I’ve indeed purchased all three of final A line models below the flagship upon their release, which means – I realise it now – I’ve been owning A3000 and A4000 for more than 2 years now, and A5000 for almost one, but for one reason or another I always slacked behind on writing a proper piece about such last ones, and more in general dwell onto the family’s common traits. A5000 like all of the A line is readily distributed in Europe, and can be bought from multiple sources including Amazon for € 299,00 retail. Introduction to final A series I’ll...

It sadly took me much longer than I initially planned to put together this article about one of the most outstanding IEM sets I ever happened to audition. Also due to some unpleasant health problems, which still partly grip me, it is only now that I am able to publish my piece about the IE900s demo unit I received from Sennheiser Europe no later than last August :( . I can anticipate I had a very big pleasure in the encounter, and I hope I’ll be able to properly convey my take on the many pluses and few minuses of this set, together with some...

O2aid Inc – the Japan-based company behind the commercial brand “Intime Acoustics” – is a very small business with a strongly artisanal trait. Their flagship IEM model called Sho (翔) is exclusively handmade-to-order, for example. Then, they have another model called Sho (翔) DD, this time serial-made, which is marketed as an affordable hint to the flagship’s sound. Sho DD differ from Sho at various levels, including the housing material (an AL-CU alloy in lieu of Titanium), the material chosen for the ceramic tweeter, the sophystication of the...

Penon is for whatever reason outside my normal “orbits” when it comes to assessing novelties. There’s no negative reason why, I guess, except maybe for the simple fact that I tend to have an apriori higher interest on japanese, american or european products. Be as it may, I did assess a Penon driver (the Sphere) some time ago and I found it so wonderful it got stuck to our Wall of Excellence as the best single BA money can buy below $250, and that probably still is the case. So it’s with quite some curiosity that I borrowed this pair of privately...

As some of my 18 readers may recall I am kinda impervious to hype and quite inelastic on sidegrading. It’s with such unchanging mind that I approached the assessment of the hype of the day – Hidizs’ new take to the mid-tier IEM market. These MS5 have been heavily anticipated and are supported by a very energetic marketing campaign (nice job there, it must be said). Priced at $499 list, they are currently on promo at $399 + freight, and you can buy them here. Test setup and preliminary notes Sources: Questyle QP1R & QP2R / Sony NW-A55 mrWalkman /...

EA500 represent Simgot’s take to the supremely difficult <150€ market. You can find them here, They can be bought for around € 92, including Italian VAT – from multiple AE shops. Test setup and premilinary notes Sources: Questyle QP1R & QP2R / Sony NW-A55 mrWalkman / Questyle M15 / Questyle CMA-400i – JVC Spiraldot tips – Stock cable – lossless 16-24/44.1-192 FLAC and DSD64/128 tracks. Signature analysis Tonality EA500 feature a clear and light-noteweight timbre, and a choice of two different stock tonalities realised by installing two...

As some may recall, I previously assessed iFi’s high end €329 dongle – the GO Bar. I guess there’s little doubt that when I took this € 59 (!) GO Link into consideration my first curiosity regarded such wide price positioning difference – quite evidently hinting towards a very different target audience intention… Features and description Externals GO Link is seriously small and lightweight, really barely more conspicous than a mere passive USB cable, and much more flexible thanks to the braided structure given to its external wires. It comes with...

After auditioning final B3 multiple times in the past 2 or 3 years, and liking them of course, I took an opportunity recently and purchased a pair at a very convenient price. Originally released in 2019 and still in full production to date, B3 retail for € 499 in EU. Important foreword I feel it’s appropriate to extend an informative preamble here, you’ll understand why as you read on. As you might (or might not?) know, the people at final do take a quite scientific approach to acoustics, and to their headphones design in consequence. If you didn’t...

Following Jürgen’s recent review of Tempotec V6, the Dongguan-based manufacturer sent me a sample unit of their TOTL DAP to obtain a second opinion / review. I thank them for that. As per our standard in such cases I’ll keep my piece a bit less descriptive as most of the general product information is already well covered by the original article. I’ll of course fill the pros&cons table, and I will add personal notes and considerations that might – hopefully – add something new to the reader’s benefit. What’s good for me Sound First a foremost...

Not my first time with a Shanling product in my hands, yet this is no doubt the most eye-captivating one at the very least. An M0 Pro has been sent to me for review by the manufacturer. You can find specs and full official description here. It currently retails for €155 including shipping from China and Italian VAT. Here’s my report. The Shanling M0 Pro was provided by Shanling for my review – and I thank them for that. You find more information on the product page. Features and description Externals The M0 Pro is amazingly small an featherweight...

California-based Akoustyx Inc kindly sent an S6 sample to deliver a second opinion after Jürgen’s recent article. It is customary for us in these cases to write a rather succint piece to avoid too much replication of the previous article’s contents but I’m going for an exception here. These little ones do in facts make me feel compelled to share my extended opinions with my few readers. I know, it’ll be boring. Few readers, however, means little damage. So let’s just get down to it. Just for the record: Akoustyx S6 are currently on deeeep discount...

Test setup Sources: Questyle QP1R / Sony NW-A55 mrWalkman / Questyle M15 / Questyle CMA-400i - Final E tips - Stock cable - lossless 16-24/44.1-192 FLAC and DSD64/128 tracks. Signature analysis Tuning nozzles Kirin feature a replaceable nozzle system. Three pairs of different nozzles are supplied standard, labelled "Trasnparency", "Reference" and "Atmospheric", they differ in terms of length, internal bore, and external mesh and are supposed to finetune the presentation in 3 different ways. Indeed, I found no audible differences when swapping...

Full Device Card Test setup Sources: Questyle QP1R / Sony NW-A55 mrWalkman / Questyle M15 / Questyle CMA-400i – Final E tips – Stock cable – lossless 16-24/44.1-192 FLAC and DSD64/128 tracks. Signature analysis Tonality Hodur’s presentation is an evident W-shape, reaching good result in terms of tonal balancing however lacking in terms of timbre coherence and overall organicity. Bass is rather flowery, treble is by converse dry and technical, and such two souls don’t merge one into another as smoothly as they should (and I would prefer). The...

Falcon Pro are Dunu’s entry level model on their Eclipse lineup – the one featuring Zen / Zen Pro and Luna on its higher tiers. Featuring a single dynamic driver and a $219,99 price point Falcon Pro compete on a quite interesting market segment, populated – as usual – by a lot of underwhelming (or downright garbage) competing products alongside a few very solid longstanders. Full Device Card Test setup Apogee Groove / Sony NW-A55 mrWalkman / Questyle QP1R / Ifi hip-dac2 / Cowon Plenue 2 – final E clear eartips – lossless 16-24/44.1-192 FLAC...

GO Blu is iFi’s entry-level DAC-AMP, primarly focused on Bluetooth connectivity, high miniaturisation and straightforward operation. It retails for just below 200€ and I got a temporary loan unit for review purposes which I analysed for quite an extended time. Here’s my report. Features and description Externals The Go Blu is a minuscle device, approximately the size of a 9V battery but much lighter in weight (just 26g). It carries an on-off button, an options button, and a volume knob which also has a button as its central part. Phone outs, and...

GravaStar is a US-based workteam founded by an industial designer developing wireless speakers and earbuds putting a strong accent on the aesthetics of their audio products in addition of course to their sonic contents. Their main leitmotiv is “cyberpunk style”. I got a chance to assess their current totl TWS airbud model named “Sirius Pro”, which retails for $149.95. Test setup Transports: Samsung smartphone and tablet, two different Windows 10 laptops, Sony NW-A55 DAP – Stock silicon eartips – 16/24bit-44.1/192KHz tracks Physicals Build Sirius...

After a very unfortunate first try (the review unit which was kindfully sent to me by the manufacturer was stolen at my door), I finally got an M15 unit which I quite oddly found for a very good price 2nd hand in Japan. This second package reached me regularly so I can finally assess this device which already collected convinced cobloggers' praises. As there already is a comprehensive article about M15 on Audioreviews, I will entirely skip a general description of the device features as it would be needless repetition. I will also be succint on most...

It’s with great interest that I received a sample of Ikko’s latest OH5 “Asgard” model, considering the very high consideration I have for the other 2 models I assessed in the past, being OH10 (read here) and OH1S (read here). OH5 can be bought from Ikko’s website for approx $495 before promos. There’s a nice giveaway promo going on right now, and I have been hinted that a xmas promo is also coming up so stay tuned on their website in the coming days :wink: Full Device Card Test setup Sources: Apogee Groove / Sony NW-A55 mrWalkman / Questyle QP1R...

As some of my 18 readers may recall, I’ve been quite impressed by a prior Intime IEM model called SORA 2, which I wrote about one and a half year ago. That’s surely why when last summer I got notified that mr Watanabe had released some new IEM models, and in particular one supposed to be a sort of direct upgrade to the SORA project I didn’t hesitate much to order my pair of Intime Miyabi. At the time of this article, Miyabi sells on the manufacturer’s site for JPY 21.450,00 which is approximately $ 150. Add another $ 30 to have that reforwaded to EU...

GO Bar is iFi Audio’s first and long awaited take on a battery-less mobile dac-amp (a “dongle”). As I will try to outline, from multiple standpoints GO Bar fully partakes into iFi’s overall general product philosophy both in terms of components and general application. It promises outstanding results, and surely comes with a price tag (€ 329 in EU) positioning it at the top market level. It can as always be purchased directly from iFi, on their Amazon space, or from one of their distributors around the world. Features and description Externals GO...