[Editor’s note: With this review I’d like to introduce Davidé Jabbour to the site. A fellow Australian, he has been writing private reviews of local speakers. As Australia has something of a cottage industry of very capable hi-fi manufacturers, including the legendary Duntech speakers, I’m happy to see reviews of products from back home.] Introduction Hulgich Audio is a new speaker company based in Adelaide Australia, headed by Nick Hulgich (pronounced Eu-Lich), in partnership with Göran Niréus of Audio Excite. The two teamed up five years ago to pursue their shared passion for music and philosophy of high-fidelity sound reproduction. […]
During this month’s live stream I had some great questions from patrons, as well as from people who joined in on the chat while watching. Patron questions are listed below. William Ng Hi Amos, for your own money on a DAC, will you spend on A-GD R7/8, ifi pro idsd, Schiit Yggy, Chord Hugo 2/Qutest…. thanks mate Yethal A friend of mine once owned a DAP that sounded wonderful (used a multibit ladder dac iirc) but the usb drivers worked only on WIndows XP so he had to keep a spare machine to be able to upload music to it. […]
From MIT News: The human ear, like those of other mammals, is so extraordinarily sensitive that it can detect sound-wave-induced vibrations of the eardrum that move by less than the width of an atom. Now, researchers at MIT have discovered important new details of how the ear achieves this amazing ability to pick up faint sounds. […] Both the ear’s sensitivity and its selectivity — its ability to distinguish different frequencies of sound — depend crucially on the behavior of a minuscule gelatinous structure in the inner ear called the tectorial membrane, which Freeman and his students have been studying […]
Introduction It has been almost 10 years since I first discovered Audio-gd. Back then, when I bought my first pair of good headphones, I was told that for them to sound good, I had to buy a good headphone amp. Then, after that, I had to buy a good DAC. The result of all this was that I suggested to Kingwa of Audio-GD that he make a combined DAC and amp in one box for a reasonable price. At the time we were using a cheap Chinese DAC/amp, upgraded with discrete opamps from Audio-gd. The total cost of the amp […]
https://youtu.be/6LzMQvgam3s Brainwavz is most well-known for me for their variety of headphone hangers, of which I think at least one of each model grace my shelves. In a recent discussion with them, they asked if I was interested in reviewing their inexpensive IEM or headphone offerings. I was admittedly reluctant to cover products that had been reviewed by so many other people, and that I was more interested in products higher up in price range. The surprise reply was that they were releasing a pair of $499 planar headphones, the Alara, so would I be interested in those? NOW we’re […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8BPyh_45gw What do you do when your flagship product is an outstanding hit, and it is already the very best you can do? How do you do even better? This was the dillema Ken Ball of Campfire Audio (and ALO Audio) had when coming up with his new flagship, the Solaris. After a bit of hit-and-miss with their first round of IEMs, with the Jupiter at the helm, the subsequent flagship, the Andromedas, were a huge hit. Despite the rather edgy shell, the 5-balanced-armature IEMs became an IEM standard. The slightly warm tuning that gave JHAudio Roxanne-like performance at a […]
INTRODUCTION The mid-range IEM market ($250-500) has been somewhat dominated by hybrid designs recently, where in the past it was mainly the home of the more established multi-BA based earphones. FiiO has steadily progressed their own line of hybrid and all-BA IEMs (FH1, F9, F9 Pro, FH5) over the last 2 years, and the natural progression for the next iteration (after the release of the FH5 quad hybrid), was always going to be a quad BA. So far (IMO of course), FiiO’s hybrids have followed a set pattern, tending to be warmer and smoother aided by the dynamic driver for […]
INTRODUCTION Brainwavz seem to be on a roll just recently. Their last 3 releases (at least the ones I’ve known about) have been the B400 IEM, HM100 circumaural closed headphones, and now they have a first full sized planar headphone. The Alara is their latest release, and I have had a chance to take it for a test drive over the Xmas break. So what is different about a planar headphone (from a traditional dynamic)? Instead of using a moving voice coil (to pull the diaphragm in and out from one ring within the driver), a planar uses an ultra […]
While it’s a bit late, a few people asked me what I thought were the best products of 2018. That’s a difficult choice, as I didn’t get to experience as many as I had wished, and some are still due to be reviewed. As well, I didn’t get to explore Bluetooth headphones as I had hoped, so they will be missing in this comparison. I went over everything where I’d posted a review in the last year, added items that are here for review, grouped them and selected the best of each. Here is the list. Best closed-back headphones $500-1000 […]
INTRODUCTION When I heard about the Brainwanz HM100, the first thing I wanted to know was how closely it related to the HM5. The HM5 was a Yoga OEM clone from the CD-880, which quite a few branded headphone manufacturers used as a base for their own models. This included Fischer Audio’s FA-003, and others from Lindy and Digitech. The Brainwavz HM5 was a real contender for a relatively neutral closed back headphone, and one which in many ways was akin to the lauded Sennheiser HD600 in tonality. When Marlon contacted me to ask if I was interested in reviewing […]
FiiO is soon to announce their latest pair of IEMs and we have the exclusive. The FA7 features a quad of high-quality Knowles drivers per side, embedded in a 3D printed shell made from high-transparency, medical grade German resin. A variety of shells will be available, each with a nature-based design. Much like the FH5 IEMs (recently reviewed by both myself and Brooko) the FA7 is high-quality throughout, including a silver-plated monocrystalline copper cable, and a carrying hard case and pouch. As well as the standard “balanced” models, ear tips for “vocals” and “bass” are included alongside foam and bi-flange […]
INTRODUCTION I mentioned recently in my review of the Earsonics ES5 that while I’ve reached my own personal end-game nirvana with Headphones (HD800S, HD630VB and Mobius) and desktop set-up (iFi iUSB, iTube and iDSD), I’ve never really settled on a single pair of IEMs. The closest I’ve got have been my 64Audio U10, Alclair Curve, LZ Big Dipper and Jays q-Jays. But finding the perfect match for me has remained elusive, and you’ll see I have tested a lot of IEMs. Even HiFiMan’s excellent sounding RE2000 missed the mark in terms of comfort. If I look back at my start […]