Seems there are two revisions of the X16 out in the wild. On the left you have one with 2 caps in front of the RCA on the right a relay.

I love how they tout no MQA as a feature. The industry needs more middle fingers to MQA

Do they have independent volume control? I've never seen anyone mention the new acoustone single anywhere.

I still remember your review on the atrox amp. Almost bought one myself. Do you still own it?

It's not a one-off issue though. Ever since I posted the driver pictures 3 users in the loaner group have told me that they've faced the same issue on their own units, 2 Para and 1 Venus. One member sent me this picture and it's the Para they just bought last month. They sent the headphones back...

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm leaning towards it being more of a QC issue rather than rough handling. The driver housing of this headphone is very sturdy. Quite unlikely that someone before me puts enough pressure on the housing to actually deform the driver. On the other hand if you drop the...

Wrinkled driver aside, the Venus sounds pretty good on my system. I demoed it when it first came out and was unimpressed. This time I was able to test it more thoroughly on my own system. The overall sound is cohesive and inoffensive. Good detail retrieval, okay soundstage, great...

My loaner unit Venus arrived yesterday and the left driver is winkled. The right driver looks fine. The wrinkled driver has better bass output. I tried swapping the L/R channel and result is consistent: every time I hear more bass from the wrinkled driver.

It's not. The op-amps are SMT parts, not thru-hole. Unless you're willing to go through the effort of desoldering them with a heat gun, they're not going to be replaceable.

Nice review Polky! Mirrors my feelings when I first got them. I've had them for 9 months now. They are the first dongle to feature the 4493S, and what's funny is that it wouldn't be a year and a half later until another 4493S dongle hit the market. Actually two dongles not one. both colorfly and...

We need more AK4493S dongles and AK gave us one! Will be testing these once my dealer gets a hold of them.

They ain't gonna do crap. You expect a company that releases 5 products every month to update a 2-yr old product?

Design looking clean! But will there be another AKM based dongle like the UA3?

Took delivery of a signature studio today. It's my 2nd pair and it definitely sounds very, very different from the first pair that I sold off. I love ultrasones but they always have crazy unit variation, e.g. the SN #663 sig pro I have on hand also sounds noticably different from a SN#2981 I...

Really curious about the fusion. Any more detail? Is it gonna use mylar drivers like the Pure does or will it be a metal one?