Reviews by YoYo JoKeR | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop.

Intro: Somic is a headphone manufacturing brand headquartered in Guangzhou, China. Somic was established in 1999, it is one of China’s oldest and largest headphone brand. It has obtained the esteemed ISO9001/2008 and other such certificates for its ability in manufacturing.

Somic currently has a wide range of budget headphone offerings, which it also OEM’s to other brands. The MH463 is their flagship headphone.

Specifications of MH463:

Drivers: 50MM CCAW coil

Rated Impedance: 45 Ω

Frequency Response: 8 ~ 30,000 Hz

Sensitivity: 93dB

Weight: 388 Grams

Plug: 3.5mm with screw on 6.5mm Gold plated

Cable: 1.6 Metres, Fixed & non removable.

Let us see what the MH463 has got for us,

Packaging and Accessories: The MH463’s arrive packed inside a black cardboard box. Once the case is flipped open, The MH463 is seen resting behind a plastic window. Nothing fancy, basic accessories included. But each and every part has a premium quality and feel to it.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

Screw on ¼” Converter: To plug in the MH463 in the 6.5mm headphone jacks.

Velcro: An velcro to tie up the lengthy cable when not in use.

Design and Build: The MH463 has a great build quality. The entire housing shell is made up of high quality forged aluminium & fibre. It isn’t painted, but is anodized, which is again a step forward in engineering. These are not light in weight, and feel fairly (but not excessive) heavy on head. Headband is made up of steel, covered by a pleather cushion. Earpads are pleathers. These are fully open, and over ear headphones, and the design/calculations has been extremely well carried out.

Cable has a very good build. It is light, flexible and does not get tangled. I could not notice the presence of any microphonics. Plug is straight and gold plated, and is very well built. The stock cable does a great job in transferring signals along with great transparency. But the cable is fixed & not detachable.

Previously, many users had reported creaking frames or similar issues, and as of now, most of those issues have been addressed & solved by Somic, and I cannot observe any creaking movements.

Comfort: MH463’s are very comfortable to wear in general, owing to its oval earcups and very comfortable clamp, long yokes, the MH463 is literally fits well all enthusiasts. It can be made comfortable for long sessions by upgrading to a better earpads.

The clamping force and headband angling is very well implemented, and clamp force is very adaptive & accurate without exerting undesirable pressure on our skull. The yoke is also long enough to provide a good comfort for enthusiasts with longer/larger heads. Even though MH463’s are fully-open headphones, these leak sound, but not as loud as majority of open cans.

The stock earpads of MH463 lack in ventilation hence are uncomfortable for ears & cause sweating. So in my opinion, it is necessary to switch over to HM5 velour pads, which are very economical at 20$ a pair. This step ensures in a big step up in comfort. The MH463 is quite heavy feeling can when worn over head, because it weighs 388 grams (result of a great build). This is the only real con (unavoidable) in comfort area.

Sound: The MH463 has a neutral character, with a slight emphasis on upper mids. I really liked the way MH463 presented itself sonically. Overall character is such a way that, lows are really accurate and tight; hence focus falls on mids to highs. This helps us to better retrieve the details, pick out instruments and gives us a sense of increased air and soundstage.

Burn in: These improve a lot with time. Let’s say a playback of 100 hours provides audible improvements, along with relaxed and adopted clamping force. Bass prior to break-in is slightly more sterile, and eventually it becomes more in body, Mids will sound more open, airy and slightly more forward. highs which were ‘noticeable and aggressive‘ become slightly more smooth and natural, soundstage opens up by a margin.

Lows: are very accurate, tight and refined; have a strong impact. Depth, and extension is moderate.

Mids: sounded slightly recessed at first listen, but with burn-in, mids open up and get slightly forward and pleasing.

Highs: Very are clear, detailed, and in just about the exact quantity required. I can describe highs not as ‘bright’ but as ‘right’

Soundstage: The MH463’s soundstage is airy, spacious, and 3D like. Depth is excellent. Instrument separation, detail retrieval is very good. According to my observation, these cans sounded good in every genre I tried, but particularly excelled in instrumentals, and classical. Vocals were good if not great. I can say the MH463’s are not forgiving to poor recordings. Hence these are revealing and resolving.

Comparison: The MH463 holds an unbelievably great value and price/performance aspect, it is unmatched by any open back headphone within 100$. Not only that, its performance, build, comfort is very much comparable to sub 200$ headphones.

Hence, I will pick Sennheiser’s HD598 & Audio Technica’s AD900X as MH463’s chief competitors, even though latter ones cost more than twice the price of MH463 at 60$ shipped. All these are low impedance, and easy to drive, open and over-ear cans.

HD 598: By comfort & build, these are really superior, owing to their light weight construction, velour earpads and a softer headband. But by sound quality, HD598 falls slightly behind MH463 in the area of precision, instrument separation, clarity & soundstage. But these are slightly easier to drive than MH463’s. HD598’s are available at around 150$ in amazon.

AD900X: Again, edges out the MH463 in terms of comfort, build, and also sonically outperforms the MH463, but these cost three times the price of MH463. At 170$ shipped, It is one of the best can available in the price range, but MH$63 simple offers a great value and a near-performance in 1/3^rd of its price.

So, ultimately without a second thought, The MH463 has a tremendous value, impressive sonic performance, & reigns as the King of sub 100$ cans, and competes very well with sub 200$ headphones.

Amplification: These MH463’s are rated at 45 ohms, hence are designed to be power efficient, and can be run by weak sources .The need for a dedicated headphone amplifier is comparatively less, although a dedicated amp can improve can sound quality by a good margin. O2/ODAC setup brings out the best in MH463’s. Or even a 30$ homemade cmoy brings out the potential in them.

Conclusion: The MH463 can be considered as a wonderful set of headphones. It has an exceptional price to performance ratio. I am really impressed. The MH463’s are a pair, which I feel everyone should probably try out in their audio journey, because they’re a great pair in their own right. I can whole heartedly recommend them to anyone who loves audio. From a budding music enthusiast to a studio mixer to a veteran audiophile. Nobody can really regret buying the MH463. With these, even an average music enthusiast can afford to listen to quality music.

The Pros:

1) Build Quality: The MH463 has a great all-metal/fibre build.

2) Sound quality: Sound presentation here is very neutral, with slight emphasis on upper mids and is very much helpful for critical listening as well as musical pleasure.

3) Value: Sheer and unbeatable value & one of the best price to performance ratio headphones one might encounter.

The Cons:

1) Comfort: This is definitely a downside considering the weight of 388 grams, which is on heavier side. .Also, the earpads needs to be changed/upgraded for a better comfort and listening experience.

Yep, I have listened to HI2050, and its sonic performance is audibly inferior to MH463's.

the 2050's will not be comfortable for longer heads due to limited yoke length, and its slightly smaller in size and lighter in weight compared to MH463. Build quality is pretty good, velour earpads used in the 2050.

So It is quite easy to conclude MH463 is a better can (sonically, and by design, comfort) than the 2050.

so it's a giant killer!

Regarding this statement of yours:
"HD598 falls slightly behind MH463 in the area of precision, instrument separation, clarity & soundstage."
I have both the HD598 and MH463 and I disagree...
To my ears the HD598 has better resolution, imaging, soundstage. Detail is simply in a different league. The only area in which the MH463 are different (not better) than HD598 is the amount of bass which is larger. However the quality and tightness of bass is also better in the Sennheiser...

Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop.

Intro: ME-Electronics is an established & popular US brand specializing in the area of Bluetooth headphones and IEM’s. They are based in Los Angeles, CA. Their products are all designed & developed in the U.S, but made in China by high standards.The HT-21 Gen.2 is on-ear Closed-back headphone offering. MEE recently updated the drivers of already excellent HT-21 model and hence the HT-21 Generation 2.

MEE has a specific vision in making their products: Their products should have appreciable clean and clear sound quality & last long must be made up of good quality materials. Their products are very reasonably priced, accessible for a common music enthusiast. MEE provides are a great price/performance ratio on their entire product range.

MEE’s Motto: Music Enjoyment for Everyone .

Specifications of the HT-21 Gen2:

Type: Closed back, On ear with Passive Noise Isolation

Driver: 40MM dynamic

Frequency Response: 10Hz-20 kHz

Impedance: 32 ohms

Sensitivity: 116dB (1mW@1KHZ)

Maximum power input: 50mW

Packaging and Accessories: The HT-21 Gen2 ’s arrive packed inside a strong cardboard box with a removable outer sheet, on which features and other information have been mentioned upon. Once the box is lifted open, The HT-21 Gen2 is seen resting on a plastic board. The cable is coiled off in the storage box. Which is safe yet attractive, nothing to complain about. A pouch is provided to store the HT-21’s.

Design and Build: The HT-21 Gen.2 has a very good overall build quality. Nowhere to nitpick.

The entire housing shell is made up of high quality fibre, and is painted in gloss black (fingerprint magnet). Cans are pretty small, and appear to be large in pictures. These are extremely light in weight. MEE logo is printed on the rear side of the housing shell. Left and Right markings are easy to see, and are clearly indicated. Headband & earpads cushioning are made up of soft pleather materials. The length slider is made up of polished metal, which ensures this area, which is under tension, does not break off.

The HT-21 Gen.2’s are already nimble, easy to handle, wear on and power requirement is very low. Along with all these, these are fold-able, and are easy to carry around. Cable has a very good build. It is light, flexible and does not get tangled. I could not notice the presence of any microphonics. Plug is 45 degree angled and gold plated.

Comfort: HT-21 Gen.2’s are very comfortable to wear. and its yoke is long enough and hence comfortable for almost any-sized heads. On1 is ergonomically designed. But since the earpads are madeup of pleather, ventilation will be less, thereby causing sweating; especially in tropical climate. But it can be continuously worn over an hour without any discomfort issues.

Since HT-21 Gen.2’s are closed back headphones, these will isolate the listener from outside noise. This level of isolation is decent for a traveller. Going by weight factor, these feel extremely light and very easy on head. Clamping force is relaxed and not at all imposing and pressing against ears. Headband has a good cushioning, Also, the HT-21 Gen.2’s housings have high degree of rotation, ensuring a good comfort for any given heads and ears.

Sound: As for the most important part, the HT-21 Gen.2 has a very neutral, clear & airy sonic character. It is very transparent and detailed (given its price). We have to keep in mind that, with on-ear headphones, sonic presentation may feel different with different fit. Therefore fit/angle is the deciding factor for sound being perceived by ears.

Burn in: There is little or no sonic change with time. Let’s say a usage of 5 hours gives us softening of pleather earpads and better clamping force. Bass prior to break-in is slightly looser, and eventually it becomes more accurate, Mids will sound more open, airy and natural. Highs become slightly smoother; soundstage opens up by a margin.

Lows: have sub-woofer ‘effect’ and punchy; not very accurate.

Mids: sound very neutral, airy and clear.

Highs: Detailed yet smooth treble.

Soundstage: Unlike majority of portable cans, the HT-21 Gen.2’s soundstage is airy natural with nearly circular soundstage. Depth is excellent. Instrument separation is very good for its price point. Instruments placement & positioning is great. I wouldn’t call it as natural sounding, but as neutral, detailed, transparent. Low volume listening is pretty impressive. One can hear On1 in very low volumes, yet it retains all the details & elements present in a track. Comfort and fit plays a vital role in sound being perceived to our ears. Especially in case of On1 where the earpads are very compact, if they fit in a wrong way, they will leak sound leading to missing details.

Amplification: The HT-21 Gen.2’s are rated at 32 ohms, and designed to be power efficient, and hence are fairly easy to drive, and can be driven by almost any sources, smartphones and DAP’s. Although setup like an O2/ODAC does indeed increase accuracy, soundstage and dynamics, and the difference in quality is definitely audible. Power is not very important aspect here, but a transparent setup indeed does help in increasing SQ;

Conclusion: The HT-21 Gen.2’s are really impressive set of cans, which are affordable to any music enthusiast out there. Build quality is very good, sonic presentation is very pleasing, with fairly good soundstage. I really like to listen to these cans. I have nothing but praises for these. At a humble price of 15$, these are a steal deal & no brainer! No one can really go wrong with the HT-21 Gen.2

Pros:

1) Build Quality: The HT-21 Gen.2 has a good metal/fiber build.

2) Sound quality: Sound presentation here is very neutral, detailed, & airy, it is very much like-able and fatigue free for music listening on the go.

3) Power: HT-21 Gen.2’s can run off on smartphones without issues, and still sounding very good. Amplification or source requirement is very less.

Cons: None

Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop. With time, my sonic preferences have very much grown. I avidly admire transparency, accuracy along with neutrality, which has led me to review the prestigious K702 headphones.

Intro: AKG Acoustics (Akustische und Kino-Geräte G.m.b.H) is well recognized, established & one of the oldest audio brand specializing in the area of audio & headphones. They are headquartered in Vienna, Austria. The ‘K’ series line is a very popular and long running headphone offering from AKG. They have a specific vision in making their products: Their products should last long and should employ quality engineering for precise and accurate sound reproduction, with state of art cutting edge technology. All the headphones are designed by their engineers in Austria. Few headphones are manufactured in China. The K702 headphones are one of the best headphones AKG has ever produced. These are studio reference headphones. The pair I will reviewing belongs to latest batch & current year manufacturing.

Founded in 1947 by Dr. Rudolf Görike & Ernst Pless. Originally, their main aim was to provide technical equipment for cinemas: loudspeakers, film projectors and light meters. Their business slowly expanded and AKG started selling car horns, door intercoms, carbon capsules for telephones, headsets and cushion speakers. The first AKG microphone was used by radio stations & Theaters. AKG developed its first patents, the moving coil technology and the principle of mass load membranes, allowing its products to have extended frequency ranges. With the creation of the D12 microphone in 1953, AKG achieved international fame, setting the standard for voice transmissions. Being the world's first dynamic cardioid microphone, it possessed excellent sonic qualities for that time, making its way into radio stations and recording studios from across the world. The product was improved through subsequent upgrades, spanning the famous C414 and C12 microphones. In 1994, AKG was acquired by Harman International Industries, and they later setup AKG USA’s headquarters in California.

In 2010, AKG Acoustics received a Grammy Award for the work the company has done in the recording field.

Specifications of K702:

General

Headphone type	open
Audio Frequency bandwidth	10 to 39800 Hz
Sensitivity headphones	105 dB SPL/V
Max. Input Power	200 mW
Rated Impedance	62 Ohms
Earpads
Detachable cable	yes
Cable Length	3 m
Earpads Replaceable	yes

Audio Interface

Type	Screw-on Jack Combo (1/4" and 1/8")
Gender	Male
Contacts	3-pin
Interface Finish	Gold

Dimensions / Weight

Length	113 mm
Width	199 mm
Height	212 mm
Net Weight	235 g

Let us see what the K702 has got for us,

Packaging and Accessories: The K702’s arrive packed inside a cardboard box. Once the box is flipped open, The K702 is seen resting. Nothing fancy, basic accessories included. But each and every part has a premium quality and feel to it.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

Headphone Cable: About 2.5 meters long, terminating in 3.5mm.

¼” Screw on Converter: To plug in the K702 in the 6.5mm headphone jacks.

User Manual: Contains instructions to operate the K702 and other warranty information.

Design and Build: The K702 has a great build quality. The K702 weights just about 235 grams, one of the lightest headphones by weight available. To achieve this, metal parts are very much avoided, and construction is mainly using high quality fibre, which are light but very strong.

AKG headphones use suspended headband technique, which has its own advantage. There will be no need for manual adjusting as per head size. They are auto adjusting, and avoids a lot of hassle. The headband has a foam-pleather base with no bumps, very accurately angled. It is attached to an elastic thread which stretches the headband up and down.

The K702 is a fully open headphone, hence has vents for air intake at either side of headphone. Driver shell rotates about its own axis to fit various types of human skulls.
The whole headphone is supported on by the two parallel outer headband beams, which are flexible. These also carry wiring for opposite driver (right)

Cable has a very good build. It is straight, flexible and does not get tangled. I could not notice the presence of any microphonics. Plug is straight and gold plated. The stock cable does a great job in transferring signals along with great transparency. The cable on headphone has three pins, and is configured for single end termination; balanced mode mode is not supported.

Comfort: K702’s are very comfortable to wear, even for longer sessions. These feel extremely light on head. Clamp force is very pleasant after few hours of break-in from a new headphone out of box.

The earpads are made up of velour, are high quality ones & does feel plastic and do not cause irritations or itching. The Space inside the earpads is also great, good amount of depth and good sense of space. These provide very good ventilation for our ears even in hot tropical climates. These ear pads are very firm in nature, which ensures in consistency of delivery in sonic performance, and also in durability of the pads themselves. The earpads can be removed to clean or replace with a simple anti-clockwise horizontal twist.

One of the most comfortable headphones both by design and by weight.

Sound: The K702 has a very neutral sonic character. ‘Accuracy, Transparency Details’ are the key terms. The presentation here is in such a way that, emphasis is given on mids and highs for optimal listening, while lows take a backseat.

Burn in: These improve a lot with time. Let’s say a playback of 50 hours provides audible improvements, along with softening of earpads and a relaxed clamping force. Bass prior to break-in is slightly more sterile, and eventually it becomes increased in body, Mids will sound more open, the slight peak in upper mids which was present before, eventually flattens out. Highs which more smooth, soundstage opens already excellent, becomes more airy with precise instrument placements.

Lows: are very accurate, tight and refined; but doesn’t has a strong impact. Depth is moderate. Less in quantity comparatively. But the K702 is a reference headphones, focus and precise attention is required on mids & highs.

Mids: Neutral, very detailed & transparent. With a appreciably natural tonality.

Highs: Very are clear, airy & detailed. Very transparent as per the recording.

Soundstage: The K702’s soundstage is very airy, spacious, and fully circular 3D life like soundstage. Imaging is again spatial, with instruments placements very accurately positioned.Component/instruments are clearly and vividly separated and explained in a very detailed manner. According to my observation, these headphones are very neutral, and accurately represent the given recording. Given its transparent nature, I can say the K702’s are not forgiving to poor recordings. Hence these are revealing and resolving.
Special mention here is about K702’s ability to respond.

The membrane of K702’s driver is extremely fast & responsive. It is very quick, delivers sound without any delay, almost like a planar magnetic headphones. No other headphone around this price range can compete with the speed of K702. Overall The K702’s offer a reference quality and vastly uncoloured and transparent sonic performance.

The K702 headphones are widely used by qualified & experienced professionals across the globe in precise. This may alone vouch for the K702’s highly regarded performance.

Comparison: Let us take a look at other popular & well performing headphones available in similar price point.

Sennheiser HD600: A widely loved and a long standing headphone which extremely reliable and durable. It is fully modular. Sonically it is neutral has a nice quantity bass which is fairly accurate; Mids are forward. Highs are smoothened out with very less grains or harshness. Highs are present in just the right amount to keep the music alive. But when compared to K702, HD600 behaves as more of a musical headphone rather than a reference professional headphone.

HD600 indeed does comparatively lack soundstage width & air, but inturn has fuller soundstage. HD600 does not quite retrieve the detail due to its thicker sonic presentation. HD600 is also one of the most comfortable headphones, is also light in weight & ergonomically designed.

Beyerdynamic DT880: Again a long standing headphone offering from Beyer. Widely used by professionals across the world. The DT880 will be comparatively inferior in design mechanism; do observe the headbands, wiring connection methods and fixed cable. It also offers slightly lesser comfort due to shallow clearance inside earcups making ears to touch the inner surface. Also the DT880 is not modular, it does not have detachable cables, and hence maybe troublesome in long run.

DT880 is also very transparent & accurate in terms of sound quality for professionals aswell as for music hearing. Bass delivery is perfect (for reference) in DT880. But it has a slightly recessed mids and comparatively harsher higher frequencies.

The K702 has greater amount of comfort, relaxed clamping force of all, lightest by weight. Going by sonic performance, the K702 has the higher ability in terms of transparency, accuracy, resolving power, detail retrieval, imaging, and soundstage. The only drawback in sound deliverance is in terms of bass, which is a touch less in quantity than optimal. The K702 requires a good headphone amplifier & is relatively difficult to drive.

The K702 offers overall better technical sonic performance & can be considered as a reference in the whole comparison.

Amplification: These K702’s are rated at 62 ohms and are not designed to be power efficient or run by weak sources and hence need a dedicated headphone amplifier for optimal performance delivery. The K702 very much appreciates amplifiers which are revealing or transparent with powerful current output. Ideal amp/dac with a good match for K702 include: Objective2 combo & Schiit M2 Stack. Matrix M-Stage is also proven to have great match with the K702. All these devices are very much affordable and are easily available.

Conclusion: The K702 headphones are exceptionally performing headphones for the price offered. The K702’s are very neutral & presentation is in such away, and one can easily figure out the flaws in a recording. This type of presentation will be very useful for mastering or critical listening, and utility for musical pleasure is also appreciable.

The K702’s will be my favourite pair of headphones for both leisure music listening aswell as for critical listening. K702 is an engineering marvel by AKG engineers, I must admit. These provide superficial performance considering their offering price. These deliver a breathtaking sonic performance. These deliver exactly what is fed into them, thus making the K702’s a technically ideal headphones.

I would highly recommend K702 to any person would like to truly realize the components of a recording & hence the music itself. I find the K702 to be a technically far more superior than other headphone available in this price point.

Pros:

1) Reference Sound quality: Sound presentation here is very neutral, and is very much helpful for critical listening as well as for casual musical pleasure. K702 is very responsive, with great speed. With sheer amount of transparency & speed, the K702’s are simply one of the best performing headphones one can access get today.

2) Build Quality: AKG K702 is very well engineered and designed. It is wisely built, by using efficient materials which provide a very durable life for the headphones.

3) Comfort: These are feather light, one of the lightest & most comfortable headphones available.

4) Value: AKG K702 puts up an extremely good performance for a fraction of its worthy price. This makes K702 a fantastic purchase for all.

Cons:

Bass: Is a touch less in body and quantity when compared to other headphones. But going by quality, accuracy or deliverance, it is absolutely fine.

Um......sorry to break all this up.......but I like your review! Very nice!
Regards,
Chris

Great review, just got my k702s and I reckon mine sound brilliant with the Aune b1 too! Waiting for my Schiit Vali to turn up now, then I expect 'fireworks' especially when they're burned in. :blush:

I own the HD 600s and love it, do you think its worth buying the K702s?

Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop. With time, my sonic preferences have very much grown. I avidly admire transparency, accuracy along with neutrality, & this has led me to review the AKG’s prestigious K812 flagship headphones.

Intro: AKG Acoustics (Akustische und Kino-Geräte G.m.b.H) is well recognized, established & one of the oldest audio brand specializing in the area of audio & headphones. They are headquartered in Vienna, Austria. The ‘K’ series line is a very popular and long running headphone offering from AKG. They have a specific vision in making their products: Their products should last long and should employ quality engineering for precise and accurate sound reproduction, with state of art cutting edge technology. All the headphones are designed by their engineers in Austria. Few headphones are manufactured in China. The K812 headphones the flagship & best headphones AKG can offer today. K812 replaced K712 as flagship headphones in the year of 2013. These are studio reference headphones. The pair I will reviewing belongs to latest batch & current year manufacturing. The K812 is completely manufactured in Slovakia.

Founded in 1947 by Dr. Rudolf Görike & Ernst Pless. Originally, their main aim was to provide technical equipment for cinemas: loudspeakers, film projectors and light meters. Their business slowly expanded and AKG started selling car horns, door intercoms, carbon capsules for telephones, headsets and cushion speakers. The first AKG microphone was used by radio stations & Theaters. AKG developed its first patents, the moving coil technology and the principle of mass load membranes, allowing its products to have extended frequency ranges.

With the creation of the D12 microphone in 1953, AKG achieved international fame, setting the standard for voice transmissions. Being the world's first dynamic cardioid microphone, it possessed excellent sonic qualities for that time, making its way into radio stations and recording studios from across the world. In 1994, AKG was acquired by Harman International Industries, and they later setup AKG USA’s headquarters in California.

In 2010, AKG Acoustics received a Grammy Award for the work the company has done in the recording field.

Specifications of K812:

General

Headphone type	open-back
Audio Frequency bandwidth	5 to 54000 Hz
Sensitivity headphones	110 dB SPL/V
Max. Input Power	300 mW
Rated Impedance	36 Ohms
Detachable cable	yes
Cable Length	3 m
Earpads Replaceable	yes
Foldable	no

Audio Interface

Type	Screw-on Jack Combo (1/4" and 1/8")
Gender	Male
Contacts	3-pin
Interface Finish	Gold

Dimensions / Weight

Net Weight

390 g

Let us see what the K812 has got for us,

Packaging and Accessories: The K812’s arrive packed inside a very premium and heavy black cardboard box. The box has a magnetic lock. Once the box is flipped open, The K812 is seen resting on the Sieveking headphone stand, which provided by AKG in the box. Nothing fancy, basic accessories included. But each and every part has a premium quality and feel to it.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

Headphone Cable: About 2.5 meters long, terminating in 3.5mm.

Headphone Stand: Excellent quality universal headphone stand to display headphones when not in use.

¼” Screw on Converter: To plug in the K812 in the 6.5mm headphone jacks.

User Manual: Contains instructions to operate the K812 and other warranty information.

Design and Build: AKG’s K812 has a top notch build quality. It employs metal constructions in most of the areas. AKG K812 headphones use suspended headband which can be manually adjusted for precise fit, which ensures in least possible physical pressure on head. The headband has a foam-pleather base with ventilation vents, & is very accurately angled. It is attached to the main headphone frame which holds the headphone together.

The K812 has an extremely sophisticated build with high technology materials & latest scientific designs. The manual adjustment of headband distance can be adjusted by pushing he button and sliding gently as desired. The K812 is designed in such a remarkable manner, that clamping force is almost zero. This is the first time I have ever come across a headphone (along with Sennheiser HD800) which offers such luxurious design & engineering elements.

The K812 is a fully open headphone, hence has vents for air intake at either side of headphone. Driver shell rotates about its own axis to fit various types of human skulls. The whole headphone is supported on by the two parallel outer headband beams, which are flexible and adopting. These also carry wiring for opposite driver (right). The K812 carries all-new and latest generation top notch performance drivers developed by engineers at AKG specifically for K812 alone. This driver carries an extremely powerful 1.5 Tesla magnetic field capable magnet. The diameter is 53mm, one of the largest drivers ever made. The sound waves coming towards out of drivers are treated to ‘air’ by open mesh, allowing air to blend with sound waves for a very airy presentation.

Cable has a very good build. It is straight, flexible and does not get tangled. I could not notice the presence of any microphonics. Plug is straight and gold plated. The stock cable does a great job in transferring signals along with great transparency. The cable on headphone has three pins, and is configured for single end termination; balanced mode mode is not supported. Please note: While inserting cable plug into K812’s socket, carefully align to the indicating red line and gently push in. To remove the cable, gently pull out.

Comfort: K812’s are excellently comfortable to wear, even for longer sessions. These feel really wll designed as per human analogy. Clamp force is almost non existent, and ears have been given an excellent space to reside, do not touch anywhere. The earpads are made up of leather, are high quality ones. The Space inside the earpads is also great, great amount of depth and space. The earpads on K812 are designed such that, the area of contact around the ears or anywhere is made as less as possible, and clamp force is reduced to almost zero: This will result in an excellent comfort.

These ear pads are very soft & flexible in nature, which ensures in better comfort & adoption without compromising consistency, and also in durability of the pads themselves. The earpads can be removed to clean or replace with a simple anti-clockwise horizontal twist. These earpads are called as “Sound Sealer” by AKG. Hence, K812 ‘s earpads seal out & engulf the user’s ears, rather than sitting around the ears. Single downside in this department weight, as the K812 weighs slightly on heavy side with 390 grams (owing to its solid build) feels slightly heavy on worn on. But again the excellent design factor makes up for it.

Overall, The K812’s are one of the worlds most well designed and most comfortable headphones.

Sound: The K812 has a vastly neutral “mesmerizing” sonic character. ‘Accuracy, Transparency, Details’ are the key terms. Emphasis is not given at any particular frequency range; all ranges are completely flat, making these truly spectacular reference headphones.

Burn in: These perform consistently, and I could not observe any major sonic change with burn in. I have heard these from right out of the box till few hundred hours.

Lows: are very accurate, tight and refined; has a strong impact. Depth is excellent, the lows go very deep with authority. They also have an appreciable amount of body & quantity

Mids: Neutral, very detailed & transparent. Special mention is about the naturalness and tonality. The mids of K812 are very neutral, but are presented in an extremely silky manner.

Highs: Very are clear, extended, airy & detailed. Very transparent & sensitive as per the given setup & recording.

Soundstage: The K812’s soundstage is breathtakingly airy, spacious, and fully circular 3D life like soundstage. Imaging is again spatial, with instruments placements very accurately positioned. Component/instruments are clearly and vividly separated and explained in a very detailed manner. According to my observation, these headphones are very neutral, and accurately represent the given recording. Given its transparent nature, I can say the K812’s are strictly not forgiving to poor recordings. Hence these are transparent, revealing and resolving.

Comparison: Let us take a brief look at other popular top notch & excellent performing headphones available in similar price point.

I would like to compare the AKG’s“mesmerizing” K812 to Sennheiser’s “mighty” HD800 & Audeze’s “passionate” LCD-2F. All these three headphones are open backs, over ear. They are also very neutral by sonic response, but presented in different fashions. These are all top notch headphones and one of the world’s finest.

Sennheiser HD800: A Solid performer and a well established headphone, which is sonically extremely good performing. Sonically it is vastly neutral with no emphasis on any frequency range. But highs are very sensitive to the setup & recording used. HD800 definitely feels (and indeed is) Lighter than K812 by weight. The HD800 is also slightly more comfortable owing its design & comfort principles that is compatible with majority of users. After intensive listening, I could observe K812 was comparatively ahead in performance in the following departments: In rest of the aspects, HD800 is marginally superior.

Lows: The K812 audibly has a deeper Lows with more authority without compromising its neutrality. Accuracy, detailing is same on both headphones.

Tonality: The K812 delivers a very realistic tonality which feels very silky & is simply mesmerizing when compared to HD800, which has a relatively vast flat mids.

Soundstage depth & layering: This where HD800 is left behind by K812. The overall depth across depth offered in K812 is simply amazing & spectacular, the stage goes very deep. But when the matter comes to width & height, HD800 performs better.

Amping: HD800 is very sensitive when it comes to headphone amplifiers, and it promptly points out the different between various amps in a accurate fashion. Whereas the K812 is comparatively more steady and accommodating to amps, so it ‘goes along’ with amps without much fuss. Also the K812 is much more efficient & easier drive when related to HD800.

Summary: Both are extremely good performing headphones, and differ by final presentation delivered. Considering overall sonic traits, AKG’s K812 will sound slightly more ‘musical & enjoyable’ but without compromising its technical or reference deliverance aspect. Technically, HD800 is a more suitable headphone for critical listening and mastering purposes. But the K812 is more versatile & stable, proving to be great with mastering as well as music listening.

Both HD800 & K812 are top-notch reference class headphones & perform amazingly.

Audeze LCD-2F: Without a second thought, it offers the most accurate, linear & deepest lows of all headphones in sub 1000$. Mids are presented in a beautiful manner with ‘thickness’ and has a lovable realistic tonality. Highs although accurate, do not have enough details. Soundstage is very good and circular, but nowhere near the capabilities of HD800 & K812. Therefore the LCD-2F is not technically superior when compared to HD800 & K812. LCD-2’s strength elsewhere: In music listening. HD800 & K812 are reference level headphones whereas the LCD-2 is a headphone designed and aimed primarily for music listening.

The LCD-2 is one of the heaviest headphones (by physical weight), and this makes the LCD-2 to make a compromise in comfort department. Although , the LCD-2’s already have a very good comfort & ergonomics (when weight factor is excluded). The strong point for LCD-2 will be primarily music listening, LCD-2 presents itself in a complete opposite fashion than that of HD800 & K812. Hence, it is safe to say, if HD800 & K812 are on one bank of river, then the LCD-2 is on the other one. They are completely opposite& never meet.

The HD800 & K812 are superior reference level headphones whereas the LCD-2 is a headphone designed and aimed primarily for music listening.

Amplification: These K812’s are rated at 36 ohms and are indeed designed to be power efficient, can be run comfortably by DAP’s. But since these are top tier reference headphones, the K812’s scale really well with setups, and an well performing amp/dac is strongly recommended for optimal performance delivery. The K812 very much appreciates amplifiers which are revealing or transparent with powerful current output. Ideal amp/dac with a good match/performance for K812 include: Objective2/Odac & Schiit Magni/Modi Stack, amongst few others. These devices are very much affordable and are easily available.

Conclusion: The K812 headphones are phenomenal performing headphones. It is one of the few amazingly performing top tier reference headphones. The K812 is the flagship headphones from AKG, and the K812 is the absolute best which a renowned brand like AKG can offer. The K812’s deliver a breathtaking sonic performance. These deliver exactly what is fed into them, thus making the K812’s a technically ideal & extremely transparent headphones. Absolutely Mesmerizing & Marvelous pair of superior reference headphones by AKG.

Pros:

Top-Tier Reference Sound quality: “Mesmerizing” Sound presentation here is vastly neutral, with excellent response from across frequency band, and is very much helpful for critical listening as well as for casual musical pleasure. K812 is very responsive, with great speed. With sheer amount of transparency & speed, the K812’s are simply one of the best top-tier performance headphones one can access get today. It performs extremely well and is neck-to-neck with HD800 by performance.

Top notch Build Quality: AKG K812 is very well engineered and designed. It is the showcase of AKG’s engineering. It is wisely built, by using cutting edge technology materials which provide a very durable life for the headphones. These are made in Slovakia with individual attention to each unit.

Excellent Comfort: Owing to their scientific & ergonomic design, including near zero clamping force & engulfing earpads, the K812’s feel very welcoming & comfortable.

Value: AKG K812 puts up an extremely good performance and it is definitely worthy for its offering price. This makes K812 a fantastic purchase for professionals & enthusiasts alike.

Cons:

Weight: The K812 weighs 390 grams, which is slightly on the weightier side. But this factor is mostly not noticed while worn, and is very much comfortable owing to its well implemented & ergonomic design.

Yep - depends on your sensitivity to it. I personally liked the AKG K812, and also really enjoyed the HD800 and my own T1. Mind you I also loved the DT880 and Grado 325i - so I'm a bad one to ask about treble sensitivity :wink:

Aside from the treble - the one thing I couldn't understand with the K812 was the cable. It just doesn't gel with the rest fo the headphone. Yes it works. But it feels cheap, thin, is prone to tangle - I hated it. I'm still on the fence about getting a K812 - they're severely overpriced at anywhere over 1K if you ask me. If I do eventually gte one though - the first thing that's getting replaced is that awful cable.

A fair review. Therefore I still have to watch a chance where I can directly compare HD800 with this.... In the meantime get the money ready.

@Brooko

@Brooko you can purchase a custom cable from lavricables or Stefan audio art or any other brand you would prefer.

Intro: JDS Labs, Is an American company based in Collinsville, Illinois. They make headphone amplifiers & DAC’s. Mr. John Seaber is the man behind JDS Labs. We might remember JDS Labs when they produced the popular cmoy-BB amp & later on, their Objective2 which was a game-changing amplifier. JDS Labs has also manufactures their own products: C5/D Portable amplifier/DAC, Element desktop Amp/Dac along with ofcourse their Cmoy BB amp.

Special mention is about my experience with Mr. John. From my experience & interactions with him, he is the kindest & very prompt person I have ever spoken to in audio world. He answers to all questions in person & makes sure doubts are cleared. I’m a proud owner of JDS Labs O2 amp, (my first headphone amplifier, in early days of my Head-Fi days) Enjoyed it a lot, had a wonderful time with it. O2 holds a special place for my ears.

My profound thanks to Mr.John for arranging a sample unit of ODAC RevB for my evaluation. The ODAC got updated in circuit board. The latest model is ODAC Revesion B, improvised on previous & original design of ODAC. So ODAC Rev.B is basically designed to supplement component shortage & along with few minor yet audible improvements.

About ODAC: ODAC is the DAC counterpart of the famous O2 amplifier, & was released in 2012. The ODAC was jointly developed by NwAvGuy (The legendary engineer who created O2 amp) and Yoyodyne Consulting . Yoyodyne generated ODAC’s circuit board, and NwAvGuy provided performance analysis. Yoyodyne has remained responsible for all production engineering & distribution. ODAC was certified as Objective by NwAvGuy; Yoyodyne generated the design and controls its manufacturing.

The new Rev.B uses SA9023 & PCM5102A, and the Low dropout regulator has been updated to a ceramic stable Analog Devices ADP151 equivalent part. Fixes include: Added 16x vias to USB support pads to improve mechanical strength of mini-USB jack, new improvised circuit board & locked EEPROM to prevent IC failures, fixed USB supply stability, & minor performance improvements.

Technical specifications of ODAC Rev. B:

Freq. Response 20Hz-20kHz +/- 0.04dB

THD+N 100 hz -0.15 dBFS 0.0028%

THD+N 20 hz -0.15 dBFS 0.0015%

THD+N 10 Khz -0.15 dBFS 0.0024%

IMD CCIF 19/20 Khz -6.03 dBFS 0.0015%

IMD SMPTE -6.03 dBFS 0.0015%

Noise A-Weighted dBu 24/96 -103 dBu

Dynamic Range (A-Weighted) > 112 dB

Linearity Error -90 dBFS 24/96 -0.08 dB

Crosstalk -10 dBFS 100K 3.5mm -86.40 dB

USB Jitter Components 11025Hz -112.3dB

Maximum Output Line Out 100K 2.1 VRMS

Audio Formats (Bit/Freq): 16/44, 16/48, 16/88.2, 16/96, 24/44, 24/48, 24/96

Native Driver OS Support: Windows XP & Later, OS X x86, Linux

Distortion: < 0.005%

Inputs: Mini-USB

Interface: USB, Audio Class 1

Output: 3.5mm (or RCA), line level

Power: Self-powered by USB

Packaging & Accessories: The ODAC comes packed in JDS Labs stamped strong black cardboard box. It withstood a rough journey across the globe, yet remained in perfect shape. That explains everything.

Included Accessories

Instructions: Contains instruction about operating the device & some warranty information.

USB Cable: Mini USB cable with ferrite bead, Monoprice brand, has very good quality with 28+1P/24+2C AWG gauge, matches very well with ODAC.

Design and Build: It has an aluminium case, & the ODAC Rev.B which Im reviewing is the RCA version (with RCA connection) The RCA version ODAC is a tad little longer than the regular ODAC with RCA jacks being connected to ODAC via soldered wires. This version also retains its regular 3.5mm jack. The Rev.B physically exactly same as the original ODAC, & has same dimensions. On one end we have both Mini USB connector & 3.5mm output. On the other end (for RCA versions) we have RCA output jacks.

The DAC itself is very small, nimble & has small footprint. Can also be used as portable DAC, as it is self powered. It does not require any drivers & works on low current draw, which is a plus for compatibility with portable android smartphones. The Rev.B has the same (or even better) benchmark reliability, performance than the ODAC.

Points : 10 out of 10, Excellent, very practical, feasible & well implemented.

Sound: The ODAC Rev.B puts out a very impressive performance, especially its transparency & soundstage. It does not any particular coloration of its own. Soundstage is amazing. It has a fully circular 3D imaging. Detail retrieval, and dynamics are excellent. Overall the sonic presentation contains high level of transparency and accuracy. Absolutely zero audible hiss/noise, and zero EMI pickup.

Benchmark performance for the price. It has supreme value for money. In practical conditions, the performance of ODAC Rev.B is perhaps is beaten only by fancy multi-hundred dollar DAC. Amazing clarity & transparency, it completes the objective parameters set for an ideal DAC. Overall, ODAC Rev.B puts up a highly impressive performance.

Points: a full 10 out of 10, Simply amazing. Delivers beyond expectations.

Comparing ODAC with ODAC Revision B: Physically they are both having exactly same dimension. Just components & signal paths in some areas have been updated. Audibly, it is very hard to tell the difference between the two. But Rev.B definitely has slight audible edge over original ODAC. Practical differences are: ODAC Rev.B supports 88.2 KHZ & has higher 2.1VRMS output, SA9023 ensures better compatibility with android & I devices. Redesigned circuit means bullet-proof reliability. The 2.1 VRMS really helps, providing decisively better output. In case of O2 amp, Rev.B helps in more powerful driving of headphones & a lower gain of 1X/3.3X as optimum.

SPECIFICATIONS	ODAC	ODAC RevB
Frequency Response, 20-20kHz	+/-0.14 dB	+/-0.04 dB
THD+N 100 Hz, -0.15dBFS	0.0022%	0.0013%
THD+N 20 Hz -0.15dBFS	0.0017%	0.0015%
THD+N 10 kHz -0.15dBFS	0.0056%	0.0024%
Noise, A-Weighted	-102 dBu	– 103 dBu
Dynamic Range (A-Weighted)	> 111 dB	> 112 dB
Dynamic Range (Un-Weighted)	> 107 dB	> 109 dB
Crosstalk @ 1kHz, -10dBFS (3.5mm)	-80.4 dB	-86.4 dB
Sum of Jitter Components @ 11025 Hz, -1dBFS	-105.8 dB	-112.3 dB
IMD CCIF, -6.03 dBFS, 19/20kHz, 24/96k	0.0027%	0.0005%
IMD SMPTE -2 dBFS, 24/96k	0.0008%	0.0008%
Linearity @ -90dBFS	-0.09 dB	-0.08 dB
Maximum output	2.00 VRMS	2.10 VRMS

(Click to Enlarge)

Conclusion: I consider ODAC Rev.B as an exception DAC, because in my experience I never came across a DAC as reliable, as functional, & as performing, yet affordable as it. The Rev.B continues the legacy & reputation of ODAC forward, with even better level of practicality. Overall it performs extremely well. Highly impressed. The ODAC Rev.B has a benchmark performance. Objective: Completed

Overall, I can award a full 10/10 for ODAC Rev.B owing to its supreme performance in all aspects. My strong recommendation for all enthusiasts who want a truly objective performance.

Which one do you think sounds better this Odac or the graham slee bitzie.

Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop.

Intro: Bravo Audio is a popular Chinese brand specializing in the area of Tube Headphone Amplifiers. Bravo was established in 2010. Even though a relatively newer establishment in the field, Bravo managed to capture attention of the world by their amp offerings which had attractive price tag & appreciable performance. The Ocean is a flagship amp offering from Bravo, & it is the only amp to be fully enclosed in a case by Bravo.

All of Bravo’s amps are hybrids, and are driven by Mosfet’s, and are pure class A. This ensures in mammoth output power, appreciable clear sound quality, but heat dissipation is high, and the amp physically gets hot even to touch comfortably. Bravo has been famous since its release of V2 amp, which was budget friendly, yet performing, which won ears of many enthusiasts. The Ocean goes ahead in V2’s line, providing more reliability and performance. Back in 2010, tube/hybrid amps would be expensive, and out of reach of a humble Enthusiast. Bravo made well performing hybrid amps in an affordable price. Bravo was the one who made hybrid amps in sub 100$ category. This made them a well known name across the Audiophile World.

Specifications of Ocean:

Input Power: DC 24V 1.5A

Input Sensitivity: 100mV

Input Impedance: 100KOhm

Headphone Impedance: 20~600 Ohm

Frequency response: 10Hz-60 KHz +/- 0.25dB

Signal/Noise Ratio : >90dB Gain: 30dB

Dynamic range: 84.6dBA (300 ohm) 89.8dBA (33 ohm)

THD: 0.016% (300 ohm) 0.45% (33 ohm)

MD + Noise: 0.045(300 ohm) 0.42(33ohm)

Let us see what the Ocean has got for us,

Packaging and Accessories: The ocean amp arrives packed inside a general cardboard box, packed inside a removable foam packing. Tubes are included inside the foam socket. Default tube included is a generic 12AU7. Packaging is generic, but nothing to complain about. But all the included accessories have a good quality and feel to them.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

Power Adapter: AC to DC 24V 1.5A power adapter EU/US/AU/UK is supplied as per specifications.

User Manual: Contains instructions to operate the ocean amp and other warranty information.

Design and Build: The ocean has a very good overall build quality. Its design is very practical.

The Ocean looks much different owing its blue paint, and stands out from the crowd. Personally, I very much liked the blue case colour of the ocean amp.The entire case is made up of high quality brushed aluminium, and is painted in Matt Cyan-Blue. The ocean is fairly small in size, though the ocean amp weights only 400 grams, It feels slightly heavy when held owing to its good build. At the front we have an On/off switch, volume knob, ¼” & 1/8’ headphone output socket, and a red indicator LED. At the rear side of ocean, we can observe the presence of power socket , 1/8” input, RCA inputs & outputs.

Volume knob rotation is smooth and knob has just the right size for fingers. ¼” jack is also a very sturdy, but is slightly tight. The ¼” socket employs clip mechanism, which may cause scratches/damage on the headphone jack. Power switch has a pretty great operation and strength, and is very precise in its job. The red LED is particularly very bright, and can be disturbing if you look at the amp. So I advise to slightly push in the LED using a small pin, so that it’s brightness is drowned inside the amp.

Internals quality is certainly good, if not very good. The ocean amp has no manual wirings inside, everything is fixed on the PCB. Soldering joints are well done. Volume pot is alps branded, which a plus for both volume control & audio quality.

The 9 pin Tube socket is ceramic type, has a great build. The ocean accepts only the 12AU7 type vacuum tubes by default. The tube is physically protected by a vertical metal arc, incase the ocean amp falls off the table or similar situation arises. To change/replace the tube, one has to unscrew the top four screws and carefully pull up the cover to avoid damage to existing tube in the socket. There are no op-amps in ocean, since ocean is a mosfet driven hybrid amp. IRF510 mosfet is used here, which a widely used & fairly popular one. The only downside I observe here is, top cover has to be removed every time to change tube. This is not really a drawback, but it would be more difficult and inconvenient for tube rollers to do this way.

I also observe a drawback in the power supply, it is not earthed. I am at a loss of understanding why Bravo did not include a third earthing pin or ground to make the amp safe. Since it is a DC supply, few ripples will be present in the final output. These either cause light electrocution or raise noise floor of the amp. It

Sound: Despite being a hybrid tube amp, the ocean has a very clean, clear yet airy sonic character. ‘Balanced & Enjoyable’ is the key word. I find it very appealing and pleasing for casual music listening. Presentation is in such a way that, mids are little more intimate, with lows & highs sound tad more relaxed and laid back. Surprisingly, Stock tube is pretty good and does not necessarily needs to be changed/upgraded.

Burn in: These improve a lot with time. Let’s say a playback of 50 hours provides few audible improvements, Bass prior to break-in is quite muddy, and eventually it becomes more accurate and clean, Mids will sound more open, airy and natural. highs become slightly more smooth, soundstage will open up by a margin.

Tube rolling: One can roll 12AU7 family tubes on ocean amp. Mullard 12AU7A, RCA Clear Tops, long plates, halo getter type tubes particularly match pretty great on ocean and result is a very clear, clean and airy sound with a lifelike 3D soundstage. And the good news is that all these tubes are available within 20$ shipped on ebay!

The gain is fixed at 30dB, which is quite high and certainly not recommended for IEM’s. This amp is extremely powerful and can drive any dynamic/Planar magnetic cans to insane loudness with just 25% of the volume used, that is at 9 o’clock. Anything above 10 o’clock is unbearably loud. This incredible power brings out the best out of a matching headphone. Ideally, neutral or slightly brighter dynamic headphones go well with the ocean amp.

Lows: are accurate, tight and refined; have a great impact & extension. Depth is pretty good.

Mids: Very little forward & sound very natural, and appealing, and have a slight warmth (I guess that is in a good way, comes very pleasing to our ears). Tonality particularly, one of the best at this price point. This character makes ocean a strong contender for classical music.

Highs: Very clear with desirable amount of sparks. They are airy with good amount of space sensation.

Soundstage: Soundstage is airy, natural and circular. Depth is very good. Instrument separation & detailing is pretty good. With the default Chinese 12AU7, tonality is a bit harsh & mids are slightly sucked out, But after burn in, its goes in great with the ocean amp. So replacing tube is not really necessary in ocean amp. The tube in ocean amp seems superior to rest of the generic Chinese 12AU7’s.

According to my observation, these cans sounded good in all genres I tried, and hence I conclude ocean is decently transparent, detailed and also slightly forgiving to poor recordings. Hence I can say ocean is all rounder. It does not compromise anything too much to affect any of its characters.

Comparison: The main competitors of Bravo Ocean are the Little dot 1+ & Schiit Vali along with Project Starlight which are all similarly priced. All these are hybrid amps.

Little dot 1+: Hybrid amp which uses op-amps for amplification. Op-amps have their own kind of sonic touch to them, which feel refined & smoothened out when compared to mosfets. Power supply is Internal type and well made (which results in very low noise floor, and safe operation) But as a disadvantage, Tube rolling is not as economical and convenient as ocean, since Ocean supports a single 12AU7, which are very common to obtain & no hassle for a matched pair.
Summary: Best hybrid amp available in 200$, but lacks punch & power delivery of ocean amp. No preamp out. Not most economical to roll, availability & interior circuit build quality is a concern.

Project Starlight: At 225$ built & shipped this is the most expensive amp of the bunch. But Starlight has best internal build quality (along with Vali). The Starlight is not fully enclosed in a case. Its output power at headphone is quite limited, and is lowest of all these amps. Starlight also has 4 op-amps and support for 6/12V Dual Triode tubes. Starlight is specifically suited for lower impedance & less demanding headphones.
Summary: Best option for DIY’ers. But expensive to roll op-amps, since there are 4 op-amp sockets. Driving power is not the best.

Schiit Vali: Has no rolling options. Everything is fixed in. Output impedance is quite high at around 6.5 ohms and is not suitable for IEM’s. Power supply is again external, but definitely better than Bravo Ocean. Vali uses 16V AC/AC adapter (similar to O2 amp adapter) Vali also has a best build quality.
Summary: Good choice for beginners who don’t want to roll anything. A nice amp for 50-300 ohm headphones which are slightly bright in nature.

The ocean amp has an edge over all hybrid tube amplifiers when it comes to output driving power, delivery & is most economical of all amps to be tried in 200$. Though Little Dot’s 1+ without a second thought reigns as king , considering its allrounder overall performance, Ocean amp deserves to be a runner-up for the position, and performs very well indeed.

Conclusion: I feel the Ocean is a excellent hybrid amp in its price range. Build quality is very good, sonic presentation is very pleasing, it can drive almost any cans & its sonic character can be tailored to meet one’s taste. I can whole heartedly recommend Ocean for any enthusiast who would prefer a slightly musical sonic presentation, yet retaining decent amounts of accuracy. I really liked the ocean amp.

Pros:

1) Build Quality: The Ocean has a very good all-metal build. No compromise to be seen anywhere in exterior. Interior circuitry is also neat & well built.

2) Sound quality: Sound presentation here has a touch of naturalness, but yet is detailed, spacious, which is very much like-able for music listening. Sweet mids deserve a special mention. The ocean amp generally matches up well with slightly neutral to bright sounding headphones.

3) Rolling Capability: Enthusiasts can roll great number of 12AU7 tubes in a minimal cost.

4) Driving Power: The ocean amp has a sheer output power. It definitely can comfortably drive any set of cans from 20-600 ohms. Good job!

Cons:

1) Heat emission: Actually not really a con, it is quite normal for a hybrid mosfet driven amp. But during operation, the ocean amp gets very hot, it becomes very difficult for a user to touch the surface of amp more than 2 seconds. The 12AU7 tube itself is just warm, It is the outer case is hot & is due to heat emission from IRF510 Mosfets.

I own this amp and it is awesome , very powerful clean sound . I am using it to drive HD 700 using X5

Great review !!
Had the Bravo for a while but hadn't been using it. The power supply died. One side of my system I feed a Music Hall 2.2le through a Bellari VP130, then through a passive preamp from which I go between the turntable and a Denon DCD 910 CD player (older I know but works) . I had been using a xDuoo TA-01 HP amp. The other side of my system has a mac mini feeding a dell HD wide screen monitor with JRivers 20, the mac min connected via upgraded cable to a Practical Devices XM6 DAC / HP amp, then from there using my arsenal of HP's Senn HD650, Grado SR325, Cardas EM5813 in-ear speakers, or the ones I use most often Shure SRH1540. With the Bravo still using stock 12AU7 (although have a box of diff tubes which switch out of the Bellari). OK to my original point referring to the Bravo power supply. I'd purchased some time ago a power supply for an older laptop which I no longer use. Decided to use (after making sure I could) the new unused power supply for the Bravo. Blew my mind, what a difference ...........more power, cleaner sound, black background................

Hi Snuffy47, what were the specs of the laptop power supply? 24V 1.5A still, or more amperage perhaps? Also, did the laptop power supply's wall plug have a ground pin?

Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop. With time, my sonic preferences have very much grown. I avidly admire transparency, accuracy along with neutrality, and my favourite headphones are K702, HD800 & K812.

I do hear differences between different audio cables. I believe in any well built & performing cable which delivers superior quality sonic characteristics, & which is reasonably priced.

Intro: Surf Cables is a high fidelity cable making brand based in San Diego, CA. They are a brand specializing in the area of audio cables. Even though a relatively newer establishment in the field, Surf Cables is quite well known in USA, owing to their cable offerings which have very reasonable price tag & high quality specification standards. They offer customized headphone cables, along with various interconnects. All their cables are hand assembled by qualified engineers in San Diego.

Details & Mechanism of The PRO-1 Cable:

The pair of cables I am writing about is their RCA-RCA interconnect cable offering named PRO-1, which is an audio cable commonly used to connect DAC’s to Amp’s or Amp’s to Preamps and so on. This pair of shielded RCA interconnects uses silver Teflon aerospace/ MIL spec wire. These highly conductive, shielded, rugged cables. The cable is shielded with a copper, silver plated shield. The cable is terminated with industry standard gold plated RCA connectors, Neutrik’s "Rean".

Cardas silver, lead free solder is used to terminate the cables, giving a high quality connection. The two signal carrying conductors within this cable are composed of silver plated copper strands, where each individual strand is silver plated. Each conductor is 22 AWG. Two conductors are used for the signal, and the shield is grounded at one end only, the end with the coloured blue heat shrink. Shielding the cable in this way avoids unwanted ground loops and improves noise isolation. Placing the shield-grounded end at the source component side of the signal is recommended to shunt any noise picked up by the shield into the source component as opposed to the destination component. The cable will work fine in either direction so can be experimented with for best sound.

Let us see how this cable performs,

Design and Build: The entire cable has an excellent overall build. The connector employed is Neutrik’s popular ‘Rean’ series. It is all-metal and is pretty heavy. The RCA jack outer surface is thick and is very rigid. There are two smaller clips which are slightly inward, flexible & attach/adopt to host RCA socket. Gold plating feels quite good and does not wear off for long time. The connectors are marked in red & white bands to identify the Right/Left channel connection. The connector has rubber plug as strain relief, leading to the cable itself.

The cable itself is neither too thick nor too thin, & is fairly flexible. Cable is braided beneath the exterior mesh jacket, ensuring flexibility ruggedness and reliability. Cables beneath this jacket can be felt to be braided. The two blue heat shrinks indicate the direction of current flow from origin to destination.

Sound: This RCA cable from delivers very good sonic performance, and is one of the RCA cables having a great value aspect. Its performance is well related to its price and has a high price/performance ratio. This cable is a safe & a reliable choice. Infact, there are very few such cables which are performing and yet are affordable.

Burn in: I could not notice any major improvement by burn in. But let’s say a playback of about 20 hours will set in the new cable & provide very few/minor audible improvements.

Improvements observed when graduating from stock Choseal/Monoprice RCA cables:

Transparency: Increment in clarity, detail retrieval, increase in soundstage definitions, imaging, & placements. These improvements are at the margin of about 20-30% more when compared to basic or stock cables. There is also increase in ‘speed’ and ‘accuracy’ across all frequencies when heard on high end headphones. Also, Channel Imbalances, and irregularities are mostly eliminated. EMI Pickup and noise floor level are audibly none.

All these improvements are heard on well performing equipments. I have installed this cable on various DAC’s and Amp’s, and in all the setup’s the Pro-1 cable has performed well & audibly superior than stock cables.

Conclusion: The PRO-1 RCA Interconnect from Surfcable is a well performing and well built cable, which serves its objective of delivering the signals from end-to-end with good transparency and plus in a very decent & reasonable price point of 45$.This cable is a great introduction to the sonic upgrades caused by well performing cables. Superior performance cables are very much appreciable in higher end audio gears, and I can say it safe to invest 1/10^th the cost of the equipment on a good performance cable. The sonic improvements are evident & are clearly audible, and further optimize the full potential of our equipments.

Pros:

1) Build Quality: Very well built by individual attention by hand using very good quality materials.

2) Sound Quality: Is very satisfactory considering its price, & performs very well.

3) Value: Considering its performance, build, the Pro-1 has a solid price/performance ratio. There is very few such cables having a good performance & value, under 45$.

Cons:

None at this price point

I live in SoCal and have had Surf Cable make me balanced Pono cable, a set of balanced interconnects and a conversion of my HD598's from 1/4 inch to 4 pin xlr balanced. Yes the 598's use a 4 wire connector and can be re-cabled to proper balanced operation.
I highly recommend Surf Cable for the quality of the cables and flawless service. And just excellent prices for what you receive.

Surf cables, why look elsewhere. and the review is correct there are no cons.

Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop. With time, my sonic preferences have very much grown. I avidly admire transparency, accuracy along with neutrality, and my favourite headphones are K702, HD800 & K812.

I appreciate Audio Players which deliver a very neutral & transparent sound quality, along with good battery backup and a decent User Interface. Output power or exterior looks/weight/shape is really not an important factor for me, as long as it delivers sonically. My all-time favourite DAP is QLS’s QA360 which simple is the most wonderful Audio Player I heard & have till date. You may read my opinion on the excellent QA360 DAP here: http://www.head-fi.org/products/qls-qa360-portable-hifi-lossless-music-player/reviews/12197

I will be using my DN2000 IEM & MH30, MH40 & K812 headphones to evaluate the X3 Gen.2 DAP. I will also test USB DAC functionality of the X3II by connecting to a portable O2 amp.

Intro: FiiO is a highly popular & well established Chinese brand specializing in the area of portable DAP’s & amp/dac’s. FiiO was established in 2007. Even though a relatively newer establishment in the field, FiiO managed to capture attention of the world by their amp/dac offerings which had attractive price tag & appreciable performance. Back in time, we can remember portable gears (especially DAP’s) would be expensive, and out of reach of a humble Enthusiast. It was the FiiO, who made well performing portable amps, DAP in an affordable price. Particularly their E11 model is legendary & a benchmark in low cost portable amps. This made them a well known name across the Audiophile World.

FiiO’s Motto: Love Music, Love Life, Love FiiO!

FiiO’s X3 Gen.2 was initially named as X3k, following in the lead of their E11K amp. But later in the production stage FiiO changed the name to X3 second generation or X3 II as we call it. The X3 II is designed to be the successor of aging yet very popular original X3 DAP. My profound Thanks to Jospeh from FiiO team for arranging a review unit for my evaluation.

Specifications of FiiO X3 Gen.2:

Let us see how good the X3 Gen II performs,

Packaging and Accessories: The X3II arrives packed inside a plain black cardboard box, packed inside a foam packing. Packaging is very good: a usual best by FiiO, nothing to complain about, considering X3 II’s high value aspect.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

USB cable: Can be used for charging & to transfer the data from X3II to computer.

Coaxial Cable: One 3.5mm jack to single RCA socket: henceforth to connect to standard coax cable to carry coax output.

Screen guard: Two spare screen guards for applying on X3II's screen.

Body Skins: Can be carefully applied on body to give a personalized exterior looks.

User Manual: Contains all information about operating theX3II, including contains warranty information.

Silicon case: This black & flexible silicone case is supplied to protect the X3II from falls or scratches, and also gives a firm holding grip and anti-skid feature to the X3II.

Design and Build: The X3II has an excellent overall build quality. Its design is very practical, or shall I say modern, & is easy for day-today operation without any confusion or hassle. The entire housing is made up of high quality aluminium, and is painted in matt titanium colour, and is resistant to fingerprints. It is rectangular in shape with smoothened edges, the X3II is actually quite small & compact in size, and just appears to be smaller in pictures. It feels fairly light when held in hand.

At the front side, we have an analogue rotating wheel pad (performs up/down scrolling function upon rotating) the pad has rubbery grip surface. It includes an embedded central play/pause button. The rotation is not completely smooth, but with step interval type ratchet mechanism. The knob has grips on its side for easy rotation. Power switch has a pretty great feel, and is very precise in its job. Four buttons (Menu, back, foward/rewind) are uniformly placed around the wheel. An LED is embedded right in the lower centre area of the front side, which gives it a really attractive look.

The display screen here is again large enough for comfortable viewing, and color/resolution on X3II is one of the best I have ever seen in DAP’s. It’s really good & better than most of the DAP’s. The screen is anti-reflective, resistant external lights, and colour output is very crisp and natural. On the top, there is a headphone out socket, and a Line/Coax Out, both in same 3.5mm format. These jacks are a smooth operator, which is neither too tight nor too loose. The socket employs ball bearings instead of clips to avoid scratches/damage on the headphone jack. If we look at the bottom side, we can observe a micro USB port. On the right side a micro SD card slot is present, which again works flawlessly, and has right cuttings to hold the micro SD card. On the left side of the X3II, Power button & two volume keys are located. The Power button is slightly recessed inorder to avoid mistaken switch off’s. All these work without any hassle, and are of good quality.

Sound: The X3II in overall has a very ‘clear’ & ‘detailed’ sonic character. ‘Accurate presentation’ is the key word. In my view, it is essential for a source to be as neutral and as accurate as possible for an optimal sound quality. Though stage is not very spacious.

Burn in: The X3II audibly improves with time. Let’s say a playback of 10 hours provides few minor audible improvements, Bass prior to break-in is quite sterile, and eventually it becomes more in body. Mids will sound more open, airy and natural. highs become slightly more clean, soundstage will open up by a margin. DAP’s are known to slightly change their final sonic impressions by using different memory cards. In my case, I have found: Sandisk memory cards provided a slightly rich sound, whereas Lexar’s sounded audibly more detailed and analytical, so that made me choose Lexar card for X3II for best possible neutrality.

Driving Power: There is gain setting Low/High, which if switched, provides a high gain (ideal for demanding cans). Else, will provide a low gain (ideal for low impedance dynamic cans & IEM’s) The X3II has 120 step volume adjustments, which is quite accurate and precise. I hardly ever cross ‘80’ volume low gain. I can say, this DAP is very powerful when it comes to output power, and can put up very high listening volumes in low gain itself. The X3II is also audibly dead silent on any give gain and volume pot. It is also totally immune to EMF and other such disturbances.

Lows: are accurate, tight and refined; have a good impact. Depth & extension are good.

Mids: sound very neutral, clean. Mids are neither forward nor recessed, and are just about the neutral line.

Highs: Clear and detailed treble with very less grains.

Soundstage: The X3II is not very spacious or airy sounding. The soundstage width & depth are just good enough. Instrument separation & detailing is very good & appreciable. I really liked the way X3II picked out the details. This is an area where X3II excels. The X3II portrays music as it was recorded. The X3II is very neutral in nature. Faulty recordings are not forgiven, and are immediately picked out by the X3II. I am fully satisfied by the performance given out by X3II, as I firmly believe, sources should be as transparent as possible, and X3II wins in that. Due to its neutrality, X3II does not sound organic, natural or lifelike. But inturn it sounds like a very detailed & accurate high fidelity DAP. The X3II can also act as a USB DAC and can give multiple outputs. Performance as DAC is also pretty good, but as expected, performance is not upto mark as compared to dedicated standalone DAC’s.

Battery & UI: Battery life on X3II DAP is appreciably good, with about average 7-9 hours general playback. Absolutely no heat detected when charging or during playback. The charging time is also quite fast, (at about 3 hours) by using a 5V 2A adapter as recommended by FiiO. User Interface is actually very modern, fast, and appealing for our eyes. The UI has all basic and convenience general features. Though there are small bugs here n there, which I believe will be solved by FiiO in upcoming days.
Actually UI & button layout it’s pretty simple, yet very advanced functional layout, which I quite like. With X3II, FiiO has definitely rolled out a very unique, modern yet practical design, which is simple to operate for everyone alike.

Comparison: I will write a brief comparison with well performing DAP’s in similar price range,

FiiO X3: FiiO’s first DAP release & original release of X3 DAP over three years ago. I still have my trusty & three year old FiiO’s original X3. This was then a very popular & performing DAP with a great value aspect. The original X3 is now discontinued. The Original X3 holds a huge personal importance to me, as I enjoyed a lot through it, in my early days of Audio & Head-Fi Journey. Feels very nostalgic whenever I even look at it. The original X3 is comparatively warmer & darker in sound presentation. Also, the function, technology & practical usage aspect is really high in its successor X3II. Build quality is really great on both predecessor & successor.

Shanling M3: Shanling’s sole DAP offering. The M3 is also a excellent performer. Sonically, the M3 is slightly superior to X3II. Transparency & soundstage definition level is greater in M3. The M3 costs about 70$ more than the price of X3II, but well worth the additional price. But the X3II has better UI layout, and practicality features. But in terms of sheer sound quality: Shanling M3 clearly triumphs.

Conclusion: I feel the FiiO X3 Gen.2 is a phenomenal DAP for price. It offers an amazing neutral sound quality, and employs cutting edge design, modern UI and very neat and easy controls. Build quality is very good, sonic presentation is neutral & detailed. It can fairly drive any cans upto 300 ohms. I can whole heartedly recommend X3II for music enthusiast & audiophiles who would prefer a reliable DAP in a reasonable price. A very easy & confident recommendation.

Pros:

1) Build Quality: The X3II has a very good all-metal build. No compromise to be seen anywhere in exterior. Very well designed indeed.

2) Sound quality: Sound presentation here is very neutral &detailed, very much appreciable for becoming a good source on the move, which is the base of sonic chain. But comparatively lacks soundstage definitions.

3) Driving Power: X3II DAP is very powerful when it comes to output power, and it can comfortably drive even power hungry cans to insanely loud volumes. Also, the noise floor is very low, and is audibly silent. Good job!

4) UI, Display & Controls: This where X3II stands out from rest. X3ii’s display is simply one of the best I have seen DAP’s. Its vivid and deep colour presentation and low brightness capability has impressed me. UI is very much user-friendly, easy on battery, doesn’t warm up. For controls, the rotating wheel is very innovative inclusion, very soothing and comfortable for fingers.

5) Value: Considering the points mentioned above, it is safe to conclude, the X3II DAP has a sheer price/performance ratio. Without hesitation, It is the best performing DAP under 250$.

Cons:

None at This Price Point

Great review!
And where did you buy it in India?

I've wanted a new DAP and fiioX3 is my main coveted one. But I hate how DAP are thick, heavy, and not good for portable use, probably I've been spoiled by Sansa Clip Zip.

Thank you!

You may buy it on Snapdeal from authorized dealer at a competitive price.

Mate, the new X3II is one of the most light weight & compact DAP ever. It also has a very reliable UI & Battery power. The X3II is a very safe choice: It has sheer value & is well performing.

Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop.

Intro: Master & Dynamic is a new US brand specializing in the area of headphones and IEM’s. They are based in New York. M&D rolled out their first product in July, last year. Their products are all designed & developed in New York, but made in China by high standards. MH30 is the On-ear Closed-back headphone offering from M&D.

Master & Dynamic have a specific vision in making their products: The products should last long (very long) and should have a natural sound reproduction for pure music enjoyment. Currently all of their headphone and IEM lines are closed back, solidly built by metal & leather components, and all of them have a very natural and musical listening experience with them. Mr. Jonathan Levine is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of M&D.

Specifications of MH30:

Drivers: 40mm Neodymium

Rated Impedance: 32 Ω

Weight: 260 grams

Plug: 3.5mm Gold Plated 4 pole

Cable: Woven with Oxygen Free Copper

Let us see what the MH30 has got for us,

Packaging and Accessories: The MH30’s arrive packed inside a strong black cardboard box with a removable outer sheet, on which features and other information have been mentioned upon. Once the box is flipped open, The MH30 is seen resting. Cables are placed inside the hard leather case in the centre of the box. This layer of foam can be lifted off to reveal another storage compartment, in which pouch and user manual are present. Packaging is very similar to the MH40’s.

M &D has done some real premium packaging out here. Each and every part has a premium quality and feel to it. The attention and perfection implemented here is one of the best I have ever seen, and is really more of a lavish style. Even the small paper clip or a velcro is made up of excellent quality material.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

Cables: One short 1.25M cable with mic and volume controls, and another regular 2.0M cable.

¼” Converter: To plug in the MH30 in the 6.5mm headphone jacks.

Leather cable case: This is a genuine leather case, and supplied to protect and store the cables.

Headphone Pouch: This pouch has a high grade jeans-finish to it, and functions as a storage pouch for the MH30.

User Manual: Contains instructions to operate the MH30 and other warranty information.

Design and Build: The MH30 has an excellent overall build quality. It has a top notch build which is as good as any Summit-Fi headphones.

The entire housing shell is made up of high quality forged aluminum. It isn’t painted, but is anodized, which is again a step forward in engineering. These cans are pretty small, and appear to be large in pictures. These are light in weight (feels much lighter than MH40’s) M&D logo is printed on the rear side of the housing shell. Left and Right markings are particularly hard to see, since the L/R markings are very small. Headband is made up of Cowhide leather. Earpads are covered with Lambskin leather, but actually have pleather material as cushions.

MH30’s are already nimble, easy to handle, wear on and power requirement is low. Along with all these, these are fold-able, and are easy to carry around. MH30 has cable socket at both the drivers, but only one need socket to be used, according to user’s choice. The cable is of very common type, a 3.5mm 4 pole jack. This ensures, even if the current cable breaks, a replacement is easy to obtain, any 3.5mm cable audio cable.

One downside I observe here is, wiring for opposite driver is embedded on upper end of headband, like the DT880’s overhead cabling. Personally, I don’t think this is the best mechanism here, and since MH30 has two sockets of jacks, so instead of overhead wire, which will be unreliable over time, M&D could have used both of these sockets to obtain HD600 cabling style.

Cable has a very good build. It is light, flexible and does not get tangled. I could not notice the presence of any microphonics. Plug is straight and gold plated. Both ends of cable have same connectors, thus the cable can be used either way: topside down or vice versa. The stock cable does a great job in transferring signals along with great transparency, and for any optional upgrade cable, one will have to spend above 50$.

Comfort: MH30’s are very comfortable to wear in general, but I feel MH30 may not be very comfortable to wear for larger heads, owing to its short yoke (shorter than MH40’s yoke).Though MH30 is ergonomically designed, it is primarily designed for people with smaller head size. Enthusiasts with larger heads may not prefer the comfort of MH30. Length of the yoke will be slightly less for a good comfort. Since the earpads are madeup of leather, ventilation will be less, thereby causing sweating; especially in tropical climate.

Since MH30’s are closed back headphones, these will isolate the listener from outside noise. This level of isolation is very good for a traveller. Going by weight factor, these feel fairly light (260 grams), and are definitely feasible.

Sound: As for the most important part, the MH30 has a dark, warm, smooth, yet airy sonic character. ‘Musical presentation’ is the key word. I find it very appealing and pleasing. Presentation is in such a way that, mids are little more intimate, with lows & highs sound tad more relaxed and laid back. We have to keep in mind that, with on-ear headphones, sonic presentation may feel different with different fit. Therefore fit/angle is the deciding factor for sound being perceived by ears.

Burn in: These improve a lot with time. Let’s say a playback of 20 hours provides major audible improvements, along with softening of leather earpads and better clamping force. Bass prior to break-in is overpowering, and eventually it becomes more accurate, Mids will sound more open, airy and natural. highs become slightly more smooth, soundstage opens up by a margin.

When I hear to the MH30’s here is what I experienced: utter & sheer pleasure

Lows: are accurate, tight and refined; have a strong impact. Depth is very good. Lows are present in a little more quantity than MH40’s

Mids: sound very natural, and appealing, and have a prominent warmth and lush (like the HD650’s) I guess that is in a good way, comes very pleasing to our ears. Tonality particularly, one of the best at this price point. This character makes MH30 a strong contender for vocals.

Highs: Very smooth treble without grains and sparks. Highs convey an image of smoothened darkness, just like a caramel chocolate. Highs are slightly more airy than in MH40’s.

Soundstage: Unlike the MH40’s, the MH30’s soundstage is more airy natural and circular soundstage. Depth is excellent. Instrument separation is very good, I believe MH30’s presentation is like sitting in fifth row of an opera theatre. (with MH40’s being in second or third row)

MH30 portrays music in such a way that, one feels as if the music is all around him. The sonic character here is so natural and eased that the tonality sounds very life-like. According to my observation, these cans sounded good in all genres I tried, and hence I conclude MH30's are also forgiving to poor recordings. Hence these are not resolving, but very musical in character.

Comfort and fit plays a vital role in sound being perceived to our ears. Especially in case of MH30 where the earpads are very compact, if they fit in a wrong way, they will leak sound leading to missing details.

I will not be directly comparing the MH30’s to other headphones since these are quite unique in their own regard. But for the sake of it, MH30's will sound (especially mids) are very similar to HD650's. Perhaps a touch more dark and thick.

Amplification: The MH30’s are rated at 32 ohms, and designed to be power efficient, and hence are fairly easy to drive, and can be driven by almost any sources, smartphones and DAP’s. Although setup like a O2/ODAC does indeed increases the soundstage and dynamics, and the difference in quality is clearly audible. Power is not very important aspect here, but a transparent setup indeed does help in increasing SQ;

Conclusion: I feel the MH30’s are a very special and unique set of cans. Build quality is phenomenal, sonic presentation is very pleasing, with fairly good soundstage. I never did quite like the on-ear cans, but with MH30’s it’s all about to change. I am absolutely in love in these. I have nothing but praises for these. On the downside, this type of presentation will be useful for listening to music, but definitely not for mastering or critical listening. Due to MH30’s compact design, enthusiasts with moderate to large heads may not prefer the comfort in these. Only area I would like to see improvement is in increasing the yoke length about an inch, which might help a lot for enthusiasts with larger heads.

At the price point of 349$ these may seem slightly more pricey, but these are worth every single penny spent. I can whole heartedly recommend MH30 for those, who would prefer a very musical (or magical) sounding , easy-to-drive headphones which are compact, portable and have a great build, plus whose head size is relatively smaller inorder to enjoy a good comfort and fit. Want a set of on-ear cans sounding close to HD650’s? MH30 is the way to go;

Pros:

1) Build Quality: The MH30 has a superb all-metal/leather build. No compromise to be seen anywhere.

2) Sound quality: Sound presentation here is very natural, and is very much like-able for casual music listening. Tonality of vocals deserve a special mention. One of the finest tonality I have heard in 500$ price point.

3) Power: MH30’s can run off on smartphones without issues, and still sounding very good. Amplification or source requirement is comparatively less. One can satisfy the hunger of MH30’s with just a cmoy amp.

Cons:

1) Comfort: This is definitely a downside for enthusiasts with moderate to larger heads. MH30 cannot accommodate larger heads even with maximum yoke length.
Also, as the earpads are not ventilated, hence may cause sweating/discomfort in warmer climates.

Thanks Biggy!

Well, going by sonic character, On1 & MH30 are quite opposite to each other:

Bass is very deep, accurate & quick in On1, full bodied & punchy in MH30 along with same depth as On1, but with more quantity.

Mids on On1 sound very open & clear, MH30 has a thick & silky presentation with a beautiful tonality.

Highs on On1 are sensitive & revealing. In MH30's they are presented smooth fashion and highs are not sensitive here.

So we can say, the MH30 is tuned for musical pleasure, where as the On1 is more of a transparent & precise headphone.

On1 sounds very transparent & clear, with excellent soundstage. MH30 is warm, & 'thick' with Intimate soundstage. Enjoyable tonality in mids. Compared to the On1, MH30 overall sounds dark.

On1 is physically lighter due to fiber & wood construction, and more comfortable for larger heads (like mine) MH30 hands down has better & all metal robust build quality, but will feel slightly heavy on when worn on head.

MH30 costs @350$ & On1 is available @200$ on amazon. Considering all the above aspects, On1 will be a better purchase. But MH30 is a lovely headphone for music listening. Extra cost has to be justified by build quality.

On1 is like a glass of plain milk & MH30 is more of a chocolate milkshake.

Thanks very much Joker, very thorough comparison indeed!

I'm loving the sound signature of my On1's (Sounds fun to me) but am a bit disappointed by the build quality. Besides the cups, it feels like they just added the headband etc. as an afterthought.

Thanks again, and I love reading your reviews

Have you by any chance compared the MH30 to the Sennheiser HD25? In terms of sonic character and isolation.

Me: I am an amateur musician & avid admirer of music. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop. With time, my sonic preferences have very much grown. I avidly admire transparency, accuracy along with neutrality, I mostly listen to full sized open back headphones and my favorite headphone is AKG K812, which I run from solid state amplifier. I prefer & admire transparent solid state headphone amplifiers simply because they provide best possible accuracy, transparency & reliability.

I am an average consumer & a humble enthusiast, I like to pen down my thoughts, & I love to express my feelings. I do not receive for any sort financial benefits through this review. My articles are a purely honest writeup aimed for fellow enthusiasts here at Head-Fi community. My profound thanks to Matrix Audio for arranging a sample unit of HPA3-B for my evaluation.

Intro: Matrix Electronic Technology Co. Ltd., located in Xi'an Economic and Technological Development Zone, in the ancient city of Xian. Matrix is an enterprise that dedicates to development & manufacturing of high-fidelity audio products. Matrix has its own highly qualified R&D team, which designs all of their products. I assume we all heard of matrix only since its release of M-Stage headphone amplifier around 2010 which stirred the headphone amp market & was extremely well received across the world; hence It became a benchmark device. I’m a proud owner of Matrix’s HPA-1 & HPA-2, over more than two years. I loved them a lot, had a wonderful time with both of them. The M-Stage amplifier will get updates in circuit board every two years. The latest model is HPA-3, improvised on previous designs.

HPA-1 was warmest & ‘smoothest’ sounding of all three, but had mediocre inbuilt DAC, plus slightly audible noise floor. It had the original BCL style gain switches. HPA-2 largely improvised from HPA-1, applied better performing 24/192 DAC but with fixed +15dB gain. Also, the benchmark bass ‘bump’ has vastly reduced, with much better cleaner & flatter output. Their latest release is HPA-3, is the successor to HPA-2. The HPA-3 has two variants, HPA-3U a Single end headphone amplifier with inbuilt DAC, whereas the HPA-3B, truly balanced headphone amplifier without inbuilt DAC. Both these models are remarkably transparent, without any emphasis or ‘bumps’ which I feel , is a result of improvised design. Now I am writing about HPA-3B, which has an entirely new design with true balanced circuitry. It is priced exactly same as HPA-3U, but this is a pure balanced headphone amplifier (minus inbuilt DAC & RCA outputs)

Technical specifications of HPA-3B:

Balance Headphone Output

SNR: ＞-114dB A-Weighting

THD+N: ＜0.0003% at 300ohms 135mW 1kHz A-Weighting

Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz (+0dB/-0.05dB)

Output Impedance: 0.6ohms

Output Power: 3800mW at 33ohms / 1500mW at 300ohms / 800mW at 600ohms at THD+N=0.01%

Single End Headphone Output

SNR: ＞-108dB A-Weighting

THD+N: ＜0.0004% at 300ohms 325mW 1kHz A-Weighting

Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz (+0.03dB/-0.1dB)

Output Impedance: 0.4ohms

Output Power: 2100mW at 33ohms / 430mW at 300ohms / 220mW at 600ohms at THD+N=0.01%

Gain Control: 5dB 10dB 20dB

Power: 230V/115V (Adjustable) 50/60Hz

Power Consumption: ＜25W

Fuse: AC250V/500mA 5x20mm

Packaging & Accessories: The HPA-3B comes packed in Matrix Audio’s strong cardboard box with foam protection inside & necessary accessories included in the package. Same packaging as of HPA-3U

Included Accessories

User manual & Driver CD: Contains instruction about operating the device & some warranty information. A compact disk is included.

XLR/RCA Adapter : To connect Single end RCA Input to the amp.

Power Cable: AC power cord to attach to mains supply.

Design and Build: The HPA-3U a marvellous & Robust build quality, obviously similar to HPA-3U. Just connections have been changed. On the front side, we have Volume control knob, headphone jack is present in 6.5mm & 4 pin XLR Balanced jack. On the rear side, we have Power socket & switch, 3 pin XLR input port, along with again switch. Volume control is very sophisticated with Dual RK-27 pots on a single shaft. Headphone socket is neutrik clip type, as from ball bearing type of HPA-3U.

HPA-3B is too capable of handling both 110/220V, whose selection switch is on side of the amp. Plus the AC fuse is accessible right besides it. To remove the case & access the circuitry, one has to remove top four screws using allen keys Size (2 & 2.5) plus additional two side screws on each side, to remove the top cover. One small issue user might face here is: Vents on top cover can attract dust or incase a few water droplets fall down, it will straight on the circuit board & damage the board.

Regarding the Internal components, HPA-3B has an entirely new fully balanced circuit board with has double sided PCB with no manual wirings except the toroidal transformer joints. Components are placed in a symmetrical & neat fashion. All components used are carefully selected similar to that of its 3U counterpart, Special dual Alps-27 blue velvet pot on a single shaft (pure balanced pot), the only replaceable part here are the op-amp sockets. HPA-3B contains two sockets of dual op-amp each. Board is excellently soldered and has a reliable workmanship. The HPA-3B runs warm by temperature due to being Class-A, just similar to HPA-3U.

Points : 9.5 out of 10, excellent build in every inch, very similar to HPA-3U

Sound: The HPA-3B puts out a very impressive sound quality, transparency & soundstage due to its balanced design. New performance altogether. The M-Stage has always been a strong & reliable amp, It does not any particular coloration of its own. Soundstage in HPA-3B is amazing . It has a fully circular 3D imaging. Detail retrieval, and dynamics are excellent. Overall the sonic presentation contains high level of transparency and accuracy. Absolutely zero audible hiss/noise, and zero EMI pickup. Dual Alps blue velvet pot does an amazing job of controlling volume very precisely without any channel imbalance & noise with retaining maximum sound quality. Another plus point here is, the HPA-3B has relay mechanism which prevent any noise pop’s when headphones are plugged in/out. This way, a better safety is guaranteed for the precious headphones.

Op-Amp: Stock op-amp ‘s are LME49860 (X2 quantity) from Texas Instruments, which does a good job by default. To test if the HPA-3 scales with better op-amps, I tested it with many op-amps, and settled on 4X LME49710HA set on 2 browndogs for 2 sockets. The HPA-3B scales well and supports the replacement op-amp. With LME49710HA, I can hear appreciable improvement from stock ones, with increased soundstage depth, excellent detailing & instrument separation & even more extension in treble. Overall increase in clarity & transparency.

Driving Power: The HPA-3B is highly powerful when it comes to driving headphones @3.8W power in tap. It can damn well drive any headphone in its default gain. Its output impedance is 0.6 ohms, ensures vastly uncoloured & accurate sound quality. Infact, I couldn’t even switch over to 10dB gain switch, because the HPA-3B is so powerful, 5dB gain is more than enough to drive any headphones. HD800 & AKG K702 particularly sound fantastic HPA-3B. It can also drive anything from IEM’s to planar magnetic headphones with ease. Even using the single end output, sound quality is far better than any other single end headphones I have heard till date.

HPA-3B left me highly impressed with its near summit performance. Points: a full 10 out of 10, very impressive.

Comparison: The most capable competitor for HPA-3B under 500$ price is Gustard H10, another excellent standalone headphone amplifier. Let us see how HPA-3B competes against H10.

Sound quality wise, under single end usage, H10 seems to have upper hand than HPA3B. H10 has a more sophisticated gain control, with more gain switches compared to HPA-3B. But when under balanced usage (which H10 does not support) HPA-3B has an clear win. No comparison here, HPA-3B provides ultimate purity. Function wise, HPA-3B is ahead due to its worldwide voltage compatibility & ofcourse the balanced advantage. HPA-3B outperforms H10, owing to fully balanced design.

Another comparison is to HPA-3U, which is HPA-3B’s amp/dac sibling. You may read the review I wrote on HPA-3U a while ago http://www.head-fi.org/products/matrix-m-stage/reviews/13475 Sound quality & amplification wise no doubt balanced design provides a substantial amount of audible improvement. HPA-3B just does not have a inbuilt DAC. HPA-3U provides more features as it contains an inbuilt 24/192 DAC, RCA outputs, input selection, and thus behaves as all-in-one unit, saving costs of cables, DAC’s etc. HPA-3U is better choice for all in one device by slightly compromising the sound quality.

In the end, if usage is single end only, then Gustard H10 is better suited, Otherwise, If full balanced connection is available, HPA-3B provides ultimate sound quality. If all-in-one unit is desired, then HPA-3U is the way to go. HPA-3B, is the most performing headphone amplifier under 500$ plus, with a fully balanced headphone support. Offers excellent synergy for high end headphones like HD800. Interms of sound quality, HPA-3B outperforms any solid state amplifier, to be tried near its price point. HPA-3B is the best balanced headphone amplifier under 500$ prince point. Offers highest possible value of money.

Conclusion: The HPA-3B continues the legacy & Reputation of M-Stage series forward, with all-new level of performance. Highly recommended for headphone amplifier under half a thousand dollars. Overall its a gem of an amp, but performs extremely well. Highly impressed. The Matrix M-Stage HPA-3B has a benchmark performance. It impressed me not just in sound presentation, but I literally loved every inch of it. The HPA-3B excels in each and every criterion you put through it. Its workmanship is of high standards, and thus very reliable & robust in operation.

Overall, I can award a full 10/10 for HPA-3B owing to its supreme performance in all aspects.

The specs look impressive. The review is great.

Question: is it a good match with Sennheiser HD 800, considering that this headphone is very power-hungry and sounds a bit harsh / bright ?

thyname

thyname, this amp is good for any headphone, because it has a low output impedance and adjustable power output (low, mid, high). In balanced mode, for HD800 you'll only use the mid gain at most; in single-ended mode you could use either mid or high gain, depending on the type of music you'll be listening too. By high gain I mean +20dB!

Design wise , it does look like a Deckard. Or Deckard looks like HpA 3b?

Me: I am a 21 year old Engineering student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop.

Intro: Dunu-Topsound, or simply known as Dunu, is a famous Chinese IEM manufacturer. The brand was established in 1994 as an OEM parts maker; it has evolved since then to manufacture full scale IEM’s and has earned the esteemed ISO-9001 certificate. The DN2000 (popularly known as DN2K) is the flagship In Ear Monitor offering from Dunu. DN2000 is the big brother of the famed DN1000.

Dunu: Delicate, Unique & Utmost

Specifications of DN2000 as per Dunu:

Drivers: 1X Dynamic, 2X Balanced Armature

Rated Impedance: 16 Ω

Frequency Range: 10Hz-30 kHz

Noise Attenuation: 26dB

Pressure level: 102dB

Plug: 3.5mm Gold Plated

Cable: 1.2m

Let us see what the DN2000 has got for us,

Packaging and Accessories: The DN2000 arrives packed inside a strong and sleek Dunu style flip-open black cardboard box, on which features and other information have been mentioned upon. Once the box is flipped open, The DN2K housing shell is seen resting inside a transparent window, the rest of cable and the accessories are packed inside the hard case. I can confidently say that Dunu has done some real premium packaging out here. The hard case can be lifted off to reveal the storage compartment, in which all the included accessories are present. Huge amounts of accessories included in the package, and again are made up of good quality. Packaging is done in a premium way “The Dunu Style” Really nice and satisfying.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

Eartips: Plenty varieties of good quality eartips are included to fit almost any kind of ears; pair of foam tips are also included.

Wings: These have the job of securing the DN2K on our ears and make sure they don’t fall off.

Ear Hooks: These come in to play when DN2K is worn upside down, securing the cable over out ears.

Shirt Clip: To reduce microphonics and to secure the hanging cable to the shirt.

¼” Converter: To plug in the DN2K in the 6.5mm headphone jacks.

Airplane adapter: To plug in on the airplane entertainment systems, when on flight.

Spacers: 1.1mm 1.2mm 1.0mm coloured rings are included to adjust the gap between eartips and driver nozzle, thereby tweaking the final sound quality.

Hard metal case: This aluminium case is supplied to protect and store the DN2K.

User Manual & Warranty card: Contains instructions to operate the DN2K and other warranty information.

Design and Build: The DN2000 has an excellent overall build quality.

The entire housing shell is made up of high quality metal. It is painted in matt golden colour, Feels good and heavy in hand. The housings shell is actually tiny despite the Tri-driver presence. The nozzle is chromed. Nozzle is slightly long to accommodate spacers.

Dunu logo is printed on the rear side of the housing shell. Left and Right markings are particularly hard to see, since the L/R markings are very small. We know, DN2K is a hybrid IEM, and employs well acknowledged Knowles balanced armature drivers. DN2K has three drivers on each side connected in a three way configuration. 1X Dynamic driver for lows, 1X BA driver for mids, 1X BA driver for highs.

There is an arm stretching out of the main driver housing shell. The function of this arm is to hold ‘wings’ which are provided as accessory. The wings will sit on the outer part of ear, and hold the DN2k firmly in its place during rigorous head movement. (It looks very similar to one used in Bose IEM’s)

Cable has a very good build. It is light, flexible and does not get tangled. Cables have almost zero microphonics. Cable slider is embedded inside the Y splitter. The lower part of the cable also has a velcro to bind up the lengthy cable. Plug is 90 degree angled and gold plated.

My only concern in the build quality is the cable; I think the cable could have been braided to further secure the connection and longetivity.

Comfort: DN2K is very comfortable to wear, is ergonomically designed, and its cable is light in weight and not heavy. No worries about the stretching arm on the driver housings, as their presence is barely noticeable after sometime of wearing it.

The provided ear tips are well designed and are ear-friendly. The presence of protruding arm does not hinder the comfort. Instead it makes sure of a better fit.
The ‘wings’ are provided in different sizes according to different ears. Spacer rings function well, and do not take the housing shell too far.

Only issue in comfort being DN2K is slightly heavy, but one can get accustomed to it real soon.

Sound: As for the most important part, DN2K has a very natural, expansive and pleasing sound quality. Its three way configuration works like a charm. A very appealing sound.

Lows: are very accurate, tight and strong; have a good impact. Depth is also good enough (but not very good)

Mids: sound very natural, open and appealing, and have a slight lush (like the HD600’s) I guess that is in a good way, comes very pleasing to our ears.

Highs: Very natural, airy, just right amount of sparkle. Highs are well perceived, with not being too smooth to cause a dark sound and not bright to cause sibilance. ‘Just right’

Soundstage: Very relaxed, natural and circular soundstage. Instrument separation is very good, overall feels very airy and spacious. This, I feel is very essential for a comfortable & non fatiguing listen.

The final sound (and comfort) of DN2K can be changed by using different ear tips and space rings.

Silicon ear tips provide the most natural sound. Whereas the foam’s provide the best fit and isolation, but at the cost of comfort (deep insertion). The space rings determine the exact distance the drivers are from our ears. If IEM’s are too far, IEM may fall out of ears, or sound may leak more than optimal. If they are too near, soundstage depth is decrease by a small margin.

Right amount of space rings results in a very excellent sound stage. DN2K puts an fully circular and relaxed stage, which is important for a natural and non fatiguing listen. Using the provided space rings, I can notice, increase in soundstage depth and overall refinement.

Direct competitor to DN2K is none other than the Fidue A83. The A83 is more neutral with an even more relaxed soundstage, and is more comfortable owing to over ear wearing style, and also a comparatively shallow insert than DN2K. Comparing the DN2K with A83, I feel the A83 definitely outperforms the DN2K in terms of neutrality, soundstage. The A83’s are also more relaxing to listen to; whereas the DN2K is slightly more fun to listen to; The A83 is greatly transparent and neutral, with relaxed and natural soundstage. The A83 also wins in cable quality, and ergonomics.

Amplification: The DN2K is very easy to drive, (even though it is a three way) and can be driven by almost any sources, smartphones and DAP’s. Balanced Armatures are known to be energy efficient, and low on diet. Although amp like a Objective2 does increases the sound output audibly, the difference in quality is minimal. Amplification factor is not important here, but a clean and transparent source is sufficient to drive the DN2K to their maximum potential.

Conclusion: Without a second thought, DN2000 is a great IEM. It has a very high value aspect, sound presentation simply excellent. It scores as one of the best IEM in 300$. The DN2K is almost a perfect IEM. DN2K is an easy recommendation to any enthusiast who is looking for a quality IEM in 300$ price range. But also check out the Fidue A83 (also a very capable and great IEM)

The Pros:

1) Build Quality: The DN2K has a great build quality. No compromise to be seen anywhere.

2) Sound quality: Sound quality of DN2K is very natural, expansive, and is like-able my almost anybody.

3) Comfort: DN2K is quite comfortable to wear for many hours, owing to its customization options and ergonomics.

4) Value: I do not think there are much better performing earphones available within the same price tag as of DN2K, thus making M3 of having a superb price/performance ratio.

The Cons:

1) Cable: Currently, the cable has very good build to it, but it would be more practical step to upgrade to a braided cable.

I thought the cable is already perfect, mate! It's very very supple and I love it. The only thing that matter is the housing is prone to scratch and cracks because of heavy housing and supple cable that make it easy to fall

Yep, after a lot of mingling around, I can say, cable is indeed reliable, and the housing is heavy, tends to fall off, so I use wings to secure them on my ears.

Me: I am an amateur musician & avid admirer of music from India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop. With time, my sonic preferences have very much grown. I avidly admire transparency, accuracy along with neutrality, I mostly listen to full sized open back headphones and my all-time favorite headphones are Sennheiser HD800 & AKG K812, which I run from solid state amplifiers. I prefer & admire transparent solid state headphone amplifiers simply because they provide best possible accuracy, transparency & reliability.

I am an average consumer & a humble enthusiast, I like to pen down my thoughts, & I love to express my feelings. I do not receive for any sort financial benefits through this review. My articles are a purely honest writeup aimed for fellow enthusiasts here at Head-Fi community. My profound thanks to Matrix Audio for arranging a sample unit of HPA-3 for my evaluation.

Intro: Matrix Electronic Technology Co. Ltd., located in Xi'an Economic and Technological Development Zone, in the ancient city of Xian. Matrix is an enterprise that dedicates to development & manufacturing of high-fidelity audio products. It also collaborates with a number of domestic and foreign companies on OEM and ODM business. Matrix has its own highly qualified R&D team, which designs all of their products.

I assume we all heard of matrix only since its release of M-Stage headphone amplifer around 2010 which stirred the headphone amp market & was extremely well received across the world; hence It became a benchmark device. Im a proud owner of Matrix’s HPA-1 & HPA-2, over more than two years. I loved them a lot, had a wonderful time with both of them. The M-Stage is getting updates in circuit board every two years. The latest model is HPA-3, improvised on previous designs.
HPA-1 was warmest & ‘richest’ sounding of all three, but had mediocre inbuilt DAC, plus slightly audible noise floor. It had the original BCL style gain switches. HPA-2 largely improvised from HPA-1, applied better performing 24/192 DAC with fixed +15dB gain. Also, the benchmark bass ‘bump’ has vastly reduced, with much better cleaner & flatter output.

Their latest release is HPA-3, successor to HPA-2. The HPA-3 has two variants, HPA-3U a Single end headphone amplifier with inbuilt DAC, whereas the HPA-3B, truly balanced headphone amplifier without inbuilt DAC.

Technical specifications of HPA-3U:

Line Output

SNR: ＞-112dB at 20Hz-22kHz A-Weighting
THD+N: ＜0.0003% at 1kHz 1VRMS A-Weighting
Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz(+0.01dB/-0.04dB)
Output Impedance: 51ohms

Headphone Output

SNR: ＞-112dB A-Weighting
THD+N: ＜0.0003% at 33ohms 90mW 1kHz A-Weighting
Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz(+0.01dB/-0.04dB)
Output Impedance: 0.2ohms
Output Power: 2800mW at 33ohms / 420mW at 300ohms / 210mW at 600ohms at THD+N=0.01%
Gain: 5dB 10dB 20dB

DAC

USB Chip: XMOS U-Series Asynchronous USB Chip
D/A Chip: Texas Instruments DSD1793
SNR: ＞-110dB A-Weighting
THD+N: ＜0.002% at 1kHz A-Weighting
PCM Sample Rate: 16-24Bit /44.1kHz 48kHz 88.2kHz 96kHz 176.4kHz 192kHz
DSD Sample Rate: DSD64（DoP）

System Support

Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 systems need to install the driver supplied
Mac OS X 10.6.4 and above version have native support and do not require a driver
Can be used with the most of Android devices via the OTG cable
Can be used with iOS devices via the Lightning to USB Camera Adapter

Power

Supports both 110V & 230V (switchable)
Power Consumption: ＜25W
Fuse: AC250V/500mA 5×20mm
Weight: 1.7 KG

Packaging & Accessories: The HPA-3U comes packed in Matrix Audio’s strong cardboard box with foam protection inside & necessary accessories included in the package.

Included Accessories

User manual & Driver CD: Contains instruction about operating it & some warranty information. A compact disk containing HPA-3’s USB driver is included.

USB Cable: Good quality USB A-B cable. About a metre and half long.

Power Cable: AC power cord to attach to mains supply.

Design and Build: The HPA-3U a marvelous & Robust build quality with perfect finishing. The case is redesigned from past to be more efficient. More vents, thicker case, excellent finished edges & a modern look. It is made up of aluminium, and is painted in matt black & brush finished. Overall the amp feels heavy in hand and comparatively longer is dimensions than other amps in size. On the front side, we have Volume control knob, headphone jack is present in 6.5mm format along with a gain & input switch. On the rear side, we have Power socket cum switch, USB input port, along with a RCA input/output jack. Power button is very rugged & tough; Volume knob operates in a very smooth fashion & is very steady. Headphone socket is ball bearing type & goes easy on the headphone jack, does not cause scratches on the surface.

Special mention here is: HPA-3 is capable of handling both 110/220V, whose selection switch is on side of the amp. Plus the AC fuse is accessible right besides it. To remove the case & access the circuitry, one has to remove top four screws using allen keys Size (2 & 2.5) plus additional two side screws on each side, to remove the top cover. One small issue user might face here is: Vents on top cover can attract dust or incase a few water droplets fall down, it will straight on the circuit board & damage the board.

Considering the Internal components, HPA-3U has an entirely redesigned circuit board with has double sided PCB with no manual wirings except the toroidal transformer joints. Components are placed in a symmetrical & neat fashion. All components used are carefully selected; including all dale resistors, Alps-27 blue velvet pot, premium caps. For D/A conversion, the HPA-3 employs DSD1793 (which is DSD capable version of PCM1793) for USB transfer, asynchronous 24 Bits/192 KHZ capable Xmos Chip. There are no user replaceable/serviceable parts inside theHPA-3U, except the op-amp scoket. Board is excellently soldered and has a reliable workmanship. TheHPA-3U generally runs warm by temperature due to being Class-A. It can also act as standalone headphone amplifier when fed with RCA inputs.

Sound: The HPA-3U offers a very flat, detailed & accurate, sound sonic presentation. Sound-stage width is superb & expansive. Overall puts up an amazing performance. Lows are tight, accurate & go deep with good impact, The ‘bump’ associated with older HPA’s is mostly gone. Mids sound very clear & open. Highs are very clean, airy, very detailed & extended. Overall no presence of any significant colouration.

I expected that matrix would develop and include a 32 bit DAC in their HPA-3U. The M-Stage have always been a strong & reliable amp, but contained a mediocre DAC. Though DAC in HPA-3U is good, but is not performing upto the standards of the amazing amp circuit. Soundstage in HPA-3U is just great . It has a fully circular 3D imaging. Detail retrieval, and dynamics are excellent, perhaps one of the best for an Amp/Dac under the price tag. Overall the sonic presentation is high level of transparency and accuracy. Absolutely zero audible hiss/noise, and zero EMI pickup. Alps RK-27 pot does an amazing job of controlling volume very precisely without any channel imbalance & noise with retaining maximum sound quality. Another plus point here is, the HPA-3 has relay mechanism which prevent any noise pop’s when headphones are plugged in. This way, a better safety is guaranteed for the precious headphones.

Op-Amp: Stock op-amp is LME49860 from Texas Instruments, which does its job. To test if the HPA-3 scales with better op-amps, I tested it with many op-amps, and settled on LME49710HA X2 with browndog adapter. The HPA-3U indeed does scales well and supports the replacement op-amp.
With LME49710HA, I have about 10% improvement from stock ones, with increased soundstage depth, excellent detailing & instrument separation & even more extension in treble. Overall increase in clarity & transparency. For HPA-3U, ASIO suits better than other pluggins. Ofcourse it is audibly better than the default DS. In Matrix control panel, Set Transfer as “Most Safest” This again ensures maximum possible performance.

Driving Power: The HPA-3U is very powerful when it comes to driving headphones @2.8W power in tap. Drove my AKG K702 (which is a demanding headphone when it comes to ampling) well with 25% volume pot utilized in least gain of 5dB. Infact, I couldn’t even switch over to 10dB gain switch, because the HPA-3U is so powerful, 5dB gain is more than enough to drive any headphones. I also tried my trusty LCD-2’s, U200 drove them very well, with good synergy. Both AKG K812 & HD800 sound fantastic HPA-3U. It anything drives from IEM’s to planar magnetic with ease. Volume pot does a very good job here, volume increase very steady and in a highly accurate fashion. No channel imbalance. Overall, the HPA-3U impressed me a lot in the sound regard.

Comparison: A very good competitor for HPA-3U we have here is Yulong Audio’s U200 whose review I wrote a while ago http://www.head-fi.org/products/yulong-audio-u200-dsd-32bit-384khz-dac-headphone-amplifier/reviews/13333 which is also similarly priced & has similar functions. Now we have a tough competition, both newly released amp/dac’s, are priced around very well & both perform really well.

The HPA-3U has user-changeable gain 5/10/20X settings, & 230V/110V AC voltage switch to use in various parts of world without any hassle. It also has an internally swappable op-amp for any such rolling. Another advantage the HPA posses over U200 is that the HPA-3U has Alps blue velvet pot, which is simply well ahead of Alps-16 used in the U200. The U200 offers WiFi module for an additional 100$, which I sometimes feel not very necessary. The Yulong U200’s gain is fixed, but it drives all earphones & headphones well. AC voltage switch is not present, and can be a drawback for frequent international travellers. The HPA-3U also has mute relay mechanism, which is a plus for headphones safety.

In terms of build quality & workmanship, the U200 clearly has an upper hand with superior build inside & out, HPA-3U follows very closely, with slightly inferior part quality & design in few areas. The U200 has a very neutral & expansive sound quality with a touch of naturalness: sweet mids, slightly smooth highs & full bodied bass. Soundstage is deeper & more expansive in U200. HPA-3U has stronger bass clear & open mids along with extended, & revealing highs, and not exactly ‘natural’ if I must say. I would rather call HPA-3U more analytic & clinical that the U200, but only with a slight margin. HPA-3 has about 15% lesser soundstage than U200, but has extended & more detailed top end. Mids are neutral compared to addictive smooth mids of U200. HPA-3U lacks soundstage perhaps due to lower 24/192 DAC capability. Audibly, The HPA-3 lacks the vast, airy & relaxed soundstage of U200, along with silky smooth mids. Top end is relaxed & airy in U200. The U200’s DAC is very superior & well performing, & has a fairly good amp section. The HPA-3U is just the opposite: superior amp section & fairly performing DAC unit.

In end of the day, both HPA-3U and U200 have an excellent performance & high value aspect associated with the price paid. Here the decision makes up of preferences only & sound quality almost same on both the devices. But HPA-3U has upper hand when it comes to flexibility & features.

Conclusion: The HPA-3U continues the legacy & Reputation of M-Stage series forward.

The Matrix M-Stage HPA-3 is a benchmark & legendary headphone amplifier. It is not just another amp, it has legacy behind it. It impressed me not just in sound presentation, but I literally loved every inch of it. The HPA-3U excels in each and every criterion you put through it. Its workmanship is of high standards, and thus very reliable & robust in operation. The HPA-3U is reputed to have very good synergy & pairing with world famous high end headphones like HD800 & K812. I highly speak & recommend of the HPA-3U. It is a MUST HAVE device for HD800 & K812 headphones, & the pair performs amazingly good with perfect synergy. Perhaps HPA-3U is the best solution for these headphones even at double the price.

Pros:

1) Design and Build: The HPA-3U has a very well designed and implemented build. Both internal & external build quality is supreme excellent workmanship.

2) Sound quality: The sonic presentation here is very neutral & accurate & transparent, with minimum or none colouration. Sonically, performs extremely well. Powerful enough to drive any dynamic or even planar magnetic headphones.

3) Features: The HPA-3 has perfect set of features which are needed in a headphone amplifier device. Voltage switch, Alps Blue velvet, mute relays, op-amp rolling together makes it a perfect device.

Cons: Inbuilt DAC: This has got be the only drawback for the HPA-3U. The inbuilt DAC is very good, but not in the long run. Audibly, I observed the inbuilt DAC is limiting the performance (particularly soundstage) of amp section. I sincerely hoped, with HPA-3U, Matrix would bring a better performing 32 Bit capable DAC. This is the only area where I am disappointed with the HPA-3U.

Great review, thanks! I own the K812's and having read both of your reviews I'm still undecided whether to get the Yulong U200 or the HPA-3U (both are in the same price class in Europe, around €420).

is the line out in the back fixed or controlled by the volume knob?

I have the HPA-3U+ and the lineout is controlled by the volume knob. I found no difference if you have the volume set at about 75% - 80% from fixed ones. The lineout is also pretty good quality.

I am penning down my opinion about the QLS QA360 Digital Audio Player. I will try to keep this review simple as possible and I hope it would be easy to read, and will help fellow enthusiasts to know more about the QA360.

Me: I am a 21 year old Engineering student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop.

Intro: QLS-HiFi, is just another Chinese DAP manufacturer hidden from the world’s eyes, QLS is however a renown brand inside China. Their flagship DAP is the QA360, released in April 2014, after 3 years of its development. QA360 is a Mid-Fi DAP, with DSD capability.

Specifications of QA360 as per QLS:

•   PGA2311 for Advanced digital volume control.
•   Three Low jitter TCXO for PCM & DSD.

•   SDHC/SDXC Supports up to 128GB with FAT32.
•   Firmware upgradeable

•   Menu: English and Chinese Simplified/Traditional.
•   High power Class A headphone amplifier.
•   PGA2311 150-Steps high-performance Digital-Controlled Analogue Volume Control
•   4-layers PCB for all circuit boards.
• Audio Support:
- 16bit/24bit, 44.1-192Khz, DSD 1bit 64FS.
- Audio format supported:
- WAV : 16/24bit, 44.1~192 kHz.
- AIFF : 16/24bit, 44.1~192 kHz.
- FLAC : 16/24bit, 44.1 kHz~48 kHz, compression level 0~8.
- APE : 16 bit, 44.1 kHz, compression level fast and normal.
- ALAC : 16 bit, 44.1 kHz
- MP3 : 16bit, 44.1/48 kHz, 96k bps~320k bps, CBR/VBR/ABR encoding.
- CUE : ANSI / UNICODE / UTF-8 Encoding.
- DSD : DSD64 1bit, Stereo---DIFF、DSF、SACD ISO.
- Digital output: PCM / Dolby Digital output/ DTS Digital output / DSD (DoP V1.0).
•   Digital output: Coaxial (3.5mm), Optical (Round Port).

•   Analogue output: 3.5mm Line Out.
- Analogue Line out: 2V (RMS), frequency response 0Hz-20KHz, SNR 116dB, Distortion 0.0006%
- Headphone out: 490mW/16Ω; 245mW/32Ω; 55mW/300Ω; Frequency response: 0Hz-20Khz; Output impedance: 0.075 ohms
•   DAC Chip: CS4398. LVP: AD8620.
•   Battery Type: 3.7V 3120mAH Li-Po battery.
•   Battery life: 10 to 11 hours for PCM, or 7-8 hours for DSD.
•   Dimensions: 117x72x27mm

Packaging and Accessories: The QA360 arrives packed inside a plain matt black cardboard box, on brand name has been mentioned upon, cardboard box is quite sturdy and strong, and can withstand the long journey during shipping times.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

Charger: 5 volts/2 amperes universal charger for charging the QA360. This charger is the fastest mode of charging the QA360.

USB charging cable: Sufficiently long, can be used for charging the QA360 from computer or any other 5V source.

SD Card: A full size Sandisk SD card (16GB 30MB/S)

SD Card reader: A full size SD card reader for data transfer using the SD card.

Screen guard: A spare screen guard for applying on QA360's screen. Also includes a cloth for cleaning the screen.

User Manual: Contains all information about operating the QA360. English and Chinese languages included.

Warranty card: Contains warranty information.

Silicon case: This translucent case is supplied to protect the QA360 from falls or scratches, and also gives a firm holding grip and anti-skid feature to the QA360.

Packaging is nicely done, with accessories provided being sufficient in quantity and made up of great quality. Almost all of included accessories are manufactured/endorsed by QLS themselves, ensuring a handsome quality control.

Design and Build: The QA360 has an excellent build quality. Its built like a tank (reminding me the build of M-Stage’s) the main body and even all buttons is made up of metal, most probably containing aluminium. QA360 has a rectangular shape with curved edges, though it is a bit thicker. The QA360 Is fairly heavy in weight owing to its heavy build, but still it can be comfortably operated using one hand itself. QLS Audio provides an 3 year warranty on the QA360, which is quite impressive, considering most of the others DAP’s have only 1 or 2 years warranty at most. This again reassures us about the QLS’s faith in their products. Ergonomics and comfort factor is fairly good in QA360, because QA360 has a great build quality, it feels a bit heavy and might be a little difficult to operate for enthusiasts with smaller hands.

On the Top side, the QA360 has a socket for antenna extension. Surprising as it may seem, QA360 is capable of remote controlling. The remote is available as optional.

On the left side, An full size SD card slot is present. The card slot operates smoothly without any hitches. Insertion and removal of card is fairly easy, with just an simple push.

On the right side, A sliding lock button is present, whose function is to lock down all the keys once lock button is activated. A sliding power button is also present. I actually prefer sliding power button over an conventional push button, that is because one can flip on/off in just a second, when compared to 3-5 seconds on push type power buttons. Both of these sliding buttons have very fine and sturdy operation. Feels confident and slick to slide one. Two volume buttons are present, Volume controlling is very fine, it has 150 volume control, and works very well with IEM’s and headphones. One can achieve even minute attenuations in volumes without any issues. Volume switching is smooth and very gradual, which is a big plus especially sensitive IEM’s.

On The front side, Four buttons (Up/down Left/Right) are present, along with select, menu and back keys. The navigation buttons are used to navigate songs, or forward/backward operations depending upon the situation. A select key is present in the middle of navigation keys, and is used to select or play/pause the songs. The back key, as usual takes the user to the previous menu. Buttons are well laid and are very convenient and nice. Buttons feel very smooth, fine and very accurate.

Display screen is good enough, though screen clarity or screen resolution is not impressive, but still it does the job just fine. (This is common in almost of all DAP’s)

On the bottom side, Output and charging sockets are located. From left to right, Headphone output, coaxial output and optical output respectively. It is convenient that optical and coaxial outputs are also included in the QA360, But I could only utilize headphone output in this review, (since I dont have access to any optical/coaxial devices) To far right, a charging port is present, to which charging jack has to be connected to charge the QA360. All the jacks are well built and implemented, and have a good feel to them.

Battery life: Battery life is fairly good. As for me, the battery lasts for about 6-7 hours, which is quite good.The battery capacity of QA360 is of 3120mAH. Even though it is a good capacity battery, Playback time is pretty decent at 6-7 hours. The battery has to be charged by a 5V 2A adapter, and is included in the package. Charging time using this adapter is around 3 hours. QA360 always plays it 'cool' and never gets warm, not even during charging.

User Interface: The current firmware version is V1.3, and is upgradeable as new versions are released by QLS. Startup and shut down happens within just 2 seconds, which makes QA360 quite fast in operation. The actual firmware is very fast, responsive and zippy when it comes to browsing. No hanging or slowing down whatsoever. I sometimes wish there should be improvement in font and screen display brightness/resolution, because as of now the fonts are quite small for viewing, and are pixelized. I feel a much more advanced brightness and resolution settings can be provided by QLS, in their next firmware update.

Menu key opens up the settings and other options. This DAP is DSD capable, along with one can change many advanced settings like themes, layouts, key speed, DSD settings, playing settings and sound filters. The sound filter options are slow/fast, by selecting slow, the sonic output was a little laidback, and natural. By selecting fast filter, I felt the sound was somewhat shallower by a margin and more artificial. The QA 360 by default comes with loads of high-res FLAC, WAV DSD music files stored in its 16GB card. Though most of them are in Chinese, many are instrumental and English vocals. This is again a nice initiative by QLS. The battery indicator accurately calculates the actual amount of battery power remaining, and has stable readings.

Overall, the firmware is simple, yet has all essential features, is super fast to flip around, is customizable and is quite reliable and stable. I feel the interface of QA360 allows users to personalize the DAP as desired.

Sound: As for the most important part, The QA360 is overall Transparent, Neutral and Detailed sounding with excellent but accurate sound stage, imaging and detail retrieval. Dynamics are superB, giving a circular spacious sound. Soundstage is spacious, but in a natural and realistic way. I am able to differentiate between FLAC and 320kbps MP3 for the same song with the QA360. Considering the QA360’s neutral sound quality, it can match up with any genre and any headphone without sounding bad in particular. QA360’s neutrality is not at all harsh/piercing or irritating like some other DAP’s. Instead, the QA360 manages to produce a slight natural flavour.

The transparency on QA360 is really appreciable. QA360 is very resolving, transparent, yet natural sounding to human ears. I was really stunned for the first time I listened to the QA360. The QA360 also has Tonality as its plus along with transparency. Its tonality is slightly ‘organic and pleasing’ This tonality trait can make ‘thin’ and ‘cold’ sounding headphones to sing along. The tonality of QA360 is such that, it does not make compromise in transparency, neutrality or dynamics. Listening to hi-res vocals and instrumentals on QA360 is a pure bliss.

Output power at headphone jack is fairly good and is sufficient to drive any and all IEM’s and also to drive most of the headphones, to loud listening levels, I always listen to volumes below 60 on IEM’s and below 110 on headphones. Noise floor of the QA360 is audibly dead silent. I could not detect any audible disturbance in any form from the QA360. EMI pickup is completely nil, along with no pop sounds on startup or shutdown, which is really appreciable. Pairing LCD2’s with QA360, the result was more than pleasant; the combo sounded pleasing and had sufficiently loud volume levels.(considering LCD2’s are power hungry) But I have always felt that sonic character of headphones improve with an dedicated amplifier. But even then, it’s a great praise for QA360 in driving the LCD2’s.

Comparing the QA360 with FiiO X5, I feel the QA360 definitely outperforms the X5 in terms of sound quality as well as build quality. X5 is slightly warmer and feels a bit congested sounding (comparatively), whereas QA360 is very transparent and neutral, with relaxed and natural soundstage. (Of course, we have to remember that QA360 costs about 200$ more than the X5) However, X5 wins is portability factor and output power. The X5 has reasonably more powerful output at headphone jack than the QA360. Also the X5 is way slimmer and lighter than QA360, along with support for USB connectivity. X5 also has a more ‘user friendly’ firmware than the QA360.

Conclusion: Though QLS is a relatively newer-known brand in the audiophile world, The QA360 without doubt is an amazing DAP. I never expected such a good sounding DAP from them. It offers a excellent transparency, along with neutral sound quality with a touch of naturalness. The sound quality is phenomenal (considering its competitors) and Build quality is supreme, which is not found on many other DAP’s.

The Pros:

1) Transparency: Transparency of QA360 is worth mentioning. The transparency, resolving power of QA360 is simply phenomenal (in its category)

2) Tonality: I feel QA360 has a slightly organic and pleasing organic tonality, but it does not sacrifice dynamics, neutrality or transparency. Maybe this is the reason why I can listen to QA360 for hours together without any fatigue.

3) Sound quality: Sound quality of QA360 is accurate, mostly uncoloured and neutral. Detail retrieval is very good. Soundstage and dynamics are just amazing. This is definitely an advantage. I always have felt that a source (base of the sound chain) should be neutral and transparent.

4) Build Quality: Build quality of QA360 is top notch and hence I assume it will also be durable for a long time to come.

5) Value: The overall performance of QA360 is excellent, especially considering its price, and also the fact that there are limited DAP’s available in around 500$ range. I can say, QA360 has a Mid-Fi price tag, but its sonic offering is nearly at Summit-Fi level.

The Cons:

1) USB connectivity is absent: The QA360 does not have USB port, so one has to manually remove the SD card, connect to PC and then transfer the files. This can be irritating for frequent data transferor’s like me, and also, since USB port is absent, the charging port is via an seperate DC 2 pole connector, this makes us to carry the special charging cable to wherever we travel. Definitely a cumbersome drawback for travellers. But I think this drawback can be taken as blessing in disguise, as QA360 will be free from any technical issues from internal memory/corrupt software or hanging issues, Thus achieving more reliability.

2) Portability: Though this is not really a drawback, the QA360 is comparatively thick and heavy, probably due to its nice build. Enthusiasts with smaller hand size may find QA360 to be heavy, or difficult to operate with one hand. But it should be manageable. As for me, I would anyday trade thickness and weight in exchange for a better build quality.

Does this play FLAC above 48 kHz? Is that a typo in the specs?

Why no comparison to the Hidizs AP 100 in the pic? I'd really like a little comparison between them

Hello,
The battery for my QLS QA360 is dead.
I wanted to replace it but can't find the description for battery replacement.
Did you come across it?
If so please share the link.

Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop.

Intro: Thinksound is a new US brand specializing in the area of headphones and IEM’s. They are based in Somersworth, NH. Their products are all designed & developed in the U.S, but made in China by high standards. ON1 is the On-ear Closed-back headphone offering from Thinksound.

Thinksound has a specific vision in making their products: The products should last long and must be made up for eco-friendly materials. Infact, Thinksound is the first brand which has taken up such environment friendly initiatives in audio industry. Currently all of their headphone and IEM lines are closed back, solidly built by wood, fabric & cotton components, and all of them have a very natural and musical listening experience with them. Mr. Aaron Fourniner is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Thinksound.

Specifications of the On1:

Type: Closed back, On ear with Passive Noise Isolation

Driver: 40mm dynamic

Frequency Response: 5Hz-22 kHz

Impedance: 50 ohms

Hand crafted wood housing

Plug: 3.5mm steel reinforced gold plated

Cable: Kevlar® reinforced, tangle-resistant fabric cable

Earpads: Memory Foam Pleather

Let us see what the On1 has got for us,

Packaging and Accessories: The On1’s arrive packed inside a strong cardboard box with a removable outer sheet, on which features and other information have been mentioned upon. Once the box is lifted open, The On1 is seen resting. The layer of cardboard can be lifted off to reveal another storage compartment, in which cotton pouch and user manual are present. Packaging is very eco-friendly, which reduces synthesized materials as much as possible. Thinksound has done some really innovative and eco-friendly packaging out here. Even the small velcro is made up of natural cotton material.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

Fabric Cables: One short 1.25M four pole 3.5mm audio cable with mic and volume controls, and another regular 2.0M cable.

Cotton Headphone Pouch: This pouch has a eco-friendly finish to it, and functions as a storage pouch for the On1.

User Manual: Contains instructions to operate the On1 and other warranty information.

Design and Build: The On1 has a very good overall build quality, except a few areas where the plastic arms are not finished well and give out a finnicky look.

The entire housing shell is made up of high quality Wood, and is well polished and coated. cans are pretty small, and appear to be large in pictures. These are light in weight. Thinksound logo is printed on the rear side of the housing shell. Left and Right markings are particularly easy to see, and are clearly indicated. Headband is made up of natural sewn cloth. Earpads have pleather material as cushions.

The On1’s are already nimble, easy to handle, wear on and power requirement is low. Along with all these, these are fold-able, and are easy to carry around. On1 has a common 3.5mm cable socket, hence the cable is of very common type, a 3.5mm audio interconnect. This ensures, even if the current cable breaks, a replacement is easy to obtain, any 3.5mm cable audio cable will fit in. One downside I observe here is, wiring for opposite driver is embedded on upper end of headband, and through yokes and into the housings.

Cable has a very good build. It is light, flexible and does not get tangled. I could not notice the presence of any microphonics. Plug is straight and gold plated. Both ends of cable have same connectors, thus the cable can be used either way: topside down or vice versa. The stock cable does a great job in transferring signals along with great transparency, but the stock cable provides a slightly ‘thin’ sound delivery, and this can be changed for any optional upgrade 3.5mm cable, which are are very easy to obtain under 15$.

Comfort: ON1’s are very comfortable to wear in general, and its yoke is long enough and hence comfortable for almost any-sized heads. On1 is ergonomically designed. But since the earpads are madeup of pleather, ventilation will be less, thereby causing sweating; especially in tropical climate. But it can be continuously worn over an hour without any discomfort issues.

Since On1’s are closed back headphones, these will isolate the listener from outside noise. This level of isolation is very good for a traveller. Going by weight factor, these feel really light and very easy on head. Clamping force is relaxed and not at all imposing and pressing against ears. Headband has a good cushioning, but it can dirty quickly due to its fabric nature. Also, the On1’s housings have high degree of rotation, ensuring a good comfort for any given heads and ears.

Sound: As for the most important part, the On1 has a very neutral, clear & airy sonic character. It is very transparent and detailed. We have to keep in mind that, with on-ear headphones, sonic presentation may feel different with different fit. Therefore fit/angle is the deciding factor for sound being perceived by ears.

Burn in: These improve a lot with time. Let’s say a playback of 20 hours provides major audible improvements, along with softening of pleather earpads and better clamping force. Bass prior to break-in is slightly looser, and eventually it becomes more accurate, Mids will sound more open, airy and natural. Highs become slightly smoother; soundstage opens up by a margin.

Lows: are accurate, tight and refined; have a strong impact. Depth is very good.

Mids: sound very neutral, airy and clear.

Highs: Detailed treble with slight grains and sparks. Unforgiving on bright recordings

Soundstage: Unlike majority of portable cans, the On1’s soundstage is more airy natural and circular soundstage. Depth is excellent. Instrument separation is very good.

On1 portrays music in such a way that, one feels as if the music is all around him (excellent soundstage for a portable closed can). According to my observation, these cans sounded good in all genres I tried, and hence I also observed these are unforgiving to poor recordings. Hence these are appreciably transparent in character. The On1 sounds almost like open headphone, very airy, a vast 3D like soundstage.

Instruments placement & positioning is great. I wouldn’t call On1 a natural sounding, but as neutral, detailed, transparent. Its resolving power is very good and worth mentioning.
Low volume listening is pretty impressive. One can hear On1 in very low volumes, yet it retains all the details & elements present in a track.
Comfort and fit plays a vital role in sound being perceived to our ears. Especially in case of On1 where the earpads are very compact, if they fit in a wrong way, they will leak sound leading to missing details.

Amplification: The On1’s are rated at 50 ohms, and designed to be power efficient, and hence are fairly easy to drive, and can be driven by almost any sources, smartphones and DAP’s. Although setup like an O2/ODAC does indeed increases accuracy, soundstage and dynamics, and the difference in quality is clearly audible. Power is not very important aspect here, but a transparent setup indeed does help in increasing SQ;

Conclusion: I feel the On1’s are a very special and unique set of cans. Build quality is phenomenal, sonic presentation is very pleasing, with fairly good soundstage. I really like to listen to these cans. I have nothing but praises for the On1. The On1 is also a very responsible headphone when it comes to environment; it is designed as eco friendly headphone with recycled packaging box, cotton pouch.

On1 also minimizes the use of artificially used materials like plastic. The idea implemented is very again very inspiring & may lead to major manufactures to make a similar move. Overall and satisfactory and excellent purchase for an On ear headphone. The On1 is available at amazon for 200$ and performs excellent when related to its price, and is worth every single penny spent.

Pros:

1) Build Quality: The On1 has a good wood/metal/plastic build, and is more environment conscious than majority of its counterparts.

2) Sound quality: Sound presentation here is very neutral, detailed, & airy, it is very much like-able and fatigue free for music listening.

3) Power Requirement: On1’s can run off on smartphones without issues, and still sounding very good. Amplification or source requirement is comparatively less. One can satisfy the hunger of ON1’s’s with just a cmoy amp.

4) Eco-Friendly: As per my memory, Thinksound is the first brand which has been manufacturing headphones while keeping environment safety in mind. It is not very easy to do the same in current industrial situation which focuses mainly on Plastic/Fibre.

Cons:

Rough Surface: The plastic finishing in the outer body of headphones is not well done, and gives rough edges and finicky feel. I hope Thinksound will improve the On1 in this regard.

@YoYo JoKeR

Oh oops, my bad. Sorry bout that @YoYo JoKeR and @Brooko. I must have seen it somewhere else and I did try the rain2's as well and I actually liked them better than the On1. Again, I think I need to audition the On1 once more because I'm afraid it just wasn't burned in / I had bad fit.

@YoYo JoKeR

Brilliant review @YoYo JoKeR, this actually inspired me to post my first review for these cans! Well done mate

Thank you very much mate! I am obliged.

I am penning down my opinion about the ‘most-buzzed-about’ C5 amp. I will try to keep this review simple as possible and I hope it would be easy to read, and will help fellow enthusiasts to know more about the mighty C5 amp.

Me : I am an 21 year old Engineering student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself an music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile.

I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs.

Intro : Spark Audio used to be a subsidiary electronics department of the Chinese Air Force. Its association with tube electronics and dates back to the old days when aviation technology employed vacuum tubes. After its privatization in 1993, Zhuhai Spark electronic equipment ltd. decided to apply its technical expertise into consumer audio, and has become one of the most reputable audio companies in China. It designs, manufactures and markets its own products under the name “Spark” in China.

“Cayin” is a brand under Zhuhai Spark electronic equipment ltd. They mainly manufacture desktop and tube amplifiers. Cayin was not renown to most of us, until it released its famous C5 portable amp. C5 is the flagship portable amplifier offering from the house of Cayin.

Packaging and Accessories : The C5 arrives packed inside an simple yet rigid golden coloured classic cardboard box. The box is plain with only ‘Cayin’ written over it. The box has an slide-able sticker, which needs to be slid to one side to lift off the lid of the box.

Once the lid is lifted off, The C5 is seen to be resting on an pseudo-base, packed inside an soft cover. The pseudo-base can be lifted off to reveal the storage compartment, in which all the included accessories are present.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

1) 3.5mm interconnect cable: For attaching to an DAP, as its of short length and connects are 90 degree angled.

2) Micro-USB interconnect cable: To utilize the power bank feature of the C5, by connecting to DAP or smartphone.

3) Rubber feets: To attach to the C5 amp for getting better grip and for avoiding scratches.

4) Rubber bands: For binding the C5 with the DAP. Hence attaching them both as one whole unit.

5) Velvet pouch: To store the C5, and therefore avoiding dust and scratches.

6) Manual: Contains the instructions for C5 amp and warranty details. The entire manual has recently been updated to English language.

Overall, the packaging and accessories gives an positive first impression. Packaging is secure and practical, with accessories provided being plenty and made up of good quality.

Design and Build : The C5 has an excellent build quality and has been built with professional grade materials. Metal panels, high quality audio jacks, switches and reliable overall sturdy construction. The C5 is roughly about the size of a 5 inch touchscreen smartphone, and is convenient to attach to most of the smartphones and DAP’s making it perfectly portable.

On the top part of the amp, Volume control, LED indicator and input, output jacks are present. The volume knob is embedded inside the main body of the amp, and feels comfortable to turn. The jacks are perfectly positioned and don’t cause hindrance of space.

On the bottom side of the C5, an micro USB charge inlet and an charge outlet are present. An 3 LED charge indicator is present on the front-bottom side of the amp. Bass-boost and gain switches are on one side of the amp, and feel ‘solid’ and smooth to switch. The C5 includes OPA134 as Op-Amp and LME49600 as prower driver, Alps pot as volume control, among other good quality interior components.

Overall the C5 has solid exterior construction, along with well designed interior circuitry, which ensures in its long life and reliable consistent performance.

Here is the schematic of C5 as per Cayin:

Specifications of C5 as per Cayin:

Rated output power: 800mW + 800mW (32Ω load)
SNR: ≥101dB (A-weighted)
Life time: about 12 hours (32Ω load)
Frequency response: 20Hz-100kHz (± 1dB)
Sensitivity: ≤500mV (gain H)
Charge limit voltage: 12.6V
Charging time: about 4 hours (off state, using DC5V / 2A charger)
Total Harmonic Distortion: ≤0.02% (1kHz)
Lithium battery capacity: 1000mAh / 11.1V
Size: 136x63x15mm
Weight: about 185g

Portability and Features :

The C5 is fairly light in weight, sleek in thickness, and is well designed, with controls and switches placed at right places in right manner. It slides in easily inside an jeans pocket.and hence be considered as completely portable. It gets charged by standard 5V micro-USB cable, and that gives it an worldwide charging opportunity.

Headphone protection relay : The C5 employs an smart relay, which ensures one does not hear any noise or EMI apart from the music itself. The relay automatically switches on when the amp is turned on/off, and absolutely no pop/click is heard from the C5. EMI pickup is absolutely Nill.

Power of Zeus : The maximum output power of the C5 is 800mW@32ohms. Which is an advantage for driving full size headphones. This amount of power is more than sufficient to drive anything from IEM’s to headphones to their very loud listening levels, and the C5 does an excellent job here.

Smart charging indicator : An 3 LED mechanism shows the level of charge in the amplifier and the current charging status in Low-Medium-High fashion, which I find is very convenient and well implemented. The LED's blink one by one when charging and also indicating the charge level simultaneously. I should also mention that, C5 can be switched on and used during charging also, and has no audible noise even during charging.

Memory volume knob : The volume knob is practically designed, and the knob has a slight play in horizontal movement, which ensures, the volume does not change, if the knob is accidentally jerked or turned unintentionally. It also has numbers imprinted on it, to remember the position of the knob and level of the volume.

Power bank : This is an interesting yet very useful feature which Cayin has incorporated inside an portable amplifier, The C5 has an charge out port, from which one can charge DAP or smartphone. Though it is not a very strong power bank, but it can be very useful in emergencies.

Bass boost : This feature is found in almost every portable amplifier, in C5, the BB feature is better implemented than most of the rest. BB switch in C5 Provides an fuller pleasant sound instead of solely extending and loosening the bass quantity. The bass boost performs very well without an hitch.

Sound : The C5 is overall ‘clean and clear’ sounding with excellent sound stage depth ( along with very good width), imaging and detail retrieval. Considering the C5’s overall neutral sound quality, It can match up with any genre and any headphone without sounding bad in particular. C5 is not as transparent as the O2 (as a reference) but is very close in terms of sonic performance. Sound stage width is very good especially in this range, and depth is phenomenal. Detail retrieval is excellent. Imaging and dynamics live upto expectations, giving an circular spacious surround sound. C5 can overall be considered as having holographic soundstage along with incredible neutral sonic performance.

C5 pairs very well on an dynamic Sennheiser HD600 and Planar Magnetic Audeze LCD2. It drives both HD600 and LCD2 with authority and with plenty of power to spare. The pairing results in an pleasing and clear non-fatiguing sound to our ears. Enthusiasts who wish to drive Summit-Fi headphones on an sub 200$ portable amp, C5 is the answer.

Gain setting (high/Low) is very wisely implemented, with low gain specifically implemented for IEM’s and high gain for headphones. Gain setting provides more than adequate output power. An slight hiss is noticeable with IEM’s on high gain, but that can be expected as high gain would be too much and not recommended for IEM’s. Low gain is more than sufficient for IEM’s, in this state, there is no sign of hiss. With headphones, there is absolutely no audible noise, hiss, EMI in whatsoever configuration!

Impressive indeed.

Comparison with fellow amps :

Since Objective2 and FiiO E12 are the top contenders in 200$ category portable amps, they are chosen for comparison with C5. Lets see how they put up against each others;

Objective2 : The O2 wins in terms of sheer transparency. C5 is close behind on its heels. The C5’s sound stage is massive, O2 also provides a very natural and effortless soundstage. O2 ‘sounds’ transparent, whereas C5 is also transparent sounding, with being a touch ‘bright’. Though O2 definitely Lacks output power, features and portability factor of the C5.

FiiO E12: The E12 has upper hand in output power with 880mW@32ohms and also has an slightly better build quality than O2 and C5. But E12 is noticeably warmer and is more forward sounding than both O2 and C5, which makes the E12 to possess a narrower soundstage. It is easy to conclude that C5 is a step ahead in terms of sonic qualities when compared to E12.

O2 offered supreme sound quality but suffered practically. E12 was designed practically, but sound quality was forward, and hence the sound felt compromised compared to O2 and C5. I feel the C5 delivers best of both worlds, with sonic quality very similar to O2, and with features and portability similar (or even better!) to an practically designed amp like E12.

Conclusion : Cayin C5 is an truely amazing, If not an mesmerizing portable amplifier. The C5 offers phenomenal Sound quality along with excellent portability and features, in an decent price bracket. It is an easy recommendation for an portable amp. I can safely bet on C5 as the best sub-200$ portable amplifier.

Not to mention, the C5 amp has won my ears.

Hi nice review
I'm from India and im interested in Cayin c5.
I have fiio x5.
Is there any authorised distributor in India?
Im not able to find them in India.
Please help.

Thanks,

Nope, there are no authorized sellers/distributors present in India, you may buy the C5 from Ebay.

How the bass boost compare to e12, would to connect this amp to my mojo when i wanna listen to some edms

The Sennheiser HD600's are my first set of headphones. I have long wanted to pen down this review, and here I am writing this review after several months of experience with my beloved HD600’s.

Intro : I am an 21 year old Engineering student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself an music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I mostly listen to Bollywood and Indian Classical Music. There is not much audiophile-community presence in India, Though lot of potential remains to be tapped. Auditioning an headphone is almost impossible in India. At the time of my purchase, I took recommendations from fellow Head-Fi ‘ers who guided me into right path, towards the Mighty HD600.

I will try to keep this review simple and hope it will help fellow enthusiasts to know more about the wonderful HD600.

Sennheiser HD600 is an upgraded version of the HD580, which was an revolutionary headphone released in 90’s and has won thousands of ears along its journey till today. The HD600 is made in Ireland, and comes packed in an thick and strong cardboard box which is cushioned from inside, where the HD600 stays put, for its onward journey towards the beloved owners! No complaints here.

Design and Build : Excellent and practical build with professional grade materials. High quality joints, nothing squeaky, sturdy grills, conventional yet very reliable connectors. nano-carbon material ensures in light weight. Very durable, sturdy and reliable construction, along with an attractive Marble finishing. Now not many prefer marble finishing, but as for me, I love it! The HD600 is modular! One can fully dismantle it and assemble it back with ease! Which ensures in long life and easy maintenance of the headphone.

Comfort : It is very comfortable, can be worn for hours without any sign of discomfort, thanks to oval shaped earcups. The Initial clamp force is a bit strong, but the force relaxes off gradually according to the shape of our head. Ventilated velour pads along with head cushions keeps us cool and comfortable, which is a big plus for Hot climatic countries like India.

Sound : The HD600 is an Wonderfully sounding headphone. It’s sound can be consider as ‘Euphonic’ Rich, Textured, magical sounding with very good sound stage and details. It’s natural, smooth and grain-free sonic quality often makes one feel as If they are hearing their music in real concert and not through an headphone!

Lows : Very good bass and sub bass. Balanced and Tight, well extended, and clean.

Mids : Seductive and very natural. Mids are presented in a lush and rich manner, which results in its pleasing natural sound.

Highs : Realistic and smooth. Not Bright. Just ‘Right’

Sound-Stage and Details : Sound stage is very good though not as wide as Q701 and not as detailed as DT880. The soundstage and detailing of HD600 is very balanced and ‘Just Right’ and ‘Realistic’

The HD600 can be said as more natural than neutral with respect to its sound. The HD600 gives Hi-Fi sound at Mid-Fi price point. One can listen to HD600 for hours together without any hint of fatigue or discomfort. Another positive point about HD600 is that, HD600 scales very well with equipments! I can easily recommend the Bottlehead Crack, which is an excellent OTL amplifier, has special synergry with the HD600. Otherwise an economical O2 amp will also do for an very good listen. The stock cable is quite thin, a reasonably priced Cardas cable would further enhance the already wonderful sound of the HD600.

Conclusion : HD600 is an truely amazing and exceptional headphone! One can cherish it for lifetime. The HD600 is an masterpiece, which is a bliss for audiophiles and enthusiasts alike.

The following features are hard to find anywhere else, but are present in the HD600 :

1. Eternal Sound Quality
2. Super Comfortable
3. Very Durable
4. Scale-ability
5. Modularity
6. Affordable.

I would like to thank Sennheiser for creating the legend and Head-Fi for continuing the legacy.

The Sennheiser HD600 is not just another headphone; It’s a Legend.

Oh yeah theres differently no veil in the HD 600's

Great review. I own the HD650 myself and I appreciate the extra upper treble, smoother upper mids and warm mid bass. But the HD600 has always intrigued me, especially that 90s marbled finish.

Stop. They don't have subbass - they roll off starting at 75 Hz.

Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop.

Intro: Little Dot is a famous Chinese brand specializing in the area of Tube Headphone Amplifiers. They are rolled out their first product around 2008. The 1+ hybrid is the entry level amp offering from Little Dot.

Those days, OTL/tube amps would be expensive, and out of reach of a humble Enthusiast. Little dot products made well performing OTL amps in an affordable price. This made them a well known name across the Audiophile World. Little Dot have a specific vision in making their products: The products should have appreciable sonic performance, quality and should have a practical operating aspect. All their products are handmade by good workmanship. Mr. David & Mr.Yang are the key people behind Little Dot.

Specifications of LD1+:

THD+N:

0.2%: 1Vrms @ 1000Hz

0.6%: 3Vrms @ 1000Hz

1.0%: 5Vrms @ 1000Hz

Signal-to-Noise: 92dB

Headphone Impedance: 8 - 600 ohms

Input Impedance: 50K ohms

Power Output:

150mW @ 300 ohms

300mW @ 120 ohms

800mW @ 32 ohms

User variable gain settings: 6.5x or 3.25x

Power Consumption: 15VA

Let us see what the LD1+ has got for us,

Packaging and Accessories: The LD1+ arrives packed inside a general cardboard box, packed inside a removable foam packing. Tubes are included inside the foam socket. Default tube included is a generic 6J1. Packaging is generic, but nothing to complain about. But all the included accessories have a good quality and feel to them.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

RCA Cable: One short 1.8M RCA to RCA cable for input connection.

¼” Converter: To plug in the 3.5mm headphone jacks in the 6.5mm sockets.

Power Cord: A mains AC power cord EU/US/AU/UK is supplied as per specifications.

User Manual: Contains instructions to operate the 1+ and other warranty information.

Design and Build: The LD1+ has a very good overall build quality. Its design is very practical.

The entire case is made up of high quality brushed aluminium, and is painted in gloss black, which is a finger print magnet. The LD1+ fairly large in size, and just appears to be smaller in pictures. It feels heavy when held owing to its 1.5 Kg weight (thanks to strong & reliable transformer). At the front we have a volume knob, ¼” headphone output socket, and a blue indicator LED. At the rear side of LD1+, we can observe the presence of power socket, power switch, and RCA inputs.

Volume knob rotation is smooth and knob has just the right size for fingers. ¼” jack is also a very smooth operator, which is neither too tight nor too loose. The ¼” socket employs ball bearings instead of clips to avoid scratches/damage on the headphone jack. Power switch has a pretty great operation and strength, and is very precise in its job. RCA jacks are gold plated, and the plating wears off along with the time. Since Little dot amps are hand soldered and assembled, I feel soldering and assembling could have been done in a more precise or in a neat way. The volume pot along with most of the components is of generic make, which is quite disappointing, but this is to be expected as LD1+ has a very competitive pricing.

The 7 pin Tube sockets are ceramic type, have a great build. LD1+ accepts single pentode or triode type vacuum tubes. Matched pair is technically not essential for operating the LD1+, however matched pair does add up to proper channel balance and slightly better performance. LD1+ is a very versatile and customizable hybrid amp, users can roll different op-amps and three families of vacuum tubes as per their tastes.

The only downside I observe here is, bottom chassis has to be removed every time to change gain/tube settings. This is not really a drawback, but it would be more easy and convenient for users (especially for tube/op-amp rollers) to do this way.

Sound: The LD1+ has a slightly rich, euphonic yet airy sonic character. ‘Musical presentation’ is the key word. I find it very appealing and pleasing. Presentation is in such a way that, mids are little more intimate, with lows & highs sound tad more relaxed and laid back. Stock tube and op-amp is pretty mediocre and needs to be changed/upgraded. I also recommend changing the stock volume pot to Alps-16 100K for further improvement in SQ.

Burn in: These improve a lot with time. Let’s say a playback of 50 hours provides few audible improvements, Bass prior to break-in is quite muddy, and eventually it becomes more accurate and clean, Mids will sound more open, airy and natural. highs become slightly more smooth, soundstage will open up by a margin.

Op-amp rolling: Any dual precision audio op-amp will work on LD1+, but there are few renown and high performance audio op-amps, & after trying on many, like, 2134NA, 4562NA, 6171,6172, 2111KP, 49720HA/NA, 49860NA, 49990MA, OPA209/627 /827 I have settled on 2X LME49710HA (metal cans) on browndogs. This results in a very detailed, natural, airy presentation with precise and lifelike soundstage.

With stock op-amp, LD1+ runs fairly cool. With replacement op-amp, amp runs warmer by about 20%, But with op-amps mounted on browndog, Surface temperature rises by 40% (probably due to power intake by op-amps)

Tube rolling: One can roll 6J1/6AK5/5654/WE403A, WE408A, EF91/92/95 family tubes on LD1+. Essential thing to do is set jumpers before tube rolling. Failing to do so can burn up tubes or damage the amp itself. Out of all these, The Mullard EF91, Yugoslavia 6HM5, and Voshkod 6ZHP1 tubes particularly match pretty great on LD1+ and result is a very clear, clean and airy sound with a lifelike 3D soundstage. And the good news is that all these tubes are available at 20$ a pair shipped on ebay!

I can conclude op amps have overall 30% effect on final sonic character of LD1+, whereas tubes have around 70%. So tube rolling can bring major audible changes than op-amp rolling.

The LD1+ has a solid power supply which delivers. No distortions, works great even when directly plugged into mains (no need for power purifier etc like some tube amps) No distortion/ out-of-breathness found on any combination of op-amps or tubes. There are gain jumper present (J3, J4), which if removed provides an high gain of 7X (ideal for 300-600 ohm cans). Else jumpers engaged will provide a low gain of 3.5X (ideal for Planars and low impedance dynamic cans) I also can confidently say that EF91 + LME49710HA is the best possible combination on LD1+ for all planar magnetic headphones.This amp is pretty powerful and can drive demanding cans like LCD2’s in low gain and less than 50% of the volume pot.

Lows: are accurate, tight and refined; have a good impact. Depth is pretty good.

Mids: sound very natural, and appealing, and have a prominent warmth and lush (I guess that is in a good way, comes very pleasing to our ears). Tonality particularly, one of the best at this price point. This character makes LD1+ a strong contender for vocals.

Highs: Very smooth treble without grains and sparks. Highs convey an image of smoothened darkness, just like a caramel chocolate. Highs are airy with good amount of space sensation.

Soundstage: Soundstage is airy, natural and circular. Depth is excellent. Instrument separation & detailing is pretty good. With the default Chinese 6J1, tonality is a bit harsh, and soundstage is limited. But once you pop in the upgrade EF91, soundstage very 3D, airy and clear. At this point, the 1+ shows a hint of its potential.

LD1+ portrays music in such a way that, one feels as if the music is all around him. The sonic character here is so natural and eased that the tonality sounds very life-like. According to my observation, these cans sounded good in all genres I tried, and hence I conclude LD1+ are not very transparent, and are forgiving to poor recordings. Hence these are not resolving, but very musical in character.

Comparison: The main competitors of LD1+ are the Bravo Ocean & Schiit Vali along with Project Starlight which are all similarly priced. All these are hybrid amps.

Bravo Ocean: Hybrid amp which uses mosfets for amplification. Mosfets have their own kind of sonic touch to them, which I quite don’t like. Power supply is external DC type and not well made (which results in higher noise floor, light electrocution) But as a advantage, Tube rolling is very economical and convenient here, since Ocean supports a single 12AU7, which are very common to obtain & no hassle for a matched pair.

Summary: Just like a Bravo V2 on steroids, small & powerful. Most economical of all, easy tube rolling. But noise floor, power supply are a question mark.

Project Starlight: At 225$ built & shipped this is the most expensive amp of the bunch. But Starlight has best internal build quality (along with Vali). The Starlight is not fully enclosed in a case. Its output power at headphone is quite limited, and is lowest of all these amps. Starlight also has a op-amps and support for 6/12V Dual Triode tubes. Starlight is specifically suited for lower impedance & less demanding headphones.

Summary: Best option for DIY’ers & Tube/Op-amp rollers. But expensive, driving power is not the best.

Schiit Vali: Has no rolling options. Everything is fixed in. Output impedance is quite high at around 6.5 ohms and is not suitable for IEM’s. Power supply is again external, but definitely better than Bravo Ocean. Vali uses 16V AC/AC adapter (similar to O2 amp adapter) Vali also has a best build quality.

Summary: Good choice for beginners who don’t want to roll anything. A nice amp for 50-300 ohm headphones.

Ultimately the LD1+ has an edge over all tube amplifiers to be tried in 200$. LD1+ cleany sweeps out Vali, Ocean & edges out the Starlight. We can observe here, the competing amps lack one or the other feature with them, but LD1+ has them all. LD1+ is an allrounder. It has dedicated, strong & reliable internal power supply, can drive anything from 8-600 ohms, gain is changeable, comes in a excellent built case, one can roll tube/op-amps (even without matched pairs)

Conclusion: I feel the LD1+ is a phenomenal hybrid amp. Build quality is very good, sonic presentation is very pleasing, it can drive almost any cans & its sonic character can be tailored to meet one’s taste. I can whole heartedly recommend LD1+ for any enthusiast who would prefer a musical (or magical) sonic presentation. I am absolutely in love in LD1+. I can safely bet, that LD1+ is best sounding hybrid amp in 200$ range.

The LD1+ is a clear winner.

Pros:

1) Build Quality: The LD1+ has a very good all-metal build. No compromise to be seen anywhere in exterior.

2) Sound quality: Sound presentation here is very natural, detailed and spacious, which is very much like-able for music listening. Sweet mids deserve a special mention. Tubes for a natural presentation and solid states for accuracy. Best of both worlds.

3) Rolling Capability: Enthusiasts can roll tubes, op-amps to match their sonic tastes.

4) Driving Power: The LD1+ can comfortably drive any set of cans from 8-600 ohms. Good job!

Cons:

1) Internals: Actually not really a con, Infact there are just three components which I feel one should upgrade. these are volume pot, stock tubes and op-amps. But once upgraded, LD1+ is a beast unleashed!

Many thanks.

Great review, as always. You seem to review all the things I am interested in. Question, same as I asked you before; Does the LD 1+ have a full 2V input sensitivity, or do you need to adjust the output gain of your source?

Thank you very much!

Although it can drive any set of dynamic headphones, the LD1+ is not very powerful when it comes to demanding headphones, as it does not have full 2V I/P sensitivity, also the LD1+ has gain structure of 3.5X/7X if you have a dedicated full size DAC (which give out a very powerful output) I would recommend you set to the DAC's gain manually, depending upon headphones.

Disclaimer: This review is written by me, it reflects my thoughts & honest opinion about the product.

Me: I am an avid admirer of music. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop. With time, my sonic preferences have very much grown. I avidly admire transparency, accuracy along with neutrality, I mostly listen to full sized open back headphones. I prefer & admire transparent solid state headphone amplifiers simply because they provide best possible accuracy, transparency & reliability.

I will describe this review in simple words that is readable & understandable to anyone. Let’s have a look at this amp from the eyes of a music enthusiast, shall we?

Intro: Yulong Audio is well known producer of Headphone amps. I find their designs very mature, leaving no room for error. Till now they did not have a budget product to appease the masses, so they have new ‘Daart’ series under which “Canary” is the first product under affordable price but with latest design to keep up the best possible sound quality. It packs such a good performance; it left me hooked up for a long time.

As expected by the Yulong trademark build, the Canary has a robust build quality. It has a precise & accurate finishing. Feels well put together. It is a pure class A JFET transistor amplifier using critically acclaimed ESS9018 mark2 decoder & XMOS USB interface. The amplifier part is fully discrete, with FET input DC coupling class A design. There is no capacitor in the signal path between the decoder to headphone output which might reduce the transparency.

The circuitry & internals speak for themselves. Components are well laid out; most components are Surface Mount Devices (SMD) Components are placed in a neat fashion. Board is excellently soldered and has a reliable workmanship. Architecture wise, on the front we have Volume control knob, a headphone with input selector switch. On the rear side, we have Power socket & switch, along with input USB A socket. Line out is in RCA format. Daart’s circuitry was carefully tuned & finalized by taking into account many audiophiles, musicians & critics. So now we know why it sounds so good.

Technical specifications of DAART Canary:

USB Input DoP64/128, Native DSD64/128, PCM 32Bit/384KHZ

Headphone Output 100mW @ 600 Ohm, 200mW @ 300 Ohm, 400mW @ 150 Ohm, 1000mW @ 32 Ohm

Crosstalk -120dB

Freq. Response 20Hz – 30 KHz -0.15dB

Dynamic Range 120dB

S/N Ratio -128dB

Line Out 2Vrms

Op-amp ADA4705 OPA1688

DAC ESS9018MKII XMOS U8

Sound: I was pleasantly shocked how good it sounded. I enjoyed long hours of listening through AKG K812, never feeling my ears pierce or getting fatigue.

This is where it's exciting. Though designed as a budget oriented device, by no means it is lacking sound quality. Solid Engineering & design is the answer here. Don’t be fooled by its 250$ price tag. This machine delivers wonders. Yulong said it will be very detailed & by that they mean business. It is THE most detailed unit I have heard under this price range. ‘Detailing’ is the highlight of the Canary.

Very transparent, flat and extremely detailed sound, I am hearing subtle details I’ve never heard before. Depth is amazing too. This is the device that redefines the budget listening. I should remember, a few years ago If wanted to buy an amp/dac under 300$, and I would get no choice other than schiit combo or O2 combo. And believe me those things don’t sound half as good as Canary does.

There is a slight imbalance at the very beginning of the volume range, but I guess it’s okay & is seen in most of the volume pots. This is a class A amp, hence must be warmed up for 15 minutes before listening. With time, it settles in & sound even better.

Verdict: With this device, Mr. Yulong has renewed my respect for him, he is simply brilliant. I am really proud that we now have an amazing sounding Amp/DAC & we can own it by not spending a bomb on it. Because not everybody can afford a 1000$ device. Canary is an excellent alternative, I fully stand by it.

It is a smashing value for money, well built, exceptional sounding, reliable & it is from the house of Yulong Audio!

I'm not an expert by any means, this is more just a pure noob question... If it's class A why does it have an op-amp?

I have Yulong's first headphone DAC/Amp (the D100). It's leading qualities sound similar to the Canary: clarity, articulateness, quiet background. But the problem with Yulong which you should be aware of is that there is no one in the US who can service your unit should you need this in the future. I have a very simple problem which might well be fixed in 10 - If only I could find someone who services Youlong equipment

PS: Let me explain the problem in the event that the experts here might be familiar with it: When I turn the unit on it is attached by a USB cable to my computer, I first get the message "System Loading" followed a few moments later by "No Signal". Why is it not getting a signal? I upgraded the USA cable to no effect. I upgraded the USB cable to know avail. (DorianLS@aol.com),

The Objective2 is my first amp along with my beloved HD600 headphones. Here is my review after my experience with it for several months.

Intro : I am an 21 year old Engineering student living in a small town in India. There is not much audiophile-community presence in India, Though lot of potential remains to be tapped. Auditioning an amplifier before purchase is almost impossible in India.

I would like to call myself an music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I mostly listen to Bollywood and Indian Classical Music.

I had bought off the O2 amp solely based upon its reputation, and also because of not being left with enough funds buy an more feasible amp.

The O2 amp is designed by an famous American electrical engineer. It is well documented and measured amplifier, leaving no second thoughts on its performance. The goal of O2 amp is to achieve transparent sound with good measurements and at a reasonable price point, So that every enthusiast could afford an decent amplifier.

The O2 can also be customized easily. It is available as a kit, or readily assembled, with/without case. It is cost effective and has many more add-on options.

Design and Build : It is an very well designed and built amp. All components are mounted on an single PCB, with no manual wiring, which ensures longer life. It consists high quality double sided PCB, passive components, semiconductors and an Alps potentiometer. Exterior case has equally good build, with finished anodized and brushed aluminium case. Front and back panels are mounted by 4 screws, which can be removed easily to slide out the O2 board. All controls and jacks are mounted on front panel of O2.

Overall,The O2 amp has Excellent build quality and design. Cant ask for more from an DIY amp.

Sound : O2 is very transparent. It has no ‘sound signature’ of its own. The output from the O2 depends very much on the source and ultimately on the headphone you are listening; it’s a wire with gain. It is an reference amp in sub 200$ price category, and comfortably competes with amps which costs much more.

The O2 amplifies the input signals without adding any flavour of its own, which results in improved soundstage, dynamics and imaging. This transparent sonic character makes the O2 amp suitable for any genre of music. O2 has zero audible background noise and pitch black background. It has a very low EMI pickup, which is an advantage for Smartphone users.

Output Power: Specifications state that O2’s output power is sufficient for most of the headphones. O2 amp can drive both dynamic and planar-magnetic headphones, though the latter seems much difficult to drive; The O2 takes the dynamic HD600 and planar magnetic LCD2 to loud listening levels, but ultimately lacks dynamics and power to ‘drive’ them properly.

We know that the O2 can have custom gain settings. Though by default, the O2 comes with 2.5X/6.5X gain. Once the gain is flipped to 6.5X, background noise and distortion increases. I feel the gain switch is best set at 2.5X. But this again limits the O2’s output power for demanding headphones.

The O2 amp has low output impedance and is hence is also suitable for IEM’s and earphones. One can hear an small ‘pop’ noise from headphones when O2 is switched on/off.

Portability : The O2 amp is not sleek or light as the Cayin C5 or FiiO E12. The O2 is more of an transportable amp than truly portable.The O2 amp can work either on Internal Rechargeable 2X 9V Batteries or on External 15-20 VAC Adapter.

Once fully charged, The O2 works on battery power for around 6-8 hours, which is quite decent. It doesn’t have any audible differences when running on batteries or on AC Adapter.
Slow recharging process in implemented in-order to avoid over-charging the batteries. Once the AC Adapter is connected to the amp, the battery recharging process is initiated. It takes around 12 hours to fully recharge the O2. There is no indication to the level of charge in the batteries; we have to manually estimate the approximate battery life remaining.

Most of the portable amplifiers use 5V USB Charging. Whereas O2's AC Adapter is heavy, and is cumbersome to carry around. This further limits the O2’s portability.

Though O2 is an excellent amp, but It's portability side suffers. If one wants to sacrifice the transparency of O2 for better portability, CAYIN C5 and FiiO E12 are pretty good amps, which have higher output power and are truly portable, along with very good sonic quality.

Conclusion :

The Objective2 is an fantastic amp, It is hard to beat O2 amp in its own category. O2 is an easy recommendation for an budget amp. Though not very portable, the Objective2 does its job and does it very well.

The following features make O2 amp unique amongst others :

1) Transparent Sonic Character
2) Battery/Adapter operation
3) DIY and customization
4) Decent output power
5) Easy maintenance
6) Transportable
7) Affordable.

O2 is like an transparent window, which shows us, the view into music.

My SennHD600 lack punch with the O2. I followed the instructions and changed the 4 gain resistors to very high gain. If you hear scratching or noise you can correct it by lowering the volume. The amplifier is powerful! I like to have extra power because it makes me feel that I can control the music when needed. If you want to know more you can contact me. Look at the instructions manual and consult the gain. When I was 15 years old every device used tubes. We had no problem with that.

Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop.

Intro:  Bravo Audio is a popular Chinese brand specializing in the area of Tube Headphone Amplifiers. Bravo was established in 2010. Even though a relatively newer establishment in the field, Bravo managed to capture attention of the world by their amp offerings which had attractive price tag & appreciable performance. Back in 2010, tube/hybrid amps would be expensive, and out of reach of a humble Enthusiast. Bravo made well performing hybrid amps in an affordable price. Bravo was the one who made hybrid amps in sub 100$ category. This made them a well known name across the Audiophile World.

All of Bravo’s amps are hybrids, and are driven by Mosfet’s, and are pure class A. This ensures in mammoth output power, appreciable clear sound quality, but heat dissipation is high, and the amp physically gets hot even to touch comfortably. Bravo has been famous since its release of V1 & V2 amps, which were budget friendly, yet performing, which won ears of many enthusiasts. The S1 is the lone solid state counterpart of these amps, and hence subsequently will sound most accurate, neutral and cleanest of all Bravo amps. The S1 amp is also the smallest & most reliable amp from Bravo.

Specifications of S1:

Input Power: DC 24V 1.5A

Input Sensitivity: 480mV

Input Impedance: 100KOhm

Headphone Impedance: 20~600 Ohm

Frequency response: 50Hz-20 KHz +/- 1.5dB

Signal/Noise Ratio : 68dB      Gain: 16.21dB

THD: 0.060% (5mW) 0.12% (30mW)

Noise: 600uV

Let us see what the S1 amp has got for us,

Packaging and Accessories: The S1 amp arrives packed inside a general cardboard box, packed inside a removable foam packing. Packaging is generic, but nothing to complain about. But all the included accessories have a good quality and feel to them.

List of accessories in the box, which include the following:

Power Adapter: AC to DC 24V 1.5A power adapter EU/US/AU/UK is supplied as per specifications.

¼” Converter: A 1/8” to ¼” converter for headphones with 3.5mm Jack.

Design and Build: The S1 has a very good overall build quality. Its design is decently practical. Though it is enclosed in open acrylic sheets to save manufacturing costs, and also for funky DIY looks. The S1 looks much different& funky, and stands out from the crowd. It looks more of a DIY-amp. Even then, the open case is of good quality transparent fiber & metal supporting beams. The transparent sheets make us gaze through it and onto the well soldered circuit board. The S1 is fairly small in size (smallest & most compact of all Bravo’s amps, with V3 being the largest in size). The S1 is light in weight, & weighs under 250 grams.

At the front we have volume knob, ¼” headphone output socket & an on/off toggle switch At the rear side of S1, we can observe the presence of power socket & an 3.5mm input socket. Volume knob rotation is smooth and knob has just the right size for fingers. ¼” jack is also a very sturdy, but is slightly tight. The ¼” socket employs clip mechanism, which may cause scratches/damage on the headphone jack. Power switch has a good switching feel and strength, and is very precise in its job.

Internals quality is certainly good, if not very good. The S1 amp has no manual wirings inside; everything is fixed on the PCB. Soldering & joints are very well done. Volume pot is well known Alps branded, which a plus for both volume control & audio quality. Please do note that the Mosfets (IRF630N) run very hot, be sure not to touch anywhere near them, otherwise burn injuries are guaranteed!

Since the S1 amp follows Op-amp/Mosfet design, there is a DIP8 op-amp socket present, in which we may roll any compatible dual audio op-amps. The default one is TL072ACP from Texas Instruments, & does a great job in sound quality. There also a red LED besides the op-amp socket.

I also observe a drawback in the power supply, it is not earthed. I am at a loss of understanding why Bravo did not include a third earthing pin or ground to make the amp safe. Since it is a DC supply, few ripples will be present in the final output. These either cause light electrocution/sock or audibly raise noise floor of the amp. All Bravo amps use the same 24V 1.5A power brick, and are not grounded or earthed. So if you happen to find a better quality laptop power supply within this specification, then it is a plug in replacement or upgrade.

Sound: The S1 has a very clean, clear yet airy sonic character. ‘Clear& Enjoyable’ is the key word. I find it fairly accurate. Presentation is in such a way that, mids are little more intimate, with lows & highs sound tad more relaxed and laid back. Surprisingly, stock op-amp is pretty great and does not necessarily need to be changed/upgraded.

Burn in: I could not notice any major sonic improvements or changes by burn in. But let’s say a playback of about 20 hours provides few minor audible improvements, Bass prior to break-in is quite muddy, and eventually it becomes more accurate and clean, Mids will sound more open & slightly forward, airy and natural. Highs become slightly smoother, soundstage will open up by a margin. Also, the noise floor further went down towards complete silence.

Op-Amp rolling: One can roll enormous number of 8 pin dual op-amps or single channels ones on adapters. After much testing on vast number of op-amps like, 2134NA, 4562NA, 6171,6172, 2111KP, 49720HA/NA, 49860NA, 49990MA, OPA209/627 /827, I could conclude, the stock one (TL072ACP) is indeed very good at its job, is optimal for the existing circuit parameters. But after intensive testing & attentive listening, I found the 4562NA also to be a be great match, both for circuitry as well as for headphones by sound quality.

The gain is fixed at 16.21dB, which is still quite high and certainly not recommended for IEM’s. This amp is extremely powerful and can drive any dynamic/Planar magnetic cans to insane loudness with just 40% of the volume used, which is at 11 o’clock. Anything above 12 o’clock is unbearably loud. This incredible power brings out the best out of a matching headphone. But there is a firm 'pop' to be heard when amp is switched on with headphones plugged in (with default op-amp). But with replacement (4562NA) op-amps this pop disappears. Also, power distribution across the volume pot eases up a lot, becomes more even. Noise floor is audibly almost silent with demanding cans (yet i could detect a very faint hiss at max volume on the pot. There is absolutely no channel imbalance, thanks to the alps pot.

Lows: are accurate, tight and refined; have a great impact & extension. Depth is good enough.

Mids: Neutral & clean, but sounds a little ‘far away’ and is not intimate or forward.

Highs: Very clear with desirable amount of sparks. They are airy with good amount of space sensation.

Soundstage: feels airy, natural and nearly-circular. Width is very good, & depth is decent enough for imaging. Instrument separation & detailing is pretty good.

The S1 sounded good in all genres I tried, and hence I conclude, The S1 is decently transparent, detailed but also slightly forgiving to poor recordings. Hence I can say the S1 is an all rounder. It does not compromise anything too much to affect any of its characters.

Another thing to mention, since S1 had ample of output power, I decided to try it on the LCD-2, after the 4562NA. Unbelievably, the combo worked like a charm. I didn't expect a 70$ typical amp to make LCD-2 sound so good. Even I had tried the Little Dot 1+, Bravo Ocean to be double sure. Yep, S1 drives the LCD-2 great. First thing LCD-2 looks in an amp is clarity & transparency, and second but important thing is: power. The S1 has both of these traits, which ultimately led to a great match between the two. I would recommend this amp for Planar magnetics.

Comparison: There is one such Solid State amp which can put real good competition with Bravo’s S1. It’s name is SMSL sApII which is priced & available at 65$ shipped on ebay.

SApII: It is also a hybrid design amp, and has a socket for op-amp. It has undeniably better build quality (both interior and exterior) & has fully enclosed case. By output power, I feel sApII is on weaker side when compared to the S1. The S1 is about 30% more strong in driving force. The sApII also has lower output impedance & hence the ability to drive IEM’s. But for headphones, Ultimately sound quality & Driving force of S1 prevails.

Verdict: The sApII & S1 are both great amps but with different areas of proficiency. sApII cn drive IEM's & has fully finished casing & absence of hot mosfets. The S1 will have upper hand when it comes to clarity, output power & in controlling planar magnetic cans. In rest of the criteria’s. If output power is a factor (for demanding headphones), it is better to go with S1. If output power is not a factor (IEM's, easy to drive headphone), then sApII is the best choice for standalone amp in this price point.

The S1 amp also has a very appreciable control for the planar magnetic cans. Just make sure to plug in a 4562NA which are easily available at a low price.

Conclusion: I feel the S1 is a very capable unique solid state amp in its price range. Build quality is good, sonic presentation is really appreciable; S1 is very powerful & can drive almost any cans except IEM’s & its sonic character can be tailored to meet one’s taste by op-amp rolling. The S1 sounds way better than any desktop amps in that price range one would come across in this price point; It also has a lot of output power as bonus for Planar's. At 70$, The S1 amp is hard to beat.

Special mention is S1's ability to drive and control planar magnetic cans like LCD-2, at this price point, its appreciable trait.

Pros:

1) Build Quality: even though it is open by case, the S1 has a very good interior build. No compromise to be seen anywhere in exterior too. Circuitry is also neat & well built.

2) Sound quality: Sound presentation here is clean & clear but yet is detailed, spacious, which is very much like-able for a attentive listen.

3) Rolling Capability: Enthusiasts can roll great number of op-amps to alter & fine tune the final sonic character.

4) Driving Power: The S1 amp has a sheer output power. It definitely can comfortably drive any set of cans from 20-600 ohms. Also with drives Planar's with authority. Great job!

5) Value: The S1 is one of the two stand-alone & solid-state desktop amps in their price point (other one being sApII) which offer truly amazing price/performance ratio, considering its ability to control and drive LCD-2's.

Cons:

1) Heat emission: Actually not really a con, it is quite normal for a hybrid mosfet driven amp. But during operation, the S1 amp gets very hot, it becomes very difficult for a user to touch the surface of amp more than 2 seconds. It is the Mosfet heatsinks, which are exposed & are very hot.

2) Power Supply: The default power supply is not grounded, hence a fair change of light electrocution and audibly higher noise floor. Thus one needs to earth it by connecting the input cable to a grounded source (like PC, which will be earthed)

Interesting -- a solid state amp from Bravo with rollable Op-Amps. The SNR (68dB) spec really caught me by surprise. The rest of their Hybrid Amps are all >90dB.
One would think the Hybrid Amps might be a little noisier because of the tube...not the other way around.