HiFiMAN Jade II Electrostatic Headphone and Amplifier Review: inviting electrostat

Pros: Silky mids, balanced sound signature, fluid and detailed treble, treble that contrasts favourably to other electrostats, comfortable earpads, lightweight, that cool jade green dust-cover on the drivers Cons: Tangle prone flat cable, amp isn’t completely silent and takes several hours to warm up (leave it on if you like listening), not as comfortable as... Continue Reading →

December 2, 2019 0

SendyAudio Aiva review: luxurious and energetic

Pros: rocking guitars, pristine percussion and treble, nicely textured bass, excellent resolution, great speed, it’s ravishingly beautiful, high quality cable with stock 4.4mm balanced and included adapter to 3.5mm single-ended, cheekily awesome case, everything about it screams quality, best overall package in this price range, driveable off of my LG V30 and also some USB-C... Continue Reading →

November 11, 2019 7

CanJam London, part three: jamming with cans (HEDD, Raal, Mr. Speakers, Warwick Acoustics, dCS, HiFiMAN, Audeze)

CanJam London is the biggest headphone and portable audio show put on in the UK every year. It is the highlight of the HeadFi enthusiasts calendar and something that I have attended since the inaugural CanJam London in 2015. This year was the 5th annual edition and it lived up to its billing. I’ll be... Continue Reading →

August 16, 2019 0

The HiFiMAN HE1000 v2 – a triumph of engineering and sonic performance

Pros: Beautiful sound, good stage, nice timbre, bass improved over v1, unique styling, super comfortable, price to performance, prefer it to the Focal Utopia Cons: included cables don’t look premium, mediocre cable sound quality, could use a practical carrying case, not the Susvara List Price: $2999 Product website: http://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he-1000.html Introduction I’ve been a big fan... Continue Reading →

February 4, 2019 2

XIAUDIO (Eleven Audio) Formula S: Power and clarity sublimated

Pros: Crystal clear, exceptional imaging and depth, resolution and detail (especially bass texture) power for HiFiMAN Susvara, grace for Focal Utopia, excellent outputs, built like a tank Cons: not for low impedance high sensitivity IEMs, price List Price: $3499 Product Website: http://www.theevolutionofsound.com/xiaudio-formula-s/ Introduction Alex Twister introduced me to Michael Xiao, proprietor of Eleven Audio, formerly... Continue Reading →

February 12, 2018 5

The HiFiMAN Susvara – a breathtakingly beautiful and breathtakingly expensive headphone

Pros: Detailed like an electron microscope, mostly flat frequency response, excellent sound stage height/depth/width, layering and instrument separation, incisive speed without excess, impeccable attack and decay, like being there (miniaturised) Cons: $6000, $6000, difficult to drive well (I still don’t know if I did) List Price: $6000 Product website: http://store.hifiman.com/index.php/susvara.html Introduction I’ve been a big... Continue Reading →

December 28, 2017 12

iFi Nano iDSD Black Label: great genes in this DAC family, wallet happy price

Pros: Excellent transparent sound, small size, outstanding price, driving power for HD600, iEMatch built in, iPurifier built in, excellent 3.5mm line-out, two good filters, huge format compatibility Cons: Silk-screen writing is damn near impossible to read, doesn’t come with short OTG cable (one would be better than none), doesn’t come with USB3.0 adaptor so not... Continue Reading →