As I write this, I just realized I never tried the Tin T1, and I know nothing about it. But that aside, the product line from Tin Hifi has been decent to good. The Tin T2 was an instant chi-fi classic, with a neutral reference-like sound signature, good build quality, and removable mmcx cables at an affordable price. The follow-up T2 Pro had a very bright signature, that some like and others hated, and the T3 took parts of the T2 and T2 Pro and added just a Balanced Armature driver to give it just a little more resolution, and slightly added warmth...

This is a quick review of the latest Digital Audio Player (DAP) by chinese brand Hiby. The R5 is the third player from the, originally, software company Hiby. They started making digital audio players with their R6 and R3 and more recently the R6 Pro. This latest R5 takes many of the lessons learned of the R6/R6 Pro, and shrinks it down into a more pocketable experience in the R5. I pre-ordered the Hiby R5 through Hiby's website and it finally arrived at the beginning of last week. I've since used this player quite often and have been rather happy...

USB-C HEADPHONE ADAPTERS: IBASSO VS APPLE VS RAZER THX iBasso DC02 vs Apple USB-C Adapter vs Razer THX USB-C Adapter Today, I will be taking a look at three USB-C to 3.5mm headphone adapters made by iBasso, Apple, and Razer. With many phones removing the 3.5mm headphone jack, the popularity of the USB-C headphone adapters have grown in popularity due to necessity more than anything. While some phones still have the headphone jack, most flagship devices have removed it for several years now. I personally have gotten used to life without the...

True Wireless earphones have only been around a short time and for the most part, many of the models from the big names have been pretty hit or miss, and mostly misses – at least from what I could gather. I recently decided to dive into them as I wanted something that I could use for walking around, doing activities like physical exercise, yard work, chores, and just walking to and from the parking lot at work. I did quite a bit of research into them, but the ones I’ve been most interested in didn’t seem to get either good review from people I...

The V33 is a new earphone by Shozy, which is a company that has been making in-ears and higher end ear buds for a little while now. For me, I have yet to hear any of their ear bud offerings, which have been generally praised. As far as in-ears go, I have not liked any of the ones I've had a chance to listen to, so is the V33 any different? The short answer is, no. It's not very good. First off, this review sample was provided to me by Linsoul. If you still want to purchase this unit after reading this review, the direct link to the product can be...

The brand Moondrop has quickly become one of my favorite and most consistent brands on the market today for in-ear headphones. Their line of ear buds and IEMs are all built and tuned with a purpose, and for the most part, each one seems to hit their target curve. The Kanas Pro was released last year and was well received by many including myself. I still rank it as a baseline standard for an earphone under $250. It featured a pleasing sound that worked well for most genres, comfortable fit, and nice build and aesthetics and was priced at $179, which...

The Fragrant Zither (TFZ) has been making in-earphones for a few years now, however I have not actually had a chance to try any of them. Linsoul contacted me a couple months ago and sent me the newest TFZ, the No. 3 to try out and write a short review about, and so here I go. The No. 3 comes in a rectangular long box and comes with a set of tips, a carrying fabric pouch, and 2-pin cables. The cable itself isn’t all that great, as it isn’t very easy to use, tangles, and just feels awkward. I opted to use my own cables to pair with the No. 3. The...

Meze Audio is a headphone company based out of Romania and are most famous for their Meze 99 wood cup headphones, which have even recently seen a special Massdrop version made available. The company started making IEMs a couple years ago with budget offerings of the wooden Meze 11 and Meze 12, but these were targeted at entry level customers. Recently though, Meze has moved a little away from their wood crafted headphones and earphones and made an impressive looking carbon fiber and aluminum housing for their flagship planar-magnetic Empyrean and the...

Chapter 1: The Story Begins… The story begins with happy antdroid listening to an enjoyable set of Campfire Audio Solaris in-ears but struggling with getting a good fit in the right ear. This was discussed in heavy detail in a previous review of the Solaris, so I’ll leave the details aside. After additional frustrations as I had now purchased a set of these to own, and battled on a daily basis on whether my ears would let me use them or not – it could have been due to sinuses/allergies, the weather, the time of day, the coffee I was drinking, or the...

When I was considering buying a Custom In-Ear Monitor (CIEM) a while back, a company that seemed to get a lot of recommendation for being a good entry level audiophile CIEM was Custom Art, based in Poland. They were considered relatively inexpensive, while delivering capable and likable products. Up until now, I still had not ever tried a Custom Art product, but with Headphones.com adding more inventory of new brands this year, and Custom Art being one of them, I was asked recently if I wanted to take advantage of the Community Preview Program at...

In this quick review, I’ll do a shoot-out between the newly released Moondrop Spaceship and the popular Final Audio Design E1000. First off, I purchased both of these earphones through Amazon and 46 Audio websites, however the Moondrop Spaceship will be transferred over to someone else after this review is complete. Moondrop is a Chinese brand that has made some really well-liked earphones (both IEM and earbuds) that have been tuned to their preferential tuning, which is quite similar to the Harman Target Curve. Their products have ranged from $10...

Etymotics Research is a well-established company researching and developing products and tools for safer hearing and their ER4 series of in-ear canal phones have been around for a very long time with great popularity and success. A few years ago, they released the latest ER4 series, the ER4SR (Studio Reference) and ER4XR (Extended Response), using their latest balanced armature driver. This was soon followed by ER3 series, which reduced the impedance and moved its production from the USA to China and reduced the price by half while providing similar...

Introduction The all-new IO is the latest from Campfire Audio, and features a whole new packaging style and build than their previous iterations. The new IO features two balanced armature drivers within each of its garnet red shells. The IO has a sensitivity of 109 dB SPL/mW and 26 ohm impedance at 1KHz, and is being offered at $299, putting it between the Campfire Comet and Campfire Orion, in terms of affordability. I received this loaner unit as part of The Community Preview program at The HEADPHONE Community, which is hosted by headphones.com...

The ZS7 has been out for a while now, but I haven’t had a chance to take a listen to it until more recently, thanks to Head-Fier, HiFlight, sending me his review sample, which was provided to him by YooAudio.com. The ZS7 is the newest version from their line of Campfire clones, starting with the plastic ZS5, the metal ZS6, and now this. I never had the opportunity to listen to the original ZS5, but both the ZS5 v2 and ZS6 had very wide soundstage, impactful bass, but incredibly sharp, harsh, and sibilant treble. From listening to the ZS7 now, it...

BGVP just released the BGVP DM7 and are right back at it with this new semi-open back DMS model that is seen as an upgrade on the DMG. A short time ago, someone posted a quick measurement of the DMS and it looked quite nice, especially when considering the DMG and DM6. I was busy reviewing the DM7 though and sort of forgot about the DMS at the time. The DM7 turned out to be a nice intimate sound, which was pricier than the rest of the BGVP lineup at the time. But I had the DMS in the back of mind. Lucky for me, Linsoul sent me a review unit of the...

Review of the Knowledge Zenith AS16 and Tripowin TP10 The latest IEMs from Knowledge Zenith and KZ-Spinoff Tripowin are the AS16 and the TP10 models. These two models have a lot of similarities so I’ll be comparing them together in this comparision review. Both of these models were provided for review by Linsoul (http://www.Linsoul.com) and both items can be found on their website directly, or through Amazon. The AS16 features 8 balanced armatures per shell with 2 designated for bass, 2 for mids, and 4 for treble. The TP10 reduces the count to 5...

Planar Magnetic headphones have been around for decades at this point. My first taste of planar magnetic headphones was the Fostex RP series, which is popular in the modding community and as a budget headphone with very low distortion. More recently, a small handful of companies have attempted to micronized the planar driver into a smaller form-factor for in-ears including top names like Audeze and RHA with varying success. In my personal experience, I have owned and tried out a few of these – namely the Audeze iSine 10, the RHA CL2, and a universal...

Introduction The Simgot EN700 Pro is a single dynamic driver IEM that has an interesting design that is a lot better looking in person than in photos. I had not had a chance to listen to any other Simgot IEM in the past, so this was my first opportunity to do so, and I’d like to thank, and also provide the disclaimer than this IEM was provided to me by Alan of Simgot for reviewing. The EN700 Pro comes packaged with a nice array of accessories: A series of tips, a carrying case, and a thin, braided black cable. The cable is lightweight and works...

This short review will cover two of the latest In-Ear Monitors from Knowledge Zenith: The ZSN Pro and the ZS10 Pro. They both were released last month at around the same time and share so many similarities, I won’t bother making separate reviews. The ZSN Pro is a dual driver – Single Balanced Armature and Single Dynamic Driver, while the ZS10 Pro is a five-driver setup with 4 Bas and 1 DD. Both are updated models from the previous ones released last year. I never had a chance to listen or review the ZS10, but I did really enjoy the ZSN as a budget...

Introduction BGVP has had a couple successful In-Ear Monitors (IEM) come out recently with the V-shaped DMG and DM6. Both featured nice quality builds, accessories, and generally/mostly pleasant fun sound-signatures with respect to their prices at $150 and $200. The company is following up the success of these two with a new model, the DM7, which will be released for pre-order exclusively on Drop.com on May 6, 2019. This preview unit was sent to me by way of Linsoul. Product Specs: · Driving unit: six balanced armature units ·...