INTRO I have been enjoyably appreciating the Sennheiser MOMENTUM since just before Christmas 2012 and continue to do so now as I type this.    The MOMENTUM is part of Sennheiser's Club Orpheus* flagship range of products - which also presently includes the HD 700, HD 800, RS 220, and IE 800 headphones as well as Sennheiser's newly released headphone amp the HDVD 800 / HDVD 600 - and is a beautifully-construced headphone with a high-quality sound that works well in a variety of listening settings.   DESIGN   Packaging  ...

  I picked up a FiiO E17 when en route Germany to stay there for the 2012 Christmas period and the early days of 2013. I wanted to do some video editing work and listen to music when over there but didn't want to be without the stalwart reference quality Lavry DA10 which I didn't want to travel with on that occassion, so I decided to give the E17 a try.   Prior to owning the E17 I owned the FiiO E7, which was my first DAC and one I enjoyed very much, though wanting a more neutral sound than the E7 provided I upgraded from it. Since buying the...

******************************************************************************************************************************* Intro   I recently received a loaner Audez’e LCD-3 headphone, which is most probably the best-sounding headphone I’ve ever heard (you can see how it fared in a recent comparison I did here). However, with the stock cable elements of recordings sounded a bit unclear to me at times e.g. listening to a jazz recording which included the drummer playing brush patterns on the snare drum, the sound I was hearing was lacking...

Intro   Long before I heard of Head-fi.org, one of the first headphones I ever bought was the Sennheiser HD 25-1. In 2004 I was on tour as the drummer for the internationally renowned singer Fish (ex-Marillion) and wanted an excellent headphone to enhance my music-listening experience both on and off the stage. When browsing in a European department store, I found and bought a discounted HD 25-1 for around £150 and used it for the rest of my touring time with Fish, much preferring its sound instead of the budget in-ear monitors I was issued at...

Intro: my first encounter with the HD 800     A few months after discovering the world of high-end headphones I auditioned two of Sennheiser’s HD series, the HD 600 and the HD 800, side-by-side in a local hi-fi store. From the first moment I listened with the HD 800, I was amazed at how deeply I was able to peer into my favorite recordings and hear new details like never before. Though the HD 800 initially sounded a little bit bright to me in relation to what I would describe as ‘natural,’ I found its pristine sound reproduction to be a...

    Introduction   I first encountered the Burson HA-160D about six months ago when browsing Mike Ting’s website,Headfonia. Around that time, one of my goals was to get some new headphones to enhance my enjoyment of listening to music. Though I owned, and still do, the Sennheiser HD 25-1, I wanted to upgrade, and I asked Mike for some headphone system recommendations based on my music-listening preferences. For a DAC/Amp, he recommended something like the Burson HA-160D or the Lavry DA11.   My current main headphone-listening...

Intro   It’s been an eventful week for me in which I’ve received three pairs of headphones in four days: a new Audio Technica ATH-M50s, a loaner Audez’e LCD-2, and a loaner HiFiMAN HE-500. I got quite intimate with music via the LCD-2 and was rather wowed by it (see here for more on that). I’ve also been sitting with the HE-500, and my first impressions are that it’s another great headphone that shines in many ways.   The following impressions are based on listening to music via 320 kbps and Apple Lossless audio format files played via iTunes...

Intro   I recently received a brand new loaner pair of the Audez'e LCD-2, the version with the 'new' pads but not the updated drivers). Straight out of the box, music sounded great with the LCD-2, and out of curiosity I compared them with the Sennheiser HD 650. Whilst the LCD-2 seemed technically superior, my gut feeling was that they weren’t worth the $950 more to upgrade from the HD 650...   But fast forward a few hours to nearer the end of my day, and I’m listening to music files (320 kbps and Apple Lossless audio files) sent to the LCD-2...