I originally wrote this in the forums as a comparison of the Piston 3 vs Piston Youth Edition. In terms of IEMs, I already owned Piston 2 (metal), Piston 2 (plastic) and regular Piston 3. I also own Shure SE215, Samsung HS330 (Dual Dynamic Driver IEM), various budget Sennheiser CX series (old and newish) and various Digital Silence noise cancelling IEMs (Digital Silence is the IEM brand name for Wolfson's noise cancelling range) and have also recently owned UE600 (single balanced armature) and some other stuff I forget for the moment. My regular full...

I bought my SMSL sApII on amazon.co.uk market place. The vendor was SHENZHENAUDIOUK, the item was shipped from China and I paid £32.39 (US $50 or €44). There was no delivery charge. Reasons for purchase: my Dell Vostro Core i3 desktop has integrated audio with slightly low output level. Amplification reveals some EMI noise. Previously, to have a clean output, I'd been using a FiiO E7 (portable USB powered DAC+amp combo) which is nice enough but I have got really bored with pushing little buttons for step changes in volume instead of just twirling a...

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note GT-N7000 (original Note) and most aftermarket earphones have iPhone controls or none. So after reading about different compatible products I decided to try Samsung's dual driver IEMs as much for the best possible inline smartphone controls as for the audio quality. It goes without saying that the inline controls are well designed, easy to use and the mic is of good quality (and Samsung phones also have very good noise cancelling to minimise wind noise via the mic). I have been surprised and delighted at the sound quality...

I bought these on ebay.co.uk for £10.99 which is about $18 US or €13. They are a discontinued product, hence the low price, and bought from a retailer called "uk**seller". These are genuine Sennheiser products in sealed retail package, nicely made of good materials and fully up to the usual Sennheiser standards of presentation. goldenears.net has tested the CX 280 (same IEM but with inline volume control) and my CX 270 perform as described and expected. That is to say that they are one of the few budget IEMs which does not have exaggerated bass and...

I wanted a small, cheap USB DAC for an mpd music server. The server makes my lossless music collection and some internet radio streams available wherever I am - at home typically via mpd clients on PC and Android, and away from home via mpd client and streaming using SSH tunnels on laptop and Android. The USB DAC is so I can also run the same audio to a small amp and speakers at home. I already have nice headphones (Sennheiser Momentum) and live somewhere rather noisy and so wasn't looking for high end, just something that works easily, consumes...

I bought these on amazon.co.uk for about £17 (US$28/€21) I initially bought these with a long return rail journey in mind and was expecting to be able to write a review that dealt with their effectiveness on bus/taxi, train and tube (I also had some less than charitable hopes that they might nullify the squeals and shrieks of young nephews and nieces, and the grumblings of aged ancestors). However, nature intervened in the form of extreme weather and the worst flooding here in 250 years so most of my itinerary was...

I bought my Momentums as a used item from a fellow UK based Head-Fi member via this board's "For Sale" section. They are as new and I paid £155 including delivery. This is about US $252 or €186. I have the circumaural type in brown as shown in the product image. Motivation for purchase: I live by a busy road with a lot of commuter traffic and delivery vehicles (railway station and post office depot are just around the corner) and while I prefer an open headphone this isn't practical except sometimes in the small hours of the morning. My decade old...

Buying: I bought these new from a UK ebay shop (kmagencies) for £22.50 which is US $35.95 or €26.56. Price included next day live tracked delivery with the delivery timed accurately to within an hour slot so if you're in the UK and want a pair of these this has to be both the cheapest and most convenient deal you will find. Some context: I have had some bad luck with full size headphones: My Sennheiser HD 500 died after about 10 years. I bought Sony MDR ZX700 to replace but they have a design fault which leads to pinched internal cables and are...

I'm in the UK. I bought this as a boxed ex-demo unit with warranty from a FiiO retailer for £39.99 which is US $64.65 or €47.40 I bought this because my PC's integrated audio is frustratingly bad and other solutions and workarounds were not ideal: My PC's analogue line out is noisy (electrical interference) and the headphone output is even worse. It can't drive very low impedance headphones such as my Ultimate Ears SuperFi 5vi Earphones It hasn't the power to nicely drive slightly less sensitive earphones such as Koss KSC75. It does have SPDIF...

Reason for choosing these: I bought these as my Shure SE215 were stolen. I prefer an earphone which fits within the shell of the ear, which has good isolation and which is designed to allow the cable to route up and over the ears. This is for comfort, convenience while active, and to avoid or minimise conduction of noise via the cable "microphonics". I want to be able to walk and listen without hearing my footsteps thudding and the wind swirling around the earphones, and at home I want to be able to put my head down and not have the earphones snag...

Purchase and receipt: I paid £20.98 (US $32.51) including delivery for a manufacturer refurbished 8GB Sansa Fuze+. It has an "R" stamped on the back to show its refurb status. It was supplied in plain package with only a USB cable and arrived with the battery at about 40% charge and all settings at default. It has a 90 day warranty. I bought the Fuze+ to replace my Clip+ which died on me last week. The Clip+ had taken a two and a half year battering including numerous drops and even immersion in sea water so I can't complain. I chose the Fuze+...

Purchase and Receipt: My Shure SE215 were stolen last week and I wanted a very cheap temporary replacement with over the ear cable routing. I have seen the hype and the hand waving and smelled the BS, but also noticed some reasonable people say some reasonable things about these so thought they would be worth a try. I bought these on Amazon UK from the Monoprice UK marketplace seller (fulfilled by Amazon). They cost £5.31 which at the moment is US $8.23. Delivery was free. They arrived boxed, with medium size tips attached and a small packet...

I bought these this week from amazon.co.uk for £10 including delivery. That's US $15. edit: I've changed my rating and feel more positive about these than when I first wrote the review. See the comments after the review. Packaging, appearance, warranty, euro-nanny knows best: Mine arrived in the small European packaging box, branded as Pulse clips as well as "Koss high performance on-ear clips". With the clips came the Koss warranty and the euro-nanny-state leaflet on waste disposal. The phones are the silver plastic Koss branded items everyone...

I bought my Clip+ 8GB in December 2010 and paid £36.99. It was something of a distress purchase in that I bought it to replace another Sansa player, a Fuze, whose wheel type buttons had ceased to work. I used the player with the original firmware and I also installed Rockbox. I'll deal with notable points of each firmware. The hardware: It's cheap. This needn't be such a bad thing as in a bigger player. Cheap stuff can work fine. There is no mystery involved in assembling/making a small plastic case or a two colour display or some buttons. The...

I bought these in February 2012 for £75 at amazon.co.uk and have used them every day except for about one week when I was awaiting delivery of a replacement cable. Typical use is with a variety of personal players (iRiver H140 and H340, Sansa Clip+, Archos A43IT) as well as with PC audio and occasionally with home audio. I listen to many kinds of (usually lossless) music but most often orchestral, choral, vocal, instrumental, rock, pop. Price and value: These are very decent value and the price in the UK is close to the US price. This is quite...