Yincrow is no stranger to higher end earbuds. They first set the bar high with the original RW-1000 in 2019, then followed with a flagship challenger RW-2000 a year later. Now, they released another upgrade of the RW series, the RW-3000, aiming for the crown of the earbuds’ market. RW-3000 pretty much retains mostly the same signature housing design element as RW series from previous years – based the same titanium alloy but with a fancier design and actually just a tiny bit smaller in size. All and all, it results in an lighter housing that is...

DQSM is by no mean a prolific brand when it comes to releasing new product. Instead, it like to take its time and get things right. Its previous flagship, the Turandot, released back in 2019, is still in many ways a front runner in the current earbuds market with its unique euphonic and musical presentation. This time around however, DQSM has decided to tune its next flagship earbud, the PD21, with a different signature - one that focuses more on technicality. Intended to be wore over the ear, PD21 comes in two flavors: 2 strands and 4 strands...

While probably best known for their budget offering as the Monk series of earbuds, VE has always maintain a strong lineup of flagship earbuds as well, from the original Zen, Zen 2.0 to the current Sun DICE – it is the latter that we will be looking here. Build Quality For almost $300, Sun Dice is definitely in the more expensive tier of the earbuds market (though far from being the most expensive, which can double what Sun DICE costs. There are even two other earbuds models in VE lineup that are more expensive than Sun DICE, which are the custom...

The name Massdrop is a well-known and has been fairly well-received by us HFer - while the company doesn't exclusively deal with audio gears, it has however brought us quite a few of really excellent audio products as well as collaborations from various audio companies - from well known huge international brands to lesser known small businesses that might otherwise hard or expensive to find for many whom don't live on certain part of the world. The community driven company has however just changed and simplified its name to 'Drop', and the NuForce...

If you ever did any kind of research when shopping for a PC’s loudspeaker in recent years, then you will know Edifier is one of the biggest name around. Though they did purchase the world famous electrostatic headphone maker Stax back in 2011 and seems to have finally decided to gear up for the (then and now) blooming headphone market, their headphone offering remains mostly as a side business to their core loudspeaker business even till these days. To be frank, having reviewed the fairly good but not exactly remarkable H850 some 3 years ago, I...

The first time I saw the Oriveti Primacy in person was a few months ago on a busy street in Singapore, wore by a stranger, not far away from E1 Audio, a small audiophile headphone store. As a self-proclaimed IEM addict, I tend to recognize just about every IEM I saw in ‘the wild’ – but that time I didn’t, which sort of bother me (*and of course I found out what it is in E1 Audio right then). Not long after that, Oriveti Primacy seems to be everywhere – on the street, on Amazon.com, and on quite a few review site gaining a lot of traction. That kind...

It has been 3 years since my original review of iFi Audio’s original micro iUSB Power, iDAC and iCAN. Fantastic when they are first released and, in my opinion, still quite relevant after all these time (*with the testimony that they still form part of my PC audio chain), the competition has however certainly stiffen up a bit. In respond to the fast pace of the current digital audio gears market, iFi Audio has decided to update the original models with newer parts, better tech, still excellent sound quality and always a big bang for the buck. The...

It has been 3 years since my original review of iFi Audio’s original micro iUSB Power, iDAC and iCAN. Fantastic when they are first released and, in my opinion, still quite relevant after all these time (*with the testimony that they still form part of my PC audio chain), the competition has however certainly stiffen up a bit. In respond to the fast pace of the current digital audio gears market, iFi Audio has decided to update the original models with newer parts, better tech, still excellent sound quality and always a big bang for the buck. The...

Some might not know this, but JAYS of Sweden is actually one of the earliest audiophile IEM manufacturer around, joining the game well before the whole IEM bloom of recent years. Though their first model was released in 2006, it was really the original q-JAYS in 2007 that put them on the map, right alongside big names like Ultimate Ears (with Jerry Harvey still at the helm and Triple.Fi 10 Pro being their cream of the crop), Westone (with their best offering, the UM2) and Etymotic (always the ER4 of course). But with the 2009 financial crisis and...

Aroma Audio is a Hong Kong based new company that is less than 1 year old. The A10 portable headphone amp is the company first baby, but by not mean another ‘me too’ product in the already-overcrowded portable amp market.     Spec Max Power: 390mW (16ohm) / 360mW (32ohm) / 168mW (120ohm) / 53mW (300ohm) SNR: 98dB THD: 0.00097% Max Voltage Output: 11.4Vp-p Recommended Headphone Impedance: 8~600ohm Battery Life: 7 hours (est.) Recharge Time: 5 hours (5V 1A) Dimension: 109x69x26.5mm Weight: 270g       Accessories and Build Quality...

Echobox is a new startup with a strong audiophile’s background, and the Finder X1 is the company’s first IEM that has placed an emphasis on durability as much as it is on sound quality. The company has already finished up a successfully indiegogo campaign that offered the early bird Finder X1 for US$79, though you can still get one at US$149 with a January delivery day before it will be eventually sold at its regular price of US$199.     Spec Driver: 9.2mm dynamic driver with PEEK diaphragm Frequency Response: 15Hz ~ 35kHz Sensitivity...

Elekit Japan is not your typical audio company. Their core business is in fact not audio, but the design and manufacture of educational electronic kits. Perhaps it is because of this unique background, they are more willing to exploring the different paths to music enjoyment. The new TU-HP02, the company’s second portable amp, best reflects that idea by purposefully introduces distortion that mimics the sound of a tube amp. The idea is however not as outlandish as it sounds since it has been tried by others in the past, though this may be the first...

You probably already know OPPO as a smartphone brand, but the company called OPPO Digital isn’t exactly the same. It is the American sister company of the Chinese smartphone company, and its main business is Blu-ray player. Recent years however, the company also begins to develop a series of personal audio products including desktop headphone amp and a few planar magnetic headphones, which are very well received by the audiophiles’ community. The HA-2 we are going to look at is the company’s first portable amp + DAC and as the title of this article...

Brainwavz needs no introduction. They have been in the IEM market long enough that they have made a name for themselves, especially in the bang-for-bucks section. The S5 has been in the market for a while now, and the price has dropped from the initial US$130 to the current US$100. However, the price tag is still right in the ‘warzone’ as far as IEM goes, where many competitors coming from China are all trying to outdo each other for being the next budget giant killer. So how does S5 fair?       Spec Drivers: 10mm Dynamic Rated Impedance...

I have covered Tube Amp’s portable amps in the past (here and here). While the company is called ‘Tube Amp’, they don’t limit themselves to only tube amp, but also discrete amp. The LF-15 however is their first venture into the world of desktop gears with another fully discrete design, priced around US$450.     Spec Frequency response:20Hz~30kHz Maximum Output：82mW (+20dBm) 1kHz 600Ω or 633mW (+20dBm) 1kHz 40Ω Input: XLR or RCA Total Harmonic Distortion: Less than 0.06% (1kHz) Signal to Noise Ratio: -91dB Recommended Headphone Impedance...

Originally running a well-known audio DIY forum in China, the company behind the Aune brand has managed to turn itself into a fairly reputable audio brand in recent years, producing mainly PC based desktop Hi-Fi gears. As far as I know, the B1 portable amp that is going to be reviewed here is the company’s first foray into the portable amp market – and not a run-of-the-mill design at that. Not only does it has a fully discrete design, it is also running at Class A configuration. That sound promising on paper, but does it deliver?     Spec...

At this point of time, iFi Audio shouldn’t need much introduction at all. The British company is the more budget oriented sister brand of the prestige Abbingdon Music Research and have made a name for able to punch above its weight when it comes to price/performance ratio. If anything, the micro iDSD that is going to be reviewed here has set a new bar on what it means to be an overachiever in the world of portable audio gear. Never have we seen so many features being packed into one portable USB DAC + amp while still having such level of performance...

Prelude: A few weeks ago I was contacted by a mutual 3rd party on whether I will like to give some Chinese made high-Z earbuds a review. Immediately I recalled a review article I read awhile back in erji.net that comes with fairly high praise (and subsequently get knocked around a few times, see reason below). We don’t see a lot of high-Z earbuds around so I was fairly certain they should be the same things. I don’t keep high hope for earbuds these days but I am still an earbuds lover in heart, so I agreed to give them a look, and indeed they turn...

It might be a bit odd to name an IEM the O-16, as in ‘oxygen’. But given their first IEM is the carbon (C-12), I guess the India based Signature Acoustics does meant to create a real ‘Element’ series based on the periodic table. As their second product, the O-16 continues to target the budget IEM market and one can be found for just US$30 or so.       Spec Driver: 8 mm (CCAW) Open Back Dynamic Impedance: 17 Ohms @ 1Khz Frequency Response: 12 to 22 Khz Sensitivity: 102 dB Total length: 1.2 m Channel Balance: Less than 2.5% dB @ 1 Khz...

Over the recent months, Creative has been bursting out some pretty nice portable gears aiming from the basic casual user all the way up to serious audiophiles. Most importantly, they are pricing them in a way that almost makes all other major brands look greedy. Usually that’s the strategy reserved for new start-ups or lesser known companies, but I have no complaint. If anyway, I am glad to see Creative getting, well, creative again. Two of the major factors for any tech companies to success are innovation and addition of extra value to the user –...