Moon Neo Series 430 HAD Reference Headphone Amplifier With optional DSD/32-Bit PCM DAC   Eric Neff Headphone.Guru June 2015       CanJam at RMAF last October was bursting at the seams. Jude Mansilla and his incredible team had filled their huge room at the Marriott Tech Center in Denver to capacity and then some. The spill over went out into the adjacent lobby and many exceptional Headphone manufacturers took up residence there filling that additional space as well. At one table was a company I did not expect to see at CanJam, but up in...

And Fire became Crimson:   The Cavalli Audio Liquid Crimson Headphone Amplifier Eric Neff – Headphone.guru January 2015         Let’s be clear, this is a terrific headphone amp! I got my attention at RMAF. That was in show conditions, always an uncertain environment for any true impressions. Still, I wanted some alone time with Lady Crimson. Now as I sit down to write this review I am listening to Patricia Barber’s The Wind Song from her Smash album (AIFF 24/96 HDTracks) and I am not “Listening” as usual. I am “Experiencing” her...

MEIER AUDIO CORDA CLASSIC & DACCORD “Welcome to Head-Fi, sorry about your wallet!” So goes a common refrain at the biggest headphone forum in the world. The chase for the tone dragon can consume any audiophile or headphonista. The quest to keep reaching deeper into the music is never-ending. One thread discusses “end game” set-ups. Occasionally someone will decide that they have found their ultimate system and everyone else takes odds how long that will last. When I first got involved with audio I worked at a brick-and-mortar audio store...

Following the crowd to better sound for less $$ “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” – Michael Corleone, The Godfather Part 3 Michael Corleone must have been an audiophile. There I was, about to receive my new Geek Out 1000 from the Kickstarter campaign when the good folks at LH Labs launched another crowd-funded endeavor on Indiegogo. And I had been patiently waiting for my GO1000. It was practically in the mail. But NO! “We have come up with another great idea!” The Geek Pulse, they called it. A Geek Out on steroids for your...

The Cary SLI-80 has been around in basically the same version since 1999. A consistent top seller it has earned a large following in the audiophile community as a convenient, simple and elegant one box device. Housing a pair of Class A/B1 Mono amps utilizing a quad of KT88 tubes in a Push/Pull configuration alongside a simple and effective pre-amp the SLI-80 presents a striking classic tube look. The rest of the tube compliment include a pair of 5U4G Rectifiers, 6SN7's for phase inversion and 6922's for input/output.   The amp can be run as a 40...

I have been mainly a Sennheiser fan for many years. The DH650's are my go to home HP's and the HD25-1 ii's are the "On the road" reference HP's. There I was in Best Buy and much to my surprise next to the latest Beats was a couple of pair of the DT-1350's! So before I knew what I was doing I had them in the car and plugged into the Fostex HP-P1 and the iPod Classic filled with AIFF lossless files. Luckily I had some time between appointments!   Over the next 4 days I have logged 15+ hours on them and I am really enjoying the experience. They are...

After spending some time with my Sennheiser HD650 headphones I knew it was time for an upgrade. I like these cans but I felt I could get better performance from a better cable than the stock that came with them. One of the advantages of a widely owned and acclaimed headphone is an active market for cables. Many choices are available. After reading extensively many forums and reviews I decided to take the plunge with Frank and his Toxic Cables. http://toxic-cables.co.uk/     Frank has developed a devoted following by building great cables...

I purchased the DMPlus to work alongside my MacMini. The MacMini has been stripped to just Mac OSX and Amarra Mini ver 2.4 using iTunes as the librarian. The Mini's USB output to the DMPlus is via an Audioquest Forest USB cable. I have 2 ways to listen to the DMPlus. First, I plug my Sennheiser HD650's directly into the headphone jack. In this mode the DMPlus acts as a headphone amplifier. iTunes and Amarra feed directly to the HD650's. The sound is wonderful and open. Great soundstage. You can see in your mind where each instrument is placed. The...