Many in Headfi forum complained about the sealing issue they encountered with this earphone and I somehow agree with them. It is true, the nozzle of S2000 is indeed short and the fit is shallow and loose. Obviously that is a problem; poor sealing leaks sound, reduces bass and causes the earphone to fall off. Sound Isolation is a problem for most people but how about the sound? The raison d’être of an earphone. Despite having poor sealing, S2000 does a lot of things right in the sound department. Having listened to higher end IEMs, I was not...

Costing a lil over $20, Hypersense HEX02 has the build quality of a $100 earphones, but unfortunately not a $100 sound. My first impression of this earphone is that it is made to last. A huge portion of the earphone is made of shinny metal, presumably stainless steel, the cable is reinforced by a cleverly designed strain relief and the whole construction just inspires confidence and screams quality. It felt great to unbox this baby and feels even better when I hold it in my hands. HEX02 sounded a little thin even when I maxed out the volume on my...

Holla! Today I would like to talk about a petite earphone named Mevi. It is from Lypertek, a new comer in the audio industry. Mevi is the very first earphone that rolled out from their production floor and I am fortunate enough to be posted a pair for evaluation. Of course for that, I would like to thank Lypertek and Penon Audio for their kindness. https://lypertek.com Penon.com/lypertek-mevi.html Unboxing Lypertek Mevi came in a small white box that has a nice product image printed on it. This is a simple earphone with a simple packaging so...

Introduction Meze Audio is the company behind the now iconic wooden headphones, 99 Classics. Many articles I read mentioned the fascinating story of how Antonio Meze started his company. In one of the interview, Antonio stated that he tried in vain to find a pair of headphones that he can connect with so he ended up making his own. Prior to founding his namesake company, Antonio Meze worked as an industrial designer, he very much got into the audio business as an outsider. Take a look at Meze Audio official website and you will notice the 4...

First of all, I would like to apologize to Mr. Charles of Burson for late delivery of this long overdue review. I guess I will blame it on my penchant for procrastination and drinking. I am sure many of you can relate to that. I will start with a bit of my history with Burson Supreme Sound. This review is very much a continuation of the review I wrote on Burson V5i months ago. In that review, I mentioned that V5i is a bit of a half-measure. V5i is a partial discrete opamp, the sound is not a total departure from a conventional IC opamp. I compared...

Introduction LZ-A5 is the fifth generation of Lao Zhong’s A series earphones. Coincidentally LZ-A5 is also the first of the series to operate on 5 drivers, 1 dynamic driver and 4 balanced armature (BA) drivers on each side. Like its predecessor LZ-A4, the sound of LZ-A5 can be tweaked by swapping in different filters that came in the package. To tell the truth, I have been spoiled by many great audio gears for sometime now and have not been wow-ed by any new stuff lately. This growing despondent was broken when I laid my hands on LZ-A5 for the...

Introduction Hifi Boy? A junior version of HiFi Man? There is one thing I am sure about Hifi Boy Dream, the sound is true to its name. I have spent approximately over a month listening to it. Many of the nights, I just let myself sink into my favorite couch listening to the dreamy sound. Hifi Boy is a relatively new earphone maker from China. This is the second product from the company and their first earbud. Dream only came into the market after going through more than a year of development. The designer wrote that he was inspired by the...

Binary Acoustics EP1 Single BA In-ear Monitors First of all, I must admit that I am not too fond of in-ear monitors. My preferences have always been full size open-back headphones and earbuds. I dig full cans because they offer good comfort and the best portable sound; earbuds because they are simple, they offer unequaled comfort and good soundstages. That said, every now and then I will still dip my toe in the water and try out the latest IEMs that are appearing in the market. Background Binary Acoustics is an emerging luxury IEM (in-ear...

Physical If this is an art project, XZ-U303 will receive an A for its gorgeous look. It is undeniably good-looking, the amplifier is housed in a hexagonal metal enclosure with a vacuum tube protruding out through the top. U303 came in two color schemes: black body - gold dial and silver body - chrome dial, I picked the former because it looks nicer. Nob, Snob, Noob?? I bought this amplifier from ebay and received it three weeks later in a beat-up generic corrugated box. Nob, I can’t elaborate more on the packaging. In mainland China, this headphone...

However corny it sounds, I think listening to music in the dead of night is incredibly cathartic. Music is my solace; I have invested many of my hours finding the right sound, zoning out on music and many more crawling through Head-Fi. For a normal person, that might sound rather absurd but as an audio geek, I can't think of a better way to use my life. Burson Audio was kind enough to send me two Supreme Sound V5i hybrid opamps in exchange for an honest review. I have since kept myself busy trying out V5i. The picture above is a snapshot of the...

Mrz, MusicMaker, ToneKing? ToneKing rose to fame with the release of Tomahawk some years ago but remained a mysterious company to the western world. The company had since changed its name from MrZ to MusicMaker and later ToneKing. I do not know the reason behind the frequent rebranding but the last and current name is probably the company’s attempt to Latinize its Chinese name TianKui, using the same TK initials. ToneKing Tomahawk used to be the talk of Head-fi. What puzzles me is why the later releases from the same company do not achieve the...