Introductions Many of us pursuing the hifi hobby are moving toward the goal of finding a reference component that we can live with long term. While we will also continue to try new gear - of course - it's great to have a core system that represents our personal playback ideals. While those ideals vary for each of us, we share in common the desire to find our musical match. I have cycled through several amps over the years - both solid state and tube - and quickly found that low watt tube amps and sensitive speakers/headphones are where I want to...

I signed on for Meze Audio's Head-Fi tour a few months back, and their latest product arrived for a short visit this month. The Meze 99 Neo (US$249) headphones. Thanks so much to Meze for including me in the tour. This is my first time sitting down with any of their products, though I did read some reviews of both the Classics and the Neo in advance. I will keep this short, as there are many exhaustive reports already available online. I'll try to get to what I think are the key characteristics before you grow tired of me. Photo courtesy of Meze...

Ampsandsound are an amplifier and loudspeaker builder out of Southern California. I discovered Justin Weber and team through Head-Fi, when reports of their Kenzie headphone amps appeared. Since then, I've kept an eye out, and even considered their 2 channel amps for my system. The Bigger Ben was interesting, for sure...until I caught word of the Mogwai.   The Mogwai (US$1850) is a single-ended class A tube amp, that employs 2 (one per channel) EL34, 6L6GC tube, or one the many variants available (KT66, KT77, 6CA7, KT88, 6550). The input is...

Thank you to Airist Audio for adding my stop to the current tour. Airist Audio (http://www.airistaudio.com/) is a young company now jumping into the personal audio market with their first piece of gear - the Heron 5 (US$1999) headphone amplifier. The Heron 5 is a solid state amp aimed directly at the higher end. According to their site, both its circuits and cosmetic designs reflect Airists principles - those of purity and subtlety.               In the 7 days I've spent with the Heron 5, I have found its many qualities are closely...