~: I originally published this on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows :~ :: Disclaimer :: iBasso provided the DX220 free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. The DX220 sells for $899, AMP8 for $199, and AMP9 for $250. www.iBasso.com iBasso on Amazon Features: – Dual SABRE ES9028PRO DAC Chips. – Bit for Bit Playback With Support up to 32bit/384kHz. – Support of Native DSD up to 512x. – 5.0″ IPS Full Screen (1080*1920), With On Cell Capacitive Touch Panel. – Corning Glass on The Front Screen And Rear Panel...

~::I originally published this on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows::~ :: Disclaimer :: MusicTeck provided Aiva free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. Aiva sells for $599. www.MusicTeck.com SendyAudio on Amazon ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ When sweet man Andrew of MusicTeck asked about reviewing the SendyAudio Aiva Black Beauty series headphone, I had to look it up first. This is a product and a...

~:: I originally published this on the THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows. ::~ :: Disclaimer :: MusicTeck provided the 8n free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. The FLC 8n sells for $355 MSRP www.MusicTeck.com FLC8n on Amazon _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Not much has changed in the last few years for FLC’s flagship. From what I can tell, it is mostly just a refinement of the old design...

~::I originally published this on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows::~ :: Disclaimer :: Empire Ears provided the Legend X for a discounted price, for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. Legend X sells for $2,299 www.EmpireEars.com ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The first EE product I heard was my Spartan Custom. Since then, I’ve also heard Zeus XR, and you know, it’s just impossible not to love these in-ears...

~::I originally published this on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows::~ :: Disclaimer :: Periodic provided the Be free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. The Beryllium sells for $299 USD MSRP www.PeriodicAudio.com Periodic on Amazon I like to start my reviews with a little story. Since I’m first and foremost a creative writer, finding the story helps me get started. Well, there’s no story here. I found Periodic Audio by looking through the forums for my next article. I contacted them, and they sent...

~::I originally published this on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows::~ :: Disclaimer :: MusicTeck provided the 1S free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. The Opus#1S sells for $399.00 MSRP www.MusicTeck.com Opus on Amazon ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I’ve been a staunch supporter of Audio-Opus/theBit since I borrowed a Head-Fier’s Opus#1 for a short stretch back in 2016. It blew me away...

~::I originally published this review on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows.::~ :: Disclaimer :: plusSound provided the Tri-Copper cable free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. The Tri-Copper EXO sells for $549.99 www.plusSoundAudio.com ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I heard through the proverbial grapevine plusSound just finished development on new insulation for all their cables. This excited...

~::I originally published this on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows::~ :: Disclaimer :: iBasso provided the DX200 free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. The DX200 sells for $899, and each AMP module for $200. www.iBasso.com iBasso on Amazon ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This came as one of those bad-ass surprises which makes you smile in a fiendish grin and fills your guts with butterflies OD’ing on Ecstasy. I did...

~::I originally published this on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows.::~ :: Disclaimer :: iBasso provided the IT01 free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. The IT01 sells for $99 MSRP www.iBasso.com IT01 on Amazon ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I contacted iBasso because I had seen a photo of an early build for their IT04 in-ear monitor. Wood. Lots of wood. You know how Pinky likes that. So I thought I should strike up a...

~::I originally published this review on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows.::~ ::Disclaimer:: Cayin provided the N5ii free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. The N5ii sells for $369.99 MSRP. www.Cayin.com www.MusicTeck.com Cayin on Amazon _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Andy Kong of Cayin bestowed upon me the great honor of beta testing their newest audio player, the 2nd Generation N5, AKA, the N5ii. I was...

~::I originally published this on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows::~ ::Disclaimer:: MusicTeck provided the FLC8s free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. www.MusicTeck.com FLC8s on Amazon MSRP: $355 Hybrid design 2x BA 1X Dynamic Low Impedance: 11 Ohm Sensitivity: 93 dB/mW Frequency Response: 20Hz-20KHz __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ That stalwart chap Andrew over at MusicTeck emailed me one day and asked if I was...

~::I originally published this review on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows. Enjoy.::~ ::Disclaimer:: Shanling provided the M3s free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. The M3s sells for $279.00 www.Shanling.com www.MusicTeck.com M3s on Amazon _______________________________________________________________________________ Shanling was all sorts of kind to good Pinky and sent over their new player, the M3s. I reviewed the M2s not too long ago, finding much awesome within its tiny frame, and I was eager...

~::I originally published this on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows. Enjoy::~ ::Disclaimer:: No disclaimer. I bought this ****er. hehe 64Audio tia Fourté sells for $3,599 www.64Audio.com Specs: 10 Ohms @ 1Khz 4-Way Crossover 1x tia High 1X High-Mid 1X tia Mid 1X Dynamic Low Internal APEX M20 _________________________________________________________________ So… Pinky was not searching for a new IEM. I don’t know what I was looking for—maybe nothing—but seeing as I found myself on the Head-Fi Classifieds I imagine a shrink might...

~::I originally published this review on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows.::~ ::Disclaimer:: Effect Audio provided Thor II free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. Thor II sells for $399 www.EffectAudio.com ____________________________________________________________ I sent many a message to Eric Chong of Effect Audio before I got anywhere. I suspect he feared me for a frothing lunatic. Indeed, my emails justified that assumption. But I persisted, and eventually he sought help from Nic (Flinkenick)...

~::I originally published this article on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows.::~ ::Disclaimer:: Mr. Speakers provided ÆON on loan for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. ÆON sells for $799.99 MSRP www.MrSpeakers.com _____________________________________________________________ I’d heard enough good things about Mr. Speaker’s newest closed-back, and indeed received enough requests for a review, that I broke down and agreed to Danny-boy Speakers’ offer to spend a month or so with a loaner unit. So let’s dive right...

-::I originally published this review on THL. Now I wish to share it with my Head-Fi fellows.::- ::Disclaimer:: DD Audio provided the DXB-04 free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. At the time of this writing, the DXB-04 sells for $99.00, though it has seen much higher prices in the past. www.DDAudio.com _____________________________________________________________ I had never heard of DD Audio, since they exist primarily in the realm of car audio, and I am all about headphones and IEMs. But when I saw Head-Fi member...

-::I originally published this review on THL. Now I share it with my Head-Fi fellows::- ::Disclaimer:: Empire Ears provided Spartan free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. Spartan IV CIEM sells for $749.00 www.EmpireEars.com One of the first things I did when I became a reviewer for THL was reach out to Jack Vang of Empire Ears. Not to hit him up for a review sample, but just to make contact. I knew he was working on some new designs, but they were a ways out. I also knew I wasn’t all that interested in Zeus, due to...

~::I originally published this review on The Headphone List. Now I share it with my Head-Fi fellows.::~ ::Disclaimer:: DUNU provided the DK3001 free of charge for the purpose of my honest review, for good or ill. The DK3001 sells for $469.98 MSRP DUNU-TopSound.com DK3001 on Amazon _______________________________________________________________ I could not avoid the DK3001, whether I wanted to or not. The goddamn thing came at me from all angles, like a swarm of Kamikaze fighter planes. I had to tell Nic I could not review it for him, since I’m...

~::This review was first published on The Headphone List. Now I share it with my Head-Fi fellows::~ ::Disclaimer:: plusSound provided the X6 free of charge for the purpose of this review, for good or ill. The X6 T-Metal sells for $674.99 (standard 4ft length) www.plusSoundAudio.com _______________________________________________________________________________________ This cable first came to me as an IEM cable. There was a lot I liked about it, some things I didn’t, but overall I simply found it strange. Which is not a bad thing! Ergonomics...

~::I first published this review on The Headphone List. Now share it with my Head-Fi fellows::~ :: Disclaimer :: Meze provided the 99 Neo free of charge in exchange for my honest review, for good or ill. The Meze 99 Neo sells for $249 www.MezeAudio.com _________________________________ I received an alert from Joker: Meze had offered The Headphone List a review unit of their newest spawn, the Neo. Did any of us care to tackle it? Quick on the draw, I was. The 99 Classics is currently my preferred portable over-ear. In fact, I wrote such a...