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...

This review shoot-out will take a look at three IEMs I have been listening to lately that are all in the same price range: $179-199. They are new, but very hyped-up Chinese brands that have seen a lot of discussion in the headphone world lately. The first IEM is the BGVP DM6, which has been in limited supply for months now due to their overwhelming amount of orders and inability to keep up with demand, since they are all individually hand-made. This headphone was provided to me by Linsoul for the purpose of review. You can find this headphone for...

The TRN V30 is one of the latest budget IEMs on the market and priced at around $20. It's just below the price point of the TRN V20, which I disliked, and half the price of the TRN V80, which I enjoyed. This new one was provided to me by Linsoul for review. The TRN V30 comes with a similar package to their other units -- a basic box, with a nice black braided cable and, in this case, a basic mic. There is also a small selection of tips. The V30 itself has clear plastic shells with a circuit board look to it that is reminiscent of KZ's latest set of...

Introduction Moondrop’s collection of headphones have similar traits. They have a specific target curve they came up that lies somewhere between the Harman Target Curve and the Diffuse Field Targets, but with an upper end energy above 10KHz. This seems like it’s an approach they’ve used on every IEM across their small collection from $40 to $670. The Kanas Pro model sits in the middle of their IEM lineup at $179; just above the regular more bassy Kanas, and less than half the price of the Blessing. As a note, this is the first Moondrop headphone of...

Introduction Tin Audio has been one of the rising stars in Chinese earphones the past 2 years with the release of their Tin Audio T2 and T2 Pro in-ear monitor headphones. The T2 and T2 Pro were previously reviewed by me and received high marks due to their clean, neutral sound signature, and budget price. Tin Hifi is back at it again with their T3 model and this one replaces one of the dynamic drivers with a single BA and is a hybrid model instead of the dual dynamics of the previous generations. In this new scheme, the dynamic controls the bass...

The Scottish outfit, RHA, recently released a fully closed IEM that features a planar magnetic driver in it. While planar magnetic in-ear monitors and earphones are not new, there has never been one that has been made in this smaller form factor and fully closed. The Audeze iSine series was a large unit that was worn as a hybrid between a clip-on headphone a la Koss KSC series and in-ear canal phones. They sound beautifully with the Cipher cable, Reveal plugin, or the right EQ, but sounded pretty wonky in it’s stock form. The Unique Melody ME1 was...

Introduction The Whizzer Kylin is a unique looking IEM with a very attractive blue aluminum shell with a gold-plated Whizzer logo that stands proud of the shell. This IEM retails for $159 and comes in a nice package including a selection of tips and a very nice and attractive PU Leather round case. The case itself, is also engraved with the Whizzer logo and the model name, “Kylin.” In terms of fit, I found that these were quite challenging to wear. The IEM housing is rather small, which fits very comfortably when you can keep it in. I found the...

Introduction Normally, I review one headphone at a time, but since the holidays were a bit busy, my review queue started piling on. In the process, I accumulated two earphones from KZ and decided to do a review/comparison between these two new models from the ever-growing library of KZ products. The first model is the ZSN, which can be found anywhere between $20 and $25. It’s a hybrid model with dynamic driver and a single balanced armature driver. The second model is the AS06, which features 3 balanced armatures (bass, mid and treble), and is...

Introduction Normally, I review one headphone at a time, but since the holidays were a bit busy, my review queue started piling on. In the process, I accumulated two earphones from KZ and decided to do a review/comparison between these two new models from the ever-growing library of KZ products. The first model is the ZSN, which can be found anywhere between $20 and $25. It’s a hybrid model with dynamic driver and a single balanced armature driver. The second model is the AS06, which features 3 balanced armatures (bass, mid and treble), and is...

The Audirect Beam is a new USB-C DAC/Amp that works on computers and mobile devices like Android phones and tablets. This was provided to me for review purposes by Linsoul Tech. I actually was not expecting this item to arrive in my last shipment of stuff, but it came. I thought it was quite interesting and finally have had time to try it out. First off, let's get some specs out of the way. The minature DAC features the ESS Sabre ES9118 DAC and claims to deliver up to 125dB signal-to-noise ratio and up to -114dB Total Harmonic Distortion. Pretty...

TenHz is another one of these new Chinese companies I’ve never heard of before until I started hearing the hype of forums and then getting my own set of these to try out. From what I understand, they recently re-branded from another name, Audbos, who I admittedly had never head of before either. Linsoul provided me the companies’ latest 4-BA IEM, the P4 Pro, for review purposes. As usual, no compensation was given to me for this review. They have been very good about allowing me full freedom to write honest and fair reviews during our partnership...

BGVP is another company I have only barely heard of. I’ve seen their products and I’ve read mixed reviews about them so I never really tried to buy anything from them in the past. But this newer IEM of theirs landed at my house a month ago. The DMG is a 6-driver earphone with 2 dynamic drivers, and 4 Knowles balanced armature drivers. The headphone is well constructed with a metal housing that fits very well in my ears. The shiny paint finish looks stunning and its minimalist design is really appealing to me. The unit comes in a box that has...

Focal is a French company with a long history of making high quality loudspeakers and studio monitors. In more recent years, they started developing and releasing headphones starting with their Spirit and Listen lines. More recently, they developed a new driver concept that mimics loudspeaker design – a super-near-field monitor driver – and used it on their flagship Utopia, Elear and Clear headphones. These stunning headphones drew instant praise for many reasons I’ll discuss about in my review. The Elear is the entry-level headphone of this...

I have never heard of the company TRN before. And so, when I got the V80 in the mail, I did not know what to expect. What I ended up receiving was not a bad little headphone. Let’s discuss. Packaging & Contents The TRN packaging comes in a simple and tidy presentation with a white box. The included accessories are pretty standard: the two IEMs, a 2-pin cable, and a set of tips. The IEM feels extremely well built and solid. It’s one of the heaviest IEM’s I’ve ever used, weighing nearly 9 grams per side. The metal housing is dense. It’s very...

Knowledge Zenith has yet another new IEM on the market. This time it’s the BA10, which like their last release, the AS10, has 5 balanced armatures per ear piece. The spec sheet shows that 4 of the drivers are the same which control the bass, upper mids, and treble, however the BA that controls the mids, shows a different driver number – though it could be a number error. Disclaimer: I received this for the purpose of providing an unbiased review from LinSoul Tech. The review is my own opinion of it and I have not been compensated with any monetary...

Tin Audio T2 Pro Review Note - I later discovered that my pre-release review sample was defective and may not actually sound like the final version of the IEM. The filters were missing on my review unit, as seen in photos. I can not guarantee that this iem sounds like a production unit any longer. Earlier this year, I purchased the Tin Audio T2 in-ear monitor earphone based on a bunch of hype on reddit over it. After waiting the two or so weeks for it to come from Hong Kong, I was treated with a pleasantly detailed and neutral sound signature...

Audeze has become as household name in the audiophile headphone world with their high quality planar magnetic driver line of headphones. Their LCD series has brought elegance and beauty with high quality wood and metal parts and fancy planar magnetic drivers to the market and, even more revolutionary, is their Sine and iSine series which brings planars on the go with you, without missing a beat on sound quality and excellence. I am an owner of these portable Sine and iSine products and I rave about them to friends. They iSine, despite, its quirky...

Shenzen Ruizu Digital Company has been in the audio business since 2010 making budget music players and Bluetooth speakers that are available in many marketplaces like Amazon and AliExpress. They have produced many music players over the years that have stylings similar to that of popular music players like the Sansa series and their own fresh take on players as well. The product I am going to go over today is an all-metal silver D05. First off, I have been an avid music listener, reviewer, and tech gadget collector since forever. I’ve owned...

The Hifiman HE560 has been around for a few years now, and I figure I should give a proper review to one of my favorite headphones. Oh shoot, spoiler alert, this review will be a recommended rating! Hifiman was one of the first headphone companies to start the recent Planar Magnetic driver wave that has grown in popularity in recent years, along with Audeze, and created a market of headphones that have spectacularly low distortion levels and linear bass response, something that is very challenging to do on a normal dynamic driver in headphones...

Background: It seems like Knowledge Zenith releases several earphones every few months, so it’s hard to keep track of which one is which, but there are a few that stand out. For me, the ones that stood out the most was the ZS6. This one had a design that was blatantly similar to a top tier IEM (The Andromeda) that was actually built well and priced under $50. The aluminum housing felt premium and solid as a rock, and the sound wow’d you in many areas, both technically and fun. It had a major drawback, at least for me and many others, and that was...