly recognised the Mojo was connected and listened over and over and over again to
 

 
The Light , my favourite track from Immortalised , the 2015 released from Disturbed. My tastes range from Metal to Folk. The harshness and rawness and sheer power and punch of this band  and this track are a good way to look for the classic teble edginess commonly noted about the HiFiMan HE-6.
I have modded my HE-6s by taking the dust protectors off, and apart from the cabling @dill3000 and my brother has made for me that is as far as I want to go at the moment . There is some harshness there still but too much work reducing that can well end up in losing some of the magic that made me fall in love with these headphones in the first place.
The red cables are bringing to the table their own slice of magic. They have taken some of the edge off the 1k frequency spectrum without me needing to EQ this downwards as I would had I been using my Macbook and Audivarna to evaluate. The lower end has a little more emphasis and possibly the fraction of treble edge has brought the soundstage in slightly, there is more of a linear feel to the music, in that it doesn't feel that the music is being stretched artificially.
The stock cable still has much to like. There is a liveleness , an untamed wildness to the sound that I love in the HE-6s when they are being pushed to these levels by a huge amazing amp like the First Watt. There is undoubtedly that edge to the peaks in the music. Obviously such excesses can be coped with for a quick burst of metal power like this, believe me after a few hours this can wear the fittest trimmest of ears.
 
Conclusion
 
@alexsv I see your vision and I think herein you have created a bright tangle free tough cable that is anything but bright in it's performance. A Ferrari body around a Bentley Mulsanne Turbo is what we have here, and it is none the worse for it at all.

The F7200 is a single balanced armature in ear moniter from the Japanese company Final. Final have been in business since 1974 and in my opinion make some retro looking IEM and full size headphones. Their range is across the whole spectrum of the market; their budget model starts at under 40 pounds. The flagship model- a closed back full sized no less , sets you back 3 and a half grand........ These people are serious about their headphones.
I was sent a sample of their latest attempt by hifiheadphones , the shop in the UK where you can get these. With thanks to @Tony-Hifi who has been supplying me with writing material for over a year now. For a professional look at the F7200 , please go to http://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/final-f7200-in-ear-isolating-earphones-with-replaceable-cable.html
The vital statistics for the F7200 -
Housing: Stainless SteelDriver
This isn't my preferred style but I cannot deny the minimalism that this lends to the overall look of the monitors
Type: Balanced armature
I have several balanced armature IEMs. I shall be pitting the Klipsch X11is and Sony MH1s as Single driver rivals against these. I shall also pit them against a couple of multi driver IEMs I have. All of which fall well below the 389 price tag of the Finals . But will the Finals climb well above the competition?
 Sensitivity: 106dB
The good news is these IEMs are sensitive to go loud on any smartphone. They isolate really well due to their diminutive size so don't need much volume compensation for the outside world.
Impedance: 42Ω
The main testing gear I have used these on are the Medion Smartphone 5 ( I presume like most phones this how a low impedance) and the Chord Mojo (under 1 ohm impedance) so both are a good match for these phones.
Cable Length: 1.2m
The cable length is plenty generous enough to be a compromise between sat down and on the go, some of it may need to be stuffed into the pocket unless you are 7 feet tall.
Weight: 23g
22g of this weight must be the cable!
 
 
The Build
 
The F7200s have made a bold statement to launch this model. They  are described as "the world's most compact isolating earphones"
They are tiny. Of that there is no doubt. The size of the driver makes for an easy fit into the ear. The severe right angle shape of the driver housing does not make a natural fit into the ear however. The snap fit between the mmcx cable and the driver is a swivel fit. The swivel fit allows for versatlility and enables a down the ear or over the ear fit . So all preferences should be managed adequately and ensure the best sound these can produce can be attained with ease.
Here's a side by side look at my Klipsch X11i IEMs against the F7200 to give you an impression of size.


Note the more ergonomic styling of the Klipsch. The Klipsch does tend to go into it's preffered part of ear canal easier than the Finals. Also note that the Klipsch can only be worn down from the ear and therefore have much more susceptibility to microphonics.


With the tips off - the X11i does appear to be quite a bit smaller. It's trivial I know, but I thought the Klipsch earphones were the smallest I'd come across and I still believe that after comparing these 2.
The cables of the F7200 are interchangeable. Another great benefit as with some research these could be made into Bluetooth earphones or be used for hands free comms with  an Android or Iphone. It's a shame that different cables aren't supplied as standard.
The cable supplied has been braided beautifully and has a gorgeous silver lustre. It does the F7200 great credit and as you can see from my own collection it certainly stands out from the crowd.




The Sound
Which brings us to what this is all about . Does it cut the mustard in the sound department? Can a single balanced armature driver in a tiny IEM give a big sound? Well, I have Sony MH1s , Klipsch X11is and Sennheiser IE800s all of which are single driver IEMs and all of which to varying degrees of sophistication give a decent sound. The IE800 particularly with it's patented Extra Wide Band driver can compete with any IEMs I've heard to date.
I listened for the first day of my review to the F7200s in isolation to adjust my ears to their particular sound signature. I enjoyed what I heard. The overall impression was a reasonably detailed slightly wider soundstage than normal with less bass than usual for an IEM. The fit and sound meant that I could easily imagine wearing these for many hours without finding the sound particularly tiring. The sound was unspectacular but it wasn't unpleasant.
It was then time to bring some perspective to my findings. I have used 3 single driver IEMs (Sony MH1/Klipsch X11i/Apple Earpods) and a multi driver IEM (/Sony XBA4ip) to compare the Finals to.
Sony MH1

The MH1s have long been rated as amazing value for money , currently retailing in the Uk for £44.10. I have acquired an amazingly high quality example of them with a bespoke cable from a fellow headfier, @guido. They have also been given a set of custom ear plugs. The plugs came from Snugs and are the closest thing to a decent fit with a decent sound that they made for me.
Even with all the bells and whistles the Sony MH1 comes across as a cheap IEM that is exceptional value for money rather than something which competes against more serious opposition. The Final F7200 was a more musical experience. The MH1s certainly trounced the Finals for bass impact but could not compete in sound stage and were too rolled off to compete in sound stage or mid and high resolution. The MH1 impedance is 15Ω and sensitivity is 125dB, so they do go louder in a smartphone.

The Klipsch X11i goes up a notch in the price stakes. These are currently retailing at £179.99.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Klipsch-X11i-Headphones-3-button-Microphone/dp/B00EA90QGA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475101751&sr=8-1&keywords=klipsch+x11
But bear in mind you can buy 2 pairs of these and a crate of beer for the price of the Finals, so the Finals had better trounce them! The F7200s did not trounce the Klipsch. The X11is had much deeper and more punchier bass and were equally as clear in the mids whilst just being edged out by a smidgeon in the highs and soundstage. Overall , the sound was generally more fun on the Klipsch. The impedance is 50Ω and sensitivity 110dB which is 4Ω more and 4dB less than the F7200. The Klipsch however go loud a lot sooner than the Finals.


Ok , here is when I might start to lose a bit of credibility...... I had the sheer cheek to try the Apple Earpods I had knocking around against the Final F7200. Fit is all important with the Earpods., They have no tips and are designed to be placed loosely into the ear and have a couple of vents which resonate into the ear and act as a chamber. They were bundled free with the Iphone 5 so there's a lot around. I swapped these for my 2nd pair of Sony MH1s but they retail for under £10 in the UK nowadays. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00BQL4Z4O/ref=asc_df_B00BQL4Z4O36687705?ie=UTF8&condition=new&tag=pricerunner-ce-3p-21&creative=22278&creativeASIN=B00BQL4Z4O&linkCode=df2&ascsubtag=uk,27816,prsp_uk_whathifi,94,;f012092879b8aa98a56799b50c7061dd
I compared these , side by side , plugged into my Chord Mojo and I was astonished at the result. So much so that time and again over the course of an hour I continually swapped between the Finals and these cheap and nasty looking plastic things to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I PREFERRED the Earpods! And not by a small margin.... The bass had much more impact on the Earpods , obviously it was artificially boosted and a little boomy but not offputtingly so. The mids and the highs and the soundstage , compared to the Finals , I can only describe it as I heard it ; it was like taking a curtain away from the sound it was that dramatic a difference! I am sure fit must be everything with as eccentric a design as the Earpods. But by god they worked for me! I'm still pinching myself now , I just cannot believe that I can say that the Earpods outperformed a serious pair of bejewelled Japanese Single BA IEMs. But say it I must.... The Earpods have an impedance of 45Ω and an impedance of 109dB , 3Ω more and 3dB more than the F7200s, they are slightly louder than the Finals.

The Sony XBA4ips. 4 is the number of drivers in each shell. A superwoofer woofer full range and tweeter is in there. The fit used to be abysmal for these they were just too big for my ears but I found some Obravo spacers hold them in place just great now and they have undergone a rennaisance having been all but discarded for 2 years. The retail price for these is dependent on whether you can find a pair for sale, I found a set for sale after a brief browse with the asking price of £349. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-XBA4iP-Premium-Quality-Headphones-Black/dp/B007MJGESE
Side by side , constant interchsnging with these and the Finals gave me the ineviable conclusion. I preferred the XBA4s. They had more punch than the Finals and less boom than the MH1s Earpods and X11is as well as more detail and a less hollow mid/high signature than the Earpods. They had the clearest and widest soundstage of all to boot. Impedance - 8Ω Sensitivity 100dB. These are loud enough to work well in a phone but definetely benfit from amping.

Conclusion
It was fun to do this and although the results weren't at all what I expected I still believe there will be some who will find the Final F7200 to their liking. My ususal listening runs from Classical to Country , from Pop to Havy Metal from Synth to Folk so I would say the linearity of the Finals and the level of bass may appeal to Classical enthusiasts. The Finals are on their way to a new set of ears and I look forward with interest to seeing the results from them. Until then , if you have apair , let's hear from you!

The Sennheiser IE800

 
 
What hasn't been said about these flagship earphones from Sennheiser? 
My first wow moment for these was at a headfi meet sponsored by Sennheiser at the Great Russell Hotel all the way back in April 2014. This was around the launch time of the IE800s and was also the first time I was introduced to the Astell and Kern AK100. Club Orpheus were there in droves and one of the reps handed me an IE800 and AK100 and I was stunned. 
I subsequently bought both. Not there and then , but the need to acquire weighed heavily on me until the feeling was too much to resist anymore.
The IE800 is still the flagship IEM for Sennheiser and is still a single driver. This in the age of more and more drivers marked a real risk for Sennheiser to convince the Audio buying public that 1 was as good as 12. 
But remarkably , it is. 
 

Where other companies have the inherent headache of crossover distortions , Sennheiser don't. Where other companies are buying in from the driver factories of the World and trying to fit their sound signature into their own designs , Sennheiser made their own. 
And what a driver they have produced. 
The reproduction of these IEMs still amazes to this day. Whilst there is undoubtedly strong competition out there, at £599 the IE800s no longer look exorbitantly expensive as an endgame portable solution for a smart phone or maybe as I shall show you later on , through a pretty nifty sounding DAP/Mojo/Speaker amp setup.
 

 
My belief is this ; if you have the time and the daftness to do it , be over the top. I shall not be giving a review based on my learnt experiences -  although clearly you can't unlearn something. I shall be giving you a taste of what the IE800 can do against some competitors on a system comprising of @dill3000's unbelievable DIY built First Watt F5 power amp coupled to a Chord Mojo , coupled to a beauty of a cable my brother made for me using some Van den Hul cabling and neutrik connectors all going out to a speaker terminal to balanced cable custom built by @dill3000
For the review I have used a custom made balanced to single ended adapter , again by @dill3000 which I've plugged a 3.5 into . Simple!
 

 
 
What we have here is an ultra powerful but also ultra revealing system which will put the IE800s to an extreme test.
 

 
Needless to say , if you are trying this at home - keep the volume down very low indeed. The IE800s go loud through a smartphone , let a 50 Watt Per Channel Speaker Amp have it's way with them and they will be ravaged in a Medieval Crusades way that they may never come back from! 
The method in this madness is the opportunity I have to show you fine headfiers how a top tier IEM performs when put into a high end setup as opposed to a smartphone. The IE800s will perform under these less stringent conditions but something this special needs pushing.
With a slightly sweating nervousness (the temperature of the Mini Beast can reach towards 50 degrees) I carefully switched things on.  The results are impressive. So much so I treated myself to an extended listen to these before testing them against rival factions.
I shall divide my sound impressions into the following categories and try and explain the almost inexplicable and certainly subjective, hearing experience in as simple terms as I can , avoiding as much jargon as I can. There will be no cream mentioned in my findings or any other kind of dairy products. I am trying to be disciplined in my descriptions without becoming scientific. Or boring.
 
 
The categories are
Bass, Mids and Highs, Clarity and Soundstage.
 
I shall use this as a basis for my reviews because this is how I listen critically to my kit, the other stuff for me causes confusion.
 
Bass
 
The bass of the IE800s. Bear in mind this is from one tiny driver. I think sennheiser got the bass just right in the mix. Axell Grell , at a headfi meet in 2013 in London , said that he had boosted the low frequency response to allow for the music to come through past the sounds of commuting of walking of travelling and off the road. So there is a deliberate bass hump. The impact in a quiet listening environment is fantastic. It's enough to make you sit up but not enough to drown out the rest of the mix or cause a mini war between the frequency range. The bass is accurate and has no boom but has punch.
 
Mids and Highs
 
The natural reproduction of strings being played the clarity of vocals and the hitting of cymbals is often how my ears are drawn to the quality of the kit I have. Guitar drums singer and keyboards all joing together when a song peaks is a good place to look for harshness.
There are no IEMs I have heard that do these finer than the IE800s. There is a natural effortless sound through the mids into the highs and yet there is an extension to the highs that adds a level of detail to the overall signature that is seldom noticed in other In Ears.
 
Soundstage
 
The space in between the instruments and the size of the picture in my head that I have of the recording is how I work out the soundstage. The IE800s excel at this , there is so much detail in the highs and mids the sound stage is fit for a flagship model.
 
Comparisons
 
And talking of flagship models I checked the Sennheiser IE800s against 2 similarly priced IEMs I happen to own.
 

 
The ACS Encore Studio Custom IEMs have 5 drivers. The bass on these are superb , better than the IE800s even and they as customs have far more isolation and need far less volume. The mids and highs are not as impressive as the bass and are slightly rolled off , in my opinion making the soundstage more intimate.  I can of course wear the customs without problems whilst I'm running whereas this is not an option for my IE800s.
 
 


 
The oBravo Erib 2a is a dual hybrid diver IEM it is the world's first neodymium driver combined with a planar magnetic tweeter in an earphone. The low bass frequency has no punch but the mid and high bass has lots of impact as do the mids on these. They have not as good a low bass impact as the IE800s but more impact in the higher bass and mids. The treble , as good as it is , (and it is great) still does not outshine the IE800s. Obravo have done well to come so close to Sennheiser at a similar price (these retail at £579.99) but they are not the IE800 beaters I thought they were in the first month I had them. The soundstage of the Erib 2a is a similar size to that of the IE800s.
 
The Fit
 
Herein lies the problem, or if like me you love these enough , the challenge. Whole reams of threads have been devoted to answering the question as to what can be done to make the IE800s  stop falling out of the ears.
The 4 problems with the Senns are :
the weight of the Kevlar cables
their stiffness 
the lack of length between the driver attachment and the clip on cable attachment
the tips supplied are a patented design so no others will fit
the cable is not detachable from the drivers
 
The solutions are possible:
Get them recabled - but who would do this given their initial price?
Get custom ear sleeves made - I did this , through Snugs, but the Snugs after months of hard work and research done by me were not as good sounding as the Senn tips
New innovations - there are silicon wings which were sent with the oBravos which help to keep these and other large IEMs in place. Maybe some such customisation might do the trick?
Put up with them - that has it's level of wisdom too , but it does mean the IE800s are likely to be only used when sat down, and how many of us do that for too long?
 
Conclusion
 
Perfection is a very hard thing to achieve . The Sound Quality of these IEMs , for an IEM , is close to perfection. The bass mids and highs and soundstage are wonderful, no question in my mind. But an IEM has to fulfil a specific purpose and that is to be used out and about. The IE800s are not versatile enough to be put in the perfect bracket. But if anyone gets them modified to enable that, they have a world beater on their hands